by Jacob Holo
A sentinel reaver rose through the opening. It snapped its head back, swallowing a chunk of black rock.
Nicole tried grabbing one of the boulders. She felt the electric tinge ride down her arm and the slippery texture of the rock in her palm. Nicole raised her hand to lift it, but the boulder barely wobbled.
One of Rüdiger’s fireballs blew the reaver’s head back. It lolled to one side, momentarily stunned. Daniel and Shoko rushed forward.
Nicole reached for a marble block from the archway and concentrated. A line of sweat dripped down her forehead. She levitated it high into the air and sent it flying into the sentinel reaver. The heavy block smashed into a segment near the head, imploding it in a spray of glowing ooze. The reaver roared, fluid sputtering out of its mouth. Its head crashed to the ground.
Daniel and Shoko dashed towards its face with Shoko moving so fast she became almost invisible. The reaver raised its front legs protectively, but found them severed in quick silver flashes.
The two tau guards closed in from opposite sides. The sentinel snapped at them with mandibles like bone saws, but they dodged its lumbering attacks. As one, they stabbed through its neck with their swords and severed its head. Nicole couldn’t help noting how well-coordinated their attack seemed without any verbal communication.
Two more sentinels exited the tunnel, climbing over the dead one. They raised their heads high into the air, towering over the humans and roaring in unison.
BRAAAAAUUUUUGH!!!
Nicole heard answering roars from the besieged Chronopolis wall.
“We’ll get surrounded if we stay here!” Nicole shouted.
“Head for the gate!” Daniel shouted.
“But the juggernaut is still there!” Rüdiger shouted.
“One problem at a time!” Daniel shouted. “Shoko and I will delay these two! Go! Move it!”
Rüdiger released a fireball, turned, and ran. Melanie struggled to keep up with Amy in her arms. Nicole sprinted after Rüdiger.
Daniel and Shoko held their ground. The sentinels lunged towards them, but they dove out of the way with inhuman speed. A fourth sentinel exited the tunnel.
“The juggernaut is almost over the wall!” Rüdiger shouted.
Nicole stopped next to the fallen statue of a slender woman wielding two daggers and nothing else. She lifted it up, felt its immense weight pushing her down, and sent it rocketing at the juggernaut’s hind legs. The statue crushed one of its legs against the Chronopolis city wall.
The juggernaut’s front legs slipped off the Chronopolis battlements. It dropped to the ground and turned its head towards them.
“Not good!” Rüdiger shouted, gathering energy between his palms.
Nicole saw a headless man impaled on one of the juggernaut’s tusks. The reaver shook its head, sending the corpse flying off. It stabbed its eight stubby legs into the black sands and ponderously lifted its massive body, but failed and collapsed to the ground.
“It’s wounded!” Rüdiger shouted. “We can make it!”
The juggernaut’s six rear legs were a bleeding, tangled mess, but the two in front were far larger and more heavily plated. It dug those into the ground and dragged itself towards the gate.
Rüdiger unleashed a fireball, striking the juggernaut in the thick plating above and behind its head. The ball exploded in a bloom of energy. Scorched metal warped inward, but did not break. The juggernaut kept dragging itself towards the gate, now only ten yards away.
Tau guards manning the wall threw fireballs and rained crossbow bolts down on the juggernaut, but their attacks ricocheted off its thick carapace. The juggernaut pulled its head protectively beneath its armored cowl and crawled forward. It snarled angrily.
With the gate closed and the juggernaut beside it, they couldn’t escape. Nicole turned around and saw Daniel and Shoko holding off a wave of three sentinels and a dozen creepers. Supporting fire from the wall helped, but Nicole knew they had maybe a minute before those sentinels caught up and overwhelmed them.
Rüdiger threw another fireball at the juggernaut. It exploded with as little damage as the first.
“We need to stop it or they won’t open the doors!” Rüdiger shouted.
Nicole looked up at the columns atop the Chronopolis outer wall. One of them was right above the juggernaut. She reached out towards the column, felt the weathered marble in her hands, and pulled with all her kinetic might.
