by JT Sawyer
“Abby? Abby Strachan, is that you, girl? What the hell are you—?”
Vern felt a burning sensation in his back, like he’d fallen onto a shaft of red-hot rebar. He tasted copper in his mouth, and his throat filled with blood before he caught sight of the tip of a silver blade piercing his abdomen. Vern tottered to his right, dropping the pistol and crashing into the door. He watched the knife slip back inside then felt someone kick him to the ground. His belly felt like he’d swallowed a pound of glass, and he choked on the geyser of blood rushing up into his mouth. As he slid to the floor, he landed on his side, staring up at his son, who was brandishing the knife he’d once given him.
“It’s like you always said, Father: a single thrust is far superior to a slash any day.” The boy flung the blade onto Vern’s chest. Nick stepped over him, seeming larger and more muscular. He spoke to the other teenagers who stood shoulder-to-shoulder before him. His son looked back at Vern.
“Leave this one as he is. There’s no need to taint yourselves with his vile glands.”
Vern saw his son move closer. His lungs filled with fluid as his last breath of oxygen flitted away. Nick bent down, whispering in his ear in a shrill voice.
“You were right—nature does favor the strong. That’s why you are lying here and I am going to erase the world of men for good.”
Chapter 27
Reisner took cover behind a fallen hickory tree and began unleashing a controlled volley of rounds into the coming swarm of alphas. He figured there had to be at least fifteen in this wave and wondered how many more he was missing. He was sure that the drones were being sent in by Roland only to tie up Ivins and the other forces in the region, as the alphas on site were surely going to be enough to contend with. As he shot a rotund creature in the head, he immediately pivoted to his left, firing off three rounds into the tiny head of a small female that leaped over a woodpile. He heard the constant staccato of gunfire from the rest of his team around him as he dropped out a magazine and shoved a new one into his rifle. Two bounding creatures to his left stopped in their tracks, as if something was tethered to their legs. They were shrieking while trying to free their feet from something metallic sticking out of the ground, and Reisner immediately knew they had entered Schrade’s minefield of booby traps. He dispatched those alphas, grateful for the help but dreading the walk ahead.
Chapter 28
In the back room of the cabin, Roland looked at Kat, who had weakened considerably since their time at Aspen Pharmaceuticals despite the copious amounts of synthetic hormones that he had given her. The percentage of burns on her body prevented the smaller worms from providing the necessary nitrogen exchange in her surface capillaries, which was slowly depriving the master parasite around her cerebellum. In turn, it began cannibalizing her cerebral cortex, slowly eroding her motor functions and ability to mask her heat signature. Roland leaned over, putting his hand on her bark-like black shoulder. You died on me once already, Kat. Don’t leave me again.
She tried to stand up but only slid back down, her face wincing. He saw several dead worms leak out from burnt fissures in her body.
Kat nodded, unable to speak back into his mind. Her eyes lowered, and she raised her lone arm up and squeezed his fingers, then she struggled to point towards the door, beckoning him to leave.
Roland expanded his senses out through his army of alphas in the immediate region, seeing that they were mainly confined to the eastern edge of the property, battling a small group of humans. When he was done, he helped Kat up to her feet, walking alongside her to the door.
Roland saw Nicholas trotting down the hallway. Help me; there isn’t much time, said Roland into his mind. He looked at the fresh blood spattered on the teenager’s white t-shirt and knew it had come from killing his father. He could sense a rage and unbridled aggression in him that he hadn’t ever seen in any of his other alphas. Roland was pleased that Nick’s intellect and mental acuity were so intact after his transformation, but the boy’s feelings of rage were like a tidal wave that Roland wasn’t expecting; his own rebirth hadn’t been accompanied by so much raw emotion. Control yourself—that despicable creature is no longer a threat.
He felt the boy’s mind resist him for a second then comply as the parasite entwined around his nervous system, compelling him to obey. Nick’s resistance was stronger than Abby’s or the other boy’s, causing Roland to exert more influence over him than he anticipated.
