Apocalypse Machine (43 page)

But I’m alone.

My only friends and company for the past fifteen years are with Edwards, running back to Ike, buying time so that I might live.

“No!” I shout, and I nearly let go. But we’re several hundred feet in the air now. I couldn’t join them if I wanted to.

“The world needs you more than it does us grunts,” Graham says. “Take care of yourself.”

Lightning streaks past the Osprey, drawing my eyes up to see if the plane’s been struck. But we’re still moving, pulling away from the Machine. That’s when I notice I’m only twenty feet from the hatch now. The ladder is being winched back inside.

“Graham...” I find myself at a loss for words. He and Mayer are as much my family as anyone.

“Suck it up, buttercup,” Mayer says. “A soldier couldn’t ask for a better death than this.”

“Minimum safe distance in two mikes,” the pilot says.

The response to this statement is garbled by the sound of gunfire and shouting.

The last words I hear, are my son’s. “Beside you! Three o’clock! Get down!”

46

Ike

Master Sergeant Ike Wright had seen combat before, but nothing like this. They weren’t fighting back a wave of Fobs from the familiar setting of the Mount Hood Lodge, the forest or even on the bare mountain peak that vaguely resembled the current battlefield; they were fighting strange new monsters atop the miles wide and long back of the creature that had nearly destroyed the human race. It wasn’t just a living landscape, it was mobile. The wind shifted as the massive body lumbered forward, sliding side to side and up and down. Ike’s stomach churned with each new descent and rise. He had never been on a roller coaster, but he imagined they felt something like this, only without the man-eating beasts, lightning and pelting rain.

Ike had never believed in the fire-and-brimstone version of hell popularized by the Middle Ages, carried to American shores by the Puritans and adopted by modern conservatives—before most of them were killed—but it no longer seemed that scary. At least fire would be warm. As the nearly absent sun fell below the living horizon, and the rain continued to saturate his body, a chill ran through him.

His hands shook as he worked the bomb’s control panel, thankful that his brother had thought to make the whole system waterproof. Ishah had always been the smarter of the two, more like Mina, while Ike took after Sabella, the religious, passionate mother turned warrior. It was funny how that worked out, but he and Ishah identified both women as their shared mothers, with love shared equally among them, bonded by a common element—Abraham.

Ike had dreamed up scenarios where his father returned to them, but in them he was always kept at a distance. Ike loved his father and remembered him fondly as the brave man who set out to save the world. But as he and Ishah grew up, he knew his brother had more in common with their science-minded father.

But now, after living in the wilds for fifteen years under the tutelage of a fellow Ranger and a Mossad Agent, his father was one of the finest warriors he’d ever seen. But his mind hadn’t lost its edge, either. They had a chance to win after all this time, because of him. His father was the kind of man the world needed. The kind of man who could bring humanity out of the darkness once more.

Ike would happily die for him, and knew he would have to before he’d stepped on the Osprey. Ishah had told him how the bomb worked, that there hadn’t been time to create a remote trigger, and even if they had, it might not be reliable. Looking at the storm overhead, there was no doubt about that now. Leaving his sons before getting to know them broke Ike’s heart, but he understood the sacrifice. He’d never once felt angry at Abraham for leaving all those years ago. He respected the man for it. Let the sacrifice guide his life. And now it was
his
turn. What Ike couldn’t have predicted was that so many others would be willing to die for his father, too.

Ike finished setting the bomb. All he needed to do now was push a button. And then he, Edwards, Mayer and Graham would be vaporized, hopefully along with the Machine. He could push the button now, and end it, but he was determined to hold out as long as possible. It wasn’t just the world that needed his father, but his family as well. Mina, Sabella, Ishah, Layla, Katelin and all the kids, for generations to come.

“Suck it up, buttercup,” Mayer, the Mossad agent, said to Abraham over comms, as she ran toward Ike. “A soldier couldn’t ask for a better death than this.”

She was right about that. As far as deaths went, this was by far the most epic. If they were successful, their story would be told for generations, to his sons and hopefully by his sons to
their
children. He was about to add to her words, to let his father know that he didn’t fear death, that he’d made peace with it a long time ago, but a crack of lightning arced down and hit the aberration’s back, just a hundred feet behind Mayer. The boom and bright light forced Ike’s eyes closed, but in the afterimage projected on his eyelids, he saw one of the creatures, which his father had dubbed ‘Crawlers,’ surging at Mayer from the side, unseen.

He swiveled his weapon in her direction, eyes still closed, and shouted, “Beside you! Three o’clock! Get down!”

Ike lifted his XM25, opened his eyes, seeing the chaotic world through streaks of green afterimage, and pulled the trigger. Three rounds launched from his rifle. The second was a yellow-hot tracer round, revealing the two explosive bullets’ course. Mayer’s head twisted as she dove for the rough terrain, tucking into a roll. Her quick reflexes and trust in Ike saved her life twice, first when the rounds passed within inches of her face and second, when they struck the underside of the airborne Crawler descending toward her back.

The Crawler’s forward momentum came to an abrupt end as the two explosive rounds burst beneath it, shattering its underside and spinning it away. But the explosions, just a few feet behind Mayer, struck her as well. Her dive and roll turned into an ugly sprawl as metal fragments struck and flung her forward.

“Liz!” Graham shouted, reaching down for her with his left hand, while firing with his right. That he was able to maintain control of the weapon, which had a considerable kick, while lifting Mayer off the ground, was a testament to his strength. He was the consummate Ranger, and he had won Ike’s immediate respect.

