Before we got moving again, I dumped my aluminum broom handle onto the cart. It had taken on a pretty serious bend at some point in the last fight, and I’d rather deal with the extra length and momentum of the heavier rebar than a bent weapon.

“Ah!” Kurt said, “So they are coming in handy!”

“Told you they’d be good as backup,” I panted, still catching my breath. “I thought rebar this size would weigh at least five pounds, but this is honestly still pretty light. More like two or three, I’d say.”

Kurt gave me a weird look. “Uh… I don’t think that’s true… Not the time, though. How’s your arm?”

I grimaced, poking at the cuts with my other hand. They were deeper than scrapes, and painful, but they didn't seem to be affecting my arm muscle. “Fine-ish. I can still fight. Anyone else hurt?”

“We’re okay,” JoeyT called. “You were a monster out there, dude. Did an ability teach you to fight like that?”

I shook my head. “Over a decade of martial arts experience.”

JoeyT looked crestfallen.

“I’d be happy to teach you,” I offered. “Even learning just a little footwork will help you out a ton.”

The stocky man nodded. He still looked troubled, but he hadn’t gotten to the top of the eSports world by being unwilling to work. “I’d like that.”

“First thing you’ll want to do is change your stance. You’re putting too much weight on your front foot, and that’s-”

Avalanche cleared her throat, interrupting me. “Uh, good info, but… later? I’d rather not fight that pack twice.”

“Oh. Right. Right.” I stepped to the front of the group.

“Classic Vince,” Davi said. I think it was meant to be a lighthearted jibe, but the strain in her voice made any humor fall flat.

We got moving, detouring slightly to head through the empty side of the parking lot. We had to fight another seven spacedogs on the way out of the area and across the road, including two that scrambled over the fence around the other building faster than squirrels.

They weren’t much of a threat to our group when they came one at a time. Avalanche and JoeyT could end a monster in a single blow from a sledgehammer, and I could do the same with my staff if I activated Powerful Blow. If we missed, Davi’s Force Shields kept us from taking injuries long enough for an ally to line up a second attack.

Byron and Twinkles threw out Fire Bolts and Ice Bolts respectively. Their missiles distracted and injured monsters, even if they never stopped them.

Only one able-bodied member of our caravan was conspicuously passive.

“Kurt!” I called out. “Don’t wuss out on me. You gotta hit the monsters to get more points and new abilities.”

“I know,” he muttered. “I know.” Even so, he didn’t move from his position near the cart.

I glared at him, but dropped it. This wasn’t the time or the place for an argument. Byron and Twinkles struggled to push the cart up over the curb of the road and onto the grass. I ran to help them. “JoeyT! Can you deal with the fence?”

“Let’s see,” he said gruffly. “Ramming Charge!”

The stocky young man charged up the hill, fearlessly hitting the barrier head-first at top speed.

He impacted with a jangling, crashing noise. The fence itself wasn’t knocked to the ground, but the restraints keeping it attached to the nearest post popped free, and the chain link panel sagged.

“Holy shit man! At least spin and take it on your shoulder!” Twinkles called.

If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

“I’m pretty sure you don’t need to yell the name out loud,” heckled Avalanche.

In spite of their mocking words, I hear their concern. JoeyT used the mangled fence to pull himself to his feet, but looked a little dazed. “It said ‘ram.’ Rams hit things with their heads. I think I almost got it. Let me try again.”

“Dude!” Twinkles yelled. “No. You’re gonna kill your last three brain cells.”

JoeyT seemed to ignore his teammates as he started another run, but he turned at the last second, hitting the fence with his shoulder rather than his skull. He impacted right next to another post, causing more connectors to snap. A thirty-foot section of fence hung loose, though the poles and barbed wire were still intact.

“Just stop,” Avalanche groaned. “We could have used the bolt cutters for this. You look dumb, not cool.”

JoeyT rolled off the sagging fence panel. “This was faster. I’m fine. And look, we can get over it now.”

I think 'fine' might have been stretching it, but he definitely looked better than I would have expected for someone who’d just broken a fence with his body. The ability he’d chosen seemed like a bad one to me - way too narrow of an application - but maybe that narrowness came with benefits that protected him when he used it.

It took a little finagling to get the cart over the fence. Davi got off for a minute and added her weight to JoeyT, Kurt, and my own along the top end of the fence, as Avalanche helped Byron and Twinkles push the cart over the flattened links.

“Do we head for the closer building?” Byron asked.

I looked up, considering. A large boxy structure was ahead to our left, another of the constellation of support and maintenance buildings that surrounded the airport proper. When we’d left, it had been the only destination we could see over the crest of the shallow hill. Now that we’d ascended the slope, we could see a much smaller building sat farther ahead to our right.

“No,” I said. “Look, you can see the tail of an airplane behind the big one. It’s probably something like a repair facility. The other place has windows on the second floor, so it’s at least part office building. There will be more people there.”

“We could still check the nearer building,” Avalanche said. “It’s on our way.”

Kurt looked like he was thinking about it.

Before he could respond, I pointed at the plane behind and said one word: “Hangar.”

Kurt flinched. Byron immediately pivoted the cart, surprising Twinkles.

Avalanche glanced from them to me. “What? What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

“I don’t want to see what’s in that building. If any of the doors were open, it’s probably pretty gruesome in there.” I turned my back to the group and started moving, eyes locked on a far-off spacedog. We’d be in its aggro range shortly, and I’d be ready to put it down as soon as it charged.

Behind me, I heard Kurt giving our TAF allies more detail. “When we made our way over from the other concourse, we went through the baggage tunnels, but to get back up to Concourse A, we had to make a short run through the hangar underneath. Monsters had gotten inside. It was… ugly.”

“As bad as the cars down the road from the airport?” Avalanche asked.

There was a moment’s quiet, then Davi spoke. “Bad in a different way. Lots of people dead both places. The people in the cars died slowly. The people in the hangar died quicker… but it looked like a pretty painful way to go.”

“Oh.” Avalanche’s response was muted.

No one asked any more questions.

We descended from the hill slowly and picked our way cautiously through the lot, giving the parked semi trucks as wide a berth as possible. We were attacked several times, but only by single monsters we had plenty of time to prepare for, with one exception.

There were no doors on the side of the building, so we made our way around to the front. As we passed near a small evergreen, I was watching the monsters in the field behind it. I could see several in the distance who hadn’t yet attacked. I thought we were out of their “range,” but I wasn’t completely certain, so I was keeping an eye on them.

The first warning I had that something was wrong was Kurt’s inarticulate yell of surprise. I spun to see him staggering, a monster perched across his right shoulder with its claws wrapped around his head.

I spun my staff, activating Powerful Blow as I hit the beast. It was knocked to the ground, but its claws raked Kurt’s face as it fell, tearing up furrows of skin across his forehead and cutting through his right eye. Kurt’s yell turned into a high-pitched moan of pain.

Avalanche dashed forward to crush the spacedog.

“What the hell? Where did it come from?” I spun in place, eyes darting around in case of other undetected monsters.

“I can’t see!” moaned Kurt. “I can’t see!”

“I think it came out of the tree,” Twinkles said. “It waited until we were close, I think. I only caught the end of its jump, but the angle…”

“We’ll figure it out later,” I said. “The front door’s right ahead. Let’s hope there are people inside who can help.”