And a hopper had passed over only a few hours ago. Big and loud, it had trailed out of sight within seconds, crossing over the terrain that the survivors had now spent the better part of a week covering on foot. There was no sign of it now, but for all David knew it was resting on the other side of the hill, along with all the evidence any of them could ever want that the military was operating in the area.

  All they wanted was to get inside.

  All they wanted was to be safe.

  The trife were behind them. There was no question about that. The demons and the humans had already met a few times, leaving dozens dead on their side and hundreds dead on the other.

  The scavengers had fought as courageously as they could.

  It was nowhere near enough.

  Espinoza whistled, waving to the larger group further down the small hill. Their group had swelled in recent weeks as scavengers in the area heard the former Marine was planning to rush a military base and force them to let him and his followers in. They were all American citizens. They all had a right to safety. Espinoza told David how the military was taking specific people in and offering them protection. Rich people, mostly. Politicians, celebrities. Why did they deserve to live when so many were still outside, doing everything they could to survive one more night?

  He had been apprenticing as a mechanic when the trife came. He was great at fixing things. Wasn’t that worth something? Didn’t the military have choppers and dropships and all kinds of equipment that needed to be maintained? It wasn’t his fault he had gotten sick a few times and turned down for enlistment. Should he pay for that with his life?

  He had managed to stay alive on his own for nearly two months before hooking up with Espinoza and his group. He had learned to avoid the trife, to rig traps and protection against them so he could sleep without fear. He had a gift for making something out of nothing, for taking raw materials and turning them into assets he could use. Wasn’t that valuable?

  He raised the binoculars again, scanning the area. He paused when he noticed something lying in the dirt near the building. What was that?

  “David,” Espinoza said, grabbing the binoculars before he could discern the item. “Believe me; it’s there. I was a Marine. I know what I see .”

  David turned to the man. Espinoza was short, with thick black hair and a dark complexion. His face was weathered and tired. He wore a pair of old army fatigues, his name sewn on the chest and carried an M-16 rifle over his shoulder.

  “What do we do?” David asked.

  “Look,” Espinoza said, pointing behind the group of scavengers.

  David could see the movement of the trife through a tree line in the distance. Normally, the demons didn’t move all that much during the day, preferring to use the time to feed. But they had gotten a bead on the group, and the demons weren’t about to let them get away.

  “We don’t have a lot of options here,” Espinoza said, raising his voice so the rest of the group could hear. “We get inside that building, or we die. We get into the underground base, or we die.”

  The group rumbled in agreement. There were over five hundred people further below, mostly young men and women, with a few older people and children mixed in. Ninety percent of them were armed with firearms they had picked up from old sporting good stores, looted houses, stripped them from armed corpses they had found in the streets, and any number of other sources.

  “What if they shoot at us?” David asked.

  “Then we shoot back,” Espinoza said. “I was one of them, remember? I know how things are in there. They push us out to die while they spend time and energy rescuing the people they think are important. Why do they get to decide? We all deserve to live.”

  “But they’re our people.”

  “No, they aren’t our people. They’re willing to let us die. As far as I’m concerned, that makes them as much of an enemy as the trife.” The scavengers behind him shouted their agreement. “If you want to stay here, be my guest.” Espinoza turned to the crowd. “If any of you want to stay out here and take your chances with the trife, now’s your chance. Otherwise, let’s go!”

  Espinoza pulled his M-16 from his shoulder, raising it into the air. Then he surged ahead, up to the top of the hill and over, charging down the other side.

  The scavengers shouted behind him, moving forward as a solid mass, climbing the hill where David was perched, cresting it and running down.

  David didn’t move right away. He watched them, his heart pounding with fear. This wasn’t a good idea. Espinoza said there probably weren’t more than a hundred Marines inside, maybe less, but David didn’t believe it. What could the military accomplish in a remote area like this with so few Marines? Unless it was a research facility? Yanez had claimed the military was trying to create monsters of their own to fight back against the trife. It was a terrifying thought.

  His eyes shifted when he noticed movement near the building. The doors had slid open, and now a squad of Marines were filing out. It wasn’t the first time David had seen the Marines in their full combat armor. He could still remember hiding in a dumpster and peering into the darkness as a squad had moved through the streets of his hometown. They had killed a lot of trife that day, leaving their bloody and broken carcasses littering the streets. At the time, David had thought the Marines came to liberate the area from the trife.

  He closed his eyes. He could still remember the scene like it had just happened, even though it had been more than a year. He could still see the girl running toward him, seeking the safety of the dumpster as three trife trailed behind her, giving chase. He could still hear her screams and feel her terror. He had started to stand, to lift the top of the dumpster and offer his hand to pull her in.

  Then the Marines had appeared around the corner behind the trife. They started shooting, their bullets pinging off the dumpster when they weren’t biting into the demons.

  Or into the girl.

