Hostseeker: Survive Demonic Apocalypse Page 6

  Jason was the end point of their little unit, moving up the snowy hill towards the ruined town of Gladston. He was puffing a bit, but not complaining at all as he carried Tom's rife, and his heavy DPF backpack.

  They took different path to the direct one down the hill that Michelle and Jason followed yesterday, saving wounded Tom from the raptor attack. It was about half an hour longer, circling around the area and reaching the borders of the old town from the West.

  "How long till the repair station, Betty," Tom stopped to catch his breath. Michelle and Jason immediately sat down to do the same, they were both sweating, "can you put a dot on my heads up display, or something?"

  "Around half a kilometer in the shop basement, entrance should be through a trap door facing the street," being a vocal navigator was the least of Betty's talents, but sometimes this one was the most needed, "you should see the dot on map overlay now."

  Tom could see the grid of thin grey lines now projected straight onto his retina, with blue outline of buildings and a red dot pulsating not really far from where they were. He realised that distance looked much closer on the map though, and five hundred meters from the border of town into the actual opening of abandoned streets will be a long jog that could be far from easy.

  He considered going in alone for a second, leaving Michelle and Jason back here in the bushes overlooking the little town, but then thought that taking everything into account it would be better for them to stick together, and not turn this into an old corny horror movie.

  "You guys good?" He turned to Michelle and Jason. They nodded.

  "Betty says it's across the clearing and down that street. Should be a door somewhere on the way." Tom continued.

  "Will you sense enemies and that kind of stuff?" Jason asked Tom for about the third time since they left their camp this morning.

  "Yeah, mate, I should," Tom replied with a nod, "but you keep the rear point and look behind us like we discussed, right? You're a real DPF agent right now buddy, mum and I are relying on you."

  Tom warmed up to the boy over the short but intense period of time they've spent together. He heard war stories about people really bonding quickly during times of real need, but only now saw real proof of that.

  They stepped out of the bushes, and went as quickly and silently as they could, following Tom leading the way. Across the clearing between the bushes and the first line of still standing houses, then slightly crouching along the frozen street, with piles of rubbish, what looked like crushed barricades, and old burnt out cars. It was noticeably more windy in this improvised stone tunnel formed by the walls of two-storey buildings on both sides of the road, but otherwise everything appeared dead quiet, like the whole area was evacuated after some really sinister biological contamination.

  "Three hundred meters, keep going," Tom knew Betty was counting every step, analysing every bit and byte of information that became available to her, falling into his field of view, or being carried as a random sound on the wind, "Still no connection to Central network."

  "Thanks," he said. He didn't like how quiet it was. That feeling a sniper gets in an open space with limited retreat options.

  "Tell me as soon as we can call Central for extraction," Tom added.

  The red dot pulsating on his electronic map became really close now, looking like it was just around the next corner. Tom suddenly slowed down, thinking he heard something. A barely noticeable crack of gravel on the dirty road just a few meters ahead of them, like somebody stepped on it. He didn't say anything, paralysed by one single thought for a second - "What if Betty can't hear stuff anymore?"

  Michelle and Jason stopped too, seeing that something alerted Tom, not being able to tell if it was another internal dialogue he was having with Betty, or something else. Jason slowly pulled the rifle off his back, waiting for the order. Michelle did the same to her nail thrower, although her tactical designation was never directly discussed during Jason's chat with Tom. It was assumed that she will stick to what she knows, staying out of their main field of fire, sniping out whichever targets she could. Now she wished they had discussed it in more detail.

  "Betty?" Tom said very quietly in a cold voice. "Report."

  "No hostiles," her voice was factual and unphased, as always, "trap door should be just around the corner."

  Tom took a step from behind the wall into the intersecting street, turning his head to see if it's clear for them to reach their destination.

  BANG!

  He could barely avoid the blast pulling himself out of the way. Huge fireball hit right where his head was a second ago, scorching the old brick wall next to them.

