Foresight, page 9
“Jen, keep us covered,” Scott shouted, putting his rifle on the floor to help her load her cart. They piled the crates up quickly, not speaking as Luke and Briar broke back toward their respective sides to re-equip the Marines, Jennifer with Briar, giving her cover. Scott picked up his rifle and resumed shooting as he jogged along beside Luke.
The trife queen screamed again. A moment later, she appeared in the open space between the hangar doors. Bullets smacked her body, but she shrugged them off as she exploded into the hangar, reaching one of the M2 placements in one quick lunge to swat the gunner and the Marines with him aside before turning on the other gun.
“Shit,” Scott said. “This is where we die.”
Chapter 15
“Spell it out, Corporal,” Colonel Haines said. “We come under attack every night. Why are you here?”
Ames' voice quivered as he spoke. “Sir, a second slick of trife is coming over the mountain. It’s at least five times larger than the eastern slick, and the spotters say they ID’ed a queen.”
“What?” Haines hissed, her head turning toward Nicholas.
“Luke is in the hangar,” Nicholas said, sudden panic racing through him. He had only seen a trife queen a couple of times before from the air. He knew what kind of damage the larger, stronger, more vicious trife could do. “I need to get the Reaper in the air.” With the drone, he could better help the Marines.
He started for the door without waiting for Haines’ approval or dismissal. In the moment, he forgot about everything except Luke.
“Nicholas, wait,” Grimmel said behind him, his voice so commanding it brought him to a full stop.
He whipped his head back to the scion. “My son.”
“I know,” Grimmel replied, rising from his seat and crossing to the apartment’s bedroom. “Give me ten seconds.”
Tension rushed into Nicholas’ legs as Grimmel disappeared. He didn’t want to wait even one more second, but something about Grimmel’s tone suggested he would be better off if he did.
Yasmin came over to him and wrapped his hand in hers. “Nick, what does this mean?”
He met her gaze. “It means we’re out of time. The best we can hope to do is get as many people out of the base as possible before the trife overwhelm us. It’s over, Yazz.”
The words were sour coming out of his mouth and bitter as Yasmin received them. “Over? It can’t be over. Not now. Not when we’re so close.”
“There’s nothing we can do,” Nicholas replied. “We have enough to hold against one small slick. Not one small and one large, and especially not a large one with a queen at its head. It’s impossible.”
“Didn’t we just have a whole conversation about the impossible?” Yasmin asked, trying hard to stay positive. Nicholas knew she was worried about Luke too.
Grimmel returned from his bedroom with a metal box in his arms. He dropped it onto the floor next to Nicholas and knelt to open the lid, revealing a small armory of guns and ammunition.
“Like I said before,” Grimmel explained. “It’s always best to be prepared.” He handed an M18 handgun to Nicholas, along with a pair of magazines. “Colonel Haines.” He passed her one of the MK rifles when she looked, keeping a second for himself.
“What about me?” Yasmin asked.
Grimmel smiled, handing her a second M18 and extra rounds. “I didn’t know you could shoot.”
“I don’t need this,” Nicholas said in response to the weapon. “I just need to get to the drone control room.”
“Forget the drone,” Grimmel said. “It won’t help. The base is already lost. Only the bravest will admit it and adjust their plans accordingly.” He looked directly at Colonel Haines, who nodded.
“I need to call the evacuation,” she said. “Corporal, with me. Captain Shepherd, do whatever you can to get to safety.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Nicholas replied, but she was already out the door, running in her heels to get to the CIC. “This night turned to shit in a hurry,” he added.
“You have no idea,” Grimmel replied, straightening up after emptying the crate.
“What’s your play, Aaron?”
“Our play, Nicholas. Luke is our top priority. We need to get him to safety.”
“At least we agree. He’s got to be out of the hangar by now if the base is under attack. We’ll intercept him on his way back to our quarters.”
“Lead the way, Captain.”
