Exodus (The Domus Series Book 2)

by Spartan Kaayn

  It was a couple of days before Carter could get up on his bed, and a week before he could take a few firm steps on his own. Sienna worked untiringly through his recovery and after two weeks saw him put on his boots to get to work at the farm. Sienna approached him and said

  ‘You know you don’t have to do this.’

  ‘I am alright now. You know how tight things are on the farm. They would need all the help that they can.’

  ‘I was not talking about the farm.’

  Carter looked up at her. Sienna lowered her gaze

  ‘You don’t have to be here with me. Why are you here Carter?’

  Carter looked into the lowered eyes of Sienna

  ‘I am waiting for you. Waiting for you to stop mourning. But don’t worry. I don’t want you to stop today or tomorrow but just so that you know, I am around you, waiting for you to stop at your own pace.’

  Sienna did not know what to say. He got up and walked out the door.

  Later that night, Sienna stood watching his tired body sleep fitfully on the bed. She kept thinking about all that had transpired over the past couple of weeks. Until now, she had held onto hope and had mustered a strength and a resolve in her actions but now that resolve was beginning to weaken. There had been no news whatsoever of Alex and Carrie. Officially Alex and Carrie had been listed as missing and Susan had been declared as dead based on witness’ account. No bodies had been found yet.

  Her hope was slowly wilting, giving itself up in her war against despair.

  She had come to realize that she needed Carter, now more than before. It was better to be with him than being all alone in these uncertain times. There was no reason for him to stick around. Not after she had rebuffed his advances. But he had stayed. And now he had put his life in line to protect her, to protect what they had here, between them.

  Sienna did not what to do. She was torn between a future and what seemed like a dead past. She was torn between probable love and possible despair.

  She walked to the drawers in the adjacent room. She took out a night shirt from the drawer and laid it on the divan. Then she moved against the mirror and stood there, looking at her form in the mirror. She opened the buttons on her skirt and it fell to the floor, around her ankles. Then she unbuttoned her blouse, button by button and discarded it on the divan. She unclasped her bra and then slowly stepped out of her panties. She looked at her figure in the mirror again. She had lost a lot of weight since the attack. She was slim and pale and looked old. There was a hint of crow’s feet around her eyes and the breasts sagged a bit. She pulled another drawer and took out an almost dried out perfume bottle of Pierre’ Cardin. She dabbed it around her neck and replaced it in the drawer. She then put on the night shirt which was a tad long for her, reaching around her mid-thighs.

  She walked away from the mirror and slowly walked to the adjacent room, to the bed where Carter was still asleep.

  She stood by the side of the bed for a moment, contemplating what she was about to do, feeling shame and guilt but feeling that she owed this to Carter. She lifted the covers and slid under them, placing her hand tentatively on Carter’s chest.

  Carter awoke with a start and squinted his eyes in the dark to see Sienna next to her. He felt the cold, soft touch of her naked skin on his legs and meekly asked

  ‘What are you doing here?’

  Sienna looked straight into his eyes and said

  ‘I need to stop mourning my past.’

  Chapter 24

  Leader of Men

  Sharm-el-Shiekh, Egypt

  31st May 2019

  Alex was dazed but alive.

  The attack had taken them by surprise. They had surfaced a couple of kilometers from the port, just past midnight. They needed to offload supplies to the port which were to be further taken inland by a network of carriers. Alex helped unload the arms and ammunitions from the sub. They loaded the stuff in three motorboats and headed for shore. Alex and two others were escorting the boats. Alex was on the boat carrying ‘Hellraiser’ rifles and its ammo, and doubling up as an escort to the boat with the cache of surface to air missiles.

