The creature was right in front of him.
Was it toying with him?
His lungs burned, but he held the same breath inside. If he let it out, the beast would tear out his guts.
As the seconds passed his heart thumped harder.
Could it hear that?
The creature growled again.
Then it stomped away, taking off down the passage the way they had come. Dohi waited a few more moments before slowly letting out a breath. He gulped down a mouthful of the tunnel air. Musty and rotten as it was, air had never tasted sweeter.
He stayed in the mud behind the webbing until those clicks and squeals finally went silent. After another fifteen minutes had passed, he emerged from the mud and squeezed back through the gaps in the webbing. He pulled his fingers over his face and through his goatee, flaking the mud away.
With nothing but a flashlight to find his way out of here, he set off, knowing what he had seen had to be relayed to command before another outpost was attacked.
The very future of the country could rest on his escape.
***
The late afternoon sunlight filtered through the trees the day after Team Ghost lost Dohi. They remained at Outpost Turkey River where they had received a resupply in the evac that had taken Cedric Long to command for questioning, and the samples Fitz collected for Kate.
Fitz wasn’t leaving until they had recovered Dohi. Every passing hour, he knew the chances of finding him alive were shrinking.
But Dohi was the best tracker on Team Ghost, a veritable bloodhound. If anyone could survive underground in the Variant infested superhighway it was Dohi.
Fitz checked his team as they continued the search for their lost brother.
Mendez was on point. Lincoln had rearguard, his gaze roving the skeletal trees. Fitz and Rico were between them. Ace wore a large black backpack that held a rugged computer system and battery connected to the long gray tubular instrument he carried.
The tube looked like an old-fashioned bazooka, except that it had an LCD screen glowing up toward Ace. He held it over the ground in front of him like a minesweeper.
When command had learned of the team’s situation, they had offered the perfect solution. Along with fresh ammunition, a group of Army engineers had dropped off an R2TD, or Rapid Reaction Tunnel Detection system developed over a decade ago by the US Army. It used ground penetrating radar to detect tunnels as well as the sounds and activity of people or machinery underground.
Before abandoning some of the cities to Variants after the great war ended, the device was widely used by squads just like Team Ghost.
While operating the device was easy enough, discerning the signal from noise on the detection screen Ace was staring at was more of an art than a science and would require communication with two Army combat engineers.
“Overwatch 1, Ghost 1,” Fitz whispered. “Anything?”
“Negative, Ghost 1,” Lieutenant Scott, the engineer assisting them, replied. “We’ll ping you if we see something. Over.”
For all the magic that the engineers had promised them this R2TD system could accomplish, they had found precious little to show for it. Fitz looked over at Rico with a raised brow. An unspoken question: Can you believe this?
She shrugged back.
For far too many hours, they’d been scouring the forest with only the rustle of the trees to keep them company. They hadn’t found a single tunnel. Nothing to take them to Dohi or the escaped Variants.
He was halfway tempted to try something drastic. Start setting up explosives to blow holes in the earth. Maybe cave in some tunnels and get the beasts to show themselves.
But that was his frustration speaking and it could end up killing Dohi and any other prisoners below ground.
Slow and steady saves lives, Fitz thought.
They approached the crest of another rolling hill, far past the outskirts of Outpost Turkey River’s safe zone. Every step they took was another pulling them deeper into enemy territory.
Ace froze, his eyes on the screen. He motioned to Fitz to join him.
If Fitz wasn’t mistaken, the strange deep blue and black colors appearing in a semi-circle on the screen were what the engineers had told them they would see if they had indeed found a tunnel.
Fitz studied the image for a second, making sure what he was seeing was real.
Lieutenant Scott chimed back in over the channel. “Ghost 1, Overwatch 1. You have a positive read. Tunnel depth approximately one meter down and three meters in diameter directly below your position. Appears to lead twenty degrees east from current course.”
Fitz signaled to Mendez to adjust his route and follow Scott’s directions.
