by Angela White
He hurried by the stack of water and food barrels that the Major had been storing down here as they were found, knocking over a smaller tub of rice. Various forms of life immediately began flying toward the unexpected food.
The noises echoed through the tunnel and he jogged quicker. He hated underland! When he handed over the bodies, he planned to ask for an assignment in the west, where underground was so toxic that it was forbidden to go there.
Hudson shoved the next creaking door open and moved into the dankness with a grimace. Thanks to the snakes, it always smelled like heavily decaying copper.
“Fresher today,” he muttered, finally reaching the main intersection of the Major’s storage bunker. Except for the water and snakes, it was perfect.
“Cara?”
Hudson pushed the automatic open button on the heavy steel door with an uneasy feeling. Maybe she hadn’t been able to get them to come down.
He pushed the thick door open with both hands, peering uneasily into the black room.
Thwap!
Hudson clutched at the knife hilt, gasping for air that couldn’t get through. He slid to his knees, suffocating and drowning in his own blood.
“Catch the door!”
Conner hurtled his hurting body into the closing gap before the door could lock them in darkness again.
Angela shoved Cara’s heavy body off her and gave Kyle an approving grin. “Nice throw.”
“You did the dirty work,” Kyle stated. “Best catfight I’ve ever heard.”
Angela chuckled, glad of the eyes that had let her find Cara in the chaos. They’d been expecting trouble when she tried to close them inside, and Conner had been the one to pull her inside, too. The snake clerk had immediately started fighting from there.
Angela grabbed the blowgun and a few darts from Cara’s belt, then jerked her knife from the woman’s chest. She did it without a wave of nausea, showing another level of progress.
Kyle did the same, and then slid an arm around Conner’s waist. “Let’s get the–”
Beep! Beep! Beep!
The alarm was incredibly loud, and the trio stared at it. The face of the watch on Hudson’s bloody wrist flashed in brilliant red warning.
Beep! Beep!
Angela and Kyle tried to decide if it mattered, but Conner knew.
“It’s an alarm. He runs that damn thing on every explosive he sets.”
“Let’s go!” Kyle ordered.
The trio fled, going as quickly as Conner’s injury would allow.
Angela grabbed Kyle’s belt and let herself be hauled along as she concentrated. It had been an effort to use her gifts in the cells. The drugs made everything blurry, and it was hard to find the edges of reality. She grunted, straining, “Get outside! Be ready!”
Angela sagged, temples throbbing with sharp pains that made her moan when they only very slowly eased. The dim light from above them was almost too little to see by, and the trio stayed close together. Their feet crunched through unseen debris the entire time.
Pain sank into Angela’s head, causing her to trip.
Kyle slung her up onto his tired shoulder. “Go faster if you can, Conner. We have to get to your dad–now!”
“Stop right there!”
The trio froze as a hunter stepped into view, gun trained on Kyle as he supported both burdens.
“The Major only needs one of you,” the lucky finder stated coldly. “No job for you, killer!”
Kyle recognized him as one of the men he’d embarrassed in the tunnels for hurting Conner and shifted Angela’s weight onto her own feet.
Conner was barely conscious and slid to the ground as Kyle let go of his waist.
“He wants all of us,” Angela protested weakly, moving a little closer. Once again, she got to be bait.
“I’d never make it back alive,” the hunter correctly assumed. “You can tie each other up or I’ll shoot you both.”
Kyle motioned Angela to do what the man wanted.
Starving, the demon inside lunged forward before either of them could react.
Blinding red light shot out, striking the hunter in the chest. His gun went flying into the mucky debris, and Angela stepped closer as he staggered back.
How much do you want? the demon asked.
All of it, Angela answered greedily.
Kyle watched in horror as the hunter screamed in agony, seeming to shrink up before his eyes.
“No! Stop!”
Angela drew harder.
The hunter went sagged, groaning, and Angela stepped back, color rising in her skin.
The man slid to his knees and Angela lunged forward again, jerking brutally at his life force.
Kyle stepped forward, and Conner grabbed his arm. “You don’t want to do that.”
Angela inhaled, swallowed, absorbed, and the hunter’s body faded to a bluish color that Kyle looked away from.
Snap!
Angela felt the last of his life give and arched in ecstasy as it impaled her.
“Don’t move,” Conner warned lowly. “That’s our bloodlust. It’s hard to fight.”
Kyle saw the red eyes, the pulsing body, and stored it. He and Adrian had a lot to talk about.
Angela came down slowly from the pleasure, terrified to feel no guilt. What am I becoming?
Angela pulled the man’s backup weapon from his holster and slowly turned toward her people, hair blown back, face sated–erotic with a double timbre of woman and witch. “We’ll take point.”
Neither of them moved as she stepped by, and Angela was glad Conner had known to warn Kyle. One touch was all it would take for her to let the witch do it again. She’d never felt anything like that. All she could compare it to was Adrian’s light, and both were forbidden.
9
Adrian and the Eagles were already outside the overtaken compound, and it gave none of them any comfort to see Kyle carrying Angela. When he swung her to her feet, there was relief and men ran to help.
