An inhuman scream of pain emanated from somewhere behind Warren and he knew that somebody had landed a solid shot on one of the crimsons pursuing him. It wouldn’t kill the creature but maybe it would slow it down enough to prevent it from catching up to the pair.
Through his thermal goggles, Warren spotted a heat signature running at them full speed. He realized that the men covering them from behind would not have a clear shot at this Crimson and the two would have to deal with it themselves. “Target one o’clock!” he shouted as he raised his UMP and began sending bursts of .45 ACP rounds at the Crimson’s center mass.
He heard the report of Burchette’s M-14, but wondered if either of them were landing any of their shots on the target as they attempted to run and fire.
As his 25 round magazine neared empty Warren was about to draw his sidearm to continue firing when the Crimson finally wailed in pain and changed course to pass wide around them. Even though Crimsons could take a lot of punishment they weren’t completely invincible and could sometimes be temporarily dropped with a lucky headshot. It was as if the creature knew this as it passed wide around them instead of continuing its charge.
Warren reached his silo first and quickly climbed twenty feet up the ladder before stopping to fire a magazine’s worth of ammunition at the Crimsons below to discourage them from following him up the ladder. The two Crimsons that had tried to climb up after him soon changed their minds and sprinted off after Burchette in hopes of catching easier prey on the open ground. A quick glance to his side showed him that the other man had just reached the taller silo fifty meters away from Warren’s position and was beginning to climb the ladder with four Crimsons closing in on him.
Using every ounce of strength, Warren climbed to the top of the silo as quickly as he could. As he reached it, he took one last glance down the ladder to make sure nothing followed him, then unslung his M-320 grenade launcher from his back.
Burchette was almost to the top of the eighty-foot silo, but two of the crimsons were already climbing the ladder below him in an attempt to reach him. Warren thumbed on the night sight attached to his launcher and fired a high-explosive dual purpose round at the silo. The 40mm grenade impacted directly above the highest Crimson, throwing the creature from the silo and destroying a section of the silo’s only ladder. The remaining crimson let out a howl in apparent anger as it realized that the ladder above it was destroyed and it had no way to climb the silo to reach its prey.
All four Crimsons soon began circling Warren’s silo as they realized that he was the only reachable prey in the area. Every time one attempted to climb the ladder shots would ring out from Burchette’s M-14 until the creature was forced back to the ground.
The two didn’t have to wait long for the crimson’s to find something new to focus their attention on. McKean had slipped out of the house and silently made his way to the barn a hundred meters away and was now standing in the window of the loft shouting as he fired a parachute flair out to let his presence be known.
The four Crimsons immediately took off in the direction of their new prey and Warren checked to make sure he had the proper round loaded into his grenade launcher then readied himself. Tracers zipped across the farmstead as the three men in the building continued to fire on the four Crimsons and flame erupted from McKean’s shotgun as the creatures came into range.
Discouraged by the heavy fire, the Crimsons were forced around the far side of the building putting them out of the line of site of both McKean and the men in the building. From his position, Warren could still see them and watched as they entered the only other door to the barn. Shotgun fire soon began emanating from the building signaling that the Crimsons had found their way up into the loft with McKean.
Within moments McKean appeared in the loft door and jumped to the ground below. Warren almost immediately heard two explosions come from the loft of the barn and knew that the crimsons had triggered the two pursuit deterrent munitions McKean had placed between himself and the ladder to the loft. The M-86 PDM was slightly larger than a grenade and had a pin that released an arming lever when thrown. Shortly after landing, the munition would shoot out seven trip wires then arm itself soon after. When the Crimson’s had tripped the wires, a liquid propellant charge shot the mine up to shoulder height before it detonated launching shrapnel in every direction.
Knowing the explosions would only slow the crimsons down temporarily, Warren gave McKean a few moments to get clear of the barn, then fired a 40mm grenade into the doorway of the loft. This grenade was one of the newly modified incendiary grenades to be used with 40mm launchers. As it detonated three hundred small incendiary pellets were thrown from the grenade igniting everything near the explosion.
Warren reloaded and fired two more incendiary grenades, one at each of the ground level doors to the barn that were open. The loft door and the small ground level door the Crimsons had entered were both engulfed in flame, but there were fewer flammable objects near the large doors below the loft to burn and help contain the Crimsons.
Every member of the team waited and watched for any Crimsons to try to escape the burning barn. Shrieks came from the building as the creatures tried to find a way to escape the inferno. Two more explosions flashed from the first floor as they triggered more PDMs that McKean had planted near the large barn door.
One creature came into view, slowly dragging itself through the large doorway, its legs and left arm shredded by the explosions. Even in its injured state the creature would eventually regenerate if allowed to live. A 7.62 round from Burchette’s rifle cut through the slow moving creature’s head temporarily rendering it immobile as its body tried to regenerate from the massive trauma.
Warren watched as McKean stepped closer to the crimson that had crawled out of the barn and fired two spreads into it for good measure. He began fishing through his vest and Warren assumed he was retrieving an incendiary grenade to finish off the Crimson when another leapt through the flames on the second story loft and landed atop McKean.
