“It’s working. I feel like I’m buzzing all over, and I don’t know if it’s adrenaline or that I’m just scared to death.”

  “Probably both. But if it helps, I’m feeling the same way. I think they’re trying to draw us out instead of fighting in here. They know we’ve got better chances inside, where we can control their avenues of approach.”

  “They know? How do you know that? What—”

  “They’re smart now. Whatever the Air Force dropped on them, it killed the dumb ones and left the smart ones alive.”

  Jo shook next to him and turned to look at the wall. She spun away from the pictures, shook herself again, and stepped closer to the window overlooking Lexington Avenue.

  ***

  Gallegos caught up with Reeve and Matty at the stairwell. They’d stayed back while she got Dom into gear. When he saw her, Reeve slapped a hand on Matty’s shoulder. The firefighter swept into the stairwell and banged up the steps to the next floor. Reeve hung by the door and motioned for Dom to go ahead of him.

  “I got him, Reeve,” Gallegos said. “Move out and keep up with Matty.”

  “Rah.” Reeve was halfway up the stairs before the word left his mouth. The door on the upper landing banged open and the telltale sound of boots stomping into the hallway sounded back down the narrow space to Gallegos’ ears.

  The monsters’ cries and howls kept coming in from everywhere, but Gallegos had stopped worrying about them. They could have come into the building at any time. Now that she and her squad had been discovered, she figured they had seconds to live. But the sucker faces weren’t attacking.

  They’re trying to drive us out. Well fuck this sucker face psy-ops bullshit. They want to play head games, fine. We’ll play head shots.

  “Dom, you still good to go? I’m taking point if you got any doubts.”

  “I’m good,” he said. His sagging shoulders and slumped spine told a different story, but she’d rather have him falling down in front of her than falling out at her back.

  “Move out then,” she said.

  He entered the stairwell and took lumbering steps upward. Gallegos held her M4 ready and flashed a look ahead and behind with every step, double-checking that her man was still in the game and making sure nothing caught them by surprise.

  At the next floor, Dom rolled his neck and shoulders again. His moment of weakness seemed to have passed. She joined him on the landing and saw a new man behind his eyes. This one had some fight left, and she was glad as hell to see him.

  “Lexington guard room is through that door and to the left,” she said.

  Dom held his pistol up by his cheek now, sighting as he moved to the door and reached for it with his free hand.

  “You’re breach man, Dom. On three. Pull the door open, step aside. I’ll rush through and post on the opposite wall. You come in tight behind me. Check right as you go through the door and post this side of the hallway. If you see enemy, you fire. Don’t tell me you see them. Just light them up and know that I’ll be right behind you with more firepower. Rah?”

  He nodded.

  “Let me hear you say it.”

  “Rah,” he said.

  “You mean that, Dominic?”

  “Rah!”

  “Let’s move, then. One. Two. Three!”

  ***

  Jed had the SAW oriented on a zone of fire that included the window. Jo was beside him, staring at Mahton’s art on the far wall now. She seemed to have got over whatever freaked her out about the pictures before.

  A long screech cut through the air outside, but none of the scraping claws or clicking joint sounds followed it.

  It’s goddamned cat and mouse with the sucker faces now. And they’re the cat.

  Thumping footsteps led a trail down the hallway, coming closer to the guard room. Reeve and Matty came into the guard room and posted by the door.

  “Sergeant G’s back there still,” Reeve said. “She’s in the stairwell with Mr. Green Jeans.”

  “What the fuck’s that supposed to mean?” Jo asked.

  “That Dom ain’t pulling his weight,” Jed said. “You know? Green.”

  “Like the fucking grass in springtime, man,” Reeve added. “Wait—here they come.”

  Jed moved so he could get a look down the hall. Jo came to stand near him.

  Sergeant G was back pedaling down the hall with her weapon up. Dom was even with her on the opposite side of the hall with his pistol up and ready. The hallway was empty except for the two figures moving as a team.

  “Doesn’t look green to me,” Jo said.

