The man walked out of the cafe, took a long draw from his cigar, and slowly exhaled enjoying the contrails of smoke expelled from his mouth.
He was wearing a long trench coat and a hat pulled down low over his brow, keeping out the acrid smoke from the burning building across from him. He looked around, surveying the piles of rubble, the burning buildings, the occasional body, strewn across wreckage and the burnt out cars. A woman walked out of the cafe behind him, she was of average height, small build, with long blonde hair, wearing a black jump suit, covered with a camouflage jacket.
“It wasn’t always this way you know?” said Mike, taking another long draw.” I remember when this was a busy street, before this damn war started.”
The woman re-cocked her shotgun, glancing around – looking for movement.
“You really shouldn’t just walk out into the open like this Mike – the bastards could still be around – the other fire teams might not have cleared the buildings out yet.”
Mike took another long draw, and then threw his cigar onto the ground, grinding it out with the heel of his foot.
“They haven’t cleared them out yet – there’s movement over in the old bank across the road. Just wanted to see whose side they were on before heading over there.”
Jenny instantly dropped into a crouch and rolled behind a burnt out Volkswagen.
“Christ sake Mike, get down!”
Mike slid one hand into his trench coat and pulled out a long barreled handgun – an old fashioned colt revolver.
“Yeah well, there’s only one way to deal with these kind of rats” he said then reached in once more to the other side, and drew out a dull looking two and a half foot blade, its sharp edge glinting in the reflection of the fires.” they need some encouragement to come out of their holes.”
Jenny watched as Mike calmly crossed the street making not effort to take any form of advantage from the cover, wither it be wrecked cars, rubble or the remains of the old clock tower.
“Damn this guy’s got a death wish” she muttered to herself, “oh well, in for a penny, in for a pound, as my mom used to say….”
She raced towards the old clock tower, and ducked behind, aiming the shotgun towards the bank entrance,
“Yeah,” said Mike, “this place used to be known as Toll cross…..Till the Damn Kurtz arrived.”
Movement at the door gave jenny the first hint of what was about to happen, a tall humanoid, more slender than an average man appeared at the door, ambling towards Mike, Mike made no attempt to get out of the way; he just kept walking forwards, as if he had not a care in the world.
Jenny raised the shot gun and blasted off three rounds in quick succession towards the Kurtz. The first shot took it square in the chest, throwing it from its feet; the next caught it high in the shoulder, then straight to the head. If the first shot never killed it, the last one certainly did.
The noise brought another six running from inside, heading straight over the bodies of there companion, straight towards Mike.
“You things don’t bloody learn do you? – this is our city, we don’t want you here!” snarled Mike
Raising his pistol he fired two rapid shots straight through the eyes of the first Kurtz, then transferred his aim to the next one coming for him, two for this one, then two for the next, then it was too late, they were upon him, with no time to reload. Jenny brought down the Kurtz at the back with another well placed shotgun blast, leaving Mike in close combat facing the remaining two.
He dropped the pistol and lashed out a kick to the knee of the first Kurtz, a loud cracking noise accompanied its cry of pain as it fell to the ground, with his recovery from the kick, he span round in a circle – blade extended, removing the head of the one still standing.
The Kurtz with the smashed knee laid one the ground, moaning in agony to itself, both hands clenched to damaged leg.
“Way to go Mike, we caught us a prisoner!” laughed Jenny, crossing over to his side.
“How many times do I have to tell you girl?” snarled Mike.” We don’t take prisoners!”
With that he plunged the point of his blade through the windpipe of the writhing Kurtz, a choking noise gurgled forth, as the creature drowned in its own blood.
“Oh come on man, its standing orders to take anything we come across alive if possible – we don’t know how many of them come through the rift’s, or what they’ve been sent to do until its usually too late!”
Mike spat onto the now dead creature
“Yeah the bloody rift’s – if it hadn’t been for that damn scientist, none of this would have bloody happened.”
“Hey come on Mike, Stephen Hawkins was a genius; it wasn’t his fault that his wormhole theories were misused in that way.”
Mike thought back through the years……10 years ago, the world was a normal place, then this Israeli scientist – whatever his bloody name was, appeared out of nowhere – thinking he had discovered a new form of fusion power, yeah….he grimaced, he had discovered a new thing alright – a link to another dimension when they tested the bloody thing out. All over the world, a dozen permanent rifts opened up, and armies of creatures spewed forth, destroying everything in their wake….it was like opening Pandora’s Box, with what looked like every fantastic creature ever dreamed up it seemed came forth.
The world was totally unprepared; cities fell like wheat to scythes, before governments across the world declared martial law and conscripted everyone they could to hold back the oncoming hordes.
After 2 years of fighting, the earth seemed to be holding its own, taking back several cities, and consolidating what it had.
Then came the fall of Rome….an enormous army of Kurtz emerged from the Italian rift, and overwhelmed the city within days – by this point Vatican city within was completely walled off….he people within watched as their friends and family got butchered by the creatures, then more emerged and more and more….in order to destroy the rift, the world leaders decided to pay the ultimate price…..a salvo of nuclear missiles obliterated the city, destroying the rift, and slaying over 1 million people – from soldiers, to refugees….the price to pay later was hell, from nuclear fallout to disease, never again it was decided would nuclear weapons ever be used whilst the armies of earth still fought for freedom.
8 years on and the fighting was still as bad as ever.
Daily life consisted of street fighting, hiding during the day and searching for food parcels hidden by the “supply crews”, who did daily fly over of the city.
Once, Edinburgh was once a thriving city, nowadays it was a war zone….still at least it never suffered London’s fate – plague, pestilence and complete anarchy.
Yeah, Edinburgh wasn’t in too bad a condition, considering.
Mikes fire team was just one of many scouring the city looking for hostiles. The Kurtz were the most numerous – ranging from heights of 5 foot to 8 foot, slender of build, and more resembling the shambling zombies of classic b movies than average people.
