“Our fears have come to fruition. My fault. All my fault.” Alpha sounded near tears as he spoke. Recalling he was not alone, Alpha asked, “And the men who took your fellow officers at The Inferno?”
“As far as I can tell they work for Daniel’s, but something doesn’t make sense about them. They are too well-trained to be run of the mill security or hired muscle.”
The explosion cut off any further words Steve was going to say and the force of the blast sent the two of them reeling.
Part III: Harvest
Chapter 28
Kunnert watched as his team dragged the limp bodies of those they encountered back to their insertion point for evacuation as each team had been instructed. The immobilizing tranquilizer was a particularly potent brew and would keep them docile for hours. Each team member had been made to understand that every inhabitant was valuable but, with the exception of the young, expendable if necessary. No word of a kill had been heard over the radio, which gave Kunnert the impression that, for the time being, everything was going according to plan.
Each team member had already silently subdued dozens of targets, who were being prepped for extraction. The remainder of his vast insurgents pushed deeper into the earth toward the core of the silver mine. Kunnert knew the mission would not stay on the quiet for much longer, but he hoped to keep the advantage of surprise for as long as possible. The people living in this place were sheep for the most part, but they did outnumber his teams by approximately 100:1. He was concerned about a stampede effect should the sheep ever get wise to the number of wolves amongst them.
Kunnert hadn’t expected to hear an explosion so when the sound of it blasted through his earpiece into his naked ears, it had come as a complete surprise. He reacted as swiftly and efficiently as he did back in his military days when he’d come under fire.
“Take them to the surface and secure them!” Kunnert bellowed as his men dragged the unconscious behind them and carried those children small enough to be most easily expedited. “If any resist beyond a controllable level, shoot them!”
One soldier called back, “With the tranqs or lead, sir?”
“Either! Those who come quietly can live. Those who do not still have value but are ultimately expendable from this point forward!”
Kunnert was visibly uncomfortable with the chaos swirling around him and his men. The unfamiliar fingers of claustrophobia began to work their way up his back even though the underground cavern he currently found himself in was vast and open. At this point he could have been inside an arena. He watched his men hustle figures of all ages up and out of the cavern into the tunnels leading to the ventilation shafts they had entered. One soldier wrenched a toddler away from its wailing mother who screamed and grabbed for her child as another man knocked her to the ground and kicked her as she tried to rise. Her cries grew more insistent as the soldier pinned her to the ground by placing his boot on her chest; she pleaded with the man to give her child back while the masked man regarded her through his goggles. The soldier pulled his sidearm from its holster and shot the woman in the head twice before swinging the butt of his weapon to brain another adult who tried to bolt past him.
Information poured into Kunnert’s earpiece as he moved. The current number of “volunteers” that had been removed had just hit eight hundred and Kunnert knew that he and his team were sure to reach the goal of one thousand within minutes. Kunnert began walking toward the extraction point. He left the open cavern for the more restrictive tunnels when another call came over the wireless.
“Sir! We have located our missing operative.”
“What’s her condition?”
“Unconscious, but stable.”
“Is there any indication whether or not she might have compromised us?”
“Nothing in the room but medical supplies and machinery. Looks more like they were trying to heal her rather than torture her.”
“Roger that. Get her out with the rest.”
“Yes sir.”
Another soldier’s voice came over Kunnert’s earpiece along with the sound of automatic gunfire.
“Older subjects being eliminated as ordered.” The soldier’s voice started out calm but that quickly turned to abject panic. “My God! Someone just dropped on us from above! What the…holy shit!!! We need back up now! Some…thing is tearing through us! Can’t risk a shot, target not clear …N-NO!!! The sender began to scream in a shrill, soul tearing wail which was quickly replaced by a wet gurgling sound and a background noise of inhuman growling.
By the time the soldier’s radio went silent Kunnert had sprung into action. He called for all men with “viables” to evacuate with their captives while those without captives were to pinpoint the location of the signal from the downed radio and purge the area. Each man was given directions to the location from the surface where satellite technology had mapped the entire cave system beneath the ground. With organized precision the men filed into the area and awaited orders to enter the adjoining cavern where the sounds of men dying were emanating in eerie moans.
Requests to proceed went into Kunnert’s ear as he held his position just inside the mouth of a tunnel that emptied into the cavern he had previously come from with a dozen of his men on his heels. Kunnert told the men to hold position until the remaining reinforcements arrived, but as he spoke the sound of gunfire and the screams of men boomed back to him from another location within the labyrinth. Then his radio went silent again. Kunnert stopped in his tracks, as did the men behind him. He listened to the sounds, or the lack thereof, coming over the open channel. A sound like the scraping of a microphone over stone burst painfully into the sound piece in his ear. A guttural rumbling and heavy breathing could be heard. Kunnert frowned as he listened to what sounded more like an animal than a man breathe into the receiver. Whatever was on the other end suddenly bellowed out a roar that exploded into the earpieces with such volume all the men wearing earpieces around him raised their hands to their ears in pain.
From all outward appearances Kunnert did not react to the sound coming from the speakers, but if anyone of his men dared to look closely enough they would have seen recognition flash over his chiseled face…recognition and terror.
