Stephanie Steele

Noel hobbled to the elevator and called for it. It wasn’t responding. He limped to the stairs, the pain in his leg preventing him going faster, stumbled on the second step and nearly fell. He caught himself on the hand rail, steadied himself and hop-stepped his way down, trying to keep the weight off his shot leg, dripping blood.

Another, smaller, explosion caused the fire on the factory floor to spread. The flames licked the stairwell and began to take hold of the years of grease and dirt on the metal structure and fuelled by some sort of accelerant from the blast, slowly crept up towards the next level.

Amy looked down beyond her dangling legs, saw the encroaching danger and screamed. Her terrified gaze turned upwards and a hand extending down towards her. She was too scared to move, frightened that if she did she would end in a fiery grave.

Steele’s reach wasn’t enough. She needed Amy to take her hand. She was stretched as far over the balcony as possible. Just inches separated their hands, but it may as well have been miles. She saw the terror in the girl’s eyes, pleading for her to save her. Her own eyes filled with terror as she saw the girl lose her grip and slip away, falling towards a fiery death.

Amy’s dress caught on a jagged piece of railing, checking her fall, and saving her from death. For now.

“Hold on Amy, I’m coming for you!”

Steele lowered herself over the edge and began the climb down the same thread of metal Amy was hanging from, where a thin strip of material kept her from falling. She prayed it would hold both their weights. She could feel the warmth of the fire now. Could see the flames had reached nearly to the second level. She had to do this fast. But fast wasn’t what she needed to do right now. The structure was groaning under her weight and any speedy movements were liable to bring the rail crashing down. She inched slowly nearer. She was almost there. Held out a hand to the desperate girl.

Amy’s dress ripped and she slid another six inches away from Steele. She let out another scream. “Please help. I’m slipping.” She pleaded, her little voice choked with tears.

“I’m coming Amy. Just hold on honey.” Steele said, trying not to sound panicky.

Amy’s weight made the tear in her dress start to run, slowly at first, creeping, then faster. It split completely and she fell away, plummeting to certain death.

Steele’s eyes widened and she let go her grip on the rail. Down she went, her heavier weight meaning she caught up with the small girl around the third floor. With one strong hand Steele snatched her out of the air, pulled her into her chest at the second floor. With the other hand she reached for the structure. At the first floor she caught the railing. They swung violently towards the metal structure. A heavy boot shot out and prevented them smashing into the balcony.

Pulling the shivering girl tighter she turned away from the flames which were only a few feet to her left. Her body could take the damage a fire could do, but a little girl’s couldn’t. Steele swung precariously, turned her eyes downwards looking for a spot where the fire hadn’t reached yet. There was none. No escape downwards. She turned her attention upwards. The fire hadn’t taken hold of the entire balcony structure yet but it wouldn’t be long. This was their only way out.

Steele looked into the tear stained face of the little girl and gave her a reassuring smile. “I’m going to have to put you down Amy.”

Amy clung tighter. “No! Please!”

“Trust me. I won’t let you fall.”

Amy’s eyes pooled and she bravely nodded her head.

“You’re going to have to be brave and you’re going to have to help me, okay?”

Amy nodded again. This time with more certainty.

With one arm Steele hauled Amy onto the railing and held her there while she got hold. Using Steele’s hand to stand on Amy pulled her belly onto the top rail, flipped a leg over and scooted onto the first floor balcony. Now Steele was free to climb up herself. She made the climb easily and took Amy’s small hand in hers and knelt to her level.

“You okay?”

Amy nodded, then screamed.

Steele turned to follow her gaze and saw the flames lick up through the underside of the balcony, cutting them off from the stairwell. Steele looked about. Only one way out now.

“Turn your face away honey.” Steele told her, and turned Amy in the other direction.

Steele drew back her arm and smashed an elbow through the glass door of the nearest office. The broken glass tinkled to the floor and was swallowed up by the flames. Steele knocked out the remaining jagged shards of glass and lifted Amy through and away from the heat.

Noel hobbled passed the broken lift on the first level. He froze when he heard the sound of breaking glass. The sound of a kick against the office door sent him scurrying down the stairs at a faster pace, wincing with pain.

Steele kicked down the inner office door and rushed down a corridor with several pictures of Noel on the wall. She made sure Amy was behind her at all times. They reached the stairwell and she stopped to listen.

Noel’s leg was bleeding badly, the pain making it difficult to navigate the stairs. He heard Steele on the landing above and stopped, held his breath lest it gave him away.

Steele’s vision locked on to a trail of blood. Her scanners identified it as belonging to Noel Chandler. She’d winged him at least. Steele guided Amy behind her and slipped out her blaster.

“Keep behind me.” Whispered Steele.

Amy knew what she meant and did as she was told.

