• • •
The ‘escape’ was flawless, the white PVC window frame came away in one piece and cartwheeled down into the carpark below. Getting the bedframe, with Piper strapped to it, out of the hole in the wall was a struggle, but it passed without mishap. The locked Range Rover proved a bigger challenge, but one of Jake’s Marines was quite resourceful. Using techniques from a somewhat shady past, he managed to get the vehicle open, the alarm disabled and the engine running, no questions asked.
They laid the backseat flat and made Piper as comfortable as possible, the General drove, Jake, one of the Marines named Peters and Mary squeezed in the front. The other three marines, weapons drawn, crouched in the back. Using the Sat Nav, they decided to head for the A90 ring road, then follow the E821 until they met the FL7 that would take them on into Naples. Empty, deserted roads made driving through Rome easy and they made good time, even the notorious centre of the city proved to be simple without any traffic.
They’d just turned off the ring road and onto the E821 when their luck ran out. Ross, one of the Marines in the back saw it first, one of the enormous pink tentacles that they were all familiar with, went shooting up into the sky from the general direction of the Colosseum. More followed, it was an incredible sight, like the fingers on the hand of some vast colossus. Brightside jammed his foot down on the accelerator and the SUV leapt forward, just as one of the giant fingers smacked down onto the road ahead of them. The general braked, making the Marines in the back grab for hand holds, the tentacle began to dissolve as soon as it hit the tarmac. The slime melted into twenty small pools that became agitated and began frothing, the stench of human faeces was almost overwhelming.
One by one the stinking pools coalesced into recognisable shapes, almost human, misshapen Soul Taker Drones, resembling ancient Troll fairy tales. There was nothing fairylike about these warrior drones though, they carried a white bone shield in their one huge hand, their other arm ended in a razor-sharp stabbing sword, which they waved above their heads as they waddled towards the car on bent, stumpy legs. The General drove forward, crushing as many as he could beneath the car, leaving a trail of broken body parts that quickly slithered back together again. The Drones managed to stagger back onto their feet just in time to be cut in two by a hail of bullets, as the Marines jumped out of the Rover and opened fire with their M4A1 carbines.
“They want Piper,” screamed Mary, jumping out of the vehicle with her pistol in hand, “they’re not going to let us go as long as we’ve got her.”
Two more of the giant columns of slime smacked down on the road behind them and began to dissolve into puddles, cutting off any ideas of retreat. Everyone was out of the car now, except Piper, Jake fired another volley into the Drones, but they just kept coming. One of them began hacking at the passenger side front wheel, reducing it to shreds in seconds, Mary emptied her clip into the monster, the bullets passed through it, un-noticed.
“We’ve got to get off this road and find some cover,” shouted General Brightside, “we’re sitting ducks out here in the open.”
“Can’t you phone Naples Sir, get some help,” asked Mary
“Sorry Mary, there’s no signal, I’ve tried, in fact there’s no signal anywhere. It worked at the Colosseum for some reason, but nothing since.”
“Look,” shouted Jake pointing, “there’s the Frascati Metro station, get hold of Piper, we’ll make a run for it, there’s got to be more cover down there.”
The two Marines, Peters and Ross managed to push their way to the back of the Rover, kicking away one of the drones as it hacked the back tyre and spraying the rest with their carbines. Pulling up the back door, they both began to pull Piper towards them, the Drones behind them seemed to sense what they were doing and leapt forward with uncharacteristic speed. The two Marines were caught off guard, three of the Drones lunged forward, hacking and stabbing the two men to death.
“Give me some cover,” yelled Jake, pushing his way into the front passenger seat, “help me drag her out, they’re going to take her back to the Soul Taker.”
