by P. T. Hylton
George shook his head. “I thought we would get more of them.”
Cynthia stared at the monitors, her eyes distant. “We still have the turrets inside the tunnel. And we have our troops ready behind that.”
“Let’s light them up.” George said.
“Are you sure?” Cynthia asked. “It’s our last line of defense before they get inside.”
“Do it.”
A tech pressed a button, and a blast exploded on either side of the blast door. Napalm sprayed out across the entrance. The two vampires working on the blast door were instantly killed, engulfed in fire. The spray hit most of the twenty guarding the cutters, and the forest around the entrance burst into flame. The Twisted hiding in the trees panicked, spreading out and running away from the liquid flames, but there was no escape, and most of them caught fire as they scattered through the forest. Patches of trees and grass caught fire as the Twisted burned to death.
“What’s the count?” George asked the room.
“I’ve got it at around a hundred and fifteen.”
George sighed. “Hopefully that fire will buy us enough time for a miracle.”
35
The GMT’s transport ship glided near Agartha, and Alex’s breath caught in her throat as she beheld the destruction. Shredded metal and broken weapons. Ruined turrets.
And everywhere, the bodies of the Twisted.
Ed let out a soft whistle. “Your defenses really did a number on Maryana’s army.”
“I should hope so. We maintained them carefully, just in case of an attack. But I never thought it would be like this.” Jaden’s voice was hollow when he spoke again. “She threw her army at the defenses until they broke. She doesn’t care how many of her people she loses.” He turned to Alex. “She’s like no enemy I’ve ever faced. Many are going to die today.”
“Yeah,” Alex said. “Let’s just keep that number as low as possible.”
Up ahead, they could see a group of maybe twenty Twisted gathered at the door to the city. It was impossible to tell from their angle if they’d breached it yet. Beyond, there were at least thirty more Twisted hanging back, as if waiting for the order to charge.
Owl’s voice came through their headsets. “Where do you want me to set us down?”
Jaden spoke first. “How about just beyond the small stand of trees east of the blast door?”
“Good call,” Alex said. “We can attack their flank. We’re pretty damn outnumbered, but if we can hit them while their focus is on getting inside, we may be able to make a dent.”
“My thoughts, exactly,” Jaden said.
Owl set them down, and the GMT debarked as quickly as possible. As soon as Alex’s feet touched the ground, she heard the shouts and screams from the direction of the blast door.
“What the hell is that?” Felix asked.
Jaden drew his swords and began marching toward the screams. “I believe that’s the napalm.”
Ed shook his head, his eyes wide. “Damn, Jaden don’t play.”
“Not today, I don’t,” he answered, his voice grim.
As they marched toward Agartha, Alex addressed the team. “All right, we’re going to hit their left flank, hard. They’ll be completely focused on getting inside the city, so we should be able to pick off a good number of them before they start considering us a real threat and turn their attention from their main objective.”
“Still,” Chuck said, “there are like, fifty of them.”
“I didn’t say it would be easy. Jaden and Owl are going to tear their way in and tangle them up. The rest of us, stay back and engage from range. Watch your field of fire. We don’t want to hit our friendly vamps, and there may be bullets flying from inside Agartha, so stay clear of the doorway. And, Owl?”
“Yeah, Captain?”
“You know that animalist fury you’ve been trying to suppress? I’m going to need you to let it out.”
“Roger that, Captain.” There was a sparkle in Owl’s eyes. It was exactly what something deep inside her had been waiting to hear.
Jaden nodded toward the area ahead of them. “We’re about to break out of the tree cover. Ready for me and Owl to engage?”
Alex drew a deep breath and gave her team a quick visual check. They were warriors, every one. They were ready. “Engage.”
Jaden shot forward like a bullet from a gun, racing past the tree line and toward the enemy. Owl was only a step behind, and she let out a vicious snarl as she ran, a pistol in each hand.
Alex, Chuck, Ed and Felix trotted behind them. They had no chance at keeping up with their Twisted comrades, but they needed to at least be in range to take advantage of the chaos that those two were about to cause the enemy.
