Children of Evolution (The Gateway Series Book 2) (39 page)

Becks's guards seemed to have the upper hand for now, with the creatures apparently unable to see or hear them, but that wouldn't last. Only one guard was free, shouting into his com, and that wasn't going to be enough.
 

Nikki could see more creatures closing in, a handful of dark, hunched shapes moving slowly, blindly, but inexorably toward the dome.

The scene was so eerily surreal Nikki couldn't help but question her own eyes. Row upon row of unsuspecting moviegoers stood staring blankly out at nothing while nightmares prowled among them. When creature and human collided, one bumping blindly into the other in one of the upper rows, a grumbled oath and shove from one was answered with a blind slash from the other. Down went a teenage boy, his pained screams heard by no one except Nikki and the guards who couldn't get to him.

Nikki's gut twisted as her fear wrapped around itself, beginning its inevitable transition into frustrated anger. She wanted to do something, to stop anyone else from getting hurt. Most of these people were zoners, people who didn't deserve more pain in their lives. She wanted to protect them. She wanted to not be useless. But to her shame, her strongest instinct was to run.

Closer to the dome, the closing creatures were moving with more confidence, finding the aisles and advancing less fitfully, like their blindness mattered less the closer they came to their goal.

Their blindness.

"Max!" Nikki spun and knelt in front of his chair. She almost grabbed his hands, but she stopped herself at the last second. The last thing she wanted to do was break his concentration enough to make him stop broadcasting. If she was right, his movie was the only reason the theater hadn't turned into a blood bath.

"Max, they're real. The monsters in your movie, they're not just in your head. They're here, as in, in-the-theater here."
 

He didn't react at all. He just continued to stare off over her shoulder at nothing.
 

"You can't hear me," she breathed.
 

A deep scream tore Nikki's concentration. Behind Max, the last free guard went down under a hissing, thrashing black shape.
 

Nikki, you have to get out of here,
Michael urged. His feelings were so in sync with her own, she'd almost forgotten he was there.
You don't have time for any—

Nikki slapped a shaking hand on Max's arm. "Wake up!"

Max blinked, and his pale eyes focused on Nikki. Immediately the theater started to buzz with a low hum of voices as thousands of minds tried to cope with the sudden reality shift.

"They're here!" Nikki pointed frantically at the dark shapes closing on the struggling guards. "They're real. Distract them! You need to distract them."

Max's eyes shifted back to Nikki, his brow furrowed. If he understood, he didn't give a sign, but his gaze focused through Nikki and the babble in the theater quieted. Even the creatures grew calmer, their nerve-shredding barks and roars dying down as they looked around in apparent confusion. The groans of the downed guards and the urgent calls for reinforcements from the others echoed in the sudden silence.

Brilliant, Nik,
Michael whispered.
 

Whatever Max was doing, it was working. The creatures closest to the dome started moving around the barrier instead of toward it. Their movements were fast but all in sharp angles, like they were navigating a maze, a maze that was maneuvering them carefully around the people surrounding them.
 

Nikki and Michael shared a pulse of relief, but it was short lived. One of the creatures hesitated and looked back at the dome, at Nikki and Max inside the dome.

With a faint rumble Nikki could feel through her knees, the platform started moving, slowly lowering the stage back down below the theater. She glanced back at Max to see him suck in his top lip as the tiny furrow deepened between his brows.

Outside the dome, the lingering creature splayed a clawed hand on the theater floor and cocked its head. Then it looked back at Nikki and gathered itself.

Nik—
Michael started.

Yeah,
she thought back.
I see it.

The platform was steadily lowering out of harm's way, but not quickly enough. Blind or not, this creature wasn't fooled.

"Shit," she breathed.
 

The creature leaped, ripping loose a piercing roar as it arced toward them.
 

Nikki jumped between Max and the creature, knowing it wouldn't do any good.

The creature crashed into the dome sickeningly close to the open top and scrabbled for purchase as it started sliding backward. For half a breath Nikki thought they were safe. Then the sliding stopped as a single claw caught on the lip of the dome.

