Plague Read online

  Garage Level was technically two stories tall and encompassed ninety percent of the lower floor. The other ten percent made up a small gym, with a boxing ring. The garage mostly housed all of the vehicles the SDF had at their disposal, which was now one SUV short. They had one more, though, along with the Rhino, a pair of dirt bikes, and a specially made four-wheeler. They had always lived by the motto, “The more the merrier,” hence the decision to go back for the other 4x4.

  The other two sections of the second-floor Living Level housed the showers and bedrooms. The former was equipped with a small, but very effective swimming pool. It was ten-feet-long and another four-feet-wide and four-feet-deep. It was specifically to use for swimming against an artificial current, helping with overall stamina and low impact exercises. Perfect for rehabbing minor injuries like muscle pulls or ankle sprains.

  Logan turned right, entering the bathrooms once again. Through the open walkway was the stalls holding half a dozen toilets and sinks. Each one was outfitted to look like a normal private restroom back home. They came complete with locking doors for some much-needed privacy too. It reminded Logan of the trailered-in bathrooms some state fairs had. Shitter on wheels.

  He turned left, following the left side wall past a row of mirrors and entered the shower room. He undressed, hanging his BDU’s and underclothes in his specially marked spot. Each one of them had their own locker-type area at the entrance to the shower room. They had trained to dress fast, in case of emergency, and needed everything to be quickly accounted for if and when that time came.

  Now naked—they didn’t bother with men’s and lady’s showers, CJ made due with a bikini stating, “Once you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all.” Logan smiled at the thought. It had helped break the ice when she had first walked in on four of the men. They scattered like field mice, causing her to laugh hysterically. Logan had been the only one not to flinch and run. CJ knew what she was getting herself into when she signed up for this gig.

  He turned from the happier of his memories and looked at himself in the full-length mirror just outside the showers. His body was still chiseled from head to toe, barely sporting any body fat to speak of. He had been a little thicker in the service, maybe another fifteen to twenty pounds, but decided to clean up his diet when he moved here. He felt thirty-eight, but could physically pass for ten years younger if he ever bothered to shave regularly. Which he didn’t.

  The last real relationship he had ended when the girl said he reminded her of a grittier Hugh Jackman. While normally a guy would be pleased with hearing something like that, Logan, being an Aussie himself like Hugh, took offense to it. Especially, since she was a ditzy, Kardashian-loving American. Plus, one night she screamed the actor’s name while they were between the sheets. That was the final straw.

  He shook his head at the now funny memory, rubbing the scruff forming on his face. He had been lonely and she was there waiting for him. It was a win-win for them both.

  He moved on, past the showers, and straight into one of two heated hot tubs, bypassing the showers altogether. He slapped a button as he climbed in, starting up the jets. The churning water beckoned his beaten body and psyche forward.

  As soon as he settled in and closed his eyes, he heard footsteps clunking their way towards his short-lived respite.

  Ugh…

  “Logan?”

  He didn’t open his eyes to his sister’s question. He knew it was her and he wanted her to go away.

  “Can it wait?” he replied, his eyes still closed, head tilted back on a makeshift pillow made from a rolled towel.

  “Sorry, brother, but I don’t think it can.”

  He grunted, opening his eyes, wiping away his matted down mop top, clearly seeing the horrified look on her face.

  “What is it?” he asked, unsettled.

  “They’re here,” CJ replied, swallowing hard, instinctively glancing behind her.

  “Who’s here?” Logan asked, standing.

  “The Nach… Some of the animals just passed our 500-yard barrier and are making their way here. Our northern sensors are going berserk.”

  He waded out of the tub, not concerned about his nakedness in front of his older sister. He rushed to where his clothes were and threw on his boxers and pants while CJ continued.

  “There are around twenty-five-to-thirty of them—all different species.”

  She rattled off a few of the breeds, but Logan didn’t hear, he was mentally trying to put together a battle plan. They weren’t here to negotiate a truce… That was for sure.

