Chapter 57

12-9-14, 8:30 P.M.

“All quiet on the Western front,” Jeremy joked over his helmet radio. It had been reconfigured to tap into the military squad’s channel, and Mary had been given her own communication device so she could speak with him as well.

They were moving back through campus towards where Jeremy had been attacked, and so far it was slow going. Not a single gunshot cracked the atmosphere, from either their group or anywhere else, and it was starting to get to Jeremy just how quiet things were. Whereas before he’d felt like he was thrust into the thick of things unexpectedly, now he felt as though the tension was simply building without any sign of leveling – the calm before the storm. What fresh hell had these guys planned? Was there anything else, or was it just the three from before? He’d feel pretty amazingly stupid if all this was nothing more than a false alarm.

“Wouldn’t it be the Eastern front, anyway?” Ethan responded, sounding as though he were fighting the urge to laugh.

“Central, I would think. Central-East? Ah, whatever. Point is, can’t see anyone,” Jeremy replied, his smile unseen over the radio.

Jeremy walked out onto the main road, his feeling of unease only increasing – the entire road, normally constantly busy, was entirely empty. Not even the ambulances that usually screamed their way around the other traffic were making an appearance. He knew this was because the military had cordoned off the entire area, but it didn’t exactly make him feel any better – the silence was so different that it was messing with him.

“All quiet on Euclid,” he spoke over the radio, oddly quiet himself.

“You okay?” Celestia responded, sounding concerned.

“All this silence is getting to me,” he replied, looking around as though he expected something to jump out at any moment.

“Tis’ a common warfare tactic. Pay it no heed, they will appear eventually,” Luna chimed in.

“So…” Jeremy began, casting about for some form of conversation to distract himself. “Military guys, what you got in the way of armor?” There was a short pause before one of the squad answered.

“Kevlar flak jackets, and ceramic nanoplates along with that.” Jeremy gave an appreciative grunt – that ought to stop most of the lighter bullets.

“Mary, what about you?” he continued.

“About the same – snagged some hidden PPE by special request when these guys were sent over here,” Mary answered. She appeared a distance down from Jeremy, looking around suspiciously before giving him a short wave.

“So, the only one who’s unprotected here is Ethan… Let’s hope that military training of yours comes in handy, huh?” Jeremy mused, addressing Ethan over the radio. To his surprise, there was no response. “…Ethan? You there?” he asked.

Just then, a gunshot split the night air, and Jeremy immediately whipped out his M16 and headed towards it. A lone figure appeared in the darkness, and Jeremy flicked on the flashlight on his rifle before realizing it was Ethan, splattered with blood and looking as though he had just appeared out of a horror film.

“What happened?” he asked.

Ethan huffed a sigh. “Just ran into one – alone. He cornered me, started speaking – in English, mind you – about how I should be on their side, and that this was my last chance to go back over before they started targeting me as well. You can guess what happened next.”

Jeremy grimaced in sympathy, before realizing Ethan couldn’t see it. “Sucks, man. Still, they’d probably have shot you anyway.”

Ethan nodded, and hefted his own rifle, taking out the clip before putting it back in again – Jeremy recognized the motion, he’d done it many times before to take advantage of the magically infinite store of bullets most of them possessed. Every time the clip was ejected and put back in, it refilled – and even though Ethan had only fired a single shot, Jeremy understood the comforting feeling of having a full clip as opposed to a half full or near-empty one.

“Well, if no one else has any news, I say we head down to the engineering quad,” Jeremy remarked. The rest chimed in their various assent, and he crossed Euclid hesitantly, still following the crosswalk despite the lack of cars. Just a little bit of familiar comfort, he rationalized. Looking around, he came to the very same building he’d been in when this all started. Making his way up the steps, he was only mildly surprised to find the building locked. “Did the other students in here make it out?” he asked, concerned.

“Campus police force should have evacuated them and all other students off-campus just a half hour ago – I’m sure they’re fine,” Mary answered.

“Good enough for me,” Jeremy decided, and moved back down the steps and across Adelbert, finally heading toward the engineering quad of the school.