"Nikki, get him out of there!" Ace shouted.
 

Nikki looked back to see Ace catch the edge of the platform and haul herself up through the widening gap between stage and floor in one fluid heave.

"No! Don't touch him!" Nikki shouted, scrambling around to head her off. "He's the only thing keeping those people alive."

Ace stopped, but only because Nikki was between her and her brother. Then she glanced up and shoved Nikki aside.
 

"Down!" Ace commanded, reaching under the back of her shirt.
 

Nikki didn't have a choice, thanks to the shove. She landed on her hands and knees as something heavy dropped onto the platform nearby. She looked up just as Ace emptied her pistol into the creature, sending it toppling off the platform into the broadcast room.

"Close it!" Ace shouted.
 

Immediately the hole in the ceiling started spiraling shut just centimeters above Ace's head.

Nikki pushed herself back to her feet, shaky with relief that was mostly Michael's. She looked up at the closing ceiling, stomach twisting at the thought of so many people trapped in a room with the rest of those blind, angry monsters.

Ace holstered her pistol behind her back as she dropped to one knee to check Max for injuries. She was careful not to touch him, but Nikki could tell that took some effort. She called over her shoulder without taking her eyes off her brother. "Becks, do you have some kind of—"

"Mobile transmitter?" Becks broke in from below. She was over by the door of the broadcast room, fiddling with something in a cabinet full of gear. "Already working on it. Not our first rodeo." She tapped her earpiece as she worked. "Momma to all hands. Fall back. Repeat—fall back. Do not engage in the theater unless you have to."

"What?" Nikki said. She hopped off the platform while it was still half a meter off the floor, advancing on Becks. "What are you saying? You can't just leave those things up there!"

"That's not going to be an issue," Ace said. "Becks?"

"Ready. Hands," the blocky woman called. She turned from the cabinet and tossed a flashing earpiece over Nikki's head to Ace. "Wait for the pairing light before you put it on him."

"Which is—"

"Blue light," Becks cut in. She reached into her jacket and pulled a heavy looking sidearm from a shoulder holster. She checked something and slid something else, causing a short, low whine from the weapon. "Momma to tunnel team. Max is keeping those things occupied, but don't forget we have no emitters in the tunnels. We're on our own if those things get down here. Hold those exits."

"Wait, wait," Nikki said. "Stop. What are you two doing?"
 

"He's ready," Ace said, ignoring Nikki completely.
 

Nikki looked back to see Ace gently lift the broadcast band off Max's brow. She set it aside and then laid a hand on Max's chest. "Keep it going, baby. Just a little longer." Then she lifted one of Max's arms and started to pull him forward.
 

"Ace, we can't just—" Nikki started, but Becks cut her off.

"I'll take him," she said, brushing past Nikki on her way to Ace. "You're a better shot anyway, or so you say."

Becks started to tuck the heavy pistol in her waistband but Ace stood and stopped her.
 

"No, we need you on point, Becks. You have to guide us out of this maze."

Becks didn't seem happy about it, but before she could voice her argument, something thudded into the closed ceiling above the stage. Becks and Ace both looked up and then back at each other. Becks nodded and started to turn away.

"Hey!" Nikki shouted at them, her temper finally making it to the top of the emotional cement mixer she and Michael had churning in her belly. She shoved past Becks and grabbed Ace's arm to make sure she had her attention this time. "We're not leaving those things up there with all those people."

"No, kiddo. We're not," Ace said, meeting Nikki's eyes. "Elias called. Those things followed us all the way here from the base. They followed you. Where you go, they go. And we're getting you out of here."

Nikki swallowed hard, but her nerve held. "But what if—"

"They'll follow," Ace said with a nod as she put a fresh magazine in her pistol and tucked it into the front of her waistband. "They're not after these people. They want you."
 

She fixed Nikki with a stern stare. "When we move you stay in the pocket. You read me? You stay between us."

