As fascinating as their close encounter with the Hari drone had been, Nora knew she had little drive ever to get that close again. And now, on the eve of what was coming at them, incrementally working its way through the city’s middle districts towards them like a virus invading a cell, she nevertheless knew that they had to face it head-on.

  Now at least they had a plan. The former Matriarch would take the adapted phage, crafted by Oscar, painstakingly isolated and proliferated by Tolly, that Nora herself then packaged into hijacked crop sprayers in a last-minute insight, and throw a bomb at it. The plan seemed more and more wreckless the more she thought of it and how many working parts needed to come together. Either way, their hypothesis was laid out, their experiment concocted. All that was left was to observe the outcome of the results.

  After Oscar had dragged Hari’s remains off to the incinerator, he had taken a mobile skiff and rounded up every crop pylon on the estate grounds. Then, Tolly, with the help of Rissa Nessanui, an astute individual in her own right, Nora had noted, had set each of the cleanroom’s printers – as well as every other printer on the premises, even the one in the kitchen – on overtime. It had taken nearly two hours, but at the end, they had twenty-three dispersal packs neatly packaged in improvised pylons.

  “I still don’t really know if this is going to work,” Nora said to Oscar as they buttoned up the last of the pylons.

  “We have no choice but to try,” Oscar said. As he lifted the last of the pylons into a packing crate, Tolly sealed it behind him.

  “I trust Oscar, despite his secrets. This will work,” said Tolly, eyeing Oscar.

  “I will never let down misleading you and Nora, Tolly,” Oscar said, “I do hope to try.”

  “Someday, I might forget it. Until then, you have my respect for helping us– for helping me,” said Tolly.

  “You’re off to take the last of the pylons to Miran?” asked Nora to Tolly.

  Tolly nodded. Oscar bowed solemnly.

  “I, myself, am headed for the frontlines to join Kerrigen’s forces,” said Oscar, “the closer I am to the infected, the louder my influence may be.”

  “Don’t think you’re getting rid of me that easily Oscar,” said Nora, “I still have questions, and I’ll be damned if you’re going to slip away from me before I get my answers.”

  “You think that’s safe?” asked Tolly.

  “Not at all,” admitted Nora. She knew it was reckless, potentially disastrous even. Still, the guilt of what she was about to play a part in – the untold deaths she was going to be responsible for – Nora knew she couldn’t ask that of others while staying put in the relative safety of the estate.

  “Besides,” she continued, “I have this.”

  Nora motioned to a rifle-looking device leaning by the cleanroom exit. It was a crudely printed frame sporting what resembled the spray nozzle of one of the last of the converted sprayers.

  “So this is what you were doing while I was running around manufacturing the cure,” said Tolly, admiring the construction.

  “It’s a vapour rifle. Something to keep me and Oscar safe while he contacts his friends,” she explained. “Sadly, I only had time to make one.”

  “You are a good person, Doctor Gaul,” said Oscar, “a commodity not often seen in the Quarter. I am grateful to know you.”

  Nora nodded. “Many of the citizens out in those streets aren’t going to think so,” she said, “of the many that aren’t about to die in the fighting, or by the blastwave from Miran’s bomb, are going to suffer the effects of ionising radiation for years to come. I wouldn’t be surprised if the principal import of Ganon in the coming years switched over to cancer therapy drugs.”

  “It’s a might better than death,” Oscar reasoned, “I suppose you are correct, however in that, we will have few friends left on this world after what happens.”

  “They will understand, won’t they?” asked Tolly. “It’s for the greater good, and it’s the least pale option as I see it.”

  “Greater good or not, Ghede phage or not, we are about to kill thousands. Honestly, I don’t know how I’m going to sleep after this,” mused Nora. The thought was beginning to make her second guess, carrying out the dispersal of the cure, to just turn and run back to the safety of her cushy lab on Belltower. Bridges burned, and times moved forward, she knew she had but one direction to travel.

  “Come then,” she said, “there’s a lot to do.”

  Tolly and Oscar shared a hug, and a brief nod goodbye.

  With that, Tolly and Rissa carried off the last of the pylons out of the cleanroom and headed to rendezvous with Miran. Nora knew that time was short and that if Kerrigen was to hold off the brunt of the horde that still tore through the city streets, she would need all the help she and Oscar could give her.

