That didn’t last long, though. Within seconds, the golem corrected for its injury and came on, and this time when I shot at it, the bullets impacted uselessly on a small shield that appeared in front of a portion of the creature’s mass… a part of the golem must’ve been made up of a dead Defense mage.
Great. I would never be able to punch through that shield with my P90. It didn’t matter anyway; my weapon clicked on empty, and even as I dug in my holster for my sidearm, I knew that there wasn’t any point. Nothing I had was going to be able to hold back that colossus.
Then, the air shook with thunder, bullets streaking over the top of my head to punch into the golem and send it reeling. The gunfire was constant, almost deafening; it was Dread, God bless the big bastard, tearing apart the golem with his machinegun to keep it off of me.
“Here! Here, you son of a bitch! Come to me!” Dread shouted, roaring out a battle cry as he marched toward the golem, firing burst after burst into the creature. Shell casings flew in a stream out of the side of his weapon as it bucked in his massive arms and spat dozens of rounds into the golem.
Lysette shot past him on the left, moving like a flash of lightning, ducking and sliding across the floor to dodge beneath one of the golem’s thick, swinging arms. As she slid past Dread and underneath the golem’s swing, she fired her submachinegun up into the creature, tearing apart two heads on one of the golem’s arms.
That arm dropped, dead, but another one swung at her, and she somehow turned her slide into a cartwheel, posting her left hand on the floor and keeping her weapon in her right as she danced and flipped her way through a superhuman dodge of the golem’s attack. She fired at it again even as she spun through the air, but the golem’s shield was back up and Lysette’s gunfire impacted uselessly against it.
More bursts from Dread now, and the golem actually retreated a step, trying to get away from the constant hail of bullets. Within seconds, its shield was back up, now protecting it from Dread, but the small shield couldn’t cover the golem’s entire bulky mass, and Lysette began her attack again, whirling and twisting around the golem’s limbs and tentacles and firing back with her weapon all at once.
Even more gunfire joined in, from Shifty and his Wreck Squad, and the golem began to lurch about, twisting away from the gunfire, trying to get a shield up between it and whoever was shooting at it. It couldn’t defend itself from three directions at once; if its shield kept out Dread’s gunfire, Lysette and the Wreck Squad tore into it, and if it shifted its shield to protect itself from the Wreck Squad, Dread and Lysette were there to punch holes into it with their weapons.
We were in serious danger of shooting each other with all of that crossfire, but at least all the chaos distracted the golem long enough for me to get my feet back underneath me. I kept low, praying to not get hit by a stray round or one of the golem’s flailing limbs, and dragged Mickey away from the creature… she was still shaken from the roof collapse and the sight of the golem.
All the while, I knew that the clock was ticking. The golem was bad enough, sure, but I knew like I knew my own name that Kel’s reinforcements were on their way; hordes of ghouls charging down the cell blocks towards the hub’s three open entrances. Now, with all of us fighting the golem, there was nothing to hold them back.
As I dragged Mickey away from the immediate threat, part of my mind was running through a mental calculation and countdown. How long were the cell blocks? How fast could a ghoul run? How much time did we have to put down this golem… if we even could… before Kel’s army overran us from three directions at once?
Not enough time, was the obvious answer.
Once I was far enough away from the golem to take the time to reload and get back into the fight, I had a chance to glance around the hub and take stock. Mickey was finally back on her feet; she seemed a bit dazed, but I could at least get her to move under her own power. Jolly was standing near Dread, both of them shooting at the golem while simultaneously trying to stay far enough away from it to avoid the reach of those deadly claws or waving tentacles.
Two prison guards were standing nearby, shooting ineffectively at the golem, and I grabbed one by the arm and shouted over the gunfire, “You two! Get to that doorway! Ghouls are coming!”
He stared at me for a second, and then, finally realizing what I was saying, stopped shooting and pulled his buddy over to the shattered doorway of Two. There must’ve been ghouls already coming down the cell block, because the guards began shooting through the entrance almost as soon as they got there.
