Chapter 6

Close Call

Daze's mind raced franticly as he looked for a way out of the warehouse.

No more than fifty feet from Daze were at least twenty locust standing around an emergence hole pulling up weapons and ammunition, while on the catwalks above another two were on sentry duty.

Daze looked for something he could use as a distraction. Above the hole was some sort of crane or pulley system. If he could get that to kill or at least slow the locust around the hole he might have a chance to escape.

He looked around for something, anything that looked like a control device of some kind. The windows of the warehouse were painted over and let very little light through, while this worked well to conceal him, it also helped hide any sort of controller that might be found.

He scanned the lifting machinery to see if there were any weak spots he might be able to shoot. He found a spot that seemed to hold the entire thing up by a small railing system that would allow it to be moved from place to place easily. Daze wondered if the armor piercing lancer bullets would be able to tear it down.

Then he remembered.

Jet had his lancer.

Daze wanted to curse himself for not having it, but that wouldn't help anything and it was necessary that he leave it behind. Then he remembered something else.

Just before they left the ammo room Susan had handed him two grenades. One was a smoke and the other a frag.

If he could get a good throw he might be able to get the frag stuck up next to the railing, and that would only work if the frag had enough explosive force to destroy it.

All he knew for sure was that there would be a lot of luck involved if he got out of here alive.

Daze wiped the sweat from his face as he got ready to throw the grenades. Should he throw the smoke first so that it had time to get going but give away his position? Or should he throw the frag and then the smoke yet still be a clear target?

Daze pulled the pin of the smoke and set it at his feet. As the smoke started to grow he pulled the pin and threw the frag toward the lift. If Daze had stopped to watch he would have noticed how truly lucky he was. As the grenade flew over the rail the ìtailî caught at the last second and the rest of it wrapped around the railing.

As soon as he threw Daze began to run towards the front of the warehouse. The two sentries were the first to notice the smoke and ran after Daze as he fled.

The explosion ripped through the rail severing hydraulic lines and causing the lift to fall, crushing the unlucky locust beneath it but more importantly it blocked the Emergence hole and caused confusion as the locust not only tried to find the source of the explosion but also as they tried to lift the broken machinery off their fallen comrades.

The water and smoke slowed the locust even more than the machinery as they slipped and fell and ran into each other in the already dark confines of the warehouse.

Daze was off to a good start.

What was taking him so long.

Clara began to sweat.

What if the locust had captured him. What if they were torturing him right now. Should they just leave and try to make it out alive?

She couldn't bear the thought.

Well they'd know soon enough, Rojas and the rest of the Cogs were coming up the street now.

Suddenly there was an explosion from inside the warehouse. Clara's heart raced as she steadied her rifle and tried to calm her breathing. She heard gun shots and watched as bullets riddled the front windows.

She sighted down the scope.

As one of the windows shattered and started to fall Daze burst out and began running toward the building with two locust right behind him.

Clara swung the rifle to fire a shot at the first locust. There was a loud crack as the recoil from the rifle slammed into her shoulder. She had aimed for the locusts body but her shot went high and slammed into the base of the neck, spraying blood and bits of spine onto the road.

She fumbled with the next cartridge as she tried to reload the single shot weapon. It was taking to long! She nearly threw aside the rifle as she drew her Reaper. She aimed down the sights to make sure she didnët hit Daze. The locust was firing as it ran after him.

"Oh no". Clara watched in horror as a bullet hit Daze. Clara saw Dazeís body jerk forward and blood spray from some wound, the severity of which she could not tell from where she was. Daze lay motionless, face down on the ground.

"No!" she screamed as she fired the Reaper at the locust. A couple shots seemed to hit but the locust didn't even slow. It reached the body and started to raise its boot over Dazeís head.

Clara grabbed at the Longshot in desperation and jammed a round into the chamber, worked the bolt, took a short breath and fired.

"Son of a B!" she screamed as the shot flew wide right.

The sound of the sniper rifle got the locusts attention. Clara dove for cover as the concrete around her exploded into tiny shards as the locust peppered the window she had been hiding in.

She reloaded and ran to another window to take aim at the locust. She was just about to fire when she saw Daze suddenly jam his knife into the locusts thigh. He pulled himself up and swung around behind the locust, slicing the tendons in its leg at the knees. The locust fell to its knees as Daze drew his fathers revolver.

