Chapter 11

“She escaped?” Eisley nearly yells as she stands up from her desk, her chair flying backward, hard against the wall.

“That’s correct,” Sergeant Stone says. “We estimate that she left the base about a half an hour ago.”

Audra’s escape had been discovered quickly. Gunnar was on his way to collect her and escort her to a holding cell, but all he found was the dead body of the soldier. A general alert was sounded and the whole base was searched. A transport was discovered to be missing and it wasn’t hard to put two and two together as to why.

“She has a good head start,” Gunnar says, stepping into the room. “I’ve got patrols out. It will only be a matter of time before we discover where she is going.”

“How did this happen?” questions Eisley. “For that matter, what the hell did happen?”

“According to Zak,” Gunnar explains, “her behavior has something to do with whatever is growing inside her.”

“This couldn’t have come at a worse time,” Eisley says. “With the power outages getting worse, it isn’t a good time to pick up a new enemy.”

“We can’t start calling her the enemy, Eisley,” Gunnar says. “We can still save her.”

“Gunnar, you must realize that she may be too far gone,” Eisley offers.

“I’m not willing to just give up,” the man says, slamming his fist onto the desk. “I didn’t open myself up just to have my heart torn out and discarded.”

Sergeant Stone moves to restrain the man, but Eisley gives him a quick shake of her head and stops the man short. Her eyes remain focused on Gunnar. “We will do everything we can to bring her back in alive, but I cannot guarantee that Zak will be able to cure her.”

Gunnar’s face changes from anger to relief. “That’s all I ask.”

“We’ve all lost someone to this damn war, either before it or after,” the general says, her eyes dropping down to the picture on the corner of her desk. “We have to at least try to keep those still here alive and safe.”

A knock at the door brings them out of their somber mood. Zola steps into the office, giving everyone present a curt nod. “Ma’am,” she says, looking at Eisley.

“What is it Major?” the general asks.

“One of the patrols found the transport as well as two bodies with their throats ripped out,” she informs the general. “The surrounding jungle was searched but there appeared to be no sign of her movement. It is like she just vanished.”

Eisley sighs deeply. “There was probably little chance of finding her easily anyway.”

“Shall we send a recon team out to try and pick up anything?” Zola asks, biting her lip.

“I do not wish to risk any more lives than we have to,” Eisley says hesitantly.

“I can do the recon,” Gunnar offers.

Eisley looks up and gives him a weak smile. “No. I need you here.” She looks back to the major. “Send a team and get started on upping our defenses. The last thing we need is to get caught off guard.”

“Yes ma’am,” Zola says, spinning around to leave.

At that moment the ground begins to shake. At first it feels like an earthquake.

“What’s going on?” Eisley asks.

“Earthquake?” Stone offers.

“I don’t think so,” Gunnar says. “Listen.”

As the group stops to listen they can hear the ground around them being displaced in definite patterns, as if something is moving through it.

“They’re coming through the ground!” Eisley yells. “Sound the alarm!”

The walls, the ceiling, the floor—everywhere is vibrating.

Gunnar rushes out the door, nearly knocking over Kate in the process. “Mobilize every soldier we have,” he tells her. “Expect an attack from everywhere.”

The alarms begin to blare, but already throughout the base, soldiers are picking up their weapons. Announcements blare over the intercom warning of immediate attack and where to expect it. As soon as the noise and movement started it ended, leaving everyone looking around is curiosity.

“What’s going on?” Kate asks.

“Quiet,” Gunnar snaps, trying to listen for something in the ground around them. All of a sudden, a huge crashing noise can be heard and the entire base is plunged into darkness. “Shit! They’ve taken out the generators.”

All hell breaks loose. Red tendrils explode from all directions, slamming into soldiers. Shots are fired in all directions. The emergency lights come on shortly afterward, bathing the base in dull red light, but doesn’t do much to shed light on their attackers. Massive groups of stalkers and chasers are everywhere and they tear through the ranks of soldiers with little to no effort.

The machine gun emplacements, as the base’s last line of defense, are luckily still manned. Those soldiers stand firing without mercy upon the Scourge intruders with devastating barrages of fire. The attacking quickly catches the attention of the red fungus creatures and with a coordinated effort they overrun the emplacements and soldiers, leaving nothing intact.

Gunnar by now has a flamethrower in his hands, loosening streams of liquid fire at anything that moves. From the corner of his eye he sees Kate doing the same, but she is losing ground. “Get out of there, Kate!” he yells as a group of chasers moves for her.

Kate drops the flamethrower just as it runs dry and pulls a grenade from her belt. Quickly pulling the pin out, she drops the explosive and leaps toward Gunnar. She covers her head as the grenade detonates, taking out the group of creatures with it.

“We need to pull back,” Sergeant Stone says coming up on them.

Gunnar finishes helping Kate to her feet when he says, “No! We hold the line and push these fuckers back!”

Harlan, Kate’s lover comes through a door on the opposite side. When his eyes settle on her, he rushes over. “Are you alright?” he asks, looking her over like an overly concerned father.

“I’m fine,” she says hastily. “What about you?”

“My squad is gone,” he says, sadness filling his eyes. “Danny was the last to fall.”

“I’m sorry...” is all she can say.

His resolve strengthens as his face hardens. “The Scourge has a new weapon,” he says a moment later.

“What is it man?” Gunnar asks, grabbing the man’s arm and spinning him around. “Spill it,” he growls.

“I think we may have the answer,” Stone says, lifting his rifle up.

They look up to see a child walking through the carnage. The red light bathes her. She wears what looks like rags for clothes. Her hair is a ruffled mess and she looks dirty.

“That’s not one of ours,” Kate murmurs.

“No, it’s not,” Gunnar agrees.

Then a second child appears, a boy. He slides up next to the girl, his look much like hers, but his hair is shorter.

“What do we do?” Stone asks. “I can’t kill children.”

The boy raises his hand, palm open and out. He smiles innocently at the group. Then his hand morphs into a mass of withering tendrils and a second later they are flying outward toward the group. Sergeant Stone takes the brunt of the attack. The tendril tear through his chest and strike out at the others, sending them to the ground. When the tendrils whip back to the child, Stone’s body falls lifelessly to the ground.