Gears of a Mad God: A Steampunk Lovecraft Adventure Read Online Free

going.
    Two men came
around the corner in front of her. Their smiles and the way they
spread out, blocking her path, told her it was two more of her new
enemies. She stopped, scanning the street, and dashed down a
staircase. She pushed open a filthy black door, banged her head on
something, and scurried forward with her head bowed.
    She was in a
low, dark room, the air thick with sweet-smelling smoke. An old
Chinese man sat on a stool near the doorway, and he gaped at her as
she went past. A dozen or so people lounged on low sofas, most of
them Chinese, a few white men dressed as sailors mixed in with
them. They were no more than vague shapes in the gloom as Colleen
stumbled through the room.
    There was no
back door, but a window at the back let in a little light. Colleen
leaned past a couch to push at the window, which swung open.
    She heard loud
cries as her pursuers burst into the room behind her. She didn't
look back, just stepped onto the couch. A soft shape squirmed
beneath her foot, a voice cried out, and she realized she'd planted
her foot in someone's stomach. There was no time to be delicate.
She kicked off, pulling herself up to the window frame and
wriggling through.
    She found
herself crawling into an alley, mud and fouler substances squishing
between her fingers. Someone grabbed her foot and she kicked
wildly, then squirmed her way outside as the fingers slid free.
    She stood,
looking around, and heard movement behind her. A man was coming
through the window, his head almost touching her shoes, and she
kicked him in the face. He flinched, sliding backward as his hands
came up to protect himself, and she kicked him again. He fell back
into the opium den.
    She thought
about staying put, keeping them at bay, but there were too many of
them. The rest would be coming around the block and trapping her.
She turned away from the window and started to run.
    She was too
late. A pair of men loomed in the mouth of the alley, and she knew
that the others would have the far end of the alley blocked in
moments. Then a hand closed on her wrist and a man's voice said,
"Now, Miss, if you fight you'll just-"
    She twisted in
his grasp, turning. A man's face was inches from her own, and she
drove her fist into his nose. He fell back with a cry, letting go
of her arm, but the strangers were all around her now.
    She punched, a
man grunted, and then a fist slammed into the side of her head and
she fell to her hands and knees. She got a foot under her and threw
herself forward, diving against the legs that surrounded her, and
people tumbled as she went rolling out of the circle.
    Some rubbish
was heaped against the far side of the alley, and she sprang to it,
coming to her feet with a chunk of timber in her hands. It was
pine, four feet long and thicker than a baseball bat, and she
raised the makeshift weapon over her shoulder as she turned to face
her attackers.
    There were five
of them, the woman in the white bonnet and four men. One man was
bleeding from both nostrils, and all of them looked angry. They
spread out, surrounding her, and she edged back until her heels
bumped the wall behind her. For a moment she was filled with
terror. She was hopelessly outnumbered, and what did she know about
fighting?
    Then she
tightened her grip on the chunk of timber. She knew a thing or two
about tools, after all. She had used hammers and pry bars to break
free rusted gears. This was a similar problem. Moving joints, much
softer than the brass and steel she usually worked with. She just
needed to separate some joints, lift some bones from their sockets.
And she had the right tool for the job. She bared her lips in a
snarl and said, "Come on, then. What are you waiting for? Is five
of you not enough?"
    They pressed
in, and she stepped forward, giving herself more room to move. She
deliberately turned to her right, showing the back of her head to
the man on her left, and she heard the gravel in the alley crunch
under his feet as he moved into range,