Chapter Sixteen - Life Finds a Way

    Chapter Sixteen - Life Finds a Way

    On average, you can expect to find that 70-80% of all people near ground zero of an incursion will survive past the first 24 hours. Given clear lanes of escape and basic medical aid, as well as timely intervention by military forces and local Samurai, that number stays roughly the same in the next 24 to 72 hours.*

    This merely stresses the need for a rapid intervention plan, ready access to troops and medical professionals capable of acting quickly, and the infrastructure to move all of these people to a safer location.

    All this and more is, of course, what we offer.

    *All stats verified by Adamstatistics!

    --AdamsCorp sales pitch to every major metropolitan city in North America.

    ***

    I left the worm alone.

    Given a few minutes I might have been able to figure out some way to toss it out the window or something, but Myalis was right, I didnt have the time. Maybe, maybe soon, I would be one of those Samurai able to wipe out anything in my path, but that wasnt the case yet, so I just had to suck up and deal with it.

    Returning to the corridor Id passed earlier, I slid through the doorway and walked down yet another drab grey passageway. The few doors opened along its sides revealed little break rooms and janitorial closets where sweeper bots were hanging to charge.

    No aliens, no signs that anything really bad had happened other than some things tossed to the floor and abandoned there. I stepped over a discarded purse and fought past the temptation to riffle through it.

    Then I found the door leading to the stairwell, red light glowing above it and all.

    A peek through the safety glass showed me a whole lot of nothing.

    So, I asked the empty air. Uh, that Samurai, the one we kinda saw deeper in the city. They were flying.

    That seemed like a Class III Gravitic Negation System coupled with a Class II Ion Thruster System. Im afraid that both are far outside your current means.

    But I could get that, right? I asked.

    I snorted despite myself. Woof woof, I deadpanned.

    Oh, thank fuck. Cmon hurry. Were about to barricade this door, the voice said.

    Trusting strange voices wasnt something I was usually keen on doing, but it had been working for me so far that day. I loosened my hold on my handgun and stomped down the stairs until I came to the bottom of the stairwell where a twenty-something guy was holding the door open.

    Youre one of the kids from upstairs? he asked.

    Yeah, I guess so, I said. I looked past him and into another drab corridor, though this one seemed a lot shorter. There more of you?

    He grinned. Theres only one of me, he said. Im Brand. And yeah, there are a bunch of us holed up in the parking. Cmon, were going to lock this corridor off before the aliens come around.

    You folks have a leader? I asked.

    He shrugged his shoulders and pulled the door closed behind me as soon as I passed. What do you think we are, some sort of weird kingdom of the parking lot? Nah, weve got people from every floor almost. The vaults were all shit so were gathering here.

    I nodded along. It made some sense. A bit of weight was lifted off my back. People meant someone, or someones in charge. I didnt have to carry quite as much responsibility on my back.

    Brand led me from the corridor and into a two-storey parking garage, hover cars clamped into berths above and below us and the far walls covered in heavy steel shutters. A few hoverbikes were tossed together to form a barricade just inside the room with a few wide-eyed mall cops and older guys hanging behind them.

    I saw two more armed groups deeper in, and a whole lot of people gathering around in clumps.

    Brand pointed to the far end of the room where there were a bunch of kids. You might want to head over there. And ah, hand over your gun to one of the safety crew. Theyre taking any weapon they can get their hands on for now.

    So there is someone in charge? I asked.

    He shrugged. Sorta, but not really. Things arent that organized yet.

    I frowned, the weight I thought Id gotten rid of resettling comfortably on my shoulders. Great.

    ***