The group of thirteen survivors tore through the sludge of the open ground. Mud sucked at their boots with every desperate stride, while the Steel Rain hammered against their backs like a judgment from the sky. They left the infested shelter behind, but the noise of their escape traveled far in the dark.
Gunshots cracked through the storm. Each report acted as a dinner bell for the horrors lurking in the dunes.
Luckily, the colossal Oxidizer remained occupied with its bath at the center of the chasm. It roared at the thunder and drank the lightning, ignoring the insects fleeing at its feet.
However, the Decayers in the vicinity were not so distracted. They detached themselves from the shadows of scrap piles and began moving toward the humans with the grinding screech of rusted joints.
Gustov lumbered through the muck. His breath came in ragged gasps, for he carried the weight of two men. Divento clung to his left shoulder, and Vance hung from his right.
"Incoming! Left flank!"
Gustov spotted the oncoming Decayer. It charged through a puddle and kicked up a spray of toxic water. His arms were full. He could not fight.
Vance gritted his teeth against the pain of his crushed leg. He reached for the handgun tucked into Gustov's belt. He aimed the weapon with a shaking hand and fired.
Bang. Bang. Bang.
The bullets sparked against the creature's wet hide, but they were useless. The rain empowered the monster. Its metal skin had hardened to an impenetrable sheen.
The Decayer lurched at them. Its maw opened to reveal rows of spinning, serrated teeth.
Leik dashed ahead. She threw herself into a slide across the wet ground. Mud sprayed in an arc as she passed between the creature and the men. She swung the Adamantine blade in a rising uppercut.
Shing.
The blue steel sang. It bit into the monster's torso and sliced through the reinforced chassis like it was wet paper. The Decayer split in half mid-pounce. Its two halves tumbled past Gustov and crashed into the dirt.
Divento watched the clean severance with wide eyes.
"Incredible. The shear strength is..."
Leik scrambled to her feet.
"Now is not the time for your compliments, Divento! Move!"
She checked over her shoulder.
"Sophie! Aidro! Stay close!"
A second Decayer charged at her from the darkness. Leik didn't flinch. She shifted her weight to the side and let the beast's momentum carry it past her. As it passed, she ran the blade across the creature's lateral region.
The cut was shallow, but the Adamantine edge severed the hydraulic lines and the main drive belt. The creature stumbled. Its legs locked up.
Leik spun on her heel. She drove the point of the sword into the exposed machinery on its back.
Crunch.
She shattered its core. The lights in its sensor pits flickered and died.
She yanked the blade free and pointed toward the skeletal skyscraper looming ahead.
"To the building! Go!"
A long ramp formed from collapsed metal beams and slabs of concrete led up into the structure's open frame. It was a treacherous path. Steel rebar poked out like spears, and deep gaps revealed the drop below.
The group hit the slope.
"Up! Get up there!"
Gustov groaned as he hit the incline. The extra weight threatened to topple him backward, but he leaned into the hill. He tossed Vance higher over his shoulder to secure his grip and dug his boots into the debris. He was built like a tank, and he persisted where lesser men would have collapsed.
Leik grabbed Sophie's arm.
"Climb, Sophie!"
She dragged her daughter up the steep face. Sophie reached back and grabbed Aidro's hand. She pulled him along in a desperate human chain.
Kingham struggled behind them. His bad leg screamed in protest, but he used his rifle as a crutch. He jammed the stock into the rubble and vaulted himself upward with every step.
"I am not dying in the mud."
Hort picked up Jem, Kael, and Lira. He held them against his chest like a bundle of firewood and bolted up the slope. Mara held little Tob tightly against her hip and scrambled over the slick metal plates.
All thirteen of them ran for their lives toward a shelter that might just be a tomb. God knew what nested inside the upper levels of that ruin, but they bet their lives that the rain outside was the greater threat.
Rotters chased them up the slope. The small, lizard-like machines swarmed over the underside of the ramp. Others crawled onto the support columns and scuttled vertically to cut them off.
Gustov reached the top first. He spilled onto the flat concrete slab of the second floor.
Immediately, a Decayer lunged from the shadows of a pillar.
"Get back!"
Gustov instinctively kicked out with his heavy boot. The impact caught the monster in the chest and knocked it backward. It crashed into a pile of rubble.
Vance rolled off Gustov's shoulder. He raised his pistol and fired at the exposed core of the stunned beast.
Crack. Crack. Click.
The beast shuddered and died, but Vance's gun clicked empty on the next pull.
"I'm out! No reloads!"
Leik crested the ramp next. She pulled her children onto the flat surface. She held up her sword. The blue light cut through the gloom and revealed the vast, open floor of the skeletal building. The rain blew in from the sides, but the ceiling above offered some protection.
Kingham and Hort scrambled up last, followed closely by Mara. Kingham extended a hand and pulled Mara over the final lip of concrete just as a Rotter snapped at her heel.
"We are up! Everyone to the center!"