  BANG!

  Another blast hit the road half a meter in front, burning a hole in the ground and making the cold road stone boil in the place of impact. It suddenly smelled like roadwork, where workmen used to help ugly machines of the past century spread tar and gravel, laying foundation for the new highway.

  "Sh-oooot!" Michelle pushed herself into the wall they were standing next to, sinking to the ground and clutching her nail thrower with one hand, trying to reach out to Jason with another. Jason looked pale and horrified, but didn't lose his overall posture, briefly looking at Tom in front, then back to where he was told to keep watch.

  "There's someone moving at the back!" He shouted, "look, look, guys, back here!!"

  There was something on the road behind them, between the derelict cars and old piles of garbage that they've passed by. They could see fast-moving shadows, crouching close to the ground, maybe a hundred meters away.

  "Both get down, NOW."

  Betty was dead silent and Tom had to think fast. Grenades were the first thought that came to his mind. He already armed two. The first one went around the corner where fiery blasts came from.

  BOOOOM!

  Sound of crumbling bricks and some other clanking followed, then shower of little stones from disturbed road surface. He tried to swing his arm as widely as his injuries allowed him, and tossed the second one down the road, towards approaching shadowy attackers, whatever those were. It didn't fall as far as he'd hoped.

  BOOOOM!

  Same effect, with some visible scattering and raised cloud of dust, snow and smoke now between them and the ambushers. There was a door in the wall, a few meters away from them.

  "Follow me, now, NOW!" Tom shouted at Michelle and Jason, charging towards the door and slamming it with his malfunctioning steel shoulder. He felt sharp pain, but it did the job.

  The door crashed open inside, and Tom fell in flat, as the momentum was too strong to suddenly reverse his thrust. He rolled on the floor to the side, legs still facing the open door, handgun already pointing at it. Michelle and Jason stormed in right after him, scattering around the room in panic, trying to find cover.

  "Aim at the door! Shoot anything that enters!!" Tom kept shouting, not fully knowing if he was heard through the shock of explosions, and with the sudden influx of adrenaline civilian lady and a child were clearly not trained to deal with.

  "Guys, guys, I need you right now, stay with me," he kept talking to terrified Michelle and Jason.

  Michelle was in a haze and felt deafened by the blasts. All she could hear was her own heartbeat, but understood what was going on and Jason was next to her, not visibly harmed. Nail thrower felt much heavier than normal at that moment. Her hands were shaking as she tried to raise it.

  Jason's hands were shaking too, except he was already hiding behind the turned over old dining table in the middle of the room, with Tom's rifle pointing at the door. Barrel of the run was resting on top of the solid table top, offering decent support.

  "Safety off, safety off." Tom heard Jason muttering under his breath.

  BOOM-BOOM!

  Tom fired two shots at the first shadowy figure that appeared in the door frame. Something much heavier was moving outside the wall, and he could feel the road groaning under its weight. This side of the building had no windows, so all he could see was just what wa
s coming into view as they all were peering through that broken door.

  Then another silhouette appeared. The demon was much larger than raptors, looking humanoid, with longer arms that it pushed in first, trying to extend forward and grab onto one of Tom's legs. Tom shot the demon point blank, and saw it collapse on the floor in front of them. Another figure, just like the previous one, appeared behind its fallen demonic comrade, with what looked like more of those waiting for their turn to push into the little room.

  TA-TA-TA-TA!

  Jason opened fire from behind his defensive position. Plasma blasts hit the creatures in the doorway, as well as the walls around it, cutting straight through everything that was in its way. Demons were falling apart in front of their eyes, and the door frame got its fair share of punishment too, breaking down and creating a larger clearing that allowed Jason's fire reach a lot more demons in front of their building.

  Michelle realised that she was screaming the whole time. The noise from the rifle set to automatic mode was deafening as it resonated from the walls of their little shelter, and Jason just kept firing at the doorway, like his finger got stuck on that trigger.

