Apex 2: Rise of the Super Soldiers (11 page)

Friends?

Jack was alone with Melanie in the cafeteria. He was getting restless. “We need to look for them. When I was first infected, I was weak and lost. We can help them come to terms with what’s happening to them.”

“Who’s to say they won’t kill you?”

“Why would they? They don’t hate me. Plus I’m not easy to hurt.”

“If they wanted to, they’re probably the only people on Earth who could.”

Jack took her hand and said in mock exaggeration, “I didn’t know you cared.”

She
slowly pulled her hand away. “Of course I do. You’re my best friend.”

Jack
felt his heart stop, and then wither and die. They were more than friends, weren’t they? They hadn’t exactly made their relationship official or anything but he had just assumed they were together. They’d kissed. But they hadn’t done anything beyond that and now that he was thinking about it objectively, he realized that the first time they’d kissed was soon after she’d buried Scott, her boyfriend. And he’d initiated that kiss like an insensitive jerk. He’d initiated every kiss since then and at the same time, avoided discussing Scott with her in any way. She must secretly hate him while feeling sorry for him at once. He had to clear the air or he risked losing his only friend.

He cleared his throat but he couldn’t bring himself to look into her eyes. “I’m sorry that I tried to force you into being more than a friend.”

She interrupted before he got carried away. “You didn’t force me to do anything. I’m a big girl. But I’m just not ready for a new boyfriend yet. I cry for Scott every single night. I still love him.”

Hearing her say that was like a punch in the
chest. He missed Scott too but he was too self-centered to even consider that Melanie felt the same way.

He wanted to vanish. He even thought about teleporting away just to be alone for awhile but that would appear cowardly and a little over the top considering the situation.

She started to tear up so he did what a good friend should do, and hugged her. She sobbed, her body quaking with convulsions.

He felt like the biggest, most insensitive
jerk on the planet.

He’d worry about how to handle Delacourt and the two troops after he took care of Melanie.

Control

Hank and Sally were starting to waver. The anger they’d felt had subsided a little bit and soon enough, they were questioning the merits of Delacourt’s planned invasion. They were tweaking the plan to allow for the least amount of lost lives, even going so far as to say they should wait and see how things would shake out. They were young, so their feelings were fleeting. He could not let them give up. He needed their support for the battles to come.

But he soon
made a breakthrough. He’d had no luck the first few times he’d tried to manipulate them with his mind, but because he never gave up, he kept at it and it eventually paid off. He didn’t have the totalitarian authority over their thoughts the way he had back at the bunker with the other soldiers, but he was making tiny strides in the right direction.

He’d tried to implant the exact same thought into Hank
over and over again: to get him to untie his left shoe.

It was an insidious task meant only to convey to Delacourt that he was winning
the mental battle.

Hank had crossed his legs at one point and started to fidget with the lace on his left shoe. Then, later, he
started to stare at it intently like he wondered what was so important about it, but he refrained from touching it like it might be dangerous.

Then, out of the blue he said to Sally, “I can’t take my eyes off of this shoelace. Is there something on it? It feels all wrong. A part of me wants to just kick the shoe off into the trash so I
can stop thinking about it.”

Sally felt his forehead and suggested he take a quick nap to get his mind right.

Then, just a few minutes ago, Hank reached down and yanked on the lace so hard that he ripped it clean off. He threw it against the wall and then let out a sigh of relief.

Sally stared at him like he had ten heads but her gaze didn’t penetrate his feeling of newfound bliss.

So Delacourt could influence them, but not easily. There was something within them that fought off his influence like it was the enemy. Maybe, if he kept at it, they’d become so used to his nudging they’d start to ignore it. At that point, he’d have them.

It didn’t hurt that they already sort of wanted the same things he did, at least in the short term. They wanted to right the perceived wrongs done to them at the bunker. Since that was his first priority too, it bought him some time to convince them to join him in taking over the military, and then the country, and finally the world.

Hank was formidable and so was he, but he felt like Sally didn’t bring enough to their side. She was indestructible, but Hank had been shot point blank by a rifle and it didn’t even leave a mark. Delacourt hadn’t been affected when Hank had exploded at the last hotel room. That was partly because he’d ducked down but the back of his shirt and pants had been obliterated and yet his skin was intact, without so much as a blemish. What all of that meant, as far as he could deduce, was that they were all indestructible. So, by that token, Sally’s powers were decidedly underwhelming. But he was confident they had enough to take the bunker down, even with those two brats tucked away in there.

