Extinction Cycle (Book 2) (Kindle Worlds): Penance

by A. J. Sikes

  “Harlem River?”

  The boy nodded.

  “All right. Now how about our people? You sure you don’t know where they took them?” Gallegos asked.

  The boy shook again and coughed up more blood. Matty had the bandage wrapped up good, but it wouldn’t be enough. The boy was going to die and they couldn’t stop it.

  “Your dad was in the truck. Your name’s Carl, right?” she asked.

  The boy nodded again. Tears streamed down his face as he looked at her. He mouthed I’m sorry and she put her hand on his brow and said a prayer for him as his face went still and his breath sighed out for the final time.

  “Welch, come here.”

  He moved fast and came over next to Matty. She had him take the col-lab’s weapon. The belt hung off it with maybe a dozen rounds left. A soft ammo bag sat in the dirt next to Carl’s body. She gave that to Welch, took her mag back from the SAW, and told him to disable the weapon.

  “Take the bolt out. We’ll lose it somewhere on the way. Harlem River’s at least three blocks from here, straight down 99th Street. Reeve, can you walk?”

  “Rah. I can make it. Just give me something to shoot with. This 9 is empty.”

  “You can have mine,” she said, walking to his position and handing over her sidearm.

  Reeve leaned on Jo’s shoulder while Dom stood nearby, swiveling his head back and forth and holding Reeve’s M4 with the muzzle up, aimed at the buildings around them.

  “We still need to do better for Reeve,” Matty said. “Met Hospital is two blocks away on 99th. We’re down on bandages and saline. Who knows if anything is still useful or, God knows, sterile. But something’s better than nothing.”

  “Oorah on that,” Gallegos said. “When we get there, everyone keep an eye out. We’ll stop only as long as we have to. Everyone ready?”

  Grunts and a couple Rahs came back.

  “Jo, stay on our six with Dom. Welch, Matty, either side of Reeve in the middle. Y’all follow me,” she said, stepping away from the building and heading toward the street.

  ☣

  Jed walked fast through the darkness pivoting every few steps to watch behind them. He worried about sucker faces coming down from the high rise they’d just left, and the street around them was full of threatening shadows. It didn’t matter where he looked. All he saw were avenues of attack.

  When they passed the block where he’d seen Pivowitch and his squad, Jed whispered his promise to finally avenge their deaths. He knew they lay there in the dark, where he’d left them the day before, with their eyes closed and hands over their hearts.

  Sergeant G was at least five yards ahead, pushing them hard to catch up with Tucker. If he was on foot, they had a good chance of catching him, and that thought gave Jed a boost of energy that made his legs feel like they could climb a mountain. His arms ached with the extra weight of the M240, but the fire of their mission pushed him on and drove him forward.

  After a full day of chasing this motherfucker, we’re finally close enough to have him in our sight picture.

  He was sure they’d catch Tucker soon, even with Reeve stumbling now and then. He grunted and growled with every step, but he kept up like the rest of them. They made good time, getting two blocks along without seeing anything or hearing any signs of the sucker faces. As scary as that was, Jed felt something shift in the dead city.

  The ruins and streets around them were full of smashed vehicles, craters, and debris, and 99th was no different.

  But the sucker faces had pulled back and gone to ground. They weren’t up here chasing Jed and the squad to their deaths. He could almost smile at the freedom of walking the streets again, until he remembered the suckers had taken their prisoners with them.

  Jed cursed Tucker’s name over and over again, with every step he took.

  If we can’t save them, we can at least stop you.

  The squad raced across an open intersection with the wreckage of apartment projects behind them. On the next block, the remains of another apartment building sat in a mess of ash and splintered wood to their left. Three wrecked sedans filled the street to their right. Across the street, the towering bulk of the hospital threatened to crumble into the road. Parts of the building near the intersection had been knocked into dust and rubble, but father along the building stood proud in the darkness.

  A small motor coughed to life somewhere up ahead and rattled at an idle. Jed spun to the side, bringing his weapon around to orient on the sound. The others had stopped short around him. Jed pivoted to take in the apartment ruins at his back, then moved into the street and set the bipod on top of the nearest sedan. Light and shadow shifted in the hospital ruins across the street. He roved his sight picture through the remains of the building.

