Infinity Squad (6 page)

A crag of car-sized rocks, with a clear field of view in front of it. Not the highest point on the mountain, but on the ridge leading there.

"That's a last stand spot if I've ever seen one," Ann-Marie said.

"There are certainly enough spider bodies in front of it," Zazlu added.

I nodded. "Let's go see if our First Lieu's up there."

As we climbed the last hundred meters, the air had gotten noticeably hotter and more humid. And there was a quiet hissing I heard off and on, but that went away if I stopped to listen for it.

"Sir," Ann-Marie whispered to me. "Look at the time."

"I know, I know."

"We've got to go before-"

"I know!"

"Have we got somewhere to be?" Zazlu asked, twenty yards ahead.

"Damn implants," I said. "We'll explain later, Zaz. See anything up there?"

"Everything," he replied.

And it was true. Spider bodies, with bullet holes in them, two, three in a row. A mass charge, met with accurate fire. And another row, on the other side. An attempted flanking maneuver. I looked the scene over.

"Zaz, did the Immortals you interviewed say anything about making a glorious last stand inside a bunker?"

"They did."

I pointed. "Then why are their bodies out in front of it?"

Three bodies lay twenty feet in front of the bunker. Well, parts of them. The parts that the grenades hadn't incinerated. Spider parts were tangled into the bloody, charred mix as well.

"A suicide charge," Ann-Marie spat. "Stupid."

I nodded. "Buffering bands will do that. Grim, can you see if these all transmitted well?"

He pulled out some fancy looking electronic gear, checked the bands around the decapitated heads. The lights on the bands glowed warning red, spent. "They're fine," Grimmy said. "All transmitted at 1053 Zulu. One message, signal received."

"And the ones farther down the slope?"

"They transmitted at 1041."

I frowned. "We climbed the same distance in five minutes. And I imagine a pack of Hell-Spiders behind you would make the climb go somewhat faster. But that short a fire-fight? In a strong defensive position that's easy to extract from?"

"Ain't no thoughts of extracting, sir," Juan whispered into his mike, standing at the crag of rocks. "There's so many casings in here, these mo-fos were on full auto. Blasting away. And the Lieutenant's up here, too."

The whole squad climbed around to see, standing around or on the car-sized rocks and looking down at the natural bunker inside. And the body. He had his knife in one dismembered arm, a shattered rifle in the other. And blood everywhere else.

"Steve," I whispered. "What did that?"

Even the medic looked a little sick, but stepped into the bunker to check the bloody mess. He tried not to step on anything that had once been Ridley, but it was almost impossible. He bent closer to look. "Claws. A lot of them."

"Any bullet holes?" All of them turned to me, shocked, but I didn't flinch. I had been thinking about it for a long time. "It had to be said."

Zazlu ground his teeth. "If those Immortal bastards..."

Steve was doing a deeper inspection. "No, not that I can see. But there's SO much flesh missing... still... no. No foul play."

"Except the guys watching the Lieutenant's back decided to Pickett's Charge themselves," Ann-Marie said. "Leaving him exposed."

"Grim," I ordered, "inspect Ridley's band. Then we'll take his body back for burial."

As the tech reluctantly stepped into the bloody mess that Steve was vacating, I walked away to look at the scene again. That hissing had gotten a little louder, but I still couldn't find its source. Ann-Marie came up, pulled on my sleeve and covered her mike with her hand. "Sir. Time. There's no taking him back."

"Then we'll bury him here!" I hissed.

"Sir, it's almost noon. I don't know what scares a Hell-Spider, but I don't want to see it," she whispered, barely audible.

"Is there something happening at noon that the rest of us should know about?" Zazlu said, loudly and clearly, from twenty feet away where he was using his K-knife to saw through a Hell-Spider neck.

I looked down and cursed. Ann-Marie had covered her mike, but not mine. I turned to face the squad. "Shit. Okay, Grim, keep working while I have a talk with Zazlu. Juan you keep... what are you doing?"

