by SD Tanner
Taking aim and firing was ingrained so deeply in him that he barely noticed what he was doing. While one part of his brain shot the critters, another part wondered where he’d go next. His mother had been a religious woman, and she had dragged his unwilling ass to church every Sunday until he was old enough to refuse to go. She’d been deeply disappointed in him, but both of his parents had been, and he’d come to accept that he’d failed them. Wanting to escape their unyielding view of life, he’d joined the army and discovered even more discipline. Deciding that nowhere suited his temperament, he had been discharged after eight years of service and elected to live the life of a vagrant. It had suited him to live alone and not suffer the burden of other people’s less than flattering judgment.
Emptying his magazine, he now realized he’d been wrong, and maybe other people hadn’t been the only problem. He’d lacked patience, refusing to tolerate others equally as much as they’d failed to accept him. It seemed a little late for the epiphany and he resisted the urge to roll his eyes at himself.
Loading his last magazine, he called, “Last mag.”
Counting the bullets as he continued firing, the rubbery shattered bodies were piling up in front of him, but still they came.
Annalese
She’d warned as many people as she could before telling Chad to take them to the front gates. Luckily, most of them had chosen to watch the bots invading the nest in Pueblo Pintado, so less people had been outside of the gates. She should have been watching the bots as well, except she’d planned to talk to the man in the tree. He’d been watching them for weeks and she’d realized he had a dog with him. It didn’t seem fair to make the poor creature live in a tree and she’d intended to invite him to join her group. Chad was a decent man, but he was dumb and the man in the tree was far from stupid. He’d built himself a safe haven in his tree and had clearly been living off the land for months. Based on his traps, he was a good hunter and she knew they couldn’t live outside of the walls of CaliTech forever. Eventually they would have no use for them as workers and then they would have to leave. She wanted the man in the tree to join her small group, and was pleased when he’d finally introduced himself as Ryan.
After meeting him, nothing had gone well. Now she was stuck in the middle of the room surrounded by terrified survivors, while critters were exploding in front of her. The noise of the gunfire and screeching critters was making her head hurt. In her hand were her grandmother’s rosary beads. She’d given them to her just before she’d died. The smoothness of the well-handled red beads brought to mind her grandmother praying quietly while she’d struggled to breathe. A slow death was crueler than a fast one, and narrowing her eyes at the attacking critters, she figured her end was going to be quick.
Chad and her new friend, Ryan, were somewhere in the line of shooters, and she scanned the row looking for either of them. It was Binkin who showed her where to find Ryan. He was down on one knee, calmly firing while Binkin was safely tucked behind him. Admiring his steadiness in the face of certain death, she fought her way past the people clinging to one another to be with him. Death was something she’d seen and learned to accept, but dying alone didn’t appeal to her. She might not know the man from the tree, but she chose to die by his side.
Alice
She’d been wrong. The gunners hadn’t shot at their truck. They’d fired over the top of them at the critters on the road. Once the gates had opened, they’d driven straight to the front doors, where people had helped to pull them from the vehicles and push them into the main building. Standing on the steps, and about to walk into the building, she’d turned her head to look behind her. A black sea of jerky movement had been making its way along the road and forest. Thousands of critters had been headed towards the building and now they were hammering their way inside.
Huddled with the other unarmed people in the middle of the room, the troopers were firing a seemingly never-ending stream of bullets at the critters breaking through the windows. The room was filled with smoke and her eyes stung, but she hardly noticed the discomfort. Crouched on the floor, she’d wrapped her arms around herself in a desperate hug. The faces near her looked terrified, and between the noise of screeching critters and the gunfire, no one could hear one another.
From the moment she’d leapt into the truck, fear had been building up inside of her. Her heart rate had climbed so high it was beating heavily against her ribs making it hard for her to catch her next breath. She was dizzy with fear and panting with anxiety. The tension inside of her was building to a fever pitch, and she wondered if she would die before a critter even touched her. As her fear grew, it seemed to peak, almost making her faint before it simply stopped. She was as frightened as she could possibly be without actually dying.
Forgetting the situation, the noise inside of the room seemed to fade away, and she began to argue with herself in a way she never had before. Two views were competing with one another. One told her that death would destroy her, while the other assured her that dying was nothing to fear. Now she was faced with a life that would be over in a matter of minutes, she stopped worrying about dying. There was nothing she could do to save herself, so she simply stopped thinking about it. Unwrapping her arms from her body, she stood up and faced the critters fighting their way through the shooters. Many of them were out of ammo, and the critters were ripping into them, spraying their blood across the room. With nothing left, some shooters were pulling back, but others were launching forward, wrestling with the critters as if they could win the fight. In a flash of insight, she realized they knew they couldn’t win, but they chose to die fighting.
Howling her rage at the unfairness of the world, she pulled her face into an angry grimace, and pushed past the people around her to meet the critters head on.
