Alyssa stood in front of the double doors leading to the next area. She didn't know what to make of it, but she was sure it was dangerous.
A sort of numbness had come over the group. Ajay's loss was already affecting them. At least, it was affecting her. And definitely Ruth, Kyle, and David. But it wasn't something they were able to linger on. Already, they had a new threat to deal with.
They'd gone slowly through the next area. This floor had shown them a pretty major change in pace, as the power hadn't been cut off to it. It had normal lighting, no emergency lights. And so far they'd encountered nothing, which was always a plus.
They'd reached the halfway point of the floor. They knew this because, once again, there was a handy-dandy map to show them where they were; but they were at something of an impasse. The hallways up ahead were pitch black, and nothing they could do would make the lights come on.
They were all sitting down just outside the doors, taking a short breather. They'd gone up and down the halls, to the left and right, to find a lit hallway. There were none. There were five ways to access the second half of the floor, but three were dark and the other two, like the previous floor with the lab, were blocked. All five halls were partitioned by heavy, light-impermeable double doors. Three locked from their side, the other from the opposite. After what had happened downstairs, none of them doubted that this was by design – and the design was not friendly.
"So what do we do?" Kyle asked. He was no longer bouncing on the balls of his feet. He was a bit more focused, more sober, though his gaze kept sliding off of her and Theron and onto the doors every few seconds.
Theron shrugged. "Not much to do but push forward. I'm not afraid of the dark. Why don't I scout out ahead and come back when I'm sure it's safe?"
Alyssa stood up. "Okay, let's go."
He shook his head. "No, it's fine. You stay. I'll take this one. I'll try to loop around, get the door open from the far side. I'll go right. Our right." He pointed to make sure they were all on the same page.
David stood up as well. "Should we head over there, then?" His eyes were still a bit red. Like her, he'd shed a few mostly silent tears on the way over here.
Theron thought about it. Then he consulted the map again. "You know what, go ahead and wait here for a few. It's a much shorter walk to those doors from this side than that, based on the map. It'll take me like five times as long to get over there. Wait a good seven minutes, then start walking. I'd rather have the backup here if I need to retreat, anyways."
Alyssa looked past him, to the door. "Are you sure you're good heading in there alone? You heard what that guy down there said. There are tests. They're expecting fatalities."
He shrugged. "I'll be careful. Besides, dark area, I'll want to rely on stealth if I can. Easier to hit the lights and hide if it's just me. Be back in a few, or I'll see you in ten."
He saluted, and she returned it uncertainly. She wasn't normally given to fear of the dark, but…
Oh, who was she kidding? She'd always been afraid of the dark. It was just something she'd never been able to kick in all her years. Too many scary movies, she was sure. Even in her own house, her heart pattered when she got up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night. She couldn't stand beside her bed in bare feet for fear of something reaching out and grabbing her ankles. She was given to starting at her own reflection if she came across it unawares.
Yeah, maybe it would be better for Theron to deal with this one alone. On the other hand, maybe she could have used the distraction. Moving forward was the only way she was keeping it together. Standing around for ten minutes—
But Theron was already pushing open the door and stepping through.
"Good luck," Ruth sniffled. Kyle gave him a thumbs up.
Theron didn't reply before the door slipped closed, sealing him in there with dark halls and her out here with dark thoughts. To keep her mind off of them, she took to planning ahead.
Theron had taken the phone, including a picture of the map, so she'd need to keep mental track of time to know when to start heading over to the other door. In the meantime, what should she do if they were attacked out here? Shoot, she supposed, and have the rest of the group duck inside the dark halls, use the doors for cover. She was in charge of the group's safety until Theron came back.
She took up a shooting stance between them and the hallway they'd come down, and said, "Let's not forget to keep on our toes. An attack could come from anywhere. Be ready to hit the floor if anything comes along."
Sarah made a skeptical noise, and David, who had been looking dejected, straightened up, back going stiff. He was still furious at Sarah for taking that cure. In the interest of keeping the peace, though, he did not engage. "Yeah, of course," he said. "You're in charge while Theron's away. Just let me know if I can do anything to help out."
Sarah looked at him again, dark eyes clear and disdainful. Of the whole group, only she, Mal, and Theron hadn't reacted strongly to Ajay's death. Then, Mal seemed to be in shock over the whole thing, so maybe that was her reaction. Theron hadn't been able to afford to go to pieces, given that he was the one taking charge…though he'd probably had the most reason to do so.
As for Sarah, her lack of reaction was disturbing. It was really like she didn't care at all. There was just something—
Alyssa's head snapped around. There were footsteps approaching from the dark hall. Heavy, running footsteps.
She shot over to the doors and pushed one open, gun ready but pointed down. As light flooded down the hall, a high, chittering noise emerged, and she saw Theron sprinting full-tilt towards them. As he shot through the door, he nearly shrieked.
"Lock it!"
