by Greig Beck
Though Borshov was the enemy, and a monstrous adversary in the MECH suit, what worried Sam the most was Alex and the way he had changed – he had once again becomes the thing that was loosed in Italy, the being that even Alex referred to as the Other One.
Sam gritted his teeth as the two men smashed into each other again and again. Alex used every part of his body as a weapon, his eyes round and furious. Sam doubted that he remembered or even cared that the cavern was set to come down in mere minutes. The big HAWC knew he might be forced into an invidious choice – what if Borshov went down? Would the Other One be sated, or in its blood lust, turn its ferocity onto others? What would he then do against Alex? What could he do?
Sam gripped his gun and looked up at the millions of tons of rock overhead – maybe the cavern coming down might save them all from themselves.
Thompson lifted his head. ‘Reid… Reid! We’re going to have to move. Got to get Rebecca out of here.’
Sam cursed, but knew the SAS man was right. ‘Okay, but you two need to be the shields – take all the heat from Borshov’s men.’ He turned to Franks. ‘Get the civs out. I’ll stay and cover the boss.’
Franks’ lip curled and she looked as if she was about to challenge him.
Sam’s voice went up a notch. ‘Do it, soldier.’
Behind him, Sam heard Matt suck in a deep breath. ‘Oh no, no, no. Look!’
Sam turned to where Matt was pointing. A mist was forming up at the far end of the street. ‘For fuck’s sake … right now?’ He pulled the helmet visor down over his eyes. ‘Go to visor shields, people. Matt and Rebecca, blindfolds on. Looks like we got a visitor.’
Sam grabbed Alex’s damaged helmet from the ground and moved to the corner of the building, hoping to get a chance to toss it to him. He prayed Alex, the real Alex, would take it.
*
Alex heard Sam call to him, and he spun in time to catch the helmet out of the air. He held it aloft for a few seconds as he used every one of the techniques that Marshal had taught him to control his dark side. He knew that if he could release it, then he could also restrain it – he was in control, not the other way around.
Blood spurted from Alex’s nose, as a hammer-blow of pain struck from inside his skull. The cage swung shut – he won.
Clarity returned in an instant, and he knew immediately what the danger was. Without a second thought, he jammed the headgear over his head and snapped the visor down. Immediately the world turned to an artificial landscape – a high-graphics computer game, where everything looked real but wasn’t quite right.
Borshov watched him, his face screwed in confusion. Behind the big Russian, the cloud formed up. Alex could hear it weeping. He wanted the man dead, but wanted to do it himself.
‘It’s Magera,’ he called out. ‘Better shut your eyes, asshole.’ Then he turned and sprinted toward Sam. ‘Get ’em moving.’
Sam roared instructions. Casey Franks dragged Matt and Rebecca, now blindfolded, to their feet and pushed them out into the street. Sam and Thompson ran alongside them, using their large bodies as shields against the Spetsnaz. As Alex had expected, it was unnecessary, as Borshov’s agents concentrated their firepower on the solidifying figure rising up behind their commander.
Borshov spun and the figure grabbed him by the throat. Alex heard him groan as Magera compressed the MECH suit’s armored collar around his neck. Words hissed from between his teeth: ‘Mohctp stragoi.’ Alex didn’t know what the Russian meant, but guessed it was something to do with ‘monster’.
Borshov struck out, making contact with Magera but seemingly without effect. He struggled and jerked, but neither his own brute strength nor the MECH suit was a match for the being that gripped him. It slowly lifted him from the ground, and Alex heard the powerful suit’s hydraulics humming with the strain. He knew the strong alloys were probably the only thing keeping Borshov in one piece now. Its tentacles grasped at Borshov, slithering and writhing as though each had a mind of its own. Alex could see that the bulbous ropes were tipped with sucker pads.
Borshov’s men sent more bullets smacking into Magera, but it didn’t release its grip on its prey. It turned its terrible gaze on them, and Alex saw their faces first go blank, then twist in pain and horror. What looked like thick vomit poured from their mouths. One of the men struggled to his feet, clawing at his neck, but his movements soon slowed. A golden vapor escaped his lips, flying toward the Magera. It opened its large mouth and inhaled it.