My turn. I pulled Mickey along with me toward the entrance of Seven… it was almost impossible to ignore the threat of the massive, thrashing golem in our midst, but if some of us didn’t at least try to hold back the ghouls, we’d be overrun and our guns would become worse than useless. In a wild hand-to-hand melee, you’re as likely to shoot a friendly as an enemy.
On the way to Seven, I also grabbed a hold of Jolly. Mickey and Jolly weren’t exactly heavy firepower, but I had to work with what I had. I needed Dread and Lys to stay on that golem, and with all the gunfire and chaos, there was no way I was going to be able to shout out complicated orders to everyone scattered around the room.
I pushed them both into the entrance of Seven, shouting “Shoot!” into their ears. I took a second to glance down the cell block as I pulled the last two grenades off my gear.
It wasn’t good. Dozens of ghouls were coming down the hallway; too many for us to expect to hold back. Still, there’s no point in rolling over and dying, so I pulled the pins on the grenades and tossed them down the hallway.
My weapon was up and I was shooting before they exploded, quick bursts to drop as many ghouls as fast as I could. Mickey and Jolly were shooting as well, and it seemed like they were getting some hits, but I could tell they were both terrified at the sight of the incoming ghouls and rushing their shots in their panic.
I pushed them back behind the cover of the doorway before the grenades went off, one after the other, in the front ranks of the ghouls. When we came back around into the doorway, I could see that the grenades had definitely had some effect; ghouls with their legs shattered from flying fragments had fallen, tripping up those trying to follow. They seemed almost dazed as they climbed back to their feet… it must’ve been the concussion of the blasts that affected them. Ghouls didn’t seem to respond to pain, but concussive blasts seemed to at least temporarily disorient them.
Too bad I don’t have about a hundred flashbangs, I thought, but it did give me a moment’s reprieve to check back on the fight behind me.
“Shifty!” I shouted in his direction, straining to be heard over the gunfire. He finally heard me on the second try, and I waved at the doorway to Four, praying to God he figured out what I was talking about.
It took him a moment, but his eyes went wide and I knew that he now realized the danger we were in of being overrun. He shook Ryan on the shoulder to get his attention, shouting something in his ear that I couldn’t hear and they turned to face the entrance to Four. I could actually see the ghouls start to push into the entranceway of the hub as Shifty got a shield up to stop them before they could get in.
That flank was okay, at least for now. Mickey and Jolly were shooting and shouting to me, but the golem was the next priority, so I shifted my attention to that monstrosity as it struck down one of Shifty’s Wreck squad. I couldn’t tell if it was his Striker mage or not; one of the golem’s huge arms smashed down on top of his head, snapping his neck and crushing his skull.
Still, as bad as it looked at first glance, I could tell that Dread and Lysette were starting to beat the golem down. One of its legs was completely out of commission, as well as two of its arms, and it constantly reeled about like a drunk, trying uselessly to protect its heads from the gunfire punching into it from all directions.
Its attacks seemed more desperate than coordinated. The real danger was the mass of the creature lurching about; Dread kept his distance and Lysette leapt and dodge
d all around it like an acrobat, but some of the prison guards let themselves get too close and ended up getting smashed to a pulp by those heavy arms.
I fired a series of quick bursts at it. I could feel the pressure of the ghouls behind me in the cell block of Seven; I knew they were going to recover any second and that Mickey and Jolly wouldn’t be able to hold them back, but we had to take that golem out, now, so that we could all get back to repelling the ghouls, or we were screwed.
The golem crashed down to one knee, and Dread and Lysette redoubled their attack on it, staying on opposite sides of the creature so that its shield could never protect it from both of them at once. They didn’t give it an instant to recover; they kept it constantly off-balance and on the defense.
