Ringgold crunched through the leaves to stand next to Kate. She had her shawl over her head again. She crossed her arms over her chest in the chilly night air.
“I have bad news,” Ringgold said. “Barnes says we can give Reed and Ellis another five. Then we have to leave. I’m sorry, Kate, but ROT is here on the island, and somehow they know that I escaped the PEOC.”
Kate couldn’t breathe. She couldn’t leave Reed. She wouldn’t leave him.
“You go,” she said. “Horn, take the kids and go with them. Get somewhere safe.”
“Nah,” Horn said, shaking his head. “I ain’t leaving either.”
The baby kicked, and Kate wondered if he could feel how scared she was.
“I’m not leaving Reed,” she said firmly.
“We wait five more minutes, then we get into the air with or without you,” Barnes said. “We can’t stay here any longer. I’m sorry.”
Horn directed his gaze at Barnes and then Nelson. “Take us to the radio tower on the way out of here. If we see any sign of Beckham on the flyover, we drop down and search. You got it?”
Ringgold answered for the two men when they hesitated. “I’m good with that. It’s the least we can do for them.”
“Madame President,” Barnes began to say. “I’d highly recommend—”
“That’s an order, Barnes.”
He nodded back.
Horn snorted, heaved his SAW onto his shoulder, and walked back into the woods to gather the kids. Jake emerged first with Donna, Bo, and his own son, Timothy. Tasha and Jenny were holding Horn’s hands. The Marine pilots pulled off the tarp, and they all piled into the chopper.
Five minutes later they lifted into the air.
In the cockpit, the pilots pushed their NVGs into position and pulled the bird toward a partially flattened cornfield. They flew low over the crops. The radio tower rose over the trees just ahead and Kate’s heart pounded harder as they got closer.
“There!” Horn shouted. He pointed toward a truck parked below. They came back in for a second pass, but Kate didn’t see anyone in the pickup.
The next circle brought them over the front of the radio tower.
“Looks like a body,” Nelson said.
A man was sprawled in front of the radio station, blood pooling around his head. Kate screamed and lunged toward the open door when she saw the blue baseball cap lay on the ground nearby, but Horn and Barnes held her back.
“Let me go! Let me go!” She kicked and shouted. The kids were bawling, and Kate felt her own hot tears. “We have to go down there! We have to help Pat!”
“He’s gone, ma’am,” Barnes said. “I’m sorry.”
Horn stared out the door in shock as the pilots hovered, waiting for orders.
“I don’t see Beckham,” Horn said. He looked at Barnes. “Let me go look for him. Three minutes.”
Barnes and Nelson exchanged a glance. “We can’t—”
“We can’t abandon Reed,” Kate said, gathering the shreds of her composure. Ellis had been her closest ally and partner. They’d worked side by side for countless hours in the lab and debated over countless meals together. The thought that he was gone left a hole in her heart. But if she lost Reed too…that would break her.
“I’m going down there, Kate. I’ll find him,” Horn said. He turned to the Secret Service agents. “You ain’t stoppin’ me!”
Barnes moved to block his way. “We can’t let you do that!”
Horn raised a fist, and Jake stepped up to support him.
“Captain Beckham risked everything for me and my son in New York. We can’t abandon him now.”
“I’m picking up a message over the comms!” one of the pilots yelled. “It’s for President Ringgold.”
A moment later, a calm, self-assured voice filled the troop hold. “You’ve proven to be harder to kill than I thought, Jan. I don’t know how you escaped from the PEOC, but I will find you. It’ll be fun, actually. By the way, I have your knight in shining armor right here. Say hello, Reed.”
Kate grabbed Ringgold’s arm, trying to steady herself.
“Don’t give him what he wants,” Reed growled. His voice sounded thick and muffled, as if he was talking through a fat lip.
“Reed,” Kate called out. “Reed, hang on!”
“The comms are only one way. He can’t hear you,” Nelson said.
