392: No Reason For Concern (Patreon)

Nicolai and Serrin coasted through the sky, angling toward the group. Yue and Junko and Maverick stood atop the same roof, looking back to where the elemental’s faint green shape was wrapped around Marlo, carrying him across the street. Sora set Marlo down as Nicolai and Serrin landed, and as they looked over Nicolai saw some uncertain frowns and exchanging of glances from Maverick and Marlo, while Junko watched him come with much the same kind of expression as one might wear while looking at a truck full of manure driving down the street toward them.

‘Did you see anything, then?’ she said, her voice clipped.

‘Nothing to worry about,’ he answered easily, and experienced a surge of dopamine at just how chilled out and unruffled he sounded. Oh yes, it felt good to be back in the driver’s seat.

‘I figure it’s better me and Serrin stick close to you guys, now dusk is falling. My drones should prove enough to warn us of any danger.’

At that moment, his ever-growing collection of the things was forming a large cordon all around them, out to 500 metres.

‘I wanted to say,’ said Nicolai, ‘I’m sorry for how I acted. I was truthfully behaving like a child.’

He couldn’t help but smile at Junko while he said this, although she couldn’t see him, which was good.

The group stirred with clear surprise. More glances were exchanged. A few of them were looking at Junko in a way he judged as somewhat pushy.

She sighed. ‘Well, as these guys pointed out, maybe I could have acted better too.’

Maverick was nodding. ‘We were talking. You did do a lot back there with the dragon.’

‘And you weren’t wrong that we should have got moving,’ added Yue.

Marlo just crossed his arms, grunted.

Junko was now avoiding Nicolai’s eyes.

‘Thank you,’ said Nicolai, nodding gravely.

Beside him, he could feel Serrin near bouncing on the balls of his feet, practically emanating happiness. Not only that, Serrin’s Soul Sense was giving him a light pressure. He knew what the Hornet wanted, and it was only words.

‘I may have been a little bossy,’ he said, in the tone of one admitting something. ‘You have your methods. I have mine. But we should be trying to work together. Please be assured I have no intention to take over in any way.’ He paused, thinking of excuses and also whether a little honesty might actually be beneficial, then continued. ‘In truth, I have reason for needing to be out of this city by the end of the week, beyond simply our objective. I don’t want to go into it, but the longer this takes, the more danger I’m in. So you can understand, I might chafe a little at any delays.’

There was some curiosity at that, but Nicolai had no intention of filling them in.

The group got moving, and quickly he understood why they were going so slowly. First Sora would carry Junko, Yue, and Maverick over. Then the Elemental would return, take up Marlo, and carry him.

He and Serrin offered to transport the big man. A little difficult, as he was so heavy they had to all jump in unison to get him a decent amount of height, then they’d glide to the next building. Things got easier when Nicolai started checking the route ahead with drones, finding routes where there were small enough gaps between rooftops that Marlo and the others would be able to walk a good distance before needing to be carried.

They were making decent progress by the time the sun was no more than a sliver on the horizon. Night was imminent. Above them, a curtain of stars sparkled like a great handful of thrown diamonds across the sky, granting a surprising amount of illumination, enough to easily see the migration passing by.

A great mass of undead bodies squeezed through the street below, dominated by muscular brutes who swayed head and shoulders above the wiry undead all around them. The horde was eerily silent, no noise but that of many feet on the stone, and that dulled by the mist which trailed between their bodies. Here and there, dog-like runners stalked through the gaps.

Nicolai noted they were all land-bound. No flyers. Lucky for the others.

‘Lean looking, aren’t they?’ murmured Marlo while they all peered over the edge of the crenellated rooftop. ‘Kind of like jerky.’

‘Jerky?’ asked Serrin.

‘Strips of meat,’ replied Maverick. ‘You eat it. But not this jerky,’ the dog added, gaze turning back down. ‘This jerky will eat you.’

Faint shadows surrounded their little patch of rooftop. The defences, courtesy of Yue, keeping them hidden.

‘Shall we find somewhere to bed down?’ continued Marlo, pulling away from the edge. ‘What do you lot think? I can keep going, but it’d be safer to find somewhere and wait out the night.’

Junko nodded. ‘It would be nice to have a rest.’

‘Do you need sleep?’ asked Nicolai, putting an edge of confusion into his voice. He knew that none of them should need to sleep. Not yet, at any rate.

‘During the night, places like this can become more dangerous,’ said Yue. ‘We might encounter nocturnal hunters, or other beings not normally seen.’

‘My drones have been inside every building we’ve passed,’ said Nicolai, ‘and so far I’ve yet to see anything truly dangerous. I see no reason for concern.’

A scuffling came from the nearby stairwell, drawing their eyes.

‘You sure about that?’ murmured Marlo.

Nicolai didn’t answer, simply floating into the air and disappearing in a flicker of light.

Landing atop the railing he saw a pair of rangy, long-limbed undead with large claws cautiously scrabbling up the steps. They snuffled at the air, turning their eyeless heads left and right as they sought sightlessly for prey.

Threat Analysis tagged them as minimal threats. Nicolai was already descending. Two swift stabs and their souls imploded. A great slash left then right cut their heads from their bodies.

A moment later he emerged from the stairwell, cutting off his invisibility as he tossed the heads. To his delight, Junko let out a faint gasp as they landed with dull, wet thumps, rolling at her feet.

‘I see no reason for concern,’ he repeated. ‘I suggest we keep moving and sleep when first light breaks.’

Junko was staring at him, eyes narrowed, biting her lip, uncertain. He could tell that she opposed him, but it seemed that she did so almost instinctively rather than for any reason. She simply didn’t want to do what he wanted to do.

