Broken Arrow: Navigator Book Four

by SD Tanner

  As he ran to join Alice, he shouted, “We’ve lost a nav. He’s buried. Send the medics. He’s badly wounded.”

  “Roger that.”

  Tearing into the ground next to Alice, the survivors were shoveling the dirt away. He could see the outline of Mark, but he couldn’t tell if he was alive or not. “Mark, can you hear me?”

  When he received no reply, he doubled his efforts, heaving away clumps of dirt out of what had once been a chamber. The goo had disintegrated to dust, making it impossible to tell that it had ever been there. With the combined efforts of fifty people widening the hole, he plunged his hand into the soft dirt, finally able to grab Mark’s boot. Alice joined him and together they pulled him from the ground, as if he were being born again.

  Dragging Mark to higher ground, he pushed up his helmet. “Mark, the medics are coming, buddy. You’re gonna be okay.”

  With his face free of his helmet, Mark opened his eyes. “You really oughta marry her. She’s crazy in the good way.”

  Leaning his face down to Mark’s, he felt the tension finally leaving his body. Half laughing and crying at the same time, he replied, “I will.”

  CHAPTER THIRTY: Coming up for air (Leon)

  Inside of his suit, rivulets of sweat were running down his spine and pooling in his crotch. Shuffling across the floor of the truck, the fabric that was clinging damply to his ass detached and then slapped against his skin again, making him feel as if he’d pissed his pants. The endless hammering against the outside of the armored truck was relentless, and it was only a matter of time before the critters would find their way inside.

  After almost being overwhelmed by the rush of critters in the tunnel, they’d lost contact with Jonesy, Ark and Lexie. Fighting their way free, their only option had been to run back to the surface or to continue downwards. There had been no time to talk and it was Tank who’d grabbed him, heaving him up towards the hole in the ceiling. Barely making it to the surface, they’d sprinted to the nearest truck, locking themselves inside of it.

  Tank was firing at the critters through the slit, occasionally taking a break from shooting so he could rip away a critter claw that had dared to poke its way inside. He was on the other side doing the same. They could have driven away, but with the weight of so many critters surrounding their vehicle, they would have hampered any movement, plus neither of them had wanted to abandon their post.

  “Ammo count?”

  “Not good,” Tank replied. “I’m down to my last twenty rounds.”

  Where they could, the critters were tearing at any holes they’d found on the truck and he could feel the vibrations of their frantic movement beneath his feet. Eventually they would find a way inside and then they would be trapped.

  “Should we try driving out?”

  Tank shook his head. “No way. What happens if the others show up just as we’re leaving? I’m not gonna be that guy.”

  His bluntly made point reflected his own decision, and reaching across the slit in the truck, he tore at more critter claws that were starting to erode the edge. “Wanna blow the truck?”

  When they’d reached the surface they’d found the mangled remains of Tuck and Trigger. Judging by the sheer number of critter parts surrounding them, they’d gone out in a blaze of glory, which suited them. Whenever a squad formed there were always two members who would be thick as thieves and that was Tuck and Trigger. If you found one of them then you always found the other, and woe betide anyone who pissed them off. For as much as he regretted losing them, he didn’t believe anyone would have made it into the nest if they hadn’t sacrificed their lives distracting the critters.

  “We’re not there yet,” Tank replied. “We’ll blow the truck when there’s no other option left. Might as well take as many of them with us as we can.”

  “Do you think they made it the bottom?”

  “Not yet, and if we’re still alive then we’ll know when they do.”

  Tank’s steady mind even in the face of almost guaranteed death was helping him stay focused. He was an odd man who said little, but much like the Tuck and Trigger partnership, whenever he turned around Tank was always nearby. It was as if the man had adopted him, and his calming influence had eased the growing guilt that had been making him lose sleep.

  “Just say the word.”

  “You know I will.”

  In between them was a primed bomb made with twenty-four blocks of C4. Originally, they’d brought it with them to take into the nest, but Jonesy had wanted the biggest explosion possible so he’d taken the cratering charges. When he detonated that, the entire nest would collapse, possibly so thoroughly that it would sink the vehicle they were using as cover.

  “I’m out,” Tank said as he turned, putting his back to the slit.

  Firing his last round, he turned to face Tank. “Me too.”

  The floor beneath their feet was beginning to shift slightly and they both looked down between their knees. Something tickled the back of his neck, only it was more like being swiped at by a large razor blade. Without anything to hold them back, the critters were finally tearing the metal apart. Looking up at Tank, a tiny critter appeared on his shoulder. The critters were splitting into their smaller selves so they could make their way through the slits on the truck.

  He reached across the bomb, plucking away the critter. “You’ve got a little something on your shoulder.”

  While he squeezed the tiny creature in his armored fist, crushing it to death, Tank replied, “It’s probably time to mosey on outta here.”

  Tiny critters were pouring through the slits now, making him wonder why it had taken them so long to realize that this was always their way inside. Just as he was about to reach for the igniter, the truck bucked sharply, dislodging the tiny critters that had attached themselves to Tank’s armor. Thrown off balance, he fell onto the bomb and then quickly scrambled away. Expecting to find himself covered in the tiny critters, he was surprised when nothing around him was moving.