Sure enough the signal on Ace’s radar screen remained strong. Fitz followed, finally confident that they had a trail of some kind.
They still didn’t know if this was the tunnel that Dohi had gone down, but without any other leads, this was the best chance they had of finding some clue as to where their brother had gone.
Ace stopped again, and Fitz checked the screen. Strange shapes emerged there. Green, globular things, almost like spirits.
There were Variants under their feet, and possibly human prisoners, too.
“Ghost 1, slow down,” Scott said over the comm channel.
“Any idea how many targets are down there?” Fitz asked.
There was a slight pause before the Lieutenant replied. “Ghost 1, by my estimate, you’ve got six to eight contacts.”
Fitz did the math. Getting the scoop on six to eight Variants would be tough, but doable. Especially if a couple of those contacts turned out to be captive humans and not Variants.
“Ghost 1,” Scott began, “I’m seeing something strange. Is there any issue with the R2TD system? Like one of the power supply cords damaged or something?”
Fitz and Ace gave the cables and system a cursory glance. But neither of them was as technically familiar with the system as the engineers.
“Negative,” Fitz responded. “At least, as far as I can tell.”
“I’m getting some really weird readings,” Scott replied.
Fitz looked at the screen. A flash of white seemed to illuminate the circumference of the tunnel on the radar readings. “Is it this halo-looking thing you’re talking about?”
“Correct, Ghost 1,” Scott said. “If you’re seeing it, too, that means it’s not just an imaging artifact on my end.”
Fitz wasn’t sure what the engineer meant by artifact, but he didn’t like the sudden nervousness in the man’s voice.
Fitz peered back over his shoulder. The woods around them were mostly silent. Not even the call of the crows that lived in the canopy. Only a few dried leaves brushing against each other.
“The electromagnetic induction system that the R2TD uses can also detect other EM signals,” Scott said.
“In English, please,” Fitz said.
“Electrical wires, communications equipment, all that stuff. If there’s power going through a cable, for instance, it’ll give off a signal like that.”
“And light up the whole tunnel?”
“Negative,” Scott said. “Ghost 1, something’s happening below you. The entire tunnel is exploding in electromagnetic activity. Like, the whole thing is wired or something.”
Fitz wracked his mind trying to come up with any explanation that made sense.
“That webbing,” Rico whispered. “You think—?”
She had no time to finish the thought. A huge green amorphous shape appeared on Ace’s screen. Fitz saw it only for a brief second before the ground erupted, soil and grass flying around them.
The force of the blast sent Ace flying backward. He hit a tree trunk, his helmet cracking against the side and knocking him unconscious.
Fitz managed to level his rifle up as the cloud of dirt fell back to the ground. A beast appeared at the lip of the hole and jumped out, blood seeping out of the dirt-covered flesh.
The monster looked like some mus
cular mix of a bat and a gorilla. Long fibrous growths stood out of its spine like a porcupine’s quills. It let out a series of shrieking clicks, bulbous head swiveling on its neck.
“Take it down!” Fitz ordered.
The rest of Team Ghost fired as he pulled the trigger.
The beast propelled itself through the torrent of gunfire, barreling straight toward Ace who was still limp on the ground.
Rico tried to move in closer, chewing up the creature’s flank. Lincoln and Mendez followed suit, battering at the creature with gunfire.
The beast started to slow, wounds stitching its side. A long groan erupted from its wormy lips as it reared back a meaty fist tipped with knife-like claws.
“Behind us!” Rico shouted.
Fitz twisted as six grunt Variants emerged from the hole.
He didn’t even need to yell at Mendez and Rico to turn their focus on the beasts.
Fitz finished his magazine, scoring several more hits on the Alpha.
“Help!” Rico shouted.
Lincoln turned to provide covering fire while Fitz changed his magazine. In the seconds it took him to pull out a fresh one and palm it home, the Alpha had reached Ace.
More blood sprayed from the rounds buried in its flesh, and yet the creature still advanced, bending down with a talon tipped claw.
