Chapter Thirty-Four

Overclock’s mouth moved, but I couldn’t hear a thing. Just ringing. We weren’t far enough away from the anti-tank gun–or its crazy owner! There wasn’t even anything to shoot!

“...your volume until your hearing recovers, then shielding your ears, Luciole,” Bentley said calmly. “You should relocate further from the gun. If it goes off again while your hearing is amplified, it could cause real damage.”

I nodded. Overclock’s voice started to punch through the ringing. “...away from the surplus shop, Girls! Away from it!”

We retreated around the corner. As we went, my augment filled up with a message. “Why the mission menu, Bentley?” I whispered.

Mission Menu

Mission

Difficulty

Status

Rewards

Priority: Civilian Shelter

Easy Cheese

Complete?

1 Exp.

Security Patrol

Challenging

In Progress

2 Exp., 1 point in Vit.

Priority: Prestige Defense

Challenging

Accept?

1 Exp., 1 Spell Refresh

“Most shelters in town are filling up–including the Tower 21 shelter, thanks to the message. But the Prestige building has to stay open longer to pick up stragglers. The rest of the town is likely fine, and HANAF forces are on the way to support you, but the Prestige shelter needs defending,” Bentley said.

I looked at the other Girls. Li Mei stared into space as she listened to Charlie, and Sam nodded as Connor talked to her. Overclock cleared her throat. “Okay, team. I’m taking Sam to round up civilians. Li Mei and Luciole, keep the Prestige building clear.”

“Complete, Accept!” I said. “Got it, Overclock.”

The other girls accepted their missions, and Li Mei raised her hand. Overclock nodded. “What?”

“Since you’re looking for civilians, shouldn’t I go with you?” Li Mei asked. “I probably have more offense power than you or Sam. It’d be easy for me to break stuff.”

“We don’t need to break stuff, though,” Overclock said. “We need to keep people safe, and Sam’s powers are better for that. You and Luciole have a lot of damage, and you have to keep the shelter entry cleared of Macks. Sam, let’s go.”

Sam and Overclock ran off. I watched–she’d never used that speed at West End, and part of me wondered why. Another part answered. It was because of me. I’d been slow and didn’t know what I was doing. I hadn’t really been ready to be a Magical Girl. But I was now. Maybe.

“Okay, Li Mei,” I said while we jogged down the street. Behind us, the anti-tank rifle fired again, an ear-splitting crash that shattered any windows the first shot hadn’t. “Do you think he’s shooting at anything?”

“I don’t know,” Li Mei said, shrugging. “He may just be shooting. He probably used to be an American.”

She picked up the pace. “Let’s hurry. The Macks will be here any second, and the shelter’s waiting.”

We ran east, away from the towers and toward a white building near Sooke’s bay. A hotel from before Haven was a bastion city, its windows had, somehow, been kept intact through all the Emergences. That surprised me–they were low to the ground and huge. Or maybe, I thought as we got closer, they weren’t intact. Perhaps they were just being replaced all the time. Imports from Catalina, or further south? The place was fancy.

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They even had palm trees.

I shook my head. I didn’t have time to think about why a hotel on Vancouver Island had palm trees in its courtyard. There was a job to do!

“Bentley, where’s the shelter located?”

“According to the map, it’s in the pool. It was a pre-dug hole, so it became the shelter’s entrance. Go in the main doors, take a left at the counter, then another left down the hall. I’ll see about making sure the door is open.”

“Thanks, Bentley,” I said. We ran inside. People in fancy dark-blue uniforms–the hotel staff, I assumed–waved people down the left hallway. A red-headed woman a few years older than me looked up, started waving, and froze. “Hey, boss, there’s some Magical Girls here! We’re safe!”

A bald man, maybe as old as my dad, looked up from behind the concierge’s counter and wiped the sweat from his brow. He adjusted his bow tie. “I’m not ‘boss,’ Rebecca. I’m ‘sir’ or ‘Mr. Allen.’”

He turned to us as the woman rolled her eyes. “Tell me the bad news. How much time do we have? Can we start shutting the shelter?”

Li Mei glanced at me. Clearly, I was supposed to be doing the talking. “I’m Magical Girl Luciole, and this is Magical Girl Li Mei. We haven’t seen any Macks yet, but the warning was for an active Emergence. That, uh, is different than my other experience with them, so–”

“Can we close the shelter, Miss Luciole?” I caught his barely-suppressed eye roll as he interrupted.

I paused, taken aback. Li Mei jumped in, though, saving from having to think of a response. “The other two Girls on our team are searching Sook for civilians. The plan is to bring them here and get them in the shelter before it closes. If it’s closed, Overclock and Sam will be stuck out here with people who need help. That’s not okay, Mr. Allen.” She glared at him until he broke eye contact.

