by Jake Bible
“Tell Ms. Chin we can give her and Zach thirty minutes,” Amanda said to Mike as she followed Cash and started gearing up for a big fight. “Not going to be much of a buffer though.”
“Okay,” Mike said. “I’ll make them work as fast as I can.”
“You need an extra body?” Olivia asked. “I can shoot.”
“I have a better idea,” Cash said and nodded at a stack of small cases. “How’s your throwing arm?”
Eleven
Amanda took point with Cash second, Olivia in the middle, and Ivy taking up the rear. Elvis had tried to follow, but Cash told him to stay or no treats. Not that Cash had any of Elvis’s favorite treats on hand, but the dino took the threat to heart and sat down heavily then sulked.
All of the operators had .338s to their shoulders, with plenty of extra ten-round magazines on their belts. Cash had an RPG launcher strapped to his back with two RPGs sticking up from an attached pack, as well as one RPG already loaded into the launcher, weighing him down. He felt the added weight, but didn’t really acknowledge it. There’d be time to let his body feel the brunt of the day’s insanity later.
Olivia held the scanner and swept it back and forth like a whip. Ivy reached out and tapped her shoulder.
“Slow, even sweeps, Liv,” Ivy whispered. “Better scans that way.”
Olivia frowned and nodded, slowing down her movements. Ivy patted her on the shoulder then reached forward to show her a thumbs up. Olivia nodded again.
The group made their way past destroyed combots, smoldering dino corpses, smoldering human corpses, and the ruins of buildings that had served TI personnel and civilian tourists. As they crossed through the center of the base, Cash couldn’t help but chuckle under his breath at the sight of the massive gift shop that Tressa had insisted be built despite their being a mass limit with travel to and from Flipside. A stuffed dino, no matter the species, cost hundreds of dollars, but people bought them so they could brag they went Flipside and came back with a plush T-rex.
The building was a mess, but somewhat intact. A huge display T-rex stood a few feet back from a shattered window, half its body a scorched mess just like everything else. Cash stopped chuckling as his thoughts turned to the last civilian tour that had come through Flipside FOB.
“We got something,” Olivia said a little too loudly. She cringed and lowered her voice. “Sorry. But we got something.”
Amanda held up a fist and the group stopped. Olivia shoved the scanner forward so Cash could see. He turned, studied the reading, then looked about the base. Amanda caught his eye and he shook his head. Then he checked the reading again and saw where to look. Cash pointed up then waved his hand for everyone to slowly, cautiously, start moving sideways toward the gift shop for cover.
The group made it inside the building’s entrance as a small flock of pterosaurs swooped by, heading in the direction of the radio tower.
“Mike? Let Ms. Chin know that they have incoming,” Amanda whispered into the radio handset clipped to her left shoulder. Still no base-wide comms, so they were going old school. “Click once for acknowledgment.”
There was an audible click and Amanda nodded to the others.
Everyone except Olivia started moving away from the gift shop entryway. Cash paused and started to reach for her, but she’d knelt down to pick up a torn and bloody T-shirt. It was not one of the shirts from the gift shop, but a Kelly green shirt with yellow lettering across it. Olivia stood back up and turned to face Cash, tears welling in her eyes.
“This is Astrid’s,” she said, again too loudly.
Cash put a finger to his lips and she shook her head violently.
“Did you not hear me?” she snapped. “This was Astrid’s! This was my wife’s shirt!”
“Maybe someone had one like it,” Cash said, holding up his hand and patting the air for her to quiet down.
“Liv, we searched this building before,” Ivy said. “How did we not find it?”
Olivia shrugged and looked about the gift shop. “I don’t know,” she snarled. “This…this pile of crap wasn’t here before.”
“Probably was uncovered after all of today’s chaos,” Cash said.
“Ms. Herndon?” Amanda said. “Olivia? That very well may be your wife’s T-shirt, but right now, we can’t focus on that. We have to move to the southeast gate and hold off a herd of teeth that are heading our way. If we let them get inside the fence line, then you’ll never know what happened to her. Because we’ll be dead. Okay?”
