Xenofall (The Wasteland Chronicles, Book 7) (18 page)

“Where’s Makara?” I asked one of the men.

He pointed in the direction of the ridge. “Somewhere over there.”

“Let’s go,” Anna said.

We rushed along the rim of the plateau, past legionaries who were sheltered behind sandbags and wooden stakes driven deep into the oozing fungus. We approached the fortifications lining the eastern rim of the plateau. On the flatlands below the plateau, thousands of crawlers worked their way up the steep slope, and thousands more waited in the wings. That slope would have been nearly impossible for a human to climb, but the xenofungus provided an ideal hold for the crawlers’ sharp, pointed limbs.

The air was filled with the screams of man and monster, and it took a lot of bullets to bring down even one of the creatures. Still, crawlers would eventually fall under a barrage of concentrated fire. Carin and Augustus must have had a lot of ammunition stocked up, but even mountains of it would exhaust rather quickly under these conditions. I noticed trucks parked up and down the line, with men running back and forth to resupply the beleaguered troops. Machine gun nests on high points swerved their barrels back and forth, painting the slope with a salvo of bullets. The Reapers’ artillery fired from behind the lines, the glowing streaks of mortars whistling after they passed. They ignited in plumes of fire on the plain far below. The crawlers that made it past Carin’s gunmen were met with Augustus’s legions and their spear wall. The line was spread far too thinly, but it was the only way to cover the entire plateau.

From our height, I glimpsed the southern and northern parts of the plateau, each of which was sparsely manned. If the crawlers concentrated their attack there, they could break through easily, but for now, they hadn’t figured that out. Their numbers were so high that no matter where they attacked, they would probably win. It was a question of time more than anything else.

“We need to go up the line,” I said, pointing to the north.

Anna nodded her agreement, and we ran along the battle line, keeping our eye to the east. Just fifteen feet to our right stood the back ranks of Augustus’s legions, spears pointed outward. As the crawlers pushed against them, the legionaries’ spears stabbed mercilessly. Piles of twitching monsters piled in front of the soldiers, forcing other crawlers to focus their attacks elsewhere. Meanwhile, Carin’s men fired from the high points into the swarming mass.

We were about halfway across the plateau when a
Radaskim
dragon screamed, diving low. I grabbed Anna and fell to the ground as the creature swooped overhead. It passed, raking its claws on a machine gun nest. The Reapers manning the gun ducked behind the stakes, but the gun itself sailed into the air and over the legionaries, crashing onto the slope below. The dragon was wheeling back around for another attack, when a fountain of purple blood shot from the dragon’s side. A second later, a
crack
sounded in the air above. The dragon fell in a haphazard dive, crashing right into the legionaries. The soldiers broke to avoid the crash, but the falling dragon crushed many with its impact.

The dragon’s fall created an opening, which the crawlers began to assault. As more legionaries broke, centurions barked orders in Spanish to rally the troops.

“We have to do something,” I said. “That line won’t hold.”

First a few, then dozens, began a rout. Crawlers surged into the hole created by the fleeing soldiers. If the line broke here, it would break everywhere.

I ran forward, in the opposite direction of the wide-eyed, panicked soldiers, whose leathers and spears were bloodied purple and red.

“Turn back!” I yelled. “Turn back!”

Anna joined me in trying to rally the troops. Even if they didn’t understand our words, they understood our meaning. Maybe the sight of two teenagers running toward the battle would shame them into doing the same. Thankfully, at least a few men began turning back, forming a line with shields raised, as they had been trained. Most of those in the rout were young – the seasoned campaigners were still in the thick of it.

The veterans yelled at the younger men, urging them to stay and fight.

A centurion with a purple plume in his helmet withdrew a handgun, firing at the ground near several in the rout. Now, the men began to turn back, taking up their spears and shields to join the rest of the ranks. The crawlers pushed against the line, throwing everything they had against it. But the discipline of Augustus’s troops had managed to close the breach, pushing back the tide of monsters.

