Never Fade Away: We Had To Pay the Price (ch. 3) (Patreon)

The alarm was the single loudest thing that I had ever heard in my life. The younger kids reacted with a primal instinct to cower away from it, their hands going to their ears and recoiling away from the sound that echoed loudly through the hallway. Those of us that were older reacted better to it. It was similar to the alarms that we heard in tactical sims, giving us some level of resistance to it, but it also meant that we knew what was happening.

The guards were coming.

"We need to get into the dorm," A shouted over the alarm. "It's our only shot. It'll have tools," he said, his voice firm because of the robotics replacing his voice box, but I could feel how weak he was.

"It's a kill box," I voiced, but I knew that A was right. We had the layout -- our area was on the second level. Meaning that the guards would have three ways to approach -- from the elevator and through the doorway, from below and from above because of the connected rec rooms. All they had to do was knock everyone else out above and below us, and the kids that had been beyond our small world would never be any the wiser.

However, it was also the only place that had any tools we could use. Wiring from the electronics, weights to use as weapons.

"I know," A responded, his tone low and quiet. With no other choice, I dragged A back towards the dorm, my mind racing at a mile a minute. I had six charges left in the back of my head. That was enough to bring two skills up to level three. It seemed so little. So very little. We rounded the corner in time to see that a bracket 13 kid was smashing out cameras.

The rebellion was spreading rather quickly. I thought we might encounter more resistance from the young brackets because they still didn't understand their lot in life. Where a kind word was the single greatest thing to happen to them. However, surprisingly, a lot of the older kids were getting swept up in the process and in doing so, the youngest of us were doing what everyone else was. Even if they didn't fully understand the implications.

We passed through the door and I saw the problem that M had mentioned. M looked over his shoulder at me as he paused making ropes with blankets and sheets, his gaze following mine. "We couldn't disable the trigger fast enough," he told me as we looked at rows of kids in all brackets that were laid out on the floor wherever they had fallen. "They revoked our access as well. Can you do anything about it?"

"How many?" I asked, setting A down in a chair and he half collapsed into it.

"About half," M admitted and that was a punch to the gut. Half? That was… that was too many. The guards caught on too early. My heart clenched in my chest, knowing deep down that this was on me, but I couldn't process that now. I had to focus. Half of the kids were deadweight, but from the looks of it, most of them were younger kids. Easy to carry. The eldest of us could double up. In theory.

In practice… "Leave them out of it for now," I decided, going to the electronics that were being smashed up with the weights that were on each floor. The guards would be coming from one of three directions, or possibly all three. I could find a way to wake kids up when I had breathing room. For now, it was more important to delay the attack that was coming. "Gets some kids to copy what I'm doing-" I started, grabbing some of the electronics before I felt someone tackle me.

"L-" T-6 started, his voice laced with fear.

I didn't have time. "Not now, T. Copy what I do," I instructed, my tone harsh. T-6 flinched at my tone, and for the briefest of moments, I did feel guilty. But it needed to be done. I couldn't reassure him. Not now. Not with so much riding on the line. "Take a battery, connect a wire here and here. T, copy me," I stressed, snapping him out of his staring and he obeyed accordingly.

"We have the doors blocked off, but it's temporary," M informed as a couple of other kids went about making makeshift grenades. The power sources were small for a lot of tech, meaning that they were unsuited to be actual explosives. EMPs were a better use for our limited parts because of the electrical charge they created. Flashbangs were another option, but they would be a poor one. Especially with optic implants. For that reason, the bulk of the grenades would become EMPs. We could simultaneously detonate a few of them for a stronger charge to get through any shielding. "We have ropes, weights, and grenades."

It wasn't enough, I thought. I could feel it deep within my bones that it wouldn't be enough.

And a second later, I knew I was right.

"Contact-" I heard someone upstairs shout before the sound of gunfire filled the rec room. My gaze snapped to the front door to see that despite the makeshift barricade that was being put up, the doors slid open to allow a grenade to be tossed into the rec room. It spewed out blue smoke, making one of the kids trapped within it to drop down to the ground. I couldn't tell if he was alive or dead visually, but with a thought, I pulled up my HUD to see that the number of kids marked with 'Incapacitated' was sharply rising.

