Under My Heel

by Michael Anderle

  “Here you go.” Stephen turned to see that Dorene was offering him one. “Always be prepared.”

  Stephen took the offered knife and looked back to Nathan, “You will have to bleed into her mouth and her wounds.”

  Nathan looked over Ecaterina’s body, “There is only the one!”

  “Not for this to work, there won’t be.” Stephen looked at the man, “This must be done, do you understand?”

  Nathan realized what Stephen was going to do and nodded.

  Reaching down Stephen easily tore open Ecaterina’s protective jacket and then ripped open her shirt and snapped off her bra. “Hold out your wrist, Nathan.”

  Nathan put his wrist out over Ecaterina’s body. Stephen turned his fingers into claws and made three deep sets of cuts into Ecaterina, each a half-inch deep. She immediately started bleeding. Stephen then used the knife to cut Nathan’s wrist. He grabbed it, smearing the blood that was spurting out, all over Ecaterina’s fresh wounds. “Pete, go get the blood packs.” Pete tore into the cave.

  Stephen cut open Nathan’s wrist again, “Now make her drink this.” Nathan worked to get Ecaterina’s mouth to open and to get some of his blood down her throat.

  Pete returned with the blood packs and Stephen told Nathan he would need to drink one right away, and another is a few minutes. There was no hesitation from Nathan, he immediately opened one and started drinking.

  After doing what he could for Ecaterina, Stephen stood up and looked over the darkened village. It was completely dark and the stars were out in a mockery of beauty.

  The silence was deafening. Art came out of the cave after making sure his charges were ok. “Seems quiet.”

  Stephen nodded, “It is, they are probably regrouping.”

  “Who is it?”

  Stephen shrugged, “Does it matter? They have sent their first two groups against us. I imagine they are changing plans and are getting instructions. I can only tell you that we aren’t done for the night.”

  The Queen Bitch’s Ship Polarus

  Bethany Anne made sure everyone knew when Team BMW’s craft left the mainland. Five minutes before they were to arrive, Dan came up with two crew members that Bethany Anne hadn’t worked with.

  Dan introduced them, “Bethany Anne, meet Lucas Michaels and Paul McAlister.”

  Lucas shook her hand, Paul stepped up, “It’s ‘Scottie’ to me friends.” Scottie had a slight burr, but hardly noticeable.

  She looked the two men over, both had on their protective gear and had picked up sniper rifles to go with their kit, the same as Dan.

  She turned to Dan, “This isn’t a good time to be learning how to fight Nosferatu, Dan. Do you have plans on how they aren’t going to become red-shirts?”

  Scottie laughed, “Can’t be me, don’t you know, Scottie was the only red shirt that always stayed alive?”

  Bethany Anne grinned, “Just you make sure that you take after your namesake, and we’ll be fine.” She turned to face Lucas, “Do you have a snappy comeback as well?”

  Lucas shook his head, “No, just shoot ‘em and stack them up like cordwood.”

  Bethany Anne nodded sharply and turned to Dan, “Ok. Works for me. I’ll try to put your team somewhere protected with a good line of sight.”

  Someone behind her yelled out, “Here they come!”

  Everyone turned, and could barely make out, a formation of pod looking craft skimming over the waves towards them. One wave rose high enough to get in the way of one of the boxes, but it became obvious as the water washed toward the lower half, that an invisible spherical shape was projected at least ten feet out from the box and the water never came close.

  Then they slowed and rose to the height of the deck.

  Please ask everyone to wait until I get them all down. I’ll bring the three with Bobcat, William and Marcus in first.

  Bethany Anne relayed TOM’s instructions.

  Three of the craft slowly descended, the other seven staying a good thirty feet above them.

  Each arrived, slowing as they came to the deck. Their descent looked like they were landing on a piston and the air was compressing the lower it went. Finally, all three sat on the deck.

  You could hear three distinct locks being turned before two opened quickly with Bobcat and William opening their doors wide. A moment later, Marcus finally got his open, as well.

  There were cheers all around and the smiles on the three men threatened to engulf their faces. John and Eric brought Bobcat and William their gear. The two men quickly started stripping down to change clothes and strap on their protective gear.

