Not So Simple ~Part 7
Part 7: Oooo shiny~
I'd like to think that it was my wings that saved us right then.
Kippy kicked off from the ledge and I slammed my wings open, holding them stable with every ounce of strength I could channel. The creature hadn't, though. So while we rose slightly, it just fell. 100 feet, straight down. We floated in the air in a lovely moment of blissful weightlessness. And then gravity, the dick that it was, decided to reestablish itself. It kinda hurt.
The sudden up rush of air slammed into my wings, straining them. I really didn't think we were going to survive the fall, though. Creature, yes. Fall that follows? Ok, that was a yes. It wasn't the fall that killed you. It was the sudden bone-pulping impact at the end. That was the fun part.
"You do realize we're going to die, don't you?" I shouted.
"Fuck that, we're not gonna die! Just keep your wings open! We'll make it!"
You hope. Nice to know that the only hope we had rested in a thin membrane staying intact while trying to support twice the weight they normally did. If nothing else, they hurt. And the ground was rushing up faster than I would have liked.
Dear gravity, kindly go away. Just a little bit please. All I ask. Thanks, Zyrin.
It didn't. Screw you too gravity, I was just trying to be nice. I started flapping my wings as hard as I could. Doubted it would do much, but every little bit might help. We were about twenty feet up when the universe decided to play another one of its lovely jokes I liked so much.
My right wing ripped.
Suddenly, I was thrown off Kippy's back in a tumble. I watched the world spiral around me, though I think it might have been my wing shredding that saved my life. I pulled them in as tight as I could just before impact. The ground hit me, as hard as ever, and the tumble sent me flying into a roll. I'm not gonna lie. It hurt like a son of a bitch. I rolled to a stop and lay there, slowly getting my breath back, my body aching. I hadn't hurt this bad since . . .
Since the last time I was truly careless and it almost got me killed. Back in the suburb. With the tank. It'd be my luck for a tank to suddenly appear now. I groaned and slowly leaned over. My right arm refused to support me, so I pushed up with my left and crawled over to a car. I used it to slowly haul myself up, my body protesting with screams of agony with every movement. It wasn't my body that ached when I fully stood up and looked around.
My rifle was trash. The scope was crushed; the barrel had been sheared off. I wasn't sure how that was even possible, but it was. The stock had crumpled and the main body was bent. I couldn't understand how a fall could cause such damage to the rifle. Well, maybe stuff getting crumpled, but the barrel? It took me a minute before I realized how. The claw that'd gone through my leg. That was most likely it.
Kippy staggered over and looked at the rifle. He didn't say anything, just grabbed me and started walking away. We were supporting each other at this point. Above us, we could still hear gunfire. Myla must be giving them one hell of a show. We rounded the corner and started down the next street.
"Where are we going?" I asked.
"Out rendezvous spot with Kerros. He went after the truck, we followed you."
"Gang's all here, then," I muttered.
If Kippy had bothered to say anything, it was drowned out by a massive explosion behind us. That was a hell of a lot bigger then could be generated by the charges I set. We were picked up by the force of the blast, even around the corner, and chucked several feet forward. I had the lovely fortune to land on top of a car. I felt the heat of the blast behind me, and the dust suddenly choking my mouth. I coughed to try and clear my lungs and slowly got back up, hooking my cloak over my muzzle to try and filer the air.
"You know, I think the universe hates me, but not enough to outright kill me," I muttered.
"That makes two of us," Kippy groaned and struggled back to his feet.
"We need to go back and look for Myla."
Kippy didn't need to reply. The building did it for him. The groan of twisted and damaged metal and the steady earthquake rumble of destruction answered for him. The creatures wailed in fear, a sound abruptly silenced as layer upon layer of weather-weakened and blast-damaged building collapsed, burying them under hundreds of tons of metal and flooring. We both knew what had happened to Myla. I think she had known she wasn't going to make it out. Someone else lost on my watch.
A thicker cloud of dust rolled over us, stinging my eyes and lungs. We coughed and started struggling back down the road, away from the building. We made it a block before the dust started to settle. All around was a different landscape, the dust turning everything a dirty tan-white. We could have fallen to the ground and blended in perfectly. I carefully eased my pack off and searched through it. Everything seemed to be intact, and that was a very good thing. I pulled out one of the canteens. It was horribly dented, but otherwise secure. Guess it wasn't lying when it said it was explosive proof. I opened it and poured the water over my leg, washing most of the dirt and blood off. The burning let up a little. The wound had already clotted and was scabbing quickly. I had Kippy douse my wing, and let him rinse off the worst of his injuries. I wasn't sure if the leg or the wing was worse, but I think I got away with being pretty lucky with just those.
One wonderful thing the humans had designed, or so we assumed, was our healing abilities. We healed a lot faster than a human did. Why have soldiers out for a month with a broken leg when you can shorten it to a week or two? A lot of things that didn't kill us outright we could heal. No, we weren't immortal. Blood loss, major internal damage and the like still would rip us down pretty quickly. But the gashes in my leg would be a few days to being almost as good as new. The wing would probably be a month though. No more jump-gliding for me for a while. Hell, if I had a say, never again at this point.
We continued our slow pace for quite some time, walking until close to dusk. Kippy suddenly turned me and ushered me into a building. It looked like it'd been a restaurant at one time, the décor inside suggesting a 1950's themed diner. What remained of the décor, that is. Kippy led me into the back room. It smelled horrible, and I was pretty sure that it came from food that had rotted and started growing, and having water flood in and sit for a while. I cleared a spot along the wall and sunk down, my body protesting the movement.
