Liberty and Death: Chapter 26
Chapter 26
“What the fuck is that?” Cora yelled, crosshair shimmering to life as she swept the barrel of her gun over the empty street in front of her.
The howl had remained unbroken since it was first voiced, although as it grew louder, it became clear that it was not one singular howl, but many. A chorus of hunger, pain, and rage, raising a cacophony of violence into the sky.
“Ah, that explains it,” Iain said, voice cool, but knuckles white around his weapon. “Been wonderin’ where the Shimmer Addicts had gotten to lately.”
The howling got a sudden increase in volume as its source tore out of an alley just ahead of Cora. Few things she’d seen in her life had screamed ‘danger’ as much as this thing, so she got a goooood look as her Reactimax activated.
It had probably been a man, or was molded to look like one. But twisted, stretched, and swollen, like a toy with too much stuffing designed by a psychopath. Its face alone was nightmare fuel. All the features you’d expect, but none in the right place. Eyes on the top left and bottom right of its head locked onto Cora, and its massive slit mouth opened the length of its head to continue its scream, wickedly barbed tongue lashing the air.
Fortunately, Cora’s implants were good for more than just giving bad guys terrifying slo-mo intros. At the pace time was crawling, it was child’s play to line up her crosshair, gun bucking three times in her hand as three blossoms of blood spurted from the monster’s head.
Unfortunately, those bullets didn’t have the traditional effect on the Shimmer Addict as they would to a normal head. Oh, it dropped alright, but really only a stumble, rolling to its feet, barely losing any momentum, scream unbroken, skin bubbling and steaming as it rushed her.
Cora froze, which wasn’t the reaction she wanted to have when faced with a charging, immortal, terrifying movie monster, but it was the reaction her body gave her.
The rest of the crew opened up on the Shimmer Addict, but it wasn’t until the absolute hail of lead from Hawk and Bertha arrested its momentum that it finally fell, twitching at Cora’s feet.
She could still hear screams. She knew this thing wasn’t alone. But Cora couldn’t help but watch in horror as its shredded flesh began to knit together, wounds seeping an oily, rainbow sheen into the air alongside its too-thick blood.
TAKE IT, CORA! [Big Sys] commanded.
Cora did. She didn’t know how, didn’t know what really, but she did. The monster’s wounds stopped healing as that rainbow air flowed impossibly up and into her like a reverse waterfall. She felt it fill her, fill a space in her she wasn’t aware of. Felt it making her stronger.
The rest of this thing’s friends rounded the corner, and Cora wasn’t frozen anymore.
As she sighted in on the first surging monstrosity, her skin glowed the same faint rainbow sheen as what must be Shimmer, a sheen that flowed over her fingers to engulf her weapon. Her crosshair was right on the thing’s head.
She pulled the trigger.
It’s head exploded in a starburst of gore, and while this one tumbled, it didn’t get back up. Unfortunately, there were more, and now Cora felt empty, like someone had gone at her soul with an ice-cream scoop.
The Shimmer flowing from the cratered head of the fallen monster called to her like a siren.
Fuck it.
Ignoring her instincts once more, Cora broke into a sprint, straight towards the monsters. When she was about 5 feet away from the fallen one, its energy slammed into her like a physical force. It would be maybe a split second before the monster behind it slammed into her with a very real physical force.
Time slowed down, her implant activating again, too quickly, as her momentum pulled her into a slide between the monster’s twisted legs. She heard the crew open up behind her, but ignored it. Her focus was entirely on the new monster, maybe two yards in front of her.
Her mind screamed at its hideous visage, but her body reacted, bringing her gun back up. The speed of them meant those two meters melted away almost instantly, and by the time her gun discharged its barrel was already inside the horror’s bizarre, semi-circle maw.
It slumped onto her arm as her bullet blew out its brainstem, unnatural mass dragging her down to the dirt of the street. She could still hear howling. The Shimmer of this monster flowed into her without her even trying, her body hungry to replace what she’d lost, but she didn’t know what to do with it, and it burned.
Another monstrous, impossible visage filled her sight, screaming its stinking fury into her face. In its mouth, she could see that wickedly barbed tongue, coiling sickly to take her out xenomorph style.