“Everyone out now! Fall back to the extraction point and terminate all non personnel as you exit. Anyone not out in ten will be left behind!”
Not a single man hesitated with any iota of indecision or remorse regarding their fallen comrades. Orders were followed as each man from Kunnert’s team hastily retreated to their extraction points, shooting anyone who wasn’t wearing the commando gear they were wearing. Each man moved forward and covered the others as they ran passed, taking up a shooters stance some fifty feet ahead and covering the men from the rear as they repeated the drill. At one point a lone woman tackled one of the advancing men with such force the sound of bones breaking could be heard as he hit the ground. The woman sprang to her feet and lifted the man off the ground as if he were a mere child, placing him between her and the rest of the commandos like a human shield. Kunnert ordered his men to open fire and the men complied instantly, filling their fellow soldier and the woman full of high velocity rounds before she had any chance of realizing her plan wasn’t going to work.
Further down the tunnel they were attacked again, this time by a trio of nearly naked women who looked as though they belonged in the Playboy mansion, not in a modified silver mine. The women’s nakedness shocked the men for the briefest of moments; they used this hesitation to attack. Blood was flying and necks were breaking as the women tore a brutal path toward Kunnert and his main host of commandos.
“Hunters!” Kunnert yelled as the majority of his remaining men reacted to the call with professional precision.
The tunnel was immediately thrown into a blinding series of light flashes as Kunnert tossed one of Dr. Whelan’s prize flash bang grenades. The special goggles each of the mercenaries wore filtered out the light. The three women immediately fell to the floor.
The women were secured and removed with several other inhabitants as Kunnert covered their escape until he was the last man in the tunnel at the base of the mineshaft. He was about to take hold of the rope ladder when he was hit full force by another woman. She wasn’t nude like the others, but she avoided his blows as if she could read his thoughts and react to his attacks faster than his own body could.
Kunnert quickly realized the woman had a greater than expected level of strength. When she grabbed his wrist and pressed his gun hand to the tunnel wall he found he could not free himself from her grasp. The fingers of her other hand encircled his throat and twisted his head to the side. With his free hand Kunnert grabbed the woman’s long black hair and pulled. Even his best efforts only slowed her oncoming teeth toward his neck. He grunted and strained with the effort, but to no avail. He could feel her warm breath on the skin of his neck.
The sound of something heavy striking bone filled his ears and the woman fell slack to the floor of the tunnel. Kunnert shook himself back to the moment to see one of his men standing next to him with the girl at his feet.
“You all right, sir?” One of Kunnert’s mercenaries asked.
“Fine. She alive?” Kunnert asked taking in the full vision of Lei lying sprawled on the ground.
“She’ll live. That is, unless you say otherwise.” The mercenary pointed the barrel of his rifle at Lei’s head.
Kunnert considered a moment, then said, “She’s no longer a threat and is still valuable, take her too.”
“Yes sir.”
Chapter 29
The sound of the explosion was amplified through the rock walled chambers of the room where Steve and Alpha stood. From the spot on the floor where he landed, Steve covered his hands over his head and ears in a protective gesture as he watched the dust and debris settle back to the floor. The sound of automatic gunfire replaced the ringing in his ears when his sense of hearing returned.
The sound of gunfire stopped as abruptly as it had started. Steve felt a pang of relief until the shrill piercing sound of people screaming replaced the explosion of gunfire. More gunfire erupted from within the labyrinth as Alpha bolted toward the chamber’s only opening, shouting commands to others who seemed to materialize out of the air. Steve ran after him through that sole entrance/exit and was able to see the vastness of what had taken place below the earth and inside the old silver mine. Everything had been chiseled from solid rock, complete with stairways and vast bridges stretching the estimated three hundred feet at its widest point.
The platform Steve stood on was part of a spiraling ramp running along the outside of the open area and serving as a gradual ascent and descent. Steve stood on the sloping spiral perhaps fifty feet above the bottom of the cavern with a view of the entire chamber. It rose another hundred feet to the rock ceiling above and around three hundred feet across. Electricity was available on every level, along with what Steve guessed to be thirty-by-thirty squared depressions cut into the rock walls in a honeycomb fashion, evenly spaced at every second revolution of the spiral.
“Damn Alpha!” Steve thought out loud as he took in the majesty of the scene. “You have really been busy!”
These spaces must be living areas. Each was sparsely furnished and decorated with completely different styles. Some had fabric coverings, others had elaborate wicker doors. All were flung wide open as people gathered their belongings and, in some cases, children or pets. A familiar flow of air ruffled his hair slightly as if he were standing in a light breeze, but Steve knew this was refrigerated air devoid of humidity. The overall scene looked like a grand national park or museum filled with amenities.
Steve moved to the railing that protected walkers from the fifty foot drop down to the floor of the cavern. He ran along the railing and peered over the side to see men in full combat gear shooting automatic weapons directly into the crowd of people. The callous, cold-blooded horror of the scene turned Steve’s blood to ice. Without thinking he ran down the circular ramp which spiraled to the bottom.
