by David Peters
Jokester adjusted his shoulder straps again, “You need a pin-lock right here too. This adjustment strap keeps slipping under the weight.”
They crossed the streets in silence as they worked from block to block. Each movement forward brought them one building closer to the garage.
Dylan peeked around the corner of a burned out brick building. The gas station was two buildings down at the end of their block. The air in town was as still as death. He could still pick up the faint scent of Hunters but nothing strong enough to make him think they were nearby at the moment.
He leaned back against the wall and shook his head to Caperson. Dylan moved around the corner as Caperson moved into his covering position and aimed his rifle toward the surrounding buildings. Dylan moved quickly but made no sound as he stepped into the front of the garage. Jeff slid silently in behind him with his hunting rifle held at the ready. Dylan expected to see the man shaking. Most people did when they went after Corrupted. But this man was rock solid and almost looked angry as he searched for the hidden Corrupted.
Dylan motioned with his head for Jeff to take a look inside. Jeff moved around and inched carefully into the darkness.
He jumped as the loud, rapid crack, crack, crack, of a three round burst of rifle fire erupted behind him. Dylan reflexively ducked as a Hunter fell off of the roof above him and landed with a thud dead at his feet. Another three round burst and there was a similar thud in the alley just behind him. Dylan looked at Caperson and tipped his cowboy hat at the man. Caperson threw him a thumbs up and a very wide grin.
“Jeff, they know we’re here now. If they have a defense it will be coming up so be prepared,” He turned and called over his shoulder, “Travis, let’s get those cans up here on the double!”
Jokester and Travis ran up with their Dust weapons. Travis stepped into the garage first and let loose with a long stream filling the air with a blue cloud. The five of them stepped into the building. In the middle of the garage floor the concrete had been torn up and a mound of dirt pushed out in a ring. Dylan leaned over and shined a light into the large hole.
“It looks like it’s about a six foot drop then a sharp bend to the right. I don’t hear anything coming up the tunnel. If there was anything down there, it should be here by now. I’ll go first, Jokester, cover me. If they come, hit me with the Dust and I’ll figure out a way to keep breathing.”
Dylan slid down the side of the dirt wall and landed with a clank of gear and a puff of dirt at the bottom. He switched his flashlight on and moved out of the way so Jokester and Jeff could slide down into the hole. Caperson and Travis would remain on the surface to make sure nothing came up from behind to surprise them.
Caperson called into the blackness below, “Watch your backs down there. You are in their world now. Stay sharp!”
Dylan smiled up at the backlit shadow of his friend, “I think we have been in their world for a few years now, my friend.”
The tunnel led down at a fairly steep slope before making a hard turn to the right. The walls clearly showed the claw marks in the dirt as the Corrupted had dug into the ground. Jokester took the lead as they moved into the tunnel. He would shoot brief streams of Dust ahead of the team as they moved forward, their flashlights creating blue beams in the darkness. As they moved down the tunnel, they passed several rooms and passages that looked to still be under construction. The vacant rooms had nothing but piles of dirt. Another thirty feet down the steep tunnel it turned sharply to the right again and continued down. Jokester looked behind to make sure the rest of the team was close then disappeared around the corner.
Jeff felt the walls as they paused briefly to get through a tight space, “What is this stuff they are putting all over the walls? What the hell do they make this with? It feels like cardboard but I’ve never seen them use wood.”
“I wouldn’t feel it too much. It’s probably a mixture of dirt, spit and,” Dylan paused for a second, “other things that their bodies make.”
Jeff scrunched up his face in disgust as he rapidly pulled his hand away from the wall. He continued down the tunnel as he rapidly wiped his hand off on his pant leg.
“We are well below the water table now. That’s how they keep from being flooded out,” Jokester said as he shined a small light on the waxy, cardboard-like material.
Jeff called from a few feet down a side tunnel, “Dylan, come take a look at this.”