I responded with action, springing to my feet. "They're hitting all three," I shouted, grabbing a blanket and tossing it over the smoke grenade to smother its fumes. Slinging it back through the opening that the guards were using to smoke us out, I flung an EMP grenade at them just as they pushed their way through the barricade. A small pop of electricity marked the grenade going off as five men froze where they stood.

They were large and bulky. Their faces were completely covered, protecting them from the gas, while their optics were also covered by a visor connected to a helmet. All five of them froze, the EMP messing with their implants even if it didn't outright fry them. In a dead sprint, I lunged for them, tackling one to the ground while I ripped the gun from his hands. Turning to the others, I sprayed them with a long pull of the trigger, a blue substance splashing out on their vests.

The guns were useless. They were trying to take us alive.

"Fuck!" I shouted, instead going for the scalpel and plunging it into the man beneath me, crimson blood splashing over my hands as I severed his choroid artery. He gargled as he bled out, a hand grasping at the wound, and I finished him off with another few stabs before I felt myself clumsily tackled from behind.

"You brat!" The man shouted, knocking me over and going to roll on top of me, only to find himself on his back. "Go to fucking sleep, you-" he started, only to find the scalpel buried in his stomach, punching through his body armor. Slamming my palm down on the butt of the scalpel shoved it as deep into his body as it could go, making him cry out in pain. Grabbing his legs, I rolled him over me just in time to eat a few shots that impacted his armor before I heaved up.

There was a impact in my side, and for a split second, I thought that would be it. Only to learn that the neural suit protected me from whatever substance was in the shots.

Using him as a shield, I crossed the short distance with the man in my arms, using him to body slam one of his friends. The other lunged at me, still trying to take me in alive. I'm sure he regretted that decision when I slid the tac-knife out of the pouch from the second guy's belt and buried it underneath the third guy's chin.

Knife fights were about aggression. When one of you had a knife, then the fight became about taking control of the knife by either taking it for yourself or getting rid of it. That's what the training sims said. So, it was little wonder when the last two went to secure the knife, trying to prevent themselves from being killed. One tackled me into the wall across the hall while the other prevented me from stabbing his friend in the gut.

With a quick drop, I let go of the knife and let it fall into my other hand, allowing me to make a quick stab at the one holding me. He backed off half a step, letting me kick out at his legs, breaking his footing. With a flick of my wrist, I tossed the knife into my original hand as I kicked the same man in the chest, knocking him away, dividing the enemy. As he hit the wall, I focused solely on the one closest to me -- the one that had tried to stop me from stabbing the other guy.

"Sloppy," I snarled at him, flinging the knife at his boot, catching him in the foot. He hissed in pain, giving me a chance to knee him in the balls, and when he bent over involuntarily, I gave his neck a sharp twist and snapped it. Dropping his body, I ripped the knife out of his foot and looked to the last one.

"Look, kid, I don't want to die. I don't want to die, so if you want out, then just-" he started to beg and I felt a white hot intense flash of pure hate for him at that moment. Lunging for him, I brought the knife down on him where his neck met his collarbone, blood splashing out over the wall as he let out a strangled gasp. A snarl etched itself on my face, bringing the knife down a half dozen times a few seconds, killing him.

My heart pounded, but I knew that the fight wasn't done. Grabbing one of the two that still lived, the one with the knife in his gut, I dragged him into the dorm hallway and dropped him. "Secure the door!" I shouted at a few kids that were cowering while I rejoined the fight in the rec room. The door slid open and I saw nothing but smoke for the briefest of seconds.

Holding my breath, I sprinted into the room and towards the stairs to see two men were trying to breach a door by prying it open. Given how the metal effortlessly warped around one's fingers, I realized that he had implants. Gorilla arms. I'm not entirely sure what a gorilla was, but it certainly seemed strong.

