A streak of blood led X to the man’s other half. A pair of the crab creatures had dragged him into a shattered storefront, where they were still picking flesh from his bones.
Bromista raised his crossbow, but X waved him down.
There was nothing they could do for the poor bastard now, and firing could draw attention to their position. He lowered his gun and motioned for Bromista and Miles to keep going.
The dog took the easiest path up the skirt of rubble, toward the supply crate sitting on the crest. The chute, still connected by its lines, rippled in the wind on the eastern side.
Martin and Slayer helped General Forge over to the bottom of the mound, keeping under the awning provided by a long concrete slab.
“I’ll go get the boosters,” Martin said.
X started to go with him, but Slayer held him back.
“I’ll go, too,” he said. “Stay with General Forge.”
Crouching next to the general, X watched the two men start up the hill. Bromista stood guard.
Slayer and Martin were halfway up the rubble heap when the heavy thump of artillery sounded from the beach. X looked in that direction to see several shells bursting in ruined structures that lined the shore.
“Good thinking, Captain Two Skulls,” X said. “He’s giving us some cover—and a distraction.”
The ground rumbled with the impacts. The distant but unmistakable bark of .50-caliber machine guns joined in. X loved and hated the noise. It was the last of their ammunition, shells, and rockets. But munitions weren’t worth saving if no one was alive to use them.
They would replenish their ammo later. Right now saving lives mattered more.
“Hang on,” X said to General Forge. “Just a little longer.”
Looking through the general’s protective visor, X saw the pain in his gaze. With the adrenaline wearing off now, he had to be living in a world of pain, probably worse than anything X had ever known in the wastes.
A strong tremor shook the ground, and X stood up to get a better view of the mound. Martin was nearing the crest, with Slayer right behind him.
The shakes grew more powerful. Closer, one after the other, like something walking. And they didn’t seem to line up with the artillery impacts.
This was something else . . .
Miles growled and moved out from under the concrete awning.
“Get back,” X said. “Miles, get—”
Another tremor rumbled across the ravine, and Miles bolted back behind X, cowering in fear. The dog was old, but he wasn’t one to cower.
X bumped on the comm channel.
“Martin, Slayer, hurry your asses up,” he said. “We need to get the hell out of here.”
* * * * *
“Ada fell. Oh, shit, oh God, she . . . !”
Magnolia rushed away from the canal, her boots slurping in the mud, the last transmission from Kade playing in her mind. She checked her HUD for the tenth time. It kept showing that Ada’s beacon had winked off.
It wasn’t coming back on.
Ada was gone. There was no denying it now, and nothing Magnolia could do. She had to keep her team alive and rendezvous with Team Wrangler.
They weren’t far from the location where Ada fell. Magnolia ran faster, panting, hot breath fogging her helmet. Ahead, on point, Edgar led the way, with Sofia and Arlo sticking back next to Yejun. They advanced down into the industrial zone. The stern of a buried ship poked out of the ground, offering a useful vantage point.
Edgar climbed to the top and Magnolia joined him there, scanning the area beyond for shipping containers. Some stuck out of the dirt at odd angles, leaning like tombstones in a ruined churchyard.
The distant thump of explosions echoed in the ongoing battle between the Vanguard army and the beasts that prowled the city’s edges.
Soon the divers would be close enough to hear the radio transmissions. She had no idea what was happening out there, only that the battle still raged.
Her heart pounded with worry, but she focused back on the closest thing to her, something she could do something about: the divers, and making sure no one else died.
Edgar pointed west, at a crater just beyond the farthest container.
“There,” he said. “That’s where Team Wrangler is waiting.”
It was maybe a half mile away, but the lumpy ground was riddled with holes. Halos of pushed-up dirt marked the vertical shafts. It looked as if an army of crazed giant gophers had invaded.
Magnolia couldn’t risk crossing with her full team until she knew if they were active.
“You all stay here and watch Yejun,” she said. “I’ll go find out what the hell is going on.”
“Don’t go alone. I’ll come,” Arlo offered.
“I will, too,” said Sofia. “You can’t go alone.”
“I’ll take Arlo,” Magnolia said.
“But . . .”
“Stay here with Yejun and Edgar,” Magnolia said.
She waited until she was sure Sofia had accepted the order and backed down.
Magnolia nodded to Arlo. “Run fast, and stay close to me,” she said.
“Like thunder after lightning, baby,” he replied.
She took off down the hill, keeping her rifle in both hands and tucked against her chest, not bothering to clear the area first. She ran hard, hopping over obstacles and sliding in the mud, but never quite falling.
By the time she cleared the containers, she was breathing heavily again, and sweat dripped down her brow. She ran up another slope, slipping in the mud. Pushing herself up, she fought her way to the top.
At the crest, she could see the crater. One diver crouched next to another figure that appeared to be on its back. Magnolia identified Gran Jefe and Tia on her HUD, but Kade was farther away according to his beacon—maybe even underground. From here, it was too hard to tell.
Arlo finally caught up, and Magnolia hand-signaled to advance. They ran side by side to the crater rim.
