The Dying of the Light (Book 3): Beginning

by Jason Kristopher

  The first creature didn’t even scream as she landed on top of it. The inertia of her fall drove the knife through the top of its head with gruesome force. It twitched once and lay still, but Eden didn’t care. She was already up and moving toward Alpha, who had turned toward her as she dropped onto his fellow.

  “You! The Hunter! I’ve been waiting for this!”

  She recognized that deep voice. The scream he let out at her chilled her to the bone and echoed off the hillside, but she couldn’t let it faze her. The two mortal enemies closed the distance in a flash, and she grappled with the stronger monster as it lunged at her. She felt its claws rake against her hood but not catch, and she spun around. She wrapped her legs around its chest from behind and grabbed its head between her hands. The Driebach shrieked again and slammed her backward into the rock face. The air whooshed out of her lungs, but she managed to cling to the creature’s neck as it leaned forward again.

  “I’ll kill you, and we’ll feast!” the Driebach yelled. “No, even better, you’ll be my mate after I’ve turned you!”

  This was not going at all like she’d planned.

  “Didn’t you hear me?” Eden shouted as she pounded a fist into the creature’s neck again and again. “Weren’t you there? I’m immune, you asshole!”

  There was a crack from somewhere below and the whine of a ricochet to her left. Not far to her left, either. She wrapped her arm around the monster’s neck, getting its throat in the crook of her elbow as she glanced downward.

  Marquez and company were down there in the open, rifles raised and pointing at the two combatants. She wouldn’t put it past Giuliani to take the opportunity to get rid of her here and now, and she wouldn’t blame him if he did.

  The Driebach cackled as it slammed her into the wall again, scrabbling with its claws to dislodge her. Her arm loosened around its throat with the force of the impact, and she cried out as the repeated blows aggravated her old rib injury. She felt herself pulled forward again as the Driebach staggered close to the edge.

  “Take you with me,” Alpha coughed. “Vengeance for the others.” He lurched forward, leaning over the low rock wall. The drop to the forest floor was at least forty feet, if not more, and a bouncing-down-the-rocks forty feet at that.

  Eden shook her head in a last-ditch attempt to clear it and let go of the monster with her arm and legs. She shoved hard against its back and cried out again as she landed on her side on the small rock shelf.

  The Driebach wasn’t so lucky and fell down the hillside. She heard the small avalanche it started and worried about her team but couldn’t seem to get her breath back. There was another scream from the monster below followed by a fusillade of rifle shots, then nothing.

  She stayed still and lay there trying to get her breath back and forget about the pain in her ribs. “What a fucking mess,” she muttered. A moment later, there was a double-tap from below. Finishing off the Driebach, she knew. Making sure was SOP.

  “You might as well come down, Blake,” Marquez said loud enough that she could hear it clearly. “We know you’re up there.”

  Eden didn’t move. She couldn’t summon the give-a-damn, not to mention the energy, to come down the hillside at the moment. But she could answer. What difference did it make now anyway?

  “No, thanks, I’m fine right here,” she said, and her laugh turned into a choking cough. “Ow.”

  “We’ll come up and get you, then.”

  “Whatever, man. Come on up. I’m just gonna lie here for a minute.”

  She heard the team start to climb her way. She heard the mutters and the flippant “Fuck you, man,” from Giuliani, which she expected. No way was he going to climb forty feet of rock just to see her.

  A few minutes later, she saw Marquez’s head pop up over the wall, followed by the rest of him. He was soon joined by Foretti.

  “You look like shit, Blake,” Marquez said, not unkindly.

  “Fuck you, Lieutenant,” she said, equally light hearted.

  “Where have you been?”

  “I did a little gardening,” Eden said. “Where the hell do you think I’ve been?”

  Marquez glanced around and saw the other Driebach she’d stapled to the ground with her knife. He let out a low whistle. “There were two of them?”

  “Yep.” She inserted as much nonchalance in her tone as she could.

