Teeth clenched, Thor raised the M-79, holding a steady aim at the neck, and fired again. When the grenade struck Leviathan staggered, shaken. And Thor quickly reloaded, catching a glimpse of Barley screaming and crawling back beneath the vault to rejoin the fight.
With a calm aim Thor fired his last grenade, hitting the beast in the same location, a section of neck armor that appeared severely damaged by the LAW rocket. The explosion was fire, white, blinding, volcanic.
Leviathan screamed, shaking lividly, whirling toward him.
Thor bent and rolled. He blasted Barley back through the opening of the vault, grabbing the lieutenant as they collided and rolling even faster as he felt a flaming concussion strike the fire door, impacting with the power of a rocket to send a vaporous fire-cloud under the portal.
Thor continued rolling, throwing Barley as if he were a doll until he was well beyond the door. Then Thor rose to a knee and spun back, screaming and enraged, violently whipping the battle-ax from his back.
“Come, beast!” he roared. “Come and face me!'‘
A hideous scream and colossal impact against the vault was the only reply.
* * *
Smoke and narrow flame surrounded them, and Connor moved as quickly as he could, holding Jordan close. Frank was ahead of them by a dozen steps, searching the passage floor for loose wiring, testing the air for traces of heavy nitrogen.
Beth was at Connor's side, her hand on his arm.
Connor squinted angrily through the smoke, smoke that thickened as they moved deeper and deeper into the tunnel. A moment earlier he had wet a cloth on a ruptured water line and placed it over Jordan's tiny face. He knew that the cloth would protect the child somewhat from the acrid air that spiraled from the deeper part of Omega. An explosion, seeming to come from behind, shook the corridor walls.
Beth staggered, grabbing his arm and Connor whirled to stare back, holding Jordan tight. He almost half-expected to see the hell-born beast on top of them. But there was nothing there, nothing but burning smoke, distant flame.
“What was that?” Beth whispered, staring. She seemed frightened with a new and vivid fear. “Do you think that Thor is ...”
“No,” Connor replied, holding her gaze.
He didn't know what else to say, and she knew the comment for what it was. Hope. And she didn't question it because it was her hope as well. They turned again to Frank.
“We're coming into a big chamber where several tunnels converge!” he called back, holding a hand to his face. He was squinting angrily against the smoke. “Everybody stay together or we could get separated!”
“Don't worry about us!” Connor yelled. “Just get us to the computer so you can disarm the fail-safe!”
Frank turned without words and walked slowly forward. He was almost instantly lost in the smoke that spiraled from the converging passageways. It was a heavy, blinding haze that flowed and overflowed into the ventilation shafts. Connor found himself choking, heard Jordan crying. He tried to comfort his son as best he could, but things were getting bad fast. The smoke was so thick that the air seemed solid, clinging to them, flowing past them like black water. He looked to the side to see Beth bending, lowering her head. And he repeated the maneuver, also bending low to stagger forward.
Another explosion, too close, blinded them. Connor had no idea what it was, couldn't imagine. It was a powerful electrical line grounding out or maybe a lost incendiary from the platoons. But whatever it was rocked the corridor and sent them staggering again, struggling for balance.
Frank was screaming. “We've got to find the right tunnel! There's four or maybe five, that lead out of this room! One of them leads to Brubaker where we can go straight into the computer—”
The next explosion knocked Connor off his feet, slamming him hard against something but he held Jordan until he came off it, losing his son somehow in the air, landing numbly to ...
Sharp pain.
Instantly enraged, Connor tried to lift himself from the ground, found that he couldn't move. He strained again, violently, and felt something pinning him down. Opening his eyes against the acrid smoke, he glared to the side to see what was holding him.
A stake.
A steel stake the size of a railroad spike had been driven cleanly through his upper arm, pinning him to the ground. Instantly Connor's teeth clenched in a snarl and he violently tore his arm from the blood-red steel, leaving shreds of flesh. He didn't even feel the pain as he gained his feet, immediately searching for Jordan.
“Jordan!” he cried. “Jordan! I'm right here!”
A terrified cry carried through the smoke.
“Jordan!” screamed Connor. “Where are you, son? Stay where you're at! Don't move!”
A wounded, fearful scream that only a child could make reached into Connor's heart, tearing him apart, a cry that seemed somehow close but moved away quickly with terrified, searching steps until it was claimed by darkness.