The Americans: Apex Trilogy, Book 2

by Jake Bible

  Beth and Melissa stood also.

  “Should we suit up?” Beth asked.

  “Your guess is as good as mine,” Melissa answered. The other Ghosts in the hold were already suited up and smirking at them. “Guess that answers that.”

  Melissa reached below her seat and grabbed her suit. “I’m glad I have a new suit. That last one had a funk to it.”

  “If we live, we’ll have to figure out how to make them auto-washable,” Beth laughed.

  “If we live, I don’t want to wear another of these fuckers ever again!”

  “I’m pretty sure the world will still be a dangerous place if we live. You’ll probably still need it.”

  “Yeah, but if we live, I’m gonna find a nice quiet hole and move in. Fuck the world!”

  “Right, but if we live—”

  “Oh, for fuck’s sake shut up about the ‘if we live’ shit!” Billy yelled as he came back from the front of the HAV. “If you don’t knock it off I’ll make sure neither of you live through the next minute!”

  Melissa leaned in close to Beth and said in a mock whisper, “If we live, I am so gonna make him pay for that.”

  “If we live, I’ll help,” Beth whispered back.

  “I liked you two better when you hated each other,” Billy mumbled, grabbing his own suit and struggling to pull it on over his uniform.

  Melissa and Beth stripped off their uniforms and stepped into their suits, both laughing at Billy.

  “Um, Billy?” Beth began. He turned and saw they were pretty much naked again and he averted his eyes. “Billy, you have to strip down. The suits aren’t really designed to go over uniforms.”

  Billy turned his back on the girls and dropped his uniform.

  “Nice ass,” Beth mocked.

  “OH, SHUT IT!” Billy yelled and everyone in the hold, including the other Ghosts, laughed hysterically, desperate for anything to break the tension. “Oh, yeah, so fucking funny. Laugh at Billy. Billy’s ass is funny…”

  “So are you going to tell us what’s going on?” Melissa asked, trying to get her laughter under control.

  Everyone’s coms crackled to an open channel. “This is Colonel Owens. General Millman’s HAV has fallen into what we believe is a sink hole or a trap set to lure us out into the open. Either way, we have a General to go get, so I need all Ghosts out of their HAVs and setting a perimeter. We are not fucking around here folks. We need to get the General and his crew out of that hole and get the fuck moving before whatever is behind us catches up. SO LET’S MOVE!”

  All Ghosts made sure they were secured in their suits and both Melissa and Beth had to grin with pride as the suits adjusted perfectly to each Ghost’s individual body.

  “Let’s go, gigglers!” Billy said, shoving the two girls forward as the HAV’s rear ramp slammed onto the ground. “Stay close to me. This could get crazy.”

  “Stay close?” Melissa asked. “Why? So we can save your ass?”

  “Exactly,” Billy said without a hint of irony.

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  General Millman couldn’t tell which way was up or down, his body was so contorted against the HAV’s control panel. “Sound off!” he yelled. Voices began to echo through the vehicle, as those that were able to respond did. “Anyone have com?”

  “No, sir,” a Tech said as he extended his hand and helped the General. “The whole HAV is offline right now. Mag generator must have been damaged.”

  The General braced himself and began to climb over the seats, making his way up through the HAV. “Are you injured?” he asked the Tech.

  “No, sir. Just a couple bruises.”

  “Good to hear. Start working on the drive and let’s see if we can get this thing out of here.”

  “Roger,” the Tech said, yanking at a panel in the floor. “I should be able to get to the major components from here. If not I’ll have to get to it from the outside.”

  “Understood,” the General said, checking personnel as he climbed past, seeing who was injured. “Make sure you have Ghosts with you when you exit. We don’t know what’s down here.”

  ***

  Melissa, Beth, Billy and both Colonels stood at the edge of the hole as the rest of the Ghosts watched the perimeter.

  Melissa looked at the landscape about her. “This is some serious brown. Where are we?”

  “Mehkati region, I think,” Colonel Owens replied. “It’s all sandstone hills and scrub brush. Never was the most hospitable area, even before the Dead Zone.”