The more intelligent ones – the leaders as it were carried weapons and had the average intelligence of a 10 year old human, even so they were savage killers, and carried a strange disease in their bite – which if untreated within 3 hours, could reduce even the most healthy person into a shambling semblance of the Kurtz themselves.
Current theories were led in the direction of the Kurtz actually being led by a hive mind like intelligence, but the further they got away from the rifts, the more drone like and less intelligent they became.
Mikes fire team consisted of 2 pairs – him and jenny, graham and his wife Alison. Graham and Alison were providing back up to another team at the moment in nearby dalry, so mike and jenny had the job of scouting toll cross alone.
It was a good day so far.
The bounty alone on these Kurtz would keep them fed for 2 days, not to mention the 8 they had killed earlier that morning.
They hard part came when they went up against a group of darkling’s – they were supporting Dave McKenzie’s fire team, and got ambushed by the darkling’s – who resembled the elves of legend – humanoid, with elegant grace and pointed ears. They darkling’s were using their variation of rifles – a type of crossbow that fired barbed darts very rapidly – small and yet very damaging when being pulled out!
The Darkling’s took them in the tunnel leading from dalry to toll cross, an ambush from the buildings above.
Two of Dave’s team went down in the first salvo; graham and Alison managed to pull out land counterattack.
Dave’s daughter Melissa got one of the barbs in her eye – the best thing to do for her was put her out of her misery.
Dave himself got killed when he and Mike charged the Darkling’s – under cover by jenny and graham and Alison attacking from the rear.
There were only 2 darklings.
Mike was lucky to survive the hand to hand combat – only a well timed grenade blast thrown by Graham stopped the Darkling’s from taking Mike out.
Both escaped into the ruins that used to be a shopping complex.
Mike’s team felt lucky to survive that encounter – Darkling’s were notoriously hard to take down.
Mike went back to check the bank out once more then Jenny and he returned to the cafe – their preferred place of stake out in this area – giving a clear field of vision and plenty of cover.
“Jeez Mike do you have a death wish or something?” asked jenny when they were safely back in the “comfort” of the cafe.
Mike sat and lit another cigar, from his silver case he always carried.
“Those things could have ripped you apart – there was no need to just walk up to them like that – we could have taken them out in the distance.”
Mike ignored her, puffing on his cigar.
“What if those 2 Darkling’s were still in the area? They could have gotten us both.”
Mike examined the end of his cigar, and then slowly looked up at the fuming Jenny.
“Look woman – iv told you before. I know what I am doing, if you don’t like my methods then go bother someone else.”
Jenny stared incredulously at Mike – stunned at his audacity.
“What is your problem Mike? – If you want to get yourself killed, then that’s up to you – but don’t take me down with you. Ever since your wife Angie got killed you’ve been…”
Mike surged forward and grabbed Jenny by the throat – choking her into silence.
“Don’t you DARE speak Angie’s name ever again!” he snarled, spittle spraying into Jenny’s face.
He let go then stood and walked to the window, looking out at nothing in particular.
Several minutes went past, before Mike finally piped up.
“Sorry Jenny…….I just….I….I’ve been thinking about Angie a lot lately, I just…..it’s been getting on top of me….”
Jenny went up behind Mike and put her arms around him – hugging into his back.
“It’s ok Mike…….I know….It must have been terrible watching those things do that to her.”
Mike and Angie and their 2 daughters had been captured by a Kurtz raiding party – the Kurtz had repeatedly beaten and raped the women before finally skinning them alive and eating them…Mike was last on the list, a rescue party discovered them by accident and succeeded in freeing mike and his 3 year old youngest daughter, before she died of wounds inflicted on her by the Kurtz.
It took a full year for Mike to recover sufficiently mentally or physically before he could go back in the field again….since then he just went crazy around Kurtz.
“Come on then Jenny lets go meet graham and Alison, and then head back to the pit.”
Jenny grimaced….great ….the pit again – that’s where most of the central fire teams operated out from – it used to be a 5 story nightclub in Victoria street – now it had been dug down into the old city – it had tunnels going off for miles in all directions and reached down about 9 levels.
The only problem was how closely packed everyone was in together – like rats in a cage….and the rats….there was another problem….
As the pair left the old cafe and started walking along the road – mikes walkie talkie went off – beeping lowly to itself.
“Ah that’ll be graham now.” said Mike answering the handset.
“Graham….what’s up? Just on our way to meet you now.”
Graham’s harsh tones came over the handset again, “Mike….hopes your not far away, we got a spot of bother here….”
“What’s up bud?”
“Those damn Darkling’s have ambushed us again – this time they’re backed up by a company of Kurtz.”
“God damn it graham – once is careless, twice is incompetent….what the hell are you thinking? You know better……..OK where are you?”
“We’re trapped in the old Somerfield’s……Sean’s on the roof taking potshots at the bloody things, but it’s not doing much difference – Alison’s covering the rear doors with 2 of Sean’s team, the other 5 are with me blasting the things attacking the main windows. We really are in a lot of trouble here…”
“Ok….am on my way – I will try and get back up if possible…..”
“Don’t bother” replied graham “IV tried everyone….there’s some hassle out at the bottom of Leith at the docks….there’s no one to spare.”
“Shit!” exclaimed Mike “it’s only me and Jenny down here – don’t know what difference we will make”.
Mike and Jenny started jogging towards the tunnel where they got ambushed earlier – that would knock a huge travel off the distance.
“What if we hit them in the back – they might think it’s a stronger force and run off” suggested Jenny.
“Nah – wont work if they’re being led by Darkling’s – those bloody things keep the Kurtz in the field – the Kurtz are more afraid of them than they are of us.”
“So what do you suggest? Just hit them and keep on going till we meet in the middle?”
“Don’t I always?” grinned mike.
He began running faster – by the time they got out of the tunnel Mike had his pistol in one hand and an automatic browning in the other – coat billowing in the wind – Jenny was running with her shotgun out – covering the top of the tunnel walls – remembering the previous ambush.
