by Robert Brown
The city of Richmond roars with flame in the humid night air. A weather-beaten American flag still waves from the pole atop the capital building, the Virginia state flag can be seen just below it.
With so many soldiers given the death code, the violence and death of the battle will be prolonged. Cora orders her winged soldiers into the bloody fray and she turns around to leave the city. Her people know what to do, and without Rafael in the area, she can focus her attention on the president and what he did to the human captives of Richmond.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Changing Fortunes
Virginia
Cora drops from the sky and impacts the ground like a meteor crashing to earth. She is ten feet away from President Thomas. When she stands, her strained face has sharp angled features, making her look more like a monstrous demon than a friend. Her hands are still holding her sword and dagger, and she looks ready to pounce on the president and cut him in half.
Defiantly, President Thomas stands his ground and faces her with head high and back straight. He isn’t sure at all that she won’t end his life for his murder of so many innocents in this battle. He is ready for her and still considers his actions a necessary evil to keep the human race alive.
“You can be angry with me all you want, but what I did saved thousands of lives.”
“You have no right to make such a decision.”
“I have the only right! I am the president of this nation. I have to make the choices that will allow this nation and its people to continue to exist or allow ourselves to be wiped from history as an afterthought. I don’t care that you are upset with what I did, I did it to save lives, not to make you happy.”
“The people will hear about what you did tonight.”
“Only if we ultimately win.”
Cora begins pacing in front of him.
“This isn’t a game, Cora. All of our lives are on the line. If this war is lost, we don’t go to little camps where we silently live out the rest of our lives. If you and your soldiers lose, we will be rounded up and killed. You, your giants, us humans, we will all be slaughtered and eaten. If you want to play nice, then you will lose. Those people I killed were considered casualties in this war long before I sent the rockets at them. If you wanted them to live, then you should have chosen not to fight this war.”
“Even if I can see the logic of it, you’re hiding something. This just doesn’t seem like something you would do. What else aren’t you telling me?
President Thomas rubs his hand over the digital skull cap.
“Yes, your cap is working. I can’t read your mind. Now tell me what is going on.”
“A large section of your northern force lost the battle for Washington. They captured Pittsburg, and because they only had a few extra hours to make it to the capital, your generals decided to have them push east, hoping they could cause the enemy to fracture. They believed they would have a chance to cut off Rafael’s eventual escape from Richmond by taking the capital. The problem is the enemy have another controller besides Rafael, someone we didn’t know about.”
“You obviously don’t mean Amanda.”
“No. It is another male, but we barely know anything about him. What we do know is he is more powerful than Rafael and Amanda. In fact, it is possible he is more powerful than you as well.”
The implication of this isn’t lost on Cora. Through every battle since Denver, they have had the continuous fear of having Rafael take control of their soldiers’ minds and turn the tide against those fighting for freedom. Once The Angel’s army passed the Mississippi River, Amanda began showing up in conflicts and used her mind-reading powers to anticipate maneuvers and redirect fighters during engagements. If the enemy has another controller that is even more powerful than Rafael, the level of the war entered a new stage of desperation.
“You understand now that the victories we have had so far aren’t as significant as we may have believed. This whole time, with all of our battles and wins, we could have been doing the work of the enemy. The eastern vampires were probably more fractured and battling each other for supremacy. We only considered them united because Rafael and Amanda kept showing up to lead the battles. By clearing city after city and taking down who we considered enemy generals of a united front, we could have been destroying our enemies enemy for them.”
“How many did we lose?”
“I have called for your southern border army to come reinforce us, they should be here from Texas tomorrow.”
“How many did we lose?”
“Two hundred and eighty thousand.”
Cora’s expression falters and softens. Her anger fades away, and she returns to the beautiful woman that people enjoy being around. She lowers herself to the ground where she sits and puts her head in her hands.
“How could we lose so many? That’s more…”
“Yes, that is more than we lost in the last six battles combined. Your troops were still running for their lives when I sent the rockets into Richmond. Unfortunately, no arch-vampires escaped to safety. Whoever they have as their controller, he turned at least third of your troops against us all at once and gave them what you call a kill code.
“Over four hundred thousand of your troops converged on Pittsburgh and they took it easily. Three hundred thousand moved on to Washington where they encountered the new arch-vampire. It’s fortunate that the whole army didn’t move on to the capital together. If they did, it’s likely all of them would have been destroyed. We at least have the hundred thousand remaining that stayed in Pittsburgh as well as the twenty thousand that made it back from the capital alive.
“I am willing to support your call in pulling whatever troops you need from around the nation. It will cost a tremendous amount of human lives if we pull them away from their jobs in the free territories, but there will be no human left if we don’t win. There is only one alternative we have to sending a million or more soldiers into a battle to defeat this vampire. I’m not even sure you could win if a million went with you to fight.”
“So this new vampire is the reason you killed the humans?”
