Team Shift Happens
Written with help from @Elizipeazie and @TheYugo45GV. Thank you both for your help in making this better than I could have done alone.
Addagarda Camp, 4:75 Moon
The shrubbery crunched under foot as Orlan trudged through the undergrowth. Sleep had refused to come to him. It was better to embrace the insomnia than to resist it, and besides, if trudging through the undergrowth with an assault rifle strapped to his chest didn’t tire him, what else would? He shone the flashlight into the trees as he continued walking. It was extremely eerie and almost felt as though someone or something was watching him. That woman in the town had said something about leaving and not angering the ‘wolves’, perhaps she was crazy, perhaps she was not, but in any case the darkness of the forest and the thick fog that rolled in was not reassuring in any way, and there was that sense of dread that something might be watching. The crunches of leaves and branches continued to resonate throughout the forest as Orlan walked. No threat, maybe that old lady was crazy. Now would be a good time as any to exact revenge for that rude awakening on day one. Yes, revenge⸺. A snap of a branch somewhere behind him ended the thought.
He turned, sweeping the flashlight’s beam across the forest behind him. Who in their right mind was playing tricks on him again? It’d better not be another spell to the face. The rustling of bushes drew the light’s beam over a log where some dark shape disappeared behind it. The sound of the river behind him filled Orlan’s ears, which twitched uneasily. Subconsciously his tail curled inward expecting combat. Another rustle.
“Hello? Who’s there?” Something was lurking in the bushes near the log. “I am armed.” He said, bringing the M16 rifle on his back to his arms. The rifle’s sling swung from side to side as he inserted a 40mm grenade into the launcher. “I’ll say it again, I am armed, but I don’t want to hurt you, so could whoever’s there please show yourself.” Orlan ordered, making sure to be firm with his tone. A pair of glowing eyes and a dark shape became visible from behind the log.
Orlan felt his blood pressure skyrocket. “What the fuck are you?” The question was muttered to himself. “Go on, get lost. Shoo!” But instead of running the creature stood up and began to approach him. Fumbling for the assault rifle, he prepared himself to run. “Stay the fuck away from me!” His words fell on deaf ears. “I said get back!” The being approached him further but it didn’t get very far. The lombax froze, until the M16’s muzzle flash lit up the entire surrounding area as it spat 20 rounds of 5.56 ammo towards the creature. The tall wolf-like thing roared as a round lodged in its shoulder, taking it down. Orlan meanwhile took this opportunity to run for it.
“Oh shit, Oh shit! All hell has fucking broken loose now.” Another distant roar sounded through the forest. “Take this you abomination.” There was a satisfying pop as the launcher hurled a grenade, 30 or so feet into the trees. Orlan then plastered himself behind a tree, a mere second before the bang of the explosion rang out, echoing through the forest. Opening his eyes and peeking around the tree, revealed that something had happened but probably not enough to kill whatever was coming. Upon looking ahead away from the forest, Orlan saw the familiar rusty bumper and giant spare tire holder of the Union Magistrate. That was probably the fastest 100 yard dash one could make but, he had to warn the camp.
When automatic gunfire rang out across the camp, Kivenaal and Rukari were both awake in an instant, with Malavera taking only a few seconds longer. Then a loud explosion rattled the Bricksley’s windows, shook the tents, and woke up Kaylie, Kayden, and Jayde.
“What the fuck!?” Kaylie snapped, now wide awake in one of the tents, shaken out of the first bit of decent sleep she’d gotten in a few days. She got up and grabbed her wrench in her left hand. “Oh, that’s it, someone’s getting a wrench in the crotch tonight,” Kaylie snarled.
Kayden jolted awake in the back seat of the Bricksley, got out of the truck, threw his armor on and pressed the button on his katana as he drew it, the edge starting to sizzle, smoke, and crackle before a dim red glow spread through it. As that edge brightened, he held his blade in a defensive position that also worked as a decent source of light, especially once it reached the full glow of a harsh yellowish-white.
