Wildfire

“Clear,” Leon called.

We filed into a narrow hallway, prone forms in the two guard cages on both sides of us.

A female ex-soldier slid a camera onto a flexible wire, checked the hallway, and drew back as bullets answered. “Long hallway. Rooms on both sides.”

The hallway probably ran the entire length of the wall.

“Marko, give me head count,” Rivera barked.

An older male soldier closed his eyes. “Three dozen in the room on the left, about five dozen on the right.”

They had pulled all of the personnel from the wall to box us in.

Catalina stood against the wall, her face bloodless.

A small metal object rolled into the hallway.

“Grenade!” Melosa lunged forward.

I threw myself over Catalina.

Magic flared in front of Melosa in a blue screen. An explosion shook the building. Melosa flew backward. Something burned my back. Debris pelted us.

Melosa rolled off the floor, snarling. “Fuckers.”

We were pinned down here. There were a hell of a lot more of them than of us. We couldn’t go forward. We couldn’t sit here, because they would come calling with superior firepower and flush us out. If we ran outside, they would shoot us.

“Now,” I told Catalina.

My sister pushed me aside and stepped forward. Her hands shook.

“You have to do it now. You can do it.”

She pushed from the wall. Magic coursed through her. I felt it. Like heat from a stove.

“Initiate deaf mode,” Rivera snapped.

I didn’t hear anything, but if everything went well, right now the helmets’ noise-canceling software was pumping sound into the soldiers’ ears.

Catalina turned to the hallway. Melosa followed Catalina, the blue screen shielding my sister. Magic coursed through her. The breath caught in my throat. So much power . . .

Bullets ripped into the barrier, sending waves through it. Catalina opened her mouth. Her skin glowed, as if a golden light warmed her from within. She raised her hands palms up in the mage pose. Her voice, impossibly beautiful, rolled through the building, an intimate whisper that somehow sounded as loud as a church bell, carrying a heart-stopping pulse of magic with it.

“Come to me.”

Too strong. She’d poured so much magic into it.

The gunfire died.

I moved next to her, blocking her from Rogan’s people.

A man walked into the hallway. He dropped his gun, pulled his helmet off, and knelt before my sister.

Rivera stared at me, trying to catch a glimpse of Catalina. I shook my head.

Men and women were coming through the hallway, dropping their weapons, and kneeling.

“Follow me to safety.”

“Face the wall!” I barked, and pointed at the wall. Rogan’s squad turned and put their faces into the wall.

I stepped aside. Catalina turned and walked past me outside.

People followed her, single file, moving past us smiling.

“Go!” I told Leon.

He pushed through the column of people outside, trailing Catalina, his gun up. If any of them tried to touch her, he would shoot them.

They came and came and came. I tapped my helmet’s comm link. “Rogan, she used so much magic. She will need immediate evac. Don’t let them kill my sister.”

“She’ll be safe,” his voice said, reassuring and calm. “I promise.”

Two of Rogan’s people followed the column. Marko and Melosa jumped on them.

The column marched through the fields. Above them the sky raged, shot through with lightning. Wind tore at their clothes. We had minutes until the storm hit.

The last person left the wall. They kept walking, oblivious to another shape speeding in the opposite direction on its tracks, the massive gun pointed straight at the wall, and Team Bravo, Rogan’s sappers, running next to it. Catalina had done her part. It was my turn.

I ran out of the building. Rivera’s team followed me.

Romeo tore through the chain-link fence. I ran up to it, climbed on top, and into the hatch. The inside of the tank was cramped and dark. I groped about for the weapon I told Grandma Frida to leave for me. My hand brushed the heavy cold metal. There.

Romeo lurched.

“Ready to do this?” Grandma Frida yelled.

“Ready.”

Romeo fired, shuddering. Another shot, another shudder.

“We have us a hole!” Grandma Frida laughed. The tank lurched forward. “Old tank, my foot. I’ll show him an old tank.”

I grabbed my firearm and popped out of the hatch. The bright electric light blinded me for a second. The wall was a dark barrier behind us. I blinked and saw the nearest construct, an enormous horselike beast, gleaming in the light of the floodlights. Its eyes flared with bright electric blue. It opened its jaws, testing scissorlike teeth as big as my forearm.

This was a bad idea. This was a horrible, ridiculous idea.

The XM25 in my hands weighed a ton. I leveled it at the construct, braced myself, and squeezed the trigger. The airburst grenade launcher spat a grenade. The recoil jerked me.

The grenade smashed against the horse’s chest and exploded, ripping a hole in its center and sending metal and plastic flying into the air. The construct faltered. Ha! They didn’t call it the Punisher for nothing.

Parts torn away by the blast streamed back to fill the hole. Crap.

“Go!” I yelled at Grandma. “Go!”

Romeo sped forward, circling the dome. The horse snarled, a harsh metal roar.

Holy crap.

It snapped its fangs and gave chase.

The little tank charged as fast as it could go, which wasn’t fast enough. The horse hurtled toward us.

I lobbed another grenade at it. It ripped through the bottom part of its stomach and blew apart its legs. The horse stumbled. Behind it, the massive tiger construct rounded the bend.

“Get down!” Grandma Frida screamed.

I whipped around just in time to see the massive rhino construct bearing down on us from the opposite direction.

I ducked inside. The construct smashed into the tank, sending me into the bulkhead. My helmet smacked into something hard, rattling my skull. Things went blurry.

Romeo shook. Grandma Frida fired another missile.

Steel teeth blocked out the light in the hatch above me. I saw metal guts glowing with magic. The horrible screech of metal ripping metal lanced my ears. The tiger was on top of us and trying to dig in.

Metal groaned. It was ripping our armor.

When I shot the horse, the explosion should’ve carried the particles out, but it didn’t. They shot out a few feet and fell back in. The magic contained the explosion.

I thrust the grenade launcher straight up, into the metal throat, fired, and dropped down. Metal teeth snapped, nearly scissoring my arm off.

The blast wave punched me, but not nearly as strong as it should’ve been. Suddenly light flooded through the hatch. I scrambled up. The tiger was rolling on the ground, a quickly reforming mess where its head used to be. The rhino had managed to come around and tore after us. The horse was only yards away.

I fired and kept firing, trying to buy us time. Massive gouges scored Romeo where the tiger had carved at it. We couldn’t take another attack. If we let the tiger get to us, the construct would open us like a tin can.

An explosion rolled through the air. We rounded the dome and I saw the wall collapsing in huge chunks.

We rocketed down the grass, the small tank and three giants following it: the horse, the tiger, and the rhino.

The horse leaped onto Romeo, looming over me. Enormous teeth ducked down.

I fired my last grenade into its gut and dropped into the tank, hearing it blossom into a beautiful explosion. That’s it. Out of ammo. I had three regular grenades left. I grabbed them and thrust into the open. The horse had faltered and the tiger took the lead.

I pulled the pin and tossed the grenade. The tiger dodged and leaped, metal tail snapping, claws spread for the kill.

That’s it. We’re done for.

A huge chunk of the wall rose and smashed into the tiger, knocking it aside in midair. The tiger crashed, the section of the wall on top of it, its tail flailing frantically, sticking out from under the wreckage. A second chunk landed on top of it.

Ahead, Rogan stood in the circle he drew on the paved driveway. He flexed, his hands clawing the air.