Chapter
3 – Fear the Reaper
Frantically, I look over every body
to see if anyone else is still alive. The few that are alive are people with
cybernetic and blown to bits and die seconds after I reach them. Rubble is
moved aside by someone and I run over to find Elliot and Annie burned and bloodied,
but still alive. I quickly cross myself and silently thank God before helping
them up and hugging them.
“We can hug later,” Elliot says
while taking out his pistol, “Trouble will probably come to mop up whoever is
still alive.”
Annie also takes out her pistol and
then says, “Who do you think did it? Do you think it was one of their friends?”
“I doubt it. All their important friends
are dead,” I say.
“And so are a lot of our friends.
Those amoral bastards would have no problem doing evil for some perceived good
purpose. What if the people who did it are traitors? This is hardly different
than what happened before.”
“We’ll figure it out later. First,
we must get out of here.”
Before we move, people with guns
break open the door. We fire at them and advance forward as the entire room
begins to fall down around us. There are more assassins in the hallway that we
clear out. I move forward not only to act as a moving shield for my friends but also because I’m pissed and want these people dead for justice and what they’ve
done to me. By the time we get back to the entrance, we’ve killed over thirty
assassins and left hallways and the entrance filled with blood, bullet holes,
and bodies. Elliot, Annie, and I rush into our car and drive away before the
cops and media arrive since they could be in on this as well and we don’t know
who to trust.
“What are we going to do next?” I
ask.
“That’s what we turn to you for,
but if you want my opinion, we find out who did this and put them to the sword
so to speak,” Elliot says.
“I agree. Let’s get back home first
before we do anything,” Annie says.
By the time we get home, we tell
our friends what happen and to lock up the building. I turn on the news to see
the media talking about what happened. The archbishop of our diocese and his
allies are asked what they think of it and our disappearance from the scene.
“We think it is obvious what this
means and why this tragedy happened. Roxy, her family, and fellow conspirators
staged this so that they could kill our friends that held power and they succeeded.
We know it was them for sure because of this witness,” the archbishop says
before allowing a false witness who claims to have been one of us to speak and
make it seem like the assassination attempt was our plan.
“What are you going to do about
these murderers who claim to be devout Catholics?” a reporter asks.
“I deem them anathema and apart
from the Church. Since they have shown they will kill all who oppose them, I
also say that they should be jailed for life or shot on sight and I suggest
that the second option is picked for your own sake.”
Annie throws a chair through the TV
and then says, “It’s their fault! They set us up and are trying to pin this on
us!”
“If they want to declare war on us,
then let’s go to war. I’ll gather everything we got and-” Elliot says before I cut
him off.
“Don’t do anything yet. Make sure
this building’s defenses are up, make sure everyone is armed, and load up the
trucks with whatever we can carry just in case we have to leave. We’ll probably
have to since they know where we are.”
Elliot and Annie do as I say as
they tell everyone to prepare to leave and talk about the specifics of how to
deal with the situation while I video call my parents. Come on, come on! Pick
up the phone! There we go!
“Mom, dad!” I say.
“We heard what happened and we’re
already taking our private plane to get to you,” my dad says.
“But what happened at the dinner…I
didn’t know that would happen! It was-”
“Yeah, we know it was a setup. We
don’t believe those snakes in the media and that pretentious archbishop.”
“Get down!” I hear someone in the
car say.
I see my parents duck down and then
hear bullets hitting the car. Soon after, an explosion rocks the car and the
call ends. In a panic, I try calling them again and again but am only sent to
their voicemail. Of course, they could just be not answering while they protect
themselves, but…but…no. I shouldn’t think the worst will happen. Speaking of
that, Elliot lets me know that the police are trying to knock down the door.
“I have to help defend the building!”
I say.
“You need to get your cybernetic body
fixed up. We’ll have our guys defend the doors and activate the manual turrets
online to do the heavy lifting,” Elliot says.
“No! I don’t want anyone else
risking their life for me!”
“It’s okay! They know better than
to let you down by dying. Now, if you want to help, then get fixed up as soon
as you can so you can be in top shape.”
“…fine.”
Going over to my room, the person
who works on my cybernetic body quickly gets to work. While waiting for my body
to be fixed, I start thinking about what could we have done to avoid this. If
we stayed behind to explain to the media and cops what happened, they probably
wouldn’t have believed us since we were the only ones alive and they already
had a negative view of us anyway. Was it possible to tell them the truth and have
them believe us? Probably not. We didn’t have any evidence to prove our innocence.
The archbishop also had a false witness to bury us even further so it’s a certainty
that we were set up. My parents and our home are also attacked soon after as if
they were ready to mobilize after the assassination attempt.
