Shit, shit, shit. Was that us? It couldn’t have been us.
He looked around the room at the other kids. Michel and the two kids with him were firing in disciplined bursts, but some others were shooting in random directions. A bullet whipped past Fitz’s helmet.
“Watch your fire! Dammit!”
“We have to get out of here!” Rico shouted.
“Get to the exit!” Fitz yelled back. “And watch your fucking zones of fire!”
Mira was already helping the children climb over the dead Wormer to get to the staircase. In the back of the room near the barricade, Stevenson and Dohi were firing at three more monsters that had burst through the ground, pinning them in a corner.
The pounding footsteps above them suddenly changed direction. Fitz raised his rifle at the ceiling as another network of cracks spread across the ceiling near the trapped members of Team Ghost.
“Get away from the barricade!” Fitz yelled.
The men either couldn’t hear him or were too busy to answer. They continued cutting down Wormers as more broke through the walls and floor.
Fitz put a burst into the wrinkled face of a monster that was wriggling through an opening to his right. The stone floor rose to his left, and the fins of another Wormer broke through like a shark under the surface. He fired the rest of his magazine at the raised dirt. The floor stopped moving.
An impact like a battering ram shook the barricade. One of the pews fell away.
That was the only warning they got.
Stevenson and Dohi were still turning around when the beast smashed into the doors with a force unlike any Fitz had witnessed before. The barricade blew apart, sending the heavy wooden furniture flying. A pew hit Stevenson in the side, knocking him to the ground. He pushed himself to his feet and raised his SAW. Dohi flanked him, while Tanaka continued to slice through the Wormers.
“Move, Ghost!” Fitz shouted. “To the MATV!” He searched for a target, but his men were in the way. Gunfire lanced into the door as the beast smashed its way through. A piercing hiss answered the shots.
Fitz cut down another Wormer emerging from the floor, then ran toward his men. Apollo and Rico were right behind him, and at the exit, Mira and Michel were ushering the last of the kids into the stairwell.
A high-pitched scream pierced the air. Fitz turned just in time to see a Wormer wrap its tentacles around the girl with the blonde braid.
Michel grabbed her other arm, but the creature was stronger and he lost his grip. She vanished inside the cavernous tunnel, her shoe falling off her foot and hitting the floor as she struggled in vain to get free.
“No!” Michel yelled. “Leila!”
Fitz gritted his teeth and turned to Rico. “Make sure they get to the MATV. Apollo, go with Rico.”
The dog hesitated and then ran back to the Ombres on Rico’s heels. Fitz changed magazines as he hustled toward the destroyed barricade. Tanaka, Stevenson, and Dohi were holding their own against the Wormers, but the monstrous creatures weren’t the only threat.
The Black Beetle tore away the last of the barricade. It moved like a sumo wrestler, low to the ground and deceptively fast. The sheer size of it was intimidating enough, but Fitz had no doubt the serrated mandibles framing its jaw, as well as the jagged spikes lining its limbs, would tear Team Ghost apart in seconds.
Fitz fired half his magazine into the monster. The rounds pecked at the creature’s armored shell but didn’t draw blood. It turned slowly, its bulbous, multi-faceted eyes flitting back and forth to see where the shots had come from.
“Retreat!” Fitz yelled. “Fucking retreat!”
The Beetle let out a guttural hiss that was followed by a loud crunch. The sound made Fitz turn to see the beast biting the head off an emaciated Variant that must have come through one of the Wormer tunnels. The snack kept it distracted long enough for Tanaka, Stevenson, and Dohi to escape. With a final swipe of his sword, Tanaka took down the last of the Wormers and the trio ran for the stairs with Fitz.
For a moment, he thought they were all going to make it, but that fleeting second of hope was ripped away by a loud crack and a human scream.
The Beetle had finished feeding. It picked up one of the fallen pews and threw it at Dohi. The wood hit him in the back and he tumbled into a mound of broken stone around one of the Wormer holes.
“Dohi!” Fitz yelled.
Stevenson fired his SAW into the Beetle’s face, making it crouch down and retract its beady head into the cover of its shell.
