HERO

The metal stairs of the helipad rattled violently under the weight of several people. With the weapons of the military roaring behind her back, Claire flew upstairs, following Nora and Lilian.

All civilians bunched up close to the border of the platform, which was about fifteen meters in diameter and decorated with a large, white letter H.

As if welcoming them, the rescue helicopter, now clearly visible in the sky, approached the tower. It was a gigantic vehicle, much bigger than conventional helicopters, driven by two enormous rotors that emitted a deafening sound.

'Is that thing going to fit up here!?'

On the back of the helicopter, the access ramp was open, and two soldiers observed the situation from above. The vehicle positioned itself over the helipad, and one of the soldiers pulled out a megaphone.

"Watch out!! Stay away from the center of the platform!!" he announced.

The strong winds produced by the rotors made hearing difficult. Claire saw several soldiers working together to push something that looked like a chest, until they dropped it into the void, towards the helipad.

The box impacted the concrete with a dull sound, creating a thin dust mist, and it slid some meters in the direction of the stairs. Colonel Rowan ran to the box and opened it, revealing a stash of weapons and ammunition.

"Attention! The rescue team needs some minutes to land the helicopter! Everyone who's able to fight, arm yourselves!! Hurry!!"

Only a few dared to grab the weapons, but those who did showed no hesitation, taking position near the edge of the helipad and opening fire on the shamblers emerging from the stairwell. The soldiers had lost their ground, and got farther and farther away from the stairwell, while the corpses piled up by dozens.

William rushed to Claire's side, and almost grabbed her by the shoulders, although he didn't do it, perhaps upon noticing her wounds.

"Claire…! Where's Eleanor!?"

Claire felt her heart sinking. She had completely forgotten. She had lost sight of her when they were forced to evacuate the area due to the gas attack.

"A-Ah…! I don't know…!!"

"What do you mean!? Are you kidding!? You were supposed to—!"

"Down there…!" said a female voice by their side.

Stella, armed with a rifle, pointed at something. Following her finger, Claire spotted her. Very hidden among the air conditioning units of the rooftop. Very close to the place the shamblers were pouring from.

"Fuck…!" mumbled William, bolting towards the helipad stairs.

'N-No, she was my responsibility…! Not again!'

Claire pounced on the weapon box. Most of it was combat rifles, which she had no idea how to use. She rummaged among the supplies, and laid her eyes on a pistol.

'Ah!'

Unconsciously, she found herself back on the lower area of the rooftop, following William's steps. It didn't matter she was wounded. It didn't matter she was tired. She had to make that last effort.

"What're you doing here!? Go back to the helipad!!" shouted one of the soldiers as soon as he saw them.

They could barely hold the shambler wave back. The bodies piled up in front of the stairwell door, but that didn't slow them down in the slightest. They erupted outside en masse, pushing and climbing over the corpses.

William scurried between the machinery where Eleanor was hiding, with the shamblers dropping dead barely some meters away. Claire stopped and raised her pistol, but she didn't even know what to do with it. Her right hand was useless, and the left one mutilated. She couldn't aim like usual, or hold the weapon properly.

'Oh god, oh god… What do I do!?'

After some seconds that felt like an eternity, she saw William emerge from behind the machinery, with Eleanor in his arms. Some feet away from them, a new group of shamblers rose over the corpse pile, looking for prey.

Bullets rained on them from the helipad, dropping them among spasms and squeals, yet one of them remained standing and lunged towards William with its mouth open wide.

*Bang!*

The pistol's recoil tore it away from her hand. The shambler fell like a rag on top of William and knocked him over, emitting one last gurgle before staying still, with a hole in its head from which viscous blood spilled.

"Jesus…!! Claire!" William squirmed under the shambler's corpse while hugging Eleanor, shielding her with his own body.

Claire rushed to their side, breathing heavily, and out of the corner of her eye, she saw more shamblers stumbling in their direction. She didn't stop, despite fear gripping her soul, and yanked the corpse away from them.

"C-Come on!!" she yelled, with a shaky voice.

'I don't wanna leave anyone behind ever again! We'll get out of this one! All of us…!'

