Chapter Three
One aspect of being a cyborg he did enjoy was his ability to swim in the data stream of any system he chose to penetrate. He couldn’t become one with it the way he understood some of the most advanced AI’s could, like the ones running complex spaceships for example, but he got pretty close. Now he followed the thread from the motor pool subsystem to the much larger lake of the base’s general systems, like a fish going upstream to return home. The base’s core was still powered up, for which he was glad, so he wouldn’t have to take his power brick and seek out the IT hub, which would probably have more infected trapped in its vicinity. He supposed the core system had its own auxiliary power which would be depleted at some point but hopefully not while he was inside. Once he popped into the vast expanse of the base’s core, he was challenged by a variety of failsafes and security programs but the scientists who had created his current persona out of the wreckage of his old body had given him all kinds of tools—virtual lock picks—for cracking into systems.
The effort took time, even if it was only microseconds, and attention. Once he was past the barriers, he did a general pass, scooping up data about the base’s final days, finding it similar to the information they’d gathered at the capital city. The authorities tried to keep the growing outbreak of infected quiet, which failed as the sheer numbers of the deadly creatures rose exponentially. Then the government forces battled the infected in the streets as the city burned and civilians fled. There was a doomed to fail attempt to set up a refugee camp in the city’s arena, which jibed with what Tamsyn had told them about the singer Lally O arriving at the Rosewater compound after the arena was overrun.
Not too interested in these matters, Cody swam on and dove into the personnel files, seeking the information on the general in charge of the base. Now there was an interesting case and he flagged several odd aspects of the man’s background for further consideration. The trail of messages and orders leading to the establishment of the Glastine refugee camp to the north caught Cody’s attention and he had to work hard to gain access to the intel, which implied there were facts worth having in the files.
He’d just gotten in when an annoying irritation scraped at his peripheral attention span. Immersed in his data gathering, Cody ignored the pesky stimulus for a short while but eventually diverted a fraction of his attention to his physical body, seated at the desk in the battered motor pool.
“Oh fuck me,” he exclaimed, grabbing his pulse rifle. It was the beeping of the drone alarms which had penetrated his near total concentration on his intel gathering mission. Splitting his attention in half, he scraped up and stored as much data as he could from the base’s most compartmented, top secret files while he alerted his teammates to the new danger. “Big swarm of infected coming up the main road and another smaller one battering at the rear perimeter. We’ve only got a few minutes to bug out.”
Cody could feel the data he was acquiring pouring into his databanks as he watched the swarm’s movements on his mental interface with the drones.
We’re almost finished, the captain reported, sounding tired. Cody bet they’d had to fight off more than a few infected in the bowels of the vast parts depot. Taking the last part we need out of the sublevel now. Moved the APC over here so we could stow the parts in the cargo bay. Get yourself over here on the double.
I’m not quite done downloading all the data?—
Belay that. We’ll have to take what you got because we’re out of time. Head in our direction now, soldier.
Yes, sir. Jeff’s order was flat but Cody took another minute to finish clearing out a final cache of date that caught his eye. Disengaging from the system was like taking a bucket of cold water in the face and he needed a moment to readjust to the real world. As he picked up his pulse rifle and sprinted out the door, he could hear the moaning and growling of the approaching swarm. Checking his drones gave him the unwelcome information the bigger swarm had poured through the main gate and was now shambling toward the location where his teammates were packing the precious parts into the APC’s cargo compartment.
Cody poured on the speed. When the Sectors scientists had made what was left of him into a cyborg, they’d grafted specially designed implementations to his spine, hips, knees, shoulders and elbows, along with the necessary support structures. He could run faster than any human and most known animals and lift immense weights with ease. Whatever the scientists had placed inside him had melded into his own skeleton and nerves for a seamless union.
He dashed through the deserted base, passing a few infected on his way, not bothering to check corners before he rushed around them in his haste to reach the APC and provide backup to Jeff and Ryan. His drones kept him apprised of the location of the swarms and he wasn’t happy to see the first members of the larger swarm make their way into the open area across from the parts depot. He wondered yet again if the infected had a sixth sense in their rotted brains enabling them to sniff out vulnerable humans. Something to contemplate another day.
Cody emerged into the square where the APC was parked in front of the warehouse to see a wave of the infected rushing at the APC. The engine was revving so Ryan must be inside but Jeff had waited for him and was firing at the advancing predators.
Cody saw several coming at the captain from the rear and he accelerated further, throwing himself between the captain and the oncoming threat, firing as he did so, knocking Jeff to the pavement with the force of his arrival. He felt a sharp pain in his right forearm but ignored it in favor of grabbing Jeff and pushing him toward the APC’s door, where Ryan was now battling more infected. It was a close thing but Cody managed to get himself and Jeff into the vehicle despite the crush of infected, thanks to Ryan’s covering fire and the heavy portal shut out the enemy with a thunk.
Cody and Jeff lay on the floor, breathing heavily.
“Get us the hell out of here,” Jeff yelled.
Ryan rushed to the controls and the APC began to move, scattering infected as it went.
Jeff sat up, set aside his rifle and checked his arms and legs. “I’m good, no bites or scratches. Cody, man, you saved my ass out there. Thanks for having my six.”
Speechless, Cody stared at his arm. The sleeve was torn and his oddly colored bluish blood was dripping onto the floor mat, coming from a deep bite, which ached and throbbed. “I —they got me,” he said in a voice he didn’t recognize as his own.
Jeff regarded him with disbelief. But as his gaze shifted to Cody’s bleeding arm his expression changed to one of horror. “Don’t move. I’ll get the first aid kit and clean it, bandage it up. You—you’ll be okay, soldier.”
“Someone needs to get on the goddamned gun turret,” Ryan yelled, “Or else we’re going to be overrun and have to sit here for who knows how many hours.”
The infected couldn’t break into the APC no matter how hard they clawed and bit but the crush of bodies could become a barrier to the vehicle’s movement, in which case the occupants had no choice but to sit and wait for the horde to eventually give up and shamble off in search of other prey.
“Go,” Cody said to Jeff. “I’ll spot with the drone feed.”
“Maintain pressure on the wound.” The captain rose and climbed into the gun turret. Cody heard the sizzle as blasts of fire arced into the swarm as Jeff worked to clear a path.
One hand clamped over the bite which would kill him, transform him into one of those mindless killers outside, Cody forced himself to focus on the drones. Identifying the path of least resistance, he called out instructions to Ryan and to Jeff and slowly the APC forced its way clear of the mob and hit open road. The task diverted at least a part of his mind from contemplating suicide right now to avoid the terror of turning into a being no better than those ravening outside. To spare his friends from having to kill him.
But he wasn’t even running a fever yet. There was time. He had intel to share.
Jeff dropped into the main passenger compartment again and hastened to get out the first aid kit, which was actually a combat medic’s kit. Cody ripped his sleeve off with a flick of his cyborg strength, transfixed by the sight of the red and purple bite mark, oozing blood.
“No sign of the black lines,” Jeff said as he decontaminated his hands and began to clean the wound.
“Yet.” Cody leaned his head against the seat cushion and closed his eyes. After all the combat he’d been through, not to mention surviving the process which made him into a cyborg, it was unreal to think he was going to die here on this colony world, from a bite.