There is a route through the forest to the west that we can escape along while the rest of our brood keep the soldiers contained here. Roland issued a mental call to the alphas nearest the outside of the cabin to provide protection for them as they exited. Then he swept up Katherine, picking her up off the ground with both arms and carrying her towards the back door. Nick followed as Abby and Terrance came up the rear. Roland noticed that Terrance had several bulbous, festering growths on his neck. He knew the boy’s body was rejecting the parasite around his neck, and both would eventually perish as the deformity warped their minds as it had the three older teenagers left behind in the pharmaceutical building. He would have to take care of Terrance later—right now, they all had to escape.
Once outside, he leapt off the steps and began running down the trail. After sixty feet, he was joined by four other alphas. Pausing to regain his bearings, Roland heard the sound of gunfire and saw the trunk of a large hickory tree to his right splinter apart. Moving briskly up the hill were eleven armed farmers haphazardly getting into shooting positions. One of the stray rounds sailed past Roland’s head, striking the alpha next to him in its chin, blowing off his lower jaw. The creature collapsed to his knees as the severed parasite in his throat writhed in a slurry of its own blood. Aiden moved up next to Roland to shield him as bullets continued to tear through the air.
Roland heard Nick’s voice in his head, shouting that they should return to the cabin. There is another way.
Roland spun around, retracing his steps. Another volley of gunfire ensued, followed by a round grazing his left shoulder. He staggered, trying to hold Katherine while glancing to the woods on the east side of the cabin, where the shot had come from. There was another group of people, who were clad in black tactical gear and moving towards him. He could tell by their bounding moves and hand signals that they were skilled operators—perhaps the same ones who had been hunting him for the past three weeks.
Struggling to hold Katherine, he staggered back up the porch steps and followed Nick down into the bunker. He set Katherine down against some crates of dynamite and looked at the windowless room of thick concrete. The walls seemed to be closing in on him and his small group. For the first time since his transformation, he felt a sense of dread. We are trapped—after all we’ve been through, it cannot end this way.
Chapter 29
Reisner swung his AR to the left, shearing off the top of the skull of a bounding alpha as three bullets tore through the forehead. He dropped to one knee, firing another volley at two alphas on the left, catching the first one in the neck and upper lip. It collapsed and rolled down the hill into the swamp. The second beast was nearly bounding on all fours, keeping its body low as Reisner sent a flurry of rounds into its chest, causing it to shriek and tumble to a stop thirty feet from his location. He saw its translucent face, coated with broken bone fragments and a soupy mix of worms, then fired two rounds into the throat.
“Contact at six o’clock,” yelled Connelly.
Reisner swiveled his head around while dropping in another magazine. Behind them were at least six alphas trying to move through the swamp. He knew they’d be on them in a few minutes. Reisner tapped on his ear-mic, his ears deafened by the staccato of gunfire from his team as they dispatched more creatures on the west side of the cabin.
“Echo One, do you copy?”
“Go ahead,” said Ivins.
“What’s your whisky? There are tangos in every direction.”
“The helo is still ten minutes out.”
“Copy that.�
�� Reisner knew they were on their own as he watched the alphas advancing through the murky waters below, and once they defeated these, there would be a massive drone army to contend with. He raised up his AR, steadying the sights and trying to slow his breathing, hoping Ivins was as punctual as always.
“Contact at twelve o’clock,” yelled Gomez. Reisner glanced over his shoulder and saw a group of seven alphas moving towards the back porch of the cabin. The largest one was carrying a badly burned female in his arms. Roland!
He couldn’t make out the others before they disappeared inside, but he was sure one of them was a teenage boy. The large alpha carrying the other one moved behind a woodpile as it ran towards the steps. Reisner rotated to his right, waiting for an opening, then readied his finger on the trigger to squeeze off the killing round. Reisner caught the faint glimpse of a silhouette behind the woodpile and aimed his sights. Just as the large alpha emerged, a hail of rounds sprayed the tree above Reisner’s head, causing his aim to go wild. His shot hit the creature in the left shoulder. Reisner felt more rounds zing by his head, and he ducked as the tree to his right splintered apart. What the hell?
