Warriors

SIXTEEN

The small armada pushed away from the Hive, toward the capitol tower. Other boats sped to the Hive, to help put out the fires and evacuate civilians.

X sat in the bow of a speedboat with Michael while Sergeant Wynn piloted the craft as fast as he could between patches of burning debris floating on the choppy water. Ton and Victor stood in the back, staring in disbelief.

The refugees had seen more death in their lives than some Hell Divers. So much for bringing you to a safe place, X thought.

He looked over the gunwale at the flotsam from the destroyed submarine, but much of the burning debris had come from militia and Cazador vessels.

He choked up when he saw the burning pyre on the funeral boat. Smoke billowed into the sky as the flames consumed General Rhino’s mortal remains.

X wasn’t sure how the boat had been set ablaze, but without a proper ceremony, Rhino probably wouldn’t get into Valhalla or wherever it was Cazador warriors went after death.

“Fuck!” he yelled. A wave of dizziness brought him to the seat, where he tried to contain his anger. But part of him didn’t want to. He was going to need the anger to fight the Sirens.

He remained sitting, looking in all directions.

The skinwalkers had hit the Vanguard Islands hard in a well-coordinated attack. And it was Colonel Moreto who had orchestrated the whole thing.

X should have known she was up to something when she requested that the fight take place on the Hive rooftop.

The boat weaved around more wreckage, where several militia soldiers held on to pieces of a boat, waving and shouting at crews moving out to pick them up.

X still didn’t know where Lieutenant Sloan was or where Magnolia, Rodger, and half of his most trusted divers were. He turned back to Sergeant Wynn to ask for an update, raising his voice over the motor’s racket.

“Last I saw them, they were on the rooftop of the Hive!” Wynn yelled back.

“Victor, did you see them?” X said.

Victor shook his head, then asked Ton in their native language. Ton also shook his head in reply.

“And Lieutenant Sloan?” X asked.

“She’s still not picking up the radio,” Wynn replied.

X looked back to the airship, fearing the worst for the divers and the woman in command of the militia. Thick smoke wafted away from the flames lapping the curved beetle shape of the home that had kept much of humanity alive for over two and a half centuries. More flames billowed out of the gaping hole from a missile impact.

To leave the airship now felt like fleeing, especially without knowing where his friends were, but X had to deploy their limited resources to try to save the capitol tower, too. The damage was severe, but his people would do what they must to salvage the ship.

If anything in this world was immortal, it wasn’t X. It was the Hive. And it would survive.

He turned back to the capitol tower and kicked himself for leaving Miles sleeping in his room. If something happened to his dog, Carmela Moreto would die slowly…

“Look!” Michael shouted. He pointed his robotic hand at the tropical forest topping the mounted airship. A winged beast flapped over the tops of the palms, then dived.

It emerged a moment later with a soldier in its claws. The man kicked helplessly, fighting to get free. He succeeded, but he didn’t fall back to the rooftop, instead plummeting all the way down to the ocean.

Water splashed from the impact, and X didn’t see the soldier resurface.

Tracer fire followed the creature into the clouds. More of the abominations circled the tower. One squeezed out of a window on the third level, spread its wings, and took flight.

“Faster!” X yelled back at Wynn.

The boat accelerated, jolting over the waves.

“Sir, I’m picking up some radio chatter,” Wynn said. It sounds like there are over a dozen Sirens inside the tower, most of them at the top.”

“How is that possible!” Michael yelled back.

They would find out soon enough, but X hoped to God the monsters hadn’t started from the bottom and worked their way up already.

Michael loaded a spare assault rifle that Wynn had given him, and X unstrapped his rifle. He struggled to load the shotgun shells from the bandolier into the hybrid weapon, and Michael reached over to help with his robotic hand.

“Guess we’re twins now,” X said. Feeling helpless and embarrassed, he couldn’t think of anything else to say.

Neither of them laughed.

“Here,” Michael said, handing the weapon back.

X took the loaded assault rifle–shotgun combo, though he had no idea how he was going to fire the damn thing. It was too heavy to hip fire, especially with his left hand, and his stump was too short to rest the stock on.

Slinging the weapon, he grabbed his sword. He had killed Sirens with less in the wastes.

The boat closed in on empty docks in the open marina. X had a feeling this was where the skinwalkers had released the Sirens.

Wynn took the radio off his vest and held it to his ear while guiding the boat to the dock.

“Sir, it’s Captain Mitchells. He wants to talk to you.”

X took the handset. “Tell me you took out all those subs,” he said.

It was hard to hear over the chug of the motor, but X did make out that Discovery had taken out one sub; then the transmission broke up.

“Les!” X shouted. “Les, do you—”

“Sir, I copy,” Les replied. “I was saying there are still at least two submarines left, and they have gone back under.”

“What about Raven’s Claw?”