Nicholas nodded. In the moment, he was too worried about Luke to think about how calm Grimmel remained despite the fearful urgency of the situation. It was a little odd that a man like Aaron Grimmel owned Marine-level firepower and seemed to know how to use it, but the last two years had taught a lot of people skills they never imagined they’d need before the trife arrived.
He ran out of the apartment, sprinting through the corridors back to the emergency stairwell leading out of the civilian area. MPs were already in the hallways, knocking on doors and ordering the scientists to prepare for evacuation. Colonel Haines would surely make an announcement too once she reached the CIC.
Nicholas entered the stairwell, taking the steps two at a time as he raced to the top floor of the compound. Grimmel easily kept pace with him, not even breathing hard as they charged up the steps. Yasmin fell further behind, but Nicholas didn’t consider slowing for her. She wouldn’t want him to stop for anything before they knew Luke was safe.
The emergency lights on the walls of the stairwell ceased flashing orange and began to flash red. Haines’ voice echoed in the enclosed space, spilling out of the loudspeakers connected to the warning lights.
“Attention. Attention. This is Colonel Avril Haines. All personnel are ordered to head to their nearest evacuation zone for escort out of the facility. I repeat, all personnel are ordered to head to their nearest evacuation zone for escort out of the facility. This is not a drill. This is not a drill.”
Nicholas grunted, pushing himself harder to get up the damn steps. He needed to be out before the rest of the people in the base clogged up the corridors.
Throwing himself through the door at the top of the steps, Nicholas’ heart leaped to his throat when he immediately heard the sound of gunfire, much too close to be coming from the hangar. He spun to his right, spotting a pair of trife at the end of the corridor, moving through the base unopposed. They hissed when they saw him, immediately rushing his way.
Two cracks from Grimmel’s rifle and both trife went down.
“They’re already in the base?” Yasmin said breathlessly as she caught up to Nicholas and saw the trife.
“They must have found the escape hatch,” Grimmel said. “They’re entering the facility from both ends.”
“If we can’t get out…” Yasmin said, her voice trailing off as another group of trife came around the corner. They reacted the same way as the first pair, and suffered the same fate as Grimmel cut them down, one bullet for each demon. His aim was impeccable.
“Where’d you learn to shoot?” Nicholas asked.
“I’m a man of many talents,” Grimmel replied. “Let that be a reminder never to underestimate anyone.”
“We’re going to die down here,” Yasmin said. “We’re trapped.”
“There’s another way out for you,” Grimmel said. “We need to find Luke and get him out of here.”
“Why do you want us to save Luke so badly?” Nicholas asked. “Not that I disagree with the idea, but what’s in it for you?”
“Family is important to me,” Grimmel replied. “More important than you realize.”
“Then stay behind Yasmin. Don’t let them get to her from the rear.”
“Affirmative, Captain.” Grimmel backed up a step, shooting another trife as it cleared the corner. “We should hurry.”
Nicholas took off at a run, fighting the urge to sprint as fast as he could so he wouldn’t leave Yasmin behind. The chaos inside the facility increased as he crossed through the corridors, the MPs he passed rushing back toward the escape hatch, heavily armed and ready to fight. It should have been Marines heading back that way, but they were no doubt busy enough in the hangar.
Where he had left Luke.
Where he should have been safe.
The only thing that kept him from blaming himself for his son’s predicament was the fact that with the escape hatch located and breached, Luke wasn’t safe anywhere. Maybe that would help him feel better later, once he knew Luke was alive. His mind refused to process any other thoughts before that.
Gunfire echoed in the corridors behind them as the MPs engaged the trife. More military personnel turned the corner ahead, running in their direction. Comms specialists, techs, and other USSF enlisted non-combatants, they had hastily grabbed rifles from the armory to join the defense.
“Captain Shepherd,” Duffy said, spotting him as he entered the next passageway. The older, slightly overweight Control Operator carried a rifle and an ammo belt cinched around his waist. He paused in front of Nicholas.
“Duff, I’m looking for Luke,” Nicholas said, stopping to speak to him. “Have you seen him?”
