Striker (The Alien Wars Book 2) (18 page)

As they trudged
along, the waterfall’s roar only increased. It didn’t take long for the water
to splash around their knees.

“Be careful you
don’t fall over,”
Logan
said, “
it
might be hard to …
aggh
!” He suddenly slipped on a rock. He reached out to
grab onto Kenneth, who had been right behind him. Unable to stabilize
themselves, both of them fell into the rushing water.

Logan
let go of the
silencer and tried to grab hold of the tunnel wall, but he couldn’t get a firm
grip. However, he did manage to stop himself for a few seconds and let Kenneth
pass him before his grip waned and he was forced to let go.

With nothing to
stop him,
Logan
was swept down the dark tunnel after his brother, his mind awhirl
about where they would end up.

~*~*~

Worn out from
everything that had happened in the past couple of hours, Molly didn’t notice a
branch on the ground and tripped over it.
“
Aggh
!”
She tumbled forward.

Derek and Lucy
hurried back to check on her. “Are you all right?” Derek asked, bending down.

Molly gingerly
stood up. “Yes, I’ll be fine.” She glanced around and noticed that they were
next to a rock wall. “Hey, could this be the exit?”

Lucy and Derek
gazed up at the rock wall. “It could be, I guess,” Lucy said. “But I can’t see
a doorway of any kind. If …” She froze as she heard an eerie noise. She frowned
and looked up at the nearby rock wall. “Can you hear something?”

Derek listened.
“I think so.” He hesitated as the noise suddenly increased in volume.

Suddenly, rocks
began tumbling down from the rock wall.

“It’s an
earthquake!” Lucy jumped up. “We need to get away from these rocks!”

The group bolted
toward the nearest pine tree. They had just reached it when the upper half of
the rock wall exploded and a geyser of water shot out.

Lucy shrieked as something
else came crashing through the water. It hit the grass with a thump. A pair of
shocked eyes stared back at them. Another corpse
crumped
nearby.

“Are those the
others?” Molly asked.

“I don’t know. Can’t
tell,” Lucy replied, holding her stomach.

The survivors
waited for the rush of water to die down. A minute later, it did just that. Both
bodies lay side by side, silent and still.

The trio edged toward
the bodies, every step a tortuous task. Lucy rushed forward as she recognized
the first body.
“Oh no!”
She bent down and touched
Logan
. His eyes
were closed and he was unresponsive. She shook his shoulders gently, but the
big guy didn’t budge. She squeezed his wrist frantically and squealed, “He
still has a pulse. Weak, but it’s something!”

Scooping up some
of the water flowing past, she tossed it onto
Logan
’s face.
Nothing happened for a moment, but then he spluttered and his eyes opened.
Coughing up water, he tried to sit up.

Lucy hugged him
tightly. “Thank goodness you’re alive.” She quickly checked his body for any
serious injuries, and although there were cuts and scrapes everywhere, there
was nothing that needed immediate attention.

She shivered at
the second body and saw Derek and Molly helping Kenneth to his feet. They wrapped
some cloth across his left leg. It was already soaked red. “Is that serious?”
she asked, looking concerned.

Kenneth shook his
head. “It’ll wait until we get to
Redding
. I’m just fortunate that I didn’t break any bones. That was one
hell of a ride.” He leaned against the rock wall. The water had all but stopped
now. “That looks like the end of the water.”

Molly hugged
herself. “Where did it come from?”

“I don’t know,”
Kenneth replied, brushing his wet hair out of his eyes. “It all started when the
base went up.” He put both hands on Lucy’s stiff shoulders. “Was that your
doing or—”

“Molly and
Frank’s
doing,” Derek said, glancing up at
Mount Shasta
. It looked
peaceful now. Scattered metal littered the top of the mountain.

Kenneth did a
quick headcount. “Hey, where’s Frank?”

“He didn’t make
it,” Molly said.

Kenneth’s face
fell as he studied
Mount Shasta
. “What a waste of lives that mountain has taken away from us.
First Mike, then Jet, and now Frank.”

Derek gave
Kenneth a long sigh. “Did Jet and Mike die?”

Kenneth struggled
to nod. “I’m afraid so.”

“How?
What happened?” Molly asked.

“It was a trap.
We didn’t stand a chance,” Kenneth said.

“How did you two
survive then?” Derek asked.

“As soon as the
explosions started, all hell broke loose. Logan and I were lucky enough to
escape the carnage.” Kenneth shot his brother a look as he and Lucy walked
over.

Logan
beckoned to
the teens. “Good to see you’re safe.”

Suddenly, an
explosion rumbled deep inside the mountain. The group gazed up at
Mount Shasta
as black smoke
drifted out of hole at the top of the snow-capped mountain. As they watched,
the smoke began to dissipate.

“We’d better make
haste and get out of here,”
Logan
said, glancing over at Kenneth. “We wouldn’t want to be out in the
open if
Mount Shasta
decides to erupt.”

“No, you’re
right.” Kenneth looked around. “Does anyone know where we are?”

Lucy shook her
head. “The teens and I were just about to find out when you two arrived.”

“Well,”
Logan
said, “since
the mountain is in that direction, then the road should be this way.” He
pointed directly away from
Mount Shasta
. “Looking at the sun, and guessing what time it is, that would be
east, which seems about right.”

Kenneth raked a
hand through his wet hair.
“Sounds good to me.”

