“We have to fight!” she yelled at them. “Buy time for the others to climb!”
Some shook their heads. Others looked down in shame. None moved to aid her.
“Fight, you bastards!” she implored. “Keep them from the wall! I can’t do this alone!”
They did not fight. They merely crouched lower like the cowards they were.
The next group of Hydras came in. Once again, she vaulted onto the closest head as it came for her, but the creature was quick, and twisted its other necks toward her; she was forced to leap off. She latched onto the mane beneath an incoming head and swung to the right, landing on the back of another bioweapon. She raced across its scales, dodging to and fro as more bioweapons smashed into the body of this one and tried to snatch her up in their many maws. A tentacled tail came sweeping down upon her, and she leaped, twisting as she did so, narrowly avoiding a hit from those deadly stingers. She landed underneath the base of the tail and latched on with her free hand, swinging her body and unleashing a shot into its butt for good measure before she let go.
She dropped to the debris, but more Hydras were already bearing down upon her. Everywhere she turned, giant feet tried to trample her, taloned forelimbs attempted to dismember her, razor-sharp teeth strove to snatch her, stinging tentacles endeavored to whip her. She dodged all of these as best as she was able, but there were just too many of them: no matter where she fled, always death awaited, only one small mistake away.
As she escaped the latest pair of snapping jaws, sure enough she made a miscalculation and dodged into a space that had looked clear a moment ago but was now occupied by an incoming Hydra head. She continued forward, narrowly avoiding the deadly maws, but was still struck by a portion of the neck, which sent her flying.
She hit a second Hydra in midair, a glancing blow that sent her twisting sideways, and she landed on a lean-to several meters away. A third Hydra immediately dove at her, trying to get at her before all the others: it hit the ground and slid across the debris, its heads drilling a path through the rubble and sending pieces of metal flying away on all sides.
Rhea got up just in time, but the creature managed to swat her with one of its forelimbs anyway, and just barely missed her with the talon portion. The joint still struck her, and once more she was sent flying: the impact knocked her clear of the latest group.
She landed hard on a partially intact lean-to, and when she got up, it collapsed underneath her. A portion of the caved roof slammed into her leg, pinning her.
She tried to lift the metal free, but she’d been pinned at an unlucky angle and couldn’t get the leverage she needed.
A Hydra came in eagerly.
30
Rhea struggled to lift the metal that constrained her, but it was useless. She wasn’t getting out, not in time.
That leonine head closed eagerly, saliva dripping onto the human blood that tainted its mane.
But then a man leaped down to stand before her, directly in the path of the Hydra. He wore a long gray cloak, or perhaps it was a cape. She couldn’t see his face, as his hood was raised, and his back was to her.
He fired a harpoon weapon, which struck the incoming creature and lodged within its flesh. Then he retracted the cord with some built-in, motor-driven winch; the end remained firmly attached to the Hydra, so that he was lifted into the air and pulled toward the creature at a frenetic pace.
The end tore free before he arrived and snapped inside the harpoon’s base. He pointed it at another slithering neck while still in midair and fired. When the tip impacted, once again he reeled himself in, and ripped through the air in another direction, narrowly avoiding the jaws that came for him.
He repeated the process until he reached the Hydra’s back; at that point, he used the harpoon to swing across to another bioweapon. He continued making his way from back to back like that, steadily drawing the creatures away from her. The confused Hydras probably thought the man was her, considering how readily they’d abandoned Rhea. Then again, maybe they were simply attracted to anything that moved.
She received a transmission.
“Couldn’t very well let one of my students die in front of me,” came a familiar voice.
“Bardain!” she said.
“Yes,” he replied. “Help should be arriving shortly.”
Rhea worked on lifting the rooftop piece, but still couldn’t dislodge it. A moment later a humanoid robot crawled through the debris and reached her side. It attempted to hoist the metal piece from her leg, but had some difficulty, as several other collapsed sections weighed it down.
The robot repositioned for a better grip and tried again. The metal lifted by a few millimeters: enough for Rhea to slide free. As soon as her leg was out, the robot released the piece and the rooftop collapsed.
“Thank you,” she said.
The robot inclined its head.
She reached into her pack and retrieved one of the weapons she hadn’t given out yet. She tossed it to the robot. “Do your part.”
Rhea clambered on top of the collapsed lean-to and gazed out across the rubble. She spotted Bardain immediately. He was still moving between the Hydras with his harpoon, and narrowly dodging their deadly blows.
She wasn’t sure if he was still within communications range, but a quick glance at the upper right of her HUD revealed an active network icon. The Hydras had missed the communications towers in this section of the settlement, then, allowing her to piggyback upon the wireless network.
“We don’t have to win,” Rhea sent Bardain as she ran through the rubble toward him. “We just have to buy the climbers time.”
“I probably won’t be climbing that wall anyway,” Bardain agreed.
“Yeah, you don’t have