  On the outskirts of where Eidao met Hisshou’s central district, Nora and Oscar stepped out of a shuttle onto a wide boulevard to an awaiting Kerrigen. She was harried, shouting orders into her terminal. Men and women of all types, some in naval jack, others in civilian dress, rushed about setting up barricades and checking weapons. Nora had her vapour rifle slung over her back like a warrior from vids, comically large on her otherwise slender frame. The officers of the shuttle that brought them had fitted her with thick plate armour that made it tough to move, it having been designed for microgravity. Oscar was given a similar suit, except he sported a familiar opaque visor. Not to hide himself from the enemy, Nora knew that was impossible, but to obscure his origins from the citizens that surrounded them to not add to their alarm.

  “I’m glad you’re here,” Kerrigen said, looking up from her terminal, “I’ve evacuated every citizen I could from the area. The Ghede host is only now reaching the edge of Eidao.”

  “Then, they will be here shortly,” Oscar said.

  “Is the plan all set?” Kerrigen asked.

  “Miran has everything she needs. The rest is up to her,” said Nora.

  “Good. Without any contingencies, we don’t have the luxury of failure,” said Kerrigen.

  “Right, I’ve been meaning to ask about that,” said Nora, “I find it hard to believe that a Matriarch such as yourself wouldn’t have a fallback.”

  “Oh, I do. Think, Doctor, what would you do if a contagion were to breach containment?”

  Kerrigen could see in her response that Nora knew the answer.

  “And that’s precisely why it’s crucial it doesn’t come to that. If we can save any lives in Hisshou through our action today, then that will be enough,” said Kerrigen.

  “You have my word, Matriarch,” said Oscar, “I will stand with you until the last of my strength has drained.”

  “I am glad to have you here then, Oscar. If there's any metric for what your species can measure to, The Ghede might be redeemable after all this is done.”

  “I hold out no hope,” Oscar admitted. “Though I too am glad to count myself among friends.”

  “Tolly should be headed back to the estate soon enough with Ensign Nessanui,” said Kerrigen, “did you get to say your goodbyes?”

  “We did, though I would much rather not think of it as a goodbye. Chances are good this will work,” Oscar assured them, “after that….”

  Nora nodded.

  “Well, what next?” Nora asked, “where do you want us?”

  “A clear line of sight to the oncoming infected may improve our chances,” Oscar said, looking down the city streets. Most of the bustling forces had bunkered down behind makeshift cover. He looked up, identifying a building on the boulevard’s northeast.

  “There,” he said, pointing with his helmet visor. He identified a five-storey dusty apartment complex. “I would like to be on that roof.”

  “I thought you might,” Kerrigen said, “I’ve already stationed heavy units throughout the building’s floors. So go, and I will make sure they know to defend you at all costs.”

  Oscar nodded his thanks and headed off to the building’s entrance. Nora lingered, a worry itching at the back of her neck.

  “I reviewed scans of the Ghede vessels in the outer system,” Nora said, “how do you plan on dealing with them– surely The Herd has more ships to defend us than what hangs in orbit?”

  “One thing at a time, Doctor,” said Kerrigen, “the enemy moves on us here, now. I can only focus on one seemingly insurmountable problem at a time. Hopefully, if we can hold out long enough, The Idle Flock will come from Atsou, though they are still far.”

  “It sounds like we are on our own for now,” Nora said, forcing a sad smile. She found it almost funny that after all the effort to develop a medical-field-changing cure, that they might still end up victims of the very foe that made it necessary.

  “Well, I’ve got a man to protect,” Nora said, hoisting her rifle with a huff and hurrying off towards the building. She struggled the first few steps with the rifle, and she realised that in her haste to prove that she could build it, she may have overestimated her ability to carry the thing.

  Oscar was waiting for her as she reached the complex’s lift.

  “Ready?” Nora asked.

  “The forces of my brother draw closer whether or not we are ready. I only hope I will be strong enough to deflect them.”

  “Chin up, Oscar, we’re not pale yet,” said Nora.

  “As always, you have hope. I do find it admirable,” Oscar said.

  As the lift slowed, the doors opened, and they stepped out to head for a short set of stairs leading to the roof exit, Nora received a text bulletin from Kerrigen that read, “Incoming.”

  The complex suddenly shook like it had been struck by a rocket blast. Nora stumbled on her feet, nearly dropping the vapour rifle. When she looked up the stairwell to where Oscar had been, she found the exit door swung open and Oscar nowhere in sight. Nora gripped her rifle and fought her encumbered, armoured bulk up the few stairs and out onto the rooftop.

  Her view of the surrounding streets went unobstructed for several dozen city blocks. The sky outside was clear and would have been starkly beautiful if Nora hadn’t guessed what Oscar was now staring out over the edge of the roof at.

  This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

  “They’re here!” Oscar called to her, though the fact was inescapable. In the streets below, gunfire erupted, and screams of the infected rang out in competition. As Nora neared the edge, an oncoming rocket was deflected upwards and passed over their heads only to explode in the air less than twenty metres behind them. Nora flinched, and Oscar grabbed her arm.

