by J. N. Chaney
“There he is! There he is!” Maksim turned and leaned down to look into my eyes. “I knew you were in there, brother. Two feathers from the same bird, you and I.”
Maksim reached down and tore the medallion off my neck. The thin chain broke with a single jerk. I bit my tongue, fighting the urge to yell out and tell him to give it back. I knew if he understood how important it was to me, he never would.
“Two swords pointed away from one another, you and I,” Maksim said, staring at the medallion. He ran a thumb over the design. “A single blade in the center, an unknown destiny, the circle around the blade the Orion itself.”
“I’m so sick of listening to your garbage. Kill me, leave me, and go kidnap someone or whatever you’re going to do, but listening to you drone on is torture I can’t take.” I raised my voice. “Come on, Maksim, what do you say you and I just finish this right now? You let me go and one of us walks away from the clearing. Let’s just end this, brother.”
That last word caught his attention, as I knew it would. He looked at me with eager eyes as if he’d wanted me to call him by this title our entire conversation.
“Yes, yes, maybe,” Maksim said, walking toward me. “Maybe I’ll beat you within an inch of your life and then untie you so we could finish this here. You’re a better fighter than I am, and I understand that, but you lack the cunning I possess. Maybe—”
A shriek from my right ended whatever nonsense Maksim was going to suggest next. Our eyes widened as the screams came from all directions, at once building to a crescendo of pure madness.
10
I knew exactly what those sounds meant: Legion. By the look on Maksim’s face, he knew what it was as well. How the Disciple managed to survive outside of the wall for this long without becoming infected was a question I couldn’t answer.
Maksim whirled around to put his back to me once more. Motion from every corner of the forest caught my eyes. Transients turned by the symbiotic virus known as Legion ran from tree to tree, using them as cover.
“They’re going to kill you; there are too many of them,” I said. I gritted my teeth, straining against my bonds so hard they bit into my skin and drew blood.
The screams of those infected by Legion continued.
“You got to let me go,” I told Maksim. “Whatever we have between us has to be put aside for another day. You know you have a better chance with me than without me.”
The sounds of infected were getting closer. Their screams lifted to the air and echoed in the still. The faint presence of wildlife that had been chirping and scampering a moment ago was gone now.
Maksim turned to me with drifting eyes. He pulled a knife from the inside of his boot. I recognized the level of uncertainty in that look. Not uncertainty that he was about to fight, but whether he should free me or not.
“Maksim,” I growled. “You’re dead without me. You know it.”
Maksim rushed to my side. The knife in his hand was positioned to slice down on my bonds. He never got the chance. A thick figure bolted from a tree meters to our right. It tackled Maksim to the ground.
He was a large man wearing a dark grey uniform, setting him aside as a Civil Authority Officer. He rained down blows on Maksim, assuming a dominant position. Blackness filled his eyes. Dark rivers of the substance oozed from his mouth and ears.
Maksim brought his knife up and across the neck of the man, opening a wide gash that ran freely with black blood. The man fell on him, gurgling as he tried to hold the wound closed with his hands.
“Come on! Come on!” I yelled, straining against my bonds with everything I had. I leaned forward, digging my feet into the ground. The sticky hot sensation of blood running from my wrists where the strap cut into me did nothing to stop my struggling. I knew in seconds I’d be dead if I didn’t get free.
Two more infected reached Maksim. To his credit, he dispatched them both swiftly and efficiently. He was a hard man to put down when he had a blade in his hands. That was something for me to remember in the future.
Maksim drove the end of his blade into the right ear of his first attacker. The second attacker, he used its own momentum against. Maksim flipped the crazed woman over then fell on the infected blade first with a violent stab that went into her left eye.
One of the infected charged me. He couldn’t be more than a teenager. He was slender with long limbs and a shriek that said he was going through puberty. He came at me with a wild, hungry expression. The kid dove at me arms first.
I coiled my legs underneath me, catching him in the chest. For the briefest moment, his look of victory melded to shock.
“Not today,” I grunted as I uncoiled my legs like a spring, sending all the power I had into the motion. The kid flew back, slamming into another pair of infected.
They were all over the place now. Dozens of the infected screaming. Most of them went for Maksim. I think Legion understood I was out of commission at the moment and less important.
Another attacker came my way, this one an older woman with curly brown hair. She was smarter, coming at me from the side. I tried to twist my body around to hit her with my legs, but the bonds were too tight.
A wave of infected came at Maksim and he went down.
The woman grabbed my throat in both of her small hands and squeezed. She didn’t say anything, but I swear there was a look of recollection in those macabre black eyes.
I fought for breath when none came. There was nothing I could do. I even tried to lower my chin and bite her hands, anything to live. It didn’t work.
“Shhh, shhh, go now,” the woman coaxed me as she squeezed the life out of me.
A thump on the tree I was tied to caught my attention; the blade of Maksim’s knife stuck deep into the trunk right above the strap holding me secure.
I gritted my teeth, giving everything I had left to the motion of sawing through the rope or whatever was holding me in place.
SNAP!
