The Tide: Deadrise (14 page)

A Skull appeared in the alleyway’s exit. It skidded to a stop and twisted to face them. The shredded remains of an overcoat flapped around its spindly spikes and gnarled horns like the cape of some mutant supervillain. Dom went stock-still, hoping the darkness would conceal them.

But the Skull was not so easily fooled. It belched a raucous howl that bounced off the narrow alley’s walls. A contingent of Skulls rushed in behind it. Their screams joined the caped monster’s, and soon all their claws were clattering along the asphalt toward Dom and Meredith.

He didn’t need to tell Meredith to retreat. He delivered a salvo of gunfire before joining her. More and more Skulls poured in. Pushing and shoving each other, they clogged the mouth of the alley. The struggle gave Dom and Meredith an extra few seconds to return the way they’d come. Dom tried to recall another intersection, another exit. More Skulls clamored behind them.

There had to be a way out.

“Shit!” Meredith screamed. Creatures started to blot out the flicker of flames at the opposite end. Attracted by the screaming pack, they charged into the alley. Dom and Meredith were surrounded by brick walls and bony claws. There was only one way to go.

“Up!” Dom yelled. He climbed onto a dumpster and leapt at a fire escape ladder. He wrapped his fingers tight around the cold metal of the bottom rung. His rifle slapped against his back as he swung. The ladder started sliding down under his body weight, and he scrambled up it to a set of stairs. He and Meredith scaled them to the third floor of the building. The Skulls started jumping from the dumpster, too. Some tried to dig their claws into the mortar between the bricks and climb up that way. The first few made it to the second floor as Dom and Meredith rounded up to the fourth.

Dom clenched his jaw. He focused on his breathing rather than on the pain coursing through his leg. The clang of the Skulls on the fire escape helped keep him moving. Soon, they reached the flat roof of the apartment. He clambered onto it and stretched down to help Meredith. The Skulls weren’t far behind, with the caped monster leading the charge. Dom unleashed a spray of gunfire at their scalps. A few were knocked down by the blasts. But their bodies quickly disappeared beneath the carpet of monsters. More and more scaled the fire escape. The weight of the creatures started to pull the metal from the brick. Bolts popped and fasteners groaned.

Dom and Meredith shot another volley into the creatures. It hardly dissuaded the roiling mass of Skulls, so they turned and ran to the far edge of the roof. The burning in Dom’s thigh was growing worse. It needed to be properly treated, probably stitched. Blood had already soaked through the gauze Meredith had placed over it. But he wouldn’t let it stop him now.

He leapt over the narrow alley and onto the neighboring roof. His boots hit hard. He tried to keep his joints loose, but momentum carried him forward, and he rolled. Meredith landed more gracefully, managing to stay on her feet. Several Skulls hopped onto the roof behind them. Dom lined one up in his sights and fired. Bullets crashed against its armor plating and sparked on the bricks. The Skull fell. But more continued to climb.

“No use trying to shoot them all,” Meredith said.

Dom nodded and slung his rifle across his back. They jumped to the next building. This one’s roof was at an angle, and Dom had to grasp a metal pipe to keep from sliding off. As he tightened his grip, he took a glance down. It was a six-story fall. If the drop didn’t kill him, the Skulls down there would. He and Meredith ran along the edge of the slanted roof. A howl behind them caught his attention. The demonic caped Skull was closing in on them. He tried to pin the creature in his sights, but trying to remain steady on the steeped roof while the Skull leapt crazily after him proved too difficult.

“Let’s go!” Meredith yelled as more Skulls deftly ran along the sloped roof. The incline was no obstacle for them as their claws dug into the tiled roof. The few that did lose their balance and fall were quickly replaced by others in the suicidal chase for prey.

Agony jolted through him with every painful step. Meredith led now. She loped ahead to the edge of the roof, then stopped. Dom caught up a moment later, his breathing labored. The next apartment building had been devastated by bombs. There was no roof. What remained were skeletal columns of rebar-reinforced concrete sticking out of charred rubble. Not only was there a wider alley between that building and the one Dom stood on, but there was at least a ten-foot height difference. No matter how Dom measured it, he’d be dealing with a significant drop. He wasn’t sure his leg could take it.

A loud howl sounded from behind. The caped Skull was relentless.

