by Anna Hackett
Hell Squad moved as a group, quiet and tense. Still nothing. Overhead, clouds formed a dark, roiling mass that blanketed the sky.
Shaw was looking up. Through the high-tech scope of his long range laser rifle. Gabe followed his gaze.
One strange cloud was larger, and blacker, than the others. And it was moving, twisting.
“What the fuck?” Shaw said.
Everyone turned, looked up.
“What is it?” Marcus demanded.
“No idea.” Shaw shook his head. “I can’t make it out.”
Gabe kept staring. The cloud was growing larger.
And heading toward them.
His pulse tripped. “It’s a mass of some sort of animals! Birds, maybe.”
“Shit. Get to cover,” Marcus roared.
They started running, but they were only half-way across the field when the swarm hit.
Chapter Twelve
Sharp things nipped and slashed and bit at Gabe. Fuck.
He heard the rest of the squad cursing and yelling. It was like a cloud of bats. Gabe pulled one arm over his head, batting at the creatures with his other hand.
One animal landed on the grass at his feet. Not a bat. A tiny, winged, dinosaur-like alien with barbed wings, sharp teeth, and curved claws.
He heard some of Hell Squad shooting. Gabe swung his carbine around. They were too small to shoot at, but maybe they could scare them off. If they could see them in the growing darkness. He flicked on his tactical flashlight.
With a high-pitched squeal, the creatures rushed away from him in a flutter of wings. He frowned, then he realized. “The light! They don’t like the light.”
The others flicked their flashlights on. It left them in a small cocoon of safety. At the edge of the light, the aliens screamed and flapped their wings. The team kept moving and Gabe glanced around. Everyone was bleeding, faces covered in cuts and blood. Reed had a hand over one eye, blood oozing between his fingers.
Then Gabe looked up. Oh, no. “Hellions!”
The canid-like creatures were pouring down the sides of the stadium, leaping over seats and railings. Their bellies glowed red, filled with acidic poison.
“Use your cedar-oil grenades,” Marcus yelled.
Gabe snatched his off his belt. Santha had come up with the substance and canids and hellions hated the stuff.
He tossed his canister. He heard the bang and the hiss of spray. Around him, the others were doing the same.
“Won’t hold them for long,” Marcus yelled. “Elle, we’re pinned down. Everyone’s got minor injuries. We need to retreat.”
Retreat? Gabe’s stomach clenched. No, they had to find the head raptor and the Genesis tanks. “But we’re so goddamned close.”
Marcus’ eyes gleamed in the shadows. “We won’t give up. But we won’t die for it, either.”
Gabe gritted his teeth and looked again at Reed. The guy had moved his hand and was probing his cheekbone. His eye was a bloody, gouged mess. Gabe cursed. The sensible thing to do was retreat.
But that dark, angry part of him didn’t want to turn back.
“Hellions are almost here,” Shaw said. He was firing, picking off what alien dogs he could. The others were braced and ready, guns up. Claudia looked like she’d gone head-to-head with a serial killer and lost. Her face was covered in ugly scratches and cuts. And right now, you couldn’t tell Cruz had a face the ladies at base drooled over.
“Marcus,” Elle said. “There’s a tunnel exit into the team locker rooms. To the east.”
Marcus turned. “Got it. Hell Squad, let’s get back to the Hunters. Pull in and stay close.”
They entered the narrow tunnel. The hellions were yowling and yipping outside. The squad was walking backwards, guns aimed.
They did not want to get caught in this tunnel with the hellions.
The first creature bounded in through the tunnel entrance. The team opened fire, the sound of their carbines deafening in the enclosed space. They kept up the steady stream of laser fire and kept moving backward.
One hellion managed to get through. Gabe yanked out his combat knife and leaped forward to meet it. Adrenaline roared through his blood stream. He kicked the animal in its tooth-filled mouth and stabbed it in the neck, avoiding its poisonous belly.
As the alien dropped down dead, he kicked it away and swung his carbine back up.
“Left!” Marcus roared.
