The Sirens were blaring, Eviette woke, grabbed for her knives and combat gear, around her gnomes were moving, crashing into each other, all was panic and alarm. She patted herself down, no time to wash or sort your hair out, if something has gone this bad, then either G.C.O, or S.A.F.E had called it, either way it was serious. She spat on her hand and slicked her hair just as the first GCO operatives ran past “They’re coming! They’re coming! Get the hells out of here!”
This close? She chose the next gap and fitted in, running, it was, she noticed, all military, the armoured gnomes retreating, behind her she could hear only heavy gunfire as the GCO laid down the heavy ordnance, the occasional roar and skirling whine of pain as -something- that nobody knew what it was died, and the screams as another Gnome died…
All the while getting closer. “Run Faster! Run Faster! Everyone screamed, pushing at the ones ahead” A tear in her leg, she turned, driving both blades into the head of a creature four times her size, a nightmare of flesh, stone, something from the very primeval earth itself. It was dead. She’d killed it…
The GCO Trooper gave a grin and a thumbs up “Keep moving! They’re not stopping, but apparently there is a -Plan! Lets hope its a Doozy!” The gestured down the path even as a gnarled blackened grey arm smashed through the grate above them and dragged them into it, the screams and spray of blood haunted Eviette as she followed the others, the lighting in sector 8 changing from its normal ambient level, to a bleak red…They all paused, all of the Gnomes looking around, some angry, some afraid, Eviette stomped over “It means something new is happening you fools!” At just that point the reassuring voice, the Vice-Tinker, Sicco Thermaplugg.came over the speakers…
“We are aware of Incursions known as Troggs in the lower levels, despite the valiant efforts of GCO and our other armed forces, we are considering levels twenty to four lost. Those areas will be gassed with a formula to kill these creatures, and ensure a survival rate of at least twenty five percent of our population. This will commence in ten minutes counting, all doors are on lockdown to facilitate the effective transmission of this gaseous solution. Gnomeregan will prevail”
The tannoy fell silent, everyone looked at the level number…
Level 18.
They were written off as dead.
“Someone hoist me up!” Eviette snarled, and as they did she fiddled with the complex screws to release the hatch to Level Seventeen. Right! Now everyone who wants to live, come with me!”
There was a dreadful silence, some did, but some said “The Vice Tinker said to stay put…”
The Hiss grew louder. The gas…
The sounds grew worse, the people below, more savage, the sounds above, where the gas would have hit first, more savage still, and all the while the elephantine trumpeting of the Troggs as they seized their place, in the Underground Kingdom.
How Eviette survived, is her story…