by D. Laine
I looked up from the corpse to find the other tag staring directly at me. His mouth opened to emit a bone-chilling, inhuman noise that rose the hairs on my forearms—and then he charged.
“Go!”
I snatched the gun from Thea and pointed it at the tag’s forehead. He dropped from a single shot between the eyes. I fired off another round at a third tag that ran through the wall of ash. I didn’t waste time making sure I hit my mark. In the distance, a chorus of high-pitched screams from the large group broke through the otherwise eerie silence.
They were coming.
“Go!” I pushed Thea toward the cave ahead of me.
She reached the incline first. While she scrambled up the loose stone, I turned to fire at the first wave of tags that barreled toward us. Between gunshot blasts, I heard Thea shouting for Jake.
With only a handful of bullets left, I made every one of them count. But where one tag fell another rushed forward in its place, each more hell-bent on finding a piece of flesh to sink its teeth into than the last. I saw nothing but a wave of bloodshot eyes and snarling mouths rolling toward me.
“Dylan!” Thea shouted from the ledge. “Climb!”
I fired the last two rounds. A dozen more tags charged over the lifeless bodies as I turned to scale the unsteady embankment.
“Where’s Jake?” I yelled.
When no reply followed, I glanced up. Thea had disappeared from the ledge above me, but a thunderous boom served as a sufficient enough answer to my question. I chanced a peek over my shoulder in time to watch a tag drop from a well-placed bullet to the head from Jake’s gun.
I reached the ledge to find David standing beside Jake—also with a gun in his hand. Behind them, Thea exited our cave with an armful of weapons like a regular G.I. Jane. She tossed one to me before taking aim on the tags beneath us, and I had never been more attracted to a woman in my life.
Even with three of us picking them off from the higher elevation—David’s shots didn’t really count because he missed their heads every time—we didn’t stand a chance. Not when I saw the number of sharp teeth snapping at us from below.
“Where are they all coming from?” I yelled, not expecting an answer.
“I’m out,” Jake announced. He took his empty, worthless shotgun and swung it at the head of a tag reaching for his foot. The thick handle cracked its skull, and the tag rolled down the slope, taking out a few of his buddies along the way.
Beside me, Thea squealed when one wrapped its bony fingers around her ankle. I stepped forward to smash its nose in with the heel of my boot.
“We’re going to be overrun.” I stated the obvious and glanced at Jake with the hope that he had an idea.
He looked over his shoulder at the mountain peak above us, then turned to take David’s gun from him. “Grab our gear,” he instructed David. “Get as much as you can carry and start running.”
David followed Jake’s pointed finger to the ridge and nodded. His eyes were wide and fearful when he ran off to do as Jake instructed. I felt bad for the wiry guy. He wasn’t exactly well-equipped for end-of-the-world fighting.
In between shots into the swarm of tags climbing the bank at my feet, I asked Jake, “You do remember they’re faster than us, right?”
“Yeah.”
“So you know we can’t outrun them?”
“Yeah.”
“Just making sure.” I nodded before turning to Thea. “Go on. Get a head start.”
She fired off a round then grimaced when she realized the chamber in her gun was empty. Reaching into her pocket, she withdrew a handful of bullets. “I’m not stupid, Dylan.”
“Then you won’t be surprised when Jake and I don’t follow you,” I returned between my own precision shots.
“We all go.” She paused long enough to split a hard look between Jake and me. “Or we all stay but—”
“We do this together,” I muttered, knowing she was going to pull that crap on me.
I had said those exact words once—two weeks ago when we’d gotten ourselves into a mess with a smaller group of tags. Of course, she wouldn’t let me forget it. Granted, the sticky situation we had found ourselves in back in Montana had nothing on this one, but the sentiment was the same. Togetherness had become our group mantra.
Even if it meant certain death for everyone.
“Go, Thea.” Jake darted a glance over his shoulder when David bolted up the ridge with our bags tossed over his back. He made decent time considering the weight he carried. “Catch up with David. We’ll be right behind you.”