Just then, two more dragons swooped down. I aimed my rifle upward, looking through the scope for a decent shot. As I was about to fire, the railgun ripped the beast from the air in a shower of purple blood. I switched my focus to the other dragon. It had gone into a dive, its talons ripping into the ranks of legionaries. Men’s screams filled the air as the dragon slashed them with its talons. The dragon passed overhead, letting out a baleful roar, which revealed the inside of its fetid mouth.

I let out a breath, keeping the scope homed in on that opening. Then, I fired at full automatic, doing my best to eat the rifle’s kick.

Some of those bullets must have connected, because the dragon suddenly went limp, its muscles slackening as it plummeted past the battle lines. It crashed between two machine gun nests about fifty feet away.

Seeing that dragon fall inspired the men to keep fighting, to keep pushing back against the crawlers, bashing with their shields and stabbing with their spears. The machine gunners in the nests swept the eastern slope with a storm of bullets. The crawlers fought back viciously, stabbing with their long tails, but their opportunity had mostly passed. By now, the line stood strong and held back the monsters.

Anna and I ran to the leftmost machine gun nest to get a better view. The crawlers seemed to be pulling back.

“They’re withdrawing,” Anna said.

Some of the men cheered, but I knew this was no victory. Perhaps a thousand crawlers lay dead on the slope, twitching and dead, but thousands more still waited on the plain, regrouping. Dragons wheeled in the sky above like carrion birds. Maybe this was a temporary respite, but at some point, the attack would begin anew.

“They’re planning a new attack,” I said. “I’m sure of it.”

“What kind of attack?”

“I have no idea.”

The railgun continued to fire, taking aim at the retreating dragons. Range didn’t seem to matter; no matter how far these dragons were, its targeting computer could attain a perfect shot nearly every time. The longer we held out, the better things would go for us. Our only limitation was running out of rounds.

“We could really use the
Elekai
right now,” Anna said.

“It’ll still be a while before they get here. Even then...it’ll be dozens against hundreds.”

The dragons descended from the sky into the eastern valley, out of range of the railgun. For the first time since we landed, no more cracks echoed on the plateau, leaving a wake filled only with the shouts of men, the screams of the wounded, and the odd bullet being fired.

Anna raised her radio. “Makara? Makara, you there? Please answer.”

I heard Anna’s voice echo behind us. I spun around, to see Makara standing, purple blood splattered over her entire body.

“You too, huh?” she said, addressing Anna.

“Makara!” I said. “Where’s everyone else?”

“I don’t know about Michael. Julian, Samuel, and I...we fought with the rest of them. Char, Marcus, and Ruth were there with us. Michael got separated somewhere in the fighting...”

“We need to find him.”

“That’s what I was doing,” Makara said. “I guess he’s not to the south?”

I shook my head. “No. Unless we missed him.”

She sighed. “We weren’t fighting in that direction, anyway. We were where it was thickest.

She stared off to the east, over the slope and at the xenofungal plain.

“Let’s get everyone together, first,” Anna said. “Then we can search.”

Makara looked at us both. “We need to meet up with Augustus and Black to plan our next move. Maybe I can send one person to search. But first things first. We need to head to the Command Post.”

There was no arguing, so we followed Makara up the plateau, passing wounded men and dead crawlers. We came upon a wounded legionary, who had a gaping hole in his chest about the size of a fist. It had likely come from a crawler tail. The wound bled profusely, and there was no hope for him. His pallor was deathly, and the pain must have been horrible.

“Matame...matame...por favor...”

“What’s he want?” I asked.

Anna paused a moment before answering. She withdrew her blade.

“I don’t have to understand Spanish to know that.”

With that, she sliced his head off.

F
urther up the plateau, we found the rest of the crew, minus Michael, walking toward us. Their faces were dirtied, their ragged camo speckled with red and purple blood. Amazingly, all of them were still on their feet, though their features were strained with exhaustion.

“We need to find Augustus and Carin,” Makara said.

“And Michael?” Samuel asked.

Makara shook her head. “Alex and Anna haven’t seen him.”

“I can go look,” Anna said.

Makara pointed in the direction of a small rise, upon which several Recons were parked. “That’s Command. Whether you find him, or not...be there in thirty.”

Anna nodded and ran off, checking first to the north.

