Chapter 5 - WHEN THE SEAL BROKE
The first scream came from behind them.
A Helix soldier disappeared.
One second he was standing near the tunnel.
The next he was gone.
His rifle hit the floor.
Then blood sprayed across the ice.
“LIGHTS!”
Flashlights swung toward the tunnel.
Something crawled across the ceiling.
Too fast.
Maya fired.
The creature dropped.
Ethan got one clear look before it vanished behind a rock.
Gray skin.
Long arms.
No visible eyes.
A mouth that opened sideways.
“What the hell is that?” Jonas shouted.
Ethan backed toward the dragon.
“The thing from below.”
The cavern floor split.
Three more creatures pulled themselves through.
Then five.
Then twelve.
Gunfire erupted.
The dragon launched forward.
Its jaws snapped around one creature and crushed it.
Another climbed onto its back.
The dragon slammed into a wall.
Maya fired into the creature’s chest.
It fell.
“Thanks,” Ethan said.
“Buy me dinner later.”
“If we live.”
“Make it expensive.”
The seventh egg continued cracking.
Inside, the baby dragon squealed.
The Alpha turned immediately.
That moment of distraction nearly killed it.
A larger creature burst from beneath the ice.
This one was almost human height.
It drove a black spike into the dragon’s shoulder.
The Alpha screamed.
Ethan grabbed a flare and threw it.
The creature recoiled from the heat.
“Fire!” he shouted. “They hate heat!”
Helix soldiers switched to incendiary rounds.
For several seconds, the attack slowed.
Voss wasn’t watching the creatures.
She was watching the scanner.
“The lower chamber is exposed.”
Ethan grabbed her arm.
“We are being attacked.”
“Exactly. The seal has failed. This may be our only chance.”
“You still want the Heart?”
“We didn’t cross half the planet to leave empty-handed.”
“You’re going to get everyone killed.”
Voss pulled free.
“Commander Shaw!”
A huge security officer appeared.
“Take four men. Get beneath the nest.”
Ethan stepped in front of him.
“No.”
Shaw punched him.
Ethan hit the ice hard.
Maya raised her rifle.
Three soldiers aimed at her.
Voss spoke quietly.
“Don’t.”
Maya lowered the weapon.
Shaw’s team began descending through the crack.
The Alpha Dragon saw them.
It tried to move.
Its injured leg collapsed.
Ethan crawled toward its head.
For one strange second, human and dragon stared at each other.
He could see pain in its eyes.
And fear.
Not for itself.
For its eggs.
“I’ll stop them,” Ethan whispered.
The dragon exhaled slowly.
Warm frost rolled over his face.
Then Ethan heard his radio.
Static.
A man’s voice.
Weak.
Old.
“Ethan…”
He froze.
Nobody had called him that way since childhood.
“Ethan, if you can hear me…”
May you like
His hand shook as he lifted the radio.
“Dad?”
