The dwindling light made things harder to see, but not impossible. The night was bright with a clear moon and stars, showing the open ground of the quay in stark, monochrome relief. Torches and lanterns were doused as the men took up positions on the beached boats.
They could hear the distant huff huff as their steamer chugged from a mile away, meandering. But their attention was transfixed by the movement over by the buildings lining the quay, as well as the road and scrub to the North west.
Silhouettes stumbling and sprinting from the dark, tumbling down embankments, scrambling towards them.
"Are they running from something? Civvies?" muttered a soldier, fidgeting with his rifle.
Another grunted his response, "Well, they've given our position away, bloody Martians'll be on us and make a ruddy roast."
Zhaojie watched the charging mass. It was strange - there was a low level growl filling the air. But now shouts, or protests. He could make out, even at this distance, in the dark, the tumbling and shoving, but he couldn't hear the normal shouts you'd expect from the crowd. His jaw tightened as he made a decision.
"Rifles, by the numbers. First volley over their heads. I want them to stop."
The men glanced about and one Corporal frowned, "Sir?"
"That was an order."
"Sir."
The NCOs turned to their sections, "By the numbers, one, two, three…"
The riflemen worked like clockwork. A second later there was a loud crack as twelve rifles barked. High. White smoke drifted in the night air. But the mob kept coming, not even faltering. All that happened was the entire mob veered heading directly at the ship the riflemen were on, crowding together as they made a bee-line for it. Zhaojie cursed.
"Yao… ready, second volley. Flanking vessels! Any ramps or ladders, haul to!"
Men scrambled to pull up the ramps and gangplanks, as well as any rigging hanging over the side. Two of the trawler ships were sat in high dock, on pontoons, not even in the water. Zhaojie's boat was sat in a lower dock, meaning the rail was a scant four feet above the line of the dock-side. The lower dock itself was just a hull-shaped pool cut into the quay, meaning the riflemen were crowded at the prow of the squat vessel. Not great firing arcs.
"Spread out, rifles to high-ground, carbines and shotguns to the fore. Steam gun, maxims, atop the wheelhouse, get to it!"
Men scrambled,as the first wave came into proper view.
They were human. Except humans didn't have boils that glowed in the low light. Humans didn't trail dust and flakes of flesh. Humans didn't maintain a manic sprint whilst growling. And humans didn't tumble, roll and keep coming like this mob did. It was like watching a flock of birds, flowing as one, moving even with shoving and stumbling.
The rifles fired again and the creatures fell. One hit the ground hard and seemed to burst into a cloud of black dust. Others pinwheeled and collapsed, moving only as those following trampled them.
Three hundred yards, the mob closed in. Another volley felled them, and another. The carbines opened up at two hundred yards. Any misgivings about firing at civilians faded as the things drew near. Men, women, even child-sized creatures, sprinted forwards, vaulting over their fallen, tumbling, moving with insect like skittering and jinking flexes.
Then the horde was on them. As they had closed, the creatures had split again moving to charge the boats, leaping and scrabbling at the taller hulls. Zhajoie watched as the things began to crawl up the smooth hulls, fingers somehow gripping at even insignificant handholds. The men with pistols and shotguns rushed to the edges and began shouting, then opened up as their faces registered with horror the reality before them.
Faces devoid of any humanity - snarling, twisted visages - some had eyes missing, others with joints and features shifted like melted wax; some had onyl half a face, or dissolved and tattered clothes; or the flesh and cloth were fused, melded together. The shotguns ripped the creatures apart, turning them into black-ash, like torn paper in the wind. The things fell so fast, but were replaced even faster. Zhaojie watched as one of the beached vessels began to list, the weight of the mob pushing at it.
"There's fahsends of 'em!" yelled one man. He didn't seem far off the mark - more things were coming across the quay, in dribs and drabs, forming another wave.
"Conserve ammunition! Aimed shots!" that was one Corporal - the man needn't have bothered - the soldiers barely NEEDED to aim, so thick was the crowd. One shotgun blast took out three of the crawling horrors; a rifle perforated one beast and felled another behind it. Zhaojie grimaced.
"Maxim guns, controlled burst, sweep the crowd behind the closer enemies, thin their ranks. Mr Essex, any sign of our boat?"
"At the bend sir, six hundred yards! Closing!"
"Mr Fredericks, your section will clear a path, we will need all the men aboard this boat - I doubt we will have a chance to let them moor up."