She continued to shoot like she hadn’t heard him, picking off three tags approaching the ledge. Finally out of bullets, she turned to me. Her eyes said it all—we better follow, or she would kill us herself.
I reluctantly nodded my agreement.
Once Thea was gone, Jake informed me, “I’m almost out.”
“Me too.” I took aim at the tag nearest tag and fired. He knocked down three others as his body plummeted to the ground below. No better time than now to run. I turned to Jake. “Let’s go!”
I ran after him, careful not to lose my footing on the loose stone. The ridge we ran along was narrow—wide enough only for one person to pass at a time. The closer we drew to the crest, the steeper the incline grew.
Behind me, the mob of bloodthirsty tags gathered at the narrowest point. The most impatient—or hungriest—ones tumbled off the side of the cliff, while the smartest steadily followed in a single file. I stopped long enough to put a bullet between the eyes of the leader.
It bought us some time. But we still had nowhere to go.
Jake and I caught up to Thea and David as they turned up the broad face of the mountain. Our progress slowed as we slid across the unstable rock under our feet. Climbing up, toward the peak, proved pointless. Our only option was to scamper across the rock and stay ahead of the tags. As we slid farther from the peak and closer to the steep drop off beneath us, the more agile tags closed in.
I rolled onto my back to make the last two bullets in my chamber count.
One shot.
Jake took out another.
Two shots.
Thea started to slide. As she tumbled toward the ledge, I put an arm out to catch her.
I should have let her go.
Because the tags were on top of us now, and we were out of bullets.
Over the deafening roar of their victorious snarls, I heard a sharp whistle. Glancing toward the sky, I spotted a reddish-orange streak flying over my head. It struck the tag in front of me in the chest before igniting it on fire.
Another whistle, and another streak shot by me. This time I clearly saw the flaming ball before it hit the ground and exploded into a wall of fire. I scooted away from the heat and smoke, dragging Thea with me. On the other side of the wall, the tags screeched in frustration. A few flailed themselves off the ledge in their desperation to get to us.
I glanced at Jake, and he answered my unspoken question with a shrug.
Looking over his shoulder, toward the peak, I spotted four silhouettes—three tall and one short. The little one lifted a hand to wiggle a familiar wave and I finally collapsed onto my back in relief.
Never before had I been so happy to see Maria Sanchez and her brother, Marcus.
3
THEA
The people who helped us oozed confidence and mystery, much like Dylan had when I first met him. The way they carried themselves, the sheer number of weapons visible on their well-conditioned bodies, and their familiar interactions with Jake and Dylan assured me that they too were assassins.
Jake called the girl Maria. The one that answered to Marcus was clearly her brother. They shared matching raven-colored hair and chestnut eyes, and were in street clothes decked out with enough sharp and deadly metal to rival Dylan and Jake on a good day. The four of them seemed to know each other very well.
The other two were named Keith and Kent Ringer, though five seconds after they introduced themselves, I
couldn’t remember which one was which. With matching platinum hair, pasty white skin, tall, lanky frames, and dressed in black from head to toe, they were identical in every way.
One of them suggested we walk a certain direction, and since it was away from the angry tags trapped on the ridge beneath us, I went where he indicated. While Dylan and Jake fell right in with our four saviors like they were all trusted allies, David shared my reservation and confusion.
“What’s with the twin thing?” he whispered into my ear.
I stared at the back of Dylan’s head as he walked in front of me. He was deep in conversation with Marcus, but I couldn’t hear what they were discussing.
“I have no idea.”
“Just like you and . . . your brother. And those two”—David swung a finger between Marcus and Maria—“I guarantee they’re twins too. You’re all twins, except for Dylan and me.” His voice took on that distant quality that meant he was thinking too hard.
And this was one conversation I had no desire to get into. It trespassed a little too closely to the box of worms buried under my bed.
