by James Axler
“Which could have been left here by someone else,” J.B. pointed out.
“Gut says Doc there.” Jak motioned at the pit once more. “I go that way, too. You go somewhere else if want.”
With that, he nodded once at Ryan—goodbye—and leaped into the darkness on the trail of Union and, hopefully, Doc.
Chapter Fifty-Three
Doc slid the razor blade out of his pocket and tried to psych himself up enough to use it. If he slashed Exo with it and failed to kill him, it would be a death sentence…though, truth to tell, Doc might be a dead man soon anyway, given Exo’s volatile nature.
Swallowing hard, Doc tensed, about to sweep the blade up and across Exo’s throat.
Then, suddenly, he heard a thunderous clamor from the direction of the redoubt like the roar of a hundred lions…
Exo’s head snapped around at the noise. “What is that?”
Doc’s head did the same. “Dear God.” And, suddenly, he forgot what he’d been planning to do with the razor blade and dropped it on the ground.
One of the rounded hills beside the redoubt had been gouged open from within. A giant red creature—about twenty feet tall—was tearing its way out of the hill with huge scarlet claws, digging to freedom in a thrashing, roaring frenzy.
“Some kind of monstrosity,” Doc said in a hushed, awestruck voice. “A mutation, perhaps induced by Hammersmi…by my experiments with matter transformation.”
“Who’s that down there?” Exo pointed at a human figure on the ground, not far from the base of the hill. “That thing will stomp her into goo if she doesn’t get her ass the hell out of there!”
“What’s she doing?” Squinting, Doc saw the woman raise an object to her mouth. He thought she was blowing into it, playing it like an instrument while looking up at the creature.
Meanwhile, the creature forced one giant leg out of the hole in the hill. When its vast red foot came down in a powerful stomp, the ground shook even harder than it was already shaking from the current quake.
“Wait a minute.” Exo, looking mesmerized, took two steps forward. “I know that woman. It’s her.”
“Her, who?” Doc asked.
Without further explanation, Exo started to run toward the woman and the monster.
Doc felt no compunction to join him, however…at least until he saw someone else emerge from the chute, leap up and run in the same direction as Exo.
Even from a distance, even in the dimming grayness of twilight, he instantly recognized the new arrival. The lean physique and long white hair were unmistakable; the face, as white as the moon rising in the sky, could belong to only one person.
“Jak!” Doc’s heart soared. His albino companion, whom he hadn’t seen for days, was a sight so welcome that Doc felt as if he might explode from pure joy on the spot.
Suddenly, the old man had a good reason to get closer to the creature after all…but not too close. For he hadn’t seen a friend in what seemed like ages.
And wherever Jak happened to be, Ryan and the rest of the companions couldn’t be too far behind.
* * *
RYAN FLASHED THROUGH the darkness of the chute, hoping he was doing the right thing.
Following Jak into the pit had seemed to make sense a few moments earlier, especially after the sheath of Doc’s swordstick had turned up. But the one-eyed man kept wondering if he and the others should have stayed in the mat-trans chamber…if maybe they were heading farther from Doc rather than closer.
Only Hammersmith had stayed behind, determined to set the out-of-control equipment to rights and stop the disruptions attacking the core. Ryan had given him Union’s Heckler & Koch longblaster to defend himself, then locked and jammed the door to the chamber before leaping into the chute with the others.
But what if he was leading them in the wrong direction? And what if Doc paid the ultimate price for that mistake?
Just as these questions haunted him on his ride through the blackness, Ryan forced them back and committed himself to whatever lay ahead. Difficult decisions—and fatal mistakes—were part and parcel of daily life in the Deathlands.
Ryan knew it was more important to hold on tight to his weapons than his doubts. Doubts had never saved him from boarding the last train west.
