by Greg Ramsay
Exactly, the Leader confirmed.
Let’s do it! Lia said as the shifted closed in.
The Leader slammed the blade of his katana into the ground, channelling some of his energy into it as tendrils exploded from his armour and the blade, forming a reinforced black dome shield around them. The shifted charged toward Lia just as the shield finished forming, slashing at it from all sides. The Leader waited a few minutes, letting the lesser shifted around them amass as closely together as possible, before violently shattering the shield apart. The hundreds of thousands of tendrils that once formed the shield now flailed violently, ripping into the shifted nearby with their small spikes. Finally, after a great deal of shifted had been ensnared or stabbed, the Leader channelled the black flame energy he had stored in his katana through them. The shifted affected by the previous attacks were now being burned to dust by unstoppable black fire that destroyed them, then viciously raged onto other shifted. As some of the shifted surrounding them still burned, the Leader put Lia back in control. She ran into them with the katana raised above her head. The capable shifted rushed at her enraged, all bustling to have her head. Lia slammed the blade of the katana into the road in front of her, screaming, “RELEASE!”
A huge wave of energy reached climax at the run of the katana’s blade, blasting out in a huge crimson explosion. The energy expanded outward in a circle with Lia as the epicentre, ripping up the road like shrapnel in its expanding radius. The power obliterated the remaining shifted, destroying nearby buildings, and finishing off the shifted that still lay burning from the Leader’s fire. Lia stood in the middle of the road that had seen her destructive battle, glancing around for more shifted, but saw none. She turned to start walking down the road, hoping her friends had made it away from the swarm. Suddenly she noticed she felt very weak. She looked around for any carcasses she could consume, but her energy had destroyed them all. She hoped she could make it to her friends for food, but just as she finished that thought, she heard deep roaring.
Chapter 19 – Alphas
Lia turned to see a huge alpha shifted, with two scimitars on each arm, land on the blackened road behind her from the top of a surprisingly unscathed office building. She turned to face it. The alpha stood before her, staring down at her, growling menacingly. It held out its blades and stood to its full height for her to see its power and immensity. It was taller than the other alphas Lia had encountered. Judging by its build, Lia thought it was also stronger. She gripped the katana’s hilt firmly prepared to fight the creature with everything she had left.
Lia ran at the alpha, jumping up just above it, bringing the katana’s blade down on its head. On impact, the blade rebounded off its armour, leaving only a shallow mark to show for its strike. The alpha swung its bladed arm down at her; Lia blocked it, straining hard to resist the amazing force behind it. The alpha brought its other scimitar down on Lia’s katana, forcing her to disengage her block and dive backward, backflipping to her feet a metre away. The alpha seemed to sense her weakness because it slowly walked forward raising its blades above its head as Lia had done, and brought them down with equally amazing speed. Lia didn’t have time to counter, and was forced to roll, narrowly avoiding the ground shaking strike. Attempting to attack its unguarded flank, she ran around the left side of the alpha. The alpha jumped backward a step as the tip of Lia’s katana swung to where its target once stood. It raised its right bladed arm and swung it in a left bearing arc, catching Lia’s outstretched katana, and deflected it farther from its target with no effort. Lia swung her katana at the alpha’s outstretched arm.
“Release!’ she said as the blade met its mark; the Leader’s black energy sharpening ability pulsed through the blade, slicing halfway through the alpha’s arm. The alpha swung its other arm upward to replace its wounded arm which it pulled back before she managed to sever it entirely. The alpha continued its upward swing as it backed away from Lia a pace, completely deflecting her katana as it did so. Lia recovered her stance and focused on the alpha’s already healing arm; tendrils slowly sewed the appendage back together, and Lia knew if she was going to stop it, she had to do it immediately. She ran at the alpha; it swung its right arm blade downward to try and stall her. Lia strafed left as she felt the blade fly past her to hit the ground she had just evacuated. Lia feigned a strike to the alpha’s right arm, waiting for it to instinctively counter with the left. Instead the alpha ducked left out of her blade’s reach. Lia jumped closer to the now defensive alpha, grabbing it around its throat. The alpha swung its right arm back trying to dislodge her with its blade.
