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"Give it back to me" "You, Steve, and Rebecca will take the one on the left, northwest froht across If your guess is right, we&039;ll be in block D; if you&039;re upside down, block B Either e secure the building, find the test nuo-ahead" "And if I don&039;t" Karen took up the recital "If we don&039;t hear from you in half an hour, we come back here and wait for Steve and Rebecca We corinned, a white flash in the glooht," David said "Good" They were ready There were infinite variables in the equation, any nu with the simple plan, but that was always the case There was no way to prepare for everything that could happen, not at this point, and the decision to split up was their best chance to avoid detection by the Trisquads "Any questions before we go?" Rebecca spoke up, her youthful voice tight with concern "I&039;d like to reain to be extremely careful about what you touch, or what touches you The Trisquads are carriers, so try to avoid getting close to them, particularly if they&039;re wounded"
David shuddered internally, re what she&039;d told them before - that one drop of infected blood could hold millions, hundreds of ht, consider-ing A nine-e and they don&039;t lie dohen they&039;re hit The three by the boathouse just kept co for his signal David shook the thoughts off and thu his other hand on the door latch
"Ready? Quietly, now, on three - one two three"
He pushed the door open and slipped outside into the cool night air and the whisper of ocean waves It wasrisen high, bathing the coht in front of him about twenty meters aas John and Karen&039;s destination, and he was re- lieved to see a door set into the concrete wall facing block C; they wouldn&039;t have to go around to get inside David edged away fro the narrow shadow of the wall He could justhe hoped was A, tall, wind-bent pines to the left and behind it There was a darker shadoay along its length, a door, and no cover in the thirty-plus meters that spanned the distance Once they stepped away from C, they&039;d be totally vulnerable
If there&039;s a tealance back, saw Rebecca and Steve tensed and waiting behind hi to walk into a corridor of fire, at least he&039;d be in front; Steve and Rebecca should have tiet back to cover He took a deep breath, held itand broke away fro in a low crouch for the dark square of the block&039;s entry Shapes of pallid light and shadow blurred past His entire being aiting for the flash of an auto pain that would take him down, but it was silent and still, the only sound the violent stah his veins Seconds stretched an eternity as the door looers and he was pushing, bursting into a stifling blackness, spinning around to see Rebecca and then Steve co in after hi the emptiness of the dark room, the lack of life and then the sed, a dry bark of involuntary revulsion as David snatched for the torch, already dreading what he knew they would see It was the same terrible stink that they&039;d come across in the boathouse but a hundred times more powerful Even without the recent reference, David knew the odor He&039;d experienced it in a jungle of South America and in a cultist&039;s camp in Idaho, and once, in the base, ettable, a rancid bile like sour milk and flyblown meat
How many, how many will there be?
The bea pile that took up one corner of the large storage room, David saw that there was no way to be certain; the bodies had started toflesh of the stacked corpses blending and pooling fro, Steve stumbled away and threw up, a harsh and helpless sound in the otherwise quiet roo a door against the back wall, the letter A blocked across it in black Without another look at the terribleSteve as they passed Once they were through, the smell faded to barely tolerable They were in a less corridor, and though there was a light switch next to the door, David ignored it for theteam members collect themselves Apparently, they&039;d found the Umbrella workers of Caliban Cove; all but at least one of them, anyway and David decided that if they ran across him, he&039;d shoot first and not bother with any questions at all
Karen and John stood at the door for a full h for the, the far away hiss of waves, but no shots, no screams Karen let the door close and looked at John, her pale features ht Her voice was low, even, and terribly serious "They&039;re in by now You want to take lead, or would you prefer if I went first?" John couldn&039;t help hih I prefer it e go together, if you knohat I hed heavily, a sound of pure exasperation John grinned, thinking about how easy she was He knew he shouldn&039;t devil her, but it was hard to resist Karen Driver kicked ass with a weapon and she was sharp as a tack in the brains department, but she was also one of the most humorless people he&039;d ever known
It&039;s ht as well be laughing as crying A siotten hih many an unpleasant situation in the past
"John, just answer the goddaet through, then follow"
She nodded briskly, stepping back to let hireet her at the door wearing nothing but a sether for almost five years, and he knew froot pissy Besides, it was a good line, and he didn&039;t want to waste it As soon as his hand closed over the latch, he took a deep breath, letting his sparkling wit take a back seat to what he thought of as his "soldierthe enemy - and while he enjoyed both io to keep theh the dark like a shadow
He gently pushed the door open No sound, nohis Beretta loosely, he stepped away froh the silvery dark, fixing on the door that was scarcely twenty steps away His soldier mind fed hiainst dirt, the smell and taste of the ocean, but his heart told hi like an invisible shadow through the night He reached the door, touching the claers and it wouldn&039;t move The entrance was locked No panic, no worry, he was a shade that no one could see; he&039;d find another way in John held up a hand, telling Karen to wait, and edged sht
Silent and easy, shadoithout forhtened senses continue to feed hih feel of concrete against his left shoulder and hip, the steady pump of exhilaration and fluidity in hisopen- ness of the sea, cool light ainst metal Rat-atat-atat-atat! Bullets hit the dirt at his feet John spun and leaped backward, flattening hi from the direction of the boathouse, a line of three and John tore the door open and jumped behind it, heard the clatter of22 rounds smash into the -ping that rattled the door He held the door open with his foot, took a split-second look around the edge and targeted the flash of light, squeezing the trigger as chips of concrete and dust flew from the wall The nine-millimeter jumped, a part of his hand, and he was an ani rounds, the pull of his breath, the awareness of hier of death Another look and the line was closer now, the three dark figures taking shape John got off another shot, ducked behind the open door and when he looked again, there were only two standing Snap Behind him John whirled around and saw them, two of the Both held automatic rifles Butbeast in his gut that threatened to devour him from the inside out - holy shit
The fusillade of the M-16s was still approaching, but he could see only the creatures that stood there, watching his The one on the left had only half a face; from the nose doas a liquid, pulpy s of elastic flesh The one on the right looked intact at first, if deathly white and dirty until he saw the ex- plodedsnake of intestine flopped out against his bloody shirt
- won&039;t engage until team A finishes -
John stepped backward into the war one distant arainst the pair that still fired He leaned out and ai the panic as best he could Neither of the creatureson rotting legs, watching him Bam! Ba rattle of the M-16s Before they&039;d even hit the ground, John heard another nine- the autolance around the door and saw the crued tea as it fell, its rattling rifle aimed uselessly at the sky Karen crouched out fro shooter, her back to John
- teae -
"Don&039;t shoot hiraceful spin, sprinting to h, he pulled the door closed, the crack of the autoainst the door as Karen fu at him that he&039;d seen the impossible, that he&039;d just killed two dead men, that there was nowhere he could put that information that wouldn&039;t drive him insane -
- can&039;t be, didn&039;t believe, didn&039;t believe it before, didn &039;t know and they were DEAD they were ROTTING and they were -
Karen&039;s ragged whisper broke the war, dizzying thoughts
"Hey, John, was it good for you?"
He blinked, the words registering slowly "Going first, Iyou hoped it would be?"
He felt a creeping ahts, the confusion ebbing, the waters of his ain "That&039;s not funny," he said After a beat, they both started to laugh