Alone in the Crowd (The Chronicles of Anna Foster Book 3)

by Patrick Stutzman

  Several minutes passed with no encounters. The lights from the alien research station were far behind them, appearing almost as a tiny pinprick amid the ocean of darkness. The flashlights mounted on their rifles and in Anna’s hand provided their only light. Only the catwalk could be seen before and behind them. As they navigated through the cavern, Anna wondered how big the Altiki’s underground city truly was.

  A brief flash of light from the front of the group caught Anna’s attention. The motion sensor indicated movement nearby. Cooper’s fist shot up, bringing them to a halt. Jason’s rifle swept the area behind them, the beam from his rifle-mounted flashlight reflecting off the jagged roof of the cave. Anna watched the sensor readout as first a second and then a third bogey entered the three-dimensional display.

  Cooper pointed his rifle down, shining his light through the grated floor. Anna followed suit, keeping her pistol aimed with the light. Several meters below, on what looked to be an open-air balcony, prowled three black-furred triwolves. They stopped, flinching at the sudden brilliance in their eyes, and looked up toward the group. Cooper kept his light on them and moved to the edge of the walkway, preparing to fire. Anna shook her head in silence.

  Without warning, the three creatures howled, their ear-splitting chorale echoing off the rock walls and buildings. Tomomi reflexively slapped her hands over her ears, wincing from the shrieks. Cary recoiled and almost backed into Tomomi, and Jason flinched, nearly dropping his weapon. Cooper fired, and Anderson joined the assault. Only a handful of shots from the troopers took out the beasts.

  As the sounds of laser fire and howling died down, Anna’s ears picked up bays from many more triwolves deeper in the darkness. She panned her eyes across the rest of the group. They had heard them, too.

  As the soldiers renewed the holds on their weapons and backed toward the middle of the catwalk, Anderson glanced at the sensor. “Sir?”

  Anna’s and Cooper’s gazes turned to the readout. Multiple blips converged on their location from all directions, mostly from below. The ones below did not concern Anna that much. The cloud of blips indicating airborne creatures produced a dark pit of horror in her stomach. Memories of the creature that had dug into her shoulder many years ago flashed through her mind.

  “Sergeant, we need to go!” Her words mirrored the terror she felt.

  “Move!” barked the sergeant.

  Everyone sprinted down the catwalk into the darkness. Cooper trained his light in front of them, while Anderson held the scanner up and watched the readings. Anna forced herself to slow her pace to stay with the rest. As she saw Cary and Tomomi falling behind the soldiers, she decelerated more to stay with them. Jason rushed past them but stopped and fell back to help Anna protect them.

  “Cooper!” Anna yelled out of desperation.

  The sergeant looked over his shoulder, spotting the gap between him and the rest. “Shit! Anderson, fall back!”

  They slowed their pace to allow the others to catch up.

  “Sir, look!”

  Cooper fixed his eyes upon the readout. A few of the bogeys from below were following them, but the cloud of airborne creatures descended to where the triwolves that had been shot were located.

  “What in the hell?”

  Anna interpreted the signals. “They’re feeding, but it won’t last long.”

  With a nod, Cooper turned his eyes forward again.

  Another minute passed. Anderson tracked the creatures following them as they continued to run. Anna suddenly called, urgently, “Sergeant! Ahead!”

  Looking forward, he spied a pinprick of bright light far in the distance. Smiling, he nodded and gestured to keep moving.

  Mere seconds passed before Anderson spoke. “Sir, they’re moving again.”

  Anna and Cooper glanced at the sensors and saw the mob of airborne creatures trailing them, gaining ground with each passing second.

  “I thought you said they were feeding.” His voice bounced with his footfalls as he ran.

  “I said I didn’t think it would take them long.” Anna’s reply did not instill much comfort with the rest of the group.

  “They’re gaining, sir.” Anderson cut in. “Twenty meters and closing.”