Quickly, Lia changed strategy. “Release!” she said as her katana once again met its mark, this time partially severing the right arm. Lia grabbed the alpha’s right arm by the wrist pulling it upward into her still poised blade. The katana cleaved the arm off, and Lia threw it away as she readied herself to finish the left arm. She waited until the alpha tried to remove her with its almost healed arm; instead the alpha dove backward. Lia was slammed into the ground with the massive alpha on top of her. She nearly blacked out as the strain on her already drained body began to set in. The alpha stood with Lia still feebly latched on to its neck and swung its bladed arm back again. Lia let go of its neck, barely avoiding the alpha’s strike, then fell to the ground barely breathing. She barely managed to recover her breath as the alpha turned to face her.
Disregarding her entirely, the alpha started walking toward its severed arm, which lay half a block down the road. Lia rolled on her front, straining to get into a crawling stance on her knees, and punched her katana into the ground like a crutch, supporting herself with it as she slowly rose to her feet. Once she had managed to get to her feet, Lia used what remained of her adrenaline to run after the alpha, with her katana barely raised off the ground. The alpha didn’t bother to turn as Lia began to close the gap between them, or it hadn’t noticed. Lia was thankful for the lucky break. She ran up behind it as the stub of its right shoulder became a swarm of reaching tendrils. She swung her katana’s blade through them before they could join with the severed appendage. The alpha roared angrily, spun left, and ripped into the side of her armour with its blade before Lia could react. The blade completely destroyed her armour on the left side below her armpit, cleaving a huge gash in her side. Lia fell to her knees - clutching at her side - as blood seeped from the wound. The alpha swung its arm again, its blade turned sideways slamming her in the chest with it. The sheer force of its blow knocked her on her back.
Lia lay on the ground helpless, her vision beginning to blur as the alpha stood over her. It raised its arm bringing the blade down to finish her off. Lia stared up at the alpha, refusing to submit to fear. Waiting for the end with solemn anger in her eyes, she felt herself fading. Suddenly there was a sharp crack which woke Lia from the fog of her tired mind. The alpha’s head seemed to be blown to the side as if hit by a shockwave. The alpha fell to the side, roaring at the unseen force that had foiled its kill. Meanwhile, Lia was left dumbfounded. Tendrils shot from its shoulder again, this time succeeding in joining with its nearby arm. As the arm started to draw in to the alpha’s body it was hit by another impact. The alpha fell to the ground, its arm flopping like a rag doll as the body impacted with hard packed earth. Lia heard what sounded like a growling and saw a big black thing appear in her blurred vision. Two smaller blurs emerged from the first, both running toward the alpha. Lia could hear loud gurgling sounds near her but she couldn’t tell what they meant. Finally, despite herself, she closed her eyes, blacking out.
Chapter 20 – Heat of the Moment
Ten minutes before:
Lia’s team had driven almost to the edge of the city, opting to pull over near the exit sign to regroup once the horde had started to break away. The shifted seemed to have retreated; Grant grabbed his microphone. “Lia did it, we`re clear!” He realized he hadn`t yet informed them when Steele replied.
“Lia did what? What the hell happened; isn’t she still with you?”
<
br /> Grant cringed. “No, she decided to draw them all away and buy us time to get away.”
“What the hell Grant, you went with that?!” John radioed angrily.
“Ya, I did, we’re talking about Lia here, and besides if she didn’t do that, we’d be done for right now!” Grant said.
“We have to go back for her! There were too many of them; there’s no way she can do that on her own!” John said.
“You’re right, let’s go.” Steele said.
They drove along the road, seeing scorched buildings and roads, a sure sign Lia had partaken in a large-scale battle. A few stray shifted crept warily around the buildings trying to remain hidden, only to be dispatched by heavy fire as the convoy drove past. The sheer devastation was a marker of the scale of the shifted’s numbers. Grant could remember the seemingly endless hordes that had attacked them. The look on his face was one of shocked awe from trying to imagine how she’d done so much. They drove for two minutes through the endless scenes of destruction. John was beginning to worry as they went. He hoped they could get to her before something else happened.
As they drove, the soldiers noticed Lia wasn’t firing off visible attacks like usual. Steele spotted something first.
“Guys, there’s something huge up ahead, and it looks like it’s fighting. Lia has to be over there!”
“Alright, I’ll get a good position on one of these buildings and try to give her some backup.” John said.