  “We should be back at the base, prepping for the mission. But we got reports of another Driebach in the area, and we tracked it to here.”

  Eden snorted. “It was tracking you, LT. It was waiting up here for you. They. They were waiting up here for you.”

  Marquez nodded. “So I gathered. And you took them on. Why not just shoot them?”

  Eden looked away and studied the rock above her head. “No reason.”

  “You just saved our lives. Or at the very least made our job easier. Why do that the hard way?”

  Eden sighed and met his gaze. “I didn’t want you to know I was here. I was trying to stealth it. I didn’t see the second one.”

  “The others, they were you too?” Marquez asked.

  Eden looked away but said nothing.

  “Seventeen Driebach corpses have been recovered in the two months since you’ve been gone, all either knifed in the head or shot at close range. All left out in the open, easy to spot. Word was that there was a ghost Driebach hunting the others. Most thought you had died and turned and were some sort of vengeance demon. But I figured there was more to the story. Guess I was right.”

  “Nineteen,” Eden mumbled, not including Sariva in that count. She’d figure that out later too, she supposed.

  Foretti shook his head and grinned. “You tried to stealth a Driebach so we wouldn’t know you were here.”

  “She’s been protecting all of us this whole time,” Marquez said. “Haven’t you?”

  Eden sighed. “Something like that.”

  “Why the fuck would you do that?” Foretti asked.

  Eden shrugged as she sat up against a flattish rock. She held a hand to her injured side. “You don’t need me. You’re better off without me, but there’s more than just you back at the base.” She sighed. “And because you might want to take me back if you found me.”

  Marquez looked at her for a long moment, his head tilted to one side. “Forget that other crap. You’re one of the best Hunters I’ve ever seen, even if you are a royal pain in my ass and a screwup sometimes.” He paused and looked around. “Nice place to get lost, though.”

  He stood from his crouch and dusted off his hands as he looked down at her. “The question isn’t whether I’d take you back to the base. The question is, do you want to go?”

  He held out a hand, and Eden knew it wasn’t just to help her up. It was a peace offering of sorts. She looked up at him and at Foretti, both of whom returned her gaze without flinching. Foretti might’ve even smiled a bit.

  Her impetuousness had nearly gotten her killed. Again. Could she go back? Could she be better? Could she learn to be better? To maybe, one day, be a leader? She thought it over, her mind racing as Marquez stood there.

  If she went back, she’d still have to deal with everyone’s varying attitudes toward her. Whether they liked her or hated her because of who and what she was. But the more she thought about it, the more she realized that she was never going to be anyone other than that person at her core. She would always be Eden Blake.

  And Eden Blake was damned sure not going to miss out on the big fight. Not when she could help and maybe redeem herself a little in her own eyes in the bargain. Besides, no one else was immune, and that might work out in their favor. She could do a lot more good with them than out here playing Little Miss Grumps-a-Lot.

  “Yeah,” she said as she grabbed Marquez’s outstretched hand and hauled herself to her feet. “Yeah, I do.”

  Expeditionary Force HQ

  Joint Base Lewis-McChord

  Tacoma, Washington

  The base was bustling when the Hunters return
ed with their plus one. Three planes had taken off while they were on their way back, their bright wings shining in the sun. As they got to the gate, Eden saw more being loaded, including the big C-5 that her dad had brought back from Antarctica. The noise was tremendous, between the planes and the Strykers and the trucks and… well, all of it. She could make out her dad, standing on the ramp of the C-5 and directing the loading of both Strykers. She couldn’t help but wonder where they were going. What was all this for?

  She sighed in the back seat as she watched the bustle while Marquez drove the Humvee up to the gate. The guards at the gate looked twice as they saw her, even though she was trying to make herself as small as possible. They’d hoped to avoid a scene and sort of sneak her back in.

  So much for that idea.

  “You brought her back?” one of the guards asked as he stepped up to the door of the vehicle. “Should’ve just shot her and left her to rot.”

