Extinction (12 page)

“They have the hallway covered,” Samuel said.

“If they’re smart, they’re going for reinforcements,” Makara said. “We have to figure a way to take them down.”

Another doorway led out from the other side of the room. The camera feed had shown a group of Angels near here. The only question was
where
they were.

“They should be nearby,” I said.

That was when a man appeared in the doorway. His eyes widened.

“Makara?”

Instantly, Samuel, Makara, and I had him in our sights.

“Don’t shoot!” he said. “I’m with you guys.”

“You’re Angel?” Makara asked.

“Yeah,” he said.

“Where are the others?” Makara asked. “We saw them on the camera feed not five minutes ago.”

“A lot can change in five minutes.”

“You’re the only survivor?”

“Of my group, yeah. I think Grudge and some of his men are down on level six. So, that’s where I was headed.” He paused. “My name’s Damian, by the way.”

“Damian, we have to deal with these Lords first,” Makara said. “They got the corridor covered, and my men can’t move on until they’re taken care of.”

“We can sneak around,” Damian said. “While they’re focused on your men, we can hit from another direction.”

“How?”

“We’ll have to go outside.”

“Outside?” I asked.

“Follow me,” Damian said.

Damian turned from the doorway, disappearing into darkness. We looked at each other and went after him.

***

D
amian led us away from the corridor, and the temperature continued to drop. It wasn’t long before gray daylight filtered through the twisted, collapsed ceiling. This part of the Bunker must have been destroyed, somehow.

“So, Grudge is alive?” Makara asked. “What about Char, Marcus?”

As Damian began climbing the rubble in order to reach the outside, he cracked a smile. “Yeah, Grudge is alive. As far as Char and Marcus...I can’t say. They stayed behind on level one, and we haven’t heard from them since the war started.”

We climbed after Damian. If Char and Marcus were on level one, then the news probably wasn’t good.

I put my foot on a large slab of concrete, boosting myself up. Damian had already reached the top and was standing above the network of Bunker ruins.

“You sure you know where you’re going?” I asked.

“Yeah, I’m sure.”

Makara pulled herself onto the ceiling, followed by Samuel. I was the last one to exit the Bunker, and what I saw rendered me speechless.

This entire side of the mountain was simply...gone. Something had blasted it all away, leaving behind a crater. We were on the opposite side of the mountain, which up to this point we hadn’t see yet. The exits of corridors opened into the free air, at least down to level seven or eight.

“Guess we know where that third nuke hit,” Samuel said.

I still didn’t know why Bunker 84 had nuked itself. It could have been done by the Community, but whatever the case, it had allowed Elias to take control. The bottommost levels of the Bunker would have been largely unaffected.

“This way,” Damian said, moving out of the Bunker exit and onto the mountainside.

Damian angled himself toward an opening in the rubble not far from the one we had exited from. It was a short walk before we made it to the entrance. After walking a few steps inside, Damian spoke softly.

“Alright, the Lords are just around this corner...”

We edged to the corner as more shots split the air.

“I think they’re being fired on from the other side,” I said.

“The perfect opportunity to strike,” Samuel said.

Samuel waited a moment before giving a nod. He checked around the corner, stepping out into the open. I went after him, seeing the four Lords from behind, guns all pointed toward our men.

By the time Makara was also in the open, we fired into their backs.

The two men in the middle went down immediately while the others snapped toward us. Before they could even aim, however, they also went down. Silence followed the brief firefight.

Samuel called out.

“It’s us! When you come around, hold your fire!”

Lionel and the other Angels appeared from around the corner, running toward us. We ran ahead, meeting them in the center.

“That was some luck,” Lionel said.

Damian clasped Lionel’s hand with his own. “Good to see you, brother. I thought we lost you on nine.”

“You did. But I’m hard to kill.”

“Damian,” Makara said, cutting off the reunion. “Lead us to Grudge.”

Damian nodded. “Right. He should still be down on six.”

We followed Damian to a flight of stairs. We took them two at a time until we reached the sixth-level landing. The sounds of gunshots and men’s screams came muffled, distant.

