Then
Nila was uncomfortable. Her makeshift armored jacket and pants hung heavily off her slim, but strong body. She had taken the thin, but extra dense plates of metal that Remy had formed and pressed out of random scraps and sewed them into the heavy duty fabric of the looted work clothes. It wasn’t perfect. It chafed in some parts and was making her sweat.
She was a lot stronger than she used to be before the stupidest apocalypse had happened. She did reps with weights that very strong men targeted as their one-rep max.
It was a good thing too, since she had around a hundred pounds of metal hanging off her and that wasn’t even counting her shield and new bat. Both were made by Remy out of random metal scraps. He had said that he based it off what he remembered of the Roman shield. It was rectangular, a smooth curved surface with a raised, conical bump in the center. It had both straps and a handle in the middle, so that she could hold it close to her body or use the central handle to punch out with the bump. The hunk of metal weighed close to seventy pounds. With her shorter stature the shield covered her entire body from neck to her shins.
The object in her right hand was another hunk of Remy-made metal. It was shaped like a baseball bat, except it had raised nubs all over the business end. The ugly thing weighed a more reasonable twenty pounds.
The thought seemed unreal to Nila. There she was carrying around two hundred pounds of metal and the sweat running down her back wasn’t from the physical exertion. She was running around fine with it all just a few minutes ago.
No. It was from the scary gremlins pouring through the partially collapsed barricade and charging directly at her.
“Get back to the next barricade!”
Nila’s voice was a mix between a shout and a scream as she rushed forward, shield first, into the tide.
Her eyes might have been closed for those first few seconds as she flailed wildly around with shield and bat.
“Ohgodohgodohgodohgodohgodohgodohgod!”
The human-sized gremlins were vicious. Claws and teeth clanged off Nila’s makeshift armor. She did what she was taught. She kept moving. Use her combined mass as an additional weapon. She didn’t let the monsters swarm her. She was tough. She could handle a few scratches.
Nila repeated that mantra in her head frantically as her vision was obscured with every passing second as gremlin blood splattered on the clear face shield of her motorcycle helmet.
Her momentum slowed as the gremlins piled up around her. Frenzied claws pulled at her from all directions, so she spun and flailed with a renewed burst of terror-fueled adrenaline.
Though inelegant the move gained her enough room to retreat to an open space in what looked like a street-side cafe’s outdoor seating area. She slapped tables and chairs back toward the pursuing gremlins with her bat.
The large, glass cafe front loomed directly ahead. She ducked her head behind her shield and used it as a battering ram. Glass shattered as she plowed right through the doors and into the dark interior.
She ran ahead heedlessly. Tables and chairs bounced of her shield and legs. Nothing could stop her, only slow her down.
Nila was like a bull in a china shop. The gremlins chased after her like a pack of wolves. She jumped over the front counter and pushed through into the kitchen.
The back door was the type that couldn’t be locked from the inside. She plowed through it into an alley. The gremlins had lost some ground navigating through the obstacles inside the cafe. Nila had a second as she saw them through the open door, rushing at her out of the darkness.
She did the only thing she could. She slammed the door shut and placed her shield, her weight against it.
The gremlins slammed into the door from the inside. It shook and trembled, but she held it closed.
Nila let loose with a string of uncharacteristic curse words in between deep breaths.
“What the hell am I even doing here?” She muttered.
The second she stopped pushing against the door the gremlins would be after her again.
She looked left and right. Though the alley was shrouded in darkness she saw open streets on both sides. There was a smallish metal dumpster a short distance away she could use to block the door, but she couldn’t reach it.
Nila wanted to cry. She was running out of time and there weren’t any good options. The rest of the gremlins might start climbing or running around the buildings to get to her while she remained stuck.
“There she is!”
Nila turned her head at the shout. It was Gene and the rest of the idiotically named Team F.C.W.R.
“I thought I told you to head to the barricades,” she frowned at the teens.
