“Behind you!” X yelled.
Fuego turned the flamethrower on a beast running at him on all fours, but it slammed into him as he pulled the trigger. The gout of flames shot toward X, who dived for cover in the nick of time.
A human scream followed, and X scrambled to his feet to find Ricardo doused in flames. He crashed into a metal shelving unit and collapsed to the floor, rolling and screaming as the armor melted and fused to his skin.
X raised his sword and moved toward a creature bolting toward him on all fours. He planted his left leg and brought his right leg forward as if about to throw a punch, but instead brought his sword down in the center of the eyeless forehead.
Rhino was right about the sword: wielded properly, it did indeed split flesh and bone.
The monster slumped to the floor. X put a boot on its neck and yanked the weapon free, catching a spray of blood on his visor.
He didn’t bother wiping it. There wasn’t time. Another Siren folded its wings and scampered toward him.
Time seemed to slow, giving X a fleeting moment to take in the scene. Grunts and screams, muffled by breathing masks, blended with the electronic rise and fall of what sounded like miniature alarm sirens as the Cazadores fought the mutant abominations hand to claw.
A screech snapped him back to the moment, and he brought up the sword. The point was missing, apparently still lodged in the Siren skull at his feet.
He tried to jab at the creature leaping toward him, but the broken end of the sword only slowed the Siren down as it slammed into him. He hit the ground hard.
The male Siren had at least a hundred pounds on X. The sword’s hilt stuck out of its muscular chest, the jagged end buried deep in the flesh. If he could just get a hand around the hilt and twist it, maybe he could get the creature off him, but the damn thing had his arms pinned to his sides.
A foot clamped around his ankle, another around his knee. Wings flapped upward, rising above the creature’s spiked back. In another moment, the leathery wings would envelop him. The Siren loosened its grip on his hand for an instant, and he jerked free, grabbing the sword hilt and twisting it back and forth.
The beast roared in pain, and X bashed it in the jaw, breaking out several teeth. But that just enraged it even more, and it head-butted his helmet with the bony crest of its skull. Before X could throw another punch, it grabbed his free arm and put its full weight on him.
He squirmed against the massive beast—a futile attempt that wasted his energy. He was pinned like a mouse under a cat and was about to become a meal.
The Siren’s weight forced his helmet to the side, giving him a view of the room.
The other men weren’t faring much better. Ricardo’s body lay smoldering a few paces away. Fuego was on the ground, with two Sirens chewing at the armor on his leg and arm while he struggled to regain his footing.
Wendig and Rhino were out of sight. Only Whale was still on his feet. He threw his axe at a beast, missed, and grabbed it by the neck as it sprang at him.
The huge man held the creature in the air in his left hand. Using the brass knuckles on his armored right fist, he pummeled the eyeless features to pulp before dropping the carcass to the floor.
A sudden lessening of the weight on X gave him another opportunity to face the creature on top of him. Saliva dripped, mixing with the Siren blood on his helmet visor. Looking through the gore, he watched in horror as wormlike lips parted to expose a maw of barbed teeth.
It let out a wail and brought its head down toward his neck just as he brought his helmet up and smashed it in the face. X scrambled for the broken sword on the floor, grabbed it, and ran to gain some distance and catch his breath. Before he could escape, a talon grabbed his boot, tripping him.
Armored boots came pounding toward him as the beast dragged him backward. He flailed with the sword, groping with his other hand for something to grab, finding nothing but broken planters.
He heard the juicy crunch of impaled flesh. The grip on his boot loosened, and X rolled onto his back to see Rhino, pulling his spear out of the Siren’s torso.
“That’s another for me, Immortal!” he yelled.
Another Siren hurdled a pile of broken pots and grabbed Wendig by the arm, twisting and breaking it. The human scream filled the room. Before the aberration could finish Wendig, Rhino thrust his spear through its ugly head.
X took a moment to check his HUD, praying that the suit’s integrity wasn’t compromised. A quick glance revealed he was still at 100 percent. He wiped the blood and flecks of gore from his visor and staggered to his feet.
Whale helped Wendig up while Fuego and Rhino stood back to back, jabbing at the Sirens testing their defenses.
“Give me a weapon,” X said.
Rhino thrust his spear at another Siren, clipping its neck. The beast skittered away and took to the air, where Fuego turned it into a blazing meteor.
The last two Sirens made a dash to escape, and Rhino held up a fist to stop his men from firing. He moved over to check Ricardo, but it was obvious he wouldn’t be getting up again. Half his helmet had melted, and hot goo bubbled out.
X caught his breath as the other men recovered their weapons. There was no time for the thumping of chests or words spoken to honor Ricardo before the next threat sounded.
A vibration rumbled through the floor, and a guttural roar rang out somewhere outside the building. It was a noise X had heard only once before in the wastes and had hoped never to hear again—a noise he had immediately known to run from without ever even seeing the source.
Whale and Rhino spoke in hushed voices. Even through the breathing apparatus and despite the language barrier, X could hear the fear in their deep voices.
Only then did he realize that the departing Sirens were fleeing not from the Barracudas, but from a whole different order of enemy—the true apex predator on this island.
“Time to see why we came here, Immortal,” Rhino said. He grabbed the submachine gun Ricardo had dropped, and held it out to X. He held on as X grabbed it.
“You’re going to need this for what comes next on this hunt, but do not make me regret giving it to you. You got it?”
X nodded and took the weapon as the same deep roar sounded again in the distance. Whatever made it was a monster unlike any X had seen before, and he had a feeling he would need more than a rifle to bring it down.
FOURTEEN
The sun dipped below the horizon, leaving gashes of purple in the orange glow. Magnolia couldn’t see the edge of the barrier between blue sky and eternal darkness, but she could picture in her mind the endless stretch of storm clouds on the other side, and the airship she had always called home.
Another day had passed on the Metal Islands, and the Hive and Deliverance still hadn’t shown up to rain destruction down on el Pulpo and his people. She was starting to wonder whether Katrina was even coming.
But tonight, darker thoughts occupied her mind. Was it possible something had happened to the two airships? Had they been destroyed in the electrical storms, or taken down by sabotage within?
“You ready?” Sofia asked, holding up a palette of makeup.
Magnolia turned from the window and moved back to the wooden desk positioned in front of a long mirror. Inge pulled the chair out and motioned for her to sit.
She looked at her naked reflection. The bruises across her light skin continued to fade, and the deeper cuts had turned to scars. El Pulpo’s youngest wives, Inge and Sofia, used makeup to cover the worst of them. But it didn’t hide all her wounds accrued from years of diving.
“Where do you get this shit?” Magnolia asked.
“A woman on one of the rigs makes it,” Sofia said. “Don’t ask me how, though.”