Inside Tom looked at Tom-Tom, “We’ll never hear the end of this.”
Tom-Tom looked puzzled, “What do you mean?”
“The girls rescuing two ex-Navy guys. That ain’t gonna look good on our Marvel Hero resume?”
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Aftermath
Pete lobbed the explosive device toward the Warriors. The blast lit up the night sky.
“Take that,” he shouted with glee.
He watched several Warriors fly thru the air. “Get ready boys. That surely pissed them off so they’ll be coming soon.”
Before the cloud of dust had settled the Warriors began firing towards where they thought the explosive device had come from.
“Here comes another one,” Pete said as he hurled another explosive that landed smack dab amid a group of Warriors. Cyborg parts painted the landscape.
“That’s taken care of a few more of them.”
Those left standing began to scramble up the hill towards Pete’s group.
“How many of them do you think we got?” Jason asked.
“At least five or six.”
Pete fired rapidly. “You know where to aim, so let’s get these suckers.”
The remaining Warriors were closing fast.
“Let’s hope the girls got away. Time to fall back.”
The party of five broke cover and headed for the shaft, firing over their shoulders as they ran. The man beside Pete fell. Pete reached down to lift him up but the man’s arm came away in his hand. He tossed the arm aside and lifted him from the other side and carried him toward the shaft. He had no idea how he was going to get him down.
He could see the Warriors gaining on them.
“Over here,” Jason called. “The shaft’s over here.”
Pete changed directions, dodging lasers as he ran. The first man was climbing into the shaft. The other two were firing on the Warriors.
“There’s no way to get him down,” Jason said.
“We’re not leaving him here.”
Pete was looking for something to lower him down with.
The laser fire was concentrated now. They were getting too close for comfort. Pete bent over the injured man just as another laser beam hit and exploded his head, covering Pete with blood and bone fragments.
“He’s gone. Let’s get out of here.”
The men clambered into the shaft.
“It’s the raid team returning,” the first man called to the volunteers below.
“Don’t fire.”
Pete pulled the hatch closed and wedged his laser gun through the latch.
“That should hold them for a bit.”
The team leaders gathered at home base when Pete arrived.
“We lost one,” Pete said with a grim look.
“But we took out about five Warriors and brought another ton of rock down on the main entrance. I think, though, we’ve pissed them off enough that they will try a full assault. We need to be ready.”
Runners came in from all three shafts reporting Warriors attempting to break in.
“How long will the lasers hold out?” Pete asked.
“They were fully charged when we took them. They’ve got a 12 hour life span.”
“That gives us about two hours,” Pete said. “Let’s hope the girls make it in time.”
*****
Karen, Tom, Caren and I were all talking at once, all fit to be tied.
“I’m as happy as a kid in an ice cream parlor to see you gals,” I said as I gave Caren a hug.
“How did you guys get caught, Tom-Tom?” Caren asked.
“We got in a transport booth to go the Mothership, but they were monitoring the transports. We were transported straight to the control room. Nothing we could do about it. I thought we’d bought the farm on that one. Who’s the new guy?”
“Blair’s our resident Geek. Here to help with all things technical.”
“Watch out!” I shouted. “There’s another Warrior right behind you.”
“Calm down Tom-Tom. He is on our side. Blair reprogrammed him,” Karen quickly pointed out.
“Can you please deactivate him?”
“He’s harmless to us now.”
“I don’t trust any of them.”
“Okay, he’s deactivated,” Blair said, glaring at Tom-Tom.
“I thought I saw him twitch,” I replied as I cautiously stepped closer to the Warrior and looked him in the eye.
“Believe me, he is harmless.”
“Blair, meet Tom-Tom,” Karen said, introducing the two.
I stuck out my left hand to shake his.
“What’s wrong with your arm?” Caren asked when she saw me not able to use my right arm.
“A Warrior bastard broke it and Toms little finger. No need to worry, we’ll be fine for now.”
Tom and I slowly crept by the deactivated Warrior, giving him another suspicious look as we headed to the nearest transport booth.
“Okay, now it’s time for me to work more magic.” Blair held the interface gadget to the sphere inside the booth. A static electrical charge suddenly leapt between the two. From the charge a hologram code appeared.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
“We want to be invisible making this jump, right?”
“Yes, they’re likely still monitoring the transports,” I said.
“This is going to be tricky. I have to do it so it doesn’t trip a response from the control room. We won’t know if it’s worked until after we try it.”
“Lord willing and the creek don’t rise, it’ll work,” Tom said, hoping he was right.
“Who’s going first?” Caren asked.
“We can only fit three at a time and there’s five of us,” I pointed out.
“You and I should go first,” Tom said indicating to me. “The girls and Blair can come after.”
“Tom and Karen, after we transport, you go right. Caren and I will go left. Blair, as you don’t have a weapon, stay behind us until we get to the Mothership with the handprint,” I instructed.
“Be careful, Tom-Tom.” Caren kissed me on the cheek.
“I don’t know about you guys, but I’m as nervous as a cat in a room full of rocking chairs,” I said as the transport door closed.