Gabe looked. The tunnel had opened up into locker rooms. He spotted an emergency exit light, still lit. No doubt powered by some tiny nuclear reactor still running in the bowels of the stadium.
The squad moved through the locker room. Cruz slammed the door to the tunnel shut. “Help me with some of these lockers.”
Shaw and Gabe helped him manhandle some of the metal lockers in place. A second later, weight hit the other side of the door, making the door and the lockers shudder.
“Let’s keep moving.” Marcus headed out through the opposite doors.
They passed offices, shower rooms, medical treatment rooms.
Elle’s voice came again. “At the end of the corridor you’ll find stairs leading up. They’ll bring you to the main level and you can get out to the parking lot.”
“Roger that, Elle.” Marcus gestured them on. “Reed? You okay?”
Reed’s face screwed up. “I can’t see much. This eye is messed up and the other’s got blood in it.”
“Claudia, stay near Reed.”
“You need Claudia bringing up the rear, not babysitting me—”
“Your vision is compromised. Gabe, watch our ass. Now, let’s get the fuck out of here.”
They rounded a corner. Ahead, Gabe saw the stairs, and everyone moved steadily towards them.
A noise behind him made him turn.
He stiffened. The one-eyed raptor stood in a nearby doorway.
And he was holding Emerson in front of him, an ugly, scaled hand clenching a gun that was jammed up under her chin.
Gage lifted his carbine, his heart roaring in his ears. “Marcus!”
Marcus cursed. Emerson made a small sobbing sound.
Gabe blinked. Not Emerson. Another woman who looked similar, with her blonde hair gleaming in the darkness.
The raptor stared at Gabe with his glowing red eye, then stepped backward out of view, dragging the woman with him.
Gabe took a step forward. One shot. That was all he needed. One good shot and he could end the fucker and rescue that woman. He took another step toward the doorway.
“Gabe!” Marcus growled. “We have to go. Reed’s injured, we can’t—”
“He’s got a woman, Marcus.” A woman who looked like Emerson. It would only take a second.
He strode through the doorway. It was a large, open-plan office area. Empty except for now-dusty desks. Across the room, another door stood open.
“Gabe?” Marcus’ furious whisper across the comms. “Where the fuck are you?”
“I’m in pursuit.”
“No, dammit!”
Suddenly gunfire ripped across the comms. Marcus was bellowing orders, the others were yelling. The squad was under attack.
Gabe turned, he had to get back. Then the raptor appeared, the woman still in front of him.
Gabe fired. The shot was high, he couldn’t risk hitting the woman. The raptor dodged it easily.
“I’ll get you out of here,” Gabe yelled.
The woman lifted her head. And laughed.
Gabe tensed. Her eyes were glowing a faint red and her face was covered in patches of scales.
Fuck. The bastard had lured him in here…and like an idiot, he’d followed.
“Grenade,” Cruz shouted.
Gabe heard the violent bang. Heard one of the team yell in pain.
The raptor said something in his guttural language. Three huge hellions slunk into the room behind him.
And it was then Gabe saw the clear boxes stacked by the wall. All filled with an orange fluid.
A trap. It had all be
en one giant trap.
Another guttural word from One Eye and the hellions launched at Gabe.
He shot the first right through the eye. The other two were leaping at him in a flash. Gabe yanked out his knife and a second later, the creatures’ weight hit him, driving him to the ground.
They seemed to know all the weakest spots in his armor. They ripped and clawed at him, jaws snapping. He felt a lash of fire, smelled his own blood. The damned things were no mindless beasts. They were learning.
“Another grenade!” Someone shouted.
Another boom outside in the hall.
“Fuck, Reed is down. Reed is down. Cruz, get him.” Marcus’ voice was strained.
Gabe was in hell. He fought to keep the hellions’ jaws away from his face. His squad was injured.
He wondered if this was it. If this was the day that Hell Squad finally lost. They’d never find the Genesis Facility. And Gabe would finally die at the claws of the raptors.
Then he thought of Emerson.
Fuck no. She was waiting, and his team needed him.
