Emma dry heaved.
“Hold them off. This is only going to take a second,” Frank ordered Emma before he got a look at what she was doing. His eyes followed her own down to Jeba’s arm. “You good, Jeba?”
“I’ll make it,” Jeba said, withdrawing her arm from Emma. “I can make it.”
“This is going to be over soon.” Frank nodded in her direction. “Emma, buy me some time.”
Emma turned back to the main threat headed toward them from the winding stairwell. The first of the turned beasts had made it down to floor level. They were now plodding their way along the ground floor toward the opposite side of the lobby and the elevator doors.
A distance of twenty yards separated them now.
Emma was starting to fatigue under the weight of not only holding her constructed armor around her but also the purple orb that illuminated the room. The mental strain on her was like her brain was being forced to hold a one-pound weight in place without moving it. It was easy at first, almost comically so, but as the minutes ticked by, the weight felt heavier and heavier.
Well, there’s no way I’m going to kill the light and plunge us into nightmares with these knuckle-dragging gorilla-looking monsters, Emma thought to herself, considering her options. Or maybe it’s time to make it rain.
A plan formed quickly in her mind. Frank stepped inside the elevator with some kind of constructed saw. He went to work cutting through the elevator ceiling. Emma wanted to find out what his plan exactly entailed, but there was no time.
Emma took a deep breath preparing herself. At once, she allowed the armor around her to dissipate as well as the purple orb providing their only source of light.
“Ummm, Emma?” Layga asked with bated breath. “I don’t want to tell you how to do your job or anything here, but now we have a hundred monsters walking toward us with no light.”
“Give me a second.” Emma gritted her teeth. She extended both her arms forward and upward, imagining in her mind what she wanted to construct. The force of her will channeled by her vambraces turned her thought into reality. A moment later, thousands of long purple icicles formed in the air above them. Their razor sharp edges pointed at the monsters ever diligent in making their way towards them.
The light the thousands of icicles let off wasn’t as bright as the orb Emma used before, but it did the job. The lobby was once again glowing in a dull purple glow.
Sweat gathered on Emma’s forehead. Tiny pinpricks touched her body as the heat she was exerting from her Will overtook her. A roar built in her throat until she couldn’t hold it in any longer, “Rawww!”
Like an army given the order to attack, the purple icicles floating above Emma’s head sped to meet their targets.
The monsters shambling toward them had made their way to the middle of the lobby. There were so many of them that the end of their procession still couldn’t be seen. They formed a solid line from the middle of the lobby all the way to the top of the stairs and beyond where the light didn’t penetrate.
Hungry red eyes fell away to soft noses and a mouth full of sharp teeth. The vanguard of Emma’s icicles met their lines, ripping through flesh, skin, and muscle as if they were paper. Emma kept constructing more and more icicles to send at the wall of approaching enemy.
Even more disturbing than the amount of blood and gore spilling to the floor was the fact that these turned monsters didn’t say a word. There were no screams of pain, no grunts of discomfort. They just continued to push forward like a silent zombie horde. Where one died, another stepped over its body. Where a leg was severed or even two legs, it crawled along the floor toward its target, burrowing through the gore of its brothers and sisters.
Constructing and sending thousands of icicles over and over again took Emma to her knees. Arms up, she clenched her jaw. For the moment, her assault seemed to be working. She had brought the monsters to a stale mate as those in the front died and those behind them were injured. How long Emma could keep this up was the question.
24
“Whoops,” Frank said over the rush of Emma’s icicles. “Well, that’s not good.”
Emma wanted to yell at him in that moment, but all her concentration had to remain on keeping the monsters at bay.
“What? What are you talking about?” Layga asked, poking her head into the elevator. “We need to go, now!”
“Yeah, well, I was going to see if I could get us a ride up, but I guess we’re going to have to do this the old-fashioned way. Let’s go. Emma, come on.”
Emma finally lowered her hands, gasping for breath. She felt weak and disoriented. Layga helped her to her feet as the four members of their unit entered the elevator.
