The pounding of feet was louder and then they heard before they saw the first man as he gained the bottom floor. Collins placed his hand on Everett, staying him from firing at the first one.
Through the greenish light of their goggles they saw the man stop and stare into the darkness of the now empty cell. He turned just as the Anaconda himself entered the subbasement. Jack recognized him immediately and aimed for his head. Just at that moment the lead man saw the danger and jumped in front of Guzman. The first silenced round, which in the closed space of the subbasement wasn’t silent at all, struck the man in the back of his head just as Everett fired.
“Damn it,” Jack hissed as he saw Guzman go down with his dead guard draped over him.
They all heard rapid-fire Spanish coming from the darkness ahead and more men flooded through the large open staircase.
That was when Collins and Everett opened up in earnest. They took the first four with no problem and then saw the next two men start to drag the dazed Guzman out from under the dead man covering him. Jack aimed and dropped one, but the other stayed up even as Everett’s next three rounds struck him in the torso. His weight falling backward was enough to get the Anaconda near the stairway door where more hands lifted him and pulled him to safety.
“There goes the quick solution,” Everett said as he fired another three-round burst at the men streaming through the door. They were now taking cover on the far side of the old cell. Rounds were pinging off the steel and chipping large chunks of old concrete and adobe from the walls as Jack and Carl laid down a withering fire on the attackers.
Just as Collins’s first magazine emptied, Guzman’s men started to return fire at a far more rapid rate than either career soldier would have given them credit for. Bullets started shattering the corner of the wall that was covering them as Everett stopped to reload.
“Damn fine shooting in the dark,” Everett said as he slammed home another thirty-round magazine.
“Remember, Captain, these … men have been … fighting a real war down here for … nearly five … years.”
Carl chanced a look behind him and saw that Farbeaux had managed to crawl forward and was actually trying to aim the Beretta in the direction of the attack. As he shook his head and turned to fire, Henri’s aim proved to be as good as either Jack’s or his own as three men fell inside of the cell.
With the flare of the enemy weapons, Jack raised his goggles and then tossed them away, as did Everett. The bright flashes were overwhelming the ambient-light devices and they were firing blind.
Suddenly they heard footsteps directly over their heads and without thinking it through, Collins pulled Everett backward by the body armor covering his back. As they fell back, Henri saw what was happening and fired the remaining rounds in the nine millimeter and then rolled to join his two allies.
Just as they cleared the area, a loud explosion rocked the subbasement, sending wood and concrete downward in a killing arc of shrapnel.
“Damn cheaters,” Everett said as he rose and emptied another magazine up and into the smoldering hole that had just been opened up above them.
As Jack added fire to the new opening, they heard another, far louder weapon open up next to them. Will Mendenhall had joined the fight with his MP-5. He sprayed the first fifteen rounds at the men trying to advance through the corridor and then raised the hot and smoking weapon at the same spot Everett and Collins were firing at. As he stopped to change magazines he slapped Everett on the shoulder.
“Time to go! Sarah has the girls heading down the tunnel!”
“Right,” Everett said as he stopped firing and then unceremoniously grabbed the wounded Farbeaux by the collar and started dragging him toward the missing floorboards.
There was another explosion and a hole magically appeared just in front of the cell where Guzman’s men had taken cover. Collins heard something fall through the opening as the gunfire let up and the Anaconda’s men saw what had been thrown into the lower floor. They tried to scramble out, but it was too late. The grenade detonated and men were thrown in every direction.
“Now that’s a real nice guy,” Mendenhall said as he added bullets to the shrapnel near the darkened cell area.
“I don’t think I want to be here when this asshole gets serious. Go Will, go!”
Mendenhall followed Jack’s orders and rolled halfway to the hole in the wooden flooring. He waited as Everett shoved Farbeaux roughly through the opening and then jumped after him. Will heard more men pouring into the basement from the stairs and even saw two or three fall through the second hole they had made. He started to lower himself when he saw a shotgun barrel poke through the blast hole directly where they had been a moment before. He started sliding into the hole before he could aim. Jack was about to be shot from above as Will fired blindly upward as he vanished through the floorboards. One of the rounds hit the man aiming his lethal weapon at the top of his head. Collins never knew how close he had come to having his head blown off as he jumped in after Mendenhall.
