LII: Survive the Night - Part Three

12 Oct 0333 KST

Seongnam, South Korea

Bremer stood looking out a window on the top floor facing south anticipating the worst while hoping for the best. He could see the hazy glow from the burning machines and buildings in the area where he knew Vargas and Tae-yang were fighting. Bright flashes of light from the explosions routinely banished the dark and streaks of stray gunfire and rockets could be seen going up into the air at a low angle. The glow of the fuel drum fires still burning like candles on the rooftop cast their own warm light down on the hospital from above. The hospital and the battle zone were like islands of vermillion light in a city awash in the ocean of night. "Come on Chico, I know you can smash these buggers. Fight on, my brother, fight on." Bremer whispered softly while watching the fighting from the periphery. The intensity of the flashes made it seem so close, yet it was far enough away that the sounds of the fight were toned down to a dull roar in the background before they reached Bremer's ears. Elsewhere in the hospital the people took notice of the sights and sounds coming from the south and were all too aware of what was going on. Their fear swelled inside them filling them with dread. Those of the 4th Korea that had been left behind had tensed up like a man expecting a strong punch to the gut.

Upstairs from his observation post Bremer sighted a pair of flares shooting up into the night sky to the southwest. "Oh shit, looks like we're going to have to pack out before we had a chance to get comfortable." Bremer grumbled. "Tae-yon you better be finishing up." Bremer muttered as he quickly ran out of the room and down the stairs to raise the alarm. He alerted those who were waiting on his call to light the rest of their smokescreen as he rushed around the downstairs perimeter of the hospital. "Smoke it up! Ignite!" commanded Bremer repeatedly as he passed by the lower level watches. A handful of men ran outside the hospital and tossed torches onto the flammable ridge they had built around the hospital which went up like a powder keg. The burning fuel and refuse produced billowing blanket of smoke to obscure the hospital and its surroundings as it was carried away by a soft easterly wind. They were now reasonably hidden away from enemy's view from the air and had enough strong heat sources enveloping them to throw off their infrared sensors. The smoke and fire had its drawbacks however. Those near the entrances to the outside had to put on breathing masks to screen out the particulates and hope that the wind kept up so that the smoke wouldn't settle onto the ground and choke them out.

Fortunately Han and Sobieski were both hooked up to oxygen tanks to saturate their bloodstream so they would be protected from asphyxiation for the time being. Tae-yon also ordered the remaining blood donors to put on oxygen masks to increase the quality of their blood. While she was nearly done with the operation the blood supply for both Han and Sobieski was dangerously low and she feared having enough blood to save them both. The blood for Sobieski, the type A or AB was marked distinctively and was the only blood given to either of them while they were connected together. The other bags of blood were held in reserve for when the two would be separated. After making his hasty rounds Bremer entered into the trauma center to check on Tae-yon's progress. "We've just got to close him up and we're done." Tae-yon told Bremer soon after she heard the door open. She then directed Yu-ri and the other volunteers to bring her the sutures and stitches she needed to close the wounds after she had finished operating on Han's insides. "Alright, we'll give you all the time you need." Bremer told her before quickly exiting the room.

Vargas peered over the rooftop of the bank's parking garage. As the fighting had begun to slow down the blackness of night reclaimed the area from the flames and bright flashes of war. Steady streams of machine gun fire coming from the theater were broken to be replaced by intermittent bursts of light weapons fire as the K6 operators reloaded. A lone rocket issued from the theater, illuminating the backs of the skitters as it passed over them. The mech that was its intended target dodged the attack which exploded on the rear of the debris wall behind the alien horde. At the same time they held back the advancing skitters at the theater many of the soldiers inside quietly evacuated out the back door and boarded the vehicles awaiting them in the alley. Occasionally a skitter or two would sneak around there but they were easily dealt with before they could do much harm. From Vargas' position however the situation was far more dire. A hundred or so skitters stood between him and the hotel towers at any given time with between seven mechs spaced out amongst them like large rocks poking up through a river. Vargas had one HEAT round left in his M67, Tae-yang's K2 rifle strapped to his back, two grenades, a combat knife and his own pistol on his waist. Even with all that gear he didn't stand a chance of getting out of the parking garage. Fortunately for him the aliens were not trying to come in after him, instead they were rushing towards the theater and storming the hotel towers across the street.

Tae-yang on the other hand was not so lucky. He had now retreated to the 6th floor of the hotel tower containing the restaurant. There he regrouped with others in his unit as they attempted to keep the skitters from climbing up the walls and entering into the tower at higher floors. So far they had been successful with the skitters focus divided between them and the theater. The suppressive fire from the mechs that forced them inside actually aided them in keeping the skitters from advancing too high as the creatures would not pass close to an area where their machines were firing upon. So when the mechs stopped shooting, Tae-yang and his men would take over and resume firing upon the skitters on the tower walls. The first and second floor His soldiers had been forced into the stairwell on the 3rd floor where they had contained the skitters in a bottleneck. A mech rocket smashed into the other tower near the 4th floor, taking out several men as they gunned down skitters on the street. Tae-yang knew he had to find some way to deal with the mechs. He had left Vargas' gun on the 5th floor when he was forced to retreat and his pistol and the K2 rifle he salvaged off a dead solider would have no effect against them. To his knowledge his men had no rockets or grenades; all of the weapons that could do damage to the mechs were in the theater or the parking garage across the street, and both locations had a river of skitters standing between them. He then remembered what the intense heat from his flame trap had done to the mechs as he noticed the orange glow from the embers on top of the debris ridge dotted with small flames where there remained solid material that would sustain the flame. There was still a slight trickle of skitters coming over the ridge as well, most likely those who had exited the ruins of the first bank and surrounding buildings that were coming to join the rest of the army. Tae-yang quickly pulled away from the window after he emptied his magazine and hid behind the bathroom wall of the room he was in to reload. He wondered if he could soften these mechs armor in the same way as he did before, but where would he find something that would burn hot enough? The pressurized gases he had used for the booby trap burned at nearly 2000 degrees Celsius, over twice the heat generated by the burning of gasoline. Tae-yang had seen the mechs shrug off Molotov cocktails before so he knew he would have to duplicate temperatures close to what he had generated through the punctured gas line. If he could manage to find a heat source of that magnitude he had no idea how long the effects would last.

