“I just told you, I’m here for my friends. And anyone else who wants to get off this planet alive. It didn’t include your friend here. Does it include you?”

  “He’s not my friend,” the guy said. “We met up here five minutes ago, just before those things entered the building. He suggested we team up against them. We managed to stay ahead of them and get out, but then…” He shook his head. “I don’t know why he went after you after you saved our sorry asses.”

  Hisses echoed from deeper inside the building. “I wouldn’t be too sure I’ve saved you yet. Do you have a name?”

  “Corporal Lance Heckler,” he replied. “Atlassian Planetary Defense. Well, former.”

  “Heckler?” Druck said. “I’ve heard of you. They say you intentionally fired upon a civilian transport over New Haydrun. Killed twenty-three people on the transport and six on the ground. Unless that was Blorb, too. Do you have a twin?”

  “Who’s Blorb?” Heckler asked. “No, I admit it. I fired on the transport. My ex’s new man was on it. Bastard was hitting her. I had to do something.”

  “What about the other twenty-eight innocent people?” I asked.

  “Collateral damage,” he replied flatly. “Expendable.”

  “And I thought I was the crazy one,” Emerald said.

  I looked past them down the corridor. This part of the warehouse appeared to be for business functions, with offices on both sides of the passageway. A stairwell to the second floor waited a dozen feet away. Behind us, the demons clawed at the metal door, making progress in tearing it apart despite my efforts to keep them out.

  “Upstairs,” I said, urging them forward.

  “You want to go up?” Druck asked. “That seems like a bad idea.”

  The first of another group of creatures poured into the far end of the passageway, turning to face us and hissing as it charged, plenty more following right behind it.

  “Do you have a better one?” I asked as Kat started shooting. The tight confines made it easier to take out the demons, but only for so long. Hundreds of them were trying to get in here to kill us. We couldn’t hold out against that forever.

  “Upstairs!” Druck shouted, charging the creatures that were charging us. He screamed a battle cry while emptying another magazine of bullets into them, his added stream of firepower helping to create a wall of death ahead of the stairwell.

  A sharp scream from behind us told me the door had finally given up the ghost. Head whipping back over my shoulder, I dropped the pull on the door as the first of that group of creatures squeezed through the opening they had made, with plenty more coming in behind it. I pushed the first demon forcefully back, bowling it into the others coming into the passage and knocking them down like pins.

  Ixitat was first make it up the stairs, pausing at the top as the rest of us rushed up. Reaching the top, I turned back to the stairwell, turning my hands over and lifting them as I visualized the stairs ripping out of their anchors. Chaos energy flowed into the sigil with enough volume I could practically feel the heat of it on my chest before it flowed out to my hands, the stairwell whined and popped. I ripped the metal stairs out all at once, leaving the platforms floating momentarily as the demons reached the stairs, freezing in confusion.

  Excite heated the metal almost instantly, turning it to liquid. Disperse turned it into thousands of superheated droplets. The creature’s screams filled the area as push sent the droplets not only down on them but through the wall to any that had gathered in the hallway.

  I turned away from the stairwell to where Heckler stared at me in terrified disbelief. “That…that…” He gave up, looking away, still shaking visibly. Maybe from knowing what would have happened to him if he’d followed his original partner’s lead.

  “Great,” Druck said. “Now we’re trapped up here.”

  “Are you kidding?” Emerald said. “He just melted a staircase and rained the liquid metal down on at least a hundred of those things. Don’t think he can get us down just as easy?”

  I looked at the veins on the back of my hand. The glow was definitely much dimmer than before. “I might not be able to get us down,” I said. “I’m getting tired. And hungry.”

  “How can you think of eating right now?” Heckler asked.

  “Funny you should say that,” Druck quipped, drawing a clacking laugh from Ixitat.

  “Using sigiltech makes me hungry,” I said, ignoring him. "I need food to fuel it."

  “Sigi-what?” Heckler wondered, also ignoring Druck.

