“You sure this will work, right?” Jesse asked.
Noah reached inside the pack he had over his shoulder. His fingers came out black.
“What?” he said. “It’s…gone?”
He frantically checked again, this time withdrawing a vial and holding it up to examine it in the waning light. He shook it. It was intact and filled with something black.
Smiling, Noah stuck the needle first into the vial Jesse had given him and then into the other bottle. The two liquids swirled together as he tapped the needle and pressed a bubble of air out of it.
“It will take some time to activate,” Noah said. “You know that, right?”
“I know,” Jesse said, holding his right arm out.
“You will be the end of it all,” Noah said. He raised the needle in one hand. The other he placed on Jesse’s forehead in blessing.
“He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”
Then Noah lowered the needle toward Jesse’s outstretched arm.
-37-
LAST STAND
JESSE WAS CLOSE enough to the hood of the car that he could reach his M9 lying on the hood. His fingers wrapped around the grip and slid into the trigger guard like fitting a glove. Even in his left hand, it felt familiar, a nice heavy hunk of steel. He jerked his arm upward and jammed the barrel under Noah’s jaw.
Noah’s eyes widened in surprise. “You,” he muttered. “Lied to me? About this?”
Jesse tried to secure Noah’s other hand with his injured right, but his single remaining finger and thumb made it nothing more than a useless flipper as he fumbled to push Noah’s arm out of the way.
“Yeah,” Jesse said. “I forgive you, but that doesn’t mean you aren’t useful.”
Noah yanked his arm above his head and made ready to throw the filled needle.
“I wouldn’t,” Jesse said.
But he did.
And Jesse squeezed the trigger.
The shot went off, partially muffled by the fleshy barrier the bullet was forced to travel through. Noah gurgled. He coughed a spray of frothy red phlegm into Jesse’s face. All his muscles seemed to tense at once, and Jesse stepped away to let the man fall to the pavement.
Taking a long, sighing breath, Jesse wiped his face with the back of his shirtsleeve. It was over. He’d lived peacefully on his own for so long, and now, in a matter of a few weeks, he’d become some kind of crazed serial killer.
From far off in the distance, he heard an oddly familiar sound. But it wasn’t a recent sound, at least one that he could easily recall. It might have been thunder, but the noise was a constant, low, repeating beat. He could feel it in his gut. Whatever it was, it didn’t matter much. The sky was already darkening, and the raptors would arrive soon.
He gave Noah one final kick and stumbled away from his corpse, searching the ground for the hypodermic needle. When he located it, he saw that the plastic had cracked where the needle attached, and the precious fluid inside had all leaked out.
It was gone forever.
From behind him came the hunting cry of a raptor. Then another screech filled the air, followed soon by another, echoing eerily off the surrounding buildings. Soon the cries were too numerous to count. He glanced once more at the darkening sky, wondering if God was laughing at him again.
But he didn’t see God. He saw birds circling above. They knew the raptors were about to make a kill, and maybe, just maybe, there would be scraps left behind for them.
Jesse smiled as he walked toward the hospital entrance, at peace with his fate. When he got there, he spotted Eve and Kate standing side by side under an overhang.
Just Eve and Kate.
His heart sank.
He hurried his pace as he approached them. “Where is he?”
“He’s… he’s…” Eve started to say. “He’s gone.”
Jesse hung his head.
He’d failed again.
The raptors were drawing nearer. The best he could hope for would be to drag Cory’s body out and let the raptors feast on it. Let it poison them. Cory would be the planet’s savior, not him.
Eve pointed to the east. “He went that way.”
“What?” Jesse asked, lifting his head.
“He went that way,” she repeated.
He turned and looked. He saw more birds circling above. He also saw movement on the ground below.
“Cory?” he asked in surprise.
“Yes,” Eve said. “Hurry.”
It continued to grow darker as Jesse let the circling birds lead the way. He knew what Cory had in mind, and he was not about to let that happen.
Not to his friend.
He climbed a small hillside and gazed down over the parking lot that spread out before him. Most of the lot was cloaked in shadow, but near the center, there remained one small patch of sunlight. Dozens of raptors were pouring out of the squat building at the bottom of the depression and coming to join the ones already there.
“Here we go again,” he whispered.
Cory stood in that last patch of dying sunlight. He had his sword out and was preparing to attack any raptors coming too close to him. Jesse opened his mouth, wanting to yell, but before he could, he heard Kate and Eve approaching from behind.
“What the hell are you doing here?” he said. “You shouldn’t be here.”
“Neither should you,” Eve said. Kate nodded her agreement. She was pale and flush. She’d lost a lot of blood but was still on her feet.
When Jesse looked back at Cory, a small pack of raptors had gotten brave enough to approach him. Others were picking fights, scratching at the ground, and snarling in warning.
“There,” Jesse said. He pointed at the building to the southwest. A ladder led up the side, and a car was parked underneath it.
“Over there,” he said. “You think you can climb it?”
Eve nodded, as did Kate. Jesse eyed her. Injured as she was, if Eve could do it, so could she.
“What’s that?” Eve asked. “That strange noise.”
“I don’t know,” Jesse said. “Now get going. I’ll distract them away from him.”
