Three thousand feet.
Clear of the storm, X maneuvered into a back flying position with his legs and arms spread. The glow of a battery unit came into view. Two seconds later and a diver shot through the clouds above. As soon as he confirmed it was Aaron he reached over and pulled his ripcord. The suspension lines tightened and pulled as the chute fired, defying gravity and slowing him from the fall. He wrapped his gloved fingers around the toggles and steered toward a field of dirt to the north of two crumbled buildings.
With an LZ identified, he strained his neck to scan the sky for Aaron. The diver came back into view a heartbeat later, but something was wrong. He was still in a nosedive and was falling toward the core of the remaining towers.
“Aaron, pull your fucking chute!” X shouted into the comm.
Static crackled. A second passed. Another two hundred and fifty feet closer to the ground.
Aaron’s panicked voice boomed over the channel. “I can’t see! My night vision isn’t working!”
X used a stolen second to check his LZ. He was still on course for a clear landing. He returned his gaze to the sky, locking on the blur of blue that was Aaron.
“Pull your chute! I’ll guide you.”
“I can’t see nothin’ but rooftops’!” The flurry of static couldn’t hide the fear in Aaron’s voice.
“Pull your chute, goddammit!”
X tightened his grip on his toggles as Aaron’s canopy finally deployed. He still had a chance to slow down, a chance to survive. X would guide him. His eyes would become Aaron’s eyes.
“Steer to your left!”
Aaron pulled away from the towers, but there were so many. Too many. He plunged toward the carcass of what had once been a magnificent metropolis.
X rotated for a better view. His ears popped at one thousand feet, and dizziness washed over him. He blinked it away, keeping his eyes on Aaron. He was slowly gliding away from the buildings.
“I can’t see, X!”
“Keep to your left. You’re almost clear!”
There was a pause.
“Remember what I told you about Tin?” Aaron’s voice was softer now.
X’s heart skipped a beat. “Yes.”
“You have to take care of him. Promise me!”
“Aaron, you’re going to make it! Keep to your fucking left! You’re almost clear.”
The canopy pulled Aaron away from the jungle of metal, but X couldn’t see a clear landing zone. He squirmed against his harnesses, his eyes roving frantically across the desolate landscape for a way down.
“Promise me,” Aaron repeated.
X sucked in a measured breath. “I promise. But you’re going to—”
Before he could finish his sentence, Aaron’s blue silhouette smashed into the side of a building. He watched helplessly as the diver’s chute caught on the jagged metal. The force tore it from Aaron’s back.
His best friend plummeted into the darkness.
The lonely sound of static washed over the comm. He lost sight of Aaron a blink later, but heard the crunching thud over the comm as his friend’s body impacted with the pavement. The noise was deafening, like a shotgun had fired next to his skull.
X stared at the buildings in astonishment, unable to process that Aaron was really gone. He had seconds before he hit the ground himself, but he couldn’t pull his gaze away from the towers. He couldn’t bear the thought of finding Aaron’s mangled corpse. Not now, not after surviving so many dives.
He snapped alert at the last minute when he remembered his promise and his duty. Humanity was counting on him. X couldn’t die. He still had a mission to complete: find the power cells and look after Tin.
Bending his knees slightly, he prepared to land on a field of dirt. He pulled on the toggles to slow his descent and performed a two-stage flare on approach. A halo of dust exploded around him as his boots connected with the poisoned ground. He tried to run out the momentum, but his knees folded and he lost his balance.
X hit the ground hard, his body tumbling and then skidding across the surface. When he finally came to a stop he was on his back. He lay there for several moments. That horrible crunching sound still echoed in his ears. He couldn’t see. He couldn’t breathe. His entire team had been lost in a single jump—in what was supposed to be a green zone dive.
In a sudden fit of rage, X cursed and struggled to his feet. He thrashed at the chute wrapped around his mid-section and legs. The loose material rippled in the toxic breeze. He squirmed and pulled it away from his armor, tripping and falling to the ground in the process. He pulled his knife and sliced through the harnesses, finally freeing himself of the chute. He cursed again at his luck, and kicked at the dirt from a sitting position.
It was quiet now. The wind had calmed and the clap of thunder was distant on the horizon. He sheathed his knife and lingered on the ground before pushing himself to his feet.
Fuzz broke across his vision as the blood rushed from his head. He looked past the stars to his HUD. The beacon of the supply crate Ty had dropped was a half-mile away.
Reaching down, he activated his wrist computer. A mini-map ballooned across the screen. He flicked the surface with the tip of a finger and dragged a NAV marker to the crate’s location.
At least he wouldn’t have to trek across the wastelands for hours to secure his gear. He checked the map for a second time to search for the main target. The Hive’s records put the nuclear fuel cells in an old warehouse about two miles from the supply crate. He set a second NAV flag to mark the location.
When he’d finished plotting his route he checked the radiation readings. His heart skipped when he saw the digital telemetry on his HUD. Something had to be wrong. The numbers were astronomical.
Green dive my ass.
There wasn’t time to curse Captain Ash’s team. He had to get moving. His layered suit wouldn’t protect him from the radiation forever. He pulled his blaster from the holster on his right hip and cracked the triple-barreled break-action open to expose two shotgun shells in the breech. It was good he checked; he had forgotten the flare. He plucked one from his vest, inserted it in the top barrel, then snapped the action closed with a click.
The training and experience he’d acquired over ninety-six dives kicked in. He sucked in a breath and scanned the destruction surrounding him. His view was framed on the sides by hundreds of skeletal buildings and at the top by the swirling storm. It was a sight the Hell Divers had seen countless times.
Only this time he was the last man standing to see it.
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About the Author
NICHOLAS SANSBURY SMITH is the bestselling author of the Orbs and Extinction Cycle series. He worked for Iowa Homeland Security and Emergency Management in disaster mitigation before switching careers to focus on his one true passion—writing. A three-time Kindle All-Star, several of Smith’s titles have reached the top 50 on the overall Kindle bestseller list and as high as #1 in the Audible store. Hell Divers, the first book in his new trilogy, will release in July 2016. When he isn't writing or daydreaming about the apocalypse, he's training for triathlons or traveling the world. He lives in Des Moines, Iowa, with his dog and a house full of books.
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Extinction End (Extinction Cycle Book 5) Page 41
