Their footsteps were amplified by the hardwood flooring in the building’s foyer. A thick cloud of grey smoke collected along the ceiling, dulling the glow of the lights above them. However, it did nothing to hide the dead bodies scattered throughout the place. At least fifty corpses of various creatures, it undoubtedly provided a sample of what lay ahead in the city.
While fighting against the twisting and thrashing Sparks, Seb crouched down and leaned his back against a wall. He pulled Sparks down with him. To help her calm down, he whispered, “I won’t let you burn. I won’t let any of us burn. This is our only chance.”
The last one in, Bruke dropped down so he couldn’t be seen through the shattered windows and pressed himself against the wall beneath one of them. His mouth stretched wide as he fought for breath.
A millisecond later, the sound created by the rush of insanity came at them through the spaces where the windows had once been.
Because Seb couldn’t see outside, he looked around the space they’d hidden in. The foyer had been ripped apart. Anything made from upholstery—the chairs, the tablecloths, the curtains—had been shredded. Deep gouges scarred the white walls. Bodies lay scattered across the hardwood floor. Blood of all different colours painted every surface.
Creature after creature then flashed past the smashed front doors. A constant stream, they spilled out into the desert. They had one thought on their minds: get to the source of the explosion.
Despite the thick smoke in the foyer and the creatures tearing past outside, they’d made it. They’d gotten in without being seen. Seb continued to hold onto Sparks, who shook in his arms. He whispered to her, “It’s okay. We’re safe now.” He looked across at SA to see her clip the leveller back to her belt. They wouldn’t need it. Not yet anyway.
Chapter 17
The others gathered around Seb in the foyer. He wiped his stinging eyes—the smoke sending tears streaming down his cheeks—and continued to keep his voice low. “If we wait here too long, those creatures in the desert will be on their way back. I don’t think it’ll take them long to realise we’re nowhere near the wreck.”
The stomp of something large then ran past a smashed window next to them, shaking the ground with every step. So huge, Seb only saw a hip pass the windows.
When they could no longer feel the beast’s steps, Bruke said, “But if we go too soon, we’ll run into the stragglers.”
“Exactly,” Seb said. The looks from the others placed the decision squarely on his shoulders—again. Either option could land them in a whole heap of shit. They would stand by him, but he needed to make the choice.
A look around the foyer at the dead creatures and devastation, Seb then looked at Sparks. Although she returned his stare, her eyes flitted between him and the stairwell to the higher floors. Smoke poured through the gap beneath the door, flooding their space with a thicker and thicker cloud. “Too much longer,” she said, “and we’ll pass out from smoke inhalation.”
It had also grown hotter in the foyer from the fire above pressing down on them. Seb rubbed his burning eyes again, sweat as well as smoke making them sting.
Because nothing other than the giant had run past the windows, Seb nodded his assertion. He then showed his friends the palm of his right hand to encourage them to stay put, and moved in the direction of the hotel’s exit. As he weaved through the bodies littering the hardwood floor, he did his best to avoid the many pools of blood like he had when he entered the place. They varied in size, consistency, and colour.
Now close to the doors and farther away from the roaring fire, Seb heard the shrieks of the beings out in the desert. A mob of wild animals in the still night, they howled their insanity at Kajan’s permanent moon. Although indecipherable, something about their cries suggested frustration at the killings denied to them because of the abandoned wreck. It showed they had some basic form of cognition. Maybe enough to pull together into a hunting pack and flush the Shadow Order out of their city.
The air fresher near the exit, Seb breathed into his tight lungs. Just before he stepped out of the building to get a clear look, a small creature no higher than his shin appeared in front of him. An ugly little thing, it had long spindly legs and arms, green slimy skin like a frog, and a wide mouth filled with needle-like teeth. Its overbite made it look like a novelty bottle opener. As it looked up at Seb through its squiffy eyes, its jaw fell limp with a slight clop.
