The Tide: Salvage

by Melchiorri, Anthony J

  They bent to scoop their arms under the scrawny survivors. Dom slung his SCAR-H across his back and cradled the woman in the scrubs. She barely had the strength to keep her neck straight, but Dom thought he saw her mouth move like she was trying to say something. Thank you, maybe. But he didn’t think they deserved it yet. He couldn’t guarantee these people’s safety.

  “Miguel, on point. Jenna, rear guard. Everybody else, first sign of danger, we get the fuck out of there. If it looks like we need to fight, you drop these people and fire.” Dom carried the woman to the door. It seemed as if she weighed no more than his rifle. “Let’s roll!”

  Miguel pushed open the door and spilled into the hallway. “Clear!”

  The others followed, with Jenna exiting last. They ran down the hall, dodging the debris. Glenn, his view partially obstructed by the man he carried, kicked a gurney. It clattered against the cinder-block wall. A loud howl followed from one of the offices connected to the hallway before them.

  A Skull lunged from the doorway. Miguel fired, but the monster moved too fast. It careened toward him. Dropping his rifle, Miguel caught the monster’s arcing clawed hands by its wrists. Dom lowered the woman he was holding, ready to aid the Hunter.

  The Skull’s teeth snapped and ground together. It sprayed spittle across Miguel’s face, but the Hunter fought back. He planted a boot into the Skull’s chest and sent it cracking against the wall. With one fluid motion, he twisted his prosthetic hand and thrust it forward. The hidden blade shot out from his mechanical arm and impaled the creature through its open mouth. The Skull’s legs flailed, and its arms thrashed. Miguel twisted the blade, and the Skull’s limbs drooped, listless and dead. He pulled the arm back, flicked the blood off, and retracted the knife.

  “Asshole.” He spat on the dead Skull and picked up his rifle.

  A momentary silence fell over the hall again. The Hunters continued, sneaking toward the stairwell. But the quiet didn’t last long.

  A growing clamor followed them. Low growls and sharp, hurried footsteps bounced off the walls.

  “Keep going!” Dom ordered.

  The Hunters picked up their pace, rushing for the stairwell. No longer did they take careful steps or avoid the garbage piled over their path. Their boots crunched over plastic and glass, but the sounds were drowned out by the sound of their demonic pursuers.

  One of the Skulls scrambled around a corner. When it caught sight of the Hunters, it let out a shrill howl. The others joined in the hunting cry and wheeled around after it. The pack filled the hall. A few in front were so frenzied by the hunt they fell forward but continued their pursuit, galloping on all fours.

  The Hunters let loose a salvo of gunfire. Four Skulls fell and were quickly trampled by their twisted brethren. They fired again and again. Bullets cut into bone, tearing into flesh. The floor quickly grew slick with blood and gore, and the Skulls tripped and crashed over each other. But the sheer number of them kept the monsters roiling forward. When one died, two more replaced it.

  Miguel knocked open the stairwell door and held it open for the others. Dom ran past, leading now with Divya by his side.

  “Take my pistol,” he barked at her.

  Her lips trembled and her limbs shook, but she nodded silently and grabbed the handgun from Dom’s holster. They continued up the stairs.

  “Fire in the hole!” Jenna yelled when she dashed into the stairwell. Miguel held the door open while she pulled the trigger on the FN40 grenade launcher attached to her SCAR-H. The grenade flew out with a whoomph. Miguel slammed the door shut. The blast sent waves of heat flowing under the stairwell door, chasing Alpha team. They rounded their way to the next landing.

  “Frank, what’s your ETA?” Dom asked between breaths.

  “Hospital roof’s in sight. Forty seconds.”

  “Perfect.”

  Another voice called over the comm link. Renee. “Alpha, you okay? We saw fire in the hospital.”

  “Skulls,” Dom replied. “We woke up a hive of ‘em.”

  “Need our help?”

  “Negative,” Dom said. “Stand down, and stay out of harm’s way.”

  The first Skull crashed against the door below. More and more creatures pounded against the door. It gave way, and the shrieks and footsteps of the creatures followed. Miguel and Jenna leaned over the handrails. They directed a barrage of gunfire at the Skulls. More pained shrieks, more clicking claws and rattling bones.

