by Jan Stryvant
But there were still a lot left over as he worked his way down the hallway against the wall with Roxy against the far wall. When he ran out of ammunition and had to reload, Wendy came up past him with her pistols and started shooting with Dienna behind her.
Cali had been behind Roxy, with Peym trailing, waiting her turn, while Keairra was in the middle with the First and his shotguns behind her, with Sasha reloading.
They worked their way quickly down the hallway like that, one shooting, one getting ready to move to the front, and the third reloading.
Estrella, Saf'kij, Jipouet, Nibisa, Mincibi, and Libby where clearing the rooms to either side behind them as they moved forward.
"Damn! Where the hell did all these come from?" Libby yelled.
"We're in a nest!" Estrella yelled back.
"A nest?"
"Yes, a nest! Which means there'll be predators all around this place! Keep your eyes open!"
Grumbling to himself as he finished reloading, Sean got ready to replace Dienna and quickly checked his mana. This building wasn't on a ley-line, and he'd have to manage his mana if he didn't want to run out. He cast another mass magic missile spell as Dienna fired her last shot, then moved up past her as most of the gnashers in the hall collapsed, looking for more targets to shoot.
"How you doing on magic, Hon?" Roxy called out.
"Just about spent. I hope the next floor isn't this bad!"
Sean, Roxy, and Keairra finished up the remaining gnashers and whatever the smaller things were, and then moved to the staircase to hold it against any attackers, while the others cleared out the rooms behind them.
The stairs had been barricaded, with only a small hole through the barricade. The barricade showed signs of having been torn down and rebuilt many times. It seemed to be mostly held together by the hardened tar of the dead, more than anything else.
"This is going to take a while," Sean said, looking over it.
Roxy nodded a moment, and then said, "This looks like a job requiring the proper application of high explosives."
"Yeah, too bad we don't have any."
"Speak for yourself, Lion-boy!" Roxy said with a smirk.
"You brought explosives?"
Roxy nodded. "Uh-huh. Twenty pounds of it."
Sean blinked. "You mean to tell me you added twenty pounds of explosives to your already heavy backpack full of ammo and weapons?"
Roxy laughed. "Oh no, of course not!"
Sean cocked his head and looked at her.
"I put them in your backpack!" Sean was suddenly quite conscious of the First's wives all snickering, while Cali and Estrella just laughed.
"Now, be a dear and fetch them while I look this over for weak spots."
"She's learning too, I see!" Keairra snickered.
"No," Sean said with a resigned look, "she's always been like this."
Climbing back down to go through his packs and find the explosives, Sean found Peg and Mahkiyoc were now talking, while Rowan and Kalif were standing guard.
"Sounded busy up there," Rowan said as Sean stepped out of the elevator shaft.
"Apparently we found a nest of gnashers. I had no idea those things nested."
"You need more ammo already?"
"No, we need to blow up the barricade they made. Rox sent me down for some explosives."
"Oh! Well that was smart to bring some along."
"He didn't," Peg said, looking over from where she was sitting on a crate. "Rox put them in there without telling him."
"And she made him carry them, smarter still," Rowan said, grinning.
"Yeah, yeah," Sean said, rolling his eyes. "Once we get that done, we'll clear out the rest of the building and see what's what up there. The top floor is a mess now; there's demon tar everywhere. A lot of it is old, dried stuff, too. I think a gnasher nest is also a buffet to the local predators."
"More than likely," Mahkiyoc said, "one or more of the gnashers in the nest would start killing and eating the others so it would grow into something larger and more powerful. Gnashers are as likely to eat each other as anything else is likely to eat them."
"No wonder people thought this place was hell," Peg said with a snarl.
"Hey, like you said before, you finally found people who’re worse than magic users," Sean joked.
"Yeah, the jury is still out on whether they’re worse than my dad or not," Peg said with a grumble.
