“Tick tock!” cried Milley. “Let the games begin!”

The shepherds began to move away, leaving their pets behind. If O’Toole and the gathered observers had been shocked by our impossible healing, I imagine the surprise as our weapons and armour appeared from nowhere was even more mind-blowing.

“Take the raptor guy!” I yelled as we both darted forward without hesitation.

None of the soldiers moving leisurely to safety had expected an attack. It never occurred that we would use the five minutes for anything other than panicked flight. The creatures were obviously under complete control. Even as we charged down the street at them, the dinosaurs showed no outward sign that we were enemies or food. Yet. When the commands were issued, the hunt would begin. I wasn’t prepared to let that happen.

A series of magic missiles flew past my head, followed by a chaos orb for good measure. They all impacted the man’s helmet, fusing it to his head. He screamed until the molten goop encased his face, then fell dead to the ground. I reached the minimum range for my own spell and cast smite on the slowly turning figure of the T-Rex controller. He managed one backward step of fear before my holy energy bore down, searing the flesh from his bones.

“Two for two!” Cris whooped as we passed the immobile raptors.

“It’s a good start!”

The soldier in charge of the Pteranodons wisely took off between two buildings to save his skin. I’d picked our initial targets purely on the basis of their pet’s proximity to us. I knew how fast the flying dinos were, but they were still just birds. They weren’t fast on the ground. They didn’t have the bulk to knock down doors and buildings. They could reach great speeds and swoop, and I was fine with fighting that. With the only thing on the mind of their owner getting to a safe distance, the circular pattern above continued.

We reached the crossroads and I looked back and forth.

“Mark?” Cris asked nervously.

“I say we go right. Head deeper into their training ground.”

“I wasn’t going to ask that,” she said, taking my arm to turn me around.

Both the T-Rex and raptors were watching us. Gone was the vacant, disassociated gaze. Their predator eyes stared hungrily.

“Well, shit,” I said as most of them started to follow.

Two of the disloyal raptors began to fight over the carcass of their controller. There was only a charred soup left of the tyrannosaur’s keeper, and the king wasn’t going to be satisfied with broth. He wanted meat, red and dripping.

Cris grabbed me and we headed left, tearing down the abandoned road as fast as our legs could carry us. It was the quintessential US main street that I’d seen in countless movies. Brick buildings topped with apartments and a glass fronted store below. The first we passed was a barbers, complete with the sun faded red and blue barber’s pole. Three chairs sat within, two of them toppled over amidst the glass and debris. A razor strop hung from the only one still upright.

“This was an actual town,” I said as we jogged on past a café, a clothes shop, a hardware store, and more.

“So?”

“I was expecting fakery. Like in the army training videos. Ply walls on timber frames.”

“I guess with the money Milley makes he can afford the real thing. Simulated combat in real streets, door kicking real doors, you know the type of thing.”

The T-Rex clomped into view, still not quite right with the fact he was his own creature again. The raptors followed, walking instead of sprinting.

Cris noticed I was still looking around. “Why does this matter? We’ve still got hungry monsters on our asses.”

“Because ply wouldn’t stand up to our friends back there,” I explained, coming to a stop next to the long abandoned town square. “Where in a real small town would be the safest place to go? I’m talking brick walls, a basement, and places to hide?”

She thought it over rapidly. “The school or library. A bank vault would be good… for a tomb.”

“Any idea which way they might be?”

She dragged me away from the confused dinosaurs who were now following with more purpose. “Let’s pray it’s this direction!”

We passed a memorial statue to the town founder; a guy named Jack Whitney. The bronze had been shot hundreds of times. Cracks lined the thinner parts of the metal casting. Effort had been expended to remove the head which sat on a nearby bench. Lead was buried like grey acne spots all over the once proud face.

Small craters littered the dead lawns and flowerbeds which would once have been pristine and colourful. A rainbow oasis in a relatively arid part of the world. They didn’t look big enough to be artillery impacts, so I guessed it was from mortars. Then again, my combat knowledge was non-existent. They could’ve just as easily been from oversized dogs digging for bones.

“There!” Cris blurted, waving frantically at a sign. “The library! It’s just down the block!”

I noticed another street sign pointing northwest. “Or the school?”

Her head snapped back and forth. “The school will have more windows, but more space too,” she replied. “You call it.”

My mind was made up when I saw the tell-tale red dots begin their attack. “Library!” I said, running up onto the sidewalk that bordered the stores. Their rotten canopies afforded us a small amount of cover. The Pteranodons swooped past, the tips of their wings narrowly missing our pumping arms. Before they could consider landing and making a move for us, Cris sent them packing with a pair of magic missiles.

I saw another building that looked quite defensible and pointed. “What about the town hall?”

Cris spared a second to check it over. “I can’t see any basement windows. Ninety-nine percent chance the library will have an archive down there. We can try it if you want, though?”

I led her away from the town hall with a quick. “Nope.”

The birds of prey had climbed and were circling back toward us. We rounded the corner at the end of the block and found the library waiting on the other side of the road. It was a single-storey brick building with narrow basement windows set a few inches above the dead grass surrounding it. “Even the compys would struggle to fit through that,” I said.

The flock had broken off into individual missiles that darted to and fro above the buildings. There was no way to safely make it without help, so I popped holy shield and ran for it. We were immediately set upon by one of the creatures which crumpled against my barrier, the membrane on its broken wings burning up. I hesitated for a split second to hack its head off, then ran for the twin doors nearby.

