The vile things would soon scale the walls, but they would be easier to deal with, although they would climb relentlessly. The virus that made them so dangerous drove them to act as a body. It didn’t matter how many were destroyed, the feast and new hosts were all it desired if a biological phenomenon had a desire that is. It was just in its mutated nature to want to spread. Or even just to survive, as did Andy and his team.
They were the most well equipped and trained of all the infiltration teams and among the most experienced, Keith notwithstanding. If it was only the DEVO’s they had to worry about, then they probably could have survived the night once in the safety of the Radio Building, but operating in the Dead Zone was always far more complicated than that. The Outfits had grown more capable and more dangerous. If they met their demise tonight, it would be due to their interference.
Andy was lured from his gloomy thoughts by the sound of the VTAL racing over the parking lot as it entered a steep bank, at an altitude maybe twenty-five feet above the roof.
“Mia!”
Andy had little time to rejoice as three things scampered up over the edge, and were quickly dispatched by Keith. Gunfire came from behind Andy as Logan took care of a few more of the screeching, chomping creatures some half-dressed, most barefoot, like Keith. Andy wanted to chuckle at the sight of Keith only in his yellow boxer briefs. A tac vest covering his pasty white skin, a helmet, and rifle. Keith was fully engaged in the fight and seemed none the worse for wear from his earlier falling out with Andy or the AT-4 attack.
Andy felt remorse at nearly feeding him to the DEVO’s, although what he really wanted was for Keith to talk and fast, which is what he did. Right before slamming Andy to the ground, and possibly saving his life.
Andy reached into his right cargo pocket for another flare. He yanked the pin and tossed it to the roof deck. There was a possibility that the flare could burn through the roof and start a fire. Andy didn’t care, either they were getting out on that bird, or they would all perish in a few minutes with a few thousand DEVO’s, that was if he could still establish a link with the JLTV.
“Riggy, initiate Omega Procedure.”
“Riggy, standing by for authentication code.” The static-filled but immediate reply from the buried truck, calmed Andy’s nerves.
“Two-four-Alpha-Foxtrot-Lima-three-niner,” Andy said it exactly as required. Alpha Foxtrot Lima was his little play on words. “All is Fucking Lost.”
“Riggy copies good code. Time delay?”
Andy glared at the VTAL now banking towards the pad on final approach, its bright landing lights illuminating the roof.
“Two-mikes.”
“Roger, two-minutes. God speed, Andy Crawley.” The last part of the communication made him blink back an emotion for his beloved rig. It was the AI’s unscripted way of saying goodbye. Andy hated having to do it, but no way could he let the Outfits have that rig, much less the Vulcan on top of it.
Chapter Twenty-Three
“About fucking time,” Mia hissed.
Spotting the three team members standing on the roof, she abandoned her earlier feelings as her usual all-business demeanor returned. She had to take a second look at Keith, thinking for a moment that he was a creature, his image brighter than the others. The exposed skin on his body reflected more ambient light into her night vision off his fair complexion. The weapon he fired soon confirmed he was Victor Sierra.
Mia didn’t have time to ponder why he was only in a vest and helmet and little else as the flare went off, scattering the DEVO’s from that portion of the roof as the three ran to the pad.
Mia yanked the stick hard to the left and aft with her right hand to shorten the turn, as she depressed the collective to shallow the flare from the back pressure while at the same time pressing the left rudder pedal to bring the tail around rapidly. The aircraft quickly lined up with the pad.
“Gear down, lights on.”
“Roger, gear down and lights on.” Edward’s right hand moved to the gear level and flipped it down while the other reached to the top of the cockpit between where he and Mia sat and flipped a series of switches.
The flashing landing gear indicator lights in the cockpit were quickly masked by the brilliant landing and approach lights bouncing off the end of the building. Dozens of DEVO’s climbing the walls fell off as they shrieked in horror. Most hissed at the machine before letting go of the building and tumbling to the ground. Mia recoiled at the sight of the offensive things as the edge of the building blinked past in the chin bubble.