The creature then pulled in a deep breath to let loose a scream, but Seb darted forwards and stamped on it before it could. The rotund little thing burst like an atomic bomb, exploding with a shockwave that nearly threw Seb to the ground. The fierce release of air rushed through the hotel’s foyer, momentarily clearing it of smoke. It shattered the few windows that remained intact, damn near turning the panes to dust as it thrust the glass out into the street.
His hands clasped to his ears, Seb opened and closed his mouth as if it would help relieve the ring in his skull. The small creature’s innards had made a mess of his boot and the wall, painting them both with a thick green slime.
Even over his ringing ears, Seb noticed the absence of noise in the desert much like he’d noticed the absence of noise in the city when their ship blew up. A moment later, the creatures’ cries lit up the night again. They were heading back.
Seb looked at his friends to see all of them staring at him with the same slack expression. He beckoned them towards him and shouted, “Quick, let’s get the hell out of here.”
While he waited for them—everything in slow motion—his legs buzzed with the need to run.
The second they left the foyer, Seb looked out into the desert and saw the shadows coming to life.
“Damn,” Reyes said as the darkness turned into a mess of insanity. Creatures of all different shapes and sizes, they came forward in a line stretching so wide Seb couldn’t view them all without turning his head from side to side.
Sparks turned to run into the city first. By the time Seb had spun around too, he saw she’d already stopped. More creatures were coming at them, a group of stragglers still emerging from the brightly lit streets. Only twenty or so. Not many if they had to fight them on their own, but they’d slow them down enough for the pack behind to catch up.
Because he knew Sparks wouldn’t come, Seb grabbed her and dragged her back into the hotel’s foyer. She fought against him, twisting to get free from his grip.
“We can’t go out there,” Seb said.
“Where do we go, then?”
“Up.”
While looking at the smoking door, Sparks shook her head. “No way.”
Not a decision he made lightly, but certainly one he had to make quickly, Seb scooped Sparks up and ran for the door through the cloying smoke. Although she kicked and twitched in his grip, nothing would stop him from saving her life.
When he reached it, Seb grabbed the handle on the stairwell door and instantly let go. Too hot to hold, he stood on one leg instead and kicked it down with his suspended foot. He fell forward as it opened.
They rushed in as thick black smoke fell out, flooding the foyer. At least it would assault their pursuers too.
SA overtook Seb at the bottom of the stairs and led the charge, running into the darkness with Reyes and Bruke behind her. Seb put Sparks down. She dug her heels in again, her hands on her hips as she refused to move.
“Please trust me,” Seb said. “This is our best option. Believe me, I didn’t want to go underwater when we had to, but I recognised it as the only choice. I’ll make this work, I promise.”
The screams of the creatures outside now closer than before, Sparks looked back in the direction of the sound before pulling in a deep breath and running into the smoky stairwell after the others.
As Seb listened to his friends run away from him, he noticed a fire axe close to the door. A metal-handled tool, he ripped it free and wedged it between the door handles, the wooden floor shaking from the footfalls of the creatures that had entered the hotel.
The doors came forward with another shove, sending Seb back a second step before he spun on his heel and ran up the stairs after his friends. Despite the promise he’d made to Sparks, he didn’t know what they were running into. But he did know it had to be better than facing what was gathering in the hotel’s foyer.
Chapter 18
With only the sound of his team’s footsteps to follow through the dense black smoke, Seb blinked against his stinging eyes and ran blind. He dragged his left hand against the wall to keep his bearings. An inhale to call ahead, it filled his lungs with the acrid, plastic burn around him. Stars punched through his vision as he coughed, every breath dragging more of the toxic air into his lungs.
By the time Seb stumbled past the fourth floor, the smoke had thinned a little. It still rose up the stairwell, turning the tall structure into a chimney, but the worst of the flames and smoke came from the second floor. That wouldn’t be the case for much longer. The stairwell would soon be full.
