The Invasion Trilogy (Book 2): The Shadows

by W. J. Lundy

  The forest came alive all around them. Roars and echoes of feet in the distance and a scream unlike any Jacob had heard before. He raised his head and whispered, “Something is wrong.”

  Chapter 24

  “Don’t stop! Keep pushing!”

  The ground rumbled under his feet and the forest canopy retracted, shaking dried leaves with the concussions of explosions. The crack of grenades shaking his senses, Jacob stumbled back and looked down at the burn marks on his shirt. The torn fabric showed where bullets and shrapnel had ripped through his vest, coming dangerously close to his flesh. Crazed beings howling and screaming in agony ran in all directions, coming at him from everywhere.

  He’d lost sight of Jesse. James was firing rapidly, the M240 gulf spitting rounds that cut close by his side and suppressing the enemy advance. How did they rebound so fast? Where are they all coming from? he thought, shaking off the explosion and taking a step to the side before staggering back and being caught and steadied by Stone’s tight grip.

  The forest was covered in smoke and flame. Dirt, bark, and ashes rained down, hitting his arms and face. It must have been another grenade. He remembered standing near the bodies with Jesse, then the explosion. He looked down; he was still holding his rifle and felt the AK pistol bumping against his side, still hanging from the sling. He couldn’t feel his body. He looked down at his shirt. Maybe I’m dying, and it will all be over soon. What will Laura think? Will they know how I died? What will they do without me? The old man grabbed Jacob by the shoulders, shaking him then spinning him around shoving him out of the kill zone.

  “Run, you fool,” he shouted.

  He looked at Stone’s blurry image, his nervous system overwhelmed with feedback. Jacob blinked hard, trying to focus on the old man’s words. Being pushed ahead, feeling slowly came back to his body as his muscles filled with blood. He closed his eyes tight and when he opened them, his body and mind finally responded.

  The way Stone fought, no one would have guessed he was in his late sixties and suffering from emphysema. He swung the rifle, catching a badly blistered Delta in the face. Jacob watched as the thing’s jaw exploded, teeth and blood flying through the air as Stone dropped back and delivered a swift kick to the creature’s chest. He then turned, firing a quick burst into the downed creature’s body. Jacob fell back, hitting the ground hard. He looked at the downed Delta beside him; the creature was suffering from the effects of the dioxin.

  Jacob’s head spun in all directions at the raging and charging monsters. They were all affected. Red blistered skin, screaming and lashing out at everything in all directions. The stuff they put in the lake was affecting them all; somehow they were all connected to their seed pond.

  Rounds zipped and flew over their heads; tracers going by so close that Jacob could feel the heat from their pyrotechnic tips. Stone lifted his weapon and fired into another charging man—three rounds to the neck and face, dropping it onto the trail before looking back at Jacob. “Let’s go!”

  Jacob grabbed the dirt, forced himself back to his feet, and scrambled after the elder warrior. He looked left and right. Through the smoke and haze, he couldn’t find the rest of his team. Behind him, he heard the heavy machine gun rattling away and Duke’s frantic barking. There was another explosion to his right. They were caught in a bloody fight to the death, surrounded on all sides. To live, they needed to break out and get to cover. The Deltas were everywhere. No longer organized, they ran chaotically through the woods all around them.

  In his peripheral vision, he saw a three-man pack moving at them from the right. A Delta ran directly at Stone, firing from its hip. Jacob raised his AK47 and let loose a long one-handed burst, watching the first crazed man tumble as rounds stitched its chest. Jacob paused. Using the weapon’s collapsible stock to steady his aim, he squeezed the trigger, knocking down the two that followed.

  He looked ahead just as Stone staggered forward and dropped to a knee. Jacob was quickly at his side. He hooked one arm under Stone and lifted the old man to his feet, moving him into a depression beside the trail. Seeing another group of attackers rush in, he let go. Stone’s knees buckled under his own weight. Jacob pulled the AK to his eye, let off a short burst, and thwarted another Delta assault. Looking down, he watched as the crimson blood soaked the old man’s faded camouflage pants.