“We saw you running into the restaurant. It looked like you were in trouble,” Gene said.
“Nope, I’ve got this,” Nila said through grit teeth. The gremlins inside must’ve smelled or heard the teenage boys arriving. Maybe the scent of fresh meat tipped them over the edge because they were hitting and pushing against the door with renewed ferocity.
“Yeah, sure looks like you got covered fine.” Johnny rolled his eyes.
Nila shot him her best glare.
“—ma’am,” he hastily added.
“What should we do?” Olo said.
Bless him for being the least annoying of the quartet. Nila nodded at the dumpster. “Push that over here.”
Two of the teens hurried and with some grunting and sweating they brought it over to Nila.
“On three, push as hard as you can,” Nila said.
She counted and on the number she pulled on the dumpster while moving away from the door. It opened slightly before the bulk of the dumpster was fully in place behind it. Dozens of gremlin arms slipped through and clawed at anything they could reach.
“Um, this thing has wheels. Won’t it just roll?” Bastien looked to Nila. “Uh… ma’am.”
Nila hurried and pushed back against the dumpster. The annoying teenager was technically correct. The gremlins were already starting to push the door a little wider. Her nearly superhuman strength shut that down.
“Okay, kids. I’m going to need you to push against this smelly thing, while I fix the problem.”
“Yes, ma’am!” They answered in near unison.
“Teenagers,” Nila muttered underneath her breath.
The teens added their weight to the dumpster, but it started to move ever so slightly.
“Ugh, this smells like shit,” Johnny said.
“That’s cause those gremlins shit all over the place,” Gene said.
“Are we sure Johnny didn’t shit his pants like last time?”
“Shut the fuck up, Bastien! That gremlin came out of nowhere. You’d have shit yourself too.”
“Everyone shut up! This thing is moving. We need to focus and keep pushing,” Olo said.
“What the fuck do you think we’re doing!” Johnny snapped.
Nila sighed. Teens, so much to hate about them. Stupid, Cal was stupid for getting her to babysit these particular four. She took her metal bat and took her frustration out on one of the wheels underneath the dumpster. She broke it in one jab. She did the same to the other three.
The dumpster was now sans its rolling ability.
“Okay, you can stop pushing now,” Nila said.
They watched it and the door closely. The gremlins pushed, but it remained in place.
“What do we do now… ma’am?” Gene eyes darted to the far end of the dark alley.
Nila was just about to answer when a roar echoed from somewhere out in the darkness.
“That came from over there.” Johnny pointed toward where Gene was looking.
“Okaayyy.” Nila hated how her voice shook. “We are going back to the next line of defense. Like I told you four to do.”
The roar sounded again. This time it was closer.
“And you four are going to run as fast as you can,” Nila said. What she didn’t say was that she could’ve easily outpaced them all. It was like Cal had liked to joke on their hikes. Something about not needing to outrun the bear, he just needed to out run her. She was supposed to babysit, make sure the teens didn’t die horribly unless things really fell apart. At the moment she was about sixty-forty on sticking to that.
“Slowest one gets eaten.” Johnny took off down the alley in the opposite direction of the roars.
The other three immediately gave chase.
“Fifty-fifty,” Nila said before running after them.
While Nila ran frantic voices started to come in on the walkie-talkie that she had forgotten was clipped to her belt.
Barricade three breached… falling back to tw—
… Christ! It’s an alpha…
Repeat last, over.
Seven! We’re at seven! Get Cruces over here now!
Do you copy, over?
Copy that. I’m closest… on my way… over.
Nila nearly stumbled. That was Cal’s voice. She remembered the gremlin alpha. A spike of dread pierced her chest. This time it wasn’t from whatever the roaring thing that was chasing them, but for what Cal was rushing toward.
I’m not too far away… I’ll head over also… er… over.
Eron’s voice.
Nila breathed a little easier. Surely the two of them together meant it’d be safer.
