Arkadium Rising (34 page)

"Better think twice, Jason." Delaney smiled wickedly as she tapped the flat side of her knife against the pale white of Leah's neck.

As Leah's eyes boggled in fear, Jason lowered his hands and took a step back.

"Deli, release her. There's no need for that." After a moment of disbelief, Delaney did as she was told, but looked mad at being put in her place. "Everyone, lower your guns." Marcus looked at each of them in turn, the handful of people who had survived long enough to be standing with him. Marcus set his rifle down on the bridge, and the others followed suit. The men from the fort waited, milling about the mouth of the bridge.

"Are you quite ready?" Adam shouted from the open window.

"Yes, but it won't be eight of your men against the eight of us."

"Oh, really? Please, tell me more."

Delaney said, "Marcus, what are you doing?"

"If sanctuary must be earned, and it's an even contingent of your men who guard your gates, I will take it upon myself to defeat them all."

"Have you lost your mind?" Adam said in disbelief.

"If anything I see more clearly in this moment than any other time in my life."

"So be it. Carry on."

"Marcus, you can't!" Delaney cried.

"So, what? When they kill you, they just take out the rest of us?" Jason said.

"If we all attack at once, we're as good as dead anyway. Look at us. An old hippie healer, our Brother Abel, who might've once been fit in the 1960s, a housekeeper… do I have to go on? There's no other way. If, and I'm only saying
if
they should happen to overwhelm me, Hector, I want you to lead everyone in a retreat. They won't follow past the bridge."

"Marcus, please." Delaney's eyes spilled tears. "Don't do this, I'm begging you!"

"Deli, I always loved you." He smiled sadly and kissed her forehead.

Hector slapped Marcus on the shoulder. "Give 'em hell."

Marcus looked at Jason. Something passed between them. The faint hint of brotherly love? The understanding that this was an act of ultimate self-sacrifice?

Jason felt that moment pass between them, but then he blinked and his eyes hardened as his strongest feelings overrode any other. He sneered at Marcus, hoping nothing more for him than a painful death.

"This is for you, brother."

"I have no brother."

Marcus dropped his pack to the bridge. He then unsheathed the knife at his hip, and then removed a second shorter blade from inside his boot. Without another word, he advanced on the waiting contingent of men seeking his blood. They formed a spearhead formation. The man at the spear's point, a man equal to Marcus's impressive height, beat his club against the leather padded breastplate and let out an aggressive growl.

As he closed to twenty feet, Adam called out from high on the wall. "If you defeat my men, Marcus, you will have done more than earn your Sanctuary. You will have also secured your place as my successor."

The man in the lead quickened his pace and let out another roar as he swung his club down at Marcus. Marcus dove to his left and shoulder rolled, and by the time he gained his feet, the two men next in line fell on him. The first swing smashed into his arm, and Marcus let out a scream of agony as he felt his forearm shatter.

A moment of sympathy for his brother surprised Jason, but he quickly dismissed it. Marcus ignored the pain and shifted low on the ground toward the man who had struck him and was able to stab him in the foot with his short blade. He kept the foot impaled long enough to slice its Achilles tendon with his other blade. The man let out a howl of pain and crumpled to the wooden boards.

The other man lunged at Marcus, but he deftly retrieved his weapons as he regained his feet and used the felled man as an obstacle. The first man, who had acted as the head of the spear, circled around for another attack. As he brought his club back to strike, Marcus kicked him in the stomach. It was enough of a blow to bring him lurching forward. Marcus stabbed his long knife into the side of his neck, and then wheeled around and stabbed another man in the groin.

"He's doing it!" Hector said.

The next three men in line approached more cautiously, negotiating around the writhing or dead bodies of those who came before them.

"Come on, you shits. You got nothing on me!" Marcus urged them forward with both bloodied knives. His arm was already swollen where he had been struck, but he didn't give any indication that it was bothering him.

In the tight confines of the narrow bridge, two men charged at once. One man swung his club, and Marcus was able to sidestep it, but caught the full brunt of the other man's blow square in his ribs. There was a blunt cracking of bone that was nearly lost in the gusting breath escaping Marcus's lungs.

