Evac

It was raining again, or rather, it was raining harder now. The rains had been nearly constant over the past 3 days, the only change being in the intensity. The bus was crowded, packed with people and their belongings. At least the crying and screaming had stopped. Now everybody was quiet and mostly just stared straight ahead. Even the babies didn't fuss, they just stared straight ahead, like they somehow understood.

Three hours before, we had all been loaded into the bus. Evacuation orders had come down from the High Council and everyone grabbed their belongings and met in the town square. A handful of grunts were there as well, as escorts on the transports. The black and grey hardshell armor they wore was different from the green flakvests of the Kyodan Planetary Defense Forces, so they must be from off-world, but only the Emperor knew where. About half-way through loading, one of the townspeople had caused a fuss. Calde was an old woman and always had to have her way. She was trying to pull 3 battered suitcases and a pile of boxes onto the bus with her. Looking at the line of evacuees behind her, the grunt assigned to their bus had shouldered his way forward. "Pick one," he said. She stared blankly at him. He gestured to the line behind her. "This bus will be overcrowded. If you bring all this with you, someone will have to stay behind. Go ahead and pick someone so you can explain to them why they have to die so you can keep your stuff." She started to cry and he simply turned and walked off. Still crying, she clutched a single suitcase and started up the stairs.

The bus started down the pockmarked road, first in the column aside from the gun truck with it's Hydra gun mount. The grunt stood in front, next to the stairwell. He didn't seem to mind the bumps of the ride, but he kept rubbing his hand on the casing of his flamer. After the whole convoy got underway, he seemed to snap back to the present and turned to face the refugees. "Look," he said, "I don't know what your government has told you, but the Bugs are coming." Although there had been rumors and some spotty reports, this was the first actual confirmation. There were some reactions of shock and horror and everybody started talking loudly. The grunt just stared at them until the conversation trailed off. "We've seen planets in the path of the Bugs before, so we volunteered to help." Volunteered? That didn't sound like the grunts I had known. "We're going to get you off of this planet as fast as we can." There was a hubub of complaints and questions. The grunt just stared them down. "I don't know where you are going or what you'll do when you get there, and I don't care. My concern is to get you AND me out of harm's way as soon as possible. Now, I need somebody to help me keep an eye out. I want someone with some military experience." He scanned the crowd. Most people just sort of cringed. He pointed at me, "You. Get up here." I stood up and began the bumpy, swaying walk up to the front of the bus. When I arrived he said, "Good, you may all go back to your own business now." Then he turned to me.

Up close, I could see the scar that ran down his face, under his glasses and down to his upper lip. The scar tissue left a patch of his lip free of the stubble that coated most of his face. The tag on his armor read Eichenberg. He pulled out a huge Bolt pistol and handed it to me with a questioning glance. As I felt the weight in my hand, I looked down and inspected it. It was a solid, bulky piece of kit that looked like it had been run over by a truck, but everything seemed to be in the right place. The action was pretty similar to the Autoguns I'd been trained on, so I aimed the nose down, pulled out the clip and counted the shells. 7 were there, each the size of my thumb. I slapped it back in and cocked it, noting that the slide was smooth and the internal parts were well cared for. I looked back at him and said, "Now what?" He looked a little more relaxed after watching me handle the pistol. "Now we watch," he said, "I'll be in the stairwell here watching out the front and the side. You stand up here and watch the other side. If you see anything, slap me on the helmet or shoulder. Don't yell, it'll just scare the civvies." He paused, then went on, "If they are close, get out of the way first off, this thing'll do more than that pistol will. Once I'm in the window, you can shoot around me. Remember you've only got 5 shots, though." I must have given him a funny look, because he explained, "If they're still coming after 5 shots, put the muzzle under the back of my helmet and give me the sixth. You can have the seventh." He stared me straight in the eyes. I guess he was waiting for me to shy away or panic. I was so scared I almost peed myself, but I took a deep breath and looked him right back in the eyes. "What about the others," I asked, "what happens to them?" He didn't say anything, but his eyes slid in the direction of his flamer. I swallowed and held on to the driver's seat while I fought off nausea.

We didn't speak much after that. He just crouched in the stairwell absently running his hand over the flamer, like it comforted him. I held on to the driver's seat and swayed and bounced with the bus, watching the rain pouring down. It was hard to tell in the gloomy twilight, but the ferns and grass that normally bordered the roads around here seemed to be replaced by twisted, spiky tendrils that were taller and thicker than any plants I'd ever seen. Just as I was thinking about that, the driver got a call on the radio. The second bus had lost a wheel and they were stuck by the side of the road. The driver looked panicked and sped up. Eichenberg put the tip of the flamer to the back of the driver's head and said, "Nobody gets left behind. Stop. Now." The driver shuddered and pulled to the side.