Frank had been busy. The entire ceiling of the elevator had been cut and bent back like a tin can. Looking up now gave them a dark view into the elevator shaft and the darkness beyond.
“Everybody get ready. I’m going to get us to the fifth floor.”
“You can fly?” Jeba looked over at Frank with admiration. “I knew you had to be an angel the first moment I laid eyes on you.”
“More like float, but thanks, I think,” Frank said as he constructed a purple base with chains at each corner that he held in his hands. “Hop on.”
Emma was regaining her breath as Layga released her from her hold. The girls stepped on Frank’s oversized scale. A quick look to her right, through the open elevator doors told her the turned monsters had continued to advance. Empty eyes stared at her as long hairless arms reached toward her. The nails on each hand were black and pointed like talons or knives.
“Hold on.” Frank lifted from the ground holding the chains in his left hand that brought the platform the girls stood on with him.
Layga swiped down with her axe, severing a grasping hand of the lead monster that tried to get a hold on the purple platform Frank lifted slowly from the ground.
“Hey, does this thing go any faster?” Emma asked as she constructed her bow and sent a shaft through the skull of the next turned beast that stumbled into the elevator. “We’re about to pick up some hitchhikers.”
“Working on it,” Frank wheezed as he lifted them higher and higher. To his credit, he was making progress, but his speed was akin to a motorized shopping cart grocery stores offered patrons who had difficulty walking.
Layga hacked at another hand, severing it clean from its wrist. The hand fell on the purple platform, still wiggling in its death throws.
“Ewww, gross,” Emma said as Jeba stomped on it like it was some overgrown spider, then kicked it off the platform. “I’m going to need so much therapy after this.”
Finally, they were out of reach of the grasping hands of their enemies. Frank lifted them higher and higher. Soon they were passing the closed doors for the second and then third level.
“So very very impressive.” Desmond Delshire’s voice seemed to come from the very walls of the elevator themselves. “However, I wonder if I should disqualify you. I meant for you to have to fight your way up the five stories of the asylum. This feels like I’m being cheated.”
“What have you done with Jace?” Emma asked, feeling anger burn in her chest. “Where is he?”
“Don’t worry, Emma Jackson, I haven’t killed him. That would be such a waste. As you can probably tell, I’m somewhat of an academic, studying and manipulating alien DNA with human hosts. It’s my calling in life,” Desmond said, taking time to pause as if he were reflecting on the size of his brain. “I’m so much looking forward to cutting into an Arilion Were and seeing what I can create.”
Emma’s stomach twisted in her gut as images came to mind of Desmond hunched over Jace, using a scalpel to remove his tissue. Another image flashed across her thoughts of what Desmond had done to create the hairless rodents and the monstrous turned that chased them to the elevator doors.
“I guess it’s for the best, though,” Desmond sighed. “Better you get here quickly and I dispose of you so I can get to work. So much research and so little time, y
ou know. Once you exit the elevator on the fifth floor, make a left. I’m all the way down on the right. You can’t miss me.”
At the same time Desmond’s voice went quiet, Frank reached the fifth and top floor. The doors to the elevator were open, showing them a dilapidated narrow lobby where the elevators let off their patrons before they continued down the halls of the floor.
“I don’t—I don’t think Jeba should go on,” Layga said, looking down at her pale friend as they gathered in the room. “I’ll stay with her.”
“What?” Jeba scowled, hiding the wince of pain that came to her face. “Absolutely not. I’m going. I’m fine.”
“Maybe this is where we call for the cavalry?” Emma looked over to Frank, who was trying to raise General Fox on the comms. “We can call in the Marines.”
“Comms are still jammed,” Frank said, looking at Jeba with pursed lips. “We could call in the Marines, but how many of their lives would be lost as they fight their way up the levels of the asylum? Who knows what Desmond has waiting for them on levels three and four.”