“Charlie, how long until Overclock and Sam finish their search?” She held her hand to her ear for a moment. “Thanks. Mr. Allen, they estimate ten to fifteen minutes. Charlie said they’re grouping them up a few blocks from the waterfront to take back in a group.”

I nodded. “Is your hotel clear?”

The windows rattled as the anti-tank rifle fired again.

Mr. Allen glanced down, away from me. “We’re…just waiting on a few stragglers. They should be down soon. But the alert just went out, so they’re out of time.” His gaze drifted over to the left hallway.

I held up a hand and Magical Girl posed as confidently as possible. “No. Li Mei and I will keep you all safe. You keep getting people inside and close the shelter after Overclock comes back. Li Mei and I haven’t ever failed before. You can count on us.” I turned and strode toward the door before he could say something I’d have to answer. Like asking how many times we’d fought or why Li Mei was a white Magical Girl. Neither of those questions had good answers.

“Hey, Miss Luciole! Thanks for being here,” the red-headed woman said.

I waved at her as we walked down the atrium.

A scream from the hotel’s south side caught our attention. We ran through the door and saw someone sprinting toward us from the waterfront. As we reached each other, the person put his hands on his knees, breathing hard.

“They’re on…Whiffen Spit!” He panted. Then he pointed back behind him, finger shaking.

“Okay, sir, just get inside. We’ll take care of the Macks,” Li Mei assured him. She went to pat him on the back, then stopped and glanced meaningfully at me.

I did it instead–a couple quick thumps. “The shelter inside is open until the rest of our team gets back from clearing Sooke. Li Mei and I can take a look at the…spit, you said?”

“Yeah, there’s big ones out there! They’re not acting like the survival guide said they would!” He nodded, pushed himself back upright, and jogged inside.

I didn’t want to go look. Whatever the spit was, it’d only remind me of West End. Li Mei’s brow wrinkled as she looked at my face.

She stepped toward the south. “Come on, Luciole. We need to know what’s coming. You’re not alone.”

I followed her reluctantly. We rounded the building and passed an old, mossy sign that said ‘Whale Watching.’ We strode out onto the dock. Staring out across the shimmering water and past the tree-lined shore, I could see the narrow strip of land we’d flown over just an hour before. Or was it two?

“Oh.” Li Mei murmured. “Oh, shit.”

A narrow spit of land reached from our side of Sooke almost to the east shore. A few trees dotted the sandy bar, and a path ran to some sort of building. It looked picturesque, but something else occupied Whiffin Spit. I wasn’t sure what, but I had a pretty good idea. “Bentley, can this optical aug zoom in at all?”

“Working on it. Downloading patches–you Magical Girls are lucky. Everyone else gets cut off from nonemergency tech when there’s an Emergence. Aaand, there you go.”

My vision popped, and a moment later, I nodded. “Oh, shit,” I echoed Li Mei.

Macks had started moving down the spit toward Sooke. Type Ones crawled along on their six spiked legs, and several Type Fours also strode forward. Worse, though, were the four Type Twenty-Eights sitting on the narrowest part of the spit. Their barrels pointed toward town, and though they weren’t shooting, no one was making it down the spit while they covered it.

The anti-tank rifle fired again. I saw the shot slam into the spit’s sand this time, kicking up dust. When it cleared, I looked for what the shooter was trying to hit.

When I saw it, I had to repeat myself. “Oh, shit!”

Near the building, two of the same Macks–Type Twenty-Ones–that Overclock and I had struggled with so much against at West End High had dug in near the spit’s end. As I watched, a machine crawled out of the closer one’s pit and started moving up the spit.

Between them stood a small figure. It moved like a person but faster. Whoever it was strode around the spit’s head, occasionally stopping as if to watch something. Or listen for something. I tried to see who it was–who’d be crazy enough to walk past two Type Twenty-Ones? But it was too far.

“Bentley, can you see what’s going on over there?” I asked.

“Just a second,” Bentley whispered. I waited, staring. The person ran around the island again, then approached the weevil-gun Macks. It put a hand on one’s back. Whoever it was, they weren’t on our side.

“Luciole, get inside, now!” Bentley whispered urgently. Li Mei was already moving back along the docks, and I followed her to the Prestige building. As we went, I glanced back over my shoulder anxiously. Was the person staring at me?

As soon as the door closed, Bentley started talking. “This is classified. Very, very classified. The rest of the team is on its way. But SHOCKS Headquarters is losing its mind. We think we know what that was.”

“What?” My chest tightened as I waited for his reply.

“We think it’s a Magical Girl.”