Black Market Merchant

Chapter 205: ERM Overrun (3)
“Where are they coming from!” Orin shouted as he turned back to fire the last few bullets he had left in his gun.

“How would I know?” Nathan called back as he ran ahead.

Almost all the remaining ERM militia had used up their ammo and they now were running with every ounce of strength they had for the cliffs. The Twisted only slowed down twice in their pursuit of the humans. Once when they reached the dead humans and Twisted at the ambush site, and then once more when two wounded humans were too slow to escape and caught. Each instance the bodies were consumed at an uncomfortably fast, bloody rate.

The hoard of monsters was absolutely famished, and half-starved to the point that their hunger drove them urgently to hunt down the humans. They didn’t even need the baby Hoard Mothers command to convince them to hunt in the human town. They didn’t even leave bones behind, just a bloody mess.

“Come on, I can see the cliff now! We are almost there.” Nathan urged.

Nathan knew better than to go back to the warehouse. If Mr. Flanagan was still their directing the townsfolk to safety, then they would be leading the Twisted right into a massacre. Instead, they stuck to the main road until they reached the road running parallel to the cliffside. It was here something odd happened, once the human reached the open lands between the town and cliffside, the Twisted abruptly stopped and turned back.

“They are going back, Nathan?” Orin shouted as he came to a labored stop.

Following his lead, the rest of the ERM stopped running and took a moment to regain their breath. They all, however, kept a warry eye at the buildings nearby. There was no telling what the Twisted were up to.

“C-come on.” Nathan gasped as he trudged on ahead. “We need to make sure everyone else got to the cliff safely. Then we still need to figure out what our next move should be.”

Exhausted the militia forces mustered up the energy to jog down the road towards the new cliff pathway. From where they were now, they could see that all three Mechs were moving up the path towards the top. Then at the top, along the edge, numerous figures were rushing about. As to what was going on they would need to be there to know, because luckily there were no Twisted approaching the pathway yet.

Yet they were going to have to wait to find out, for from the far side of the concrete factory came a horrific cry for help. Nathan felt his neck hair stand on end. He knew he had to help.

Turning, Nathan pointed at two men closest to him. “You two, run ahead to the slope and tell Gillian that the Twisted are nearly here and send for back up. The rest of you, let’s go save whoever is out there!”

Nathan could see a few of the men hesitate as he turned away to go towards the cry for help. He shook his head and thought, “I get it, I am scared too, but I have a responsibility as mayor to do what is best for the people. Right now, if I can save just one more person, then I know I am doing more than just sitting around writing papers all day. Best I can do for now is take the initiative and go ahead myself.”

Crossing the open sandy ground by the road, Nathan entered to concrete factory’s perimeter through a collapsed portion of the fence surrounding the area. The factory grounds were a maze of unidentifiable rusted machines and debris piles. Listless weeds grew off triangular pilled sand that had eroded long ago to form a field of clone like hills. It was here Nathan struggled to find the source of the call for help, the place was just too open and vast.

“Ahh! Someone help us!”

“That came from over there!” One of the men following Nathan called. “Look, there are some people running towards those silos.”

Sure enough, Nathan could see from his vantage point atop a clone sand hill, a woman and two small children clinging to her. They were running, not more than a hundred meters away, trapped just behind a tall iron bar fence and going towards a series of silos that looked to be five meters high. Nathan could here her call for help once more and saw the cause of her dire situation, three Logos Cutters were bounding after her. It would be mere moments until the three beasts were going to catch up to the family.

“Any of you with ammo left, attack those monsters.” Nathan ordered as he slid down the sandy hill. “The rest of you try to find away around the fence so we can get them out of here!”

The Orin and the few that did have ammunition left, charged straight ahead to get a better shot at the monsters, while the rest followed Nathan. Nathan was running parallel to the iron bar fence and just head of the woman and her two young children that looked no older than five or six. Looking ahead there seemed to be no way out for them and the iron bar fence seemed to be endless.

“Pease help us!” The woman called again as she saw Nathan and the others approaching.

Bang! Bang!

Orin and the others had started to shoot at the Logos Cutters. Looking back the woman and Nathan could see that the gunfire succeeded to slow down the Logos Cutters, but the creatures were too nimble and dodged easily.

“Keep running. I’ll think of something.” Nathan said resuming to follow along the fence.

The silos that the woman and children were running towards had a ladder that led to the top. Across the iron bar fence and next to that silo was a conveyor belt leading up to a platform where trucks would park to get a load of sand or gravel. There was only one hope that Nathan could decern and he headed straight for it.

Nathan ran along the fence and called out to the desperate woman, “Get to the top of that ladder! You can jump across to me.”

Wordlessly the mother complied and dashed for the ladder. She set the younger child down first and lifted the elder one to the first of the ladders rungs. “Climb quickly. Mommy is going to be right behind you!”