Jaden reached the Twisted’s flank first, his twin swords held crossed in front of him. He put the swords on either side of a Twisted neck and uncrossed them, neatly removing the creature’s head. With a quick glance to his left, he jabbed his sword through the heart of another Twisted and pulled it out again almost too quickly for the eye to track. His other sword sliced through the air, removing another Twisted’s head.
Alex couldn’t help but be impressed. She’d seen Jaden in action before, but these creatures were his equals, and he’d taken three down before they’d even realized he was there.
Owl moved differently than Jaden. While he was all grace and economy of movement, she was blunt force trauma. The way she ran toward her enemies was more animalistic. She moved at an incredible speed, but with the loping gait of a jungle beast. She used her pistols as if they were melee weapons. When she reached the Twisted’s flank, she rammed the barrel of her pistol against the temple of the nearest enemy and pulled the trigger. As he fell, she jammed the pistol into the chest of his neighbor and fired again.
Alex shook her head. Those two were evening the long odds quickly. But it was time for the human members of the GMT to do their part. Jaden and Owl had attacked the southeast flank. To avoid any potential friendly-fire damage, Alex directed her team to concentrate their fire on the northeast flank—the Twisted closest to the blast door.
Many of the Twisted in that area had been engulfed in napalm moments before, and still lay smoldering on the ground. More Twisted had filled in the gap, crowding against the outer blast door. Alex squinted at them for a moment, trying to figure out what they were doing. They had cutters—it looked like the ones from the away ship—and they were working on the blast door. And, from what Alex could see, they were making very good progress.
“Team!” Alex shouted. “Focus on those guys with the cutters. Take them out!”
Ed and Chuck fired immediately, quickly dropping one cutter operator in two shots. As soon as he fell, another Twisted grabbed the tool from his hand and picked up where he’d left off.
Felix took more careful aim, but when he fired, the Twisted with the other cutter fell. Again, another Twisted immediately took his place and began cutting.
Meanwhile, the Twisted near the back of the horde had taken notice of Jaden’s presence.
“Grandfather’s here!” one of them shouted.
Others immediately took up the call. “Grandfather! I want to kill Grandfather for Maryana!”
“Jesus,” Ed muttered, between shots. “Even her followers are batshit crazy.”
Alex raised her rifle and fired, dropping one of the Twisted between her and the latest cutter operator. So far, her plan was working. By attacking the Twisted’s flanks, the GMT was able to pick them off while they remained laser focused on the blast door. They were fanatics, and they were carrying out their master’s orders of getting through the door, to the exclusion of all else.
With a loud crack, a large segment of the blast door fell away.
“They’re in!” Alex shouted.
It was full-on damage control mode, now. Alex and her teammates focused all their fire on the Twisted’s frontlines, doing all they could to mow them down before they passed through the blast doors. Still, a good number of them disappeare
d into the tunnel.
“Alex, behind us!” Chuck shouted.
Alex spun at the sound of his voice, and what she saw made her freeze in surprise.
A horde of Twisted was charging toward them from the very trees where the GMT had emerged. It was impossible to determine the number, but it had to be at least as many as were gathered at the blast door.
“Go!” Alex shouted to her team. She took off running away from the horde and toward the blast doors. Her heart sank as she had the terrible realization that they were trapped. A horde of maybe thirty Twisted in front of them, and at least fifty behind them.
As she ran, she locked eyes with Jaden. He dashed toward her and was at her side in a moment.
“We have to get inside,” he said. “I’ll get us there. Just buy me a moment.” Then he turned. “Owl, follow me!”
Alex nodded, instinctively understanding what he intended. She called to her human teammates. “Slow them down!”
Then she turned toward the oncoming horde and began spraying them with automatic fire. She wasn’t aiming to kill this time. She just needed to hurt them, to make them lose a bit of speed. She’d have to trust Owl and Jaden for the rest.
