Darcy’s eyes widened slowly as a wider smile came to his chapped lips.
The Howlers continued to batter at the door. I wasn’t worried about any of them getting through this century. We had all the time in the world.
“Ah, now we’ve come to it,” Darcy said. “Now we’ve come to it. Yes. To get out, you must…open the garage door!”
Darcy snickered. Anna’s mouth turned down distastefully.
“You have one last chance, old man,” she said. “Tell us something useful.”
Darcy quieted, and his eyes lifted and looked past me, at the door behind. I resisted the impulse to turn and look.
“You have three seconds,” I said. “Three. Two…”
Darcy just smiled, as if he had an ace up his sleeve. For all I knew, he did.
“One.”
Darcy fell backward, pressing something against his wrist. Before we could stop him, or do anything for that matter, the door behind opened, letting the Howlers through.
Chapter 6
Anna and Ruth turned for the door as three Howlers squeezed past the opening with baleful screams with more waiting in the wings. Darcy cackled and slipped away toward the Recon. We could only deal with him as soon as we dealt with these frontrunners.
Anna sliced the first Howler down — she cut him across the torso, then spun and severed his head from his body. Ruth jabbed a woman Howler right between the eyes with her hook. I shot the third down. More filed in from behind. There was no way we could keep this up.
“We need to get to the Recon!” I said.
As we backed across the motor pool, more and more Howlers spilled from the open door and into the garage. The women ran behind me as I faced the Howlers, firing my Beretta. Flashes illuminated their rotted faces. Several Howlers fell before I emptied my magazine. I rushed to replace it with a new one.
As I fired anew, the Recon roared to life. Darcy had somehow gotten inside of it. The headlights flashed on, illuminating the motor pool’s interior bright blue. More Howlers poured into the motor pool. We had to get inside the Recon or we weren’t going to last long.
I shot another Howler in the shoulder, causing him to spiral to the ground. In the distance, I noticed the ones Anna and Ruth had killed earlier beginning to inflate.
“Get to the Recon,” I said. “And kill Darcy!”
The downed Howler ruptured, quickly followed by a second. The purple slime came within feet of my body, coating the other Howlers advancing forward.
“He’s getting on the turret!” Anna yelled.
I snuck a quick glance over my shoulder. Darcy’s head appeared at the turret above the Recon. Already, he was aiming the giant weapon toward us.
“Go!” I yelled.
As Darcy readied the gun, we ran right to the Recon; it would be safe right next to the vehicle because Darcy couldn’t point the gun down that far. It was only a temporary solution. The Howlers would be on us in seconds, so we still had to find a way inside the Recon to kill Darcy.
We made it to the passenger door, finding it locked. We could go around and try the driver’s door, but it was probably locked, too. Then there was the cargo bay. I thought that might be our likeliest choice.
Still the Howlers pressed forward. The nearest was probably twenty feet away. I fired a few shots, bringing it down. Good thing, too. My magazine had once more emptied, and I had to work quickly to slide a new one in.
“He can’t aim straight down at us,” Anna said. “And he probably locked all the doors. That means we have to improvise.”
She sheathed her katana, and I wondered just what the hell she was doing. She then climbed onto the Recon’s hood, and pulled herself on top of the cab.
“Anna!”
She was going to get herself killed. At the same time, we were as good as dead down here.
From above, Darcy squealed as he angled the gun around. He was going to blast Anna right off.
I fired a few shots upward, unheeding of the Howlers now pressing in. A few bullets ricocheted off the metal of the gun, casting sparks. Darcy looked down and spit at me and continued to concentrate on Anna. Still, I had distracted him long enough to give Anna the time she needed. She sidestepped the barrel of the turret, climbing inside of it to face Darcy. A knife gleamed in Darcy’s right hand.
While Anna climbed the railing surrounding the turret, Darcy took a swipe with his knife. Her eyes widened as she dodged clumsily, falling to the turret’s deck. Darcy was on her in an instant. Anna was the more skilled fighter, but Darcy was far crazier — and crazy counted for a lot in a fight.
“Come on,” I said to Ruth. “We have to help her!”
We scrambled onto the Recon’s hood, just in time for the Howlers to collide with the vehicle. They reached for our legs, but we stood in the center of the Recon’s hood, out of reach. I boosted Ruth onto the cargo bay where she could assist Anna. But instead of doing that, she reached down to help me up.
“Get to Anna!”
Ruth turned. As I pulled myself onto the cargo bay, Anna screamed.
Gritting my teeth, I pulled myself up as the shrieks of Howlers filled the motor pool. This fight was going on far too long. When I got on top of the cargo bay and reached the turret, I saw that Anna was no longer pinned by Darcy. Instead, Darcy had her against the railing.
Ruth ran from behind with her pole and hook extended. Darcy spun around, swiping the pole from her hand. This caused Ruth herself to spin and topple for the edge of the cargo bay, nearly falling upon the mouths of the Howlers below, whose din was so deafening that I couldn’t hear anything else –
Until a mighty roar sounded from the direction of the entrance. The Behemoth had entered, having squeezed its mass through the doorway and into the motor pool. It stood on massive legs, its white eyes shining in the darkness. The Howlers scattered in its wake, not wanting to be a victim of its wanton violence. Its thick body was stooped, leaning forward, its massive head almost comical on top of its body; the neck was so short that it was practically nonexistent.
The Behemoth began to step forward.
Despite the oncoming Behemoth, I knew we had to take care of Darcy first — and before taking care of Darcy, I had to keep Ruth from falling over the edge of the Recon. I ran forward. Ruth had dropped her pole into the teeming mass of Howlers below. Her legs overhung the Recon’s edge — easy prey for a high-jumping Howler. I grabbed both of her hands and pulled her further toward the center.
Now I had to focus on Anna.
I aimed my gun right for Darcy’s back. I didn’t trust myself firing from this angle. If Darcy moved, then my bullet could just as easily enter Anna, who was blocked by Darcy’s body. I circled around, where my shot would be in less danger of hitting Anna. Anna’s fallen katana gleamed on the deck of the turret and Darcy’s blue eyes shined with a suicidal gleam. Anna used both of her hands to push back against Darcy’s fist that held the knife. The knife shook in Darcy’s grip as it edged closer to Anna’s neck.
But I had made it. As I aimed my Beretta, Ruth entered the picture, pulling on Darcy.
“Ruth, out of the way!”
I was frustrated that she had entered my sights just when I was about to pull the trigger.
Ruth let go, but Darcy had been alerted to my presence. When he looked up at me, Anna used the chance to twist Darcy’s arm. Darcy yowled as his knife clattered to the floor of the turret. Anna, using the railing behind as leverage, pushed into Darcy’s chest with her feet, giving a mighty push. With a yelp, Darcy careened over the edge of the Recon, his head knocking into the side of the vehicle on his way down. He fell headfirst into the writhing Howlers below. He screamed as the monsters tore into his flesh, screamed until there was nothing left to scream with. That only took a few seconds.