(Whoever gets the reference gets a follow from me; write in the comments.)

  Time was ticking, and my nerves were getting worse at every second that passed. We didn't have any way of knowing where the swarm of zeds was, but we knew it was coming straight for us. Cayde had been preparing crates upon crates of cure grenades, and Plague had been going over every single detail of our defence plan in search of improvements. I, on the other hand, had been tasked with transporting the crates of grenades to every squad on the wall. The catwalks on the wall were fuller than ever. And all the while I was wondering what we would really encounter. How many types of muties and mutes would we fight? What would they be able to do? I had a rough idea of what we could find, which were all L4D2 special infected or similar concepts from other media. I was imagining we would find screamers from State of Decay, or maybe we would have to worry about hunters and smokers from Left 4 Dead. In the end it was anyone's guess, but that didn't mean it was a wrong guess. After all, Tyrone had encountered the closest thing to tanks we were going to find: those big muties that sent his squadmates to the ER, I mean. I had also encountered some freaky mutes of my own, though it had been more akin to one of the bosses from Back 4 Blood. Well, whatever the case, I had a pretty solid hunch that I was going to see more of those. But then again, most muties I had seen in the wild were abominations with very vague improvements. I knew that the only mutations that spread among the zeds were base improvements over the strand running in the group, but that monster I had seen at the base was too different, and I had the feeling it wasn't natural. Under that logic, Slone could have made that mutation, which isn't too far-fetched to assume. It also stands to reason that he could have made more. Maybe instead of being left for dead, this was going to turn into a killing floor. If that was the case, then it was going to be a lot harder to take care of them.

  "Plague, could I ask you something?" We stood in the central square while Plague studied the city plan like he was going to take an exam.

  He looked up at me; I could see he was slightly annoyed at my request. "Sure."

  "How did you sense that monster at the comms installation?" I asked.

  He sighed before answering. "I could smell it. As the god of plague and disease, I can smell any pathogen in the air, and in the case of the infection, I can also vaguely predict what strain it is. So that's how." He was now tracing a line along the north side with his finger.

  "Can you sense anything yet?" I asked.

  "No, Ayla, I can't. They are still too far. We still have two hours left. Man, I still don't think this is all enough. I know that no mutie or mute is getting into the hospital thanks to Cayde, but I still can't get over the unease I feel for the rest of the people here." He brought his fist down on the map in frustration, but not hard enough to break it.

  "You said before that Cayde could kill me; are you really sure about that?"

  "I'm certain."

  "But how? "I mean, I could just hover him in the air, and he'd be helpless," I said.

  "It's not about what you can do; it's about what he is capable of. Ayla, he is the most perfect fighting machine that will ever exist. He has only ever tasted defeat from his twin, who was basically his mirror. Cayde isn't just a god; he's the embodiment of every destructive thought humanity has. He is unstoppable. I don't doubt he would find a way to kill you, regardless of what you did. You ever heard of the four horsemen of doom? Humans thought of them because of him."

  "But how long would he last against the horde?" I asked.

  "Oh, I wouldn't worry about that. I once witnessed him fight for a year at his max; it was incredible. You see, Ayla, he and his twin, Decay, were the same. What one could do, the other could too. When they were both in sound mind, their fights would stretch on for days or weeks. In the end, it wasn't a fight about who was more skilled; it was a fight to see who could anger the other one enough to force a mistake."

  Woah, fighting for a year straight without sleep or rest. That's impressive.

  If that was true, then we couldn't lose the hospital, but the fact that Zeds wouldn't be able to enter didn't grant them safety yet. If the swarm were big enough, they would be able to pile on top of the building and bring it down with their weight. But that was going to be my job to prevent; I was going to defend this place like it was worth the universe. But then what about the rest of the people on the rooftops? The swarm would definitely be able to reach them. I could only hope my brother was in one of the tallest buildings.

  Plague sighed.

  "I think this is our best. It's a shame Tyrone isn't here; he would definitely come up with a better plan." He sounded exasperated. Oh yeah, Tyrone was gifted; he'd make a better plan, but we didn't have time to bring him out from the hospital, not to mention that they needed his wit to stay calm.

