Chapter 7: On The Move

Moving through the wrecked streets of Lancaster was a surreal experience. Around five hours passed since the massive pillar fell over Los Angeles and spewed out the drop pods full of monsters. The chaos that had filled the roadways and sidewalks a few hours ago had given way to a far more frightening stillness. Large fires roared uncontrollably in multiple sections of the city. Smoke hung in the air, darkening the afternoon sun in the otherwise cloudless sky. At the very least, Spencer preferred the overpowering smoke to the smell of blood and carnage that dominated everywhere else.

The sounds of screams and gunfire tapered off until it was a rare sporadic occurrence that usually accompanied a vicious hellhound roar. No one drove out on the streets anymore. The number of wrecked vehicles alone would slow you down to the point where it would be better to run or ride a motorcycle. That is if the noise of a running engine didn’t bring the monsters right to you first.

Spencer had to thank his lucky stars that Andrea was a strong melee fighter. Her shield and nightstick made far less noise than his gun. If Spencer had been on his own trying to make his way through these tense streets his first engagement would have made a lot of noise. Which in turn would bring in more hellhounds. Which would require more shooting. Which would bring in more hellhounds. So on and so on until he either ran out of ammo or was overwhelmed by too many creatures at once.

Andrea on the other hand was able to dispatch small groups of hellhounds with relative ease. As they moved Spencer found an area within his system menus that showed the stats of his team members.

‘ Engie Name: Andrea

Rank: A

Class: Bruiser

Role: Tank/DPS

Range: Melee

Damage Type: Bludgeoning

Passive Abilities: Enhanced Health Regen, Advanced Criticals

Active Abilities: Slowing Strike, Battle Rage’

The rest of the page was a numerical breakdown of all of Andrea’s stats like her health, stamina, defensive durability, and the like. Spencer didn’t have anything to compare Andrea’s numbers against, but they looked solid enough to him.

If everyone I pick up matches her strength I won’t have anything left to worry about. Spencer thought as Andrea rammed her nightstick through a hellhound’s skull and turned towards him expectantly. She did that every time she fought something. It felt a bit odd, but Spencer wasn’t about to make the person protecting him upset by withholding some well deserved praise.

“Good work Andrea.”

She blushed and danced happily in place.

Nothing left to worry about… Spencer’s mind thought back to the giant faceless creature he spotted just before he recruited Andrea.

“Commander.”

Andrea’s voice shook him out of his thoughts and back onto the street a few blocks away from his home.

“Is that it?” She gestured to a bus smashed against a fallen power pole.

Spencer looked over the shattered glass, hellhound corpse on the hood, and drying pool of black monster blood on the sidewalk below and nodded.

“He should be right inside.” Spencer reached back and removed the shovel he had strapped to the side of his backpack.

He stepped forward but Andrea stopped him.

“I understand this means a lot to you commander, but please let me dig the hole.” She glanced at the ruined city around them. “I’d rather you not linger in the open for too long.”

Spencer hesitated for a moment, but nodded. As much as he wanted to do this on his own he knew that Andrea could dig a large enough hole far faster than Spencer could ever hope to. Despite the smooth wooden handle leaving his hands, Spencer could still feel the ghost of its wait as he surveyed the bus apprehensively. Andrea nodded her gratitude before striding over to a patch of grass near the edge of the nearest intersection and began digging. Spencer dropped his backpack onto the ground and removed the hastily rolled up bed sheets he had brought with him. He stared down at the wrinkled sheets and tried to swallow down the lump forming in his throat.

I’m sorry man… this is the best I could do. Spencer steeled himself and stepped up into the wrecked bus.

There he was. Right where Spencer had left him. Spencer tried not to look too closely at his deceased friend as he carefully wrapped him up in the oversized bed sheets, but there was no escaping the vacant eyes staring up at him. Spencer gently placed his hand over his friend’s eyes and slowly shut the cold eyelids. Taking a deep steadying breath Spencer finished covering his friend completely before tying it all up with some packaging twine from his bag.

The best I could do… Spencer grunted as he hoisted his friend up over his shoulder and carried him slowly off of the bus.

The hole was fully dug by the time Spencer walked over to the corner. Andrea wiped away a few beads of sweat from her brow before opening up her arms.

“I’ll set him down, commander.” She offered softly.

Spencer shakily rotated Steven off of his shoulder and lowered him down into Andrea’s waiting embrace. She set him gingerly at the deepest point before bowing respectfully.

“Is there anything you’d like to say, commander?” Andrea’s head remained bowed as she prompted Spencer.

Spencer looked down at the hastily dug grave in silence. A low ringing in his ears grew louder as the outline of his friend lay motionless at the bottom of the pit. Spencer felt unsteady and unsure as that familiar darkness that had broken through his mental blockade earlier threatened to overwhelm him. Once again, a gentle hand from Andrea steadied him and pulled him back from the mental cliff he found himself at.

“Sorry.” He coughed, shocked at how dry his throat suddenly was. “I’m so sorry man. I don’t know why I was selected as a champion… I really don’t know what that really means yet…”

Spencer sniffed and straightened up. “I’m going to make this right. I’ll get stronger. Strong enough to protect those around me.”

