by Kyle West
Ashton turned the ship, facing the city. “If we can find a spot to land, you guys can get there on foot.”
“With those...things...flying around?” Julian asked.
“They’re dragons,” I said.
“No,” Anna said. “They’re not.”
“Well, whatever they are, I think I lost them back in the clouds...”
“Maybe not,” Samuel said, pointing.
Shadowy shapes of wings descended, not for us, but for the city of Nova Roma.
“The invasion picked a hell of a time to spread to the Empire,” Ashton said. He looked at Julian. “Where’s the hospital?”
“Well, from the sky it will be difficult to find, but if you could land in Central Square...”
“Central Square, then,” Ashton said. “Find something to hold onto, kids. Things are going to get dicey.”
We rocketed forward, having to hold to the sides of the ship as we descended toward the city. There were at least two of those things flying around, causing chaos.
“Maybe those dragons will change Augustus’s opinion about things,” I said.
“Stop calling them dragons!” Anna said.
“Why? That’s what they are.”
“It’s so unoriginal. Surely you can think of a better name.”
“This isn’t relevant,” Ashton said. “I guess the meeting went poorly?”
“Yeah,” Samuel said. “But he wants to use the Xenos as an excuse to conquer the rest of the Wasteland.”
Ashton sniffed. “It doesn’t surprise me. I was right to keep him out of Bunker One.
At least you got some good intel out of him.” Ashton focused more intently on the controls. “We’re getting close, now.”
“Just land us in Central Square, and fly off again,” Julian said. “That would probably be the easiest.”
“And how will I find you again?” Ashton asked.
“We have flares, right?” Samuel asked.
“Yes, there should be some in the ship’s armory.”
“I’ll get one,” Anna said, rushing off the bridge.
“When you have Makara, get to the hospital roof and shoot the flare,” Ashton said. “Night like this, I’ll be able to see it easily.”
As we passed over the city walls and descended, some of the dragons veered course to come our way. At least three of them were flying toward us at full speed.
Anna rushed back onto the bridge. “You better hurry up!”
“Hold on to your britches, girlie,” Ashton said. “We’re in for a rough landing. You find the flare?”
Anna nodded, holding up a flare gun. My stomach did a flip when the ship suddenly descended. Gilgamesh plopped on the square awkwardly, scuttling a few times before coming to a stop.
“I can lose them in the clouds,” Ashton said. “Get your butts out of here!”
“Follow me,” Julian said.
We ran off the bridge, down the corridor, and out of the ship. As soon as we cleared the boarding ramp, Gilgamesh thundered toward the sky. A roar sounded from above. One of the dragons was diving for Gilgamesh. Ashton, with a slick sideways maneuver, dodged the blow as he blasted for the skies.
But we had our own troubles to deal with. Several guards rushed from the palace gates, staring upward in disbelief as Gilgamesh shot away with several xenodragons in tow.
“Does xenodragon work?” I asked.
“That’s even worse.”
“Come on!” Julian said. “It’s this way!”
Julian’s voice snapped the guards to attention. The lead guard yelled in Spanish, sending his cronies after us. Thankfully, none of them had guns. The Empire was so big that likely not everyone in its army had the privilege of owning a firearm.
We saved our ammo, instead rushing ahead across the square. It had completely emptied. The city was a ghost town with all its inhabitants hiding indoors.
Anna took her handgun, aiming it backward to fire a few times. The guards took the warning, stopping them in their tracks.
“Nos dejen en paz!” Julian shouted. “Guarden sus familias!”
The guards looked at each other, considered, then scattered.
“What did you say, Julian?” I asked.
“I told them to leave us alone and save their families.”
“Good advice,” Anna said.
We exited Central Square, turning down a side street. People watched from the windows as we blazed by. My lungs burned for air, but Makara was in danger. If any of the crawlers had followed their dragon mounts, then...
