by Jeff DeMarco
“Hmm.” The pilot shrugged. “Hear it’s nice this time of year.” The helicopter shuddered slightly as it took off.
She walked back to the cabin, bent down and picked up Jacob; threw him over her shoulder, an odd mixture of light and burning flesh as she cradled his head in her hand.
“What do you plan to do with us?” Petersen asked.
She smiled. “Might kill you.” She depressed a button; the back hatch dropped to a horizontal position. “Might not.” She flung Jacob’s body out the back, out into the sky and earth below. “As for her.” She looked down at the President, her body pale from blood loss. “She’ll make a nice puppet.”
A dread washed over General Petersen, at all the mistakes he’d made, at all the lies. He wondered what hell must be like.
CHAPTER 73
Jacob stuck into the mud like a javelin. The fall hadn’t been high enough to break any bones, much less kill him. He wondered why she hadn’t just waited till they were at altitude. He supposed the same question held for Sacha. ‘Why didn’t they kill me?’ His arms felt like lead weights, his head like it might burst at any moment. He laid there motionless in the mud, as though he might just drift off into unconsciousness.
‘Slap!’ a sharp impact struck his head, like rusty daggers slicing into his brain. “Get up!” a black figure stood over him.
She wound up to strike again; he quickly sprung up and shielded his face. “What?” he yelled.
Sacha lifted her visor. “Fight’s not over with.”
“You tried to kill me.”
“Told you not to get in my way.” She shrugged. “Besides, I didn’t hit you that hard. Figured you’d be ok.”
Jacob shook his head, useless in driving away the pain. He tried to free one leg, driving the other further into the mud. Then the other leg, equally as fruitless. “Little help.” He lifted his arm, slowly up to her.
“Tell me one thing, since I’ve got you here.” She stood there, watching his arm struggle against gravity and suction. “When we were falling, why not save yourself instead?”
“You wanna know why?” His arm dropped limp, sloshed into the mud. ‘Should I tell her,’ he wondered. The word, “Love,” issued seamlessly from his mouth.
Her eyes grew wide, as she started to blush.
“Not like that. Well… maybe, but…” He closed his eyes, collected his thoughts. “My whole life, I’ve never been able to love anyone so much as myself. In you, I see something that I wish I could be. You love your people so wholly, so selflessly that you’d be willing to die to avenge them.”
“You must have lost a lot of blood.”
He felt weightless, maybe she was right. “Not nearly enough.”
A wicked smile grew on her face. “Must be pretty weak right now.”
His hands shot up over his head, forced there. She grabbed his front armored plate and ripped off the Velcro, pulling the plate aside, then unzipped his top. She pulled a syringe from her first aide kit, pulled the plastic cap off with her teeth.
“What is that?” A newfound fear suddenly coursing through his body.
“Adrenaline,” she mumbled, wiping an antiseptic on his chest. “As usual…” She nodded.
“… it’s going to hurt like hell.” He finished her sentence as she plunged the syringe in through his ribcage, into his heart. The initial sharp pain was nothing, compared to the rapid pounding in his chest. His energy had returned, yet he felt like he might have a heart attack at any moment. “Why…” His breathing followed pace. “Is my… heart beating so fast?”
She winked, “apparently you’re in love,” then ripped him from the mud.
Jacob and Sacha sprinted from the wood line. “Look!” He pointed to two black figures sprinting past a building.
“Move!” Sacha hurried towards them. She knelt and took aim. ‘Crack!’
The rifle round impacted Julie’s back armor plate; she dropped, tumbled into the dirt. Demetri spun, hustled back to her. “Get up!” he grabbed her under the arm.
“No.” She rose to one knee. “You go.” ‘Crack!’ she felt the bullet moving – its trajectory altered, whizzed past them. “I’ll handle them.”
Demetri’s hand moved, swift but gentle, down the length of her arm; his hand in hers, now barely touching as they parted.
“Thought we left you on the helicopter?” Julie spun. “Was hoping we’d get a chance to talk, Jacob.” She pulled a sword from its scabbard, a long straight steel blade, inlaid with copper along the fuller.
“We can talk about this, Julie.” He edged slowly towards her.
