Chapter 9

Aside from the grunts and heavy breaths of the toiling locust, a quiet metallic spinning noise was all that broke the harsh silence.

Clara gave a final twist to the suppressor of her Reaper, then reached down and pulled Daze's knife from the dead locust at her feet.

She left the body and crept up a steep hallway. At the top she found a small room with sparse furnishings and some small windows in the far wall. She moved to these carefully.

She looked through a boarded window at two grubs setting up a troika.

"Dmn their fast." She thought to her self.

She ducked back against the wall as a locust on patrol walked past the two.

"One is coming your way Daze," She whispered through the mic, "and I've got two setting up a troika in the hallway."

"Take your two out once this one gets around the corner."

"Got it."

Clara waited and watched as the two continued tightening up the bolts that kept the heavy turret anchored to the ground. She flicked the fire select switch to single shot.

"Now." Dazes voice came through the mic.

Clara stuck the barrel between the wood and fired once at the rear locust.

There was a cracking sound and a woosh of air as the locusts body slumped over, a small hole through its brain. Clara quickly adjusted her aim and dropped the other one in a heap on the floor.

"Both down, I'm moving to the door."

Clara nearly threw up as she passed by some old toilets.

"What was that? Are you okay?"

"Everything is fine, I uh, I just smelled something nasty," Clara switched to Rojas's channel, "I'm at a large metal door, what do I do?"

"Is there a way of getting through quietly?"

"I'll try." She moved smoothly to the door and pressed the large button.

The door hissed as it opened, cracking barely enough for Clara to slip through.

Clara stepped into a large room, it had a rather high ceiling with many pillars and a tile floor. To her right she saw an old piano.

She leaned back into a brick wall to her left and looked through a hole in the wall.

More locust were moving around…some were setting up another troika while others patrolled the area around.

Clara waited till no one was looking and then made a quick dash for a hallway opposite. She entered and looked through a small window. She saw a Theron sentinel in some sort of upper room with locust entering and exiting through a small door.

Clara ducked down as two grubs walked past her.

She moved into the connecting room and hid in the extreme darkness it provided. As she waited she felt around. Finding a series of shelving brackets, she used them to climb up above the door. As she waited the locust turned and began moving toward the room.

One locust entered the dark room in front of its partner, suddenly it yelled as a small, burning hot piece of metal burned into its neck. The locust spun around to see what had happened. Nothing. It began moving towards the way it had come but stumbled over something. As it reached down to see what it was, a small figure fell from above and buried a knife in the locusts exposed neck.

Clara clamped her hand over its mouth as she stabbed again and again until the locust stopped struggling.

She wiped the knife on its pant leg and sheathed it.

"Two down," Clara spoke into the mic, "wait till I give you the signal…I want to see how many I can take out before they find me."

"Well, don't take to long, I don't want to come in there and find your body getting gangbanged by locust."

"Don't be so morbid!"

"Justin says that he wouldn't like that either."

"Shut up! I don't know how I live with you guys!"

As Clara had been talking she had also been setting up a small trap that Susan had made for her. It was a regular frag grenade with string attached to the pin and a couple of zip-ties for securing the string and grenade.

She set the tripwire at the bottom of the door, then pulled the locust bodies into the middle of the room where she fastened the grenade to one of the locusts armor with zip-tie.

Just as she finished she heard a shout from the Theron, then heard more shouts from the locust that had just finished with the turret.

Clara ducked out of the room and made a run for the door of the snipers perch.

She came up a set of stairs and saw the Sentinel turn and begin covering the other locust that were patrolling the area.

Clara walked up behind the locust and leveled her reaper at its head. She waited as the grubs entered the dark room.

She planned to shoot the locust as the grenade exploded, just incase the shot somehow managed to alert the locust in the room and give them time to escape.

As the grenade exploded the Theron spun around and struck Clara against the wall, knocking the wind out of her.

"We are not all as dumb as you think!" The Theron hissed as it stepped forward. "You would be pretty for a human would you not?

Clara spit at the locust as the sound of gunfire sounded from outside the room.

"A shame that the flower is crushed underfoot so easily." as it said this the Sentinel bent to pick up Clara's reaper.

As it did so Clara leapt up and knocked the locust over the railing.

It roared in anger as it got up and ran up the stairs to try and finish Clara off.

She drew Daze's knife as the locust came bounding up the stairs. It moved with large strides and as it tried to tackle her she stuck her leg between the locusts and tripped it into the window.

The locusts head jerked down on the outside of the window as it rammed into the wall, Clara took the chance and drove the knife through its neck pinning it to the window sill.

Clara sank to the ground and started to cry as the sounds of war raged all around. She wasn't sure why, but the experience had left her more drained then she could imagine. She cried about Mercy, and about Teresa and all the other kids she had grown up with. She let all the tears out that she had held in, she cried for the men she had seen killed, for their wives and children.

Then she got angry.

She grabbed the sniper from her back and aimed at a locust who had manned the troika. She fired once then turned her rifle as she reloaded, shooting another that was running from a small door, reloaded again and shot the head of another grub hiding behind a pile of sandbags. More locust were firing but the were out of sight.

In her frustration Clara grabbed the knife out of the locusts neck and began stabbing it again and again in the neck and head. She hacked at its neck over and over with all the anger and rage she had in her.

"You okay?" Daze asked softly.

Clara jumped at the sound of his voice. She turned, embarrassed by what she was doing.

"I feel like doing that too sometimes," Daze admitted, "it almost feels wrong to do it, almost as if sinking below them makes me less human, more primal then even these evil creatures."

"What's wrong?" He asked noticing the tears.

Clara ran over to him and buried her head in his shoulder as she cried even more as she told him what had happened.

"Don't you worry about it," Daze comforted her, "its over and I'm here for you, now lets go down stairs."

"All right," Clara sniffed once more and handed Daze his knife, then went back over to the Theron. She noticed a large, ornately handled knife hanging at its side.

She drew it and looked at the blade. The blade was long and curved and was made out of a dark, unreflective metal that had intricate designs inlayed along its length. The inlayed metal was bright but also of a brushed look so as not to be to reflective. It also had many ugly barbs and hooks in it for eviscerating whatever unlucky soul it ended up inside of. She noticed what looked to be a small diamond on the tip and wondered how sharp it was.

Clara stabbed the heavy chest armor of the high ranking sentinel. The knife cut through the armor as if it were nothing more than a leather coat.

She smiled as she cut the sheath from the locust. She slipped the sheath up under the ammo belts on her back and tightened it up.

"Oh Hll yes!"