The crazies outside howled louder, and the door bent inward. Navid reached out, slowly, his hand shaking when he touched the cool metal handle and twisted it. He pulled the door open only a fraction of an inch before the crazies finished the job for him.
“Run!” he yelled to the others. The crazies spilled in, climbing over the furniture still in their way. Navid charged toward the office and ran inside. Geraldo slammed the door shut, and the crazies immediately began pounding and scratching at it.
Geraldo and Navid ran through the office door into the hall. Navid could hear the crash of the inner conference room door while the crazies shredded it. He and Geraldo caught up to Abby, Sandra, and James as they breached the stairwell. Their footsteps rang out. Abby hobbled along with Sandra supporting her. Navid bounded up the stairs to help.
“Which floor?” James asked, panting.
“Two more!” Geraldo yelled. “Take an immediate right. The lab is the second door on your left.”
One of the crazies broke through the stairwell door. It clawed its way up the stairs. Geraldo let loose with the pipe. The impact dented the crazy’s skull, but it didn’t stop the monster. It growled and pounced. Geraldo dodged the creature and swung the pipe at the back of its head. This time blood and bony fragments sprayed across the stairwell wall. Two more crazies came in.
“I can’t...it hurts.” Abby’s head lolled to the side, and she leaned on Navid.
“Come on, Abby,” Navid said. “You can do this.”
Sandra gasped for air on Abby’s other side. “You’ve got to help us help you.”
Geraldo beat another crazy with the pipe. He cocked the makeshift weapon back to hit another and then let loose. But the creature ducked under the arcing pipe and tackled Geraldo.
The pipe fell from Geraldo’s hands and clanged on the stairs. Navid didn’t hesitate. He let Sandra bear the brunt of Abby’s weight and dove toward the pipe. He picked it up, and the crazy reared back. Its arm tensed, and the muscles under its bony plates rippled. The claws came down in one fluid motion headed straight for Geraldo’s face.
Navid took a step forward and swung the pipe as hard as he could. It connected with the creature’s arm before glancing off. But it was enough to knock the crazy’s hand away from Geraldo.
“Thanks,” Geraldo said, scrambling to his feet. He kicked the crazy hard in the face, and Navid followed up with the pipe, catching the crazy under its chin. The thing’s head snapped back, and it tumbled down the stairs.
Navid handed the weapon back to Geraldo, and they sprinted to catch up to the others.
“Can you help me with her again?” Sandra asked.
“Of course.” Navid slid Abby’s left arm over his shoulder.
“This the one?” James asked, far ahead of the rest of the group. He stood in front of a door on a landing.
“That’s it!” Geraldo said.
James disappeared beyond the door, not waiting for the others. A loud crash sounded from below. More of the crazies shoved each other, desperate to join the fray in the stairwell. They sniffed and grunted, catching sight of their dead kin. It didn’t take them long to look up, their interests piqued by Navid and the others.
“All right, guys, I don’t think I can take ‘em all,” Geraldo said. “Let’s move!”
Navid’s muscles burned, and he pushed himself up. He couldn’t imagine Sandra felt much better. The adrenaline that had been fueling them seemed to be fading—at least, he felt that way. Only fear and his determination to help Abby carried him on. He took the steps quicker. Just a half-dozen to the top.
A smaller crazy wearing a soiled hospital gown decorated with teddy bears separated from the pack. It leapt up on the handrail and then jumped to the rails nearest Sandra. It lashed out with a claw, catching Sandra’s shoulder. She yelped in pain.
Geraldo used the pipe to push the crazy off. Its misshapen body fell into the void in the center of the spiraling staircase. The sound of its head hitting the handrails as it plummeted echoed up, joining the growls and cries of the others surging up the stairs.
Navid pulled open the door where James had disappeared. Abby, Sandra, and Geraldo spilled in. He looked around the hall for something to hold back the horde. Geraldo seemed to sense the dilemma and immediately thrust the heavy steel pipe through the door handle. At least if the crazies pulled on the door from the other side, the pipe should hold, giving them a little extra time.
“James?” Geraldo asked. No voice returned his call, but the door shook when one of the crazies hit it. “All right, follow me.”
