Free Steamborn by Eric R. Asher Page A

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    Bugs and men and fires roared in the overrun courtyard. Hot ash fell all around them, and Jacob tried to ignore the tiny embers that smoked when they hit his arms. Smashed carriages lay strewn all around the small fountain. Knights were on the ground, unmoving in pools of dark red liquid. Jacob’s stomach fluttered as he realized the men were lying in their own blood.
    “Behind you!” Samuel leapt across the courtyard in front of them. He jumped off Bessie’s back and dove into a knot of Walkers. Bessie followed him in. Countless legs rose and fell as the beasts reared up and struck at the city’s defenders.
    Jacob turned, bringing the barrel of the gun around with him. He almost screamed when he saw the huge glinting eyes of a Red Death a few steps away. Something gray and metallic was stuck in the top of its head, but Jacob didn’t have time to care. He raised the gunstock to his shoulder and his fingers squeezed the trigger. The gun sounded like a cannon as it slammed him up against Charles.
    Charles shouted and the bike wobbled for a moment, but relief flooded Jacob as he watched the Red Death stumble and collapse.
    “Hold on tight!” Charles said.
    Jacob put one arm around the old man and kept a death grip on the gun. Charles swerved around the bulk of an invader, and something crunched under the steambike.
    As soon as the bike straightened out, Jacob primed the air gun again. “Where’s the ammo!”
    “I told you, it’s loaded. Self-feeding, you won’t need to reload before we’re inside.”
    Jacob watched as a Widow Maker surged over the enraged Walkers Samuel fought. It raised its front legs and reared back. Jacob knew it was about to strike at one of the Spider Knights. Jacob aimed high. He didn’t want to risk hitting a knight. “Firing!”
    Jacob felt Charles tense a moment before he pulled the trigger. The gun boomed, slamming against Jacob’s shoulder as one of the Widow Maker’s legs spun away in a fountain of blue blood. It caught the attention of one of the knights. He ran the spider through with two quick jabs from his spear.
    The gates started closing. The knights were falling back, ever closer to them. Charles didn’t slow down. He blazed through the gates, nearly crushing the feet of the gatemen on either side.
    Jacob didn’t look back to see how many knights came through the gate behind them. He only prayed that Samuel had made it out. Samuel, he’d jumped into that knot of Walkers with no hesitation. The scene played over in Jacob’s mind. Without Samuel, at least one of the knights facing the Walkers would have died, maybe more. He shivered, and his knuckles turned white where his hands clenched around the gun.
    “Are you okay?”
    Jacob didn’t really hear the man speaking, or realize who it was, until Samuel grabbed Jacob’s face and tilted it up.
    “Are you okay?” Samuel asked again.
    Jacob nodded. He wanted to ask where his family was, where Alice was. Jacob wanted to tell Samuel how happy he was to see him, ask him what had caused the huge dent in his chest plate. Every time Jacob opened his mouth to speak, no words would come.
    “Dammit, Charles,” Samuel said. “The kid’s shaking like it’s winter.”
    “It’s shock,” Charles said, adjusting a saddlebag and pulling out a metal wedge. “It will pass. He’s a tough kid.” Charles stood up, resting the bike against the angled metal piece. He carefully pried Jacob’s hands off the gun, holstering the weapon across his back once he’d gotten it free.
    Samuel turned back to Jacob. “I told your parents to go to my uncle’s. We’ll find them there, okay? I’m sure they’re fine.”
    A high-pitched scream rang out closer to the gates. There was a man being wheeled away from the gatehouse on the back of a cart. A huge green scythe stuck out from his chest. It took Jacob a moment to realize it wasn’t a scythe, but the foreleg of a mantis, like one of those he’d seen earlier, pulling a carriage. A