They were sheltered from the direct downpour, but they were not safe.
Leik looked over the edge. Decayers climbed the metal frame of the building. Their claws dug into the steel girders as they ascended toward the fresh meat.
Kingham raised his rifle and fired a burst.
"Back! Stay back!"
Hort grabbed Kingham's shoulder.
"Stop! Don't waste your ammo on the armor! Those Rusters can only die once their core is destroyed! Wait until they expose themselves!"
Kingham shook him off.
"If we wait, they will be on top of us! We will be surrounded!"
Leik stepped into the middle of the group. She held her sword in her right hand and her rifle in the left. She checked the magazine.
"I have five rounds left."
She looked at the ragged circle of survivors.
"Ammo check! Now!"
Vance threw his pistol down. "Empty."
Kingham checked his mag. "Last magazine. Maybe ten shots."
Hort shook his head. "I ran out against the Rotters at the shack. I'm dry."
Gustov, Mara, and Divento had nothing. The children stared with wide, terrified eyes.
Hort gestured to his back.
"I have my Chainblade. I salvaged it from the wreck, but the motor is busted. The chain won't spin."
Leik tossed her rifle to Vance.
"Take it."
She looked at Gustov.
"Protect Divento and Vance. Use the debris. Use your fists."
She turned to Hort.
"A Chainblade is basically a club with teeth. It can still crush metal without a motor. Use it."
Hort nodded. He looked at the three children in his arms.
"I can't fight and hold them."
Mara stepped forward. She was shaking so hard her teeth chattered, but her voice was fierce.
"Give them to me. I'll keep them safe."
Hort set the children down. They gathered by Mara's feet near a central concrete pillar.
Hort reached behind his back and unslung a heavy, battered weapon. He gripped the handle of his broken Chainblade with both hands and stood tall.
Kingham limped closer to the group. He pointed his gun toward the open north face of the building.
"This is it. Our last stand."
Leik, Hort, Vance, and Kingham moved outward. They formed a defensive square around the others. They were the North, East, South, and West, the only walls between their families and the dark.
Scritch-scratch-THUD.
"Here they come!"
The horde arrived. Decayers climbed over the ledge. Rotters dropped from the support beams.
The battle erupted with the fury of desperation.
Leik met the first wave. Two Decayers charged her position. She moved like a dancer in the blue light of her sword. She ducked under a swinging claw and severed the first beast's leg. As it fell, she pivoted and drove the sword through the skull of the second.
"Hort! Left!"
Hort swung his heavy Chainblade like a hammer. He smashed a Decayer mid-leap. The impact crumpled the creature's armor, though the blade did not cut.
Another Decayer flanked him. It grabbed his arm.
Leik dashed across the circle. She leaped over a pile of scrap and sliced the creature's arm off at the shoulder.
"Thanks!"
Hort shouted before he brought the hilt of his weapon down on the monster's core.
On the other side, Kingham fired single, disciplined shots.
Bang.
A Rotter exploded.
Bang.
Another dropped.
Vance leaned against a debris and picked his targets.
"They're small! Hard to hit!"
He fired. A Rotter that had been sneaking toward the children disintegrated.
A sneaky Rotter crawled up the stock of Vance's rifle leg. It opened its jaws to bite into his flesh.
Vance didn't panic. He flashed his hand out, knocked the creature off, and shot it in mid-air.
"Get off me!"
Gustov stood near the center. He roared and lifted a heavy block of concrete. He hurled it at a cluster of Rotters that broke through the line.
CRASH.
The stone crushed three of them flat.
Mara crouched low over the children. She shielded their eyes with her body and trembled as the metal monsters shrieked around them.
As the fight intensified, the Galvanizers slowed. Their chests heaved. Their arms grew heavy. But they fought on. They fought with the savage refusal to die.
Leik was a wild blade storm. She was everywhere at once. She cut, she kicked, she screamed defiance.
Divento watched her from the floor. He was frightened, but he was also in awe. He didn't know where a human body found such strength.
Sophie peeked out from Mara's embrace. She watched her mother fighting the darkness. Tears streamed down her face.
Plip.
Sophie felt something warm drip onto her head.
She touched her hair. It was thick and oily.
"Rain?" she whispered.
But they were covered by the ceiling.
She looked up.
Above them, in the dark recesses of the rusted ceiling, a faint silhouette moved. It was large and bulbous. She couldn't see it properly, but a primal instinct screamed danger.
She remembered the Adamantine orb.
Sophie reached into her pocket. She pulled out the sphere and held it up toward the ceiling.
The blue light burst forth like a miniature star.
It illuminated a nightmare. A Spider-Corroder, massive and many-legged, hung directly above the children. It was descending on a cable of spun wire.
The intense blue radiation hit the creature.
SCREEEE!
The light burned its photosensitive eyes and seared its carapace. The Spider thrashed in pain. It released its grip on the web.
"Look out!"
The massive arachnid dropped from the ceiling.
