Apocalypse game, p.27
Apocalypse Game, page 27
It was five miles or so to the mall, so it seemed we were taking vehicles as two large, armored behemoths stood waiting when I arrived. They were big and bulky, all uneven lines that ended in a wedge.
“What are those?” I asked a random soldier passing by.
“APC. Armored personal carrier. They’ll ferry us to and from the mall,” he said, already walking away.
I counted the troops and looked back at the vehicles, wondering how the hell we were all going to fit. I highly doubted comfortably would be the answer.
As I glanced around, I realized Adeline had vanished. I looked for her for a minute, but when I didn’t immediately see her, I turned back to checking over my weapons and gear.
This wasn’t going to be an easy quest, so I wanted to double- and triple-check that everything was in order before we left. When that was done, there was nothing else to do other than stand around. I loaded up as many spare magazines as I could and chambered a round in my SMG before I flicked the safety on.
After I’d finished, I started searching for Finn and Adeline.
They were behind one of the buildings. I only spotted them because a breeze blew through, and some of Adeline’s blue hair stood out.
I was about to walk over to them, but they clung to each other, kissing.
About damn time.
A grin tugged at my lips, and I turned away, giving them their privacy. I stood out of the way, but as a bitter wind tore at my exposed face, I cursed and desperately wished I’d made some coffee.
“Here,” a voice said.
I turned and found First Sergeant Wise next to me with a tray of steaming coffee mugs in his hands.
“Are you a mind reader?” I asked, taking one of the proffered mugs.
“Nope. But a stiff cup of joe always perks me up, especially in the winter. Figured since my men were already geared up, I’d make some coffee…so I had to make sure there was enough for the whole class.”
I laughed and took a sip. It was pure black coffee, which wasn’t my favorite, but it was still coffee, and it was warm, so it was perfect.
“Thanks. Are you coming with us?” I asked.
He shook his head. “No. That responsibility lies with Staff Sergeant Moore. He’ll be leading this mission.” Wise shook his head. “A bit taciturn, but he’s good at what he does.” Wise turned around and took a step. “I better hand out the rest of these before everyone freezes solid. Good luck, Killian.”
“Appreciate it.” I nodded and held up my cup. “Thanks for the coffee.”
As he left, I leaned against one of the support beams and sipped my coffee as everyone got ready.
Ten minutes later, the two squads we’d be going with strolled out decked in full combat gear and looking like the badasses they were.
It made me feel better about going up against such a sizable force.
The APC started with a thunderous rumble, and the back hatch opened, and we all piled in.
A thick man with a graying buzz cut pointed at us as we entered.
“Alright, for you newcomers, I’m Staff Sergeant David Moore, and I’m the man in charge of you. You may be mercs, but during this mission, I’m in command. Is that clear?”
“Yes, sir,” I said.
“Staff Sergeant. None of that sir bullshit,” he said, scowling at me.
“Yes, Staff Sergeant.”
Finn looked over and snickered at me, while Adeline looked like she wanted to burst out laughing.
“So, what’s the plan?”
“The plan, Merc, is for you to stay back and let the professionals handle it, and try not to shoot us in the back by mistake. The mall has too many entrances and exits to cover them all. We scout out the area and make an assessment, then we go in, kick ass, and go home.”
I didn’t say anything else and tried to figure out a game plan for the three of us.
The Army is going to go in loud, try to hit them hard and fast.
We could join in and back them up. But three extra guns will be of middling use. It might be best to see if we can hit them from a different angle, flank them, and catch them by surprise.
It bore some thought, but I wouldn’t know until we arrived. Too many things could go wrong, and a complex battle plan would fall apart as soon as we engaged the enemy. Better to be flexible and adapt on the go.
It took us nearly twenty minutes to go five miles, but we eventually arrived at our location.
As the APC stopped and the hatch opened, we fled from the cramped and hot quarters to the bitter cold and biting wind, and I didn’t know which one I preferred less.
The first thing I noticed was that we weren’t at the mall. We were still a few blocks away, which was a smart call as rolling up in a loud armored vehicle most certainly wasn’t my definition of covert.
After everyone filed out, the men and women next to us checked their weapons, and we marched as quietly as we could to the mall’s parking lot.
Several Charade Beasts were prowling around the rooftops, but a few well-placed suppressed rounds from a pistol sent their carcasses careening to the pavement to splatter their colorful blood on the concrete.
“Fuckin’ hate those things,” a soldier in front of me said, the one who’d fired.
“Nice shot,” I said.
The woman turned back and flashed me a grin, along with her thanks. From then on, we didn’t run into any more of Callisto’s minions, and we reached the mall without incident.
We didn’t head to the mall itself, but rather the large three-story parking garage next to it. It was the best option to give us a good overview of the mall and let us plan our entrance.
The garage is a good vantage point, but wouldn’t that mean it’s guard─I was in the process of thinking when there was a shout of surprise and the muffled thumps of automatic fire.
“Two down,” came a voice inside.
Guess so.
The wind picked up, and the constant howling should’ve masked the gunshots, but I kept my ears tuned to see if I could pick up anything over the bracing gusts.
