Marcus (16 page)

“Thank you, but we know.” She squeezed his
hand again. “Our mission is very important. And we’ll be back. My
team here, they’re called Hell Squad. There’s no team tougher and
no team better at taking down raptors.”

Leo pulled Clare to his side again. “Good
luck. We’ll be here.”

“Stay hidden,” Elle said. “We
will
come for you. I swear.”

Marcus was watching her with bemused eyes.
As they joined the rest of the team, he tipped her chin up with an
index finger. “You were good with them.”

“They’re tired, hungry and afraid. I
remember what that feels like. They just needed some honesty and
compassion.”

“We’ll come back for them,” he promised.

And she knew Marcus always kept his
promises.

“All right, Hell Squad.” Marcus eyed his
team. “How about an evening stroll through alien-infested
tunnels?”

“Oh, yeah,” Shaw responded.

“I’m ready,” Gabe said.

“Bring it,” Claudia added, lifting her
carbine.

Cruz gave a nod.

Elle dragged in a breath and nodded as
well.

Marcus leaped back onto the tracks. “Let’s
go start some fireworks.”

But as the dark tunnel swallowed them and
the team flicked their night-vision lenses over their right eyes,
Elle felt the dense black push in around her.

She clutched her thermo pistol and tried to
relax. The night-vision lens felt foreign, and the green glow it
gave everything was eerie. And there were still too many shadows
for her liking.

She felt like the tunnel was closing in
around her.

Suck it up, Elle
. She lifted her chin
and kept moving. They had a mission and she was going to get the
team there.

Marcus gripped her arm and made the “okay”
sign for with his fingers. She nodded. His presence calmed her
jittery nerves. She consulted the map on her wrist and led them
deeper into the tunnel.

Her steps made the slightest scuffing noise
on the ground. The rest of the squad moved with a ghost-like
silence she envied. Claudia and Cruz were ahead, carbines up,
staring down their sights. Marcus was with her in the center and
Gabe and Shaw were bringing up the rear.

They should be in the map encryption range
soon. Then, the final part of the encryption would fall and she’d
be able to pinpoint the exact location of the hub. She eyed the
backpack Marcus was carrying. Crazy to think it held a bomb and
that such a small thing could cause so much destruction.

Something flickered to her right. Elle
slowed her steps and turned her head.

Nothing.

Giving her head a shake, she started moving
again.

Another movement. Deep in the shadows. Maybe
it was more survivors? Elle stared harder. But all she saw was
darkness.

Great
. Now she was seeing things.

“Anything?” Marcus murmured through their
earpieces.

“Nothing,” Cruz replied. “Quieter than a
bachelor at a bridal shop.”

Shaw snorted.

They moved on but again, a minute later,
Elle saw something else move in the shadows. Something low to the
ground. Too small to be a raptor, surely?

She stopped and kept staring.

“Elle?”

“There’s something moving over there.” She
nodded her head.

Like a well-oiled machine, the team moved as
one, weapons up.

“I don’t see anything,” Cruz said.

Elle bit her lip. Maybe she’d imagined it.
Claudia would have a field day.

“If Elle said she saw something, she saw
something.” Marcus was staring down the sight of his own carbine.
“Gabe?”

Gabe shifted, his head cocked. “I can hear
something breathing.”

Elle blinked. There was no way he could hear
anything that soft.

Gabe moved forward, his big body flowing
like a panther on the hunt.

Elle’s heart was pounding. Suddenly, a quiet
growl filled the tunnel.

Gabe stiffened but kept moving.

Please, be a dog. Please, be a regular,
normal dog.
Elle bit her lip.

Three canids leaped out of the shadows,
snarling.

Gabe fired, but the canids were on him in
seconds, knocking him to the ground.

“Stay here.” Marcus brushed past her. The
others were running forward as well.

She realized they couldn’t fire with the
alien dogs so close to Gabe. Marcus ripped his gladius from its
sheath and plunged it into the closest creature. Claudia did the
same with the second animal.

The third canid leaped off Gabe, its claws
red with blood, and rushed at Cruz.

Cruz dropped his carbine and stayed still,
arms raised.

Elle took a stumbling step forward. What was
he doing?

