by Noah Barnett
"What is this, Last Rights?" Remy asked pausing at the door.
The tall giant lifted his gaze, and spoke in stern sermons voice. "We hold in our hearts the fury for humanity which demonkind hath brought low. Now they dare trespass again on our blessed soil, salting the earth with their foul blood, and hunting the last human souls into oblivion. I say they have mistaken us for cowards. We are no mere soldiers, but god’s warriors." Tobias preached standing. As he spoke, he withdrew his two-handed sword and held it aloft.
He turned to Charlie and said, "Do not go unto them as men, nay. Let us descend upon them in righteous fury. Let us be the avenging angel."
"You want us to jump out of a three-story building?" Remy asked slowly.
"Aye," the tall man said with conviction. It was an interesting idea, but Remy was right. They'd probably break bones on landing.
"It'll be more fun than getting picked off one at a time," Charlie admitted.
"You guys are crazy," Jennifer said.
"Enough talk, the Roth are about to break down the stairwell door. Since it's your idea, you get to lead this time." Charlie said pointing to the giant who was grinning maniacally over his polished blade.
"I stand ready," he said turning to the bay windows. They made a clumsy line at the back of the conference room. The giant sprinted forward with his blade held before him and burst through the glass in a shower. Charlie followed and leaped out of the broken window.
Several Roth waited directly below, including a Captain. Roaring in his deep voice Tobias fell upon the heavily armored suit with his shining blade, pierced the thinner stomach plates, and pinned the creature to the asphalt.
The Roth leader remained stuck fast to the ground, but reached up trying to grab and crush the annoying human atop him. Tobias twisted the blade snapping it, and the four-fingered hands spasmed. Tobias stood from his kill like David from Goliath. Something inside the alien's suit began to bleat, but the crusader grabbed the dropped laser cannon. Tobias rotated slowly toward the office building before planting his feet. Another Roth Captain was just inside and turning toward them.
"Die demons, die in your own hellfire!" Tobias screamed pulling the thick trigger. The red beam of energy cut through the front doors and slammed into the thick red suit. For a fraction of a second, the armor held, before the energy melted the chest plate. Tobias's fingers blistered and turned into cooked sausages from the superheated air. His eyebrows and peach fuzz burned away as his face reddened.
Charlie landed on a parked car, slid across the vehicle's roof, and tackled an armored alien. As they tumbled to the ground, Charlie jammed the barrel under the white helmet. Twelve bullets danced inside like a Pachinko machine turning the alien's head into a chunky yellow soup. Nearby the other two squadmates landed hard on the concrete.
"Drop the laser fool," Remy screamed running past the giant and skidded to a stop next to Charlie. She fired at a fourth soldier. The magnum round knocked the creature down, and she finished him off with the rest of the cylinder.
"Fear not death; For the sooner we die, the longer we shall be immortal." Tobias quoted pulling the trigger on the heavy weapon again.
He had turned and was aiming down the street toward another squad. The beam caught a lightly armored soldier out in the open. As it passed over the alien, it was cut into two parts. The long armored legs continued forward sans the torso for another few feet before collapsing.
The sleeves of Tobias's gray robes caught fire as the meat of his fingers melted away. Boiling ruptures broke out over his face as he laughed. Then the cannon's alarm reached a crescendo and exploded sending the scorched giant flying into the office lobby.
"Well, he made us a way out. Let's not waste it." Charlie said standing from cover.
Jen was laying on the concrete with an ankle bent in the wrong direction. Instead of pain, she looked annoyed as she held her pistol. An alien lay on the ground next to her.
"Just leave me," she said as Charlie approached.
He ignored her comment and picked up the woman in a fireman's carry. Thankfully, his two strength was just enough to lift the extra weight. Remy ran ahead of him into the alley. They picked a random direction, and half jogged away from the battle. By some miracle, they missed the alien squads converging on the location.
Several streets down they found fresh graffiti on a storefront. It was a crude bullet surrounded by a circle and an arrow indicating a direction. Charlie pointed with his elbow, "Look, it's one of the stockpiles they told us about."
"Maybe they'll have medical supplies," Remy suggested.
The supply cache turned out to be inside an old speakeasy. The same graffiti pointed down into the steps of a business's basement. Remy pushed open the old wooden door with her shotgun drawn.
"Someone's already been here," she warned as Charlie carried Jennifer down the stairs.
The secret door marred with graffiti was already ajar, and several crates had been broken open and looted.
"I hope we find what we need to survive another two hours," Charlie said entering the cache room.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Landing Pt2
A foul smelling car battery bubbled and smoked near the hidden entrance. Two wires ran up the wall, along the ceiling, and haphazardly connected to a hanging light fixture. The ancient yellow bulb blinked erratically like a caffeine addicted office drone. It illuminated if barely, the rough hewn limestone walls, and was another visceral reminder of just how far humanity had fallen. Wooden crates were piled along the walls in an uncoordinated mess. Charlie approached the nearest stack as he carefully pulled Jennifer from his shoulder.
