She pulled out the Skynut and linked the feed to her Pigeon. She pointed at the drone and then at the office. Lilly watched her monitor as the small drone nimbly maneuvered through the rafters and made a quick scan of the inside of the office.
There was a collapsed writing desk, a pair of rusted filing cabinets, an empty wire wastebasket and a decomposed body. Knowing that there was no reason to risk checking out the office, Lilly typed in the return command. The Skynut zipped back to her, hovered, and then landed. Lilly smiled and pocketed her little time-saver.
After a quick search, she discovered there wasn’t anything worth taking from the other offices either, but she was determined to find something. She made her way through a long dark corridor that led to the adjacent warehouse.
The storage area of the warehouse was huge. There were containers of all shapes and sizes everywhere. She wondered if Johnny’s dad had even been inside this foundry.
Most of the containers were, surprisingly, in good condition, and labeled clearly with a bright green Midway. There were a couple of forklifts with containers still sitting on their metal arms.
She didn’t have time to check every container, but she made a location marker on her Pigeon, because this foundry was going to be her “gold mine”.
Two more tracks ran through this room also, but they were thicker than the ones in the adjacent smelting building. She followed the tracks to the wall.
There, sitting on the tracks in front of a giant reinforced door that looked nothing like the outside of the warehouse, was a military rail car. It was heavily armored, and there were two huge guns, mounted on the top. Lilly had never seen guns that big, and the obvious damage those two guns could inflict wasn’t what excited her; it was the Theonicorp insignia on the side.
“That’s not gonna fit in my bag,” she whispered to herself.
She searched every inch of the rail car, but couldn’t find a door or anything that resembled a way in. She went over to a small office that was adjacent to the track. Inside, there was a small control panel and some sort of communication or location relay grid. There were also monitors arranged in a panoramic view, all of which were surprisingly intact.
On a small metal table in the corner of the station, there was a case with the hexagonal insignia of Theonicorp on it.
“That’ll fit, though,” Lilly said with a huge smile. She picked up the case and gently slid it into her bag.
She strapped on the backpack and took a deep breath. There wasn’t any reason to search for anything else. Nun hadn’t been specific about what she needed to bring back other than it had to be something with Theonicorp’s name on it.
She made her way back through the maze of containers to the corridor. This time the end of the corridor was blacked out except for some light near the ceiling. There should have been enough light from the windows of the foundry to be able to see the end of the corridor, but there wasn’t.
The hair on the back of her neck shot up, almost piercing through her rad gear, as the darkness moved in front of her, the rancid smell burning her nose.
She turned her helmet lamp on, illuminating the group of Fringers that now blocked the corridor, hoping to blind them temporarily as she unlatched her A9.
There was no time to ground herself. She just had to trust that she was far enough away form the Fringers.
She pulled the trigger, and the blue and white explosion of electricity illuminated the corridor. She reached for her pistol and used the light from the writhing electricity to shoot at the surviving targets.
Ripp watched his monitor as the industrial park rushed toward him. He reached over to a panel next to the dash, activated a sensor array, and then shifted to a lower gear.
The buildings in the monitor now had a green hue as red stick figures popped up on the screen, some by themselves, but most of them gathered in one area. Inside a warehouse adjacent to the foundry, and right next to the biggest group of red, was Lilly, emitting a flashing blue light.
“Damnit, Lil!”
Ripp pulled up a holographic map that displayed above the steering wheel. He tapped the blue flashing light that represented Lilly and a direct course mapped itself out.
“Hang on.”
The smell of burning flesh and ozone filled the corridor as Lilly backed into the pitch-black warehouse. The moans of the dying Fringers and the building rage of the ones still alive echoed through the warehouse. She had never heard these sounds before, and they crept into her body and clawed at her bones. She realized being terrified wasn’t just being afraid, it was the combination of being afraid and alone.
Stick to your training.
She shot one Fringer, then another and then another. She kept shooting until the last round in the magazine hit its mark, and the slide locked.
The archer had almost recharged, but with only one charge left, she had to make it count. She could see silhouettes climbing over the smoldering pile of their dead friends.
The corridor was filling up again with Fringers, and she worried that there wouldn’t be a way out, but she couldn’t wait any longer. The archer was ready.
A second charge exploded, sending white-hot bolts of electricity through the corridor slamming into the next wave of Fringers.
This gave Lilly enough time to retreat into the warehouse and find a hiding spot. She remembered what Gus had taught her about diversion and unlocked her empty magazine as she followed the metal tracks to the wall.
She ran back to the huge hangar door and crouched behind the armored transport, wishing it would open by some unseen force. Those mounted guns would make quick work of them. She quickly linked up the Skynut again and set it to follow her and scan the room.
Red dots started popping up on her pigeon display as the Fringers spilled out from the corridor into the warehouse.
“Six is good,” she told herself as the dots spread out, two of them coming right at her.
Diversion.
Ripp watched the display as a bright red flash filled the hallway between Lilly and the bottleneck of Fringers. He watched her back away from the group of red, firing her gun. The heat display on his monitor made it look like red laser beams were shooting out from her hand.
“Good girl.”
Ripp tore around the last set of smaller buildings that ran along the main road. He was close now. She was right there in front of him. He sped to the building where Lilly was huddled. There were no doors or windows anywhere on the building. The hangar door was mechanical and no way to get it open.
The Mustang’s engine screamed as Ripp swung around and headed back to the front of the foundry.
Ripp would have to go in after her.
Lilly quickly dimmed her Pigeon display, hoping that none of the Fringers had noticed the light. She loaded her spare magazine in one quick motion, and then moved slowly along the side of the rail transport. She strained her eyes to see the display, but once she could focus she saw that a Fringer was right on top of her. She quickly tossed the empty magazine over the transport and hit the side of the control office.
The diversion worked. Groans and mumbling filled the silent room. Lilly watched the dim screen of her Pigeon, waited until the Fringers gathered around the office, and then moved stealthily back to the corridor.
The engine roared as Ripp sped around to the back of the foundry. He came to a sliding stop, trying to make sense of what he was seeing.