The District felt like a ghost town.
The wreckage from the earlier attack coupled with the eerie silence that had settled on everything now that it’d been evacuated gave it an unsettling, haunted feeling. It didn’t help that Lucas was constantly blurring around the place like a shadow, keeping watch, checking to see if there was any danger inbound.
“Nothing yet,” he said, for what had to be the 100th time in the hour since the district had been evacuated before groaning and joining them at the table in the Grove. “Are you sure there’ll be more?” he asked, his gaze narrowed at Jin.
It was evident he still hated her but had accepted now that she knew more about whatever was going on than any of them did.
“Certain.” Jin’s eyes were pointing upward, at the clouds that had pooled overhead in the night. “I do not know how soon. But they will come. We need only wait.”
“How long are we talking here?” Hardy asked, groaning as he lifted his head from the table. He was decked in full tactical gear now, two rifles strapped to his back, two pistols holstered on either side of his waist, a small utility pouch dangling from his belt contained a combination of flash grenades and frags. “A few hours? A day? A week?”
“Soon.” Jin did not take her gaze off the sky.
“Great,” Hardy muttered and lowered his head to the table again.
Aiden arrived in the Grove a few minutes later, his hands and gear stained with dirt. “I just buried Spike,” he announced, voice flat and empty, devoid of feeling. “Didn’t want the bastards getting any more of their filth on her.”
He sat between Lucas and Jon, directly across from Jin, who was sat next to Hardy. Aiden’s gaze flickered toward her for a moment and the edges of his lips curled into something ferocious, but then the expression quickly vanished and he shook his head, as though he’d just had some sort of silent debate with himself.
Another hour passed where nothing happened, except of course for a now asleep Hardy snoring loudly at the table. At the other tables in the Grove, a number of the guards who sat there had started to nod off too and some of them slept much louder than Hardy did. Chloe didn’t mind though. The sound of their collective snoring did a great deal to make things feel less gloom and doom. If these would be their final moments, she was a little glad she’d gotten to see what a sleeping Hardy looked like before the arrival of the end.
“What are you doing?” Jon asked Jin another half hour later, finally done trying to pretend like her focus on the clouds wasn’t uncanny and a little disconcerting. He glanced upward then back at her. “The attack’s not coming from above, is it?”
“No.” Jin shook her head. “I’m just waiting for the shift.”
“The shift?” Chloe repeated.
“Yes.” Jin nodded. She provided no further explanation.
Jon and Chloe exchanged looks and shrugged, decided against pressing the matter any further. A full hour later, the two of them got tired of sitting and rose to their feet, taking a walk through the deserted district.
“You know, it’s funny that I’d kind of always hoped for this, but not like this,” Jon said, when they were some distance away from the Grove.
“For a bunch of angry gods to come knocking?”
Jon laughed. “No, not that. For the district to be empty. Quiet. No ruckus, no crowds, no bustling. It’s just peaceful. It feels kind of like relief, you know, like most of the weight of expectation is gone. No one around looking to me, to us, expecting the most of us, trusting their lives to us. And I know, it’s ironic considering this is the one moment where the expectation’s highest, where everyone’s lives is sort of in our hands…and somehow, for the first time in a long time, I don’t feel burdened.”
“I think that might just be Jin’s blood talking.”
Jon laughed again. “Yeah, sure, could be.” They walked a little further in silence before Jon spoke again. “What’s Jin’s blood make you want to say?”
Chloe looked at him and raised one eyebrow over the other. “What makes you think there’s something?”
“Dunno.” He shrugged. “Isn’t there?”
Chloe shook her head. “Nah, it’s stupid.”
“We might not make it through the day, Chlo. Something tells me if there’s ever been a time to be stupid, it’s right now. So go on, spill…I won’t stop nagging you about it, mind you.”
Chloe let out a loud and hearty laugh then, a little surprised by how much like his old self Jon had sounded just then. When at last she stopped laughing, his eyes were still locked onto her. He really wasn’t going to let it go.