  “What do you think is down there?” Billy asked, peering into the darkness. He kicked a small pebble over the side and they waited for a full minute before the sound made it back to them. “Oh, that’s one deep hole.”

  “And we’re going down it,” Colonel Smithfield announced. “Okay, people! You know your assignments! Let’s get our folks back up here and on the move now!”

  Everyone moved to their posts with the rescue team securing BC cables to the sides of the hole, as well as the HAVs for added support. Beth and Melissa began to do the same, but Colonel Owens held up his hand.

  “Hold on,” Colonel Owens said, shaking his head. “You two are staying up here with me.”

  “I can help down there,” Beth said. “You may need my abilities.”

  “The only BC down there is our HAV and any of the Ghosts can manipulate that by touch,” Colonel Owens insisted. “I’d rather have you up here. If any Spiders made it through back there then they will be here soon. That’s when we’ll need you.”

  “What about me?” Melissa asked.

  “Pretty sure you two are a team, right?” Smithfield said apologetically. “Well, you’re the topside team.”

  “Does Billy have to be on our team?” Melissa joked soliciting an instant frown from Smithfield.

  “Understood, Colonel,” Billy said, ignoring Melissa. “Be careful.”

  “Thanks, Brenton.” The Colonel nodded, as one the Ghosts descended into the darkness. “Keep it tight and keep it mean, people!”

  ***

  “What are we looking at?” General Millman asked.

  Lieutenant Mathers, a tall, slim woman of about forty, turned to the General and the look on her face was not the answer he wanted. “We have no idea, sir.” She shone her halogen about the area. The light reflected off multicolored, shiny-slick mounds and then was sucked into the darkness beyond.

  “What’s that smell?” another Ghost asked. “Smells like…what?”

  “That’s shit,” a short, stocky Ghost named Cross said. “And piss, and garbage and death. Smells like the refuse grounds before they vaporize all the trash.” A couple Ghosts looked his way. “What? We all didn’t have desk jobs in basic.”

  “What it really smells like is a shitload of trouble,” General Millman said, flicking shiny goo from his hand after running it across one of the walls. “I want all personnel back in the HAV. Whatever made this cra- Ack!” The General cried out and grabbed his wrist. “What the hell?!?” The skin from his hand was sloughing right off, falling to the ground in blood red chunks. “FUCK!”

  The Ghost closest to Millman reached for the General, but came up short as glistening liquid shot from the darkness and onto her face. She began to scream as her flesh melted away, leaving nothing but steaming bone.

  “Oh, shit!” Cross yelled, pulling his sidearm and firing randomly into the darkness. “I’ve got the General!”

  “Everyone back in the HAV!” Mathers ordered, now the ranking officer. She pulled her own sidearm and joined Cross, firing with one hand as she draped the General’s left arm over her shoulders. The height difference between the two made movement awkward. “Take this!” Mathers handed Cross her sidearm.

  Cross turned and covered their backs, a pistol in each hand. “I don’t know if I’m even hitting anything!” Several liquid streams shot from the darkness right at Cross’s eyes and he dove to the side, rolling into one of the mounds. Instantly, any skin exposed began to burn and melt, and Cross’s scream
s filled the darkness. “Get this shit off me! Help!” The mound he landed on began to squirm. “What the fuck is this shit! HELP! Something’s crawling on me! SOMETHING’S ON---!”

  ***

  “That’s not good,” Smithfield said to himself as the gunshots and screams echoed up the hole towards the rescue team.

  “Sir? We have movement from all sides,” Captain Bonavita said, a holo scanner clenched in his hand. “And I mean all sides!”

  The Colonel looked over at the holo and gasped. “They’re in the walls people!”

  Ghosts on all sides of him began to shout, firing whatever weapons their suits formed, into the darkness. Choked off screams and cries for help reverberated everywhere and Smithfield tried not to panic.

  He felt something splatter against his suit and he looked down to see shiny liquid streaming down his chest. “Full suits, now! Faceplates in place!”

  Smithfield activated his com. “Owens! We are under attack from something down here! Liquid streams are coming from the fucking walls!”

  “Liquid?” Owens responded. “What kind of liquid?”

