Extinction Age by Nicholas Sansbury Smith Page B

down.
    Beckham pulled a dry magazine from his M16 and reached to
Chow for another when he saw the Variants jumping from the water along the side
of the pier. They climbed onto the dock, lean muscles glistening from the
Hudson. The pilot saw them too, and he pulled up before Beckham could react,
knocking him against a wall.
    “NO!” Beckham shouted. He watched helplessly as Ryan crashed
to the dock in a blur of motion, the monsters tackling him from two directions.
Beckham glimpsed the terror in his eyes and the bloody mist exploding from
arteries as they tore him apart. And then he was gone.
    Beckham sucked in a long, stunned breath. He scrambled back
to the edge of the open chopper door. Horn was firing madly in an effort to
save Valdez, but it was too late. The rounds shredded the first wave, but
another pack that had emerged from the river circled the Marine. He spun with
his rifle blazing, dropping several of the monsters. The others reached out
with talons as long as knives. They cut into him, tearing gashing wounds across
his body. He spun as they slashed him, his eyes falling on the chopper, a
defiant look still on his face. The man was as tough as a bag of bricks. It
took five of them to finally bring him down.
    Beckham forced himself to watch. Valdez had given his life
for his men. He’d fought valiantly to the end so that his brothers would live.
Looking away would dishonor him.
    Halfway down the pier, the main mass of Variants surged over
the concrete barricades. Thousands of talons reached toward the sky. The creatures
climbed over one another in an effort to reach the feeding. What was left of
Ryan and Valdez was quickly consumed, buried in the heart of the diseased
flesh.
    The pilots maneuvered over the river and pulled away from the
city. Beckham said a prayer, scanned the ruined New York skyline one more time,
and collapsed next to Jinx’s limp body. The nightmare that was Operation
Liberty was finally over. A handful of heroes were dead and New York was lost,
but he had a feeling the war had only just begun.
     

-5-
     
    T he monsters were gone, but signs of the nightmare
they had unleashed on Plum Island were everywhere. Blood stains from the
Marines who had tried to hold the Variants back crisscrossed the concrete.
Bullet casings littered the ground. A single helmet remained on the tarmac.
    Kate stood at the front of a group of civilians, waiting
again for Team Ghost to return. A brilliant sun cast rays of morning light on
the skeleton of the Chinook a hundred yards away. It sat there like a brooding
beast, the darkened metal still steaming. Above it, the shape of a single
Blackhawk sparkled in the sunlight. Kate squeezed Jenny and Tasha’s hands as
they watched the helicopter approach.
    “Clear a path!” someone shouted. Four medics in Medical Corps
uniforms pushed through the group. They broke off into pairs and hurried across
the tarmac carrying stretchers.
    “What are they doing?” Tasha asked.
    “They’re going to help the soldiers,” Kate replied.
    “Is daddy hurt?” Jenny asked.
    “No, honey.”
    Tasha looked up with glossy eyes. “Is Reed?”
    “He’s going to be just fine.”
    Riley wheeled his chair to the front of the group and took
off after the medics. Fitz followed close behind, ignoring the orders from a
Medical Corps guard posted at the edge of the tarmac. Kate was still amazed at
how fast the young Marine sharpshooter could run on his prosthetic blades.
    Kate watched anxiously as the chopper set down and disgorged
over a half dozen men. The medics rushed forward in a low run beneath the
blades. They pulled two people from the craft a moment later, a soldier and a
woman in a CBR suit. Team Ghost huddled around and helped the medics place the
injured onto the stretchers.
    She scanned the group, counting the survivors. Relief came
flooding over her when the familiar faces came into view. Timbo, Peters, and
Rodriguez were the first. Next came Chow and Jensen. Horn and Beckham