But to Fitz’s surprise, the blades didn’t curl around the fallen member of Team Ghost. Instead they grabbed the long, tubular portion of the R2TD. The beast crunched into the metal, and the device fell apart like it was nothing more than a Lego model.
For a moment, the creature stood there. It let out a breath almost as if it was relieved, blood trickling out of its gaping nostrils and weeping down the front of its chest.
Then it collapsed, the ground trembling from the impact.
Fitz checked his six, seeing the other members of Ghost had cleared the area. Crumpled Variants lay in the dirt.
Rico and Mendez stepped between the fresh corpses of the smaller Variants while Lincoln followed Fitz over to the beast. Another transmission hissed over the comm channel, and he could finally make out the Lieutenant.
“I lost the signal,” Scott said.
Fitz kicked the dirt near the shattered machine and reported the loss. Then he made his way over to Ace, who began to stir, lifting a hand toward his head.
“You good?” Rico said.
Ace managed a nod.
“You sure?” Fitz said, crouching.
“I’ve taken worse hits in my day, boss,” Ace said, as Fitz and Mendez helped him to his feet.
“So what do we do now that we don’t have R2TD to guide us?” Lincoln said.
Fitz found himself missing Apollo right now more than ever. The team could use the dog’s nose, and he considered requesting the army send fresh canine reinforcements to help their search.
But even if they did, that would just take up more time that they might not have to find Dohi.
Fitz walked over to the Alpha and nudged the enormous clawed hand. The beast didn’t move. Blood seeped from its body, soaking the ground.
He stared at it for a moment, wondering what had compelled it to go straight for the radar system, as if it possessed some kind of preternatural intelligence.
“You hear that?” Mendez whispered.
The scratching came a moment later, and Fitz nodded. He ordered Rico and Lincoln to watch over Ace, then gestured for Mendez to fall in with him.
They moved around the side of the Alpha, guns pointed at the hole in the ground where the Alpha and its minions had appeared. A dark shape moved out of the dirt there. Soil-covered fingers clawed at the lip of the hole pulling a body up covered in mud.
Nothing but the white of the creature’s eyes showed.
“Hold your fire!” the creature said in an all too familiar voice.
Fitz lowered his rifle and blinked to make sure his eyes weren’t playing tricks on him.
“Dohi?” Rico said.
She bent down, and together with Fitz, they grabbed Dohi and helped pull him onto solid ground.
“Dude, where the…” Lincoln said.
He and Mendez looked down in the hole, aiming their rifles into the darkness.
Dohi sat up on his knees and wiped his face with a sleeve.
As much as Fitz was thrilled to see his friend, Dohi smelled like he had just crawled out of a sewer.
“Water,” Dohi choked.
Fitz quickly handed him a water bottle.
The rest of the team were all grins, but they didn’t give away their position by calling out in celebration.
Dohi finished off a drink, wiped his mouth, and then looked at the Alpha.
“That monster almost ended me,” he said.
“What the hell is it?” Fitz said.
“Some new kind of Alpha,” Dohi said.
Ace staggered over like he was drunk with blood dripping down his forehead. He cradled his shotgun and stood over the hole, guarding it with the others while Fitz opened a channel to command.
“Hotspot 1, this is Ghost 1, requesting evac. We’ve got a brand-new specimen for you.”
“Copy that Ghost, sending a chopper to the outpost. Over.”
“We got to haul ass back there,” Lincoln muttered when Fitz shared the news.
“Who’s got the rope?” Rico asked.
Lincoln looked at her and then the Alpha.
“You got to be kidding me, we’re taking it with?” he grumbled.
“Yeah, and you’re going to pull it first,” Fitz said.
Mendez chuckled. “You’re such a baby, brah.”
“You help him,” Fitz watched as the grin on Mendez’s face soured.
Working with Lincoln, he helped secure the rope around the Alpha’s legs.
“Damn, look at these paws,” Lincoln said. “Huge.”
