Fast (5 page)

            And butterflies. The stairwell above their heads swarmed with butterflies.

            Then people started pushing back
down
the stairs. Michael saw the creatures coming down
the stairwell too!

           
I’m trapped in between.
The creatures tore into the terrified crowd like sharks joining a feeding frenzy.

           
Michael wasn’t a brave man, but he recognized a royal cluster-fuck when he saw it.

            Up or down, it’s all the same. I’m not staying here.

            Michael chose up. It proved the last choice he ever made.

#

Captain Coleman leapt down from the helicopter.

He dashed forward to make room for the six Marines jumping down behind him. The weapons inspectors would stay with the aircraft until he gave the all clear.

            Privates Tremaine and Gill ran over from a second Pave Hawk, giving the
Okay
hand-signal. Their personal radios were as vulnerable to the facility’s jamming hardware as everything else. The C-Guards had directional antenna to reduce friendly jamming inside the Complex, but at best their radios would be unreliable.

Team assembled, Coleman led Third Unit towards the main entrance.

            His goal was clear. Third Unit would enter the habitation level via the front entrance, secure the central administration hub, and then sit tight while the weapons inspectors completed their investigation. The inspectors would enter once the labs were secured. The rest of the facility would be encouraged to function as normal.

            Across the roof, four other FAST units reached their designated entry points.

            Coleman’s was the only team not accessing the facility via the elevator plant rooms. Instead, ahead, a four meter high cement hump curved around the large helicopter pad and framed the main entrance.

            Two sliding glass doors nestled right in the center of the hump.

            Coleman reached the automatic doors.

            The doors parted and released a cool wave of air-conditioned air.

            Third Unit jogged through in tight single file formation, passing an unmanned security foyer and continuing down the wide flight of stairs to the open habitation level.

            Coleman knew what to expect at the bottom. The habitation level’s layout resembled a big square wheel. In the middle sat the administration hub. Surrounding the hub was the pedestrian loop – mostly open space. Enclosing the pedestrian loop, the outer walls functioned like a shopping plaza dotted with services and amenities. The simple design gave residents plenty of free space.

            Coleman reached the bottom of the stairs.

            He stopped and stared, absorbing the bloody pandemonium unfolding before him.

            ‘Holy crap,’ he breathed. His sense of reality derailed at very high speed. What he was seeing couldn’t be real, but judging by the Marines’ stunned swearing behind him, he knew they witnessed the same spectacle.

            What in the name of all things holy?

            It was like a scene from a horror movie.

            The creatures chasing and eating people looked the size of lions.

            Each creature possessed a mass of tentacles like a dozen thrashing anacondas. A large tapered head sprouted from this tentacle nest. When the creatures caught a victim, the head blossomed open, revealing a mouth wide enough to swallow a wild boar. Concentric rows of inward-pointing teeth lined this crimson cavity.

            Like a Great White Shark, realized Coleman.

            Fleeing the creatures, the human content of the level emptied chaotically across the pedestrian loop towards its south-east corner, towards the evacuation tunnel entrance. Or at least they tried to. Many weren’t making it, and still more people were emerging from the western stairwell. The distance from the western stairwell to the evacuation tunnel measured at least four hundred meters. No refuge from the creatures existed in between. The loop’s only feature this side of the glass-walled administration hub were four large, leafy planter boxes.

Essentially, the evacuees made their desperate escape across a four hundred meter long killing field. At least thirty creatures stood in their path. People were getting mauled. People were getting dragged. Coleman realized that every hump of thrashing limbs was somebody being torn apart. Only the sheer
number
of people weaving through the bedlam reduced casualties. Some creatures seemed unsure where to attack first and missed their chance.

            All this flashed before Coleman in a second, but only one question seared into his mind.

Where is David? Where is my son?

Coleman desperately searched the faces and shapes of the fleeing people.
No children
. Had the children already reached the evacuation center, or were they cut off and trapped somewhere, forgotten in the panic and unable to compete against the hordes of terrified adults?

Vanessa won’t let that happen.
She’s got him. She loves our boy more than life itself. She’d already have him in the evacuation center.

But what if she didn’t or couldn’t? What if she was trapped herself, unable to reach him? Coleman imagined David terrified and alone somewhere, or perhaps fighting for his life this very second. Where would he be?

Coleman realized he was panicking, freezing up, completely forgetting his training and everything he was meant to do. But it was his boy….

Someone roughly grabbed his shoulder. Corporal Forest was one step ahead of Coleman’s thoughts. He jerked his head at the evacuation tunnel and yelled over the screaming, ‘David’s either
in
there or trying to
get
in there right. We need to clear him a path right now! We need to help!’