Collins missed landing on Mendenhall by a mere foot. He rolled and came up inside the old laboratory. He fired two more times at the spot where he had just jumped, but that didn’t stop one of Guzman’s men from getting through the missing floorboards. He saw the man struggling with something. Jack aimed and fired, but nothing happened. The man struggled to his knees and then raised his right arm into the air. As Collins froze for the briefest of moments, two aimed rounds struck the man in the neck and chest, dropping him, but not before he managed to do what he came to do. Henri Farbeaux immediately pulled Jack down.
“Grenade!” the Frenchman shouted.
Everett and Mendenhall immediately dove for cover as the small round object sailed over their heads and landed next to the excavated hole they had entered the old laboratory through. The grenade exploded. Several small pieces of shrapnel struck Everett in the shoulder and Will in the right arm. But they would have considered themselves lucky if that had been all the damage done. The bulk of the grenade’s power smashed against the dirt opening to the lab, collapsing the ceiling and sending wood reinforcement and dirt cascading down, blocking their escape.
Jack shook himself and then stood, pulling Henri up as he did. “Thanks, Colonel.”
Farbeaux didn’t answer as he took in the mess around him. Through the smoke and dust he saw Everett and Mendenhall stand and look around—they were both dazed from the concussive effects of the explosion. Then he spied the cave-in.
“I take it that was the way out of here,” he asked as he ejected the now empty clip from the Beretta. He looked at Jack and then swiped blood from his right eye.
“You’re as observant as ever, Henri,” Collins said as he rushed forward, handing the Frenchman three more clips of ammunition as he did.
“You two alright?” he asked as he saw blood streaming from both of his men.
“A little steel and blood is the least of our problems, Jack,” Everett said as he bent to retrieve his carbine.
Collins examined the damage and cursed as he kicked at the blockage in front of him.
“Gentlemen, we have more company,” Henri said as he dropped the first man who poked his head through the opening above. Then he fired a second time and hit one of Guzman’s men in both hands as he reached to move the first attacker out of the way. He emptied another clip up and into the floorboards where he heard men scream in pain. Then all of a sudden it was silent.
Farbeaux had just ejected the expended clip when his eyes fell on something about ten feet away from him. He stepped forward and then kicked at a white object on the dirt floor. Curious, he reached into his pocket brought out a lighter, and then flicked it to life. His eyebrows rose as he spied the misshapen skull staring up at him. He allowed the flame to go out and decided it wasn’t worth asking about. He turned and then joined the others at the cave-in while watching the floorboards above him for any sign of movement. He saw shadows through the cracks in the wood but decided not to waste any more am
munition on guesswork. He shook his head as his vision blurred briefly and then turned to face the men who had become his strictest enemies. Jack and Everett were already on their knees digging away at the blockage. Henri could see it would be a painfully slow process.
“Gentlemen, you have made an otherwise boring night into something I will remember for years to come,” a man said from above in very good English. “Now, if you will surrender we can—”
The rest of the words were drowned out by a sudden burst of thirty rounds as they struck the floor above. The bullets hit everywhere around the hole.
“You ever notice how assholes like that always want to make a speech when they have the upper hand?” Jack said as he tossed the now empty carbine to Mendenhall to reload as he bent to continue digging. Thirty feet away they heard Guzman laughing near the hole in the floor.
“Do I bore you? What are you, Special Forces perhaps?”
“This guy never gives up,” Mendenhall said and then was knocked from his feet as an explosion rocked the large laboratory. Jack, Everett, and Farbeaux were stunned as a large hole opened up against the far wall, knocking jar after jar of the stored chemicals from their shelves. Then before they could react, several men jumped through the new opening before a defensive shot could be fired.