  He headed for the catwalk entry, throwing on his shirt. CJ then handed him his vest, helping him dress as he made his way to the stairs. He rarely used the lift, wanting to get as much exercise as possible. Plus, it was just too damn slow for his liking. Logan had one speed, fast, and he and the elevator butted heads with that.

  Taking two at a time, Logan quickly made it to the top landing and entered the Observation Deck, pounding forward to the northern section. He could see from here that everyone left was situated around Mo and his large screen array and it was currently set to using its night vision function. He glanced at one of the monitors and saw a green tinted blur rush by on all fours.

  Towards us…

  “What do we have?” Logan asked while toweling off his hair, not needing to formally announce his presence.

  “Everything, Captain,” Fitz replied, speaking up first, leaning over Mo as the other man tapped furiously on his keyboard. “It’s a full-scale assault. More are heading in across the Serengeti, as we speak, and will arrive within the next few hours.”

  Fitz then stepped back, grabbing his reloaded XM25 off a nearby table, a look of determination only a former soldier could have. He regarded Logan. “Africa has waged war on the SDF.”

  31

  “Let’s move!”

  Everyone, minus CJ and Adnan, who stayed and continued to try and raise the Americans, rushed out of the elevator, equipped for war. The stairs wouldn’t get used this time. They needed to conserve what little energy they had left.

  Outfitted with what looked like riot gear, but could handle everything except the highest of caliber of rounds, the six men hustled forward, also carrying an assortment of weaponry.

  Kel and Dada made for the front door, through the gym, heading outside to the northeastern and northwestern sentry towers. There were actually four towers in all, with the other two being constructed at the southwest and southeast. They were situated thirty feet away from the Bullpen’s main structure, acting like concrete and steel guardians.

  Each man made their way to their respective positions, sporting the British made, Accuracy International AW SR-98 sniper rifle. It was standard issue for soldiers in the Australian Army. A little gift from Logan.

  Fitz wanted them to use Logan’s more powerful M82, but neither man had enough practice with the much larger weapon. “Stopping power means nothing when you can’t hit the damn target,” Logan had replied to Fitz.

  Kel and Dada’s jobs were to pick off any of the Nach that got past Logan, Jan, and Mo, who would be riding in the Rhino-Humvee variant. The three men would be out in the open, dangerously in the thick of it, but that was the plan. They needed the incoming swarm of creatures to view them as the real threat while the actual danger rained down upon them… Fitz.

  Looking skyward, Kel could just make out Fitz leaning out over the concrete ledge of the Bullpen’s roof, XM25 around his shoulder. Then the Aussie knelt, dropping the heavy satchel containing his spare ammo beside him and gave a thumbs up.

  Kel smiled and returned the gesture as Fitz did the same to Dada, signaling both men that he was ready. He was the key to this crazy plan. Hopefully, the Nach would go after the armor-plated Hummer, giving Kel and Dada an open target. Fitz was the key, though, raining down explosives from above, blowing the creatures to kingdom come. The grounds outside the Bullpen were about to get very messy.

  Even from this distance, Kel could hear the roar of the
Rhino’s engine come to life behind him. Tires squealed as it peeled out of the southern-facing garage door, veering hard to the right. It skidded in a tight arc, finally finding purchase on the concrete. Tires grabbing, it made its way around the western side of the Bullpen and headed his way.

  Through his night-vision, Kel could see Mo driving and waved at the man. Mo gave him the customary “Good Luck” thumbs up and veered left around the sentry tower, heading for the front gate.

  As they went by, Kel could see Logan, rifle at the ready, sitting up front in the passenger seat, no doubt intending to use the FN40 grenade launcher attachment to its fullest. Jan was harnessed into the rear of the truck, holding onto the twin hand grips of the massive .50 caliber machine gun mounted to the technical’s bed.

