Chapter 25
Skye dropped her bag onto the floor of the Barracks with a weary sigh.
This was to be her home until the water receded. A boat had been sent for her at the Infirmary a few minutes earlier. When dawn broke, the water had taken a small dip, allowing certain people to move about a little. Essential services were the last ones allowed to leave. Now the medical staff had to stay in the Infirmary, scientists were trapped in the Lab, and all members of the security team were sent to the Barracks (though, to be fair, the vast majority of them lived there anyway).
Skye looked up and around at the curious wood and bamboo structure. The Barracks had been put up hastily to suit a particular need for shelter. Of course, that was before the nanocarbon building materials had arrived from the future. Back then, there had only been a small bamboo fence for protection. If she remembered the story correctly (and she should, she'd heard it enough times), Taylor had erected several wickedly sharp bamboo spikes that were interwoven with the fence and served to deter any overly-curious locals. Legend had it that one morning, the soldiers had emerged to find a large Nykoraptor simply sitting on the fence and waiting for them, like a turkey on a spit. They quickly put the poor thing out of its misery, but they discovered something very important on that day - "Nykoraptor meat tastes like crap." Skye's eyes followed the narrow staircase upward as Taylor's voice echoed distantly through her head.
Dormitories were on the second floor - at opposite ends of the building and closely monitored. The recreation area was through a rough archway to the left, and the kitchen was to the right. Though the building seemed deserted, the constant murmur of noise spilling in from her right told a different story. She looked backwards out of the small window in the door. The original security team had had much the same survival instincts as the Sixers possessed and as a result, the Barracks were set on a small hill. If she was in exactly the right position, the Command Centre was just visible through the trees. Further back, though she couldn't make them out, the Lab and Infirmary buildings stood, and a short distance behind them was the Shannon house. Her mother would be there by now, keeping watch over Zoe during the flood lockdown while the other members of the family were called to various lines of duty elsewhere. Or perhaps, more appropriately, they were keeping watch over each other. Skye stood and listened curiously to the sudden gurgles of laughter coming from the kitchen.
She loved her family, of course, but secretly, she was a little relieved to get away for a while. Her mother watched her like a hawk, and even Lucas - who always managed to be there somehow - never seemed to stop fluttering about like a mother goose .. though she doubted he'd appreciated the comparison. She smiled to herself. In fact, she was sure he wouldn't.
"Pick it up."
The voice came from above. Skye looked up to see Tasha's father grinning down at her as he began to descend the stairs.
"And welcome."
Skye smiled begrudgingly back at him as she shouldered her bag once more.
"Thanks."
The senior officer appeared to be in rather a hurry to get to the kitchen. Judging by the smells coming from the next room over, she found she couldn't blame him. For once, the pungent stench of the stagnant water and mud outside was being overpowered by a much nicer one - one that was beginning to make her stomach grumble. Guzman paused briefly under the right-side arch.
"You're just in time for breakfast. Throw your stuff upstairs and come down to the table."
"Yes, sir."
He waited no longer than was absolutely necessary before vanishing into the kitchen.
Lucas threw his crumpled blanket off and stretched out his stiff muscles. Sleeping on the floor of the Lab wasn't the most comfortable experience, but then, the Lab wasn't really set up for sleepovers. He looked around the room and eventually located Maddy slumped over her desk with her arms around a plant. Several other Lab techs were strewn around the room in various stages of consciousness. It had been a rough night. Barely ten minutes had gone by where someone hadn't gotten up to anxiously check the level of the water outside. This, in combination with the assorted groans and snores and hard Lab floors had not created a recipe for pleasant slumber.
A cry of alarm came suddenly from one of the more alive members in the room, piercing through the hammering of rain on the roof and causing a few others to open their eyes sleepily. The woman that had broken the silence stood, her forgotten blanket falling to the floor at her feet, her wide eyes on the device in her hand.
"What?" Lucas frowned across the room at her. "What is it?"
She stared up at him in alarm.
"Snakehead's broken its banks."
A few beats passed as the entire room watched her in confusion. Finally, some kind soul spoke up gently.
"Snakehead broke its banks weeks ago .."
"No, I mean it's REALLY broken its banks!" The female researcher turned on the well-meaning assistant passionately. "The readings show that the low-lying recesses surrounding the river can no longer hold any water. There's nowhere for it to go."
