Chapter 71: Dock Brothers

Cole planted his weight in the middle of the canal bridge, resting his sledge across one broad shoulder while sirens echoed across the northern sector.

Corporate district gates slammed shut across the bay, sealing off the wealthy avenues while District Nine left its borders open to the fleeing families.

"They are locking their gates and leaving the docks to drown," Cole barked, spitting onto the bridge boards as twenty dockworkers gathered behind him with pipes.

Toby knelt beside a supply crate near the bridgehead, marking tally lines on a cardboard ledger as wounded workers staggered out of the shelter stairwell.

"One hundred and fourteen civilians cleared into the lower warehouse," Toby called, his voice shaking while he checked the numbers with a marker. "No one gets turned away tonight."

"Keep the evacuation line moving toward the rear berths," Cole ordered, pointing his sledge toward the secondary warehouse where volunteer medics were setting up extra cots.

"The union stewards are clearing the storage bays for overflow," Toby added, wiping ink from his thumb as another group of shivering families crossed the platform.

Dane stood three paces behind Cole with a long pry bar gripped in his calloused hands, staring down the dark length of the canal.

Leo stepped out from the clinic alley, his mask catching the amber glow of the warning beacons while his hand rested on his scabbard.

"You came back," Dane said, nodding once toward the dark water where the three sunken orbital harpoons began to hum with malice.

"I told you I was not leaving," Leo answered, planting his stance beside the forward pylon while Kage slithered through the shadows at his heel.

The dockworkers nodded in silent approval, tightening their grips on pipes and wrenches as the cold canal wind whipped across the exposed crossing.

"We knew the corporate heroes would abandon us," an older welder muttered, adjusting his protective visor as he stepped onto the defensive line. "We did not expect the Ghost to stand on our boards."

"He stood on the basin when the pod fell," Dane answered, resting his weight against the pylon. "He is one of us tonight."

Bekka hovered twenty feet above the bridge in low, uneven bounds, her scorched gauntlets cooling in the damp air as she monitored the canal.

"Corporate aircraft are pulling back to the upper perimeter," Bekka reported from above, her voice cutting through the rising wind. "They are leaving the docks to the vanguard."

"Then we hold the bridge ourselves," Cole shouted, raising his sledge as the first harpoon shell cracked open beneath the water line.

The water churned into white foam around the sunken harpoon shafts, their outer shells splitting apart to release dozens of chitinous lurkers into the dark.

The first wave scrambled up the slimy bridge pylons, their razor claws gouging deep grooves into the timbers as they surged toward the defensive line.

Cole met the lead creature with a brutal downward swing, using his density multiplier to shatter its armored skull across the bridge planks.

Dockworkers discharged a high-pressure fire hose across the forward span, knocking three crawling beasts backward into the churning water below.

Leo lunged into the center of the breach, drawing his blade in short, lethal strokes that severed limbs and crushed heads before the beasts reached the line.

Gale-Reflex surged through his limbs as Bekka circled overhead, sharpening his reaction time while he parried a sweeping tail strike without losing his balance.

Bekka dropped through the air with a swift axe-kick, crushing a crawling lurker off the side railing before springing back into the overhead wind.

He refused to let his core drink the alien kinetic impact, relying instead on clean footwork and direct blade strikes to hold the narrow choke point.

A worker on the hose line shouted an encouraging cheer, her eyes fixed on the dark mask holding the line beside her neighborhood.

"Hold the span!" she cried, directing the freezing spray against a cluster of crawling beasts trying to scale the side railing.

The collective desire of the dockworkers surged into Leo’s body, anchoring his feet against the slick bridge planks with unnatural stability.

No system window appeared to declare a breakthrough, yet the collective will of the neighborhood gave him immovable footing against the relentless alien tide.

Leo swept the blade through two leaping lurkers, feeling the weight of the neighborhood standing behind his shoulders with every strike.

He parried another razor claw with the flat of his weapon, driving his elbow into the beast’s neck to send it tumbling over the side railing.

The defenders pressed shoulder to shoulder along the timbers, using cutting torches and wrenches to repel the endless wave of crawling horrors.

"Keep the pressure on the lower struts!" an apprentice shouted, aiming a blue welding flame into the eyes of a beast climbing the railing.

Behind the bridge, Tessa and Toby moved crates of antitoxin vials hand to hand, delivering doses to coughing workers along the defensive perimeter.

Luna maintained a faint green aura across the clinic threshold, her exhausted presence keeping the workers’ lungs clear of residual airborne toxin.

Rhodes sat on an upturned barrel near the clinic doors, loading freshly synthesized ampoules into transport trays with his single functional hand.

"Keep those trays moving to the bridge," Rhodes barked, handing another loaded crate to a breathless runner from the dock union.

"We have three crates ready for the eastern barricade," Toby shouted, wiping sweat from his face as he hauled another box up the stairs.

A lurker bypassed the forward barricade through an under-strut, lunging upward through a broken plank and driving its jagged claw into Dane’s thigh.

"Dane is down!" a dockworker screamed, swinging a pipe across the beast’s neck while Dane collapsed onto the bloody bridge deck with a strangled groan.

Leo spun on his heel and plunged his blade through the lurker’s throat, pinning the thrashing corpse to the timber before kicking it into the canal.

Two workers dragged Dane backward toward the clinic entrance, pressing clean towels against his bleeding leg while the vial line continued moving over his body.

"Get him to Richter’s table," Tessa commanded, pressing a fresh ampoule into the injured man’s hand as they hauled him across the threshold.

"Hold the bridge!" Dane wheezed through clenched teeth, clutching his wounded leg as the workers carried him through the clinic doorway.

"We are holding it!" Cole roared in response, bringing his sledge down with bone-crushing force against two advancing beasts.

The defenders tightened their ranks across the bloody timbers, refusing to yield an inch of ground as the injured were evacuated behind them.

The canal water began to boil violently around the harpoons, sending plumes of scalding steam into the night sky as a deeper rumble shook the foundation.

A dark shape shifted beneath the frothing surface, sending surging waves crashing against the bridge supports as the heat intensified.

Leo stood at the edge of the forward pylon with his blade lowered, watching the steaming water boil beneath the bridge as the next wave gathered.

The stench of alien bile rose with the rising vapor, signaling that the true horror beneath the canal had finally awakened.

Beside him, Cole wiped black ichor from his brow and adjusted his grip on the sledge, bracing his legs for the coming shockwave.