CHAPTER 6

They moved up a floor. Once more, Daniel created a spy hole to check what they were heading into. A careful positioning of wood, dimming of nearby lights and a flap you needed to flick aside to see through the gap, assured that flies on the other side of the door were not alerted. This time, after checking himself he pulled Alex over to confirm.

Alex frowned, unimpressed. “Higher then?”

Daniel nodded. He had already guessed that was what the other man was going to conclude. They moved efficiency up to the next level. On this higher floor, they were no longer looking at a collection of small businesses, but a single owner with an open floor plan. It used to be an architectural firm and through the peek hold he could see over forty desks. The previous ground to ceiling frosted glass that had separated the elevators from the main working space had been shattered, letting him see everything. There were flies everywhere, but to Daniel’s perception, not particularly dense.

Daniel stepped aside to give Alex room. “What do you think?”

Alex looked through the gap and then shook his head. “Nope. Next floor.”

Daniel obeyed and followed the other man, with the entire group of fighters moving ahead and behind them. Maintaining their discipline. He wondered why Alex had chosen not to strike. There had been more flies than downstairs, but he had come decision quickly. Why? Was it just that they were not dense enough?

Alex looked like he had made the choice based on something that he had noticed.

“Was it the density of flies?”

“No.” Alex grinned at him. “Let’s see if you can work it out.”

Daniel replayed what he had observed when he had examined the room. He struggled to understand what Alex had spotted.

Light.

What? He thought in surprise back to Priscilla who was not treating this expedition as a life and death situation. Instead, to her this was an opportunity to catch up on her sleep while ensuring her pet did nothing too stupid. Daniel hadn’t even realised she was awake, tucked away as she was on his shoulder in a little cocoon of her own making to make sure she did not fall off.

She sent him a different image of the previous floor. It was from his memories, but instead of looking at the damage to the windows. She focused on the lighting in the large room. Illumination that came from above and not from the outside. With the issue pointed out Daniel immediately understood that there were gaps in the roof.

Good. Now Flies near the hole.

At her prompting, he re-examined the image she was sharing. The density of the insects near the roof where extra light was coming in was higher. That meant that the number of flies would be increased on the higher floor. The main hive was still above them. “Flies were concentrated around the holes to the upstairs.”

Alex looked at him speculatively. “Yes. Good job figuring it out.”

“Yeah didn’t get it straight away.”

“Everyone has their strengths.”

They reached the next floor and Daniel went to create a pinhole.

Alex grabbed his shoulder. “Save your power.”

“Why?”

“This is faster.” Alex said. He winked and then threw open the door before he stepped out authoritatively, shield at the ready, with the second tank going with them. Daniel from within the stairwell could not see a lot, but it was clear that there would be a fight on the floor. The large silver flies were everywhere. He had time for one look and then Alex and the tank were retreating and slamming the door shut behind them. They were fast enough that they only needed to block three opportunistic flies.

There were a series of crashes and the wood of the first door splintered in multiple spots. Everyone knew the tanks could reinforce the substance of the door to make it more solid and able to resist the heavy blows but none of them did anything. After a short period, the blows stopped with the wood still intact.

“I don’t know if this is the main hive all if it’s higher.” Alex told them. “But we’re going to fight here. The kindergarten was on this level. Did anyone get a good look at the layout?”

“There’ll be a rooftop garden play area.” The spearman next to Daniel said.

“What?” Daniel asked.

“When my kids were in pre-school in the city, they had it. Plus, architecturally it fits. From street level, you could see that floor five and on had a smaller footprint than the floor below. Which means there’s space for stuff on the roof.” There was a pause, and then the man gestured behind them. “It’ll be there.”

“Which means the flies will be concentrated in front of us as they prefer to gather in structures,” Alex told them. “We won’t need to worry about them swarming us from the sides. Anyone see anything else useful.”

“There was a hole to level four.” The spearman observed.

“I saw that below.” Alex confirmed.

“And an even bigger gap upwards, which is probably why the fire stairs have collapsed above us.”

“They have,” Ivey asked.

“Yes, ma’am.” the spearman said politely. He clearly had some sort of background in-construction and he had initially been at the front only descending to the central part of the group to be closer to the action. “I had a look at the door above and we can probably force it open with Daniel’s help but the stairs are blocked beyond that.”

“Focus.” Alex snapped in annoyance.

“They were everywhere,” the second tank told them. “But I got the impression that they’re concentrated in the kindergarten rooms as opposed to the reception.”

“The areas we can’t see directly in front of us.” Alex chuckled. “Why?”

“Well, there was only a little we could see via the observation window, but there were lots there. Plus, that space aligns to the holes downstairs?” He finished questioningly.

