by J. N. Chaney
“Don’t do this!” Stacy yelled out. There was frustration in her voice, more so than sadness or anger. We all knew we were helpless to do anything but watch.
“I am your god now,” Legion said with a smirk. He lifted a blaster tucked behind the back of his waistband and pointed it over the center of his chest. “I can raise the dead.”
With that, he pulled the trigger.
20
I lunged forward, not really knowing what I thought I was going to do. Even if I did somehow stop the body of Captain Ezra Harold that Legion controlled, it didn’t mean I could stop any of the thousand others infected behind him.
I just knew I had to do something. My lunge took me halfway to him, but of course it was too late. Captain Harold’s body exploded in front of me, and I swore I witnessed his humanity return behind his eyes, the ebony fading into brown momentarily before his orbs shut.
Not only Legion’s shot, but weapons were fired throughout the crowd of infected, necks were snapped, and jaws were clamped shut. In front of me I watched in horrific awe as they all died at once.
“No!” Tong screamed.
Some people were crying on the wall, others yelled out in rage. I slumped to my knees in the mech suit causing the unit to do the same.
Bodies lay prostrate in front of me like so many fallen leaves during the first sign of autumn. They lay on top of one another since they were in such close proximity, they didn’t even have room to fall. Some collapsed on one another while others lay face down, buried by still more bodies.
“Why, why?” Elon said over the channel.
Rage boiled inside of me. Anger like I had never known before demanded an outlet.
“To the jungle!” I shouted, rising to my feet. “Legion’s core is at the base of the stone that looks like a lightning bolt. Lou knew it before any of us ever did. If we kill the spores there, we kill Legion. That’s where he’s hiding.”
“Dean?” Stacy’s voice broke my rant. “Dean, look.”
Something in her voice halted my own angry thoughts. I looked over to the horde of dead bodies. I thought it was my imagination at first. Slowly, they rose to their feet, almost as though they were being lifted by an invisible force, an army of marionettes controlled by an invisible puppeteer. Black eyes stared back at me from the army of the dead.
As one, they began to walk backward into the jungle interior just north of our position.
“I told you,” Legion said, still using Ezra’s somewhat destroyed body as his mouthpiece. “I told you, I am a god. I am beyond death. I control the dead.”
My eyes saw it, but I still couldn’t comprehend what was happening in front of me. Every infected that had been killed, be it by a blaster to the chest, having their neck snapped, or another means, was on their feet. Black blood spilled from their wounds.
Some had their head twisted to the side, others gaping wounds in their bodies, but still they walked into the jungle as if nothing was wrong.
“You come for my heart?” Legion asked. “Well, come, then. You think those suits of steel will protect you? I control the dead. Everything that has been dead or will die is mine. Come into the jungle and see how far you get. I will—”
I had had enough of Legion’s talking to last me a lifetime and then some. I clenched my right hand into a fist and pressed the button allowing the five-foot blade to recede from its sheath.
In a single swipe, I took the head of Ezra Harold. There was no point in holding back now. It wasn’t like we could save the dead. Ezra’s head fell from his body in a shower of black liquid. The body stayed upright, bent down, picked up the head, and trotted off into the jungle, still oozing the black substance.
“We kill him now,” Stacy said, stalking forward as she made her way to the jungle.
“I’m with you,” John said, following in his power suit.
“There are too many of them,” Tong said. He sounded sick over the comm. “I want to kill him too, but the jungle is his playing field, and with those numbers, we wouldn’t stand a chance.”
“I’m not going to stand here and let him infect or kill anyone else,” I said, following Stacy. “This comes to an end now.”
Tong followed resignedly as the four of us made our way to the edge of the jungle. Legion wasn’t bothering to hide his plan well. Just inside the dense foliage, I could see him. He stood with thousands of his infected, looking at us with smiles as if he were inviting us in. Even Harold’s head, which Legion still held, had a smile on it.
If this is the way I go, then this is the way I go, I thought to myself. No more running.
“Stay close together and watch out for those larger animals,” Stacy warned. The rotating weapons on her shoulder popped up, ready to be fired. “If one of us goes down, then the other covers for the wounded. Watch each other’s backs.”
“I’m with you,” John said.
“Let’s buy the survivors at the wall as much time as possible to regroup,” Tong added.
“The rock shaped like a lightning bolt,” I reminded them. “The plant where Legion remained for so many years in hiding, the one that holds the oldest spores is there. Burn it.”
“Maneuvering the satellite there now,” Tong said, his voice dying in his throat.
We all saw what he did. An aerial view of the jungle showed us the lightning bolt rock a few kilometers in. That was not what caught our eye. There were so many figures in the jungle between us and the lightning rock, we’d be wading through a sea of infected.
“I’ll take the lead. Follow me,” I said, shrugging my shoulders as I brought my own cannon up. Pressing my shoulder back, I opened fire.
Both hands clenched into fists as my right hand brought my blade and the left bellowed a stream of fire.
Infected of every kind as well as trees and underbrush were cut down as the four of us opened fire on the infected dead. They fell by the dozens. Return fire came from those that held weapons in the form of rockets, heavy blasters, and their own flamethrowers.
