I think…I think they’ve already won…

The long drive from the Vermont Farm to New Technopolis was blessedly uneventful, but Vincent still found himself near-panic with every bump and shake of the harvester. Danny had to reassure him when they moved from regular roads to the speedway. The powered magnetic transit system had existed when Vincent was young, but he had no memory of using it back then…and he hadn’t left the farm in twelve years.

There was also the matter of the distraction. Vincent was relatively confident it would work as planned, but he had to admit to himself that there was more room for failure than he’d have liked. The large transport vehicle they’d seen should be ahead of them, and Vincent’s imagination attributed every bump and jostle to the vehicle crashing into them.

Thankfully Danny was proven right, and no one seemed particularly interested in lengthy conversations this early in the morning. Emi and Lucia were still huddled together and ignored, and even Eric Palmer wasn’t bothering anyone for once. Still, Vincent kept his head down and had to stop himself from counting the minutes.

At last he felt another shake as the harvester detached from the magnetic rail of the speedway, beginning the final stretch of the journey into the city itself. “We’re about fifteen minutes out,” Danny whispered. Vincent nodded, trying to ignore the adrenaline pumping through him as if he were running for his life. Which he essentially was.

At last the truck slowly ground to a halt, and the crew all tensed at once. A few minutes later the heavy doors creaked on their hinges as the guards pulled them open. Vincent reflexively raised an arm to hide his face inside the hazmat suit, but he needn’t have bothered. The eerie green light of a Radstorm flooded in, obscuring them all.

“Aright, everyone out!” the guard shouted, and the crew obligingly started hopping down onto the cracked asphalt that belonged to some forgotten street in New Technopolis. The other students moved more slowly, as Vincent and his friends had agreed to rush to grab their equipment and distance themselves as quickly as they could.

Vincent had wondered how he’d feel seeing the city again. He’d only been five years old when he’d been here last, but on some level it was still home. As it turned out, there wasn’t really any opportunity for nostalgia. The Radstorm was so thick that he could only see a few feet in front of himself clearly, and the vague onlines of some long abandoned cars wasn’t enough to trigger any distant recollections.

Not certain if he should feel disappointed or not, Vincent followed Danny to the compartment on the truck that housed the Alpha collectors. The three newcomers followed Danny’s lead in strapping them on their backs, then attaching the vacuum-like wands to their arms. They were already shuffling away when the other students started grabbing their own.

The guards had spread out to form their perimeter, and Danny led the small group to a central location, where they could safely whisper for a few moments. “Okay,” he said, “this was as far as we got with planning.” The group pointedly looked at Vincent, but he was staring back at the line of trucks.

“I have the supplies tucked under the wheel-well,” Danny continued, “what do we do now?” Finally Vincent turned back.

“The timing won’t be precise; we’ll just have to wait,” Vincent whispered to the group. “For now, we do our jobs, but don’t get too close to the transport vehicle,” he warned.

Emi put her hands on her hips, “After all this, if you planted a bomb, I’m gonna be pissed.” Vincent’s reply was cut off as the silhouette of Captain Donovan started heading toward them.

“Danny, try to stay close to the supplies, everyone else, don’t get too far from the truck either. That’ll be the easiest place to escape from. Move!” he whispered hurriedly.

“What the hell is this? Get to work!” Donovan shouted as he neared their group, and the crew scrambled off in different directions. As Vincent put some distance between himself and the others, he looked down at the gauge on his arm as Danny had taught them, and began looking for dense clouds of Alpha.

In truth, he wished he had more surety in the timing of the distraction he’d arranged, but at this point he’d done everything he could. All that was left was waiting.

***

Vincent had slowly gotten lost in the repetitive work of vacuuming up Alpha and then trudging back to the storage tank on the harvester to deposit it. More than an hour had passed, and anxiety and boredom now warred within him. It was still undeniably stressful, but the work required just enough movement and concentration that he was occasionally able to forget that he was waiting for the biggest moment of his life.

He had to remind himself to follow his own instructions, and keep within the general area surrounding the transport vehicle. It wasn’t easy as he could barely see its massive looming shape when he was more than a dozen paces away, but he slowly developed an intuitive sense of where he was in relation to it.

He only truly let his mind wander when he neared an old brownstone. It was in remarkably good condition given how long ago it had likely been abandoned. The brick had lost any sense of its original coloring after years of exposure to the Radstorms, but the building was still familiar enough to finally spark something in Vincent’s mind.

His family hadn’t spent all of their time with the Cult of the Mind, though it had felt like it to a small, bored child. Most of Vincent’s memories of his father were actually from a home not unlike the one he was now in front of. There was discarded trash all around the entrance, and boards on the windows, but Vincent could still remember walking up similar concrete steps, his father waiting for him inside.