… barri… brea… falli…
Hang on… almost there…
That one sounded like Remy.
It was then that Nila noticed the sporadic pops that reminded her of fireworks filled the otherwise quiet night air.
“Oh man, things don’t sound good.” Gene looked back. His words came out in between gasps.
“Don’t think about that now. Just focus on running.” Nila’s words came out easily, as if she was having a cup of tea.
A sudden roar that sounded much too close punctuated her words.
Nila immediately lowered the volume on her walkie-talkie. It would be bad to draw attention with something chasing them.
They ran with greater urgency. They exited the commercial area and ran into an abandoned housing tract. By edict of the council and common sense a large buffer zone had been created surrounding the high school, which was now a spawn point, whatever that meant. Nila still had trouble accepting it.
Homes remained empty and barricades had been created. Not that they were doing much good from the sound of it.
“Shit!” Johnny said.
Nila saw what had brought a halt to their run. It was gated apartment complex.
“Just hop the gate,” Bastien said.
Johnny shook his head rapidly. “I think there’re monsters in there. A lot of them.”
Gene frowned. “You think?”
“Can’t explain it. Just got this feeling like ‘don’t go in there or you’ll die’.”
“Okay, fine, we’ll go around,” Nila said. “Left or right”. She looked to the left. More tract housing. To the right. Even more tract housing.
“The road curves back towards the high school that way,” Olo pointed to the left, “that way takes us too far away from our designated fall back barricade,” he pointed to the right. “This is the way.” He nodded at the dark, foreboding apartment complex.
“Dude, why’d you tell me to go this way?” Johnny punched Olo on the arm.
“Hey!” Nila snapped. “Calm down.”
Olo glared at Johnny. “Because it was the fastest way.” He pulled out a folded map from his pocket.
Gene shined a small lantern on it as Olo spread it open.
It was hand drawn. In pencil. Badly.
Nila wanted to put her head in her hands.
“See.” Olo jabbed a finger along the route he was talking about.
The other teens nodded.
A roar made them all jump.
“That sound… do you think it’s one of those al—”
“Shhh.” Nila held up a hand to Gene’s face. “Don’t say that word.” She considered calling for help with the walking talkie. Except who was she going to call. Anyone that had better powers than her were already probably in the middle of a life or death struggle. Nope. She was going to have to do this on her own. “Stupid Cal,” she muttered. She glared at Olo. “You sure this is the right way?”
Olo straightened. “Yes, ma’am,” he nodded profusely. “Once we get through the other side its only a few streets down to Barricade 19.”
Johnny leaned his head closer to Bastien. “There’s way too many numbers. I can’t remember which is which.”
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
“There’s like forty.” Bastien rolled his eyes.
The front gate was the kind that slid open and shut on wheeled track. Nila grabbed it with one hand and pushed it open enough for them to slip through.
“Light those lanterns.” She directed the teens. “Stay close to me.”
“Yes, ma’am.” Four voices chorused in unison.
----------------------------------------
Gene punched Johnny on the arm. “Bro, that wasn’t so bad, don’t know why you were being such a pussy about it.”
“That’s cause Miss Nila was with us,” Olo said.
“Yeah, man. We didn’t even have to use our skills or spells.” Johnny glared at Gene while he rubbed his arm.
“We probably won’t get a lot of points for that though,” Bastien said.
Nila ignored the teens. She was trying not to gag. There was entirely too much gremlin blood and bits on her gear and clothing. She took a small rag from out of her fanny pack and wiped at the blood splatters on her face shield. The tiny gremlins were easy to kill. All she had to do has hit them and they broke. The problem was that they smelled terrible. Especially after they got splattered. It was like what she imagined a cow processing plant was like. It was the kind of smell that you could taste in the back of your throat.
“This is way I don’t eat beef,” Nila said.
“Ma’am?”
“What? Oh, nothing, Olo. Where to next?”