‘Opinions are like arseholes,’ said Marlo easily. ‘Everyone’s got one.’

‘And they all stink,’ echoed Maverick, chuckling to himself.

What Nicolai had said was simple fact, not an opinion, but whatever. He could already see a way forwards. He was beginning to work out some of the little levers in Junko’s skull.

‘Fine,’ he said, shrugging. ‘Fine. Well, it’s up to you. We all know what we’re doing. I thought everyone possessed thermal vision, or at least a Soul Sense, and other measures,’ he said, nodding to Sora. ‘I know that you three do,’ he added, nodding toward Yue, Marlo and Maverick. ‘But I suppose if Junko can’t see, we should bed down.’

‘I can see perfectly well,’ she snapped, frowning up at him. ‘I’ve got thermal, like just about everyone.’ She made a show of considering the matter, flicking her frown around, tapping her leg, before nodding, sharp and decisive. ‘We should keep moving. That’s what I think. There’s no need for us to stop yet.’

The others nodded, all but Serrin, who was staring right at Nicolai. A moment later, he received a message from the Hornet.

‘You’re goading her,’ said Serrin. ‘She wanted to find somewhere to rest.’

‘Goading?’ Nicolai replied with complete innocence. ‘I’m simply helping her understand all the facts, see her way clear to making a good decision.’

‘Let’s go,’ said Junko, and off they went. He and Serrin stayed closer to the group this time, at Serrin’s insistence.

The hordes of undead that occasionally filled the streets had slipped into a state of dumb somnolence, standing and swaying, so the group didn’t even have to worry about the undead climbing from the streets onto the rooftops, as some had done previously.

The mist soon hid those undead from view, rising until it filled the streets, pale like a sea of milk with rooftops spearing out of it like sunken ships, and nothing moved across those rooftops but them. At least for the first few hours. But, as always, trouble found them.

Nicolai saw it coming first, a large pack surging over the rooftops. Each creature was broad, built like a squat weightlifter and burdened with an excessive amount of muscle. They were hairless, nude and pale. Their arms and legs ended in oversized hands, each with three huge claws—like a cross between a gorilla and a tiger. Their heads were squat things with little eyes and big, toothy mouths.

Threat Analysis had caught them at the outer edge of his drone cordon, but they were moving fast: loping across rooftops and clambering up walls, seeming as comfortable travelling vertically as they were horizontally.

He immediately pinged the others and sent the relevant drone feeds to everyone capable of receiving them. Simultaneously, Threat Analysis performed a calculation. The creatures appeared to be on a direct collision course with the group. A moment later, it confirmed the result.

ETA: One minute, Threat Analysis estimated.

Through the drone feed, they watched the creatures reach the edge of a rooftop and leap bodily from it, sailing a full fifty feet. They jumped one after another and side by side, seeming almost to flow between the buildings.

Thirty seconds, Threat Analysis corrected.

Nicolai shared the footage, distantly heard the others break into concerned chatter, saw the monsters’ heads start twisting and turning, eyes glinting, and felt a sudden series of ripples that rolled out as though each of the creatures had its own little spiritual sonar. Felt the ripples roll over him and reflect, saw them touch on the group below, heard Yue yelling, voice strident, pointing toward a raised section of the roof they were crossing, saw them all break into a run, saw the path of the monsters veer slightly to follow.

The crack of his M99 shattered what remained of the silence.

He caught one of them mid-leap. The .50 calibre round obliterated its head, then its limp body crashed into a wall and tumbled into the mist.

Serrin fired with him, and the recoil of their shots drove them back through the air.

The monsters only came on faster, some dropping off the edges of rooftops out of sight. Nicolai kept on firing, picking them off.

Seconds later he and Serrin touched down on the roof. He tugged free his spent magazine and slotted in a fresh one. The group had found a decent spot. A raised section rising from a larger, flatter stretch of stone roof. There was a nice empty killing field between them and the monsters.

The creatures obligingly charged straight into it, flowing over the stone as a couple dozen loping shapes, skin bright under the starlight. Nicolai breathed out slow then his rifle darted left and right, beating against him like a heart as bullets scythed through them, taking off arms and heads.

At his side, Serrin clung to his rifle and barked out his own bursts of fire. Further on crouched Maverick, guns rattling and snapping, a tube protruding from his shoulder letting out hollow thumps as the dog launched a spray of grenades, drew a line of fire across the roof that tossed the pale things into the air in chunks.

The shooting stopped, mostly. All but one of Maverick’s littler guns, which rattled on a little longer before puttering out, and there was silence.

Nicolai lowered his rifle and breathed deep of the wonderful smell of gunfire as he absently pressed a fresh magazine in.

‘Did we win?’ came Marlo’s deep grumble as he pressed up between them. He leaned on the railing and frowned out at the bodies strewn across the killing field.

‘No,’ said Yue. The black-robed woman was a little ways back. Arms raised, eyes closed. He spied a pale glint where the shirt under her robes rode up, recognised an Oma vest, though much nicer than the one he’d cobbled together. Green light began to emanate from her and Sora, who floated above, whiskered face oddly serene, as the green energy expanded outward in slow throbs. He watched it come with some wariness. Junko stood beside her, fists clenched and mouth tight with worry and determination.

‘These things won’t die so easily as that,’ Yue continued. ‘They’re demonic. I can sense it.’

She’s right, put in Threat Analysis, drawing his eye to movement. On the roof, the mangled bodies stirred. The neck-stump of one bulged and writhed, grew a new head, shook itself awake and opened new eyes.

‘They’re tough,’ he said, relishing the words, delight radiating through him from the Dark and the Thrill. He tossed his M99 into the Big Mouth and dragged his Knife from its sheath in a blur of hungry steel.