Earthfall: Retribution (5 page)

‘What the hell was that?’ Rachel whispered as the four of them sought cover behind the snow-covered vehicles.

‘Nothing good,’ Jay said, his head snapping from side to side as he strained to spot any sign of movement in the rapidly developing blizzard. Another screeching howl came from a different direction, off to their right and then was answered in turn by another somewhere behind them. The hairs on the back of Sam’s neck prickled as he felt a sudden, almost primal fear.

‘We should pull back,’ Rachel said. ‘Whatever that is, we can’t fight in these conditions. We need more cover.’

‘Agreed,’ Sam said with a quick nod.

‘What about in there?’ Jay said quickly, jerking his head towards the frontage of a department store.

Sam quickly weighed up their options. It would be dark in there and they ran the risk of getting trapped, but they had their night-vision goggles and they were far too exposed out here on the street. From somewhere off in the darkness there was another shrieking howl and Sam quickly made a decision.

‘OK,’ he barked, ‘everyone inside. We find a good spot and let whatever’s out there come to us.’

The four of them dashed across the street and inside the gloomy store. They were surrounded by displays for cosmetics and perfumes, all now covered in a fine layer of snow, relics of a lifestyle that seemed like very distant history. They ran past the gaudy displays, weapons raised, heading deeper inside, constantly scanning for any sign of movement or threat.

‘Head upstairs,’ Sam said, pointing over towards the stationary escalators in the middle of the ground floor.

‘You sure?’ Rachel asked, glancing over her shoulder anxiously as more unearthly howls came from outside. Whatever it was that was out there was certainly no pack of feral dogs. ‘We could get trapped up there.’

‘If there are enough Voidborn outside, we could get trapped anywhere,’ Sam replied. ‘We need to find a good firing position, somewhere we can hold out until this storm passes.’

‘Sam’s right,’ Jay said with a nod as they approached the escalators. ‘We don’t stand a chance out there. We need to hunker down.’

‘Well, let’s find some cover fast,’ Jack said, swallowing nervously. ‘Because whatever it is, it’s getting closer.’

The four of them sprinted up the immobile metal staircase, taking the steps two at a time. The next floor was filled with dust-covered racks of clothes and the slightly creepy humanoid silhouettes of mannequins frozen in mid-pose. They ran between the displays, hunting for a place to take cover.

‘There,’ Sam snapped, pointing at the far end of the floor where they could just make out the tables and chairs of a café. Sam led the others through the dining area, leaping over the stainless-steel counter and pushing the swing doors that led to the kitchen open just a crack, enough so that he could see what was on the other side. He surveyed the empty kitchen quickly and then turned back to the others.

‘OK, we set up here,’ he said, gesturing back towards the escalators. ‘If anything comes up, we should have no problem spotting them. If it looks like we’re going to get overrun, then fall back to the kitchen. There’s plenty of cover, and stairs on the other side that give us an escape route if we need it.’

‘Stairs work both ways you know,’ Jack said with a frown as he unfolded the bi-pod from beneath the barrel of his sniper rifle before resting it on top of one of the display cases filled with the grey, desiccated remains of the snacks that the café used to serve. ‘We don’t want to get trapped in here.’

‘I know,’ Sam said. ‘I’ll watch our backs – just get ready to fight.’

Sam fought to keep the nervousness from his voice. He had no idea what was out there, but he did know one thing: it was nothing they’d seen before. If they were going to get out in one piece, they were going to need to keep their heads clear. From somewhere below them they heard a muffled crash, and Sam felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. It had only been a few months since they had last fought the Voidborn, but that didn’t stop the slight tremor in his human hand caused by the sudden rush of adrenalin that was surging through his system.

‘OK,’ Sam whispered as the others took cover behind the counter, their weapons trained on the escalators fifty metres away. ‘Don’t open fire unless you have to. I’d much rather avoid a fight here if we possibly can. We still don’t know where the main Voidborn forces are, but you can bet that a pitched gun battle is going to bring them running.’

‘Gotcha,’ Jay said as Rachel gave a quick nod.

