64 – The Attack
As the sun began to dip below the western skyline, Andy took a minute to sit down in his trailer and change his active class. When the brief but blinding headache faded and he sat up on the couch, the first thing he noted was the change in…everything. The quality of the light was different; things looked almost magical, like they had an inner glow as his Reaper’s Senses amplified the ambient light of the sunset.
It was more than just the light, though. The world was alive with hundreds of sounds and smells he hadn’t noticed before. It took him a few minutes to acclimate, as he sat there absorbing everything. His concentration jumped from snippets of distant conversation to the scent of someone nearby boiling something spicy—ramen?—and a hundred other little distractions before he finally began to adjust and tune them out.
Standing, he realized his Reaper’s Senses ability, while incredible, made the thought of changing classes rapidly, in order to meet some hypothetical need, very unappealing. No, he’d need to have a few quiet minutes to soak in the change. If he tried to do it during an emergency… He shook his head, physically uncomfortable with the idea.
Andy picked up his new armored coat. It was a jean jacket that James had armor-plated with cut-up sections of hard-shell suitcases. He’d somehow formed or cut the plastic pieces perfectly—rounded sections for his shoulders, flat ones for his chest and back, and overlapping, scale-like sections for the parts of his arms and torso that bent.
It was surprisingly lightweight, and the suitcases James had used were dark blue and black, so Andy thought it would be fine to wear, even when he was trying to sneak around in the dark. He tugged on his combat gloves and then picked up his motorcycle helmet. He hadn’t worn the helmet since the first night, but, with a potentially massive battle coming, he wanted to see how well he could see and hear with it on. He tugged it over his head and slapped the visor down, surprised to find that he could hardly tell a difference in his hearing.
“Reaper’s Senses,” he said, chuckling as he scanned the area outside his door through the visor. His peripheral vision was slightly impaired, but as long as he kept the visor clean, it seemed like it would be fine. Nodding, he gripped his spear and hopped down from his trailer onto the concrete pad.
As he walked toward Lucy’s trailer, he felt a little self-conscious at first, but then he started noting the people he passed; everyone had a weapon in hand, and most of them had some kind of home-crafted armor. He saw someone in the distance in a football helmet and shoulder pads. He saw lots of people wearing jackets with hard materials sewn onto them. He was glad to see it, but it also underscored the pressing and dire nature of their situation.
When he reached Lucy’s trailer, she was standing outside chatting with Bella. Lucy wasn’t armored, but she’d changed into hiking boots and wore a slim-fitting leather coat. Bella looked a lot like Andy; she’d clearly gotten her armored coat from James. When they saw him coming, Bella whistled. “Whoa! Nice idea with the helmet. Can you see okay, though?”
Andy nodded. “Yeah.” He turned the visor toward Lucy. “You want to stop by James’s place to see if he can do something for—”
“Nope. I want to be able to move and climb fast. I’ll be watching the trail, and if they make it up top, I’ll climb onto a trailer roof.”
Andy wanted to argue, but if she’d made up her mind, he knew he’d probably only manage to annoy her. Besides, it felt really hypocritical, considering his plans for the battle. “I’m gonna walk to the gate, but I’ll stop by and check on Isaiah and the prisoners first.”
“I’ll go with you,” Bella said immediately.
Lucy nodded. “Both of us.”
Andy shrugged and started toward the central lane. Bella hurried to walk beside him, asking, “Is it true what I heard? With the rope?”
Andy sighed. “Can’t keep a secret in this place.”
“What?” Lucy asked. “You don’t like everyone knowing about your suicidal ventures?”
“It’s not, though—” Andy started to protest. To his surprise, Bella backed him up.
“It’s actually pretty smart, I think. Andy’s fast, and he can hide in shadows. It would be dumb to have him stand around up here, waiting for those creeps to fight their way to the top.”
Lucy’s frown deepened, but she didn’t offer a rebuttal. Andy felt a little guilty anyway, and he said, “I’ll be careful, and Dwayne’s gonna be watching for me with the rope.” Andy had decided to ask Bea’s son for help with his plan because he’d felt like he’d snubbed him during the big meeting, and he’d wanted to extend a little trust his way. It seemed like it had worked; the man had enthusiastically searched the trailer park for ropes and then spent more than an hour tying and testing knots to hold them all together.
Lucy didn’t say anything for a minute, but then Andy heard her mutter under her breath, “And I’ll be watching Dwayne.” He looked at her and then Bella, but the other woman didn’t seem to have heard the comment, and Andy decided to pretend he hadn’t either. By then, they were approaching the storage shed, and he waved as Isaiah called out a greeting.
Stolen from NovelBin, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
“Yo, Andy!”
“Hey, man. How’re they?” He nodded to the shed, peering in at the two men still tied to the near corner. They looked the same, though maybe more bedraggled.
“They’ve been pissing and moaning about their wrists, but I let them out, one at a time, to go to the bathroom three times already, and I know they’re fine.”
“It’s hot in here!” one of the men called out.
“Shut up!” Bella growled, menacing the open doorway with her spear. “Just give me a reason!”
“Easy,” Andy said, moving past her to push the door shut. “Open it again after we’re gone, Isaiah. Anyway, we stopped by to check that you’re all good. You need someone to give you a break?”
“Nah, Bernice brought me lunch and let me walk around for a while. I’m good. Just wish I could be more help during the battle.”
