The group rushed outside and down the hill. Liam glanced over his shoulder and saw the trail of dust roll down the western mountains. Only minutes remained until their enemies arrived! The magazine of armour-piercing rounds shook in his hand as he tried to load them into the M16 that Kurt had tossed from his rucksack.
Leah twisted off the suppressor of her rifle, and the others followed suit. She aimed into the sky and fired. Thunder roared as the high-caliber round soared through the air. Every couple seconds, she fired another shot. Hollow moans grew in answer.
“Here,” Leah said when they’d reached the center of town. “This is where we make our stand.”
Two-story brick buildings were crammed one after the other, with no gaps in between, stretching down the road as far as could be seen. The wreck of a bus lay horizontal a block away, with a dozen cars rammed into its frame.
“You want to hide in that thing?” Liam asked.
“No. We’re just using it as a killing field.” Her hard, lilac eyes studied the buildings. “Kurt, I want you in that hotel over there. Second floor.” She turned to Mastermind, who looked quite bizarre with an adult-sized rifle in his arms. “You’re across the street. Same deal. Light them up when they get stuck in here.”
She held a hand against the sun. “Alright, I’m only going to say this once. We’re going to get them into this block and hit them with everything we’ve got. Full auto bursts, grenades, the works. Keep them locked down until the hollows show up in force, and then bug the fuck out.” She glanced to Liam. “You. This way.”
The rumble of approaching motors cut him off before he could protest. Leah jogged back up the direction they had come, with Liam at her back.
“What do you need from me?” he asked between breaths.
“You’re the bait. Stay in the street and do some panicking human shit. When they start closing in, make a run for that bus, and then join the fight from there. Nobody’s sitting this one out.” She started to peel off at the corner. “I’ll be in here, picking off stragglers.”
“Wait!” Liam shouted. “I’m sorry for this. Sorry for getting you involved. Sorry for everything.”
Leah matched his stare, and for just a moment, he thought she might say “I love you.”
“Just don’t get killed, asshole,” she ordered instead. With one final salute, she vaulted through a broken window.
Liam stood alone in the center of the empty road, listening as the cars and hollows closed in. Part of him wanted to run. To hide. To make one desperate lunge for safety. But he couldn’t. The only way through this was through Leah, and he had to trust her instincts as he would his own.
A pair of rangers paused at the top of the hill, by the church. As quickly as they had stopped, the rangers abruptly rolled into reverse and turned his way. Their engines screamed as they barreled down the hill, straight for him.
Liam swallowed the lump in his throat and broke into a sprint. There was no time to think. No time to consider what had led him to this point. Only the path in front. Only this narrow window of time.
Liam reached the jumble of cars as the trucks rounded the bend. He was barely within the bus before he heard their breaks get slammed. Shouts soon followed.
He peered into view. There were three rangers total in the convoy, their frames armoured and coated in camouflage paint. Each had four rezzers inside, with feathers poking from the brims of their caps. One tilted out of the roof of the lead car, this one with a peacock’s feather over a sallow face.
“Come out,” the Hunter said. “Don’t think you can stay there forever. We’ve got guys coming around the block.” He grinned. “Might as well make this easy.”
The pops of nearby gunfire went off, and Liam realized the truth. They had more vehicles in reserve, no doubt looking for another route to his flank. Soon he would be surrounded, with nowhere to run.
Had Leah led him into a trap?
A bullet tore through the Hunter’s head. An explosion rocked the rearward car. The flare from Leah’s muzzle lit up as she laid into the surviving vehicles. A second later, Mastermind and Kurt joined the sortie, peppering the remaining cars from their sides. The Hunters cursed and scrambled over each other, desperately trying to flee their rangers. Those who escaped found their situation no better, as they were getting shot from every side.
Liam had never been in combat, nor had he served in the military. Fighting was not in his nature. He had only learned to use a rifle out of necessity. In the Alaskan wilds, a poor marksman was a hungry one. Even then, Liam and Nelly used to joke that they’d never hunt in a million years if caribou could shoot back.
But as return fire rocked the shell of his bus and adrenaline kicked in, Liam found himself as much part of the battle as everyone else. The jolt of his M16’s butt sent a burn through his shoulder, but he did not relent. First one Hunter dropped, and then another. That he’d never so much as killed a man before mattered little. This wasn’t murder. It was survival. Different and yet similar to any other wilderness threat he’d ever faced.
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Two more cars rounded the bend behind, threatening to lock Liam in place. He doubled his effort. There wasn’t much time to act.
The hail of gunfire continued to pour onto their attackers, and some grew more bold. A pair of female Hunters made a break for Mastermind’s tower, and only one dropped before her ally disappeared inside. Another enemy managed to reach the wheel of a working ranger, and rolled into a better position before getting killed. His remaining friends made for the new cover.
The stopping power of their shots was also starting to fail on them. Higher grain bullets tore through undead flesh like a blowtorch through butter, but unlike the butter, rezzers could survive anything that didn’t strike their heads. Bullets that mushroomed through but not within their bodies did little to slow them down.
Liam reached for his last magazine and slipped his M16 back to semi-auto. He couldn’t wait any longer. Killing the first team now was his best chance. It was the only way to survive.
As the reinforcement cars stopped behind, Liam scrambled out the bus and moved to hit the Hunters’ blind spot in front. More of their shots whizzed over his head, but he leapt over a railing just in time. The sidewalk recessed a few feet down from his side of the street, giving Liam just enough leeway to sprint into his attackers without risk. They watched terror-stricken as he popped up from their rear, faster than any normal rezzer could accomplish. His motions were mechanical and shots precise. Each took a shot to the skull before they ever had a chance.