Warren’s UMP was useless at this range and a grenade from his 320 would surely kill McKean. He was forced to watch helplessly as the creature used its unnatural strength to overpower the man. There was a series of flashes and Warren realized that McKean had managed to draw his sidearm and fire a magazine worth of rounds into the creature’s torso, but it wasn’t enough to discourage the Crimson or save the man.
He needed to save the last of his incendiary rounds for the alpha, so Warren loaded a HEDP round into his launcher and waited. As soon as he saw the Crimson sink its teeth into McKean’s neck, infecting him and sealing his fate, Warren raised his launcher and fired a grenade into the pair.
The resulting blast hit the two directly, putting McKean out of his misery and shredding the Crimson’s body. The creature immediately tried to limp away, but Warren reloaded and fired his final HEDP grenade, causing enough damage to the creature to render it immobile. The Crimson began shrieking, but Burchette silenced it in the same manner as the last one.
The five remaining men continued to watch as the barn burned, but no other Crimsons escaped the inferno. Around the time Warren started to believe that the remaining two Crimsons had burned inside the barn, he heard Captain Oswald’s voice come through his headset. “We’re sending two from our location to destroy the bodies outside the barn, keep them covered.”
“I’m moving down to their location as well,” Warren said after keying his mic, “I’m on my last forty-mike round and won’t be much use if I stay up here.”
“Good copy.”
Warren climbed down the silo and met up with Weise and Mueller near the bodies. McKean still laid there motionless, his abdomen opened up from the grenade blast. Near him was the corpse of the Crimson that had crawled through the barn door after triggering the munitions inside. The Crimson that had infected McKean was laying twenty meters away and both Crimsons were beginning to twitch as their bodies quickly worked to regenerate themselves. Knowing that all th
ree bodies would soon rise again if they weren’t dealt with, the men placed incendiary grenades on them and pulled the pins before rushing away.
“Raven-one has visual on primary target, approaching ground team from the southwest at a high rate of speed,” said the predator operator soon after the bodies of the final crimsons had been set aflame. “Sparkling the target.”
A beam of infrared light shot out from the bottom of the predator and began tracking the alpha as it moved towards the team. The alpha must have been watching the entire exchange and had wasted no time moving in on them once the Crimsons it had created were destroyed. The trio that had ignited the bodies all raised their weapons and began scanning the area the predator was sparkling as they tried to get eyes on their target.
The alpha crimson burst out of the tree line beyond the farmhouse and Mueller immediately took a knee and began firing bursts from his Mk 48 at the creature. Weise quickly followed suit with his M-4 while Warren readied his UMP, and prepared to fire his short-range weapon once the crimson was closer.
As 7.62mm tracers skipped off the ground near the creature it suddenly veered to the right and dove through the porch window they had exited the house from.
“Captain, it’s inside the house!” Weise shouted over the mic from his position next to Warren.
After a long silence the Captain responded sounding out of breath and in pain. “I got the door to my room shut but it’s going to make its way through any second. Get as far away from the building as you can and take cover—break.”
“Raven-one, this is Dragon-six, fire one hellfire at target reference building five immediately. Danger close.”
“Dragon-six, this is Raven-one: repeat last order. We show a beacon from one of your ground personnel coming from building five.”
“You heard me correctly Raven-one, fire on reference building five immediately,” said the Captain. Warren could hear the shrieks of the creature in the background of his transmission and knew that the Captain didn’t have long to live regardless of if the predator fired or not.
Warren and the others all scrambled for cover behind the large tires of a nearby tractor and braced themselves as a hellfire missile streaked down from the sky and detonated after piercing the roof of the farmhouse.
The blast was deafening and Warren was disoriented from the concussion as he climbed to his feet and stumbled around the side of the tractor to survey the house. The building was a pile of rubble and Warren was certain that the alpha had been buried in the blast.
Knowing that flame was needed to kill the creature, as well as burn the Captain’s potentially infected body, Warren took a moment to collect himself then fired his final incendiary round onto the rubble.
The flames began to quickly spread over the house and the three men on the ground took the time to check each other over for shrapnel injuries. Burchette radioed in that he was okay, and would keep an eye on the house from the silo. When no injuries were found, the three made their way towards the house to try to figure out the fate of the alpha.
As they approached the house, Warren spotted movement coming from part of the rubble and saw that the Crimson was trying to crawl out from under a large piece of debris that was once part of the roof. He quickly called it out to the others and threw his grenade launcher to the side before opening fire with his UMP.
Realizing it had been spotted, the alpha managed to pull itself out from under the debris, leapt off of the rubble and fled to the north. The creature was far faster than any man and Warren knew the three of them would not be able to catch it on foot. The predator had again begun sparkling the crimson letting Warren know that it had eyes on.
“Raven-one, engage the target with your remaining hellfire before it can get away, danger close,” Warren shouted into his mic fearing that the alpha was going to try to flee the area after their air support had let its presence be known.
