Chapter Fifty-Six - Leaving a Gift Behind

“There was a time where the global market was, if not stable, then at least predictable. Prices rose and fell based on tangible things. Governments across the world had good reason to make sure that things stayed nice and even and that spikes, either huge growth or large drops, didn’t occur too often.

And then aliens started invading random cities, governments broke up, massive mega corporations only dreamed up in our worst nightmares rose up, and there were suddenly gods among men walking about.

To say that the economy now is a wild, fluctuating thing would be a massive understatement.”

--Arthur Newton, Economist, 2045

***

We were halfway up the first set of stairs when I heard the familiar keening of a Resonator going off from behind us.

I paused on the next step up and tried to listen as best I could. I wanted to hope it was just a rat, but my luck was never that good. When the grenade stopped suddenly, as if someone had pulled the power, I knew things were going to get interesting. “Faster,” I said.

No one saw fit to complain.

By the time we had reached the first floor, I heard two more resonators going off below us.

“Ma’am,” the soldier at the very back said. “There’s only the ones on the stairs left.”

I nodded and refocused on the path ahead. “Myalis. I need something that will make the route behind us unpassable. Got anything like that?”

I have a few things that could collapse the building, but I think you’re looking for a more... temporary solution. There’s the Mark I Heavy Smoke grenade.

“To blind them?” I asked. That could work.

It acts more like an aerosolized acid that is heavy enough that it tends to stay more or less in one place in the air. And before you ask, no, this isn’t the sort of acid that will melt anything following you. It will ruin their lungs if they have them, and will injure most Models quite substantially.

“Good enough,” I said. “Give me a pair.”

New Purchase: Heavy Gas grenade Mark I, two units

Points Reduced to... 453

I held my hands up just long enough to catch a pair of surprisingly heavy canisters. They looked like energy drink cans that mated with an egg timer.

I shoved both in my jacket’s pockets and ran up the last few steps. “Monroe, can you keep everyone here safe? I’m going to give the monsters below a parting gift.”

“Yes ma’am,” he said. With a few gestures he directed his men towards the door to the main floor and two others towards the stairs leading up.

I nodded. It was nice working with professionals. I... couldn’t imagine myself working the way they did. Myalis was right to call me the lone wolf sort. I’d chafe under someone giving me orders like that, but I could appreciate how well his team worked together.

With the civvies huddling together in the middle, panting and gulping for breath and trying to get already unstead legs to calm down, I felt it best to give them a minute or two.

Returning down the first flight of stairs was a bit annoying. It got a lot more annoying when I heard something shuffling below. I paused, pulled out one of the gas grenades, then called down. “If you’re human, bark twice.”

The shuffling continued.

I was about to pull the red tab and toss the grenade down when I hesitated. What if it was someone?

Carefully, with my boots doing more of the work to keep me silent, I moved down one flight, then looked around the corner.

There were three people there. Humans. Or maybe ex-humans was better. They were shambling, walking with awkward steps. Wide-open mouths revealed far, far too many worms clogging their throats. Even their eyes, unfocused and filled with a primal pain, had worms wriggling out of the corners.

Right behind them, moving on long tentacles connected to a pod-like body, was an alien that I’d never seen before. But it was all-black except for a green underbelly, and that was enough for me to label it as trouble.

I pulled the tab and dropped the first grenade right by my feet.

The clunk had them looking up just as I flung the second over their shoulders. They followed it with listless gazes, then turned back towards me.

“Creepy fucks, aren’t you,” I said as I pulled out my Trench Maker. “Sorry.”

I started climbing back up just as the floor started to fill with a purple fog that slowly dropped down the stairs. Where I saw it touching human flesh, it ate away at first the hair, then the skin, and then started to burn its way through the bone beneath.

Targets Eliminated

Reward... 40 points

If anything came up those stairs it would need a new pair of shoes once they reached the top.

“Are you okay, ma’am?” Monroe asked. “We heard gunshots.”

“We had followers,” I said. “We should be good.”

The path from the stairwell to the front was more or less a straight line. One that seemed alien free. Still, I sent Dumbass ahead just to make sure.

When my little drone didn’t get splattered by a passing tentacle monster, I started to lead the others towards the exit. The rhythmic thump-thump-thump of machine gun fire from just ahead had me walking a bit faster.

I shoved open the door leading outside to find the two cars parked differently. They’d moved closer, forming a wedge near the door. The two non-driver soldiers were out of their cars, using the hoods as cover to fire out into the distance while the gun emplacements on the roofs spat out a few hundred rounds into the distance.

“What the shit?” I muttered.

Monroe pushed past, his voice coming out of his helmet with muffled orders. The soldiers that were with us were quick to form up by the cars and set their guns to take aim at anything coming our way.

I turned to the civvies and pulled them closer to the middle. “Down! Down on your knees. Quick. We don’t need you getting smacked by a stray round,” I said.

Once I made sure the door was shut behind me, I turned around fully and tried to take in more than just what was happening right around us.

There were aliens, a whole load of them poking out from around the nearest intersections and sometimes sprinting all out towards our position. Not too many at a time, but enough that the bodies were piling up.

The main thrust of the incursion is coming closer. These are the advanced scouts. Within the hour, this street will be like the one below the building where we first met.

That meant that soon we’d be drowning in aliens. “We need to get out of here,” I said.

Monroe turned my way. “We don’t have room for everyone,” he said. It was the lack of emotion in the statement that made it so damned chilling.

And he was right. There weren’t enough seats in the cars. Even if people were sitting in each other's laps and we tossed everything out.

I worked my jaw as I tried to think of something. I could maybe buy a car? I doubted it. A trailer? Then I saw all the trucks just... parked in the road, some of them still idling in place. A few were old enough that they still had cabins for drivers.

“Myalis, you got that cyberwarfare shit running?”

Of course. Do you have a no-doubt brilliant idea?

“Check the trucks around here. Can you see what they’re loaded with? We need one that’s easy to empty and that we can use as transport.”

That... is actually not a dumb idea. Checking. And done. The red vehicle to your left is loaded with two tones of one-ply brand recycled toilet paper. It should be easy enough to unload.

I eyed the rather old-looking red truck, one of those models from way back in 2030 when trucks still had drivers. “That’ll do,” I said. It looked sturdy enough, but what mattered was that it could move. “Monroe. We’re doing a bit of grand theft truck. I’ll need a couple of your guys to move it.”

He looked at me, then at the truck I was pointing to. “We’re not trained to drive a truck like that,” he said.

“I am!” Speedy said. “One of you take over the turrets. I’ll go with the kid.”

She got a thumbs up and, not wasting one more minute, started towards the truck. I had to jog to catch up. “This is a bit of a crazy plan,” I said.

I couldn’t see Speedy’s face, but I knew she was grinning. “That’s probably why I like it. Plus I’ve always wanted to drive one of these.”

The odds we were going to make it out seemed simply spectacular.

***