The pack, minus Cheetah and Fox who was staying with him, stood on the wall surrounding the complex. They were watching Harrison, Hank and George walk away from the base unarmed.
"I think this is a fitting death." Hawk said. He and Eagle had their pulse rifles trained on them.
"Just don't shoot them unless they try to come back in." Ryan said.
Harrison, Hank and George then rounded the corner of the street and disappeared from sight. Hawk and Eagle lowered their pulse rifles. Hawk looked triumphant.
"Like to see how long they last against their own apocalypse." Hawk said with an evil smile on his face.
Suddenly a voice came over their earpieces. It was Fox.
"Guys, that thing is off his face." she said.
"Thanks Laura." Ryan replied.
The pack began to move off the perimeter wall and back into the base. When they reached the bottom of the stairs leading away from the wall they heard a beeping noise.
"That's the computer," HQ said "it must be picking up something. You guys on ahead, I'll check it out."
He ran off into the computer room and the rest of the pack walked to medical. They found Cheetah sitting up on the examination table with Fox putting a blanket around his shoulders and offering him a cup of water.
"Hey Cheetah," Ryan said "how are you feeling?"
Cheetah coughed before answering.
"Alright I guess, but the feeling knowing I have one of them inside me isn't very pleasant." he wheezed.
"At least you haven't lost your wit mate." Hawk joked.
"Damn right." Cheetah spluttered.
Fox picked up a hyper dermic needle.
"Cheetah, this will slow the alien growth so we can get you some help." she said.
Cheetah held out his arm and Fox injected him with the serum. Cheetah didn't even wince, nor did he react at all.
Suddenly, HQ's voice sounded through the PA system.
"Guys, that signal before was an incoming radio message. It's the marines!"
Everyone ran into the computer room, Ryan supporting Cheetah, and stood behind HQ.
"What's the message?" Hawk asked.
"Listen." HQ replied.
Static came through the speakers but in amongst it was a male, military voice.
"People of New York, this is marine vessel 'Valkqurie'. We have received reports of explosions being detonated in the city. We are going to conduct a rescue operation to retrieve anyone who is left from the disaster. Evac point will be the top of the downtown Novotel building, it's high up so we won't be likely to be attacked. Evac at 1400 hours."
And the message repeated itself. The pack stood in silence, finding it hard to believe what they just heard. Finally Eagle spoke.
"How long have we got?" she asked.
Ryan looked at his watch. It was 10:00am. Four hours until the marines arrive.
"Let's get going then! Everybody gear up and lets go." He said.
Everyone scattered and got their things. Hawk and Eagle loaded their pulse rifles and collected extra ammo. Fox and Snake put their armour on and picked up their weapons. Ryan put his armour on and collected both his and Cheetah's gear. He handed Cheetah's things to him.
"Here mate, you're going to need 'em." he said.
Cheetah looked up at him and smiled weakly. He took his armour and put it on. He slotted the staff into its holster on his back and slotted the spear in the opposite holster to the staff. After Ryan had got his things in order he helped Cheetah up and met the others in the conference room.
"Ok everyone," Ryan said "We have four hours to get to the evac point. It will take a fair bit of that just to reach downtown. And everyone be alert, I suspect that the aliens will be there waiting for us."
"I'll get Cheetah's serum." Fox said, she ran out of the room down to medical. She returned with a small box full of hyper dermic needles. She gave Cheetah an injection, and then put the box in a pack strapped to her back. She looked up at Ryan and smiled, he smiled back.
"Let's go." he said.
At 12:30pm the pack had reached down town, they had one and a half hours to reach the Novotel building. They rounded a corner into an intersection; Ryan put Cheetah down and surveyed the area. It was devastated; the whole area looked like a war had been fought there only minus all the corpses.
"Ok," he said to the others "Let's keep moving, hopefully we can get by without the aliens finding us-"
He was cut short, a group of twenty aliens came pelting from behind some rubble. They leapt through the air at incredible speed, the pack raised their weapons but the aliens bowled them over. Now the aliens had the upper hand, they clawed at their faces. Ryan got three cuts down the left side of his face. He leapt up and flipped his alien off him. While the alien was in mid air he flung three of his throwing fingers into its head.
He turned and sliced off the head of the alien on top of Eagle. She leapt up and shot Snake's alien in the legs and then the head to avoid the acid spilling on him. He jumped up and looked around.
One alien still remained, it was heading for Cheetah. Snake flung himself forward and sliced it in half and then impaled its head with his sword. The alien went limp and Snake kicked it aside.
Ryan turned to see if the others were ok, only to see that Snake, Cheetah, HQ, Eagle and himself were the only ones around.
"Laura!" he shouted "Hawk!"
He ran over to where he saw them last. They weren't there, but he saw something on the ground. Ryan bent down to pick it up. It was Fox's emerald chain.
No! he thought She's alive! They don't kill straight away!
"Hawk!" Eagle shouted.
"It's no use," Ryan said "they've been taken to the nest."
Everything went very still. The news began to settle in. Eagle was close to tears. Ryan stood up and looked defiantly at the others.
"I'm going after Laura." he said.
"What!" HQ said "That's insane!"
"She's alive! I know she is!"
"But you have no idea where the nest is." Snake said.
Ryan pointed towards the centre of downtown.
"The nest is obviously in downtown as there are no bodies here because they don't kill them near the nest. I'm guessing that it's in the main shopping centre that way." he said.
Snake didn't have anything to say about that. But Cheetah did.
"We'll never make the evac time." he wheezed.
Ryan looked him dead in the eyes.
"I'll be back before you know it." he said.