“Fine,” she said, rolling her eyes. “I don’t know, I guess I’ve just been thinking, you know…assuming all of this isn’t bullshit and she’s not playing some game with us, which she probably is, say we do win here and we do figure things out and take back the world and whatever. Good ending and all of that. What then?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean what next? I mean we’re different now, altered and as far as I can tell, I don’t think it’ll be possible to reverse that. I don’t know if there’ll be a place for us in the world if things do ever get back to normal, and I don’t even know that they could. But even if things weren’t totally weird afterward, there’d still be the question of what we do next. What do killing machines do when there’s nothing left to kill?”
She saw Jon’s shoulders sag a little and knew at once that some of the weight he’d just spoken about no longer feeling had just returned to him. His brows furrowed as he thought about what she’d asked. He shrugged. “I don’t know. I guess for starters, we’d have to rebuild stuff, put things back like they should be…maybe a little differently than before, of course.”
“Sure, sure. And then what?”
“Well, I’d really like to go back to my life,” Jon answered truthfully. “I’d like to enrol in college, join a frat, attend the stupid parties and make the stupid decisions, skip on some classes, flunk a few…just everything that my life would have been if the end of the world hadn’t taken it away. Just be Jonathan Taylor again. Chloe Taylor’s annoying older brother.”
Chloe’s eyes went wide and she felt them water just a little. “Really?” she asked. “You’ve never said that before.”
“It never seemed possible before.” Jon threw his glance to her again. “But as you said, if Jin isn’t playing some twisted game with us then maybe, you know, it is possible, right? And you could also go back to being some nerd, go to college, join chess club, all of that weird stuff.”
Chloe shoved him in the shoulder then, playfully and laughed a little. He laughed too and threw one arm around her.
“But let’s not get ahead of ourselves, alright?” He said. “Let’s save the world first.”
They returned to the Grove twenty minutes later and found that Hardy was wide awake now, and was pacing the Grove, on the comms with Cole and Glenn, checking that they had everything rigged as they ought to be, and that the fences were ready to come back up as soon as the monsters had been lured in.
They sat at the table and only a minute after they’d taken their seats, Jin rose suddenly, her gaze leaving the sky for the first time in hours and fixing itself upon them. Her face was grim, as was her tone when she spoke.
“They’re here.”
***
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The Servants charged in first, around a hundred of them, give or take a dozen more, growling and snarling and chittering as they ran. This was the fastest Chloe had seen them go. They retained their usual clumsiness, tripping and stumbling as they ran and limping, but they moved like they were driven by glorious purpose, charging right for the center of district where Jin currently stood unarmed, placing her faith in Chloe and the others.
The Nighthounds appeared next, blurring in and surging straight past the Servants, overtaking them with ease. The hounds seemed much more aggressive than the ones Chloe and the others had encountered, and they seemed larger too as if they were made entirely of muscle. Jin twitched slightly in the center when she heard the nighthounds but she didn’t move from the spot.
And then, just as the hounds and Servants were closing in on Jin, there appeared the angry gods.
It looked like there was only one first, crimson eye glowing in the distance. Then more eyes appeared, three more, from every cardinal direction of the district. The plan had been to close them in, to attack from all directions.
Chloe, who was perched atop the rooftop of one of the taller buildings in the district alongside Jon saw the angry gods when they appeared and felt a shiver run down her spine, felt her skin crawl. She watched and waited, as did Jon, until the angry gods had crossed the boundaries of the district and as soon as they had, Jon reached for his earpiece.
“Cole. Glenn. Now.”
At once, the light-blue shade of the field flickered into being around the district as the electromagnetic fences fired into function again. The angry gods wailed in response to this but they did not bother with the fences. They continued toward the center, toward Jin who was now only mere moments away from being at the mercy of the nighthounds and still, she hadn’t yet moved an inch.
“Now,” Jon said.