Steve realized he had no way of saving anyone and had less of an idea of what he might do when he reached the people or the gunmen below. His instincts as a former hunter for his people and a current LAPD Detective overwhelmed his ability to register conscious thought. He had barely made it down one full circle of the ramp when something large and black fell past him, hurtling down to the bottom of the cavern in free fall.
Initially fearful that a second group of assailants may have reached the floors above him and were throwing people over the railing, Steve quickly realized it had been Alpha dropping the remaining fifty feet into the melee below. With his black leather coat fluttering behind him as he descended, Steve watched as Alpha softened his fall by landing on two of the assailants and rolling with the remaining impact. Instantly, Alpha was in motion, ripping rifles from the hands of the gunmen and bringing them back around to smash the flesh and bone of their former owners. Steve watched in utter amazement as the heavily armed gunmen, who were now holding their fire for fear of shooting their own, fell around the whirlwind that was Alpha.
Steve had been sprinting down the spiral ramp without realizing it and completed the rest of the descent as the last man hit the floor. Ignoring both Alpha and the soldiers, he began checking the victims who had been gunned down mere moments ago. The sound of gunfire in another area of the labyrinth sent Alpha off through another tunnel and out of the cavern leaving Steve alone with the multiple mounds of humanity. The first six bodies Steve checked were dead, an apparent mercy from the brutality the ammunition had rendered unto them. The next few were either dead or clinging to life, but far beyond the ability to help. When Steve checked the last victim his heart sank. The body of the young teenage boy was already starting to cool.
Steve’s eyes searched the cavern floor and found one of the automatic weapons Alpha had wrenched from the grasp of the soldiers. He picked up the weapon, ejected the magazine, found it to be empty and tossed the magazine aside. Bending to the nearest soldier he rifled through the man’s pockets until he found three identical fully loaded magazine clips. Quickly, Steve tried the first one in the automatic rifle and it clicked into placed with machined perfection. As he placed the remaining two magazines into his pockets a moan came from the man on the ground beneath him. Surprised, Steve jumped back at the sound. The man’s moan was a wheezing rasp; Steve noticed bloody foam coming from his mouth as he struggled to breathe. Apparently, Alpha had broken the man’s ribs with enough force that one, or several, had punctured a lung. Not an immediately fatal wound if treated quickly, but very painful and frightening for the sufferer. The man extended a hand out to Steve, a plea for help, but Steve backed away, cocked the rifle and fired into the man’s head, blowing his brains out the back of his skull.
Chapter 30
Steve didn’t move after he fired the shot. He just stood there looking down, still pointing the rifle at the man he had just killed, completely shocked and confused by what he had just done. He had just fatally shot a helpless man. Never, even during his years as one of Alpha’s hunters, had he killed so callously as this. His body had taken on a will of its own. He glanced over at the dead boy on the floor. The boy had received four rounds to various places within his torso. The damage was so extensive he’d practically been eviscerated by the entry and exit trauma of the bullets. It was then Steve understood what he had done and why. He had taken a measure of revenge for his people who had been gunned down.
More screams were coming from the tunnels, more gunfire erupting in the distance. Steve broke from the open area of the cavern and ran into the tunnel where he had seen Alpha disappear. The tunnels were a complicated maze; Steve worried he might not remember his way and start traveling in circles. Electricity was still available in the tunnels, but to a minimal degree, especially compared to the main chamber. The lights spaced throughout the tunnel were red, perhaps as a shield against the UV light the people living here were so careful to avoid. Unfortunately, these lights
only gave off enough brightness to make travel possible. Any details were lost in the eerie red glow.
Steve stalked forward carefully, barely able to hear the gunfire and raised voices in the distance. He hadn’t seen any evidence he was in the right tunnel for leading him to civilians or to the commandos. Bodies began to appear on the ground. More victims, a mass of unarmed people shot with high velocity bullets from an automatic rifle at close range. Steve’s anxiety and confusion over killing the soldier ebbed as he surveyed the scene which was becoming more gruesome with every step. No one, it would appear, was to be spared. The dead included the elderly; Steve noticed there hadn’t been any children under teen age in the area of the initial slaughter.
He walked further down the tunnel, stepping carefully over the bodies until he glimpsed a commando sitting with his back propped up against the tunnel wall. The man seemed peaceful as if to be resting, but judging from the way his arms and head hung slack, Steve could tell the man was either unconscious or dead. He pressed forward. The number of civilian dead dwindled as the commando casualties began to increase. Alpha had found them. Deeper within the tunnels the sound of gunfire and men’s screams grew louder. Alpha had found more of them.
Keeping the barrel of the rifle pointed in front of him, Steve moved more quickly toward the sound of the conflict. The gunfire stopped, at least in the area toward which he was moving. Now only the desperate cries of men could be heard along with voices pleading for mercy. As Steve rounded another corner he was faced with a fork in the tunnel in an area he didn’t recognize. Desperately, he looked for some clue as to which path would take him to the source of the sounds. Nothing presented itself, or at least Steve wasn’t able to find one in the dim light in his heightened state of anxiety.
Blood Harvest Page 18