Jesus was clearly not the leader that his father had been. The incursion into the base had been way too easy. The base’s security measures had been laughably out of date, and when the shit had hit the fan, Jesus had been found wanting. To make matters worse for the man, he was also now wounded.
The biggest threat had already been neutralised via the sprinkler system. A few purification tablets added to the supply had maximised the potency, and now the alien was unconscious, sleeping off his version of a bender.
That left the reporter woman and Link, both of who were stuck in the panic room and going nowhere, ever again.
“Command to Alpha Team Leader,” he spoke into the mic.
“Go for Team Leader,” came the strong confident reply.
“Execute.”
There was no verbal reply, just the sound of heavy boots standing in unison and the van doors being opened.
----------
Jamie-Lyn looked at Link as he knelt in front of the large, control-panel desk, its shell torn open and its brightly coloured wire guts ripped out.
“Well?” she asked.
“I… I don’t know,” he admitted. “I think the signal got out.”
“You think?”
“I’m sure,” he replied firmly.
“Then where’s the cavalry?”
Link checked over his work again, fingering the connections until he was sure that he’d done everything correctly.
“This should have worked. The only thing I can guess is that whoever is attacking you guys thought of it first and had a contingency plan in place.”
“Well isn’t that just perfect!” she yelled in frustration. “So no one’s coming?”
“It would appear not,” he sighed back.
“Well…, shit then.”
“At least we’re safe in here,” he offered.
“But they’re not,” she countered.
“Oh, I’m sure that they can look after themselves. They are the Queen’s Guard, after all.”
“What are you, some kind of fanboy? Is that it? You tried out for the team and came up short, is that it? You hoping to live out some kind of fantasy here?”
His silence told her everything she needed to know.
“Look, trust me, Link, this image that you have of them, it’s all bullshit, believe me. Hell, I was responsible for most of what the public saw. It was my job to give the people heroes, Link. They didn’t want to see the death, they didn’t want to see the pain and suffering, the blood and bones. People want clean-cut heroes, Link. They want their good guys to be perfect, and it was my job to paint them that picture.”
“Well that all sounds pretty depressing.”
“Trust me, the reality of the Queen’s Guard was…, well, let’s just say it was a lot different to what the people got to see. I doubt that they’d have been cheering them on if they’d ever seen behind the curtain.”
Jamie-Lyn found herself thinking back to Havencrest, to the innocents that had died there, to the innocents caught up in a country’s paranoia and fear. Link was right: the whole thing was pretty depressing.
She opened her mouth to try and give him a little comfort as he sat looking like the kid who’d just been told that Father Christmas wasn’t real, when the base’s PA system crackled into life. A voice she hadn’t heard in many a year started to speak, and a bad night suddenly got a whole lot worse.
“‘Old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. But the Lord stood with me and gave me strength. Two are better than one ...for if they fall, one will lift up the other. And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love.’” Cynthia Arrow’s voice rang out across the base for all to hear.
Jamie-Lyn and Link stared upwards inside the panic room as Cynthia’s voice wafted above them.
“I have patience for all things and all good things come to those who wait, a saintly patience if you will, for mine is the kingdom and the power and the glory above all others. No longer shall we be forced to accept false gods, no longer shall we be denied the truth for it is always the truth that shall set us free.”
----------
Crimson was struggling to walk with CJ’s weight leaning on him. The giant alien had been dosed in enough purified water to sink an elephant, the equivalent of a human being baptised in a vat of vodka.
Doc was walking next to Jesus as the man’s shoulder wound continued to softly leak blood.
The four of them were making their way through the base and away from the entry of the newcomers. With Jesus wounded and CJ inebriated, they were in no real position to fight.
Cynthia Arrow’s voice came as a shock to hear, but it was no real surprise to discover their nemesis was inside their walls.
“I want you to know, I want all of you to know, that I have love in my heart for all of your souls. Love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength,” Cynthia quoted. “There is salvation here for you, for all of you; you just have to kneel before me and ask for my love.”
CJ stirred a little and began mumbling under his breath, but Crimson couldn’t make out any actual words in there.
Jesus pointed to the right and they all made the directional adjustment without comment; not even Crimson was arguing now.
“Despite what you may all think of me, I can assure you that I am a patriot. I love my country as much as I love my countrymen. All I’ve ever wanted is the best for you all, for us, for them. We can be strong again. We can bask in the glow and warmth of God’s love once more and allow him to favour us with his light. We just have to show him our truest devotion, my children. ‘Many waters cannot quench love, neither can floods drown it. If one offered for love all the wealth of his house, it would be utterly scorned,’” she finished with a quote.
----------
Jamie-Lyn looked at Link and the two of them didn’t need to speak. Staying in the panic room now seemed like a bad idea; their safe hole was starting to feel too much like a tomb.
Link opened up a wall cabinet and looked relieved to find several handguns inside.