The engineering quad itself was quite large – like most of Case Western, it had once been part of a separate school before the series of agglomerations and merges that led to the university’s current, hourglass-shaped span. Most of the center was taken up by grassy lawns and art sculptures, with a few trees thrown in for good measure. In the summer months, students would often study around here, as the atmosphere was quite nice – in the winter, however, more heated shelter was preferred. Squirrels chittered slightly as they moved from tree to tree, searching for higher-quality acorns than the ones that littered the ground.

From what Jeremy could make out, the quad was currently deserted – this wasn’t exactly unusual, as any sensible person would be at the dorms or at the very least inside at this hour. He sighed as he looked around.

“And… yet more nothing,” he complained. “You’d think, at the very least, they’d have the decency to leave us some clues. I feel like we’ve missed something…” He could hear Luna’s chuckle over the headset, but it was abruptly stopped by a sharp intake of breath on her part. “…Okay, what is it, Luna?” he asked.

“We just performed a tracking spell to see if anything at all was in thine area – and there is a large group of humans hiding behind a building approximately fifty meters in front of thee.” The screen on his helmet suddenly depicted a rough schematic of this, causing Jeremy to jerk backward in alarm before realizing what it was.

He cracked his knuckles, relieved. “Everyone catch that?” he asked, and the others affirmed this. “Let’s surround them, if we can,” he suggested.

“Not gonna reasonably happen – by the time the rest of us catch up with you, they’ll probably have moved or spotted someone. Best to just start the fight, and we’ll join in when we get there,” Mary advised.

Jeremy shrugged. “Suit yourself, I guess…” He moved forward.

The visual on his helmet minimized itself into a corner, with an orange dot to signify himself. Jeremy grinned – he appreciated the almost game-like addition. The enemy group was present as a bunch of red dots once they were in sight, and he readied his M16 in preparation. For once, Jeremy wished his suit wasn’t covered in metal plating – it reflected the streetlights quite nicely. Which was a bad thing. Ah well, might as well just stroll up like he owned the damn place. He broke into a run, popping around the corner to find a bunch of black-clad men discussing something, all heavily armed themselves. As soon as they saw him, they froze.

“Anyone else feel like black is out of style this year?” he quipped, before opening fire.

As soon as he mowed down the first five, the rest scattered, taking aim with their own arms. Jeremy ducked and rolled – the bullets barely even hurt due to the unbelievable engineering that was his suit, but he didn’t want them to think they were being unproductive, mainly for fear of them finding something productive to do. Such as pick other targets.

A few minutes later, Jeremy was feeling strangely exhilarated as he settled back into the old routine of shooting other people – this, at least, had become comfortably familiar. Ugh. What is wrong with me? He thought disgustedly. More counseling, then. God, the last session went so poorly, too. I couldn’t even answer a single question!

Just then, a battle cry sounded across the courtyard, loud enough to halt Jeremy in his tracks and send a chill through his very blood. Luna had entered the fight, and her stark white face contained nothing but unholy rage. Most everyone else had stopped trying to shoot him in order to stare at the newcomer, before one pulled out their automatic shotgun and attempted to shoot her. Luna raised a hand, and the bullets stopped in midair, glowing slightly with her blue magical aura. She brought her hand down, and the lead dispersed in a wide arc, catching at least five of the terrorists – judging from the way they doubled over or spun in place, and the lack of blood, Jeremy supposed it had been equivalent to a sturdy punch. Unfortunately, her magic couldn’t make the bullets go quite fast enough to penetrate anything, and Luna appeared to notice this as she whipped out her SPAS-12.

“THIS IS FOR MY HUSBAND, FOALS!” she screamed as she began blasting away those nearest to her, and Jeremy watched for a moment more in a mix of delight and absolute terror before remembering that he was supposed to help. Together, he and Luna set about utterly destroying every black-clad person they found.

Just a few minutes later, perhaps twenty or so corpses littered the area around the building. “Nice work,” Jeremy complimented Luna as they surveyed the area for any more.

“We… should probably calm down…” Luna huffed, seemingly more from adrenaline than any actual exertion.

