Do It Now

<snip>
“Jesus, what is that?” asked Alex as he, Jamie, Boyd and Jacky came into the hall.
“That, Mr. Solvay is the ‘node’. It uses a psy-“
“It’s the thing we’ve got to kill to go home,” concluded Plisken.
“I thought your home was Trenzelore?” asked Artemis snappily, not happy about being interrupted.
Plisken made no comment but took out the communicator from underneath his skirts. He punched in the frequency and waited for a response. None came.
“Hmm,” though Artemis, “It could be our close proximity to the ‘node’.”
“Or they're dead!” cried Boyd.
“Boyd!” snapped Alex, turning his attention to the matter at hand, “Artemis, you have a plan, right?”
“Mr. Solvay, I always have a plan.”
“It’s not always a very good one,” muttered Jacky, provoking a laugh from Jamie.
But a sound from the hallway entrance interrupted the laughter. Everyone snapped their eyes to the small crowd of infected host that had come to defend their ‘mother’.
“What ever you’re doing,” shouted Plisken as she raised his rifle, “Do it now.”
<snip/>

Artemis rushed over to the node and started scanning, everyone else threw together a barricade and took firing positions. "Artemis...." Plisken said, looking back. "Give me time Mr. Plisken, if we do this wrong the node host will try to possess one of us and escape!" Artemis replied.

The group opened fire on the advancing horde of infected. One by one the infected went down, and one by one replacements flooded in from all sides. "This is it! This is how I die!" Boyd shouted. "I always thought I'd die from a heart attack at the Nathan's hot dog eating contest!"

Artemis took a quick inventory of his tools. The only ones he had that would be of any use were his spanner, a Swiss Army Knife he got as a Secret Santa gift from Holly before the accident, two regular Psi Scanners, the syringe gun, a surgical field kit (which was partially expended from the autopsy), some fusion batteries for the psi-scanners, and a Tamagotchi pet that had died during Artie's 3,000,000+ year absence. He thought of a way to destroy the creature....this...thing is mostly brain, and it puts off a higher than usual amount of electricity in it's brain. If I were to overcharge it than it will either die, or explode and cover us in goop....good enough

Boyd and Jamie ran out of ammo and starting hurling objects at the crowd, Jacky and Alex mothered what little they had left while Plisken checked on Artemis.

"Are you working on something?" Plisken asked. Artemis looked up at him. "I'm putting together a defibrillator, if I can somehow overcharge this bastard's brain it might kill it" "What are the chances this will work?" "There is a 40% chance this will cause hemorrhaging in the brain and the creature will die, a 50% chance it won't work, and a 10% chance it will simply explode" Artemis cut a wire and spliced it to another end. "Either way we're about to find out"

Artemis had broken the two psi-scanners and harvested their wires, he attached the wires to several points on the node. He then wired the node through the dead cyber pet and into the batteries. Artemis turned on the Tamagotchi, which charged the wires and electrocuted the node...to no effect. "What? It's not enough! We need more power!" Artemis yelled.

The Dwarfers rifled through their pockets and tossed all their battery operated appliances to Artemis. Psi-scanners, phones, games, and a battery operated fan. Just short of enough power. "We need just a little bit more!" Artemis shouted.

The horde breached the barricade, Alex, Jacky, Jamie and Boyd took to holding them back. "Fucks sake Artie hurry it up!" Alex shouted as a rabid butler tried to bite his nose off. Artemis looked around, then to his robotic arm. "This is going to end badly for me..." He said as he wired his arm into the circuit. "Mr....uh.....er....Well, Plisky, if I die make sure that my beloved wife is take care of!" Artemis said, activating the circuit. The bionic parts in Artie's body, powered by a mechanical heart, overcharged the node. There was a messy explosion...

The Infected grabbed their heads and howled in pain before collapsing. The Dwarfers sifted through the disgusting sludge that the explosion had left behind, groaning and complaining. Artemis sat up and looked at his arm, which was still somewhat functional. "Damn...that was fucked up" He said. Plisken sat up and brushed the goop off his face. "Yeah..." he commented. "But at least that's finished" Alex, Jacky, Jamie and Boyd circled around Plisken. "Okay, good job everyone" Plisken said wearily. "Yeah, besides getting coated in god only knows what that went pretty well" Alex said, fishing in his pockets for his cigarettes, which he so desperately needed after the dramatic end to the node. "So, are the infected finished now?" Asked Jamie. "Likely not, only the infected within a few kilometers of this node have died due to the trauma of such a...sudden departure. The others will adapt and move to defend the other. Unfortunately we won't be able to reach it in time to help Mr. Chrysler and his group, they're on their own"

Jacky looked at the node, then at the infected. "They'll likely be frenzied now that their signal is that much less. Jay's going to have quite the fight on his hands" He deduced.

"Hello? Is anyone there?" Jamie came over the radio, Katrina picked up the radio and tuned it to phase out any static. "Hello? Jamie?" "We took out the first node. Artie says to use electricity to overload the brain. Also, Jacky says that the infected are going to converge on the next node if you don't take it out soon. We're too far away to be any help, so we'll hold down here for now" "Alright Jamie, Katrina out"

Jamie slipped the radio into his pocket. "Okay, so what now?" Asked Jacky. "Wanna see if this joint has a bar?" Alex suggested. There was a chorus of acknowledgement. The sludge covered Dwarfers shuffled down to the first floor in search of booze....

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