Chapter 16
Hell's Kitchen
All she had to go on was the distant growls of the odd Robot. Trying to see without seeing in the total absence of any light. Jace was in no state to help. He still shivered from the cold, and tried to hold back every urge to cough, splutter and sneeze. He was growing more and more ill as time went on.
He had swallowed a lot of blood from the first Robot attack, and he had been under water then close to naked for far too long. Lizzie had done all she could, so had no need to feel as guilty as she did.
She just held him as tightly as she could, and tried her best to lead him through the dark. There was no light. No ambient light, no cover from the wind, and no relief from the snow. As a growl grew louder, she moved away, until another stopped her dead. Her heart was beating furiously inside of her chest, her senses were toned but upset and confused. Her eyes strained to be able to see, but it was like being inside a thick cloak. She tried to hone in on the distant growling, and think about each and every step before she made it.
The wind took her breath away, while the snow filled her struggling nostrils and mouth full of intensely cold flakes. She just wanted to bolt. To run as far and as fast as she could, and just hope that it would work out. That was the silly human inside of her thinking. The cop, the adult, was saying otherwise. In a true test of her nerves, she moved slowly and calculated every single movement of her body. Jace, on the other hand, trusted her completely. That was both a testament to their relationship and also a heavy burden for her to bear on her own. He held her hand delicately, and tried all he could to steady his breathing.
One of them was screaming with every breath. Beyond the sound being so far beyond unsettling words couldn't tell, she used it as an anchor point. They seemed drawn to sound. Where she drew closer to one growling, more would start.
But what if they could smell them? The thought suddenly started bouncing around her mind. They hadn't so far, so there was no need to start worrying just yet. The cold might even have been helping. It was stopping them from sweating for starters.
The thick, fast and brutalizing wind, which almost had a presence of its own, was probably doing part of that job too. It moved in currents and vectors like water. It had body, substance and a mind all to its own. It was probably sending the Robots in a spin with scents carried all over.
If they stayed at this much longer, either one of the Robots was going to grab for them, or she would make a mistake. Or failing either of those, the cold was going to finish them off for good. By all guesses they were somewhere in the great lawn. This was the part of Jace's plan that she had been dreading the most. Being stuck out in the open so much. The snow must have been falling for hours. There was no telling what it was they were walking on. Grass, concrete or wood. It all felt the same. She was trying so hard to navigate through the maze of darkness and billowing snow.
But the explosion that rocked through the night gave momentary aid to her eyes. The thick orange light illuminated a series of Robots. They just looked so human. So peaceful. They stumbled and mumbled, in concentric circles like lost dogs. It was like they were searching for something. Like they were lost. Maybe they were. Maybe that's all they were.
As much as the explosion told her where they were, it did the same for them. One of them started getting very agitated as the light slowly died away. It came slowly towards them, but it was Jace who sprang into action.
He must have been silently digging deep for some kind of momentum. He always had it in him. There was always more. He was tireless really. Tenacious and strong. He lunged forward, and guided by nothing better than impulse and gut feeling, he swung a punch. The Robot recoiled with a spurt and must have fallen over. With the light from the explosion totally gone, there was no telling where it had ended up. It might have easily grabbed for a foot or a leg, so he pulled Lizzie away.
That flash of light had given him a glimpse of where they were. They had wandered for a long time in the darkness, longer than it must have appeared to them at the time. They were close to the edge of the park, not quite at its limits.
That explosion was a telling sign that there was some kind of fight going on. There were no heavy industries, warehouses or factories around that area that he could think of. They were pretty close to Hell's Kitchen, so there may have been some, but none big enough to cause a blast like that. He resisted the urge to shout, or even to speak, so instead just pulled Lizzie aside and ran for the epicenter of the thick cloud of dust that the explosion had thrown up.
It might be worse. It might be better. But if there was some kind of fight back going on, then he would much rather just be in the thick of it. He had had enough of sneaking around in the snow.
He continued with her same strategy and just darted between the sounds. More explosions started going off and the telling light was enough to help them make it the fairly short distance to the edge of the park. The last of a series of three explosions brought a whole building down. Not one of the tallest, but still a good sized scraper. They could see it falling, and feel their hearts in their mouths at the same time, just as the light from the fateful explosion died.
They hit the side wall of the park with a bang and just sunk to their knees. There was at least some light now. Some of the buildings must have had an emergency generator system of some kind, because many of the lights in the city were still on. It was feint, but it made a difference. A quick glance over the wall confirmed the worst.
They were on the wrong side of a fight. Jace could just about see a thin line of troops. The muzzle fire and rippling sound of automatic weapon fire was periodic and spasmodic at best. They might have been the national guard or something. The muzzle flashes gave off only a tiny amount of valuable light, but it was just about enough to pick out individuals. They needed to get on the defended side of the line of troopers. Risking trying to make some kind of signal might just get them caught in the crossfire, or mistaken as a Robot.
'Stay down.' Jace said to her, suddenly taking command of the situation. It must have been a horrible feeling for him. Trying to come to terms with the fact that he was probably getting sick, might well die of the same disease that had caused the dead to walk and all the time trying to save Lizzie, the woman he loved and couldn't bring himself to admit it. 'Let's use the cover of the park to move up closer to the guards, and then...'
'Yes?' Lizzie asked, almost mockingly. 'By the way, when did you come back?' She tried to make light of it. The thought of a fight was warming her blood, and the hope of being rescued was tantalizing but comforting too.
'Oh you know.' He just stood up like he was on a pick nick, and started striding down the park, keeping to the safe side of the wall. 'I just had to shake it off.' He raised up his arms in an animated shrug of the shoulders. Lizzie followed with a hint of a smile.
