Chapter 3

Refined by Fire

They walked in silence along the alleyways and side streets of the city till they reached the spot where they had met Holly and the twins.

"You know which way to go from here?" Daze asked.

"I'll find it." Jack said. "This way."

They had been walking for about an hour when Clara suddenly ducked into an old church on the right side of the street. Justin turned quickly and followed her. The others took the hint and found hiding spots as quick as possible. Daze and Holly slid into a small hole made by either a closed up emergence hole or an explosion. Right now Daze didn't care much.

He looked to see where the others had holed up. Clara was already in the church bell tower to his right, and Daze could see Justin guarding the back door with his shotgun. The others had all taken shelter in a large shop to Daze's left.

Daze looked up at Clara, who motioned that there were six locust Grubs coming. She put up five fingers, then she drew an imaginary H on her shirt.

"What is it?" asked Holly.

"Six Grubs, Five with Hammerbursts." Clara held up one finger and then drew an S. "Plus one with a sniper rifle."

"We need to take that one out first" Holly said.

"Depends on if they saw us." Daze looked back at Clara. He pointed down the street, then put two fingers to his eyes, then pointed at himself. Clara nodded. She motioned that 2 had gone right, and were moving towards the church, while the other three had gone left. The sniper was advancing up the street. Daze made the S, then dragged his finger across his throat. Clara nodded again. Daze looked left.

Jack had seen and understood it all. Already Jordan and Susan where covering a back door while He and Jet covered the windows.

"Get ready." Daze whispered. "When the sniper is close enough I'm going to jump up out of here and take him out. You give me cover fire to the sides, Clara will take a couple shots at the Sniper."

He relayed this information to Clara through various hand signals, mouthing the words as he did.

"How far?" she motioned.

"Twenty meters."

"Good luck." She mouthed.

Daze looked to the left again. Jack nodded to him and gave him the thumbs up. Daze looked back at Clara. She held up three fingers on her right hand and four on her left, then three, then two, then one…ah, she was counting down how many meters away it was…twenty-six, twenty-five, twenty-four…

There was a blast from the inside of the church. A boarded up window exploded into a million tiny shards as Justin's shotgun blast tore through it on its way into the Locust just on the other side. The locust was thrown back two meters into the wall of the adjacent house as the buckshot ripped a gaping hole in the middle of its chest. Justin fired again into the wall next to it. He waited for movement. None came.

"Now!" Daze shouted as the crash of gunfire sounded from all sides.

Clara fired twice at the sniper before jumping out a broken window and landing on the roof of the church. She slid down the roof to the edge and then jumped, or rather slid off. She hit the ground and rolled, coming up a few feet from the other locust, who had taken cover below a window adjacent to the one Justin had destroyed. The locust looked up in surprise just as one bullet took him in the chest, then another in the head.

"Suck it Btch's!" she said, stepping over the body of the other one as she reloaded.

Meanwhile, Daze had jumped out of the hole and had run up to the reloading sniper, who had fired at Clara. Daze brought up his rifle and fired a shot that hit the locust in the leg. Daze fired once again, this time hitting it in the shoulder. The high powered round ripped through the locust's arm, tearing it off. The long-shot fell to the ground along with the rest of the arm. Daze ran up and hit the locust in the mouth with the but of his gun before slitting its throat with his knife.

He turned to see Holly firing her lancer down an alley next to the shop. He ran past her and doubled back around the other side of the shop. He turned the corner only to see a locust grunt running towards him. The locust fired a quick burst, too quick, the rounds just flying over Daze's head. Daze dropped to the ground and fired once, tearing a hole through the locust's heart.

The other two locust had turned to run when Jordan came out the back door and fired a burst that ripped open the back of the fleeing locust. The other was running up the alley that Holly had been firing down.

"Heads up!" Daze shouted as he ran after the locust. Daze heard what sounded like a small engine revving up. Puzzled, he kept running. Turning the corner, he stopped. Holly had used the chainsaw bayonet on her lancer to chop through one of the locusts legs and was now standing over the body, its head rolled to one side.

"That was for mom and dad." she said quietly. She had gotten blood on her face and hands and was wiping it off with her shirt. "Ugh, I got some in my eye."