My hands fell free. Sore, fatigued, and choking, I grabbed the old woman by her own throat. With a series of violent motions, I slammed her fragile skull against the base of the tree that had held me prisoner a moment before.
By the third strike, she’d released her grip on my throat. By the fifth, she was unconscious and probably hemorrhaging. Her body slumped to the ground beside me. Legion could take over the bodies, but it seemed they were still as fragile as they had been before.
I struggled to my feet, grasping at the handle of the knife stuck in the tree. Weak from loss of blood and oxygen, I still refused to go down without a fight. Nine meters in front of me, I saw Maksim reeling under the onslaught of a half dozen infected.
He looked like he was about to be overwhelmed. A red sheet of fresh blood covered his face. His nose looked broken, his left hand held close to his chest as though it were useless.
I had a decision to make then and there. No time to consider the outcome either way. I could leave the Disciple who had been nothing but the very worst of problems or I could stay right here with him, possibly giving my own life in the process.
He would never know. He faced me, but the blood in his eyes must have obscured his vision. He didn’t call out. All he had eyes for at the moment were the group of infected closing in on him.
What are you going to do, Dean? I asked myself. Whatever you’re going to do, decide now.
For all the reasons I should leave him and make a run for it, there were two that made the decision for me. First, I’d be dead without him, strangled by some old infected woman. Second, as different as we were, we were both Transients not infected by Legion. Right now, there was a war going on. Us against them.
“Hey,” I barked as loud as I could. Already I was preparing myself for what was about to happen. I rolled my neck, stretching my arms out by twisting them to my sides. I didn’t wait for them to respond and stalked toward them. “Hey! Legion!”
An eerie moment took place when I used the name of the virus. All the infected turned to look at me at e
xactly the same moment.
I wished for something witty to say before doing the thing I did best in this life but came up blank. I settled for, “You want one of us, you got to take all of us!”
By the time the last word left my lips, I was on top of the first infected, slashing out with the knife in my right hand. I was trained as a gladiator, so hand-to-hand weapons weren’t my specialty, but they sure as heck helped.
I held the knife blade down near my pinky as I went to work. This let me play to my strengths. I could rely on my regular fighting style while still using the blade as a ripping weapon when I swung.
My tank was already near empty. The blood loss from my head and wrists threatened to put me out for the count. I let out a battle roar and rallied everything I had left to use on Legion. They came at us in a swarm. Hands reached for my legs and arms. A few of the infected even carried rocks and clubs with them.
I took one out after another, going back to my training days and laying into them. They came at me en masse with a swarm mentality. I never let myself get surrounded and used pinpoint accuracy to take them out with shots to their jawlines and temples. I miscalculated a swing from sheer exhaustion and went down as one of the infected tackled me from behind. My chin slammed against the ground.
I thought I was done as a pair of hands reached down. They weren’t infected hands. Maksim sent a heavy boot to the skull of the infected who had taken me down to the ground and pulled me up in single motion. No words; he just put his back to my own.
The infected circled us. For as many as we put down, more had come to bolster Legion’s ranks. My back pressed against Maksim’s was the last position I thought I’d find myself in that day.
“Here, you’re better with it,” I said, handing him the knife. “Just don’t stab me in the back.”
“I’ve saved you twice now,” Maksim said, accepting the knife. “If I wanted you dead, you’d be dead.”
“Where did you take me anyway?” I asked, trying to get my bearings as more and more of the infected came through the sparse forest grounds to surround us.
“The forest to the south of the Orion,” Maksim answered, confirming my suspicions. “We’re only a few kilometers out.”
“We can’t stay here and fight; we have to make a go for it,” I told him. “I’m going to break through their lines and run like hell.”
I was going to say more, when the most angelic sound I’ve ever heard reached my ears. The sound of a crawler gunning toward our location echoed through the woods. The infected stood upright once again, turning their heads as one to search for the sound.
“Dean, we’re coming!” Ricky’s voice shouted through the forest.
I caught a glimpse of them to my left, the crawler bearing down on our position like a missile.
Legion sensed all was about to be lost. It charged toward Maksim and me in one last desperate attempt to kill us before help could arrive.
I roared as my fists connected with bodies. It was little help; there were way too many of them now. Maksim and I were completely surrounded.
I went down again, but I took a few of them with me in the process. Two of the infected held my arms to the ground, while a third lifted a rock over its head to crush my own.
I tried to kick out, but two more held my legs to the ground. I wasn’t sure what happened to Maksim. I could still hear the crawler somewhere in the background, but that wasn’t really a priority right now. I was about to die and there wasn’t a thing I could do about it.
I found myself wanting to live in that moment. It was a strange feeling for me after living a life for so long where I didn’t care what happened to me. The rock came down.
11
I was wrong. The sound of the crawler was the second most glorious sound. The first was a blaster rifle going off at the exact right instance.
One moment the infected’s head was there looking down on him with a drooping scowl and madness in its black eyes. The next, it was gone in a spray of red, courtesy of a blaster round. The body wobbled like a drunk, before dropping the rock harmlessly to the ground.
