It wasn’t that easy though. Not only had the Union Army shelled the street above their heads, they’d also set up a blockade at the end of the Driver’s secret entrance to the base and from there they sent in more and more troops. The group was sandwiched between two loaves of soldiers that outnumbered them. The Robot, Driver, and Sorcerer held their ground at the secret entrance while the Vampire, Gangster, and Doctor slew enemies on the other side.
The Vampire treated the soldiers the same way he’d dealt with the zombies and they died just as easily beneath his claws and multi-layered fangs. He was facing sentient foes this time, ones that could fear him and so he roared as he killed, calling out ancient battle cries of the Atlantean kings he was descended from. The Germans and Americans didn’t understand a single syllable of it, but the fact that he was a blur of death moving among them was enough to strike fear into their hearts.
The Gangster had moved forward and was taking cover behind some spare armor plating for the Chevy, beside him were two crates full of drums for the piano and he was halfway through the first. The cigarette in his mouth had long since grown cold but he refused to let it slip from his clamped lips, there was still half of it left after all. He had a cut across his forehead where a ricochet from a nearby workbench had winged him, but even through the headache and loss of blood he kept up a smooth string of rounds into the new tunnel into their lab.
The tunnel was a crude thing, started with shells and finished with demolitions that the Driver would have giggled with glee upon finding. The Krauts and Union Army soldiers had blown their way through forty feet of concrete, lead, dirt, and pavement to expose the lab to the light of day and soldiers were pouring in from the streets above. The group around the Vampire doing all the dying was shielding the beast from rounds, but as more and more came down the tunnel and saw their comrades dying at the creature’s taloned hands they began firing into the crowd rather than try to oust the Gangster from his armored hideaway.
The Doctor had used one gauntlet to erect a shimmering blue hued shield of force in the tunnel, but it wasn’t a perfect fit so their enemies were still able to pour in from above, if a bit slower than they would otherwise. With his other gauntlet he set wide beams of energy into the mass of soldiers, on such a wide dispersal it wouldn’t kill but he was attempting to manage their enemies and disable them long enough for the Gangster and Vampire to do the killing. His lasers could only kill two or three at a time while the vampire had accounted for at least a dozen and a half corpses in the time he’d been in action.
On the other side of the lab the Driver idled forward out into the secret exit with the hood mounted guns roaring. The Sorcerer sat in the passenger seat his face twisted in concentration as he shielded the Chevy from heavy machinegun fire and used his powers to pluck rockets out of the air as they came hurtling down the tunnel. The Robot walked beside the Chevy, one arm bracing the other as he fired rounds on full auto.
He sent the Doctor a quick blurt of a message via their shared comm. frequency, “We will clear the tunnel, retreat as you are able.”
“Understood,” messaged the Doctor, “if we are compromised I will blow the lab.”
“Understood.”
The tunnel the Chevy idled down was filled with a cloud of rocket and gun smoke, totally obscuring the enemies they faced. The sensors of the Robot were not based on vision though and he was able to detect approximately three dozen signs of life, at least two machinguns and three APCs blockading the tunnel entrance. All of their enemies were behind cover and the ammunition he and the Driver were expending was ineffective.
“Disengage your weapons and accelerate, our enemies are behind cover.”
The Driver followed orders and asked, “How much acceleration we talking about?”
“Accelerate to ten miles per hour, when we draw closer I will cue you to recommence firing blindly and reduce speed.” The next he said to the Sorcerer, “How much longer will you be able to shield our transport.”
The Sorcerer let out a hiss of frustration, “At this speed under assault from this much kinetic energy, perhaps ten more yards. Does the vehicle not possess shielding?”
The Driver nodded, even though the Sorcerer had his eyes closed, and said, “Yeah, there’s armor, mostly on the sides and rear. Most of the space on the front end is taken up by the engine and some light armor. Not enough to get use through this.”
“A suggestion,” crackled the Robot, “could we not put the vehicle in reverse down the tunnel and leave our ally to use his powers offensively. If he can cloud minds as he says his powers would be perhaps more effective than your guns and the suppressive fire they can lay down.”
The Driver grinned and gunned the engine while the Robot leapt away, the Chevy’s armored tires screeched across the pavement as he threw the heavy vehicle into 180 degree turn. The tunnel wasn’t particularly wide, but it was enough for the Driver and as the front and rear bumpers swung by the sides of the tunnel the Robot’s sensors detected there was only quarter of an inch gap between the chrome bumpers and the cement walls.
“Now we’re in business,” said the Driver.
The tires squealed again and the Chevy hurtled down the tunnel, bullets smacking the rear end with loud pings.
The Robot moved into a steady loping jog, his metal feet clanging against the ground and his arm firing in short bursts. He messaged the Doctor.
“Our exit strategy has accelerated.”
“Understood, I am attempting to blow the tunnel so that we may disengage. The Atlantean may complicate that.”
“Understood.”
