HALLOWED GROUND

by James Somers

  16 MARGOT

  Jonathan ran into Nemesis in the living room. The creature was huddled in a mound on the floor. Jonathan charged toward it through the front door. It screeched and rose up with a pitch black face and devilish, black pools for eyes.

  Jonathan skidded to a halt on the hardwood floor as the little girl, Margot, was revealed in the creature’s grasp, nearly covered in its gelatinous mass. “Let her go, Trenton!”

  Nemesis rose up, slinging the little girl across the living room onto a sofa near a large picture window overlooking the yard. Jonathan tried to grab her, but the creature blocked the way. The sirens outside had ceased. Now Jonathan heard loud commands given by police officers.

  Nemesis whipped a black tentacle at Jonathan. He flipped over it, using his momentum to slam a kick home. The creature seemed solid enough. Jonathan realized he might have made a mistake.

  The creature hammered him with four arms like some enraged Hindu god. Jonathan tried to repel the blows, but they were coming too fast to keep up. He dodged away, hoping to get to the girl.

  Jonathan noticed that Margot was awake. Nearby, he spotted the body of a woman who must have been watching Jay’s daughter in the house. She appeared to be breathing, but had sustained several nasty gashes from the broken glass surrounding her on the floor.

  “Margot, I’m a friend of your father, here to help. Try to get outside to the police!”

  The girl didn’t respond to him, though she looked his way. Jonathan supposed she must be too frightened to act. He grabbed a pole lamp standing in the corner near the stairs, whipping it up over his head as Nemesis closed in. “I don’t know what you’re hoping to accomplish with all this, Trenton, but I’m not going to allow you to harm anyone anymore.” He had hoped this bravado might get Trenton talking again. At least, he might learn a little of Trenton’s plans. He had always loved hearing himself speak, especially when it came to his own brilliance.

  But Trenton didn’t answer him. He only circled, seeming more animal now than psychotic. Maybe he’s degenerated in this form. Jonathan wasn’t sure what to think. Science had always been Jay’s department.

  The creature lunged, and Jonathan smashed it across the head. He used the opportunity to dodge past it and get into the living room where Margot still lay on the sofa, her eyes watching the scene. As Jonathan approached, she held out her hands to him. He snatched her up from the sofa, pulling her in tight to protect her with his body as much as possible. Another leap took them both through the large picture window and out onto the lawn.

  When Jonathan picked Margot up from the cool grass, he stood looking down the muzzle of a rotating machine gun cannon. The Police Mech attached to it looked even more formidable. The officer inside looked them over, saw the girl, then raised the cannon safely away.

  Nemesis flew through the shattered window, landing on the lawn. He ran toward Jonathan, Margot, and the Mech, fury burning on his hideous pitch black face. The Mech fired on the creature.

  Hundreds of .50 caliber shells tore through the beast like an old coat. Nemesis split, reformed, and was chewed to pieces again, screeching terribly the entire time. The officer must have realized the futility of simply dicing it up over and over again. The Mech’s left arm aimed at Nemesis. A blue pilot flame lit. A stream of fire issued from the vented, tubular muzzle, engulfing the gelatinous, black form writhing on the lawn. The scream that issued from it, when the flame thrower took over, sounded like a thousand children massacred.

  Jonathan ran from the horrifying scene with Margot in tow. Coagulated blood trailed from her nose, ears, and mouth, but otherwise she seemed to be in pretty good shape. Jay found them in the melee and rushed to scoop up his daughter. She, in turn, wrapped her arms around him.

  Jonathan and Jay looked back to where the creature, Nemesis, rose up from the burning lawn one last time. Another burst from the Mech’s flamethrower finished what was left. Nemesis rose no more. Jonathan breathed a sigh of relief. “I’m glad that’s finally over.”

  Jay grabbed his arm. “It’s not over yet. Stokes is awake!” He pointed past the garage to where their wrecked police van had come to rest. “That’s him hovering between the Mechs.”

