As soon as we deviated from the path set out for us and started heading towards the ultrasonic source to the west, the situation immediately changed.

  The Antithesis flooded into the tunnels, charging at us from every possible angle. They weren’t exactly difficult to dispatch; the waves mainly consisted of the early models with a couple teens mixed in, but the sheer number of Antithesis really bogged us down.

  “How can there be so many of these ankle biters down here?” Angeline screamed over the gunfire. “We should have seen some sign of them before now, where were they hiding?”

  “We don’t know how extensive the tunnels are. There could have been staging areas elsewhere,” Amy suggested.

  “Then why didn’t they come out to engage us earlier? Why did they avoid us?” I growled.

  “Honestly? If we are facing a Thirty-Seven, like the AIs suspect, and it sends orders through ultrasonic waves, it’s possible it could be using those same waves to track both us and the other Antithesis. Mapping the area like a bat,” Charlotte declared. “If so, then it would be fairly simple for it to just redirect the other Antithesis around us until it was ready to strike.”

  “Yeah, well, if it really wanted to get rid of us, it should have sent more than these gribbles at us!” Nora exclaimed.

  “We know it has access to Twenty-Threes, Twenty-Eights, and even various Model Thirties. It must be trying to slow us down in order to buy time to prepare for our arrival,” I yelled.

  “It doesn’t matter how well it prepares. We’re going to end this thing,” Charlotte declared. “Angeline, how much farther?”

  “Not far! Less than a hundred meters!” she exclaimed.

  “Then let’s get in there before that oversized tick gets a chance to finish its preparations!” I yelled. “Bob, Heavy, clear the way!”

  As soon as I gave the order, the two bears moved. Bob sprinted straight into the horde, kicking and trampling the small Antithesis, clobbering them with his oversized paws. Meanwhile, Heavy trudged forward, shouldered his way through the front line, and opened up with his rotary laser cannon.

  The two of them managed to quickly thin out the horde ahead of us, which allowed the group to move forward. The bodies on the floor were so thick that I struggled just to move forward, stumbling and climbing over the monstrous plants.

  “Cleanup is going to be a bitch,” I muttered under my breath.

  “Worry about that later, keep moving!” Charlotte shouted.

  We managed to get all the way to the end of the current corridor before the Antithesis rushed us again. I was still busy climbing over the stupid weeds, paying more attention to my footing than the situation around me, when Charlotte whipped her rifle off her back supernaturally fast and fired down the corridor.

  Even with all the sound dampening in my helmet, the sound of her rifle firing still caused my ears to ring.

  “How could you possibly sneak around with that fucking thing?” I shouted as I staggered around.

  “The silencer lowers penetration, and we need all the firepower we can get right now. Heads up!” Charlotte yelled back.

  I glanced up just in time to see an entire horde of Twenty-Threes emerge from the darkness, right at the extreme edge of my enhanced vision. This wasn’t like the previous attacks, containing just half a handful of the oversized bipedal monsters. There were dozens of them, completely filling the tunnel.

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  I watched as Charlotte fired again, blowing a hole straight through several of the monsters. Even though she was taking out several with every shot, it probably wasn’t going to be enough.

  As I silently ordered the Moose with Coilguns forward, Nora came sailing over my head. She literally bounced off the walls as she made her way forward before delivering a massive blow to the head of one of the front monsters, throwing it back into the rest of the pack. The rest of the pack snapped at her, but before any of them could catch her, she’d already bounced away, jumping off another wall and smashing into another of the aliens.

  She scared me sometimes.

  The Twenty-Threes managed to make most of the way down the tunnel before the Moose managed to set up and start firing. Within the enclosed space, the heavy cannons scythed through the massive aliens. With the added firepower, we finally managed to halt the Twenty-Three's berserker charge, as the monsters started dying as quickly as they could advance.

  It took us a couple minutes to finally put down the colossal monsters, but in that short period they completely filled up the tight space, blocking up the passage.

  “Motherfucker, this is going to take forever to clear!” I snarled.

  “Can’t we just melt them? You know, like you always do?” Amy asked.