Kate and Eve started toward the ladder.
Jesse raised his hands in the air. “Come on. Come get some! It’s me. Come on. Come get some!”
He fired his M9 once into the assembled group, which got their attention. More raptors turned in his direction. Around Cory, the sunlight continued to wane, filling the area with shadow, and leaving a single way to get to him.
If Jesse took the path, he’d be trapped alongside him. He glanced at Kate and Eve. They were already climbing the ladder.
In an instant, as Jesse returned to watching Cory, he recalled the traveling they had done together, the fighting, the narrow escapes—everything. The guy was an asshole most of the time, but he had a certain charm about him.
He looked again to Kate and Eve. Would they make it without him? Could he leave them behind to fend for themselves?
He could hear the raptors testing the light and snarling when they couldn’t enter it. They knew they could wait Cory out. It was only a matter of time before it was fully dark.
Cory stood stock still with his sword held in front of his face, staring them all down. His shirt was coated with blood, and he’d torn most of the fabric off, leaving him bare chested.
“What should I do, Hannah?” Jesse asked. He didn’t expect her to answer.
But she did, and then he knew what he had to do.
Eve and Kate were halfway up the ladder. He nodded once toward them in goodbye and pivoted on his heel and ran toward Cory through the last remaining strip of sunlight. Raptors closed around him as he reached Cory, surrounding them both completely.
“Why?” Cory asked. He was weak and barely able to stand.
“We’ve been here before,” Jesse said. “We’ll get out of it.”
“Not
this time,” Cory said.
“Easy-peasy,” Jesse said, raising his M9 and chuckling as the last of the sunlight disappeared. He lifted his right hand with its single middle finger and flipped off the raptors.
“See, it comes in handy.”
Cory laughed half-heartedly. Jesse had never heard him laugh before. It was a very odd sound indeed.
“When I am gone,” Cory said, “you know they will be gone too, right? So you are doing this unnecessarily.”
“Right,” Jesse replied.
“What about Kate? Eve?”
“They can take care of themselves now.”
“Yeah,” Cory agreed. “We picked a good day to die.”
Jesse snorted. “A bit melodramatic, don’t you think?”
Cory raised his sword in salute. Jesse raised the M9 likewise and then pointed it at the closest raptor.
The circled closed. They moved back to back just as they had in the arena.
Jesse tapped the trigger, taking the nearest raptor in the head while Cory whirled his blade into the raptor approaching him from their rear. Jesse moved, firing again. This time he missed, while Cory, stumbling and thrusting, killed another two.
Then they became separated.
A raptor leapt, landing on Jesse. He spun, throwing it off. He fired uselessly again. Again. The shrieking, crying, snarling increased. The chaos increased. Everything became a blurry whirl of noise and pale color. Cory’s glistening red blade whipped across Jesse’s vision, trailing droplets of blood that seemed to hang in midair.
Jesse tripped.
Fell.
He pulled the trigger. Nothing happened.
Furious sounds.
Snarling.
Growling.
Wailing.
Shrieks of death.
A new noise.
Heavy.
Loud.
Splashing.
Whatever it was, the raptors drew back and away. Some were turning tail and running away. Jesse heard the sound again he’d heard earlier. Low. Throbbing. Perhaps it was angels coming to get him. Gods from the Heavens. Maybe he had finally died, and it just hadn’t registered yet.
Heavy thumps.
More cracking, splashing.
More red.
Dead raptors.
Fleeing raptors.
He fell onto his back, staring straight up at the sky. The angels were coming to get him. They were huge dark shapes taking up much of the blackening sky. A giant whomp, whomp, whomp of their wings beat down on him as they descended from the heavens. Red and orange flashes emanated from them like bolts of magic.
More splashing, crashing sounds.
Raptors scattered, making way for the angels.
Jesse blinked, refocusing his gaze. Cory was still on his feet, but he was no longer fighting. He was lit by a white beam from the circling angels. His sword flashed brilliantly.
Pulsing. Blinding.
Jesse began to blink rapidly.
Those damn angels were big, he thought, huge. Then all he could hear was the beating of their wings, and all he could see were the fat white beams radiating down from their heavenly bodies as they circled above him.
He smiled and relaxed. He’d made it this far. He would be home with his wife and daughter soon. Hannah and Cheryl and his father and everyone else he’d known and loved would be waiting for him.
Soon.
He closed his eyes.
Opened them.
There was a man standing over him.
“He’s alive,” the man said.
“No,” Jesse replied. “I’m not.”
“Afraid so,” the man said as he motioned someone over to him.
Jesse couldn’t believe it. No…how could this be?
“Andrea?” he whispered.
And the angel Andrea looked down upon him. She still wore those silly thick-framed glasses. Her skin was wrinkled but was brightest thing he could see in the gloomy night.
“How?” he whispered.
“Shhh,” she said. “It’s okay. You’re safe now.”
Jesse lifted his head from the ground. Cory was kneeling beside him, holding his belly, breathing hard.
“No,” Cory said. He pushed himself up and ran.
“Stop him,” Jesse croaked as he worked to regain his feet.
