by Q Allen
***
Outside of the underground facility, the tiny, surreptitious little house sat surrounded by vehicles with mounted guns and Slither Eye agents. Trained and ready. Blood-pledged, dedicated, and loyal-until the ground beneath them began to tremble. The rumble grew closer and louder, becoming more and more powerful.
A dark cloud grew in the distance, moving towards them at a rapid pace as the trembling became stronger and more intense. Some of the lower level agents began to abandon their posts and flee. The higher level agents were forced to shoot them on the spot. Such was the penalty for desertion.
Dust rose from the one road between the highway and the little house, adding to the cloud. Fire flashed through Tammy’s eyes as she drove. Her heart burned. She was on a crash course with destiny.
Shots rang out as soon as she came within firing range. The long-range weapons fired first. Tammy fought hard to reproduce the bullet-deflecting effect she had back at the apartment. Driving towards a waiting army made her an easy target. She didn’t know how long she could keep it up. She had to get closer, but there were so many of them and only one of her.
I am here, Tammy thought.
Keep coming. Once we come together, they will not be able to stop us.
Once she was close enough, Tammy exited the Ford Adrenalin with one of the MP4s she had acquired from the End Timer’s condos. The truck was mostly unharmed, but there were a few bullet holes in the hood, which made her even angrier.
She ran into the closest group of soldiers scurrying for position. This way, most of them couldn’t fire on her without hitting some of their own.
She stopped firing the MP4 and threw it around her back on its sling. She focused more on using her power to fight. She could feel it, like a burning heat intensifying inside her. Electricity seemed to shoot from her fingertips. The more power she used, the more exhausted she became.
She thought she felt something else pulling energy from her. The closer she got to the little house, the heavier the pull became. Like a weight in her limbs, growing heavier and heavier with each step.
Heavy drops of sweat poured down Tammy’s face. They fell like a waterfall and her eyes began to glow white, like Primis’ eyes. She could not sustain this amount of effort for long and she knew it. Stretching out her arms, she made a sweeping motion, as if swooshing water in a pool. Dark-suited Slither Eye agents flew away, tossed into the air by her power.
It’s clear. I’m coming for you, Tammy thought, struggling to stay on her feet as she noticed another bullet had found its way through. It felt like a bad cigarette burn.
Watching the event unfold through a camera on a drone, the Unseen Man saw that the situation was out of hand. He underestimated what Tammy could do. He had to recover his best agent and now, he was going to lose Primis too. With her, he would lose all the other clones. He decided to cut his losses. He had a backup plan.
***
Inside the underground facility, Tiffany and Bellisa still clung to one another on the floor. Shivering, they pleaded for their lives from the suddenly-animated entity that had once lain at their mercy. Now she was in control. Primis would have no mercy.
Pulling Tiffany into the air, she left Bellisa alone, horrified on the floor. Bellisa screamed, covered her face as she tried to escape the sight of her friend being killed right in front of her.
Tiffany cried out in pain as Primis tore and twisted her frame in rage. If Bellisa survived this, those sounds would haunt her dreams forever. The screams. The cracking bones. The joints as they separated. The sight of the twisted, brutalized body falling to the floor. For a moment, still breathing, still trying to cling to life. For one long moment.
Bellisa knew she was next. Crawling towards the door, scrambled to her feet and ran as fast as she could down the hall and toward the open elevator doors. If she could just get to the elevator, there was a small chance for escape.
With her arm, she wiped the tears from her soaked eyes as she dashed for the safe harbor of the elevator. No matter how fast she ran, it seemed like the door got farther and farther away. It was as if she was stuck to the floor in some kind of nightmare. Still she ran.
Her limbs were heavy and sore; her breaths laborious. Bellisa was terrified to look back until she made it all the way to the back of the elevator. Her fingers jabbed at the buttons. Staring wide-eyed down the long hall, waiting for Primis’ frightening figure to emerge from her room, dripping with Tiffany’s blood, thirsty for revenge.
There she was.
Bellisa watched in horror as Primis approached the open doors of the elevator. The open doors offered Bellisa no protection.
“You will tell me where Minorem is,” Primis said, eerily drifting through the air, drawing closer and closer.
Finally, the elevator doors began to close. Too late. Primis held out her hands and used her power to hold the doors open. The elevator car began to shake and tremble under her control. The metal groaned and squealed around Bellisa.
“I don’t know where she is!”
“Then you are useless,” Primis said, clenching both hands shut. The elevator warped and closed in on itself, crushing Bellisa. Once it was small enough, she pulled it from the shaft flinging the bloodied hunk of metal to the other end of the hall.
***
Tammy stumbled through the garage door of the little house. She used one of the Slither Eye vehicles to drive down to main doors of the underground facility. The interior guards who waited at the underground entrance suddenly turned, firing at the figure emerging behind them from the main level elevator doors. They totally ignored Tammy as they were the ones surrounded now, frightened and fighting to survive.
Tammy felt the heavy drain on her strength again as she stumbled through the now-unguarded doors. Her vision and stamina faded faster and faster. Falling on her knees, she began to lose consciousness when she saw her. Primis floated down onto her feet in front of Tammy.