A dull thump echoed through the streets, and Vincent whirled around in the transport truck’s direction. His reverie was instantly forgotten as the sound repeated, and he could hear muttering from an unseen guard nearby. At some point he’d lost track of the crew, but he knew they’d be waiting for a sign as desperately as he was.

Vincent moved back toward the line of trucks at an even pace, not wanting to draw attention. There were three vehicles, all lined up along the street. There were two harvesters bookending the third, one for the other eight students somewhere slightly to the North, while Danny’s group was deployed to the South. In the center, was the massive steel block atop the transport vehicle, still chained to the truck bed, but with a growing crowd of guards surrounding it.

Vincent noticed a tall student in a hazmat suit loitering near their harvester, and gave a relieved nod at Danny. As he got closer, he was able to make out a heated conversation between Captain Donovan and the other guards. “...telling you it’s not possible,” he said.

“We all heard it!” a guard insisted.

“Then start looking for Beta addicts screwing with us! They’re probably trying to draw us away from the kids so they can get their disgusting hands on some Alpha!” Captain Donovan shot back.

“I know what I heard,” the guard muttered unhappily, and the Captain sighed loudly, putting his hands on his hips.

“You have any idea how many of these transports I’ve done over the years?” he said tiredly. “If you saw what they did to prepare for these things you wouldn’t be asking stupid questions. You’d be finding the braindead junky who’s outsmarting you by throwing stones!”

The guards looked suitably dressed down by the tirade, and they began to disperse, weapons raised. Vincent hastily made himself look busy, glancing pointedly down at his gauge. The guards only managed a few more steps, however, before another thud rang out. This time the whole steel box shook, and the chains holding it jingled slightly.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

“Beta-head must have thrown a pretty damn big stone that time,” a guard shouted sarcastically, but the Captain didn’t answer. He had his weapon raised, and was slowly approaching the truck.

“Check the chains,” he said in a quiet voice, and a few guards rushed to obey.

“Secure!” came several calls almost at once.

Captain Donovan stayed a half dozen paces from the truck, shaking his head. “Shouldn’t be able to move…” he muttered. “Gamma starved and comatose, that’s how this works,” he said, licking his lips. “Alright, we need to form a smaller perim–” he was cut off as an enormous crash sounded, and the steel box suddenly warped from a tremendous blow from within.

“Guards!” Captain Donovan shouted, terror in his voice. “I need everyone, now!” His words were punctuated by another impact. This time, the entire steel wall of the box–nearly a foot thick–came flying off, crashing into a car on the opposite side of the street.

“Oh shit…” the Captain said in disbelief. “Open fire!” he called, and from the dense green fog a dozen rifles lit up as they began blasting with no restraint at the dark interior of the box.

This is it, Vincent thought, looking around for the crew. Danny was rapidly looking back and forth between him and the broken steel box, and Vincent gave a quick thumbs up. The tall student immediately ducked down and started retrieving their supplies, but that still left Emi and Lucia, and Vincent could only hope they were somewhere safe.

He looked back at the broken box, just in time to see an enormous hand reach out and grip the edge. It was bloodied from the impact of the bullets, but the wounds looked superficial, and a moment later a gigantic, disproportionate body joined it.

A horrible scream, half growl, half wail of pain echoed through the street, as Robert “Berserker Bob” Haufman flung his almost eight foot frame out of the tiny cell. He slammed into the nearest guard, crushing the man into the pavement, before standing up to his full height. He tilted his head back and roared once again.

Some of the guards were backing away in fear, their weapons forgotten, and Vincent considered that Robert truly looked monstrous at the moment. His Manifestation still hadn’t stabilized, and one arm was far larger than the other, with back muscles jutting out in disturbing ways. He was even larger than that day in the library, what felt like a lifetime ago.

Beyond that, his black hair and bare chest were covered in his own blood, and he was clearly enraged. Robert began leaping from guard to guard, grabbing them by any body part he could reach, and hurling them like limp dolls around the street. The guards were all Basics, with strength only a little beyond Adepts, and they proved entirely unprepared for the relentless onslaught of the Berserker.

Vincent found himself unable to take his eyes from the horrifying, but admittedly impressive display. The Captain had been right, of course. Students being transported from Last Chance Row would normally be comatose from being denied Gamma after a forced Manifestation–their bodies were so reliant on it from the years of injections that they shut down if it was removed suddenly.

Thankfully, Vincent had been able to dump several months worth of doses into Robert’s cell when he’d broken into the high-security building all those nights ago. It had clearly done its job, and the distraction was working better than he’d hoped. Danny rushed up next to him, as several more guards charged past.

“Berserker Bob is your distraction?!” he said far too loudly. “How the hell did you pull this off?” Vincent glanced at his friend, confirming he had the supplies.

“Later; we need to find Emi and Lucia and get out of here. Bob isn’t immortal, just powerful and angry,” Vincent replied.