‘Crack!’ Another round fired from Sacha’s rifle.
The force emanated from Julie; through the copper banding in her suit, then out through the tip of the blade. The round stopped, as though drawn to the blade somehow. She wheeled back, hurled the bullet at them; a ‘crack!’ as it broke the sound barrier, into Jacob’s chest plate with an ‘Uhh!’
He rose slowly, painfully.
“You abandoned us, left us to fend for ourselves.”
A slight smirk on his face. “Looks like you’re doing ok.”
She ripped her helmet off. “You see this collar around my neck?”
“Let us help you!” He shuddered to think how it must have gotten there.
“No,” she whispered. “We gonna do this, or you all talk?”
“I don’t see a problem with-“ Something hard impacted his back; his body whipped across the pavement; the light bent in pursuit. Julie turned, ran off towards Demetri
Sacha dove for cover, setting up beside a concrete barricade. ‘Crack!’ she scored a shot into the creature’s head. ‘Clack, clack, clack,’ automatic machine guns opened up on it, ineffective, but for eliminating its cloaking capability; its fiery red skin now fully visible.
It darted towards the cover of a building, then rounded a corner – out of sight.
CHAPTER 74
‘Dad!’ Her mind called out to him. ‘Where are you?’ She ran along the airstrip, towards Ari; A sudden racing, her mind locked on to something; and it to her.
‘Almost there.’ His conscious mind exhausted and panting for breath.
Erica wrapped her arms around Ari. “He’s coming,” she whispered.
Kneeling in a defensive perimeter around the aircraft, Ari motioned to Blanco, silent. ‘Overwatch, there.’ She pointed to a concrete barricade, as the engines screamed.
Blanco tapped Engel on the shoulder, pointed to the position.
It shot out from behind the control tower; monstrous and fiery red. It bound behind Dustin, its eyes locked on Erica in the distance.
Dustin lifted his rifle over his shoulder, firing back wildly.
‘Crack – Crack,’ Ari and Engel’s rifles shot almost in unison, both scoring headshots.
Unphased, the creatures eyes set on Ari.
She studied it through her scope; her crosshairs locking on to its eye. She fired; her mind connected with the bullet, willing it to her target.
The bullet impacted the thick membrane; a spray of vitreous humor shot out, the creature now rubbing the empty socket into the dirt. It rose, its eye locked on to Ari; crept low and fast.
Dustin passed through the barricade; the creature rose, then shot out, grabbing Ari by her upper torso. Her legs swung, side to side; the blade-like jaws clamping down tighter and tighter. She pulled her knife from its scabbard; drove upward. Its sweet, savory blood spilt down onto her, into her mouth and eyes, as its sharp jaw penetrated her flesh, into her organs. It threw her from its grasp.
Dustin spun; a hail of gunfire, M203 grenade launchers thumped, sending grenades downrange at the creature. He sprinted to her body; mangled, nearly severed in half. He was careful, cradling both halves in his arms back to the helicopter.
The creature wheeled at the grenades detonating around him; its claw ripping through Lieutenant Engel’s abdomen, throwing him to the asphalt. He looked back towards the chopper, a flood of hunters breaching through the exposed
fence line. Commander Blanco sprinting towards him. His hands wandered down to his abdomen; sliced open, his innards exposed. He laughed to himself, as he held a hand up for Blanco to stop. He pulled a grenade from its pouch, pulled a pin and grasped it tight to his chest, waiting. An odd sensation like fluttering. As he opened his eyes, a little bird had landed on his chest, now staring back at him.
Her body laid on the metal grates, lifeless. Erica touched her hand to Ari’s eyelids, closing her silent eyes. The aircraft began its vertical ascent; she kissed Ari’s cheeks, then wrapped her arms around Dustin. “You won’t understand this, Dad. Just know that I’m doing what I was meant to do.”
“No,” he whispered. Pain filled his eyes; for a moment he held her, afraid to let go.
She stood, opened the side hatch and jumped.
He rushed to the hatch, watched her land and roll and continue on to whatever lay in her path. A great loneliness washed over him, now staring down at Ari’s body. He wondered at whether this was his lot – loneliness and death, the pain of failure. He wondered whether he ought to jump. ‘Maybe when we’re a little higher up,’ he thought. Instead, he closed the hatch and covered Ari’s body with a blanket.
