Dark Sentinel: Book one in the Sentinel Series

by Adam Matlow

  “She can be moved now, and quite frankly the sooner we get her back the better.”

  “Is this the same bunker that’s underneath your workshop?” asked Marcus.

  Doc and Kali looked up as if they had forgotten Marcus was still in the room with them.

  “You may as well tell him,” said Kali. “Might be good for him.”

  “Yes Marcus,” said Doc. “The same. Go get Vana, bring her to the bunker and perhaps then we may start to put the pieces of this puzzle together.”

  “I’ll make the arrangements, stay here with her,” said Kali as she marched out.

  Everything had changed. People Marcus thought he knew were living secret lives. He considered running, but with Davon out there presumably still looking for him, he preferred his chances here. At least for now. He’d only scratched the surface of what was going on here and part of him wanted to get to the bottom of it.

  After a few minutes, Kali returned and Amara was loaded onto a waiting truck. She ordered a guard to accompany the truck on its journey, a wise precaution, having witnessed first-hand how dangerous Amara was. When everything was all taken care of and the truck vanished into the distance, Kali came back over to speak to Marcus.

  “Let’s go get your girl then,” she smirked jumping onto the last remaining truck. “You can sit up front with me, wouldn’t want you to fall off the back and hurt yourself again.”

  “As I recall I didn’t hurt myself, you shot me.”

  “Not on purpose.”

  “Still hurts like hell though,” he said as he nursed the wound with his good hand.

  “What are they going to do with her? Amara, I mean,” said Marcus.

  “Hopefully we can undo some of the damage. Maybe he can bring her back.”

  “Do you believe it’s possible?”

  “Yeah. Yeah, I do,” she said staring into the distance.

  A flatbed truck sat ready to take them to wherever Vana was being kept hidden. Kali still hadn’t told him exactly where they were going, but since they weren’t packing much in the way of supplies it was probably somewhere close by.

  Two soldiers joined them, both equipped with a variety of weapons, some which Marcus couldn’t even identify. One of them jumped into the driver's seat and started the engine, while the other climbed into the back with the rest of their equipment. Two dull thuds on the roof indicated that they were ready to go.

  The truck lurched into motion and kicked out loose rocks behind it as it set off in a cloud of dust.

  Chapter Five

  “They’ve doubled the guard,” said Kali, as she surveyed the town ahead of them through a pair of binoculars. “They’re not gonna make this easy on us.”

  Marcus laid next to her on a patch of dusty ground overlooking Jericho, one of the larger settlements in the area, and by the looks of it, one of the most guarded.

  “What on Earth possessed you to bring Vana here?” asked Marcus. “There must be hundreds of Legion soldiers down there.”

  “It’s not like we had time to plan this out,” snapped Kali. “It’s a big town -easy to get lost in. We already had assets in place. It was the best option at the time.”

  “It’s not looking so great now.”

  “What’s done is done. We need to get in there, but they’ll be on the lookout for us.”

  “So how are we going to get inside then?” asked Marcus.

  “Like I said, we have assets inside Jericho. I’ve been in touch with them. They know what they need to do.” She glanced at the guards. “You two get back to the truck and stay by the radio. We can take it from here.”

  One of the guards looked as if he was going to argue, but instead, let out a sigh and signalled to his companion to follow. “We’ll be monitoring,” he said, flicking on his radio. “Any trouble and we’re coming down.” The pair packed up some gear and trudged off back towards where the truck was hidden.

  “We move out at dusk,” said Kali, “just before shift change. The guards on the checkpoints will be tired, but their relief won’t have arrived yet.”

  The sun was already creeping towards the horizon; it would be less than an hour before it got dark. Marcus turned over, tucked his jacket underneath his head and looked up at the darkening skies. His eyes followed the curve of the razor-sharp golden rings above him and watched as their dark shadow crept along the landscape towards them. The wind picked up and Marcus shivered, rubbing his arms to stay warm.

  It was going to be a long night.