Sprinting up, I tackled him and slammed him into the stairs, my knife going into his guts, but white fluid emerged and it felt like I was hitting metal. "I'm glad some of you brats had some fight in you," the man snarled, grabbing me by the throat and squeezing. A stupid thing to do considering I was already holding my breath. Effortlessly, he picked me up despite his awkward positioning, raising me into the air. "Feels like I'm finally earning my paycheck."

I couldn't see his face, but I could hear the smile in his voice. The man had a number of mods. Synth blood was more of a coolant than actual blood. Terrible for your brain. He slammed my back into the door hard enough that I thought it was going to give in, but I refused to lose my breath. Instead, I reversed the grip I had on the knife and plunged it into his neck. At least I tried to. With his other hand, he caught my thrust with a laugh.

"Brat, when I'm done with you… you're going to learn exactly how good you had it in here," the man swore, slamming me into the door again. I was dazed for a moment, but I still managed to get a stab in his ribs when he left for of my hand to rip the door open. The blade slipped between his ribs, only to be caught on something an inch deep. A wire mesh of some kind. With a heave, he ripped the door to the side before he flung me into the room that was filled with kids.

"Been saying for years that it was only a matter of time before one of you wisened up. Didn't think it'd be the trash, though. My bet was on the kids with actual fucking talent," the man continued as I rolled to my feet, my neck feeling bruised but I could breathe. "So, thanks. I think I'm gonna be in position to finally get that raise. Not going to give you any special treatment. Always wanted to kill Daniel. Not happy that you beat me to it."

There would be a time to process that, but it wasn't now. I crouched low, my knife in hand as I sized the man up. Roughly six foot, wide shoulders, and synth blood dropped from him without care. Meaning that he had enough tech in him to make up for the loss in blood pressure and BPM. Wire mesh around his organs. Killing him would be tough.

If I fought fair.

"Now!" I heard M shout before the man was assaulted with a barrage of grenades. I closed my eyes before I saw a bright flash behind my eyelids and I heard a grunt from coming the man. I sprinted forward, tackling him after opening my eyes. He dropped to a knee, lowering his center of gravity, and it was only because of his spazzing out limbs that I managed to get the better of him. I stabbed down at his optic, the tip of the blade sinking through the thin optic and I hammered at the bottom of the blade to drive it into his eye socket and into his brain.

"Get off of me," the man snarled, hitting me in the ribs, and even though I was prepared for the blow, I found myself knocked away. My back slammed into a wall, my ribs aching from the wild swing that hit me. The medical monitoring informed me I had a fractured rib. I was well used to ignoring the pain, so I scrambled to my feet. Unfortunately, so was the guard. His systems must be more resistant. "Change of plan, brat. Bossman said no casualties, but I think he'll make an exception in your case."

He was so focused on me that he completely missed A until he jumped onto his back with an EMP battery in hand. "I'm not dying alone," A snarled, tripping the grenade and pressing it directly against the knife. Both of them jolted, a sharp shock of electricity passing through both of them for the briefest of seconds. The guard slumped over, falling flat on his face with A on top of him.

This was my fault. I scrambled to A, completely deaf to everything else in the world in that moment, flipping him over in a desperate hope that I wasn't going to see what I thought I would. A gazed up at the ceiling, his one organic eye glazed over and dilated.

"You… didn't die alone, A," I whispered, swallowing thickly. The smoke was drifting into the room through the ripped off door and I heard sounds of fighting coming from the upper floors. My fault. I should have waited. I should have waited until I was better prepared. I-

"You should go, L," I heard M speak up, crouching next to me. He placed a hand on A's chest, his expression sad, but unsurprised. With his other hand, he placed it on my shoulder and gave it a gentle squeeze. "Getting everyone out was never going to happen, L. Getting us all out under these conditions? It's impossible. But we can kick up a fuss. Cause a distraction so you can get out."

"I'm not…" As I looked away, I trailed off, my voice growing thick with emotion. I understood what he was telling me. But I struggled to accept it. Because he was right and… this would be the last time I saw him again.