Sean found the explosives; they were in four small boxes. Not having an easy way to carry them, he just zipped up the whole pack and put it on. Odds were good they'd all need more ammunition soon anyway.
"Well, keep an eye on things, and when you hear a loud 'boom', that'll be Rox blowing shit up."
"Got it!" Rowan said, and the other two nodded and Mahkiyoc returned to his interview of Peg.
"Why'd you bring the whole pack?" Roxy asked when Sean returned.
"Cause I don't have anything smaller? Also, I figured we should all probably restock in case we have to deal with another nest on the next floor."
"Makes sense," Roxy said with a nod and took two of the boxes of black powder from Sean as the others queued up for replacement ammo. He was just finishing up when Roxy came back with a fuse.
"Okay, everyone, take cover in the back rooms, then I'll light this."
Everyone got up and moved quickly to the back.
"Oh, Hubby dear?" Roxy asked.
"What?"
"Could you light this for me? I don't think my matches will work here."
"Sure."
As the others cleared the hallway, Sean cast a small flame spell to light the fuse.
Which lit with a black fire that immediately started to zip for the explosives.
"Shit!" Roxy swore, and Sean realized he was suddenly alone as she streaked into one of the side rooms, leaving him to dive after her. He was halfway through the doorway when the explosives went off with an ear-popping BANG, the force of the blast pushing him in with enough energy that he hit the opposite wall.
Sean slid down to the floor and shook his head, stunned for a moment, as his wits slowly returned.
"Think you used enough dynamite there, Butch?" he mumbled.
"Oh, shut up," Roxy said as she staggered to her feet. "How was I supposed to know it was more powerful here?"
"Does that explain the fuse?"
"Probably."
"Hey! You two alright in there?" Estrella called.
Looking up, Sean saw both her and Cali looking at them, concerned.
"Yeah, we're okay. Let's go see the damage…" Roxy grumbled.
As they exited the room, the First and Keairra were looking at the hole in the wall where the doorway used to be, as well as the hole in the wall leading outside, and the third one in the floor where the landing used to be.
"Well, at least the stairs are cleared," Keairra said, pointing over to the top of the remaining stairs, which were about twenty feet away.
"Let's get down there and start killing things before they can recover," the First said and jumped down through the hole to the floor below, with Keairra hot on his heels. The rest of the first pride quickly followed.
"Cali, Rox, stay up here with my pack for now," Sean said. "We'll call you once we've cleared an opening."
"I'm okay," Roxy growled.
"Good, cause I'm not," Sean said as he jumped down to follow the others, his head still clearing. The others were making quick work of the demons on this floor. There were a lot fewer of them, though a couple of them were bigger than the others. Probably too big to make it through the barricade that had been above, but it didn't look like they'd eaten anybody recently.
Oh, well, he wasn't here to research the life cycle of the gnasher.
"Floor's clear," the First said, coming back to where Sean was guarding the stairway with Wendy, Estrella, and Mincibi.
"Great, let's go down to the ground floor and see what's there," Sean said. "Rox and Cali, you can join us now, and bring the pack."
Ever
yone checked their weapons again and—carefully picking their way over the rubble from the stairs above, as well as the other junk that was strewn about—they made their way down to the ground floor, which was empty. The layout of this floor was different, as there was a big lobby in the center of it with large exits to the east and west. Sean guessed they were probably glass walls once upon a time, because where the stone walls ended, they were straight and clean.
"I guess they heard us coming," Keairra said.
"Everyone heard us coming!" Estrella laughed. "I'm just happy they're smart enough they decided to run."
"So where’s the entryway to the train station?" Sean asked, looking around. "And what was this place? I haven't seen anything that looks like a control station."
"Just a moment," Roxy said and dug out her tablet.
"Okay," she said, looking around a moment. "This was a housing unit. The stairway access was outside, over there." Roxy pointed west. "The factory, and the controls for it, are on the other side of the station."
"Well, let's go take a look, shall we?"
