by P. T. Hylton
There was a long silence before Alex spoke. “The price is high, but it may be exactly what it takes to kill Maryana. If people are willing to volunteer, we should consider it.” She looked at Owl. “This is not the time to hold back any weapons we might be able to use. This may be humanity’s last battle, win or lose. I don’t like the idea of turning humans into Twisted, but it may be the only option that we have.” She looked around the room. “Anybody have a better idea?”
George looked down at his feet. The members of the GMT shook their heads.
Owl was still, but looked at Alex with pleading eyes. “You can’t talk to Jaden about this right now. He’s still grieving.”
“We don’t have the luxury of time. We need Jaden to make us an army.”
4
Alex found Jaden where he’d been almost since the moment they arrived in Agartha—in the vampire’s enclave. He knelt on the stone floor, a brush in his hand. It took Alex a moment to figure out what he was doing. He was scrubbing the blood stains off the ground.
He stopped his frantic scrubbing when she walked in the room, but he didn’t look up. “What is it?”
“Just wanted to check if you’re okay. Owl said there were only a few vampires left.”
“There were,” he answered. “Until about twenty minutes ago. Now it’s just me.”
“I’m sorry.” She let that hang in the air for a moment before speaking again. “You don’t have to clean this whole place alone. We can get someone else.”
He looked up at her for the first time since she’d entered, and she saw his eyes were ringed with red, whether from sorrow or exhaustion, she did not know. “Who else is there? This is vampire blood! If it gets in your system, you will be turned and the virus will kill you. Is that how you want to go out? Scrubbing a damn floor?”
“There’s Owl. And Frank. You don’t think they’d help you?”
Jaden scowled and turned back to the floor. “They didn’t know these vampires. Not really. Not like I did. For more than a thousand years, the one hundred true vampires protected humanity, and now they’re gone.”
Alex drew a deep breath. This was the best opening she was going to get. “Maybe they don’t have to be.”
Jaden’s brush paused. “If Brian’s succeeded in creating a cure, he has very bad timing. Unless this cure also brings back the dead.”
“That’s not what I meant.” She squatted down next to him. The thick, pungent smell of vampire blood hung thick in the room. For so long, that smell had meant battle; it was all Alex could do to calm her racing heart. “It’s like you said, Jaden. Humanity needs vampires to protect them. Now, more than ever.”
Jaden let out a joyless laugh. “Now you believe the vampires should live?”
She considered that. “I don’t see how we have a choice. We can’t beat Maryana with what we have. But you have the power to change that. You could make one hundred new vampires. Put things back the way they were meant to be.”
In a flash, Jaden hopped from his knees to a crouching position. His elongated nose was an inch from Alex’s face, and she felt his hot breath on her skin when he spoke. “You really don’t understand her, do you?”
Alex flinched backward a little, in spite of herself. “Maryana? I understand that she has the badges of New Haven under her control, and who knows how many others. Ed, Chuck, Felix, and I aren’t going to get the job done by ourselves. That’s why you talked me into retreating, right? So we could come up with a better plan. This is that plan. We have to fight her army, so let’s make one of our own.”
Jaden shook his head, an expression of disappointment on his face. “If I make a hundred vampires, she’ll make a thousand. Once we start down this path, she’ll keep coming at us with larger and larger armies, forcing us to change the people of Agartha until there’s no one left. She’d do it just for the sport of it.”
Alex pushed herself to her feet and glared down at him. She couldn’t believe what she was hearing. It almost sounded like Jaden was giving up. “Not if we catch her by surprise. We take one hundred Twisted, and we assault New Haven. I know the layout better than her, and we can—”
“I said, no!” Jaden snarled. He paused, looking down at the half-cleaned blood-stain on the stone between his feet. “Listen to me, Alex. You made a choice back in Puerto Rico. You released the virus. I’m not angry with you for making that choice, not anymore. But the price was high. You can see that cost in the splotches on the stone around this room.”
