Cover of Dark: Ch7: Fight for the Wilmot Gateways

    Isebel let out yet another frustrated sigh, that I had been so tired of hearing all morning. She pulled off the sensors from my wrists and tossed them into the lab. After she grabbed her coat and her phone, we nearly had to run to keep up with Markus. We followed him around the other side of the mess hall to the garage. For as small of a building as it was on the outside, the inside space was used super efficiently to pack in more cars and vans than it should have.

    I narrowly avoided two other vans full of people that sped off out of the camp. The third and final van was already running and poised to speed off just like the others. I climbed in after Markus and Isebel. Before I shut the door behind me, Isebel spoke up.

    “I request that we leave Evzen at the base. He's unpredictable and can't protect himself much less consistently control his mana.”

    “Evzen?” Markus asked from the back seat.

    Kazz thought about it for a second, brow furrowed and eyes locked firmly on me. I could only guess he had expected me to be able to do something in the lab, and I let him down. “It's too late we need to go. Either way he's my responsibility and I'm not supposed to let him out of my sight.” He put his foot in the pedal before I had completely sat down. The door slammed shut, and I jerked into my seat. I could just make out Kazz muttering to himself over the engine. “Even if I've been awful about that.”

    As we approached the edge of the camp, I saw two robed figures holding open a rift just like Kazz had done, but much larger, large enough for our van. We drove right through it, and they closed the tear behind us. We drove through dark blue forest, and emerged onto a freeway. The black road was filled by a river of ghostly white, transparent outlines of other cars driving along in the real world. We didn't merge with traffic as much as we drove right into it. The outlines would get blown away like dust when we collided with them, but then would re-appear behind us as if nothing had happened. I could only hope nobody saw me flinch.

    “Here's the situation,” Kazz shouted over the roar of the engine. “Two weeks ago, four VAF squadrons took the Wilmot Gateways. They're a series of powerful gateways in a suburban park. The Veracious have made a counter push to try and reclaim it. The few communications we've received from the three squadrons defending showed heavy casualties, and heavy damage to their guardians and harvesters. Our goal is to push back the assault, and save as many lives as we can. There's​ not much natural cover, so John, we're gonna need your shield.”

    John nodded silently.

    “There's a series of buildings across the street from the gateways,” Kazz continued. “That's where the Veracious are attacking from. Our Intel is an hour old, so organizing a flank might be difficult, so we're going to have to play it by ear. Evzen, you stay with the car.”

    I nodded. That was fair enough. Everyone else, even Kazz as he was driving, zipped up their black nylon jackets and checked their wands. As I forced myself to lean back into my seat and relax, I noticed tiny silver threads running through the fabric of Isebel's jacket. They were barely noticeable, I only saw them due to my proximity, but they wove all over the jacket into odd complex patterns. They weren't decorative, or they'd be more pronounced, I figured they had to serve some purpose, but I wasn't sure what.

    We exited the freeway and drove under a bridge for train tracks. My fingers tied themselves in knots, which was a good metaphor for  how my stomach felt. I was more than a little apprehensive for this battle. I kept telling myself I didn't have to do anything, just sit in the car, but it didn't change anything. I wasn't prepared at all to defend myself in case something went wrong. Ideally, the Dragon Squad would go out, kick some ass, and come back fine. I wouldn't even have to get out of my seat. However “what ifs” kept filling my head. What if someone gets by? What if someone attacks me? What if one of them gets hurt? What if they're all killed?

    My heart was racing, and I began to sweat a little. I'm not sure if it was my expression or my body language, but I got a funny look from Isebel. I pretended not to notice. With some deep breathing, I managed to clear my mind and calm myself down. Only briefly, however, as we drove into a gas station just across the street from the bridge.

    We came to a screeching halt that threw me forward in my seat. Everyone clambered out of the van except me. We were parked next to a gas pump, on the far side from the station. The van was well covered behind it, but it gave me enough visibility on either side of the station's convenience store. I could hear shouting and the sound of spells exploding from the other side of the gas station. As Kazz lead everyone to the right of the gas station, I noticed the buildings he had mentioned were to my left. That meant the gateways were on the other side of the gas station, and Dragon Squad was backing them up from behind.

    I listed to the sounds of screaming, shouting, blasts, and more shouting. Instinct kept me on the front of my seat. Part of me told myself to calm down, let the professionals handle it. However the other half said no way, don't calm down, this is a fight. I need to be ready to run or defend myself at a moment's notice. I remained in this back-and-forth state for a couple minutes before I shut my eyes and focused only on my breathing. It calmed me a little, but not as much as I hoped.

    Something hit the van, throwing me out of my seat. I picked myself up off the floor just in time to hear a second spell splash off the ground right outside the van. Adrenaline shot through my veins. I was being shot at.

    Against my better judgement, I peaked out the window. I saw three figures, a man and a woman dressed in black and green Veracious robes, both firing their wands at a female dressed in Vivid black and orange. Actually, I wasn't being shot at, they missed and hit the van.

