Fighting the antithesis is straightforward. All they do is charge your location. How could anyone get surprised by them?

-Jacob ‘Armstrong’ Malley, Two hours before death

–

When we finally made it back to the ground floor, I noticed the APC wasn’t firing any more. I quickly peeked into the lobby, just to make sure there wasn’t anything waiting for us, before I headed back towards the APC.

I made it as far as the front door when I noticed a Model Six sitting in a nearby alley, watching me. As soon as I turned towards it, it disappeared back into the alley. “Did you see that?” I asked over my shoulder.

“What? Skyler asked as she stepped up next to me.

“I swear that I saw a Model Six, but it ran away when I spotted it,” I said, still staring at the alley.

“The antithesis don’t run away. They swarm the target until either they’re dead, or you are,” Steve grunted as he passed me and stepped outside.

“I’m getting really tired of your attitude,” I hissed. “After everything we’ve encountered today, you’re going to say I’m seeing things?”

“Are you sure you saw a Six?” Emily asked quietly, raising her rifle cautiously.

I hesitated just for a moment, then nodded. “I swear it was watching us.”

Skyler stepped up next to me and squinted towards the alley. Nothing moved. “I believe you,” she whispered, “do you want me to check it with my drones?”

I bit my lip for a moment, then shook my head. “Lets just head back to the APC, the sooner we get out of here the better,” I said as I stepped outside. Not taking my eyes off the Alley.

The squad only managed to get halfway to the APC when everything went to shit. The building across the street exploded, and a massive armored monster charged across the street, cutting us off from the APC. It looked like a centipede, but it was easily eight feet tall and long enough to prevent us from going around it. At the same moment the massive centipede cut us off, a huge wave of antithesis flooded out of the alley and surrounding buildings.

“What the hell is this?” Bulldog growled as he put rounds into the leading antithesis. His gun was good, but it still took several shots to put down each creature, and there were hundreds of them.

“Back inside,” Skyler yelled as Howie opened up. The artillery bot started putting dozens of needle rounds into the approaching wave as it slowly retreated up the stairs, but even that wasn’t enough to slow them down for long.

“Call Jockey!” I yelled over the gunfire. “Tell her to try and get around that thing and meet us at the back of the building.”

Emily nodded as she ran past, yelling into her radio.

{Rei: What the fuck is that thing? Where did it come from?}

{Athy: Model Fourteen, heavy tank and transport.}

{Rei: Do they normally ambush people like this?}

{Arty: No, they’re pretty basic, even by antithesis standards. This was coordinated, way beyond what most antithesis are capable of.}

Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.

{Athy: The Seventeen. It must have sent scouts out to find the APC after we escaped earlier.}

{Sky: It’s that smart?!?!}

{Athy: Seventeens are planners, capable of setting up complex ambushes and battle plans. They’re strategic intellect rivals that of some humans.}

{Rei: Why the fuck would it be tracking us?}

{Arty: They’re more than capable of identifying threats to the swarm, and evaluating if its forces are capable of eliminating them.}

{Sky: You mean it’s targeting us, it knows we’re samurai?}

{Athy: Most likely.}

As the squad retreated back towards the stairs I placed myself in the choke point between the elevators. “Find a way through this floor,” I screamed as the first Three grew ever closer. “If we go up, we’ll be trapped here!”

“On it!” Bulldog yelled back. I could hear him smashing into the various doors behind me, but I didn’t dare look back, the antithesis were already on top of me.

I drew my blade and cut through the closest Three’s head, opening it up all the way down to the neck. The two Threes on either side turned and tried to catch me in a pincer attack. I jumped back, letting the two of them collide mid air, before cutting them both down with a single strike. Even before those two hit the ground, a fourth and a fifth charged me. I moved almost entirely on instinct, just barely keeping ahead of the massive onslaught until something popped above the mob. Needles rained down upon the antithesis, thinning out the closest antithesis a little. Then another, and another, slowly giving me room to breathe.

Just as the Fours started pressing in I finally heard Bulldog yell, “Here!”

“Go!” I yelled back, as I started a fighting retreat. I quickly removed the tentacles from Fours whenever they poked at me, trying to both pay attention to my footing and me foes, when someone grabbed me and yanked me backwards through a door.

I had a great view of Bulldog, Steve and Emily slamming the door closed behind me, and bracing it against the antithesis on the other side. “Oh thank god,” Skyler whispered in my ear as she gently rested her head against my back. “I didn’t think you were going to make it for a minute.”

“Takes a lot more than that to stop me,” I replied quietly. I wanted to turn around and hug her, but something big smashed against the door, causing it to deform slightly. “We really need to get out of here,” I whispered harshly as it happened again.

“This way!” Emily declared, as she snapped up her gun and started sprinting the corridor we were stuck in. The rest of the team didn’t need any prompting, and immediately took off after her.

The corridor was narrow, and seemed to connect to a lot of supply rooms, and utility closets. We had to take a couple twists and turns before the corridor ended at a door labeled ‘Parking Access’. I could see there was a thick chain padlocked between the handle and a thick pole bolted to the wall.

“Fuck,” was all Emily said before I yelled.

“Get out of the way!” Emily just barely managed to flatten herself against the wall as I stepped past her, bringing my sword down not only through the chain, but the door itself, slicing off the handle and any other locking mechanism it might have. The door smashed open as I hit it at a full sprint, dumping me into the parking lot. I glanced around trying to get my bearings, just as the first antithesis burst around the corner of the building. “Please tell me Jockey is coming,” I growled as I prepared to intercept this new tendril of the horde.

The Threes didn’t get to me. Airburst mortars rained enzymes delivering needles down on the smaller group, while Emily and her team mowed down the rest. While we were dealing with this new threat the bright orange APC skidded around the other side of the building. I watched as the three right tires ever so briefly left the ground, before slamming down and speeding towards us. The ramp was already lowered.

“Get in!” Ratchet yelled from the back as the APC skidded once more, providing the perfect angle for us to pile on. No one argued. As Skyler struggled to quickly load Howie, I heard something rumble deep within the building. As I pushed uselessly at Howie, trying to get the bot on faster, one of the walls further down the corridor collapsed, revealing the head of the fourteen. The creature glanced back and forth for a second, before spotting me and rushing forward. It was bigger than the corridor, and caused the walls to crumble as it advanced, but that didn’t seem to slow it down at all.

“Go go go!” I yelled, as I threw myself past the bot and slammed the door close button. Jockey didn’t waste a second. As the APC pulled away from the building the Fourteen erupted from the wall. It chased us across the parking lot, but as tough as it was, it wasn’t fast. The creature only got about half way across the lot before giving up. That was the last thing I saw before the door slammed shut.

I collapsed on the bench, careful not to bump the patient that Trevor was monitoring and stared back at the door and struggled to regain my breath. “This is going to be an issue," I huffed.