  Before Jed could say anything, Reeve looked at her over his shoulder. “So I was wrong. Take it up with my superior officer. Half his ass might be left out there somewhere, but the sucker faces got the rest.”

  Jo ignored him and went back to checking out Mahton’s art while Jed watched the window. Sergeant G and Dom came in a beat later.

  “They’re fucking with us,” she said. “Trying to push us out to the street.”

  “That’s what Jed was saying,” Jo added. “Are they really that smart now? Maybe they just don’t know where we’re hiding.”

  “That kind of thinking will get you and probably all of us killed,” Sergeant G said.

  Jed angled his view out the window, so he could see more of the street. “We got nothing out here, Sergeant.”

  A violent screech split the air and was followed by the sound of joints clicking and snapping outside. Jed stepped up closer and craned his neck to get sight of the exterior wall. Three sucker faces raced up the side of the building and were followed by a clutch of at least five more. They were all focused on following the leader of their little formation, but Jed ducked out of sight and stepped back from the window. He put an arm out toward Jo, waving her back toward the others.

  “They’re going for the roof.”

  “Then we move out fast and furious,” Sergeant G said. “Closest firehole is two rooms down the hall. We move in teams of three. Clear the rooms as we go. First team is Reeve, Matty, and Jo. And you need to put that thumper to rest. Sidearm only for this operation, rah?”

  Jo nodded and slung the grenade launcher around her shoulder. She drew her pistol and checked the safety was off.

  “Good to go,” she said.

  “Then move out.”

  The three stepped out of the room without missing a beat. Reeve took point, Matty followed, and Jo brought up the rear. She looked back at Jed and gave him a thumbs up before stepping out of view.

  ***

  Gallegos watched the other team depart before lining her men up for their turn.

  “Welch, take our six. Dom, you’re in the middle, behind me. We hear their banger, we move out and clear the next room. Then be ready to cover their movement. We leap frog like that to the firehole. Rah?”

  Both men replied together.

  “Let’s go,” she said and stepped out of the room. Shuffling boots behind her confirmed her men were in the game and on mission. The other team was a few yards ahead in the hallway, beside an open doorway. Reeve tossed the banger into the room and spun around the doorframe the instant the grenade went off. Matty and Jo followed him in with fast steps.

  “Clear!” Reeve yelled out.

  “On me,” Gallegos told her men and took fast steps down the hall. She drew up outside the next door and repeated Reeve’s action.

  The banger went off and she was inside, posting against the near wall to leave room for the others. Dom was slow to follow her in. He stayed behind her while Welch pushed in and took a post on her right. Through the dust and smoke of the grenade she could just make out two shuddering forms in the far corner of the room. She fired twice and the figures went still. A broken window let in weak light. The smoke cleared away, revealing two dead suckers tangled up together.

  “Clear!” Gallegos yelled.

  “Moving!” Reeve shouted.

  ***

  Jed waited for the hit. He knew it had to happen soon. They’d been too lucky so far, getting down to the second floor without any trouble. Reeve’s team moved up the hallway now, heading for the firehole to the ground floor. Jed got a look at Matty and Jo as they went by.

  Matty had his pistol up and his eyes were open, but he had to shuffle forward every couple steps. The trauma bag swung against his hip as he moved. Jo was on the opposite side of the hall, walking like she’d always been in combat, pistol up and near her cheek so she could hold a good sight picture. Her feet hit the floor just like Reeve’s as she went by.

  A single howl chased them from somewhere in the building, like the call of a ghost that wouldn’t leave them alone. Jed couldn’t stop the shakes that rippled through his arms and hands.

  “Welch,” Sergeant G said. “Welch, you with us?”

  “Huh? Yeah, Sergeant. Yeah, rah. I’m here. Just…”

  “Just what?”

  “Them things are fucking with my head, Sergeant. They’re playing with us and it’s fucking with my head.”

  “Stay frosty, Marine. It ain’t nothing but a thing.”

  Jed nodded and put his attention back on the hallway, doing his best to ignore the creeping feeling working its way up his spine.