  He had closed the lid and stayed there for hours after the shooting stopped. Then he had cautiously climbed out, approaching the girl. She was dead of course. Riddled with bullets. Killed by the Marines. It was a memory that had returned too many times since. It was the reason he had decided to join Espinoza’s group. Safety in numbers, and a willingness to fight back against the Marines if the Marines made trouble for them.

  Espinoza was right. They were the enemy, and they didn’t care about people like him. He didn’t fit into their twisted definition of a VIP.

  David got to his feet, standing behind the rock. Espinoza was scaling the hill toward the building. The Marines were standing in front of the door, waiting for him to arrive. Would they hold their fire or were they just waiting for more of them to get into range?

  David heard rustling behind him and he spun around. The first of the trife were breaking out of the trees below, no more than a quarter-mile away. A long line of them trailed back, snaking through the trees in a slick that numbered in the thousands.

  There was nowhere to go but forward.

  David started down the hillside, his eyes on Espinoza, who had almost reached the Marines. He could tell by the way Espinoza was gesturing that he was trying to explain their situation. He motioned frantically toward the hill, likely giving warning of the trife and begging for protection.

  David continued to run, reaching the base of the first hill in less than a minute. He could hear the stilted hisses behind him, growing into a single, solid buzz. He glanced back, finding the trife at the top of the hill where he had been standing less than a minute earlier. The demons were gaining in a hurry. Had he lingered too long?

  The sharp report of gunfire sounded from ahead. More shots were ringing out by the time David got his eyes back on the scene. He watched the entire squad of Marines collapse, falling under the sudden outburst from the scavengers, who weren’t going to let themselves be left for the trife again.

  A bottomless pit formed in his stomach as his people swarmed over the Marines, grabbing their weapons on the way past and charging into the building. He heard more gunfire ring out, muffled by the closed space. A moment later he heard another rumble and watched as a pair of drones crested the far side of the hill.

  What the hell had he gotten himself into?

  He charged ahead as fast as his legs could carry him, the weakness of his prior illnesses causing him to tire too quickly. He looked back a second time, finding the trife rushing down the hill in his direction, the front line only a hundred meters to his rear. There was no way he was going to get all the way up the larger hill to the building and make it to the rest of the group before the demons ran him down.

  He considered giving up and letting himself fall. The trife would be on him in seconds, and it would be over within seconds after that. He wasn’t suited for this world, where it had truly become survival of the fittest. He had only survived because he was good at hiding. Good at staying out of sight. He survived because he adapted to his surroundings and his limitations. But there was nothing to adapt to out here, wedged between two hills, between two enemies, between two potential deaths. He had joined up with Espinoza because he didn’t want to be alone anymore. He wanted a community, a place to belong with people who were fighting hard to stay alive.

  Instead, he had followed them right to his death.

  He slowed down. He didn’t want to give up, but he could barely breathe. His lungs were weak, his legs weaker. He glanced back a third time. The trife were a sea of oily black monsters, the darkness broken only by the yellow-white of their teeth. They were almost close enough to pounce on him, and once they did, those claws would tear him in half before he could even cry out in pain.

  He was looking backward. He didn’t see the ground ahead. He didn’t know the larger rock was there until his toe caught on it and got lodged there for a moment, throwing him off balance and sending him sprawling forward onto his stomach. He whimpered slightly as he hit the ground, reaching out and trying to scramble back to his feet, closing his eyes so he wouldn’t see which demon was going to kill him.

  Chapter 16

  David first heard the sharp whine and then felt the heat as the missile exploded behind him, throwing dirt and trife body parts all over him before sending a broad swath of the demons flying through the air. He heard three more missiles strike a moment later, blasting hard into the front line of the creatures and creating a line of thick smoke smelling of cooked meat.

  He lifted his head, looking back at the carnage. The trife were barely bothered by the initial assault, and he dropped his face to the dirt a moment later. Closing his eyes, he stayed as still as he could.

  And listened.

  He heard the creatures as they moved over him, hissing to one another while they charged past. Clawed feet touched down near his face, kicking dirt into his mouth. Sharp toes prodded at his back, stepping on it and over, the talons cutting through his old denim jacket to his flesh. More feet landed near his arms and legs, scraping him in multiple places. He clenched his teeth, desperate not to make a sound and reveal that he was still alive. The wounds hurt, but they weren’t deep, and as long as he stayed silent maybe he would survive.

  He heard a few more whines, and then another round of explosions sounded ahead of him, along with the screams of dying trife. He shifted his head slightly and opened his eyes, looking through dust and smoke to see large metal feet hit the ground a few meters in front of him. Gunfire followed, muzzle blasts spewing from the metal creation that had just fallen from the sky. It was taller than a human, wide and bulky, with thick arms and legs that hummed as they moved. Its rounded head was equipped with two glowing red eyes, and a large eagle and star logo was stamped to the front where its face should have been. It had a pair of machine-guns integrated into its forearms. The twin belt-feeds spat out rounds at a breakneck pace, chewing up everything in front of it. A stamp on its leg identified it. BUT/CH-3R.

  Butcher?

  As the robot waded into the thick of the battle, David heard the same rapid-fire sound a little further off, suggesting it wasn’t alone.

