by P. T. Hylton
She brought her sword up, swinging at his neck.
Even off balance, he could dodge. But not far enough. The sword clipped his neck, slicing a half inch into the skin.
The vampire’s eyes widened, and his hand went to the wound, a look of shock on his face. The shock quickly dissolved, replaced by an expression of pure fury.
“Kill this woman!” Aaron bellowed.
At the sound of the order, every vampire in the room turned toward Alex.
Firefly was engaged in a vicious fight with a Feral when the order came. Thankfully, he was pulling the trigger and firing a bullet into the Feral’s brain when Aaron’s words hit his ears. Otherwise, he surely would have turned to Alex, the danger from the Feral forgotten, and attempted to shoot her even as the creature right in front of him tore him to shreds.
“Kill this woman!”
Firefly raised his weapon as the Feral he’d been fighting fell, and he raced across the room, every fiber of his being suddenly dedicated to getting a clear shot at his friend Alex Goddard.
But Alex was no dummy. It was clear she instantly understood what Aaron’s order meant. By the time Firefly turned toward her, she was already in motion, putting Aaron between herself and the ten remaining vampire soldiers who had a biological imperative to kill her.
“Protect Alex!” Chuck shouted.
The GMT shifted their focus from the Ferals still rushing into the room to the vampires targeting their captain. Not that it mattered. Firefly knew the GMT members could pepper the soldiers with bullets all they wanted, but unless they struck a killing shot, the vampires would ignore their injuries and follow their orders.
Up on the platform, Alex was avoiding the vampires’ attacks. Between their master and the Ferals flooding the room, the Resettlers couldn’t get off a decent shot.
From his place down below, Firefly saw a look of fiery resolve on Alex’s face, and something deep inside him smiled. She wasn’t giving up. In fact, quite the opposite. Aaron had succeeded in severely pissing her off. She’d try to end this quickly, he knew.
She drew back her sword and thrust it forward. Aaron raised a hand to protect himself, and the blade sank straight through his palm.
Firefly saw the struggle on both their faces. Aaron attempted to grip the blade with his other hand even as Alex pushed, driving the tip closer to his chest. She pressed hard, gaining ground centimeter by centimeter.
Then Aaron lashed out with his foot, kicking her square in the chest. She managed to keep her grip on her sword as she flew backward, and the blade sliced Aaron’s hand in half. He cried out, staring at the wide slit that had appeared in his hand.
Alex flew backward ten feet and hit the concrete wall, then slid to the ground.
Firefly immediately took aim. He finally had a clear shot at her.
She struggled to her knees, fighting for every breath.
He told himself he would not fire. He forbade himself from shooting. He put everything he had into stopping himself from pulling that trigger. The world around him seemed to fade. All that was left was him and his weapon. He fought the urge to fire like a man riding a rocket. He felt thick blood trickle from his ears and his nose, but he pushed that aside, too. All that mattered was that he didn’t shoot Alex.
For a wonderful moment, he thought he might win. But then he realized he was already pulling the trigger.
“No!” someone shouted.
As he fired, he saw movement out of the corner of his eye.
Chuck dove in front of Alex. Firefly’s bullet slammed into him, and he collapsed to the ground.
As the bullet hit Chuck, Aaron charged at Alex, his teeth bared. He looked almost feral.
She gasped, struggling for breath, her friend and teammate fallen by her side. This would be over in a moment, she knew. The vampire charging at her was damn fast, even during the day.
Time seemed to stop for Alex, and she pushed aside her grief for her friend and the way her lungs were screaming for oxygen. She thought of Simmons and the tender way he used to hold her at night, his body pressed against hers. She thought of Drew and his boyish enthusiasm and the way he’d turn even the direst situation into a game. She thought of Beth and the potential within her to be a great GMT member. She thought of CB and the way he’d fought his way back after losing his entire team to Ferals in a single night, only to inspire and lead an entire generation of GMT hopefuls.