The west exit led them out into what had once been an open-air plaza. When they came to the stairway that led down to the train station, it was full of all sorts of debris and junk.
"Guess they filled it in to keep anyone from coming out," Estrella said, looking at it.
"Why did they not fill in the elevator shaft as well?" Cali asked
"Because they're not that bright?" Estrella said with a shrug.
"Let's go check out the reason we're here," Sean said and nodded towards the factory.
The factory building looked a lot like the blockhouse they'd come from, only it wasn't set in the side of a mountain, it was just a hundred-yard by hundred-yard square building sitting on the ground, with a second, longer building of a different design abutted up against the west side of it.
Walking over to it, Sean put his hand on it and could feel the mana in it immediately.
"This place is another battery, just like the other one."
"Let's see if we can get inside," Estrella suggested, pointing towards the heavy metal door that looked very much like the one back on the mountain.
"We'll go check out the attached building," the First said and, motioning to Keairra, Saf'kij, Jipouet, Peym, Nibisa, Dienna, and Sasha, they took off at a slow trot for the attached building.
"Keep your eyes open," Roxy said as they made their way to the door. "We've got a couple of outbuildings that are still unchecked."
"It's locked," Estrella said as she pushed on the door.
"Good, maybe that means there aren't any demons inside," Roxy said as she put her back to the wall and scanned the area.
"See if you can find one of those touch pads," Sean said as he started to run his own hands over the wall to the left of the doorway.
"I don't see anything," Estrella said, shaking her head.
"I guess we'll need to get Mahkiyoc up here."
Just then Roxy started shooting.
"Trouble!"
Sean turned and drew the lever action off of his back as he did so. Sure enough, there were a half dozen rather large djevels that reminded Sean of nothing so much as large Komodo dragons,, coming at them.
"What the hell are those?" Sean asked as he started putting bullets into one of them.
"They're grovæders," Estrella said. "All they do is eat. They're not very bright, or fast, but their skin is as hard as a rock"
Moving his aim up to the thing's face, Sean shot it in the mouth, and that killed it. Roxy had dropped two of them, but by now they were on top of them, so Sean, Roxy, Estrella, and Cali dropped their weapons and drew their swords as they dodged out of the way, while Libby, Wendy, and Mincibi tried to circle around and draw one of them off by shooting it.
Sean and the girls ran halfway back to the blocked stairway, and then stopped and turned around. The grovæders had given chase, but they weren't half as fast as Sean and the girls.
"Let me get an idea of just how thick those hides are," Sean growled and ran of to the right a ways, then circled back to try and get behind the last one.
The front two seemed torn for a moment, but decided that three was better than one and continued towards the girls, allowing Sean to get behind the last one. Raising his sword up for an overhead strike, he brought it down with all his considerable strength behind it, and then gasped in surprise, as the sword barely bit into the skin, and the shock of the strike went up his arms.
The wounded grovæder, however, spun around immediately and lunged forward at Sean, jaws wide.
Sean cast a fireball into the open maw, and the thing's head suddenly exploded as the whole thing caught fire and burned with that strange, black fire that existed here.
Swearing to himself, Sean ran over to the building and, tapping into the battery, he threw fireballs at the back of the next one in line, and was pleased to see it catch on fire.
Roxy, Cali, and Estrella were leading the other two back towards Libby, Wendy, and Mincibi, who were trying to drop their remaining two with their rifles. Sean hit another one with a fireball just as the one closest to the girls suddenly dropped and fell dead to the ground.
"You know," Estrella said, panting, "maybe we should clear the grounds before we bring Mahkiyoc up here."
Sean nodded slowly. "Yeah, I think that's a great idea."
Back in Reno
Adam groaned and opened his eyes. The first thing that came into focus was the ceiling of the tent he was in.
"Well, at least I'm not dead." He sighed.
"Adam!" A very concerned looking, as well as pregnant, Ryla came over to the cot he was lying on and, kneeling down, hugged him.