They’d stockpiled enough firepower
from the local gun shops to take down God himself. Getting the weaponry was as easy as walking in the door, holding their arms out and letting the owners fill them up, with some help from Delacourt’s mind manipulation of course. Delacourt forced the owners to spill the beans on who in town might be holding some military grade weaponry. Then they gathered the illegal, high-caliber rifles and automatic weapons up with no resistance.

Hank and Sally had both insisted on Army issued
camouflage so Delacourt hit up an Army surplus store just to appease them. He learned more about them during that shopping excursion than he’d learned all day, and it made him hesitant to use them in the coming battle. They immediately gravitated toward the winter camo meant for frozen terrain. Even after Delacourt insisted that the uniforms would do them no good since they’d be traveling up a mountain side in the middle of summer in Wyoming, they were dead set on getting them. He got it for them even though he knew they only wanted it because it looked
cool
. As much as the concession angered him, he kept his mouth shut in order to further lure them in.

They were rested and they were focused. The time to attack was drawing near.

Delacourt planted a thought seed within Hank and Sally that he would caress and nurture until it was time to attack, and it was this:
hate the base. Hate the people. Kill them all without remorse. Do everything I tell you to do. I am your master.

Awaiting Orders

Melanie kissed Jack on the cheek. “Thanks for being there for me.”

He looked at her tear streaked face and was about to reply when Watson walked in, saying, “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to interrupt.” He was about to turn and walk back out when Melanie sniffed and said, “It’s okay. You’re not interrupting anything. What’s going on?”

Watson said, “I’ve reported our situation up the chain so they’re trying to figure out the next course of action. What that really means is that it’ll be awhile before our orders come through.”

Melanie walked to the buffet and grabbed a handful of chips, partly to give her trembling hands something to do and partly because she was hungry. “I might as well stick around here indefinitely. There’s no school, I don’t have a job, and my only friend is already here.”

That put Jack in a bind. If he wanted to leave, he was compelled to stay now that she’d said that. He said the only thing he could under the circumstances. “Me too. Let us know what you need us to do.”

Watson let out a sigh. “It’s a waiting game now. If they send us a bunch of aerial drones, we’ll find them all pretty quickly. But they’ll only do that if they think we’re worth it or if the threat is deemed credible. With most of the country in utter turmoil, it’s hard to say how we’ll fare in their eyes.”

Melanie guffawed. “We haven’t had a lot of luck getting the military to see things from our perspective.”

Jack agreed with a wry smile and a nod.

Melanie said, “I don’t know if the other two are dangerous but we already know
Commander Delacourt is a murderer and I know for a fact he hates me.”

Watson whispered, “
He hates me too. I don’t know how he got out or why he didn’t try to kill me already, but I have a feeling it won’t be the last we see of him. Somehow I doubt he’ll use whatever powers he attained from the contagion to better the world.”

Jack laughed aloud. “In that case, we might not have to try and find him. If he really hates everyone here so much, he might come back on his own, if only to kill us.”

A shudder went through Watson. He hoped more than ever for reinforcements to arrive. He was ill-prepared for an attack on the base from a super villain.

Sally’s Power

The news showed riots on the streets of
Philadelphia and looting all across the country. Bands of roving nut-jobs with rifles and handguns meted out their own brand of justice as the depleted lawmen stood idly by. A fire in Chicago was still raging from a week earlier. The world was a mess. It had been that way for a month.

It was perfect kindling for Delacourt. As a lifelong military man, he knew first hand that he should strike while the iron was still hot. He had to test his small group on the bunker quickly, and when that was accomplished, take the fight wherever he thought he’d get the most exposure. The nation needed strong leadership. But the nation was weak; its inhabitants too stupid to decide for themselves. So he’d decide for them.

Hank and Sally had both filled out with inhuman musculature during their short stay at the latest hotel. Hank couldn’t stop checking himself out in the mirror. Delacourt even noticed a slight increase in mass in himself. It filled out his wrinkles, making him look ten years younger. He felt younger too. He felt like a man on a mission.