  Dom glanced up. One more floor. The woman in his arms shivered. “We’re almost out of here.”

  Something pounced from the shadows above. Dom dodged, and the thing slammed against the wall next to him. He kicked at it but didn’t let the woman go. “Divya!”

  The doctor’s arms quivered, holding the handgun unsteadily, as she wheeled around. The pouncing Skull coiled to attack again. Divya fired. The bullet smashed into the wall, and the pistol almost flew out of the doctor’s grip. She trembled, taking aim again. The Skull leapt.

  Dom swept out with his leg again. His boot connected with the creature’s chest, throwing it off balance. It missed Divya and hit the handrails. Its momentum carried it over. It cartwheeled and plummeted into the masses of other creatures below.

  The bloodcurdling howls grew louder, and Dom’s heart beat faster. He took the last few steps three at a time, lunging upward, determined to escape onto the roof. Reaching the landing, he turned and threw his shoulder into the door. It whooshed open and slammed against the wall outside.

  Waves of wind swept over him. The woman he was carrying still trembled in his arms. Her long, matted hair whipped about. Divya leveled the pistol before her, watching the doorway. Glenn and Terrence rushed out with their charges, and Jenna and Miguel followed. Miguel slammed the door shut and pressed his body against it. Grimacing, Jenna helped him hold the door against the Skulls’ onslaught.

  The chopper’s wheels hit the roof, and Dom sprinted forward with the nurse in his arms. Glenn and Terrence followed, ducking under the rotor wash. Divya sprinted ahead and threw open the side door. They strapped the survivors into the passenger seats. Glenn and Terrence hopped off the chopper and ran back to the door to help Jenna and Miguel. Divya held a rail along the open door, lowering herself down.

  Dom grabbed her shoulder. “No, you’re going back with the patients.”

  “But—”

  “You keep them alive. They need you now, and we’re almost done here anyway.”

  She nodded and held out the handgun he’d lent her.

  Dom took it and holstered it. “Thanks, Doc. You’ve been a tremendous help here. Now, go help them.” He hopped out of the chopper’s cabin but left the door open. “Frank, give me one second. Got some presents for Lauren.”

  He ran between the Hunters and snagged a few of the packs filled with scavenged lab supplies. They’d grown heavy with the samples they’d collected. He tossed the bags into the cabin.

  “Take care of the patients and take care of these,” Dom said to Divya. She gave him a curt nod, and he slammed the side door shut. With a slap on the side of the fuselage, he signaled for Frank to ferry his new passengers back to the Huntress. The bird ascended and banked hard, headed eastward to the bay.

  Miguel still pushed against the stairwell door. His feet dug in and his jaw clenched while he struggled to keep the door shut. The others pressed their hands against it, grunting. Dom ran to join them. He performed a tactical reload in preparation for the ensuing battle. While he clicked his magazine into place, something else caught his ears. A loud smashing. Like stones crumbling and falling apart.

  “Alpha, this is Bravo,” Renee’s voice sounded over the comm link. “You need to get the fuck out of there!”

  “What’s going on?” Dom called back.

  “You got climbers headed toward your position.” The hospital seemed to quake again. One part of the low brick wall that surrounded the roof crumbled and fell away. A deafening bellow answered before Renee could continue. More followed, drowning out the co
mm link and the thumping of the chopper flying away.

  Dom ran to the edge of the roof and peered over. Goliaths, six of them, were scaling the side of the hospital. They ascended slowly, punching their fists into the windows and wall to create handholds. Speeding past them, other normal-sized Skulls jumped and leapt from handhold to handhold.

  With his left hand, Dom opened the side port of the FN40 grenade launcher attached to his rifle. He inserted a grenade case and locked the barrel closed again. It was time to see how well these new weapons performed against the Goliaths.

  -11-

  Lauren rushed through the hatch to the medical bay. Kara sat at one of the desks near the lab, intently staring at a screen. She was manipulating a spindly three-dimensional shape on the monitor, and Lauren’s noisy entrance hadn’t broken her concentration. At the young woman’s feet, Maggie slept, her tongue lolling out of her mouth. Sadie was reclining in one of the patient beds.

  “Kara, want to help with something?”

  Kara jumped. “Oh, sorry, what? I think I’m on the right track with the FoldIt program.”

