“That didn’t take long,” whispers Marcus as he peers over the wood at the armoured figure. The Enforcer makes its way into the building site and Marcus notices that it doesn’t walk naturally—not like a person would. The stilted way in which the Enforcer moves reminds Marcus of primitive android technology—more machine than human.
“Over here!” says Marcus and steps out from behind the timber. It takes only a second for the Enforcer to register his arrival and the dark visor turns towards him. Marcus cracks his knuckles.
The Enforcer and Marcus rush at each other. They grip hands and Marcus cries out as a short electrical pulse is discharged through the Enforcer’s body armour. He steps away and throws a fist at the Enforcer’s chest, but the armoured figure ducks away in time.
They continue trading blows like this, turning around one another in circles as they make their way thorugh the building site. The Enforcer swings at Marcus and he dodges, before hitting back with his shoulder and dropping the Enforcer to the ground.
Now the Enforcer reaches for the pistol strapped to its chest. Crack, crack, crack is the sound that the bullets make as the gun fires and Marcus ducks for cover behind a steel girder. Looking around for a weapon—any weapon—Marcus closes his fingers around a brick and ducks out of cover. He hurls the brick at the Enforcer.
The brick hits the Enforcer in the chest, stunning him enough for Marcus to get close. Again they trade blows. Marcus strikes the Enforcer in the stomach and throws a knee into the black visor when the officer doubles over. The visor does not break and Marcus feels pain shoot sharply through his leg.
Then the Enforcer catches Marcus unbalanced and thrusts both fists into his face at once. The future-human topples backwards, blood trickling from his nose. A boot strikes Marcus in the chest and something heavy comes down on his knee. There is a crunching sound that Marcus believes to be the tearing of ligaments and he cries out. He scream echoes weirdly around the mostly-empty building site.
As the Enforcer produces his pistol once more and lowers it towards Marcus. Marcus chops at the wrist of the Enforcer with his straightened palm as hard as he can and the gun goes tumbling away. Marcus stands up, supporting most of his weight on his uninjured leg and hits out at the Enforcer again.
It seems clear that the Enforcer wasn’t expecting Marcus to get up again and for a moment it simply stands there, immobile and uncertain of what to do. This is a characteristic that Marcus recognises, but he doesn’t care to think about it too much. He limps forward, pushing the Enforcer into a metal beam and following with a flurry of punches.
The Enforcer is temporarily incapacitated, but Marcus knows that he can’t waste any time. Grabbing the police officer by the chest, Marcus turns and throws it on the ground where he was laying only moments before. Then he pushes over a portable cement mixer, pinning the Enforcer to the ground.
Marcus watches the Enforcer struggle to get free and realises—whatever they are—that the Enforcers are completely silent. Not even a whisper comes from beneath the black visor. Marcus drops to his knees and attempts to pull the helmet free of the Enforcer’s head, but it remains firmly fixed in place.
Grunting with frustration, Marcus scans the area in search for anything he can use to open the visor. Spotting a crowbar he scuttles towards it. Behind him, he hears the cement mixer topple over as the Enforcer rises to its feet.
“Stay… down!” says Marcus, spinning in a circle and striking the Enforcer’s helmet as hard as he can. The clang of the crowbar striking the Enforcer’s head is almost deafening as it rings out across the night. The Enforcer raises its arms, helpless for a moment and then stumbles backwards as Marcus hits it again. He twists the crowbar expertly in his wrist and hits again and again.
Finally the Enforcer slumps to the ground and Marcus wipes the blood from his nose with , the back of his hand. Muttering expletives, he lowers himself beside the armoured figure and uses the pointed edge of the crowbar to shatter the visor that covers its face.
Marcus reaches into his pocket for the contact lenses and only bothers placing one of them in his eye. “Can you guys see this?” Marcus asks and looks down at the Enforcer.
The face of the creature is almost warped beyond recognition—but Marcus can tell that the Enforcer was human once. A tangle of wires trace in and out of the waxy skin of the corpse and Marcus can tell that whoever was inside the suit had already been dead for a long time.
Then the eyes of the corpse snap open and Marcus finds himself staring down into them. Dead though they may be, there is still a spark in them—a fire that Marcus recognises as well as if he were looking at himself in the mirror. For the Enforcers are not just zombies, Marcus realises, they are also Tel-Ur.
“Time to move,” comes Conor’s voice in his ear and Marcus shakes his head clear of thoughts. A brilliant circle of light falls on Marcus where he’s squatting above the body of the Enforcer.
Marcus turns and blinks. He can see the dark shadows of at least three more Enforcers highlighted against the glare. “Freeze,” says a synthesised voice that seems to play out of the chest of one of the Enforcers and Marcus doesn’t need to be told twice. Ignoring the pain in his knee he pushes away from the damaged Enforcer and makes his way towards the place where he left the conveyance.
Gunshots ring out behind him, but Marcus is good at finding cover and makes it across the building site unscathed. He climbs onto the motorbike as the Enforcer’s spotlight finds him, then he squeezes the throttle and shoots away in an explosion of gravel and dirt.