Lysette rolled underneath the golem, right between its legs, firing upwards as she did, and even though she was firing in the midst of her roll, she was still able to hit and take out a couple of the heads on the golem’s good leg. The huge creature fell forward, now on both knees, and Lysette finished her roll and cartwheeled over one of the golem’s dead legs, spraying more gunfire across its back.
It howled in desperation and more of the creature went dead. I didn’t see a shield anymore; she must’ve hit the head belonging to whatever dead Defense mage had been fused into the mass of the creature when it had been created.
Finally. Finally we had caught a break; now that the golem was half-dead and without a shield, the three of us should be able to take it down.
I had just shot another head on the golem when Lysette’s luck ran out. She had done another of her acrobatic leaps and twists to avoid the twisting snake-like mass of tentacles striking out from the golem’s back, when one of the golem’s two remaining arms caught her with a heavy swipe. Two of its six-inch claws drove all the way in to her abdomen, and then the golem flung her like a sack of grain across the hub to land on the floor near the hallway leading to the front gatehouse.
I almost couldn’t believe it when I saw it. She couldn’t get hit. Not Lysette. Not her. She was indestructible, a T-rex; too strong, too fast, too agile, too everything, for anything to actually get to her.
I should’ve known better. All those years on the Wreck Squads, taking down mages that seemed so powerful that they must be invincible; and yet, they all fell.
All the same, I found myself dazed for a second or two as everything fell apart around me. Mickey was pulling on my arm, shouting something I couldn’t quite hear, something about the ghouls. Jolly ran past me, heedless of the golem, rushing to try to get to Lysette. Dread circled around the golem, firing into it constantly, killing more and more of it as he went.
A magespear flew from across the room, tearing off the huge arm that had impaled Lysette… I guess Shifty’s Striker mage was still in the fight, after all. The golem fell forward now, dragging itself along with its one good arm, not even trying to fight back now.
Right before it happened, I realized what the golem was going to do. The massive creature dragged itself close to the pedestal in the center of the room, the one housing the sphere that we were all fighting so desperately to protect, and then it heaved its bulk up enough that it could hammer down on the pedestal with its last huge arm.
The metal housing on the top of the pedestal cracked and splintered under the impact of the golem’s arm. Dread’s gunfire had it practically lying down the ground now, so much of it was dead, but it had enough life left in it to smash down one more time to knock the sphere loose from its housing on top of the pedestal.
Electricity poured into the creature; its entire bulk twisted and spasmed and flailed about. Sparks flew in a spray out of the pedestal’s metal housing, and the foul stench of charred dead flesh filled the air. The golem’s body bucked with the massive current going through it, giant limbs shaking until the electricity cut out, and then, the limbs fell limp, and finally, that thing was dead.
It had done its job, though. The sphere was out of the pedestal, out of the failsafe, and rolling across the floor of the hub slowly. It didn’t look like much. A metal sphere a bit bigger than the size of a baseball. The stupid, tiny thing that was the reason behind this entire bloody day.
I came back to myself as the ghouls swarmed through the entranceway of Two, overwhelming the two prison guards who tried fruitlessly to hold them back. The ghouls were on them, tearing them apart, rushing past them and into the hub.
A glance told me Shifty was still holding the entrance to Four with a shield, but he looked like he was about to pass out from exhaustion. Another glance told me the ghouls that I’d stunned past the entrance of Seven were now rushing forward, moments away from the hub, in numbers I could never hope to hold back.
And then, everything really went to hell. Through the yawning hole in the roof, Kel herself lowered down through the air. She came slow, controlled, looking like she was riding an invisible elevator rather than using a Trick to fly in to the hub. Her face looked as if she were confidently walking into a house she already owned.
I fired a burst at her, but the bullets impacted uselessly on the all-around shield she always kept up to protect her. She looked around the carnage of the hub with an unhurried, satisfied gaze, smiling slightly as more gunfire from around the room impacted on her shield without effect.
Her smug smile is what finally kicked me into action. The old mean streak in me has always been set off by the sight of arrogance, and Kel practically breathed arrogance out of every pore of her body.