Maddy's sleepy voice came from her desk.
".. and?"
The woman clutched her device until her knuckles went white, willing herself not to panic.
"Up until now, it was filling up the cavern systems and empty riverbeds around it. Now they're all filled up." She stared around the room in fear. "Don't you understand?! The river's going to pour itself right into the colony."
Skye hovered awkwardly in the doorway of the kitchen and searched for an empty seat. Everyone seemed to be chattering too excitedly to notice. She took a few steps into the room and was relieved when Mark caught sight of her and beckoned her over. She dropped into the seat beside him thankfully.
"Hi."
"Hey, Skye." Reynolds threw half a spoonful of mixed jam on his bread and proceeded to eat it without bothering to spread it out. "Glad to be out of the Infirmary?"
Skye raised an eyebrow at his breakfasting methods, but answered the question with a laugh.
"Ah .. yes. I never want to have another deep and meaningful conversation in my life."
Guzman smiled from the head of the table, but said nothing. Dunham and Curran grinned across from her, finally realising there was a new person at the table.
"So you're saying it was good for you then?"
"I mean, you practically have to glue her down in order to have a personal conversation anyway."
Silas Irving, another junior member of the security team, swallowed a bite of his immaculately-buttered toast.
"Hey, take it easy on her. It's not every day a girl tries to drown herself."
Mark paused mid-bite to stare at him. Guzman made a disapproving noise in the back of his throat. Irving picked up his cup of juice and took a careful sip.
".. that didn't come out right."
"I should think not."
Guzman threw down the rest of his berries and stood as Reilly entered the room.
"Everybody almost ready? Good. Forget assignments for now, I'll hand them out later. For now, I want everyone working to barricade the entire bottom floor of the building as well as you can. I've been informed that all unnecessary flood defences are going to be turned off in one hour."
There was quiet for a few seconds. Mark raised an eyebrow at Skye. Irving frowned.
"At the risk of sounding like an idiot, what does that mean? What happens after that?"
Several people nodded, Reilly included.
"It's a good question. The answer is .. no one knows for sure. If the houses are stronger than expected, maybe nothing will happen. If they're weaker, we might get a bit wet."
Irving's frown deepened.
"How wet?"
Reilly shrugged again.
"Guess we'll just have to wait and see."
"Come on, Reills. They must've given you some indication." Reilly shot a withering look at him, but he took her silence as an opportunity to continue. "Or is there something you're not telling us .."
"Irving!" Reilly took a controlled breath. "One more word out of you and I'll let you do the barricading all by yourself."
"Well, what do you expect from him, really?" Curran muttered. "There's a reason they don't call him 'Silence'."
Reilly's mouth twitched as a few chuckles went around the tense room. Silas grinned and shrugged, accepting the jab cheerfully. Reilly met Guzman's gaze and shook her head at the babies she had to take care of.
"Anyway .. you have five minutes to finish up what you're doing and get to work. I want you all back here in 45 minutes to take shelter. When the shields have been dropped and we know it's safe, I'll hand out your other assignments. There are boats waiting to take you where you need to go." She paused. "Questions?"
"Just one, Sergeant."
Reilly looked down suspiciously to where Dunham was seated and raised an eyebrow.
"Go ahead."
Dunham stared back at her seriously, a faint hint of worry creasing his forehead.
"Are there any spare doors we can use if we run out of boats?"
Reilly narrowed her eyes and stared around at the other soldiers. Not one of them showed even the faintest trace of a smile. She turned back to Dunham, who was still watching her solemnly, though his eyes were beginning to show signs of weakness. She folded her arms.
"You alright, Corporal? You look like you might be about to cry."
Dunham shook his head sagely.
"No, Ma'am. It's dust."
"I see." Reilly looked around one more time. "In that case, you may continue with your activities."
Dunham nodded like a wise old owl.
"Thank you, Sergeant."
After exchanging another look with Guzman, Reilly turned and exited. The second she left the room, it erupted into hysterical chaos. Outside, the young mother of the army suppressed a grin and went about her work, shaking her head affectionately.
"This is your Commander speaking. In one minute, we will disengage all non-essential flood shields. You may experience a few minutes of increased volume, gentle tremors, or temporary rattling of windowpanes. These events are all predicted and have been taken into account. Please remain calm and be patient. You are all safe provided you remain indoors. Countdown is at thirty-five seconds. I'll see you all on the other side."
