ARC1/C2 – defense is the best form of… survival

Sam had to think, think, or be destroyed by this juggernaut that was steamrolling what had once been his city and, if he was not mistaken, the world.

Packs of multiverse mobs were the first wave, hitting his home ground – giant dog-like beasts, demonic in appearance – although Sam and the others hadn’t hung around long enough to take a really good look – unarmed and unprepared for such a fight.

Sam was just about to confirm it, but he thought that they had entered this realm via the strange structures that had appeared along with booming explosions throughout the City.

He had only heard four explosions – So four structures, he presumed. He didn’t like presuming anything, especially when he and the remainder of his family – sister and mother, depended on it.

But right now, he had to go on gut instinct to survive.

They were currently making their way along a boulevard, through the shopping district, towards the vast structure. As they got closer, Sam and the others saw that it was not the solid structure; it appeared to be from afar – for as the sun rose to near its zenith – he could make out buildings through its darkened interior.

As yet, he could see no other beasts exiting, although they didn’t have a perfect line of sight along the road. But wasn’t this an invasion? Shouldn’t they be flooded by an army of these things?

The tension in the air felt palpable to them all as they made their way ever closer toward the giant pyramid – this must be what people mean when they talk about the ‘sword of Damocles handing over their head, thought Sam.

As he jogged along, past shop after shop, under the hot sun, he tried to make sense of things by looking at them from the perspective of an incoming invasion force, and as he did, the past events started to make more sense.

They had clearly caught the Earthlings off guard – weakening Earth’s population through contamination by an otherworldly virus. This may have been an inevitable result of the merger, but they had used it strategically to their advantage.

Also, the human’s great bastion of civilization – technology was non-existent due to the city-wide electricity failure; again, this did not seem to be a coincidence. This left the population easy pickings for any invading force – completely unable to quickly regroup and react to the threat.

This would be the perfect time strategically to launch an all-out attack. So why hadn’t they?

They were no doubt a brutally efficient fighting force, battle-hardened troops, so he must be missing something.

As well, they seemed to have gathered a fair bit of tactical information about Earth – was this through surveillance or collusion? It didn’t really matter right now – he needed to focus on the here and now to survive.

They even seemed to have information on the geography of the city he was living in – as he was sure that the explosions he had heard were not random but from different central locations around the city, and he had a sneaking suspicion that they were located equidistant in a circular formation to trap the population or provide a base of operations.

The few that had entered fit the criteria for a fast-moving surveillance group – putting out feelers to check the strength of the humans. That meant as soon as it was confirmed that there was basically no defense at all as yet – the invasion proper would begin.

That’s why Sam needed to move as fast as possible within this ever-closing window of time. But first, he would need to put it to the group.

“Ok. We have two choices as I see it. Find a defensible position and be potentially swarmed or leave the city, and take our chances there with potentially little or no resources.” Said Sam, still trying to confirm in his mind if there were any other possibilities.

“I say we leave. There is nothing for us here. Not now.” Said Maria, casting her eyes back towards the tent city for a second before looking back again at the both of them.

“And what have we to lose?” she said, smiling.

This woman was a strange one, Sam thought – but the right kind of strange that might help them weather the storm that was coming their way with ever-increasing ferocity. They were lucky to have found her. She was young and athletic and, from what she had said, could use a firearm with some proficiency – he was moving like a slug in molasses – carrying his heavy backpack, mother, and ventilator, and his sister Sarah had not recovered sufficiently from her recent debilitating illness – she had the sickly pale of a vampire.

He turned to his sister for confirmation, and what she said next showed despite her appearance – she was already thinking – that was a good sign of her recovery and made Sam’s spirits rise – the fact that old gray cells were ticking over was truly a good sign.

“Let’s leave by the coast. As the next best option for transport is a bike, and I don’t see you carrying our mother on one of those.”

“Maria. You take point. Me and little sister here will bring up the rear.” Sam said, already starting off in the direction of the marina, his rucksack clunking as he went, filled to exploding with ammo cases, as he’d shoved in all that would fit.