"You can bust them out from the outside, L. All of them. You just need a little time and resources that you couldn't get here," M continued, knowing that this was our farewell. I forced myself to meet his gaze to see that he was smiling despite it all. "It was never about us, L."

"It was never about us," I echoed, my gaze sliding to the other kids huddled on the far side of the room, trying to escape the gas and finding safety in numbers. "Did anyone bet that none of us would make it to bracket 16?"

"Z did, I think," M answered, passing the rope that he made and I coiled it around my body. "Good thing he died before he saw that he was right."

"Heh," I chuckled, ripping the knife out of the guard's eye socket. I took a deep and bracing breath. There was no choice. I saw the irrefutable logic. I had the ability to learn anything on the fly. That was what we were relying on when we got outside to prevent capture. If anyone had a chance to get out, make preparations, then break back in… it was me. Even if it felt so fucking wrong that I was the one that was going to escape when I fucked everything up.

"L?" I heard T-6 speak up, his voice shy as he approached, clutching at the hem of his shirt nervously. "B-be careful. I heard that the ceiling is really high up outside. And there's a really bright lightbulb." He offered as a way of warning. I had heard that too -- it was a very old rumor that was based on a tie that a doctor had worn before we even arrived. I never believed it. Well, not anymore.

It didn't make any sense. Why paint the ceiling blue? Wouldn't it make more sense to paint the walls or even the floor that color? And why go with one single bright lightbulb? Made more sense for several in rows for maximum illumination.

I reached out and rested a hand on T-6's shoulder, "I'll be back soon, T. I promise," I swore to him, pulling the boy in for a brief hug that he didn't want to end. I had to. Everything in me screamed to take him with me, but as crazy as it sounded, given his age and his long-term job, he was safer here. I gave M one final look, earning a firm nod in response at the unspoken request -- to take care of T with the time he had left.

"I'll see you later," I swore to all of them, taking a deep breath and heading for the door. I heard M riling those up behind me as I sprinted down the stairs to the main hallway. There wasn't a good way to leave, but escaping through the elevator was the way they would least expect. Especially when I secured a ticket up. I sprinted down, running through the gas that was rising up slowly, and spotted the man where I saw him. The kids I had to hold the barricade were dead asleep and the man I brought in was leaning against a wall with his pistol in hand.

It snapped in my direction only to click empty the moment he pulled the trigger. "God fuckin…" I heard him mutter before I ran up and grabbed hold of him. Popping my personal jack out, I used breach on his systems and I found that his ICE was a lot harder to get through without the pre-established connection. However, Netrunning held up and gave me what I needed. His cyberkey and access to the elevator. "You really think you can get out?" The man asked, grunting when I grabbed him by the back of his collar and started to drag him.

"There any reason why you think I can't?" I asked him, borrowing his access to the security systems. All the while I crafted another program, guided by Netrunning. Ping. It would bounce off of systems, alerting me to them. In this case? Security cameras.

"You grew up in an aquarium. You're not ready for what's out there. Best case scenario? You come back begging to be let in," the man responded and I realized that I had his name through the personal link. Allen.

Oh, I would be coming back alright. "If I do, you'll be the first to know," I snapped at him, pausing for a moment as we teetered on the edge of a camera view. It swept to the side and I clung to the blindspot that appeared, letting me slip by.

"You don't even know what you're getting into," he continued, half babbling. He sounded certain of it.

"Then feel free to take my place in the experiments. See how long that attitude lasts when your blood is boiling in your veins and everyone you know is dead," I snapped at him, seeing the elevator after rounding a corner. That shut him up, thankfully. Dragging him to the elevator, and using the key, I brought us up.

"Why are you even taking me?" Alan questioned, a hand on his gut.

"An excuse for why the elevator is being used," I answered. My mind was blank, focused solely on the task at hand. I was going to break down later. In a way that I hadn't in… a very long time, but I felt the weight of responsibility on my shoulders. I had to get out. I had to get out, make sure I didn't get caught, then I needed to prepare for everything that came next to get everyone else out of here.