“I think you pissed him off Jack,” Everett said as he came to his knees and fired his weapon toward the area where the men had taken cover. Several of the wooden tables had caught fire, adding light to the darkened laboratory.
Farbeaux stood on shaky feet and fired twice from the Beretta. He was suddenly struck and went down with a clean bullet hole in his arm.
“That hurt!” he shouted as he scrambled on his belly toward Collins, Everett, and Mendenhall. “I lost your weapon, Colonel.”
“Yeah, and you’re going to pay for it. I signed that out!” Collins said as his anger at being trapped spilled from his mouth.
Mendenhall pulled two of the poppy-filled barrels over to use as cover while Everett and Collins dug at the fallen earth. He turned in time to see a small opening at the top. They were making headway.
“Jack!”
“Damn it Lieutenant, get those girls down that tunnel and out of here!” Collins stopped long enough to shout. Sarah had once more disobeyed his order and came back when she heard the explosion that sealed the laboratory from the culvert. When he didn’t hear her respond, he once more started tearing at the loose earth.
“She’s starting to follow orders like the rest of us,” Everett said as he threw a large chunk of wooden beam away. He noticed that Collins was too angry to say anything.
Mendenhall fired five rounds and hit one of the next men through the now large gap where only a few missing boards had been before.
“I see you are trapped, gentlemen. Give up now and the women can go free. Do not and they will be caught and skinned alive before they reach the river.”
Jack knew it was Guzman. The Anaconda was actually one of the men who came through the flooring from above them.
“Brave son of a bitch isn’t he?” Farbeaux said as he opened fire with Jack’s carbine. The rounds struck the shelving above where Guzman and his men were taking cover. Through the flames of the burning wood Mendenhall saw the jars on the shelves shatter. The he saw more of the samples from a hundred years before break and splatter onto the men below.
Mendenhall changed magazines in the smoking MP-5, which had totally burned out its sound suppressor, and then aimed at the spot he thought the voice of Juan Guzman was coming from. He was about to fire when he saw a man’s arm wave from the cover of the burning tables. Then he realized that he wasn’t waving as a small object flew from his hand. Will’s eyes widened when he realized just what the object was. He angrily stood, and in the flickering light he caught the grenade. In a split-second reaction he tossed it back in the direction in which it was launched.
“Down!” he shouted as Henri fell next to him after seeing the amazing catch in midair.
The grenade exploded amongst the scrambling and now screaming men, sending large pieces of them in all directions. The remainder of the sample jars and more than a few of the wooden barrels of dried flowers erupted as shrapnel tore through them.
Mendenhall stood and emptied the thirty-round magazine in his MP-5 in a spray of bullets in the general area where men were either dead or writhing in pain.
“Hah! Didn’t see that one coming did you, you bastards! That one was for Ryan!” Mendenhall screamed just a second before the wounded Farbeaux pulled him roughly to the floor.
“Didn’t Collins teach you better than that?” the Frenchman asked with a mask of pain and anger on his face.
“Just thrilled to be here, Colonel, you ought to know that by now,” Will said as he changed the empty magazine for a new one.
“If you two are finished, we could use a hand here,” Everett said as he continued to widen the gap at the top of the cave-in.
“Go, I’ll cover us,” Henri said grabbing the MP-5 from Mendenhall.
“Why? I got ’em all!” Will said as he saw Farbeaux fire into the flickering firelight cast by the burning tables and wooden barrels.
“Well, evidently you missed one or two Lieutenant!” Henri said as he loosed more rounds in the general direction of the man who had just risen. Mendenhall, instead of helping Jack and Carl, bent back down near Farbeaux. He saw the man that had thrown the grenade go down when Henri’s stream of bullets cut him down.
In the direction where the grenade had detonated, screams of agony were heard—cries of pain so loud and piercing all four men felt like covering their ears. They could all smell burnt flesh, the smell of dried foliage, and something they could never describe—the odor was medicinal, and as the stench grew, so did the screams of Guzman and his men.
“What the—”
His question was interrupted by another four rounds fired by the Frenchman. They both saw the same man go down again.
