Fairest of All

by C J Preece

  Red and her group left while Belle was still talking.

  “What do we do about the Corrupted?” Simao asked as they descended the winding stairs.

  Lady Zhurong was loading a mini-cannon. “If they get in the way, kill ‘em.”

  “No,” said Rapunzel. “There might still be a chance for them. Take them down without killing them unless it’s absolutely necessary.”

  “This is gonna be a real battle princess,” Zhurong said. “You won’t have time to pick and choose your targets. If they’re in your way kill ‘em before they kill you.”

  “Red?”

  She avoided Rapunzel’s eyes, fixing her gauntlet in place. “Lady Zhurong is right. There’s not going to be time once we’re in the thick of it. You shoot to kill anything that’s trying to kill you.” Her armour set she took her shotgun off her back and checked it was loaded. She had a bandoleer slung over her chest with spare shells and two ammo belts at her hips for her revolvers.

  They reached the ground floor fully armed and loaded. Red took point, sweeping her shotgun left and right as they entered the back alley. So far none of the Witch’s forces seemed to have gotten this far into the city, but there was no sense in taking risks. The Corrupted could have been hiding anywhere. Lady Zhurong came next, her mini-cannon clanking as she covered the wider spaces. Simão had borrowed one of Cheveyo rifles, and Rapunzel had her own pistols and a new automatic gun she had found somewhere along the way.

  They made it as far as Main Street before they ran into any problems. The moment they set foot on the tarmac they were set upon by a band of Corrupted. Still mindful that they were people, Red brought the first two down with the butt of her shotgun, while Zhurong battered one with the barrel of her cannon. Simão and Rapunzel finished off the rest easily, but the commotion had attracted attention, and up and down the street doors began to open.

  “We can’t lead them to the western gate,” Zhurong said. “You and Blondie head for the gate, we will keep them occupied here and meet you at the ambush spot.”

  There was no time to argue. Red slung her shotgun over her back and sprinted for the cover of an alleyway, hoping that none of Corrupted would spot them and follow them in. But from behind Zhurong’s cannon roared and she knew their enemies had more important things to worry about.

  “This is wrong,” Rapunzel said as they ran. “These are still normal humans.”

  “How about we wait until after they’ve stopped trying to eat us before we start moralising?” Red said.

  Unfortunately it was hard to avoid encounters with them now. They were everywhere, and twice the pair had to switch direction on the run, losing their pursuers in the maze of back alleys and narrow side streets that Ateer was built around. Finally they were forced to a stop two streets away from the western gate, a solid mass of ogres and goblins ahead of them, still pouring into the city over the narrow bridge.

  “Well that’s it,” Rapunzel said. “Now what do we do?”

  Red sneaked a look, ducking back behind the cover of the dumpster they were pressed up against. “There’s hundreds of them over that bridge. But it’s winter, the river is full, impossible to swim. If they try it they’ll drown for sure.”

  “We have to blow it now then, before too many more of them cross.”

  “I have some stuff that might help.” Red took a crossbow off her back, and drew an arrow from her bandoleer. “I remember you were a pretty good shot with these things once.”

  “I still am.”

  “This is an explosive bolt. You hit the bridge with this and it’ll go. That thing’s made out of prayers and spit. With the river full any damage will sweep it away.”

  “Well we still need to clear a path to it, I can’t shoot something I can’t see.”

  Red patted the dumpster. “Don’t worry, I have a plan for that as well.”

  *

  Shoving the Dumpster was hard enough, knowing it was packed with explosives made it worrying, knowing it was screeching loud enough to be heard by all of Ateer was terrifying. Shoving a gigantic, screeching high explosive container directly towards an army of monsters was a whole new level of crazy, even for her.

