Stephens returned to the group and pointed at Jesse and Jacob. “Grab your rifles and follow me; I’m giving you two the first watch.”
The two of them were led away to a far corner. The roof was nothing more than a large square, flat and covered with small pebbles. At the corner, they could look back and see the rest of the team positioned near the mechanical equipment and the stairwell structure across from them. Stephens handed Jacob the low-light binoculars. “Just keep an eye on things. In two hours, wake up James and Rogers. If you need anything, come get me.”
The sergeant walked away, leaving them alone for the first time since they’d joined the group. Jacob took the binoculars and looked out over the edge of the roof, scanning the city. They were located in an industrial park—or at least that’s what they would have called it back home in Chicago. He could easily count ten warehouses within view and several more at the edge of town. Just to their south was a large factory complex where he counted several large chemical tanks.
Jacob pointed at the far off complex. “I bet that’s the spot,” he whispered to Jesse. Jacob passed off the binoculars to his friend, who put them to his eyes and looked in the direction indicated.
“Dang, that’s a long way. I wonder how we’re supposed to know which one of those has the dioxin,” Jesse whispered. Lowering the binoculars, he looked out over the street below then quickly swiped his head back. “Oh shit, they’re still down there.”
“How many?” Jacob asked.
“Too many. How can this whole city be dead? None of us left, not a single one?” asked Jesse, feeling defeated as he lifted the binoculars back to his eyes and searched farther out. He scanned left to right before spotting another group of them on a far off corner. “They always seem to come out at night. A stereotype that always fits. Monsters come out at night.”
“Yeah, I guess so,” Jacob said.
Eyes still glued to the street corner, Jesse asked, “What are they doing here?”
Jacob rose. Leaning back, he used the optics on his rifle to look at the group. There were at least ten of them, all standing together in a tight pack. “I don’t know. Getting ready for dinner?”
Jesse shook his head. “Not just those; I mean all of them.”
“What, you mean like why did it happen?”
Jesse looked down over the edge again, watching the things below. “Yeah, why are they here? What do they want?”
“I don’t know. They don’t seem smart enough to want anything. Hell, I’m just tired of the empty streets. Sometimes, when I see a group of them, I try not to look too hard and pretend they're people just like us. Not just something that we have to kill.”
Jesse laughed. “Better not go saying shit like that too loud, bro. James will smack you in the mouth.”
The group below gathered smartly together and moved as a single entity. They stalked off to the north, leaving their spot. Although not obvious at first, they moved in an organized method, and Jacob was starting to see the pattern. They moved, keeping an even distance from each other. Then they slowly spread out over the street, and in groups of two, splintered out in a large, circular search pattern. As the small groups moved away, the larger group followed them but remained organized in a tight pack.
Jacob took the binoculars from Jesse and searched in all directions. “It’s like a ripple effect.” He dropped the binos and looked at Jesse’s confused expression.
He pointed. “Look… see how they’re spreading out and leaving in groups of two hunters? Now look how the rest of them have centralized themselves. They’re shifting slightly and moving to the centers. See how they’ve spread out, following those hunters? It’s like army ants searching for prey. They send out these tiny hunters on patrol. Once they find something, they call in the main body for the attack. Then they destroy everything in their path.”
Jesse stared back. “It’s exactly like that.”
A noise of boots scraping the roof turned them back. James had moved close and knelt between them. “So what are you girls talking about?”
“Oh, just boys and stuff,” Jesse replied, causing James to laugh.
James leaned his rifle against the ledge. “You two get some shut eye, we’re going to the warehouse tomorrow; you’ll need your strength.”
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Jacob woke to the smell of brewing coffee. Even before he opened his eyes, he knew it would be Stephens playing barista. Jacob stretched and lifted his head from his sleeping bag. He lay in the open and looked up at the gray sky. Heavy clouds blocked the sun; the outside of his bag was damp with water from the morning dew. “Tell me again why we couldn’t sleep inside.” He groaned as he removed himself from his bag, opening it so that he could sit on the dry fabric as he dressed.
“Better to be out here in the open. Here, have some coffee; it does wonders for your spirit.” Stephens poured part of the contents of the pot into a small cup and passed it across to Jacob, who took it eagerly in his hands. He sipped at the liquid as he looked around the roof. He could see that Rogers was on watch at the far wall. Jesse was still asleep in his bag just across from him. Marks, once again, had the map out, plotting their next move.
“We saw them moving again last night,” Jacob said between sips. The air was cold and he could see the condensation as he exhaled. “There are a lot of them.”
Stephens looked up at him. “Yeah, they move a lot at night; they're nocturnal.”
“No, it was like we saw at the