Every breath relieved Seb that little bit more, and the sound of his friends speeding off ahead of him lifted his heart. If they were getting quicker, then he would too.
The ripping sound of tearing wood and then the clang of metal hitting concrete told Seb the creatures below had beaten his barricade. An instant later, the swell of insanity filled the tall cavernous space, their cries riding up on the back of the thick smoke.
It sounded like thousands of them below. Nothing else for it, Seb gritted his teeth and pushed through the lactic burn in his legs. So many different beings behind, some of them must be able to run through the smoke quicker than he could.
Six floors up, Seb quickened his pace and took the steps two at a time. Still thick with smoke, but it was better than lower down. Sweat poured from his brow into his stinging eyes, which he blinked against repeatedly.
The stairs shook from the weight of the beings on Seb’s tail. Their loud calls made it harder to hear his friends ahead. But when he focused, he managed to tune in to them. They were still climbing.
The sign on the wall had a number ten on it in what must have been twenty different languages. The first one Seb had seen through the black clouds. The pack on his tail were gaining. Those in the lead were clearly through the worst of it. The echo of his own gasps taunted him; did he have it in him to go all the way, or would the creatures catch him on the stairs?
Smoke and sweat still stung Seb’s eyes and partially blinded him. His own fatigue got fed back to him with the slaps of his heavy steps against the metal stairs. He spoke to his friends through SA. How much farther?
Reyes’ voice came back. Floor fifteen is the top. We’ve propped the doors open to let some of the smoke out.
As Seb passed eleven, he pushed the sounds behind him to the back of his mind and ground his jaw against his fatigue. I’ll be with you soon. They’re close.
We’re ready for them, Reyes said back.
At floor thirteen Seb heard the heavy slathering breaths of the beasts. Although he looked behind, he still couldn’t see them. The ones at the front sounded like they moved on four legs rather than two. They were eating up the stairs as they ascended at a gallop.
A wobble kicked through Seb’s legs, and he nearly fell. The strength had left him. He wouldn’t make it. When he turned with the staircase to run up to the next floor, he saw it behind him. Somewhere between a wolf and a crocodile, the thing had a long forked tongue and a large mouth loaded with teeth. The sight of it gave him the extra burst of speed he needed.
Just as Seb started the climb to the fifteenth floor, a green blast flew past him and into the creature’s face. It yelped before falling backwards down the stairs, its thick tail curling beneath it and turning it into a leathery bowling ball. The thud of it bounced off the metal steps on its way down.
At floor fifteen, Seb saw Bruke, SA, and Reyes. SA and Reyes were at the front, their guns raised and pointing down the stairs. Bruke had his gun and what must have been Sparks’ weapon ready to hand over to them. He also kept the double doors propped open.
SA and Reyes parted for Seb, letting him through to the top floor before sending another barrage of fire down the stairs. The smoke meant they had to shoot blind. Screams of fury rather than pain responded to their attack.
Bruke tugged on Seb’s weapon as he ran through. “Give me your gun.”
As Seb handed it to him, Bruke explained, “I’m getting ready to swap their blasters around when they overheat.”
At that moment, Reyes threw her automatic weapon down behind her. The light on the top of it glowed red. A second later, SA did the same. Bruke had already given a fresh one to Reyes, who fired down the stairs again. He then loaded up SA. Barely a pause in their attack, the two soldiers kept the advancing horde at bay.
“We’ll stay here while you and Sparks find the best way out,” Bruke said. He wiped his face against his shoulder. His eyes were red from the smoke, and he squinted as if he struggled to see through them. “We should be able to hold them back, but we don’t know for how long.”
No time for a conversation, Seb simply patted his thickset friend’s hard shoulder as he passed him and ran onto the fifteenth floor to meet a furious Sparks.
Before Seb could say anything, Sparks pointed a long finger at him. “Don’t you dare pick me up like that again. I’m not a child.”
