by Sawyer, JT
She reached by her side and felt for her water bottle, forcing the tepid fluid down her throat. She peered into the black tunnel ahead, wondering, dreaming, doubting, her eyes still heavy from sleep. No future, no past. Then she slipped into a familiar scene that unspooled in her dreams. It happened the same way almost every night—a teenage boy’s face shrouded in a head-wrap. He was smiling at her, the sweet look of youthful innocence amongst a backdrop of palm trees and attendant parrots flitting across the cobalt sky. Then she saw him pull out a pistol from his jacket and a second later his white cotton shirt was sprayed red as he fell backwards onto the dusty road while the flock of birds scattered.
“Carlie, are you there?” a voice whispered from the void, sending a shiver down her neck. She shook her head and forced away the nightmare while wiping a tear from her cheek. “Carlie Simmons—are you there?” She wondered if she was still dreaming and pried her eyelids open. In the distance, she saw something flickering, the ends of its shadows lying between the light and dark.
“I hear someone,” said Eliza, who was tugging on Carlie’s sleeve.
“Yes, I heard it too,” said the professor, pointing to the flashing light.
Carlie sat up, shaking her head and sliding her MP-7 back into her palm. She leaned forward, straining her eyes towards the sound. She pulled out her flashlight and shined it down the corridor towards the distant outlines of a vaguely familiar face that had just come into view.
She stood up and took a deep breath. “Shane—Shane Colter, is that you?”
“Roger that, Carlie. We’re on our way down to you.”
Carlie lowered her weapon and felt the creases in her forehead soften. She yanked her body away from the wall and began moving towards the approaching figures.
Shane and his men arrived to beaming faces as everyone encapsulated them with hugs or handshakes.
Shane embraced Carlie, which caught her by surprise. She half-hugged him and then pulled back.
“I thought we had dinner plans tonight—how come you never called?” he said with a grin.
“Where’s the rest of your rescue detail?” said Eliza, cutting in.
“Ah, we’re it,” said Matias.
“You mean, here in the tunnels, right?”
“No, I mean we are all that is left in the entire city—and maybe in the Southwest,” said Matias.
“What do you mean?” said Nadine. “The entire region has been hit by this?”
“From what we’ve gathered during our brief updates with D.C., this is global and everyone is scrambling for places to hide. All of the major cities have been hit hard and some have even been completely engulfed.”
“Well, why are we waiting here then? Take us to Air Force One,” said Phillip.
“There is no jumbo jet on the tarmac,” said Shane. “We’ve got one helo for the bunch of you and that’s it.”
“What’s your plan, Shane?” said Carlie.
“We’re not going anywhere for a while. There’s a haboob that just moved in over the city. Whether that will last an hour or all day is beyond me, so we need to stay put near the helo so we can be on our merry way when the weather clears.”
“Got it,” said Carlie. “This is the only defensible place in the vicinity where we have been able to lay low without running into any of those things.”
“This location is a little bit of a jog to our LZ,” said Rory. “If we can get back to the top floor by the helo, we can secure that stairwell enough that we should be good to go when the time comes.”
Shane set his pack down on the floor and pulled out his laptop, scanning the images and route back. “Jesus, there are only two groups of survivors left now and those things are massing in the courtyard above us.”
Shane moved beside Carlie, brushing against her arm. They stared at the surrounding architectural layout of the buildings.
“We are here—just below the pharmacy building,” said Shane, tapping the L-shaped image on the screen. “Our helo is here on this building. When we arrived an hour ago, there were five other clusters of survivors spread around campus. Now there are only you guys and these other two groups, one of which is right next door.”
“What are you thinking—see if we can rescue them and make it up to the helo?” said Carlie.
Shane rubbed the whiskers on his chin. “I have to try. Those creatures move like a swarm of thirsty bees. The people trapped on campus aren’t going to last for more than a few hours. I think the storm may have skewed the creatures’ senses long enough to have bought everyone some time but who knows how long that’ll be the case.”
