"You let that pute put a half-breed monster in your belly!" His hoarse cry tore across the night. "You shamed yourself, you shamed me! You shamed your people!" He suddenly cackled, madness in his eyes. He drew a knife. "I will carve it out. I will carve out this child of sin!"
He lunged, thrusting his blade toward her belly.
Time seemed to freeze.
A second lasted an eternity.
And Maria was back in her room above the Go Go Cowgirl, playing cards with Jon, laughing with him, making love to him.
And she felt her child in her belly, the soft life, the trembling love.
She saw that child grow up, a beautiful girl, a girl living on Earth. A true Earthling, safe from war.
And she saw a vision of the blade inside her, her baby carved out, all light extinguished from the world.
She could not retreat. Not with the sarcophagi behind her, forming walls of stone. The knife flashed closer.
I must save my child, Maria thought. Whatever the cost, I must save her.
Time flowed again.
Maria cried out in horror, grabbed Pippi, and shoved her friend forward.
Ernesto's blade slammed into Pippi's chest.
Pippi gasped, not even able to scream. Blood filled her mouth. Her eyes bulged.
Maria screamed.
"What have I done?" she cried, weeping. "Pippi, no, Pippi, I'm sorry, I'm sorry!"
Ernesto growled, twisted the blade, and yanked it back. Pippi collapsed, a hole in her chest. The bargirl looked up at Maria, and her eyes were so betrayed.
"Maria, I…" Pippi whispered, and then her head fell back, and she breathed no more.
Maria had no time for grief. No time for guilt. Ernesto climbed over Pippi's corpse, thrusting his blade.
Maria leaped aside, and the blade scraped across her arm.
Ernesto's men surged, swinging their own weapons. The bargirls leaped onto them, screaming, clawing and biting, and blood flowed across the cemetery.
Blades entered flesh.
Guns boomed.
Joyce fell down dead.
Grace followed.
Charlie was fighting a man, stabbing with a knife, but a blade scraped across her hip, and she fell.
Dance with us.
Maria ducked and sidestepped, dodging Ernesto's attacks. She retreated between the stacks of stone coffins, and he kept pursuing.
Dance with the dead.
Maria heard their call. And she answered it.
She leaped back from Ernesto, shoved herself against one coffin, and knocked over the stone lid. It cracked against the ground.
The dead emerged.
Two skeletons rose. A mother and child. Maria fled behind them, and she pointed at Ernesto.
"Kill him!" she said.
The skeletons pounced. They clattered against Ernesto, bones cracking, ribs falling. But their jaws closed around him. And their bony fingers gripped his throat.
Maria opened another sarcophagus. Then another. A third. As Ernesto wrestled the skeletons, she summoned some more.
"Rise, my friends!" Maria said, raising her arms toward the night sky. "Rise and dance and fight!"
More skeletons rose.
These were not the gravedwellers, not living souls of flesh who sought refuge among the dead. These were the dead themselves, the skeletons of generations past, a nation of bones filling the stacks of sarcophagi. At nights, during her fever dreams, they would rise to dance with Maria, holding hands, cavorting and clattering in rings within rings.
Tonight they swarmed.
The skeletons formed a river of death, as powerful as the river of the living flowing through the city. They slammed into the Kalayaan, clattering, biting, clawing.
The guerrillas fired their guns, but their bullets flew between the bones. They lashed their daggers, only for the blades to slide harmlessly between ribs. One guerrilla fell, overcome with skeletons. Another fell. A third. The skeletons formed a tidal wave, washing over the living.
Ernesto gave Maria a last stare. A hard stare. His mouth a thin line.
And then the skeletons washed over him, and he fell, drowning in a sea of bones.
The surviving bargirls fled, worming between more rising skeletons. The dead were everywhere. Hundreds, maybe thousands of them, gushing forth. Yet they flowed around the bargirls like gentle water, for they could distinguish between friends and foes. Finally the bargirls reached the edge of the cemetery, where they collapsed by a weeping angel statue.
Maria panted, holding her belly, fearful for the child inside. The younger girls knelt, sobbing. A few were nursing wounds.
Charlie stood there, frozen, a tear on her cheek. Blood stained her hair, her fishnet stockings hung in tatters, and she had lost one of her heels. She turned cold, haunted eyes onto Maria.
"You murdered her," Charlie whispered.
Maria wept. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I had to protect my baby. I had to. I had to…"
She closed her eyes. And she saw Pippi's face. Accusing. Dying.
I'm sorry…
She looked up at Charlie. "Please, I'm sorry, I had to. You have to understand. Charlie…"
But Charlie only gave her a cold look. A look full of loathing… and of fear.
"Who are you?" Charlie whispered. A single tear ran down her cheek. "I curse the day you ever stepped into my club."
