Captain Sato moved into the stairwell without saying anything else, but that made sense. She was the most highly skilled and trained of all of us. On the flight over, Frost had told me on his last mission, with Sato, he didn’t even kill any Mutes. Sato sliced them apart before he got a chance.

Frost had seemed pissed about it, on the flight over, but I didn’t seem why. We were a team, and we weren’t out to notch our lockers. We were here to take back Rocham ... or at least kill the bastards who wrecked it.

“Lights,” Sato ordered, once we were all inside.

I tapped the side of my helmet. A light above my bubble helmet split the darkness with brilliant, panacea-powered illumination. A tiny cel sat inside my lamp, one which would burn for decades. Panacea had productive uses, when it wasn’t mutating people.

Taylor and Frost flipped on their lights as well, but Captain Sato didn’t light hers, because she didn’t wear one. I’d heard rumors Sato could see perfectly in the dark, using pupillary implants that adjusted to see perfectly in bright light and pitch black. The rumors seemed plausible.

Stairs descended several flights, far past where I could see. There was blood on them, and torn paper, and a woman’s upper body at the bottom of the steps. My gorge rose. I spotted the woman’s lower half a moment later, stocking-clad legs hanging over the stair rails a flight down.

The woman wasn’t suffering anymore. I hoped she hadn’t suffered before some Mute ripped her in half as she fled to the roof, but I couldn’t know. I just had to hope the majority of the civilians escaped before the Mutes arrived.

Sato descended the stairs and stepped right over the woman’s bloodied torso. “This is not a rescue mission. Civilian rescue is the responsibility of DPD and Special Tactics, and they have verified all surviving civilians are clear. Our mission is to search and destroy.”

“Yes ma’am!” Taylor and Frost said, in unison.

“Yes ma’am,” I whispered, as I followed Sato and Frost down the stairs. I passed the woman’s bloodied torso next, trying not to look too closely at her wide, terrified eyes. Thank God I couldn’t smell her. If I could smell her, I’d probably throw up.

From behind and above me, Taylor spoke over comms. “We’ll see much worse on the lower floors,” she said quietly. “Remember your training, Grant. We’re taking this building back, and we’ll ensure the monsters that did this don’t leave here alive.”

I nodded without looking back. I kept my eyes on the stairs, on Tony Frost and Captain Sato. I gripped Dismay and reminded myself I couldn’t shoot until my squadmates were clear.

We passed a few more bodies on the next few flights, but they weren’t as recognizable as the woman at the top. According to our intel, the Mutes had all congregated on the first floor, then fallen back inside the building after Special Tactics flooded the streets with the Fire of God.

The Mutes were trapped inside this building, waiting for the fires to go out, which left us free to kill them. With luck, we’d open the door on the first floor and I’d fire a single Inferno round, clearing the whole building. Just like I’d been trained to do.

We reached the first floor without being attacked, and as before, Captain Sato and Frost took up positions on the left and right. I braced myself against the stairwell and pointed Dismay as Taylor slipped in between me and the door, must closer this time. This stairwell was cramped.

“Ready?” Taylor asked.

I nodded.

She jammed her gloved fingers into the door as she had earlier, hinges and lock, and pulled.

Some thing knocked the door off its hinges so violently it flew into Taylor, which sent her flying into me. I slammed into the concrete as Taylor crushed me, and the door crushed both of us. My ears rang and my body ached, even inside my armor, but I remained conscious. A normal man wouldn’t have.

“Free them!” Sato shouted, before a Mute shrieked in pain.

Taylor was pressed so close to me I couldn’t see much more than a cracked helmet bubble and pink hair, but the chill up my spine assured me my crushed ribs were valiantly regenerating. Our ability to regenerate was why Cloud Nine chose us to kill these things. We were powerful, but not cannibalistic or insane.

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And I’d be damned before I’d willingly call myself a Mute.

Someone ripped the door off us. Light flooded the stairwell. Frost lifted Taylor off me and set her aside, then stepped in front of us. He raised Massacre to defend us from anything that attacked.

Beyond Frost, through the open door, I saw flashes of movement and flashes of sword. Mute shrieks, muffled, echoed beyond the transparent portion of my helmet. Captain Sato was in the room beyond the stairwell, doing what she did best, alone.

“Check on Skye,” Frost said. He launched himself through the door.

Beside me, Taylor coughed and groaned. “That hurt. Stupid door.” She tapped her helmet, which had a spider-webbed crater radiating from its center, and laughed. “Least I still have a head.”

I pushed up, my whole body crackling with pain. That steel door had hit us like an elevated train, and Taylor had taken most of the impact. Then I’d been impacted by her. She had to be in worse shape than I was, so I went to her.

Taylor waved me off and pointed at the doorway. “Cover them. I can’t see a damn thing.”