“I’m sure it’s a coincidence,” I muttered.
“It’s not,” Jake volunteered. I spun around, surprised to find him taking up a defensive position behind me. His eyes scanned the ridge over his shoulder, his sharp blades raised and ready, as he spoke. “Every team in the agency is made up of twins.”
“Not you and Dylan,” I pointed out.
He shrugged dismissively. “There are a few exceptions.”
I was tempted to ask more, but worried my questions might disrupt the buried worms. Chatter from the front of the group kept me from gambling with that notion.
“This is where we’ve been hiding out,” Keith or Kent—I still didn’t know—announced. He led us into a deep gully, where the entrance to what appeared to be an old mine had been dug into the side of the hill.
“The tags haven’t found you?” Dylan questioned.
“No, they have,” Marcus grunted. “But the reputation of the Ringer twins has held up to expectations.”
“Watch your head on the low ceiling,” the leading Ringer brother suggested as he passed through the entrance.
Dylan stopped there to usher David and me inside ahead of him. I hunched my shoulders as I passed through the opening. David had to maintain that posture, whereas I was short enough to stand to my full height—and still had a few inches to spare beneath the earth ceiling.
I quickly took in the array of weapons, food, and bottles of water packed into the corner, and the four makeshift beds spread out on the ground in the cramped space. There wasn’t much room to move around—and half of our group was still outside.
I watched through the opening as Maria spread something red and wet on the ground on her approach to the entrance.
“Is that blood?” Jake asked her.
“Tag blood,” she amended.
“It covers our scent,” Marcus supplied, “and the fire keeps them out.”
He struck a match. The moment his sister crossed the threshold behind Dylan and Jake, he tossed it onto the pile of charred timber on the ground. There had to be some sort of accelerant mixed in there, because it lit up immediately.
Everyone backed farther inside as the fire expanded to block the entrance.
Jake spun to glance around the narrow space. “What is this?”
“An old copper mine,” the Ringer I thought was Keith answered. “It hasn’t been used in years, but it’s been working for us as a shelter.”
“As long as we maintain the fire,” Kent added.
“I assume the two of you made that discovery,” Dylan commented.
“The agency actually,” Kent returned.
“They just released these new weapons,” Keith added. “We were the first team to try them out in the field.”
“And probably the last,” the other twin tacked on.
I concealed a smile as David leaned closer to whisper, “They finish each other’s sentences?”
“That’s what those balls were?” Jake questioned. “With the fire?”
Kent nodded. “Top secret accelerant placed inside an agency-designed and -patented gelatin ball.”
Keith handed Jake and Dylan each a ball, then held one out to me. It felt surprisingly soft and pliable when I rolled it in my palm. They were smaller than I initially expected—the size of a golf ball.
“Squeeze to ignite them,” Keith explained. “They can get impressive distance when launched into the air, and will explode upon contact.”
“So don’t find yourself on the receiving end of one of these,” Kent added.
“Noted,” I muttered under my breath as I passed the weapon to David.
“How many more do you have left?” Jake wondered.
Keith waved his arms toward the corner, where the nonperishables and weapons were piled on the ground. “About fifty balls left, three hundred rounds of ammunition—”
“And two days’ worth of food and water,” Kent supplied grimly.
No one offered a response right away. I wondered if the thought of starvation was as scary to everyone else as it was to me. Considering the length of the silence, I suspected it was.
Marcus finally broke it. He waved a hand toward the corner. “You’re welcome to put your supplies here. Sleeping arrangements might be a little tight.” His gaze swept warily across the ground as he tiptoed around the sleeping bags.
“There’s another small chamber through there.” Keith nodded toward a narrow opening in the back wall. “You won’t get as much heat or light, but it should work until we can figure a way out of here.”
Beside me, Jake and Dylan exchanged wary glances.
“What do you mean by that?” Dylan asked.
“Tags are all over the interstate,” Marcus volunteered. “Every town east and west of here is overrun with them. We haven’t figured out a way to get past them.”