With a giant heave, he rolled. Using all his enhanced strength, he slammed his knife into the mouth of the nearest hellion. Its teeth raked along his armor, but he finally hit something and blood gushed out of the animal’s mouth. Gabe swung around and slammed the blade into the second hellion as it poised to strike. He hit tough scales, but he used his legs, putting everything he had into working the knife deeper.
The hellion made a horrible keening cry and flopped to the floor.
Gabe staggered to his feet, a little lightheaded. The raptor and the hybrid woman were gone.
He rushed out into the hall. He skidded to a stop, his chest tightening.
The corridor was filled with dead raptor and hellion bodies.
At the far end, near the stairs, Marcus was on his knees. He was coated in blood and gore, his chest heaving. Claudia was sprawled on the ground to one side, her dark braid stark against the white tiles that were smeared with blood. Shaw was wrapped around her and—bile rose in Gabe’s throat—the back of the sniper’s armor was torn open and pitted with shrapnel. He’d clearly taken the brunt of the grenade blast.
On the other side of the corridor, Reed and Cruz were lying in heaps against the wall, where the blast had obviously thrown them. Neither were moving.
Gabe ran forward. He had to get them out of here.
“Marcus?”
The other man blinked slowly, his eyes unfocused. Gabe then noticed a piece of shrapnel lodged in his leader’s head. Damn.
“Come on.” Gabe heaved Marcus up. “I need you to carry Claudia. Can you do it?”
Marcus turned to look where she lay and nodded.
“Okay.” Gabe yanked a field iono-stretcher off his belt. It took him three seconds to open and activate it. It hovered off the ground, using electrohydrodynamics to produce the thrust to stay in the air. He quickly picked up Reed and laid him on the stretcher. Then he hefted Cruz over one shoulder and clumsily managed to get Shaw over the other. The exoskeleton in Gabe’s armor helped take most of the men’s weight, and his enhanced strength helped, too. Still, it was awkward and left him unable to shoot well.
“Let’s go.”
Marcus weaved up the steps, Claudia clutched in his arms. Gabe nudged the stretcher and it floated up. They made it to the top and Gabe directed Marcus to the main entrance.
Gabe paused at the doorway. Outside, the night was dark. He didn’t want to risk those bat-like aliens attacking again.
In the parking lot, he scanned all the accumulated trash that had built up. It looked like someone had made a small camp there at one stage. He spied an old propane tank.
Please still have something inside. He turned a little and aimed his carbine. The sustained burst of laser hit the tank and a few seconds later, it exploded. It bathed an area of the parking lot with light.
“Go. Stick to the light. Get to the Hunters.”
They ambled across the lot. Gabe kept praying no more hellions or raptors poured out after them.
The Hunters appeared out of the darkness. A very welcome sight.
Gabe dumped Cruz on the ground beside the vehicle. He loaded Shaw in the back, then Reed, and finally Cruz. Their second-in-command stirred a little, but the others were so silent it made Gabe’s gut cramp.
Next, he helped Marcus get Claudia in the front.
“Can’t lose a Hunter,” Marcus said.
Shit. Gabe eyed the second vehicle. It would be a blow. It was impossible to replace, but Marcus was in no shape to drive it.
“Get in beside Claudia. I’ll take care of it.” Gabe touched his earpiece. “Elle?”
“How are they doing?” she asked anxiously.
“They need Emerson. Look, I’ve got them loaded in a Hunter. I’m bringing them home.”
Elle released a shaky sigh. “Good. Okay.”
“No one’s well enough to drive the other Hunter.”
“Oh, no.”
“But I have an idea. Can you patch Lia into the vehicle’s systems?”
Elle was quiet a second. “Yes. You want her to remotely operate it? It’s not like a drone, Gabe, flying through free air space.”
“It’s either that or abandon it.”
Another expulsion of air. “Okay, let me tee her up. I need you to manually configure some stuff on the Hunter’s system.”
He glanced back at the looming stadium. “Hurry up. I want to get out of here before company shows.”
She talked him through the commands and he tapped the screen.
“Okay, that’s it,” Elle said. “Lia, you have control.”
“Got it,” Lia answered. “I’ll do my best. It might be a bit battered, but fingers crossed I can get it back to base.”
