Dean pulled half a flattened cigar from his pocket, not knowing when it had been stuffed there. He bit off the tip, lit it, and took a deep drag.
The harshness of the cheap tobacco rushed into his lungs, making him cough twice.
"Come on," he murmured softly as he stared into the depths of the thick fog. "Let me see just how much garbage Purgatory has."
An estimated forty-three minutes remained until first contact.
Time ticked away second by second amid the silence and the increasingly oppressive atmosphere.
The camp's rune barrier emitted a continuous low hum. The energy gauge trembled between seventy and eighty, while dense scraping sounds and suppressed squeals came from deep within the fog, like a tide gathering force.
Dean stood at the command platform, the blue smoke from his cigar rising straight upward. His gaze was fixed on the detector screen, where the red tide representing the enemy horde had reached the ten-kilometer line.
Sam's voice came intermittently over the comms. "...Encountered harassment... dealt with... arriving in twenty-five minutes... Renault is stable but still unconscious... found Hawk and Lisa, minor injuries... confirmed the enemy horde is heading for the rift..."
"Speed up." Dean cut off the transmission and swept his gaze across the defensive line. More than eight hundred people stood still in their predetermined formations, with only the soft clinking of weapons and the sound of breathing audible.
Benny silently leaped onto the command platform and stood behind Dean's side.
His nostrils twitched. "It Comes. A mixed formation of burrowing worms and Scream bats, over a hundred in number. There are large units behind them, moving slowly but carrying high energy levels."
Dean crushed out his cigar. "Execute the standard plan. Pass the order: strengthen underground monitoring and activate the anti-air runes."
The