Extinction Cycle (Book 2) (Kindle Worlds): Penance

by A. J. Sikes

  ☣

  Gallegos and Jo stepped back down the corridor, moving in tandem with their weapons up and aimed at the path back to the stairwell door. Jo had the thump gun slung still. The pile of sucker faces had grown by five more during the last few minutes.

  “They’re not coming in anymore,” Jo said.

  “I think they’ve learned not to.”

  “I’m starting to believe you guys. They aren’t just monsters without any brains left. They can learn, and that scares the shit out of me.”

  “I’d think there was something wrong with you if it didn’t,” Gallegos said. “Let’s catch up with the others.”

  Jo turned on her heel and went down the corridor. Gallegos followed, switching her view to their six with every other step.

  Let my squad be safe. Let us get out of this alive.

  The corridor stayed still and quiet between her and the stairwell door. As she stepped back, and the pile of dead suckers grew smaller and dimmer in her vision, the green glow around her revealed shapes in the walls. Lines of conduit and plumbing framed her path down the corridor.

  “You back there, Sergeant G?” Welch’s voice called to her through the dark.

  “Rah. You got anything?”

  “I got blood. A lot of it on the ceiling.”

  “Fresh? Old?”

  “Can’t say. It’s like paint up here. And I think there’s a patch of something else on the floor right behind us. Y’all watch your step coming up.”

  Yeah, we’ll do that.

  “How long does this tunnel go?”

  “Looks like it opens up soon. This green shit—”

  The chop of a machine gun broke through Welch’s words. Gallegos dropped to her stomach yelling for everyone to hit the deck as bullets ricocheted down the corridor.

  ☣

  Jed stared into the darkness ahead. He and the rest of the squad were all prone in the corridor. Nobody had been hit, but every few seconds a muzzle flash would light up the corridor and reveal a room maybe five yards ahead of their position. More rounds would come their way, but whoever was shooting at them didn’t want to hit them. Or if they did, the darkness made it so they couldn’t aim for shit. But with a machine gun, aim wasn’t as much of a concern.

  Volume of fire. It’s all about filling the air with enough lead to make people too scared to move.

  And it was working. Jed lifted his head between the bursts, straining to see into the room at the end of the corridor. But every time the gun fired, a series of ricochets forced him to suck the floor again.

  Shuffling sounds in the room sparked Jed’s trigger finger. He didn’t even raise his head to look, just fired once and then once again. He caught more shuffling in the lull between his shots and risked lifting his head. He sent another burst into the space and spotted a figure running. The effect of the green glow was weakened by the constant muzzle flashes, but Jed could still make out shapes in the room and the outline of the doorway leading into the corridor in front of him.

  Someone grunted in the room. A sound like an ammo box being slid across the floor came down the corridor. Jed fired again. Whoever was in there cried out and the scuffling sound stopped.

  “He’s down!” Jed said, lifting up to a high crawl. He flattened out again just as fast when another burst of machine gun fire lit up the hallway.

  The chop from the weapon was heavier than a SAW.

  Gotta be a 240 or something just as big. If it’s a team weapon . . . Shit!

  Like she was reading his mind, Sergeant G yelled up to him, “Welch, there’s probably two of them! Sustained fire!”

  Jed fired another burst into the room. Sergeant G slid up the floor at the edge of the corridor and stopped when she was even with his position. She kept her weapon aimed forward.

  “Fire ‘em up, Welch. Keep your sight picture to the left. I’m moving.”

  Jed lit up the room, sending rounds back in the direction of the enemy’s fire. More lead came their way and the constant rattle and chop of both weapons turned the corridor into a frenzy of violent noise. Jed’s ears felt like they were stuffed with cotton, but he could still make out the sound of a body going to the floor, followed by a gurgled cry. The gunfire stopped and Sergeant G slapped Jed on his back.

  “Move up, low and slow. I’m with you.”

  “Who’s got our six?”

  “Jo’s back there. Let’s move, Welch,” she said.

  Jed crawled forward, sliding the SAW ahead of him. He kept his finger on the trigger guard, ready to snap it back and light up anything that moved.

