Nomad Mortis

by Craig Martelle

  “We better see what he has for us. At least he only brought one pod,” Char said through the tension.

  They didn’t bother running. Akio knew where Terry and Char were and that they were on their way.

  The ramp dropped, and Akio walked into the sunshine of the early summer morning. He wore his black fatigues as usual, fully outfitted with sword and pistols. Terry wore his sword, whip, and M1911A1 .45 caliber pistol. Char had her Glocks, but no other armament. Cory was never armed, much to Terry’s chagrin.

  ***

  Boris had stopped the platoon’s burpees and locked them at the position of attention. The five newcomers had finished their second lap and the lieutenant was introducing them, but added that they were the first married recruits to come through training, while watching Recruit Rye carefully.

  The five filled in at the end of the three long rows, until there were exactly fourteen in each squad. Boris didn’t think it would take any time for the newcomers to earn their way to becoming the squad leaders. As was the usual custom, the tallest were given first crack, simply because the others could most easily see them.

  The tallest ones never finished in that position.

  The newly formed platoon stayed at attention as Boris watched the pod descend, land, and discharge its one passenger.

  He was on edge, as were the sergeants, because none of them were armed. Boris cursed himself for not calling the ready guard to position, just in case it was another Forsaken.

  The lieutenant and sergeants collectively breathed a sigh of relief when they saw Akio emerge. He turned to look at them. Boris waved. Akio did not wave back.

  Boris felt like an idiot. He turned his attention back to the formation. “Two laps. Squad leaders, set a good pace on the first lap. Kim, Kae, and Marcie, you set the pace for the second lap and it better impress me. Right face! Forward, march! Double time, march!” The platoon quickly settled in to a pace that the lieutenant considered far too slow. “FASTER!”

  The recruits sped up appropriately, giving Boris a certain level of gratification. He turned and walked toward the pod once he saw the colonel and the others headed that way.

  He had no plans to say anything. He only wanted to hear the conversation firsthand. Maybe it wasn’t his place, but he was the highest ranking member of the FDG besides the colonel and the Weres.

  He hoped that he’d be allowed to stay, unsure of why that was so important to him.

  Boris paced himself so he’d arrive just after the colonel.

  ***

  “Akio-sama,” Terry said, stopping to bow deeply. “I can’t thank you enough for the gift of the Mameluke. I practice with it every day.”

  “That was Joseph’s gift to you, Terry-san, not mine,” Akio replied.

  “Of course, Akio-sama. I stand corrected.” Terry waited for Akio to tell him what brought him to North Chicago. Terry noticed a duffel bag in the pod and that drew his interest.

  “You’ve noticed my bag, which brings us to why I’ve come.” Akio looked from Terry to Char to Cordelia and stopped when he looked at Boris, hesitating longer than with the others.

  He turned back to Terry and continued. “To prosecute these actions, you will need to be better than you’ve ever been before. I will be here for the next two months training you, Charumati-san, and her pack. You all need to be better if you are to survive this.

  Boris opened his mouth to speak, but thought better of it. When Akio told the colonel that he wasn’t good enough and needed additional training, the lieutenant knew there was no place for the humans. He knew that he and the others would die if subjected to an Akio-led training regimen.

  The least that Boris could do was make sure the human side of the FDG was better than any humans they might come up against.

  He wondered what it would take to get the enhancements that the colonel had, or become a Werewolf, or a Werebear. He’d work up the courage to ask, but later, after he proved that he was worthy, if not to the colonel, at least to himself.

  “We will do as you request. I humbly request that Ted and Gladys be excluded,” Terry asked.

  “Why humbly, Terry-san? The Force is yours to command, yours and Char-san, of course. If someone does not want to be here, we will be sorry for that, but it is far better not to force the old or a gifted individual like Ted into a situation where their contributions would be less and their risk far greater.” Akio bowed his head to Terry and Char.

