They turned a hard left-up road that would lead to the quarry. A road that had been carved through the solid earth of a hill that loomed over the highway. Earth that was now held back by wire mesh bolted into stones embedded deep in that sod wall. Along the tops of these hills, lookouts turned their attention away from the chaos caused by the charging Seth and Fen, and to the approaching convoy. Alfredo pulled his head out and fired a couple of shots up and hit a man who fell back away from the embankments as Laura stomped on the gas pedal.
Alfredo ducked back as an arrow whizzed past his head and stuck into the ground. He turned his rifle toward the carved-out earth walls that surrounded the path up into the quarry and fired a few shots. The ratman archer jolted as the bullets tore through its body, and then fell forward into the mud fifteen feet below. Bullets skittered off the roof and smashed against the bulletproof windshield as readily as the droplets of rain.
Ernesto turned the M2 browning mounted on the back of the truck toward the embankments and let loose a volley of brass. The technical behind them followed the attack with one of its own along the embankment to our left as the drivers pushed forward. The machine gun’s fire offered a suppressing curtain to the climbing convoy as they caught up with Seth and Fen in the open clearing right before the dug-out granite pit.
The lookouts that had lined the earthen embankments turned to face them. Gunfire roared as bullets smashed against the metal hulls of the trucks. A dogman with a blade reached in through the driver’s side window and tried to stab the woman. She pulled the sawed-off shotgun from the center console and fired it into the creature’s face; blowing half of it off as it fell backward away from the truck. A bullet struck the steering wheel, and she ducked. Another bullet skittered off the shield around her body put there by Lawrence before they left.
“Cover! Get to cover!”
Alfredo hopped out of the passenger’s side door, and Laura climbed over toward it and slumped out as bullets splattered the dashboard and headrest of the driver’s side seat. One bullet hit her particularly hard in the shoulder, and that pushed her body forward and caused the shield around her shoulder to crack and shatter. She rolled into the mud, and clutched her left arm; blood pouring from the wound on her shoulder as she writhed around in the mud. Alfredo dragged her behind the front tire and took a kneeling position beside her.
An arrow pierced through the barrel of Ernesto’s gun, stilling it as the man fell backward into the mud. He scrambled to his feet and drew his sidearm from the holster at his side. A ratman from the left bank lifted his bow and pulled an arrow out of his quiver, but was stopped short as three shots from the revolver slammed into its body. It fell forward, as Ernesto scrambled beneath the car. The other tactical wasn’t as lucky. From his position, he could see the shattered windshield glass, and the silhouette of a body slumped over the steering wheel. The passenger and the woman who had been manning the machine gun were both ducked behind their vehicle; the woman clutching a trembling hand over a wound on her stomach; red blood leaking out from between her fingers, and the Repel falling away from her body like shattered glass.
Alfredo turned his gun down the left bank and opened fire, while the two U-haul trucks turned transports finally pulled up the steep incline and spun to provide cover to their flank. The back doors opened, and the rest of the militia poured out. The Efrans joined Seth and Fen holding back the flow of enemies coming up from the pit; covered by a large building where the staff would go to take their breaks on one side, and a heavy machinery elevator on the other.
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Using this opportunity, Alfredo ducked back into the truck and searched the crate on the floorboard for a potion and a pair of tweezers.
“Grit your teeth,” he told his friend’s wife as she pressed her back against the black tire.
She nodded as he pushed the silver-tipped tweezers into the wound on her arm and pulled out the brass shell. She screamed and cursed a little as the blood began flowing in earnest, and took the offered potion from Alfredo’s grasp. Alfredo examined the bullet; it was longer than the others being fired, and he could make out three faint letters over a circle on the bloodstained brass. -ther
Ernesto had crawled out from under the truck, and sprinted across the distance between the two tacticals with a potion he had stored in one of his pockets, as soon as he reached the dying woman, he pulled her hand away from her stomach and reached in with his fingers to fish out the bullet. The blood formed a crimson ring on her white tanktop as he felt around inside of the wound for a couple of incredibly painful moments. Her black eyes squeezed shut, and her thin, pale lips drew back in a pained hiss. Her normally dark skin was a shade paler, as the warmth began to fade from her body.
Once he found it, he poured half of the contents of the potion directly on the wound, before forcing the other half down the woman’s throat. She sputtered for a moment before silently thanking him with a small, sincere smile. It was the first time in his life that Ernesto felt his heart leap the way it just did upon seeing her smile like that
“Watch out!” Seth called from the catwalk that led down into the depths of the pit just as the last of the outlooks that had lined the embankments finally died.
A group of twenty or more dogmen, walking on thin air, rose from the depths of the quarry and split up to avoid grouping together as they fell upon the militia members taking cover by the U-haul. The Efrans helping Seth and Fen spun on their heel and charged toward the group as a melee broke out. One landed right in front of the passenger of the truck with the dead driver while he was scrambling to put another magazine into his rifle, before Ernesto could understand what was going on, the creature drew its shimmering saber and drove its point into the man’s heart. He sputtered for a moment before going still.
Ernesto turned his revolver toward the dogman and pulled the trigger. The dogman stepped out of the way of the bullet and stabbed forward with his sword. A blast of wind smashed into Ernesto’s hand and knocked his weapon out of his grasp. The dogman grasped its hand around the hilt of his sword and raised it above his head. Ernesto pulled a combat knife out from his belt and stabbed forward into the creature’s chest. It fell back and defended with its blade; parrying the dagger before sliding its weapon to slice through Ernesto’s knuckles. Before the blade made contact. He dropped his grasp stomped down on the creature’s lead foot, and shoved forward with his shoulder; throwing it off balance. It stumbled backward, and Ernesto took the opportunity to grab hold of the arm that held onto the sword and lock it in place with his elbow.
The dog-like creature caught its balance and lunged forward with its head. The best way to counter a headbutt, he learned through his years of backyard brawls, was with a headbutt of your own. Its head was as solid as a rock, but so was Ernesto’s. He stabbed forward again, this time making contact with the armpit of the creature’s locked arm.
The dogman roared and bit down on Ernesto’s shoulder. Its sharp teeth tore through the kevlar quickly sank into the flesh and latched on like a pitbull. If it weren’t for the Repel he would have lost his arm there. Now it fell from his shoulder where the dogman had latched on in shimmering shards as the dogman pressed the attack.
Ernesto let go of the arm and tried to pull the dogman’s head away from his shoulder before the sound of a gunshot rang out, and the back of the dogman’s head exploded. Alfredo stood to Ernesto’s right with Laura’s shotgun in his trembling grasp, and his rifle hanging by the sling. An open gash poured blood down his face as he looked at Ernesto.
“You alright?”
Ernesto’s shoulders rose up and down as he caught his breath.
“Yeah. Yeah. I’m alright.”
He reached down, pulled his revolver from the mud, and pulled the rifle out of the deadman’s grasp as the Efrans finished with the windwalkers as a deerman cleaved one of the dogmen in two.