We all crouch low and listen. It takes me only a moment to pick up on the rumbling slowly increasing in volume. I might have noticed it earlier if I wasn't concentrating on the crystal. Thankfully Robert noticed it with plenty of time to spare. I realize as everyone ducks behind various cars and the planter for cover that the rumble is mechanical in nature. A rhythmic humming with a deep undertone to it, interspersed with the occasional sputtering hiccup. Whatever vehicle it is clearly hasn't had good maintenance. Bit by bit it gets closer and closer, then I start to make out the faint shine of light trying to cut through the dust. Slowly that gets brighter as sound continues to increase in volume and proximity.
Two silhouettes slowly take shape, highlighted through the dust by the headlights of what I think is a truck at their backs. It's hard to make out what they’re wearing at first, but it becomes clearer the closer they get. Flowing robes reaching down their legs, with long sleeves covering most of their arms and baggy hoods over their heads. Cultists…. They advance slowly, pace on par with the truck as they seem to scan the area ahead of them. Man, these guys might as well hold up a fucking neon sign saying traitor to humanity. At least it makes them easy to identify, though that's probably the point seeing as they basically own the city now. They continue moving up, slowly encroaching on where we are hiding as I look over to Robert to see if he has any plan.
He doesn't by the looks of it, as he also continues to hide while occasionally peaking at the approaching group.
“Hey, what's the plan?” Toby whispers to Robert from a car over.
“Keep quiet and let them pass.” Robert says so quietly I'm probably the only person other than Toby that hears him. He motions for every one else to stay down as we all wait tensely for the cultists to pass.
I don't see anymore appearing out of the dust as they continue to close in, but that doesn't mean they aren't further behind…. Or in the truck. Speaking of, the truck is now close enough that I can tell it's a box truck, probably for carrying loot. But that doesn't necessarily mean that it isn't carrying more cultists currently. About ten feet out one of the cultists says something, her voice breaking through the background hum of the truck.
“I'm telling you this isn't the right street, we should have made a left at that last intersection.” Only for her partner, who sounds like an older man, to reply back.
“No, because that would have run us into a blocked street yet again. By lord Baylor you have the geographic acuity of an imp!”
“No I don't! It’s not my fault your ‘shortcut’ ended up taking us longer than the original route!”
“They didn’t report the fallen building. I can’t plan around what I don't know about!”
“Maybe we should have stuck to the original route then. Maybe they sent us that way for a reason. If we followed that route we wouldn't need to walk in front of the truck to screen for debris.”
“This way won't take us much longer. Once we clear the fallen building we'll be two streets away from the outpost and almost on time.”
The cultists continue to bicker about their routing. But make no mention about where exactly they are going or what they are moving with the truck. All I can gleam is that they are moving something. Still, they don't seem to be in a hurry. Which is detrimental to us because we need them to leave so we can stop hiding. After what feels like an eternity, but was probably only another minute, the truck and cultists pass us and walk off into the dust… almost.
The truck is about to fade from view when it suddenly stops, the tail lights just barely visible on the edge of my vision. Then the older cultist screams in a loud and annoyed tone.
“Oh more shit on the road! Can't people learn to park properly!?”
“Really? That's what you're going to bitch about? Oh come on, is that really necessary?” The woman asks loudly in the distance, followed by grunting and the sound of… is that metal creaking?
“Yes it is. I'm tired of these damn cars in the ‘Hurrra!’ road!” The older cultist replies, followed by the whistling sound of something flying through the air. And judging by the change in pitch and increase in volume that something is flying right at us!
I barely have time to see a fucking smart car come flying out of dust and jump away before it slams down on and bounces off the car Toby is hiding behind. Somehow the car misses Toby, and promptly skids into the planter I was hiding behind a moment before. And where Sara and Karen are still hiding. Due to the first impact it doesn't hit very hard, but it's enough to smash half the planter, sending potting mulch, bricks, and plants all over Sara and Karen. Who both let out skreiks of terror as they were knocked fully to the ground and partially covered in dirt and brick debris. And becouse that wasnt enough panimonium, the fucking car that got yeeted started blaring it's alarm on full blast. Its remaining lights flashing wildly while it did its best to deffen us.
Seymore somehow managed to avoid all of that, diving in the other direction just in time to not be behind the planter. Karren starts to get up, visibly freaked out, but Sara isn't moving. A million things start to run through my head at once. Holy fuck that was close. Did they know we were here? Was that throw just a coincidence? What if they heard us? What if Sara is dead? Are they coming to finish the job?
I can’t hear what the cultists up the road are screaming, only that they are screaming something back and forth. Toby sits up in a daze, probably still processing how he almost just died. Robert however surprises me with his next move. I expected him to try and take control and give out orders, but I stead he rushes over to Sara while calling out her name.