  Anna calculated the distance to the point of light ahead. The results looked grim. She cast a glance over her shoulder, catching sight of a cloud of tiny, glowing yellow dots slowly bearing down on them. The wispy sounds of the creatures’ flight tickled her ears. She knew she could not outrun them and stay with the others. Gripping her pistol and looking forward, she aimed blindly behind her, and fired a bolt of lethal energy toward the approaching flock. A brief shriek pierced the silence, followed by a few others as some of the tiny predators converged to feed on their fallen comrade.

  “What did you do?” Anderson’s eyes never strayed from the sensors while he ran and called back his question.

  “I just shot at them.”

  “It slowed them down for a second,” Anderson said.

  Cooper jerked his face toward the display briefly. “What happened?”

  “They dispersed for a second but converged again. Still closing.”

  “Anna,” the leader barked. “Shoot them again!”

  She risked another look over her shoulder and fired again. No shriek followed.

  Anderson announced, “They dispersed again. Ten meters.”

  Anna could now clearly hear the flapping of their wings. Jason quickly looked over his shoulder. “Oh, shit! They’re almost on top of us!”

  “Just keep running, Jason!” Anna said.

  The sound of heavy breathing reached Anna’s ears. Cary’s pace had slowed. She fired over her shoulder again. “Cary, stay with us! You can’t slow down now!”

  “I’m…trying…Anna.” His labored breathing told her he was near his limit.

  “Sergeant!” Tomomi cried for help, her breathing not quite as heavy as her counterpart’s.

  Cooper glanced behind him at the two scientists for half a second. “Anderson, get these two to the light source ahead. Hopefully, that’s the way out.”

  “What are you going to do?”

  “Anna and Jason will help me distract them long enough for you to get them to safety.”

  “Not a good idea!” Anna disputed. “They’ll eat us alive and move on to the rest.”

  “Not if we keep firing at them!”

  “Sergeant, I…”

  “I’m not arguing with you! Do it, or I’ll shoot you myself!”

  Jason and Anna exchanged glances. Jason spoke. “With all due respect, sergeant…”

  “I will shoot you first and leave your sorry ass behind to feed them if you don’t follow my orders!” Cooper countered the challenge. “With all due respect, Fuller!”

  Jason cursed under his breath. “Okay.”

  “On three.”

  Anna’s mind raced back to her first encounter with the flying predators, hoping to remember something to help in their defense.

  “One…”

  Anderson cried, “Five meters!” Anna fast-forwarded through the battle, retracing her actions. She had survived against them. What had she done? Jason flipped a switch on his weapon, switching the firing mode to full-auto.

  “Two…”

  Jason repeated the universal mantra of anxiety, “Oh, god! Oh, god! Oh, god!”

  Anna’s awareness zipped through her memories. The eclipse. Fired her pistol. Waved a torch back and forth. Was it fire? Not fire…light!

  “Thr…”

  “Wait!”

  “No time, woman!” Cooper screamed.

  “Shine your flashlights at them while you fire!”

  “FYI, Anna. We have flashlights attached to our rifles! We’ll do that…”

  “No! Spread your shots to hit them with the light, too. They’re afraid of the light.”

  “Noted. Three!”

  As Anderson and the scientists sprinted onward, Cooper, Jason, and Anna wheeled about, loosing multiple blasts of energy into the
storm of bat-like creatures descending upon them. The little beasts screeched whenever the artificial light touched them, even as they dashed away from the laser blasts piercing their ranks. A few, struck by the shots, dropped to the catwalk. Some slammed into the cavern wall, flapping frantically to stay airborne. Some withdrew into the darkness to renew their attack. Others could not fully divert their path and dived just above the humans’ heads. As some of them flew past, Cooper followed with his rifle and continued to spray laser bursts at them.

  “Close ranks!” Cooper’s orders could barely be heard over the shrieks and weapon discharges. “Move toward the light!”

  Anna, closer to the wall, and Jason moved backward until their shoulders touched Cooper’s before he turned to face forward. In unison, they moved like a well-oiled machine down the catwalk toward the distant light and their fleeing companions, picking off the deadly flyers one or two at a time. Jason continued to spray the air with automatic fire, his red blasts chasing away the avians that circled too close but hitting very few of them.

  “Fuller, watch your ammo! Switch to single-fire!”

