Page 78 of Shadow Warrior
We dropped to a jog. Five hours was a long time to be in one sector. Felt like overkill, to be honest.
Did the others feel the same? “Based on the coordinates, it shouldn’t take us more than an hour and a half to get back to the fortress.”
“I know,” Brady said. “Makes me wonder what’s waiting to stall our progress.”
The ground began to vibrate beneath our feet, and a weird sonic vibration sliced at my eardrums.
“Fuck!” Aidan covered his ears, and Devon made a sound that was a cross between a growl and a howl.
The noise was sharp, unpleasant, but not painful to me. Brady looked unaffected, as if he hadn’t heard anything, and maybe he hadn’t. The sound was probably set to a frequency he couldn’t hear. A frequency that was hurting Devon and Aidan.
They were on their knees now.
Shit. I rushed over to Devon and wrapped my arms around him from behind. “It’s okay. Shit. The noise needs to stop.”
Carlo and Lloyd flanked Aidan as if they could block the sound with their bodies.
“Argh!” Blood spattered the ground.
Shit. Devon’s nose was bleeding.
And then there was silence.
I gulped in air and then coughed as the mist entered my lungs, stinging strangely. Devon dropped his hands from his ears and wiped at his bloody nose. I gave him a hand up.
“Fuck, that was bad,” he said.
Aidan shook his head as if trying to dismiss the residue of the sound, and then another noise filtered through the mist, a clicking, chittering sound. A chill enveloped me.
“Guys. I think we should move. Now.”
To our far left, someone let out a bloodcurdling scream.
“Fuck!”
“Watch out!”
“Run!” cadets cried.
Our team stood frozen for a split second, and then we ran. Fuck, what was up ahead, we had something behind that we needed to get away from. Something that was, from the sound of it, tearing into a cadet.
One down already.
Dammit, Henrich. I knew he wanted only the best, but could we really afford to lose men like this?
Something red floated up ahead. Several red things. “Guys, flags.” I picked up speed.
“Justice, watch out!” Lloyd called.
Brady hit me from the side, taking me down just as something huge and hairy sailed over our heads.
Was that a … no. Hell no. Legs … Way too many legs. I wanted to be sick.
The spider spun and ejected gray shit at us. I rolled, taking Brady with me, and then we were on our feet, weapons slashing and stabbing. But the fucking five-foot monstrosity wasn’t working solo. He’d brought friends.
More hairy beasts with too many legs and gray webbing.
“Motherfucker.” Carlo fell back on his ass, covered in gray shit—webbing that was still attached to an eight-legged freak. I rolled and came up in front of him, swiping down with my blade to sever the thick, sticky threads. They parted beneath my blade easily. Fomorian steel rocked.
