by Xander Boyce
“We can’t put up much of a fight on half rations of potato chips and soda. We need supplies, and this place is just going to become more and more of a death trap.”
Sarah looked between the four of them, her mouth opening and then closing again.
“Look, ma’am, our responsibility, our duty, isn’t here anymore. And I for one have no intention of abandoning that duty. If you feel like you need to stay here, then I understand. But I’m not going to be coming back here, and your best chance of getting out of this place is going to be with us.”
“I could order you to stay.” Sarah’s voice was soft, the fear in her eyes obvious.
“You could ma’am, but that would be an order to abandon my duty, and I’m not at liberty to obey unlawful orders.” Drew’s voice lost the edge that it had previously. He understood that she was afraid, afraid of the darkness on the other side of the door as well as the gore, the blood and other viscera he had arrived in earlier. “Don’t worry ma’am; we’ll keep you safe.”
They all nodded, and Sarah folded. Drew walked over to the cart to get it situated, while everyone else gathered up the few items they would be taking with them. Katie had stopped after the three men left the table, whispering something to Sarah that Drew intentionally tuned out.
Having the least amount of work to do, Drew considered how best to utilize his time. The confrontation with Sarah reminded him that the two youngest members of the team, Juan and Sarah, hadn’t had the conditioning he had out in the fleet arresting drug runners and human traffickers. Making his way over to where Juan was picking through the things on a desk, “Hey, we haven’t really had a chance to talk. How you holding up?”
“Hey, Acho. Honestly? I’m glad that we’re finally getting out of here. But man, I thought se fue al garete[1] for a bit there.” Juan tipped his head up towards Sarah to indicate he was talking about the conversation earlier.
“Yeah, me too.” Drew leaned against the desk, looking at what Juan was putting away. “This whole thing has been a bit of a nightmare.”
“Yeah, I was thinking about that. You know the bible?” Juan asked, and Drew nodded, “Well, you don’t think like…this whole thing was Armageddon? Like, the rapture happened, and we didn’t get picked, and now we’re in hell?”
Drew laughed slightly, “I’m not super religious anymore, but I think there were a whole bunch of signs that were supposed to happen before the rapture. I’m pretty sure that this isn’t God’s handiwork.”
“So, do you think that means God isn’t real, that if we die like that guard did, we just gonna cease to exist?”
“I don’t know if there’s an all-powerful being out there, Juan, but from what I was told during the tutorial, Humankind immigrated here. Maybe the blue boxes are God, finally talking to each of us on an individual level. As for death, I don’t know about you, but I don’t plan on finding out in the near future.” Drew clapped the younger man on the shoulder, “Don’t worry about it, as long as we stick together, I don’t think there is anything here that the five of us can’t handle.”
Drew looked over at Mitch and the two exchanged a nod. Katie had finished talking to Sarah and the two women had split up to finish getting ready. Drew frowned to himself before walking over to Sarah. “Ma’am?”
She turned around and looked at him, and he could see the faint redness in her eyes indicating that she had been crying before she looked away. “Look, I just wanted to say I’m sorry.”
“No, it’s...it’s fine. You’re right; we can’t stay here.” Sarah didn’t meet his eyes as she picked through her desk.
“I’m terrified too, you know. The darkness out there? It scares me more than I care to admit. Heck, it almost killed me once already, and you saved my life. I never properly thanked you for that. So, sorry, for not doing that earlier.” Drew paused as he looked at her, “I know you can handle this, and most importantly. We need you; I have a feeling we’re all going to bleed a little bit before we get out of here.”
“Thank you IT2…Drew.” Sarah sniffed but didn’t look up. “I don’t know what we would have done if you hadn’t shown up.”
“You would have figured something out; you’re a smart woman. Me showing up just makes it a little bit easier.” He smiled at her again and then turned to leave. He didn’t have anything to pack up, but he rearranged the duffles on the cart.
