Sooner Dead (Gamma World) - Mel Odom [126]
Pistols blazing in front of her, bullets punching into and throwing the hardshells, Hella concentrated on the rhythm Scatter had taught her. With every rapid step, even at the speed she was moving, her body grew more controlled. She was a blur, getting faster, getting more sure-footed. And she was death for every hardshell in the hallway who lifted a weapon in her direction.
The armor-piercing rounds she created for the assault took longer to form, but they were there when she needed them. They ripped through the hardshells.
In the stairwell, operating at a speed she’d never before reached, she planted her left weapon in the face of a man who managed to intercept her by design or by accident. The bullets ripped him away, and blood misted her vision.
She leaped over a dead man lying at the bottom of the steps, avoided another man who reached for her, and brought her knee up into the man’s crotch. Right before impact, she imagined a protective layer of armor over her knee, and it was there. Instead of injuring herself on the hardshell, her knee caved in the armor and knocked the man away.
Morphing her left weapon back into a hand, she grabbed another man as she went up the stairs and levered him across her hip into freefall between the stairwells. He fell another floor and lay still. By then she had continued advancing, and her hand was a weapon again.
She head-butted another man and bulled him back with her speed. Then she whirled out of his embrace, weapons flared out and tracking targets on the stairwell. She ran toward the wall, stepped onto a fallen man, and ran up onto the wall. Hurling herself into the air, she flipped and fired ceaselessly. When she landed on her feet, she was behind Pardot.
Wrapping her left arm under Pardot’s chin and pressing hard against his neck, Hella held the muzzles of her right weapon against Pardot’s head.
In front of and around her, hardshells struggled to get to their feet and level their weapons at her.
Hella pulled Pardot backward with her till she reached the wall. She shook the small man viciously. “Tell them to put their weapons down, or I’m going to kill you.”
Dazed, shaking in fright, Pardot raised his hands. “Put down your weapons! Put them down!”
The blank faceplates on the hardshells didn’t show any emotions, but Hella read the anger and fear in the men’s body language. They wanted her dead, and her life briefly swayed on the shifting emotions. She and Stampede knew if they couldn’t get Scatter and get gone without a confrontation, the stairwell was the best hope they had of gaining the upper hand. It had been an all-or-nothing risk, but it was something they had used before. Against a group controlled by someone, it would work, not against a disorganized gang.
But a group was an animal, every bit as wild and unpredictable as any creature living in the forest. The only law an animal obeyed was one for survival.
“Put your weapons down! I order you to do as she says!”
From below, leaking blood down his right side, Riley climbed the stairs and forced his way to the front of the group. He held his rifle in both hands, taking aim at Hella.
“Are we okay out there?” Stampede’s voice was loud enough to carry into the stairwell from the laboratory.
“Not sure yet.” Hella held her fright in check. She wished she had a faceplate like those on the hardshells. Her face grew itchy, and she felt the nanobots stirring beneath her skin. Her reflection showed in Riley’s face shield. As she watched, metal plates formed around her face and created a shield the color of her hair. She didn’t know if it was bulletproof, but it looked thick enough. Her astonishment numbed her for just an instant; then she focused on survival. “Got a few guys up here who seem to be determined to hang on to their weps.”
“Riley.”
Riley ignored Stampede.
“Riley.”
“Yeah?”
“I know you care about Hella. Maybe that’s enough for you. If it’s not, it’s gonna play out like this: if you kill her, I’ve got a secondary charge in that