Chapter 2: Mister meat

  “Peach Trees! An entire company town in a single building!

  No need to worry about the unstable economy! Why put your faith in the dollar when you can have company vouchers? All you need will be available in our state of the art central concourse!

  Our innovative open design will allow you to peruse all your available options at the heart of your new home.

  Every level of employee will have their place in our new mega building! In each section, you will be able to interact with work friends of YOUR level! Depending on your section, great luxuries await you!

  For those who want to open a business, the city of New-Montreal allows us to forgo any taxes whatsoever for you in our building! Nothing but corporate taxes from here on out!

  Our corporate security force will ensure you are safe from unsavory vagrants! Unlike the police, our internal investigations have shown that our agents are completely without fault! Goodbye Corruption!

  PlastaCorp is not legally liable for any injury, death or incidents of sexual violence comited within the building or by members of PlastaCorp’s subcontracted corporate security. All lawsuits will be referred to corporate arbitration. By signing a lease you agree to forgo any right to privacy or freedom of movement. Any video or audio taken by cameras can be used by the company for any reason including reality television. All data within the building is the property of Plastacorp in perpetuity.”

  --Add for the megabuilding Peach Trees, 2032

  ***

  The notification hit me like a brick to the skull. It was the most horrible thing I’d ever seen. Usually, when aliens came to earth, we had some fucking warning! Fuck, if they came from the sky, they had to fall down! We’d get a notification that there was an incursion going on for fuck’s sake!

  However, this… this meant they were already in the building. How the fuck did that happen!? They had to come to the building so… The fucking underground! The sewers or something had to have had some sort of offshoot no one noticed. In the end, it didn’t matter all that much, but a point of origin helped. It took me only a few seconds to get into action. I bolted for the ‘sanctum of violence’, also known as Lila’s armory.

  She wasn’t far behind, having already unlatched Jack and put her bra back in place. I used a big messenger bag to stockpile shells and she grabbed my mom’s old CMAR from her army days and all the ammo she could.

  We worked efficiently as I shouted orders to my enforcers. There was no time to waste! I also sent instructions for people to grab food and ammo then go for shelter.

  “Anyone got eyes on the assholes!?” I asked while grabbing a 45. ACP ammo box. My pistol was decent enough against people, but against aliens? We’d see soon enough.

  “Coming from below! They’re running up the stairs like crazy! The doors to-” The signal was cut off. Guess our link went to shit! The system was old and decrepit but I honestly expected more.

  “Switching to radio, who’s in range?” Radio was shit in a megabuilding. Something about the materials blocking the waves. I only got eight fucking responses, Lila included! Fuckity fuck fuck fuck!

  At least we had the militia. They knew how to hold down a position but not much more than that. Minimally trained but at least they were armed.

  I had to fucking think! I called up the layout on my augs as we sprinted off. Robin craddled Jack close and tight. Racheal held on to Alice's hand. The teenager was clearly ready to pick up her sister if she didn’t keep up. Lila watched our backs with a look I recognized as her ‘somebody’s about to fucking die’ face. I was really fucking glad she was here!

  The megabuilding was separated into sections, thirty-five floors, seven floors per section plus the underground. Every section was open in the middle. If we wanted to plan our next move, we had to go there, get some damn visibility! “Anyone in this section have eyes on them?” There should be thirty-five enforcers in this section, five per floor.

  Every floor was a small town holding on average six hundred people. That meant a grand total of over eight thousand people who depended on me, and I’d been cut off. We were playing a game of fucking telephone for information!

  The shelter was a no-go. One per section, and of course they had to be on the first god damn floor! I sent everyone to try and hold back the fuckers so civilians could go up to the other shelters. I didn’t have much hope for that...

  “Yeah! They’re coming up the big stairways! There’s a fuckton of ‘em! Don’t think we can hold them back! I need militia right now!” Shanna shouted over the radio. I directed a group of soldiers her way but I didn’t expect them to hold for long. I told them to move back and hold the entry if they couldn’t stop them from coming up. The moment we spilled out onto the central concourse, it got worse... Of duck fucking course...

  I looked over the balustrade at the little fuckers. They’d already made it to this section!? There was usually a homeless camp down there in what used to be a park. From the number of bodies I saw, quite a few had thankfully been able to run.

  I could see flashes of gunfire here and there, probably from the militia. It was something.

  There were just way too many stairs, upward tunnels and fucking maintenance passages to actually block them! “How about south, north, west, seeing activity?” It was even worse than I thought, actually! Because of prolapsing parent plowing course it fucking was! The aliens were attacking every major stairway.

  Oh, and the elevators were fucked because why not?

  The major stairways were massive, big enough that a damn hover car could navigate them in an emergency. Helical and close to each corner, the vehicle could come up the center without issue and the doorways were large enough to accommodate... That meant bigger models wouldn't have issues... Fuck.

  It was originally a single-megabuilding company town. Made for the people working at the factories, using company credits and buying company goods for maximum profit. The upper floors were less shitty, but not by that much.

