She wanted to call out for Bo and Donna, but couldn’t risk making noise. Kate took off through the woods, branches scraping her face, and thorns cutting her pants.
“Are we close, Timothy?” she panted out.
When she got no response, she turned around, but didn’t see Timothy.
“Timothy,” she said quietly.
“He went back,” Tasha replied.
The pop of a pistol sounded.
Oh no… Kate thought.
Timothy had gone to avenge his dad.
A hand pulled on Kate’s sleeve as she tried to think.
“There,” Tasha said. She pointed through a gap in the woods at a structure. There was a single window on each wall of each floor and an empty doorway. The wooden door had long since rotted away, leaving only hinges.
“Go, go,” Kate said.
They bolted for the structure. She made sure the kids got in first, ushering Javier in after them. Other escapees broke through the trees, heading toward their direction. Spark and Ginger growled beside Kate, staring out into the woods. The fur on their hackles stood straight, their tails tucked beneath their legs.
More people came out of the woods. A woman ran toward Kate, blood streaming from her shoulder. Her right arm hung beside her.
A handful of other people were close behind, children in tow. A baby wailed from where it was tucked in against the chest of one of the men.
She scanned them all, realizing Bo and Donna weren’t among them, and Timothy was still out there.
“What do we do?” someone asked.
Kate had only a second to decide.
“We hold here,” she said. “Everyone with a weapon, get ready. If you see a raider, shoot them, but make sure it’s not one of our people.”
The kids and women huddled into the corner of the earth-covered floor and comforted each other. Some stared with wide eyes at Kate and the door.
“Go upstairs,” Kate said. “It’ll be safer up there.”
And easier to defend, she added inwardly, still praying it didn’t come to that.
She counted no more than twelve people that had joined them. So many were still lost out there, scattered by the chaos. Her heart ached, thinking of how frightened Donna, Bo, and Timothy were right now.
But there was nothing more she could do for them.
Kate positioned herself with her AR-15 so she could keep an eye on the woods without being seen. Time seemed to slow to an agonizing lurch as she waited. The screams and yells were growing distant and the gunfire more sporadic.
She felt the adrenaline starting to fade. Exhaustion taking over.
They’d run for so long. Both tonight and well before they’d ended up on Peaks Island. She had always thought they had found safety and security here. That they could forge new lives, rebuild society.
And instead these raiders had shattered everything they had fought so hard to build.
A flurry of gunshots pierced the woods, some of them more of a whistle than a crack. In less than a few seconds, all hell seemed to break loose.
Muzzle flashes lit up the black but then, seconds later, everything went dark again.
Kate strained to see what was happening. A muffled scream sounded. More whistles followed. Then a scream of agony and what sounded like a tree limb snapping.
“Someone’s coming,” said the man next to Kate.
“Hold your fire until you get a good shot,” she replied. Her grip tightened around her rifle. She signaled to another man with a shotgun, and he inched forward.
Kate lined up the sights on the figure.
Another shape appeared.
Then a third.
They definitely held rifles and were advancing low and slow like soldiers.
The question now was whether they were raiders or friendlies.
The only advantage she had was the element of surprise, and the fact they outnumbered the three men.
She steeled herself, thinking of Javier and Tasha and Jenny and all the others upstairs. Closing an eye, she aimed and moved her finger to the trigger. The crosshairs hit the chest of one of the men.
“Kate!” yelled a familiar voice. “Kate, Tasha, Jenny!”
“Timothy?” Tasha called out.
The teenager ran forward, his pistol still in his hand. Two men followed close behind, and when Kate saw the prosthetic leg, she knew it was Beckham and Horn.
She ran out into the night, doing all she could to not drop to her knees and sob out of joy and sadness.
— 8 —
Over an hour had passed since Fitz discovered Cedric. Bravo Team had continued on their mission to uncover what the outpost soldier had seen in the forest. They had moved slowly due to the minefields and other security measures that in some cases weren’t marked at all.
Now they were at the edge of the eastern cornfields, and Dohi studied the fence of trees in the distance. A storm cloud passed over the moon, and the glow retracted from the landscape like the tide receding into the ocean.
A chill ran through Dohi as he considered what Cedric had told Fitz about seeing the people from the outpost. The part about them being partially buried in the forest reminded him of an old Navajo folk story about humans that were pulled into the ground by evil spirits.
Rico stepped up to his side.
“What cha’ thinkin’?” she asked.
You don’t want to know…
Instead of telling her he said, “I’m worried about mines between these fields and the forest, but I don’t know any other way.”
The terrain separating them from the line of trees was covered in foliage, and he didn’t see any warning signs.
“Let’s keep moving through the corn,” Rico said.
Dohi didn’t like that either, but they had no choice.
He moved into the field, doing his best not to rustle the plants. But the task was nearly impossible. A minute into the trek, a sound crackled that sounded suspiciously like the popping of joints.
He held up a fist to listen.
The wind shook the tops of the stalks, and he waited for a shriek to erupt and a Variant to come charging at him.
Raising his rifle, he moved his finger to the inside of the trigger guard.