  “Nevermind,” I said. “I’ve seen how they climb. That won’t keep them all at bay.”

  “So what do we do?”

  “Find the kitchen,” Druck said. “You should be good at that.” I glared at him, receiving a smirk and shrug in reply. “Just some friendly teasing between two soldiers…' He held his hands up, palms out. "...that’s all.”

  “We need somewhere to hide,” Emerald suggested. “Wait this out and hope they don’t find us.”

  “I never found anywhere to hide,” Heckler said. “The main warehouse floor occupies eighty percent of the building. There’s nothing left in it except a few ancient construction machines and debris from the road mixture. This might seem like a big place, but for all intents and purposes it’s not much bigger than a Starluckin.”

  “Starluckin?” I said. “Tell me that’s not a cafe.”

  “Do you want me to lie to you?”

  “Well, at least something from the Earth I know survived. Sort of. Why am I not surprised it was coffee?”

  Breaking glass alerted us to activity somewhere on the second floor.

  “Time’s up,” Kat said.

  “Heckler, was there anyone else in the warehouse with you?” I asked.

  “Besides Newton? Not that we saw. I think most of the killers are headed for that old city up on the hill, same as you and me. It looks like there’s lots more cover up there than down here.”

  “The demons know it, too.” Emerald said. “They’re going to have a field day up there.”

  “So why are they harassing us?” Kat asked.

  “Maybe they can’t help themselves. Sense human, kill human. Simple math.”

  “Like killing people is programmed into them?”

  “That’s how it looks through my eyes.” She motioned to Ixitat. “They haven’t bothered you at all. Even when you’re stabbing them they don’t seem to care that much.”

  “Yesss…agreess."

  “There haven’t been any humans on this planet for centuries,” I said. “And never before that as far as we know. How would they even know what a human is to want to hunt us so badly?”

  “That, I don’t know,” Emerald replied. “Your guess is as good as mine.”

  I heard more breaking glass on the far side of the floor. If we stayed here much longer, we would once again be surrounded. I turned to Heckler. “You said there are construction machines on the warehouse floor?”

  “Yeah, four or five.”

  “Are they mobile?”

  “Mobile like, do they have wheels?”

  “Or treads. Or hover. I’m not that picky.”

  “Yeah, there’s a huge dumper down there. I doubt it works.”

  I smiled. “All we need it to do is roll.”

  CHAPTER 17

  “There she is,” Heckler said, motioning through the window of what I assumed had been the manager’s office. He pointed to the huge dump truck he had mentioned.

  It sat on the left side of the warehouse, rising nearly as high as the tall garage doors at the front of the building. Mounted on four huge wheels made of a material that hadn't dry-rotted after all of these years, its metal frame also remained mostly intact and rust free. The large, deep bed took up more of the vehicle than I expected, leaving only a flat square front just barely deep enough for a small cockpit. The whole thing was coated in a thick layer of grime and debris that had found its way through the broken windows or the tear in the garage door. Likewise, a drape of dirt had settled everywhere, thickest against the walls and corners.

  “All we have to do is get past them,” Druck said sarcastically. “Piece of cake.”

  My attention turned from the dumper to the demons. Still streaming in from outside, they swarmed en masse across the floor of the warehouse. Stragglers at the back of the mad crush of bodies shoved and pushed through their brethren to find a way to the upper floor.

  To find a way to us.

  They tore the door and walls of the office to shreds and rushed toward us, only to run headlong into the wall of reflect I had erected behind us, scratching and clawing at it, Ixitat's abdomen swung back and forth as her spinnerets layered a thick silken web between us and the barrier, its surprisingly sweet scent permeating the stale air. The webbing would probably only hold the creatures back for a few seconds, but hopefully that was all we would need.