  Kel didn’t like that Jan was out in the open but knew it would take an army to get through the side and rear metal armor encasing most of the thing’s rear. The only part of him not protected was the top and the front facing opening, but it shouldn’t be an issue. That’s the direction he’d be firing. Kel doubted anything would be able to get close enough for the weakness in the protection to matter.

  The northern gates remotely opened as they neared, the motion sensors having automatically granted them egress from the fenced in compound. There were, in fact, two protective fences, spaced fifteen feet apart from one another. They encircled the Bullpen, keeping anything unwanted out. Each fence also sported some nasty razor wire atop them, giving an intruder another reason to go away.

  The motion sensor gates were a handy feature when in a hurry, but wouldn’t work from the other side. Reentrance would need to be opened manually, either by remote from inside the Rhino or from someone on the third floor in the command center. It was a security measure Logan had insisted on and no one had a reason to argue.

  Until now, Kel thought, hearing the faint click of the steel gates shutting and locking.

  “Get ready,” Logan said, through their comms system. “We should be encountering resistance in twenty seconds.”

  Kel leaned into his rifle, peering through the tactical scope. He followed the Rhino north, then shifted his sights left, gazing further into the distance past his friends. What he saw made his stomach drop.

  It was a veritable army of monsters. Some of them were, indeed, predatory by nature, some weren’t. Now ALL of them are, he thought, yanking on the rifle’s loading mechanism. He chambered the first of ten rounds into the bolt-action rifle’s breech and waited, picking out his first target, a giraffe.

  “Or what used to be a giraffe,” Kel said to himself, shuddering at the normally gentle giant’s current state.

  It was still built like your run-of-the-mill giraffe but had shorter, more powerful looking legs. He also noticed the way it ran. Instead of its normal awkward gate, it ran like a thoroughbred, pounding over the flat terrain. He scanned further up the thing’s neck and flinched. The hell?

  The Nach-giraffe’s head shot down, like a cobra’s, and snapped at one of the passing wildebeest that almost meandered into its path. The speed and ferocity of the attack was like nothing he’d ever seen before. Their necks just don’t bend that way, he thought. He shook it off immediately, refocusing to his task. These weren’t the same animals he’d grown up around.

  An explosion ripped through the plains, echoing against the Bullpen’s solid walls. Kel watched as a group of three lions blew apart, turning to puffs of red gore.

  “Still a little pissed at the cats, are you?” Dada asked, over the radio.

  But Fitz didn’t answer, he launched another of his payload into the cooling air, unleashing hell.

  Then all at once, Kel, Dada, and the Rhino spurred into action, following Fitz’s example. But Kel knew it was going to be close. There were just too many of them and who knew what other kinds of new ways these things could attack. If they were the average beast, they could be taken out easily.

  But these aren’t those animals, Kel thought, pulling the trigger of the SR-98. He did his best to pound the idea home that these weren’t the same animals they were used to. They needed to throw out the boot and start fresh with the Nach versions.

  He watched the round strike the giraffe in the chest, halting the creature, stumbling it, but not dropping it. He chambered another round and pulled the trigger, again and again, finally dropping the thing after the fifth round found its mark, severing the spinal cord at the base of the neck.

  He looked down at his feet and recounted his spare magazines. Ten more—a hundred more bullets. He looked up and watched the Rhino skid around in a sharp donut, Jan never releasing the trigger of the machine gun. He unloaded into a large beast that may have been a rhinoceros at one point, taking off its front legs.

  Kel laughed at the absurdity of seeing the Rhino just take down a rhino. He then peered closer through his rifle’s scope and saw the glowing veins beneath its skin as the animal tried to right itself.

  He aimed and put a clean hole through its skull, silencing it forever. Breathing hard, he looked back down to his extra ammo, recounting it again.

  “Let’s hope it’s enough.”

  32

  BOOM!

  Logan flinched, ducking back inside the passenger side window of the Rhino, dirt spraying into his face. He quickly blinked away the grit, leveled his assault rifle at the rapidly approaching creature, and unloaded the rest of his magazine into its muzzle.