Sam peered out into the darkness, the limited range of his night-vision goggles turning the gloomy shop floor into a confusing jumble of indistinct shadowy objects.

‘You see anything?’ Jay whispered to Jack as he slowly swung the massive sniper rifle left and right, using the thermal-imaging system built into its scope to scan for targets.

‘Nope,’ Jack replied quietly, ‘but it’s gone awfully quiet all of a sudden.’

The howling had stopped. Whatever was downstairs was now moving in silence, hunting them. Sam clicked the safety off on his rifle, his finger slipping inside the guard and curling round the trigger.

‘Movement,’ Jack whispered as he saw something flicker through his sights. Whatever it was, its heat signature was barely visible, nothing like the rainbow hues of a normal person’s thermal image. ‘Definitely not human.’

Sam sighted down the barrel of his rifle, waiting for a clear shot. There was a flash of movement around the escalators and he had a fleeting glimpse of a humanoid form.

‘You sure about that?’ he whispered to Jack. ‘Looked pretty human to me.’

‘The only people with heat signatures like that are dead people,’ Jack said.

There was a thunderous double bang as Rachel opened fire at something.

‘Definitely humanoid,’ Rachel said, ‘too fast to be human, though.’

She had only glimpsed the figure for a second, just enough time for a pot shot, but whatever she’d fired at had vanished, her bullets passing through empty air.

‘What the hell is th—’

Sam never finished his question as dozens of figures burst from hiding amidst the displays surrounding the escalators and began sprinting at impossible speed towards them. The creatures might once have been human, but now they looked like something from the deepest recesses of a nightmare.

Their swollen, misshapen skulls were elongated and swept back with tiny blackened eyes either side of noses that were little more than two oozing slits in the centre of their faces. Their mouths were lined with five-centimetre-long crystalline teeth, their jaws opening impossibly wide as they howled in unison, signalling their attack. Their naked bodies were covered in black veins that bulged horribly as the creatures sprinted towards them, the long glinting talons at the tips of their spindly fingers outstretched.

Sam felt a fleeting moment of hesitation as his horrified mind tried to make sense of what he was seeing. If these things had ever been human, they had been corrupted beyond recognition.

‘Take them!’ Jay yelled, firing a short burst into the lead creature. The bullets hit the creature in the chest, knocking it spinning off its feet, its twitching body sliding to a halt, its companions not even slowing as they raced past their fallen pack mate.

The four of them opened fire, the constant roar of Sam, Jay and Rachel’s weapons punctuated by the massive booms from Jack’s sniper rifle.

‘On your left,’ Jay yelled at Jack as he saw a flicker of movement in the periphery of his vision. Jack swivelled the rifle on its mount and fired, the massive bullet striking a hole the size of a grapefruit clean through the creature. It fell beside another of its companions, which lay twitching in a pool of black blood.

‘Keep firing!’ Sam shouted as more of the creatures poured towards them from the escalators, barely slowed by the mounting bodies of their fallen.

‘You’ve got to be kidding me,’ Jay said, as he saw the first one of the creatures that he had hit slowly pushing itself back to its feet, despite the massive injuries it had suffered.

‘We’re going to be overrun,’ Sam cried out. ‘Everyone fall back!’

Jack slung the sniper rifle over his shoulder and pulled the pistol from the holster on his hip, shooting into the mass of monsters while slowly backing towards the door leading to the kitchen. The others followed suit, firing at the swarm of creatures as they retreated, trying desperately to stem the nightmarish tide.

‘What are these things?’ Rachel spat through gritted teeth as she fired another burst.

‘I don’t know,’ Sam said, pushing the kitchen door open and glancing inside, ‘and I’m not sure I want to. Looks clear, let’s go.’

They all hurried through the door, Jay firing one last burst before slamming it shut.

‘Here, give me a hand,’ Sam said, pushing hard on a large steel cabinet that stood to one side of the door. Jay joined in and they sent the heavy unit slamming down on to the floor, blocking the entrance with a crash. Moments later something heavy rammed against the door, shaking the frame.