Dust shook off the column. Tau guards on the wall scattered, but the column didn’t fall. Nicole spread her stance and tried again. Bits of debris tumbled from the top and clattered off the juggernaut’s armor.
Nicole cried out. Her arms and the back of her head burned. The column teetered, and with the sound of grinding stone, it fell over. The debris accelerated towards the juggernaut faster than gravity provided. Tons of rock pounded it from above, crumpling its outer shell. Glowing fluid spewed out of its mouth and through gashes in its body. Still it lived, raising a twisted front leg and pulling itself forward.
Nicole lifted one of the column pieces again and winced with pain. With a gasp, she brought it down on the juggernaut’s head, splattering it.
Nicole staggered towards the gate.
“For the love of God, let us in!” she screamed.
Someone shouted from the wall, but she couldn’t understand it over the exploding fireballs and roaring reavers behind her. Heavy mechanisms behind the silver gate shuddered and clanged. The door swung outward.
Daniel and Shoko dashed through as brief blurs of motion. Nicole, Rüdiger, and Melanie followed with Amy in her arms. A fusillade of fireballs and crossbow bolts held the reavers at bay long enough for the door to seal shut. Massive metal beams slid horizontally into place and locked the gate closed.
Nicole collapsed to her knees. Her arms and head burned from exertion.
“Whew!” Daniel said. He knelt down next to her, catching his breath.
“Is anyvon hurt?” Melanie asked, setting Amy down.
“I’m fine,” Shoko said, reaver blood dripping from her sword.
“As good as can be expected,” Daniel said. “Nicole?”
“Just give me a minute. My head is on fire.”
Rüdiger shouted something up to the tau guards along the wall. Nicole guessed it was Russian. An elderly woman in black jumped from three stories up and landed next to Amy. She knelt down, hands hovering over Amy’s prone body. The woman shook her head, picked up Amy, and ran off almost as fast as Daniel.
“Hey!” Nicole shouted.
“It’s all right,” Rüdiger said. “She’s being taken to the field hospital.”
Nicole sat on the ground and rubbed the back of her neck. She might have been in ancient Athens for all she knew. Some structures were in ruins, with fallen columns and collapsed roofs, but most had withstood the test of time intact. A few modern brick and cinderblock buildings dotted the area near the gate. Tall, metal lampposts lined the streets and glowed blue when people walked by.
Daniel stood up. “Who’s in charge right now?” he shouted to the wall.
Two tau guards jumped down and landed in front of him. Nicole stood up to greet them, but winced from the sudden motion. One was Viktor Surikov, looking more or less unchanged since Nicole had first seen him. He wore a black-and-red uniform and carried what looked like a sledge hammer with one side of the head flattened and the other tapered to a point.
The other guard was a white-haired woman with a stern, skull-like face and a sword across her back. Nicole remembered her from the subway, but didn’t know her name. For some reason, she watched Rüdiger like a hawk. He flashed a mocking smile.
“Viktor,” Daniel said. “Man, I’m glad to see you.”
“Likewise. We haven’t had many people reach the city.”
“Everyone’s been attacked. We barely made it here.”
“Yes, I am aware of the situation. Earlier arrivals brought word of the chaos out there.”
“Did they bring word of the second bore
hole?” Rüdiger asked.
If Viktor was surprised he didn’t show it. “What are you talking about?” he asked.
“He’s serious, Viktor,” Daniel said. “I saw it with my own eyes. The reavers tore the hell out of Ludwigsburg. They’re making another borehole.”
“They’re what?” Shoko said.
“You’re serious,” Viktor said.
“Absolutely,” Daniel said. “We need to send a team there as soon as possible to clear the reavers and repair the damage.”
Viktor grimaced. “This is most unfortunate.”
“What do you mean?”
“Daniel, we are trapped here. The reavers control all the tau tunnels. There is no way out of the city. I am sorry, but there is nothing I can do.”
“What about the Greek Road?”
