Watson glanced at him. "Man, nice of you to finally show up. These things are frigging insane."
Landon opened his mouth to answer when Derek's voice came over the radio.
"Captain, if you're out there, I'm in deep shit and could really use that help about now. And if you have any explosives, I could use some of those, too."
* * *
Angelo had known he and Ivy were screwed the moment their M4s had run out of ammo. The one saving grace to the whole fucked-up situation was that he couldn't imagine how it could get any worse.
Then Minka had skidded into the room. That was when Angelo decided his imagination sucked because things had definitely gotten worse.
Time had stopped as Minka stood there frozen in the doorway and the red glow in her eyes dimmed. The beast had picked a shitty time to bail on Minka. He'd shouted at her to run before the hybrids-or worse, the doctors-could get to her.
But she'd stayed, and the next few minutes had been the longest of his life as he'd watched her fight the hybrids.
Angelo was still trying to finish off the hybrid trying to kill him when an explosion rocked the building, knocking him to the floor. He crawled to his feet, tossing away the broken remnants of his M4 and reaching for the knife on his belt. He would have to get a lot closer to the hybrid than he liked to use it, but he didn't have a choice.
On the far side of the room, Klaus and Renard ran for the doors, the big-ass hybrid right behind them. Angelo swore as Minka raced after them.
Fuck.
"Minka, stop!" he shouted.
She ignored him.
From the corner of his eye, he saw Ivy hesitate, her gaze darting from him to the doors.
"I'll deal with the hybrid," he told her. "You stay with Minka."
Ivy nodded and took off running.
Angelo moved to block the doors in case the hybrid tried to follow Minka and Ivy. He needn't have bothered. The thing charged him like a deranged bull, going from zero to sixty in the blink of an eye.
Angelo had just enough time to get his knife up before the enraged monster slammed into him like a freight train. Angelo wasn't a small guy, but the force of the impact still knocked him off his feet and slammed him to the ground. The hybrid crashed down on top of him, crushing him to the floor and knocking the air out of his lungs.
Son of a bitch.
With stars dancing in his vision, Angelo fought to get the knife up from in between them, but the damn thing was stuck. He knew he had to do something fast-before the hybrid started tearing into him-but the knife wouldn't move.
The hybrid didn't tear into him, though. In fact, the creature simply collapsed on him, knocking what little air had made it back into Angelo's lungs right out again. He shoved the creature off his chest and crawled out from under it. That was when he discovered his knife was shoved right through the hybrid's heart.
Angelo didn't waste time trying to figure out how he'd gotten so lucky. He jerked the knife out and scrambled to his feet, then sprinted out the doors after Minka and Ivy. He knew Ivy would try to take care of Minka, but there was still a lot that could go wrong. He had to find Minka and get her back under control before she got hurt.
Outside, he headed toward the rear of the compound where the vehicles were, sure that had to be where Klaus, Renard, and that big-ass hybrid guard had gone. And if they were going that way, so was Minka.
All around him, the compound looked like a scene from Dante's Inferno. Random explosions were still occurring within the wreck of the building that used to house the compound's ammo, throwing chunks of metal and wood all over the place. The smoke was so thick from the multiple fires burning, he could barely see more than ten feet in front of him. He had to trust he was heading the right way as he moved toward the motor pool.
He tried to contact Landon on the radio as he moved slowly through the thick smoke. But other than a few broken words here and there, he couldn't reach him. Shit, for all he knew, his radio had been busted during the fight … or worse.
Then from somewhere just ahead of him, he heard pistol shots ring out, quickly followed by feline growls that he was sure were Minka's.
He took off running in that direction, dodging the falling debris and raging fires, praying he reached Minka in time-and that she wouldn't be so far gone when he got there that he couldn't get her back.
* * *
By the time Landon reached the doors leading into the research facility and darted inside, the fire on the roof was already blazing at least twenty feet high. He hadn't been able to reach anybody on the radio on the way over, so he had no idea what the hell was going on with Ivy, Angelo, or Derek. All he could say for sure was that there was no way a person could last much longer in that building-not in that fire. If it hadn't been for the short call from Derek, he would never have come in here to look for him in the first place.
Landon slipped into the big, open space, covering his face with his arm as he looked around for Ivy, Angelo, or Derek. It was hot as hell and the smoke was getting thicker by the second, but at least he could breathe. There was no sign of his people, though. All he saw were dead hybrids and a lot of blood. He ran through another set of double doors, then down a long hall. He shouted Derek's name, but there was no answer. That didn't mean anything. He doubted anyone could hear him over the roar of the flames.
Landon skidded to a stop when he reached a room full of cells and saw Derek pounding on one of the door locks with a steel bar. Though the medic was hitting the lock mechanism as hard as he could, it was obvious he wasn't going to get through the heavy-duty lock.
Landon wasn't sure if it mattered. There were six cells in the room, and all of them held hybrids, but the creatures in four of the cells, including the one Derek was working on, weren't moving at all.
The other two hybrids-a bare-chested man and a woman with a wild mane of dark blond hair-were going absolutely nuts. They were yanking at the chains around their ankles so hard Landon was worried they'd tear off their own feet. He swore when he caught sight of the American flag tattooed on the male hybrid's shoulder. Shit, that guy was almost certainly a soldier.
Derek dropped the steel bar when he saw Landon. "Thank God you're here. I found a single set of keys that I think opens the manacles around their ankles, but nothing for the cell doors. Some guard probably has it on his fucking belt." He motioned to the cells. "We need to get the others out fast. They won't last long in this smoke. Please tell me you brought some bang with you."
Landon was about to point out that they were probably wasting their time with the four hybrids who weren't moving, but then he stopped himself. Derek wouldn't care. He was a Special Forces medic. He never gave up on anyone who was injured, no matter how bad it looked.
So Landon nodded and yanked off his rucksack, dropping it to the floor. "I got explosives. Where are Ivy and Angelo?"
"They went after Klaus and Renard," Derek said.
That's what Landon figured. If he had a minute, he would have tried to get them on the radio to make sure they were okay, but with the fire spreading, he wasn't sure he and Derek were going to have enough time to blow the cell doors, much less anything else.
"We don't have time to mess around," he told Derek. "We'll rig all the doors to blow at once, then figure out how to deal with the two conscious hybrids after that."
Derek focused on cutting and molding the plastic explosives into charges while Landon strung out the detonation cord and crimped on the blasting caps. The det cord would explosively transmit the shock wave from one charge to the next, while the blasting caps would boost it enough to set off the C4.
"Keep the charges as small as possible," Landon told Derek. "We want to blow through the locks, not rip them apart and frag the hell out of the hybrids."
Around them, the flames and smoke were getting worse by the second. It was already difficult to breathe. Another few minutes, and the superheated air in the space would start searing their lungs.
Derek attached the explosive charges to the door locks, then tried his best to motion the two conscious hybrids toward the back of the cell. It didn't look like it was working. They were still yanking on the chains holding them to the floor like they were insane.
"I'm pulling the shot now," Landon shouted as he attached the firing device on the end of the last piece of det cord. "We'll just have to pray they'll be okay."
Derek looked torn as he stared at the female hybrid standing a few steps from the cell door. But finally he nodded and ran past Landon, ducking around the nearest corner.