  Shuffling and scraping sounds came from the room. Jed was only a couple meters away now. The green glow made it easier to see. Shards of another mirror lay against the wall near the door, reflecting the green glow. It was stronger here and Jed finally figured out what it was.

  Fucking black light paint. They used the mirrors to bring daylight into the hall to light it up.

  The shuffling up ahead stopped, then the room filled with scurrying and dragging noises like boots and a body being pulled across stone. A click of a door latch was followed by light slicing into the room.

  Fuck! That’s gotta be Tucker and he’s running away!

  Jed picked up and ran forward to the doorway, sending a burst into the room and sweeping to his left, firing a second burst at a door that was swinging shut.

  Welch fired off two bursts as he ran forward. He stopped at the end of the corridor and dropped his ammo box.

  “Fuck! I’m empty!”

  Gallegos was on her feet and charging forward with her weapon up, aiming into the room beyond. Nothing moved.

  Welch backed away a step. Gallegos reached for her last magazine and handed it to him.

  “Get the others up here,” she said. Welch slapped the magazine into his weapon and shuffled backwards down the corridor.

  Gallegos stepped into the room. She swept left and right, looking into every corner and possible hiding spot. There weren’t many to speak of. The room was empty as far as she could tell, with only an easy chair shoved into the corner to her left.

  The glowing green light was stronger in the room. She could make out a cupboard on the far wall, and a janitor’s sink and mop bucket to their left. Two cans of paint and brushes sat on the sink. She could just make out their shape from where she stood inside the door.

  Smears of something trailed along the floor from near the mop sink, going toward the door. Gallegos crouched and felt it with her fingers.

  Fresh blood. We hit them. But not hard enough.

  “Bet that’s the glow paint,” Welch said, moving in beside her. He chuckled. “That’s what they used for night vision down here. Fucking raver glow paint.”

  “This is their blood, Welch,” Gallegos said, standing up.

  The others moved into the room behind him, with Matty and Dom holding Reeve in a seat carry again. Jo entered last, covering their path back into the darkness.

  “Where’s the machine gun?” Reeve asked, shifting off of the firefighters’ hands and stepping closer to her position. “I heard a 240 in here. Had to be.”

  “It’s gone. Whoever was in here got away. Welch hit ‘em, so they’re carrying wounded just like us. Let’s take advantage of that.”

  The squad got in step behind her as she moved to the door leading out. Reeve sat back into Matty and Dom’s carry. He put his good arm around Matty’s shoulders.

  “Thanks for the ride, y’all, but next time I’ll just call a cab.”

  “Still full of shit, Reeve,” Gallegos said. “Keep it up. It tells me you’re still alive.”

  “Oorah,” he said, and let out a short chuckle that turned into a groan of pain.

  At the door leading out, Gallegos had Welch position himself opposite the opening.

  “I’ll breach. Throw your banger first, then go in hot. I’m on your six.”

  “Rah, Sergeant,” Welch said and lifted his last banger out of his vest.

  Gallegos tested the kn
ob first to make sure it turned. When it did, she opened it a few inches. Welch threw his grenade and turned away. She pushed the door shut as the banger went off, then yanked the door open again. Welch stormed through and she followed him in.

  ☣

  Jed rushed forward with the SAW up, roving his muzzle around the space beyond the door. He’d come into a landing like the one at the other end of the utility corridor, only this one didn’t have a mound of dead sucker faces on the floor. But it did have streaks of blood leading up the stairs.

  And it had something much worse.

  “What the fuck is this?” Sergeant G asked from behind him. Matty, Dom, Reeve, and Jo were at the door, slowly moving into the space.

  The underside of the stairs and the wall above the door were coated in some kind of glue or webbing. Sergeant G got closer to it and reached a hand out. Her fingers caught on it and she had to tug them back.

  “Fuck, that shit’s like hot glue,” she said.

  Jed looked at the stuff and shuddered when he realized what he was seeing. Here and there in the tangled sticky pulp, he could make out hollows in the substance that would have held arms or legs. Some could have been for shoulders or hips.

