We were brought back to the present by the groans of the rebels Jess had put to sleep earlier. They were starting to wake.

  “You good for now?” I asked Shawn, letting him go and getting to my feet.

  “No. But I won’t be a problem,” Shawn said. I chose to trust him.

  I went over to the rebels still on the ground and pulled out the masking tape from my inventory, working quickly to bind their hands and feet.

  “What did you cast on them?” I asked Jess as I wrapped another set of wrists.

  “Sleep,” Jess said simply, tilting her head a little.

  “What? You can do that?” I asked, surprised.

  She shrugged. “Yes. It is one of the first few spells I received. I never found a use for it until now.”

  Siva stood guard with both swords out as they woke up one by one. We propped them against the wall with their hands and feet bound in front of them. I did not want to risk any of them pulling something out from their inventory behind their backs.

  Shawn dragged the rebel with the broken limbs over by the collar and dropped the unconscious man in front of the rest. His arms and legs were still knitting themselves back together and he twitched every few seconds as the bones reset. It was gory.

  Chris: Good cop bad cop?

  Jess: Sure that is a… oh no.

  Jess did not finish her message because Shawn had begun to glow. His scythe materialised in his hand and when he spoke, his voice was deeper, a harsh growl. The awake rebels stared at him with wide eyes. One of them had started to shake in fear.

  “You will tell us what we want to know or your souls will burn in the eternal fire of my personal vault in hell!” he said. It was very dramatic.

  I was ready to tackle him to the ground again, but I realised he was doing a Batman voice.

  I let out a slow breath.

  I stepped in front of him and faced the rebels, squatting so I was at eye level with them.

  “So. You are with the Rebellion?” I asked.

  They nodded quickly.

  “What were your orders? Were you told to kill anyone who tried to use the 7-Eleven?” I asked, trying not to flinch as an arm snapped back into place on the still healing rebel.

  The oldest-looking one, a man in dented chainmail, opened his mouth to answer but before he could speak, we all heard it.

  There was a wet, slapping sound from nearby, like soaked cloth hitting concrete. It came again, a little louder that time, and it was definitely closer.

  I turned toward the sound just as the others did the same.

  I pulled up my minimap, expecting to see the red markers of incoming mobs. There were none. I saw only our white markers, and the rebels marked in purple. Whatever was coming was not appearing on the map.

  “No, no, no…” the bound rebel squirmed, his expression shifting from fear to outright terror.

  “They don’t normally come this far,” another rebel said. She was trying to get to her feet. She pulled a dagger from her inventory but it slipped from her hands and clattered to the floor. Her wrists were taped too tightly for her to grip it.

  “What’s coming?” Siva asked. He leaned down and grabbed one of them by the shirt. By then all four conscious rebels were in full panic. They kept tugging at the masking tape, trying to tear it off.

  Jess came over and cast [Soothe] on the one Siva was holding. His breathing slowed, but his eyes were still wide with fear.

  “The lurchers…” he said, his voice trembling.

  We formed up in a tight circle, eyes scanning every direction. We were exposed here at the void deck, with only the pillars and the concrete table and chairs to break line of sight. Shawn and Siva were cutting the rebels loose when something dropped toward us from the ceiling.

  I only caught a blur and was raising my bow when a silvery dome bloomed around us and stopped the creature in midair. Jess had cast her [Party Shield].

  The creature did not bounce off. It stuck to the curved surface like it had suction, then began crawling over it, testing the barrier with heavy swipes from a huge clawed hand. Each hit sent sparks across the dome.

  I understood then why the rebels had panicked.

  The thing was vaguely humanoid but stretched, its body long and sinewy. Its arms and legs ended in wide, webbed claws that let it grip the smooth surface of the shield. Its head was almost nothing but a mouth, full of knife-length teeth and a long, dripping tongue. It looked like something ripped straight out of Resident Evil.

  “No, stop!” Siva shouted.

  I turned in time to see the rebel he had been holding make a run for the 7-Eleven, straight out of the protection of the shield.

  He did not make it.

