Mr. Ruins: A Thriller (Ruins Sonata Book 1) by Michael John Grist Page A
Authors: Michael John Grist
Tags: Science-Fiction, weird
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aimed squarely at Ray's back buried three soldiers deep into their ranks. "We're coming," I rasp into mic for So and Far, then to Doe, "Now."
The percussive shock is nothing next to the recoil, as a golden spray of bondless atoms jet out of the accelerator cannon's funnel end. Doe is knocked flat on her back, as the atoms slip off their sheaths of non-reactive gold and affix to the plastic backs of the soldiers and rip chunks out of them in instant bond-creation.
They stagger, several drop, but not nearly as many as should have. Ray leaps into the shallow breach, protected by the ion-charge in his suit which repels the bondless atoms. He kicks off their bodies as they fall in the dirt and resurge, and I follow after him with another grapnel trap hooked behind me and the rope drawing out from my waist-spool. I loop in every fallen soldier and all the ones Ray tosses away, until we've clear a path through the dumb press of bodies, and can just see the black-suited form of La lying underneath their feet ahead.
I fire the grapnel again, my last, and it drags the cannon-pitted soldiers away to join their fellows struggling at the trees, but still Ray can't quite reach La. She's too entwined amongst the soldiers' feet, and most of our efforts now are spent keeping the tunnel walls he's carved through the soldiers' ranks from collapsing in on us.
"Help me, Me," he calls, and the fear in his voice terrifies me.
"Again," I shout to Doe, and feel the second atomic shotgun blast peel out. The gold sprays like party dust around me and a few more bodies fall ahead, dropping across La's prone body.
Ray darts in and snatches her up. "I've got her!" he shouts, then lofts her lolling body to his shoulder. A blue-tunicked solider grabs at his knee but I drive it off with three targeted QC particles. Together we drive back down the carved path as the walls close in.
Doe lets loose another blast with a curse, just enough to ease us free of their grasping arms. "It's not doing anything," she grunts, as the wall of bodies reseals. Far's screams have gotten weaker, and I only hear the intermittent whuff of So's QC parabolic cutting through the lava-storm shield.
We lurch to a stop beside Doe, and Ray drops La at our side. I can see at once that she's in hideous shape. There are bayonet gouges in her midriff through which blood has leaked, though there's no way any normal blade could have gotten through the armor. There's a deeply cracked pockmark in her shoulder where a musket ball must have torn it away, like an impact crater, again impossible for any normal projectile to effect.
"It's the bonds," Doe says, leaning over La's prone body and running her fingers across the resealed wound. She looks up at me. "They're just more solid than us."
"Do something!" comes So's cry through blood-mic, and I turn to see the top arc of the storm-shield sputtering. Again it is impossible, something bayonets and rifle fire should not be able to achieve in a million years, but it's happening before my eyes.
Bonds.
I toss my QC to the floor and scour the fake grass until I spot a fallen musket. Three steps and I pick it up, then I'm at the soldier wall and driving the bayonet into the back of the nearest soldier.
It sticks in like I'm carving wet clay, deep in past the blade's edge and halfway up the rifle barrel, to shear out the soldier's front and stab into the back of the one in front of him.
They both give a sigh, their champing jaws stop, and they drop. I let go of the buried musket as they drag it down with them, staring for a moment. So solid. Then I snatch both the muskets from their hands, toss one back to Ray who's already at my side, then dig in with the other.
"Doe keep it coming," I shout.
Gold dust erupts around us like a cloak, and side by side we stab a path through the soldiers, dropping them with sighs to the ground and stepping on their bodies when they fall. For long desperate moments that is all I do, stabbing soldiers through
The percussive shock is nothing next to the recoil, as a golden spray of bondless atoms jet out of the accelerator cannon's funnel end. Doe is knocked flat on her back, as the atoms slip off their sheaths of non-reactive gold and affix to the plastic backs of the soldiers and rip chunks out of them in instant bond-creation.
They stagger, several drop, but not nearly as many as should have. Ray leaps into the shallow breach, protected by the ion-charge in his suit which repels the bondless atoms. He kicks off their bodies as they fall in the dirt and resurge, and I follow after him with another grapnel trap hooked behind me and the rope drawing out from my waist-spool. I loop in every fallen soldier and all the ones Ray tosses away, until we've clear a path through the dumb press of bodies, and can just see the black-suited form of La lying underneath their feet ahead.
I fire the grapnel again, my last, and it drags the cannon-pitted soldiers away to join their fellows struggling at the trees, but still Ray can't quite reach La. She's too entwined amongst the soldiers' feet, and most of our efforts now are spent keeping the tunnel walls he's carved through the soldiers' ranks from collapsing in on us.
"Help me, Me," he calls, and the fear in his voice terrifies me.
"Again," I shout to Doe, and feel the second atomic shotgun blast peel out. The gold sprays like party dust around me and a few more bodies fall ahead, dropping across La's prone body.
Ray darts in and snatches her up. "I've got her!" he shouts, then lofts her lolling body to his shoulder. A blue-tunicked solider grabs at his knee but I drive it off with three targeted QC particles. Together we drive back down the carved path as the walls close in.
Doe lets loose another blast with a curse, just enough to ease us free of their grasping arms. "It's not doing anything," she grunts, as the wall of bodies reseals. Far's screams have gotten weaker, and I only hear the intermittent whuff of So's QC parabolic cutting through the lava-storm shield.
We lurch to a stop beside Doe, and Ray drops La at our side. I can see at once that she's in hideous shape. There are bayonet gouges in her midriff through which blood has leaked, though there's no way any normal blade could have gotten through the armor. There's a deeply cracked pockmark in her shoulder where a musket ball must have torn it away, like an impact crater, again impossible for any normal projectile to effect.
"It's the bonds," Doe says, leaning over La's prone body and running her fingers across the resealed wound. She looks up at me. "They're just more solid than us."
"Do something!" comes So's cry through blood-mic, and I turn to see the top arc of the storm-shield sputtering. Again it is impossible, something bayonets and rifle fire should not be able to achieve in a million years, but it's happening before my eyes.
Bonds.
I toss my QC to the floor and scour the fake grass until I spot a fallen musket. Three steps and I pick it up, then I'm at the soldier wall and driving the bayonet into the back of the nearest soldier.
It sticks in like I'm carving wet clay, deep in past the blade's edge and halfway up the rifle barrel, to shear out the soldier's front and stab into the back of the one in front of him.
They both give a sigh, their champing jaws stop, and they drop. I let go of the buried musket as they drag it down with them, staring for a moment. So solid. Then I snatch both the muskets from their hands, toss one back to Ray who's already at my side, then dig in with the other.
"Doe keep it coming," I shout.
Gold dust erupts around us like a cloak, and side by side we stab a path through the soldiers, dropping them with sighs to the ground and stepping on their bodies when they fall. For long desperate moments that is all I do, stabbing soldiers through
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