Logan slammed his skull back against the headrest in utter horror. He did not know who the creature was now, or who it was previously. What he had been became shockingly evident by the symbol on the torn shirt giving it away; the Voracious Soldiers, the team he, Andy and Keith were a part of. It wasn’t David, it was too soon, and supposedly Andy blew him to smithereens. Aside from the uniform that it put back on when it rose Logan recognized no other identifying characteristics; something he was grateful for as he really didn’t want to know who the person was.
The team had lost a few dozen members since its inception when the government sanctioned them to go in and do retrieval missions as well as to monitor and hasten the demise of the DEVO’s. The Voracious Soldiers were one of the most aggressive in that regard and were one of the wealthiest as a result. They also took a lot of casualties and had the largest number of MIA’s.
Despite their efforts, and those of the other teams, the creatures had strangely not been killed off or even died off. They were as numerous as ever leading most in the infiltration community to believe that the numbers remaining in the city were significantly underestimated.
The thing shrieked as it hurled a large piece of iron at the JLTV. When it closed its jaws, Logan could see into its mouth through open gashes torn into its cheek, suffered when it was eaten no doubt. The pale grayish-beige slimy outer flesh that grew back was not complete in places. Seeing these things was nothing new for the experienced infiltrator; seeing one in the same uniform that he and his teammates wore was perplexing. Panic hit him thinking about that being his likely fate before the night was over.
“Andy’s rules be damned!” Logan began to depress the triggers when, just as quickly, the thing was gone.
“Not even the presence of mind to know that I was going to help him.”
“Logan, did you say something?”
“Negative, just grossed out by the feast going on out there is all.”
“Roger that.”
Andy drove along between two trains toward the terminal. The trains became far more numerous the closer they got, which meant that he was stuck driving down the middle of the two he was between. Andy hoped the path ahead continued to be open as the cover of the terminal appeared overhead in an area where passenger trains arrived and departed. He chose this route thinking it would be easier to bust through the passenger area and out to the parking lot where just on the other side was the Radio Building.
The gravel turned to a cement sidewalk that he drove along. They were getting close to the terminal. He hated driving through such a confined area. It was too easy to blockade, and the trains on both sides provided a shelter for the creatures to launch attacks. The one thing the team had going for them was how stupid this place was for an infiltration mission. Still, the faster they got out of the tight spaces, the better.
Andy didn’t even bother slowing to avoid obstacles, just crushed or shoved aside everything. The DEVO’s were more concentrated in this area, living in the passenger cars under the roof and protected from the daytime sun.
Andy plowed through several dozens, dragging a good many under the JLTV. The rumble of tires over the bodies reverberated through the steering wheel. Their shrieks and the thumps of their bodies carried up from the armored floor.
He long ago lost any sympathy for the things. The best thing anyone could do for them was to put them out of their misery. Andy had no intention of expending ammo or alerting the Outfits to his position. Mercy for the ghoulish things was not a good operational tactic.
A cement staircase with a steel handrail down the middle appeared at the end of the passenger loading platform. Andy pushed harder on the gas pedal. The rig raced up the stairs shearing off the handrail from the center of the stairs. Hitting the uppermost step, the JLTV launched itself into the air as it flew onto the upper passenger area before landing on a group of DEVO’s and a luggage cart, tossing suitcases and the creatures into the air while crushing others under the tires. There was probably a handicapped ramp, but Andy was in a hurry as he raced the JLTV toward a bank of glass doors.
An explosion of glass, aluminum, luggage carts with their belongings and creatures, or parts of them proceeded the JLTV as it blasted through. Andy was relieved they appeared less organized, or at least less prepared, since none were trying to use something that might block their way or tossing Molotov cocktails. Andy drove through the large passenger terminal plowing through seating areas and kiosks. He jerked the wheel toward the exits for the passenger pickup and drop off areas. The armored rig tore through the exterior doors fragmenting them in its path. On the other edge of the wide sidewalk Andy saw the line of taxis parked against the curb, long abandoned by their drivers. He swerved to the right slightly to aim between two of them.
The JLTV slammed into both, it slowed but didn’t stop; Andy added power and pushed both vehicles out of the way. Once clear of the cars lining the curb he yanked the wheel to the right and sped around the loading and unloading areas curving around in front of the terminal before careening across a street and through a chain link fence and into a parking lot. The JLTV raced through aisles filled with abandoned cars as people left them there trying to catch the last train out. A train that never came or went.
The military cut the tracks, sealed the ports and bombed the airport runways, shooting down any aircraft that managed to get airborne. Sealing the fate of tens of millions. Shortly after, they blew the bridges and razed whole neighborhoods to set up a defensible space, stopping the virus, and its effects at the outskirts of what had once been a massive, thriving and vibrant metropolis. Ten thousand or easily more drowned trying to make a swim for it with the coast guard shooting any that made it far enough out into the channel where they patrolled. In scenes too awful to recall, boats of men, women, and children were sunk if they did not turn back and head for a refugee zone. The risk was too high that they might already be infected.
