Rhea sighed, pulling her gaze from the rubble. They weren’t here to salvage. They were here to warn a settlement of its impending doom. And warn it they would.
Rhea glanced at Gizmo’s feed, which she still had piped into the upper right of her vision. “The settlement will be coming up on the drone’s cameras momentarily.”
As they crossed a relatively rubble-free street, she repeatedly gazed down both sides, feeling exposed as she scanned for bioweapons. She couldn’t wait to get back to the cover of the next building.
They reached it momentarily, and she felt relieved to hug the debris at the base of the skyscraper there.
And then, from a side street ahead, a herd of four Hydras causally strolled out onto the ruined road.
24
Rhea and the others immediately took cover, diving behind the rubble that was thankfully beside them. Not daring to peek past the edge, she focused on Gizmo’s feed. The drone quickly backtracked, so that in only a few seconds the street was visible, along with the four bioweapons upon it.
How did Gizmo miss them? Will asked over the mental comm.
Check the map, Horatio relied. That side street they emerged from? It’s canopied by a collapsed building.
Rhea glanced at her overhead map as suggested. A building had indeed collapsed at some point, crashing into an adjacent skyscraper, but otherwise remaining intact so that it formed a canopy over the street. The drone had flown well above those two skyscrapers, and thus wouldn’t have spotted the creatures as they traveled beneath the slanted, precarious roof the collapse formed.
The four bioweapons continued advancing in the same direction, perpendicular to the location of Rhea and the others. The five leonine heads on each creature seemed to be sniffing the air, and they scanned their surroundings with narrowed eyes.
I don’t think they’ve seen us, Horatio sent.
Maybe not, but they’re going to pick up our scent eventually, Rhea said. We have to get inside this building, so we’re not exposed. First rule of bioweapon combat in urban areas, according to Bardain.
There’s an opening, here, Horatio said. A waypoint became active on her map: the building entrance.
The only way to get to it was to dash out from behind the rubble and into plain view. The other option was to possibly return the way they had come, but there were no openings in the building along that route, and because the rubble diminished along the way, the party members would be partially exposed before reaching the next avenue.
Sending in Giz, Will announced.
The drone swooped down and deactivated its rotor noise cancelling to dart loudly into the street in front of the bioweapons. The creatures hooted and hollered as they followed it, trying to grab Gizmo out of the air with their snapping jaws. The drone flew teasingly higher.
As soon as the bioweapons had their backs to them, Rhea and the others made a run for it. They dashed into the jagged entrance and entered a partially collapsed lobby. They raced between fallen pillars toward the far side.
Looks like most of the building is collapsed on the far, Will said. We won’t be getting out that way.
They climbed a damaged escalator to the second floor. There were two elevators in front of them with closed doors, and a stairwell door. In the stairwell, they were able to climb two stories before the debris became insurmountable, and they were forced to vacate inside an office area instead. Cubicles, some of them broken and strewn across the floor, dominated.
So, what’s the consensus? Horatio broadcast as they wended their way through the cubicles toward the far side of the building, where a bunch of broken windows offered an exit to the street below. These bioweapons are part of the invasion force? Runts looking for something to eat while their stronger companions drain Rust Town dry? Or part of a group of advance scouts?
I’m going to guess advance scouts, Will transmitted. They must have been sent ahead of the others. They beat the storm.
Either that, or they got extremely lucky, Rhea sent. It’s possible a few of them wandered out of the storm before it ended, regrouped on the other side, and made their way here ahead of their brethren.
Or maybe Rust Town really is destroyed already, like the robot says, Will transmitted.
As they approached the building edge, Horatio sent: You know, a four-story jump will be fairly hard on the servos. We should climb down.
Piggyback ride time, Will told Horatio.
And then, just outside the broken windows ahead, a large, leonine head appeared, attached to a reptilian neck.
Rhea and the others immediately ducked behind the closest cubicle. She caught a glimpse of motion before she dropped from view, and thought it was the creature’s head spinning toward them. Had it seen them or caught their scent?
Seems there were a few more bioweapons that Gizmo missed out there, Horatio sent.
Seems so! Will agreed.
Rhea instinctively reached for her holster, and when she gripped empty air, she remembered she no longer had a pistol. Will had drawn his own, while Horatio had the double barrels under his forearms deployed. Not that it would do any good against these things.
A shadow crept across the floor next to the cubicle, and that told Rhea the Hydra had shoved its head through the broken window to explore. Another shadow appeared on the other side of the cubicle as a second head came inside.
This is… interesting, Will sent.
Recall Gizmo? Rhea suggested.
Giz already moved out of comm range while leading the others away, Will replied. I don’t expect her to return for another sixty seconds or so.
Rhea glanced about frantically. There was another cubicle across from them, with the base partly pushed out at the bottom. Rhea pointed toward it, and quickly crouched to it, then ducked through.
Will and Horatio followed, and all three of them dove into the small aisle formed between a wall and the adjacent cubicles. They proceeded into that aisle, passing
