by R. D. Brady
The soldiers turned, their mouths opened in the facsimile of a smile. Two rows of teeth smiled back at him.
Greg backed away, pulling Alvie behind him. The soldier pulled out a black wand. Two prongs sprung from the end of it, lodging into Greg’s chest. Pain coursed through him as he dropped to his knees, his whole body feeling like it was on fire before he pitched forward.
Chapter Sixty-Two
Maeve knew they couldn’t stay hidden forever. She stayed near the doors, knowing that if one of those blasts hit the building, she would have to sprint out quickly. The building across the street had just come down in an avalanche of metal and debris. Dust covered the street for a moment, blocking her vision.
She gripped Snap to her, her whole body shaking. She didn’t know what to do. She didn’t know where to take Snap. She had no idea where any of the others were. Terror threatened to overwhelm her.
No, no. Focus. One thing at a time. Get yourself and Snap safe. That’s what Chris would tell you to do.
But she didn’t know how to do that. It was a war zone outside the door. And she knew it was only a matter of time before they were found. A figure walked through the fog of debris. Dust clung to his body.
Maeve pushed open the door. “Adam!”
Adam’s head turned before he ran over to her. “Are you all right?”
“Not hurt. Where’s everybody else?”
“I’m not sure. Let’s get you two out of here.”
On closer inspection, she noted that Adam’s clothes had been ripped and singed, but the skin underneath looked untouched. She had no time to think on it, though, because Adam pulled her out into the street, keeping himself in front of her.
They made their way quietly through the fighting, and Maeve realized they were heading toward the coast.
A scream rang through the air behind them. Maeve whirled around in time to see a soldier flying across the sky before slamming into a building.
When she turned back around, she nearly ran straight into Adam, who’d stopped still. She peeked around him at the group of six Draco that snarled at them from only ten feet away.
“Head to the water. Don’t stop for anything or anyone.”
“But—”
“No, Maeve. They want the hybrids. You can’t let them have them.” Adam launched himself at the group before Maeve could even respond.
Chapter Sixty-Three
Blood dripped into Chris’s eyes as he shook his head. He was buried under part of a building. His ribs ached, and his left hand wasn’t working quite properly. But he ignored all of that. “Pop? Crackle?”
They had been in his arms when the explosions had hit. Where were they?
Carefully, he shifted the debris above him, making sure that he wasn’t pushing it toward either of them. They were nowhere in sight. He pushed the last of the debris off and stood, frantically scanning the area, looking for any sign of them.
A bark had him whirling around. Grace, her coat slick with blood, dug frantically at the debris. Chris scrambled over the remains of the building to her side. He reached her, and she let out a deep growl, showing her teeth.
Chris reared back. “Grace.”
Grace launched past him as a Draco hurled itself through the air at Chris.
Chapter Sixty-Four
Maeve had seen Adam fight before, but she’d never seen anything like this. He moved between the Draco like they were standing still. Had it only been two or three, she had no doubt he would be victorious, but six was more than even he could handle. Before long, he was on the ground, the Draco on top of him.
Maeve gripped Snap as she sprinted away, feeling like a complete coward for not helping him. At the same time, she knew there was nothing she could do, and her responsibility was to keep Snap safe.
They want the hybrids.
Ahead, a group of Draco was making quick work of a group of soldiers. Maeve ducked down an alley in between the hangar and a maintenance shed. She burst out onto the street on the other side and then stopped short.
One of the human Draco stood with a group of five behind him. Snarls sounded from behind her. A quick glance showed that another five Draco had slipped into the alley behind her.
Pain lanced through her chest. She looked down. Two prongs were stuck in her chest, emitting electricity from some sort of wand the human-looking Draco held. Her blood felt like it was on fire. Her knees felt like water, and she crashed to the ground.
Snap let out a little cry. Unbidden, Maeve’s arms uncurled. Snap rolled to the ground.
No! Maeve tried to cry out, but her lips didn’t seem to want to work. Her body was no longer under her control as she fell to the ground, spasms racking her body before everything went dark.
Chapter Sixty-Five
Pain lanced through Chris’s side as the Draco’s nails penetrated his skin. He screamed as he crashed to the ground, the Draco on top of him.
Growling erupted from somewhere near his feet. The Draco lifted its weight to peer down at Grace, who had taken the back of its leg in her mouth. She held on, digging her teeth in. The Draco lifted up his foot to slam it into Grace, but Chris managed to shift his weight and fling the Draco to the side.
“Back, Grace,” Chris yelled as he got to his feet.
The Draco rolled quickly to its feet and let out a scream. Through its open mouth, Chris could see two rows of sharp teeth. Chris pulled his sidearm and pulled the trigger over and over and over again. The Draco grunted, but none of the bullets even damaged it skin.
Eyes and mouth, he reminded himself, remembering the conversation with Maeve. He shifted his aim higher and let loose again. But the Draco shifted to the side and barreled straight at him.
Chris waited to the last second as the Draco dropped his shoulders to go for the takedown. Twisting to the side, he grabbed the back of the Draco’s head and flung it to the ground. It skidded three feet before coming to stop with a snarl.
