[Erick Sanders]

I looked over the shadows of the fallen trees and trench, cast long by the floodlights around the stronghold. The clouds had rolled in shortly after sunset, leaving the surrounding forest floor pitch black. I stood on the top of the wall, looking out over the parapet. The silence of the night was interrupted by a voice.

“Just when we need fuckers like Keg on the walls he is off taking a dump,” Mia said as she mounted the last rung of the ladder behind me. She stood and pulled a flask from her pocket, unscrewing the top and taking a sip then handing it to me.

“Yeah I can’t see shit in this darkness” I grumbled, taking a swig from the flask. The spiced liquid ran down my throat, a wave of sweet ginger rising up. “This is good? Some alien liquor?” I asked her.

Mia looked at me like I was stupid, “You’ve never had a whisky mac?” She asked. I shook my head, taking another sip.

“You should look it up when you wake up. I’d rate ginger wine higher than sex” She said.

“Someone’s not doing it right,” I muttered before coughing.

Mia raised an eyebrow at me before pulling the flask out of my hand. There was a long silence as she took a drink.

“Can I ask you a question?” Mia said into the darkness as she leaned on the wall, her black hair flicking in the light wind.

“Go for it,” I said, leaning forward beside her.

“You and Jack are brothers right?”

“Yes..” I said, unsure of where she was going with this.

“Why did you not do what he did? Follow him into the army, the S.A.S”

“I don’t have that in me. I’m not a fighter, never have been.”

When Mia didn’t respond I looked over at her. She was watching me with an expression of complete confusion. “You’re kidding, right? You’ve killed more people than any of us”

“That’s different” I argued, “That’s here, It’s not real.”

“It’s real enough that if you could do it here, you could have done it in real life too,” Mia argued.

I paused for a moment, before speaking again. “Honestly, I didn’t think I would be able to. Jack finished University top of his class. He would be up at 4 every morning training and working out, then he went straight into the army. He has always known what he wanted. The complete opposite of me.” I took the flask back from Mia and took another sip. “I was lazy. I coasted through school, coasted through Uni and took the first job that paid and never left. I still sit in the same desk as I did on my first day. I thought about following him, I really did. I even went to a consultation, did all the testing and scored well. They offered me a chance to go into officer training but I turned it down because my priorities were different. I picked a new relationship and a life I expected to be happy.”

I handed the flask back to her, What the fuck was happening. In two minutes with Mia and a couple of sips of alcohol, I was talking more than I had in weeks. I Sighed into the night. “Can I ask you a question?” I asked.

“Sure.”

“Do you think Jacks idea was a good one? A lot could go wrong” I said, gesturing to the mess outside the changing the topic.

Mia looked over the debris and trenches full of muck and mud, tapping her finger on the flask the soft metallic ring echoing out from the top of the wall.

“I’m worried that they could just creep through it and we wouldn’t see anything, or if we did, without guns we have no way of stopping them. That goes double when the only one of us that can see in the dark is off in the shitter.”

As if his ears were burning I felt Kegs form moving across the courtyard towards the base of the ladder and began climbing. When he reached the top he moved forward, taking the flask as Mia offered it.

“Chur,” He said in thanks, taking a sip and handing it back, “Anything happening out there?” He asked leaning forward.

“You tell us, our simple unaugmented eyes can’t see past the darkness,” Mia complained. Keg was silent as he stared out at the dark tree line, his eyes moving in a slow pattern, right to left.

I remembered sitting on the side of a hill with Jack a few years ago, watching the other side of the valley with Dads old rifle across my lap. Waiting for a deer to wander into the open, or spot one that was already there and hidden in the long grass. Jack had always told me to scan a field from right to left, the opposite direction that we read. He explained that the eye will move too fast and too smooth if you look from left to right. That was the day I shot my prized stag, the twelve points of its antlers standing tall into the evening air. I was jerked from my memory when Keg finally spoke.

“Shit. Mia, go get Jack and spread the word that we have company.” Keg muttered, despite our open conversation before, he now spoke in hushed tones. Mia stepped off the edge of the walkway and dropped down the ground, landing gracefully and taking off at a jog.

“What did you see,” I asked, turning my back on the forest and watching as Mia moved though the groups of our section, tapping people on the shoulder.

“Faces, seven of them watching us from three trees back.” Keg said.

“Only seven?” I asked.

“There will be more further back, those were just the ones I could see.”

Less than a minute later Jack came running through the courtyard. He was armed and ready, tossing his shield at me before he began climbing up the ladder.

“They’re here?” He asked keg.

“Some, maybe all”

“Are they moving yet?”