  I had to stay calm. I couldn't let myself fall into another panic attack like I had gone through when Helena went into labour. Helena, I had to protect them all; if not me, then who? So many people were counting on me; I felt both extremely unnerved by that and also somewhat motivated by the responsibility.

  "Ayla, after this is through, you and I are going to find the mole."

  "You think they're here?"

  "Yes, I do."

  "Couldn't it be another mole? I mean, we know everyone who came from Dongle Town is safe, right?"

  He pondered for a moment.

  "There are two people I have suspicions about. Your girlfriend and the blonde one." He looked deadpan at me.

  "Mary!? It can't be Mary! Why would she be working for the guy who killed her brother?" I said.

  "What if she lied about that? What if her brother is being held hostage?"

  "No, I live with her. She isn't the mole, trust me." I stared him down.

  "Ok, I'll trust you. That only leaves the blonde one."

  "Emily? But she doesn't have a strand! Then again, she could have lied about that..."

  "Exactly. Now, it's too early to jump to assumptions, but it's a possibility." He sighed and looked at the sky, which was turning ever darker with each passing moment. "In two hours it'll be dark. The zeds will be even more agitated."

  "Yeah. Plague, do you really think we'll win?" I ask.

  "Define 'win'. I know that thanks to you and Cayde, no Zed will get into the hospital, but I can't in good heart tell you how many casualties I'm expecting. Sorry, but it's going to be pyrrhic. But on the bright side, with the amount of zeds involved, it wouldn't be far-fetched to say a lot of cities are going to be vacant now."

  "Yeah, but that's not really a big pro to our situation."

  "It's better than nothing," he answered plainly.

  All we had to do now was just wait. Wait for a swarm of undead monsters that would cause nigh irreparable damage to our home.

  I began going around the wall. It was small enough for me to be able to walk across the town in ten minutes, so I just went around trying to find something to take my mind off of our impending doom. I mean, the complex had also been dangerous, but it wasn't the same. I could just run away from there, but not now.

  Eventually my brother spotted me from his rooftop, which was pretty tall.

  "Ayla! Up here!" I heard. I craned my neck up and saw him.

  "Donn! How's the view!?" I asked.

  "It was better without you!" Of course, why would I expect anything else from him at a time like this? "How come you're down there?"

  "I'm supposed to protect the hospital. "I'm going to be fine; don't worry," I shouted.

  I knew I'd be fine, but I wasn't so sure about him.

  "Ok, good luck!" He shouted back.

  I checked my watch, and it was almost time. There were thirty minutes left now. I had to make my way back to the main square. I ran and arrived to see Cayde and Plague talking.

  "Hey, gu-" I was about to speak, but I was rudely interrupted by a siren. It was a low hum in a high pitch. The alarm blared all across the city; I didn't doubt the people in the hospital had also heard it.

  Plague locked his eyes with mine, and for the first time ever, I saw a sliver of fear in his stare.

  "Ayla, good luck." He said with the deadest expression I had ever seen. He then rushed his way into the town hall, where he would climb to the roof. Cayde and I got to work immediately. He could teleport us anywhere in the city with his knife trick, so the first thing we did was go to the wall that had spotted the first of them. I stepped into the circle Cayde had drawn on the floor. After he cut his arm and shanked the knife on the floor, the earth swallowed us, and we appeared at the northernmost wall.

  There were three guards, all armed with grenade launchers. I couldn't see their faces, but I didn't need to; it didn't matter then.

  "Where are they?" asked Cayde.

  "From the rooftop there's a clear view to the horde." Answered one of the guards.

  "Ok." And with that, Cayde prepared himself and leapt up into the air, higher than the rooftops. Everyone there was left in awe at that feat of strength. Then I thought of something: the catwalk wasn't strong enough to resist the impact of his fall on top of all of our weights combined. I was worried there for a second before Cayde landed on the wall itself. "I could see about fifteen thousand zeds, but there were ten mutes the size of dinosaurs too; they were probably hiding more zeds."