Fitz ran toward Dohi’s limp body. He was curled up in a fetal position. Halfway there, a pair of talons gripped the lip of stone surrounding the Wormer tunnel, and a Variant peeked through the opening into the room. Fitz squeezed off a shot that hit the monster between its reptilian eyes.
“Cover us!” Fitz yelled to Stevenson and Tanaka. They opened up on the Beetle again while Fitz checked Dohi’s pulse. It was strong, but he was unconscious, and he had a head and back injury.
“Get Dohi out of here,” Fitz yelled.
Stevenson let his SAW hang on its sling and bent down to scoop Dohi up. With a grunt, Stevenson hefted his comrade over his shoulders. Fitz grabbed Dohi’s M4 and loaded the grenade launcher.
The Wormer holes continued to disgorge starving Variants. They scattered and came together to attack the Beetle, but the frail adults were no match for the beast. It tore through the Variants with spiky arms and claws.
“Tanaka, Stevenson, get Dohi to the truck!” Fitz shouted.
“What about you, sir?” Tanaka yelled back. He fired off a burst that hit the Beetle in the head. It swung at the air with a skeletal arm and bellowed in anger, but the beast still didn’t go down.
“I got this!” Fitz screamed. “Make sure the kids get into the MATV safely!”
Stevenson carried Dohi up the staircase, and Tanaka followed after a second of hesitation. A streak of black and tan fur raced down the stairs in the wrong direction, and a moment later Apollo bounded to Fitz’s side.
“Get out of here, boy,” Fitz said. The dog bared his teeth at the monsters and growled, clearly determined to fight by Fitz’s side. If they got out of this, he and the German Shepherd were going to have a long talk about obeying orders.
Fitz shouldered Dohi’s rifle and aimed the launcher at the beast. It shook a Variant off its shell and ripped the head off another monster. Holding a breath in his chest, Fitz waited for the right moment. He couldn’t let the creatures follow them outside, or they would never make it to the truck.
The Beetle barreled into another pack of Variants, crushing them flat with its massive shell. The smaller monsters fanned out across the room in retreat, leaving Fitz and Apollo to face the abomination.
Tilting its head from side to side, it scanned the room and then locked onto Fitz with its compound eyes. Instead of shooting the Beetle directly, Fitz fired a grenade into a Wormer hole in the center of the room. Earth, stone, and splinters of wood mushroomed in front of the Beetle, pelting its face and shell. The creature swatted at the debris raining down around it.
Fitz reloaded and aimed just above the creature’s head.
“Die, you ugly piece of shit!” He pulled the trigger and turned away from the monster.
The explosion thumped behind him, heavy and loud, and Fitz ran for the exit, dragging Apollo with him by the collar. At the bottom of the stairs, he turned to watch the ceiling cave in on top of the Beetle, the stones crushing its shell and splattering the ground with green blood.
Fitz and Apollo loped up the steps, emerging through a door at the side of the Basilica of St. Thérèse.
The Ombres and Team Ghost were huddled in the gardens not two hundred feet from the MATV. They had their weapons out, but they weren’t firing. Dozens of Black Beetles and Wormers, full-grown juveniles, and ravening adult Variants were waiting for them. Reavers circled overhead like vultures waiting for a meal. The army of mutated monsters closed in, and Fitz felt the last tendrils of hope trailing away like smoke in
to the night.
-21-
President Ringgold had taken one hell of a risk coming to Plum Island, but leaders were only as smart as the men and women they chose to surround themselves with. She had chosen refuge with some of the most brilliant minds and courageous hearts left in the world.
She sat beside Kate at a kitchen table covered in bullets and stacks of magazines, listening to Nelson and Soprano argue with Beckham and Horn about the best way to protect her.
In the other room, Tasha, Jenny, and Bo were playing quietly with a few toys in front of the fireplace. Ellis and Donna sat on the couch supervising the children. Every few minutes, Ellis looked up as if to check on what was being said in the kitchen.
Sick of listening to their endless argument, Ringgold spoke up. “Enough. How did it even come to this? I’m the President of the United States, and I’m on the run.”
Kate put her hand over Ringgold’s and offered a warm smile. “You came to the right place.”