Jim flicked a button on his comms unit and dropped it into his pocket.
"How was that?"
"Bit morbid, but you got your point across."
Jim shook his head and glanced at the thick tablet his companion was currently resting on the Command Centre railing.
"There's no going back after this, Malcolm."
The head researcher shrugged matter-of-factly.
"It's time. You have to make the best decision you can with the facts available to you right now. This is it." Malcolm surveyed the peaceful lagoon surrounding them. "If it helps, I'll stand by you no matter what the consequences are."
Jim nodded slowly.
"Is that just because this is your idea?"
".. well, when you put it like that!"
The commander grinned briefly and glanced down at his comms unit.
"5 .. 4 .. Ready?"
"Ready as I'll ever be." Malcolm responded grimly.
Jim took one last look around and nodded.
"Do it."
In the space of 8 taps, which Malcolm accomplished rather rapidly, almost a third of the flood shields went down. The two at the railing looked on in silence as the floodwaters quickly ate up the offered space. Cracks appeared in several windows as a result of the sudden pressure, but shortly afterwards, the leaping water calmed and became still. The world fell silent. Then, one after another, the cracks began to slowly stretch their long fingers out. It was only a matter of time before the plexiglass caved in. There was a loud whoosh as first one window gave way, then the next. Each crash seemed to add to the water's growing momentum. Every one seemed to come more closely after the other as the floodwaters rushed into houses around the colony. Defenceless living rooms were saturated in an instant. Abandoned possessions were destroyed as the greyish-brown water took up residence inside. But in the end, when the water finally settled, the light from the remaining shields had grown noticeably stronger. The two at the railing stared out in miserable silence.
"This is it, Malcolm. This is our last stand."
The head researcher glanced at the solemn face of his friend and then back out at the gloomy scene as the rain started up again with a sudden roar.
"God help us all."
The sealed-in residents of the colony watched anxiously throughout the morning as the water continued to creep heavenward. The torrential rain had refused to let up, morphing instead into a loud storm. The scattered booms of thunder which resulted did little to calm the nerves of the terrified colonists. Every now and then, a flash of lightning could be seen from outside, though it was an odd and distorted sight, becoming increasingly more blurred as the water quickly swallowed up the windows. The excess rivers now being poured in from all the way up the mountain were merciless. Tiny waterfalls were everywhere, littered throughout the colony wherever there was an appropriate ledge to cascade over. By midday, the view from the windows had become nothing but a series of brown and black shadows. The houses creaked and shuddered under the weight, but stood faithfully as predicted, though the gap between the water and the roofs grew alarmingly smaller as the buildings themselves appeared to shrink.
Imprisoned inside the Shannon house, Deborah did her best to distract the children in her charge from the anxious reality. The windows had been blocked out for hours. The power-conserving setting of the lights added an eerie dull yellowish tint to the room. If the rain didn't let up soon, everyone's worst nightmare would come to fruition and the water would overwhelm the building. Still, with nothing to do but wait, the need to keep the children's spirits up became the top priority (though Deborah honestly didn't know who was helping who the most). Zoe, Leah, and Sam had gotten over their initial despondency after a while and, accepting their collective fate pragmatically, now seemed to be full of ideas for potential games.
Josh had been thrilled to discover that after his little adventure with Leah the day before, she was coming home with him after all. He had met the children's guardian at the Infirmary - a lovely little lady who had thanked him profusely for his mother's kind offer to look after the young ones through the crisis as her services were needed elsewhere. Turned out Leah's little brother had already been dropped off at the Shannons house and was waiting there for further instruction. The fact that Elisabeth had made such an offer in the first place would later turn out to be a piece of rather interesting news to the woman herself, but regardless, here Leah and Sam had remained. All's well that ends well.
Of course, Josh, as fate would have it, never actually managed to make it home before being called all the way back to the Infirmary again. Here he had stayed, soaked and miserable, watching in silence with the rest of the medical staff as the shield outside flickered brightly and shot up the outside of the walls when the lockdown had come into effect minutes later. Elisabeth was currently keeping him busy taking stock of the storeroom - they had been able to manufacture many medicines themselves, but certain ingredients were in short supply, and she feared in time, if they couldn't find substitutes, more people would be lost through lack of medical supplies than anything else. The thought made Deborah's stomach hurt.