  The hyena, the biggest he’d ever seen, was down for good, its head in pieces. Its initial appearance, while frightening, also confused him.

  It had first charged out from behind the carcass of the dead giraffe—the one that had been taken out by sniper fire—and lunged straight for Logan’s open window. Thankfully, Mo had seen it coming and turned into the thing, clipping it with the truck’s front push bar. It was sent flailing to the side, where Logan caught a look at its flank. A huge bite mark could be seen in the large female’s side, causing the hair on his sweaty neck to stand on end. Nothing he knew of had jaws built like that.

  Doesn’t matter, he thought, turning in his seat to take it out once and for all. A question for another day. He then unloaded into it, killing the creature…again.

  Thinking of these things as dead, was the easiest way for him to pull the trigger. Logan had taken a vow to protect everything that called the Serengeti home when he took this job, even if it was more for CJ’s sake than his. She was the animal lover, not him, but he had soon seen that the inhabitants of this place were worth saving. The people that hunted them were killing them for profit, selling their bodies, or at least parts of them, and it pissed him off.

  He was never a hunter growing up, quite the opposite actually. Surfing was his love as a kid… At least, until one of his high school classmates was attacked and killed by a Great White. It was a freak accident and most who surfed that particular beach went right back into the water a few days later. But not Logan. He had been scarred for life.

  “Captain!”

  The voice broke Logan from the memory of the blood-red waves and he looked out his window to see blood-red eyes. Then, they were gone, lost in a cloud of blood and meat.

  Above his head, Jan’s M2A1 roared to life again, just as Logan heard the echoing report of a sniper rifle. One of the men, Kel or Dada, had just taken down the spear tipped Grant’s gazelle about to thrust its horns into his face. As he said a silent thank you, the big German cut down another zebra, this one attempting to ram the truck with what looked like a boney growth on the top of its skull.

  Right then, he thought. Back to work.

  He loaded another 40mm grenade into his weapon’s launcher attachment and sent it flying into the air. The explosive struck the base of a nearby tree, obliterating what was left of its trunk, crashing it to the ground. A group of two gazelles and a wildebeest were crushed beneath the acacia’s girth, hopefully killing a few, if not all of them.

  Mo yanked on the wheel hard to the left, nearly clipping one of the dead, sending up a spray of dirt.
Logan grabbed the door frame, steadying his bouncing form, and breathed a heavy breath. It would be horribly bad if they were to tip and roll with at least a dozen of these things still kicking. They needed to put an end to this now and regroup back at the base.

  He didn’t get to issue the next order.

  The truck lurched hard on its left wheels, reeling from an unseen impact. Mo kept them under control, driving on only the driver’s side wheels for a split second. Eventually, gravity took over and slammed them back down on all fours, rattling its occupants like they were inside of a shaking paint can.

  Damn, Logan thought, trying to get his bearings. He could feel liquid flowing from his head and over his right temple. Touching it, his hand came away red, covered in blood. Must have hit my head…

  Then, he was tossed from the missing passenger door of the Rhino and into the carnage of the current battle. He felt a pinch as something large had dug into his BDU, gripping his Kevlar vest and pulling. Reflexively, he brought up his SCAR which was thankfully secured around his shoulder and blasted the first thing he saw.

  The body of the large cat, a breed Logan didn’t bother identifying, slumped to the crimson stained grass. Three clean rounds had found its face point blank and another two had pierced its chest.

  He dove over the carcass as a blur of motion came barreling towards him from his right, just inside his peripherals. If the zebra had been a few feet to his left, he’d have been blindsided and smeared, not seeing the attack. But he had. And he ran. He needed to get to higher ground.

  The only thing he could see through the haze of smoke was a smaller kopje, jutting out of the ground fifty feet to the east. Good enough, he thought, sprinting for the protrusion. He dodged smaller creatures, not caring what they were. Turning and fighting on even turf was a serious disadvantage right now even with his current arsenal of weapons.