Between the gunfire and the explosion, Jayde was awake, but it was the roaring and the howls that really snapped him the rest of the way out of bed. “Which one of you idiots pissed off an entire den of Dyre!?” Jayde yelled, getting out of his tent and grabbing his staff from the truck bed. “The town even fucking warned us not to anger the wolves!”
Kivenaal sighed and checked his weapons. He had his revolvers with him, and after flipping up the lid on the toolbox, he grabbed the old western-style double-barrel shotgun with the stock-mounted ammo pouch, slung it over his back just in case, and prepared himself for battle.
Rukari loaded his murdaira with a double charge of powder and a lead bullet, knowing full well that he was going to need everything he had to take down any Dyre at this point. He looked over at Orlan, shook his head, and yelled at him in Valraad, “Zaruki!”
Malavera grabbed his railgun from the toolbox as well, flipped the switch on for the thermal sight, dialed up the power just a little, and took a peek down range. “Oh, shit, that’s a lot of angry werewolves,” Malavera said.
The team in the Dione was asleep relatively soundly, mostly due to tiredness of the past few nights catching up to most of RK Series Racing. This well-earned sleep was harshly interrupted via firing of an assault rifle, immediately forcing Connor out of his night-time idle-state and Constantin awake. He immediately donks his head on the soft plastic of the Tangerine-Tank’s™ rear bumper, instinctively rubbing the impact site despite it not having hurt at all.
Not soon after, his light blue eyes dart around from under his crude rain protection others call a “tent”. Before he is able to spot anything, he is near-deafened by a grenade blast off in the forest, waking both Valentin and Tim up in the process.
“The Fuuck?”, a very groggy Valentin moans, vaguely looking into the forest through the nearside rear window. “Huuh?”, Tim follows up, equally tired and confused as to what is going on.
Constantin has since gotten out of bed, not covered in camo waist-up to make his sleeping accommodation more effective at retaining heat. He turns to Connor, still stood next to the b-pillar of the Dione, looking into the forest vegetation. “What’s going on here?”, Constantin demands sternly and wide awake, fully knowing some sort of gun having been fired.
Connor’s reply was stale, but accurate: “20 pieces of ammunition and a 40mm launched grenade have been discharged in the forest in front of us. One of the host team members mentioned hostile relations with a group or pack of Dyre. I do not know who or what they are.”
It takes a moment of mental processing, before Constantin realizes that the entire camp is now effectively at war because of some fucktard going too far into the forest. He takes a sprint to the offside rear door, flinging it open. Both Tim and Valentin stare back at him, before being shoved over to gain access to the middle rear seat.
“What the fuck is wrong with you!?”, Tim said, still half-awake but alert enough to vaguely grasp what is happening.
“For real… What’s going on!?”, Valentin chimed in, being in a worse state than Tim, as getting up in the middle of the night wasn’t exactly common for him.
“Gimme my bow, shut up and stay here.”, Constantin blares back, snatching his military backpack with the as-of-now-unstringed bow attached to it. Connor, meanwhile, also took note and pops his head into the car, sounding much more serious and stern than usual: “In order to ensure safety, i order you to leave the vehicle and follow me!”
In a state between tiredness, confusion and fear for life, the two occupants oblige, despite having not a lukewarm clue about what is happening. They are brought to a relatively safe location closer to the river, alerting the other teams to the situation.
“Please stay here and wait for further instructions.”, Connor orders, more sincerely than before in an attempt to calm then down.
Valentin and Tim, now wide-awake, are curled up behind the AST Elbrus, scared shitless and fearing for life.
Upon entering the camp, people were already stirring, his teammates included. Thankfully the gunfire and the explosion had managed to be a very effective alarm clock. Worryingly, only K’mino and Malcolm were walking around. The others probably didn’t hear anything and were still asleep. Soon it turned out they weren’t asleep but around the side of the car, readying their weapons.
"Which one of you idiots pissed off an entire den of Dyre!?” Jayde yelled from across the camp getting out of his tent and retrieving his staff from the truck bed. “The town even fucking warned us not to anger the wolves!”