CHAPTER 75
A bird leapt, in flight; Erica knelt in the pool of blood and laid her hand on Engel’s stomach. “Just breath,” she whispered, watching hunters press in around them.
An aura of light, like wings. His vision doubled, then quadrupled; mind wandering deep within his memory, he reached up and touched her face. “Don’t be afraid of it,” he strained; a single streak of red now lined down her face.
“What?” she whispered back, her hand caressing his cheek. “Don’t be afraid of what?”
Weak, he reached into his pocket. ‘Key,’ he mouthed, unable to utter a word. He turned his hand over, his thumb held loosely over the grenade spoon. ‘Go.’
She grabbed the key, her hand rested on his forehead, bringing comfort in the end. No anguish at his tattered flesh; her gift of a painless death, but she could hear the hunters pressing in, tear into him. Moments later, the grenade; a profound solemnity at his sacrifice.
“To the airfield,” Michael shouted, hustling troops north.
Erica ran up to him. “It’s compromised.” She looked back at the hunters swarming. “Where are the others?”
His mind wandered a moment. “Getting ammo.”
She looked at him sideways.
“I dunno.” He shook his head, confused.
She grabbed his hand and ran east.
They had stopped at the 100 meters from the entrance to a bunker. Signs mounted along the concrete depicted a circular bomb with a flame above; the symbol for ‘ordinance.’ They crept up. “What’re you doing?” Michael whispered.
Jacob turned back, startled. “Waiting.” He looked at Erica, a sudden impulse of fear, he thought unfounded.
Michael raised his eyebrow and started off for the door.
Jacob grabbed his arm, then pointed upwards; the straight edge at the top of the concrete entrance, broken by a slightly wavy pattern at the haunches of the creature. “Think it tracks our electromagnetic frequencies. That’s why it’s not attacking.”
Michael cocked his head in thought. “So, just walk in.”
Jacob stared oddly, then looked back at Sacha.
“It thinks you’re human,” Michael said. “Just walk in.”
They walked cautiously into the bunker, set deep into a hillside. Pitch black, but for a handful of emergency lights. Sacha flipped on her flashlight, illuminating row after row of cages, sealed tight with pallets full of a variety of ammunition; a large loading dock, the back of an ammunition hauler backed up to it. Single file, they weaved through the maze of adjoining corridors, set further back into the earth.
They passed through a heavy steel door, aligned with a concrete wall, a large radioactive placard in yellow and white posted above the door. Jacob pulled the door shut behind them. Their footsteps echoed now, the hallway lined with reinforced concrete.
Demetri and Julie had a cart loaded up with large green plastic tough-boxes, the same radioactive placard posted on each. Their quarry claimed, they stood ready for a fight.
Jacob studied Julie for a moment, wholly familiar, yet something repellant, hideous.
“Hardly seems fair.” Sacha’s whisper echoed throughout the room. “Four against two.”
Demetri lifted his visor. “Sacha?” He ripped his helmet off, eyeing the girl.
‘Could it be?’ she wondered, walking slowly to him, studying his face, well grown from dead memories. An aura had formed, reigniting a bond that had long since severed. “I’m so sorry, brother,” she whispered, guilt welling up in her. “I was weak. I hid.”
“There’s nothing to forgive, and even if there was, I forgive you…” He wrapped his arms around her. “A thousand times over. You were a child, didn’t know what would happen.”
“But I did.”
“Enough.” Julie drew her sword. “We need these warheads on the road,” She passed the blade across Demetri’s collar. “Or else we’ll both lose our heads.”
“There’s no way to get a signal in here,” Jacob said. “Maybe we could-“
“No.” The color ran from Demetri’s face in a whisper. “The moment we step outside, we’ll be Colonel Petersen’s again.” He dropped to his knees and stared up at Sacha. “If anyone were to take my life…”
Erica stared, not at Demetri, but at the collar. “Hey guys…”
“… I’d want it to be you.” He hugged at Sacha’s waist.