  Sure enough, they noticed her as soon as she got around the corner of the alley. Two goblins charged her immediately, but she brought them both down with a single shotgun blast. That alerted any of the deaf or stupid ones, and now they were all looking at her. She heaved harder against the dumpster. If she could only get it to the incline they would be fine. Unfortunately an ogre made that unlikely, lumbering forwards on his misshapen legs. All of his growths were in his legs, leaving him with stick thin arms and a malformed torso, his head perched absurdly on top of the whole ensemble. But the sword in his hand looked sharp enough, and those legs were thicker than her body. Getting kicked by one would hurt.

  She abandoned the dumpster, giving it a kick for good measure, and drew her pistols, putting two shots into his chest. He staggered back but didn’t fall, looking down at the bloody holes and rolling his shoulders. She recognised the signs, and sure enough a second later he charged forwards on those immensely powerful legs, reaching her in a flash. She ducked underneath the sword, but found herself face to foot with a kick that knocked her back a good few feet. He roared and stomped closer, but she still had her guns, and a shot to each kneecap gave him a moment’s pause.

  She pressed her advantage, well aware of the other monsters coming closer. It was good to have them spread out, but not so good that they were spreading out towards her. She shot her current friend in the chest again, then rushed him, kicking him hard in the gut. As she had hoped he staggered back towards the dumpster, and then decided to use it as a springboard to come at her again. His powerful kick sent it careening down the road, scattering a dozen smaller foes and ending up right at the end of the street, just before the bridge.

  The ogre slashed for her head and she dodged out of the way, putting a bullet into his back as he went. Ogres weren’t the hardest things to fight one on one, but they did take quite a lot of killing. She paused for a moment to shoot a goblin in the face and then turned back to the ogre, who was flagging badly now, his chest and legs a mess of blood. She wasted no more time putting the finishing shots into his head from as close range as she dared, then turned back just in time to see Rapunzel’s first arrow strike home, right in the centre of the dumpers.

  The explosives she had packed into the dumpster were all on the surface and in the centre, and it looked like Rapunzel’s arrow had hit them dead on. There was only a second between impact and explosion, followed by the deeper, more satisfying whump as the dumpster went up, turning into a shrapnel bomb as it scattered jagged shards of metal into the surrounding forces. At least a dozen enemies went down that she could see, and the ones left on the bridge paused in light of this unexpected attack. That pause gave Rapunzel her second moment, and she took it easily. A second explosive bolt landed dead in the middle of the bridge, right at the feet of a particularly dumb looking ogre with one massively misshapen leg and one enormous arm, on either side of his body.

  As Red had hoped, the explosion tore the bridge in half, but the real damage came a second later, as the raging waters beneath seized the unstable structure and ripped it apart, taking the half dozen forces still on it and pulling them under. A few on the other side decided to try and swim it, but they too were wrenched away by the churning waters. Two hundred warriors on the other side watched them impotently.

  “Red!” Rapunzel was behind her, further up the road. “Come on.”

  And since the remaining ogres were starting to turn, weapons in hands and murder in their eyes, Red had to agree.

  They ran backwards as the tide started to rush towards them, lumbering and awkward at first, but gathering speed quickly, bellowing their war cries and howling at the excitement of the chase. It was like being chased by the very hounds of hell, a screeching, wailing mass of movement made from bulbous limbs and protruding fang
s and claws on every surface. Red drew her revolver and fired behind, not bothering to aim. There was no change in the noise behind them, and if she had hit anything it simply fell back into the crush and was lost before its fellows.

  Ahead of her Rapunzel was readying one of their remaining explosives. “Get ready,” she shouted.

  Red put on a burst of speed, drawing level with the blond. Rapunzel dropped the cylinder of gunpowder and immediately ducked down a side alley, practically tearing Red’s arm off as she pulled her along. They stumbled for a few seconds before finding their rhythm again and putting on speed as the first of the goblins poked its nose around the corner.

