For the first time tonight, Corporal Mia Vascel was glad to have no one else around.

For the last few hours, her fear had grown as the number of people with her diminished, from over a dozen to just two others, and now, only the old Sergeant. Right now she was one old heartbeat away from being alone, as far away from the City as anyone alive could be, with a breach in the wall. It was nerve-wracking, and she dearly wished for company.

Until right now, she mused to herself as she ran. That old heartbeat belonged to an old man who was kicking her ass in a half-mile run.

She darted around an obstacle and took a few quick steps away from it before she recognised what it was. A single solid brick, half again as tall as her, with a thick bar of steel poking out of one side.

It had been a part of the wall, no more than an hour ago.

Up ahead, Valen had slowed to a quick walk, as he approached the gap, where nothing but darkness had replaced a section of the wall. She smiled in relief, for long enough to realise the old sergeant had readied his Salamander and started marching.

She dashed to catch up with him, stopping a few feet away and slinging her weapon off her shoulders. "Sir! Any sign of the Lieutenant?"

"Nothing yet," Valen replied. But his gaze wasn't set towards the watchtower, where the Lieutenant had brought down the Golem.

He was staring at the world beyond the last wall. Into the impenetrable grey shadows of the Gloam, still lingering beyond the fading pilot lights.

Mia turned to look, and nearly cried aloud.

The mountain of stone that had started pummelling the wall was lying, broken, in the distance. Immense pieces of it were severed and scattered, chunks hewn apart and blown so far that most of its ruined form had already been swallowed by the Gloam.

But the broken Golem was not what had drawn the old Sergeant's attention. Mia followed his gaze and caught sight of something else moving in the distance.

Caught in the flickering firelight, the shadows of figures darted in and out of sight. Mia thought she could see dozens, and silently prayed she was wrong.

Valen stopped behind a piece of stone slightly larger than a table; a piece of debris that afforded a generous line of sight through the breach. He waved for Mia to follow, as he scanned the horizon.

"We need to hold here," Valen said, and stepped behind one of the larger pieces of stone in the breach. He began taking rounds out of his pockets and lining them in groups of four along the rocks in front of him.

"Sir? I thought we were grabbing the Lieutenant?"

"We are," he said, smiling. He pointed further into the field, to a solitary shape moving in the shadows. "She's on her way. But those things..." he pointed out past the gap in the wall, where flickering shadows suggested the presence of hundreds of figures. "Might cut us off. And if we can't light up those fields, they'll chase us right up to the next wall. So we hold until she arrives, then we run like the invasion is right on our heels."

"It is," Mia hissed. She was twitching, anxious, her eyes darted erratically, and she struggled to contain her nerves.

"Aim for the chest. Those things are animated by the Gloam in their lungs. Puncture it, and they stop," Valen reminded her, slowly and clinically. The relaxed, almost bored tone of voice was a reassuring contrast to the panic she felt, and helped force her to take a slow, deep breath.

The endless months of drilling clicked suddenly, in the back of Mia's mind. She recalled the first entry in the manual: The Gloamtaken were animated by the Gloam that sat inside of them, playing them like a puppet. To cut those strings, force the Gloam out.

"Aye, sir," Mia said quickly. As she set the Salamander across her arm, she opened the back end to check that the four rounds the ammo wheel could hold were set in place properly.

"Standard shot has an effective range of ninety-four yards. Double-stuffed shots can reach over a hundred, but are wildly inaccurate," Mia found herself reciting, as every fact she remembered about the Salamander in her hand came flooding back to her. She closed the barrel and felt the extra rounds in her coat pockets with her free hand. "A practised hand can fire forty shots per minute."

"I can do sixty," she added, more to herself, but the old Sergeant grinned beside her. She reached into her pockets and started laying rounds on the broken stone, in groups of four.

"Keep six sets in your pockets," Valen said softly, beside her. "We need those to make it back to the wall."

She nodded, already focused on the shadows. She could just begin to see the figures approach in a shuffling, awkward rush.

Mia felt her throat dry, and her tongue stick to the roof of her mouth, as the first figures stepped through the mists and into the firelight. The creatures were a pale grey, the same colour as the mists from which they emerged. Most of the figures had clothes, or what was once clothing. Rags hung off their gaunt frames, mould and moss clung to their bodies, and even from this distance, Mia could see their eyes had lost every bit of colour.

The figures marched forward, a shuffling walk that seemed to put them off balance with every long stride. As a group, they seemed to walk in unison, taking each stumbling step together.

"They're people," Mia whispered. "Flaming cinders of the abyss, sir, they're people!"

Valen nodded in response. "They were. The Gloam uses the dead like puppets," he turned to her, and added, "Aim true, Corporal. I'd hate to be used like that."

She levelled her salamander at the approaching mob. "Aye, sir."

The mob scrambled into range as more stepped out of the mists. The dozens approaching were joined by what could be a hundred more, and suddenly, the pile of ammunition in front of her seemed all too small.

"Up to eighty yards," Mia muttered to herself, recalling what she knew about her weapon. "A salamander's rounds can penetrate half a foot of stone. Through flesh, five feet."