A flash of grey and white fur with teeth rushed by my eyes. Mutt barreled into the infected holding me to the ground, freeing my left arm. That was enough for me to wrestle myself free from the grip of the infected.
All around me, red blaster fire lit up the scene.
The infected paused for a moment as if they were having an internal debate whether to attack this new threat or take off in the opposite direction.
Apparently, they agreed on the latter. At once, they fled. They ran in all directions, scattering into the sparse forest cover.
I looked up to thank my saviors. Stacy, Arun, and Ricky all held blasters. Tong sat in the front cab of the crawler, wide-eyed at the events surrounding us.
I picked myself off the ground, looking for Maksim. He was gone. I wasn’t sure if he escaped or the infected got to him. Either way, there was no sign of him now.
“You’re bleeding pretty badly,” Stacy said, running to my side.
Mutt sniffed at my bloody fingers with a whine. A thick tongue came out and licked me, as if that was going to make me feel better in and of itself.
It kind of did.
“What happened?” Ricky asked, joining Stacy. “You don’t look so good.”
“Story of my life,” I said. “I was jumped right outside Tong’s cave. Maksim whacked me on the head and dragged me out here. The party was interrupted by Legion. I don’t know if Maksim got away or Legion got to him first.”
“Maksim?” Ricky said, putting his back to us. He scanned the forested area one more time to be sure we were alone.
The only thing besides our group in the surrounding area were dead bodies. One of the bodies to our left coughed, then cackled with laughter.
I looked over to see a young man with the infection coming out of every orifice. He looked at us with a smile. In his white teeth were rivers of the black substance.
“History will only serve to repeat itself,” the young man said with a smile. “You will all die or become part of Legion.”
I opened my hand, motioning to Ricky’s rifle.
Rick handed it to me, no questions asked.
“What do you want with us?” I asked. I knew the answer to the question; I just wanted to hear it from him first. “It’s you, isn’t it? I’m talking to Legion.”
“Why do you ask questions to which you already know the answer?” Legion asked.
“It’s him.” Tong’s distinct voice reached my ears. I looked back to see as he and Arun approached. “I’m sure it’s him.”
“A Remboshi has awoken,” Legion said with a smile. “It’s your kind that were my creators, my father.”
“Not my kind, but the sect of the Remboshi who broke off, the Rung. Those that worship technology and advancement above all else.”
“I call them Father and you Mother,” Legion said with awe in his voice. “I have been alone for too long these years, barely surviving in animals and plants on this planet. Long had I wished for stronger, more able-bodied hosts to possess again. Then, when the Orion crashed, my prayers were answered. A near unlimited source of new bodies for me to inhabit, and now look—you, too, have awoken from your sleep, eager to be consumed.”
“The Great Dawn has come to end you once and for all,” Tong said, staring down at Legion with stoic eyes. “Your days on Genesis are at an end.”
“My rise to power is only beginning.” Legion grinned again. “The more I infect, the greater my reach extends, and the more knowledge I gather as well. Once I infect you, Remboshi, I will possess the information you do, to locate the rest of your people, wake them, and draw them into my fold.”
“Never,” Tong spat.
I had yet to see the Remboshi angry, but I guessed this was what passed for it in his kind. Tong’s hands balled into fists and his eyes widened. He bared his short, stubby teeth.
“Are we done here?” I asked. “I’ve been waiting
to shoot him since he started talking.”
“Ahhh, the ever-vigilant hero,” Legion said, looking over at me. “When I possess your body, you will be my champion. I will—”
BOOM!
Legion’s head exploded in a mess of skull and brain matter.
I looked over to Stacy, who replaced her blaster in her side holster.
“I was getting tired of him running his mouth,” Stacy said. “There was nothing new he was going to tell us.”
I nodded. I had wanted to be the one to put him down, but as long as he was out for the count, I could live with that.
“We’ve got to take a look at your head,” Ricky said, grimacing at the amount of blood running down the back of my skull. “We need to get you back to the Orion and have Doctor Allbright take a look at you.”
“No, I’ll be fine. We need to move on,” I said. “The sooner we reach Tong’s installation, the sooner we can get the weapons to deal with Legion and put him down for good.”
“Let me see,” Arun said. She walked around to my back and gently took my head in her hands, examining my wound. “I don’t have a Heal Aid, but I’m sure we have a needle and thread in the kit. We can do this the old way if you insist on coming along with us.”
“I insist,” I said without hesitation, handing the rifle back to Ricky. “How did you find me anyway?”
“Well, you left a patchy trail of blood behind you and Mutt did the rest,” Stacy answered.
I looked down at Mutt. He wagged his tail.
“Could have used your help when I was getting jumped,” I said down at the genetically engineered dog. “Where were you then?”
Mutt cocked his head to the side as if he were trying to understand what I was saying.
“It’s all right; you always pull through when it counts,” I said, ruffling his soft ears.
“We push hard, we still might be able to make it to the communication section of the Orion by night,” Arun said. “Ricky will drive with Tong and me in the front. We’ll give you a few minutes to get that wound on your head sealed up.”