Liam let out a breath of relief, but it was short-lived. A crack ricocheted inches away, followed by another. He rushed for the cover he’d just cleared. The stink of the dead Hunters filled the air.
Hades had entered the fray. Dressed in his three-piece suit and brandishing a revolver, he walked calmly in the shadow of the hotel. Liam just had to wait for Mastermind. No one would have a better shot than him.
But then the second-story window of his hiding spot shattered, and both Mastermind and his attacker plummeted below. A rib tore out from his chest on impact, but the little bugger cartwheeled to his feet and drew his Bowie. The enemy Hunter countered slower, and went limp the moment his blade pierced the base of her jaw.
Another shot rocked the bullet-ridden ranger, and Liam knelt down further. There was no way out of it. Only he could bring Hades down. But the moment Liam left cover, another shot forced him back down. Hades moved without care, shriveled lips spread wide into a grin, even as Liam managed to fire a few rounds back.
The firefight, the explosions, the smoke and the destruction, they mattered little to Hades. No, it was worse than that. He was enjoying himself, as a child might in the toy store. When a bullet did strike his arm, he casually switched his revolver to the other and fired another shot. This wasn’t another mercenary following orders. Hades was death itself. Slow, relentless, and with neither mercy nor hesitation. Another few feet, he’d be atop Liam.
The battle was almost lost. Kurt was nowhere to be seen, more Hunters swarmed through the bus, and one dragged Mastermind away as he kicked and screamed. There was no more winning the day. Liam could only do what he must to escape.
He looked behind. His best chance remained where she’d started, firing into the reinforcements with all her might. As the two caught sight of the other, Leah flashed more orders via hand. Retreat. Here.
Liam ran without thought, making for the last ranger in the convoy. Leah was his only way out of this mess. His only hope. If he could just make it to her, they might both survive the day.
Suddenly, more trucks emerged from the mouth of the street. An additional four had blocked them in!
Liam recognized the eagle feather of Xander as he crawled out of the roof of the lead truck, brandishing a RPG. Before Leah could see, before Liam could even open his mouth and warn her, the missile was launched. An explosion of fire and concrete flared out from the spot she’d been standing.
“NO!” Liam screamed. Leah had just been there, and now she was gone. Why didn’t she stop them!?
The smack took Liam from behind. Bright light flashed for a beat, and then he was on the ground, a heavy burn in the back of his head. He rolled over. The barrel of a revolver pointed right between his eyes.
“End of the fucking road,” Hades said. “Man, am I gonna have fun with you.”
It was over. Hunters had blocked off both ends of the street, with even more in reserve. Mastermind had been handcuffed and slammed onto the bed of a truck. Liam was unarmed, his ears could hear little more than ringing, and there was nothing he could do.
Hades grinned. “Got a few shots left, but I’m thinking I should save them for her. Maybe knock out those pretty little eyes.”
The dust had cleared, and the building Leah hid in had been ripped in half, with the second floor now collapsed into the first. She lay on a pile of debris, supine yet still, smoke smoldering out from her sheepskin jacket. Her eyes were closed and her nose gushed blood, with more spilling from a wound where an arm had once been. Time passed, but she did not move.
Hades squinted an eye. “Where’s the big one?”
Glass rained from above as Kurt barreled into the open. Hades twisted around and fired, but the shot merely bounced off the head of Kurt’s sledgehammer. In a flash, the weight of his attacker knocked him off balance, and Liam squirmed another few feet away.
The two became locked in a melee. Hades ducked and weaved from Kurt’s heavy blows, using his barbed gloves to deliver ripostes of his own. Ichor and flesh burst free with each successful strike, but Kurt was larger in size by half, and barely flinched as meat got ripped from his torso. Desperately, Hades tried to aim his revolver to kill, but each shot bore him no success. With another swing from the sledge, Hades was knocked to the ground.
Hades pointed his revolver again and fired. Silence followed the snap of the trigger this time.
“Looks like you’re out,” Kurt said before raising his weapon.
Hades gleamed. “Oh?”
As Kurt readied his final blow, Hades yanked the hammer of the revolver down, flicked the top artificially inward, and pulled the trigger again. Kurt’s skull shattered as if a bomb had exploded from within. His headless corpse flew back into a ruined ranger.
“Forgot about the shotgun underbarrel, huh? Fucking idiot!” Hades lurched to his feet and cheered. “Saved again by the motherfuckin’ LeMat. I told you assholes the Confederacy had some good ideas!” He shrugged at Liam. “What? Did you think he had me? Please, I’m way too awesome to get killed by some lackey. You want it done, it’s either you or her, and looks like she’s out of this one.”
Again Liam looked to Leah, and again she did not move, even as Hades drew his bolo machete and began marching over.
“Hollows!” one of the Hunters shouted. Gunshots erupted at the front of the convoy as Xander and his men engaged.
Hades looked to Liam, over to Leah’s still form, and back again. With a heavy sigh, he holstered his weapons.
“Alright, fun’s over,” he said. “Let’s move out. I’ll get the bitch’s head tomorrow.” He furrowed his brow as his men idled by. “What are you doing? Cuffs. Bags. Now!”
The last thing Liam saw was Leah, still lying where she’d fallen, dead to the world around. Get up, he begged. Please, for the love of God, get up and fight!
And then there was only black.