  “Is that necessary, Sergeant?” Marquez asked. “Just let us through.”

  “She’s a deserter. A thief. A murderer. If I’d seen her out there, I would’ve shot her on sight.”

  Giuliani grunted a noncommittal reply from the front seat, and Eden could guess what he was thinking.

  “I’m not a murderer,” she said. “I haven’t killed anyone but zombies.”

  “Oh yeah?” Giuliani said with a snarl. “Tell that to Sampson. Better yet, tell it to his wife and daughter.”

  Eden closed her eyes, then realized what a mistake that was when all she could see was the face of the man whose death she had caused. A man who would still be alive if not for her, who would still be able to play with his infant daughter. Eden took a deep breath and opened her eyes.

  “I accept the consequences of my actions, and I’m sorry he’s dead.”

  “Fuck you,” Giuliani said.

  The guard looked back at Marquez. “Orders are orders, sir. She goes straight there.”

  Marquez nodded. “I’m aware.”

  The guard stepped back and raised the bar across the road. “You’re cleared for entry, sir.”

  As Marquez pulled forward through the gate, Eden leaned forward. “What did he mean, ‘straight there’? Where are we going?”

  Giuliani turned and gave her an evil grin. “We aren’t going anywhere. You are.”

  “And where’s that?” she asked, though she had already guessed the answer from Giuliani’s expression. The strange part was, even knowing what was coming, she wasn’t upset. She would have done the same thing.

  “Right where you belong, Little Miss Fancy-Pants. The brig.”

  The jail cell wasn’t comfortable, but Eden expected nothing less. Hell, it was the same cell she’d been in just a few weeks before, so it felt almost homey. Almost.

  “I’m glad you’re back,” David said, tight lipped and trying to restrain whatever emotions he was feeling at the moment. She knew that he was a big ol’ softy on the inside, so the fact that he was able to hold it together was somewhat miraculous. Her mother, on the other hand, had almost always been a hard read, and Eden had no idea what Kimberly was thinking now.

  “I promise, I’m a different person than I used to be. Being out there changed me in ways I can’t even define to you or to myself. I had a lot of time for soul-searching and introspection, and I know that it’s done me a lot of good.”

  She sat down on her bunk. “To be honest, I almost didn’t come back. Marquez gave me a choice, and I almost said no. In a lot of ways, I think everyone is better off without me. But in a lot of ways, I think I can help too. That’s why I came back. I want to help, because there’s no one else like me. There are probably a dozen ways I can help that I haven’t even thought of yet. It would be wrong for me not to help if I can.”

  She knew that they would either accept what she was saying or not, and in neither case could she influence them more than an iota one way or the other. They would make their decision based on their own influences, not anything that she could say or do. And she would accept that decision, because that was what adults did.

  That was what she deserved.

  David turned to a sergeant she didn’t know and motioned toward her cell. “Release her.”

  “Sir?”

  “Get her out of there, Sergeant.”

  The sergeant checked for the affirmative nod from her mother and then opened the lock and swung the bars out of her way. She stepped out, a deer moving slowly out into a patch of sunlight in a clearing. She was poised to move if she needed to, though she had no plans to go anywhere at the moment.

  “You shouldn’t let me out,” she said. “I deserve to be punished for what I did.”

  Her father nodded. “I agree with you. But many of us are leaving, and I won’t leave the bunker undefended or shorthanded in a time of crisis. That would be foolish. Your mother will need your help here.”

  That surprised Eden. “You’re leaving? I mean, I saw the planes, but why are you going?”

  Kimberly looked over at the sergeant. “Step outside, Sergeant.”

  The sergeant nodded. “Yes, ma’am.”

  When he was gone, Kimberly looked at her daughter. “The assault on Bunker Four has started.”

  “The assault… I heard rumors, but nothing solid. What’s happening?”

  “Malcolm Dagger has complete control of Bunker Four. He’s going to get the launch codes from Bunker Five to use in threatening the others with missiles.”

