“Oh yeah, that makes sense. Uhm, roger and stuff.”
I took off at a run after my teams who were deploying toward the portals position. I was amazed to find that Bri and Chun had dragged abandoned vehicles into our area for protection to act as barricades. I slid into place next to a rock crawling blue Jeep with oversized tires. I rested the SCAR’s barrel on the open driver’s door of the Jeep and took a steadying breath.
We were just in time. The air around the Circus Circus started to shimmer like heat waves on a hot summer road. I felt a gigantic hand land on my back. Bri was letting me know he was with me. I checked my team’s positions and found them hunkered down and ready.
In a blinding white flash, the portal popped into existence at the entrance to the casino. I raised my SCAR and sighted down the red dot trijicon sights. At this distance I wasn’t going to need it, but I liked having it.
I got on the radio. “Chun, you and your boys hold back. Wait to see how the enemy reacts to our ambush. If they try and head your way decimate them.”
“No fucking way? Really?” Chun asked sarcastically.
I shook my head at the coolness of that guy. He and his team of ex SEALs knew their shit. I felt bad for any Collectivus that went his direction seeking safety. I checked back on the Portal and watched as a line of troops came through.
“No one fires till I fire,” I called out.
I waited as more and more ranks of soldiers came out. They moved forward and stopped as if on a parade ground. It would seem they were going to marshal first before attacking. I used my scope to scan the Collectivus. I was looking for a senior officer, someone in charge. I was starting to think none existed till a single smaller soldier with a triangle patch on his shoulder stepped to the forward of the fifty troops that had come through the portal and marched to the front of the ranks. I placed the red dot of my scope on the nape of his neck and waited. When he started to address his troops, I fired a single shot. Nailing him just off center, I was not used to this rifle and hadn’t had a chance to familiarize myself with it. My follow-up shot a microsecond later finished the job as his head burst like a ripe melon.
That shot was not the only one fired. Bri had opened up at the same time I had pulled the trigger. All hell then broke loose as my teams, sans Aces opened up. It was seriously like shooting fish in a barrel. Yellow blood painted the street as Collectivus soldiers fell to the ground before being able to fire a single shot. Their white bodies falling in mass from the lead pouring in their direction.
Nothing happened as a dead silence fell over the area. The portal just sat there, humongous like a pregnant elephant, its swirling colors and pulsing light lit up the whole area. I was starting to think the Collectivus was going to close the portal after the ass kicking, they just received from a well-trained cadre of soldiers. That is not what happened though. Instead they poured out of the portal in ranks of a hundred. More and more pale white soldiers burst out firing as they moved. I started firing as fast as my brain and finger could work together, picking targets and dropping them. Everyone on my side opened up, lead flying from our side and blue energy pulses from their side careened into cars, pavement, and stone. I had a bad feeling that I was going to start losing friends.
I stopped firing, I had to get a better picture of the battle. From my position on the ground I couldn’t see much as the dead Collectivus were piled up obscuring the front of the casino. I looked up and saw a black speck flying high in the sky. I dropped to a knee and got on the radio.
“Lawrence, anyway you can show me the feed from one of your drones? I need a bird’s eye view of the battlefield.” I yelled out over the intense sound of gunfire.
“Dan, this is Aimee, I have the feed of the drone, if you have your tablet I can send it to you.”
I dropped my pack and rummaged through it till my fingers hit a hard-flat object. I pulled the tablet and powered it on. I was scared the thing would take forever to power up, but it came on in a flash. I now had a perfect clear picture from the drone high above me. The scene was worse than I thought it would be. The Collectivus had brought two tank-like looking vehicles out of the portal. I found their troops massing to follow the tanks as they came out. I was just about to yell to my troops to pull back from the tanks before they could fire when the ground shook, and the air exploded in flames. An Apache had popped up from behind another casino and had fired one of their hellfires into the lead tank. Shit was about to get chaotic down here.
“Malleus pull back, let the Apaches have their fun!” I yelled. Hoping my earpiece would pick up my words and transmit it to my people.
I was suddenly yanked back and dragged across the ground. I looked up and behind me finding it was Bri pulling me by the drag strap on my armor. I allowed him to pull me across the street and behind a two-foot rock wall. The air ignited in blue as another Collectivus’ tank came through the portal firing. The Jeep I had been hiding behind launched into the air and exploded adding its fuel tank to the fires. The ground shook continuously as the Apaches started firing mixing their firepower with more and more blue blasts from the Collectivus.
Bri covered my body with his as I hunched down and stared at the tablet. The only picture I had was one that scared me to my very being. The portal had gotten wider and bigger, disgorging vehicles larger than the tanks I had observed before. These tanks defied gravity and hovered over the ground. Their blasts were much bigger and more destructive. Vehicles exploded up and down the strip as well as nearby buildings.
The battle which had been going well, was quickly getting out of hand. My troops were in danger of being overrun and captured if I didn’t order a retreat. I studied the nearby street and picked a route back up the street toward our LZ.