  Was that a sucker face on the wall or just a shadow? Shit. I can’t tell if I’m seeing things or not.

  Jed’s heart beat fast as he scanned the area. Nothing moved, and the rattle of the motor kept echoing through the empty night.

  Sergeant G posted with her weapon on the sedan next to him.

  “You got contact, Welch?”

  “Nothing, Sergeant. I thought—”

  “Nothing to see, nothing to shoot. Let’s go.”

  “Tucker’s up ahead somewhere, Sergeant. He’s got wheels now.”

  “I can hear that, but I can’t see it. Move out, Welch.”

  Off to their left, the motor revved and then clattered a steady rhythm.

  “Go!” Sergeant G shouted and set off at a run.

  Jed hefted the 240 and followed. Dom was next to him, matching his pace. Matty, Jo, and Reeve had to be at their six, but right now all Jed cared about was getting eyes on Tucker. From the sound of the motor, Jed figured Tucker had found a Gator in the hospital lot up ahead. The things weren’t that fast, but Tucker could still put distance between them.

  ☣

  The motor chattered loud in the empty night as Gallegos put everything she had left into running through the wreckage of New York on the trail of the worst monster she had ever known.

  You are not getting away. Not now. Not this time.

  Twin beams of light lanced out of the dim evening air ahead of her. They tracked across the ruins to her left and swung away, toward the river that was still a couple hundred yards from their position. The hospital ended before the next intersection, with a parking lot at the corner. Mounds of debris and smashed up cars and trucks filled the lot as best as she could tell.

  She was twenty yards from the lot when a black square detached itself from the mass of debris and swung into the roadway.

  Gallegos dropped to a knee, sighted, and opened fire.

  Jed sped forward, leaving Dom behind him. He dropped down next to Sergeant G, who was still firing at the Gator.

  “Stop him, Welch!” she shouted as she sent round after round in Tucker’s direction. Jed charged the 240 and opened up, thrilling to the sound of his shots impacting on the Gator. The little vehicle swerved right, then toppled over. A figure rolled out of Jed’s zone of fire and disappeared into the shadows up there. Another figure weakly crawled away from the Gator.

  Sergeant G was already on her feet and rushing ahead. Jed lifted up as Dom sped past him. Jed was on his knees, hoisting his weapon when Matty shouted up to them.

  “We got suckers on us!”

  Jed spun around. In the dim light, he could just make out Jo, Matty, and Reeve about twenty yards back. Behind them, a clutch of shadowy figures sprang from the ruined hospital wing, scrambling over rubble and dirt as they came racing after Jed’s squad mates. Their hisses and clicking joints froze Jed’s heart.

  “Go left!” he shouted as he dropped down with the machine gun. “Get clear!”

  ☣

  Gallegos and Dom came up behind the Gator at the same time. Dom stopped near the back end of the truck. Gallegos held a hand up, signaling him to hold position there. He nodded like he understood, so she went around to the front. As she came around the vehicle, she sigh
ted on the body of a man that had crawled a few feet from the overturned truck. The man’s limp form was sprawled in the street with blood pooling around his chest.

  “Dom, come around the other side. Cover me while I check him.”

  The firefighter stepped around the truck and brought his weapon up. Gallegos paced forward slowly until she was in point blank range of the body.

  A shout whipped her attention from the dead col-lab. She turned and saw her squad tearing away from a group of sucker faces springing out of the shadows around them.

  She forgot about the body and Tucker and everything else as she yelled for Dom to follow her back to the others.

  ☣

  Jed sent a burst into the sucker faces jumping from the debris. He caught two of them, but at least half a dozen others charged toward the street, screeching and hissing as they moved. Jo separated from Matty and Reeve and turned around with her weapon up, taking shots at the monsters.

  Jed held his aim and waited for a clear shot. Jo was still too close to his zone of fire.

  “Jo! Get clear! Get clear!”