“Don’t call them.” Jeba took a seat on the floor cradling her arm. “We’re almost done. This is almost over. If me sitting out keeps lives from being lost, then I can do that. I think my arm is broken, but I can take the pain. Go get Jace, kill Desmond Delshire, and let’s be done with this.”
Jeba’s words were so finite, her resolve so firm, Frank and Emma practically jumped to do her bidding.
“I won’t let anything happen to her,” Layga said, gripping her axe. “But hurry. She’s in more pain than she’s letting on.”
“We’ll be right back.” Emma nodded toward her friend. “Hang in there.”
“Frank, Frank, come over here,” Jeba whispered. “I have something only for you to hear.”
“You’ll be all right; this is about to come to an end.” Frank kneeled next to her. “We’re going to end this right now.”
Jeba leaned in and whispered something in Frank’s ear.
The only light came from the vambraces Emma and Frank wore and the blue glow from Layga and Jeba’s blades; still, this was enough to see Frank blush deeply. Whatever Jeba had told him had turned the tanned Marine’s cheeks rosy.
“Um, right, well.” Frank rose to his feet, motioning to Emma. “Let’s uh—let’s get this done.”
Emma and Frank made their way down the hall, following Desmond’s instructions. Frank constructed a heavy machine gun while Emma went with an arrow notched in her bow.
“So did Jeba say she wanted you to have her babies?” Emma couldn’t help but ask. She made sure she kept a straight face.
“We’re about to walk into the lair of a real life villain, with more than half our unit down, and you’re cracking a joke?” Frank looked over at her with a frown that slowly turned into a grin. “Yeah, yes she did.”
Both Marine and teenager broke into a light chuckle. Their mirth was short lived as a wide door down the hall grew closer and closer with every step. Emma was exhausted from her work with the icicles, but she was beginning to understand that Arilion Knights weren’t allowed to get exhausted. It was time to go again. She had no other choice but to rally or give up. It wasn’t in her nature to give up.
“Does it ever get any easier?” Emma asked as the two stood in front of the closed door that presumably would lead them to Desmond Delshire. “I mean, all of this. Does it get easier?”
“It does,” Frank said slowly. “Some things get easier; other obstacles will come up you’ll have to face. You’ll always get a bit nervous before a mission, but that’s life. You’re mother-freaking Emma Jackson, an Arilion Knight. We’ll take what life give us, make the best of it, and move on, because giving up isn’t an option. It’s never an option.”
Emma felt goosebumps race down her spine in light of Frank’s words.
“I’ll go in first with a shield,” Frank said, constructing a circular barrier as tall as he was and twice as wide in his left hand. In his right, he held his rifle. “You come in a step behind me with that bow of yours.”
“Got it.” Emma nodded.
That was it. There was no more time to plan, no more chances to turn back. Frank lifted his heavy right boot and slammed it into the door. The aged piece of wood splintered and swung inward before breaking off its hinges. Before the door even hit the ground, Frank was through the entrance, Emma right behind him.
Emma had her bow pulled taut. Her heart raced quickly for what felt like the millionth time that day. A life such as hers meant she was constantly getting spikes of adrenaline and this situation was no different.
The fight or flight sensation embedded in her DNA told her it was time to run or get in the fight. Emma chose the latter.
As soon as she was in the room, two things were immediately evident. The room was empty save two tables on the far corners of the room and a line of windows along the right wall. On one of these tables, Jace lay on his back under a light. His chest rose slowly as he gathered, then released breath.
The second thing Emma noticed was the opposite table on the far side of the room with some kind of electronic alien device that looked like a metal stereo.
“That’s how he’s been jamming us.” Frank looked over his right shoulder to Emma. She saw the warning in his eyes before he could even get the words out of his mouth. “Emma, get do—”
Frank shoved Emma out of the way at the same time a short whistling sound penetrated the relative quiet. A steel barb embedded deep in Frank’s neck as he used himself as a shield for Emma.