That was the closest she’d been to one of the hideous beings and as close as she ever wanted to be again. The sight caused a momentary tingle of panic. She hoped the lights, when she landed on the pad, would be enough at their flanks and rear to keep the creatures at bay. Mia cursed the authorities who forbade placing any of the Torch Light systems on a VTAL, primarily to discourage any night time operations like the one she was conducting.
The VTAL flared steeply, bleeding off the speed of the hot approach as she moved the cyclic farther back. Leaning forward and lifting her head up over the top edge of cockpit she studied the three figures nearing the edge of the pad as they moved up the steps. Moving as a unit they were crouched down covering left and right to the front while one covered down the center to their six. Professional and fighting to the end, rather than panicked and rushing to jump on the aircraft. Just like in training. A good thing as Mia performed one last maneuver.
“Ramp down; clear to starboard?”
Without looking for it, Edward found the overhead switch lowering the ramp at the rear of the VTAL with his left hand as he craned his head as far to the right as he could.
“Clear, ramp extending.”
“Roger, coming about.” Mia nudged the center stick back with a light touch, stopping the aircraft’s forward motion over the pad as she shoved the right pedal to its stop while pushing down gently on the collective with her left hand.
The VTAL settled toward the pad as it pivoted fast. None too late as several creatures emerged over the edge of the pad just feet off the nose of the aircraft. They had taken what refuge they could when the VTAL with the bright lights overflew them. Now behind the landing and approach lights, they scampered up onto the pad, at least until the lights came back toward them as the aircraft reversed direction.
Mia gawked for the second time in the last ten seconds in horror through the windscreen at a creature much closer than the ones she just overflew. The thing glared at her and clacked its teeth as the jaw opened wider than what a human, which it physiologically still resembled at least in basic appearance, should be able to do. Snapping it shut then opening it again as the most awful sound emanated from it and the others, noticeable even through her helmet and over the whine of the engines.
The repulsive things stared back before bringing their claw like hands and pale arms up, turning away as the bright lights came around and hit them as the VTAL completed the 180-degree turn. Mia watched them dive off the pad to hide in the shadows just below the edge. She like most other people were always in shock seeing them up close. It was one thing to blow up a house or some other structure with DEVO’s inside or to snipe them from a distance. But up close and personal they reminded you they were human beings, or once were. More than that you considered your fate if you were taken by one, or more likely a mob of them.
Mia lowered the collective a little more, so the wheels just touched the pad, most of the VTAL’s weight still held by the powerful ducted fans creating an air cushion under it rather than on the landing gear. Mia wasn’t going to wait long. The second the team got on the ramp she was lifting off. She didn’t need DEVO’s jumping onto the machine and potentially being sucked into an engine or into a rotor blade damaging or destroying it. The same with rocks or other objects they might throw trying to get to the delicious meals inside. The experienced pilot had no intention of becoming food for them and then one herself, the whole thing just too terrible to consider.
<
br /> Mia yanked her head around to the right and over her shoulder as she stole a glimpse toward the rear opening. The three team members racing up the ramp and onto the machine was all the information she needed to begin her departure. A bright flare lit up the sky, visible through Edward’s side window illuminating a portion of a street just outside the fences of the Radio Building. She didn’t have time to consider why it was there or who lit it off.
Before moving her eyes from the three now moving into the cargo hold from the ramp she pulled up on the collective lifting the VTAL up off its wheels. Mia’s head turned back to look out over the nose as she pushed the stick forward.
As the VTAL’s nose tilted downward a loud sound, like hail on a tin roof came from the 2 o’clock position. Mia reflexively turned towards the rattle, a millisecond before Edward’s head exploded in a flash of sparks.
Whoop, whoop, whoop filled her headset as Edward’s incapacitated but twitching body continued to spasm against the flight controls. A Christmas tree of red and yellow lights erupted on the panel in front of her. The most alarming of which was the “Engine 2 Fire” indicator.