But most of all, she thought of the people of New Haven. That was what she was fighting for. The very future of humanity. If Mark and Aaron won today, she didn’t know exactly when they’d do, but she figured they’d probably target Agartha first. Once they’d brought that city down, they’d turn their attention to New Haven. And when they had those two cities, they’d have every human on Earth in their grasp.
All this flashed through her mind in an instant.
She set her jaw with grim determination and sprung to her feet, bringing up her sword as she stood. Then she swung, aiming not for where Aaron was, but where he’d be in a moment.
Her blade sang as it flashed through the air, and it struck its target, slicing cleanly through Aaron’s neck. The vampire master’s head separated from his body and flew through the air, hitting the wall behind Alex with a thud, that terrifying snarl still frozen on his face.
As the vampire master’s body fell, Alex went down on one knee, still gasping for breath.
She looked around, and she saw the expressions of the faces of the vampires in the room change, much of the tension leaving them. Firefly wiped at the inky black blood leaking from his nose with the back of his hand.
“Resettlers!” Firefly shouted. “Take out the Ferals!”
“Firefly,” Wesley called. “West tunnel!” He nodded toward a tunnel that had been left unprotected when the vampires turned their focus on Alex; it seemed to be the main spot the Ferals were getting in.
Patrick and Ed moved up to the platform, trying to position themselves to better protect Alex. Wesley and Owl stayed on the steps leading up to the platform, laying down heavy fire from above while Firefly and his team attacked the west tunnel.
They fought together, vampire and GMT, all focused on the same goal.
Alex struggled back to her feet and drew a painful breath. She stumbled over to Chuck.
He was still breathing, but he was bleeding badly from a massive wound on the inside of his left shoulder. The bullet had gone all the way though. He was still conscious, but he looked pale and not entirely alert.
The blood seemed to be driving the Ferals into an even greater frenzy. Alex knew that any Feral in the area who wasn’t already headed their way soon would be.
Ed reached the platform, scooped Chuck off the ground and threw him over his shoulder. “Alex, can you make it on your own?”
She drew in a painful breath and took a step toward him. “You think I’m going to puss out on you, Ed?” They had to get out of here fast. The daylight wouldn’t last much longer and they needed to be gone before it was. “GMT! Let’s move out!”
As she was turning toward the ramp leading to street level, a figure stepped into her path.
Mark.
There were two holes in his shirt where she’d shot him, but the flesh underneath was almost healed. From the looks of things, her bullets had missed his heart by mere inches.
He smiled joylessly as he stared at Alex. Then he opened his mouth and bellowed a command. “Everyone! Listen to me!”
That was as far as he got before the upper half of his head disappeared, and a splatter of brain matter and bone hit the wall next to him.
Patrick chambered another round as smoke trailed out of his shotgun barrel. “Nah. I only listen to Alex.”
All around the room, the Resettlers staggered, as if they’d just been released from heavy weights attached to their arms and legs.
“We’re free,” Firefly said, his voice filled with wonder. “We’re really free.” He shook his head, clearing it, then grabbed the radio off his b
elt. “Resettlers! Quit chasing Jaden and get back here! The GMT needs our help.”
Alex started up the ramp leading to the street, then hesitated, looking back at Firefly. Their eyes met and neither said anything for a long moment. They’d been through so much together. They’d been teammates, friends, rivals, enemies, and allies. And in the end, they’d saved each other.
Finally, Firefly spoke. “Alex, go! We got this!”
Alex nodded quickly, turned, and charged up the ramp into the dying evening light.
The GMT raced to the transport truck half a block away. When they reached it, Alex hopped into the passenger seat and turned to Owl. “Get us to the away ship, fast.”
“On it,” Owl said as she threw the truck into gear and started moving.
Alex spoke into her radio. “George, you there?”
It took a moment before he responded. “Alex? I’m beyond happy to hear your voice.”