  Marcus came over to Bethany Anne and Dan, “Oh my god that was fantastic! It was so smooth and the ride was exquisite. I was able to calculate on the laptop.” Marcus’s face became stricken, he turned around and ran back towards his craft. He pushed open the door and then cried out as he reached in. Returning with the laptop in his hands, “Sorry, I didn’t want you guys leaving with my communications connection!”

  You seem to have made a huge impact with Marcus.

  Well, the man does appreciate the finer art of Mathematics, even if he is a little needy and clingy at times.

  Are you saying he checks up on you?

  Constantly! I’ve almost sent him an ‘out of office’ message twice now, but I wasn’t sure if he needed something for the plan to work, or was just curious and had to scratch that inquisitive itch he lives with.

  Sucks to be you.

  Tell me about it.

  “Speaking of that,” She turned towards Dan, “Gabrielle has tactical if I’m out of commission or gone. She’s got both the experience and the skills, ok?”

  Dan nodded, “No problem with me or my little group of sniping malcontents.”

  By the time she finished with Dan, Bobcat and William were both changed and the first three pods where packed and ready to go. Bobcat and William both jumped into one, they were sure as hell not being left behind. Bethany Anne noticed Bobcat’s face had lost all of its humor.

  Someone had informed him about Shelly, she supposed.

  Except for the last two, all of the other pods had now been filled and had levitated off of the ship.

  She stepped into the second of the remaining two, she whistled and Ashur came running up the steps to the loading area. Bethany Anne moved aside to give him room.

  John grabbed both doors to close them, “Bobcat says the light is above the exit, keep all hands and feet inside the craft and hold on. He hopes you brought along some music and the service will not be around to give you any Coke.” He winked at Bethany Anne, “See you over there, boss!” He looked down at Ashur, “Keep her safe, ok?”

  Ashur ‘woofed’ in response.

  He closed the doors after Bethany Anne turned on the light. The latch was easy enough to operate. She heard John’s doors close and lock.

  It was time to go.

  —

  Five minutes later, Bethany Anne wanted to beat the metal wall she was so bored.

  It was, apparently time to think.

  TOM, we need to do something about communications. I’m bored to tears.

  It might be difficult to do. We’d have to work on getting a signal through the shielding produced to keep the bubble around us.

  Can’t we pop something through the Etheric?

  Of course, but then we need to make sure something happens to the devices whenever one of these pods gets stolen, confiscated, destroyed and parts are left behind…

  You’re a merry sort at the moment.

  Piloting ten of these through the low level flying we are doing is a little challenging.

  Why? I thought the Kurtherian Computer was such a work of art that handling the flying wasn’t a big problem?

  You would think so, but my access to the whole computer is slightly constrained at the moment.

  What? Why, how can something challenge your access… Wait, wait. Don’t tell me that stupid program is doing something?

  Well, I’m cur
ious to see what happens next in the coding, so I permitted a requested download of a substantial amount of data while we were on the ship. Some old cartoons. Now, the program is consuming a significant number of calculation cycles to number-crunch the data and…

  Stop! Just stop right there. I neither know nor care how or what it is doing. Make damn sure your side-research isn’t getting in the way of our operation. We don’t need to go splat on a mountain somewhere because we missed some data.

  No, no. That won’t be a problem. We are coming up on the coordinates.

  I need to see what the location looks like to confirm where to set down, angle the pod slightly up - I don’t want myself or Ashur to fall out.

  She mumbled out loud, “’Cause that wouldn’t be fucking embarrassing or anything.”

  She unlocked the door and pushed it open, stretching the straps that held her in, to look down.

  It was a ghost town. She found a spot on a hill not too far away where the group could land. “Over there.”

  TOM viewed the area through her eyes and her pod started descending.

  When she was a few feet from the ground, she jumped off and turned to watch the other pods descend and land. Ashur was right behind her. She could hear all of the latches starting to turn. Soon, she had her guards plus Dan, his two snipers, Bobcat and William.

  That was the moment she snapped her head around, seeking the flight of a missile she could hear launching. She finally spotted it as it rose into the air and turned in their direction.

  TOM!

  Got it.

  Dan had just started to turn his head in her direction when the pod Bethany Anne had used tore itself away from them and met the missile in mid-air. The explosion reverberated throughout the valley.

  The pod came back, noticeably damaged on the outside.

  There was another visible effect from the pod racing out to meet the missile.