Tae-yang hid in the darkness of the bathroom and watched the flickering light from the dying fires outside dance on the wall beyond the bathroom door. He could hear the fighting downstairs intensify while he remained frozen in fear and lost in thought. The gunfire now mixed in with screams as the skitters closed in and engaged Tae-yang's men in the stairwell. As the soldiers with flashlights in hand or mounted on their rifles were killed or forced back, total darkness enveloped those fighting in the stairs. The skitters, who had better eyesight in low light conditions than the human soldiers were unaffected. This only added to the casualty count the 4th Korea suffered in the stairs. A couple crisscrossed flashlight beams on the ground gave only brief glimpses of the skitters' feet as two of the soldiers trapped in darkness were dismembered by the clawed hands of their attackers. The rest of the soldiers fled onto the 4th floor; one of their number was snatched by the shoulders from behind and pulled back into the darkness where he was butchered. Skitters now started coming in through the windows of the third and fourth floors and rushed the Tae-yangs men two floors beneath him from two directions. Tae-yang mustered his courage and returned to the blown apart windows now widened into gaping holes in the walls due to the actions of the mechs below. Tae-yang swept the side of the building with an intense spray of bullets that prevented the skitters from reaching the 5th floor windows and completely enveloping his troops. Another pack of botched explosives ignited at the base of the other hotel tower setting it alight as that position was abandoned by the few remaining soldiers inside. While the survivors of the adjacent tower made a run for it to the next structure to the north the flames spread up the tower, scattering the skitters who were fine so long as they didn't remain in the fire for too long. At the same time the building went up in flames Tae-yang stumbled and fell backwards onto the ground seconds before mech fire shot through the window he was in and blasted holes onto the ceiling. Tae-yang got up and ran to avoid large chunks of the ceiling falling down upon him and when he hid he tripped and fell into the mini kitchen area when he stepped on a loose pot on the ground. He looked around before standing up to make sure he didn't trip and fall again. He saw a few forks and spoons, a shattered bowl and a box of aluminum foil. Aluminum, that was it! Tae-yang knew that aluminum and magnesium burn at high temperatures. If he could get it to ignite then the foil should burn hot enough to affect the mechs. He would have preferred magnesium powder but the aluminum foil was what was readily available at the time. The burning building next door should be capable of igniting the foil if he could get it down there, which was a problem in and of itself. That would only be the beginning though, the real problem would be that he would have to get the burning aluminum to make direct contact with the mech which would require him to physically go up to one of the machines and shove the burning metal onto its skin. Tae-yang grabbed the roll of foil and stood back up. He reloaded his weapon and prepared to fight his way downstairs. He exited the room and turned down the hall towards the stairwell passing through the shadows of the night that existed between the opened or blown apart doors and the bullet holes in the walls beaming in the faint flickers of light from outside. Beneath him he could hear shouting and bursts of gunfire followed by an explosion. Tae-yang turned into the stairwell and descended into complete darkness. He held his weapon out in front of him to make contact with any potential skitters coming up before it could throw a blind swipe at him. The sounds of combat increased in intensity and proximity as Tae-yang crept his way down the stairs. As he felt his way around the corner and onto the last flight of stairs between the sixth and fifth floors he could see a slight glow of illumination coming from the 5th floor entrance to the stairwell. As he stepped into the light, only a dim reflection of a dying fire coming from a nearby room where a grenade had gone off in an effort to clear the room of skitters and ignited some of the linens and drapes. As all the men's eyes had dark adapted as well as was humanly possible to the low light conditions this faint firelight might as well have been the morning sun. Tae-yang ran into the hallway and opened fire on a skitter rushing in from a room down the hall. The creature fell taking twelve rounds only to be joined by a second skitter coming out of the same room.

Tae-yang's attack was joined by two soldiers racing out of the stairwell, making short work of the skitter. Outside the hotel tower the skitters had reached the 5th and 6th floors and were now entering through the windows and blown out sections of the outer wall. "Cover me!" Tae-yang told the soldiers with him as he ran to the room he had left Vargas' rifle in. Six more soldiers were forced up the stairs in advance of several skitters. The first two skitters coming up the stairs were killed by a steady barrage of bullets, slightly slowing down those behind them while four of the soldiers reloaded. The other soldiers continued firing on the skitters taking down a third and then a fourth with the other soldiers resumed firing in order to give those two a chance to reload. The two soldiers in the hallway took down a third skitter coming out of the same room as the first two. One of them ran out of ammo and had to reload as a fourth skitter ran into the hall. The second soldier got a few rounds into the fourth skitter but ran out of rounds before killing it. The wounded skitter charged the soldiers who were saved by one of the soldiers in the stairwell coming to their aid, gunning down the skitter and allowing the two in the hallway to reload and resume firing by the time the fifth, sixth and seventh skitters came through the same door. The soldiers in the stairwell had kept the ascending skitters blocked off by forming a wall of their dead and firing in pairs in order to maintain a continuous stream of fire against the skitters crawling over the dead and along the ceiling. In the hallway skitters began to emerge from a room behind the three soldiers forcing one of them to cover their rear as they were being enveloped. Tae-yang entered the room where he saw Vargas' rifle leaning against the inner wall next to a blown out section of the outer wall. He slowed down to a walk when he got close to it because an irregular section of floor had collapsed near the opening that had been previously blown apart after Tae-yang had first been forced to flee. He was almost to the rifle when a skitter crawled into the room behind him. He fired off the last of what he had in the magazine of his K2 and brought the skitter down with hits to the neck and shoulders. He had no more spare magazines left on him so he discarded the rifle and headed for Vargas' light fifty. A mech sighted him as he leaned in to pick up the rifle and fired a flurry of heavy rounds into the room. The rounds missed Tae-yang and struck the wall, ceiling and floor all around him. Chunks of the ceiling collapsed and struck Tae-yang, knocking him from his footing as the floor collapsed beneath him. When the ground Tae-yang had landed on snagged against a horizontal support beam he watched Vargas' rifle slide off the tilted floor and fall into the sea of skitters on the street below. He hefted the chunks of wood and plastered ceiling tiles off of him and got up before skitters started crawling into the room after him. He ran into the hallway with two skitters in hot pursuit. He drew his pistol and shot a skitter in between him and his men in the back of the head four times. One of the soldiers gunned down one of Tae-yang's pursuers before Tae-yang reached his position and assisted his men in holding down their position.

