by Jeff DeMarco
‘Thump, thump,’ the truck rolled over a low concrete partition; a green tough-box slipped out from under its strap. Jacob dove, his reach short of the handle, watching it roll along the pavement. He tightened the strap down on the remaining five.
‘Crack!’ Sacha’s rifle shot off, aimed at the Leviathan’s mouth. ‘Crack!’ Erica looked back, her eyes pleading for help.
Jacob’s hands moved, sending tall spires of energy up, in front of the creature – wisps of fog and wind; its head collided with a wall of them, then slipped to the side, gaining in its pursuit. He looked back at the others, then leapt into a roll on the ground.
“Jacob!” Sacha jumped off after him.
Demetri watched in the rearview as his sister and Jacob squared off against the Leviathan, then slammed on the breaks – sending Erica forward into the warheads.
“What’re you doing?” Jacob yelled. Bolts of kinetic energy firing off towards the creature. “Get out of here!”
“No.” Sacha’s hands raised, a transparent barrier manifested before them.
Demetri barreled towards them, laying on the horn; he collided with the creature, then skidded to a halt, sending it flying.
They raced towards it, surrounded it; their minds linked in deadly unity. The barrier holding the leviathan at bay, now shrinking. “Your sword!” Demitri shouted.
‘Fear.’ A shudder went up Julie’s spine, as she looked around at the others; the sudden realization that the words, the emotions had come from the creature. Her hands dropped, the gate now open; her feet slammed against the ground, sending her skyward on top of its back. The small protrusion immediately visible from her vantage. She felt the same along her neck – with a shot of heat, the nodule fried, a shot of electric pain, then calm. She could feel the nanites working inside of it, inside her. Her hands touched down along its neck, linked with its biomechanical brain; a sort of gratitude at its freedom.
“Move!” Demetri yelled, circling toward its flank.
“It’s ok!” Julie rose with the beast, perched atop its neck. “It’s not Colonel Petersen’s anymore.” She patted the creature along its neck. “It’s mine.”
A sudden impulse came over Erica. An urge to lash out, to strike while her guard was down. ‘No.’ She suppressed the thought.
Julie leaned back, as a length of rebar sailed past her; she drew her sword.
“Jacob!” Sacha screamed; a chunk of concrete in his hand.
“Don’t you see?” He yelled. “Feel? She’s not her; something inside her, driving her.”
The leviathan slashed, knocking Jacob from his feet. “You know what I see, Jacob?” Her sword pointed at him. “A child… given something you wanted so badly. A plan to use crimson sky, handed to you on a silver platter and cast aside on a whim. Just like me. Your weakness disgusts me.”
Sacha looked at him. “What’s she talking about?”
Julie laughed. “He didn’t tell you?”
Her face dumbfounded.
“All of this, the hunters, their destruction…” An evil smile, a newfound power over him. “You can thank Jacob for all of that.”
Jacob’s face went sheet white. “I tried to tell you,” he mumbled.
“And Demetri.” Her smile, her eyes set, as though a seductress. “Guess who killed Flynn.”
The siblings turned towards Jacob, now pressing in on him. The leviathan turned, started off north, towards the mountains.
An image of Erica’s mother, of her first step-parents Nancy and Ed, then Dustin and Ari. The urge to destroy raged against her desire to protect life.
Jacob dropped to his knees.
Sacha slapped a fresh magazine into the rifle, a trembling breath. “I didn’t want this.” She pulled back the charging handle.
Erica stepped up, in front of Jacob. “You can’t.”
Demetri grabbed her, pulled her away; her struggling useless in his grasp.
Jacob closed his eyes. “I’m sorry.” As they opened, Sacha was kneeling before him.
“It’s ok.” Her hand reached out to his. “I forgive you.” Her forehead pressed to his, lips nearly touching. “We all forgive you.” Her arms wrapped around him in a warm, loving embrace.
He looked up, Demetri and Erica stood at his side, their hands placed on his shoulders. “This isn’t real,” he whispered, then felt a bullet tear into his abdomen.
“No!” Erica screamed, tearing at Demetri’s arms. “You can’t!”
