Eternal Winter

As Anubis rounded the edge of the barrier his eyes flicked to Lance’s hand, which dragged along the ground as Lance flung a handful of snow into Anubis’s mask.

“Gah!” Anubis clawed at his face, stumbling back as he pushed the snow off the eyes of his mask. In his moment of hesitation, Lance turned and lunged toward the raiders. Before they had time to react Lance had swung his weight around to his fist, which collided with a raider’s face. He fell to the ground next to Angela, out cold. A noise of amazement at the strike came from Kalden, his hands still chained down. Lance knelt next to Angela, flicking open his knife and slitting her bonds.

“You alright? I swear if they did anything to you-” Lance began.

“I’m fine Lance,” She said, looking at the raiders around them that were slowly approaching. Lance began turning towards them, but suddenly he was grabbed roughly from behind and ripped away from Angela, thrown to the ground. He groaned and looked up at Anubis standing over him.

“You’re a tricky son of a gun,” Anubis scoffed. “You never deserved her! I would have done so much better,” He said as he leveled his rifle closely at Lance’s head. Lance quickly rolled to the side as the rifle went off right next to his head, leaving an explosion of sound in his head. He pushed himself to his feet, shaking his head, attempting to get the ringing out of his ears. “-pay for ever thinking you would be good enough!” Anubis’s voice faded back in. Lance glanced around at the raiders who had been standing to the side. They were restless now, gripping their weapons and slowly pushing towards him.

“Stay back!” Anubis hissed at his men. While he was looking at them, Lance raised his pistol at him and fired three shots. Anubis ducked down and spun behind the wreckage of an old truck. After a moment Anubis whipped around and raised his rifle, but Lance was already ready. A bullet ripped through Anubis’s thigh, and he screamed as he fell to the ground.

“Agh! GET! HIM!” he yelled towards his raiders.

“Oh no,” Lance whispered, looking around at the raiders surrounding him. There were ten of them, and his eyes fell on one that stepped forward, pointing at him with their pointer finger.

“You’re going to pay for that one, mate,” Her Australian accent floated to his ears. Lance turned in a slow circle to look at all of the raiders who were slowly approaching and raising their weapons. He frantically raised his pistol at the sky and fired off a warning shot.

“Get back!” He yelled, however, he quickly looked up at his pistol. The slide had locked back. He padded at himself, but he didn’t find anything. Glancing at the barrier he hid behind, he saw the pouch of ammunition he had dropped. Between him and the pouch were the raiders. The raiders laughed at him.

“Awww is itty bitty Lancy out of ammo?” They jeered. Lance dropped the now useless pistol and pulled his knife. Ten against one.

One man with only a knife.

And they have guns.

At least Angela got away.

Angela struggled against the rebar pole in her hands, trying to pry the chains off of Kalden’s arms. The rebar dug into her gloved hand, threatening to tear it. Behind her, she heard Anubis’s rifle go off, and she cringed, but she didn’t turn around, only glancing up at Kalden, who was looking at Lance and Anubis. Kalden made a series of clicks and responded,

“[He rolled away,]” Angela breathed a sigh of relief as she went back to her work, but stopped as Kalden pushed against the chains.

“Stop moving!” She hissed at him, glancing up at the raiders. They were lucky that their focus was on Lance and Lance only. Kalden made an apologetic whirring sound. “Come on!” She said, the link in the chain bending, but refusing to break.

“[Move quickly Angela, Lance is not paying attention.]” Angela could feel the metal of Kalden’s arm vibrate as he spoke.

“I’m going as fast as I can!” Angela said in a panicked voice. More gunshots exploded nearby and Angela yelped.

“[Lance fired those,]” She didn’t respond to him, only focusing on pushing the link further. Suddenly, she heard Anubis scream out. She whirled around, watching Anubis writhe in pain.

“GET! HIM!” Anubis yelled, and the raiders began closing in.

“Oh no. Lance-!” Angela said. The chains behind her chinked, and she turned back to see Kalden straining against the bonds.

“[Angela, Lance is in trouble. Focus.]”

“Oh. Right, right.” Angela said in a small voice. She grabbed the rebar and levered against the chains, bending them further.

“[Angela…?]” Kalden said. “[Angela. Quickly!]”

“I’m trying Kalden!” She said in a panicked voice. A gunshot roared from behind her, causing her to begin turning around, but Kalden grabbed her wrist.

“[Focus! Lance is out of ammunition and vastly outnumbered.]” Kalden said in a stern voice, though his voice was incapable of changing, Angela got the message. She pushed against the rebar, the chains bending farther and farther, nearly breaking. “[Angela,]” Kalden said “[Angela! We are out of time!]” Angela gritted her teeth. She quickly rose to her feet and pushed Kalden’s arms against the ground, and slammed her foot into the rebar. The chains cracked with the scratch of ripping metal but didn’t come undone. With a shout of defiance, Angela slammed the bar one last time, as hard as she could. The shattering of chains echoed around them, making some of the raiders turn towards them, finally noticing Kalden rising to his feet.