by Jacob Holo
“Scheiße, dieses ist schlecht. Das Gift ist sehr potent.”
keh… keh…
The crushed reaver twitched, its body broken by the stone. It looked at them with an eyeless face. Nicole rose and walked towards it. With an outstretched hand, she raised the statue head off the ground.
keh… keh… keh…
The images on its skin flashed with static, brightened, and then focused. It showed her an image of Amy lying on the ground, eyes closed. Her skin paled. Slowly, like a time lapse video, her cheeks sank in, then her eyes. Her flesh flowed off the bone like wax under a flame.
Nicole sensed the truth of the images, so similar to the rotting corpses on the road. The reaver was showing her Amy’s future, bragging about its kill even as it died.
keh… k—
Nicole brought the statue head down on the reaver hard, crushing it to death. Sulfurous pus squirted out of its crumpled body. She ground her teeth together, cheeks flush from the emotions boiling within her.
“Is she going to be okay?”
“I don’t know. I can stop de bleeding and heal de vound, but dis poison…” Melanie shook her head. “I don’t know.”
Amy moaned. Her head lolled to one side, then the other. Her skin already looked pale.
Melanie stood up and massaged her temples. “Dat is all I can do. She is stable, at de moment.”
“Isn’t there anything else we can do?” Nicole asked.
“Ja. Ve get her to Chronopolis.”
“How much time does she have?” Rüdiger asked.
“I don’t know. Not long.”
“Then let’s not waste time,” Daniel said. He eyed the incomplete ice bridge. “Well, it is shorter.”
“Can you make it?” Nicole asked.
“I guess I’ll have to try. You have that rope?”
“Right here.” Melanie took her backpack off and pulled out a coil of red-and-black rope.
Daniel took it and tied it around the column closest to the bridge. He spooled it out and stopped where the stone bridge ended and the ice began. With a deep breath, he took a tentative step onto the ice. It held.
“Well, that’s a good start.”
HEH… HEH… HEH…
Nicole felt her heart sink. She turned and faced the path they had traveled down.
A red light glowed in the distance. It illuminated a small part of the Greek Road. The light grew closer, gaining speed, the heavy pounding of the reaver’s gate growing louder with each thunderous step.
“Juggernaut…” Rüdiger whispered.
“Do we stand any chance against that thing?” Nicole asked.
“I’d rather risk the fall,” Daniel said. He backed up for a running start.
BRAAAAAUUUGH!!!
The juggernaut charged forward with all the implacability of a freight train.
Nicole levitated the arms of a statue and blasted it at the juggernaut like a cannon ball. It cracked the air as it broke the sound barrier. The heavy stone shattered against the juggernaut’s shell, leaving a shallow dent. The reaver charged straight at them.
“Daniel?” Nicole asked.
“Here we go!”
Daniel rushed forward, a brief impression of motion and speed that Nicole’s eyes failed to capture. With a shout, he took a running leap off the ice bridge and sailed through the air, rope dangling behind him.
From her side of the chasm, Nicole couldn’t see how anyone could jump such an impossible distance. But Daniel had propelled himself at tremendous speed. He arced through the air, legs and arms flailing, as if he could run on the air itself.
He almost made it to the other side.
“Crap-crap-crap-crap-crap-crap-crap!” Daniel shouted. He missed the other end of the bridge, slipped underneath the road, and smacked into a support pillar. He slid down, pulled out a knife, and stabbed into the pillar’s stone.
“Daniel!” Nicole shouted.
“Give me a minute!” Daniel said, pulling himself up the pillar. “I’ve got this!”
“We don’t have a minute!” Nicole shouted.
The juggernaut charged closer, snarling at them. Sparks rained out of its mouth. The ground shook with each pounding step. Its gleaming body loomed out of the dark.
Rüdiger threw two fireballs at it. They exploded in loud thunderclaps of energy. The juggernaut ignored them completely.
Daniel pulled himself up the pillar and onto the road.
“Hurry! Secure it to that statue!” Rüdiger shouted.
Daniel worked too fast to see. One moment he traced Rüdiger’s aim to the statue of a woman holding a sword. Next, the rope was tied around her waist.