Steele started down the stairs careful not to make a sound. Amy knocked her foot against the side wall with a loud tap. They both froze and Amy flashed an apologetic look at Steele.

Noel heard the noise and took off as fast as his leg would allow.

Steele raced to the head of the next set of stairs and saw Noel just coming off the bottom stair into the entrance reception, hobbling badly. Steele slung up her blaster and without taking aim let out a hail of bullets which caught Noel in the arm and upper body. Noel splayed forward and out of view. The ceiling in the stairwell blocked her vision.

“Stay here.” Steele ordered Amy, turned and leapt down the remaining flight of stairs.

She hit the bottom with a thud. The alarm was still ringing loudly and the reception area was clouded in smoke and dust from the cruiser impact.

Noel had got to his feet. The shot had caught him in the upper right arm and a glancing shot had nicked his ribs. He was hopping on his good leg towards the exit which was blocked with the cruiser. Steele took a step towards him and shot his good leg from under him, sending him face-planting into the floor. He screamed and turned onto his back to face her, using his one good arm to scoot across the floor.

She had him now. One shot to the head would end him right here. She thought about letting him live so he could rot in a jail cell, but what if he somehow wriggled out of it? She couldn’t live with that. She raised the blaster. He held up a defensive hand and shook his head, pleading in his features. She took aim and he closed his eyes.

The bullet left the chamber but never found its mark. Instead it hit the ceiling and disappeared into the structure of the building somewhere. The chair bent as it impacted Steele’s head and sent her sprawling into and over the waiting room chairs, her blaster clattering under the reception desk.

Nixon scanned Noel’s injuries and ascertained they were non-fatal.

“Destroy her!” Noel screamed.

Nixon grabbed Steele’s arm and threw her clean across the reception area. She hit the wall, making a dent in the plaster and initialising the holo screen and the Cyber Corp advertisement. The ad played over Steele’s stunned face making her look like an Andy Warhol picture. Steele shook her head to clear the static. It took her a moment to compute her situation. Too late.

Nixon advanced on her pumping a hail of bullets her way. Steele’s body shook under each impact, pushing her back against the wall each time she tried to come forward. When Nixon was close enough Steele reached out and snatched her blaster. Nixon refused to let go and continued firing, the bullets digging out a hole in the wall. Steele brought up a fist and caught it square in Nixon’s cheek. The blonde assassin staggered backwards losing her blaster.

Steele seized her chance and stepped forward, laying punch after stunning punch to her head. The impacts knocked Nixon’s senses askew and she was unable to hit back, instead absorbing the punishment Steele dealt her. A great left hook sent Nixon tumbling into the elevator doors which detonated into a shower of glass crystals. She hit the back wall of the elevator and looked at Steele who was charging her.

Steele entered the glass box to engage her arch enemy. A powerful cross did little to deter Steele who began trading punches like for like with Nixon. They crashed around the small space, punching, elbowing, shoving and pushing. The glass walls took one hell of a battering, cracking and splintering as both androids rammed into them.

Nixon caught Steele with a good right and she back peddled out of the door, arms flailing and trying to stay on her feet, with Nixon on her tail. Nixon caught up and rammed a foot into Steele’s stomach. Steele landed on the reception desk. It obliterated under her weight as she fell on it.

Nixon scooped up her blaster and swung it towards Steele.

At the same time Steele found her blaster amongst the wreckage of the desk and brought it up to shoot. Nixon caught Steele’s blaster as it came level and brought her own blaster up to shoot Steele. Steele caught Nixon’s blaster and each tried to force their own weapon into the others face. Steele succeeded and sent a storm of lead into Nixon’s rapidly fading looks. Her head recoiled with every bullet, peeling away synth skin and scarring tainted metal.

Nixon forced Steele’s blaster away from her face, heaved Steele and sent her flying across the floor. Steele spun but stayed on her feet, and ended up facing Nixon. Both of them stood like gun fighters of the old west, blasters drawn and ready to shoot, both waiting for the other to make a move.

Steele relaxed and holstered her blaster. Nixon followed suit, understanding what was required. Nixon moved first, marching towards Steele. Steele came to meet her and squared up, trading punch after devastating punch, one getting the upper hand then it turning and the other looking like the winner.

During this tornado of metal fists Amy came to see what was happening. She stood on the bottom stair clutching herself, watching her alloy saviour taking a battering. She also noticed that Noel was crawling to the exit door.

“He’s getting away!” Amy’s little voice shouted, a small finger pointing.

Nixon turned to look at her. She abandoned the fight and stormed towards the shivering girl, evil in her eyes, still under orders to get the girl. Steele grabbed the receptionist’s chair and as Nixon did to her she did to Nixon. The chair rocked Nixon but she kept going for Amy. Steele swung it a second time. Nixon anticipated it and batted the chair out of her hand. The assassin towered over Amy, looked at her a second with contemptible eyes, then grabbed a handful of her dress.

