Movement to the right drew her focus and relief flooded through her. Running down through a field of fluorescing flora, Sarah waved at her friends.
‘Sarah!’ Trish’s voice came through her helmet’s speakers. ‘You’re alive!’
‘They captured it,’ Sarah said, watching as her friends and the remnants of Alpha Six changed course towards her. ‘They captured the light!’
‘Who captured it?’
Sarah went to reply but another clap of thunder rumbled through the chamber and a flicker of distant light lit up the land.
Riley separated himself from the group and ran up the hill towards her. Sarah ran to meet him and they shared a fierce embrace.
‘Are you okay?’ he said, holding her close.
She nodded, looking into his eyes.
‘I thought …’ he said, searching her face.
‘Those soldiers saved me.’
‘Soldiers?’
‘Chrome armour.’
Riley’s expression hardened. ‘We need to get back to the SED. As much as I hate to admit it, Locke was right, we need to—’
Something whizzed past her head.
‘Get down!’ He shoved her to the floor as bullets peppered the ground around them.
Sarah saw Trish and Jason take cover with Locke and Jefferson.
The barrage stopped and Riley dragged her to her feet. They looked back the way they’d come. An armoured figure stood atop a distant hilltop.
He raised a glowing sword in the air.
A swell of noise made the ground tremble and hundreds of soldiers, green eyes glowing in the shadowlight, appeared over the rise. The man held his pose before dropping the blade to point at her. A roar went up and the soldiers surged down the slope.
♦
Colonel Samson followed his men down into the valley as Morgan and Orton fled before them. Behind, his battalion continued to pour in through the massive gateway. There would be no escape. He secured the sword onto his back-plate as he ran, then picked up the pace, his heavy shod boots eating up the soft ground.
Topping another gradient, a strange vision made Samson slow. A few hundred yards to the north-west Ophion and his assassins surrounded a … what is that? he thought.
Stopping, he zoomed in his visor to see something seethed and fought beneath a blanket of electricity.
One of his officers drew alongside him. ‘Shall we engage S.I.L.V.E.R.?’
Samson hesitated as he stared at the beast struggling in torment. A sudden flood of emotions swamped him and visions of restraint and torture tore apart his mind. Samson staggered as pain lanced through his head.
‘Colonel, what’s wrong?’
Samson grasped the man’s breastplate and dragged him towards him, as a vision of Malcolm Joiner swam before his eyes. ‘Let him go, Colonel,’ Joiner said, ‘don’t forget your daughter!’
‘Sir,’ another soldier said, ‘there’s an opening ahead, Morgan and Orton are heading for it, if they get to it …’
‘The best course of action will be for you to find this woman and return the pendant to this base,’ Joiner’s vision said. ‘Harming Ophion will be counterproductive to your cause.’
Samson pulled the officer closer and stared into the man’s visor. ‘Forget S.I.L.V.E.R., I want Morgan.’
He let the man go and removed his pills from his utility belt. Opening his mask, he knocked back the whole bottle. Chewing them down, he resealed his helmet and refocused on his fleeing prey.
Samson took an unsteady step forward, followed by a stronger one and then another after that.
‘Tear Sanctuary apart if you have to,’ Malcolm Joiner’s voice whispered in his mind, ‘whatever it takes, whatever the cost, that pendant must be retrieved.’
Samson’s walk turned into a jog, and the jog into a running lope.
The woman? he thought.
‘Secondary,’ the voice said, ‘alive is better, dead will do.’
Samson switched up a gear, his mighty legs eating up the ground faster and faster. Arms and heart pumping, the thrill of the chase coursed through his veins as he overtook his men to retake the lead. All he had eyes for were the two figures in the distance and a single thought filled his mind … KILL SARAH MORGAN!
Chapter Twenty Nine
Sarah looked over her shoulder at the horde of soldiers swarming over the hills towards them. Five hundred yards closer, Trish and Jason ran before them while Dresden Locke and what remained of Alpha Six angled away to the east.