With William closely behind her, she ran back to the helipad, while the soldiers continued pulling back, one step after another, exhausting their last magazines.

******

"The helicopter is ready! Come on, everyone on board!!" shouted Colonel Rowan from the helipad.

Isaac looked back for an instant, and saw the enormous silhouette of the rescue helicopter perched on the platform.

"Hurry, get back! Pull back!! Pull back to the stairs!!" he said.

Some of his men had already abandoned their rifles out of lack of ammunition, resorting instead to their pistols. They couldn't spare a single extra second.

"This is Jay-02!!" said a voice over the radio. "The Convergence wave is almost at the rooftop! You've gotta get out of there now!!"

Isaac defended the bottom of the stairs until the last of the soldiers retreated to the helipad, from where several civilians took shots at the horde. Its advance was unstoppable, the rooftop was covered in bodies, and a scandalous cacophony of shrieks and shattering glass approached from underneath, along with ever more violent tremors.

He ran upstairs to the helipad. The unarmed civilians had already boarded the helicopter.

Colonel Rowan met him by the stairs, opening fire on the stingers. "Hurry, captain! Everyone on board, come on!!"

The soldiers rearmed themselves and pulled back to the helicopter's ramp. The sound of boots tapping on the metallic surface was the most comforting thing Isaac had heard in a long time. Weapons steamed, shaking as if they were about to fall apart, spitting a constant rain of projectiles on the furious horde, which now climbed the helipad stairs.

"Everyone's inside!" shouted the colonel at the front of the helicopter. "Take flight, go, go, go!!"

The crowd's rumble seemed to come from all directions already, and its inhuman squeals could be heard with chaotic clarity.

"Get the fuck out of there!!!" said the voice on the radio.

The Convergence wave crept over the rooftop railings like a fluid. Isaac wished he didn't have to face those creatures ever again. What a fool he was.

The metallic railing was compressed by the weight of their exoskeletons, the concrete floor cracked when their claws sank into it, their multiple insect-like eyes tracked the helicopter down, their mandibles opened in anticipation.

"Close the fucking hatch!! Hurry up, close it!!"

"Open fire, don't let them get close!!"

The vehicle began taking flight, and the creatures seemed to notice. They rushed towards the helipad in the blink of an eye. One handful after another, dozens of those monsters climbed the tower's walls and flooded the rooftop, crushing the inferior stingers that got in their way. Bullets rained incessantly over them, but all they did was aggravate their anger.

They overwhelmed the helipad stairs, and then the helipad itself. They extended their arms in the helicopter's direction, but it was already beyond their reach.

'Shit, that was fucking close…!'

The monsters climbed one on top of another at vertiginous speed, rapidly increasing in height and reach, and forming a living tower that in mere seconds managed to cling to the helicopter's cargo ramp, which hadn't been able to close yet.

The entire vehicle was shaken up, and the civilians piling up towards the front began screaming and panicking.

"Bloody hell…!! They've caught us!!"

"O-Open fire…!!"

"Move this fucking junk, hurry!!"

A tremendously loud noise filled the atmosphere around them, overshadowing even the roar of the helicopter's rotors. Struggling to keep his balance, Isaac looked outside one of the windows of the compartment.

Kurtis Tower was crumbling apart.

The structure was covered by a dense grid of bright blue spots, with smoke and dust belching out in waves through them. The imposing building tilted more and more to the side, until its structural integrity completely gave up. The tower collapsed over the neighboring buildings, creating a colossal dust cloud that rose high over the helicopter, and taking those creatures down with it.

However, one of the monsters was still clinging to the back ramp of the vehicle. It couldn't shut closed, the creature's body blocked the way, wedged against the upper area of the compartment. It shrieked and roared, throwing its claws in all directions, denting the metal and creating a multitude of crevices that let puffs of dust into the compartment.

The helicopter rotated in circles, destabilized by the creature's thrashing.

"Fire…!! Kill that bastard!!!" yelled Isaac.

