The battlesuit marched past Creed. The titan brought up its arms and tore through the doors like they were paper. It moved straight out into the sunshine and Creed followed behind with a handful of soldiers, shouting for the lieutenant to halt.
It broke into a run and Gibbs felt his arms and legs get pulled back and forth like a puppet. He had a creeping dread the battlesuit would move too far or too fast and leave him trapped inside with a bunch of broken bones. “How are you doing this?” he yelled. “Who the hell are you?”
“I’m called the Driver,” said the voice, “and this, esse, is the coolest carjacking ever.”
Chapter 25
NOW
It occurs to me, said Zzzap, that someone’s probably going to notice us up here.
The two heroes hovered a few hundred feet above the grid of Krypton, Sorensen tucked safely under St. George’s arm. They’d left the old reactor and leaped into the air. Now they were trying to find landmarks.
“No time for subtlety,” said St. George. “Who knows how long we’ve got before Peasy decides to start letting the exes loose on the base.”
We should’ve stuck to the rooftops. All good superheroes use the rooftops.
“There,” said Sorensen. “I believe that’s her workshop there.”
“You believe?” said the hero.
Sorensen tried to shrug. He wasn’t dealing well with hanging three hundred feet over the base. “That’s Dust Road there with the Tombs on either side,” he said, tracing the road with his finger, “and that should be Sand Street. Granted, I’ve never seen them from this angle before.”
They sank toward the ground. No one had shouted. St. George wasn’t sure how he was going to protect Sorensen if someone started shooting. “Looks clear,” he said. “This has almost been easy so far.”
Too easy?
“Maybe.” He looked back and forth over the empty streets. “Shouldn’t there be a couple hundred people out looking for us by now?”
“The soldiers are most likely doing training exercises,” said Sorensen. “They run laps each morning around the inside perimeter of the fence or spend time on the southern firing range.”
I don’t hear any gunshots, said Zzzap. And still, the alarm’s been raised. Why aren’t they manning the towers and using searchlights and all that?
“It’s broad daylight.”
I meant metaphorically. There’s been an alert for over half an hour now and I don’t see anyone anywhere.
“Here at the center of the base things are quite calm and peaceful. It’s why the labs are near the center. I can go whole days without seeing anyone else.”
St. George frowned. “Days?”
The doctor shrugged. “I keep to myself,” he said. He mopped his face with a handkerchief. “Are you sure Doctor Morris will be at her workshop?”
“Unless they found her she should be there with the armor prepped. Figure maybe another forty or forty-five to get her into it. And then we’ll be ready to deal with Peasy or whatever he’s calling himself now.”
I think it’s too late for that, said Zzzap. He pointed a gleaming arm at the ground below them. You see what I see?
At the far end of Dust, a stream of ex-soldiers staggered out of the last Tomb on the left, a few dozen of them so far. They shuffled and spread out like a stain on the base. The sound of chattering teeth vibrated up through the air.
“Crap,” said St. George. “Think you can handle all of them?”
If you don’t mind this part of the base being annihilated in the process, sure.
The hero sighed and swung over to the nearest rooftop. “Doctor, do you mind if I leave you here for a few minutes? You should be safe.”
Sorensen nodded. “I understand. I’ll be fine.”
The two heroes zipped through the air and St. George dropped into the midst of the zombies near the open door of the Tomb. He grabbed a dead woman by the arm and swung her in a wide circle, knocking down a dozen of them. Another swing cleared a path to the door and left him holding an arm and most of a shoulder.
He tossed the limb away and an ex came through the opening at him. He shoved it back inside, knocking down a handful of bodies behind it. With the other hand he grabbed the huge door and dragged it shut. Inside, dead things clawed at his knuckles and broke their teeth on his fingers.
Once it was closed, he gave it a hard tug and yanked the oversized guide wheels off their track. Just to be safe, he stomped down on the track and twisted his heel. It wrecked his boot, but the door wouldn’t open again without a few hours of work from a repair crew.
The light shifted and a hiss of superheated air came from behind him. Zzzap vaporized a baker’s dozen of exes, and another handful that had been near the blast charred and crumbled into ash. Ah, hell, said Zzzap. Radio ga-ga. They had Danielle and Stealth, but they both escaped a couple of minutes ago. There’s already soldiers inside the workshop and Freedom’s sending a squad to reinforce them.