In the split-second after he cleared the doorway but before she closed the door after him, she saw what he had been running from. And that one, quick glimpse she caught of his pursuer was enough to override every fear of every movie monster she'd ever seen. When she went walking her house at night from now on, this was what she would think of.
It was halfway down the corridor, but moving very, very fast. It was humanoid, pale grey-white, and about eight feet tall. Its arms were too long, as were its clawing fingers, and its upper body movements were out of sync with its long, lunging, rapid steps. It was naked, and its skin clung tightly to its body. Worst of all was its face, though. Its mouth was situated correctly, but was about twice the size it should have been. Its needle-sharp teeth, so like an anglerfish's, were bared in a grin. It had no nose, and one eye socket was covered with skin. The other was empty but puckered, like the skin had been punched through and had mended only imperfectly. Shiny, bulging black things as large and round as silver dollars were scattered symmetrically across its body, two on its biceps, two on its pectorals, two on its hips, and two on its thighs. There may have been more on the back, but she wasn't about to ask it to turn around. She realized what they were as light streamed onto them, causing a white ring to appear around the edges and enlarge. They were eyeballs, the black parts being pupils that were contracting in response to the light.
All pupils, no irises at all, she thought.
Another one was coming up behind it, about fifteen feet back. She slammed the door on them and shoved the lock into place. After a second and a half, the thing hit the other side of the door.
When it didn't yield, a noise started up that made her imagine it on the other side, dragging its nails lightly down the door from top to bottom, maybe feeling for gaps or imperfections. A second set of claws joined it a moment later. Then, the laughter started.
That sound was what made the goosebumps race up and down her body. It was high, tittering, and completely inhuman. She couldn't have described the quality that made it so, but something about it could not have been produced by any but the most contorted and compelled human throat.
Theron stood staring at the door, panting. He didn't look as terrified as he had a right to, but his eyes were rather wide. And he had his gun out, finger on the trigger. The muzzle wasn't trained on anyone, but Mal was standing pretty nearby. If he twitched, he could accidentally put a bullet through her foot.
Alyssa knew how annoying it could be to be reminded of trigger control, and she'd already called him once today, but they couldn't risk an injury. Anyways, he looked worked up as was, so that ship had already sailed.
"Trigger finger," she said.
Theron didn't respond, but the word was enough to pierce through whatever was going on upstairs. His finger moved automatically off the trigger about two seconds before his brow creased and he looked down at the gun. "My finger isn't on the trigger."
She wasn't about to point out that he'd moved it. He wasn't going to accidentally shoot someone, that was all that mattered. "Right, sorry. Are you okay? What was that thing?"
They were all staring either at him or at the door, from which disturbing noises were still coming, though they were petering off quickly. He shook his head. "I don't know. I was using the flashlight. I made it down the first hall without any problems, but when I went down this way—" he pointed at the turn he'd taken on the map beside them, "—I barely made it five steps before that thing came shambling around the far corner. And when I turned around, another was rounding that corner, too. I hadn't even shined my light down that way."
"Those corners?" Kyle asked, pointing at the map.
Theron nodded.
Alyssa shivered. Those were both very, very long corridors. "They're fast, then. They caught up to you really quickly. And I bet they saw your light, even from that distance. Did you notice those black things on them? I'm pretty sure those were eyes. Big, black eyes, so probably very sensitive to light."
Theron was calming down. "Yeah. Yeah, that's a good observation. We won't be able to risk letting any light into those halls."
"What about the phone light?" Kyle asked. "You'll need to pull up the phone to check the map, make sure you're going the right way."
Alyssa thought about this. Then she said, "I don't think we can. Theron, did you see their ears? Do you think those things have really good hearing?"
"Their ears didn't look like anything special to me. Why?"
She didn't think they had exceptional ears. "They didn't have any noses, either, so probably no sense of smell. If their hearing is normal, and they can't smell, I imagine that their biggest ability to sense prey would be their eyesight. If we want to get through there, we'll need to sneak all the way, no lights. We'll need to count on being quiet, too. And unless they're noisy creatures…"
She looked at the door. Whatever was on the other side had already gone quiet.
"…I think we won't know where they are any more than they'll know where we are. We won't be able to risk pulling up a phone light, just in case one of them is standing nearby."
"You keep saying 'we'," David pointed out. "Does that mean you're going in there, too?"
She hesitated. That things in there were horrible beyond imagining. But she couldn't just heap every danger on Theron. Anyways, if he got killed, it would be up to her to get them through, anyways.
But the prospect still terrified her.
She forced her mouth to move, and said, "Yeah. We can't go through these doors, not now, but there are still two ways we can take. I'll go one way, Theron can go the other. As for the map…I think we'll just have to memorize it."
Theron hadn't interrupted her, nor did he look bothered by her once again showing some semblance of leadership. He was just staring at the door, clearly perturbed. But once she stopped talking, he shook himself off and said, "Yeah. Looks like it. You go left, I'll go right. Let's take a while to memorize the routes, okay?"
She nodded. "Yeah, okay."
