The Exodus Towers (35 page)

Belém, Brazil

7.MAY.2283

A
T THE EDGE
of the unnatural cloud, Vanessa nudged Skyler and pointed off to their right.

Half-obscured by the dense haze, amid a ghostly forest canopy, an aura tower loomed. He saw the traces of red light first, washing across the grooves on its surface as if a flame burned within the huge black object.

The tower had come to rest right at the point where the cloud became unnaturally thick.

Skyler called a halt.

He glanced left, but if another of the red towers sat in that direction, he could not see it through the haze or the dense forest.

By now the strange droning hum of subhumans had become a constant background noise. The creatures, however, remained obscured within the mist. Skyler reminded himself that most of the members of their party had never seen one of the creatures up close, much less fought one. The visibility within the cloud would only make things worse.

He called the leaders of the two ad hoc “squads” into a tight circle, urging the rest of the colonists to spread out a bit and stay alert. Tania joined, too, as did Ana.

Skyler leaned and spoke in a hushed voice. “If everyone goes in, and we’re attacked, we’ll end up shooting each other as much as the subs. Worse, people will lose their sense of direction.”

Everyone nodded.

“I think,” he went on, “we should form a wedge here. We
immunes will go in and try to draw them back out. No one shoots until we’re behind the line. Understood?”

“What do we do with our tower?” one of the group leaders asked.

Skyler peered over their heads and did a quick survey of the ground around them. The wayward red-lit towers had carved a path through the rainforest, uprooting small rubber trees and monstrous kapoks alike. Some were just scattered splinters now, as if exploded from within.
At least our path home is obvious to everyone
. But as the towers neared the crashed ship they’d spread out and formed what appeared to be a circle around it, leaving patches of thick forest between their divergent paths.

He pointed where two large trees stood to either side of the forged path the group now stood on. Both trees were tucked within the embrace of strangler figs and together looked like two pillars guarding the entrance to the area. “Keep the tower between those trees,” he said. That would put it sixty meters or so away, he guessed, leaving plenty of room for the colonists to work within the aura it provided, without having the tower too close to the action. The last thing he wanted was to spark another defensive system, as the poorly aimed rocket had done the previous night. “Those not in environment suits will form a second firing line between here and there, in case the rest of us need to retreat. If we’re overwhelmed, anyone who can should rally at the tower.”

That last brought a pang of fear to the face of the suited squad leader, an expression the man quickly tried to hide. The other seemed content with the plan. For Tania’s part she still wore a mask of determination and cold confidence, a face she’d maintained throughout the entire march. If Skyler hadn’t seen how she handled herself in Hawaii, he might have questioned her comfort level. Once again he eyed the gun strapped under her arm. This time he arched an eyebrow at her. She simply returned the expression, questioning the fact that he would question her.

He let it go. “Have your people fan out, take what cover they can, and when everyone’s in position we will go in.”

Both squad leaders nodded. Tania did as well.

“Right, then,” Skyler said. “Ana, Vanessa, Pablo … with me.”

A breeze picked up and stirred the silent army of trees around them into a swishing morass. The haze that blanketed the crash site shifted with the change in wind, pushed into the colonists’ positions. With a wave from Skyler, the two groups moved back a few more meters and hunkered down again.

Skyler crept ahead into the cloud and crouched, gripping his gun lightly with both hands. Ana fell in beside him without a word, and a few meters to his right, Vanessa and Pablo paired up as well.

In no time the thick haze enveloped them. A glance back provided no evidence at all that the colonists waited just ten meters away. Soon Vanessa and Pablo became ghostly shapes at his right, and Skyler made a point to move closer lest they get separated.

At the point where the humming sound only came from the left and right, rather than ahead, Skyler called a halt with a subtle
tick-tick
sound. He pulled Ana gently by the sleeve until they were next to the other pair, and whispered to all of them.

“They’re on either side of us now. I suggest we halt here, and go that way.” He motioned in a line perpendicular to the direction they’d been going. “First sub we run into, we put it down and then retreat back to the others, and see how many follow.”

Pablo’s brow furrowed. “Suppose we find none, or go a long way. Everything looks the same in here.”