As Makara walked toward Command, the rest of us followed. It wasn’t long before we reached it, finding Augustus resplendent in his battle armor and purple cape, barking orders to several of his chief centurions. Carin, meanwhile, stood a ways off, ordering some of his men into a waiting Recon. They climbed in and the Recon screamed off, its serrated tires churning flecks of pink growth beneath its wheels. The vehicle headed in the direction of the railgun, where I could see that several crawlers had skewered themselves on the fortifying stakes.

Carin walked toward us while Augustus gave his final orders to his officers.

“Go,” Augustus said. “I want one thousand more men on the northern flank.”

The centurions nodded, and left to do as they were told.

Augustus turned to us. “Michael and Anna?”

“Anna’s looking for Michael,” Makara said. “We were separated during the fighting.”

“We’re not going to last much longer out here,” Char said. “When those things attack again...we’re dead.”

Augustus raised a quizzical eyebrow. “You don’t think I know that?”

“We’ve blown through half our rounds for the railgun,” Carin said. “It’ll last until the evening, depending on when they attack again.”

“How many rounds are left?” Samuel asked.

“One hundred forty-eight. Considering we shoot them off at about two a minute, give or take, we have enough rounds for about two and a half hours.”

“Will it work as effectively at night?” Makara asked.

“No doubt,” Carin said. “It can read in infrared.”

“They nearly punched through the lines, right in the center,” I said.

Augustus’s face was unreadable. His eyes focused, as if he were deep in thought.

“I’m expecting them to hit us from every side next time,” he said. “The first attack was a test of our strength. Now that they see we won’t be easily broken, they’ll look for new alternatives. Under a constant assault from all sides, we won’t last long.”

“Which is why we need to stop it at the source,” I said. “After we find Michael, we have to find Askala.”

“How long will that take?” Carin asked. “The way it’s looking, we won’t even last the night.”

“The
Elekai
will be here to reinforce, probably by evening,” I said. “That should help out a bit.”

“There’s one of those dragons for every ten they have,” Carin said. “A momentary distraction.”

“As a last resort,” Samuel said, “Lauren is standing by in Bunker 84, ready to launch the nukes.”

Carin shook his head. “God help us if it comes to that. Which it probably will.”

“Alex is right,” Makara said. “Killing Askala is the only long-term solution to this. You guys will have to find a way to hold on until we can do that. Quietus is on her way there, working to empty the Crater and make it easier for us to get inside. Hopefully, by the time we get there, she’ll be done. Failing that...we might have to use a nuke or two there as well.”

“When are you leaving?” Augustus asked. “Who will command your men?”

“Char and Marcus will stay behind to command the New Angels. I have to see Alex through, to the very end.”

“So you all go off while we stay here and die,” Carin said. “That’s rich.”

“Where we’re going, we’re
guaranteed
to die,” Samuel said. “At least you have a chance.”

Carin didn’t respond to that. He frowned in thought.

“I give us twelve hours, before we’re completely broken,” he said. “What happens, supposing you win at the Crater?”

“The
Radaskim
are stopped,” I said. “I suppose they’ll become
Elekai.”

“Nice. So we trade one set of aliens for the other.”

“You left out the important part,” Makara said. “The second kind don’t want to kill you.” She turned to Augustus before Carin could respond. “As soon as Anna finds Michael, we’re leaving.”

I looked in the direction Anna had gone. She was nowhere in sight.

“Might be that you have two people to look for, now,” Carin said, smiling. “You better get on it.”

At that moment, klaxons began to blare, high, whirring up and down, from the direction of the railgun.

“They’re coming at us again,” Carin said.

The railgun’s turret swiveled toward the north, where a line of ten or so dragons appeared from below the distant ridge. The railgun fired, a hellish whipping crackling the air, a fire trail blazing from its barrel. The central dragon, the forerunner, took the shot right in the chest, sending a spray of purple blood shooting behind.

I realized then what they were doing.

“They’re going for the gun!”

“Don’t you think I see that?” Carin said, face angry. “I’ll be damned if they get anywhere near it.” Carin turned to his Reapers. “All Recons by the gun, now! Get every gunner you can from the western line. Give those things hell.”