Orlan looked in the direction of him hoping he wouldn’t be seen. A shout from Rukari in some foreign language meant that he had been spotted.
This was not a good position to be in. The whole camp was stirring but then something howled in the distance. All five Lombaxes tensed, their ears stiffening, tails coiling and fur standing on end.
Aedan reached for his holster, removed the chrome plated Desert Eagle and racked the slide, before returning it to its spot.
“What in the fuck have you done?” He said, turning to face his brother.
“Something attacked me, it ran at me and I opened fire. I heard more behind me as I ran and I sent a grenade their way.”
Orlan saw the anger befall his brother’s eyes.
“You did what!? You’ve put us all in danger, you fucking idiot! Did you not listen to what I told you when I arrived here?” Aedan hissed.
“I did! You’d have done the same in my situation.”
The tension dissipated when K’mino ran round the corner.
“I sense a disturbance in the force, something is coming.”
“No Shit!”
“Good, that means you are aware. But there is something very important you need to know, Malcolm! Pavel! Get over here!”
As if on queue, Pavel walked round the corner, Whiskers and Makarov in hand and Malcolm with the Walther rifle case. Gunther also crawled out from sleeping under the rear bumper. But the dog sensed something and retreated back underneath.
“As I was saying, this is very important to keep in mind. We are only defending ourselves, you must not bring pain and suffering to our enemy, whatever you do, you must kill the enemy as painlessly as possible. All five of us could very well join the dark side, even if the rest of us aren’t Jedi. Understand?”
The whole team nodded in acknowledgment.
I’ll say it again, there must not be any unnecessary suffering inflicted on the enemy. Am I clear?"
“Yes. crystal.”
“Good, keep that in mind, be on the defensive and watch your backs. May the force be with us all.”
When Connor crossed by the Highwayman with no weapon in sight, Kivenaal asked him, “Hey, Connor, you can use a double-barrel shotgun, right?”
Connor stopped, simply said, “Yes,” to Kivenaal, and shortly after found himself holding a traditional, double-barrel 12-gauge shotgun.
“Not sure if you’re aware, but some zaruki woke up a whole pack of Dyre,” Rukari added. Before Connor could ask for what one of those was, however, the question answered itself when a huge, 11-foot-tall gray-furred werewolf leaped out of the trees.
Kaylie snarled as the beast landed right in front of her on all four limbs. Acting completely on instinct, she swung her wrench at it, connecting with a brutal meaty crunch straight onto the top of the Dyre’s head. As the Dyre dropped to the ground, Kaylie stepped back, horrified at what she’d just done, and dropped her blood-splattered wrench.
Unfortunately for the group, the number of luminous amber eyes in the forest looking back out at them was all the confirmation needed that they were in for one brutal fight. Another wolf leaped out toward Connor this time, though it was clear that this one was leading the charge, as several more swarmed out of the trees.
Just then a wolf that was bigger than any canid they ever seen before, leaped from the bushes and landed in front of the Bricksley, right in front Kaylie who swung the wrench in her left hand as hard as she could and hit the Dyre right in the head followed by the crunch of its skull being shattered into a million pieces. The gray furred wolf slumped on the ground, as its life was swiftly ended. Meanwhile, Kaylie recoiled in horror at what she had done, dropping her bloodied wrench to the ground.
The surprise of Team Oil Crisis was cut short when another Dyre leaped from the woods taking Aedan with it. Orlan looked on in horror as his brother went careening across the camp but he could not help as another Dyre had come out from the woods and had begun trying to eat Gunther who was barking angrily at the beast from under the rear bumper.
Aedan tumbled across the ground, the giant Dyre knocking the wind out of him as it sent him tumbling through the camp. He’d have to kill this thing, there was no other way to survive it, but it couldn’t be merciless. The thoughts were cut short as the Dyre threw itself at him again, and it nearly trampled him before it jumped over him. Aedan fumbled for the Desert Eagle, wrestling it free from its holster right as the Dyre charged him, knocking him to the ground. It opened its mouth to deliver the killing bite but before the wolf could go any further, Aedan opened fire, putting all seven rounds of .50 AE through the beast’s head and mouth, the deafening kaboom like gunshots of the Desert Eagle ringing out in the night.