“We’ll protect you,” Beckham said. His tone was confident and reassuring. “That’s what we do, ma’am.”
She trusted his word, knowing he would never dishonor himself by breaking it. But still, something tugged at her insides. She couldn’t ignore her fear that her precarious rebuilding efforts would all come crashing down around them.
Then Beckham said something that made her pulse quicken.
“But we can only protect you if we disappear. I don’t trust Walker or Rayburn. We can’t go to them for anything. If word leaks that you’re on Plum Island, Wood will kill everyone here. Rayburn and Walker have to know that. I’m not willing to risk them selling you out, so we have to get out of here.”
“He’s right. They’ll try to use you as a bargaining chip,” Nelson said.
“It will be okay. We’ll figure this out. For your sake and ours.” Kate looked down and rubbed a hand over the swell of her stomach.
“What about Fitz and the other forces in Europe?” Horn asked. “Wouldn’t they rally against Wood? Let’s call some of our boys and girls back to the home front.”
“I didn’t want to, but I have to contact General Nixon and request reinforcements,” Ringgold said. “Meanwhile, I need to be able to talk to the mayors of the SZTs—and I need to do it from a safe location.”
Horn crossed his tattooed arms over his chest. “Not sure we got any ‘safe locations’ left, ma’am. No disrespect.”
“That’s why I came here,” Ringgold said. “Because I can’t trust anyone else.” She let the words sink in before continuing. “I wasn’t going to sit in that bunker like I did at Raven Rock, waiting to die from the virus or at the hands of our own military.”
“I also have to get an urgent message to General Nixon and the EUF,” Kate said. “And not just because we need their help here. Ellis and I found something—”
“Something that could change the tide of this war.”
The voice came from the family room. Ellis stood and shoved his hands in his lab coat pockets as he crossed into the kitchen.
“We have to tell them to halt Operation Reach,” he said. “The radiation won’t kill the Variants in Europe. It will only make things worse.”
Ringgold narrowed her eyes. “What do you mean?”
“The Variants over there have evolved differently. The radiation causes a variety of mutations including—”
“Shhh,” Horn said. “I don’t want my girls to hear that shit.”
Ellis lowered his voice. “Instead of killing them, the radiation mutates them. They have had more time to develop there, relatively unchecked. We’re not exactly sure what differences in their genetic makeup have caused it to happen, but…you’ve heard of the monsters with wings, right? The Reavers?”
Ringgold nodded, and Kate picked up the explanation.
“We’ve also identified Variants with chitinous shells like beetles. Who knows how many others there are out there, or how much worse things would get if we irradiate them further?”
“We’re looking at a disaster a hundred times worse than Operation Liberty,” said Ellis.
Ringgold reached up to put her palm over her face, hiding her expression. The scar tissue on her shoulder burned. She wasn’t sure if it was a phantom feeling this time, but it sure felt real.
Beckham scanned the room, his gaze falling on Kate last. They shared a worried look that made Ringgold wonder if she had made the right decision. Coming here put their lives in jeopardy.
Nelson looked at his watch. “Operation Reach is scheduled to start in a few hours.”
“Is there a way to get a message over there without giving away our location?” Ringgold asked.
Beckham cracked his head from side to side. “Not if it comes from you, Madame President. Who’s going to believe you if Wood is on the radio waves saying you’re destroying your own SZTs?”
“I’ll do it.”
Every face shifted toward Ellis.
He stepped forward. “I’ll get a message to General Nixon and the EUF, but I’ll need an escort.”
The hushed voices of the children and the crackle of burning logs in the fireplace filled the silence that followed his statement. Outside, the air raid sirens had stopped wailing. For a moment Ringgold forgot where she was and enjoyed the quiet.
“Alright,” Beckham finally said. “Here’s what I think we should do. But we got to do it quick. If I don’t report to Command soon, they are going to come looking for me.”
“I bought us about thirty minutes,” Horn said. “Told Rayburn that Kate isn’t feeling well but that you’ll be there as soon as you can.”
Beckham nodded and pushed down on the edge of a map with his prosthetic hand. “I’ll take our pickup and drive Ellis to this radio tower. It’s not heavily guarded, and he should be able to get a message through once we clear the building.”