“Malleus retreat back toward the LZ, Aces cover us, Johnson be prepared to retrieve guests.”
Bri pushed me out from under him and pushed me in the direction I needed to run. I stood on wobbly legs and gestured with my arms to get people moving in the right direction. Hase hurried past me carrying someone over his shoulder, followed by the rest of his team. Apache grabbed my arm as she came up and dragged me behind her. I got my feet moving and pulled free of Apache. I was determined to be the last out of the area. I counted people as they ran past firing behind them as they went. I then heard a quick three round burst coming from my left. Aces were engaging and giving us the time, we needed to clear the battle field. I turned to survey the damage the Apaches were delivering on the front of the portal and found Bri standing next to me.
“What the fuck are you doing Sasquatch? Get out of here!” I yelled.
“Wherever you go Boss, I go. So, if we are gonna stand around holding our dicks while all of creation is destroyed, then I guess I should go down with you and enjoy the scenery.”
Bri infuriated me, but he was my best friend, brother even. I pulled on his arm and took off on a dead run back toward the LZ. Bri matched me step for step. It took less energy for him to do this than for me, his one stride equaled two of mine. And I am a very fast runner, but he was unnaturally fast. In another life he had to be an NFL player. I was panting as I went, he looked like he was on a stroll in a park. I thought about kneecapping him and leaving him for the Collectivus, but an assimilated pale white Bri scared the living crap out of me.
I risked a glance behind me and found Aces giving up ground to the Collectivus’ machines of war. I dropped to a knee and slid around, turning to face the Collectivus. I plucked two grenades off my vest. I pulled the pin on one and threw it over hand like the idiot I am. It landed at the feet of a trio of Collectivus soldiers who had broken into the open chasing Aces down. The grenade went off in a shower of deadly metal fragments. When the smoke cleared all three soldiers were dead. Bri plucked the other grenade from me and softball pitched it far into even more Collectivus as they tried to flank Aces. They too went down shredded by thousands of fragments. Chun looked in my direction and wasted a moment to nod his thanks. I was lifted into the air again and the
n dropped on my feet.
“Stop fucking around Boss, we need to shake a leg, NOW!” Bri roared.
The air was thick with smoke and made my lungs scream in pain as they tried to pull the oxygen out of the smoke. I coughed and coughed trying to clear them but that did jack shit for me. Clouds of debris roiled up the street at us as we ran. Suddenly Aces were in our midst running with Bri and me. If it was too much for them, then the situation had gone from a shit storm all the way to Hell. That was when the drones opened up turning the street into a continuous explosion of fire and debris. We came to Johnson’s position and I decided right there and then there was no way I wanted the Blackhawks to fly into this shit show.
My brain then exploded in pain as Quashay chose that time to communicate with me. I was in a void filled with light. Quashay was there, he had a pained look on his face. “Dan, forgive me. I have lost her!”
“Failed me how? Who did you lose?” It then hit me. Kell was gone, my reason to fight was gone.
I was thrown out of the void and back into reality. Bri was carrying me over his shoulder. I pounded on his back with both hands for him to let me down. “Put me down now!” I screamed.
Bri stopped mid step and put me down on my feet. He looked worried. “You blacked out man! We are losing this battle!” he screamed at me over the horrendous whistling, screaming, and explosions.
“I have to go back!” I screamed back at Bri.
He gave me a look that said he had no idea what I was saying. “Why? one man can’t do anything!”
“You don’t get it Bri! She is gone!” I yelled back tears streaming out of my eyes and down my dust covered face.
“What do…” Bri stopped as reality hit him of what I was yelling about. “Oh my God brother! I am sorry, but there is nothing you can do right now!” He yelled at me.
I turned from him and tried to run back into the fight. I was blinded by rage. I had no idea what I could do, but like I had promised Kell, neither Hell nor Heaven could keep me from her. I then felt pain explode in my head as Bri punched me into unconsciousness.
Epilogue
A sterile surgical room with a metal table stood in the middle with a limp naked female form on it. Quashay sat on a chair his face in his hands as he cried.
“Dan, I am so sorry I let you down,” Quashay muttered as he sobbed.
The female body except for her head laid under a white linen like shroud. Her hair covered her slack face. Not a wound could be found on her soft cream-colored skin. One delicate slim hand fell out from under the shroud and hung off the table.
Quashay lifted his head as the hand fell. He stared at it, he could’ve sworn he had seen it move, twitch really. He shook his head over that silly thought. Kell was dead, he had examined her and noted her heart stop beating over an hour ago. Nothing he did brought her back, she was totally gone. Her body was cold, room temperature. Quashay dropped his head again and stared at his feet planted firmly on the metal floor.
Suddenly the room was filled with a gasp and then a scream. Quashay lifted his head startled. He was staring at the body sitting up, mouth open, bouts of panting and screaming filling the room.
Stayed tuned for day 8
Quantum Theorem Page 18