"You know, under different circumstances, I'd be excited to have such a beautiful woman in my arms," Charlie said putting his wounded comrade down.
"Don't even try it," Jennifer replied with a look best described as dark. His face heated from the curt rejection and he turned away.
"Just joking," he said looking around.
Jennifer sighed and said, "That came out harsher than I intended."
"No, it's for the best. I'd rather keep you around as a goofy sidekick than a serious romantic interest. I already have one damaged girl in my harem." Charlie said as he walked over to a pallet of miscellaneous equipment. There was a tiny red bag with a cross on each side, and he pulled it out from the tie downs. The kit wasn't much, but he returned with it.
"Has anyone ever told you, you're an ass."
"I completely agree. He won't fuck me no matter how much I beg." Remy said from deep within several pallets of grenades.
She tore open another top and grinned. Pulling out several sticks of C4, she yelled, “Finally, the good stuff!”
The banter helped salvage the mood in the room, and he turned his attention back to his initial task. The little red bag unzipped down the middle and opened like a clamshell. One side contained ten injections of morphine. The other held five rolls of beige colored bandages, and stuck in the middle was a two-page pamphlet. It repeated the same instructions in several different languages.
[Inject the patient with an ampule of morphine, then wrap the wound in a bandage. For all serious injuries, shoot the patient.]
Charlie laughed and handed the pamphlet to Jennifer. "Now I won't feel so bad when I put you down like a wounded dog." She quickly scanned the instructions and crumpled the note. It flew across the room and rolled into a dark corner. "With how cheap clones are, it makes sense they haven't wasted much energy on keeping us alive."
He removed an orange ampule, popped off the safety cap, then unceremoniously jabbed it into Jennifer’s thigh. She gave a relieved sigh and said, "At least the annoying tingle is gone."
The foot pointed in an unnatural direction, and he removed her boot revealing a purple and swollen ankle. There weren't any bones sticking out—thankfully, so Charlie forced it around until there was a loud pop. Then, he wrapped a bandage around her foot.
"How is that?"
Jennifer stood carefully from
the crates and walked across the dirt floor like she had a peg leg. "I won't be running any marathons, but at least I can walk." She admitted sitting back down and putting her boot on.
Remy returned from her fishing expedition with several ammo boxes. Dangling from her waist was a plethora of frag grenades, flash-bangs, and smokes. Her teddy bear backpack overflowed with sticks of C4, and hanging from its open mouth were a couple of remote detonators.
Charlie took the ammo container, which was filled to the brim with loose 5.56 rounds, and reloaded his magazines. While he did this, Jennifer managed to locate two more belts for grenades. Her movement speed was already crippled, and she dared not carry anything extra. When each of them were ready, they crept back up the basement stairs.
Toward the south, a constant gun battle tickled Charlie's hearing like distant fireworks. The smell of smoke and something electric hung in the air like a pall. He paused near the exit checking the street in both directions. A few blocks down several human bodies lay in the open, and he was certain they hadn't been there before, so he turned his squad away toward a nearby shopping mall. Charlie crept along the sidewalk with his rifle at the ready. Jennifer limped behind him with her USP in hand, and Remy walked backward with her revolver.
The parking lot was congested, and they wove between abandoned cars and FEMA trucks. Faded scorch marks covered the face of the building like old battle scars. The glass doors were shattered and crunched under his boots as Charlie entered the shopping center. More glass littered the food court from the broken skylights. Sunlight streamed from above illuminating a standing pool of water, and weeds struggled up between the marble tiles. Most of the shuttered storefronts were closed and padlocked.
Behind him, Jennifer and Remy scanned the hallway. Charlie walked toward a set of broken escalators, but stopped pausing to listen. He lifted a closed fist, and his companions froze. Something had moved on the second floor, and Charlie trained his weapon on the landing as he slowly crept one step at a time. He almost squeezed the trigger as two shapes appeared on the second floor. A male and female whitetail deer stop near the top of the escalator. The impressive ten point buck glared down at him imperiously, as if to say, “How dare you block my path.” The female nervously ducked behind a moss covered bench, but sadly, it wasn't Charlie she should have been afraid of.
A pulse laser lanced out from deeper within the mall followed by the pop and crackle of burning air. The burst of energy caught the female in the flank. The doe jumped, screaming in pain before her legs gave out. As she collapsed, the furious buck turned and charged into the darkness. Several high pitched beams darted past, and something heavy crashed to the ground.
Charlie moved to the top of the escalator in a crouch. Two alien soldiers started poking the deer's corpse with their energy rifles and talking to one another. It appeared they were stragglers waiting for their comrades to respawn. One took out a small device and the second posed with his white plated foot on the trophy animal. On the second escalator, both girls crawled to the lip and looked over. Remy made a small disgusted sound low in her throat.
She turned to Jen and whispered under her breath, "Flashbangs." Jen withdrew a thin grenade from her belt, and they pulled the pins. Raising up both tossed the flashbangs across the twenty-meter gap. The two soldiers turned at the sound and raised their rifles. Closing his eyes, Charlie waited until both grenades exploded in a brilliant flash of light and sound.
