Beyond Armageddon V: Fusion (35 page)

Caesar’s grenade hit the spider sentry with brilliant accuracy, severing its rear-most legs and causing the ‘head’ to fall and roll while firing pellets at an insane pace directly into the sky.

The three remaining monks among the pursuit group turned to face the new threat. But so did the K9s, who reversed course and set upon the robed villains from behind. Despite their forearm-mounted firearms, the monks were torn to pieces in a few moments.

As Nina and Vince rounded the corner of one of the stone buildings, the monks in the courtyard opened fire forcing the commandos behind the wall for cover. The corralled humans fled to the south, some entering the barracks others making for the open field.

“Blasphemers! Feel the wrath of the living god!”

Voggoth’s priestess produced two fleshy balls slightly larger than softballs. She threw the objects and they rolled across the dusty courtyard. As they did, the balls expanded in mass, not unlike a cartoon snowball growing larger as it cascades down a slope.

The objects grew to the size of very large beach balls and stopped rolling. Thin appendages pushed through the surface of the balls into the air, bent at some sort of joint, and reached to the ground lifting the round center into the air. Two more Spider Sentries joined the fight.

Instantly, the first one disintegrated as Carl Bly raked the courtyard with light machine gun fire from the northeast. Puss oozed from the ‘face’ of the Sentry and it dropped into a lifeless mess.

The remaining monks—more than a dozen—alternated their attention from corner to corner of the fort. They fired at every human they could see, soldier or civilian; striking down several of the fleeing captives in the process. Meanwhile, the Ogre roared and charged at Carl Bly’s position.

Maddock opened fire with his sniper rifle. In an instant he emptied an entire clip of five bullets, killing three monks in the process.

Nina and Vince poked around the corner of the building and joined the firefight with bullets and anti-personnel grenades. More of the monks died.

The remaining Spider Sentry advanced on Nina’s position. The nose cone on its ‘face’ darted out like a skewer on a hose and slammed into the stone wall of a building, cutting loose a large chunk of rock.

“We need to fall back,” Vince said.

Nina answered with action, not words.

She jumped out from around the building, rolled to a kneel, and launched her M203 directly at the Spider Sentry. The grenade flew wide, arced into the courtyard, and exploded harmlessly a few yards in front of the implant factory.

The monster launched its skewer and fired pellets at the same time. The sharp cone pierced the ground next her feet. The tiny bullets peppered the ground all around her.

Vince followed Nina’s lead. His grenade—as it had with the first Spider—hit true. The ball at the center of the legs broke apart into goo.

On the northeast side, the gray-skinned Ogre charged at Carl Bly’s machine gun. The soldier gave his attention to this threat, hitting the muscle-bound fiend square on in the chest with a series of 5.56 rounds in rapid succession. While the bullets bounced off the creature’s chest, the impacts caused pain and slowed its approach.

Click.

The M249 ran dry. The barrel sizzled with heat.

The wounded Ogre raised its heavy black mace above its head…

Bly pulled his Desert Eagle side arm and fired four shots into the Ogre’s knees. The flesh there exploded. The creature—dazed, exhausted and surprised—dropped its mace and fell to one knee directly in front of the machine gun. It sort of hovered there, not quite ready to die but lacking focus.

Bly calmly pulled a new ammunition box from his kit and slipped it into place on the 249. The whole time the half-dead Ogre swayed side to side with its eyes glazed. Bly smiled at the disabled monster and winked just as he slipped the ammo box into place.

Then he unleashed a firestorm of bullets at nearly point-blank range into the Ogre’s face. It tore the beast apart. Bly then returned his attention to the battle on the courtyard where the last remaining monk fell to Vince Caesar’s assault rifle.

“Carl,” Nina commanded as Bly stepped into the courtyard, “Burn that hole down,” and she pointed to the implant center. “Vince, Oliver, get those civvies back here. We don’t want them running away blind and ending up Jaw-Wolf feed after all we went through to save them.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“You will kneel before the great Voggoth.”

The priestess—wounded from a sniper round—hobbled in retreat from Nina.

Nina switched out the clip on her M4.

“Feel his wrath!”

Squirming tentacles burst from the once-human woman’s neck; grayish appendages on which rode an acid-smell.

Nina filled the priestess with bullets in a series of three-round bursts…

Smoke rose from the burning implant center and drifted into the afternoon sky. It filled the area around Fort Larned with a foul, bitter stench.

The Dark Wolves moved the survivors a hundred yards east of the Fort where they waited in a clearing surrounded by trees.

The plume of smoke rising from The Order’s torched facility not only gave Nina a sense of satisfaction, it also served a more useful purpose: a beacon.

Nina heard high-pitched jet engines and glanced up. A C-141 Starlifter passed over their position. From the big plane dropped a pallet of supplies. A heavy parachute opened and while the cargo plane turned away and headed for home, the supplies drifted in the afternoon sunshine until coming to rest with uncanny accuracy among the group of survivors and soldiers.

Nina stood at the perimeter of the group watching The Order’s facility burn. Filthy embers from the inferno drifted to adjacent buildings and the flames spread. She hated to see such a historical place—a place where soldiers like her had offered travelers on the Santa Fe trail protection and shelter—burn, but that place had been infected by Voggoth. It needed to be purged.

She turned and watched as the other members of her team encouraged the raggedy band of survivors to pull aid kits and food stuffs from the supply crate. At the same time, the soldiers found and removed ammunition and rations from the cache.

With her gun hanging loosely in her tired arms, Nina stepped closer to the group. She saw two people sitting together apart from the rest and showing no interest in the supplies. Nina recognized them. They were the young couple with the little girl.

