“Rah,” he said, holding his pace steady.

  Sergeant G yelled back from her position that she was throwing a banger around the first corner.

  Jed braced himself for the shock, but only felt it as a quick punch against his ears and gut.

  “Move! Go!” Sergeant G yelled.

  Dom tugged on Jed’s vest as he led the two of them backwards and then around the corner. They stepped through the dust and smoke of the banger and across two bodies lying on the floor. Jed glanced down at them as he moved. Whoever they were, they’d still been people when they died. One of them was a man wearing a bus driver’s dark blue sweater. The patches on the shoulders and elbows were stained with blood and soot.

  Wish we had you with us, too, man. I’d give anything for a ride out of hell right now.

  ***

  Gallegos held up a hand and the squad came to a halt behind her. The first corner had been easy. But now the sucker faces were pacing them. Their shrieks and screams bounced around the hallway, coming in from broken windows up ahead, and probably in the building somewhere above them.

  The last of the firehole closets was just ahead on the left. Gallegos could swear the sucker faces were in the room above the hole and were just toying with the squad for shits and grins.

  They could have rushed in and taken us down, but they just sent one through the barricade. It took Reeve out, and the others came from the opposite end of the hall. They’re trying to weaken us. And it’s working.

  “Banger on three,” she said over her shoulder as she readied the next grenade.

  “One, t—”

  Scraping claws and snapping joints resounded through the hallway and she tossed the banger around the corner, rolling back against the wall as it exploded and then rushing around with her weapon up, firing at everything that moved.

  ***

  Jed spun around when Sergeant G cut off her count. He pushed Dom ahead of him as the grenade went off.

  “Dom, get up there!” he yelled. “Sergeant G needs backup!”

  She’d started firing right away and was still popping off rounds up ahead. Every shot cracked as loud as a thunderclap in the narrow space.

  The firefighter stayed put for a beat, and then ran forward and around the corner. Two blasts from his weapon joined with Sergeant G’s fire. Jed turned back to their six. The hall was clear. He pressed his shoulder up against Matty and Jo. They held Reeve between them. The man had his feet under him now, but his shoulder looked like hell and his face was drawn down in a grimace.

  “Let’s move,” Jed said and nudged Matty to get them going. With slow steps, the whole group of them moved around the corner after Sergeant G. Jed split his attention between monitoring the path ahead and watching their six for movement.

  Matty and Jo shouted and Jed turned back to see Reeve stumbling forward with an M9 in one hand.

  He rounded the corner and was out of sight with Matty following after him.

  “Move out, but stay with me; stay close,” Jed said to Jo.

  She kept tight with him and together they moved around the corner after the others.

  Jed couldn’t risk taking his eyes off their six. The sucker faces were playing fast and loose and changing the rules with every beat.

  A roar filled the hallway behind them. Jed had one hand on his vest, reaching for a banger when a swarm of sucker faces poured around the last corner. Jed forgot about the grenade and yelled for Jo to run as he opened up.

  — 28 —

  The hallway in front of Gallegos was a bloodbath. Sucker faces lay in piles on both sides. Beside her, Dominic held his weapon by his side and breathed in heavy gasps, coughing from the dust.

  A shout came from around the corner and Reeve staggered into view with a pistol in his hand. Gallegos reached for him, but he fell against the wall and cried out as his shoulder took his weight. He reeled away. Matty caught him and steadied him on his feet.

  Welch hollered a beat later and Jo’s face appeared. The chop of Welch’s weapon followed Jo around the corner.

  “Run!” she yelled and helped Matty get Reeve back on his feet. They stepped around Gallegos and Jo paused to look her in the eye.

  “We have to go,” Jo said. “They’re coming in the windows. They’re probably going to come in the back door in a second. We’re going to die if we don’t get moving!”

  Gallegos felt like she was losing control of the situation. Jo was right. They’d let themselves get trapped. They’d treated the col-labs like the real threat, but it was always the suckers who had the game in hand.