"Yippee kie yay Mother F..." Daze smiled as the blast of the heavy pistol drowned out the remainder of the sentence.

Daze stood a moment, watching the locusts shattered skull crumble and fall.

"Daze!" Rojas broke Daze out of his stupor. "The warehouse!"

Daze turned to see locust start poring out, he fired his pistol into the first locust, tearing its leg off at the hip. He turned and fired two more shots at a grub coming around the corner of the warehouse, then emptied the rest through the broken window.

He holstered his pistol and drew his knife as a grub jumped out of the window with a revving lancer. He heard a loud crack when the grubs head exploded and the body fell to the ground.

"Daze," Clara shouted, "In here!"

Daze spun around and ran towards the open "lobby" of the old building. Two grubs and a grenadier jumped out to follow but were immediately cut down by fire from the cogs.

"Hastings!" Rojas shouted above the gunfire, "Take your squad around back and push them into our fire to finish them off."

"Victor, on me!" Capt Hastings and his men moved off to flank the locust.

"Alpha, take up positions along the street," Rojas ordered, "I don't want any of the bastards getting past us!"

Daze ran up the stairs as fast as he could. He ran up next to Clara as he reloaded his revolver.

"How's your arm?" she asked as she sniped a locust that had made its way onto the rooftops.

"Fine, no thanks to your shooting." he said sarcastically.

"Well it was hard to tell from up here," she looked over at him sympathetically as she thumbed another cartridge in the rifle, "I'm getting used to reloading."

"Hasn't helped your shooting much," Daze remarked as he pulled his carbine down from his back, "You know I'm kidding right? We're going to need your sniping a lot from now on."

"Can you help me out here," she asked as she put a bullet into another rooftop locust, "they keep trying to get on the roofs."

"Sure, just a sec though."

Daze cut a strip of cloth and tied up his arm. The locusts bullet had glanced off the back of his armor and grazed his left bicep, not very deep but the blood had been flowing pretty freely.

He racked the slide of his carbine and started shooting any grubs he could find. He loved the feel of the rifle and how much power it had. And the accuracy was amazing. Daze made a mental note to ask Holly what type of gun it was.

Suddenly there was an earthquake, somewhere back along the way they had come, an emergence hole was appearing.

"Steady," Jack whispered as the locust started emerging, "Wait for my signal."

Susan and Jordan were right next to Jack while Justin, Jet and Holly were on the other side of the street.

"We need to close up that hole." Susan said quietly as the locust kept coming. "Jordan, can you get a grenade into it from here?"

"I can get pretty close."

"Well we'll have to try anyway." There were at least eight locust out and more coming, "Take this grenade."

"Anyone got a zip-tie?" Jordan asked as he took the grenade from Susan.

"Funny you should ask," Susan dug in her pocket and pulled one out, "I grabbed a hand full in the armory."

Jordan took it and tied the loose end, or "tail", of the grenade to the handle and got ready to throw it Thrashball style.

"Whatever happens, we have to push through and get to Rojas and the others." Susan whispered to Jack and Jordan.

"Get ready." Jack mouthed to Jet across the street.

Ten of the locust were up and were now starting to move up the street behind the cogs.

"Now."

Jordan threw the grenade high into air, arcing it perfectly so that it landed straight in the hole. They all started to run as soon as he threw it.

They were about ten meters from the hole when the grenade exploded, collapsing the hole in onto its self.

"Fire!" Jack shouted as the locust turned to see what had happened.

The spray of bullets ripped the locust to shreds, none escaping the first barrage.

They all kept running till they got to where Rojas and the others were mopping up the rest of the locust that had been in the warehouse.

"Well that worked great," Hastings said to Rojas, "we didn't even have any wounded."

"Same here," Rojas turned to the teens who had just come up, "Status?"

"They tried to get in behind you sir," Jack stepped up, "we took them out, but I don't think they will give up. I think weíre going to have a running fight from here on."

"That's what I'm counting on." Rojas replied.

They all looked up as Daze shouted down. "We better get going!"

"We got at least sixty locust converging on this spot," Daze said as he and Clara came out from the building, "If we're gonna run, we better start now."