Damn. Made it, what, 8 hours in another world? Nooooot a great showing Casanova.
The only positive was that this must be the last one. She couldn’t hear the howling anymore. So why did she hear a roar?
A massive weight lifted off her chest as the crack of bone filled her ears. The smoky blue sky of Tyrinno met her eyes unobstructed. When she realized she was still alive, she snapped back to herself.
She looked back, finding Hawk standing over her, Bertha held by the barrel in her hands, heavy stock dripping with gore. A valkyrie of myth, more beautiful than the legends despite not having a trace of angelic aspect. The monster resumed its howl, but it sounded feeble in comparison to the thunderous roar of Cora’s own Monster.
Cora kicked, trying to wiggle out from under the corpse, feeling the energy of its Shimmer within her, but unsure how to turn it into physical strength. Shit, she had no idea how she’d put it into her gun.
In the end, by the time she’d worked her way out from under the beast, Hawk and the last Shimmer Addict had already closed on one another, trading blows that would have been at home in a Kaiju film.
Suddenly, the Shimmer had a place to go. She felt it separate within her, some flowing into her spent Reactimax while the other half focused into the chamber of her gun.
Time slowed, and she painted the monster’s face with her crosshair. That weird slit mouth was angling towards Hawk’s throat, tongue was already darting out as Cora’s bullet impacted. But that bullet twisted its head, shifting that tongue just enough that it scored a nasty gash along Hawk’s neck, but didn’t impale it.
Hawk roared again as the thing died, crushing what was left of its head to offal under Bertha’s stock. The Shimmer left its body in a rainbow carpet, then split, flowing into both of them. Hawk’s hand was on her throat, but the flow of blood was already slowing as she spoke, eyes looking at something Cora couldn’t see.
“Level 2, huh? The fuck does that mean?”
Cora would have loved to answer her, even if only to tell Hawk she really had no idea what it meant for her specifically, but the rattle of machine gun fire made it the new level a low priority. Rounds hit Hawk in the shoulder, plate carrier, and one bounced off the armored back of her hand where it rested against her neck. She growled, raising Bertha to return fire, before remembering it was out of ammo.
“Move!” Cora yelled, slamming her shoulder into Hawk’s side, trying to drag the woman to cover in an alley. It had roughly the same effect as trying to tackle a tree, but after a moment, Hawk’s slovenly reason caught up with her rage, and she allowed herself to be moved.
Cora smelled the sharp ozone tang that meant her forcefield was down, but didn’t feel any impacts. Either she’d been hit and it was bad enough to cause immediate shock, or her duster had stopped everything. Either way, she didn’t have any choice but to return fire.
She felt the shimmer within her, but it was already lessening. It felt almost like it was being… digested?
Regardless, she wouldn’t have known how to use it to purposefully charge her Reactimax anyway. All of that had been reflex, or, she suspected, interference by [Big Sys]. This shootout was going to have to happen the old fashioned way.
Something clattered to the ground beside them, and Cora’s mind screamed ‘grenade!’. Her foot was rearing back to kick at it before she’d even looked, but Hawk was faster, swiping up what turned out to be a replacement ammo belt for Bertha, and slotting it home.
Cora looked back at the cart. Andy hadn’t been lucky during the first volley, and he slumped as if in sleep over the reins, the trihorns not having fared much better. Iain had rolled back into the cart, using the thick wood of the driver’s seat as cover. He peeked over, giving Cora a wink before returning fire with his AR.
She followed that stream of fire, expecting to see a firing line of Links like they’d faced that morning.
She did, kind of, but the poor bastards who had decided to enter a gunfight by walking slowly towards the opponents were already bleeding out on the cobblestone.
Unfortunately, there appeared to be a more capable contingent alongside the chaff with this assault, and more Links darted between stoops, stairwells and alleys, returning fire with military precision and creating cover for one another. Cora caught a glimpse of chain tattoos criss-crossing a bald head, identical to Chain-head’s from outside Jonah’s clinic, and considered recategorizing the Chains from ‘gang’ to ‘cult’.
Bullets slamming into the wall next to her reminded her that sightseeing was a luxury she could ill afford, and she ducked back into the alley, already trying to muster the courage to peek back out.