The three of them dropped to the ground as the predator’s final hellfire missile streaked down from the sky and detonated twenty meters away from the Crimson. Warren rose to his feet and resumed sprinting towards the location being sparkled by the predator hoping to find the creature injured and vulnerable.
“Ordinance landed twenty meters from the target, and it appears to have taken some damage and slowed, but is still mobile,” said Raven-one. “Target has changed position and is moving towards target reference building three.”
Warren took a moment to remember the building numbers and recalled that building three was a machine shed on the northwest corner of the farmstead. The ground team began moving in that direction as Burchette let them know that he only had partial coverage of the building from his location.
The machine shed had massive garage style doors that allowed the large farm machinery housed inside to enter the building. The doors were only partially opened and the Warren had to duck in order to enter the dark building, the other two close behind him. Inside the building was an assortment of farm equipment including three tractors, two semis and a huge combine.
The building felt cramped and claustrophobic as Warren’s eyes darted around the machinery knowing that there was an alpha lurking somewhere inside. Wanting the use of his peripheral vision, he ripped off his thermal and snapped six chemical sticks before throwing them in different directions, bathing the shed in an eerie green light.
The other two men must have felt the same because the tactical lights on their weapons flashed to life almost simultaneously with Warren’s. They held position near the door and methodically scanned the machinery within sight but found no sign of the crimson.
“Dragon-six, this is Raven-one,” their eyes in the sky said over the radio. “Our UAV is bingo fuel and is moving off station. Good luck with your hunting.” Warren acknowledged the departure noting to himself that now there were no outside parties able to view what was unfolding on the ground.
“Throw PDMs near the door, then follow me,” Warren said after noticing that there didn’t appear to be any other exits to the building. “It’s not getting out of here while we’re still alive.”
The doors were over thirty feet wide and the men had to toss three PDMs into the doorway to get adequate coverage with the devices six-meter trip wires. As soon as the munitions were in place the trio moved deeper into the building following the wall to their left, knowing they only had twenty-five seconds from the time the devices were thrown before they launched their trip wires and began the arming sequence.
“Overwatch, this is ground team,” Warren whispered into his mike. “Munitions have been placed in the front door of the building and we are beginning our search. Notify us if you see the target try to escape the building.”
“Copy.”
As the trio passed a bright red tractor, the Crimson leapt from the rafters above them and landed on top of Mueller, clawing him as he crumpled to the ground. Weise managed to land a shot directly on the crimson’s side with the M26 shotgun attached to the underside of his M-4’s barrel before the creature could do any further harm to Mueller.
It shrieked in pain before bolting off into the darkness, and Warren followed behind it firing bursts from his UMP, but stopped after ten meters not willing to take the bait and separate from the group. He returned to the others and saw that Weise was checking on Mueller, who appeared to be unresponsive.
“He’s out cold,” Weise said sounding grim. “He wasn’t bitten and probably isn’t infected. We can’t just leave him here unprotected with that thing nearby.”
“Keep an eye on him,” Warren said agreeing with the assessment. “I’m going to check out the surrounding area, but I won’t move far. If you hear anything, come running.”
He loaded a fresh magazine into his UMP then moved out to check behind the nearby machinery, careful to always keep his back to something not wanting to get surprised from behind.
A scream echoed from behind him, and Warren rushed back to where he had left the others to find Mueller still laying motionless with Weise�
�s M-4 laying on the ground next to him. He followed the screams, and spotted Weise being dragged away in the Crimson’s jaws and its large claws embedded in his side.
Even though Weise was still screaming, Warren knew that the bite meant he was as good as dead, and began firing bursts at the pair. Although he was aiming for the Crimson, many of the rounds landed on Weise, silencing his screams and putting him out of his misery.
The beast screamed in anger and pain as it dropped Weise’s body. To Warren’s horror the creature didn’t flee as it had before, and instead leapt directly on top of Warren and batted aside his UMP.
Warren shot a hand out and grabbed the thing’s throat, pressing with all his might to try to keep its mouth away from his neck. Because he was a carrier he couldn’t be infected, but if it tore a chunk from his jugular, he would be just as dead.
The creature dug its sharp claws into his shoulder blades and used its strength to slowly overpower Warren and inch its mouth closer and closer to his neck. He could feel the thing’s hot breath as he struggled to squeeze his free hand between the ground beneath him and the small of his neck.
His fingers finally locked around the grip of the Serbu shorty shotgun that was strapped horizontally across the small of his back and he yanked the weapon from its sheath. The small shotgun was barely larger than a pistol and Warren was able to squeeze it between his body and the crimson’s, press the barrel against the left side of its chest, and pull the trigger.
Pain shot through his wrist as the small weapon jumped in his hand and 00 buckshot pellets tore through the beast’s heart. It fell off of him shrieking in pain, and Warren pumped the shotgun and fired another shell into its abdomen before rising to his feet and firing the final shell into its head.
Both Barrels of Monster Hunter Legends (Legends of the Monster Hunter Book 1) Page 60