Then

The group checked three more buildings similar in size and layout to the first one they went into. All of the doors were still locked, which was a good sign. The three story building loomed large in the darkness. It towered over the rest of the structures on the campus. According to Remy it was fairly new, just three years old. It was part of the first stage of what was going to be a three part plan to modernize the school. The centerpiece of a modern, technologically integrated high school campus of the future.

They crept closer to the gleaming double doors and even with the weak light provided by the candle lantern partially hidden in Remy’s hands they could tell right away that they were in the right place.

The doors were ajar. The part where they met in the middle were crumpled. The two-inch thick metal was treated like tin foil and the locking mechanism was scattered on the ground.

Eron reached out and gripped the edge of one door with his hands. His face grew red and the muscles in his arms flexed as he tried to twist the metal. Eventually it gave way and bent with a squealing sound that was too loud in the eerie silence of the dark night.

Eron shook his head then gave Cal a shrug. Not good.

“It’s fine, you aren’t going to fight Jay.” Cal kept his voice low. “Just stick to the plan and use your speed.”

“Can you tell if they’re in there?”

“Give me a few seconds, Remy.” Cal focused on with his thoughts. There was a strained feeling, similar to an overworked muscle if he had to describe it. He had felt the first stirrings of a headache start coming on after their near disastrous encounter with the giant gremlins. He reached for the classrooms just within the doorway. Malice and anger, as he expected. He reached further into the building. The stress on his mind built up. Again the same impressions. Next he reached up to the second floor, he could only go as far as the closest two rooms, but it was enough. “I think we’re good. I could only get to about half way, but the first floor hasn’t been cleared yet and two classrooms up on the second floor,” he pointed to the ceiling, “are still full of those things.”

“Then they’re still on the third floor,” Remy said. “We have to hurry.”

“I’ll check again when we get to the other end of the hallway,” Cal said.

“You’re bleeding,” Nila said.

“Huh?”

“Here, let me.” Nila took a tissue out of her pocket and wiped at the blood trickling out of Cal’s nostrils. She then tore the tissue and wadded up two small pieces and promptly shoved them up his nostrils.

“Thanks,” Cal said with a muffled voice. “Okay, let’s go.” He gestured for Eron to lead the way.

The tension built as they entered the long hallway. Banks of lockers, stacked three high, lined the walls on both sides. Each time they passed a classroom door they tensed up instinctively even though from their earlier experience they knew that the doors would remain closed unless they attempted to exit the building.

Cal intermittently used his telepathy to peak at the floor above him. The now familiar mental signature of the gremlins was the only thing he could make out. A good thing, it meant that Jay and his so-called einherjar were likely still on the third floor.

It took them a few minutes to reach the doors on the other end of the hallway. The building was twice as long as the first one, which meant that there were eight classrooms on each side, sixteen in total, eighty giant gremlins just waiting to be unleashed.

“Doors are still locked,” Cal whispered.

“What about the second floor?” Eron was taping his thighs with his fingers. A quick staccato that was a sure sign that he was nervous.

“It doesn’t matter,” Remy said. “Either opening these doors also triggers it or it doesn’t.”

“If it’s like the first building and attempting to exit without clearing it triggers the rest of the monsters inside,” Eron shrugged, “going to be hard if I have to get past an entire floor of them.”

“There’s a chance that the boundaries are set by floors,” Cal said. “So, for this floor it triggers when a person tries to go outside or up the stairs to the next level.”

“Right, so it doesn’t matter. There’s a good chance that I’ll have two hundred after me regardless,” Eron said.

“Just keep moving. They won’t be able to stop you,” Cal said.

“More powerful than a locomotive,” Remy added.

“Okay, okay.” Eron took a couple of deep breaths and bounced lightly on his toes. “I’m ready when you are.”

“We’ll see you on the other side,” Cal said. “On three.”

When Cal reached the end of his countdown he pushed hard on the doors and ran for all that he was worth despite the pain from the bite wounds scattered on his legs. Remy and Nila followed right behind him as the three ran outside the building. Eron went the other way, deeper into the darkness, pursued by a howling, snarling horde of giant gremlins.

Eron ran for it, faster than he had ever been capable of before. He had never been the athletic type. The last time he had played any sort of organized sport was back in middle school, soccer if he remembered correctly. It was a strange, uncomfortable feeling to realize that his body was now a superhuman machine of power and speed. It felt like riding a bucking bronco, not that he knew what that was like, but he imagined it’d be a close enough comparison. When he moved his body it was almost like his mind was a half-step behind. Like he was just along for the ride. He had been working hard to remedy that and he felt that he was getting better, but his growing power had a tendency to keep surprising him.

He was glad for all of it as eighty giant gremlins chased after him, like hounds baying for his foxy hide. At least Cal said there was eighty. He had to admit that as useful as Cal’s telepathy had proved, it sort of bothered him to think that his oldest brother had the ability to look into other’s thoughts. Although, Cal had promised not to do read his mind, a part of Eron was leery of the whole thing. After all, as that awesome saying went, ‘who watches the watchmen?’

As Eron neared the stairwell to the second floor he saw that a mass of gremlins was running right at him. Combined with the ones right behind him the monsters were just about ready to make a nice and tasty human sandwich.

Screw that! Eron thought.

He put on a burst of speed, his legs pumping like pistons. He plowed right into the gremlins, his arms covering his face. He could feel and hear gremlin bones breaking as he collided with them. A grimace crossed his face. It was extremely gross.

He planted his feet and came to a sliding halt right at the stairs. He clambered up, partially on his hands. As he reached the first landing he realized that he was going too fast. His feet slid as he tried to make the tight U-turn. Turns out Converse All Stars didn’t have good traction.

Eron grunted in pain as he slammed right into the wall. Bits of drywall, broken wood, and dust exploded around him as his body left a deep impression.