Riddled with bullets, the stinger squirmed even more, trying to break free from the metallic ramp pinning him up. Those weapons weren't meant to fight such an enemy. Its osseous shell splintered, but didn't break. Some shots hit the joints between plates, causing wounds that splattered a dark brown liquid. The luminous web of lines coursing through its entire body blinked frantically, as if each impact, each bullet, further increased its desire for freedom.

Over several seconds, the squad maintained uninterrupted automatic fire on the monster, only stopping to switch magazines.

The creature's strength was victorious. The closing mechanism of the ramp gave in upon the repeated convulsions, breaking apart, and causing the ramp to open up all the way, freeing the monster.

The helicopter wobbled up and down, making almost everyone lose their balance.

'Shit…!'

Isaac felt like he was out of breath. Everything seemed to happen in slow motion in front of his eyes.

For a single ephemeral instant, the stinger stood still. Its eyes scoured the helicopter compartment. They stopped over something at the end, towards the front of the vehicle. There it was, visible, vulnerable. The young queen. The source of the Convergence. The only thing those bastards cared about. The red-haired woman hugged her, with an expression of pure terror on her face.

******

The queen suffered.

The queen needed help.

The queen was calling them.

Those feeble creatures were in the way.

It hated them.

It hated one of them in particular.

Why was it so close to the queen?

Blasphemy.

The queen was theirs.

Unforgivable.

Unforgivable.

Unforgivable.

******

He wouldn't add more names to the list. It didn't matter if it was a stinger queen. Or a pseudo-queen. It didn't matter if they were the last hope for mankind's salvation. At that point, he didn't care about any of that.

They had a name. A life ahead of them. Dreams, expectations, a priceless existence. An existence whose weight he'd forever carry if he let them die there.

The slab on top of his shoulders was already heavy enough.

'Not one more.'

He had no plan, he had no time to formulate it, but his body moved on its own, getting in the creature's way.

The stinger advanced through the compartment at high speed, running over the other soldiers, who barely had a way out within that claustrophobic space. Isaac knew he couldn't stop it. The beast charged him, grabbing him with its claws and easily pushing him back.

He felt something sharp in his stomach. Adrenalin blocked any feeling of pain, but the sudden warmth running down his abdomen was enough warning. He didn't have much time.

The stinger opened its mandibles wide. They were big enough to envelop his head whole. Isaac wielded his assault rifle with both hands and shoved it all the way down its throat.

'Choke on this, motherfucker!'

He pulled the trigger, and didn't let go until the weapon stopped shooting.

What happened next manifested as a series of blurry images in front of his eyes. He was looking at the helicopter's ceiling. He felt heavy, something big laid on top of his body. Was it the stinger? Had he made it?

He was cold. He still felt no pain at all, but the warm sensation in his abdomen was replaced with constant shivers.

'I think… I get an idea… of what's going on…'

A figure kneeled beside him. He knew that face.

"C-Colonel…" he muttered. Colonel Rowan observed him with one of the most serious expressions he could remember. "T-The list… colonel… D-Do I have to a-add… more names…?"

Rowan shook his head.

"A-Ah… G-Good…"

"Rest, soldier. We're going back home."

"Y-Yes, home… Some r-rest… w-won't hurt… A b-beer, a cold one… A soft b-bed… I-I kinda m-miss it already…"

"Shh… You need to save your strength now."

"Right…"

'G-Go back home, huh…? You're a bad l-liar, colonel…'

Isaac closed his eyes. Thinking was a struggle.

"You're a hero, Isaac Stone."

******

Rowan stood up. His eyes combed the area.

The walls were dented, cracked, and covered in blood. Most of that blood was human. Several soldiers lay dead close to the ramp, while those still alive struggled to remain standing. They most likely had broken bones, deep cuts, and numerous bruises.

Many heroes had risen, and died, on that day.

'At least the civilians are unharmed…'

He looked at the stinger's corpse, in the middle of the compartment.

"Somebody help me kick this thing out of the helicopter." he said.

He was furious. Throughout the years, his heart had hardened under a thick shield, but no shield was indestructible.

"C-Colonel…!! We've got trouble!!!" said one of the pilots, from the front of the helicopter.

It was no time for grieving. Not yet.

"The horizon is shining!!!"