As soon as Connor got handed the shotgun, he breaks it open to load two rounds into it, just to discover that it is already fully chambered, at which point he aborts the process. Not long after, another Dyre takes a leap at a member of team Shift Happens, but appears to have misjudged the jump as it is directly heading for Connor instead.
In response, he takes some aim and hip-fires the borrowed firearm at the enemy creature, emptying one of the two barrels and obliterating the Dyre’s face in the process. He then manages to mostly dodge the now-dead, but still in mid-flight animal, only being lightly brushed by its fur as it passes by.
Constantin, meanwhile, got the equipment he needs and is rushing away from the forest to take cover behind the Bricksley.
“I need some time to prepare my bow!”, he shouts, with Connor remaining in defense of the Van that the Bricksley engineers turned into a crew-cab truck. He then goes about readying the only weapon he can field right now. As such, he puts a load onto it’s limbs to have enough room to place the string on either end.
The third enemy kill, accomplished by Aedan by means of a Desert Eagle led to Constantin taking a quick peek around the rear of his cover vehicle, which confirms that Aedan was still alive.
Meanwhile, somewhere further back in the camp, both Valentin and Tim were curled up, practically in tears over the thought of passively being engaged in a massive human-to-Dyre conflict.
At this point, Constantin is ready to fire and nocks his first broadhead arrow onto the string. In this moment, he thinks that it may be a good idea to secure some semblance of quietness by calling out his progress within his shooting cycle. As a result, he pops out of cover, standing behind the bed of the Bricksley and raises his bow to take aim.
“DRAAAWWW!!!”, he is heard shouting as he draws the bow to full length, storing roughly 100 pounds of force in it’s limbs, string and, by extension, Constantin’s left arm.
It takes a good 20 seconds before the target is properly in sight, at which point he announces his shot by yelling “FIREE!!”, across half the camp. Immediately afterwards, the arrow is released and travels quite the way into the forest, eventually impacting a Dyre’s chest much further back in the enemy lines. He watches the arrow and it’s flight the entire way, over the Bricksley’s bed, past the Dione and some trees, maintaining proper form all the way until the kill is confirmed, as the wolf-like creature takes a few more steps before sliding across the dirt, not moving anymore.
“REELOAAAD!!”, is the next state called out by Constantin as he ducks back behind cover to take the next arrow out of his quiver, which is resting by his right thigh and suspended via a sling across his left shoulder.
With Constantin reloading, Tim and Valentin away from battle fearing for life, Connor now is the only member of RK Series Racing actively engaged in the defence.
Jayde sighed. This was what he had feared the other day, that he would be forced to fight. Another Dyre charged out of the forest and immediately darted toward Team Oil Crisis, only for Jayde to throw his staff, striking it on the head and knocking the beast out. Another leaping wolf simply stopped mid-air as Jayde raised his right hand. As Jayde dropped his hand, the beast was violently slammed into the ground, knocking the wind out of it before Jayde’s thrown staff came back around like the world’s worst-balanced boomerang, hit the second Dyre on the forehead and knocked it out as well. Jayde caught his staff, relieved that the two Dyre he’d taken out so far were still alive, but definitely out of the fight.
Kivenaal found himself a little out of his depth when it came to actually fighting, emptying 24 rounds downrange and only managing to connect about half despite the size of the gigantic black wolf that was his target. Luckily for him, 12 rounds of .357 Magnum to the chest were effective enough to stop the beast before it could get closer, but he found himself retreating toward the Bricksley where Constantin also was, stuffing his empty pistols into his holsters as he moved. “Sorry about this, but I need a box,” Kivenaal said, dodging past Constantin mid-reload as he flipped open the toolbox lid, pulled out the cardboard box proudly labeled “Kiva’s Dirty Magazines,” and swung open the Bricksley’s driver’s door, plunking the box down on the seat. He pulled out 4 MP5-K submachine guns, slapped magazines into each of them, racked the charging handles, and unloaded wildly into the treeline, hitting absolutely nothing, but the sound of full-auto gunfire at least made him feel like he was doing something.