She stowed her gun. She unhooked her radios and handed them to Ruth, since they had small battery lights on them and she didn't want to risk those giving her away. She took off her lab coat, so it wouldn't flutter or catch on anything. She also took her still-unused tranquilizer rifle off her back and handed it to Kyle, as it was a bit ungainly and she wouldn't be able to shoot in the dark, anyways. She and Theron both started looking the map over.
Okay, so out the door it'll be right, then left. Then right, straight, then left again, and that'll take me through a large lab. I'll keep to the left wall, then go left again down the long hall at the other end. Straight past a dispensary. Then it's a right, another right—no, straight, then right. Left, another sharp left, then straight on to the corner. One more left, another long hallway, then cut right and the door should be right there…
Right, left, right, straight, left, lab, left, straight, right, straight, right, left, left, straight, left, right. That wouldn't be too hard to remember, right?
Ruth fumbled the radio and dropped it. The sound was loud in the quiet hallway. On the other side of the door, the silent, pale things laughed again.
"Chris, Sheva, we've located Irving. He's in a building just outside the main mineshaft. We're sending the location to your HUDs."
Their HUDs beeped a moment later, and both she and Chris pulled them up. The building in question was just up ahead. There were no windows facing them, so fire from the building was unlikely, but they still needed to be careful. Actually, a sniper could feasibly have a bead on them right now.
Chris was evidently thinking the same thing, because he ducked and sprinted straight for the building. She ran after him, eyes darting around quickly, scanning the approach for threats. Tripwires, traps, anything. She saw nothing. They reached the stairs, ran up them, and Chris paused in front of the door.
He looked at her, and she took the cue. She'd be opening, he'd slip in and take point. She nodded, set her back against the door, put a hand on the handle, and took a deep breath. It was entirely possible that they were running into yet another setup.
But they had no choice. Irving had to be apprehended. She pushed down on the handle, and a moment later, they were both inside.
"Freeze!" Chris roared, gun coming up.
They were not immediately met with gunfire. That was good. Even better was their enemy's reaction. He'd had his hands in a pile of papers, and as they entered the room, he went, "Oh, shit!" and began grasping clumsily for his waist.
If they hadn't had orders to apprehend him at all costs, the man would already be riddled with bullets. When one was dealing with law enforcement of any kind, reaching for your waist or pocket was essentially asking them to shoot you. As it was, she would have shot him in the arm – they were close enough that she could almost certainly hit– but he'd turned away, shielding it with his body. When it came up, there was a gun in it.
This was aimed at Chris. It took a great deal of restraint to not put half a dozen rounds in the man. "So you must be Irving?" she asked.
His eyes, wide and wild, darted to her, and his gun shifted over to her as well. Chris tensed, more so than he had when he'd been the target. "Wow, perceptive, aren't 'cha?" Irving quirked.
"You think this is a joke?" Sheva asked. Then she noticed something. Though the sun had dropped considerably – it was nearly sunset by now, and the light was streaming directly through the windows to their right, and was blinding – Irving's pupils were severely dilated. This much light, they should have been pinpoints.
He's high on something. Cocaine, maybe heroin, she thought.
Her contempt for the man rose. She had no patience or respect for people like him. "You're just like all the other pieces of scum terrorists," she hissed.
The man licked his lips. Now that she was paying attention, it occurred to her that his tongue had been flicking in and out of his mouth like a damn lizard's. "Oh, I'm not like them," he said, rolling his head. The muzzle of his gun kept shifting back and forth between her and Chris. She was pretty sure she could zip past the muzzle, get in hand-to-hand range, but if possible, she'd rather not take the chance just yet. "I'm a business man with standards."
He gave a jaunty little gesture to himself, dipping his head slightly as though in a mocking connotation of respect. Like a host welcoming his guests. A host with a gun.
Chris was standing cool and calm beside her. "Drop the weapon," he commanded, sliding forward a few inches. Like her, he was perhaps hoping to get inside the man's guard.
Irving wasn't having it. His muzzle was still all over the place, and for Chris's half-step forward, he took a full one back. "Ooooooor," he drawled, "How 'bout you drop yours?"
His accent was bothersome. It was clearly from one of those big American cities, though she wasn't familiar enough with such dialects to know which one. It was also on the higher end of the spectrum for a man's, and was laced with arrogant contempt.
The muzzle kept flashing back and forth. They were all breathing heavily. It was a standoff.
Then something small flew in an open window, leaving a trail of smoke behind it. It landed, hissing, at Irving's feet, and he looked around, confused. He looked down at the cannister just as it went off, filling the room with smoke.
No, not smoke. Some kind of gas. A mild tear gas, she thought. She began coughing, as did Chris, and Irving finally lowered his gun. They'd been trained in the B.S.A.A. to work through irritants like these, so it wasn't affecting them too harshly, but Irving was doubled over, turned, staggering away from them, choking.
A shadow flashed across the room as a dark figure filled the window. The glass shattered.