“You ready for this?” Meredith asked, eyeing his injury.

“Don’t have a choice.”

She backed up and then sprinted at the edge. With a grunt, she leapt. Her arms pinwheeled, but she landed in the blown-out living room of an apartment. She hit the floor hard and skidded into what was left of a wall.

“Come on,” she yelled, dusting herself off.

Dom shot a final burst into the Skulls, which were now just a dozen yards away. He ignored the agony shooting through him with each step and made a mad dash to the edge. Every muscle fiber and nerve ending seemed to explode when he jumped. His legs kicked in the open air. The bombed apartment’s living room came at him fast. Too fast. His boots slammed against the rubble-covered floor, and he stumbled. Momentum carried him into the wall, and everything began to ache at once.

Meredith pulled him to his feet.

“Thanks,” he said, hobbling through the destroyed apartment after her. “Don’t know what I’d do without you.”

“Probably wouldn’t have half as much fun taking these bastards out.”

“Won’t argue with you there.”

Meredith kicked down a door already swinging off its hinges, and it fell flat into the hallway, dust pluming around it. She coughed, waved away the dust, and they rushed through the hall. An emergency exit sign hung off the side of one wall, barely holding on by a couple of wires.

“There,” Dom said. He opened the stairwell door and took the first step. But the entire stairwell was clogged by debris. “Shit.”

They returned to the hallway. He could hear the hunting cries of the Skulls and then the thuds as they made the leap to the apartment building. Dom shouldered into a nearby door and burst into another apartment. Meredith followed, and he slammed the door shut.

“Miguel,” Dom said over the comm link. “Tell me you all are having better luck than Meredith and me.”

“We’re bored, if that’s what you mean, Chief,” Miguel’s voice came back. “Can we lend a hand?”

“Rather you didn’t,” he said, looking at Meredith. “We’re going to have to get out of this one on our own. No sense in all of us getting mired in this hellhole.”

“Whatever you say,” Miguel said, “but we’re here if you need us.”

“Let’s hope we don’t. Over.”

Heavy footsteps resounded throughout the hall. The frustrated howls of the Skulls filled the air. He pushed aside a toppled kitchen table and moved along the short hall past the kitchen.

“Got to be another fire escape,” Dom said, checking out a window.

“If the bombing didn’t take it out.”

He nudged open another door. It led to a bedroom. The mattress had burned until only the springs remained. Soot drifted and danced with the wind. Dom checked for a fire escape but found no easy way down to the street. The scrape of claws and screaming Skulls was getting louder. It wouldn’t be long before they busted down the door. Once one of the damned things accidentally stumbled on Dom and Meredith, it’d be a bloody fight out of here.

With a nod, he indicated another door leading off from the bedroom. Meredith strode toward it, and Dom pushed the door open. He was greeted by a familiar gurgling sound that quickly rose in volume. A creature stood before him with holes in its neck and chest. Brown acid splattered against the floor, sizzling where it landed. Only half of a jaw hung from the void that used to be its mouth. Its bloodshot eyes dilated at the sight of Dom, and its chest started to quake. The gurgling intensified as the Drooler prepared to spray.

––––––––

M
eredith stared at the Drooler for a brief moment. Its gargling grew louder. She had mere seconds before the mutated Skull spewed its vile acid, and shooting it would only spray acid all over them. Running at the twisted abomination, she rammed the Drooler with the stock of her rifle and continued to push until the back of its skinny legs caught on the bathtub. Its spikes snagged the shower curtain around the tub. Tangled, it fell, flailing and gurgling all the while. The curtain tore from the rod as the Skull went down.

A hand wrapped around her waist, and she was tugged backward. Dom threw her away from the bathroom door and slammed it shut. A terrible noise sounded from inside. The wet splatter of acid was followed by the sizzling of the liquid as it burned through the door.

After a few moments, Dom kicked open the remains of the decrepit door, and the wooden panels fell from the hinges. Acid was dripping from the ceiling, and more of the brown gunk was eating through the bathroom floor. The Drooler twisted back and forth in the tub, trying to free itself. But each time it moved, it further entangled its spikes and horns in the plastic shower curtain.

“Here’s what we’re looking for,” Meredith said, pointing to the bathroom window. She could see the rails of the fire escape between the splatters of dripping acid on the glass.

