“No,” Gabriel said, grabbing the barrel of the pistol and jerking it upward. “Stop.
It has to happen!”
Ignoring Gabriel’s protests, Kari knocked a second arrow, drew and aimed. Sam had indeed hit Alain. Blood poured from a gaping hole in his belly.
Loosing her arrow, Kari followed its flight with her eyes, knowing that it flew true. Time seemed to almost stand still as the long, thick shaft screamed through the air.
Alain raised his hand and jabbed down at the keyboard one last time with an air of finality before the arrow hit him in the temple. Blood splattered into the air, creating a momentary red nimbus around his head as the arrow exploded through the other side of his skull, imbedding in the wall beside him.
Alain’s arms went limp, dropping to his sides, and he stood motionless for a few seconds before falling. The arrow had killed him just a second too late. A ten-foot high bolt of lightning crackled into being and split apart, making a doorway.
“Energy Shield fatal error,” Allie’s voice sounded over the intercom. “Shutting down.”
The bluish energy shield above began to fade away, at first in patches here and there, then in large sections until it was completely gone. Turning to look out into the wasteland, Kari saw the Apostle’s army surge forward with incredible speed. A cheer reached her ears after a few seconds.
“Wonderful,” Allie growled, stomping on the ground in frustration.
“Turn it off and raise the shield again,” Kari suggested.
“I can’t,” Allie hissed. “He locked me out of all Gate Jump functions. I don’t even know where to start breaking down his encryption. It’s the same one that the Apostle used in the past! He’s locked the main gate open too!”
“But why,” Sam cried. “Alain seemed so nice!”
“The Apostle has some sort of mind control powers,” Kari explained. “If she
came into contact with him before, she might have planted the command in his mind.”
Shooting another look at the dead man below, Kari saw that his fellow soldiers were beginning to congregate around him. Several of them were looking up at the sky where the shield had been, and others were staring in horror at the open front gate.
Leaning over the edge of the wall, Kari yelled down to them. “Get ready to fight for your lives! We’ve got an army incoming, but only a few can get through the gate at a time. We can hold them off long enough for the computer to break down the locks that the traitor placed on it. We can win. There is nothing to be afraid of.”
“Do you think they believed that,” Jonathan asked, looking at Michael.
“They still look like kittens facing down a lion,” Michael answered. “Call me skeptical, but I don’t think so.”
Turning back to the wasteland, Kari knocked another arrow. “Soldiers to your
stations! Get ready to fire!”
The Apostle’s army covered the ground to the wall with amazing speed. The
cannons kept firing into the masses, but they were unable to fire sharply downward at the head of the pack. Allowing her army to do the dirty work for her, the Apostle held back out of range, watching everything from the back of her animal.
“Well,” Kari said as she took aim and loosed down into the milling mass of
mutants. “This is bad.”
Chapter 45: The Battle of the Spires
Swarming across the red sands, the Apostle’s army had nothing but the barest hint of humanity in it. No two creatures looked alike. Many bore misshapen bulges in every imaginable place on their bodies, and bony deformities. Some even had spikes or horns, while others had thick scales that looked like stone. Coming in all sizes, some were covered with fur, or coarse, curly hair, while others were bare and pasty-skinned. Some ran on all fours, like beasts out of hell, tails lashing as their paws, feet, or hooves thumped the ground, others ran on two legs. Most wore nothing in the way of clothing and carried no weapons but their own hideous bodies.
Growling and snarling like an enormous pack of wild beasts, the mutant hoard
threw itself at the walls with enough force to make Kari stumble. Many in the front were crushed by their fellow mutants. Some began climbing with huge claws driven into the metal. Others climbed with hands that seemed to stick to the surface.
Drawing her bow again and again, Kari fired a steady stream of arrows straight downward at them. Shuddering, she tried not to see the hideous monstrosity with eight segmented legs attached to a human torso and head that was crawling up the wall like a spider. When she shot it, it went limp and it’s legs seemed to lose their stickiness, slipping off the wall one by one until it dangled by a single leg that broke off under the weight.
Standing to Kari’s right, Gabriel and Sam leaned over the rail, firing their
weapons at anything close enough to hit. The huge pistols had a lot of power at close range, but were not as effective as the rifles that the soldiers carried at any great distance.
“This is hopeless,” Michael said as Kari let another arrow fly. “We’re never
going to hold out against this!”
Glancing over her shoulder, Kari saw that the soldiers below were in an all out melee against the creatures pouring through the open gate. “You two get down there and help. You’re useless up here.”
Jonathan and Michael gave identical nods as they drew their weapons and stepped to the railing on the courtyard side of the wall.
“After you my good man,” Michael bowed politely, gesturing with one of his
swords.
“No, no,” Jonathan replied with a slightly deeper bow. “I insist.”
“Age before beauty.”
“Oh, I couldn’t.”
With a growl of annoyance, Kari fired the arrow she had drawn and gave each of the twins a hefty kick in the behind, sending them both over the edge. Watching long enough for them to right themselves in the air, Kari turned back to her work, firing arrow after arrow down into the Apostle’s army. The twins hit the ground fighting, anything that got near them died as their blades flashed in the light of the dying sun.
“I’m out of bullets,” Sam growled.
Gabriel pulled a box from an inside pocket of his coat and set it atop the railing between them. “Take as many as you need. Don’t hold back. We need to hold them off until the Apostle gets here.”
“And then I get to go back to the past,” Sam asked hopefully.
“That’s right,” Gabriel answered warmly.
Not sparing any of her concentration to continue eavesdropping, Kari turned her full attention back to the task at hand. Things seemed hopeless. Every time she killed one, seven more seemed to appear in its place. They were getting closer and closer to the top, despite her best efforts. It would not be long before they were fighting atop the wall.
Though Kari was not a coward, she knew when she could not win. The thought
of jumping to the safety of another world briefly crossed her mind. Pushing the thought away, Kari kept her eye out for the Apostle. She was not leaving this world without making her pay for her crimes.
As the overwhelming tide of deformed creatures began reaching the top of the
wall in some places, Kari jabbed her thumb on one of her fangs and quickly drew a symbol for lightning on the railing in front of her. When she was done she slammed her hand down on it, willing the lightning that it described into existence. Bolts struck down from a clear sky, frying anything they touched to char. She could feel some of her strength leech away into it, weakening her, but she saw no other way to deal with so many. As she began drawing another symbol, she was interrupted when several mutants leapt over onto the wall and rushed her.