“If we keep the compass needle—”

A low, guttural sound killed the words in his mouth. It came from his left, behind Ana.

The girl reacted with incredible speed. She whipped around and brought her rifle up in one motion, a split second before a bony, filthy subhuman emerged from the swirling mist. It dove toward Ana, outstretched hands so dirty that for one terrible heartbeat Skyler thought they were coated in that black armor.

Ana fired two rounds. One missed. The second went
through the throat of the creature, which clutched at its neck even as it crashed into the young girl.

Ana sidestepped, shouldering the sub off her and turning all at once. The being fell to the ground and lay there writhing.

Skyler had only just begun to raise his weapon when Pablo shouted. Another subhuman appeared in the cloud, from the opposite direction. Pablo squeezed a fully automatic burst, his gun chattering as bullets peppered the creature and the ground around it. At the same instant, Ana put a second round into the brain of the one that lay at their feet.

Vanessa began to shoot, though at what, Skyler couldn’t see. He felt trapped between two fights. Another shadow emerged from the mist, again by Ana. Then a second appeared just behind it, loping on all fours. The young woman fired in rapid succession, trying to divide her attack between the two. It served only to make her miss both.

Skyler found his wits then. He whipped his gun up to his shoulder and felt it slap against his collarbone as brief plumes of fire erupted from the barrel. His salvo took down the first creature while Ana managed to wing the second just before it reached her. The sub collapsed as one leg went useless beneath it. Skyler put a round in its back before it hit the ground.

Pablo’s gun barked in successive attacks. Vanessa hissed curses in Portuguese as she did the same.

“To the line!” Skyler shouted. “Back to the line, now!”

He gripped Ana by the shoulder and pulled her, but the girl twisted and wrenched free. She dropped to a knee and raised her weapon again, ready for the next assault.

Not this time
, Skyler thought. He gripped her combat vest by the collar and yanked, hard. The girl scampered back to keep from falling over, a grunt of surprise escaping her lips.

Another subhuman appeared, just a vague shape in the cloud. Skyler fired one-handed and the shape retreated. Unsure if he’d hit it or not, Skyler flipped his gun from semi to full automatic. As he marched backward, pulling Ana with one hand, he pulled the trigger of his gun and held it down. He swept the barrel across the cloud, in the direction the subs had come from, at chest level.

Pablo picked up on the tactic and did the same on his side. Vanessa moved backward in a crouch, firing sporadically at phantom shapes when they emerged.

With a click, Skyler’s gun ran empty. Eighty rounds in less than five seconds. Pablo’s followed a heartbeat later. By then Ana had relented and moved backward on her own, firing as Vanessa did.

“Run,” Skyler urged, when he heard Vanessa’s clip deplete.

He turned toward the direction in which they’d come, and sprinted. Part of him became aware that the surreal humming sound had stopped. What replaced it gave him an odd sense of reassurance. Subhuman grunts and growls. Shrieks and snarls, from behind.
That
was normal. That he could fight.

Vanessa sped past him, a natural sprinter, Skyler noted. Pablo struggled to keep up, a few paces behind his left shoulder. Ana …

Skyler glanced over his right shoulder. Ana’s vague shape receded behind him, and he slowed. Her gun still clattered off rounds in bursts of two. “Ana, dammit! To the line!”

She began to move backward in modest steps. Skyler couldn’t see the creatures she fired upon, but her gun moved in quick arcs, stopped, fired, then moved again. He had taken a step toward her, intent to force her to retreat, when her clip finally emptied.

She turned and ran then, and Skyler thought he saw the hint of a smile on her lips.
She’s addicted to danger
, he thought.

Shapes formed behind her. Skyler drew his handgun from his hip, aimed, and fired.
Pat, pat, pat, pat
. The Sonton pistol rattled off bullets with mechanical ease. Ana reached him and together they sprinted for the waiting wedge of colonists. Skyler could hear snarls behind him. Snorts and even the whimpers of wounded and fallen subs.

“We’re coming!” he shouted ahead, though he couldn’t see the others yet. “Get ready!”