* * *
AS JAK RAN toward Union, he couldn’t help staring up at the giant creature bursting out of the hill. The beast was enormous, and it was unlike any creature he’d ever seen before. From where he stood, it looked as if it was composed of a multitude of crimson-skinned mutie bodies and body parts jammed together in one monstrous form—hundreds of heads and upper torsos sticking out, mangled and contorted.
Were those muties even dead? As Jak watched, they flailed and writhed. Their mouths worked, and their eyes rolled and blinked. If they were dead, were they somehow animated by the force binding the creature together? If they were alive, were they aware of their imprisonment, struggling to break free?
Whatever those poor muties were or weren’t thinking, one thing seemed clear to him: Union was calling their tune. She stood thirty yards away from Jak, playing the silver cone she’d retrieved from the mat-trans chamber as if it was some kind of trumpet. It blinked and flashed as she held it to her mouth and aimed it up at the creature. Union had said it would summon something that could kill everyone living in the Shift, and the creature certainly looked as if it fit that description.
Had she created the device or stolen it? At the moment, none of that mattered. Jak just kept racing toward her over the rumbling ground, determined to stop her and the monstrosity she was controlling at any cost. He would do the same for the mutie who was also running toward her, if he got in the way.
Chapter Fifty-Four
At the sound of approaching footsteps, Union lowered the device and turned. There, in the flesh, was someone from the top of her shit list. Exo.
Life was good. She wouldn’t have to chase him down, because he was coming right to her.
“Union!” Exo’s high-pitched screech cut right through the creature’s latest roar and the rumbling of the quake. “What have you brought me? What is that thing?”
Union flashed him her brightest smile and gestured with the controller at the creature. “I call him Fido.” She laughed. “He’s a girl’s best friend.”
“Amazing!” Exo stopped beside her and reached for the device. “Let me try!”
“Hold on.” She pulled the controller away from him and brought it to her lips. “Let me show you something first.”
Pointing the device at the creature, she blew into the mouthpiece gently and flickered her fingers over the jeweled control studs along its surface. No sound came out that she could hear, but the beast—like a dog with a higher range of hearing—picked up on the signal right away.
The great monstrosity was completely free of the hill now, towering above her on two massive legs. As the signal played, it stared down at her with bright yellow eyes that blazed like twin suns in a misshapen reptilian face.
Carefully, Union padded away from Exo as she played. It wasn’t hard to put some space between them, as he was entranced by the creature looming above him.
All she had to do was play the final notes for her pet to complete the demonstration. But first, she lowered the device once more to speak.
“By the way, I know you were the one,” she said.
Exo frowned as if he’d only just remembered she was there. “The one what? What are you talking about?”
“The one who turned the shifters against my sisters years ago,” Union said. “The one who put the wheels in motion that got them killed.”
Suddenly, she was no longer a distraction to Exo. He locked eyes with her, giving her his full attention, and opened his mouth to speak.
But before a single word could emerge, she played the controller again. The silent signal went out, and the creature roared its rage.
Then it raised one mighty foot and brought it down suddenly. Exo didn’t even try to get out
from under it.
He just screamed as the leviathan’s weight came down on top of him, the mass of mutie flesh crushing the life out of him.
Union lowered the device. Walking over to that enormous crushing foot, she patted it and smiled.
“Good boy,” she said. “Such a good boy.”
When the foot finally lifted to take a step, she could see Exo’s flesh had been absorbed into it. His flattened face gaped out from the bottom of the foot, his eyes blinking in mindless terror.
* * *
DOC COULDN’T RUN fast enough to catch up to Jak. He stopped to recover, even as Jak kept charging toward the woman and her monster.
It was then, as Doc bent over and panted for breath, that he saw the creature trample Exo. Just like that, the shifter who’d abducted him, put him through all kinds of craziness and beaten him repeatedly was gone.
Doc even felt a brief stab of regret that he hadn’t followed through with slashing Exo’s throat when he’d had the chance.
But the regret was quickly replaced by a different feeling altogether. This one didn’t have anything to do with Exo’s death, in fact.