As if thinking of them was a summons, two crawlers appeared at the intersection ahead. They saw us, and scuttled down the street toward our position.
“This way!” Julian said.
He jumped through an open window, and we followed him in. We found ourselves in a living room, a large family looking at us with wide, surprised eyes. The mother and father looked at our weapons, then at us.
Julian didn’t stay long. We ran out the apartment’s front door, finding ourselves on a staircase. We ran up the steps, even as the monsters began to batter themselves against the door leading into the building.
We reached the top of the stairs, Julian bursting onto the apartment’s rooftop.
“The hospital is just two blocks away,” Julian said.
We were going to have to building hop again. The dragons were nowhere near us, instead circling the city near Central Square, about a half mile away. In the distance came the screams of another victim. More crawlers screeched from the street below. The dragons appeared to be ferrying them inside the city, right over the walls.
I ran after Julian and the others, making the jump to the next building with ease. The buildings were so close together that it would have been hard to fall. We hopped from one, to the other, silently through the night. Finally, reaching the end of the apartment row, we took a ladder down to the bottom. For now, the street was clear.
Once we hit the ground, we ran to the left. Julian was very fast, and hard to keep up with.
He took a right turn. After passing shops, cafes, and more apartments, we came to a large, open area filled with grass. A driveway circled around in front of a large, four story building.
“We’re here,” Julian said.
We ran up the drive and through the hospital’s front doors. The building was one of the few in the city powered with electricity. The glass doors slid open, leading into a lobby. Blood and dead bodies covered the floor. From within the building, I could hear screams of victims and the horrible wails of predators.
“We can only follow the noise,” Samuel said. “Get your weapons ready.”
We ran down the hall, and up a flight of stairs. When we arrived at the door that led to the second floor, a low hiss sounded from the other side, followed by a woman’s scream.
With a shout, Samuel kicked open the door, pointing his gun down the hallway. A crawler leaned over a small woman’s frame, ready to tear her to shreds.
Samuel fired, hitting the creature’s face. As the creature cried out and faced us with its angular head, his former prey forgotten, I realized that these crawlers were different from the ones in the Great Blight. Their armor was thicker, covering nearly every spot on their body. Their bodies were lower to the ground, affording them better speed and balance. Their legs had thickened, and the blades at the end of their tails were longer. The cruel spikes growing from their backs were curved and sharper than ever.
During our two months in Skyhome, it was not only us getting stronger. The virus was evolving its alien army to become more powerful than ever before.
Instead of attacking outright, the creature curled into a ball, its spikes jutting out on all sides. It rolled forward, right toward us.
Our bullets glanced off its armor, doing nothing. We shut the door to the stairwell, backing up the steps. The door burst open, and the monster’s head slithered in. It opened its mouth to give a bloodcurdling shriek. Then, it scuttled up the stairs after us. We could do no
thing but back away, run faster...
We exited onto the third floor, and ran down the hallway, passing rows of open doors. Most of the rooms were empty. When we passed the final door, we found a familiar form lying in the bed, her eyes shut.
“Makara!” Samuel said.
The crawler burst into the hallway, slinking low to the ground, its white eyes afire with bloodlust. We faced the crawler. We couldn’t give another inch, or Makara would die. This was where we stood our ground.
The narrow confines meant we couldn’t defeat the creature in our usual way – flanking it and getting a good attack on its soft underbelly. It completely blocked off the hallway, making it impossible to get around it from the front.
“Samuel, you and Julian keep it occupied,” I said. “Back up if you need to.”
I grabbed Anna by the arm, pulling her back.
“What are we doing?” Anna hissed.
“This hallway probably circles all the around,” I said. “If we can get behind it...”
“Hurry!” Samuel said.
The creature charged forward. Samuel and Julian backed up to the corner as Anna and I broke out into a dead run. We had to make it all the way around before the creature could hit Samuel and Julian. Hopefully, the creature would be too distracted to avoid Makara altogether.