  “Tank?”

  “Yeah.”

  “What just happened?”

  “I dunno.”

  Sitting up, he listened for any sound, but the thumping and scratching had stopped, making it eerily quiet. Ordering his visor to advanced viewing, he expected to see a green glow, but there nothing other than the outline of Tank and the truck. When he returned to reality viewing, it was gloomy and he ran his glove across the floor, feeling the tiny bodies of motionless critters.

  Feeling a surge of excitement, he asked, “Do you think that was Jonesy?”

  Tank heaved his body across to the doors at the back of the truck. Twisting the handle, he pushed against the door, only it didn’t budge. “I dunno. Gimme a hand, will ya?”

  Leaning his armored shoulder against the door, it was wedged shut from the outside. Bracing themselves against the sides of the truck, they jointly heaved, slowly forcing the door open. Once there was a three-foot gap, a bundle of limbs and rubbery bodies landed on them. With their exit still blocked by the critter corpses, they used the maximum force on their hydraulics to push them out of their way.

  “Shit. Just how many of these fuckers were out here?” Tank asked in disgust.

  Unable to clear a path, they fought their way through a dense blackness of collapsed critter bodies, and the weight of their corpses brought them to their knees. When they finally cleared the pile, they both turned to face the truck, only it was buried under hundreds of now flattened critters.

  “Shit. We could never have driven out.”

  Shaking his head slowly, he replied, “Didn’t want to anyway.”

  The pyramid to their left was now partially collapsed, standing at only a third of its original height. Sinkholes surrounded the pyramid, appearing randomly for half of a mile around them, making the entire area unstable. Dirt was still collapsing and crumbling as gravity crashed the underground tunnels and chambers in on themselves. Staring in awe at the broken pyramid and standing on the still shuddering earth, the
devastated ground around him could only mean that Jonesy had succeeded.

  He raised his palm to high five Tank, but he was looking at the ground ahead of them. “They did it!”

  Expecting Tank to return his high five, he was surprised when he said, “I can see people.”

  Looking around the desert, he switched his visor to advanced viewing. “Where?”

  “Look down, dopey.”

  When he looked into the ground around the half-sunken pyramid, he saw the outlines of two bodies. One appeared to be encircling the other and a spike of adrenalin flowed through him as he ran towards them. Dropping to his knees above them, he said, “Amber! Can you see them?”

  While he and Tank began clawing at the ground, she replied, “I see them. The medics are on their way.”

  “What’s their ETA?”

  “They’re only a few minutes out.”

  Tank was standing with his legs spread widely and shoveling at the earth much like a dog would. Copying his approach, he began heaving dirt behind him, desperately trying to use the shortest path to reach the bodies. Being so occupied with the task, he didn’t realize the helicopter had landed until Jake appeared by his side. The three of them continued frantically digging at the ground, creating a widening and deepening hole around them. With their additional strength, they were able to move the compacted chunks of earth that had once been the walls and floors of the underground nest. The softer dirt tumbled down the deepening crater they were creating, and he felt like they were losing the battle to reach their Navigators in time to save their lives, assuming they weren’t already dead.

  “What are their chances?” He asked.

  Amber replied in a steady voice, “It depends on whether the blast injured them and how much air they have left.”

  “So, they could be alive?”

  “Anything’s possible.”

  It took them less than ten minutes to reach the first of the bodies. The earth crumbled around him as he forced his arm deep into the ground to grab the outline of a boot. Tank held him around the waist, and they both used their combined strength to pull until the body came free, sliding smoothly out of the softened dirt. Leaving Jake to move the person to higher ground, he reached down and grabbed the second body. It was smaller than the first, and even under the murky dirt, he recognized Lexie’s lighter armor.

  “This is Lexie and Ark.”

  Jake had already dragged Ark’s body out of the hole and Dayton was leaning over him. He and Tank carried Lexie to where they were, gently placing her onto the ground next to him. When Dayton removed Ark’s helmet, he was relieved to hear him gasping for air.

  “Lexie…” Ark croaked.

  One-of-One was already removing her helmet, revealing a waxen face with crusty blood around her open mouth. She looked dead and he turned to face Ark.

  “Help me remove her gear,” One-of-One ordered.

  Dropping to his knees, he fumbled with her boots and gloves, while Dayton and One-of-One hastily pulled away her armor and unclipped her suit.

  “Ark, how long was she down?” One-of-One asked calmly.

  Sitting up and leaning towards them, Ark replied, “I don’t know. The bomb went off and she said she was hurt. Other than to tell me to leave, she never spoke again.”

  “When was that?”

  “I don’t know. My visor crashed.”

  Dayton was tearing into a packet of what he assumed was probably adrenalin and he hammered it into Lexie’s chest, following the movement with compressions. While Dayton and One-of-One worked on her, he pulled off his helmet and slid on his butt towards Ark.

  “What happened to Jonesy?”

  “We found Boris attached to Steve.”

  “Steve?”

  “Yeah, the thing at the bottom of the nest was a guy called Steve. Boris told us that we were a nursery and we’ve just killed the alien’s babies. I’m guessing this isn’t the end of this.”

