Nicholas Smith - Extinction Edge

Beckham backed away from the store and joined Horn.

“I don’t see shit,” Chow said from a few feet away. “Anyone got eyes?”

Jinx took a knee and angled his rifle toward the subway station. “There!” he yelled.

Suddenly, the street was alive with motion. The Variants streamed out of the subway entrance, climbing over one another and leaping toward the convoy. The grotesque snapping of their movements enraged Beckham. He was ready to fight. To kill.

Marines ran for cover behind the vehicles. But for one man it was too late. Two Variants tackled the Marine and pulled him, screaming, into the thick of the growing horde.

Valdez swung his turret into position and opened fire with his .50 cal. The bullets punched through the swarm, splattering the street with blood.

Beckham kept the Gap store in his peripheral as he fired. The flood of monsters continued from the depths of the subway station. He changed magazines as the Bradleys both maneuvered their turrets into position. Fire from their M242 chain guns erupted simultaneously. The wave of Variants disappeared in a cloud of crimson as the 25mm rounds found targets.

Beckham held his palm facing out and then swiped it up and down in front of his face, yelling, “Cease fire!” He wanted his team to conserve ammo since it was obvious the Bradleys had the fight under control.

Soon, the layer of ash lining the street was soaked with blood and covered in body parts. A Marine to the side of the convoy fired a LAW rocket at the subway station as more of the creatures continued to pile out. The missile streaked across the road and detonated with a deafening explosion. A fireball rose from the stairway as the walls caved in on top of the horde and sealed the passage. Chunks of gore and cement flew out of the blast. Pieces bounced off the ground and rolled to a stop in the scarlet ash.

“Cease fire!” Valdez shouted. “Check the man next to you. See if anyone’s missing.”

Heavy silence followed.

“They got McDonnell,” a Marine finally shouted.

“Anyone else?”

Somewhere down the street, a dying Variant let out a screech. A single shot ended its suffering.

Beckham checked his own team. Five helmets. Then he looked for the other strike teams. It looked like they were all there.

He breathed a sigh of relief and mentally counted their remaining numbers. With ten Marines missing and three confirmed KIA, 1 stPlatoon had forty-seven men left to fight. Not many to face an army numbering in the millions. Team Ghost wasn’t new to shitty odds; the enemy always seemed to outnumber them. But this took it to an entirely new level.

Kate took a closer look at the Marine who helped them escape from Building 1. He’d said his name was Jackson. They’d stopped under a circle of light from an industrial pole as he swept his weapon over the concrete path ahead. The calm, confident sparkle in his eyes didn’t reflect his age. He couldn’t have been more than nineteen years old. Just a boy , Kate thought. But he had killed two of the Variants like a battle-hardened Marine, with single shots to their heads.

After clearing the area, Jackson signaled for the small group to continue. Holding Jenny’s and Tasha’s hands, Kate trailed Ellis and a handful of other scientists. She counted heads as the light spilled over them. Only nine of them had made it out of the lab building.

Cindy wasn’t one of them.

A flashback to the chaos raced across her mind and she remembered the Variant pouncing on Cindy. Her thrashing arms. Her screams. And then silence.

Kate bent over to throw up, dry heaving on the ground.

Tasha and Jenny yanked on her sleeves. She wiped her mouth off with a sweep of her forearm and then grabbed their hands. She still didn’t quite believe this was all happening. The base was supposed to be secure.

Safe.

The word made her want to laugh. How could she have been so naïve? The Variants couldn’t be caged like a dog. They were intelligent, powerful predators. Kate should have known they were too dangerous to keep locked up. She thought of Fitz and Riley, wondering if they were okay.

The girls were crying at her side as they ran. Footfalls pounded the concrete. There were other human sounds. Labored breathing. Coughing and whimpering.

“Come on!” Jackson insisted. He ran past Building 2 and pointed at the third dome in the distance. He was leading them to the medical facility. Kate risked a glance over her shoulder. There was movement outside Building 1. She squinted, but the shapes melted away.

Another explosion lit up the sky. The chopper was completely engulfed now, the full tank of gas burning out of control.

Everything seemed surreal. A dream.

A tug on her right hand forced her to turn back to the others. They were only a hundred yards from Building 3. Two silhouettes jogged down the steps. Kate’s heart jumped again, but then she saw the rifles.

The soldiers moved into the dim light with their weapons shouldered.

“Get inside!” one of them shouted.

“Thank you,” Kate whispered to Jackson as she led the girls into the building.

“Doing my job, ma’am.” He paused and looked behind them. “I think that’s it.”

“There have to be more survivors,” said the other soldier.

She lost track of their conversation as she followed Ellis and the others through the front doors. Riley was waiting in the atrium in his wheelchair, a pistol lying on his lap “What the hell’s going on?” His eyes skittered from face to face.

“Kate,” he said. “What the hell?”

Gripping the crying girls’ hands tighter, she said, “The base has been overrun.” She shook her head and looked back at the door. “I don’t…”

Ellis took over. “A chopper full of Variants crash-landed. They’re rampaging through the base, building by building.”

Kate flinched when the doors opened. She backed away, pulling the girls with her. Jackson peered through the gap. “We’re going to hold them here. You guys find a place to hide and lock the doors from inside.”

“What?” Kate said, shocked. “You’re not going to come with us?”

The Marine narrowed his blue eyes on her and shook his head. “I’m going to do what I was ordered to do. I’m going to protect this base.”

Kate marveled at the young man’s heroism. The world needed men like him, men that were willing to make sacrifices. Men like Beckham.

“Thank you,” she said again.

Jackson handed his sidearm to Ellis. “Take this.” Then he looked over at Riley. “Keep ‘em safe.”

“Good luck,” Riley said. He checked the magazine in his pistol and then chambered a round.

More screams sounded in the distance.

“Jackson, get back out here,” one of the soldiers shouted.

The Marine exchanged one final look with Kate and then closed the door.

Ellis quickly locked it behind him with a twist. “We should go to the ICU and lock down every ward on our way. Those things will have a hell of a time getting through.”

“Let’s move,” Riley said. He wheeled down the atrium and into the hallway connecting to the medical wings. There were three total, and the ICU was the final compartment.

They heard gunfire before they were able to secure the first doors. Kate flinched at every crack. It was over in seconds. The high-pitched croaks and shrieks of the Variants reclaimed the night.

Kate and Ellis exchanged a look. They both knew what the sound meant. Jackson and the others were already dead.

“Hurry!” Riley shouted.

Tasha and Jenny ran down the hall with Kate by their side. Dr. Holder and his nurse, Tina, came bursting around the corner.

“What the hell is happening?” Holder asked.