Emergence Boxed Set, page 69
part #1 of Emergence Series
“We can’t leave yet—there could still be others that get out,” said Kelly as she knelt down, fixing the nightvision scope on the walkway of the dam, fifty yards away. She could see Jared and a handful of others shooting wildly in every direction. Then she caught sight of Erica in the thick of it as the mob of ravenous freaks closed in on either side of the spillway.
***
“Out of ammo—reloading,” screamed Jared, shoving in his last AK magazine as he slipped behind a portly man. He saw Erica to his right, blasting away with an AR into a growing horde of enraged drones pouring down the steps of the walkway. The group of ten shooters were now reduced to four, trapped in the middle with no way out. Jared shot two creatures running to his left then pressed his back against the railing, staring over the edge at the dark expanse of the gorge, where the rushing waters from the dam’s discharge melded with the Colorado River below. “We need to jump into the spillway—it’s our only chance.” He saw another man go down, his head twisted off like a freshly plucked berry off a vine. He fired into the frenzied creatures, but their mangled corpses were quickly bypassed by a dozen more that were swiftly closing the thirty-foot gap.
He felt his shoulder press into something and saw Erica butting up against him as she fired off the last rounds from her AR then flung it to the ground and removed the Beretta from her waist. The other three shooters were nowhere to be seen, and the creatures slowed their pace, taking stock of the prey they were about to finish off.
“Let’s go—jump, now,” he said, firing another barrage into the crowd to his right as Erica squeezed off shots until the slide locked back. She pistol-whipped a creature as it clambered over the pile of corpses, busting a fissure into the forehead, which caused a pool of worms to spurt out. She turned swiftly, grabbing the railing and holding her breath as she jumped into the darkness. The sound of Jared’s rifle disappeared as she plunged into the cold, frothy surface of the rushing water. She felt something drop into the waves behind her. Surfacing, she saw it was Jared swimming towards her. He pointed at the speedboat ahead, its exterior lights illuminating the figures of Kelly and Mary inside.
“Keep moving—I’ve got a stocked houseboat stowed eighteen miles upriver in the marsh. We’ll head there.”
Erica began swimming but heard the sound of water plunking behind them. With each forward stroke of her arms, she darted a glance over her shoulder at the sight of hundreds of creatures jumping off the rim of the dam into the spillway. She was almost at the boat, the distance feeling like it was growing as her lungs burned from the pace. She reached the side and saw Mary reaching down to hoist her up. Kelly began firing into the approaching mass of creatures who were struggling to reach the boat. Some of them were drowning while others had climbed onto nearby rocks, exhausted. Mary revved the engine in preparation to flee while Erica leaned over the edge to grab Jared’s hand. Clutching his thick wrist, she pulled him up only to have his hand slip away as he was taken under by two creatures tugging at his legs. His face contorted as his lungs belched out a gasp, followed by his mouth quickly filling with water, his head disappearing beneath the inky waves. Kelly rushed over, steadying her rifle on the water, which bled a web of crimson tendrils followed by a mass of entrails that floated to the surface, illuminated by the boat’s rear spotlight.
“No!” Erica, shouted at the indifferent river.
“He’s gone,” Kelly said, yanking the woman back into the boat.
Mary thrust the controls forward, arcing the boat out to the left as the engines roared. Kelly sank back onto the corner of the deck next to Cassie, pulling her close and resting the rifle across her lap. Erica recoiled into the sidewall next to the console, clutching her knees into her chest and sobbing. As the boat sped away towards the center of the Colorado, the two women stared back at the Parker Dam in the moonlight. Thousands of creatures flitted over the massive structure, flowing in from the side canyon and surrounding mesas like termites descending on a rotting tree in the forest.
Chapter 41
The sun rising over the Gulf of Mexico was a sight Reisner wasn’t sure he—or anyone at MacDill—would live to see when he first landed at the base twenty-two hours ago. Now, as the small boat anchored off the stern of the Lachesis, he watched the orange disk emerging over the tip of Florida like it was his first sunrise. He climbed up the rear ladder and onto the deck. Despite his numerous injuries and aching joints, he had a quickness to his step and eagerly jaunted across the cargo deck, past workers unloading medical supplies. Reisner felt his heart racing like he was about to begin a footrace, and he paused outside the bridge door, glancing at his reflection in the small porthole. His face was a deeper brown than he had seen it, and he had more furrows than he did several weeks ago, but the stress lines along his face melted away as he looked through the porthole at the young woman inside speaking with the captain. She was four years younger than him, and it was good to see she still had her comforting smile and soft eyes. He unlatched the door hesitantly, like he was walking into a cathedral, the air rushing around him as he stepped inside.
Jody turned and saw him, both of them standing frozen in place as their eyes welled up with tears. He rushed forward, throwing his arms around her as she cried out his name, burying her head in his chest.
“I told you I would come back home—back to you,” he said as he stroked her sandy brown hair.
“I know—I just wasn’t sure if this world would ever allow it.” She wept as she pulled her arms tighter around his waist.
“Well, I’m here now, and I’m not letting you out of my sight anytime soon, no matter how much you get on my nerves.”
