He checked his wrist computer—suit integrity was 100 percent and battery over 60. Next, he brought up the digital map of the city.
Rodger’s and Magnolia’s beacons were on the move again toward the target. Seeing they had made it through the night helped buoy his confidence.
“Everyone good?” Michael asked the divers.
Three nods.
“I’ll take point,” he said. “Keep quiet and listen for hostiles.”
He brought up his rifle and ducked into the exit tunnel. Slick moss grew in clumps on the bricks. He wasn’t sure what it was, but he had a feeling it was rife with bacteria.
“Watch for anything that could tear your suit,” he said.
A spider scuttled across the ceiling and vanished into a crack. Michael pulled out his knife and slashed through the web ahead.
The sticky material was surprisingly strong. He crouched and signaled everyone to turn off their helmet lights. Absolute darkness enveloped the divers.
Michael listened for grunts or skittering claws but heard only the drip of water. A light flashed as he started to switch on his NVGs. He kept the optics off and stared into the blackness, waiting.
A moment later, the purple light flashed in the adjoining tunnel to their right. The glow was weak, but it came again and again.
He motioned for the divers to follow him into the intersection. They hugged the wall and moved with barely audible footsteps.
When Michael got to the corner, he aimed his rifle to the left side of the passage, switching on his NVGs and then his infrared. Seeing no evidence of life, he inched closer to the corner and glanced around.
The scan came back void of contacts, but he did see the source of the light. It was coming from the ceiling. He had discovered a way out.
Pulling up his wrist monitor, he saw the first good news since they landed. The source of the SOS was a quarter mile away. The tunnels had led them safely under the city, almost to the doorstep of the bunker.
Excited, Michael gave the “advance” signal and took point again.
A mound of rubble seven or eight feet high formed a natural staircase of bricks and concrete leading out of the sewer. He aimed his rifle up through the hole, at clouds rolling overhead.
The rain had stopped, but lightning still flashed. That wasn’t the source of the light, he realized as another flash of purple lit up the tunnel. They had reached the profusion of bioluminescent vegetation he had seen on the dive in.
Michael checked the debris, looking for footholds, and started up while the other divers waited. A few steps up, a brick skidded under the weight of his boot. He flinched at the clank.
The screech of a vulture answered, freezing him in place.
Two of the nightmarish birds sailed overhead and circled. On the second pass, one landed on the nearest rooftop and perched there. This was going to complicate things.
The vulture seemed to look in his direction but then turned. He kept moving cautiously. At the top of the mound, he poked his head up into the street.
They had emerged in what was once a heavily populated area. Large apartment buildings and commercial buildings, many of them still in relatively good shape, lined the street.
He looked around for his first up-close view of the purple-and-red flora. The vines, as thick as the bodies of the snakes at the fuel outpost, had barbs and spikes covering their flesh.
On one side of the road, reddish-hued trees grew out of what had been a park. Vines and foliage had almost completely hidden the slides and swings.
He looked back to the rooftop. The vulture was still looking in the opposite direction, and he motioned back into the tunnel for the divers to join him on the road.
While they climbed, he took up position behind the rusted hull of a car. He pushed the scope of his laser rifle to his visor and centered the crosshairs between the mutant bird’s eye and ear.
Sofia emerged first, then Edgar, but when Arlo pulled himself up, he knocked a hunk of asphalt loose. It plummeted back into the tunnel, and the loud crack turned the vulture’s head.
Michael pulled the trigger, blowing off the beak and the top of the head with a single bolt. He held in a breath, hoping the bird wouldn’t fall to the street. It slumped backward, a single feather wafting away on the breeze.
The team bolted for cover inside a hotel atrium, entering through glass push doors that were cracked but strangely intact. They spread out, rifles up, and cleared the room.
“All right, we’re close,” Michael whispered. “We just need a better view of the area.”
Edgar directed them around a pile of glass, formed when part of the dome ten floors above had broken away. A shard the size of a table had fallen like a guillotine, splitting the reception desk in half.
Michael went up a staircase to a second floor that looked out over the atrium. Despite the gaping roof, the hotel’s interior remained somewhat preserved. He could even see the design of the tile floor.
A chandelier hung over the wide landing in front of two double doors, which were locked. They came to a door with a faded exit sign.
Michael grabbed the knob. It turned, unlocked.
Edgar led the way up to the fifth floor before they stopped to rest and listen.
Hearing nothing, Michael took point to the top floor. Wind gusted against his armor as soon as he opened the door. The second half of the hallway was broken away and open to the elements.
Across the street was another building, but it was only five or six stories tall. Most of the exterior on the upper floors was destroyed, exposing the interiors of apartments and offices. Not seeing any movement there, he tested the floor with his boot.
“Careful,” Edgar said.
Michael moved cautiously out into the hallway for a better view. Jagged planks and broken beams jutted into space, and a flap of ceiling hung loosely overhead. He stopped a foot away from the planks and looked out at swollen clouds.
Rain drizzled from the sky, coating his visor. The vantage point gave him a look at the western city blocks and the flora consuming them.
The strange vines had completely overgrown another park and snaked through the ruins of surrounding buildings, crawling up the sides and in and out of windows. One city block appeared to have collapsed under the weight of the dense vegetation. Then he saw that the roots and trunks were actually coming from a sinkhole. He switched off his NVGs. The opening pulsed an angry red before fading into darkness.
The glowing flora made his infrared optics pointless, so he scanned the area with his rifle scope. He found a nest of vultures in a blown-out room of a building to the north, but no bone beasts or Sirens prowled the streets. Perhaps they had returned to their lairs to sleep. If so, then Team Raptor had its second stroke of luck.
He brought up his wrist computer. Looking out over the ruins again, he determined that the SOS was coming from under a building somewhere two blocks away, dangerously close to the edge of the sinkhole.
With his finger, he traced out a map on his wrist computer, then transferred it to their HUDs. He backed away from the edge.
“I’ve identified the target,” he said. “Check your minimaps and follow me.”
The divers went back down the stairwell, stopping at the closed door on the second floor.
“Stay quiet and stay low,” Michael said. He looked at Arlo, who hadn’t said much over the past few hours.
“You okay?” Michael asked.
“Not really, Commander. I thought I was ready for all this, but I’m scared shitless we’re going to run into one of those things that killed Alexander.”
“It’s okay to be scared,” Edgar said. “But you gotta keep your wits, man, or you’re going to get yourself and all of us killed.”