The fight for the future

554

"How's it going?!" I shout up to Dominick. He is busy melting large pieces of rock together to form a barricade against the alien forces that are amassing in front of us.

"Almost done!" he shouts back. "Give me another fifteen minutes!"

"We may not have that long, Stel! How's it look?" I say into the comms.

"Not good." She says grimly, "there's at least three hundred of them all standing in block formation about 1,000 yards away."

"Out of effective range. Fuck." I curse, walking over to where the rest of the group is asleep. "Guys wake up. We need to move." I say and everyone gets up, stretching off sleep and gathering their gear. As my squad stands up I aim my rifle down the street, using the zoom feature on my helmet to watch the enemy. I see the green alien that killed Ella walk to the front of the crowd and thrust its palm at us.
"What was that for?" Stel wonders aloud. Dominick then stands up, finished with his welding. I hear several small 'thwips' and he stiffens.
"Dominick!" Laurel screams as he falls backward, several spears of bone sticking out of his forehead and chest. As soon as they see him fall the aliens let out a roar of triumph and charge at our position.
"All units! Open fire!" I shout, jumping up to the barricade and firing my rifle on full automatic. Plasma flies toward the enemy and they return fire. One of the men from Kate's platoon jumps up next to me and fires his rifle in short bursts. An explosion blossoms up from where one of Stel's arrows hits. Kate lies on the pile of rocks along with Erica and the two of them begin sniping enemies as they approach. Laurel cradles Dominick's body in her arms as the rest of us desperately try to push back the alien army.
"Face it Laurel!" Lee says, stabbing a lucky alien in the chest. "He's dead!"
Before putting on her helmet Laurel gets this look in her eyes. A look I've never seen before in someone as kind and helpful as her. Her eyes are murderous.
"All of you fall back." She says flatly, stalking over the barricade.
"No! Laurel! You'll die!" Cathy screams, grabbing her arm.
"But I'll slow them down." She says before taking a high explosive grenade in each hand and running into the alien army.
"We really should move." Lee murmurs in my ear as a giant explosion kills hundreds of aliens.
"Let me try and contact upstairs. Maybe we can get some reinforcements." I say. I then kneel down on the ground and press my comm button. "Command! This is Captain J'son requesting reinforcements! Repeat! I need backup!" Out of the corner of my eye I see four of the men from Kate's platoon go down and I spring up into action. The aliens have pushed up to approximately ten feet from our position, all the others have fallen back but I hip fire my rifle at the approaching troops. One attacks me and I drop my weapon to push it away, then I pull out my sidearm and fire four shots into its head. Then I pick up my rifle in the other hand and begin firing both weapons at the aliens trying to break through the barricade. I slice one in half, blow two apart and rake my fire through a dozen more before I yell "Fall back! Fall back! Fall back!" Then I unstrap the shield from my back and cover my team as we run deeper into the alien city.