Her breath hissed out of her pursed lips, as she slowly squeezed the trigger. Bright blue fire flashed in the air, like a lightning bolt, and vanished in less than a heartbeat. The afterimage was a bright white line that seared her eyes, forcing her to blink rapidly to keep her sight clear. Ahead of her, a crowd of the creatures stumbled and slowed, as a few of their number collapsed backwards.

She fired three more times, rapidly, before popping open the firing chamber and letting the cartridges fall to the ground. Valen started shooting as she reloaded, popping one round into each of the chambers.

She closed the chamber as the sergeant fired his third shot, clipping one of the creatures in the shoulder. She watched it stagger and fall to its knees before the second flash of fire took it in the chest and knocked it to the ground. As Valen turned away to reload, she pointed her Salamander towards the largest group and waited.

She fired twice, rapidly, as a few of them darted around a slab of rock. Two quick bolts of bright blue fire flashed in the night, and the leaders were thrown back into the creatures behind them, where several fell in a heap.

She didn't spare the moments to see how many of them scampered to their feet, as a dozen more of the creatures advanced on their left. She fired quickly, barely hearing the screech of the gun between her shots, and saw another few of them fall as she started reloading.

Beside her, Valen began firing into a crowd of the creatures, his first shot driving a dozen of them to a halt and dropping a handful of them. The next two threw the leaders into the crowd behind them.

Insert cartridge, check fit, repeat three times. Close the chamber, and pull the latch shut until it clicks. She had spent nearly a year at drills, her first year along the wall, and just about every day of it included reloading a Salamander.

She was firing just as Valen fired his last round, four quick shots to drop some of the creatures who had broken off from the larger packs. The bulk of the mob was still almost sixty yards off, reeling from their combined efforts.

"Ammo check," Valen said, and Mia immediately glanced down at the stacks of ammunition set on the rock in front of her. The rest of the shots rested in a satchel behind her. She counted twice before answering. "Twenty shots in reach, sir."

"I have thirty-five. Take mine if you run out," Valen ordered. He finished reloading and set the butt of the gun on his shoulder. Mia dropped the spent cartridges on the ground and started reloading.

"Make your shots count. One or two stragglers are manageable," Valen said, between shots.

"You're okay letting those things get close?" Mia asked as she finished reloading.

"One or two aren't worth the ammo. Just remember to pull your sword back out if you expect it go down," Valen replied, as he fired his last round.

Mia aimed and fired into the crowd of creatures, dropping a few more of them. Several broke past the crowd and slipped into an awkward dash. In the time it took to open the firing chamber and drop the spent cartridges, they were less than thirty feet away.

Valen fired at two of them, watching them fall. Mia was surprised to see the Sergeant then set the Salamander down, and draw his sword. "Thin out that crowd," He said as he darted around the rock and into their path.

She darted to the left, to keep the old sergeant out of her line of fire. Four quick steps, and she stopped to aim her weapon. She fired twice, dropping three, as the leader closed on Valen.

It dashed forward as Valen put himself in its path, and lunged for him, hands reaching for his throat. Valen didn't move as the outstretched hands closed the distance to his neck, his sword pointed uselessly towards the ground. She turned the rifle to take the creature down, already knowing she wouldn't make it.

Somehow, she didn't see how, the creature's hands missed his neck, and it flung itself into him as the old sergeant twisted his body to the side. He caught it by the shoulder with his left hand, and threw it into the ground, pulling his sword out of its chest as it fell.

Mia shook her head, and nearly whistled aloud. She hadn't even seen the old sergeant move.

Another three drew close, and Mia quickly emptied the last rounds into them, dropping two of the creatures as the third closed on Valen.

This time he swung his sword first, sidestepping the creature's charge and cutting a deep gash into the side of its chest. Deep enough, Mia noted, that he sliced through the lungs. He straightened as the creature fell, sheathed his sword, and shouted, "reload! We have about half a minute."

She quickly reloaded her Salamander and started on his before he rejoined her behind the rock.

"How many of them are out there?" Mia asked, setting the Salamander down and forcing herself to slow her breathing. With the lull in the fighting, she had nothing to notice except how hard her heart was beating.

"Tens of thousands. Possibly a lot more. We never really had the time to do a headcount," Valen replied, as he opened the firing chamber to check the fit of the cartridges.

"Any sign of the lieutenant?" Mia asked, glancing towards the watchtower.

"Never mind that," Valen said, a note of panic in his voice.

Mia turned to him, and saw that for the first time tonight, Valen's eyes were wide, and his hands trembled a little. She followed his gaze, to the edges of the mist.

On the far side of the breach in the wall, hundreds of the creatures were stepping through the Gloam and into the firelight. Dozens now walked where only a single figure had stood before; so many it was hard to see the Gloam behind them.

To their left, a single salamander shot burst into the air, a lightning crack of fierce, bright blue fire that made Mia smile, despite herself. The lieutenant was close.

"She's less than two minutes away," Valen said. "We can't let that mob cut us off."

Mia looked back towards the oncoming hordes beyond the wall. They were already outnumbered, and more were pouring through the Gloam. "Can we hold that long?"

Valen laughed. "Not a chance. Grab all your rounds; we're taking the fight to them."