  There was a muffled explosion from behind, followed by a different tenor of scream. The bomb had injured or killed a huge chunk of them, but there were still too many to face, and after only a moment’s hesitation they came barrelling down the alley, right on the tails of the girls. Red drew her sawn-off shotgun and fired it over her shoulder, the gunshot impossibly loud next to her ear. She vaguely heard something yelp though, and the sound put a grim smile on her face as they burst out of the alley and turned sharply right, heading back towards Main Street now.

  This street was littered with debris, abandoned cars and hunks of masonry that had fallen from dilapidated boilings. They weaved in and out of this rubble, leaving the monsters to crash haplessly into it. Red fired her second shell into an ogre that had stumbled against a bike, then dropped the gun and drew both revolvers, spinning round and unloading half a dozen shots into the horde. She saw several drop to the floor, crushed underfoot by their comrades. She turned back to run, seeing Rapunzel turning as well, pistols in hand blasting as soon as they were level.

  Behind there came a scream and a tauros burst from their ranks, bull head lowered and smashing aside everything in his path. Red broke left while Rapunzel went right, the two of them moving in unison to pour bullets into the bull’s flanks as it raced past them, blood and viscera erupting in fountains from its body as it tripped, stumbled, then finally crashed head first into a pile of concrete. The two of them wasted no time, running back to each other and making a break for the next alley. Once there they reloaded, Red switching to her pump-action just as the enemy came round the corner. One shell blasted an ogre’s arm apart, shredding a wild dog’s face at the same time.

  “Move!” Rapunzel shouted, and Red looked round to see her dropping another bomb. They sprinted for the end of the alley, making it just as the explosive went off behind them, sending a shower of body parts out into the street ahead and coating them with blood.

  “There’s no way we can hold the city like this,” Rapunzel said as they ducked into the cover of a car for a moment.

  “Belle will think of something.” Red blasted an ogre in half with her shotgun. “We just have to do what we can to herd them.”

  They led the ogres down the streets, dropping as many as they could. It was impossible to keep track of how far they were from the trap, they just had to trust that Lady Zhurong and Simão would have it ready for them. If there had been any room left in Red for anything other than survival she would have been worried. As it was she reloaded the shotgun one-handed while drawing her revolver and shooting out a Corrupted’s kneecap. The road in front of them was stained with blood and piles of body parts showed where the Pure had gone before them.

  “Is this it?” Rapunzel yelled. “Where are they?”

  “Just keep shooting!” Red shouted back, emptying her shotgun again. This time she switched straight to her revolvers and poured fire into the enemy ranks.

  The mob, sensing weakness, piled forwards, stepping over their own dead in their eagerness to get at the Pure before them. Red shot a goblin clean out of the air and switched to her pistols, dropping back as fast as she could towards Main Street. She didn’t think either of them could hold out much longer. Sooner or later they would have to start running.

  As the horde passed Eulalie’s Hotel there was an explosion that shook the street and shattered the windows in every building. Rapunzel stopped to stare but Red grabbed her and pulled her out of the blast range as another blast left a building groaning, spider-web cracks all up and down its walls. The ground beneath the enemy forces gave way and they plunged into a deep pit in the road.

  “Keep moving!” Someone called down from above, and they broke into a sprint as a fourth explosion sent rubble flying behind them. Buildings on either side of the road began to creak and lean inwards, casting shadows over the monsters in the pit. Red realised what was going to happen a moment before it did, and shoved Rapunzel for cover behind a burnt-out car, diving for an open doorway as she did so. Not a moment too soon, because the buildings finally came down, showering the area with shrapnel and debris, chunks of concrete as large as a man spiralling down the road as the entire mob was crushed beneath the bricks and mortar. The street shook some more, but slowly quiet returned.

  Red stuck her head out of the door and looked up to the rooftops, where Simão was waving down at her. “Ahoy!” He crowed.

  “Are you mad?” She spluttered. “We could have been crushed as well.”

  “It was her idea,” he said, pointing to Lady Zhurong, who appeared beside him, cannon in hand.

