Kenopsia (Book 1 of Pandora's Wake: The Nomad Chronicles)
Retreat

The deafening roar of gunfire drowned out the awful chattering of the onrushing alien insects, their mandibles feverishly clicking together as they rushed the thin line of terrified humans.

Pain lanced through Esther’s ears from the volume of the weapons fire in the confined tunnel as she emptied her magazine down range and re-loaded.

“Reloading!” she called. A habit she had picked up from Kurt and Joanas, she supposed. Although no one would be able to hear it if the ringing in her own ears was anything to go by.

Fifteen metres away the front line of the creatures vanished in a hail of bullets and shot and a rain of sickeningly pallid yellow ichor.

The sudden and violent annihilation of the creatures at the front of the swarm didn’t discourage the rest, but it made them cautious. Now they zig-zagged madly, some climbing along the sickly alien concretions on the wall and ceiling, still coming, but harder to hit now. As Esther re-loaded and tried to take aim at the squirming, wildly dodging creatures, she was struck by the fact this showed a level of intelligence and self-awareness in the things that made her uncomfortable.

She squeezed her trigger and the heavy handgun bucked in her hand but the creature she had been aiming at came on, zipping left and right as it advanced. She cursed and popped off two more shots at it before one took the creatures left mandible clean off – it didn’t even slow down.

Joanas didn’t seem to have any more luck, despite his years of firearms training and combat experience. He fired controlled, three round bursts, but now the small, fast moving, rapidly dodging targets were becoming difficult to hit. They weren’t bunched together in one large mass as they had been before, they had learned respect for their enemies, or at least a degree of caution. He was yelling into his helmet mic, although the deafening roar of gunfire and the clamorous ringing in Esther’s ears meant she couldn’t make out a word the German was saying.

Mathias was having more success, his shotgun was loaded with buckshot and the spread meant he didn’t need to fire as accurately. The creatures might not be bunching up anymore but they were still in a narrow corridor and with every shot he fired, he killed or maimed some. Limbs and mandibles flew into the air, ripped free of the insectoid bodies in answer to each booming report from the shotgun. Ichor splashed into the air in a revolting, pustular mist. It couldn’t last though, and Mathias knew it. As the creatures rushed on, they were closing the range and since the buckshot spread in flight, closer in it had less of a spread. Worse still, he was running out of shells. He cursed himself for not bringing more; there were two full boxes in his police car, but he had only brought three full loads with him. Soon he would have to switch to his handgun.

Magda was the picture of abject misery. She sat on the gurney, her face set into a frown that put Doctor Allmendinger in mind of a cat that used to be famous on the internet before the world fell apart. Her legs were swinging back and forth like a petulant child who had been told it could have no more sweets today. She wore only one boot; the other had been removed to let the doctor strap the ankle which had been badly twisted during Magda’s chaotic tumble down the hillside.

The doctor had also taped her ribs up, two of which were broken. Magda had struggled back into her shirt, refusing any help from the doctor.

“I’m sorry, Magda...” the doctor began, “I can’t give you anything more for the pain, not until I know the extent of your concussion. You can take two paracetamol every four hours, but I want to monitor your intake. It’s all too easy to overdose accidentally when you have had a head injury. Ibuprofen or Aspirin are out, they can cause bleeding at the site of the injury and I don’t want to risk it. You understand?”

“Of course I understand! I am not child!” Magda looked guilty as soon as she had spoken “I am sorry doctor, I know you do not mean to patronise. I am just...” she shrugged, uncertain of the word she wanted to use “...udaremniony. You know this word”

Doctor Allmendinger shook her head,

“Frustrated” Cherubin cut in.

“You speak Polish?” Doctor Allmendinger and Magda asked at the same time. Cherubin was full of surprises. The Congolese nurse spoke very little about his past and when he did, it was usually an out of the blue revelation like this one.

“No.” He shook his head, then winked at Magda before proceeding. “I’ve just heard more women than I care to admit tell me they are frustrated, and in a lot of languages.” There was silence for a moment then Magda laughed before slapping him on the rump,

“I replace this hard to believe! You are very przystojny..erm” she thought for a moment, usually, her English was better than this, she put it down to the concussion. “Handsome man!” she announced triumphantly,

“Thank you! Cherubin beamed. “So are you!”