Though it was hard to see through the smoke, Sheva made out a figure in a flowing black robe with some kind of mask on its face. The intruder was female, she thought, thought she couldn't be sure. The mask's eyes glowed red, and something protruded from it. It took her a long moment to realize what it was.
A beak, she thought with a little thrill of revulsion. It's a plague-doctor's mask.
They needed to get out of here. The gas was only thickening. Before she could even stand up, though, the new arrival grabbed Irving by the scruff of his neck like he was a dog, or a child, and dragged him away. "Hurry," the figure said. Definitely female.
She dragged him unceremoniously towards a window, leaping up on the sill and pulling him halfway out. As he dangled half on the sill, he aimed the gun at Chris and wheezed out a short laugh. "Hahahaha! Suckas—"
He broke off into more coughing and didn't get the chance to fire as the figure pulled him all the way out, flipping him around as he fell so he wouldn't break his neck. They still heard him hit the ground hard and grunt, "Oof! Dumb bitch…"
Sheva got to her feet and kicked the door open. The gas began dissipating. It was already starting to fade from the hole in the window the woman had made, but the new airflow really helped this along. In a moment they were mostly okay again. Her eyes and throat hurt like hell, but they could push past that.
Chris swore, and they both ran over to the window. Looking out, they saw nothing. Irving and his rescuer had vanished.
"Great," he rasped.
"Looks like Irving has a partner," she said, also checking out the area. This was the outer mining operation. A lot of heavy equipment littered the area. This would provide anyone who wanted it with excellent cover. They had the high ground from the building, but they'd need to keep an eye out. Already she could see Majini running back and forth atop the higher cliffs.
Chris's eyes flickered rapidly back and forth as he processed things. Then he turned away, back to the papers behind them. "There must be something here he didn't want us to see. Let's take a look."
He flipped open a file, and she followed suit. They took to scanning the papers, and after only a minute or two, Chris's eyes widened.
"What is it?" She asked.
"Look at this," he said, sliding the paper over. It was a map of the region, a massive area circled with red ink, and just inside the circle were the words 'Test Case 1' and 'Experiment Execution Area'.
The only notably developed area in the circled zone was an oil field. She was familiar with it. It was the main source of revenue for the region. "The oil field? That's in the marshlands."
This was one of the moister places in country, which was only partly thanks to the coast. A large river fed into the area and branched out, creating a massive, slightly saline swamp. She knew that one Ndipaya tribe made their home in said swamp. They didn't have much to do with the Kijujuans.
Chris hit his transmitter. "Delta Team, Chris here. We located Irving, but he got away."
"Do you know where he went?" That was Josh.
"We think he's heading for an oil field in the marshlands."
That was the best bet they had. Unless he was hunkering down with the Ndipaya – very unlikely, since the tribe was rumored to viciously hate outsiders – he'd be at the oil field. Anyways, going by how nicely the man dressed, she was willing to bet he wouldn't want to wallow around in the mud with what he deemed to be savages.
"OK, I'm sending someone after him now. I need you two to head towards the village on the western end of the swamp. It's just up the road from the mine, a few miles out."
Sheva frowned. "A few miles is one hell of a distance in this kind of landscape, Josh," she said. "We'll have to find a vehicle."
"Roger that. I'll send one up your way."
Suddenly, the only unbroken glass in the room shattered in a hail of gunfire. Without hesitation they both dropped to the ground, and bullets began flying over their heads. Looked like their enemies had some firepower.
"Hey, what's that?" Chris asked.
Sheva looked. Now that they were on the floor, they could see the edge of a long, silver box under a couch. The box looked similar to the ones Reynard had stored all their equipment in. She rolled over, pulled it out, opened it, and her mood improved a fair bit. "Reynard," she said, hitting her radio. "Sheva here. I think I found your sniper rifle."
"What? Where?"
"Irving picked it up. Hope you don't mind if I use it to take down a few gunners?"
"Guns like that were meant to be used. Bag me a trophy, will you?"
"Will do," she said, frowning at the sound that filtered over the radio. It sounded like a chainsaw. "Are you alright?"
"Yes, fine," he replied shortly.
He didn't sound alarmed. Probably just the jeep engine, then.
She checked the weapon over. The gunfire was still going. As soon as it slacked off, she'd need to pop up and put this thing to good use. She crawled over to the window and pulled out a cornering mirror, checking the area with it. She spotted the machine gun's location just before the mirror caught a bullet and shattered. "Say, how's that jeep coming along?"
"Got it fixed, but the fuel tank was nearly empty. I siphoned off fuel from the other one, but not much. I just picked up some more fuel from a shop in town. Have a few ornery shoppers to deal with, though. Reynard out."
These words were punctuated in the background with what sounded like the crackling of a fire, something screaming, and a few angry shouts. "Roger," she said. He clearly needed to focus. For that matter, so did she.
The gunfire stopped. She popped up, took a few seconds to aim, and fired.
Chris had come up beside her, and he jerked her sideways as a crossbow bolt flew past her head. She took her eye off the scope, spotted the shooter and two more besides, and took aim again.
