Chapter 72 The Siege of the Bunker
The alarms weren't just loud; they were physical. The red strobe lights pulsed in time with the hammering on the blast doors.
CLANG. CLANG. CLANG.
We dashed back from the Silo to the main ready room. Vane was already there, propped up against a crate of ammo, checking the action of a pulse rifle with his only good hand. Graves, the surviving Grey Knight, was setting up a heavy turret to cover the entrance.
And standing in the entrance to the medical bay was Ryker.
He looked horrible. His skin was sickly pale, slick with sweat, and he was leaning heavily on the doorframe. The black veins were gone, but the tremor in his hands remained.
"You should be in a coma," the Commander spat, grabbing a shotgun off the rack.
"I heard a fight," Ryker rasped, gravel sliding in a blender. "I hate missing parties."
He looked at me. He saw the horror in my eyes; he thought it was because of the monsters prowling outside. He didn't realize it was for the weapon inside.
"Elara," he stumbled towards me, "are you hurt?"
"I’m fine," I lied, my heart hammering against the Origin Stone. "Ryker, you can't fight. The toxin..."
"I can stand," Ryker growled as he picked up his Star-Metal sword off the table where Vane had left it. The weight of the blade nearly pulled him down, but he locked his knees. "That’s enough."
CRUNCH.
The vault door, titanium and requiring DNA to open, buckled inwards. A gigantic, black claw punctured the metal like tin foil.
"OPEN!" The voice of the Queen hissed from the other side.
"Graves! Funnel fire!" the Commander barked. "Don't let them swarm! Vane, watch the vents!"
"Yes, Captain Sunshine," Vane grunted, aiming his rifle at the ceiling.
The Commander looked to Ryker.
"Wolf," he said coldly, "if you get in my way, I’ll shoot you in the back."
"If we survive this," Ryker snarled, baring teeth, "I’ll let you try."
BOOM.
The vault door flew off its hinges, spinning mid-air to smash a medical cart against the far wall.
The hallway beyond was a black-and-white blur. The Hollows flooded in.
"Contact!" yelled Graves.
The turret spun up. BRRRRRRT.
A stream of high-caliber rounds turned the first wave of Hollows into mist. For every one that succumbed, two more scrambled over the corpses of their fallen fellows, running on the wall, running on the ceiling.
"Hold the line!" Ryker yelled.
He stepped into the killbox.
He was slow. The neurotoxin had robbed him of his supernatural speed. He walked like a human--heavy, deliberate.
A Hollow leapt at him. Ryker did not dodge. He caught it on the flat of his blade and shoved it back into the line of fire.
BLAM. The Commander's shotgun took its head off.
"Left flank!" Kael screamed as he blasted a telekinetic wave to clear the creatures trying to bypass Ryker.
It was a chaotic, bloody dance. The Grey Knights gave the firepower. The Wolf gave the wall.
I stood back, gripping a pistol I barely knew how to use, watching Ryker.
He was fighting to protect the very people who were planning to exterminate him. Every swing of his sword bought the Commander time to launch the rocket that would kill him.
I can't let him do it, I thought. I can't turn the key.
"They're pushing us back!" Vane was shouting, one-handed in firing his rifle. "There's too many!"
"The Queen!" Graves yelled. "She is here!"
Out from the small Hollow mass peaked the Queen: sleek, obsidian, and terrifyingly intelligent. She did not charge; rather, she remained at the breach, deflecting with the bodies of her drones.
She saw me.
"The... Key..." she hissed.
She pointed a claw.
The swarm shifted. They stopped attacking the Knights. They focused entirely on Ryker.
They pummeled into him like a tidal wave.
"Ryker!" I screamed.
He was down. Three Hollows pinned his arms. Another sunk its teeth into his shoulder.
Not a muscle moved to help him. The Commander had aimed a shotgun at Ryker's head.
"He's compromised," the Commander stated calmly.
"No!" I screamed.
I raised my hand. I didn't do anything with wind. I didn't use anything with fire.