"Smart," Alan remarked. "Who taught you to do all this?" He questioned, searching for answers. Probably so he could tell his boss.

My knee-jerk reaction was to tell him that I figured it out myself, but I bit my tongue. I wouldn’t be the one that suffered the consequences of admitting that. Instead, I lied, hoping that it would avoid a crackdown on the people I was leaving behind. “Dr. D did,” I half snarled at him, realizing that we were nearing the top floor.

I readied an EMP grenade and arranged for Allen to be leaning against the wall directly in front of the door. “Where are we? What is this place?” I asked Allen one final question as I looted him of anything that seemed useful. Such as his tac-knife and his jacket. The neural suit had blocked the knock-out bullets, but I doubt it would do the same with real ones.

Allen gave me an odd look for a moment, and I think he was starting to understand the depth of what he didn’t know. “You’re in Night City’s Home for Wayward Boys. An orphanage,” Allen answered, and my eyes narrowed.

What was an orphan?

I didn’t have time to ask in favor of a ding alerting me that we arrived. I leaped up, bracing my legs out to stop myself from falling as I pressed myself against the ceiling. A split second later, the door opened up. I had no idea what lay beyond the door, but I’m guessing it was a wall of guns because Allen threw out his hands and shouted, “Wait! Wait! It’s me!” He exclaimed, buying me a second to toss the EMP out of the open door.

It exploded and I swung myself out of the elevator to see the single largest room that I had ever seen before. It almost hurt to look at -- the ceiling was three floors high, and the furthest wall was the length of a hallway and it was made out of opaque glass. There was so much color too. And bright lights. I couldn’t make heads or tails of what I was seeing beyond the fact that it was completely unlike anything I’d ever seen before. I was so distracted by how open the room was, I nearly missed the squad of guards that had taken up position around the door.

Running at one, I scooped up a gun and ran off with it, my only guide was the map that I lifted off Allen. Running to the glass wall, I heard sounds of panic, bringing my attention to the people in the large room. They were dressed in odd-looking clothing -- shirts that were brightly colored, or wearing layers of clothing. Some of the women had on scrubs that revealed their legs or walked on slippers that had a stake at the bottom.

My gaze slid over a woman behind a desk with silver-colored skin before I realized that it wasn’t skin at all. It was metal.

I couldn’t focus on that. I had to focus on getting out.

Slamming through a door, I entered a hallway that was half filled with people who looked at me with wide eyes as I ran by. It was tempting to open fire on them because they could be enemies, but I needed to save the bullets. Another door opened for me, leading me to a staircase that clung to a square-shaped wall that ran up and down. Uncoiling the rope that M made, I tied one end in a rockclimber’s knot before tossing myself over the railing and dropping down about six floors in a handful of seconds.

A knot proved loose, making my heart leap into my stomach, but I had enough of an arch swing to land on the railing instead of falling to what would probably be my death. Leaving the rope behind, I ran through a door and kept a close eye on the map. While the exits weren’t clearly marked, it did give me enough to make some estimations about where they were. There was one exit that led out of the building entirely some hundred floors down -- an impossible to imagine distance.

However, my target was the less likely of the two. Something called a garage. There, there would be a vehicle that I could use to escape. It was the more unlikely of the two because as far as my captors knew, I had no idea what a car even was.

I didn’t see any guards on the way, I noticed. Nor did I hear the alarm. I’m not sure what that meant as I sprinted through hallways, blasting past people as I pumped my legs as fast as I possibly could. It could mean that I already escaped their clutches. Or they were waiting for me to run myself into a corner where it would be simple for them to capture me.

A final door opened to reveal a garage. It looked very different from what I imagined. A large room, though smaller than the one I was in initially. There were rows of vehicles, but I didn’t see any wheels. Meaning that they were flying cars. Sleek black with silver thrusters and beyond a small runway was the exit. I couldn’t see much, but I could smell it.

Something smelled rotten. And acidic.

