Matty rushed up to her position with the trauma bag. She kept one hand on her weapon and helped Matty slowly turn the col-lab over with the other. When they had him lifted up high enough, she jammed her hand under his chest, feeling for a grenade. All she felt was warm blood. The guy groaned and coughed. He spit off to the side next to his weapon.

  “Wish we had better light,” Matty said. “I only have a pen light and the batteries are about dusted.”

  “Flashlight—in my pocket,” the col-lab said.

  While Matty opened his kit, Gallegos kept her weapon on the col-lab and dug into his clothing with her free hand. She found a mini-mag in his cargo pocket. It even had a red lens in it. She clicked it on and aimed it at the col-lab’s torso. He’d been hit at least once that she could see. Blood soaked into the BDU top he wore.

  Matty went to work, cutting the guy’s clothing away from his wound. He’d taken one to the gut and had pushed a wad of something under his shirt and against the hole.

  “Gotta take that off, son,” Matty said.

  The col-lab groaned again and clenched his teeth as Matty lifted the makeshift dressing away from the wound. Gallegos held the light steady, but kept her eyes on the night around them. Any second, she expected sucker faces to swarm their perimeter.

  What little perimeter we have. I got a man with a SAW and almost no ammo left for it. I got a wounded man who can’t use a weapon, and a newbie with a boom stick who might hit one of us if I’m not careful where I put him.

  And now we got this sack of dead weight on the ground.

  “Are you Tucker?”

  “No—I’m…” The guy sucked in air. “I didn’t want to—”

  “Where are they then? Tucker and the others. Where’d they go?”

  “What others?”

  “The other col-labs, like you. The motherfuckers who gave us up to the sucker faces.”

  “I—I don’t know… Don’t care. He’s just got Jacob with him. They…left me here to kill—”

  “To kill us? How’d that work out for you the first time?”

  “Wasn’t me. He was shooting. He made me go for the ammo. You shot me.”

  “Why didn’t you stop him instead of following his orders?”

  “He’s—fucking crazy. Made a deal with the bone collector.”

  “Why? No, don’t answer that. Just tell me where he went and where they took our people.”

  “Your people?”

  “The prisoners. The ones that used to be hung up inside like meat in a freezer. Where the fuck did they go?”

  The guy coughed twice and groaned. Bloody spittle coated his lips and ran down his cheek.

  “The bone collector took everyone. He let us stay—We promised him more food.”

  “What the fuck is wrong with you?” Gallegos demanded. “These are monsters from hell and you’re feeding them your own people—”

  “It was—shit! That hurts!”

  “Just keep talking. You’ll be fine,” Matty said. He had a new dressing over the wound and was applying pressure with one hand.

  “Hold this tight,” Matty told the col-lab. The guy weakly laid a hand over the bandage. Matty prepared a wrap to hold the dressing over the wound.

  “Waiting to hear more from you,” Gallegos told the col-lab.

  “What?”

  “Don’t need your attitude, you piece of shit, just the four-one-one. Where did Tucker go?”

  “The boat.”

  “And where is ‘the boat’?” Gallegos demanded, pushing her muzzle closer to the col-lab’s face.

  “Shoot me,” he said, and then coughed more blood and spit onto the grass beside his head. “I don’t care. He isn’t here anymore.”

  In that moment Gallegos realized the col-lab was just a kid, maybe fifteen or sixteen years old. Matty had the wrap around him once and was working on getting it around a second time.

  Is this the other guy’s son? I don’t know why I care. I just know that I do.

  “You got less time than you think, mijo, so if you want to go somewhere better after you die, this might be your chance. Tell us where Tucker is and where to find our people. Maybe God will grant you mercy.”

  “I don’t know where they took the people.”

  “So tell us about Tucker. At least give us that much.”

  The kid rallied a bit, got some strength back in his voice when he let loose about Tucker. “He’s fucking crazy. He was talking to the things since it started. They ate his girlfriend—right in front of him! He thinks they’re here to help cleanse the world. It was my dad’s idea, but Tucker…he agreed. Had all the guns. Him and Jacob and Mary.”

