Syberian Sunrise (21 page)

The main structure appeared out of the mist. The door nearest to them had been forced open. Enzo approached it and peered into the room beyond. It was a small entrance chamber, one wall lined with lockers containing cold weather gear and not much else. A body lay slumped in the corner, a pool of blood beneath it.

“Fantastic,” Enzo muttered as he stepped inside. “We're clear, come on.”

Eve followed him in. They moved across the room to the only other door and opened it up, admitting them to a lengthy corridor. A handful of Mutants and Harvesters roamed the passageway, gathering up corpses.

“Shit,” Enzo muttered. “We're not going to be able to sneak into this one. You ready?”

“Yeah,” Eve replied. “We need to go left.”

“How far?”

“To the end, that big door at the end of the hallway.”

Enzo primed a grenade, stepped out and tossed it towards the largest cluster of enemies, then stepped back inside. As soon as the explosion sounded, he stepped back out and began rushing down the corridor. A half-dozen Mutants had been killed in the blast. Bits and pieces of them had been thrown all over the corridor. Even as Enzo saw this, he knew it was futile. They
had
to kill the Alpha, because the other Altered would just gather up the pieces and keep building their army. Right now, they needed intact bodies, but how long before they just started building their own out of spare parts? Then everyone would really be screwed.

He shot out of the chest of the nearest Mutant, turned his gun on a Harvester and put a three-round burst right down its gaping maw where, hopefully, it hit something vital. Beside him, Eve was firing as well. She'd been reduced to her pistol in all the chaos. Three more Mutants and a pair of Harvesters went down by the time they'd reached the door. Enzo spun and hastily reloaded while Eve went to the panel, kneeling in front of it.

“Can you open it?” he asked, slamming the fresh magazine home.

“Yes, give me a minute,” Eve replied.

Enzo laughed, shouldered the rifle and fired out another barrage of lead. A Mutant dropped as its chest popped open in a spray of gore. A dozen bad guys were strung out along the length of the central corridor, all coming for him now. They were swift and dexterous, dodging more often than not. Enzo emptied another magazine and took down only three more Harvesters. He quickly reloaded and kept up the rate of fire.

“Any day now!” he called.

“Got it!” Eve replied.

The door opened and the pair hurried through it. Eve quickly closed it behind them while Enzo scouted out the hangar they'd come to. The first thing that immediately jumped out at him was a ship. A transport that looked big enough to hold an FTL drive. Their ticket out of there. The second thing that jumped out at him was that the hangar was infested with Mutants and Harvesters. There was even an Ire thrown in for good measure.

“Fuck me,” Enzo muttered. He readied himself for more combat. “Eve, go to the ship, now. Find out if it works.”

“On it,” Eve replied, racing off towards the ship.

Enzo started things off by tossing two his limited supply of grenades towards the Ire, deciding to take out the biggest bad guy in the room first. Even as the grenades were flying through the air, he lined up the thing's twisted face and fired off a pair of three-round bursts. The Ire let out a roar and stumbled backwards. As it righted itself, the grenades landed at its feet and erupted in twin bursts. Enzo didn't wait to see if it was dead.

He kept firing.

Probably the only thing that was keeping him alive was the fact that none of the hostiles had the ability to fire back at him. They were all melee opponents and needed to be up in his face. As he opened up, squeezing the trigger again and again, taking down the Altered creatures as they rushed for him, he decided he was having a good time. His shoulder barely even hurt at all, despite the fact that the gun was rattling against it.

He emptied his current magazine, reloaded and then emptied that one as well. Enzo slapped a fresh one in, knowing that he didn't have infinite bullets. He tossed the rest of his grenades towards the largest cluster of Mutants that was steadily advancing on him and dove behind a stack of crates. As soon as the grenades went off, he popped back up and emptied another magazine taking down the remaining targets.

“How's it going in there?” he asked.

“Fine. Good. For the most part,”
Eve replied.

Enzo stood and began to move towards the ship. “What do you mean? You sound nervous.”

“Well, the ship works. It has an FTL drive, but it's locked down. It'll take me some time to crack through the lock, but this is pretty specific, not normal. Someone did this, and I'm willing to be that that someone was-”

“Fielding,” he finished.

“Yes, so keep an eye out while I do this.”

“Got it.”

Enzo stopped moving towards the ship and turned around. He barely had time to gasp in shock as he found himself staring directly into Fielding's face. She was smirking at him, her mouth twisted into a grim curve.

“Enzo,” she said, then backhanded him casually.

Enzo screamed as he was picked up and thrown across the length of the hangar. He hit the ground and rolled several times. His rifle flew from his hands. Enzo groped for his pistol as he coughed violently, struggling for breath.

“Enzo! What's going on out there!?”
Eve cried over the radio link.

Enzo struggled into a sitting position, tearing his pistol out. Fielding was standing right in front of him. She grabbed the barrel of the pistol and squeezed. Instantly the pistol was rendered useless. She ripped it from his grasp and tossed it aside, then reached down and wrapped her elongated fingers around his throat.

She lifted him easily a foot off the ground.

“This is definitely as much fun as they make it look in the movies,” Fielding said, grinning malignantly up into Enzo's no doubt red face as he kicked and struggled against her, gasping for breath. His lungs strained as the seconds passed.

In those seconds, he studied Fielding. The Director had changed. She was definitely taller, taller than him for sure, maybe even approaching seven feet now. What was left of her buzzed hair had fallen out, further highlighting how misshapen her head had become. Her eyes were larger, her pupils dilated until they nearly consumed the whole of the eye. Her mouth was larger, her teeth sharper, her skin paler. And the lines of red were everywhere.

“Goodbye,” she said, then she tossed him again.

