William’s friends gathered in the corridor. He let Olga past and kicked the steel door shut behind him with another crash! A thick bolt on the inside, he slid it home with a clack!
Olga called ahead to Gracie, “This is fucking suicide. And I will remind you of that.”
“I’ll look forward to the I told you so when I’m dead.”
A thunder-crack of a slam hit the locked steel door. William spun around. Drone or dog, whichever one had hit it, they’d dented it on their first attack. Another crack bent it further. The glow of flames seeped through the gaps.
After the third slam, a square muzzle poked through a space beneath the door, the screeching of steel against steel as it tried to force its way in. The door cut a fresh silver groove into the top of its head. Bursts of flames shot from its snout. Crack! Another machine hit the door, bending it further. The inquisitive dog crawled through to its shoulders, its metal feet pawing at the concrete floor.
The others had already vanished around a bend in the corridor. William sprinted to catch up. Olga, at the back of his line of friends, ducked into a room ahead on her right.
If William hadn’t witnessed it, there’s no way he would have followed. But as he entered the room, Olga left it via a window. She stepped up onto the ledge and jumped for the building opposite, landing two-footed on a balcony about six feet away. All the while, she kept a hold of her spear.
The moonlight to guide him, a burst of fire behind, William muttered, “Don’t look down!” Matilda in the hotel room opposite, he stepped onto the window and jumped, his arms windmilling as he crossed the gap. Several drones appeared on his right, blinding him in mid-air.
The stutter of bullets chewed into the brickwork of the tower he’d jumped from and pinged against the balcony he aimed for.
William’s legs folded beneath him as he landed. Roaring agony slammed through his kneecaps when he hit the concrete floor. Jezebel skittered away.
Several pairs of hands dragged him to his feet and pulled him on. Max, Artan, and Matilda, Matilda holding on longer as she led him away.
The first of the dogs from the building opposite hit the wall above the balcony from where it had made the leap. Its heavy landing shook the floor. Several more of the creatures crashed down on top of it, the sprawling pile slowing all of their progress.
At the back of the line again, Gracie too far ahead to spot, William focused on Matilda directly in front of him. Another long hallway with a steel door at the end. The moonlight couldn’t penetrate the darkness, but the drones obliged. Their dazzling white light peered through the windows into the building.
The hinges on the steel door groaned when Matilda knocked it wider. William shoulder-barged the metal barrier as he went through after her. But the door was lighter than he’d expected. It flew wide and cracked against the wall on the other side. William’s momentum carried him over the first concrete stair leading down, and he fell sideways. He hit the stairs on his right side, giving him an instant dead arm, his legs sailing over his head.
Slamming into a concrete wall at the bottom of the first flight of stairs, William blinked in the windowless stairwell. He only had the steps of his friends to guide him. And they were heading up. “Shit!” His head throbbing, his body aching, his shins on fire, he patted the ground, found Jezebel, reached up for a handrail, and pulled himself to his feet.
The dim moonlight from an open door a floor or two higher up, William climbed the flight of stairs he’d fallen down, acrid smoke in the air from where the dogs’ flames burned anything in their path. He made it up another flight in time for the first of the dogs to appear. They barrelled through the door like he had, tripped on the stairs, and fell down the first flight. At least he wasn’t the only one.
The others had again slowed their pace to allow William to catch up. They waited in a corridor a few floors above, Gracie at the front, Matilda closest to him. Were there time for rest, they probably would have given it to him, but the second he appeared, Gracie nodded and took off again.
Gracie vanished into a room on her left, and instead of jumping for the building opposite, she dropped her spear, leaving it behind as she hung from the balcony, shimmied down so her legs were close to her destination, swung towards the building, and dropped, landing two-footed on the balcony below.
At the back of the line again, William waited in the room while the others followed Gracie’s path, all of them discarding their larger weapons.
The dogs’ clattering ascent in the stairwell spoke of their difficulty with the climb. Hopefully, it would give William and the others the time they needed. And it might have, had the blinding light from the drones not appeared outside. Red rings on the ends of their small arms, they sprayed the building with bullets.
Max, Olga, and Matilda ahead of him, Max jumped back into the room, took shelter behind a wall, and threw his arms wide. “What do we do?”
Matilda picked up what must have once been a table. Now only a frame, the glass was absent from the tabletop, as it had been from most other things in this city. “Move aside.” She launched the frame from the balcony. It drew the drones’ bullets, giving her time to swing over the railing, slide down, and then drop to the balcony below. She’d given them the blueprint to follow.
Olga launched an old chair for Max to go next,
