Machine God: A Post-Apocalyptic Thriller (Final Draft)

Damaged by light

Little energetic javelins ripped through the distance.

Burned the air around its trajectory.

Hit the ground before us.

And made the Bulwark soldier pant behind the cover.

"What's going on?"

"We've been spotted by a Technoid sniper."

"Where?"

"Fourteenth floor, the skewed skyscraper, about four hundred meters away, 9 o'clock."

"Shit."

"You can say that."

We pushed ourselves against the concrete surface of the pillar.

"If he spotted us, he might call backup. This place is soon going to get swarmed by Technoids."

"Yeah. We have to warn the others."

I held out my hand.

Half a second later, the energy javelin ripped through the pillar and blew pieces apart. Four hit my faces and made me cough.

"He's good. Really good."

"All Technoids are," the soldier said.

My heart hammered.

The adrenaline rushed through my veins.

Attention surged.

I entered battle mode.

"We have to run down the stairs."

"How? It's at least fifty meters away, and the floor has no cover spots against the incoming fire."

He paused.

"It's a damn free-for-all shoot fest."

The soldier was unfortunately right. With the windows and walls of the floor gone, the Technoid had a clear vision and could headshot us once we left the cover.

But we had to do something.

I reached out my right foot and attracted another javelin zap. The staccato beam blasted the concrete ground next to us and whirled the dust around like a mini-tornado.

Which gave me an idea.

"I need your flashbang."

"Why?"

"We're going to obscure the sniper's field of vision."

"Trust me. This once."

The soldier finally came to his common sense. He snatched the cylinder-shaped explosive from his armordillo and handed it over. I primed the grenade, waited for another javelin impact and rolled the flashbang into the hallway.

Turned away.

Bang.

A smoke explosion wiped through the floor, tornado'd up the thick dust and drowned the section into fog.

"You're a genius," the soldier said.

"We'll see if we get out of this alive. Now run. And avoid straight lines."

"Roger."

We blasted from our cover when the smoke dust mix reached its highest density. The dust particles flooded my mouth and nostrils. My lungs ignored the urge to cough.

"Run, run."

The air heated up. The energy javelins burned through the white smoke and cooked the space around it. One shot blew apart our next cover spot. The Bulwark soldier had trouble keeping up with me.

No time for rest.

I said,

"Only twenty meters. Hurry."

"You keep talking. I'm wearing heavy armor."

Another zap tore up the ground a meter behind me.

How could the shooter see us through the smoke? Did he wear some kind of thermal vision device?

No time to find out.

We reached the staircase. I pulled the soldier into the secure zone and dashed down the steps.

"We have to warn the others."

The soldier simply nodded.

Third floor.

Run like hell.

Second floor.

Run like you never ran before.

Transition to first floor.

Twenty steps below, the lobby came into view. Not a tad too late.

"Almost there," the soldier said.

He followed my shadow when a beam tore through the wall next to us. The rubble slammed into our faces, dust and concrete pieces bounced off our gears. Either the sniper carried wall-see-through vision, or another Technoid had located our position.

Either way, we were in danger.

One wrong step, and we'd end up as burned meat with dust flavor.