The first few went down to shots from Reeve and Sergeant G. Jed fumbled the grenade and it rolled off to his left. He had the SAW in his hands and was ready to fire when the grenade exploded in a blinding glare and deafening thunderclap. Jed’s head swam with confusion. He couldn’t hear a fucking thing, and his eyes didn’t work. All he could see was a ball of white light that seemed to surround him as he felt his feet go out from under him. His ass hit the floor hard, sending a jolt up his spine.

  Someone yanked on his neck and he felt a tapping or clicking that vibrated through his shoulders. Hot metal bounced against his face and seared his cheek over and over again. He screamed and felt the roar in his voice, but all he could hear was that constant tapping and clicking.

  Jed blinked his eyes. The white light faded around the edges of his vision. An endless line of clawed hands and feet sat tangled in front of him, like he was looking into a mass grave and the dead were reaching out to him for release.

  The yanking on his neck settled down. The clicking and tapping sound got louder then cut out suddenly. Jed blinked his eyes again. He could see better. The hands and feet in front of him were connected to arms and legs and mangled bodies peppered with holes that leaked blood. Angry monstrous faces stared at him from the pile of corpses. He reached a hand up to rub his eyes and felt another hand grab his collar.

  A muffled shout from somewhere nearby made Jed worried that people were dying because he’d dropped the grenade. Then he remembered it was a banger, not a frag.

  The monsters got in. But if I’m not dead, then…

  Someone grabbed his hand, and another pair of hands lifted under his arms, hauling him up on his feet.

  “You dropped the banger, Welch, but that saved us, man.”

  “Who’d I save?” Jed asked. His vision cleared, and he finally blinked away the last of the shock from the grenade. Mahton was holding him up. Sergeant G and Reeve stood near the hallway entrance with their weapons up. A mass of dead monsters crowded the floor in front of the hallway, and a few more lay in the hall itself. They’d all been shot to pieces. Brass and belt links were scattered around Jed’s feet.

  Smoke drifted away from the muzzle of his SAW.

  Somebody went cyclic. Was it me?

  “Mahton, get Welch squared away,” Sergeant G said over her shoulder. Jed lifted the SAW and spun around to take in the rest of the room. He wobbled on his feet and only got a hand out in time to stop himself from eating the floor. He rolled onto his back and felt a sharp pain in his hip. With a grunt, he got to his feet and steadied himself with a hand on the nearest pillar.

  The firefighters and Luce were standing together around the back of the pillar. Over in the far corner, the injured man and woman were lying in a puddle of blood and gore, with three dead sucker faces nearby.

  “Reeve and me got them, but not before they had dinner,” Mahton said.

  Jed turned back to listen for Sergeant G’s command and nearly stumbled over his own feet as he shifted his weight.

  “Yo, lay off the hard stuff this early in the morning, Welch,” Mahton said from nearby. Jed stayed still and just turned his head this time, looking for Mahton. The Marine stood a few feet away to Jed’s right, laughing to himself.

  “What the fuck happened?” Jed asked.

  “You dropped the banger, man. Sergeant G saw it coming. She turned away and covered her ears when it went off, so she was first to react. The sucker faces, man… You should have seen them. Like cockroaches on a cold morning. Sergeant G grabbed the SAW and sprayed them fuckers like bugs. Good ol’ M249. Best damn can of RAID you can find these days.”

  “What about you and Reeve?”

  “We’ve all been around bangers before. You get used to it. I closed my eyes and backed up as soon as you dropped it.”

  “And them?” Jed asked, sticking a thumb in the firefighters’ direction.

  “Ate up like you, I guess. But they were farther away. Same as the sucker faces that got behind us. They were up on the ceiling.”

  “Mahton, Welch,” Sergeant G said from where she stood by the door. “Eyes on our six in case those things found a place to hide. We know they like to ambush when they can. Matty, keep your people tight. You’re in the middle. Grab whatever supplies and weapons you can as we move.”

  The firefighters each grabbed something from the cabinets on the edge of the apparatus floor. Matty had a trauma bag slung across his chest, but the others just had a few bottles of water between them stuffed into pockets.