Zazlu pulled the dead Hell-Spider's head off its bullet-riddled body with satisfaction, then started tying the bloody, TV-sized prize over his pack. Juan was halfway to doing the same. "General said he wanted skulls," Zazlu replied. "He didn't say where from."

I shook my head. "Fine. That will work. But come here a second."

Zazlu trotted over to where Butcher and were, and I made sure to cover his mike and mine. "What I'm about to say doesn't leave this mountain. Or the three of us. But..." I sighed. "The Hell-Spiders can talk. Telepathically. In English." Zazlu was frowning. "And the one I captured told me it would be safe to come back to this mountain, as long as we left by noon." I thought a little harder. "Actually, 'well before noon' is what he said."

The hissing was noticeable now. And it didn't go away when I turned my head.

"Everyone else hears that, right?" Steve asked.

"Squad, prepare to haul ass! Grim, report!"

The tech popped out of the bunker. "It's strange sir. The time code meta data says one thing but the-"

"Just grab the band, Private!" Ann-Marie barked. "Sir, we've got to go!"

I looked. The grasses around the tree line were rustling. All around us. Juan had the second head on his back, Grim popped out of the bunker with Ridley's band in his hand.

"Down the ridgeline!" I ordered, leading us down the hopefully quicker, if more exposed, path back to base. "Stay in the open until we can see them!"

The squad fell in behind me, running haphazardly down the treacherous rocks. It was not a good feeling.

The rustling followed us on both sides and behind, and it wasn't until we came across a long barren patch that we saw them. Snakes. Hundreds of them. And more pouring out of those root holes every minute to join them.

The ones coming out of the holes moved slowly, sluggishly. But as they got some of the baking sun, they moved faster, following us like river water around rocks.

"Cold blooded," Zazlu panted, trying to keep up with the group. "Like on Earth!"

Ann-Marie with her nimble, untiring legs was at point. Juan with his long ones was second, even with the spider head on his back. Zazlu, Steve and Grimmy were lagging, even as I brought up the rear, prodding them faster. This wasn't going to work.

And then one of the snakes snapped out like lightning and bit Steve in the calf.

"Owww! Damn it!" he cried, starting to hobble.

"NO! Faster!" I yelled. "Grim! Zaz! Carry him!" They pulled his arms over their shoulders on the fly and kept going as I started to fire my rifle at the snake pack. "Weapons free! Fire but keep moving!"

Bullets weren't super helpful against the quick, flowing shapes the thickness of garden hoses. The snakes seemed unimpressed by the firepower we unleashed, pressing in even closer on all sides as we struggled to keep running.

"Grenades!" I yelled. "Grenades!"

These
were
effective. Huge gaps opened in the surrounding swarm, snake bits flipping high into the air with each explosion. But the gaps were filled quickly as more snakes poured from the holes as we descended the mountain. It was a little cooler under the tree cover, but the new snakes were warming fast.

I keyed my mike to the base frequency.

"Fire control! Fire control! This is Infinity Squad Actual! We need support!"

"Roger, Infinity Squad," a bored voice said from the other end. "This is Fire Control. We are triangulating your position now. There we go... just another few seconds now... got it. We are ready to fire. Are all of your squad's buffering bands green?"

I checked quickly. "Yes they ar- DO NOT FIRE DIRECTLY ON OUR POSITION! REPEAT! Fire ONLY on the enemy, behind us!"

There was a confused few seconds on the other end as we continued to run, hopping small streams and rocks. Zazlu and Grim were still three-legged-racing with Steve in between them. I tried firing my rifle on the snake pack again with little effect. They were snapping at
my
heels now.

"You seem to be moving a quite a speed," Fire Control finally said into my ear. "And not in a straight line. It's tough to place an accurate rolling barrage in that case."

"Nothing in this jungle is in a straight line! Fire anyway! Behind us!"

"Roger," the dispirited voice said. "Test barrage, coming up."