Geraldo led them to their right, then down another hall connecting various research labs. He opened the door to the lab he’d said was under construction. Two windows allowed daylight to filter into the space. Three black lab benches stretched across the center. Power equipment lay on top of them, and white sheets were draped on the floor. Several cans of white paint, a few roller brushes, and two paint pans lay in one corner. James’s backpack sat next to them, but the old professor was nowhere in sight.
“Y’all okay?” Geraldo asked.
Abby groaned, her face still pale and her eyelids fluttering. Sandra nodded weakly, holding the wound on her arm.
“Did...did one of them get you?” Geraldo reached out to her.
She didn’t answer.
“It’s okay,” Geraldo said. “I’m not going to...don’t think about Kaitlyn.” He took a rag one of the painters had left behind and dabbed at the wound. “Here, we’ll just clean it up. It ain’t nothing. Just a little scratch. Maybe it don’t mean anything.”
Sandra’s head bobbed, but Navid could tell she didn’t believe him. Navid saw what was happening to Abby, knowing she’d had only a tiny cut. Sandra’s shoulder had been lacerated. Three long streaks of blood and torn tissue showed from the ripped fabric of her shirt.
“Christ, what took you four so long?” James asked, cradling something in his right arm and coming in from a back door in the lab. He used his left hand to gesture to the doorway behind him. “That lab’s being demolished, so they got all kinds of great weapons for us. You all need to grab one.”
They ignored him.
He stepped closer to the group. “What’s with the mood?”
Geraldo looked up at him, holding the rag to Sandra’s arm. Blood saturated it.
James’s eyes narrowed. “What happened?”
Navid’s heart skipped a beat. No one responded.
“What happened?” James’s asked louder. “Did one of those things do this? She’s going to turn!”
Abby held her hands over her ears and clenched her eyes closed.
Navid wrapped his arms around her. “Settle down, James. Sandra’s going to be fine.”
“The fuck she is.” James hoisted the object in his arm back. An ax. He cocked it back. “I saw what happened to Kaitlyn. We can’t risk that.”
“No, James! Don’t!” Geraldo yelled. He stepped in front of Sandra.
James butted Geraldo with the handle of the ax. The janitor fell back, and James took another step. Sandra held up her arm as James swung the weapon. It connected with her hand, and she shrieked.
“Stop!” Navid yelled, his stomach turning over. Abby shook in his arms and cried.
“No!” Geraldo jumped up, but James knocked him in the teeth with the ax handle. Geraldo fell back again.
James took another swing and cut into Sandra’s arm. She yelled, high-pitched and grating. James swung again and again until her screaming stopped. The clean white sheets that had been laid out for the lab’s repainting were soaked in red.
James’s chest heaved, and he caught his breath. He wiped a strand of hair back that had come loose from his comb-over. He pointed the ax at Geraldo, then Navid, then Abby. Abby cowered in Navid’s arms, and he squeezed her tighter.
“We can’t let our goddamn guard down,” James said, his tone menacing. “What I did was the right thing. Don’t you forget it. There wasn’t anything we could do for her, and you all
know that. Better one dies than all of us.”
Geraldo stood, his legs shaking. He spit blood. “But—”
James gestured at him with the ax. “There are no buts. This is black and white. They die”—he pointed at Sandra’s limp body and the puddle of blood around it—“or we do. Make your goddamn choice.”
Abby looked up at Navid. She said nothing, but he saw the fear in her eyes as she covered the small cut in her wrist with her other hand.
-33-
Bullets lanced into the Skull from Dom’s gun. The spray of gunfire knocked the creature off its trajectory, and it crumpled, falling across a support beam.
“Thanks,” Jenna said, already moving forward.
There was no time to enjoy the fleeting sense of victory at saving Jenna’s life. Two Skulls, no taller or bigger than Dom, climbed through the beams and rafters. One wore filthy, torn ACUs. Once a soldier, probably one that had tried to beat back the Oni Agent outbreak, it now stalked Dom. Clumps of gray hair hung from the other Skull’s head, tangled in between its crooked horns. The two creatures snarled, their bloodshot eyes burning with hatred. But Dom put an end to that hatred with three-round bursts into each of their heads.