  •

  Agent Wong’s voice could be heard above the rest of the commotion, calling over a bullhorn for Stokes to surrender peacefully. Stokes had spotted Jay, Jonathan, and more importantly, Margot. He blasted one of the Mech’s blocking his advance. Immediately, the other Mechs opened fire on him.

  The .50 caliber shells ricocheted away from an invisible barrier Samuel had placed around himself. He halted his advance, momentarily, in order to deal with the Police Mechs—not because he needed to, but because he wanted to.

  Inside the cockpit of the first Mech where Samuel’s attention fell, the operator’s body exploded in a crimson flash, painting the clear canopy red. The robot slumped slightly, and a medical warning light flashed on top, indicating pilot death had occurred. Another Mech lunged for him.

  Samuel pulled yet another Police Mech into the path of the aggressor. They slammed into one another before reaching Samuel. The aggressor tried to get his robot up, but the one under Samuel’s control opened fire at point blank range with both the .50 caliber machine turret and the flame thrower. All of the firepower bathed the downed Mech and its pilot. The bullet proof canopy shattered under the repeated hits, exposing the pilot to his doom.

  Samuel levitated the third Mech and sent it hurtling into the crowd of police now firing their guns on him. Agent Wong barely managed to leap away before the large robot bowled over his car. He stood, his clothes covered in dirt, his bullhorn cracked in his hands.

  Samuel continued his advance toward Jonathan, Jay, and Margot. They turned to run, but not quick enough. Samuel seized the men and tossed them away from the girl. He had considered killing them both, but thought better of it. His goal was to protect the girl, not cause her to hate him. She might anyway, but killing her surrogate father and his friend would guarantee it.

  Jay and Jonathan tumbled across the lawn as Samuel came to rest next to Margot. Surprisingly, she did not appear to be afraid of him. Perhaps, she already had some understanding of who he was—that they were more alike than any other people on the planet. “I’m here to protect you, Margot.”

  She looked up at him with puppy-dog-brown eyes. “What about my dad, Mister?”

  “He’s not like us, Margot. Surely you’ve already begun to realize the power within you,” Samuel said.

  Margot nodded, peering up at him. “I suppose so, but now what do we do?”

  Samuel smiled down at her, putting his arm around her shoulder. “Now, we get out of here, before anyone else tries to harm us.”

  The air vibrated around them as Samuel reestablished the invisible shield with his mind. They rose up from the ground together, as though standing upon some invisible surface. Then, without further incident, the invisible bubble whisked them both away, across the city. Jonathan and Jay, along with all of the surviving police officers and Agent Wong, could only watch helplessly.

  17 DECEIVED

  Samuel slowed their flight across the city and brought himself and Margot down upon the top of a skyscraper. They landed among the gravel laid out upon the rooftop, as Samuel’s invisible shield dissipated. He breathed heavily, stepping away from Margot for a moment.

  “Why are we stopping?” she asked.

  Samuel looked at the taller buildings around them. “I just need to rest for a moment, Margot.”

  The girl walked toward him with a grin on her face. “Does it make you tired using your power, Stokes?”

  Samuel turned sharply when he heard the menacing tone in the little girl’s voice—not quite like a little girl at all. He realized, too late, something was wrong.

  Margot pushed both hands toward Samuel, pummeling him with a kinetic blast that sent him hurtling out away from the rooftop of the building. His body ached from the power unleashed upon him. He barely had time to reestablish hi
s forcefield before tumbling through the glass window of an adjacent building.

  Samuel picked himself up, amid panicked screams from office workers. Smashed desks and office partitions lay all around him as he stood. The astonished employees could do nothing but watch as the young boy, who had just crashed into their business, walked over to the shattered window, fifty stories up, and flew out through it again.

  As Samuel flew through the air, back to where Margot had attacked him, he saw the little girl standing upon the edge of the rooftop. Her wicked smile warned him that he may not be dealing with just a little girl anymore. “Who are you? What have you done to Margot?” It was a long-shot, but he had a hunch.

  Margot laughed maniacally. “Figured it out, did you? Well, I won’t give you an ‘A’ for effort. After all, I did sort of tip you off…of the building anyway.” She laughed again.