The canid hit him. Cruz grabbed the creature
around the neck, using its motion to spin and with a firm twist,
broke the canid’s neck.

With a yelp, the dead canid dropped to the
ground.

“Fucking hell.” Gabe pushed to his feet,
shaking his head. Blood soaked his shoulder.

“How bad?” Marcus asked.

Gabe snatched up his weapon, double-checking
it. “Not bad. Got a claw in under my armor. It’ll stop bleeding
soon.”

Claudia grabbed a med-patch from her
first-aid kit. “Here.”

Gabe nodded his thanks and slid the patch
under his armor.

Scratching noises from behind Elle reached
her ears. Heart kicking her ribs, she slowly turned around.

Her mouth dropped open and she stumbled back
toward the team. “Marcus.” She kept her voice low, calm.

“What?”

She bumped into him and pointed.

“What the hell?” he murmured. “Hell Squad,
weapons hot.”

Dozens of alien…creatures were slinking
toward them from the depths of the tunnel. Some on the ground and
others scurrying along the roof and walls.

Elle lifted her pistol. Her hand was steady.
Mostly.

They looked like canids, but their bellies
glowed with a sickly red color. Like their insides were filled with
something hot and nasty.

“Shit, what are these things?” Claudia
said.

“Some kind of mutant canids,” Marcus
murmured.

Suddenly, the creatures swarmed, racing
forward with snarls and growls.

The sound of carbines firing echoed
thunderously in the confines of the tunnel. A huge, glowing canid
landed in front of Elle, its jaws open, slavering as it stalked
closer to her.

She raised her pistol. When the creature’s
muscles bunched, she didn’t hesitate to fire.

Elle kept her finger on the trigger. The
thermo bullets ripped open the belly of the animal. Red ooze
splattered everywhere and the canid fell on her. She slammed into
the ground, the air knocked out of her, the dead mutant canid on
top of her legs.

The scent of something burning filled her
nose. She kicked at the alien and looked down.

Oh, God
. The red goo was sizzling,
eating through the metal train tracks beneath them and through her
cargo trousers.

She kicked, trying to get the animal off
her.

Hands gripped her under her arms and yanked
her back. She craned her head and saw Marcus holding her.

“It burns.”

His face was grim. He grabbed the water
bottle off his belt and upended it over the bottom of her
trousers.

It hissed as it hit the acidic fluid, and
the burning stopped.

“Must be like what they put in their
weapons.” Marcus yanked her up. “Come on—”

An enormous, glowing canid slammed into
Marcus’ back, its claws sinking into his armor and the backpack
containing the bomb.

As they crashed to the ground, Elle almost
fell backward. She looked around frantically for help. But the rest
of the team were all still firing at the continuing mass of mutant
canids swarming them.

She spotted Marcus’ carbine on the ground.
She snatched it up and jammed it against the canid’s thick neck and
fired.

The weapon’s kick was more than she expected
and she stumbled back.

The canid jerked, then slumped forward. With
a massive heave, Marcus threw the body off him.

“Thanks,” he said. “Not just a pretty face,
are you?”

“No, I’m not.”

He tugged her close to his side and took the
carbine back. He quickly felt the backpack. “The bomb’s still
there.”

“And it didn’t blow up,” she added.

The team was still firing and the canids
were still coming. The walls of the tunnel looked like they were
painted in red acid.

“There are more headed this way!” Cruz
shouted.

“We’re barely making a fucking dent,” Shaw
called as he wielded two weapons at once, his carbine, and a
deadly-looking pistol.

Cruz grabbed a grenade off his belt and
glanced at Marcus. “Destroy that hub and look after her. She’s the
best thing that’s ever happened to you,
amigo
. She makes you
smile and soothes those very rough edges of yours.” He yanked the
pin off and strode into the oncoming canid swarm.

Elle felt Marcus tense, and panic welled in
her. They
couldn’t
lose Cruz. She struggled in Marcus’ grip.
“No!”

But Marcus held her back.

“Ah, fuck no.” Shaw cursed in a low, steady
stream.

Cruz pulled his arm back and tossed the
grenade deeper into the mass of red canids. It exploded with a
fierce bang. Many went down, but the surviving creatures all turned
and began loping toward Cruz.