  “All right, people,” Sergeant G said. “Let’s move out.”

  “What about Tucker?” Jed asked, remembering what the man had said over the radio.

  “What about him, Welch?”

  “He said he’s got snipers out there. With a Barrett.”

  “That’s bullshit,” Leigh said.

  Sergeant G went over to her. “Why do you say that? You know something, you need to tell us. What do they have and how much?”

  “I don’t know what a Barrett is, but he doesn’t have any snipers out there unless they’ve been out there the whole time. He has everyone with him, like we told you before. All four of them. His son and another two guys. They all have guns, like you do. The same kind and a lot more. Shotguns and pistols. I don’t know how much ammunition they have. They never let us see the arms room.”

  “Arms room?” Reeve asked.

  “Watch the hall, Reeve,” Sergeant G said. To Leigh and the other firefighters, she demanded: “Show me.”

  “It’s on the police side,” Luce said. “Upstairs. We was gonna tell you—”

  Sergeant G cut him off with a sharp hiss. She moved up beside Reeve at the hallway entrance and waved Welch to the rear with Mahton. The firefighters took their place next in the middle.

  “Everybody top off,” Sergeant G said. Jed joined the other two Marines in a chorus of Errr. He dropped the empty box in his weapon and grabbed a fresh one from the bags Reeve was carrying. Mahton and Reeve took turns replacing their magazines. When they’d all finished, Sergeant G did the same. With a wave of her hand, she directed them all to move out.

  When they reached the stairs Reeve had come down earlier, Jed took point again. He rounded the landing so he could cover the upper floor until Reeve joined him. Moving in tandem, they ascended the stairwell to the landing, which opened into a hallway in both directions. A heavy black radio sat against the wall there, with a long-whip antenna sticking out a broken window. Sergeant G called Reeve to switch positions with her. She climbed the stairs and told Jed to move down one side of the hall opposite the windows.

  “Go right. They say that’s the police station side.”

  Jed moved out, sweeping his muzzle into every open door he passed. The building was a mix of small offices, a gym, a day room, and a small, square kitchen, not much different from Meg’s fire station or the bus depot where Sergeant G and the others had set up their hide. Every room in the stronghold showed signs of being occupied, just like the makeshift barracks Reeve and Mahton had set up. Except each of these rooms was being used like a separate bunk space.

  Jed kept his eyes and ears ready to catch any sign of movement as they moved down the hall. A darkened doorway up ahead on the left got his attention, and he roved the muzzle of his weapon in that direction.

  “You got something, Welch?” Reeve asked from behind him.

  “Negative, just getting ready in case I do.”

  “Rah. Keep on keeping on then.”

  “Rah,” Jed said as they stepped slow and sure down the hall.

  If anything comes out of that door…

  — 14 —

  Gallegos kept pace with Mahton as they tailed the firefighters down the hall from the stairwell. Without weapons, they were all easy targets. Even worse, she knew, they’d become liabilities if they got between the Marines and any of the suckers. She’d seen how the monsters changed their attack patterns when they had unarmed civilians in their sights. They’d swarm those people first, because the people who were armed would be reluctant to shoot into a group of those they were trying to protect.

  It was like the sucker faces could read human behavior perfectly well, even though every last trace of humanity had been wiped away by the virus that made monsters of men and women.

  If they figure out that we need the first aid they’re are carrying…

  Gallegos shook those thoughts from her mind and focused on the mission at hand.

  Get to the arms room, get back to the hide, then get the hell out of town.

  “They keep the food in here,” Leigh said as the group stopped outside the kitchen door. “There’s not much left, but we should take it anyway.”

  Gallegos nodded and signaled Welch and Mahton to watch their six. He posted by the kitchen door, facing back the way they’d come. Mahton took a position on the opposite side of the hall and aimed back at the stairs. Reeve posted with his back to him, watching the hall ahead of them. Gallegos joined him on the opposite wall, across the kitchen doorway from Welch.