Seb pulled in a deep breath of the fresher air and looked at the doors on either side of the hallway. Just two rooms up there, it must have been the penthouse suites. The first door he tried didn’t budge. Made from thick hardwood, he balled his fist and punched the thing from its hinges. A mess of splinters and wood dust, it revealed the room beyond. It had several sets of stepladders dotted around the place and cans of paint everywhere. “They must have been decorating when Enigma’s call went out.”
Although Sparks had followed him in, she ignored him. A bulge in her cheek from where she ran her tongue around the inside of her mouth as if it helped contain her vitriol, she took in the room.
The sound of automatic fire rang out from the stairwell behind them. They had time, but not too much. It wouldn’t be long before either the smoke or the creatures got them. Seb needed to come up with a plan. He ran to the large window on the other side of the room. It overlooked the desert. The cold contact of his forehead touching the glass, he looked down at the ground. It gave him a view of the beings running in through the hotel’s entrance. The line of creatures looked like it had no end. “This isn’t the right room,” he said.
“Maybe you should call reception and ask them to switch you.”
But Seb ignored her, running back out of the room and knocking down the door that led to the suite opposite. A similar state to the first one, it had cans of paint and stepladders dotted around it. As he ran, he picked up a large tin of white emulsion and launched it at the window in front of him. It shattered the pane with a loud splash as it sailed through the glass and disappeared into the darkness outside.
By the time Seb got to the smashed window—the air considerably fresher—he watched the can of paint pop on the ground below. It left a large white explosion on the dark road. What would the fall do to a body? He shook his head to banish the image. This suite faced the city. To look down showed him a clear street. All the creatures were too busy running in through the foyer and stairwell.
Bruke’s voice came at them. “Hurry up, Seb, they’re gaining ground here.”
“The buildings opposite are too far away,” Sparks said.
Instead of replying to her, Seb ran back out into the hallway. He thought he’d seen it on the way through, but he couldn’t be sure. When he got to the thick red fire hose, he grabbed the end of it and tugged, snapping it free of the plastic catch holding it in place. It unravelled as he dragged it away. Hopefully it would unravel far enough.
Seb
ran back towards the smashed window, picking up another heavy paint can on the way through. The cool outside air rushed in as he closed down on it.
A decorator’s grubby towel covered in paint lay on the floor by the window. Seb tied it around the handle of the paint can and then around the end of the hose. Although Sparks watched him the entire time, he didn’t try to explain. Instead, he tossed the can from the window and watched it drag the hose out with it. The whoosh of the thick hose rushed over the window frame.
As the hose unwound, Seb felt Sparks stare at him while he watched it. When it snapped taut, he looked out of the window. The can of paint swung from where it hadn’t quite reached the ground.
Sparks poked her head out next to him. “It’s a couple of storeys short.”
“We’ll have to jump.”
“A couple of storeys to you is very different than a couple of storeys to me.”
“I’ll send SA down first; she can catch you at the bottom.”
“What is this? Toss the short person?”
“We could play burn the short person instead.”
When Sparks didn’t answer, Seb ran back out into the hallway and said to SA, I’ll relieve you. I need you to go and see Sparks. She’ll tell you the plan.
The second Seb reached the stairwell, SA threw her gun at him and ran back in the direction he’d just come from. He stepped forward, the gun pressed into his shoulder, and opened fire into the dense pack of bodies trying to get up to them.
Chapter 19
Seb remained at the top of the stairwell, his hands aching from the recoil of his gun. Sweating as much as ever, he blinked repeatedly, but it did very little against the sharp burn in his eyes. Tears ran down his cheeks while pains streaked up both sides of his face from where he clamped his jaw with the effort of the continuous offensive. But at least every shot landed; hard to miss because of the dense press of bodies. A massacre, but he had no choice. If he didn’t kill them, they’d kill him.
The Shadow Order - Books 1 - 8 + 120 Seconds (The complete series): A Space Opera Page 120