“It does,” Alex confirmed thoughtfully as he considered what needed to be done. “Our aim is to kill as many as possible. We should see if Daniel can get a blast off directly into that space, then. Especially if it extends upwards.”

“I don’t know if this is a good idea.” the second tank said. “It might be best to annoy them from here, where we have defensive structures. I’m sure once we kill some they’ll gather here like they did downstairs. Or we can abandon the mission. If the stairs are gone, it’s not like we can reach the top floor anymore to save anyone. We should write them off.”

Alex shook his head. “We have no choice. We need to kill them before they get a queen.”

“Queen?” Daniel asked. “Why is this the first time I’ve heard of it?”

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Alex turned to look at him. “It’s nothing personal. We’re not hiding any secrets from you. It just hasn’t come up in conversation around you. These silver flies don’t have a queen, currently. If they did, the upstairs would have already have fallen. On a threat scale, Queens take them from a six to a nine.”

“Out of ten?” Ivey asked.

“Yes.” Alex said flatly.

Daniel chuckled. “Very scientific.”

Alex shrugged. “A conveys the point.”

“Is it a logarithmic scale or…”

“Don’t go quoting maths at me, boy. I’m a hell of a lot better at it than you are.” Alex looked it back at the people gathered. “We’re fighting and I want to attack the centre of the hive. Six tanks, Tamara, Libba and Daniel are all in the strike force.”

“Is that sensible?” Ivey interrupted.

“What?”

“Taking the entire lightning contingent.”

“Yes.”

“What happens if it goes wrong?”

Alex shook his head. “Then the rest of you run. Gather everyone at the hotel and flee away from here. Two blocks won’t be far enough.”

“There’s something about putting all your eggs in the one basket.”

Alex shrugged. “Sometimes you need to bet everything on black. The group,” Alex continued. “Is going to sneak into position. Providing it’s what we’re expecting Daniel’s going to unleash.”

“I can’t,” Daniel interrupted.

“Can’t what?”

“Even if there is nothing there I’ll need to unleash the lightning. I can’t hold it.”

“That’s fine. We’ll get Daniel there and he will unleash at whatever is there with his full mana pool. Tamara and Libba are responsible for thinning them down during our retreat.”

“It doesn’t leave anyone to look after the people in the stairwell.” Ivey tried once more.

Alex didn’t even bother looking at her this time. “This is our best shot. If Daniel falls Tamara and Libba aren’t going to do shit against these things. Strategically, we’re best-off putting protection around him and letting him unleash at a hundred percent capacity.”

“I’m right here.” Daniel reminded them.

Alex laughed. “If you wanted control of your life, you shouldn’t have become a weapon of mass destruction. Now that you’re a state asset, you don’t get a say over things.”

“I am the state.”

“Details.” Everyone chuckled. Alex sobered up. “Seriously, are there any actual objections?”

Silence greeted the question and with short sharp commands the strike group formed. They rearranged in the corridor.

“Go,” Alex snapped.

The door was thrown open, and they ran forward. Two tanks in the front, a couple on each side and one at the back. Tamara pressed against one of Daniel’s sides and Ivey the other. Libba was pushing him from behind. They dashed out of the fire escape and rushed toward one of the broken windows. Flies thumped against raised shields and were knocked flying. Once they reached the spot, Alex stepped to the side to give Daniel access. Blood Drinker glowed like the sun such as the crackling electricity over it.

Through the broken window and then a hole in another wall, he could see his target. A dense cloud of flies and it felt like they were all turning to attack him.

Daniel knew what he was supposed to do. He focused on his electricity power. The positive energy that had built up around the club was blinding for a moment until he ignored it to complete the rest of the spell. Priscilla slowed everything down, but extra time to enhance control would not be required. He was looking up into a multi-floor hole that had been blasted into the centre of the building. It was filled with hundreds, no thousands, of the flies buzzing around so densely that Daniel almost couldn’t see the top through the thick mesh of flittering enemies. That was why control was not needed. There were so many of them he couldn’t miss. All he had to do was send the bolt as deeply into the swarm as possible and then physics would do the rest.

Nevertheless, in the pursuit of efficiency and thanks to Priscilla’s help he tinkered. For a moment he hesitated, spotting strips of wood criss-crossing the room. They were barely visible through the swarming insects, but they created an internal lattice and a potential inadvertent counter for his magic. If that stuff contained metal…

He focused on the closest section to determine its properties. The flies were so annoying it took a moment with his mind fraying under the effort of containing the spell to get a period with sufficient visibility for the electricity sense to work.

He almost collapsed in relief. Non-conductive they could be ignored. That left only the flies for him to factor in and all he could do there was to ensure that the first few dozen hit were destroyed with the minimal energy necessary to kill them and no more. He didn’t want to vaporise the entire body when he could get away with frying a brain. After that, the spell was beyond his ability to even influence, let alone control.