“I know you paid a high price. And once we defeat Maryana, it will all be worth it.”
Jaden shook his head. “You’re not listening. The choice you made was to end the vampires and let humanity guide its own fate. I’m going to help you stop Maryana. I’ll do everything I can, but I won’t create new vampires. If we change a hundred Agartha citizens, it will be like my friends died for nothing.”
Alex stared down at him. There was no malice in his voice. He wasn’t saying this out of spite. But there was an expression of steely conviction on his face; she knew he wouldn’t change his mind.
“The time for vampires to protect humans has passed. You have to forge your own path now. I’ll help you defeat Maryana, but it will have to be another way.”
With that, he turned back to the floor and started scrubbing.
Ed and Chuck led Frank to the armory, keeping one eye on the new Twisted.
“Do we really have to do this now?” Frank asked. “I’ve been a Twisted for like twelve hours. Don’t I get some sort of an orientation period?”
Chuck shook his head. “Afraid not. Ed and I were on the surface a couple days after we joined the GMT, clearing out an old prison. And Felix faced Maryana on, like, his second mission. Alex is a big fan of what you might call on-the-job training.”
Frank paused. “Is that what I am now? GMT?”
Chuck and Ed exchanged a glance.
“Um, yeah, didn’t Alex mention that?” Ed said. “You kinda got drafted the moment you didn’t…err…die.”
Frank frowned. “And I don’t get any say in this?”
Ed rolled his eyes. “The guy gets a free ticket to join the most elite fighting force on the planet, and he wants to know if he gets a say.”
“You know how many badges on New Haven would have killed for this opportunity?” Chuck added.
“Yeah, even before they were murdered and turned into vampire slaves.” Ed clapped Frank on the back. “Look, man, you want to have an existential crisis, I’m sure Alex or Jaden will be around later. Even Owl has had her share of moody outbursts lately. Any of them would be happy to talk about the great burden of immortality or whatever. Chuck and I are just here to show you the guns.”
Frank cracked the slightest of smiles. “All right, message received. I’ll lay off the drama for now. Let’s talk weapons.”
Ed let out a boyish laugh as he held his keycard up to the door. “I can’t believe they gave us free reign over this place.”
Chuck pulled the door open and stepped inside. “Now, traditionally you vampire types tend to carry swords. Your speed and strength pair nicely with the whole hack and slash thing.”
Frank stepped up to a rack of swords and took one down, testing its weight in his hands. “Seems sensible. I’ve actually been doing a little training with swords. When I get time away from the stockroom, which isn’t often. That place is always hopping.”
Ed and Chuck exchanged another glance.
“They had you working in the stockroom?” Chuck asked.
Frank shrugged. “It was more interesting than it sounds. It took me a while to get the hang of it, but once I mastered pivot tables, I was able to increase our efficiency by simply documenting a lean process and tracking our results.”
“I think I just fell asleep with my eyes open,” Ed said. “Look, forget all that. What about back in the day? What kind of weapons did you use?”
Frank stared at him blankly. “Back in the day?”
“Yeah, during the in
festation. Were you a rifleman? They may not have the exact model you used but we should be able to find something close enough to make you comfortable.”
Frank cleared his throat. “I think you have the wrong idea. I was a janitor back before New Haven.”
“A janitor?” Chuck carefully kept his face blank. “So your combat experience is—”
“Non-existent.” He grinned sheepishly. “I mean, I’ve been sparring with the vampires here when I have time, but they always have me on the mat in, like, two seconds.”
Ed sighed. “Well, like I said, Alex is a big fan of on-the-job training. Luckily for you.” He grabbed a pistol and shoved it into Frank’s hand. “Let’s start with this. Run up to dudes and shoot them in the head at close range. If that doesn’t work, chop off their heads.”
Frank frowned at the weapon. “You’re going to show me how to load this thing, right?” He paused until he saw Ed and Chuck’s barely concealed looks of annoyance, then he smiled. “I’m kidding. I do know that much.”