He pointed to the left. “Down this street. Then a left and a right. Barricade 19 should be there.”
The roar sounded again.
Johnny jumped. “Fuck me! That sounds like it’s just on the other side.”
“Alright my dudes,” Gene said. “Run like you don’t want your assholes to get gobbled.”
Nila narrowed her eyes. Teenage boys were the worst. She had known this since her long gone teen years. In a way it was nice to get confirmation.
The teens ran. Nila brought up the rear. Though, once again the temptation to out run them all reared its head.
“Forty-sixty,” she muttered
They reached the barricade in a little under ten minutes.
The barricade was about ten feet tall and wide enough for a wooden firing platform on top for a good number of people. It was stretched across the middle of a two-lane street from one house to another. The homes closest to the two that bookended the barricade had been demolished to provide material and to ward against the possibility of gremlins using them to get around or on top of the barricade.
A diesel powered light tower bathed the immediate area in light. The smell made Nila cough, but she was glad for the brightness.
Nila was relieved to see that the people she had ordered to fall back from their first barricade had all made it to nineteen and joined up with those stationed there.
“Status?”
The tall woman staring at Nila with a severe look on her face was a police officer named Demi Lawrence. From the information Cal had made her memorize Nila knew that Demi was in charge of the squad at Barricade 19.
“There’s something coming after us,” Nila said.
“I think it might be a gremlin alpha,” Gene said. He shot a side-eyed glance at Nila.
Nila sighed. “It roars. The human-sized gremlins don’t do that.”
“Why didn’t you call it in?”
Nila looked up at the much taller woman in intimidating black riot gear with an aggressively held assault rifle. “I was a little busy taking on all of the gremlins that breached the barricade, so the others could get away safely.” She straightened and held her head high. “After that I had to babysit. I didn’t have time. Besides, they told you what happened anyways.” She gestured at the men and women from the first barricade.
Demi looked like she wanted to argue the matter further, but she suddenly turned her ire to the four teens. “You didn’t follow the order to retreat. There will be consequences.”
“What? This isn’t the army, lady,” Gene scoffed.
“When you signed up to be part of this, you agreed to abide by the rules.”
Olo leaned in close to Gene’s ear. “We signed that paperwork, remember?”
“What’re they gonna do? Take away my magic?”
“Young man,” Demi glared at Gene, “for starters your parents will be informed and you will be banned from joining any patrols.”
Gene’s face grew red and he opened his mouth to no doubt dig himself an even deeper hole when fortunately or unfortunately a load roar shook the night.
“Everyone, this is it!” Demi raised her voice.
“C’mon, Gene, don’t be a dick,” Bastien said.
“I’m a dick? We were just trying to help Miss Nila,” he gestured at Demi, “and she’s getting on my case.”
Nila had only been half paying attention. Her eyes had been drawn to the far end of the long street some five hundred or more yards in the distance.
The gloom was only partially driven away by the torches placed on both sides of the street to take the place of the electric lamp posts that were dead. Nila had better eyes than she used too, not only did she no longer need glasses, but she could also see better than normal humans.
And what she saw almost made her finally lose the struggle against the urge to puke. Almost. She pulled it together. She had super powers. She couldn’t loss it in front people who weren’t as lucky as her. She had to look brave.
There were human-sized gremlins gathering in the darkness. A lot of them. That wasn’t what made Nila’s knees weak. It was one that was significantly larger than the others.
She recognized it from the brief look she had on that night they had escaped from the high school several months ago. It was a gremlin alpha.
“Alpha sighted at Barricade 19!” Demi’s voice wavered as she shouted into her walkie-talkie. “Requesting immediate assistance, over.”
“They can’t help,” Nila said in a small voice.
“What?”
“Cal, Remy, Eron.” Nila’s voice rose. “They’re already dealing with other alphas.” She didn’t like the hysterical edge she heard in her words.
Demi’s eyes widened as if she just remembered that terrible fact.
“You’ve got powers though, right?”
