Shutdown (Glitch)

loud crash echoed up the elevator tunnel right as the doors at the end of the corridor flew open. I could sense Regulators charging down the side hallways toward me from all sides of the mazelike central level. They’d make it to the main corridor where I stood in less than a minute. No more time for thinking.
    I closed my eyes and reached out with my good arm as if to guide my mental aim at the Regs pouring from the stairwell in front of me. At first I tried counting down their spines like I had with the others. I took down ten that way, then twenty, then forty. The downed Regs clogged the doorway from the stairwell, but I could feel more and more in the other hallways coming for me. As soon as they rounded the corner, they’d have a clear shot.
    There were too many. My breath came in and out in panicked gasps. I looked left and saw Regs make it around the corner and raise their laser-leaden arms. I only managed to avoid being hit straight in the chest by flinging a couple of downed Regs into the path of the oncoming fire.
    There was no time to be delicate with the lives of the Regs attacking me anymore. So much was happening, I couldn’t even spare the emotion to feel bad about it. I just started twisting their necks so hard a couple of heads came completely off. They thunked to the floor until they were kicked by the Regs charging by, like some macabre version of a children’s ball game.
    I swallowed down my horror at the gruesome sight and focused instead on disabling the attackers right as they turned the hallway corners and could get off a straight shot at me.
    But while I was staving them off and piling up a mountain of bodies, I wasn’t getting any closer to my goal. Splitting my focus in so many directions and using so much of my power at once was exhausting me quickly. A few moments here and there I even started to feel lightheaded from the pain and exertion. I couldn’t keep this up forever. The stairwells were choked with Regs, there was no way I’d be able to get down that way.
    Then I looked at the elevator doors right beside the stairwell. Of course. I could easily drop down the six-story opening and get to the Chancellor with only minimal obstruction.
    If I could get to the elevators.
    I simply didn’t have enough left in me to keep taking out Regs from every direction simultaneously. I had to switch tactics if I was going to survive this.
    I yanked ten of the fallen Regs closer and then held them shoulder to shoulder around me, creating a monstrous shield out of their dead bodies. I stacked up another layer of ten outside those, then let go of my focus on all the Regs coming at me from behind.
    I heard laser fire start to rip into the bodies at my back. The armor coating the Regs had could withstand laser blasts only up to a certain point. But with enough concentrated fire, they’d start to disintegrate. I had to work quickly. I flew forward, making sure to keep my shield intact around me. With fewer targets to focus on, I was able to move faster down the long corridor. I reached the elevator doors and wrenched them open with my telek.
    I leapt down the opening, letting my shield of dead Regs fall behind me. I dropped quickly and then slowed my speed. Shunt, I’d forgotten the elevator was still lodged in the bottom of the shaft from where I’d crashed it earlier. I was going to have to waste more energy getting through.
    I could feel the Regs above me pushing through the open elevator doors. I took them out as quickly as I could, hoping I’d clog up the opening so no more could get through. But all I managed to do was send several Regs tumbling through the opening. I caught them right before they fell on top of me. The elevator doors from other levels were opening too, with more Regs leaning down to fire at me. I yanked them through as well, snapping their necks as they fell. I kept them suspended overhead, building another shield.
    I tried to split my focus again to rip off the ceiling of the elevator below me. But I was already so depleted, the exertion sent a searing pain through my head. I roared in anger and pain and managed to tear away a small portion of the elevator’s top. I quickly disabled the Regs who’d survived the fall, then dropped through the opening. The elevator was little more than a steel cage. The huge bodies of the fallen Regs covered every inch of ground. I was forced to step on top of them while I pushed the elevator door open.
    As much as my body begged me to