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE: On the line (Hood)
He couldn’t fault their tactics. They’d pulled as many vehicles into CaliTech as they could before ordering the gates closed. Not that it helped. The critters had bounded over the walls as easily as he climbed a set of stairs. All he’d hoped was that some of the critters would die under the barrage of fire from the remotely controlled guns mounted on top of the walls. It wouldn’t save them, but any help in a shitstorm was worth having.
Shooters had formed a wide circle around the survivors clinging together in the middle of the room. Their steady fire was pushing the critters against the wall, but when one fell even more would take its place. He didn’t need to look at the screens hanging above his head to know that the swarm outside wasn’t getting any thinner. It wouldn’t matter if it did, there were already enough breaking into the building to kill everyone.
“Level two, gimme a sitrep.”
“Critters have breached the perimeter. They’re breaking through the shutters.”
“How many guns have you got left?”
“About eighty.”
“Ammo?”
“Not enough for this shit.”
“Head to the ground floor. We’ll make this our last stand.”
“Roger that. On our way.”
The front of the building had taken the brunt of their attack and more critters were pouring through the torn shutters. Before continuing his check of each floor, he took aim and fired at a critter attacking one of his troopers in the line. With their rapid movement, he was sure it wasn’t a kill shot, but it gave the shooter time to scoot backwards and the survivors grabbed him, pulling him inside of their group.
Leaving other troopers to finish the critter, he said, “Level three, gimme a sitrep.”
“Critters inside of the perimeter. They’re breaking through the windows.”
He hadn’t expected any other answer, but there was no way they could make it down two flights of narrow stairs when critters were already on the first floor. The upper levels would be safer than the ground floor, and he wondered why Ark hadn’t ordered people to the top floor. At least from there they could have made their way onto the roof. Better to die jumping fr
om the building than be cornered like animals inside of it.
“Head to the top floor and make it your last stand.”
“What’s your situation down there?”
With a sharp laugh, he shook his head. “Fucked.”
“Kick ass, sir.”
“Oorah.”
It was a strange way to say goodbye, but it said all that was needed. Returning his attention to his own battle, his squads began to make their way from the stairwell, adding their firepower to the fight on the ground floor. Survivors were pushing tables and cabinets against the doorway to the stairs, blocking access to the floor.
Before settling to fire the last of his bullets, there was one more person he needed to call. “Ark, we’re outta options here.”
Ark replied in a steady voice, “I hear ya. Hold the perimeter.”
Now wasn’t the time to argue with Ark, but he gave a sharp, barking laugh. “There’s no fucking perimeter, you moron. We’re overrun. The floor is filling with critters.”
“I can see that,” Ark replied calmly. “I’ve got you on cam.”
Not knowing which camera Ark might be watching them on, but hoping he’d get the message he raised his free hand with his middle finger extended.
“Quit screwing around, Hood, and focus on the battle,” Ark said amiably.
Leon’s voice came through his earpiece. “Hood, we’re on our way back now.”
Looking around the room and hearing the sound of reducing gunfire as shooters ran out of ammo, he replied dourly, “Too little too late, dude.”
Not waiting to hear Leon’s reply, he yanked out his earpiece and left it dangling against his chest. He had no reason to talk to the Navigators. As far as he knew, they couldn’t fly so they were too far away to be of any help. Ark was right and it was time to focus on his last battle. Critters had broken through part of the line at the main doors, and he pushed past the survivors to reach it. In theory, he should keep his distance and direct the combat, but they were well past the point of no return. This fight was already lost and it no longer needed a commander.
Just as he reached the line, a slender and unarmed girl barely out of her teens launched across his path, fighting her way towards the critters. Her expression was one of sheer fury and she was clearly hell bent on attacking them. As she tried to push past him, he grabbed her with one arm and shoved her behind him.
Fighting against his grip, she shrieked, “Lemme go! I’m gonna kill them! Fuckers!”
“Stand down!”
She managed to launch past him, but he had a firm hold on her jacket so she couldn’t pull away. Firing the last of his bullets at the critters launching at both of them, he dragged her closer to him. “Hellcat!”
“Lemme go!”
All along the line, the critters were launching at the now unarmed shooters. Some were holding knives and others were using their guns as clubs. Some had even picked up furniture and were swinging it wildly. The hellcat he was holding onto was literally spitting with rage. Despite knowing this was the end, he began to laugh and she stopped fighting against his grip, turning to face him in surprise. She was a very pretty young woman and he smiled at her warmly. Appearing to share the same moment of insanity, she smiled back at him equally as contentedly. Without saying a word, they ran at the oncoming critters.
Several critters were slashing wildly at anything in front of them. His vision narrowed to two of them only a few feet in front of him. Using his gun as a club, he beat at the nearest critter, waiting for the sharp claws that would tear through his armor and into his body. The hellcat was fractionally behind him and she would die only moments after he did. The critter reared onto its back legs and raised several more, ready to sweep down and tear him apart. Up close, it looked more like a machine than an insect and its molded face was expressionless. It would kill him without conscience, slaughtering his hellcat next. The claws at the end of each skinny black leg were six inches long and stained red with blood. In slow motion, a droplet fell to the floor, but he didn’t see it land.
