by SD Tanner
Continuing to crawl along the narrow tunnels, he ripped at any green blob in his way, slowly reducing the number digging at the earth. When he ran out of oxygen, he knew he would suffocate. Being buried alive wasn’t how he’d expected to die, but he would take as many of the critters with him as he could before he did.
CHAPTER TWENTY: Ladies first (Leon)
Driving the MaxxPro at fifty miles per hour, Tuck asked, “What the hell happened?”
“The critters attacked the shelter.” Ark replied steadily. “I don’t know any more than that. I lost comms.”
“Why did their comms go down?” He asked.
“I don’t know.”
He didn’t think the shelter had looked safe, but he hadn’t expected it to be compromised so quickly. It was a strange coincidence that a shelter that had been safe for several months would come under attack as soon as his Navigators had shown up.
“Ark, do you think the critters saw us there?”
“I don’t know, Leon, but Stax’s shelter has been safe for months so maybe they did.”
“Damn, these little fuckers aren’t missing much.”
Although it had taken them over an hour to cover the distance after leaving the shelter, Tuck and Lexie were driving back at top speed. Watching the area around him, he noticed there were almost no signs of human life left, which meant the critters were killing the survivors outside of the cities. Their country was being crushed under their tightening control and a feeling of hopelessness washed over him, but he straightened his back, determined to ignore it.
Once they were two miles from the shelter, his visor showed a blur of green movement. It had obviously been targeted. There were well over a hundred critters inside of the house and around the garden, and even more were roaming the wider area. All of them were screeching and moving jerkily, clearly excited by whatever it was that they were doing. Between those around the shelter and with so many in the region, it was too many for six Navigators to deal with. They didn’t have enough firepower to hold back them back and they would be quickly overwhelmed.
“Ark, are you seeing this?”
“Yep.”
“What do you suggest?”
“I’m thinking.”
“Could we use Cassie again?”
Ark didn’t answer immediately and he waited impatiently. The truck had slowed to a crawl and no one was saying a word. If Ark concluded it was impossible to save the survivors, he would order them to abandon the shelter and everyone inside of it.
“It’s dark,” Ark finally said.
“So?”
“Navs can see in the dark and the critters can’t. It’s almost our only edge.”
“I don’t think we can sneak up on them.”
“No, but we can look bigger than we are.”
Lexie burst out laughing, but she didn’t sound amused. “Seriously, Ark? Do you think we can fluff ourselves up and look fierce? Get real. You’re gonna have to do better than that.”
“You’re a funny girl, Lexie, and no. We need something that will draw them away, which means they need to think something is happening somewhere else. Last time we used Cassie as a diversion, but what if we get NORAD to start blasting the nest?”
“We don’t think we can penetrate the nest with bombs and we don’t want the area to go radioactive. You saw what happened in Seattle,” he replied worriedly.
“And if you blow the nest how will the baby bots get inside of it?” Lexie asked.
“We won’t bomb the pyramid. We’ll send some smaller missiles to blow the city around it. Maybe that’ll distract whatever’s inside of it. Let’s see how it reacts to what looks like a direct attack, plus we won’t really be trying to destroy it, so that’ll be misleading. It’ll think our missiles are weaker than they are.”
That approach could distract the critters, while also making them believe they had less missile capability than they really did, and it was typical of Ark to come up with a solution that would add to their overall position. Some people fell apart under pressure, but Ark clearly thrived on it, making him wonder whether his natural talent for battle strategy would ever have been noticed by the army, or if he would have been forever an NCO.
Grinning to himself, he replied, “Bring it on.”
“There’s more,” Ark said. “We’ve analyzed what you’re seeing above the shelter and there’s nobody there, which means they’re still underground.”
“Not necessarily. Maybe they’re already dead,” Lexie replied.
“I don’t think so. If they were then we’d see or hear Jonesy somewhere, but he’s not around.”
“Maybe he left,” he replied.
“Nah. If he did, he would be heading back to CaliTech and he’d have seen you or contacted me. Last I heard, he was still inside of the shelter, so I’m guessing that’s where they all are.”
If the survivors were still underground then, even if Ark’s diversion worked, some of the critters might stay at the shelter. Nodding to himself, he said, “Yeah, okay, get your tricks together and we’ll slowly head towards the shelter. When we get there we’ll set up a perimeter and get ‘em out, but they’ll have to use their own vehicles for extract.”
“NORAD are setting up the attack now. You should get as close as you can without attracting too much attention.”
While he waited for Ark to complete his set up, he said, “Okay, roll forward, but take us in at about ten miles per hour. Lexie, keep a tight watch on the area around us. When we get into position, I want Ally and Lexie to get the people out of the shelter and to their vehicles. The rest of us are to form a perimeter and hold it while they work. Use whatever weapons you can, just keep ‘em away from the girls.”
“Excuse me,” Ally said sharply. “Don’t call me a girl, asswipe.”
“Too right,” Lexie complained. “The only girl around here is you. You’re obsessed with doing housework.”