“No,” Kate said. “We’re staying together.”
“We will, but first we have to get this message off.” Beckham turned to her, his jaw set. “Kate, you know someone has to—”
She held up a hand. “I know…but Pat can’t go out there dressed in a white lab coat. He’ll show up from a mile away.”
Ellis looked down at his coat, frowned, then peeled it off. Kate walked over to the hall closet and found a dark hoodie of Beckham’s and her navy blue NASA ball cap.
“Be careful, Pat,” she said, folding his coat over her arm. “I’ll hang on to this for you until you get back.”
“Thanks,” Ellis replied. “You be careful too.”
“Big Horn, you take Kate, Donna, and the kids in the jeep,” Beckham said. “President Ringgold, your agents and staff will have to squeeze in somehow, unless we can find another vehicle.”
“We have our own transportation,” Soprano said.
“What? I thought you came in a chopper,” Horn said.
“I…hotwired a truck,” Nelson said. “It’s a Range Rover. Somebody left it parked at the edge of town, and there was nobody around, so…”
“Okay,” Beckham said. “That’s good. You take the Rover. Follow Horn to the Animal Disease Center buildings. Your chopper is close, right? There’s also a boat there that we can take if we have to leave the island by sea.”
“And go where?” Horn said.
Beckham hesitated. “I’m not sure.”
“So you don’t have a plan?” Soprano asked.
Horn snorted. “You got a better one, big guy? Because you came to us, and as far as I can tell, you didn’t bring much firepower.”
Nelson removed his tie and folded it neatly into his pocket. “We still have the Black Hawk. And we didn’t come alone.”
“How many agents you got?” Horn asked.
“Three,” Nelson said after a beat.
Horn laughed condescendingly. “Three, plus us, against God knows how many of Wood’s people. I’m sorry, but this is all crazy. Girls, come here. We need to get ready to go.”
Ringgold studied Beckham as he rose from his seat. There were
deep bags under his eyes, and his movements were slower than they had been before his injuries in Washington, D.C. He wasn’t the same man she had met at Raven Rock.
“We move in five,” he said.
The front door creaked open and Barnes looked in. “There are two bogies incoming from the east. Look like Little Birds.”
Beckham snatched the map off the table. “Everyone grab your gear. We’re moving now!”
Beckham and Horn led the group outside. They threw their bags into the jeep while Barnes and the other two agents loaded the black Range Rover. Beckham arranged to drive Ellis to the radio tower in Donna’s pickup truck.
Ringgold watched the two Little Birds sweep over the west side of the island. Their spotlights flickered over the terrain. They were searching for someone, and it wasn’t hard to guess who.
Kate’s voice pulled Ringgold’s attention back to the driveway.
“I don’t know about this, Reed. I still don’t think we should split up.”
Beckham unslung a rifle from his back. “I won’t be any good if I’m worried about you. And if what you said is true, then our friends overseas are about to march into hell. I can’t let that happen.”
Kate put her arms around him, kissed his lips, and then whispered something in his ear that Ringgold couldn’t hear. Everything was happening so fast she almost missed the sound of footfalls across the street. Beckham pulled his revolver and pointed it at a bearded man. He was holding the hand of a young boy about the same age as Bo.
“Jesus, Jake, you scared the shit out of me,” Beckham said. He lowered his gun and holstered it. “What the hell are you doing out here?”
“Could ask you the same thing,” Jake replied. “Where ya’ll going? And what was with the sirens?”
“Ma’am, please get into the vehicle,” Barnes said to Ringgold. She squeezed into the Range Rover between Soprano and another agent. Barnes took the wheel, and Nelson got into the passenger seat. The third agent got into the back and started loading shells into his shotgun.
Beckham tossed Jake a machine gun and gestured toward the jeep. The man led his boy over to the door, and Beckham approached the Range Rover to speak to Barnes. “Keep your lights off. Curfew is in effect, but patrols will be active. If you’re spotted, you haul ass to the rally point.”
The Extinction Cycle (Book 6): Extinction Aftermath Page 28