  Thanks to that, everything was a bit larger to make sure people could arrive on time without bumping into each other since the shifts were universal. The newer buildings were much more tightly packed for maximum ‘living’ space that no one should live in.

  Of course now it was recognized as a fucking shithole and the idea as fucking stupid! Especially with the damn smoke stacks poisoning the air. The HVAC system did what it could but there were limits, especially when you were right next to the fucking factories. I always worried about my kids ending up like my mom, non-stop cancer spiral of poverty and all... Not important at the moment.

  Outside of the major stairways and the central courtyard, the place was a god damn maze! Even after a lifetime living there, I could barely find my way around. The apartments were small and packed tight but the center had most of the big shops (now shuttered or turned into homeless squats) and company approved entertainment. Tunnels lead everywhere from it, which meant I could find and implement a solution from there.

  The shelters were a no-go. There were some stairs I could take my family through and get up there but not fast enough! We would be overwhelmed, no question about it. There was just no fucking way to hold the major stairways from the forces I heard about! I kept looking at a map while I moved them away from danger zones. Then I found it!

  There was a residential sector, in the north quarter. It started with a street then turned two different directions. Two corridors lead to square spiderwebs of apartments. Both of them had no stairs or connections to other sections! Completely isolated. I had a plan! A horribly shitty one, but a plan!

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  “All enforcers and militia, make for the position I’m marking with every civilian you can find! If you can't then hide, run or fight, your call, I recommend hiding! Austin, I need you to make for the shitty food court and dump everything on the stoves, then light ‘em up, need a lure for the cunts!”

  Lila looked at me and I could tell, she wasn’t happy. She knew what I was thinking of. Problem was? We didn’t have a better plan. Fuck, we didn’t even have a plan in general! This was short term survival and waiting for samurais! It was something though.

  I’d make sure all the civilians were deep down the west corridor and around a couple corners, and then? Well, I’d go east, towards the lure...

  ***

  “Fuck that boss!” David shouted through the radio while unloading full-auto into the oncoming wave. He was massive and chromed enough to keep the muzzle down. Otherwise it would've just been stupid. “Going with you!” I was a bit exasperated, but I didn’t really have time to be.

  “Someone needs to protect the fucking civies!”

  “They have Alex and Felix! Some militia too, for that matter!” I wouldn’t win that fight. Moving the fuck on I guess!

  “Lila, go!” I could see her from the corner of my eye, shooting controlled bursts into the tide of fubar-dogs. They were creepy as hell! I still wanted to pick one to call Fido but they just died too quick.

  I knew she’d protest, because she was Lila, but I could actually make a better argument to her. “Someone needs to protect the family! You go right fucking now or I will fucking shoot you, got it?”

  She looked at me for a few long, uncomfortable seconds. I could see the emotions warring for dominance on her face. I couldn’t read emotions well, but we knew each other for so long that I had an idea.

  I trusted her more than anyone outside the family. If I died, which looked really likely at this point, there was only one person I could trust to protect them. Also, I couldn’t let her die with me. She was family.

  Her eyes were a bit moist, having understood the subtext in what I said, when she turned around and answered. “Don’t you fucking dare die…” Then, she ran. Towards Robin, towards my kids... I wanted them with me right now as much as I wanted them far the fuck away. I was probably not making it out of this one.

  “No promises…” I answered over the radio, right before she went out of range.

  The hallway we fought in was as big as a street, with sidewalks! Stopping them here was a non-starter, but that wasn't the point. We were slowly pushed back, more and more, step by step. David was right next to me on the left, George and Donna took care of the right, both of them using shitty AKs.

  We’d all switched our guns with replicas from militia guys because the barrels were too hot, almost fucking glowing! The AK fans at least had a bunch more ammo and were better shots than me. Maybe it'd make up for their horrible taste in firearms? Anna acted as a sniper, protecting us from the back.

  A few militia guys reloaded our magazines (and quad-loading belts in my case) while others shot in the middle, well away from all of us. I trained them, so I knew how accurate they were. That meant, I knew how much I didn't want them shooting anywhere near me.

  “David, get the fuck back there! You’re running out of ammo!” He swore, tried to argue but simply pointing out that there was more ammo over that way did the job. Going back and forth would lead the aliens to the civies, so that was that for him. Soon enough, I did the same with the militia.

  We weren’t holding the line and the longer they stayed, the more likely it was they’d be followed. My quad belts were all I would get, but a militia guy had at least refilled my messenger bag with loose ammo. Guess I'd just be slower.

  We didn’t fuck around and make jokes, like we usually would. This was the big fight. We had to focus. I wanted to try but a few quips but I was busy. Fuck, we all were.

  Anna, posted on top of some big Nimbletainment vending machines making a ton of noise, helped my side of the hallway since David wasn’t here. She was using a bolt-action hunting rifle with an improvised suppressor. Laying down atop the distracting lightshow, she was almost well concealed.

  We started to move back faster, which wasn’t that fast since we had to keep shooting no matter what! The little fuckers running at us were god damn quick though! They were oddly shaped, even for model threes...