Borshov screamed. He screwed his eyes shut as the creature brought his face close to its own, and struggled furiously, fighting for his life. The hideous face seemed to elongate toward him from within the mass of writhing tentacles. Borshov seemed compelled to open his eyes, and the Gorgon was revealed to him in all its horrifying glory.
Borshov’s eyes went wide. He coughed and then gagged. A thickened paste of soft stone exploded from his lips and spilled down his beard, solidifying as it hit the air. Borshov stopped struggling. Gradually his face became pale and lined with fissures. He was trapped in a stone prison made of his own skin and bone. The Gorgon drew him in close, opened its mouth impossibly wide, and inhaled, sucking out his essence.
In those slitted alien eyes, Alex saw a hell that contained the souls of millions. He remembered all the Minoans in the ship, stacked up like firewood, and realized they were food. This was how the monster fed, consuming some essence from within a human being, leaving the body a lifeless block of stone.
He glanced at his team, already halfway up the steps that led to the cave’s main entrance, and then down at his watch. Seven minutes left – barely enough time if the collapsing wall brought down the entire tunnel system.
He looked back to Magera and saw that its head was turning … to him. Pain needled the center of his head, and fragments of static washed across his visor screen. The damaged helmet wasn’t working at full capacity. He turned to run, but couldn’t. Pain bloomed in his skull. It was too late.
*
Sam brought up the rear of the group. Matt and Rebecca were still blindfolded so their progress was slower than he’d have liked. Sam glanced back down at Alex, and saw that he was staring at the Gorgon, unmoving.
‘Shit, no.’
The only positive to the situation was that Magera also seemed frozen in place. Borshov’s body, now nothing more than calcified stone, and the heavy machinery of the MECH suit hung about the creature’s neck like an anchor.
The sound of weeping rose, then was drowned out by a shriek of fury. As Sam watched through his visor, the Gorgon started to dissemble into mist again, and he had an impression of huge scaled hands grabbing at Borshov and tearing him and the hyper-alloy framework to pieces.
Magera was now free to descend on the frozen Alex.
Sam roared, ‘The fuck you will!’ He stepped to the edge of the steps, preparing to leap the more than a hundred feet down to Alex.
‘Don’t,’ Franks yelled, and tried to grab him.
‘Franks, get ’em up and out,’ Sam said. ‘That’s an order.’
Franks’ face twisted in disbelief. ‘Like hel…’
Sam leaped into space, and landed like a colossus, shattering the street’s paved surface and sinking about six inches into the rock. He went down on one knee, but the MECH suit absorbed the impact, and he was immediately up and sprinting toward Alex.
Magera descended on Alex, the hideous face forming up beneath the writhing mass of tentacles.
As Sam picked up speed, he saw the shattered remains of Borshov and his suit, and knew he stood little chance against the Gorgon. But sacrifice had its own strategic value. He was traveling at around fifty miles per hour now, with the locomotive force of a truck. He dropped his shoulder and launched himself at the huge figure, striking it mid-center and knocking it back twenty feet.
Sam rolled and came up fast, turning to Alex. Franks and Thompson were already there, dragging the HAWC leader away from the Gorgon. For once, Sam was glad Franks was so strongheaded. Alex w
as still unmoving, but he wasn’t dead, and he hadn’t been turned to stone.
Magera rose up like a column of dark smoke, then solidified, screaming her rage. Her focus wasn’t on Alex any more.
‘Game time,’ Sam said. He gritted his teeth, pulled both his gun and knife, and charged again.
*
Casey Franks pulled Alex’s damaged helmet off and slapped his face, hard. ‘Boss, you still with us?’
He opened his eyes, sat forward and immediately threw up. ‘My head.’ He looked one way, then the other. ‘Where’s Magera?’
‘We need to get you up and out of here,’ Thompson said, putting his arm under Alex’s shoulder.
Alex pushed him away and rubbed his eyes. ‘If the Gorgon’s free, we’ll never make it.’ He pulled on his helmet again, and turned in time to see the monster smash Sam aside. ‘And we’re not going anywhere without Sam.’
Matt was suddenly beside him, blindfold off, his computer resting on one knee. He tapped some keys. ‘We got something we can try.’