He took two, along with spare ammo mags, and handed one to Jamie-Lyn. He turned it over in his hand to show her how it worked, but she snatched it from him, slammed in a clip, cocked back the slide and flipped the safety off.
Link stepped back and raised his hands with an approving look.
He turned and started to open the door, slowly easing it open before peeking out into the hallway beyond. When he was sure it was clear, he nodded to Jamie-Lyn who then followed him out into the wet, dripping darkness and a madwoman’s echoing voice.
“I have come to you today to rescue you from your oblivion. You are all lost in the shadows, but I am the light, my children. Hear my voice in the dark and run towards it. Come to me for your salvation, for your baptism, for your very lives, and I shall welcome you all into the embrace of the Lord and I shall burn away the devil’s blood that has so tainted your very essence. It is never too late to turn back to the light. The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end.”
Crimson shook CJ trying to rouse him, but the alien merely smirked and chuckled drunkenly to himself, leaving Crimson to silently fume.
Doc opened her mouth to speak, but Crimson quickly silenced her with a finger flip across his own throat. There were foxes in the henhouse and they were hunting.
Jesus was leading them as best he could, his mind trying hard to focus as the burning in his shoulder was growing steadily worse as they moved slowly through the darkness.
Every now and then he would raise a hand and clench his fist, and the others would immediately stop in their tracks and wait for him to start moving again.
There were several concealed exits from the base, and he was desperately trying to think of the best one to use, the one that might have been overlooked.
He eventually settled on a large window in one of the break rooms. He knew that several of the staff who were smokers had commandeere
d the room as the window was big enough to step through out onto a first-floor flat roof. From there, it was around an 18-foot drop to the ground, but if they dangled off the edge, then it was doable.
“Heed my words, children, for the kingdom of his love is almost at hand. Time is precious and the sands of the hour glass are running faster than ever before. This is how we know what love is: Christ gave his life for us. We too, then, ought to give our lives for our brothers and sisters. All I ask is that you stand aside and allow me to deal with the devil in our midst. You all know what he is; after all this time, you must know by now. But fear not, for I am bathed in the radiance of God’s love and I alone shall burn away the darkness. Just give him to me, my children. Give him to me. Give him to me. GIVE HIM TO ME!”
----------
Wilson Fontaine sat on his private balcony, relishing the cold wind that blew through his ageing bones, making them cry out in pain, but at least he was feeling something for once.
The wind was icy cold but it was helping to clear his mind, which seemed to be all too often clouded in a fog lately, making it tough to think straight.
He wrapped the blanket tighter around his shoulders, but it did little to ward off the winter grip.
He tried to remember when it was that he’d last left the penthouse apartment, but it was difficult to recall. In truth, it was hard to remember anything with any real clarity lately.
His apartment was littered with gifts, congratulatory presents on his engagement. The odd thing was that he couldn’t actually remember ever asking for the woman’s hand. He was sure that he would’ve remembered something like that. The strangest thing of all, however, was the gold wedding band that currently sat upon his finger. He couldn’t remember getting engaged, let alone actually getting married.
The balcony was sparsely furnished, the expensive seating having been taken away for the winter months when the weather turned with a vengeance.
He had dragged out a stool from the kitchen area and now sat perched on it, overlooking the city below, her lights never fully extinguished even as she slept on beneath him.
This had always been a favourite spot of his, a king surveying his land and his accomplishments, a place to allow himself a rare private moment of triumph when he could find a momentary rest before the new day started and the battle started all over again.
He heard movement from behind him and wondered why he would feel a stab of fear at his fiancée’s presence. Surely this was the woman he loved, the woman he’d pledged his life to, the woman he’d asked to be his queen, but why then did he feel afraid as the door behind him opened?
“You’ll catch your death out here,” she said as she touched him lightly on the shoulder, and he couldn’t help but shudder a little at the contact.
“I like the night air,” he answered, without looking around.
“It’s too cold, my love. You should come back inside, back into the warmth. Here, take this,” she said, holding out a hip flask. “It will warm you.”
“You know what’s strange? I can’t remember when we got engaged,” he said, ignoring the flask and shaking his head, “let alone this,” he added, thrusting his wedding band finger towards her.
As usual, her very presence seemed to rob him of his senses. Where the night air had been slowly piercing through the veil, now, with a simple touch of her hand, he felt his own will starting to slowly slip away again. It was as though her very proximity to him emitted a scent that was in danger of sending him back to sleep again.
“That’s silly,” she replied with a small laugh, and the sound was enough to bring a goofy grin to his own lips. “Come back to bed.”
He shook his head again, trying hard to clear it as her fingers played at the back of his neck, threatening to close his eyes.
He jerked himself away from her touch and took a few steps backwards. His body was wrapped in the blanket and now he cinched it even tighter.
His fiancée was only wearing a small silk negligee, but her skin remained flawless and devoid of any signs to show that she felt the winter chill.
“No,” he said, shaking his head. “I… can’t think. I can’t remember anything about the past few weeks. No… no, that’s not quite true…, there are snippets, small pieces like part of a forgotten dream, but you… What are you doing to me?”
