Dead Man's Fury (Dead Man's War Book 3)

by Dan Decker

  If she had taught me to use that one, I could’ve quickly dispatched these creatures instead of resorting to hand-to-hand combat.

  “It took you long enough,” Roth said, turning so she could see me as I approached. “Are you ready?”

  “Sure.”

  “We never should have come here, it would have been easier to deal with dozens instead of hundreds.” There was an accusatory tone to her words that I didn’t like.

  “You were the one who didn’t want to kill them. I just suggested a way to try to avoid that.”

  “Let’s go,” Roth said as if she had not heard me.

  She darted forward, and I followed after, veering out of the way of a grenling by hopping over without even thinking about the controls.

  At least all this activity has given me an instinctual ability to use the suit.

  As I passed by above, I brought my hand down and pressed the trigger, but I did not have the time necessary to activate the weapon before my suited arm would no longer follow it. A more skilled soldier could probably have turned and maintained their aim on the creature.

  I snorted. But that soldier would also know how to use the laser.

  The hesitation I’d been feeling about harming these creatures was gone. I was going to kill anything that got in my way.

  Roth waited for me beside the cliff, turning every which way to fire that laser beam of hers to keep the grenlings at bay. As I watched, three severed grenlings toppled from the cliff towards the ground like a jumble of broken toys. Strangely, it did not appear the face of the cliff had been harmed by the weapon, even though I was sure it should have cut a broad swath into it.

  “Why didn’t that thing damage the rock?” I asked.

  “We’re gonna go up nice and slow,” Roth said. “If anything gets too close, you kill it. Got it?”

  “Give me a crash course on the laser beam, and I’ll be happy to oblige. This other weapon just takes too long. They are on top of me before I can use it.”

  “No time to teach you now.” Roth began her ascent, leaving me to catch up while my hand formed a fist. It appeared that the grenlings knew that she was the more dangerous of the two of us because they did not hesitate to come closer to me once she was further along.

  I pointed my hand at one, a midsize creature with a bright orange helmet, and it shifted out of the way just as I was getting to the count of five. When I pointed my hand at it again, it lunged for me before I got to the count of two.

  I was only saved from grappling with the creature because I moved my toes down on instinct and shot up, almost overshooting Roth’s position before I leveled out beside her.

  The grenling landed on the cliff underneath me, its claws scraping against the rock wall as it scrambled to catch up to me while looking warily at Roth. I was just bringing my hand to bear on it again when I pulled the trigger, aiming for its head.

  It released its hold of the cliff, tumbling against it as it fell.

  That’s right, I thought, it messes with their head even without the five-second wait. I’d forgotten about that.

  “Stay closer,” Roth said, “I think they figured out you’re a newbie.”

  “They know the limitations of my weapon and they’ve seen what you can do, how about you activate the laser, so we take them off guard?”

  “It is a delicate thing to learn. I don’t have the time. Stop questioning me at every turn or I will leave you behind.”

  Roth was looking away from me, which was a lucky thing because I was sure the image on my helmet showed my disgruntlement.

  We were soon fifty feet from the top. The grenlings were kept at bay only because Roth continued to fire, almost at random, taking down dozens of them in the time it took for us to arrive.

  I kept trying to take one down, but they kept moving out of the way before my weapon would activate. Finally, more out of spite than anything else, I selected a grenling that was further back than the others and had a moment of satisfaction when its chest burst open, sending it to the bottom of the ravine.

  My sides heaved.

  I had gotten carried away. It had not tried to harm me. Frustration with my inability to fight the grenlings in a meaningful way had prompted my action.

  I can do better.

  Roth slowed when we were five feet from the top of the cliff, she turned to face me, prompting me to do the same without thinking about it.

  “Okay,” she paused to flip around to fire her laser at a grenling that approached like a giant creeping lizard coming over a rock outcropping. It screeched and fell back, having barely suffered damage to its arm. Roth waited to see if it would make another attempt, but it did not.

  “We should expect Camp Myers to be leveled and that the lurkers have the run of the scene.” She paused to make sure she had my attention. “Even if that is the case, I’m still under orders to infiltrate and pull out the classified object.” She gave me a searching glance, which looked a little strange projected on her helmet. “I recognize you don’t trust me and I suspect that’s because there are many things I have not told you. And it’s going to continue to be like that, but I need your help.”

  “I’m not trying to get answers to everything right now, I just want to stay alive. You’ll have my help regardless. Just teach me how to use some of the other weapons, so I’m not left to rely on hand-to-hand combat.”

  Roth started to respond and then trailed off. A moment later, she gave a quick nod, almost as if deciding it was not worth it to fight me anymore.

  “Fine.” There was a pause. “I have now activated the laser weapon for you. It works the same as the other weapon, you hold the same trigger. It will take five seconds to fire.”

  I frowned, not liking this last bit. “Is that how yours works?”