  The two drones appeared out of nowhere. These were sleek cigar shaped vehicles with a flared end, which did not have any windows or any external rotors or any exhaust sites. These flying machines were messengers of doom and spewed fire from a small nozzle at their tips. The sub was hit before it could take any evasive measures. Alex was already some distance away and saw a plume of smoke rise from the water where the sub was. He put his boat on full throttle and steered away from the other two boats, taking off at a right angle to those boats, getting away from there as fast as he could. The drones continued firing incessantly at the sub and once they had confirmed the kill, they turned their attention to the two other boats which were racing away together towards the shore. Alex was a fair distance away from them and landed on a rocky outcrop on the far side of the beach. He steered his boat behind the rocks and as soon as he was there, killed the engines. He could still hear the explosions where the other two boats were getting pounded. He felt sorry for them but knew that he was not in a position to do anything for them and that his cargo of ‘Hellraisers’ was too precious to engage in any bravado.

  He waited till he could hear no sounds. The drones whizzed in the sky creating a buzzing sound as they flew. Alex came out of his hiding to see two plumes of fire and smoke coming from the beach, where the damaged motorboats had run aground. He was in shallow waters and found his footing amongst rocky outcrops inside the water. He held his boat behind him and slowly dragged it away from the rocks to the adjacent sandy part of the beach.

  The ‘Hellraisers’ needed to be moved immediately and Alex toiled through much of the night, carrying the guns one by one, till he had stocked all of them in a grave he had dug out amongst the beach fir and coconut trees, finally placing a thatch of palm and coconut leaves over them. By morning he was too tired to move and slept near the hole he had dug, guarding his burden. He had taken upon himself the responsibility for handing over the guns to the resistance in Egypt and he was determined to do just that.

  He slept till evening and then took out a gun from the cloche, slung it on his shoulder and headed inland, in the direction of the city. He was familiar with the gun. Captain Scott had introduced him to the ‘Hellraiser’ after a week of his stay on the sub. He had let him assemble one, fire a few mock rounds from one, and had talked him through the intricacies of the gun. At the heart of the gun lay a lasing crystal that was activated by a power source, contained within the gun. The laser beam then ran through a lasing medium and then through an amplifying circuit. The gun charged itself between bursts of fire and with a single charge it could spew close to three hundred rounds. The power source was the gun’s ammo and it needed replacement after a hundred thousand rounds.

  Alex knew all that about the gun but had never fired it in a battle scene before. That may not be very far away now.

  Alex decided to test the guns on some deserted and ruined buildings on his way to the town. The tests were a resounding success. The gun whirred in his hand without much of recoil, before spewing a hot beam of plasma that was bright electric blue in color and yet hotter than white hot. The beam stuck the sides of the building with a brilliant flash and vaporized the bricks, the cement and the mortar in a flash, while exploding the surrounding wall in a heat shock wave ripple, leaving a wide gaping hole in that wall. Alex was pleased with the effect. Now he just needed to find some alien drones to take down. He saw the explosions and the smoke rising from the town in the distance and decided that he needed to walk down to the war to test his gun.

  ***

  As he reached the town borders, he realized that the city was a warzone. The buildings were all blasted to smithereens, reminding him of the war in U.S before his capture. He took cover under the debris of a building and waited for the drones to fly by. After waiting a good hour hidden under the debris, he had his chance. A drone slithered into the sky above
Alex’s building, hovering over him, probably sensing someone’s presence in the building. Alex knew it wasn’t long before it attacked. He activated his gun and felt it whirr in his hands. The dial flickered to green displaying its readiness. Alex came out of his cover, pointed the gun at the drone and fired. The drone turned itself and angled its nozzle at Alex, shooting at the laser burst from Alex’s gun. But unlike bullets or missiles, it wasn’t possible for the drone to target a beam. The beam struck the drone and burned a hole in its hull. The drone stalled in air, shook momentarily in the air, before spiraling down towards the ground. Alex dove for cover, burying himself in the debris. The drone hit the ground and exploded. If it wasn’t for the mass of concrete over Alex, he would have been a certain casualty.