On cue, a crescendo of shrieking and snarling rose outside, mere yards away. A small number of tags had tracked us to the entrance of the mine. My fight-or-flight instinct heightened, but I stood firm when no one else flinched.
“You’re positive that fire will keep them out?” Dylan asked while Jake rolled up beside him with a new gun in his hands. I assumed this one was fully loaded.
“It has so far,” Marcus answered.
“How long have you been here?” Jake relaxed when the most daring tag cowered away from the flames with a frustrated growl, taking the others with him.
“Maria and I got stuck out on the highway when the volcano blew,” Marcus explained. “We hid out in the mountains for two days while working our way south, and ran into the Ringers here.”
Keith added, “We were on our way to the base, but couldn’t get around all the tags. It was a fucking massacre down there. Everyone is dead. We thought the tags would move on, go find other towns to destroy, but they’re not leaving. More are showing up every day.”
“That doesn’t make any sense,” Jake muttered.
“Nothing makes sense,” Maria grumbled. Glancing in her direction, I found her dark eyes narrowed on me.
“They’re not acting normal,” Kent volunteered. “Or what the agency thought was normal, anyway.”
Using the excuse to look away from Maria, I glanced between the identical twins and waited for more of an explanation.
When it didn’t come, Jake asked, “What do you mean?”
“It’s easier to show you.” Marcus stepped toward the back wall with a wave of his hand.
I started after Dylan and Jake, then ground to a halt when Maria smacked a hand into Dylan’s chest. She shot a menacing glance in my direction before turning to Dylan.
“Who are the stragglers?” she sneered.
“Maria, don’t—”
She cut Jake off with a hard glare. “In case you haven’t noticed, we don’t exactly have the resources to protect a couple of—”
“She’s Jake’s sister,” Dylan informed
Maria.
“What?” Her gaze swung back and forth between Dylan and me a few times. A faint giggle bubbled up, shaking her body. She snorted softly, then howled with laughter.
Beside me, Jake shifted his feet. I suspected he had an idea what she found so funny. I wanted to ask out of curiosity, but pride kept my mouth shut. This girl rubbed me the wrong way, and I didn’t want to give her the satisfaction of knowing it. Obviously, she didn’t care much for me either.
When she finally sobered long enough to speak, I learned why.
“You were doing your partner’s sister?” She pointed a finger in Dylan’s face with a now-bitter snicker. “Is that your new thing? Fucking all your friends’ sisters?”
“Shut up, Maria,” Dylan growled.
“Ooh. You’re so feisty.” She patted him on the cheek before shifting her eyes to me. “He like this in the sack, too?”
Ignoring her taunting smirk, I settled my gaze on the back of Dylan’s head as he shook it from side to side. Even an idiot could see what was going on here—or at least what had gone on here at some point in the not-so-distant past.
“Why are you asking me?” I fired at Maria. “You already know the answer to that, don’t you?”
Maria’s directed her malicious grin at Dylan. “Perceptive girl you found.”
“Alright, Maria. That’s enough,” Marcus commanded. “She is Jake’s sister, after all.”
I glanced at the big man where he stood by the opening that would lead us farther into the mine. With his thick arms, obscene height, and the shadow of dark stubble on his jaw, he looked intimidating as hell. Not the type I would expect to stick up for me. Not the type I would normally smart-off to either, yet that was exactly what I did.
“My name is Thea,” I snapped. Then I slipped between Jake and Dylan to stand nose-to-nose with Maria. “And Dylan is all yours.”
I didn’t wait for a response from her before I marched away. The bag on my shoulders smacked into Dylan in my haste, but I offered no apology.
Marcus darted to the side to let me pass by him. I stopped only once I slipped through the opening and realized I didn’t know where I was going. Nor could I see what was in front of me. The glow from the fire at the entrance didn’t spread more than a few steps into this section of the mine. The echo of my footsteps suggested that it was much bigger and more open.