It started with a fizzing in the back of his head, a familiar sensation he identified immediately. It meant the transformational power of the Shift was building again, about to unleash another change in the landscape.
And Doc, once again, would have a front-row seat for whatever was coming.
* * *
RYAN POPPED OUT of the chute and quickly hopped to his feet, making way for the others who were close behind him.
Heartbeats later, the rest of his companions zoomed out in short order. Each one got out of the way fast, so only a minor pileup happened between the last two.
Even as J.B. and Mildred untangled themselves, Ryan took in the bizarre scene in front of him: the giant creature roaring to the heavens; Union playing her device like a musical instrument; Jak running across the sand toward them both.
“Gaia.” Krysty was standing beside him now, sharing the view. Her voice was strained—she was clearly still in great pain, but she was forcing herself through it. “What is that abomination?”
“What’s it made of?” Ricky asked, taking up position on Ryan’s opposite side. Leaning forward, he squinted at the great beast, then whistled softly. “Holy crap, are those people?”
“Some kind of amalgamation.” Mildred finally joined them, dusting herself off. “A colony creature? Or maybe it just uses discarded organic matter to create a kind of shell, like a hermit crab.”
“The real question,” J.B. said, “is how do we stop it?”
“Jak has the right idea.” Ryan unslung the Steyr Scout and made sure it was ready for action. “We go after the bitch who’s calling its tune.”
* * *
AS THE MONSTER roared, Jak kept his eyes and mind fixed on a single target: Union. It was either that or take on the creature single-handedly, and Union was probably the key to stopping it anyway.
Now, if he could just avoid getting stepped on by the monster like the shifter who’d just gotten crushed…
In spite of all the noise from the beast and the earthquakes, Union still heard Jak approaching. She spun to face him, holding a blaster—Doc’s LeMat .44, which the shifter had to have dropped when he got stomped.
Without a word, she cracked off a shot. Jak instantly judged the trajectory and leaped upward, spinning above the path of the bullet.
The second his feet touched the ground again, he hurled one of his leaf-bladed throwing knives with his usual deadly accuracy. Union bobbed fast to one side, firing another round—but the knife still caught her under the collarbone, and her round went wide.
Jak’s second blade went in just as smoothly, flashing into the middle of her abdomen. Anticipating another round from the .44, Jak dived and rolled after making that second tag. Sure enough, Union unloaded three rounds in his direction…but he rolled so fast that none of them even nicked him.
Springing up out of his roll, he saw her use the controller even as she pulled the trigger on the .44 again. No rounds fired, as the blaster was empty, but the controller delivered. The creature swung around and dropped a three-fingered fist as if it was a giant sledgehammer, aiming directly at Jak.
As fast as he could, Jak sprinted away from that dropping fist. When it came down, it barely missed him, and the impact threw him off his feet. He heard a chorus of screams and groans as it lifted away, and he had a terrible realization: the bodies making up the creature’s enormous frame were alive. The beings that had been absorbed into that monster were aware of everything, and they were suffering.
Even as Jak vaulted to his feet, he knew those terrible cries would stay with him long after that day. He also knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that he had to find a way to take that thing down and give those poor people some measure of peace.
“Jak, wait!” Union said it in Carrie’s voice, skittish and full of sincerity. “Stop running! That thing only reacts to movement! You’ll be safe if you stand in one place!”
But Jak never stopped moving, which was a good thing. No sooner had the words left Union’s lips than the creature swung its fist back after Jak like a gigantic pendulum. It would have smashed Jak to a pulp if he’d done what she’d told him to do.
Then the creature surprised him, sweeping its fist around in an unexpected loop that intersected his zigzag path. The side of the fist only brushed him, but that was enough to pitch him several yards. Jak came down hard, feeling the jarring impact in every bone. His head swam, and he barely managed to stay conscious.
