42. Chapter Forty-Two
Chapter Forty-Two
Halley
The final battle crashes over us all at once.
"Fire!" Knox roars, and the last remaining soldiers of Fathim answer him.
Humans flood up the road to Blackgate, screaming as they come. They slip in the blood under their boots, shove past the bodies already piled on the stone, and climb over their own fallen without slowing.
They reach the barricade sooner than I expect.
An Alpha beside me plants one boot on the lower bar of the steel wall and launches himself over it. He lands on the enemy side, catches the first Human by the throat, rips it out, and throws him backward into the men surging up behind him.
Another Alpha goes over after him with a guttural war cry. He drives his knife beneath the rim of a Human’s helmet, yanks the body down, then brings up his pistol and fires into the faces of the next two so fast I can't follow.
They're both peppered with bullets, but barely flinch as their bodies heal supernaturally fast.
"Left side!" someone bellows.
A cluster of Humans breaks toward the cliff-edge flank, trying to force their way around the side of the barricade where the road runs along the drop.
Blaze steps into the gap with a joyful grin that has no place on a battlefield and opens fire. His rifle kicks against his shoulder as bullets tear through the group, and they fold almost on top of each other, sending the lot of them tumbling off the cliff edge.
Viper plants himself at my side and doesn't waste a single shot. His rifle rises, fires, lowers, and rises again. Each bullet hits a forehead and drops a body before it reaches the barricade.
I'm reminded why he's considered Scorch Squad’s weapons expert.
Shade crouches on my other side, weapon up, eyes cutting between the barricade and the road as he tracks movement with practiced efficiency.
Knox moves with controlled confidence, as if the battle belongs to him, barking orders, rotating soldiers, dragging one wounded Alpha back into cover with one hand while firing downhill with his pistol in the other.
More bullets tear into the Alphas around me, but they don't slow. They adjust their helmets, wait for the bleeding to stop, grab their weapons, and throw themselves back into the fight.
My heart slams against my ribs.
I hear a Human officer somewhere in the crush shout an order, and the next wave surges up the road.
Knox aims his rifle and shouts, "Hold the line!"
The Alphas answer with a roar and open up again. Gunfire rips the air apart, and the Humans drop in clumps, but more take their place before the bodies finish falling.
There are just so many of them.
Even with the road narrowed to a killing corridor, and our soldiers moving faster, striking harder, shooting cleaner, the enemy keeps shoving forward. The road is already running red. The mountain range echoes with screaming, orders, and the ugly, wet sounds of men dying too close together.
Viper shoulders into me. "Stay sharp, pretty girl."
"Hard to concentrate when you keep calling me pretty," I shoot back, breathless and wired.
Blaze laughs somewhere to my left, wild and bright. "Then stop being so fucking pretty, Sparkles."
The grip of my rifle is slick with my sweat, and I have to squeeze it harder to stop it from sliding in my hands. I haven't fired my weapon yet, but I know I will eventually have to. I can't hide from the violence, because this is the fight that decides everything.
I know it. The Pack knows it. The soldiers by our side know it. And the enemy knows it too. There is a desperation in the air, and it makes everyone fight savagely.
I also know that I am the last hope standing in the middle of it. It's time to honor the trust I have been gifted and prove my Omega Command can end this.
I reach inside myself, searching for my Omega. She doesn't hesitate to wrap around me, instantly primed and ready for deployment.
That unshakeable confidence I thought had fled swells within my belly, and I straighten my spine.
My breath steadies.
The battle doesn't fade to the background, but something inside me locks into place.
I meant what I said before; we don't have time to waste. The longer it takes me to use my Omega Command, the more of our people will die, so it's time for me to act.
I lift my chin, step up onto the lowest brace of the barricade, and peer up and over it to actively scan the incoming waves of the enemy.
"Halley," Shade snaps, snatching at the back of my vest.
"Let me go, I need a line of sight."
He lets go at once.
The next surge of Humans packs the road shoulder to shoulder, and an officer farther back waves them on, shoving bodies into the gap like he isn't sending them off to be slaughtered.
Bingo. That's my target.
I fill my lungs until they strain from the stretch and let my Omega rise.
She comes enthusiastically and without hesitation.
"Retreat!" I scream my Omega Command.
