Dark Sentinel: Book one in the Sentinel Series

by Adam Matlow

  The standoff went on for several seconds before the stranger spoke. “You don’t look Legion, but it’s hard to tell these days.”

  The newcomer raised her hand and pulled back the hood of her cloak. A young woman, not much older than twenty with piercing blue eyes and long red hair tied in a ponytail, looked back at them. Her left arm dangled down, and a slow trickle of blood dripped onto the ground from a wound on her arm.

  “Not Legion, totally, completely not Legion. Hate those guys,” said Marcus. “Would appreciate it if you didn’t point that thing at me. The name’s Marcus by the way.”

  She cocked her head to one side, and lowered her weapon slightly, but kept it ready to use. Kali didn’t budge. “Who are you?” she asked sternly.

  “You can call me Charlie,” she said. “And you are?”

  “I’ll get to that, but first: can you tell me where the birds go when they fly south for the winter?”

  “I don’t know, but they never come back,” replied Charlie, without missing a beat.

  Kali lowered her gun and tucked it back into her waistband. “You’re a member of the underground. I’m Kali, I run the New Hope section.”

  Charlie hesitated for a few seconds before also lowering her weapon and replacing it in a holster underneath her cloak.

  “What’s going on?” asked Marcus. “What was all that nonsense about birds?”

  “It’s a code,” said Kali. “If someone gives the right response to the phrase, I know they are part of the underground movement.”

  “And if she gave the wrong response?”

  “I’d have shot her. Immediately.”

  “Remind me never to get on your bad side, okay?”

  Kali turned back to Charlie. “Were you the one in the safe-house just off the main square? We spoke to someone who said they saw two people fleeing from the building just before it was destroyed. I assume it was you?”

  “Yeah,” said Charlie, applying pressure to a wound on her left arm.

  “And the second person was Vana? Purple hair, kinda weird looking?”

  “That’s right. but you won’t be getting near her until I have some assurances.”

  “What kind of assurances?”

  “Well, for starters can you explain what happened to our safe-houses?”

  “We have no idea,” said Kali. “We were on our way to make contact with them and all hell broke loose. By the time we arrived… I’m sorry, there was nothing left.”

  Charlie turned and punched the wall with her good hand. She swore and hit the wall again, leaving blood stains behind. Her knuckles glistened red.

  “How can we fight against something like that?” she said, her face flushed with anger. “We act like we know what we’re doing, but really we’re all just a bunch of amateurs who are going to get ourselves killed.”

  “I don’t believe that,” replied Kali. “And neither do you. We’ve been dealt a blow here tonight, but if we give up now then all those people died for nothing.”

  “But what have we accomplished? Nothing, that’s what.”

  “We’ve done the best we can with the resources we have,” said Kali, softening her tone. “I know we’re outmatched, but that may be about to change.”

  Charlie looked up. “I know what you’re going to say. Vana knows more about him than she’s letting on. She wouldn’t say much to me, but she has mentioned you, Marcus.”

  “Well I am pretty hard to forget,” he said, running his hands through his hair.

  “How long have you had to put up with him,” Charlie said, pointing to Marcus.

  “You get used to him after a while. Kinda tune him out.”

  “I’m right here you know,” moaned Marcus.

  “But I suppose I have to be nice to him. I did shoot him after all.”

  “I’m not surprised,” said Charlie.

  Marcus wasn’t sure what he had done to deserve this tirade of insults but was happy that people were no longer pointing guns at each other.

  “It was an accident, she didn’t mean to shoot me.”

  “That’s what I told him anyway.”

  Marcus coughed to get the pair's attention. “As fun as all this character assassination is, can we get back to business? You ran out with Vana, why?”

  “I didn’t like how they were treating her,” replied Charlie. “I don’t know who she is really, but she’s clearly no friend of Davon. As far as I could see she’d done nothing wrong, but we were treating her like a prisoner. Tied to a chair and interrogated for hours at a time. That’s not what I signed up for.”

