METAVERSE GAMES: OMNIBUS

by William Kurth

  The packed mob nature that the DEVO’s utilized moving in extreme close quarters together to maximize their numbers also maximized their casualties. Not even one was left standing on the street. The rounds that managed to make it all the way to the structures on the other side before detonating set the devastation they inflicted ablaze. The brick and cement caused a back-blast of pressure and shrapnel ricocheting into the masses of DEVO’s even as more rounds detonated from the fence line edge catching the things in the open street, the brick and shrapnel bouncing back on them from their rear while the cannon fire hit them from the front.

  It was an incredibly efficient killing zone, making Logan gasp all the more as he saw more of the things moving onto the slaughtering field even now from side streets and alleyways that ran adjacent to or near the main thoroughfare in front of the Radio Building, uncaring about the destruction and danger before them. It would take them sometime to mass again and move onto the property. Logan needed that time to go to the other side where they rallied in nearly as big a number flowing out of the train station.

  The JLTV, directed by voice command, raced around to the other side of the building. As soon as the rig came around to face the passenger train terminal, Logan saw that the number of creatures there had doubled in the less than five minutes since he left. More pertinent, the first wave already crossed the train terminal parking lots, many pulling or pushing carts with drums of gasoline or fuel.

  Logan didn’t understand how they could at times be cunning and then at others use such bad tactics. Those barrels would soon be exploding flaming shrapnel cutting them down. The creatures wouldn’t care, they would only mass and mass until he ran out of ammo, or they ran out of bodies. As always, the math was in their favor.

  Logan spun the turret to the right. He spied an elevated grassy area that separated the parking lot from the Radio Building. Logan moved the JLTV on to the top of it. He now had a better vantage point, particularly if the things got closer, he could depress the barrels lower. He waited for more of the creatures to move into the parking lot of the train station.

  The lead ranks of the ghoulish beings, pale and moaning or screeching as they shuffled along had reached the break in the fence where the JLTV earlier plowed through. The DEVO’s flooded through the opening as hundreds of others climbed up and over the chain link on either side. The creatures here were limited by the numbers that could exit the terminal at any one time and they did not group as quickly as the ones from the streets, buildings and alley ways on the other end. Their numbers were nonetheless impressive. Logan waited as long as he dared, letting a few hundred get through the fence before firing.

  The first rounds hit the wall of pale bodies perhaps twenty meters in front of the fence and maybe fifty meters from the JLTV. Most of the rounds detonated either inside them or just after passing through or into another behind. Like the killing zone on the other side of the building one cannon shot was enough to destroy several when in such tight ranks. Hundreds of rounds slew a thousand or more as the rounds eventually impacted the fence and then the packed parking lot. Hundreds of the things continued their stiff ambling advance around or in between cars.

  Vehicles, dozens of them were blown into the air, the fuel tanks exploding and sending shrapnel into the bodies not blown apart by the 20mm rounds themselves. Eventually the drums the creatures pushed on carts ignited from the maelstrom of fire, explosions and shrapnel or a direct 20mm hit.

  Logan elevated the gun sight slightly as he raked the Line of taxi’s parked in front of the train station. The building itself, was now ablaze and virtually destroyed. The first cannon rounds punched through the plate glass windows obliterating them in a hail of glass flame and metal. The follow-on rounds impacted against the interior walls, collapsing them and portions of the roof or detonating in the myriad of kiosks. The ammo counter hit forty percent as he released the triggers.

  Logan zoomed the magnification up to maximum as he studied the shattered passenger train terminal. He had to move the rig back and forth before finding a good angle to see into the building. Hundreds of fires and burning vehicles in the parking lot obscured much of his line of sight starting in the parking lot and continuing to the drop off-pick up area in front. After some slight adjustment, Logan finally saw into the interior of the depot.

  It was mostly deserted. Here and there a ghoulish creature shuffled, limped or crawled, not sure where to go amidst the smoke, fire and debris. The interior walls had collapsed, bringing down large chunks of the ceiling and roof onto what was no doubt hundreds, even thousands of them. Bent steel girders lay at angles or across the floor. Unlike the other side of the facility where Logan engaged the mob massing on the street, he detected no follow-on mass of bodies that he expected to see. It was if they had all left, or gone elsewhere. There had to be many more DEVO’s from the trains, railyard and port areas.

  They must be going around to the streets to move on the building from the other side.

  Logan had no idea that there was something over in the port that had caught the attention of the things that inadvertently divided their numbers. Whatever the reason, he needed to get back to the other side and deal with the thousands, probably tens of thousands massing there.

  Chapter Thirteen

  The swim to the sunken freighter, maybe 300 meters, was much tougher than it looked. Haus had to finally let go of the shotgun and shed his leather vest. Both were weighing him down or impeding his ability to swim. Kicking with his leather biker boots, now filled with sea water was getting difficult. Haus thought about taking those off but was afraid he would lose one or both. While it would make his swim easier, it would make his climb onto the vessel more difficult not to mention that he would need them in the morning when he swam back to the pier. He had no intention of trying to walk back to the bunker barefoot.