  ◆◆◆

  “Come on. It’s time.”

  Kali stood over him, her arm extended to help him up. He groaned as he got to his feet and dusted himself off. He removed his sling, dropped it to the ground and put on his jacket.

  “Don’t want to stand out too much,” he said. He watched as the wind picked it up and blew it away. “Just don’t enter me into any boxing matches or anything.”

  “No promises,” she said. Kali pointed at a faint collection of lights near the main road leading into Jericho. “That’s our way in. Here, wear this.”

  She tossed him a long dusty cloak, complete with hood. He slung it over himself and watched as Kali did the same.

  They walked along a well-trodden path which led to the settlement and approached the gates. As they grew closer Marcus nudged Kali.

  “So, are you gonna fill me in on the plan? I’m not a mind-reader you know.”

  “Just follow my lead.”

  “Why is it so hard to get a simple answer out of everyone around here?”

  “Well, the first rule about insurgency is to keep your goddamn mouth shut. You never know who might be listening.”

  “Paranoia. Check.”

  “Kept me alive so far.”

  She had a point, though Marcus didn’t want to give her the satisfaction by saying so. Instead, he gave a nondescript grunt.

  Several people were milling around the gates, trying to get inside. There were five Legion soldiers here, who checked and double checked the identities of everyone trying to get into town. Marcus could see why they were wearing the cloaks, as they blended in with some of the others out here wearing similar attire.

  As they approached the entrance, Kali reached under her cloak and brought out a radio. She tapped the send button three times then spoke quietly into it.

  “Light it up.”

  Seconds later, a large explosion from the centre of town rocked the ground. Alarms blared and the sound of gunfire filled the air.

  The radios of the Legion soldiers at the checkpoint crackled to life, and after receiving new instructions, most of them darted off in the direction of the explosion. Two guards remained. Kali pushed her way through the crowd at the checkpoint until she was near the front. She grabbed Marcus’s arm.

  “Get ready.”

  With a grunt she pushed against a man standing next to her and knocked him to the ground. She quickly stood back. The man picked himself up off the floor and looked over to see Kali pointing at a shorter round-faced man standing nearby. Not happy to be pushed around the man walked over and swung his fist at the shorter man, whose nose exploded from the blow. He went down clutching his face.

  Several other people, likely friends of his, dived towards his attacker, and soon the whole crowd bayed as the fight spilt over and into the checkpoint. There were whoops and cheers from the crowd who enjoyed this unexpected entertainment, and Marcus was sure he caught a glimpse of money changing hands in the crowd. There was always someone around willing to make a bet. He wondered what his odds were of making it out of this madness alive.

  The guards jumped in to try and restore order, which only agitated the crowd further. With the distraction complete, Kali and Marcus snuck through the checkpoint and into the city.

  “You know, I’ve never understood the compulsion for people to run towards explosions. I make the habit of doing the opposite,” said Marcus. “So, who’s putting on the light show?”

  “You ask too many questions; do you know th
at? Come on, let’s go. We need to-”

  There was a blinding flash from the centre of town, followed by a huge explosion. Much larger than the first. Windows shattered all around them, and Marcus was thrown to the ground as a massive fireball rose into the sky, along with plumes of thick black smoke.

  “What the hell was that?” spluttered Marcus as he struggled to regain his footing.

  “That wasn’t us,” said Kali, steadying him. “We don’t have anything that big.”

  A blue glint coming from the sky caught Marcus’s attention. It lasted only for a split second, like a shooting star. There was another explosion, further away this time on the other side of the city, followed by two more.

  “I think we’ve overstayed our welcome,” yelled Marcus above the chaos unfolding around them. “Let’s get the hell out of here before we’re next.”

  “This way,” shouted Kali. She grabbed his arm and led him along a nearby alleyway. “We have to get to the safehouse.”