Sarah slowed her pace, but Riley pushed her on. ‘Keep going!’
‘My friends!’ Sarah said.
The whiz of stray bullets made her duck.
‘They’ll have to take their chances!’ Riley pointed above them. ‘We’re nearly there, look!’
Sarah looked up as she ran. A small mountain loomed above them and at its peak a dark opening led to another chamber.
More ragged seconds passed and they reached the bottom of a huge staircase carved out of the rock. Sarah felt her adrenaline falter as she looked up at the climb and she stopped to catch her breath.
Riley mounted the first oversized step and held out his hand. ‘Come on!’
She shook her head. ‘I can’t do this anymore.’ She looked back at her struggling friends in despair.
Riley came back and grasped her by the shoulders. ‘Sarah, look at me. The man leading those soldiers is out of his mind. If they catch us, he will kill us, do you hear me?’
She looked back to see a single armoured figure running ahead of the rest. ‘We have nowhere to go.’
‘Your pendant,’ he said, as he touched the chain at her neck. ‘It has power, that’s how you got into Sanctuary, isn’t it? That’s how you planned to get out. You still can.’
‘No, we need a transportation device.’
‘Then we’ll find it!’
She looked into his eyes with lost hope. ‘We?’
He touched her face. ‘I’ll come with you.’
She looked at him, her heart breaking. ‘After everything I’ve done? I betrayed you, I betrayed you all – Cora – she died because of me.’
He glanced back with anxious eyes. ‘I know you didn’t kill her and you did what you had to do, I get that.’
‘The SED, Sanctuary, you’d leave all that for me?’
Bullets zinged off the stones around them. ‘Yes, now MOVE!’ Riley hauled her forward and she found herself climbing up as her mind swam.
More seconds flashed by and with each passing step Sarah felt her strength returning
They passed halfway and another glance back revealed Trish and Jason had made it to the base of the mountain, although the soldiers behind had narrowed the gap.
Riley grunted in pain and faltered.
‘What’s wrong?!’
‘I’m okay.’ He carried on climbing, but Sarah saw blood on the step behind.
She clambered up after him, the stairs getting steeper and steeper. ‘You’re shot!’
‘It’s just a scratch,’ – he gestured ahead – ‘look, not much further.’
She looked up to see the void above was close. Breathing hard, more moments of exertion passed before they found the steps narrowing as the staircase angled up into a vertical ladder. Steps were now rungs and Sarah felt precarious as they reached the final stone and …
… a dead end.
The stone ladder had fallen short of its destination, the last few rungs having collapsed eons past.
Sarah gazed up in panic at the large stone slab that had recently swung down from above and the dark opening beyond. ‘There’s no way up!’
‘I’ll boost you up.’ Riley braced himself against a ledge and interlaced his fingers.
She looked down to see Trish and Jason getting closer and the maniac behind bearing down on them. ‘They’re not going to make it!’
Riley glanced back. ‘They might. But we need to get out so we can help them up.’
Sarah looked back up. ‘It’s too high!’
>
‘Sarah, look at me.’ He turned her chin towards him. ‘Remember who you are, you’re Deep Reach. You can do this!’
Sarah stared into his eyes, took a breath and placed her foot into his hands.
‘On three,’ he said. ‘One – two – three!’
Riley forced his arms up and Sarah pushed out with her legs to propel herself up into mid-air. Reaching out a hand, the split second of weightlessness ended as her fingers grasped an outcrop above. She gritted her teeth, reached out with her other hand and found another point of purchase, before wedging herself into a vertical crack. She felt the weight of the orb slip from her coveralls. With lightning reflexes, Riley caught the artefact just as Trish and Jason rejoined them.
‘They’re coming!’ Jason said.
Out of breath Trish waved her on. ‘Sarah, GO!’
Two hundred yards down, the armoured form of the colonel tore up the steps towards them. His fearsome glowing mask locked onto Sarah.
A thrill of fear swept through her and she held out her hand.
