Chapter 29: Get Some

James’s breathing sounded impossibly loud. He wasn’t used to this kind of silence. The past few days had been non-stop noise, sirens, shouts, gunshots. A tapestry of continuous panic and the sound of society collapsing.

But it felt as if he was entering a bubble, each footstep crunching, the wind still, all voices absent. The Nemesis 2’s drifted forward in perfect silence, climbing walls or leaping down to the street with little more than a scratchy whisper.

Serenity was much quieter than he was. He looked back twice to take comfort from her grim expression, both guns raised, her gaze sweeping back and forth.

They made their way down the block, drawing right up to the dead zone’s perimeter. Here and there James spotted gremlins, but they seemed cowed, unwilling to race forward and cause a scene like children cowed into good behavior by the gravity of a funeral.

Good. Who knew what would happen if he and Serenity started being swarmed.

On they crept, and when they reached the next intersection James sank into a crouch, shoulder to the wall.

The demonic symbol slowly rotated five hundred feet above them in the center of the dead zone, wreathed in purple fire and unintelligible to the eye, a burning series of loops and curves in the night sky.

“You hear that?” whispered Serenity.

James didn’t, so he listened more closely. There. Yes. A faint and continuous whisper, just barely audible. Like wind pouring through a forest canopy in the distance, or… a thousand ants moving over each other in a tight burrow.

James’s skin goose bumped.

Nemesis 2 were crossing the street perpendicular to them for blocks in every direction, black gleaming monstrosities with pale faces sliding into the far shadows. Peering further down their own street, James focused, tried to make out details.

A block into the zone he could see the darkness swarming. Nemesis 2’s were moving along the walls slowly, tightly packed together.

“You make out what they’re doing?” asked James.

“Hold on, let me try something.” She raised a Sig and aimed.

He pushed the gun down. “What the fuck are you doing?”

Her eye roll would have done a jaded fifteen-year-old proud. “Jesus James, you really think I’m going to stir up that shit?”

She raised the gun again, sighted down the barrel. “Deadeye sharpens my vision when I’m aiming. There. It’s like a fucking… what’s it called, a periscope?”

“An aiming sight?” James wasn’t sure. “A telescopic lens?”

“Oh…they’re definitely doing something. Oh - gross.”

“What?”

“They’re covering the side of the building in something. It’s like this… gleaming, wet pink goo.”

James made a disgusted face. “What, like painting it?”

“Yeah, kind of. Like out of their asses. I guess how like spiders shit silk? But they’re shitting this pink pasty stuff and just smearing it on the walls.”

“Weird,” said James. “What the fuck is that for?”

“Maybe they’re nesting?” Serenity strafed the street with her gun. “Oh, hold up. One of them is - oh fuck.”

She lowered the gun, stared, clearly shocked, then raised it again.

James was dying. “What?!”

“One of them has pulled a man out of a window. He’s either dead or unconscious.”

James fought the urge to leap to his feet. “A guy? What are they doing with him?”

“OK, it’s carrying him over to the others who are laying down…” Her face crumpled in disgust and she looked away. “Oh fuck.” Looked back, her face crumpled with disgust. “One of them’s lifted its mask. Its head is like, a bowl of caviar. They’re feeding the guy into its head, which is…” She gagged, looked down, forced herself to look back up. “Its head is swelling to the size of the dude. His arm’s sunk into its head. Shoulder. Oh fuck, his head.”

She turned away again.

James stared helplessly down into the dark. “The guy moving? Serenity, is he moving? He alive?”

She pressed the back of her wrist against her mouth, raised her gun, looked again. “No. He’s still. Halfway in now. There go his legs. He’s gone. The mask is back down. He’s inside it. It’s going back to work with the others.”

She froze.

“Oh shit. Oh shit oh shit oh shit.”

Rose to her feet and backed away a few steps. “James. The pink goo.”

James felt his gorge rise but stayed still. Let the realization sink home, then inhaled deeply through his nose. The shock was sudden, the implications horrifying, and he looked around at all the dark and silent buildings before him with new understanding.

“They’re pasting people over the walls,” he said slowly, speaking the words so he could try and grapple with the truth.

“I’m going to be sick.” Serenity’s sounded like she was about to puke. “Oh god.”

James swallowed deliberately and lowered the fire-axe, so it lay across his knees. “Let’s back up. We need to tell people.”

They retreated slowly, carefully, mindful of the occasional Nemesis 2 that appeared, some of them even curving away from them so they’d not come too close. Reached the beginning of the block and started striding briskly away.

James’s thoughts were spinning. How many of the symbols were there in NYC? Was it hundreds? Across all five boroughs? He didn’t think he’d heard of an accurate count, though the military had to know.

And in each of them, under the eyes of the monitors…

James took up his radio. “Mancini.”

“Kelly.”

“The Nemesis 2’s are covering the buildings with digested people. We could use a ride out of here.”