“Not picking it up on radar,” Les said. “We’re continuing to scan.”

X doubted they would find it. Chances were good the warship had launched the subs from a distance, and one of those subs had somehow unleashed the Sirens.

“Stay out of view, and take out those subs if they resurface,” X said. “I’ll take care of the Sirens.”

“Sir, my family…”

Through the static, X could hear the fear in the captain’s voice. He was in the sky, unable to do anything to protect his wife and daughter.

“I won’t let anything happen to them,” X said. “Watch our back from the skies.”

Several boats full of militia soldiers powered toward the rig. X handed the radio back to Wynn and prepared to jump onto the dock. Then he saw the bodies. Militia soldiers and civilians, including a Cazador merchant, lay on a dock slick with blood.

“My God,” Michael groaned.

It wasn’t hard to figure out what had happened here. The Sirens had torn through the area and then scaled the tower or taken flight.

The boat pulled up alongside the dock, and dozens of militia soldiers stormed the piers with X and his comrades.

X raised his sword into the air and shouted, “Save our home!”

The soldiers shouted in response, but he could hear the fear in their voices. Many of these men and women had fought the Cazadores during the battle for the islands, but they had never faced the mutant monsters.

X ran ahead of the group to show them he did not fear the beasts and that he would happily give his life today for his home and his people.

He was first to the elevator cage. Michael, Ton, Victor, and Wynn piled in after him, and he hit the lever.

The jolt rocked his stomach, and X again cursed himself for drinking too much last night. Facing Sirens with a hangover and no right arm was going to be one of the toughest fights of his life.

The cage lift was maddeningly slow.

When it clanked to the sundeck, X burst out. He ran across the gardens toward a side door, sliding to a stop when he heard the electronic wail of a Siren nearby.

The beast loped around the end of a wall decorated with images of ships and animals. Wings riddled with bullet holes spread outward. It then tucked them to its side and dived toward X while he labored to bring up his slung rifle.

Two spears sailed overhead and slammed into wrinkled, pale flesh, impaling the beast against the tower bulkhead. Blood smeared the colorful birds and butterflies painted on the wall.

Ton and Victor drew their swords as it screeched in agony. The creature flapped away from the wall, fighting for altitude, then sank to the deck, where Michael finished it with a burst from his assault rifle.

The team entered through the side door. A blood trail streaked down the tiled floor, ending at a corpse sprawled in an intersection, only the legs in view.

Michael shouldered his rifle and went first. A loud crunching resonated, and he held up his robotic fist. X gripped his sword, leaving the rifle slung over his back.

He followed Michael around the corner to find a Siren hunched over a dead woman. It raised an eyeless face, viscera hanging from the mouth.

Michael fired a burst as the lips opened to release a screech. The head went backward, and the Siren fell on top of its victim.

The team pressed on, finding two more bodies in the next passage. They were getting close to X’s quarters. Around the next corner, he heard distant barking.

X ran in front of Michael, nearly bowling him over.

“X, wait!” Michael called out.

There would be no waiting, no caution, when it came to Miles. If X lost his dog, he might just as well die, too.

He bolted for the open door and burst into his quarters to find Miles under the bed. A female Siren was on the floor, swiping under the raised platform.

“Hey, you blind, ugly fuck!” X shouted.

Dropping his sword on the deck, he grabbed a hind leg of the creature and hauled it out. It rolled to its back and swiped at X, slashing his chest and ripping through the strap of his gun. The weapon clanked to the floor behind him.

X stomped on the beast’s face with his sandals, but that only hurt his foot. He stumbled back as the creature jumped up.

Michael entered the room with his rifle shouldered.

“X, get out of the way!” he shouted.

A big ball of fur squirmed out from under the bed and grabbed the creature’s leg as its hooked talons whipped out again at X. This time, he moved back.

Miles clamped down on the scaly ankle, cracking bone. The Siren let out a wail and turned to strike the dog, but X plunged his sword through its back. Then he lifted the skewered beast off the floor with all the strength of his left arm.

Victor squeezed into the room and swung his blade, and the head bounced on the floor with a clunk.

X withdrew his blade and bent down to Miles.

“I’m so sorry, boy,” he said. “I’m soooooo sorry.”

Miles whined and licked his hand.

The dog had a gash on his back, but it didn’t look deep.

“I’m going to make you feel better, boy,” X said, grabbing the medical kit Dr. Huff had left in his room. “Hold still, buddy.”

Once X had Miles patched up, he kissed him on the head. The dog returned the gesture by licking his face.

The radio crackled in the hallway.

“Our teams on the rooftop are being overrun,” Wynn said. “We have to help them.”

They fought their way up three more floors on their way to the tropical forest, killing two Sirens and finding five more sky people dead on the way. None were Les’s family, but X couldn’t leave the lower levels without checking on them first.

He stopped at the next intersection and went left.