“Get the ship ready to fly. We’ll be there in two minutes.”
“Good timing,” he replied. “I was just about to leave without you, but then I remembered I have no idea how to fly this damn thing.” His voice grew more serious. “Alex, you have to hurry. We don’t have much daylight left. We’re going to be cutting this razor-close.”
“Don’t worry,” Alex answered. “We do this all the time.”
As the transport roared towards the away ship, Alex could hear howls erupting all around them. The Ferals were now very aware of the humans in the city. Between the noise of the battle and the powerful emotions that had to be surging through the Ferals they’d fought in the tunnel, Alex was willing to bet that there were thousands of the creatures waiting to attack. That wasn’t even considering the smell of the blood splattered all over Ed, Alex, and Chuck from Chuck’s gunshot wound.
In the back, Patrick was tending to Chuck, wrapping his shoulder to stop the bleeding, but the Ferals in the buildings on either side of the street went wild as the transport drove past.
Alex looked out her window and toward the western sky. The sun was setting and Ferals were emerging, standing in the shadows next to the buildings.
Her radio chirped to life, and George’s panicked voice came through. “Alex, we’re out of time! The shadows are almost to the ship, and the Ferals will be able to attack in just a minute.”
Alex gritted her teeth as her heart clenched in her chest. Could it really end like this? Just blocks away from their working ship? Would they arrive just in time to see Ferals tearing the ship apart and hauling George from the wreckage?
Then the radio chirped again, but this time it was another voice that spoke. “George, you didn't think that I would let a bunch of Ferals kill my favorite human, did you?”
“Jaden, is that you?” George asked.
“Of course. Is there another vampire who’d call you his favorite? Alex, are you listening?”
“I’m here, Jaden,” she answered.
“I need you to get George airborne as quickly as possible. I’d prefer if you and your team lived as well. I’ll buy you as much time as I can, but it may not be a lot.”
Alex stared out the window at the teeming masses of Ferals waiting in the shadows. “Jaden, I don’t think even you and your team can hold off this many Ferals.”
“Maybe not, but we’re not alone. I just got a new army of nearly two hundred vampires thanks to you, and they’re itching for a fight.”
The transport turned the corner, bringing the away ship into view. Hundreds of Ferals stood in the shadow of the nearest building, huddled shoulder-to-shoulder, some as close as thirty feet from the ship.
The Feral horde stood directly between the transport truck and the away ship.
“Can we go around them?” Alex asked.
Owl shook her head slowly. “By the time we circle around, it’ll be full dark. And we can’t plow through without them piling onto the truck and tearing us to shreds. We need another way.”
Just then, manhole covers all around the street popped up, many flying as high as five feet into the air. Jaden and his team sprang up, followed by the remaining Resettlers.
Jaden held a sword in each hand as he dashed into the horde of Ferals blocking the GMT’s path. The other Agartha vampires followed close behind him and together they cut a wide swath through the crowd.
Firefly and his team fanned out, firing on the Ferals at the edge of the shadows, driving them back, further from the away ship.
The Ferals were so disoriented by the smells of blood and humans that they were slow to respond to the attack. The vampires managed to take out half the group in less than a minute. Jaden continued to slice his way through the Ferals and soon there was a path large enough for the transport.
Owl floored it, and the transport lurched forward, shooting through the Feral-infested shadows and toward the patch of sunlight where the ship sat waiting. As soon as she reached it, the GMT leaped from the truck and dashed onto the ship where George waited with the door open for them.
George stared at the battle raging around them, his face pale. “Oh my God. Are you guys seeing this?”
Owl pushed him aside and sprinted for the cockpit.
“Yep, it’s the end of the world,” Alex replied. “Unless we get airborne. Then it’s just another trip to the surface.” She cupped her hands around her mouth and called, “Owl, get us out of here!”
“I’m on it!” Owl shouted back. “Stop bugging me.”