Doctor Allmendinger shot her nurse a warning glance but Magda barked out a short laugh.

The doctor began to speak but was cut off by the sound of a series of loud bangs in the distance. They were muffled but there was no mistaking them. The three people in the room froze for a moment, their eyes widening as they looked at one another,

“Gunfire!” Magda spoke first and hopped off the gurney, glancing about for her weapon.

In the distance, the gunfire continued.

Kurt’s muscles tightened at the sound of the heavy gunfire from the basement. Whatever was going on down there his friends were firing off an awful lot of precious ammunition. His radio crackled to life,

“CONTACT!” It was Joanas. The sergeant was yelling into his mike almost loud enough to deafen Kurt, who turned the volume down slightly on his radio, using his thumb. “WE HAVE MULTIPLE CONTACTS OF UNKNOWN ORIGIN. OVERWHELMING NUMBERS OF SMALL HOSTILE CREATURES ATTACKING DOWN THE CORRIDOR. WE ARE GOING TO FALL BACK. PREPARE FOR FRIENDLY CONTACTS FROM OUR POINT OF DEPARTURE WE MAY HAVE HOSTILE IN CLOSE PURSUIT. OVER.”

“Roger that sergeant, over,” Kurt responded, although from the volume of gunfire he was hearing he wasn’t sure his sergeant would have heard him.

“I need help here!” He called. “We are about to get company!”

He was aware of other nomads grabbing their weapons and taking up position along the barricade.

“Don’t shoot till I tell you,” Kurt warned them. “We have friendlies heading back here, they will be in our line of fire for a moment.” There was a murmur of consent from the others.

Joanas never heard his corporal’s confirmation of the message, but he didn’t need to. Their position was becoming untenable really quickly and they were going to have to pull back. The creatures were fast and agile, difficult to hit, and were getting closer. Although they were small their mandibles looked razor sharp and Joanas had already seen what those mandibles could do – they all had. The air vents hadn’t corroded, these creatures had cut through them with the very mandibles they were clicking menacingly together as they approached. Ammunition was an issue as well. He wasn’t sure how much the others had expended but he knew every round was precious and they had all sent far more downrange than they could readily afford to lose.

Glancing about he spotted Ember by the door, looking dazed. There was blood dribbling from one of her ears and her crossbow was gripped in her shaking hands. She seemed to be in some form of shock but was otherwise unhurt as far as he could tell. Ronan and Esther were still sending rounds downrange as was Mathias. Tapping Ronan on the shoulder, he signed for him to take Ember back down the passage the way they had come.

Shaking his head the Irishmen mouthed something Joanas couldn’t make out. This was no time for heroics, he needed to pull them all out and he wanted Ember and Ronan gone first. He had noticed earlier Ronan seemed to be favouring one leg more than the other, and although he hadn’t said anything or indicated he was in any form of discomfort in any way, he was slower than he had been.

The creatures were almost upon them. Making a quick decision Joanas pulled one of the few remaining grenades from his pack and tapped the Irishman on the shoulder again. Signing for him to take Ember and leave, emphasising his point by pulling the pin of the grenade.

Eyes widening, Ronan turned and dashed as fast as he could, grabbing Ember as he went. She seemed to snap back to her senses as soon as he had her up and moving. Glancing over her shoulder, she saw what the German had in mind and rocketed off down towards the stairs as fast as her legs would carry her.

Joanas held up 3 fingers to Esther and Mathias, who nodded. Counting to three in his head he rolled the grenade down the passage where it struck one of the oncoming beetle-things in the face and juddered to a halt. The three of them ducked back around the corner and fled, racing after Ember and Ronan. They made it perhaps 5 metres when the grenade detonated – but not with the thunderous bang Mathias had expected. The grenade spewed out dense white smoke which wafted around the corner after them. The former policeman could only imagine what effect the smoke grenade might have upon the beetles. Most insects would flee from smoke – most terrestrial insects at least, but these alien things? He couldn’t be certain, and he didn’t feel like waiting around to replace out. If Joanas’s gambit had worked the things would be falling back in disarray and that would buy him and the others the time they needed to escape the basement. If not... well, those things were fast and he wasn’t sure he could outrun them.

