Salvation (Rise Book 2)

by Nathan Hystad

  “No, I’m a true survivor,” Hansen countered, raising his weapon again. He pulled back the slide slowly, seeming to enjoy every click the gun made as if a prelude to a great act. “And when the rest of you vermin are dead, I’ll be enjoying a long retirement on a tropical beach. Goodbye, Colonel Mason,” he said with a mocking bow. “It’s been a pleasure serving under you.”

  Tom sucked in his final breath, inflating his chest and bawling out his last words directly toward the drone filming his end.

  “God. Bless. America!”

  Hansen levelled his weapon and fired.

  Chapter 43

  Cole

  He stopped, legs threatening to give out as he heard the gunshot echo in his mind. It wasn’t his imagination, because he was close enough to hear the actual report of Hansen’s weapon, which was transmitted to him via the video feed to his tablet.

  He sparked to life, sprinting for the compound.

  A second tank had emerged from the gateway ahead of him as he ran as hard as he could for the crumpled heap of uniform that was his uncle. He threw himself down, sliding painfully on the asphalt to come to rest beside him.

  “Tom, Tom!” he yelled, patting the man’s face gently as if he could wake him from death. His uncle’s eyes were open, and his face finally seemed to be at peace. He even thought the man had died with a smile adorning his weathered features.

  Soares arrived beside them, his face shamelessly streaked with tears of loss and anger as he bent down and closed his eyes, resting his right hand flat on Tom’s chest as his lips muttered something Cole couldn’t hear.

  Cole spun, searching for the man who had pulled the trigger and raising his rifle to see a few Hunters scrambling to organize a counter offensive. A sharp whine at the edge of his hearing caught his attention and dragged it to where a small drone hovered in the sky. He realized then how he’d seen and heard what had happened, directing his gaze at Tom and snatching off the microphone clipped to his uniform beside his blood-streaked arrays of medals.

  “Don’t film this,” he said into the mic as he spun and began to unload the first of three magazines on full auto into the milling Hunters before they could begin to fight back.

  Three people rounded a building, and he ducked and rolled as their errant shots ricocheted off the cracked concrete. The drone attacked, drilling two of them with its gun before quickly covering the distance to puncture the upper body of the Hunter.

  “Fall back!” Soares roared over the gunfire as explosions made the ground shake. The tanks, hovering so menacingly ahead of them, were firing weapons into the attack and exacting a horrific toll on their numbers.

  Cole cycled his weapon again and began firing impotently at them, doing no damage and only serving to make himself angrier.

  “We have to go, now!” Soares said as he snatched him up off the ground. Cole dropped to the ground and tried to haul Tom’s bulk up.

  “We’re not leaving him,” he sobbed. Soares lifted the body by one arm and grunted as he swung it up over his shoulder.

  “I had no intention of that,” he said. “Cover me.”

  Dex

  Everything had happened so fast. He’d seen Cole and the soldier from the Reclaimers pulling Tom’s body away with them, and he was grateful for it. Dex jogged along the fence, noticing less and less gunfire from the Overseers. They appeared to consider the brief resistance as nothing more than an insect attack, and now they seemed focused on continuing their invasion through the gate. A third tank was pressing through along with more of the aliens. Dex saw a smaller alien running among the newcomers, passing them each something from a crate.

  “Everyone in,” Hansen ordered, and Dex lingered outside the transport truck. He needed to see what the aliens were given. Then he saw it. One of the newly arrived bent over, coughing and flailing. He took the device, shoving it to his smooth face, breathing the mist in. There they were again. The Overseers had a weakness, one they could exploit.

  Dex wished he knew where the controls for the gate were, but he’d never make it to the immense structure alive. Hansen might have a chance, but there was no way that bastard was willing to help anyone but himself. And his powerful Overseers.

  Dex waited as the rest of the well-dressed humans filed into the transport, and he slid the tablet from his jacket. He used Tom’s trojan program to send one final message, hoping it reached someone.

  Misters. They can be stopped. He bent low, jamming the tablet under the truck’s rear tire, and hopped in. Soon they were off, moving away from the field, and the cacophony of noise that this phase of their invasion had brought with it.

