by Jason Luthor
My thrusters fire as I try to get above the masses, just to have a half dozen Bulgas leap at my legs. I go sprawling along the concrete as one of those huge Basilisks comes swiping down toward me, its massive, clawed limb swiping for my head. I barely get my rifle up to squeeze off a dozen rounds that sever its limb in half, its gaping jaw snarling as it twists away in pain. I’m back on my feet in a half second, my sword sweeping circles around me, but every Creeper that goes flying into pieces is instantly replaced by another one. Weight comes pushing down on my shoulders and I go flipping away, just to jam hard into more bodies, claws scraping at my sides before I turn, my sword cutting through Stilts. The crowd’s so thick, the Basilisks swarming so intense, that I can barely see the sky through the crowds. I twist as a I feel another body on my back, but this time I’m not fast enough. I’ve just turned when I feel it, this scimitar claw that comes slicing downward. It cuts right through my thigh, the armor ripping open as the blade slides straight through bone and muscle, and I scream even as my leg buckles. I take a knee as the massive blade pulls out from my leg, blood splattering the ground and my muscles screaming as I try to stay upright. The horde comes down on me, every single one of them, collapsing onto my back and sending me to my hands and knees, my strength barely keeping me from hitting the concrete completely.
But that’s their mistake. They’re too close, and I can stand the heat. They can’t. Fire pours out of my thrusters in one gigantic eruption that scorches the ground, incinerating the Creepers around me and burning their muscles into ashes. Space opens up around me as I rocket upward and circle back to the team, my eyes spotting someone being ripped up from the ground and yanked upward. My eyes follow the long Creep tendril, and I realize the DEC trooper’s being pulled toward a massive, gaping mouth lined with teeth the size of a man. The mouth opens wide to catch the trooper, and I burst ahead, my teeth clenching as I fly in to help. I can feel my fingers tighten around my sword as I swoop in at the last second, the blade cutting through the tendril and sending the trooper flying back toward the ground. I don’t even have time to enjoy the win before I turn upwards, my jets exploding to get me away while dozens of tendrils burst from the building, all of them twisting around each other to get to me.
Just as the tendrils are about to catch me, my repulsors kick in and send me flying backward at a sharp angle. The tendrils swipe at the air where I’d been just seconds before as I go rocketing back toward the earth, my rifle tearing holes into the things as I fly back toward the troopers. I manage to get myself turned around just a second before I come to a crash landing in front of the team, my leg giving way again as I hit the ground hard. I can’t stop the gasp of pain that escapes my lips as I struggle to stay on my legs. Heads turn my way, and even if I can’t see their faces, I can tell a lot of them are scared.
“I need an opening!” I scream. “Get ready to hold them off for just a few more seconds!”
Kali waves high, her rifle still firing even as she’s motioning to her team. “Confirmed, Heavy Metal. All troopers, we’re going to empty those barrels. Get ready to give it everything!”
“Just 30 seconds!” I shout at them before looking to the sky. I close my eyes as I ask myself if I’m really about to do what I think I’m about to do. “Dark Angel to Highpoint Waystation. Bring all weapons online. I need the full arsenal engaged.”
There’s a half second delay before I hear John’s response, and even if he doesn’t want to confirm the call, he forces himself to. “Highpoint Waystation requesting authorization. Confirm all weapons free?”
“Authorization, Valerie Grace Andrew Benjamin. Confirmed.” I look over my shoulder to the rest of the team. “Lay it down. Now!”
The words are barely out of my mouth before their guns start to ring out in an endless ringing of rifle fire, each person on the team switching to full-auto and firing off hundreds of rounds every second. To the left and right, the walls of buildings go tearing apart, the forearm length spikes firing from rifle barrels and chewing into steel and concrete. Creepers go flying to the ground, hitting the pavement with painful thuds as their bodies explode into pieces. Endless waves of them follow behind, bursting out of windows higher up the buildings and exploding off the rooftops. For one horrific moment, every wall around us and every rooftop is splitting open with them, Creepers raining down on us from every angle.