“Careful or you’ll get what you wish for,” Bella said, leaning on her spear, peering up into Isaiah’s face. “If the bad guys get up here, it’s going to be all hands on deck.” She looked at Andy. “Right?”
“Yeah, I would think so.”
“I’ll be ready.” Isaiah smiled, folding his arms over his chest. “My foot hardly hurts anymore.”
Andy peered to the west, taking in the last crimson streaks of the sunset as the dark sky pushed against the glow of the sun. “All right. Heading to the gate. Be safe, man.” He held out a fist, and Isaiah thumped his knuckles.
“You too, boss.”
As they walked the short way to the gate, where a fairly large crowd had assembled, Lucy shifted the densely packed quiver on her shoulders and said, “I hope they really come.”
Bella looked at her, raising one dark eyebrow. “That eager, huh?”
“Eager for this to be over.”
Andy looked down at her, and when she met his gaze, her eyes seemed dark in the fading light, but there was a flicker of orange fire there—a reflection of the sunset, but maybe also a reflection of the fire in her heart. She was tough, and she’d been through a lot, and he could see why she wanted to put the fight with Construction City behind her. She was ready to move on to something else. Andy slowed down and looked at Bella, seeing a mirror of Lucy’s determination in her expression.
Suddenly, he was very apprehensive about their safety. “Hey, if all goes well, tomorrow’s going to look a lot different from today. I just want to make sure you’re both there to see it, so don’t go taking any crazy risks—”
“Hah!” Bella laughed, nudging Lucy, who clicked her tongue as she smiled, shaking her head. “Really? You’re telling us?”
“Be real, Andy,” Lucy added. “You’re constantly risking your neck. We’ll be smart, but don’t expect us to roll over, either. Tonight might get crazy, but we’re all going to have to give it everything we’ve got.”
Andy stared at her for a minute, then looked at Bella, who tilted her head, eyes asking him if he understood. Slowly, he began to nod. “Fair enough. We’ll all do whatever it takes, but we’re not losing the settlement, yeah?” He held out his hand, palm up, and Lucy was quick to slap her hand on it.
“Yeah,” she said, her voice thick with emotion.
Bella was right behind her, putting her hand in. “Whatever it takes,” she whispered.
Andy pulled his hand back and nodded to the gate. “Now, let’s go say something to this crowd.”
###
Andy skulked beneath the fragrant branches of a large creosote bush. He was deep in the shadows of the mesa, but he could see the road and the trailhead from his vantage, and, better, he could sit quietly and listen. If he were just relying on his vision, even improved by Reaper’s Senses, he would have missed the leading wave of attackers. He heard them, however.
At first, he wasn’t sure it was anything more than some rabbits or maybe some coyotes or wild dogs running over the hard-packed soil. When he heard a whispering voice hiss, “That’s it. At the end of the road,” the first thought or emotion to register was relief. They’d been right: the attack was coming.
He strained his ears, peering in the general direction from which the voice had drifted, trying to pierce the deeper shadows beneath the desert foliage. When he didn’t see anyone, he figured it had to be magic. That wizard guy, Heath, maybe. So, Andy continued to listen and wait; they’d have to drop the spell eventually. He’d heard the wizard complaining about mana drain, hadn’t he?
Andy continued to hear occasional whispers, the scuff of shoes on gravel, the crunch of dried scrub bushes getting stomped on, and the ever-clearer soft sounds of people breathing, trying to be quiet. They were about fifty yards ahead of him and closing in on the road. Andy’s instinct was to charge in their general direction, leading with his spear, but another instinct told him to keep hidden until he had a better understanding of what he was up against.
He couldn’t tell how many there were. The sounds were strange and echoey, kind of muffled. Maybe the wizard was dampening them, making it so the noise wouldn’t travel. Whatever the case, it made it difficult to determine the exact number of voices or footsteps Andy was hearing. He figured it was at least ten, and he had a feeling it was more than that—maybe twice as many. So, he waited and watched.
When a man’s shrill scream split the night, and the air shimmered near the road, Andy stood, loping closer. If he had to guess, someone had fallen into one of Omar’s traps. The spell was broken, or perhaps the person in charge had ordered the attack. Suddenly, the night bloomed with flaring torches, and the scene at the road crystallized in Andy’s vision.
He counted well over a dozen heads sticking up above the brush at the side of the road. One person was still screaming and sobbing while several others worked to extract him from a hole. A loud voice rang out, “Go, go, go! Attack!”
Andy watched as a string of torches charged the trailhead. They seemed to keep multiplying. At first, he counted six, then ten, then at least twenty. As soon as the torches were streaming up the side of the cliff toward the first switchback, Andy heard the other part of the attacking force.
Off to the west, in the depths of the Sonoran desert, dozens of shouting voices and the thud of running feet echoed out of the darkness to him. They were charging his way, toward the mesa, but he could hear some of the steps growing more distant while others grew closer. They were splitting up, encircling the tall cliffs. Why, though? The only thing he could think of was that they had some way to climb.
Andy couldn’t be sure, but it felt like a lot of people were in that second group—maybe fifty or more. He stood there in his shadows for a few seconds, vacillating between attacking the back lines of the frontal assault force or seeking out the larger group that was encircling the mesa. He decided to trust the defenders atop the trail and turned, loping into the shadows. He had to see what the Hardheads were up to.