A high-pitched ringing pierced the silence of Leik's mind.
Eeeeeeeeeeeee.
It drowned out the storm and the groans of metal. She opened her eyes, but the world was a blur of shadows and shattered glass. She hung sideways in the cab of the overturned armored truck. The seatbelt dug into her chest like a vice.
Warm liquid dripped from her forehead and stung her left eye. She blinked rapidly to clear her vision.
"Sophie? Aidro?"
Her voice was a rasp, swallowed by the ringing.
She fumbled in the darkness. Her hand brushed against the passenger seat. Her fingers found purchase on a small arm.
"I've got you."
She gripped the wrist and pulled.
The arm came toward her with sickening ease. It was light. Too light.
Leik pulled it closer. The limb ended at the elbow in a ragged stump of torn flesh and bone. Lightning illuminated the area. She stared at the detached hand for a heartbeat.
"Aaaaaah!"
She screamed and dropped the limb. It fell into the broken glass with a wet thud.
Panic seized her. She thrashed against the seatbelt. She looked around the truck. The interior was a slaughterhouse. Bodies from the rear compartment had been thrown forward by the impact. Necks were twisted at unnatural angles. A metal strut had impaled a man through the chest.
"No. No, no, no."
She clawed at the buckle.
"Sophie! Aidro!"
She searched the floor. She found the hilt of her Adamantine sword and grabbed it instinctively, but the seat beside her was empty of life.
"Leik! Give me your hand!"
A shadow loomed in the broken windshield. Gustov.
He reached in and grabbed her by the ankles. He yanked her downward.
Leik kicked and struck out.
"Let me go! My children! They are in here!"
"They are out! Stop fighting me!"
Gustov dragged her through the shattered glass. He pulled her into the mud and rain.
Leik scrambled to her feet. She tried to run back to the wreck.
Gustov grabbed her shoulders and shook her hard.
"Look! Leik, look!"
He turned her head toward a small depression in the ground nearby. A piece of corrugated metal served as a makeshift roof. Beneath it, Kingham knelt in the mud. Sophie and Aidro clung to him. They were shivering, but they were alive.
Leik collapsed against Gustov's chest. Her legs gave out.
"They're alive."
"Yes. Now move! The fuel tank is ruptured!"
Gustov scooped her up and ran.
They dove behind a mound of earth just as the truck ignited.
BOOM.
The fireball illuminated the rain-slicked rocks. The heat washed over them, momentarily pushing back the chill of the storm.
Leik crawled over to her children. She pulled them into a crushing embrace. She kissed their faces, their hands, their hair.
"I thought I lost you. I thought you were gone."
Sophie sobbed.
"It was scary, Mom. The truck flipped over and over."
Leik wiped the tears from her daughter's face. She looked around at the survivors huddled under the metal sheet.
Kingham sat with his back against a rock.
Divento lay on the ground.
Gustov stood guard.
Two other Galvanizers had survived. One was Hort, a burly man with a scar across his nose. The other was Vance. Vance sat with his right leg extended; the limb was twisted and purple, clearly wrecked.
Beside them sat Elark, the old woman. She clutched her cat, Whisk, inside her shawl. The animal hissed at the rain.
A younger woman named Mara rocked back and forth. She held a toddler named Tob. Three other children; Jem, Kael, and Lira huddled together near Aidro.
Leik counted them. There were fourteen of them in total.
"Is this it? Are we all that's left?"
Kingham nodded gravely.
"Yes. Everyone else died in the crash or the explosion."
Leik looked at Vance's leg.
"We have wounded. We need to set that bone."
Vance shook his head. He used a rifle as a crutch to push himself upright. He stood on one leg, wincing but silent.
"No time. Look behind us."
They looked back toward the bridge.
A loud, rhythmic churning noise echoed from the chasm.
Ka-thump. Ka-thump.
In the center of the broken span, illuminated by the fires of the wreck, a monstrosity rose. It was the size of a building. Long, metallic spikes protruded from its back like a crown of thorns.
CRACK-BOOM.
Lightning fell from the sky. It struck the creature's hide. The electricity did not harm it; it absorbed the bolt. Blue arcs of energy danced along its spikes.
"Oxidizer," Gustov whispered. "The apex."
The beast turned its massive head toward the sky and roared at the thunder. It hadn't noticed the tiny figures in the mud yet.
Kingham struggled to his feet.
"We have to move. If it looks down, we are ash."
He gestured to the dark wasteland ahead.
"Find shelter. Anything with a roof."
Gustov bent down. He picked up Divento and tossed him over his left shoulder. He grabbed Vance by the belt and hoisted him onto his right side.
"I am a mule today. Let's go."
Leik picked up Sophie, though her own ribs ached with every breath.
"Aidro, hold my belt. Do not let go."
Sophie touched Leik's cheek.
"Mommy, you're bleeding."
"I'm fine. Just a scratch."
She looked at Mara.
"Can you manage the little ones?"
Mara nodded. She hoisted Tob onto her hip and grabbed Lira's hand.
"Come on, kids. Stay close to the nice lady."
