SNAFU: Heroes: An Anthology of Military Horror

Cade glanced back down the street and saw the first of their pursuers, a sleek dog-shaped creature with three legs on each side, come charging around the corner. He didn’t wait around to see any more. Igniting the flare, he climbed down the far side a few feet before turning back and tossing the flare onto the gasoline-soaked furniture at the top of the barricade. There was a loud whoomp and the gas ignited with a flash, flames racing across the length of the barricade and rising six feet into the air.

That should make them think twice. He turned his back on the flames and hurried down the other side. As he hit the pavement a terrible shrieking cry sounded from above him. He spun, simultaneously drawing his gun in one smooth motion, to find the six-legged demon standing at the top of the barricade, engulfed entirely in flames.

Cade shook his head; the demons might be hard to kill, but apparently they weren’t all that intelligent. While the thing was preoccupied with the flames writhing around its body, Cade put a bullet through its skull and then watched in satisfaction as it tumbled out of sight back down the opposite side of the barrier.

Time to get moving.

The street ahead of him was empty, however.

His companions had disappeared from sight.

Frowning, Cade headed onward. He knew he couldn’t stay near the barricade. The fire would only burn hot for so long; the minute it fell to manageable levels the hellspawn would pour over the top and begin pursuing them anew. He needed to be out of sight before that happened.

The buildings had seemed unwelcoming before he knew the town was infested with hellspawn; now they were downright ominous. Every hard-to-see corner and darkened shadow were potential hiding places where a demon might be lurking and Cade quickly discovered that he couldn’t keep his eye on all of them at once. His adrenaline was pumping from what he and his men had already been through and it took all his restraint to keep from putting a bullet through Duncan’s head when the young sergeant popped it out of the door of a nearby butcher shop as Cade hurried past.

“Commander! This way!” Duncan called softly and Cade needed no further urging to slip past him into the darkened interior.

The shop was small, fifteen feet square, if that, and the smell of twenty different kinds of meat assailed him the moment he came through the doorway. For a moment the location seemed an odd one for his teammate to choose, but then Cade recognized the genius behind Olsen’s choice – the hellspawn would have a hard time tracking them over the smell of all that meat.

Olsen stood by the deli counter, looking nonchalant as he took bites from a stick of hard salami, but Cade had known him long enough to know that Olsen wasn’t any happier about their current situation than Cade was. Riley had a bandage around his forehead to deal with the gash he’d sustained in the crash, but Cade was relieved to find him otherwise healthy and ready to go.

Turning to Olsen, Cade asked, “How are we doing?”

The other man grimaced. “Not great, but we’ve been in worse scrapes in the past. We’ve got enough ammo for one, maybe two more major firefights. After that we’re down to swords.”

Cade nodded; that was about what he’d expected. They came here to investigate, not to face off against a horde of demons all on their own. They simply weren’t equipped for it. If the entire village was infected, that lack of ammo was going to be critical before too long.

“This place have another way out?”

“Yeah, there’s a back door that leads to an alley running behind the building, which in turn curves back around to the main street about three doors down from where we are now.”

In other words, it wasn’t going to do them that much good from a tactical perspective. Still, Cade felt better knowing that they weren’t trapped in a rabbit hole with no way out.

Before Cade could say anything further, Duncan called from the front.

“Here they come!”

CHAPTER THREE

From his position at the front of the butcher shop, Sergeant Sean Duncan watched through a narrow opening in the wooden shutters covering the main window as the creatures they’d faced off against less than fifteen minutes earlier poured over the still-smoking barricade and came in search of them.

He shuddered as they surged forward.