Wood was speaking again, taunting them. “Go ahead and keep running, Jan. I will find you. In the meantime, Reed and I are going on a little trip. See you soon, Jan. It’s been fun.”
The transmission ended with a squawk of static.
“We have to leave the island, now!” Nelson shouted.
The pilots were already pulling away from the tower.
Kate grabbed her chest, hyperventilating. This wasn’t happening… She couldn’t…
Horn locked eyes with her. “I will find him and bring him back.”
“We got company!” Nelson yelled at the same moment.
He raised his gun at two Little Birds searching the forest to the west. They dipped low, then raced toward the Black Hawk.
Horn called out over his shoulder, “Can any of you Secret Service assholes shoot?”
Barnes and one of his agents stepped up to Horn’s side with their rifles. Jake slammed a magazine into his gun and waited for a clear shot. The other agent covered Ringgold with his body.
“Take ‘em down!” Horn shouted.
Rounds lanced away from the Black Hawk. The return fire was instant, and a bullet hit one of the agents in the chest. He dropped to the floor, clawing at the wound.
Kate crawled over to help him. The man looked up at her, his face a mask of pain. Screams from the children filled the troop hold as she placed her hand over his wound and applied pressure.
Another bullet punched into the floor by her. Someone cried out, and she turned just in time to see Barnes slump over, blood blossoming on the back of his jacket. She watched helplessly as he tumbled out the open door.
The chopper rolled hard to the right, throwing off Horn’s aim. He steadied his gun and continued to fire as the pilots wheeled away from island.
Kate kept her hand pressed against the injured agent’s chest, but her eyes were fixed on the radio tower they were leaving behind. She could still see Ellis lying there, surrounded by his own blood.
She glanced back at the skyline as Horn hit one of the Little Birds in the rotors. It spun away, smoking, and plowed onto the beach. An explosion lit up the night a moment later. The pilots pulled the Black Hawk over the ocean, heading east with the second Little Bird still in pursuit.
Horn fired off another volley of rounds that punched through the windshield of the other chopper. It went into a nosedive and hit the water with such force it snapped the rotors off.
He kept his weapon on the sinking helicopter.
“Turn this bird around!” Kate yelled. “We have to find Reed!”
Nelson shook his head. “It’s too late. We go back and we’re dead.”
“I will find him. I promise, Kate. But Nelson’s right. We have to get out of here,” Horn said, his lips trembling.
Lowering his smoking weapon, he turned and looked at Kate with tears welling in his eyes. He slowly walked back to comfort his girls. They wrapped their arms around him.
Kate looked down at the agent she was trying to save. The man’s blank eyes were focused on the bulkhead. She felt for a pulse.
He was gone.
She hadn’t even learned his name.
“Where are we going?” Soprano asked.
Nelson shook his head. “I have no idea.”
“There has to be some place we can go,” Horn said. “We can’t just fly forever.”
Kate shivered, shock setting in. Her home, the place where she was supposed to raise a family with Reed, was com
promised, and the man she loved was missing.
A pair of hands grasped hers, and she found herself looking into Ringgold’s eyes. The president was crying. The two women embraced, each holding the other up, as the Black Hawk carried them into the night sky.
Beckham tried to force his eyes open, but his right eyelid was too swollen from the beating he’d taken. The bright sunlight nearly blinded his good eye, and he squeezed it shut again. There was a distant humming beyond the rush of blood in his ears, and the floor beneath him was vibrating. He could hear faint voices nearby, but couldn’t make out what they were saying.
His memories were all jumbled up, and he struggled to make sense of them.
A splash of water suddenly hit his face. He coughed and spluttered, trying to sit up.
“Wake up, Captain,” someone said.
Another blast of freezing water hit his face. He blinked over and over until a blurred face came into focus. Wood was looking down at him, wearing a smug expression.
“Ah, you’re still alive. I thought we were going to lose you for a few minutes back when we stopped to refuel. You’re tougher than I thought, but not as tough as I was told.”
