A Scale of Power- Chapter Four

A city with much character, that was Calais. The sea breeze drifted innocently through the blood washed city, burnt out tanks and cars were on almost every street, and bodies were strewn everywhere. Humans, Lizards, this battle had cost them both dearly, but as for the lizards, more legions were on the way. Hundreds upon hundreds of lizards were emerging from the tunnel, all with a thirst for human blood, as much of it had already painted the centuries old city. Gunfire still held the tranquil silence captive, whilst the Reptiliad had pushed the military to the southern edge of Calais. The two sides had battled for control of this key city for nearly four days, but now this had turned into nothing more than a struggle for the military, and a fox hunt for the reptiles. 

"You once did this to us," growled Lord Venom as he pinned down an escaping soldier. "Hunting us, Skinning us, using us as bags to parade your pets in!" he continued half-jokingly. 

"Non! Non! S'il vous plait!" shrieked the soldier, squirming beneath the omnipotent Reptilian Lord. Venom crushed the poor man's throat, and looked up in satisfaction as human blood dripped from his jaws. Strength built up in his agile leg muscles, and he jumped into the air, spread his wings and flew towards the oncoming helicopters with fearsome speed. Bullets pinged harmlessly off of Lord Venom's scales as he dived into the first helicopter and tore the troops in it to pieces. He then swiftly grabbed a rocket from one of the guns and threw it with great force into a nearby helicopter, and it became engulfed in a huge fireball. The Lord smirked as the fireball disappeared. He had done this without a thought to if the soldiers had families, but he had torn many families apart already with his almighty wrath. 

Little more than an hour later, the army was in a fast and fearful retreat. Days of fighting had earned them nothing, there was nothing else they could do but save all the other cities that lay South, East and West. 

Vincent Dunthorpe spread a map of Europe across a table, and began to explain the land, country by country. They would all fall. 

"So, we are here," he began as he pointed at Northern France, "now, we have a few options, head South and take the rest of France, or head East to Belgium and Germany. Our final option, head West and take Spain," Vincent suggested. Leader Scar, a lizard with a scar across his face, studied the map carefully, and the landmass of Italy caught his attention. 

"There," he muttered as he pointed at Italy, "an easy target," he retorted. 

However another lizard stepped forward and pointed at Spain, "It seems to lead to more land, and we can surround this filthy human hive," he concluded triumphantly. 

"No," mumbled Lord Venom, "The rest of this 'France' land comes first, then others," he said calmly. 

But six lizards had begun heatedly debating this plan of action, until one raised its arm and swiped at another lizard, although this swipe missed its target, and caught Lord Venom across the chest. He uttered a deep growl and jumped into the brawl. Vincent rolled his eyes and picked up a gun from the table, and without a thought fired into the seething mass of rage and disagreement. The gunshots did nothing, and they continued in their fight. 

"Oh, for God's sake," he sighed, and replaced the pistol for a more powerful weapon. Vincent aimed carefully not to hit Lord Venom, and fired at one of the others. The lizard he hit let out a roar of pain, and dropped to the floor silently. Lord Venom stared at Vincent in horror, and hissed at him accusedly. 

"Well how else was this battle of champions going to end? It would've turned into a war within a war if I'd just stood by like it was a sporting match!" shouted Vincent ashamedly. 

"Remember your place and mind your tongue, human," growled Lord Venom, "Where is the next of these so called cities?" asked Lord Venom whilst gazing concernedly into the South. 

"The next major place is Paris, it's not too far, we should make it in about a day at the most," replied Vincent. 

"When Paris falls, I shall address the rest of your wretched kind, they will have no choice but to stand down, as we have conquered a part of the world already!" declared Lord Venom, but it was obvious that he hadn't learnt much about the human world in this time. As he was still oblivious to the fact that other lands lay further beyond Europe, and they were already prepared to fight to the very end, with their fists if they had to. 

* * *

They had been hiding in the hotel for days now. They had absolutely no idea what was going on with the rest of the world, as they were more concerned with keeping out of the military's way. It was midday, and the four had found some food in an abandoned shop down the road. Ian had almost been caught darting in and out of alleyways and buildings in order to get up the street as evasively as possible. The sun was strong over the city as it crept silently over the rooftops, and the wind blew gently to not disturb this rare yet deadly silence in the city. 

"So when do we get out of here?" sighed Catherine. 

"The next train is due in three hours time, we're not far from the station so we won't have to do as much ducking and diving," replied Tom appreciatively. 

"Well that's good, can't stand being here any longer, this place really gives me the creeps," whispered Maria. Suddenly gunfire sounded from the Northern edge of the city, the Reptiliad had arrived. 

"Oh crap," said Ian slowly. Tom looked out of a window of the hotel. Lord Venom was flying straight for them, or rather, towards the city centre. 

"We've got to get out of here, now! Those things will be on us in less than an hour!" roared Tom, his brain ticking steadily like a well oiled machine. They half jumped down the stairs and sprinted towards the southern edge of the city, not staying out of sight of the military. This was a matter of life and death, not a game of hide and seek with the army. The group turned a corner, but lizards were fighting down this street. Another turn. More lizards. Down a street. Lizards in pursuit now. They quickly ran inside what looked like a university lab building and hurriedly barricaded the doors. 

"Now what the hell do we do? We're stuck in here with absolutely no hope of escape!" shouted Maria frantically. 

"I guess we have no other choice but to stand and fight!" declared Ian nobly. They hurriedly searched for anything they could to defend themselves, as they were not going to go down without a good fight. Tom broke open a safe, hoping to find weapons, but found only a solitary gas canister, and without thinking what it was, grabbed it. There was a huge crash in the direction of the entrance, the lizards had broken in. The four frightened humans hid behind desks as they listened to the thudding footsteps of the mutant lizards. 

"Your game is up humans," taunted a lizard, "come and face us like so many before you, and die!" it hissed. 

"We're not dying today, you scaly piece of shit!" boomed Tom as he stood up. He turned the top of the canister and prepared to throw it, but red mist spewed from the canister into the room. Immediately both humans and lizards began choking. The Reptilian troops retreated, but something was wrong. Their eyes turned cloudy and their scales became brittle. Passing soldiers opened fire with machine guns and easily killed them, but, machine gun bullets had not stopped them beforehand.  

"Hang on," Catherine said through choking, "how are we not dead?" 

"Perhaps humans are immune to it?" said Ian, also choking. 

"I don't know, but we need to get out of the building. That wasn't tear gas, what the hell was it?" rasped Tom. They staggered from the building, and limped towards the train station, where a guarded train was waiting. Soldiers directed them towards the open door, and it hissed shut as soon as the four were on board, and sped away from Paris towards the South.