He fired his carbine.

The squad fired too.

But Elle could already see there were too
many alien animals. They closed in on Cruz.

“We have to go,” Marcus said, voice grim.
“Now!” He forced Elle ahead of him.

Elle choked on a sob. Her last glimpse of
Cruz was of him being surrounded by the mutant canids.

Cruz

Cruz waited for the aliens to rip into
him.

He closed his eyes. He felt strangely empty.
He’d been running on empty for far too long. Most days, he couldn’t
remember why he was fighting anymore. And since Zeke had died…

Suddenly the tunnel filled with high-pitched
yips and yowls.

His eyes snapped open.

Deadly black bolts whistled through the air,
hitting the lead canids.

His gut hardened at the sight.
Familiar
black bolts.

The first bolt exploded on impact. There was
a hissing noise as the bolt sprayed a mist into the air and across
the alien beasts. Their cries turned to pained howls. Some dropped
to the ground, writhing. The rest, as one giant mass, whirled and
ran back into the darkness.

“What the hell?” Cruz felt the fine spray
coat him, too. It smelled like…green trees?

Sudden shouts from his teammates echoed in
the tunnel as they ran back toward him.

“Cruz?” Marcus raced forward. “You
okay?”

The substance clung to him, giving off a
faint glow, and he smelled like a fucking forest. It didn’t seem to
burn or hurt him in any way. “I’m fine.”

“You are a crazy son of a bitch,” Shaw
yelled. “What the hell did you think you were doing?”

“Saving your life,” Cruz snarled back.

“Well, someone sure as hell saved
yours.”

“Yeah.” Cruz turned, eying the blackness
where the bolts had come from.

A figured emerged from the shadows, walking
toward them. Tall, slim, dressed in black cargo trousers and a
hooded black top. His savior had twin Shockwave laser pistols
holstered on narrow hips and held a modern tactical crossbow at
their side.

Cruz couldn’t look away. He felt like every
cell in his body was paying attention.

“It’s
you
,” Cruz said. “You helped us
before. At the library.”

The figure nodded, then pushed the hood
back.

Cruz barely contained his jerk of surprise.
A woman.

She had a long fall of black hair pulled
back in a tight ponytail. Her face was typical of the melting pot
that was Australia’s races but from the fine features and
caramel-brown skin, Cruz guessed she had some Indian heritage. Her
eyes were a unique pale green.

“I suggest you move fast.” The woman toed
the body of dead canid. “These things hunt in large packs. They’ll
bring reinforcements.”

“What are they?” This from Gabe, who was
crouched beside one of the creatures, eyeing the red-stained
belly.

“Another alien abomination. I call them
hellions.”

“You’ve encountered them before?” Marcus
asked.

“Yes.”

Cruz stepped closer. “Who are you?”

“Santha. Santha Kade.”

Santha
. “My name’s Cruz Ramos. You
live here?”

“In the city.”

He tugged at his damp collar. “What was the
spray?”

Her lips moved in a small smile. “Sometimes
the simplest things work the best. It’s a mixture of several items
but the main ingredient is cedar oil.”

Gabe straightened. “We used to use cedar
mulch back home to keep snakes out of the yard.”

The woman nodded. “It contains something
that’s toxic to reptiles. Alien reptiles included. But it only
seems to work on the canids and hellions.”

“We’d be much obliged if you’d share that
recipe with us,” Marcus said.

The woman inclined her head. “I’d be happy
to.”

Cruz drank her in. Something about her
pulled at him…he wanted to know everything. “We’re from Blue
Mountain Base, west of—”

“I know where it is.”

“There are lots of survivors there. Food,
hot water occasionally. Come with us.”

She stared back at him for a moment, then
shook her head. “No. I’m staying.” She glanced at Marcus. “You’re
planning to destroy their communications?”

“Yes,” Marcus answered.

“I haven’t been able to pinpoint its exact
location. I take it you know where their hub is, then?”

Elle raised her arm and the mini-comp. “We
have a map. We’re still working on the final encryption, but we’re
close.”

Santha nodded. “And you’re headed in the
right direction. I’ll wish you luck then.” She turned. “Like I
said, you should move fast.”