Light crawled down Hector's arm, searing as it raced toward his elbow. He cried out when a fissure split along his forearm, radiance spilling out of the wound like a welding torch.

  A sound like a struck gong broke through the wind as the rooftop door bent outward. A second strike creased it in half and a third ripped it off of its hinges, sending it spiraling into the sky.

  Adam shook his head in disbelief and drew his bat as drones started pouring from the open doorway. They charged directly at Hector, clawing at each other to get at him.

  "Samantha, cut the tower free!" Adam bellowed, stepping in front of the oncoming swarm.

  She opened her mouth to speak, then snapped it shut, nodding once and sprinting for the tower.

  Natalie ran to Hector’s side. She reached out and cut the sling holding the shotgun and caught it as it fell. Bringing the stock to her shoulder she stalked forward, firing into the drones without hesitation.

  Adam intercepted a charging man in a sharp suit. He stepped in, gripping the bat at both ends and slamming it into the drone's chest. The man reeled and Adam headbutted him, smashing his forehead into the drone’s nose, crumpling the once human face.

  Another drone grabbed Adam's arm, jerking him to the side as it advanced on Hector. Out of nowhere, Jessica lunged, driving her hands into its chest until her fingers punched through its back, blood pouring upward from the wounds. She threw the corpse aside and waded into the oncoming crowd.

  Adam picked himself up, his arms and legs feeling like they were made of lead. More drones spilled from the doorway, feral expressions plastered on their faces as they streamed toward them.

  He knew at this rate they would be overwhelmed in seconds, and if Hector fell... it was all over. The eye would crush them. He advanced again, sparing a glance over his shoulder.

  Hector’s face was contorted with effort, his hand trembling as he held it over his head, the pendant in his palm drinking in the eye’s light. The radiance traveling down his arm had reached his shoulder, opening more torch bright rifts as it crawled downward. With a jerk he reinforced his right arm with his left, grabbing his wrist and bracing himself. The light surged, fissures of brilliance exploding across his chest and burning through his shirt.

  Adam watched helplessly as Hector started to unravel, turning away to beat back another drone. He lashed out with his fist, punching the drone in the jaw and sending it spinning into Jessica’s path.

  She pivoted, claws slashing across its chest. The drone staggered back and she lunged, sinking her teeth into its throat. It thrashed but she shook her head until it went still.

  There was a shriek of tearing metal as one of the radio tower's supports gave way. Adam spotted Samantha sprinting to the next, her glowing hand held out to the side to keep it from burning her.

  Three to go.

  He drove the bat into a heavy-set drone, a jolt ringing up his arms as he collided with its solid mass. The drone staggered but didn't fall, shoving an elbow toward his face. Adam twisted, catching it in the cheek instead of the bridge of his nose. Pain burst across his face as his cheek split, losing a second of time, but keeping his feet.

  He grabbed the drone by both arms and shoved forward, boots digging into the rooftop. It thrashed and snapped at him, teeth gnashing. Step by step, Adam forced it back, until the edge loomed behind it and the city stretched out below.

  With a grunt, he lifted and the drone pitched backward, shoulders tipping over the edge. Adam caught its ankle, yanked up, levering it over the edge. He sucked down a breath and spun back into the fray.

  They were being overrun. Even with Jessica tearing through the drones twice as fast, and Natalie bringing one down with each blast of the shotgun, it wouldn't be enough. Not for long.

  Hurry, Sam. Hurry.

  The low vibration rolled through the air again, like a massive foghorn. The drones froze mid-stride, tilting their heads in unison, listening.

  A pit formed in Adam's stomach.

  Then the vibration stopped, and the drones sprang into motion. Three sprinted for Hector and three more veered toward the radio tower. Another shriek of rending metal rang out. The tower groaned, shifting under the wind and the upward pull of the eye.

  Two more.

  Adam tried to run but managed only a fast, broken shuffle. The drones rushed past him, closing in on Samantha. He hurled his bat sidearm, the length of metal tangling in the legs of the lead drone and sending it crashing to the rooftop.

  The other two didn't slow.

  He reached the grounded drone just as it pushed itself up on its hands. He brought his boot down on the back of its neck. The crunch was sharp and sickening, louder than the wind for a single heartbeat.

  With no time to breathe, he scooped up the bat, raised one hand, and summoned his will, aiming at the two closing in on Samantha.

  Nothing happened.

  He tried again, harder. The world tilted nauseatingly, then blackness rushed in.

  He collapsed to his knees, heaving. Blood and bile spilled from his mouth as he choked and he looked up just in time to see the drones reach Samantha.

