Excerpt: Beyond the Veil

Sara turned off the zoom she'd been using to monitor the other's progress and the Hell Hound positions and scanned the area one more time for other threats with the thermal view. She could see a few patches of heat scattered about here and there but they didn't look like anything dangerous so she ignored them, switched back to her night vision, and got ready to head down the tree. Getting down would be easier than getting up had been.

She made sure the line was still secure in the branch and to her harness and then walked off the edge of the branch she was on. There was a loud crack as the line pulled taut but it held. Reaching to the gun she left it start to feed out slowly and lowered herself to the ground. She was still about ten feet up when she heard a cracking sound above her. Looking up she saw the branch the grapple was embedded in was breaking open around the anchor. She'd gone only five more feet before it snapped free and she dropped the last few feet and dropping her onto her back.

She shook her head as she sucked air back into her lungs and climbed to her feet. She un-slung the laser rifle she had across her back and then started at a run for the Transport Five. By the time she got there Hikaru and Keiko were just starting down their hill while Dalton was pushing the supply loaded cart into the transport. She pulled to a stop at the door and waited for the others to reach her and then enter before going in herself.

"We're ready for take off." Brock said. "I started getting ready after I heard."

"Good thinking." Sara said as she hurried to the cockpit. She'd been so preoccupied worrying about the others, especially Keiko, that she'd not thought about anything else. As she sat down she looked out the front window. "Shit! Brace for impact!" she cried as she strapped herself in. She'd only just fastened the harness when the four Hell Hounds she'd seen charging at the transport slammed into it head first.

"Where the others?" Sara muttered as she grabbed the flight stick and started to lift off. She froze a moment later upon hearing a metal tearing sound from the back section of the transport followed by gun fire. "What's going on back there!?"

"They're trying to bite their way through!" Keiko called back.

Sara cursed and focused on lifting the transport higher but eve as the motor whine increased the ground started coming back up to meet them. "Damn it, they're dragging us down!" she cried, locking in the ascent, releasing her harness, and climbing out of her seat. She picked up the laser rifle she'd set just outside the cockpit and took aim through one of the gashes that had appeared in the floor and fired. Ten seconds of sustained fire was all the rifle could do before the heat built up triggered the automatic shut down so it could cool but it had done little more than sear off a few layers of the Hell Hound's flesh, the creature hadn't even flinched.

Cursing again she tossed the laser rifle away and drew one of her magnums. She then moved up close to the hole and jammed the gun down and fired, once, twice, three times, and then the Hell Hound's jaws and claws released their hold and it fell to the ground with a dull thud. But there were still more of them clinging to the hull. But her fellow soldiers had decided to copy her and were shoving their barrels out through the newly formed holes and shooting the monsters point blank and the were starting to drop off. Sara watched through one of the gashes as the ground started to pull away again.

"Keep it up! We're getting free!" she called as she knelt and thrust out her guns to fire at another one. She got off two shoots before a tearing sound made her look behind her. The Hell Hound she was attacking had ripped out a section of the flooring, thrust a clawed paw inside, dug its claws into the metal floor, and was bending it down. She turned and fired a couple rounds into its paw and it began to slip free. And then something slammed into the side of the transport and threw everyone off balance and Sara tumbled forward and out the hole in the floor.

Out of instinct she reached out and managed to grab hold of the Hell Hound's tail to stop her fall. The sudden yank of her weight caused the beast to lose its grip and it fell off, the last of the creatures to have been clinging to the ship. As it fell Sara struggled up higher toward its back as it righted itself to land on its legs. The impact with the ground made it stumble and nearly knocked her off but she hung on not sure what else she could do, all she had on here was a magnum and a couple of grenades.

"Sara!" Keiko cried. "Hang on, we'll come back down for you!"

"No!" Sara yelled through the comm. line. "They'll just drag you down if you come back down, you have to go, now! You don't have much power!"

"But they'll kill you!"

"I'll be fine! Go!" she cried. "Corporal Abrams, take the controls and go! That's an order!"

Up in the ship Dalton hesitated for a moment but Keiko gave a slight, almost unnoticeable, nod and he took off for the cockpit. Sitting down he grabbed the control stick and stopped their ascent before taking off in the direction they'd been facing. He didn't even know where to go, he just went.

"Towards the mountains." Gil said as he entered the cockpit and sat down in the co-pilot's seat. "Mountains have caves, that's our best bet right now."

"Right." Dalton said mechanically. He felt numb.

"I've... I've never seen... a pack that big." Keiko said slowly. "We killed... eight, right?" she asked, looking toward Keiko. "You got... you got one and, and, and Henderson and Royer and Sokolov... they got three. And... and I got four. And... and still, still we had... fifteen of them... FIFTEEN!" she cried. "That... that means at least... at least twenty-three of them. How.... We've never seen.... Packs don't get that big!"

Keiko closed her eyes and slumped back against the wall sliding down slowly to the floor, her body shaking slightly. In all of the chaos and the worry and the trying to get back on their feet they hadn't had the time to think about everyone that had died so far. They'd been too busy, too active, too caught up in survival. But things were calmer now, there was time to honestly think. And now it was all she could think about. Those who'd died on the other transports, on this one in the lightning strike, and Sara.

"CHIKUSHO!" she yelled, slamming her fists against the floor.

Hikaru walked slowly over and sat down beside Keiko but didn't say anything. She just leaned her head back against the wall and sat there listening to the engines hum and the wind rush past. There wasn't anything to say, anything anyone could say. Too much had happened too quickly for them to process it enough for words yet. And so the trip to the distant mountains was made in silence.