The soldiers swept through the garage like well-oiled machines and made us look like complete amateurs in comparison.
Finn and Ade were about to head in when I stopped them.
“What?” they both said in unison.
“Let’s leave the soldiers to their work. They don’t want us there, and honestly, if we tried, we’d likely just get in the way.” I held up my hand as Finn opened his mouth. “Adeline and myself, that is. We’re not trained soldiers, and they have their set way of doing things.
“Let them. I say we head in and fuck some shit up our own way.”
“You know I’m down,” Adeline said.
“Hell, can’t argue with our fearless leader after a speech like that. What’s our play?”
I motioned for them to follow me and led them around to the service elevator in the garage. “There’s a maintenance tunnel leading from the garage to the mall. We go in from below, and they’ll never see us coming.”
They gave me wide smiles and nodded.
“Alright, let’s do this!”
Chapter 19- Assault on Grissom Mall
The plan was simple enough, but executing it was a different matter altogether. For starters, getting down into the maintenance tunnel would be a bitch and a half. The elevator wouldn’t take us that far down without a key, which we didn’t have.
I made sure we were alone and then shifted into Demon Form to pry open the elevator doors. The elevator itself was a floor above us which saved us the trouble of removing it. Our goal was just below us, though it was a bigger drop than I was thinking.
Not afraid of heights, no. I’m the Demon Lord, and the Demon Lord can’t be frightened by a ten-foot drop.
“I’ll jump down first and catch you guys,” I said, and without the chance to chicken out, jumped.
It was over in a second, and I hit the ground with an echoing thud that quickly faded into oblivion before it carried down the tunnel.
I looked up and held my hands out. “Alright, jump.”
Adeline did so without hesitation and barreled off the ledge and into my arms with a wild smirk. I braced and cushioned her against my chest as she fell into me and stumbled when a hundred and twelve pounds of woman knocked the breath from me.
I chuckled as I set her down. “There’s a joke about you falling for me in there somewhere.”
She laughed and leaned up to flick my horns. “Sorry, the whole gloom lord look doesn’t do it for me.”
“With how many punk band T-shirts you own? I find that hard to believe.”
She snorted and laughed. Adeline was about to respond when she looked up and stepped to the side. Finn jumped without warning and didn’t even bother to try and let me catch him, preferring to show off and potentially get himself hurt. He landed on the balls of his feet and absorbed the impact as well as he could, but still winced as he came out of his crouch.
“Oof, going to feel that in my knees tomorrow.”
“Shouldn’t have tried to look tough in front of your girlfriend,” I said with a smile.
“Yeah, yeah,” he replied, and slugged me gently on the arm. “Though you can’t tell me you wouldn’t have done the same if Death was watching.”
“I’m not dating Death.“ I walked over to the metal doorway in a recessed alcove in front of us; along the wall was a switch, and when I flicked it, a red light buzzed to life just above us and bathed the entire tunnel in a soft glow. “And even if I was, she’s Death. I’m fairly certain her idea of impressive isn’t anything a mortal can accomplish.”
He tilted his head and shrugged. “That’s probably true, though you must be doing something right to get her to stick around.”
“She just likes using him as a pillow,” Adeline quipped with a throaty chuckle.
The two of them shared a laugh at my expense while I tried to open the door, but of course, it was locked. I pried it open with my claws and stepped through while Finn whispered to Adeline behind me.
I didn’t know what awaited us beyond the tunnels, so I wanted us to be prepared for anything. I shifted out of my Demon Form so that the cooldown timer would hurry up.
“Guys, time to get our game faces on.”
Weapons out, we proceeded down the cramped tunnel. It was all thick concrete and rebar, but nothing leaked, and there wasn’t any dampness in the air, so it was already a marked improvement from being outside in the cold. There were a few more red lights, which did little but cast shadows over the walls, but we could at least see where we were going.
We continued through the tunnels for a while until Adeline spoke up.
“Why didn’t we tell the soldiers about this?”
I looked back at her. “Because, they wouldn’t have listened. Moore doesn’t want us here. We were nothing but baggage to him, and no way would he have taken my advice.”
Finn nodded. “Kill’s right. Moore’s kind of a prick. And he’s really not a fan of mercenaries, so I doubt he’d have paid us any mind.”
“Which is why we’re doing things our way. I wasn’t about to take orders from someone who doesn’t respect me,” I said as we pressed on.
We passed several locked rooms and passageways to other sections and maintenance chambers, but I knew the correct pathway if memory served me and took a left.
Something that didn’t go unnoticed.
“Hey, Kill. How do you know which way to go?” Finn asked.
“My dad used to be a contractor. He worked for the company that built the mall. When Mom was working at the lab, we couldn’t be left alone during the summer, so Meghan and I would come to work with Dad. There’s a break room around here where we were told to stay, but of course, we didn’t.”
“Little Killian, running around making trouble,” Adeline smirked at the thought. “Why does that not surprise me?”
“Yeah, I used to be a lot of fun, then I picked up gaming, and there went my social life.”
