Stephanie

“The portal’s up, ma’am. Whoever was in line in front of us has closed their end, and the troops are ready,” Hannah said, spinning her laser pistol in front of her before holstering it like a Western movie hero.

“I told you not to call them that,” Stephanie sighed. “They’re people. They’re people fighting for their lives, and we should never reduce them to anything less.”

“I didn’t think the word ‘troops’ was that bad . . .”

“It just makes us sound like some makeshift military dictatorship, like they’re here because it’s their job, or their rank demands they listen . . . but, no. Nevermind. I get what you mean. Let’s get out there and kill some hell-cursed!” Stephanie said, walking to the front of the group, her hand reaching out toward the large shimmering portal, her reflection cast back in an eerie gray.

“I’ll go first,” Robin volunteered, always the first one to put himself in danger, but Stephanie shook her head.

“No, I’ll do it,” she insisted. If someone was going to risk their life by going into an unknown device to a location they’d never been to, it was going to be her. No matter what happened, she needed to be at the front, or she would never be able to win the trust of those behind her. As she stepped through it, she was surprised that it didn’t feel like anything at all. She expected it to be cold or wet or like she had dunked her head in water or something, but instead, it was just like she was walking through any old door in any old house. As she stepped through the portal room in one of the gymnasium-styled buildings on campus, everyone quietly watching her, everything vanished like it had never existed, and the next moment she was stumbling onto the hard floor of a rough concrete building with the sounds of rocket fire, screaming, bone-shaking crashes, and frantic shouting shattering her peace completely.

What the hell is going on? she thought to herself as she equipped her bone mace and rushed out of the room only to be greeted by the sight of more dead bodies than she had seen even during the hellish stadium fight, soldiers lined up atop a high wall firing at something.

“What are your orders, ma’am?” Robin asked as he popped out of the portal behind her, a dozen more following suit in such quick succession that they were practically bumping into each other while trying to catch their bearings.

“Uhh . . .” Stephanie took a second, her brain having trouble processing the carnage. Just as she was about to say something, a giant boulder exploded in the air above them, and four hell-cursed hounds dropped down on top of them. Stephanie swung her bone mace, killing one of the dogs in the air while Clark killed the other, the remaining two managing to land before Emily and Carly came in and finished them off.

“What the— There’s another two!” Madison yelled, her pistol whipping into action as she started shooting another hell-cursed monster.

“We need orders. Do we form up here?” Robin asked, pressing Stephanie to make a decision.

“Those balls are going to keep raining down. There is no end to them,” explained Sergeant Maryland, who had been the one to communicate the portal procedure with them before they arrived. “You need to get out of the middle as soon as you can, or you’re going to be caught in the crossfire.”

“Alright then,” Stephanie said, taking a look around one more time, “while they seal the breach, Robin, Clark, you guys follow me to the walls. Madison, Emily, you all are faster on your feet. Help the ground team keep the courtyard clear. Carly, you stay here and split the group up. Once we have enough troops here to secure the courtyard, have the rest of them head up to the walls with us. We’ll need every ranged fighter we can get raining hell on those bastards before they get to that breach!”

As she said those words, pointing at the gap in the wall, she saw one of the two men that were holding the enemies back on the other side of the breach by themselves turn around. It was only for a moment as she locked eyes with the man, but she felt like her whole world changed the moment their eyes met. Even though his face was covered in dirt and blood, and he had grown a beard so large it covered half of it, and his muscles had somehow gotten bigger, changing his body shape too, she knew it was Archimedes.

Stephanie's heart raced as her mind began to process what she was seeing. He had saved her. He had saved them all. He had dragged her out of hell and given her hope, but when he had died, she had thought that was it. She had never expected to see him alive again, and yet there he was once more, and with every second that passed, Stephanie could feel the urge within her to run over and embrace him grow stronger and stronger, but she managed to keep control of herself despite the emotions racing through her body. She knew that this wasn't the time for reunions or feelings of joy. This was a fight for their lives and an opportunity for them all to make sure they could go back home in one piece.

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She pushed her thoughts and emotions aside as she raced up the stairs to the walls and surveyed the battle below. Archimedes and Chedderfield had managed to hold their own, but the odds were still heavily stacked against them, yet a bizarre scene made her do a double-take. Racoons wearing mech armor and a giant albino crocodile carrying otters worked together in harmony, each adding their unique strengths to the battle, whether it was deploying rockets from long distances or hurling elemental spells at close range. As they worked in unison, the tide of battle started turning in their favor.