At the end of the street – past the burnt out theatre – was a crowd of close to a hundred Kurtz – there was no sign of the Darkling’s – as per usual.
“Well?” asked Jenny “what’s the plan then?”
“Only one I could think of ….shoot first, reload later!”
With that Mike raced forward, blasting into the ranks of Kurtz – at least this time he was taking cover behind the rubble and wrecked cars.
Jenny fired twice with the shotgun, and then threw a grenade into the closely packed crowd – gunshots cracked frequently from the old store.
Bodies flew every where, it took the Kurtz several seconds to figure out what was going on, and then a group of around twenty surged towards jenny and mike – several of them armed with hand weapons.
Mike opened up on the closest bunch – picking a few out with his pistol, then emptying the powerful browning 9mm into the next few – even this soon he realized he wouldn’t have enough time to reload – he discarded the pistol, then drew out his sword….another was taken down with his browning, then they were on him, “time for the hard part” he muttered to himself, chopping down the first to end up before him.
Jenny was faring slightly better – she hung back a bit – blasting her automatic shotgun into the onrushing throng – several more went down before the shotgun started to run dry.
She held the shotgun in one hand as a club and pulled a wicked looking hand axe from her belt.
“Let’s get dirty then Mike!” she yelled, rushing forward, she batted the first one over the head with the shotgun, then cleaved the head clean off the next Kurtz in line.
Mike had two of the Kurtz in front of him, both armed with wicked looking machetes, the first one lunged at him, he blocked and his return parry took it across the throat – the second one slashed at him, opening the top of his left arm.
“Aargh!” he yelled, sweeping down in a crosskick – he swept the feet from that one but left himself off balance, a third raced in, swinging an axe towards him
“This is it, “he thought “game over – no time to dodge….here I come Angie”.
The Kurtz swung over head – to suddenly topple into him as though shoved from behind, then fell dead at his feet – a large smoking hole protruded from its back – and a red laser sight followed it down.
He looked up and traced the beam back – in the distance he could see Sean’s grinning face at the end of a rifle!
“Thank Christ for that!” he laughed, picking himself up and slashing at the next Kurtz in front of him.
“No need for blasphemy!” called Jenny, as she smashed the axe overhead into a Kurtz neck, decapitating it in one stroke.
Several more shots rang out, taking down the Kurtz closest to the duo, better placed shots from Sean.
Only about 5 of the Kurtz who initially charged the pair were still standing, mike had just enough time to reload the browning automatic, before jenny blasted two of them from their feet.
“Only one way to go here Jenny – we’ve made a dent in them, but there’s still far too many of them.”
Jenny fell back a bit, and started pumping rounds of ammo into the shotgun.
“Well Mike – you’re leading the show – what do you suggest?”
Mike took down the next two with a couple of well placed head shots – and a final shot from Sean took down the last one.
“If graham was right and it’s a full company of the things out there – then I don’t see what we can do to stop them all – 200 of the bloody things……”
“What I was thinking,” replied Mike” was that we charge into the building with the others and at least have some cover!”
“What the hell” said Jenny – “Let’s go for it!”
Mike led the way, racing towards the end of the street, Jenny half a step behind him, they ran full sprint until they got to the end of the street, through heaped bodies of Kurtz dead and any civilians unlucky enough to be caught in between the Kurtz and their targets.
What they saw almost made them stop dead in there tracks.
Over at least 40 Kurtz lay dead in the street, with many more crawling wounded forwards towards the old supermarket building, several of Sean’s fire team – people they knew and had shared a meal with less than 2 days ago, were spread across the broken railings, torn apart.
The Supermarket itself was a solid looking building – one set of glass double doors, inset into a solid concrete face, the first level stretching 30 feet into the air, and a railed wall on the roof – from which Sean’s rifle appeared on a regular basis, blasting into the throng of Kurtz below.
And what a throng it was – what looked like a couple of hundred of the creatures, swarming towards the now shattered doors.
An alleyway to the left of the building was another source of continuous rapid firing – presumably Alison keeping cover at the rear of the building, for the few Kurtz heading around to attack that way.
Mike and Jenny ran towards the doorway, blasting into the Kurtz approaching the doors.
Several more were closer to the doors, only to fall down as graham and his team counter attacked, in an attempt to give Mike and Jenny covering fire.
“Thank Christ for Sean on the roof eh?” laughed Mike, as he raised his sword once again, preparing for more hand to hand combat.
“Just remember it’s their bloody fault we are in this mess in the first place!” she snarled, shooting into another group of Kurtz, breaking off and heading back towards them.
After several minutes of vicious hand to hand fighting, the door was finally in sight, and the pair managed to reach it.
Graham’s head poked though the doorway, as he began waving them in.
“Come on in then you two! – What kept you? The party’s already started!” shouted graham
Graham was about 5 foot six, dressed in combat fatigues – he had long dark hair and a cheeky looking grin on his face.
He was carrying an m-16 automatic rifle, with a grenade launcher attachment. He barged forwards past Mike, and launched a grenade into the thick of the approaching Kurtz.
The resulting explosion cleared the immediate street enough for Mike and Jenny to get into the supermarket without interruption.
Inside the set of doors – lay a barrier of broken fridges and shelving, behind which were half a dozen tired looking people, carrying a collection of wicked looking weapons.
“Hi folks – how’s you all holding up?” asked jenny
One of the people, a man with ragged brown hair and a large automatic rifle looked up at jenny in between firing out the broken window to reply “yeah we are all just fine – unlike those poor bastards over there.” He said nodding his head towards the back of the store, where several people lay dead in a pile.
“Ok Graham, what’s the situation then?” asked Mike, reloading his weapons.
Graham ducked down behind a turned over fridge unit, looking over his gun sights for the first Kurtz to appear.