His body doubled over; he felt a boot on his shoulder, knocking him to his back.
Sacha stood over him, her scorching hot barrel pressing to his forehead.
His hands clung to his abdomen, his eyes pleading for forgiveness, absolution.
“No.” Sacha’s voice hard as stone, her sight clouded with tears.
Jacob closed his eyes. “Help me.” His words said inward.
Her finger lifted from trigger guard to trigger, unflinching as she squeezed – ‘Crack!’
When Jacob opened his eyes again, a luminous green shone through; the land around them, the trees and sky now bathed in white. Ninety-nine prophets stood before them; all manner of dress and color: Blackest of black to whitest of white, and all shades in between, dressed in fine silk, dyed a royal purple, in decorative headdress and robes, in Benedictine cucula robes. Their eyes, all large and varying shades of green, glared at them. One with long brown hair and olive skin stepped forward; the personification he had seen in the cave. “My son.” He put his long slender fingers on Jacob.
Jacob wept at his failings, his eyes cast down at the ground.
“It is us that have failed you.” The being lifted Jacob’s chin. “You were never meant to be perfect, and in your imperfection, that is what you sought.”
A puzzled look crept over Jacob’s face.
“Who are you?” Sacha whispered.
“With perfection, there is no forgiveness.” Gracefully with two fingers, the being lifted its hand, urging silence. “Our planet, our imperfect existence died in pursuit of perfection.” An image shown before them, a sterling city. Large, advanced megaliths rose from the earth, covered in vegetation. “Perfect knowledge and form, in perfect harmony with nature.” Similar beings meandered the streets, hand in hand; in telepathic congress with one another. “We were a peaceful planet, and as such, those that violated our laws were eliminated, and returned to the earth.” A being held within a solitary white room, calm, as a stream of mist jettisoned inside; rendered it to ash. “We had transcended hate, and guilt; governed by flawed logic of the collective will. Our struggle began with whispers; scientists of various disciplines. As more reached the same conclusion – that our way of life was unsustainable, we were found to be in violation of the law. Our ruling class, the Shayateen, set out to destroy us.”
“And so, you travelled here,” Jacob whispered.
“We came after the birth of your race.” Their sight now was at the impact crater, set in what would become the city of Petra. “We gave your race the knowledge that it needed to grow, but beyond that, we did not instill the drive to perfection, then something happened…” Leaders met at the center of the battlefield. Two warring tribes stood poised along battle lines; primitive weapons and garb, their faces painted in animalistic depictions. “You forgave each other.” The leaders returned, both sending their armies away. “Not always, but more often than you give yourself credit for.”
Sacha’s brow furrowed. “Why make the hunters, then?”
“At the collapse of their civilization, a Shayateen followed us here; sought to destroy us.” In the heat of battle now, armies clad in gold and bronze raged; blood ran red along the sandy earth. The being’s stood alongside humans; Shayateen stood, solitary on a hillside, staring down watching the battle unfold. “With victory all but assured, Shayateen scattered himself among the many; ensuring his survival.” A strong wind blew; Shayateen’s essence vaporized, breathed in throughout the cradle of civilization. “We left our seeds, scattered around the world, k
nowing that one day he would return.” They were at a stone obelisk, carved depictions of battle, the words ‘To Destroy the Wicked,’ scrolled across the top in Aramaic. “We created balance. Two armies, one so flawed in desire, the other devoid of will, that neither could be controlled by him. The third, a vessel in which our essence could reside… you.”
“And what about Julie?” Demetri yelled. “Seems she has pretty good control over the leviathan.”
“He’s taken her, infected her, among others.” The being shuddered, it’s first expression of something akin to humanity. “Something we hadn’t accounted for.”
“And the hunters?” Erica stepped up from the back. “Will he infect them too?”
“Yes.” It stared back at her, unwavering. “Stand together,” it whispered. “For it is you, alone; four flawed beings, that stand between humanity and annihilation.”
In a shot of light, they awoke to the sky, not a bird’s chirp, nor hunters screech. Looking to one another, a newfound inner strength, and a sudden realization of the struggle to come.
“This doesn’t change anything,” Sacha whispered, now staring dead at Jacob.