  Ahead, Cooper spotted a couple of lasers slice through the darkness.

  “Fuck!” the sergeant yelled. “They caught some stragglers!”

  The predators began to swoop on the trio in twos and threes, forcing the humans to duck and weave while returning fire. As Jason pivoted to target another group, one of the beasts dived in, landed on his shoulder, and bit deep. His painful scream accompanied the gaping hole in their defense left by him no longer firing his weapon. Before anyone could react, three more swooped in and clamped on his chest and one of his legs.

  “Jason!” Anna immediately widened her firing arc with her pistol, fearing the impending assault.

  Cooper risked a look behind him. “Shit!” He switched his rifle to full-auto and swept his shots as far as his peripheral vision could see, screaming as he filled the air with waves of lethal energy.

  Alternating between the predators on Jason’s body and the ones still airborne seeking a way to devour her friend, Anna fired one shot after another until all of those attached to him were dead.

  “Give me your rifle,” she seethed between shots. He handed her the weapon with what little strength he had.

  Quickly holstering her pistol and still-lit flashlight before taking his weapon, Anna grabbed it and pulled the trigger, clamping it in place with her trigger finger. Shifting her aim in a wide figure-eight, she watched the fiends attempt to swoop and dive away from the shots. The rifle in her hands stopped firing after a few seconds. She gave the unresponsive gun a quick, disbelieving glance before multiple screeches filled the air. Dropping the weapon, she drew her pistol and fired a shot in the dark before several predators plummeted toward her, soaring away at the last second to avoid the light coming from her right hip.

  Grunting in pain, Jason crouched and grabbed his rifle again. Fighting the urge to sit, he straightened his posture and directed the light from under the gun’s barrel around him like before.

  Anna asked him while she fired, “Can you run?” Stealing a quick glance, the wide-eyed look of sheer horror on his face told her volumes. He’d never faced death, not like this. He wasn’t ready for it.

  Following a few seconds of frantic slashing of the beam of light from his rifle through the air, he quickly nodded after a brief cringe.

  Firing one last shot, Anna pivoted on the ball of her foot. “Run!”

  Shooting past Cooper, Anna and Jason took the lead, but only for a second. The trained soldier picked up the pace, firing into the air above him for a few seconds before dropping the rifle onto his shoulder and continuing with short bursts.

  Far in the distance, Anna barely discerned three bodies emerging into the growing area of light and moving toward the wall. A couple more bursts of energy released into the darkness. With another look behind her, she discovered Jason lagging behind, struggling to run while favoring his uninjured leg. At least a dozen predators were almost on top of him.

  “Damn it!” Anna pivoted mid-stride, firing as she turned and landed. Two creatures fell, and the rest dispersed for a couple of seconds. “Jason, shine your light behind you!” A few more swooped in for the kill. Another shot from her pistol sent them back. Without stopping, the young man raised his rifle over his head, swinging it back and forth as he raced toward the light.

  Letting him pass her, Anna released a few more shots at the oncoming flock, forcing them to give up the assault. Their screams sent shivers down her spine. She turned and quickly caught up with Jason, who still waved his rifle to and fro. Slowing her pace to match his, she aimed her pistol over her shoulder and blindly fired behind her. Several meters in front of them, Cooper rushed toward the light, occasionally releasing a burst of energy bolts over their heads at their pursuers.

  A dozen meters past the sergeant, something larger than him flew out of the darkness and landed on the catwalk. A lone triwolf gained its footing and pointed its long snout at him as he approached, growling its warning as it prepared to pounce.

  “Fuck!” Cooper brought his rifle to bear with blinding speed and fired a burst at the impeding beast. The black-furred predator flexed two of its hind legs to jump, but the impact of several energy blasts burned into its body. It dropped to the metal grating just as the sergeant vaulted over it.

  Two more triwolves landed on the walkway. They took quick note of their fallen partner and sprang into action. One pursued Cooper, while the other caught sight of Anna and Jason and raced toward them.

