Nicholas Smith - Hell Divers

Two more Sirens had perched behind a fallen shelf. They swooshed talons through the air, testing Magnolia. These were smarter. Behind them, two others lurked.

X threw the strap of his assault rifle over his shoulder and drew his blaster. “Turn off your night vision!” He flipped his off, aimed at the floor between the first two monsters, and fired a flare. It whistled and exploded between them, sending the creatures screeching away.

He had bought some time, but not much.

In a few minutes, every Siren in the building would be out of its cocoon and searching for them. X rushed over to Murph and bent down to help him up.

“No! I’m not coming with you,” Murph wheezed. He fought out of X’s grip. “I did what I came to do. Now it’s time I joined my family. My girls are waiting for me.” He cracked a painful grin and pulled a small bundle from his vest pocket. “Still got one more trick up my sleeve.”

A screech directed X’s eyes to the open door. The flare had fizzled out, and the distorted shadows of the Sirens were creeping closer.

X eyed the explosive that Murph held in the crook of his arm, and nodded. A moment of realization passed between the two divers. No other words were needed.

Murph jerked his helmet toward the exit and shouted, “Now, get your asses outta here!”

It was the only time X had heard the man raise his voice to anyone. Swallowing his emotions, he scooped up two cases of cells. Magnolia grabbed the third. Katrina and Weaver picked up the pressure valves and cradled them in their arms, and they left Murph there to die, just as they had left Tony in the street.

The four remaining divers ran down the stairs, through the corridor, and into the lobby, where they skidded to a halt. The walls were crawling with Sirens. The creatures dispersed across the interior of the building, their faceless heads homing in on the divers.

“Come on!” X said. He made a dash for the front door and jammed it open with his shoulder.

Weaver slammed the door shut behind them just as one of the creatures rammed the other side with its thick skull. The area was clear, but it wouldn’t take long for the monsters to fly out the open roof.

On his HUD, X found the nav marker for the supply crate. He set a breakneck pace, pushing through the wind and weaving around the domed warehouses, the cases and his rifle clanking against his armor.

The crate was a quarter mile away—less than three minutes if they ran. X led them around the last building and continued across a flat, snowy field that stretched as far as he could see.

Crunching across the snow, he scanned the whiteness for any sign of the crate. He ignored the screeches as long as he could, then finally glanced over his shoulder to see the first of the Sirens soar out the top of the tower. There was no way the divers would make it to the crate in time. He bumped his comm pad and said, “Murph, if you can hear me, now would be a good time to—”

An explosion as loud as a near lightning strike cut him off. A bubble of fire bloomed out of the sides of the building and mushroomed up from the top, engulfing the Sirens that had made it into the sky. Their smoldering bodies fell lazily back to the surface.

The building trembled, folded in the middle, and collapsed in a cloud of smoke and dust. The other divers stopped and stared in astonishment. Murph’s sacrifice looked as if it had killed every creature in the tower.

“Come on!” X shouted. He pushed on across the white landscape, his eyes alternating from the beacon on his minimap to the ground, until they were on top of the nav marker. But the storm had buried the crate. They were going to have to dig.

“Watch our six, Weaver,” X yelled.

“On it.”

“Magnolia, Katrina, start digging!”

X set the cases on the snow and began shoveling with his hands, tossing clump after clump frantically to the side while glancing skyward every few seconds.

“I think I’ve got something!” Katrina shouted.

X scrambled over to her and wiped off the edge of a box with the white arrow symbol of the Hell Divers. He’d never been so happy to see the marking in his entire life.

“Help me,” he said. He uncovered the surface and then tugged on a handle to free the box. Katrina took the other side, and together they hoisted it out of the snow.

Flipping the lid, X wasted no time. He tossed the supplies and weapons into the snow to make room for the cells and valves. Weaver stooped down and picked up one of the extra boosters. After locking it in, he retrieved spare magazines and stuffed them into his vest.

“Hurry,” X said, stowing the cases inside. Then he set the valves over the top. Using the straps, he secured the goods.

“We got a problem,” Weaver shouted. “A big fucking problem!”

X glanced up and followed Weaver’s rifle muzzle to the east. Dozens of winged Sirens flew across the industrial zone, moving in a V formation straight toward the divers.

“Grab a gun,” X said. He flipped the lid shut and punched in his key code on the security panel. With a loud pop, two balloons shot out of the external boosters, expanding as they filled with helium. The crate rose into a sky alive with Sirens.

“Clear a path, but don’t shoot the crate!” X shouted. He stood beside Katrina and aimed his weapon. They came together back to back, moving as one. Magnolia and Weaver took up position a few feet away.

The crack of gunfire rang out in all directions. Bullets shredded wings, sending the fliers spiraling down. Some swooped away, but others soared directly into the incoming fire, shrieking their high-pitched cries. Lightning flashed overhead as the sky rained monsters. X grinned in spite of himself.

Eighty yards out, a single survivor landed and folded its wings into its back. “Someone shoot that one!” X shouted as it broke into a gallop. He pulled an empty magazine and reached for another.

Weaver fired two rounds into the creature, and it somersaulted and lay still in the snow.

X watched the crate vanish into the clouds. It could take a lot of abuse, but he still found himself praying it got back to the Hive in one piece, and that the Hive was still up there to retrieve it. He had put the gunshot he heard during the first seconds of the dive out of his mind—until now.

“That’s the last of ’em,” Weaver said. “What’s your plan now?”

X continued to look skyward. Hades had killed a lot of Hell Divers today, but despite the odds, they had completed their objective. Life would go on in the sky, at least for a while.

He turned away from the clouds to look back at the frozen city behind them. Hundreds of black dots rose above the skyline. The intermittent lightning flashes revealed a swarm of Sirens sailing away from the buildings.

X had never really imagined he would get to utter the words that left his mouth next. “Time to get the fuck out of here and go home.”

The Hive shook fiercely. The storm had completely engulfed the ship. Captain Ash clung to the wheel, but her throat burned so badly, she could hardly concentrate. It felt as if someone were holding a flame against her esophagus.

“Thirty-five thousand feet, Captain!” Jordan shouted.

The walls screeched in protest, and LEDs flickered overhead. Amid the chaos, Ash heard a familiar voice in her earpiece. “Captain, I’m not sure how much more of this she can take!”

It was Samson, and he sounded defeated.

“Do whatever you have to, to keep us in the air,” Ash said. “I don’t care if you have to climb outside and flap your arms.”

“I’ve done everything but that,” he said. “I’m sorry, Cap. This is it.”

“God damn it,” Ash shouted into her mic. “I need you, Samson. Screw your head back on straight. You’re a fighter!”