A discordant, grating tune emanated from the computer; it sounded eerily alien. Matt jacked up the volume just as the Gorgon glided toward Sam.
Sam lowered his head, holding his ground, but Magera stopped and turned toward Matt.
‘Don’t look at it,’ Alex said urgently. ‘Keep your eyes covered.’
Matt turned away, but kept tapping at the keys, making the tune louder again.
‘It’s not working,’ Rebecca said. ‘It’s confusing it, but not putting it to sleep.’
Sam raised his gun and fired. The bullets did nothing other than attract Magera’s attention.
‘We need to get out of here.’ Thompson dragged at Alex.
‘We’ll never make it,’ Alex said, getting to his feet. He saw Borshov turned to stone, the obliterated MECH suit. There was no way he’d let his second-in-command suffer the same fate.
‘It wants me.’ Alex had felt the thing’s pleasure when it almost had him in its grip just a moment before. Perhaps it was his enormous strength or the furious being inside him, but whatever it was, Alex knew that he had given it nourishment beyond anything it had felt in countless millennia. ‘Then I’ll give it what it wants.’
Alex ran toward the Russian’s remains, picking up the long silver machete and swinging it at Magera. Ten feet out, he leaped in the air, blade high, and brought it down with all his strength on her neck. The blade bit deep, but didn’t sever the head as Alex had hoped. Instead, the huge head turned and its mouth dropped open. The wail that emanated from it bounced around the huge cavern like a hurricane of madness and fury. Light poured from the wound.
Alex raised the sword again, but before he could move, the pack of Cerberus hounds appeared, slinking between the buildings, their armored hides catching the glow of the flaming lakes of oil, their eyes as red as fire.
Alex turned, ready to defend himself from the new threat. Against a few of these huge beasts he and Sam had only just survived – a pack of them would tear him to shreds.
But instead, Alex felt himself grabbed and lifted and a force far stronger than his own demanded his attention. His helmet was ripped free, and then it was as if the world went away – there was no more sound, or sight, or heat or any other sensation, but the dreadful attraction of the Gorgon’s gaze.
Alex turned his face away, crushed his eyes shut, and gripped the huge arm that held him. He fought, but he was an insect compared to its colossal strength and slowly his head turned back. He screamed and raged, thrashing in the creature’s impossible grip. The Other One’s fury exploded to the surface to struggle in unison, but it too was quickly subsumed. Alex’s eyes were opened, and he looked.
He hadn’t known fear for longer than he could remember – no man or beast had ever made him tremble or hesitate. Probably because death held no horrors for him anymore, and pain was something that was endured and overcome. But this feeling dragged at his soul and then tore it from him. Once again the images of the humid world were flashed into his mind. The sense of millions of years of invading, harvesting, and enslaving countless populations for food and slavery, and a determination that the Earth would be next.
A cold crept over him; first in his fingertips and then his toes. It moved inexorably along his limbs. Alex knew what was happening to him, as his body became immobile – the shouts of his comrades, the Cerberus, his own mind and body didn’t matter – all that was left were the eyes of the hellish creature that slowly pulled the energy from him.
A flash of movement in his dimming periphery was the huge pack of the Cerberus, now picking up speed, mouths hanging open, powerful jaws ready. The ground shook under their combined weight as they charged. Alex would be spared this fate after all – by death.
The beasts struck hard, taking the larger figure of the Gorgon to the ground.
Alex was dropped and forgotten. He lay shuddering as if in a fit, and felt his team grab and drag him away. He felt cold, and weaker than he’d ever felt in his life.
He managed to hold up one creaking arm. His vision was blurred, like looking through a curtain of fine gauze, but he could just see that his hand was bare, the glove having been lost. The limb was now white, and as he watched, dust fell from his fingertips. He guessed his legs were the same.
‘Can you hear me?’ Matt asked as he lifted Alex’s head a fraction.
Alex tried to nod but couldn’t. Instead, he parted ash-dry lips. ‘Leave… me.’ There was a small puff of dust and he wasn’t sure the words were heard. He summoned up every ounce of remaining strength he had. ‘Leave… me… now!’