Four of the Drones were at the back of the car, trying to get a grip on Piper to lift her out, with only one hand they were fumbling. Two of them had her legs, trying to position her body so that the others could hold onto her arms. Jake pushed himself over the back of the front seat, pivoting on his hips, General Brightside had hold of Jakes belt to anchor him. The rest of the drones were now huddled, five deep, around the back of the Rover, pushing forward, trying to get close enough to stab Jake. Another giant tentacle slapped onto the tarmac behind them, this time it didn’t dissolve, it simply lay there, Jake presumed that this was Piper’s transport.
The press of stinking bodies was making it difficult for the four Drones trying to drag out Pipers body. Jake pulled up the M4 and took the most difficult shot of his career. Confined in the back of the car with Drones trying to stab him in the face, he lined the carbine up with the heads of the Drones that held Piper’s legs. He emptied the clip, sharing the bullets between the two Drones, gobbets of stinking pink flesh sprayed over the car, the pavement and the other nearby Drones. Lifeless hands dropped Piper’s legs, the two Drone bodies dropped to the floor, others climbed on top of them to get closer.
“Now.” Shouted Jake, pushing his feet against the windscreen, lunging forward, pulling Brightside off balance as he got his hands around Piper’s shoulders. Wiggling his hips and pushing with his knees, Jake tried to pull Piper towards him, the expected tug on his belt never came. He glanced behind him, the General was otherwise occupied, both of his hands were gripping the sword arm of a drone as it tried to stab him. Mary was using Brightsides carbine like a club, trying to smash the arm from the body, pink slime covered her from head to toe as the drone collapsed under the onslaught.
Turning his attention back to Jake, the General got hold of his legs and began to pull him out of the front passenger door, in turn, Jake dragged Piper with him. The drones realised what was happening and began to move around the car, Mary began firing, ripping as many as she could to bits. The remaining two Marines dropped back towards the Metro station to form a defended corridor to cover the others as they fell back.
“Drop back Mary,” grunted Brightside as he reached for Pipers shoulders, pulling her out past Jake so that he could get hold of her legs. Jumping out of the car, Jake swung around so that he was walking backwards towards the Metro, Brightside following.
“Once we get down into the Metro, we’ll be in a stronger position Sir, somewhere we can defend without watching our backs,” he broke off, the General had stopped moving, he was staring at Jake, wide eyed with surprise, legs buckling beneath him.
When he fell to the ground, still holding on to Piper, Jake saw that there had been Drone shadowing him and was now repeatedly plunging its sword into the officer’s back, a red pool began to form where he lay.
It had followed exactly in Brightside’s footsteps, hidden from Jakes view. Another Drone came running towards him, waving its sword arm and plunged it into the first drone, hacking it until it stopped moving.
“I come in peace,” it said with difficulty, “are you Piper’s friends?” .
Jake was on his knees, cradling her head and was astonished and startled by the creatures question.
“Yes we are,” he said, holding his hand up, “don’t move any nearer.”
“I’m Tom,” it said, “there isn’t much time, so I’ll say this quickly, I just wanted to tell you that she and I were once friends, many years ago. Please tell her that I came and that this time I wasn’t a bystander, tell her I helped and that I loved her. Now go, I’ll hold them back as long as I can, good luck.”
Stooping, Jake picked Piper up and lay her over his shoulder, he threw the little drone a salute, then turned and hurried into the station, glancing back, he saw the Drone called Tom holding the line, cutting, stabbing and pushing the pack backwards.
He couldn’t hold out for long though, but he had made a differe
nce, Jake turned and made for the top of the stairs where he found Mary stood, hand over her mouth, in shock at the death of the General, he held her by the arm and pushed her on.
The weird, silent drones had finally hacked Tom to pieces and although his selfless stand had bought them some precious time, they were once again, following doggedly behind. General Brightside, lay where he’d fallen, he didn’t need any more help from anyone.
• • •
Commander Rick Tolson, Captain of the USS Donald Trump, swallowed his pride and didn’t just walk through the door, he knocked first and waited. The two servicemen, guarding the door of President Powell’s office, had snapped to attention as he approached, but he still felt slightly humiliated, having to wait patiently on his own ship for permission to enter.
