David Golemon - Event

He watched as the team broke up into the four-man groups they had rehearsed before coming down. It was a tactic Jack and Sarah had devised to protect against sudden attacks.

The machine was no longer emitting a chirp or a beep, but a solid buzz. The blinking lights were now a steady red glow, casting those around it in an eerie shade.

"Shut that off, everyone use your regular lighting, no ambient devices, they'll blind you if there's shooting."

Suddenly the wall exploded right behind Mendenhall. The shattered wall threw him to the ground. Lights immediately illuminated the animal as it shook itself free of the clinging dirt and sand, slinging outward its armor neck plates. The plates dug into both walls of the tunnel creating deep gouges in the rock and dirt. The beast roared, then leapt for the fallen Mendenhall, who screamed and rolled just as the creature swiped with its claws. Collins and Everett opened fire at the same time the group to Mendenhall's rear did. Over one hundred armor-piercing rounds hit the animal simultaneously. All but a few glanced off its purplish armor and embedded in the walls. As the tracer rounds struck, it stumbled forward and leapt onto the sergeant. At that moment, another animal burrowed into the tunnel somewhere in front of Collins. He heard the loud pops of automatic fire as well as screams of terror and pain. Jack saw the bright flashes as the Delta and Ranger teams opened up.

Everett used the muzzle of his short-barreled XM8 and lifted one of the plates of armor just below the Talkhan's skull and fired a twenty-round burst of 5.56 mm rounds into the back of the animal's head. It roared and shook its massive head, then collapsed heavily onto the sergeant and firmly pinned him to the tunnel floor. They could barely hear Mendenhall screaming below the heavy carcass of the dead creature over the screams and bursts of gunfire in the enclosed tunnel. Collins and Everett both reached down and quickly pulled him out from under the animal.

"Goddammit, sirs," the sergeant said loudly and breathlessly, "just a little fucking faster next time." Mendenhall started checking himself, making sure he was all right. The new armored vest had paid major dividends for the sergeant because when he turned, the officers saw three large gashes almost through the back of the abalone-shell protection. One of the animal's teeth was still lodged in the collar of the new armor vest.

They didn't have time to answer Mendenhall or comment on the armor as more shots rang out down the entire length of the tunnel, each weapon sparking a myriad of bright colors on the crystalline walls. Screams and yells could be heard, along with cries of horror and injury. Suddenly, the firing stopped. Then started again as another animal broke through the wall. They heard Ryan's shouts as he directed fire down the tunnel. Collins reached for a flare, popped it, and threw it into the darkness. It settled and revealed a nightmarish scene as the Delta front guard was battling for their lives against three of the animals. One of the lead animals struck out with its tail and caught a Delta sergeant in the throat, impaling him and yanking him away from the others and into the midst of the flailing claws of the attackers.

Suddenly a clawed hand burst through the wall and creased the air in front of one of the men just before the entire bulk of the animal crashed into the tunnel. The claws had slashed a specialist from Delta almost in two, catching him between the neck and shoulder. The beast had blindly ripped down, severing flesh, bone, and cartilage as easy as a knife slices through paper. A corporal was too close to use his XM8, so he pulled his combat knife from its scabbard and leaped onto die creature's back when it became fully exposed. He thrust the knife between and under its flapping neck armor and into its neck three times in rapid succession before the beast reached behind and grabbed the soldier with its long claws. The stinger swiped and nicked the corporal, but the claws were already doing the necessary damage. The sharpened points pierced the soldier and he screamed in agony as the beast brought the struggling Ranger toward its face and roared in anger and pain.

"Yeah," the soldier screamed back into the gaping, teeth-filled maw, "fuck you!" He then quickly plunged the knife into the animal's left eye. The Talkhan screamed in pain, slamming the soldier again and again into the hardened wall of the tunnel. It pummeled the lifeless body until the corporal simply came apart.

"Move!" Collins's shout filled the tunnel as others rushed up from behind the wounded and enraged beast. Collins, Everett, and Ryan opened fire at the same moment, taking the animal first to its knees and then to its side. The rounds followed it down and kept striking it as it lay prone on the blood-slick floor, the tail and stinger still twitching. Then abruptly, the animal at their feet roared and staggered to its feet. It swung outward with its claws, seeking out anything it could kill. Collins quickly removed a grenade and pulled the pin. He waited until the beast had swung and missed, then while it roared, Jack quickly jammed the grenade into its large mouth, scraping his arm and hand on its teeth as he did so. He threw himself at the creature's feet as the grenade went off with a muffled explosion, and Jack saw the head come apart, spraying him, Everett, and Mendenhall with gore.

An eerie silence then filled the smoke-shrouded tunnel as the flare sputtered and died, leaving them in total darkness. Seven men were left standing. Two were only slightly wounded with gashes and cuts from the sharpened claws. Seven men had been lost during the brief two-minute encounter with the four Talkhan.

"Okay, let's get ourselves together and start moving. I don't like just standing here like ducks on a pond. You have anything on the VDF, Sergeant?" Collins asked while reaching for his oxygen.

Mendenhall was shaking badly. He wiped some of the animals' blood from the OD-green face of the small device and examined the gauge. "No... uh, no, sir, needles are flat and steady."

Collins lit another flare and examined what was left of his team. The mangled bodies of the dead littered the floor.

"Pull these men back against the wall. If we can, we come back and retrieve them." Jack focused on one of the Rangers who couldn't be more than nineteen.

As they started forward, the first Delta man to the branch in the tunnel called back behind him using his radio, "Major, you better have a look at this."

Collins squeezed past the others and knelt beside the highly trained commando from Fort Bragg.

"What have you got?" Collins asked.

"It looks like we're not the only ones to come this way." With his flashlight the Delta man pointed at the footprints clearly evident in the soft floor of the tunnel.

"This looks like it may be one of our teams, number's about right. Maybe fourteen to eighteen men, give or take a couple," Jack said.

"Normally I would say you're right, sir, but look at this." The flashlight fell on a set of prints that were too small to be that of a soldier. And they were obviously made by tennis shoes. "And this set here, they're not military boots, they're probably cowboy boots." Then the beam swung forward about a foot and illuminated another set. "These are small and are like nurse's shoes, maybe a waitress; my wife wears something like these."

Collins straightened and cast his light down the tunnel. The beam seemed to trail off to nothing as it tried to push its way through the blackness and smoke ahead.

"Whatever unit is down here, they've taken along at least three civilians. A man, a boy, and possibly a woman, Major."

At the same time Collins had started worrying about possible civilians in the tunnels, Carl Hastings, one of the Event Group's most experienced tunnel engineers from the Colorado School of Mines, was in a frightened, headlong flight from the hole his team had entered. The Delta teams led the way as the Rangers brought up the rear as they carried what wounded they were able to snatch away from the attacking animals. Their team was down to only seven men, not counting the four wounded. Bobby Jenks, a friend of Sarah's, had been pulled screaming into a hole that had suddenly appeared out of nowhere, crashing into him and knocking him off-balance just long enough for the beast to grab him.