A sudden long, low creak caused the four prisoners to forget their game and stare around apprehensively. After a few seconds of heart-stopping silence, Deborah smiled, forcing a cheerful note into her voice.
"Is anyone else starving?"
Sam nodded enthusiastically, leaving the comfort of Deborah's arm where he had been residing for the past half an hour and proceeding to skip around the room. Zoe and Leah, though attempting to put on a civilised manner and show Sam up as the baby, confessed that they were in fact hungry. Exactly three seconds later would see the little group racing toward the kitchen, Sam clutching frantically to his sister's neck and urging her on like he was about to win the Kentucky Derby. Deborah laughed and followed, but she had only taken a few steps when an odd feeling took hold of her and she paused, turning back slowly toward one of the living room windows. The hairs on the back of her neck stood on end as she saw what she had sensed a moment earlier. A large dark shadow was passing nearby.
Reilly joined her two younger recruits at the Command Centre railing to watch the storm come in. The atmosphere was already flashing intermittently with lightning, as though a naughty child far above was flicking a giant light switch on and off. Curran and Skye, both drenched from head to toe, were surveying the mounting damage with an air of experienced resignation. Reilly followed their line of vision. The colony had degraded into a series of oddly-shaped islands, encircled by the ring of fence posts growing up out of the water. From the soggy market sails to the practical river running over the first half of the Command Centre steps, the sight was as surreal as it was impressive. Impressive, that is, if you managed to forget the extent of the damage and the long cleanup that would follow. The three turned as a frustrated voice rose up from inside the building.
"I mean, look at this, Malcolm. It's a nightmare! Maybe Harlon was right. Maybe I should've evacuated the colony while we had the chance-"
"Stop it." Malcolm walked out the far door with Jim on his right. "You can't do anything about it by worrying now. Trust me. Trust the math."
Malcolm gripped his superior's shoulder firmly and shook him a little.
"And for goodness sake, calm down. You're scaring the children."
Skye and Curran grinned, and even Jim's worried frown seemed to relax a little. Malcolm, his job complete, began to chat about something completely inconsequential under the circumstances. He was three words through a humorous sentence about the size variation of primeval vegetables when a sharp voice suddenly cut across his own.
"Jim!"
Reilly frowned and turned to lecture Skye on respectful addresses, but paused when she saw the look on the girl's face. Skye was staring out into the water, the colour rapidly draining from her features. She murmured softly to herself, sounding almost confused.
"It's come here."
Reilly followed her gaze, her heartbeat quickening apprehensively. It took less than a second to identify the threat. A large dark shape was weaving its way directly towards the Command Centre just below the surface of the water, leaving two white foamy lines in its wake. Though the rain and the ripples distorted the image, it kept reappearing, each time a little bit clearer and a metre or two closer than it had been before.
By this stage, everyone's eyes were locked on the shadowy figure. They remained at the railing, frozen and instinctively silent, watching as the long creature neared. Every now and then, the lapping movement of the water revealed a greenish skin before the waves slid down upon it, once again transforming the shiny body into nothing more than a shadow. Just before reaching the front of the Command Centre, it made a sharp left turn and appeared to be setting off on a new path around the walls of the submerged brig. The small group followed as silently as they could, afraid of attracting the intruder's attention and giving their location away, but even more afraid of losing sight of the creature altogether. It continued its journey, seeming to slow as it came around. Every now and then they caught a glimpse of it through the gaps in the floorboard. It was massive. It had almost made a complete circle when they lost sight of it. After a few tense seconds of silence, they glanced around at each other .. and had to resist the urge to laugh. Here they were, a dripping wet group of paranoid detectives, creeping around the Command Centre like they were on some secret mission. The laughter died in their throats however, as the beast they had been following caught up with them. It exploded from the water in front of them like an angry geyser, showering the group at the railing in the process. Now that they finally had a clear view, the creature's colours stood out brightly against the dull water. The giant serpent appeared to be a glistening emerald green. It reared above them, quivering and seeming to study them as they stared back at it. Sparkling droplets dripped from its large head and ran down its glittering back. It opened its mouth and flicked its huge tongue at them as it arched and waved from side to side, piercing them with its sharp yellow eyes.
