After the last few nightmarish battles filled with monsters on both sides of the conflict, this one felt markedly different. Reece hopped off Shenfu and surveyed the situation. Everywhere he looked were members of the Order, but only regular humans or machines. He saw Angel, Beth, and Saul crouched behind a low rock wall together. They were all armed with guns. The two members of Naeva’s father’s pack, Zhavia, and Eskander, were together behind the remains of a massive column. They were also carrying firearms. Bjorn and Hank were up front but still in their human forms.

Why none of them had transformed, Reece could only surmise that their abilities were being suppressed. Reece could feel something weighing on himself too. He noticed the Qilin were statues again. The Order had a new trick up their sleeve. They’d be fighting without any of their magical abilities.

Behind a large berm, Taela, Aspen, Ciera, and Dmitri were fighting with firearms as well, Taela being the only one who didn’t look human. He wasn’t sure how they had lasted so long powered down as they were, but at least they had weapons and were fighting back. So far, all his companions were still in the fight.

That’s when Reece noticed Ciera’s skill with her Spear rifle. Angel and the others had formed a defensive perimeter around her, providing cover fire from behind whatever hard cover they could find. She was using headshots to take out any Order member that came close to their group. Reece smiled, realizing that Ciera’s skill wasn’t magic. She was just that good.

Unfortunately, they were a good hundred meters from Reece and offered little protection for him and his new friend. Besides that, they were still in a world of trouble themselves. Ciera was the only one who was still a highly effective combatant. It was only a matter of time before the Order brought in heavier firepower, and Ciera would be outmatched.

Feeling exposed, Reece ducked into the corner of two joined walls and pulled out his twin pistols. Suddenly, he could hear Shenfu huffing behind him, a sound he had never heard him make. Turning, he watched as the Qilin turned to stone before his eyes, the beautiful woman leaping from her perch atop Shenfu just in time. Chippo was nowhere to be seen. The almost constant ‘zip’ ‘zip’ ‘zip’ of Ciera’s Spear rifle and occasional reports of suppression fire told Reece they were still in the fight.

“Some rescue, lover,” grumbled the woman after she ran up behind where he had crouched and hugged close to him. “What’s the plan?”

Her allure had disappeared. Now she was more of a gorgeous liability. Reece looked at her incredulously until he realized she was serious.

“I have no idea,” said Reece. “I’m just starting to figure out what is happening.”

“Well, from the looks of it, they’ve found a way to nullify the elemental forces of nature in the area,” she replied. “We need to get out of here.”

“What?” asked Reece.

“All of our abilities have been suppressed. So, we need to leave before they find us,” answered the woman.

“I won’t abandon my friends and allies,” yelled Reece. “We’ve got other ways of fighting.”

Six troopers in Order regalia came around a low wall of stone. Reece saw them a moment before they saw him and his companion. Reece didn’t hesitate, bringing his pistols to bear and lighting them up with a liberal expenditure of bullets. Once both clips were emptied, the soldiers all lay dead or dying.

Before Reece could blow out a sigh of relief, a grenade flew over the crumbling stone wall and landed near him. Eyes growing wide, he threw his guns over the wall, grabbed the girl, and leaped over as well. Landing on the other side of the crumbling stone, Reece covered the girl with his body just as the grenade exploded. While debris rained down on their heads, Reece retrieved his guns and reloaded, hoping the enemy assumed they were dead.

“Can I have one of those?” asked the blonde woman, holding her hand out to him. “By the way, savior. If we’re about to die, I’d at least like to know your name. Mine’s Cyrene.”

“Reece,” he replied as he handed her one of his guns, so distracted that he didn’t realize she was the city’s namesake. “And I don’t plan on dying today.”

Holstering his remaining pistol, Reece reached deep into his pocket, hoping the suppression didn’t affect his suit. Luck was with him. The dimensional pocket seemed to be fully functional. He quickly found what he was after and pulled out a fully loaded grenade launcher. Flipping the safety off, Reece stood behind the wall. Once in position, he pulled the trigger while sweeping the battlefield from left to right. “Thunk, thunk, thunk, thunk, thunk,” announced the launcher, speaking with the thick accent of devastation to come as Reece lobbed grenades everywhere that more than one enemy soldier was hunkered down. He could hear Ciera’s rifle shots and was thankful for her unintentional cover fire.

The Order understood the message perfectly and ran for better cover. It was a little too late as explosions ripped through the ancient ruins. A few Order members sought to escape by unknowingly running toward Reece and Cyrene. She showed them the error of their ways with Reece’s pistol, hitting four before they could register what had happened. Reece looked over his shoulder at Cyrene, an eyebrow raised as he grinned awkwardly. More gunfire rang out, and they both dropped back behind the wall.