"Is anyone hurt?" Daze asked, still in awe.

"I'm fine." Holly said

"We're good too." Jack said, looking at Susan and Jordan.

"What about…"

"Good." Clara said walking up with Justin.

"Alright. Then we better keep going."

"One sec." Susan walked over to the locust Jordan had shot. It was still breathing in short

gasps. Susan fired one shot into its head at point blank. "Check the others," she said "Make sure they're dead."

"Good idea," Daze said "and grab they're guns and ammo while your at it."

Clara and Justin checked the ones that had attacked the church while the others grabbed the guns and ammo of the most recently killed grubs. Daze checked the sniper. It had just bled out. The blood was already pooling around it. Daze picked up the rifle and ammo belt which he threw over his shoulder.

They all met back in the alley.

"Here," Daze said handing the Sniper to Clara. "Your always getting so high anyways."

Jet laughed.

"That's not what I meant."

"Don't worry about it," Clara said smiling. "I know what you mean."

"Anyone notice any shotgun ammo?" Justin asked. "Mine only has twelve shots left."

No one had.

"Well we better keep going." Jet said.

They made they're way through the streets for a half-hour or so, when they came to an old bombed out house.

"In here," Jack said "we were hiding out in the basement from a group of locust when we noticed this."

They had walked down a flight of stairs when they stepped into an open room about sixty feet wide by one hundred feet long. At the other end of the room they could see a partially hidden

Troika machinegun turret and a small door just to the right of it.

"Here it is" Jack said. "load up.

Daze entered the room to find it filled with ammo boxes, guns, grenades and even some extra combat armor. He took one of the heavy vests off the wall and tried it on over his hooded sweatshirt. It wasn't too bad, and it had a place to keep an extra gun. Daze grabbed a Lancer from the wall and checked the chamber. Loaded. He filled his ammo belt with spare magazines and then put it on his back. The magnetic holding mechanisms snapped into place. Daze knew it wasn't going anywhere.

He grabbed some more ammo for his revolver and shoved it in his cargo pockets. He looked around the room. Jack was holding a lancer and looking out the machinegun hole, watching incase any unwelcome guests were to drop by.

Both Jordan and Justin where trying on the armor vests. Clara had taken two bandoleers of sniper ammo and crossed them tightly to her chest. She also took a small automatic machine pistol from a gun case in the corner of the room. Susan kept the Hammerburst she had taken from a fallen locust. In addition to her ammo belt, she put on a small vest, into which she loaded all the ammo she could fit in. Lancer, Hammerburst, Shotgun. Daze nodded with approval. She smiled back at him.

"Just in case." She said.

"It's a good idea." he said. "I'm glad you thought of it."

Jet jumped down the stairs two at a time and came running up to the door.

"We got company." he said. "eight of 'em, coming down the road this way."

"How close?" He asked.

"Too close for us to get out of here."

Daze didn't like the sound of that. He looked around the basement. The walls were bare, with no place to hide. So was the floor.

"Get out of sight." He said. "I'll man the turret."

He hid behind the dark screen that covered the turret while the others got out of sight of the door.

"Did they see you?" asked Jack.

"No." Jet said confidently.

"Then they'll walk on past right?" Holly said hopefully.

"We're not gonna bet on it." Daze whispered. "Shut off the lights."

Except for the small amount of light from the stairs, everything was now pitch darkness.

They could hear the footsteps outside now. They stopped right outside the entrance. There was a brief conversation. Then someone started to descend the stairs. Then more. Daze waited. He wanted them all down there before he started shooting. I was dark in the basement. He couldn't see the faces of the locust, but something tugged at his mind. Something was wrong.

"In here." a voice spoke out of the darkness.

That was it! The small lights of they're power armor were blue.

"Stop." Daze said in as commanding a voice he could muster. "Who goes there."

"Cut the S already" someone growled.

"Shut up Damon." Said the voice in front, over his shoulder. "Who are you and what are you doing here?" the voice asked.

"My name is Daze" he said cautiously. He recognized that voice from somewhere. "My friends and I are trying to get to the fortress."

"Hit the lights." the leader said.

"Why?"

"Don't you remember me Daze?"

"Should I?"

"Daze, It's me, Rojas."