Though teary eyed and scared the boy nodded bravely and started to climb. The mother took a fearful look back and shuddered seeing that the Logos Cutters were still coming her way. Urgently she picked up her other child and tucked him under her arm, she was going to try and climb with one hand, there was just no time to think of any other solution.

Nathan ran up the conveyor belt and reached the platform to find that the gap between the silo and the belt was over two meters. The tops of the iron bars of the fence were spade like designs that would easily skewer someone if they fell on it. It was going to be a dangerous jump, but there was no other choice.

Nathan looked down at the woman struggling to carry her son up the ladder only to see a Logos Cutter jumping up at her legs. “Look out!”

It was to late. The Logos Cutter’s long claws tore a gash deeply into her right calf. The woman screamed and slipped, unable to bare the weight of herself and son on one leg. Miraculously she held on!

“Mommy!” The elder child wailed from above her.

“I-I am ok sweety. Don’t stop climbing.” The woman replied putting on a brave face.

Nathan could feel his heart pounding out of his chest as he watched helpless to do anything. The Logos Cutters repeated to jump up at the woman’s legs and though higher now, they still managed to hit her once more on the same leg. The woman was in tears now, her hair tangled into her mouth, arms shook with exhaustion, and bleeding badly; she remained relentless. She was using the strength only a mother could muster to drag her son to safety.

At last, they reached the top of the silo and the woman collapsed to her knees and clutched her two children closer to her. “What now?”

“Nathan, we are out of ammo. We will try our best to distract the Twisted.” Orin called from below.

He and the others were now throwing rocks and jabbing their guns through the bars at the three beasts. The Logos Cutters were annoyed by the human’s efforts and tried to retaliate. The iron bars were to narrow and strong for either side to make a meaningful strike and neither side could harm the other. This gave Nathan precious seconds to react.

Nathan rubbed his hands together and leaned over the edge of the conveyor belt. “While the others are keeping the monsters distracted, I need you to toss your children to me. I will catch them, I promise. Then you need to jump next.”

The woman scooted towards the silos edge and shook her head. “I can’t, it’s too far. I am already too weak to stand.”

Hearing this the two children started to cry. Nathan was about to encourage her to try when there came a loud pounding sound coming from the silos bottom. Looking down Nathan was shocked to see the Logos Cutters were punching into the silos metal sides and using their long claws to climb! They were completely ignoring Orin and the other’s efforts, knowing that an easier meal was waiting above for them.

“Miss, you don’t have any time left. They are coming up!” Nathan pleaded opening his hands towards them coaxingly.

Nodding, the woman struggled to stand on one leg. She tottered unsteadily as she held her youngest child under his arms. She took one glance at the drop and pointed fence below and hesitated.

“Are you sure you can catch us?” She asked.

Nathan took a fearful glance at the Logos Cutters now halfway to the top. “Yes, I promise. Just hurry!”

The woman let out a sob and swung the littlest child once before tossing him with all she had, and the momentum knocked her back to her knees once more. For a breathless moment the boy free-fell through the air. Yet Nathan snatched the little boy from the air with ease and pulled him safely onto the platform.

“Good, now the other boy.” Nathan urged.

Struggling, with pain clearly showing on her face, the woman stood up to hold her elder son. “Run for mommy, so I can throw you better.”

The boy started running as best he could and just as he reached the edge, she tossed him. Nathan was ready and managed to grab the boy’s arms. Nathan steadied himself as the heavier boy pulled him closer to the platforms edge, but he still got him safely across.

“Alright miss, you are next. Hurry!” Nathan called. He steadied his shoe’s grip against the platforms edge in anticipation. However, the woman was not standing up.

“I can’t go on. Just take my boys and go.” The woman pleaded. She was clutching at her leg now soaked in a puddle of blood.

“Don’t say that, just try! They need you.” Nathan pleaded.

“Mommy, jump!” The eldest son said reaching out as well for his mother.

Emboldened by her sons bravery, the woman staggered upright and dragged her wounded leg behind her as she approached the edge. Then there was a screech and the woman looked back to see a Logos Cutter had reached the top! She turned back and jumped.

At the same moment she jumped, the Logos Cutter slashed at her and caught her shoe. The impact caused her to lose momentum and fall towards the fence. Nathan dropped onto all fours and grabbed the woman by the wrist. The heavy weight of her falling nearly pulled him off all together and now he was stuck. She was dangling directly over the sharp spades of the iron fence, and if she fell now death was certain.

Sensing this, the three Logos Cutter jumped off the silo’s sides and rushed the fence underneath her. Their hungry mouths snapped at her dangling ankles in anticipation of a fresh mouthful of human meat.

“I-I got… you!” Nathan gasped as he struggled to lift the two of them onto the platform.

Then his grip slipped!

A blur of motion flew down past him as an object grabbed the woman’s arm before she reached the sharp spades. Nathan gasped as the object turned out to be Lisa!

Lisa started to lift the woman with ease and smiled at Nathans expression. “Whew, now that was close. Everything is going to be fine now.”