Nila nodded.
“Then we can do this.” Demi turned to the rest of the terrified people. “You four,” she pointed at Gene, Olo, Johnny and Bastien, “up on the wall. I’m not having kids in the thick of it.”
Gene looked like he was about to argue, but Nila silenced him with a glare and jabbed a finger up at the platform. The teens complied with varying levels of eagerness.
“Shooters up on the wall. Front-liners down here with me.”
Nila recognized two of the three men that stepped forward from the first barricade. She didn’t recognize the one woman that walked over. Though she realized who it was by process of elimination.
At Cal’s urging Nila had read up on the people stationed at her assigned barricades. The dark-skinned woman was big, but strong-looking, which made sense considering she was an ex-collegiate shot putter. According to the write-up Cal had put together that was the woman’s actual class. Athlete: Shot Putter. It was really weird and Cal had mansplained it as possibly being the result of classes partially being determined by the way a person saw themselves.
Naturally, Nila quickly countered with the fact that she definitely didn’t see herself as some kind of superhero. Cal conceded to her point and suggested that there were probably a lot of different factors involved.
“Keisha Davidson,” the strong looking woman introduced herself and held out her hand.
“Nila Chen.”
Keisha’s huge hand engulfed Nila’s and the much bigger woman immediately squeezed hard.
Nila frowned and squeezed harder.
“Damn, girl,” Keisha smiled. “I heard you were really strong, so I had to find out for myself. No offense?”
“Sure,” Nila said.
“But you are so tiny though.”
Nila shrugged. “Yeah, doesn’t really make sense.”
“Keisha,” Demi’s voice interrupted, “here,” she handed a small spherical object over. “Don’t throw it until I tell you.”
“Got it.”
“We fight with our backs against the barricade, stay tight, don’t let them pull us apart,” Demi said to the there men and two women. “Except for you,” she regarded Nila, “we’ll just get in your way.”
“Right, I know what I’m supposed to do,” Nila said. She licked her lips. Her mouth had suddenly gone dry. “I’ll try to draw most of their attention. Although I don’t know what I can do against the alpha.”
“The fuck you say,” one of the men said. “I thought you had bullshit powers. If you can’t fight that thing what can the rest of us do?”
Nila ignored the man. She sympathized because she felt the same way. A gremlin alpha had killed that piece of crap racist, Jay. Eron had claimed that Jay was slightly stronger than him. Nila was strong, but she wasn’t ‘lift up a car over your head and run with it’ strong.
“Yeah, I don’t know about this, maybe we should fall back,” another man said.
“Can’t do that,” the third man said. “No other barricades past this one. If we don’t at least thin them down that’s like a hundred gremlins and an alpha getting to our families.”
Demi nodded. “We can do this. We’ve got IED’s along the funnel corridor. Those should take down most of them, maybe even the alpha. Whatever survives that we can handle by sticking together.”
Nila looked down the street toward the gathering gremlins. Cars and other debris were used to create a narrower path down the middle. IED’s on a radio trigger were scattered along the path. She allowed herself some hope. Maybe the explosives would take care of most of the gremlins.
“Let’s see what we’re dealing with,” Demi said as she pulled out a flare gun. “Mads, I want a count,” she yelled up to the top of the barricade.
Demi fired the bright red flare over the distant gremlins. It bathed the area in garish red for what seemed like a very long time.
“One hundred twelve, not counting the alpha.” The voice piped back from the barricade. A young girl’s voice.
Nila didn’t recognized the nickname, but that must’ve been Madelyn Wynn. According to Cal’s write-up she was a youth or junior skeet shooting champion. Which explained her class. Naturally her abilities involved improved shooting and eyesight. It explained how she was able to count so many milling gremlins, hundreds of yards away, in less than ideal lighting.
The girl had a long gun in her hands. Nila figured it was like a skeet shooting gun or something.
