The Tide: Salvage

by Melchiorri, Anthony J

  Shepherd pressed down on the safety and then hit the fire button. The rocket flew from the tube with a roar. It whooshed past the Goliath and slammed into a smaller group of Skulls. The monsters were torn apart in the fiery blast, which knocked out at least two dozen of the creatures. Shepherd took no pride in ending their lives; it was the Goliath he was after. The giant was now only fifty yards from the gymnasium, and it was closing in fast.

  “Commander, we got to move!” Bard said, prepping a detonator on the next block of C4.

  Shepherd ignored him. He could see more of the smaller Skulls swarming toward him. They’d be on his position in seconds. But by that time, the Goliath would also be at the gymnasium. The commander readied the sights, pushed the cocking lever forward, and took aim again. One more shot—or else the civilians in the gymnasium would be good as dead. Depressing the fire button, Shepherd let the next rocket fly. The projectile exploded against the Goliath in a direct hit.

  “Now we can move,” Shepherd said, taking the last AT4. He jumped from the cabin of the Black Hawk while Bard armed the detonator and dropped the C4.

  There was one more relatively intact bird, and it would serve as their next shelter. Shepherd hoped he’d find Jackson there. If he wasn’t...

  A couple of monsters with long, dagger-like claws and serrated spikes jutting from their joints came running at them, interrupting Shepherd’s worried thoughts. He dropped the AT4 and swung his M16 around. He let loose a spray of gunfire that spattered against the creatures. Enough rounds caught them to turn their heads into a pulpy mess. Their bodies slumped to the ground.

  They made it the rest of the way to the next chopper. Before they could jump in, an enormous roar of heat and tearing metal sounded behind them. More Skulls shrieked and wailed. Their last hiding spot had been turned into a smoking pile of burned corpses by the C4 they’d planted. Shepherd could hardly believe his plan was working, but he wouldn’t mind if Lady Fortune continued to shine on him.

  And shine she did.

  He leapt into the fuselage of the next Black Hawk. A man was lying next to an M240. Blood seeped from the wounds in his abdomen and, judging by his pale skin and unmoving limbs, he was dead. A soldier lay sprawled over a seat, his back facing up. Long gashes traced the length of his spine. Another soldier from the 82nd who’d died needlessly because of the unit’s stubborn decision to delay leaving the base. But beyond them, Shepherd found a third man, hands cuffed behind his back. He turned him over to see a familiar face: Jackson. The man’s chest still puffed up with slow, belabored breaths.

  “Jackson, you hear me?” Shepherd asked. “We’re going to get you out of here. Bard, help me find something to uncuff him.”

  The private searched one of the bodies, digging through the deceased soldier’s pockets and pouches. He pulled out a multitool and then knelt next to Jackson. With a twist of one of the multitool’s blades, the zip-ties came undone.

  “Jackson, wake up. We got to get you out of here,” Shepherd said.

  A deafening bellow caught his attention. He peered from the cracked-open side door. A Goliath sniffed the air, its undersized head swiveling atop its broad shoulders. Its claws shoveled through the smoking wreck of Shepherd’s last hiding spot. It dug through the corpses of Skulls, discarding them and growling. Smaller Skulls pounced around it, apparently intrigued by what the Goliath was searching for.

  Shepherd pulled the safety pin from the last AT4. He readied the sights and nudged open the side door. The door squealed. It wasn’t earsplitting, but the Goliath’s head shot up and stared in Shepherd’s direction. He pushed the cocking lever forward and depressed the safety.

  The Goliath charged. A tremendous roar escaped from its gray lips. The ground shook with each loping step it took. Despite every shot nerve in his body telling him to run, Shepherd didn’t even flinch.

  “Commander?” Jackson’s voice came out in a whisper.

  Shepherd didn’t have time to answer him. The Goliath threw its arms out and roared. Shepherd pressed down the safety and firing buttons. The rocket flew from the tube straight at the giant. At the last moment, the Goliath ducked, and the rocket shot past its shoulder harmlessly. The monster barreled forward. A wave of Skulls followed.

  He’d missed.

  Shepherd had missed, and now he was out of rockets and out of options. His heart dropped as he lifted Jackson to his feet. The man grunted in pain when Shepherd draped Jackson’s arm over his shoulder. There was nothing else they could do now but retreat.