Juan and Mitch each took a fire axe, while Sarah would grab the cart. Katie would be in charge of the lights and making walls for the ranged folk to duck behind if things turned dicey. Buffs were reapplied, and after double checking that everyone had everything, they left the safe room. Sarah locked the door and flipped the magnet from “Open” to “Secured.” When she turned around and saw everyone looking at her strangely, she shrugged. “What? It’s not like we’d be able to get back in without breaking the door anyway, might as well let anyone who comes know that we aren’t in there. Now let’s get going before we get ambushed by goblins or whatever the heck is out here.”
“Aye aye, Ma’am,” Mitch said before doing an about face, leading the way towards their egress down the hallway. Following him was Drew and Juan side by side, then Sarah, with Katie and the Knight bringing up the rear. Juan’s Earth elemental was following behind him.
They passed the point where the ice storm had gone off, Sarah having to maneuver around the pits in the floor.
Juan whispered to Drew, “You did all this?” His earth elemental seemed to be inspecting one of the pits, poking it with a stubby rock hand.
“Uh, yeah,” Drew said, scanning the area for any sign of a creature struck by the spell, hoping to find some evidence of the shape he saw moving in the darkness here.
“Dios mio,” the Puerto Rican whispered, crossing himself while looking around at the rubble.
Forging ahead, Drew glanced back at Katie and Sarah, who were having some trouble getting the cart over the uneven terrain. Katie helped her pick the cart up for a moment after concrete rubble got stuck in one of the wheels. He nudged Juan, who was staring at the damage, and they moved forward. They were almost to the stairs now.
Catching up with Mitch, he said, “I’m not going to be much help in the stairs, it’s too small an area for me, so I’ll only be able to cast my weakest spells.”
“Which of course means that’s where we’re going to get attacked, doesn’t it?” The ever-hungry man said with a grimace, but he glanced back and gestured for Juan to join them.
“Yeah, probably. What do you think? Send the elemental in first? See if it can see anything?” Drew asked.
“You’re just going to sacrifice the little guy?”
“Better it than one of us.”
“Yeah, I guess.” Juan gave some instructions to the elemental, and it wandered forward towards the door. The girls had caught up again, the knight bringing up the rear.
“Checking the stairwell with the elemental,” Drew answered Katie’s raised eyebrow at the unplanned stop.
With a nod, Katie leaned against the wall. There was a sudden sharp whistling sound and then a loud clatter as something impacted the wall right next to her head. With a cry of pain or fear, she immediately collapsed. Drew and Juan immediately sent two fireballs streaking into the darkness around them.
“Kill the red mages!” The shout was followed by a strange snapping sound. Drew and Juan both dropped to the ground, a blast of cold energy flying into the air above them as Drew cast a cone of cold. Sending the bolts off course, a short wall appeared between the group and their attackers, Katie giving them some cover from the sudden attacks.
“What’s going on?” Mitch shouted from where he too had fallen to the ground.
“Ambush,” Drew said, throwing a glowrock over the wall like a grenade.
Chapter Ten — Ambush
The knight was the only figure still standing. Drew watched as the second wave of projectiles smashed its helmet to pieces, the knight’s body dissolving in a manner similar to how it had appeared. He poked a f
inger over the top of the barrier and launched a blind frostfire ball in the same general direction he had heard them coming from before.
“Can you make part of the wall glass?” Drew asked Katie as more barrages fell around them.
“I can try,” Katie said, concentrating on the wall in front of them. Drew threw another glowrock from his pocket over the wall, hoping to distract the attackers. As he did this, the wall in front of him added a foot-tall section of glass to its height.
“Perfect.” Drew said, popping his head up a little so he could get a look at whatever was attacking them. It was difficult to make them out through the thick, cloudy glass, but he guessed there were seven or eight figures standing back a few dozen feet away from where they had emerged from the branching hallways.
“Katie, put up a wall behind us, I don’t want to get flanked,” Drew said, glancing behind him. They couldn’t have known about the walls, but any good ambush would have them defending against multiple avenues of attack.
The brunette glanced back as well, chanting a quick spell to create another long wall, this one slightly taller than the one in front of them. “Got it,” she said, before ducking reflexively as another clatter hit the wall behind her and shattered, showering them with slow-moving shrapnel. Drew glanced down the line. Juan was poking his fingers over the wall and launching projectiles blind, not doing much, but hopefully, it reduced the number of projectiles coming their way. Sarah was curled up with her hands over her ears leaning against the half wall, and Mitch crouched next to her, axe in hand, unable to attack anything.
