ELDRITCH NIGHT (Rough Draft)

Chapter 53: Fingers of the Dead

I ran in the center of a Peacekeeper formation. They towered over me in bulky armors, making me feel as if I were enclosed in a wall of scale and steel. Heavy feet cracked the earth as we moved away from the relative safety of my hastily constructed defenses and towards the sounds of gunfire. We were headed for the smoldering ruin of our former transport, its flames cutting through the fog like a decrepit lighthouse.

Both abomination and beast circled us, their roars and claws striking from every direction. A deep growl startled me, and I looked to my left. I heard the skitter of claws on stone, but my eyes saw only a blur retreating behind a thick haze.

Things hid in the miasma of ash and dust, darting in to strike before fading back into the fog. Attackers fell before a constant streams of lead, delivered with scalpel-like precision. The women surrounding me, the soldiers, never hesitated or missed. They charged and killed, and I ran with them.

I was struck by the beauty of it. Brilliant flares of gunfire burst through the plumes and ribbons of dust like hundreds of burning stars born into a chaotic nebula; each created only to die in the same instant. I felt as though I were watching the relentless cycle of death and rebirth at a cosmic scale.

I looked down as something hard yet brittle cracked under the pressure of my boot. One more step and another object, round and white, snapped before turning into powder beneath my foot. Small yellow-white shards littered the ground, and long angular protrusions pushed through the earth like broken teeth in a malformed jaw.

Bones, withered and bleached, were strewn across the dry, dusty field. The further I ran the greater their numbers, and the greater the extent of their decay. Even if these corpses, it must have been thousands of them, predated the battle, they couldn't be more than a few weeks old. Despite that, only dry, desiccated bones remained.

As we drew nearer to what remained of the Peacekeeper vehicle I felt myself begin to weaken. My stamina slowly began to drain, and I felt a heaviness in my limbs. It was slight, but perceptible. My stamina was going down by only a fraction of a point every few seconds and was regenerating at almost the same speed. I could probably last hours at this rate, but the loss was slowly increasing in speed the further I moved.

I looked around, but if any of the troops around me noticed, they gave no indication. I looked to find the Peacekeeper who had tried to communicate with me earlier. I had come to think of her as Head Girl, because of the way she had taken charge earlier. Her actions gave no indication that she had noticed the drain, either.

It was convenient that I just gained an ability that allowed me to replenish stamina in battle. I still found it odd, but I wouldn't let my unease stop me from exploiting the ability to its fullest.

My thoughts were interrupted as the Peacekeepers began to slow. We were only a few hundred yards away from the transport at this point, and Head Girl had come to a halt. She held a closed fist above her left shoulder as a signal to the others.

In the same moment, the charging soldiers stopped and fell to one knee. Rifles jumped to the ready with the heavy clang of metal on metal. The change in position was almost instantaneous, and was carried out with a practiced grace.

I planted my feet and skid to a halt with decidedly less grace. I was unsure what to do so I began to create large, hexagonal shields. A thin membrane was beginning to take form when Head Girl stopped me by holding out an open palm and shaking her head in disapproval. As soon as my shields were dismissed she threw three small orbs about fifty yards (45 meters) in front of us. She then repeated the action behind and to each side of us. As soon as the last grenade left her hand she turned and made eye contact before giving me a quick nod.