We bounded up the two steps together and found the abandoned library in disarray. I’d been hoping to use the rows of books to funnel the raptors into a fairer fight, but everything was toppled. One had been pushed, and that took the next, and the next, like dominos. The floor was nothing but spilled pages and glossy covers. The one aisle free of novels was the one facing the biggest windows, so I immediately binned the plan.

“Basement?” I asked.

“This way,” said Cris, hopping over the bullet riddled reception desk.

A small fire had taken hold when the ancient, tube-screen monitor was hit. There wasn’t much left except for a pool of glass shards and melted plastic that had started to eat at the keyboard before a nearby, discarded extinguisher had put it out. I didn’t have time to analyse the contradiction in shooting up and destroying the place while also caring about fire safety.

The booming voice of Milley rasped from some speakers outside. “Bring more herders! I’m on my way!”

Fate had taken a running kick at the craps table and knocked the bad roll into a winner. Milley might not have wanted to be present for the torture, but he wanted to be close enough to be in control of the proceedings. Proceedings which were not going the way he wanted.

A portion of my focus was on the minimap in my vision. The Pteranodons were back circling, while the uncontrolled T-Rex and raptors were now in open pursuit. The polished floor beneath my feet trembled with each step the massive brute took towards us. As much as I bitched about the lack of a 3D function, the edge it’s basic function gave us couldn’t be underestimated.

Cris led us past a small staffroom and office to a set of beautifully crafted mahogany stairs that belonged in a stately home, not a public library. “This way!” she ordered, taking them two at a time.

The dots on my map all followed through the entrance. I could hear them chittering to themselves as they searched the foyer. The tyrannosaur was thwarted by the building’s size and seemed content to patrol outside.

“Stay behind me,” I whispered, taking Cris’s hand.

Hardly any light made its way through the majority of the thin windows. Years of grime and dust had caked them in a layer of filth that was almost impenetrable. Leading us on, I scanned the near perfect darkness that was only an early twilight to my enhanced vision. The growing skill was making a real difference in precarious situations, and I grudgingly gave the aliens another brownie point.

Whatever predatory senses the raptors were blessed with, it was enough to ensure they knew where we’d gone. Their icons turned and walked from the reception into the hallway.

“Are we going to fight them down here?” asked Cris, fearfully. “I can’t see shit.”

“I’m hoping we won’t need to,” I whispered.

The fire escape was at the other end of the neatly laid out rows of steel shelving. I made to move toward the door, but Cris held me back. “The T-Rex is out there.”

“I know. That’s not my plan. Do you have the crap we snatched from the cathedral?”

“Yeah. Stacks of it.”

“Ok, help me block the door.”

Sections of wall and thick timbers piled up in seconds until the way was impassable.

“Now put your silkweb set on and head around to the right. When they get down here and see me, run for the stairs. I’ll follow.”

Her body tensed as if she wanted to argue. Instead, she swapped armour sets and whispered, “Be safe,” before disappearing.

Moving to our pile of debris, I wedged a half dozen torches into the crevices containing the most wood. The flames started to lick at the dry timber, providing me a perfect backlight. The shelves were stacked with boxes of old files and newspapers. I yanked them in bulk, scattering the contents all over the floor, making sure I made a hellish racket while doing so. At the other end of the basement, the stairs creaked as the first creature started to descend. I moved further down the row, snatching more boxes to tip out. I spilled the contents far and wide, making sure there was an inch-thick layer of paper all the way down to the entrance. Individual pieces fluttered in the air like falling leaves.

The growing fire behind me shimmered in the eyes of the boldest raptor as it stepped down, closely followed by the rest of the pack. Its head turned, looking around the dancing shadows.

“Oy! Fuckface!” I snapped. “Eyes on me.”

The creature hissed and lowered its head, preparing to attack. I helped dial up its anger by flinging a blazing torch at its face. The brand flipped end over end, cracking into its snout with a dull thok. Lips peeling back in fury, the raptor shrieked and charged. My wilful vandalism worked as I’d hoped, causing the creature’s feet to slip and slide on the loose sheafs of old paper. They all staggered towards me, bouncing side to side against the metal shelving.

Get ready, I thought to Cris.

I’m ready.

I backed up as far as I dare without standing directly in the growing blaze. Shield in hand, I braced myself for the first strike. Fangs snapped out, scraping and breaking against my shield. I cast shield bash, knocking the creature back into its friends. They fell in a tangled heap, biting at each other as they attempted to stand back up.

Now!

Cris was off like a shot, racing for the stairs. I used shimmer strike to phase past the pack and ran after her, dropping more lumps of cathedral and a handful of torches on the paper in my wake. The desiccated newspapers went up like they’d been doused in petrol. Cris was poised at the foot of the steps. She started to tip out a part of her inventory, blocking the way with layers of rubble. I joined in until the entire archway was filled, then added another stack of torches for good measure. The frenzied creatures could do nothing to escape their burning fate, and in spite of the fact they wanted to eat me, I felt a wave of sadness as their icons flashed with the agonising debuff.

“You had no choice,” said Cris, dragging me up to the hallway.

The shrieks were pitiful and tore at my heart.

“We’ll make them scream for what they’ve done,” said Cris, turning me away. “I promise.”

“There’s more outside,” I said, changing the subject. “And more coming.”

“Let’s get to it then,” Cris replied, steeling herself for the fight to come.