My hands glow as my two miniguns appear in my hands, each sweeping outward and back in again, thousands of rounds emptying from the barrels. I see Creepers go tumbling to the ground by the dozens, only to be replaced by more. And . . . that’s when the portals start opening up, half a dozen on either side of me that face toward the Creepers rushing our position. I grit my teeth as I try to stay focused, sweat pouring down my face as rockets begin to fly out of Pocket Space, one after the other rushing by me and blowing apart the horde by the handful. Still, as many are evaporated by the explosives, more keep coming, and the Basilisks at the back are almost on us.
I suck in a breath and my miniguns disappear, my fists clenching as I focus. More windows into Pocket Space start to open, but this time, my eyes go skyward, and I focus on the air above the swarms in front of us. One portal after another starts to tear open in the skies, a sea of blue windows into Pocket Space ripping through into our reality, and the whole time I’m screaming as I try to keep them all open for just a few seconds longer. I can feel the stress of it burning into my brain, my helmet linking my mind to Highpoint Waystation and coordinating so many windows of Pocket Space windows across the sky that the clouds are tinted blue. There’s one long second when my suit’s charging, energy flowing through my gauntlets, and then it all peaks at once as missiles start to fall from the sky. I strain against the pressure building in my skull, holding on as blood starts to streak down my nose, as I force myself to brace for just a few seconds longer. My arms are shaking as my gauntlets ignite with blue light, explosives raining down by the dozen and explosions battering the city blocks around us. Buildings and streets erupt into the air as the street turns into hellfire, Creepers vanishing as the explosives come raining down on them from above.
I swing my head toward the team, my helmet’s camera still displaying the carnage while I turn back to Kali. There’s crowds of Creepers pressing on every side, and no amount of rifle fire is holding them off. Even the explosives are barely holding them back. All I know is I need more. I need everything. Everything I’ve been stockpiling for months. What I’m also thinking is that I’ve never tried what I’m about to do. Not at the level I’m about to do it at. Every weapon I fire, every window into Pocket Space that opens, requires more focus than I’ve ever given and brings me one second closer to having my brain shut down under the strain. But I will it, the same as anyone wills themselves to keep lifting a weight when they think they can’t give it any more or when they keep running that last half mile when their body wants to give out.
I instinctively thrust my arms outward, sucking hard at the air around me as my brain feels like it’s about to burn out. I can feel wetness at my eyes. Tears? No. It’s more blood. For a second, I don’t know if I can hold on. If I can actually keep it up. And . . . then I think of Mike. About saving him. That’s all I need. I ignore the pain building up inside of my head for a second longer as more Pocket Space windows open. For a second, I can see everything happening around me. The world stops, and I see every threat, every enemy, on the battlefield. The giant Basilisks that were hiding on the rooftop off the building to my right. The burrowing Bulgas that are getting ready to explode out of the ground from a street to our left. The almost endless crowds of Stilts choking the alleys on every side of us.
My breath stops, and I scream, the blue energy in my gauntlets tracing my arms and over my body as waves of Pocket Space energy flare out of my suit. The skies around us are a vortex of blue windows, views into that other dimension where all of this started. It’s those window that save us. Saves the team. The Pocket Space windows reach full aperture and begin to
spit out everything I’ve got stocked at Highpoint Waystation. One rocket after another comes raining down, across streets and rooftops, pavement detonating into powder and buildings cracking apart. The sky that was red is now almost entirely blue, glowing with energy flowing out of Pocket Space, and every window empties out every explosive I’ve been storing since the day I first met John. Since I learned what the armor could do. The world around us turns to fire as an expanding circle of explosions erupt outward from us, extending down the streets and leaving scorched earth and fire as the final wave of missiles comes raining down. Flames erupt from every alley and across every crosswalk as the flames expand away from us, leveling the world around us as buildings are reduced to nothing and the streets give way beneath the assault.
