by David Peters
At least a dozen Guards and what looked to be well over one hundred Sappers burst through the low brush as they ran back to the hive. The thick cloud of Dust was placed directly in their path and they plunged into it without fear or knowledge of what it would do. Sappers began to detonate around the already dying Guards. Explosions rippled across the line of blue fog. Single detonations were often followed by multiple secondary explosions as the Sappers immolated those around them. Two hundred yards of scrub and brush was burning across their front. The Sappers continued to fuel the fire as they struggled in vain to get back to their hive. Thick black clouds of smoke rolled into the early morning sky and darkened the daylight around them.
Caperson gave Jokester a wave and got a wave back.
Dylan shook his head, “That has to be the force that was moving on Paradise Falls. If it is, than there is a hell of lot more than just those Sappers in the forest.”
“Oh yeah, this is just getting good, Dylan,” Caperson replied back with raised eyebrows and a smile that bordered on the edge of sanity.
Dylan looked at his friend again. Something looked different, something he had never noticed before. Something that made him a little nervous and glad Caperson was on his side.
The blue Dust spun and rose in the clouds of fire and smoke. Dylan heard the metallic clank of metal as Jokester finished filling his magazine again and pulled the charging handle back. He could clearly see the black barrel swing back toward the line of fires.
They could see quick bursts of movement through openings in the fire but little to tell them what the Corrupted were doing. Jokester made several hand signals that made little sense to Dylan.
Dylan looked at Caperson, “What is he saying.”
Caperson smiled, “He says his body count is higher than ours and that we are slacking. I think he wants to make sure we don’t feel left out of the fight. Probably wants to ask how many he should let through so we don’t feel like he is carrying us.”
“I’m okay with being on the losing end of a body count but tell him to quit slacking.”
Caperson flashed several hand signs and Dylan could see Jokester laugh behind the cannon.
The breeze shifted slightly and the blue cloud moved further south. The fires began to die down and with it the thick clouds of black smoke dissipated. The ground was covered in the ash of the dead. Another breeze moved through the battlefield whipping the smoke and Dust into a deep gray haze.
Dylan felt a slight grin spread across his face as another Sapper detonated in the dissipating cloud. Behind him the hive was dying and nothing this force of Corrupted could do would stop it now. Tens of thousands, maybe more, were screaming underground as the science of man defeated them on a cellular level. Where guns and bombs had failed, a small, white flower has beaten them.
Beau continued to pace and growl as the four men kept their weapons aimed at the long line of dwindling fires. Several shadows darted and moved in and around the smoke. After what seemed like several minutes, a Hunter jumped through the flames and charged. The black skin on the Corrupted was torn and peeling as it ran for the hive. Dylan put a round through the thing’s forehead sending its corpse sliding into the weeds. After the first Hunter made it through the barrier, the rest of the horde saw their chance to make their way home. All three fired rapidly as random bursts of blue dust began to drop into the surging Corrupted army.
The bodies fell rapidly but they continued to close the distance to the entrance of the hive. Dust rounds were impacting close enough that they could hear the whirling shrapnel as the cans detonated. The cans stopped falling as Jokester struggled to refill the magazine. Dylan fired as fast as he could but still the Hunters closed the distance. They crawled over their fallen brothers as if they were simply another obstacle in their path.
Dylan fired his remaining few rounds and switched to his pistol. Dust bombs began to fall around them again. One landed just yards in front of Dylan and his face was left stinging as the small bits of blown up metal struck him.
“It’s too many!” Dylan yelled.
Travis continued to yell for calm, “Dudes! Just wait for it. We just have to hold them off!”
“We ain’t dead yet, damn it!” Caperson yelled in anger.
Beau barked several times into the smoke and fire. He looked over his shoulder at Dylan then back into the mass of Hunters in front of him. Dylan could only stare. Beau barked again and charged into the fray. He jumped onto the chest of the first Hunter he met. The last thing Dylan could see before they vanished in the smoke was the flash of white teeth as the dog tore away the Hunter’s throat.