The door was thrown open by a beaming Frank Lister, the Presidents Chief of Staff.
“Please Captain, come in, the President is expecting you.”
The Commander put his hat under his arm and walked into the familiar room. It was the guest suite that was used by any VIP that visited his Ship, the President came across the floor and shook him by the hand.
“Captain, this is a pleasure, how can I help you?”
“I need to brief you, Madam President, on the progress of ‘Status quo’.”
“Ah yes, the bombing run, where do we stand?”
“We’ve just had word that the ETA for the first wave including Rome, is one hour. I’ve decided to take the ship further out to sea just to be on the safe side Ma’am. When we’re dealing with such powerful forces, it seemed appropriate to take all the required safety procedures”
“I couldn’t agree more Captain, thank you. Will it be possible for myself and my staff to come up on deck to witness the attack?”
“Of course, Madam President, I will send someone to escort you to the Bridge so that you can witness the detonation.”
The Commander left, closing the door behind him, Frank turned to the President and smiled.
“By the way Carla, there’s just one small thing that might have slipped your mind. It’s probably my fault, I should have reminded you.”
“What,” she turned away, not really listening.
“Piper Reed, the Time Travel Heroine from Berlin, and Brigadier General Brightside and his team. They were all flying down here by Helicopter to see you, do you remember, I think you were going to have some photographs taken for the newspapers?”
“I remember,” she said, absently, “what happened to them?”
“They were apparently brought down over Rome, some hideous giant tentacles wrapped themselves around the Helicopter.”
“What a horrible way to go Frank,” she said, turning towards him.
“Well, that’s just the thing, they all survived that, and the last that we heard, they were all still alive, somewhere near the Colosseum. We spoke to them briefly and advised them to hi-jack a car and drive to Naples.”
“Have you heard any more from them?”
“No, we’ve lost all communication since then, thing is, I’ve got a feeling they’ll all still be there when you drop old ‘castle bravo’.”
“Well, what can I do Frank, I can’t cancel the whole mission on their behalf, can I? I’m sorry, but sometimes things just don’t work out the way that you or I want them to. They’ll have to take their chances, maybe they’ll be lucky and get to Naples before the detonation.”
CHAPTER 17
Jake, with Piper draped over his shoulder, was staggering as they got to the bottom of stairway and on to the platform.
“Here,” said Mary, “share the load, give me her shoulders I’m stronger than I look, we’ll carry her together.”
Carlos and Jack, the two surviving Marines were covering the rear, there was a deep sense of foreboding in the pitch black, with only the flickering light from their flashlights. The enemy Drones, that were following them, were without larynx’s, they were Telepathically controlled and had no need of speech. Apart from the sound of their footsteps, the silence was profound, both Jake and Mary had vivid memories of the giant rats in Berlin and were feeling wary.
Mary’s flashlight was small and she was carrying it in her mouth, the Railway track was to her right, so she angled the beam to the left and picked out a door in the wall. There was a sign screwed on to it ‘Solo per il Personale’ it read.
Mary knew a few words of Italian and translated the sign, “there’s a door in the wall, over there on your right Jake, says staff only, I think we should look inside.”
Changing direction, they made their way towards it, Jake was walking backwards, transferring both of Pipers legs to one arm, he managed to open the door with the other and backed in, the marines followed, closing the door behind them.
They were in what looked like a cloak room, roughly, twenty-five feet by fifteen, lined with steel lockers on each side and a bench running down the middle. At the end of the room, opposite the door were three toilet cubicles and a kitchen sink fastened against the wall, with a microwave on a shelf above.
Mary and Jake lay Piper on the bench, then Jake began to check each of the lockers for anything useful. The two marines sat on the floor by the door, holding it a few inches ajar and taking it in turns to look out for the Drones. Mary was checking over Piper, when Jake came back, arms full of battery operated lanterns in full working order, he began to space them out on top of the lockers.
“There’s three lockers at the end, near the sink,” said Jake, “they’re full of these lanterns, there’s some spare torches as well and batteries. Must be for power cuts I suppose.”