  “Good, good,” Lauren said. “But we’re going to have to put that on hold.”

  “What’s up?”

  Peter and Sean barged into the medical bay.

  “We got your page,” Peter said.

  Sadie yawned, stretching her arms, and blinked, taking in the newly assembled group.

  “We’ve got three survivors being ferried back now. ETA three minutes. All dehydrated and starving. Holdouts in the hospital. Peter, Sean, get IV drips ready.” The two other doctors nodded and started digging through the supply closet. “Kara, help me assemble our gurneys.”

  “Of course.” Kara jumped out of the desk chair and came to Lauren’s side.

  “Can I help?” Sadie asked.

  Lauren counted the medical team’s numbers. They had three patients coming in. That meant three gurneys and three teams of two. “We need more people to help when Frank arrives. Go grab Samantha and Adam from the workshop!”

  “Yes, ma’am!” Sadie said and sprinted out the hatch. Maggie barked and ran behind the girl.

  Lauren and Kara finished assembling two gurneys while Sean and Peter took care of another.

  “Is my dad’s team still okay?” Kara asked.

  “Last I heard, they were doing well. Grabbed a ton of data and samples, too.”

  Kara smiled. “Good to hear.” She stood next to one of the gurneys.

  “Ready?” Lauren asked the team.

  “Let’s do this!” Peter said. He and Sean each grabbed a gurney. Kara held the third.

  Lauren led them from the medical bay. They were greeted by hurried footsteps down the passageway. Samantha waved at them, her tattooed arms bare, and Adam bounded behind her, his brow furrowed beneath his thick-framed glasses. Sadie and Maggie trailed behind. The group ran up the steel steps leading to the helipad, and Lauren opened the outer hatch just as the AW109 touched down. The side door flew open. Lauren waved the team onward but signaled for Sadie and Maggie to wait inside the ship. The rest of them sprinted toward where Divya was unharnessing the survivors.

  Lauren almost gasped aloud. Their skin hung off their bones like burlap sacks around a scarecrow’s twig arms.

  “Let’s be extra careful!” She yelled to be heard over the growl of the chopper’s engine. The others nodded. She helped Divya load the first patient, a woman in scrubs, into a gurney. Adam and Peter took the patient and gurney away. Next, they loaded a man with a scraggly beard, and Samantha and Sean rushed away with him.

  Kara steadied the last gurney while Divya and Lauren lowered another man into it. The man moaned, and his fingers twitched.

  “You’re going to be okay,” Divya said. “You’re in good hands now.”

  Lauren and Kara rushed the man into the ship. Divya ran alongside them. They made it down the passageway and back into the medical bay. Peter and Sean had already gotten IV lines into the other two. Lauren rubbed a spot on the man’s arm. It wasn’t hard to find a vein with how thin his skin had become. But despite identifying a vein, the vessels had stiffened with dehydration, which made inserting a needle more difficult. She stuck the needle in, trying to be careful not to tear his already weak tissue too much. The needle slid past the rigid vein. She’d missed on the first try. She could almost hear the clock ticking down for this man’s life. Steadying her hands, she tried again. She squinted and held her breath. Slower, steadier. The needle slipped into his vein.

  With the needle in, she adjusted the IV drip and then gazed at the other two patients. Divya, Sean, and Peter finished hooking up their biomonitors to gauge their new patients’ health. Already the IV drips and medical attention were stabilizing their vitals. If they were lucky, she could bring these people back from the edge of death. And if what Dom’s team had reported about these survivors was true, they might end up with more medical personnel in the fight against the Oni Agent.

  A hiss caught Lauren’s attention. She swiveled back toward the man she’d helped. His fingers curled, indicating for her to come closer.

  “Is something wrong?” she asked him.

  “Yes,” he managed, his tongue sticking to the roof of his mouth. The words came out slightly garbled. He held his arm out and pointed to the woman in scrubs. “Wife...my wife...”

  “That’s your wife?” Lauren glanced at the nurse recovering in another bed.

  “Our son...”

  Lauren’s heart skipped a beat. “There was no one else on the chopper. Right, Divya?”

  Divya shook her head. “These were the only people in the lab.”

  “No!” the man said. He licked his cracked lips. “No, he went...to get us food. Our son...can....can you help him?”

