“Entertainment complex, huh?” I mumbled. “How entertaining can it be with the power out?”

  “Is that really where your mind is at? We literally heard gunfire echoing out of here not even two minutes ago,” Nora scoffed.

  As soon as we left the atrium and stepped into the hallway, what little light we had from the skylights disappeared, forcing Nora and me to engage the night vision on our helmets. The hallway opened up into a massive concourse full of stores, arcades, and even a theatre. It had every form of entertainment I could think of.

  What it lacked was any sign of the armed civilians or any of the antithesis that came in before us.

  I carefully stalked between the different storefronts, sticking my head in just long enough to confirm there weren’t any bodies before moving on to the next one.

  “Okay, I give up, what’s going on?” I hissed once we’d finished checking most of the storefronts. “Where the fuck is everyone?”

  “A better question is, why did they take shelter here?” Nora whispered. “Bitzy just let me know this area only contains temporary shelters. No major ones.”

  Stepping back from the arcade entrance, I eyed up the only place we hadn’t checked yet, the theatre. It wasn’t one of those fancy megaplexes, but a smaller complex that only had a half dozen screens. As I wandered over towards the marquee, Nora joined me.

  “I don’t like this,” I whispered. “It’s too quiet compared to before. We should be able to hear conversation, movement, something…”

  “Maybe there’s another hallway somewhere? Which connects to another part of the building? All the antithesis that came in before us had to go somewhere,” Nora whispered back.

  “I guess it’s possible,” I mumbled. “We won’t know until we check.”

  As we stepped into the theatre’s lobby, I did my best to check every corner, every shadow. The entire place was filled with blind spots and places to hide, and it was making me jumpy. When we stepped into the back hallway, which connected the lobby to the theatre, I finally saw my first signs of the antithesis.

  There were a couple Model Threes, two shot, one with its head smashed open, sitting in the middle of the corridor. It didn’t look like they’d been shot by something as large as an LMG, but then again, it was hard to tell because the bodies had been partially crushed. They’d obviously been trampled by a horde.

  Since all three bodies were sitting in front of theatre three, I snuck over and peeked inside. The place was a slaughterhouse. There were dozens of antithesis piled up inside, some shot, others cut up, and a couple even looked like they’d exploded. Just below the screen was a row of what looked like submachine guns on tripods, maybe turrets?

  As I cautiously stepped inside, I caught motion in my peripheral vision. Moving on instinct, I threw myself to the side as something came down directly where I’d been standing. I rolled to my feet just in time to see Nora storm into the room and grab my attacker by the throat.

  “Holy shit, it’s just a kid,” I hissed, staring first at the girl being hoisted in the air, then the place I’d just been standing. “Did you just try to brain me with an axe?”

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  “I thought you might be one of those aliens, it was self-defence,” the girl sneered.

  “You’re lucky you missed. I’d hate to see what Bob would have done to you once he found out I was injured,” I grumbled.

  The girl’s eyes lit up, and her expression softened as she examined us in the dark. “Holy shit! You’re samurai aren’t you? Hoppy and Teddy? I didn’t think I’d get a chance to meet you so soon.”

  “I’d say it’s nice to meet you but, well…” I gestured towards the axe. “Who are you exactly?”

  “Amy Lamb! I work here at the theatre. Or, at least I did. I have a feeling that Mr. Martian isn’t going to want to keep me on after he sees this mess,” the girl explained.

  Nora slowly lowered the girl to the ground and stepped back so we could get a better look at her. She had what people called the retro punk style, short pink hair that was shaved on one side, ripped black jeans and shirt, a leather jacket, and massive boots. I couldn’t quite place her age, but she was taller than me, even without those ridiculous platform boots.

  “What the fuck are you doing in here anyways? Shouldn’t you be locked in a shelter right now?” Nora asked.

  “I would be, but it’s my job to double-check the theatre for any lost or injured patrons before closing the shelter, and while I was doing that, one of my asshole coworkers locked the door on me,” Amy sneered. “Even though I was locked out, I wasn’t going to give up without a fight, so I grabbed the fire axe out of the lobby and drove it through the head of the first thing that came through the door. Nearly died when its buddies showed up, but apparently my actions were good enough to attract the attention of a protector AI and I was able to recover from the near fatal mauling. After that, well, you can see what I’ve been doing.”

  The girl gestured towards the theatre proudly.

  “We heard gunshots from outside, was that you?” I asked suspiciously.

  “Yeah! Well, sort of. I figured that the best way to attract the antithesis’ attention was to make a lot of noise, so I went to the projection booth and put on an old war movie, then cranked the volume up as far as it would go. Nearly died in that initial stampede, but I managed to crawl away with most of my bones intact,” Amy explained animatedly. “Since it worked so well the first time, I decided to try again, this time with a little more preparation. Some basic turrets for backup, a set of earplugs to keep myself from going deaf, and a couple of samurai-grade speakers to broadcast the noise further. I didn’t even need the original film anymore, because Morty was able to pull a couple sound files containing gunfire right off the mesh.”

  “Do you know how dangerous that was? Not only did you attract most of the antithesis in the building, but you made us believe people were in trouble in here,” Nora growled.

  “Then the strategy worked,” Amy huffed unapologetically.

  “If you’d earned enough points to assemble this ambush of yours, what’s with this?” I grumbled, hefting the axe.

  “It saved my life! I wasn’t just going to throw it away. Besides, your bears use axes, why shouldn’t I?” The girl pouted.

  Nora turned towards me, eyebrows raised.

  “The first one wasn’t by choice. It was an emergency situation, and I needed something to quickly sever the tentacle off a Model Four. Besides, my bears don’t use axes that much anymore. They mainly use entrenching tools now!” I said defensively.

  “But you did use them,” Amy said triumphantly. “So I see no reason why I can’t.”

  “I guess… You’re a samurai, so you can fight however you’d like, but I’d really recommend getting a long-range weapon and some armor, at least until you get going,” I replied, handing her the axe back.

  “I was in the middle of doing that before you surprised me,” she mumbled. “Sorry about that, by the way.”

  “It’s fine. You didn’t mean it, and I don’t hold a grudge.”

  Both girls snorted. “Please, your ability to hold a grudge is legendary. Did you know that your profile in the Family system says ‘Do not antagonize unnecessarily: holds grudges’?” Nora chuckled.

  “It does not!” I hissed.

  “It absolutely does!” she replied with a smirk.

  “Ummm… I hate to break up this amazing banter, but… now what?” Amy said, interrupting us. “I was planning on wandering around the building, maybe check, on the other shelters, but now that you’re here, maybe you have a better idea of what to do?”

  “I’ve been told incursions are the best place for new samurai to get their feet wet, so… you could just wander around and kill stuff,” I told her. “Or I guess you could come with us. It’ll be a lot more dangerous, though.”

  The girl’s eyes lit up again. “Could I really? Would I get to meet Bob?”

  “Sure, the big guy’s checking the surrounding buildings, but he’ll be back soon,” I replied with a shrug.

  “Perhaps we should talk to Charlotte and get her feedback before we take her out into the most dangerous part of the incursion,” Nora hissed. “And we should also talk to Angeline. Now that the Model Ones are cleared out, we can get her to check the shelters so we don’t have to do it manually.”

  “Yeah, we don’t really have a whole lot of time to be wasting on side quests today; too much to do. Alright, you call Charlotte, and I’ll call Angeline,” I announced.

  “This is going to be so cool,” Amy said, beaming.

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