Cyberpunk: I'm Not a Scavenger - Chapter 54: Sonic Shockwaves (Patreon)

Deep inside the mine, at the entrance to the Wraith camp, the tension was almost unbearable.

Three heavy machine guns covered the narrow passage from different angles. Behind barricades of sandbags and abandoned vehicles, dozens of Wraiths watched the darkness without daring to blink.

Bzzzz...

A faint electric-motor whine came from the darkness outside the tunnel.

“Shit! They’re coming!”

A machine gunner shouted, his finger trembling on the trigger.

Several little cars shot out of the darkness and raced along both rock walls toward the barricades.

Ratatat!

Dozens of guns opened up together, ripping the flimsy vehicles into bits of plastic. Bullets ricocheted off the walls and rattled against the sandbags.

The Wraiths peeked over their cover at the wreckage and burst out laughing.

“Hahaha! That’s it?”

“Kids’ toys! You idiots got driven back by those things?”

Trevor, however, looked furious.

“You fucking morons! You think ammunition’s free? Anyone who runs out of bullets goes without dinner!”

The Wraiths abruptly remembered they didn’t have unlimited ammunition. Now they were afraid to pull the trigger at all.

Trevor sighed, already beginning to regret his choice of hideout. The mine was easy to defend but made escape difficult. Perhaps choosing it had been a mistake.

But there was no resetting the game now.

A moment later, dozens more cars charged down the tunnel at once. The Wraiths’ hesitant, scattered fire couldn’t stop them. They were almost on top of the barricades.

“Fuck! Shoot! Forget about saving ammo!”

Trevor was about to lose his mind. He seized a heavy machine gun and sprayed bullets down the passage.

His men reluctantly followed his lead. Muzzle flashes lit the tunnel as the cars were torn apart one after another.

This time, however, billowing clouds of coal-black smoke poured from the wrecks. The smoke rolled through the narrow passage and swallowed the forward defenses.

“Cough! My eyes!”

“Fuck! Tear gas! Those Aldecaldos fight dirty!”

“I can’t see! I can’t see!”

The Wraiths at the front were hit first. Their eyes streamed with tears and snot poured down their faces as the concentrated irritant engulfed them. The thick smoke also obscured their vision, leaving them temporarily blind.

They coughed so violently they could hardly breathe. Their limbs weakened until they could barely hold their guns.

“Gas masks on! If you don’t have one, piss on a rag and cover your face!”

Trevor’s implanted bionic lungs and cybernetic eye made him immune to the tear gas. He ordered several other unaffected Wraiths to help the netrunner overclock the ventilation system.

RUMBLE!

A massive exhaust fan deep in the camp roared into action, sending a gale through the passages and driving the smoke into other tunnels. More men brought industrial fans, and the affected Wraiths crowded around them.

Within minutes, the passage had cleared. The Wraiths leaned miserably against the sandbags, their eyes still red and watering.

“That’s all you’ve got? Even old ladies don’t smoke anything that weak!”

One junior Wraith officer blew his nose and fired a burst down the tunnel.

Even the stupidest Wraiths now realized something was wrong. The attackers could just keep wearing them down without exposing themselves.

With no escape route, the trapped gangsters grew increasingly frantic.

Trevor gave one of his men a discreet signal, and the underling began edging away.

Bzzzz...

Before he could get far, a strange vibration came through the floor and rock walls.

“What’s that sound?”

One Wraith pressed an ear against the wall, trying to make sense of it. The next instant, a powerful sonic wave ruptured his eardrums.

He touched his face in a daze and found his fingers slick with blood. More blood poured from his ears and nose.

A sonic blast exceeding 140 decibels swept across the camp like an invisible tsunami, penetrating thick rock and every barrier in its path. It was like ten thousand people screaming into his ears at once, or a whole army of Noise Marines partying inside his skull.

Along with the deafening sound came infrasound that human ears couldn’t detect.

A Wraith staggered, his face turning deathly pale as his stomach churned.

“Ugh!”

He dropped to his knees and vomited until there was nothing left but bile. Even then, he felt no better.

All around him, the Wraiths watched the world spin. They could no longer tell which way was up, and the vertigo was so severe they could barely stand.

The infrasound had damaged their vestibular systems in the inner ear.

One man reached for the wall and pitched headfirst into the sandbags. Another tried to retreat but staggered drunkenly into the rock, unable even to walk straight. Nauseated and helpless, they didn’t have the strength to lift their guns, let alone end their own suffering.

“W-what the hell is this?!”

Trevor clung to the tripod of a heavy machine gun to keep from collapsing. His cybernetic eye flickered as he contacted the netrunner, but the dizziness had him seeing double.

“SONIC WEAPON!!!”

The words flashed across his vision in a crooked line.

He shook his head, then thought of a solution.

“If I puncture my eardrums, I won’t hear it anymore, right? Everyone, on my order, deafen yourselves!”

Leading by example, Trevor clapped his hands against the ears of the man in front of him hard enough to rupture both eardrums.

“Well? Did it work?”

The man didn’t respond. His pupils were slowly dilating. Apparently not.

Trevor was too ignorant to know that sound could travel through more than his ears. Only a vacuum around his body, followed by floating clear of the surrounding rock, could spare him.

Nothing else would prevent the vibrations from reaching him.

Trevor stumbled, then suddenly remembered his escape plan. He snatched an iron skewer from a nearby shelf and drove it into his own ear without hesitation.

Well, maybe it was doing something. A little? He couldn’t tell whether it was merely the placebo effect, but the noise seemed slightly quieter.

As the sonic assault gradually faded, he staggered toward his final escape route, struggling against the nausea.

Behind him, faint skittering footsteps approached through the tunnel. Several dazed Wraiths pulled their triggers mechanically without seeing a target.

Unnoticed above them, countless pairs of crimson eyes peered over the obstacles and watched in silence.