Beckham sat up and swung a right hook at Wood before he remembered that he’d lost that hand. A cord around his neck jerked him back to the floor. He choked, coughed, and tried to speak, but only ended up spitting out more blood.
“You aren’t that bright, are you?” Wood said. “Seriously, I feel cheated. I’d hoped you’d be more of a challenge.”
Wood crouched down in front of him, and for the first time Beckham saw where he was being held. He’d expected a prison cell, but they were in a helicopter. Outside the open door of the troop hold, the jagged skyscrapers of a large city came into focus. Skeletons of what had been great buildings were all that remained. Scars from bombs and missiles marred the structures.
“Chicago, if you’re wondering,” Wood said. He leaned closer to Beckham, so close Beckham could smell a trace of cigar smoke on his breath. “It’s become something like a private game preserve. It’s crawling with infected.”
“You sick bastard,” Beckham said.
Wood shrugged. “Maybe, but not as sick as they are. I’m going to drop you in the middle of the hot zone. Once I find your friends, and Jan, they’re coming here, too.” He glanced up as if in deep thought, then looked back down at Beckham. “I’ve read your file. I’ve read all the files. I know all about the people you love. Still haven’t decided what I’m going to do with that dog yet. I’ve always wanted one myself. There’s also that lady scientist of yours…”
“I’ll fucking kill you!” Beckham spat in Wood’s face and squirmed under the pressure of the boots holding him down.
“Yes, you keep saying that.” Wood wiped the spit away, looked at his hand, then punched Beckham in the nose. Stars broke across his vision as pain spread into his skull. His left hand moved to his vest pocket, fumbling for Kate’s ring. He wanted to hold it one last time.
I’m sorry, Sweetheart, he thought. I let you down. I let you all down.
Ellis was dead. They’d never gotten their message to Europe. Operation Reach would turn the continent into a wasteland of radioactive monsters.
Beckham had never felt lower in his life.
Wood nodded at two of his men. The soldiers leaned down and grabbed Beckham under his arms. They walked him toward the open Black Hawk door. He squinted at the moving shapes below.
Infected.
Hundreds of them.
He brought the ring to his lips and kissed it.
“What’s that you’ve got, Captain?” Wood yanked the ring away and held it to the light to examine it. He chuckled and shook his head. The diamond glittered as Wood tossed the ring out of the chopper.
“No!” Beckham yelled. He headbutted the soldier on his left, and used his shoulder to push the one on the right, nearly breaking free only to have another soldier pull back on the leash around his neck. The chopper descended over a green park, the skids nearly brushing the tops of the trees.
Wood looked at his watch. “Looks like we’re about out of time. Wish I could stick around, but I have more work to do. Then it’ll be a quick trip down Inauguration Alley. President Andrew Wood has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it?”
Beckham’s eyes bulged as he pulled against the men holding him back. Veins popped out of his neck, and he could hear his heartbeat thundering in his ears.
“Good luck, Captain!” Wood said cheerfully. “If you see Jan’s cousin Emilia down there, say hi for me!”
A swift kick to his back sent Beckham flying out the open door. He tumbled head over feet. The drop felt like it lasted an eternity, but in reality he hit the grass only a few seconds later.
There wasn’t much pain. Just numbness.
He rolled onto his back as the Black Hawk traversed the skyline. Wood was standing in the door, waving.
Beckham tried to get up, but that earned him a jolt of paralyzing pain.
Motion flashed by his right, and then his left. He was in the middle of a park surrounded by benches, statutes, and mature trees. There was movement in the branches. His body might not be working, but his mind was. There was no way out of his situation. His fight was over. There was only so much an old soldier could go through before he fell apart.
His body had given up on him.
But at least Wood hadn’t found his friends yet. Horn would protect them. He would take care of Kate and little Javier Riley when Beckham was gone.
All around, he heard the sounds of monsters closing in. Creaking joints, popping lips, and high-pitched shrieks no longer scared him.