Steele landed a bag of hammers in Nixon’s face loosening her head, causing Nixon to spin a half turn still clutching Amy’s clothing. The momentum sent Amy skittering across the polished floor, scuffing her knees and bruising her elbow. Steele sensed success and clumped Nixon another roundhouse to the head, sending Nixon tumbling awkwardly. The blonde android attempted to stand but had lost all coordination. She looked pathetic and totally defenceless.

“St . . . Steph . . . h . . . h . . help me.” Nixon stuttered. “I’m on your . . . s . . . side babe. H . . . help me b . . . babe.” As she spoke her hand searched for her blaster, found it, but couldn’t make her arm point it correctly.

Steele stood over her, looking down on her defeated foe with the contempt she deserved. “You’re a mess.” She reached down, clamped a hand either side of her head and pulled. Nixon’s head came off, ripping cables and connectors from inside her chest cavity. The body fell in a heap, all life exterminated.

Steele put the fingers of each hand inside the neck and forced the head in to two and retrieved her drive. She discarded the head, pocketed the drive and turned to look at Noel who couldn’t get passed the cruiser and was now realising he was in trouble again.

Steele walked towards him as in the distance police sirens grew. He pleaded for her not to shoot. That he’d change, stop what he’d been doing if only she’d let him live. She ignored him of course, pumped a shot into his leg, then another into his other leg, taking deliberate aim, playing with him. Each shot was for one of the girls his sick friends had raped, abused, violated, degraded, tortured, beaten, strangled and killed. For each body she’d looked down on in a damp and grey alley, their bodies looking more like something you’d find on a butcher’s stall than that of an innocent child. For each family who had lost a loved one. For Uma, for Mia, for herself. For the year of hell he’d given her. For lost love, for nights of loneliness and for justice.

One in the arm sent a spatter of blood flying. He began crawling, trying hopelessly to get to somewhere away from her. She pictured Uma crawling on her belly, fearing for her life. She let him have that hope a moment then pumped another bullet into each shoulder. She was going to string this out as long as she could. Killing him fast was too good for the likes of this vermin.

She never heard the police sirens grow loud. Never saw the flashing lights of the cruisers as they glided to a stop outside. Never heard the police officers rushing towards the building, drawing pistol and shot blasters. All she saw was him! She held the blaster to his head. A river of piss trickled from under him and she revelled in his fear.

“Today you die motherfucker! This is your last day on Earth. Say goodbye!” Her finger squeezed the trigger. Her eyes staring into his eyes to witness the life fade.

“Freeze, Steele!”

She did hear that. Looked up into the face of Walt, a shot blaster in his hands aimed at her from over the mangled cruiser. She squinted in the bright light of the police cruiser head lamps.

Noooooo! Her mind screamed. They weren’t taking this moment away from her. This was hers to have. She’d earned it. Two fucking years she’d waited for this moment. No one was going to deprive her of that now.

“Don’t do it Steele.” He warned her, bracing himself to shoot.

Steele fidgeted, willing her finger to pull the trigger, wanting it, wanting it so badly. Felt her inner workings screwing and twisting. Felt the pain of a dozen dead girls welling inside her. She turned away from the lights not wanting to see it coming. If they took her out now then it would be all worth it.

Then a familiar voice stopped her finger from squeezing further.

“Steele!”

She looked to see Freddy pushing his way through the wall of blasters.

“You’ve got him. He’s going away for a long time.” Said Freddy, looking as frightened as the man behind the blaster. “You’re in the clear. We both are. Just put down the blaster.”

She shook her head at him. The blasters outside raised further, ready to rip her to shreds. She raised her own blaster a fraction and pushed it against a cowering and whimpering Noel. She wasn’t going to stop now and they knew it. She was prepared to die for him.

“Please, I just want to go home.” A small innocent voice said.

Steele looked towards Amy, hunched shoulders and wet cheeks standing at her side and she knew she couldn’t pull the trigger. How could she let the girl see that? All that mattered was protecting her. She’d let her own selfishness get in the way and she’d lost track for a spell. But she was back.

“Are you alright?” Steele said and went to the twelve year old, kneeling in front of her and holstering her blaster. Steele checked her for wounds but found none. The girl threw her arms around Steele’s neck and hugged her tightly.

“Thank you.” Amy managed through tears.

Steele savoured the girl’s closeness and lifted her into her arms as she stood. The little girl hardly weighed anything.

“I’ll take you home honey.” Steele whispered lightly into her ear.

She kissed Amy on the top of her head and looked at the relieved cops outside. Freddy was white as a sheet but grinning widely.