“If you don't at least have some idea what you're getting into, you're just going to get killed or infected,” Flynn said. “Nobody's asking for you not to fight, just cooperate a little.”
One of the other Canians, a shorter white boy with smoke-stained skin, spat on the ground in disgust. “Ca şi Iad. Ei toţi ne urăsc. Am putea foarte bine uita doar despre ele. Ei nu vor fi nici un ajutor.”
“He's right,” Guland said, though damned if Derek knew what his friend had said. Languages were Lizzy's department. “Worse, they'll probably throw us on a suicide mission. We're useful. Let us fight.”
“We're going to,” Laura said. “But you clearly don't want to die, right?”
His eyes narrowed. “That a threat, Mrs. Paladin?”
She met his gaze evenly. “Far from it, Honored Nightstalker. But right now you have two choices: You can rush the screamers in a kamikaze strike, or stay back with us and help us with building up our strategy. That way, when you do attack, you can be certain it's not a suicide mission.”
He shifted the cigar around again. “And if it is?”
Laura just shrugged. “Then you either take it, or you leave. Either way, you get to choose whether you live or die. No one can force you to do anything.” She smiled grimly. “But you won't be getting any support if you go in alone.”
The Noble—at least Derek thought he was at actual warlord level, it could be hard to tell—turned to the vampire who had spoken earlier. The other pyro shrugged in defeat. “Se pare de bun cu mine, domnule.”
Guland sighed. “Fine. Fine.” He raised his voice. “Everybody, back up! We're playing nice with the other kids on this one.”
The other vampires murmured in annoyance, but obeyed, holstering their flamers for the moment and returning to the demon and giant camps.
As they returned, the hellion raised an eyebrow. “That was fast. I figured it was a toss-up on whether they'd run off or you'd shoot them.”
“We didn't have enough ammo,” Derek said. “So we settled for recruiting them instead.”
“We have more ammo,” the Aesir grumbled, glaring at the pyros in annoyance. “If you need it.”
Derek smiled a little weakly. “I think we'll be fine.”
“Suit yourself. So what is the plan?”
“I'll go in first with two of the other Paladins.” Akane was already walking up... which was when Derek remembered Ling wasn't here. “Ah... one of the other Paladins. Laura will stay here and coordinate everyone. The others will act as a fireteam.”
“When you go in, be sure to call back with details on their powers as soon as possible,” Laura said. “We can't really do anything until we figure that out. Don't want a repeat of the bleeders.”
“MC,” Akane said. All these people she didn't know were clearly making her nervous, but Derek got the message and flipped out his phone.
“MC? You've got something for us?”
“Not much, sorry. There were singers before, but they're out of sight now. And whatever spec the screamers have, it's not something flashy.”
Derek frowned. “Well, if we're lucky, we can still get to the singers. Akane and I will scout ahead, try and get more information.” That reminded him. “Oh, and call Ling for me, would you?”
“She's not there?” MC asked, incredulous. “Yeah, I'll ping her right now.”
“Thanks.” He hung up and turned to Akane. “Ready?”
She nodded, and off they went, with Akane conspicuously avoiding looking at Flynn. The barricade of cars was actually surprisingly difficult to bypass. Someone—the giants, probably—had physically thrown the vehicles together about three high until they blocked the entire way. Unless the screamers sensed enough people on the other side, they'd look for an easier path.
Luckily, they were smarter than the zombies. It took some doing, but they managed to clamber up to the top of the barrier and get a good look around.
The street that greeted them was surprisingly empty. Well, it was full enough by most normal standards, with more people milling around than you could count, but for screamers that was positively empty. Normally, the horde was so massive you couldn't even see the street beneath their feet.
It also became clear that whatever their power was, it wasn't directly dangerous. They were destroying everything in sight—bashing in windows, stomping on appliances and so forth, but they were doing it all with their bare hands. They didn't even have the intelligence to pick up weapons.
They were still screaming, of course, so Derek couldn't really say anything to Akane, but they both knew what to do. They knew what their power wasn't, it was time to figure out what it was.
They slid down on the zombie side of the barricade as quietly as possible, though with the toneless shrieking, Derek doubted it particularly mattered either way. There weren't any within twenty feet or so of the barrier, but they'd notice them once they started fighting.
Derek held his hand out to Akane, and she placed her Colt in it. True, he wasn't very good with guns, but he wasn't going to tackle a superpowered zombie until he had some idea of what it was capable of. So he squared his shoulders, planted his feet, and took aim using both hands to hold the gun.
Then he fired.
The closest screamer stumbled back, stunned, before regaining its balance and resuming its wordless chorus. Of course, now it was aware of them, as were a few more nearby ones. They rushed forward as one, their undulating pitch making it difficult to think.
Okay, they were bulletproof. But he couldn't tell how. They weren't morphers, like the biters. In the early dawn light, it was easy to tell that they at least looked normal. Was it possible they had some sort of ability that let them deflect the bullets? Metal control, or something?
That was something to think on later. For now, they had to run. They couldn't go back the way they came, since they'd just end up leading the horde past the barricade.