    Frozen, I watched as the two Veracious mages cast spells after spell at the Vivid mage. As the Veracious pair advanced on her, she slowly backpedaled away, casting shields at the tip of her wand. Her defense spell projected a small curved barrier inches from the tip of her wand. The way she held it almost reminded me of a small umbrella. She swung the shield around deftly, knocking away enemy fire.

    As they got closer, I noticed the Vivid girl’s clothes were torn and burnt. She had two streams of blood trickling down her face, one from her forehead, one from her mouth. Her left arm was clutched tightly to her stomach and she had a slight limp on her right leg. I also saw the bush she tripped over backwards before she did.

    She hit the ground hard, and one of her attackers kicked her wand out of her hand. At that point my body was already moving before my mind caught up with it. I was out of the van, feet pounding on the pavement toward the assailants. I shut my eyes for a brief second, and called upon the energy inside of me. The rush of feelings flowed over me, but this time I was focused, I had a goal. I felt the energy tingle all over my body, like I had something in me that needed to get out.

    “Hey!” I shouted, causing the to Veracious mages to focus their attention on me instead. Right as they looked up, I focused mana down through my right arm. I could feel and even see the raw energy flow down my tattoos toward my palm. I pointed my hand at them, right as the spell launched itself. The orange ball of light hurtled across the few yards between the Veracious and I, hitting the female attacker right upside the chin and exploding in a burst of heat, light, and force. She hit the ground motionless.

    Before I had a moment to really realize what had just happened, the man had already launched a spell toward me. I dove to the left, the spell skimming off my shoulder. I regained my footing just in time to watch the injured Vivid mage pull a decently sized knife from a vest inside her coat. With the Veracious man's attention on me, she drove the knife into his stomach. He screamed as blood flowed from his wound. The Vivid gal wasted no time. She grabbed his wrist, and wrestled the wand from his hand, before pulling him to the ground. Still screaming, she crawled over him, and stabbed him in the throat. Needless to say, there was a lot of blood.

    She wiped her hands and the blade on dead guy’s robes before rolling off of him and onto her back. I stood frozen, still taking in everything that just happened as she caught her breath. There was a lot of blood.

    “Hey,” she groaned, her good arm extended in my general direction. “Help a fella out?”

    “Y-yeah,” I stammered and went to help her up. As I grabbed her hand, I got my first good look at her.

    She was average height, had short, dark hair, and greenish brown eyes. Couldn't be more than four or five years older than me. She was Caucasian with an Asian grandparent probably. Her nose was crooked, as if someone busted it, and it never healed right. Small scars decorated her face, painting quite a picture of her history at first glance. Her pants had a hole with burnt edges on her right thigh, exposing seared, lightly bleeding flesh. Her left arm was in the same condition. I helped her up. She was definitely a few inches taller than me.

    “Thanks for the assist, name’s Erica,” she panted, good arm clutching her side as she caught her breath.

    “Yeah, I'm Evzen, no problem. Are you okay?” I asked, even though I couldn't really help.

    “Yes, no, I'll deal with it later once this is over,” she nodded. I glanced around cautiously to get a new lay of the land, and to see if we had any incoming hostiles.

    A couple hundred yards down the road, past the restaurant behind the gas station, The main battle raged on. I couldn't make out anything more than figures launching green and orange spells at each other. A noise to my left prompted me to look over just in time to step away from an enemy spell. It whizzed by me, narrowly skimming across my chest and splashing against the wall of the gas station. Veracious reinforcements were approaching from across the street.

    Impulsively I shouted “we're not done yet!” In hindsight it was pretty unnecessary as Erica had already retrieved her wand from the ground and was moving behind the van for cover. I quickly followed, more spells exploding behind me.

    Erica leaned heavily against the truck. She rested her head against the van and shut her eyes. I watched as she controlled her panting with several deep breaths. She then brushed her hair out of her eyes before opening them again. She turned and looked at me. It was then I realized I had been staring the whole time.

    “Where the hell is your wand?!” Erica exclaimed, losing the composure she had just worked so hard to regain.

    “Don't need one.”

    “What?”

    “Trust me. Look, you're handy with that shield. You defend, I'll attack,” I quickly suggested hoping to both cover my ass for not knowing how to cast shields, and to give us a plan that might get us out alive.

    Erica opened her mouth to protest, but her skeptical expression quickly vanished. I got the message. A spell that would have collided with the back of my head instead exploded on Erica's shield. I focused mana down my right arm just as I had before, charging up a spell. The markings down my arm lit up, and a bright light shined from my palm. I whipped around right as the second spell hit Erica's shield. I let go of the charged energy like letting go of a stretched rubber band. The bolt of light shot out and struck our attacker right in the chest. The shock of the force knocked him into a post. His head hit the post with an unsettling crack, and he fell limp. Erica stared blankly at me. I glanced back and shrugged.

    Two more jumped around the corner. I ducked under one spell and Erica blocked the other. I charged both arms with mana, one after the other, and fired in sequence. The first missed, but the second hit a shield of one of the Veracious mages. However it didn't just splash off his shield like spells did on Erica's shield. Instead, his shield absorbed it, as if he were catching my spell in it. Fortunately my body already knew to move. With a flick of his wand, his shield went down, and what was my spell came flying back toward me as his own. I threw myself against you the van, the spell narrowly missing me.

