The Tide (Book 3): Salvage

by Anthony J Melchiorri

  Dom barely avoided the bloodied claws. But the other Skull that had leapt from the bioreactor soon joined the fray. Both its arms seemed perfectly functional as it delivered blow after blow. Dom dodged and parried as best he could. One of his boots slipped on a pool of blood left by a dead Skull. He dropped again, and pain shot through him as he landed hard.

  The one-armed Skull lunged, and Dom grabbed the monster by its wrist. He lay on his back and planted his feet into the attacking creature’s chest. He kicked while still holding onto its wrist. Bone cracked and broke, and Dom wrenched the clawed hand until it was held on by only a few red sinews. He swept his leg out again and knocked the Skull completely off its feet. He almost let go when its hand suddenly snapped off, but instead he slammed the claws into the Skull’s own face. The bone daggers plunged through the Skull’s eye socket, impaling their owner and ending its miserable existence.

  The second Skull wasted no time in rushing Dom, intent on finishing what the other had not. This time, Dom reached for his thigh sheath and whipped out his knife. He sliced upward. The blade dug through the flesh under the creature’s chin. The Skull’s limbs drooped instantly, and Dom withdrew the blade. He flicked off the crimson liquid and replaced it in his sheath.

  A loud crash of metal against metal sounded somewhere in the main chamber. Dom snatched up his rifle and ran toward the noise. A containment door crumpled inward with an ear-splitting screech. Another Goliath, its head swiveling from side to side as it took in the room, emerged. A discordant noise followed as a second containment door flew through the air. Glenn and Miguel ducked under it. The door crashed against a pipe, slicing into it, and water sprayed out. It doused the nearby Skulls and Hunters alike. The second Goliath let out a bellow, its massive chest plates quaking. With each step it took, the floor trembled.

  The Hunters circled up. Packs of Skulls followed the two Goliaths, and the pile of bodies blocking the first door started to shift as yet more of the monsters squeezed through.

  “Chief, what the fuck do we do now?” Miguel asked.

  A low gurgling sounded from above. Dom thought it was a burst pipe, but a quick glance told him he was wrong. There, on a catwalk, stood a Drooler. A ventilation shaft hung open beside it, singed where the Drooler had burned its way out. The Drooler reeled back, and the gurgling grew louder as it prepared to drown the Hunters in acid.

  -32-

  Dom unleashed a hail of gunfire into the Skulls nearest them. He barreled straight into one, knocking it over. A powerful stomp crushed the creature’s head. “Move, move, move!”

  The Hunters ran, firing into the Skulls. They cleared a swathe around them and pushed toward the end of the room where the doorway was blocked by corpses. The wet slurp of acid bubbling from the Drooler’s mouth sounded overhead. It unleashed a spray into the spot where the Hunters had been. Caught by the corrosive shower, a half-dozen Skulls screeched. Their gray flesh bubbled, and the bony armor plates dissolved all the way to their innards.

  The wall of dead Skulls started to shake. Broken limbs and bone plates flew. A tremendous roar assaulted Dom’s eardrums. He gritted his jaw and fired into the cloud of debris and blood before the dust settled. Another Goliath was stepping through the pile of corpses. Its tree-trunk feet crushed the bodies beneath its steps. More Skulls surrounded it like an honor guard. Hooked talons slashed out. Rifles fired back. Curses flew from the Hunters’ mouths. Blood splattered.

  Another rumbling gurgle caught Dom’s ears. He spotted the Drooler on the catwalk once more, thick, acidic saliva dripping over the front of its pock-marked chest. It was preparing for another assault.

  “Where the fuck do we go?” Jenna asked, her voice stricken by panic. She reloaded, fumbling with the mag.

  Dom glanced around the room now choked with Skulls. There would be no easy way past the monsters, and the Goliaths were mere steps from being in range. Then he glanced at the Drooler again as brown bubbles popped from where its lower jaw should be.

  “Up!” Dom yelled, jerking his chin at a wiry staircase leading to the catwalk.

  Spencer pointed at the Drooler. “But—”

  “Up!” Dom bellowed, squeezing his trigger. The burst brought down a smaller Skull before it pounced on Miguel.