It makes me sick to my stomach to
see this happen and that I couldn’t have done anything to prevent it. Sure, I could’ve
had people check for bombs, but I was also blinded by the opportunity of a
better future and didn’t think they would kill their friends along with us. The
archbishop and his conspirators have to come to justice now rather than later.
When I saw them on the news, they were outside his cathedral so that’s probably
where they still are. I don’t think they’ll move from there, especially since
it has barricades that can shield the cathedral from the outside and turrets
that can manually be used to defend it. We’d have to go in hard and fast to not
get bogged down by them, but then again, why can’t I just go by myself?
“The police are retreating. They
didn’t even make it passed the front door,” Elliot tells me as I am reentering
my cybernetic body now that its repairs are done.
“Start packing up and keep people ready.
They’ll come back with more,” I say.
“Right.”
Getting dressed in my black combat gear,
I take four pistols with me and two experimental laser pistols along with plenty
of ammo for each weapon. If they don’t work, then I could always overheat them
and used them as pseudo grenades. I then sneak past everyone, go into the garage
where all the vehicles are stored, get on a motorcycle, and use one of the
secret exits to leave. These exits were used back in my
parent's teenage days when the old subway tunnels were used to sneak into buildings, as a
meeting place, and way to get around the city. Using the GPS in the motorcycle,
I navigate these tunnels and take the exit that’s closest to the cathedral.
Soon after, the police are on my
tail, which is not a big surprise since this is the center of the city and they
were probably expecting me. With my motorcycle, I speed and weave passed
traffic and all the obstacles the police have in my way until I see the cathedral.
I speed towards it as its turrets begin to activate and barriers begin to
close. Now at top speed, I drive my motorcycle through the cathedrals gates,
guards, and through its doors just as the barriers fully come down. Many guards
begin to surround me with their weapons drawn and ready to fire so I quickly
head for cover before they do.
Here we go. Now I can finally put
all the training I did to the test. I activate my cybernetic body’s systems to
their fullest extent enabling me to use my four robotic arms and extra two eyes. I
then give my four extra arms a pistol while I wield the laser pistols and go to
work. Thanks to this enhanced mode, my senses and speed are doubled allowing me
to use all six of my arms in total and shoot effectively. Leaping and running
around on the walls, I clear this sham of a cathedral of the filth that guards
it. Fifteen bodies lay shrew about the ground floor in about fifteen seconds. I’m
thinking this is going to be easier than I expected.
The archbishop and his friends are
most likely on the top floor of the tower that’s crudely attached to this
cathedral. Going up to the next floor, I find more and more guards that I clear
out without a sweat since they aren’t able to land a single hit on me. I bust
through walls and run around the rooms, walls, and ceilings and even manage to
find the false witness in one of them who I also put a bullet in. Annie and
Elliot were wrong to tell me that I shouldn’t have tried this. This…oh come on.
I’m starting to feel the effects of using my systems at their maximum as my
skin feels like it's burning and my vision goes blurry for a couple of seconds. I
must end this quicker. It’s a good thing there’s only one more floor to go,
however, I’m running low on ammo so I must conserve it or at least find an
armory. There should be one around here.
Sure enough, I find guards arming
themselves on the last floor. Since I’ve come this far without getting hit once,
I put my enhanced speed and strength to the test by running at and kicking the
head clean off the first guard I come across. This gives me the confidence not
to use any guns on this floor as I use my extra limbs, my fists, and legs to
break necks and crush skulls. In addition, I use the guards as human shields
and throw them at each other like rag dolls. By the end of it, I still haven’t
been shot. After raiding the guard’s armory for ammo for my pistols and fuses
for my laser pistol, I enter a conference room where the last guards, the archbishop
and his conspirators are at.
“It’s over, archbishop,” I say.
“How is it over? Do you think you
can take me and all of my friends here? Do you really think you’re the only one
who has cybernetic enhancements?” the archbishop says as his cloaks move aside
to reveal his robotic body.
Along with that, parts of his face
move around to reveal that his face is also part cybernetic. Everyone else in
the room does much of the same, which means that this last fight isn’t going to
be as easy.
“Even if you do beat us, do you
think we’ll confess to the media what we did? They already believe what we say
without question and even if someone were to investigate what really happened,
they wouldn’t find any evidence of our involvement. Killing us would also dig
your graves even further in the eyes of all Americans. You’re fighting a losing
war, ignorant girl,” the archbishop continues.
“Was it worth it to kill your own?”
I ask.
“It was because they were traitors
to our cause. We told them not to offer the dinner and talk with you and your
allies, but they thought a peaceful resolution could happen. This is why we
killed them and attempted to kill you along with them.”
“You people really are scum and the
worst kinds of traitors and not just because of what you’ve done, but also
because you betray those under you. People trust you to teach and lead the
country properly and you just use your power for your own ends.”
