Sam swung his rifle around, but something big came out of the mist like a freight train and took him out of the line. He felt weightless as he flew through the air, landing in the slime.
Huge bodies came from both sides, moving so fast that they seemed to defy physics. Each of the HAWCs was smashed, and he saw Morag dive to the mud, roll and then grab at Anne who was down with her hands up over her head. They huddled together on the ground.
Sam launched himself back to his feet, engaged his shield and backhanded one of the massive beasts who should’ve been knocked a dozen feet, but instead just skidded backwards and then immediately came at him again, loping on all fours to gather speed, before rising on two and then leaping at him.
The hugely powerful HAWC with the power-assisted MECH armor took it head on, but was no match for the size and strength of the thing. They went down together, locked in a death roll.
Right beside them, Franks cursed as another of the massive bipeds ripped at her weapon, tearing it from her grip and pulverizing it in massive clawed hands. That elicited more curses, followed by her pulling a long, dark blade and swinging with all her upper-body strength to bury it hilt-deep into the meat of the thing’s neck. It screamed and pulled back, and then dragged at the knife in its flesh.
Chaos ruled, black blood spurted, and the nightmarish noise was near deafening — Sam felt they were in hell.
Morag spun about. “Where’s Russell?” Anne had her head down so Morag shook her and repeated the question at a shout. This time Anne just jerked her head and tried to crawl further under Morag’s arm.
Morag started to drag Anne away from the fray when she suddenly felt huge hands grab her shoulders, and she was lifted and then flung away like she weighed nothing. Even as she tumbled through the air, she saw Anne being seized by another creature.
Morag hit the ground and slid, but was immediately caught by the back of her suit and pulled through the slime. She glanced up, knowing what she would see, but was still terrified by what was there — the thing that had her was a monstrosity from a madman’s nightmare. She fought at it, remembering when they found the missing HAWC’s helmet, bloody and broken open like a fruit — she didn’t want to end up like that.
She pummeled at the hand, but her knuckles bounced off plating that felt like hard plastic. The thing looked down, and multiple eyes regarded her dispassionately. Its mouth worked feverishly with tiny arms and feelers on each side that opened and closed like some sort of crab.
Morag screamed. In turn there came grunts, clicks, and a sound like a whistle, and then the attack on the HAWCs was abandoned. She knew why — they had what they wanted — her and Anne.
CHAPTER 37
“Sound off, people.” Alex walked among his battered team and threw out a hand to pull Drake Monroe to his feet. Alex held up his RG3; the barrel and casing were crushed. He cursed and then tossed it aside.
One after the other, his HAWCs called back to him — all of them alive. Good. He could see that some shook heads and tested shoulders, and he knew that was as close as any would come to admitting to having injuries.
“Weapons check.” Alex saw a prone figure in a NASA suit and quickly crossed to them. He rolled the body over and Russell screamed and held hands up over his visor.
“It’s okay, you’re safe.” He pulled the man up. “Where’s Anne?” He looked around. “And Morag?”
Russell shook his head, looking sheepish. “I don’t know. I got hit and went down. That’s all I remember. Sorry.”
“Okay.” Alex understood. He and his HAWCs were warriors, designed for fighting, but not Russell. He spun back to his team.
His HAWCs held broken weapons. Sam held up his and looked at the heavy casing. “They targeted these. Busted all of them. Seems they did what they came to do — disarm us.”
“That’s not all,” Alex growled. “Spread out; we got missing people. Find me a trail.”
It didn’t take long for the remains of his team to come back in.
“Grounds all chopped up close in, but no trail further out.” Sam shrugged. “Or if there was that damned slime has closed over it already.”
Alex exhaled hard through his nose. “So, they didn’t just come to disarm us. They came for the women.” He checked the timer counting down on his arm. “We got no time for this shit.” Alex walked a few paces away, and stopped to stare out into the wall of cloud that seemed calm now, as though sated after swallowing Morag and Anne.
He knew he couldn’t leave the women. He also knew he couldn’t lead his HAWCs back in for a rescue, as they’d never make it out before the detonation caught them. He turned to look at his remaining team — they were tired. Anyone he took with him would be as good as dead.
Alex decided. “Sam, you’re in charge, head for the rendezvous point. I’ll get the women.”
“I’ve got your back, boss,” Casey said.
“Not this time,” Alex told her. “I need to travel light and fast. You all need to get to the rendezvous point, and get Mister Burrows and yourselves out.”
She started to disagree, but he held up a hand. “You know you can’t keep up with me, and I can lower my heart rate and oxygen consumption. You can’t.” He placed his hand on her heavily muscled shoulder. “I’m betting you’re going to be fighting tooth and nail to get there; you need to be in that fight, Lieutenant Franks. Clear a path; I’ll be needing it later.”
Her jaw jutted. Sam Reid stepped closer. “The fight’s going to be with you, boss. And you know I can keep up.”
I’m wasting time. “Listen up, people. When I get back with Morag and Anne, you all better be up at that rendezvous point, clear?”
Sam growled deep in his chest and Casey’s fists were still balled.
“Am I clear?” Alex lunged forward shouting.
“HUA.”
Alex nodded. There were no more words. He turned and vanished into the roiling fog.
Morag and Anne were thrown into the back of the downed space shuttle like sacks of sand. They immediately scrambled away from the Morg creatures to huddle against the wall, trying to make themselves as small as possible.
The hulking creatures were bulging with lumped muscle and strange growths that looked like coral and sea anemones. One of them went and stood before the fragment of meteorite. But then it stopped and just seemed to lean forward to stare and inhale the gases coming off it and take them deep into its lungs.
There were three of the Morg crowded into the bay area of the Orlando, and she heard one or more moving around outside — perhaps the Russians now joining with them. Alex Hunter had been right, this was obviously their home, or nest, or hive, for whatever these things had become. Some still had the remnants of clothing hanging from their bodies.
They had brought one of the HAWC guns, but had discarded it once they returned, as it seemed the strange rock with glowing interior was all that mattered to them.
They ignored the RG3 completely, and Morag mentally calculated how easy it would be to grab. The creative side of her brain conjured up images of her diving, snatching the weapon up, and blowing dinner-plate sized holes in the beasts, before grabbing Anne and returning to Alex and his HAWCs as a hero.
But then her logical brain kicked in and stomped all over her daydreams, shouting at her that it would be impossible, suicide, and worse, it’d probably mean something horrendous like being eaten alive.