Adrian knew instantly what she’d done, and said nothing. If not for the drugs, Angela could have destroyed Garret’s compound by herself. Her gifts were still growing, but to be able to physically manifest fire only hours after being darted showed incredible strength. Adrian had never known of anyone who could access their powers for at least a full day, and that took Angela from a powerful defensive tool and placed her directly at the top of their protection. Her taking a life force wasn’t a disappointment for Adrian. Once she learned to store and ration the energy that he planned to insist she draw daily, she would reach a new level of awareness, and so would his camp. She would also be strong enough to resist the temptation of doing it again.
Fire had been her last evolution, and based on that, Adrian thought the next one would be just as revealing and volatile. His own powers had peaked during the lab tests, but Angela wasn’t being given drugs for control or being used up before the demon inside could evolve. Her gifts would grow unchecked.
“Something’s wired,” Kyle panted, gratefully taking his Glock from Adrian as the team reached him. “A bomb.”
“What about the other kids inside the complex?” Kyle asked. “The ones like Conner?”
Adrian looked to Angela, who shook her head. “Any survivors took off the second we escaped.”
Neither of them said that would be how the government bunker found out what happened. They didn’t need to.
Angela motioned toward the Major’s parking area, where bodies were already being consumed by Nature’s tiniest armies. “Can we go home now?”
Adrian was still staring gratefully at Kyle. “Yes, we–”
Bam! Pop! boom!
The ground pulsed under them, and everyone ducked, expecting to be blasted into the afterlife. Instead, wind howled around the city, across the deserted streets and decaying bodies in an eerie chill.
“Look!”
A twister of smoke was rising into the sky east of them like a pillar sent from hell.
“It’s the dam,” Conner
said in shock. “That’s miles from here. Why would he–”
Crraacckkk! Wooossshhhh!
Adrian understood the danger and their odds of surviving. “Cut the lock. Let’s go!”
The gates swung open to reveal the Major’s personal protection vehicles.
Wooosshhh...crunch!
Adrian took the first UPV, waving Angela into the passenger side. Conner instinctively went toward the rear with the Eagles, and Kyle stayed with his boss.
Unlike their falsely modified vehicles, Garret’s vehicles were the real deal and fully stocked. Adrian had assumed they would lose their vehicles and only let Marc and Kenn change them enough to keep up appearances. And add the explosives to take out Garret’s compound if they were parked close enough.
The Major’s transportation even had a working radio that hummed constantly as Kyle flipped through the channels, trying to reach their camp.
Keys weren’t needed with the automatic start buttons, and Adrian rolled them through the gate seconds later.
Crunch! Crack! Bam!
“What is that?” Kyle demanded, but really, he knew. He’d been there the night the tank was washed away. He knew that sound.
“Hey! And, who is that?” Angela asked wearily.
“Damn it,” Adrian groaned as he spotted the line of shadows running to get into formation outside the gate. “Garret’s personal guard was on a long patrol. We were waiting out here to greet them when you called.”
Snap! Woosh!
The water came flying down the streets and alleys, crushing its own path through the months of debris.
Angela had no energy left to gather, but wasn’t sure a shield would hold anyway as she stared at the water lunging for them. Death, made visible.
Adrian pushed the pedal harder, resenting the bulky handling UPV.
“Down!”
Angela and Kyle ducked as he came in range of the line of firing bounty hunters.
Bang! Pop!
Slugs pinged into the reinforced steel body, but came straight through the thin glass windows.
Adrian yanked the wheel hard, manhandling the UPV toward a narrow alley. He didn’t slow, just rammed into the side of the crumbling brick as he struggled to make the turn.
Parts of the wall fell on top of the UPV and then it was back under control.
Kenn did the same in the UPV on their heels, and they barreled deeper into the alley.
The hunters followed on foot, firing at the tires with a tunnel-vision focus that missed the danger. They had their prey trapped. It was time to kill and in that instant, nothing else mattered.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Your Ship
1
“Here it comes,” Angela warned, rolling up her window, but not all the way.
The ground under them changed, no longer solid, and the hum vibrated through the floorboard as the whole alley began to shake.
Piles of debris began rattling, shaking, sliding, falling and crashing into the ground and each other, creating new piles and fresh dust plumes. Standing structures collapsed, and loud thuds and bangs came from all parts of the city around them.
Thick clouds of dust began to rise, carried on the wind...and then the rumbling stopped.
An unnatural silence fell, and Angela started to ask if maybe the water had missed them when the pounding under their feet resumed. It was dull, hollow, and thick as it rose up the walls, their legs, and their bodies, pounding through bones.
A horrendous crack split the air, drowning out everything else, and then another noise, this one more dangerous. It was the sound of rushing water.
The walls of liquid rushed through the broken underground, washing away unsuspecting hunters and survivors alike. It crashed mercilessly through their hiding places and dragged them away, doing its own type of cleansing.
Drawn by the sounds of the water behind them, the men Hudson had sent halted their steady march along the convoy’s back trail. From where they stood, they had a perfect view of the Major’s UPVs and the very man they’d been sent to destroy. The neat roads they’d made in their months here were gone, and a debris minefield now lay before them, if they wanted to go back.