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  "Do we stand a chance?" I asked.

  Cayde didn't even hesitate to answer. "Definitely yes. Not a doubt in my mind." He then drew a circle on the floor with his knife, and I got in. Ge repeated the process where he would cut his arm and shank the blade into the floor, which teleported us. I don't really understand why he had to cut his arm for it; he could get tetanus or something.

  We appeared well outside of the walls atop a moderately high building. From there, I could clearly see the horde. There were so many of them that the dust being thrown up from the front row engulfed and hid the rear mob. They were down the main avenue of the old district, which I had turned into an airtight corridor where no zed could take the side streets. They were a hundred metres away and closing in. As Cayde had said, there were ten of the same brute I had faced down in the comms complex.

  "Ayla, you take the two mutes furthest away; I'll handle the rest." Cayde said.

  "You sure you can handle that?" I asked. I could definitely take those two mutes in the back; in fact, I already had a plan. But I couldn't really imagine how a single man was going to take on so many zeds, but then again, it is the god of destruction we're talking about.

  "Yeah, just take care of yours." And before I knew it, he had two cure grenades in his hands, and he was running along the rooftop towards the swarm. His movement must have caught the attention of some. Immediately, a group of muties with enlarged and lanky limbs began approaching him from many directions. They were about two and a half metres tall, and their arms reached the floor. However lean and frail they looked, their actions betrayed their looks. They had three-fingered hands with extremely long, clawed digits. They were scaling buildings with the same ease it would take an athlete to take a stroll through a park. And their mouths were hinged like a pack animal. They had large maws that looked wolfish, but only if the wolf had just come out of a brutal fight and had been decaying through necrosis for the last three weeks. They were also bloody quick. They moved more like orangutans with a blood frenzy, using their arms to propel them up building faces. I didn't know whether to help Cayde or do what I was told.

  As Cayde approached the ledge of the building, one of the beasts surprised him and popped out of the ledge that communicated the building with the narrow street. Cayde dropped and slid, throwing both cure grenades into the air and summoning a scimitar. In a flash of ochre red, the beast was now a two-piece combo, or in other words, Cayde had severed it at the waist in a single strike, a strike so fast that I hadn't even seen it. Cayde was still sliding, and he was coming in hot to the ledge. In a quick motion, he tossed the sword away and jumped, catching both cure grenades in the air. He landed gracefully on the following building and stopped. There were still about five of those eerie monsters coming after them, with one of them having spotted me and coming towards me. I had to think fast, but thankfully I could just pop its head like a cherry, which I did. Cayde was right on top of the marching horde. He pulled both pins out on the grenades and tossed them into the mass.

  At that point, one of the ten-tonne mutes had noticed him and tried to clobber him with its arm, but Cayde was faster. Cayde jumped with the same force he had used before just as the arm tore through the bricks and rebar of the building. Cayde was like an Olympic diver, gracefully flipping through the air before somehow summoning a tank cannon he used to shoot straight through the monster's head. I could tell he used HE ammo as the skull blew apart in a disgustingly awesome rain of blood. The force of the recoil propelled Cayde further into the air like a gunpowder pogo stick. I saw as he ditched the tank cannon before landing on the ground. Thanks to the cure grenades, there weren't any zeds left, but the smoke from the grenades was still there, and I lost sight of him. I then snapped out of my awe and remembered I had to take care of problems of my own. The two furthest muted were a bit far away, and this time I didn't have an antenna dish to drop on them, but I did have a new trick up my sleeve. Whatever the blue rasengan-looking ball was, I was more than certain it could tear through them. But then I thought about it. The ball wasn't big enough to quickly end it; it was too small. I had to come up with something else. I had to try a new shape. I focused hard, harder than I ever had. In front of me, a long blue string appeared. The string thickened until it resembled a bullwhip. I grabbed it with my hand and felt the warmth from the energy in the palm of my hand. I could control the length and the direction it would go with my telekinesis. Suddenly, I heard a snarl from behind me, and I was surprised to see one of the lanky muties, which I'm going to call 'hunters' now, right behind me. I didn't have time to do anything else but raise my shield and block the punch. The surprise made me lose focus, and the light whip vanished. Such a long arm and such strength made that punch feel more like a cannonball than a fist. Whatever these monsters looked like, they were masters of deception. They were stupid strong. The blow sent me flying back, and I landed rolling through the rooftop; it hurt more than I imagined. I had bruised my legs and arms in the fall, but I could still go on. I raised my hand towards it, and it rose in the air. It screeched in surprise and anger; it was mad it didn't understand what was going on. I flicked my hand down, and it slammed into the rooftop with enough force to shatter the concrete below it. I got up on my feet and looked at the mangled mess that was the hunter. Its limbs were at impossible angles now, with many bones poking out now. It was still breathing. I threw my shield and embedded it into its head.

