As soon as it was safe to step on the acid, we took off in pursuit of the Thirty-Seven. It would have been easy to catch it if it weren’t for the wave upon wave of Antithesis that threw themselves into us.

  “How can there still be so many Antithesis down here?” Amy whined. “We didn’t encounter a single one on our way down, and now they’re pouring out of every single tunnel we pass.”

  “The Thirty-Seven did a good job of keeping them out of sight, but I didn’t expect them to have packed so many of them down here. It must have thought that if the Twenty-Threes, and Thirty-Fours couldn’t take us down alone, they might have a better chance if the big ones had backup. They’d be able to slow us down, if nothing else,” Charlotte grumbled. “I understand it’s a case of life and death for that thing, but I really wish it would give us a break. We’ve been at this for close to an hour.”

  “At least we’ve been able to keep the Thirty-Seven moving back towards the town,” I grumbled, before stepping back and glancing over at Angeline. “We are still going towards the town, right?”

  Angeline flipped up her goggles and chuckled, ‘Yes, Evelyn, we’re still herding it back towards High River. Honestly, I don’t know if we would have been able to manage without Bob. It’s tried to double back a couple times, and that oversized goofball is the only one that can bounce back and forth fast enough to block the Thirty-Seven’s escape routes.”

  “Don’t tell the fuzzball that, it’ll give him an oversized head,” I muttered. “Besides, he’s not doing anything special; he’s just delivering Bern’s chemical bombs. If anyone’s a hero here, it’s Bern. He’s the one blocking off the tunnel behind us, so the Antithesis can’t flank us.”

  “Awww… are you upset that he’s butting into one of your specialties and that we’re not using your minefields or fences instead?” Angeline asked.

  “Hardly,” I scoffed back. “Not only are they expensive to buy, but both of those systems have a severe downside. Plus, I’d hate to have to come back down here and retrieve dozens of the devices afterwards. It would be a real pain in the butt to manage. Better to use Bern’s temporary blockages.”

  “Please, I can see something about it bugs you,” Angeline said, stepping closer and attempting to inspect my face through my helmet. “Is it because Bob is showing more attention to Bern than you?”

  “What? Of course not, why would I care about that?” I exclaimed.

  “Really?” Angeline asked suspiciously. “So that doesn’t bug you?”

  She pointed towards the back of our group, where Bob was bouncing around Bern like an excited puppy. They were too far away for me to hear what they were saying, but Bern seemed to laugh before summoning a couple barrel-sized bombs before pointing at a couple intersecting tunnels. Bob nodded excitedly, snatched up the barrels, and took off towards his next targets.

  He didn’t even bother to stop to fight the Antithesis, he just charged right through them, crushing some underfoot and ignoring the others.

  “He didn’t even bother to stop and say hello,” I grumbled.

  Angeline just burst out laughing. “It’ll be fine. Once we finally corner this Thirty-Seven, he won’t have a reason to interact with Bern and he’ll be back to following you around like a puppy again.”

  I shot her a dirty look and just received a smug grin in return. “Don’t worry, it’ll all be over soon.”

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  She patted my head with one hand while snatching a materializing chocolate bar out of the air with another. After swiftly unwrapping her snack, she once again lowered her goggles and wandered back to her place on the line.

  I sighed, ejected the magazine of my new weapon, and slammed in a new one before stepping back up behind the front line.

  Even though we were in the middle of a chase, and losing the Thirty-Seven could have dire consequences, it didn’t really feel like it. We were advancing at a walking pace, advancing slowly but steadily due to the bears, but somehow managing to keep up with the oversized Antithesis mastermind.

  It was frustrating because I didn’t feel like I was actually contributing much to the chase. The new heavy coil rifle hit much harder than my previous weapon, but it also fired much slower. The bears were just able to mow down the small models much more efficiently than I could with their much faster firing weapons.

  I’d only stepped up to the front line for a couple seconds when Bandit poked me in the side.

  “Something doesn’t smell right,” he whispered.

  “You’re going to have to be more specific,” I grumbled. “What doesn’t smell right?”

  “If I knew that, I’d tell yah, boss. All I know is there’s something strange in the air. Plus, the pack is acting weird.”

  I stepped back from the line again and stared down at the fox.

  “And what the fuck does that mean? Start giving me specifics, not vague statements,” I sighed.

  “There’s gaps in the horde. Mostly along the edges, but also a couple right in the middle. Suspicious. I tried to poke em, but they’re too far in for me to get a good shot.”

  I cocked my head to the side. “Alright… I’ll admit it’s strange. Where are these gaps?”

  “I’ll forward the latest readings to yah,” Bandit immediately barked. “You gonna look into it?”

  “I don’t know if I’ll be able to do anything, but I admit it’s suspicious,” I admitted. “Give me a minute.”

  When I stepped back up to the line for the third time, there were new markers in my heads-up display. Half a dozen icons marking suspicious gaps in the swarm. I never would have noticed without someone pointing them out to me.

  After staring at the space for a couple seconds and not having a better idea, I unloaded my entire magazine into the area. It took me a few moments to dial in my aim and cut through the surrounding Antithesis, and when I did, the suspicious gap exploded into a blurry shape full of teeth and blades. The change was so sudden that I jumped in surprise.

  “What the fuck was that?” Amy screamed.

  “A Nine… I think,” I shouted back. “I didn’t get a good look at it, but that’s kind of their point!”

  I turned, aiming at another suspicious space that was slowly approaching the front lines, and unleashed another burst. This time I didn’t take time to dial in. The rounds ripped right through the Antithesis standing around the area and shattered the Nine’s disguise, causing it to lash out wildly with its scythe-like limbs before going down.

  As soon as the second Nine went down, all hell broke loose. The previously passive, nearly invisible ambushers burst forward, shoving their way through the crowd, using the larger models as cover.

  “Bandit, share your target data with everyone and set up the other foxes to intercept!” I shouted.

  “What? What’s happening?" Angeline asked, raising her goggles in alarm.

  “Nines!” I shouted back as I gunned down another gribble.

  Catching movement out of the corner of my eye, I turned just as a Nine burst out of the horde, leaping above the bears before they could even react.

  I started to bring my weapon around, but before I could, the creature burst like a balloon full of knives, showering the area in gore.

  “Finally, a challenge!” Charlotte crowed. “I was tired of firing randomly into this mob. Taking out individual, fast-moving targets is more my speed.”

  She shifted her massive rifle slightly and unleashed another devastating shot. Unlike my weapon, which could cut through two or three smaller models, her shot cut through a swathe of Antithesis. Even with all the fodder in the way, her round still caught a Nine dead on before continuing through all the models behind it and embedding itself deep in the tunnel wall.

  With the ambush failed, Charlotte and I were able to swiftly clean up the rest of the Nines. The little glitchy buggers were annoying because they were smaller than the surrounding models, and unless they were close enough to charge the lines, we had to fire through the surrounding meatshields. Thankfully, we both had weapons capable of doing that now.

  It wasn’t exactly a fast process; there were far more of them than I’d originally realized, including a large group of Nines that was hugging the wall further down the tunnel. They were probably planning to wait until we passed by, then hit us from behind. Almost certainly the Thirty-Seven’s idea.

  Once we finished, though, Angeline bounced forward, a huge smile on her face. I stared at her suspiciously for a moment, but then she relayed the best news I’d heard all day. “It’s surfaced.”

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