Charlie turned and walked away. The other bargirls looked at Maria, eyes sunken, faces pale. One of them spat on her. They followed Charlie, leaving Maria by the weeping angel.
Maria lowered her head and wept with the statue.
I murdered my best friend.
Gunfire rattled in the distance. A distant boom rolled like thunder, and the weeping angel shook. Smoke billowed over the stars. Maria rose to her feet, stumbled between two palm trees, and gazed into the distance.
Mindao was burning.
Chapter Forty
Sacrifice
Jon sat in the jungler, flying back to Camp Apollo.
He hunched in the back seat, still and silent. A corporal was flying the vessel. A couple privates sat beside Jon. The smoldering jungle canopy sprawled below. Two other junglers flanked them, skimming the trees, their engines bending branches and scattering blackened leaves.
They had defeated the Kalayaan in battle. They had reclaimed the portable wormhole generator. But nobody was boasting of victory. They were all silent.
Their colonel was dead.
Jon looked at his hands.
There was blood beneath his fingernails. It was blood that he could never wash off his hands. The blood of Bahay, and the blood of a good man.
For a long time, I was a killer, he thought. Today I am a murderer.
Back at camp, guards were waiting for him. Jon did not run. He held out his hands and let them handcuff him.
They led him into a tent.
A burly major sat at a desk, scowling at a minicom. He raised his eyes, staring from under eyebrows as thick and black as his mustache. Jon stood at attention and saluted.
"Sergeant Jon Taylor?" the major said.
"Yes, sir."
The major's eyebrows pushed low over his eyes. "I'm dealing with a dead colonel, a hijacked PIWG, a whole bunch of dead soldiers, and worst of all—the largest leak in the history of the Bahay War. And you, Sergeant Jon Taylor, were found at the scene of the crime."
A wave of dizziness flowed over Jon. He nearly collapsed. His wounds were still bleeding. There was a bullet in his shoulder. "Sir, I need a medic."
"All our goddamn medics are dead!" the major shouted, rising to his feet. "And if you're responsible for this shitstorm, you'll be dead too before sundown."
Jon swayed on his feet. "Sir, is this a court martial?"
"You're goddamn right it is." The major sneered. "And you better have some damn good answers for me, soldier. Or I'm going to send you to the goddamn firing squad."
Then fire, Jon thought. Shoot me dead. Because I betrayed my fellow soldiers. And I killed a good man. But I
did it to save two worlds. If there is any mercy in heaven… God, I did it to save two worlds.
The major was talking some more. Jon couldn't hear. His ears rang. His wounds kept bleeding. His head spun.
He fell to his knees, and then his cheek hit the ground, and before everything went dark, he thought of Maria's smile.
The story continues in . . .
I, EARTHLING
SOLDIERS OF EARTHRISE IV
Click here to read I, Earthling.
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NOVELS BY DANIEL ARENSON
EARTHRISE
Earth Alone
Earth Lost
Earth Rising
Earth Fire
Earth Shadows
Earth Valor
Earth Reborn
Earth Honor
Earth Eternal
Earth Machines
Earth Aflame
Earth Unleashed
SOLDIERS OF EARTHRISE
The Earthling
Earthlings
Earthling's War
I, Earthling
The Earthling's Daughter
We Are Earthlings
CHILDREN OF EARTHRISE
The Heirs of Earth
A Memory of Earth
An Echo of Earth
The War for Earth
The Song of Earth
The Legacy of Earth
KINGDOMS OF SAND
Kings of Ruin
Crowns of Rust
Thrones of Ash
Temples of Dust
Halls of Shadows
Echoes of Light
THE MOTH SAGA
Moth
Empires of Moth
Secrets of Moth
Daughter of Moth
Shadows of Moth
Legacy of Moth
REQUIEM
Dawn of Dragons Requiem's Song
Requiem's Hope
Requiem's Prayer
The Complete Trilogy
Song of Dragons Blood of Requiem
Tears of Requiem
Light of Requiem
The Complete Trilogy
Dragonlore A Dawn of Dragonfire
A Day of Dragon Blood
A Night of Dragon Wings
The Complete Trilogy
The Dragon War A Legacy of Light
A Birthright of Blood
A Memory of Fire
The Complete Trilogy
Requiem for Dragons Dragons Lost
Dragons Reborn
Dragons Rising
The Complete Trilogy
Flame of Requiem Forged in Dragonfire
Crown of Dragonfire
Pillars of Dragonfire
The Complete Trilogy
ALIEN HUNTERS
Alien Hunters
Alien Sky
Alien Shadows
OTHER WORLDS
Eye of the Wizard
Wand of the Witch
Firefly Island
The Gods of Dream
Flaming Dove
Earthling's War (Soldiers of Earthrise Book 3) Page 31