  “Run, Bard!” he yelled.

  The private prepped an explosive and lugged it with all his might toward the Goliath. He jumped out of the Black Hawk, and Shepherd followed with Jackson. They staggered away from the charging monsters, with Jackson hobbling along as best he could.

  A blast echoed over the tarmac, and heat rolled over them. A few Skulls cried out, but the Goliath was still standing. Adrenaline churned through Shepherd’s vessels, triggered by a primal instinct to live. But he knew it was over. The Goliath would soon be on them.

  Shepherd hadn’t seen real combat in decades. Once, he’d thought working at the Army’s medical research facility would be an easy, safe post. He’d grown soft, and now he would pay the price. As Detrick fell, the men and women devoured by monsters or turned into monsters themselves, all Shepherd could think about was how very wrong he’d been.

  -15-

  “Frank, any chance you can pick us up?” Dom asked, surveying the street in front of the hospital.

  “I’m down to try, Captain,” the pilot’s voice crackled over the comm link. “But those goddamned things are everywhere, and the chopper’s damn noisy. If I land, they’ll be all over us.”

  “That’s what I was afraid of,” Dom said, adjusting his grip on Connor. “Glenn, Terrence, let’s cover our exit with some smoke. Jenna, Miguel, pick off Skulls along the way. That should provide us enough cover to get to the T station, but we still need to do this quietly.”

  Glenn and Terrence pulled smoke grenades from their tac vests.

  “Frank,” Dom said. “You’re going to see smoke go out. When you do, perform a couple of flybys to get Skulls moving away from our position.”

  “Will do, Captain. I’ll make enough racket to keep those monsters distracted.”

  “Let’s do this.” Dom pointed to Jenna.

  She nudged one of the glass doors open and held it. Terrence and Glenn tossed their smoke grenades. The canisters hissed. A small trail of gray smoke spurted out, followed by billowing gray plumes. The fog soon shrouded the street, obscuring the lampposts and abandoned vehicles—and most importantly, the Skulls still lurking outside.

  “Thermal on,” Dom said. Clicks resonated as they pulled down their goggles and set them to thermal mode.

  The world lit up in bright reds and oranges along with cool blues and greens through Dom’s enhanced vision. The goggles cut through the dense smokescreen. He could see the toppled military transport trucks and the bumper-to-bumper sedans, taxis, and vans that never had a chance to make it out of the city. Between these blue-and-green-silhouetted vehicles, the warmer red heat signatures gave away the Skulls’ positions.

  The AW109 thundered overhead, making a sweep. A half dozen Skulls followed the fading sounds of the thumping rotors, clearing some of the deadly obstacles that lay between the group and the T station.

  Three quick hand signals from Dom, and Jenna and Miguel were dashing out the door.

  “Close your eyes and try to hold your breath, okay?” Dom said in a low voice to Connor.

  The boy nodded, pinching his eyes shut and covering his mouth and nose with his T-shirt.

  Dom barged out the door, with Glenn and Terrence bringing up the rear. Two Skulls cocked their heads, evidently hearing the approaching footsteps. Miguel and Jenna brought them both down with muffled gunfire. The bodies let out dull thunks when they hit the concrete. The smoke started to scratch at Dom’s eyes, but he pushed on through the dense fog. Miguel and Jenna conti
nued to clear a swathe of the Skulls. The group made it past the loading zone of the hospital.

  Dom directed Glenn and Terrence to toss their last smoke grenades. Glenn underhanded his, and it rolled under a taxi. Smoke spewed out from under the vehicle, swallowing the cab and concealing the street. Miguel lobbed his toward the sideways military transport truck. The grenade hit the hood of the truck. A hollow clunk echoed out, and several of the nearest Skulls ran to investigate.

  One managed to push through the fog, frenzied by the noise. Glenn tried to pick the creature off, but his bullets careened into a nearby sedan. The creature was unwittingly headed straight at Dom. He tried to move slowly, careful not to let his footsteps give away his position. But stealth wouldn’t get him out of this Skull’s path. Its head whipped toward him, snarling, and it began to sprint in his direction. Dom couldn’t swing his rifle up without dropping the boy, so he pulled out his suppressed HK45C with one hand. His shots went wide, and the monster lunged.

