Adrian Smith - The Fourth Phase

“Multiple targets!” yelled Tony.

Jack looked down the track, searching for a target. A dozen Variants were sprinting up the muddy old road, water, leaves, and soil flicking out behind them in an arc like a motorboat speeding through the water. Jack flicked off his safety and aimed for the centre mass of the nearest charging hound of hell. He hit it in the shoulder, sending it sprawling face-first in the mud. A few Variants behind tripped over it. Jack would’ve laughed at the sight if it wasn’t for the charging pack behind. He went into battle mode, aiming, firing. Just trying to take them down. His ears were ringing at the close proximity of the other Renegades’ gunshots. A couple of the Variants broke away from the pack, sprinting around the sides to flank them.

Jack yelled out a warning. “Flanking! Take them down!”

Eric spun to his side and tried to get a fix, but the Variant was too quick. With a terrifying howl, it leapt the last couple of metres, smashing into Eric. He managed to get his rifle up to protect his neck. Tony screamed and shot it in the chest. The Variant swatted at the bullet as if a wasp was stinging it. Tony ran forward. Pulling out his knife, he stabbed it in the head. The knife stuck fast. The Variant reached up and swatted Tony aside.

Eric used the distraction and kicked the beast off him.

Jack watched horrified as the Variant thudded down next to Tony, who was scrambling up. The Variant grabbed his arm, latched his sucker onto Tony’s bicep, and tore off part of the muscle. Tony screamed in agony and desperately tried to pull away, but the Variant held fast and pulled him closer.

Jack put the last charging Variant down.

“Ben!” he yelled in desperation before turning, trying to get a clear shot.

Ben took a few steps and pivoted on his left foot, raised up his leg and, with a roundhouse kick, smashed the knife deeper into the Variant’s brain, killing it.

A multitude of howls and screeches echoed around the trees.

Ben reached down and yanked Tony to his feet. “On your feet, soldier. We have to go.” He glanced at Eric. “Help your mate. C’mon. Go!”

Eric pulled off his buff from around his neck and wrapped it around Tony’s torn arm. Together, they climbed up the tower and pulled the cradles back across.

The sounds of branches snapping and rocks dislodging reached Jack and Ben. Dozens of Variants were tearing up the track from both directions. Jack glanced up. Eric and Tony were halfway across. Jack looked up at Ben. “I don’t think we have time.”

Ben met his eyes. He gave him a curt nod and clicked in a fresh magazine. “Probably not, Jack. Let’s kill as many of them as possible, though.” His eyes were full of sorrow.

Jack looked back at the advancing horde of death as his radio squawked. “Jack, what are you doing! Run!”

Tears welled up in his eyes. Jack could barely get out what he had to say next. “I’m sorry Dee, I love you. You saved me. I’ll never forget that.”

“Jack! No! There is always a way out. You told me that. Think!”

He sniffed and looked around, trying to catch a glimpse of the woman who had saved his life, showed him how to live. He saw her standing on the tower on the opposite side of the valley. The sun was hovering over the horizon, bathing the valley in light. Her hair shone. Jack smiled. He turned, looking at the bush around him. Photographing the memory of Dee and the native forest. If he was going to die, he wanted to remember his two favourite things in life. The sun coming up over the steep hills reminded Jack of Gandalf’s return in the Two Towers. He looked over at Ben, his rifle raised up as he fired at the fast-approaching beasts. Jack saw the nikau palms surrounding him, their frond casings scattered around the trunk. Wait a minute! The frond casings!

Jack whacked Ben on the shoulder and sprinted over to the fronds. “Ben! C’mon!”

He grabbed a frond and flung it out in front of him, over the bank. With a thud, he landed on top of it and skidded down the muddy bank, riding it like some sort of sled. A crash and a grunt to his left, followed by a curse, alerted him to Ben crashing through the undergrowth. The pair bounced and slid faster down the banks of the valley. Jack grabbed the sides of his makeshift sled, trying his best to steer it around trees, his shoulders glancing off a few. Jack flew out off a small bank and splashed down into the creek at the bottom.

Ben sailed through the air. Missing the creek, he thudded into the clay bank, spraying up mud and coating a nearby tree. The frustrated howls and shrieks of the Variants chasing them frayed Jack’s already-shot nerves. Bloody things never give up. Jack clicked his talk button on the radio.

“Dee, guys, cover us. We’re nearly at the tower.”

Hiss and static belched out over his radio. Jack gave it a whack. “Oh thank goodness, Jack. You’re going to have to run for the river. There’s too many of them. They’re climbing over the zip-lines.”

Jack had reached Ben, and was helping the old SAS soldier to his feet. Ben clicked his own radio. “Dee, take the Doc and go. Get to the LZ. Eric, set some charges and blow those fucking things to kingdom come. We’ll catch up. Dee, it’s vital you get the Doctor to safety.”

There was a slight pause before Jack heard the response. “Copy that. Affirmative. Hurry, guys.”

Ben looked up at Jack. “All right, Legolas. Lead us out of here.”

Jack grinned as he took off at a run down the creek, jumping over moss-covered rocks and splashing through the brackish water. His movie obsession had saved him again. He loved that.

He led Ben down the valley and out into a small clearing. He recognised the river gorge up ahead; Jack had taken Dee through here on many trips, enjoying the history and the way the sun bounced off the iron-rich quartz that lined the cliff faces. He was aiming for the campsite up ahead. Thoughts of his cabin flashed through his mind. It was only three kilometres away. He knew he had several weeks’ supplies there. Jack desperately wanted to see if his family had escaped the Variant purge. He glanced to his right, and his heart soared as he watched two cradles zipping across the valley. Two figures crawled out at the final tower. There was no mistaking the petite frame of his rock helping Katherine out.

The river he was searching for emerged out of the morning light, mists swirling over its surface. Jack glanced back, looking for Ben. It amazed him how the 65-year-old kept going.

He leapt off the small bank and plunged below the water, enjoying the chill. The sweat, mud, and frustrations washed off him as he kicked to the surface.

Jack realised the water wasn’t much deeper than his height, so he bounced off the bottom into the shallow water and pushed himself out onto the rock-strewn sand bank in the middle. He looked at the shrieking and howling Variants as they poured down the valley towards them. Several had climbed up the zip-lines and were hauling themselves over to the other towers. Jack shook his head. He had never seen them climb before.

He glanced over and watched Dee help Tony off the last tower, Katherine hovering nearby. Eric bounded down the ladder and pushed them away. A few Variants were scrambling their way across the last zip-line, eager to taste the fleeing man-flesh. Jack and Ben’s radio crackled.

“Fire in the hole,” yelled Eric, and three huge explosions tore through the once-peaceful landscape. Ben grabbed his shoulder, shoving him down onto the sandbank as the shockwave thumped into them. It felt like someone had reached into his brain and split it apart. He pressed his hands over his ears, desperate to lessen the pain. Heat washed over them. It was like the first time he had hopped off the plane onto the tarmac of Sydney Airport and into the heat of Australia. Coming from the milder temperate climate of New Zealand, Sydney’s heat had been a shock.