Their flashlight beams moved around the room. Black but slightly translucent eggs the size of a football covered nearly every surface in the room. There was a small path that left room for something to walk around the edges but every other surface was covered by the thick black carpet.
“There has to be well over a thousand of these damn things in here!” Dylan reached down and touched one of the eggs. It was surprisingly soft and pliable. It almost felt like foam rubber. “Doesn’t feel like any egg I have ever seen. This covering isn’t a shell of any kind. It’s closer to a leather bag than a hard shell.”
Dylan pulled a heavy canvas bag out of his pack and used his knife to free one of the eggs from the wall, “Doc will want one of anything we can get out of here.” He nodded to Jokester as he stepped out of the way. He carefully wrapped a layer of cloth and burlap around the egg before rolling it into the military style bag. He stepped back out of the room as he swung his pack onto his back.
Jokester stood in the opening to the room and sprayed Dust from one side to the other. Eggs began to disintegrate the instant the cloud washed over them. One by one they burst with the sickening sound of thick fluid bursting onto the floor.
Dylan looked down at his boots as the liquefied Corrupted began to flow out of the room and into the hall, “I guess we probably should have done that on the way out.”
“No way am I waiting. If we wind up hauling ass out of this tunnel, we might not have had time to enjoy this moment to its fullest potential. I intend to get our money’s worth out of these back-packs of Corruption love.” Jokester snarled as he shot another cloud of Dust onto the ceiling. Even the Corrupted goo that flowed out of the burst eggs appeared to be dissolving into a thick fluid.
Two more hairpin turns and another thirty feet deeper had them standing in the entrance to the center of the hive. The room was large and dome shaped. They could see several more tunnels already being started.
“Damn these things dig deep fast.” Dylan said in a whisper. A shimmer of movement off to his right caught his attention. Before he could turn to look, there were several gunshots to his left.
Jeff was down on one knee aiming almost directly at Dylan. He followed where the young man was aiming and saw the shimmer fade as the Infiltrator died instantly, the large caliber bullet passing clean through and into the wall on the far side of the room. It had been standing not more than ten feet from Dylan and even with his flashlight hitting it directly he hadn’t noticed the thing standing motionless in the darkness.
“Good shot but let’s go with pistols in here. That bullet is probably still going.”
Jeff nodded and slung the large rifle over his shoulder. He drew his pistol and held it up with his flashlight underneath it, “Look for their shadows. I couldn’t really see him down here but I could see his shadow from your light. Watch for shadows that should be there from other lights, don’t look at your own!”
Three beams moved around the room and four more loud shots rang out. Four Infiltrators had been hiding in corners of the room completely invisible as they clung to parts of the wall and ceilings. Even while the others were shot down they did nothing to jeopardize their hiding places. There was nowhere for them to run, no place to draw the danger from the hive.
In the middle of the room there were three large eggs on a raised dirt platform. Several stairs led up to the three eggs sitting a few feet higher than the surrounding floor. Around them were six small eggs. In several places around the room there were clusters of twenty or thirty eggs glued to sections of the wall. Jokester was kneeling at the to
p of the platform when he called Dylan over, “These three are different from those we saw in the first room.”
Dylan knelt down next to him and shined his light on the eggs.
“Look around the middle of these things. You see that band of color?”
He leaned in closer to the large eggs and lightly ran his finger over the center of the two foot tall egg. Around the middle was a narrow band of yellow about half an inch thick.
“These over here all have a red band around the middle.”
Jeff called from one of the clusters on the wall, “All of the eggs in this one have a blue band but the eggs in that cluster over there are gray.”
“Niccole saw some ‘Rupts with colored stripes when she was in here. Well, in the hive before this one. This must be what the egg is going to hatch into. It’s how they plan it out maybe.”
Dylan nodded, “Yeah, yellow has to be the queen, red is like a military leader of some sort. Blue would probably be workers and gray, Sappers?”