Elark tucked her cat deeper into her coat and hobbled after them.
They moved away from the burning bridge. They walked into the teeth of the storm.
The Steel Rain fell in sheets. It hissed as it hit the ground. The darkness was absolute, broken only by the strobe-light flashes of lightning. Every shadow looked like a Ruster. Every sound sounded like a scuttling claw.
"There!"
Hort pointed.
A small concrete structure stood about two hundred meters away. It looked like an old checkpoint or a toll booth from the pre-collapse era. Portions of the wall were shattered, but the roof appeared intact.
"Run!"
Kingham ordered.
They splashed through the mud. They scrambled through the gap in the wall and collapsed onto the dry concrete floor inside.
"Barricade the entrance! Now!"
Kingham barked the command.
Hort, Mara and Leik moved with frightened efficiency. They grabbed loose metal scraps and rotted wooden planks from the debris piles in the corners. They piled them against the shattered wall and the doorframe.
Gustov set his burdens down. He shoved a heavy rusted locker against the barricade to reinforce it.
"That should hold for a minute."
The space was small, barely enough for them to sit without touching. A rotting wooden counter stood in the center. Old cans and trash littered the floor.
It was pitch black.
Leik unsheathed her sword.
Shing.
The blue glow of the Adamantine flooded the room. She stabbed the blade into the wooden counter top. It stood there like a beacon.
The adults gathered around the light.
Kingham wiped the sludge from his face.
"We need to clean the wounds. The blood scent will draw them."
Mara tore strips from her skirt.
"I have water in my canteen. It's not W-H2O, but it's clean."
They began the grim work. They wiped the blood from Leik's face and Vance's leg.
Divento lean against the counter and spoke.
"The rain is masking us for now. The Rusters will be busy bathing in the divine essence outside. But once the storm passes..."
"Yeah, we'll be sitting ducks."
While the adults worked, the children huddled against the rotting wood of the counter. Their small bodies pressed together for warmth in the damp darkness.
Sophie and Aidro sat in the center. Jem, a boy of eight with dust-matted hair, held onto the hands of the twins, Kael and Lira. Little Tob sat on the counter and sucked his thumb while tears streaked his dirty face.
Jem whispered.
"Did you see that monster on the bridge? It ate the lightning. I think it saw us."
Aidro nodded. He tried to be brave.
"My mom killed a Corroder. She isn't scared of a lightning eater."
Lira buried her face in her brother's shoulder.
"I want my dad. Where is he?"
Aidro glared at the darkness beyond the barricade.
"He's fighting. Like my dad. We have to be quiet so the monsters don't hear us."
Scritch-scratch.
Something was hidden in the dark. It watched them from the deep shadows of the corner. A critter scurried past a pile of loose debris with a faint, dry sound.
Scritch-scratch.
Sophie froze. She peered into the gloom, but the blackness was absolute. Because it was dark, she could not see what made the noise.
She patted her pocket. She remembered the heavy weight of the Adamantine orb she had saved.
She reached in and pulled it out. A faint blue luminescence leaked through her fingers. She stepped away from the huddled group and walked closer to where she heard the scratching noise. She wanted to see.
Aidro noticed her movement. He followed close behind her and grabbed the back of her tunic.
"Sophie! Get back to Mom's side. You heard what she said."
Sophie hesitated. She looked at the dark pile of rubble, then at her brother. She heeded the warning.
"Okay."
She turned around and shoved the orb back into her pocket before the light could fully penetrate the shadows. She returned to the safety of the counter.
They didn't realize what had happened just feet away from them.
Behind the rubble, the critter had been exposed to the brief, intense glow of the Adamantine. It lay flat on its back. Smoke rose from its carapace as the blue radiation ate through its shell. It dissolved into gray sludge.
But before its entire body vaporized, the creature acted on instinct. It separated the melting portions of its form. The liquid metal lashed out and merged with a rusted iron bar lying in the dirt.
Something devious was brewing in the dark.
Sophie told her brother, "I think I saw a bug."
"Who cares?" Aidro grumbled. "Stay down."
"Kids! Come here!"
Mara waved them over to the light of Leik's sword.
"We need to clean those cuts."
The adults worked quickly. They used the water from Mara's canteen to wash the grit and blood from the children's scrapes.
Kingham wiped a gash on Jem's forehead.
"Brave lad. Hold still."
Once the blood was wiped away, Hort gathered the stained rags. He dug a hole in the dirt floor with his knife and buried them deep.
"Pack the dirt tight. If they smell iron, they will swarm."
Vance sat against the wall. His face was gray with pain, but his eyes were alert. His right leg was gone below the knee, crushed in the rollover. He didn't complain. He worked on his solution.
He took his assault rifle and checked the safety. Then he placed the nozzle against the ground. He aligned the stock along the remnant of his shin and thigh.
"Gustov, tie it off."
Gustov used pieces of cloth to strap the weapon tight to Vance's leg.
Vance grunted as the cloth cinched down. He grabbed the wall and pushed himself up. He put his weight on the rifle head. It held. He stood there, a Galvanizer with a gun for a leg.
"I can walk. I can fight. Don't leave me behind."