Caperson and Dylan continued to shoot as fast as their weapons would allow. Behind them a silence began to move up the massive stacks towering above the hive. Clouds of the small, winged Corrupted began to fly out only to fall as the Dust overcame them. The silence continued to climb until a massive plume of Dust burst from the smaller of the two towers. As the mushroom cloud rolled out of the center tower, an ominous silence moved down the valley. The blue cloud continued to roll into the morning sky as the stacks fell silent for the first time in more than two years.
As the heartbeat of the colony went silent, the mass of Hunters standing just outside the ring of Dust stopped and looked confused at the columns that just moments ago hummed with life. From the forest edge a single Hunter cry rose high and held for several moments. Others joined in the painful cry. As one, they thundered forward intent on destroying their attackers.
Travis yelled, “Last trick in this magic show! Everyone get in close!”
Dylan and Caperson knelt down next to Travis as he watched the Hunters charging through the fire and smoke.
“Wait for it! Wait for it! Now!” he yelled as he pulled the final cord. With the sound of rushing air, a mist of Dust shot outward from the wagon in fine streams. A cloud of dust thirty feed wide encircled the attackers in blue fog.
Hunters would charge into the cloud but drop as the weapon ate away at their very ability to function. Cell walls deteriorating, nerves failed to fire, muscles wouldn’t respond. Paralysis was nearly instant and death was only moments afterward.
Dylan aimed his pistol into the blue fog. He fired as fast as he could aim but still they came. As far as he could see over the hazy battlefield, Hunters raged and ran toward him. He heard Caperson’s pistol lock back on an empty magazine at the same moment his own did.
Dylan grabbed his rifle and began to swing it like a club. A Hunter was knocked off his feet as he connected. He swung again and knocked the feet from underneath another, then crushed his skull with a second swing. To his left, Caperson was swinging a large combat knife. Cap-Cap kicked a Hunter in the chest then plunged his knife into the thing’s neck. A powerful talon raked his chest and Caperson yelled out in anger. Two more quick thrusts and the Hunter fell lifeless to the ground.
Dylan brought his rifle down in a crushing blow to the skull of another Hunter. As he brought it around in another crushing blow, the butt of the gun shattered under the power and the stock spun out into the fog of Dust and smoke. Movement to his right caught his attention and he turned just as a Hunter crashed into him. He wrapped his hands around the thing’s neck and yelled with rage as he squeezed with all his might. He would kill this bastard with his own hands before other Hunters got to him. A loud gunshot rang out and the beast went limp.
Caperson reached down and pulled Dylan to his feet, “Can’t fight if you’re lying down. Get your ass up!”
All three of them ducked reflexively as Dust bomb detonations landed all around them. Shrapnel whirred and screamed as it ricocheted around the entrance.
Dylan watched in horror as a large shadow formed in the fog. A Guard strode forward slowly as it powered toward the hive entrance. Its skin was running in rivers as the Dust ate away layer after layer. The angry eyes locked onto Dylan and the beast roared in anger. It lunged through the smoke and grabbed Dylan around the chest with its massive hands.
The p
ain was overwhelming as he felt the Guard begin to crush the life out of him. The massive face pulled even with Dylan and roared again in unbridled rage. Above the ringing in his ears he heard several loud pops to his left. Caperson was putting bullets into the beast but they had no effect. He could feel the vibrations as the bullets struck bone but the beast did not slow in his attack. As Dylan watched in horror, a Hunter slammed into Caperson and they rolled out of view. He couldn’t turn any further to see if his friend was alive and he couldn’t free himself to help. The edges of his vision were beginning to close in as he pulled the combat knife out of the sheath on his shoulder. He plunged the blade deep into the beast’s shoulder but the crushing around his chest didn’t let up. He began working his way down the muscular arms, sinking his knife three more times before he could no longer find the strength to pull the knife free.
