Joe led the way outside and shielding his heavy makeup eyes looked up. I looked in the direction and saw a contrail with two small dots falling from it. Loop and about twenty werewolf marines were standing outside. As soon as we walked out everyone was looking at Joe.
"Loop Guru man it's good to see you," said Joe smiling "Rodi you too" he added to Rodi.
"Is that you DarkZero ? I thought you died in LA" Loop said.
"Your confusing me with Snake Plissken. don't worry I get that alot."
Rodi approached "DarkZero- you've changed a lot man," said Rodi.
"They did a lot of surgery on me, but the good news is they didn't put my face in the middle of my sternum," said Joe looking at what part of Joe's anatomy Rodi's was staring at.
"Can I be your boy ?" said Redshirt.
"I don't know, let me ask my girlfriend," said Joe to the sound of the anguished sighs of those around.
"We better clear this area" he added.
Joe let Redshirt carry his exotic gun while he slinked up the stairs to the perimeter wall on his high heels. We got to the parapet looking out over the valley beyond when the first dot exploded into a ball of airbags. The other dot shot forward and then bloomed white as well. The second ball of airbags flew over our heads hit a large building behind us and then bounced in a shower of dust and rust into the compound behind the wall. The second one hit the metal wall bounced off and shot to land near a tree in the sea of zombies.
Joe looked back into the compound and shouted "Kayla!" and ran back down the steps. I looked out to see the distant figure of Rockwood emerging from the airbags beyond. He was immediately set upon by a number of zombies. He moved at lightning speed and did some cool kung-fu moves to knock them to the ground. He started to move faster than anyone I had seen before in my life. Soon he had run and fought his way to a space before the gates.
"You OK?" I shouted down.
Rockwood took on about twelve Zombies and deftly took each one down without triggering the mine on their bodies. Soon he was standing in a circle of downed zombies frozen in a fighting pose and looked up. You wanted to say 'oh yeah'.
"I'm fine, can I come in?" shouted Rockwood back.
"Sure, I'll open the gates," I said while Rockwood using his elbow on the face of the zombie behind him without looking.
Rockwood ran at the guard tower jumped to the side pushed off from the wall and jumped again on to the platform next to me. Very Jackie Chan.
"Glad you could make it," I said to Rockwood as the zombies became more active.
I got the feeling Rockwood wanted to hug me but felt self-conscious in front of everyone.
"Yeh well I had to break a few engagements to get here, but you know I made it. Not that your special to me or anything" said Rockwood.
Yeh right.
Back in the compound, Kayla was being helped out of the airbags by Joe. They kissed in greeting.
"Parmesan vomit-ey," Kayla shouted up to me waving "yeh I get it now!"
I looked around at the soldiers and werewolf marines all looking at Kayla and Joe kissing, and feeling this was the most dreamy and worst moment of their lives. Kayla was carrying a rifle like Joe's and a briefcase. She took Joe's hand and they came up the steps.
Most of the marines around me were pointing their weapons at Rockwood.
"Brooklyn this is Captain Loop Guru. Loop this is Cyber Lord Brooklyn Rockwood. I would like it if you boys got along. By getting along, I mean no shooting, stabbing, ripping limbs of et-cet-a-ra" I said.
Rockwood narrowed his eyes at Loop and Loop didn't blink at Rockwood.
"Whatever you say Alpha," said Loop.
"They made you the Alpha? You must tell me your career success secrets sometime," said Rockwood.
"Yeh, I've had an invite to go on a motivational speaker circuit about it," I said.
"You can make good money do that," said Rockwood.
A slightly breathless Kayla reached the platform on the top of the security fence.
"I think apologies are in order," I said hugging a slightly tearful Kayla.
"Mine or yours?" said Kayla briefcase in hand.
"Mine all mine." I said " I'm so sorry. Joe told me all about it. I'll do my best never to doubt you ever , ever ,ever again. What have you got there?" I said nodding at the case.
"We brought another friend," said Kayla. She pressed a button on the handle and the case fell apart and unfolded into the familiar shape of Mr Jones.
"Mr Jones such a delight to see you. There was I dreading the idea of going into battle without some reliable fashion advice. I hardly recognised you without the sketchbook" I said.
"Thanks, angel, that's possibly the most flattering thing anyone has said about me. The camouflage green suits your eyes" said Mr Jones. All the marines pointed their guns at Mr Jones.
I pointed at the cyber-zombies over the wall.
"These are the bad guys," I said waving my hands at the Zombies. "this side these are the good guys," I said waving my hands at Rockwood, Joe, Kayla, Mr Jones and all the Marines. "Remember the battle plan, don't make me get it printed on a tee shirt for you."
"Hang on a second angel," said Mr Jones swinging away down to the ground.
"During the war, Mr Jones was an infiltration unit. He was designed to use his high levels of creativity to improvise weapons behind enemy lines. I thought he could help and he won't talk." started Rockwood. Ok, a robot Macgyver would be good. "He jumped at the chance. From orbit, your situation is you have about 100,000 zombies outside and another 600,000 coming from various directions all under Zola's control".