  Eden caught the sideways look her father gave her mother but couldn’t figure out what it meant.

  “Missiles? They’re in bunkers.”

  “These are more powerful than any other missiles you’ve seen. They’re called ICBMs and can punch through a bunker’s hardened roof. They’re designed to carry nuclear warheads. Dagger’s threatening to launch them unless we give in to his demands.” Kimberly’s face and tone hardened. “We can’t let that happen.”

  “What are his demands?”

  “Just what you’d expect. Put him in charge, power over everyone and everything left. That sort of thing.”

  “But if he launches the missiles, won’t that—”

  “Destroy the very thing he wants power over? Yep. He’s crazier than Reverend Wright at this point. Totally insane, but in a crafty way. And he also may have his finger on the big red button, so to speak.”

  “The missiles aren’t the only thing he’s got in his bag of tricks, but they’re the biggest,” David added.

  Another glance shot between her parents, and she let it go. If they wanted to tell her, they would. “So you’re sending everyone to Bunker Four to stop him. By force.”

  “Actually,” David said as he sat back on one of the visitor’s chairs, “we’re sending Admiral Graves and his men into Bunker Five at the same time. We assume Dagger has infiltrated there and will cause problems or even launch nukes if the strikes aren’t coordinated.”

  Eden leaned back against the cell bars. “Okay, but why tell me this? I’m not going with you. I can’t help.”

  “Not true. You know how serious this is. And for whatever reason, some of the people on this base still look up to you, including a lot of the folks who are staying behind. They think you have special access, which, in this case, you do. If you assure them that everything will be fine, they’ll believe you and know that we’re coming back. That their world will continue in some semblance of the normalcy that they’ve achieved. You can become their anchor, their rudder, their lodestone, if you will.”

  Kimberly snorted. “Okay, Hemingway, lighten up.” She turned to Eden. “We need you here to keep things orderly and help us protect the civilians while most of us are fighting at Bunker Four. Can you do that? Will you help us?”

  Eden dropped her chin to her chest, lost in thought. “How long do I have to decide?” she finally asked.

  “Now,” her father said. “You have until now to decide. We’re out of time.”

  She couldn’t do what they wanted, not the way they wanted her to. She wa
s better used on the front lines, but she couldn’t tell them that. She could do more good there than here. She damned sure couldn’t do anything from inside the cell, so her first order of business was to get out. And that would mean tricking her parents. Again. That hurt, and it would cause more than a little upset here and there, but sometimes the only thing to do was whatever caused the least harm.

  Eden sighed, then stood straight and took a deep breath. “Then the answer is yes. I’ll help you to the best of my ability. I only have one condition.”

  Her mother raised an eyebrow. “And that is?”

  “A shower,” Eden said with a laugh. “I want a hot shower.”

  At least that much was true.

  A little while later, the last of the supplies were being loaded into the C-5, and David stood next to Kimberly on the ramp. They had to shout to be heard over the roar of the big plane’s engines. They didn’t have to worry about being overheard, though. Everyone wore ear protection, and the only person who could hear either of them was the other. And that only because they were standing side by side.

  “You haven’t seen her?” David asked, glancing around the tarmac for his daughter.

  “No! I don’t know where she went. Maybe she’s not as okay with this as we thought?”

  “I dunno, Kim. She seemed… different somehow. More adult. I think she’ll help you as much as she can.”

  Kimberly shook her head. “I’m not so sure. There was something in her eyes, something in the way she said yes so fast. She’s got something up her sleeve.”

  “There’s nothing we can do about it now, is there? We have to go or we’ll miss the rendezvous in Des Moines. We’re pushing it as is, coming in so late in the day.”

  “I know, I know.” She pulled him in for a kiss, and David lost his bearings. “Just come back to me safe and sound.”

  There was a yell from outside the plane, and a mad tangle of lanky arms and legs rushed aboard and flung itself at David.

  “Don’t go, Dad, don’t go!” said his teenage son George. He was doing his best not to cry.