  Matty and Reeve had moved to the opposite sidewalk, coming around a mound of dirt and rubble and setting down to Jed’s right. Jo back pedaled as she fired, but the best she was doing was giving the sucker faces something to aim for. Four of them converged on her position and Jed shifted his aim.

  “Jo, get out of the way!” he yelled.

  The sucker faces were almost on her. Two of them leaped into the air. Jed got a clear shot at a third and put it down. The two in the air tackled Jo, but she fired and one instantly rolled away dead. The other one grappled with her and grabbed at her weapon, then it bit down on her arm. It reared back and howled and Jed blasted it off of her with a fast burst. The remaining sucker faces were stalking Matty and Reeve on the sidewalk, crawling around the debris pile in teams of two.

  Matty lifted up from the dirt with a pistol and fired into the suckers’ heads, putting two of them down. The other two raced up the dirt pile. Shots fired from behind Jed lit up the monsters before they reached the top.

  He rolled over to see Sergeant G and Dom running with their weapons up. Jed lifted off the ground, struggling to a knee with the heavy weapon. He got to his feet and ran forward to Jo. She was rolling side to side in the street and crying out in pain.

  Please be okay. Please be okay!

  ☣

  Gallegos sent a burst at the suckers climbing the dirt pile. Matty had taken the other two out and her shots finished the job.

  “Help her!” Welch yelled from further up the street. He was a few yards back from where Jo went down. Matty half tumbled off the dirt pile with his trauma bag flopping against his hip. Reeve was out of sight somewhere. Gallegos knew she should check on him, but Jo was lying in the street, holding her arm and crying out.

  Welch got to her just as Matty was dropping his trauma bag and flicking on the flashlight they’d taken from the col-lab kid. Gallegos went to the dirt pile, slapping Dom on the shoulder as she stepped past him.

  “On me. Cover my six. I’m checking Reeve.”

  ☣

  Jed stood over Jo as Matty went to work. Red light bathed her bloodied arm. The sucker had taken a deep bite out of her muscle near the elbow. She was shivering and crying. Jed kept one hand on the 240’s grip as he took a knee beside her head. He rested the weapon on his leg and put his free hand on her brow.

  “You’re gonna be okay, Jo. Matty’s got you. He’s a good doc. Right, Matty? You got her?”

  “I got her, man, now chill the fuck out. What is it you guys say? Stay frosty, right? Let me work.”

  Jed forced himself to focus on the night around them, on the street leading back into Harlem, on the dirt and the ruined buildings. He looked at anything and everything except Jo’s arm. Her head shuddered under his hand, and he steeled himself again to stay on point and on mission.

  Get your sight picture right, Jed Welch. Get it right and make sure this is the last time somebody gets hurt on your watch.

  ☣

  Gallegos rounded the dirt mount slowly. She heard a gurgling noise and feared what she would find. But she had a man back here, and whatever condition he was in, she needed to confirm his status and give him whatever aid she could provide.

  Reeve was on his back, lying against the pile of earth and chunks of concrete that had been blasted out by a bomb. Reeve shifted his position and his head flopped to the side. Gallegos took two steps forward and lowered her weapon. Reeve hadn’t shifted his position. His body had moved because of the sucker face that was eating him.

  It had its mouth clamped onto his neck and was pulling back when it noticed her. She lifted her weapon and blasted it between the eyes. It fell away from Reeve and Gallegos staggered back, slipping to one knee against the dirt pile. She stared at Reeve, the last member of her platoon. The last one from their company to have survived this long.

  The last Marine I knew before the end.

  ☣

  Jed heard the crack of an M4 behind him. He spun back for a quick look at their six, but didn’t see anything moving. Dom stood in the street near the dirt pile with his weapon aimed off to the side.

  What the hell’s he shooting at? Where’s Sergeant G?

  Beside Jed, Matty worked to wrap Jo’s arm. She was holding in her pain now, biting down and glaring at the sky above her. Jed kept swiveling his head back and forth so he could keep an eye on her and their six, as well as their immediate AO.

  “You can walk right, Jo?” Matty asked.

  She nodded but kept her teeth tight together.