Crack! Crack! Crack!
Easily done.
Two Majini were running for the bed of the truck with the machinegun in it. She said, "Move ahead, I'll cover you from up here and come down once I've gotten all the worst threats."
He nodded, dashed over to the case, rooted through it, and brought her the rest of the ammo. Sixty rounds. Not bad.
She loaded up. Chris hopped out the window, and she took to scanning the area. There were multiple layers of cliff, tons of places for enemies to hide, and now that they were alert, she could see a dozen or two swarming around. Chris turned and ran downstairs, and a few seconds later, gunfire started up just outside. Seems they'd been sneaking up behind them, too.
It didn't take Chris long to deal with them. Soon he was sprinting across the flat, dusty mining expanse towards the equipment. Majini were running for the machine gun, trying to man it before their enemy got to them, but Sheva wasn't permitting it. She popped one after another as they approached the deadly weapon, only pausing to take out the crossbowmen who were also appearing periodically.
The only close call was when she had to reload. A Majini made a dash, and actually managed to reach the bed of the truck the gun was in before she got the rifle back on her shoulder and ended that threat. As for Chris, he got to the truck a moment later, too. Sadly, the gun wouldn't rotate more than ninety degrees, and most of the enemies were one-eighty away. Still, he checked around the bed, grabbed something that looked bulky, loaded it into his pack, and hopped back out.
She assisted him in his advances. At one point he paused outside of an outhouse, and she laughed as he paused and knocked politely on the door. Then he stepped well back, and a moment later, a very upset-looking Majini burst out.
He took it down. She hit her radio and said, "Need a pitstop?"
She saw his hand rise to his transmitter. "Well, as long as I'm here."
He stepped into the outhouse. Majini began rushing it. She calmly took six down, one right after another, sending them sprawling in the dust around the little grey structure. Chris stepped out a few moments later, looked around, and said, "Thanks for the cover. I think we'll be okay for now. Come on down."
"Roger."
She hopped out the window, following Irving's lead, and spotted something. A paper that seemed to have blown out the window and caught on a rock. She picked it up and gave it a quick glance.
It appeared to be a series of notes on the Plagas, as well as recent testing initiatives. She was a very fast reader. She took it in in a matter of moments, mentally highlighting the most important parts.
…commercial appeal of the parasite…
…the time between when Las Plagas is administered to the host as an egg and the time when it fully matures and attaches itself to the central nervous system was met with negative criticism…
…after oral administration, Type 2 rends the esophagus and moves first to the medulla oblongata, then to the brain proper…
…we recorded complete control of a host within ten seconds of administration of Type 2…
…All that remains is to accumulate field data from the Kijuju Autonomous Zone…
…administer Type 2 samples to 10 previously infected individuals and observe the rate at which they spread the infection…
Accumulate data on Type 2 in combat. Type 2 hosts will battle BSAA operatives in the area.
On the back of the page were a series of hastily scrawled notes from Irving, mostly about profitable alterations to be made to the species. Included in this were the words STILL PHOTOSENSITIVE – FIX IMMEDIATELY!
She gritted her teeth and ran over to Chris, shoving the paper at him once in reach. "What is this?" he asked.
"Information on the parasite we're facing," Sheva replied shortly. "I'll let you look it over while I take my pitstop."
She hated to stall them, but she needed to go. She hadn't thought to during their break with Delta Team earlier. Foolish, in hindsight. She took the opportunity to now, and when she stepped back out, it was to Chris firing almost absentmindedly at a couple of approaching Majini while he read the paper over.
Like her, he didn't look happy. "Great," he scowled. "We're their lab rats."
Something dreadful occurred to her then. "Chris, this was clearly planned in advance. This infection – all of these people, dead – was this all put on for us? Was this entire city wiped out because we came here?"
Chris folded the paper up and put it in his pocket. "No," he said firmly. "These people died because guys like Irving are walking around. If they hadn't done this here, they would have done it somewhere else."
She wasn't so sure. Maybe this showed on her face, because Chris's expression softened. "Listen, Sheva; you can't blame yourself for the actions of terrorists. When we show up, sometimes innocent people die. That's their game – try to make the cost of fighting them higher than we, and the world, are willing to pay. But the thing is, there is a payoff for fighting them. All the pain and suffering that doesn't happen down the road, every time we take one of these cells out. But you can't quantify something that's prevented, so sometimes it looks like we do more harm than good. You can't let yourself think that way. Because if we don't do anything, these guys take over, and where's the world then?"
Up ahead the howling of another dozen Majini drifted towards them. The crowd was coming, most of them dressed in jeans, tee-shirts, working men's clothes, casual clothes. Normal people, taken over by a mind-killing parasite for the benefit of bastards like Irving – people who just wanted the world under their thumb, no matter the cost.
She imagined a plague like this spreading through a city like New York, or London, or Beijing. Places even more densely populated than the KAZ.