Look at me, Tammy. Look at me and know that I am real.
“You are real…” Tammy breathed. As she lost consciousness, she felt Primis’ hands take hold of her. She felt her semi-conscious body being carried up into the air. She could feel the cool wind stirring through her sweat-drenched clothes, cooling her skin. The powerful lure of sleep was only interrupted by a brief stop.
She was on the ground and, for a moment, could not see Primis. Then, they were back in the air again. Her closing eyes caught a blurry glimpse of someone else. Someone on Primis’ back. From her position in Primis’ arms, Tammy could only see arms around Primis’ neck and dark hair blowing in the wind. Twisting and winding in the wind. So tired now, she finally had to let go and sleep.
***
The tiny house was broken. Not one wall remained standing. Scarcely a stone stood amidst a cluster of bodies strewn about on the lawn, along with military grade weapons, and equipment. The smoke cleared and a few straggling survivors gathered together to decide what to do, not noticing the GBU-57A/B Massive Ordnance Penetrator MOP on its way to their location. There were no survivors.
This was how the Unseen Man cleaned up this type of situation. It had been done before. Cleaning up a mess like this took a special set of skills few possessed. A person would have to have the right contacts, the right connections, and have the power to persuade those connections.
Over hundreds of years, the Unseen Man was situated well. This was a position in the Slither Eye organization that had been handed down generation after generation. Each Unseen Man teaching, grooming, and mentoring the next.
Long, long ago, they made all the right connections. They had all of the right photos taken. The right conversations recorded. These techniques helped them gain power and leverage over the right people. People in power in all the right places.
With a few untraceable phone calls and a secret meeting it was all set in motion. That was all it took to control the news coverage of this very public battle. That was all it took to control the perception of millions of people al
l over the world.
The Unseen Man learned the value of a well spun story ages ago. He learned from his predecessors how to manipulate and manage the perceptions of the public. This is how they get things done. How they have remained in power… and out of sight.
All of the news outlets were given the right video footage. They were directed to interview the right people and ask the right questions. Bending the truth and the world’s perceptions.
“…heroic FBI agent Reno Roland lost his life today while thwarting a terrorist plot to crash a small air craft carrying a bomb into a heavily populated city on US soil. Agent Reno was undercover aboard the airplane and was able to overpower the terrorist, taking control of the aircraft. Sadly, he lost his life as he landed the plane instead in an uninhabited area in Denver, when the bomb exploded on impact, leaving no survivors…”
They blamed the events on a fictitious terrorist organization. A terrorist group that they created themselves. The masses were outraged. An attack on American soil. In this way, Slither Eye could cover up the battle and, in the process, have more laws passed that served their purposes. A win-win for the organization.
The organization still needed to capture-or kill-Tammy and Primis. A task Unseen Man would assign to his new fake terrorist organization. They had Primis’ sister and a plan B. A power that the Unseen Man did not want to unleash just yet. But now, he had to destroy his valued weapon.
For now, the Unseen Man and the organization had things under control. He knew that, sooner or later, they would return for Primis’ sister. Slither Eye would be ready. Until then, the Unseen Man focused his energies on deflecting. Artfully dodging. Still, the thought rankled in the back of his mind. The thought that a storm was coming. Not of wind, of rain, and thunder, but a storm of vengeance.
A dark, angry and powerful storm. The wrath and the rage was coming.
About Quintin
Hello readers! Thank you for reading Umbra Ortum. It is my second published work. You can read the first book of the series, The End Timers, through my website at QAllen.com, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Smashwords, or anywhere ebooks are sold.
Let me tell you a little about me. I was born in St. Louis, MO. I grew up in Miami, Atlanta, and I graduated high school in Gonzales, LA at East Ascension High School. I joined active duty Army right after high school.
My first duty assignment was in Hanau, Germany where I met my lovely wife (She is actually from Mississippi. We were both active duty soldiers). When my military time was over and I was honorably discharged, we moved to Louisville, KY where I received my B.S.I.T from Sullivan University.
Becoming a writer has always been one of my dreams. Starting back in elementary school in Miami, I had the opportunity to write a few stage plays and the joy just stuck with me. While in high school I started a comic book that was popular on school campus for a short time. (Note: The novel version will be coming out soon). I also had opportunities over the years to write for a number of writing competitions in Louisville. I hope to continue writing across genres in the years to come.
Again, thank you for taking the time to read book two, Umbra Ortum: The End Timers. I hope that you enjoyed riding along with Tammy on the second chapter of her journey.
The next chapter of Tammy’s harrowing journey will continue in Umbra Vindictae. What will happen when Tammy and Primis come together?
I invite you to come and connect with me on FB, Twitter, or Instagram. Visit my webpage at www.qallen.com and sign up for my email list. You can also watch videos, read the featured short story, and check out some of my original art.
You can even have your fan art featured on my webpage, FB page, and Instagram!
Coming Soon!
Umbra Vindictae
The End timers series
Q. ALLEN