Reality bursts into flame and smoke, a crater forming where there were buildings just seconds before. I can see the team, crouching down and shielding themselves as the city for blocks around us vanishes into fire, taking every Creeper with it. And then, just like that, the portals around us blink out of existence, vanishing as the windows disappear. The crimson skies wash over us again, and as the last of the windows close, I feel a pain like lightning crackle through my skull. I’m not able to hold back my scream as the pain shoots between my ears, my injured leg giving out beneath me as I collapse to the floor. All I know is the world’s spinning, the edges of my vision going dark for a second as I’m trying to recover.
I kneel there on hands and knees for a second, struggling to breath, my ears ringing and the world spinning. All I can do for a minute is try to focus and get my senses back. When I finally do, when I can finally look up . . .
. . . I’m staring down the barrel of a rifle that’s aimed right at my face.
“Roberts,” I hear Kali shout, her distorted voice ringing out from the speakers in her helmet. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”
“What we were ordered to do.”
“Ordered to do? Are you joking?”
Whoever this guy is screams back at her. “Do you think the general would just tell us to shoot if he didn’t have a reason? You saw what she just did.”
“Yeah, I saw her save our lives.”
“And what if she ever decided to turn on the fort?”
“Is that really all you can think about?”
The gun in front of me lifts, but just a little. “You’re the oldest one of us. We grew up together. We trained with each other and when you were selected to lead the DEC, we trusted you to lead us until the mission was done. The mission isn’t done!”
“The mission is to rendezvous at our fallback position.”
“You know that’s not all.”
I look back at Kali, her hands squeezing on her rifle. I barely have the strength to ask, “What’s going on?”
She never takes her eyes off this other guy, Roberts. “There’s a kill order out to shoot you on sight. We were told the Creep had infested you too much. That it had affected your judgment and made you go rogue.” Kali shakes her head. “The details were light, to say the least.”
“You don’t really believe that? If I’m rogue, then why would I have just saved all of you.”
“The general’s never let us down, not when it comes to a fight.” I can’t see her face behind the mask. “You have to understand, the old general raised us. We owe our lives to Fort Silence. I don’t think you’re rogue, but . . . it’s complicated.”
Roberts shouts at her. “What are you going to do? The general is the reason we’re here. Every one of us owes him our lives. We’d be rotting in the Deadlands if he wasn’t around.”
“I know that, Roberts. How could you think I don’t remember that? All I’m saying is that we take her in and get this all figured out.”
“You’re not taking me anywhere,” I tell her as I push myself up onto my knees. “Either follow your orders or don’t . . .” I swallow hard, and I can taste the blood pooling in my mouth at the same time that I can still feel it dripping down my cheeks. The Creep’s not healing it. “Look, I have someone I need to save, the same way I saved all of you. You’re either going to have to let me go find him or kill me if you want to stop me from trying.”
Roberts shouts at her, but he never takes the barrel out of my face. “You see? This is probably why the general gave the order. Who knows what she’s capable of. Look at her armor. It’s half blown to hell. How can you not think she’s dangerous? Her friend threw me through the side of a building with his mind, and she was able to take him down. How can you not see that she’s dangerous?”
“I know she’s dangerous. I know her friend’s dangerous. But we’re dangerous too, and I don’t see you arguing to kill ourselves.”
“The difference is we’re human.”
I growl at him. “I’m human.”
“Shut up, Creeper,” he barks back as he pushes the barrel right up against my skull. “Listen, sarge, this is the best chance we’re going to get at taking her out, so are you going to give the order or are you going to make me do this myself?”
“Yeah,” I agree as I look back at her again, my chest pounding as my heart beats out of control. “That’s the only question that matters, Kali. What are you going to do?”
“Heavy Metal,” she says. “You said you had a friend you were going to rescue?”
“Yeah. If he’s still alive.”
“And after that?”
“Find out why the general wants me dead. I don’t know enough about what’s going on back in Central to say what I’ll do after that.”