  “No, it isn’t. As I’ve already mentioned, this is a complicated weapon to get right. The slightest bump of the trigger and whatever you are pointing at is gone, ripped in half or burned to oblivion. You must be meticulous when you use this weapon. That’s why I put you on the starter weapon first, and its why you still have training wheels.”

  “It’s the exact same weapon as yours, just delayed by five seconds, correct?”

  “Yes.”

  There was a movement from behind and Roth turned. The grenling stopped and crept backward. These creatures were learning. I couldn’t help but think again that it would have been a far different experience if we would’ve been adequately armed to fight them back at camp.

  “But I don’t have to hold the weapon on my target for five seconds before it works, correct? I can press the trigger, count to four, point it on the fifth second, and it will fire.”

  “Yes. Ideally, you should have the weapon aimed directly at the target you are hoping to take down the whole time, but that’s essentially the idea.”

  “Perfect.” One of the grenlings was getting a little too close, I pointed my hand in its direction and pulled the trigger, it immediately shied away. Rather than following it, I let the weapon hit the rock where it had been. I was satisfied when the laser beam came from my hand, just like Roth had been using.

  Nothing happened to the rock, just as before.

  “Because this weapon is so dangerous, it has been configured so that that it will only affect living flesh.”

  Roth had anticipated my next question so I shifted gears.

  “I could point it a building, but nothing would happen?”

  “Probably. It might be a different story if there’s somebody directly on the other side of a wall, they might get burned. For example, if you used that on a tent and there was somebody on the other side, they would be torn in half.”

  “Let’s go,” I said with more than a hint of satisfaction at finally having a real weapon.

  I had an easier time forgiving Jeffords for never training us on the rifles now that I had access to this.

  Things were about to get a lot more interesting.

  40

  We inched forward to the to
p of the cliff, moving slowly while the grenlings became restless. They steadily closed the distance, coming out into the open, braver as their numbers increased. They stayed more than fifty feet back and to either side of us, with the one that Roth had turned to deal with hiding behind an overhang that jutted out from the cliff. Those underneath us came even closer. I pegged the nearest one at about thirty feet away. I followed Roth’s lead because she was adamant that we could not risk popping over the top. She was concerned that if we moved too fast, even while staying low on the mountain, that we might show up on the lurkers’ radar. She hoped to mitigate that risk by using a gradual ascent.

  It was easy in theory, but much harder in practice with the grenlings swarming around us. One moved from the pack until it was about fifteen feet away. I moved my hand towards it but stopped from pulling the trigger at the last moment, figuring that Roth would do something about it if she was concerned.

  I grunted. “Did you want to shoot him or shall I?”

  “Hold off.” Roth didn’t explain further.

  It seemed like it took five minutes, but it was probably far less before we arrived at a point where I could see over the top of the cliff. At first, I could not see much, just more rock, but as we continued up, I could see some of the horizon.

  The first things I noticed were plumes of smoke, rising ever higher in the air. Several of the larger lurker ships also hung impossibly in the sky without any apparent force keeping them there.

  There was discernible activity below the great vessels, I could mostly just see flashes of light from small streaking ships. Few sounds of the battle made it to us. I figured Camp Myers was at least three miles away.

  Roth had a sharp intake of breath. “The battle is still going. This is what I hoped for.” She glanced over at me, apparently not recognizing how callous she sounded. “It will give us cover when we get closer.”

  When we were up high enough that we could skate forward onto the top of the mountain, Roth did just that and landed softly without more than a whisper, turning off her anti-gravs as soon as she was on the ground.

  I came down hard when I tried to execute the same maneuver, causing Roth to curse as she glanced over at me with annoyance on her face.

  “Quiet.”

  I didn’t respond, but she should expect that my ability to use the suit was still limited, especially since she had taught me nothing on how to land.

  I wanted to reactivate the anti-gravs and jump off the ground again, just to see if I could figure out how to land softly but restrained myself. It was difficult that the only practice I ever seemed to get was when I was in the middle of a situation.

  “We are going to cross the top on foot,” Roth said, “I don’t want to risk flying.”

  “What about the grenlings?” I asked while turning back to look over the cliff. None of them had followed us, but I could hear them moving down below. “It won’t be long before they’re right behind us.”

  “I don’t know what more we can do about them. Our time is better spent completing our mission. Stay close.”

  Roth stalked forward. I followed, conscious of the fact that the noise behind us increased the further we went. It would not be long before the grenlings were on top of the cliff as well.

  I didn’t know exactly what Roth’s game plan was, she had not taken the time to explain it to me, but I expected that when we got to a place where we could jump, we would turn on our anti-gravs and descend until we were at a safe height for traveling before flying to the camp.

  The top of the cliff was barren, with a few trees that had long since died and had been burned to a former shell of what they must have been by the intense sun.

  That’s another nice thing about the suits, I don’t have to worry about putting on block.