The Drooler growled, weak and whiny, but the gurgle of its spray hadn’t started up yet. Dom prowled toward the window.

“Careful,” Meredith said. “Watch out for that gunk.” She gestured to the puddles and made sure each footstep landed in as dry a spot as she could find. The floor creaked worryingly. She unlocked the window and tried to slide it up. The wooden frame, exposed to the elements because of the bombed-out roof, was swollen with water. Meredith looked out the window and saw a few Skulls lingering in the alleyway below. More crawled through the street. Breaking the window would send noisy, tinkling glass shards to announce her and Dom’s presence. Not ideal.

Scratching sounded at the front door of the apartment, and Meredith froze. It seemed the Skulls were trying to make their way in. She wasn’t certain if they’d heard the Drooler’s attack or if the smell of the acid had attracted them.

Dom aimed his rifle at the creature struggling in the tub. Its claws clicked against the cheap fiberglass. “It’s making too much noise.”

Meredith started using her knife to pry the window from the swollen frame. “Remember what happens when you shoot those things in the belly.”

“Right,” Dom said. “Don’t want this bastard exploding and spraying acid all over us.” He lowered his rifle and took out his knife. With a powerful downward strike, he stabbed the blade straight through the creature’s acid-weakened skull and into its brain. At once it went still, and its head flopped sideways. Acid poured out of its mouth, sizzling as it spilled across the tub.

The window finally started to give. Meredith applied more force, and it popped free. She grabbed the bottom of the window and grunted as she pushed it open. She could get both arms out, but they needed more room to leave with their packs. The floor groaned under her weight as she used her legs for more leverage.

A deep rumble sounded.

The floor disappeared from under her.

Meredith fell. She hit something hard, and pain radiated up her tailbone and through her arms and legs. Debris crashed all around, and something landed on her. Dust clouds puffed up. She shook her head, trying to clear it. The floor had finally given way, and she was now in the apartment below where they’d started. Dom was lying on top of her, his face pressed against hers.

“Never felt so close to you before,” Dom managed with a forced smirk.

If it weren’t for the pain in her back and the immediate danger they faced now, maybe, just maybe, this would’ve felt sexier. Before she could come up with her own rejoinder, Meredith heard more wood groaning and looked up to see the tub with the dead Drooler starting to tip into the fresh hole in the bathroom floor. She rolled Dom to the side just as the tub plummeted straight where they’d been. Its heavy weight punched through the next floor, kicking up splintering wood and cheap tile. There was a support beam still in place beneath the torn floor. She balanced on it carefully to reach this bathroom’s window.

Above, she heard the sounds of freshly tearing wood and the staccato of clicking claws. The Skulls had made it into the apartment.
So much for stealth
. She slammed her rifle into the window until the glass rained out of the frame. She threw her and Dom’s packs out onto the fire escape.

“You good?” she asked him.

“Ready to get the hell out of here!”

They squeezed through the small window and rushed down the steps until they hit the last landing on the fire escape. Meredith hopped onto the ladder, and her weight carried it down until it slammed into the asphalt. Vibrations resonated through the rungs and into Meredith’s hands as if she’d just used an aluminum bat to hit a fastball. Two nearby Skulls ran headfirst at her. She wasted no time in ending them with a couple of well-placed rounds.

Dom slid down the ladder like a practiced fireman. His boots slapped the ground, and a grimace shot across his face. He rolled, grabbing his thigh wound for a second, before pushing himself to his feet. The macho bastard wouldn’t admit how badly he was hurt, and Meredith was torn between concern for his well-being and frustration over his stubbornness.

Another Skull with a bright-yellow construction worker’s vest careened past a dumpster at Dom. He swiveled in time to dodge the Skull’s charge. He grabbed its protruding shoulder blades and slammed its head against the brick wall, using the creature’s own momentum against it. Blood and bone fragments sprayed from its fatal wound.

Without a word, they sped down the alleyway to the street. Meredith felt like she was running on autopilot. Each Skull that got in their way was ended with either a concentrated spray of bullets or a well-placed blow to the head from a rifle stock. The violent attacks began to blur together, and Meredith realized that she’d long since lost track of how many Skulls she’d killed that day, even that hour.