  “Who’re they?”

  “My friends—his son and daughter—I—”

  The boy coughed up more blood and shook.

  “He’s dying,” Matty said.

  “You don’t—have to save me,” the boy said through choking coughs. “I know I’m going to die. They—they keep the boat up river.”

  “Harlem River?”

  The boy nodded.

  “All right. Now how about our people? You sure you don’t know where they took them?” Gallegos asked.

  The boy shook again and coughed up more blood. Matty had the bandage wrapped up good, but it wouldn’t be enough. The boy was going to die and they couldn’t stop it.

  “Your dad was in the truck. Your name’s Carl, right?” she asked.

  The boy nodded again. Tears streamed down his face as he looked at her. He mouthed I’m sorry and she put her hand on his brow and said a prayer for him as his face went still and his breath sighed out for the final time.

  “Welch, come here.”

  He moved fast and came over next to Matty. She had him take the col-lab’s weapon. The belt hung off it with maybe a dozen rounds left. A soft ammo bag sat in the dirt next to Carl’s body. She gave that to Welch, took her mag back from the SAW, and told him to disable the weapon.

  “Take the bolt out. We’ll lose it somewhere on the way. Harlem River’s at least three blocks from here, straight down 99th Street. Reeve, can you walk?”

  “Rah. I can make it. Just give me something to shoot with. This 9 is empty.”

  “You can have mine,” she said, walking to his position and handing over her sidearm.

  Reeve leaned on Jo’s shoulder while Dom stood nearby, swiveling his head back and forth and holding Reeve’s M4 with the muzzle up, aimed at the buildings around them.

  “We still need to do better for Reeve,” Matty said. “Met Hospital is two blocks away on 99th. We’re down on bandages and saline. Who knows if anything is still useful or, God knows, sterile. But something’s better than nothing.”

  “Oorah on that,” Gallegos said. “When we get there, everyone keep an eye out. We’ll stop only as long as we have to. Everyone ready?”

  Grunts and a couple Rahs came back.

  “Jo, stay on our six with Dom. Welch, Matty, either side of Reeve in the middle. Y’all follow me,” she said, stepping away from the building and heading toward the street.

  ***

  Jed walked fast through the darkness pivoting every few steps to watch behind them. He worried about sucker faces coming down from the high rise they’d just left, and the street around them was full of threatening shadows. It didn’t matter where he looked. All he saw were avenues of attack.

  When they passed the block where he’d seen Pivowitch and his squad, Jed whispered his promise to finally avenge their deaths. He knew they lay there in the dark, where he’d left them the day before, with their eyes closed and hands over their hearts.

  Sergeant G was at least five yards ahead, pushing them hard to catch up with Tucker. If he was on foot, they had a good chance of catching him, and that thought gave Jed a boost of energy that made his legs feel like they could climb a mountain. His arms ached with the extra weight of the M240, but the fire of their mission pushed him on and drove him forward.

  After a full day of chasing this motherfucker, we’re finally close enough to have him in our sight picture.

  He was sure they’d catch Tucker soon, even with Reeve stumbling now and then. He grunted and growled with every step, but he kept up like the rest of them. They made good time, getting two blocks along without seeing anything or hearing any signs of the sucker faces. As scary as that was, Jed felt something shift in the dead city.

  The ruins and streets around them were full of smashed vehicles, craters, and debris, and 99th was no different.

  But the sucker faces had pulled back and gone to ground. They weren’t up here chasing Jed and the squad to their deaths. He could almost smile at the freedom of walking the streets again, until he remembered the suckers had taken their prisoners with them.

  Jed cursed Tucker’s name over and over again, with every step he took.

  If we can’t save them, we can at least stop you.

  The squad raced across an open intersection with the wreckage of apartment projects behind them. On the next block, the remains of another apartment building sat in a mess of ash and splintered wood to their left. Three wrecked sedans filled the street to their right. Across the street, the towering bulk of the hospital threatened to crumble into the road. Parts of the building near the intersection had been knocked into dust and rubble, but father along the building stood proud in the darkness.

