Overrun

by Michael Rusch

  Kirken hooked a piece of metal stabbing out into the open air towards him with his foot and used it for support while Brandon hauled him over the edge of the ripped floor.

  When Kirken swung his legs over the ledge, Brandon continued to pull him in closer not yet releasing his grip across his wrist.

  Kirken stretched himself out on his back and fought to regain his breath. He rested his head only a few feet from the ripped edge to which the escalator had been recently attached. Brandon let go of his arm, turned and walked a few steps away.

  "Mel!" he yelled into the quiet of the undamaged mall level. The sound of the fires burning beneath them stopped pounding at their ears. The voices of the chasing soldiers were also gone. Only the echo of Brandon's voice remained.

  "Mel..!" he called again.

  Kirken raised his own tortured body and tried to force it to stand. He stopped on his knees and pressed a gloved hand across the small flames on his shoulder and the top of his head.

  He had almost stood completely up when the blasts of two more weapons shots thundered from the darkness ahead.

  The first shot buried itself into Brandon's shoulder wrenching his body backward. The second tore a hole about an inch lower just above his chest.

  Brandon’s legs flew out from beneath him. His body sailed backwards into Kirken knocking them both to the ground. Kirken grabbed at the floor with his arms and held Brandon with his legs to keep them both from toppling over the edge.

  Brandon shrugged himself angrily from Kirken's hold and bolted back to his feet. A third shot rang out opening flesh at the center of his already-wounded shoulder and pounding him back down to the floor.

  "Son of a bitch!" Kirken screamed and fired two rounds from his sidearm towards where he had seen the flashes of the weapons blasts. His shots were followed by the sound of a body crashing down heavily in front of them.

  Brandon rolled over on his side and pressed at his wounds with his hand. Slowly, he pulled his body up to its knees and inched over towards the soldier Kirken had just shot.

  The J.G.U.'s body still moved slightly showing some faint signs of life. One of his legs stretched out across the torn ledge and the dying flames below. A dark circle of blood stained the center of his chest.

  Brandon's legs rocked unsteadily as he stood, this time more tiredly, again to his feet.

  Brandon limped gingerly toward him while Kirken, still stretched out on the ground, looked on behind him. The soldier’s arms and shoulders shook weakly. His eyes rolled to the top of his head from the pain of his own recent wounds.

  Brandon stood over his broken body and stared across him to the nearby ledge and the raging fires below.

  For a moment, the soldier raised his own eyes and looked back at Brandon. Brandon crouched down next to him when he did.

  Even from where he watched just a few feet back, Kirken could feel the fury and pure utter darkness within the gaze Brandon returned.

  Brandon leaned his head directly over the soldier's face so close their noses almost touched. The soldier's body lost its shake and became rigid and tight.

  Brandon bent in closer and began to speak softly into the soldier's ear. He turned defiantly away as Brandon's whispered taunts fell more rapidly into his ear. His body began to shake again.

  Brandon's voice increased in ferocity and pitch from soft-spoken utterances Kirken could not hear to enraged jeers and shrieks. Brandon pressed his mouth closer to the soldier's ear. His words became a maddened scream.

  He reached out and pulled away the rifle the soldier still clutched across his chest. With his other hand, he nudged his body closer to the floor's broken edge. Thick bursts of spit flew from Brandon's lips with each new enraged shout.

  When the soldier's back laid just across the drop, Brandon pulled away and stood up to his full height. The soldier twisted his head to look away from Brandon further feeding his frenzied fury.

  Gazing across the fiery carnage encompassing most of the mall’s lower levels, Brandon nudged him one last time with his boot.

  Silently, the soldier’s body fell over the side.

  Brandon stood there for a moment and continued to peer over the edge. He opened his mouth and scornfully released a mouthful of saliva into the fiery din below.

  Watching his son was like being trapped within a horrific dream. Kirken turned his head and tried to keep the nausea away.

  "Brandon," Kirken said hauling himself to his feet and stepping unsteadily toward him.

  Brandon turned around and stepped back from the ledge. Drops of blood splattered his face from the rounds that had pierced his shoulder. Sweat beaded across his forehead, and his body was tense with a failing effort to conceal its shake. His entire right side was covered with thick blood which dripped from his fingertips when he walked.

  "It's alright," Brandon answered him.

  The intensity of his glare still blazed from his eyes like a lightning bolt. It seemed to bring some strength back to his battered body. He hobbled past Kirken and brushed lightly by his side. The suffocating stink of fresh blood and scorched flesh emanated from his body like a tangible dark cloud.

  "Brandon…," Kirken said softly again. He lowered his weapon and began to rip pieces from his scorched clothing to cover his wounds. He reached out and pulled at his undamaged shoulder to stop his walk.

  "I said I'm alright!" Brandon yelled more forcefully and shrugged off his father’s touch. Kirken pulled his hand back and allowed his son to limp further away.

  "Let's find her," Brandon voiced tiredly the words they both felt. "Let's find her now."

  Kirken bent down to retrieve the soldier's weapon that laid near the shredded edge of the floor. He clicked its barrel open to check for ammunition and stared over the edge into the abyss of the fires still raging below.