Malavera rested his elbow on the roof of the Union Magistrate, taking aim into the forest and breathing out slow and calm. He waited for the right moment, then curled a clawed finger around the trigger switch, a sharp crack splitting the night followed by a hard thump as a Dyre stumbled into a tree, having taken a thumb-sized steel rod in the chest.
Jayde cursed roughly under his breath as he realized two wolves had flanked them. Making a snap decision, he cracked off a bolt of lightning and killed the Dyre that was sneaking up on Constantin while he was reloading, leaving Kaylie to defend herself again.
Kaylie turned around as she heard what could only be best described as an explosion behind her, just in time to see a huge black wolf jump out of the shadows. Acting on instinct as the wolf landed in front of her and lunged at her to take her down, Kaylie grabbed its throat with her left hand and squeezed with everything she had. The startled wolf clawed at Kaylie’s arm, scratching the chrome in its last moments before blood ran down the slick chrome plating. Kaylie let go, staring at her left hand in shock.
Rukari blasted two wolves cleanly with his murdaira, and some shot winged a third, leaving it wounded on the battlefield. Kayden, having been close enough to overhear what K’mino had said to his own team, rushed over and ended the beast’s suffering with his blade.
“How long will those two stay down, Jayde?” Kayden asked, yelling to the huge lion over the gunfire.
“Until the sun rises,” Jayde yelled back. “Leave them be, they are no longer a threat.” Then as he saw Kaylie’s arm covered in Dyre blood, he groaned. “Everyone, listen up!” he yelled. “Watch out for blood splatter. If you’re wounded by a Dyre, or you get Dyre blood in your eyes, you’re going to have a real bad week. Trust me, I’ve learned that the hard way.” As another couple of wolves charged out of the forest, Jayde moved both of his hands, and the two very-surprised Dyre suddenly slammed into each other mid-leap, knocked heads with each other, were both knocked out, and landed on top of one of the previous Dyre Jayde had dealt with.
Kayden was having a real bad night already. Yes, he was trained for this, but he’d never faced a real battle before. His blade burned white hot, still sizzling faintly from the Dyre he had mercy-killed, while he moved to guard Kaylie and Constantin. They’d already had one flanking attempt, and it was almost painfully obvious that Kaylie was in no shape to keep fighting.
Jayde held his right hand out and summoned Kaylie’s dropped wrench to him, using a bit of magic to clean it before he dropped it into a pocket to give it back to her. Then he bared his teeth as Shadow, his six-legged cat, leaped out of the Bricksley, attempted to take down one of the Dyre on his own, and got thrown heavily into a tree. Jayde closed his eyes for a brief moment, feeling the life-force fading from his cat, and in that brief moment, gave in to his anger. The Dyre suddenly dropped to the ground after the first bright flash of lightning from Jayde’s left hand. Jayde leaped over the Bricksley, landing next to the beast as he struck a second time, the deadly arc striking the beast in the face. He turned his fierce green eyes toward the forest, sparks flying between his fingertips as he raised his hand to fry every living creature in the trees, only to stop as he remembered the conversation he and K’mino had shared the other day. He let his anger fade, the sparks between his fingers vanishing as well. “Too close,” he said to himself, “That was too close.”
Meanwhile, further back in the camp, Tim was losing it big time.
“WHAAAAAAHAHAHA!!! THERE’S WOLVES EVERYWHEREEEE!!”, Tim shouts as he gets up, sprinting towards the “brightly”-colored bit of cover that is the Anhultz Dione. This leaves Valentin behind, sat there, crying in tears as he curls up into a fetal position on the floor.