“Not yet,”

Jack tapped the edge of his shield in anticipation.

“Okay, let’s get ready. Erick, you’re still good to take the officer and anyone else that could cut through the rest of us like butter?” Jack asked me.

“Do I have a choice?” I grunted. I really should learn the name of the Chinese officer, since I kept running into him. I knew he would make a b-line of me the second the fighting started, that ridiculous enthusiastic grin across his face.

We didn’t have to wait long, shortly after most of the section was arranged in a line across the now gaping hole in the wall. We had removed the fallen tree, hacking it into pieces and dragging it away. It left the hole a seductive entry point into the stronghold if they first climbed their way through the mess of fallen trees and two trenches, but with no way to stop them, we had to hope Jack was right, and the chaos outside the stronghold would split them up.

I sat on the edge of the walls upper walkway, watching the row of our fighters, one of the men was scratching his ass with the hilt of his short sword while a ripple of yawns went through the lines. How are they so relaxed, I thought. Was this the difference between trained soldiers and regular people like me. Most of these men and woman would have seen action in the real world, now before a fight, they were calm. Either they were well trained or desensitised. Someone like me would be shaking.

I looked down at my hand, it was still as it rested on the hilt of Havars sword that lay across my lap. A whistle caught my attention and I looked down at Olivia and Samantha who dragged a large sack across the courtyard, “You better hurry up, they’re moving.” Keg called down from over my shoulder.

Together, Olivia and Sam hauled the sack up onto the wall, before tearing it open. Stacks of wooden spears tumbled out, all sharpened to a point. “It won’t kill anyone, but it’s sure to hurt,” Sam said with a wide grin.

“Well get started, they are almost halfway through the trees,” Keg grunted, staring out from the wall.

“I know it’s a change of pace for you, but you spot, and we’ll throw,” Samantha said, fishing through her pocket and handing Keg a torch.

He flashed it on and off. I was surprised at the bright white spotlight that came from such a small torch. Keg nodded to Olivia and Sam. “Closest first,” he said, the other two nodding in agreement.

I slammed the sword into the sheath and jumped to my feet so I could see over the parapet, watching as Keg flicked the torch on. A tight, bright beam of light shot out, illuminating a man as he climbed over the trunk of a fallen tree only fifteen yards away. Samantha’s arm flashed and a wooden spear rocketed through the air from the strength of a rank 96 throw. The man’s eyes went wide in the light, momentarily blinded, then he cried out in pain as the spear shattered into splinters against his chest, knocking him off the log and back to the ground.

Keg flashed the torch off then back on, another figure was creeping along a trunk when Sam nailed him with a spear. Every time, she threw with such force the spears shattered on impact and she never missed. None of them would have been killing blows, but they achieved their intended purpose. The more she threw the more the attackers began to panic. Every time Keg flashed the light on, each figure caught in the beam was more panicked than the last, calls began echoing in the night, and the cries of pain in the darkness.

They were scrambling to get free of the fallen trees, some moving faster than others. In their haste and confusion, the whole section was beginning to splitting apart.

Olivia and I shared a grin as Sam took down another man. It was all going perfectly until the edge of the forest lit up as a fireball bloomed to life and rocked over our heads. Then the wall shook as five-inch shards of ice slammed into it. We were being targeted by their elemental augment users.

I swore as a fireball slammed into the edge of the wall, singing my hair when as I ducked. “Looks like they’re on to us,” I cursed, grabbing the edge of the walkway and swinging down, bouncing off of a ladder rung before landing on the floor. I had to shift so I wouldn’t be crushed by Kegs larger frame as he jumped down after me.

“Why the fuck don’t we have any Elementals?” I swore as I ran up behind Jack.

“Cos some fuck head killed them all on our first day,” Jack said shifted from one foot to another, loosening and then tightening the strap on his shield over and over while he watched the gap in the wall. “Fuck it. Move up to the trench, stop them climbing out!” He called down the line. The section moving forward, their weapons ready to intercept any muddy attackers as they clambered from the trench.

They didn’t get a chance. As soon as they crossed to the threshold of the wall, the world twisted in ice and fire. Three fireballs slammed into the centre of the section in quick succession two of our fighters on the outer edges fell to the ground, spikes of ice embedded in their chests.

The section dove out of the way as another fireball exploded. An Australian man rolled on the floor, slapping out the flames that clung to his face and neck. I watched in horror as the plan fell apart. With no effective ranged attackers, we were defenceless against the elemental onslaught, people frantic to get behind cover.

As they moved to get themselves out of harm’s way, two fighters from Japan pulled themselves from the closest trench, muddy but unharmed. They followed a barrage of fireballs and icicles, joined by two more as they reached the man who rolled on the ground, clutching his burnt face. They stabbed him four times before moving on.

