Cruel World(140)

More of the creatures streamed through the gap in the wall. The fighters held for a beat and then scattered, running from the stilts in every direction. A twenty-foot-tall beast snatched a man from the ground and gripped him in both of its skeletal hands before wrenching him apart at the waist. A smaller stilt had cornered two men who’d run out of ammo, its arms spread apart as if herding cattle. One of the men tried to run tight to the wall and was flattened as the barricade he was passing tipped forward and hammered him to the ground.

The open space of the compound was awash with stilts feeding and people running. Pure chaos.

Quinn ducked low and ran.

He pelted down the rows of tents, breath stinging in his chest, back and head aching from where he’d hit the stairs. Screams of the dying behind him mingled with the stilt’s roars, chasing him as he fled.

Collincz appeared through the rain, her rifle centered on his chest as he skidded to a stop.

“What the hell’s going on up there?”

“They’re inside; we have to go!” Quinn panted, taking off around her.

“Who’s inside? What about the others?” she asked, running beside him while throwing looks back over her shoulder.

“They’re dead; they’re all dead.”

A body sailed over Collincz’s head and crashed through one of the last tents in a row. It ragdolled to a stop, and he barely registered that the corpse was decapitated before barreling past it. There were a few more stuttering barks of gunfire behind them and then more cries of pain echoed out of the mist.

Ahead, the doctor’s building materialized, and Alice was standing in the doorway, eyes wide at the sight of them running toward her.

“Go! We have to run. Get Ty,” Quinn said, sliding to a stop. Alice dashed inside as Holtz moved toward them, his face drawn tight, skull-like in the dim light.

“What is it?”

“They’re inside the walls. We have to move. Now!” Quinn said, grasping the older man by the arm. He pulled the doctor into the rain as Alice appeared carrying Ty, Denver trotting behind her. Without a word, she transferred Ty to him, and he hugged the boy close as he turned to Collincz.

“Is there another way out?”

A scream cut the air followed by a rumbling croak. Collincz glanced to the front of the compound. Quinn grabbed her uniform and jerked her forward.

“Is there another way out?” he said, his face inches from hers. She blinked and then nodded.

“There’s a reinforced access door at the very back behind the mine.”

“Let’s go,” he said, beginning to skirt the tent. Alice kept pace beside him, but they halted as Collincz yelled something.

The soldier was standing between them and Holtz, who wore a sad smile. He had drawn his wallet out and pulled a picture from inside.

“Doctor, come on!” Collincz called.

“I think that I might be of more use here since I was unable to do my job properly.” He glanced down at the photo before looking at them again. “Godspeed,” he said, and ducked back inside the tent. Collincz made to move in his direction when a man came hurtling out of the rain, his eyes wild, mouth open. A hand reached out from the mist and plucked him off the ground like a child playing with a toy. The man didn’t have time to scream before the stilt swung him up and bashed him into the ground headfirst. He remained rigid for a second, his legs and torso sticking up from the mud, then fell sideways in a pile of lifeless flesh. The stilt that killed him gazed at his body for a second and then looked up at them, its lips pulling back from yellowed teeth.

Collincz raised her rifle and shot it through the eye. It dropped where it stood.

Another tall form emerged through the rain. Then another.

“Go,” Quinn whispered to Alice. They ran.

The mine opened up in a yawning of earth so deep it made him dizzy to look at it. The ground between the edge of the pit and the concrete barricade narrowed as they went, their footsteps and breathing the only sounds now. Quinn glanced over his shoulder at Collincz who jogged behind them. As he watched, she stopped and dropped to a knee before firing three controlled bursts from her rifle. Something croaked near the doctor’s tent and then a concussive blast shook the air.

They stopped and spun, seeing a plume of fire rise from where the medical building used to be. It licked into the soaking air before falling away, steam rushing up in its place. They turned and continued on the path, its width dwindling the further they went. Ty’s arms were locked around his neck, face buried against his shoulder, and he cradled him, muscles beginning to burn. They followed a curve in the mine’s edge and slowed, climbing over a small washout that held loose sand and rock. On the other side, the land sloped, narrowing to a glorified ledge. Quinn took a tentative step onto its slim offering.