“Hey guys…” The key dangled from Erica’s finger. “I might have a solution to our problem.”
Demetri’s eyes lit up. “Give me that.” He inserted the key into the slot. It shot open with a ‘ting.’ He handed the key to Julie, savoring the stale yet refreshing air on his skin.
Michael leaned in to Erica. “That was a mistake,” he whispered.
She looked back, puzzled.
“Just a guess,” he said. “What’s the plan?”
“We’ve got an ammo hauler sitting at the loading dock,” Demetri stood, as a tapping started against the metal door.
“I think we take the warheads,” Julie said. “Give them to Colonel Petersen…” The tapping turned to banging.
“No.” Erica’s eyes tightened. “Leave them.” A shriek echoed on the other side of the door.
“… armed and set to detonate the second they reach the lowest level.” Julie’s eyes narrowed on her. “Who put her in charge?”
“No one.” Erica pinched the bridge of her nose. “But we don’t need those… things, in the world. Not now, not ever.”
“Put it to a vote.” A sly grin grew on Julie’s face. “Who thinks we should keep the nukes?”
Julie raised her hand, then Demetri, then Sacha… Then Michael.
Erica looked at him, part shock, part anger. Similarly, Michael looked at Jacob in absolute surprise; his arms firmly at their sides.
“The group has spoken,” Julie said, now wheeling the cart in front of the concrete hallway; the shrieks and pounding had turned to a sea of hunters, ravenous for a meal.
“And what about that thing on the roof?” Michael asked.
“Leviathen?” Demetri said. “It’s with us.”
“You sure about that?” Michael’s face cocked into a cynical stare. “Sure it’s not going to attack, seeing as you don’t have your collar on?”
Still in hand, he lifted his collar, then shrugged.
“Great.” Michael let out a long sigh. “Let’s go.” He lined up in front of the door, beside Jacob; Erica and Sacha just behind. “1… 2… 3.”
Sacha flipped her rifle to full auto. Demetri kicked the door open, sending the wall of hunters flying. ‘Pop, pop, pop, pop, pop…’ she emptied her magazine into the horde.
Energy radiated from them, at the threat of death. In a motion of their hands, they broke bones, split organs, sent them flying back. Then more, coming at
them from the walls, crawling along the grates.
Julie ran out front, her blade slicing through necks and spines, cleaving limb from body. Then a rumble of thunder; a doorway too narrow for the leviathan. Its head bashed once, then again; concrete dust raining down around them, as concrete split.
Its fiery red body elongated and slipped in, traveling sideways down the corridor towards them; its jaws grabbing and tearing at the hunters, ripping them apart with their claws.
They wheeled the warheads out, carried them over the stacked-up bodies; covering their retreat to the loading dock. Michael and Jacob posted just outside, as the others loaded the warheads onto the hauler. A strange sensation overcame Michael; a set of thoughts shrouded, as his arm extended in defense.
A hand wrapped around Michael’s mouth, a blade pierced through his back. His first thought was not of pain; he knew that would come soon. He looked down at the blade, unlike the tip of Julie’s and much shorter. The hand felt soft, feminine. Rather, as the blade ripped from inside of him, now slicing his throat, he wondered who had just stabbed him. He fell between the gap of the truck and loading dock, his hand clutched to his neck, fear and survival his overwhelming thought.
He tried to call out, but all he could utter was a faint gurgling. His body felt cold now, the side of his head dipped into the rapidly growing puddle of blood and filth coating the cement. He wondered if perhaps he attempted to heal the wound, that he would go too far and cut off blood flow to his brain.
Julie ripped down the ratchet strap. “Go, go, go!” She motioned to Demetri in the drivers seat.
The leviathan tore from the bunker, gave chase down the long, covered roadway, out into the open, fading light.
Erica held tight to a ratchet strap, securing the load of warheads. “Where’s Michael?”
Sacha turned, scanned the back platform of the ammo hauler. The truck shook, the tires running over the many Hunters in its path. She shook her head, telling Erica all she needed to know.
Focused, Erica crouched down at the rear of the truck; the earth tore from itself. Wide peaks of soil and sediment shot up, a stumbling block, knocking the Leviathan off its course, yet still in pursuit.