  Now that all distractions had been dealt with, I could focus back on the task at hand. I had to kill the two mutes at the back, before Cayde beat me to it, that is. They were roughly fifty metres away from me in a conga line behind the rest of the titanic monsters, but I could still reach them. I had to think about what to use. I could definitely use the blue ball; that was a solid option. I was going to try the whip again, only this time actually being aware of my surroundings. I focused once again and felt the tingling sensation of pure, unfiltered, raw energy between my fingertips. I made it into a whip again and held it tight in my hand. The dangling bit of the whip carved a hole through the building I was standing on as it fell, which reminded me that I wasn't on solid ground anymore and I couldn't catch myself from a fall at that height. I was wary at first and retracted the whip until it was no more than the handle, given that I could alter the shape of it to fit my wishes; I could make it as long or short as I wanted. I reached back and swung forwards, extending the blue line as I guided it with telekinesis until it swiped across the beast. The whip left a red-hot trail when it ripped through the monster, and its entire head and neck came off with it. The head fell with a deafening thud, and the body collapsed. One down, another to go. I retrieved the whip end and repeated the process. The very nature of the whip made it rather bloodless, that is, when compared to Cayde. Speaking of him, he was outright toying with his opponents. He was purposely standing still, waiting for the monster to attack before rolling out of the way and burying his blade into its ankle. The beast then reared up, and Cayde stuck along for the ride, throwing him onto the beast's back, from which he would summon a naginata, basically a sword on a pole, and he would run up its back while dragging the weapon completely embedded into the monster. It was such a gruesome display of strength and humiliation that I almost felt bad for the mutes.

  After Cayde had taken the rest out in ever-so-creative ways and stopped laughing and smiling like a psychopath, he leaped onto my building to regroup.

  "Oh man, that was spectacular! I haven't felt this alive since back when I fought my twin! Oh man alive, nothing beats this." He was covered head to toe in blood, his hair was wet, and he ran his hand through it to get it out of his face.

  "You sure like killing," I said.

  "I can't help it. You don't understand what it feels like for me to live. I'm the very personification of violence and destruction; I crave it with every fibre in my body. But I suppress it, and that hurts me so much I'd rather be dead. That's why the only time I feel alive is when I fight, when I let my body loose." He said, reminiscing about something or someone. Suddenly, however, my radio started buzzing with life.

  "They're inside! They're inside! I repeat, the zeds are inside! They came from below the town! The other group was a distraction to lure you out! Ayla, we need you now!" The soldier sounded panicked, and there were gunshots ringing in the background; we could hear them from where we stood. This was bad. I knew something wasn't right the moment I saw how small this group was; it didn't make sense. Slone was definitely behind this, and it didn't make sense for the horde to come wave by wave; it was a distraction, and we had fallen right for it!

  "Cayde, can you do the knife thing?" I asked.

  "No, I can't. I can't focus properly now; we'd probably end up somewhere else." He said. I could see his chest was moving fast now. He was too excited to be able to concentrate at the moment.

  "Any way we can get there quickly?" I asked.

  I saw as Cayde pondered for a moment before I saw the idea pop into his mind. He looked oddly excited about it.