Tae-yang could now hear gunfire and explosions coming from above him. He was now surrounded; outside the skitters had reached the roof of the tower and were coming in through the windows on all levels. Tae-yang turned and ran back towards the stairwell. "Sir, you can't go back down that way." warned one of the soldiers inside. They were now facing enemies coming from both upstairs and downstairs now. A grenade exploded on the upstairs stairwell blasting off several legs of three skitters and more importantly lighting the carpet and wallpaper to provide greater visibility in the dark. Tae-yang fired off a couple of rounds that did little more than annoy a skitter before he stopped to reload. Tae-yang then went back into the hallway as the aliens closed the snare around them on all sides. Two of the soldiers in the hallway were now on their last full magazine as there seemed to be no end to the skitters. "Head for the fire escape at the end of the hall!" Tae-yang ordered all of the soldiers. The man in front of him was clawed through the stomach and groin before Tae-yang could finish off the skitter he was fighting. Tae-yang took out the front two legs of another skitter ahead of him while the rest of his men held back the foes at the rear. Two of the soldiers were brought down and mauled by the convergence of skitters in front of the entrance to the stairwell. Tae-yang turned back around and stopped a third soldier from being brought down by firing the final shot into a skitter bearing down on him from a room on the right. One of the soldiers ran ahead of Tae-yang and kicked open the fire escape. He waved Tae-yang on ahead after making sure the fire escape was clear. Three of the soldiers holding back the skitters in the hallway behind Tae-yang now had to resort to their pistols and knives, while two others were overwhelmed and gutted. "Go on ahead! I'll catch up!" Tae-yang told the soldier ahead of him. He then turned back and emptied his weapon to stop one of the skitters mauling his men. The soldier meanwhile obeyed orders and fled down the fire escape, opening the outer door on the 2nd floor on his way down to free another group of soldiers pinned down within. With little warning Tae-yang was attacked from the side as a skitter busted down a door and slammed it against Tae-yang, pinning him to the wall. One of his men shot the skitter in the side of the head making it turn towards the other soldier and momentarily free Tae-yang from the vice before Tae-yang's savior had his head and arms ripped off from behind. The skitter then pursued Tae-yang who drew a knife and stabbed the skitter in the right shoulder as it tackled him and lifted him up. The skitter recoiled and thrust its middle claw on its left hand into the top of Tae-yang's throat. It pulled up and hooked Tae-yang's jawbone all the while opening up his neck. The skitter pulled its left arm back and yanked off Tae-yang's lower jaw as he flailed in the grip of its right arm. The skitter tossed Tae-yang back against the wall as its focus was redirected against a soldier firing on him from behind. Tae-yang lay crumpled up against the wall as he bled to death while watching the remaining fighters in the hallway be torn apart or break away and run for the fire escape. Above him and below him his troops were forced out of the hotel tower as it was completely overrun by skitters. He hadn't even been given the chance to put his plan into action against the mechs and he would die knowing they were still out there menacing the remaining fighters holding their ground in the movie theater and the coffee shop. They had fought valiantly, Tae-yang had given all he had to give, and alone it wasn't enough. The only solace he could take comfort in as he passed was that his sacrifice when added to others might have been enough in time to halt the enemy advance.

Vargas came down off the roof and crept down through the ground floor, illuminated only by the faint flames still burning outside upon the ridge and on the ruined mechs and battered buildings. He noticed the first hotel tower burst into flames and heard the ramped up increase in the firefight within the second tower. He descended into pitch blackness in the lower levels of the parking garage forcing him to fumble for his flashlight and turn it on. A wounded skitter lunged for him in the dark the moment he turned the light on but it's injuries slowed it down just long enough for Vargas to slay it with a couple quick bursts from his rifle. He passed another group of dead skitters and humans cautiously in case not all of them were in fact slain. A demolished mech blocked one of the ramps to the lower levels on sub floor three which forced Vargas to climb on top of parked cars and the mech's legs in order to get over and around it. He then proceeded to make his way to the bottom floor where his flashlight beam crossed with a few others. There were about twenty seven men in all waiting at the bottom of the garage near the weapons cache. "Thank God that you guys are still here." Vargas greeted the soldiers who were happy to see that the light was from him and not one of the mechs. "What's the situation? Report!" Vargas asked them. "Some of the guys took the Humvees and were going to withdraw behind the theater. We couldn't all fit so they told us they would give us an opening later where we could make a run for it. Until then our orders we to wait down here until they cleared the way. The signal is for four long honks to show when they were ready followed by three short honks when the path was clear." one of the soldiers reported. "Ok, we'll stick to that plan then." Vargas said. "Mind if I join you til then?" Vargas asked. "No problem sarge, take a breather and chill." another soldier replied, welcoming him down to what remained of his unit in the underground garage.

Back on the surface the soldiers from the shopping center with the coffee shop in front withdrew behind the theater fighting off the skitters on their heels the entire way. As the last of them escaped the building five of the enemy mechs launched a volley of rockets into the shopping center that brought down nearly two thirds of the storefront. A retaliatory rocket was fired by one of the fleeing soldiers that smashed into the side of one of the mechs, blasting off one of its rear "wings" as the burning central core toppled over sideways. The entire area had nearly been abandoned now, the survivors from each of the fallen buildings had retreated to the north, east and south hoping to escape the slaughter and regroup later. As the fleeing soldiers looked back towards the ridge sealing off the ambush zone from the east they notice there were no more mechs and skitters coming over the wall. On the other side of the wall an advance party of four mechs leading a dozen or so skitters had broken away from the rear of the enemy army and resumed the march north to investigate the presumably abandoned hospital. The remainder of the alien army, nine mechs and an innumerable horde of skitters were now closing in on the last remaining bastion of the human defenses in the movie theater. The stalwart defenders in the theater continued to slow the enemy advance now within five yards of their doorstep. The freshly reloaded machine gun emplacements joined in with the soldiers firing alongside them behind the concession stand and those firing down upon the skitters from the roof. Two rounds from recoilless rifles streaked towards a pair of mechs on the north and south sides of the enemy formation respectively and struck well placed hits that brought the machines down. Ryong-ho commanded the forces atop the roof to focus fire on the skitters' flanks in order to protect the evacuation and the motorized company in the rear. Ryong-ho himself using his high powered rifle focused on dealing damage and diversion to the mechs towards the rear of the enemy army that were shielded from the heavy machine gun fire by the seemingly endless tide of skitters rushing the front door. While those strategically placed defenses slowed the enemy rush the majority of the soldiers holed up inside the theater were being evacuated out the rear emergency exits. Those who could remain with the vehicles did so but most of the men fled into the east. They had fought bravely but there was no way they were going to win here. A few hours were gained for those they had left behind at the cost of many lives. The flanks of the skitter forces started to envelop around the sides of the theater while the center of their formation was cut into by the twin machine guns firing upon them. The soldiers on the rooftops began shooting straight down to knock down skitters that were now climbing the walls. The mechs began firing on the rooftops in order to scatter the soldiers so that they skitters could complete the climb. Ryong-ho was knocked back by a section of wall just below and in front of him that was blown apart. After one soldier on the rooftop had launched a round from his M67 that damaged the hand arm of a mech he noticed the tail end of the enemy formation leaving the area in front of the parking garage and passing in front of the ruins of the shopping centers. "Rope the tail of the dragon! Repeat rope the tail of the dragon!" the soldier ran shouted and started to run back to the opposite side of the roof. "I got this!" Ryong-ho shouted back at him as he stood up and sent the soldier back into the fight. Ryong -ho sprinted to the edge of the roof overlooking the vehicles in the rear of the theater. "Tail of the dragon! Go! Go! Go!" Ryong-ho shouted then quickly whipped back around and shot a skitter that was coming over the wall onto the roof. The soldier he had sent back was now forced to discard his M67 and take up his rifle to defend himself against the skitters that had just reached the rooftop and were coming towards him and his brothers in arms. Ryong-ho hurried to his aid and blasted apart the head of a skitter about to snatch up the soldier and toss him down onto the street. "I owe you one sir!" the soldier called back as he emptied his weapon on the line of skitters crawling up the roof in front of him. Below the fighting on the rooftop the line of vehicles started up and sounded their horns in four long honks before they drove around past the south side of the theater, gunning down a mass of skitters as they passed by. They then gave the second signal of three short honks before they sped away, drawing a quarter of the skitters in the enemy force after them.