Chuck and Ed stood on either side of her, filling the horde with as many bullets as possible. Felix was beside Ed, doing his best to keep up with his more experienced teammates.
Suddenly, a series of loud booms split the air behind them. Alex risked a glance over her shoulder and saw the Twisted closest to the blast door were knocked back. She realized what had happened: either Jaden or Owl had thrown a few grenades.
“This way!” Jaden shouted.
Alex saw the gap that the grenades had created. Owl and Jaden were savagely attacking the Twisted closest to the gap’s edges, delaying them as long as possible. Alex didn’t waste time communicating to her team; she just sprinted toward the gap, hoping they would follow.
She charged through the opening in the enemy line that Owl and Jaden had created, the other humans close at her heels. She stepped through the destroyed blast door and into the tunnel.
Dead Twisted littered the tunnel, as did the remains of ruined turrets. Up ahead, she saw a group of twenty shell-shocked humans taking on the two Twisted who’d managed to get past the turrets after they’d been destroyed. A Twisted sank its teeth into the neck of one of the humans and drank for a moment.
“They’re trying to turn them!” Alex shouted.
She raised her rifle, but Ed and Chuck were already on the case. They dropped the two Twisted in a quick burst of fire. Alex hesitated for a moment, then shot a burst of fire into the human from whom the Twisted had drunk. They couldn’t afford any more enemies.
Alex turned toward the tunnel entrance and saw that Jaden and Owl were inside now. And just beyond, an army of at least one hundred Twisted was gathering at the ruined blast door.
The GMT had made it into Agartha, but so had Maryana’s army.
36
“Concentrate your fire on the opening. Use quick bursts, and conserve ammo!” Alex shouted as she fired another round into the small opening in the outer blast door. The mass of Twisted just outside the entrance pressed forward, and it was all the GMT could do to slow their progress. If they made it to the confined space of the tunnel, they’d tear through the human soldiers.
Two Twisted charged through the entry. Alex put a bullet into the first one’s head, but her next round hit the other Twisted in the shoulder. The injured creature stumbled to the left side of the tunnel, and Ed tracked him with his rifle. Ed fired, but his shot missed too, hitting the side of the Twisted’s chest. He snarled and charged at Ed, clearing the distance so quickly that Ed didn’t even have time to fire again. Jaden leapt in front of Ed and removed the vampire’s head with his sword.
He turned to Alex. “Owl and I will finish any that make it through. Concentrate on the entrance!”
Felix threw a grenade into the hole in the blast door. The Twisted jumped back as the grenade exploded, but the pause was only momentary. They began crowding back into the opening while the sound of the explosion was still ringing in Alex’s ears.
As if Felix’s attack had given the Twisted the idea, three grenades flew through the opening and into the tunnel, toward the GMT. Alex dove to her right, tackling Chuck. Even before they hit the ground, Alex knew they weren’t far enough away to avoid the shrapnel. The way they were positioned, Ed and Felix would take the brunt of the blasts.
From the corner of her eye, she saw Owl race forward, snatching the grenades out of the air before they hit the ground. She continued charging forward, toward the blast door. She threw the first grenade back at the Twisted, then the second. She was throwing again when the third grenade exploded just as it left her hand.
“Owl!” Alex shouted.
The force of the blast sent her flying backwards. Jaden caught her and carried her back down the tunnel a ways before setting her on the ground, grimacing as he took in her injuries. Two fingers were missing from her right hand, and the right side of her face was charred and bleeding. Blood seeped through the tattered remains of her shirt and pants.
Alex tore her gaze away from her injured friend and focused on the blast door. A dozen Twisted had pushed through the opening. “Force them back!” she yelled, as she started to fire, trying to slow their progress. Ed, Chuck, and Felix quickly joined her, spraying the entrance with automatic fire. Still, the Twisted managed to press forward.
“Alex, we need to fall back!” Jaden shouted.
Alex didn’t take her eyes off the entrance. “What? Why?”