  An orange glow lit up the water followed by a series of loud explosions. Haus spun in the water to look back. The blasts were closer than the ones he had heard a few minutes earlier along with the unmistakable staccato of the whirling Vulcan 20mm cannons dispensing death and destruction.

  What Haus wouldn’t give for a weapon like that. He anticipated that when daylight came, the crew long out of ammo would have been trapped and taken. Then he would go back and get the trophies in it as well as that cannon. Certainly, it would be out of ammo, but that was easier, far easier to get than the weapon itself. A vision of the creatures burning the crew out of the rig, or in it, flashed through his mind. He hoped that the team would flee, abandoning their rig to get in the water. Personally, he didn’t care what happened to them as long as they disappeared. His focus was on what occupied the back of the rig and as a bonus that Vulcan.

  The screeching and clacking of teeth rose to a crescendo as splashes landed all around Haus. Looking back to the pier Haus shuddered at the sight of thousands of DEVO’s, backlit by the fires in the distance as they lined the pier. Amazed they could throw things that far, Haus spun to look around at the ships, assuming they might be pelting him from them. Seeing no others except for the ones crowded onto the pier Haus took another look back as more splashes erupted the water around him. Haus’s eyes went wide.

  Arrows! Several of the creatures were shooting arrows at him. Haus had seen them throw rocks and even use makeshift spears. He had never seen them shoot arrows. Up until now, he thought such things a Dead Zone myth since the de-evolution of what had been human beings seemed complete. He stretched out and swam faster. He needed to get farther out and around the sunken freighter where the arrows could not reach, and the glow of the fires from the train station would not illuminate him in the water as they did now, especially whenever a large fireball went up.

  A huge battle was going on over there, Haus wished the DEVO’s here would join with that group, but they instead remained fixated on him. Haus swam and kicked for his life getting to the stern of the half sunken ship before going around to the other side. The sounds of arrows hitting the sides of the sh
ip echoed off the water.

  In a way, they had done Haus a favor, showing their archers while he was still in the water. If they had waited until he was climbing onto the ship and more exposed they might have got him. Mostly mindless beasts, it seemed at times that a hierarchy existed that allowed some of the less de-evolved to fit into certain tasks as an archer, or a leader.

  Haus was lucky in another way as well. The ship, sunk at an angle was lower on this side. While it would have been easier to climb up the angled side of the freighter on the side facing the port, and the archers. The side he was on inclined towards the water, bringing lower a deck on the stern into range where he could grab the rail from the water and pull himself up.

  Within a couple minutes he was on the ship and found his way into the officer’s cabin deck. Taking a small flashlight from a pouch on his belt, he found his way around. Eventually, he discovered a room with clothes that fit him as he stripped off his wet garments and leather boots. Using a comforter from a bed angled against the leaning bulkhead, Haus dried himself off before dressing in the coveralls, socks and deck shoes that he found. He tried to make himself comfortable with the bedding, placing it on the bulkhead angled toward the water and leaning on it.

  The Outfitter who just barely cheated death, or more truthfully a hideous life after death, closed his eyes and tried to push the screeching out of his mind. He was exhausted and without any other options. He hoped they had not figured out they could row a boat out here. But even if they did they would be terrified of the salt water, even a slight splash of it would be excruciatingly painful on their hypersensitive flesh. The creatures liked to make massed attacks, he could not image a handful mounting a row boat and coming out here. They would have to walk through the water on the lower decks. Haus thought about moving down to a flooded area, but after getting high and dry, he thought better of it. He didn’t think there was any way a DEVO would get into a small row boat and come out here, and if they did he would flee, again jumping into the murky port water. One thing about the things that hunted him, they were not stealthy; he would hear them long before they arrived.

  Despite the explosions in the distance and the frequent rip of the Vulcan cannon, not to mention the screaming and screeching, Haus drifted off to sleep. He hoped by the morning he would be in possession of both a quad Vulcan cannon and enough treasure to make him very wealthy.

  Falling asleep he had no idea that others had the same objective and at that moment were acting on them.

  ***

  Andy and Keith finally cabled together enough batteries with a moderate to low charge to get the generator to turn over. Both held their breath, hoping the engine would start before the batteries drained down. The thing with systems such as this was that the glow plugs had to get sufficiently hot before the engine would crank, taking precious battery power.

  Both men expressed a loud exhale as the engine came to life. Andy, let it run for a half minute or so before turning the master switch on, engaging the generator. Instantly the lights came on in the parking structure and generator room. Andy whispered into his mic.

  “Keith and I are going up to the control room. When you see the building’s floodlights come on, move the rig to the ramp. We’ll open the garage door, and you can drive in.”

  “Roger that, man. It’s about time. I’m down to about 30% ammo, and there are way more DEVO’s than I can shoot with what I have left.”

  “Good copy, don’t take any more chances.”

  A solitary click came back by way of acknowledgement over the radio.

  “He’s fired off two-thirds of the ammo stash? Jesus, there must be a lot of body pieces laying around not to mention what the surrounding area must look like. At least it will keep their heads down, not that any of the things have any sense of self-preservation, but the Outfits do.”