Danny pointed to the North, “I saw them tucked behind a car over there, let’s do this!” He began racing off in that direction, thankfully not standing out among the chaos that Robert was causing. There were numerous guards now struggling to keep out of his impressive reach, and more than one had broken bones or even more severe injuries. Most would survive though, as long as Robert didn’t take things too far.

Vincent noticed a few of the other students had gathered to watch the display, as foolish as that seemed. He considered that they didn’t have much choice though, as the ‘safety’ of the guard’s perimeter was disappearing, and their harnesses were still rigged to explode.

He and Danny reached an abandoned car that looked like it may have been red a few decades ago, and relief flowed over him as he saw two students huddling on the other side. “It’s us!” Danny called out as they squeezed up against the two.

“Us too,” Lucia said, as their faces were still hard to see. “This is your distraction?” she said to Vincent, echoing Danny’s words.

“Why didn’t you just tell us?” Emi asked, though she seemed more excited than angry.

“Later,” Vincent said again, popping his head back up to survey the scene. He needed to count the guards in order to estimate the current state of the perimeter. Two down, Two engaged directly with Robert, and seven–no, eight firing at him every chance they get. Vincent knew there were sixteen guards total, and with the twelve here that left four unaccounted for.

As he watched, guard thirteen made himself known, as Captain Donovan crashed into Robert from above. Vincent’s eyes widened as Robert was forced back, taking strike after precise strike from the diminutive, yet clearly skilled Captain. “There’s no way he’s a Basic,” he said in disbelief as the man dodged and struck with remarkable speed and strength.

Vincent ducked back down. “The entire perimeter has three guards at most,” he said, looking at his frightened but excited crew. “This is our chance, there’s an alleyway just to the South of here.”

Emi was still watching the wild battle at the trucks, “I have to hand it to you, Villari, maybe we didn’t need a bomb. I’m not convinced this is less deadly, though.”

Vincent glanced back to see Robert in the middle of a brutal counter attack, swatting down the other guards when he couldn’t catch Captain Donovan. “Robert isn’t trying to kill anyone,” Vincent said. “People shouldn’t have to die just so we can escape–which we should be doing right now.” The others nodded and Emi turned from the fight.

“Okay, I’ll lead the way,” Vincent said, then began moving back around the ruined car. He went slowly, eyes on the guards who were continually repositioning for clear shots on the wild Berserker. Fortunately none turned their way, clearly more interested in avoiding sharing the fate of their many injured comrades.

Vincent and the crew were nearly at the mouth of the alleyway when they heard Robert unleash another furious howl. None of them could resist looking back, their curiosity too strong. The Captain had somehow managed to jump onto the giant’s back, and had one arm wrapped around Robert’s neck, while another slashed and stabbed with a knife.

Berserker Bob was living up to his name, however, as his rage and madness was clearly growing with every shallow wound–the knife barely able to penetrate his thick skin. The Captain was struggling to hold on, stab, and dodge attacks at the same time, and finally his luck ran out when Robert managed to wrap a gargantuan hand around his forearm.

The knife clattered to the ground, but the giant was far from done. He ripped the Captain off of his back, then with terrifying strength he hurled the man away from him. Captain Donovan went soaring across the street, easily thirty feet without any loss of momentum. His flight came to a sudden and dramatic end when he crashed directly into the harvester they’d arrived in.

Vincent’s jaw dropped as the fog cleared just enough to give a complete view of what had happened. The Captain had been thrown through the Alpha storage cylinder, which was now in absolute ruins.

The Alpha collectors the students wore absorbed the particles from the air and liquified them, and that solution was then transferred to the storage cylinder. Eight people collecting for over an hour was less than a quarter of what the tank could hold, but it was still many gallons of concentrated Alpha, all of which were now spilling onto the streets.

“This may be a problem,” Vincent said.

“What, why?” Lucia asked. “The Captain was probably the only one with the authority to send guards after us. Isn’t this a good thing?”

“Not that. Not him,” Danny said, fear making his voice quiver. “It’s the Alpha, it’s everywhere,” he finished.

“So what? We’re leaving!” Emi said, still not understanding.

“You don’t get it,” Vincent said. “The guard perimeter isn’t for the students. The explosives are enough for that.” Strange sounds started coming from every direction, and the crew began whipping their heads around, looking for the source.

Whispers, groans, and manic laughter echoed all around them. “Oh shit,” Danny muttered, backing away from the alley. “They’re everywhere! We’re surrounded!” Like a tidal wave, Danny’s words were proven true, as disturbing figures began rushing into the street. They wore ruined, mismatched clothing, and they snarled like animals, some even moving on all fours. They could smell the Alpha, and to them it was the feast of a lifetime.

The Beta addicts had arrived.