Ember took the stairs two at a time, fleeing pell-mell back to what she hoped was still the ‘safe zone’ in the accident and emergency reception. The pain in her ear was acute. It felt as if someone had stabbed her in the brain with a kebab skewer. The other ear was ringing but didn’t seem to hurt. As she rounded the corner of the first landing she spotted the line of pale faces peering back at her from the makeshift barricade. Kurt’s lips were moving as he waved her towards him, but she couldn’t make out what he was saying. Two of the other nomads made a break in the barricade for her to get through.

Doctor Allmendinger took hold of her as she burst through the defensive line. The doctor was speaking but Ember couldn’t make it out clearly. She came to a stop and pointed toward her ear.

“Can’t hear a thing Selina – I’ve gone deaf,” she yelled.

Selina Allmendinger nodded and led Ember away towards the examination rooms, stopping to speak to Knut as she passed him,

“I think Ember has burst an eardrum.”

Knut sucked air through his teeth, “Serious?”

Selina shrugged “Before the world went to hell? Not really. Now?” She shrugged, “Isn’t everything? If we can keep it dry and it doesn’t get infected, it will heal of its own accord in a few weeks, if not...”

Knut frowned and nodded,

“Things just keep mounting up” he grumbled as the doctor led Ember off for treatment. He returned his attention to the bottom end of the room where other members of the reconnaissance team were emerging.

Joanas reached the bottom of the stairs and turned to face the way they had come, kneeling to stabilise his rifle as he raised it to face downrange. There was no sign of any of the creatures yet although some of the smoke was billowing down the passage towards him. He smiled thinly, it seemed as if his plan had worked and the smoke had driven the creatures back – although for how long was a matter of guesswork.

Ronan and Esther scrambled up the stairs while Mathias took a knee beside him, shotgun pointed downrange and ready. The two men held their position until they were sure Esther and Ronan had cleared the stairs and made it back to the accident and emergency department.

“You go next, I’ll cover,” Joanas spoke to Mathias without taking his eyes off the far end of the passage.

“No, my shotgun is better for these things, you go, I’ll cover.” the policeman answered.

Joanas was about to bark at the man for disobeying an order but caught himself. He wasn’t in the army now – if there even was an army anymore, and Mathias wasn’t a subordinate. Besides, he had to admit, the policeman had a point – his shotgun had proven by far the most effective weapon against the creatures.

“Okay.” he nodded and turned to run up the stairs, as he reached the first landing he called down “I’m clear, come up!”

From below he heard the policeman answer, and in just a moment he came into view, taking the stairs two at a time. The two men reunited at the first landing and raced back to the barricade where Kurt and several other, nervous looking nomads waited.

“Look out for multiple hostiles, about the size of a large cat,” Joanas warned Kurt before heading off to report what they had encountered in the basement.

Knut listened to the sergeant’s report with growing frustration,

“... and you didn’t see any indication of where the pharmacy was?”

“No sir.” Joanas answered, “but it seems likely it’s on the wrong side of those things.”

“If only we had a map of this place, we might be able to see if there was another way...”

A polite, but determined female voice cut him off,

“We do!”

Knut and Joanas turned, gazing in shock at Delphine. The young French girl seemed excited. “I got the computers up and running. The hospital’s system is networked. Enough of the servers came back on when the power did that I can access them – it’s a little...” she rocked her hand back and forward to indicate the system was patchy, “... but yes. I have a map, it’s on the screen here!” She pointed at the closest terminal in the reception station.

The two men could hardly believe their ears. No wonder the young French girl seemed pleased with herself - she had a right to be.

“Delphine, you are a genius!” Knut clapped her on the shoulder and dashed to the computer to take a look. Delphine beamed.

“Well done,” Joanas added his own praise, “That was excellent work, you are an asset to us.”

Delphine gave a nonchalant shrug, but the glint in her eyes and the beaming smile gave away how pleased she was to have her efforts recognised.