  “I don’t fucking know!” Smithfield shouted. He grunted when something heavy slammed into his back. Turning instinctively to shove it away, his breath caught in his throat as he watched a Ghost dissolve inside her suit, leaving nothing but a polished skull peering through the faceplate that hadn’t fully closed. The legs of the Ghost’s suit bulged as they filled with her liquefied remains. “Holy god…”

  “Smithy?” Owens yelled. “What the fuck is happening down there?”

  ***

  Several Ghosts looked to Owens as he continued yelling into the com.

  “Fuck!” he shouted in frustration, finally turning from the hole, all eyes on him.

  “Aren’t we going to help them?” Melissa asked, then remembered herself, adding, “Sir.”

  “We’ll just get ourselves killed,” Owens said. “We can’t go down there until we know what we are up against. I want all Techs with scanners on this hole! I want all Ghosts with complimentary abilities assisting those Techs! If we don’t have the right gear, then fucking invent it!”

  Personnel scrambled around the area, setting up equipment while the others spread out, filling the gaps in the perimeter.

  Melissa began to step away from the hole, to see what she could do to help when she noticed the look on Beth’s face. “What is it?”

  “Do you hear that?” Beth asked, her head cocked to the side. “It’s a rustling? You know, like leaves in the wind.”

  Melissa concentrated, but she couldn’t hear anything over the chaos about her. She shook her head. “I don’t hear it. And there aren’t any trees around here for leaves to be rustling.”

  “It’s getting louder. You really can’t hear that?” Beth insisted.

  “I don’t hear… Oh, shit, what is that?”

  Some of the other Ghosts began to notice the noise also.

  “We’ve got incoming!” Captain Bristol shouted just as the rustling noise stopped.

  “Where?”

  “What’s happening?”

  “Someone give me a reading!” Owens shouted.

  “Sir, we had movement on the scanners, but then it stopped,” a Tech called out. “Once it stopped the readings cleared. Whatever it is, we can’t pick it up unless it’s moving!”

  “Okay, people, time to put your skills to work!” Owens commanded. “Fuck the tech, I want eyes! If you see something, shoot the fuck out of it!”

  The Ghosts tightened their formation, with the Techs breaking down their equipment and rushing back into the HAVs.

  “HAV drivers, hold your fire unless you have a clear line of sight!” Owens ordered. “I want to keep my ass intact!”

  Screams came from the rearmost HAV as one of the Techs struggled with his equipment on the ramp. Soon more screams were heard and one of the HAVs began to fire at random. Ghosts and personnel hit the ground.

  “What the hell?” Owens roared, taking cover behind a large boulder. “I said to hold your fire!”

  Beth reached out and grabbed Melissa’s arm, her fingers digging into the flesh, even through the suit.

  “What?” Melissa cried, trying to pry Beth’s hand away. “What is—” She didn’t need to ask anything further as a large, black form slithered from around one of the HAVs. “Oh…my…god…”

  Colonel Owens and several others saw the shape at the same time. “Fire!” Owens ordered, but most of the Ghosts had already started.

  The black form reared up and spread its hood, revealing itself to be a cobra of some type, at least 12 meters long and a meter thick with a head two meters wide. Its body shuddered from the gunfire, but the snake was able to spit several streams of venom from its mouth before it succumbed to the attack. Ghosts dodged and ducked the venom. Several were splattered across their faceplates, the liquid sizzling slightly, but not corrosive enough to eat through the BC.

  “More!” Melissa shouted as she caught movement out of the corner of her eye and spun to see two cobras approaching from their right.

  “9 o’clock!” a Ghost screamed from the left. She tried to scramble away from the five cobras, hoods raised, coming at her, but she wasn’t fast enough and one struck, its two-foot fangs piercing through her suit, her abdomen and out her back. The snake shook its head to dislodge the body then struck again, wrapping its lower half around her, preparing to swallow the woman whole.

  “Stop that thing!” Beth yelled, starting to run to help.

  Melissa yanked her by her arm and pulled her back. “We need to get into an HAV!”