Leik nodded at him with respect.
"We wouldn't dream of it."
The group gathered around the glowing sword to ponder their next move.
Leik peered through a crack in the boarded-up wall.
"We are blind out here. Kingham, do you know the bearing to the Class B Biome from this position?"
Kingham shook his head.
"The crash disoriented us. And without the sunlight, I can't calculate the angle from the bridge. So, we hold up here for the night. It is raining death outside. If we stumble around in the dark, we will walk off a cliff or into a nest. We wait for first light."
Gustov slammed his fist into his palm.
"Wait? Kingham, are you senile? That Oxidizer is a stone's throw away! It is right there at the bridge!"
He pointed a thick finger at the wall.
"What if it decides to stop enjoying its shower? What if it catches our scent? It will tear this shack apart like wet paper. We would be dead before we even pulled the trigger."
"And if we leave?" Kingham countered. "We are exposed. The rain accelerates the Rust on our gear. We have injured. We have children. If we move, we make noise. Noise attracts them."
Gustov argued. "Staying is suicide! We need distance. Even a mile is better than this. We find a cave. We find a trench. Anything but sitting in the lap of the beast."
Hort nodded in agreement with Gustov.
"I'm with the big guy. My skin is crawling. I feel like it's watching us."
Mara hugged Tob close.
"But Kingham is right about the rain. If the kids get soaked…"
The argument see-sawed back and forth. The tension in the room grew thicker than the humid air.
While they argued, no one watched the corner.
The iron bar that had fused with the melted parasite shifted. It elongated. Legs sprouted from the metal, not natural legs, but jagged spikes of rebar. It was a Rotter, but twisted, accelerated by the Adamantine reaction and the ambient Steel Rain leaking through the roof.
It slithered across the floor. It moved silently, blending perfectly with the debris.
It targeted the weakest heat signature.
Elark sat by the wall, exhausted. Her chin rested on her chest as she dozed. Whisk, the cat, curled in her lap.
The Rotter crawled up the back of her woolen shawl. It moved like oil. It found the exposed skin at the nape of her neck.
It didn't bite. It drove itself inward.
Squelch.
Elark's eyes snapped open. Her back arched in an unnatural bow.
"Aaaaaaah!"
She hollered, a sound of pure agony that shattered the debate.
"MEOW!"
Whisk hissed violently and leaped from her grasp onto the counter, knocking over a stack of cans.
Clatter-crash.
The others alerted instantly. Every gun swiveled toward the old woman.
"What is it?" Kingham shouted.
Elark clawed at her own throat.
"It's inside! It burns! Get it out!"
Her skin began to change. The gray pallor of her face turned silver, then a deep, flaky red. Her fingers stiffened and fused together into a solid lump of metal.
Leik yanked her sword from the counter.
"Kids! Behind me! Now!"
She grabbed Sophie and Aidro and shoved them behind her legs.
The survivors watched in horror as Elark transformed. Her clothes ripped as her body expanded. She turned into hard metal scraps before their eyes.
Kingham stared, his mouth slightly open.
"This rusting... it is too quick. Usually, the process takes hours to consume a host."
Divento backed away on his hands.
"It must be the rain! The humidity is enhancing the reaction! Or something else!"
Elark fell forward onto the dirt.
Thud.
Her back began to swell drastically. The metal groaned and warped.
CRACK.
Her spine burst open like a ripe pod.
Numerous Rotter parasites, shaped like jagged lizards made of wet iron, burst out of the elder's back. They hissed and rushed the survivors.
"Contact! Contact!"
"We have to get out!"
The confined space became a death trap.
Gustov didn't hesitate. He lowered his shoulder and charged the barricade he had built.
CRASH.
He rammed through the wood and metal, sending debris flying into the rain. He cleared a path.
"Everyone out! Move!"
Mara grabbed Jem and Tob. She sprinted through the hole.
Hort grabbed Lira and Kael.
Gustov urged them past, then turned back.
A Rotter leaped at Divento, who was dragging himself across the floor.
"Not today!"
Gustov dashed back in. He kicked the parasite out of the air. He scooped Divento up in one arm.
"You are lucky you don't have legs, you old bat! Or the Rotter would have merged into them by now!"
Divento gripped Gustov's shirt.
"Just run, you fool!"
Gustov tossed Divento over his shoulder. He grabbed Vance by the back of his belt to help him hop.
"Move it, peg-leg!"
The Galvanizers who were free to shoot opened fire on the incoming swarm.
Bang-bang-bang.
Leik and Kingham stood side by side at the breach. They fired into the mass of writhing creatures to buy the others time.
"Go! We have the rear!"
They backed out into the storm.
The rain hit them instantly. It was cold and heavy.
They needed shelter quickly. The open ground was a graveyard.
Kingham scanned the horizon. Lightning flashed, illuminating the landscape in stark relief.
He pointed a shaking hand.
"There! That skyscraper!"
In the distance, a skeletal building rose from the dunes. Its glass was gone, and its steel was pitted, but the massive concrete core stood defiant against the wind.
"It has walls! It has cover! Go!"