    He can do that?

    Erica’s arm shot past my head, casting a shield in front of both of us. Not a fraction of a second later a spell from the second enemy mage splashed off the shield. One of them charged at us, his wand raised over his head. I reacted quickly and stepped toward him, waiting for him to swing. He swung his wand at me. I barely leaned back out of the way. I felt the heat from the tip of his wand on my face as it streaked by. I didn't want to find out what happened when it contacted, but it gave me an idea.

    He swung again. This time I caught his wrist as it came by. Wrist still in tow, I leaped to the side, placing my guy in between me and the other mage. I yanked him in toward me causing him to stumble. I charged both my arms. As soon as my hands landed on his chest, I shoved him forward and cast spells at the same time. The blast sent him flying back, colliding with the other mage. Erica finished him off with an a spell to the face.

    I saw another Veracious mage dash around the van before Erica did. His spell glided by me as I slid back to the van. I fired off a spell that hit him square in his gut. He stumbled over.

    More spells splashed off Erica's shield behind me. I reached my arm over her shoulder just as she had with me. I took aim, charged and fired, right into one of the mage’s chest. I heard movement behind me. My left arm shot out in the direction of the sound, and threw a spell. I turned my head just in time to see it connect with yet another enemy mage.

    Erica and I fought together like a machine. Back to back, we held them off for minutes, constantly exchanging fire. I was getting tired though. Each spell felt heavier to throw out, dodging wasn't as easy. The adrenaline crash was coming on.

    I whipped around fast enough to fire off an attack spell at a duo behind me, but not fast enough to dodge or warn Erica. I didn't see where my spell went, but his hit me square in the stomach. It exploded and flattened me on my back. I shouted in pain. It felt like I had been kicked with red hot iron boots.

    I gritted my teeth and checked the damage. A gaping hole was torn in my shirt, the edges were burnt. Most of my exposed flesh was black or red. I couldn't tell how much of the black was flesh, or how much was shirt, but it was a bad picture either way.

    I tried to steady my breathing to keep from going into shock. That was yet another practice I didn't remember learning. I gazed up at Erica. For a brief moment she glanced down at me in panic. We were surrounded; three on either side, each with their wands raised. They waited, clearly giving the two of us a chance to surrender. Erica looked down at me, then back up at them, a new look of determination on her face. She squared up defiantly, and everyone charged their wands all at once.

    I'm about to watch her die.

    She dipped out of the way of the green light from behind her, bringing up her shield to catch the next volley. Two spells splashed off her shield as it whipped around in front of her. The momentum carried her around 180 degrees to catch another spell. She ducked and stepped away from even more incoming fire.

    It was the most graceful yet desperate dance I had ever seen, or remembered seeing. All of her movements had an elegance to them and strength behind them. Her expression however showed one of waning energy and fear than concentration and composure. She wasn't going to keep this up much longer.

    Erica didn't turn fast enough, and a spell exploded on her already bad shoulder. She shrieked and stumbled over, catching herself on her knees. Snapping out of my trance, I tried to roll to my side and lift my arm to defend her. I was greeted by the intense burning pain from my abdomen that held me in place. Erica wasted no time twisting to fall on her back and pulling her shield in front of her. Another spell hit her shield, but this time instead of splashing off, her shield shattered upon collision. Her arm dropped limply to her side as she lay there panting and defenseless.

    A roar of orange light blinded me as I heard spell after spell exploded amongst shouting. Green and orange light was exchanged way faster than I could make any sense of. When the smoke cleared I saw Markus's face over me, and his hand on my chest.

    “You're alive!” he exclaimed, motioning to the rest of Dragon Squad. I watched Kazz survey the area, wand drawn, before kneeling on my other side.

    “Are you alright? What happened?” He asked, inspecting my injury. I gritted my teeth as he picked pieces of clothing out of my wound.

    “I'm- ow, I've been better,” I groaned. “Erica was ambushed, I tried- I tried to help her.”

    “You're pretty lucky, this wound could have been a lot worse. Hold on, this might sting,” Kazz warned as he positioned his wand over my injury. He drew three interconnected loops on his wand, and the tip glowed.

    “Hey, wait, what are you-” He pushed his wand into my wound. Pain shot through every fiber of my body. I writhed against it, but Kazz and Markus held me down. The pain quickly subsided and was replaced with an achy-tingly feeling. I watched, panting, as the area Kazz’s wand touched glowed. After a couple seconds of concentration, he removed his wand and sheathed it.

    I gazed down where I had been hit. Most of the pain was gone, only an ache remained. The bloody, black and red flesh was replaced with rough red skin and scabs. It wasn't completely gone, but a significant improvement.

    “Holy-”

    “Sorry, I'm not a healer, but Isebel has her work cut out for her over there.”

    “What?” I shook my head, snapping everything back into focus. “Oh, yeah. No, totally, Erica was in much worse condition than I was.”

    Kazz held out a hand, and Markus followed suit. I grabbed both of them and they hoisted me up. I took a second to try and regain my footing, Kazz helped steady me out.

    “Come on, let's get you back to the infirmary and debrief there.”