Those viewing the region on June 21 were not reminded of towns from Old Dominion nor upscale bed room communities. Images of Hell on parade better matched the sight.
A solitary Leviathan with its top touching the black clouds above stood at the rear of a demonic host and straddled the Interstate where the north-south thoroughfare of South Hanley Road crossed. Spread out in front of the towering beast-like a swarm of locusts-rushed forward the devils from Voggoth’s domain.
Mobs of ghastly white Ghouls with protruding ribs and skullish faces took the lead, bounding forward on all fours like some kind of mutated gorillas. They snarled and snapped searching in a frenzy for the next person to find and kill. Like a flood, they spread to either side of the Interstate and swarmed into Richmond Heights.
The ones on the Interstate died first when they tripped the rows of mines laid previously by The Empire’s engineers. Beastly bodies tore apart as explosions popped and boomed one after another. But the horrid things did not care. They rushed on as if compelled by suicidal instinct.
In tight streets to either side of the highway the Ghouls met the fire of human soldiers. Those soldiers wore a variety of uniforms and some wore only street clothes but they all faced the onrush without flinching. Assault rifles rat-tat-tatted and grenades burst.
Freckle-faced Benny Duda oversaw the first contact of the day from the Richmond Heights City Hall building. His soldiers-the 4 ^ th Mechanized Infantry Brigade-met the enemy vanguard with machine guns, carbines, and well-positioned explosives as well as a formation of Bradley Fighting vehicles positioned east of the mine field on I- 64. Their heavy guns decimated any Ghouls that survived the mines.
Woody “Bear” Ross assumed command over the St. Louis region when Shepherd went north with Brewer to meet Voggoth’s northern prong. His voice came to Duda over the radio as Benny cradled a scoped M4 against his shoulder from the roof of city hall. His vantage point provided a great view of the interstate and surrounds.
“Benny, what’s your status?”
“Kinda busy, Bear,” and Benny squeezed the trigger adding the sound of his rifle to the chorus of bullets.
Outside of the City Hall building and across South Big Bend Boulevard twisted an on-ramp descending around a grassy field in a long north to northeast curve en route to the Interstate. A trio of Ghouls left I-64 and climbed that gentle slope with the aim of charging a mortar team operating in the city hall parking lot. Duda’s slug tore the head off one of the fiends.
“Benny, give me a sit-rep now.”
Captain Duda fired another shot that missed but a machine gunner positioned at a first floor window several stories below managed to stave off the attack on the mortar team for the moment, giving them time to launch another series of shells onto the highway full of creatures: thwump — BOOM. Thwump — BOOM.
Duda growled in frustration as he radioed Ross, “We’re getting hit right now. Looks like the Ghouls are cannon fodder. They took out the mines and are still coming.”
Benny raised his rifle and fired a quick series of shots at another group of Ghouls compelled to attack City Hall. The first two bullets missed. The third winged one of the things and put it out of effective action. The downstairs machine gun fired again; once more stopping an assault. Duda knew it would not be long before the mass of Ghouls would overwhelm the position.
Worse, from his vantage point he spied about twenty Mutants on hover-bikes moving among the homes on Lindbergh Drive a quarter mile south as if to flank his forward positions. A Humvee hurried to intercept; its. 50 caliber mounted gun fired furiously. The Mutants returned fire with their oversized and very loud flintlock-style fire arms.
“Listen, Bear,” Duda transmitted. “We’re going to have to fall back real soon unless you can send us some reinforcements-hold on sec…”
The Mutants trying to flank Duda’s troops to the south stopped advancing and not merely because the Humvee killed several of their number. In fact, the bikers turned and sped off from whence they came as if their asses had suddenly caught on fire.
Duda gave his attention to the highway. The minefield had stopped exploding. The Ghouls passing through halted their advance and also fled west.
“Well, I’ll be damned,” he mumbled.
Had their defense spooked the invaders? Had their resolve forced Voggoth to rethink his line of attack?
“No,” he said aloud as the truth hit him. “All 4 ^ th Mech units and anyone in the vicinity of Richmond Heights, take cover. I repeat, take cover. Big Bad Wolf is knocking at the door.”
The skyscraper-tall Leviathan stepped forward. Its right foot-something like a clawed elephant’s foot- smashed down on the ultra-modern Civic Center built just off the interstate. Swarms of Ghouls at the front of the advance withdrew west to either side of the gigantic monster where the rest of the St. Louis-bound army waited.
Its slug-like body shimmied and a sound similar to a forlorn air raid siren came from the innards of the Leviathan. The miserable black clouds twisted and turned as the monstrosity gulped air at a rapid pace. As it did, sacs popped up all along its sick skin like boils. The tendons holding the main body to the legs stretched as its belly filled.
Duda raced from the roof with his command staff and descended the stairwells of City Hall. All across the front his soldiers broke for the cover of basements, storm drains, and pre-built shelters. The Bradleys on the Interstate drove east as fast as their engines could go.
The siren-sound stopped. The Leviathan bent forward; stooped, it seemed. A brilliant flash of lightning danced through the heavens chased by a magnificent clap of thunder.
The Leviathan fired a blast of supersonic wind that outraced its own sound. The deadly gust projected out in a cone with Interstate 64 at its center. Every manmade structure-almost exclusively residential homes-between Ethel Avenue a thousand feet to the north and Arlington Drive to the south evaporated into tiny pieces.
Benny Duda-huddled in a restroom in the basement of City Hall-felt the entire building above fall apart like a sand castle in a hurricane. The pressure burst one of his ear drums and would have sucked him away if not for his death-grip on a drain pipe. Two of the other four soldiers huddled with him in the basement fared worse. They went aloft and broke apart into bits before they could even scream.
The sound of the blast came just as the worst of the wind passed; a low howl so deep it made the ground vibrate and played a dull hum on the pipes in the ceiling-less bathroom.
Then it stopped.
Duda-his right hand planted firmly on his burst ear-staggered to what remained of the stairwell. He knew the Ghouls and Mutants would come next, sweeping in and ripping apart the survivors. He had little time to escape and, with his equipment destroyed, could only hope that any of his men who survived the wind would be smart enough to retreat downtown.
As he reached the top of the stairs he paused.
The land had been swept clean. Nothing higher than foundation-level remained of Richmond Heights. The explosive gust covered everything in a dune of dirt like a brown snowdrift. With the exception of a handful of stumps, every tree had been uprooted with an efficiency the most talented landscapers would envy. Slabs of concrete had actually peeled away from the highway.
He glanced east and saw the remains of the wind dying down like a dust storm losing steam. Pieces of Richmond Heights settled over the St. Louis suburbs a mile to the east.
Duda turned his attention west. And froze.
Contrary to past encounters, the Leviathan did not return to standing position. Instead, the massive maw remained fixed on the battleground as if admiring the destruction. With the landscape laid flat, Benny could see the Ghouls, Mutants, warped-Feranites, and Roachbots of the force holding in check.
“What the hell?”
Then it started again. That siren sound. Except this time the Leviathan did not draw breath from the heavens. Instead, a great suction swept from east to west and into the maw of the titan as if racing to fill a great vacuum.
Another dust storm formed, this one churning toward Voggoth’s pet with incredible force. The shards of shattered houses, the twisted remains of guard rails, crushed cars, overturned armored military vehicles, chunks of concrete, the remains of the 4 ^ th Mechanized Infantry Brigade, and Captain Benny Duda flew through the air as the Leviathan gulped them like a musket loading shot.
The sound stopped. Then the Leviathan fired again with not only wind, but the shrapnel of people and things.