  A sharp clap burst through the air and Jed flinched, nearly losing his grip on the SAW.

  Just the banger. Reeve and them just cleared the room with the firehole.

  “Let’s go!” Sergeant G shouted.

  Jed peeled away from the wall and took the point position, running up to the firehole room. Dust spiraled in the air outside the door. He got there in time to see Jo helping Matty down the hole. The firefighter’s head disappeared into the darkness as he dropped into the closet below. Jed posted outside the door while Sergeant G and Dom moved up the hall behind him.

  Jo turned to face him from inside the room.

  “You good, Jed?”

  “Yeah. I’m good. Go on. I got your six.”

  Jo dropped to a crouch, swung her legs into the hole and slipped down and out of sight.

  Crunching and scuffling sounds behind him were all Jed heard for a moment. Then the sucker faces started up their song and dance outside again.

  They’re just fucking with us. This has been their game all along, and now they’re just fucking with us for fun.

  His heart hammered as he entered the room and posted on the right. Dom and Sergeant G came in and posted on the left.

  “Down the hole, Welch.”

  With shaking steps, Jed moved away from the wall and looked through the floor into the darkness of the mop closet.

  One more floor and we’ll be on the ground.

  “Welch, time to move,” Sergeant G said. He looked at her and nodded, then stepped forward, dropped down to his butt and swung his legs into the hole.

  A screech and howl greeted him. Reeve’s scream of agony followed.

  — 27 —

  Gallegos pushed Dom aside and dropped down the hole after Welch. Chatter from the SAW blasted through the building, punching holes in the silence that followed Reeve’s scream.

  I am not losing another man. Not today, not now.

  She burst from the mop closet and slammed up against Welch’s back. He staggered forward a step and caught himself, firing off a burst without missing a beat. He sent sustained fire down the hallway and she couldn’t see what he was engaging. Across the hall, Jo, Matty, and Reeve were crouched in a tangle. Jo was working on Reeve while Matty split his attention between helping her and watching back down the hallway. A spray of fresh blood marked the wall above Reeve’s body.

  A sucker face lay slumped against the wall farther down the hall. It had three holes in its chest, and its claws were stained bright with blood. Beyond the body was one of the barricades she, Mahton, and Reeve had set up. The desks were covered in scratches and claw marks.

  The barricade had been pulled apart.

  That’s why they were making all the noise. To cover their break-in. These motherfuckers got smart in a bad way.

  Welch stopped firing and Gallegos got a better look at their AO. The barricade was all but useless now. If any more suckers came from that direction, her squad would be swarmed in seconds. Down the other way, a pile of at least a dozen dead monsters filled the hallway leading to the front of the building. More howling came from that direction, but nothing moved in the hall.

  “Sergeant,” Jo said.

  Gallegos stepped up close to cover the firefighters and Reeve before she answered.

  “How is he?” she asked while she monitored the ruins of their barricade. “Tell me I still have my Marine.”

  “I’m fine,” Reeve said, but his voice cracked with pain at the end.

  “How fine is fine, Reeve?”

  “His AC joint is in pieces,” Matty said. “The damn thing sliced right through it. And he took a few strikes to his ribs. It jumped on him and rode him to the ground before I could shoot it.”

  “I’m fine. Like I said. Fucking—gahh! Fuck. I’m fine.”

  “You don’t sound fine,” Gallegos said.

  “He’s can’t use his arm,” Jo said. “We can put some CELOX on it, but he needs a sling and we need to irrigate the wound. We only have a can of spray saline in the bag. How much water do we have?”

  “Barely enough to drink,” Gallegos said. “Use what you have to. We’ll get you right, Reeve. Rah?”

  “Oo—rah,” he choked out.

  ***

  Jed kept his finger on the trigger and tucked the SAW in tighter against his shoulder. Weaker howls and screeches found them, stealing into their position from every crack and crevice. Ahead in the hallway, three tall windows let in strips of light. Jed couldn’t stop watching the dead sucker faces on the other side of the light.