A man ran in front of Cory and wrapped his arms around him. By the way he moved, Jesse recognized him as First Sergeant Walter O. Teagle, Marine Corp, retired. The man did not let go, and Cory collapsed into his arms.
“But, he’s got the virus,” Jesse said. “In him… The raptors… Not much time.”
Andrea smiled. “It’s okay. He doesn’t need to die. We just need a little of his blood.”
“We?” Jesse said.
Andrea moved aside, and Jesse saw that the two angels were not actually angels. They were two giant machines, two hefty Army Blackhawk helicopters. He could barely make out the markings on the sides in the fading light. One was marked Zeus and the other Apollo. The rotors were still spinning as if they would take off again soon.
He also noticed that Eve and Kate had come down the ladder and were headed toward him.
A man stepped out of the second helicopter, ducking under the blades. Once he cleared them, he stood tall, and Jesse could instantly tell that he was the guy in charge, the guy who had come to save his life.
The man headed toward him.
Kate turned to look. Suddenly, she dropped away from Eve and ran toward the man, holding her injured arm.
“Daddy!” she cried over the whomping of the blades.
She ran into the man and wrapped her good arm around him. He bent forward, wrapping his own arms around her. He lifted her from the ground and spun her in a series of wobbling circles then pulled her tight and held her close to his chest.
With Kate held fast in his strong arms, the grinning man made his way over to meet Jesse.
-38-
IN THE PINES (EPILOGUE)
THE OLD CHAIR creaked as Jesse rocked back and forth in it. He’d need to get to fixing the porch boards, sometime, someday, maybe later, maybe tomorrow, maybe next week. Perhaps he only needed to add a few more nails. But he was becoming rather fond of the noise of the creaking boards. Maybe he would just leave it alone because it was an old and well-worn sound.
The purple and orange sky glowed dimly as the first rays of light filtered through the trees, and the rising sun cast a pale yellow light across the placid blue lake stretched before him. Tiny ripples on the imperfect surface sparkled like a million tiny diamonds.
The night had been both cold and peaceful, as it had been for many months now. No screams. No screeching cries. No raptors to be heard at all.
He exhaled. His breath billowed in a cloud before him and was carried away by the frigid mountain air. He shivered and pulled a thick woolen blanket about his shoulders. The steaming mug of coffee in his left hand was still warm, and every sip was a moment of pure joy.
The simple things were what mattered.
After what he had been through, there was not a day that went by he did not think of his wife and daughter, and the many he had lost, and the many he had loved, and the many he had hated. He also thought of those he had killed, and of those he had saved.
Overall, on balance, he figured his accounting was pretty good.
The cabin where he lived was close to Bunker 12. Close enough that he could make it there and back again in less than a day’s travel on foot. He had enough supplies for now, and given that the bunker was a new offshoot of the Central Trade Route for New America, there was an abundance of plenty. Plus, he was rather fond of who ran the place.
It had been two years since the twin mechanical gods, Zeus and Apollo, had rescued him in the city. Half of that time, he had spent in the south where the new North American Federation was forming alliances with those communities strong enough to have survived. Some few had to be conquered, but gone were the crazies and the bandits and the opportunists that had swoop
ed in soon after the collapse. Justice was spreading once again, and the remaining forces of the former United States of America that had retreated south to the deserts of Mexico had been rebuilding with help from overseas.
The last remaining members of the organization responsible for releasing the raptors had been put on trial, tried, and convicted of their crimes against humanity. And from what Jesse later learned, had not even been executed. Part of that didn’t quite square with his sense of justice, and that lack of accountability bothered him at first, but he’d learned from experience, to dwell on something he had no control over was not the answer either.
So he let it go.
Cory had survived too, but Jesse had lost contact with him almost as soon as the man was able to strike out on his own. He was just too eager to head north in search of his sister. Jesse would’ve joined him, but there were other matters that needed attention first. Where Cory ended up, no one seemed to know. He’d gone missing over a year ago and hadn’t been heard from since. Jesse often considered leaving to go find him.
But not just yet.
Spring had finally bloomed in all its glory after an especially harsh winter. Patches of snow lingered in the shade of the fir and alder trees, but it would melt off soon enough and give way to wildflowers and the green hues of regrowth. It might even lead to a bountiful new crop from his gardens. By summer, he figured to have at least a bushel of fresh fruits and vegetables, which he would trade for other essentials.
The raptors in all their terror had wiped out much of North America. Rumors of them penetrating into Europe and Asia were mostly just that, rumors. And no matter how much Noah and his ilk wanted to destroy the world, humankind had proven resilient and had bounced back.
Now, it was all about finding the right balance.
Jesse had been proven correct in one way. The virus had helped destroy the raptors, but not completely. Once Cory’s blood had been extracted, the virus amplified, and then spread over the population, it only dented their numbers. They’d simply adapted to it, much as humankind had adapted to them.
What seemed to have had the most impact on them had been the same core issue that the organization releasing them in the first place had thought they were preventing—overpopulation. The raptors had consumed everything they could possibly eat. They could not sufficiently conform to their new environment, so they died out.
Righteous Apostate: Raptor Apocalypse Book 3 Page 27