  “That shouldn’t have happened,” sighed Kali. “I gave strict instructions she was to be treated well.”

  “Our commander had other ideas, and since he technically didn’t have to follow orders from you, he chose to question her himself, rather than wait for you to arrive. When all the commotion started in the centre of town earlier I used the distraction to get her out of there. But not before I took a lump of shrapnel in the arm from the safe-house going up.” She held her arm which still dripped with blood.

  Charlie sat on the floor and sighed. “A few seconds later and-- well...”

  Kali squatted next to her. “Actually, I think you’d have been fine. Davon probably sent people to watch the safe-house, and as soon as she was out of there, they took it out. As well as the others.”

  Marcus chipped in. “By eliminating any places she could go to for help. Cunning bastard. But if he had people watching the house, why didn’t they make a move on her?”

  “They may not have known for sure Vana was in there,” said Charlie. “If Davon wants her alive that badly, he wouldn’t have risked storming the place. Not with the amount of weaponry we had stashed there. Not even the Legion is that stupid.”

  “So, what’s the plan?” asked Marcus.

  “I’ll take you to Vana,” said Charlie. “But only because she mentioned you, Marcus. She told me all about what happened out in the Badlands, and how you rescued her. She trusts you, and if she wants to go with you she can.”

  “That’s not your call to make,” said Kali. “I need her to answe--”

  “Actually, it is my call. As far as I know, I’m the only surviving member of the Jericho section, so that puts me in charge around here until I know any different.”

  Kali didn’t argue, but instead raised her arm and pointed into the darkness. “Lead the way, commander.”

  Chapter Six

  Charlie led them through a maze of tunnels, twisting and turning down a seemingly never-ending array of junctions and crossroads. Marcus had long since given up trying to keep track of where they were, and closely followed Charlie. He didn’t relish the idea of falling behind and getting lost down here. Alone. In the dark.

  The tunnel ended abruptly. In the wall ahead was a small metal door, with a worn-out sign above it which had long since faded past being legible.

  “We’re here,” said Charlie. She slipped an old rusted key from one of her pockets and unlocked the door, which creaked loudly as it swung open.

  In one corner of the room, Vana was slumped in a chair. Around her, supplies were piled haphazardly and candles affixed to the walls, cast odd shadows as they flickered.

  Vana jumped out of the chair, “Marcus!” she beamed, running over and wrapping her arms around him. “I’m glad you’re okay.”

  “Thank god you’re still in one piece,” he said pulling back from her so as he could see her face. “I was worried you’d been caught.”

  “I waited for you as long as I could,” said Vana.

  “She was lucky,” said Charlie. “Your man got her out of there just in time. Another few minutes and the Legion would have had her.”

  Kali approached Vana, her hand outstretched. “Hi, I’m Kali, a friend of Marcus. I’ve been hearing a lot about you recently, and if you’re willing I’d like to take you somewhere safe where we can have a talk about a few things.”

  Vana pulled back slightly and frowned. “Like wha
t?” she asked.

  “Well, for example I’d like to know why Davon is after you? What is so important about you he would risk openly attacking whole settlements to find you?”

  “That’s… complicated.”

  “Oh, come on now, we’ve travelled a long way and have gone to a great deal of trouble to find you, don’t play coy now.”

  Vana looked uneasy, “How much do you know about Davon?”

  “Not a great deal more than anyone else. He has Legions of followers that do his every bidding, for what reason we have no idea. He seems to be the reason for the disappearance of many people over the years and my personal favourite, he’s been brainwashing people into becoming single-minded killing machines who answer only to him.”

  Vana shifted on her feet, and Marcus pulled her towards him defensively. She had done nothing wrong, yet everyone was after her. Vana clutched onto him; he felt inexplicably close to her.

  “I don’t know why he has been taking people,” said Vana, “It’s not what I would expect.”

  Kali looked at Marcus and said, “Well I think it’s become obvious now at least some of the people the Legion takes end up as Elites. But it doesn’t explain where all the others are going. We’ve only ever seen a handful of those elite soldiers. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of other people that have vanished over the years.”