But he found himself wishing he’d blacked out after all. He was still on his back, staring upward, expecting to see the creature’s fist or foot plummet toward him…when, instead, he saw Union step into his field of vision.
“Poor Jak.” She had Doc’s sword, which had to also have fallen free when the shifter was crushed—and was waving it over her head. “We had a real thing together, didn’t we? A real connection.”
Teeth clenched, Jak struggled to slip a blade from one of his sleeves, but the spring-loaded scabbards were jammed from the fall. He was going to have to pull from one of his pockets, meaning he’d have to move faster to beat her to the draw.
“Don’t worry, I’ll always remember you fondly.” She said it in Carrie’s voice, then switched to Dulcet’s. “That kiss will always leave us wanting more.”
Jak tensed, ready to grab for a knife, hoping he could outrace the sword in her hand.
Her next words were Rhonda’s. “Say good-night, dumbass.” Then Taryn’s. “For a man, you weren’t a complete waste of flesh.”
She shook the sword overhead. Jak knew she was ready to strike.
This time, when she spoke, it was as Sasha. “Da svidaniya, comrade shithead.”
Then, finally, she used the voice from the mat-trans chamber, that of the “true” Union personality that had overridden all the rest. “Notice, I didn’t whistle for Fido to take care of this. Some things a girl just has to do for herself.”
She stopped shaking the sword and grinned down at him. “Consider this a breakup, Jak.”
Chapter Fifty-Five
Just as Union was about to slash Jak with Doc’s sword and Jak was about to hurl a knife at her neck, a blastershot rang out over the earthquake’s rumble and the creature’s roar.
Suddenly, a bullet punched through Union’s forehead, leaving a perfect red hole. The back of her head wasn’t quite so neat; it exploded, blowing out a shower of blood and bone and brain.
The sword fell from her hand, but she somehow managed to stay on her feet. She teetered there a moment more, until Jak swung around on the ground and kicked her legs out from under her.
Then she collapsed in a heap like the dead meat she was.
Jak knew who’d fired the shot before he looked behind him. Even amid the cacophony in progress, he’d recognized the distinctive sound of Ryan’s Steyr Scout letting one fly.
“You okay, Jak?” Ryan aske
d as he and the rest of the crew ran toward him.
“Not need help.” Jak shot to his feet and waved dismissively.
“Whatever,” Ryan said as he charged up beside him. “You’re welcome.”
“So what now?” Ricky yelled, bounding over with the others. “How do we stop that thing?” He pointed up at the creature.
“Who says we have to?” J.B. asked. “Mebbe it’s somebody else’s problem.”
Jak narrowed his eyes. “I say have to.” He kept thinking about the poor people screaming and moaning on the monster’s body. “Put them out of misery.” He jabbed a finger in the creature’s direction.
“He’s right,” said Krysty, who was still grimacing from whatever the core was doing to her. “Plus, who knows how much death and destruction that beast will cause if allowed to roam free?”
“So where’s that control device of hers?” Ryan bent over Union’s body, poking at her jumpsuit with the barrel of his longblaster.
Jak hunkered down and dug into Union’s hip pocket, where she’d kept it before. “Here.” He pulled out the silver cone and held it up. “But what do with it?”
Ryan took it and turned it over in his hands. “It looked as if she was blowing into it. Playing it like an instrument.”
Mildred reached for the device and examined it closely. “So how do we figure out how to operate it? Trial and error?”
“What other way is there?” J.B. asked.
“Apparently, he’s come up with one.” Ryan gestured at a distant figure running over the sand toward the creature.
Everyone in the group turned and looked at the same time. All eyes and mouths fell wide-open at once as they realized what they were seeing. Whom they were seeing.
“Dark night! Is that—?”
“It is.” Mildred nodded fiercely. “It sure as shit is.”
“Doc!” Ricky grinned. “It’s Doc!”
“Yeah,” Ryan said. “And he’s going to get himself killed!”