Ed shook his head. “A city full of ancient warrior vampires, and we get the janitor.”
A burst of static cut through the air, followed by Felix’s voice. “Chuck, you there?”
Chuck pulled the radio off his belt. “I’m here, man. What’s up?”
“I hope you got the new guy geared up, because we’ve got trouble. A handful of Twisted just fell out of the sky, and they’re headed for the north entrance.”
“We’ll be right there,” Chuck said.
Frank looked like he might be sick as he stood there, a sword in one hand and a pistol in the other.
Ed grinned at him. “Good news, buddy. You’re about to get your first training session.”
5
The command center was alive with action when Alex entered the room. She’d run from the cafeteria after receiving George’s call, and a small bead of sweat worked its way down the small of her back. George was flipping between tablet screens and pacing back and forth.
“Status update,” Alex called out.
“They set off the outer perimeter alarm ten minutes ago. I’m sure there are at least fifteen of them, but there may be more. We caught some of them on the far cameras. They dropped in with parachutes. They came in hot and opened the chutes at the last moment.”
“Have they engaged the defensive systems?”
“No, they haven’t moved in yet.”
“I want to know as soon as you get an accurate count on the number of Twisted out there. Get the turrets ready, but do not fire unless there’s a large group in the kill zone, or if a turret is attacked.” Alex grabbed the radio on her belt. “GMT, I need everyone ready by the blast door ASAP. Owl, make sure that Jaden is there.”
“Copy that,” Owl replied. “I think he’ll be glad to have an enemy to help him work out his grief.”
George pointed at one of the screens. “We have movement. I’m bringing up the feed now.”
The monitor in the center of the room showed a Twisted running full speed through the trees. He moved in a zigzag pattern and seemed to be searching the forest.
George looked to Alex. “Should I engage the guns?”
“Not yet. We want more Twisted in range.”
The vampire moved a little deeper into the forest. When he was a hundred yards from a turret, he threw a grenade. It landed at the foot of the turret and exploded, damaging the weapon.
“Take him out, now!” Alex watched on the monitor as two turrets sprang to life. One was in front of the Twisted and the other behind him. He tried to throw another grenade, but he was cut down by the weapons before he could make the throw. Bullets tore into his chest and legs, and the force of his momentum made him tumble over the forest floor. The turrets continued to track him as he came to a stop. Pine needles, dirt, and blood flew into the air as bullets tore into the Twisted and the earth around him.
The turrets stopped firing, and everything was still for a moment. Then one of the turrets on the monitor exploded in a hail of bullets. The report of more gun fire quickly followed. A moment later, the other turret that had engaged the Twisted was hit by long range fire.
“Shit!” Alex slammed her hand down on the desk in front of her. “They’re going to pick apart our defenses. You’re sure that there are only fifteen of them?”
George looked over the scan again, “No, there could be as many as twenty. I don’t think there are any more than that. At least, not in range of our motion detectors.”
“If those numbers change, let me know. We are going to engage them in the field. Cover us with the turrets when you can.” Alex started out the door and then turned back. “I’d also appreciate it if you could make sure those turrets don’t take out any of the GMT.”
Before George could respond, Alex marched out and headed for her team waiting at the blast door.
The team was geared up by the time Alex arrived. She looked them over and felt a chill go down her spine. This team was not ready. Frank had a nervous look in his eyes as he checked his pistol for the tenth time. Felix was still green, although he had more experience than Frank. And then there was Jaden. Alex couldn’t tell if he was even aware the rest of them were there. His eyes were so distant that it was hard to tell if there was anything behind them.
“You with us, Jaden?” she asked, cautiously.
Jaden slowly turned toward her and spoke in a soft voice “My body is a weapon. It will function as it has been trained.”
“Your head is attached to the body, and it sounds like it’s up your ass right now. Can we count on you?” Ed stood face to face with Jaden as he spoke.