I jump back in close, pocket my pistol, and start checking Sara while Robert's running over. She's breathing, but it seems a bit shallow. I brush my hand along her neck in a self admittedly poor attempt to check for a pulse when I hit something wet. Pulling my hand back reveals a fair bit of blood, and a quick check of the back of her head reveals a lot more rapidly soaking her brown hair. I look to Seymore and see he is moving fine, in fact he is going towards Greg who is currently hiding behind another car. Since he seems to be fine I recall my healing crystal from him, yelling his way to give him a heads up, I'm taking it back. He shouts something along the lines of do it as I reassign it to Karen, who is slowly crawling away from the wrecked remains of the planter. Then I turn my attention back to Sara and cast a heal on her. The power flows from me and jumps into her, causing her to glow faintly in the dim lighting for a moment.
I feel around behind her head again to see if the bleeding has stopped but I can't tell accurately due to all the blood already soaking her hair. Robert gets to us a moment later, frantically as all hell.
“Sara! Sara! Oh my god what's wrong with her!?” He practically screams.
“I don't know! She had a cut on the back of her head but I think I healed it.”
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“Why isn't she waking up?”
“I literally just healed her! Give her a minute.” I say, but I'm interrupted by George screaming above everything else.
“Oh shit! Another Car! Duck!” He screams, as I turn just in time to see another car go sailing way over our heads to smash down somewhere behind us. That doesn't mean we all don't duck until we hear the crash though.
Through the frantic chaos of the car's alarm and our own screaming I can make out the mocking laughter of one, if not both of the cultists. They definitely know we are here, and that second car was intentional.
“Toby! Come fucking help me!” George screams at the dazed man still on his ass, knocking him out of his stupor.
“Robert, go help them.” I tell the man who is still crouched over an unconscious Sara like he might be able to do something.
“But…”
“No buts! They are going to need that shotgun! I'll heal Sara. That asshole throwing cars needs to go before he hits us, or her again.” I snap at him, emphasizing Sara is in danger to get him moving.
He sits for a moment, seemingly fighting with himself over the decision before getting up.
“Alright, just keep her safe please.”
“I'll try. And here, take the shield crystal with you.” I say while re assigning the crystal to Robert just as the first shots ring out.
This causes the nearly imperceptible film around me to shatter into hundreds of strands of light that melt away out of existence as fast as they appeared. The film then reappears on Robert as he runs off to help the others, crystal flying in behind him to catch up.
I turn my attention back to Sara, who still isn't moving but seems to be breathing better. I think she is at least, but I hit her with another heal just to be safe. Nothing visually changes, so I can only hope it fixes some internal issue. Damn it, I've got no medical training, where the fuck is Karen?
I don't have to look far to find Karen, as she's curled up into a sobbing, shuddering wreck a mere foot from the remains of the planter.
I want to check on her, but Sara still isn't showing any signs of waking despite two heals. Deciding that I'm not going to be able to do anything else for Sara without more knowledge of what's wrong, I get up to go check Karren. But the moment I get off my knees, I hear the tell tale whistling of another car flying through the air. A second later another one of the damn ugly boxes on wheels slams into the crumpled remains of the first one. Both cars go silent and skid along a few feet, coming dangerously close to me and Sara but thankfully stopping short.
With the car alarm no longer blazing in my ear I can clearly hear the pandemonium and gunfire blaring through the street around us. There are definitely more cultists than just the two, as I hear lots of screaming coming from their direction.
“Hey, that was our damn cover!” A man in the distance yells.
“Too bad, I'm using it now!” The old man cultist replies.
A moment later a shot rings out, followed by the sound of a car flying through the air shortly before smashing into another.
“Kindra, these assholes have guns. Fucking barbecue them already.” The old man bitches.
“Toby, watch the left side! Don't let them get behind us.” I hear Robert order, followed by a single shot from the shotgun. And judging by the cultist’s cries, it was a good shot.
“Fuck, they got sam!”
“God damn it! Shoot these assholes!”
And that was apparently the push the cultists needed to start shooting. Almost half a dozen loud bangs ring out simultaneously as sparks fly all over the street from poorly aimed shots. And the bangs just rapidly repeat, over, and over, and over as sparks keep spraying across the street. These fuckers have automatic weapons! This is exactly why I didn't want to fight and fucking cultists! Asshats have automatic guns and are throwing fucking cars around!
The gunfire dies after a few seconds, giving enough reprieve for me to pick my head up and see an excessively bright ball of light come flying from where I assume the cultists are holding and slam into the ground in front of the cars Toby and George are hiding behind. The resulting explosion knocks the cars back, and sends a wave of heat I can feel even from back here.
“Ahahaha, I think I got one!” The cultist woman, presumably Kindra, cackles like some demented witch.
It's quickly becoming clear we are outmatched hard, especially if they have more of those…. I think that was a damned fireball spell. I can't help Karen right now, she and Sara are either going to be fine or not. But if we don't deal with these cultists somehow, none of us are gonna be fine. I get up into a half crouch and start quickly making my way towards the closest person, which happens to be Toby. It only takes me a second to step past the remains of the planter and get up next to him. His eyebrows are singed, his hands red, and parts of his sleeves have brown patches, but otherwise he looks fine. I highly suspect he is gonna have burns on his hands, but adrenalin is probably masking the pain for now.