  The flames seemed to burn brighter with each passing moment rather than dying down and disappearing away.

  Kirken secured the J.G.U. rifle across his shoulder and followed his wounded son into the dark.

  Chapter 33

  Tuttle and Piper gripped the handles above their heads tightly to keep from being thrashed about. Even though they were both strapped securely to their seats, the pilot's sharp banking maneuvers to avoid the flames and the sudden appearance of rooftops through the smoke threw them roughly about the small helicopter cabin.

  Tuttle sat in front next to the pilot while Piper occupied the area near the large artillery cannon mounted on the chopper's rear deck.

  Tuttle shifted around in his seat and leaned towards the back of the cabin when the electronic reproduction of Piper’s voice sounded in his headset.

  "Sir, our trackers say the firebomb team is on schedule, unhindered and well on its way," Piper said moving closer to face Tuttle.

  Balancing on crouched knees in the tiny back space, he braced one arm across the enormous barrel of the freestanding weapon and the other against the ceiling to steady himself against the violent bucks of the chopper.

  "In fact they might even be closer than we originally thought."

  "How soon?" Tuttle tried to ignore the wrenching feeling in his gut.

  "Really soon," Piper said quickly back. "We can't be more than five minutes ahead."

  The helicopter veered again sharply to its side. Tuttle held the ceiling grips with both hands and stared out across the destruction falling away in a blur below them.

  The entire city block they approached was consumed by fire. Vehicles, whole and in destroyed parts, laid strewn about the streets. A gaping crater spewing solid mountains of flame marked the site where the old bank weapons armory recently stood.

  Soldiers by the thousands sprinted in every direction. Some carried away the wounded. Others hauled weapons. The majority ran to control the fires.

  "If they're not there when we get there…," Piper said again. "…we're not going to have much time to go in and get them. Not if we want to get out ourselves."

  "If they're not on the mall roof when we get ther
e, we're not even going to set it down," Tuttle answered him.

  "Understood, General," Piper turned his back to Tuttle and began to load rounds into the large weapon.

  Tuttle sat back against his seat. Still holding the ceiling grips with one of his hands, he pulled the straps of his gear tighter across his limbs.

  The pilot remained silent and still next to Tuttle. His eyes focused through the black smoke ahead. The chopper dipped and swerved under the controlled spasms of his wrists as he raced to beat the coming firebomb team to the roof of Beuford's old shopping mall.

  Chapter 34

  Mel's heart pounded uncontrollably in her chest when she saw the escalator disintegrate from beneath their feet. She turned away and covered her eyes, not from fright, but from the smoke and grit that choked the air.

  When she finally looked back, she could only see one of them at the edge of the ripped floor. For the moment, she couldn’t tell whether it was her father or her brother through all the falling fiery debris. Panic swiftly settled about her when she realized the other was nowhere else in sight.

  She was about to run back when a pair of arms stabbed out of the darkness and grabbed wildly at her hair.

  The excited stink of the soldier's breath that held her was warm against the back of her neck. Mel had no more energy left in her body to even scream. She dropped her arms to her sides and allowed the muscles in her legs to release.

  Not quite having a firm grip, the soldier jabbed his hands out to grab her as her body fell away. He stooped down to seize her legs, but the loud calls of another soldier drew his attention back to the broken ledge where either Brandon or her father was sprawled across his back.

  Mel rolled quickly over and scurried away on all fours deeper into the mall's upper level. She crawled on her hands and knees until the space ahead of her came to an end. Long cylindrical rails guarded the edge of the floor and a vast gap of open space that stretched beyond it.

  Mel used the rails to pull herself up and leaned over to stare at the fires raging below on the ground floor. Then raising her head and looking back up, she felt the black quietude of the mall's higher levels beckon her with promised safety.

  The broad openness split the building's upper levels into two sections with more than two hundred feet of open air between them.

  The sounds of the J.G.U. voices came again to her ears, and the heat from the raging fires pushed at her back. Only the escalators from the ground floor seemed to offer access to the other side of the divide.

  Mel climbed to the top of the rails and reached out toward a collection of cables and lighting structures that stretched out across the expanse. The sound of voices behind her began to steadily increase.

  She balanced herself on top of the rails, leaned towards the cables and jumped. Her first hand missed when both feet had taken to the air, but she managed to grab hold with the other. Her legs dangled over the flaming inferno below while she struggled to find a grip with both hands.

  When she finally had a firm hold, she pulled her legs up and draped them across the ancient lamp structures. Without looking back and reaching hand over hand across the cables, she slowly began to make her way across.

  Her breath came in short gasps as she fought to keep a grip on the swinging cables and lights. Sharp metal fibers lining the outside of the cables embedded themselves deeply into the insides of her hands.

  Her eyes filled briefly with tears. Streaks of blood colored her fists. The flames below and behind threw grotesque shadows across the walls like giant monsters surrounding her. Mel stretched her neck muscles tight trying to hold her head up and keep her eyes from the huge drop below.

  It was then she saw the figure standing at the edge she had just left. He stood silent and still watching her intently while she tried to cross. When the soldier was sure that she was aware of his presence, he raised the weapon he held hidden in his hands behind the rails.