Jaden eyed him coldly. “I’m ready.” His voice still sounded distant and almost inhuman to Alex, but she trusted that he’d come through when the battle started.
She turned her attention back to the others. “Ed, Chuck, and Frank, you take the right flank. Owl, you go with Felix on the left flank. They have snipers, so move after you take a shot. Jaden and I will be in the forest. We will need your cover fire if they send in a big wave. Any questions?” After a moment of silence, Alex clicked on her radio. “Are we clear to open the door?”
George responded. “They haven’t sent in any other soldiers yet. You’re good to go.”
The locks released and the thick steel door swung open on perfectly balanced hinges. The team spread out, as Alex had ordered. Alex hurried to the forest, her eye scanning for movement, Jaden at her side. Now that they were in motion and he had a blade in each hand, Jaden seemed more like himself. They stopped alongside a line of turrets. Alex crouched behind a fallen tree, a pistol in each hand, eyeing the forest in front of her.
George spoke in her earpiece. “There is a Twisted coming in fast, just like the last one. He’s headed toward your position, Alex.”
Alex spoke softly, her eyes still fixed on the forest ahead. “I’m going to try to take him out, but if he gets past my gunfire, use your swords.” When there was no response, she turned and silently cursed. Jaden was gone.
The sounds of snapping twigs and pounding feet brought her focus back to the task at hand. The Twisted was coming in fast, making no effort to be quiet. The familiar surge of adrenaline filled Alex, and her senses heightened. Her heart pounded in her chest and the smell of the forest seemed to intensify. She raised her pistols, staying low to keep as much of her body behind cover as she could. The weight her guns seemed to disappear and the weapons became part of her.
She saw the first flash of the Twisted through the trees. He moved in a zigzag pattern, just like the previous Twisted. She drew a breath. The moment he stepped into a clearing in the brush, she fired, one hand aiming at where he would be, and the other aiming where he was.
The Twisted stumbled to a halt when the barrels flashed. One shot hit the tree in front of him, but the other slug tore into his shoulder. The force of the bullet knocked him off balance for a moment. Alex took advantage and she squeezed off two more rounds. Each shot was true and two red dots appeared in the Twisted�
��s forehead, while a spray of red misted up from the back of his head. Alex still had her pistols trained on him as he fell, ready to fire again.
Wood splinters shot into the air as a bullet slammed into the log in front of Alex, quickly followed by the report of a sniper rifle. She ducked behind the log to avoid the next shot. An answering shot rang out from Chuck’s position. He must have taken a shot at the sniper. A moment later, the Twisted fired again. Then another from Chuck.
Taking advantage of the distraction of the dueling snipers, Alex snuck out from behind the log. Staying low, she moved quickly from tree to tree, taking momentary cover behind each one as she checked her flanks. She grimaced at the thought of how much easier this would have been with Jaden watching her back, but he’d once again decided to turn this into a solo mission.
Shots continued to ring out from both sides. Based on the sounds of the reports, she guessed that there were at least three snipers taking shots at the GMT.
Alex spotted a six-foot-tall boulder just ahead, and she positioned herself behind it. As she readied herself, she heard gunfire rattle off from up ahead. She recognized it as cover fire and knew an assault was imminent. She peeked around the boulder and saw more than a dozen Twisted charging her position.
A turret opened fire, spraying bullets, cutting through several trees as it tracked the fast-moving creatures. It hit a target a moment before one of the snipers destroyed the gun. Another shot rang out from Chuck’s position, followed quickly by a scream from a Twisted sniper.
More turrets came to life as the Twisted continued to advance through the forest. The turret closest to Alex tore through a couple of Twisted before being disabled by a hail of grenades.
Alex could see ten Twisted from her position. One sniffed the air and turned mid-stride, heading straight at her. Even though he was moving fast, his direct path made him an easy target for Alex. She fired off two shots, then targeted the next closest Twisted. The remaining Twisted had turned their attention toward Alex now, and were quickly closing the hundred-foot gap between them and the bolder where she crouched.