Malcolm gaped at it.
"Well, that's one thing I didn't factor in."
Reilly twisted the elbow of his damp sleeve and muttered back.
"Don't. Move."
Skye attempted to steady her breathing as the beast continued to stare, its curled neck moving easily as it was buffeted by the wind. There was a strange sort of beauty about it - sleek and graceful and brightly-coloured, accented by the scattered flashes and forks of lightning that intermittently illuminated the dark colony. The air of danger it possessed seemed to mount gradually the longer the two parties faced off against one another. Finally, the monster grew tired of the game and gathered itself with a shiver of anticipation. Reilly's hand slid slowly to her holster. Malcolm's eyes widened.
"Jim .."
"Wait .. get ready." Jim's words were hardly necessary. There wasn't a soul on that balcony whose muscles weren't coiled like a loaded spring. When the creature suddenly charged, they were ready for it.
The instant hail of sonic pulses raining down upon the giant snake displeased it immensely. It swung back and forth like a puppet on a rocking horse, but eventually the storm calmed and it was able to steady itself again.
The humans stared in horror as it gathered its large body for a second attempt. Jim yelled over at his companions, abandoning any attempt at subtlety.
"Sonics aren't working - shoot the water!"
THIS it didn't like. The water around the large neck glowed with streaks of blue fire as the liquid took hold of the electric charge. The snake ducked and thrashed, trying to escape the unpleasant sensation before locating a nearby tree and attempting to scale it to find relief from the burning. It was a decent enough plan. However, this particular tree didn't hold up its side of the execution. The group at the railing watched as a faint cracking sound came from beneath the surface of the water and the poor tree began to tilt dangerously toward them. The large reptile relinquished its grip at the last second and fell back into the water with a startling splash, throwing up a large wave which flew away from the Command Centre and surged over the nearby buildings - buildings which, up until that point, had been dark and quiet, apart from the constant movement of the water, and the continuous thud of rain - a noise none of the colonists could stand for some time. It would send a thrill of horror through their stomachs if it even began to spit. The dying tree gave a horrible groan and came crashing down on top of the Command Centre roof.
"Malcolm?! Malcolm?!"
Malcolm shoved a branch off himself and waved Reilly away.
"I'm fine. Just a bit grazed." He cast a glance down at his bleeding forearm and winced. Jim appeared a moment later and, without waiting for permission, pulled him up. They stared around at the catapulting water sloshing over the side of the railing. Malcolm rubbed the back of his head gingerly.
"Is it gone?" When no one replied, he took the answer to be a yes and eyed the damaged building dismally. The roof was now drooping sadly on one side where the tree lay cushioned on top of it and cracks were evident all over the place. Water aplenty was beginning to leak through - there was a growing puddle on Taylor's desk, which had miraculously survived the event. Malcolm groaned.
"Oh, what a mess."
Another loud splash suddenly burst from the water behind them, causing Curran and Skye to jump sharply. Malcolm simply stared past them, looking almost bored.
"Oh, it's back."
And it was definitely not happy.
The giant Titanoboa emerged from the water a few metres away, rising slowly upwards until it reached the peak of its height. Its golden eyes sparked menacingly as the dark pupil slits contracted. Skye felt Jim tense beside her, ready for the next round.
"It looks angry."
As if in confirmation of the statement, the snake darted back sharply, opening its mouth and flicking its forked tongue at them. The two dorsal fins on its back which had gone mostly unnoticed up until this point now stood up aggressively, the sails quivering in the wind as another flash of lightning lit up the sky. The sight was enough to make anyone freeze, terrified and awe-struck where they stood, but this particular production still had one last act to unleash. As the humans below raised their sonics defensively, the giant above them shivered a little. They heard it before they saw it - a faint crackling that seemed to be generated from the earth itself, growing increasingly louder and sharper with each passing second. As they watched, a strange blueish-white pattern began to climb up the creature's neck, as though the tangled roots of an otherworldly tree were taking hold of it. The monster in front of them waited as the electricity settled in over it, rippling and snapping against itself like a thousand strings of magnetic spidersweb. This process complete, the Titanoboa drew itself up to its full height once more, glowing brighter than the lightning that inhabited the dark clouds behind it. The falling raindrops sparked as they touched the shielded skin, while back down in the water, thready fingers of electricity stretched out from the luminous body, as though desperately trying to capture anything they touched. The beast waited and watched, looking approximately as confident as one would expect a giant electrified snake to look. Its eyes pinned them to the spot arrogantly. Your move.