  Alex came out of his cover to see that the metal of the drone was burning, sputtering in the intense fire that had fully enveloped all the pieces of the drone.

  Alex was a moment too late. The second drone was on Alex in a matter of seconds. It must have responded to the loss of the first one.

  ‘Shit! Should have seen that happening.’ Alex thought to himself.

  He ran for cover, being chased by the drone. As he turned a corner, a strong arm pulled him into a crevice in the wall, dragging him into a tunnel. Alex stumbled on his heels and fell, his gun under him. He looked around and saw a face in the dark.

  ‘How did you do that?’

  The features on the face slowly became apparent. Towering over him was a giant, muscular black man, a M110 slung on his shoulder. He was clean shaven, tonsured and was wearing military fatigues. He held out an arm for Alex and pulled him to his feet. At that moment there was a powerful explosion above, which shook Alex and the man with him.

  ‘We must get out of here. This is going to get worse.’

  Alex nodded

  ‘I am Alex, U.S marine’

  ‘Aslam, Al Fateh.’

  Alex nodded again. He was standing with a member of the most notorious terrorist organization. He sniggered a smile and then shook hands with Aslam,

  ‘Never thought I will ever be fighting alongside you.’

  Aslam shook his hand and smiled too, implying the same.

  Alex asked him

  ‘Is there a way out?’

  Aslam shook his head and pointed to the crevice that he had pulled Alex in through moments ago. That was the only way out.

  Alex knew what he had to do. There was another explosion, this time much closer to them. Both of them hunkered down, expecting the walls to cave in on them. The walls held on, for the moment. But, the crumbling tunnel wouldn’t take it for much longer.

  Alex nodded at Aslam and barged out of the hole into the firing line of the droid. He made a run away from Aslam and turned around, his gun ready to fire. He knew the droid was right above him and shot straight at the underbelly of the droid. The laser beam seared the air in its way and slammed into the guts of the droid. There was a gaping hole in the belly of the droid and it spiraled into the ground behind Alex. Alex knew it was about to explode in a mighty fireball and made a run for the crevice. Before he could reach the entry to the crevice, he heard another one slide in over him.

  ‘Shit! That is definitely one too many’ he muttered as it dawned on him that his gun was not ready for the next shot and that he had to make a run for his life.

  He smiled to himself as he muttered again,

  ‘I may not make it this time’ and he laughed out loud as he ran full steam ahead zig-zagging his way on the ground, trying to dodge the drone beam which was going to come sooner than later.

  But instead, he heard gunfire behind him. He turned while running and saw Aslam firing at the drone. Short bursts of beams from the drone cut down the bullets that Aslam fired at it. It wasn’t going to do any harm to the drone, but at least it was keeping it busy. Aslam was running towards him, still firing aimlessly at the drone. Alex heard a beep and realized that his ‘Hellraiser’ was ready to fire. He steadied his stance and aimed for the drone. The drone was busy angling itself to get a nozzle shot at Aslam.

  The laser burst took down the nose of the drone, which exploded on impact, blasting off burning metal pieces around it. Burning metal rained down on both of them as they kept running away from the exploding drone.

  They stopped after running a very fast hundred meters and Aslam doubled up, panting. He looked at Alex, whose eyes were riveted at the fireball in the sky and asked him

  ‘Why they hell were you laughing there?’

  Alex heard the question and laughed again and replied

  ‘I thought it was game over for me.’

  Aslam threw his hands up in the air, laughing himself hard,

  ‘You know you are the devil. Come let us get out of here before more of its friends come’ he was pointing at the burning shards of the drone.

  Alex nodded and followed Aslam to his hideout in the desert.

  Chapter 25

  The Devil

  Cairo, Egypt

  24th July 2019

  The news was sensational.