“That’s one hard to kill son of a bitch!” Mendenhall said as he tried to ignore the powerful smell from the burning poppies and the stench of the liquid that had been stored in the jars.
Even as the exclamation left Mendenhall’s mouth, Farbeaux’s eyes widened. The same man Will had shot, and then hit with the grenade, actually stood up again, this time holding a flaming leg from one of the smashed tables. Henri took careful aim and fired again. This time three rounds left the MP-5. One bullet struck the man in the neck, the next two in the jaw and the cheek. He moved back two steps and then looked up toward where his attacker had fired. Farbeaux was shocked he was still standing. He fired one more round. This one hit the man directly where his heart should have been. Both Henri and Will saw the man’s white shirt puff out where the bullet had hit. The man started walking toward them. As Henri’s jaw dropped, a sound came from behind the overturned and flaming tables near the wall. It was an actual roar. It sounded like an ape or a bear. Will looked at Farbeaux as the sound reverberated off the wall.
Both Everett and Collins stopped digging long enough to turn their heads to see what was happening. The sound sent chills down everyone’s spines.
“Oh, shit!” Mendenhall screamed. “Colonel, we have a problem here!”
As Jack looked on in amazement, Farbeaux emptied the rest of the magazine of 5.56 rounds into the man’s body, even striking him on the right side of his head. The attacker was finally knocked down. As Collins started to turn back to widen the hole, he saw the man that had just been hit with fifteen rounds pop up like a Jack in the Box.
“What the hell is this?” Will said as he reached for Everett’s weapon, raised it to his shoulder, and took careful aim. This time he loosed a single round as the man drew closer. This bullet hit the bloody guard right between the eyes. Mendenhall was relieved when the man fell back, and this time he didn’t move. He looked down at Henri. “You just have to know how to shoot, Colonel.”
Farbeaux wasn’t listening as he watched two men, one without an arm and the other wi
th his lower jaw missing, stand up from behind the spreading flames.
“Okay, Colonel, I think I want to leave now.”
Collins couldn’t believe what he was seeing. Men that had been shot, filled with shrapnel from a grenade, and wounded beyond any reason for them to even be moving were growling and walking toward them.
Mendenhall stood and just nodded his head at the two men as they came on. “Okay, okay! They’re drug addled or something.”
Henri fired until another of the magazines was empty. The man without a jaw was struck in the center of his forehead and went down heavily and didn’t move. The second man stood his ground and was about to start forward once more with at least five bullet holes in his abdomen and chest, when another awful and animalistic roar filled the room once more. This time Henri, Will, and Collins actually saw the author of that sound, or rather his shadow, as he rose from behind the makeshift and now destroyed cover.
Henri saw that the man was wearing the very same clothing that Juan Guzman was wearing earlier when Farbeaux was beaten inside of the cell. He stood and then called back to Jack.
“That’s Guzman.”
Collins saw that the man was at least a foot and a half taller than he was. He had grown so much that the shirt he wore was torn in several places. And what was worse he could now see the man’s features in the flickering of the fire. His cheekbones were high and deep lined. His forehead was larger than normal and his arms hung far below his waist. Jack’s eyes went from the two men in front of them to the two corpses they had found earlier.
“Jesus, it’s got to be that crap from the barrels and the jars. They’ve changed!”
Henri looked from the monstrosities before them to one of the sealed jars that had nearly decapitated him after the explosion. He involuntarily moved a few feet farther from it as another scream of animal rage filled the old laboratory.
The beast that was once Juan Guzman, the Anaconda, quickly moved, his actions as fluent as a cat’s, and took the wounded man standing before them by the throat. He raised his own man off the floor and then they all heard his neck snap. Guzman then brought the man close to his own face and then to the complete horror of the men watching in shock, took a large bite out of the man’s face. He chewed once, twice, and then looked toward the men watching. The thing actually smiled, and then before they could react Guzman threw the dead body toward them where it landed against the rubble from the cave-in and slid down at Everett’s feet. The roar of triumph pierced their ears.
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