  “You know this because of Amara?” asked Marcus.

  “When she came with Davon to New Hope we recognised her. Doc had been searching for her for years. Up until that point, nobody who disappeared was ever seen again. We think he keeps the Elites away from the areas they were captured in. To minimise the risk of them being recognised. Amara must have been in The Forge this whole time.” Kali turned to Vana. “So, what’s your story? What does he want you for?”

  Vana glanced at Marcus before answering. “I don’t know exactly why he’s after me. But I’m not the first he’s hunted and I won’t be the last. Unless we stop him.”

  “Well that cleared things up,” said Kali as she let out a deep sigh. She pinched the bridge of her nose and rubbed her eyes. “We can talk about it later, right now we need to work out how to get you out of here safely. We still have questions.”

  “I’ll come back with you on one condition,” said Vana. “Further north there is another impact site. It’s all part of the same meteorite, the one that came down near where you found me Marcus. I need to go there.”

  In all the drama of the last few days, Marcus had forgotten the impact started this whole bizarre chain of events.

  “No way,” said Kali. “You’re coming back with us. There’s more going on here than you are letting on, and we need to get to the bottom of it.”

  “You want to defeat Davon, yes?” asked Vana,

  “Of course. We don’t know what he’s doing, but it can’t be anything good,” replied Kali.

  “Trust me, the answers you need are there, where the meteor hit. The key to defeating him is there, but we must go quickly.”

  “Can’t you just tell us what it is?”

  “No, you need to see it for yourself.”

  “Bullshit,” said Kali, kicking the metallic door. “You could tell us right now, but you don’t want to. I don’t like this, I don’t like this one bit. Talk some sense into her Marcus.”

  “I don’t know,” he replied. “Wherever we go we’re going to have Davon after us. If Vana really does hold the key to taking him out, I want to go and find out what it is.”

  “He’ll be there waiting for us you know,” said Kali. “We’d be walking into a trap. I’m not going anywhere near there without fifty guys and a whole lot of guns.”

  “You go get your men,” said Vana, “I’ll go on my own.”

  “Oh no you don’t. I’m not letting you out of my sight. We went to a lot of trouble to find you. If I must, I’ll drag you kicking and screaming back to our camp. But I think we can all act like grown up’s here and do what needs to be done.”

  “Wait a second,” said Marcus getting in between the two women who were now facing off each other, “Nobody’s dragging anyone anywhere. We’re all on the same side here.”

  “I’m prepared to go on my own,” said Vana. “Though I stand a much better chance if you come with me.”

  “I don’t feel safe down here,” said Marcus. A tightness gripped his chest and his breathing became sharp. “Can we get out of here to somewhere a bit more… not underground? This place gives me the creeps. We can argue about what to do later.”

  “Fine,” said Kali, “How are we going to do this?”

  “Davon has men stationed at every entrance to Jericho,” said Charlie, “so getting out that way won’t be easy.”

  Kali crossed her arms. “Yeah, we figured that much out for ourselves thanks.”

  “Well lucky for you I know a few other routes out of town those goons don’t know about. We should be able to sneak past them and out into the Badlands. If we’re lucky it will be days before they figure out we slipped by them.”

  Kali sighed and shook her head.

  “I suppose we don’t have much choice, do we? I want your word when we’ve been to the impact site you’ll come back to camp with me.”

  Vana nodded in agreement.

  The room shook and there was the dull thud of an explosion. Rock and dust fell from the ceiling above them, which clung to the back of Marcus’s throat.

  “What the hell was that?” he managed through a fit of coughs.

  Charlie opened the door and looked out into the darkness. “The Legion must have found us. If we stay here we’ll be trapped, we should go. Now.” She grabbed a rucksack from beside the door and ran around the small room, grabbing what she could and stuffing it inside. She lifted the lid of a large box in one corner of the room and pulled out a shotgun. She loaded the weapon from a pile of shells in the box and threw the rest into the bag with everything else.