Logan
grabbed his
fiancée’s hand and pulled her to a clump of pine trees. “We can exchange war
stories while we walk.”

As the teens
rushed up to
Logan
to tell him what they had been up to, Kenneth snapped his weapon up
as something rustled in the nearby bushes. He relaxed as a bird peeked out.

Glancing once
more at the mountain, he saw that black smoke was still rising. He wondered
what kind of chemicals had been stored in the mountain and whether or not a
volcanic eruption was a possibility. Thinking that it was better to be safe than
sorry, he hobbled as fast as he could with his injured leg in the direction of
the trees.

Unbeknownst to
Kenneth, five seconds after he turned around, the
color
of the smoke changed from black to green.

Thinking about
everything that had happened in the past few weeks, Logan Pollack could only
laugh. Was it all really luck, or was some higher power just stringing him
along for schnitzels and giggles? He and his brother had survived more than
their share of disasters, and at any point in
time,
things could have gone the other way.

But they hadn’t.
A wave of sadness drowned his heart as he pictured all the people that had died
because of him: Muscles, Jet, Xavier, and countless others.
All
dead because of him.
It didn’t matter who had pulled the trigger.

At least their
deaths hadn’t been in vain. After saving his girlfriend, Lucy Thorn, from a
ruthless mob boss, he had tried to stop the Seods by attacking their
underground base inside
Mount Shasta
. But what was he to do next? He didn’t know. A sudden shriek shook
him from his thoughts.

“I see houses!”
Molly exclaimed.

“Finally,”
Kenneth muttered. “I’m worn out.” He yawned.
“And tired.
I mustn’t be as fit as I thought I was.”

Logan
nodded. “Now
that you mention it, I’m feeling tired as well.”

“Well, it’s not
everyday that you get imprisoned inside a mountain and have to fight for your
life,” Lucy joked.

“No, you’re
right. Well, I can’t see any harm in having a small nap, particularly as I
don’t feel like driving at the moment.”
Logan
stopped and
surveyed the houses. “If we’re lucky, we might be able to find some food.”

Without further
ado,
Logan
led the way across the grass to the newly erected estate on the
outskirts of
Mount Shasta
. Picking a house at random, he called out. As no one answered, he
kicked the door open. It didn’t take long to ascertain that no one was in the
house. Searching the kitchen, the group found some stale biscuits and bread and
sat down in the living room to enjoy a well-deserved meal.

~*~*~

It was a
refreshed Logan who emerged from the shower a while later. After drying himself
off, he put his clothes back on and headed toward the voices in the living
room.

Seeing Lucy
eating a biscuit, he walked over and spun around. “So
where’s
Derek and Molly?”

“Sleeping,” Lucy
replied. “They felt tired.”

Logan
yawned
deeply. “Let’s all get some rest, and then we’ll see what’s left of
Redding
.”

“Shouldn’t we
sleep in shifts?” Kenneth asked. “I don’t suppose we’ll have any visitors,
but—”

“I’ll take the
first watch,” Lucy interrupted. “I don’t feel that tired, and I can always
sleep in the car when we head to
Redding
.”

“Okay, wake me if
you hear anything.”

As the man left
the room,
Logan
sat down beside Lucy on the couch. “Aren’t you tired?” Lucy asked.

“You have no
idea, but I wondered if you wanted to talk about things.”

“What things?”
Lucy asked.

“Well, your
father dying, for instance,”
Logan
replied.

“I’m fine,” Lucy
muttered, gazing off into the distance.

Logan
put his arm
around her. “I’m her for
you,
you do know that,
right?”

“Like I said, I
don’t want to talk about it. Not in our current situation,” Lucy replied.

“Okay, but as I’m
sure you’re aware, I lost my dad as well, plus my mom, so …”
Logan
said.

“That was
different,” Lucy interrupted. “You didn’t have to look into your dad’s eyes
moments before he died.”

“No, I didn’t,”
Logan
confessed.
“But the one thing I do know is that it helped to talk about what happened with
my brother.”

“When was the
first time you met my father?” Lucy asked.

Logan
frowned.
“What?”

“Just answer the
question!” Lucy shouted. Immediately, she softened her tone and cradled her
hands between
Logan
’s. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to shout. I’m just stressed.”

Curious,
Logan
stared at
Lucy. “Why do you want to know when your father met me?”

“It doesn’t
matter. Forget it.” Lucy faced out the window, chewing her lip.

Logan
followed her
and clasped his right hand around her waist and snuggled next to her. “Is there
something you’re not telling me?”

“No. Just forget
it, I tell you. I’m just stressed.” Lucy suddenly smiled and faced him. She
planted a peck on
Logan
’s cheek. “Why don’t we just relax?”

Logan
grinned as he
guided her back to the couch, stealing a kiss as he did so.

~*~*~

Taking care not
to wake
Logan
, Lucy cradled his head in her hands and moved him off her body and
onto the couch, taking care to place a pillow below his head. She then moved
off the couch and sat down on the nearby rocking chair.

As she rocked
back and forth, her thoughts returned to the conversation that she had
attempted to have with
Logan
earlier. Sooner or later, she would have to tell him about the
conversation that her father and she had in the minutes before he died. She
glanced at
Logan
to make sure that he was asleep. He was, so she reached down into
the space between her breasts and pulled out a necklace that she had been
storing there for what seemed like forever. At the end of the necklace was a
silver key.