  Jo and Matty moved Reeve down the hall. Dom had the extra pistol tucked into his waistband and was stepping forward with the M4 held out like it could explode at any second. Back at their six, Welch was pumping out rapid fire bursts. He let out a Whoop! and came back pedaling around the corner.

  “They’re gone!” he yelled. “Fucking things ran away when I lit ’em up.”

  Jo and the others held up before the final corner that would take them to the back door. Gallegos grabbed Welch’s shoulder as he came even with her in the hall.

  “Throw a banger if they come in again, Welch. We don’t have enough ammo left, and the sucker faces probably know it. They’re going to weaken us until we have nothing left to fight with and then they’ll come in for the kill.”

  Welch looked at her like she’d spoken gospel. He fished a banger out of his vest pouch and held it up. With a nod, she directed him to stay on their six while she moved up to join the firefighters and Reeve.

  “Dom, I need you to open the door, just like on the stairs except you stand back this time while I toss the banger outside. Then it’s you and me first. You take left; I take right. Rah?”

  “Yeah. Rah,” he said. “I can do this.”

  “Jo, Matty, you need to keep Reeve down and out of harm’s way. You good?”

  “We’re good,” Jo said. Matty nodded to confirm. Reeve’s head hung limp on his neck but he managed a thumbs up with his good arm.

  “Waiting on you, Dom,” Gallegos said, as she picked the third flash bang out of her vest.

  Two more left plus two with Welch. Salve nos Dios.

  Dom stepped up to the corner, darted a look around it and came back. He stayed up against the wall, gave Gallegos a nod went around the corner. She stepped fast after him holding the banger against her chest.

  The door was solid and made of metal. Bullet holes in it picked out dim glows of light from outside, but the door was whole and closed. Dom gave her a quiet count of three and yanked the door open.

  ***

  Jed kept the flash bang grenade in his hand and waited for the clap of Sergeant G’s to die down in his ears.

  Mahton was right. You get used to it.

  Jo and Matty struggled with Reeve to get around the corner. Jed stayed with his eyes on the route back down the hall, pivoting around the corner and finally pocketing the banger so he could hold the SAW with both hands.

  An unnerving quiet and dim light greeted the squad as they emerged into the rear drive of the bus depot. No sucker faces raced in from the shadows. No big black trucks roared into the drives spitting death in their direction.

  Sergeant G directed Jed to post by the railing across the driveway.

  “Cover us from there, Welch. If you see enemy, banger first, then light up anything that moves that isn’t us.”

  “Errr,” he said and moved across the space, eyeballing every mound of debris as he went.

  ***

  “Where the fuck are they?” Jo asked.

  “Guess Welch was right. He scared them off back there,” Gallegos said. “Maybe they’re not as clever as I thought.”

  “If they’re scared, that means they know better than to try us right now. That means they have fewer numbers than they used to, or they’re trying to trick us into thinking that. I think you’ve been right all along. Those things are learning how to fight against us.”

  Reeve mumbled something and Matty chimed in. “Your man’s right, if you ask me. They’re not that intelligent anymore. They have tactics, but they’re pack hunters. They might have some kind of strategy they follow, but they’re not trained fighters like you all are.”

  “So what are they doing?” Jo asked. “It’s like we’re getting a reprieve. I don’t like it. They don’t have any compassion to spare. Just hunger. They should be coming after us right here, right now, and ending it.”

  “They’re regrouping,” Gallegos said. “Just like we did upstairs. We don’t have time to argue about why we’re not dead yet. Let’s get moving.”

  She paced along the wall until she was at the end of the driveway. The wall stopped about a car-length from the street. A brick pillar supported the ceiling there. To her left, the driveway was open and clear, with another pillar at the opposite corner.

  “Bring Reeve up behind me,” she said to Jo and Matty. They moved slow to join her, half-carrying the wounded Marine between them.

  “Dom, stay at their six. Welch, take that corner,” Gallegos said, aiming a finger at the pillar opposite her position.