  ***

  Shepherd took one second to assess the Skulls charging from either end of the hall. He fired off a final spray of gunfire. Bullets punched into the nearest creatures. Their bodies flopped onto the floor. The other Skulls collided into each other, leaping over the fresh corpses, desperate to feed.

  There was no way they were going to fight off this many monsters and live.

  “Follow me!” Shepherd yelled. He darted straight at the Skulls filing in from the emergency exit, then veered hard right into one of the offices. Wesson and Bard sprinted after.

  Shepherd slammed the door shut behind them. He pushed one of the heavy metal desks to block the door. Wesson and Bard needed no orders to join in. They piled hefty filing cabinets and desks to bolster the makeshift barricade. The roars of the Skulls and their scraping claws resounded in the small office. One of the filing cabinets against the door toppled, spilling folders and papers. The creatures pounded the door in a relentless frenzy.

  “Sir, are we just going to wait it out?” Wesson asked, his eyes wide. His fingers twitched nervously on the stock of his M16.

  “No, Private. We’re moving.” Shepherd strode the five steps it took to cross the room. He pressed his hand against the window and peered out into the night. Fires still burned across the street and around the tarmac, where now only a few Black Hawks remained among the pile of torn metal. Ghoulish silhouettes of Skulls played across the orange-and-yellow flames. He saw no living soldiers, no remnants of the 82nd. No signs of Jackson.

  Shepherd pushed open the window. Three Skulls ran through a patch of trees near the office building. They craned their heads at the din of the other Skulls hungry for Shepherd’s flesh. Seeming to spot him, they galloped straight toward the open window. Long claws stretched from their fingers, and Shepherd felt a momentary wash of remorse when he saw they each wore Army-issued ACUs. He lined them up in his sights and squeezed the trigger. Three shots later, three new bodies littered the lawn.

  Shepherd lowered himself out of the open window and dropped to the grass below. “Move, move!” he said.

  Wesson slipped through next, followed by Bard. They sprinted for the trees and leapt over the trio of newly dead Skulls. When they reached the shelter of the tree trunk
s, Shepherd gestured for the two men to lie low. He shouldered his M16 and played its sights on the window they’d escaped from, now fifty yards away. Another filing cabinet toppled, and the desks shook. The door burst open, tossing the desks aside.

  Frantic Skulls filled the room. They shoved each other, each determined to be the first to get at their prey. Their howls reached Shepherd’s ears even from where he hid. He watched the monsters’ eyes sweep back and forth. Their noses twitched, and their ears perked. More filled the room until they start pushing themselves out the window and running across the lawn. They scattered in all directions to search for their runaway quarry.

  Shepherd turned to face the opposite direction and pointed to one of the now-silent Black Hawks. “That’s where I last saw Jackson.” A handful of Skulls ran between the bent blades of the wrecked birds, and a couple climbed over a Black Hawk that appeared to still be in working condition.

  Something moved within the cabin of the Black Hawk. The engines started up, and the blades started rotating. They sheared through the bodies of two Skulls that had been sniffing and investigating the bird from atop the fuselage. Blood sprayed from the monsters’ torn body parts.

  “Guy’s trying to escape,” Wesson whispered.

  But the attempt was short-lived. Three more Skulls jumped on the Black Hawk’s cockpit, punching the glass. Cracks fractured across it until the windshield burst, and one of the Skulls reached in with a sinewy arm. It yanked the pilot through the broken shards and pulled him onto the tarmac. The others pounced on the soldier, and his agonized screams echoed into the night.

  “There’s no way Jackson made it through that, sir,” Bard said.

  “Jackson’s resourceful. He made it,” Shepherd said, trying to convince himself his words were true. “But regardless of what happened to him, we need those AT4s.”

  The bellows of the three remaining Goliaths punctuated the ebb and flow of the smaller Skulls’ hunting cries. He saw one of the Goliaths pounding after a Humvee. The roof gunner sprayed the beast. Bullets sparked and ricocheted off the monster. For a moment it looked like the Humvee crew might bring the behemoth down. But a wave of Skulls swept over the vehicle. One of the creatures grabbed the roof gunner and bit into his flesh. The Humvee driver lost control, and they slammed into the perimeter wall of the base.