“Hey, lovebirds, have you been paying attention?” Mary called out over the radio.

Jeremy blushed slightly. “Uh… no… what happened?” he asked.

“A whole bunch more showed up while you two were busy with the first group – we’re leading them your way. Get ready!”

Jeremy replied in the affirmative, and headed back out towards Euclid road, Luna following behind before taking his side.

They came out onto Euclid to find Mary waiting for them, clutching her chest and sporting a cut on the side of her face.

“You okay?” Jeremy asked, concerned.

“Fine, fine. I’ve had worse,” Mary answered, dismissing his concerns with a wave of her hand. Jeremy was about to protest, but a look from Luna silenced him. He watched as she placed a hand over Mary’s chest, and a moment later she straightened up, before looking Luna in the eye and muttering “Thanks.” Luna nodded silently, and they turned around once more – this time to find another soldier running toward them, a slightly panicked look on his face.

“Kid, got any grenades?” he asked, sounding a lot calmer than he looked.

Jeremy shook his head. “Rocket launcher’s all I got.” The soldier swore under his breath, then guiltily looked at Luna, who merely stared back.

“There’s gotta be at least a hundred of them – where did they pour in from?” he asked Mary, who shook her head and shrugged. They looked at Jeremy, who shrugged as well – why were they asking him?

A few minutes later, gunfire could be heard as black-clad militants swarmed Euclid Avenue. “Wow, you weren’t kidding,” Jeremy remarked to the soldier. Jeremy and Luna stayed out in the open, hoping to attract attention, while Mary and the soldier went into the shadows.

It was utter pandemonium – it seemed like for every terrorist Jeremy shot down, three more took his place. They were everywhere – it hadn’t taken them long to swarm around him and Luna. Luna herself was shooting back, ducking and weaving in the deadliest dance Jeremy had ever seen – that is, deadly to anyone else. The air was thick with red mist and flying chunks of meat, and Jeremy grimaced at the few glimpses he caught of the gruesome sight. You’d think they’d catch on that we’re bulletproof, Jeremy commented to Luna as he went back to concentrating on wholesale slaughter. Perhaps they are hoping to wear our defenses or armaments down? I agree, tis’ curious… Luna responded. She was beginning to look tired – Jeremy thought all the bullet regeneration might be taking its toll.

12-9-14, 9:48 P.M.

The pile of fresh corpses and body parts littered the streets by the time they were done, and Jeremy had to fight the urge to be sick inside his suit as he wiped the blood off of his helmet visor, picking away at a particularly coagulated chunk that looked as if it belonged in a meat shop.

“Christ…” one of the soldiers muttered at the sight.

“Thank God that’s over,” Mary remarked. “That had to have been most of them, if not all… right?” she asked, looking around as though expecting to find some sort of concrete reassurance. When none was forthcoming, she turned to Jeremy, who’s eyes were firmly upon the ground – he couldn’t bring himself to say out loud that no, of course that wasn’t the end of it. Why would it be?

As Jeremy stared down at a body, missing whole chunks of the head and stomach, he couldn’t help but feel that something was off – and it wasn’t just the gore-filled sight. But no matter how he tried, he just couldn’t quite put his finger on it. It was only when he stooped down to examine the body that he began to put it together, picking at the shirt the man was wearing.

“Uh… Jeremy, he’s definitely dead. Come on, we gotta round up the last few,” Mary declared, placing a hand on his shoulder.

Jeremy waved it off irritably, and held the piece of shirt up for all of them to see. Mary stared at it for a moment, unsure what he was getting at.

“Where’s their armor?” Jeremy asked, and a few of the soldiers began to catch on. “If this were a serious attack, you’d think they’d have the sense to at the very least put on some Kevlar, let alone nanoceramic or Spectra, right?” Mary was by now staring at the piece of cotton fabric as if it had single-handedly crushed all her hopes and dreams.

“So… you think these guys… were just cannon fodder?” A soldier asked.

Jeremy grimly nodded. “Yep,” he declared. “I think we should-“

He never got to finish his sentence, for at that moment there was a massive explosion, and the building next to them collapsed into rubble.

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