The New Haven Incident - Part Forty-Eight

“I told you not to jinx it!” Sakata shouted as the grenade he threw detonated, taking out the cluster of Changelings sprinting towards them. The Stage Two portion of the swarm had discovered the concept of climbing, and poured over the tall wall of the stadium, tumbling like uncoordinated toddlers and landing on the top row of the bleachers. The fall should have killed them, but their broken bones mended, permitting them to rise again and continue their advance. An unfortunate few snapped their necks. These did not rise again.

The Dark Ones floated down to the ground on rapidly working wings. If things didn’t change soon, even with support from The Department, they would be quickly overwhelmed.

“Get them in the air!” someone from The Department screamed into his comms unit.

Someone on the other end attempted to argue with them, but he was having none of it.

“Get them up, or they won’t make it!” 

Moments later, two of The Department transports and all of the those belonging to Sigma whirred as the engines came to life.

“Lilith!” Hannah whined from Cheryl’s lap in the back of a Sigma transport as the engine started up. “Auntie! What about Lilith?”

“Hush, baby girl,” Cheryl said, pulling Hannah close. The child wrapped her aunt’s blouse tightly in the hand that normally held the ugly stuffed toy, Claudio, who had been lost somewhere in the flight to the stadium.

“Lilith will meet us once we’re safe,” Dr. Lundt lied.

Hannah turned to stare at the woman, tears rimming her large eyes. She bawled, turning again to bury her head into Cheryl’s chest. Cheryl glanced across at her wife. They shared a knowing look. Lilith had said her goodbyes. It was unlikely they would ever meet again.

Closing her eyes to guard against her own tears, Cheryl rested her cheek against her niece's dark head and started to hum a lullaby.

The transport lifted off the ground, tucking its wheels into its fuselage as it rose into the air. Dr. Lundt stared through the small window at the chaos outside.

A Dark One leapt, reaching up to grab the chopper. It was shot out of the sky. Two new drones sent by The Department buzzed passed, firing with incredible accuracy to lend support to the evacuation. Flanked by two of The Department’s choppers, they were soon high enough to be out of range of any of the infected. Dr. Lundt let a single tear escape as the chopper turned and then was away. They had made it. They were safe.

“Fuck everything about this!” Carter bellowed as he emptied the last clip of his rifle into the mass of chitinous bodies advancing on them. He reached for his handgun. His fingers brushed the grip. A Changeling burst through the press, grabbed his elbow and yanked hard, pulling him haplessly into the swarm.

Carter heard his captain scream his name, knowing he could do nothing.

Screaming, Carter continually moved as hand, claw and tooth came at him from every direction at once. Twice he danced to the side, narrowly missing the long, large needle-like infection-carrying stingers of Dark Ones. He moved the right way at the right time purely by accident.

Blind panic directed every motion. He knew he was seeing and reacting, but it was all happening too fast for his mind to comprehend. Just as quickly, Carter fell, thrust onto his back by a firm tackle. He screamed as a Dark One, straddled across his chest, lifted its right hand high, the stinger in its right wrist extending.

Reflexively, though he knew it was useless, Carter lifted his own arms, placing them in an X above his face. He squeezed his eyes shut, waiting for the sharp pain of the stinger piercing him. Instead, the weight of the Dark One suddenly lifted.

He waited a beat, certain he was about to be struck. He opened his eyes and stared, finding himself quite ignored as the swarm around him focussed on something else. He sat up.

Lilith fought like the devil himself, her twin swords flashing in the sun as she spun around in a dance so deadly, heads were flying almost as thick as dandelion puffs in the summer. The shock wore off quickly. Carter rolled up onto one knee, withdrew his sidearm and fired into the swarm, giving the winged woman some space. He rose to his feet and back-pedalled, returning to the safety of his team.

Sakata leapt forward and batted the muzzle of the rifle of The Department man next to him aside as the man aimed for the winged woman with the swords in the swarm.

“She’s a friendly,” he barked.

The man turned to him with a scowl. “She’s infected!”

“Yeah, and she’s a friendly.”

After a brief hesitation, The Department man pressed his comm. “All units, the bronze one with the swords is friendly. Do not target.” He shook his head at the sentence he just uttered. The Department certainly knew which fights would prove to be the most unbelievable, and seemed to decide that those were the fights it wanted to get involved in. Were he the type of man to divulge secrets, there was not a person on earth who would believe him anyway. He wondered if that was why The Department had remained the best kept governmental secret in the history of governmental secrets. He nodded back as Sakata nodded at him, then released the rifle.

Lilith’s efforts eased the pressure on the collection of transports as she deliberately led the bulk of the swarm away. As she now presented the greatest threat, they followed her across the field. Wishing to preserve their remaining ammunition, the Sigma mercenaries and The Department soldiers ceased firing. The infected woman would have to fight alone for now.

Sakata pressed his comms unit. “Mendez? We have a small break. You need to get your friend and his people here quick. We may not get another chance to leave.”

The voice on the other end was harried. Coming! Just… give us a minute.

An explosion lit up the eastern side of the sky.

“That you, Mendez?”

Uh… No. Negative. That one was Connors.

Sakata scoffed but left it at that. He turned and watched as Lilith disappeared into one of the tunnels leading to the locker rooms, the swarm of Infected following like rats after the Pied Piper. He shook his head.

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