Someone roughly grabbed his shoulder. Corporal Forest was one step ahead of Coleman’s thoughts. He jerked his head at the evacuation tunnel and yelled over the screaming, ‘David’s either in there or trying to get in there right. We need to clear him a path right now! We need to help!’
Coleman sucked it up and looked over his shoulder. You want to help your boy, then start helping right here.
Third Unit had snapped their weapons into firing position. They had stopped behind him in an arrowhead formation, as equally at a loss as himself. No military maneuver existed to deal with this situation, but the Marines couldn’t help by gaping from the sidelines.
Coleman had to trust in the professionalism of his team.
Let’s just fight them.
‘Choose your targets,’ he barked. ‘Let’s give these people some room to move, Marines!’
Third Unit reacted instantly. King, Marlin and Gill attacked left. Tremaine, Fisher and London attacked right.
Coleman and Forest ran straight into the middle of the mayhem.
Forest was already firing, snapping his rifle left and right and using his precise trigger-control to hurt every hostile in his firing arc.
All around, Coleman heard CMAR-17 assault rifles start discharging. Third Unit were finding whatever means they could to attack the creatures without injuring civilians.
On Coleman’s left, a creature dragged a man like a fallen horseman caught in the stirrups. Blood soaked his trouser leg where the creature gripped him. He desperately scrabbled for purchase on the smooth enamel floor.
Coleman saw a clean shot and took it.
He snapped off three fast rounds squarely into the creature’s head. The creature stumbled sideways, then recovered and charged straight towards the gunfire.
Diving aside, rolling on his shoulder, Coleman avoided the charge and came up shooting. His bullets tore into the creature at point-blank range. Behind the nest of tentacles pumped a fat, pale, wasp-like body. The body throbbed like a giant human heart. Sappy white fluid spewed from its wounds as Coleman churned bullets into the collapsing mess.
The creature stopped moving with a quarter of its body torn to shreds.
‘Target their abdomens!’ Coleman radioed as he knelt beside the wounded man. ‘The body is vulnerable!’
The man bellowed as Coleman wrenched the tentacle from his calf. Three-inch long thorns lined the creature’s limb. The man stumbled away towards the evac tunnel despite the deep raking wounds covering his leg.
Coleman checked his CMAR-17 magazine. He had used nearly half a magazine to take down just one creature.
Part of a frantic radio message burst over his headset: ‘- I repeat, we have multiple hostiles. Non-human! I repeat, non-human, attacking us from all sides! Request immediate — ’
It sounded like Fifth Unit. Corporal Stevens. Stevens’ team entered the Complex by the northern stairwell. Coleman could only imagine the carnage if they became trapped in the stairwell.
What have we walked into?
Listening now, Coleman heard automatic CMAR-17 fire coming from every corner of the Complex. Multiple skirmishes. Every team sounded heavily engaged.
Desperate engagements, Coleman realized from the sound of the sustained gunfire. The creatures are everywhere.
He heard another voice he recognized on the headset, Corporal Harrison’s, a friend of Coleman’s since basic training. Harrison was attempting to fight and make a combat report simultaneously:
‘- got too many…(static)…be everywhere…(static)…defensive withdrawal through…(static)…civilian casualties coming…(static)…trapped in — ’
The radio message cut off.
Coleman stopped trying to make sense of the fragmented messages. Third Unit was scattered everywhere. To the west, Fisher and London stood back-to-back firing. Closer to Coleman’s position, Marlin and King sidestepped around a creature thrashing wildly under their assault. They lifted their weapons high and angled their shots downwards to avoid hitting passing civilians.
To Coleman’s right, to the east, Tremaine, Gill and Forest each worked on their own, weaving through the chaos, shooting, moving, shooting again.
Coleman noticed a pattern in the creatures’ behavior. Gunfire affected their movements. Even the creatures not being fired upon moved erratically and changed directions every time a weapon discharged nearby. He saw the pattern, but didn’t have time to dwell on it.
Because at that moment he saw Forest in trouble.
Forest’s assault rifle had run dry. He stood plugging aimed pistol shots into a creature charging straight towards him.
Coleman keyed his headset radio. ‘Forest, get ready to reload.’
Forest didn’t respond. He was busy shooting for his life.
Coleman dropped to one knee and leveled his assault rifle between Forest and the creature.
He thumbed the weapon to fully-automatic and aimed. When the creature’s wasp-like body filled his weapon-sight, he squeezed the trigger. The blast of fully-automatic fire ripped down the side of the creature like a cheese-grater.
The creature rolled away from the impact, its momentum thrown off by the side-attack.
Forest reacted instantly. He holstered his pistol and in one smooth motion lifted out a fresh ammunition magazine for his rifle. He rammed the magazine home, cocked his weapon, and started firing downwards into the creature like he was hosing leaves off a driveway.
Coleman spun towards the sound of sustained gunfire to the west. Third Unit’s attack had formed a temporary breach between the creatures and the evacuees. At the head of that breach, Privates Fisher and London faced the full force of the swarming creatures.
Standing back-to-back, Fisher and London used a three-hundred and sixty degree arc of gunfire to hurt everything in their range. Creatures swarmed towards them from every side. Their CMAR-17s fired white-hot, but the creatures surged closer every moment.
Fisher’s voice burst over Coleman’s radio. ‘Backup. We need backup right now!’
Coleman searched for a way to help. He couldn’t reach Fisher and London in time. King and Marlin looked closer, but were maneuvering to place a wounded creature between themselves and more incoming hostiles. They appeared only seconds away from the same predicament as Fisher and London.
‘Fisher — London — you need to break out,’ ordered Coleman over his headset. ‘Focus your fire to the east and break out!’
‘We can’t!’ yelled Fisher between bursts of his weapon. ‘They’re too close. There’s too many!’
And then Coleman saw one of the creatures swipe a barbed tentacle across London’s face.
London’s entire head smashed to the right. The left side of his face tore away. Blood fountained from his carotid artery like a burst water main. The impact slammed him to the ground.
‘London is down. London is down!’ yelled Coleman into his radio.
Private Gill rushed up beside Coleman.
‘Holy shit,’ moaned Gill. London’s blood spurted straight up into the air.
‘We need to get in there!’ Coleman yelled. ‘You go left and we’ll open a — ’
Then Gill was gone.
The creature slammed Gill from behind like a raging bull. In the roar of gunfire they hadn’t heard the creature approaching. Gill rolled along the floor in the creature’s grip. Before their momentum stopped, every tentacle had wrapped tightly around his body.
Then it got worse. The creature began a frenzy of hyperactive motion, tearing Gill apart.
Coleman sprinted towards the young Private. He stopped just a meter short, searching for a clean shot, but the limbs wrapped up too tightly around Gill.