The team strapped into their seats, and Alex and George ran to the cockpit where they joined Owl.
As the startup sequence finished, Owl pulled a lever and the ship lifted off the ground.
They were airborne.
“Oh my God,” George repeated. “We made it. I can’t believe we made it.”
Owl nodded out the cockpit window toward the vampires still battling below. “What about them?”
“They should be okay,” Alex replied. “Now that we’re up, they’ll disengage. The Ferals should lose interest and focus on whatever drops of blood Chuck left in the transport.” She allowed herself a smile. “Thank you. Both of you. If you hadn’t gotten the ship running, we would have been screwed.”
Owl grinned. “Pleasure’s mine. Fixing the ship was the fun part. You guys missed out on the real action. George was a beast with a soldering iron.”
George’s brow furrowed in concern. “I’m glad we’re out of there and all, but what do we do now? It’s going to be pitch dark when we get back to Agartha. We gotta figure out how we’re going to get past all the Ferals and get inside for the night.”
Alex and Owl exchanged a glance, then Alex put a hand on George’s shoulder. “I don’t know how to break this to you, George, but we’re not going back to Agartha. Owl, hand me that radio.”
24
CB, Jessica, and Brian stopped a little way before they reached the entrance to the GMT hangar.
The walk through Sparrow’s Ridge had gone surprisingly well. In their worker’s jumpsuits and hardhats, the badges they’d passed had assumed they were just Ridge residents on their way home from another difficult shift. No one had given them a second look.
Jessica held her arm limply at her side. Dried blood covered much of the arm, but the bleeding had stopped. The shock had started to wear off and she could walk on her own.
Brian stared at the door to the building. “So how do we get in? I’m pretty sure that none of our keycards are going to work.”
Jessica looked at CB. “I don’t suppose you have Alex’s keycard too?”
“Afraid not.” He paused a moment. “I hate it when important things are out of my control, but in this case, we don’t have a choice. We’re going to need a little faith for this one.” With that, he walked over to the building and pushed the comm button. “This is Arnold Brickman. I have Jessica Domhnall with me and she needs some medical attention. I’m asking you to open the door.”
A moment later there was a buzz and a click. CB, Jessica, and Brian exchanged a nervous glance, then e
ntered the GMT hangar.
They walked through the long hallway that led to the hangar itself in silence. As they reached the hangar, four men with automatic weapons stepped into their path, blocking them from entering the large, open room.
Beyond the four armed men, CB saw technicians, medical personnel, and maintenance crew. Apparently, word had gotten out that CB had arrived.
He recognized every face, and he knew every one of their names. Many of these people had worked with him for years.
He looked at the four armed men, waiting for one of them to speak.
Finally, one man said in a weak voice, “Colonel Brickman, please put down your weapons. It’s over.”
CB looked him straight in the eye. “It is over, Carl, as I’m sure you know.” He spoke loud enough that everyone in the area could hear him. “No one understands what’s really happening better than the people in this room. I’m sure every one of you knows that Resettlement was a complete failure. It cost us some of best people New Haven had. All because of Fleming’s ego. And now he’s spitting on their memories by denying their deaths even happened.”
He paused, scanning their faces with his eyes, trying to see if anyone would object. No one did, so he continued.
“Look, I don’t fault any of you for following Fleming. I followed him myself for a time. Too long, really. But I understand. His grand vision pulls you in. It makes you forget about the ugly reality of what he’s doing to achieve his goals. But if you look at the results of his actions rather than listening to his pretty lies, the truth is clear. Every Resettler we sent to the surface was killed in a single night, and Fleming is lying about it.”
The faces watching him wore uncomfortable expressions. Many of them looked racked with indecision. CB understood. There was no easy choice for these people. Betray the leader of the city or betray the leader of the GMT. For these patriots, either option would have been unthinkable not long ago.
Still, he was about to ask them to make that very choice.