The sound most dreaded by a pilot, after a fire indicator, was the abrupt winding down of an engine just after liftoff. While not as loud as the gunfire that hit the aircraft, or the other alarms going off, it nonetheless made moot the calm voice announcing, “Engine two out, engine two out.”
It was silly, no pilot worth their salt needed the system to tell them the obvious. The up and down buffeting of the VTAL made it a challenge for Mia as she swiped at the engine fire suppression handle, lit up in red from the middle of the overhead console just aft of the black throttles. Finally grasping it, she yanked it past its stop and released the safety cover to expose the discharge button. One of the two fire extinguisher bottles charged with Freon saturated the engine as other systems cut off the fuel.
The VTAL spun like a top over the roof of the Radio Building as Mia fought to control the machine. Something that was getting more difficult as it “felt” heavier, now flying on only one engine that oscillated wildly. Logan and Andy grabbed for the seats as the centrifugal force of the flat spin slammed them to one side or another. Keith, slower moving up the ramp owing to his bare feet and previous concussion fell to the deck of the cargo hold before sliding towards the ramp legs first. The Probie spun around onto his stomach; his lower legs sucked into the outside air. He desperately grabbed for anything as the rest of his body slipped off the ramp, the fear overcoming him. It momentarily subsided as the rifle sling he was laying on snagged onto a cargo hook, stopping his slide but not in the way he hoped. The three-point sling pulled up across his vest and wrapped around his neck. Keith’s whole body began flapping like a rag doll off the end of the ramp as the rifle sling strangled him, his only lifeline to the spinning out of control aircraft. His hands raced to pull the strap back down as he tried to climb back up the ramp.
As quickly as it had wrapped around his neck, it was gone. Everything went dark as the sling snagged the front of Keith’s face mask then ripped it off along with the helmet it was attached to. Keith felt himself falling through the air now as his body plummeted the ten feet or so to the edge of the landing pad where he landed on his back with both of his legs dangling over the side.
The lights of the VTAL dancing through the sky like a spinning disco ball filled his eyes. Everything else around him was pitch black. The sounds of hissing and clacking teeth soon eclipsed the roar of the spinning aircraft above him.
The thick tac vest protected him from any serious injury, but the air was driven from his lungs. Heaving, Keith tried to catch his breath. Claw like hands grabbed each of his lower legs at the shins and calves. New sets of claws grabbed at his thighs and waist as he slid toward the edge, soon claws were at his back, shoulders and arms. As his head bounced from the pad he felt momentarily weightless as the creatures held him over their heads like a trophy but more just to get a piece of him. Teeth sank in along both sides of his feet and legs before several creatures shot up between them chomping at his thigh areas causing him to scream out in horror if not extreme pain.
Keith reached for the handgun in the vest. His hand thrusting into the empty holster caused absolute panic to overcome him. Where his handgun should be, now only an empty hole existed. His mind flashed to Logan, who at Andy’s direction removed it before he surrendered his vest and clothing. The handgun was still laying somewhere on the floor of the control room.
Keith was dropped to the roof by the things who continued to chomp on him at the same time. The unbearable pain as he was dragged this way and that, with new areas of flesh constantly being torn from him by vicious mouths. Keith reached for a grenade, but his arms were trapped by other DEVO’s who began gnawing into them even before they pinned them to the roof area below the landing pad. Creature after creature lunged in at him trying to find a place to sink its choppers among the dozen or more already doing so while others fought to get near. Countless fingers and hands grabbed the vest and pulled it off as others tore the last of his clothing from him.
Keith did the only thing that he could. That anyone would do at that moment as his flesh was shredded from him and the realization sunk in along with the teeth and claws of what his fate would be. He screamed and then screamed some more.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Graybeard ignored the pleas of the trapped driver under him. He propped the M240 against the edge of the overturned rig, his feet resting on either side of the man struggling to get free from the vehicle.