Tom and I had our weapons drawn and, as the door opened, we opened fire. Out of the corner of my eye I saw two Warriors dive for cover.
Not five seconds later Caren, Karen and Blair came through the door.
“I nearly got one,” Tom boasted.
“Close only counts in hand grenades and horse shoes. Keep firing brother.”
Caren and I found cover behind a Christopher Columbus statue.
“Aim for the neck, knee or ankle,” Caren said between bursts of fire.
“Why those areas?” I asked.
“Because Monroe told us those are their weak spots.”
“Now you tell me.”
I poked my head up and observed a female Warrior charging towards us showing no fear. Her laser beam barely missed scrambling my brains, as Christopher’s head splattered into a thousand pieces.
There was no point in my aiming. I was never going to be that good, especially with only one good arm. I let out a spray of fire in an arc at about her knee height, sawing off one of her legs.
She collapsed onto one knee. She clawed her way up onto her other leg and began limping towards us. Her imbalance impeded her aim. Caren went for the neck and scorched it but didn’t make a direct hit. I went with the arc again and hit her waist high, which slowed her process toward us.
I looked down the other end of the hangar to see if I could see Tom and Karen. I could see the traces of lasers, as they, too, were being fired upon. There was a Warrior advancing on them as well.
This time I aimed at the female’s good foot and connected with the ankle. She came crashing down but crawled toward us as she still kept firing. She was relentless. Caren and I trained our lasers onto her head and fired repeatedly. In a shower of
sparks her head separated from her body and came tumbling towards us.
*****
“Two more injured. That makes nine of us injured and three dead,” Pete said.
“But we’ve taken out several of the Warriors. Their numbers must be getting low. You said you got five plus the one we took out earlier today. Monroe reckoned on 15, counting the three that came in with Monroe. That leaves five at the most. They’re only attacking two of the shafts.”
“We’ve got about 15 minutes and the lasers’ batteries will fail. I think we should get everyone back behind the gate. Let’s turn off the lasers until they break through. We might have enough fire power to stop them then,” Pete said, hoping he was right.
“Sounds like a plan. Send out runners and tell the teams to fall back.”
Once they were all inside the barricade it wasn’t but ten minutes before they saw lasers bouncing off the wall of the barricade.
“Here they come.”
*****
Caren and I left the cover of the headless statue. I walked up to the fallen female Warrior. The eyes in her detached head stared right into my soul, chilling me to the bone. For some reason I felt a flicker of remorse.
“Okay, Blair. Let’s get to the Mothership. Where’s that handprint?” Caren asked.
I reached into an empty pocket.
“Shit! It must have fallen out in all the scuffles.”
“Here,” Tom said, running up and handing it to me. “You must be having a brain fart. Don’t you remember giving it to me just before you crawled into the back of the transport?”
He then ran back to rejoin Karen.
I looked at Caren and shrugged my shoulders. “With all the excitement going on, I should be entitled to at least one little ‘brain fart’?”
Caren confirmed with a slight nod.
I placed the handprint onto the ramp locking mechanism on the Mothership. Nothing happened.
“Damn, now what’s wrong?”
“Here, let me try.” Caren took the contact handprint and turned it over. Still nothing.
Precious seconds were ticking away.
“Maybe it needs the warmth of a human hand as well,” Caren suggested.
I rubbed my hands together and then placed my palm over the handprint and pushed down. There was a click and the boarding ramp slowly began to lower.
“You’re so smart,” I said, giving her a wink.
“Quick, Blair. Get to the bridge. I’m going back to help Karen and Tom.”
“I’m coming too, ” Caren shouted as she followed me.
We ran smack dab into another Warrior as we rounded a blind corner. The collision sent all three of us tumbling head over heels to the floor. Our weapons went sliding down the corridor. I grabbed Caren as we frantically jumped to our feet, making a mad dash to retrieve our weapons, before the Warrior could regain his balance.
Just as the Warrior got to his feet Tom and Karen rounded the corner and all three went sprawling head over heels. Tom and Karen managed to jump to their feet first. But the Warrior grabbed Karen by the ankle as he laid on the floor. Tom-Tom lifted his weapon and placed a clean shot to his neck, disabling the Warrior. But he didn’t release his grip on Karen’s foot.
She kicked and pounded on his hand to no avail.
“I don’t need an ankle bracelet,” she cried in panic.
Tom placed his laser on the Warriors wrist and pulled the trigger. Bingo! The Warrior released his grip as his hand separated from his arm.
“Let’s get back and board the ship.”
We ran back to the Mothership and up to the bridge. Wouldn’t you know it. Blair was nowhere in sight.
“Where in the hell is he?” I cursed, wandering what else could go wrong.
Just then, he appeared at the bridge’s doorway, gasping for air.
“I got lost. Had no idea where the bridge was. I’ve never been on a Mothership before.”
“Get to it. There is no time to waste. The Warriors will be on us in no time.”
Blair started working the holographs with his trusty integrated gadget.
