Our brief reprieve was interrupted by the chime of the Omni-Com paging system.
“Ira Holtz and Veronica Estrella, security has been dispatched to kill you slowly and painfully. Have a nice day.” We both shot up, hearts pumping.
“What…what does that mean?” I asked, not really wanting to know the answer.
“I…I don’t know, Ira. The building’s automated security is fairly limited and…” There was a sharp, metal on metal grinding sound coming from the elevator terminals. Veronica drew closer to me as the sound came closer. I was woefully unprepared for what entered the atrium.
At first, I thought it was Chet the head security guard. As it got closer, however, I realized that it wasn’t Chet at all. It was something that was wearing Chet. A swatch of congealed blood streaked from Chet’s mouth all the way down his security uniform. His arms and legs looked like socks stuffed with bricks and thick black cables coiled around his neck and plunged into various head wounds. He trudged towards us with slow, jerking steps and the grinding metal sound grew unbearably loud.
Veronica started screaming, and I may have wet my pants. The Chet-thing saw us, and it emitted a gurgling sound that pushed more clotted blood out of its gaping mouth. I was about to be killed by an honest to shit cyborg. At least it’s kind of a cool death.
The screech of tires coming from outside broke me from my near-death musings. I turned quickly to see my grandma’s boat of a station wagon fishtailing through the parking lot.
“Veronica! Look! It’s my grandma!” I squinted to see my grandma waving her hand frantically, motioning for me to get out of the way. She…she was going to drive her car right through the doors.
The Chet-thing had almost reached us when I grabbed Veronica and pulled her out of the way. We hit the deck, and I covered our heads. The shriek of shattering glass and the revving of an ancient engine filled the air. I heard the station wagon crumple as it crashed into the Chet-thing. For an instant, I was terrified that my grandma was injured in the crash, but as we stood up I saw her exiting her totaled vehicle.
“Irochka! Are you hurt? What was that thing? What’s going on, Irochka!” I helped Veronica to her feet and grabbed my grandma’s arm.
“I’ll explain later, baba. We have to get out of here right now, though.” We sidestepped the broken glass doors and mangled security grating and ran to my car. As Veronica and my grandma got in, I took one last look at Omni-Com. Whatever was growing inside of that building was a world-ender. And Veronica knows something about it. Was it safe to trust her?
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