“Ok. But I’m hitting the first convenience store we find to get some provisions.” Said Maria, now moving ahead of Sam at a slow jog, giving him a wink, her red hair framing her face as she passed by.

“I’ll try and pick up the pace. We have no idea how long before the main force decides to show up. So we need to get between the bay and that structure up ahead before then or will need a plan B,” said Sam, trying to keep his breathing regulated, but he knew he wouldn’t be able to keep it up for long, running in such an out of shape condition, carrying his mom and a heavy pack.

Sam had decided a straight line - the shortest distance between two points – was the way to go, passing the structure straight ahead. He had not, however, taken into account that the aforementioned structure had been the epic center of one of the blast waves – and cursed himself for this error in judgment. One mistake was all they needed right now to turn a bad situation into an untimely death for all of them.

As they drew ever nearer, the devastation the blast had wrought became blatantly obvious as the debris from the surrounding buildings increased dramatically – some buildings he could see in the distance had, in fact, been destroyed completely – their shells an empty carcass of brickwork and iron beams. Most of the glass and debris was blessedly at the sides of the street, allowing them to keep a steady pace up to that point.

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But he wasn’t going to make it. The monolithic structure was at least six blocks tall, rising to a pyramidal point – it was at least a kilometer away, and Maria was already starting to pull ahead.

Though Sam was to be saved the embarrassment of halting - a heaving mess on the sidewalk – as a series of howls rang out, and they instinctively, all halted, their mad dash, heads turning, in the direction of the sounds.

All too soon, they could see what the sounds had been emanating from – and it wasn’t the nice little doggies they had seen earlier. Sam could see even though they were currently a long way off, these were a different beast altogether – as they ran, he could see some were easily the height of a storefront window, their sheer black smooth carapaces reflective in the sunlight.

What were these things – they had the multi-legged body structure and gait of dogs rather than the beetles their outer shell-like skin made them resemble. As they ran, it could be seen that every part of them was covered in this shell, effectively making them armored – Sam wondered what caliber of bullets would be needed to penetrate that protective casing. And how, on earth, were they managing to keep that incredible speed, considering the weight – Sam’s mind was derailed as he realized he was wasting precious seconds and that the group needed to move or die.

Instinctively they ducked low, moving off the street – fortunately, the large chunks of masonry gave them temporary cover from the advancing beasts’ line of sight.

Had he been wrong about everything? Were they more surrounded than he thought? The enemy force is already holding more of the city than he thought. They would need to get to higher ground to check this out.

Observing a shop selling camping equipment, Sam made a break for cover, heading over, and placing his mother with his sister, so he and Maria could take out the last of the protruding glass that was blocking their entrance - with a few frantic hammers blows from the butt of his and Maria’s rifle, they were safely in.

Racing to the back of the shop, they broke through a door leading to an emergency fire escape; getting to the first-floor landing, they all collapsed – there was little possibility of being discovered there – the beasts were too gargantuan – unless, of course, they just broke through the wall – then they’d all be mincemeat in seconds, but best not to think about that.

Sarah heaved for breath, having had a turn at carrying her mother – falling to the ground and starting to cough violently, then jamming her hand over her own mouth to try and muffle the sound. While Sam lay on his back, sucking in air, pack unstrapped on the ground next to him, aiming his rifle haphazardly at the stairwell below. In contrast, Maria, the least winded by far of the three, sat on the stairs before she pointed upstairs - indicating that she wanted to investigate the rest of the building.

Sam just waved his hand in affirmation – looking around was a necessary endeavor in their current predicament, doubly so.

***

Looking at the walls of the structure – wary of a potential cave-in, Maria ventured stealthily through the building. She was keen to check for all exits. Also, she would take a peek to see what their new visitors were up to – from a distance, of course.

The next level of the stairwell opened onto the 2nd floor of the store – she glanced at the items within, clocking them for potential usefulness before moving by.

The previous owners of the store greeted her – their cadaverous faces twisted in a rictus of pain – a stark contrast to the showcase open-plan apartment space. She flinched, hearing the approaching, every fiber of her body tensing as like an express freight train, the beasts passed by.

