First Assault

by Kliment Dukovski

the neck. There was nothing Ailios could do to help the man.

  Round of bullets strafed the floor next to his legs. He pulled them closer to his body and peered above the table to see what was going on. A group of abominations were scuttling toward them from the doorway across from Ailios while few abominations were providing cover behind them.

  Ailios aimed his pistol and fired few shots. None of them hit their targets. He ducked his head down. “What now?” he shouted.

  Luthis was hiding behind another turned table when Friseal approached him, dragging the other archeologist with him. He put him on Luthis’s back.

  “Wait, what are you–?” Luthis started.

  “Hold tight,” Friseal told the archeologist. His weak arms wrapped around Luthis’s neck like two blue snakes. To Luthis, the chameleon said, “Go that way.” He pointed at a doorway to their left that led into darkness. “I’ll hold them off.”

  That was the funniest thing Ailios had heard in his life. Friseal covering their backs? Holding the enemy off? He forced a subtle laugh despite the grimness of their situation.

  “Go!” Friseal shouted to Luthis. With his two hands the chameleon brought out something that looked like a tube from behind his back. He grabbed it like he was about to strangle it and put one end on his shoulder. A flash of blue light extended from the tube toward the abominations.

  Ailios froze at the sight of it. “What in Segomo’s name is that?”

  Friseal shouted. “Go, team leader! Now!”

  Ailios made a run for it. Another blue light lit the room as Friseal fired his beam weapon. A blast of electricity crackle muffled the screams of abominations.

  Through the doorway it was dark, but Ailios’s eyes quickly adapted. It was another tight corridor that led to three doors at the far end. He wondered how they didn’t get lost by now in this maze of corridors.

  Luthis and the archeologist, holding tightly on his neck, were now in front of him. It seemed as if Luthis had a human-shaped cape with its legs dragging on the floor, bouncing with every step.

  “Where’s Faragar?” Ailios asked the mover.

  Luthis had reached the doors by then. He stopped and looked at them, undoubtedly wondering which one to choose. He mumbled, “Friseal said the middle one, but…”

  “Hey!” Ailios snapped. “Where’s Faragar?”

  “They took him,” Luthis answered absently.

  “Took him? Took him where? We need to get him out.” But it didn’t seem that Luthis was listening to Ailios at all. He was still preoccupied with the doors. “Hey!” Ailios grabbed his arm and turned him face to face. “We need to get him out, you hear me?”

  “There is no time. Friseal said–”

  “Tell me where he is?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “How did you know where I was going to be? Tell me!”

  “I didn’t. He did.” Luthis nodded behind Ailios.

  Friseal was running toward them. “That one,” his hand aiming at the door to the left.

  Ailios stopped in his way. “Where’s Faragar?”

  Friseal made a grimace as he slowed down. “What?”

  “Faragar! Where is he?”

  Friseal’s words passed through panting breath. “They, um, they took him to the lab. I bet he is dead by now. No one gets out alive from–”

  “Show me where!”

  Friseal’s thumb pointed behind. “Through the doorway where the abominations intercepted us, then through the first door to your right. You’ll see a sign above the door of a yellow triangle. Then you go down the stairs. You can’t miss it.”

  How do you know all these things? Ailios wanted to ask, but there was no time. “I’m going,” he said and turned to leave.

  Ailios made a run back through the corridor and into the ruined room. There he hid behind a turned table for a moment, to peer and see if there were any abominations waiting for him. But all he saw were only the dead ones from before.

  What am I doing?

  He gripped his pistol and exposed himself, moving cautiously toward the doorway. Luckily, that beam weapon had killed all the abominations. Now he just had to follow Friseal’s directions.

  The yellow triangle sign hung askew above the stairway to his right. Ailios started down few steps only to realize that the corridor was sealed off by rubble from the ceiling. He cursed and grabbed a piece of compressed earth with both hands and pulled it down from the pile. Some of the chunks were the size of his hands, others were much, much, bigger. For once he wanted to have the mover’s ability; he would’ve broken through in a heartbeat.

  “I’m coming for you Faragar!” Ailios shouted. He took another chunk the size of his head, and he pulled it down with a growl. “Hold on!” But the pile seemed to be never-ending. More rubble fell as Ailios moved chunks away.