“We rendezvoused with Sean’s team down the hill a bit – we thought the area was clear, and then those bloody things just appeared from everywhere- out of houses, cars, even the sewers!”
“Definitely being led by the Darkling’s then- Kurtz don’t have the brains to lay an ambush like that.” Said Mike.
“We managed to pull out this far without taking any losses, and then another huge group came from behind us, penning us in here”
“It sounds like they had layed a good trap – how did you make it in here?”
“Sean was the one who reminded us of the listening post in here – there’s a few in the old supermarkets in this area – normally a pair of spotters or civilians keeping a look out for us”.
Graham fired off a couple of shots, taking a shambling Kurtz low in the chest as it shambled closer to the doors.
“We came in only to find everyone dead – and not long at that, a couple of Kurtz were in here with the bodies.”
“Mike, Graham!” shouted Jenny “There’s something wrong…..They aren’t coming forward anymore!”
She was right, the Kurtz were melting back into the ruined tenement buildings around the area.
Graham plucked the radio from his belt, moving towards the broke windows.
“Sean” he commed “Sean, what’s going on?”
Sean’s voice came back over the handset.
“I’m not sure Graham; it looks like they’re pulling back. I’m not sure why though”.
“Same here Graham” commed Alison “the ones around here are pulling back too.”
Mike walked up to Graham at the window.
“Well Graham, it’s your call – do you want to make a run for it?”
Graham looked around at the remains of his and Seans teams. Aside from himself, Sean and Alison, only two other people remained alive and both of them were wounded.
“I think we may have to, we’re running pretty low on ammo. If they come at us again it may be hand to hand time and I don’t fancy that much!”
Mike watched the few remaining Kurtz blend away as though they were not even there – only the mass of dead and wounded bodies leaving testimony to the attack.
“That may be what they want though – either that or they want us to bring more troops here to get slaughtered” commented jenny
“Well screw that “said Mike “there’s been enough deaths today…”
Mike was suddenly cut short as a burst of razor barbs came shooting up the aisles from behind him, tearing apart one of the troopers crouched behind a fridge beside him.
“Shit” he yelled firing back into the aisle.
A high pitched scream came out of the back of the store
“They’re in here with us!” he shouted, rolling and coming to his knees firing again, jenny joined in, blasting away with the shotgun as graham tried to pull the remaining wounded trooper out of the line of fire.
“How the hell did they get in here?!” shouted Graham
“Iv no idea” he replied “but that screams was a bloody darkling”
Sean’s voice crackled over the radio
“Graham, Mike we got to get out of here – there’ dozens coming in through the car park at the back of the store”.
“Alison” radio’s Graham “What’s happening”
“Teres a few appears at the back here Graham – IV no idea how the others got in – imp bugging out. Sean, abseil down the side and we will head round the front”
Almost out of nowhere a dozen Kurtz appeared, close by Graham.
Mike dropped the first couple with some well placed shots before Graham and the trooper went down in a mass.
Mike did all he could do – he charged into the fray, sword held aloft.
Jenny took down a couple of the Kurtz coming up to join in the battle.
Mike was like a man possessed, he chopped into the Kurtz as though he was felling trees, and Graham stood to his side, a long knife in each hand, and his m-16 somewhere on the blood slicked ground. The trooper didn’t stand a chance.
“Lets get the hell out of here people!” shouted Jenny,
She ran through the doors, to see Alison and Sean blasting their way around the corner, firing back the way they had come.
Alison was a short dark haired girl, quite heavy set in build and Sean was the exact opposite – Almost 6’4 and built like a tank with cropped short blonde hair.
Sean was firing some high tech looking sniper rifle and Alison was shooting away with a pair of micro Uzi pistols.
More and more Kurtz were emerging from the back of the store – mike yelled at Graham
“Go! I will cover you” and he chopped and shot into the pack of Kurtz.
Graham wasted no time- he sprinted through the door behind Jenny.
After taking a few more Kurtz down, Mike turned towards the door, only to see it blocked off by Kurtz.
“Shit” he spat and went for the next most obvious exit- straight through the broken window – he leapt arms extended, right through the broken glass.
The group gathered together, all firing back towards the store, when Sean looked around – the Kurtz who had retreated earlier were coming back out of the tenements once more, pretty soon they would be cut off and slaughtered.
“Pull back!!!” shouted Graham “we can’t hold this lot!”
Graham at this point had pulled out his back up pistol, a 9mm Beretta. And was firing into the shambling mass coming out of the store.
“By two cover fire – head for the tunnel” shouted Graham
“No “returned Mike “we got hit by there earlier – they must be herding us back there – we need to get back up – there’s no way we can make it out of here on foot”.
“There’s a wee pub back down the hill a bit – dickens it was. If we can get in there we can hold them off, but there’s no way back out – once we are in – that’s it” replied Sean
“Okay” said Mike. “Let’s go for it”.
The group sprinted back down the hill, shooting into Kurtz as they ran.
Mike pulled out his radio and hit the emergency channel
“Strike unit Panther to the pit.” He shouted “strike unit Panther to the Pit”.
A crackling voice came back over the airwaves “Go ahead Strike unit Panther”.
“Wendy, this is Mike. Situation is urgent; we need immediate extraction – dickens pub in dalry”.
“Negative strike leader, no back up available” came the voice.
“Damn it Wendy – if we don’t get extraction soon we’re dead. There’s only five of us left- over three units have been wiped out – Kurtz are closing in.”
“I will patch Division Commander in to the call. I repeat again, no assistance available.”
“Damn it Wendy, this is no time to be covering your fat ass! We need extraction now or we’re dead!”
“Mike, this is Craig Came a new voice, heavily accented. “What’s going on?”
“Craig, Christ. We’ve been slaughtered over here, Kurtz are everywhere- led by a couple of Darkling’s, Me, Jenny, Sean, Graham and Alison are all that’s left in this sector. We are going to hold up in dickens pub but it’s a one way act – if we don’t get out of here soon, we’re out of ammo, then we’re dead.”
