Weighted Choices

She sat on the edge of the dock. The lights across the city flickered in different areas from the rolling power surges. Fires danced sporadically in the streets. But here, at the dock, you couldn’t see that chaos. She looked up at the low laying clouds and it was just a gorgeous shifting light display rippling on the bottom of the ever-constant stratus clouds. The Washington coast was forever covered in clouds. She thought about the last thing Meimei had said before the radio communications fell. If she could get “to the middle of nowhere” they would meet up, and “bring a fanny pack”. Melody’s infectious laugh crackled out over the sound. She loved her little sister and really hoped someone would make it there. She had waited to long out here, trying to help these people.

She picked up the m-4 and threw it over her back and the sig found its comfortable grip in her hand. Lovers by nature can learn to fight, need to learn to fight to protect what they love. She had done so in the military, and she did so now. She thumbed a cigarette butte that shifted back and forth on the wooden planks. Flicking it into the water she stood up and started back into the city.

The Blood Stalkers were a well-coordinated army, but they normally only travelled in groups of two. It made for easier hunting. They were mostly human looking, so they didn’t seem all that intimidating. Until you saw them eat, their jaw was unhinged like a snake and when they opened their great maw it revealed a plethora for razor sharp teeth. Melody paused in the shadows at the top of the stairs. Glancing around the corner she saw the back of a single stalker. The left was clear. Pop, her pistol echoed off the buildings as his sallow yellow head became a gore streak. Her dark humor made her think of the times she thought her drill sergeant head was going to explode. His vein pulsing in his forehead. She giggled and made her way to the body. She used her knife to hack off a chunk of flesh and jammed the hunk of gore in her pocket.

Over the last few months, the number of stalkers she had taken out was triple digits. Even with that, they seemed to own most of the city. She wasn’t doom and gloom enough to think all of humanity had fallen but here, on this front, they were losing. She cleared an open doorway. The building was burned out and she ducked inside it for a moment. The shot would call the stalkers in the area to her so she would have to play it a little safer for a bit. Thud, thud, thud, she could hear their heavy loping footfalls. They were faster than humans, but not that much. Mostly it seemed to be a factor of their size- an extra head higher than a large man. She strained her ears. Her little giggle inside her head as she imagined her ears turning toward the sounds like in the old cartoons. Two of them from the sounds of it. She could take two. She positioned herself to peak out the fragmented glass that laced the frame like teeth. They were examining the body. She lined up the shot. Their bodies were more cartilaginous than ours- softer. If she planned it just right the round would go completely through the first one and at least injure the second. Breath and the rifle cracked. The closest one crumpled and the second one stumbled back, grabbing at its gut. She didn’t hesitate, crack, her second shot brought the second one down. She hopped through the building and took off running. She cleared a block and ducked into a building. Her breathing a little accelerated but even. She didn’t hear anything. Patrols a bit sparce today. She glanced up and down the street, but it was clear. She was about half a mile from the jump gate. She shouldered her gun and began to jog up the street.

Several blocks later, almost to the jump gate and still no patrols. She slowed and brought her rifle back up. The jump gates normally had 3 or 4 guards. They were the biggest Stalkers and could take two or three rounds center mass. Head shots counted for a lot. She found a taller building that wasn’t complete destroyed. She should be able to get a line of sight. She was starting to fatigue with the extra weight- but she wasn’t finished yet. Climbing the stairs to the 3rd floor, she found a suitable spot on the east side. Three stalkers sat around the gate. Man, was this area so controlled that they were that board. About 300 yds away, she could make that. Breath and crack. The first body crumpled. She took a second shot, crack, but not as carefully aimed. The second stalker jerked but didn’t go down. Damn, she swore and took off down the stairs. The two remaining had taken cover, and she was sure that the backup wouldn’t be far behind. She sprinted. Knowing that they would be taking cover for a few moments, she was clear until the last corner. Breathes coming in heavy now, she stopped at the end of a row of shops mostly boarded up. She eased around the corner and could see the low wall the Stalkers crouched behind. She was 25 ft from the jump gate. Now or never. She laid down covering fire while she ran to the gate. The two Stalkers fired their bizarre pulse weapons blindly over the wall in response. But she cleared the barricade and hit the jump gate. She wished she could have seen the shock on their alien faces when she disappeared through the gate.

She thumbed the chuck of flesh in her pocket, tickled pink that it worked. She said a silent thanks to all the sci-fi movies she watched growing up. The pull of the gate felt like riding a dark, crazy fast-moving sidewalk, but it was slowing now. She pulled the trigger out of her pocket and put her thumb on the button. Breath. Her vision started to fuzz in- and she saw the Stalkers, and inside their warship. Just a second more. She waited until they acknowledged the foreign body, and she pressed the button. Her vest, 20 pounds of C4. She giggled and it blew.

A chunk nearly a third of the Stalker ship came raining in pieces down over Seattle. The ship started to lose its stable positioning. A critical blow, it accelerated toward the city. Marking the a turn in the battle.