Blood Red Sand

by Damien Larkin

  McCabe and his MEF soldiers swung around into the connecting corridor. Bullets cracked out at them, and he flung himself onto the ground for cover. He pulled on his Lee-Enfield’s trigger, dropping two more of the stunned Nazis before Smack stumbled into the fray. With a shaking, blood-stained hand, she fired the energy blast from her HK, incinerating the head off the last SS soldier.

  Cocking their assault rifles again, the Black Visors pushed onwards.

  Using her scanner, Noid directed them with hand signals. Two more panicked SS soldiers nearly crashed into their small group, but Big Mo dispatched them with lethal swipes of his HK-17’s bayonet. The Nazis hit the floor, clutching at their bloodied necks while their mouths flapped open and gasped for air. The Black Visors walked past them, leaving the fatally wounded men to choke on their own blood.

  After rounding another corner, Noid signalled to stop. They froze as she waved her scanner from side to side. She moved farther down the corridor before stopping in front of a set of double doors. Lifting the device up and down, she turned to face her colleagues and nodded her head. She slipped the gadget under her belt, and after forming up with her fellow Black Visors, she started a silent three-count. On three, they threw themselves through the double doors.

  The first room they entered was devoid of activity, but when McCabe and the Black Visors carried on, they all spotted something through a long glass window. An SS officer and a woman dressed in a body suit stood near a set of consoles and screens. The officer and woman spun around. They fixed their gazes on McCabe and the rest of the team but made no movements to draw weapons. McCabe ordered the soldiers under his command to hold the outer room and the door leading back into the corridor as the Black Visors made to enter. They smashed through the doors of the lab and scanned every part of the room for hidden SS soldiers. Neither the SS officer nor the woman so much as flinched at their presence.

  Trailing close behind, McCabe looked on while the Black Visors lowered their HK-17s. For a moment, they appeared to forget the presence of an armed SS officer as they stared in awe at who he guessed to be Anna Bailey. The former MI6 operative wore no shackles or restraints of any kind and made no effort to join her supposed liberators. Suspicious, McCabe kept his Lee-Enfield trained on the SS officer as the Black Visors took small steps towards the woman they were sent to free.

  “It’s you,” Dub said in a soft, reassuring voice.

  Anna cocked her head. Her gaze scanned the masked band in front of her, but she said nothing.

  “We’re here to get you out of this place, Anna,” Dub continued. “We’re here to set you free.”

  In a slow, deliberate motion, as if to not spook a wild animal, he reached for the balaclava on his head. To McCabe’s surprise, he slipped the piece of fabric off, revealing a round face with stubble across his chin and cheeks and a shaved head. McCabe was astonished to see how young he looked and placed him in his twenties, but something about him felt far older.

  Dropping the balaclava to the floor, Dub motioned for the rest of his colleagues to do the same. They complied, removing the covering from their heads and dumping them onto the ground. McCabe looked them over one at a time, confused by their youthful appearance. Smack, lightly tanned, had her blonde hair tied back in a ponytail. Noid with her sharp features, porcelain white skin and jet-black hair shaved at the sides. Big Mo had a neatly trimmed black beard, olive brown skin and a nose that looked like it had been broken more than once.

  “Anna Bailey,” Big Mo said, beaming a friendly smile. “You need to come with us. We don’t mean you any harm.”

  The SS officer laughed at that, causing the Black Visors to glare at him. The Nazi raised his gloved hands while glancing at McCabe’s Lee-Enfield. Keeping himself behind the motionless Anna Bailey, he grinned at the intruders.

  “I’m afraid you’re too late,” the SS officer said in perfect English. “You have the honour of standing in the presence of the first Hollow. Your Core Cadre cannot stop us now. We have already won.”

  McCabe didn’t know what the Nazi officer meant by “Hollow” or “Core Cadre” but from the corner of his eye, he saw the Black Visors’ body language change. McCabe glanced over at them and caught them shooting wary looks at one another before resting their gaze on the still unmoving Anna Bailey. The tension in the room ratcheted up as the MJ-12 operatives reached for something in their belts. They produced small cylindrical devices that looked like miniature syringes.

