Chapter 60 - Do Not Wish One More

  I took off, soaring above the city on the lookout for our enemies. MacGregor was right. We couldn't just guess where they were headed. We needed hard intelligence, and I was the best person to go find it. Fortunately, figuring out where a 50-foot crab was crawling wasn't rocket science. I think I could have found the thing no matter where it had wandered off to, but it was also useful that the entire army was still on the march directly for MacGregor's position. They knew where we were, and they weren't being subtle about their intentions.

  Part of me wanted to go down there and mess with them. I had no illusions about being able to take out this entire invasion force by myself. I was strong, but I wasn't that strong. All the same, if I could slow them down a little, that would give the police that much longer to prepare themselves for the eventual assault.

  But I remembered what Alex had said, too. If I went down there to harass the enemy and they somehow managed to take me out, that would be beyond bad for everyone else. The others were counting on me leading us into this next fight. I wasn't sure how I was going to deal with that humongous crab, but I knew I was the only one who had a shot.

  Choosing discretion over valor wasn't in my nature, but I did it anyway.

  As soon as I had a good head count, I turned around and flew back to our defensive perimeter. I'd only been gone for a few minutes, but even in that short time, MacGregor and Alex had managed to get their troops far more organized. They'd split Claudia's people into teams of about a dozen and assigned each of those squads to a single higher-ranked person. The higher-ranked person would ideally help keep the others as safe as possible.

  It wasn't what I’d wanted. As I flew in for a landing, I looked at all those folks I'd rescued just a few hours before. I'd hoped they would get to live out their lives someplace safe, or at least safer. But they'd made a different decision, and I had to respect that.

  I landed next to MacGregor. He was surrounded by an honor guard of some of his more veteran fighters, but they parted to let me pass.

  "What did you see?" MacGregor asked.

  "Nothing's changed," I replied. "The enemy is still making a beeline for our position. I figure we've got maybe twenty minutes until they get here."

  "Why so long?" Alex asked, stepping forward.

  "It's that one really big crab," I replied. "They're having trouble getting it through the streets. It's sort of scootching its way sideways. But some of the corners are a little tight, and the trip's just taking longer than it would have with smaller and more nimble troops."

  I looked around at all the defenders, hunkered down behind concrete road barriers, and had a new idea. "Captain, if we know where the enemy is coming, wouldn't it make sense to fortify this place more?"

  "We have been," he replied. "Do you have some ideas to improve that?"

  "A few, yeah," I said. "I think that if we added a row of SUVs and other heavy cars directly in front of the road barriers, that might give our people more cover and help slow down the enemy troops. It won't slow down the really big crab. There's not much we can do that would. But it should create a decent barrier for the rest of their force."

  "That sounds good, but with the vehicles all dead, it's not easy for us to move them into position," MacGregor replied. "You think that's something you can help out with?"

  "As a matter of fact, I do," I said.

  Alex grinned. "Yeah, this is sort of his specialty at this point."

  "Have at it, then," MacGregor said.

  "Will do," I replied. Then I reactivated my Flight power and lifted off.

  The roads were littered with stalled cars, but most of the ones near our defenses had been torn up pretty badly by all the fighting there. There's only so many Lightning Bolts and Ice Blasts any car can take before it starts coming apart at the seams.

  I wanted some vehicles that were still in good enough shape that they'd let me create a decent wall. It wasn't going to be perfect, no matter what I did, but I wasn't aiming for perfect. Anything that gave us even a small advantage over the enemy would be a plus. Fortunately, the Karabos had given me enough time to go further afield looking for usable vehicles. I streaked back down over Cambridge Street toward the river and spotted my first likely candidate.

  I zipped down, picked the car up, and took off again, flying just a couple dozen feet above the road until I was back up to where our defenders were preparing to stand their ground. I grinned as I flew over them all. A lot of people got out of the way when they saw me coming. It wasn't like I was at any risk of dropping the car on someone’s head, but they didn't know that.

  This was probably the first time most of them had seen somebody flying through the air carrying a car over their heads, so they could be forgiven some nerves.

  The concrete barriers were set up in a long curve across the top of Cambridge Street. We wanted to reinforce that thin layer of protection, so I lay the car down on the far eastern side of that curve. I didn't drop it. I didn't want the thing to shatter or explode or send pieces flying in all directions or whatever. The point was to build up a wall for our people, not to create a debris field.

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  Once I'd set it carefully down on the ground, I flew back to the street and picked up another, and another. In all, I had to collect a dozen vehicles before I had the entire row of concrete barriers buttressed by a wall of steel. By that time, my mana was just about tapped out. Flying while carrying a large vehicle was not easy.

  I decided to stay on the ground for a bit so that I could rest and recover. The last thing I wanted was to have the enemy show up when my mana was only half full. Then I went down the line of cars, flipping each of them up onto its side so that the undercarriage was facing toward the enemy. Now we had something that approached a proper wall.

  MacGregor came over to examine what I had done. He stepped up onto one of the road barriers and found he was able to see over the top of the car pretty well. He nodded to me approvingly. "This looks good. It will give our people a lot more cover and prevent the enemy from breaking through our line easily. Are you worried about the gas tanks exploding?"

  "I'm not," I replied. "Have you seen anything explode recently?"

  He thought about it for a moment and shook his head. "No, I haven't."