There was a long pause.

“Location?”

James told him the intersection up ahead.

“There in three.”

Serenity had stopped and was leaning against the wall, staring out at nothing. Her gaze was hollowed out, her face pallid.

“Hey,” said James, moving close. “You still with me?”

“Why?” She focused on him. “Why are they doing that? Just because they run on nightmare fuel?”

“I don’t know.” James couldn’t even begin to come up with an answer. “But maybe you were right. Maybe they’re nesting.”

“In a nest made from people?” She laughed, the sound tinged with hysteria. “I mean, there’s better building material out there, James. We don’t traditionally make houses of people for a god damn reason.”

“I know.” He stepped closer. “Let’s just get out of here, OK?”

“Its head. The way it… I mean, it was like… that guy…”

“Shh.” James pulled her into his arms clumsily, still holding the axe and rebar, holding her tight as he scanned the street and buildings. “Enough for now. Let’s get the fuck out of here. We can file this report and go get a drink, yeah? What do you say to a whiskey at Herman’s?”

She pressed her brow to his shoulder and for a few moments just shivered, her arms crossed tightly over her chest, guns sticking out on each side as if she were about to execute a no-look trick shot. Finally she nodded against him and stepped back, her cheeks wet with tears, her stare wide and horrified and shocked. “Yeah. Herman’s. The sooner the better.”

Headlights cut through the gloom and the hummer pulled into sight. James gave Serenity a nudge and they jogged over and climbed into the back.

“Let’s get out of here,” said James.

Serenity focused on putting her guns away, then crossed her arms and leaned against James, gaze focused on the street unrolling out the back view over the tail gate.

“James.” Mancini was looking back at him. “What you said…”

“Serenity saw it. She got Deadeye, could see them with greater clarity. They’re… one of them brought out a guy. We think he was dead. Fed it to another, which joined its buddies.”

Serenity tensed.

“They’re laying down pink goo over the building. Using people as the…” James struggled to find the right word. Even Singh was staring at him in horror through the rear-view mirror, his eyes wide.

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“What the everlasting fuck,” whispered Delvecchio. “Sarge, let’s go back there and start blasting.”

“Fuck that,” said Huffman. “Time to start calling in artillery.”

Mancini was frowning at James, less horrified or shocked than the others, but clearly trying to process. “We got word while you were on foot. Command’s sending in drones to investigate, bunch of -”

“Watch out -!” screamed Huffman, flinging out a hand toward the windshield as Singh looked back out, a Nemesis 2 appearing in the headlights, a flash of porcelain, inky black carapace, scythe-arms rising to slam down on the hood just before they slammed into it.

Singh yelled and slammed on the gas.

The Nemesis 2 pinned to the front, right there and staring at them, it withdrew one bladed arm from the hood and slammed it through the windshield, plunging it through the glass and into Singh’s chest, out the back of his seat.

“Fuck!” shouted Mancini, reaching for the wheel as Singh lost control.

The back of the hummer clipped a parked car as it turned. Delvecchio was bringing his SAW up, Serenity drawing her Sig Sauer’s, but the hummer bounced back out of the hit. The hummer hit another Nemesis 2 while the first disappeared under the front, raking its scythe-arms down the front, carving metal, then the front left corner slammed down, the tire gone, and the hummer flipped.

Everything seemed to slow.

Serenity’s eyes widened and she leaped out the back of the hummer as it rose into the air, her grace balletic, clearing the tailgate as her back arched, a Sig in each hand, out into the gyring world. Delvecchio roared as he flew into James, his SAW cracking James in the face.

They rotated and crashed top down onto the parked line of cars. The canvas roof crumpled immediately, and James was crushed against the parked car beneath them for an agonizing second before the hummer seesawed back up, then with a groan of tortured metal slid down sideways onto the street.

“Argh,” said Singh. White light blazed from his chest, shimmered around him, encasing him in platinum fire and then washed away.

James shook his head, cleared away the ringing, then followed Huffman out the back.

Serenity was unleashing her Sigs.

James stood on shaky legs, oriented himself, grateful for his prodigious strength, wishing he had higher Stamina, then froze.

They’d bulldozed through a pack of Nemesis 2’s who’d been coming down the center of the street. Three or four of them had been bowled over, some with shattered limbs, but others had drawn back, leaped onto the sides of buildings, were staring at them with those sneering visages.

Serenity had somehow landed on her feet and was rising and turning from her crouch as she fired burning gray rounds into the Nemesis 2’s around her.

Huffman opened fire, M4 blazing regular green tips at the closest Nemesis which reared back and oriented on her.

James had enough juice left for one Sacred Strike. He had to make it count. The side of his head was throbbing, something was off with his hip, but fuck, no time for that.

Raising his fire-axe he turned, trying to gauge which was coming first. No rebar. The Nemesis 2’s on the walls were watching, those who’d been hit by the hummer were climbing to their feet except for one who’d been too fucked up.