Riley pocketed the orb and threw her a rope. Catching it, she turned and worked her way up to the chamber above. Seconds later she emerged into colder air. Clipping the rope to her harness, she turned and dropped it back down the hole, stepped back and braced herself. ‘I’m ready!’
Moments later a hand appeared on the ledge; Riley hauled himself up before a scream came from below.
Riley looked at her in shock. ‘Sarah—’
His hand slipped from the ledge and he disappeared from view. The rope snapped taut and Sarah was dragged across the ground. Scrabbling for grip, she skidded to the edge and jerked to a halt as she clung to a crack in the surface. She felt the force from below increase. With her hold failing, the rope went slack and Sarah released it from her harness.
She rolled away from the hole before an armoured hand appeared, clamping down onto the stone lip with a metallic clunk. Sarah scrambled back as a pair of glowing green eyes emerged from the pit like the spawn of Satan.
Gripped with terror, Sarah’s feet scrabbled for traction on the dusty ground. A split second later and she was sprinting into the dark.
Chapter Thirty
Contador Valantis glanced round to see the massed ranks of Terra Force steaming through the fluorescing ecosystem like a herd of stampeding cattle. Blind beasts chasing a deranged master, he thought. And what consideration do they have for this precious habitat, untouched for millennia?
None, was his answer. He’d been hoping the madman would try to attack. What better way to die than to be outnumbered by a thousand to one?
Ophion Nexus signalled to him. ‘Assemble the transportation sled.’
Valantis nodded to his leader while the Pharos continued to fight against its restraints. It didn’t seem to realise, the harder it fought the more painful its prison became.
He crouched down and gazed into where its eyes should have been. ‘Not even the gods,’ he whispered to it, ‘fight necessity.’
Taking one last look at the glimmering beast, Valantis moved to clear ground and released the clamps from his armour’s back-plate.
As he bent down to ready the equipment for assembly, movement behind made him pause. Whirling round, he pointed his rifle into empty space. He frowned and searched the area with his scope.
A soft breeze rippled the surrounding reeds and a small insect buzzed around him before flying up past his visor and away into the night.
He relaxed while unseen behind him a massive form flowed out of the ground. Valantis tensed as he felt its presence and swung back round to see a mass of teeth plunge towards his head.
♦
Gunfire and a scream of death made Ophion reach for his weapons. Fifty feet away, Valantis hung suspended in the air before blood gushed and his severed torso fell to the ground with a sickening thud.
At the same time the Pharos in the trap fell silent and the cables holding it went slack. One moment it was there … the next it was not.
‘S.I.L.V.E.R.,’ Ophion said, ‘TO ME!’
The chrome warriors formed up beside their leader with weapons drawn.
The Pharos that had been trapped swirled up from the ground, its shimmering form phasing through solid matter to appear beside its mate.
‘Shall we try to kill them?’ Zhang Bai said.
A roar of sound to the left made them turn to see another light shimmer into being.
‘No,’ Ophion said, closing his visor, ‘we try to live.’
Chapter Thirty One
‘You can hide, Morgan, but you can’t run!’
Sarah stood behind the pillar of an ancient ruin, scared eyes searching for the man that hunted her. Steeling herself, she ran to the next pillar over.
She heard the mechanical sound of a weapon being cocked.
‘I see you, Morgan!’
Sarah crept back from the stone column before bullets tore into it. She dived left, rolled to her feet and ran behind a wall.
A blast of stone exploded next to her, and then another. Terrified, she ducked as another hole appeared where her head had been.
‘Walls won’t protect you!’
Sarah sprinted away, up some crumbling steps and into another section of the ruins. A thunderous explosion rocked the ground and a cloud of dust billowed up into the darkness. Sarah peeked around a corner and her visor revealed an army of soldiers flooding out from the ground below. Heart racing, she shut her eyes.
‘I have your friends!’ The colonel’s voice echoed through the ruins. ‘I have your lover! Surrender yourself or I’ll execute them … one by one!’
Sarah peered out from her hiding place.
