"Lilith—GO!"
The shout broke her freeze. She ran into the nearest house and slammed the door.
Ronos closed the distance fast. Hayes fired.
CLANG. CLANG.
Only the giant's face was bare. The rest of him was wrapped in scrap metal. Both slugs hit plate and did nothing. Ronos did not slow.
Hayes cracked the breech to reload.
WHOOSH. WHOOSH.
The mace cut the air where his head had been.
Too fast.
He stopped trying to win the stand-up fight and ran. He could not beat that man blade-to-blade.
A raider stepped into his path with a machete. The swing came down. Hayes caught it across the shotgun, both hands locked on the barrel. Boxed in. Ronos smiled that filed-tooth smile and wound up for a finishing blow.
The sound that landed was not bone.
Hammer met mace.
Odis had driven the block home. They locked there—Ronos a shade heavier, Odis just as stubborn. For a second neither gave. Then the push threw them apart.
Hayes turned the machete aside and let the raider stumble off-balance.
BANG. BANG.
The man's head came apart on the pavement.
Another raider rushed him from behind with a nail-bat dark from the settlers. Hayes slung the shotgun and took the machete. The raider chopped overhead. Hayes stepped right and cut. The blade stuck in the thick wood and stopped halfway. Recoil ripped the machete out of his hand. Both weapons were useless.
Hayes put his fists up.
The raider copied him.
They charged. At the last step Hayes pulled the knife from his belt and drove it into the man's gut. The raider howled and went down.
Hayes did not fight fair. Not in this world. Grief for the dead settlers sat in him anyway. The settlement was finished. The life he knew was finished with it.
Across the square Ronos and Odis kept trading hits. Both were soaked, both gasping. The fight had stalled.
Then five more raiders came in from the sides.
"Come, my boys," Ronos said. "Let's slaughter these pigs."
Three went at Hayes.
BANG. BANG.
Two dropped. The third was almost on him when a bolt punched through his chest. His eyes went empty. He fell.
Lilith waved from down the lane, crossbow still up.
The last two hit Odis together and broke his stance. CRACK—he smashed one through the sternum and the raider died on his feet. The other caught Odis's leg with the nail-bat and tore a strip out of it. Hayes ran for him. He was already too late.
Ronos had the opening. The spiked mace hit Odis in the chest. Something inside him snapped. Odis went down.
BANG. BANG.
Hayes shot the raider still standing over the body.
"NO—"
Lilith's scream carried across the square. After that the settlement had no more voices. Smoke. Bodies. Two men left.
Ronos grinned.
"Just you and me, ghost. Your time has come."
He charged. Hayes loaded two slugs and ran to meet him. Rage did the rest. Odis had been the closest thing he had to a father. His own father had died before he was born—that was all his mother ever said. This man did not get to walk away from that.
At close range Hayes put both barrels at Ronos's head.
DING. DING.
The giant got his bracers up in time. He swung for Hayes—
—and stopped with a groan. A bolt was buried in his elbow.
Ronos punched Hayes in the stomach with the other fist and sent him flying. Hayes hit yards away, air gone. Ronos ripped the bolt out and looked at Lilith.
"YOU BITCH."
He went for her.
Hayes forced himself up. Get up. You do not let this happen.
Lilith jammed another bolt. SNAP—it glanced off armor. A few yards left. One shot. She did not panic. She looked him over. Plate on the chest, arms, shoulders. Not on the feet.
Barefoot.
THUNK.
Ronos screamed. The bolt went through the top of his left foot and dropped him. His size still carried him forward. He crashed into Lilith and drove her into the house. She hit the wall and went limp.
Hayes slowed only to reload. Now it was the two of them. Ronos stood with a limp. The mace was still in his grip.
"I'll come back for you later," he told the girl, and turned on Hayes.
They walked straight at each other. Hayes made himself wait. Two shells. They had to count. Ronos slashed the mace in a diagonal cross, then again. Each miss came close enough to feel. Hayes watched the follow-through. He had seen it the last time they traded: when the swing missed a body, Ronos still let it hit whatever stood behind it. He did not pull the blow.
WHOOSH. WHOOSH. WHOOSH.
Hurt, and still that fast. Hayes backed toward the workshop.
WHOOSH. WHOOSH.
One of those connects and I'm done.
He stopped in front of the heavy block in the corner.
WHOO—THUNK.
The mace bit in and stuck. Ronos still had his hands on the handle.
BANG. BANG.
Hayes shot the hands.
They burst. Bone and blood. Fingers gone.
He did not get a breath to use it.
Ronos slammed into him anyway and wrapped him up with the stumps of his arms. The squeeze crushed the air out of Hayes's chest. Each breath came smaller. He worked one hand free. Face to face with the giant.
He punched Ronos in the mouth. Again. Again. His own vision started to narrow.
"HAHAHA. FINALLY I HAVE CAUGHT YOU, GHO—"
Hayes drove the fist down the open throat and shoved as deep as the arm would go.
Ronos bit. Teeth tore into Hayes's forearm. Blood ran into his sleeve. The giant's size turned against him—more body, more air needed, none coming. His face went purple. He thrashed the workshop, wild and failing. The bite loosened as the oxygen ran out.
Hayes pushed harder.
The fight left Ronos in one last shudder.
He was dead.
The room went still except for Hayes's breathing and the slow drip on the floor