He heard gunfire coming from the opposite direction of the cabin and peered around the tree. He saw Lorraine and her group advancing up the hill while fighting off a dozen alphas, unaware that Reisner and his team were on the receiving end of their stray bullets.
He slid ten feet down the hill on his back, remaining flat as he saw the rest of his team do the same. Reisner looked down towards the swamp and saw the group of alphas emerging from the primordial black goo. “Follow my lead,” he said into his ear-mic. He turned onto his belly, shimmying forward on his elbows past the sprung mantraps, searching for the telltale signs of rusted metal sticking out of the ground. He positioned his team between the swamp and an untrammeled area on the hill where he could see several Conibear traps exposed from the recent rains. This should make our sniping job a little easier.
He knew his last rifle mag was nearly depleted, and he transitioned to his Glock 17. He watched the first two alphas advancing up the hill. A second later, they froze in place, their ankles shattering once the thick metal traps snapped down on the bone. They were quickly dispatched with single rounds to the head by Nash and Wexler. The others darted from tree to tree, with one leaping up into the branches like a mountain lion. Reisner had to shoot at its fingers and calves until it fell to the ground, where he finished it off. When the alphas from the swamp were dead, he crawled ten feet uphill and raised his head to surveil the area around the outbuildings.
Reisner no longer heard any gunfire coming from the east side of the cabin. He raised his head up and saw that Lorraine and her people had dispatched four alphas before being torn apart by the others, which must have retreated inside with Roland.
He got up and ran towards the rear porch, pausing to stop by Lorraine’s mangled body a few feet from Tucker and his son. The woman’s glassy eyes were staring up at the sky as if she had just lain down to rest. I’m so sorry you had to go this way. If Abby is alive, I’ll find her and take care of her for you.
He wanted to cover her with his jacket or do something to blot out the undignified ending she had suffered. Instead, he grimaced and pushed down his feelings, forcing his legs to move up the wooden steps of the porch. He raised his hand, signaling for Nash, Wexler, and Gomez to sweep around the other side and head towards the river.
Reisner prepared to enter the cabin as Porter and Connelly came up behind him, readying themselves for a high-risk entry, aware that never were the risks at hand so great or on so many levels.
Chapter 30
Nick felt like the muscles in his arms were three times the size they had been as he pried open the small hatch in the concrete wall, revealing a three-foot-high dirt tunnel. The entrance and sloped interior were reinforced with two-by-fours and provided enough space to squat-walk the forty yards to the exit near the river.
One thing about my old man was that he was never shortsighted when it came to thinking like a filthy rat. Aiden climbed inside first, quickly disappearing into the inky passage, followed by Nick, then Abby and Terrance and three other alphas.
Roland remained behind, squatting next to his sister’s nearly depleted body. No amount of synthetic hormones or psychic assistance could save her now. Roland brushed his fingers along her crystalline black cheeks. Thank you, Kat, for giving me life after death—and a chance to be with you longer. There is just one more task to perform. She looked up into his eyes, blinking several times, then she crawled into the tunnel as he followed behind.
Chapter 31
Reisner could see that all of the bare footprints led down the steps to the right. Regardless, they did a hasty search of the upstairs rooms, finding only a cluster of mangled bodies in the back bedroom. When they were certain that their quarry was downstairs, he positioned himself near the entrance, wondering what kind of hell they were about to enter and if they would emerge alive. He saw Porter pull a grenade off his vest, causing Reisner to quickly shake his head, giving the no-go signal as he recalled that Schrade had dynamite in his possession, not to mention who knew how many rounds of ordinance in the house.
Reisner tapped his vest, pointing to the remaining pistol mags contained there, then he raised up his fingers to indicate he had two. Connelly raised one finger while Porter showed the same. He retreated back into the hallway, tapping on his ear-mic and muffling his voice as he directed his message to Pacelle. “The fox is in the henhouse at my coordinates.”