Tim hops into the car, and turns the key in a hurry. The car, being dependable as always, doesn’t fail him this time either as it springs to life without a hitch. “Fuck this, I’m not being ripped to pieces here!”, he exclaims, as he welds his foot to the floor, revving the absolute tits off of the 2.0 litre I4 before slamming it into first and dumping the clutch. Said clutch was saved by the loose surface, sending a wave of pebbles and small rocks across the battlefield as the car speeds off, away from camp. Constantin missed this entirely, as he was reloading from having missed his fourth shot, of which three hit, scoring two kills in the process. Connor only notices once it’s too late and the car is already on it’s way to god-knows-where. He decides to not tell Constantin to avoid disturbing him in his archery firing cycle. The concentration needed for quality archery also is the reason why Constantin doesn’t notice the Dione being gone in the first place.
Having nocked his fifth broadhead arrow, Constantin pokes out of cover again: "DRAAAAAWWWW!!"
Once again, the bow is drawn with top-notch form and absolute precision and smoothness in every single movement. The massive draw weight being pulled as if he was playing with a kids toy. His aim still is accurate, but slow, until he locks onto the target: “FIIRREEE!!” Another arrow whips across the battlefield as Constantin watches it, bow still held up and the left hand somewhere off to the side of his head. It impacts another Dyre further back, entering through it’s left eye and partially exiting through the back of it’s head, dropping it instantly.
Tim was barreling away from camp, right towards a totally unrelated pair of Dyre, resulting in him stomping the brakes, locking all four wheels. The animals just look at him with a deer-in-headlight gaze, prompting another panic-ridden scream from Tim. “FuckFuckFuckFuckFuckFuck!”, he repeats like a broken record, engaging reverse and flooring it once more, sending another wave of pebbles at the two organic roadblocks. Although Tim doesn’t notice any of this, he unintentionally scares them away with the rock-shower, as he is barreling back towards the camp.
Just like any other car, the straight-cut reverse gear aggressively whines while the Dione picks up speed, it’s pitch growing higher and higher together with the engine noises. Not long after, the Dione reaches it’s reverse top speed of 54KPH (34MPH), aggressively bouncing off the rev-limiter of the engine. This, coupled with the less-than-silky-smooth surface unsettles the car, which ends in Tim executing a very unintentional, but still impressive J-Turn. The slide sends a third pebble-wave of much greater magnitude away from the car, this time again into the battlefield, peppering Malavera and Connor with small rocks. Constantin also takes the beating, which causes him to lose his focus, aborting the shot in the process. “ABOOORTT,” he exclaims, less powerfully than the other commands as he is somewhat irritated by the sudden shower.
The gunfire continued to ring out through the night, and several more of the Dyre fell as they were hit with more bullets. One of the team members that were in the Anhultz had jumped in and taken off, returning not more than a minute later.
Orlan lit up another Dyre with a full magazine of 5.56 before moving to reload.
“Guys? I’m not sure we’ve got enough ammo to continue this fight.”
Pavel ran round the corner and took two shots at another Dyre with his makarov, wounding it.
Another kaboom came from the Desert Eagle. “We’ll have to stay behind so that everyone else can get going. We’ve got the most stuff to pack. Pavel, get Malcolm to help you load up the car.”
The giant nodded.“Understood. Malcolm! Help me get everything in the car, don’t bother with packing it up properly, just throw it in.”
Malcolm obeyed with no hesitation, and began tossing their gear haphazardly into the back of the car, with Pavel joining in by dismantling the tent and putting the whole thing in the trunk.
The three remaining teammates gathered round the back of their car to buy as much time as possible.
Malavera took aim through the thermal sight on his railgun, lining up a Dyre’s head in the crosshairs. The optic’s screen told him all he needed to confirm this would be a kill, as the weapon was fully charged, power was set to 25%, the target was well within range, and he had ammunition left.