“Melanie, go!” Rüdiger shouted.
Melanie stuffed her crossbow into her backpack and grabbed the rope. She started climbing across it upside down, one hand over the other, legs wrapped around it.
“Wait!” Nicole said. “What about Amy?”
“I got her!” Daniel said. He ran across the top of the rope and reached the other side before Melanie was a third of the way across. “Go! Get moving!”
Rüdiger grabbed the rope and started crossing.
Daniel picked up Amy and hung her over a shoulder. “Go, damn it!” He jumped onto the rope and ran back to the other side.
Nicole grabbed the rope, swung her legs onto it, and started crossing.
The juggernaut roared behind them. Nicole didn’t look back. Even though she could feel the heat of its breath, she focused on putting one hand over the other. The rope shook with every step the juggernaut took.
Left. Right. Left. Right. Just keep moving.
Nicole could sense the mammoth creature slowing. It had to be near the edge. There was no way something that size could follow her.
HEH… HEH… HEH…
“Oh no,” Daniel said. “Stop! Everyone stop! Hold on!”
Nicole looked back. The juggernaut opened its mouth and bit down on the rope. It sawed its jaw back and forth.
Nicole clenched her fists around the rope until her knuckles were white.
The rope snapped. Nicole closed her eyes and screamed. She fell, picking up speed, and then the rope swung her in an arc. Her back slammed into a support pillar. She gasped for air. Her grip slipped. The rope slid through her fingers, burning her palms. She squeezed her hands and pressed her thighs and feet together as hard as she could. Her hands felt like they were on fire. Finally, the extra friction slowed and stopped her slide.
Nicole looked down. A few yards of rope dangled beneath her. Below that was inky nothingness. Every heartbeat of hers pounded in her ears.
“Hold on!” Daniel shouted. “Just hold on!”
The rope began to ascend. It took Nicole a moment to realize Daniel was lifting all three of them. She held on until it was her turn. Daniel grabbed her hand and helped her onto the road. She lay there, taking in one quick breath after another, trying to regain her composure.
BRAAAAAAAAAUUUUUGH!!!
The juggernaut stamped the ground and roared. Hot flecks of light spat out of its mouth like spittle.
Daniel extended two clenched fists at the juggernaut. He let a finger slip out of each fist.
Nicole rose to her hands and knees, panting.
“Come on,” Daniel said. He picked up Amy and slung her over his shoulder.
“R-right…”
Daniel offered her a hand. Nicole grabbed it. He lifted her to her feet.
“Let’s get your sister to Chronopolis,” he said.
Chapter 14
Chronopolis
The Greek Road widened ahead. Here, the road was unblemished with cracks or decay. Intricate statues lined either side, each a lovingly rendered tau guard in the midst of employing their powers. A grand staircase led up to an intricate archway with the early morning sun shining through it.
Daniel had Amy over his shoulder. She’d drooled a small river onto his coat. Besides that, Amy hadn’t moved.
“How’s she doing?” Nicole asked, climbing the step
s.
Melanie placed a hand on Amy’s pale forehead. “Not vell. De poison is taking hold. I cannot reverse it.”
“Let’s stay positive, people,” Daniel said. “We’re almost there.”
“‘Almost’ being the operative word,” Rüdiger said.
Nicole reached a wide landing in front of the archway and walked forward until a layer of air began to resist her. She dug in her heels and pushed through, popping out the other side. Coarse black sand crunched under her shoes. A breeze blew across the sands. Time was moving again. She took in a deep breath of salty sea air.
The sandy plain surrounding them looked like an architectural graveyard. Broken columns, statues, and marble blocks littered the landscape. The ancient detritus seemed most dense near the dozens of tau tunnels, each outlined by a stone arch or pieces of one, though none were as large as the Greek Road’s. Ragged black crystal clogged most of the tau tunnels, and the rest had reavers pouring out of them, but it was the city that drew Nicole’s eye.
Chronopolis, the city of time, looked like something plucked out of history, or rather several different histories, and put into a blender. The closest part of the city reminded her of the Athenian Acropolis, but larger and grander, as if this was what the ancient Athenians could have built if time and money were no objects. Almost every building was supported by dozens of columns, either smooth or fluted, with low triangular roofs. One structure looked like three Parthenons stacked vertically. Statues on raised pedestals dotted the city, showing anatomically correct men and women in heroic poses.