Two hundred feet away, Riley, Trish and Jason were forced to their knees in the middle of a massive plaza.
‘We’ve played this game before, Morgan! I guarantee this will have a different outcome!’ The colonel strode up to Riley, drew a sidearm and shot him in the shoulder. Riley cried out in pain and toppled to the floor, while Trish sobbed in terror.
‘That was a warning shot!’ Samson said. ‘You have three seconds! One – two—’
‘Okay!’ Sarah said, standing. ‘Okay!’
Wiping a tear from an eye, she walked back down the steps in a daze and moved out beneath an arch with her hands raised.
The chamber’s ceiling flickered with light and distant thunder rumbled.
The colonel walked forward and pressed a button on his helmet. His visor and mask retracted to reveal ice-cold eyes. ‘Give me the pendant,’ he said, holding out his hand.
Sarah reached to her neck just as something metallic whirred past through the air. The strange object stopped to hover above Samson’s head and he looked up in surprise.
BANG!! Light exploded and smoke billowed out in clouds. More detonations and flashes erupted all around and Sarah felt someone grasp her hand to pull her back into the growing fog.
Blinded by the light, Sarah ran from shouts of fury, allowing herself to be led on until gunfire cracked out. ‘Stop!’ the colonel said, ‘or die!’
Sarah felt her would-be saviour slow to a halt before releasing her hand. She rubbed her eyes in an attempt to clear her sight and turned to see the colonel emerge from the smoke.
♦
Samson’s troops formed up behind him while he squinted with hazy vision at the shadowy figure beside Morgan.
A torch blinked on to shine into his eyes and Samson lowered his visor to block out the glare. ‘Any last words, stranger?’
‘I think you should leave the girl alone,’ the man said.
The colonel’s expression changed to one of recognition. ‘You should have stayed dead.’
‘And you should have stayed away.’
Samson laughed. ‘You escaped me once; but this time you’re one lone man,’ – he raised his rifle – ‘about to be one dead man.’
‘Who said anything about being alone?’
A half-dozen armoured shadows shimmered into existence, rifles raised.
&nbs
p; Samson shook his head and chuckled. ‘Terra Force!’
The sound of a thousand weapons being made ready echoed through the dark, while many more soldiers continued to stream in from all sides.
‘You’re outnumbered,’ Samson said, the glint of murder in his eyes, ‘six hundred to one. As I said,’ – he cocked the trigger – ‘any last words?’
Purple lightning blazed across the heavens and a clap of thunder rumbled overhead.
‘Just one.’ Richard Goodwin stepped out of the shadows. ‘… DARKLIGHT!’
Samson’s eyes widened as thousands more black-clad warriors shimmered into existence amongst the ruins, blue eyes glowing like an army of the gods.
He took an involuntary step back and Goodwin gave a grim smile. ‘You never were any good at counting, Colonel.’
Samson bared his teeth and pulled forth his sword. ‘And I told you I’d gut you like a pig.’ He activated the weapon, sending its blade shining white hot.
Another crack of thunder reverberated through the chamber.
Unmoved, Goodwin looked up at the electrical storm as flashes of purple lightning lit up his dark army. ‘I’m ready to die, Colonel,’ – he looked back into Samson’s eyes – ‘the question is … are you?’
Chapter Thirty Two
Sarah held her breath as the colonel glanced in her direction. A look of doubt crept into his eyes, induced perhaps by the abnormal calm of the man beside her.
A roar of sound made Sarah glance right. A glimmer of blue-green light emerged from the ground, followed soon after by another.
The man next to her grasped her hand and a shout of warning made her look left as a third shimmering form appeared.
The beast let out a deep, menacing growl and the colonel took another step back.
Time stretched into slow motion and a break in the storm created a vacuum of silence.
Sarah felt the man’s grip tighten.
Thunder rumbled again and a bolt of lightning struck the ruins. The creatures roared in defiance and Samson turned to Terra Force and raised his sword. ‘KILL THEM ALL!’
2041 Sanctuary (Genesis) Page 16