  “You’re that thing that Dr. Young and Jonathan were talking about, aren’t you?”

  Margot tapped her small chin as Samuel floated in the air before her. “You know, I just keep changing. Now, I’m Margot, as well. That just means she gets to become a god with me!”

  The girl started to laugh, but then doubled over, seemingly in pain. She screamed furiously, and the true little girl seemed to return in that moment. “Get out of my body!” Margot grabbed both sides of her head, screaming as Nemesis fought for control in her mind. A shockwave surged away from her in every direction at once.

  Samuel shielded himself, but still it threw him back in the air. The windows on the neighboring skyscrapers reverberated and shattered. Showers of glass rained down upon pedestrians, and vehicles traveling on the streets below.

  “Margot, I’m trying to help you. Fight the creature!” Samuel pleaded.

  Margot looked at him menacingly. Nemesis had taken control again. He reached out through the girl’s body, sending the gravel from the rooftop flying like thousands of bullets toward Samuel. He dodged away as the rock shower pelted the building behind him like a shotgun blast. Concrete chips and glass shards fell away from the damage, toward the street.

  Margot managed to shield herself as Samuel rose up to the rooftop again, hitting her with a kinetic blast of his own. She tumbled inside her own invisible bubble and smashed through a digital billboard setup on the roof. The sign showered sparks down upon the building, but Margot had already regained control.

  Using her power, she tore away from Samuel through the air, heading for the street. Samuel followed after her. He still wanted to protect the girl—more than ever. But he had no idea how he could remove her from the grasp of the monster fighting her now from within.

  •

  “Well, we can’t just sit here! We’ve got to get my baby back.” Jay paced back and forth in front of the police van. “Isn’t there anything your people can do, Wong?”

  Wong looked at him, then Jonathan. “We should have a visual on them in a moment. I’ve got twenty seekers looking for them throughout the city.”

  Jonathan looked back toward the yard near one of the shattered Mechs. A patch of the lawn still smoldered—the remains of the Nemesis creature imprinted in char and ashes. Jay came up beside him and sighed, putting his hand on Jonathan’s shoulder. “At least that’s one problem taken care of, right?”

  Jonathan took a long moment to consider it. “Somehow, I’m not so sure.”

  “What do you mean?” Jay motioned to the scorch mark. “He couldn’t survive that.”

  “I know…” Jonathan couldn’t quite figure out what was bothering him about the situation with Nemesis. “It’s just that when I fought him in the house, he seemed different…more feral…less the calculated psychopath we’ve all come to love.” Jonathan walked toward the smoldering pile of black ash. Jay followed him. A team of emergency workers managed to pry open the damaged cockpit of the nearby Mech, in order to get the pilot out—the one that had toasted Nemesis. “What are you thinking, Jonathan?”

  “Trenton hid under the van when we left the Halo Tech plaza with Stokes. He tossed us down the driveway in the van, but he wasn’t after us. He ran for the house, for Margot.”

  Jay’s expression grew panicked. “But why would he want her?”

  “He was hiding under the van, listening all that time…Stokes was rambling on about her being like him. When I went inside, I found Nemesis oozing all over her.”

  Jay looked like he might explode any moment with frustration.

  Jonathan continued. “When I came in and confronted him, Nemesis tossed her away, but it didn’t act the way Trenton normally did. I didn’t think anything about it at the time, but what if he managed to do more than just attack her?”

  Jay was on the verge of tears. The idea that the Nemesis creature might have done something to his daughter ate at his very soul.

  Agent Wong piped in from one of the police trucks on the scene. “Gentlemen, I believe we’ve got them!”

  Jonathan and Jay rushed to the truck where Agent Wong worked to fine tune the reception on the seeker reporting visual contact. On the video monitor, an explosion rocked through a crowded street.

  Pedestrians ran screaming for cover. Cars soared through the air, on fire. A shattered fire hydrant sprayed water over the street. The seeker zoomed in on one of the targets.