I pushed past Jack and Keg, swords trailing at my side, I was going to end them before they could get amongst our section. I was forced to redirect when two men jumped from the trench, metallic arms caught my senses and my eye. The Chinese officer smiled when I caught his eye and raised his sword, pointing it directly at me. The man beside him pulled a katana from his belt, a Japanese flag patched on his shoulder. Together they ran through the clearing at me, I changed direction and drew a second sword.

The black steel flashed in the firelight as I blocked both attacks on the run, taking a page out of Samantha’s book, I skidded low between them. Twisting I lashed out only to have both of my swords blocked, I danced out of the way of their counter. My brow furrowed. Kill a man twice and he brings his friends to the next fight, I thought.

It was obvious that these two were the deadliest on the field, and while I had told Jack I would take care of the metal armed Chinese officer, to stop him slaughtering the entire section, I hadn’t bargained on him being shoulder to shoulder with the only other person with sword experience. The way they both twisted their blades through the air spoke of extensive training. Perhaps at a competitive level.

I danced away from their attacks, my swords punching out, snaking through the air, The Japanese man winced as I cut into his shoulder, but the wound was too shallow to end the fight. I knew I could end either one of these men in single combat, but together they were a challenge. We fought our way across the courtyard, the two men slowing forcing me to give ground as I dodged the vicious attacks. Twisting the dial in my mind gave me time to think, but my body couldn’t move fast enough to just end the fight.

I to glance around, seeing the battle around me.

We were outnumbered. The Asian section had filtered through the gap in the wall. With the support of their elemental users, we had no recourse to cut them off. Our defences and hard work were less than useless now. The Two elementals stood atop a tree trunk on the far side of the trenches, throwing balls of fire and shards of ice where needed. Jack and Keg pushed at three men together in the centre of the courtyard while Mia, Olivia and James were scattered throughout the fight. Mia trying to snake her spear around a man’s thick shield, two dead bodies already at her feet.

Scattered over the stone ground were bodies, more from our section than theirs. We were losing this fight.

I dodged two more attacks and left a gash across the arm holding the katana. At the edge of my vision, I saw Samantha sprinting through shadows of the wall's walkway, heading for the gap, and the elementals. She was passing the doorway to the storage shed.

I twisted the dial in my mind, knowing I could only slow my perception of time like this for a moment before the headache would come, and my concentration would lapse. I darted to the left and kicked out, a blur to my opponents, their eyes followed me, but I could see the delay. I foot slammed into the side of the Japanese man and he flew back into the Chinese officer, together they skidded away from me on the stone.

“Sam!” I yelled, “Kill the lights!”

Samantha’s head jerked round to me, then to the door beside her. She shoulder barged into it, disappearing into the storeroom. Then the courtyard fell into darkness. The floodlights switching off together.

Without out the lights, and with the cloud coating the sky to block the planet, everything was pitch black.

I tightened my grip on my EM sense and focused on the mental image that formed. Rather than see the two men, I could feel them. The wires running through the metal arms of the Chinese officer were bright in my mind. I dashed forward, stabbing out with my sword. The Japanese man tried to block. Either from smell, sound or pure instinct he swept his sword through the air in defence.

His timing was off, I tapped his sword away with one of my own, while the other pushed into his stomach. With a grunt, I wrenched it sideways, cutting through organs, tendons and muscle. He collapsed in a heap and I felt the life escape him. I ducked as a powerful swing cut through the air and over my head before I kicked the officer in the knee, taking his leg out from under him.

Before he hit the ground my sword swooped up and removed his head. I spat on the ground and took off at a run, into the chaos of the darkness. The fire elemental user shot fireballs through the air, streaks of light creating more confusion, casting shadowy images of people crowded together. The moments of light gave people no time to adjust to the darkness.

Kegs eyes were the exception, his augments letting him see clearly. He bashed out with his shield, the stabbed through a gap and into a man’s chest before battering the body away. I felt his and Jacks large frame in my mind, familiar outlines. I felt as James was cut down by a wild swing of a sword, and Olivia dove to the ground.

I made ran towards their attacker, slicing through the back of his neck as I sprinted past, Each of the flashes of light gave me an image of friend from enemy, and my EM sense guided me as I moved through the remaining fighters, cutting down men and woman around me. Until a fireball exploded against the ground, showing no more people to kill.

Jacks voice called out into the night, echoing off the walls around us, “Sam, Lights!”

The lights flickered before blooming to life again. The courtyard was a pool of blood, that stuck to my boots.