Re-Coil - J.T. Nicholas Page 0,100

and that meant he was still holding. But if I fucked up here, I might as well pop the seal on my suit, because we had as much chance of surviving the Bliss-infected as I did of breathing vacuum.

With a sigh, I pushed the last jumper in place and pulled myself from beneath the console.

And damn near directly into the path of a descending length of metal conduit.

I half rolled, half flopped gracelessly out of the way as the improvised baton crashed to the deck where, moments before, my body had been. I got a vague impression of the whirling dervish that was Korben, now with knives in both hands, being backed step by bloody step toward the bulkhead.

And away from the door.

He’d left the doorway literally jammed with bodies. They’d piled before him like a charnel breastwork, a dozen or more dead forming a rough barricade that the others had had to physically crawl over. That would have given any normal person pause, bought us a few needed seconds as they realized the horror of what they were having to do and the likelihood of their own demise. But the Bliss-infected weren’t normal people. There was no horror, no fear, within them. Only the need to do as the hive mind commanded, and they pressed onward. The literal weight of their numbers had pushed Korben from his position as surely as rushing water would inevitably carve a riverbed even in solid stone. And just like water, as the assassin had been dislodged, the Bliss-infected had flowed around him.

I rolled again, more gracefully though no less desperately, as the pipe came crashing down once more, striking the decking hard enough that, though I heard no sound, I felt the vibrations of the impact. I could see more of the cyber-zombies coming, crawling over the dead even as Korben fought with silent intensity to regain his former position. But I had more immediate concerns. My hands found the grip and barrel shroud of the submachine gun strapped to my chest as the pipe came crashing down a third time.

This time, I didn’t roll. Instead, I pushed the gun forward to the limits of the sling and swept it in an arc that moved from one shoulder to the other. The barrel intercepted the descending pipe and brushed it to the side, though I felt the tingling of the initial impact all the way to my shoulders. The club smashed harmlessly to the deck a third time, my attacker now leaning over me, momentarily overbalanced from his efforts. I brought the barrel back in line and squeezed the trigger.

My attacker dropped, bouncing off my shoulder and leaving a smear of bright red blood as he fell. But there were more behind him. I pushed myself to my feet, firing as I went. The infected seemed endless, and while they reminded me of the zombies from the old horror flicks, they didn’t move like them, not in full gravity. There was no casual shuffle. No directionless and somehow ominous stumbling about. They moved with the speed and agility of any coil in peak condition. There was no way Korben and I could hold them off for long.

But we didn’t have to hold them off forever. Just long enough for the Genetechnic security team to reach us. If I could just get to the damn controls.

My rolls had taken me two, maybe three meters from the pilot’s console, no more than that. With the jumpers reset, all I needed to do was boot the console. That was it. The flick of one switch, a few seconds of boot time, and the AI should be locked out. Without the crazy course changes, no matter the end vector, the cavalry should be able to arrive.

Should.

But there were a half-dozen Bliss-zombies between me and the console, and more pouring into the room with each passing moment. I couldn’t kill them fast enough. With the submachine gun in hand, it wasn’t like killing soldiers. It was like fighting an advancing forest fire. I could slow it down, but every time I tried to regain lost ground, a new surge exploded inward, driving me back again. It was maddening—I could almost, almost, reach out and hit the switch.

It was a stalemate.

And I was almost out of ammo.

Then Korben was there.

He crashed into the enemy flank, firearms discarded in favor of the blades. Or maybe he was just out of ammo, too. Whatever the case, he hit them with savage