  My glow was fading, the chaos energy running out way too quickly. The transit from Kirillia had diminished it by nearly half right off the bat, and I’d barely had a chance to stop using the construct in the two hours since we’d arrived. My stomach clenched with hunger, though the rest of me still felt healthy and strong, no doubt because of restore. Justus’ warnings about running too low on fuel echoed in my thoughts. Even if we made it to the settlement alive, what would I have left to fight with? How could I possibly help Matt when I might not be able to help myself? And what if Emerald or Heckler realized I couldn’t use sigiltech anymore? Would they remain part of the team or turn on us?

  We were going to find out. We didn’t have a choice. The moment they all realized they could scale the wall from the main floor to reach us, we would be completely overwhelmed. Trapped in the office. No way out.

  Obviously, the creatures weren’t too smart. If I had to guess, they were operating on instinct alone, not really thinking about their maneuvers, though some of their actions made it seem that way. The only question then was why they instinctively killed humans. Where had that come from? And why this planet, out of the thousands in the Spiral?

  Thoughts for another time.

  “Ixy, are you almost done?” I asked.

  “Yesss,” she replied, releasing the last of the silk from her abdomen. “Readysss.”

  I looked at the others crouching on the floor around me. “Are you ready?” I asked them.

  “Ready, Captain,” Kat replied.

  “I’m ready,” Heckler said.

  “This is going to be so much fun!” Emerald added, squeezing her fists together in front of her chest in an apparent effort to contain her excitement.

  “Ixy, do it,” I said. She nodded and climbed onto my back and Druck’s to reach the window.

  “Ugh, I’ve had nightmares like this,” he commented.

  “Ssshush,” Ixitat clacked back, amusement thick in the retort. She swung her forelimbs forward, stabbing into the transparency with her tarsus. The material cracked, the audible hisses from down below changing pitch as the creatures swung their heads up to where the noise had emanated from. She hit the transparency a second time, the frame giving way before the glass. The entire piece fell out of the window. a few louder screams confirming it had landed on top of some of the creatures. The hissing changed tempo and volume as Ixitat planted the beginnings of a fresh line of silk against the office ceiling while bunching her legs to jump.

  I raised my head the moment she left my back, leaping out of the window and flipping to latch onto the high ceiling over the warehouse floor. Scurrying across it, she trailed her web behind her, feeding it out with her back legs as she hurried toward the dumper. The demons below followed her with their gazes but didn’t go after her. Instead, their attention turned back to where she had come from.

  Right to where we were hiding.

  A piercing scream from outside the warehouse sent a chill down my spine. The hundreds of demons on the floor suddenly surged forward, the closest creatures hissing more loudly as they grabbed the wall and began climbing, coming our way.

  “We need to go,” Druck said, shouldering his rifle as we all stood up, our presence in the room no longer a secret. When the creatures saw us, their efforts doubled, and they climbed toward us more rapidly.

  “She isn’t ready yet,” I replied. “Keep them from reaching us.”

  “Yes, sir.” He pointed the gun through the window and opened fire, shooting down on the creatures and knocking them from the walls. Kat and Emerald squeezed in beside him to do the same, buying us a little more time. Ixitat reached the dump truck and dropped onto it, turning and pulling her line taut before sticking it to the inside of the bed. She waved her forelimbs to signal the tether was ready.

  “She’s got it!” I snapped. “Druck, get in position!”

  “Copy,” he said, pulling his rifle back and swinging it over Ixitat’s line. “Hold fire,” he barked, Kat and Emerald ceasing their shooting and backing away. He climbed into the window frame.

  I looked back at the demons outside my barrier. Every second I held the action made me a little weaker, and I needed all the strength I had for the next part of the plan. Eying the criss-crossed silk between them and us, I dropped reflect, allowing them through. The first few got stuck tight in Ixitat’s web, blocking the path for the others, holding them back better than I had even hoped.

  “Go! Go! Go!” I snapped, activating reflect along two-thirds of Ixitat’s web.

  Kat resumed shooting at the oncoming demons as Druck lunged off the window sill, crying out in excitement as he ziplined across the floor of the warehouse to the truck, reflect creating a frictionless ride until he nearly reached the end. The innate stickiness of the web slowed his descent into the bed of the truck where Ixitat waited. Emerald whooped and laughed as she followed him toward freedom.