Time to get to work.

James ran forward to draw the Nemesis 2 off Huffman only to jerk aside as another one sprang at him from the side, bladed arms pincering, but it hit a wall of gray fire that appeared from nowhere, knocking it back.

Singh standing atop the hummer, gun in one hand, other extended to James.

Shield of motherfucking Faith.

Huffman was backing away. She needed one more level. He had to weaken the demon then let her finish it off.

James ran in, cursed his low Agility, brought his fire-axe behind his head and then threw it, a double-armed toss. The burning axe rotated through the air and buried itself in the Nemesis 2’s chest, sinking deep.

It staggered, dropped to one knee.

“Huffman!” shouted James. “Finish it!”

A blast of M4 fire, Huffman moving forward now, rifle to her shoulder, pinpoint aiming at the demon’s head, the rounds slammed home, the head burst apart, and Huffman let out a scream of primal victory.

James had no time to wait. He tore his axe free and then Delvecchio entered the fray, his SAW going all out.

White fire sprayed across the street, 700 rounds per minute, cutting across the Nemesis 2’s, his shout barely audible over the cacophony, “Get some! Get some! Get some!”

A grenade detonated on the far wall, blowing a Nemesis 2 right off its perch in a billow of flame and smoke. Singh loaded another grenade smoothly, paused only to summon his shield next to Delvecchio to fend off another Nemesis 2 attack, blocking the charge completely.

Serenity ejected both mags, patted her chest, drew out a last mag and loaded it.

Two Nemeses on the walls, three on the street.

Singh fired another grenade.

One Nemesis on the wall.

Delvecchio dropped the drum, grabbed a second, knelt to load.

The Nemeses converged on him.

James ran to intercept. Six long steps, out wide, and the angle was just right -

Sacred Strike.

He unleashed a gout of white flame that swept over the first and charred the one just past it. The first wheeled, came clacking and reaching for him but he swung his axe like a baseball bat, Smite leaving a trail of gray flame in the air behind it, and shattered its mask and the structural integrity of its head.

Mancini and Huffman both concentrated their fire on the third Nemesis 2 that was converging on Delvecchio, but now Huffman’s fire blazed with Smite and drove the monster back, causing it to rise to its rear two legs as it tried to slash at the rounds before toppling over backwards.

Pain, explosive, lifting James right off his feet, tearing him in half. He looked down, saw a scythe blade emerging from his chest, its wicked point having burst out his sternum.

The limb folded, brought him around so that he was face to face with that horrific mask, that sneering frown. He’d lost his grip on the axe, flung out his fist to try for a Sacred Strike, but he was all out of juice.

His aura was ashing it, warping its frame, blackening its mask, faster than before, but it hadn’t been enough to keep the demon completely off of him.

Damn, thought James. Shoulda…

Serenity leaped up onto the demon’s back. Somehow she balanced on its abdomen, rode it as it skittered around to dislodge her. She grabbed it by the top of the head, fingers curling down its brow, yanked it back and shot up into its skull, emptying the mag. The front of its face blew out in great oily chunks and all the life went out of it.

They all collapsed to the ground.

Delvecchio’s SAW roared back to life.

James had to get off its limb. He grabbed it with both hands, ignoring how the blade cut into his palms, and levered himself off.

He was dying. Felt the strength flooding out of him, his pulse pumping blood out, but he focused, summoned his sheets, used an Aeviternum point.

White healing light flooded over him, washed away the pain, healed his wounds, left him hale and bursting with vitality, every whisper of pain erased.

His axe was a yard away. James scrambled over, snatched it up. A grenade detonated along with the shattering sound of two windows being destroyed.

Gunfire began to ease off.

James looked around. Serenity was turning in a slow circle, out of ammo, her face a livid expression of loathing and hate. Huffman was panting, grinning, Delvecchio putting up his SAW. Singh was still atop the overturned hummer, Mancini on the road before him.

Around them lay the corpses of seven Nemesis 2’s, an eighth trapped under the car.

“Holy shit,” said Delvecchio. “Level, baby.”

“Level,” said Singh.

Huffman’s shout was rich with savage delight. “Level, fucking finally.”

Mancini couldn’t resist a grin. “Same. Serenity, James?”

“Gonna need to kill a few more,” said Serenity. “And bigger guns. These Sigs are beautiful, but I need something with more punch and ammo.”

James lowered his axe. The joy from the fire team was infectious, but then his grin died on his face.

Dozens of Nemesis 2’s were moving past them along the rooftops, turning their faces to watch, but not stopping, not bothering to engage.

He turned and stared up at the burning symbol, studied its hateful purple hue and how it was reflected in the cloud cover.

“Good work, everyone.” He propped his axe over his shoulder. “But now we need to figure out how to take that thing down.”

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