“You’ve killed me once.” He pressed his eyes together, wishing he could will away the past. “If it takes a thousand times to earn your forgiveness…”
Demetri shook his head and chambered a bullet. “Now, we go hunting.”
CHAPTER 76
“We got a live one,” Luca said, his muscles coiled, ready to strike. “Another alpha.”
Gloria held up a blanket, for the hunter to cover himself with.
The hunter stared back, his scarred face maligned against hers. Luca approached cautiously, his hand clutching the hilt of his knife; his off hand lowered, palm down, urging calm. “Just sit down, there, big fella.” He touched the hunter’s arm.
With a click of his jaws, the hunter slashed, ripping Luca’s eyepatch off. The sensory overload hit him at once; he covered his face.
The hunter wheeled around, bolted from the laboratory. “Call security!” Luca shouted.
Gloria picked up her radio. “Security breach… we’ve got a rogue hunter on the loose inside the hospital. I say again, a hunter’s on the loose inside the hospital.”
A solitary Stryker wheeled combat vehicle circled the base, now overrun. Hunters had gathered at the base of the loading dock. With each pass, Tiegs hammered down on the accelerator, crushing more underneath the wheels.
A dozen of them slipped in behind a hillside. He turned to follow, a single darkened pathway into the rock. Hundreds huddled into the depression of a loading dock. Moments passed, as he transitioned from the drivers seat to the gunners turret. Their bodies burned red in the thermal sights. He lined up each shot, methodically; tearing them in half with the .30 caliber machine gun.
As their halves slumped down around the loading dock, he shone a light on their quarry. Tiegs recognized the rusted-out sheet metal at once, as he had used a similar ‘quick fix’ to combat quickly dilapidating concrete structures; used for loading docks in particular. This piece of sheet metal wasn’t laid down to obscure anything, rather it was wrapped up like a burrito, the open end pressed into a corner.
He drove down into the pit and climbed from the vehicle. Unable to see what was inside, but a tussle of red hair. A realization, his thoughts frantic as he pounded on the metal. “Michael!”
No response.
He put his foot against the lip, tried to pry the end apart; it held fast.
He hooked a tow cable from the Stryker, pulled the mass of metal up from the pit.
Tiegs reached in, grabbed the boy under an armpit; his body bloodied and battered. He carried him in his arms to the rear hatch of the stryker; laid him down, searching for a pulse, faint as he pressed his fingers to a fresh scar. A sensation welled up within Tiegs, failure, loss, guilt; he cradled Michael’s body in his arms. “We’re gonna get you some help,” he whispered.
Each second felt like an eternity; “I’m sorry,” Dustin whispered, his forehead pressed to Ari’s, his tears cascading down her cheeks. “I should’ve jumped, gone after her.” The weight of guilt crushed down on his shoulders. “I should’ve come with you.” Her lifeless hand in his, he felt the contours of her fingers. “We should never have come.” He reached into his pocket; a plain, silver ring. “I’ve failed you.” He slipped it onto her finger. “Please, God… Please.” Just then, a twitch.
To be continued…
* * *
[WU1]No comma is needed here. Curious about your choice of the word “as.” Why not “and”?
[WU2]I really wish you would explain more about his daughter and her child here. I feel really in the dark.
[WU3]I would state “The General”
[WU4]For clarification, I’d say “Kristen’s”
[WU5]How about “Jacob glared at him”?
[WU6]For clarification, I would write: “The feeling or the vision tor at Michael….”
[WU7]I thought this should be “dammit” or “damn it.” This is apparently the Southern usage. Is Teegs from NC?
[WU8]Divider needed above this.
[WU9]Do you need the divider below this line?
[WU10]Sorry, but what does this sound like? Why doesn’t she struggle?
[WU11]This sounds a bit repetitive since you use it later in the sentence as well.
[WU12]Unclear: the children? Or the creatures?
[WU13]Please state who says this. Unclear.
[DDL14]I’d say “Erica’s” here for clarity.
[DDL15]Language?
[DDL16]?
[DDL17]Unclear references. “The team grabbed Joe…..”?
[DDL18]Unclear reference. Do you mean “the President”?