I raised Dismay, surveying the building beyond the doorframe, but all movement had ceased. I saw no Mutes, no Sato, and no Frost.

“Clear!” Captain Sato shouted, from inside the room.

“Clear!” Frost shouted, from somewhere else. “Get in here, you two.”

Taylor thumped my back. “See? We’re fine.”

I frowned and nodded, but I didn’t feel fine. All I’d done today was almost throw up at the sight of a body and get crushed by a flying door. Despite my bravado from earlier tonight, I hadn’t contributed much at all to this mission.

I limped through the doorway to find blood and body parts everywhere, and again, my traitorous gorge threatened to spew lunch everywhere. Even without the smell, which I was certain must be horrific, the sight was enough to fill my nostrils in.

Limbs and other human body parts were scattered across a wreckage of broken desk, shattered chairs, and a snowfall of broken glass. Blood and viscera rose from the glittering glass like grotesque flowers. More hung like crimson ivy from the walls, much of it still dripping.

The human wreckage threatened to drop me to my knees, yet none of the others seemed affected by it. That wasn’t fair, for them to be unaffected. I’d grown up tougher than this.

Sato spoke. “That’s all the C4s down and, I think, the C3.” She grimaced behind her helmet bubble. “I didn’t see the C2. Could Special Tactics have been wrong about that?”

It was plausible. Special Tactics were all human badasses, military commandos trained to deal with even Mutes, but even badasses got jumpy and confused when they were surrounded by ravenous multi-limbed monstrosities trying to tear their heads off.

It was possible Special Tactics had reported a Class Two in panic, but we couldn’t trust that. We had to clear the rest of the building, and if the Mutes weren’t above us...

“Does this place have a basement?” I asked.

“Let me check,” Taylor said, followed by, “dammit, I still can’t see.”

A snap-hiss sounded as Taylor grabbed her spider-webbed helmet. She pulled it off. Her eyes widened as she gagged, visibly, from the smell. Frost gripped her shoulder before I could.

“You okay?” Frost asked.

Taylor nodded. Eyes watering, she tapped her wrist. A holographic representation of the building displayed.

She spun the projection two fingers, then pointed at the large area beneath us. “Basement.” She grinned despite the carnage, pink lips wet in the dim light.

“I’ll clear it,” Sato said. “You three secure the first floor.”

Frost grabbed her arm as she stepped away. “Wait!”

Sato frowned at him, and Frost relinquished her arm like he’d been burned. Yet he didn’t step back or look away.

“Let me go with you,” Frost said. “You might need a massacre down there.”

“I’ve got it,” Sato said, with steel in her voice. “Stay with the new kid until he gets his combat legs, and make sure nothing bites our medic’s head off.”

“Captain—“ Frost protested

“That’s an order,” Sato said, before fixing her green eyes on me. “Riven, if anything comes up those basement stairs that isn’t me, incinerate it.”

I grimaced and nodded, feeling rather useless at the moment. “Yes, Captain.”

Captain Sato stalked away, toward the basement stairs, a separate set of stairs than the one we’d descended from the roof. One swipe of Despair halved the door. She wrenched it free with one hand, tossed it aside, and descended into darkness, Despair gleaming.

Frost shook his head. “Dammit. I should be going with her.”

Taylor fingered her jaw with one hand. “Let the Captain handle the C2.” She pressed two fingers to the bridge of her nose. “Man, this still hurts. Getting crushed by a flying door is the worst.”

Frost glanced at her, brow furrowed noticeably. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

Taylor actually blushed as she smiled at him. “I’m fine, you idiot. God, you’re such a baby.”

Were they dating? They acted like they were dating. Wood creaked above, from the ceiling.

I glanced up. Was the building shifting? Then I saw the horrific, multi-limbed shadow hanging above, and heard a sound I could only describe as a giant throwing up its lunch. The hell was that?

Taylor dashed forward and shoved me hard. “Move!”

I stumbled back and barely kept my feet. A drop of acid landed on my helmet bubble, hissing, but at least ten buckets of the putrid stuff landed on Taylor. It consumed her pink hair first, seared the vulnerable scalp beneath, and melted its way down her tan skin to incinerate her cute nose.

By the time she screamed, her pink lips were already on fire.

Taylor’s shrieking tore me apart, inside and out, as Frost howled with her. Taylor dropped, burning, as the acidic vomit from the Class Two Mute on the ceiling melted her alive. It did all it could to dissolve her flesh as her bones, Hallowed to the core, fought to survive.

I spun and pointed Dismay at the broken ceiling. The massive, multi-limbed shadow detached from broken wood and dropped on us like a spider. I screamed with useless rage as I squeezed Dismay’s trigger and unleashed hell on our descending enemy.

Yet hell came too late to save Skye Taylor.