Another little blip of a short story. This one I kinda based on my experience with the original System Shock games, if only for the cool corporation name 🙂
George froze. His body contorted into the smallest fetal position he could manage, he held his breath, listening in earnest for the click of metal on floor tile approaching the ruined office he had taken cover in. He could feel his own heartbeat in his ears as he clutched the handle of a wrench he had found hours before, now his only defense as the pistol he had removed from the dead fingers of Frank, the friendly Tri-Optimum security contractor now lying in pieces strewn across the BioMed lobby, had jammed after he managed to put one bullet into the leg of… whatever the hell that thing was.
It had been a normal Tuesday. Wake up, tap the coffee order into the kitchen panel, and browse the web for news before a quick shower. Head into the lab, say “hi” to Frank, ask about the poker game the previous night, then into the BioMed facility to dig a little deeper into the relic they’d found on their last expedition. Nothing out of the ordinary, nothing that could have given him a glimmer of foreknowledge that poking that little box was a mistake.
Rebecca found out first. George had been watching her catalog the artifact as she took its measurements, examining it closely in an attempt to decypher the ancient text on its surface. She prodded a small bump on the relic in the course of her inquiry, and was barely able to register a short yelp as the cloud of nanites released from it permiated her airways, latching on to nerve clusters and chemically reprogramming them. He remembered her reaching out to him with a look of abject terror as he slapped the emergency lockout panel, Frank immediately at his side with his service pistol leveled at the now writhing scientist. The door slammed shut, sealing the room, and all the two men could do was watch as their colleague transformed in front of them, legs and arms twitching and falling away as shining, metal replacements seemed to grow from the torn flesh left in their place.
Frank had screamed briefly when a gleaming, yet gore covered arm shot right through the ballistic glass and grabbed him by the throat. George saw his pistol drop as the man struggled against the vise-like grip, and lunged for it, whipping it around and leveling it at the hulking frame inside the small exam room. He fired as fast as he could, struggling against the recoil before the trigger suddenly stoped, siezed in place by a badly ejected shell. He had run out of the room at that point, grabbing the wrench from the maintenance cart in the hall as he went. That was two hours ago.
He struggled to maintain his composure as he listened for the footfalls down the hall. It had been tracking him, slowly, ruthlessly. The other two guards aat the remote site had managed to get off a few more rounds in its direction, but that had barely had any effect. Whatever Rebecca had become, she was for all intents and purposes, unstoppable now. George tried to clear his mind, shake off the wave of adrenaline that had been coursing through him and plan an exit. Was there a rover in the bay? Could he find a comm panel and get a message out to Central? He considered the options, but each of them meant somehow getting past that thing in the hall. He heard the sickening crunch of another limb being torn from one of the guards as the machine modified Rebeccas frame further, and his heart sank. There was no way past her now.
George steeled himself, remembering the contract he had signed. At least Emily and the kids would be well taken care of. The insurance Tri-Optimum provided was second to none. Decision made, he reached carefully into his lab coat pocket and slid out a slender datapad. He keyed in the appropriate code and scanned his thumb when prompted for confirmation. He relaxed a little when he heard the reactor capacitors charging in the center of the structure. At least this thing wasn’t going any further.
