Everett's. Somewhere in the firestorm of tracers and smoke, the animal dove back through the hole it had entered by. Jack stopped firing, then watched the SEAL as his weapon finally ran out of ammunition.
'What do you say we get some sun?' Jack asked, eyeing Everett closely.
'Let's go,' he said, turning and quickly running for the kitchen and the safety of the roof.
As they broke free of the stairway and into the bright sunshine of the late afternoon, they saw the other members of the team firing their weapons over the false front of the building. Julie was holding Billy in her arms and had an arm around Hal as they huddled at the feet of Ryan as the flier fired one shot at a time from his nine- millimeter handgun.
Collins and Everett ran to the front where Ryan was standing and looked out over the small town. The creatures were everywhere, diving back into the ground, then surfacing a moment later.
The soldiers watched incredulously as round after round bounced from them and into the dirt or into a wall after slamming into the creatures' armor.
'Shit,' Collins said under his breath.
Two loud explosions rocked the building as the Rangers tossed grenades over the side. A Delta sharpshooter brought one of the animals down with a perfect shot into one of its eyes. It stumbled and skidded into the side of the building. A Ranger popped up and threw another grenade down right next to the fallen beast and it went off, jolting the creature away from the wall. Other animals fell upon the still-smoldering carcass, tearing huge chunks of flesh from it, devouring their sibling.
Then, as suddenly as the attack began, it ended. The animals had stopped dead in their tracks. The only movement was a gentle swaying as though they were listening to music only they could hear.
The strange thing was the soldiers
'Things have taken a turn for the fucking surreal,' Jack said under his breath.
The others heard the music and watched the creatures as they swayed back and forth. The remaining troops looked from the Talkhans to each other. They were totally surrounded by the mass of animals, and everyone knew it was just a matter of time before they started to attack again.
The gathered survivors on the buildings' roof may have thought the creatures were swaying to the soft rhythm of the song. But what had caught their attention were the minute vibrations coming from the desert valley. They were also picking up signs on the wind that humans couldn't smell. It was the distinct odor of food, a lot of it. Also, an invisible wave was striking the animals that called them away. The male was aboveground and signaling in the center of the valley.
As those on the roof watched, all the animals save for one dove into the earth and started heading away from the town, at least ninety of the animals, Collins quickly counted. The one remaining had stopped swaying and was looking straight up at them. As they watched, a blackened tongue shot out of its mouth and it lowered itself closer to the ground.
'Son of a bitch is going to spring!' Collins shouted, taking aim with his weapon.
The animal crouched, gathering and bunching its muscles for the short leap to the rooftop. The huge tail coiled behind it for use in tandem with its legs to shoot itself toward its next feeding.
The men gathered quickly, raising their rifles, and a few pulled the pins on grenades.
'Get ready to repel boarders,' Ryan said, quoting the famous naval order, only half-jokingly.
The animal launched itself.
Things of a terrifying nature sometimes seem to happen as mere snapshots of the event, creating a slide show for the observers. None of the gathered soldiers would ever remember how the pickup truck had gotten so close without any of them seeing it or hearing it. And with that surreal slowness to it, they watched as the animal just cleared the ground and the front bumper struck it. The truck sent the beast in a headlong tumble ending in a crunching impact on the street, with the pickup careening into the Ice Cream Parlor. The creature hit in the middle of Main Street and skidded. It was hurt, but had not been killed. It slowly gained its feet and looked at its attacker and roared, then started forward, slowly making its way to its assailant. But it never made it. None of the people on the rooftop of the Broken Cactus saw or even heard the scream and thump of the hovering air force Pave Low III as the twenty-millimeter cannon at its rear ramp opened fire, sending two thousand rounds hurtling at the creature. The weapon was fed ammunition by a giant hopper attached next to it and wasn't going to run out soon. The large bullets struck the animal, sending it forward until it slammed into the protruding back end of the truck. Stuck there, it was slowly pounded to nothing by the Pave Low and her Gatling gun.
Five minutes later several happy men pulled the drunken Tony from the front seat of his battered pickup. He'd received a rather large cut to his forehead after smashing into the beast, but smiled as Julie handed him a fresh bottle she'd grabbed on her way back down from the roof. She hugged him and admonished the older man for disappearing on them and for doing something as stupid as saving them, but Ryan pulled her away as everyone to a man wanted to pat him on the back.
Only after they had been loaded up on the huge Pave Low did Tony venture any comment.
'I guess I don't have a truck anymore, Miss Dawes, so I can drink all I want,' he said, looking at the smiling Delta and Ranger troops.
Farbeaux waited for the big helicopter to leave the roof of the cafe and then made his way out of the Texaco station where he had holed up while the town was under attack. He was the only one of his team to make it out of the tunnel and he felt lucky at best. He had a canteen full of the eggs of the creature, but he wouldn't even be able to sell that if he couldn't leave the town.
He took the last swallows from a bottle of warm Coke, then slowly made his way toward one of the six remaining helicopters lining the road across town.
The Frenchman's liftoff was noticed by the orbiting AWACS, but it was paid no mind as it was thought to be an army Kiowa helping to evacuate the remaining ground teams.
Colonel Henri Farbeaux had managed to survive the impossible once again, only now he was on his own and dangerous as he was in a flight for his life.
Jack, Everett, Ryan, Mendenhall, and the remaining tunnel team were on a Pave Low III that had diverted to Chato's Crawl on its way to refuel. As medics started treating the wounded and Ryan helped Julie, Billy, and Tony, who in turn assisted Hal into a corner out of the way, Jack was surprised to see Virginia Pollock standing before him with a grave look on her face.
'We heard about the base camp,' Jack said, tiredly looking from Virginia to Carl.
'That's not it,' she said, leaning down so he could hear over the turbines. 'We finished the analysis on the creature's exoskeleton, Jack. Your plan won't work. No matter what weapon you use, it won't penetrate their armor. Unless they are right on top or just below an underground detonation, the heat and X-rays won't kill them.'
Collins, his face filthy and body hurting, closed his eyes. 'There was no luck on the analysis of the chemical in the cage tanks that reduced the creature in '47?'
'No, it's not even an acid that we can tell. We did identify a minuscule amount of an agent that is found here on earth in the largest of the three tanks. Alkali, it was alkali-based, but that's a base, Jack, not an acid,' Virginia said as she patted his leg. 'I wish I had better news.' She straightened and looked from Jack to Everett and placed her hand on Carl's shoulder. 'Lisa...' Virginia started to say, then stopped, putting a finger to her trembling lips. 'She... saved my life, Carl,' she finally said, then turned away.
Everett looked at Jack and nodded, as he finally heard it officially.
'Wait a minute,' Jack said as he struggled to his feet. 'Virginia, what in the hell is potash anyway? Is it used for planting or something?'
Virginia swallowed and stared at Collins with a questioning look.
'It is, well, lime, potash, they're both used as soil enrichment, they're both alkali...'
'Did you test alkali against the exoskeleton?' Jack asked.
'No, we only found trace amounts in the one canister...'
'In the tunnels, I was about to die at the hands of one of those beasts when it stopped suddenly. I couldn't figure why it didn't attack me through the remains of the hardware store that had fallen through to the tunnel. I looked around me and I must have been in the garden section of the store, fertilizer, plant food... and potash.'