“I’m not just a pretty face,” she replied, inspecting the weapon. “Well, these little things sure are handy.”

“How’d you even know how to use it?” asked Reece, tilting his head. “I can’t imagine you’ve ever even seen a gun before.”

“Simple,” she explained. “I just watched you and did the same.”

“Okay then,” replied Reece, raising an eyebrow at the woman’s demeanor. “Thanks for the backup. Here, take these and watch.”

Reece tossed four magazines in her lap and pulled his pistol back out. Ejecting the spent magazine from earlier, he reloaded a new magazine and slapped it into position. Turning to face the wall, they nodded to each other before standing up simultaneously and unloading their clips into the eight soldiers steadily creeping up on them. The soldiers returned fire but fell quickly. Once they emptied their magazines, Reece and Cyrene dropped behind the wall to reload.

More gunfire came from the other side of the soldiers. Soon, the sounds and smell of gunpowder filled the air. With a brief respite, Reece smiled at Cyrene. That’s when he noticed the blood. She had taken at least two hits, one to the chest and one to the arm. She was quickly growing pale. Reaching over, she kissed him passionately, but all he could taste was blood. She slumped back after a moment.

“Och, aouch,” she spat, clearly disappointed. “You have to find the source of the elemental force dampening and destroy it. I don’t think… I… have much, *cough*, time.”

“On it,” replied Reece, dropping his other pistol in her lap. Reloading the grenade launcher, Reece looked at her. “I take it that your healing powers work much like mine. In that case, thanks for the good-luck kiss.”

“More often than not,” she gasped, squinting her eyes tightly and furrowing her brow from the pain. “We make our own luck.”

“Yeah, I get that a lot,” replied Reece, tearing off some of the woman’s dress to make bandages for her arm. After wrapping it tightly, he moved one of her hands and pressed it against her chest wound to staunch the bleeding. “Keep pressure on it and try and provide me a bit of cover fire. Just don’t worry about hitting anything. I’m going to make some luck for the both of us.”

Reece peeked over the wall, noting the area seemed clear. Most of the gunfire had moved to their right, the Order trying to push them to the edge of the city where it overlooked the Mediterranean Sea. Wasting no more time, while Cyrene continued to bleed, Reece leaped the wall and moved in, finding cover behind another wall just as gunfire ripped into the ground right behind him. Several familiar shots told Reece that Ciera had them pinned down, so he bolted for closer cover. By this time, he had figured out that what Cyrene had called ‘elemental force’ was just another name for mana. Now, he had to find that mana-dampening device quickly.

Over half a dozen Order soldiers noticed him and started firing in his direction. A few got over-exuberant and left their cover to get better shots. This gave Ciera an opening. She downed several of them, providing Reece with the suppressing fire he needed to get to cover. Unfortunately, that left Ciera exposed as the soldiers fired back at her. Reece heard her yell out as she was hit.

Looking over to where she had been standing only ten meters away, he saw she had slumped down the wall, eyes narrowed in pain. Reece ran over to her. She struggled to prop herself against a low stone wall forming part of another temple. She held her side, and blood streamed between her fingers. Reece saw more coming from her mouth. He knew that her wound was serious. The bodies of at least a dozen Order troops were strewn around the other side of her, all shot through the head. She had been busy.

From the look of things, the Order’s soldiers had rushed Reece’s companions. In their haste to retreat, Ciera had been hit.

“Where’s everyone go?” yelled Reece, finally reaching her.

“I told them to make a run for it, said I’d cover them,” she coughed. “They should have a good *cough* two minutes head-start and counting. I… told them I’d… meet up with you. *cough* Only way they’d leave.”

“You did good,” complemented Reece. “Now, let’s see what I can do for you.”

As Reece knelt beside her to see what he could do, he could hear Hank yelling in the distance and Angel cursing as the soldiers chased the small band. Reece helped them the only way he could. He shot at the four soldiers that had gotten past Ciera and his hiding spot. They were busy taking potshots at his friends, somehow completely missing the two of them. The soldiers were sitting ducks. Reece dropped all four of them in quick succession. Dropping the gun back into its holster, Reece turned towards where the soldiers were coming from and unloaded the entire clip of grenades in their general direction. He quickly reloaded and repeated the process, spreading the destruction before him. He hastily reloaded the launcher with incendiary grenades. Waiting for some of the smoke to clear, Reece fired another volley of grenades. The grenades exploded, sending dirt, rock, and fire into the air. It gave them some time. Reece kissed Ciera hard, slipping his tongue into her eager mouth. He hoped it would help her to heal.

“Hang tight,” said Reece once he pulled back. “I’ll slow them down and destroy whatever’s suppressing our abilities. Do you know what it is?”