“I probably can’t do this without alerting the control room that we’re here. You better close the ramp and disable the locking mechanism. That should slow them down for a while.”
“Smart thinking, Blair.”
I ran back to the entrance. Just as I got the ramp halfway closed, three Warriors exited the transport booth.
“Come on. Close,” I screamed at the ramp, as it seemed it was taking forever.
The ramp slowly inched its way up, oblivious to my frantic command.
One of the Warriors grabbed hold of the ramp and pulled himself up. I pressed the laser gun to his forehead and said, “Eat this, mother f@#ker.”
His head exploded but he still held onto the ramp.
Another Warrior leapt up and grabbed the ramp edge but both their fingers got crushed as the ramp finally closed. I aimed the laser at the ramp’s control panel and fired, disabling it.
I raced back to the bridge. Blair was still working at his task.
“What’s taking so long?”
“Every time I enter a code, they counter it from the control center. I have to find an encryption they can’t break.”
I could observe through the skylight more Warriors firing their laser beams at the ramp door. It wouldn’t take long and they’d cut through.
“Why are they helping the Warriors? Why aren’t they helping us?” Karen said.
“By ‘they’, do you mean Monroe’s clan in the control room?” I asked.
“Yes. Don’t they know the Warriors are trying to terminate us?”
“I’m not sure everyone was on board with the whole originals idea in the first place,” Tom said. “I caught snippets of conversation over time which led me to believe that it was mostly Monroe’s idea and that quite a few others disagreed.”
“Well, that’s just hunky dory?” Karen said.
From the bridge we heard the thump of a section of the ramp door as it hit the floor. We would be having unwelcome visitors shortly.
“I’ll guard the bridge door,” I said and moved into position.
“I’ve got your back,” Tom said.
*****
“Get the children to the back of the compound,” Pete shouted in a panic. “Move the bigger pieces of furniture into position. They won’t be much protection, but it’s better than nothing.”
Smoke was beginning to appear through holes being made by the Warriors’ lasers in the metal of the barricade gate. An outline of a hole large enough to walk through was forming. The Warriors would break through soon.
Seven lasers were trained on the gate.
“It’s about to go down. Get ready.”
The noise of laser fire within the confined space combined with the bang of the metal as it hit the floor drowned out Pete’s command.
“Ready, fire.” Pete focused the sights on his laser. Even though they didn’t hear his command, they fired when he fired.
The first Warrior through took the full force of seven lasers. He fell across the opening making an obstacle for the others.
“We got one.”
“Here comes another.”
The second Warrior simply stood on the back of his fallen counterpart. Everyone ducked as he was firing constantly into the furniture barricades which exploded and sent large splinters of wood flying everywhere.
“I’m out.”
“Me too.”
“Get back with the others. We’ll hold them for as long as we can.”
Pete stepped from behind the barricade to get a better aim. “Damn,” he said as he tripped and fell face down behind the furniture.
“Pete’s hit,” Jason said.
“Don’t worry about me. I’m ok. Keep firing,” Pete said, clutching a wound in his shoulder. He shifted the laser to his good hand and fired. He scored a hit to the knee. The Warrior went down but kept firing.
“I’m out,” another shouted.
/>
A third Warrior made it into the room and advanced towards the barricade. Laser fire bounced off the walls in all directions. A female Warrior reached behind the barricade and dragged Pete out, holding him by the throat. Pete brought his laser up, placed it on her neck and pulled the trigger. He fell to the ground in a tangle of the Warrior’s arms as she fell on top of him. He quickly rolled out from under her, but just when he thought he was clear, a fourth Warrior stood over him, aiming at his head. Pete thought that this was the end but then Jason rushed the Warrior and knocked him to the ground.
“I’m out,” Jason cried.
“Head back to protect the others,” Pete said, as he aimed at the Warrior on the ground and pulled the trigger. It didn’t fire.
Another Warrior followed Jason down the corridor.
“How many of these bastards are there?” Pete asked in exasperation. He could see one more coming through the opening.
Two remaining lasers fired sporadically as their power began to drain, hitting the Warrior standing over Pete. Pete jumped up and ran after the Warrior chasing Jason, unsure what he could do but determined to stop him.
The door to the room where the originals and their offspring were gathered gave way in a cloud of shrapnel. The other Warriors had their guns trained on the adults standing in front of the children. Pete and Jason jumped one Warrior trying to tackle him to the ground. The Warrior flung them aside like rag dolls.
“Bless me Father, for I have sinned,” a woman intoned.
The Warriors raised their lasers, their fingers were set to squeeze the triggers.
“Nooo,” Pete shouted as he closed his eyes.
*****
Caren and I were positioned at both sides of the doorway exchanging fire with the Warriors.
“It’s getting a bit hairy in here,” I called to Caren, as laser beams bounced around the room. “Blair, how close are you? We haven’t got much fire power left.”
“I’m working on it. Give me a second.”
“We don’t have a second.”
A band of Warriors charged thru the door and forced their way past Caren and me. They had their weapons aimed at Blair.
The Abduction Chronicles Page 24