“I have already tried!” Viktor stepped forward. He towered over Daniel. “I have lost over three hundred guards in just five days! I have less than a thousand holding the Greek Wall. We tried to retake the tunnels and all we gained were corpses. The reavers ambush us at every turn, digging new tunnels, collapsing those behind us. Of the soldiers I sent in, only a tenth managed to escape, and many of them died later from poison.”
“Are you able to cure it?” Nicole asked.
“Our resetters continue to work on countermeasures,” Viktor said. “Put bluntly, any more losses and we will have to abandon the outer city.”
“But we cannot ignore this!” Rüdiger said.
“If we do nothing, the reavers will complete another borehole!” Nicole said.
“I am aware of the stakes,” Viktor said. “That does not change my options. Our only hope of holding out is to defend the city. Here, the foundations prevent the reavers from tunneling in. Here is where we make our stand.”
“They’ll be able to enter our world!” Nicole said.
“Then the rest of the world will have to fend for itself. We cannot help them.”
“You mean… we’ve come all this way for nothing?” Nicole said. She felt ready to cry. All those hardships, all those close calls, Amy almost dead, all those terrible dreams, all of them were totally meaningless. None of it mattered. None of them could change anything.
Daniel put a hand on her shoulder. She winced. He pulled his hand away.
“Sorry,” Daniel said. “Nicole, why don’t you take the others aside?”
“But…”
“Go on. Viktor and I need to have a private chat.”
Nicole didn’t want to leave, but nodded and walked away. She massaged her neck and joined the others near a brick storehouse to one side of the gate.
“Not to repeat our distinguished host,” Rüdiger said. “But this is most unfortunate.”
“What are we going to do?” Nicole asked.
“What can we do?” Rüdiger said. “We’re trapped here with everyone else.”
“Can’t we get out the same way we arrived?”
“Maybe,” Rüdiger said. “But what would be the point? Besides, Amy’s only chance of survival is here.”
Nicole put her back to a brick wall and slouched. She looked over to see Viktor and Daniel arguing heatedly.
“Will Daniel convince Viktor?”
“Not a chance,” Rüdiger said.
They waited in silence. Nicole occasionally looked up when she heard explosions or a reaver roaring beyond the wall.
After several minutes, Daniel walked over.
“Good news or bad news?” Nicole asked.
“Which do you think?” Daniel said. “Viktor says there’s nothing he can do and, frankly, I have to agree. Also, we’re to join them on the wall.”
“Naturally,” Rüdiger said.
“They’re taking it in shifts. Three shifts. Sixteen hours on, eight hours off. Two thirds of the force on the wall at any given moment.”
“Makes sense,” Rüdiger said. “What happens if there’s an all out attack?”
“They send runners to rouse the off shift,” Daniel said. “We’re all on shift one. Nine more hours on the wall, then we get to rest. Melanie needs to head to the field hospital. All our resetters are helping there. Shoko, you’re welcome to stick with our group if you want.”
“Sure, I’ll join you.”
“What about Amy?” Nicole asked.
“I’ll take you to the hospital after our shift is over. We’ve done all we can for her.”
“I’d like to see her now.”
“I understand how you feel, but we need all the help we can get holding the Greek Wall.”
Nicole took a slow breath. She closed her eyes and nodded.
“All right. Let’s get back to work.” Daniel led them around the storehouse and up a staircase to the wall’s battlements.
Nicole couldn’t help thinking how pointless it had all become.
Chapter 15
Stalkers
Nicole’s shift on the outer wall proved to be mostly boredom punctuated with brief periods of excitement and terror. The first wave struck an hour after Nicole scaled the wall, consisting of ten sentinel reavers, fifteen hive lords, and more creepers than she could count. Drones covered the plain and the sky blackened with hornets.
The tau guards on the wall attacked the reavers with a dizzying array of abilities. Some unleashed arcs of electric energy. Others sent concussive waves through the air. One Russian girl threw a glittering white orb that froze a whole creeper solid. She couldn’t have been older than fourteen.