At once, guards emerged from buildings around the district and from the Chancellor’s Hall, roaring at the top of their lungs, weapons firing from the go. As soon as the battle started, Jin turned on her heel and vanished in a blur. She was taking no risks by herself participating in the fight. Not until the numbers had changed and the chance of capture was a slimmer one.
The nighthounds, frustrated by their prey’s sudden disappearance went into a frenzy and ran at tents, snapping away at them, clawing straight through with all ferocity. When the district guards fired at the nighthounds, the creatures turned their attention to them. The nighthounds attacked at once, moving a lot quicker than any of the guards could possibly handle.
Chloe and Jon joined the fight, as did Lucas and Aiden, the four of them landing on the battlefield from the rooftops they’d been perched on. As soon as they landed, they wasted no time. They surged forward, tearing through Servant after Servant, each blow delivered with the intent to obliterate the Servants, maximum lethal efficiency being the goal. The hounds and the angry gods were the more pressing concerns, they couldn’t let the Servants take up too much time and with Jin’s blood supercharging them, the Servants were significantly easier than before to breeze through.
The angry gods, however, were a problem. They thrashed about with their limbs, striking at anything below them, foe or ally, slicing buildings in half with easy movements and sending concrete and bricks raining down to the ground. Chloe saw one of the angry gods swing a limb at her.
Rather than dodge, she grabbed onto it and let it move her through the air. As the limb swung again, she timed it, letting go and using the momentum to launch herself toward one of the nighthounds, one that had been running straight for Hardy. She slammed into the nighthound just as it leaped at Hardy and tackled it to the ground. The hound snarled beneath her and attempted to break free but found it difficult to do so. Chloe slammed an elbow into the hound’s head and heard a satisfying crack. A whimper followed, and the hound’s body went completely still a few seconds later, a pool of blood quickly forming beneath its head.
Four nighthounds came at her then. Before, the hounds had seemed too fast, harder to deal with. Now, she saw them coming well enough. She spun on her feet and slammed a fist right into the neck of one, snapping it in a single blow. Quickly, she spun around and swatted at two that had leaped at her, knocking them to the ground. A fourth went for her feet.
“Not again,” she snarled, avoiding the nighthound’s bite before bringing a foot down on it and hard. She crushed the hound’s spine beneath her foot, put it out of its misery by stomping on its head.
The two hellhounds she’d knocked to the ground came at her again. She snarled and went at them, both of her hands shooting out and wrapping around their necks. Angrily, she brought their heads together, slamming them against one another and doing so repeatedly until the hounds had gone limp in her grasp.
Breathing heavily, she let the hounds drop. Four nighthounds taken care of and she didn’t even feel tired yet. In fact, it felt like she’d gotten more fuel in the tank. Adrenaline and something else was coursing through her now, egging her on. She was unstoppable. Invincible. She could take on the monsters singlehandedly.
Snarling, and more animalistically than she knew, she surged into battle again. She grabbed a nighthound that had taken down a guard and was now separating flesh from bone, lifted it up, snapped its neck then hurled its body right an an angry god. The dead hound hit the angry god in the eye and staggered it. A flash grenade from Hardy staggered the angry god further and it hit the side of a building, very evidently disoriented.
Opportunity presented itself to Chloe. She moved quickly, grabbing a rifle from the ground that had belonged to a now dead guard, then sprinted in the direction of the dazed angry god. Between her and the creature was Jon, who was tearing through the hounds like they were nothing.
Jon saw her coming, looked to the angry god and immediately understood.
“Lift!” Chloe yelled.
Jon kicked away one of the hounds closest to him, then lowered himself at once, intertwining his hands and holding them out. Chloe built up speed and leaped right at him, landing atop his hand. As soon as she did, he heaved with all of his might, throwing her higher up.
In the air, she hurled the rifle at the angry god with all the strength she had and this time, she did more than just pierce it. The rifle shot straight through its eye entirely and the monster seemed to convulse, its entire body twitching violently, limbs going limp as it dropped completely.