Emma looked up to see Desmond emerge from the shadows in the right hand corner of the room. Whether he had used the darkness that already existed there or some kind of alien tech that rendered him invisible Emma couldn’t tell. What she did know was that Frank was already falling to his knees while Desmond reloaded his weapon.
He held a steel tube in his right hand. With deft fingers, he placed a dart into the end of the tube and brought the weapon to his lips again. A wild menace lived in his eyes. It was a look of a child as it tortured an insect.
Emma lifted her bow, drew her string back, and let her arrow fly.
At the same time Desmond blew through his own weapon, sending the steel barb at Emma. The two projectiles collided. Emma’s much larger construct eviscerated Desmond’s smaller barb continuing its forward momentum and striking him across his right cheek.
Desmond shrieked, dropping his weapon as he stumbled backward. He lifted his right hand to his cheek as the black blood from his wound ran down his finger.
A cry like a wounded animal left his lips as he charged Emma faster than she could draw a bead on him. Emma had enough time to construct another shaft and draw back her bowstring, but no time to aim.
Desmond collided with her as she loosed her arrow. He slammed into her, carrying her backward and across the room until they were stopped by the table Jace was lying on.
Emma felt blows landed to her right jaw and left temple before she could gather herself enough to bring her own forearms across her face and block Desmond’s strikes with her vambraces. The metallic taste of blood filled her mouth. The substance covered her left eye from a deep cut Desmond opened on her temple.
A better option came to mind as deja vu set in. Instead of trying to simply defend herself from his blows, Emma lowered her arms, giving Desmond a free shot at her face. The Vilmar looked on her with wild eyes as he reared back with his right fist. He brought it down on her face with all the power of a trained martial arts master.
At the last second, Emma constructed a steel helmet across her face similar to the ones she had seen the ancient Spartans use. Desmond’s fist hammered the helmet so hard Emma still felt the blow, but not as much as Desmond.
A crack sounded as the Vilmar’s hand broke on her helmet. He screamed in agony as he brought his right hand into his chest like a Tyrannosaurus Rex.
Emma seized her moment of opportunity. She was wet with her own sweat and blood, more tired than she could
ever remember being, but this was her chance. This was her moment to rise up.
Alongside the right wall of the room, the filthy window showed very little moonlight coming through. Emma positioned herself with Desmond between herself and the glass windows.
“You have no idea the game that is being played here.” Desmond shook his head with a sick laugh. “You have no idea what’s really going on. You’re like a lost, frightened puppy.”
“Well, this puppy’s got an arrow with your name on it,” Emma said, constructing her bow again and aiming it at Desmond’s chest. “Give it up or this is where you die.”
“I can’t wait to see the look on your face once the Shay come to your planet again,” Desmond said with a wicked smile. He turned away from Emma, speeding toward the glass window. He jumped.
Glass shattered all around him as he was lost to view. Emma stood stunned by his words and the fact that he had just committed suicide. Thinking quickly, Emma aimed her bow at the alien piece of tech next to her that jammed their comms. She released her arrow, sending a short burst of sparks from the unit.
Instantly, her comms came alive with chatter. There were the sounds of weapons being fired from the Marine units outside.
“General Fox.” Emma ran to Frank’s side, pulling the barb from his neck. He was still breathing. “Desmond jumped from the fifth story. I have wounded. Send help from the top of the roof down. There are too many enemies on the lower floors.”
“Emma! Emma, it’s good to hear your voice,” General Fox said, relieved.
Emma could hear Laloyd chattering excitedly from somewhere close by. General Fox’s voice came over the comm unit again. “We got him, Emma. We’re sending help via the roof top right now. We got him!”
25
Within the next hour, Emma and her team were extracted by helicopters from the roof of the asylum and deposited safely back at the group headquarters.
A very wounded and unconscious Desmond Delshire had been apprehended by the Marines guarding the perimeter. It seemed he had broken a leg in the fall as well as suffered a severe concussion.
Burn the Night Page 15