  “We will begin as soon as you can get your people here. There is no time to waste, Terry-san. The evil ones are marshalling their forces and we are the only ones who would hold them back,” Akio intoned gloomily.

  CHAPTER TEN

  North Chicago, FDG Training Grounds

  “What did you eat?” Kae asked his wife. Two laps had become four laps had become eight laps. Marcie kept up through the finish line, staggered to the side, and yacked most spectacularly.

  “What is that?” Kim asked.

  “That is motivating! That’s what that is. Oorah, my pretties!” Boris bellowed. A broken and partial chorus of oorahs followed. “AGAIN!”

  Ten oorahs later, they belted it out satisfactorily.

  Marcie was still green. She was the only one who puked, but she had lots of company in the dog-tired department.

  The next scheduled training session was for weapons familiarization. They were still a long way from needing the rest of the M4s from storage in Cheyenne Mountain. At last count, there were enough small arms to equip a battalion. Thousands of soldiers.

  Terry considered it a crutch worthy of the FDG. He looked forward to the day when he’d take the last of the weapons from the mountain, and then to the day when they would no longer need those weapons.

  Boris expected that he wouldn’t live to see either of those days.

  The group sat in a semi-circle as Corporal Bennie, first platoon’s scout-sniper, explained how to disassemble and reassemble the M4 carbine. He continued by showing that the magazines could be disassembled and cleaned, too.

  Then the debacle of having the recruits disassemble their weapons began. Kim and Kae could do it blindfolded, but they had decided at the beginning that they would try to blend in. They were still first to have their weapons completely disassembled with the parts properly arranged and ready for reassembly.

  Boris winked at them and continued down the ranks to berate various recruits for slights, both real and perceived.

  After two lost firing pins resulted in everyone crawling around the ground, Boris asked Kim and Kae to join him and the sergeants in supervising the basic weapons training.

  Exactly what they didn’t want to happen.

  The lieutenant saw their hesitation. “Sit here,” he ordered, pointing at the ground. They took the positions. Boris placed the small rifle towels they were given in front of them. He took two extra towels and wrapped them over their faces. He handed each of them a weapon.

  “On the command ‘go,’ you will disassemble your weapons. Go!”

  With nearly identical movements, they broke the weapons down and carefully laid the parts before them, finishing with the lower receiver group closest to their right hands. They both held their hands up to signal they were finished.

  The platoon watched silently, wondering what it was all about. Boris knew the looks on their faces.

  “Have you ever been in a foxhole in the middle of the night? Your weapon jams and you’re taken out of the battle, leaving your brother high and dry? You better be able to disassemble it, fix it, and put it back together in no time. How long do you think it takes to burn through a magazine when you’re engaged with the enemy? Two, three magazines? Pretty soon we’ve got two warriors in a foxhole not engaging the enemy. That’s when our people start to die. The colonel can’t have that, and I won’t be the one to disappoint him. Whenever you can do what they’re doing, then you can help supervise weapons training, too. Now, reassemble those weapons and don’t be taking your time about it either!”

  Kim and K
ae smoothly put the weapons together, locking the bolts to the rear and holding them up for inspection well before the time to finish expired.

  “Remove your blindfolds, Privates.” Kim and Kae complied. The platoon started clapping, almost all of them. Private Rye scowled and kept his hands at his sides. Marcie smiled and shook her head, not clapping for her husband and sister-in-law. They didn’t know that she could do it blindfolded, too, but she was determined to lay low.

  “Form up for chow!” Sergeant Nickles shouted. Half the platoon jumped up and ran to formation.

  “STOP!” Boris screamed, incensed. “Did you idiots just leave your weapons behind? From this point forward, your weapon will never leave your bodies. Do you understand me, you scum-sucking bottom-feeders?”

  The privates rushed back. Kim and Kae hadn’t moved. They casually slung their weapons.

  “You! Tall guy number one and his twin brother, tall guy number two! You’re fired as squad leaders. Get to the back of the line. You two. Take your squads,” Boris ordered.

