The Shift: Book II of the Wildfire Saga (21 page)

“Not bad—not bad at all.”

C
HAPTER
11

Boston, Massachusetts.

C
OOPER
FELT
HANDS
UNDERNEATH
his back lift him from the comforting coolness of the ground.
 
His entire body felt hot.
 
His eyes felt thick but he opened them anyway and the world came rushing back to him in a blur.
 
He heard sirens in the distance but their wails sounded…wrong.
 

He coughed, his lungs on fire.
 
A groan escaped his lips.
 
He felt like he’d been in a car accident without a seatbelt.
 
Then an orange-white memory flashed across his mind: the Semtex had exploded.

A dark shadow appeared over him.
 
The glossy, black HAHO helmet reflected the outside world.
 
Cooper saw himself, bloodied and charred like a steak.
 
The visor cleared and Charlie’s face appeared, lit by soft blue LEDs from inside the helmet.
 
Concern was etched on his face in the glowing light of early dawn.
 

 
The helmet’s external speakers made his voice tinny.
 
"
You okay?"

Cooper coughed again and rubbed soot and dirt from his face.
 
"Yeah, I think…"
 
He sat up with another groan.
 
"Man, I haven't had my ass kicked like that since BUD/S.”

"Jesus Christ," said Mike.
 
He lapsed into a wet, hacking cough.
 
"I've already got the virus and you go and try to burn me alive?”

Cooper took Charlie's hand and got to his feet and tried to laugh but it turned into a hacking cough.
 
"Glad to see you still have your sense of humor, Beaver."

Static tickled Cooper's ear.
 
He adjusted his bone phone and Swede's voice came through loud and clear.
 
"Yo, Coop, we need to get out of here, man.
 
I see three more vehicles down the street.
 
Comin’ up fast.
 
We put a big bull's-eye on our backs with that one—bet you can see the smoke and fire all over the city
."

"Copy that," replied Cooper.
 
He knuckled his back and got his bearings, looking up and down the alley behind the CPS building.
 
"Where's Boatner?"

"I'm here," said the virologist, as he stared at the flames dancing within the shelled remains of his old lab across the street.
 
"Can we just get out of here?"

"I think that's a
fantastic
idea," said Mike.
 
He got to his hands and knees and coughed again before depositing a huge glob of pink-tinged mucus onto the pavement.

"
Fuck, that's nasty
…" said Charlie’s tinny voice, transmitted through the external speakers on his helmet.

Cooper checked his wrist-mounted digital display.
 
The tiny screen was shattered.
 
Of course.
 
"Doc, we need to get north of here into New Hampshire.
 
What's the easiest way?"

Boatner stepped out of the shadows and grimaced.
 
"Right now?
 
Better get yourself a tank.
 
Normally, I'd say we just hop on Massachusetts Avenue and get off campus, but now…"

"
Transport will be dicey
," said Charlie.
 
"
You hear the sirens?"

"
Coop, I wasn't joking… Jerry's on his way…"
warned Swede's voice.

"All right, all right.
 
Charlie, you're in charge of Dr. Boatner.
 
We need to head to the secondary rendezvous point and meet up with Jax and Sparky.
 
Swede!"

"Go ahead."

"We're moving—you take point, stay a block ahead of us and for God's sake be quiet…"

"Hey, you're the one that blew the lab halfway into orbit."

Cooper bent and looped Mike's right arm over his shoulders before standing again.
 
His back burned and his muscles protested, but he ignored the pain.
 
Once Mike was on his feet, Cooper shifted the infected SEAL’s weight a little, then glanced at his teammate.
 
"You good to go?"

Mike turned his head and coughed.
 
"Yeah, feels like the fever broke.
 
Hopefully that was the worst of it…"

"You’re running a terrible risk bringing him along."

"Dr. Boatner," growled Cooper.
 
"When I want your medical opinion, I will damn well ask for it.
 
Charlie, take us out."

"Okay Doc, let's go,"
said Charlie.
 
He put a hand on the scientist’s shoulder and the older man flinched.
 
They turned and moved north, through the alley.

Cooper let Charlie and Boatner get about half a block away before he started to follow, Mike limping at his side.

He noticed for the first time curious heads watching through open windows on either side of the street as the CPS building went up in flames.
 
Witnesses were never good.
 
Cooper cursed under his breath.

"I told you to leave me," said Mike.

"Bullshit," growled Cooper.
 
"I've already lost too many men since this shitshow started.
 
I ain’t losing you to a goddamn cold."
 
He glanced up as one of the onlookers asked what happened.

Think.
 
Fast.
 
“Fire!" Cooper hollered.
 
Laughter erupted from one of the windows behind him.

“No shit.
 
I mean—”

"Hey, those guys took out a bunch of Germans!" someone else said.

"Shit…" muttered Cooper.
 
He glanced at Mike.
 
"We gotta pick up the pace, man."

"Why you walking so slow, then?"
 

"Hey!
 
You guys with the Sons?" another voice demanded.

"’Course they are!
 
Who the fuck else is fightin’ the Germans?
 
Nice job, boys!
 
You need anything?" said an old woman’s voice from above.

Cooper looked up into the pink-tinted sky.
 
