The driver slammed on the gas pedal.

The vehicle peeled forward.

Mycerra tossed the Storm to Wei Bohai. "If you can't hit the mark, wait until you see the whites of the eyes. Otherwise, don't shoot!"

Bohai handled the shotgun expertly.

His twin hoisted the Avenger sniper rifle she rescued from the dead escort members. "I have the rear covered!" Yu shouted at Mycerra.

"I'll keep husks off the driver!" She motioned to Yu and Bohai. "Don't be afraid to use your biotics!"

Mycerra propped up at the front driver side of the bed of the truck and followed a limited line of sight. "I need a marksman on the passenger side!" She tossed a secondary Kessler pistol toward one of the older teens. "DO NOT let any husks into the passenger side!"

The girl fumbled it.

"Barrel is pointed away from us. Finger off the trigger unless you're going to shoot it. And most important of all, once your thermal clip is empty, pop the heat sink and reload!"

"Yes, Ma-am." The teen squeaked.

The truck pushed aside a crumpled car and reaper corpses. In the dimly lit distance and twisted rubble of the formerly active city, they plugged ahead at an excruciating crawl. They stayed ahead of the husks just enough to not fire a single bullet until they hit the tight streets for the northern parts of the city.

"Biotics until you need rounds!" Mycerra yelled at Bohai and Yu. The refugees between her and the twins crouched lower and clung to each other. "Don't waste rounds unless you need too!"

The husks closed in on them, high and low.

Yu and Bohai launched back three husks with biotics.

Screeching from several directions echoed around them.

Mycerra pounded on the back window. "KEEP DRIVING!"

The screeching triangulated on them.

Mycerra biotically lifted a marauder and husk away from the driver's door at the last second. The sniper rifle fired. The shotgun resounded in close echo of the sniper round. She unloaded two rifle rounds into the husk that avoided the singularity.

"Head for the north! There's a set of ruins. If we make it out of the city, we can pick off those who pursue!" She shouted through the window to the driver. "Keep us moving toward the north!" She emptied her clip into a charging brute. Reloading quickly, she emptied another clip. A grenade finished it off. An Alliance soldier ran toward them and jumped for the vehicle. Mycerra threw out her arm and helped him into the back.

"Thought I was doomed." He said breathlessly.

She pointed him to take the girl's place on the driver front. "Keep them off the driver!"

Her arm flared up in pain. She gritted her teeth and tossed a singularity amid two marauders and a cannibal. The three floated. She dropped them with five rounds.

The shotgun and sniper rifle worked in harmony.

"Don't head back into the center of the city!" The soldier warned the group. "Too many – too many of them!"

A reaper horn sounded. Two banshees echoed closer to them.

Mycerra braced against the truck cab and biotically lifted a barrier to clear enough space to squeeze through. Blood seeped from her nose, ears pulsing. She pulsed biotics through her hand, switching the rifle to her left hand and dropping four husks before they ganged up on the driver's door and window.

Staccato of gunfire tuned out every other sound.

"SHIT!" The Alliance soldier bashed out the cab's back window and unloaded into the husk half crawled into the cab.

Mycerra lunged across the short bed width and dropped her last two rounds into the husk clamoring after its dead comrade. Yu popped a singularity by the driver's door and returned to firing. She focused on the charging brute.

Someone screamed. A husk half crawled into the bed.

A tween picked up the crowbar and beat it back. One of the teens finished the task.

The crowbar dripped reaper blood.

"Why isn't it red?" The eleven year demanded.

"They're not like us anymore, kid. They're not human anymore." The teenager tried to explain.

"Everyone take cover!" She shouted.

A hail of bullets bounced off the kinetic barriers within the bed. She winced. A sniper round pierced the cab and hit the driver. "Need a volunteer driver!"

A rail thin teenager accepted the cab window as a challenge. "If I can fit through a doggy door, I can fit through that." She told the soldier knocking out the remaining glass shards.

"The driver can take care of his wounds. Swap when you climb inside." Mycerra never removed her eyes from the buildings and streets. She refused to think about the dwindling thermal clips, the damaged heat sinks on her overused weapons pushed well beyond their limits and the biotics at the brink of rebellion and her body shutting down because of it. Never in her life had anyone pushed her this hard, never before did the tactics instilled into her as a child mattered more.

She blinked.

A banshee appeared at the head of the road to their salvation and the wooded safety not yet invaded by the reapers. Or so they hoped. Beyond those trees, a cave system the people could hide in long enough to do something, anything.

After that, it wasn't her responsibility.

They needed fighters, not people hiding.

She dropped another singularity by the driver's door and turned her remaining ammo on the Banshee. It screeched at them, biotically shifted forward toward their vehicle. With husks on all sides, they concentrated fire on the banshee.

The teen eased the injured elderly out of the way and gunned it forward pushing the engine more than the previous driver.

"Don't overcorrect!" The passenger advised. "We're almost on the home stretch."

Mycerra never blinked until her weapon stopped firing ammo. She reached for a thermal clip and gripped air. Dropping the rifle, she cupped together her hands and welled the biotic energy. Casting a shockwave forward, it rippled past the banshee harmlessly.

"Give me the crowbar!" She demanded of the teenager.

The teenager handed it over reluctantly. Mycerra handed over the rifle. "Find thermal clips."

Yu rationed her thermal clips and Bohai only pulled the trigger when he saw the white of their eyes.

Mycerra muttered a quick prayer.

She biotically charged forward and stabbed the end of the crowbar through the banshee's head.

The banshee fell to the ground in a thump. Mycerra biotically pushed the body away. She ran forward of the truck and snagged a belt with two grenades. Sprinting at full tilt, she grabbed the remainder of an Alliance flag and held it out as she sprinted.

The husks followed her instead. She veered off into the alley way, dropped the flag and primed the two grenades. At the end of the alleyway with the enemy packed in, she hurled it into the thick and hauled ass northward again. The explosion echoed in the alleyway and spread the damage in the space. A single husk pursued her.

Spying the truck clearing the thick of the buildings, she veered back toward it.

It slowed enough for her to catch up and hop up clumsily.

She dropped down to her ass and gulped down air. Her throat burned and chest ached. Legs pulsed from the extreme exercise.

The stars never looked more beautiful.

"Are we clear, Boss?" Wei Bohai asked.

She flashed a thumbs up. "For now, Wei, for now."

She closed her eyes, the bright of the stars burned into her memory.