The group scattered. Gustov tackled Mara and the children out of the way just as the monster crashed into the concrete floor where they had been huddling.
Dust and chips of stone flew into the air.
The impact jarred Sophie's arm. The Adamantine orb slipped from her fingers.
"No!"
The sphere hit the ground and rolled. It headed straight for the open edge of the building.
The Spider-Corroder recovered instantly. It scuttled toward the orb, drawn by the energy or perhaps just the movement. Either way, that orb had to be destroyed.
Sophie didn't think. She crawled after it.
"My light!"
She scrambled on hands and knees. She reached the edge just as the orb teetered on the brink. Her hand clamped over it.
"Sophie! Stop!"
Leik heard the commotion. She turned from her fight and saw her daughter at the precipice.
The Spider-Corroder lashed out with a long, jagged leg.
WHACK.
The limb struck Sophie in the chest. It knocked her backward, over the edge of the building.
"Sophie!"
Everyone's eyes opened wide in shock.
A hand reached out from the darkness.
Aidro.
He had followed her. He threw himself flat on the concrete and grabbed Sophie's wrist just as she fell.
Sophie dangled over the sixty-meter drop. The wind howled beneath her. She gripped the Adamantine orb in her other hand.
"Aidro! Pull me up!"
"I... I can't! Give me your other hand!"
Aidro strained. His boots scraped against the grit. He was slipping.
Sophie looked at the orb, then at her brother's straining face. She couldn't drop the light. It was their only weapon against the dark.
She shoved the orb into her mouth to free her hand.
She reached up.
STAB.
The Spider-Corroder struck again. Its sharp leg drove down and pierced Aidro's calf.
"Aaaagh!"
Aidro screamed in agony. His muscles spasmed. The pain forced his grip to fail.
He let go.
Sophie fell.
"NO!"
She gasped in shock. The orb slid down her throat. She choked, eyes bulging, as gravity took her.
"SOPHIE!"
Leik screamed. It was a sound that tore her throat.
She didn't hesitate. She didn't think.
She turned her back on the Rusters. She dashed across the floor.
She swung her sword and severed the Spider's leg to clear her path.
Then, without a shred of fear, she leaped into the open air.
"Leik! No!" Kingham shouted.
"Leik!" Gustov bellowed.
It was too late. Both mother and daughter plummeted into the abyss.
Leik dove. She streamlined her body. She dropped faster than the flailing child.
She released her sword. It tumbled away into the night.
She reached down.
"I got you! Mommy's got you!"
She caught Sophie in mid-air. She pulled the small girl into her chest and wrapped her arms and legs around her, creating a cocoon of flesh and bone.
"I have you."
She hugged her with such ferocious emotion that the world seemed to stop. In that freefall, amidst the rain and the lightning, a bond was shared that defied death.
Lightning struck a nearby tower, illuminating their descent in a flash of white.
The ground rushed up to meet them.
Just before impact, Leik spun her body. She positioned herself beneath her daughter. She offered her back to the earth.
BOOM.
They hit the ground.
The impact was catastrophic. Leik's bones shattered. Her spine, her ribs, her legs, they crushed instantly under the force. Blood spewed from her mouth. A regular human would have died before the neurons could register the pain.
But Leik was a mother. And she was desperate to protect her child.
She lay in the mud. The rain washed over them.
Sophie lay on top of her, stunned but unbroken. She coughed violently, trying to expel the orb, but it was stuck fast. She wanted to cry her mother's name, but she couldn't speak.
"Ghh... ghh..."
Leik stared up at the stormy sky. Her vision was fading to gray. She felt the cold seeping into her marrow. She was happy. Her daughter was warm. Her daughter was alive.
She was ready to slip into the dark.
Clunk. Clunk. Growl.
The sound of heavy metal paws splashing in the mud reached her ears.
Leik turned her head.
Three Ruster mutts, Class 2 Decayers, emerged from the rain. They loomed over them, their sensor pits glowing with hungry red light. They glared at the helpless child.
Leik's eyes narrowed.
"No."
She summoned a will power that went beyond biology. She ignored the pulverized bones. She ignored the shredded organs.
She rolled over.
She reached out with a trembling hand and found the hilt of her sword, which had fallen nearby in the mud.
She gripped it.
She used the blade as a crutch. She forced her broken body to rise.
She stood over her daughter. She swayed, blood pouring from her lips, but she stood.
She faced the three monsters.
She lifted the sword. Her arm shook violently. She tried to swing it. She tried to strike one last blow.
But the body had nothing left to give. The arm failed. The sword tipped.
The mutts lunged.
CHOMP! CHOMP! CHOMP!
Sophie watched through tear-filled, choking eyes as the monsters tore into her mother. They ripped her to shreds in a frenzy of violence.
The shock was too much. The lack of air, the horror, the grief.
Sophie's world went black. She lost consciousness before the beasts could turn their attention to her. She blocked out the end, leaving her fate to the mercy of the rain.