  A small motor coughed to life somewhere up ahead and rattled at an idle. Jed spun to the side, bringing his weapon around to orient on the sound. The others had stopped short around him. Jed pivoted to take in the apartment ruins at his back, then moved into the street and set the bipod on top of the nearest sedan. Light and shadow shifted in the hospital ruins across the street. He roved his sight picture through the remains of the building.

  Was that a sucker face on the wall or just a shadow? Shit. I can’t tell if I’m seeing things or not.

  Jed’s heart beat fast as he scanned the area. Nothing moved, and the rattle of the motor kept echoing through the empty night.

  Sergeant G posted with her weapon on the sedan next to him.

  “You got contact, Welch?”

  “Nothing, Sergeant. I thought—”

  “Nothing to see, nothing to shoot. Let’s go.”

  “Tucker’s up ahead somewhere, Sergeant. He’s got wheels now.”

  “I can hear that, but I can’t see it. Move out, Welch.”

  Off to their left, the motor revved and then clattered a steady rhythm.

  “Go!” Sergeant G shouted and set off at a run.

  Jed hefted the 240 and followed. Dom was next to him, matching his pace. Matty, Jo, and Reeve had to be at their six, but right now all Jed cared about was getting eyes on Tucker. From the sound of the motor, Jed figured Tucker had found a Gator in the hospital lot up ahead. The things weren’t that fast, but Tucker could still put distance between them.

  ***

  The motor chattered loud in the empty night as Gallegos put everything she had left into running through the wreckage of New York on the trail of the worst monster she had ever known.

  You are not getting away. Not now. Not this time.

  Twin beams of light lanced out of the dim evening air ahead of her. They tracked across the ruins to her left and swung away, toward the river that was still a couple hundred yards from their position. The hospital ended before the next intersection, with a parking lot at the corner. Mounds of debris and smashed up cars and trucks filled the lot as best as she could tell.

  She was twenty yards from the lot when a black square detached itself from the mass of debris and swung into the roadway.

  Gallegos dropped to a knee, sighted, and opened fire.

  — 32 —

  Jed sped forward, leaving Dom behind him. He dropped down next to Sergeant G, who was still firing at the Gator.

  “Stop him, Welch!” she shouted as she sent round after round in Tucker’s direction. Jed charged the 240 and opened up, thrilling to the sound of his shots impacting on the Gator. The little vehicle swerved right, then toppled over. A figure rolled out of Jed’s zone of fire and disappeared into the shadows up there. Another figure weakly crawled away from the Gator.

  Sergeant G was already on her feet and rushing ahead. Jed lifted up as Dom sped past him. Jed was on his knees, hoisting his weapon when Matty shouted up to them.

  “We got suckers on us!”

  Jed spun around. In the dim light, he could just make out Jo, Matty, and Reeve about twenty yards back. Behind them, a clutch of shadowy figures sprang from the ruined hospital wing, scrambling over rubble and dirt as they came racing after Jed’s squad mates. Their hisses and clicking joints froze Jed’s heart.

  “Go left!” he shouted as he dropped down with the machine gun. “Get clear!”

  ***

  Gallegos and Dom came up behind the Gator at the same time. Dom stopped near the back end of the truck. Gallegos held a hand up, signaling him to hold position there. He nodded like he understood, so she went around to the front. As she came around the vehicle, she sighted on the body of a man that had crawled a few feet from the overturned truck. The man’s limp form was sprawled in the street with blood pooling around his chest.

  “Dom, come around the other side. Cover me while I check him.”

  The firefighter stepped around the truck and brought his weapon up. Gallegos paced forward slowly until she was in point blank range of the body.

  A shout whipped her attention from the dead col-lab. She turned and saw her squad tearing away from a group of sucker faces springing out of the shadows around them.

  She forgot about the body and Tucker and everything else as she yelled for Dom to follow her back to the others.