He was so familiar with squad banter, he’d forgotten there were some lines that weren’t worth crossing, and he flinched inwardly at his own stupidity. Knowing there was no way to recover, he said distinctly, “Okay, settle down, ladies. I meant it literally. You know, ‘cos you’re female. Now, could we focus on this engagement? It’s dangerous out here.”
“I think he should have to do our laundry for a month,” Lexie remarked.
“Sounds fair,” Amber replied.
“I’m not letting him near my panties,” Ally added dourly.
Encouraged by Amber, the two women continued to snipe at him while the trucks drew closer to the shelter. No one in the squad interrupted their flow of comical remarks, and it was a mistake he wouldn’t be making again. Although it was the end of the world some things never changed, and knowing he couldn’t win the argument, he pretended to ignore them.
Eventually Ark interrupted their griping. “Bombs away. ETA ten minutes.”
They were a mile from the shelter and the trucks slowed to five miles per hour, crawling towards the location. Critters were clustered above the shelter and he hoped Ark’s tactic would work. If it didn’t then they would have to abandon the mission and he didn’t want to. Stax and his survivors were no longer nameless and faceless people. They’d shared a meal together and a moment of their lives. It wasn’t much, but they were real to him now and he didn’t want to let them down.
Through his visor, the land around him was overlaid with grid lines that were peppered with green blobs. These critters were aimlessly drifting around in the dark and they clearly couldn’t see them. Driving at such a slow speed, the trucks weren’t silent, but they weren’t revving either. Slowly and almost silently, they rolled deep inside of what was now enemy territory. He kept waiting for at least one critter to notice them and alert the others. Around him, the other Navigators were holding their weapons ready to fire, clearly also believing the critters would eventually see them.
After ten minutes, they finally saw the critters explode into action, only it wasn’t directed at them. As i
f they’d all received a message at the same time, they suddenly turned and began to sprint to the east.
“Leon, you’re up!” Ark said sharply.
“Go! Go! Go!”
With a sharp lurch, the truck began to accelerate until they were hurtling towards the shelter at top speed. Coming to a stop next to the hatch, Lexie shouted, “Leon, they’re underground. The shelter is surrounded…and it’s moved.”
While he jumped from the truck, he ordered Tuck, Trigger and Tank to form a perimeter around the shelter. “Lexie, explain that.”
Just as he’d predicted, not all of the critters had left and they began firing at the ones now running towards them. He was carrying his standard weapons plus the laser, but he didn’t know the gun well enough to use it under such high-risk combat conditions. Clearly, the others had drawn the same conclusion, and the sharp lights of tracer fire were lighting up in his advanced vision.
“Okay, the shelter’s been dislodged,” Ark said steadily. “Ladies, start digging. The hatch is ten feet down.”
“Ark! How are they gonna get ‘em out?”
“Leon. Focus on holding the perimeter.”
Ark’s diversion had only partially worked and more critters were turning around, heading back towards the shelter. Tank had opened fire with his belt-fed machine gun, but ammo was going to become a problem. To maintain his rate of fire he would need to be resupplied from the trucks. Critters were falling fast in front of him, but another wave were on their six, leaping over the bodies of the fallen critters.
Stax had parked the survivors’ vehicles fifty yards from the entrance of the shelter. It should have been an easy distance to cover, but with so many critters returning, they might as well have been a mile away.
“Lexie’s in,” Ark said calmly. “She and Ally are pulling the survivors out now.”
He needed to tighten the perimeter to a corridor between the shelter hatch and the vehicles. Their own trucks were only ten feet from the hatch and he wondered if he could use them as cover, but it became a moot point when one of them began to sink.
“What the fuck?”
Tank was pulling himself from the sunken back of the truck. “Sinkhole.”
“It’s not a sinkhole, Tank,” Lexie shouted angrily. “They’ve tunneled around the shelter. It made it sink. Our truck just fell into one of their tunnels.”
Trying to focus on two things at once was making him do both things badly. The mass of critters in front of him was growing and the situation behind him was getting worse. Tank ran from the truck, still firing around him, and dropped a metal box containing ammo at his feet before returning to his position.
“Leon, tighten your perimeter,” Ark said.
“If we tighten it anymore we’ll be sitting in one another’s laps,” Tuck muttered.
Now fifteen feet apart, they were each facing a different direction trying to hold back the wall of critters. Leaning down while still firing, he yanked open the ammo box Tank had left at his feet, grateful for the man’s foresight. The fifty-foot corridor from the hatch to the survivor’s vehicles was becoming a no man’s land. Lexie and Ally had abandoned any attempt to move the survivors, and they were pulling them out of the hole in the ground any way they could. Survivors making it to the surface were piling on top of one another, curling up defensively and keeping their heads low.
He heard Ark speak. “Lexie. Ally. Give it up. They’ll have to get one another out. You’re needed on the perimeter.”
Both women immediately left the hatch and joined their perimeter. A wall of critters appeared on his left and his visor lit up brightly. Tank must have run out of ammo and using his flamethrower to set them alight. More gunfire came from his left and right, and pinkish blobs had joined their perimeter, adding their own firepower to the fight. His visor flashed brightly and he realized there were also large explosions happening about two hundred yards from his position.