  Melissa pulled Beth towards the closest HAV, sprinting up the ramp. Other Ghosts had the same idea and tried to follow, but their paths were blocked by several of the monstrous snakes.

  “Shut the ramp!” a Ghost shouted, turning to fight, but found himself pinned to the hull as he was impaled by a set of fangs.

  “Holy FUCK!” Billy yelled from behind the girls.

  “Have you been hiding in here?” Melissa shouted. “You have! You fucking coward!”

  “There’s giant mother fucking snakes out there!” Billy shouted back. “Who doesn’t hide from GIANT MOTHER FUCKING SNAKES?!?”

  Beth concentrated on the HAVs ramp and got it to close and lock. “There, we should be okay for now!”

  “What about everyone else?” Melissa asked, pushing past three Techs, making her way to the front.

  “They need to fucking hide!” Billy yelled. “Those are giant fucking snakes!”

  “We fucking heard you, Billy! Shut the fuck up!” Melissa snarled, as she looked out the windshield and slapped the HAV driver on the back. “Can’t you shoot them?”

  “I can’t get a lock! They don’t track right!” the driver shouted back. “If I can’t lock on them I’ll risk hitting our people!”

  Melissa grabbed the man’s head and forced him to take a hard look out the windshield. “What’s your name, Private?!?”

  “Desmond McHale.”

  “Well, Desmond McHale, our people are being swallowed whole! I think they’d rather get shot, don’t you?!?”

  Desmond hesitated then activated his weapons system. “If I kill anyone it’s on your head!”

  Beth pushed Melissa out of the way and pulled the driver from his seat. “Move! We’ll do this!”

  “What the fuck are you doing?”

  “Get in his seat!” Beth ordered. “Just start firing! I’ll make sure the bullets find their mark!”

  Melissa did as told and pulled the trigger as she took over the driver’s seat, sending thousands of rounds of large caliber slugs flying from the HAV. Beth focused her attention on the oversized reptiles, sending the slugs directly at each of them. The results made Melissa gasp and stop firing. They all ducked their heads instinctively as bullets ricocheted everywhere.

  “Did those just bounce of their skin?”

  “Yes,” Beth whispered. “What are we gonna do?”

  “You need to change the
slugs to be giant fucking snake piercing slugs!” Billy shrieked.

  “Fucking get a hold of yourself!” Melissa warned. “Or I’m gonna fucking toss you out there with them!” Billy shrank away from her, his eyes wide with panic. That was when she and Beth both got it. “You’re afraid of snakes, aren’t you?”

  Billy nodded, still watching to see if Melissa was going to make good on her threat.

  “Holy shit!” Melissa laughed. “You’ll gobble cock for scabs, but you can’t deal with snakes!”

  “I hardly see how the two are related,” Billy stammered.

  Beth watched the snakes attack and attack, whittling the number of Americans down with each strike. Then one of the cobras reared up, its massive forked tongue flicking out and in, out and in, its head moving from side to side, looking for the source of the smell it picked up. Other snakes stopped their attacks and did the same, no longer caring about their prey.

  “Hey, Mel?” Beth whispered. “What are they doing?”

  Melissa stopped glaring at Billy and looked out the windshield. “Fuck if I know. I’m no herpetologist.” Beth raised her eyebrows. “Mr. Lang’s biology class. I paid attention.”

  The girls jumped back, startled, as several animals the size of very large dogs crested the sandstone hills and leapt at the cobras. The snakes lunged and struck, but the new creatures jumped aside easily and spun in the air, landing nimbly and clamping their jaws on the backs of the cobras’ necks.

  Even through the HAV’s hull, the girls could hear several high-pitched whistles immediately followed by loud, deep chirps. Melissa leaned forward. “Are those…? No…”

  “What?” Beth asked, amazed at the speed and agility of the animals as they tore apart the snakes that hadn’t retreated or escaped into the massive hole. “What are they?”

  “Did you not pay attention at all?” Melissa mocked. “They’re mongooses!”

  “Wouldn’t that be mongeese?” Billy asked, cringing at the look Melissa gave him. “Sorry. I’ll shut up.”

  “How are they getting through the scales when our guns couldn’t?” Desmond asked.