  Jo let out a shout of disgust. “It’s like a meat locker. This must be where they kept the prisoners.”

  Jed moved closer to where Sergeant G was standing and reeled away when he saw a strip of skin hanging from the empty casing.

  “Whatever this shit is, you don’t want to get it on you.”

  The more he looked, the more he wanted to get away from the stuff. Spots and sprays of blood marked the hollows, along with strips of skin still embedded in the sticky material.

  The stairwell beside them led up to another landing and a door to the outside. It was open and Jed moved away from the crap on the walls to check their path out of the building.

  “Hold up, Welch,” Sergeant G said. He turned back to see her kneeling and pawing at the blood on the floor. Dark smears coated the tips of her fingers.

  “We definitely hit Tucker, or whoever that was back there shooting at us.”

  A groan outside snapped everyone’s attention to the door. Jed moved like he’d go through it, but he stopped short at the threshold.

  “What do you got, Welch?”

  “It’s him, Sergeant. It’s Tucker out there. Gotta be.”

  “You got eyes on him?”

  “Negative, Sergeant. But I can hear him. He’s close by.”

  “Stay frosty. We don’t know who else or what else is out there, or if that’s even him.”

  “What about his cache?” Matty said. “Remember that man said they had a stash of gear under these buildings? Ammo, food, and water. Right? Or did I hallucinate the last twenty-four hours?”

  “It’s not here is it?” Reeve asked.

  “Nothing’s here,” Dom said. “The prisoners aren’t here. The monsters aren’t even here. I don’t like it. They’re playing with us again, like they did at the bus station. I knew we—”

  “You knew shit, Dominic,” Sergeant G cut in.

  “I got eyes on him, Sergeant,” Jed said. “Our man’s getting away. Well, he’s crawling away.”

  “So go stop him, Welch.”

  ☣

  Gallegos had Jo keep the squad covered with the Mini-14. Dom and Matty set Reeve down and Dom joined her at the door. He held Reeve’s M4 at the ready. It wasn’t like having a Marine at her side, but Dom had done all right so far. Most of his shots went into walls, but he’d hit some sucker faces back at the other building. Or he’d sent them scrambling away, making it easier for her and Jo to pick them off.

  “Good to see you stepping up with that weapon, Dominic,” she said.

  He mumbled something that sounded like thanks and she left it at that.

  As long as he doesn’t get friendly with his fire.

  Through the doorway, she could just see Welch crouched by a park bench in the middle of the lawn between the two high rises. Rubble and ash covered almost everything around them, but this little area had been spared destruction.

  Welch was looking back toward the other building. Gallegos put a foot outside and said to Dom, “Stay here and cover me. Watch high and low for any movement.”

  Gallegos moved out to join Welch. He pointed back the way he’d been looking. A body was lying in the ash and debris up against the side of the building. The figure slumped against a weapon on a bipod. It looked like an M240 and had a belt of ammo hanging out of it. The person’s hands were flat on the ground like he was dead.

  “Cover me, Welch,” Gallegos said, and stepped forward with her weapon up and aimed at the col-lab’s head.

  Gallegos moved fast until she was a step away from the body. She prayed the col-lab hadn’t set a trap for them with a grenade under his chest. When she got closer, she caught the ragged breaths of a dying man.

  “We need the medics out here, on me,” Gallegos said. “Jo, stay with Reeve and keep watch on our six.”

  A few grunts and an Errr came back from the direction of the door. Welch was behind her, scanning the area. Gallegos put her attention back on the col-lab. Even though she expected sucker faces to come ripping down the walls or flying out of a doorway hidden under the debris, she knew better than to ignore a wounded enemy.

  Matty rushed up to her position with the trauma bag. She kept one hand on her weapon and helped Matty slowly turn the col-lab over with the other. When they had him lifted up high enough, she jammed her hand under his chest, feeling for a grenade. All she felt was warm blood. The guy groaned and coughed. He spit off to the side next to his weapon.