We rounded the corner, finding a short hallway that led to the right again. We took the corner. We were now on the opposite side of where we had been.
“Faster,” Anna said.
The monster screeched from behind. I heard Samuel roar out, either from pain or exertion.
We turned another corner, finding ourselves on a short hallway. Just one more turn, and we would be behind the crawler.
But when we made that last turn, we found the hallway completely empty.
“They must have backed up further,” I said. “Keep going!”
We kept running, circling a corner yet again. The hallway was still empty. There were no sounds of struggle, no signs of a fight. I was beginning to wonder if we might have taken a wrong turn somewhere.
Until the crawler surged out of a door right behind us.
“Run!” Anna said.
We did run, but the creature snatched onto my leg. That’s when I heard gunshots. Somehow, Samuel and Julian had gotten behind the crawler. The crawler screamed horribly as it turned to deal with the new threat. Its grip loosened on my leg, and Anna ran forward, wedging her blade between the wall and the creature, angling it. With a thrust, she managed to stab it in the gut.
The creature collapsed to the floor and thrashed about, its tail swinging back and forth madly. Anna’s katana remained embedded in the creature as purple blood spilled from its gut, both from bullets and blade. We backed away, allowing the creature its dying spasms. A minute later, its movements had settled into feeble twitches. It settled into death.
Anna ran forward, retrieving her katana. It was coated in slimy, purple blood. She ran into a nearby room and wiped the blade on some bed sheets before sheathing it.
Samuel and Julian ran to Makara’s room, Anna and I following behind. Inside, Makara sat up in the bed, her eyes half opened. She was still dressed as she had been in the Coleseo. The skin surrounding her wound was angry and red, and white gauze surrounded her entire abdomen. Her face was pale and strained.
“I tried to get up,” she rasped, “but...”
“Come on,” Samuel said. “Ashton’s waiting up above. We’re getting out of here.”
He picked her up as if her weight was nothing, placing her gently over his right shoulder. She winced in pain, but said nothing.
“Glad you’re alright,” I said.
Makara forced a smile. She wasn’t looking at me, though. She looked at Julian.
“Thanks for guarding the door,” she said.
Julian’s face reddened as he gave a shy smile. “It was nothing.”
They shared a look, but it didn’t last long. Samuel strode out the door, walking quickly to the steps. The rest of us guarded him, making sure nothing else jumped out at us.
As we entered the stairwell, the power in the building shut off, leaving us in blinding darkness. It was dead quiet, but from below we could hear crawlers, their scuttling legs heading for the stairwell. I heard one of them hiss from below in the darkness.
“Go, go, go!” Samuel yelled.
We ran up the stairs. The creatures below were out of sight, but they made their presence known by their screaming. The metal of the stairs rattled as the crawlers ran up at lightning speed.
After two flights, Samuel burst the door open, revealing the hospital’s flat rooftop. Being the last one up, I shut the door, barring it with my back. Julian joined me in holding the door closed.
“The flare, Anna!” Samuel yelled.
Hastily, Anna reached at her side, withdrawing the flare gun from its holster. She pointed upward and fired. A long streak of red surged into the dark sky, arcing high above and falling again toward the ground. It left a trail of smoke that lingered and glowed in the night.
The door shook as a crawler battered it. The shock nearly made me fall over. From the clouds, a light descended. Instantly, several winged creatures screamed in the distance, making their way toward the speeding spaceship. Gilgamesh raced downward, to our position.
We had to hold on a little while longer.
The creature rammed the door again, throwing it off its hinges and sending Julian and me sprawling to the ground. I crawled ahead, scrambling up before the creature could set itself on me.
Ahead, the shape of Gilgamesh evened out with the building, hovering at a standstill. The dragons in the distance were closing. The ship’s blast door slid open, revealing the lit interior.
We were going to have to jump.