The enemy forces were struck with an onslaught of attacks from all sides, pushing them back inch by inch until they were compressed against the coral wall. Chedderfield's macuahuitl and Archimedes' glowing silver spear combos shrieked with death as they cut through the enemy like a hot knife through butter. The self proclaimed Soda-Pop Pope and his mechanized army, along with their mascot robots, joined in the battle, raining destruction down on their foes with rocket launchers, magically summoned fireballs, and whirlwinds that tore through the air from the top of the walls. The scene exploded into an apocalyptic meat grinder as enemies were blasted relentlessly from every direction.

Stephanie switched her class to Human Resource Manager and activated Mandatory Teamwork Exercises. Her hands glowed as she channeled a powerful energy, giving her group of college students the buff they needed to face the never-ending waves of the enemy army. Robin’s bow and arrows sang through the air, his light-footed movements and quick aim unerringly sinking barbs into his targets. Clark was an immovable force on the south flank, his ax and shield effectively holding back the encroaching forces and giving Stephanie and Robin enough time to work their magic.

Danielle and Nguyen were lying prone on the walls, shooting precise bursts of blue laser from their hand-built rifles at their enemies. Behind them, the medical team of the national guard hummed healing incantations, restoring health to the injured soldiers that were being dragged to the top of the walls and away from the continuously incoming hellhound balls. Above them, the turrets roared with energy, sending destruction raining down on the transports and hell-cursed catapults.

After the last of her troops filed out of the portal room, they were soon followed up by a group of tanned people that charged out of the portal room, clad in platemail bone armor and carrying shields made from car doors. They shouted, “Aussie, Aussie, Aussie! Oi! Oi! Oi!” and slammed into the enemy that was wreaking havoc inside the base, joining Lucy and her group as they fought to clear the monsters.

As Stephanie continued to give out one buff after the other from atop the wall, providing temporary health with her Petty Cash ability or speed with her Administrator's Call at every chance, her eyes kept darting over to the battlefield where Archimedes, Chedderfield, and the animals fought tooth and nail against the endless minions of violence. With every drop of blood spilled and every undead destroyed, they seemed no closer to victory than they had been before, as Stephanie couldn’t help but stare at the nearly endless wave of hell-cursed coming toward them.

“Chip!” Stephanie heard Archimedes yelling out. Then she saw a dog-sized chipmunk creature tie a rope around its waist before jumping off of the thirty-foot wall.

“Shouldn’t someone grab the other end?” she wondered aloud.

“Don’t ask us,” Nguyen replied before pulling her trigger again and taking out a large bone catapult on the other side of the moat.

The question didn’t sit long in Stephanie’s head though as the end of the rope snaked over the wall and completely out of their reach.

A moment later, Stephanie watched as one of Archimedes’ hairball schemes took shape, and what had been an endless wave of monsters pouring over the exterior wall quickly turned into a barrier of frozen bodies.

The surviving defenders, watching the madness below, cheered in unison as they saw the last of the monsters between the base and the coral wall die and the final skeletal catapult meet its untimely demise, temporarily putting an end to the desperate siege.

As the battle slowly died down, the army of hell-cursed began backing away and out of range of the endless firing of guns, lasers, and turrets. They even started to regroup and build their own portable defensive structures to block the long-range weapons. In the lull, the sound of Stephanie’s heart nearly beating out of her chest as she looked down at Archimedes again became the only thing going through her head, along with the hundreds of things she wanted to say to him, wanted to ask him, wanted to know.

Unfortunately, before she could even take one step in his direction, she was already being ambushed by the people she had taken charge of. “We did it!” Madison exclaimed as she rushed up the stairs toward Stephanie. “I told you coming here was going to be nothing but a clean card sweep and another base saved from those fucking zombie bastards!”

“Yes. Yes, you did,” Stephanie smiled, trying to hide her feelings and focus on taking care of those within her charge. “But this battle isn’t over. We need to get to work helping them repair that breach, set up some additional fortifications, and heal the critically wounded. The battle doesn’t end when the last shot is fired; it ends when the last soldier is home, safe in their bed.”