  “I’m hit. The rat bastard got me good!” Stone pushed Jacob off of him and fell back to the grass. The old man quickly removed his belt, wrapping it around his thigh as a tourniquet. Jacob lifted his rifle, firing up the trail and trying to cover the old man while he worked. With the tourniquet in place, the man put his own rifle back in action, firing a volley into approaching targets.

  Jacob ducked and flinched as a stream of rounds impacted a nearby tree, throwing wood and rock splinters into his face. When he looked back up, another Delta wave was moving at them. Stone shouted a warning before tossing a grenade and let loose a long stream of gunfire and obscenities in the wake of the grenade’s explosion. He turned back to Jacob. “Go, get back to the bunker. I’ll catch up.”

  Motion from the side caused Jacob to spin hard. He leveled his rifle, finger on the trigger. He was moments from firing when he recognized Jesse stumbling ahead, collapsing to the ground with them. The man crawled forward, bleeding from his neck, his shirt covered with powder burns and gore.

  “They’re everywhere,” Jesse gasped. “All around us.”

  Jacob helped pull the big man into their meager cover. Jesse collapsed and rolled to his back. Armed with only a pistol with its slide locked back, his face was pale. Frothy blood rested at the corners of his mouth. Stone took the pistol and loaded a fresh magazine taken from Jesse’s own armor. He let the slide go forward and put the weapon back in Jesse’s hand. “Welcome to the party, son, glad to have you with us,” Stone said, turning back to the front.

  Jesse coughed and spit blood on the trail. He tried to laugh, but instead he turned and extended his arm over Stone, firing and knocking down a Delta staggering toward them from the old man’s blind spot. Stone reached out and squeezed the big man’s shoulder before looking back at Jacob. “Go; get to Gloria and the kids. We got this.”

  Another dove at them. Jacob raised the AK47, looking into the twisted face of a teenaged Delta. The creature showed no surprise—only hate and vile rage. Jacob steadied his weapon and pulled the trigger, watching as the heavy rounds tore through its cheek and face. He shifted his fire as more ran at him from farther back, the steady rounds cutting them down and dropping them hard on the trail. Stone’s rifle barked as it fired rapidly into the wood line. A round came close, hitting the side of Jacob’s helmet, spinning his head back like a blast from a baseball bat. When he turned back to the front, the assault had ended.

  Jacob looked down at his friends, wondering how things had gone so wrong. The ambush plan was shit. They underestimated the Delta numbers and their reaction to the dioxin. The first ambush, the placement of the bombs, it all went off without a hitch. But the numbers were far more than they had anticipated, and they didn’t slow down.

  Hitting them hard after the initial strike, wave after wave they fought them, bounding back until the Deltas managed to flank them with grenades. Jacob and Jesse were caught too far forward in the middle of it all, trying to find cover. They were hit on three sides. A mass ran at them as if blinded and crazy, their faces swollen with bursting blisters, the dioxin making them mad. Grenades flew from every direction.

  The team tried to maneuver and counter the assaults. Eve’s voice was on the two-way radio; the Deltas found the hide and were surrounding the barn and cabin, forcing her to retreat below to the bunker. Yellow smoke filled the air. It was Marks’s signal to break contact and hide. They would rally back at the bunker. James fought his way to an overwatch position, laying down suppressive fire with the heavy machine gun and allowing the others space to break contact.

  This wasn’t conventional warfare. The Deltas were no longer predictable and they weren�
��t fighting as a team. After the initial contact, the massive charge, and the explosions, the order ended. Now they scattered and filled the forest like hornets from a squashed nest, frenzied and chaotic.

  “Go, dammit,” Stone yelled again, waking Jacob from his sudden stupor.

  Jacob handed the AK47 to Jesse then removed the scope from the M14, letting it drop to the ground. He rose up to his knees and fired into the distance, knocking down two more attackers.

  “I’ll see you at the cabin,” he shouted, not knowing if it was true. He turned to run down the trail, racing for the bunker. His lungs burned with every footstep. The intense minutes of combat overloaded his system with adrenaline and were crushing him. He was exhausted and shaking with energy at the same time. He rounded a corner in the thick trees, surprising two Deltas with their backs to him. They spun around as he fired the M14. The 7.62 rounds hit the nearest square in the back. The other spun and closed the distance, pushing the rifle to the side as it attacked.