The skin on the Guards face was falling away as the Dust ate into him but it did not slow him down. The Corrupted would complete his final task before falling. Dylan could feel his life slip away as he stared into the small black pools of the Corrupted’s eyes. There was no emotion, only a single purpose. Kill Dylan before he falls.
The Guard pulled Dylan close and began to roar in victory when a puzzled look crossed his face. Somewhere outside of the ringing in his ears Dylan could hear a deep booming sound. The Guard began to let out another roar of anger but stopped short. It paused with an almost confused look. A second low sounding boom filled the entrance and Dylan slowly slid out of the Guard’s death grip. With a third loud boom, it slowly pitched forward and landed with a crash in the dirt.
The back of the Guard’s head was nothing but a smoldering crater.
Jokester stood behind the dead beast holding a pistol gripped twelve-gauge shotgun with the barrel trailing a small wisp of smoke, “Holy crap those bastards are tough.” He pointed the weapon towards the Hunter on Caperson and sent a three inch magnum round into the monster. Ten lead, thirty caliber rounds of double-ought buck nearly blew the animal in half.
The blue cloud from Jokester’s grenades rolled through as he pulled Dylan to his feet. Jokester handed his pistol to Dylan and turned to send several more buckshot rounds at shadows moving around them. Screams of anger came back through the fog.
Caperson screamed with rage as a Hunter tore a long gash in his back. He turned and savaged the beast with a powerful swipe of his knife, nearly beheading the thing before it was able to defend itself.
Beau barked somewhere in the blue Dust and another Hunter yelled in anger as the dog tore into it.
Caperson was knocked to the ground with a grunt as a Hunter materialized out of the smoke. Its head snapped to the side as Dylan shot it at close range. He rolled the Hunter onto the ground and pulled Caperson to his feet.
“Thanks. Getting real tired of these bastards knocking me down.”
“Like you said, we can’t fight ‘em if you keep lying down.” Dylan pulled his own combat knife and waited. Beau barked again and Dylan could see the dog tearing into a group of Hunters through the breaks in the thick smoke. Three turned on him at once but the battle was quickly obscured by the dust and smoke. They could hear the anger from the Corrupted as he bit and clawed his way through their ranks. With a loud yelp, the growls stopped.
Dylan yelled into the dust, “Beau!”
Travis paused as he looked toward the sky, “We only need a few more seconds!”
Dylan looked back to the cart and saw the other three looking skyward. He followed their eyes and saw the massive rolling cloud descend over the battle field. Just like the test back at Paradise Falls, the heavier-than-air Dust that had blasted out of the stacks settled all around them. Several acres of ground began to take on a soft, blue hue as the Dust wafted across the landscape like a light winter snow.
Hunters fell and struggled to breathe as their bodies dissolved. With a final cry, the last Hunter fell still on the ground. The team stood in silence as they looked around the battlefield for several minutes as the blue fog continued to fall around them and drift slowly to the east. Nothing moved. Thousands of Corrupted lay all around them, at least two dozen lay within arm’s reach.
Dylan looked at the other three men. Caperson had several bleeding cuts on this chest and back, Travis was peppered by the same shrapnel blasts that had hit Dylan. He ran his dirty hand over his face and it came away bloody. He took a deep breath and was greeted with several sharp pains from his ribs. He looked over the battlefield trying to pick out a single tuft of gray fur in the ocean of black bodies.
Movement to their right caught Dylan’s attention and he crouched with his knife, ready to attack. Beau limped through the Dust. He was bloody, torn and covered in dirt and Dust. Dylan dropped his knife and fell to his knees as the dog dropped at his feet. Beau was exhausted but alive. Despite the pain, he carefully picked up the dog and placed him on a blanket in the back of the wagon.
Without another word, Caperson and Jokester walked off toward the far tree line to find the horses. A fine blue powder covered everything as far as the eyes could see. A slow moving line of blue was coating the trees as the slight breeze pushed the cloud to the south. Small curtains of blue would move about the field as the air currents played with the Dust.