“All the better for digging, by the looks of it,” Mendez said.
“Let’s move out,” Fitz said. He led Team Ghost off in silence toward the evac zone back in the walled off outpost. It was slow going, and the team took turns dragging the monster that was basically a tunnel-digging machine.
Fitz held his questions for Dohi, trying to keep quiet, and also give the man some time to collect his thoughts.
“Glad to have you back, brother,” Fitz said.
Dohi hardly reacted, his eyes glazed like he was in a trance.
An hour and a half later the distant thump of a bird sounded.
Lincoln and Mendez dragged the Alpha out toward the landing zone, while the rest of the team scanned the shadows for hostiles. If the Variants were going to attack, this would be the time.
But the beasts remained hidden, and the chopper set down, the crew hopping out to help load the Alpha. The crew chief passed a new headset to Dohi.
After Dohi drank another bottle of water, Fitz finally figured it was time to ask him some questions, the most obvious one coming first.
“How’d you find us?” Fitz said.
“I followed the gunfire and the screams.”
Fitz was so tired he hadn’t even considered it. Of course Dohi would have come toward the sound of gunfire, but why had the Alpha come after the R2TD?
That was a question far above his pay grade, but looking at the beast slumped on the floor of the chopper, he imagined someone would be able to figure it out.
For now, Fitz was counting his blessings.
They had Dohi back, and they had killed a beast that might just hold the key to the mystery behind the tunnels and recent attacks.
Today was a victory.
He would savor it as long as he could.
— 12 —
“I’ve got to figure out what’s going on,” Beckham said to Kate.
“I understand why you have to go,” Kate said. “Hopefully President Ringgold will be able to give you answers.”
He had expected Kate to protest, but if the bags under her eyes were any indication, she was too exhausted.
Voices outside brought him
to the window of the historic brick and stone hotel that was now serving as a shelter for the survivors of Peaks Island.
The room his family had been assigned was small, but nice, with two bedrooms, a large bathroom, and a kitchen. It wasn’t their comfortable home back on Peaks Island, but it would suffice until they could return.
Outside a platoon of Marines patrolled the streets. They had deployed all across the country at affected outposts per President Ringgold’s orders. Beckham felt much better about leaving now that they were here. Especially since Kate also had Sergeant Ruckley and her Ranger team assigned to protect the lab.
Kate pinched the bridge of her nose.
“Headache?” he asked.
Kate nodded and sighed. “Tired.”
Beckham was, too, but at least he could sleep on the ride to command.
“You promise you’ll try and get some sleep now?” he asked her.
She placed a hand on her forehead. “If I can…but not until tonight. I’ve got to get back to the lab. I just wanted to see you off and make sure Javier and the kids are okay.”
Beckham hated seeing her like this, but she had duties to their country just like he did, and she took them just as seriously.
“Has that sample that Fitz sent back been helpful?” Beckham asked, anxious to hear about it.
“Helpful is a generous word. I’ve only had the day to analyze it, but so far, I’ve got more questions than answers.”
“Do you at least have some idea what that stuff is?
Kate pulled her hand away from her head. “This is going to sound crazy, but it looks to me like mammalian muscle and nerve cells. They seem to spontaneously grow at an alarming rate… Faster than even cancer cells.”
Beckham knew just enough about science to know that was weird. “I didn’t think cells like that could just grow outside an animal’s body.”
“Normally they can’t,” Kate said. “There are a whole bunch of reasons why they shouldn’t be able to grow like they are. Most obvious is the lack of nutrient and oxygen delivery, along with a working immune system.”
“So you’re telling me those tunnel walls are alive?”
He thought she was going to shrug, but after a slight hesitation she nodded.
“Not literally,” she said. “The cells are. Those vines are. But not the tunnels. Still, the longer I examined the cells under the scope, the more red and white blood cells I found. There seemed to be small vesicles, too, to deliver those cells.”
Extinction Cycle: Dark Age Box Set | Books 1-4 Page 15