  "I don't think things can explode anymore," I explained. "That's why guns don't work. It's why cars won't turn over, too. Something made it so that the things that were supposed to go boom don't do that anymore. It's probably related to the magic and everything else. Don't ask me how it works. Alex might have a better idea, but I definitely do not."

  "Is that related to the electricity thing too, you think?" MacGregor asked.

  I nodded. "Probably, but I think that's a little bit different. I mean, electricity is what keeps our brains and hearts running, so I don't know that it can be gone entirely, but clearly it's not working the way it used to anymore either."

  "I think I have an answer for that," Alex said as he walked up. We both turned to him expectantly.

  "I think electricity has been replaced by mana. It used to be a tiny electrical current was what allowed our neurons to talk to each other, kept our heart pumping, and allowed us to use our muscles, all of that. But I don't think it's electricity doing those things. Not anymore. I suspect what's happened is electricity has been replaced in living organisms by mana."

  He turned to me. "Cameron, that's why you were so weak when you completely tapped out your mana. You had used up so much that your body was critically low on a resource that it needs in order to survive. If we didn't have mana at all right now, I think we'd just drop dead. Our hearts would stop, our brains wouldn't function anymore, and our nerves would no longer conduct."

  "That sounds insane, you know that right?" MacGregor asked.

  Alex nodded. "Sure, but so does everything else that's happened since this Event began. I think we just need to get used to living with a little insanity in our lives."

  "Fair enough," MacGregor replied.

  I examined the work I'd done on the wall. It was a nice start, but the giant crabs would tear through it with little effort. And the one enormous crab would just ignore it entirely. Its legs were long enough it could just climb over my tiny wall and barely notice it was there. I still had no idea how to stop that monstrosity.

  I turned to Alex and MacGregor. "Is there anything else I can do to help us prepare?"

  MacGregor shook his head. "Based on what you told me, I think they should be less than ten minutes out. I can't think of anything you can do in that time that will make much difference in the outcome of this battle."

  "I've been passing out crystals to some of the troops," Alex said. "That should help some."

  MacGregor nodded. "I'm sure it will, and thanks for that. This fight isn't going to be easy, but we're the only thing standing between the Karabos and their plan to completely destroy our city."

  I turned and noticed that our discussion had drawn quite a crowd. Over a hundred people had wandered over to listen in, and more were joining the crowd by the moment. MacGregor saw this too and raised his voice so it would carry.

  "God damn, I suck at speeches. You all deserve some Henry the Fifth type thing. A speech for the ages. Something that'll inspire every heart and make you all fight like you were ten men and not just one."

  "Or women," Claudia hollered from somewhere in the middle of the crowd.

  "Yes, or women," MacGregor agreed with a laugh. "The point is, we're it, people. There's no other help coming. There's no backup team to save the day if we fail here. We lose this fight and we lose this ground forever. It'll return to the sea. In fact, it looks to me like they're planning on taking more than the sea originally had. If we lose here, we lose Boston, and who knows what else beyond that. If the Karabos win this fight, do you think they're going to stop here?"

  His voice trailed off. I felt like it was my turn to add something. I stepped up onto one of the concrete barriers and stared out at the crowd, feeling an instant moment of imposter syndrome. But I buckled down and started talking anyway.

  "Folks, some of you know me, and some of you don't. My name's Castle, and thanks to these crystals, I can do some pretty cool stuff. I can't do all of this though. Not by myself. I almost died twice earlier today, taking down the towers that were flooding our city. But they are down now," I said. "This lot coming at us? They're strong. They're numerous, they have a lot of magical powers. I'm standing here to fight them anyway. Even if I was by myself, I'd probably still be trying to do whatever I could. But I'm not alone, and neither are you.

  "We are so much stronger together than we would ever be alone. Remember to look to your right and look to your left. Those people are here fighting with you. They're showing the same strength of heart and courage of conviction that you are. Forces have tried to take over Boston before and they've never managed to succeed. I don't think today is the day they do it. Do you?"

  The shout that rose from the crowd in front of me was a little ragged, but loud and enthusiastic. "No!"

  I stepped down from the barrier, and MacGregor clapped me on the back. "You should have told me you were ready to do the speech. Would have saved me the time."

  "Are you kidding? I'm no better at it than you are," I replied.

  “I disagree, but that's beside the point," MacGregor said. He turned back to the crowd and raised his voice. "They'll be here soon. Squad leaders, move your people to their assigned positions and make yourselves ready."

  The crowd broke up quickly, the designated squad leaders passing orders to their commands. Soon my little makeshift wall had rows of people tucked down behind it. Some of them stood on the concrete barriers while others were on the ground, focused on the spaces between the cars. Those gaps were narrow, but they were still big enough that an enemy could potentially slip through. And just as important, they allowed the defenders an easy way to shoot out, at least for those who had some sort of ranged attack.

  Then, someone cried out, "Look! Over there!"

  I whirled, turning toward the south, and there it was. That titanic crab was marching its way up Cambridge Street toward us. The smaller crabs and Karabos surged around it, turning themselves into a first wave. When they saw our defensive line, the enemy paused, but just for a moment. Our wall wasn't going to be enough to deter them by itself. As the Karabos advanced like an ocean wave, we all knew that this final defense of the city was going to be paid for in blood.