Delaney gasped, looking ready to charge into the fray.

Before the man could pull back his weapon, Marcus closed his arm over it, gripping the head of the club in his fist. He stomped on the man's foot and then smashed the back of his skull into the guy's face, destroying his nose. The man lost his hold on the club and it fell into Marcus's possession. He swung the club around like a baseball bat and it connected solidly against the guy's earhole. His eyes rolled back and he fell, almost certainly dead before his body struck the boards.

The next attacker swung, and again Marcus was able to sidestep the club, which pinged off one of the bridge's rusty metal girders. Before Marcus could recover, another man landed a hard punch in his injured ribs.

"That'll slow you down," the man said with a grunt.

Marcus fell to his hands and knees.

"No!" Delaney yelled. She tried to charge forward, but Hector grabbed her. "Let go of me!"

"He's doing what he has to do. If you try to help, there's probably fifty guns pointed at us from those gun ports. We'd get cut down in about two seconds flat."

A man lifted his club high to deal out a death blow. "Marcus, watch out!" she screamed until her voice cracked. She thrashed against Hector's grip but couldn't break free. "Marcus!"

Marcus looked up in time to see the club and then grabbed hold of the man's leg. As the club came down, Marcus bit into his exposed calf muscle. The club still came down, but it slammed mutely against the bridge. In obvious pain, the man fell to his backside, but he still tried to pummel Marcus with his fists.

His face painted in blood, Marcus lashed out sharply and pierced the soft flesh just below the man's chin. Immediately, the man began flipping about the bridge like a landed fish. Marcus gave the blade an extra shove, burying it to the hilt, and the man stopped struggling as his blood fell hot and sticky against Marcus's hand.

As Marcus removed his blade, a heavy thumping came from the shoreline near where they had camped the night before. At first Jason tried to ignore it, but the sound persisted.

thump-thump-thump

A single Anaki warrior stood at the entrance to the bridge. He was adorned in black carapace-like armor and his skull mask was pulled down, concealing his eyes. He carried a long pike staff. The end pointed skyward was double-faced; one side was a broad axe blade and the other was a scythe that curved into a sharpened hook. The other end, the end thumping against the metal frame of the bridge, was a blunt cudgel shaped like a human femur.

thump-thump-thump

"The Anaki…" Leah's face paled.

"What do we do?" Mandy asked, seeking an answer that wasn't forthcoming from anyone in the group. She finally turned toward the fort. "Marcus?"

Jason, too, looked to his brother, who was a bloodied mess and so exhausted his legs were trembling. It was as if time had slowed. No one moved except for the writhing members of the Arkadium that Marcus had merely wounded.

Eldon walked slowly toward the Anaki warrior. The old man held his hands up in a placating gesture. "It's okay. We're no threat to you. I'm sure you must be thirsty." Eldon reached to uncap his canteen.

"Eldon, don't!" Linda called out. Mandy wrapped her arms around her from behind. "Let me go!" She struggled against Mandy's grip, but Mandy didn't give in. "Eldon!"

At the end of the bridge, Eldon looked back and gave her a big thumbs up. When he turned to face the Anaki warrior, he said, "See, we're no threat at all. We're just trying to—"

The Anaki warrior struck, swinging his pike around in a blurring arc that slammed the axe clear through Eldon's neck. Eldon's head flew away from his body, cartwheeled on the bridge, and fell into the rushing water below. His body gushed a fount of blood and fell as if all of the bones had been instantly removed.

"Eldon, no-no-no!" Linda screamed. "Dear Lord, please…"

Leah screamed incoherently as well, and Jason wrapped his arm around her.

Hector picked up his AR-15 from the deck of the bridge, brought it up to firing height and fired a burst that peppered the Anaki warrior's chest. The man didn't utter a word, and only staggered back a step before righting himself.

"Hector, no!" Marcus shoved the weapon's barrel down before he fired again.

The Anaki swung his pike in a series of rapid-fire figure eights before aiming the point of it directly at Hector.

"What? Why not? That fucker killed Eldon!"

The Anaki once again slammed the cudgel end of his pike against the metal bridge.

thump-thump-thump

"What do we do?" Leah said.