  He stepped fast, following the railing beneath the windows. Gallegos watched over his head for any movement in the rooms there. All she saw were silent shadows.

  “High rise is around the corner from Welch’s position. Jo, Matty, and Reeve, you’re first behind him. Dominic, stay tight with me. We’ll be right behind your people. I got our six. Eyes out everybody. Let’s move.”

  ***

  Jed pivoted away from the wall and sped across the street to the next corner. He roved the street with the SAW, scanning every shadow, anywhere the sucker faces could hide. But the street and city sent back only silence.

  At the next corner, a high iron fence surrounded what used to be a small park at the bottom of the high rise. Jed followed it down 99th, keeping an eye on the depot across the street. If the suckers were going to come from anywhere, he figured they’d be on the roof and scrambling down the wall. And still nothing moved, no hit came out of the darkness.

  The slanting afternoon light lit enough of the street for Jed to make out the bodies of suckers killed by the Air Force’s last run.

  And one block down there are seven soldiers lying in the street. Pivowitch and his squad. Tucker’s last victims.

  Thinking about their mission again put Jed’s mind back where he wanted it. In the game and on point. He cast a quick look back to confirm Jo and Matty were still good. They had Reeve held in a seat carry with his M4 across his lap, held in his good hand. Jo gave a nod and Jed went back to leading them forward to the next objective.

  He came around the end of the iron fence into a little patio beside the high rise. The area was clear so he pressed on to the back of the building. He held up beside a chain link fence that surrounded a heating and cooling unit there. A utility door was set into the building above a single low step. It looked like it might be open a few inches, but Jed couldn’t be sure. He waved for Jo and Matty to pull in tight behind him. When they were well off the street and in the shadows, Jed moved closer to the utility door with the SAW up and ready to rock.

  ***

  Gallegos and Dom swept into the patio and posted by the corner of the iron fence. She scanned the street behind them and looked up the depot wall across the way. Everything was still and quiet.

  They’re just taking their time about it, aren’t they? Motherfuckers.

  Welch had the others up near a chain link fence. Gallegos waved Dom forward to join them. She took three quick steps and posted by the iron fence that continued on the other side of the patio.

  Nothing but the sound that death makes when it comes for you. We gotta get inside and get right.

  “Welch, get everyone inside. Flash bang first.”

  He grunted an Errr back to her. A second later she heard the telltale ping of the safety pin dropping on the concrete and then the explosive clap of the grenade.

  The squad rushed in with Welch leading the way and Dom moving in right after him.

  He’s learning. It’s a crash course in Battlefield 101, and he’s learning. We might see tomorrow after all.

  ***

  Jed went fast through the open door and nearly stumbled over a body. Dom had come in tight on his six and pushed him forward, forcing him to hop over the corpse. Jed had Dom take a position at the flight of steps going up to the next floor, then he bent down to examine the body. It was a woman, but he knew it had to be a col-lab. The body was torn to pieces by the sucker faces, and it was dressed in BDUs.

  She’d been carrying a Ruger Mini-14. The weapon was lying at the base of the steps to Jed’s right. It had an extended magazine and a scope mounted on it.

  “Found our sniper,” he said.

  “The one that killed Luce?” Dom asked from behind him.

  “Yeah man. Probably is. Cover them stairs.”

  Dom glared at the dead woman before turning his attention back to the staircase that wound upward into the tower.

  Jed crept toward the steps leading down from the landing. Dim shadows greeted him in every direction except above. A slim blade of light leaked into the stairwell from a window on the next landing. Jed wished for a flashlight or something to illuminate the area, and then remembered his mom’s favorite expression.

  Wish in one hand and shit in the other, Jed. Tell me which one fills up first.

  Jo and Matty carried Reeve in, and Sergeant G was right behind them.

  “Sniper dead on the ground there, Sergeant.”

  Sergeant G went to the body, knelt, and checked it. She rifled through the pockets before standing up holding three magazines. She picked up the rifle, and took the weapon and ammo to Jo.