“No. I’m sorry. But word is the hangar is about to be overrun. Haines directed everyone who can fight to the escape hatch to try to clear a path out while the Marines hold off the main group. You should go that way too, Shep.”
“Not without Luke,” Nicholas replied. “Good luck, Duff.”
“You too,” Duffy said before continuing on.
Nicholas, Yasmin, and Grimmel did the same, making it to Nicholas’ quarters.
“Luke!” Nicholas shouted as he shoved the door open. “Luke, are you in here? Luke!”
No response. Nicholas ran to his room, checking it and the bathroom before hurrying back to the front door where Grimmel and Yasmin waited. Yasmin’s expression had paled again as she realized Luke wasn’t there.
“We’ll find him,” Nicholas said. “We aren’t far from the hangar.”
He whirled toward a hiss coming from down the corridor, handgun coming up as a group of trife turned the corner, coming from the direction of the hangar. He beat Grimmel to the punch this time, taking out the lead pair of demons before the other man smoothly dispatched the rest.
“They’ve overrun the hangar,” Yasmin said, tearing up again. “He’s lost, Nick.”
“Don’t you give up on me, Yazz,” Nicholas said, voice hard. “I won’t accept he’s gone until I see for myself.”
“A small group could have broken through, it doesn’t mean the fighting is over,” Grimmel said. “And it doesn’t mean Luke was anywhere near the hangar.”
“Where else would he be?” Yasmin asked.
“He could have gone anywhere,” Nicholas replied. “Maybe the MP station. Maybe the CIC. We start at the hangar and go from there.”
He grabbed Yasmin’s hand and started running.
Chapter 16
Luke went deathly still, stunned by fear as the trife queen turned on the other M2 position, her high decibel scream so loud it reverberated through the hangar, nearly drowning out the sound of gunfire. The M2’s large shells tore into the queen, penetrating her thick hide and drawing blood.
He thought for a moment she might go down, but she gathered herself and leaped at the gunner, who had no time to duck. Her razor-sharp claw sliced backbone-deep across his belly, tearing him wide open. She grabbed him as he clutched at his entrails, tossing him aside like a rag doll trailing its stuffing.
Her tail wrapped around the M2 and tore it from its mooring. As if the heavy gun weighed virtually nothing, she threw it at one of the APCs, pushing the armored vehicle back into the Marines taking cover behind it. Some managed to flee, but most went down under the vehicle’s crushing weight. The pause in Marine gunfire allowed her offspring to swarm the vehicle and come down on the surviving Marines before they could get their guns up to fire.
“Luke!” Jennifer shouted behind him, pulling on his arm. He looked over at her, his mind stuck in neutral from indecision. “Snap out of it! We need to get out of here.”
“Where are we going to go?” Briar asked, tears streaming down her face as she cowered behind Jennifer, looking frantically around for a way out.
“There’s a bolt hole in the rear of the base,” Scott said. “That’s the way out. You three should go. I’m staying here with the Marines.”
“But Scott—” Briar started to argue.
“Not your decision,” he replied, shouldering his rifle and shooting at a group of trife headed straight for them. His aim was spot on, the trife collapsing under his burst of rapid fire. He looked back at his friends. “Now get out of here. I can take care of myself.”
“Luke, come on,” Briar said, motioning toward the hangar door. “If he wants to stay here and die, that’s his choice. I want to live.”
Luke glanced at Scott, at Briar, and then at the scene near the blast doors. The queen’s arrival had changed everything, her assault on the M2s reducing the defenses enough to allow the regular trife access to the hangar. More and more of them survived entry, getting through the Marine’s sporadic crossfire and attacking them head-on. Each fallen Marine meant more trife got through, in a cascading domino effect that wouldn’t end well for any of the humans in the hangar.
And once the trife were past the hangar, there would be no chance to stop them. No way to keep them from killing everyone inside the base, even if the escape route remained clear. They would come up on the scientists and civilians and their families from behind and kill every adult male and woman of childbearing age, leaving only children and elderly alive.