“I’ve got reinforcements on the way. This tunnel is going to be the last thing these Twisted ever see.” He pulled the radio off his belt. “Send them in. Now, George!” He dropped the radio and stepped forward even as the GMT fell back toward the other end of the tunnel.
The tunnel had been designed to allow large military transport vehicles, so it was thirty feet wide and at least as tall. As a battleground, it made Alex nervous. There wasn’t much in the way of cover, and the Twisted would be able to use their speed to their advantage. Though most of them carried pistols, the majority were charging, preferring to use their teeth and claws. Alex wondered if they were experiencing the same difficulty in accurately using firearms as Owl had.
“This is good,” Alex said, as they reached a place twenty yards from the interior opening of the tunnel. Concrete dividers stood two feet high, designed to guide the vehicles toward the end of the tunnel, and they made for perfect cover. “Hold position here. No Twisted gets past us, understand?”
“I’d prefer that no Twisted reach us,” Ed said, as he raised his rifle.
Crouching behind the concrete divider, Alex lost all sense of time as the battle consumed her. Twisted pushing through the opening were met with the GMT’s bullets and Jaden’s blades. Alex fired off rounds as quickly as her hands could squeeze the trigger, focusing on closer targets that had made it past the initial onslaught of automatic fire. The flashes from her barrels and the echoing explosions seemed to be coming from a hundred miles away. She watched as one of the Twisted rushed in and a bullet struck his abdomen. The creature staggered to the side, making way for his brethren. Alex put a bullet between his eyes. Two more Twisted pulled ahead of the pack, and one went right while the other dodged left. Alex targeted the one on the left, a female holding a shotgun. Alex fired, and a bullet went through her neck. Blood sprayed out of both the entry and exit wounds, but the woman managed to get a shot off as she fell. Alex felt something sting her shoulder, but she kept firing. The second shot finished the vampire.
Alex glanced at her shoulder and saw blood. She realized it must not be too bad, since she could still raise her arm.
Jaden rushed a Twisted who was staying close to the right side of the tunnel and had almost reached the GMT. The vampire soldier fired his 9mm pistol, but Jaden spun to the side and the bullet flew past his chest. He continued his motion and brought both swords around in an arc. The Twiste
d threw his arms up in a desperate attempt to stop the blades. The first sword sliced through his arms and the second went through his neck.
The team continued to fire, but the Twisted were pressing further into the tunnel. Alex knew the Agartha troops were lined up behind them in the room beyond the tunnel, but she also knew they had zero experience. If the vampires made it past the GMT, Agartha was in real trouble.
“Alex, I’m going to draw them to the left side,” Jaden said. Then he spoke in a loud voice. “Your master is nothing. I created her, and I’ll turn her to ash. If she ever has the stones to face me.”
The Twisted let out snarls and yells at that blasphemy. They charged, attacking Jaden on the left side of the tunnel. He danced with his blades. The first two enemies that reached him received twin stabs to the heart. As he pulled his swords back, a bullet struck his right leg, but he ignored it. Four more reached him, and he slashed a sword through one’s neck, while plunging his other blade through another Twisted’s heart. The third Twisted slammed into him, attempting to tackle him, but Jaden moved with the force of the blow and tossed the creature to the side. Before Jaden could attack again, a bullet hit his upper arm. The Twisted who’d shot him was about to fire again when its head exploded. Chuck didn’t pause before moving on to his next target.
The Twisted attacking Jaden had exposed their backs to the GMT, and the team was taking full advantage. Alex was in the zone, now. She was aware of every muscle in her body, and time seemed to be running at half speed. She targeted one Twisted one after another and each of her shots was true. She was aware that this was the peak of what she could do. The problem was, it wasn’t enough. More Twisted were charging through the tunnel. She heard a click from the gun in her right hand and quickly dropped the clip, slamming another into place.
Ed and Felix were spraying the Twisted near the entrance, doing their best to halt their progress. Chuck and Alex focused on the closer targets, taking them out before they got within striking distance of the team.