  I didn’t even know if I still had my block with me and suddenly became afraid that it might have slipped out while I was in the transport ship. The block meant life. I knew that better than any other thing I had learned here. I reached for my pocket but, of course, could not feel anything through the suit.

  “What are you doing?” Roth hissed, turning to face me.

  I had not realized that in my effort to find the block, I had been making noise by clapping my suited hand against the metal suit.

  “I was just checking to see if I had something.”

  “Stop it.”

  Roth waited as if for an apology, but I refused to give it. When she resumed going forward, I resisted the urge to keep looking back over my shoulder at the grenlings that were right behind us. As Roth was insistent on not using our weapons against them while up here, it was better to be a little in the dark.

  At least for the moment.

  We came to a small ravine that was about ten feet across, going as far as I could see in either direction. The inside was full of vegetation similar to what I had seen my first time down a ravine.

  Roth activated her anti-gravs. As she skated across, a grenling reached up from within and grabbed her by the boot, pulling her down.

  I was just starting to skate across too and pulled to a halt. I could not see where she had gone. It was like she’d been swallowed by a whale in an ocean of green.

  “Roth, are you okay?”

  No answer.

  As a precautionary measure, I brought up my hand and aimed it at the ravine in front of me, my finger playing with the trigger.

  She was capable, but the undergrowth was thick. I remembered all too well the many creatures down in the vegetation, and while my suit would probably protect me against them, if there was no need for me to hop down after her, I was eager to avoid it.

  I didn’t expect that I would be able to see anything down there. Undoubtedly, the suit had other features that would allow Roth to better deal with the situation, but she had not taught them to me.

  It’s time to stop ignoring the inevitable.

  I turned and saw that a handful of grenlings were now up here, crawling forward on all fours as if they were aware of what was happening at Camp Myers but still determined to come after us. I raised my hand and pointed it at them, causing several to scurry back, some even going so far as to return to the ravine.

  “Roth, come in.”

  I heard static. “… I have the situation… Stay… Don’t engage…”

  Even though the message was garbled, I knew she didn’t want me to mess around with the grenlings anymore. They were now less than fifteen feet away and creeping closer.

  “Easier said than done. Would it be better if I came down after you?”

  “No.”

  I could not tell if she said anything else as I once again raised my hand and pointed it at the oncoming grenlings. I aimed at one and pulled the trigger, feeling bad for disobeying her order, but also knowing that I could not fight all of them at once. It would be better to pick them off one by one.

  They turned and scampered away.

  I heard a roar from behind.

  41

  I didn’t know what it was that made the grenlings run away from the lurker—perhaps they understood that these creatures were more technologically advanced and dangerous. As I turned to face the lurker, I suddenly wished that I was facing the grenlings again because I had a better chance of surviving a fight with them.

  A solitary lurker had come up from the valley below.

  Blasts of light from its weapons hit me and were absorbed by my suit, which flashed each time, making me fear there would be a limit to the number of shots I could receive before it became a problem. A moment later, four additional lurkers rose up to join it. Activating my anti-gravs, I pushed down with my toes and leaped into the air while pulling my trigger before aiming, keeping a conscious count of the seconds as they passed. Roth had warned me against doing this because she feared that I would hit something by accident, but I needed every advantage I could get in the battle in front of me. I took aim at one, but it was still two seconds more before it fired, ripping the creature in half.

  �
��I thought I told you to…” I didn’t make out the rest of Roth’s words as I twisted my feet around and slid backward and to the side. I was uncertain if it was because she was still breaking up or because I was too distracted by the four remaining lurkers.

  “Our precautions didn’t work. The lurkers found us.”

  There was a long pause.

  “Say … again?”

  This time I could hear Roth more clearly, I knew she had not trailed off because of interference but was still engaged in battle with the grenling that had taken hold of her.

  “Five lurkers,” I said, “down one.”

  Blasts of light flew towards me, flying right by my feet as I twisted out of the way, feeling like an Olympic skater who had suddenly been thrust into a dogfight.

  I flew towards the closest lurker, pulling the trigger of my hand and waiting for the painful five seconds again before it fired. The lurker twisted out of the way just before my shot would’ve hit, the blast of light flying harmlessly into the mountain behind it.

  “If you’re able to activate my weapon so it fires immediately, now would be a great time.”

  There was no response, and when I pressed the trigger to aim at the same lurker again as I flew past, turning in midair as I did to keep my aim, I could tell that the nature of my weapon had not changed.

  I was thinking of going in close again like I had before, hoping that the other lurkers would not shoot if their comrade was in the line of fire. Before I could do that, another came zooming towards me with its blasters blazing, keeping me from executing the maneuver.

  I twisted my hand around, pointing it at the lurker and hitting the count of five a moment later. The laser ripped through one of its wings but otherwise did no damage. It only served to make the creature angrier as it doubled its speed, coming at me with its weapons firing so fast it was difficult to discern between the various blasts of light.