“Aim your shots, we don’t have a lot of ammo,” Demi said. “And watch the friendly fire.” She glanced over to Nila. “I’ll—”
Whatever she was going to say was interrupted by the loud chime that rang in everyone’s ears.
Congratulations!
You have received a Quest.
Defend Barricade 19.
Success Parameters: Hold your position. Defeat the gremlins.
Failure Parameters: Flee or Die
Reward: 25000 Universal Points.
Failure: Possible deaths of yourself and your loved ones.
Will you accept?
Bonus!
Kill the Gremlin Alpha.
Reward: 10000 Universal Points.
One of the men spat. “Shit, that’s a lot of points. Is that each or is it divided?”
“Doesn’t matter. Even split up it’s a lot more than what we get killing the small ones for a whole week,” another man said. “It means that this fight is going to be impossible.”
“Shut it,” Demi snapped. “Accept the quest and get ready. They’re coming.”
Nila accepted the quest and took a deep breath.
----------------------------------------
One by one the distant torches winked out as the gremlins moved forward at a surprisingly measured pace. They weren’t running in their typical frenzy.
“They’re taking out the lights,” Nila said.
“I see that,” Demi said. “Everyone give Keisha your road flares.”
The big woman placed her riot shield and sledge hammer on the ground to collect the dozen or so flares from the others.
“I need two flares every fifty yards. Spread them apart.”
“No problem.” Keisha took the cap off and struck the flare’s end. A fountain of red light burst forth. “Power Throw,” she said quietly as though she was embarrassed.
She threw the flair five hundred yards with seeming ease. The rest followed quickly. Where the gremlins had taken out the torches the flares brought light back. For some reason they left the flares alone.
“Once they hit the hundred yard mark I’m triggering the explosives. Any that survives that we open fire when they get into our ranges,” Demi said.
Nila tried to keep her breathing under control. She tried to keep her body relaxed. Being tense and hyperventilating would just drain her energy for the fight, which was rapidly approaching. She couldn’t take her eyes off the gremlin alpha as it loomed large in the middle of the mass. The red light from the flares only served to give them an even more unnerving presence.
“I’m hitting it!” Demi’s voice shook Nila.
The explosions that followed made her jump back reflexively.
Night turned to day for a brief moment as all along the gremlins’ approach IED’s sent shrapnel and fire in every direction. The gremlins’ howls of pain were drowned out by the explosions as nails, screws and ball bearings tore them to pieces.
A cheer went up from the barricades defenders.
It was answered by a roar from the gremlin alpha.
This was the trigger for the monsters. They broke into a mad dash straight for the people at the barricade.
Their path funneled them right into Nila.
Demi opened up with short, controlled bursts from her assault rifle. She took aim at the gremlin alpha at first. Her rounds proved ineffective so she switched to the regular gremlins. Her aim was true. It seemed that a gremlin dropped mid stride with each three round burst she placed center mass.
Mads’ shotgun was no less effective. From her perch on top of the barricade she fired two shots, dropping a gremlin each before she cracked her gun’s barrel open to reload.
The others next to the teenage skeet shooting champion were less effective. Mads’ father had a semiautomatic shotgun, but he missed about a quarter of his shots, while shooting at a slower pace than his young daughter. Two women and one man wielded crossbows from the local sporting goods store. They started loosing bolts as soon as the gremlins reached the thirty yard mark. Inaccuracy combined with weapon quality and longer reload times meant their impact was minimal. It took a lucky shot through an eye or a throat for one of them to take a gremlin out of the fight.
Demi emptied her rifle’s only magazine in the time it took the gremlins to get within twenty yards. She emptied her pistol by the time they got within ten yards. She took up truncheon and riot shield. As she stepped back to join the line with the others she felt a rush of wind brush past her.
Nila charged forward with an inarticulate, high-pitched battle cry. It was anger and fear. She didn’t know how much of each was in there, but it was the best she could do.
