Page 1 of Monsters within Men
one
Noah
Ithadonlyjustgone ten o’clock, but Noah was running for his life yet again.
Gunshots rattled through the air, sending birds scattering in every direction. Clearly his squad hadn’t taken the slightest bit of notice of his directive to conserve bullets in the briefing this morning.
The audio feed on his combat helmet crackled before Splat’s voice barked into his ear, “Forrest, what the hell are you doing in the bloodymaze? And watch your six!”
He pivoted on his heel, running backwards as fast as he dared as he unloaded several bolts from his crossbow at the cluster of monsters chasing him.
Fuck it, he thought, and swapped to his rifle.
Today’s mission was only meant to be a covert supply run. A scouting report suggested there could be stashes of tinned food awaiting them in the restaurant of Lightwater Amusement Park.In and out, they’d said.You’ll be back for lunch,they’d said.
Activating the drone-cam view on his VisorX’s interior display, he watched himself run from above through the overgrown hedge maze.Two lefts, then a right…
Hungry snarls snapped him back to the scene in front of him: three more typeAs, who’d fought their way through the thick shrubbery of the hedge maze, were barrelling towards him.
“I can’t shootandfigure my way out,” he shouted into his mic.
He heard Splat sigh dramatically, as if it pained him to help his commanding officer out of a life and death situation.
“Keep going straight. Walsh and Sanders are by the exit, waiting for you. Next left,” Splat instructed, and Noah followed his directions, shooting two typeAs smack-bang in the middle of their foreheads. Noah grinned—Habib was going to be jealous of his body count.
“Left. Then right…”
When Noah burst out of the oppressively dim light of the maze, several types—latecomers to Noah’s trail of followers—were still hot on his tail.
“Feckin’ hell, LT, you’re a popular one today,” Aoife said, raising her rifle in the relaxed, languid way she knew annoyed him. The chest piece of her combat suit was splattered with so much gore, he could barely see the hard black material.
“Can you just—”
“I’m on it.” Meredith unloaded three rounds, hitting all three of her marks. Noah would have whistled in approval if he had any breath left.
Aoife waved her rifle in the air. “That’s not on, not even giving me the chance.”
“You snooze, you lose, bitch.”
“Sitrep? Where’s everyone else?” Noah said, more to snap them back to attention than anything—he was already flicking through the drone’s feeds.
Aoife nodded to the west. “Over by the rollercoaster.”
Marching in formation with Noah leading, the trio crossed the long-abandoned park with haste.
A minor explosion sounded in the near distance, small wisps of smoke trailing into the sky.
“Splat?” Noah increased his pace. “What’s going on over there?”
“Nothing much. Things were just getting a little boring, so I thought I’d spice it up.”
“What have I said about—”
Noah cut himself off, staring at a typeB that pressed its face against a chain-link fence. “Go on. I’ll be there in a second,” he said to Aoife and Meredith.
He clocked them glancing at each other, hesitating for a millisecond too long before they followed his order.
When the women passed the entrance to the log flume ride, Noah took a step towards the fence. He surveyed the typeB as it lunged for him, forcing its clawed fingers through the small gaps, creating a loud, harsh clanging sound as it threw itself against the metal. A human man once, but no longer. Now it was only a vehicle for the virus that had devoured him.