Phillip had moved behind Carlie and Shane. “Your primary mission, Agent Colter, is to get Ms. Huntington and the rest of us out of here.”
Shane gave half a glance over his shoulder. “And who the hell are you again?”
“Phillip Alderman, with the Department of Justice.”
“So you work for the government too, like me then, eh?”
“That’s right.”
“Yeah, well last I checked the American people are who we both serve.”
“Protocols dictate that the president’s daughter is priority one. Anyone else is of secondary concern.”
Shane stood up and moved up to Phillip. “You’re right—you’re absolutely right. I will adhere to that protocol and get her to safety. As for you, there sure as hell ain’t no protocol dictating that you’re on that same flight. In fact, I may need another shooter to help me rescue those other folks—you can join my team.”
Phillip stepped back, slouching his shoulders. “I’m here only in an advisory capacity to observe Ms. Simmons.”
Shane looked back at Carlie and then shot a hard glare at Phillip. “Ms. Simmons is one of the finest warriors I’ve ever met and is probably the sole reason your innards aren’t painted on the pavement outside.”
“Look, Agent Colter…” Before he could finish a swath of dust broke free from the rafters above and floated down over them. Shane swept his flashlight overhead and could see the floor rumbling, followed by the sound of movement.
Shane turned and glanced back at the laptop with wide eyes. “How did they find us so fast?” he said. They all craned their necks up at the thunderous sound and then Rory pointed to the laptop as a red amorphous mass of creatures poured over the hallway image directly above them.
Chapter 27
“Let’s go,” shouted Carlie, who snatched her pack off the ground and grabbed Eliza’s arm. Shane had already tucked his laptop away and was trotting down the corridor towards the ladder which led up to the pharmacy building.
“Matias, you take the others back up the way we came. Rory and I will hold ’em off here,” Shane shouted.
“You got it, Jefe,” said Matias, who was already trotting with the others into the dark passage. Carlie and Eliza followed behind him while the professor was on their heels along with Nadine and David. Phillip was at the rear.
Shane heard the animalistic shrieks of dozens of creatures above as they began tearing at the floor hatch.
“Toss a canister of tear gas on the floor under the hatch and then let’s retreat back to that first corner,” said Shane. “We’ll snipe the rest as they move forward.”
Rory pulled the pin and flung the device against the cinderblock wall. As the gray smoke spiraled upward, Shane could hear the floor above reverberate. Finally the hatch was ripped off its hinges and numerous heads appeared around the frayed edges, choking on the thick smoke. The two men had already backpedaled down the narrow passageway until they were at the corner. Shane leaned his shoulder against the wall for support and focused his M4’s nightscope on the first distant figures that had fallen down into the tunnel.
Rory was a few feet away, kneeling on one leg. He shot the first creature with a round to the forehead. Shane followed by killing two more creatures. They strained to see any more movement, but the pillar of gray smoke roiling into the light obscured the passage.
“Maybe the gas is over
powering them?” whispered Rory, who continued peering through his scope.
“We need to fall back anyway before this smoke reaches us, so let’s….” Shane squinted hard into his scope as the tunnel entrance above darkened with a slithering mass of creatures pouring into the tunnel like a torrent of muddy water breaking through an embankment.
“Holy shit,” said Rory as he began dumping rounds into the sinuous mass of creatures streaming towards them. Both operators were now furiously discharging their weapons, trying for headshots but taking any hit they could.
“Fall back,” yelled Shane, and Rory got up and sprinted away while Shane kept shooting. After he had emptied his magazine, Shane turned and ran past a utility box and gas meter while reloading. As he neared Rory, who had taken up a position beside a tool cabinet, he began firing down the corridor at the first creatures that had just rounded the corner.
The men used bounding moves until they were nearly back at the stairwell leading to the roof, but the tidal wave of creatures kept coming. “There must be hundreds of ’em,” shouted Shane in between bursts of gunfire.
