Stone Soldiers 6: Armageddon Z (18 page)

Decklaa screamed again in pain—but held her grip.

"Die, foul thing!" she screamed.

The tentacle dripping as it melted reared up in the air then smashed down,
over and over, beating Kenslir against the ground. After the third strike, it finally released him, a withered, barely moving tendril of black clay.

"That the best you got?" Kenslir said, pushing off from the ground. His lungs burned and his internal organ
s were on fire—skewered by his own ribs. One eye was swollen shut and one arm was broken, the bone sticking out. Every movement he made he could feel broken vertebrae cutting into his spine. But he didn't have time to heal. He had to finish this.

Kenslir
managed to stand, his healing powers working feverishly to undo all the damage. The skin around the bone protruding from his arm was gray now, turned to stone.

"C'mon, you bitch," Kenslir said. "Show me what you've got."

Decklaa screamed again in rage. Her tentacles raised up, then slammed into the ground around her. They immediately began to swell in size, the top soil rapidly lowering as she absorbed more raw organic material into herself.

Kenslir charged forward, legs numb from the damage to his spine.
He leapt into the air, tucking and rolling and landing beside a tentacle. His hand dropped to his boot, and he quickly pulled out a Kabar knife.

He thrust the knife through the palm of his left hand, blood flying. He ripped the Kabar back out, then jammed
his bleeding hand into the side of the closest tentacle.

Decklaa screamed anew— in agonizing pain as the green light from Kenslir's nullification shone brightly from her bulging, swelling tentacle.

"Eat this," Kenslir said, slicing down with the Kabar.

Th
e black blade sliced through his arm, just below the elbow, severing the limb trapped in the mass of the elemental's tentacle. The huge member ripped up from the ground and slammed into Kenslir, lifting him off his feet and sending him flying backwards.

H
e landed roughly, unable to roll with the blow. His Kabar flew out of his hand.

"Delicious!" Decklaa yelled. "Give me more!"

Kenslir sat up slowly, the stump of his left arm already turned to stone.

Decklaa started to move forward, but could not. Her huma
n head, atop her tentacle-torso, looked down. Her face assumed a horrified look as she saw a gray discoloration spreading out across her tentacle—directly from where Kenslir had plunged his arm in.

"So long, sucker," Kenslir said, finally standing.

The petrification was spreading swiftly now, streaks of gray shooting out from the petrifying tentacle, like veins, all over Decklaa's body. Gray spread from the thin ribbons, quickly enveloping her entire, tentacled mass.

"No!" Decklaa screamed, just before the
last of her body and face turned to stone.

Kenslir staggered over to the remnants of his vest and crouched, digging through the pockets with his one hand. He finally found a cellphone and dialed it quickly.

"Yeah. I'm fine... round up some jackhammers and some semis. And a few buckets of water."

EPILOGUE

Kenji could tell the Colonel was nervous. He was fidgeting, shifting his weight back and forth from one foot to the other as he watched the approaching helicopter with a worried look on his face. Until he saw Kenji looking at him. Then he became somber again—just like the first time they'd met, in that awful parallel future that now would never be.

Kenslir frowned at Kenji and stepped forward, his new left hand open and closing, as though he were work
ing the stiffness out of it. Kenji had watched him regrow it, a gray appendage just like stone soldiers. That had then faded and turned to flesh.

"What's with him?" Kenji asked.

Beside him, Josie leaned in, almost whispering in his ear. "Some pretty big VIPs on that chopper."

"Really?" Kenji asked, surprised. He never would have guessed the Colonel would have been nervous about anyone—not after watching him fight the elemental to the death.

The helicopter landed softly, then a moment later two passengers disembarked. One was an older man, with gray hair, nearly as tall as Kenslir. The other was a short woman, with thick, black hair. They wore plain clothes, rather than the military uniforms everyone else had on as they bustled around the petrified stone form of the elemental.

The duo approached as the helicopter lifted off in the background.

"Is this him? the older man asked. He was very disturbing to look at. Not because of his age, but because of his one stone eye. It was a dull gray, like the stone soldiers, with short scar-like streaks radiating out from the socket. The man's other eye seemed fine, and almost twinkled with excitement.

"Mr. Nakayama, Dr. William King," Kenslir said, half-turning in place to introduce them.