They ducked into a nearby 'scraper, jumping through the shattered ground-level window. The lowest store was just clothing, with all the racks knocked over and the shirts ripped up, but the next ones up were a few food places. That format popped up a lot, with food being cooked upstairs and eaten downstairs while people browsed.
They were ahead of the screamers for now, but Derek knew they'd catch up sooner or later. The way to prevent that was obvious. So as they reached the third floor, he tossed a grenade over his shoulder.
Akane glanced back as she heard the grenade bounce, cursed, and ran up the stairs at superspeed. He didn't know why she was so worried. It wasn't like it was a big grenade.
It exploded behind him a little too close for comfort, but he just popped a shield and didn't feel so much as a flash of heat. The zombies howled in outrage before reverting to their emotionless screams. It was only when he reached the fourth floor—where Akane was glaring at him—that he turned to look at his handiwork.
The entire stairwell was on fire.
Derek had intended for the grenade to take out a dozen steps or so. Just enough to make a hole too big for the screamers to jump over. But that was the problem with incendiaries: They rarely just burned what you wanted them to. The fact that this building wasn't quite up to code didn't help either.
On the positive end of things, he could see a few zombies on fire, writhing in pain. So it seemed like the Canians would be useful after all.
“Should've at least used a frag,” Akane said.
Derek shrugged. “Probably. Too late now, though.” They needed to jump to the next 'scraper before the fire gutted this one completely. Fortunately, it was a relatively short building, at only ten stories. Unfortunately, that meant the next one over was too high to jump to.
The shortest adjacent building wasn't that high, only about fifteen stories, but that was still way too big a difference to jump. Even jumping down would have been a problem. But smoke was already billowing out of the stairwell, and this 'scraper wouldn't last much longer. Not to mention that the screamers might be attracted by
the smoke. Were they smart enough to make that connection between smoke and people?
“I can jump that high,” Akane said, eyeing the distance. “But not while carrying you.”
Oh right, physics got a little bent when she activated her speed. Unfortunately, Derek's power was useless here.
He frowned. Well, his ability might work. He hadn't really thought about it, but his barriers could by either stable, floating in the air without moving, or mobile, and could be carried around. If he could...
He held out his hand and concentrated. This would be a little difficult, but he thought he could manage it.
He made the first shield about six inches wide and placed it face down a couple feet away from the edge and higher in the air. Then he made an identical one a few feet from that, and then another and another until he had a crude staircase up to the next roof. It looked good, but his reservoir was draining fast, and he wasn't even sure it would support his weight.
Akane stared at him. “Don't tell me—”
“Then I won't,” he said with a grin, and jumped onto the first shield.
It held, mostly, though he could only fit one foot on it. The small part of his mind that kept track of them noted that the shield was weakening rapidly. They wouldn't last more than a few seconds each.
It was difficult getting to the next one, and he was beginning to regret placing them so far apart. He had to stretch, balancing on one foot, until he could get his free leg up to the right level and leverage himself up. It got easier, but only barely.
He released each shield as he finished with it, lessening the rate his reservoir was draining, but he was still worried. Creating new shields cost more than maintaining existing ones, so he couldn't just start over when he was in the middle of it. He had to hurry.
He reached the next rooftop with maybe ten seconds to spare and had to resist the urge to collapse in the early morning sun. Straining the boundaries of his power was a workout, but not a physical one. It was a strange feeling.
As he was still catching my breath, a blur arched over the edge of the roof and landed a few feet away from him, throwing up a small cloud of dust and gravel. When the dust cleared Akane was there, none the worse for her experience, and glaring daggers at him.
“Couldn't you at least have tested that a little more?”
Derek bit back an angry retort. He got a bit defensive when he was questioned, but she hadn't meant much by it.
He flipped out his phone before he said anything he'd regret. “MC? We still don't know what the screamers can do, but they're bulletproof, and fire works on them. Tell Laura to send in the Canians.”
“Wait, Akane set another 'scraper on fire?”
Where the hell was she getting her information? There weren't any open-source cameras nearby. Well, it was possible that the shop owners had decided to give her full access to theirs. That happened sometimes.
“Well, kinda, but it wasn't quite on purpose.”
“Oh, that makes it so much better.”
“Hey, if you think you can do better than come down here yourself.”
There was a short pause. “Laura says figure out their specs, then fall back. She's sending in the Canians now. Try to stay out of their way.” She hung up.
Wonderful advice. Derek slipped his phone away with a sigh. They weren't even close to done here.
He spied a small plume of smoke from further to the west. That would be the pyrovamps, no doubt, coming at the screamers from a different side. He nodded to Akane, and they headed over to look, roofhopping to get there. Luckily these were close enough in height that they had ziplines and ladders set up, so they didn't have to try riskier methods again.
They didn't see any zombies as they traveled, but that made sense, with the Canians attracting so much attention. It also meant that they needed to get to them fast, before they were overrun.
