Alice spun the contraption around in her hand inspecting every portion of it. It was difficult to do with little to no light in the room other than the faint blue coming from the device every so often.
She took her red tinted flashlight and shone it on the orb. It had wiring and machinery on the inside but the entirety of the othside was a solid coat of transparent material. It looked like there were two small metallic bits opposite of one another on the sphere, possibly for charging it? Whatever use other than to keep the Splicer away she was unsure.
There was machinery on the inside of the case as well. It looked like the sphere was hooked up to something. Some sort of battery or power supply. Whatever it was it clearly ran out at some point and the sphere was currently running on fumes. The blue light pulsed again, noticeably dimmer. The Strider seemed to recognise this as it took a small “step” forward. In reality it just kind of shifted in space. The bottoms of its legs melded directly into the ground like it was water.
Alice took a step back and the Strider took one forward. She did hear a slight sizzling noise as a portion of the black webbing crossed into the radius of the heart. That gave her an idea. She waited for the blue light to pulse once more then she dashed forward towards the Strider. Not trying to get too close, the thing could still probably kill her with as little as a thought. This heart contraption was the only thing keeping her alive right now.
The strider tried to move in tandem with Alice but it was just a hair too late. It made a gut wrenching high pitched scream and reared back onto its back legs. Alice could smell the burnt flesh through her respirator. She smiled at the thought of her new toy until she heard the screams that responded. Her face went cold when she realized what she just did.
Red eyes began to illuminate the room, small glowing portals to hell blinking into existence one by one at an alarming rate. She counted five, ten, twenty sets and counting as she spun around. Each and every one of the shades that were in the room simultaneously began their death wail. Alice saw the Strider realize at approximately the same time how bad their situation was. It turned and began to glide along the floor towards the stairwell exit. Thankfully that seemed to gain the Shade’s attention for now.
Alice had to think quickly, the Shades were after the Strider but they would probably only last a few seconds against this many Shades. She heard a hiss come from behind her and she spun around. One of the Shades had decided to come towards her instead. It had infiltrated the barrier that the heart contraption created. The Shade pulled back, the black mist that normally coated its body had all but vanished revealing the skeletal ash skinned body underneath. It had cinders glowing in the dark from where its flesh had begun to burn. Slowly the mist returned to its form after leaving the radius of the heart.
Alice noticed that the radius had become significantly smaller over the past few minutes. She could hear the screams of pain from the Strider as the Shades let into it with their sharp claws and razor teeth. She didn’t have much time left. She had to act now or she would end up like the Strider. She stuffed the sphere into her pack then checked her weapons. The M4 was loaded and ready to fire. Her carbine that she brought with her had a couple shots left in it, that would be the last one she used as it was under the new rifle on her back. She chambered a round into her handgun then reholstered it. And finally, her new big toy. The six round cylinder grenade launcher had three explosives, two flash bangs, and a smoke grenade loaded. She had a plan. It was risky but it was better than sitting and waiting for the barrier on this heart thing to go out and get ripped apart by the Shades.
Alice put a pair of earplugs in and turned the grenade launcher cylinder to a flashbang. The screams from the Shades and dying Strider were bad but explosives and enclosed spaces don’t normally go well together. She aimed the launcher towards where she knew the stairwell was and fired. This is gonna suck. Normally you would want to close your eyes before a bright flash went off in front of them. Sadly that wasn’t something Alice could afford. She knew roughly where the stairwell was but in order for her plan to work she needed to know Exactly where it was. A second after firing the flashbang hit the far wall and went off.
The light of a thousand suns went directly into Alice's retina, but she knew where the stairwell was now. She couldn’t help but notice the absolute frenzy that was occurring twenty or so feet from it. The Strider was shredded open, a pool of blood and entrails covered most of the ground in front of the stairs. Shades were tearing into what was left of the thing. Some ate but some looked like they were just enjoying the frenzy. The bang portion of the grenade hit Alice next, a wave of air pressure and a muffled explosion. She thanked herself for prepping earplugs first.
Stars danced in her vision for what felt like ages afterwards. She had to move fast but face planting fast sounded worse. She rotated the cylinder on the launcher until it was at the first explosive round and prepared herself for stage two of her plan. She got down as low to the ground as she dared and brought the launcher up facing the stairwell. She had to be able to move as soon as the grenade went off, she couldn’t afford to be knocked back by the pressure change. Once she felt like she had sufficiently recovered from the flash she readied her flashlight in her right hand under the foregrip and pulled the trigger twice.