  Renee led the charge. She closed the distance to the stairs in a matter of seconds. The others followed, with a dozen Skulls nipping at their heels. Their cries urged the Hunters on. Renee shot up the first several steps, turning back only to help Jenna. The wounded Hunter limped up, with Glenn pushing her from behind. Spencer and Miguel provided a salvo of cover fire. Dom waited until all the Hunters made it up the stairs before he started climbing. Each pounding step he took shook the flimsy stairs. The entire shaky structure quaked. Dom shot a hand out and braced himself on one of the rails.

  “Captain!” Renee shouted, shouldering her rifle and firing at something behind him.

  He turned in time to see a Goliath wrap its claws around the stairs. The meager bolts holding the stair’s tubular supports popped from the floor. The Goliath bent the staircase, curling it like it was nothing more than a paperclip.

  Metal screamed as the welds tore. The Hunters fired on the Goliath, but the giant continued to pull the staircase away from the catwalk. Dom, clinging to the steps, dropped his rifle. It fell into the mass of writhing Skulls below. His boots slipped as more rivets and bolts popped. Dom’s muscles burned as he climbed. The stairs were bent so far now the staircase appeared more like a ladder. The Goliath roared, its hot, wet breath blasting Dom like a violent wind. More screeching metal, more flying bolts. Dom gripped the next stair with both hands.

  Glenn lay flat on the catwalk and reached down. Dom’s fingers shook, barely grazing Glenn’s. Then something heavy grabbed his boot, and his other hand slipped. He fell beyond Glenn’s reach and swung precariously. A Skull was latched onto his boot with one clawed hand.

  Adrenaline rushed through Dom. He strained to hold on, but he feared it wouldn’t be enough.

  Gunfire cracked, and the Skull let go. Its body fell into the roiling creatures, disappearing underneath their hungry faces and flailing limbs. Some of the smaller Skulls climbed atop the hulking Goliath and used the massive creature as a springboard. They leapt from its jutting shoulder blades, their claws arcing through the air.

  Dom contorted himself to avoid them, one after the other, as they jumped in desperate fury. Miguel and Jenna fired at the Goliath, shooting directly into its face. It swung a fist to ward off the gunfire and staggered. It stepped far enough away from the mutilated staircase that the smaller Skulls’ leaps fell several yards short from Dom’s boots. Sweat drenched the inside of his gloves. His biceps and forearms shook. He gasped for breath.

  “Come on, Captain!” Glenn said, reaching as far as he could.

  “I’m trying!” Dom grunted. But exhaustion overwhelmed any effect adrenaline had imparted. His right hand fell loose, and the fingers on his left hand started to slip. The Goliath began its attack on the stairs again, shaking them.

  “Captain!” Renee cried.

  Glenn’s eyes widened. His jaw clenched as he reached desperately for Dom.

  “I’m coming!” Dom said again, mustering every bit of dwindling strength he had left.

  He pulled himself up one stair, his feet still dangling. Then he made it to the next. Glenn’s fingers wrapped around his forearm. With the Hunter’s help, Dom hoisted himself up the final stairs. He managed to get a foothold and pushed himself up the rest of the way. Panting, he knelt with his palms flat on the catwalk.

  “Thanks,” he said between breaths.

  “No problem, Captain,” Glenn said. He started to stand.

  A gurgling sounded from behind Glenn. Dom forgot about his fatigue and shot up at once. A Drooler was waddling toward them. Its sick gurgling grew louder, ready to spew acid at any moment.

  “It’s going to blow!” Miguel yelled.

  Dom had no time to run from the creature. The best he could do was shield Gl
enn’s body with his own. Or—

  He lunged as the first bubbles popped from the Drooler’s mouth. He grabbed the creature’s arms, holding them flat against its chest with one hand, and clutched its horns with the other. With one leg, he kicked out the creature’s feet. When the acid started to spray, Dom twisted its head.

  Instead of pouring over Glenn, the acid splattered against the Goliath and the other Skulls milling around it. The Goliath swatted as if it could bat the liquid away. It let out an agonized roar. Acid continued to spray from the Drooler’s mouth. Dom yanked the creature’s head back and forth, using the Skull’s weapon against its abominable brethren. Skulls went wild when the spray cut through their armor and ate at their skin. Sizzling and screaming sounded from the writhing horde.

  “Fuck yeah, Chief!” Miguel yelled, pumping a fist in the air.

  When the Drooler’s acid slowed to a trickle, Dom lifted the scrawny creature and tossed it at one of the two remaining Goliaths. It smacked against the monster’s armor. The Goliath ignored the flailing Drooler until Renee hit the creature with a salvo. Rounds lanced into the Drooler’s swollen belly, cutting holes through the flesh. It exploded. Acid splattered against the Goliath, and its ribs started to dissolve.