“We’re not gonna make it to the top with these things on our tail,” said Rory.
Shane stopped beside the blue poly-barrels by the stairwell and steadied his rifle scope on the gas line. “Get up on the landing. I’m gonna blow the sidewall ahead.”
He pulled the trigger and the dark corridor lit up with a hissing sound as the .223 round penetrated the gas line, sending a stream of flame and exploding concrete into the distant tunnel. It impacted the subterranean wall by the corner, ripping apart a massive slab of cement, earth, and overhead beams. With the passageway collapsed, there were only a dozen creatures still running towards them, seemingly unaffected by the blast.
Rory dispatched four of them while Shane continued shooting the remaining stragglers, the last one of which collapsed a few feet from his dusty boots. With the passageway secure, they did tactical reloads on their weapons and continued trotting up the stairs. After they reached the landing of the first floor, Shane leaned over the handrail and scanned the stairwell above for signs of Matias. He could see they were nearly to the top.
Shane paused on the steps and glanced down at the first-floor door.
“What is it?” said Rory. “You thinking what I’m thinking?”
“Hell, yeah, you know we can’t leave that other group here like that.”
“What about Carlie and the others?”
“If there’s a break in the storm, then they’ll be on their way in mere minutes.” He ran up the stairs, taking double steps. “Let’s go check on them first and get some additional mags out of the helo. Then, if the coast is clear, we’ll head back down for the others. I don’t know that we can get everyone on the helo but we can’t just leave ’em there.”
Chapter 28
Carlie was right behind Matias as they stepped out through the rooftop doorway into the howling wind. She could feel the sting of whipping sand on her cheeks and squinted to keep out the debris. The group ran in single file to the helo, each person keeping their head tucked down to keep out the flying grit.
Carlie could make out the helicopter and the edge of the building but the lack of visibility had reduced the world to a curtain of brown sand, obliterating the rest of the campus. She opened the rear door on the right side and pushed Eliza inside, followed by Nadine. David and the professor climbed in next, followed by Phillip. She hopped into the cabin last and forcefully yanked the door closed.
The sound of debris skated across the window as she sat back in the tan bench seat. Matias was up front, glancing over the dashboard.
“Are we gonna be able to lift off in this mess?” said Phillip, who was rubbing his eyes.
“Not a chance, but if we get even a five-minute break, then hell, yeah. Our tac-ops center is only a few miles from here so even a narrow window of relative calm will do.”
The door swung open as Shane and Rory climbed inside. “You boys have a good shooting session down below?” said Carlie.
“We barbecued a bunch of those things with a round into the gas line so I think we stemmed the tide from that direction,” said Shane. “Those creatures were in the hundreds and moving like a bunch of greyhounds after a rabbit. Never seen anything like it.”
“Your man says we’ll be at your HQ as soon as this storm lets up for a few. I want to thank you gentlemen for what you’ve done,” said Phillip.
“You guys will be there soon enough anyway,” said Shane, reaching between Carlie’s legs for a duffle bag. She raised her eyebrows. “Forgive me for being so forward, Ms. Simmons,” he said with a grin. “Me and Rory have to give a presentation on DEA firepower to a group of wayward college kids.”
“You’re not going back down there?” said Phillip. “With all those animals running around, you’ll be cut to pieces.”
“And so will those students—they’re not going to last another hour.”
“Shane, I understand the need to rescue them but those are slim odds with only the two of you,” Carlie said. “Why not wait until after we’ve dropped everyone off at the DEA building and can get back here with some additional firepower?”
Shane and Rory stuffed a dozen magazines into their vests and side pockets and then took out the remaining tear gas canisters.
“I’ve been following this whole nightmare on my laptop and those kids don’t have much time left. We have to do this now.”
Carlie looked at Shane. “We’ll fly back for you as soon as we drop the others off.”