Gabe stepped back and the Hunter lurched forward, stopped, moved again.
“I’ll get the hang of it,” Lia said fiercely. “It’ll be best if I follow your Hunter, Gabe.”
“Got it.”
Just then, the propane tank ran out, plunging him into darkness. Fuck.
He sprinted toward his Hunter, he got the driver’s side door open, and heard small bird-like screeches in the sky above him.
He yanked the door closed…just as tiny bodies hurled themselves at it.
“Fuck me.” He started the Hunter’s engine. “Let’s get home.” He gave his teammates a glance. They were all slumped over, breathing labored from pain. His gut cramped into a hard knot.
His squad, his brothers, his family.
All hurt. Because of him.
Chapter Thirteen
“Doc Emerson, I wouldn’t mind getting injured more often if I got to see your pretty face all day.”
Emerson adjusted the scanner and shot Shaw a bland look. He was propped up in the infirmary bed, just fresh off his nano-med treatment. He looked rather dashing lounging there, and his grin said he knew it.
“You’re awfully perky for someone who almost died.” She smiled at him. “And played the hero.”
He grimaced. “Shh. Or she’ll get started again.”
“You’re a goddamned idiot, is what you are.” Claudia scowled from the adjacent bed. Her face was still a little pale, her scratches almost done healing. “Jumped on me like I was some fucking damsel in distress.”
He snorted. “Frost, no one would ever mistake you for a damsel. I was just trying to save a teammate.”
“Didn’t see you tackle Marcus or Cruz.”
“Fuck, you’re ornery. I was standing right next to you.” Shaw huffed and sat back in the pillows. “Forget it. Next time, I’ll let you take a grenade to the face.”
Claudia flopped back as well. “It was stupid and misguided…but thanks.”
A far as thank yous went, it was pretty grudging. Emerson saw the look of blank shock on Shaw’s face and swallowed her own grin.
But as she glanced over at Marcus and Cruz, both of whom had flat out refused to get in a bed, her smile disappeared. They hadn’t been injured eno
ugh for nanos, but it had been close. They still looked pretty battered and Marcus had a neat row of med glue on his head. He’d have another scar for his collection. Elle hovered nearby and Santha stood with her hands on her hips, scowling.
Reed lay in a bed, sedated, a regen patch fitted over his eye, lights blinking on it. She was damned lucky they had an optical regen machine, otherwise Reed would have lost his eye. The damage had been too extensive even for the nano-meds. He’d need several treatments with the regen patch, but he’d keep his eye and see just as well as before.
Gabe had helped bring his injured team members in, then he’d disappeared. The entire time he hadn’t once looked at Emerson, he’d refused medical treatment, and ignored her when she’d called out to him. From what she’d heard, he’d locked himself in his quarters and wasn’t letting anyone in.
God, Hell Squad had been battered before, but not this badly. Maybe a part of her had always seen them as invulnerable. But being with Gabe the last few months…she’d seen that they were just men—and a woman—under the tough reputation. Yes, they were good at fighting, were born protectors, but they needed support and protection too.
She sighed.
“Don’t worry, Doc. We’ll bounce back.”
She glanced back at Shaw. “I hope so. Otherwise there’ll be some very unhappy ladies.”
Claudia made a rude noise. “Way I see it, King of the Quickies must leave a few of them unhappy.”
Shaw scowled, one hand twisting in his sheets. “So help me, Frost, I’m going to—”
“Uh-uh.” Emerson patted his sheet-covered leg. “No violence in the infirmary. You’re supposed to be resting.” She shot Claudia a pointed look. “Both of you.”
She left them grumbling. She was beyond worried about Gabe and now that Hell Squad were on the mend, she needed to check on him.
As she neared Marcus, his blue gaze zeroed in on her. “You going to see him?”
“Yes.”
“He took risks tonight.” Marcus’ tone made it clear he wasn’t happy.
Gabe may have taken risks, but he hadn’t paid the price for it. Her chest tightened. His friends had. And she knew Gabe would have trouble dealing with that.