  "I have something, but you're going to have to trust me on this." I didn't really like the sound of that, especially since he began pulling out a missile from his jacket. It was a Sparrow air-to-air missile, big enough to dwarf the length of a car.

  "Jump on me piggyback," said Cayde, and then I understood. He wanted to use the missile to bring us soaring through the air and somehow not die when we landed, somehow. I didn't have any better ideas, and I honestly didn't give it much thought. So I slung my shield over my back and hopped on Cayde's back. "Ready?"

  "Ready!" I said confidently. I was holding on for dear life; my legs were wrapped around him, and I was nearly choking him with my arms, but he didn't care. He was holding the missile from the tip while standing on one of the rudders, and he struck the lower engine with his other foot. I felt myself sliding slightly down from Cayde as the missile shot us up into the sky. I had my eyes closed, and I was screaming like my life depended on it. It was the most terrifying experience I had ever lived, and I regretted it the instant it happened.

  The sound of the wind combined with the roar of the rocket booster was leaving me deaf. I dared to open my eyes, and I could only see the back of Cayde's head while he steered the warhead. We were still mostly vertical, but then Cayde steered the tip to the side, and I got to see how far we were from the ground. We must have been at least a hundred metres off the ground and steadily climbing. It seemed excessive considering the distance that separated us from the town. I closed my eyes and prayed, and Cayde let go of the missile, and I felt as my stomach rose to my throat. I had never fallen such a long distance; shocker, I know. I was locked up around him. I couldn't understand how we were going to land, and I just accepted my fate that I was going to die. I clenched my teeth together and felt a painful thud as Cayde stuck the landing. I was shaking and trembling as we came to a stop. I let go and fell on my back. I opened my eyes and saw I was on top of the hospital. I was on the brink of crying. Cayde, on the other hand, seemed like new. He even offered me his hand to stand up.

  "I-I'm never doing that again," I whimpered. My legs were trembling as I tried standing, and I felt dizzy and lightheaded.

  "Giddy up, it wasn't that bad. Now," he looked over the handrail of the hospital roof. "We have a LOT of work."

  I went to him, and I was honestly shocked at the sight. A swarm so thick you couldn't even see the pavement below. There was no way we were going to be able to take care of all of them, but more importantly, they were trying to break into the hospital.

  I tried making a forcefield, but the horde was too much. I couldn't hold them all back. I couldn't do anything at that point.

  "Cayde! I can't hold them back for long!" I shouted. I was sweating, and I could hear the blood pumping through my ears.

  "Just hold out for a bit; I have an idea." He said. And before I could complain, he was off. I didn't see where he went or what he did, but I had to lean against the handrail to stop myself from falling from strain. It was then that my leg pressed against something, and I felt the EpiPen in my pocket. Of course! Plague had given me a booster just for this situation!

  I took it out hurriedly and without a second thought; I shanked it into my leg. The feeling was instant. It was like I could see in better definition, time seemed to slow down, and I felt able to lift the world with my finger. It was like I was floating on a cloud. My heart started beating faster, and I got a hysterical laugh. I could now hold the forcefield, and not only that, I was able to crush dozens of zeds at one time. I could look at a group of monsters and flatten them into a mush of brown blood like they were ants. I continued for some time, all the while being oblivious to all the people helping gathered on the rooftops of nearby buildings. My incessant genocide of zeds was creating streams of blood and making the streets slick with guts and gore. But no matter how fast I could kill them, another group twice as big took their place. I couldn't pinpoint where they were coming from, but I knew they appeared from somewhere.

  Cayde came back holding a crate of cure grenades, and I sort of understood his logic. All the zeds were converging on the centre, and if we could make a smoke cloud that engulfed the central park, then all the zeds would die. That was a great idea if it weren't for the fact that we hadn't taken mutes into account.

  "Ayla, can you control wind?" He asked me.

  I didn't really know; I hadn't tried. I guess the force push could technically be considered me moving wind, but there was more to it, and it wasn't that controlled.

  "I don't know!"