The water rushed by beneath the bridge. White caps churned through the surge. They could jump, but in his condition he would likely drown. And if he drowned, he wouldn't be able to protect Leah…

The pine boughs fifty feet on either side of the entrance to the bridge shook and then were pushed aside as dozens of Anaki warriors filtered through the camouflage of the forest.

thump-thump-thump

They stalked forward, each wearing similar masks and armor as the first warrior. Each carried the same deadly pike staff.

"Adam!" Marcus called out.

"I'm sorry, brother. You have battled valiantly."

"Let us in!"

Adam stepped away from the window and shouted at someone nearby, "Close the doors!" A metal blast shield came down over the window's opening and the sound of laborious cranking of gears came from inside.

Upon Adam's orders, the huge twin metal doors began to creak slowly closed. Jason looked terrified and uncertain; a broken man having to choose his least worst death. In a matter of minutes the bridge had become a chaotic, bloody battlefield. Marcus looked from the doors to his brother, and then to the advancing Anaki warriors gathering by the dozens at the opening of the bridge. With his mind slipping into survivor mode, he moved swiftly toward the nearest member of Adam's contingent, catching him totally off guard, and slit his throat. He then turned and threw his long-bladed knife. The blade pierced another man's cheek and he went over in a heap.

thump-thump-thump

The Anaki now sounded collectively like the thunderous hooves of a monstrous beast.

"Come with me!" Marcus yelled. "Everyone. Now!"

thump-thump-thump

Jason grabbed Leah's hand and they ran toward Marcus. Jason faltered, still weak, and Leah braced her arm around him.

"Head for the door!"

The final member of Adam's people—a man whose girth made him look like a football lineman—charged at Marcus and swung his club.

Hector ran to intercept him, slamming his shoulder into the big guy's chest. It did little more than briefly distract him from Marcus. The man clubbed Hector in the shoulder, shattering bones and forcefully relocating his arm six inches lower on his body. Hector screamed and crumpled to the ground. The man silenced him by caving in the back of his skull with his club, sending him face-first to the ground. Hector twitched and gurgled deep in his throat as if he were swallowing his tongue.

Marcus lunged at the attacker, trying to grapple with him since he was now unarmed.

"It's either you or me walking back through that door," the man said in a deep voice as he circled in the limited space.

thump-thump-thump

Marcus chanced a quick glance at the opposite shore, and the first wave of Anaki warriors had started down the bridge.

"I guess you've made your decision then." Marcus feinted to the right, and when the man swiped for him with both massive paws, Marcus pivoted on his left foot and kicked the man on the inside of his right knee. The big guy cried out and stumbled forward, tripping over Hector's prone body. He looked over his shoulder at Marcus and tried to crawl away.

His fear made Marcus chuckle. He could let him crawl right up to the Anaki and they would finish him off for him, but that wouldn't help them get inside the fort; all of Adam's men needed to be dead. Marcus raced after him and took hold of his thickset jaw and the opposing side of his head. He twisted as hard as he could until he felt bones cracking, and he twisted even harder, hoping they weren't the fragments of his broken arm grinding together. The man spasmed and then stilled. Marcus let go of him and the body slumped over in a heap.

Marcus spat on the dead man, and after seeing the Anaki closing in, he jogged back toward the fort. "Hurry, everyone," he shouted. "You too, Mandy."

Mandy was leaning over Hector, checking his vitals. She stood up and shook her head.

"Go, go, go!" Marcus yelled as the doors were closing on them. "Adam, you sonofabitch, you better not close those doors! I've earned Sanctuary! I've fucking earned it!"

No one from his group wanted to be the first to enter through the doorway, so Marcus charged past them all and narrowly passed through the closing doors and into the gloom within. Quick on his heels were Delaney, Leah, and Jason. His brother looked withered; his lips had paled, and even though his beard had grown in thick, his cheeks had become sickly gaunt.

When Mandy and Linda passed through the entrance, Marcus shouted, "We made it!" His legs were shaking from his expenditure of adrenaline. He wiped the back of his hand across his mouth, sickened by the taste of blood.