  “You haven’t won yet, you piece of shit,” Smack snapped and limped from under Noid’s arm to stand under her own power. “Last chance, asshole. Let her go or we do this the hard way.”

  The SS officer folded his arms and cocked his chin up in defiance. With a nod of his head, he drew their attention towards a countdown timer on one of the screens beside him. “You have a little over three minutes until myself and my dear, sweet Miss Bailey must journey out of here. You cannot fight the future. You will fail.”

  The Black Visors unslung their HKs and unholstered their sidearms. They placed their HK-17’s in neat rows behind them and faced Anna with the mysterious syringe devices as their only weapons.

  “Hard way it is,” Smack retorted.

  “Sergeant McCabe,” Dub called out, without taking his gaze from the woman in front of him. “Regardless of what happens, under no circumstances are you to either point your weapon at or try to shoot Anna Bailey. But if the SS scumbag so much as sneezes in your direction, feel free to fill him with lead. Understood?”

  Unsure of what he was witnessing or about to witness, McCabe nodded. “Understood.”

  Raising the syringe devices up, but keeping the palms of their free hand exposed, the Black Visors inched towards Anna. Her gaze flitted across each of them, but her hands rested by her sides.

  “Anna.” Dub stepped closer to her. “I know you hear a voice in your head. The Voice of God. You need to get it to activate the Salient Protocol. Do you understand? You can free yourself, but you need to initiate the Salient Protocol.”

  Anna remained rigid.

  The Black Visors spread out amongst themselves as if to approach from every direction.

  Big Mo moved in from Anna’s left. “She’s not responding to voice commands. Take it nice and slow, everyone. We know what she’s capable of.”

  “Protect Terra,” the SS officer said.

  “Protect Terra,” Anna responded.

  Dub was the first to act, lunging towards Anna from her right, aiming the syringe at her neck. With savage ferocity and inhuman speed, Anna swung her right fist around with enough force to knock Dub from his feet and send him crashing back into a nearby trolley. Big Mo leapt at her from Anna’s left. His hands nearly made contact, but Anna reacted with lightning speed. She spun about and swept her right leg across his feet while delivering a missile strike of a punch to his chest. Big Mo hurtled to the ground with sickening force, and the sound of the impact reverberated around the room. Anna raised her fist as if to deliver a deathblow when Smack and Noid fell upon her.

  Noid wrapped her arm around Anna’s neck, and Smack tried to jab at her from the front. Grabbing Noid by the head, Anna flipped her over, body slamming her onto the hard floor. She fended off Smack’s weakened attacks before striking hard at Smack’s bandaged side. Smack howled like a wounded animal and stumbled to her knees. Anna raised her hand to punch her in the face when Noid grasped her legs in an attempt to intervene. Anna lifted her foot and slammed it hard onto Noid’s head, causing her skull to bounce off the floor with a thud.

  At seeing Noid in danger, McCabe considered rushing to her aid. Dub’s words kept him from acting, unsure if he’d make things worse by intervening. He glanced at the SS officer still with his hands in the air and a savage smile etched across his face as he watched the fight.

  Dub and Big Mo, brandishing their syringes, tried to rush Anna, but she turned to face them with her trademark speed. She easily blocked Big Mo’s swipe. He shifted his body with th
e strength of her defence, exposing his back. She drove her fist right into his kidney, causing Big Mo to stumble forward. Without pausing, she turned about again and executed a round house kick, catching Dub across the side of the face and sending him flailing to the ground again.

  Without even having broken a sweat, Anna looked over her fallen opponents. Dub, Smack, and Noid lay slumped on the ground, groaning in pain but conscious. Big Mo remained on his knees facing her. He visibly struggled to pull his heaving body to his feet.

  Anna peered over at McCabe. Her ice-cold gaze sent a chill down his spine. Her gaze focused on the Lee-Enfield in his hands aimed at the SS officer, and then back to him. Resisting the urge to act, McCabe obeyed Dub’s instructions and kept the barrel aimed at the SS officer.

  Having surveyed the carnage around her, Anna turned about to face the SS officer. He looked positively gleeful and, ignoring McCabe’s presence, pointed at the monitor beside him.

