Red Twilight: A Dawning Of Power

Chapter 10: The Colossus from the Blights

Lacerti locks the blades down on his Blacktails. The door rattles. Someone is out there, and it sounds too small to be a zombie … the other child? Lacerti thinks. He looks at El, and El looks back, another battle starting in his mind as he thinks, Is the value of one life worth seven? Of course it is. Lacerti nods his head to the door. El reaches for his Jackal.

"I am going to open the door; someone is out there still, and we are going to rescue them. Anyone that would like to help, it would be appreciated," El explains as he and Lacerti begin un-barricading the door.

Jacob looks stern. He nods as he grabs a machete and slices it into the crossbar of his shotgun. Snake looks to Jacob for approval then nods also. Larry stands in protest.

"Are you all nuts?" he gasps. "What if it's another monster?"

El looks at him momentarily. "What if it's a child?"

Lacerti brings up a huge foot and kicks the door out. The waiting monsters scatter in shock as the party pours onto the stage. Snake looks to El as he raises his weapon. "This already failed once," he says as he shoots two zombies in the eyes, dropping them in a much more controlled fashion than before. "The mission is search and rescue, not seek and destroy. We don't need to kill our enemies—only retrieve the target."

El spots the Wolfin having just leapt to its feet. He shoots a signal shot that rips through a zombie before hitting the Wolfin cleanly in the kidney. The monster howls in pain as it starts leaping away.

Lacerti lets out a battle cry as he springs the blades on his guns. He skillfully dances around the field, slashing at his enemies and smashing through flesh and bone without difficulty, dismembering his foes as they fall.

A zombie runs at Jacob, who holds out his cross-shaped weapon as a shield. The symbol seems to frighten the undead, and it freezes in its tracks. Jacob fires his gun, and the force of the impact flings the zombie into the air. As it falls, it burns to ash. Jacob looks for a moment at his "Holy-shotgun."

Lacerti notes the phenomenon, but without understanding. He changes his tactic to decapitation, severing heads with every opportunity as monsters jump and grab at most everyone. But the group is better prepared this time, and the party forces the undead into a retreat.

Another body jumps at Larry. He grabs it and says to it, "Snake, is that you?"

A short distance away, Snake shoots another enemy twice in the head. "No," he pauses to say.

"Well f.u.c.k off then," Larry tells the thing in front of him as he places his gun against its chin and shoots it three times. Beaten back, the beasts scatter to the winds.

***

"Hey!" Pistol yells from above, "Which one of you boys is daddy?" He pounds the handrail to get the party's attention.

Jacob looks up. "That's me."

"Great," Pistol yells down. "Big Stuff, give me a hand," he calls to Lacerti. The tall man smiles and nods, recognizing that the child is with Pistol. "Ashley, I'm going to wrap my whip around your hands and lower you down." Pistol kneels. "That man is a friend of mine. He is going to catch you. Then I'll jump." Ashley smiles and nods her head. Pistol slowly lowers Ashley to the ground as far as he can until he runs out of slack, then drops her into Lacerti's waiting arms.

Suddenly with no sign of warning the swarms of flesh eaters return, double in number. These ones are twice as aggressive as the ones before. Pistol's eyes go wide as he mumbles, "Oh shit," then dashes off to the other end of the catwalk in search of a way down.

A beast leaps at El, but the bald man slugs it, then it crunches as Lacerti slashes it with his gun-blade. Larry and Snake stand side-by-side, flashing their own blades. "Follow me, bro," Snake instructs, and they begin moving, clearing an escape route with merciless aim and skill.

Jacob holds out his shotgun-cross and begins to sidestep toward Ashley and Lacerti. The beasts thin out, letting him pass. One brazen monster charges him, ignoring the pain that staring at the cross induces. Jacob pulls back his weapon, draws the knife, and strikes a deadly blow across the monster's torso. The cross now broken, though, half a dozen monsters rush him simultaneously. Jacob shouts a battle cry as he lets a raging halo of slugs fill the air and then starts furiously slashing his way through the hellspawn.

But Jacob seems to weaken, and suddenly he stops in mid-swing and drops his knife. He m.o.a.ns as he grabs at his c.h.e.s.t. Time seems to stop as both the beasts and the men look to see what has happened. The last of his strength nearly gone, Jacob closes his eyes and falls to his knees.

"Lances!" Snake yells. He turns around and recommences combat by unloading the rest of his clip into one of the beasts facing Jacob.

El glances over as swings around a monster to break its neck. "On your feet, old man," he whispers. "It's too early for you to die." Lacerti howls as he cuts his way to Jacob.

"Charlie!" Ashley calls. "Help us!" Ashley runs to her father, shoving several monsters out of her way. Trash runs at her to stop Ashley from rushing into the mist.

"Stop!" Trash orders. Ashley begins crying as her father falls forward onto one hand. Spooky shoulder rushes two zombies away as he shelters the two girls.

Pistol watches the chaos below. "F.u.c.k," he thinks aloud, finding no easy route down to ground level. "Tally ho!" he yells, gallantly leaping from the catwalk to Jacob's aid, playing the role of Ashley's white knight. He lands on two monsters, seemingly crushing them.

El points to Jacob and commands, "Pick him up." On cue, Lacerti tosses both Ashley and Jacob onto his back. "Fall back, double time," El orders, waving his unit onward to safety.

The group, now nine strong, fights their way past the waves of the dead. Pistol collects his whip and takes up the rear as they head to sanctuary in the storage room.

What a terrible night to have a curse, Pistol thinks as they're running. The battles have already been trying and plentiful, and the night has barely begun.