Nina shot her eyes around the clearing from person to person in a frantic search for the daughter, but she was nowhere to be found.

She stared at the young couple who sat beneath the shade of a hickory tree. The woman had long but very dirty hair and blood splashed on her arms. The man appeared even worse; wounds from monk pellets peppered his shoulders and arms. None appeared lethal, but all appeared painful.

Yet it seemed he did not even notice the injuries. His mouth worked open but no sound came, his eyes cringed and his fingers flexed into fists, open again, then closed one after another. She saw tears streaming down his cheek.

In his grief, the man fell into the woman’s lap. To Nina, the woman appeared shell-shocked and sad but strong. She kept her own heartache at bay and held the man in her lap, stroking his hair gently and whispering something—some attempt at comfort—into his ear.

The sight amazed Nina. Such strength, but such compassion. She wondered—she wondered if she…

“I am tired of this game! I don’t want to be the leader anymore. I don’t want to have peoples’ lives depending on what I say. I don’t want to fight anymore. I want to go hide and cry myself to sleep. I don’t want to be strong and sure and none of that shit ANY-MORE!”

Nina said nothing. What could she say?

“There’s your great leader, Nina. I’m not the man you think I am. I’m Richard Stone. I sell Chevrolets. I live at home with my parents. I don’t know who this Trevor guy is. I don’t think I like him very much.”

Nina forced an arm around him. He tried to pull free, but she would not let go. She tugged him close. He started to push free again but instead began to sob.

“Let it out—you can—you can let it all out with me. You can try and chase me away, but I’m not going away.”

He buried his face in her lap.

Nina stroked his head and told her lover, “I know Trevor Stone. He’s got a tough job, but he does the best he can; better than anyone else could do. I know it used to be a lonely job but that’s not true anymore. Trevor Stone is never alone as long as I’m here. As for this Richard Stone guy, I’ve seen him from time to time. And you know what? I love him, too. So I don’t care who is here next to me, Trevor or Richard. You don’t have to hide from me. But when you need me to, I’ll hide with you—in the dark.”

Without thought, without planning, Nina found that, yes, she could give comfort to another human being. She could do more than kill; she could deliver mercy, too…

Nina felt the world spin. She squeezed her eyes shut and tried to find mental balance. Instead, she heard voices from a past she should not remember; she felt the satisfaction in holding Trevor in her lap and shepherding him through a night of misery. She felt the chill of a December evening as she stood on a balcony in that black dress and he gave her their new world; the world they were trying to remake.

Why now? Why am I remembering all this now?

The bridge to Trevor’s mind through that old man—had that given her Trevor’s memories of them being together or had that power somehow unlocked hidden secrets that survived the removal of the implant? Or was it more? That old man—he was no old man; he was something of much higher power. Being so close to something so powerful—could that be the reason?

“Enough.”

She spoke aloud to herself.

They took control from me when they stole my memories. And now they are returning but I refuse to let them control me. I will not be distracted. I have a mission.

She opened her eyes again and surveyed the ragtag group of survivors rummaging through the supply crate. Vince Caesar approached her with a sealed envelope that had been mixed in with the supplies.

“I think your buddy Gordon Knox sent us something,” Caesar said.

She opened the envelope and found a map and aerial photos.

One of the survivors from the fort approached. It was the man in BDUs with his arm in a sling. The rank on his shoulder said ‘corporal’.

“Excuse me, Captain; can I join up with you? I still have some fight left in me.”

He held his arm in a sling yet Nina wondered if he might not be a better choice than her; at least his mind remained focused on fighting.

No, I will not let these memories rule me. They were taken from me by force, now I will control their return. I am in control!

Vince jumped, “What about the rest of the them, Cap? We’ve got quite a haul here. We can’t take them with us but if we just let em’ hike away they’re going to come to a bad way.”

Nina ran a hand across her forehead both to wipe off sweat and to express frustration.

“Look, corporal, I need you to do something.”

“Anything you want, Captain.”

“Lead these people out of here. Take them to…” she glanced at the map sent to her by Intel and searched for a place where she might be able to send any survivors they might come across. “Take them to here—Clinton, Missouri.”

“What’s there?” The corporal asked.

“I don’t know. But it’s close enough to the front lines that maybe command can send in some choppers or something. Just stay as far away from KC as you can.”

“Nina,” Vince said, “the front lines, I think, are moving east every day.”

“Well it’s something, Vince.”

The corporal pointed out, “Captain, I’ve got a bum arm and there’s nothing but civvies here.”

“Listen, corporal, just about everyone was a civvie before all this. They’ll make do,” Nina considered, nodded to herself, and then called, “Odin, Campion, Mallow!”

The three dogs hurried to her position.

Nina placed a hand on the corporal’s shoulder, looked at the K9s, and instructed, “Protect. Follow.”

“Captain?”

“They’ll listen to you, just keep it simple. They won’t let anything sneak up on you.”

Nina knelt to the ground in front of Odin: the one consistent friend she’s had through all this. She patted him on the head and he licked her nose in affectionate response. It occurred to her that the elkhound probably had a better chance at survival than her.

Then she stood. The three K9s shuffled over to the corporal’s side.

Caesar asked, “What about us, Cap? They give us something fun to do?”

Nina glanced at the proposed target on the map and smiled.

It might be our last mission—but it’s going to be good.

15. Hammer and Anvil

“J’ai pris les armes pour la liberté de tous.” 
–Inscription on a statue of Vercingetorix in Clermont-Ferrand, France