  “We knew you could handle it,” Zhurong said. “Where’s Blondie?”

  “Blondie’s here.” Rapunzel sounded furious. “And she wants to know why you two geniuses decided to drop a building on her.”

  Zhurong shrugged. “You’re both alive aren’t you? Now get back to headquarters. We’re to keep this section sealed off while you get new orders.”

  As Red looked down the street she had to admit they had done a fairly efficient job of it. The rubble was too high to climb easily, and between the two of them they could pick off anything that tried. Whether by design or not it also wasn’t high enough to allow someone to climb right to the rooftops. All in all a far more effective barricade than anything Red had been able to think up.

  “Come on ‘Zel,” she said. “I think they’ve got this covered.”

  *

  Since they had left Belle had turned the meeting room into a full war room. There were maps of the city on the table, with small metal figures to represent the Pure. Part of the wall had been broken down, and Cheveyo was using it for cover as he fired out into the street, his rifle a constant steady crack that underpinned the sounds of battle from outside.

  “Gruff Avenue is blockaded,” Rapunzel said as they walked in.

  “Zhurong and Simão?” Adam asked.

  “Both alive,” Red answered. “They seem to have the situation in hand.”

  “Good,” Belle was standing over the maps, her eyes in constant motion as she assessed and evaluated their situation. “Rapunzel, I need you in the theatre district. Robin Red just brought reports of more Beasts. It seems what’s left of the Farm has joined the fight.”

  “Who else is there?”

  “Philip and Luke are still holding, but Trusty John has been injured badly. I sent Li-en to support, but she was waylaid by a gaggle of trolls somewhere near the Monarch Theatre. If you can find her, bring her as well. We need to plug that gap.”

  “Yes ma’am.” With a quick salute Rapunzel left.

  “What about me?” Red asked. “Surely you need me somewhere.

  Belle nodded. “There are wolves in the business district, coming up towards Main Street. If we can’t stop them then they’ll spread mayhem wherever they go. Cheveyo, you go with her. The two of you have to hold them.”

  “Understood.” Red saluted as well, then marched from the room, Cheveyo right on her heels.

  Chapter Twenty-Four: Entrenched

  From atop an old cobbler’s shop they watched as three wolves sneak towards Main Street.

  “I could try and take them from here,” Che said, setting his rifle to his eye.

  Red shook her head. “Even if you bring one of them down with a single shot, which is unlikely, the other two will disap
pear. We need to keep them in the open, where I can get to them.”

  “And how do you propose doing that?”

  “How do you think?” She walked right to the edge and took the climbing rope they had brought, securing it firmly against a metal bar. “Give ‘em some bait.”

  “I don’t like this.”

  “When do you ever?” She tested the rope, stepping back until her boots were right at the edge. “Just keep me covered.” And with that she jumped back into the air.

  It was a short, glorious flight to the floor, and when her boots smacked against the tarmac she was already in hunting mode, fully prepared to bring down the wolves. This was her life, the one thing she was good at. Three wolves, all young and inexperienced, just looking for a thrill. She could have taken them in her sleep. She drew a knife in one hand and her shotgun in the other, loosening her shoulders and cracking her neck. From down the alley she could hear them, panting and yipping in excitement like pups. She moved to the corner and readied herself.

  When they were barely a foot away she stepped out from her cover into full view of the alley, shotgun raised and sending a single slug right into the lead wolf, blowing away a chunk of his jaw and dropping him to his knees. “Come get it boys,” she called, backpedaling quickly into the middle of the street, where Cheveyo had an eye as well.

  The two others growled at her. “Red Rider,” one said, his voice like nails on iron. “Hated one.”

  “That’s me. You want a shot at taking me down?” They were still in cover, clearly wary. She had hoped they would be stupid enough to charge her, giving Che a shot, but apparently they had a little sense.

  “Coward,” the other growled. He sounded younger, and his fur still has the coarse tufts she associated with wolf young.