Chapter Forty-Four – Dirty Break

Chapter Forty-Four – Dirty Break

“Mental health services are, like healthcare, one of those things that just aren’t profitable for a society whose main concern is monetary.

I think that’s why all of the help and assistance we had just… disappeared one day.”

–Jacob Washington, last member of the all-volunteer Suicide Watch group, 2023

***

I’d seen buildings collapse before. I mean, on my media feeds.

Happened all the time. Usually it was buildings that needed to be demolished, but every couple of weeks some mega-complex would fall apart all on its own. Shitty construction, too many cut corners, maybe the place was only designed to last thirty years and that was before you counted the years shaved off by subpar materials.

So yeah I’d seen plenty of buildings fall apart.

Never seen it happen from the inside in first person though.

“Fuck fuck fuck,” I swore as the floor started to tilt.

Office shit went flying, desks crashed down and chairs with those little wheels at the bottom went sailing across the room.

I half-turned and planted a foot onto an exterior wall. The building was tipping towards the street below. The chairs and desks crashing around me eventually lost their momentum or hooked onto something, so the din in the room stilled.

The cacophony outside though, didn’t. A glance out the window showed blackened marks and craters punched into the road where a liberal application of heavy ordnance had rained down.

The aliens had been pushed back a bit, but then so had some of my defences. Most of the garrote grenades were destroyed and I didn’t see any of my acid sprayers left.

The aliens regrouped and resumed their charge, this time meeting a lot less resistance.

“Dammit! Myalis, can you tell whoever aimed that last volley that I’m going to kick their ass? We need to reset the defences.”

Message sent.

“Right, thanks,” I said. I paused as the building creaked. A building this big tilting wasn’t good, but maybe whoever had built the place knew what they were doing because it seemed to be holding.

Catherine! Incoming volley!

“Are you seri–”

Explosions rained down across the street, shells rammed into some of the buildings across from us, shrapnel and glass raining down in a cascade atop the aliens below. Then I heard something punch through the ceiling.

I spun and saw a hole the size of my head missing in the middle of the office.

Whatever had punched that hole went off and a gout of dust poured out into the office. I was blind, dust and smoke robbing me of sight.

The floor fell out from under me, and I swore as I tumbled. Everything was moving in different directions, and for a panicked moment, all I could do was be rag-dolled around. Even with my armour, the breath was blown out of me as I was thrown about.

Metal screamed and glass shattered. I think the building just decided to give up and crashed down onto the street.

I hit something hard and it shifted beneath me. Then all my fighting and rolling around was stopped. A pressure grabbed onto my mechanical arm and didn’t let go.

Everything ended in a single, final boom that rattled my head.

I blinked as the dust cleared a little.

I was on my back, with a cement barrier about a handspan away from my face. I wiggled my toes, then shifted on the spot. Still had all of my meat limbs. There was no burning. I was fine. Peachy, even. Never better.

Armour integrity is at seventy-four percent. I’m afraid you’ll need a new suit. The back component of your jump pack is damaged as well.

“Okay,” I said. “Okay. Uh… where the fuck am I?”

Pinned under the building you were on. The topmost floor hit the building across the street, then it collapsed on top of your position. Here.

A screen opened up in my augs and I got to see… a lot of wreckage through a thick film of dust. Some shit was on fire too. “What am I seeing this from?”

One of your cat mechas survived.

“Tough little shits,” I murmured. She was distracting me, wasn’t she? “Uh… Myalis, I think I’m stuck.”

You do have a building on top of you at the moment, yes.

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I swallowed. “Okay. Yeah. That would do it.” My breathing came in a little faster, chest heaving. I didn’t know why but I almost felt like laughing. “I can’t get out.”

Catherine, you have a multitude of methods to remove yourself from this location. I can guide you through them. You are safe.

“Right. My arm?”

Your cybernetic arm is pinned. Please do not activate the rocket within it. That would be irresponsible.

This time I did laugh. “Yeah, yeah, okay.” I tugged at my arm, but it didn’t do much. The space I was in was… not very big. I’d used public toilets with more room. A pocket that was maybe a metre wide, half that tall. I’d lost my Bullcat somewhere along the way. Still had my sword buckled to my hip though. Too bad, I liked that gun.