  “Thank you for being here with me,” he said, not breaking eye contact with what he was staring at on the streets below.

  “It’s nothing–” Nora began to say before a huff escaped her. She looked down at the streets to see Kerrigen’s forces engaging a sporadic wave of oncoming citizens as they leapt over barricades, rushed along buildings, and were summarily torn down by blankets of gunfire. The whole sight was unnatural to Nora’s eyes – uncanny even – had she not already known they were the infected.

  “How the hell are we supposed to stop that?” Nora winced.

  “Together,” Oscar said, letting go over her arm. “And maybe with a touch of help from that rifle.”

  Kerrigen had positioned herself at the centre of the boulevard, encircled by two rings of heavy armour and flanked by what looked like two full battalions. Off in the distance, the horde grew more dense as more and more bodies ambled their way towards Kerrigen’s line.

  “Do they know we’re up here?” Nora asked.

  “I do not believe so. The last Nin knew of our plans, we were back at the estate,” said Oscar, “If I had to divine his reasoning, I would assume he still sends his host towards there. But that will change the second I begin to reach out through his brood. My brother is distracted, not stupid.”

  Oscar closed his eyes and began to concentrate, pushing his will out into the streets before him. He strained, his brow furrowing. It was enough, however, to disrupt some of the infected that ran towards Kerrigen’s line, stopping a few as they looked up and identified their spot on the roof. They held their gaze for several seconds, anomalies in the tumult that thickened in the streets below, before breaking off and resuming their charge.

  “He knows,” Oscar said.

  “Knows that we’re here or that we’re trying to pull a fast one on him?” asked Nora.

  “He sees us here, though suspects the latter.”

  “Perfect.”

  “His grip on the infected below is pervasive, much stronger than I remember him capable.”

  “Can you be louder than him?” asked Nora. “Can you break through to the infected?”

  “I am trying. There are so many,” he said, “every time I feel I am getting the attention of a handful, they become obscured, shuffled away from me like a pair of cards.”

  Nora could see the horde below as they continued to hammer at Kerrigen’s frontlines. She wondered if the same amount of force was being applied at other points in the city, whether they were about to be encircled and overrun.

  That’s when everything shifted. The bulk of the Ghede host was now on them, swarming about the buildings and across Kerrigen’s line. Just as the force seemed to overwhelm, half of the Ghede broke off and scattered into adjacent buildings and off of the streets.

  “What is that– what’s happening?” Nora asked.

  “He sees me, sees what I am doing here,” said Oscar. “My brother comes.”

  Just then, Nora received another bulletin from Kerrigen on the ground. Lengthier this time, it read: “Some have broken past our line and have entered your building. My heavies are currently engaging and are keeping them to the lower levels. Thought you should know.”

  “Comes from where– what can I do to help?”

  Oscar broke concentration for only a moment, raising a finger and pointing down and across the boulevard.

  “You can protect me from them,” he said.

  Nora followed Oscar’s extended hand to a hallway a storey down from theirs on a building across a narrow alleyway from their own. Ghede tore down the halls, breaking into apartments and closets as they tried to find the quickest path up. Some smashed windows and tried their luck to hurl themselves across the alleyway gap, only to misjudge and plummet to the pavement below.

  “They are trying to get up here!” Nora called to Oscar, who returned a knowing nod.

  On the adjacent building’s northeast corner, Nora watched as the Ghede attempted to break down a particularly stubborn door. She repositioned herself to peer through the window on the other side to see the door had been barricaded with a ramshackle of furniture. Nora’s heart sank.

  “There’s someone in that apartment!” she barked. Oscar didn’t reply, now too deep into concentration.

  The Ghede began to break through the hastily constructed barricade and force their way in, as a man – having foolishly stayed behind against The Matriarch’s orders – rushed towards them brandishing an antique-looking polearm, crude was his every attempt at a swing. The Ghede expertly dodged him, forcing the polearm out and into the inner wall as the man stumbled back. That’s when Nora noticed a woman and a small child huddled under the kitchen counter at the far end of the room. Nora held a hand to her mouth in raw terror.

  The Ghede picked the man up and tossed him towards the woman and child as he landed head first on the concrete floor and was rendered unconscious. The woman and child screamed as one of the Ghede raised a fist to slam it down on the man’s head. Before it could, however, it relented and moved on, skipping over the woman and child and leaving the man on the floor.

  “I have redirected them,” Oscar said, “it won’t last for long.”