  Kim marched to the front of first squad, moving quickly without looking like she was hurrying.

  Kaeden took second squad, quickly surveying who was lined up behind him and counting them to make sure he had all thirteen. He saw Ramses and Camilla standing in front of the former squad leader. Kae refused to make eye contact with the tall man. Kaeden faced front and stood at ease, waiting for the call to attention.

  “What a sorry group this is. You took so damn long to get your shit and into formation that you lost ten minutes of chow time. Nothing chaps my ass more than having to hurry through chow, but you know what, ladies? We can probably make up all that time if we run real fast.”

  Boris checked his watch. Claire’s Diner wasn’t expecting them for fifteen more minutes. Running fast would get them there in five.

  He planned to have them do calisthenics out front of the chow hall, before God and the world because part of the breakdown process included removing their humility.

  “Right face!” Boris ordered. He nodded to the sergeants to set a brisk pace. With a couple more commands, they were off and running.

  ***

  Akio stood still, watching without moving his eyes. Terry and Char stood up front. The Werewolves were immediately behind them—Timmons, Sue, Shonna, Merrit, Butch, and Skippy. The Weretigers were to the side—Aaron and Yanmei. Gene stood in the back, moping and grumbling. Joseph and Cory stood to the side. Terry didn’t know if Joseph was going to participate or not, but he expected Akio would coerce him, make him the Bitch’s Bitch.

  “Would you shut your pie hole?” Terry said over his shoulder. Butch snickered.

  “I miss Fu,” the massive man whined.

  “You’ll see her soon enough,” Terry shot back, trying to look confident for Akio.

  This group was the planet’s premier tactical team.

  Terry hung his head in shame, stepped to the front and stood next to Akio. “Listen up,” he said in a low voice because he didn’t need to yell at people with heightened senses. They could hear him, but would they listen?

  “The Unknown World is supposed to remain just that, unknown to humanity. Many here in North Chicago know that we’re different. They know what we are, but they’ve grown up with us and accept us. The rest of the world is blissfully ignorant in not knowing who we are. All of that changes nothing.

  “Since we do exist, we have a higher calling. The Forsaken who haven’t seen the light—” Terry nodded to Joseph. “—would use their enhancements to dominate humanity, make them slaves. We can’t have that. The more capable we are, the higher our calling. I know. It sounds ass backwards, but these gifts aren’t for our own pleasure. They are for the good of all mankind. What would Bethany Anne think if she was here?” Most of them had no idea who she was beyond the stories that Terry told them. She was a mythical being in their minds, some of them saw her as Terry’s deity.

  “I, for one, couldn’t look her in the face and say that I hadn’t done all I could to help keep the people safe. When she comes back, she will ask and heaven help those she finds wanting, because only heaven will be able to help you as Bethany Anne introduces you to hell.

  “So that’s why we’re here. Akio is going to take the next couple months to train us.” Terry had to stop as Gene groaned pitifully. “At the end of that, we’re going to start prosecuting actions to put the Forsaken on the run. The only way they’ll be able to survive is by hiding in the deepest holes they can find and never coming out. That is the world that we are going to create.

  “Put on your dancing shoes because this party is about to begin.”

  Char nodded. It had been forever since she’d gone dancing. She figured TH had some moves that he was keeping from her. Maybe as they scoured the planet looking for Forsaken, they’d find a place where music had returned.

  Terry joined the group and turned to face Akio.

  The short man in the black fatigues nodded one time to acknowledge that he had the floor.

  “We run, north, twenty-five miles, then we return. On the way, we’ll stop to climb buildings, move the heaviest loads, and learn what it means to be fast, strong, and agile. Do not fall back.”

  With that, Akio was off like a shot. The group bolted after him, looking like a mob but pacing at two-minute miles that they knew Akio would maintain for the duration of the run.

  “I’ll join them tomorrow,” Joseph told Cory conversationally. “There’s something that needs doing first. Have a good day, Mistress Cordelia.”

