“We will wipe you and your spawn from the face of the Earth,” Terry promised, pulling and twisting on his all-too-real chains.
North Chicago
Kimberly and Kaeden had wanted to go, but Char had put her foot down. They were to stay and watch over the grandchildren.
As well as the others.
Jim stood nearby, older, still a large man, but his running days were well behind him. He helped Mark on occasion, but he preferred working in the kitchen, probably because he loved to eat. Without the running, he was starting to fill out.
Jim patted his ample stomach and found a seat on the steps.
The pods were not long gone, but those standing around watched the sky as if their return was imminent.
The two sergeants who had been left behind had dispatched their platoons to key areas around North Chicago.
No warrior stood post alone. Two full squads surrounded the mayor’s building, walking the perimeter with weapons at the ready.
Billy was back in his chair, looking pale as he took rapid, shallow breaths.
“I remember a long time ago when my security chief manned a security patrol at our house,” Billy managed to say between gasping breaths.
“And they tried to build that god-awful thing in our front yard, Billy dear,” Felicity drawled. “I know what you did for me. You made me out to be the bad guy!”
Her laugh was musical, but Billy’s degenerated into a racking cough. “Don’t make me laugh, woman,” he mumbled after the latest fit, but he was smiling.
“But Marcus hadn’t been after us. He was after Terry and Char. This time? No different. There’s always someone coming after them. Can’t people leave good folks like them alone? We’ve known those two for a long time, almost thirty years, and they’ve never been anything but selfless. That attracts the wrong sort, I guess,” Felicity said, squeezing Billy’s hand tightly.
“I guess,” he croaked.
“Kim. Kae. What’s next?” Felicity was curious. Usually, Terry Henry and Char did what they needed to do, keeping the mayor informed with what she needed to know, but they weren’t there to tell her.
Kim shrugged. Kae looked at the mayor. “We guard and we wait. They will return and when they do, they’ll have our father with them, because Mother would not leave him behind. If the pods return without him, Mother will not be on board, because they will have had to kill her. I guarantee you that.”
“Sergeant Boris!” Kim called as she walked toward one of the uniformed warriors. “What is your load out?”
“Standard loads, five point five six millimeter, full-metal jacket,” he replied, cocking his head at the question.
“I recommend you give your people some of the silver-tipped ammo, at least the first one or two in each magazine.” She wasn’t a tall woman, but her demeanor made her seem larger. She spoke confidently and had a way about her that people noticed. When she talked, people listened.
Sergeant Boris nodded and passed the word. The two newest recruits left their posts and ran at top speed toward the barracks and the weapons locker where the special ammunition was stored.
They had fallen out with silver-tipped rounds, but those who were selected to remain behind had given theirs to the warriors who were going. Boris wasn’t sure how many of the special rounds were left, but as long as the number was greater than zero, he wanted them.
The other platoon sergeant, Sergeant Allen, had his people farther out, creating a secondary line of defense. Anyone coming from the outside would be dealt with first by his platoon before encountering the close-in defense.
Two platoons weren’t enough to protect all of North Chicago. They had to spread themselves thin.
Maybe too thin.
Kentucky
The Forsaken had clammed up, not saying a word, not thinking a thought that Akio or Joseph could hear, not giving anything away.
Char moved in close using a fighter’s stance, ready for the Forsaken to lash out. He was a daywalker, weaker than those who had to stay in the dark.
Joseph moved close on one side, and Akio, the other.
“Tell me, you motherfucker!” Char growled. Like a whisper of the wind, her fist flew at the Forsaken’s face. He caught it in his hand, smiling.
A sunbeam through the branches flashed off Akio’s blade as he swung and sliced through the Vampire’s arm. The Forsaken howled, grabbing his stump with his free hand. Char reared back and drove her fist home, splattering the Forsaken’s nose. He tried to run, but Joseph caught him, hiked him over his hip, and body-slammed him into the tree trunk.
Joseph jumped back as Akio’s blade arced a second time and removed the Forsaken’s other arm. The creature howled as dark blood spurted, then slowed. It continued to ebb with the beating of the Forsaken’s heart.
“The Black Knight’s had worse,” Timmons quipped. Sue stifled a laugh before elbowing her mate in the ribs.
Cory had no idea what they meant and was miffed at the horseplay. Char was too hell-bent on getting answers, but she expected that she’d find it funny later, when TH was safe. All of that passed through her mind in a millisecond. She returned to the business at hand, grabbing the Forsaken by his shirt, hauling him to his feet, and slamming him against the tree.
“I think the lady asked you a question, brother,” Joseph said softly. The Forsaken snapped his head to the side to glare at his fellow Forsaken.
“How could you?” the Forsaken grunted.
“Winners.” Joseph waved his open hand at everyone who wasn’t bleeding, and then he pointed at the armless Forsaken. “Losers.”
The Forsaken lunged at Joseph, but Char caught him and slammed him back into the tree. “You know where he is. Terry Henry Walton and the scum who took him. Tell me,” she demanded.