  Rolling to his side, careful to protect the boy, Dom dodged. He swept out a leg, tripping the Skull. The monster’s claws raked the air, blindly searching for a target. Dom leveled the pistol at the creature’s face. Gore sprayed from the exit wound, and the creature’s head rolled back against the asphalt. Dom fought to catch his breath and stood with the boy whimpering in his arms.

  Glenn and Terrence caught up. They squeezed through the first line of cars, barely making it between a Honda Civic and a Ford Bronco close enough to kiss. Miguel and Jenna covered them from the other side of the vehicles, already in the middle of the street.

  Beyond the next line of cars lay the station, but the military transport and cars in this lane had been part of an enormous pileup. Broken glass and plastic crunched under the Hunters’ boots despite their careful steps.

  There was no choice but to go over the vehicles. Jenna climbed onto a crumpled Mazda. She offered a hand to Miguel. They crouched on the vehicle and picked off three Skulls. When they finished, Dom handed Connor to Jenna. She took the boy, and Miguel reached out with his prosthetic, clasping Dom’s hand and helping him up and over the vehicle. Glenn climbed over a rust-pocked Buick, and Terrence hoisted himself atop a Mercedes. But as Terrence heaved his weight on the roof of the car, the luxury sedan let out of a raucous alarm. Dom’s stomach sank. Bloodcurdling shrieks echoed from all around in response. The sound heralded the charge of a flurry of red shapes toward the car. Toward the Hunters.

  “Shit!” Terrence yelled.

  Dom was already sprinting toward the wide glass walls of the T station, trusting the others to follow.

  “Frank, we need another flyby!” Dom yelled into the comm link.

  “Doing the best I can, Captain,” the pilot responded.

  The thwack of the chopper could barely be heard above the car alarm and the frenzied Skulls. Frank’s best efforts couldn’t keep the Skulls from the wailing car alarm. With the sheer number of Skulls pouring into the smokescreen, Dom knew it wouldn’t be long until the creatures accidentally stumbled upon the group. Connor started to cry, sobbing into Jenna’s shoulder. She tried to shush him, but the boy was too panicked to stop. A Skull barreled toward them, plunging through the smoke. Dom shouldered his rifle and squeezed the trigger. Bullets punched through the monster and sent it sprawling. Its bony appendages scraped across the concrete.

  “Move!” Dom yelled to be heard over the din of monsters climbing over the vehicles and stampeding toward the car alarm. He reached the entrance to the T station and pulled hard on the handle. But the door didn’t budge. He tried another door with the same result.

  Skulls started to pile up around the shrieking Mercedes. They pummeled the vehicle with their clawed hands, shattering the safety glass and gnawing on anything they could sink their teeth into.

  With a grunt, Dom slammed the stock of his rifle into the glass door. Shards rained down and clattered on the sidewalk. Several of the Skulls heard the clinking glass and swiveled away from the jostling horde. Dom bashed the glass again to make the hole larger and then reached in to unlock the door. He pushed it open from the inside. Jenna ran through with Connor. Miguel and Glenn picked off the chasing Skulls, and Terrence bashed one creature’s face with the butt of his rifle. The impact cracked its jaw, and fragments of the protrusions along the sides of its face flew off. Its head reared back, and it let out an earsplitting howl, calling the other Skulls to hunt.

  Squeezing his trigger, Terrence ended the Skull’s cry. But not before it had roused the attention of the others. Miguel, Glenn, and Terrence continued to fire on the swarm of Skulls, but there were far too many for the three Hunters to take down.

  “Come on!” Dom yelled, still holding the door open. “Down the escalators. Follow the tunnel toward the Science Park!”

  He let the door shut behind the group and then ran down the frozen escalators. A decayed body, still wearing a backpack, was draped over one of the handrails. It slid off when Glenn brushed past it. Miguel leapt past Jenna and Connor to take point. Dom brought up the rear. An enormous crash sounded when more glass gave way to the attacking Skulls. The monsters broke through another door, then another. A whole wall of glass shattered. Shards pinged off the tiles.

