Chapter 26: The Cost
The world narrowed to the burning in their lungs and the pounding of their feet on cracked asphalt. Kael led them on a desperate, weaving sprint, his mind a frantic overlay of the map. The bank was two blocks north, a sanctuary they had never meant to use again. Behind them, the skittering claws of the Slashers drew closer, their chittering cries slicing through the air.
"Don't look back!" Eli roared, his voice ragged. "Just run!"
Anya was a ghost at Kael's side, her agility the only thing keeping her ahead of the pack. Rik was falling behind, his heavier build and crowbar slowing him. A Slasher lunged, its bone-blade slicing through the air where his heel had been a moment before.
Kael didn't slow. He couldn't. To stop was to die. He vaulted over a low wall, landing in a roll and coming up running. The bank was just ahead, its grand pillars and shattered windows a promised land.
"Almost there!" he shouted, the words tearing from his throat.
They burst through the broken revolving door of the bank, stumbling into the vast, dusty lobby. The familiar space felt alien in their panic.
"Barricade the door!" Eli yelled, heaving a heavy oak desk toward the entrance.
Rik and Anya scrambled to help, piling chairs and anything else they could find against the broken entrance. Kael stood panting, the pry bar held ready, his eyes fixed on the gap in the barricade. The chittering was right outside.
Then, a scream.
It wasn't from outside. It was from the stairs leading down to the vault. Leyton. In their frantic escape, they had forgotten about the lookout.
Kael's head snapped toward the sound. The calculus was instantaneous and brutal. Leyton was on the roof. The Slashers were at the front door. They were separated. Saving him was a near-suicidal risk that endangered the entire group. The logical choice was to seal the door and accept the loss.
But Eli was already moving. "Leyton!" he bellowed, abandoning the barricade and sprinting for the stairs.
"Eli, no!" Anya cried out, her voice tight with fear.
It was too late. A Slasher, smarter than the others, had scaled the building's facade. It dropped into the lobby from the broken mezzanine level, cutting off Eli from the rest of them and blocking the stairs.
Eli skidded to a halt, his fire axe coming up. He was trapped between the Slasher and the front door, where the other two monsters were now clawing at the makeshift barricade.
The Slasher in front of him coiled, its multitude of eyes fixed on him. It was a Level 3. Eli was wounded, tired. The numbers were clear.
Kael moved. He didn't think. He acted. He threw the pry bar like a javelin. It was an awkward, unpracticed move, but it was fueled by desperation and enhanced strength. The steel bar spun through the air and slammed into the Slasher's flank, not causing serious damage, but distracting it for a crucial second.
The creature shrieked, turning its attention from Eli to Kael.
That was all the opening Eli needed. He didn't retreat. He charged. With a raw-throated roar, he brought the fire axe down in a mighty, two-handed arc. The blade bit deep into the Slasher's skull, shearing through bone and brain.
The creature dissolved into motes of light.
But the cost was paid.
In that final, committed swing, Eli had left himself open. The barricade at the front door shuddered violently, and one of the remaining Slashers forced its head and one bladed arm through a gap. The blade, longer and sharper than any natural weapon, lashed out in a blind, scything motion.
It caught Eli across the back.
He cried out, a grunt of shock and pain, and stumbled forward. A deep, grievous wound split his leather jacket and the flesh beneath, blood instantly welling and soaking the fabric.
"ELI!" Anya screamed.
Kael was already moving, scooping up the pry bar. "Get him to the vault! Now!" he commanded, his voice cutting through the panic.
Rik and Anya rushed forward, grabbing the staggering Eli and hauling him toward the stairs. Kael stood alone in the lobby, facing the two remaining Slashers as they finally broke through the barricade.
He was the last line of defense. He had no skill to use, no clever tactic. Just a heavy bar of steel and a cold, furious determination.
The Slashers spread out, their lamprey mouths pulsing. They had learned. They wouldn't charge blindly.
Kael backed toward the stairwell, step by step, his eyes locked on the monsters. He reached the top of the stairs just as Rik and Anya dragged Eli through the vault door below.
He took one last look at the Slashers, then slammed the heavy metal door at the top of the stairs shut, jamming the pry bar through the handles. It wouldn't hold them for long, but it would hold them long enough.
He descended the stairs and entered the vault, slamming the massive, round door shut and spinning the wheel, sealing them in darkness. The only light came from the single emergency bulb they had left there days before.
The air was thick with the smell of blood and sweat. Eli lay on the floor, his face ashen. Mara, who had been waiting here with Jonas as their fallback, was already at his side, her hands pressing a wad of gauze against the deep gash on his back. Her face was a mask of professional focus, but her eyes were wide with fear.
"It's bad," she whispered, her voice trembling. "Really bad."
Kael looked at Eli, then at the terrified faces of the others illuminated in the dim light. They had escaped. They were alive.
But they had lost their leader. The cost of the raid was written in the blood pooling on the cold vault floor. The equation of survival had just become infinitely more complex.