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
One of the grenades found its mark right in the middle of the pack of glowing red eyes. Their skeletal frames created what looked like stick drawing as their black mist was blown away in the explosion. There had to be at least fifteen of them within the blast radius. The second shot found its mark just short of the wall leading into the stairwell. Alice was planning on taking out the entire wall but she figured she could settle for half. She braced for the pressure wave and was greeted with far more force than she anticipated. She fell onto her back and stayed there for a few seconds. Even with earplugs she felt her ears pop and fill with white noise.
As fast as she could, Alice got back up on her feet and survived the damage. She didn’t care about attracting the Shades at this point. She turned on her flashlight and started running towards the collapsing stairwell wall. As she started to pick up speed she could hear the screams of nearby Shades start back up. Not all of them got caught in the explosions it would seem. Alice picked up on at least four distinct screams.
She rounded the charred remains of the Strider and at least a dozen dead Shades. As she did so, a straggling Shade lunged out at her but was repelled by the heart's barrier. It was significantly weaker now, the Shade got within three feet of Alice before it pulled away. She blasted it square in the face with the M4 and kept moving. The other Shades were coming, there was not time to meander.
She spotted at least five more sets of glowing red eyes darting in her direction from all directions as she made the last dozen feet to the hole in the wall. It was small enough that she would have to crouch through it but because it landed so low the entire bottom half of the wall was gone. She continued running straight at the wall until she was close enough to drop down into a slide. She felt one her rifle catch on the ground as she did so it made the transition from room to stairwell extremely uncomfortable as the rifle strap nearly caught around her neck before she broke free.
She landed on her feet and almost slid off debris. She steadied herself with one hand on the metal railing of the stairs and pointed the M4 up towards the hole in the wall with the other. A Shade tried to crawl through the open hole but Alice stopped it with a couple of rounds to the head and torso. Shades were hard to hit sometimes, the black mist they gave off shrouded their true body size. It was easy to miss or graze them. Alice however didn’t have to do much aiming, the thing was practically touching the gun barrel when she fired. So much for the heart barrier I suppose. She blasted another Shade that tried to crawl around the body of the first one then started down the stairs. Anything in a mile radius or more just heard all that went on up there and was coming to check it out, she needed to be gone before they got there.
As she started down the stairs to the next floor down she could hear a couple of Shades enter the stairwell from up top, their screams echoing a thousand times in the enclosed space. An idea sparked in her mind as she got to the landing of the next floor. She opened the door instead of continuing down and sprinted down the hallway towards the stairwell on the opposite side of the building.
She made it about halfway down the hallway before she heard the stairwell door slam open and Shade death wails enter the hall. She spun around and raised her rifle, at least four of them had already poured through the door. She let go a few bursts of the M4 dropping three of them, they were replaced moments later by more coming through the door. Alice cursed fired off a few more rounds then turned to continue running.
Right before she hit the door she spun around once again to let out the rest of the M4 magazine. Only about half of it was left but that was enough to drop four more Shades. She could tell their numbers were dwindling but not by nearly enough.
She shouldered open the stairway door and saw exactly what she was planning on. A large red arrow pointed directly to the Stingray pod on the ceiling. Alice grabbed hold of the metal railing just before the Stingrays and flung herself over. Sure it was a one story drop but a sprained ankle was better than a severed jugular.
Right as she impacted with the ground feet first she bent her knees and twisted to the side to try to soften the landing. Normally she would try to roll to her back or towards but she couldn’t risk damaging the hard drives. Instead she felt a twinge in her ankle and a pop in her shoulder.
Trying to ignore the pain she twisted up to a seated position and reloaded the M4. Just as she chambered a new round she heard the upstairs door swing open. She aimed the M4 up directly at the Stingray pod and waited.
It worked out better than she could have asked for. The Shades ran straight through the pod without a single care for the tails. Shades got stupid when they went into a frenzy. It was a satisfying sight seeing the Shades that chased her all the way down here get eviscerated by the Stingrays. Each one torn a Shade apart limb from limb then brought the remains up to their mouths on the ceiling to eat.
She only had to shoot one shade that made its way partially through the pod. It was missing an arm and half of its face by the time it got close enough to shoot. Alice felt good about the outcome. It probably went about as good as can be expected. She took a minute to catch her breath then stood up to get out of there before the Shades on patrol showed up.
Limping out of the office building she could hear the death wails of the patrol Shades off in the distance. She guessed she had five minutes tops before they showed up. She hobbled her way down to her bike that she stowed in the alleyway and strapped her pack onto it. She checked the charge on it “Twenty percent” ~ten miles give or take. With one last look at the building she gave it a rude gesture then rode off.