Off in the distance, drums boomed. Thirty seconds later, a group of huge explosions ripped up trees and dirt where we had been forty seconds ago. And killed maybe the five slowest, dumbest snakes in the pack.

"Closer! You've got to fire closer to our position!" I yelled, using my hot rifle tip to knock away a snake that lunged for my ankle as I passed.

"That's going to be tough, Infinity actual. We'll need some sort of stationary point to target."

Shit. Shit. Shit. This was going to hurt. A lot.

"Prepare to fire on ONLY my radio position," I said, then switched to the squad frequency. "Everyone, throw grenades on three! Zazlu! Get them back to base safely!"

To his credit, Zazlu kept running as he asked, "Sir? What?"

"Just get them back! One! Two! Three!"

Grenades arced out to all sides of us, and the explosions bought us a little space. I stopped, turned 180, and started running back into the snake pack. "Fire Control! Barrage on me! NOW!"

As I hoped, most of the snakes followed me. As I hadn't hoped, they started biting me immediately. I got one or two with my swinging rifle but the others wove right past and sunk fangs into my knees and thighs. Each bite burned like a cattle prod.

"Sir! No!" someone yelled. But I was too busy swinging my rifle like a club at the snakes lunging at my head, neck and eyes. I felt bites all along my spine. Then I heard the whistling overhead.

And then blissful searing heat ripped the flesh from my body even as the snakes were eating it.

I awoke in a resurrection tank, screaming.

"SNAKES! FUCK!"

"It's okay trooper," the calm, red-headed, Doctor Shannon Murphy said from next to me. "You've just been killed and have been resurrected, like they covered in Boot Camp."

I sighed and sunk back into the luke-warm water. "We've got to stop meeting like this, Doc. War does not determine who is right, only who is left."

She looked confused and concerned at the same time. "Wait, is it you again, Lieutenant Forrest? You shouldn't have resurrected again so soon after your first time."

"It wasn't really part of the plan, Doc."

"This isn't a video game Lieutenant! I expect this from some of the younger privates, but you're an officer!"

It was hard to give her my Lieutenant Look while naked in a tub, wires trailing from my wet head, but I managed it. "It was a necessary sacrifice. To get my squad out of a jam. Speaking of which-"

I grabbed the Doc by her shapely hip and pulled her against the side of the tub. She was about to slap me when I lifted the walkie-talkie from her belt and released her.

"Base Comms, patch me through to the implants of Infinity Squad," I snapped into the walkie. "This is First Lieutenant Forrest. It's a Field Emergency."

"Roger sir. Connecting now.... Almost..... Got it. Here you go..."

I heard ragged breathing on the other end, like a horse being ridden too fast.

"Zazlu! It's Forrest! Are you guys clear?"

"Sir! Yes, it looks so! I took us across a stream after you bought us the time and the snakes are too cold blooded to follow. We are still hurrying back to base. Without stopping. Butcher and Grimstone are helping Steve with his leg."

I slumped back in relief. Zaz would get them back. In the field, he was good. Maybe the best. I felt mountains of fatigue pulling at me.

"Roger Zaz. Get them back safe. I'll be waiting for you. Out." I dropped the walkie on the floor and almost started falling asleep right then. He would get them back.

I opened my eyes with great effort to see Doc bending over to pick up the radio. But it was worth the effort.

"So, Doc," I sighed happily, "You gonna burn me again, or just let me off with a note?"

She caught me looking at her legs but only gave an exasperated frown as she stood up and pulled her hem down. "I was serious about that, Lieutenant. You can't go through bodies like disposable pens. Or resurrect again so quickly without sleep."

I waved at the rows of zombies in the tanks. "These guys are sleeping all the time," I said, almost giggling. "Shouldn't I feel refreshed?"

"Your
consciousness
hasn't slept since I saw you last, and that's what got transferred over, fresh body or no. That's why you're so punch drunk right now. You really need to get some sleep, soon. Now, are you ready to be identified?" She was holding that damn name burner again.