Prisoner 3-57: Nuke Town (13 page)

Saul
stabbed a bayonet through the chin of the monster and fired
repeatedly into its face. Rose pushed Clay down onto the floor, as
more skinless limbs reached in through the numerous holes carved into
the carriage. The blind soldier could do nothing but cower at our
feet. Fiona was sitting on the floor behind me. Robbie rested his
head upon her lap. He was crying and moaning from the horrific burns
across his body. The heat of the fire had cooked his legs. My armour
plated suit had scorch marks and my bare abdominal muscles had
painful looking red boils all over them. The medication Rose had
given me had numbed my sense of pain. If she hadn’t given me
the last of the elixir I would be on the floor, too.

‘
We
have to move on,’ Lena yelled over the gunfire.

‘
There
is nowhere to move onto,’ replied the guy in the police riot
gear.

He
was right.

Carriage
three was engulfed in flames. Black smoke was starting to choke our
carriage, as it crept through the gaps in the door. Carriage one also
had a fire, but it lacked the same dramatic intensity. I could see
several of the monsters trying to cross the flames to break into our
carriage. We were cut off.

I
squeezed off aimed rounds.

Bloody
faces were appearing in all the cracks.

I
would blow one away and another would appear.

‘
I’m
out,’ yelled Jane.

‘
I’m
empty, too,’ replied Lena.

‘
I
have no bullets,’ confirmed Iaso, as she drew her twin samurai
swords.

My
guns clicked empty. Unconsciously, I threw them as hard as I could at
the monster coming through the window on my right. They did very
little to slow the thing down. I moved forward, drawing my combat
knife. I stuck the entire blade into the bastard’s forehead.
All that remained was the exposed hilt. The creature nearly bit my
fucking arm off. How could it take a knife to the brain? Wasn’t
that supposed to kill zombies? I stepped away from the window,
reached over my shoulder and pulled the bolt rifle from its holster.
All I had was thirty rounds. I put three into the monster and it
disappeared back into the darkness of the tunnel.

‘
Brother,
what are we going to do?’ asked Rose.

I
looked back at my sister.

She
looked frightened.

In
fact, they all looked frightened.

Most
of them were down to throwing punches, or kicking the things as they
came through. I turned my attention to Fiona. She had a look of
resignation upon her face. Fiona knew that we had reached the end. We
had nowhere to go. We were running out of bullets and we were
drastically out numbered.

‘
I
don’t know,’ I replied.

‘
3-57,’
said Fiona, with a smile, ‘It’s a shame we didn’t
get to spend more time together.’

I
nodded my head in reply.

This
was it.

The
end had come.

I
raised my rifle and took aim.

Several
monsters were already inside the far end of the carriage. I fired. I
fired. I counted as I did. I had been the monster that had killed all
my friends once before. I had made them suffer, but I wasn’t
going to let any of them have such a brutal death this time. I had
seen people turn into one of these creatures. It was gruesome. I
would save just enough bullets to end their lives painlessly.

A
loud DING filled the carriage.

The
train suddenly stopped.

The
doors automatically slid open.

We
had reached Central City.

We
finally had a way out.

Everyone
momentarily paused and looked at one another.

It
was as if they were not sure what to do.

‘
GET
FUCKING MOVING!’ I screamed out the order.

Chapter Eight:
Central City

The
station was swarming with aliens. They were hanging from the
ceilings, running up the walls and spread throughout the platform. I
was one of the first people out. My bolt rifle kicked back into my
shoulder every half a half beat. It was the perfect weapon for this
situation. The force of the bolt impact was knocking the creatures
off their feet and out of our way, but the bolts destructive power
was also an added bonus. It was drilling through my targets with
devastating results. Once it destroyed one body the bolt would
continue to fly on. The monsters were bunched up so much that each
bolt was taking out six or seven of the fuckers. Of course, they were
not dying. These things didn’t die that easily. The three to
four seconds it took for the monsters to recover was long enough for
us to sprint by.

Rose
was supporting Clay, as Fiona practically dragged Robbie.

Lena,
Jane and Saul were sticking close to Iaso, as the blue skinned alien
danced a hypnotic dance with her twin swords. Heads, legs, arms and
torsos were being sliced apart by this incredible woman. Levi, the
man in the seven foot tall battle space suit, flew overhead.
Distorted air, like a heat wave, was being pumped out of the large
pack on his back. He was moving through the air with the elegance of
a fat chicken. The suit wasn’t designed to make you fly with
much elegance. It was supposed to get soldiers from the hull of one
ship, across the deep black of space, and onto the enemy hull. Levi
dropped every couple of seconds, like a transport ship hitting
turbulence, but he was getting further ahead than us. He was already
reaching the stairs that led up and away from the station. To my left
hand side was the guy in the riot gear. The girl that Skull raped was
sticking close to us. A man and a woman were also keeping up and
shooting their way through the crowd of zombies.

‘
Push
forward,’ ordered Saul.

He
was leading the charge.

‘
Move
it!’ Levi yelled from the top of the stairs. ‘There is a
way out.’