It rolled back to its feet, turning toward Chris incredibly fast. But Chris was ready. As soon as it opened its mouth to scream, Chris pulled the trigger. Three shots hit the back of its mouth. It stopped, its mouth hanging open, staring in wide-eyed disbelief at Chris before it crashed to the ground.
Chris’s heart pounded as he stared at the Draco, making sure that it was down for good. But the shots through its mouth had come out the back of its head. It would not be getting up again.
Grace limped over to him. Chris reached down and pet her. “Good girl.”
Two more Draco sprinted between two buildings toward him. Chris straightened. He released the magazine before slamming in a new one and taking aim, knowing that there were undeniably more coming behind these two.
And all the while, in the back of his mind, he worried about his little family. Be safe, Maeve.
But that was all the time he had to think, because the Draco were on him, and now it was time to fight.
Chapter Sixty-Six
Explosions and gunfire sounded in the distance. Sandra lay facedown in the street. Her cheek throbbed, as did her back and hands. Even recognizing the danger, it took her a minute to gather her senses. And when she did, she stumbled to her feet. “Luke?”
She leaned heavily to the side and grabbed a jeep turned on its side for support. She scanned the area. A body lay behind her against the building. She made her way over, dropping heavily to her knees. “Norah?” She reached out, grabbing Norah’s shoulder.
Norah groaned and rolled to her side. “Ouch.”
Sandra examined Norah. She had a ton of scrapes and bruises. Her clothes were ripped and torn in places, but she didn’t see any obvious life-threatening injuries. “What hurts?”
Norah sat up slowly. “I think it would be easier to catalog what doesn’t. And right now that seems to be my small left toe.”
Norah struggled to stand. Sandra helped her to her feet.
“I need to find Luke,” Sandra said as soon as Norah was on her feet.
“Iggy!” Norah yelled.
But there was no response.
A Draco appeared at the end of the lane. Sandra tensed, scanning for anything she could use as a weapon, even while knowing how useless it would be to fight this thing.
The Draco stopped, tilted its head as it inspected the two women. Then it turned and ran toward the coast.
More creatures appeared, following the first. They were all heading in the same direction—away from the buildings.
Norah stared after the creature. “I think they’re leaving.”
Norah and Sandra exchanged a glance before hurrying toward the end of the road. A group of soldiers was following behind the Draco, weapons at the ready but not firing. Norah grabbed one of the men. “What’s going on?”
“They’re leaving. They’re all leaving.”
“Did we win?” Sandra asked.
The man shook his head. “No. We were losing. I don’t understand.”
“They left because they got what they came for.”
Norah looked up as a man walked toward them. She recognized him as the Secret Service agent, Mike. “What do you mean they got what they came for? What did they want?”
Mike turned to the group of soldiers. “Make sure they all leave the island and then help look for survivors.”
The soldier nodded before following the Draco who were already out of sight, heading toward the coast.
Mike turned to Sandra and Norah. Something in his face caused Sandra to reach out and grab Norah’s hand. “The Draco, they didn’t come just for destruction. We think that was just a side effect. They were looking for certain individuals. They took them with them.”
Sandra swallowed, her mouth suddenly dry. “Who? Who did they take?”
“I’m sorry. Luke was one of the ones they took, and so was Iggy.”
Chapter Sixty-Seven
One second, Chris was fighting for his life, and the next, the Draco raised its head as if hearing some sort of signal, and it took off. Chris sat up, blood leaking from where the first Draco had impaled him with its nails. More scratches and cuts were across his torso and his upper shoulder.
Dawn was just cresting across the sky, providing enough light to see the Draco disappearing over the hill. What was going on? Why were they leaving?
He got slowly to his feet. To his right, Grace lay panting on her side, blood covering her fur. Chris moved toward her. She gave a lazy wag of her tail but didn’t move otherwise.
Chris slipped his arms underneath her and pulled her to his chest, stumbling a little under her weight and wincing as her body came in contact with some of his own cuts. He walked to where he’d first seen her when this had all began and gently set her down.
Then he started to clear the debris from where Grace had been digging. He moved as quickly as he could manage without dislodging the debris and sending more cascading inside. After three minutes, he saw a small foot. His heart nearly jumped out of his chest, and he had to keep from flinging everything to the side and potentially damaging them more. Another few pieces removed, and he saw Pop.
He had large gashes in his chest. His eyes were closed, red marks along his skull. His hand was still buried, and Chris pulled it out, realizing it was clasping Crackle’s hand. He quickly removed more of the debris to unveil Crackle. Crackle had a deep cut on his head. And his knee was at an unnatural angle. Both were breathing, but Crackle’s breathing was coming out like a wheeze.
“No, no, no, no.” Gently, Chris pulled Pop from the rubble, his heart breaking as he unclenched Pop’s hand from Crackle’s. He laid Pop down next to Grace and then picked up Crackle.
Movement flickered near the corner of his eye. He whirled around, but it was only Norah and Sandra stumbling into view. Chris looked behind them, but there was no one else.