  Mel turned stoically away and tried to move her body faster across the swinging lights. The soldier watching her from the ledge did not make a sound.

  She was almost a quarter of the way across when she heard the soft roar of the flamethrower. An instant later she felt the heat.

  The lights and cables around her burst into flame. Her feet slipped from their hold leaving her dangling by her thin arms from the hanging lights. The sharp shreds of metal guarding the cable dug deeper into her frail flesh. Her legs hung limply next to each other across the drop.

  The pain finally brought fresh life to her body and voice, and she let loose a bloodcurdling scream.

  Two more quick burst of heat reached out at her through the air skimming across her hands. The smell of her own seared flesh filled her nostrils and brought another frightened shriek to her lips.

  The flaming cables twisted gently under her weight and brought Mel around to face her attacker. The soldier pulled the flamethrower up to the side of his chest and pointed it towards her.

  He didn’t see the two staggering figures approach him from behind as he prepared to again fire the device.

  The first figure dove to the ground beneath his feet and knocked him backwards toward the floor. The second grabbed him from behind around his shoulders and tackled him across his back.

  In a pile of flailing limbs, the three rolled around on top of each other near the ledge until another burst of flame from the soldier's weapon shot into the air. The bright light and blasting heat caused one of the figures to grab his eyes, fall back and let go.

  The soldier held the second pinned and unmoving beneath him.

  The soldier threw his leg out and drove his foot hard into the first figure's side and brought a gloved hand down across the second figure's neck. The blows, for the moment, caused both of them to lie still across the ground.

  Mel raised her legs and hooked them again across the cables. She then quickly scrambled further away across the light fixtures. She was halfway to the other side when the soldier threw the flamethrower across his back, leapt over the rail and grabbed at the lights.

  The cables and structures to which Mel grasped pitched violently with the additional weight causing both her hands to slip. Her legs held her for an instant and then also let go.

  She fell only a few short feet before another piece of the tangled lighting structure snagged her from the open air. Mel wrapped both her arms and legs around the giant metal piece that held her. Then like a switch had been thrown off inside her body, she stopped moving entirely.

  She hung there motionlessly a few feet below the flaming lights and the chasing soldier. The part of her mind guiding her movements had become completely overrun by the intense onslaught of fright.

  "Mel!" Brandon screamed. He pulled himself groggily to his feet and hobbled to the rails along the ledge. Blood covered his entire left side, and his body rocked on top of unsteady legs.

  The soldier secured himself across the flaming light cables and edged closer towards where Mel was perched.

  "Mel!" Brandon yelled again and with obvious pain in his effort climbed to the top of the rails.

  "Brandon don't!" Kirken called after him raising himself from the small flames burning around him on the floor.

  But it was too late. Brandon had already jumped. His arms and legs flailed through the sudden expanse of open air. His body fell just behind the J.G.U. soldier, and his arms snaked quickly around the tangle of sharp cables. Finding his grip, he hung suspended above the faraway ground.

  The lights lurched and twisted beneath the sudden strain of Brandon's weight causing the soldier to turn his attention away from Mel. He slid swiftly back across the cables towards Brandon and rammed his fist into the center of Brandon's left eye.

  The blow snapped Brandon's head back in surprise jarring his hands loose. Brandon's arms flailed frantically out as his body started to fall. He dropped halfway past the soldier when one of his hands hooked across the soldier's weapons belt.

  The soldier dropped the flamethrower and clung desperately
with both hands to the hanging cables while Brandon clutched at his legs and waist. Their legs dangled next to each other precariously over the drop.

  The soldier shook his lower body trying to free his legs and kick Brandon away. Brandon slid further down the length of his body until he caught himself again on the soldier's feet.

  Kirken ran to the edge of the rail. He leaned over close to the soldier’s back and fired a round into the center of his shoulder. His body reacting both from pain and surprise, the soldier's hands released instantly from the cable.

  Brandon clambered up the man's body as they both started to drop. His hands, like the soldier's next to him, whipped out desperately toward the cable structure. Grabbing only open air, the soldier crashed through the last of the lighting and tumbled to the flaming darkness below.

  Brandon swung from the single cable he managed to grasp with one hand and watched his body fall.

  Kirken reached out and grabbing Brandon's other outstretched arm hauled him back to the edge. With pain screaming from his twisted shoulder, Kirken hoisted Brandon's own battered frame back over the rails.

  When Brandon was lying safely again on solid ground, Kirken ran back to the ledge and called to his daughter. Her legs and arms still clutched rigidly about the wreckage of the hanging lights.

  "C'mon," he said leaning over and reaching his hand out to her. "Not that way. You have to come back. That’s not the way we need to go."

  Mel didn't look back and only tightened her grip around the mesh of cables wrapped about her.

  "Now, Mel,” he pleaded to her softly. "You have to come back now. There isn’t any more time."

  Behind him, Brandon pulled himself back to his feet. He walked next to Kirken and reached his own hand out to her.

  "C'mon, Mel," Kirken begged again. His voice was barely audible to himself, but he didn't have the strength left in his body to make it increase. "I promise we’ll get out. All three of us. But only if we go right now."