“Gran Jefe,” Magnolia said in a raised voice.
The big man turned with his rifle and rose to his feet.
“Commander Katib,” he said in an almost formal tone.
“What happened?” Magnolia said.
She bent down next to Tia, who was alive but unconscious. Arlo knelt and opened his medical pack.
Gran Jefe looked at Tia but said nothing.
“Gran Jefe,” Magnolia said, “tell me what happened, and where is—”
“Cowboy down there,” Gran Jefe said, stepping to the edge and pointing over the side.
Magnolia couldn’t see the bottom of the hole, even with her night-
vision goggles. She bumped off the optics and switched to her lights.
Kade and Ada were not in sight, and neither was Jo-Jo.
“Where are Ada, Kade, and Jo-Jo?” Magnolia asked.
Gran Jefe explained about the snakes attacking him and the others while Kade was topside. Tia had been injured, and they had gotten her up here.
“Ada fell,” he said. “Un monstruo—he snap her rope.”
He moved his fingers in a scissor motion.
“Cut, cut,” he said. “Cowboy went down, pero las serpientes—the snake—they come back. I stay here, to see Tia.”
Magnolia looked down again, flitting her light over the walls. She didn’t see any of the beasts down there.
“Tell Edgar and Sofia to bring Yejun here and that the way is clear, but to proceed with caution,” she said. “Then tell Captain Rolo to prepare for our retrieval.”
“Okay, but, Mags,” Arlo said.
He reached out when she turned.
“Be careful,” he said. “We can’t afford to lose—”
“This isn’t how I die.” She flipped open the holster to her blaster then grabbed the rope Kade had used to rappel do
wn the shaft. She secured it to her rappel device and backed toward the edge, directing her light toward the ribbed vertical walls, and started down.
Nothing moved in the many small openings she passed, and she didn’t hear any skittering or clanking, either. She avoided the holes in the wall, angling her light at each, but the beasts seemed to have fled after killing Ada.
On her HUD, Kade’s beacon had stopped moving. He was still alive and somewhere down here, closer now.
She maneuvered carefully the rest of the way down, boots kicking lightly off the wall until they hit the ground. After unclipping from the rope, she unslung her rifle. Turning on the light, she swept it around the space.
A collapsed wall partially obstructed the way out of this tunnel. She climbed up the loose earth, her boot squishing over the carcass of a dead snake. Flaps of skin and meat littered the ground around burn marks from lasers.
Other sinuous bodies were hacked apart, their meaty lengths curled up and strewn about, some still trying to crawl.
Reaching over her back, she drew a curved blade and set off with the sickle in one hand and her rifle in the other. At the top of the mound, she shined her light down the tunnel the divers had used to access the huge shaft she just descended.
The walls seemed to shiver.
She swept her light until she captured moving bulges snaking across the surface. Dust and grit cascaded down the sides as something moved within the walls.
She didn’t dare move. Hoping they didn’t know she was here, she aimed her rifle at one of the bulges, but the monsters remained inside their lairs.
Magnolia slide-stepped down the mound and into the long tunnel, where immediately she saw a glow at the other end. She crouched down and shut off her lights.
The light surrounded a humanoid figure at the other end.
She sheathed her blade and put both hands on the rifle, holding it steady. With her finger on the trigger guard, she sighted up the target.
At first, she couldn’t tell who or what it was—only that it was holding something in one hand and seemed to be moving slowly.
The center of this figure glowed, just like the creatures on the ship, but as it got closer she confirmed that it wasn’t a radioactive beast.
This was a Hell Diver, with a battery unit glowing over the chest.
“Kade,” she said quietly.
Magnolia checked the walls again. Not seeing any fresh activity, she started down the tunnel toward Kade. He kept walking toward her, seeming not to even notice her until she turned on her headlamp.
Raising a hand, he motioned to shut it off. She did as instructed, and only the light from their battery units burned in the Stygian blackness.
“Commander,” Kade said in a sad whisper.
“Where’s Ada?” she asked. “And where’s Jo-Jo?”
Kade held up a cracked helmet between them.
“This is all I found besides Cricket,” he said. “Jo-Jo must have dragged Ada away.”
Magnolia looked down the tunnel the way he had come. But once again they couldn’t risk the lives of the other divers for Jo-Jo. They had no choice but to leave her.
“Come on, we need to get in the sky,” Magnolia said.
They slogged back up the mound of collapsed dirt, watching the walls and ground for more of the snake creatures. A rattling noise echoed behind them, and they ran the rest of the way to the fixed rope hanging down the vertical shaft.
“Go first,” she said.
Kade mounted both his jumars on the rope, stepped into the leg loop, and started up. At the top, he shook the rope to signal Magnolia, and she clipped in with her ascenders and started up, nervously watching the cave openings in the wall.
A single T-shaped head broke through the ground, and lovely pink petals opened around a toothy jaw. She considered blowing it to bits, but she didn’t want to slow down.
At the top, the rest of Team Raptor stood there around Gran Jefe and Tia. She was sitting up now, and Arlo was holding up fingers.
