*

Abrams stopped and peered over the edge of the path. They had been winding around the outside of the pit, moving quickly, and descending ever lower. Many smaller tunnels finished at their path and, though they were empty, Abrams had the impression that someone or something lurked back in the darkness. He could have thrown another of his glow sticks into any of them, but the truth was, if they were being left alone, then he’d leave them alone. Still, the skin on his neck crawled with warnings as they went past every one of them.

He looked down at his watch once again, and grunted. “It’s time. If General Decker has received approval, then he’ll be on his bombing run.”

Matt stopped and stared for a moment, but then just nodded.

“Good.” Adira scanned the pit’s bottom and then half turned. “If everything is obliterated, then we won’t care any more. Until then; we go on.”

Chapter 25

The raptors flew over the drop site, taking several images and then peeling away, stepping on the gas and leaving nothing but vapor trails. Decker looked at the aerial shots as they appeared on his screen. The slimy mess that had been the verdant Mammoth National Park was now like an anthill, crawling with the amoebic Shoggoth monstrosities.

The General ground his teeth, feeling an almost physical pain as he saw the lines of people being led into the holes in the ground. He couldn’t save them – they didn’t yet have enough ammunition to mount a successful ground operation against the Shoggoth. These people were already lost; all he could do was stop them from suffering.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered as he got slowly to his feet. Then his jaws clenched. “But I promise every one of you that you will have your vengeance.”

“Counting down to drop.” The laconic voice of the pilot of the Stratofortress came in as he began his final run. “Five, four, three, two, one…payload away. Returning to base.”

The aerial shot was taken from maximum height, where the national park was just a field of green, with a black smudge as a target in the distance – with a drop from fifty thousand feet, the amount of forward movement of the bomb would ensure it travelled many miles before reaching its mark. Military technology allowed a calculated precision that would mean a strike within a dozen feet of what they wanted to hit.

The big plane turned like a super tanker in the air and started to wing away. It would take several minutes for the bomb to detonate, as it was designed to be the biggest bunker buster in the history of mankind. Its goal was to penetrate deep into the bowels of the massive monstrosity making its way to the surface.

Decker held his breath.

“Detonation.”

The rear cameras of the plane whited out and they lost their images. It was just as well, as no human eye could withstand the white-hot heart of nuclear detonation. He turned to look at the feed from the banks of seismometers dotted throughout the state to detect earth movement. The lines measuring the seismic waves barely registered anything above a normal background range.