Roberts raises his rifle back and brings down the butt of it against my skull. I feel the world swimming as my hand braces against the ground, barely keeping me from collapsing. “She’s going to do exactly what the general’s been saying she’ll do. Exactly what all of these half human freaks do. Let’s not pretend she’s the first one we’ve seen.”
“She’s the only one we’ve seen this strong and the only one that’s ever put her life on the line, more than once, to save us!”
“She’ll go crazy from the infection, and when she does? What then?” He presses the gun to my head again, this time pushing my head around with the barrel. My eyes go up and trail the barrel to his finger, where I can see him starting to squeeze down on the trigger. “Fine. I’m stopping this threat before it—”
And that’s when, before he finishes, his helmet explodes from the back, steel and blood flying into the air. All of us turn our heads back to see another one of the DEC troopers standing there, their rifle still held up in midair. Kali looks stiff, even stiffer than normal in all that armor, as she stares at the shooter. “Torres.”
“It had to be done, sarge,” a husky female voice says from behind the helmet.
For a second, the whole team looks around from one to the other. Nobody says anything for this terrible, empty minute, with the body still smoking on the ground. Finally, Kali speaks up. “Thanks, Torres. You’re right.” She looks at me. “Can you get up?”
I grunt and nod as I push onto my legs. The pain in my thigh is incredible, and the lightning dancing in my head is still making me feel drugged out. Still, I manage to get onto my feet. “Thank you.”
“You saved us,” she says with a shake of her head. Kali takes a look around at the team, staring from one helmeted face to another. “Are we all on the same page here?”
”Yeah,” someone says from the back. “Roberts lost it because of the Creep attack. He became a threat to the team’s survival.”
“That’s right,” she says as she keeps looking around. “If anyone has anything they want to say about this, you do it now. Because I promise, the second we’re back to Central, if they find out we let Heavy Metal go . . .”
Torres nods. “We’re all in on this together or we’re not.”
There’s a round of nods and affirmatives. That’s enough for Kali, who looks back my way. “You’re not looking great. Your armor . . .”
I look down. I’d noticed it not long ago, the slow re
generation rate on my gloves. Same thing’s happening with my leg, and there are parts of my breastplate that are gone, leaving my jumpsuit exposed. “The armor’s reaching its repair threshold. That just means it won’t be able to keep regenerating too many more times.”
“Why?”
“All the materials it pulls from Pocket Space to regenerate are getting used up. It’s got about one . . . well, maybe two more good fights left in it before it shuts down.”
“Damn. Is there anything we can do?”
I smile, and actually, I almost laugh. “No. It’s headed for trash city. There’s only one man who knows how the suit really works, and he’s back in Central. Hopefully we can get this all figured out before the suit takes too many more hits.”
“I just . . . I wish I could help. There has to be something I can do.”
For a second, I think something, something I’m not even really sure I should ask. I try it anyway. “Would you ever turn against the general?”
“What?” Even through the helmet, I can hear the shock in her voice. She pulls me aside, taking me further from the group like a parent dragging a child. “You can’t just drop a question like that on me in front of the troopers. What are you talking about?”
“You told me that you’re not blind followers. I’ve met a lot of people, fought with a lot of people, and apparently that hasn’t made me a better judge of character. Still, I just feel like, if push came to shove and Yousef really was out to do something terrible . . . I think you’d rather fight for the people being hurt than for the general.”
“Heavy Metal, I just . . . If there was proof, I’d . . .”
“I’d never ask you to do anything without proof.” I take a deep breath as I stare at her. “The last few months, I’ve made a lot of mistakes. I’ve given people the benefit of the doubt when the evidence was right there that I shouldn’t have. I Ignored my responsibilities and let other people take the lead, just so I wouldn’t have to be the one making the hard calls. All that’s done is get more people killed. Well, my best friend might be dead right now because I ignored what I should have done. And that . . .” My eyes go to the clouds that are drifting over the city. “I’m going to have to live with the fact that I got people killed because I decided not to do what I should have. Yousef just put out a kill order on me. Who knows what’s happening in Central to the president or the Advisory Council? If it really, absolutely looks like a coup . . .”