  The firefighters went in to scavenge the last bits of food. When they didn’t come back out right away, Gallegos backed up so she could see inside the room.

  “They took all the damn cereal,” Jo said staring at empty cabinets. “They eat it like it’s candy.”

  “Who are they?” Reeve asked. Gallegos turned to hush him up on instinct, but she stopped herself when Luce spit on the floor and said, “Punks. They just a bunch of fucking punks. Come in here all macho and shit with their stolen guns, talking about cleaning off the scum, and shit like that.”

  “Yeah, I’m looking forward to seeing them guns,” Reeve said. “I’ma clean out that arms room like it’s fucking Christmas. And that radio back down the hall. We should grab it, Sergeant. Monitor their commo.”

  “It’s too heavy. And they’ll switch frequencies anyway,” Mahton said. “Probably already did.”

  “Maybe, but what if they don’t? They sound ate up as shit.”

  “If we have room and can carry it, we take the radio,” Gallegos said, stepping into the kitchen and waving for the firefighters to hurry it up. “Whatever we can’t carry, we destroy before we leave, including any weapons we have to leave behind. Either way their commo and strength gets compromised.”

  “You pretty hard for a lady soldier,” Luce said.

  ***

  Jed’s heart skipped a beat when he heard a slamming sound and a grunt from behind him. He took his eyes off the hallway for a second to look into the kitchen. Sergeant G had Luce pinned against the table with the butt of her weapon pressing his face to the side. The guy struggled for a second and then started breathing heavy through his nose.

  Jed smiled and got his head back on mission, watching the hall back to the stairs. But he spared a little attention to listen to what was going on behind him.

  “Let me go,” Luce said through gritted teeth.

  “I will, but first you get one thing fucking straight. I am a Marine, and I am saving your ass. That is all you need to know about me. Rah?”

  “Rah? The fuck does that mean?” Luce asked. Jed had to look back again. Luce was still breathing heavy and trying to get Sergeant G’s weapon off his jaw. But she had him bent over backwards and with a knee up against his junk.

  That guy ain’t going anywhere until she says so.

  “It means you don’t call me lady soldier.”

  “Fine! You a Marine. I fucking get it.”

  Sergeant G backed off and Luce sprang upright. He shook off the fight in his eyes and went to help the others with the food. They had a few small boxes, a bag of oranges, and some jars of pasta sauce.

  “Welch,” Sergeant G said, motioning with her chin for him to lead the way farther down the hall.

  Jed turned back to the hall and spotted a flash of movement on the stairs they’d come up. In a rush of screeches and howls, monsters erupted from the stairwell and swarmed onto the walls, floor, and ceiling. Mahton’s muzzle flashed hot. Jed added his own to the task, but there were so many of the things all he could see was their greasy flesh and snarling mouths.

  They snuck up on us. Fucking hell, they snuck up on us!

  — 15 —

  Jed squeezed off a few sustained bursts before going cyclic. He sprayed left and up the wall, then back across the ceiling. Most of the sucker faces were hit and flailed backwards or dropped on top of the others. But the ones that he missed came rushing forward, screeching and hissing, baring their spiked teeth in a wave of glistening pale white skin.

  Mahton picked the first two off. Reeve and Sergeant G stood side by side next to Jed, firing into the others that got through. Jed kept his aim on the stairwell, forcing the suckers to spread out as they emerged and making easier targets for the other Marines to take down.

  “Down the hall! Move!” Sergeant G shouted.

  Stomping feet and shouts came to Jed’s ears from behind him. The firefighters were racing away down the hall. More of the beasts poured from the stairwell and Jed mowed through them with a constant stream of fire. Sergeant G slapped his shoulder and yelled for him to fall back. He kept firing into the swarm, stepping back as quickly as he could without stumbling over his own feet.

  Reeve and Mahton moved in Jed’s peripheral vision, back pedaling and firing high and low. Gunshots muffled Sergeant G’s shouted orders and the suckers’ screeching, and through it all Jed felt the steady thunder of the SAW in his hands, spitting death into their enemy.