From their faces, he could tell that something horrible had happened to both Iggy and Luke, but it didn’t stop him from speaking. “Help me. Please help me.”
Chapter Sixty-Eight
The small creature felt so light in Sandra’s arms. This one was called Crackle. The large gash on his head was still bleeding, soaking the makeshift bandage they had wrapped around its head. She was surprised to see the blood was red.
She had expected green.
Its little chest rose and fell, but she could hear the wheezing. If he were pure human, she would’ve thought he had a collapsed lung. Perhaps their anatomy was the same.
She hadn’t spent much time with the triplets, as they were called, but she knew how much Maeve and Chris cared for them. They were their children in every sense of the word. And Luke really liked them as well. He considered them friends.
Pain, this time emotional and therefore more searing, punched her in the chest. Luke. She pictured his terrified face, heard his scream again in her mind.
She hadn’t been able to protect him. She hadn’t been able to save him. Those things had him now. She shoved the thoughts aside, knowing that once she fully embraced the reality, she was going to completely lose it.
But this little guy in her arms needed her to keep it together until they reached the medical ward. Chris was ahead of her, blood dripping down his side. He ignored it, focused entirely on getting his kids help.
Next to her, Norah held Grace. The poor dog’s breaths were stuttered, her coat slick with blood. Sandra didn’t know if she would make it. She didn’t know if any of them would make it.
A soldier held open the door to the medical unit, which was blessedly still intact. Apparently the attacks by the Draco had been random, with no strategy in mind. Or else they would have taken out the medical unit to make sure that the damage was complete.
Sandra stepped past the soldier and into the hall, her footfalls lost in the noise of all of the other ones in the hall. The place was packed. Soldiers and staff lined the hall, all with different injuries. Other less wounded soldiers tended to them, moving from person to person. A scream sounded from down the hall and then was cut off.
Sandra shivered, not sure if it was from what was in front of her or a ghost of times past. The whole situation reminded her of Afghanistan.
It was not a good reminder.
Chris ignored all of it. He wasn’t waiting in line to help his kids. He stepped into the door of the room down the hall, its light spilling into the hallway. Sandra stepped through a few seconds later, unsurprised to see it was the main medical unit.
Jasper looked up from where he was helping a soldier onto a bed. His face paled as he took in the hybrids in Chris’s and Sandra’s arms. He grabbed the doctor at the next bunk, who was leaning over an unconscious patient, and dragged him over to the door.
“Jasper, I have patients who need—”
Jasper cut the doctor off. “These two come first.”
The doctor turned and finally got a look at who Jasper was referring to. He went still, and then he was barking out orders. In a flash, stretchers rolled toward them. Chris gently placed Pop on one as Sandra carefully placed Crackle on the other.
They looked so small in the middle of those large stretchers, so fragile. They were wheeled to the end of the ward. Three people surrounded each stretcher, working quickly to attach lines, assess, and peel back makeshift bandages to determine the damage.
Sandra stood, unsure what to do, unsure where to go.
“Help me.” Norah walked past Sandra, bumping her shoulder to get her moving.
Norah found an empty bed and placed Grace upon it. A soldier walked up, shaking his head. “You can’t put her there. She needs to—”
Norah snarled at the soldier. The man backed up, his hands raised. “Okay, okay.”
Norah grabbed a stack of bandages that were next to the bed. She handed them to Sandra. “Place these on her wounds.”
Sandra grabbed them quickly, placing them on the dog’s chest. They quickly soaked up the blood, and she replaced them. Norah rifled through the tray next to the bed and then underneath it, coming back with a scalpel and a tube.
Sandra watched in fascination as Norah made
a small incision along Grace’s chest. Then she reached in with her finger, feeling around. Nodding her head, she inserted the tube before packing the incision with more gauze.
Sandra watched the dog’s chest, noting that her breathing was coming easier. “How did you know how to do that?”
“I saw a lot in Afghanistan. The canine units were incredible. When one of them was injured, it was all hands on deck.” Norah stepped back and wiped her hands on the bottom of her shirt, not caring about the blood. “Let’s see if we can help anywhere else.”
Sandra nodded her agreement. She needed to do something. If she was left alone with her thoughts right now, she was going to break down. It was too much in too short a time period.
The medical ward went silent. Sandra stared at Norah, who was looking toward the entrance, her mouth hanging open. Sandra turned around slowly.
Adam stood at the entryway, Tilda in his arms, covered in blood.
Chapter Sixty-Nine
Chris felt completely helpless. A team of doctors and nurses worked on Crackle and Pop furiously. But from the way they were talking and gesturing, he could tell that things were not going well.
Someone had come along and placed a pressure bandage on his own wound. He barely felt it, his focus completely on the two little ones struggling for life in front of him.
Tilda lay in the bed across from Pop and Crackle. Another team worked just as ferociously on her. Adam stood silently off to the side, not moving. No one asked him to get out of the way. No one dared. The look on his face made it very clear that he wasn’t going anywhere.
Chris wiped his forehead and then looked down at his hand, which was covered in blood. He wasn’t sure whose it was. It could’ve been his for all he knew.