He stood aiming down the red dot of his M16. The soldiers staggered backward from the deer as they fired indiscriminately. He shot at the right most alien in a precise one-second burst, and the rounds stitched across its chest leaving a trail of holes in the light armor. The bulky pulse rifle clattered loudly to the tiles as the alien fell over. The second Roth danced under an onslaught of pistol rounds slamming into its armor. Remy's revolver belched defiantly as she aimed using the scope. The soldier's leg buckled at the knee, and the creature collapsed.
Remy ran forward, and Charlie was forced to follow. His target had stopped moving but the second alien was still alive. The small school girl stepped on the laser carbine pinning it to the ground, and Charlie immobilized its other wrist with a boot. She holstered her magnum and withdrew the double barrel shotgun at her thigh. Jen caught up and together they looked down at the Roth. Remy glanced back at the smoldering animal corpse then at the alien, who was just recovering from the blinding flash.
"I wonder what Roth tastes like?" The young girl mused.
"That's pretty dark even for you, Remy," Charlie said.
"I'm just curious."
The wounded soldier made a sound inside its helmet which was muffled by the glass. Maybe it was talking, or cursing, or begging for its life, but Charlie didn't much care. Remy pointed the short barreled shotgun at the lizard-like face and pulled both triggers. Bone, ichor, and brains splattered everywhere as the two loads of buckshot shredded the Roth's head. Remy knelt and stuck a finger into the yellow tapioca pudding that had been a face. She sniffed tentatively, then gave it a lick, and quickly spat the glob onto the ground.
"What's it like?" Charlie asked raising one eyebrow.
"Like week old semen deep fried in sewage," Remy said spitting again. Jen dry heaved and closed a hand over her mouth. Her face turned a shade of green, and she walked away. Remy rubbed her fingers clean on her skirt. "We better leave. Every time one of those fuckers dies it sends out a distress signal."
Charlie agreed and checked the time. It was 3:13 pm which meant almost three hours had passed. He reloaded Fara with a full magazine and put the partial in his dump pouch. "Anyone need to go potty?" He asked, and both girls shook their heads. Charlie was fine for another hour, but he was going to need some lunch soon. They continued through the mall at a fast hobble.
Near the north parking lot, a fresh squad of Roth was investigating the distress signals. A heavily armored captain struggled to find a path toward them. Charlie ran forward to the cover of an armored FEMA vehicle. The M16 settled atop the hood, but the Roth weaved between the abandoned cars. Charlie fired a short burst just to keep the soldiers from closing too quickly, while Remy pulled the pin on several smoke grenades and hurled them into the lot. Within seconds they began spewing an obscuring blanket. A massive laser beam slashed over their heads and melted the glass entrance into slag. Jen and Remy both started throwing all of their smokes and flash-bangs toward the advancing Roth.
The tactic was a double-edged sword, however. The armored captain couldn't see them through the thick smoke, but Charlie found it impossible to pick off the soldiers coming toward them. Without much hope, he fired again at a shadow moving between the cars. The bolt locked back on an empty chamber, and Charlie dropped the mag to load a fresh one. Things were happening too quickly to worry about picking up empty magazines.
A white clad Roth sprinted toward them through the smoke. It held a small carbine sized laser rifle as it moved. Without stopping the alien fired cutting a long gouge into the armored Humvee. Charlie leveled his CQB weapon and squeezed the trigger. The soldier dodged right, and he followed the target with his automatic fire. He cut a swath across the alien's stomach, but it continued around the side of the vehicle. Charlie swore as his M16 ran dry and let the rifle fall on its sling to his chest. He transitioned with long practice to his 1911 as the wounded Roth appeared again. Lifting the pistol to eye level both fired at one another. A beam hit Charlie in the neck cutting apart his jugular and fusing several vertebrae together. His bullet slammed into the glass visor, punching through in a spiderweb, and drilled into the slitted nasal cavity. Charlie collapsed to the ground along with the convulsing alien.
Darkness closed in after a few seconds.
A door opened in the void exposing a massive public lobby. Thousands of players were still sitting around watching the combat. Screens displayed a variety of ongoing battles. He stepped from the small enclosed booth and looked around. On the centrally raised dais, a massive map was representing the overall event. Yellow do
ts showed the locations of all the living humans. Red pings indicated known Roth activity. On the side, a counter listed the number of players remaining, which was steadily ticking down past eight thousand. He checked his watch and was glad to see it was past 3:30. Charlie would just barely get that third match point.
"Brother Charlie!" A deep voice called. The figure of Tobias pushed through the throng toward him. "I watched your skirmish. You have done well, and your flock continues to fight the demons." Tobias said pointing back to a rear screen. Charlie followed the man over to the couches.
"I am…" Tobias paused before sitting down. He struggled to find his words. "The Lord hath tested me and found me wanting."
"You're joking right? If it wasn't for you, we would all be corpses in that office building." Charlie admitted.
"Before… I was presumptuous to state I needed only the conviction of faith. Against the hellish weapons the demon host brings, faith alone means little. I need more than a sword and I beg thee for advice."