Jokester agreed, “Works for me, although I would think three queens wouldn’t get along so well. How come there aren’t any Guard eggs?”
“We didn’t see Guards until the stacks started going up if I remember right. Same thing with the ‘Rupt bugs, those winged things Niccole saw. Maybe they are harder to grow or something. How can there be three Queens? She only saw the one and when you and Daniel were in there you only saw a single Queen to.”
“It wouldn’t surprise me if the first one born eats the other two eggs.”
“Damn, that’s gross, even for a Corrupted.”
Dylan grabbed a sample of all of the eggs while saving the queen for last. He carefully slid a large plastic bag over the top of one of the queen eggs. He then placed a canvas bag over the top of the plastic bag and carefully cut away the cardboard like material on the floor.
Jeff looked in wonder, “Aren’t you being a little cautious with that?”
“Doc had warned me about any Queen material. He was concerned that it may give off a scent trail that would lead the Corrupted back to the camp, or maybe even pull them in from the surrounding hillsides. It was nothing but a guess but I’m thinking it sounded like good advice.”
He wrapped the bottom with another plastic bag then placed the entire thing into a watertight travel bag, “Just want to make sure we don’t get any uninvited guests. Jokester, hose it down. Save enough for the tunnel on the way up. I want this thing to be a death trap for Corrupted.”
“My pleasure.” Jokester fired long streams of blue Dust into the Queen’s chamber. Even the dead Infiltrators began to dissolve as the Dust floated down over their corpses. The three of them backed out of the room as it rapidly filled up with the contents of the dissolving eggs. The stench was nearly overpowering and thick enough that they could taste it on the air.
Several muffled gun shots could be heard through the long tunnel.
“Let’s pick up the pace. Jeff, take one of these bags, I can’t carry all of this. Damn tunnel is too tight.”
As they broke into the daylight of the hive opening, Caperson lowered his hand to help them up. One by one they climbed out of the hive. Each of them was covered in fine blue Dust while their feet still showed the signs of disintegrating Corrupted.
Dylan was the first to speak, “Doc is going to look like a kid in a candy store when he gets a load of our gifts.”
Caperson looked at the bags on the floor, “What did you get?”
“We were able to pick up the sampler platter, one of everything. There were already several thousand eggs down there and the Queen wasn’t even up yet.”
Travis fired another three round burst down the alley, “Damn!” He yelled from down the alleyway, “There is at least one more Hunter out there, Cap-Cap but he isn’t playing by the usual rule book. Sucker is trying to draw me off.”
Caperson stood and brought his rifle to the ready, “Three Hunters came in dumb. We got all of them in the street as they approached. It looks like there was another team running patrol in the town besides the one that came in dumb. We got one of them in the alley but the other isn’t attacking. This new nest makes for some very bizarre behavior in these bastards. Travis, you are with me. We are going to move down the north side of this alley, you three go around the other side of whatever the hell the burned out shell of a building is on the other side. Watch your shots!”
Dylan, Jeff and Jokester took off and moved silently around the corner and down the street. Several burned out cars and the remains of a blown up tanker truck made the passage more narrow than they cared for. Dylan caught movement inside one of the buildings. The windows were still in place on the small mini-mart but the electric doors had been locked in the open position for several years allowing the weather to take its toll.
He whispered quietly at the other two, “Jeff, stay here and watch the street and roofline. Jokester, you are in behind me. Any movement in the building and I want you to Dust it, including me if I’m in the way.”
“Not a problem.”
Dylan stepped into the small store, the sound of broken glass crunched under his feet despite his best efforts to remain silent. In the back corner something fell off of a shelf and broke. He looked over his shoulder and saw Jokester nod that he had heard it. The two quietly moved down to the last aisle. He held up three fingers and counted them down. On three the two jumped around the corner, Dylan held his shot but Jokester let loose with a heavy stream of Dust, filling the aisle with a blue fog.