She shook her head. No, that couldn't be allowed to happen. She truly did think that they were, to some degree, responsible for what had happened here…but that couldn't be allowed to interfere with the mission. These people needed to be opposed. In a perfect world, the cost would fall squarely on her shoulders, and on Chris's.
But this world wasn't perfect, so she started shooting.
They worked their way up the cliffs, helping each other out, him boosting her to higher levels so she could cover him, and tossing countless enemies off the cliffs with his brute strength to save them ammo.
They got to the other end of the mining complex fairly quickly, and Sheva spotted something that looked very helpful. An inactive mine sitting on a sealed crate.
She jogged over as Chris took down the last few enemies, and inspected it. Sure enough, it was a proximity mine, and she knew at a glance how to arm it. Then she realized the crate beneath it was partially opened, and lifted the top off it.
She whistled. At least a dozen more mines sat in the crate, ready for use. Not bad.
"What did you find?" Chris asked, coming over. As soon as he saw it, he, too, whistled.
"I'm sure we can find a use for these?" Sheva remarked.
Chris picked one up, considered the weight, and slipped it and one other into his pack. "I don't know. They're kind of heavy. We can take a few with us, but unless we have more to deal with here, I think we'll have to leave most of them behind."
The sun was dipping lower behind them. Shade was traveling quickly across the valley below, and the sky below began to turn black with bats. They rose from the mines in hundreds, thousands, amassing in a huge crowd above the deep mining trench. They flew up into the sunlight, wavered, and dipped back down. They were too far for her to hear their high, squeaking chatter.
A horn blared. Sheva looked up, hopeful that the promised transport had arrived – she wouldn't mind catching back up with Josh and Delta – but frowned as the vehicle came in view.
It wasn't a jeep. It looked more like a transport truck. There was a massive container on the back, and as the window dipped into the shadow of a cliff, she saw through the glass and spotted another Majini.
They watched, Chris raising his gun to deal with it should it prove intent on running them over. But it didn't. It stopped some thirty feet away, and on the truck bed, the container began to open.
They saw the lid on the back rise. The rear was facing the sun, so light was no doubt flooding into it. Once the lid was all the way up, the truck shook…and a horrifying shriek, one that sounded like it came from a bat the size of a railcar, rent the air.
She looked at Chris. "You just had to say something, didn't you?"
Chris wasn't about to stand around and watch whatever monster they were about to face emerge. He grabbed two proximity mines, and Sheva followed his lead. They placed them around the clearing, activated them, and ran off in the delay. They beeped several times before the lights turned red, signaling that they were ready to go.
They ran back and grabbed a few more, but by this time, the creature was visible. At least, the top half of its body was.
It's face was wrinkled, bat-like, and grotesque, with two massive tusks jutting up from its lower jaw and two tall pink ears poking up on either side of its head. It was crawling over the truck on its wings, which extended out at least eight feet to either side – and that was folded up. Upon spotting them it shrieked again, bunched up, and launched itself into the air.
Chris ran and put down more proximity mines. Sheva took hers elsewhere, so they had a greater spread. All the while he kept an eye on the beast. It had four wings, each wingspan a good twenty feet, and now that it was airborne, he could see the rest of its body dangling beneath it. It was grublike, with two long, thin insect legs near the bottom, along with a tangle of deep red tentacle-like growths. He could already tell that most of its skin would be all but impermeable.
Then it dipped in the air and allowed its lower body, which was curled up like a chameleon's tail, to flop down. When it did, he saw the tough-looking grey and brown skin end, revealing soft, rippling orange flesh covering the lower third of it.
A gunshot rang out. Before he'd even called it, Sheva had drawn her new rifle and fired. A burst of yellow liquid flew out of the bat's lower body, and it wailed and curled its tail up again, dropping down several feet until it was just over the clearing.
"I don't know what that thing is," she yelled to him, running back to the crate for more mines. "But I'm sure Irving's responsible."
No doubt. He'd probably shipped it over to them as soon as he and his friend were clear of the area. Nevermind. Chris had killed bigger things than that before. He'd be fine. And so would Sheva.
As though to emphasize this, Sheva fired again from the crate, and he saw another splash of yellow burst out of the creature's underside. She must have gotten an angle on it from where she was, but she can't have had more than a few inches. "Good shot," he called.
The bat-B.O.W. dropped out of the sky at the hit, and had to take several seconds to right itself. When it did, it assumed a very odd stance. It dropped its head to the ground and began crawling forward on the foremost wings, while its lower body arched up above its head, curling back down near the bottom. It started dragging itself towards them, rear rocking forward and backward to lend to its momentum, like a man swinging his arms while he walked.
He believed he saw the reason for the odd position. There were tough brown flaps on its lower sides that seemed to extend outward a bit when it was curled up, offering protection to its lower body. He wasn't sure, but he suspected that if it straightened out, those flaps would retract and its lower body would be somewhat vulnerable from the side. Anyways, it might not like the thought of scraping the most sensitive part of its body across the rocky, uneven ground.