  Confused by Ark’s explanation, he asked, “The critters were their babies?”

  “No, the people they were loading onto the ships were.”

  “Err, that’s not good.”

  “That’s what I said.” While talking to him, Ark was still anxiously watching Dayton and One-of-One. “Have you got her yet?”

  Neither answered, and wanting to keep Ark distracted, he asked, “What happened to Jonesy?”

  “He told us to leave. What happened to you guys?”

  “We lost you and took cover in the truck.”

  “Why didn’t you drive away?”

  Giving him a dour look, he replied, “As if.”

  Before either of them could speak again, Dayton called, “We’ve got her back.”

  “Is she awake?”

  One-of-One turned to Ark and he thought he saw a flicker of compassion on her usually expressionless face. “No, and she might never be. It’ll depend on how long she was down. If it was too long then there could be extensive brain damage. We need to get her back to CaliTech.”

  Nodding, Ark’s mouth turned downward. “Do your best. She deserves that.”

  CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE: Set a thief (Dunk)

  Standing behind the banks of screens in front of the shadow Navigators, their loud cries and hooting caught him by surprise.

  “They did it!”

  “The critters are down!”

  Bill and Jo were hugging the shadow Navigators as they leapt from their chairs, cheering and congratulating one another. Striding across to Bill, he pulled him out of Amber’s embrace. “Where’s the ship?”

  Turning to face him in surprise, Bill asked, “What ship?”

  “The one over New York. Where is it?” He asked sharply.

  Shaking his head in confusion, Bill looked at him blankly. “I don’t know and we won’t until the satellites are over it again.”

  “You don’t get it, do you?”

  “No, I don’t. We just wiped out the critters by bringing down their main nest.” Slapping his shoulder, he added in a soothing tone, “It’s all good, Dunk. We’ve done well.”

  Explaining to Bill that destroying the nests and the critters would only prove to be part of the solution was more than he could be bothered doing. As was typical of the brass, they’d solved the problem in front of them and now they would sit back waiting for the next one to appear. He was a change agent and it was not his way to wait for life to happen. The world would move at the speed he wanted. Turning on his heel, he marched out of the training hangar and towards the hospital. His shadow Navigators would be useless until they calmed down and he still hadn’t learned what he needed to know.

  Cassie’s room was quiet, but the medical area outside of her doors was buzzing with energy. Injured men and women were being brought into the hospital and the corridors were thick with bodies on gurneys. Once he’d escaped the irritating activity outside, he closed the door firmly behind him, enjoying the sudden silence inside of Cassie’s room.

  “H…hello…?”

  Cassie’s soft voice drifted through the stilted quiet and he moved to the side of her bed. “You’re awake.”

  Looking up at him, she appeared disoriented. “The master is gone.”

  “Is that what he was? A master?”

  She nodded and looked down at her critter arm. “He took us and then he controlled us.”

  “He didn’t control all of you.”

  His blunt statement of fact made her flash him a brief smile. “No, he couldn’t control the Jarhead.”

  “You mean Colonel Boris Meecham.”

  “He didn’t call himself that. He was just the Jarhead.”

  “How many of you were in there?”

  “Lots…but some were sort of…crazy…you know, not well.”

  It was no surprise that being trapped inside of an alien that was controlling their minds had driven some people insane. Nodding, he asked, “Are the aliens gone?”

  “Were they aliens?” She asked almost innocently.

  “If they weren’t then wh
at were they…or are they?”

  Shaking her head slowly, she replied, “The master was a…the Jarhead called him a biological machine. He said he was stupid.”

  Leaning closer to her, he said softly, “The thing that created the ships is not stupid.”

  She frowned slightly. “Steve didn’t create the ships. He was created much as the ships were. The Jarhead said he…they don’t grow anything, that they use living cells to create other things.”

  It was interesting to know that perhaps the ships were alive in the same way Steve had been. Not quite alive and not really dead either. If living things could be transformed into other controllable life, it would supply their enemy with a never-ending source of materials that they could use however they wished.

  He’d already worked out that the two alien looking creatures they’d found in the town were the whole purpose of the attack on their planet, but he didn’t know why they wanted them.

  “Why do they want the transformed people?”

  Briefly looking puzzled, comprehension quickly crossed her young face. “Oh, you mean the newborns. The Jarhead said that’s how they breed. They seed planets and then harvest their young.”

  That meant the dead fish like creatures in the next room were the aliens he was looking for. The critters and their controllers at the bottom of the nest were far from the endgame, but their enemy had left them things that they could use.

  “So, the transformed people are aliens now?”

  Cassie shrugged and looked at him blankly. She didn’t understand any more than Bill did. The aliens had left some of their own kind behind, and if they could work out how to keep them alive then they could hold them as prisoners, just as the critters had held their own people. In his opinion, the alien tactics were sound enough, and he only hadn’t liked it when they were practiced against him. Set a thief to catch a thief was his motto and he was prepared to steal anything it took to become one. What little was left of their world was now his to control and he wasn’t going to hand it over to an alien force that hadn’t even bothered to show up.