Джозеф Нассис - SNAFU - Heroes [An Anthology of Military Horror]

As it turned out, Olsen did have news, though none of it good.

“The choppers at Nurnberg are currently on lockdown due to the weather; seems they’re getting smacked by a bitch of a storm,” Olsen said. “They were surprised that we hadn’t been hit yet, actually, and said we should expect it pretty much at any minute.”

Cade could care less about the weather. What he needed was enough men to contain this thing before it got out of hand. “Ground units?”

Olsen shook his head. “Nurnberg’s CO basically said we’re on our own until the storm passes. Short of a direct order from the Seneschal, I doubt he’s going to budge.”

Cade cursed beneath his breath. For just a moment he considered getting the Seneschal on the phone and having him demand that the idiot in Nurnberg send him the men he needed but in the end decided against it. While he was certain he could convince the Seneschal of the necessity of the act – he was Cade’s direct superior after all – Cade didn’t think that the Nurnberg CO would actually comply. It would be too easy to make up some weather-related excuse for why he didn’t send out his men and Cade would have simply made another enemy in the process.

For the time being, they were going to have to make do.

Duncan cleared his throat, not so subtly reminding Cade of the other issue they were facing. Cade then quickly filled Olsen and Riley in on what had happened upstairs and what he intended to do about it.

“We move as a unit straight down the street to the doors of the church,” he told them. “I want the gunfire kept to a minimum. Use your blades first and only take the shot if you have to. We don’t want the noise to bring more of these things down on our heads.”

There was a chorus of “yes sirs” from the other three members of the team.

Cade knew that the church stood on holy ground and was therefore a natural sanctuary and boundary against the hellspawn. The only way those creatures were getting inside was to be invited across the threshold and that wasn’t bloody likely, in his view. If he could get his team inside without contact with the enemy, they’d have time to assess the situation and plan how to get the people inside, whoever they were, safely out of town.

If being the operative word; they might not be able to see any at the moment, but it was clear the village was crawling with demons.

Getting to the church was not going to be easy.

Cade moved first, slipping out the door with barely a sound. He headed down the street in the direction of the church, staying low and slipping in and out of the shadows cast by the nearby buildings to mask his passage from whatever might be watching.

One by one the others slipped out of the butcher shop and followed in his wake. They stayed close enough to be able to support each other if things went south but far enough apart that they wouldn’t get caught in a crossfire. Each man kept his attention on his area of concern, trusting the others to do the same. In that fashion they slowly made their way up the street.

Based on what he’d seen from the second floor window, Cade guessed that they had to travel about a quarter mile down the street they were on before moving a few blocks west to reach the church. The distance didn’t bother him as much as the tightness of the buildings on either side. Side streets and alleys between the structures were few and far between; if they came into contact with the enemy they would have little choice but to fight their way through to the end of the street and that could be some distance away.

Never one to shy away from a good fight, even Cade knew they wouldn’t last long if they got trapped in the middle and the enemy came at them in strength.

So don’t get caught in the open , he told himself as he continued forward, his gaze constantly sweeping the area around him, searching for threats.

They reached the end of the main road and had just turned west when the church came into view. Cade was about to point it out to the others when he thought he heard something. He sank to one knee and held up a clenched fist, the signal for the others to do the same, and then listened.

For a moment there was nothing, just the silence of the abandoned streets shouting back at him, but then he heard it again.

A furtive, scuttling sound.

It seemed to be coming from somewhere across the street.

He began scanning the buildings opposite him, methodically covering the area at street level before working his way upward, checking every door and window, searching for movement or a shadow that was just a hair out of place, anything that might indicate the presence of the enemy lying in wait for them.

When the sound came again, louder and clearer this time, there was no mistaking where it was coming from.

The roof!

Cade looked up to find that they were no longer alone.

A strange, insectoid-looking creature stared down at them from the top of the building directly opposite his position. The demon had taken its victim’s form and twisted it into something right out of a nightmare. Additional limbs sprouted from either side of its torso, allowing it to power itself along in scorpion-like fashion and its face had morphed into a canine-like snout with rows of glistening teeth lining its jaws. Dark, coarse hair covered most of the thing’s body but left the face exposed. If it hadn’t been for the brown eyes staring at him over that gaping maw, eyes that belonged in the face of a frightened teenage boy and not the visage of some hideous monster, Cade might not have even recognized it as having once been human.

His revulsion was so complete that he had his pistol up and pointed at the creature before he even realized it and as his finger tightened on the trigger he heard his own words echoing in his head.

Use your blades first and only take a shot if you have to.

So much for that idea.

The shot rang out just as the creature scurried back from the edge of the roof and Cade wasn’t sure if he’d hit it or not. In the next moment it was clear that he hadn’t mortally injured it, however, for the night air was suddenly filled with the same shrieking cry that they’d heard earlier as the demon summoned its brethren to the scene.

Cade didn’t waste any time trying to get in another shot but turned instead to face the others.

“Run!” he roared.

The men of the Echo Team responded immediately to Cade’s command, arranging themselves into a wedge-shaped formation with Olsen on point, Duncan and Riley staggered next to each other in the middle, and Cade pulling up the rear. They headed down the street at an accelerated pace designed to get them to their destination quickly without compromising their ability to defend themselves.

Behind them, the demon continued its shrieking call.

Cade and the others had barely covered twenty yards before demons started coming out of the woodwork. The first of the creatures to respond to the cry for help stuck its head out of a shop doorway a few dozen feet in front of the oncoming team. Before it could do anything more, Olsen snapped off a shot with economical precision that blew the top of the creature’s head clean off; the body collapsed back into the open doorway as the Templars went racing by.

But that was just the first of many demons. Moments later all four men were firing repeatedly as demons came bounding out of every hiding place imaginable – from behind doors, out from under cars, off of nearby rooftops – each and every one of them intent on sinking teeth and claw into the bodies of their foes. The chatter of the MP5s in the hands of Olsen and Duncan was a near constant sound at that point, and was frequently interspersed with the boom of Riley’s combat shotgun and the crack of Cade’s pistol while around them the demons roared out their rage and hatred.