  “A minute and thirty seconds left, Miss Bailey. You may terminate them. They are enemies of Terra. Protect Terra.”

  “Yes, Herr Reichsführer,” Anna said with a slight nod. “Protect Terra.”

  Anna snapped around to face the wobbly-legged Big Mo first. He raised his hand to try and jab her with his syringe, but she anticipated it. She blocked with her left hand, and fired a vicious blow to his face, bursting his nose. She grabbed his left hand and drove an uppercut to his upper arm. He screamed from the agony, and tried to headbutt her, but Anna side-stepped him, throwing him off balance. She gripped the back of his neck, and driving his head downwards, she snapped up her right knee. His face connected with her kneecap with a sickening crunch before he flopped back onto the hard floor.

  Dub dove at Anna from her flank, making contact and spearing her to the ground. She landed on her back with Dub on top of her. He desperately tried to jab the point of the syringe into her neck, but Anna struck him across the face with her iron fist. Dub’s hand fell away, and she smashed the palm of her hand into his jaw before driving her fist into his solar plexus. Bucking to get out from under him, she drove another lethal fist into his face and knocked him backwards. Anna jumped up and closed the distance between them. She wrapped her wiry arms around his neck as if to snap it.

  Noid and Smack threw themselves at Anna. Noid clawed at Anna’s face, and Smack tried to kick the feet out from under her. Anna grabbed Noid by the throat, lifted her from her feet, and threw her into Smack.

  For a heart-stopping moment, McCabe thought that the fight was over, with all four Black Visors down, but then a weakened Dub acted.

  With her back turned to him, Dub lifted his right leg and lashed it towards the back of her left knee. The force of the blow brought her to her knees, but undeterred, she turned to unleash her wrath on him. With her back exposed, Big Mo crashed into her and used his stocky frame to smash her face onto the ground. Despite her wriggling beneath him, Big Mo managed to wrap his arms under hers, stopping her from launching any more of her brutal attacks. After swinging himself to his back so that Anna’s front lay exposed, the Black Visors converged on her. Noid hurled herself onto Anna’s legs to keep them pinned down, and Dub leaned a knee on her left forearm. Anna’s right arm and head frantically tried to inflict pain on Big Mo, but he remained unfazed. Smack leaned over Anna and jabbed the syringe into her neck. A second later, Dub pulled the headband from her forehead.

  Anna’s body fell still, and her wide eyes became unblinking as they stared at the ceiling above. A shudder crept through her muscles until her entire body shook. Finally, she opened her mouth and released a piercing shriek. She screamed until all the air left her lungs. Then she took a breath and roared again. A moment later, her shuddering stopped. McCabe eyed the SS officer. He stood rooted to the spot, his mouth gaping open with his gaze fixed on the subdued Anna Bailey.

  The Black Visors glanced at one another before releasing her. She lay motionless on the lab floor as they dragged themselves to their feet. They sported bloodied faces and nursed ribs or damaged limbs, but they had prevailed. They nodded at one another and then faced the reichsführer.

  The SS officer backed against the wall and checked the countdown timer. As it changed to twenty seconds, Dub charged towards him. Pulling his knife from his belt, Dub closed the distance and reached his target while the SS officer fumbled for his sidearm. Using his left forearm to pin him against the wall, Dub drew back his blade and stabbed it into the Nazi’s chest. The reichsführer screamed as Dub twisted the blade. With a savage grin, he withdrew the knife and buried it again.

  “You lose,” Dub said.

  The reichsführer’s body trembled, but he managed to shake his head. “I have seen the future.” He gasped. “I have witnessed the armies of Terra stretch across the galaxy…”

  Dub gripped his left hand around the reichsführer’s throat and jabbed with his knife again. The SS officer’s face turned deathly pale, and yet, his eyes sparkled as he gazed into the face of the man who drained the life from him.

  The countdown timer neared zero.

  “Time’s up,” Dub said. He released the reichsführer and allowed his fatally wounded body to slump to the floor.

  The SS officer shook his head as he tried to place his hand over the waterfalls of blood that stained his uniform. “I see you.” He smiled faintly. “You are a Hollow. You all are. Don’t you see? I’ve already won.” The reichsführer raised a bloodied hand to his hat and pulled it off. A metallic headband covered his forehead.