"What on earth are they for?" said Joe.
"They were his former wife's idea of an army fit to attack Washington 2.0" I said nodding at Loop.
"Don't look at me like that, I didn't know she was alive 24 hours ago. I'm a widower now, be nice" said Loop.
I looked to Rockwood "Say you brought some cavalry and weapons so sexy they are X rated" I said.
"I could have but it was short notice and after the battle, these nice folk would all be enslaved. You too, I wanted to talk but if you really wanted out then I wouldn't stand in your way. A defence force would ruin the whole stealthy nature of my arrival" said Rockwood pointing at the marines and the folk of Liberty City.
"So we are on our own, against an army of a million Zombies run by a deranged cyborg-et." I pronounced.
"They sound like my kind of odds," said Rockwood.
"Good, we throw him at them first," said Loop.
"Look I don't want to die wishing I played more Plants vs Zombies, let's get some options," I said.
Just then Mr Jones came back with a bow about twice my height made from a thin steel strip and with a metal spike as an arrow. He used two hands to hold the bow, two to pull it back and then sent an arrow arching over the heads of the zombies hitting one in the far distance. This triggered the mine to go off killing two more Zombies. We cheered This was good but against the huge numbers out there futile.
"We need to create an inner barrier over there. If they get past this defence they will slow themselves down as the valley gets narrower. Get them bunched together for a better sweep of fire." said Joe.
"Kayla, Rodi, Joe and the delightful Mr Jones. Get building an inner perimeter like Joe said. Grab whoever you need to help. See if you can put traps in the ground. Mr Jones, you have my full permission to be creative."
Kayla and the others rushed down.
"I was thinking the barrier needs a theme," said Mr Jones to the others going down the steps. "Perhaps Autumn or perhaps transience".
War as art I liked the idea.
I looked at Rockwood. "Brooklyn - are you here to have your piece and go?"
"I came back to see how things between us stood. If you want to stay free...well I didn't want to bring any attention which would stop you getting away. If you're staying, I'm staying. I'll either live by your side or die by your side. I'll set you free, but I won't give up loving you." said Rockwood. I kind of melted inside. It felt good, how can it feel good to die next to someone one?
"Could you get us out of here?" I asked.
"You or all of you ?" Rockwood said.
I nodded "all or nothing"
"Not without a fair number of you being enslaved. Zola is out to get me as much as you. She would just vector in the commission for public safety. Get me in trouble for illegal slave trading. Take you. Moving a small city full of people isn't easy to do in stealth. Our only advantage is that she was using the Zombie blood to power some secret extraneous computation servers for her and Bitsmarck. She wants to keep this under wraps as much as we do."
"What is our best option?"
"You and me Sneak out of the city together. Leave dog-boy to become Zola's lap dog and exchanging food for zombie blood. Or pray there is a secret back entrance to the abandoned mine Zola doesn't know about. I can't out think her - we are probably about matched based on pure compute power. I drained a lot of slave blood looking for you, I don't have any reserves to call on. Zola and I are fighting over my connection back to the rest of my brain. I"m not sure how reliable this connection will be. If it goes it's just me and my onboard three blood chips against a few thousands of blood chips in Zolas centres."
Just then Private Whistle spotted something.
"Vehicle approaching," he said.
"What where?" I said not seeing anything.
"One of Zola's Ospreys landed," said Rockwood looking out. "Someone on a motorbike is coming towards us. Looks like she's a slave."
After a while I caught sight of the chick on the bike, the zombies slowed down but still walked to the bike. The slave girl stopped before the gate and looked up and took her helmet off revealing a hot blonde with short cropped hair.
"Brooklyn, Darling let me in!" said the slave.
"She's a skype slave - she's acting Zola's words," said Rockwood.
"What makes you think I don't know that? I was your skype slave remember?" I said.
"I thought dog boy here might not know," said Rockwood.
"Can it tin man," said Loop.
I turned to the skype slave.
"Listen shark wick baby, I'm not opening no gates for you and your Zombies. You tell us what you want coz I got some werewolves here you think your ass hole count is low and want to up it for your." I shouted. Can a Cyborg have too many double negatives?
"What do I want? What do I want? " said the slave as Zola "I want the same thing I always wanted. The same thing I wanted from the moment I met you, Jenny. I want you. I want you and nothing but you. I thought you knew that? Did Brooklyn tell you I offered 10,000 bit coins for you? Did he tell you I offered him his stupid bill? So now I'm offering you my heart? Do you know how much I can't think straight when you're around? My tongue goes dry, I can hardly breathe. Excuse me"
The slave turned round shot a zombie which was getting too close and then turned back to me.
"Where was I? OK, I wasn't totally honest about things when we first met. I'm sorry about that, you know what it's like the first time you get to speak to someone you really like you tend to... well make things more black and white than they actually are. I just wanted you to like me. Can you blame a girl for that?"
"Bring that real ass of yours within firing range and find out," I said.