  Joseph bowed his head and strode quickly toward the barracks. Cory watched him go, then looked for Clovis, who was nowhere to be found. She gritted her teeth and started yelling for him.

  I need to train that dog.

  ***

  The day had been a blur, even for those who were comfortable around the FDG. Kim and Kae were both tired, but not exhausted like most of the others. As they wrapped for the day, Sergeant Nickles gave the newcomers their room assignments. Kae and Marcie were in separate rooms.

  After the formation broke up and the recruits stumbled and groped their way to their showers and beds, Kaeden asked to speak with the lieutenant.

  “Yes, Private?” he said formally.

  “But, my wife and I are in different rooms,” Kaeden said, a confused look on his face.

  “Of course. Everyone gets their own room, but I believe you have rooms that are next to each other. There’s not going to be any time for that funny business, so you focus on your room and she’ll focus on hers. You get me, Private?”

  “Yes, sir!” Kaeden replied boldly. “Funny business? You mean, love?”

  “Exactly, Private. It makes you feel funny, so it’s funny business.” Kaeden tried not to smile, retreating before he started to laugh.

  Nickles sidled up next to Boris. “They were raised for this. What took them so long to come on board?” Nickles asked.

  “I don’t know, but I’m glad they’re here. Those five make us better than the other thirty-seven. I wish we could trim the numbers further, but we need the bodies. We are going to be spread thin as it is, if I understand what Akio wants. Are we ready for a world war, Nickles?”

  “I guess we have to be, Lieutenant. If the colonel says we fight it, off we go, right?” the sergeant said with a toss of his head.

  “Off we go,” Boris said, clapping his friend on the back before they retired to their rooms in the new barracks. The recruits were on the top floor and the rest of the FDG had the first and second floors.

  The sergeants split the night watch in four parts to conduct random checks on the recruits to make sure they were doing what they were supposed to be doing.

  Sleeping. It was the only event allotted for the eight hours between when training ended and when it started back up.

  The recruits climbed the stairs slowly, stumbled down the hallway, into their rooms, and found their beds. Many didn’t even bother to get undressed. The sharpest ones, like Kimber and Kaeden, took off thei
r uniforms and folded them, placing them carefully under their mattress. Sleeping on them would press them.

  Kae told Marcie how to do it, but she found that she could barely lift her arms, let alone her mattress. He had no problem helping her undress and setting her up. He tucked her in, kissed her good night, and left her alone.

  When her head hit the pillow, she was out.

  The next thing she knew, a hand was clasped firmly over her mouth. She was barely able to draw a breath through her nose.

  The outline of Phineas T. Rye’s head loomed over her. “You were holding us up, pretty one. I think you don’t know your place, but I’m here to show you what you’re good for.”

  He was holding her down by straddling her. She was trapped under her blanket as he started to pull the blanket down. She couldn’t kick as he held the blanket tightly around her legs by pinning his feet against her thighs.

  “Soon enough, my pretty,” he said, leering as the blanket pulled down and revealed her chest. It also freed one arm.

  Marcie took a swing at his head, but he dodged it and fought her with one arm. He finally managed to grab her wrist, but found himself at an impasse. He couldn’t move and neither could she.

  He settled his body down on hers, the blanket still between them. He started squirming to move the blanket with his knees while he pinned her upper body.

  She couldn’t scream, she could barely breathe, but she’d had enough. Marcie pushed his head back with hers, then dropped back to the mattress to build the distance between them. She drove her forehead into the bridge of his nose, breaking it.

  He grunted in pain, but didn’t loosen his grip. Blood ran freely from his nose, splattering the back of his hand and sending drops across Marcie’s face.

  She violently arched her back, bucking him into the air. Her left hand came free. She slipped it under his arm and grabbed his windpipe, digging her fingers in and squeezing. He tried to pull back, but she fought him. He couldn’t release either hand to free himself, but it was that or die.

  He pulled one hand from her mouth and tried to free his throat. She leaned upward and bit his hand, pulling it from hers.