What I didn’t see, as I dodged again to my right, charging northward up the train tracks on the river side of the silo, was the human figure with the pom-pom toque and quilted jacket walking up behind the Polybius arcade cabinet.

I was just a little too focused on how fast I was being eaten, and on how to keep the humans from accidentally shooting each other.

These train tracks were surrounded by shipping containers and portable buildings that had been brought in and shoved between the supports of the complex by a small company that had once leased the property for something else involving piles of old tires, some of which were still there too.

No one occupied it now, but national guard soldiers were scattered throughout the grounds now, and I had to dodge them as I tried to get out from under the Swarm. But so many proboscides were stuck in my sides that I could feel myself being consumed. And while I could roll to try and crush them, that would slow me down and bring more of the Swarm on top of me. So, whenever I had the opportunity, I swiped and brushed myself against the containers and any other solid structure I could run past.

It was a futile chase, though.

All I could do was continue to run in circles, turning right as I came upon another one of the Overlords of Portland blocking my path.

The next one appeared to be a small bald man with bare feet in a hospital gown, all drenched in water. And not far from him, up another drive out of the property was a figure covered in bandages from head to foot, with burn scars showing where they’d peeled off. Up in the park to the East of the silo, on the edge of the cliff overlooking the property, a ghostly woman hovered, surrounded by apparitions of more women, all dressed in provocative clothing. And, like the Swarm or when I had been the cloud of eyes, that was one whole emanant with multiple projections.

There were others that were further back that hadn’t quite joined the circle yet. I could feel them. But they didn’t need to be there. Unless I took to flight again, geography of the terrain kept me hemmed in as much as their compatriots did.

And more and more of the liminals that were hiding amongst the national guard were showing themselves and causing chaos.

They weren’t just chasing me, either. Some of them were terrorizing the humans and making even more of a spectacle. And that, too, made it difficult for me to maneuver and keep moving with any speed, because when the humans were more distracted by the other monsters they didn’t necessarily see me coming in time to get out of the way.

But once I got into the rhythm of it, as around and around the long, long building I ran, I did have some time to think.

Not that it mattered much. I couldn’t see a way out, and I felt that I was doomed. 

But witnessing all this humanity in fear and distress reminded me of what I’d told Cassy, Ayden, and Greg about the likely upcoming monster hunt. And that in turn reminded me of the promises that I had made to them, and how I was failing them.

I’d learned a lot about them in the last couple years, and a lot more in the last couple of months.

I’d become aware of their personal hopes and fears, and how imminent some of them were with their national political developments.

My presence and influence had ultimately led to them losing their jobs.

And even if I discounted my sense of responsibility toward Cassy for introducing her to Felicity and ushering her suddenly into the world of emanants, I’d committed myself to protecting the three of them from the rest of the world, and I found I really cared about that a lot.

And here I was, participating in something that would likely make things so much worse. Just before losing myself to a constructed monster that was barely even a Supraliminal, and who’d really only existed for less than a month.

If I did make it out of this somehow, I’d have to change my strategy and tactics.

I’d need to focus on my people, and lead them to somewhere safe, so that I could help them shelter the oncoming storm.

And also so that I could regain my energies.

Between my own skills and adaptations, and the knowledge and abilities I could mimic from Fate Vine, I could be a very powerful ally for them. We could go anywhere.

Anywhere, so long as the Overlords of our destination would tolerate us, that is.

That was the huge rub, and my memories from Fate Vine told me it was a dangerous one. But, I had gone quite a long time unnoticed myself, and Cassy was naturally stealthier than anyone I’d met. It wasn’t an impossibility.

If I could somehow survive this.

The two humans drove their truck directly for the North Steel Bridge, and that was unacceptable. It was especially unacceptable as it brought Milk close enough to confirm that all seven of Portland’s Overlords were present.

They should have gone to the bridge to the south and worked their way around to a safer side street. It would have made more sense with the traffic. They could have been more help to their friends that way. And they wouldn't have been so close to the danger.