  Three harvesters had gone down. By themselves. One near Harare in Zimbabwe, one in the Tibetan desert and another near Buenos Aires. Alex had just had a meeting with Captain Campbell, a former US Naval Commander and now a gunrunner for the various armies fighting the war against the aliens, a small fleet of US subs under his command. He had surfaced to supply Alex with supplies and ammunitions and to pass on an important message to him.

  Alex had established a regular line of supplies for his militia. The subs served their purpose also as a means of transferring news and data across the world. Alex had managed to organize a few erstwhile members of Al-Fateh into a trained and lethal commando unit which went by the name of ‘Devil’s Militia’. They had had significant successes over the last couple of months and had till then succeeded in downing twenty-three alien drones.

  Captain Campbell’s message was regarding the harvesters that had been brought down. This had happened for the first time in the war. That too, without a fight. These harvesters just dropped out of the sky and crashed. The reason was obvious to Alex.

  ‘Malfunction. No, maybe not malfunction. Sabotage was the word’ thought Alex.

  Alex was sure because of the second more important part of the message. Two of the fallen ships had been cordoned off by the aliens, their ships and their drones patrolling over the areas where they had crashed, guarding it against any trespass. But, the Chinese in Tibet had gotten hold of the third harvester. They had reached the area and had cordoned off the area with a sonic perimeter and laser cannons. There had been a battle for the harvester but they had managed to hold off the aliens. They had taken over the ship and had scrutinized every inch of the machine. And what they had found hidden within, was a message scratched on the undersurface of the metal casing of retractile arms in the lower deck.

  The message was in broken English and it said

  ‘for Lt. Col. Alex Dunbar from Montferrat.’

  Alex immediately knew what it meant. William and others had sabotaged these ships. General William of Montferrat. This was huge. For the first time, a piece of alien technology was in human hands. They could study it and find a chink in its armor.

  William had also made sure that the name of Alex Dunbar was going to be famous amongst resistance forces worldwide.

  Chapter 26

  Wanted

  Hampton, Virginia

  2nd August 2019

  Sienna got up with a start. She was sweating profusely. She had another of her nightmares. In this one, she was standing in a half-dug out grave in a cemetery and watched in horror as Alex’s car burnt in the distance. There was a lot of smoke in the foreground and her vision was obscured. As the smog cleared, she slowly made out the outlines of her husband and her two daughters who were sitting in the car idly, looking at her in the distance. They didn’t say anything. They just looked at her as their car burnt, engulfing them in the fire. Sienna found herself shouting at them to get out of the fire but
they did not seem to listen. She tried to move but she could not move out of the grave, trapped within the soil around her waist. The smog covered the foreground once again and she could not see anything. She kept howling and screaming but her voice got smothered in the dense smog. Finally, when the haze lifted, she saw three burnt out bodies around the grave, lying there, forming a perfect circle around her.

  At that point, she shuddered and got up, barely stifling a scream. She was shaking and sweating. She looked around her. Carter was still asleep. They had worked till late on the farm last night, securing the harvest in the barns. And there had been a small celebration after that. They had feasted with some friends on a turkey and some cheap wine before retiring to their bed.

  Carter had snuggled behind her and had removed her clothes one after another, disrobing her completely. Their nude forms had then played with each other for an eternity before she climbed over and rode him to a satisfying climax.

  The love between them notwithstanding, the nightmares wouldn’t leave her though.

  They had been a constant companion, reminding her of a guilt that she felt deep within. Guilt of having given up hope too soon, of having moved on too soon, of having not mourned enough and of having found love too soon. There was no social reprimand though. People needed to rebuilt their lives and societal nuances did not apply at these extra-ordinary times. It was not that she did not love Alex. She did and she loved her daughters too. She called Florida every week for news of her daughters although with days passing by, her hopes dwindled. She needed Carter. She owed him her life and her survival and he loved her. His love had lessened her burden and perhaps Alex would have wanted that for her too. She was still not sure about taking the next step though she had seen a ring hidden amongst Carter’s things. He had not yet popped the question but he will be doing that soon.