“I’m surprised the batteries still work,” said Mary, but glad that they do, is there any running water for the toilets?”
Jake shrugged, “never thought to look.”
“I’ll check it out,” said Mary, “then we’ve got to decide how we’re going to get out of this mess, we can’t just stay here until all the batteries run out can we, but then how do we get back up top, with all those things, up there, waiting for us?”
Jake took Pipers hand and felt for a pulse, it seemed regular and strong. He sat beside her, listening to the sound of Mary flushing the toilets and the hiss of the cisterns as they re-filled.
“Water’s fine,” she said, sitting down on the other side of Piper, “any thoughts on our ‘escape’?
“Yes and no,” he replied, “I know this sounds crazy, but I’m willing to bet that somewhere down here there’s a public telephone that’s still working.”
“Like you said Jake, that does sound crazy, why would there be a phone down here that was working and if there was, what use would it be to us, we can’t ring Naples can we?”
“No Mary, we can’t, but if we can find the one phone that’s working down here, we can get in touch with the Molers, Pipers friends. She told me all about how they’ve built up this safety network, in Metro Stations all over Europe. If any of the Molers get marooned or are in trouble and they can get to an underground station, then they know that there is one phone that they can use to call for help.
I can even remember the number, Piper used it that night we went AWOL back in Berlin, you came and stopped us, remember?” He said grinning, “the contact was ‘Anna at Bakerstop 1’, if we can get in touch with her again and explain what’s happened, then I think she’d try and help us.”
“That sounds like a good idea Jake,” said Mary, ignoring his jibe about Berlin, “it might work, get us all out of here and get some help for Piper. The only drawback is having to check every phone out there in the dark, with the brethren from hell breathing down our neck.”
“That’s true, but where are they? I would have thought that they’d be knocking on our door by now. If you want my opinion, I think that they’re lined up somewhere out there, in the dark, waiting for orders. If we keep the noise down and use the torches sparingly, we might just get away with it.”
“Maybe you’re right Jake, but don’t count your chickens, don’t forget, those
rats are still out there as well. In fact, I’m not sure which of them freak me out the most.”
“Give me the rats any day,” said Jake, “at least when you kill them, they stay dead.”
“That’s a good point” said Mary, nodding her head.
“I’m going to go now Mary, I’ll take Carlos with me and a couple of the new torches. Keep the door closed while we’re gone, if we’re lucky it won’t take long.”
“Are you sure about this Jake?
“What choice have we got, like you said, we can’t just sit here and wait until the lights to go out.”
• • •
Once out of the door the two men paused, backs to the wall, as they tried to make sense of their surroundings. The stygian black was like a cocoon, smothering, cloaking their senses, taste, touch and smell were all they had left. Jake knew that when they had spotted the door it had been on their left and the railway track on their right. He turned, putting his left arm to the wall, now he knew that the stairs were behind him and so were the drones. They couldn’t be too far away, he could smell the rank stench of sewage.
They couldn’t move without some idea of what was in front of them, Jakes nerves were already jangled, but they had to take a chance with the Drones and use the Flashlight. Trying his best to shield the light with his body, he pressed the button and the beam of light cut through the blackness. It showed a good, clear stretch of platform in front of them and the reflection from two plexi-glass domes covering two wall mounted telephones. He snapped off the light, listening for any movement, he felt Carlos’s hand on his shoulder as he began moving slowly forward, his hands stretched out in front of him.
To maintain their sense of direction, they’d walked with their arms pressed against the wall. It wasn’t long before they collided with the two phones that they’d glimpsed briefly, both turned out to be un-connected and of no use at all. Jake took out the Flashlight and clicked it on, feeling more confident now that they’d put some distance between themselves and the Drones. It took a few seconds for their light starved brains to make sense of what they were seeing, there was one more phone at the end of the platform, on a small wall that ran at right angles to the one they were following.
Soul Taker Page 19