The power he had gathered was overwhelming. It resisted his control desperate to be released. There was no point attempting to stop it.

Daniel projected it out of him. His entire mana pool and everything from the artefact being released through the mass of insects to ground itself on the other side of the hollowed building. It arced away. A fractal expansion of light which was bright enough to sear the heavens. Daniel felt the latent heat. Sufficiently intense to burn his skin instantly. Layers were seared away from the exposed fist that held his club, with it being closest to the release point it was affected the most. While it was burnt almost down to the bone, his face only blistered. The electricity thicker than a tree trunk radiated out from the club. It split into two, four, a hundred different streams of electricity jumping from one fly to another.

Boom!

The thunderclap shook him physically as the air it displaced washed back onto them. Daniel staggered backward.

He couldn’t see a thing, completely blind.

The logical part of him knew he should have tried to protect his sight. An arm over his eye, but he had wanted to see. To experience what that much power actually looked like. It had been glorious and even though his magic had created it, watching that arcing lightning had been terrifying. A force of nature, not something mortals were supposed to be dabbling in. It could kill him as easily as his enemy. Still, it was worth it, both for the dead flies and for being able to witness the power.

Hands supported him and stopped him from falling. Ivey’s firmly on his arm, guiding him as the group turned and ran back the way they had come. He might have killed a thousand flies, but it would not put a dent in their numbers and humans, as fragile as they were needed to be behind defensive walls to stop an attack from something like a swarm of silver flies.

His eyes watered and bright coloured patches danced in his vision, robbing him of sight. But through those rapid blinks, he could see the flash of lightning other than his own as Tamara and Libba both started casting their smaller lightning bolts to clear out the flies that got in the way. Then the light changed and there was the sound of a door slamming shut.

They were back in the stairwell. Thanks to Ivey’s healing as they had run his ears were fixed even if his eyes remained useless and his hand still ached.

There was a sound of objects thumping against the door, but one of the tanks must have used some ability to reinforce it because nothing got through.

“It would have been good to have when we were fighting zombies.” Daniel pointed at the guy who was stopping the door from being broken. He could remember that first day and the ferals effortlessly going through the doors he had hoped would provide protection.

“He wasn’t around.” Alex told him, slapping him on the back. “We just picked him up this morning. Through the spell is common enough. We’ve got four people with the ability.”

The bald man, the tank gave him a thumbs up. It did not look like it was taking much energy to reinforce the door. “This kept me alive. But you guys saved me. I didn’t have any good offensive skills.” He shrugged. “At least it’s niche useful now.”

“It is, and it’s common because it was a damn practical skill to have when monsters are trying to get into the bathroom you are hiding in so people with that power survived while others who presumably went a more offensive route.”

Daniel’s mana regenerated.

The door was splintered enough for them to see that the landing area immediately outside the stairwell was filled with files.

“We’ll open the door a crack and you’ll fire.”

Daniel barely controlled the blast and only used twenty percent of his mana. They watched the response. The flies were replaced within twenty seconds.

“Again.”

It was the same result.

“At least we don’t have to chase them down.” Alex joked.

From the door and the surrounding concrete, there were regular thumps.

“You got that, Toby?” Alex thumped the bald man on his back.

Toby’s eyes were looking strained. “For the time being.”

The thumping stopped.

Since their first foray out and the massive lightning bolt, the beating from the flies trying to get in had been constant. “What do you think’s happening?” Daniel asked.

They all looked at each other.

Worriedly! Daniel noticed like they knew the answer and weren’t brave enough to speak it. He wished he had taken the time to get the full briefing on what these things were capable of.

“Another enemy?” Toby offered.

“It’s food time?” Lynette, a female tank, suggested.

“The Queen told them to stop.”

There was dead silence, and everyone turned to look at Tamara.

She smacked her forehead in response. “Sorry I shouldn’t have vocalised that.”

Everyone looked at each other, concerned. Alex bit his lip with worry. “As much as I didn’t want to consider it, that actually seemed almost likely.”

“It was very sudden.” Toby agreed.

“From what Richard said only a queen can change their behaviour.” Alex stated finally. “This.” He glared at the door and there were no thumps. “Confirms a queen.”

“Are you sure?” Tamara asked.

Alex nodded grimly. “And if there’s a queen here. We’re going to have to finish it tonight.”

“Why?” Daniel asked, even if he knew he wasn’t about to appreciate the answer.

Alex chuckled darkly. “Remember, my damage scale? If an old queen is a nine, a new queen is only a seven. Even if we’re almost a kilometre away, we don’t want to contend with a nine. Tell us when you’re charged.” Alex finished, looking straight at Daniel. “This is not over.”