  He struggled to get as much as he could from this awful tomb, to open a small enough hole so he could sneak in. Faragar would clear the pile once he reached him.

  “Hold on, Faragar!” Ailios shouted.

  By the time he moved ten more chunks of compressed earth he was panting. He was not even near to opening the hole he hoped for. He stopped for a second to catch his breath, and then took another chunk. There was no way he could’ve lifted it, he just pulled it down, barely avoiding it not to smash his feet. He rested his hands on his knees. His breath whizzed through his widely-open mouth dry like a desert. It was difficult to get some air, and it was even more difficult to get some strength in his hands. But Faragar was behind the pile of rubble. Ailios had to get him out before more of the abominations came.

  He closed his mouth, dust crunched between teeth, and he pulled more chunks down. He would get Faragar out, he was determined.

  And then he heard someone shout from behind him. Ailios turned, breathing heavily, and froze. One of the abominations was standing there, aiming a rifle at him.

  Ailios managed to mutter, “Gods, not again–”

  And a blue light passed through the abomination, his body danced in waves of electricity. His eyelids closed and his legs gave out.

  Footsteps echoed behind him. A long shadow moved on the floor until the man that cast it stopped at the doorway.

  “I came to take you out,” Friseal said, “and that’s what I’m going to do.” He moved closer and grabbed Ailios with his free hand and pulled him back.

  Ailios shook his arm free. “Faragar,” he breathed, one hand resting on his knee, the other pointing back.

  “More are coming from the lower levels. We need to get you out.” Friseal grabbed Ailios’s hand and gripped tighter than Ailios thought he could. The chameleon pulled again.

  Ailios struggled at first, but when he heard shouts in a foreign language getting closer he decided to move. He looked back at the pile. “I’m sorry, Faragar.”

  “We’ll come back for him. Now move!” And Friseal pushed him. Ailios almost tripped. He was too bloody tired to resist. But the worst thing was he knew it was a lie. They weren’t coming back...

  Friseal stopped to hold off the abominations while Ailios half ran, half staggered to get to the three doors, and then he opened the left one. Ailios looked around. It was a mess hall, and unlike the rooms he passed through earlier, here the tables and chairs were all in place.

  He then heard running footsteps from behind. Friseal kicked the door open and shouted, “MOOOOVE!”

  Ailios caught a glimpse of at least five abominations running after the chameleon. The sight of them made Ailios find a sudden strength in his legs he didn’t know he had, and he obeyed.

  As he ran between tables and chairs, he wondered if he would see Friseal’s true abilities now, but if there were any, he kept them well hidden because all he did was run, and damn fast he ran.

  Friseal pushed a big door open with his shoulder. Behind the door, a wide stairway waited for them to climb up. Friseal turned to fire his tube-canon while Ailios went on. Three more doors waited for him at the end of the stairway. Ailios was so exhausted th
at he didn’t care which one he’ll go through. He pushed the first one that came to mind and halted.

  “There’s no ship,” he gasped.

  Instead of his yellow dolphin, there were many white tubes in thousands of rows in front of him, just like the tanks he saw before. “What are these things?” he mumbled.

  The door behind him slammed open. “You got the wrong door!” Friseal grabbed Ailios’s neck ring and pulled him outside. He pointed up. An interpretation of a ship hung attached above the middle door. “Look at the signs, dammit!”

  There was no time to argue. More footsteps and shouts of abominations approached from behind. Friseal pushed the door open, and there it was – the most warming sight Ailios never thought he’d see again – his robotic dolphin with its hatch on the lower side wide open. They jumped in, and sealed the hatch.

  Ailios felt his gut moving downward immediately as he settled in the airlock, and then he felt a weird pressure in his head.

  We’re moving. With the last amount of energy he stood up and pushed the airlock hatch above his head, and then climbed the ladder. Up in the pilot’s cabin was the archeologist, strapped on Faragar’s seat; a blow in Ailios’s guts – he would give anything to have the brute back.

  Luthis and Olivia were seated as well and stared intently through the window. Ailios turned, his eyes opened wide while hands grabbed the closest seat. He stared at a narrow tunnel their ship was passing through. Ailios had the feeling they were scraping its edges. It turned out he was right – there was a bump and he barely kept himself on his feet – a piece of