Olivia glanced at the T-shirt clutched in her hands. “Can I take this with me?”
“Of course,” Amanda said.
“Give it here, Liv,” Ivy said. “I’ll put it in my pack.”
“Thank you,” Olivia said and handed it over. “Sorry.”
“No sorry needed,” Ivy said. The two women smiled at each other. It was a smile that said they’d shared pain that every soldier in the world would recognize.
“No sorries needed, but some hustle is,” Cash said. “We can’t hide from wingers anymore. We need to run and gun our way to the southeast gate.”
“Copy that,” Amanda said.
She took off at a steady jog and Cash fell in line. Ivy gave Olivia a pat and the two women followed closely. The group jogged quickly away from the broken gift shop and turned southeast at the corner of the building. The frames of the far-off gate could just be made out in the distance.
***
“Dark blue wires!” Mike shouted into the radio, his eyes closed and head resting back against the wall of the armory as he sat with his knees bunched up and sweat pouring down his face. “Dark blue, Zach. Dark blue.”
“Yeah, well, hard to tell the difference between dark blue and black in this fucking light,” Zach’s voice replied. “Working in an upside-down crawler’s cockpit isn’t exactly making this job easy.”
“Move into the cargo hold,” Mike said. “Spread out.” Then he rubbed his forehead. “Nope. Sorry. Wingers. Forgot. Stay put.”
“Yeah, we are,” Zach snapped.
“Let me know when you find the dark blue wire,” Mike said.
He placed the radio handset in his lap and opened his eyes. Tressa was still tending to Thompson, who did not look so hot. Dr. Raskov was eyeing them as well then slowly turned his head to catch Mike’s gaze. They shared a knowing and pained look. Dr. Raskov nodded and crawled over to Thompson and Tressa.
“Found it,” Zach’s voice said.
“Great. Great,” Mike replied. “Alright, follow that wire to its terminal. Let me know when—”
“Got it, what else?” Zach asked.
“Gently, and I am not fucking around here, dude,” Mike said. “Gently pull the wire free of the terminal. Then take the yellow wire and insert it there.”
There were a few seconds of silence. “The yellow wire won’t fit.”
“Yes, the yellow wire will fit,” Mike insisted. “You have to be forceful, but it will fit.”
A few more seconds of silence. “Nope. Can’t get it to fit.”
“You do not have a fucking choice, dude!” Mike shouted. “Make it fit!”
“Mike. Chill,” Haskins called over his shoulder from his position at the armory doors.
“Sorry. Sorry,” Mike said into the radio. “Zach? Listen to me. It will fit. Make it fit.”
More silence. Way longer than Mike would have liked.
“Got it,” Zach finally responded. “Now what?”
There was some shouting from Barbara before Zach let go of the transmit button.
“Zach? What’s going on?” Mike asked. “Talk to me, dude.”
“The robot thingies are climbing the tower and everything is shaking. Bad, man,” Zach replied.
“Okay, that sucks, but you can’t let it slow you down,” Mike said. “Keep working.”
“What’s next?” Zach asked.
“Put that power pack into the stun thumper and grab another. You’ll need three, at least,” Mike said.
&nb
sp; “Three? Yeah, sure, three…”
“Do not press the trigger when you put that power pack in the thumper,” Mike said. “The second you press that trigger, you only have seconds before the power pack overloads and goes all EMP on your ass, dude.”
“Yeah, you already told me that a few times, man,” Zach said.
“And I’m telling it to you again,” Mike said. He sighed. “Grab another power pack and I’ll walk you through it one more time.”
“I have one ready,” Zach said. “Go.”
Tressa and Dr. Raskov were talking in hushed tones, but Mike had a feeling he knew exactly what they were talking about. A couple of them had gone through what the old man was going through as soon as they had arrived.
“Tressa?” Mike asked.
“He’ll be fine,” Tressa replied. “We just need to get out of here and to the infirmary.”