“No. I planned on sending in the missiles before I heard about our losses. As wrong as my decision was on one level, using the missiles and killing the enslaved humans helped your army to have such a swift victory.
“Satellite imagery tells us the missiles also stopped the enemy in the capital from pursuing your army back into Pittsburgh. As soon as the missiles struck in Richmond, the D.C. forces pursuing your northern troops turned back. We don’t have enough of these digital caps for all of the soldiers to wear, and they are the only thing that can save all of your people from the kind of mind-control ability the new vampire has. We have to take measures that are potentially more brutal to win this war, but they will save lives, and we are going to have to carry them out soon.”
The president removes his cap, allowing Cora access to his mind for a brief moment. A short time later, a man carrying a suitcase handcuffed to his arm walks up to President James Thomas.
“Nuclear war? Are you serious? You want to use nuclear bombs to wipe out our enemy?”
“You tell me there is another way. Our scientists have studied your regenerative capabilities. Nothing we do can kill you vampires and nothing you can do will stop this man that is more powerful than Rafael. If we lose this war, we lose the planet. A nuclear blast will vaporize blood, tissue and bone. Even a vampire won’t be able to regenerate from that, not from ash.”
“And you expect their army to stay still and let you bomb them to oblivion?”
“We don’t need to kill all the vampires, only Amanda, Rafael, this new man, and anyone like them that can use mind control and want to subjugate the human race. We need to be able to take them out, and the only way I know how is with the use of nuclear weapons.
“To your point about them staying still and waiting to be bombed, for that, I need something from you that I don’t want to ask of you. I am a military man by nature
and training, and I have been successful at figuring out every possible way to save the most lives. In this instance, without any effective weapons other than yourselves, I am limited in that I must trade good lives for bad rather than just cost our enemy their lives.
“I need you to have your army move into Washington D.C. It won’t do us any good if we fire a missile and when it lands, the enemy is hundreds of miles away.”
“How will we get clear of the blast zone?”
The president pauses and gives Cora a serious and stern look. “You won’t be able to.” The people in the area go silent.
“The digital caps will allow you to get in close to this new threat without having your minds taken over and turned against the rest of us. Unfortunately, as you know, we have only produced a small number more than the two thousand you and your commanders already have. Someone will need to be in Washington to verify that the targets are in the city so we can send in the bomb.
“Anyone that you send in should know the risks and probabilities. If they do somehow make it out of the blast zone, the radiation might still kill them. We don’t know what effect radiation will have on your kinds’ mutated cells, we haven’t had the time to test for that yet.”
Cora’s mother and father walk up, along with her brothers and sisters. She reads their minds and knows they have been told about the president’s plan.
“Do you think this is something I should do?”
Cora’s father, Robert, walks up to her and puts his arms around her. “I don’t think you should do it, but I think it is something that has to be done. You and the president have a chance to end the war, at least here on our soil. If we didn’t lose almost the entire northern army today, I would say forget it.
“You have been winning all the battles and taking back the land, but this new mutant is someone you haven’t encountered yet. I know you don’t have the numbers here to withstand a vampire that can capture the minds of more than a hundred thousand troops. One final battle, one final sacrifice could end the war. Choose some generals to lead your army into the capital and set the people free.”
Cora turns her gaze back to the president. “You want this to happen today, don’t you?”
“We have to move on them while they are in Washington D.C. and before they decide to move on us. This new bastard can even avoid fighting us altogether and still win the war. If he moves west across the territories you have already freed, he will be able to capture or co-opt every mind he comes into contact with all the way to the ocean.”
“You are willing to destroy Washington D.C.?”
“The English took our capital once before. Yes, it is a symbol of this nation, but symbols are meaningless without having people around to remember what they stood for.”
“I’ll fly back into Richmond and organize the push to D.C. I will have our troops start to move as soon as the Richmond area is cleared of the kill-code vampires. After that, we can make it to the capital in two hours if we don’t run into resistance along the way. Will you be ready?”
“I have the codes with me already and two submarines are in the Chesapeake Bay. It will take no more than five minutes from launch to detonation. I would prefer it if you don’t go with your soldiers into that battle.”
“You and I both know my presence will be necessary to keep their three most powerful leaders in one spot. I don’t want to do this, but I am willing to do it to end this war, and I’m trusting you to keep my family safe.”
“The only way I can promise that is if you win this war. I would like you to do one extra thing. Ten seconds before the bomb is set to explode, you will hear a series of three loud beeps in your helmet. When you hear them, take your helmet off and let them read your mind. I want those bastards to know what is coming.”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
The Last Flight
Virginia
Thirty miles outside of Washington D.C., Cora looks over at Lloyd and smiles. She only took the winged vampires that have protective helmets with her. The full army has been ordered to remain in Richmond. Two thousand vampire soldiers are flying together in formation, and each of them know the final outcome of this battle has already been determined.