“Our ends are justified while yours
are not. I’ve had mercy on you by explaining myself, but the time for it is
over. I must thank you for coming alone so that we may demoralize the rest of
your allies with your death.”
I can’t die now. Not when everyone
is depending on me. To thin this herd out, I start by taking out the remaining
guards who have lighter cybernetics than their leaders. These guys go down fairly
easily. I then shift my focus to the leaders. Due to my focus on getting rid
of the guards and them as fast as I can, my laser pistols overheated which
forces me to throw them as grenades taking care of two of the leaders.
Speed is on my side in this fight
since my opposition has greater armor. This unfortunately means that I have to
use all of my ammo just to take down another two leaders and use the dropped
guns to take out a third. Now with three leaders left, I decide to use my arms
to kill another and use that one’s gun to wear down the other two, but unfortunately,
they manage to shoot off my hands in the process forcing me to retreat behind cover
to rethink my strategy. My cybernetic systems numb the pain. Looking at my
broken arms gives me a crazy idea, which I’m not sure is a result of the pain.
Leaping out of cover, I focus on
one of the leaders and cut them up with my blade-like arms in a hit and run
strategy by cutting at their limbs and neck and after cutting them many times,
I finally manage to cut their head off. Unfortunately, my extra arms are shot
off soon after while trying the same tactic with the others. Still, I’m able to
kill the second to last leader with my kicks and what’s left of my arms. With
my extra arms gone, my cybernetic body switches power to numb the pain I’m
in, however, all its systems are switched to doing this after my last arms are
blown away by the last leader who is the archbishop. I’ve sustained serious
damage thanks to his rifle that’s loaded with explosive rounds while he only
has a moderate amount of damage on his body.
“I think your words were, ‘it’s
over’, weren’t they,” the archbishop says.
“For you, it is,” I say as I struggle
to stay standing.
Summoning the rest of the strength I
have, I use my legs to kick away the archbishop’s gun, take out his legs one
after the other, and then do the same with his arms. Even though he’s nothing more
than a head and torso, he still lives and tries to use his chin to get away. I
kick him over and hold him in place by stomping my foot through his stomach.
“Ple-please…God have mercy,” the
archbishop says.
“Mercy? If God was going to have
mercy on you, he wouldn’t have sent me to punish you for your crimes,” I say.
I then stomp the archbishop into
pieces with my foot over and over again with his face and body in pieces by the
end of it. Everything that’s happened has taken all the energy out of me causing
me to collapse on the ground now that it’s over. Elliot and Annie are going to
be so surprised to find out that I managed to do this by myself. I sure proved
them wrong. My systems are stabilizing now that everything in it is focused on
keeping me alive, but I still may not make it back to them. That’s fine with me
because no one else had to die for me. It makes me happy that I’m able to die
for them.
My eyes grow heavy for a bit then I
shut them before I hear a group of people barge in. It’s Elliot, Annie, and a
bunch more of my supporters. They run to me and make sure I’m alive before taking
me out of the building.
“I would slap you over and over
again if you weren’t half dead,” Annie says.
Elliot agrees and then says, “This
is what we were afraid of Roxy. You’re blessed to have come out of it intact.”
He then tells me about how they
knew I’d come here after seeing that I was gone and hearing news reports of me assaulting
the cathedral. Once I’m inside a truck that’s like the back of an ambulance, my
body repairer and a doctor help further stabilize my condition as we drive off.
We’re going far outside of the city to meet my parents and their allies who are
all thankfully alive. Elliot and Annie are sitting in the back of the truck
with me watching me as if I’ll get up and leave again.
“I’m glad you brought justice to
those scum, however, you had us really worried there, Roxy,” Elliot says.
“What were you thinking?” Annie asks.
“I was thinking that I could end our
enemies by myself. Heh, I was right for the most part,” I say.
“Sure, but they’ll be more to face
in the future. This isn’t the end,” Elliot says.
“It’s the end in some ways. We won’t
have to worry about the archbishop and his conspirators anymore. I think
something is really starting to change.”
“Besides us being wanted criminals
now who will get arrested or shot on sight?”
“Besides that. We’ll still bring change
to this country and make it better than ever. Our friends in the corporate,
government, and police sectors are meeting us, right?”
“They are, but you should be focusing
on resting right now. No more talking,” Annie says.
“Okay.”
I can feel it. We’re close to the
end of an era. With my friends and family, we’ll root out the corruption in
our country and turn it into a proper one just like our founders did. It’ll be
free from the traitors in business, government, and Church, or at least most of
them realistically speaking. Now that our enemies have declared war on us, we’ll
have to root them out the old fashioned way like how our ancestors did in the
beginning years of our country, and drive them out of it, which I’m sure my dad
will be more than happy to do. We’re almost there. All it takes is the resilience
to keep pushing forward day after day, and we’ll make a better country and
future in no time.
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