Nicholas Smith - Extinction Edge

A soldier.

Kate’s brief feeling of hope collapsed with the ceiling in front of her. She shielded the girls as panels and beams crashed down. Pulling them to her chest, she closed her eyes. Ellis joined them, wrapping his arms around them the best he could.

The pop of gunfire rang out in all directions.

There were screams. Indecipherable. Kate couldn’t tell if they were human or Variant. She cracked an eyelid to see two of the creatures covered in dust and blood. Both of them were badly burned, just like the one in the ICU. Riley fired without hesitation. The bullets peppered the lead creature with holes, its chest jerking from each impact.

It let a screech fly and tilted its head toward Rod. A swollen tongue circled its sucker as it lunged for the man. He didn’t get off a single shot before it overwhelmed him, wrapping limbs around his waist and clamping down on his chest with its sucker.

“No!” Rod screamed. “Help me!” The clatter from the other door and the pop of gunshots shrouded his pleas.

Kate held the girls closer as the other Variant skidded away on the tips of its claws. The monster leapt from the floor to the wall and crawled across the horizontal surface, joints clicking with every motion. Riley fired the rest of his magazine. Bullets tore into the creature’s flesh, blood spraying across the white wall.

“Kill it!” Kate screamed.

The doors to the ICU shook again. Both girls clung to her. Their fingers dug into her back.

Riley snapped a new magazine in and fired at the injured Variant racing across the wall. A bullet took off the top of its skull and it fell to the ground, spasms shaking it violently. Riley took careful aim and then fired one last shot into the creature’s head. Then he twisted in his chair, and fired at the monster that was busy bashing in Rod’s head. The toxicologist had stopped moaning. His eyes were gone, lost in the sunken crater that had been his face.

Another tremor shook the locked doors to the ICU. Kate forced her gaze away from Rod’s mangled body.

Riley fiddled with the pistol. “It’s fucking jammed!”

The Variant growled and twisted toward him, still perched over Rod. Tilting its head, it blinked as if it was trying to focus. It looked at Riley, compressed its swollen lips and then stood. Riley continued to work the jammed bullet out of the chamber as the creature walked toward him.

Kate couldn’t believe her eyes. She’d never seen one move without a sense of urgency. But this one seemed relaxed. Confident, even. The creature knew Riley couldn’t inflict any harm. It was like a cat playing with its food. Toying with them.

She couldn’t look away from the bulging blue veins covering its pale, wrinkled skin or the thin strands of white hair hanging over its vertical yellow pupils. The Variant had undergone a complete transformation, from its talons to its sucker lips.

Blood oozed from a bullet wound in the creature’s muscular chest. It stopped to examine Ellis, Kate, and the girls, slanting its head at an angle. It squeezed its lips together again and then opened its mouth to reveal jagged, broken teeth. Slurping, it turned back to Riley.

“Fuck,” he said. Giving up, he launched the pistol at the creature and raised his fists. “Come on, you piece of shit.” He kept his eyes locked on the pale beast and yelled, “Run! Take the girls and—”

Before he could finish, the lock hardware to the door leading to the first medical ward exploded. The metal swung open, and a soldier wielding a machine gun rushed into the room. He was drenched in blood. He looked like he’d taken a bath in it, and Kate couldn’t see his face well enough to identify him. Then she noticed the metal blades attached to his knees, glistening scarlet.

“Fitz!” Kate shouted.

The Variant’s yellow eyes widened, the vertical slits blinking rapidly like it was trying to comprehend what had just happened.

“Get behind me!” Fitz yelled. He opened fire at the creature. The rounds ripped into its chest and broke through the other side, painting the hallway with red. The monster shrieked, blood bursting from its mouth.

Fitz continued past Riley, who still held his fists in front of him. He fired again and again, but the Variant wouldn’t go down. It stepped forward on blackened, burnt legs and held its ground.

Raising his muzzle ever so slightly, Fitz stopped three feet away from the monster and aimed for its head. It let out one final screech but was silenced by the gunshot. The creature’s skull exploded like a piñata.

Fitz hovered over the corpse, fresh blood dripping from his body. Wiping an arm over his face, he reloaded and aimed his rifle at the dented door at the other end of the hallway. “Stay here,” he said.

Ellis helped Kate to her feet and then ran over to grab Rod’s gun. She handed it to Riley, and they huddled together in the middle of the hallway.

“Stop,” Riley shouted, holding up a hand. Fitz shot him a glare that said, I got this . He aimed his rifle at the lock and watched as the crazed Variant continued to smash into the door.

Kate gritted her teeth.

Fitz waited for the creature to strike again. He reached forward, unlocked the door, and then backed away. A second later the burnt creature came smashing through the right door, skidding face-first across the floor. It scrambled and thrashed as it attempted to regain its balance. But Fitz was already firing. It was over in less than five seconds. The creature flopped and let out one final gasp.

“That’s all of ‘em in this building.” Fitz said in a nonchalant tone. “You guys okay?”

Kate nodded and then cupped a hand over her mouth when she saw the floor and walls of the ICU behind him. Tina’s body lay in a puddle of her own blood, her hand only inches from the door.

“We better move,” Fitz said. “There could be more outside.”

Every helmet on Delta and Charlie team gravitated toward Beckham and his new company. The two teams were set up along the chest-high wall separating them from a twenty-six-floor drop. Ryan used his elbow pad to break out a final shard of glass and then hefted his MK11 onto the ledge.

“This is Jake and his son, Timothy,” Beckham said as they approached the strike team. He moved his mini-mic back to his lips. “Charlie and Delta in position.”

“Copy that,” Lieutenant Gates replied. “FOB is established. I’ll inform Command.”

Jake grabbed his son’s hand and stepped up to the window next to Beckham. The two men looked over the side, the wind rustling through their hair.

Several tents and a generator were set up below. The three Humvees were parked in a triangle, with the FOB shielded by the trucks. The .50 cals were angled in opposite directions and the TOW launchers on the Bradleys were facing the park.

No matter how impressive the firepower was, Beckham knew there was no way in hell it would hold off an enemy numbering in the hundreds of thousands.

“Glad to see someone else made it,” Jensen said, pulling Beckham’s attention from the view below. He examined Jake and Timothy for a moment and said, “You’re a cop?”

“Was a cop,” Jake said. “The last of our group tried to leave the city a few days ago. We lost contact with them a few hours later. Those things have nests and—”

Ryan’s raised voice cut the man off before he could explain further. “We got movement.”

Beckham rushed back to the wall for a look. His stomach dropped as he approached. Was this it? Were the Variants finally attacking?

A gust of wind pushed Beckham back. He fought his way closer.

“I don’t see shit,” Horn said.