Vargas heard the first signal muffled at a distance from deep within the underground garage. "Let's go!" he told his men and they gathered their gear and ran towards the surface. As the last of the alien forces passed by the parking garage one of the mechs stopped after detecting sound coming from within. It turned back and headed into the parking garage to investigate. All the while a beamer was making a flyover from the north over the battle zone. On sub level three Vargas' troops heard the second signal and they also heard something else, footsteps of an approaching mech. Half of Vargas' troops were sent back while a quarter of them sought cover behind the mech. The rest climbed over and went ahead with Vargas. Before they could reach the turn up the ramp to sub level two the mech's spotlights were shining down on the driveway in front of them. Vargas and the other men on point scattered and hid behind parked vehicles. When the mech turned the corner and shined its spotlight onto the fallen mech at the end of the next ramp Vargas popped out and using his last HEAT round blasted a chunk off the side of the mech and damaged one of the "wings" and the fingered arms shoulder joint. Another soldier launched a rocket from behind the ruined mech which hit the robot head on and destroyed it.

This clash was detected by the beamer overhead which quickly made a loop around and came in for a low level bombing run from the north. The beamer fired into the exposed upper level of the bank's parking garage. The resultant explosion collapsed the top two floors, thus sealing off the lower levels underground and trapping the personnel inside. The beamer then slowed down drastically and flew towards theater, strafing the roof with blue energy bolts before it accelerated and ascended back into the night sky. The rooftop of the theater was now thoroughly swarmed by skitters and the flanks of the enemy army were also reaching the rear of the theater as well. The theater was poised to break, the mech's continued to fire upon the rooftop covering the skitters as they tore through the human ranks, now pushed into a complete rout. Back on street level the skitters now had broken through the front door of the theater and split off to the sides away from the machine guns. The other soldiers behind the concession stand protected the machine gunners from a flank attack and scattered the skitters away, sending some of them upstairs where they clashed with more of the retreating human forces.

Amidst the routed soldiers on the roof Ryong-ho ran downstairs to the second floor of the theater and gunned down three skitters adding to a pile produced when the initial wave burst in and stumbled upon a sizeable contingent of soldiers on their way to the emergency exits. He turned back to cover the rest of his men as they fled down into the theater and shot many of the skitters that pursued them. Once the last man was down he tossed a grenade into the roof access door and collapsed it, sealing off the skitters on the roof for a time. Left alone he then resumed his own flight from the theater which soon found itself stunted. Hearing the machine guns exhaust the last of their rounds as he began to descend the main flight of stairs into the lobby he knew he didn't have long before the aliens would be storming up the stairs in numbers he could not possibly repel. He knew the quickness of the creatures; they would be at the base of the stairs before he was even halfway down. Retreat seemed to be impossible in his current predicament and fighting to the death would be futile so he quickly devised a different sort of strategy. Ryong-ho ran towards the pile of skitters and pulled one of those slain down to the level of his shoulders. He opened up the underside of the dead skitter's carcass by slicing it with his combat knife down the middle. He gutted the skitter, removing the soft and squishy entrails beneath what almost appeared to be a translucent second skin under the shell. There was no time for an alien anatomy lesson however, Ryong-ho hastily made enough room inside the skitter so that he could crawl inside of its skin. They seemed resistant and well insulated against fire so it stood to reason that their skin would provide an excellent means to hide his own heat signature from detection. Their ability to thrive in the supposedly irradiated areas of Seoul where they first made landfall also indicated that Ryong-ho should be shielded from other forms of detection. Ryong-ho stuffed the loose entrails beneath a couple of other skitters Once he was inside the skitter he flopped down on the side of the head close to the top but not directly on top as to deter suspicion.

Meanwhile downstairs after the K6 operators exhausted the last of their ammo they abandoned their posts and joined the last remaining soldiers in fleeing out the back of the theater as the skitters came storming in unimpeded. Several of these soldiers were caught around the back by the flanking units in a pincers maneuver and were slaughtered to the last while giving the lucky ones a chance to slip quietly into the night. A few bands of skitters gave pursuit but the soldiers had gained enough ground on them to be able to hide, elude them, or pick them off one by one. Sporadic clashes to the west of the ambush zone would continue until dawn when the skitters would abandon their hunt for the routed remnants of the 4th Korea's main army.

Back inside the theater Ryong-ho got himself adjusted then froze motionless inside his skitter-skin tent. It was cool and slimy inside as was to be expected given the consistency of the stuff he pulled out of the skitter. Surprisingly however it did not stink as he had expected monsters from another world to, or really any dead body for that matter. In fact dead alien flesh was almost odorless, granted it was freshly killed but still if you open up most animals when they are still alive there's bound to be something of a funk, guess he didn't puncture the wrong organ or something. Most of the scent that reached Ryong-ho's nose was that of ash or gunpowder and no eewy gooey skitter guts. These things probably took longer to decompose than most things, they seemed to be resistant to just about everything else, why not maggots and germs, Ryong-ho thought as he remained as still as a statue and waited for the danger to pass. A trio of skitters soon came up the stairs, walked over to the pile of their slain comrades, looked it over for a minute or two then scurried off. He could hear the sounds of skitters moving in and out of the theater for ten or twenty minutes after the last gunshot was fired. The remaining enemy mechs simultaneously produced that eerie groaning noise Ryong-ho had so come to dread in recent days and all the skitters inside the theater and surrounding buildings returned back onto the street. All in all the counteroffensive had now been thoroughly terminated. The what remained of the main bulk of the alien strike force began to regroup outside before they headed north to join their advance scouts.

The hospital was braced for the attack when the mechs footsteps could be heard in the distance. The volume of their robotic footfalls increased with each stomp as the enemy drew nearer. From the outside the hospital looked abandoned. The windows were darkened and empty, the visible hallways were deserted. The rooftop burned like a torch in the wind while a raging ring of fire encircled the hospital from the ground. A group of three beamers made several passes over the structure at high altitude while the mechs were on approach though they made no aggressive actions towards the hospital or its inhabitants. Though it looked dead the hospital was a viper coiled up and ready to strike. Snipers were positioned on the top floor of the hospital directly beneath the burning fuel drums as to mask their heat signatures from the mechs and beamers. Downstairs Bremer and a hand-picked crew of his best fighters were waiting behind overturned tables and the built in desks at check in and the nurses' station in the ER. One of the soldiers had set up a K6 heavy machine gun and another had a K11 grenade launcher. There were also two bazookas with 3 rounds between the two of them. The rest had standard issue assault weapons and shotguns. Elsewhere at the main and side entrances to the hospital they had other units positioned to cover the retreat of the remaining noncombatants into the parking garage. In the parking garage Seo-jun and a team of mostly fresh civilian fighters were assembled near the school bus and one of the ambulances both prepped and ready to withdraw. This team would act as the last line of defense for the children, the elderly and the wounded. Among the children and other noncombatants in the bus were Miss Do and Shi-woo acting as the adult presence to keep them calm and quiet. Father Yang waited by the door to the bus with a shotgun in hand until it was time for them to leave. Inside the ambulance were a couple of badly wounded soldiers, one with both legs amputated and the other recovering from abdominal lacerations dealt by a skitter the previous day. Heading between the garage and the hospital were the last few evacuees apart from Major Han and Sobieski. Williams and a Korean man, a former store clerk were the two fighters assigned to protect the evacuees as they withdrew.