They moved as fast as possible. The snow had packed up against the wall, which made stumbling very easy, and keeping track of where they were hard. He just followed the vague sound of gunfire as the troops themselves seemed to retreat.
A few glances to either side told them that they were slowly becoming surrounded by Robots. They had to get a move on. The gunfire slowed but was never extinguished. He could just about make out some shouting over the rippling bullets.
No more time! He threw himself over the wall and started flailing his arms around in the easily recognizable "I'm here" signal. 'Hey!' He started screaming. By luck, skill or chance, the troops managed to spot him in time.
'Hold your fire!' The order came just in time. His heart was pounding and he started to shrink inside of his own chest while holding his fist to his heart.
'Move!' The troops started yelling. To be fair to them he was wasting their time and standing right in the way of their firing line. He signaled to Lizzie who leapt over the wall before her nerve failed her. The Robots were just about on top of her when Jace made the decision to jump the wall. He was right to have done it though, there was no more t
ime to waste.
They ran as fast as their frozen limbs could let them and darted behind the troops. There were only ten of them. A small force, but a very welcome one. They wore fully camouflaged uniforms. They were green and black in split colors to best mirror trees and green land foliage. They each wore a helmet but no faces could be identified in the chaos. The commander, the one who had seen them through the corner of his eye, immediately saw they were police officers.
'Here!' He threw them each an automatic weapon from a truck that had been so far hidden from view. There was a driver behind the wheel slowly backing it up. They were either in some kind of controlled retreat or had some plan that Jace couldn't immediately figure out. 'You know how to use those?' He screamed in desperation over another rocking explosion. Another building started to fall in the foreground, but the commander didn't even turn to see it.
'Copy that.' Lizzie spoke for them both and darted to the front line. As soon as one of the Robots appeared from the bewildering snow and darkness, she shot. Jace did the same. Their accuracy and command of their weapons even drew a few smiles from the troops. Before a magazine had been emptied the situation felt more under their control.
'Robot left!' Jace yelled as the truck slowly passed by a side road on their left hand side. As the truck rolled back, the troops stepped back. It was easy enough to fit perfectly into the situation. Lizzie turned as Jace ducked and dispatched the Robot with a carefully placed shot to the eyeball.
'Robot down!' She yelled and turned back to the main firing line. With only a glance, Jace could see the truck start to turn down that very same side road. He recognized it well. His favorite pizza shop was on one corner, his treasured bar, boarded up and half burned on the other. They were deep inside the Kitchen now, not that far from his place. That is, if these guys hadn't blown it to hell yet.
The turning truck revealed another line of troops behind it. Jace, Lizzie and their formation were guarding the front while another ten seemed to be guarding the back. Their job was far easier too. Much less Robot presence that way at first glance. One of the men turned to Jace and whispered in his ear.
'Robots?' He asked. Jace lit up. He actually got the chance to tell someone else his joke. The line of Robots slowly filtered away to nothing, and the driver of the truck slowly sped up too.
'That's what I call them.' The man didn't laugh as Jace had oddly expected him to. 'You know... what else can we call them? Them?' Still no response from the bewildered foot soldier. 'Because like, no one knows what they are...?' He finally smiled.
'Yeah...' He reloaded his weapon as Jace put down another Robot in the distance. 'I like that. That's original.' He seemed to be complimenting Jace and he liked it a lot. 'I hear them called all kinds of things on the radio.' His face was shielded but his manner was friendly. Not at all what you might expect from an army grunt.
'Like what?' Jace's face lit up yet again. He was just enjoying the escapism of the banter. 'Stumblers, stumbletons, any number of variations on that. Grey faces. Shufflers. But everyone has taken to calling them "Reggie".' That stunned him a little. He didn't get it at first. The guy must have realized. 'Hell spat them out right? The dead that don't stay dead. Reggie is kind of slang for rejects I guess. Devil's rejects.' Lizzie hadn't heard the conversation, and the commander had since dragged her to help defend the rear of the truck. She was a better shot than all of his men put together, and was picking off the Robots in the far distance long before they even saw them.
She could see, a long way down the road, there was a flattened building laying on its side. It must have been forming some kind of boundary because the stream of enemies was drying up the closer they got. At that moment, another explosion rocked the ground and a building fell right in front of the truck, the part of it that Jace was guarding.
He nearly jumped out of his boots, but the army grunt just laughed at him. That must have been the plan. Lizzie looked down some of the side streets as they passed. Each of them had been blocked by a landed building. This must have been the strategy, to form a mini fort inside of the city, blocking the path of the Robots with floored sky scrapers. The truck finally ran to a stop.
The commander took Lizzie by the arm and shouted some orders at her. Not in a way that seemed brutal. In fact it was more pleading. He asked her if she would scout out the area, kill any of them that were left. Jace was about to protest as she slunk away with two others. But she turned back and smiled. What choice did he have but to let her go? It was a nice feeling to take the fight back to the Robots at least. He secretly hoped the commander would have a job for him too.
'What's your name?' Jace asked, he let the gun hang on one arm, and shook the hand of his new friend. He didn't reply directly.
'That there is Sid, and his brother Jake.' He pointed out his mates to the side. The other troops moved to the other side of the truck but they stayed to meet the cop in there ranks.
'Jace,' he introduced himself, 'Jason if it gets confusing.' He smiled and pointed to Jake. 'But what about you?' One of the brothers piped up, he couldn't tell which one it was;
'That's easy!' He laughed as the as yet unidentified man pulled a distinctively square glass bottle from beneath his jacket. 'He doesn't have one. Says no one needs a name at the end of the world! So we just call him by the only thing he ever drinks: "Jack"!'