  The supplies that had been in her pod were now spread out all over the town.

  Bethany Anne, that craft can’t take another missile.

  Bethany Anne told the group, “Get the supplies out of another two craft, quickly.”

  Gabrielle and John tore into their pods, pulling stuff out and dropping it on the ground as quickly as they could. Soon, they were empty and TOM sent them into the air.

  Dan sighed, “Well, we know how Shelly was taken out.”

  Bethany Anne responded, “Yes, let’s hope not too many of our team is gone as well.”

  Bethany Anne spotted the area where Stephen was and could see the teams using bodies of the Nosferatu to create barricades as best they could. “They have seen a lot of fighting already. I can tell a couple of people aren’t ours, but I can’t see everyone, either. Let’s get your team…” She looked up above the cave area where Stephen was holed up. “I see a spot about seventy-plus feet or so above the cave entrance. No way to go up and it’s another thirty feet up the cliff to get to the top, minimum. Looks like you would be safe from Nosferatu, but if we all eat it, you won’t be able to get off for shit.”

  Dan asked, “How about a hide, anything to protect us from return fire?”

  Bethany Anne looked harder, “Yeah, I think so. Good point. Let’s take your team over to go see, really quick.”

  She turned to the rest, “Grab your shit, TOM is going to take all of you over to Stephen’s area. He will drop within a few feet of the ground. Jump off, grab the supplies, then the pods will go up and hover high enough not to be noticed. When we know what to do with the children, we will send them away. Make sure when you get there, you move quickly.”

  Two of the pods lifted from the ground, “Looks like that’s our rides, gentleman. Let’s go.” She spoke over her shoulder, “Ashur, get on with Gabrielle.”

  Bethany Anne jumped in one and pulled Dan up with her. Scottie and Lucas jumped into the other. Making sure they had their rifles and ammunition plus a bag each of food and water. Dan had already slung a bag over his shoulder.

  The two pods took off, angled slightly back leaving the doors open. Lucas and Scottie peering out over the town, noticing a large group of bodies coming out of the caves at the far end, about a mile away. Scottie muttered, “Now that is a target rich environment.”

  Lucas murmured. “Preach it brother, preach it.”

  Dan was looking at the little cliff area that Bethany Anne had spotted. There were areas he felt the three of them could use for cover. As long as the other side didn’t have a higher spot to aim down at them, it looked good. “I think it’s going to work.”

  The two pods got close enough for the three men to step down off of the pods and then turn around to unload.

  I need to see something, hold on.

  Bethany Anne grabbed the side of her pod as it tilted a little down and to the right. She looked over to see the area where Stephen’s group was, almost below them.

  Ok, making sure I had the layout. Thank you.

  The pod resumed its position.

  Bethany Anne called to them, “You boys keep your heads down, ok?”

  Dan smiled, “And our powder dry. You do the same, you understand Bethany Anne?”

  She nodded and the two pods moved backwards and then started descending towards the ground.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  As she got close enough, she noticed a body covered near the wall. She had already lost someone. Her mouth contracted, her eyes started turning red.

  She jumped off and quickly went to the group by the door. There were two older ladies there, both holding rifles that her team had brought with them. There was a military man who was busy keeping watch out into the night. His flag marked him as an American. That must be the missing guy, presumed KIA.

  Gabrielle turned as she heard Bethany Anne coming up behind them. She stepped towards her, “Bethany Anne, it’s Ecaterina.” Bethany Anne’s eyes flashed red. “Stephen had to make a judgement call…”

  Bethany Anne looked at her, “Is she being turned?” The anguish in Bethany Anne’s voice was exacerbated by her fangs growing longer.

  “No. Nathan is doing it.”

  Now, Bethany Anne’s look of anger and pain turned towards one of confusion, “Nathan?”

  “Weres can turn others Were as well.”

  Bethany Anne thought back to Ecaterina’s uncles story of being attacked by a bear, but living through it and then his own ability to transform.

  Gabrielle continued, “The ability to survive such a transformation does seem to run in a family, so it looks like this is going to work.”

  Bethany Anne’s fangs retracted a little. “What can I do?” Her voice had the hint of sadness coloring the tone.

  Gabrielle put her hands on Bethany Anne’s shoulders, “Nothing that isn’t already being done. You have the right people, doing the right things, for her.”