“Ada?” Edgar asked.
“She didn’t make it, and Jo-Jo is long gone,” Magnolia said. “We have to get back to the airship.”
Edgar crouched in front of her with his rifle.
“We just heard a partial transmission from the army,” he said.
“And?” Magnolia asked.
“They are retreating to the ships,” he said. “They are losing the fight.”
Turning her head toward the battle, now she heard only the sporadic faint thump of explosions.
“We should help them,” Sofia said.
Gran Jefe nodded. “We must.”
Magnolia couldn’t believe what she was about to say, but it really was the right call.
“We have to complete our mission,” she said. “That means getting to the Vanguard with the maps.”
“For Ada, and Jo-Jo!” she said.
Everyone shouted in unison—except for Gran Jefe, who merely mumbled the words.
Thirty-Three
“Martin! Slayer!” X yelled.
A deformed face with bulbous eyes and a broken beak emerged over the hilltop. Frayed wings hung over the thick hide as the monster rose up on limbs and pincer claws. Both soldiers turned from the supply crate with booster packs in their hands and stared up at the biggest terrestrial monster either man had ever seen.
Slayer backed away and fell, sliding and rolling several yards down the slope, but Martin just stood frozen.
“run!” X shouted.
The cracked beak opened, releasing a gout of blood from the gaping wound to the face. Then the beast grabbed Martin. Before it could swallow him whole, a bolt with an explosive head streaked into the open maw.
Bromista had run out in front of X and was already loading another bolt when the first exploded. The beast roared, then reached down with a pincer claw as Bromista seated the next bolt.
“Bromista!” X yelled.
The soldier looked up just as the pincer claw scythed across, slicing his legs off below the knees. He collapsed to the ground, screaming in horror beside his severed limbs.
The creature skidded down the mountain of rubble, breaking a concrete slab under its weight.
X helped Forge to his feet as Slayer hopped down the cascading pile of loose debris. Dust billowed up into the air, and the Barracuda soldier vanished in the cloud.
The wave of dust slammed into X and Forge as they lurched toward another destroyed building. The force knocked them off their feet, but X managed to pull them to shelter inside the front of an old eatery littered with dusty furniture.
X crouched and opened the command channel to the Immortal.
“Captain, I want you to direct your fire at my position on my command,” X said into his headset. “And don’t fucking question it—just do it.”
“Aye, aye, sir,” Captain Two Skulls replied.
A shout came from outside, and X looked out to see a figure covered in dust, dragging something.
X stepped out when he realized it was Slayer, pulling Bromista by his armor.
“In here!” X said, waving.
The Cazador stopped, turned, and limped over to X, who helped pull an unconscious Bromista inside. He still had a weak pulse, but they had to stop the bleeding.
Slayer dropped two boosters to the ground and then opened his medical pack.
“I’m sorry, I dropped the other boosters, but they are out there,” Slayer said.
X bent down to help him get tourniquets on Bromista’s legs.
In moments, they had made tourniquets of some rope and a length of nylon webbing and had shut down the bleeding. Now they were packing gauze around the stumps as Bromista groaned.
Down the street, the abomination slid into the ravine, screeching in search of them.
Miles was at the back of the room, and X
saw why: the dog had located an exit door. They took it into a very unstable-looking ground floor of a building with a half-collapsed roof.
“Get the general into the sky, and take the other booster,” Slayer said. “I’ll stay with Bromista.”
X took one and helped put it on Forge, who was slumping over.
“Don’t close your eyes, General,” X said.
He finished putting on the pack and turned to Slayer.
“You take Bromista,” X said. “I’ll take my chances with Miles on the ground.”
“No way, sir,” Slayer argued. “You are more important than I am.”
“All you need to know is that I outrank you, soldier, and that I gave you an order. Your job is to save Bromista and yourself, and make sure Forge gets safely to the ship.”
“All due respect, but following that order would make me a coward. Besides, sir, I’m faster than you, and you’re going to need a distraction or we’re all dead.”
Another screech rang out, loud enough to hurt X’s ears. The beast scrambled out of the ravine. This was their chance to recover the other boosters.
X spent a moment that he didn’t really have, looking at the injured soldiers and realizing this was all his fault.
“Take off your armor and get in the fucking sky, Sergeant,” X said firmly. “I won’t ask you again. I’ll try and get to the other boosters.”
Before X could stop him, Slayer got up and took off outside.
“Damn son of a . . .” X grumbled.
He didn’t know what to do, so he simply used his good hand to finish dressing Bromista’s right stump.
Miles returned, growling.
“I know, I know, we’re getting out of here,” X said.
He picked up his laser rifle and stepped outside to search for Slayer. He was surprised to see the sergeant running back now with two boosters.
But he wasn’t out of the woods yet.
The many-eyed face of the injured beast rose above the ravine. It let out a shriek as it climbed up onto a building, crushing the floor and stabbing at Slayer with a pincer bigger than he was.
Hell Divers Series | Book 8 | King of the Wastes Page 43