running across his suit.
“Kat, down!” I shouted and barely had time to hit the pavement before a bolt of electricity shot past me and hit the car. I rolled across the lawn and came up with my pistol, a Sig Sauer P250. I loved my meta powers, but they weren’t a hell of a lot of use at range – or against something that shot lightning bolts.
“Too late.” The voice was low and gravelly. I saw Kat lying on the street behind the car, splayed out on the ground with three guys in black tactical vests huddled around her and Scott. Two others stood at either bumper of the car, covering me with weapons of their own, big shiny silver ones that reminded me of the kind the Directorate used to bring down stray metas. Their leader was standing over Kat, an assault rifle in his hands and pointed at me. “Now are you gonna give yourself up or are we gonna be leaving your body to go rancid in the heat?”
Chapter 11
I stared him down, my gun aimed at his comrade who was standing to my right. Assuming they were human, even my meta speed and my skill with the pistol wouldn’t be enough to save me from getting blasted by at least one of them. I took a closer look; their vests were bulky, which told me that they were likely kevlar. I considered trying to aim for their heads instead of center mass, but dismissed it as a bad idea. Aiming for a small target in my first combat shoot seemed like a recipe for failure. Besides, even with a vest the bullets would put a full grown man on the ground in a world of hurt.
“So what are you gonna do?” Their leader spoke again, and I saw the others flick their eyes toward him. “Live or die, your choice.”
“I’m somewhat attached to the former,” I said, keeping my gun trained on the rightmost enemy.
“Then you might wanna put the gun down, real slow.” His voice was rough and used to issuing commands. “Otherwise we’re gonna have to cut that loose, pretty quick.”
On one knee as I was, I couldn’t see Scott or Kat, and I wondered if they were still alive. I had seen what hit them, and I hoped that the weapons they’d been shot with were no more fatal than the Directorate equivalent. “All right,” I said, not really sure if I was going to follow his command or shoot, but knowing I didn’t have much time to make a decision.
“Put the gun on the ground in front of you. Go slow.” There was that command again.
I felt my jaw tighten and I started to inch the gun lower, keeping the bearing on my target. I’d be less accurate firing from this position, but I still felt confident I could put him down. The other two...well, that was the problem, wasn’t it? That was why I was even considering surrendering. I started to say something but I heard the squeal of tires at the end of the street to my left and it took all my training to keep from jerking my head to look in the direction of the noise.
They were not so well trained, and all three of them turned, giving me an opening. I fired a double tap on my target, two quick shots that sent him over backward, gun skittering away. I changed targets quick, drew a bead on the leader and fired twice more. I knew they were bound to be less accurate than my first shots, and one of them went wide, but the other hit him in shoulder and knocked him over. I started to change targets again to the last guy, but he had heard me firing and had drawn a bead on me. I knew I wouldn’t make it in time.
A car slammed into him, bumper smashing him against the stolen car. I watched his body fold at the knees, a scream from him faint in my ears after the echoing of the gunshots nearly deafened me. He was pinned between the cars, legs crushed, and his upper body had fallen into the open trunk. I could hear little cries coming from within; likely the sound of him screaming, but from where I stood it was muffled. I opened my mouth and closed it, trying to restore my hearing after the trauma of firing a gun repeatedly with no ear protection.
I knew there were