“We’ve almost got thrusters one through three online,” Les said over the comms. “Ensign Corey, how is that storm looking?”
“It’s about to get pretty bad,” she reported.
“We better get everyone back inside and finish the right bank of thrusters later,” Michael said. “I don’t want to risk having people out here when it hits.”
“I need only a few more minutes,” Les said, “but pull everyone else back. I’ll stay out here with Cricket.”
“Banks!” Magnolia shouted. “Get back here!”
The wind howled like an enraged Siren, masking her voice. She bumped on the channel to the militia soldiers.
“Get back to the airship!” she shouted.
That got their attention.
They all turned and began to jog across the dirt, but they were a good fifty yards out. Gusts slammed into them, knocking Banks down.
Magnolia led the Cazadores and Michael back toward the stern. They couldn’t open the launch-bay doors lest they contaminate the new passengers, so they must return to the port side, where they had taken a ladder down to the ground.
Finally back at the stern, she glanced up at the scaffolding.
“Almost got it,” Les called down.
Alfred was still up there with him, helping replace the final wiring.
“Guys, come on,” Rodger said, waving at her and Michael.
“I’m staying here with him,” Michael said.
“Me, too,” Magnolia said.
“Figured you’d say that,” Rodger said.
The techs and engineers ran back to the hatch with the Cazadores, leaving only the militia soldiers still out in the field.
Magnolia moved back to the port side of the stern, where Banks and his men were slowly making their way back in the screeching wind.
“I’ve got a visual,” Timothy reported over the comm. “I’m running a scan in my database, but I think I know what those things are.”
Magnolia zoomed in on the cloud closing in on the airship. Thousands of tiny dots moved at the outer edge of the bulging storm. Her heart caught in her throat when she saw the wings.
Now she knew what had killed the Siren.
“Fruit bats,” Timothy said. “Thousands of them, and these look a lot bigger than their ancestors.”
“Same things that attacked me in Jamaica,” Michael said. He looked up at Les and Alfred. “Move it, guys!”
“We’ve almost got it!” Les shouted back.
Rodger paced. “Bats? That wall of black is really—” His sentence ended in a squawk.
Only it wasn’t from Rodger at all.
A flurry of motion surged from the sky, homing in on Banks and his men as they kept near the hull of the airship. All three men turned just as the bats swarmed them. Their armor and suits vanished in a swirling cloud of wings and hairy skin.
Magnolia watched in horror as the first wave of creatures flew up into the sky like a whirlwind, allowing the next wave to swarm in, and the next.
Within seconds, all three men had been stripped of their armor, suits, and flesh. They didn’t even get the chance to scream. Or perhaps they had, and the shroud of wings muted the sound.
Michael pulled her back around the stern. He raised his laser rifle, and she did the same, directly under the left bank of thrusters. They stood side by side, waiting for the wave of bats to move around the stern and attack.
“Les, Alfred, come on!” Michael said over the comm.
The two men descended the ladder, but Cricket hovered, working to take down the scaffolding.
Shrieks rose over the wind like a macabre chorus.
Magnolia and Michael waited at the bottom of the ladder with their weapons up. It was just the two of them now. Even Rodger had bailed.
The bats’ vanguard curved around the stern, cutting through the air just as Les and Alfred jumped to the dirt. Laser bolts shot skyward, cutting off wings and erasing ugly faces. The mutant monsters came in droves, each with a wingspan of several feet, hissing like vampires.
“Get down!” someone yelled.
Magnolia dropped to the ground with Michael, and a stream of fire jetted overhead, coating the swooping bats in flame. Behind the long barrel, she spotted a Hell Diver with a Cazador flamethrower strapped to his back.
Not just any diver. It was Rodger.
Sofia joined him with another flamethrower, torching the beasts. Burning carcasses rained from the sky, sizzling in the pouring rain.
“Hot enough for you ugly turd-faced fucks?” Rodger screamed as he raked the stream of flames back and forth. “How about you? Yeah? You guys want some, too?”
Magnolia and Michael crawled below the twin gouts of flame and got up behind Rodger and Sofia as Alfred and Les led the way back to the hatch.
“Timothy, can you get us out of here with just the left bank of thrusters working?” Les asked.
“We’re going to find out, sir,” replied the AI.
“Come on!” an engineer yelled from the open hatch.
Alfred climbed the ladder, and the rest of the team followed. Sofia and Rodger covered their retreat, then Sofia turned to climb while Rodger stood guard.
At the hatch, she fired again to give Rodger a chance to climb. But a burning bat latched on to his leg. He kicked and kicked, screaming all the while.
The creature finally fell away, and Rodger nearly jumped up the ladder.
The hatch slammed behind him.
Timothy’s hologram waited inside the room, spreading its glow over the panting divers, engineers, and technicians.
A bat slammed into a porthole, cracking the glass. More of them pounded the other windows, streaking them with blood.
“Get those thrusters online now!” Les yelled.
“Cricket!” Michael said. “We can’t leave without Cricket.”
“Better get his mechanical ass inside, then,” Les said.
Michael tapped his monitor. “I’ll have him latch on to the Sea Wolf.”
The airship jolted as the turbofans clicked on and powered the ship skyward. The retracting legs clanked amid thuds from the bats assaulting the exterior.
“I sure hope we plugged those exterior holes the Sirens found,” Magnolia said.
“Me, too,” Rodger said. He turned around, and Les helped him shuck off the tank for the flamethrower. Sofia placed her tank on the deck and wiped the sweat from her forehead.
“Glad you came with us,” Michael said. “Quick thinking by you two.”
The bulkheads whined from the onslaught of wind, rain, and bats pounding the exterior. Over all the noises came a loud whine, like that of an engine that won’t start.
“Trying thrusters again,” Timothy said.
Another long whine.
“Shit,” Rodger said.
Magnolia grabbed his hand. “Thank you,” she said.
“For what?”
“For not leaving me.”
He took off his helmet, and she took off hers while Timothy tried to bring the thrusters online.
Another whine, another failed attempt.
Bats crashed against the portholes, splintering the exterior glass and smearing it with blood.
Magnolia reached over to take Rodger’s glasses off. Then she leaned in and planted a kiss on his lips. His cheeks reddened when she pulled away.
The thrusters whined a fifth time, and she kissed him again.
On the sixth attempt, the left bank of six came back online. The airship jolted with such force that she fell forward, landing on top of Rodger.
He let out a squeak.
Applause rang out around them as the airship picked up speed.
“We did it!” Timothy said with a handsome smile.
Les smiled back at the hologram. “Take us home, Pepper,” he said. “It’s finally time to show our new friends the home we promised them.”