Adam smiled and, sitting up slowly, he hugged her back. "Hi, Love. How're the kids?"
"The kids are fine!" she growled, glancing down at her swollen belly. "Now!" she said and smacked him hard enough to make him see stars. "What in the hell were you doing out there! They thought you were dead! You scared me half to death!"
Blinking, Adam pulled her close and kissed her, if only to keep her from hitting him again. Ryla could be a temperamental tiger. Pregnant and moving into the last month, she was mercurial now, to say the least.
"Assuming they even could kill me, I'd be back in a week or so, so don't you worry about that, Love. As for what I was doing? My job," Adam said with a hint of a growl as his voice went down in pitch. "I'm a lion, Love, first and foremost. I have a job to do here, and I will do it. And you will not give me any grief over it, understand?"
Ryla shivered a little in his arms, and her ears went down as she looked a bit abashed. Adam knew one of the things that had attracted her to him was his ability to lay down the law to her when it needed to be laid down. Ryla was attracted to tyrants because her father had been one. He kissed her and hugged her again as well.
"Though to be honest I'm happier to not have to wait. Now where am I?"
"One of the field hospitals. Down by the university."
"Ah, and what are you doing here?"
Ryla blushed. "I came to check on how you were when they said you weren't dead, just unconscious."
Adam smiled. He sure didn't deserve her, but damn if he wasn't keeping her.
"Okay, let's see if I can get a bite to eat, then I need to track down Chad and Maitland and see what our plans are." Adam got to his feet; he was sore, and he was tired, and he was hungry. But otherwise he felt okay.
"Oh, did I kill that demon lord?"
Ryla grinned at him. "Yes, you killed it. That's what turned the tide of the battle and let them drive the djevels back."
"Well, that explains why I'm here, then. Now, food!"
Ryla helped to steady him, and he noticed the other cots were all full, mostly with wounded dwarves, but there were still quite a few lycans recovering as well, most likely ones who had been pushed to the edge of their regenerative abilities. Those who were conscious were looking at him.
"Thank you, all of you, for fighting today,"
Adam said with a smile. "Never think we don't care, or that any of us won't remember these days."
They either smiled weakly or nodded their heads slightly in acknowledgment. Adam wasn't a big fan of dealing with the wounded, and even less so the mortally wounded and dying. But letting go of Ryla, he knew what he needed to do, and that was to go up to each of them and shake their hand or give their shoulder a grasp as he told them, "thank you," once again.
So he did it. It was his job after all, and dammit if they didn't deserve a piece of him for all they'd given of themselves today. He'd just have to wait to get something to eat. Starting with the dwarves, he went to each of them, even those who were unconscious, and thanked them.
Next he moved on to the lycans, and it got a little bit, well, different for him. There was always that connection when a lion, any lion, touched a lycan. That piece of them inside each one recognized him when they made contact. But this time, there was a bit more to it than that. He'd heard the First say they were getting more powerful because of the numbers of lycans now alive in the world. Adam wasn't very familiar with the powers the lions had had back in the 'old days'; he'd been born far too recently for that. But something about that change, something about that new difference, made him suspicious.
So he immediately went over to the lycans who were unconscious, teetering on the edge of regenerative consumption, and tried to push a little power into them. He was surprised to see it worked!
"Ryla," he said, looking up at her, "get me food, a bunch of it."
"What? Why?"
"Please, go!" Adam said and moved to the next cot, where he found a lycan who was definitely losing the battle. He pushed a bunch of 'lion' energy into her and was pleased to see her begin to recover, if slowly. He immediately went to the next cot and did it again. Dying of consumption, for a lycan, was probably the second greatest fear after silver.
He was on the tenth or eleventh one, he was losing count, when Ryla stuck a sandwich in his hand, and he started to eat that as fast as he could as he went to the next lycan. Thankfully it wasn't touching much of his own energy to do this, because the pool of lion power had become so large, or he'd be unconscious again himself.