Drew peeked his head up again and began the hand signs to cast a storm spell. However, a projectile cracking the glass in front of his face caused him to duck down reflexively, losing the cast.
Pinned down, Drew poked his fingers over the wall and cast fireball and frostfire ball towards the larger group he had seen. The rate of fire slowed for only a second before the glass above him shattered as two projectiles hit it at the same time.
Glass bounced off his mana guard harmlessly, but Katie, who was next to him, wasn’t so lucky. Sharp bits of glass embedded themselves in the exposed flesh of her neck and face as she cried out in pain. “Sarah, heal Katie!” Drew shouted, covering her with his body to prevent any further damage as projectiles rained down on the pinned down group.
Mitch shouted back, “She’s in shock, we need to stop that barrage!” Drew glanced back and saw that Sarah was still curled up in a ball. Cursing under his breath, he popped up long enough to target an acid dart at one of the attackers. A shout of alarm originated from where he had aimed, but Drew had already ducked back behind cover. His quick, long-range options were all on cooldown for a few more seconds. He pulled Katie away from the glass section of the wall towards the outer edge and away from the rest of the group.
As Drew rapidly considered his options, Juan launched his attacks, which elicited another grunt of pain from the attackers. “Mitch, get ready, this would be a great time for them to charge the barricade.” Drew poked his finger up and launched a cone of frost blindly towards the floor, hoping to dissuade them from making a charge by creating slippery terrain. With the enemies’ numbers, they would easily overpower the group if they got into melee.
Having finally made his way to the end of the wall, he glanced around it. He saw three figures dashing toward him and another finger came up, cone of frostfire exploded out, catching all three of them in its blast. They immediately dropped their weapons, screaming in pain as ice encrusted their flesh and began to burn them. Beginning the cast of a storm spell, he leaned out at the last second, launching his most deadly spell at the ranged attackers that continued to pelt the wall behind them, showering them with shrapnel and filling the ground between the walls with sharp pieces of what looked like bone.
He watched as the spell tore the remaining attackers to pieces, their projectiles stopped by the wind and then turned into additional debris. Their lack of cover from the large chunks of ice and fire that circled within the storm was devastating. Lightning crackled in the tempest, bouncing between their forms.
Drew looked away from the doomed attackers and back down the line. Katie and Sarah were now both huddled against the wall and Juan lay on the floor, red blood pooling around his body. Another unfamiliar green humanoid was lying next to him, an axe buried in its chest. Mitch was repeatedly punching a second, unresisting, green humanoid. “SARAH! Cast heal now!” They were all within her radius. Drew dove towards Juan, heedless of the sharp bits digging into his legs as he knelt beside the youngest member of their group.
The source of the blood was obvious: a thick dagger protruding from his chest. His eyes were lifeless as Drew checked for a pulse, shouting Juan’s name over and over. He felt the air change as the storm spell dissipated, and when he looked up and Sarah was staring at him and Juan with wide eyes, her lips moving silently.
“Sarah! Cast the fucking cure!” Drew cursed at her again, “Now!” He added, making eye contact. He could see her shake out of the shock she had been in and begin to cast the spell, yellow light illuminating Drew, Mitch, and Katie. Drew looked over towards Mitch, who had finally stopped punching the dead attacker. He slumped away from Juan, his hands bloody.
The fight was over, blue boxes in the corner of his vision indicating that the mana system had good news for him. He numbly concentrated on it, pulling up the notifications.
Congratulations, citizen. Your Acid Dart has reached level 1. Damage has increased.
Congratulations, citizen. Your Acid Dart has reached level 2. Damage has increased.
Congratulations, citizen. Your Acid Dart has reached level 3. Damage has increased.
Congratulations, citizen. Your Major Mana Guard has reached level 2. Amount of damage absorbed has increased.
Congratulations, citizen. Your Major Refresh has reached level 2. Recharge time has been reduced.