Alex knew they were out of time, and also knew he was no longer all flesh anymore. He was already dead, and if they stayed, they would be too.
‘Shit, this is bad.’ Matt turned to Rebecca, grimacing.
Franks stepped in close and lifted him, bringing her face close to Alex’s. ‘Don’t you fucking dare.’ She shook him for a second, and then dropped him to shoulder her weapon as she turned to Thompson. ‘We carry him.’
‘Wait, look,’ Rebecca said.
Alex continued to watch his hand. A line of healthy color was creeping up from the wrist to the fingers. His vision slowly cleared, and suddenly the heavy weight on his chest lightened. He made a fist several times and blinked.
‘Amazing; he’s healing,’ Matt said, sitting back on his haunches.
‘Get him up.’ Franks pulled Alex roughly to his feet.
Alex nodded, leaning on her for a few seconds. ‘I’m… okay… I think.’ He looked across to the Gorgon, still in its titanic struggle with the pack of Cerberus. Its massive hands tore at their heavily plated limbs, ripping heads off and flinging them away. But their sheer weight of numbers prevailed. More appeared and threw themselves into the fight.
‘Maybe they were the Gorgons’ previous cargo,’ Franks said.
‘Before they found us,’ Rebecca whispered.
Alex turned to see Sam making his way around the melee, then sprinting to join the others. ‘Three minutes,’ he yelled to Alex. He grabbed Matt and Rebecca, threw them over each shoulder of the MECH suit, and headed for the steps.
‘Go!’ Alex yelled to Thompson and Franks. He knew the female HAWC would never let him carry her, so instead he shoved her hard and fast in the middle of her back, pushing her up the first few steps. He staggered at first, but then picked up speed.
Thompson scrambled behind them. Alex looked back to offer him a helping hand, but the SAS man simply pointed to the high cave mouth. ‘Keep going,’ he yelled.
Behind them, the Gorgon had thrown off its remaining attackers and was making its way toward the stone steps.
CHAPTER 38
They barreled along the mosaic tunnel, Sam crushing 5000-year-old pristine images under his large boots. The tunnel got narrower, and he had to stop to let Matt and Rebecca off his shoulders. Matt kept one hand on the huge HAWC’s back, and with the other held onto Rebecca, which meant Sam could still pull them along at great speed. When t
hey came to the flowstone wall, Sam didn’t stop; he exploded through it like a bulldozer.
They crossed the drained pond and headed for the metal steps, with no time to catch their breath. Their plan was for the Gorgon to be trapped by the rockfall, not to follow them out.
Sam led them up the metal steps, his feet clanging heavily on the steel. Matt and Rebecca were right behind him, followed by Casey Franks and Alex. Matt turned his head as he climbed and saw Reece Thompson emerge from the flowstone tunnel, his face beet-red. He looked up at them, his face resolute, then he sucked in a huge breath and simply … stopped.
Like a gush of foul air, a dark cloud spewed from the cave behind him and enveloped him. It coalesced, and solidified, and then huge scaled hands ripped his helmet from his face. Thompson’s mouth dropped open, and his eyes became rounder than Matt had thought was humanly possible. And then he screamed, with such fear it made Matt’s legs go weak.
‘No, Reece!’ Rebecca stopped and put her hands to her head.
Matt grabbed her and pulled her on. He saw Alex pause by the railing, as if contemplating leaping over it, but in the next second Reece Thompson shuddered and turned bone white. Magera sucked in his life force, and finished its meal by ripping the petrified husk of his body into a thousand fragments. It was obvious its rage wasn’t going to be satisfied by simply draining the intruders.
‘Move, dammit.’ Alex’s face was furious.
They were more than halfway up when Matt chanced another look over his shoulder. Magera’s solid form had started to dissipate into the dark cloud again, and Matt knew the mist would be able to move at a speed that could outpace even Sam and Alex.
‘Incoming,’ Casey Franks roared. She pounded up the steps, then turned to fire uselessly at the dark mass hundreds of feet below them.
Alex looked at his watch. ‘What the hell happened to –’
As if in answer, there came a massive hammer blow from deep in the ground. It sounded like a million volcanoes erupting, accompanied by the grinding and cracking of millions of tons of rock.