  Jacob rolled with the impact, taking the creature with him to the ground. He forced the rifle between them and used his boot to dig into its thighs, trying to gain leverage. The creature reared back and pounded down with both fists. Jacob looked up into its blister- and pus-covered face. The thing snarled, drooling in agony as its empty hands punched down at him again, the blows deflected harmlessly off his helmet. He turned and twisted, releasing the rifle as he drew the MK III pistol from his jacket. He clicked the thumb safety and fired into the creature’s abdomen, not stopping until the pistol was empty.

  The Delta relaxed and collapsed on top of him. Jacob could hear another set running down the trail, snarling and screaming as they approached. No time to react, his lay motionless faking death as they passed him by. He closed his eyes, failing to shut out the battle. He could still hear the steady rhythm of James’s machine gun in the distance. He must be nearly out of ammo, Jacob thought.

  The feet passed him by. He could hear them screaming and shouting as they swarmed the cabin just ahead and down the trail. Pushing the body off him, he rolled back to his feet and leaned over to grab his rifle, determined to retake the cabin or die trying. He pushed out of the heavy brush then moved into the clearing. He forced himself to slow down, to assess the situation, and not run head on into danger. He saw a group of them charging at the cabin wildly. They ran right at the wire, every one of them catching it and tripping before being tossed face first to the ground.

  Jacob did not let the opportunity pass by; he stood upright, raising the rifle, and shooting the creatures in the back where they lay. He then dropped his stance, searching for another target. The nearby creatures were massed around the cabin, not interested in him. Jacob watched as they pounded against the wooden door and shuttered windows, their pus-filled blisters breaking open, leaving black streaks on the roughhewn planks. Jacob moved ahead stoically before taking cover behind a tree. He drew the Ruger MK III and inserted a fresh magazine. Steadying himself, he went to work dispatching the Deltas from behind with single shots to the back of the head.

  One by one, they dropped with strikes to the skull. Jacob cleared the front then moved to the side of the building. He reloaded and turned, searching for more targets but finding none. The woods around him were suddenly silent. No more gunfire; only the occasional scream of a Delta to let him know he was not alone. Jacob tucked the pistol into his waistband and held the rifle at the ready, stepping carefully over the downed bodies.

  A Delta staggered out of the woods behind him. It moved down the hill and, like the others, tripped over the wire. It clawed and scratched at the ground, moving itself forward. Jacob looked at the thing through the sites of his rifle. Its face was swollen, blistered, and peeling, the dioxin doing its work, but there was something else. The creature dragged itself ahead, ignoring him. Jacob stepped closer. His boot scraping across dried leaves caused the creature’s head to turn toward him, its jaws snapping. “You’re blind,” Jacob whispered, stepping closer.

  He moved ahead, keeping his rifle aimed at the creature’s face. Jacob whistled and the Delta grew frantic, slashing at the air. When it looked directly at Jacob, he could see the milky-white eyes filled with oozing fluid. “Yeah, you can’t see me,” Jacob whispered again before pulling the trigger.

  Jacob shambled slowly to the porch, grabbing a Delta’s foot and dragging it away from the building. He returned and sat on a step, looking down at the pathetic creatures lying next to him. All of them had the same milky eyes. “So it blinds them,” Jacob said, leaning back. He let his rifle drop to the steps as he searched his gear for water. He found a crushed, nearly empty bottle and drank thirstily, draining it before tossing it to the ground.

  He detected something in the cabin behind him. Eve unbolted the door and walked out onto the porch, examining the view. She stepped ahead, walking down the steps and onto the open ground. She looked up as Jesse staggered ahead out of the clearing, his neck bandaged heavily; Stone’s arm was over his shoulder as he too limped forward. Eve ran to them, helping him move Stone down the hill and to the porch.

  Jacob peeled himself from the steps and closed the distance with the others. Eve was tending to her father, leaving Jesse standing alone holding a column attached to the cabin’s porch to stable himself. “Any sign of the rest?” Jacob said.