  Nora looked at him and nodded. She gripped her vapour rifle in anticipation as the Ghede that had been about to end the man, and his family’s lives rushed at the window she had been watching them all through. This Ghede, followed by a quick succession of more infected bodies, hurled itself through the glass and across the alleyway like waves crashing through a breach. This time, the Ghede gripped onto the fire escape scaffolding that ran up the building at Nora’s feet and hoisted itself up with determination.

  “They’re here!” Nora wailed as more reached the roof of the adjacent building and leapt to the same scaffold. Nora counted twenty and rising that were now climbing the steps towards them.

  Just as the first of them came within range, Nora opened fire. The vapour rifle sputtered, coughed, then let forth a jet of white that enveloped the Ghede and began cascading down the scaffold steps. The first ten or so Ghede struggled through the torrent, only to collapse. Some crumpled and clogged the gangway while others fell over the balustrade and joined the bodies accumulating in the street below.

  The rifle, to Nora’s astonishment, worked. Keeping back the scourge, she knew all she needed to do was to keep firing to give Oscar more time.

  Another wave leapt across the gap and began climbing, and Nora let loose fresh gale that blanketed them and sent most of them over the edge.

  “How are we doing?” Nora shouted to Oscar.

  Oscar opened his visor and turned towards her.

  “I need you to let one up,” he said.

  “Let one up– what the hell are you talking about!” Nora barked, firing another vaporous volley.

  “I need you to allow one passage to the rooftop.”

  “I’m not about to let them get to you, not now!”

  “I need one of the infected. Trust me.”

  Nora considered this before staying her trigger finger and letting the column of Ghede filter its way higher on the gangway.

  “You’re sure?” she called out, “you’re absolutely sure?”

  Oscar nodded.

  “Okay..” she muttered, sidestepping the oncoming Ghede. She allowed one to slip past before resuming dumping vapour on the rest. Her heart leapt as the solitary Ghede approached her, and she considered blasting it as well, only for it to turn and barrel past her on its way toward Oscar’s spot on the roof.

  “Here it comes!” she yelled.

  Just as the infected neared him, Oscar broke his concentration and moved towards it just as it leapt for him. They collided with a thwack as the Ghede grappled with him, trying to tear at his envirosuit. The infected managed to dislodge Oscar’s helmet, sending it rattling onto the rooftop green-cover.

  As the infected worked to rip at Oscar, he focused on sinking his hands deep into the creature’s midsection. The infected cried out and began to fight to break free as Oscar opened its abdomen and shoved his hands inside in a display of nonchalant brutality.

  Nora turned back to the fire escape and resumed fire, having momentarily neglected her duty in the skirmish allowing the Ghede to get a little too close for comfort.

  The infected Ghede in Oscar’s grasp began to slow before stopping entirely, docile and subservient. Oscar’s eyes were shut as he willed something out of the creature before him.

  The creature cocked a smile and angled its head to face his.

  “Hello, brother,” said a hauntingly calm voice through the captive Ghede’s lips. The voice would have stricken Nora plain were Oscar’s hands not halfway to the creature’s spine.

  “Hello, Nin,” Oscar said, “I wish I could say I was glad to see you again.”

  “In like manner,” Nin scoffed, “can I ask what you are trying to do here, Oscar?”

  “I would have thought that was obvious. I’m ending your incursion of this world.”

  “You believe you can stop me– you, who could not stop your own exile?” Nin said sardonically. “How might you stand between me and my creation?”

  “I am embarrassed to call you brother. No heir before you has acted with such foolhardiness!” Oscar spat. “I will stop you.”

  “How? Your attempt here is foolish. You cannot stop the Will.”

  “I do not pretend to wish to stop the stampede you have dreamt. Instead, maybe steer it away from such devastation.”

  “You wish to gain control– you wish to be king?” Nin scoffed, “why don’t you ask your father who was bred to rule!”

  Oscar didn’t answer. Instead, straining more, he began to smile.

  “There it is,” he said.

  “There– what–?” Nin said.

  “Thank you, brother, for opening a doorway; for showing me the way,” Oscar said, “now, depart this shell!”

  Oscar strained again, and the captive Ghede fell limp, breaking eye contact to stare blankly at the rooftop.

  “What just happened?” Nora shouted, still opening fire on the waves of climbers.

  “My brother has unknowingly given me the key, the backdoor into the minds that surround us,” Oscar explained. “Now he is unbalanced. I need only so much more power to tip the scales.”

  Nora looked around. The parade that moved upwards at her stretched in a densely packed line of bodies through the adjacent apartment and back down the hallway. The family had vanished, seemingly escaped in the tumult, for Nora could see no bodies except those that littered the city streets. Out on the alleyway and on the boulevard below, the host of Ghede had overrun the heavy troop battalions, forcing them back into the first levels of most of the surrounding structures.