Levi
held out a fist towards us. A compartment in the forearm of his suit
opened and a half dozen miniature rockets flicked out. We all ducked,
as all six red tipped missiles, whistled by overhead. The missiles
might have been small, but they packed a punch. Explosions erupted
throughout the train station, blowing the monsters apart. Levi laid
down covering fire with some kind of alien rifle, which pumped out
violet coloured lasers. We all began to run up the stairs.

Our
route was getting narrower by the second.

Those
with weapons continued to shoot.

I
was losing the luxury of aiming. The things were closing in all
around us. I waited for Fiona, Rose, Clay and Robbie to go first. I
couldn’t go without them. The bolts cut through the crowds, but
did very little to slow down their assault. Hundreds of the monsters
were swarming the station. They were clambering over each other in an
attempt to get at us.

My
gun clicked empty.

‘
Shit.’

I
tossed it down and ran.

I
had nothing.

My
weapons were gone.

I
grabbed Robbie’s other arm, slung it over my shoulder, and
helped Fiona drag him up the stairs. The others were shouting and
swearing. Levi’s lasers danced through the air like some kind
of nightclub light show. The aliens howled.

‘
Come
on!’ Levi began to fall back.

‘
Help
me!’ A voice screamed out.

I
looked back at the unknown woman. The monsters had her. Bloody hands
held her by the ankles, as teeth were sunk into her lower leg
muscles. The guy with her paused momentarily and then continued to
run.

‘
No,’
she cried out, ‘don’t leave me.’

She
disappeared into the mass of demonic bodies.

The
group started to run across a large open foyer. A wall of glass led
out into the city. And an odd light blue wall of light seemed to cut
the foyer in two. Levi ran through the light. I half expected
something to happen, but nothing did. One by one we passed through
the light. And then something did happen. We all stopped running.
Painful screams echoed up into the air. They were the screams from
the monsters. The horde was charging into the blue light and
instantly disintegrating. It was like watching ash being blown away
in the wind. There were no flashy special effects, or anything of
that nature. The monsters just seemed to fall apart into a million
pieces when they touched the light. This didn’t stop them
coming. The entire herd ran face first to their death.

‘
What’s
happening?’ asked Jane.

‘
It
must be Prisoner X,’ said Fiona.

‘
You
think this is some kind of protection?’ I replied.

‘
It
has to be, right? He has to keep those things away from him.’

‘
We
can’t stay here,’ announced Levi. ‘He will know
that we are in the city.’

‘
Let’s
move out,’ I commanded.

‘
We
need to get the injured some place safe,’ said Rose.

‘
There
should be a medical centre nearby,’ countered Levi.

‘
Let’s
find a map and get their ASAP,’ I replied.

Chapter Nine:
Parting Ways

The
group came together in the city centre high street. It looked like a
ghost town. The city was just like any other city. It was like a
replica of something you would find on Earth. Stores, of various
brands, filled the streets. All the shops were fully stocked with
products, but nobody was about. There were no bodies, no blood, no
bullet holes or anything of this nature. It was like nobody had ever
stepped foot in the city. My attention was drawn to the skyscraper a
few miles away. Big red lights marked out a huge X on the side of the
super structure. The X had to be spread across about thirty floors. I
guess that is where Prisoner X was waiting for us.

‘
It’s
down,’ said Levi, ‘what about yours?’

‘
It’s
down, too,’ said Jane.

I
glanced at my x-com on my left forearm. The screen was black. I
tapped it a few times, but nothing happened. This was the first time
I have ever seen the x-com not work.

‘
Do
you think it is Prisoner X?’ I asked.

‘
I
believe so,’ countered Levi.

‘
We
must focus on the injured first,’ insisted Rose.

‘
The
road signs said a hospital was that way.’ I pointed up the high
street.

‘
Why
are we even listening to him?’ asked Lena. She was stabbing a
finger in my direction. ‘Did you all forget what he did to us?
He killed Kevin, Jackson, Stephanie and my dad!’

‘
That
wasn’t my brother,’ countered Rose.

‘
He
killed Arthur just because they bit him,’ Lena was practically
spitting fire.

‘
He
helped him,’ interjected Jane.

Lena
gave her mother a confused and frustrated look.

‘
Are
you kidding me? He put a bullet in his head.’

‘
He
was turning,’ I explained.

‘
You
didn’t hesitate for a single second. There might have been some
way to save him.’

‘
I
liked him,’ I confessed. ‘I did it to help him. I didn’t
want him to suffer.’

‘
Bollocks!
You never cared about anyone, but yourself. We were doing okay until
he came back. Alisha and Arthur are dead. You think it is a
coincidence?’

‘
Lena,
we can’t blame him for their deaths,’ replied Jane.

‘
We
can. I want nothing to do with him. I want nothing to do with this
Prisoner X. I am out of here.’ Lena started to walk off. Jane
thought about it for a moment. She smiled a sympathetic smile at me
and then followed her daughter. Iaso and Saul fell into step behind
them.

I
turned to the rest of the group.