“Wait, stop, you can’t just-” Someone shouted at me as I ran up to a flying car. I was grateful for it because when he grabbed my shoulder, it made easy leverage to grab him and slam him into the side of the vehicle. His eyes went wide and wider still when I pushed the barrel of the gun under his chin.

“Open it,” I snarled at him, curling my finger around the trigger.

“I-” He started to protest, right until I slammed the butt of the gun into the side of his face, stunning him for a moment. I jacked into his neural port in the second that he was stunned, Breaching his ICE, and I noticed that his ICE was a whole lot less thick than either the doctors or the guards had been. I took what I wanted, downloading a cyberkey and hijacking his access to the car for maintenance reasons.

Tossing him to the side, the interior of the car revealed itself to me. The seats were made of some kind of red leather highlighted in white. The door closed behind me while the engine started up with barely a hum. Heading to the front, I saw that there was a piloting area that I took a seat in.

A charge has been spent

Driving -- Flying Cars: Rank 1

Puzzling out what everything did only took a few seconds. The first thing that I did was disable the AI meant to aid me flying, which would allow them to control the flight. As the thrusters picked up in power, letting me surge forward barely a few inches off the ground, whoever was in control of the gate realized that I knew how to escape the cage. Thick iron doors began to close down at a rapid pace.

To make matters worse, the guards that were prepared to box me in for capture revealed themselves and started firing upon the flying car. Bullets bounced off the armor, fracturing the windows, but it held strong. I gunned it while tipping the nose of the ship down, scraping it on the ground for a few seconds, making sparks dance before the ship leveled out. Every muscle went tense as I raced for the gate that grew smaller by the second.

The tip of the flying car managed to slip through the gate, but the doors scraped down on the back of the car, filling the cockpit with the screeching of metal. There was an explosion behind me as one of the thrusters gave out, filling the screen with alerts of danger and the flying car began to sail downward in an uncontrolled descent.

However, I was nearly deaf and blind to it as my gaze was filled with the outside world for the very first time.

The ceiling was dark, and the only source of light was… I knew what a building was, but I never knew what they looked like from the outside. They were huge, stretching up for hundreds of floors and they were so bright. Along the sides were scrolling images that I couldn’t process. It seemed odd that the ground is what illuminated the large room that the buildings were contained in, but I couldn’t argue with the results because my eyes were assaulted with colors I had never seen before.

Even as the flying car began to fall, I drank in the view -- it was terrifying. Probably the most terrifying thing that I had ever seen.

And I loved it more than words could ever convey.

“You’ll see this,” I spoke to myself, taking control of the ship to get a handle on my crash landing. I gripped the joystick with white knuckles, swearing it to myself. No matter what… They would all see this.

Hopefully, their view wouldn’t be interrupted by a crash landing on the highway.

...

Here is Never Fade Away. For those that missed the announcement, I recommend you go check it out, but the TLDR is that Gone Native will be on pause for a few weeks before resuming as a biweekly story. What does that mean?

Basically, every Monday that Gone Native doesn't update, Never Fade Away will. When Gone Native returns to normal weekly updates, Never Fade Away will either be given its own day to update or it'll take over Thursday when From the Ashes when it reaches a stopping point.

Now, onto another important question - the Inspired Inventor has undergone some alterations for this story. Here is a Link to the original for reference. The rules in question are pretty simple all things considered.

A charge is gained every 2 chapters written and every two weeks that pass in story. The cap on skills or tech has no theoretical limit, but past 10 sees diminishing returns. For reference -- 1-3 would be considered a hobbyist/prototype, 4-6 is skilled/standard to high-end, 7-9 is expert/top of the line, 10 and beyond is a foremost expert/bleeding edge. Additionally, L has no control over what tech or skill is picked. That's me from behind the DM screen, essentially. That change is mostly to prevent metagaming on L's behalf -- he doesn't know of other settings, and he can't just pick post-scarcity tech for an instant steamroll. How it would work in practice is L will go 'damn, I wish I had some FTL technology' and I would spend a charge on an FTL that seemed interesting like Concentrated Dark Matter Fuel from Rick and Morty.

And that's it. I hope you all enjoy!