He lifted the shovel from the pile of dirt next to the hole and began to fill it in.

“I’ll either save the world or join you soon Steven.”

******

Once the hole was filled back up Spencer planted the bus’ mechanical stop sign that broke off in the crash as a makeshift gravestone. Spencer took out one of the plastic water bottles he brought with him and took a long swig. Andrea approached him with a gentle smile.

“Anything else before we move on commander?” She asked.

Spencer glanced back towards the bus. Specifically the large section at the back that had been blown through by the hellhound drop pod. Steven was obviously his closest friend on the bus, but that didn’t mean the others were meaningless to him. Truth was, he was scared to go try and find what was left of those four in the back of the bus. Spencer wasn’t sure his mental state could withstand such a gruesome sight.

“No.” Spencer finally answered. “I’m ready to go.”

As if in response to his statement a distant whirring sound reached both of their ears. Spencer lurched forward to scoop up his weapon while Andrea scanned their surroundings to find the source of the approaching noise. It was a high pitch, grating sound that Spencer couldn’t place.

“There!” Andrea pointed north of where they were standing.

A small plane with a single tail mounted jet engine gushed dark smoke and dropped rapidly down towards the earth. Andrea pulled Spencer back, but despite how close it looked the plane would still fly well above their heads. He watched it glide no more than a hundred feet above them in line with the road they were standing by.

“It’s a military drone.” Spencer realized out loud as he recognized the dark shape of the air force unmanned reconnaissance aircraft.

The drone quickly fell out of sight and a loud screeching crash reached their ears seconds later.

“I want to see what happened.” Spencer told Andrea as they both raced down the sidewalk towards the crash.

“There’s going to be a lot of hellhounds drawn to the sound of that impact.” Andrea noted.

“Most likely.” Spencer agreed. “We’ll have to be quick.”

As luck would have it they were close enough to be the first to arrive on the scene. The smoke spewing drone had rammed straight into the back of a city bus on the far side of the road. Andrea took up a lookout position on top of an abandoned car while Spencer approached the smoking remains. 

Other than the wings that had snapped on impact the drone was remarkably intact. Spencer was able to get close enough to find the USAF decal on the side of the drone’s rear fins. There was something else stuck to the drone that couldn’t be seen from far away. The drone’s entire frame was covered in a faint orange residue. It was some type of slimy gunk spread evenly across the metallic surface. The gunk shifted.

Spencer leapt back with a yelp, but nothing shot out to attack him. Spencer watched the gunk slide towards the jet engine and stop. Every few seconds it shifted slightly before falling still. Oddly, once the jet engine fully spun down to a halt the gunk stopped its slow creep towards it. Once everything mechanical on the drone fully halted there was a sickening slurp noise, like a plunger being pulled out of a mud pit, and all of the gunk began to coalesce into three distinct blobs hanging off the sides of the drone. The blobs grew larger and larger, like birthday balloons filling up with helium, before they peeled free from the motionless drone and lifted up towards the sky.

Spencer watched the three mysterious balloon objects float upwards, notably unphased by a slight breeze blowing in from the ocean. As Spencer squinted upwards he noticed a layer of orange high in the sky.

If all of that orange is those balloon things… Spencer’s eyes widened considerably at the implications.

There had to be millions of those creatures up there. If they were drawn to other aircraft like these three had been drawn to this drone then these blob creatures effectively created a no fly zone directly around the pillar. Spencer turned his gaze towards Los Angeles and noted how the orange cloud grew thicker the closer it got to the spire.

Hellhound shrieks tore Spencer’s gaze away from the skies and back down to earth. A trio of hellhounds had already engaged Andrea in the center of the street. The red haired bruiser kicked one away, pinned a second to a car with her shield and swept the third away with a brutal strike to its chest. Spencer heard its ribs crunch as the nightstick sent it flying. Andrea was then free to press her entire strength into her shield, shoving it with her shoulder as she flattened the second beast against the car. The frame groaned audibly as Andrea pressed the life out of the hellhound. The final monster returned, screeching horrendously before being silenced by a firm punch to the top of its head. There was an audible crack, blood gushed from the monster’s eyes and nose before it fell still. There was a ding in Spencer’s ear when the final beast stopped moving.

‘New Milestone Reached: 15 mobs slain.

Reward: Fifty store credits.’

Spencer paused. Fifty was the number he needed to make his initial purchase of five engies. Spencer eyed the distant pillars of blue light signalling where his other four pulls ended up. If he pulled again he could potentially get a second teammate to drop closer to him. Grinning excitedly Spencer clicked through the menu and hit the purchase button for five engie pulls. An error text box appeared.

‘Error: New pull purchases are disabled until the current selections are collected.’

“Of course they are.” Spencer groaned.

Andrea jogged over to him. “Everything all right commander?”

He sighed, but nodded. “Just frustrated I can’t make things easier on us.”

Andrea glanced at the drone embedded in the bus with a frown. Spencer waved away her confused look.

“I’ll explain what I mean later. We should move.” He pointed south towards the closest pillar of light. “That way.”