Nikki closed her mouth, her brief flare of anger fizzling away under a rising wave of guilt. This was all her fault. All these people were in danger because of her. People were getting hurt because of her, and there was nothing she could do about it except run away.

"Right," she replied.
 

Ace looked at her for another second, then pulled the shuttle key tab from her cargos. She pressed her thumb on the screen, then held it out for Nikki. "Thumb there."

Nikki did as commanded until the tab pulsed, then Ace pressed it into her hands.
 

"It'll respond to your voice now," Ace said. "When we get close, you fire up the shuttle and pop the doors. My hands are going to be full."

Nikki nodded, feeling only slightly less useless but still grateful to have something to do, something to focus on, however unimportant it was.

 
Ace broke eye contact with Nikki, knelt, and gently pulled Max down across her shoulders. His only response was a slight tightening of his already furrowed brow. Once she had Max in position, Ace stood, steadying him with one arm. Then she drew her pistol with her free hand and nodded.
 

"On me," Becks said with a quick glance at both of them. Then she was moving.
 

Nikki stayed close on Becks's heels as they moved out into the bowl-shaped room. It was empty. As were the identical halls leading out. There was no sign of the guards who'd been by the door earlier.
 

Becks didn't hesitate. She turned and headed down the left hall.
 

Nikki followed, matching her pace until a scream followed by the hollow pops of gunfire echoed from one of the other halls. She stopped and looked back, but Ace was moving up behind her, bowed slightly under Max's weight. She shook her head once and gestured with her pistol without slowing.
 

"Keep moving, Nikki," Ace said. Her voice was firm, but her eyes held a hint of something softer, a hint of understanding, like she had an inkling of the guilt Nikki was feeling.

Nikki turned and hustled after Becks, trying to block the continuing sounds from her mind, but her tension only got worse.
 

As they approached the next intersection, Nikki's heart rate spiked, easing back only slightly when Becks quietly called clear and took a turn. Each new hall after that seemed a little darker than the last, each turn another step closer to an inevitable confrontation with the nightmares hunting her.
 

To her increasing shame, her concern for the oblivious people above steadily gave way to fear for her own safety. She could feel Michael on the verge of saying something, but he wisely held back. She didn't want reassurance, false or otherwise. Not now. Not until this was over.

Becks stopped suddenly and held up a fist. Nikki didn't need military training to know to freeze. Her pounding heart translated the signal for her. They stood in heavy silence for a dozen far-too-rapid heartbeats, then Becks said, "Copy, Tommy. Rerouting. All exits report in."

They doubled back to the last intersection and took a different hall, moving faster than before. Nikki glanced back at a pulse of concern from Michael, but Ace was matching the quicker pace with obvious effort and even more obvious determination in her eyes.
 

She can't keep this up,
Michael thought.

She's carrying her brother,
Nikki replied without pause, feeling a rush of sympathetic strength tingling through her limbs.
She'll go all night if she has to.

The rush helped Nikki gain on Becks and brought a shadow of a smile to her lips to match the feeling coming through from Michael. But it didn't last. As she hustled by a metal door, eyes fixed on the broad back in front of her, something crashed into the door from the other side, ripping it completely out of its frame. She tried to jump clear, but she didn't even come close. The heavy door, and the snarling creature behind it, slammed into Nikki, driving her to the floor.

Nikki

The broken door between them was the only thing keeping the raging creature from tearing Nikki apart. Pinned against the concrete floor, Nikki pushed up as hard as she could on the bent slab of metal holding her down, but it did little good. On top of the door, the creature slashed and tore at the thin barrier, driving Nikki repeatedly into the ground.
 

Nikki shouted against the deafening roars, pushing with everything she had, wishing she had even a fraction of her power back, but the door continued to press down into her.

Then, as suddenly as it had hit, the weight was gone and the furious roars with it. The creature's lifeless body slapped down onto the concrete beside Nikki, the glow fading slowly from its eyes.