Chapter 18: Chapter 18: RUnning Through The Six

Chapter 18: RUnning Through The Six

 

Jack didn’t need to be told twice. He ran as if his life depended on it because it did. The moment Mi’shka’s barrier dissipated, several dozen bird-like leathery abominations had landed in the hangar, immediately giving chase to the surviving humans.

The group rapidly climbed the stairs leading out of the hangar, with Jack carrying Jill and Leon carrying the technician. Mi’shka trailed behind, angrily hurling blades of blood below them that cut down any of the strange black horrors that managed to climb too high.

After ascending several flights of the rickety stairwell, Jack paused to check the situation below them, but immediately wished he hadn't.

It was a tide of screeching black, barely being held back by the crimson blasts of energy that kept their numbers in check. Every time one would disintegrate another two would take their place, baying for blood. It was only a matter of time before Mi’shka was overrun and the horrors below caught up to them. Thinking quickly Jack called out to Leon and pointed at the nearby stairwell.

“On it!” Leon turned, hiking the woman higher on his back before extending his palm and letting loose a blast of revolving energy that brought the stairwell crashing down below.

“Heads up!” Jack called down, just in time for Captain Domino to dodge out of the way of the massive pile of falling debris.

“Thanks!” Mi”shka called out before climbing what remained of the stairwell to join the survivors.

The group quickly moved until they found the doorway that Leon and Jack had made during their venture toward the Hangar. Peeking through, Mi’shka signaled an all-clear before exiting to the sight of multiple people running in different directions.

Suddenly a klaxon horn blew, causing Jack and the others to wince from the abrupt noise. The next second, the lights went out, casting the space around them into a pitch-black nothingness that made Jack's breath tighten. After a second of this, red lights sparked to life, painting everyone and everything in a dark red shading.

“Well that’s certainly not good.” Mi’shka said, before he took off down the hall towards the bridge. Jack followed suit, if there was any safe place to be, then it would be with the Captain on the bridge. On the way there Jack looked down to check on Jill’s box, a safety check he had forgotten to do thanks to the panic of finding his sister alive.

He immediately stopped, drawing a look from Captain Domino.

“Hey! No no. No stopping! Let’s go recruit! What are you waiting for?!”

“It’s my sister! Jill’s box is low!”

Mi’shka blinked in realization at what Jack meant before furrowing his brow. “Alright, let's go. We’ll pick up her canisters then head back to the bridge.”

“Where are you going Captain?” The Technician called out.

“Leon! Take her to the bridge and inform Captain Skirita, that Jack and I are heading-” Mi’shka trailed off, eyeing a group of armed soldiers rushing toward their direction.

“Blood Silver?!”

“Ensign Harper! What are you doing away from the bridge?”

The engineering officer approached the group with four armed soldiers led by Sergeant York behind her.

“The Engineering team is unresponsive so Captain Skirita ordered me down to the reactor to check its condition along with the missing team. If you aren’t busy I’d appreciate your assistance.” She looked behind the white-haired officer and toward the woman draped on Leon’s shoulders. “Corporal Miranda, can you handle a wrench?”

“Leg’s busted but my hands are fine. As long as you can get me there I’m good to go Ma’am.” The technician on Leon’s back replied. Ensign Harper nodded before turning back to Mi’shka.

“We’re heading in that direction anyway to pick up replacement canisters for the girl,” Mi’shka replied, no trace of his mirthful behavior or lunacy as he thumbed a finger toward Jack carrying Jill in his arms.

“Good, we could use the extra firepower, Demonspawn are crawling all over the ship, and with the power down we can’t get our CIWs and PDs online to fend off the creatures.”

“We’ve noticed, thanks to the recruit’s quick thinking we’ve managed to halt their advance upward by collapsing the stairwell.” Mi’shka gestured to the gaping hole leading to the stairway. “Sadly we’ll have to find another way down. Hey have you heard anything from Lieutenant Belfusa?”

“No, sorry, Sir. After the first explosion, we lost contact.” The bridge officer replied as she led the way toward another narrow passageway.

Mi’shka walked in silence, appearing to be in deep concentration before muttering to himself out loud. “I shoulda been up there with her.”

“Then you wouldn’t have been able to save my sister.” Jack offered, thankful for the man being there when Jill needed him most. Mi’shka flashed one of his usual smiles, but it held no warmth that he normally recognized.

“Yea. I guess you’re right.”

Swapping the canisters inside Jill’s box, Jack quickly began packing all the spares he had into a broken dufflebag. The group had moved ahead, leaving Leon and one soldier to escort Jack to the bridge when he was done.

