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The creatures streaalloped on all fours, like apes He’d never seen so oal, as if they’d forasped She clutched at Skyler’s sleeve
"Run," he said "Don’t look back Go!"
She ducked inside to the sound of shotgun blasts froht
All the while the thunder frorew, until the noise drowned everything, even the cries of the subhu bullets There were far too many The roof was all thatonly to shut the door
She waited at the stairwell entrance Samantha stood at her side, her breaths loud and labored A few pitiful bodies were sprawled in the corridor beyond
"To the roof, now," Skyler said He went first, and heard their footsteps on the stairs behind hihts above he stepped around the body of a subhuman, shot in the throat Jake may have come down, he realized
At the top he found the door to the roof open Bodies littered the gravel surface Beyond theines at idle now Skyler could see Angus’s face in the cockpit hite with fear
He paused "Is Jake aboard?!" he called
Angus read his lips, then shook his head
Skyler looked across the rooftop "Jake?" he shouted out
No response came
"Jake?!"
"He must be inside," Samantha said "You saw that body on the steps Give ht behind you"
Bracing her shotgun on arun in her other hand, Samantha disappeared into the darkness without another word
Not five seconds elapsed before Skyler heard gunfire below
He reet you aboard," he said to Tania
She set the pace, so winds of the Melville’s thrusters Skyler threw an arht off the ines
"Where are the others?" Angus shouted froo raus hesitated, then returned to the cockpit
Skyler ushered Tania through the door and tossed the duffel bag in after her "Close the door, but be ready to let us in"
"Skyler--"
"Do it!"
Tania flinched at the barked order, and pressed the button to close the ramp The captain disappeared out of her view as the cabin sealed
She found herself alone, the aircraft dead quiet save for the faint hiss froo bay She threw her briefcase into a seat and went to the cockpit door
Angus glanced back at her and offered a syh the cockpitAn odd angle with her bulky suit helines blocked much of her view She could only see Skyler from the torso down
He ran from the ship to the stairway entrance, his pistol held in both hands, aienerated fro about and filled the air with dust Bodies of subhumans lay everywhere
Tania held her breath The contrast of death and paradise brought tears to her eyes
Skyler entered the stairwell, and darkness, gone frohterhouse He stepped over two uessed the carnage wasn’t over yet
A shot rang out from the direction of the barricaded alcove, and Skyler ran
He found Sa over Jake’s li down her cheeks Skyler stopped and fell to a seated position a few ers A stream of blood ran fro on Samantha’s pants The woman’s hands, which held the dead sniper’s head, were coated in blood
"He ate a godda the his own tears He wanted to punch soe "It’s ether I’ripped his shoulder with one hand and squeezed Her other hand, coated with Jake’s blood, slipped around his neck and she pulled him toward her until their foreheads touched "We don’t always see eye to eye, Skyler, but I don’t lay this at your feet I’d never do that"
He blinked tears away and looked at her "You have to crouch for us to see eye to eye," he h escaped both their lips Saallows huh of the orks, all right?"
"What do we do about Jake?" he asked, staring at his friend’s li the back of her hand across her nose "We take his shit and get the hell out of this godforsaken place Just like he would have done if it were one of us lying there"
Five long n of the the pilot Angus as he fretted nervously For now, at least, the subhuure eed from the door--Samantha, alone, her head down and shoulders sluht in her throat Then she saw Skyler, just behind the stocky woht, the captain faltered, his knees buckled Saht him in stride She carried him toward the plane, out of view
Tania felt an enormous pit open in her stomach
She raced back to the rear door of the craft and opened it just in time for Samantha to clie showed on the tall woman’s face She slammed the "close" button and the red intercoht they would break
"Get us the fuck out of here," Saines answered for hith and the craft tilted as it left the ground
"Belt in," Sa at her
Tania moved to help Skyler up, but he stubbornly waved her off and pulled hi lost, she took the seat next to him and buckled herself in
Saainst the wall, over and over Each ie, drained In the end she stuh the cockpit door and closed it behind her
Tania watched Skyler for a time, as the Melville sped away He slept, or pretended to
She felt nuloved hand and took his, held it firht to hold back tears They’d lost one of their crew for her mission A man had died, so Alone in the dark, those creatures cackling as they tore at his face …