She landed on the ground, some distance away from the angry god and continued her sprint toward it. Quickly, she scaled to the top of the creature’s head. She could feel it still twitching, vibrating almost. She held one hand up, pressing her fingers together in the same way she’d seen Jin do it. And then she thrust against the top of the creature’s head, striking with the points of her fingers.
She didn’t pierce all the way through like Jin had managed, but her hand did dig through somewhat and the angry god twitched more violently beneath her. She repeated the move four more times before the angry god stopped twitching, before its eye dimmed entirely. At this point, she now had its disgusting head slime all over her. But she didn’t care. In fact, she reveled in it. There was something thoroughly pleasing about it, something almost sensual.
She slid off of the dead angry god and started to walk back toward the battle. Her breathing was heavier and she could feel fatigue starting to creep in, could feel the effects of the dose of Jin’s blood starting to wane. But there was still enough left in her, enough left to cause some more carnage.
As she advanced toward the battlefield, Hardy watched her and he seemed at first impressed, then a little frightened, concerned. She paid him no regard.
There were hellhounds ahead of her that seemed to retreat as she approached. They were scared, scared after they’d seen her bring down the angry god, scared at how much more primal than them she currently seemed.
She saw another angry god fall, this time to the combined efforts of Lucas and Aiden who’d disoriented the creature with multiple flash grenades before very quickly putting it out of its misery, if at all it felt anything like that.
Chloe moved in a blur and tore one hellhound’s head from its body. One charged at her, she punched hard enough that her fist shot straight through its stomach, protruded from its back. She yanked her fist free of the hound in time to catch another that came charging, and bash its head against the ground with enough force to flatten it completely, nighthound brain going splat all over.
The remaining nighthounds seemed scared now, spooked and even more so when Jin finally appeared, joining the fight. In the blink of an eye, she’d separated six nighthounds from their heads, limbs and hearts, all without getting herself needlessly dirty. The two angry gods left standing seemed to get rather eager as soon as Jin reappeared, suddenly sweeping across the battlefield with their limbs, sending guards and Servants flying.
That was when the lights came on, every light in the district, coming on so suddenly and blindingly that Chloe winced and had to shield her eyes with her hands. The lights were so brilliant and overpowering that bulbs literally went boom, exploding and shattering, the district being plunged right back into darkness soon again.
But the damage had been done. The two angry gods were distorted and in some agony. Jin and Jon took the last two, bringing them both down onto the Chancellor’s Hall, the creatures’ final screeches ringing long into the air before being silenced very suddenly.
After that, the rest was easy. The Servants stood no chance, the hellhounds started to run but Lucas had absolutely no intention in allowing any of them to get away nor did Aiden. By the time the sun rose over the district, the fight was over, limbs and entrails and heads strewn all over the place, soaking in puddles of blood, rotten or otherwise.
The strength had all but faded from Chloe at this point and she staggered to a pile of rubble and dropped onto it, drawing deep breaths as she did. Jon joined her a moment later and then so did Lucas, Aiden and finally Hardy. All of them were breathing heavily, had sweat on their faces mixing in with the blood that had already stained them, chests and backs heaving.
None of them spoke for ten minutes. They all simply sat and attempted to catch their breaths. Lucas even chose to lay down for a bit.
Chloe felt sore all over, felt her muscles ache and throb, felt her head pound. The crash from Jin’s blood was not at all a pleasant feeling.
But it’d done its work. They’d won this fight, finally earned what felt to her like a proper victory.
But she knew, of course, that this wasn’t enough. Sure, it was a start, but only that. There was no doubt that Tarran would be enraged by yet another failed attempt to retrieve his daughter, angered at being thwarted by them.
When she looked up, she saw Jin’s eyes locked on to her, and her gaze was not at all one of celebration or relief. She was thinking exactly what Chloe was.
This was far from over.