She slammed into the leading line of gremlins with her metal shield. She crushed bone with just the impact. She swung her bat in wide arcs. The gremlins jumped into it heedlessly. They were broken.
Keep moving. Bend your knees. Stay loose, but keep a low center of gravity. Don’t cross your feet. Don’t get bogged down. You’re a lot stronger than them. Nila repeated Cal’s words in her mind like a mantra. “IhatethisIhatethisIhatethis.”
It was working so far. Nila was keeping the majority of the gremlins occupied. Unfortunately the ones on the edges saw open prey in front and on top of the barricade.
They rushed forward like the crazed monsters that they were. There was no longer any semblance of control in their actions.
Keisha had abilities of her own. She was an already physically strong woman, but her class gave her another edge. A passive skill, Lesser Enhanced Strength, gave her somewhere between a five and ten percent boost to her overall physical strength.
A gremlin lunged at her. She slammed it aside with her riot shield. Before it could rise she crushed its head with the heavy, two-handed sledge hammer she wielded in one hand.
The man next to her fared worse. Three gremlins swarmed him. One pulled his riot shield down, while the other two dragged him into their midst. The riot gear initially prevented them from getting to his vital parts, but it eventually failed. Mercifully, his screams didn’t last more than a few seconds.
Keisha!” Demi was hard pressed. She and the two remaining men where shoulder to shoulder. They were frantically trying to keep the gremlins attacking them from separating them.
The big woman rushed over to help. Her heavy hammer swung wildly and scattered the gremlins to give them space and a breather.
“This ain’t working,” one of the wide-eyed men said.
“Backs to the barricade?”
Demi nodded to Keisha. “Only option.”
The group retreated slowly while the gremlins edged closer and tightened the noose.
The gunfire from the barricade grew more sporadic. It told Demi that the shooters were running low on ammo and crossbow bolts weren’t going to do more than put a dent in the gremlins’ numbers. She wanted to scream with frustration. The IED’s had worked, but there were still too many. From the looks of it the only reason that they hadn’t been already overrun was because Nila was doing her part. The small woman was impossible to see amid the mass of gremlins, but you could track her movements by where the monster bodies went flying. Unfortunately, she was moving further away from the barricade.
“We need her,” Keisha said, as if reading Demi’s mind.
“Can you throw the grenade into the gremlins? At least twenty yards away from us and ten yards away from her. Maybe if we clear a path, she can get back here,” Demi said.
“No problem.” Keisha dropped her sledge hammer. Took the grenade from her pack, pulled the pin and let it fly. It was an uncannily accurate throw. It landed exactly where intended.
“Take cover!” Demi ducked her head behind her riot shield.
The others followed suit.
The explosion shook the battlefield.
It also got Nila’s attention. She risked a moment to look back. She realized what was happening at the barricade. She ran back smashing and kicking any gremlin that got in her way.
With Nila as the tip of their spear they fared much better. The gremlins weren’t able to swarm them. Nila drew all the attention, which let the others gang up on individual gremlins.
The battle was frantic. It was an all-out assault on their senses. The sounds of the gremlins’ snarls, their teeth gnashing, claws scraping against their riot shields was overwhelming. The stench of the monstrous bodies up close assailed them. The violent and jarring impacts as they blocked with their shields and struck out with their weapons.
It still didn’t help one of the men. He over extended in an attempt to finish a downed gremlin. Another one seized the opening and slashed his throat open. The man fell gurgling to his knees as Demi bludgeoned the gremlin with her truncheon.
“Wait!” Nila yelled back while she swept her bat in wide arcs. “Where’s the alpha?”
“I don’t see it!” Keisha tried to look for it while pulling back against the gremlin trying to rip her shield away.
A scream from on top of the barricade was their answer.
“Shit! Get up there! Use your spell!” Demi ordered the remaining man.
The man sheathed his machete, dropped his shield and rushed to the rope ladder and climbed without hesitation. Brave man. Foolish man.