Andy sped up, hitting sixty miles per hour before slamming into a fence on the other side again sending the rig airborne.
“Christ, dude, you’re gonna wreck us!” Logan complained, rocked back and forth in his captain’s chair in the center of the turret held tight by the five-point restraint.
“Can’t be helped. We need to put time and space between us and the thousands of DEVO’s following us. When we get to the Radio Building, we might have to dismount to get into the parking structure if I can’t get the power on. I probably will leave you in an over watch to lay waste to the DEVO’s while Keith and I go into the building to power it up.”
“Copy that,” Logan said, glad he would get to bring the massive firepower at his thumbs to bear on the creatures and anything else that might be following them.
***
Breathing hard after sprinting a hundred meters or more Haus raced up the last steps of the railyard locomotive. The dash was driven as much by fear as the need to move. The shrieks behind him from the creatures were still a way off, but that would change. His movement coupled with the fact that they were already working his scent meant it was only a matter of time before they converged on his location. Every second counted now.
Without breaking stride, he grabbed for the handle to the cab portion of the massive machine. It swung open; he would not have to expend the time nor the energy to force it.
Racing through the open door, Haus pointed his shotgun in first, lighting up the interior of the cab with the tactical UV light attached to the barrel before sweeping to his left into the engine compartment, clear. Reaching back, he pulled the door closed, careful not to slam it and further alert the DEVO’s. He fiddled with the handle and managed to lock the door. It would not keep the things out, but it would slow them down, especially if they had to break the windows and crawl through where he could blast them out with his shotgun, but he could only do that for the first hundred, after that he would be empty.
There would be far more than a hundred of the creatures if they cornered him in the engine, there were a
lways more of them. That was a constant he could count on. They traveled in hordes and whether they planned it or not their chief tactic was to overwhelm their prey with sheer numbers. If the locomotive wouldn’t start, he would have to flee, soaking himself in fuel to mask his scent if he had the time and could locate a fuel line. The shrieks, closer now reminded him that his options were quickly dwindling. Trying to ignore the things closing on him, hard to do with their ear-splitting noises, he searched for the breaker box at the front of the engine compartment just aft of the cab.
The Outfitter taught himself how to start and drive the railyard engines when he and his crew would come in and use them to move scavenged material around.
The key was the electrical system. It wasn’t just an issue of whether the battery was at capacity; often they weren’t from a lack of maintenance and not being run and therefore recharged. All the switches must be in the right places before the main power toggle switch is thrown. Switching to the low light option of the tactical light Haus lit up a set of doors marked “Warning High Voltage” with the dim blue illumination. He grabbed the handle and yanked the door open. An electrical panel came into view in the faint light on his weapon. It was the low profile setting that saved his night vision and kept from illuminating himself with the bright white light option, which if he used for very long would alert his hunters like a beacon. Haus gripped the red handle of the “Knife Switch” master electrical control then flipped it over. As soon as it lodged into position a deep hum filled the space.
“Batteries sound good.” He closed the panel door and moved to a panel above the doors housing the main toggle switches and electrical control panel.
Haus studied the white switch board just in front of the corridor that led to the engine room. Dozens of rocker switches occupied the space. He leaned forward squinting at each one; his night vision not what it once was.
A loud shriek came from somewhere outside. Haus disregarded it or convinced himself that he needed to, so he could get the machine started. He flipped on the fuel pump and the control switches, ignoring the others that were satisfactorily already in place, most having to do with lights and other environmental controls. Above the rocker switches Haus saw the red lever in the middle position between two arrows. The one pointing to the left marked “Prime” the one to the right “Engine Start.”
He rotated the switch to the left and held it there and cocked his head toward the engine. A rush of air made a loud swooshing noise that anyone within a couple hundred meters would hear as the compressed air blew out the fuel lines of any water condensation then started pushing fuel through them. Haus held the lever to the prime position for another ten seconds to make sure all the air was out of the lines, ignoring the screeching outside that grew closer and more numerous. After what seemed like an eternity, he flipped the lever over to the “Start Engine” position and held it. Canting his head to listen, he heard the whine of the motor starter that sounded as it should.
Waiting for the vibrations and sewing-machine-like clatter that would tell him the engine was running could take up to two minutes. All the gauges to monitor the process were dark. Haus wanted as little light as possible and while he didn’t believe he had two minutes, merely wishing the engine to start faster was a waste of energy. Still, he hoped, prayed in fact that the motor wouldn’t need the whole two minutes, that is if it started at all.
The starter hummed and whined. Haus forced himself to remain still but failed when the door of the cab rattled; he spun his head toward it. Unmistakable sounds of claws shaking the handle and the door filled the cab, followed by the sounds of fingernails scratching at the glass windows. Few things terrified the big man, not knowing how much time he had before they flooded into the small space and attacked him was right up there.
At least the cab was dark, watching the handle shake would have been too distracting. For the moment, there was only one thing he could do, wait for the engine to come to life while hoping the things outside would look elsewhere. Something that was unlikely. The DEVO’s were, if nothing else, ruthless in seeking out fresh flesh to eat.