  Dub lunged for the SS officer again.

  “I’ll see you in the future, my children…”

  Before Dub could reach him, the reichsführer’s body convulsed, as if jolts of energy pulsed through him. His smile faded, leaving a lifeless corpse in its wake.

  Noid limped forward and tapped at the console, but she shook her head at her findings. “It must have been programmed to erase the location as soon as the compression signal was finished transmitting. He’s gone, Dub. He could be anywhere and anytime that has a Compression Matrix.”

  Dub let out a long, exasperated sigh. McCabe caught his gaze.

  McCabe glanced at the lifeless body of the reichsführer and at the subdued Anna Bailey. He shook his head in confusion.

  “There’ll be time for explanations later,” Dub said with a shrug of his shoulders. “But right now, we gotta—”

  “We have company,” Noid interrupted. She waved the scanner towards the corridor outside and shook her head.

  “The guts of two platoons.”

  “Friend or foe?” Smack said, leaning in to gain a closer look.

  Shots rang out from the corridor outside when the MEF soldiers guarding it started firing. A wall of return gunfire blasted back in response.

  “I’d say foe,” Noid said as she picked up her HK-17.

  “It’ll take a few minutes to recalibrate the Compression Matrix,” Smack called out as she started working on the console.

  “Get Anna back first, she’s the only one who counts. We’ll hold them off.”

  Without another word, McCabe and the Black Visors ran to face the Nazi onslaught.

  ALEXANDERPLATZ, MITTE DISTRICT, CITY CENTRE

  20.22 MST

  DAY 2

  General Schulz stood atop the ruins of what had once been the Nazi party central bank and stared at the government district. Large sections of the Colosseum lay in ruins from the barrage of missile and artillery strikes. Two of the towers that acted as offices for government and Nazi officials stood as nothing more than giant heaps of scorched concrete. Flames licked from the windows of the still-standing towers, in some cases engulfing entire floors. Muzzle flashes dotted from every corner of the government district. Overhead, two hovering transports fired tracer rounds.

  With a heavy heart, he tore his gaze from the scene and surveyed what remained of his beloved New Berlin. To the east, columns of black smoke marked the advance of the Mars Expeditionary Force. Countless buildings and hom
es sat as little more than piles of rubble, smashed without mercy in the Allies’ ferocious advance.

  To the north, fires raged across the outskirts of the Jewish ghetto. Flames danced from building to building, tearing through the former slaves’ shabby hovels. Gunfire flickered in the neighbouring areas.

  What remained of the Wehrmacht fought to defend the German citizenry of the savage reprisals that awaited them. The MEF had moved swiftly into the vicinity to pacify it and protect the inhabitants, but in his bones, Schulz knew blood would be spilled for a long time to come.

  Sighing, he removed his hat and wiped the sweat from his brow. In the streets below, the MEF soldiers continued to flow into the government district in a final bid to topple the Nazi regime. Rows of defeated Wehrmacht soldiers marched in the opposite direction under armed guard.

  Thankfully, Oberst Brandt’s treason hadn’t spread to all the units under his command, but a sizeable portion of the traitors remained at large. The latest updates he had overheard mentioned the MEF having pushed the rebelling Wehrmacht forces to the sector north-west of the government district. Whether this was true and how many survived, he didn’t know.

  “Penny for your thoughts,” Mr. Myers said.

  Schulz turned about and saw the Majestic-12 agent extend a glass of brandy towards him. With a sombre nod, he accepted the glass and drained its contents in a single swallow. Grinning that cocky trademark smile, Mr. Myers rose from his seat. He grabbed his own glass and the decanter of brandy from the wobbly table beside him and refilled both glasses. Looking satisfied, Mr. Myers scanned his own eyes across the burning background of the once proud colony.

  “If you’re worried about your fate after all this, you shouldn’t be,” Mr. Myers said and paused to take a swig of brandy. “I’m a man of my word. You, and some of your officers and men, will have a place in the new order. Once you’ve been thoroughly de-Nazified, of course. But don’t worry too much about that. It’s mainly to keep the politicians back home happy.”