He rolled to the side as Bracken launched a kick at his chest. The gritty mud dug into his skin, but he kept moving, his momentum bringing him to his feet. Bracken had something in his hand. It flashed silver as he leapt forward, driving the long-bladed knife toward Quinn’s heart. Quinn sidestepped and swung the pistol around, connecting the handle with the side of Bracken’s head. The man stumbled as Quinn tossed the gun up, spinning the grip into his palm.
Bracken turned, slicing the air with his blade.
Quinn fired.
The knife blade carved a path an inch from Quinn’s stomach before falling to the ground. Bracken brought both hands up to his chest where a perfectly round hole pumped dark blood onto his shirt. His eyes found Quinn’s, surprise and disbelief filling them to their brims.
Bracken stumbled backwards and tipped off his feet, thudding to the ground in a splash of bloody water and moved no more.
The air was filled with shouts and gunfire, but below it all was the deep, sickening vibration coming from outside the walls. Quinn ran several yards to his left and dove behind a semi-collapsed tent before rising enough to look around.
Bracken’s army was on the walls and firing through gaps in the concrete pillars. They yelled incoherently—no real orders or defined direction, only panic and disarray. Several of the men were turning in circles searching for something. And when one of them spotted Bracken’s lifeless body, they ran to him, crouching by his side before standing and scanning the tents.
Quinn ducked back down. Rain dripped off his nose, and he rubbed the blood from his eyes again before chancing another look. The two men were closer, their attention torn between the tents and the battle raging behind them. One of them yelled something, and a round shredded a hole in the tent beside Quinn’s head. He brought the pistol up and fired twice at both men, re-centering the sights after each recoil. There was a cry of pain as one went down clutching his stomach. The other turned and ran, firing blindly over one shoulder.
Quinn stood and was about to run toward the opposite end of the camp when one of the tall barricades began to rock. Long fingers wrapped over its top and pulled. The barrier tipped and fell outward, tearing away the weak supports that bound it to the others on either side.
Beyond the wall was a sea of pale flesh.
Thousands of stilts lurched toward the walls, their long bodies twisting and turning as they clawed their way forward.
The first stilt stepped into the compound and roared. Someone shot it through the chest. It cried out and fell to its knees, swiping a woman off the scaffolding as it dropped. The woman screamed and hit the ground hard on her side. She tried to regain her feet, but even from the distance he stood, Quinn could see her arm hanging away from her body at an odd angle. The wounded stilt reached out with the last of its strength and pulled her to its mouth, biting the top of her skull off, her scream drowning in its throat.
More of the creatures streamed through the gap in the wall. The fighters held for a beat and then scattered, running from the stilts in every direction. A twenty-foot-tall beast snatched a man from the ground and gripped him in both of its skeletal hands before wrenching him apart at the waist. A smaller stilt had cornered two men who’d run out of ammo, its arms spread apart as if herding cattle. One of the men tried to run tight to the wall and was flattened as the barricade he was passing tipped forward and hammered him to the ground.
The open space of the compound was awash with stilts feeding and people running. Pure chaos.
Quinn ducked low and ran.
He pelted down the rows of tents, breath stinging in his chest, back and head aching from where he’d hit the stairs. Screams of the dying behind him mingled with the stilt’s roars, chasing him as he fled.
Collincz appeared through the rain, her rifle centered on his chest as he skidded to a stop.
“What the hell’s going on up there?”
“They’re inside; we have to go!” Quinn panted, taking off around her.
“Who’s inside? What about the others?” she asked, running beside him while throwing looks back over her shoulder.