Shadow... Wake up Shadow....
Star trek Armada ISO downloadIt was the voice that woke me. Pushed me out of a drug-induced haze that had the comfort of an icy bath once I realized I'd been in a drug-induced haze. I sat bolt upright, gasping in the sterile air. I was tangled in wires and tubes that connected me to several pieces of equipment next to the table.
Lab table. I'm naked. Where the fuck are my clothes! I'm on a lab table, connected up to machinery that is beeping noisily next to me.
Oh, this can't be good...
We'll find you clothes later. Right now you need to remain calm and listen to me carefully. You need to remove the electrodes that are connected to you. The wires, Shadow. Pull them off.
Well that sounds like good advice at least. I yank them off handfulls at a time. Then it occurs to me as I pull the IV off of me last.
"Wait, are you talking to me?"
Yes. But we can cover all of that later. Right now, we don't have much time. We need to get you out of here.
I look around. There are three others on tables like I was. All are men. All are connected to wires and tubes the same as I was.
"What about them?" I ask, still looking around for the source of the voice. "And where the hell are you?"
I'm on coms. They've been implanted in your head. No one else can hear me. And I can hear you when you think towards me, so you don't need to talk aloud.
Around her, the men began twitching and spasming on the tables. Smoke began to rise from some of the circles where electrodes were connected to them. I hopped off the table I'd been on, backing away from the machinery.
"Holy fragging crap! What the hell is happening to them?"
There's nothing you can do to help them. You need to leave. Now. If you listen carefully, I know the layout of the building and I can see through the cameras to help guide you out of here. But you need to go now.
I ran from the room. The white, sterile, room that was beginning to smell of smoldered flesh and taste of an electric-metallic twang in my mouth. Out into a hallway. I saw a sheet folded on a small cart on my way out and grabbed it, hastily wrapping it around my body as I ran. The hallways all looked the same - white paint, gray linoleum. No windows. The voice guided her to another room. This one looked more like an ER, with beds and curtains half-pulled around them. Thankfully, nobody seemed to be occupying these beds.
Hide! Quickly Shadow!
I ducked behind one of the curtains as a single guard came running through. I bumped the bed, and it made a metallic creak as it wobbled on it's locked casters. The guard swung around, moving towards her with his gun at the ready.
You can take him, the voice insisted. Hit him. You're stronger than you used to be. And you move faster than he does. Knock him out. Take his gun.
I was dubious, at best, but what was I going to do? He was approching and I needed to do something. Hitting, at least, was something I was familiar enough with. Once he was close enough, I yanked back the curtain and slammed my fist into his jaw.
"Damn! You weren't kidding!"
Frankly, I would have expected my hand to hurt like hell after an impact like that. Somehow I barely felt it. Adrenaline, maybe? The guy was nearly twice my size and yet he fell like a lead brick. And I neatly snagged the gun out of his hands before he'd hit the ground.
I think I was more surprised to find the targeting information in my eyes though. Ammo count on the clip. Heat condition on the gun. Some distance to target information. I blinked a few times, trying to get the hang of it.
"I have a smartlink now?" I asked aloud. I'll admit, a small part of me was looking for something to shoot at, just to test out the link. Frankly, I'd been saving up for one of these babies for a while.
Yes. More guards coming. The door at the end of the room on your left.
I kicked the guy on the ground and was surpised to see him slide a little across the floor from it. I kicked him again, so that the guards coming wouldn't see him right off and hid behind another curtain. I clutched at the sheet I was holding around me, trying to keep it from slipping.
You know, you'd do better without that sheet. Your skin can do something special now too.
Oh? What's that? I tried out the idea of talking to the voice without speaking aloud. What the hell, it'll prove whether she's in my head or not. Frag, but aren't you supposed to ignore voices in your head?!
Actually, the coms are in your head and I am speaking to you through them. But, as for your skin, it can change color to match the wall. If you can will it to, that is.
Okay, now you're just fucking with me...
No. I'm trying to keep you alive. You need to get out of that building, Shadow -
Okay, I have a name. What's with this Shadow drek anyway?
No names! Not yet anyway. We're all safer that way. We have code names for now. Yours is Shadow. Mine is too, since we're paired up. But right now you need to get out of there! Shoot the damn guards!
It was so much easier than shooting a gun had ever been. Although before that day, I'd never killed a man. Oh, I'd shot my way out of a couple of hairy situations, but that's the kind of stuff where you lay down fire until you can get your ass as far away as possible.
The link told me there was enough bullets. It was easy enough to fire the gun. I expected more kick, as it was a larger gun that I was accustomed to firing too. I tend to be more of a heavy pistol kind of girl myself. This thing was more of a light machine gun and semi-automatic. It did kick back on me more with the second blast. I missed because of it. The first blast seemed to splatter the guard backwards, leaving small splashes of blood all over the pristine white wall behind him.
Guard number two seemed surprised to see me. My luck, I guess. I took the shot while I could. Down he went, next to his buddy. That one took it more in the chest, so he was probably still alive. But he was out, and that's all that mattered to me just then. I grabbed for more clips, since they had the same weapon as the one I was holding. Next, I wanted some of their damn clothes.
No! No time for that. The helicopters are almost here!
Helicopters?
They're going to blow up the building. You have to get out NOW!
I ran. She gave me directions as I went, through corridors and doors. I came out into a lobby full of windows and plush-looking chairs and fancy reception desks. On one wall, a trid talked about some technology or other, promoting it as only a corp ad could - with pounding music and some skimpily-clad woman. I didn't have time to see what the product was. I really didn't care. It seemed that all the guards were headed in one direction - out the front to try and shoot at the helicopters descending down towards the building. There was one door out, away from it all, and it was totally unguarded.
It was locked down when I got to it, but after a couple tries and some encouragement from the voice in my fragging head, I managed to slam the sucker open. I was through it in a heartbeat. I crossed the field of grass and made it into the trees before the explosions began behind me. I turned to look, seeing the entire building go up in a firey cloud. It didn't take much encouragement from the voice to get me to keep going. I was only vaguely aware that I was running faster than I would have thought myself possible, and not getting winded by it. Then again, I was high on adrenaline. I probably could have explained a lot away with that, if a part of me hadn't known better.
Posted by RaynDragon at March 15, 2007 03:49 AM