On the Front Part 2:

(Read the Previous part here)

Part 2:

Ash. My boots are caked in it. I'm walking through the abandoned streets of San Francisco. My motion tracker is silent. I'm alone. Cars scattered and thrown by some giant force. A huge triangle that was once white blocks the path ahead. As I approached I heard a snapping noise. A wild dog was standing there, petrified. I realized I had raised my gun. I lowered it slowly. The dog ran into a dark alley and disappeared. I look at my motion tracker. Movement, high above me. I look up. Fallen are leaping between rooftops towards the still smoking ruin of an old, pyramid shaped building,

“What are you looking for?” I muttered to myself, “Ghast, can you do a scan of that building?”

My ghost appeared alongside me and flew away to the edge of the building. It scanned and turned to me,

“I’m detecting a huge heat plume on the 37th floor.”

I ran towards the building and throw the broken doors. The large lobby towered above me as i looked for an elevator or a stairwell. A door labeled stairs stuck out to me. I opened the door and began to climb. Higher and higher.

4th floor

9th floor

On the tenth floor, the stairway was dissected in two. A large gap stood between my platform and the next flight of stairs. I had no choice. I jumped. Moments later, I missed.

A stray electrical wire dangled from the broken stair and I latched onto it. I grunted as I pulled myself up to the stair itself. My glove held as I heaved myself over the edge and onto the stair.

I sighed with relief and continued upwards. More floor numbers fell as I passed them. When I arrived at the 37th floor, I nearly collapsed from exhaustion. The door leading to the interior of the building was ajar. Cautiously, with weapon drawn, I entered the building.

The floor was darkened and near silent, but I could hear a faint humming, as if old machinery was running. I followed the noise until I saw it. A room light by the red glow of its inhabitant. It looked like a microreactor,like something I might have found at a Clovis Bray facility. Wires dangled loosely from the ceiling of the room. The window was broken, a different set of wires lead out of it and snaked upwards towards the roof.

A screech tore me from my hypothesizing. A dreg stood in the rooms small doorway. It charged at me, mandibles open, the screech still ringing in my ears. It tackled me through the broken window. I grabbed the wire and held myself up.

The Dreg had my leg. I shook violently, as if trying to remove a poisonous animal. It’s mandibles clicked in fury. I banged my leg against the frame of the building, and the Dreg’s grip loosened. I banged it several more times against the gleaming quartz of the building’s exterior.

Then, only one arm held me. Then, none. The Dreg screeched as it plummeted to the Earth,

“Dreg strength indeed.” I muttered as I gripped the wires more tightly. Wedging myself against the building, but holding myself to it with the wires, I started my ascent.

(Read the next part here)

//Thank for reading this week's installment of On the Front. Tune in next week to find out what the Fallen are doing at the top of the Transamerica Pyramid//