  “Let’s roll,” she said as she charged out of the door. Marcus grabbed Vana by the hand and headed off after Charlie. Kali brought up the rear, looking over her shoulder as they ran through several more twisting tunnels.

  Charlie skidded to a halt, which caused Marcus to almost run into her. She raised her hand and shushed him before he could protest. Muffled voices and the echo of footsteps reverberated through the tunnel ahead.

  “Shit,” said Charlie under her breath. “That’s the way out. We’re gonna have to go through them. I hope they still want her alive because that’s our only chance.”

  They crept along the tunnel, hugging the walls until they saw three Legion soldiers standing next to a ladder, lit from above by light pouring in through an open manhole cover.

  Charlie sank to the ground and grabbed a small rock. She threw it past the guards, along the opposite tunnel. The rock clattered against the concrete walls before coming to a rest some distance away. The guards reacted to the disturbance and raised their weapons. Two of them moved cautiously towards the source of the noise, whilst the third stood rooted to the spot by the ladder. When the guards vanished into the darkness, Charlie made her move. She sprinted towards the remaining man, diving out of the blackness and throwing him into the metal ladder, winding him. As he struggled to catch his breath Charlie sent her fist crashing into his jaw. There was a crack, and the man folded over.

  “Did you see that?” said Charlie, as she shook her fist out. “One punch.”

  Marcus looked at the defeated guard. It was impressive he had to admit. He made a mental note not to piss her off.

  “Well come on,” she said. “Get up there.”

  They climbed the ladder and found themselves on the outskirts of town, but still behind the walls. Kali replaced the grate cover and threw bricks and other debris on top of it.

  “That should make it a bit harder for them to get out of there,” she said, dusting off her hands.

  “Hey, isn’t this near where we came in?” asked Marcus.

  “Yeah, I think so,” said Kali. She peered
into the distance, and pointed out a small black blob on the horizon, above the wall. “Our transport is there, on the hill. That’s where we’re heading.”

  Marcus walked over to the wall and ran his hands along it. It was at least ten feet tall - the top covered in razor wire. Climbing over it was not going to be an option.

  “Perhaps we can--,” Marcus was interrupted by the click of a weapon being cocked. He slowly turned, Kali and Charlie had their hands raised, weapons pointed at them from at least a dozen Legion soldiers.

  “Don’t move,” ordered one of the soldiers. He wore a red armband and was probably the senior officer. Marcus froze and was searched. The others were also searched and their weapons tossed in a pile in front of them. They were forced to kneel in line, their hands clasped behind their heads.

  A gun was jabbed into Kali’s back.

  “What’s that?” asked the soldier, using the barrel of the gun to prod at a lump under Kali’s shirt by her hip.

  “It’s only a radio,” she said unflinchingly.

  “On the pile, now.”

  Kali reached slowly with one hand and unclipped the radio from her belt. As she did, Marcus saw her click the send button several times, before tossing it onto the pile with the rest of their gear.

  “Call the transport for this one,” said the leader, grabbing Vana under her arm and standing her up. “The rest are expendable.”

  Vana struggled as she was led away, Marcus turned to see what was happening and was struck by the butt of a rifle. The blow was glancing, but it was enough to cause his eyes to water.

  The silence was broken by a whooshing sound, followed by a massive explosion coming from behind. A large section of the wall exploded outwards, sending chunks of concrete and metal flying towards them. A chunk grazed Kali’s head, knocking her to the ground. Thick plumes of dust obscured Marcus’s vision.

  Gunfire erupted from the other side of the wall, chewing into the legion soldiers, most of whom were too overwhelmed to return fire. Several men fell to the ground, blood spewing from gunshot wounds. A truck appeared through the hole in the wall and skidded to a halt. It was the two guards that had accompanied them to Jericho. A large roof-mounted machine gun had been attached to the truck and was discharging fire into the now fleeing Legion soldiers, whose handheld weapons were no match.