  “Take him down!” Dom ordered.

  Each bullet that connected with the giant’s exposed lungs and beating heart sent the monster teetering. It faltered, its eyes rolling up, and then lurched with its claws clutching its chest. The Goliath toppled. It obliterated several smaller Skulls when it hit the floor.

  But the third Goliath hadn’t suffered from the debilitating acid spray. It almost seemed to grin. Dom watched in horror as it plunged its claws into an idle bioreactor. They cut into the metal, and the Goliath used the improvised handholds to hoist itself up. The Hunters fired at the monster, but it ducked its head. Bullets smacked into its horns and hardened skull.

  Other Skulls started leaping after the Goliath. They clambered over its body, using the giant’s jutting spikes like a ladder. The first couple scrambled over the Goliath’s head and jumped. Their claws caught on the catwalk. Dom used his handgun to send one back to the floor far below, and Jenna ended the others.

  But more climbed up. Their bones rattled, and their hunting cries bounced off the walls of the cavernous room. Dom’s slide locked back. Empty. He switched mags while Jenna and Renee sent a stream of white-hot lead into the creatures determined to reach the catwalk.

  “Chief!” Miguel yelled over the din. He pointed to the open ventilation shaft where the Drooler had come from.

  “Spencer, check it out!” Dom ordered.

  The Hunter stopped firing and dashed over. Miguel helped boost the man into the shaft. Spencer slung his rifle over his shoulder and climbed the rest of the way in. His boots disappeared into the darkness.

  “Looks clear!” the man barked over the comm link.

  “Hunters, get ready!”

  Glenn, Jenna, and Renee started a slow retreat from their position. They still swept their muzzles over the Skulls clambering onto the Goliath.

  “Spencer, where’s it lead?” Dom asked.

  “I’m at an intersection. Looks like it branches—” Silence. “What the fuck?”

  A bloodcurdling yell blasted through the comm link. Dom slapped a hand over his ear and recoiled from the noise.

  “Oh, god. Shit!” Spencer’s yells resonated over the comm link and from the ventilation shaft simultaneously. The entire silver shaft began to buck and shake. Spencer’s boots came out first as he backed out. Glenn and Miguel helped lower the man. Spencer held his hands over his eyes. Steam sizzled from under his gloves. He moaned in agony.

  “Come on, man! What’s wrong?” Glenn asked, prying the man’s hands away.

  Miguel was already tearing gauze and antiseptic from his tac vest. Glenn managed to get one hand away. A deep hole of despair cut through Dom’s gut at the sight. The skin on the right side of Spencer’s face was covered in green-brown liquid. Skin blistered and popped. Blood oozed from his wounds as acid ate away at his flesh.

  “Jenna, Renee, look out!” Dom shouted at the Hunters closest to the shaft.

  The two trained their rifles into the darkness. Dom ran to Spencer and pulled his water supply from his back. He dumped the cool liquid over Spencer’s burning flesh. The man howled in pain, a noise gruesome enough to rival the Skulls’ cries. When the blistering didn’t stop, Glenn splashed his water over the injured Hunter’s face. Dom looked between the shaft, the climbing Goliath, and Spencer.

  They were trapped.

  Glenn finished pouring a third bottle of water over Spencer. The man continued to moan, but the blistering seemed to have stopped. Miguel bent over the man and quickly sprayed an antiseptic onto the grisly injuries, followed by a hemostatic gel to staunch his bleeding. Glenn helped wrap the wound.

  “There it is!” Renee cried. Her rifle barked, followed by Jenna’s, as a Drooler flopped out of the ventilation shaft and onto the catwalk.

  “Move Spencer!” Dom yelled, waving Glenn and Miguel to help get the Hunter out of harm’s way.

  He trained his gun on the Drooler. The monster twisted its head, slowly, shakily. One of its arms ended in clean, white bone. Mud-colored acidic bile seemed to leak from every orifice of its body. It seeped from the open wounds in the monster’s chest, trickled from the hole where its mouth should be, dripped from its eye sockets. The Skull had slowly been eaten away by its own acidic discharge.

  Dom kicked the monster’s body into the waiting crowd of Skulls below. Flecks of acid sprayed from it as Renee and Jenna lit it up with gunfire. But the splattering acid was not as intense as the burst from the earlier Drooler.