  Samuel Stokes barely evaded a burning family sized sedan, flying through the air towards him. With a swipe of his arm, he redirected the huge missile into a nearby building lobby, shattering its costly glass façade.

  When the seeker zoomed in on the other target, they saw little Margot in the middle of the street—wrecked, abandoned cars all around her. She was laughing. With a twirl of her small arms, she caused two more abandoned cars to levitate, hurling them toward Stokes.

  Jay stood there watching his daughter on the monitor, his mouth agape. “I can’t believe it.” He looked into Jonathan’s eyes. “She’s never manifested her power, not like this.”

  Jonathan took another look at the monitor, at the little girl tossing burning cars at Samuel Stokes with her mind, keeping the young man on the run and apparently having the time of her life doing so. “Jay, I don’t think that’s Margot doing it.”

  Jay looked again, this time at the girl’s face, as the seeker zoomed in further. The gaunt expression, the devious smile, and lethargic eyes. “She looks possessed, or something.”

  Jonathan and Jay stared at one another, sharing the same horrible epiphany again. “Nemesis!”

  Agent Wong stared at them in disbelief. “What are you two saying…that creature is still alive?”

  Jonathan looked at him. “Not just alive, Mr. Wong, he’s somehow controlling the girl, using her power. He’s mutated in the past. This may be another transformation he’s trying to go through in order to gain the girl’s power.”

  Agent Wong almost laughed—almost. “Wait, wait…are you saying your daughter has these psychic abilities like Samuel Stokes?”

  Jay tried to hold back his frustration. “Margot was a product of the Halo Project, only indirectly. Her parents were some of Sarkov’s initial case studies. Margot was born to them before they died from the experiments. She’s never shown the same abilities before today.”

  Jonathan watched the destructive scene playing out on the monitor. “Well, Nemesis has certainly been able to tap into her potential in a big way. Stokes is barely holding on. She’s really trying to kill him.”

  “He’s not trying to do the same to her?” Jay said. “Stokes said all he wanted to do was protect Margot from the rest of us.”

  They both looked at Wong. “We’ve got to stop this before Stokes gets killed,” Jonathan said.

  Jay looked at his friend and smiled. “After what he’s put you through, I’m surprised to hear you say that.”

  “Really?”

  Jay reconsidered. “I guess not. After all, I put you through all kinds of stuff when I was a kid, and you still looked out for me.

  Jonathan turned to Agent Wong. “What do you have that might stop those
two?”

  18 DEVASTATION

  Police officers in riot gear, and other specialized equipment, swarmed around their mobile base of operations as Jonathan followed Agent Wong to the back of a large, tractor trailer truck. Wong opened the rear door with a pass key, motioning for them to follow him in.

  The three of them passed through a secure, stainless steel code door. Beyond the door, stood what appeared to be a military command center with all manner of high tech monitoring equipment and several personnel running it.

  Agent Wong went to one of the monitoring stations where a tech sat, controlling more seeker cameras. “What have you got, Steve?” Wong asked.

  “I’d say, the fight of the century…this is unbelievable!” Steve said, enthusiastically.

  Agent Wong cleared his throat forcefully. “Let’s keep it by the book, Steve.”

  “Uh, yes, sir. The girl still has Stokes on the run. I think he must be trying to wear her down, or something. He throws attacks at her, but nothing lethal.”

  Jay watched the monitors, concern etched across his middle-aged face. “Let’s hope he keeps it that way.” He looked at Jonathan. “There’s no telling what he’ll do if he feels desperate. He might just give up this whole protect the innocent girl thing, and go for the kill.” His own words appeared to visibly unsettle him.

  Agent Wong piped in. “We’re going to try not to let it come to that, Dr. Young.”

  Jay appeared skeptical. “Yeah, how?”

  Agent Wong pointed back to one of the video monitors where at least fifty police officers in SWAT uniforms had prepared for battle. “I’ve got these officers going in with tranquilizers. Hopefully they can put Stokes and the girl down before this gets even more out of control. They’re sharpshooters.”