  “Let’s get you up now. C’mon.”

  He put an arm around her shoulders and got her standing. Jed stood with them and Dom joined them a beat later.

  “Where’s Reeve and Sergeant G?” Jed asked him.

  “Back there, I think,” he said, pointing at the pile of dirt where Matty and Reeve had been. Jed told them all to follow him as he set off, weapon up.

  “Reeve! Sergeant G! Sergeant, you back there?”

  ☣

  Welch called her name again, and Gallegos wiped at her eyes, shook herself and stood up. The impression of her body in the dirt pile looked just like the casings they’d found in the high rise. She’d laid down next to Reeve and wished for God to take her as well. Being the last Marine alive in New York City was more than she could handle after the day they’d had. The warfare she’d seen overseas was nothing compared to surviving, unaided, for two days in a city that had become hell itself.

  Then Welch’s voice cut through the gathering night. Gallegos remembered she wasn’t alone, and she wasn’t the only Marine alive.

  “I’m good, Welch,” she called out.

  He came around the dirt pile with the heavy gun slung around his neck.

  “Reeve—”

  “Suckers got him, Welch. Just you and me now.”

  “And them, Sergeant,” he said, nodding his head back over his shoulder.

  Dom and Matty came around the dirt mound. Matty went over to Reeve, hauling the dead sucker face out of the way.

  “He’s gone,” Gallegos said.

  “There’s an ambulance in the drive across the street,” Dom said. “We should see what’s in it and go find Tucker, right?”

  “Right you are, Dom,” Gallegos said. “Charlie-Mike. Honor our fallen by staying on mission.”

  ☣

  Jed had point position as they crossed the street to where the Gator went over. While Matty, Dom, and Jo went to the ambulance, Jed approached the body in the street and gently nudged it with his weapon. The guy was well past dead.

  “Bled out,” he said as Sergeant G joined him.

  Jed did a quick scan of the Gator and spotted a bag lying up against the steering wheel. He checked it and found a couple of full canteens, three mags of 5.56, and a pistol that felt like it had a full mag in it.

  “Ain’t much, but it gives us a leg up.”

  “Oorah, Welch. He had some ammo on his
person, too,” Sergeant G said, kicking at the body. Jed knelt down and lifted a belt of soft pouches off the man’s shoulder. Two of them hung on the belt from loops of 550-cord. Jed opened one.

  “It’s 7.62, Sergeant.”

  “Ain’t sure why I should care about that, Welch. Tucker’s gone. He got away.”

  Jed was surprised to hear her say that. She’d been on mission the whole day, calling shots and taking them. She’d just told them all to Charlie-Mike, but now she sounded like she’d run out of gas.

  Who can blame her? Shit, I’d have been ate up hours ago trying to run the game the way she did.

  “We can still catch him, Sergeant. He’s wounded.”

  Jed pointed at a trail of blood leading away from the crashed Gator. It followed a winding path toward the hospital drive.

  Her voice picked up when she stepped away from the body and said, “Secure that gear, Welch, and let’s see what they got from the ambulance.”

  ☣

  Matty and Dom were helping Jo to the ambulance when Gallegos and Welch got there. The vehicle sat at the edge of the drive, up against a low concrete wall and tangled chain link fence. Gallegos had Welch post by the front while she moved to the back, ready to fire on anything that moved. She rounded the open doors and relaxed.

  Everything inside was torn apart and covered in blood. The stretcher was still there, with the straps hanging off like they’d been shredded by a sucker face.

  Must have been one of the first ones. Someone got infected and changed while they were in here.

  Dom pawed through the inside of the vehicle. He cursed a few times, throwing useless oxygen masks and gloves out of the back until he dug up a serviceable trauma kit. He opened it, but Gallegos didn’t let him waste time confirming what was in it, just that they got something useful.

  “Assume it’s got stuff we need. Let’s go.”

  She called for them to follow her and set off at a jog down 99th, away from the ruins of the hospital and away from the last person the sucker faces would take from her.

  It’s all of us or none of us now. But if anyone’s going down, it’s Tucker first.