  “We could, but most of the bears are still holding off the horde behind us, and Twenty-Threes take forever to fucking melt. We either sit here and wait several minutes or try and fight our way to another entrance,” I explained.

  “That’s not the only way through. We could go over!” Nora said as she ran over to us. “There’s enough room for us to squeeze through.”

  “But we’d never manage to get the bears up there,” I yelled. “You want to leave them behind?”

  “If we kill the Thirty-Seven, it should throw the rest of the Antithesis into disarray. Then you can use the bears to clean up the remaining models,” Charlotte declared.

  “And if we run into another horde on the other side?” I asked.

  “Then we deal with them,” Amy declared, brandishing her twin submachine guns.

  I glanced at the others before letting out a long sigh. “Fine, but if at any time it seems like we might get overwhelmed, we retreat back here. Agreed?”

  “Absolutely,” Nora replied with a nod.

  “Bob!” I shouted over my shoulder. “I need you to clear this tunnel as quickly as possible! Move them, melt them, whatever you need to do!”

  “You got it, boss!” the massive bear called back.

  With the bear’s acknowledgement, I jogged over the barricade of flesh. Even collapsed on their side, the Twenty-Threes were several meters tall, and when several of them were lying on top of each other… it was quite an imposing barrier.

  Charlotte just casually walked up and leapt to the top of the pile of flesh before slipping through the gap at the top of the tunnel. A second later Bern fired a grappling hook and followed her, although he had to scramble a little to make it up.

  “Ummm… I don’t think I can do that,” Amy mumbled dejectedly.

  Before she could say anything else, Nora scooped up the girl in an impromptu fireman’s carry and jumped up.

  Amy screeched in surprise for a few seconds, right up to the point where the pair disappeared behind the bodies.

  I threw my rifle over my shoulder and sighed before bouncing from head to head as I made my way up the wall of flesh.

  “I need to upgrade my bionics,” I muttered. “Everyone keeps showing me up.”

  As I clambered over the final Twenty-Three and glanced into the tunnel behind them, I was surprised to find the area completely empty.

  “Anyone else find this highly suspicious?” I whispered as I dropped down next to everyone else.

  “Well… if the Thirty-Seven thought it had completely blocked off the tunnel, maybe it sent more Antithesis to flank us and crush our defensive line on the other side,” Nora mumbled.

  “But if Charlotte is right, and it has some sort of radar, then shouldn’t it be able to tell we’re coming?” Amy asked.

  Charlotte nodded silently but didn’t say anything for several seconds. I considered going over to tap her on the back, but before I could, a massive box appeared before her.

  “What’s that?” Nora asked.

  “Ultrasonic muffler,” Charlotte replied. “I figured we should have a way to deal with the Thirty-Seven before we confront it.”

  “Good idea!” Amy chirped.

  “Yeah,” I muttered, glancing around. The calm atmosphere on this side of the blockade was starting to weird me out. “We should get going, take care of that thing before it actually starts throwing more Antithesis at us.”

  “Right,” Charlotte replied, unwrapping the package and revealing a large cylindrical device. She flipped a switch on the side, then immediately slung it over her shoulder using the attached strap. The area immediately filled with a steady, low-pitched hum. “Let’s go.”

  The four of us immediately started jogging down the tunnels. It was a short trip, and when we emerged from the other end, we found a grotesque sight. Sitting right in the middle of the room was a massive, bloated figure. It was similar to the tick-like Seventeens, but this one was close to two stories tall and shaped more like a brain. It had several atrophied limbs that wiggled ineffectively as the dozen or so eyes carefully inspected us.

  “Well, this is going to be easy,” I muttered, bringing up my rifle. Before I could fire, a wave of ultrasonic noise erupted out of the monster, smashing into us like a physical strike. Even with the dampener, the wave hurt. At this range it knocked me back and disoriented me.

  It didn’t last long, maybe a second, before I shook the effect off. I started to bring the weapon up again but only managed to get it halfway up before something smashed into my shoulder with enough force to throw me off my feet.

  I barely had enough time to register the meter-long bone harpoon, which had punched straight through both my armor and my body, before I felt something pull on the far side of the oversized weapon.

  As I was yanked backwards, towards the far side of the room, all I could think was “Shit.”

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