  Outside, the suckers kept shrieking and howling. They’d stopped hiding their movement. The sickening pop of their joints mixed with their screeches as they raced around in the street.

  When’s it going to stop? When are they just going to come in and get us? They broke in down here, and they’re heading up to the roof. They know where we are. They have to.

  Jed moved up to the first window and angled for a look outside. The city around them was empty and still. The sun seemed to drop fast in the sky, casting everything into an odd dance of light and shadow. Now and then a small shadow would detach itself from the ruins and scurry across the open street.

  A sucker face’s shriek would always come a few seconds later, making Jed think he was watching a movie with a lagging soundtrack. The alpha appeared, striding forward with a cluster of small ones around its legs. Jed couldn’t miss it for its size, and as it passed, he saw the bones hanging off its back.

  “Alpha’s up here, Sergeant,” he said. “The one with the bones on him.”

  “I don’t want to hear about where they are, Welch. If they’re in your sight picture and present a threat, you are cleared hot.”

  “Errr,” Jed said back.

  Behind him, Reeve groaned while Jo and Matty took care of his arm. Dom came out from the mop closet and Sergeant G told him to move up to join Jed. The firefighter had his pistol up and came to stand right next to Jed in the middle of the hall.

  “Get behind me, man. Shoot over my shoulder if anything comes at us, and don’t hit me, rah?”

  “Yeah, rah,” Dom said and stepped back a pace. He handed Jed a flash-bang a second later. Jed pocketed it without asking any questions.

  If he’s planning on going out, I’d rather have the firepower with me from the get go.

  ***

  Gallegos kept watch down the hall while the firefighters got Reeve on his feet. They’d put his arm in a sling and wrapped his shoulder with bandages. Blood soaked the cloth and still oozed around the edges. Reeve’s face paled and he took shaking breaths.

  “You’re gonna be okay, Reeve. We’re moving out. Welch and Dom, you’re at our six. I’ll take point. Jo and Matty, you have our wounded man.”

  The firefighters lifted Reeve in a seat carry. When they had him settled, Jo asked, “Which way are we going?”

  “We have to go out the back. Front door is compromised, but we have to expect enemy contact out the back, too. I have six bangers left, and we have at least three corners between here and the exit. What’s everyone holding?”

  “Two bangers on my person, and one box in the SAW, Sergeant,” Welch said.

  “We have two rounds left for the grenade launcher,” Jo said.

  “Couple in the pistols,” Matty added. “Maybe a dozen between us if we’re lucky.”

  “Use the bangers if the suckers get on our ass. Everyone conserve ammo. Fire only if you have no choice. Dom, take Reeve’s weapon.”

  “I’m fine, Sergeant. I can shoot,” Reeve said, holding his M4 with his good hand.

  “Negative, Marine,” she said, reaching for the weapon. Reeve let it go. She unclipped it from his sling and handed it to Dom. He handed his pistol to Reeve, who took it and let it rest in his lap.

  “We’re going outside at the rear of the building. That’s where the busses pull in, so we have some cover at first. Once we’re outside, we go for the high rises.”

  “On foot, Sergeant?” Welch asked.

  “Truck’s a lost cause. Suckers are out there, Welch, and you said the alpha was with them, rah?”

  He nodded.

  “That settles it,” Gallegos said. “They’d be on us before we could get everyone in the truck and be moving.”

  Reeve grunted in pain next to her and she stepped up close to look him in the eye.

  “You’ll be good, Reeve. Just stay with us. Stay here. We got you and we’re going somewhere we can get you right.”

  ***

  Jed backed down the hall with Dom behind him, guiding their movement with one hand on Jed’s shoulder. He stayed focused on the squad’s six as they backed through the corridors of the bus depot and around the ruins of the barricade. When they cleared the first corner, Jed caught the muzzle of the Dom’s weapon drooping in his peripheral.

  “We ain’t out yet. Weapon up, man,” he said. He breathed easier when Dom lifted the M4 in a steady grip.

  “You’re getting it, Dom. Keep on keeping on now.”