He burst through the edge of the cloud three steps later, Ana right beside him. Twenty guns pointed straight at them. Forty terrified eyes. Skyler ran straight for the middle, where
Pablo and Vanessa had taken cover. He dove past them, into the dirt.

All hell broke loose.

Twenty guns of every shape and caliber thundered to life as the filthy creatures sped out of the cloud and into the trap.

The noise was deafening. Skyler rolled in the dirt, came to a knee. His pistol went back into its holster, and he yanked a fresh clip for his rifle from the bandolier built into his vest.

The roar of weapons firing in concert blotted out all other sound. The barrage was so intense and effective, it bordered on ridiculous. Even still, Skyler jumped back to the line and added his own weapon to the mix. To his right he caught a glimpse of Tania, standing behind two crouched men, her pistol raised in outstretched hands as if she’d learned how to shoot from a sensory thriller, which was probably near the truth. She fired with careful, deliberate aim. He wondered if she’d hit anything, how she’d react if she did, but then he realized that wasn’t the point. She was doing her part and earning respect, he realized, nothing more.

Subhumans streamed from the cloud, only to fall a step later. Some collapsed dead, shot in multiple places. Others simply tripped over their own slain comrades and flailed on the ground as they tried to get up. Bullet holes erupted across their bodies until they lay still.

More came. They seemed to never end, and Skyler started to hear colonists on the line reloading. “Conserve ammo!” he barked, doubting anyone could hear him. He could barely hear himself.

And then, as quickly as it had begun, the flow of enemies trickled and stopped. The forest went silent, save for the few colonists who had the wits to reload in the lull. The carnage before their wedge was absolute. Skyler guessed at least forty in the dirt and leaves before them. Someone off to the left hacked, then vomited, a horrible sound to hear coming from within an environment suit. The colonist backed away from the line and sought help from the backup squad to get his helmet off. Another person on the front line, somewhere right of Skyler, let out a laugh born of adrenaline and fear.

“We did it!” someone shouted.

Others began to cheer, to congratulate one another.

“Shut up,” Skyler hissed. “Keep quiet!”

They weren’t listening, though. People began to high-five, to hug.

Idiots!

The black-clad subhuman slipped out of the cloud like a ghost. It made no sound at all, and moved with a cold ruthlessness that chilled Skyler to the bone.

The armored creature was among the colonists before they even realized it. It swiped at the nearest person with a flat hand, the speed of the attack a blur. Skyler saw the poor man’s suit and neck tear open, as if sliced by a knife. The man fell dead, the creature already on its next victim.

Someone screamed. Skyler heard a gunshot and he cried out for restraint. The black-clad sub was in their midst, and shooting at it would only put their own people at risk. His call went unheeded, though. People panicked, firing wildly. All the while the dark enemy slashed and punched. In the space of a second, three more colonists fell.

A bullet finally found the enemy. Skyler saw a spark fly from the being’s chest as the round ricocheted off. No penetration then, but the subhuman did recoil, almost fell. It seemed surprised, and Skyler saw its “eyes” flare with red light. In that moment of respite, the colonists closest to the creature, the ones still alive, leapt or crawled away in terror. They retreated toward the tower, and he felt a pang of relief to see Tania moving with them.

Other colonists sensed the opening and began to barrage the creature. Skyler joined in, and the monster bucked and shrank under the fire. Then it turned and raced back into the cloud.

It’s vulnerable
, Skyler found himself thinking.

Another scream arose from the crowd of colonists, a shriek of terror that stopped as abruptly as it started. The noise came from the left, and Skyler spun in that direction in time to see one of the colonists topple over and a black shape recede into the cloud.

“More than one!” Pablo shouted. He fired blind into the
cloud where the subhuman had vanished. Others did the same.

Two, at least
, Skyler thought.
And they’re using the cloud for cover now
. “They’ll pick us to pieces!” he yelled over the sporadic crackle of gunfire. “Retreat to the tower, away from the cloud!”

Everyone, even Ana, fell back at the command. Many turned and ran, but some walked backward, their weapons still trained on the edge of the unnatural cloud, Skyler among them.