Enzo cried out once more as he slammed into the ground, sure that something inside of him had been cracked, if not outright broken.

“Enzo, talk to me!”

“Fielding...” he wheezed, struggling to his feet. “She's here, now, killing me.”

“Shit...okay, fuck, get her to stand behind the engines of the ship and tell me when she is and you
aren't
, got it?”

“Got it,” Enzo replied.

He knew he'd have to do this fast. The only thing that came to mind was the plan that was thrown together before he really had a chance to think it through. Fielding was nearly upon him again. He looked around. She'd tossed him right on point: he stood behind the engines. Enzo made a tight fist with his fake limb and, when Fielding came right up to him, reaching for him again with her long fingers, he punched her in the chest as hard as he could. Fielding gasped, her eyes bulging, and she stumbled to a halt.

“Now!” Enzo screamed, turning and sprinting away.

Immediately, he felt an immense heat at his back. He turned as he heard a high-pitched, keening wail of pain rise above the roaring of the flames from the engines firing. Almost as quickly they died, and when the flames fell away, there was nothing left but a burned stain on the floor. Enzo let out a slow breath, his chest hurting on top of his shoulder now. No, scratch that, fucking
everything
was hurting at this point.

“Did we win?”
Eve asked.

“Yes,” Enzo replied. “You got her, she's dead. Thanks.”

“Welcome. Go check on Lee, I need more time to crack this lockout.”

“On it.”

Enzo took a deep breath and let it out in a long sigh. He was exhausted, thirsty, starving. He needed that trip to where the fuck he wanted to go more than ever now. Enzo jogged across the length of the hangar, putting the pain aside to the best of his ability. He found a side exit and opened it, peering out into the blinding snow. Nothing seemed to be waiting for him, so he set off towards the warehouse and kept his eye out for the Alpha.

“Lee,” he said, “how's it going?”

“Fine. I'm almost done setting the charges. What happened over there? I heard some shouting over the comms, but I think the storm's interfering.”

“Fielding, she nearly killed me, but we killed her. We found a ship, it's got FLT and we're in the process of getting it ready.”

“Fantastic news. I want the fuck off this planet.”

“You and me both.”

Enzo hurried on, kicking his way through the snow, shivering in the subzero temperatures. He wished he had some kind of suit of armor, something to protect him from the cold and the abuse he'd been taking lately. Not that it was anything new. Missions in his line of work tended to be physically demanding and exhausting. But he hadn't been this tired in a while. He hurried on, following the line of poles, keeping his mind focused.

Just one more thing. That was it. One more thing and he'd be done. Of course, the 'one more thing' was exceptionally dangerous. Enzo kept kicking, kept pushing. Before long, he saw the outline of the warehouse appear. Relief filled him, but he began to wonder how they were going to find the Alpha. It could have left the premises by now. He supposed there must be some kind of tracking gear around, and they could use that if they really had to. As he drew closer, he saw Lee appear out of the massive opening in the front of the building.

She was waving him forward, beckoning him closer. He kept going and finally stepped up onto what must have been a concrete or metal loading dock in front of the warehouse. The going was a lot easier now. As he came within fifty feet of the entrance, he suddenly realized the ground was vibrating. He frowned, looking around, then froze. His jaw dropped open and for the first time in a long time, he was genuinely frozen with terror.

“Lee!” he managed to scream.

Of course, by then, it was too late.

The Alpha was approaching from the right, stomping towards Lee like some kind of primal beast torn straight from Earth's distant past. This wasn't a beast that stood twice the height of a regular man, no...it was
significantly
taller. This titan towered above the both of them, standing at a good twenty five to thirty feet in height. He wondered, briefly, how it had ever navigated the cramped corridors of the underground base.

Then it was to Lee. It leaned down, grabbed her, tossed her into the air and ate her whole. Enzo had a few scant seconds to really study the thing, but it felt like all the time in the world as time seemed to slow and elongate. Everything about the Alpha was immense. Its hands, its head, the claws that tipped each finger. Especially the mouth. It was a massive maw that looked like it could swallow the whole world. It only vaguely represented a human being, which made sense, considering it'd have to be built from dozens of them.

Its flesh was pallid but not necessarily unhealthy looking. The crimson lines that ran across it seemed to be outright glowing, pulsing with its own inner light. Its face seemed to be all mouth, as it didn't have a nose and its eyes were little more than slits. The creature reared back and let out a roar that shook Enzo out of whatever paralysis he'd been frozen into. Before he knew it, he was running...directly for the Alpha. Before his mind could react, he'd gone in between its legs and had shot into the warehouse.

The thing became aware of him and he felt the wind whoosh by as it made a swipe for him, narrowly missing. Detonator, he needed to find the detonator. Barring that, he needed to find a way to blow the whole warehouse. It was that or die, now. No time to do anything but act. Enzo raced through the warehouse, hastily scanning everything. Behind him, the Alpha roared as it tore its way into the warehouse, trying to get to him. Enzo picked up the pace, begging any deity that might be listening for a bit of assistance.

Then he saw it.

Lee had piled up the explosives in the center of the warehouse on a pair of foldout tables. Something among them was blinking. Enzo ran forward and snatched up the small device that was blinking, then stopped as he realized it was hardwired to the whole set-up. He studied it for a few seconds, then determined it wasn't a detonator, it was a timer. Lee must've had the detonator, which meant it was now in the thing's stomach. Well...he tossed a brief glance over his shoulder. The Alpha was in the building now.

Time for Plan B.

He activated the timer, set it for three minutes and then took off running towards the back exit. Behind him, the Alpha let out a tremendous roar.

“Hey, Eve, any chance you're done?” Enzo asked as he hopped a crate and ran around a large stack of them.

“Yeah, I've just finished up and brought the ship online. We're ready to go. Why?”