Akio caressed the creature’s face with his katana, then let it hover in front of its throat. He started to saw with only the slightest pressure. The razor sharp blade sliced neatly into the skin.
“If you cut my throat, I won’t be able to tell you where he is…” Before the Forsaken finished speaking, Akio thrust forward and drew the blade backwards, pressing toward the tree and cleanly removing the creature’s head from its body.
Char looked furiously at Akio, clenching and unclenching her hands compulsively. Joseph put a hand on her shoulder. She whipped around to face him.
“We need to go,” Joseph said. “They’re holding him in Mammoth Cave.”
“Run like the wind!” Char yelled, turned, and ran. Clovis was barking furiously at the dead body, watching it shrivel as its nanocytes died.
“Come on, you dumb dog,” Cory said, swatting his hindquarters and getting him to run with her. The others were already on their way out of the clearing, fleeing toward their respective pods. Joseph joined Adams and Merrit as they headed for pod three.
Cory ran for all she was worth, but Char was outdistancing her. Aaron was up ahead but slowed to let her catch up. Together, they pounded through the grassy underbrush of a gently rolling hill. When they came upon the pod, Char was waving at them impatiently. As soon as their feet and paws hit the ramp, it started to close.
Mammoth Cave
Kirkus looked at his minions, still angry that Terry Henry had killed so many of his best foot soldiers. Those that remained were not the cream of the crop, so he was stuck adding the human slaves to the mix. He expected that the humans would die in the attack, but they would distract whoever was left long enough for his Forsaken minions to do their work, capture Walton’s children and bring them back.
Kirkus didn’t care if they recovered any of the humans or not. Once Kirkus was the power, people would flock to him. They would be easy to manipulate and he’d have an army in no time. General Gilbert Kirkus, master of the world.
He liked it, but back to the business at hand.
The humans he was sending were eager, having been properly brainwashed, but he’d always intended them to be food.
“Your mission is to wreak havoc among anyone
who is not the child or grandchild of Terry Henry and Charumati Walton,” he informed them.
One brave human raised his hand. “How do we know them?” he asked.
Kirkus rolled his eyes. “Because they’ll tell you.” He pointed at the Forsaken looking down on the human minions.
The man nodded happily.
Twelve humans and four Forsaken stood in the gaping maw that was the entrance to Mammoth Cave. An earthquake sometime around the fall had widened the opening and made it possible for the Forsaken to move a stolen pod in.
Under the cover of darkness, he’d flown it from the hangar in rural Virginia throughout the eastern seaboard and the Appalachians, looking for the perfect place to hide and start building an empire.
When he came across Mammoth Cave, he knew he had found the right spot.
Kirkus had established security, buttoned the pod up tightly, and gone to sleep. For decades he slept, rising thirty years after the WWDE. That was when he started to build. He became the denizen of the night, scouring everything that remained to find the technology he needed to access the satellites he knew were still in orbit.
Satellites that the Queen Bitch had used to command. He had no doubt he could get into them. He had a pod, the technology that it contained, and his own immense intellect. He refused to consider that he wouldn’t be able to do it.
He knew about the satellites because he’d once been close enough to find out, learn what there was to know about the Kurtherians and the technology they’d left on Earth. Mr. Smith had recognized his potential and helped him to expand his mind in the short time they had together.
It was enough.
Once Kirkus had tapped into the satellites, he had to build his database from scratch, learn how the world had changed since the world’s worst day ever.
In time, he started making short forays into the populated areas, taking the pod and landing silently in the dark of night. He learned of the FDG and the colonel who ran it with his purple-eyed partner, a beautiful woman with a silver streak of hair running down one side of her face.
Kirkus knew that they were enhanced. He didn’t know to what degree, only that they were different, more like him than normal humans.
The Forsaken learned how different when he took the pod on a well-planned raid to capture Terry Henry Walton and his partner.
Kirkus reached out and grabbed one of the other Forsaken. “How did he kill eight of you?” he demanded. It wasn’t the first time he’d asked that question.
“He was faster, deadlier. His eyes glowed red, but he’s not like us. I’ve never seen anything like it.” The Forsaken cowered before Kirkus.
“Of course you’ve never seen anything like him. No one has seen anything like that, you moron!” Kirkus sent the minion sprawling. The lesser Forsaken hurried to get up and brush himself off, glaring at the humans, but they were looking down. They knew not to incur Kirkus’s wrath.
“Go, you fucking toads, and bring me back those kids!” Kirkus screamed maniacally before storming away.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Mammoth Cave had been a massive national park back in the day. Now, it was heavily overgrown, and the entrance wasn’t as obvious as Char had hoped. The whole world looked different, but the interstates and main roads still held much of the vegetation at bay.
Akio had found the old interstate and followed it. They missed the turn off for the park and had to circle back. The second and third pods took up a position in the general area and hovered while Akio searched.
The minutes stretched as the pod slowed to a crawl, looking for a winding road that was no longer there.
Eve’s voice projected through the pod’s sound system. “A pod has just appeared and is now flying north. I’ve input the coordinates from where it came. You can be there in moments. Would you like me to send the other pods after this new one?”