Come on, he thought. Show yourself.
Squawks and caws suddenly exploded in the distance. A murder of crows took flight, climbing into the air. Their cacophony rose with them as they circled against the full moon before finally settling somewhere to Bravo’s south.
After waiting a few minutes, he continued forward. The leaves on the stalks scraped against his face and snagged on his skin. He scanned the area while he moved, waiting for a Variant to come bursting out with claws spread and sucker lips smacking.
Eventually he could see trees growing near the edge of the corn. A good sign that meant he wouldn’t have to lead his team through any potential minefields.
The wind shifted as he moved. Stalks smacked against each other, creating a whispering chorus of scratching leaves. A blast of carrion odor drifted on the air.
There was definitely something out here.
He halted at the edge of the field. White moonlight bled across the space between the field and the tree line. The smell of rot only grew worse as they pushed into the dark forest.
Elms and oaks towered above Dohi, their branches swaying. Weeds protruded from the carpet of leaves that had already fallen here. Judging from the scent wafting through the crisp air, they were close to whatever Cedric had seen.
Dohi stopped when he heard a scratching. Rico and Mendez heard it, too, and fanned out, keeping low.
They continued slowly through the dense woods. Dohi avoided the rotting logs and dense patches of leaves as best as he could. But even the best covert operative couldn’t help but make noise in a place like this.
A gurgling creek sounded as they crested a hill. Dohi halted at the top to scan the terrain and almost froze at the sight of gray-fleshed Variants, still partially blended with the forest.
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He quickly went prone.
Rico crawled up next to him.
“Alpha 1, Bravo 2 here,” Dohi whispered. “We got contacts. Lots of them.”
“Hold your position,” Fitz said. “We’re on our way.”
The Variants were hunched and focused on the ground. Their talons cut into the carpet of leaves. They were digging, throwing fantails of dirt behind them.
It was clear this was the source of the odor.
Dohi peered through his optics to see what they were digging up from the dirt. His heart climbed to his throat when he saw what looked like a human half-buried in a crater of dark earth.
It might’ve been a man, but Dohi could hardly tell. Most of the skin from his chest had been flayed off, revealing bleeding muscle and bone. Some strange webbing was wrapped around his face, masking his eyes.
Strings of long, greasy black hair protruded from between those webs. Blood trickled from bruised, broken lips. A few cords from that webbing seemed to go up the man’s nostrils and into his mouth, giving him a decidedly inhuman appearance.
The man let out a moan as the Variant pulled on him, ripping his flesh.
All around him, the same scene played out. Men and women covered in wounds. Their heads wrapped in that same strange netting, like bloody oversized spider webs. Almost as if the blood vessels inside their bodies didn’t know they were supposed to grow under their skin and had suddenly erupted from the people’s faces.
Judging by the Variants’ frantic attempts to dig them out, the monsters were in a hurry to get the people out of here, which told Dohi this was all recent.
No wonder the SEALs hadn’t found anyone.
The people were underground all this time.
Dohi winced as one of the Variants began tugging on a woman. Red webs covered her eyes but her mouth was partially free.
She let out an agonized moan as the beast sunk claws into her shoulder and tried to yank her from the dirt. It got her halfway out.
The Variant squawked in frustration, shredding her shoulder in the process. Her moan turned into a pained scream only partly muffled by the webbing.
“We got to do something,” Rico said. “Alpha could take an hour to get here.”
Dohi motioned for her to move back down the hill to send a transmission to Fitz. She hurried away and Mendez joined Dohi at the crest of the hill.
They were far enough away that the creatures hadn’t detected them, but Dohi kept his finger near the trigger just in case. He cringed as more people were pulled from the ground.
The Variants began dragging them away. In minutes, the first disappeared over another crest, leaving nothing but blood-covered leaves and dirt behind.
This was the evil sight that had caused the soldier Fitz had found to go mad.
All these people half-buried in the middle of the woods with some kind of strange netting growing around their heads was enough to steal the breath of any hardened warrior, even Dohi.
So many questions circled his mind as the minutes ticked by. Most pressing was what they were going to do now. Alpha was still on their way but one by one the Variants finished digging the people out and took them over the small hill.
Dohi listened to the convo over the channel.
“Alpha 1, Bravo 1,” Rico said from the bottom of the hill. “Variants are moving out with hostages. Pursue?”
There was a beat of silence over the channel.
“Track them,” Fitz said, “but do not engage.”
“Copy,” Rico whispered back.
The last few Variants disappeared with their prey.
Dohi rushed down the hill and toward the creek. He cleared it in a single jump. Mendez and Rico shadowed him. They started climbing up the hill, passing the tunnels where the civilians had been dug out.
But as they made their way up, Dohi noticed something else in the freshly upturned soil. Slimy red tubes pushed up from the dirt like broken blood vessels from a wound in the earth.
They looked like the same growths he’d seen on the people’s faces. Whatever those tubes were, they gave off a smell that was nearly as bad as a Variant.
He led Bravo up to the top of the next hill where he shouldered his rifle, ready to fire. Rico and Mendez spread out between the trees to cover the vantage.
