by J. N. Chaney
John and I brought up the rear, firing on any of the infected who showed too much awareness. Hands grabbed for me. Those infected who carried weapons leveled blasters or swung their blades. Fortunately, their aim was wild as usual. I supposed that was a challenge for Legion, to fire in many directions accurately. It showed that his control was not absolute or at least coordinated.
“Hey, we’ve got to go now!” I yelled to those in the front.
“Almost there!” Dama yelled back. “The control panel is on the right side of the wall. Hurry!”
“Kill them!” Legion yelled in one voice as all the infected opened their throats. “Kill them all!”
What happened next was something I could only describe as mayhem. Our small group made it to the control panel, but Legion was pissed.
Dama worked frantically, putting in the code to allow us access to the armory hangar. It was a square device about chest high for the Rung. She placed her hand on the pad first then began to punch in a series of numbers.
“Dean!” Tong shouted in a panicked voice.
I looked back in time to see Tong enveloped by a wave of infected that looked like they were trying to tackle him to the ground.
I lashed out with the butt of my weapon, afraid I’d hit the Remboshi if I fired.
Stacy was beside me a moment later as we fought off the infected and lifted Tong to his feet.
“Tha-thanks,” Tong said, clearly shaken and taking in deep breaths.
“Thank me later,” I told him. “Fight now.”
What remained of our number formed a protective half circle around Dama as she worked on the door. While the explosive had worked wonders in clearing a path, there were still hundreds of infected pressing in on us.
I saw a Rung fall to my left with a blade stuck in his head, while another to my right was grabbed by the infected horde and pulled into their smelly ranks. The anguished scream he gave off was something I knew I would never be able to forget.
“Got it!” Dama yelled from our rear. “Don’t let them in the hangar!”
A grating mechanical sound vibrated through the floor under our feet. The massive hangar doors that had to be at least two stories tall began to slide open from the middle. First a slit and then an opening large enough to squeeze through appeared.
“Move to the doors!” Stacy screamed to us.
Legion let off a wail so loud, strident, and long, I winced, wanting to cover my ears. Some in our party scuffled to the door, firing, slashing, and striking out in the process.
Tong was limping from a wound to his leg. Dama’s helmet had been ripped off, and a wound had opened over her right eye, leaking blood down her face.
Maksim was the first to the opening doors. He disappeared inside the large room, much to my dismay. My gut twisted inside my stomach. If he closed the doors on us from the other side, it was all over. We were still keeping the infected at bay as we tried to get inside.
“Hurry, get in!” Stacy called out, seeing the same thing I did. “We have to get to him before he does anything stupid.”
I finally made it to the doors, where those who remained made a valiant last stand to try to keep the infected out.
The massive hangar doors that had been sliding open a second before grinded to a halt then began to turn the opposite way and close again.
Right now, there was an opening in the hangar doors about ten meters across. By the second, that opening was closing. We had to get over there fast.
“Inside, get inside!” Sulk yelled out.
We walked backward, putting ourselves inside the hangar while ensuring the infected stayed out, still slashing out at them with blades and me swinging my Skull Splitter. It was less about Legion using his troops to attack us now and more of a shoving match to keep the infected out of the hangar. It was becoming a bigger challenge each moment that passed.
There were now far too few of us to keep the infected out. Inch by inch, they pushed forward, forcing us to give way. If it weren’t for my armor, my body would have been a canvas of bruises and scrapes as they clawed their way into the hangar bay.
“We can’t hold them!” Sulk cried out, losing some of the confidence he usually exuded and beginning to sound defeated.
And I knew he was right. The doors were closing but much too slow. Eight meters and growing narrower. There wasn’t much we could do to keep them out. Already they had gained the threshold, and in seconds, they would be inside with us, able to either access the power armor or keep us from using it.
“Help me!” Maksim appeared out of the dark hangar room, struggling to carry a long metal sheet.
I had no idea where he’d gotten it from but immediately understood his plan as he maneuvered the barrier between us and the infected.
“Grab the metal sheet!” Stacy roared, also picking up on his plan. Together, the few of us that remained maneuvered the steel barrier between us and those that Legion controlled.
I shoved my shoulder against the metal, sweat pouring into my eyes.
I had a brief moment to look at Maksim, who also fought to keep the barrier in place, his face bloodied and bruised, his hands soaked in blood. He had come into the hangar to try and close the doors behind us. He came back with the metal barrier in an attempt to help. Perhaps he was changing from the subversive assassin he had been to a team player. I felt for the first time that he might actually be on our side.
My feet slid across the hangar bay as I struggled to find a solid hold on the floor beneath us. It was difficult, as the floor was smoothly constructed in a material that was made for vehicles to move on, not for traction for the armored boots I was wearing.
The doors narrowed the entryway into the room to a six-foot gap, then five. It looked like we might actually make it. There were only seven of us left on our side of the hangar, but we were going to do it. Against all odds, we were going to hold them back.
The gap closed to four feet.
“Hold them!” I yelled, trying to encourage the few of us that had survived. My muscles burned from my arms to my back and legs. I could only imagine how the others felt with far more injuries than I had sustained.