  Keith just shrugged while Andy shook off the thought and raced to the stairs with Keith on his heels.

  Chapter Fourteen

  The huge bearded man locked closed the heavy manhole cover before he climbed down the ladder, his muscular arms bulging through his black t-shirt. Older by at least two decades than the younger men and a few women who watched him descend the ladder back into the sewer, “Graybeard” to his friends but to the baker’s dozen of his crew watching him now he was just known as “boss.” Despite the age difference between him and the rough group who gave him deference, the boss was not the type of guy you wanted to meet in a back alley unless he was on your side.

  The lights of the four ATV’s illuminated the back of his black leather vest. A green embroidered four-leaf clover with a rising sun just over the top. Above the patch, it read “Day Breakers.” Below it, “Victorious or Dead.”

  The man turned around and immediately had the attention of his subordinates.

  “It’s a fucking mess up there. DEVO’s everywhere, but there’s less of them now than before, but that’s gonna change quick. In the meantime, it should give us cover to move closer to the Radio Building.”

  “Boss, what about the Crewmen?” A younger man asked, his teeth all but chattering.

  “What about them, slick?” Slick was the boss’s favorite name he used when he was less than pleased with one of his crew’s performance or in this case the question.

  “We’re deep in their territory, they can block us in here, and there are few escape routes with the harbor just in front of us.” The young man looked around nervously, hoping to get at least a nod or two from his compatriots, which he did not.

  “Escape? That your plan, slick?” The big man took a step toward the younger one, the larger man’s beard growing darker in the shadows along with his thoughts.

  “No, boss. I meant how will we, ah get, ah you know, away.” The man answered, wishing he had not said anything now, but still wanting to know what the game plan was.

  The older man’s right hand reached out and grabbed the younger man’s throat. He closed his grip around the underling’s neck and pushed him against the damp sewer wall with various shades of green and brown slime running down it.

  “The answer to your question is an easy one.” The older man paused for a moment as the younger man’s lips turned blue.

  “We win.”

  The boss cocked his head. “You want to win, don’t you?” The younger man nodded as he fought for air.

  The boss held him for another few seconds before he released the younger man’s throat. He slid to the sewer floor, settling into the half inch of putrid water and other gunk covering it.

  “Anyone else need to know how this is gonna go down?”

  “No, boss,” came a chorus of voices along with shaking heads.

  “Good, let’s mount up then.”

  Without another word, the boss slid into the front right seat of the four-seat all-terrain vehicle with the plate steel attached to the front sides and rear, smiling to the young blond driver. Young enough to be his granddaughter, but something more than that to the big man that involved more than just driving.

  “Let’s roll,” the boss commanded over the headset that he had just donned, his four-wheeler, the number two vehicle in the convoy, took off with a jerk.

  Graybeard pondered his good fortune. Whatever was going on up there was keeping the DEVO’s and the Crewmen very busy. During the night, the streets above would be crawling with the pale things. Now they were mostly empty, focused elsewhere. Even in the adjacent and cross sewers that were sealed off by the welded iron grating from where the Day Breakers traveled now they saw few of the things.

  He was more worried about the Crewmen who would also be using these sewers to move around, evidenced by the modifications they had made to the manhole covers. The sewers, or at least the ones his crew drove through now were technically no-man’s land but were deep in Crewmen territory. If he encountered any of the other gang, Graybeard would just say he was wondering about all the commotion topside and came to check it out. If that didn’t convince them to let him pass, Graybeard wo
uld just kill them.

  There were only a few things worth another gang war. The gold in the back of that INFIL-rig was one of them.

  ***

  Andy bounded up the stairs quickly, not scanning for danger or clearing his flanks. Despite Andy’s assurances that the building was secure, Keith didn’t like rushing through the dark building like this, leaving so many areas unchecked. All it would take is for one lucky bite from one of the nasty things and he’d be a goner. Keith pushed the idea out of his mind as he raced up the steps then down the hallways following Andy at nearly a sprint.

  Finally, they located the room Andy was looking for, and Keith was relieved when the lights came on after Andy hit the switch. Night vision was great, but it had its limitations. The bright LED lights would not only help them see the controls better; no DEVO’s would enter that room because of them.

  “Hey, bro, should I go back and hit the lights in the hallways, other offices, and staircases?”

  “No, I don’t want to over load the generator. I’m going to bring up the outside flood lights that we have been rigging. It will keep the DEVO’s away, so don’t worry.” Andy never glanced up from the control station.

  “It’s not the creatures outside that I’m worried about.” Keith, mumbled, not wanting to rehash his concerns with his team leader.

  The screens in front of Andy came to life as did a myriad of cameras around the exterior of the Radio Building.

  “Holy shit,” Andy said to himself as much as to his subordinate.

  Andy zoomed in on the train station. Burning and charred cars, by the dozens, lay crumpled, overturned and blown apart in front of the building, itself now shattered. Much of the structure had collapsed, and almost all of it was on fire. No DEVO’s, or at least no substantial number of them would be advancing from that direction. Looking to the camera that panned out to the front and right of the Radio Building Andy’s heart quickened.