Shadows, Nightmares and New York

I drop the binoculars.
“Jesus Christ...” Jest mumbles. “Who the hell does that midget think he is?”
“I don't know. But we have to leave. Now.” Mandala's taken control of the situation.
“Ok. Let's g...”
“I have a clear shot.”
We all turn to look at Lily, finger on the trigger, ready to fire.
“What? Are you crazy?” Pete questions, genuinely confused at Lily's proposal.
“I have a clear shot. I could send that bastard and his doomsday propaganda all the way to hell.”
“Lily, don't d...” Jest is halfway through his sentence before Lily aims at Alexis' head and pulls the trigger.
We all instantly pull up our binoculars and stare in dismay. We see the Master of the urchins squealing in pain, grasping his shoulder. The wind must have affected the bullets path. All the urchins are franticly looking for where the shot came from. We should drop down, but we're to fixated on Alexis' frantic efforts to stop the pain.
Then it happens.
It all happened very fast. Alexis was roaring in pain, grasping his head and shaking violently. Then his bodyguard ordered a small, rock-like urchin towards Alexis. It looked as if they were trying to help the leader, who’s blood was soaking the first few onlookers. The urchin leaped, sinking his fangs into his wound and pressing his sharp, violet spikes into his flesh. Alexis stretched out his arms, and screamed so loud that it echoed in the baron wastelands. Suddenly, The urchin merged with Alexis, lsealing his would with it’s rocky outer-shell. A gleaming, spiky collections of blue rocks were in the place of where the shoulder once was. The rocks traveled down his arm, the long, pointed rocks digging into his flesh. Blood was Everywhere. When it finally reached his hand, it formed into four long, sharp pincers, gleaming in the light. We all gasped, not daring to look away from the current “miracle”. Alexis studied his arm, withdrawing the spikes and then sending them back out, as if testing the power of his new gift. He grinned, then grew into a rage. He sent spikes flying out of his arm, flying into the front few rows of urchins and those around him, including himself. He winced, then pulled out the crystal shards. He looked around, studying the effect. Practically everyone who had been hit by the shards had been torn apart by them, leaving their bodies in shreds. Only Alexis' personal body guard had been left unharmed, skillfully dodging the shards as they came. He looked at the crowd, then at us. My heart skipped a beat- had he seen us? He growled.
“AFTER THEM!” He roared, pointing directly at me.
He saw us.

We ran, not daring to look behind us. The last we saw through the binoculars was the urchins franticly running towards our location. If all urchins are as fast as the centipede was, they'll be here in 20 minutes. As we jump into the jeeps, I franticly tap in Dimitri's number.
“Strand. What's the situation.” Dimitri demands.
“Get everyone out. Start the engines up. We have hundreds of urchins after us, we have to fucking leave!”
“We won't be ready for 40 minutes!” He complains.
“Shit!” I curse. “What do we do, huh? WHAT THE FUCK DO WE DO!” I'm more scared than angry. We wouldn't stand a chance against all of them.
“Remember the plains around 500km from the camp site?” He seems surprisingly calm.
“Yeah, why?”
“Hold them off. Give us as much time as you can. We'll call you when we're ready.”
“What? But we'll DIE!” I roar down the phone.
“No you won't. Vehicles are faster than them. Hop in the jeeps and drive off. You just have to last till then.” He says. “Good luck.” And hangs up.
“We can't go back to camp- they're not ready. We'll all die if we do.” I exclaim.
“Are you fucking joking? What are we going to do?”Jest argues. I quickly explain the plan, holding them off in the plains. Lily calls Pete and explains too and tells him to head to the rendezvous point.
“I'll be a bit late.” He chuckles.
“Why? We need you and Mandala!”She urges.
“I'll be there before they are, trust me.” He replies, and hangs up.

20 minutes later. Pete and Mandala have arrived, and Tex and Chris have shown up for help, Tex armed with an RPG launcher and TMP, Chris armed with enough grenades to blow a 60ft hole in the ground and a burst-fire handgun. Thankfully they brought Mandala's minigun and Pete's BAR and twin Magnums. We're all nervous- Even Chris. We know that if the rest of the group take to long, we're screwed.

10 minutes later and the first come into sight. I half hoped that they had lost our track and given up, but they hadn't. Sadly.
“Take positions!” Mandala roars. We all know he's got the best battle abilities out of us, second only to Dimitri.
“Lily! Climb on the jeep roof! Start picking them off, and ALWAYS aim for the head- even if it misses the target it'll hit something behind it.” He commands.
“Right.” She says, and starts climbing up when Jest kisses her. She smiles, then continues.
“Strand!”
“Yes?” I answer, turning towards our leader.
“When they get around 600m away, start firing at them with your MP40. Save your shotgun for in case they get close!”
“Ok!” I run towards the jeep Lily's on and take my position.
“Everyone protect Jest! His flamethrower will tear through them like paper! We lose him and our chances of survival sink like titanic!”
We all nod, and turn to look at Jest, geared up and looking towards the heard of monsters roaring towards us.
“Everyone wait for the fireworks before you start firing!” Pete roars.
“Fireworks? What fireworks?” I say right before an explosion deafens me. I turn around to see huge clumps of mud and mangled Urchins fall from 30-40ft in the air.
“Go!” He screams.
Gunshots fill the air. Urchins screech and fall down mangled and ripped apart. Groups of them blow up as Chris launches grenades in the air. They're around 200m away. Mandala Jumps over a car bonnet, lifts up his minigun and starts firing like mad, slashing through them like a Shark ripping apart a smaller fish. They've fallen back around 25m before they start gaining ground.
“How many of the fuckers are there?!” I roar.
“God knows!” Pete replies. They're around 100m. I grab my shotgun and join Mandala in the front line. I aim for a sheep-like urchin, with a mane of teeth and fizzing liquid for legs. I fire, ripping half of it's side out. Shot two cuts it in half completely. Switching it to spread, I aim at a moth that's speeding over the mass of urchins. 3 shots before it's wings are completely shredded. I stop to reload. I'm taking to long! 5 seconds later and I've reloaded. I spin around to see Jest incinerating anything that's in his way, cackling while he does it. He's enjoying this! Tex is infront of Jest, just out of the way of the flames pouring from him. He lifts up his RPG launcher and aims at a huge, rock-rhino ploughing through the dead bodies of it's kind. Looking through the sight, he fires, blowing the rhino's head to rubble!
“Woo-hoo! Haha! Awesome!” He celebrates.
“Great!” I congratulate, then cry out to him as a monkey set of fire with snakes in it's chest leaps onto him, clamping it's razor-sharp teeth in Tex's neck.
“Tex!” I cry, running over to the shouting Texan and smashing the beast off of him before blowing it's brains out.
“It's too late for him!” Pete says, grabbing my shoulder.
“We have to try! We have to!” I moan, desperately trying to put out the flames covering the still-alive man.
“We've got the message from Dimitri- We have to go!” Lily shouts, jumping into the drivers seat and starting the engine.
“Right.” Chris agrees, jumping into the second jeep and preparing to drive off.
“But Tex!”
“We have to go! It's too late for him. Accept it!” Pete roars, and drags me to the jeep Lily's got running. Mandala and Coleman join us, with Jest jumping into the other. 30 seconds later and we've sped of, leaving Tex crippled, burning and with hundreds of annoyed and hungry Urchins clawing at his flesh.