Judgement Day

Bullets shriek and fly past Andrew in a steady stream of gunfire as he rides his Lawmaster into the hot zone of bullets. Judge Anderson and rookie Judge Yvaine were pinned down in level 13 while trying to quell a war between two giant megablocks that each rose to over 200 stories. A bullet roams too close to Andrew's helmet and pings off of it, a hair width above the area that his flesh is exposed to the rain of unholy gunfire.

"Dredd," Andrew yells into his mic. "We're getting shot up like a practice target, we need to get to cover now!"

"Negative rookie, destination less than seventy feet and inbound. Be prepared to jump into the opening in less than ten seconds." Dredd responds as he guns his Lawmaster's engine.

"What entrance? There is nothing there!"

Dredd in response to Andrew's question shoots his Lawmaster's cannon and blows a hole into the wall of the approaching block. Dredd crouches on top of the Lawmaster, looking like one a horse jockey. Andrew follows Dredd's lead.

"Computer, negate safety protocols and activate autopilot." Andrew instructs the A.I. as the gap gets closer.

"Affirmative." it responds to his orders.

The hole is less than twenty feet away and it gets closer with every second. Andrew knows he needs to time this perfectly, if he jumps too soon and gets caught outside he will be ripped to shreds by the heavy gunfire or he will impale himself on the metal spikes and rubble. If he jumps too late he will be hurled into the support beams that barely hold up the entrance to the John Grisham block, bringing the first two floors crashing down on top of him.

Andrew clears his mind of everything except for this jump he cannot be distracted. The investment of years of rigorous training will show if it paid off or if it was a waste. Dredd jumped and a moment later Andrew jumped after him.

His eyes wanted to shut but he had to keep them open. Time had slowed to a crawl. Bullets, explosions, shrapnel, and the like moved at a hundredth of their normal speed. Andrew looked up and saw a pole, if he grabbed it he could stop his momentum to guarantee that he would be able to land his jump.

Andrew's hand reached out, the tips of his fingertips touch the warm metal. His hand wraps around the bar, the rest of his body continues forward, nearly wrenching his arm out of his socket. A howl of pain escapes from his throat and he drops behind cover. Years of training at the academy strengthening and toughing him up but that had still hurt. Arm nearly wrenched out of his socket as he heard a fleshy popping sound. Gritting his teeth as he fought through the momentary pain.

Andrew drew his Lawgiver and then dropped to the ground. His training took over as he took cover behind a giant slab of rubble. Pressing his comm unit button down he whispered, "Judge Dredd? Come in Judge Dredd." The radio was silent. Andrew was alone for the moment.

Andrew peeked over the rubble to receive a hail fire of bullets. He crashed back down to the ground writhing in pain; one of the bullets had been lodged in his left shoulder. Luckily his shooting arm was still in good condition.

Andrew peaked around the rubble; a group of about eight crazed block members were setting up position. The man leading the group was ordering four of them flank around to his left side. He had to act fast or else he would be skinned alive, literally, by these want to be warriors.

Andrew looked at his Lawgiver and gave it a small kiss as he always did when he needed his best aim. "Incendiary." he told the gun. It beeped to signal that it was primed with the ammo he needed.

Andrew breathed in one last time and jumped up, his mind a cold steel trap housing one though, survive. He aimed his gun in the center of the group.

"Attempted murder of a Judge. The sentence is death!" he yelled as he pulled the trigger.

A white ball of fire shot out of the barrel of his gun. It split off into twenty ways and began burning anything and everything within the small hallway the group had advanced through. The fire colliding and catching the block members on fire that escalated into a white-hot inferno.

The air was rank with the smell of burning flesh as it melted off the block citizen’s bones. For a moment Andrew almost regretted pulling the trigger. He snapped out of his thoughts as he heard more dwellers moving up behind the burning carcasses. Andrew turned and began to run. He needed to find a better place to defend while he finds either Dredd or the other two Judges, hopefully all three at the same time.

Andrew dodged a few more bullets, blood poured from the wound in his shoulder. His head was on a swivel, trying to find a room or something he could hide in. He glanced up to see a partially opened door. Andrew sprinted towards the door; using every last drop of energy left in him to crash through the door and slammed it shut behind him. He ducked behind a wall for a moment as he heard the block soldiers run past him. Once they were gone he let out the breath he had been holding in since he launched the incendiary shot on those citizens.

Andrew couldn’t see around the room he was in except for the entrance, which was lit by a low hanging light bulb. Improper use of electricity, if I find the people who dwell here it is an automatic seven-year sentence. Focus Andrew focus! he screamed in his head.

Opening his field kit he used the tweezers to pull out the bullet. Applying a salve that disinfected the wound, it always burned like someone was pouring liquid metal on his wounds. The final step was putting the automatic stitching mechanism on. He put it onto the end of his wound and it worked its magic. Moving up and down closing the wound to prevent it from opening again.

Now that he had applied his basic field dressings he leaned his head back for a moment before flipping the night vision setting on his helmet on. The room was aglow in a green light; it always took time to get used to as the green always strained his eyes. He stood up and walked forward into the room, what he saw nearly made him want to switch his night vision off.

Discarded body parts lay everywhere, some in piles, some pooling in puddles of blood. Heads, legs, arms, torsos, everything was there. Skeletons were nailed all along the rooms walls, leading up to a giant dome that was at least sixteen feet higher than where Andrew was standing. In the middle of the room there was a surgical table. On it was a naked, shivering, male who was missing an arm and one of his feet. But he was still alive somehow.

Andrew checked the room before moving up. He carefully placed every step before coming side to side with the person on the table. The man wriggled and moaned, his voice blocked with a gag and his sight blocked with a blindfold. Andrew reached down and pulled it out of his mouth and placed it next to him.

“Please kill me. I can’t take anymore, just stop cutting me!” he screamed and cried.

“Civilian this is Judge Grey. Report.” he instructed the man as he pulled the blindfold off of the victims face.

“A Judge? Thank Gawd you’re here. Listen he’s crazy man! He chopped my other block mates up and then fed him to those, those, those things! You got to get me out of here!”

“Calm down, where is he?”

The victim paused as his eyes darted to right behind Andrew. Andrew turned around to see a man in a black cloak crawling around the ceiling. He had six long, white, spindly, arms similar to a spider and everywhere he touched he left behind some sort of stick white fluid.

“Hotshot.” Andrew told his Lawgiver as he raised the gun to the man. “This is Judge Grey, surrender now and await execution.”

The man slowly began to morph the fluid together to create some sort of weird rope. Dropping towards the floor but stopping when he was about eight feet off the ground. What little Andrew could see of this monster repulsed him.

“Hello Judge,” the thing spoke in a wet sounding voice, the tone behind the words was hollow yet Andrew could tell there was something else behind them, almost as if it was delighted and indulged in a passion for cruelty and malice.

“Come down to the ground and receive judgment. This is your final warning!” Andrew screamed at the thing.

“But Judge, its time to play!” it screeched as it lunged itself at him.