Ex-Communication, Peter Clines [ebook reader online free txt] 📗

her head. “Don’t worry,” she called back. “He recognizes me. It’ll be fine.”

Dead Rich swung its head around to look at Tori. Its teeth banged together as it staggered toward her. The one-armed dead woman moved in her direction, too. So did an ex with a broken lower jaw, one with fingers worn down to bone claws, and a half-dozen others.

Cerberus took a few huge steps back to the minivan the woman had sat on. The battlesuit was too heavy to climb onto the car, and the chain-link would never support the armor’s weight. She didn’t have her ranged weapons because ammunition was so scarce for them. There wasn’t any way for Cerberus to get to the other woman except for tearing open a hole in the barrier. Danielle clenched her fists in frustration. “Tori,” she shouted again.

The almost-pixie woman ignored her. She was halfway down the ramp, seventeen and a half feet from the one-armed ex, according to the armor’s targeting software. The dead woman raised its stump and its one good arm.

A shot rang out and the ex’s head cricked hard to the side before it collapsed. The guards on the platform were lining up shots with their rifles. Tori looked up at them and screamed as another ex shambled toward her.

Cerberus patched herself through to their radios. “Keep her covered,” she ordered. “I’m going to try to get down there.”

“Make it quick, ma’am,” said one of the guards. “There’s at least a dozen more on the move, heading her way.” He was one of the unenhanced soldiers from Krypton. His name flitted across her mind for a moment and she pushed it away.

Tori broke into a run, heading down the ramp. One of the guards pegged the claw-fingered ex and the woman screamed again. Cerberus thought the woman had gone hysterical and was just running to get away from the gunfire.

Then Tori got to the bottom of the ramp. She threw herself between the rifles and her dead friend. The woman spread her arms wide and looked up at them. “Don’t hurt him!”

The guards looked over at Cerberus. So did Tori. Danielle glared at the screens inside her helmet and slammed her steel fist down on the hood of the minivan. “Get out of the way,” she bellowed in full public-address mode. Her words echoed down into the concrete canyon.

Ex-Rich wrapped one arm around Tori’s waist from behind. The other one hooked over her shoulder and grabbed her left boob. Her face lit up for a second with a look of vindication and relief. Maybe even a bit of naughty excitement.

Tori turned to look at the ex. Her eyes went wide just as it sank its teeth into the base of her neck. She shrieked. Blood gushed out across her shoulder and soaked her overcoat. The dead man clawed at her chest with its fingers and she twisted away. Ex-Rich staggered back with a mouthful of flesh between its chomping teeth.

Danielle blinked and the lenses zoomed in. Tori was bleeding a lot, but it wasn’t pulsing. The ex had missed any major arteries. If she got back to the fence there was still a chance. A good chance.

But the almost-pixie woman was in shock. Once she was free of her dead friend she stood there for a moment. Her hand went up to touch her neck and came back soaked in red. She looked over her shoulder at the ex who had been her friend.

“Get back here,” yelled Cerberus. “Come on!” She tried stepping up onto the trunk of a car. It squealed and crumpled under her armored foot. She looked at the fence and tried to figure out if there was a way to open it that could be repaired quickly. The only way through was to shred it.

Another shot echoed across the freeway and an ex jerked but didn’t fall. It had been a dark-haired man in an L.A. Kings jersey. It took another few steps and a second round put it down.

Now Tori was hysterical. She turned to run and slammed right into a car. She sprawled on the hood and left a splash of blood on the silver paint. She pushed herself up and made it a few yards back up the ramp before she stumbled. She tried to twist herself back up and grabbed at her ruined shoulder. It threw her balance and she tumbled to the ground.

Ex-Rich fell on her, pinning her face down against the pavement. She twisted around onto her side and tried to push him away, and his teeth closed on her fingers. Its jaws opened again and her hand slipped in to the next knuckle. She howled.

The broken-jawed ex flapped its mouth at her and tried to chew her arm through the heavy sleeve of her overcoat. She thrashed her legs, but her almost-boyfriend slipped between them. Her other arm was pinned under her, and Cerberus could see it grasping at the air.

The guards took out two more exes heading for the woman, but a third slipped past them, and a fourth. Tori’s screams were already growing weaker when the two new exes fell on her. Her cries gurgled as if she had a mouthful of water and one of the exes stumbled back with pink meat between its teeth.

The steel fingers wrapped around the chain-link, and Danielle hollered at the exes as they ripped the woman apart. Then she stood up straight and bit back her tears. There was no way to wipe her eyes while she was in the suit, and she’d be useless if she couldn’t see or run the optical mouse.

Not that she’d been very useful to Tori as it was.

THE COUPLE ON the other side of the street glanced at Madelyn. She tried to walk casually and watched them without turning her head. When their gaze didn’t leave her, she gave them a nod, a tight smile, and a little wave. The woman returned the wave and whispered