“Sir, where are you going?” Wynn called out.

“To check on Phyl and Katherine—I promised! I’ll meet you up there. Go!”

The team broke off, Michael and Wynn heading topside while Miles, Ton, and Victor went with X. The two refugees stuck close to him, their round metal shields up and their swords dripping blood.

Miles had a slight limp, but he trotted right along, happy to be with X.

The next hallway appeared to have been spared from the Sirens, but he had to make sure. X stopped at the apartment Les shared with his wife and daughter.

He knocked on the door with the pommel of his sword.

“Katherine,” X said quietly. “It’s Xavier.”

Rustling came on the other side, and the door cracked open.

Phyl peeked through the gap and looked up at X with eyes swollen from crying.

“Where’s your mom?” X asked.

The door opened, and Katherine pulled Phyl back.

“Are you both okay?” he asked.

“Yes, we’re fine,” Katherine replied.

“Good. Stay here and block off this door.”

“Don’t leave us,” Katherine said. “Please.”

“Victor, tell Ton to stay with them,” X ordered.

Victor relayed the order, and Ton nodded. Katherine let him into the quarters, and X bent down to Miles.

“You have to stay here and protect Phyl and Katherine, boy, okay?” X said.

The dog licked his face again. X patted his head and then gestured for him to go into the room. Phyl bent down to stroke the dog, the tears forgotten and a smile on her face.

“Don’t open this door until we come back,” X said. Then he was off, running with Victor to the rooftop.

When they got there, bodies of militia soldiers lay strewn haphazardly in the dirt. Gashes marked where claws had torn through flesh and opened arteries beneath their armor.

Gunfire came from the other side of the tropical forest, and X bolted toward the sound. He was slowing down now, feeling as if he might puke or pass out, or both.

X stumbled, and Victor caught him.

“Keep moving,” X said.

They ran into the tropical forest, where X stopped to vomit. He wiped his mouth.

When Victor gave him a concerned look, he said, “I feel better now.” It wasn’t a lie. Puking had reenergized him.

He took off running again, and when they emerged from the forest, the anxiety and nausea returned.

Michael, Wynn, and three militia soldiers were surrounded by a prowling pack of ten Sirens. More circled overhead.

The men alternated fire between the creatures in the sky and those on the deck. Two of the fliers dropped to the dirt, making their alien cries as they took their last breaths.

When X gave the order to advance, Victor didn’t hesitate, running toward the beasts with their backs turned, hoping to take them by surprise.

Down to just his sword, X slashed at the nearest creature just as it turned, cutting halfway through its neck.

He moved to the next one, plunging the blade into the creature’s forehead with an audible crunch. Victor slashed and stabbed, killing two monsters.

Two airborne Sirens dived toward Michael’s group. Gunfire riddled them, but one managed to snatch a militia soldier, yanking him away.

The creatures on the ground bolted toward the rest of the team, and several more broke off to take on X and Victor.

X swung and sliced, screaming. Beside him, Victor fought nimbly, bringing down several of the beasts before they could strike.

But there were too many.

A muscular female slammed into X, knocking him to the deck. Victor tried to help, but two creatures came at him.

X lost sight of the man as he fought to get the Siren off him. He grabbed the neck with his left hand, but with only his stump, he couldn’t do much besides hold back the maw of jagged teeth.

Human screams rang out around him. One was Michael’s youthful voice. Filled with rage, X crushed the Siren’s windpipe and pushed it off him.

He grabbed his sword and stabbed a monster that had knocked Victor down.

Three more Sirens bounded toward them.

X and Victor came together, side by side, while Michael, Wynn, and one last militia soldier took on five more of the beasts.

X let out a scream that sounded almost inhuman, in a voice that even he didn’t recognize. “argggggggghhhhhh!”

He strode forward with his blade, lunging to strike a Siren that raced toward him on all fours. Over the creature’s high-pitched death wail came another sound.

Human shouts and screams exploded from the forest.

X kept fighting, filled with hope now that reinforcements had arrived. He became a machine, slicing, stabbing, and kicking at the monsters’ wrinkled flesh. He didn’t ease up until a troop of armored soldiers stormed past him to finish the fight.

Panting, X finally lowered the sword in his throbbing left hand. He watched the soldiers finish off the last Sirens.

But these men weren’t wearing black body armor. They were Cazador warriors, and leading them was a man in full armor, with a black cape fluttering behind his shoulders.

“Colonel Forge!” X yelled.

The officer swung a bloody cutlass at the last two monsters. The soldiers flanking him also wielded blades slick with blood, and some bore the claw marks of Sirens.

Mac, Felipe, and several Barracudas had also joined Forge and his men, clearing the inside of the tower and fighting to the top. For the first time since Rhino’s death, X finally had Cazadores he could trust.

And judging by the destruction the skinwalkers had left behind, he was going to need every ally he could get.