“Good point. I’m glad you have my back, Sarah.”
Sarah rattled off a full magazine. “Saw you and Tosco eating each other’s faces earlier. How long’s that been going on?”
“It’s not going on. Maybe if we don’t all die in the next ten minutes, something might get to go on, but right now…”
Frank yelled in the background. “Make ’em eat shit!”
Sarah nodded. “Yeah, bigger issues. I get it.”
The two women fired round after round for so long that it was hard to breathe amongst the gun smoke, but it was a losing battle. The demons advanced relentlessly – a tide that couldn’t be held back. Every now and then a primate would make it into open ground and start sprinting. It shifted everyone’s fire enough that the larger mass of demons would gain a few yards every time.
“Everyone, spread your fire,” shouted Tosco. “I’ll deal with any demons that make it into the open.”
Maddy was out of ammo, so she headed over to the rucksack that one of Wanstead’s men had put down. It was full of ammo, and she grabbed what she needed. Reloading her rifle, she turned to go back to the windows, but a radio hissed and caught her attention. The handset was clipped to the side of the rucksack. She grabbed it.
“Commander Tosco,” said a familiar voice, “are you still alive?”
Maddy grabbed the radio. “Klein, is that you?”
“Ja, fräulein. It is good to hear your voice. Is James still with you?”
“Yes, he’s alive.”
“Then please inform him I have young Alice and her mother aboard my submarine. They are safe.”
“I’ll tell him right now.” Maddy turned and headed for the windows. Tosco was busy and hadn’t heard the conversation over the din of rifle fire, but she was glad to be able to give him some good news. If nothing else, he would die knowing that Alice was safe. “James! James, that was—”
Maddy was struck from behind. She hit the ground and smacked her head on the concrete floor. She didn’t see the demon at first, but she smelled it. Rotten flesh and spilled blood. She tried to get up, but her vision swirled.
“Shit!” someone shouted. “They’re coming in round the back.”
The deafening gunfire got louder as people turned their rifles inwards, gunfire echoing off the vaulted ceiling. Maddy saw stars, and when a burnt man collapsed onto the ground beside her, she realised someone had just saved her life. Sarah appeared and grabbed her. “On your feet, soldier.”
“I’m not a soldier,” said Maddy, looking around for her rifle. “A real soldier never loses their weapon for one thing, right?”
Sarah located the rifle and shoved it into Maddy’s arms. “You’re a soldier whether you like it or not. Get your head in the game, bitch.”
Maddy nodded, struck by the other woman’s ferocity. “Sure thing.”
“We’re surrounded,” someone shouted.
“We’re trapped in here,” said someone else.
“No,” Frank roared. “The sorry bastards are trapped in here with us! Let ’em ’ave it.”
Tosco looked around desperately. “Everyone, head for the side door over there. We can fight our way out of this.”
Maddy lifted her rifle and fought for her life. A dozen demons had made it inside the warehouse from a side entrance. She picked her shots and hit headshot after headshot. Maybe she was a soldier. Sarah edged her towards the other side of the warehouse, firing her rifle and using her elbows to keep Maddy moving. Eventually, they joined up with the others. So far, no one had been hurt.
But that quickly changed.
With their focus no longer on the demons coming in through the broken-down wall, the primates at the front of the pack were finally able to make it to the warehouse. The first of them crashed through a half-broken window and landed on a woman, twisting her head right around and snapping her neck. The demon started eating her, but Wanstead put a stop to it, shooting the monster in the top of the skull at point-blank range. The colonel then turned to his men and bellowed, “Full retreat. Get to the boats. Stop for nothing.”
“Yow heard the man,” Frank shouted. “Move your arses.”
More demons exploded through the windows and burst in through the side entrance. Shadows surrounded the building, blocking out the glow of the spotlights. Everyone fought for the door at the back of the warehouse as men began to fall, pulled down by burnt men and primates. Within seconds, two dozen men were dead or screaming.
Sarah shoved Maddy. “Move it.”
Maddy let off another three shots, but then she was out. The rucksack of ammo was lost in the sea of demons. Others ran out of ammunition too, forced to used their rifles as clubs.
More men fell.
“Damn it!” Sarah backed up against Maddy and fired the last of her ammunition. Then she threw her rifle at a primate before whipping out a handgun and shooting it in the chest. “Maddy, you need to go. We can’t hold them any more.”
“I’m not leaving without you.”
“I’m not your fucking girlfriend. Go!”
Maddy looked around for answers that didn’t involve abandoning people to die. Frank, Wanstead, and a small group of men were surrounded nearby, cut off from escape. Despite that, they continued to fight. Frank continued to shout and bellow. How could she run while they remained behind?
“I can’t leave.”
A hand wrapped around her elbow and wrenched it behind her back. “Yes, you can!”
Tosco dragged Maddy backwards towards the door while Sarah shoved her from the front. All around them, people died. Maddy looked desperately towards Frank and Colonel Wanstead, but both men were now lost in a sea of demons.
We can’t abandon them.
Maddy threw her head back and struck Tosco’s face. He grunted and released her, and with both arms free, Maddy shoved Sarah out of the way. She had no idea what she was doing, but she knew she wanted to stay and fight. She wanted to fight like Amanda and Tony and Diane and all the others who