  While some were big enough to rival a lion, some were barely bigger than some of the more massive rats I’d encountered!

  Actually, they were very rat-like, with more elongated heads and less bone-plating. The larger ones could take more shots but the small ones were harder to shoot.

  We were getting close to the intersection when George died...

  It happened so quickly, we couldn’t do shit... A little fucker had been hiding behind a big fucker. After George shot him, the little one lunged and bit his thigh. From the blood we saw, it hit the artery... Of course, it took a lot of his thigh muscle as well...

  Dragging him was a non-option. He was dead, and he knew it. He threw his ammo at Donna and emptied full auto into the tide. Then he threw his rifle. Then he emptied his pistol. Then he pulled out his knife. Brave man.

  I couldn’t watch after that... Just the snippets I cached... I wouldn't have blamed him for keeping the last bullet for himself...

  That’s when I used my colonic injector. A cocktail of battle drugs coursed through my system in an instant! I moved faster, thought faster, fought harder, felt no pain and I wanted to punch a hole through a wall with my fucking skull! There was a reason I’d waited...

  It helped me aim and control my shotgun at least! My shots got better and I killed more of the little shits! Thank the fucking mesh I could reload faster too. It would also help me not bleed to death and a bunch of other shit I didn’t give a fuck about because drugs! So dangerous for your health...

  Not long after, as we were basically in full retreat, we turned around the corner. The corridor was much smaller and easier to deal with. The little hive hounds couldn’t zigzag all over the place and my buckshot definitely hit more than one of those fuckers! We’d run some distance before turning around, trying to give ourselves some space. However…

  “Anna, what the fuck?” I didn’t really need to say anything else really. She was apparently staying on those fucking vending machines!

  “Need to make sure they turn the right way. If any go towards the civilians, I’ll put them down so they can’t report back.” Fuck it, why not! It was the hour of heroic sacrifices! Oh well, not like I had a monopoly!

  We’d run out of ammo soon. I’d never reloaded my shotgun that fast before. We were burning rounds more and more but the smaller size of the corridor made things easier and our shots more successful overall.

  Hell, I’d even say we were doing somewhat well at our goal of dying soon-ish instead of right fucking now!

  Which, of course, was when Anna started swearing and shooting round after round down the hallway we’d just come from... “Horse cock sucking piece of… incoming! It’s- oh fuck oh shit…!”

  She was cut off by a cacophony of bending steel and shattering plastics. A massive, trunkless, bone plated and six-legged elephant known as a model six flattened the machines she'd been on top of! The splash of blood that followed was not something anyone could survive in my opinion... I sighed. “God dammit…”

  The tide of little shits had slowed down. That meant, we got to focus on our new friend! Anna had apparently hit a few headshots but not enough! Some of the plates on its head were cracked or partially missing, but it wasn't bleeding. Time to remedy that!

  Donna opened fire with burst after burst of accurate shots into its fucked up face. She hit a lot, but those fuckers had a reputation for a fucking reason! I hit the few model threes coming at us at the same time to give Donna more time to focus. The moment all we had to deal with was him, I focused too. Thankfully, it started off slow, giving us some time to move back as much as possible. Sadly, he didn’t stay slow!

  Mister meat tank could apparently accelerate and charge us! We lost more and more ground until I ran out of shells. Wouldn’t have time to reload... “Welp, got arm augments for a reason!”

  I let go of my shotgun, having no fucking illusion that the bayonet would do jack shit.

  I was fucked, no question about it. However, I was the type to go down swinging. Literally in this case! I moved a bit forward and fuckhead focused on me. Really, I only had one option left. A stupid option, one that wouldn’t work, but an option nonetheless!

  I pulled my stolen fire axe from my back and with the ease of practice and exercise, swung downward with every single duck dicking muscle in my fucking body! I put all my weight, rage and anxiety into the strike, pointy end first! I aimed for its head since we’d been damaging it for a while. My arm augments helped a bit too!

  I was very fucking surprised when it worked! Apparently our shots had cracked the skull enough! However, momentum was a bitch, and I knew what was coming next…

  My axe flew off as the massive gaping asshole hit me... I’m pretty sure every single rib I had broke, maybe even my legs! I thought I saw Donna get flattened against the wall. I could… probably not survive that, but I was alive somehow. Not sure I was glad about that. However, I was still… wait, how close were we to the corner?

  The wall impacted my back and my middle flattened. I felt my spine snap and my organs get fucking juiced! My legs were under the thing's head and my pelvis was probably fucked ten ways to Sunday. I could barely breathe. My lungs were clearly crushed but the rebound gave me a tiny bit of space.

  I… I was dead. It would happen soon. The model six's corpse had folded around the corner. I had a little island of peace to die in apparently.

  I had his nose on my lap, like a big, disgusting dog crushing my chest. I was… done. It felt oddly peaceful to think all my responsibilities were over.

  I didn’t know how to feel about that. My people were in danger. I had to believe my strategy worked… I had to… Robin, the kids… Lila would take care of them… She…

  SYSTEM INITIALIZED!