It came for them quickly, its long, powerful appendages allowing it to lunge a good five feet with each 'step'. Chris took a chance shooting at its eyes with his new automatic, but it barely even flinched away. It just scrunched its eyes closed, opened its mouth, and sent out a high-pitched bolt of sound that made his ears ache instantly. Then, eyes still closed, it lurched for him.
Echolocation, he thought grimly.
He ran, and another of those sounds rocked his hearing. His ear protection was adjustable, and he suspected that this was probably doing permanent damage to his hearing, so he cranked the protection up to max and radioed, "This thing is killing my ears. Up the blockage! Radio communication only!"
"Roger!" Sheva replied as he saw her make the same adjustments. She was now off to the creature's side, and as he watched, she ran around to get at its back. He turned to run, as it was nearly on top of him, and as soon as he turned, he heard it pause.
"Chris, move!" Sheva yelled, and he didn't hesitate. He hurtled himself to the side, between two proximity mines, and the mega-bat flew past him, the air it displaced buffeting him in its wake.
He crawled carefully between the mines. If he set one off by mistake, he was dead. As the bat turned in his direction again – he barely heard the sounds it was making now – he backed away, out of the minefield. It came for him again, and promptly hit a mine.
Chris watched in satisfaction as, disoriented by the explosion that had just gone off in its face, it reeled away and stumbled upon a second mine. With this, it fell onto its side and started wriggling and, for lack of a better word, mewling fitfully. At least, that's what it sounded like through his ear protection.
He and Sheva both ran up, and he was able to get a good look at its underbelly. The soft orange flesh appeared to be a set of udders, though no udders had ever exuded milk so foul. As they began pumping lead into them, they spewed a thick yellow liquid that smelled so revolting it nearly made him vomit on the spot. His gorge clenched when a spatter of it shot out and hit his boot, and he stepped back a few feet.
Just as well. As suddenly as it had collapsed, it was back up, turning to face them again. Though clearly in pain, it shot forward more quickly than he'd anticipated. Sheva, the more agile of their duo, dodged, but its wingtip caught his boot and sent him sprawling. It went flying past, bashing its face into a cliff.
He sucked in a deep breath and started crawling clumsily backwards. He'd landed mere feet from a mine, and the only reason it hadn't gone off was probably because, low as he was, he was probably just below the angle of its sensors. He got out of range of it only to turn and see the bat outta hell baring its teeth at him in what he swore was a hungry grin. Could have been a grimace of pain, though.
Then it whirled around, rear dripping more ichor. Sheva had gotten behind it and shot it to draw it off of him. When it lunged at her, he unloaded a dozen rounds into its behind. A few bullets missed and lodged in its hide, and he could see by the indentations that the bullets had indeed stuck on the outer layer. The brown/grey was bulletproof.
It turned around again, but as it did, its rear lashed out in Sheva's direction before it came for him. A second later she gasped over the radio, "I'm stuck! Help me!"
He wanted to go right to her, but the thing for the moment was stunning this beast again. He sprinted around another mine, going fast to interpose it between him and the bat without setting it off, and as soon as the thing triggered it – again, it was stunned – he ran around it and went to help her.
She was coated, top to bottom, in a thick, yellow goo. He didn't know how to deal with it, but it looked tacky enough to cut, so he pulled out his knife and slashed at a particularly thick strand connecting Sheva's arm to her thigh. It snapped, and he repeated this until she could move.
With her arms free she grabbed the stuff and started ripping it off her arms with noises of intense discomfort. "You okay?" he asked.
She peeled the last large chunk off and gasped, "Fine. I've been meaning to get my arms waxed, anyways."
The comment took him by surprise. Before he could even check himself, a loud, hearty laugh burst out of him, the kind he hadn't had in a long, long time. Not since Jill—
They whipped around to see the beast surging towards them again. "You get more mines," he said. "I'll distract it."
She didn't answer, merely ran off towards the crate in question. The B.O.W. turned to go for her, but before it could, he started firing. Though this time he didn't aim for its eyes…he aimed for its ears.
Listen to this, you bat-brained freak, he thought as one ear was effectively ripped to shreds. The beast reacted far, far more viscerally to this than it had to his attack on its eyes, and it shot at him, maw gaping, intent on ripping him to pieces.
He dodged, running off to the same side he'd been shooting at, jumping at the last moment to avoid being tripped by the wing again. He noticed it missed him by a wider margin this time, and though he could hear it sending out frantic signals, it took the things several seconds to locate him and turn. By partially deafening it, he had partially blinded it.
He ran fully around the thing, and it was slow to follow him. So slow, in fact, that it only took two revolutions to fully gain the thing's other side. When he did, he let loose, pumping a good fifteen rounds into the thing's undamaged ear before it could react.
But react it did. It jerked to its side, throwing itself off-balance and exposing it stomach, but also hitting him and sending him flying – right towards the cliff. He hit the ground and rolled, tried to straighten out, felt about a third – no, half – of his body in the grips of gravity, and his arms shot out and scrabbled for purchase.