  Another creature dropped from the ceiling and hit him hard, pinning him to the floor. It grabbed his head in one hand and tore it off with a wet rip, then buried its face in the neck cavity and started eating. One of the other rebels fell to his hands and knees and vomited.

  “Jess, how long do we have?” I asked. I switched to my composite bow and dug through my inventory. I only had a few fire arrows left and some other trick arrows I was saving.

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  “Not long. I don't have much mana left,” she said.

  A messenger bag appeared in Shawn’s hand and he slung it over Jess. He began producing mana potions and dropping them into the bag. Siva and I moved to do the same. We would need her before this was over.

  We only had two rebels who were actually standing and armed with axes. I knew from experience the one Jess had just healed would be out for at least another hour. The other one was still on all fours on the floor and crying.

  “The shield is about to break!” Jess shouted.

  Shawn already had his scythe out. He reached out with his other hand, purple energy starting to gather, then stopped.

  “They don't have bones,” Shawn said, sounding confused.

  We were fucked. Proper bite-your-lips fucked.

  Just before the shield broke, I spotted four more of the creatures crawling along the ceiling and wrapping around the pillars, all heading straight for us. We still had one latched onto the shield and another eating what was left of the rebel.

  The shield shattered and we moved.

  I cast [Shockwave II] on the one dropping from above. The force hit it midair and sent it flying backwards out of the void deck and into the open carpark. I did not bother to see where it landed. Another one lunged and I turned, drew, and fired. The arrow hit it square in the chest and the bow’s [Blowback] effect blasted it away from us, stopping its leap.

  To my left I heard the sharp whoosh of [Windblade]. Jess had timed it perfectly. Her spell caught one of the creatures in mid leap and took its head clean off. The body hit the floor and slid.

  Shawn broke from our circle and went for one that had dropped to the ground. It moved fast and low on all fours, claws scraping tile as it scuttled toward him. Shawn dove and rolled to the side to avoid a raking swipe, then slammed his hand down. A mass of earth appeared and collapsed over the creature, burying it in a mound of dirt.

  I kept firing, each shot deliberate to take advantage of the [Blowback] function. But I was quickly learning that this would not do. The arrows found their mark easily, blasting them back, but it hardly injured them.

  Siva fought above me, having activated his belt shield and [Airwalk]. He was half a storey up, trading blows with one of them on the ceiling. His twin blades flashed under the fluorescent lights each time he slashed at its reaching arms.

  Behind me Jess kept casting [Windblade], but I noticed something. The creatures were learning. They stopped doing straight-line lunges at her and started circling instead, using the pillars for cover and waiting for her to commit to a spell before darting in.

  Out of the corner of my eye I saw the mound of dirt Shawn had dropped start to shift. The buried creature was already digging its way out.

  The three rebels with axes had done fuck-all, cowering behind us while we were the ones getting sliced up. Siva dropped from the ceiling as his skill timed out, landing hard and panting. The lurchers kept circling, some on the ceiling, some on the pillars, some on the floor. At some point two more had joined the fight. We were getting boxed in.

  “They’re not hard to injure,” Siva said between breaths. “But they’re hard to kill.”

  “Any ideas, anyone?” I snapped, my bow tracking targets as they skittered around. My only other trick arrows were [Net] and [Boomerang] and I had no idea how the hell that was going to help right now.

  “Chris, get the Digger. We’ll hold them,” Shawn said, voice hard now. I looked at him and he gave me a quick nod. “On three.”

  I nodded back.

  “Three!” Shawn shouted, and we moved.

  I was about to activate my speed boots when three of the creatures lunged at the same time. One hit the ceiling, scuttled forward and dropped straight on us. Shawn met that one with his scythe. Another went for his head and Jess cut it apart with [Windblade]. A third crawled in low and raked him across the stomach. I saw his intestines spill out as Shawn screamed and fell.

  Two more faked toward us and then leapt sideways.

  Siva and I dropped flat and they sailed over, hitting the rebels instead.

