LZR-1143: Redemption by Bryan James Read Free Book Online Page B

sunglasses, all I could do is face her. She turned her head back toward me for a split second, and everything seemed to happen at once.
    “Fence is down, let’s start mov — Shit! Mother f—-” The quick whisper of rounds being fired on semi-automatic stopped with a quick gurgling sound.
    The sound of the inflatable boat scratching across the weeds almost obscured the heavy sound of a body sinking under the water in a thrashing of green and black. A weapon discharged in a silence puff of displaced air, and Rhodes’ large form was next to me, gun scanning the water as the two men on board the boat jumped down and toward the fence.
    “Hey, where’d your other man go?” the first one asked, pulling Kate through the fence.
    “God damn geek pulled him into the water!” shouted Rhodes, pushing me through the fence and running to where Clifton was standing. “All I saw was two arms and then he —”
    Then, he was on his back. As I turned, four arms and two heads were suddenly at his legs as he kicked and tried to bring his rifle around. I pushed through the water, bringing the shotgun around on its sling and detaching it as the first creature looked up, water and mud dripping from its face, hair matted to the skull like a waterlogged doll. I swung it forward quickly, using the Pathfinder’s attached blade for silence. The lips pulled back and the broken teeth smiled as the long, razor sharp blade severed its spine.
    A loud tearing sound met my ears as the second creature tore a small piece of Rhodes’ pants away near the ankle, the mindless ghoul looking momentarily confused as its bloodied hands held up a small metal plate.
    The large man wasted no time firing a quick shot to put the creature into the water, and frantically scrambling from the murky river. I reached down, pulling him up from the sucking, thick mud with one arm, and nearly tossing him into the boat. He glanced back once, eyes slightly wild. Whether due to the close encounter or my strength I wasn’t sure.
    “What the fuck, man? Those things have a navy now?” One of the coastguardsman was incredulous, and quickly revved the engine as we climbed on board.
    “I’ve never seen that before,” I said to Kate, staring at the water. Small, round protrusions in the water were visible, now.
    They looked like turtles on a log, or rocks in a shallow stream.
    But they weren’t.
    They were the tops of heads.
    More ripples were visible now, as the protrusions moved slowly toward the boat and the fog started to dissipate slightly. Hands emerged in short fits and flailed briefly above the water. The small, almost insignificant splashes as the hands broke the surface of the water, belied the danger beneath the water.
    Jesus. They were in the water now.
    It had to be a product of the herding impulse. It had to be the drive to join other groups.
    They couldn’t be learning new ways to hunt. They weren’t that developed.
    Were they?
    The engine hummed and we pushed away from the marshy shore, the faint new rays of sunshine stabbing at my eyes through my glasses.
    “Yeah. That’s definitely new…” Kate said, trailing off. The wake of the boat soon obscured the eerily silent following of half-obscured heads and flailing arms, and we turned to watch the water push past the sides of the small craft.
    My earpiece crackled with another broken signal, this time from a dispatcher in the Pentagon.
    “Seeker,” said the voice, and I heard our simple call sign, ready to respond. “This is Castle. Iron Eagle is inbound, approximately five mikes out. Patching you through to their channel. Iron Eagle, go ahead for Seeker, Castle out.”
    “Copy that, Castle,” I said, hearing significant static on the new channel. The boat’s steady hum didn’t help, and I moved forward, away from the motor. “Iron Eagle, this is Seeker, how do you copy, over?”
    Behind me, I saw Kate lean in and ask the younger of the two sailors something and then she signed to me: three