  Alec

  Alec used his controls to send a horde of the drones away, and ordered the combination of a hundred or so land and air robots toward the gate for one last distracting battle with the enemy to allow for their escape.

  “Bruno, don’t do it!” Bailey shouted, but he was already too far away to hear her. He fired toward the aliens five hundred meters away. One of the tanks rolled closer to them and let loose an enormous blast. It struck the ground where the Trackers were, sending pieces of metal shrapnel around.

  Bruno was the last soldier out in the field, and he seemed to be in a daze. Bailey started away from the ship, but Alec grabbed her arm. “We need to leave.”

  Another pulse boomed from the tank, this time striking directly at Bruno. Alec blinked, and the man was gone. Boom! The ground shook as the latest blast hit only fifty meters from their location.

  The other ship had moved away, and Alec figured they were trying to gather the last of the remaining troops, including his brother and Soares. He silently hoped they were going to make it.

  Alec ran on board, dragging Bailey with him, and the ship lifted from the ground.

  He moved past wounded soldiers, some sitting in the strange bucket seats, others lying on the hard floor. The vessel was packed full, and he raced to the bridge where Becca was shouting orders to Izzy, who stood at the dash.

  “What are you doing?” Alec asked, seeing the terrain change out the window. One second there was sky, the next the gateway glowed in their line of sight.

  “I’m giving them a fly by,” Becca said, a crazy smile across her face.

  “Let me do the honors,” Alec said, grabbing the level.

  Izzy stepped aside, and Becca raced toward the tanks. Alec pulled the trigger, and Becca evaded the retaliation until there was nothing left to fire.

  Cole

  Decimated in numbers, the Roamers took cover underground and licked their wounds. People walked among the survivors calling out names, desperately searching for loved ones and friends they’d become separated from in the confusion.

  He sat in a daze as Soares talked on the tablet, hitting him in the shoulder and hauling Tom’s body up to carry and drag the three of them through the sewer they cowered in. Cole looked around as a shrieking noise descended on him and Soares shouted that it was okay; that they shouldn’t be scared and that the aliens hadn’t found them.

  Cole found himself hauled up the sloping ramp and into the belly of an alien ship that would otherwise have been a major event in his life.

  “Sit here,” Soares told him, lowering the limp form of his uncle to rest nearby. The drone stayed at his side, settling down to conserve energy until action was required.

  Cole was half aware that Lina had found him, that she cupped his face and spoke softly, crying with him at the death of Tom, but he was too numb to respond.

  Alec was alive, she told him. He was on another ship. He ignored her, leaning his head back as images of his father, his mother, and of Tom’s final moments replayed through his mind.

  The Tracker drone moved, raising its body up off its metal legs and edging closer. Cole leaned on it, being pinned between the machine and the body of his uncle, and closed his eyes.

  SW-18

  [HUMAN MALE. DECEASED. CAUSE OF DEATH: INTERNAL TRAUMA DUE TO SHORT-RANGE GUNSHOT WOUND. LIKELIHOOD OF RECOVERY 0%]

&n
bsp; [HUMAN MALE—PROTECTION SUBJECT. UNINJURED. DISPLAYING SIGNS OF DISTRESS. CALCULATING…]

  [CALCULATING…]

  [CALCULATING…]

  [RECOMMENDED COURSE OF ACTION TO PROVIDE COMFORT THROUGH PROXIMITY]

  [HUMAN MALE—PROTECTION SUBJECT. SIGNS OF DISTRESS DIMINISHED. RECOMMEND REMAIN IN POSITION.]

  Epilogue

  Alec

  Greg Zhao paced his office, the room far more cramped today than on the first day Alec and Izzy had been ushered into it. Alec’s brother was there, bandages wrapped around his head. Lina remained protectively at his side, as did Buddy, and oddly enough, the damned Tracker. It was like the thing had become his pet. Alec had tried to use his tablet to reprogram the thing, but it failed every time.