After the first major attack, Melanie brought back word that the hospital resetters had stabilized Amy. She was still unconscious, still struggling against the poison, but Melanie thought she would pull through. When Nicole heard, it felt like a weight had been lifted, and she fought with renewed vigor.
In the following hours, reavers tried to breach the wall three times near Nicole’s position. The tau guards held each time, thanks mostly to the lack of new juggernauts. After a while, Nicole realized the reavers were also limited. They could only funnel so many troops through the tunnels at a time, and they had to cross an open plain to a sheer wall under constant fire. She wondered if the reavers even wanted to breach the city, or if containing the tau guards was enough.
The sun had set by the time her shift ended. Feeling thoroughly drained, Nicole followed Daniel into the city. Shoko took Rüdiger to her home near the hospital, where Melanie would join them.
“Look, I know you want to go to the field hospital,” Daniel said. “But I already checked. They’re not letting anyone in who isn’t wounded or helping the wounded.”
“All right,” Nicole said, walking with him. “I guess I can understand that. You’re sure Amy is doing better?”
“Yeah, I spoke to Melanie. Just understand it may be a while before she wakes up.”
Nicole nodded. “I can live with that. It feels nice to get some good news for a change.”
“Yeah, I know what you mean.”
“So why a field hospital?”
“Hmm?”
“Why not a permanent hospital?”
“I don’t know,” Daniel said. “I guess we never really needed one. For most injuries, you’re either dead or a resetter can patch you up. But with how many injured we have, I think they decided to get organized.”
“I suppose that makes sense,” Nicole said. “So how many people live here?”
“It varies a lot,” Daniel said. “Most tau guards don’t actually live in the city. Before all this started, we numbered five thousand with between one and two thousand in the city at any time.”
“This is an awfully big city for a few thousand people.”
“Well, it’s not like we built it.”
“I can see that. So the Greeks built this city?”
“The outer city, yes. The legacy of the Third Founding ranges from the Greek Wall or outer wall to the Egyptian Wall halfway to the city center. They built all this around 1000 BC.”
“The Third Founding?”
“That’s what we call the Greeks
who discovered and settled Chronopolis. The city has been abandoned three times in its history. We’re not sure why. Our ex-Soviet colonizers are the Fourth Founding.”
“Do you think they were wiped out by reavers?”
“Given current events, maybe,” Daniel said. “Of course, that leads to a lot of questions. If the reavers wiped out Chronopolis in the past, why didn’t they keep the city or open the original borehole? Maybe something else happened. No one really knows. Ah, here we are.”
Daniel’s Chronopolis house was a two-story building that had been twice as tall in the past, given the rubble nearby. Thick columns supported the four corners. Nicole walked in through an open archway.
Daniel had furnished the first floor with a utilitarian metal table and chairs along with a very nice leather recliner. A marble counter to one side had a modern sink and faucet forcibly affixed to the top. Several metal-skinned containers sat near the walls, possibly storage lockers. They looked like they could have been made from reavers. Nicole assumed the bed was upstairs.
“My home away from home,” Daniel said. “What do you think?”
“It looks like the second floor doesn’t have a roof,” Nicole said.
“True, but it also never rains or snows here.”
Nicole pulled up a chair and sat down at the table. “It’s… nice, I guess.”
“Don’t let the looks fool you. I’ve got all sorts of modern amenities. That thing over there actually works like a refrigerator. No electricity required. And that one is a fireplace. I’ve even got a shower with hot water upstairs.”
“A fireplace? I thought fires didn’t work because of the mutable laws. What does it burn?”
“Reaver blood.”
Nicole stared at him. “You’re kidding, right?”
“Not at all. There’s a big reservoir near the city center. The city foundations have a huge crisscross of pipes. We’re probably not using all of them as originally intended, but they work just fine. Here, watch.”
Daniel walked over to one of the metal-skinned containers, opened its front door and turned a modern red-handled valve at its base. The interior ignited with a bright orange flame. Nicole could feel the heat from the far side of the room.