Behind the car to our right is George, who is much worse off. He doesn't have any burn indications, but he's holding a bloody left shoulder, with blood still actively running down his hand and onto the ground. Shit, I didn't hear him get hit, hopefully I can fix it. Further to our right I barely see Greg and Seymore fighting with a weapon, pulling parts out of the gun bag and hastily trying to assemble it. There's only one person I don't see.
“Fuck, where’s Robert?” I ask Toby while giving him a poke with a healing spell.
“Don't know, he told us to hold here then ran off down the left side.” Toby replies.
“Hey, I need some fucking healing over here!” George snaps at me.
“I’m working on…..” I go to snap back, only to be interrupted by the return of automatic gunfire and bullets sparking down the street around us. Fucking cultists cant see us, and we cant see them, but they seem more than happy to blind fire away at us.
“Stop spraying you idiots! Fucking waste of ammo and air you lot are! Go up there and finish off the survivors!” Someone screams from the cultist’s side.
Well shit, sounds like we’re going to have company, the bad kind. I poke my head back up just enough to see over the car. What I find concerns me even more, a bright light forming in the distance. Like hell I’m letting that bitch throw another fireball for free. I gather as much mana into a screech as possible then send it hurdling into the dust set to disorient. I’m not going to hurt shit at this range, and who knows how much armor or other bullshit those cultists have, but I might be able to make the fireball thrower rethink turning herself into a beacon. Really hope Robert doesnt get caught by it.
My ‘attack’ works better than expected, as the pulse of sonic mana bullshit cuts through the dust, leaving a sort of wake of its path as it flies into the distance. I know immediately when it hits the cultists, as the bright light of the preparing fireball wavers and swings around for a moment, before seemingly being flung in a random direction to the side. Apparently the fireball was still active, as when it presumably slams into the upper part of a building it explodes, letting off a loud boom and accompanying shockwave. Lots of curses can be heard from the cultist’s side, followed a moment later by the crunch and scrapping of something big and metallic hitting the ground. One of the cultists immediately starts screaming bloody murder.
“Ahhhhh, My leg! My fucking leg!”
“Shut up! My heads fucking spinning and if you keep bitching yours will be literally!” The old man crankally complains.
But the guy doesn't shut up, he keeps letting out blood curdling after blood curdling scream about his leg. Didn't expect to cause some friendly fire on their side but I'll take it. Unfortunately, the cultists seem to have taken offense to me in particular now.
“Get your asses up and find that fucking caster! They will make a fine gift for lord Sbrugreth!”
“Shut up you old crow! My fucking head is still spinning!” Fireball throwing cunt replies.
Since the cultists seem preoccupied bitching at each other and not shooting at us, I cross the small gap between the cars and get up next to George, who is still holding a bloody and bleeding left shoulder. I tap him with a healing spell and watch him carefully to measure its effects. That's when I notice he has blood running down the back of his shirt too. I curse to myself as I turn him sideways to get a look at his back. What greets me is another bullet hole in the shirt with a heavy trail of red staining down the back and starting to seep into the pants. I really hope this is an exit wound and that this dumbass didn't get shot twice. Unfortunately, because of blood and the shirt itself, I can't get a proper look.
“Take off your shirt, I need to inspect the wound.” I tell him.
To my surprise he doesn't complain, but he does wince hard when he tries to move his arm to take the shirt off. We don't have time to finagle around getting his shirt off, so i decide to ask for forgiveness later and just grab the holes and rip away the whole area. Now with an unobstructed view I can see the wound clearly, which is slowly closing. I don't think the bullet is lodged inside, at least I can't see it if it is. And I'm not comfortable just digging at a random wound, so the best is to hope it's not and close the wound.
The healing seems to be working, albeit slowly, as the edges of both holes start slowly closing together and the bleeding slows. Unfortunately, the healing slows about two thirds of the way there, before falling off completely, leading me to have to use another spell.
“Ah, fuckin my hands!” Toby silently curses next to us. I look over to see his hands aren't nearly as red as before, but he is struggling to hold his pistol. I guess the adrenalin is starting to wear off so the burn pain is coming back with a vengeance.
I go to slip back across when a loud repetitive thundering makes us all duck in behind our cover again. It takes me a moment to recognise the sound as the shotgun Robert uses, and no bullets or fireballs are screaming by us. No, instead the cultists start screaming bloody murder about being murdered. It ranges from begging for mercy to just chaotic screaming.
It ends when the bright light of another fireball rapidly flashes into existence before flying a very short distance then exploding. This explosion wasn't nearly as big as the ones before, but it leaves silence ruling over the street save for the agonized moans of a lone surviving cultist.
“Aaaaah fuck! Kindra you fucking bitch! You…..!”
The cranky old man cultist is apparently still alive too, but his tirade is cut short by a final shotgun blast in the distance.
“I don't know how you survived the last hit but you won't this….” Kindra starts screaming as another fireball flashes into existence down the road. But a loud, sharp bang off to our right silences her, leaving the fireball to fall to the ground in a small explosion, hopefully taking the bitch with it.
Looking to my right I find Seymore holding the marksman rifle, propped up on a car and scoped in looking down the street.
“Infrared scopes are god's gift to snipers.” Is all he says. Then silence rules the street once more, aside from the death moans of the last cultist and Karen’s quiet sobbing.