Another Corporal nodded and shouted instructions to his section. The other two beached vessels were only twenty yards or so away, adjacent to Zhaojie's central one, but the ground was crowded. The chatter of a maxim gun broke through and Zhaojie saw the incoming horde stagger, as they were felled like wheat before a scythe. The gun chattered again, keeping the incoming mob at bay, and allowing one of the boats to clear a path. A gangplank thudded down and men ran across, joining Zhaojie's group. He nodded as Jiayi joined him at the rail and watched as she cracked off another shot.
"Do not waste the rifle ammunition. These things are paper tigers. Watch," A creature grappled at a straggler, but the soldier shoved it back and swung his rifle like a club. The creature's head popped in a puff of black dust and it collapsed, "Dangerous in numbers, but they seem… weaker as a single foe. All sections, maximise ammunition - aim for groups. Rifles, cease fire, switch to bayonets."
The scattering retort of rifles pittered out and instead the air filled with the meaty thuds and snicks of blades and clubs hitting dried flesh. Lamplight washed over the quay and Zhaojie cursed as their night vision was wiped out. The boat was trying to assist, casting their fight into sudden austere relief. But the light did do something useful.
As it swept over the crowd, the creatures seemed to hiss and pull back, shocked by the sudden shift. It was momentary, but bought a few seconds for the second boat the pull over as well. But it also lit up the far end of the quay, where there were more of the things, spilling out from the terraces and cottages.
The last man scrambled aboard, up the gangplank, but it slipped away and he hung from the railing, his rifle clattering to the deck. He yelled out as a thing grappled at his leg. The creature used him as a ladder, scrambling over him onto the ship, followed by another. The soldiers were cramped here and it was harder to get a swing in with the unwieldy rifles, or to take a shot. Jiayi pulled a knife from her belt and leapt forwards, stabbing the first creature, and kicking the second. She bent down and, with another soldier, hauled the wounded man aboard. He was covered in scratches and his trousers seemed shredded where the mob had clawed at him.
"Get us out of here!" One of the men in the wheelhouse shouted and the engine of the moored vessel rumbled to life. It shuddered as it lurched backwards, then halted. The ropes were still tied to mooring pontoons, "Cut us loose!"
More creatures were scrambling up the sides, the ship now even lower in the water with the number of men aboard. There was a metallic clang and a hiss as the steam cannon fired. The shot sent a dozen of the creatures pinwheeling away, trailing black dust behind them.
Shots rang out, this time from the boat on the river, as the crew out there provided overwatch, keeping the flanks clear. The soldiers were sawing at ropes, but making painfully slow progress. All around was a melee as men punched and kicked, shot and stabbed at the horde. Zhaojie heard a high pitched shriek and saw a man pulled over the side by grasping, grey hands.. Another man swore as he was grappled. His eyes met Zhaojies and he pulled a bomblet from his pouch, just as he disappeared over the side into the throng.
"Everyone down!" shouted the lieutenant and the soldiers all ducked and covered their ears. The blast rocked the boat and cleared a good chunk of the monsters. Another howl filled the air, this time from the south. Zhaojie cursed.
A snap echoed across the deck, followed by a cry of "We're clear!" Jiayi stood next to one rope, knife in hand, another soldier on the other side, smoking shotgun in his. Zhaojie chuckled, "An elegant solution…"
The boat juddered and reversed as, down below, men shoveling coal into the boiler. It chugged backwards out of the dock, dragging some of the cling-creatures with it. As the soldiers watched, one of the things tumbled off the hull and hit the water. As soon as it met the river it let out a gurgling howl and dissolved, coming apart like sand in a glass.
The trawler bobbed unsteadily and they manoeuvred it closer to their "mothership". Zhaojie looked up and saw Hackett leaning over the rail.
"Ye gods, Zhang, what the devil was all that?"
A glance back at shore saw the creatures milling about, hissing and staring at the ships. Zhaojie watched as, around him, ropes were thrown and hauled up, locking the two boats together. He held up a hand.
"Kill the engines. Everyone quiet… EVERYONE. Douse the lights."
It took a few minutes but silence fell as the engines faltered and men shuffled into quiet anticipation. The lamps went out, but the creatures still milled, staring straight at them.
Zhaojie beckoned Jiayi over and whispered to her, "Throw a bomblet, due south, into the water. I want to test something."