Silence came over the handset as Mike sprinted forward, the others weapons booming away at the targets appearing all around them.
“Okay Mike,” replied the commander “there’s no back up in the area – the docks got hit heavily – we have every body we can spare down there – my teams based at elm row church – we can get a couple of hummers over to you in about ten minutes – your on your own until then.”
“Dammit craig he cursed. We don’t have ten minutes.
“Its all I can give you bud, we could lose a lot of people by doing this – the pit will be left totally uncovered.”
“Hopefully that’s not what they were waiting for then – your call George, if you don’t come and get us- we’re dead.”
“Enough talking then – en route now.”
The radio went dead.
“Okay people!” shouted Mike “extraction on the way – eta ten minutes – lets get into this pub and hole up!”
They ran what seemed like forever to the closed up pub – bars on the windows and a solid lock on the outside of the door.
Sean Pulled open a flap on his combat trousers and pulled out a large box.
“What the hells that?” asked Jenny
“That’s my lock pick set to get us in there” he replied “just keep me covered.”
“Screw that” she said – aiming her shotgun and blasting the lock off the door! “That’s how we open locked doors where I come from!” she laughed.
The group charged into the pub, each taking up positions at the windows and in the doorway. It was a small single roomed unit, with two large barred windows to the front and a single doorway. There was no exit. The bar ran along one side wall with a couple of boothed off areas opposite.
“Let’s hope the commander gets here bloody fast” said graham “IV got two clips left then im out.”
“Not far behind you” said alison “its going to get very friendly in here soon enough”
The group huddled behindwhatever mke shift barricades the could – jenny used her shotgun to burst ou tthe windows and sean manhandled furniture and an old arcade machine in to block the door.”jenny, Graham” called mike “check the toilets – make sure theres no windows outside”
Alison ssssstood to the left hand barred window adn sean took the right checking up the street as far as theycould for the kurtz coming up behind them
“movement” yelled alison ” coming up the hill”
“same here” shouted sean “both sides of the street are boxed in”
mike took up station directly in front of the door browning in hand.
“damn i cant believe i lost my colt! i loved that gun”
“at least youve still got your sword”laughed sean|” your ok when we run out of ammo!”
graham and jenny came back out of the toilet and took up posistion beside mike at the door.
“gents window barred” grunted graham”what about you jenny>?”
“no such luck on the ladies – no windows at all!” she laughed
“classy” countered graham”im sure we;re missing something though”
“notime to search for a drink graham”laughed alison”here they come!”
the kurtz came from everywhere – up both sides of the street.”
“wait for it….”said mike”make sure every shot counts.single fire only”
“noshit sherlock” laughed sean taking his first shot knocking a kurtz off its feet.
“alison joined in, single firing from each uzi] pistol almost every shot takinga kurtz in the head.
it wasnt any use – within minutes a swarm was up at the doors and windows trying to get in. sean had to back off and switch to a beretta and a long knife.
at the door graham took centre with mike to the right and jenny to the left.
“graham”ask\ed mike” how many grenades have you got left?”
“three” he replied ” all of them cocked and loaded in the launcher”
graham took down a couple e ven as mike shot one out crawling past an overturned chair in the doorway.
it seemed as though there were a wall of kurtz at the door groups puling at the furniture just as there were groups pulling at the bars.
“damn” growled alison “this is getting tight”
a horrendous renching sound came from underneath seans window followed by a series of cracks.
“what was that?” asked graham taking a kurtz off its feet as the back of its head left its skull
“no idea” shouted sean pausing to reload.
tfhumping began as the group expended shot after shot from the directifon of the roof.
“some of them ust be into the flat above”called jenny as she backed oto reload her shotgun.
she walked back up tot he bar – back to it to reload as it seemed more and more kurtz threw thems\elves at the defenders.
she heard a dull thump behind her – as she looked over her shoulder she caught the sight of movement- she threw herself forward – away from the bar – flat out on the ground as a series of barbs swept through the air – several hitting her shoulder and upper arm.
“mike!” she screamedd
graham and mike both turned a the sound to see a darkling coming up from theh ignored bar hatch in the floor behind the bar.
“the bloody cellar! thats what they were doing!”
the darkling stood, moving fluidly and pumped several barbs from it “crossbow” into grahams chest – he went down – flat on his back the air knocked from him.
justt as mike thought he3 was next-sean chraged straight at the darkling – a bear of a man as he was he threw himselfbodily into them darkling – clearing the bar in one leap – taking them both down the hatch.
“shit – alison cover the door!” shouted mike vaulting the bar as alison took up central posi]stion – firing full auto now – spraying 9mm bullets from the window on the left to the windowon the right and back to the door.
mike slid down the rickety sstairs behind the bar – down past the now wrecked bar hatfch arse first to land on his feet at the bottom – gun heldout.
light streamed in from a break about 5 feet up – where theh kurtz had ripped the keg hatch out to drop down into the cellar.
mikle could make out half a dozen kurtz in the room, with more climbing in – in a pilebeside him sean lay on top of the darkling – he had grabbed it by the hair and was pulling it forward into a series of crunching head butts whilst simultaniously slammin gthe back of its head into the concrete floor.
“sean!” yelled mike shooting into the kurtz “get back upstairs!”
“right” gvrunted sean, wiping darkling blood form his face”but this bastards coming with us!
sean gripped teh darkling and dragged it backwards up the wooden stairs as mike picked off the rest of the kurtz in them room.
mike scrambledup behind sean and his totally unconcious darkling tof find alison still spraying bullets at the kurtz in the doorway – ignoring the ones at the windows.
jenny was sitting up over graham one arm hanging uselessly by her side.
graham was coughing – his shirt wide open to show several barbs sticking out of a kevlar vest.