Samuel ran with Makara on his back. With a roar and the force of his powerful legs, he jumped through the air, landing in the spaceship. Anna followed close behind, making the jump with ease.
Julian and I ran forward, abandoning our positions by the door. A xenodragon dropped from the sky, heading directly for Gilgamesh’s front. As its claws extended, the ship’s twin turrets fired, nailing the monster with a shower of lead. The dragon roared in pain, arcing to the side and out of the way.
Julian jumped, rolling neatly into the spacecraft. Three crawlers behind me, I gave a mighty leap, pushing off with my right leg. I sailed through the air, arms outstretched. As I landed, the ship turned away. The turn caused me to teeter on the edge. I was about to fall through the open doorway. But as I fell backward, the door shut, and my back was stopped by the cold metal.
A bump came from the side of the ship, where one of the dragons had pummeled it. After rocking slightly, Gilgamesh arced at an even steeper angle, going straight for the clouds.
We lay on the deck, holding on for dear life as Ashton gave the ship all it had. We flew higher and higher, until finally, there were no more roars of flying monsters. The ship evened out, and we all lay, bloody and beaten, but still alive.
After the horror show we had just gone through, I almost couldn’t believe it.
Chapter 22
Almost an hour later aboard the bridge of the Gilgamesh, Samuel and I stood next to Ashton. Anna and Julian were asleep in the back. As much as I wanted to be there with them, Samuel wanted me here to update Ashton on the situation. Makara was resting in the clinic. Ashton had seen to her care, making sure there was no damage during the escape from the hospital.
“What’s the report?” Ashton asked.
“Augustus is on the move,” Samuel said. “His army is marching north and will be in the Wasteland in two months.” Samuel paused. “His first target will probably be Raider Bluff.”
“That doesn’t give us much time to muster a resistance,” Ashton said. “I take it he was counting on that.”
Neither of us answered Ashton. He sat, his blue eyes concentrated, his finger steepled. It was a stark contrast to his dishevelment before.
“Any damage to Gilgamesh?�
�� I asked.
“None to speak of,” Ashton said. “Let’s hope it stays that way.” He sighed, long and tired. “It’s a miracle everyone got out of there alive.”
Ashton’s mention of miracles reminded me of my moment of weakness in the Coleseo. I had prayed that Makara would live. For some reason, that didn’t bother me. We were all grappling with forces, seen and unseen – forces far beyond our control. There were mysteries that no science would ever be able to explain.
Thinking of that prayer reminded me of Julian for some reason.
“When can Julian go home?” I asked.
Ashton’s tired eyes looked up at me. He looked every bit his age, and more, but some light came to those eyes at the mention of home. He was quiet, thoughtful.
“We can take care of that when the time comes. We have bigger fish to fry for the moment.”
“Understood,” I said.
“He was a huge help,” Samuel said. “He saved Makara when I wasn’t able to. He blocked off that entire doorway and kept the crawler off her.”
“Heroic,” Ashton said.
“I would like him to become part of our crew.”
I looked at Samuel. We could use someone like Julian. But would he agree when home was so close?
“Talk to him,” Ashton said. “See if you can get him on board. I’m inclined to agree with you.”
“He hasn’t been home in ten years,” I said. “Shouldn’t we let him go?”
Ashton and Samuel looked at each other. Finally, Ashton spoke. “We need every able man we can get. But if he would rather stay in New America, then I won’t stop him.”
“What’s our next course of action?” Samuel asked.
“We need to refuel,” Ashton said. “We’re running on vapor, but luckily the Pacific isn’t too far. Once there, we can refuel and head to Bluff. We need to update Char on the situation. And from there, we must find the other Wasteland leaders. Carin Black must be either dealt with or brought to our side.”
“I think Augustus might be in league with him,” I said.
Ashton frowned. “That’s disturbing news. What makes you say that?”
“Augustus told us not to even try to persuade him,” Samuel said. “Like he knew something we didn’t.”