“Pff…I doubt you have any nerves left to rattle from what Runa has told me about your work.”
He felt his sides shudder as he pressed his chin against the top of her head. She brushed against the Glock on his hip and then pulled back, looking at the weapon then up at him. “I’m still not used to you being this secret agent guy Runa’s told me about.” She brushed her hand along a bruise below his ear. “Do I even want to know what this is from, Will?”
Reisner thought back to the battle on the airfield against the alphas before he boarded the Cessna. “Probably not, but the important thing is that it ended well.” He put his arm around her shoulder as they walked through the hallway that led to the crew quarters. He paused by the steel door that sealed off the stairwell heading down to the laboratory. “After we’ve had time to catch up, there’s someone I’d like you to meet.”
“Selene—I mean, Doctor Munroe?” she said with a coy smile. “Already ahead of you, big brother. She greeted me when I arrived an hour ago after Runa requested that I be here.”
He blew out a strained breath through his tight lips. “Ooh, that could either be really good or extremely crippling, depending on how much she told you.”
Jody stopped and looked up at him. “Now you’ve got another woman in your life who is going to keep you in line, instead of just me.” She punched him lightly in the right bicep. “Just promise me: no more secrets, Will. At least, you know, not the kind you can’t share with me.”
Reisner chuckled and flared an eyebrow. “I’m not sure that made sense, but I got the gist of it.”
They walked onto the side deck and stood next to one another, staring to the east. Jody looked out at a flock of seagulls flying towards the sun, which had risen higher over the Gulf. Southern Florida was still billowing clouds of gray smoke from the battle, and it curled into a finger over the ocean that looked like the heavens were trying to liberate the peninsula from the mainland. “Do you think we’re going to make it?” she said as a gentle breeze blew through her hair.
He wanted to tell her he wasn’t sure—that the answer he gave today could change by sunrise tomorrow. Each battle seemed so unpredictable and chaotic, against an enemy who was constantly evolving. Reisner saw an array of pained faces flit across his weary mind as he tried to shut out the losses he had endured since the pandemic began. He tightened his grip on the railing while resting his other hand on top of hers. “We’ll make it. We’ve spent too many millions of years clawing our way to the top to go out overnight.” He smiled, staring into her eyes with confidence. We have to make it.
Chapter 42
That evening, Ivins walked into the conference room on the Lachesis and sat down at the end of the table beside the remaining commanders for MARSOC and the Ranger Battalion along with a handful of other key personnel from MacDill. Joining them on the wall monitor were four other base commanders from around the U.S.
General Dorr was sitting opposite Ivins, sifting through a report on his laptop. He sat up, removing the reading glasses off his thick nose and glancing at each individual present.
“Gentlemen, it’s good to see you all before me. You are the fortunate ones who rode out this storm. I cannot say that for three of our other bases—Mountain Home in Idaho and Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado were decimated along with our army contingent at Fort Polk in Alabama. The remaining air bases that were attacked were able to relocate their air assets and critical personnel to more isolated regions, which prevented more catastrophic losses. The emphasis seemed to be on attacking our air assets. We believe this was a deliberate attempt to prevent dispersal of the aerosol.” He steepled his fingers, resting his elbows on the table as he sighed. “As for MacDill, there was a twenty-percent mortality rate from combat operations on and off the base during the attack.” He let out a deep exhale while standing up. “We lost many fine men and women, and their sacrifices will not go unnoticed.” He paused to look at each man. “But we are still here and will take the fight back to the enemy once we regroup. MacDill is still operational but has suffered significant loss of its air arsenal and ordinance. For now, General Vaccaro and his personnel will remain behind along with a division of soldiers. In the meantime, we will have a mobile command center aboard this vessel along with keeping POTUS and other critical staff at sea with this armada until the day when MacDill’s armaments and air assets have been restored.”
He walked around the table, his arms folded. “Doctor Munroe and her staff will continue with their efforts in manufacturing more of the aerosol, and we will coordinate our production efforts with our remaining allied forces around the world.” He pounded his fist on the table near Ivins. “The drones can be defeated—and on a massive scale. Once their numbers have been greatly reduced, we will continue the hunt for the alphas—but their eradication will not happen overnight unless some other bioagent specific to them is discovered.”
Door stood before the center of the room. “Unconventional warfare will be the norm, and I will be taking a hard look at what we need to do to restructure our existing units along those lines as well as asking for input from all of you. We must take the fight to the enemy, and I know of no better way of dealing death to them than at the hands of experienced guerilla fighters like you men here today.”
When he had finished outlining his plan, Dorr asked for a SITREP from the four base commanders on the monitor. Ivins’ over-fatigued brain absorbed the salient points, but it was a comment from the Air Force commander at Creech in Nevada that caught his attention, causing him to shoot upright in his chair.
“Can you repeat that again,” said Ivins.
“We picked up a man in his fifties, floating in his boat on the upper Colorado River. He said he was a survivor who escaped from a place called Raven’s Keep—a dam south of Lake Havasu City. Sounded like he was the leader of the place.”