They turned out to be holed up next to the second to last 'scraper on the street. It was some sort of gardening store, which was probably where they got all the sandbags they had piled in front of them as makeshift barricades. They had probably used one of the back doors as a shortcut into the street. If there was a more obvious way through—like a road unblocked by piled cars—the screamers would undoubtedly have found it first.
Of course they had chosen to set up next to the building. Any other group would have found it easier to set up inside, but these were Canians. Each and every one was equipped with some form of flamer, from the little Romanian guy and his pistol with incendiary bullets to Guland, with his massive fuel condenser and attached flamethrower.
Derek used his shield stair trick to walk down into the short alley between the two 'scrapers. Akane landed next to him, glaring, but he ignored her. It had worked, hadn't it? Besides, he was already getting better.
“Guland!” Derek called, walking forward. “Any news?”
He turned back and grinned before roasting a few more zombies, who ran off squealing in pain. “Not much. The fires are keeping 'em off us, but I don't think it's killing them.”
Taking a closer look, Derek realized he was right. The smoke they had spotted were the screamers themselves, but they weren't burning as much as they should. After a minute or two, the flames died and the screamer just came back for another run, usually with their burned clothing falling off. A few were staying down, sure, but not nearly enough.
“This doesn't make sense,” Derek said. “You been able to tell what their power is?”
“Nope. They've just been rushing us, as you can see.” He let out another burst from his flamethrower. It was one of the saner, long-range types, which actually fired streams of burning liquid a few hundred yards. Some of the Canians insisted on using short-range versions, which just coughed out clouds of incendiary mist. It could be helpful at times, but it usually wasn't.
“I can check,” Akane whispered. “Quick.”
Derek thought about it for a moment. That was probably the best idea, since it would let her get a good slow-motion look at what they were doing, but it was hard to tell. What if they had some weird power that screwed with inertia or whatever, and forced her speed to backfire? Except that wouldn't have helped them against the fire...
Bah. They needed intel. He nodded to her, and she blurred off.
“Hold your fire,” Guland called to his men. “Don't hit the paladin.”
They didn't stop entirely, of course—Akane wouldn't be able to hold off even a tenth of the screamers by herself—but they did clearly make an effort to avoid the area she was running around. It was hard to tell what was going on, since mostly it just looked like she was running up to them and blurring away without doing anything, but Derek trusted her enough to know better.
She repeated the pattern nearly a dozen times—move in at normal speed, move out at super speed—before she sped back to Derek's side, and the Canians resumed shooting everything in sight as opposed to merely most everything.
Derek raised an eyebrow at her.
“Skin,” she said with a shrug. “They harden their skin.”
Derek blinked. “Enough to deflect bullets?”
“Enough to deflect my sword.” That was actually more impressive. They hadn't gotten around to actually testing it in a lab or anything, but it was pretty clear that at full speed her blade had far more force behind it than most firearms. If these screamers were that tough, they had a real problem on our hands.
“What about their reservoirs? Were you able to deplete them?”
She shook her head. “But they can't be very deep. Mine isn't.”
That seemed to be the way powers worked. It was give and take. If you wanted more power, you got a smaller reservoir. If you wanted a bigger reservoir, you got less power. That was the trap Laura had fallen in. She wanted—or had been given—the power to detect lies all the time. So she ended up with a very weak power that she could use literally every second of the day. Worse yet, it didn't seem to improve with use, unlike the rest of the Paladins. It w
as still as useless as it was the first day they got them.
With such a strong power, these... skins had to be burning through their reservoirs quickly. The only problem was they were retreating when that happened, so they didn't get a chance to inflict real damage on them.
“We need to focus fire on one at a time,” Derek said to Guland. “We should be able to outlast their power pretty easily.”
He nodded. Derek doubted he understood everything they were talking about with the powers, but at least he realized they knew more than him on this subject. “We just need to wait for Adonides. We'll want everyone for this.”
That's when Derek noticed the Romanian vampire from earlier was missing. He frowned. “Where is he? It's not like there's anywhere to go.”
Guland just shrugged.
Derek sighed. “Fine. I'm going to call MC. One second.”
She answered immediately. “Derek? Jig back nowlike.”
“Uh... what?”
“The horns and hammers have gone out, plugging each other in the byway. Hell's gonna fin, they can spawn mooks faster. Bathory either which.”
Derek did not spend enough time on the internet for this. “Just... calm down and speak English.”
There was a brief pause where he could imagine her taking a deep breath. “Warfield shot Johnsson, then the Aesir started shooting the hellions. You need to come back ASAP. You're the only one who might be able to stop this.”
Derek cursed. “What's Laura saying?”
“I don't know. She shot Warfield in the chest and is trying to hold everyone apart, but not much luck there.”
Derek glanced around. The Canians were holding pretty well, and now that they knew how to defeat the screamers, they should be able to last. “Okay, we're coming back.”
He turned to Guland. “The hellions and Aesir have gone crazy. Don't do anything yet, just hold the line.”
Guland nodded. “Simple enough. We'll call if something goes sideways.”
Derek patted him on the shoulder as they left. He was a good man, despite being a pyromaniac. Derek would be really upset if he got turned.
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