But he didn’t see the beasts.
Shafts of moonlight pierced the forest canopy on the other side.
Not a single one of the creatures or even the hostages was in view. He had seen camouflaged Variants vanish before, but not humans.
Dohi set off to continue the search, wondering if they had gone back underground. He searched the trees, too, just in case any of the beasts had climbed up as lookouts.
Seeing none, he followed the only evidence he could find.
A trail of splattered blood.
It didn’t go far and stopped at what looked to be dark, wet soil, as if someone had just filled in a hole.
The pieces started to coalesce in his head. But even as they came together, he had a hard time believing them.
“Shit,” Rico whispered, her gaze on the trees. “We lost them.”
“I’m not so sure about that,” Dohi said. He bent down and prodded the ground with a finger.
“This shit is creepin’ me out,” Mendez said quietly. He glanced up at the trees towering above them. “Where the hell did they go?”
“Alpha 1, Bravo 1,” Rico said. “We got—”
The ground trembled before she could finish. Dohi tried to retreat with Mendez and Rico, but he was hit by a blast of soil that knocked him down.
He landed on his back as a pack of mud-covered Variants spilled out of the hole like ants from a broken mound. They dispersed around him, needle-pointed teeth grinding together, joints clicking as they prepared to attack.
Gunfire burst from Rico and Mendez as Dohi scrambled away. He got to his feet and then turned with his rifle leveled. A trigger squeeze sent bullets punching through the closest Variant. Blood and flesh sprayed out the exit wounds.
The body of the monster flopped to the ground, but another crashed into Dohi. He pushed the creature off and pulled his buck knife, jabbing it through its meaty throat.
Rico and Mendez fended off the others when three more Variants burst from the hole. Dohi rolled to grab his rifle, but a Variant leapt onto his back. It slammed its claws into his helmet, and his head thudded against the ground, blurring his vision.
He rolled to his back, slashing at the beast with the knife still in his hand.
Another hammering fist crashed into his helmet. The blow knocked his night vision goggles off kilter with a crack. Growls and gunfire sounded like they were coming at him from inside a pool.
You have to get up!
Something hot and wet hit his face, followed by what could only be the rancid breath of a Variant. A moment of clear vision allowed him to see the jagged teeth behind wormy lips inching toward his own face.
The beast pinned him down to the soft earth.
All sense of weight suddenly subsided, but it wasn’t until his hand scratched the vertical wall of a tunnel that he realized it wasn’t from the beast letting up.
He was falling!
Dohi tried to brace himself but hit the ground hard a moment later, pain radiating through his back. The beast landed a few feet away with a thump.
Above him, moonlight streamed in the hole they had broken through.
The gunfire and screeches sounded even more distant now, but he wasn’t sure if it was from his pounding head or because the team was retreating.
No, they wouldn’t leave you.
The thought filled Dohi with adrenaline, and he managed to reach up with a trembling limb to put his goggles back into place. When he brought them over his eyes, he saw darkness.
The damn things were busted.
“Rico, Mendez!” he tried to yell, but his strained voice was lost in the din of combat above. Not only that but his earpiece and mic were also busted.
So
n of a bitch!
He struggled to move, his muscles tensing at the sound of a snapping joint, followed by a snarling maw. Dohi pulled his knife and prepared to fight when more popping joints and smacking lips filled the dark cavern.
Dohi and the beast that had fallen with him weren’t alone.
***
“We have to hold here until it’s clear,” Beckham told the civilians huddling upstairs. He hated leaving Bo and Donna out there, but without knowing where they could possibly be, he had to hope they would just hunker down and wait.
“I want to go home,” moaned Jenny.
“Soon,” Kate said, reassuringly. She walked over to Beckham who remained to the side of a window, looking out in the darkness with his NVGs.
He couldn’t see any hostiles out there, but there were bound to be more. He and Horn had followed their gunfire into the forest and managed to take down three of the raiders before the other two fled.
Ruckley’s team was out there hunting them, and Alpha team in Portland was still securing the area. So for now, Beckham and Horn had to keep holding position.
Javier hugged him around the waist.
“I knew you’d come back, dad,” the boy said. Beckham patted him on the back of the head and listened to an incoming transmission.
“Bravo 7, this is Bravo 1, do you copy, over?” said Ruckley.
“Copy Bravo 1, this is Bravo 7,” Beckham replied.
“Can you move your injured and meet back at the rally point?”
Beckham looked back at the others. Several had gunshot wounds, and others had injuries that would slow them down.
“Affirmative, Bravo 1,” Beckham said. “We’ve got a lot of people that need medical attention. We’ll be slow moving, but we can make it.”
“Copy that,” Ruckley said. “We’ll be ready for you.”
Horn suddenly went rigid by the door. He pointed to his eyes and then held up two fingers. Beckham turned to Timothy. The teen hadn’t left his corner by the stairs. They still hadn’t told him his father was dead, but Beckham had a feeling he already knew the truth.
“Timothy, I need you to tell everyone to stay put for a second,” Beckham whispered. “Do it as quietly as you can.”
Extinction Shadow Page 10