  “Kat, go!” I said.

  He continued firing as he climbed into the window frame, only ceasing fire and leaping off the sill when he slung his gun over the web. He grabbed the barrel before he could fall to certain death, silent as he rode the line over the creatures’ heads.

  “Heckler, you’re up,” I said, glancing again at the enemy behind us. They had torn through their brethren stuck to Ixy's silk barricade, the next group getting tangled in the web and giving the last of us a little more time to get to the truck before they were on us from that direction.

  We were out of time in front of us as well.

  The first head appeared above the sill. Heckler planted his blade in it, kicking it away as he climbed into the frame. I leaned past him and pushed the demons back, knocking them from the wall. A quick scan told me half the creatures were making a move on the dump truck.

  Heckler hooked his arm around the web, locking his hands together and grimacing as he jumped out. We had all been concerned his weight would be a problem, but Ixitat had claimed he wasn’t too heavy. Of course, it was her web and she was right. He slid down the zipline, maybe a little more slowly than the others and making it dip a bit more, but he was going to make it.

  The demons behind me reached the last layer of webbing, claws nearly brushing my armor as they tried to reach through the gaps. In front of me, the creatures had resumed climbing the wall. I grabbed Ixitat’s web in my bare hands and jumped out, unable to resist smiling at the thrill of the ride as I slid effortlessly down the line.

  I saw the creature in the broken window a split second before it leaped toward me, claws flashing. Without much time to react, I pushed it away, sending it tumbling through the air. It flailed and reached out for purchase, my eyes widening in shock as its claws caught Ixy’s line, slicing through it.

  I immediately fell toward the sea of creatures below.

  CHAPTER 18

  “Ben!”

  I heard Druck's shout as I plummeted down into the mass of creatures, thinking I was about to be their morning toast. The two I landed on crumpled beneath me, their spindly bodies enough to break my fall but not enough to stand up to my armored weight. I crushed them like empty tin cans.

  I just barely had time to surround myself in a cocoon of reflect before the hissing creatures were on me, drooling yellow teeth and dark claws surrounding me. Claws came at my arms, legs, torso, and face—bouncing off as I tried to get up—but like on Windfall, they shoved through my bubble of protection, keeping me pinned in place.

  As soon as they realized they could defeat reflect by stabbing at me more slowly, I'd be a dead man.

  Bullets, plasma, and energy blasts zipped past, slamming into the creatures immediately surrounding me. I shoved the remaining creatures away and struggled to my feet, activating enhance. I grabbed the next demon in mid-slash and threw it into those behind it, knocking down nearly half a dozen.

  I sprinted toward the dump truck, extra-strong legs carrying me with greater speed, my armor protecting me from the rake of their claws and the bite of their sharp teeth. I violently tossed others aside, hurling them off me as I tore through the masses, quickly reaching the truck. A superhuman leap carried me up to the cockpit door as the creatures climbed the vehicle, relentlessly giving chase. Team Hondo fired down at them, killing them by the handful. Not that it mattered, for every one they killed there were five more to take its place.

  It was a fight we already knew we couldn’t win.

  With my enhanced strength, I easily ripped the locked door from the cab, throwing it down on top of the creatures behind me, knocking them off the truck.. Climbing into the cab, I spotted the ignition button and pressed it. If by some miracle the powertrain still worked…

  It didn’t. The console remained dark. No matter. All I needed was to release the parking brake. I frantically hunted for it around me, looking for a familiar lever, the configuration around me nothing like what I was used to on Earth.

  “Heckler! I need you!” I shouted as the creatures continued their assault, trying to climb the truck. The plasma fire raining down on them from the others in the truck bed was all that kept them at bay. But that wouldn't hold true for long.

  Footsteps clattered along the roof of the cab before Heckler leaned down and peered in at me through the open side of the cab. “What’s up?” he asked.