Deadman - Book 2 Chapter 24: Even Footing

Book 2 Chapter 24: Even Footing

We moved toward the door before the building’s shaking had ceased. I’d been worried that my violent actions would’ve been heard from outside the door, or Mercy’s screaming would’ve been, but it looked like the room was soundproof, and the guards were far more concerned with the beginning of the siege. Leah led the way, using her thermal scope to scan for threats. I helped Mercy walk for a few steps until she gestured me away, but I stayed close in case I needed to move her quickly.

We moved across the catwalk toward the roof. I saw Leah risk a glance down toward the ground floor to make sure we hadn’t been made. At that exact moment, a prisoner in the cage below happened to look up, her eyes widening.

“Leah! Leah! Help us!”

Leah’s eyes widened and she made a shushing gesture, but it was too late. The guards below looked up and started lifting their guns.I hoisted Mercy up and started toward the door that led back to the roof. Leah ran ahead of us, but not before dropping one of the guards with a smooth flash of silent red light that dropped him where he stood.

We managed to avoid a sudden hail of gunfire and duck into the room leading to the roof. I dragged a metal shelf in front of the door, then had Mercy wrap an arm around my back so I could haul us both up the ladder at the same time. Once we were through the trap door, Leah fired her lasgun twice, severing the ladder’s connection to the roof, and I hauled it up, throwing it onto the roof to keep us from being easily followed.

I pulled out my 9mm and handed it to Mercy along with two clips.

“It’s full.”

She took it, but looked a little sick as she did so. I imagined I’d feel the same if I was given a gun and told to fight my fellow deadmen in Pott’s.

“I’ve requested an extraction from Graves, but the battle’s ongoing and it’ll be dangerous for him to land.”

The building rocked again, and this time I was able to see a massive explosion in the distance where I’d seen the STAR and remnant forces mustering. Before I could find my balance from that one, there were three additional explosions at opposite ends of the compound. It looked like the siege was occurring from all sides at once.

An air raid siren began going off all around us through the same system that had broadcast the ‘Prophet’s’ voice. I pulled out my shotgun and took up a position just in front of the trapdoor.

“Can you jump down with Mercy if you use the jump pack?” I asked.

Leah shook her head, sweeping the area around us with her rifle. “There’s a number of patrols converging on us. If we go down there we’ll be picked up before we can properly hide.” She went flat and slid her rifle in front of herself, then she began to open fire. Picking off incoming patrols as they made their way to the building.”

“Couldn’t you fire directly through the building?” I asked.

She shook her head. “Can’t risk the equipment. It’s vital, and the cabinet’s likely going to be pissed off enough at me as it is.”

Before I could ask what she meant a man peaked his head over the edge of the trapdoor to the ceiling. I fired my shotgun and what parts of him were over the threshold were blasted into thick chunks. Shortly after that there was another man, this one with his gun held up to blindfire in my direction. I froze him after he pulled the trigger once, moved over to the opening, and fired down, obliterating him.

I slid two more shells into my shotgun and waited for a few moments. I could hear heavy footfalls, and the grinding of servos. For a few moments I thought that somehow Graves had joined us, when a massive form leapt out of the trapdoor, landing on the roof in front of me. It wasn’t Graves, the armor didn’t have a single mark on it, as if it was brand new. Between its hands was a massive hammer that seemed to have arcs of electricity coming off of it.

I activated freeze, but the armored man charged me, forcing me to make a last minute dodge across the roof to the other side. He began moving toward me when a flurry of lasgun shots dispersed across him, drawing his attention away.

“Don’t bother trying to freeze him. The suit’s what moves, not him.”

Realizing that her blasts couldn’t hurt him, the suit turned its attention back to me. It ran at me, seemingly more confident in its movement then it was in the initial charge.

I fired off two blasts from my shotgun before dodging again, but this time he didn’t give me as much time to recover and I was forced to try to block his hammerblow with my shotgun. It impacted, hard, and I was briefly forced to my knees as I felt electricity flow into me.

I dropped my gun, feeling my heartrate speed up and my vision blur read. I grabbed the handle of the hammer and attempted to disarm him. I was able to move him slightly, and I realized that his strength wasn’t much greater than mine, even with the power of the armor, but unfortunately, his weight gave him the edge.

He yanked backward and I was lifted into the air along with his hammer which I released finding myself in the air several feet above him. I landed in a heap behind him, taking a moment to freeze a man climbing up the trapdoor, and giving Mercy the time she needed to shoot him as I stood back up.

The man in the armor lifted the hammer high, “For the prophet!” he yelled as he swung it downward in a straight arc that would’ve flattened a truck.

I dodged backward, keeping just the balls of my feet on the roof, then slammed my entire body into him at full force, while kicking out toward where the hammer had landed. I managed to dislodge it from his grip, and it went tumbling down to the ground. I then grabbed the armor on the man’s forearm and pulled it at its seam. There was a sickening grinding noise, that was only interrupted by a right hook that forced me to release my grip.

From there the armored man sent a number of strikes my way. I was able to block, deflect, and dodge all of them. He was marginally stronger than me in full armor, and had a superior defense, but I was significantly faster.

He threw a haymaker, but over-extended. I used that opportunity to dodge around his back. I leapt up and jammed my fingers into the gap between the man’s helmet and the rest of his armor, and yanked backward. There was a grinding of servos and a straining of metal as I pulled back with all my strength. The man fought back, trying to pull my hands away, but he couldn’t reach them in the bulky armor. I pulled harder, and the helmet began to bend at a terrifying angle. The struggling power armor began panicking, and ran toward the edge of the roof. I yanked back, using all my strength and the leverage of my legs, there was a sickening pop, and the body went limp, collapsing just before we reached the edge of the roof.

I panted for a few moments. I wasn’t used to having to fight people my own size and strength. I preferred fights that were unfair in my favor. I’d learned very early on that in the wastes a fair fight was a death sentence.

I stood up, drawing my rifle, and swiveling around to face the trapdoor where another man was making his way up, I fired, and he dropped. There must’ve been a pile of corpses there high enough to climb by this point. Mercy and Leah had been firing almost constantly, covering my back and doing their best to keep too many more people from making it into the building and onto the roof. There were fires and the sounds of battle drawing closer, but from what I could tell, it was still a long way off. We had to last until either the city was taken, or Graves was able to get close enough for a pickup, and it wouldn’t be long until we ran dry.

There was a flash of light as a shot from a lasgun fired up through the ceiling.

“Fuck,” I muttered. It seemed that they’d finally figured out how to use their lasguns properly.