The trauma center looked like the set of a remote archaeological dig site somewhere in the dead of night. Three bright spotlights were positioned around the operating table and chair where Han and Sobieski were. Apart from that area the rest of the room was covered in darkness. The windows were painted black and all the windows and walls were covered with lead lined drapes and vests nailed to the walls and threaded together with staples and surgical twine. The light from the blazing fires outside did not seep through but some of the heat surely did as was evident from the droplets of sweat dripping from Tae-yon's forehead. Already under duress and hopped up on a third dosage of pills to maintain her alertness and focus during the delicate operation. Connecting the three spotlights were rolling foam partitions that separated the operating area from the blackness of the room beyond. Inside these partitions were the remaining bags of blood and saline, the IV stands, the car battery and cables on the dolly, three volunteers standing around and the utensil tray carrying the tools that Tae-yon was using. Tae-yon sat beside Han finishing up the last of her stitches while Yu-ri checked the vital signs on both he and Sobieski. "Alright we're done with that part." Tae-yon declared as she stood up after she finished stitching up Major Han. "Yu-ri, I need you to help me separate these too." Tae-yon told Yu-ri. "You, get fresh blood bags ready for both of them and you over there bring that battery here, we're going to have to jump him once they are split up." Tae-yon instructed two of the three volunteers inside the trauma center. Tae-yon and Yu-ri began to disconnect the tubes conjoining Han to Sobieski while one of the volunteers held the cables just below their bare ends, ready to deliver a shock to Han upon Tae-yon's command.

Moments later on the street outside the emergency room entrance four mechs marched in single file on the side of the street near to the hospital and away from the line of bonfires. The trademark groan of the machines echoed amidst the crackling of the bonfires and the clanging of their footsteps. A small band of skitters was following a short distance behind them. The mechs stopped at a distance in front of the emergency room doors and turned to face the hospital. They stood neatly in a row facing the emergency room entrance and waited. The skitters scurried in behind them and stood to the right and the left of the mechs. The aliens looked curiously at the structure, seemingly desolate but with such an elaborate defensive firewall as to pique their interest.

Bremer stood next to one of the emergency room doors while another soldier mirrored his stance on the other. The mechs stood nearly motionless outside while the soldiers waited on baited breath within the hospital walls. In a silence that seemed like hours the crackling bonfires behind the mechs seemed like a tornado, a storm that would soon be snuffed out as the mechs opened fire. The bullets tore through the walls and the barricades set up inside. Their defenses could not stop the mech rounds but did manage to alter the trajectory of their shots just enough to prevent any casualties on the first strike. Following two, possibly three minutes of continuous fire the mechs ceased their barrage. After the mechs had fired fruitlessly into the ER, revealing they were able to detect the men and women inside Bremer and the soldier next to the opposite door flung the doors open and allowed their own forces a clear line of sight to the enemy. "So much for hiding, now we've got to fight the sons of bitches off!" Bremer exclaimed. The soldiers gathered behind the fortifications released the first volley of heavy weapons fire. The first mech was hit head on with a bazooka blast which destroyed the central core while the second mech was hit by four well placed grenades blowing out its right hip joint, the shoulder joint above its gun arm and the lower portion of the central core rendering it inoperable. At the same time the second bazooka blast struck the left leg of the fourth mech and the machine gun lightly peppered the third mech before refocusing on the fourth until it fell backwards and came apart. The remaining mech opened fire on the defenders in the ER, its shots shredding through tables, couches and desks effortlessly. One soldier was struck in the shoulder, another was clipped in the thigh, a third soldier was shot through the center of her chest and leaned back onto the floor clutching her gaping chest wound as she bled out on the waiting room tile. The grenadier was hit in the abdomen before he could retaliate on the last mech. The other soldiers opened fire as soon as the skitters rushed in ahead of the mech as the mech still sprayed bullets into the ER. Bremer crept up to the side of the opened ER door. Another soldier was shot twice in the arm and in the face as he was shooting down skitters that were coming up the walkway towards the ER doors. Bremer swung out into the doorway and fired his under barrel grenade launcher at the remaining mech, hitting its forward rocket launcher just as it was about to fire. The combined explosion obliterated the mech leaving only a few skitters behind to clean up. Several of the soldiers carried or dragged the wounded out of the combat zone and gathered them together along the route of the evacuation teams so they would get picked up later. A few stayed behind to attempt to administer first aid to those they believed they could save. Tae-yon would have plenty of work cut out for her once she had finished with the Major and Sobieski. "Don't get overconfident guys, that was just a scouting party the rest of them will be here shortly." Bremer told his squad as he reloaded the under barrel launcher following the defeat of the last skitter.

Sure enough within the hour the rest of the enemy army had arrived. This time there were six mechs, spaced further out than before yet still marching in single file followed by at least sixty or seventy skitters thirty or forty yards away. This time the defenders did not wait for the mechs to about face and fire upon them in a neat little row. The last bazooka shell crashed through the top of the second mech to pass by the open doors while the machine gun operator sprayed several of the machines doing minor damage to each while a new soldier who took up the role of grenadier took out the knees of the fifth mech, thereby immobilizing it. A rocket was fired from the rooftop catching the 4th mech off guard and obliterating it as the mechs stopped and turned towards the ER. The rocket attack diverted the attention of two mechs to open fire on the rooftop which knocked one of the flaming barrels down onto the hospital lawn along with an avalanche of bricks and dust. The burning barrel spilled out its contents igniting the grass between the street and the ground level footpath between the emergency room and a second hospital building to the south behind which was the parking garage and further still the loading docks. The other mech opened fire into the emergency room forcing the defenders to scatter. The second grenadier met an fate more unfortunate than the first when a mech round popped his skull open like a balloon. A third man rushed in to assume the cursed position and retaliated against the mech by blowing off its gun arm. While the skitters started to charge the entrance to the ER the snipers positioned on the top floors opened fire on them, thinning out their ranks before they engaged the defenders inside. Two of the mechs, including the damaged one then broke away and headed towards the north as the skitters began to pour into the street where the mechs had once been. The enraged grenadier ran outside and finished off the mech that he had damaged. He was not going to let that son of a bitch get away. Bremer pulled him back and blasted a couple of charging skitters before they could eviscerate the grenadier. "Keep your emotions in check soldier! Get back behind the fortification now!" Bremer commanded the soldier. While he was outside he noticed that the mechs would be passing in front of the trauma center on their way around to the main entrance of the hospital on the north side. He hoped their preparations would pay off and the mechs would simply pass by but his instincts told him he should tell Tae-yon to wrap it up and evacuate immediately. They didn't have the manpower to go after the mechs and the eight or nine skitters that followed behind them. Bremer gathered a few men and ran towards the trauma center while the rest of the soldiers engaged the first wave of skitters.