  Tom didn't try and stop the boy. Instead he pulled another grenade off his belt and flicked it out into the street, to accompany Jason's plasma barrage. He knew the clip will be out in less than a few seconds at this discharge intensity, and deep inside was proud of the boy doing so much damage.

  Suddenly it all got quiet. Jason's rifle clicked and was out. They could hear faint hissing sound as the smoke was exiting overheated rifle vents. They couldn't have gotten all the demons. No chance.

  After that long moment, something heavy crashed into the building wall from outside, covering them all instantly with dust raised by collapsing crushed bricks. Jason and Michelle were safe behind improvised shield of the large table top, stopping most of the splinters and rubble suddenly flying everywhere. The dust was so thick that they couldn't see anything.

  One of the bricks landed on Tom's left ankle that he could still feel even after all the anesthetic and other injections he did to keep himself walking for that long. The pain was noticeable, but he didn't think that his bone was snapped by it, now backing away from the broken wall, for the fear that the ceiling will collapse as well.

  BOOM! BOOM-BOOM!

  He shot rapidly into the center of the dust cloud, where whatever caused the collapse must have been, just to hear his shots hit something that sounded like solid ricocheting metal. The shadow of the object obscuring collapsed entrance into the building was huge, and Tom realised that it was some kind of a machine.

  "They are here!" He suddenly heard Michelle's scream right behind him, "the robots! Machines! Back here, quickly!!"

  In the little moment of silence that they had just before the wall collapsed, she had a chance to quickly glance around and see the door into another room, leading further away from the entrance and into the rest of now almost completely destroyed house.

  Tom heard the growl of machine's engine, as it was retracting away from the hole it made in the wall, to let in more demons, no doubt. In now settling cloud of dust and debris he could see that it was a large bulldozer-looking vehicle with a huge shielding blade in front that protected it from any of his gun shots.

  For a second Tom wondered how that machine made it all the way close to their position without making much of a sound that one would normally expect from a tractor or a bulldozer. That information was secondary at that stage though, and he knew they had to run, fast.

  Jason and Michelle were a few steps ahead of him, already in the adjacent room, hurrying him along. Tom got to his feet, slipping on the crushed concrete and dust everywhere, but making it through the other door before their demonic pursuers piled into now fully open front of the house.

  Flash grenade went straight off Tom's belt into the broken room that they've just escaped, slamming the inner door shut behind. BANG! The explosion was slightly dampened by the closed door and the inner wall that was now protecting them, and Tom heard screeching and howling noises from the other side.

  "Keep going, go through, look for the exit on the other side." He knew the three of them didn't have much time. They rushed through the ground floor of the house, kicking away broken dusty chairs and jumping over unidentifiable piles of rubble and puddles of muddy water on the floor.

  Next room, with a big open window right in front of them. Tom charged forward again, leaping and breaking through to the outside, with all his weight and not really trying to see if it was even safe. He knew for sure that staying inside was definitely not safe!

  He fell on the ground yet again, splinters of old broken window glass, pieces of window frame everywhere. Michelle and Jason climbed out a second later, in a much better shape than he was. Tom looked at his belt. One plasma grenade and one clip for his handgun left. Jason didn't have his rifle with him. Michelle was still carrying her nail thrower.

  They bunched up together like scared kids, in the middle of a cold road right outside the building now probably full of unknown type of demons pouring into it from the other side. Rustling and crushing inside the building they just fell out of could be easily heard outside, where they were now. How long did they have left? Not long, Tom thought.

  He looked at them both for a second, not knowing what to go and where to run, glancing around for whatever could surely mean their end.

  And then he heard it.

  Revving of rotors, and the swishing sound of the air sliced by the blades of an approaching helicopter.