"Hey don't shoot the messager," said the slave girl and changed her accent "Look, sweetie. do't think of me as a hyper-intelligent cyborg with tens of thousands of weaponised zombies at her lethal command. I'm just a girl, in front of another girl, opening her heart. I've got a deal. You come with me. Give me a couple of months to show you, I can make it work and this lot can go free. If after a couple of months your not happy you can leave. All of those nice people your with don't have to get crushed by the army of Zombies, but the worse loss will be you and the long echoes of bliss we could have together.. sounds like a sweet deal right?"
Loop pulled me back to him.
"She wants to sleep with you right? That is what this is all about" said Loop.
"What can I say I'm a cyborg magnet," I said shrugging "I'm as shocked by this as you are, blondes aren't my type."
I went back to the parapet.
"Look I'm tired. Can we have a few hours to rest and think it over" I said.
"I'd do anything for you." the slave said doing Zola's words " You have four hours, you get some rest, I'm sure you'll look and feel a lot better in the morning."
There was a shot above the slaves head hitting another zombie which had broken away from the pack towards the slave. I looked around it was Rudi using Joe's rifle.
"Thanks, Sweetie - I'm sure the slave is very grateful for that. Look they are getting close see you later" said the slave putting her helmet back on shooting, a sheep zombie and then driving her bike towards the gap in the zombie wall she had just made.
I stood back from the wall. Well, this makes everything just wonderful, I was in a love quadrangle. I could see if my broken love for Rockwood could be rebuilt. Going back to him would mean wearing a collar no matter how lovingly locked around my neck. However since I had now had a taste for living in the wild there was my marine. Loop had betrayed me never mentioning his wife,but that couldn't wipe out the months we had together. Finally, I could give them both up and go to Zola. Not normally my first place option but it would mean Liberty City and the people I loved would live. Why is love like San Fransisco busses? I mean you wait for ages for one to turn up and when they do three turn up at once. Cursing love's time management skills, I walked back to the barracks to crash and think.
I was just taking my shoes off (shoe removal such luxury|) when Rockwood came in.
"There is a fair amount I wanted to tell you about, but last time I tried you ran away," said Rockwood.
"I wanted to say I was sorry. I had to lie because I felt at the time if it was the choice between lying and losing you, I would die rather than lose you. I don't think you are able to understand the anguish I have felt these months without you."
"Was it like having an elephant skateboarding over your heart?" I asked.
"On a good day, I could feel that one day it might be only that light, when my memory had faded, and I had shed all the tears of friendless regret," said Rockwood.
"What about feeling like you had been being crushed by a whole mountain until your little more than a thin layer of human, spread like butter between rocks?" I suggested.
"Everyone told me that I could one day look forward to only feeling that bad about it. In the far future while I watched the sun finally use up all its energy and grow dim on this world. When every monument crumbled to dust on the wind," said Rockwood.
He sat down beside me " I have squandered what fortune I have to find you. I have not stinted in time, energy, money and effort to find you again. You have not been out of my mind for a millisecond and if you want I have the log files to prove it. I did it because as soon as you have left I was certain I would never be whole again until we were once more reunited."
I liked the fact that when cyborgs are in love they still monologue.
"I thought the fact you didn't come back when you escaped meant it was all over. That kind of crushed me, but I wanted to give you a chance to say so. I wanted to tell you I love you. I love you enough that I can set you free, if that is what you need. I just wanted to say that if in some crazy crazy way you still had some tiny quantum of love for me then somehow I would make it work. I can't offer a perfect life, but I can offer my unlimited love totally and without reservation." Rockwood finished.
I kind of sat dumbfounded. The idiot loved me.
"You know our love was never meant to be. You're a cyborg, I'm a girl" I said.
"Believe me when I say if it wasn't for the high mountains blocking our path together. I would have confessed all, the instant I had computed out a viable plan. All I can say it our troubles are NP-complete. I can't offer you a trouble free life, but I can offer you one which I will not cease fighting for you, down to my last breath and last compute cycle."
I sat down on the bed. I wanted to melt. I had to be certain this time.
"It's all a bit too much at the moment. 24 hours ago you had still betrayed me. I'm kind of suffering from emotion fatigue now...." I said sitting back.
"I'll take my leave of you then," said Rockwood.
I was woken up three hours later by the click click click of Kayla's high heels, walking on the bare wooden floor. Rockwood had gone.
"They're coming," said Kayla.
****
A/N Come on you secretly knew this was going to happen didn't you? All Jenny has to do is defend Liberty city from an invincible horde of weaponized zombie cyborg animals, with little more than her wits and a few rocks. But then does Jenny still love Rockwood or is it Loop? It could all go wrong and Jenny ends up kissing Zola! You know us we are more twisty than a maze built by alien worms. How about Mr Jones turning up, cool or what? Join us Friday 7pm EST for the mother of all battles. Including the chapter 'the weather channel never answers my calls'. We are so hyped we aren't even going like talk about votes or anything.
RK+Reb.