Flux

1

"I will not abandon them!" Aiya could hear the rage in her voice and wished it wasn't there. She wanted to sound firm, determined even, but not out of control angry. She wouldn't earn anyone's respect by losing control.

"You are going to get yourself killed, and then what will we do?" Errend's face didn't show any sign that he had heard Aiya's rage.

Aiya decided he was either the most polite man she had ever met or the most self-controlled. Only time would tell.

At the moment, it didn't matter, though. There were people still in the building behind them, and she couldn't stomach the idea of leaving them to the monster crawling its way to them. Her blood boiled at the thought. It would not happen while she could do something about it.

"If I die, you will find a way, Earnest! Don't make it sound like I am the only person who can create a plan." Thankfully Aiya found her voice was steadier now, still firm with determination but no longer bordering on hysterical rage.

"But don't worry, I don't plan on dying just yet." She gave him a wink, and a smile she knew came straight from her mother's beautiful face.

She pulled her semi-automatics out of their hip holsters, once again silently thanking her amazingly clever brother for loitering them from a destroyed military base, and checked her ammo. The lightness of the guns made them easy to carry and shoot, even for extended periods of time. Still, the most impressive thing about them, besides their 75-yard firing range, was the strange military grade .22 calibre cartridges that Marvin had found with them.

They could pierce almost anything! She'd killed vile creatures covered in slimy skin thicker than a rhino's hide, monsters with scales like metal, and even shot through bulletproof glass once. But bullets were not endless, so she was careful how and when she used them. When she could, she used her plasma sword instead.

She knew that was partly what was concerning Errend right now. They hadn't had time to return to base after their last battle to resupply. Things were tight, and it was almost dusk. Fighting a monster after sunset was a death sentence for nearly anyone. Dark was their world, not humans.

Ignoring the pleas still coming from Errend's thin lips, she strode towards the dilapidated church that some village people were cowering in, praying for their god to save the world.

Aiya heard herself snort as she strode up the stairs. Religious people should have learned by now, their god, if one existed, only helped by letting people find weapons and learning how to use them. Hot air chanted into the sky wasn't going to do anyone any good.

She wasn't sure how much time they had. Looking down at her smart band, she tapped the icon for the 3D holographic video feed coming from her brother's deep earth enhanced AMG scanner. An image appeared just over her arm, showing a giant "thing" slowly clawing its way up to the surface. It wouldn't be long now, minutes at most.

She decided to make a flashy entrance, hoping to scare the people into action. Kicking the double doors open with one heavy booted foot, she went inside the church screaming. Guns raised high, pointed at the ceiling.

"Get out now!" She roared with all the force she could muster. She felt it was rather impressive.

However angry and loud her bellowed command sounded to her ears though, it did not have the effect she'd hoped for.

Twenty-some odd people jumped a little in their seats at her explosive entrance but merely sat there starring at her with their mouths open. Having the exact opposite reaction she had been hoping for, she opted for plan B.

Rolling her eyes and letting out an exasperated sigh, wondering why things couldn't just go as she imagined they should for once, she addressed the people one more time.

"Everyone better start running now before I shoot every last one of you," she growled, putting as much menace into her face as possible.

As she spoke, she slowly lowered her guns and aimed at the nearest person, inwardly hating herself for the terror she was causing these people. Yet, had she tried to explain what was coming, had she tried reasoning with them ... Well, the monster wouldn't wait for them to finally believe her.

She had learned the hard way that fear was a much more effective motivator. Let them hate her later. These people being still alive to hate her was more important to Aiya than whether or not they would forgive her.

As her guns trained on the young girl sitting beside her father, several of the gatherers screamed in terror. A man quickly stood, raising his hands in a pleading gesture and, by the expression on his face, was about to try and reason with Aiya. So as his mouth opened, she fired.

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Errend's shook his head. That woman is crazy! he thought to himself.

People were screaming in terror, clinging to one another as they ran chaotically from the church's front doors. Most took off in the direction of the village that was two miles to the East, but a few stopped and stared, registering the tank and assault trucks parked only a couple of hundred yards away from the church's front step.

One man holding his terrified teenage daughter in his arms, while she sobbed uncontrollably, stood transfixed and took everything in slowly. His head turned back to stare at the woman now standing just outside the church's doors, poised like a cornered tiger waiting for an attack.

The man's face drained of colour as realization dawned, and he picked up his daughter, flung her over his shoulder and ran faster than any middle-aged man that was out of shape had a right to, heading for his village.

Just as the father started to reach the others in his group, the ground began to shake. A terrible wrenching sound came from deep in the earth, and the church screeched in protest as it started to be sucked into itself, the back half collapsing with a deafening sound.

Errend's eyes went back to Aiya. She was most definitely crazy but unbelievably amazing at the same time.

There she stood on the top step of the church's entrance, unmoving, seemingly unaffected by the destruction of the inner church and its destroyed back end. The only sign she was aware of the destruction before her was her one arm covering her eyes to block the settling dust, as she waited to catch "it" by surprise and kill it before it had a chance to adjust to the daylight.

Catching a monster as it emerged from the earth was the best advantage a human had against these things. Killing a beast before its senses adapted to being above ground, while it was disoriented and more than a little blind, was the only advantage humans had figured out so far when fighting them.

Otherwise, you'd better have a crapload of ammunition and some serious heavy firepower, and maybe some spare lives. However, Errend had to acknowledge that Aiya and her brother Marvin seemed to be pros at killing these things.

They are both freaking crazy! He thought, shaking his head for the hundredth time that day while running a shaking hand through his hair.

The ground shook again more violently than before. Errend put a hand on his tank to stop himself from falling. He heard the people screaming again and glanced over to see them helping each other up and start running one more time.

Turning back to Aiya, he saw she'd snapped her helmet's smart visor down and had her guns at the ready, knees still bent in case she had to absorb another earth rattling experience.

By now, Errend felt he should be used to seeing the earth give birth to horrible creatures, yet every time a beast burst through the dirt, or mud, or sometimes even water, he felt his breathing stop. His throat would clench, and his heart would momentarily forget what it was supposed to be doing.

Sucking in a breath, he stared horrified as a massive arm tore from the church's underbelly and smashed to the ground just feet from Aiya.