The word tears out of me, raw and sharp and full of everything I have. Power rushes with it, scalding along my veins as it fights to push out of me and into my words. I feel the bond jolt and lurch as I draw from our connection to support the Command.
It pours out of me, as loud as I can make it.
But the noise of the battlefield swallows my voice.
Gunfire crashes over the road. Someone under the growing pile of bodies is screaming. A rifle round sparks off the steel in front of me. The Humans keep climbing, shouting, firing, dying, and coming.
Nothing changes. It didn't take because no one can hear me.
My stomach drops.
I try again, louder this time, pouring more of myself into it.
"Retreat!"
A Human in the front rank jerks as if caught by my Command, but an Alpha puts a round through his eye before I can be sure.
Blaze vaults up beside me and empties another burst downhill, his face eager with hope.
"Did it take?" Shade asks from behind.
I swallow the burn in my throat.
"No."
The word tastes like failure.
A Human slams into the barricade in front of me, close enough that when Blaze shoots him point-blank, blood sprays across my face.
Knox grabs the back of my armor and yanks me down behind the shaking barrier just as a shot cuts through the space where my head was.
"Stay behind cover," he barks.
"It should have worked," I gasp, furious with myself.
Frustration claws up my throat.
My Omega Command will work.
I know it will, I just have to give it the right opportunity. I need to be close enough for my target to hear me.
"I need that officer closer," I say, my fist curling at my side.
"He won't risk approaching the barricade," Shade says, observing my mark and keeping track of him as best he can in the chaos of the fight.
Knox’s expression hardens, and he takes a moment to survey our troops. Whatever he sees reassures him, because he turns back to the four of us with a determined set to his jaw. "Then we're going to him."
"We're going to…" I repeat, trailing off as I realize what he means. "Oh, frack."
"Oh, yes," Blaze says, his grin sharpening with unrestrained delight.
"Are you sure?" Viper asks, but at the same time, he reloads his rifle and readies his sidearm.
Knox does one more sweep of the soldiers, speaks into his radio for a moment, and turns back to us. "It's now or never."
I gulp. Fear rises, but it doesn't have time to grip me before Knox is bellowing, "Covering fire!"
The soldiers around us answer at once.
The Alphas who have been resting, waiting for their turn at the front, all burst into action.
They rush the barricade, squeezing forward to lay down a barrage of fire.
The massive wave of firepower hammers down the road and cuts down the front ranks of Humans and throws the next wave into confusion.
Until now, our gunfire has been controlled. One Alpha reloads while another covers him, keeping the line steady without wasting ammunition.
This is different.
This is an all-out attack, and the Humans are reeling.
Good. We'll need all the advantage we can get.
Knox turns to us, eyes burning. "Stay tight. Halley stays in the middle. We punch through, we get her close, and we do not break formation."
"Finally," Blaze says, already climbing the barricade, eagerly looking out at the battlefield while licking a splatter of blood off his lips. "Let's get messy."
I swallow, suddenly overcome by what we are about to do. We're about to walk straight into the mouth of the beast. Directly into the most dangerous place possible.
Knox, Viper, and Blaze have their Alpha abilities to protect them, but there is a reason no Betas are being sent to the front of the barricade into close combat. They don't heal instantly from bullet wounds.
Shade has enhanced healing thanks to the bond, but I really don't want to check just how fast he heals before he bleeds out.
He must see the doubt swimming in my eyes as I hesitate. He catches my shoulder long enough to make sure I am looking at him. "We do this as a Pack and no one gets left behind. I trust you, and I need you to trust me too. I'm a soldier, I know what I'm doing."
I nod, pulse slamming against my ribs. "I trust you."
Viper compulsively checks his magazine one last time, snaps it home, and gives my helmet a quick knock. "Stick to me, pretty girl."
Knox vaults over the barricade first.
He hits the road and I can hear him already killing before his boots have fully settled. Blaze jumps after him in a burst of motion and gunfire.
Fear claws up my throat, but I move before it can take hold. I haul myself onto the barricade, swing one leg over, and drop to the enemy side.
My boots hit stone slick with blood. My helmet jolts loose, and I shove it back into place as I take in the bodies, the gore, and the road ahead of me still crawling with Humans.
Viper drops down on my right, Shade on my left. Blaze and Knox stand in front of us.
For a few seconds, we stand on the enemy side of the barricade together with the bond pulled tight between all five of us.