Dawn’s coming.
 
Gotta hustle…
 
“Just directions, ma’am.
 
You know the fastest way west?"

"Yeah, from here you wanna take Linnaean.
 
Two blocks up, take a left.”

"No, way,” replied a younger, male voice from the opposite side of the street.
 
“That'll take you right by one of the fuckin’ German camps.
 
I saw it yesterday.
 
You want Lancaster.
 
Go a block
past
Linnaean, hang a left, and then take
Washington
north till you reach Upland.
 
That’ll getcha ‘round those goose-stepping a-holes.”

"When they set up a camp on Linnaean?" asked the woman.

Cooper ignored them as they debated across the street.
 
Three more voices joined in, arguing with each other.
 
He hoped it would provide enough cover for his team to slip into the darkness and disappear.

"Heads up, German patrol headed your way—12 o'clock,"
warned Swede.

“Cover!" Cooper ordered.
 
He looked left and found an alley between two apartment buildings.
 
"This'll do," he said to Mike.
 
A large dumpster sat just inside the mouth of the alley, overflowing with trash.

“Christ, this stinks!"
 

"Just get in there," said Cooper as he shoved Mike forward.
 
The two SEALs slipped into the shadows and crouched.

"I got eyes on the Germans
," said Charlie's voice.
 
"
They’re movin’ fast.
 
Just keep your heads down and they’ll go right past us
."

"Everybody head east when you’re clear," whispered Cooper into his throat mic.

"
East?
" asked Swede.

"Yeah, the Germans are going to run right into those civvies behind me.
 
I don’t want to risk them finding out we’re headed west.
 
We need to go in the opposite direction for now."

A German military truck rumbled past Cooper’s position, a searchlight mounted in the passenger window scanning the street.
 
The light flashed momentarily down the alley, hovered on the dumpster, and disappeared as the truck moved closer to the burning lab.

Cooper did his best to ignore the stench as he worked his way through the garbage to the mouth of the alley and peered around the corner.
 
He saw brake lights.
 
He could hear indistinct yelling back and forth between the occupants of the truck and the buildings.
   

The searchlight panned up and illuminated an elderly black woman as she leaned out her window.
 
She acted as if nothing was unusual about a German patrol in the street below her apartment.

"Swede, where you at?"

"Two blocks north, about a click away from the rendezvous point."

"See anything?"

"Negative, it's clear now."

Cooper looked back at Mike, shivering in the shadows of the dumpster.
 
We just need to get to that rendezvous point and we can hole up and wait for Jax and Sparky.
 
We have to get a ride.

"Charlie, pick up the pace and get Boatner to the rendezvous point.
 
Swede, scout out a place for us to hide, we’re not going to be able to move in daylight.
 
We’re running out of time…"

"You're telling me," said Mike.

A flash lit up the street behind him and Cooper brought his weapon up to bear on the German truck down the street.
 
He heard an explosion and saw smoke blast from the window where the old woman had been talking.
 
Next to the truck, a German soldier aimed a grenade launcher at the next window.

"
The hell was that?"
asked Charlie's voice.

"One of the Germans just popped a 40 mike mike through an old lady’s window back there."

"
Son of a bitch!"

Cooper clenched his jaw, frustrated that he could do nothing to help.
 
He had bigger things to worry about.
 
He grabbed Mike's arm and dragged him to his feet again.
 
"Let's go, SEALs.
 
Double time!
 
We gotta unfuck ourselves before things get out of control!"

Semi-automatic gunfire erupted behind them.
 
Cooper ducked on instinct and swerved Mike across the street into the adjoining alley.
 
"You hit?"

"I'm good," gasped Mike.

"
Cooper!
 
You okay?
 
The fuck’s going on back there?"
asked Charlie.

"Yeah, I'm fine.
 
Wait one."
 
Cooper inched his head around the corner as more gunfire rattled down the street.
 
He couldn't believe it, but weapons had emerged out of windows and the civilians were actually shooting down into the German vehicle.
 
The soldier who had fired the grenade into the old woman's apartment was cut to shreds and dropped on the pavement.
 
Cooper watched as a hatch on top of the German truck popped open and another soldier appeared with a rifle.
 
Under a hail of fire, he took a headshot to the face and tumbled back inside the truck.

"Remind me never to pick a fight in Boston…"

"Say again?"

"Never mind.
 
Everybody keep moving!"
 
Cooper wrapped his arm around Mike’s back and led him away from the firefight.

A kid in a Bruin’s jersey exited the building across the street to Cooper's left and ran past waving an AR-15.
 
"You guys get the fuck outta here.
 
We got this!”

"Thanks for the assist,”
 
Cooper called over his shoulder.
 
The teenager with the rifle waved again and then charged into the gunfight.
 
Two more men exited the building across the street and ran by, shouting encouragement to the SEALs and cursing the Germans.

B
Y
THE
TIME
C
OOPER
and Mike staggered into the boarded-up townhouse at the end of Willard Avenue, both men were exhausted.
 
A sheen of cold sweat had formed on Mike's forehead and his face was pale.
 
As soon as Cooper got him inside the door, Mike collapsed to his knees and leaned against the wall, panting and wheezing.