He gave a final glance at the spot where Owen had disappeared, the man’s life literally torn apart before his eyes, and he started after Jenna and Spencer. He crawled over a set of water pipes. Jenna and Spencer were prying at the metal panel with their multi-tools.
“You positive this is the right place?” Jenn said, grunting as she pushed the corner of the panel open.
“Nope,” Dom said. “But we don’t have a fucking choice.”
The Goliath howled, still stuck below the beams and rafters. It struck out with one arm, but the Hunters were now far beyond its reach. Another guttural yell escaped its gray lips. It grabbed a pipe and pulled it back until it burst. Water sprayed from the pipe, splashing on the floor and turning crimson.
Three more Skulls leaped past the Goliath. A fourth pushed its way through one of the holes the Goliath had made in the ceiling. Dom fired on the Skulls slinking through the lattice of pipes, ventilation shafts, and beams. Rounds pierced the first two, knocking them backward. Bullets smashed into the third, but none broke through the skeletal plates protecting its graying flesh. Dom adjusted his aim and put several bullets through its face.
“Get that panel open!” he yelled and drew a bead on the fourth. He pulled the trigger, but his slide locked back. The Skull dodged under an air duct. Dom dropped the rifle to his side and pulled his HK45C from its holster. He fired off four shots in quick succession as the Skull cleared the duct.
Holes formed in the duct, and air hissed out. But the Skull was too quick and avoided the gunfire. It swung out and grabbed Dom’s boot, pulling his leg out from under him. Dom’s hand flew out. He tried to catch himself, and he lost his sidearm.
The Skull bit into Dom’s boot, but its teeth cracked on the steel toes. A salvo of deafening gunshots rang out. His ears rang, but the Skull went limp, blood pouring out of the fresh wounds in its head.
“Thanks,” Dom said, recovering his pistol.
Spencer gave him a quick nod and then holstered his sidearm. He and Jenna pulled together on the metal panel, and it finally released from the wall. The resulting hole led into a gaping void.
“That’s gotta be it!” Jenna said, shining her flashlight into the shaft.
“Let’s go!” Dom said as he reloaded his SCAR-H.
Jenna’s flashlight caught on ladder rungs. But the steel ladder was on the opposite wall. “We’re going to need to jump!”
“Then jump!” Dom said. Another six Skulls crept in. They prowled toward the Hunters.
“Help me with the light!” Jenna said to Spencer.
“You got it.” He shone his flashlight on the ladder, and Jenna put hers back on her vest.
Jenna’s legs coiled and she shot into the air. For a moment, her body disappeared into the darkness. Dom’s heart caught in his throat until he heard the ring of her boots hitting the steel rungs of the ladder.
“Down here!” Jenna’s voice called. Spencer adjusted the light while she sprang up the rungs. “Who’s next?”
A loud growl made Dom swivel. He shouldered his rifle, squeezed the trigger, and shot a burst of fire at the approaching Skulls. Even as he brought them down, more trickled past the frustrated Goliath. They wormed their way between the burgeoning piles of corpses, and Dom worked to cut them down.
“Go, Spence!” Dom called through gritted teeth.
Spencer fumbled with his flashlight, tucking it in his pocket. “Aye, aye,” he said, his tone unenthusiastic.
Dom put another three-round burst into a Skull’s head. “Jump, or deal with the Skulls!”
Jenna scaled the ladder and shone her flashlight down. The beam caused the rungs to cast long, ghastly shadows along the elevator shaft. “Come on!”
Spencer strapped his rifle across his back, crossed himself, and then jumped. His arms wheeled while he flew through space. He hadn’t propelled himself as well as Jenna, and fell almost fifteen feet before one hand hit a rung. It connected briefly, but his gloved hand slipped.
“No!” Jenna cried out.
Dom couldn’t watch, turning away momentarily to fend off the onslaught of Skulls. He clenched his jaw, and the rifle kicked against his shoulder. Each recoil shuddered through his torso. The flash from the muzzle illuminated the narrow space above the ceiling like precise, malicious lightning strikes. He watched the Skulls tumble over each other, dead and bleeding. For Hector. For Owen...For Spenc—
“Shit!” A deep voice echoed from within the elevator shaft.
