A second Rabid close behind the first is also obliterated from the same burst of bullets, and they both fall onto the ground as a mince of flesh, bone and red-black blood.
Dan is playing catch-up; however, his reloading of the Browning keeps him out of the fray for vital seconds, and a third Rabid, slightly to Dan’s left, is missed by the burst of bullets. He keeps firing and tries to swing the long muzzle of the gun to get the Rabid in its sights, but it doesn’t quite catch up. The Rabid is too quick, the arc of bullets all missing the terrifying creature whose evil dead eyes are fixated on Dan’s position. Continuing to swerve left, the Rabid has done its job, it has drawn Dan’s fire away from the stairwell, its main target; whether this is intentional or not, it looks like a disastrous error.
Dan sees his error as Rabids start to stream out of the door again and terror grips him; they are only meters away from his position. The first Rabid is still swerving left to avoid the fire from the Browning, but if he diverts that salvo of bullets away from it and at the door, it would be on him straight away. Just as Dan is about to divert the Browning at the door and take his chances with the single Rabid, tracer bullets fly over his head, their flashing red and green light directing the hailstorm of bullets that rip into the stream of Rabids in front of him.
The Mini-Gun, firing from the Lynx above, despatches the Rabids that made it out of the stairwell in next to no time. They are all left in a heap of flesh and Josh carries on firing down into the stairwell to make sure. Thank you, Josh, Dan thinks somewhere in the back of his mind, but he doesn’t have time to dwell on it or feel relief; he has got to focus on killing his target. He hears gunfire from his team as they too try to take down the creature, but they all miss; the target is so fast and too far away for them.
“We have the contents of the safe, Captain,” Corporal Simms tells me from below, but I barely register what he says as I look out, watching Dan and his team struggle to keep control of the roof. The coffee table on top of the sideboard feels unsteady under me as I stand on my tiptoes, the top of my head poking out through the hole and the rope gripped in my hand helping to steady me.
“Captain?”
“Ok, let’s move,” I tell him.
“Yes, Sir,” he replies.
I take a higher grip on the rope and pull myself up as a hand pushes my boot to help me on my way. I am eager to get assistance to Dan as quickly as we can. Another bolt of lightning hits, its long fork shooting downwards through the torrents of rain and it’s immediately followed by the obligatory deafening crack of thunder.
Taking a knee next to the hole, I look down the length of my rifle, providing cover for my team as they prepare to move. Across the roof, Dan opens up again with the Browning as another wave of Rabids attacks from the stairwell; even with my limited vision through the rain, I see that he is in trouble. A Rabid is trying to flank him on my side and more are coming at him from the stairwell. I aim at the Rabid flanking him and fire, in hope more than an expectation that I will hit it. I miss and try to aim again, but the creature moves too fast. Above and away to my right, tracer fire rains down from the Lynx’s Mini-gun, I can’t see Josh from my angle, but I know it must be him firing. I desperately hope that it will free Dan to deal with other Rabids.
Kim appears next to me and as soon as he does, I’m up and running towards Dan’s position. He’s let go of the Browning and has resorted to firing his sidearm at the fucking Rabid which refuses to go down. The creature, seeing its opportunity, has stopped flanking and is going for Dan head-on and is nearly upon him. Now closer to Dan, I slam my anchors on, pull my rifle up, aim—and just as the Rabid jumps at Dan, I shoot.
The Rabid lands on top of Dan, knocking him backwards off his feet, onto his back on the roof and they both go down, water spilling up as they hit the ground. For a second, I think I’ve hit it, but to my horror, it is still moving and attacking Dan who is beneath it, the creature's arms flailing at Dan and then its head goes in to attack.
“NO!” I hear myself shout as I sprint the remaining distance to my mate.
As I reach them, the Rabid’s head is down into Dan’s neck area and he is withering underneath it, his legs and arms kicking, still trying to fight. Without thinking, I immediately jump down on top of the Rabid and push my arm under its neck and pull back as hard as I possibly can. The Rabid resists my pull and I hear cracking sounds from its neck as I continue to pull with all my strength; suddenly, it releases and I’m falling backwards, with the Rabid’s head locked between my arms, falling back with me. The creature whips and bucks its whole body trying to escape my grip. Its strength is astounding, unrelenting, and my wet grip starts to slip.
A dark figure appears above our struggle and moves down on top of us, the figure’s left hand grabs the hair of the Rabid and I see a glint of light from the steel