  “Wish we had better light,” Matty said. “I only have a pen light and the batteries are about dusted.”

  “Flashlight—in my pocket,” the col-lab said.

  While Matty opened his kit, Gallegos kept her weapon on the col-lab and dug into his clothing with her free hand. She found a mini-mag in his cargo pocket. It even had a red lens in it. She clicked it on and aimed it at the col-lab’s torso. He’d been hit at least once that she could see. Blood soaked into the BDU top he wore.

  Matty went to work, cutting the guy’s clothing away from his wound. He’d taken one to the gut and had pushed a wad of something under his shirt and against the hole.

  “Gotta take that off, son,” Matty said.

  The col-lab groaned again and clenched his teeth as Matty lifted the makeshift dressing away from the wound. Gallegos held the light steady, but kept her eyes on the night around them. Any second, she expected sucker faces to swarm their perimeter.

  What little perimeter we have. I got a man with a SAW and almost no ammo left for it. I got a wounded man who can’t use a weapon, and a newbie with a boom stick who might hit one of us if I’m not careful where I put him.

  And now we got this sack of dead weight on the ground.

  “Are you Tucker?”

  “No—I’m . . .” The guy sucked in air. “I didn’t want to—”

  “Where are they then? Tucker and the others. Where’d they go?”

  “What others?”

  “The other col-labs, like you. The motherfuckers who gave us up to the sucker faces.”

  “I—I don’t know . . . Don’t care. He’s just got Jacob with him. They . . . left me here to kill—”

  “To kill us? How’d that work out for you the first time?”

  “Wasn’t me. He was shooting. He made me go for the ammo. You shot me.”

  “Why didn’t you stop him instead of following his orders?”

  “He’s—fucking crazy. Made a deal with the bone collector.”

  “Why? No, don’t answer that. Just tell me where he went and where they took our people.”

  “Your people?”

  “The prisoners. The ones that used to be hung up inside like meat in a freezer. Where the fuck did they go?”

  The guy coughed twice and groaned. Bloody spittle coated his lips and ran down his cheek.

  “The bone collector too
k everyone. He let us stay—We promised him more food.”

  “What the fuck is wrong with you?” Gallegos demanded. “These are monsters from hell and you’re feeding them your own people—”

  “It was—shit! That hurts!”

  “Just keep talking. You’ll be fine,” Matty said. He had a new dressing over the wound and was applying pressure with one hand.

  “Hold this tight,” Matty told the col-lab. The guy weakly laid a hand over the bandage. Matty prepared a wrap to hold the dressing over the wound.

  “Waiting to hear more from you,” Gallegos told the col-lab.

  “What?”

  “Don’t need your attitude, you piece of shit, just the four-one-one. Where did Tucker go?”

  “The boat.”

  “And where is ‘the boat’?” Gallegos demanded, pushing her muzzle closer to the col-lab’s face.

  “Shoot me,” he said, and then coughed more blood and spit onto the grass beside his head. “I don’t care. He isn’t here anymore.”

  In that moment Gallegos realized the col-lab was just a kid, maybe fifteen or sixteen years old. Matty had the wrap around him once and was working on getting it around a second time.

  Is this the other guy’s son? I don’t know why I care. I just know that I do.

  “You got less time than you think, mijo, so if you want to go somewhere better after you die, this might be your chance. Tell us where Tucker is and where to find our people. Maybe God will grant you mercy.”

  “I don’t know where they took the people.”

  “So tell us about Tucker. At least give us that much.”

  The kid rallied a bit, got some strength back in his voice when he let loose about Tucker. “He’s fucking crazy. He was talking to the things since it started. They ate his girlfriend—right in front of him! He thinks they’re here to help cleanse the world. It was my dad’s idea, but Tucker . . . he agreed. Had all the guns. Him and Jacob and Mary.”

  “Who’re they?”

  “My friends—his son and daughter—I—”

  The boy coughed up more blood and shook.

  “He’s dying,” Matty said.

  “You don’t—have to save me,” the boy said through choking coughs. “I know I’m going to die. They—they keep the boat up river.”