“Ark?”
“NORAD are in play,” Ark replied calmly.
Now protected by more than just the Navigators, without needing to be told, the survivors were moving towards their vehicles. He assumed Stax had taken control of his people and Ark was directing NORAD. While continuing to fire, Lexie and Ally were moving between the MaxxPros and the perimeter. He hadn’t understood what they were doing until Lexie dropped several boxes at his feet. While he waited for the survivors to get into their trucks, he continued firing, using the last of the ammo in the boxes Lexie had left for him. When he finally ran out of ammo, he used the laser gun to cut down the critters still trying to breach their perimeter.
“Lexie. Ally. Escort the survivor vehicles.”
Neither woman answered, but they both pulled away from the perimeter and ran towards the vehicles. One-by-one the survivor’s trucks were beginning to move. The squad were down to one MaxxPro and he figured that, until they could hitch a ride, they’d be running. Checking his power packs, he had enough to escape the area, but they were pretty much out of every sort of ammo, including the lasers.
“Ammo count.”
A chorus of voices confirmed they were all almost out. It was time to leave and he called, “Gotta go.”
At least nine vehicles were now on the road, heading out of the area fast and he broke into a sprint to follow them. Lexie and Ally were running alongside the convoy and Tank, Tuck and Trigger were ahead of him. Everyone was accounted for except Jonesy.
Without slowing his pace, he asked breathlessly, “Ark. Jonesy?”
Ark never replied, but Jonesy did. “On your six.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE: See no evil (Steve)
Using his weapons to follow the metal men from a distance, he learned that the underground building was not their home, which meant the attack had not been useful. Reevaluating his logic, he concluded the attack could still be useful providing he learned where the metal men came from. Controlling his weapons to continue following them, the metal men were in vehicles moving rapidly along the roads, making it hard to maintain the watch.
Determined to remain invisible to them, he kept switching views from one weapon to the next. The metal men travelled quite some distance without stopping, finally entering a new type of land covered by tall trees. Slowing their speed, the long line of vehicles weaved their way along the road. Sensing they were close to their final destination, he kept his weapons distanced from the metal men.
He tracked the vehicles to a light colored wall lined with equipment that he didn’t recognize. Scanning the many minds he kept inside of his body, he searched for an explanation, but couldn’t find one. When it came to the metal men, his information sources were weak. The other primaries had no knowledge either and he needed to become more selective about the minds he used as his sources.
Moving a small number of his weapons into positon, he had them tunnel into the earth. The metal men could see them wherever they were, so he had them bury themselves deeply. He would use his weapons to make brief visits to the surface to monitor the metal men.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO: Fairest of all (Ark)
Their sweaty and slightly chemical odor filled the small command center and turning, he watched Leon and Lexie walk down the short steps towards him. They’d used all of their ammo and power in the engagement at the shelter and were wearing the black tracksuits supplied to the Navigators. He assumed they’d handed over their suits and weapons to the technicians for repair and maintenance.
“Good trip?” He asked brightly.
“Yeah, it wasn’t too bad,” Leon replied in a relaxed tone.
Lexie was wearing her short-range visor and she shook her head at them. “You’re both idiots. The critters know how to take down the shelters and that means nowhere is safe.”
It was only a question of time before the critters would find more shelters and attack them in the same way. He, Dom and Amber were already contacting the shelters to warn them that they needed to leave, but everyone had the same question. Where could they go that was safe? CaliTech
couldn’t support the thousands of people living in the prepper shelters, and according the message at the bases, the military had told everyone to head to Fields Landing. His maps showed it was a large area filled with docks and marinas, but they may already have left and headed to an island. Without knowing what was there, he couldn’t tell the preppers it was a safe place to go.
“I’ve contacted the prepper network.”
Sitting in one of the empty shadow navigator chairs, Leon asked tiredly, “What did you tell them?”
Turning his chair to face Leon, he shrugged. “I told them to do what they thought was best. They could head to Fields Landing or they could come here.”
“What’s the game plan?”
“I don’t have one. We can’t do much for them here other than we’re able to defend CaliTech.”
“Are we, Ark?” Lexie asked derisively. “Did you see how many critters there were at that shelter? There were hundreds of them and a thousand or more were still surrounding it even after you used the diversion. We wouldn’t have got near the shelter if you hadn’t managed to distract the bulk of them.”
Fifty percent of the population had turned into critters, so potentially there were a hundred and fifty million of them running around the country. A high proportion of them were busy surrounding the main population areas, but that still left a good number of them spread across the country able to cause trouble.
Giving her a weary look, he asked, “What do you expect me to do about it?”
Other than sitting heavily onto the step leading into their command center, she said nothing and he noticed her shoulders had slumped. Lexie was getting as tired as he and Leon were. For the past two months, they’d been running behind the enemy unable to catch up with each tactic before it was played. At no point had they managed to take control of the battle, and he fought the feeling of being overwhelmed by their situation.
