Light pierced through the broken elevator doors. As I squeezed through the gap, a hand grabbed me, yanking me behind a reception desk. Rellik crouched there, gripping an automatic weapon.

  "Stay down!" he whispered.

  "What's going on?" The answer came in a barrage of gunfire. Peeking over the desk, I saw rebels using a military jeep as cover, exchanging fire with soldiers who wielded futuristic weapons and strange shields in front of the hospital.

  "Grenade!" A soldier lobbed a small black sphere that detonated mid-air, spraying deadly projectiles that tore through the rebel ranks. One of the surviving rebels pulled a classic grenade.

  "Right back to you!" he screamed as he chucked it, but a soldier's shot sent it spinning into our building, landing beside us.

  "Run!" We barely made it behind a jeep before the explosion rendered the building unusable. Only two rebels remained besides us.

  "Do we have a gun?" one shouted. I nodded, but before I could act, a shot took him in the face.

  "What does Waffenkammer mean?" I asked, noting the text on the jeep.

  "Armory!" Rellik replied. I pried open the door to find an arsenal. I grabbed black grenades, body armor, and a futuristic weapon before returning to Rellik.

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  "Do you have a plan?" he asked.

  "Yes." I hurled two grenades. The mid-air detonation rained death on the soldiers.

  "Wow, why didn't we do that in the first place?"

  We approached the hospital's locked doors. Rellik kicked them open, but a thunderous bang behind us revealed a black rectangular box. Its screen read: "Executioner 19-96, 9ft, 4,700 lb."

  The box exploded in smoke, and a horrific screech pierced the air. Through the haze emerged a massive creature in black armor, its exposed head a nightmare of melded faces and black eyes. Smoke curled from its mouth as it raised a futuristic gatling gun.

  "What do we do?" I asked.

  "Run!"

  We sprinted through the hospital corridors, the monster's thunderous footsteps and bullet spray close behind. At a fork, we ducked into a storage room, locking the door before squeezing into an open vent. We held our breath as the creature's heavy steps passed.

  "What the hell was that?" I whispered once we emerged.

  "That was an Executioner – two prisoners combined," Rellik explained. "Noir needed something to terrify or eliminate major threats."

  The door burst open. The Executioner seized Rellik by the throat. My shots to its face did nothing. Spotting a liquid nitrogen canister, I had an idea.

  "Hey big boy!" The creature dropped Rellik and charged. "Try this!"

  The canister exploded in its face, freezing the grotesque features. As its body thrashed, I took aim.

  "Adiós." The bullet shattered its frozen head into gory fragments. "Executioner, you have been executed."

  I rushed to Rellik's motionless form. "Rellik..." I shook him. "Rellik!"

  He snarled and sat up, dazed. "Sorry."

  "It's okay," I said, hugging him tight.

  "We need to go now," he urged.