Bryce pushed himself up from the floor. His body was still aged. But his bones had knit. A flicker of strength returned to his limbs.
The stolen HDC raged in his core but they were useless as the Homo Dues System remained shut down.
He stared at the eight Noids. Fear was creeping in. He was too weak to fight them.
Then he remembered Park's words. The nanites feed on their brain.
"I commissioned this building," he muttered. "I know its secrets."
A ping ran in his B.Wax displaying breaking news, he ignored it and limped away, moving past the collapsed structure. The Noids did not chase. They walked a straight line, an unstoppable procession. They climbed over rubble. When a slab was too large, they pounded it with their fists until it was reduced to pieces.
Behind the ruined building stood six rows of bathrooms.
Bryce shoved his way into the third one. He grabbed the shower, wrenching it from the wall with a shriek of tearing metal. He hammered the tiles on the wall with the pipe. Ceramic shattered. A safe lock with a digital alphanumeric keypad was revealed.
His fingers flew over the keys. The lock blinked red and his B.Wax interrupted again and also blinked red and he quickly silenced it.
"Shit. He changed it." He glanced back. The Noids had cleared the final slab.
He slammed the door shut. "They'll break it down."
He reactivated his B-Wax and made a call. "General Aries. I need the new code for the basement in Barrack Fifty-Nine."
"Bryce? What's wrong with you?" The voice was tight with stress.
"Noids. I'm facing Noids. I need weapons from the armory."
A pause. "That isn't what I mean Bryce. You are not okay. Yesterday, you snapped. Today, you execute a General without a trial? You're killing innocent soldiers."
"They are not innocent!" Bryce's voice was a whip-crack. "They were complicit. Now, give me the code."
"I can't take that risk. You will kill everyone. Just hold on. We are almost there."
A massive impact shook the door. The metal buckled.
Five more blows. The door split in two. The lower half remained hinged. The Noids stepped over it, their movements unnervingly calm.
Bryce hefted the steel shower pipe. He swung it in a wild arc, catching the nearest Noid—Dan—across the back of the skull. The skin tore away easily, exposing a cluster of burnt nanites fused to the bone. Dan jerked and collapsed, unconscious.
A fist from another Noid hit Bryce square in the chest. He flew backward, smashing into the wall.
He groaned, pushing himself up. "Aries… I am in my aged form and surrounded. This is your last chance to help me out. If you don'tgive me that code, this will be our last conversation and you will regret not saving my life when you had the chance."
"Okay! Sangius578General464782537! That's the code. But Bryce, no more killing. Anyone else, and you will rot in jail, I don't care about your—"
Bryce ended the call.
He was on the left wall. The safe was on the right.
He rolled, dodging a kick that sent a Noid stumbling. He drove the sharp end of the pipe into the monster's left eye, then the right.
"Just have to cross," he breathed, facing the remaining six.
They gave him no time. A blow to his jaw made lights explode behind his eyes. He fell. A kick to his ribs. He slid, hoping he was near the wall. He wasn't. He'd moved barely a meter.
Another kick smashed into his head. A high-pitched ring filled his ears.
"I won't die here." He coughed, spraying blood.
He started rolling. He ignored the pain, the kicks, the stomps. He was a log tumbling across the floor.
He reached the middle of the room. The safe was closed.
He forced himself to his knees. A Noid drove a knee into his stomach.
He flew forward, his body screaming, blood gushing from his nose. But he smiled. He had landed at the base of the right wall, directly before the safe.
"Arrrrrgh!" He used the wall to haul himself upright. His fingers, slick with blood, punched the code into the keypad.
The lock blinked green.
The wall shuddered. A square section retracted and swung aside, revealing an armory. A treasure trove of destruction: bombs, pulse cannons, unnamed prototypes, racks of KSAs, and many other weapons.
He stumbled inside.
"Glad he didn't change the layout."
His eyes locked on a collection of spherical bombs. He grabbed one. Then he saw it—a square-shaped bomb. He ripped a key from a pouch on its side.
He dropped the radio-like bomb on the floor and limped toward a back door, clutching the spherical bomb.
The Noids were meters away, closing in slowly.
The moment he crossed the threshold, he pressed the button on the sphere.
The world turned to fire and thunder.
The six bathrooms erupted. The blast wave picked him up and threw him to the ground. Stray flames licked at his skin.
The pain was a final, overwhelming wave. His consciousness began to slip, his nanites' neural cluster was shutting off, and the restraints he placed on the B.Wax were breaking off.
"No… not now… I succeeded…"
A sharp ping sounded in his skull. A red-level news alert, programmed to break through any state and private moment.
He focused on the words, the shock of the news jolting him awake.
BREAKING: Onyx Bunker Breached. Wireless Camera Prototype Stolen.