With two limbs raised high, the critter stopped and its back legs gave way, crashing it to the ground where it skidded with the momentum of its abandoned movement. It came to a stop with the chin on its tiny head collapsed onto the floor. A gust of wind swept across the room as every critter fell down with a single loud whumping sound.
Without the gunfire and screeching of the critters, the room fell into an eerie silence. No one spoke or moved. He tentatively kicked at the critter lying by his feet, but it didn’t react.
His hellcat was standing next to him and she bent at the waist to peer at the lifeless critter. “Is it dead?”
According to Ark, the medical team didn’t believe the critters were alive to be dead. Shaking his head, he replied, “I don’t think they can die.” No one in the room had moved and he plugged his abandoned earpiece into his ear. “Ark, what did you do?”
Ark’s tired voice came through his earpiece. “I gave up one mission to win another.”
Although he’d just saved the lives of everyone at CaliTech Ark sounded disappointed, but whatever he’d done and however high the price, he still owed the man his life.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR: Lucky baby (Ark)
Thirty-two of the baby bots had been packing explosives and he’d spent every last second he could pushing them deeper inside of the nest. Watching them fall into one hole after another, he’d marched them as a group as far as he was able before exploding them. The effect had been immediate, and he’d lost visibility of the nest.
Leaning back in his chair, he stared at the now blank screen. His face was reflecting back at him and his eyes were glittering with frustration.
Amber was already out of her chair and she leaned down, hugging him from behind. Kissing his cheek repeatedly, she cried, “Thank you! I love you! You’re my hero.”
Pulling his head away, he muttered irritably, “Knock it off.”
She straightened and gave him a surprised look. “What’s the problem? They all died. You did it, Ark.”
He hadn’t reached the bottom of the nest and he knew it. He’d put people at risk to collect the programmable chips, and they’d worked the survivors around the clock to build the tiny bots, but all of it had been in vain. Other than mapping more of the nest, they’d wasted a tactic that had taken them a month to set up. He still didn’t know what was at the bottom of the nest and he doubted they’d managed to kill whatever it was. At best, he’d startled it, but as soon as it realized they had no follow up tactic it would awaken the critters again.
Shaking his head in disgust, he used the considerable strength in his arms to lever himself into his chair. Plugging his earpiece into his ear, he rolled his chair up the slight ramp and to the elevator. Amber followed him, but Dom remained in his seat. Just before the doors closed, and without waiting to hear his reply, he said sharply, “Dom, monitor the nav squad.”
The elevator doors opened onto a chaotic scene. The fluorescent lights appeared overly bright against the darkness of night showing through the shattered windows and the open main doors. People were moving around the room, calling to one another and asking for help. Rolling his chair onto the floor, people moved out of his way as he continued across the room to the main doors. The most desperate battle had taken place here, and evidence of the fierceness of the fight showed in the sheer number of critter parts scattered across the floor.
Flattened and deflated bodies of critters were lying directly in front of the deep layer of rubbery body parts next to the main doors. Their skinny limbs were sprawled around them and their chins rested against the marble floor. Turning his chair to face the compromised perimeter, blood was streaked along the entire line, and he’d rolled his chair through it without noticing. Torn and bleeding bodies were scattered along the perimeter, only further proving how close they’d come to losing everyone.
He’d known he couldn’t kill whatever controlled the critters, but he’d needed to get close enough to make
it stand down. It had taken time to get the slow-moving baby bots into position before he would activate their bombs. Looking at the bloodied bodies and shocked faces in front of him, he wondered if he’d waited too long before exploding the bots. It had been a risky call to make and he’d never know if he could have exploded them earlier than he had.
He still didn’t believe he’d killed whatever controlled the critters and that meant the ones lying around the room wouldn’t stay stunned for long. Searching the room for Hood, he eventually saw him on one knee, bent over one of his troopers.
“Hood!”
Upon hearing his name, Hood looked across at him and then leaned closer to the man lying on the floor. After talking to the injured man, he stood and walked towards him. “Where are the medics?”
“I’ll call them in once I get a sitrep from you.”
Frowning at him, Hood asked, “What’s the delay? We’ve got injured here.”
“Is the building secure?”
Hood looked across the room filled with slow-moving people and shrugged. “It’s more secure than it was.”
“We can’t afford to lose the doctors. Get your squads organized. Tell them to restock their guns and ammo. You need to get them moving.”
Giving him a look of disbelief, Hood asked, “To do what?”
He pointed at the flattened critter next to his chair. Dead critters dried up and looked like husks, but the one by his side still had a blackened, shiny rubbery look. It didn’t look dead, and if it came back to life then they’d be right back where they started, only this time he was out of bots. “You need to decapitate them.”
A young woman had joined them and she was leaning into Hood. Giving him a skeptical look, she asked, “Why do we have to cut their heads off?”
“They’re not dead.” Gesturing with his head to the critter next to his chair, he added, “Dead critters don’t look like that. They dry up and these still look pretty healthy to me.”
With comprehension dawning across his tired looking face, Hood asked, “How are we supposed to cut their heads off?”