  “Keep swinging the light, Jason.” Anna brought her pistol to bear and fired. One shot flew harmlessly past it. Another screech from the airborne predators behind them reminded her how close they were. Her second shot hit the floor a meter before the furred animal. It barked hoarsely at her and lowered its head, bearing its three sets of teeth. Two more shots. One missed. The other pierced its upper-left eye. It yelped in pain as it stumbled meters in front of them.

  Anna swerved toward the cavern wall. “Dodge!” Jason maneuvered toward the railing as he sped past the triwolf. The beast’s jaws snapped at him, but he just avoided its mouth. Anna fired point-blank as she passed. It cried out again from its newest injury.

  Multiple screams pierced the air a couple of meters behind Anna and Jason once they were past the triwolf. Taking a peek behind, Anna saw the flock descend upon the injured creature. It howled again and again amidst their feeding frenzy, each howl lower than the one before.

  “Gives us some time,” she observed, turning her head forward once more. Seeing the triwolf in the distance chasing Cooper, she fired at it. Though her shot missed, it stalled its pursuit while it turned to glare at her for a brief second. She fired again, narrowly missing its upper-hind leg.

  * * * * *

  Jason stole a glance at the carnage unfolding behind him. Within the few seconds since Anna had looked, the avians had already consumed parts of their victim’s skin, exposing muscle and bone. “Oh, god!” He felt his stomach wretch from the gruesome sight. Swallowing down the bile rushing into his mouth, he fought the urge to stop and vomit over the railing. “I think I’m going to be sick.”

  Anna said, “Next time, don’t look.”

  “Now, you tell me!”

  * * * * *

  Cooper reached the light, which was higher than they had originally figured. Not taking time to study the area, he leaped for a caged ladder secured to the wall that extended up toward the light while tossing his rifle to his other hand. Grabbing one of the outer bars, he swung around the cage but kept his hold. The triwolf in pursuit ignored the light bathing the area and jumped toward its prey. From several meters back, Anna fired two more shots. She thought both hit its backside as it leaped. It cried out and slammed into the sergeant, knocking him loose. He screamed as it hit him and threw him to the catwalk, pinning him down. Anna and Jason, on arriving, noticed that the predator did not move.

  * * * * *

  Anna said, “Jason
, climb!”

  Tearing his eyes away from the animal, Jason rushed to the ladder and scrambled up after slinging his rifle over his shoulder, risking a glance back the way they came.

  Anna hurried to Cooper’s side and helped him shove the dead carcass away. He jumped to his feet and paused at the bottom of the ladder, pointing his rifle into the darkness toward the distant shrieks. Anna rushed toward their exit and nearly stumbled into him when he stopped. “What are you waiting for?”

  “I’ve got you covered. Go!”

  “We don’t have time for this!”

  He took a quick peek over his shoulder at her. “You’re right. Go!”

  Anna sighed, frustrated by Cooper’s stubborn attitude, and dodged around him to the ladder. As she grasped the first rung, a new chorus of high-pitched screams reached her ears, louder than before. The winged beasts had resumed their pursuit. Her pulse quickened, and shivers rippled down her spine. She broke through the mental barrier freezing her in place and sped up the ladder. After she had ascended a couple of meters, Cooper sprang onto the ladder and quickly followed. The ravenous flock swarmed on the dead triwolf, feverishly ripping through and devouring its flesh despite the bright sunlight shining down on them. Their screeches chilled Anna to the bone, urging her to quicken her pace.

  Sooner than they anticipated, the ladder reached the metal lip that melded with the welcome sight of a sunlit grassy plain. Anna pulled herself out of the large opening and flinched when Jason grabbed her hand to help. She collapsed on the ground with a slight giggle when her feet touched it. Seconds later, the sergeant followed, turning down Jason’s assistance.

  “Thank goodness that’s over!” Cary’s comment brought a smile to everybody’s face.

  Cooper moved toward Anderson after breathing a subtle sigh of relief and wiping away his grin. “Anderson, how far are we from home?”

  “About two kilometers that way, sir,” he replied while pointing toward the hill ahead of him. “I’ve already reported in.”

  “Good job, soldier.” Turning to the rest of the group, the leader commanded, “Okay, ladies. On your feet! We’re hiking back!”