When he suggested they move on the mountain right away, Sally and Hank agreed without hesitation. That could mean just one thing: his mind manipulation had worked on them.

But before they left, Sally had a surprise for them. She said, “I knew I could do something. I just didn’t know what it was until now. I’ve been practicing. Watch this.”

Her eyes became bloodshot as she concentrated. And then a strange, nearly opaque bubble surrounded her body. Hank cocked his head to the side, trying to figure out what she was up to.

She said through clenched teeth, “Try to get to me.”

Hank looked at Delacourt and he nodded his approval.
Hank walked toward her but when he reached the opaque field, he was forcefully thrown backwards. He hit the far wall with a thud and then slid to the floor, dazed but otherwise unharmed.

She said, “It’s like a force field but it does more than that. It also repels things. If someone shot it, I bet the bullet would ping off of it and go right back at the shooter, with even more
velocity.”

She blinked her eyes hard a few times and then said, “I have to stop,” before letting the force field vanish.

Delacourt shook his head sadly. “It’s a fine ability to save your own ass but it hardly adds anything to our arsenal.”

She scowled at him. “It doesn’t just have to be around me. I could put it around all of us. You can shoot through it but no one could shoot from the other side.”

“How can you know so much about it already?”

“I’ve been practicing out in the corn fields behind this place. I made a mess but I learned a lot. I can also project the
force field elsewhere. If my aim gets better, I’ll be able to project it so that it cuts things in half, with one half inside the field and the other half outside. I could kill all the Greys at the base like that.”

Delacourt smiled now. If he had the shield, coupled with all of their firepower, and complimented
by Hanks ability to blow shit up and his ability to manipulate people, they might just be unstoppable. He also smiled because Sally still thought the mission had anything at all to do with killing the Greys, which it didn’t. But if it was the only way to get her to accompany them, then he’d let her have her fun with them after the base fell to them.

Hank stood up and took in a deep breath. “Now that’s a cool power. You pack a hell of a punch, girl.”

“Thank you. I can’t let the boys have all the fun, right?”

Delacourt chuckled. “You got that right. Let’s get going.”

Attack

Watson, Melanie, and Jack heard the echoed boom through the labyrinthine tunnels of the bunker. They were under attack.

They stood up as one and Jack vanished. He returned a moment later and said breathlessly, “It’s not another alien attack. It’s
Commander Delacourt with those other two infected soldiers. They’re killing people out there.”

Watson mumbled something under his breath and then the radio on his hip came to life with a cacophony of noises, some screaming, and others fearfully looking for orders.

He keyed the radio and said, “All available personnel to the entrance. We have come under attack.”

Then he said to Jack and Melanie, “Follow me.”

He led them to the armory which was already swarming with troops stocking up on firepower. He asked Melanie if she could handle a handgun to which she replied that she could. Jack refused to take a gun, partly because he didn’t need one and partly because he had no clue how to use one, besides pulling the trigger.

Jack said to the
Commander, “Keep your men safe. Melanie and I can go out and take care of this.”

Melanie nodded but Watson wouldn’t hear it. “You are civilians under my care. You’ll stay put. I only offered you each a gun to defend yourselves in case we fail and they get inside. Don’t argue with me. Stay here.”

Jack looked over at Melanie to see what she thought about being given such a disastrous order but she was already staring at the floor, defeated and compliant. Before Jack could talk some sense into anyone, Watson left the armory with all of his troops hot on his heals.

Melanie said, “He might be right, you know. Plus, haven’t we sacrificed enough defending others.”

Jack waited until she looked into his eyes before saying, “We’ve only sacrificed enough when evil is vanquished or when we lose our lives trying to vanquish it.”

Melanie laughed out loud. “We’re not real superheroes, Jack. We’re infected with an alien virus of some kind. We’re clueless pawns. Sometimes I think you’ve let your abilities go to your head.”

Jack furrowed his brow, wondering where all of this was coming from. She’d changed. Maybe she’d seen too much devastation. Maybe she had some form of shellshock or PTSD that was scrambling her thoughts. Or maybe she was right. He had let his powers go to his head. But how could he help it? It was a tremendous gift. He just assumed she felt the same way he did.

He was stuck though. If he went against Watson’s orders now, she’d know she was right that his ego had inflated beyond his control.

He walked away from her before he told her what he really thought.