“you lucky sod|” lauhged mike
“yeah i feel lucky”he caughed” i fell like the king of the world”
“if you arseholes would stop kissing and pussyfooting around i could do with a hand here”growled alison”im on my last few clips”
“onmy way”replied mike
by this stage there were kurtz pushing into the doorway – the furniture crashing ot the ground.
“hows it looking”asked sean
“grim”
suddenly seans radio crackled into life
“jetstrike to panther unit one” iot crackled again “jetstrike to panther unit one”
“sean!” yelled mike” your radio”
sean pulled out his hand held radio
“this is panther unit one – go ahead but make it fast!”
“its wall to wall kurtz out here – how are you holding out?”
“upshit creek without a paddle!”
sean stood back by the bar and fired off a couple of shots from the rifle.
“mike take the radio – im busy here!”
mike grabbed the radio – alison and sean holding off the kurtz at the doorway.
“go ahead craig – mike here”
“mike – we’ve got 3 humvees here – we can ioen a path with the 50 cals but theres no way we can open firein front of the pub- wed waste all of you”
“ok craig you guys start – well handle our end”
within seconds a 50 cal opened up – followed by another few – clearly audible outside.
“ok people time to gear up and move on”. shouted mike
sean threw the darkling over his shoulder mike went first, alison propped up grahamn and jenny was keeping the rear.
“graham stick your m16 out the window – fire off a couple of grenades then well make a rush for it”ordered mike”any questions – if so ask them now!”
“yeah” said sean”how do i get out of this chickennshit outfit?”
“shut your face sean and man up” laughed mike firing off a burst.
he drew his sword
“graham now!”
grahamn leant out of the windown and fired off two grenades then ducked down again.
the kurtz screamed as shrapnel blasted a hole threw them.
the building shook and smoke pillowed into the room.
“charge!” yelled mike as sean rammed the furniture bodily breaking tables and chairs piled in his way.
mike hewed into the crowd of kurtz with his sword, emptying his browning in seconds.
sean gave up on his rifle – plowing into stunned kurtz, shouldering them aside, unconcious darkling on his shoulder.
Alison came next bracing her husband, firing the last of her clips off. then came jenny shotgun blasting cover from the rear.
mike charged into the kurtz sword swinging like a madman – kurtz limbs went flying wherever he went.
sean followed – long knife slashing apart kurtz faces – big boots crunching into rib cages – determined not to drop the darkling.
jenny came next clubbing into the kurtz wih her shotgun – keeping as much between mike and sean as possible, one arm hanging uselessly.
alison brought up the rear – blasting kurtz with her remaining ammo, one arm around graham – helping keep him on his feet.
sean looke up – he could see the three humvees slightly down the hill – firing their 50 cals in streams into the kurtz, cutting down huge swathes of them – almost surrounded themselves.
to the right was what looked like a wall of kurtz struggling to get at them.
the squad at the humvees seemed to consist of a driver firing out of the window of each cab and a navigator/gunner standing up in the cab to reach the roof mounted weapons.
they werent going to make it.
“mike ” shouted sean “its no use theres too many of them!”
“dont give up! take as many of the bastards out as possible!”
mike was covered in gore – half a dozen bodies at his feet, pushing through to the humvees at least 60 feet away.
“every kurtz in the city must be here” gasped jenny “they must be after the darkling”
“well they aint getting him|”growled graham wincing at each step he took.
alison fired one long burst from her uzi pistol – it ran dry then she switched to the other
“im almost out of here….” –
The group huddled together – back to back by this point slipping in the blood, tripping over bodies.
the kurtz swarmed forward from both sides.
one of the 59 cals went silent as the cab was peppered with barbs the other darkling must be near.
suddenly the centre humvee revved up – plowing right into the kurtz – grinding right into them 0 gunner firing at the stair opposite from which the barbs came.
shot blasts blew whole sections of the tenement apart as its window disappeared in a cloud of dust as hundreds of 50 cal rounds blasted the area.
it lookeded as though the humvee driver was comitting suicide – within minutes he would be surrounded by kurtz.
he drove up to within five feet of the group – the gunner stopped firing to throw open the side door.
“get in” he yelled
he ws solidly muscled – wearing a black vest – short grey/black hair almost balding.
“craig! what are you doing here?”shouted mike as he hacked into a kurtz coming up the side of the humvee.
“i told you it was only us! everyone else is at the docks – where did all these things come from?”
mike seana nd alsion stood with their backs to the cab door – slicing and shooting into the oncoming kurtz.
craigv grabbed jenny by the shoulders to drag her into the cab- she screamed as he grabbed her wounded shoulder and apssed out cold. He dragged her in as though she was a rag doll, manhandling her into the second set of seats in the cab.
there was a drivers seat in front, situated beside the double seat craig was leaning across – behind which was a seat for four and a foot well a gunner could stand in to reach the 50 cal in the roof.
“time to go craig” said teh driver as he fired a pistol out his window”this sides covered”
“get henry to give us fire support from his humvee” ordered craig
graham was grabbed next, dragged in just as easily- graham piled into the back alongside the unconcious jenny – gasping for breath.
“no answer on the radio” said the driver as he simultaniously fired out the window and spoke into the cb radio dangling from the dashboard.
a voice came over it…
“craig this is steve we;re bugging out- henrys humvees been swarmed – theyre gone”
“shit” said the driver “henrys gone- were gonna be on oour own soon enough.”
sean passed the dartkling to craig who dragged it in hair first – still out cold.
“a darkling? are you guys for real?? no wonder were being hit so bade!”
“tell steve to get out while he can – im not getting my b rother killed for a darkling” said craig “mike get in here!”
sean clambered in as craig threw the darkling in the back.
sean went straight to the 50 cal and started shooting into the kurtz outside on the other side of the humvee.
alsion and mike were back to back in front of the door. alisons gun suddenly went silent.
“im dry – sorry mike,im no use to you now.” she turned and climbed into the cab leaving mike on his own kurtz surrounding him.
mike took down the closest three kurtz with one huge swipe of his sword, he then lunged into the next one to charge him, taking it through the throat. they press got closer and closer until eventually he took one last swipe with his sword then jumped up into the footrest and piled head first into the cab – landing on top of alison.
