Symbiota Sapiens

Chapter 17

I was less than a minute away now, still flying at the greatest possible speed my legs could achieve.

A solid weight hit the door as three bodies slammed against it in unison. A quick stab and one of them fell with a hole in his neck. The body was quickly dragged away and another took his place as the human battering ram struck again. The dresser moved back three inches and another body slipped to the floor.

No use. The third blow opened the door another four inches and this time the stabbed body fell into the room, another autonoid sliding through the opening right behind him. Julian slammed one of the sturdy staves into the side of his head, knocking it sideways and, almost in the same movement, struck again on the side of the neck. That one wouldn't be walking anytime soon.

The door had been opened halfway by now, the dresser wedged between it and the wall keeping it from opening fully. But it was enough for a constant stream of bodies to pour through, one by one.

And one-by-one Julian dealt with them. Stabbing, breaking bones, breaking skulls, dealing death and destruction to each and every one that came through that door.

And still they came.

And then his mistakes started demanding backpay.

The first was a man whose ribs he had broken, all on the left side of his body. He'd immediately collapsed as the shock of the pain overrode the commands flowing from the implant at the base of his skull.

It was probably a fatal blow. But not immediately fatal.

He used his remaining good arm to drag himself the few feet to let him grab onto Julian's ankle, pulling him off balance. The stabbing wound he was in the process delivering went just left of a heart and another incompletely disabled enemy went down. Julian didn't notice his error. He was busy recovering his balance and landing a harsh kick to shatter the jaw and cheekbone of the crawler.

Then he had a fresh opponent in the doorway to dispatch. This one was done perfectly. A foot to the kneecap followed by a slashing motion that tore out the jugular and a hard tap to the side of the head that would keep him unconscious long enough to bleed to death.

And then the next. The stick that had been motionless during his last move whipped upwards, the end snapping hard against a stubbly chin. Jaw shattered, brain compressed from the shock wave of the impact, neck snapped backward. Definitely out of things.

Then two arms wrapped themselves around his knees. The victim of his innacurate stabbing attempt from before had followed the example of his own benefactor and was lurching sideways, trying to topple Julian.

The sticks slammed down on either side of Julian, fracturing elbows. A knee to the face and the assailant was off him. But now there were two through the door. Julian dispatched one with a twirl of one of the sticks and just had time to raise the other to impale the remaining attacker as he launched himself forward, arms spread.

The stick slid between ribs and the other attacker was dying. But the attack had carried Julian two steps backwards, away from the half-open door. Three more had slipped in, and as Julian dealt with them more slipped through and Julian suddenly no longer had control of the defensible bottleneck.

Forty seconds.

Julian spun around and with one fluid motion, launched himself to dive through the window.

His head struck the windowsill as a quick hand on his ankle checked him in mid-flight. A dull thunk, and I knew he was no longer conscious.

Then one of the autonoids grabbed him by the collar, and I swallowed a gasp as they threw him on through the window.