“Are you okay?” Jenna called down.
“Fuck no. But I’m alive.” The rhythmic clang of Spencer climbing the ladder resounded against the shaft walls.
A fleeting wave of relief flowed through Dom. “Get your ass up here!”
The slide on his SCAR-H locked back. Out of ammo. Again. He released the magazine and jammed in a fresh one. A Skull burst out from under a ventilation duct.
Dom had no time to raise his weapon. He jumped backward into the elevator shaft, twisting in the air. He flailed for a rung with his left hand, heart leaping as he came up empty. He tried with his right hand, his fingers slipping down the first, but connecting with the second. The jolt pulled on his arm socket, pain lancing down his side. Wincing, he reached with his left hand and anchored both in place. Momentum carried the rest of his body forward, and his chest slammed against the ladder. The collision knocked the air out of him.
“Captain, you okay?” Jenna called out from above, her voice echoing.
“Fine...I’m fine.”
The screams of the Skulls pierced the elevator shaft. The resulting din deafened Dom. He fought through his burning nerves and propelled himself up the ladder to Jenna and Spencer.
Something crashed into the wall on his left. He swiveled in time to see a Skull crumple and plummet. It flailed its sinewy, plated arms as it fell, dimly illuminated by Jenna’s flashlight.
“They’re coming in, Captain!” Spencer called.
“Don’t I know it!” Dom picked up his pace, desperate to climb above the panel he and the Hunters had leapt from moments ago.
Another Skull smashed against the wall, followed by a second and third. They leapt with abandon, fueled by the hunt, by hunger. Fear of the dark unknown or of heights evidently meant nothing to them.
The wails and earsplitting screams continued. Another hit the ladder below Dom. Its claws fought for purchase. This one didn’t disappear into the murky darkness like the others. It grabbed hold of the ladder and began climbing.
Dom snatched his HK45C from its holster with one hand. He used his other hand to grip the ladder, and he leaned back enough to let loose three rounds into the Skull. One of the bullets connected with the beast and knocked it backward, its grip on the ladder lost. Its cry of rage whined away as it disappeared.
“Made it!” Jenna yelled. A sud
den square of blinding white light burst from above. The bright sunlight silhouetted her, and she exited onto the roof.
A brief howl caught Dom’s attention. Another Skull, short but with long, skinny limbs, leapt into the darkness. He watched it disappear, guessing it too had fallen to its death.
Spencer followed close behind Jenna. Dom found himself envying the spryness of the younger Hunters. His palms burned, his arms shook, and his legs felt like they were giving out from under him. He was too old for this shit.
Just when the feeling was coming back in his legs, a bony apparition reached up and grabbed his boot. The beast hung off the ladder below. Dom kicked the creature in its face. It growled and snapped, its serrated teeth crunching together. Dom brought his leg up. He smashed his boot into its face again, and the Skull cartwheeled backward.
With the sun streaming inside, he watched the creature fall onto a growing pile of Skulls at the bottom of the shaft, like a portal to hell. Above, there was salvation, clouds rolling across a blue sky.
The salty air drifting in washed away the scent of death. Sweat dripping down his forehead, he squinted and climbed toward the sunshine, ignoring the clatter of the Skulls below.
Jenna and Spencer offered their hands and yanked him from the tunnel, locking the panel back into place as soon as he was on the roof. The sweet thrum of chopper blades beating the air masked the screeches of the beasts pounding on the hatch.
“Alpha, we’re coming down,” Frank’s voice sounded over the comm.
“Copy.” Dom motioned to Jenna and Spencer to follow him across the roof to where the AW109 was descending. The chopper sent waves of dust and air undulating over them. “Bravo, this is Alpha. What’s your sitrep?”
“All aboard and safely out to sea, Captain,” Renee’s voice answered.
“Well done, Bravo.”
Dom stole a glance toward the basin where the sailboats and the yard patrol craft were churning the water. The Huntress waited in the bay, ready to guide the boats toward Kent Island. They were so close to escape, so close to establishing a safe zone.
The Tide: Breakwater (Tide Series Book 2) Page 23