“I thought we had injectors in my pack, but there aren’t any left,” Dr. Raskov said. “That was one oversight on my part.”
“We’ve been a little busy, Doc,” Haskins said. “Don’t blame yourself.”
He glanced over his shoulder and his frown was deeper than his normal frown he wore.
“But we do have an issue with the infirmary,” he said.
“What’s that?” Tressa asked.
“It’s not there anymore,” Haskins replied. “One of the transport drones landed right on it. I saw it as we made our way here.”
“And you didn’t say anything?” Dr. Raskov asked.
“A little busy, Doc, remember?” Haskins replied.
“We might have more in the cellar,” Tressa said. “Can he wait or do we need to go get some?”
“He’ll have to wait,” Haskins said. “No arguing. We have teeth on the way, combots still out there, and wingers everywhere. Our best operators are heading to the southeast gate and I only have one fucking arm. We wait.”
Tressa glared at Haskins’ back then turned to Dr. Raskov.
“He’ll make it,” Dr. Raskov said, looking slightly guilty. “Remember when we first got here? Olivia had that fever for days and pulled through before we knew what was going on.”
“Olivia is decades younger than my father,” Tressa said.
“Your dad got all the inoculations that we did,” Mike said. “It’s just taking longer to kick in, that’s all.”
“Not the latest round,” Thompson muttered. “I was going to get them here when we landed.”
“Dammit, Dad!” Tressa yelled then calmed down as she got harsh looks from everyone in the armory. “Sorry.” Tressa looked up at the ceiling and shook her head. “Only you could override medical protocols and not get the required, let me say that again, required inoculations.”
“Blame me,” Dr. Raskov said. “I signed off on him skipping them since I knew the versions here Flipside would be more up-to-date. It had been a year and every year we have to change the formula due to environmental mutations.”
“Doctor’s orders,” Thompson rasped.
“Doc?” Tressa asked.
“He’ll make it,” Dr. Raskov said. “I don’t even know if he’s picked up a bug or not. Could simply be he’s weak from being wounded. A man his age is not going to bounce back like everyone else.”
“Man his age,” Thompson mumbled. “I’ll kick your ass…”
Thompson’s eyes closed and Tressa almost panicked, but Dr. Raskov grabbed her arm and gave her a smile.
“His pulse is steady,” he said, trying to soothe Tressa. “Not strong, but steady. Steady is good.”
“Steady is good,” Tressa echoed as if it was a mantra. “Steady is good.”
***
“Slow and steady will not win this fucking race!” Cash shouted as he aimed his .338 up at the huge winger that was diving straight for him. He squeezed the trigger and most of the pterosaur’s head disappeared in an explosion of skull and blood. “Move, people! Move!”
Cash was running full out, trying to keep an eye on the sky as well as an eye on the others. It was proving difficult as more and more pterosaurs began to dive bomb them, toothed beaks wide open and claws outstretched.
Amanda ducked under a swoop of one of the smaller pterosaurs and put a round in its belly as she aimed up and fired. Hot blood and intestines spilled down over her shoulders as she dove and rolled out of the way of the falling body.
With Olivia sprinting ahead of her, Ivy spun around and took out three wingers as they came for the two women. Two of the three heads exploded from perfect shots while the third pterosaur lost most of its right wing as the bullet ripped into flesh and shattered bone. That one hit the ground and half-rolled, half-skidded to a stop almost at Ivy’s feet. She stomped her boot on the creature’s skull then spun back and raced to catch up with Olivia.
“Should we tell them now?” Olivia asked as she glanced over her shoulder at Ivy. “They need to know.”
“What? They have to already know,” Ivy replied. “There’s no way not to know.”
“There are lots of ways not to know!” Olivia yelled. “Look around!”
“Down!” Cash shouted from their left.
Both women dove to the ground as Cash fired off six shots then ejected his magazine and slapped in a fresh one. He charged the rifle and fired again.
“Clear!” he yelled as he ran to Ivy and helped her up then did the same for Olivia. “Now, what’s this shit you’re yelling?”