  ◆◆◆

  The safehouse was gone. There was nothing left of the building except rubble, and a crater several meters wide. Marcus was no expert, but it looked to him as if it was struck from above. Perhaps by a missile, or by some other weapon available to Davon. Several other buildings in the immediate vicinity were also consumed in the blast. Bodies, whole and in part, lay scattered amongst the destruction. Most burned beyond any recognition.

  “My god,” said Kali as she sunk to her knees. “They’re dead. All of them. The other explosions, the other safehouses. Gone.”

  Marcus wretched as the smell of burnt flesh clung to the back of his throat. He coughed, steadied himself and started digging through the rubble, desperately looking for any sign of survivors. Given the size of the explosion he couldn’t be sure there would be anything left, but he tried anyway.

  Kali’s eyes were unfocused and she walked unsteadily across the ground towards Marcus, who caught her as she fell.

  “You’re in shock,” he said, as he helped her to the ground. “We can’t stay here, it’s not safe.”

  Kali nodded, staring blankly at what was left of the building. Her fingernails dug into the earth, and she squeezed lumps of soil in her hands. Marcus’s heart sank, and he dropped to the floor next to her.

  “Her secrets died with her,” muttered Kali. “I suppose we’ll never know now. Whatever she knew, it was worth killing dozens of people for.”

  Kali kicked out at something invisible. “I’ve known some of these people for years. All gone, just like that. That son of a bitch is going to pay for what he’s done.”

  Marcus stared at the destruction. “Why do this though?” he said, “And why now? After all the trouble Davon went to cap--”

  Realisation dawned upon Marcus. “Of course!”

  Kali gave him a blank stare.

  “Don’t you see? Davon wanted her alive. He went to great lengths to capture her. He’d never have done this if there was a chance she was inside. She must be alive somewhere, either captured or on the run. But she wasn’t here.”

  He tried to drag Kali to her feet, but she was a dead weight. She mumbled something incoherently and snatched her hand back from him. He was about to try again when he heard coughing coming from underneath a corrugated Metal sheet some distance away. Marcus approached it cautiously and pulled it free. Underneath was a man, who by some miracle appeared mostly unharmed. Marcus dug him out and sat him up.

  “Thanks,” spluttered the man. He coughed on the plumes of dust floating in the air and brushed debris from his straggly white beard. His battered clothes were full of holes and the smell of alcohol filled the air around him. “Thought I was a goner.”

  “Are you alright?” asked Marcus.

  “I’m fine. Fine. The names Doug.” He coughed violently and produced a hip flask from underneath his jacket. A large dent on one side had been made from a piece of shrapnel, still stuck to the side.

  “Hah, I always thought this stuff would kill me.” He tapped the flask and took a swig. He brushed the shrapnel away from the container and looked for any leaks. He appeared pleased not to find any.

  “What happened here? Did you see?” asked Marcus.

  “Yeah, I saw the whole thing. This is my patch see.” He pointed to an upturned shopping trolley, with its contents, mostly empty bottles, strewn across the ground. “Been a lot of people around here recently. Business has been good. Them good folks that used to be in the house over there, god rest em, used to keep me well stocked up with the good stuff. All I had to do was tell em’ if I saw anything suspicious.”

  “And did you?”

  “Yeah, there were these unsavoury types, showed up yesterday. They hung around in the corner over there. They were Legion. You can tell because of the boots you know. Nobody ‘round here has good boots, except the Legion. I stayed out of their way.”

  “Did you see a girl? Young-ish with purple eyes?”

  “Indeed I did. She was here. Can’t forget those eyes, they’re something else, aren’t they?”

  “Wait, you said she was here? Do you mean she left before all this happened?” he waved his arm at the destruction around them.

  “That’s fight. Damndest thing. There was all this commotion and shouting coming from inside, and then your girl came busting out of there like a bat-outa-hell and ran off across the street over there. Someone chased after her, then a few seconds later, boom. I’m under a pile of rubble.”

  “Here, let me help you up,” said Marcus, extending a hand. “We should get you checked out by someone, make sure you’re okay.”

