Matt swung around to see a bristle of weapons pointed his way.
The Navy team!
Amanda disappeared among them. Matt was too far behind. There was no way he could make it. He dove onto his belly, arms outstretched, ax held in both hands.
The passage erupted with gunfire. Bullets whistled over his head. Ice chipped from the walls and ceilings, pelting him from stray shots and ricochets.
Matt rolled to his back, staring back between his legs.
The grendel crouched only a yard away, head bulled down. It clawed toward him, determined to reach its prize. A bellow rumbled through its chest. Steam puffed from its buried nostrils. Blood spilled over its sleek features as flesh was macerated by bullets.
Matt backpedaled away, pushing with his bare feet.
Under fire from three automatic weapons, the beast still fought toward him. One claw lashed out and snatched Matt’s pant leg, pinning it to the ice. Matt tugged, but it wouldn’t budge. For a heartbeat, he met the hunter’s eye.
Matt read the fire in there.
The grendel’s lips snarled back. It might die, but it would take him with it.
Matt swung his ice ax — not at the beast but over his head, as far as his arm could reach. The pick end jammed into the ice. With his other hand, he unbuckled his pants and ripped loose the top button. Using the ax as an anchor, he hauled himself out of his pants and rolled from the beast.
Stripped to his thermals, he crawled away. The beast roared behind him, a haunted sound that crossed all spectrums, eerie and forlorn.
Matt reached the row of men.
Hands grabbed him, hauled him to his feet.
He looked back at the beast. It had also rolled around, half climbing the walls to turn. It fled away from the stinging attack and vanished around the far bend.
Matt joined Amanda, and together they approached the others: a cluster of scientists and a handful of Navy personnel.
Craig gaped at him. “I thought you were dead for sure.”
“We’re not out of this yet.”
Bratt organized his command: Greer, O’Donnell, Pearlson, and Washburn. He explained their situation.
Amanda stared hard at Bratt. “The
“Captain Perry had no choice.”
Amanda seemed to shrink back, stunned. “What are we going to do?”
Bratt answered, “We can’t stay down here. We’re running low on ammunition. We’re going to have to take our chances with the Russians.”
“Sir, I know a few places we could hide on Level Three,” the tall black lieutenant said. She nodded back up the tunnels. “There are service shafts and storage spaces. Also an old weapons locker. If we could make it there without being seen…”
“Anywhere’s better than these fuckin’ tunnels,” Greer said.
Bratt nodded. “We’ll have to be careful.”
Matt would be happy to be out of these ice passages himself. The nagging buzz was beginning to ache his ears.
He suddenly jolted.
He swung around. His ears had been ringing from the close-quarter rifle fire. Only now that it had faded did he feel it.
The creature had been driven off — but the buzzing continued.
He saw the look of recognition in Amanda’s eyes.
“We’re not alone!” Matt yelled.
Flashlights suddenly shot up, poking down other tunnel openings. Pair after pair of red eyes reflected back at them.
“They’re the thawed group from the caves!” Bratt called out, waving everyone back. “They finally got around that damned carcass.”
“The rifle fire must have drawn them!” the biologist yelled in terror, pulling back.
“Out!” Bratt yelled. “We don’t have the firepower to hold off this many!”
Together, they ran up the tunnel in a mad rush.
The sudden movement drew the beasts, like cats after fleeing mice.
“This way!” Amanda screamed.
The double doors to the station appeared ahead.
In a mad rush, they hit the doors. Matt held the way open and waved the civilians through. “Move, move, move!”
The Navy personnel kept up a rear guard, then quickly followed into the station.
As the doors were slammed shut, a shot rang out ahead of them. Matt ducked from a ricochet off the metal wall.
It seemed their gunfire had drawn more than just grendels.
“Halt!” a soldier in a white parka barked at them in heavily accented English. He and four others had a post at the other end of the hall. Assault rifles were trained on them. “Drop weapons! Now!”
No one moved for a breath.
Amanda had been continuing forward, deaf to the command, but Matt grabbed her elbow. She glanced to him.
Matt shook his head. “Stay with me,” he mouthed.
“Do as they say,” Bratt ordered, tossing aside his rifle as example. Other weapons clattered. “Keep moving forward. Get away from the doors.”
“Keep hands in air!” the Russian yelled at them. “Move in single line to here!”
With a nod from Bratt, they followed their captor’s instructions.
Quickly forming a line, they hurried down the long hall. They hadn’t taken more than ten steps when something huge hit the double doors behind them. The metal doors buckled.
Everyone froze.
“Down,” Bratt ordered.
They dropped to hands and knees. Matt pulled Amanda down with him.
A single shot fired, perhaps in startled reflex. But the aim was good. O’Donnell was a moment too slow in dropping with the others. The back of his head exploded, showering bone and blood. Then his body toppled backward, limbs flung out.
A flurry of Russian commands followed, yelling at each other.
“Goddamn it,” Bratt swore on the floor, his face purpling with rage.
Matt glanced between the trigger-happy Russians and the buckled door. Neither choice was good.
The Russian in charge stepped forward. “What trick—?”
Something again charged the door, hitting it like a runaway train. Hinges ripped clean, and both doors flew into the hall.
Accompanying the doors, a grendel barreled into the hall. Others followed.
Chaos ensued as everyone surged forward on the floor.
Shots rang out, wild with fear.
“Stay down!” Bratt yelled. “Crawl forward.”
They would never make it. If they didn’t catch a stray bullet like O’Donnell, they’d be ravaged by the beasts.
“Over here!” Amanda yelled. She had rolled to the wall and reached up to a door handle above her head. A bullet came close to shaving off a finger, but she managed to yank the handle. Using her other hand, she hauled the door open. The thick steel hatch now acted as a shield against the bullets. “Inside!”
They all tumbled after her.