“Copy that,” said Pacelle in a concerned voice. “Expect the rain in twelve minutes.”
Twelve minutes—a helluva lot can go wrong in that time.
Reisner motioned for the others to back out of the cabin, then he muscled shut the huge steel door to the bunker. He removed the pin from his grenade, then placed it between the curved handle and the door and darted outside. Stepping off the porch, he heard the agonized scream of a man near the hill to their left.
Chapter 32
Nash was standing on the cusp of the downhill slope that led away from the cabin towards the river, his eyes and ears probing the region ahead. To his right was Wexler, while Gomez was thirty feet to his left, nestled in some brush.
“Just caught movement forty meters to the south,” said Gomez into Nash’s earpiece. “Moving up to investigate.” Nash turned and covered Gomez as the stocky operator skulked along the slope. A few seconds later, he heard Gomez scream and collapse, dropping his rifle and clutching his ankle where a steel Conibear trap had sprung. Gomez quickly muffled his breathing, his face red as he rocked on the ground in agony. Nash began to trot to him then slowed, scanning the leafy soil for more traps. He took a step forward then heard a shriek to his rear, followed by a bloodcurdling scream from Wexler. Nash tapped on his ear-mic, alerting Reisner. “Two men down—repeat, two men down fifty meters east of the cabin.” He spun around and proceeded cautiously towards Wexler’s last position, then paused as he approached a fallen log. “Wexler, do you copy?”
He rested his rifle on the log, scanning with his scope. He knew the alphas were low on numbers and would be resorting to hit-and-run tactics instead of all-out assaults. Nash paused when he saw Wexler’s contorted body lying in the mud where the hill leveled out. He felt his stomach churn as he stared at the headless corpse, which still had arterial blood and spinal fluid throbbing out of the neck region. Jesus, where did they come from? He scanned the surrounding terrain for movement, his eyes eventually settling on a two-foot-diameter hole in the ground beside a camouflage hatch.
Nash heard the patter of raindrops on his vest and looked overhead at the clear sky. He glanced down at his shoulder, taking in the fresh mud droplets, then swiftly rolled on his back as a sleek alpha dropped from the branches above. He fired off two rounds before it landed, but it still managed to strike a vicious blow across his face, its knuckles cracking the cartilage in his nose and shattering the bone around his right eye.
Chapte
r 33
Reisner cautiously loped down the well-worn trail from the cabin towards Nash’s position, his attention divided between staring at the ground for traps and scanning the choked brush for alphas.
He heard Gomez’s strained voice in his ear-mic, the man choking out his words in between labored breaths. “I can see you. I’m twenty meters to your right near the jagged stump. Watch out for traps.”
Reisner veered off the trail, moving slowly as Connelly and Porter followed behind. He found Gomez curled in a ball beside the trunk of an oak tree, his hands clutching his mangled boot. A foot away was a spiked Conibear trap coated with blood.
Gomez sat up, whispering into Reisner’s ear. “Pretty sure they got Wexler. Not sure where Nash is at.” He nodded with his chin. “About sixty meters that way is where they were last at.” Gomez fell back, his lips contorting from the pain. Porter moved up to the man’s wounded foot, removing his med kit and getting to work on an improvised splint.
“Go—I’ve got this,” said Porter.
Reisner and Connelly hopped up, moving slowly over the damp leaf litter. He picked up his pace, knowing this entire area was about to be pulverized by the inbound Hellfire. He kept hoping he’d hear Nash’s voice in his ear-mic, then he froze in his tracks at the grisly sight ahead.
Shit—Wexler. He saw the operator’s headless corpse up near a small tunnel. He felt his mouth go dry as he looked at the repugnant sight, then he swiveled his head, searching the forest for any signs of the creatures who had escaped in the tunnel. He needed to contact Pacelle and delay the launch, but he couldn’t risk making any noise. Where the hell is Nash?