"Are they ready to move?!" frantically asked Bremer after barging in the trauma center doors with three other soldiers. "Almost." Tae-yon replied. "Clear!" she shouted at the volunteer holding the battery cables. The volunteer shoved the bare ends of the cable onto Han's bare chest on either side of his heart. Han's body jolted upwards with the charge and then the cables were removed. As Tae-yon leaned in to listen for the Major's heartbeat the windows behind her shattered in an explosion. Fragments of glass, brick and wood flew into the trauma center becoming embedded in the walls, foam partitions and ceiling and spreading out like dust across the floor. One of the saline bags was punctured by a shard of brick that slipped between a gap in one of the partitions. A sharp piece of glass sliced Tae-yon's right cheek after she stood up so see what had happened. She clutched the side of her face and leaned down on top of Han to gain cover behind the partitions from the rest of the cloud of shrapnel. Before the dust and flying glass had settled, a mech leapt in through the shattered window panes, knocking over a larger section of the wall to make room for it to pass through. It was followed by a pair of skitters who immediately advanced on the people inside. Bremer and his troops opened fire on the invaders, knocking down the skitters with ease before they could do any harm. "Get them out of here!" Tae-yon screamed at the volunteers as she released the brakes on the table that Han was laid out upon and started to push it away. Two of the volunteers hefted Sobieski onto a gurney and carried her away while the other snatched up the blood bags and laid them on top of Han, steadying them with one hand while pushing his IV rigs with the other next to Tae-yon. One of the soldiers moved aside the partitions to allow the medical personnel to pass. While all this was happening the mech seized a startled Yu-ri with its fingered hand and picked her up. Her screams were silenced by the cracking of ribs and the collapsing of lungs as the mech squeezed down. Bremer fired his under barrel grenade launcher at the mech, blowing apart the front armor casing of the machine at near point blank range. The force of the explosion knocked Bremer over as the mech staggered back and tossed Yu-ri's broken body against the wall, opening cabinets and knocking jars and boxes of supplies off the shelves nearby. Tae-yon stopped, turned back and screamed in horror as she watched her assistant fall limp to the floor like a sock puppet. "Go! There's nothing you can do about it now!" Bremer yelled at Tae-yon while one of his soldiers helped him to his feet. The other soldiers opened fire on the mech, knocking it back through its exposed frontal internals until it suffered enough damage to fall over inoperable, the top of the machination landing right beside Yu-ri's lifeless body. A handful of other soldiers were summoned in just after the medical personnel left to collect the battery dolly and some of the other supplies left in the operating area and cover their retreat from the skitters that were climbing in through the blown open window. They drove back the first wave of aliens, killing and wounding some of them as the cautiously backed towards the doors to the rest of the ER. Bremer and the soldiers withdrew from the trauma center and barricaded the door behind them with couches and chairs as more skitters entered in through the open window.

In the ER waiting room an intense firefight was waiting for them as Bremer's men held back the incoming skitters coming straight through the front door. The soldier with the grenade launcher blasted off the right foot of a mech charging in with the next wave causing it to fall face forward, that is if one could call the front side of the mech it's "face". "That's it boys! Hold them back a little bit longer!" Bremer screamed before spraying a leaping skitter across its underside before it could clear the ramshackle barricade and land on top of his men. Bremer stood firm in the entry to the hallway and aided his troops while the medical personnel, their patients and their escorts fled down the hall. Bremer reloaded and fired another grenade round blasting the limbs off two skitters coming through the doorway and knocking back three more behind them. While he reloaded another round into his under barrel launcher and changed out his magazine the other soldiers popped up and unleashed a ferocious barrage through the doorway and windows capitalizing on the opening Bremer gave them to further push the skitters back.

Outside on the street, another group of about twenty skitters peeled off from the main bunch and went around to the north side of the hospital and another five skitters scurried up the driveway connecting the parking garage to the street. The rest of the skitters charged into the ER waiting room en masse and forced the soldiers inside to withdraw down the hallways. Those dragging the wounded left first with Bremer while the rest of the soldiers stood their ground for just another moment before they too fell back. The soldiers withdrew hastily down the hallway fighting a frantic rearguard action to keep the alien menace away from the wounded being evacuated ahead of them. Bremer sprinted ahead at full speed to catch up with Tae-yon and her volunteer staff wheeling away Lyndsey and Major Han. "Stay with me tank girl, come on!" Bremer encouraged Lyndsey to hold on to life even though she could not hear him. They soon met up with Williams and a handful of other men. "We've just cleared out all levels except for the snipers on top." Williams reported upon seeing Bremer. "Do they know we're pulling out?" Bremer asked. "Yes sir. They said they'll be on their way but they insisted on covering us a while longer." Williams replied. "A noble gesture but they better not take too long." Bremer said as they approached the side entrance leading to one of the walkways into the parking garage. "The gang's on level 4." Williams told Bremer as he looked through the doorway windows before stepping out and clearing his corners. Bremer, Williams and two other soldiers then advanced onto the walkway covering both directions ahead of the Tae-yon and her staff. To the north Bremer saw the supply truck waiting in the loading docks at the far end of the hospital. That would be the last ride out of this place. To the south he saw the grassfire burning itself out between himself and the street. As Tae-yon and her patients were crossing a skitter approached them from the south, climbing along the hospital walls like a spider. Bremer and the other soldiers opened fire on it, speckling the area around the skitter with bullet holes and knicking the alien around the fringes but failing to land any direct hits. The skitter pounced onto a soldier, knocking the soldier on his back and slashing away at the soldier's face and chest. Williams charged at the skitter and hooked it under the jaw with his prosthetic hook. He pulled the skitter close to him and shoved his sawed off shotgun onto the skitter's forehead and pulled the trigger. Not even the skitter's toughened exoskeleton could stop that shotgun blast from cracking its head open like an egg, spraying skitter brains and goo everywhere onto Williams and the ground and walls around him. While Williams helped the wounded soldier off the ground Bremer and the other soldiers opened fire on two more skitters coming for them. After one of the skitters was stopped Bremer ran ahead to catch up with Tae-yon who had now entered the parking garage and was on her way up to the waiting ambulances. Once the second skitter was dealt with Williams and the rest of the soldiers followed suit behind him.