The small woman, who Kenji could now see was a fair-skinned Latina, smiled warmly. "Dr. Maria Guerrero." She extended a hand as well, waiting for Dr. King to finish shaking Kenji's.

"Very exciting to meet you," Dr. King said. "I can't wait to get you back to the lab!"

"Lab?" Kenji suddenly felt very worried.

"To test your abilities," Josie quickly added.

"Great work, saving the world, by the way," Dr. King said, grinning. "You too, Mark."

"Thanks."

"You must be Ms. Winters," Dr. Guerrero said, stepping up and offering her hand to Josie.

Jos
ie shook it, an awkward look on her face. She glanced to the Colonel briefly, as if looking for direction.

"And you must be Colonel Kenslir," Dr.
Guerrero said. "I've been going over your file—what they'll let me see anyway. Fascinating. Pretty smart using the petrification curse you carry to stop the creature."

"Yes, ma'am," Kenslir said, his face betraying no emotion.

"Well, shall we go see her?" Dr. King asked.

"This way, Doctors," Kenslir said, motioning toward the petrified mass of the elemental soldie
rs were methodically using jackhammers on. Already nearly one-third of her stone body had been broken into small, gravel-sized pieces. These would be loaded into the trucks nearby and hauled away—all under the watchful eye of the stone soldiers, who stood guard in a wide perimeter around the site.

Kenji waited until Kenslir and the doctors were out of earshot. "What's with those two?"

"Dr. King is our lead supernatural and paranormal researcher. He got his eye petrified in an accident years ago."

"Oh. And
the woman? Guerrero?"

Josie seemed uncomfortable on the subject. "She was our leading petrification researcher, a long time ago."

"Was?"

"She got petrified back in 1962."

Kenji let out a whistle. "Wow. She looks good for her age."

"We just unpetrified her
last month."

"Oh... you can do that?"

"Sometimes."

Kenji watched as the Colonel led the duo up to the stone form of the elemental. He could tell Kenslir was careful not to touch the creature's petrified body. Now that his nullification ability had been exp
lained to Kenji that made sense. His touch could restore the elemental, just as his innate resistance kept him from turning to stone.

"Was it just me," Kenji asked, "or was the Colonel acting a little weird around Dr.
Guerrero?"

"She's an amnesiac," Josie
said, watching the trio talking by the dead elemental. She had a worried look on her face. "Being petrified for all those decades caused some kind of trauma. Dr. King isn't certain if she'll ever get her memories back."

"Do they know each other?" Kenji ask
ed. He knew the Colonel was extremely long-lived. The diplomas in his office showed he'd definitely been around in 1962. It didn't seem that strange of a question—not after all the other stuff Kenji had seen the past few months.

Josie turned and gave him a
n icy glare. "We're not supposed to talk about it."

She turned back to watch her grandfather once more. "She doesn't remember, but Maria was—is—his wife."

THANK YOU FOR READING!

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READ THE NOVEL THAT STARTED THE SERIES!

MYTHICAL

Colonel Mark Kenslir is the last of the Cold War supersoldiers, and he’s just come back from the dead. Unable to remember who, or what killed him, the Colonel sets out to regain his memories, aided by two teens that find him lost in the Arizona desert. Returning to a modern civilization he does not remember, the Colonel slowly pieces together his past and vows to complete his last mission — stop a prehistoric, heart-eating shapeshifter rampaging in the southwest.

Available now in print an
d digital format!

BROTHERS IN STONE

A second prehistoric shapeshifter is loose in the modern world, joining his resurrected brother in ripping out and consuming the hearts of victims to steal their power, their memories and their form. Colonel Mark Ke
nslir came back from the dead to defeat one shapeshifter. Can he hope to defeat two, or will he need help from an FBI psychic?

Available now in digital and print editions!

BLOOD AND STONE

Dr. Laura Olson dreamt of freedom for over forty years, serving
an eternal sentence behind bars, imprisoned because of what she was— a vampire. But when a prehistoric shapeshifter comes to Alcatraz and begins stealing the hearts and powers of the inmates, the undead Doctor gets a chance at freedom. Joining the men and women of Detachment 1039, Dr. Olson sets out for Mexico, to stop the shapeshifter’s reign as the legendary Mayan god, Kukulcan. But can the good doctor help her new team, or will she give in to her blood lust and join the shapeshifter’s new empire?

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le now in digital and print editions!