A great sandstone wall rose beyond the Greek-influenced part of the city, extending high above even its tallest structure. On the other side of that wall were whole pyramids, tall obelisks and truly immense statues with animal heads. They had to be gargantuan to be seen at such a distance.
Past all of that, near what Nicole thought might be the heart of the city, was a massive silver dome, its surface perfectly reflective.
Rüdiger and the others walked onto the plain. He pointed towards Chronopolis’ city wall.
“The fighting looks bad,” Rüdiger said.
From this close, the Chronopolis outer wall looked unfinished or possibly damaged. The solid, white-stone barrier stood at least three stories high with arches crowning the top, but sometimes the arches were missing or ended abruptly in broken stone.
A solid mass of reavers assaulted the outer wall near a high silver door. Blue light flashed amongst the reavers, sending metal bodies flying through the air. The pyrotechnics seemed small compared to the charging wave of remorseless killers.
“I don’t think they’ve noticed us,” Rüdiger said. “No drones are patrolling this area. They seem preoccupied with the attack on the Greek Wall.”
“Then let’s keep it that way,” Daniel said. “We should cut right and approach the main gate from behind that hill, keep it between us and the reaver attack for as long as possible.”
“Good idea, but that’s not a hill,” Rüdiger said. “It’s a juggernaut.”
“What?” Daniel drew his sword.
“Don’t worry. It’s dead.”
“Are you sure? How can you tell?”
“Because there’s a big hole in its shell with smoke pouring out of it.”
Daniel squinted. He pulled his glasses off, wiped the lenses on his coat, and put them back on.
“Are you sure?”
“Here,” Rüdiger said, offering a blue-and-white checkered handkerchief. “Try cleaning them with something clean.”
Daniel snatched the handkerchief out of Rüdiger’s hand. He breathed on his glasses, wiped them clean, and put them on.
Nicole shielded her eyes and squinted. She could see bodies in red-and-black clothing around the fallen juggernaut. Some were even whole.
“I think one of those tau guards is still moving,” Nicole said.
“She’s right!” Daniel said. He launched into a run none of them could match, even with Amy over a shoulder.
Nicole, Rüdiger, and Melanie ran after him as fast as they could. Daniel made it all the way to the juggernaut and back before they’d gotten a quarter of the way.
“Hurry, Melanie!” Daniel shouted, running alongside them. “It’s Shoko! She’s dying!”
“I cannot run any faster!” Melanie shouted.
Daniel grabbed Melanie by the waist, lifted her, and sprinted ahead. When Nicole reached the dead juggernaut, Melanie was crouched next to a petite Asian woman who had to be Shoko. Her forehead had been cut open to the bone, and blood covered most of her face. More blood, maybe Shoko’s, maybe someone else’s, pooled underneath her. Melanie held both hands over Shoko’s stomach where her intestines had spilled out.
Daniel knelt opposite Melanie.
“Is she going to be okay? You can fix her, right?”
“Verdammt nochmal, lass mich in Ruhe!” Melanie shouted. “Dieses ist sehr schwierig!”
“Uhh…”
“Back off and let her work,” Rüdiger said.
Daniel stood up and backed away, not taking his eyes off Shoko’s body.
Blood rose off the ground and reentered Shoko’s arteries and veins. The large crimson stain over her clothes shrank and vanished. Intestines fell back into place. Skin and then cloth closed over the wound.
“Scheiße, dieses ist schwierig,” Melanie muttered, placing a hand on Shoko’s forehead. “Dieses ist so verdammt schwierig.”
The forehead cut sucked blood off Shoko’s face. Bone and flesh reknit themselves and closed.
With all the blood and gore gone, Shoko looked quite attractive. She had an oval face, small nose, large almond eyes, and long black hair in a ponytail. Like Melanie, she wore black pants and a red shirt, though her top wasn’t nearly as tight as the German’s.