John let out a roar, more than likely from the pressure on his shoulder wound. There were grunts up and down our meager line of defenders.
“Almost there!” I yelled again, trying to do my best to spur them on to make their bodies give more than they ever had before.
Tong slipped on the blood-soaked floor and went down hard. He struggled to gain purchase on the ridiculously slippery surface.
“Get up, get back up!” I yelled. The hangar bay doors closed further. There couldn’t be more than a slim two-foot gap in place.
Then the worst sound I’d heard in a long time echoed into the room. The rhythmic clanking the hangar bay doors made when they were closing stopped. The doors shuddered then halted their progress altogether.
There was still a two-foot gap between the hangar bay doors, enough for a body to slide through.
“They’ve jammed the doors somehow!” Dama said over the shrieking of the infected. “Hold them!”
Dama took off at a run toward the side of the door and the control panel.
There were six of us still holding the door: Tong, Sulk, Stacy, John, Maksim, and me. It wasn’t easy, but six people holding a two-foot gap was much more manageable than one that was spread over eight feet.
I pressed my back into the steel plate, my feet anchored into the ground. For the first time, I got a look into the armor room. The same blue lights shone in the walls, giving off an ethereal glow to the place but not much visibility. I couldn’t make out details or see the power armor.
What I could tell was that the room was a massive chamber that went on further into the dark. The ceiling had to reach two maybe even three stories tall.
“You thought I left you,” Maksim said to me on my left.
“I didn’t say that,” I grunted.
“But you thought it,” Maksim continued. “
I told you. It’s us against Legion now. I will not let him get off this planet. I am on your side now, my brother.”
I saved my breath for breathing, not sure how to respond to him anyway. Sweat dripped down my face and my helmet was a heated, humid box. Back still pressed against the door, I pulled my helmet off. A cool, refreshing rush of wind greeted me.
“Dama!?” Stacy called out from the other side of the steel barrier where she stood between John and Tong. “What’s the holdup? Why won’t the door close?”
“There’s nothing wrong on this end,” Dama said frantically. “It’s Legion. Most likely, he was able to wedge something between the doors. I don’t know what. Weapons, steel. It doesn’t matter. The doors won’t close.”
I could see the defeat on the faces of those beside me. My mind raced for a plan. We couldn’t remain there, that was for sure. We had to do something and fast. We could hold them off for a few more minutes, but eventually Legion would outlast us and push through. We were so close to the armor, but with this one hurdle in our way, it was almost like we were back to square one.
“The power armor,” Sulk called out. “Dama, we need to get a power armor up and running.”
“Two,” Stacy corrected, looking over at Sulk. “You and Dama already know how they work. We’ll hold the door shut while you get the armor and hurry back.”
Sulk nodded then let go of his spot on the steel barrier. He and Dama disappeared into the darkness of the room a second later.
The five of us still on the steel sheet pressed even harder.
“I still don’t like you,” John said to Maksim, pressing his good shoulder and the side of his head against the steel sheet. “But you did good.”
Maksim blinked at him as if he weren’t sure how to accept the backhanded praise. He nodded once, as if acknowledging John’s comment but storing it away for later.
As if by magic, the shoving on the other side of the metal sheet stopped. One second, we were fighting to keep the steel piece in place, and the next there was complete quiet. There was utter stillness on the opposite side of the barrier.
I looked over at the others, who had taken their helmets off as well. They mirrored my confused expression.
“What is he up t—”
Stacy’s words were cut off as something large hit the opposite side of the metal barrier.
I was flung from the door, backward, and landed with a heavy thud. My helmetless head bounced off the hard floor underneath me and darkness wrapped its inky fingers around my vision as I lost consciousness.
17
As the light turned back on in my brain, I could hear people shouting. Their voices were far off as if they were yelling at me from across a field or hall. I blinked a few times, trying to remember where I was. When I did finally remember, I muttered a few obscenities, took in some deep breaths, and tried to assess the damage.
I rolled over onto my hands and knees as their voices cut through my head like an axe. Pain erupted throughout my skull as if it were in fact being split in two. I winced, looking up at those yelling. Tong lay on the ground, not moving. A line of blood soaked the ground underneath the back of his head. I hoped he was just unconscious, not dead.
Stacy, Maksim, and John were still on the door, holding up the metal sheet against it. They were yelling at one another, me, and Tong. I didn’t see Dama or Sulk.
I tried to make sense of what had happened.
Get up, Dean, I told myself. Get up. You have more to give. You’re not out of this fight yet.
I rose to my feet, blinking as something wet fell over my face. I wiped a hand across my brow, which came back sticky and red with my own blood.
“Here it comes again!” Maksim yelled. “Hold!”
Something like a battering ram hit the opposite side of the steel plate so violently, it actually put a dent in the metal. The defenders lost their grip on the metal barrier. Stacy was thrown to the floor. She tucked her chin and went down on her side to protect her head.
“Helmets back on!” John boomed, placing his bucket onto his head once more, and holding onto the metal at the same time. That was no small achievement, with his injured shoulder and other impediments.