A large German Shepherd stared back with a slightly tilted head. He was covered head to paw in blue Dust and looked entirely confused about the current situation.
“Nice shot there, Tex.”
“I hit him, didn’t I?”
The dog shook from nose to tail sending up another cloud of the Dust. He tilted his head from side to side as the two men spoke then turned as if he didn’t like what he was hearing. He looked as if he was about to run away when Dylan dropped down to his knee and called out, “Come here, boy. I’m not going to hurt you.”
The dog paused and looked back at Dylan for several moments. Dylan could see quite a bit of intelligence behind those canine eyes. There had to be for the dog to survive this long alone. He was extremely skinny but looked healthy otherwise. His fur wasn’t heavily matted and there weren’t any bald spots or sores.
“You want some food? You want a treat?”
The dog’s head tilted and his ears perked forward as he recognized the word treat from many years in the past.
“You remember that word, don’t you?” Dylan looked around at the mess on the floor. Most people avoided the town as much as they could so there was very little in the way of scavenging that had taken place up to now. Nearly everything had been burned up by the fires that followed their first, and last, run into the town several years before. He found an overturned rack of beef jerky and tore a bag open. He could see the tail wag as he pulled a long strip out. He shifted his weight from paw to paw as he panted in anticipation. “Here you go, pup. This is all for you.”
The dog took a hesitating step forward. Dylan tossed the jerky several feet in front of the dog. He walked forward and swallowed the piece whole. Dylan pulled out several more and held them out. He could see a brass tag hanging from the dirty collar around his neck.
“Come on boy, all yours.”
The dog decided they weren’t the enemy and trotted forward happily. He took the pieces out of Dylan’s hand, being noticeably careful not to touch his teeth to anything but the jerky.
Dylan reached out carefully, “Don’t be scared, I’m just going to get some of that Dust off of you.”
The dog hesitated for a moment then got back down to the business of devouring the small pile of dried meat. Dylan brushed the Dust out with his hand then without thinking about it started to scratch the dog behind its ears. The dog stopped eating and leaned heavily into Dylan’s hand. He rolled his head back and forth several times as if he couldn’t decide which ear h
e wanted scratched the most. Dylan finally used both hands the dog let out a happy sounding groan.
Jokester whispered, “I think you just made a friend for life.”
“This guy must be one hell of a fighter to have lived this long alone. Don’t know if the ‘Rupts would bother with him, but we have seen them take game before.” Dylan stood and the dog walked around behind him and sat next to his leg.
“What’s his tag say?”
“It says Beau, and then a Badge number from the Portland Police Department. How in the hell did he make it this far on his own?”
Jokester just stared at the animal, “No idea, Boss. Maybe his owner was passing through town? Something tells me he isn’t going to tell us.”
“You ready to go, Beau?”
Beau looked up and panted slightly. Dylan picked up the remaining few packages of old Jerky and the two walked back out of the minimart. As they exited the doors, Beau’s hackles rose and he lowered his head in the direction of the tanker truck. Dylan brought his rifle to the ready. Beau’s eyes slowly moved from the rear of the main rig to the front of the truck. He was tracking something.
Dylan brought the rifle to his shoulder and a low growl left Beau’s throat. He took several more steps toward the cab of the truck then stopped suddenly. He looked at the roof of the rig and began to bark loudly.
The Hunter cleared the front of the truck in a single jump, Dylan fired an instant before the beast landed several feet in front of him, a fist sized hole shot through the center of the thing’s neck. It splayed out on the concrete, dead before it finished its slide.
Beau sat down and wagged his tail. He looked up at Dylan and started panting again.
“Yeah. You are definitely a keeper.”
Dylan was tearing open another bag of the jerky when Caperson and team came around the corner with their guns ready. They stopped dead in their tracks when they saw the dog staring at them. Beau looked up at Dylan for any sign that the new arrivals were a threat, saw none, and began to wag his tail again in anticipation of more treats.