Melanie laid her hands on Shoko, starting with the head, neck, shoulders, and moving down to her chest, stomach, and legs. Nicole heard a sharp crack when Melanie reached Shoko’s left shin. The young woman flinched, her leg bones snapping back into place.
Shoko sucked in a sharp breath and let it out slowly. She put a hand to her forehead.
“Itai… kimochi warui…” she moaned.
“Ohayo gozaimasu, Matsui-san,” Rüdiger said.
“Rüdiger?” Shoko said, opening one eye. “What are you doing here? Where’s Sato-san? Where are the others?”
“I think…” Rüdiger said. “I think you should see for yourself.”
“I could barely save you,” Melanie said. Her face glistened with perspiration. “I’m sorry I couldn’t do more.”
“Melanie?” Shoko sat up. She looked around, her face darkening with each morbid sight. At least fifteen tau guards had fallen to the juggernaut. Nicole couldn’t be sure because so many parts were scattered, crushed, or missing.
“I’m sorry,” Melanie said again.
“No…” Shoko said, eyes watering with tears. “Not all of them.”
“Shoko, we can’t stay here,” Daniel said. “I know it hurts right now, but are you well enough to stand?”
“Daniel?” Shoko asked. She smiled weakly at him. Tears ran down her cheeks. “Somehow I knew this crisis wouldn’t get the best of you.”
“The feeling is mutual,” Daniel said, offering a hand. “So, can you fight? We need to reach the main gate.” He nodded towards Amy’s body slung over his shoulder. “Our friend here isn’t looking too good.”
“Yeah, I can still fight,” Shoko said, climbing to her feet without help. “You wouldn’t leave a fellow guard out here alone.”
“Not a chance.”
Shoko took a deep, shuddering breath and looked around. She walked over to the juggernaut’s head and grabbed a sword buried in it to the hilt. With a foot against a juggernaut tusk, she pulled it free. Shoko snapped the blade to one side. Pus and glowing blood spattered off it. She slid the blade into a sheath at her waist, her face a mask of grim determination.
“Let’s go,” Shoko said.
“So, do ve rush the g
ate now?” Melanie asked, resting her crossbow over her shoulder.
Daniel peeked around the juggernaut and surveyed the ongoing battle. “No. We’ll wait here until we see an opening. We’re safe as long as they don’t spot us.”
“The longer we stay here, the more likely we are to be spotted,” Rüdiger said.
“I understand that,” Daniel said. “But it looks like the reavers are bringing forward another juggernaut. If we go now, that thing is going to make mincemeat of us.”
“Have any of you killed a juggernaut before?” Nicole asked.
“What, are you kidding?” Daniel said.
“Rüdiger?”
“No. They’re about as fireproof as reavers come,” Rüdiger said.
“Swords aren’t much help either,” Daniel said, watching the battle. “Damn, the thing’s taking fire from at least a dozen guards and it isn’t even slowing.”
“Shoko,” Rüdiger said. “How did you end up outside the wall?”
“I was in Japan when all this started,” Shoko said. “A hive lord caught me in the subway. I barely made it to the Kyoto safe house. That’s where I met up with Sato-san and… and the others. We fought our way out of the safe house and tried the tau tunnel between Kyoto and Chronopolis.”
“Ouch,” Daniel said.
“Yes, I think it’s clear we made a mistake. Thank you for pointing it out. Five of us died in that damn tunnel.”
“Sorry, uhhh… Forget I said anything.”
Shoko shook her head. “No, it’s all right. I’m just… it’s all right, Daniel. I’m just shaken up right now.”
“It happens to the best of us,” Rüdiger said.
“We should make our move soon,” Daniel said. “Melanie, can you take Amy? We may have to fight our way through.”
“Ja. I’ll take her,” Melanie said. She folded and stored her crossbow. Daniel handed Amy over. “Ooof! She is heavier dan she looks!”
The ground shook under their feet. Pebbles of black crystal vibrated over the surface.
“What the hell?” Daniel said.
“Behind us!” Melanie shouted.
The rocks clogging a stone archway twenty yards away shook and exploded outward. Dark crystalline boulders crashed to the ground. Nicole covered her head. A rain of pebbles bounced off her arms and back.