  Chapter 9

  Heavy chain-guns of the gunship hit the windows of the demon-filled building just as the gray mass started pouring out into the street. Tom, Michelle and Jason were retreating towards the incoming helicopter, away from the house now covered in thick smoke and splashes of concentrated fire.

  It got hot and extremely loud, with the wind from helicopter's blades almost knocking them down off their feet, as if it didn't actually welcome new passengers. Gunship reached their position and slowed down, hovering in the air a few meters above the road, still shooting at the attackers who could be barely seen in the overwhelming covering fire.

  One more fiery blast from a demonic mortar of sorts flew towards them from the cloud of smoke ahead, but missed, hitting the ground somewhere far behind the chopper and Tom's little group. There were no more ranged projectiles incoming. Demonic shooters were either torn by the rapid fire volley from gunship's chain-guns, or already falling back.

  Seeing that light demon infantry is scattering and has nothing to oppose the human flying machine, the chopper slowly landed in the middle of the road, propeller still going at high speed, ready to take off again any moment. The hatch door opened and two figures in dark DPF uniform appeared, bending a bit under the helicopter wind, coming to help wounded Tom and the civilians get on board.

  Demons were retreating. They must have expected to surround and take Tom's trio easily, he thought, supporting themselves with only one mechanical battering ram of a bulldozer, but didn't expect to encounter any heavily armed backup to appear out of nowhere. Tom didn't either. The sight of that helicopter was like a mirage he thought could go away any minute, revealing ugly reality of them all being already dead.

  They were still alive though. Military guys loaded them into the chopper, not saying much in all the wind and deafening engine noise. The door was finally shut, and chain guns outside stopped spitting out fire at the smoking pile of building rubble and raised dust down the road. There were no demons worth spending their ammo on visible anyway.

  Ruins of Gladston were left behind, as the helicopter gained speed, propelling itself through the cold winter air, carrying them back to safety. Tom felt relief that he hasn't felt in ages. He was lying on the metal floor of the military bird, surrounded by people who didn't want to kill him. That was good enough. He smiled at the unfamiliar face of a young DPF sergeant leaning over him, who was trying to check if Tom was okay.

  "Yo
u're good now mate, don't worry," one medic was already inspecting his wounds, carefully taking his jacket off, while another attached diagnostic sensors to the sides of his head, "lucky we found you just in time. Wasn't super hard though, with the fire show you three put on!"

  Aside from built-in Tactical Assistant, every DPF augmented soldier had a fully autonomous tracker built in. Like an age-old radio beacon, it was pulsating on a certain wavelength, broadcasting encrypted transmission of agents location in case of an emergency. The actual cases of those emergencies when DPF had to extract their units from the field were extremely rare, due to the other means of locating them that normally worked first.

  The one like Betty, who in this case let him down one final time. Tom was still unclear on what happened, as the setup with demon ambush almost appeared deliberate to him, but the idea of that happening would have been too crazy to consider real even for a second.

  Michelle and Jason were nearby the whole time, sitting on the side-bench where he'd normally see DPF drop-unit wait for their destination. One of the guys in military uniform was saying something reassuring to them that Tom couldn't hear clearly. They were not wounded, just looked exhausted from all their adventures. Jason saw Tom looking at him, smiled and showed him thumbs up. Tom smiled back, closing his eyes for a second.

  He must have passed out for a minute, and then suddenly woke up, as the helicopter touched down. Tom could hear engine winding down, and swishing blades going slower. There were people shouting outside, then the hatch door opened. Loud footsteps, someone must have come in to take him out on a stretcher, no doubt.

  Tom raised his head a bit, but saw the entered people helping Michelle and Jason to get back on their feet.

  "No, mate, this is the stop for your friends, yours will be next," Sergeant said, "they are coming from contaminated area. Need full medical exam and debrief, you know how it is..."

  Tom looked at Michelle. She got up with Jason, hugging him tightly, wrapped in one of those warm military blankets. They came closer to him, now leaning over. Jason looked sad.