Curran took an involuntary step back, his mouth unpleasantly dry despite the surrounding damp.
"What .. can they all do that?!"
No one, of course, had an answer for this, but as Jim watched it, a thought suddenly occurred to him.
"Malcolm, you need to go back and study the other one."
Malcolm choked incredulously.
"There's hardly any point! It's not going to be there!"
"Bigger problems right now!" Reilly hissed sharply, drawing the snake's attention momentarily to herself. She readied her sonic and stared back at it, but by this stage, it was more of a show than anything. She was right, they did have bigger problems. In fact, you might say they were finding themselves in a bit of a pickle. The sonics were growing dangerously low on charge, but not even they had managed to put it off for long. Goodness only knows what would deter it now. The snake stood and waited while they deliberated in hushed voices.
"Flamethrower."
"Where are we supposed to get a flamethrower, you idiot?!"
"It wouldn't work very well in the rain anyway." Reilly almost jumped out of her skin as a wet leaf landed on her neck. Malcolm knitted his eyebrows together, trying to draw his mind away from the throbbing in his elbow.
"Snakes hate ammonia. We could create a catapult and fire ammonia bombs at it."
"Oh great, we'll pour it some tea and have a nice chat while you make the catapult." Jim shot back. "I suppose giant snakes are kind and polite where you come from. Probably deliver your mail too."
Malcolm glared at him.
"It's England, not Mars! And have you got a better idea?"
"Not really."
The snake, as patient as it had been, was getting tired of waiting. It was creeping closer by tiny increments as they spoke.
"If only the sonic cannons could shoot into the colony."
"What if they could?!" Reilly's eyes suddenly shone with excitement as the others turned slowly to face her. "Look, long story short, when the first troops arrived here, they didn't have sonics. They used what was known as an Electromagnetic Pulsar Machine Gun - kind of like a portable sonic cannon on steroids. They eventually replaced it with cannons because it's really heavy and impractical and takes two people to operate it instead of one, but it still contained the rapid-fire mode that makes ours so effective. It might work!"
Jim cast a quick glance at the Titanoboa.
"Where is it?"
Reilly's face fell a little.
"The basement."
Every member of the little congregation looked down slowly at the floorboards, then back up at Reilly. Curran raised an eyebrow at his superior officer.
"You have got to be kidding me."
"Right." Jim made up his mind in the space of a second. "Curran, Reilly and I will go down and get it. Malcolm, Skye .. try to keep our friend at bay."
Protestations fell on deaf ears as the participants realised they had little say in the matter. Malcolm and Skye were left with the sonics as the other three made their way downstairs. Thankfully, they could enter the brig from a hatch inside the Command Centre, thus saving themselves rather a thrilling swim, but they quickly discovered the trip was going to be an unpleasant one nonetheless. The brig was partially sealed, so as of yet, it wasn't completely drowned, but there was still water constantly drizzling in from several different entry points, and the lower the adventurers journeyed, the higher the water grew. They paused in the centre of the dark and mouldy main hallway.
"Where is this thing, Reilly?"
"Down there." She pointed to a nearby staircase that looked more like a water feature. Jim glanced at his companions wearily and then back to the next phase of the trip.
"Of course it is."
The staircase was extremely slippery, but they managed to reach the bottom in one piece. As they plunged into the pool at the foot of the stairs and paddled to the storage room door, the whole building suddenly shook violently. They paused in the rippling water and listened to the distant sounds of battle that could be heard from above. Malcolm and Skye were doing their best to keep the snake at bay, but it seemed as though it was finally done playing. Reilly pulled the tarp triumphantly off a large object in the corner, submerged in water almost to the top.
"Here!"
Jim's heart sank to the bottom of the lake he was standing in.
"Reilly, it's drenched."
"It's water-resistant. It had to be. It'll be fine." Against her better judgement, Reilly tried in vain to pull it across the room. "Come on, help me. Hurry!"