She nodded, her expression lost in the dark. There was the chink of a pin being pulled, part of the new sealed design of Shen's. The water made a gloop sound as the grenade sank, then a hissing roar as the blast fountained it up. On the bank the creatures howled and shuffled twenty yards along the shore, some getting knocked into the water where they flailed. It seemed in shallow water they weren't so quick to… melt. But a couple tumbled back, submerged, then didn't surface again.
"Sound," murmured Zhaojie, "Loud noise calls… bigger hordes? Interesting. And another complication," He adjusted the maxim gun he carried in its sling, then clambered back aboard the mothership, "Sergeant Hackett, get our men off that boat. Then, set it on course down the river, lock the steering and let it run. Put some explosives aboard and set a long fuse."
The Sergeant frowned, "Why's that sir?"
"We can draw those beasts away, lure them downriver and, perhaps, distract the Martians if they send a patrol to check on the noise; I doubt they entirely expect these things to… dispose of intruders. We should expect a walker, or something else. Send the vessel down, then have the Captain anchor us to the south bank; get the men back below decks and kill the engine. We want to look like every other abandoned boat. At sun up, we can take stock, see if these things are active in the day."
Hackett frowned, but nodded and set to. Fifteen minutes later, they watched as the trawler set off, its steering adjusted for a gentle curve to take it just around the bend. Then the soldiers and crew descended below decks. Zhaojie watched, with Sergeant Hackett at his side, as the horde followed the rumble of the boat as it vanished past the enclosed Marina then around the bend of the river. With the cessation of battle, the flow of new creatures had stopped. So this parade was a much reduced affair. A few minutes later there was an explosion followed by another howl. They watched in silence as more creatures ran along the riverbank, with even more, barely visible in the slow half-light of the pre-dawn, scuttling over by the houses half a mile distant.
Then something else caught their eye. Zhaojie frowned and hunkered down at the hatch.
Something had come round the river bend. A strange white disc. It floated serenely above the water, bobbing through the air almost lazily. He squinted as the thing rose in the air, seeming to take in the quay and the now empty dock. It floated inland briefly, watching the scurrying things below. They appeared oblivious to it, silent as it was.
The disc then swung back and drifted back over the water, moving slowly back the way it had come, towards the column of smoke where their distraction boat had met its end.
From the decks below came a thump and a muffled curse. The disc paused then spun, unfolding into something larger. It was vertical, with strange protrusions along its side, like rigid legs. Two claws at the front seemed more like mandibles, adjacent to what could only be cannon protrusions. From the rear, a segmented, metallic tail swayed from side to side, with strange spines twitching in the dark. The thing had strange glowing yellow marks along the multiple spines and limbs that stuck out. It hung in the air, twitching, like a cat that has just heard the infinitesimally small scrabblings of a rodent. Then it twitched and folded up into a disc again, and swung about, speeding away towards the black smoke column. It hovered there for a moment, seeming to sweep the area around the site, then drifted northward, vanishing over the horizon.
Zhaojie exhaled, and Hackett murmured next to him, "Too bloody close that."
The lieutenant nodded, "Yes. Not as observant though as I feared their guard dogs might be."
Hackett nodded, "Maybe they really don't expect an attack?"
"Confidence. Arrogance. Complacency. We can only hope."
"You were right, them sending someone. Or something."
"And I imagine a crowd of the living dead staring at our boats may have been a giveaway."
Hackett eyed him, "Set a false trail, not just a test?"
"Our success here depends on getting as far as we can without having to fight too much. We only have so much ammunition, so many men. We must engage on our terms. We were lucky this time. We did not anticipate this."
"I mean, how…"
Zhaojie shook his head, "We have known of the capacity for them to use the dead. We thought it a side effect. But now we know they use it as an area… denial method."
"Bloody hell. And I thought barbed wire and artillery were bad. Bloody Frankenstein's blocking towns and routes. That'll mess with your noggin' something fierce."
Zhaojie nodded, "We wait until morning, moor up, then move inland. We know to the south they have walkers. But we can avoid those. The North presents potentially easier traversal, but the risk of summoning a great horde. The question is - are they a loyal guard dog, or an indiscriminate tool."
Hackett shrugged, "What if they are?" The lieutenant mused for a moment and shrugged.
"We shall see. In combat, a discarded weapon is something that can be used against you. An unwatched flank is a vulnerability, no matter how thick the wall you build there."
"You're just full of them proverbs, ain't you?"
Zhaojie gave him a deadpan look, "Good, aren't they?"
Hackett snorted, quietly, "Bloody aphorisms. Right, lets get some kip, I'll post a watch. Then we can work out which side you want to go bloody die on."