As he prepared himself to get another kill, a roaring four cylinder engine shattered the silence of the night, followed by the sound of gravel flying. Looking to see what happened moved his aim just enough that he had to take aim again. Fate, however, had other ideas as the Dione barreled back into camp, spraying his back with rocks just as he pressed the trigger. A sharp crack echoed into the night as the steel slug left the weapon, striking a tree branch with a heavy thud. A few moments later, the branch fell and landed on the Dyre’s head, knocking it out. Malavera glared at Tim, though refrained from calling him out on it, understanding that fear could make people do stupid things, switching off his weapon as he realized that things were starting to calm down.
The Dyre didn’t take too kindly to the pebble-artillery barrage, and when combined with the high pitch noise caused by the reverse gear, it caused them to scatter, running off in all directions.
Tim is sat in the car, forehead resting on the steering wheel, accepting defeat. As he looks up, he’s ashamed of himself even more as he realizes that he had left most of his team behind.
With the battle now over for the moment, it was Rukari who took the leadership role that everyone needed right then. He climbed up into the bed of the Bricksley, stood on the sturdy steel toolbox, then yelled out for the whole camp to hear, “We need to move, and quickly! Pack up your supplies, get into your cars, be ready to go. We will regroup at Duskriver Village!”
Jayde looked around the battlefield and sighed. This had been a disaster. The town had warned everyone about the wolves, and someone had to go too far, too close to the forest, and start a fight. He hoped that no one in Addagarda had crystal balls and friends in other cities, or they might just be known as “those idiots who attacked a whole den of Dyre.” Worse still would be if the wolves attacked the town. When Rukari gave the order to pack up and get ready to leave, Jayde waved his hands and started gathering up the remains of the battle. Shell casings, shotgun shells, and arrows swirled around and landed in the Bricksley’s bed as Rukari jumped down. The tents soon joined the bed-trash as they folded themselves up, then crashed chaotically into the bed.
Kivenaal grabbed his shotgun from where Connor had dropped it into the dirt and dropped it into the toolbox along with his now-empty MP5-K submachine guns. Malavera, likewise, put his railgun into its carrying case, then put it in the toolbox as well.
Kayden had switched off his blade and was waiting for it to cool so he could put the weapon away, watching as Jayde, Malavera, and Kivenaal cleared up Team Shift Happens’ camp area. “The bed’s going to be a disaster,” Kayden said.
“We’ll fix it later,” Malavera said. “Right now, we need to get ready to go.”
Kayden looked over at Kivenaal and Rukari, both of them still breathing heavy and looking around as if they might be attacked at any moment. “Mal, I hope like hell you can drive stick, because those two aren’t getting behind the wheel in this condition.”
Malavera nodded. “Might be some of the roughest gear-shifts this side of the galaxy, but I can drive.” He got into the driver’s seat and cranked over the engine while Kayden slid himself into the middle of the front bench and Rukari took the last seat up front. Kivenaal and Jayde got into the rear bench, only for Jayde to get right back out, pick up Kaylie, and put her in her usual spot.
Kayden reached for the CB handle and clicked it on, then said, “We’re going to go first. If these beasts have blocked the road, we’ll break the road-block.” He reached back to hang the microphone back up just as Malavera jammed the truck into first and floored it.
Aedan saw the Bricksley disappearing into the fog followed by most of the teams. "Looks like almost everybody is gone. Just us and the orange car.”
Pavel meanwhile glanced at the Dione parked next to them. “We must wait for the Dione to leave before us. We’ve got better firepower, they can’t be the last ones to leave.” The sound of an engine starting and the slam of a door attracted their attention, which prompted looks in the direction of the orange liftback which was already speeding away.
A Dyre leaped from the woods, almost taking Aedan’s head off, but was swiftly put down by several rounds from the M16.
“We have to go now! I’m not sure how much longer we can hold out.”
It was now their turn to evacuate. Orlan, Aedan, Pavel and Malcolm threw themselves into the rear hatch, taking Gunther with them. They landed among the tent and other gear just as another Dyre tried to get into the car. It didn’t get very far as Orlan slammed its head between the Magistrate’s rear hatch and the C pillar.
“Get us the blazes out of here!” he shouted, slamming the door shut as K’mino stomped his foot on the throttle.
