“We need to get off the street. Hang on.”
Something whistled overhead then and creamed the building to our right about twenty stories up. Light flared through the smoke, and everyone around us stopped and turned. A wall of warm air huffed down through the swirling snow and dust as a twisted fire escape crashed down from above.
A chunk of concrete pounded the road next to us. Another one flattened the roof of a cab; then what looked like part of a fucking gargoyle whipped past and bowled through the crowd, spraying blood across the driver’s-side window.
People dove out of the way as I jerked the wheel and took us down a side street. In the rearview mirror I saw something big fall through the smoke, and the impact made the ground buck underneath us.
I blew through a pile of trash bags on the corner at the end of the street and caught air for a second as the road dipped. The undercarriage scraped a speed bump, and we fishtailed on a patch of ice. I spun the wheel and got us under control, then made a break for the subway stop at the end of the block as a cluster of broken bricks flew by in front of us, trailing smoke.
Other people had the same idea. A hundred yards away, the crowd got too thick to move the truck through. I killed the engine.
“Come on!” Vika held the rifle in a death grip as we opened the doors and got out. I shoved my way around the back and hauled the doors open.
The back of the truck was full of equipment. I climbed up the rear bumper and pulled the closest locker open; it was loaded with guns and ammo. I traded my pistol for a better one and grabbed a few clips and stuffed them in my pockets.
“What are you doing?” Vika called. I climbed out, then jumped back down onto the pavement.
“Stick close, no matter what!” I said. I dragged her toward the metro entrance and muscled our way into the flow. People pushed and shoved as we made our way down the stairs into the station.
Most people just wanted to get off the street and away from the worst of the crowd. I took us through, then down onto the nearest platform. The tracks were empty, but down the tunnel I saw the lights from a train that was parked there, not moving. In the other direction, the tunnel was clear. I sent our location back to Nico.
Back the way we came, there were screams. I looked back and saw that a group of revivors had come down after us. People tripped over each other as they tried to get away. Somebody got bitten and blood squirted from his neck. Another guy got dragged off the platform and into the dark.
Vika jerked her hand away and tried to run, but they’d reached us. I fired, and one of them fell, but the rest just went right over it.
“Vika, get behind me!”
I tried to block them, but an elbow thumped into my chest and I was knocked back as feet stomped the floor around my face.
“Vika!”
I flipped over, and a boot came down on my back. I slammed onto the concrete as two of them grabbed Vika by her shirt. She screamed and tried to get the rifle around, but she was pinned. I shot one in the knee and it fell, but more hands grabbed her. They pulled her away from me, down the tunnel.
Something hit my head hard. Spots swam in front of my eyes as one of them bit down on her arm and she screamed again. I tried to bring the gun around again, but my arm didn’t move. The platform started to tilt.
A band of static flicked in front of me and the JZI puked out a stream of errors. I heard Vika yell something, but I couldn’t see her. Feet stomped down around me as more of them ran to join the fray.
My eyes rolled and another band of static rippled by before the lights went out. The last thing I heard was Vika’s high-pitched scream as it echoed from somewhere down the tunnel.
Zoe Ott—Alto Do Mundo
The tromping of boots echoed down the hall as we headed toward the stairwell at the far end. The hall ended in a giant pane of glass that looked out over the city, and through it I could see the TransTech Center, lit up and towering above the surrounding buildings. Osterhagen was still inside; I could sense him. I couldn’t make out what he was thinking, but something was very wrong.
We walked as fast as Ai could manage. I watched the back of her large head as we went, and saw sweat roll down her thin neck. One of the guards should have just carried her, but even under the circumstances, no one dared suggest it.
“Is the roof secure?” one of the men said into his radio.
“The Chimeras are still active,” the reply came. “But we’ve got surface-to-air missile capability set up on all —”
Something flashed outside the window at the end of the hall, and something rumbled up above us, loud enough to shake the floor. The lights flickered as the sound of helicopter rotors got louder.
“Come back,” the guard said into the radio. “Is the roof secure?”
The rotors thumped louder, then something big flew past the window. A loud shriek rose over the drumming sound, and three bright lights whipped by after it. A shadow banked past one of the buildings below, and I saw three thin smoke trails spin toward it. They hit the building face and exploded, sending a big, bright cloud of fire into the night air.
“We’ll keep them off you, but—”
The rest of the reply got cut off by another crash from overhead. Chunks of metal and glass fell past the window, and I saw a flailing body tumble down along with it. Another loud shriek sounded, followed by a thud.
When we got to the stairwell, one of the guards opened it while another signaled for us to go through, but I was pretty sure I didn’t want to go up there. Penny didn’t seem too sure either.
“Come on!” the guard said. “We’re going up—”
Light flashed at the end of the hall, through the window. It tinted in response, but even so, it was so bright I had to shield my eyes. Through the glare, I saw the window glass warp and then blow out into the open air. The sky outside was filled with a cloud of pulverized glass as the other windows on the building face, and those of the buildings around it, all exploded with an earsplitting crash.
A wave of hot air blasted down the hallway, stinging my hands and face. Through my fingers, I saw a huge arc of light pass over the buildings below and hit the TransTech Center.
People were screaming, but I couldn’t hear them over the sound of the beam sizzling through the air. Energy arced off and struck buildings nearby as it rippled over the city like a huge, electric worm. Shards of glass jumped and danced on the tiled floor as the building shook.
My clothes flapped around me as I gaped, unable to register what I was seeing. All I could do was stare out through the snow as a huge cloud of fire boiled up from the base of the tower. Fear pulsed outward from inside the building, like streams of raw, white adrenaline. They hit me like a truck, and before I could push them out I’d slipped and almost fallen to the floor. In front of me, Ai staggered, and Penny caught her. The rush left me feeling sick, pain burning in my chest.
One of the guards was barking into the radio, but I couldn’t hear him. The TransTech Center was crumbling, collapsing down in a cloud of smoke and fire. The threads of fear began to fall off and go dark. They were dying. I felt Osterhagen’s consciousness wink out, along with the rest of the thousands of others. They were dying. They were all dying.
“Get back!” one of the guards shouted into my ear as cold wind blew through the opening and peppered us with powdered glass. “Back away from the window!”
I couldn’t move. The light outside just kept getting brighter and brighter. It washed everything out, until it forced my eyes shut and I screamed. Distantly, I felt a hand grab my arm and pull me back….
The noise stopped.