Olivia looked over at the dead wingers that Cash had taken out then looked at Ivy.
“You tell him,” Olivia said.
“Keep moving!” Amanda yelled as she raced past them. “Come on!”
“Tell me what?” Cash asked as all of them followed Amanda toward the southeast gate which was only a few yards away. “Oh…”
Amanda pulled up short when she reached the gate. Cash joined her and the two of them looked up and down the fence line. The fence should have been close to one hundred feet high and two feet thick with razor wire and electric wire twisting in and around long, metal spikes. Some of the fence was like that, the parts that were still standing.
The rest of the fence was just like the rest of the base: rubble.
Amanda and Cash turned to face Ivy and Olivia as they caught up.
“They didn’t know,” Olivia said.
“How?” Ivy snapped. “Look around! Did you think this happened because we opened the gates and let everything in?”
Cash opened his mouth to argue, but Amanda shook her head and he closed his lips tight. They turned back to face the remains of the gate and fence line.
“What are we seeing?” Cash asked Olivia.
Olivia brought up the scanner and aimed it through the frame of the gate which was all that was left of that structure. “I count eighteen,” she said. “Coming straight for us.”
Cash looked up at a row of lights on a pole that was at a forty-five-degree angle. Only one of the eight bulbs was working. He took aim and fired, plunging the area into darkness. There was still light from the remaining lights that worked around the base, but the illumination was weak.
“Fence line isn’t going to help us, so we go out and take the fight to them,” Cash said.
Amanda grabbed his arm before he could take more than a step.
“The debris gives us cover and will make them slow down,” Amanda said.
“Probably not,” Ivy said. “We’ve had teeth packs rip through here before. They’re like deer. They jump over anything in their way without missing a stride.”
“Still provides cover,” Amanda said. “We take a stand here.”
“Fine,” Cash said and took up a position behind a hunk of concrete that was almost as tall as he was. “Olivia? Time to start throwing.”
Olivia nodded, set the scanner on the ground with the screen up so she could see it, and fished out the explosive charges from her pack. Cash took one, primed it, and gave it back as Olivia set the rest down on the ground. Olivia took the primed charge, stared out at the darkness of
the landscape outside the base, glanced down at the screen on the scanner, looked back at the landscape, and threw the charge as hard and far as she could.
Ivy sighted through her scope then announced, “Fifty meters with the bounce and roll. Nice.”
Olivia repeated the process nine more times.
“That’s enough,” Cash said.
“Nice placement,” Amanda said, also sighting through her scope. “Each is about a meter apart. That’s gonna blow some teeth to bits.”
“Hopefully, it’ll do more,” Cash said as he swiped at a small tablet. “Call when they are five meters from the charge line.”
“Roger that,” Ivy said.
“What about the rest of the charges?” Olivia asked.
“Behind us,” Cash said. “About twenty feet back. Primed and spaced the same way.”
“Behind us?” Olivia asked. “You expect them to get around us?”
“I expect them to overrun us and I’d like a handy line of explosive charges to fall back to,” Cash said. “Which is where you’ll be hanging out.”
He handed her the tablet.
“Stand about ten meters behind the fallback line. When Ivy gives the order, you hit this button here,” Cash said, pointing at the tablet screen. “Then swipe right. That’ll bring up the second set of charges. If we retreat, you wait until we’re almost to you then hit the next button. Then you run and do not stop running until you’re back at the armory.”
“Roger that,” Olivia said, sounding almost exactly like Ivy.
Cash smiled. “Ivy’s been teaching you.”
“Fuck right, I have,” Ivy replied. “Get your asses ready. I see them.” She pulled her eye away from her scope and looked at the others. “And they aren’t smeeks. It’s a T-rex pack all the way.”
“That still sucks,” Cash said. “But I’ll take it.”
He turned to talk to Olivia, but she was already off and behind the fallback line of charges.
“Anyone have any objections to me bringing her on base now?” Cash asked.
“I’ve been living with her for months, Tre,” Ivy said. “She fights as hard as any of us.”
