Survival Aptitude Test: Hope's Graveyard by Mike Sheriff

Author:Mike Sheriff [Sheriff, Mike]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: THE EXTINCTION ODYSSEY, ORIGINS

7

Exfiltration

LAOSHI DASHED ACROSS the open cloister, the mongrel tunic like dead weight on his shoulders. Ten feet ahead, Dominus and Tor ran hunchbacked, bodies swaying from side to side.

A hundred feet to the south, scattered structures rose from the ground, dark outlines tracing the leaden sky. To the east, a hazy loom of light tinted the horizon.

Laoshi grimaced, but only in part from the exertion. Sunrise was sixty minutes away and they were three miles from the southern border—and another three miles from the rendezvous point. They’d have to maintain a brutal pace if they were going to—

Percussive reports exploded to the left. He spun his head to the din.

One hundred yards away, a dozen gray-and-black figures dashed closer, firing from the hip.

Laoshi hoisted the rifle to his shoulder. “Contact left!”

He squeezed the trigger on the run. Sonic rounds streaked from the rifle’s muzzle.

Two mongrels screamed and fell. The rest sought cover behind a structure’s stubby outcropping. Their harassing fire resumed a moment later.

Laoshi kneeled and squeezed off another burst. The rounds pummeled the outcropping, hammering its nullglass panels.

A cannonade of reports erupted to the rear.

Ten feet away, Tor staggered. She crumpled to the ground with a gargling squeal.

Dominus pivoted beside her and dropped to his belly. His rifle chattered, unleashing a savage burst of suppressing fire toward the new line of threat.

Laoshi crawled toward Tor. Sonic rounds stitched the ground, a few feet to his right. Hard-packed sand exploded, showering him with grit.

“What’s her status?” Dominus shouted between bursts.

Laoshi grabbed Tor’s webbing and rolled her over.

Her unblinking eyes sat fixed in their sockets. A single penetrating round had left a gaping wound in her throat. Bloody froth filled the oozing crater, still bubbling from the air escaping her lungs. “She’s dead.”

Dominus edged closer, stopping within arm’s reach. He scanned for targets. “This is an ill position. They have us bracketed.”

Laoshi may have been the newest Jiren on the team, but he knew the odds of surviving an L-shaped ambush. He hugged the ground and shifted his orientation to the relay center. He raised the rifle’s scope to his eye.

Dark forms lined the structure’s roof. Muted flashes signaled weapons’ fire.

Sonic rounds peppered the ground, ten feet to the front. Contrails streaked inches overhead—rounds fired by the mongrels behind the outcropping to the east.

Laoshi’s heart thudded against the hard-packed sand. The mongrels atop the center could range in on him and Dominus while the mongrels to the east kept them pinned down. It was only a matter of time before—

The solution struck like a bolt from the sky. Laoshi reached for Tor’s webbing and extracted the auto-detonator from her pouch. “I’m activating the sonic charges in the junction chamber.”

Another volley cratered the sand, eight feet to the front.

“No argument here,” Dominus said.

“Do you think we’ll be clear of the blast radius?”

More rounds smacked the earth, closer than the last.

“I think it’s moot,” Dominus said. “They’re ranging in on us!”

Laoshi keyed the passcode into the detonator. He navigated to its command menu and overrode the delay timer.

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