Freedom TM

canister from this harness. “Far side of the street! Behind the bank columns!”
    Hundreds of rounds of small-arms fire raked their position in addition to .50-caliber bullets.
    The sheriff shouted over the roar. “When I pop the smoke, give it a few moments, then …” He jabbed his thumb toward the bank. He pulled the pin and tossed the canister over the fence halfway between both enemy forces. After a few moments, billowing clouds of white smoke began to rise—immediately raising hails of gunfire that whipped the air above them.
    The sheriff led the way, rolling over the low, cosmetic fence around the green. Ross and Fossen did likewise, and followed as the sheriff half-slid and half-crawled toward the steps of the bank across the street.
    They were halfway across when they heard grenades exploding among the monuments where they’d just been. Ross could see another one arching in from down the street, blasting the obelisk and toppling it. Machine-gun fire still zipped and sizzled through the air overhead, and then Fossen shouted and toppled onto the asphalt.
    Both Ross and the sherriff went back and grabbed him under the armpits, leaving behind his rifle and his HUD glasses as they dragged him to relative safety behind the pillars of the bank building.
    Ross reloaded his AK-47 as he stood behind a pillar.
    The sheriff reloaded as well. He just shook his head and shouted over the deafening thunder in the street. “They’ve got too much firepower!” He eyed the stone walls and heavy wood door behind them. “I don’t think we’re getting out of this corner!”
    “I don’t think they saw us pull back.” Ross looked down at Fossen, who was lying against the back wall, trying to sit up. A pool of blood was expanding around him.
    “Damnit!” The sheriff crawled over to Fossen and put down his gun. “Hank, let me see where you’re hit!”
    Fossen shook his head. “I’m in trouble, Dave. My guts are on fire.”
    A bullet impacted the wall three feet to the right of him and ricocheted around the vestibule.
    Fossen didn’t even flinch. “Get back to the school. Look out for Lynn and Jenna.”
    The sheriff took off his HUD glasses, too, and looked into Fossen’s eyes. “We’re gonna stay right here. We’re on our own goal line, Hank. You hear me? No room to lose ground.” The sheriff grabbed Hank, and for the first time Ross noticed the dark cloth of the sheriff’s shirt was stained with blood as well.
    The sheriff held on to Fossen, stopping him from sliding down the wall. “You remember, when we were kids? You remember the heat lightning? And the creek?”
    Fossen nodded weakly.
    There was another deafening explosion outside and the sound of shattering glass.
    Fossen looked up. “Bury me next to my dad, okay, Dave? Andyou look out for my girls, okay …?” And then his head slumped and the sheriff held him tightly, sobbing.
    Ross still stood with his back to a pillar. Outside he could hear the ASVs moving down the street, troops blasting apart nearby buildings.
    The sheriff let his best friend’s body slide to the floor. He left his HUD glasses as he stood with some difficulty. Then he picked up the M16 and came up behind one of the pillars.
    “I’m sorry about Hank, Sheriff.”
    He just shook his head and wiped his nose on his sleeve.
    “Let me see your wound.”
    “Fuck it. That’s not gonna be what kills me today.”
    “If we’re going to try and stop them from reaching the school, then it’s pretty much now or never.”
    The sheriff nodded and looked at Ross.
    They nodded to each other, and then suddenly Ross saw a very strange series of D-Space alerts running through his HUD listing—all highest priority. They indicated the launch of a number of different processes he’d never heard of, but one of which caught his eye:
Burning Man Instantiated.
    “Wait a minute.…”
    The sheriff frowned at him. “What?”
    Ross was tracking something moving along Main Street—a D-Space call-out unlike any he’d seen before. It was wreathed in flame and bore the name
Burning Man
, a two-hundredth-level Champion. Ross had never heard of such a level before.
    It was coming their way.
    “Get your HUD glasses on, Sheriff. Something’s up.”
    He looked like he’d had enough games, but he moved out of Ross’s sight, while Ross tried to peek out into the street.
    Ross could see two ASVs in the street, drawing fire from other townspeople in nearby buildings. Just then the building across