  “There’s no need for that,” said Doug, waving Marcus away. “I’m fine. Besides, I’m an old man, ain’t nothing no doc can do to fix that. I’ll be okay. You go find that girl of yours.”

  Doug righted his shopping trolley, threw some of his belongings into it and wheeled it off through what was left of the street.

  Marcus ran back over to Kali and helped her up.

  “There’s still a chance. She wasn’t in the building when it went up. She’s still out there somewhere. We need to find her. If we don’t all this was for nothing.”

  Kali was more alert now. She stood up, a look of fierce determination on her face.

  “Let’s go,” she said through gritted teeth. “I owe those Legion bastards some payback.” She quickly marched along the street, with no attempt to conceal her presence.

  “Where are we going?” Marcus huffed as he jogged to keep up with Kali’s pace.

  “I have an idea where to start looking. Hopefully there’ll be plenty of Legion for me to kill along the way.”

  ◆◆◆

  They approached a ruined building that looked just like any of the others scattered around Jericho. It used to be four stories high, but most of the floors were now compacted together into one, leaving a mostly empty shell.

  Kali looked over her shoulder, then pushed a sheet of metal aside, which revealed a doorway. She edged her way through and Marcus followed, his eyes scanning the other nearby buildings for any sign they were being watched.

  Inside looked exactly how he expected it to. Graffiti covered the walls; logo’s and slogans, decrying the Legion and calling for an uprising were most prominent.

  “What is this place?” whispered Marcus, his voice almost lost in the echoes of their footsteps.

  Kali moved over to a grate on the floor and knelt. She ran her fingers across its surface and held her hand up to a shaft of light coming through the rafters of the tattered building above them.

  Her fingers glistened with blood. “Someone’s been here. Recently.” She pulled open the grate revealing a ladder. Marcus’s stomach tightened.

  “What’s down there?” he asked. He pulled at his collar. Was it hot in here? He felt hot. He rubbed the sweat from the palms of his hands on his clothes. “So, we’re going down there are we?”

  “We call them the Warrens. It’s a network of old service tunnels and sewer pipes that run all over the city. It’
s how we’ve managed to keep one step ahead of the Legion in Jericho. From here we can get to just about any place in the city undetected.”

  “So, you think Vana may be in there? How would she even know about it?”

  “There’s no guarantee, but it’s as good a place as any to start, and I don’t know about you, but I don’t feel safe on the streets at the moment.”

  Kali descended the ladder and motioned for Marcus to follow her. He took a few deep breaths and followed behind, closing the grate above him as he did so. There was a click, and a row of light bulbs affixed along the length of the tunnel flickered to life.

  They walked along the tunnel for several minutes, following a drip trail of blood, and emerged into an open area, with more tunnels branching off in other directions. Kali explained this area used to be a subway station, and tunnels led to other platforms like the one they found themselves in now. The blood trail continued along another tunnel, which they followed until the trail abruptly stopped.

  Marcus looked around. A large concrete arch rose above them and cast a long shadow from the faint light coming from the few remaining light bulbs.

  Kali’s eyes darted across the darkness, her hand reached for a pistol tucked into her waistband and she edged forward into the dim light ahead.

  “What are yo--”

  “Shhhh,” hissed Kali. She put her fingers to her lips. Marcus took the hint and backed away.

  A blur rushed past Marcus, knocking him to the ground. Landing on his injured shoulder he howled in pain and clasped onto it with one hand. Kali grunted as she wrestled with someone in the darkness, who had her pinned down and was trying to knock the gun from her grip.

  Marcus clambered to his feet and rushed in. He used his body as a battering ram, charging into the hooded figure and knocking them away from Kali. He stumbled and hit the ground again, this time spinning around and landing on his good shoulder. Kali scrambled to her feet and pointed the gun at the hooded figure. From underneath the figure's cloak, the metallic glint of a barrel pointed back at Kali.

  “No fair,” said Marcus, “I don’t have a gun to point at anyone.”