  Kerrigen was nowhere in sight, and Nora counted herself lucky not to see The Matriarch’s body lying in the street with her soldiers’.

  “We are being overrun down there!” Nora called.

  “Send me another!” he shouted back, his hands still deep inside his captive.

  “A what–?” Nora asked.

  “Another!”

  Nora heard him and let another slip past the vapour shield. It too ignored her and moved past her only for Oscar to free a hand and impale the oncoming Ghede with it.

  “It’s working. I can feel it!” he shouted, “send me one more!”

  “If you’re sure!”

  Nora let another slip past, and it careened toward the chain of bodies Oscar was forming. It leapt into the air at him before coming down, its path blocked by one of Oscar’s captives. The captive Ghede forced one of its hands into the newcomer, and the chain grew by one.

  “It’s looking crowded over there!” Nora barked.

  Oscar opened his eyes and looked at her deeply.

  “Send them all,” he said.

  “Oscar, no! They’ll overrun you. I’m not leaving you to die,” she said, firing another plume downwards.

  “I need you to go!” he ordered, “I will be just fine!”

  Nora wasn’t sure she could believe that but had come this far trusting him. Staying here herself indefinitely was quickly turning into suicide, and she knew they had to try something drastic if they were to turn the tide.

  “You promise you’ll be right behind me?” Nora pleaded, not sure she would believe him if he said he was.

  “I hope that this will go some of the way in repairing the torment done to Tolly and your people.”

  “Go, now! Find Kerrigen,” he said as Nora stopped firing and side-stepped the oncoming column of Ghede as they scrambled over the deadfall of bodies up the gangway past her. As the majority of the infected raced their way over to join the ever-growing mass that was piling on top of Oscar, several found the bandwidth to make for her instead.

  She kicked one of the oncoming Ghede in the chest as it reached for her, sending it over the stone barrier at the edge of the building and plummeted out of sight. As the infected began to claim Oscar’s position, pushing him deeper into the congealing mass and out of sight, Nora moved to the northside of the building, where it faced the wider boulevard. Pursued by two Ghede, she looked down and spotted a balcony one storey below. Tossing her rifle down ahead of her, she leapt off the edge all in one fluid motion.

  Nora landed on the balcony with a crunch, having knowingly just shattered something in her leg. But she picked herself and her rifle up and moved into the apartment, breaking the glass door as she did.

  Of the two Ghede that pursued her, one misjudged the angle and fell down toward the street. The other landing seconds after she made her way inside, pursuing her. Having little time to turn around, Nora instead opted for the apartment door and hurled herself out into the corridor only to come face-to-face with a barrel levelled at her carried by one of Kerrigen’s marked heavies.

  Pushing her way past him, she barked, “behind me!” to which the heavy opened fire, shredding the oncoming Ghede.

  “Thanks,” she said out of breath.

  The heavy nodded. As she stood up and brushed herself off, a friendly face emerged from the dim shadows of the apartment corridor.

  “Doctor Gaul!” called Kerrigen, “thank gods you’re alive!”

  Just as several Ghede break their way past some of the heavies in the stairwell ahead of them, Nora levelled her vapour rifle and opened fire, filling the hall with noxious gas.

  “Thanks for the assist!” the heavy in the stairwell called out to her.

  Nora nodded.

  “Where is Oscar– did the plan work?” Kerrigan pressed.

  “It seemed like he was close. He told me to go,” Nora admitted, “so, I’m not crystal.”

  Kerrigan’s terminal flashed, and she flicked it up to read it.

  “What is it?” Nora asked.

  “Oscar’s done it!” Kerrigan said, her voice leaping with delight, “the bulk of the Ghede host is clearing out and moving back up the streets towards Eidao!”

  Nora’s heart relaxed as she felt the worst was over. Only, she knew this was just the start. She thought of Tolly, hopefully, safe and back at the estate, and she thought of Oscar, who she could only now picture crumpled under the weight of crowding infected bodies.

  “Matriarch, come. Oscar was still on the roof!” she said, pushing past the heavy that guarded the stairwell going up. Behind her, Kerrigan and a procession of hulking suits clambered skyward and back towards the open exit door she had only just exited minutes before.

  Thirty minutes later, and after a lot of picking through bodies, they finally dragged Oscar’s exhausted body out from under the pile. He was alive, though his strength dwindled. Nora ordered a medivac. Kerrigan tapped commands rapidly on her terminal, trying to get the latest intel.

  The enemy had peeled off from them, and all were now headed to some point beyond Eidao as Nora saw a flash on the horizon.