Coleman sucked it up and looked over his shoulder.
You want to help your boy, then start helping right here.

Third Unit had snapped their weapons into firing position. They had stopped behind him in an arrowhead formation, as equally at a loss as himself. No military maneuver existed to deal with this situation, but the Marines couldn’t help by gaping from the sidelines.

            Coleman had to trust in the professionalism of his team.

            Let’s just fight them.

            ‘Choose your targets,’ he barked. ‘Let’s give these people some room to move, Marines!’

            Third Unit reacted instantly. King, Marlin and Gill attacked left. Tremaine, Fisher and London attacked right.

            Coleman and Forest ran straight into the middle of the mayhem.

            Forest was already firing, snapping his rifle left and right and using his precise trigger-control to hurt every hostile in his firing arc.

            All around, Coleman heard CMAR-17 assault rifles start discharging. Third Unit were finding whatever means they could to attack the creatures without injuring civilians.

            On Coleman’s left, a creature dragged a man like a fallen horseman caught in the stirrups. Blood soaked his trouser leg where the creature gripped him. He desperately scrabbled for purchase on the smooth enamel floor.

            Coleman saw a clean shot and took it.

            He snapped off three fast rounds squarely into the creature’s head. The creature stumbled sideways, then recovered and charged straight towards the gunfire.

            Diving aside, rolling on his shoulder, Coleman avoided the charge and came up shooting. His bullets tore into the creature at point-blank range. Behind the nest of tentacles pumped a fat, pale, wasp-like body. The body throbbed like a giant human heart. Sappy white fluid spewed from its wounds as Coleman churned bullets into the collapsing mess.

            The creature stopped moving with a quarter of its body torn to shreds.

            ‘Target their abdomens!’ Coleman radioed as he knelt beside the wounded man. ‘The body is vulnerable!’

            The man bellowed as Coleman wrenched the tentacle from his calf. Three-inch long thorns lined the creature’s limb. The man stumbled away towards the evac tunnel despite the deep raking wounds covering his leg.

             Coleman checked his CMAR-17 magazine. He had used nearly half a magazine to take down just one creature.

            Part of a frantic radio message burst over his headset:
‘- I repeat, we have multiple hostiles. Non-human! I repeat, non-human, attacking us from all sides! Request immediate -’

            It sounded like Fifth Unit. Corporal Stevens. Stevens’ team entered the Complex by the northern stairwell. Coleman could only imagine the carnage if they became trapped in the stairwell.

            What have we walked into?

            Listening now, Coleman heard automatic CMAR-17 fire coming from every corner of the Complex. Multiple skirmishes. Every team sounded heavily engaged.

           
Desperate engagements
, Coleman realized from the sound of the sustained gunfire.
The creatures are everywhere.

            He heard another voice he recognized on the headset, Corporal Harrison’s, a friend of Coleman’s since basic training. Harrison was attempting to fight and make a combat report simultaneously:

            ‘- got too many…(static)…be everywhere…(static)…defensive withdrawal through…(static)…civilian casualties coming…(static)…trapped in -’

            The radio message cut off.

            Coleman stopped trying to make sense of the fragmented messages. Third Unit was scattered everywhere. To the west, Fisher and London stood back-to-back firing. Closer to Coleman’s position, Marlin and King sidestepped around a creature thrashing wildly under their assault. They lifted their weapons high and angled their shots downwards to avoid hitting passing civilians.

            To Coleman’s right, to the east, Tremaine, Gill and Forest each worked on their own, weaving through the chaos, shooting, moving, shooting again.

            Coleman noticed a pattern in the creatures’ behavior. Gunfire affected their movements. Even the creatures not being fired upon moved erratically and changed directions every time a weapon discharged nearby. He saw the pattern, but didn’t have time to dwell on it.

            Because at that moment he saw Forest in trouble.

            Forest’s assault rifle had run dry. He stood plugging aimed pistol shots into a creature charging straight towards him.

            Coleman keyed his headset radio. ‘Forest, get ready to reload.’

            Forest didn’t respond. He was busy shooting for his life.

            Coleman dropped to one knee and leveled his assault rifle between Forest and the creature.

            He thumbed the weapon to fully-automatic and aimed. When the creature’s wasp-like body filled his weapon-sight, he squeezed the trigger. The blast of fully-automatic fire ripped down the side of the creature like a cheese-grater.

            The creature rolled away from the impact, its momentum thrown off by the side-attack.

            Forest reacted instantly. He holstered his pistol and in one smooth motion lifted out a fresh ammunition magazine for his rifle. He rammed the magazine home, cocked his weapon, and started firing downwards into the creature like he was hosing leaves off a driveway.