David disliked Chief Ivor almost immediately after Gis pointed him out amidst the chaos of what Gis called their HQ.

  The HQ was a single-floor old building surrounded by a low, damaged fence. The gate had been torn off along with parts of the side pillars, leaving the place completely exposed.

  David could imagine his father complaining about the lack of defensive measures. Trucks came and went without any personnel logging he could see, and only a few of them were armed with automatic rifles.

  Which meant they lacked the firepower to fight the constant flood of monsters gushing out of the tower.

  “This place is a death trap,” Elisha said as they walked toward the small man. “We should get done with our business here and leave. If this is the protection they’re depending on, I don’t want to imagine the casualties they’ve suffered.”

  “We have done the best we can do,” Gis said, her voice tight with frustration. She didn’t turn to face them, but her tone carried all the bitterness she could muster. “We save those we can, putting ourselves in the jaws of danger while we are at it. You’re strong and… magical. We’re human. We don’t have all that shining power you do.”

  “We know that," David said, glancing left and right. A steady stream of people hurried in and out. He wondered how there could be so many.

  Back home, many people held their children back from volunteering to join Specter. If they’d had half this population, they would have saved more people. Yet, he couldn’t see the same organization he’d witnessed in Gis’ squad here. Everything and everyone merged into a disorganized crowd.

  “How many of you are trained?” Zoey asked, voicing the thoughts of the rest of them.

  Gis shrugged. “Not many,” she said. “Most of us joined when the waves got worse. There’s nothing we can do, nowhere to run. Those who fled to other parts of Altimira have been reported dead or enlisted into small groups. The city—no, the country—has been split into many small divisions like this. Many of them are led by gangs, which is far less ideal.”

  They approached the chief, who was talking to another man dressed in soldier’s camo, gripping an older model of the AK-47.

  The chief appeared to be in his fifties, though the weight of his new role seemed to have aged him further. His eyes were sunken, and his mustache was grayed and thin. His bald head was the only pleasant part of him, shining as if he’d just oiled it for this meeting.

  The second man was slightly younger. Dressed in cleaner camo pants, he stood out—an odd yet capable figure amidst a crowd of ineptitude. He was the first to notice the approaching group.

  Gis didn’t salute like a soldier. Instead, she gave the chief a nod of respect before smiling at the other man. She introduced them to the chief and recounted what they’d done. Unsurprisingly, the mustached man had already heard about it.

  “We lost Ruiz and his group,” the other man said. “They were torn apart. There’s been news of waves in other colonies, but ours seems to be the worst of it. The others didn’t mention anything about a larger, flying monster or the monsters dropping from the sky as if it was taking a dump on us.”

  He smiled at David and his siblings. “If these people hadn’t been here, we’d all be on the ground with our eyes unseeing. Thank you.”

  David shrugged. “That is why we need your help,” he said. “We have to leave. And the sooner we do, the better it’ll be for you and… you all…” He hesitated, glancing around, struggling to call them an army. Somehow, they felt like civilians playing dress-up. “You soldiers. The sooner we leave you, the easier it will be on you.”

  “We’ve got a wave coming tomorrow, my friend. We could use your help…” The chief glanced from Gis to the other man, seeking confirmation. “Your magic power.”

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  “With your help, we can fight back the wave and save more people. We need your help more than you need ours. You saw the people as you drove here? Soon, there won’t be gas to fuel the trucks to go to the places where the waves appear. We need your help.”

  Gis half-turned toward David, her eyes filled with a silent plea.

  Elisha shook his head, and even Zoey agreed with him. They had no time to stay. If they stayed for the monster wave, Balek would use the opportunity to try something worse. The tower god didn’t care for the lives of humans. None of them did. Humans were lesser than livestock.

  David cursed at himself, at Balek, and finally, at the monsters.

  “Not possible, I’m afraid. But I can do something for you,” he said, and Ignis grumbled within him. Even Vith voiced how pointless what he was about to do was. “I can share a piece of my tower’s power with you.”

  “Your tower?” the chief asked, frowning. David ignored his suspicious stare and corrected himself.

  “I can share a bit of my power with you if you think you can handle it. I can’t promise you’ll be able to control it or that it will be useful to you. But it might save you, and it might help you save someone else.”

  “And you’ll want what in exchange?” Chief Ivor asked.

  David frowned. The man was an idiot, but that seemed obvious from the way Gis and the other man winced, leaning away from their boss.

  “You should kill him and put Gis in charge,” Vith said. “She appears competent.”

  “The location of the tower in your city,” David said, his patience suddenly stretched thin as he watched the man’s eyes. They seemed to weigh him and his siblings.

  Gis attempted a subtle gesture toward him, but the chief’s attention was elsewhere.

  “You will pay the clearance fee like ever—”

  A dark, oily blade pressed to his neck just as David’s fist heaved to smash his face. David froze as the other man hoisted his rifle, pointing it at David at almost the same time Gis did the same.

  David caught her movement from the corner of his eye and lowered his hand.

  Elisha didn’t let the man go. His shadow pushed the knife deeper until it drew blood, and the chief grunted, his eyes filled with terror.

  “You know those bullets won’t reach me before my brother opens his throat. Also, I think giving you a share of my power in exchange for entrance is reasonable,” David said.

  “Mine, yes,” Gis said, nodding behind David. “What of them? Will you kill us all?”

  David turned to find the crowd frozen, as if time had been stopped by some whimsical god. It would take Elisha a moment to kill everyone, but David wasn’t here to kill anyone.

  He sighed, tired of the games.

  “Listen, if we don’t leave, all of you will die. I’m almost certain of it. The battle you fight out here is important, but small in the scale of things. We are leaving to stop the real threat—the one that can smother life from this planet with a snap of their fingers. You don’t want me and my family here tomorrow.”

  Elisha stopped pushing his blade, but he didn’t let the chief go. The tension crept higher, and David feared he would have to kill some of them after all.

  A part of him wished he’d forced Gis to take them to the tower and face whatever scrap of soldiers were stationed there.

  “Fine,” the other man said, lowering his gun.

  He kept his eyes on the shadow swirling around Elisha. Real fear lingered, evident in the slight trembling that David noticed—and for which he felt an unexpected sense of gratitude.

  Fear could be a garrote, squeezing courage out of the bravest of men. It could also be a whisper of wisdom.

  “You promised to share this power,” Carlos said, pointing to Elisha. “But I don’t want just that. I’m tired of sitting here, day after day, losing to the monsters. I want to go in with you.”

  “You will die,” David said immediately.

  Carlos winced. “The world in there is harsher.”

  “But I will be as strong as you,” Carlos said.

  “Carlos, don’t be stupid,” Chief Ivor interjected. “They are going to di—”

  Elisha’s blade stopped him.

  “He is not wrong,” David said.

  “I will take my chances,” Carlos said. “I want the powers you have. I want to fight these things and not cower when my gun jams. You understand?”

  “I do,” David muttered. He spun on his heel to face the crowd. “Who else wants to join us?”

  Silence spread like a ghost song, and David felt a small sense of relief. He’d hoped they would decline. He didn’t want to carry the weight of so many souls with him.

  “I will join you,” Gis said from behind him.

  Chief Ivor swore loudly.

  And with Gis, many others screamed their interest to follow them.

  David wished they wouldn’t, but he needed them. If Balek was planning to do something terrible, he’d need a small army of his own.