She wanted the sphere? Well, she could come and fucking get it.
I dragged Mickey behind me with one hand as I dashed across the hub and away from the entrance to Seven, only pausing long enough to scoop up the sphere and tuck it into a vest pouch with my free hand. Then, I sprinted top speed to the intact steel door of the entrance to Six, yanking it open with my free hand, only pausing long enough to shout back over my shoulder, “Dread! Gatehouse! Gatehouse!” before dashing through the door into the cell block beyond, Mickey in tow.
***
Dread had just started to worry about running out of ammunition when he heard Cass’s voice call out “Dread! Gatehouse! Gatehouse!” He turned to look in time to see her disappear through one of the steel doors on the far side of the room.
He fought down the urge to chase after her. He’d been so focused on killing the golem that he’d lost track of everything else around him, but a glance around the room told him Cass was right. The hub was lost.
Ghouls poured in through the entrance to Two, tearing apart the prison guards who tried uselessly to hold them back. Shifty was barely holding back another group at Four. Even more ghouls rushed in through Seven, some chasing after Cass, others spreading out into the hub and threatening to turn the whole situation into a hand to hand nightmare.
And then there was Kel, standing in the middle of it all, sneering at all of them from behind her impenetrable shield. Dread couldn’t help firing a burst at her, even though he knew it was as useless as trying to hold the hub now that they were overrun.
There was only one choice. Fall back down the hallway towards the gatehouse. It was the one direction from which Kel could not attack; they could at least put their backs to it and pray that they could fight back hard enough to figure out what to do next.
Jolly rushed up to him, trying to get to Lysette, and Dread grabbed him by the shoulders and forcibly pointed him at the flood of ghouls coming in through the entrance to Two, shouting to him, “No! No, shoot the ghouls! Shoot them or they’ll run us over!”
“She’s hurt!” Jolly said, struggling against him.
“I’ve got her! Shoot and go for the gatehouse!”
Dread cut loose with his machine-gun to set an example, taking down the closest ghouls to give him a few precious moments to bend over and heave Lysette over his left shoulder in a fireman’s carry. Once she was secured, he burned through the last of his ammunition in a long, constant burst, moving as fast as he could into the hallway leading to the gatehouse.
&nbs
p; It felt like he was fleeing from a flash flood rushing down at him through a mountain gorge. His thighs burned from the exertion of trying to run with Lysette weighing him down, and when his machinegun finally went dry, he was almost relieved to be able to drop it and lighten his load a little.
“Shifty!” he shouted, drawing his sidearm. “Shifty, go for the gatehouse!”
All of the remaining survivors of the hub broke and ran for the hallway, as if a signal flare had gone up announcing a retreat. They ran with a reckless desperation, firing blindly behind them if their weapons still had ammunition in them, running without looking back if their weapons were empty.
Everywhere, the ghouls were right on their heels, pulling down the slow or the wounded to be lost within the flood of undead filling the hub from all sides. Dread tried as best he could to help, firing with his pistol as he backed further into the safety of the gatehouse hallway, but it was like trying to hold back a tsunami by hurling sticks at it.
Finally, Shifty made it into the hallway alongside him, and once the last of the survivors crossed the entrance, the Defense mage spread out his hands and sealed the entrance with a shield. Ghouls crushed up against the barrier an instant after it was raised, hammering on it with fists and claws and staring greedily at their prey standing safe behind the shield.
One of the ghouls made it into the hallway before the shield came up, slamming heavily into Jolly and launching him face-first into the nearby wall. Jolly fell, dazed, but Ryan knocked the ghoul to the ground and smashed its skull with his rifle butt.
“Jolly? You okay?” Ryan asked.
“What?” Jolly said, waving him off drunkenly. “Yeah, yeah, I’m… give me a minute.”
“Dread!” Shifty said, his voice trembling, “Dread, I don’t know how long I can hold this!”
Mage Hunters Box Set Page 42