“What is it?” I asked, reaching down for my own helmet. I ignored the pain in my head and rejoined Maksim and John at the barrier. “What’s doing that?”
“I don’t know, and it doesn’t matter,” Maksim said, gasping as he hung on. “All that matters is that we don’t let them through.”
Stacy got up and went over to check on Tong. “He’s breathing, but I need to stop the bleeding,” she shouted as she knelt over his still form.
“Do it,” John growled. “We’ll hold the barrier.”
Another strike sent us off the steel barrier. The blow was so intense, it sent a tremor through my entire body. Now, as I anticipated the impact, it was easier to keep my feet. I absorbed as much of the blow as possible before letting off the steel sheet.
Another imprint on the steel we were holding showed what looked like a massive hammer head.
Stacy worked diligently, stripping off a piece of Tong’s shirt and wrapping his head with it. The amount of blood the Remboshi lost and was still losing was terrifying. His breath came shallow and labored.
The strikes on the opposite side of the barrier descended again and again. It was as if some ancient god had chosen this piece of steel as his anvil.
Each time the object on the other side struck, my teeth rattled. Pain exploded in my head. I felt like I was going to throw up, raising my suspicions more than ever that I might have a concussion. Another reason to stay awake, I thought as another wave of sickening nausea rolled over me.
Not in your helmet, I told myself. Throw up in your helmet and this day just went from horrible to the worst ever.
This thought raced through my mind right before a strike hit the barrier twice as hard as any of the others. All three of us were flung into the room, landing on our backs. Thanks to my helmet, my head was saved from the blow of the ground.
I looked up from where I was lying to see the sheet metal barrier that had been our last hope flung from the entrance like a piece of trash.
Two infected so large they made John look like a little kid stood there with war hammers in their gigantic hands. Each infected easily cleared six feet, with enough muscles to have been bodybuilders in their previous lives.
Thus far in our altercation with Legion, he had used Rung to battle us in their bunker. He must have called on his larger human troops at some point and it seemed they had arrived just in time—or at the exact wrong time, depending on whose side you were on. For me and my crew, it was obviously the most inopportune time, as Dama and Sulk were still missing, seeming to take forever to get the armor, and the rest of us were taking an unscheduled break courtesy of their hammering talents.
Maksim was first on his feet. He launched at the two colossal infected, burying a dagger he held in his right hand hilt-deep into the throat of one before turning to the other.
I saw the blow coming for him in slow motion. I fought to my feet, but I was too slow. The second infected brought his hammer down on Maksim, pulverizing his left leg.
Maksim cried out in pain. A wave of infected squeezed through the door like water through a burst dam. They fell on the already wounded Maksim, tearing at his eyes and throat.
John, Stacy, and I were rushing into the fight when we felt the floor shake. Mechanical gears whined and bright lights punctured the darkness around us.
“Down!” Dama’s voice sounded like it came through a speaker of some kind. I obeyed, pressing myself to the floor.
The rhythmic beat of heavy weapons lit up the room. Even with my helmet on, the sound was deafening, like being caught in the middle of a thunderstorm.
I looked over to my rear to see two black power armor suits doling out death. Twin cannons with rotating barrels sat on each of the power armor’s shoulders as they cut through the infected at the door.
The infected didn’t have a chance. Rounds punctured them like a knife stabbing paper over and over again. The large infected, still carrying a hammer, took enough rounds to the face and chest to leave nothing of his upper body at all.
Just as suddenly as Dama and Sulk had opened fire, they stopped.
The infected on our side of the hangar doors were either dead or in the process of dying.
“Sulk, watch my back and make sure no more get through,” Dama ordered as they moved toward the door in the power armor suits, then disappeared through the opening.
On the top of each of their power armor’s vambraces, a thick square opening rested. At the same time they clenched their fists, sending a stream of fire through the entryway, cooking any infected that sought to gain entrance to the hangar.
“Maksim?” I said, shoving dead infected from the pile where I saw the assassin go down, fighting down my squeamishness at touching them. “Maksim, can you hear me?”
I still had no love for the man, but something was bonding us now. Fighting alongside another person had a way of doing that. I understood that he had sacrificed himself to buy us those few extra seconds to keep Legion at bay. If not for him, the power armor suit would not have been able to put a cork in the entryway so easily.
They might not have been able to stop them at all if Legion had gotten inside to the scores of power armor suits still empty. The thought of an infected in a power armor suit sent another round of chills down my spine.
“Maksim?” Stacy called out as she and John helped me sift through the bodies. “Maksim, can you hear me?”
“Here,” John called out, rolling over a dead infected from the center of the pile. “He’s here.”
“Oh no,” I said, going over to where Maksim lay.
I was no doctor, but I knew a serious injury when I saw one. His leg was bent at an odd angle behind him, and his throat was slashed and oozing blood. A dozen other cuts lay over his face and torso.
“Brother,” Maksim wheezed as he lay on the ground, staring up to the ceiling, although I doubted he could actually see anything.