“What did he say during his debriefing?” said Ivins, who was standing now.
“He told one of my medics that there were around eighty other people—women, kids, people from all over—at the dam, but it wasn’t clear if they made it out or not. The guy disappeared a few hours ago, sorry. Took off into the desert on a motorcycle after he snuck off the base.” He leaned back in his chair. “I can tell you that the area near the dam was overrun with a massive force of drones heading towards Creech. Fortunately, we had enough of the aerosol and good weather conditions to prevent them from overrunning the facility at Creech, but I haven’t seen any satellite imagery of the regions to the south to know which settlements made it.”
“But it is possible that there are still survivors out there, is that correct?”
“It’s possible alright, but we don’t have the manpower to investigate. If there is anyone left at the dam then they’re on their own for now.”
Ivins knew it was another long shot, but he had to hold out hope. One day at a time—until the day comes when I can find out on my own if they are still alive.
Chapter 43
Selene entered the small galley on the second level of the Lachesis and sat down next to Reisner and his team, who were just finishing their meals of canned ham and green beans.
“You all look like I feel, though I haven’t been through anything close to what you’ve endured physically,” she said, resting her right hand on Reisner’s shoulder. He settled back in his chair, placing his arm around her shoulders, his mind still reeling from the scope and outcome of the massive assault they had just experienced.
“The computer models indicate that there was a ninety-seven-percent mortality rate amongst the drones in Florida from the aerosol and the air assaults to the south. With the exception of some small pockets, that state is pretty much cleared out of the paras.”
“Dorr said that the remaining creatures were last seen moving in the vicinity of southeast Georgia,” said Nash.
“Savannah, to be precise,” said Reisner, taking a swig of his coffee from a Virginia Tech mug. “Pacelle indicated that there has been some unusual activity up there with the drones for the past few days.” He looked around at the faces of Connelly, Porter, and Nash. “That will be our next AO—Dorr already agreed that we need eyes on the ground there. If that’s where this super-alpha is located then we need to know.”
Selene pivoted in her seat, facing him with a stern look. “You’re not going back out there.” She raised her hand up, waving it around towards the others. “You all need to rest for a while, at least—you look terrible.”
“Nothing that a shot of Jack Daniels won’t fix,” said Porter with a wink.
“Or a bottle of Jack Daniels,” said Connelly.
Reisner leaned forward, resting his forearms on the table. “We can’t do anything until we get regrouped here and get some air assets to insert us off the Atlantic Coast outside of Savannah, so we’re probably looking at next week at the earliest, given how thin everyone is spread. Ivins and a new team he is assembling are supposed to be heading to Washington to secure that last nuke plant once the weather clears there enough for the aerosol to be effective.” He let out a sigh. “With the loss of our other bases around the nation, Dorr concurred that, from here on out, our remaining military units will need to operate as isolated cells, just like the resistance groups found amongst rebel militia we’ve worked with overseas. He is restructuring central command and will be giving out new orders in two days. Guerilla warfare is our next step now. We will keep using the aerosol to eliminate the drones then surgically take out the alphas using small tac-teams on the ground—this is the next evolution in this war.”
“We still don’t know what the paras were doing with those poor women we found in Phoenix,” said Connelly. “Any more leads on that, Doc?”
Selene raised an eyebrow, her lips tensing. “I wish I knew—there wasn’t enough time to complete further studies at the CDC. That’s one mystery Tso and I have been mulling over since we got here, but I’m at a loss.”
After a long silence, Reisner glanced up at the rest of his team, giving them each a firm nod. “Why don’t you find that bottle of whiskey then, or whatever it is you need, and take some time out for yourselves tonight—you’ve surely earned it.” The three of them heartily agreed, with an assortment of nods and grunts, before hoisting their beaten bodies out of the chairs and exiting the galley.
Selene leaned her head on Reisner’s shoulder, staring at the tiny sliver of blue through the small porthole ahead. He thought about the past two weeks of non-stop combat missions and the frenetic events leading up to the most recent assault at MacDill. His mind raced between images of carnage, explosions, and endless gunfights. His body was still wired for action, and he couldn’t bring himself down from that elevated state enough to relax. He kept balling and unballing his fist underneath the table and wondered how they were going to continue on with the fight with the loss of so many military capabilities around the country. What the hell is going to be left of the human race even if we destroy all of the creatures?
He slid his empty coffee cup around in a half-circle. “By your estimates, do you think that we can…” He felt Selene’s fingers press against his lips as she moved in closer to him. She placed both her hands on his face, gently turning his head towards hers.
“I don’t want to do this right now. I can’t think about this war anymore—not tonight, anyway.” She pulled him closer, kissing him. “I just want to be with you and forget about the outside world for a while.” She kissed him again and then slid her arms around his neck for a hug. “Is that OK?”
He placed his arms around her, pulling her in close and inhaling her lovely fragrance as he ran his fingers through her soft blond hair. “Yes, I can’t think of a better place to be than next to you.” He felt the knot in his neck ease and his shoulders soften as he leaned back further, his eyes closing and his memories of the past seventy-two hours slowly washing away.
Chapter 44
