James Somers - The rise of Lucin

KALE awoke upside down, still strapped into his flight chair. He looked over to find Emil stirring to consciousness also.

"Do we have to end up like this every time I visit this city with you?" asked Emil sarcastically as he unbuckled his harness and rolled out to a standing position.

"I'll let you drive next time."

Kale got out of his harness and climbed through the smashed windshield opening, stepping into the street beyond. Emil was close behind him, wiping glass and debris off of his clothes.

A low hum could be heard rising in intensity as its source approached. They recognized it immediately.

"Pods!"

Just as they began to run away from the transport wreckage, the pods appeared from multiple directions; thirty in all. "They've spotted us!" shouted Emil.

"Keep moving to cover!"

The young men moved through the wreckage strewn through the streets like water, fluid and quick, navigating around every obstacle without delay. The pods began to lay down heavy gunfire, but it wasn't very accurate. The pod guns could only fire in the direction of its flight path, and the boys were moving erratically on purpose.

"Head for cover!" shouted Emil as he outpaced his friend toward a nearby shell of a building.

Kale followed him inside ducking and weaving around debris that hung from the ceiling and that which was piled high on the floor. They regrouped while the pods remained outside. Gunfire erupted through the dusty, burnt walls they had just found a way through. The boys hit the floor together as the pulse laser fire scattered all through the room they were in, sending more debris showering down upon them.

After a moment, the gunfire stopped. They could hear the pods powering down their engines outside.

"They're coming in," said Kale as he shook off the dust in his hair.

They looked around. There wasn't much in the way of cover. Then they spotted a staircase behind them-it was completely dark beyond.

"A basement?" asked Emil.

"I don't know, but it's got to be better than here."

Kale and Emil got to their feet and quickly ran toward the stairs. Outside, they could hear footsteps; no doubt the symbyte soldiers from back on Castai as they shuffled through the debris looking for a safe way to go in after the two youths. Kale wondered for a moment if he might know any of them. It was so horrible-all of their friends and associates taken over by the vilest enemy he could imagine.

The boys stopped at the head of the stairs when the odor hit their nostrils.

"What is that?" whispered Kale with a sour look on his face.

"I'm not sure. Maybe people died down there."

"That's not it," said Kale, "The city reeks of death. I can handle that, but this is-"

"Do you want to stay up here or what? Breathe through your mouth like me."

Emil led the way down with his extinguished blade in hand-just in case. Kale followed reluctantly, trying out his friend's advice on breathing. He could see the lights mounted on the soldier's rifles sweeping into the room as they began to cautiously come inside.

Kale and Emil descended completely into the darkness. They could here the creaking of the floor above them as the soldiers proceeded into the large room upstairs looking for them. The boys moved cautiously in the pitch black all around them. The foul funk was worse down where they were and it was surprisingly warmer. Kale could feel sweat beginning to roll down his face due to the humidity.

The boys were doing their best to sense all around themselves; mentally maneuvering through the darkness. Something wasn't right in the vast room around them. Kale could sense life all around, but it was so indistinct. He couldn't locate any one being. It was like the whole room was alive around them.

The stomping sounds were growing in intensity as more and more of the pod soldiers moved around above them. They would be coming after them down the stairs any moment. There appeared to be no exit and no way to find something to hide behind.

"Looks like we're going to have to fight them," whispered Emil from somewhere in the darkness, beside Kale.

"At least we've got better odds down here. We can sense them, but they'll have a hard time seeing us. Just don't ignite your blade."

"Something's not right down here," said Emil.

"I feel it too. But I can't figure it out. It's like the whole area is alive or something."

The soldiers were coming down the stairs behind them about a hundred feet away. Their lights were sweeping across the steps as they descended.

Suddenly a hand clutched onto Kale's arm-it was Emil.

"Kale," he whispered almost in a panic.

"I know-they're coming."

"No. I just remembered where I've smelt this odor before."

"What?"

Their pursuers were headed right for them now. The sweeping lights began to fill the room and as those lights played across the ceiling above them, Kale and Emil could finally see what their senses had been telling them all along.

"Aerogores!!" shouted Emil.

Mass hissing erupted all over the room as the great lizards sprang to life at the intrusion of the soldier's lights. Guns began to spit fire all around the room as the pod pilots panicked at the sight of the aerogores, cast as horrible apparitions in the chaotic movement of their rifle lights.

Kale ignited his blade as the whole room came alive with the beasts. The indeterminate life they were sensing before was now leaping at them from every aspect of the room. Emil's blade flashed as he seared reptilian flesh, striking down one of the beasts. Kale sliced quickly as he sensed a predator lunging for him from the dark. He divided one of its arms in a quick duck and roll maneuver as the lizard swept by.

"Don't hit the jaw area!" shouted Emil from nearby. "The glands contain an acid; part of the ignition fluid they spray!"

Good advice. Kale certainly didn't want to get hit with stuff like that. Then it occurred to him-what Emil had just told him. "They spray fire too?!"

"Didn't I mention that?!"

Emil took down another one with lightning speed. Everything was happening so fast-an eruption of pure chaos. The soldiers were spraying everything in the room with gunfire. Many were screaming as aerogores took them down; tearing their victim's limb from limb in seconds.

Another one flew at Kale from behind. He reached out and half caught it in a mental grip, using its momentum to hurl the creature over his body as he rolled away and back to his feet. The soldiers beyond got a nasty present instead as the aerogore landed among them and caught the first it could get a hold of in deadly, vice like jaws.

"We've got to get out of here!" shouted Kale as he realized the stairs were now blocked by more of the reptilian creatures.

Emil drew a couple of spicors off of his vestment and flung them into the ceiling. They struck the same spot consecutively, vaporizing the matter between them and the next room above. The hole was just big enough. Emil wasted no time and rolled into the spire of light piercing the darkness. He immediately sprang upward through the hole. Kale took the hint and followed, clearing the frenzy just before one of the winged predators could seize his legs.

No sooner had Kale's feet touched the floor above on the other side, before it buckled upward, sending the young men backward in a heap. Successive blows to the floor followed very quickly, and a hideous triangular head peered through the widening hole and fell back again.

"Let's go!"

They both turned and with their combined mental force, they burst the wall outward into the debris strewn streets beyond and ran with every ounce of speed they could muster. Behind them, the last of the soldier's cries faded into oblivion and the horrible screams of aerogores on the rage grew in intensity. The flooring gave way and the creatures shot upward through it and the stairway opening nearby.