  The first stumbled back, clutching its chest, and then exploded in a dull roar of fire. Its remains spiraled upward toward the eye. The second lunged at her, wrapping its arms around her waist and lifting her off the ground. It stumbled toward the edge while Samantha pounded on its head with her glowing fist.

  Adam tried to rise, but the world kept spinning. He crawled forward, desperate to reach her before they reached the edge, but he knew he wouldn't make it.

  The roar of the shotgun once again cut through the air and the drone faltered. It stumbled a few more steps and then dropped to its knees, releasing Samantha from its grasp. She planted her glowing hand on its forehead and it shivered once before falling dead.

  He turned to see Natalie turning the spent shotgun into a club, fighting off two drones that were closing in on Hector. She managed to drop one with a throat-crushing swing, but the second slipped past and shoved her aside.

  Adam felt himself relax. He knew this was it. They were so close, but once it broke Hector's concentration they'd all be crushed beneath the eye. The creature would crawl into their world and either carve out its own its own little kingdom, or it would spread and take over. He wished this was his moment to find some hidden reserve, something to turn the tide, to buy that extra moment they needed to pull through... But he was spent and he knew it.

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  The drone closed the gap. One step, then another, and then it reached for Hector.

  A burst of light like a lens-flare left Adam's eyes watering, seeing bright blue spots where Hector had been. Hector's palm bent the light like a prism, golden rays shattering into swirling color. The burst struck the drone like a hammer, driving it into the rooftop. The impact crushed it, bones folding inward as the concrete split. Steel groaned beneath the roof as the drone was crushed to death.

  Hector’s palm shifted slightly and the beam carved across the rooftop, gouging a glowing furrow in the concrete. Several more drones appeared from the doorway but fell beneath the pressure before they could take more than a few steps.

  Adam shielded his eyes and looked at Hector. The light had nearly consumed him, fissures of brilliance spidered across his chest, pouring light in every direction. Hector pushed the line of swirling colors until it reached the frame of the doorway. The impact split the structure inward, cracks appearing in the wall as the eye's pressure was redirected.

  Natalie met Adam's eyes as he struggled to get back to his feet. She looked over his shoulder at Samantha and then back at Hector. She gave him a tight, unreadable smile and turned away. He watched her stumble to Hector and clasp her arms around him, burying her face in his chest. She screamed as the fissures began to close, snapping shut like shutters in a storm.

  The tower groaned again and leaned as second to last support sheared free, fragments of metal joining the cloud of debris in the sky.

  Adam felt an arm wrap around his chest and haul him upright. Jessica held him up, half-carrying half-dragging him as they staggered toward the radio tower. His head swam, and his hair floated as if he were underwater, the pull from the eye growing stronger with every inch above the rooftop.

  The light shining beneath Hector's skin began to strobe violently. Between each pulse, Adam caught glimpses of Natalie still clinging to him, rivulets of blood running from her ears as she held on.

  Hector shifted again, and again the light bent, redirected by his will. The stairwell structure tore free from the building with a shriek, hurling several emerging drones out into open space.

  Finally, the pair reached Samantha, who knelt by the first support. Her glowing hand was pressed into the metal like a blade, melting through an inch at a time. The glow suddenly went out and she jerked her hand back with a cry, clutching it to her chest. The skin was bubbling and already forming blisters as she cradled it.

  "I can't," she sobbed. "I can't..." Blood trickled from her eyes, staining her cheeks crimson.

  Adam nodded, placing a hand on her shoulder. Jessica abruptly let him go, and he hit the ground hard, rattling his teeth. He looked up to see her fingers splitting, full claws emerging from beneath the pale skin.

  She reared up and brought her clawed hand down on the glowing metal. The smell of charring meat filled the air. She shrieked but struck again. Then again. Curls of glowing metal flew free, and her claws smoked, blackened by the heat, but she didn't stop.

  She struck, and struck and with a final groaning tear, the last support broke free.

  The tower lifted slowly, turning as it rose into the sky.

  The three watched as it fell upward, accelerating, rising faster by the second as it closed the distance to the eye. Adam held his breath, his heart thundering in his ears.

  He watched the tower strike, just off of center, half of its length vanishing in an instant into that great eye. A ripple pulsed out from the impact point, rolling across the pupil. The sky trembled and the light at the center went out.

  Hector and Natalie collapsed to their knees. The fissures on Hector's chest still open and shining with golden light. Natalie's arms went limp and she fell backwards, spent. A final burst of light flared from Hector’s palm, and then it too went dark.

  The tentacles surrounding the eye started to withdraw, slithering back into the rift and parting the clouds as they receded.

  "I can't believe we actually did it," Samantha laughed, tears streaming down her face.

  Adam let out a breath and leaned into her, too tired to move.