The Doctor had pulled a massive shoulder mounted weapon from one of his work stations, vacuum tubes studded the device and brass dials glowed. Thick cables ran from the weapon to the Doctor’s gauntlets. A barely audible whine began to emit from the energy weapon as the Doctor powered it up. When the dials on the weapon glowed red the Doctor pulled the trigger and rings of pulsing blue energy erupted from the device’s.
As each successive ring of energy struck the tunnel the concrete and earth began to vibrate at faster and faster frequencies, shaking debris free onto the heads of the soldiers gathered there. When the final ring of energy hit there was a tremendous roar as the concrete and earth from the streets above came crashing down into the breach. The Doctor had precisely one second to smile at the effects of his weapon before it blew apart and lit him on fire.
The Gangster jogged from his end of the lab to the Doctor’s, one arm flailing with the piano on full auto till the gun clicked empty. He beat the Doctor about the face and shoulders with his fedora, when the Doctor was free from fire the Gangster reloaded the Tommy gun and followed that with a good hard slap to his ally’s face.
The Doctor startled awake and his hands leapt to his face and hair, his skin was reddened but unburned, his hair was scorched and raggedly burned away though.
“We need to go,” said the Doctor.
The Gangster let off a dozen rounds at the soldiers on the lab side of the cave in and began backing away towards the garage and the exit. The Doctor followed, letting off red beams from his gauntlet as he did so. There were only a dozen or so soldiers left after the Doctor’s cave-in, but there were still more Germans and Union Army soldiers in the streets above and the cave-in wouldn’t hold them off for long.
At the ass end of the garage tunnel the Chevy was turned around and idling while the Driver was sprawled on the hood smoking a cigarette and adjusting the machineguns. The Robot was clanking around the entrance putting bullets into fallen, but not quite dead, soldiers while the Sorcerer was vomiting. Plucking rockets out of the air and deflecting rounds had been unkind to his mind and body and a thin line of blood ran from his nose.
“That…was difficult,” he groaned through clenched teeth.
The Robot stepped to an APC and gripped the side of the vehicle with his metal hand, denting the metal as his fingers pressed against the steel. Servos whined in his arm as the side of the truck began to lift off the ground, he stepped forward and raised his arm further finally overbalancing it enough that it fell over. Glass shattered and metal and concrete crunched as the heavy truck tipped over. The sudden movement of the ground beneath him sent the Driver sliding off the hood of the Chevy.
The Driver stood up, his chin bleeding where he’d skidded it against the pavement. He drew his pistol in one swift motion and sent two rounds at the Robot, the bullets pinging loudly as they ricocheted off its head.
“A little warning next time,” he added.
The Robot slowed the barrels of his arm and lowered it saying, “Agreed. I apologize.”
The Driver nodded and returned to the hood of the Chevy just as the Gangster and the Doctor were joining them.
The Robot asked, “The Atlantean?”
The Doctor paused to suck in great gasps of air and said, “The soldiers still in the lab were dead when we left him, he was eating and should be along shortly if more soldiers don’t distract him.”
As if summoned up out of Hell by calling him by his name the Vampire ghosted out of the gloom, dripping with gore and sporting a grossly distended belly.
It spoke, “The humans have retreated for the moment. I could feel explosives being detonated above the collapse. They will follow.”
The Doctor put a plan forward, “We need to leave. They’ll want to loot the lab to discover what we’ve been up to and what our plans are but at least some of them will circle around to this entrance to try and keep us from escaping.”
Air whistled through the Vampire’s strange nostrils as it inhaled sharply.
“I can smell fresh exhaust from their vehicles, they are approaching this entrance.”
“How can you tell it ain’t the Chevy?” asked the Gangster.
The Vampire glared at the Gangster with its alien black eyes and said, “Because I am not an imbecile, ape.”
The Gangster flipped off the Vampire and produced his lighter which he waggled at the Vampire, the creature hissed and took a step away from the human, its talons sliding out of its fingers.
“Enough,” said the Robot with a blast of static, “we must leave the area, now.” He turned to the Driver and continued, “Ready the radio for transmission.”
The Driver nodded and they all piled into the Chevy in almost clown car-like fashion. The Doctor and Sorcerer took up the front seat and the Driver stuck his head beneath the dash and yelped in pain as he began playing with the fuses. While the Driver got the radio working the Doctor opened up the glove box and revealed a powerful little radio transmitter. He waited for the Driver’s cue and then flipped the dial on the front to the on position, pulled a mic from the side of the device as he did so. The Driver shifted into drive and the Chevy sped off like a bat chased out of Hell by the Devil himself. The Doctor had to yell to be heard over the squealing rubber.
“Bravo team, this is Alpha, we’ve been compromised and are incoming with pursuit. Evasion is possible but unlikely, your response?”
The speaker hissed and spat static for a moment but a voice soon followed and it spoke English thick with a German accent.
The Brick chuckled and said, “Try not too hard for evasion my friend, for boredom and loneliness we have in great amount here.”
The laughter of the Telekinetic and the Immortal joined that of the Brick on the radio and the Doctor found that he could not suppress a grim smile at the thought of his allies engaging their ex-countrymen in battle.
No comments:
Post a Comment