I opened my eyes sometime later. I hadn't even realized I fell asleep. Kippy was passed out across from me, his foot twitching every few moments. I felt uneasy, though. I carefully unclipped my pack and eased back to my feet. I drew my Colt and reloaded it silently. I peered through the dirty plastic window in the swinging door, but couldn't see anything beyond. Too dark, and too dirty. I slid it open and limped out, tracking my gun around and straining my ears. This was probably a bad idea; I should have stayed in the back room where anything entering would have to come through the door. I realized just how much of a bad idea it was when I felt the cold press of a blade against my throat. I froze in place.
"And you're dead. Never thought I'd get to sneak up on a sniper," the voice, smooth and low, muttered in my ear.
Kerros. Bastard.
The blade came away and I turned. The wolf was all but invisible in the room. I realized then that he'd been standing right behind me the entire time. Damn. I was getting sloppy. He motioned towards the back room.
"Come on, I got news."
I followed him through, nudging Kippy's foot as I passed. He opened his eyes and looked up, blinking a lot to try and resolve the image. That was something I hated upon waking. Everything was blurred and your eyes didn't want to stay open or focus. I holstered my gun and rummaged in my pack, pulling out one of the glo-sticks. It'd already been cracked, probably by the fall, so might as well use it. I pulled out all of them that'd been cracked and tossed them around the room, giving it a nice even light. Surprisingly, not all had been activated. I pulled out an MRE, surprised that it was still intact, and tossed it to Kerros. Another went to Kippy, and I got my own.
"Where's Myla?" Kerros asked.
Kippy looked at me with the look stating he really didn't want to be the one to tell the wolf what happened. I sighed.
"She gave herself so that we could get away," I said.
Kerros pressed for details, and I did my best to fill him in. Kippy spoke up about following me and everything up to the point he saved me from immediate death-by-claw. I filled in everything from the moment I entered the building.
"How the hell was the explosion that big anyway?" I mused aloud.
"That was out doing, actually. We hit two more patrols like the one you took out, guess we were kinda unlucky. But each had a satchel of charges. Why, I don't know. It doesn't make much sense. But we laced the second floor with them, and linked them in with yours. Wasn't overly complicated. We figured that if you were setting charges, it had to be damn important."
Kerros told his story, leaving out anything that wasn't important. Meaning, everything. Followed the truck, I didn't ask how he managed that since I probably didn't want to know the answer, and discovered their base. Humans had a research lab set up in the old college building. Right, old college building. Like I knew where that was. Somehow, they'd either begun rebuilding all the circuitry for the radios, or they'd found them.
Or, and this was beginning to sound more and more like a cheap sci-fi book, they'd been holed up in a secret facility somewhere, probably in the mountains or underground since that was damn near the only way to shield electronics from an EMP without fancy circuit hardening that I was pretty sure wouldn't be extended past major computers. I shook my head at the thought, but didn't dismiss it. Knowing the humans, it wasn't too far out there to be possible. As for the creatures, that was easy enough. They were warped weapons research. Everything we were designed to be, only much uglier and more obedient.
"Why here, though?" Kippy wondered.
"Well, convenience factor. They could actually be pretty close by and decided to test the first batch in the city. Or it could be they're hunting us. Maybe not our group specifically, but anthros in general. I mean, we're not exactly secret about being in the city, but it is a big city. There's bound to be some other anthros around, just by probability."
"Unless there aren't all that many to survive," I said.
"Well, about ten minutes after you left the compound, one of the deep scout teams returned. And guess what? They found a small community, brought them up to us. Fifteen of them, and the real kicker? Apparently we're not sterile, as some thought. So, so long as other anthros start making babies, there's a pretty decent chance we can survive as a society. Well, assuming the humans don't kill us all first."
"I always had wondered if there were more. Maybe over in Europe they actually thrive and are building our civilization here, and we're all too busy fighting to accomplish anything. Wouldn't that be ironic, eh? The former United States, once supposed to be the best country in the world, still stuck in the new dark ages," Kippy said, chuckling.
"I never took you as the cynical type," I said around a mouthful of particularly awful chicken fajita MRE. How the humans could stand this was beyond me.
Kippy shrugged and finished his meal. Kerros suddenly stood up.
"Something wrong?" I asked.
"Kippy here forgot something, something much more important now. It came with the return group, who were gonna give it to you if you hadn't left. So I took it when we came out after you."
He started pulling at a pile of black mass, the collective refuse built up in one of the corners. He pulled a large black box out and set it in front of me. At one time, it had a yellow stencil saying what was inside, but it had long since worn away. I popped the clips and opened the box.
It was beautiful. There was no other word for it. Contained within that simple black crate was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen in my life.
A complete Barrett M95 anti-material sniper rifle. It was broken down into its pieces to fit better, but that was no problem for me. And even better, set within were three clips for it. Kerros unclipped an extra bag from his pack, a small little shoulder bag, and tossed it to me. Fifteen clips and two different scopes. I think I died and went to heaven.
Now, universe, God, writer, puppeteer, whatever, I like you. You did good.
"They found it in one of the bases they examined. Figured it'd be something you'd love to have. You can thank Crystia for it; she was the one who actually found it."
I really didn't hear what he had to say. I was slowly pulling the pieces out of the foam padding and assembling the rifle. It was a bolt action too. Always wanted one of those. In naught five minutes, the assembled rifle was sitting in front of me. If anything was said, I didn't hear it. I looked through each of the scopes and settled on one with a 12x magnification. It'd need to be adjusted carefully, but I knew, for the most part, how it should be. It'd decrease the time I had to spend messing with it.
Despite everything that had happened today, I smiled. It wasn't a friendly smile, though. It was quite an evil smile. Can anybody say payback?