  Jesse shook his head. Jacob put a gloved hand to his friend’s arm, squeezing it before stepping back toward the hill and up the trail. He knew he shouldn’t go alone, but he didn’t care; he wanted to find the others. Jacob shook his head, fighting off the cold air and finally slowing down as his sweat-soaked body felt the chill. He slung the M14 over his shoulder and gripped the MK III, letting it hang in his exhausted arm.

  They lay all over the ground. The Delta’s dead not moving, some with obvious gunshot wounds, others fallen from the effects of the dioxin. Everywhere Jacob turned he could see one.

  Walking slowly, he moved along the trail and headed for the ambush site. He spotted one staggering through the woods on his right. Jacob watched it move clumsily through the trees. He allowed the thing to get closer before calling out to it. He watched as the thing’s grotesque blistered face turned toward him, its pus-filled eyes searching. Jacob raised his pistol and fired a single shot; the creature bucked and tumbled to the ground.

  He turned ahead, spotting Rogers stumbling in his direction from out of the haze; his rifle hung limp from his right arm and his face was covered with soot. He staggered to Jacob with his head down, intent on reaching the cabin. Jacob put his arms up, grabbing the big man and steadying him. Rogers looked up, fatigue showing heavy in his eyes. He looked at Jacob as if he didn’t recognize him.

  “Rogers, where are the others?’ Jacob asked.

  Rogers pointed behind him and moved on, continuing down the trail.

  Jacob stepped off deeper into the woods in the direction of the smoke and burning fires. He found Marks farther up, face down, a knife gripped in his hand. The Deltas on all sides had been slashed apart. He knelt down and rolled the body over. His chest was covered in blood; his head fell limp to the side. Jacob backed away knowing his leader was dead. He dropped back and saw Stephens’ lifeless body leaning against a tree.

  Jacob looked away, feeling a gurgle in his own guts as bile rushed to his stomach. He rocked back, looking off into the smoke. He took deep breaths as he tried to build the courage to face his friend. Stephens’s right arm was bent back and broken. He clutched a pistol in his left hand. Jacob moved closer, seeing Stephens’s white eyes looking straight ahead, unblinking. Not wanting the image burned into his memory, he looked away then staggered back, nearly falling to the ground.

  He turned into the smoke-filled forest when he heard Duke’s whimper. Jacob increased his pace and searched the woods, again nearly falling. He searched for the mound where he knew James should be. He climbed up a rise, falling into the thick leaves and snow, clawing at the ground and crawling over several of the dead as he made his way to the top of the mound in t
he direction of Duke’s whine. At the edge, he saw the piles of expended brass and spent links from the machine gun. The M240 gulf was lying on its side with part of a linked ammo belt still loaded and the barrel still smoking.

  Jacob continued to the top then looked over the mound. James was sitting back in the dugout position, piles of mangled and twisted bodies all around him. Duke lay across his lap with James’ left hand covering the dog’s back. James’ head was to the side, looking into the forest canopy. He turned to face Jacob as he approached.

  The Marine lay back in the soft mud, his body covered in grime. A Delta body with an open throat lay at his feet. James’ arms were pale, his knuckles cut and bleeding. His hands shook from exhaustion, and blood covered the side of his face. Duke looked up at Jacob for a moment before dropping his head back to James’ lap, releasing a soft whimper.

  “Are you okay?” Jacob asked, stepping closer.

  James nodded, his head barely moving, his hand stroking Duke’s back. “Did you see them?” he asked, turning his head in the direction of where Marks lay.

  Jacob pursed his lips as he stumbled into the fighting position and dropped to the ground next to James, letting his rifle fall beside him.

  “I couldn’t save them,” James said.

  Jacob looked away. He fought back tears and took a deep sobbing breath. “It’s okay.”

  “No it’s not,” James said, his voice breaking. “I can never save them.” He dropped his head, burying his face in Duke’s neck as he pulled the dog close to him. “I let them get to me again, and they always die.” His words trailed off and he turned his head away from Jacob.

  Jacob looked up at the blue sky through the tree cover, wiping his eyes clear with his sleeve. “It’s okay,” he repeated, taking a deep breath.