The smaller caliber rounds pinged off our armor without causing harm. The larger rockets and grenades were what we had to worry about.
Legion threw his infected at us with total abandon. As we stalked forward, they didn’t wait and rushed us with everything from blades and weapons to their bare hands.
I kept the cannons firing on my shoulders and used the flamethrower on any who got within its reach. The stench of burning flesh and something else I couldn’t identify permeated the air. I was sure the armor muted the odor somewhat, but enough of it came through. I could just imagine what it smelled like in the actual outdoors.
Incoming rockets and grenades did more damage to the infected horde than to us, but Legion had numbers to spare. He had no worries at all about losing a few lives. Particularly since he could bring them back to life if he chose. What kind of chance did we stand against that?
I took a rocket to the chest and another to my shoulder. The impact spun me around in time to see the power armor unit to my right go down hard.
“Son of a—” John said with a grunt. “Watch out for the heavy artillery. “I have smoke in my suit.”
John’s voice turned to panicked coughs.
I put my back to him, going down on a knee. I focused my fire on any infected going for John.
Stacy and Tong did the same, cutting through wave after wave of infected.
“John, get out of there,” Tong shouted. “We’ll cover you, get out!”
More missiles and grenades peppered our area, creating more smoke, stink, and confusion.
My heart sank. We were barely a dozen meters into the jungle before John’s suit went down. At this rate, we would all be dead and infected in minutes.
The ground shook and an alien bellow reached our ears. To the left, a herd of the infected animals that so closely resembled oversized rhinos charged our position.
“Dean!” Stacy yelled.
“I see them,” I shouted back.
Together, we focused fire on the cra
zed animals with ebony eyes and dark liquid pouring from their mouths.
One, two, then three of the creatures stumbled and went down. There were still more descending on our location like battering rams.
There are just too many, I thought to myself. The idea of giving up knew better than to ever present itself, but the odds didn’t lie. We were outnumbered by thousands to one.
“John, get out of here!” I yelled as he exited his smoking suit. “Get back!”
John saw what was coming for us a second later and sprinted behind a massive trunk that had been cut down by our rounds.
The creatures slammed into us. I managed to catch one through the skull with my blade as another took me in the torso. I was slammed onto my back. The screen in front of me flickered, threatening to go out.
The alien beast slammed my chest with its hooves. It continued to gore me and rip at the steel plating of my chest with its three horns.
I saw madness in its eyes. Legion was there, and if animals could smirk this one did.
“I can’t get up, I’m down!” Tong shouted.
It was his panicked voice that reminded me of my resolve.
I grabbed onto the beast’s horns, remembering how I had killed the alien beasts before this one. Each time, I had gone for the head.
I wrestled the beast from on top of me, gaining the position over him. My suit sparked and smoked from the inflicted damage. With a closed fist, I summoned the blade in my right vambrace. I drove the sharp blade through the creature’s right eye and deep into its brain, pinning it to the ground.
The creature thrashed a moment more then went still.
I looked up to see Stacy standing over two more dead alien beasts, also apparently having gone for the head. Tong’s unit was missing a left leg. He was sitting slumped dejectedly against a large rock that protruded from the jungle floor.
In minutes, we were reduced to two mobile armor suits. John was also somewhere out in the open. I searched for a solution to our problem in vain as incoming grenades and missiles batted me from side to side.
“I don’t know how much longer we can keep this up,” Stacy shouted over the sounds of her shoulder cannons. “Dean, I—”
A deep rumbling reached our ears. It was the sound of not just one but many vehicles. Legion must have heard it too. All weapon fire ceased. The scene that a moment before had been hell quieted as if everyone were eager to hear someone speak.
“Is that…” I asked.
“Behind us!” Tong yelled from his downed unit in pure relief. “It can’t be.”
I turned, not even knowing what to expect. An armada of predators raced across the fields toward the jungle.
I squinted, trying to see who or what was driving the vehicles. I couldn’t believe my eyes. I caught sight of Remboshi warriors decked out in their white armor and armed to the teeth.
There were dozens of the vehicles, led by one that had a smiling Jezra in the passenger seat.
“How?” I asked, not able to finish my sentence.
“Jezra took off right after you did,” Ricky’s voice sounded over our comms. “She said she had to do something. Took all the predators with her too. She’s woken the Remboshi from their hyper sleep.”
I looked over to the wall to see the Orion gates open. Civil Authority Officers, a loping great dog I recognized as Mutt, and others streamed out of the encampment.
“Hold on,” Elon said. “We’re on our way.”
“I’m establishing a link with Jezra and the rest of my people,” Tong said excitedly. “It has been a long time since the Remboshi have been awakened. Longer still since we have mobilized for war. I—”
“Check out the satellite,” Stacy warned. “We have something big coming in from the east!”
I obeyed, looking down at my screen. She was right. Something large was bearing down on us fast. I moved to defend against this new threat when I realized it wasn’t coming at us from the ground but rather the air.
I looked up, shading my eyes against the bright twin suns. A flying craft I had only seen an outline of before raced through the sky, carrying four power armor units below it on cables.