Eichenberg and I got out. The second bus had careened to the side and had it's exposed axle stuck in the mud off the shoulder of the road. The sky was like I'd never seen it before, a sort of green shot through with red. Thick, sticky things fell with the rain and wriggled where they hit the roadside. I could see the passengers in the second bus. They sat there, ashen-faced, too scared to move or even scream. I could feel the hairs on the back of my neck standing on end. It was like there was electricity in the air, like sometimes you feel before a big storm. Eichenberg ran up to the bus. "Everybody out, now. Leave your stuff!" He and the other grunt started splitting up the groups and sending them to each of the already overcrowded buses. Back on our bus, I could see that they wouldn't all fit, even standing in the aisles. An old man at the back stood up. He looked at the new people, sopping wet with the rain. Then he cleared his throat and said, "Take my spot. I'm getting off." As he made his way forward, Eichenberg stood in front of him. He said, "Nobody gets left behind, get back there old man." Then another man stood up. "Someone can have my seat," he said, "I'll ride on the back bumper." Just like that, he went outside and grabbed a hold. After a moment, several more followed him. Soon we had people riding on the hood and the bumper and even a couple on the top and hanging out the windows. We got back underway with everyone somehow still with us.

I got the eerie feeling that I was being watched. There was movement right at the edge of my vision and I wasn't sure what I'd seen at first. There it was again, and another. Although it was hard to see through the weird tendrils, I could make out pale figures bounding through the gloom, and some razor-sharp talons waving above. I slapped him on the shoulder and he bounded up to the window, sticking his flamer through even as he strained to see a target. They were too far away for the flamer to do any good, but he kept it at the ready. He spoke quietly, in the quiet rattle of a professional soldier. At first I thought he was talking to himself, then I realized the cord around his neck was probably a throat 'caster. Over the sound of the bus engine and the bumps, I could only make out a few words. "...Slashers....White carapace...2 packs." He listened a moment, then leaned over so I could hear. "Just pacing us at the moment, keeping distance. Out." I realized that my fingers had been digging into the driver's seat so hard that they were cramping. I shook my hand out and watched the things. The whine of the engine rose higher. I looked up and I could see the sweat beading on the driver's bald head. The engine sounded out of tune and was definitely struggling to keep up this pace.

The Slashers were running along parallel to us. Their white, bony plates were easy to pick out of the darkness. Without looking up, Eichenberg said, "We think they start their invasion at the poles, so they aren't discovered before they build up. That color blends in well with snow, trust me." He had his hand up near his face, but he was turned away from me. Then it hit me, he was rubbing his finger on the scar. We kept watching them as they ran along. They never got any closer, they just kept following us. They paced the bus for about 10 Imperial miles before they fell behind.

In the distance, I could see large refineries and factories. My heart leapt, we were almost to the starport. Soon I could see huge transport ships landing and everyone on the bus cheered. Eichenberg didn't look any more relaxed, though. Off to the side, there was a huge explosion of flame. It looked like one of the refineries was on fire. Buildings were torn down and fire was everywhere. Something moved out of a cloud of flame and I could see the massive bulk of a Screamer-Killer. We were almost to the gate, I just prayed to the Emperor that they'd open it for us.

The gate was open when we got there and there was a huge line of vehicles jammed up, trying to flee to the safety of the city. Grunts were everywhere now, directing traffic and manning various weapons. The thunder of the dropships' titanic engines pervaded over everything else. It was an earshattering din, where the noise all ran together into a single sound. There were men up on the walls with searchlights and Antiaircraft guns scanning the area beyond the walls.

BOOM. The sound broke through even the noise of the Dropships. The sky was lit with fire. To the east, one of the mountains seemed to have blown it's top off. Fire and magma spewed skyward in jets reaching the clouds. Even as I watched the violent display, I could see people pointing. I followed their fingers and what I saw left me as cold as ice. Limned by the fire, I could see a huge wave of the bugs about a mile from the city. As far as I could see, they surrounded us. I couldn't see the end of the swarm, just a mass of chitin and claws to the horizon. Towering above the others, the massive bulks of Screamer-Killers roamed through the mass. After a moment, I realized that they weren't getting closer, they were just standing there, watching us.

I didn't know what they were waiting for, why they hadn't attacked already. Then it dawned on me. There were probably half a billion people here at the moment, and more were arriving constantly. We were being herded! I tried to explain to Eichenberg, but he pulled my face close to his and said in a heated whisper, "Stow that, soldier, you'll just spook the others."

We finally passed through the gate and followed the throng of vehicles toward the landing field. Grunts were waving buses straight up into the bellies of the transports, which were taking off as soon as they were full. There was no semblance of military drill here, the big birds were lifting off as the hatches were still closing, and everyone seemed just this side of cracking.

We drove straight up the ramp and almost plowed over a grunt that directed us to the far wall. The driver didn't brake quite fast enough and bumped the wall, but I don't think anyone else even noticed. The grunts were shouting at us to stay in our vehicles so no one got run over. In just a few minutes span, the entire cavernous hold was full. Even as the all-clear sounded and the ramp started up, we were pressed into the ground as the ship rose, engines screaming for lift.

Even when we cleared orbit, the ship kept accelerating, right until the warp drives engaged. I had always heard that you had to have the ship very stable and be careful when you went into the immaterium, but I guess that just shows you how much I know.

Eichenberg found me a couple of days later. He told me that everyone made it out alive, even the rear guard. It was like the bugs were waiting for us to leave. After that there had been more eruptions and the bugs scoured the surface clean as a marble within the week. I have no idea where we are going or what we're going to do when we get there, but I'm sure glad I got away from home.

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