  To his left, the other Marines swapped out magazines as they moved. Reeve changed his first, then Mahton. Jed felt the SAW lock up just as Sergeant G went to change hers.

  “Fall back!” she shouted. “Fall back!”

  Reeve and Mahton continued to knock down the monsters that raced toward them. Jed cleared his weapon, and lifted the muzzle just in time to spray a burst into a monster’s face as it dropped from the ceiling to land in front of him.

  Three more suckers sped forward, skittering up the opposite wall and around the Marines in a blur of pasty white skin and spittle. Reeve tracked them, but couldn’t keep his aim on their movement. Mahton and Sergeant G stayed on those coming down the hall, picking them off one by one as they scrambled left or right, trying to dodge around their shots.

  Sergeant G yelled again for them to fall back.

  Jed stepped back, keeping in a line with the others. The tide of sucker faces slowed down until only a handful remained in the hallway, darting up and down the walls. Jed picked off the closest of them. Then the SAW ran dry. He dropped the empty box and had a hand in his bag for a new one when Mahton roared and charged forward.

  ***

  Gallegos knew they’d make it. They weren’t going down in this hallway. Not here, not today. The firefighters were behind them somewhere and out of the way. Reeve took down the three suckers that scrambled around them. Now they only had a handful or so left to deal with. She dropped one on the ceiling and Reeve got another. Welch had dialed back to sustained fire and got a sucker face that was slinking along the wall.

  Mahton was grabbing at his vest and Gallegos took her eyes off the hall to see what he was doing.

  Then she felt the SAW pump out its final shot. Mahton gave a war cry and raced forward with a frag in his right hand. Gallegos shouted for him to come back, but it was too late. He reached the stairwell just as a new mob of suckers exploded from it and filled the hallway. They surrounded Mahton and he vanished into their swarm. But the sucker faces stayed put, skittering back and forth across the hallway, sometimes up onto the walls like spiders running from a broom.

  How did we not hear them coming? They’re timing their attacks, moving slow so we don’t hear their joints or claws. These fucking things are learning how to beat us at our own game!

  Reeve was shaking next to her, weapon up and ready. She closed the space between them.

  “You frosty, Reeve?”

  “Rah, Sergeant. But they got Mahton. They’re down there dick dancing instead of attacking us. And we didn’t hear them coming. What the fuck? What the absolute fuck?”

  The sucker faces kept squirming around in the hallway. She took a risk and fired at a lone one that had scrambled up a wall. It dropped and the others all surrounded it, forming a tighter clutch.

  With Mahton right in the middle.

  They weren’t eating him, but they kept him hidden from view except for a glimpse of his boot or helmet. To her right, Welch had his weapon open and a fresh ammo box in his hand. He slid it into the SAW, but it wouldn’t seat.

  “Welch, get that SAW up!”

  His hands shook as he struggled with the ammo box. The belt was curled up over the top. Gallegos reached over and flopped the loose end out of the way. Welch slid the box into place.

  Reeve screamed something and fired. Gallegos turned back in time to see a sucker face drop from the ceiling ahead of five others that raced along the floor in a group. Two more peeled away from the swarm and clambered up the wall to the ceiling. The rest of the swarm kept Mahton covered from view.

  Reeve fired again, dropped his magazine, and slapped a hand on his vest.

  “I’m out!”

  The five sucker faces tore forward over the mounds of their own dead and the ones up above followed.

  They’re timing their attack. They know when we’re vulnerable. Shit!

  Gallegos fired at the ones up top, but they moved so fast she only hit one and didn’t even kill it. The SAW barked a steady beat again and the five on the floor took hits from Welch’s fire. He dropped two of them. Gallegos took another down as the ones on the ceiling dropped onto Reeve. Gallegos shouted his name and tried to slam the suckers aside by ramming them with her shoulder. Reeve was doing the same with the butt of his weapon.

  He still had his feet under him, and Gallegos was about to fire on the one closest to her when a shout broke everyone’s concentration. Even the sucker faces stopped what they were doing and backed away, leaving Reeve scraped up but still alive. The shout came again.