Something smashed against the glass of the door. More crashing soon followed. Another loud crash followed the sound of glass cracking and then another before he heard pieces of the window falling to the floor. Haus heard something harder land as well; he hoped it was only a rock.
Holding the lever in the start position with his left hand, he swung the ten-gauge shotgun secured to him by the three point sling up with his right hand. Sweeping the business end over the top of his boots and the engine floor before bringing it up, holding it by the pistol grip. The sling pulled at his shoulders as he waited. Holding the heavy gun with the 100-shell drum out and away with one arm resulted in a slight tremble, some of which may even have been nerves. Few men possessed the arm strength to hold that weapon with a full magazine extended out like that. A combination of fear and adrenaline aided him as he discerned he was no longer alone, something was crawling through the window and into the cab just feet in front of him.
Haus could either light up the cab to see what kind of fight he was about to have or he could get the engine started but he could not do both. The pressure switch on the tact light was on the side of the forearm stock, forward of the pistol grip and out of reach. Certain the noise coming from the pitch-black space was from a creature already inside or halfway through the window, he felt the terror overtaking him.
It took all his willpower to hold the starter lever.
Haus grinned. His right thumb slid to the safety. Finding it, he pushed it in as his right index finger moved inside the trigger guard resting on the trigger. The shotgun, no longer felt heavy; the adrenaline coursing through his muscular body aided in that.
The compartment he was standing in became thunderous with the “tap, tap, tap” of the engine vibrating under the floor. Those vibrations didn’t just start the locomotive’s motor, they drove the two dozen DEVO’s crawling all over it crazy. They could not stand running machinery of any kind, and this was one big machine whose vibrations were now like a force field around it—except for the cacophonous unseen thing in front of him that hissed loudly, its spittle even reaching the Outfitter’s gun hand.
Haus brought his left hand to his weapon and lit the interior up. There not three feet away was one of the creatures, its body halfway through the window; tormented by the engine vibrations and now the bright light. At the same time, it became crazed at the sight of a living thing to feast on in the form of the large man.
Haus for his part didn’t wait to see what the thing decided to do. Stepping forward he swung his weapon to the right, toward it and away from the driver’s station so as not to damage anything that might impede his escape. The creature lunged, its teeth clattering in rapid fire bites. The movement of the shotgun barrel along with the DEVO’s thrust resulted in the barrel of the gun going into its mouth.
Haus fired, and the explosive shell, which had not traveled the full meter to arm flew right through the creature and out the back of its head before detonating, destroying a second creature. The gasses expanding out from the barrel exploded through the first one’s cranium in a mist of blood, flesh and bone. The body of the thing still partially outside the door tumbled off the locomotive and onto the tracks as the hands and legs jerked and either grabbed or kicked at the empty air.
The jig was up, Haus went to the panel and illuminated it before finding the switches for the cab and the outside lights. Dimming the interior lights, he raced to the driver’s position. The mile-light illuminated the pier in the distance. Hundreds of DEVO’s stumbled around the tracks trying to get out of the light and away from the vibrations that drove them crazy, vibrations even though slight they could feel through the ground from the tracks.
Sitting in the engineer’s seat Haus checked to see that the brake was released then advanced the throttle to the first of eight notches. The vibrations increased as the wheels clanked on the tracks below.
Satisfied it was working, Haus then advanced the throttle several more notches. In a half minute, he was moving down the rail tracks at a good clip. Seeing that the track was clear most of the way, he advanced the throttle to the eighth slot. The engine now went to full throttle and gained speed quickly as it was neither pulling nor pushing any weight. Haus looked for the seat belt, and after finding none, gripped the handles of the console, the next stop was going to be a rough one as the machine flew toward the railhead at the port.
Chapter Nine
The JLTV slowed to a stop. Andy and Keith scanned the large steel reinforced concrete, windowless two-story building rising in front of them. The building sat towards the rear third of a large, fenced-in parking lot. Behind the building stretched the harbor. Andy drove around the mostly empty parking lot to the other side. The JLTV turned to the right then made a left, lining up with a ramp that angled down to a garage door below ground level. Andy slowed the JLTV, stopping just in front of the thick steel door that led to an underground parking structure.
The Radio Building was a pet project of Andy’s. The building, reinforced against natural and man-made disasters originally was built to house communications equipment, servers, and satellite transmission and receiving equipment. It also housed the Port Authority’s emergency management facilities, vehicles, and other equipment. Several large antennas rose at one end with some satellite dishes around the base and others mounted on the tower above along with microwave links.
At the other end was a VTAL landing pad, elevated above the roof five feet or so. Before the virus outbreak the facility was designed as a backup for the region and did not operate daily, only during emergencies. Completely self-contained it had food stores, generators and water and fuel supplies.
Andy identified the building as a place where the Voracious Soldiers could barricade in place and run ops from, once he got cleared to do so by the authorities and it was fully operational. So far, the governing commission had yet to render a decision.
METAVERSE GAMES: OMNIBUS Page 7
