Free Extinction Evolution (The Extinction Cycle Book 4) by Nicholas Sansbury Smith Page A

carpet of light shifting into shadows across the field. Garcia could hardly see anything now. He cursed himself for not keeping his NVGs in position. As he waited for the cloud cover to pass, the hundreds of Variants stopped in the first two rows behind home plate. The clatter of plastic chairs and claws scratching over concrete joined the symphony of tortured screams.
    At the pitcher’s mound, the muscular beast had dropped to all fours. Every single creature suddenly went silent, like a switch had been flipped. Garcia and his team were watching the Alpha leader of this group of Variants. These beasts were rare; he had only seen a few of them in the past five weeks.
    Overhead, a single bird flapped away from the stadium, squawking as it tried to catch up with the thousands that had fled moments earlier. With the animalistic noises gone, Garcia narrowed in on the sounds of the screaming humans. There were two of them, both on the move. Several Variants dragged the prisoners down the aisles and onto the field. Smaller shadows moved behind them, their bodies seeming to distort awkwardly in the darkness.
    When the edge of the cloud passed overhead, the moonlight spilled back over the field. Garcia held in a breath, his eyes feeding his mind something he couldn’t seem to comprehend.
    What in holy hell?
    Below, in the wild grass between the Alpha and home plate, were six tiny Variants, all circling an unconscious female prisoner in rags and a male prisoner wearing blue jeans and blood-soaked t-shirt that read Go Yankees! There were four female Variants surrounding the group, all with sagging belly fat hanging like a macabre skirt made of flesh. 
    Holding in a breath, he slowly reached up and clicked his NVGs back into position, then shifted his gun to the prisoners. He had to capture this for Command.
    Garcia zoomed in on a male face covered in filth and blood that made it impossible to determine his age. The man crawled across the grass, screaming, “Please, somebody help me!” He sobbed and dug his fingernails into the soil.
    Garcia resisted the urge to put a bullet in his head and end his suffering, knowing that what came next would be worse than torture. In his scope, the tiny Variants continued to skitter around the man. They were all young, maybe two years old, but they were fast as hell. He had never seen any Variants this young before.
    Two of the creatures collided clumsily. They fell to their backs, then jumped onto two feet, hissing. Long snake like tongues shot out of sucker lips, and the small beasts clawed at one another.
    The Alpha Variant shrieked and separated the two creatures before Garcia could get a good look. They scampered away, still hissing like oversized lizards. The female Variants crowded around, and the children arched their backs as the male human prisoner crawled toward first base. He turned every few feet, tears streaking down his face.
    “Please don’t do this! Don’t kill me! I’m begging you!”
    The Alpha ambled after the children and roared at them. Then it pointed a thin talon at the man dragging his injured body across the grass. When the prisoner saw what was happening, he pushed himself to his feet and staggered toward the pitcher’s mound.
    A high-pitched shriek came from the Alpha’s mouth. This time the young Variants took off on all fours, scampering after the man with their backs still arched. One of them crossed in front of Garcia’s scope. As it moved, he saw there was something different about it—something he’d never seen. Its skull curved into a cone, and its ears were pointed like a cats. He carefully lowered his helmet cam toward the scene, documenting every second as one of the small beasts lunged and clamped its sucker lips on the prisoner’s ankle.
    “NO!” the man screamed. He dragged the beast attached to his leg into the outfield, where the other five finally caught up and brought him to the ground. They all latched down on him, tearing strands of flayed