“No,” Luke said. “If I can slow them for one second, help one more person escape, then I’m staying.” He eyed the racks of rifles nearby. “I want my father to be proud of me, and running isn’t going to do that.”
He broke for the guns, Scott right behind him. Jennifer hesitated a moment before making the same decision, leaving Briar to stand there alone.
At the front of the hangar, the queen slammed into another of the APCs with her shoulder, sending it skidding into more Marines.. She hissed loudly and a huge swarm of trife poured over the APC, falling onto the stricken Marines before they could recover.
“Retreat! Retreat!” Lieutenant Carter’s voice shouted through the loudspeakers, overcoming the gunfire. the hissing and screams of the trife queen. “Fall back!”
Luke grabbed one of the MKs and spare magazines, joining Scott in shooting at a pack of trife. There were so many it was impossible to miss. They dropped the creatures one after another, their sudden defense intensifying as Jennifer joined them.
“There,” Scott said, motioning to a group of Marines fighting their way through the trife. Two Butchers fought beside them, helping keep the demons back. “Give them cover, we can help them get back to the main doors.”
“Look!” Briar said, having decided to join the group. She pointed to one of the other doors on the side of the hangar. A group of trife had just finished tearing it open and were escaping the hangar and entering the base.
“Shit,” Luke said. “They’re already inside.”
“Should we go after them?” Jennifer asked.
“No, stay with the Marines. We need them.”
They concentrated their firepower on the trife chasing the Marines, helping them thin the masses as they retreated toward the group. Luke recognized them as they got closer.
“Auntie, this way!” he shouted, waving his free hand and hoping she would hear him over the noise or see him gesturing.
She did, and the entire group broke toward them, staying low so Luke and the others could shoot over their heads. Behind them, the trife queen finished wrecking another APC before attacking one of the Butchers. The robot tried to slash the queen with its axe-hand, only to have the queen grab the arm and tear it clean from the machine. It did the same to the other arm before knocking the Butcher down and removing its legs, taking it out of the fight.
“Luke,” Auntie said, reaching the group. “You shouldn’t be here.”
“The trife went through the side door,” Luke replied. “They’re in the base.”
“Damn it,” Auntie said. “I don’t know what we can do. Colonel Haines ordered a full evac, but the escape route is blocked off too. All of our personnel are grabbing guns and heading there to fight, but if too many of these bastards get through it won’t matter.”
“We can’t hold them off here,” Rocky said, coming up beside her. His left arm hung limp at his side, blood staining his uniform. “We can choke them in the passageways, and queen bitch won’t fit.”
“She’ll dig her way in,” Scott said. “It’ll take a while, but if she plans to nest here she’s got time.”
“Anything that slows her down is good with me,” Auntie said. “Come on.”
She started for the main doors out of the hangar and into the base, Rocky, Toast, and Gills joining her. Luke’s heart dropped seeing that Mackey hadn’t made it. He turned his rifle on the trife again, helping lay down cover fire as they retreated toward the door.
The fighting in the hangar had calmed considerably. The number of Marines still shooting had dwindled to less than a few handfuls, most of them having managed to get into decent defensive positions near the corners. It was a brave, futile effort. They would run out of ammunition soon enough, and then they would all die.
Luke respected them for their sacrifice to save others inside the base. He hoped it would be worth it.
The group reached the main blast doors. Auntie paused to tap in the code to open them, stopping there and turning back to the hangar. A second unit of Marines broke for the cleared exit, one of them with an injured squadmate in his arms. The trife continued spilling into the hangar from outside, a slick nearly a thousand strong already in the space and thousands more waiting to enter. They rushed at the fleeing Marines, right on their heels as they desperately ran for the open blast doors.
Luke swung his rifle toward one of the trife as it lunged at the rearmost Marine, squeezing off a burst that sent it sprawling to the floor. Another trife tried to tackle the same Marine. Jennifer unleashed a volley and brought it down.