It was a very hazardous journey upstairs, especially for Curran, who seemed to have a talent for tripping over steps and almost ended up underneath the gun on more than one occasion, but eventually they managed to drag themselves out into the open once more. They emerged to see Malcolm and Skye unleashing the last of the sonics into the nose of the snake. The roof had evidently taken another nasty beating, and the railing had been thrashed so badly that it was now almost beyond recognition and looked like some sort of modern art piece. As the snake retreated temporarily, Malcolm and Skye ran over to the others.
"Bout jolly time!" Malcolm watched as the EMPMG was turned on. "Why does it still have power anyway?"
Reilly pressed a few buttons, causing the buzzing sound from inside the ancient behemoth to grow louder.
"We keep it operational just in case."
Malcolm glanced at Jim incredulously.
"Just in case of WHAT?!"
"Nevermind! Help me!"
"Malcolm, duck!"
For once in his life, Malcolm did as he was told without asking questions. Jim and Reilly leaped back and Curran pulled Skye out of the way roughly as the snake's head charged right through the middle of the building. Jim nodded to Reilly as Malcolm got shakily to his feet once again.
"I'd say now's as good a time as any."
In the brief reprieve from the onslaught, the machine gun was dragged, pushed, and carried outside. Jim remained on one side and Reilly on the other with the rest of the group behind them as they waited tensely for the creature to show itself again. For a few minutes, it seemed as though it had given up, and despite themselves, the wielders of the weapon began to feel slightly deflated, but the serpent wasn't one to surrender easily. A faint ripple below alerted them to its presence once more. When it charged out of the water this time, they were ready. With an odd sort of impromptu battle cry, the heavy handles were pulled back and a spray of blue energy broke free. The glowing rings hit home hard against the monster's head. He twisted and writhed and tried to charge angrily, but was constantly buffeted by the enraging impact of this new weapon. The angrier he grew, the brighter he glowed. When the humans eased off the weapons, he gathered himself and began to charge again. Once again, of course, he was met with the same powerful opposition. He shook his head slowly to clear it. No fight was worth this.
The small group of humans on the battered balcony watched silently as the electric glow of their enemy faded. They waited, tense and ready for another assault, but somehow they knew instinctively that this was it. He was done.
The snake sank down slowly into the water, eyed them for a moment, and disappeared under the waves. After waiting hesitantly for a minute or two, the group began to make their way to the broken railing. At first, they could see nothing, and the horrid thought rose within them that he might have been playing with them after all. What if the giant creature was still hiding in the shadows underneath them?! .. but thankfully, he wasn't. They caught a glimpse of his finned back a few seconds later, rippling gracefully out through the front gate as though he really had just come for a pleasant visit.
Skye and Malcolm sank down to sit on the floorboards almost simultaneously. Shortly thereafter, the others followed suit, staring around at the splintered bamboo in exhaustion. Curran flopped backwards and lay there with his legs hanging off the edge, squinting against the rain that insisted on trying to fall into his eyes.
"We've defeated the final boss, right? Does that mean this nightmare can finally be over?"
He received a few snorts in return. Malcolm groaned and rubbed his own eyes.
"I'll believe it when I see it."
A few seconds later, a surprised grunt came from Jim as he peered into the distance.
"Is that .."
".. sky!" Reilly finished. She nodded toward the horizon as Skye glanced quickly at her. "Blue sky."
"No way." Curran groaned, not even bothering to look. When the rain stopped attacking his eyes a moment later, however, he was forced to sit up and confront the truth. The sun was coming out.
"I don't believe it." Malcolm muttered, watching in astonishment as the blue patch continued to stretch across, pushing the dark clouds aside as it grew. He didn't notice the mix of amused and irritated looks his comrades were throwing at him. Eventually though, they got tired of waiting for him to notice and turned their attention back to the horizon. The sun was beginning to spear through the somber afternoon, projecting golden light over the colony and pulling it out of its recent extended darkness.
It was perhaps too much to hope for at the time, but this would indeed signal the end of the floods. Night would arrive and depart with only smatterings of rain. Dawn would break properly the next day, the sun would return, and the water would begin to drop, slowly but surely, leaving a massive clean-up in its wake.
For now, however, the drenched little group of soldiers at the railing continued to dangle their legs and enjoy the view, improved upon shortly thereafter by the appearance of a colourful rainbow in the bright new sky above them.