Char’s mind raced, and her decision was quick.
“Send the pod number two after them at best possible speed. Get close enough so our people can sense who is on board. The rest of us are going spelunking.”
Akio issued the orders, and two pods raced for the spot from where the other pod had appeared.
“Put me on speaker with pod two, please,” she asked Akio.
He nodded to her. “Timmons! Take charge and hunt those bastards down, wherever they are going. Keep us informed,” she said loudly, looking out the window as the pod descended toward a massive cave mouth.
“Will do, Char,” Timmons replied. He had nothing else to say. Everyone in the second pod was pressed heavily into the seats as the pod continued its acceleration in an attempt to overtake the intruder.
“And if possible, take that pod away from them. We could use a new piece of gear. Do us proud, Sergeant Allison,” Char told them.
“Always,” the sergeant replied.
***
“What do you mean they were right there?” Kirkus bellowed toward the communications station.
A voice crackled through the speaker. “When we emerged from the cave mouth, three pods were scattered across the area. We headed north, and one pod is following. I lost the other two. I think they stayed there. I’m sorry, but they had to see where we came from.”
Kirkus fumed. He picked up a cup and threw it, shattering it on the far wall of the cave.
He was left with nearly no manpower, only the weakest of servants, a Weretiger, and his wits.
Kirkus had never been one to count on winging it. He had built booby traps into the cave and knew it was time to activate them. The Forsaken walked through in his mind how the events would unfold. Terry’s people would land and enter the cave, they’d be worn down by traps of various types, and then Kirkus would kill them one by one.
No one could stand up to him.
“Carry out your mission. When the other pod lands, kill everyone on it and take it. We could use another one of those,” Kirkus replied calmly and then put the microphone back in its cradle.
He looked up for a moment and then ran for the cave mouth. There was much work to do.
Flying in the Pod
Timmons and the others hung on as the pod executed a series of high-speed maneuvers. According to the screen, the other pod was headed straight for Chicago, by which Timmons assumed that it was headed for North Chicago. They’d taken all the comm devices. He had no way to warn them.
“We need to fix that,” Timmons said.
Sergeant Allison glanced his way.
“Comm. We need more comm devices,” Timmons explained. Sue squeezed his leg as the adrenaline started to course through her body.
The pod leapt forward. “Forsaken,” Sue said loudly. “Four and twelve humans.”
Allison looked at her. “Four Forsaken and twelve humans?” he asked.
The Werewolves nodded in unison. Shonna and Ted had sensed them, too.
“Listen up!” the sergeant belted out. “There are twelve humans on that pod. They are our business. We cannot let them gain a foothold in North Chicago. No matter where they land, we will put ourselves between them and the community. This time, we’re not looking to take any prisoners. There are four others on that pod. Forsaken. Our friends here will take care of them, but if you get a shot, you all have silver-tipped bullets. Use them wisely.”
Allison looked from one to the next, insisting on the thumbs up sign to show that they understood.
The pod dipped and jerked as they flew between some of the tall buildings still standing in old Chicago.
“Why are we doing this, Eve? Can’t we just fly above it all?” Timmons asked the ceiling.
Eve’s disembodied voice replied, “Of course.” And the ship headed upward, greatly smoothing the ride as they kept the other pod in sight. Eve took the pod higher.
Soon the other pod exited the winding confines of the remnants of Chicago’s skyscrapers and launched itself due north. Timmons followed its line of travel on the projected map.
“We’re going home, people. Try not to s
hoot any of our own,” he cautioned, gritting his teeth.
The sanctuary of North Chicago was about to be invaded for the second time that day. And he couldn’t have that. “NO MERCY!” he yelled.
Sue jumped at the outburst.
A chorus of oorahs filled the inside of the pod. The FDG warriors performed one final check of their weapons, that their helmet chinstraps were tight, and that their flak vests were closed. With one hand on their rifles and the second hand on their restraints, they prepared to disembark.
Their pod followed the other in.
Mammoth Cave Entrance
Akio hovered the pod outside the entrance, hesitant to enter. “It is too confined within,” he said in a tone that wasn’t open for discussion. “We need to find a place to land and then enter the cave on foot.”
“Lower the ramp,” Char growled, looking through narrowed eyes at the video projection of the cave’s entrance. “I’ll jump down.”
Akio hesitated. He zoomed out to find a landing spot only a hundred yards away, but it was only big enough for one pod at a time.
“New plan, Char-san,” Akio said as he fingered one of the two pistols at his side. “We will descend close to the mouth. We will jump into the entrance and then the pod will land. The others will disembark and move here. Our pod will return to hover over the entrance. The number three pod will then land and disembark. We will have three groups. Not optimal, but it will suffice. I can only sense one Forsaken within the cave and nothing else. There is too much rock. We will know more once we are inside.”
Char nodded tersely as she stood and walked to the ramp. She relayed the plan to the pod three, ordering the jeep to remain in the clearing with the pods to protect them. She’d seen that there was no way they could get inside the cave. People would be hard-pressed to get through the entrance, but it was perfectly suited for a craft like a pod.
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