Damian ran forward onto level six. The gunshots grew louder as we neared the center of the level, passing open doorways. We took several turns until we came to a final corner, around which Damian took a quick glance. He pulled his head back, resting it against the wall.

“Five Lords,” he said. “They’re set up behind tables in the mess hall. Faced away from us. They must be firing on Grudge and the Suns.”

“Take them out,” Samuel said. “They won’t see us coming.”

We stepped into the hallway, moving slowly so as not to alert the Lords to our presence. I took careful aim with my Beretta for the man on the left. Five of us were lined up, and still, none of the Lords had turned. They had no idea we were standing there.

I waited for Samuel’s gun to go off before I opened fire. The man on the left immediately dropped, the back of his shirt darkening with blood. I tried to separate my mind from this grisly task. With all of us firing on the Lords in their exposed state, they had all fallen within a matter of seconds.

It was another moment before Samuel spoke.

“Come on.”

We walked into the mess hall, a place that truly lived up to its name. The fluorescent lights above revealed a chaotic maze of upturned tables and chairs, and the scent of blood stunk up the air. Blood pooled under the corpses, spreading over the linoleum. Lionel’s men went to the bodies, rummaging for ammo and weapons. From a hallway leading out from the mess hall, a familiar man appeared.

“Grudge!” Makara called out.

He held up a hand in greeting, using the other to motion the men behind him forward. Three tired men entered the mess hall.

We met in the middle, a good distance from the fallen Lords.

“I thought you were dead,” Grudge said.

“Almost, but we’ll explain later.” Samuel said. “Think we have enough here to make the push back?”

“We need more,” Grudge said. “Much more.”

“Know anything about my family?” Michael asked.

Grudge looked at him. “I think they’re okay, Michael. I haven’t seen them since this all started, but they’re probably on level one with most of the civilians.” Grudge sighed. “Honestly, they’re probably safest there. It was mainly the men they were interested in killing.”

“So it’s Jade, Rey, and Cain?” I asked.

Grudge nodded. “And whoever else joined them. Most of Char’s Raiders and all of Marcus’s Exiles stuck to their leaders. Boss Dragon fell early in the fighting, and I don’t know if any of his men made it. They were holding their own for a while on fourteen. This...” Grudge motioned back, indicating the four men with him, “is the last of the Suns. They’ve chased us up this far, and...”

Grudge paused, unable to find his words. He closed his eyes, as if he were falling asleep.

“Have you slept since the fighting started?” Makara asked.

Grudge quickly came to, shaking his head. “No. No, I can’t sleep.”

“How dangerous are the lower levels?” Samuel asked.

“Thick with resistance,” Damian said, answering for Grudge. “This floor should be clear, now.”

“We need a home base,” Samuel said. “It will take too long, and be far too dangerous, for us to go around rescuing every group. We need them to come to
us.”

“I think you’re right,” Makara said. “The Command Center should work. We need to stock up with as much food and water as we can find. Anyone know where we might find that?”

Lionel answered. “Most of the kitchens have been cleaned out. We found some cans up on level three.”

“What about water?”

“They have pumps on the bottom level,” Grudge said. “Can’t imagine how much longer they can run without power. The taps work fine, though. They just haven’t been used in fifteen years.”

“We have the power back online,” Samuel said. “It’s all backup, so there’s no telling how long it will last. Hopefully, long enough to take control of the Bunker.”

“We need to make an announcement from the Command Center,” Makara said. “They need to know that we’re back, and if we can get enough people, we can take the fight to the Lords.”

“If we go to the Command Center, wouldn’t the Lords know where to attack us?” I asked.

“Let them try,” Makara said. “They’ll be fighting on our turf, and it won’t be easy for them to approach when we have cameras watching.”

“A lot of Angels would have to fight against Lords to even make it to the Command Center,” Damian said. “And not everyone who got out is a fighter. There were women and children, too.”

“That’s where Ashton comes in,” Makara said. “He can pick up any Angels who can make their way outside. It would be easier to just head outside rather than fight through the Lords’ positions. Ashton can ferry groups to the Bunker entrance at the top. From there, they can head down to the Command Center.”