‘That’s not going to hold them for long,’ Sam said. ‘We have to get out of here.’

‘We can’t go back outside,’ Jack said, sounding slightly panicked. ‘We have no idea how many more of those things are out there.’

There was a sound of splintering wood as the barricaded door began to give way.

‘We head for the roof,’ Sam said. ‘From there we can signal the drop-ship for a pick-up. At full throttle it shouldn’t be more than a couple of minutes away.’

‘I thought it was too risky to bring the drop-ship into the city,’ Rachel said as they hurried across the darkened kitchen to the door marked ‘Fire Exit’ on the far wall.

‘That was when we thought that there was a Mothership here,’ Sam said, taking up position on one side of the door. ‘Besides, we either risk it or get torn to pieces by those things. Your call.’

‘You’re getting no argument from me,’ Jay said, moving to the other side of the exit. ‘You ready?’

Sam gave a quick nod and Jay slammed the door open, weapon raised, covering the stairs leading upwards. Sam followed right behind him, scanning the stairwell below for any sign of movement.

‘Clear,’ Jay yelled, heading up the stairs.

‘Clear,’ Sam responded as Jack and Rachel followed them into the stairwell.

Behind them was a splintering crash followed by the sound of scraping metal on the tiled floor as the things that were pursuing them forced their way past the hastily improvised barricade. The four of them bolted up the stairs, heading for the roof, knowing that their pursuers would only be seconds behind. Sam took up the rear, trying to resist the urge to look back over his shoulder as he took the stairs three at a time. He didn’t need to look – the growling sounds of ravenous pursuit from below them were more than enough to keep him moving.

Jay was the first to reach the top of the stairs, slamming his shoulder against the door leading to the roof. It didn’t budge.

‘Locked,’ Jay said, levelling his rifle at the door’s handle.

‘Whoa,’ Rachel yelled, pushing Jay’s rifle barrel down towards the floor. ‘That’s a solid steel door. You start shooting it up there’s going to be bullets flying everywhere in here. Jack, you’re up.’

Jack gave a quick nod and unslung his pack from his back before reaching inside.

‘I’m gonna need a minute,’ he said breathlessly.

Sam nodded and unclipped one of the anti-personnel grenades from his combat harness. The others pulled back from the stairs, flattening themselves against the wall. Sam wrenched the pin from the grenade and released the striker lever, taking a breath and making a silent count of two in his head before dropping it over the edge. The grenade fell through space as Sam turned his back to the stairs, his fingers going to his ears. A split second later there was an impossibly bright flash from below followed by a thunderous boom, the concussion wave almost knocking Sam off his feet. For a moment, he could hear only the ringing in his ears as clouds of smoke began to billow up from below, but then, as his hearing returned, he could hear the screeching howls of the injured creatures that had been caught in the blast. Sam peered over the edge and could make out nothing through the clouds of smoke other than the flickering light of a fire. There were still sounds of movement down there and Sam realised that all he had really done was buy them some time.

‘Jack,’ Sam said, ‘I need that door open.’

‘Ten seconds,’ Jack said, trying to ignore the smoke irritating his lungs. ‘I mess this up and you’ll know all about it.’

He placed the cube of plastic explosive on the door’s locking mechanism and then inserted a small pencil-shaped device.

‘Fire in the hole,’ he yelled, turning away from the door as the charge detonated, destroying the lock mechanism with a bang. Jack gave the smoking door a quick, hard kick and snow blew in from the darkness outside.

‘Let’s go!’ Sam yelled as he began to see dark shapes moving in the smoke just a couple of floors below. The others did not need to be told twice, sprinting out on to the store’s windswept roof. Sam reached into one of the pockets on his belt and pulled out the small black crystal that would act as an emergency beacon to the drop-ship. He felt the Voidborn technology inside the crystal responding to him and with a small mental nudge he gave it a silent instruction to transmit. It might be risky, but there was no way they were getting out of there without it. Sam heard another series of howls from the stairwell and unclipped the second and final grenade from his harness. He tossed the grenade through the door and then ran over towards the others as it detonated behind him with a satisfying thump.