As he packed, there was a constant skittering noise around them that made Jack's jaw clench and unclench unconsciously. Fortunately, Leon was there to distract him from his budding panic by humming something that sounded completely foreign.

"L'étendart sanglant est levé. Mugir ces féroces soldats. Ils viennent jusque dans vos bras."

"What's that you're humming?" The soldier posted at the door asked, shouldering her rifle as the skittering sounds got louder.

"It's an old world tune. La Marseillaise, something called French." Leon replied, eyeing the bulkhead around them as the sounds began to shift to ear-grating scraping.

"French?"

"Yurp, something from before the Merging."

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"You mean pre-collapse?"

"Ye-"

The sudden sound of gunfire interrupted their conversation, making Jack tense up as he quickened his packing.

"Alright, we're leaving." The soldier slung her rifle and immediately grabbed a bag of canisters, directing Leon to do the same. "You've got your sister?"

Jack nodded, lifting his sister gingerly from her pod while shouldering a half-full duffle bag on his back.

"Good then let's go-"

As soon as the woman stepped out of the doorway she disappeared, dropping the bag on the floor with a loud thud.

The teens' heads immediately snapped towards the hallway, neither moving as each tried to process what happened. There was a sharp cry of agony that was quickly drowned out by an eerie quiet that settled amongst the duo.

As Jack stood holding his breath, he could make out slurping sounds echoing through the hallway. Eyeing the surprisingly calm red-head next to him, Jack’s curiosity got the best of him and he decided to steel himself and peek into the hallway. Crouching down he made out some kind of amorphous square with black spikes for legs hovering over what he recognized as the bloodied remains of their escort.

Jack snapped back inside the cramped compartment, his heart racing as he realized what the sounds were. The soldier was being devoured, from what little he saw he knew it had been quick, but the image of her lifeless bloodied eyes would be seared in his mind forever.

Sahaqiel if you’re there, I could really use the help right now! Jack screamed internally, but his plea was met with only silence. Wasting no further time, the teen began weighing his options, thinking of a way around the creature.

Judging from the speed of the attack they couldn’t outrun it, at least not without mana but even then Jack was unsure. From the direction it had come from, that area was supposed to be sealed. There was no telling if there were more of them!

“What did you see?” Leon whispered.

“Some kind of thin black rectangle with spikey legs, like a spider.” Jack reported back. “It's… it's eating the soldier.”

“Ah, merde, was it more triangular or more rectangular?”

“What?”

“It’s a Slicer, triangle shape means multiple, rectangular means single. Big adult. Territorial, less of a threat than its pack hunting miniatures.”

Less of a threat?!

“Uh,” Jack stuck his head out to peek at the jet black creature again. “Rectangle, definitely rectangle.”

“Good then we’ve got a chance.”

“I run, and you shoot?”

Leon flexed his fingers, stretching himself, as he psyched himself up. “How many skills can you activate?”

““Three wind blades or three dashes. All I got, you?”

“Eight or nine spiral blasts, depending on the power of the skill.”

“I’ll cover the front, you cover back?”

“Sounds like a plan.” Leon said, fishing out what looked to be a raw potato from his pocket and chomping down on the vegetable. “You want one?”

“As my last meal? No thanks.” Jack peeked through the hallway, making sure the creature was still distracted before moving. The monster hadn’t completely devoured the soldier yet, but in the time frame he had seen the corpse and turned to chat, much of what remained was only a half-bloodied torso pinned underneath one of the Slicer’s spiky legs as its other leg tore the flesh off of one of the woman’s arms.

“Let's go.” Jack whispered before taking off and immediately tripping over himself.

Shit.

Jack comically landed with a loud thud. Crashing on top of his sister who woke with an oof sound as the mana canisters Jack was holding onto spilled across the hallway, making clunking noises as they rolled about. Eyeing the expensive batteries, Jack reflexively went to pick them up but stopped as his sister stared at him wide-eyed.

“Hey what gives?!” Jill cried, waking up as her brother scrambled to recover from the abrupt fall “What’s goin-”

Before the little girl could finish her sentence a loud “SCREEEE” sounded off, sending shivers down Jack’s spine as he panicked and tried to take his sister to safety. Still on the ground, he rolled to cast wind-blade but just as the black rectangle was about to land on top of him, a dark blue bolt of energy connected with the creature, slamming it into the bulkhead where it evaporated on contact.

“Smooth, real smooth.” Leona said, standing over Jack.

Just as Jack went to fire a retort at the snide boy, multiple screeches cried out, echoing through the hall that was followed by shadows marring the end of the corridor.

"Yea, real Smooth!" Jack shot back, already on his feet and taking off down the hallway with Jill in his arms.

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