“go go go ” shouted craig.
the driver pounded into reverse – door still swinging open then span into a 180 degree turn, humvee crunchi]kng through the kurtz.
in front of them on the right sat a humvee – kurtz crawling over it- the doors on it were wide open – kurtz were not only atop it- it looked like they were also in it!
to the left was another humvee reversing at full speed – the gunner was firing his 50 cal into the krutz in front of him.
they shot forward into the gap[ left by the reversing humvee only to have to brake when it performed the exact same 180 manouver that they did-then both humvees headed down the hill, pelting away at full speed.
“what the hell happened?” asked craig.
mike righted himself and squeezed into the front seating beside craig.
“first things first-alison get that darkling bound and then break out the first aid kit- we got wounded here!”
alison reached into a comparment by the foot rest and pulled out a box full of heavy duty cable ties – she bound the darklings wrists and ankles – giving it a solid right hook to the face.
“what was that for?” asked craig
“just making sure it wasnt faking it”she replied.
she then started seeing to jenny and graham wounds, sean came down from the 50 cal to help her.
“they had us craig” growled mike, punching the dashboard.
“they herded us like cattle…we lost a lot of good people!”
“its not over yet” replied craig.
“what do you mean?” asked mike
“the docks got hit hard-we even had to call up all our reserves.”
“who by?”
“we dont know. Dode took everyone he could get his hands on-we’ve not heard anything back from him yet”
“really? thats not like him?”
“radios still dont work down there – we reckon it was from when the EMP mine was set off last year. all we know is that most of the population of the banana flats had been wiped out- whatever it was targeted the docks next.”
the surviving people in edinburgh had created several reservations which they fortified and lived in – the rest of the city was largely abandoned.
places such as tower blocks, schools, universities, hospitals, nursing homes – they had all been fortified and occupied.
from the 500,000 or so people who had lived in edinburgh when it all began-maybe around 15000 had survived.
the defence forces who operated outside of the reservations numbered about 300, the ones based in the pit numbered around half of that total 300. A lot of the troops were already away on several high profile missions through actual rifts attempting to stop any insurgents coming through and to stock supplies.
“weve not bene hit like this in years” growled mike
“damn it mike i lost two good soldiers and a lot of resource pulling your fat out of the fire back there.”
“dont you go blaming me craig – i said your policies of checking out the area were rubbish”
“yeah so i recall – shoot first check later – thats why two civilians were killed on your watch”
“they had no business sneaking about in that warehouse”
“they were foraging for food you idiot! iv no idea why dode puts up with you!”
“because i do the tfhings that pussies like you cant!”
“calm you calm it down guys” interrupted alison”your upsetting the wounded back here!”
both men went silent, looking away from each other – there was silence between them all on the way back to the pit, while alison and sean worked on jenny and graham in the cramped space.
they passed lots of burned out cars, smashed shopfront and burned out buildings, abandoned houses and the odd rat infested body left in the street. As they entered princes st mike looked up at the castle as he habitually did.
not long after it all hit the fan-when the reservations were first made, mike angie and the girls had moved into the one which used to be edinburgh castle – way before the defence forces were created.
they were happy there.
the castle reservation ws where most of the soldiers in the pits families now lived.
mike wasnt looking forward to informing them that there loved ones were dead – several under his watch.
“e’re in bad shape craig – wE DONT HAVE ANY SQUADS LEFT THAT CAN COVER NORTH EIDNBURGH”
“yeah i was thinking the same thing.” he fumbled with his radio”and if dode has too many casualties well be spread to thin every where else”
craig switched his radio on.
“jet strike to the pit” he radioed “jet strike to the pit”
“go ahead jet strike” came wendys dulcet tones.”
“we have extracted strike unit panther – am en route to base”
“received jetsrtike”
“any word on the others?”
“theyre on route back – seafieled listening post reported that fighting was fierce-heavy casaulties all around.”
“do we know who it was yet?” asked mike, nudging craig.
“who was it wendy?” asked craig
“looks like a kine raiding fleet came in from the sea – we only caught them after they were tyring to retreat.”
kine. a race of humanoid creatures – more like insects than anything else. they built huge shell like craft which floated on the sea – no one had yet worked out how they navigated. they had hit down the south of england before but never this far north.
“how many did we lose?”asked craig
“a dozen dead, 40 or so wounded. docs going to be busy tonight.”
“damn”spat mike”thats about a third full of edinburghs fighting strengh out of action”
“weve got another few months of this to go too.”
the rifts seemed to be mostly sseasonal in this country – a central one would open up during the summer with several smaller rifts periodically springing up then closing as long as the main one was open.
when the one in rome was nuked – it closed and no smaller ones have openedup since in nearly the entirrety of italy and a huge radiance around the nuke site.
rumour had it that one in siberia had been actually permanently closed by an entire army fighting to it then driving a nuke through to be exploded on the other side.
if rumour was true then over 20,000 soldiers died in the attempt.
it had never been confirmed but in mikes opinion it would have been acceptable losses.
the room at the centre of the main portion of the pit was nicknamed the hub.
it was the communications centre of the entire base and the personal domain of wendy – the telecommunication dominatrix of the entire resistance movement – she ruled it with an iron fist.