The momentary halt gave the gremlins time to catch up to Eron. They grasped at him with clawed hands. He swatted and shoved them away desperately as he hurried up the stairs.

More gremlins awaited him on the second floor. They swarmed him, biting and clawing, trying to bring him down with sheer numbers. Eron roared and exploded with all his strength as he kept his legs moving, like a running back that simply refused to go down. Up the second set of stairs to the third floor he went, dragging the handful of gremlins that clung to him like stubborn leeches.

Thirty feet down the hallway, lit by two torches was a group of dangerous looking men. Jay and his einherjar in the flesh. Hard-eyed they glared at Eron with undisguised contempt. The man front and center was a lot bigger than the others, who were all noticeably larger than Eron.

“Kill the subhuman trash.”

One of the other men raised his shotgun without hesitation.

Eron was quicker. He grabbed the gremlin that was hanging on his back and pulled it over in front of him. The blast of the shotgun boomed through the hallway. The gremlin shield did its job and took the entirety of the blast. The gremlin twitched as Eron threw it back down the stairs.

Eron glanced in that direction. It seemed that the gremlins from the first two floors had created a logjam with their bodies. In their haste to reach him, they ended up getting tangled up with each other. For the moment they weren’t a concern.

The man with the shotgun chambered another shell with a loud clack. Again, Eron proved quicker. He grabbed a gremlin that was trying to gnaw at his leg and threw it at the man. The speed at which he sent it flying surprised him.

The big man, Jay, moved with a quickness that belied his bulk as he stepped in front of his einherjar and slapped the flying gremlin away with a backhand.

In quick succession, Eron threw the remaining gremlins that were on him. Jay batted each one aside with open contempt, a sneer on his face.

“That all you got, spic,” he spat.

Eron merely shook his head. “This is why racists are stupid,” he said with disdain, “can’t ever get it right.”

Jay’s face grew red as he bared his teeth.

Eron looked down the stairs. His eyes widened. The traffic jam was clearing up. It was like the starter’s pistol was just fired and the race was on.

Eron bolted forward straight at Jay and his men. At the last moment he dived on the floor, sliding through Jay’s open legs. He kicked out hard, against Jay’s ankle, causing the big man to fall to one knee.

Eron scrambled to his feet. Another shotgun-wielding man aimed and fired point blank into Eron’s face, but he was quicker still, he had raised his arm up on reflex to shield his face. He felt the sting of the buckshot on his arm. With his other hand he grabbed the gun’s barrel and yanked it out of the einherjar’s hands. In the same motion he swung it in a wide arc, driving back the other einherjar and clearing a space.

“Fireball!”

“The fu—?” Eron felt a concentrated splash of extreme heat right between his shoulder blades. It hurt like scalding water, but it wasn’t enough to stop him.

Eron ran down the hall and spotted an open classroom door to his left. He stopped and stared Jay and the einherjar down. “Choo, choo… motherfuckers!” He ran into the room and didn’t stop as he crashed through the window and out into the cold night air.

In the building behind him the sounds of vicious battle rang out. Shotgun and spell blasts, men screaming, and monsters snarling.

The plan worked! Eron had a moment of exultation before the feeling and the wind were knocked out of him when he hit the concrete.

The three members of the group that had stayed together were waiting in the shadow of a concessions stand while they nervously kept an eye on the three story building a short distance away. Maybe a minute had passed, based on his admittedly less than accurate internal count when they heard the first gunshot. It caused all three to flinch.

The silence that followed was tense and it seemed to draw on forever. They were expecting more gunshots and as the seconds ticked by without another they grew more anxious. When the second shot finally rang out they flinched again.

“What’s taking him so long?” Remy spoke to no one in particular.

Cal was about to say something to his brother, he didn’t know exactly what, but no doubt it would be comforting, when the crash of a broken window saved him the trouble.

They watched with open mouths as the form of who could only be Eron came flying out of the third story window and tumbled head over heels in the darkness of the night. They cringed as Eron hit the ground hard and bounced several times before rolling into a heap.

“He’s going to be okay, right?” Remy’s hand tightened on Cal’s shoulder.

Cal could only nod.

By the time the trio made it to Eron’s side he was already standing. He brushed the shards of glass out of his hair and stretched the kinks out of his body.

“You okay?”

“Sure, Cal, just great,” Eron said flatly. “I mean I only got shot, hit with a fireball, fell thirty feet, and bounced on the concrete a couple of times.”

“Fireball?” Remy raised a brow.

“Apparently,” Eron shrugged. “But aside from my problems. I’m happy to report that ‘Plan Nila’ is a complete success.”

Nila rolled her eyes. “I still don’t get why you keep calling it that.”

“We already explained this,” Eron said. “I played the train engine and the monsters were the cars. I pulled them all to those racists douchebags, hence the phrase ‘to train’. It’s kind of an old school thing. I remember it from mmo’s back in the early to mid 2000’s when I was a kid.”

“I think it goes back even further, but I’m not sure. I didn’t start playing those games until after college,” Cal said.

“Everquest,” Remy said. “I played for a week on a free trial.”

“Just because I work at a railroad museum, you name it after me,” Nila said.

“It’s perfect!” Eron grinned.

“Well, I’ve heard of another reference using the word train and it’s not a nice one.” Nila frowned at him.

“I’ve no idea of what you could be referring to,” Eron said.

“Whatever,” Nila said flatly. “Let’s go, while those guys are busy.” She waved a hand up toward the third floor of the building that Eron just defenestrated himself out of.

The sounds of battle continued to ring out behind them as they made their way to the football field. Their approach was aided by the darkness and a lack of light in the open space that led to the field. They quickly made their way to the bleachers and waited there, crouched in the shadows.