Congratulations, citizen. Your Major Spark has reached level 2. Damage has increased.
Congratulations, citizen. Your Major Spark has reached level 3. Damage has increased.
Congratulations, citizen. Your Minor Dancing Blade has reached level 1.
Drew dismissed the screen, standing up to survey the battlefield. He slipped on the blood and had to put a hand on the wall for support. The enemies caught by the storm were destroyed; he could see portions of them in various locations throughout the hallway.
Mitch approached him, “they jumped the wall behind us. They killed Juan before I realized what was going on.” Drew glanced down at the bodies, studying Juan’s killer.
Thick green skin covered a squat, thickly muscled frame. It looked like the typical Orcs from any game he had played, except for the two, inch long horns protruding from either side of its forehead. Thick pelts covered most of their bodies, a crude form of armor that looked more suited to a cold climate than DC in April. Drew kicked the body a couple of times, spouting nonsensical curse words in half a dozen languages.
Katie finally stopped him, putting a hand on his shoulder as she spoke softly, “Drew, we can’t stay here.”
She was right, they were exposed. He looked around, only to see that Sarah was crying into Mitch’s shoulder as she watched them both. “Right. Grab the weapons, see if any of them are growing xatherite.” He reached down and picked up another dagger that lay near where he had cast the storm spell, this one smaller and thinner, made for throwing. It was only then that he realized that his mana guard was gone, having saved his life from the dagger that he never even knew had targeted him. Sarah sniffed a few times, then picked up the dagger that the Orc Mitch had brutalized had been using. Mitch recovered the axe, Katie picked up the half dozen lights that had been spread around during the fight and searched for xatherite, shaking her head when she came back to indicate she hadn’t seen any.
Drew glanced at Juan’s body. It would be nearly impossible to bring with them. “Katie, can you make walls around Juan? We’re gonna have to leave him here.” Katie nodded, ca
using two small walls to appear near his head and foot, with two more sloped walls that met in a point above his chest, sealing the body inside.
“Alright, let's go, there could be more of those things around.” Drew turned to leave, but Katie put another hand on his shoulder. He turned to look at her and she nodded towards Sarah, “We should say something.”
“Right.” He glanced at the others. He had known Juan the least of all of them. They had worked with him for months at least.
Sarah spoke first, “I’m sorry Juan, I’m so sorry.” She began crying again, and Mitch put his arm around her to comfort her.
“You were a good shipmate, always going above and beyond to make everyone happy,” Mitch offered from where he comforted the Ensign.
“You were a good kid, like OS2 said, always willing to help people and eager to learn.” Katie offered her portion and then turned to Drew.
“I didn’t know you for long, and I’m sorry I didn’t protect you like I said I would. Looks like you’ll figure that God thing out before me.” Then he nodded and they all turned away from the bodies, leaving the orcs for whatever spiders or other scavengers came for them. No one had the heart to wade into the scattered body parts torn apart by the storm spell to look for their weapons.
Drew did take a last glance around. The ambush felt off to him somehow. It was executed perfectly, and the pincer attack would have killed them all if it weren’t for Katie’s wall spell. The question he had was, why? Was it because of his first storm spell? The only words that he had heard were ‘kill the red mages.’ Was that just good practice, or a response to the spells he’d cast? He frowned again, looking at the others, “We should use a different stairwell.” He ushered everyone to a branching hallway and away from the main elevators. Grabbing the rope for the cart, he pulled it behind him, the wheels bouncing over the bone shards that littered the floor.
The building was organized strangely, built into the side of a hill. The ‘ground floor’ was the highest floor, and they counted going down from there. They were currently on the third floor but going up meant being on top of the hill with more buildings surrounding them and no real way off the hill. There were exits on floors five, six, and seven that opened onto the parking structure and the road off base. The closest exit was on the sixth floor. The fifth- and seventh-floor exits would require traveling through the building either more to the west or east, as they exited on the slope of the hill. This was the main stairwell and allowed access to all nine floors of the building. The problem was that it was the only stairwell that went all the way up and down, and the rest of them only spanned three to four floors each.