“I’m okay,” Mayer grumbled, though she didn’t sound okay. “The armor stopped most of it.”

Most.

Not all.

But there wasn’t time to argue or even worry. They were set upon by the enemy.

With Edwards by his side, just like old times, Ike picked his targets one-by-one, firing over and around Graham, covering the pair of warriors until they reached the bomb. Mayer was in obvious pain when they arrived, but Graham didn’t place her gently on the ground and fawn over her. He lifted her up, depositing her on her feet and returning her weapon to her hands, bringing her back to the fight.

They were all going to die here. Wounds weren’t going to be healed. Their lives couldn’t be saved. They were simply buying time.

With their lives.

The four soldiers fired at the encroaching horde. The dead Crawlers created an obstacle course of carnage for the living. Their bodies needed to be climbed over or around, and their guts, mingling with the rain water flowing over the Machine’s back, made the landscape slick. Their efforts slowed the assault, but couldn’t stop it.

“How much time?” Graham asked, while changing out his magazine.

Ike looked for the Osprey, but couldn’t see it in the sky. Lightning crisscrossed above them, lighting up two of the massive spines rising up into the clouds, cutting through them like a witch’s spoon through a steaming brew. “Cauldron, ETA to safe zone?”

No response.

Ike fired the six remaining rounds in his XM25, killing two more Crawlers and then dropped the weapon, drawing his sidearm and his twelve inch knife. The next Crawler he faced would be up close and personal. But Graham pushed him back and stood in front of him.

“Don’t even think about it, kid,” Graham said. “Your job is to push that button. If we go down, don’t wait. Your father has survived worse.”

Ike smiled at Graham’s confidence in his father. He’d only heard a handful of stories about their time in the wild, about what they saw and how they survived their first encounter with the Machine, but those were enough for him to share Graham’s confidence. Still, as strong as his father was, he wasn’t indestructible. If he didn’t reach the minimum safe distance before the bomb went off, he would die with the rest of them.

Ike crouched down beside the bomb, finger hovering near the button that would detonate the electric charge and the nuclear warhead. It would be a violent, but painless death. “Cauldron. Do you copy? ETA to safe zone?”

Silence.

“Cauldron, answer me, God damnit!”

“Down!” Edwards shouted.

Graham, Mayer and Ike ducked. Looking down into a puddle, Ike saw a Crawler launch over the ridge behind which they’d planted the bomb. As it soared above them, reaching down with its talons, Edwards fired up into it. The explosions tore into the creature’s underside and Edward’s helmet with equal force, tearing both apart.

It took all of Ike’s focus to not scream out and dive to his friend’s aid. He’d already lost Felder and Gutshall, but Edwards had been his closest friend over the past few years.
Honor him by completing the mission
, Ike told himself.
He came here to die. Like the rest of us.

“Master Sergeant,” Graham said, his voice a warning. They were about to run out of time. To punctuate the fact, Graham dropped his now empty assault rifle and drew a long blade. Mayer did likewise, opting for the .50 caliber hand gun strapped to her waist.

“Cauldron,” Ike shouted. “Do you read? ETA to safe—”

“Ike?” It was his father. He sounded desperate and afraid, but not for his own life.

“Dad,” Ike said. “Are you clear?”

“Clear,” came the response. “Ike, I’m sorry.”

“Nothing to be sorry for, Dad. Your actions taught me how to live in this world, and how to die in it. Love you, Dad.”

“Ike!” Graham shouted. “Do it!’

Ike didn’t hear his father’s reply as his thumb shoved the detonation button down.

Bright white light flashed.

A thunderous boom tore through the air.

Heat coursed through his body, tingling every cell.

But there was no bliss to follow.

No choir of angels.

No white tunnel.

Just more of the same. Rain. Darkness. Lightning...

It was a lightning strike, slamming into the Machine’s back nearby. He looked up and saw several Crawlers, unmoving and steaming, cooked by the electricity.

“Do it, Ike!” Graham shouted.

“Push the button,” Mayer screamed at him, reaching for it herself.

Ike pushed the red button one more time.

Nothing happened.

“It’s not working!” Ike said.

Graham reached down and pushed the button several times, but the bomb didn’t explode.

They’d failed.

“Ike?” His father’s voice. “What’s happening?”

“The bomb failed,” Ike said. “Dad, we failed.”

The pause before his father spoke again was filled by the booming of Mayer’s handgun. The powerful rounds punched into a nearby Crawler’s eyes, making it rear back in pain.

“I don’t think so,” Abraham said.

Ike stood, armed with his handgun and knife, ready to go out fighting. “Dad, the—”

“Son,” Abraham said. “Ike. Look up.”

As Ike turned his eyes up to the turbulent sky, the gunfire around him fell silent. Were they out of ammo? Or were they seeing what he was seeing and stunned into inaction? He didn’t bother checking. It didn’t matter now. Their mission was a success.

The massive towers that had been rising up into the clouds just moments before, fell inward, toward the Machine’s back. But they weren’t like falling trees. They were turning to dust. Caught by the wind, the disintegrating particles swirled and coiled away, churning downward.

“It’s coming apart,” Abraham said. “The spikes. The tail. All of it.”

“But...” Mayer sounded stunned. “How? The bomb failed.”

“The electric charge,” Abraham said. “It must have been enough.”

Ike looked back at the device, still armed, still ready to fire, but not functional. The nuclear device hadn’t fired, but neither had the electrical charge. Whatever was happening, it wasn’t them.