“Drink this,” she said, offering the flask again. “Drink and then come inside, my love. Come back into where it’s warm, and I shall show you love. I shall show you, my love. Come back to me.”
She moved towards him with her hands held out, and God help him, he took a step towards her. Part of him still wanted her despite the warning bells screaming in his head.
“You… you did this to me,” he gasped through the fog in his mind. “You… drugged me somehow,” he said. He slapped away the flask from her hand.
“You are only drunk on my love.” She smiled back. “We have a world to build, a new world, a world of peace and love, a world where there shall be only love.”
“What kind of hippy nonsense is that?” he demanded, and for the first time in what seemed like a lifetime, he felt a flash of himself.
“God’s light shall shine down on all of his children, far and wide across the land to guide his sheep back home, back to his side, back to his love.”
“I won’t let you. I… I don’t know what you’re doing here or what you’ve done in my name, but it ends. It ends now,” he said, looking down at the flask on the ground as liquid leaked out of it.
“I have only ever loved you. I have only ever wanted to bring you into the light, to be with me.”
“No, no more,” he said firmly, feeling more like himself as anger burned up from deep within him. “You drugged me. You… took advantage of me.”
“I only showed you the way.”
“No, this wasn’t my choice. You forced this on me, but it stops now. I’m going to uncover everything you’ve done and end it. End you.”
“Oh, my love, you cannot mean this. These are not your words. This is not how you feel. You love me; I know you do. We love each other, and together we are changing the world.”
“STOP TELLING ME WHAT TO DO!” he roared. “I do the telling, I do the controlling. I’m the one in charge. Do you hear me? This is already my world, and I won’t let some bitch screw around with it or me!”
“You really mean that?” she asked softly.
“Lady, you’re about to find out just how serious I am.”
“Very well.”
She moved faster than he could see. One second she was standing in front of him, soft and loving, the next she had crossed the distance across the balcony and her hands were suddenly tightly fixed on the blanket he’d wrapped himself in.
“Goodbye, my love,” she whispered in his ear.
Fontaine tried to brace himself against her grip, but she was too strong and he was too old and weakened. Suddenly, he was moving as she pulled then pushed him in one smooth movement, and then he was pitched over the side of the railing and plummeting hundreds of feet to the onrushing concrete below. His only saving grace was that he suffered a massive heart attack on the way down and was dead before he became a large wet splat on the ground.
----------
Jamie-Lyn and Link made their way through the base. The floor was soaked from the sprinkler system and each step they made squished in the thick carpet.
“There doesn’t seem to have been a fire,” Link whispered back over his shoulder.
Jamie-Lyn thought about that for a few moments before replying. “Water gets CJ drunk. My guess is that someone set the system off to incapacitate him.”
“Shit.”
“Shit indeed. I’m betting that our biggest gun is probably passed out somewhere.”
“Shit!” Link hissed.
“Again, I agree. Do you know where you’re…?”
Jamie-Lyn’s voice died in her throat as suddenly her mind was flashed with an image. She knew instantly that it was Doc’s doin
g, and although the image was rough, as though the woman was out of practice, Jamie-Lyn caught enough to know where the others were heading.
“Jamie-Lyn!”
She opened her eyes to find Link shaking her roughly by the shoulders.
“You okay?” he asked with genuine concern.
“Yes, sorry. Doc was just sending me a message.”
“She can do that?”
“Trust me, there’s very little that woman can’t do. There’s a break room on the first floor. That’s where they’re getting out.”
“Okay, direct me from behind and stay close,” he replied as he took the lead with his weapon up.
She did as he asked, and soon they had worked their way up through the base towards the room that Doc had flashed her.
She found Crimson standing guard outside the room and he nodded to them to step inside before joining them and closing the door softly behind them.
Inside the room, she found CJ lying passed out on a long sofa and Doc was redressing Jesus’ bullet wound with the help of a first-aid kit she’d procured in the room.
“How is he?” Jamie-Lyn asked Doc.
“He’s fine,” Jesus answered irritably. “He’s also not deaf!”
“Fair enough,” Jamie-Lyn replied. “Why are we up here?”
“There’s a second unit working their way through the lower levels,” Crimson told her as he continued to pace about the room like a caged animal. “Too many to fight for now, especially when we’re two men down.” He jerked a thumb towards CJ who was still snoring loudly.
“The water?” she asked, and Crimson nodded.
“They jammed our comms, but I think we got the word out,” Link offered to the group as he leaned in and held a gauze pad while Doc wrapped a bandage around Jesus’ shoulder.
“You think?” Crimson scoffed.
“Hey, man, the tech in this place is positively ancient. I did the best with what I had to work with.”
“You know, I can’t help but notice that this shit started when you showed up,” Crimson said as he finally stopped moving. “Maybe you brought them here?”
“Doc?” Jamie-Lyn asked as she checked on CJ.
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