This was truly a nightmare, Maria thought, but not one she could wake from. She took a shaky breath and moved on – she couldn’t break, not when there was so much to be done.

Finding a hanging lander; for the next floor up, she found herself up on the roof. Laying on her belly, she inched her way over to the edge of the tarmacked roof. Now, with a clear view down the road, she observed the beasts’ movements.

They were indeed converging on the alien structure – she guessed it was a pyramid shape.

She couldn’t decide what shape it was - it looked like maybe an octagonal-based pyramid – she squinted into the sun, noticing a feature on the pyramid they were all heading towards - something that was glinting. Giving her a headache, like a guy in her college class who always thought it funny to reflect light off his phone right into her eyes.

They disappeared into the – Octa-pyramid or whatever. Did these new ones eat the dog packs from earlier; maybe they did. What she did know was that the others needed to see this too.

As there was a noise like a load of marbles falling off a table – if that is, the marbles were the size of cars – it was a stampede – the beasts spewing out of the Octagonal Pyramid like a bubbling black liquid. Shit. Shit. Shit.

***

They heard the noise as the beasts passed by; Sam felt unnerved by the fact that these new beasts could probably leap the width of that plaza in a few bounds. And there was no way they’d have gotten away before.

Maria looked calm, too calm, as she came down the stairs. “They’re coming.” She said simply.

“Hundreds, possibly thousands of the dog beasts. We need to get your mother up to the roof.” She added before looking at Sarah.

“I’ll take her, you to catch up,” Sarah said, feeling for the cord connected to her mothers’ ventilator.

Sam looked at her, he didn’t think she was up for it, but on the other hand, he knew just how stubborn his sister could be and knew he could rely on her in a pinch.

While laying on his back, Sam had had a rare opportunity to think, and he was hoping.

“Ok. I’m going to take a look upstairs to see if they’ve got anything to use to block the fire exit.” He said as he got up.

Maria said, “I found something shiny,” as she smirked, making an unnecessarily good Jack Nicolson impression – she had axes.

They both set to work on the floorboards, on the first-floor landing and the sides of the stairs, taking them out to try and make the stairwell as impassable as possible.

***

Greg was on his third mission that day, hurrying through the mirror of Theta City, Bay Area, trying to meet his deadline. He was now so much more familiar with the layout of the City that he’d grown up in, both from his visits into the mirror realm and also from being drilled like a taxi driver as part of their team’s tactical training. He knew many of the larger buildings inside out, which had already saved his life a few times now.

Initially, the mirror realm had seemed like such a scary place, now however, to Greg, it just seemed more like a straightforward simulation. The only danger his team had come across so far, apart from the mobs, of course, was the entry to the mirror realm.

On entry via the mirror portal, as higher-ups had decided to call it, you were shown a view of the mirror-like surface reflection of the place you were about to visit. As long as all team members agreed on seeing the same thing before entry, there was no possibility of a split as far as they were aware. Splitting would mean you and one or more other team members would end up somewhere completely different. And understandably, this had ended badly for a few of the newest recruits.

It could also prove traumatic to end up in a scenario that was triggering for an individual due to the significance the place held for them. For example, Greg had heard of one guy who had ended up in the house he had last lived in when he was only five years of age. Being faced with mobs in a situation like that could not only cause the individual to freeze up, potentially killing them, but also could cause psychological trauma down the line. He knew his friend had been ok but had almost been jumped by a large number of mobs and was seriously shaken up by the whole ordeal.

As a result, it was standard protocol never to enter before all participants had identified and shared the location viewed and confirmed it was not a location of particular personal significance. Although obviously, this was not always possible as most of them were sent to a hometown or city they had in common.

Greg was hoping he wouldn’t need his newly upgraded ability

[Carapace of the beast: Significantly enhances physical defense and protects against piercing attacks

+15 to defense, nullifies all physical attacks from creatures below your level]

From the description, it should make him invincible to these mobs. But was he going to run straight into a heap of them shouting, “I am Turok!” or something similar asinine? No was the simple answer.

Weak as the beasts were, they still creeped him out. No skill he knew of could nullify creepiness.