“Do it. Grant, get Black with you, and go provide close support, I’ll guard the vehicles,” Steele said.
The convoy pulled over; John jumped out of his tanker, and ran to the Jeep’s trailer. He grabbed a high calibre rifle out of his trailer before running full-speed into a nearby apartment building. After scaling multiple flights of stairs, John finally found a heavy steel safety door that said, “Roof Access”, and pushed it open. John ran to the far corner of the roof, quickly setting up his rifle. He focused his breathing as he looked through the precision scope. He could clearly see a monstrously huge alpha shifted brutally beating Lia. One quick check of the road behind them showed Black and Grant weren’t going to make it in time. He sighted down the scope. Just as the alpha brought down its blade to strike Lia, John fired the rifle. The first shot hit it in the side of the head, knocking it away enough to save her.
John could see the alpha was enraged, seeking what had attacked it. He also noticed it was missing an arm. The alpha was trying to re-attach its arm. He knew if the alpha managed to get both its arms back, it would go after Lia again, which would quickly be the end of her since she was already practically unable to fight. As the arm began to draw in again, John fired, and the alpha went down. He knew the alpha wouldn’t stay down for long, but it didn’t matter. John stayed ready to provide cover if needed, hoping Lia would be okay.
Black, Wanderer and Grant ran to finish the alpha. Grant stood beside its head with his shotgun ready. Black stabbed it into the alpha’s neck with her katana where a slight chink in its armour remained from the fight. She sawed through into the left side making black sludge leak from its severed flesh. Mildly agitated, it opened its mouth to roar, but before it could even do that, Grant blasted it in the face with his shotgun. John hit it with another shot from his rifle simultaneously. Black smiled while she continued severing the creature’s head. Tendrils shot from its neck trying to re-attach the head. Grant pulled out his combat knife and helped Black cut through the tendrils. Once it was almost detached Grant dropped his knife, grabbed the alpha’s head, and ripped it free, throwing it as far as he could down the road. Wanderer ripped into the carcass like a starved fiend to keep it down. Black sheathed her katana as she ran over to Lia. She could clearly see the huge bleeding gash in her side barely being abated by tendrils coming out of her body they as weakly tried to stop it. Black saw her eyes were open so she called out to her as she bent in to listen for breathing. Lia wasn’t responding at all; in fact, her healing capacity was slowing. Black ran to the Hummer to grab its radio’s microphone.
“Steele come in, Lia’s down and not responding, you guys need to get over here now!”
Steele hearing Black’s call from inside the Jeep, yelled up to Marks.
“John, Lia’s down we need to get over there!”
John grabbed his rifle before running back the way he came urgently. He ran out of the building, climbed into the open passenger side of the Jeep right as Steele floored the gas. When they arrived at the scene of Lia’s battle, John ran over to her as she lay on the ground, staring blankly at the sky. Blood was pooled at her side and she wasn’t responsive to his calls. “Lia you’re going to be ok, you need to get up. Get up Lia!” Lia’s eyes shifted slightly toward him so John continued talking to her, hoping she would focus on his casual ramblings. She watched him with a confused look in her eyes. Steele joined John at her other side looking sombre and resigned like someone who’s seen too much death. Lia’s eyes again drifted up toward the sky, then they slowly closed. “LIA?!” John yelled as he saw her eyes close. He shook her, and shook her, calling for her to wake up, as sadness borne of familiarity, filled his eyes.
Lia found herself once again trapped in a void between her mind and the death she wanted so dearly to avoid. However instead of seeing the Leader’s mask, she saw a man shrouded in darkness with a familiar distorted voice eerily telling her to remember. Confused, she followed the figure through the fog in her mind which passed her by like a discarded doll, not lost but not ready to be found. Suddenly the world was ablaze with images of the man, one who fought for her when she was attacked so many years before, comforted her, lifted her up past what she believed she could be, watched her become more for herself while never thinking of her as one that needed him, and ultimately made her a mother. Increasingly she could see and feel it all as though being free of the monstrous world also freed some of the pain in her mind. To her dismay things began to take a harrowing turn like a twisted movie; all she could do was watch as her etheric daughter’s body blew apart and drifted away.