“I don’t, but still,” answered Ciera, smiling weakly as she clutched her wound. “Go get ‘em, tiger.”

When he was ready, he ran to the final area of cover, a low wall before the open field from where the Order was coming. Sliding feet first behind the cover of some rocky rubble, Reece kept his body low.

Peaking over the wall, his heart sank. They had more mechanized units than he previously thought. All the pilots of the massive mechanical exoskeletons had taken headshots, but each one had an orb atop it, aflame with purplish light. They were also humming at a low frequency that Reece could barely make out. There were dead Order members everywhere, but many more were moving in. The dead pilots were being pulled out and replaced, the new pilots strapping themselves into the strange machines. With Ciera out of commission, Reece knew that those mechs would spell the end of Reece and his allies.

He quickly ducked back down behind the wall and low-crawled to a better position. Popping up about ten meters from his previous location and partially obscured by smoke, he stood tall as he peppered the entire area with incendiary grenades, paying particular attention to the mechs. Hoping that would do the trick, he dropped the launcher into a pocket and ran back for Ciera.

He heard the explosions behind him and felt the tremors in the earth from their power as he ran. A few seconds later, he jumped the wall to find Ciera. She looked better. He only had time to lift her into his arms before gunfire erupted again. It came from down the terrace where he had last heard Hank and the rest of the group. Bullets kicked up sand and rocks around him as they tried to shoot him dead.

A gurgling yell caused Reece to look up from where he was crouching. Two more soldiers fell from off to his left, shot through the chest and head, both covered in blood. Someone else in Angel’s group had decent aim. Unfortunately, more of the Order’s soldiers were streaming into the gap between him and his companions while they retreated in the opposite direction from where Cyrene waited for him.

More bullets whizzed in Reece’s direction. He took a hit in his back, but the vest protected him from the worst of it. Still, another took a small chunk of flesh from his shoulder, and a third grazed his arm. Luckily, the corner of the ruined building was close, and the smoke was thick there. Reece sprinted into the smoke and around the corner. His shoulder and arm were screaming in pain while he continued to carry Ciera, but he forced himself to keep moving back toward the badly wounded Cyrene. Smoke from the incendiaries had nearly filled that entire area of the ruins. That gave Reece the cover he needed to reach the woman. She looked even worse than before, but she was still alive.

He again kissed Ciera passionately on the lips, slipping her some tongue to kick start her healing ability. It seemed to work because she kissed him back with equal fervor. Releasing their lip lock, he looked into her eyes for signs of clarity.

“Can you walk?” he asked.

“Uh, yeah… I think so,” replied Ciera.

“Good, because I have to carry Cyrene here,” said Reece, setting Ciera gently on her feet.

She seemed unsteady but used her Spear rifle as a crutch, still holding her injured side.

“Since we recently made love,” she told him, “I should heal up just fine in a few hours.”

“Good,” said Reece. “Now, let’s get out of here while we still can.”

Hefting the incredibly light blonde into a fireman’s carry, Reece ran for the edge of the ruined city where it overlooked the desert below, Ciera limping along after him as quickly as she could.

Reece made it a couple hundred meters with Cyrene over his shoulders before he heard the first yell from behind him. A moment later, gunshots rang out. At that distance, the shots went wide or short. Still, it was only a matter of time before the Order caught up with them and his wounded companions.

That’s when he saw their potential salvation another fifty meters down the road. An old military MRAP. It looked like it had been through a war but was more or less in one piece. Even the tires appeared sound, probably inflated with the rubbery foam they had started using right before the world fell apart. He had driven the MRAPs in the corps and few times and hoped this one was still operational. Picking up speed, he made it there with the occasional bullet whizzing by.

Both doors were open. The MRAP’s inside had been mostly ruined. Time and weather had taken their toll on the softer pieces of the vehicle. Reece managed to strap Cyrene down in the passenger seat and laid it back, placing Cyrene out of the line of fire. While he did this, Ciera worked her way into the back of the vehicle. He saw through the open driver’s side that the Order was closing. Not having time to go around, he crawled over Cyrene and pulled the door shut before bullets started plinking off the vehicle’s hull.

Pulling himself into the driver’s seat, he tried starting it, but it wouldn’t turn over. Instead, he popped it into neutral and held his breath. The vehicle was on a slope but probably hadn’t moved since before the zombie plague. Reece was desperate. He violently jerked his body back and forth to try and break the vehicle loose. Amazingly, the fifth time he pulled himself forward, he felt the MRAP slowly begin to move forward. It screeched in complaint as rusted parts rubbed against each other for the first time in years. His violent jerking hadn’t added much, but enough to get the job done.

“Ciera, hold onto something,” shouted Reece over his shoulder. “We’re going for a ride!”