  Jessica stood nearby, her head tilted toward the retreating eye.

  "What is it?" he asked numbly.

  "The song," she whispered. "The song."

  In the absence of the howling wind, he could hear it too. Faint and haunting, the same melody that had accompanied them since they entered the building.

  A single green flash tore across the sky as the eye lunged forward, ripping its way deeper into their world. It loomed overhead, growing in the sky like a dark sun, sending out palpable waves of rage.

  Adam felt his body lighten. Dust and debris floated off of the rooftop, rising into the sky.

  He stared up in horror, fresh arcs of green lightning leaving afterimages in his eyes.

  That was it. He knew what he had to do.

  He seized Jessica's arm. "Get them into the stairwell. Now!" he shouted, using her arm and the shifting gravity to pull himself upright.

  She hesitated just long enough to meet his eyes, then nodded and turned, dragging Samantha toward the others.

  Samantha looked back, searching his face. He gave her a sad smile and waved goodbye.

  Adam raised his hand. He closed his eyes, took a deep breath and gently kindled the last cooling embers of his strength. Nausea surged, clawing up his throat in a hot torrent, but he held on, coaxing until he felt the barest hint of energy at his command. Opening his eyes he focused on the tower still jutting from the eye and pulled. His body started to rise. Lighter. Higher. He kicked off of the roof with all the strength he could muster, and then he was floating upward into the sky.

  Adam looked down as he drifted slowly upward, watching Jessica drag Hector and Natalie into the stairwell with Samantha's help.

  Good, he thought. Good.

  Then gravity twisted. The pull shifted, and suddenly up became down. He flailed as he fell, accelerating toward the surface of the massive creature. Reaching out, he managed to catch the edge of the radio tower. Something in his shoulder tore, but his body came to a stop and he wrapped himself around the support.

  Below him, the eye of an alien god stretched out like a field of liquid obsidian. Beneath the surface, small golden shapes writhed, surging toward the point where the tower had pierced its surface.

  Then they began to emerge, wriggling through the fissure and climbing up the tower’s length.

  It was pregnant.

  Adam laughed bitterly. "I guess you really were a princess."

  He looked up. The inverted world sprawled above, framed by the steaming clouds billowing from the rift. Tendrils pushed at the seams of reality, clawing for purchase and dragging the rest of the bloated creature into their world.

  Adam wrapped his injured arm and both legs tighter around the tower's support, anchoring himself in place. His shoulder screamed, but he forced it down until it faded to the back of his mind.

  He drew his bat and pointed it toward the edge of the rift, arm trembling. Closing his eyes again, he reached back to that first day, standing on his doorstep, the scent of ozone thick in the air. He never had asked Natalie why she had called out to him, why she had stopped that day, but it was beyond too late for that now.

  The hairs on his arms and neck rose, his skin prickling sharply.

  He was empty, every ounce of power spent on the climb.

  He had nothing. Nothing left to lose. But one thing left to give.

  Adam opened his eyes and looked down into the pit of the alien's eye, just as one of the infant gods reached him. Its tentacles wrapped around his legs, squeezing until he felt his bones creak.

  He focused on the bat's tip and the smell of ozone intensified. His scalp tingled and static crawled across his skin. One of the bones in his leg gave up and cracked.

  He called. Begged. Pleaded. Commanded.

  And finally the storm answered.

  Lightning split the sky, lancing across the rift into the bat and down his arm in a blinding arc. The charge coursed through his body and down into the creature clutching him, annihilating it in a flash of smoke and fire. The bolt raced down the tower into the mass of writhing spawn. They jittered and writhed as the bolt carved through them, burying itself in the eye.

  The god went mad. Tentacles flailed and the foghorn wail split the air, so loud Adam thought he'd come apart.

  But he called again, and again the storm answered.

  Another bolt struck, ripping through him and into the tower. Then another. And another. His heart seized beneath the current, overwhelmed by the raw primal energy.

  The godlings exploded, one after another as they were overwhelmed by intensity of the storm’s fury.

  The lightning no longer sought the bat. It pounded directly into the eye, strike after strike pouring from the storm and into the creature.

  Its surface boiled. The current was too much even for the god to handle. Waves and fissures split the eye as green overtook gold. The creature shook, its form cracking under the strain as geysers of molten ichor burst out of its depths.

  It screamed, a long, raw cry of fury and pain.

  And then it ruptured.

  The tower was flung away and Adam watched, unmoored, as the blinded god slipped backward into the rift, its many arms flailing, grasping at the edges of reality.

  And then it was gone.

  He grew suddenly heavy, and gravity took him.

  He fell.

  Down, down, down, until there was nowhere left to fall.

  Fuck Thursdays, Adam thought.