Timothy leveled his pistol at the beast.
Beckham tried to bring up his rifle, but the weight was almost too much to keep steady. He turned to look for an exit route, but there was nowhere to run.
“On me!” Horn said.
He stepped in front of the group, his M249 centered on the pack of misshapen, diseased, beasts.
“You want some of this, you motherfuckers?” he shouted. “Come and get it!”
***
From the helicopter, the flash of gunfire below looked like lightning cutting through dark storm clouds. Dohi leaned out the side door as Tremblay brought the Black Hawk toward Krueger Drive, on the south side of the Venetian.
For a while, they had been unable to reach Beckham, Timothy, or Ruckley. Dohi had worried it might be too late to save them and after Ace’s death, he could not deal with another devastating loss.
When Horn had finally answered on the comms, Dohi had let out a breath of relief.
The rotor wash of the chopper kicked up the pillars of smoke, dispelling the dark clouds enough for Dohi to see the Alpha and its monstrous brethren rushing toward a small group of soldiers pinned up against a burning loading dock.
The creatures had fanned out, some taking to nearby walls, others darting for cover.
“Take us down between the Variants and Beckham!” Fitz yelled over the comm.
“Too much debris near Beckham,” Tremblay called back. “But I’ve got a patch of street fifty yards to their east that should work. We can still block the Alpha from Beckham that way.”
“Do it,” Fitz replied. “Ghost, Spearhead, form a perimeter and cover Beckham and the bird as they get the injured aboard.”
The crew chief on the door-mounted gun began to spray rounds into any creature that made the mistake of leaving cover.
Rounds suddenly pelted the helo, forcing the pilot to bank hard to the right.
“We got hostiles across the street!” yelled the primary pilot.
More bullets rattled against the side of the chopper. A round caught the crew chief in the chin, taking off part of it. He slumped, falling out of the chopper to the road below.
“Get us down!” Fitz shouted.
The chopper lowered to the ground as more rounds slammed into the helo, some punching through the metal.
Dohi spotted one of the Chimeras. The half-man hid behind a slab of asphalt. He aimed at the creature as they approached the ground.
The wheels hit the street, putting the bird between where Beckham was toward their west, closer to the main strip, and the Alpha and Chimeras charging in from the east.
The first Chimera’s head popped up, and Dohi pulled the trigger. A burst of rounds took the top of the skull off.
That’s for Ace, you asshole.
The second Scion went down from a headshot from Fitz.
“Let’s move!” he screamed.
Dohi hopped out with Rico, Fitz, and Corrin. They fanned out to make a perimeter as Neilson and Toussaint laid down covering fire, one of them jumping to the M240.
“We got more coming from the west!” Horn called over the comms.
Dohi turned to see that beyond the helo, well past Beckham’s position, beasts flooded in from the main strip, forcing Beckham and Horn to open fire while Timothy ran toward the helicopter with Ruckley in his arms. Another man from Recon Sigma limped after them.
They were still a good thirty, forty yards away.
The Alpha and its brethren barreled toward the chopper from the east, racing toward the bird. At this pace, they would be there before Timothy made it with the injured soldier and Ruckley, even with Beckham and Horn trying to hold off the second pack of twisted creatures.
The Alpha pushed past a few of the dead monsters, smashing them as it ran over their bodies. A few bullets caught the monster, tearing through its muscle. But it didn’t let the rounds stop it.
“Use the M240!” Dohi yelled into the comm.
Toussaint turned the weapon on the beast. A few rounds lanced out from the machine gun, but the weapon jammed.
Dohi cursed and aimed for the head of the Alpha. It ducked away, vanishing in a cloud of drifting smoke. He let his rifle fall on its strap, whipping out his hatchet in one hand and his knife in the other.
Images of Ace’s beheaded body smacking against the rooftop flashed through his mind. He let out a primal war cry to match the Alpha’s.
Corrin followed, gripping his cutlass in both clawed hands. A Variant burst through the smoke, and he took off its head with a swift stroke like he was swinging for a homerun.
Dohi sliced at another thrall that burst from the smoke, maw snapping at his blade. He hit it in the skull with the back end of his hatchet, cracking open its head like an egg.
The Alpha kept to the barrier of smoke. It fell to all fours, waiting to strike.
As Corrin distracted the smaller Variants, Dohi ran at the Alpha with his blades up over his head. The creature burst out to meet him, striking at his chest. He dodged the attack and cleaved a patch of thick muscle from the beast’s shoulder. The Alpha swung again, hitting Dohi in the chest and knocking him back.
Gunfire slashed out around them, piercing the flanks of the other Variants.
The Alpha reared back, rising to its full height like a grizzly bear. Dohi dodged under another series of blows, striking out with his weapons, cutting at the barreled leg muscles.
Smoke stung his nostrils, making his eyes water. He blinked past it, desperate to keep his focus on the gigantic abomination. Every other sound seeming to fade away except for the growls and roars of the Alpha.
Thoughts of Ace, Lincoln, Mendez, and all the lives torn apart by the monsters fueled him.
Attack after attack, he dodged, then parried and counterstriked.
Dohi hunched beneath slicing claws, and lashed out at the beast’s ankle, cutting deep into the tendon. The monster crumpled to one knee, letting out