“Is that a promise or are you just flirting with me?” Shane said, looking out the window at the wind, which had calmed down.
Matias leaned back and patted Shane on the shoulder. “This is it, Boss. We may not have a flight window like this for long,” he said, firing up the engine. “Rory, you make sure this caballero and you get back in one piece.”
“I’ll hopefully be in touch in a little while and let you know how many we have inbound back up to this roof,” said Shane.
“Copy that, but I’m running on vapors right now,” said Matias, who was throttling the engine at full speed as the rotors began drowning out their voices. “We may have to look into another exfil alternative.”
Rory flung open the door and jumped out, followed by Shane. As he was closing the door, Carlie leaned forward and grabbed the handle. “Hey, you still owe me a steak dinner, amigo,” she said, shouting into the wind.
He raised two fingers and saluted, then turned and ran towards the stairwell. Carlie watched him disappear below, holding the door open longer than she should have until a blast of wind forced her to slam it shut. She clenched her fist and took a deep breath, looking back at Eliza, then back out to the stairwell. She heard Matias increase the engine speed just as a ferocious gust swept across the roof.
Chapter 29
Shane and Rory retraced their steps until they were at the door for the first floor. They flanked the small window, peering down each side of the room.
“I only see three creatures staggerin’ about in the lobby,” said Rory.
“Yeah, I like these odds a whole lot better,” he said, lowering his hand on the doorknob.
“Alright, you enter first and then we drop those pus-buckets and make our way straight to the nursing building and to the morgue down below.”
Rory held up three fingers and when he folded the last one down, Shane yanked the steel door open. They did a dynamic entry, peeling to either side and dispatching the three creatures that were all clad in nursing uniforms. Then they trotted side by side down the white hallway, glancing at the rooms on either side as they passed.
Chapter 30
As the rotors reached full capacity and the wind subsided, Carlie leaned back and whispered into Matias’ ear. Then she unbuckled and reached under the seat, pulling out the duffle bag Shane had resupplied from earlier.
“What are you doing?” said Nadine.
“I don’t like flying so I’m gonna take a ta
xi instead.”
“What are you talking about, Carlie?” said Phillip.
She slapped a fresh magazine into Matias’ M4 and racked the slide, ignoring Phillip. Carlie got up and slung the weapons bag over her shoulder and then put her hand on Eliza’s knee. “Stick with Matias and you’ll be in good hands,” she said, looking into Eliza’s eyes and then into the faces of the others. “That goes for all of you. You’re all brave and have made it through this far, so hang tough.”
“What the hell are you doing, Carlie? You can’t leave. You’re assigned to the president’s daughter.”
“Eliza is going to be fine. Shane, Rory, and those other students on the other hand can use some help.”
“Your mission priority is in this helicopter, not down below. If you leave now, you’re finished as an agent.”
“I was done the minute I shook your hand and saw the new face of the agency,” she said, opening the door and hopping onto the gritty asphalt roof. She motioned upward with her thumb to Matias and slammed the door. As she crouched and ran, the helo lifted off and swung to the right, disappearing into the brown-and-blue skyline.
Carlie quickly descended the stairs to the first floor. She emerged in the lobby of the building and saw the floor littered with the bodies of three creatures that had gunshot wounds to the head. Shane’s not a hard guy to follow—he leaves dead bodies everywhere he goes.
She made a left turn, running down another hallway, and then swung to the right and entered a large room with a glass-and-stone walkway at the end. Glancing down, she saw two pairs of red boot tracks soiling the floor and knew she was headed the right way.
Sweat was running along her face and she gulped in a deep breath as she continued moving. As she ran, Carlie stopped suddenly after a hundred feet and glanced back. She could feel the floor rumbling and saw the leaves on a nearby ornamental tree fluttering. A second later, the entire wall of glass lining the front lobby behind her shattered, spraying shards into a silver cloud as hundreds of creatures slammed through the jagged entrance.