So Milk rushed the engine block of the machine and sapped it of most of its heat, accelerating its collection of entropy catastrophically, causing the engine to just stop. The tiny explosions that occurred within it to make it spin ceased happening just a moment before the battery went dead and the oil froze. Right before the vehicle reached the bridge.

Greg brought the truck to a skidding, fishtailing halt near the side of the road, cussing at the locked up rear wheels, and the other traffic swerved, narrowly missing him.

And then something very large with a long neck loomed out of the river just to the north of the bridge, and everyone’s driving got even worse.

Milk stayed with the truck. It could sense enough from here, and Greg and Ayden were too distracted to leave the cab.

After Greg gave up trying to restart the engine, Milk started working to reverse the damage it had done. There might come a point where having a working vehicle would keep them all alive. There was some structural damage it couldn’t fix, however. But it might be able to safely keep the engine running despite that damage while it was present.

It wasn’t too sure about this because it hadn’t worked with very many modern vehicles, preferring its cell phone towers. But it could try.

On my third circuit of my little racetrack of doom, I saw fewer humans and more monsters in my way. More guns were firing as the people with them must have retreated to safer positions around the perimeter and established good firing lines. But there were a few wounded stragglers trying to crawl to safety here and there.

The cacophony of it all roared on, as the gunfire and helicopter settled into a rhythm, but the monsters that tried to hunt me or block my path increased their cries and yowls of frustration and hunger.

I had my feeding frenzy, but it was all focused on me, and the Swarm had spread itself out over the whole property. I was running into as many mosquitoes as I was outrunning.

I'd started growing hollowed out horns and spikes, giant proboscides here and there all over, to puncture and feed on any monsters I could slam into. But that didn’t compensate much for what I was losing to the Swarm.

As I bowled my way around the processing tower to the north, greeting baldy and the burned man, I shouldered my way through a wolf-thing and considered my options yet again.

If I became a cloud of eyes, I'd be too slow, and the Swarm would overwhelm me quickly.

If I became Milk, I could slide into a vehicle to hide there, but that would still only slow the inevitable as I couldn’t get anywhere the Swarm couldn't. I'd just reduce my surface area that was exposed. And the more corporeal monsters could set to tearing the bus or truck apart.

Maybe I could dive into a storm drain and hope there was enough water down there to hide under it.

Enough of a reprieve and I could take the time to throw up a domain and get the leverage I needed to not only survive, but maybe turn the tide. But I was no longer Sewer Teeth or any other form that could squeeze into a tight enough space. I was optimized for running, and the needed transformation would slow me down too much.

It became harder and slower to reconfigure myself with every quantum of energy I lost, either from exerting myself or from being eaten.

But I had to find a moment to try.

And then, just as I was dodging between the buses and the surveillance van in the big lot along the east side of the complex, I noticed something.

Polybius was just gone.

There was a big gap in the perimeter there, and the others weren't immediately moving to fill it.

The sea monster and host of ghosts did move to close it a little, but they seemed reluctant to approach that space.

I had a thought.

Maybe they were herding me to that path.

Maybe Chord had finally arrived, and he lay waiting down the train tracks there, beyond my range of senses.

It'd be smart to do that with how desperate and weak I now was.

And I felt like I had no choice but to comply.

If Chord got me, I might continue to exist in some way, temporarily his thrall.

But if Felicity could throw off his control multiple times, maybe I could too.

I didn't like that future for me. It seemed worse than ceasing to exist. But I found myself leaping for it anyway.

Was that Milk's programming?

Around the last SUV and through the bear-rhino, scraping the beast with my horns and sapping it of a little strength as I felt the last vestiges of my own energy flag like a keening hollowness in my center, I saw who stood there instead of Polybius.

Cassy clapped her hands and beckoned me forward with a rolling motion, knees bent, like someone calling her dog or egging on a child in a race.

I bowed my head and spent the last dregs of my energy sprinting toward her.

If I could just make it to her…