A strange sound approaches the group from Chesapeake Bay and coming in high over the water are an assortment of military planes.
Crackling in her helmet’s earpiece, she hears, “Angel of the mutant army, this is Marine Corps Captain Ethan Black. President Thomas let us know there was a fight going on in the capital today, and we thought we would join you. We know what you’re up against and all of the pilots have protective helmets on. We have a mixed group of F-35’s and few Air Force A-10 Warthogs with us. While we can’t stop the enemy, we figure we can help slow them down a little so you can do what you need to finish the job.”
“Captain Black, I hope the president gave you the full details of the operation.”
“We know the plan, ma’am, and are with you to the end.”
“Then it’s good to have you with us.”
Cora looks over at Lloyd, smiles at him and flies closer to grab his hand briefly before beating her wings again in a rush forward.
“There are so few of us. This feels like when we started attacking Los Angeles.”
“It feels wrong leaving everyone else behind.”
“I’m scared, Lloyd.” The wind rolls her tears quickly off her face.
“I’m scared too.”
*
President Thomas is watching on a screen as a swarm of green dots progress toward a red blinking circle. The simple display of unit progression is the best to view the aerial battle groups headway. Other screens show live satellite feeds of various military units all stationary in this offensive. One image is assigned to specifically follow The Angel.
“Is everything progressing?”
“Yes, sir. The bird is ready and will arrive at its nest within five minutes after you give confirmation to launch. The Angel’s army will arrive at their target in forty seconds at current speeds.”
Thomas turns to Doctor Usachova. “Are you sure this will work? It’s a hell of a sacrifice if you’re wrong.”
“Mr. President, it will work, my calculations aren’t wrong.”
“And if they are?”
“Then we will all die.”
*
The view over the city before them is bizarre in comparison to the previous battles they have endured. Instead of facing the thousands of arch-vampires flying above Washington D.C. with an overwhelming force in the air and on the ground, The Angel is having to go in undermanned and with no hope of winning. The winged enemy, which look to be twenty thousand strong, are in a massive wall formation. There is a thick cluster of soldiers in the middle, around what is hoped to be the goal of this offensive, three leaders of the enemy.
Twenty thousand winged enemy soldiers is a much better prospect than the battle against forty or fifty thousand they were expecting. Rafael escaped the Richmond area with almost this many fliers, and they all thought Amanda or the new leader would have had their own winged troops to add to this fight. There is a faint amount of relief at the smaller size of the enemy force, but it is still an overwhelming number for them to face with only two thousand helmeted fighters among them.
The ground is the opposite of the sky in multitudes of fighters. The leaders of this area clearly favor ground troops over their winged counterparts. Probably due to the level of mind control needed to keep the winged arch-vampires in line. It looks like a swarm of locusts consuming the earth below. The streets and buildings are concealed by the bodies of wingless vampires. The shapes of the towering structures are barely recognizable underneath the moving mass. Not even the sides of buildings are free from the mutants as they are clinging to every spot making the city look overgrown with human-shaped vines.
“I am offended that you bring so few to fight me. You cannot win against my army.” The unified phrase echoes out from the crowd on the ground. “I control all
of the vampires here and will soon control you as well, Angel.”
Cora presses a button on her helmet. “Verbal confirmation the enemy leader is in Washington, still awaiting visual.”
The arch-vampires with The Angel continue to fly forward without hesitation. Swords at their sides, they are prepared for the bloody yet hopeless task at hand. A visible ripple in the enemy defensive line occurs. It is a shudder of mind-controlling energy that starts from the center of the flying cluster of vampires and rolls through the troops on the ground until it extends past the area The Angel’s troops have already flown.
The helmets worn by The Angel’s soldiers do their jobs and keep her large assembly intact against the enemy’s psychic powers.
The block, wall, and cluster formations vampire armies use during battles are near perfect defensive forms against attackers with swords and hammers. Like ancient defenders of the past who locked shields to stop an enemies advance, the arch-vampires in the air over Washington are clustered together to prevent The Angel’s army from breaching their line. With only The Angel and her two thousand swords, her advance and attempt to breach the line to visually confirm the enemy leaders are present would fail. Even if the enemy forces movements are slightly slowed due to the mind control keeping them in check, The Angel’s soldiers would be destroyed against the large numbers of defenders. In this battle, they have something more.
Only a few other mutant battles utilized modern military aircraft and none of those attacks were attended by Rafael or his cohorts. The military jets complete a circular path to come up behind their allies in this engagement and let fly their missiles. Rocket after rocket bursts away from the planes toward the defensive wall formations which are their targets. The leaders hiding behind the layered formation must be getting anxious. Two more mind-controlling ripples erupt from the flying enemy cluster before some of the missiles impact with the dispersing group and explode. Large clusters of vampires are damaged beyond their ability to instantly repair, and their bodies and limbs fall from the sky by the thousands.