“The Rung!” Tong shouted. “The Rung have arrived!”
21
“Sorry we couldn’t bring more help,” Dama’s voice crackled over the channel. “We took back the craft from the rest of the Legion infected in the bunker, but the ship can only carry four suits at a time.”
“They’re with us!” I could hear Tong shouting, not through the comms but out loud through his suit’s exterior speakers. “The Rung fight with us!”
Immediately, I could see the incident Tong was trying to sidestep. The Rung and the Remboshi had a hate-filled past. If the newly awakened Remboshi still harbored the same hate toward the Rung, all could be lost. They had to be headed off before the Remboshi attacked them.
Tong exited his suit, springing over to his people with his arms in the air. The Remboshi in the predators turned their weapons toward the Rung craft.
My heart sank in my chest. Here on the brink of defeat, we were given a glimmer of hope, only to have it ripped from us by infighting on our own side. The past would kill us faster than our present.
“Dean, you have to talk to them,” Stacy said through her channel. “You’re the Chosen One. They’ll listen to you.”
I wanted to argue, but I knew she was right. If anyone had the opportunity to stop the coming fight from our own allies, it was me. I had to step up and use my “chosen” abilities.
“I don’t know what to say,” I said.
“Speak and they will listen,” Jezra’s voice came over the comms. “They know my prophecy. They trusted it enough to sleep for so many years. They will follow you now.”
The Rung ship descended on our right flank, unhooking the thick cables from the four new armor suits so that they landed hard on the ground.
The moment was so tense, you could cut it with a blade. All the weapons the Remboshi had were pointed not at Legion, who had retreated into the jungle’s cover, but at the descended Rung.
“Stop!” I shouted, moving my suit in between the two factions. I opened the hatch to the armor and sprang out onto the scarred ground of the jungle, all the while keeping a wary eye on the infected, who had retreated a few hundred meters into the denser section of the jungle. I could imagine Legion was hoping for the exact opposite outcome that I was. “If you want to live, then you need to stop!”
All eyes were on me. Those of the Remboshi to my left, the Orion colonists around me, and the Rung to my right.
The only reason he wasn’t attacking was that he anticipated the Rung and the Remboshi’s long time hate for one another would play out now. If that was the case, he would wait until one side slaughtered the other then raise the dead soldiers and use them to wipe out the winning side.
I had to act fast. But before I did, I had to believe that I was the Chosen One.
“Whatever differences you have had in the past, whatever sins you’ve committed against one another, none of that matters now,” I yelled. “If you don’t put the past aside and look to the future, there will be no tomorrow for any of us.”
Mutt barked and sprinted to my side as if he were showing support for the cause.
Jezra moved from her spot in the lead predator and stood on the hood of the vehicle. She interpreted for me to the rest of her people only recently woken from their long sleep.
One of the Rung, a scarred figure with narrow eyes and a wrinkled brow, shouted something to me.
Jezra answered in their tongue. All eyes widened and they looked at me with a reverence I wasn’t sure I deserved.
“That is one of our leaders,” Tong interpreted for me. “He asks why they should trust you. Jezra told them you are the Chosen One, a child of the light.”
“I know you have no reason to trust me besides your prophecy,” I said, not sure where I was going but understanding this was the deciding point in my speech. “But your prophec
y, the prophecy you have chosen to place your hope in, has proven true up until this point. Don’t stop trusting me now. Put your faith in my direction and I swear to you I will not let your people fall!”
A hushed silence raced over the crowd. I had to stop from smiling for a second. I didn’t know I had it in me, but I didn’t think I’d done half bad. They seemed to have bought it.
The Remboshi spoke amongst themselves for a moment. The same scarred figure who had spoken to Jezra before now exited his predator. He knelt in his white armor and pounded the dirt in front of him, unleashing a string of alien words.
“He says they will not stop hoping in the prophecy now,” Tong translated in a rush of excited words. “They will stand with you and the Rung to defeat Legion.”
I looked over to the Rung. Dama opened the chest piece in her power armor and said first in her own tongue then to me.
“We are with the Remboshi and the Chosen One and his people,” Dama shouted. “Together!”
A cheer went up from all factions: Rung, Remboshi, and human. “As one! As one! As one! As one!” The chant started by Ricky ripped through the humans gathered and was soon picked up by the Rung and the Remboshi alike, once as the meaning had been translated for them.
Goosebumps raced across my skin. Where once four of us stood against an army of infected, now we had our own army. Although still outnumbered, we had the edge in weaponry and technology.
I turned back to look at the infected just inside the jungle. For the first time since I had seen Legion, he looked anything but confident. The infected moved from foot to foot, confused and uncertain.
“We push for the lightning stone in the heart of the jungle!” I roared. “Kill them all! Burn every plant with spores that you see along the way!”
Mutt howled.
I don’t know what kind of imposing figure it made me, but I couldn’t help but kneel and give Mutt a good scratching around his face and neck. He’d been with me since the beginning. He never asked why or for anything in return but my friendship. We’d spilt blood together and we were about to do so again.