The horde was bearing down on them, less than twenty feet away. The seconds felt like agonizing hours as bodies continued to drop against the hail of bullets and Logan's dazzling bolts of energy. His J7 began to warn of overheating.
There was no stopping the oncoming infected with the weapons at their disposal. There were too many of them. Logan stood as close to Lilith as he could; if this was it, they would at least be near each other.
His thoughts grew darker as last resorts began to creep into his mind. A sound like the sky being ripped open hammered into Logan, driving any such thoughts from him.
Heavy impacts showered them in debris and shrapnel as Logan pulled Lilith to the ground and took cover against the side of the APC. The Sparrow moved into view; two point-defense turrets blazed angrily beneath the ship's bow. There was nothing the infected could do against such an onslaught.
Part of the administration building exploded as a missile impacted it. Debris was flung into the streets as another explosion rocked the building. Logan could only watch as the building was blown apart piece by piece. Anti-ship missiles were not effective at all against buildings.
Dust flooded the street as the building partially collapsed, and chunks were thrown into the street and surrounding structures. A thick wave of dust partially obscured their vision as the point-defense turrets fell silent. The soup that surrounded them rendered them almost blind.
"I'm only getting static!" Sergeant Aaberg said, keeping his panic under control. "Missiles ineffective!" He repeated that a few times but got no response.
With a deep groan, an infected stumbled through the dust, missing half its torso. Logan quickly shot it in the head. More infected continued to appear, and Lieutenant Fetter fired blindly into the dust with the APC's heavy machine gun.
To Logan's right, someone opened fire. More shapes began to appear in the dust as Logan readied himself again. Infected with heavily destroyed bodies, stumbled and crawled towards them.
The Sparrow had bought them some breathing room. Taking a second to center himself, Logan began to shoot at a slower pace. He had the time to line his shots up and gently squeeze the trigger. Beside him, Lilith was doing the same, efficiently dispatching the infected, who appeared slowly from the dust cloud.
Logan felt like they were gaining some ground now. Lieutenant Fetter's aggressive machinegun fire became short and focused bursts.
The sound of metal being cut just made it to his ears as Logan dodged out of the way, pushing Lilith clear as well. Sharp knife-like claws ripped through the air where he had just been standing. The heavily changed infected came at him again at high speed, with more infected pushing through the sliced open fence.
Before Logan could get his pistol aimed, he had to duck and slide to the left, narrowly avoiding another attack. Blood-red eyes were laser-focused on him as the infected snarled and lunged again.
Having nothing to block or parry with, Logan could only try to dodge out of the way again. His enhanced reflexes allowed him to barely keep up with the creature assaulting him.
Not having time to take a shot, Logan was purely on defense now that the creature was in melee range. Near him, Lilith was taking rapid shots at the infected moving through the fence.
"I'm almost out of ammo!" Lilith called out as she reloaded again.
As the infected Logan was fighting lunged again, it staggered back suddenly, a bullet punched through its shoulder as Emily opened fire from on top of the APC. Taking the opportunity, Logan lined his shot up as quickly as he could move and fired.
Slumping backward with a hole melted through its head, the infected began to glow as the flesh almost melted off its body. In a matter of seconds, all that was left was a charred skeleton and some burn marks on the floor. The image burned itself into Logan's brain as he had a flashback to Bendraar. It was the same damned thing.
"There's more of them coming! We have to push through the fence!" Lieutenant Fetter Hollered. The dust began to settle, and Logan could see hundreds more infected crossing the corpse-strewn street.
Logan turned his attention to the opening in the fence that was now their way out.
Before he could even begin to fire, an explosion rocked them all. The force almost took the wind out of Logan as the last of the dust was dispersed forcefully. A column of smoke rose from the now utterly destroyed administration building. Logan barely had time to orient himself again as a streak raced from the sky, impacting the ruins with another massive explosion.
"Orbital barrage!!" Lieutenant Fetter screamed.
"Lieutenant, get the back doors open!" Logan shouted back.
A third explosion almost threw them to the ground as it fell short of its target, obliterating the wrong building.
It took a second for the back hatch to open, but they all piled in as more rounds continued to fall from orbit. Huddling in the dark interior, dust pushed in through the open hole in the roof as explosions continued to shake the vehicle.
Another six explosions rocked them, and one felt incredibly close. The ground shook violently, and a deep rumble marked the end of the bombardment. They didn't move for another few minutes as debris, dirt, and other materials fell like rain on the APC's hull.
Quiet eventually returned to the world. Not even the infected were making noise.
Opening the hatch again, Logan came face to face with an infected. He raised his weapon and paused. It didn't react at all.
"Shoot it?" Emily asked in a confused manner from behind him.
Logan stared at it for a moment. Its body was totally still, like it was frozen. Inching forward, Logan nudged it with the barrel of his weapon, which caused the infected to drop like a rag doll. It lay on the ground, unmoving.
"What the fuck?" Emily stepped out into the street and looked around. Logan joined her, and they observed the carnage surrounding them.
The Administration building was a smoking ruin. The only indication that a structure had been there was the bits of building that managed to survive. Now, it was more accurately described as a hole in the ground.
Two other buildings had taken hits and were half blown apart. Infected stood frozen amongst the carnage where the Sparrow had opened fire. It was a mess.