Dylan sat and scratched the dog behind the ears. He looked up at Travis and smiled, “We must have done something wrong.”
Travis looked around in confusion, “How do you figure that?”
“It seems like we are kind of alive.”
Travis smiled, “I noticed that. I hurt way too much to be dead.”
“I’m guessing that a lot of the credit for being alive should go to you. The wagon setup bought us the time we needed for the Dust to pass through the hive.”
“I hoped that would happen. It seemed like the same thing that happened with the shed should happen here but I didn’t get a lot of time to test it out.”
“Hoped, but you didn’t know?”
“That accurately sums it up. Hell, that describes half the crap I make.”
“I’m never going to underestimate you again, Travis.”
“I wasn’t aware you had been underestimating me, Boss. I’m hurt to find out you did.” Travis leaned back on his pack and drank heavily from his canteen. He poured some over his face and winced as it cleaned the dirt and ash away from his cuts.
“I might have wavered a little toward the end there. You know the part where there was nothing but a wall of pissed off Hunters and I was holding a knife.”
“I wouldn’t have guessed that. Dude, you and Cap-Cap were ready to take them all out by hand. Hell, you were going to choke one to death.”
“We couldn’t have done this without you, Travis. I mean that. I don’t know what we would have done.”
He looked back down at Beau as he slowly pet the dog. His eyes would open occasionally to look at him then close again as the dog slept heavily.
“You look almost as messed up as your dog, man.”
“You ain’t looking too well either. Does your face hurt as much as mine?”
“Feels like someone took a cheese grater to it then got crazy with the seasoning salt.”
“Kind of looks like that too.”
They were silent for several moments as they listened to the now still valley.
“So, Dylan, there’s something I have been trying to ask you but the time just never seemed right.”
“Must be pretty bad, don’t know if I recall you ever using my real name.”
“Time and place, dude. This certainly isn’t the place, but I finally have the time.”
“So what’s the problem?”
“I want to know if you would be cool with me asking Erica to marry me. I know you think I’m just some board head that likes to blow stuff up but...”
Dylan cut him off with a wave of his hand, “First off, nothing could be further from the truth. I did assume you were a surfer, but I never assumed you were any good at it, at least not good enough to be called a boar
d head. Secondly, have you run this by her? I know the tradition and all that crap goes back to a time when women were property so it has always bugged me.”
“We talked about it and she already said yes,” Jokester said in a quiet voice.
“Well I guess that takes care of that. But if you don’t want me makin’ the reception an embarrassment to nature, you best let me preside of the services. It would also be nice to heal up a bit before you go marching down the aisle.”
Jokester called from a short distance away with two of the horses, “I call best man and second the healing bit!”
“Groomsman! Also adding another vote and thereby passing the healing thing!” yelled Caperson.
Dylan smiled, “Guess that’s a done deal.”
Travis smiled and leaned back to rest.
Dylan smiled then leaned heavily on the wagon bench, “Think I am going to take some time to just enjoy the pain of being alive.”
They spent nearly an hour dressing wounds and moving ammunition around in order to give everyone at least a few rounds to shoot. They were on a small bluff overlooking the hive. From this distance the blue ring around the hive was unmistakable and extended out nearly a quarter of a mile before fading out.
Dylan pulled a small blanket over Beau as he slept comfortably, “Let’s get this show on the road gentlemen, Travis has somewhere he needs to be and I could really use something stronger to drink than water.”
They passed the ride home in relative silence. They had no traps to leave behind them in the hive but the inside was so thoroughly covered with Dust that they had little fear of anything being able to return to revive the hive for some time. Dylan would fall back periodically while on Buck to check and see how Beau was doing. After several hours, he had enough energy to rest his head on the lip of the wagon so he could keep Dylan in sight.
They chose to ride straight through without stopping. Each man would get several hours of sleep in the slowly rocking wagon as they traveled down the worn out highway. Everyone had someone waiting for them at home, someone that wouldn’t sleep well until they knew for sure what had happened on the battlefield.