Years passed in the blink of in eye, all a blur of rage and pain which eventually tore her relationship apart. Grief drove her to first an obsession with martial arts, then finally to the military for righteous revenge, though she couldn’t remember why specifically. REMEMBER! the voice screamed as the violent stream of memories tore through what remained of her. John continued to shake Lia, call for her, yell for her to wake up. Steele grabbed his shoulders, pulling him away from her.
“She’s gone John.”
“No she’s not!” he yelled back. He looked at Lia, at her feeble tendrils, then to the alpha’s carcass laying near her. “She’s not dead, she’s weak! She needs the shifted!” He turned to Grant. “Help me move it to her Grant!” Together they half dragged, half heaved it over beside her. John pulled the alpha`s carcass as close to her as possible, waiting impatiently for something to happen. The tendrils that barely wiggled toward her injury didn`t suddenly move or do anything. Instead, they stopped moving altogether. He screamed angrily before dropping to his knees beside her, his mind awash with things he didn’t fully understand. John sat helpless, staring at her with sadness and confusion on his face.
Steele walked up beside him calmly. “She`s really gone, John. There`s nothing you or any of us can do...”
John looked at Steele, looked at Lia, and turned slowly back to Steele. He looked at Lia again searching for any hope in her desecrated form that lay on the ground. He felt suddenly enraged seeing her katana laying on the ground beside her. He crouched over Lia again until he remembered what she told them when they first met. Rather the specific part about how the katana only formed when the Leader was joined with her. So he decided to try to communicate with it. “If you can hear me you bastard... YOU’RE SUPPOSED TO HELP HER! TAKE THE DAMN SHIFTED AND FUCKING HEAL HER NOW OR SHE DIES, TAKING YOU WITH HER!” he yelled at the Leader inside her, hoping it could somehow hear him, and do what he said.
“John...” Steele said sad
ly, wondering why he was suddenly so invested.
John stared at Lia’s face waiting for the Leader to take over and yell at him, something, anything, as long as it meant she would be healed. He didn’t care if the Leader killed him. “She’s so important... I just can’t place why!” he said to no one in particular, his voice filled with exasperation. Still nothing changed, leaving John to silently weep in confused pained rage. John watched Lia as she lay still on the ground, wiped the tears from his eyes, and turned away from her.
Steele walked up beside John, put her hand on his shoulder giving it a gentle squeeze as she said, “I’m sorry John... I know you cared about her, though I didn’t know how much... It’s a major loss for all of us. We have to move on. I know if Lia were alive she would say the same.” John nodded in acknowledgement. Steele said, “Now let’s get out of here.”
John shook his head. “Not yet, we should find a place to bury her first.”
Steele nodded and gestured for the others. Once they had all gathered she said, “Grant please help Marks dig a grave for Lia. I’d say it would be appropriate for it to be somewhere around here where she fell. Call us when you’re done and we’ll all say our goodbyes.” Grant nodded before he grabbed a small shovel out of a tool box in the back of Lia’s Hummer. John walked back to Lia with Grant. He knelt down beside her and gently picked her up.
Lia couldn’t feel her body. Her senses had all seemed to shut off, her eyes wouldn’t open. She felt like she was dead like she was surrounded by nothing. The pain of past revelations still ached like a consistent lifeline. She didn’t know where she was - if she was anywhere at all – or just lost somewhere in her mind. She wished she had some idea of what was happening around her. Lia lay immobile in her empty world, waiting for an answer, and hoping one would come.
The Leader watched Lia as she lay in her mind’s void world, submitting to her death. She wasn’t responding to his calls. His dark clouds of energy did nothing to her form. The energy couldn’t cause her skin goosebumps as it used to, nor did its suppressing aura force her to breathe. He allowed his body to form fully in her mind, then he walked over to her. He shook her ghostly image. It was in the form of her spirit, now weak, not as determined as it once was. The shaking was useless; she didn’t awaken. The Leader watched angrily, unable to revive her will. He was only able to watch as her spirit continued to fade. The Leader growled and held out his clawed hand. He put all the energy he had left into the tips of his claws, and stabbed them into the heart of her spirit. Her body arched and spasms shook her as though she had just been shocked by a defibrillator. The Leader pulled out his claws, and watched pleased as Lia’s spirit slowly opened its eyes.