They didn’t. If by some miracle, the Major or Hudson had survived, they were on their own now.
Behind this group, another large team of men also kept on their path. The reward for Mitchel was exorbitant, and it would increase when the bunker found out about this defeat. The hunters needed a way to get Adrian to surrender or for his own camp to turn him out. That would honor their fallen Major.
2
The water roared into the alley from both sides, trapping everyone. Men on foot were washed into the flood and shoved against the walls and trucks.
The two waves crashed together over the top of the team and filled the alley, submerging both vehicles. The pressure shoved the trucks together with a muffled bang and then backwards as the stronger wave overpowered the weaker.
All that kept the UPVs from washing out into the chaos was two fully cocked steering wheels that encouraged the vehicles to hit walls and be jammed. For the two men holding both their breath and the wheels, it seemed to take months for the force to ease.
For the rest of the team, it was less than a minute.
Water slowly drained from the vehicles and the shorter and injured people were lowered in relief.
Unlocking his arm, Adrian pushed on the pedal and was pleasantly surprised to get a response. He hadn’t expected the modifications to extend to the engine, since they hadn’t to the windows.
Adrian watched Kenn pull forward to hover on his bumper, then swept the area. The hunters that had survived were on the ground, coughing or already stumbling away, and the leader let them go. They had other problems.
The piles of debris and barely visible paths were gone, along with the bodies and bones. Everything light had been swept to a new location, covering the old layers of rubble with new ones. These moved fossils were entrenched in mud that would eventually harden and encase the city in perfect preservation.
As they drove, Angela searched the watery debris for other survivors. More than once, there was a fleeing shadow, but without a bigger distraction than just surviving the damn explosion, she couldn’t get their attention. She had no energy to spare.
Adrian grimaced as he reached out and adjusted the radio. “Eagle to base.”
Silence...
Pain, thick and moist, slid into his side, and Adrian’s hands clenched. Not yet! I have to make it back. I have to...
Adrian’s foot eased off the gas, mind going fuzzy.
“Adrian?”
Angela’s words came down a loud, distorted tunnel, and he pulled himself together enough to bring the UPV to an ungainly stop. He closed his eyes, slumping.
“Where were you hit?”
Adrian jerked as she pried away his jacket, revealing a damp red stain that ran thick and wide into his waistband.
“Oh, Adrian.”
Kyle came to the window. “What’s the...Oh, shit.”
“Drive.” Adrian began to force himself over, and Angela helped him.
“Shouldn’t we let her–”
“Drive.”
“Drive.”
Kyle did as they both ordered, and Angela went to work, heart a fast tremor of fear. They’d gotten his son. What would they sacrifice for it?
“I was trimmed, that’s it!”
Angela was frowning as she agreed. Adrian was assuming they had a camp to return to, an experienced doctor there to help. What if he was wrong?
He’s in no position to choose, the witch spoke up reluctantly. Maybe you should think of something.
I don’t want his job! Angela protested.
Who says you do? If you’re wrong, it’s a plan that can go into a file and never be used.
Angela swallowed. But what if I’m right?
Then it’s up to you to keep everyone alive, the witch cackled fearfully. That’s what he’s been training you for.
Not to make female teams, or further camp goals. He chose you for moments exactly like this one. If you can’t do it, tell him now while he can give that chore to someone else.
Angela’s heart protested every word, but her mind fell into planning their salvation against an unknown threat. Not sure if she could carry the weight for long, Angela forced her mental doors to open wide as she considered all the options. This was indeed what he’d chosen her for, and she would do it.
Adrian’s hand went out to Kyle’s arm. “Code Raven is a go.”
“You got it, boss.”
Angela looked over with bloodshot blue eyes. “You’ve honored me.”
Adrian waited, holding onto consciousness to be sent out with her coming remark in his thoughts instead of fear.
“And fuck you very much for it!”
Adrian chuckled, cramping up.
He slowly fell over against her arm, and Angela adjusted him, as she talked to Kyle in short, urgent tones that questioned, schemed, planned, and prayed to be wrong.
3
“Here they come! Where’s Hudson?!”
Teddy thought fast. Hudson and the Major had to be dead, that’s the only way Mitchel had gotten by them. Which meant...
“I claim leadership!” one of the rear men called. None of the Major’s crew was stupid.
Teddy waved at the two UPVs they hadn’t finished modifying. “The windows are weak, and so are the gas tanks.”
“And leadership?” another man asked.
“The man who captures or kills Mitchel Sr. will lead us,” Teddy answered.
“What about the Major’s son?” another man asked.
Teddy raised the launcher as the vehicles started up the small hill toward them. “Whoever darts him gets to be Lt, mine if I make this shot. Mitchel Sr. is in the front of the first UPV.”
Satisfied, the twenty-nine other men also raised their weapons. It was how things worked now. Men needed a leader, and that had to be covered before the slugs flew.
“Fire!”
Angela and Kyle spotted the distant outline of the road they needed to take, and an instant later, the trouble standing between them and home.
“Look out!”