“Sounds like a good idea,” I said.

“We heading up?” Grudge asked.

Makara nodded. “Yeah. Let’s get to the Command Center and I’ll get Ashton on the line.”

***

W
e found a stairwell and made our way up. Before we reached the stairs, we heard voices drifting down the hallway. As we raised our guns, four Angels walked around the corner. It was clear they were surprised to see Makara, Samuel, and the rest of us alive and well. I recognized one of these men, Nathan, who was an Exile. He seemed to be leading the other three men.

“Makara!” he said. “You’re alive.”

“Good to see you, Nathan,” she said. “Any news of Marcus?”

He shook his head. “They got him and Char on level one.”

“They’re not dead?”

“They might be,” Nathan said. “He and Char stayed behind to fight, even as they told us to run. Haven’t seen them since.”

“Alright,” Makara said. “We’re heading up to the Command Center. Is there anyone else on this floor?”

“We’re the only ones on this level.”

So far, everyone in the inner circle that had stayed in Bunker 84 was unaccounted for. We had no idea whether Char, Marcus, Ruth, or Lauren were still alive.

We walked the rest of the way to the Command Center without incident.

Makara nodded to Lionel. “Take a few of your men and post a guard.”

Lionel nodded. “On it.”

While Lionel left with a few fighters in tow, Samuel opened communications with
Perseus.

“Ashton?” Makara asked, once the line was open. “Ashton, you read?”

It was a moment before Ashton’s familiar voice came through the speaker. “Makara! Everyone alright down there?”

“It’s rough,” she said. “We’ve found some Angels but a lot of our people are still missing. This is going to be a long fight.”

“What do you need me to do?”

“Have you seen the north face of the mountain?”

Ashton paused. “No. Haven’t flown out that way.”

“Well, you might be surprised by what you see. A nuke must have hit it back when the Bunker fell. There are lots of openings leading out of the Bunker.”

“Alright,” Ashton said. “Where are you going with this?”

“We’ve restored power, which means we should be able to make an announcement to the whole Bunker: telling any Angel who can, to go outside.”

“And you want me to pick them up?”

“That’s right. As soon as you see anyone, pick them up and land them by the entrance. From there, they can walk down to the Command Center on level three.”

“What about our people at the bottom, though?” Ashton asked.

Makara sighed. “They’ll have to hold on a while longer. The goal is to gather as many as we can and put weapons in their hands.”

“When are you planning on moving?”

“We’ll be making the announcement soon. Stand by for further orders.”

“Copy that,” Ashton said.

“I
t’s set,” Samuel said.

“Citizens of Bunker 84,” Makara said, pausing for a moment. “This is Makara. Yeah, I’m alive, and no, this isn’t a trick. We’ve restored power and the Angels’ numbers are swelling by the hour. If you’re an Angel and you’re hearing this, make your way to the Command Center on level three. If you can’t make it there safely, go outside. Dr. Ashton will see that you’re brought safely here.”

Makara looked at Samuel, as if for confirmation. Samuel gave a thumbs up. Makara went on speaking.

“Things have changed drastically on the outside. The Great Blight is about to annihilate us all. Oasis has fallen, and Los Angeles will go soon. The Empire and the Reapers are no longer allies – they are enemies. They fight in the ruins of L.A. even as death presses in from the east. This is my message to Jade and the Lords: the only way you will survive this is if you lay down your arms and negotiate peace. If you do so in the next six hours, your lives will be spared.

“You were all Angels, once. I’m going to attempt a chance at reconciliation. I understand how panic might have led some to make a stupid decision – a decision you now regret. That’s why I’m giving you this chance. I invite Jade, Rey, and Cain to the Command Center to parley. You have my word that you won’t be killed.

“If you choose to continue this senseless war, you
will
lose. We have a spaceship and have unlimited access to resources. Starvation is no longer an issue. From the Command Center, we can cut off your power. Maybe you have backup generators you’ve been using to get by, but they won’t last. We don’t have time for this war. Augustus in Los Angeles needs our help.”

Makara paused a moment for her words to sink in.