He stopped himself before going over, but he was winded and dizzy. If the creature had hit him full on and been ready to follow up, he'd have been dead meat. As it was, it was on its side, smearing its ear against the ground in agony, perhaps trying to fix its hearing. He struggled back up and regained his footing as Sheva radioed, "The mines are up. Lead it this way, but be careful!"
He tried to run in that direction, but was still catching his breath. If the thing would stay stunned for a few more seconds—
No dice. It was up, and though it took three loud clicks for it to locate him, even though he was right in front of it, it spotted him and was on his tail before he could blink.
Sheva came up a short rise off to his left, saw his predicament, and fired several times at the bat. She hit its ear again, and it turned and went for her instead. She led it back towards the mines, and he took the opportunity to line himself up to go for its belly when it was exposed.
It didn't take much longer. She danced between the mines, which she'd spaced perfectly to give herself just enough room to get through them, and the mutant bat followed her right into them.
BOOM! One went off on its right. It stumbled, but kept going. BOOM! Another glancing blow on its right. BOOM! BOOM! Two more, and it was down. Three more mines remained on the field, for the next go. If they needed them, that was.
He didn't intent to need them. He flung his pack on the ground, wrenched out those four sticks of dynamite and a lighter, and went for its exposed belly. Sheva was firing into it, but he had a different plan. They'd made a few deep divots in the thing's gut, and he motioned for her to back off as he ran right up, clicked the lighter, and lit one of the fuses. The fuse began burning, he shoved the sticks quickly into the deepest flesh crevasse he could find, dodged a blow from one of those little insect legs, and ran.
He caught the blast, and for the third time in as many minutes, he was knocked down hard. But holy cow, when he turned around, it was to a beautiful sight.
The bat's abdomen was a ruined mess. The fire seemed to have cauterized the damage, so it wasn't bleeding, but the thing made a noise that suggested it was on its last legs. It thrashed, forced itself to its winged feet, body limp on the ground…
…and hurtled itself back up into the sky.
It moved absurdly fast for something that should be too big to even leave the ground, not to mentioned being severely injured. It went up a good hundred feet, arced over them, turned about, and spread its wings as it stooped into a dive. It was coming right for them. For him.
His lip twitched in disgust, and he pulled out his handgun. It was coming dead on, so he had perfect aim. Once again, he started shooting its ears, and he got four bullets into it before he had to throw himself out of the way.
He juked left, and thankfully the bat, sick and tired of the assault on its main sensory organs, juked right. It hit the ground and, oddly enough, bounced. It plowed into the truck that had brought it here, and its mass was enough to knock the thing off the cliff like a tin can.
They both ran over to see it fall. The bat's wing got caught on the truck, so it was falling right alongside it. It jerked free at the last second – soon enough to not be crushed under the truck, but not soon enough to reverse its momentum.
It hit the ground with a deep BOOM that snuck through their ear protection, while some fifteen feet away, the truck hit the ground and exploded.
Black smoke drifted over the B.O.W.'s still, horrifying, but somewhat magnificent form. It was splayed out to greatest viewing effect, all four wings spread, body unfurled below it, head twisted to the side. He'd have liked to snag a picture of that.
They both stood staring as the thing's body disappeared from their sight. Then he took a long, deep breath, turned to Sheva, and said, "Good job."
He thought he saw a hint of a flush in her cheeks, and her weary eyes lit up. "Likewise. Shame it fell, though – Reynard asked us to bag him a trophy."
He chuckled again. "Oh, well. Trophies always get confiscated anyways. Hey, are you serious about this being your first mission?"
"Yes."
He shook his head disbelievingly. "B.S.A.A.'s newest S.O.A., and this is what you down on your first day on the job. Not to mention all the dogs, flyers, and Majini."
Now she rolled her eyes – but he could tell she was pleased, nonetheless. That was good. He was happy to have such a capable partner. He got the strange feeling he'd need her moving forward.
They heard another vehicle coming up the road. Not knowing what to expect, he just said, "You up for round two?"
"Oh, God, don't even joke."
Thankfully, it wasn't round two. It was one of Stone's men. Delta Team.
He rolled up to them, barely skidding to a halt as he yelled, "Chris! Sheva! Get in!"
Chris let out a long breath, but ran forward and hopped onto the back of the thing regardless. Sheva followed him, and by mutual consent they both took up the pair of machine guns mounted on the back. Going by the tone of the Delta soldier's shout, they'd probably need them.
"Never a dull moment," he said as they set right back off down the road.
OoO
Christmas! Christmas! Christmas!
I've been spending plenty of time editing and uploading chapters to the site, so I have a fair few in the wings. And because I appreciate all of my readers so much, and want to do something nice for you all, I'm going to be uploading a new chapter every day until New Years :) Have a wonderful Christmas, all! And, as always, thank you for all your support and kind words!
Love,
The Topaz Dragon