Pure Source.
I released a blinding flash of white magical energy.
"GET OFF HIM!"
The light filled the room. The Hollows screamed as their photosensitive skin burned. They scrambled off Ryker, retreating into the shadows.
Ryker rolled over, gasping, blood pouring from his fresh wounds.
"Retreat!" the Commander ordered. "Fall back to the Silo! Seal the blast doors!"
Graves picked up his turret. Kael grabbed Vane. I took Ryker, dragging him up.
We sprinted down the corridor toward the Launch Room.
We dove through the heavy blast doors just as the Queen recovered her vision.
SLAM.
The doors locked. The heavy mag-seals engaged.
We were trapped.
We stood on the gantry, suspended over the black abyss of the silo. The white rocket—in the center, the Aether-Bomb—loomed like a tombstone.
"That won't hold them for long," said Graves as he checked his ammo counter. "Five minutes, maybe ten."
The Commander walked to the control console overlooking the rocket. He punched in a sequence.
The launch lights turned amber. SYSTEM READY.
He turned toward me. He pulled a physical key from around his neck and inserted it into the console.
But there were two keyholes, ten feet apart. It was impossible for one person to turn them both.
"It's time, Elara," the Commander said. His voice was calm, even with the monsters screaming behind us, banging on the door.
"Time for what?" Ryker asked, bent against the railing, blood dripping down. He looked from the rocket to the Commander. "What the hell is that thing?"
"It's the cure," said the Commander.
He turned to me.
"Tell him, Vessel."
I froze. Ryker looked at me. His golden eyes were trusting. Hopeful.
"Elara?" Ryker said, "What does it do?"
"The Hollows," the Commander replied in my defense. "It releases an anti-magic pulse that wipes every unnatural creature off the face of the earth."
Ryker stiffened, then quickly surveyed the rocket and the claw-shifting hands he owned. He glanced at Kael. Then to Vane's mechanical arm.
"Unnatural creatures," Ryker repeated slowly, "you mean us."
The Commander continued. His hand hovered over his key. "Wolves. Mages. Clones. All gone. Only humans survive."
Ryker, of course, turned to me. The betrayal in his eyes broke my heart more than any war ever could.
"You knew?" came the whisper from Ryker.
"Ryker, I..." I stepped towards him.
"You agreed to this?" Ryker's voice was cracking. "You agreed to kill me?"
"I agreed to save you from the neurotoxin!" I cried. "He wouldn't give you the antidote unless I promised!"
"So you bought me an hour of life just to execute me later?" Ryker roared.
BOOM.
The blast door behind us dented. The Queen was breaking in.
"There's no need for a domestic dispute!" shouted the Commander. "Elara! Get to the second console! Turn the key!"
"If she turns that key," Kael said, stepping forward, his hands glowing violet, "I will dismantle this entire room."
"Try it, mutant," Graves leveled his rifle at Kael.
It was a Mexican standoff on the edge of the apocalypse.
The Commander vs. The Wolves. The Humans vs. The Magic. The Queen vs. Everyone.
"Elara," the Commander said, lowering his voice. "Look at the door. Listen to them. If you don't launch this rocket, the Hollows get in. They eat Ryker. They eat Kael. They eat Vane. And then they eat the world."
He pointed at the rocket.
"If you launch it... they die peacefully. Instantly. And humanity lives."
He looked at me with cold, hard logic.
"Ryker dies either way, Elara. But this way... his death means something."
I looked at the door. The metal was tearing.
I looked at Ryker. He wasn't looking at the Commander. He was looking at me. He wasn't angry anymore. He looked... tired.
"He's right," Ryker whispered.
My breath caught. "What?"
Ryker looked at his hands.
"I can't stop that Queen," Ryker said softly. "Not like this. If we do nothing, we all get eaten. If you turn the key... at least the kids in the Slums grow up safe."
He stepped aside. He cleared the path to the second console.
"Do it, Elara," Ryker commanded. "Be the Queen."