A few minutes before, Graybeard crawled under the rig and dismounted the 7.62mm machine gun from its swivel post. Graybeard snapped the bipod down, locking it in place as he glared at the aircraft fixing to take away his gold. He stretched the weapon across the upside-down truck.
Exhaling deeply, the Outfit boss took his time lining up the sights. Squeezing off a hundred or so rounds, he adjusted the tracer fire to “walk” the rounds along the side of the aircraft from the top of the fuselage to the starboard cockpit area. Sparks and smoke erupted from the impacts. He paused and attempted to realign the weapon with the erratically moving VTAL.
Sweat dripped down his face and into his eyes, further frustrating his attempts to get another good bead on the VTAL less than a hundred meters downrange. He feared the spinning smoking machine still might fly off. One more good solid hit and it would be back down on the roof, and the DEVO’s would do the rest.
Graybeard smiled as one of the rats fell from the back ramp, the man’s screams perceptible even among the squawking of the creatures. His topside crew all cheered as the hideous things feasted, wishing they could see instead of just hear his agony; such was their hatred for the infiltration teams that raided their turf with all their silly uniforms, high-powered weapons, and fancy equipment. Tonight, the Day Breakers, thanks to the boss, had taken it to them. Not just the soon to be DEVO food in the out of control aircraft but their rival Outfit the Crewmen, now decimated. They were the winners and would soon be wealthier for it in treasure and territory, all thanks to the big man with the steady aim.
The screams of the infiltration team member being taken and eaten alive by the monsters had the opposite effect on the trapped driver, a rival Outfitter, at Graybeard’s feet. He grew even more panicked and pleaded for someone to drag him out from under the rig. He knew his fate would be the same if they didn’t get him out from under the wreckage. Panic drove his thoughts and pleas.
“Shut the fuck up!”
Graybeard stomped on the man’s face with his heavy boots, knocking several teeth out. The man’s screams now reduced to whimpers, graybeard returned his gaze to the VTAL. He figured he had less than a hundred rounds left in the can; he wanted them to count.
Graybeard leaned in, one foot on the ground and the other on top of the driver’s bloody mouth to steady himself. He moved the sights of the machine gun, trying to stay centered on the spinning oscillating aircraft that would rise 50 or 100 feet above the b
uilding before dropping that much.
All while in a flat spin. Another body spun from the machine to the ground.
“The rats are already jumping ship,” he said, as he squeezed the trigger. The tracer rounds flew just to the left of the VTAL as the aircraft stopped spinning and dove down toward the parking lot on the other side of the Radio Building and out of his sight.
“All the better. Let them pukes land in the lot. They won’t last long.”
Graybeard wasn’t prepared to see what happened next as he fired off the last of his rounds, the tracers missing their mark as they disappeared into the night air.
***
Andy clawed his way over the seats; Edward’s headless body jerked around just in front of him. A real live human would probably just have died or at least gone limp, but the animatronic device instead was still sending confusing signals to its body, pushing the pedals and jerking the control stick this way and that. Andy saw the warning lights and heard the alarms. They were still airborne, albeit out of control. Andy didn’t know what other problems Mia was dealing with, but it was apparent to Andy that Edward’s flailing and sparking body was the most urgent.
Fighting against the G forces, Andy lunged over the top of the jerking animatronic and reached for the door handle. Several times before he could grasp it, the thrashing body of the co-pilot slammed into his helmet pushing him back. Andy shoved himself farther down, squeezing between the seat and Edward. Upside down with his feet hooked around a seat frame, Andy finally reached the handle, yanking at it. The door flew open from the forces of the spin.
Ignoring the rushing air and twirling ground below him Andy found the five-point safety device at its waist and unlatched it. Centrifugal Force did the rest, sucking Edward out. He bounced off the edge of the building before falling into a mass of DEVO’s, who chomped on him before spitting out the smooth, waxy skin.
METAVERSE GAMES: OMNIBUS Page 16