  Dom waited for the others to make it down the first set of escalators and into another hall. “Frag out!” He pulled the safety pin on an M67 grenade and tossed the explosive to where the Skulls were piling in. An explosion rocked the T station’s lobby. The concussion knocked out more of the glass panes, and shrapnel flew, lancing through the Skulls’ bodies.

  The agonized, frustrated shrieks of the injured monsters paled in comparison to the storm of hunting cries resounding from the mob outside. Dom’s boots pounded over the next set of escalators, and he followed the group already running on the platform between the tracks. He stole a quick glance at the map on his smartwatch.

  “Take that one!” he yelled, pointing to the tunnel that led to the Science Park T station. Miguel leapt off the platform first and then turned to help Jenna and Terrence.

  “My turn,” Glenn said, taking Connor from Jenna. She looked prepared to protest but instead let the hulking man take the small boy in his arms. She wiped her forehead with the back of her hand, and they jogged on.

  “Frank, we’re probably going to lose connection underground,” Dom said. The voices of the Skulls shrieked louder. Already the first dozen had made their way through the lobby and spilled down the escalator. “I need to know what the Science Park exit looks like.”

  “You’ve got a pack of Skulls there but nothing like the swarm chasing you underground,” Frank said.

  “Bravo, be ready to get us the fuck out of there,” Dom said.

  “Roger that,” Renee’s voice called back over the comm link.

  The clamor of the Skulls grew louder. There would be no way to take this entire swarm out with small arms fire. And Dom doubted they could outrun the bloodthirsty creatures. He paused near the entrance of the tunnel while the rest of his team moved onward.

  Miguel paused. “Come on, Chief!”

  “Go on!” Dom called. “I’m not letting these fuckers follow us!”

  He took a block of C4 from his tac vest and prepared a detonator. Bringing down this end of the tunnel meant that there would be no turning back. Once he did this, they would need to fight off anything and everything on their way to the Science Park station, or else die in this dark hell beneath Boston. In any normal combat situation, before the outbreak of the Oni Agent, he wouldn’t have even considered blocking their path to retreat.

  But it was better than the alternative. The beasts wouldn’t slow, even in the darkness. His Hunters were the best, but they didn’t have nearly enough ammunition to hold back the tide of monsters.

  Dom set the fuse for fifteen seconds. He placed the C4 at the lip of the tunnel and then ran, never looking back.

  The overwhelming concussive force hit him first, knocking him over. A heat wave followed. Everything went silent for a moment. Fragments
of rock pelted his flesh and pinged off his helmet. Then his ears started to ring.

  He stood, brushing the dust off. He switched his NVGs back to show the greens and blacks of his surroundings. A bright-green shape barreled toward him. He leveled his rifle at the shape and pulled the trigger. Four shots crashed into the monster: the first impaling its shoulder, then the second shattering its chest plate. The third shot drove itself through the creature’s abdomen, and the fourth caught it in the head, ending its existence. Its body slid across the tracks and came to a halt at Dom’s boots.

  Playing his barrel around the darkness, Dom saw no other Skulls had made it past the pile of rubble now blocking the tunnel. Dust clouds still puffed from the pile and tickled Dom’s nose. He coughed, his throat coated by the grime. Something grabbed his shoulder, and he spun. He lifted his rifle, ready to take down another Skull.

  “Chief, chief! You okay?” Miguel asked.

  Dom lowered his weapon. “I’m good.”

  Miguel glanced at the drifting dust. A small river of pebbles trickled from the ceiling. They clicked and bounced off the large rocks blocking the tunnel. “Guess that means we can’t go back, huh?”

  “Only one way now.” Dom marched forward with Miguel by his side. “Forward.”

  -16-

  Lauren approached Rich and Tammy Weaver, two of the three survivors from the hospital. They lay in neighboring beds with IV tubes leading into their dry, red skin. Sores riddled their arms, outward signs of their ill health and starvation. Tammy’s long dirty-blond hair appeared coarse and dry as straw. Wrinkles formed along the corners of Rich’s eyes. His cracked lips had stopped bleeding but still looked far from healthy. When Lauren reached their beds, they shifted their heads, no small effort in their malnourished states. Their gazes landed on her, and she smiled.