  “Keep the thumper over your shoulder. Use this until we’re out in the open again.

  Reeve groaned and mumbled something about being able to walk.

  “He’s bleeding again,” Matty said.

  “How bad?” Sergeant G asked.

  “Slow, but he needs a new bandage. We need to hole up somewhere so we can clean the wound and wrap it better. That hospital’s sound better every second.”

  Reeve grunted at them through gritted teeth. “I said I can fucking walk. Now let me walk.”

  “Put him down,” Sergeant G said. The firefighters slowly set Reeve onto his feet. He held his hand out for a weapon and Dom put the spare pistol into it.

  “You’re going to pass out if we don’t get that bleeding under control,” Jo said.

  “We do that ASAFP,” Sergeant G said. “First we get down those stairs. The col-lab said Tucker had a cache here, so let’s get down there and find it. Might have more first aid we can use. Welch, how many bangers you got left?”

  “One, Sergeant.”

  A screech split the air outside, resounding up and down the street.

  “They’re at it again,” Jo said. “They’ve probably been watching us all along.”

  Sergeant G went to the door and brought her weapon up to cover the patio. “Maybe, maybe not. I don’t see them anywhere,” she said.

  “What’s this?” Dom asked.

  Jed turned to see him holding up a small green box with wires running from it and out the door.

  “Looks like a detonator,” Jed said.

  More shrieks and cries poured into the landing from outside.

  “It’s a distraction!” Dom shouted, and fired a burst at a trio that was slinking down the stairwell above. Jed expected more of the suckers to pour out of the darkness below his position, but the scraping of claws and snapping joints came from outside. Another crack from a pistol added to Dom’s fire and three dead sucker faces landed on the steps in a heap. Reeve stood next to him aiming an M9 up the stairwell.

  More small arms fire rattled the air, but this time it came from outside and rounds chipped away at the walls and doorframe. Sergeant G pushed Jo and Dom ahead of her toward Jed.

  “Col-labs! Downstairs, people! Move!”

  Jed took a step down, and then another, expecting death to come out of the darkness for him as more automatic fire popped from the outside.

  A heavy explosion rocked the stairwell, followed by three more blasts. Jed looked back to see Reeve holding the detonator and standing near the door. He sagged against the door frame and was telling Sergeant G to get moving. She was saying the same to him.

  A tornado of howls and screeches dropped down the stairwell from above and the whole squad looked up. Clicking joints added to the cacophony and dark shapes bounded across the space between each flight of stairs. The mass of monsters grew with each second until all light was blocked in the stairwell above.

  “Run, people! Run!” Sergeant G screamed.

  — 29 —

  Jed slammed into the door at the bottom of the stairwell, hitting the crash bar and pushing through into a corridor. He came face to face with a man carrying a SAW and lit him up. Shattered glass cascaded down the wall and landed at Jed’s feet. A mirror had been propped against the wall opposite the door. Jed shook off the distraction and moved into the corridor. It was clear to his left and blocked with broken conduits and tangles of telephone line to his right.

  Weak light crept into the corridor from up ahead, and it was a sickly pale green.

  He felt the squad come down the steps behind him, but he kept his eyes straight ahead, trying to pick out any details he could as he crept deeper into the darkness.

  A hiss up ahead made him tense and he squeezed off a burst without thinking.

  “You got enemy, Welch?” Sergeant G shouted up to him.

  “Sounded like suckers, Sergeant. But I can’t see anything up here!”

  Small-arms fire rattled behind him.

  “Col-labs aren’t coming in,” Sergeant G said. “They’re keeping us fucking pinned here, and suckers are coming down. Keep going.”

  Jed didn’t move. Sergeant G fired twice more and she shouted to him again.

  “Move it, Welch!”

  He pushed forward, letting his eyes adjust to the weird green light. Shuffling sounds echoed down the tunnel. He couldn’t tell if the sounds were from in front or behind him. He fired a quick burst. No cries or grunts came back to him. He had no idea what he was shooting at, or if he’d hit anything.