Meanwhile in the main lobby of the hospital Hamza waited with a small contingent of fighters stationed here to cover the flanks. Once again it was not loyalty or common cause that impelled Hamza to stand with the 4th Korea, it was purely self-interest. He would be more likely to survive the night in their company. The alien devils did not differentiate between the faithful and the infidel, they would slaughter all that was man, and therefore necessity demanded that he stand with those who were human tonight. He believed that ultimately the sinful and the unbelievers would be eradicated when the dust had settled though he was not confident in the belief that the faithful would endure on their own. Much as in former times men relied on horses and dogs to prevail in war against those without them now the faithful would have to rely on the damned to persevere against this calamitous judgment upon the whole of mankind. Hamza had been given a rifle like the others, for the 4th did not have the luxury of discriminating between groups of humans as well. He also held onto a pair of hedge trimmers from the groundskeepers shed for when the fighting got too close for a gun battle. He did not have to wait long for a fight. The sound of the snipers on the top floor firing on a mech leading a platoon of skitters was the first sign that trouble was on its way. If that wasn't enough a rocket blasting open the front door of the hospital was a dead giveaway. The mech didn't enter the hospital first, it delegated that task to the skitters. Instead the mech turned its attention to the snipers who were picking off skitters on their way into the main entrance. The snipers engaged the mech in return, some of their weapons offered sufficient power to render damage to the mech, others simply dinged off its armor. Firing downward from twenty stories with the force of gravity offered a bit of an assist too when it came to breaching the mech's skin. The first skitters through the gaping smoldering hole that had been the door and its surrounding wall were met with bullets coming at them from every direction. Fighters were shooting down at them from the grandiose second floor balcony on the far side of the room above the information desk. Other soldiers were sniping from the adjoining hallways and lobby offices. Three soldiers opened fire from behind the information desk thus completing a 180 degree arc of fire onto the onrushing skitters. While the first wave of skitters was reduced to a heap of bodies quickly the second and final wave exploited gaps in the defenses while some of the soldiers were reloading and quickly rushed the information desk and darted down one of the hallways, forcing some of the soldiers to deal with the aliens in hand to hand combat. Hamza was among the fighters in the hallway that the skitters had chosen to go down. The soldier to his left was tackled to the ground by a skitter and the soldier to his right opened fire and stopped another skitter in its tracks. Hamza got a few rounds into the skitter bound for him before the creature slapped away his rifle. The skitter then clasped one of its hands around Hamza's throat and lifted him into the air. Hamza struggled and retrieved the hedge clippers from his belt. As the skitter attempted to crush his neck Hamza mustered the last of his strength, opened the hedge clippers and jammed them into the skitter's wrist forcing it to relax its grip slightly. Taking a short gasp of air Hamza closed the shears and severed the skitter's hand off causing him to fall a short distance to the floor. Before he could finish catching his breath the skitter swiped at him with its other hand. Hamza evaded the strike by rolling towards the skitter on the floor. He then popped up and slammed the tip of the closed garden shears into the shoulder of the skitter in front of him. Blood and black fluid spurted out of the wound as Hamza retracted the shears and then drove them into the skitters throat as it leaned its head back in agony from the first stab. Hamza opened and closed the shears inside the skitter guaranteeing a fatal wound before he withdrew his weapon and backed away. He used the shears once again to deflect an overhead blow from another skitter before it was shot and killed by the soldier to his right. The squad at the main entrance continued to fight a seesaw battle for control of the lobby while skitters flooded in the emergency room entrance to the south and spread throughout the hospital via that route. Soon enough they would be fighting on two fronts and have no choice but to abandon their posts and flee with their lives.

In the parking garage Bremer's team came across Seo-jun and his team fighting a trio of skitters. They were too intermingled with Seo-jun's men to get a clean shot so Bremer and William charged into the melee. Seo-jun jumped on the back of one of the skitters and bayoneted it repeated as it attempted to swat him away. Two more skitters came up the ramp behind them and were shot and killed by the soldiers who stayed back to protect Tae-yon and her staff. Williams slammed his hook down on top of one of the skitters' heads piercing through its shell and skull before it could wrap its long clawed hands around his own throat. Meanwhile Bremer shoved his rifle into a skitters mouth and blew the top of its head off that way. Once the skitters were cleared the team escorted Tae-yon and her patients to the vehicles nervously awaiting orders to withdraw. Father Yang joined Bremer and his men in loading Han, Sobieski and the medical equipment into the back of the empty ambulance. Once inside Tae-yon checked the vital signs of her two patients. Sobieski checked out, still breathing, still had a pulse, comatose but alive. She couldn't detect any signs of life from Major Han however. "I don't hear anything, give him another jolt." Tae-yon told one of her volunteers standing nearby with the battery cables in hand. He shocked Han's chest, jolting him up into the air. Tae-yon leaned down and checked for a heartbeat and again she found nothing. "Again! Clear!" Tae-yon commanded. She repeated the process several times, administering shocks and CPR to Major Han while outside the others were loaded onto the school bus and the second ambulance. "Everyone inside knows to head for the supply truck I hope." Bremer said. "They do. I was very thorough in my rounds. If they aren't here now they'll be heading to the loading dock." Williams replied. Bremer peeked back into the ambulance to see Tae-yon directing another shock to Han. This time Han gasped and spit out some phlegm and blood. Tae-yon leaned in and heard his heart beat start up and his breathing in a steady rhythm. His vitals were weak but he was back among the living now. Tae-yon then prepared to change out Han's blood and saline bags as they were getting low. Bremer's fears were eased for the moment so he now turned his attention back to Williams. "So we've got everyone right?" Bremer asked. "Yes sir. The snipers, the side and main entrance teams and all the civvies." Williams replied. "What about the crazy bitch in the psych ward?" asked Bremer as he himself just remembered she was there. "I didn't know there was one." Williams replied. Honest mistake, Ryong-ho had been pushed out the door on Vargas' mission shortly after he had locked her up. Word probably hadn't had a chance to get around yet. "Shit I'll go get her." Bremer said. "You guys get moving in no more than thirty minutes understand?" Bremer ordered everyone as he started to run off. "I'll head out with the supply truck don't wait up!" Bremer told the others as he sprinted away.

Bremer took the enclosed fifth floor walkway between the parking garage and the hospital. He looked out the side windows as he crossed over the grassy area separating the two buildings. The living skitters and mechs were now all gone which meant they were now inside the hospital. He was walking straight into the tiger's maw alone. Elsewhere in the hospital the snipers were fighting their way down and Hamza and his team pulled back to the cafeteria and joined with the defenders from the side entrances who had seen little to no action so far. The last orders they had received were to hold out for up to an hour if at all possible until the last of their forces met up with them at the supply truck. The loading docks were not far from the cafeteria, just down the hall and around the corner from the kitchen's walk-in freezer. Bremer managed to reach the psych ward with only one skitter encounter along the way which he handled with minimal difficulty, catching the alien off guard. The psych ward was in a remote part of the building compared to the rest of the 4th Korea's forces so Bremer was far from any reinforcements if he should stumble into a more significant enemy presence there.