  ***

  Jed sent a burst into the sucker faces jumping from the debris. He caught two of them, but at least half a dozen others charged toward the street, screeching and hissing as they moved. Jo separated from Matty and Reeve and turned around with her weapon up, taking shots at the monsters.

  Jed held his aim and waited for a clear shot. Jo was still too close to his zone of fire.

  “Jo! Get clear! Get clear!”

  Matty and Reeve had moved to the opposite sidewalk, coming around a mound of dirt and rubble and setting down to Jed’s right. Jo back pedaled as she fired, but the best she was doing was giving the sucker faces something to aim for. Four of them converged on her position and Jed shifted his aim.

  “Jo, get out of the way!” he yelled.

  The sucker faces were almost on her. Two of them leaped into the air. Jed got a clear shot at a third and put it down. The two in the air tackled Jo, but she fired and one instantly rolled away dead. The other one grappled with her and grabbed at her weapon, then it bit down on her arm. It reared back and howled and Jed blasted it off of her with a fast burst. The remaining sucker faces were stalking Matty and Reeve on the sidewalk, crawling around the debris pile in teams of two.

  Matty lifted up from the dirt with a pistol and fired into the suckers’ heads, putting two of them down. The other two raced up the dirt pile. Shots fired from behind Jed lit up the monsters before they reached the top.

  He rolled over to see Sergeant G and Dom running with their weapons up. Jed lifted off the ground, struggling to a knee with the heavy weapon. He got to his feet and ran forward to Jo. She was rolling side to side in the street and crying out in pain.

  Please be okay. Please be okay!

  ***

  Gallegos sent a burst at the suckers climbing the dirt pile. Matty had taken the other two out and her shots finished the job.

  “Help her!” Welch yelled from further up the street. He was a few yards back from where Jo went down. Matty half tumbled off the dirt pile with his trauma bag flopping against his hip. Reeve was out of sight somewhere. Gallegos knew she should check on him, but Jo was lying in the street, holding her arm and crying out.

  Welch got to her just as Matty was dropping his trauma bag and flicking on the flashlight they’d taken from the col-lab kid. Gallegos went to the dirt pile, slapping Dom on the shoulder as she stepped past him.

  “On me. Cover my six. I’m checking Reeve.”

  ***

  Jed stood over Jo as Matty went to work. Red light bathed her bloodied arm. The sucker had taken a deep bite out of her muscle near the elbow. She was shivering and crying. Jed kept one hand on the 240’s grip as he took a knee beside her head. He rested the weapon on his leg and put his free hand on her brow.

  “You’re gonna be okay, Jo. Matty’s got you. He’s a good doc. Right, Matty? You got her?”

  “I got her, man, now chill the fuck out. What is it you guys say? Stay frosty, right? Let me work.”

  Jed forced himself to focus on the night around them, on the street leading back into Harlem, on the dirt and the ruined buildings. He looked at anything and everything except Jo’s arm. Her head shuddered under his hand, and he steeled himself again to stay on point and on mission.

  Get your sight picture right, Jed Welch. Get it right and make sure this is the last time somebody gets hurt on your watch.

  ***

  Gallegos rounded the dirt mount slowly. She heard a gurgling noise and feared what she would find. But she had a man back here, and whatever condition he was in, she needed to confirm his status and give him whatever aid she could provide.

  Reeve was on his back, lying against the pile of earth and chunks of concrete that had been blasted out by a bomb. Reeve shifted his position and his head flopped to the side. Gallegos took two steps forward and lowered her weapon. Reeve hadn’t shifted his position. His body had moved because of the sucker face that was eating him.

  It had its mouth clamped onto his neck and was pulling back when it noticed her. She lifted her weapon and blasted it between the eyes. It fell away from Reeve and Gallegos staggered back, slipping to one knee against the dirt pile. She stared at Reeve, the last member of her platoon. The last one from their company to have survived this long.

  The last Marine I knew before the end.

  ***

  Jed heard the crack of an M4 behind him. He spun back for a quick look at their six, but didn’t see anything moving. Dom stood in the street near the dirt pile with his weapon aimed off to the side.