Wendy was short, overweight and had shockingly bright ginger hair with a tempermant to match and a high pitched voice.
the layout of the room was designed entirely to her specs.
a huge pillar running thmrough them centre of the building was covered in flatscreen minitors – with keyboards and joysticks bolted to the wall. below this was a sunken floor where sat six techs monitoring the cctv from all over the city.
above the sunken pit which they sat in was the main floor-where wendy normally stood towering over her staff.
a few tables and chairs were scattered about and a huge fifteen foot monitor dominated one entire wall.
there were three double doors off this room – one in each of the north, east and wesst walls.
to the west was a fire escape – long since closed off with iron crossbeams which were slid into place.
to the north was the main entrance – guarded by scotty – wendys personal bodyguard.
it says a lot to show that wendy needed a personal guard wherever she went.
scotty was a tall, skinny man, with a goatee style beard. he carried a heckler and koche submachine gun at all times and dressed himself in black lmotorcycle leathers.
when the rifts first occurred wendy was actually in prison. she had been caught hacking into the bank accounts of terminally ill hospital patients and emptying their accounts.
when the first attrocities started aughton prison where she was serving her third year was attacked.
the guards were allslaughtered and the prisoners within took control of the prison. after a bloody battle and horrific casualies the entire area around saughton was declared no go and pretty much independant from the rest of edinburgh.
in trade to obtain food and other supplies – inmatees were “seconded” to resistance forces.
the survival rates of these people were never really very high – no body wanted to take the chance of having to trust these people with their lives. there was also the unasnswered question of why they still gave their allegiance first to their old cell mates once they obatained their freedom. no one trusted them and wendy was currently in the highest place of all the people second6ed like this – she had a huge posistion of responsibility in the resistance.
the final set of doors led into the personal office and war room of dode – the edinburgh resistance leader.
wendy wasnt well liked but she was damn good at what she did and practically invaluable – she ran all communications and cctv for the entire zone.
she stomped her way up to scotty, craning her not inconsiderable neck up at him.
“is that them all then?”
all the squads leaders and commanders of teh cream of teh zones resistance were gathered in dodes ready room,waiting on wendys all clear to start a long overdue meeting.
“just mike left”growled scotty in his deep rumbling tone.
“as per usual, that little idiot makes everyone wait. I can stand him!”
“hrmph” muttered scotty in his deep rumbling tone.
He too had had many run ins with mike.
The last time had resulted in mike getting a burst nose and scotty getting a cracked rib.
Wendy took one of the red hand sets off the wall – her idea – a direct patch through computer from her “communications wall” (a handset of old phones linked to every squad leaders radio) to mike and every other major player .
“mike-this is wendy – where the hell are you?” she asked.
mikes voice crackled over the speakers in the ceiling after a few seconds.
“on my way-almost there” he said, sounding out of breath.
“well hurry up-everyones waiting!” she excalimed.
“well they can wait longer – i was taking a shit – not that its any of your fucking business!” came his disembodied voice.
“dont speak to me like that you idiot!” she snarled.
“idiot am i?” you could hear the fury in his voice”ill ring your fat neck when i get my hands on you!”
just then the doors burst open and in stormed mike – spitting into his radio.
“tell it to my face!” he shouted “come on then you fat bitch!”
wendy stepped back hurridly, dropping the handset as mike actually threw his radio at her.
“well come on then!” he yelled.
scotty marched forward – in between wendy and mike – hand going over to mikes chest to push him back.
mike was a good foot shorter than scotty.
That never stopped him grabbing scottys hand and pushing it back in a wrist lock until scotty had to drop to his knees – wrist up and fingers splayed, grunting in pain.
“now youve got something to tekk me bitch, now that your monkeys out the way?” asked mike.
scotty started reaching with his other hand to the glock holstered at his belt.
“enough!” came a mans yell form accross the room.
mike and wendy both lookeed up – past the frozen techs sitting in their chairs, watching from the sunken consoles.
a man – about forty, nearly six foot with a greying goatee beard and small square glasses stood, hands on hips glaring at them.
“if i ever see you acting like children again-ill have you taken out and flogged!”
mike let go of scotty who fell over onto his side-holding his arm.
“sorry nigel” replied mike sheepishly
mike knew full well nigel meant it.
he had seen it happen before.
nigel was dode’s number two. his seneshal as such – or at least thats what everybody called him.
He handled dode’s day to day business and dode’s word was law.
“you know what shes like man-she winds me up like this everytime.”
“i said enough!” nigel snapped – his voice was very polished, curt and elegant but hard with it.
“wendy go about your business – mike come with me.”
with that nigel about turned and entered the war room.
wendy helped scotty to his knees and mike followed nigel into the war room without a glance back.
mike entered the room to see a small group of people seated around the table. there were a few empty seats but it was the ones that were taken that most interested him.
Sean – who had so recently been in combat with mike.
craig – leader of a group known by the others as the wrecking crew – mostly ex-builder types who took a great delight in annhilating their opponents. craig was a beast of a man – not as tall as sean, but more heavily muscled if that could be believeed – balding and very weather beaten.
Vicky – tall, slim, blonde hair down to the small of her back – a long jagged scar down the left side of her face – from eye to the corner of her mouth, giving her a permanent grimace.
a totally hairless man with a large head that everyone called senior – his arms were crisscrosse dwith self made scars – apparently one for each opponetn he had killed rather than self harm marks.
senior was in charge of dockside operations – getting supplies into the city and distibuting it out the zones quartermaster as such.
charlie – a short blonde girl – liason from the goverment operating outside the zone, always approachable adn frinedly – not afraid to stand up to anyone though and wouldnt hesitate to stand back and watch you bleed to death if so ordered.
tommy – a small wiry man in his fifties – ruddy faced, wild hairded – a very scattered look to him – in charge of the motorpool.
nigel – standing to the right of dode who was seated at the head of the table.
dode was 5’10” With very greying hair and a goatee streaked with white.
He was medium build – nothing special – you could pass by hmim without noticing. a scar dominated one cheek but it was his eyes that were most likely to stand out – they were like dark pits. you didnt want to look too closely into them.
he looked around the room taking everything in.
wendy entered the room right behind mike – closing the door behind her.
“nice of you to join us” said dode”mind if we begin?”
mike apologised and took one of the spare seats at the table – wendy took another – avoiding mikes gaze.
“okay folks – whats happening out there ” asked dode.
dode was 5’10otorpool.
nigel – standing to the right of dode