  One swipe took the head clean off the first rebel, the head bouncing across the void deck. The other creature crashed into the remaining two rebels and sent them rolling until they slammed into the far wall. They were bleeding and crying out, but they still started hacking at the thing with their axes.

  I kept firing at the one that had slashed Shawn, each shot blasting it back. I saw Jess crouched over Shawn, stuffing his intestines back into him, while Siva ran forward to engage the one I had knocked away.

  Hot, tearing pain exploded across the side of my neck.

  Something had slashed me from behind. My chain shirt stopped it from ripping my whole back open, but it still hurt like hell. I fell forward and rolled, slamming a healing potion as I moved. I slid to one knee, grabbed a [Net] arrow, and fired at the one that was already jumping at me. The arrowhead burst mid-flight and the metal net exploded outward, wrapping around the creature and yanking it backward, tangling it up.

  I drew a flame arrow, but before I could nock it, the other lurcher swiped at my hand. White-hot pain shot through my fingers as deep tears opened across my knuckles. My bow was knocked from my grip.

  I hit the floor on my back and activated my shield gauntlet. A small, translucent circle appeared in front of me. Sparks flew as the creature straddled me and bit the shield over and over, jaws clamping down inches from my face.

  From the ground I could see Jess. She had thrown up a tight shield dome over herself and Shawn and was working on him as fast as she could. One of the creatures was clinging to the outside of the dome and hammering at it nonstop.

  Behind me, Siva was bleeding from multiple cuts as he squared off with another lurcher. I pulled out my dagger and stabbed the thing on top of me again and again as it clawed and bit at my shield. It did not even seem to notice. My shield bar was dropping fast.

  We’re all dead.

  Then I heard it.

  An electric guitar.

  Not a recording. A real one. A single haunting melody cut through the chaos and the creatures stopped. All of them. They turned toward the sound and began to slink away, slow and hesitant.

  At the end of the void deck, a man walked toward us. He had an electric guitar strapped across his chest and he was playing as he walked, the sound somehow loud and clear even without an amp.

  The lurchers crawled toward him like dogs to a handler, heads low, moving carefully. The one caught in the net tore itself free and joined them. All four of them moved toward the guitar player, mesmerised.

  Now that I was not being chewed on, I recognised the tune.

  It was Tender Surrender by Steve Vai.

  What the fuck…

  I could see the guitar player more clearly now. He looked to be in his twenties, wearing a tank top, ripped jeans and cowboy boots. His long hair covered part of his face as he played. While he held the melody, several armored humans stepped out from behind him and, without a word, began decapitating the lurchers. The creatures just knelt there, docile, and let it happen.

  I activated another healing potion to fix my torn fingers and rushed over to Shawn. Siva joined us a moment later, his own cuts knitting up.

  Jess was sweating hard, one hand over Shawn’s stomach, her other hand glowing. Shawn was unconscious.

  “He’ll be ok. He’ll be ok,” she said, more to herself than to us. “I had to stuff his stomach back in before I started healing him.”

  Her voice was steady, but her eyes were wild.

  The music stopped as a lone figure broke away from the group and walked toward us, his boots the only sound at the void deck. The sun was setting as night approached and an orange glow settled around us.

  I stood and went to meet the man, putting a bit of space between him and my team. We stopped in the middle of the void deck, like some old-school parlay scene.

  He was an Indian man in his sixties. His white hair was cut short, and his beard and moustache were neatly trimmed. He had deep lines on his face. He was dressed simply in a windbreaker, cargo pants and boots, with a shawl draped around his neck. Nothing flashy, but he carried himself like someone used to giving orders.

  He glanced over my shoulder at the others before looking back at me.

  “Northerners?” he asked. His voice was deep and commanding. From his bearing, I pegged him as ex-military.

  I nodded, feeling the tiredness finally hit. I wanted to thank him for saving our asses, but the number of armed people behind him made me careful. We were in no condition to fight.

  He studied me for a moment, then said, “Come. Let us talk. Let us see if your asses were worth saving.”

  He walked over to the concrete round table at the void deck and sat down.

  I pinged the party chat to stay alert, took a deep breath, and went to sit opposite him.