He fired again and again as the monster tried to barrel up the side of the ravine. A well-aimed round buried into an eye socket, and the creature collapsed, slipping back down over the ice, leaving a trail of crimson.
The last two made it further up, their claws finding purchase in the rock and ice, pulling themselves ever higher and closer to Team Ghosts and Spearhead.
They were nearly on Spearhead, just a few feet from the lip of the ravine. In seconds, they would be within striking distance. Spearhead fired desperately at them, but the thick hide of the beasts slowed the damage being done to them. Desperation and rage fueled them.
Dohi adjusted his aim, sighting up one of the monsters with blood dripping down its side. He fired at the skull and took off the jaw in the blast of rounds. It fell backward, crashing into the last creature.
The two beasts tumbled back toward the floor of the ravine, cracking against rock on the way down.
A final gunshot echoed and faded away. Dohi listened for the sounds of other howling Variants in the distance, waiting to see if something else would attack in response to the commotion.
He heard nothing except for the quiet of the falling snow.
“Clear,” Neilson reported.
“Clear,” Fitz said. He waited a beat, then added, “Let’s head back.”
The accelerating snowfall was beginning to bury the dead bears by the time Ghost caught back up to Spearhead.
“We aren’t going to make it back up the way we came,” Neilson said.
Daugherty nodded. “Hiking straight uphill in a snowstorm like this is suicide.”
“What do you propose?” Fitz asked.
“We can head north until we hit Bow River, then follow it back to base. It’ll be a hell of a lot easier than trying to climb straight up the mountain, and it’ll save us time.”
“Sounds good to me,” Fitz said.
They began their trek back toward Banff. Dohi checked his watch under his thick sleeve. By the time they made it back to base, it would be morning.
They marched as fast as they could through the increasingly deep snow. Dohi’s muscles burned with the effort to push through it. Neilson had been right. If they had continued following the bears, they would’ve been stranded in the arctic conditions.
For another hour they pushed through the ice and snow.
“Not too much longer,” Neilson said.
“Thank, God,” Ace said. “I got to take a shit.”
Dohi noticed something different about the path ahead. He held up a fist and the team paused. Then he ducked down into a hunch and pushed through the snow about twenty yards through the trees toward the south.
Ghost and Spearhead were not the only ones who had planned on following the river.
In front of him, long swathes of snow had been pushed aside as if a group of people had come marching through. Given the intensity of the snowfall, it hadn’t been long since these people had passed.
Dohi hurried back to join Ghost and Spearhead, lungs burning from the frigid air.
“What’s up?” Fitz asked.
“Looks like someone was here.” Dohi panted. “Maybe… maybe a group of ten people or so. Are there other patrols out here?”
Neilson shook his head. “Let me find out.” He called command on his radio. “Command, Spearhead One. Are there other patrols in our vicinity?”
“Negative, Spearhead One. All other units were recalled about an hour ago.”
Dohi directed his NVGs at Fitz. Someone else was out here, and judging by the direction, they too were headed straight for Banff.
“Command, be advised, we found tracks,” Neilson said. “And they’re headed your way.”
***
“You’re too exhausted,” Leslie said. “Time to let someone else take over communicating with the network.”
Kate groaned. She had only managed a few hours of sleep. When Beckham had been called to the field, she knew she had missed her chance at rest. Instead, she had gone directly back to the tunnel entrance in the Houston hospital just outside the outpost gates.
Her staff was here now too, and Leslie had taken the chair, ready to connect. Ron reluctantly held a writhing tendril of webbing at the back of her neck while Sammy watched.
A team of soldiers stood guard over the research site, several of them watching.
“You don’t have to do this,” Kate said. “I’m fine, really.”
“You can’t be the only one,” Leslie said. “Someone else needs to learn how to communicate with the network like you do.”
Kate wasn’t sure what the long-term ramifications of connecting to the network like this were, but inwardly, she was glad Leslie had offered to help. All she knew was that each time she did, electricity seemed to pour through the vines of tissue and into her. From her basic studies, the tendrils acted like electrodes against the skin, reading signals passed between her nerves and sending electric signals back into her tissue as feedback.
“When I’ve learned, we can teach Ron, too,” Leslie said. “That way we all share the burden.”
Ron looked to the side as if he wasn’t sure about that.
“It’s okay,” Leslie said with a smile.
Kate couldn’t help feeling protective over the slightly younger lab tech.
“When you’re ready,” Sammy said, “I can initiate the connection.”
“Let’s do it,” Leslie said.
Sammy pressed a button on her keyboard, and the tendril went wild, adhering to the back of Leslie’s neck. Leslie’s eyes closed, and her face set in a grimace.
“Is she okay?” Kate asked.
Sammy nodded. “This is exactly what happens to you each time we—”
Voices echoed down into the parking garage, and a few of the soldiers standing on guard perked, shouldering their rifles.
Kate walked over to one of the guards. “What’s going on?”
One of the soldiers on guard put his radio to his ear. “Sounds like Captain Beckham and the scout teams are back. They took some casualties.”
“Is Reed okay? Did they say Captain Beckham was hurt?”
“I, uh, don’t—”
Kate looked back to
