Chapter Twenty-Eight - Speared

Chapter Twenty-Eight - Speared

Chapter Twenty-Eight - Speared

People forget that Samurai are human.

In fact, they forget that theyre usually young. The average age someone becomes a Vanguard is seventeen. Thats... thats very young. I was thirteen.

Too young to drink in most places, and given the ability to buy near anything from an uncontrollable source. Governments stop taxing you, but also expect you to work for them. Corporations weasel their way closer, ready to try and lock you into a contract.

And the worse part of it all. Youre only worth as much as you can kill.

Killing xenos is easy. Its clean even. Theyre just monsters. It becomes a sort of game. Its fun.

Its the humans you need to deal with that make things hard.

--Neon Girl Happy-Chan, Live interview on the Colby-Colbert Show, Jun 2029

***

I dont know what gave it away. Maybe it was my exclamation, or the way I moved to bring my gun up to point it towards the ceiling. Maybe theyd noticed me noticing them.

It didnt really matter.

One moment the group of office drones were climbing up the stairs, grumbling between pants.

The next a foot-long boney spike was through the head of two of those in the middle of the pack and a dozen more tentacles were dropping from above to grab necks and arms.

Lights were dropped, others were raised towards the ceiling to reveal the two... no, three Model Fours tucked up near the top of the stairs. Screams followed.

I saw Jeff raising his pistol to the air and emptying the magazine into one of the Model Fours. Storm started firing a moment later.

The noise was unbelievable in the tight confines of the stairwell, with nothing but maddened screaming to accompany it.

One of the aliens fell from above, crashing into those below it.

The stairs here followed along the walls, with little platforms at every corner. Thats more or less where the Model Fours were hiding. Two of them couldnt even reach anyone at first, not until they dropped down with heavy bangs and started whipping out their many limbs at everyone.

Two bursts of four micro missiles raced across the space between me and the monster.

I heard eight satisfying pops and saw the beast tremble. It slid off to the side, dead.

Storm stumbled back. He was breathing hard, sweat plastering his hair to his head. He flung the tentacles he was still holding onto to the side with disgust. Fuck.

That summed it up.

I moved past him, past the bodies of four or five of the people wed been with, and then up the stairs. The door at the top was opened into a corridor. This one was complete, at least, but the lights along the ceiling were all broken. There was light coming in from the window in the door at the far end of the corridor.

I looked up, then along the ceiling and floors and peered into every shadow.

It seemed clear.

I didnt take any chances and shut the door.

Jeff! Jeff you stupid stupid-- get up, come on bro.

I clenched my jaw and kept staring at the closed door.

Please Jeff.

I swallowed and turned around. A glance at Jeff was enough to know he was dead. A spike through the skull would do that.

The others though...

Myalis, I need medical shit, just give me whatever, fuck the points,

I understand. The sooner we begin, the more lives we are likely to save.

Yeah, yeah.

I stumbled over to the first, got on my knees, ignored the way my everything ached, and got to work.

I wasnt equipped for this shit, but there was no one else around, was there?