  Soares and Bailey spoke in hushed tones in the far corner. Izzy lingered beside Becca and Whittaker, the other pilot, and Alec stayed away from the leader’s daughter for the time being. The man was angry enough with him. Monet casually leaned against the wall, and the Roamer Renata lingered near the door.

  “What the hell are we supposed to do now?” Zhao asked.

  “Dad, we…”

  He lifted a hand. “Honey, let the adults talk, okay?”

  Her cheeks turned red, and Alec noticed her clenching her fist.

  “With all due respect, Zhao, we would have had a better shot if you’d assisted us,” Soares told the man.

  “Sure, then I’d be buried in the Rocky Mountains beside Tom Mason, is that it?” Zhao’s voice boomed.

  “We have people migrating here from Phoenix, Freeborn tribes keep streaming in, and a couple hundred of you Reclaimers.” Zhao ran a hand over his head and poured himself a drink. Alec watched it all silently.

  There was a knock on the door, and a woman arrived. Alec recognized Doctor Parvati, and she gave Becca a smile as she squeezed into the office. “Sorry I’m late, but I have good news.”

  “About time,” Zhao said. “What is it? That thing finally died?”

  “No. It’s actually alive and well.”

  “Then what’s the good news?” Zhao took another drink.

  Izzy cleared her throat and spoke; this time, her father didn’t interrupt. “When the Hunter mentioned the misters, it reminded me of a stash we came across. Remember that freighter that capsized not far from here at the coast?”

  “Sure. I remember,” Zhao said.

  “We stored supplies in it. There were several skids of something we didn’t understand. We thought they might be for asthma, but they’re misters,” Izzy said.

  Doctor Parvati nodded. “We think they need them to survive on Earth.”

  “Big deal. How do we stop them?” Zhao asked.

  Alec had remained quiet long enough. He pressed off the wall and spoke softly. “They’re made in China, right? That’s where the freighter was coming from?”

  “That’s right,” Izzy said.

  “We cut off the supply.”

  “What good is that going to do? They can always make more.” Zhao acted annoyed, and Alec was beginning to understand why Tom hadn’t seen eye to eye with the man.

  “Not when we disable the gate,” Alec said.

  “You tried that. You failed.”

  Cole stepped forward, coming to stand beside Alec. “They won’t be guarding it like that forever. Once they’re in, they will treat it with casual disinterest like everything else. And remember, we have someone on the inside. Someone at that bastard Hansen’s side.”

  Zhao sat wearily, his head going heavy. “Fine. We’ll do this your way, but we’re going to need some help.”

  The radio on the desk beeped, and Alec heard a voice carry through. “Sir, there’s a transmission coming from a group claiming to be situated in the UK.”

  Alec heard a gasp as Lina placed a hand over her mouth.

  Zhao’s eyes went wide, and he grabbed for the radio. “Patch them through.”

  “Sir, they… they don’t want to speak with you.”

  “Then who the hell are they trying to reach?” Zhao asked angrily.

  “Sir, they asked for the twins. They want to speak with the Masons only.”

  Alec grinned as Cole gave him a rare smile. Zhao reached out with the radio and mumbled.

  Alec took the device, pressing the button on the side. “This is Alec Mason.”

  THE END

  FROM THE PUBLISHER

  Thank you for reading Salvation, book two in RISE.

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  About Nathan

  Nathan Hystad is the best-selling author of The Event. He writes about alien invasion, first contact, colonization, and everything else he devoured growing up. He's had hundreds of thousands of copies sold and read, and loves the fact he's been able to reach so many amazing readers with his stories.

  Keep up to date with Nathan’s new releases by signing up for his Newsletter at nathanhystad.com

  Nathan’s books are also available on Audible!

  About Devon

  Devon is from the UK, having lived in many places until finally settling in the Midlands. His career in public services started in his teens and has provided a wealth of experiences, both good and some very bad, which form the basis of the book ideas that cause regular insomnia.

  He first started reading for fun as an adult, having tried his hardest to avoid anything resembling academia growing up, and at that point the world became a far bigger place. He has been reading, at least one book at a time, ever since.

  Keep up to date with Nathan’s new releases by signing up for his Newsletter at devoncford.com

  Devon’s books are also available on Audible!