Crysis Escalation - By Gavin G. Smith Page 0,15

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‘I think you are the prophet,’ the priest said.

Well, this never happened in Iraq, Barnes thought.

‘Have they converted to Islam?’ Chavez asked.

‘Yes, that’s a Muslim mining drill they’re worshipping,’ T answered. The tension was apparently turning him sarcastic.

The priest started moving towards them. Other members of the strange congregation were starting to notice the three soldiers.

‘Father, what’s happening here?’ Barnes asked. ‘What is that thing?’

‘It is a herald,’ the priest told them. He was still advancing. Barnes found himself taking a step back and he noticed Chavez and T did the same thing. T slipped a little on the wet ice.

‘A herald of what?’ Barnes asked.

‘The god who brings the white flower. The winged serpent, Quetzalcoatl,’ the father told them. Barnes glanced at Chavez. She just shrugged.

‘I think it was one of the words they were chanting,’ she told him.

More of the strange congregation were getting up now and moving to join the priest.

‘Maybe the cartel is testing drugs on them?’ T suggested as his mind desperately grabbed for rational explanations. The priest, and now more of the congregation, were advancing on the three of them.

‘Okay Father, I need you and the rest of your people to stay back. You could be contagious,’ Barnes told them.

‘Just say the word,’ Earl all but whispered over the tac radio.

‘What we got, Earl?’ Barnes asked.

‘Clear behind, all X-rays are in front of you.’

‘I think you are the prophet. There is light in your flesh. We must follow the light.’ The priest was becoming more intense. Some of the people advancing on them were starting to gibber in tongues. Others were just repeating the word profeta over and over again.

‘Sir, I’m going to have to ask you and the others to stay back!’ Barnes repeated, putting every ounce of authority that had been drilled into him by military service into his voice. They kept coming.

‘Just say the word,’ Earl repeated.

‘Yes, you are the prophet and the light and the flesh is the way to Quetzalcoatl.’

‘Okay, get back now!’ Barnes lifted the M4 and pointed it at the priest. T brought his weapon to bear as well. ‘If you do not stop moving then we will fire!’

‘I have a clear shot on the priest,’ Earl told him. Barnes felt beads of sweat appear and then freeze on his forehead.

‘The flesh and the light of the prophet is a sacrament and must be consumed it is the way to . . .’

‘Now,’ Barnes whispered over the tac radio. Barnes actually felt the bullet go past. The priest’s face collapsed in on itself and turned red. The priest remained standing for a moment and then toppled to the ground. ‘Weapons free,’ Barnes told the others.

The diseased congregation charged. Barnes had a moment to register a moving wall of people running at him. He opened fire, long bursts, the muzzle flash flickering at the end of the M4’s barrel. They started going down, but not nearly enough of them. Those hit were carried along in the press of the charge or fell to the floor, tripping over others coming from behind them, but always another person took their place.

T was firing long bursts as well, playing them across the press of the diseased people who were charging the three soldiers. The M249 SAW was designed for suppressing crowds, but that didn’t work when the people you were trying to suppress had no sense of self-preservation, when all they wanted to do was turn you into one of them.

Earl was killing with every shot from his concealed position, but there were still too many of them.

Chavez emptied the clip from her M4 then turned and ran to the next fall-back point.

‘Reloading,’ she cried over the tac radio as she ejected the empty clip, rammed another one home, racked the slide, charged the weapon and then grabbed a grenade from her webbing.

Barnes’s M4 ran dry.

‘Danger close!’ He reached forward and squeezed the trigger on the underslung M203 grenade launcher, aiming it straight into the charging crowd that was nearly on him. He fired the grenade launcher but didn’t stop to see the effects of the grenade. Barnes turned and sprinted towards the fall-back point. Earl was trying to say something over the tac radio as the fragmentation grenade exploded in the crowd. Bodies and limbs flew about the street. More of the diseased people went down as fragments flew through limbs and bodies at velocity. Barnes staggered as something sharp tore into his upper arm. Something wet hit his head,