He didn’t want to die, but he was ready to face his fate.
A creature moving on all fours skidded forward, the snap of joints like breaking tree branches. This beast had been a woman, maybe forty years of age with pale skin and wispy brown hair. Her shredded shirt hung loosely from her body, and slashes marked her exposed flesh. She opened her sucker mouth, revealing broken teeth and bloody gums.
The strangled sound that came from her voice box was a wordless cackle, but Beckham wondered if she was trying to talk. She tilted her head to examine him, blinking yellow slotted eyes.
He wondered what her name had been, whether she’d had a family. If this was to be the final enemy that took him down, he wanted to meet her on his feet. He struggled upright, his bent blade groaning as it took his weight.
The guttural cackle rose into a high-pitched shriek.
He watched the creature break into a gallop toward him.
Goodbye, Kate.
A gunshot snapped the beast’s head back. Three more shots sounded to his left. He turned to see three more of the monsters twitching on the ground, each one dropped by calculated shots to their heads and vital organs.
“Don’t get any blood on you!” someone shouted. “They’re contagious!”
Beckham followed the voice to a man running across the field wearing a blue baseball cap.
Ellis?
No. He shook his head. He had watched Ellis die at Plum Island.
Another screech rose above the gunshots. The infected jumped back into the trees, swinging away to safety. For some reason, most of the monsters were afraid of the man in the blue hat.
He stopped to fire at two of the infected that weren’t retreating. A half-naked male was making a run for Beckham. A bullet clipped it in the neck, arterial blood spraying toward the sky.
The man fired off the rest of his magazine, paused to change, and then jogged over to Beckham.
“You just going to stand there or what?”
Beckham limped a few steps, nearly stumbling.
The soldier gave him the elevator eyes treatment. “Damn, brother. You look like shit. Can you fight?”
Beckham nodded. “Give me a gun.”
The man han
ded him an M9.
“Name’s Lieutenant Jim Flathman,” he said, tipping the brim of his cap.
Beckham remembered hearing stories about Flathman. The guy was a drunk and a nutcase, according to Commander Davis, but he’d also managed to hold his post with nothing but a skeleton crew.
“What the hell are you doing here?”
“What am I doing? I’m saving your ass.”
Flathman roved his rifle over the trees and the buildings. Faces peeked out of the shadows. The creatures continued to circle them, but they were cagey, staying back as Flathman and Beckham angled their weapons toward the beasts.
“Why aren’t they attacking?” Beckham asked.
“I don’t know, why don’t you ask them?”
Together, the two men crept out of the park toward an empty storefront across the street. The beasts watched them, but none attacked. He followed Flathman into an apartment building and down to the basement. They shut the steel door behind them.
“Don’t worry, they won’t follow us down here, and they can’t get through that door,” Flathman said. He jerked his chin toward a table loaded with supplies, and Beckham gratefully grabbed a bottle of water and energy bar from the stash.
Flathman skipped the water and cracked open a bottle of whiskey. He took a long swig, sighed, and then wiped his mouth the back of his hand. “What’s your name, soldier?”
“Captain Reed Beckham.”
Flathman raised a brow. “The Captain Reed Beckham of Delta Force Team Ghost?”
Beckham nodded.
“Damn! I’ve heard of you. So, who’d you piss off enough to get thrown out of a chopper into a wildlife preserve of monsters?”
“That was Lieutenant Andrew Wood. He’s the bastard behind the attack on this safe zone.”
Flathman took another swig. “The same prick that killed my men. I have a special bullet saved for that son of a bitch.”
Beckham took a seat on a wood chair. He hurt all over, especially his heart. Kate was out there somewhere with Horn, Ringgold, and the kids. None of them would be safe until Wood was dead.
“Thanks for your help out there, but I have to get moving.”
“Slow down, Captain. Don’t take this the wrong way, but you look like a Variant ate you and then crapped you out again.”
Extinction Aftermath (Extinction Cycle Book 6) Page 33