"There it is, room 24." Bremer said, correctly identifying the squiggles on the door. "Hot damn, I'm actually picking up this fruity shit." he commented to himself. It would only stand to reason since most of his scouts notes came in written in hangul that he would learn to pick some of it apart without assistance from Han or one of his aides. He slung his rifle over his shoulder and dug around in his pockets. Bremer then found the keys Ryong-ho had given him and opened the door. There he found Jin-shil tied up and terrified in the corner of the room. "Get up! We've got to get you out of here!" Bremer ordered the young woman. "Fuck you!" Jin-shil shouted back as she stood up and backed against the wall. "Listen bitch, you shot one of my officers who may not live to see the dawn so you're lucky I don't just leave you here for the bugs to chew on." Bremer snapped back. "Good. I hope he dies." Jin-shil retorted and spat in Bremer's direction. "I don't have time for this shit; you can come with me or I'll lock you back in here for the bugs to find." Bremer growled as he took Jin-shil's bound wrists and led her out the door. Once she was into the hallway Jin-shil tried to twist and get away from Bremer. When Bremer held onto his grip she tried to shift her weight and pull him down to the ground. Bremer adjusted for that move and found himself and Jin-shil staring face to face. She thrashed and kicked to try to get away. Bremer wasn't about to just let Han's potential killer simply escape into the night. He gave her two choices, she would face the 4th Korea's justice or she would face the bugs'. Jin-shil landed a strong kick to Bremer's groin which had anticipated effect on the male anatomy. Bremer clutched his groin with one hand in pain as Jin-shil twisted and escaped the grip of his other hand, pulling Bremer onto the ground in the process. Bremer drew his backup pistol and shot Jin-shil in the right ankle causing her to trip and fall face forward onto the floor. He got up and hobbled into a brisk jog towards her. He holstered his pistol and looked down at Jin-shil, still lying on the ground. It was a minor wound, she could get patched up and be fine in a day or so Bremer reasoned. He picked her up seeing the look of shock on Jin-shil's face that he actually shot her. "You're fucking desperate to keep your pets aren't you? Kwang-su's not giving you enough is he?" Jin-shil sassily remarked. "I don't know what the fuck you're talking about lady." Bremer said. "Whatever asshole, he's just going to fuck you over in the end you know that, but go on, live it up while you can." Jin-shil said to Bremer while he pushed her forwards through the halls to the stairwell. "How about you just shut up and move. We can talk later when there's not bugs around every corner waiting to rip us to shreds. "Then let them." Jin-shil said before she attempted to scream. Bremer thought ahead of her though and took out a roll of gauze from his pocket, stuffed some in Jin-shil's mouth and wrapped the rest around her head to gag her. "I'm sorry I've got to be this rough with you but I don't want to die. You're not exactly helping either." Bremer said. "You'll thank me when you're still alive." he added. Bremer managed to get Jin-shil downstairs to the 5th floor of the main building, hiding from a few skitters passing by in a hallway. It was too late for him to return to the parking garage, they should be leaving now Bremer thought as he approached the 5th floor walkway. He turned away and started towards the loading docks to catch the last ride out.

Back in the parking garage Father Yang and Williams waited patiently by the bus and first ambulance respectively. It was already past the time Bremer told them to leave but none of them wanted to go without their leader. "We've got to get moving corporal. Hop in." Seo-jun told Williams. "Just give me a few more minutes." Williams replied. Time ticked by minute by minute and still there was no sign of Bremer returning. "He said he would find another way out. We've got to get these people to safety." Seo-jun urged Williams. "I know, just give him a little more time please." Williams pleaded. More time passed and still Bremer did not come. Some gunfire was heard from within the main hospital building followed by an explosion and more intense gunfire. "I see bugs!" announced Father Yang after sighting a skitter scurrying up the ramp onto their level of the parking garage. Williams shot at the skitter but it jumped up and clung to the ceiling to avoid the attack. The skitter then dropped back down onto the floor and raced towards the bus. Father Yang blasted the skitter headed towards them with his shotgun and Seo-jun leaned out of the ambulance and fired two quick bursts to knock a pair of skitters climbing in from outside off the outer wall of the garage and down onto the grass below. One of the skitters got back up and attempted to climb back up again. They could see another skitter coming up the ramp from the lower levels and they knew this one wouldn't be the last. "Alright, let's go." Williams said reluctantly as he accepted the inevitability of the situation. If Bremer wasn't dead then he can get out with the supply truck, which by his estimation was about to leave as well. Father Yang shot and wounded the skitter coming up the ramp before he got into the bus and started it up closing the doors behind him. All the vehicles then followed the bus down the ramps and onto the side street heading east, away from the direction the aliens had come from.

Bremer and Jin-shil met up with three of the snipers on their way downstairs and they all proceeded towards the loading dock. When they passed the kitchen the snipers gave Bremer and his captive cover fire from the skitters lingering in the area. Once they were clear all of them ran around the corner from the freezer and reached the loading dock. Behind them the last mech, riddled with holes but still functional stomped into the cafeteria. It hunched over and crept through the hallways and pursued its quarry towards the loading dock. Bremer tossed Jin-shil into the supply truck. "Hold onto her and don't let her get away. She's the one that shot the Major." Bremer instructed the soldiers. Bremer then got into the truck after the last of his men made it in. Hamza was positioned behind a salvaged minigun mounted at the end of the trailer, just behind where the roll up doors would close if they weren't left open. "You know how to work that thing Turkish Delight?" asked Bremer. "I'll manage." Hamza replied. As the truck started up Bremer heard the sounds of the mech behind them and saw a handful of skitters turn the corner into the loading dock staging area. Bremer fired off his last grenade collapsing the dock on top of them and sealing away the enemy's avenue of pursuit as the truck sped away. When the truck turned onto the street heading eastbound a fresh group of about twenty skitters came running out from between the parking garage and the hospital building. Meanwhile the other vehicles leaving the garage were just pulling out ahead of them. "I told them not to wait." Bremer grumbled. The supply truck got in the rear of the motorcade and sped away. As they retreated Hamza opened fire with the minigun mowing down the skitters in droves, leaving behind scattered limbs, heads and bodies from the pursuing skitters strewn all across the street heading away from the hospital. They quickly turned away from the hospital and vanished into the side streets before any of the aliens inside the building could come out and give chase. As the motorcade fled into the east the remnants of the Fourth Korea watched the first light crack over the mountains on the horizon ahead of them. They had suffered grievous losses through the night, many of their brothers and sisters would not see the rising sun this day but the unit as a whole remained. Battered, bruised but still alive, the Fourth Korea had survived the night.