Gene. Sys. by Aaron Denius (best ereader for comics txt) 📕

“And you were going to let me die!” He pushes me back with a newfound fire in his eyes.

His words make me sick. I was going to let him die. He and others I cared about. How could I be so selfish? I step back up to him. “I didn’t have a choice!”

“Well, you do now,” he pleads. “End this.”

“It’s too late,” I respond. “There’s nothing I can do. Rene already started the sequence, and it can’t be stopped.”

80 lowers his head. Tears run down his face, and the fear behind them makes him more human than I have ever seen. It’s a far cry from the drone that expected to be shot right away after taking a bullet for me.

“Have you seen Fe?” I ask. I wish I could comfort him, but that is not my objective, and I don’t have time.

He looks up at me with some clarity in his eyes. He obviously knows something. “She’s in the city.”

I push him against the wall. “What did you do with her?”

“I didn’t do anything!” He brushes me back. “She was wandering around the city last night, and a few outsiders took her captive. They are holding her in one of the buildings by the pyramid.”

I grab him and look directly into his eye. “If she’s hurt…”

“I had nothing to do with it!” he asserts.

I push him to the ground and run back down the hallway.

“What are you doing?” he yells after me.

“I have to find her!” I keep running.

“You’ll get killed!” I hear him say as I turn the corner.

I run past the weapons cache and into the hangar. There is a small battle between the two sides on the ramp, but I know I have to go up there and get outside. I have to get to the city.

“Atom!” Dr. Cicca yells at me. She runs over.

“Fe is in the city. I have to get up there.” I look at her. “You aren’t going to change my mind.”

“I’m coming with you,” she insists.

I don’t object since I might need the extra firepower. I motion toward the battle on the ramp. “How do we get through there?”

“Follow me.” She runs to the door that leads to the Flyz hangar. Right next to the door are three rollpods. “We use these.”

“Do you know how to drive them?” I ask.

“About as much as you do.” She smiles.

Her smile is refreshing amidst the chaos; I smile back. I climb into one of the rollpods. “I guess we’ll figure it out.”

She climbs into the rollpod next to mine. I look down at the controls and see they are quite simple. Two handles with triggers attached to them. I look for a button or something to start the rollpod but don’t see anything. Suddenly, Dr. Cicca’s rollpod moves forward.

“Push the handles forward,” she tells me.

I do as she says, and my rollpod rolls ahead. When I turn the handles to the left, the rollpod rotates left, and I move in that direction. Soon after, we are both rolling toward the ramp. I pull on the triggers as we reach the battle, and the guns fire, clearing a path ahead of us.

We roll through the hole at the top of the ramp and come out on the field. A larger battle is being fought out here, and the attackers seem to be having more success against those defending the compound. A steady stream of outsiders and drones continues to run into the compound. It will only be a matter of time before the outsiders, drones, and Mutineers have seized control of the compound.

We blast our way through the battle with ease; the attackers are less concerned over anyone leaving the compound. They don’t realize that it’s too late. That even when they gain control of the compound, they can’t reverse what Rene has already set in motion. They are fighting for nothing.

Once beyond the chaos around the compound, the amount of activity we encounter is barely noteworthy—an outsider or two take a few shots at the rollpods, but we dispose of those threats with ease.

Dr. Cicca rolls up next to me. “How far do we have to go?”

“All the way to the pyramid,” I answer, pushing forward.

We roll past a dozen more blocks, the pyramid growing bigger before us until we reach a pile of debris that we can’t go over or around. We dismount our rollpods and head up the pile of rubble. When we get to the top, we crouch down to assess what lies ahead.

A few outsiders and drones are patrolling the streets. This has to be the center of their operation.

“Any ideas?” Dr. Cicca asks me.

I look around and see some metal steps on the side of the nearest building. They lead to a balcony about thirty feet up. I could then jump from balcony to balcony and stay above the activity, unnoticed. Dr. Cicca, however, would not be able to make those jumps.

“I’m thinking,” I say.

“Atom?” a soft voice calls out behind me. I turn and see Brianna standing next to the rollpods.

“Brianna?” Dr. Cicca turns. “What are you doing out here?”

“Janice! You’re alive!” Brianna smiles. “When the attacks started, I got scared, and I ran away from the compound. I’ve been hiding out here.”

Dr. Cicca and I slide down the debris pile. I check around and look at Brianna. “Have you seen Fe? She’s being held out here.”

Dr. Cicca runs over to Brianna and gives her a hug. Brianna returns the hug and instantly spins Dr. Cicca around, holding a knife to her throat.

“What are you doing?” Dr. Cicca screams.

“Let her go!” I shout, raising my gun.

“Put it down, Atom.” Brianna brings the knife closer to Dr. Cicca’s neck.

I can tell that she isn’t bluffing, so I lower my gun. “Why are you doing this?”

“To survive,” she responds. “That’s why I started the Mutineers. We needed to stop Rene’s plans.

“It’s too late,” I say.

“Maybe to stop it, but it’s not too late to ruin it.” She smiles.