It only took us a few brief minutes to traverse through the tunnels and reach the door that would lead to the mall's basement.
We’ve almost certainly beaten the Army here. They’re probably still scouting things out. What to do?
I turned to Finn. “What do you think? Stay and wait for the fireworks, or kick them off ourselves?”
“Moore knows by now that we left, so if they hear gunfire, they’ll rush in and join us. We can take bullets better than they can, so it might be better for us to do the heavy lifting.”
“Adeline?”
She shrugged and leaned against the wall. “Doesn’t much matter to me. We might get killed either way, but personally, I’d rather we go in and snag some experience points for ourselves rather than letting the soldiers hoard them all.”
Not a bad point, but it’s not monsters and abominations we’re going up against here.
It’s people: flesh and blood humans.
It was something I’d prepared to deal with and had accepted. But I hadn’t once asked them if they were okay with it.
That was a failure on my part. Just because I’d resolved myself to doing whatever it took didn’t automatically carry over to them. This was something they had to decide on their own. I couldn’t ask them to go up and start slaughtering people if they didn’t want to.
Should have had this conversation much earlier, but better late than never.
“Hold up a sec, guys. I should have said something about this sooner. But we’re not up against Callisto’s pets here. It’s people. Can you do this?”
Finn sighed and scratched his head. “Not the first time, Hermano…I’m good.”
“And what about you?” I asked, turning to Ade.
She looked away quickly, her chest rising and falling quickly. “I’m not going to let you two take the burden on yourselves without helping. Besides, we’ve already seen that some humans deserve to die.”
I walked over and placed a hand on her shoulder and went to speak, but no words came. There wasn’t anything I could say that would change the fact that we were about to kill people.
Finn smiled as he glanced at me. “No worries. Let’s just have each other’s backs. Drinks are on me when we get back to base!”
I smiled.
We’re probably going to need them.
The walk through the tunnels had taken just over fifteen minutes, and I had about that long until I could use Demon Form again.
Let’s hope things are quiet till then.
The three of us stared at each other and, with a nod, slipped inside the mall.
Out of nowhere, a notification jolted in front of me.
Grissom Mall: Base
Fortification Level: 7
Threat Level: 5
Safe Zone: Active
Good to know this place is secure, at least. Means we don’t have to deal with any of Callisto’s pets.
It was pitch-black in the basement, but the air was still, almost stale, as if the room hadn’t been disturbed in some time. That ineffable quality told me that we were alone.
Someone didn’t check the mall over. Sloppy work or maybe they just don’t have the manpower to cover everywhere. Either works in our favor.
“Can someone get the lights?” Adeline asked.
“Not unless you want hostiles crawling over our asses,” Finn whispered back.
As quiet as church mice, we crept along until we came to the stairs that led to the heart of the mall.
It had been a year or so since I’d last been in the mall itself and too many years since I’d been in the tunnels. I had no idea as to where the stairs led to. We could get lucky and end up close to a location to hide in, or we could walk into the center of the mall and be surrounded.
Well, sitting here doing nothing isn’t going to do us any good.
“Stealth first, only fire if we have no other choice.”
I opened the door a crack and peered out. We’d gotten lucky, and we were off the main strip, in one of the corners, with a defunct video and electronics store that sold overpriced DVDs and anime memorabilia.
There was no one around, so I stepped out with a motion for the others to follow me, and we entered the store. The employee's only section was past cheap plastic shelves full of movies and a cardboard cutout of some blond-haired battle academy hero with a cybernetic eye and arm, and I made a beeline for it.
The room was small with half-finished drywall, spackle spots over the nails left unpainted, and no tiles on the ceiling. But it was perfect because it led to the employee hallway and connected this half of the stores together. We could move about unseen if we didn’t run into any patrolling guards.
“What’s the play, Kill?”
I sighed, knowing what we had to do. I’d accepted it, but that didn’t mean I liked it.
It’s not what I want, but I don’t really have a choice here. And besides, they’re just as bad as the men I killed, maybe worse. Reynolds said the gang leader was ruthless, but am I okay with trading human lives for experience points?
Because that’s what this is boiling down to.
It was what it was always going to come down to, though. I needed to get stronger, and this was how I had to do it.
“There’s too many to take alive, so we drop them one by one as quietly as we can.”
I chose to participate in this mission and had to follow through with it, no matter what or who stood in the way. So, with that in my mind, I steeled myself, and we left the store.
The hallway was well lit, with multiple fluorescent lights overhead across the mostly clean white tile and walls. Someone had been cleaning, but not to a professional degree.
Surprising, I’d think a gang of killers would have better things to do.
Towards the end of the hallway was a door that led out into side hallway bathrooms, and beside it was the entrance to a lingerie shop. We were still at the “back” of the mall, but I was still surprised we hadn’t run into anyone yet.
The only other shops in this section were a shoe store and video game outlet, but still, it was beyond an oversight to leave this place unguarded.
We stuck to the sides and employee hallways as much as possible, but after passing four or five more stores without seeing a single person, I was beginning to get twitchy.