  The trife hissed and charged the machine, and they died by the handful, each bullet punching through the lead demon and the one behind it. Each round killed them by twos and threes while more trife feet drew closer to David.

  It only took thirty seconds or so for the robot to run out of ammunition. Once it had, it started grabbing the trife by whatever body part it could reach, crushing limbs and necks alike, and then swinging the corpse into the demons behind it. It killed the demons almost as fast as more demons could join the fight.

  David looked back for a third time, noticing the trife were still there, the robot’s attack barely making a dent in their overall numbers. Even so, the creatures had decided to take a wide path around the thing, leaving them both momentarily in the clear.

  He stumbled to his feet. The robot shifted its head to look at him, taking an instant to identify him as human and then heading off at a run toward the nearest trife and leaving him alone in the middle of the battlefield.

  David turned in a circle, trying to make sense of what was happening around him. He was still alive. He wasn’t sure why or for how long. The trife had noticed the Butcher heading away and were beginning to redirect toward him once more.

  He did the only thing he could think to do. He ran up the slope toward the aluminum structure.

  The trife were all around him, bunched together in puddles of oily flesh and teeth everywhere he looked. He held his gun ready, knowing they would notice him at some point and attack. It was an old steel revolver with a six round cylinder and a wood grip. He had a dozen bullets shoved into his jacket pocket, plus six already loaded. He held it close to his chest, running as hard as he could to reach the building, his lungs already beginning to fail him again. Damn it.

  He heard a trife hiss nearby, and he turned his head, dropping to the ground just in time to avoid the creature’s pounce. It went over him, and he aimed his revolver at it and fired, catching it in the side. It spun and dropped.

  Another trife came at him, hissing and slashing. David fell back as he fired three panicked rounds that managed to hit the demon in the chest. He fell for the second time, the dead trife tumbling on top of him.

  David stayed there, trying to catch his breath again. More trife passed him by, likely assuming he was dead. They rushed toward the structure, the entire slick beginning to condense as it approached the building. More of the creatures than David could ever count went past him, careful to step around the dead on their way. He tried to see past them, searching for the Butcher and managing to get a glimpse of it through their legs. It was on the ground and crawling in trife, still trying to fight them as its limbs were being cut from their joints, its head torn from its body. It had fallen to the horde too.

  David stayed prone beneath the dead trife. The demon was light enough he could have thrown it off him, but what good would that do? He was safe here as terrifying as here was. He had to be better off than Espinoza or the other scavengers who had entered the structure and were no doubt caught in the crossfire between the Marines and the trife.

  He flashed back to the girl, watching the Marines gun her down for what had to be the millionth time. It would be like that again. Espinoza had shot first, destroying any chance that any of the scavengers would survive. Not in this mess. David could almost picture the former grunt running toward the Marines, the trife right behind him. He could practically see the expression on Espinoza’s face as he realized his miscalculation and the bullets started slamming into his flesh. David cringed at the thought, his bladder emptying of its own volition, warm and wet along the side of his leg and onto his thigh. He might have been embarrassed if there had been anyone around to notice.

  The seconds passed, the sounds of fighting a miserable din around him. Drones fired down at the trife, cutting through entire swaths of the demons. He turned his head and saw Marines up on the hill above the building, shooting down into the mass. A large group of trife had broken from the main group to attack them, and the way they stood their ground told David that Espinoza had made a terrible, terrible mistake.

  He had led the trife to the military base.

  Now they were all going to die.

  Chapter 17

  “Are you ready for this, Caleb Card?” Sheriff Aveline asked.

  “I don’t know. It’ll be hard for you to top the clothing exchange.”

  “Do I sense sarcasm in your tone of voice, Sergeant?”

  Caleb smiled. “Maybe a little.”

  They both laughed.

  He had spent the last thirty minutes with the sheriff, wandering through parts of Metro on the express tour. She had brought him into a few of the shops to get a feel for the businesses and the people who ran them, including The Dancing Trife and the exchange, where the Metro residents would be able to trade in old clothes for chits to purchase new ones. Everything in Metro was working on a faux economy, powered by both physical chits and digital cryptocurrency that were linked through the city’s data network, which Lily called DAN, short for Deliverance Assistance Network.

  They were hitting it off, talking about anything and everything, and laughing the entire time. Caleb couldn’t remember the last time he had laughed so much. It was before the trife. He was sure of that much. There hadn’t been much cause to be jovial since then, but maybe things were starting to change. By this time tomorrow, the Deliverance would be in deep space, preparing to fire up the ion thrusters that would bring them to half the speed of light within a couple of days.

  And he would be on the other side of Metro’s walls, destined to spend the next two hundred years cycling in and out of stasis when he could be inside the walls getting closer to Lily Aveline.

  Lieutenant Jones had set him up, and like everything the man planned, he had done it very well indeed.

  Lily put her wrist to the panel beside the door, and it clicked and swung open slightly. She smiled at Caleb as she brushed past him, reaching for the handle and pushing it open.