  Despite Spencer’s injuries, Dom knew the only way they could escape the horde below was through that shaft. He shone a light into it, peering in to ensure no one would be ambushed again. The light reflected off drips of acid, but no other lingering Droolers appeared.

  “We’ve got to move!” he yelled. “I’ll take point.”

  He started to lift himself in. The catwalk shook suddenly, knocking him off balance. He crashed against a handrail; his fingers barely caught it as his boots slipped from under him. Renee screamed as the catwalk nearest her was pulled down by a set of massive claws. The Goliath had reached the walkway. Its weight dragged the structure down, and the Hunters scrambled for handholds, desperate to prevent themselves from tumbling into the hungry mouths below.

  Dom would be damned if he didn’t take a few of these monsters out with him. He hoisted himself up, balancing precariously on the shaking walkway. Three Skulls climbed over the Goliath and latched onto the catwalk. One dragged itself forward, its muscles pulsating underneath the plates along its arm. It stood, leaning slightly to its left. Dom saw its ankle was bent at an unnatural angle. The normally debilitating injury barely slowed it down as it limped toward Jenna. Jenna’s own injured ankle prevented her from running. Renee grabbed her and pulled the Hunter away. She tried to fire one-handedly at the Skulls, but the shots went wide. The kickback on the rifle was too much.

  “Hold your fire!” Dom bellowed, leaping over Jenna. He ran at the limping Skull. Like a linebacker, he slammed into the monster. He sent an elbow deep into the creature’s stomach. Bone plates fractured. Pain radiated up Dom’s arm, but he ignored it.

  The creature bashed Dom’s helmet. Flashes of red blurred his vision. But he carried on, pushing the monster back. With only one working foot, the Skull staggered. Dom landed a devastating uppercut into the monster’s chin. The creature’s head flicked back. More bones and skeletal plates cracked and fragmented. Its tongue lolled out, and its eyes rolled back.

  Dom kept charging, kept pushing the monster back. The limbs of other creatures flailed, caught behind the knocked-out Skull. He grabbed the injured Skull’s neck and used the monster like a riot shield. With his right hand, he pulled out his sidearm. At point-blank range, he sent lead straight through the orbital cavities of the two nearest Skulls. His teeth gri
tted and veins bulging in his neck, Dom continued the push. More shots, more shoving. He dug into the catwalk with his boots, summoning every ounce of strength he could muster. With a loud cry, he threw everything he had into one tremendous push. He managed to knock six creatures over the side of the catwalk.

  Their bodies collided with others, causing a cascade of demonic monsters. Those that fell were soon trampled by others with no qualms about taking their defeated kin’s place. Dom felt ready to heave, his stomach turning inside out at the tremendous effort he’d exerted. He collapsed to his knees as the catwalk shook again. The Goliath tore at the flimsy walkway from its perch on a bioreactor. It bared its tusks in a menacing snarl and wrapped both clawed hands around the end of the catwalk. Other Skulls limber enough to escape the Goliath’s attack prowled toward Dom.

  Gunfire sounded from behind him. “Got ya’ back, Chief,” Miguel said. He picked off the first couple. Glenn joined in, followed by Renee. Jenna fired from her seated position while holding Spencer in place. The man still writhed in agony, but at least he was alive.

  We’re all alive, Dom thought. And he’d make sure they stayed that way. He met the Goliath’s beady eyes and stood slowly. He had no rifle to offer fire support. His pistol’s ammo was depleted, too. But he’d taken more than one of those bastard Goliaths down on his own.

  “Don’t do it,” Miguel said, seeming to sense Dom’s plan. “Come on.”

  The Goliath roared. More bolts popped as the wires holding the walkway to the ceiling flew out. Dom wrapped his fingers around the handle of his blade. He knew right where to put it to stop the giant bastard in its tracks.

  -33-

  Dom prepared to lunge at the Goliath. His muscles coiled, and he tightened his grip around the knife. But before he could spring, an enormous explosion shook the bioreactor room.

  The Goliath shifted, almost falling. Its claws plunged into the shredded bioreactor.

  A second blast rocked the room. The torn appendages and torsos of devastated Skulls flew up near one of the doors. Fingers of flame shot out around the creatures like a beast straight from hell coming to reclaim its minions. Debris and dust plumed up in a gray cloud.