The Pack

by LM. Preston

  “What she just did was all her. The suit I gave her can’t carry that much power or send electrical shocks through its victims. Besides, she damaged the suit when she burned a hole in it at the landmines. Whatever power it had in it’s long gone,” Valens said while he watched the felled guard at his feet twitch with convulsions from her blow.

  “I guess she is a bad ass,” Mitch said before he spat on the rocky floor. His gaze fell upon her with respect.

  Chapter 30

  Valens turned his head when his earlink beeped. “We’ve got confirmation from Rob that the mines and surveillance systems are shut down,” Valens confirmed.

  “New set of guards are coming fast. Prepare to fire. Now!” Shamira yelled while she crouched down and prepared for another faceoff.

  Shots fired past, and she went for her closest target. Now able to control the burning power, she kicked the guard in the face, and he hit the floor, knocked out cold.

  “We’ll clear the path! Hedi, get them kids outta here! Dion is ready and waiting,” yelled Valens.

  “Got ya! Still waiting for Warrior Girl badass to clear the way. Manny, you stay there until I give the signal, then make them run like hellhounds are behind them until they get out,” Hedi yelled back while she fired. Manny and the kids hid behind the doorway and waited for Hedi to give the signal.

  In her haze of movement, Shamira smiled when she heard her friend’s praise until a huge guard demanded her attention as he charged at her. His momentum slid her back several feet and slammed her into a nearby wall. Her head hit the jagged and rocky surface and caused her to daze out for a moment. He seized his opportunity and tried to stab her in the gut as his fellow guards shot fire around them. Her suit protected her from the assault as she shook her head to clear the haze. Her team countered the ambush of guards quickly, and Mitch threw a mini-bomb at the guards that charged forward.

  Shamira’s large opponent’s fist pounded her face from left to right as he held her up by the neck. Fighting to regain her focus, the burning fire of power built from the adrenaline rush incited by his attack. She licked the blood off her lips and steadied her face from his attack. She grabbed the hand he punched at her and broke it at the wrist with a painful sounding snap. With her free hand, she punched him out cold. He fell loudly, and she landed effortlessly on the floor. Pausing, she smiled at the remaining guards and ran forward into attack, focusing on making a clear pathway for the kids she had promised to free.

  Hedi, seeing the way clear, directed the kids around the fallen guards and out of the entrance to the Mons. Dion’s crew was waiting with the large trucks that acted as a safe haven and getaway. Children of all sizes, dirty from the debris of battle and slavery, ran, stumbled, and fell on their way to freedom.

  “Don’t look back! Just run and don’t look back! Go straight in the trucks! Now!” Hedi yelled, and the kids eagerly obeyed.

  “Is that all of them? Where are Shamira and the others?” Dion demanded as he confirmed his team got the kids into the trucks and drove off safely.

  “They’re still in there. There are still some kids working in the mines. They won’t leave until they save them all,” Hedi said.

  “I hope their time doesn’t run out. There are booby traps that will still set off the incineration mechanism – and with it reactivate the landmines,” he said gravely.

  “Oh, they’ll get out. Shamira and Valens will see to it,” Hedi affirmed while she shot at guards who tried to escape the compound.

  Chapter 31

  “Let’s head to the mines,” Shamira commanded.

  “One of the kids told me your brother was taken to the tombs. We need to go there before he burns or worse,” Manny called out.

  “The tombs? Why there?” Shamira asked while she looked at the fallen guards around her. She made her way to the elevator that led to the next level where the dream labs were.

  “They were ordered to send him there. The kid said that’s where they take kids who are unable to work or are problems. He said the guard was told to take him there by Renu himself. The boy mentioned he heard the guard bragging about it to another guard,” Manny said solemnly.

  “Where are the Tombs? Tell me! Did he tell you where they are?” she demanded. Her heart broke at the thought that she may be too late to save her brother.

  “He said they’re in the back of the dream lab. The workers in the lab are made to hear the victims scream while they burn to remind them of their fate if they make any mistakes,” Manny replied.

  “Damn, that’s messed up. That insane bastard would think up something cruel like that,” Anthony added as he pounded on the elevator button in frustration.

  “Hey, Rob’s warning us there are guards waiting for us when the doors open,” Mitch said.

  “Good! It’s our turn for some hand-to-hand. Shamira, we’ll take care of the guards. When you see the chance, you can go straight to the labs to save your brother,” Valens said.

  “Yummy! I can’t wait to kick ass. Like now,” Anthony said.

  The elevator jerked to a stop, and Shamira hung back, now with the knowledge that her power didn’t control her, but she controlled it. She also knew that even with her earlier loss of control, she had not yet reached the full potential of her strength.

  She watched as her team fired with no hesitation. Manny squeezed behind her to dodge any stray shots. Turning to look at him, she smiled and then winked. He smiled back and gave her the thumbs up when he secured the protective bulletproof hood and mask combination over his face. She secured hers and then turned around to see her team had moved forward to follow through on their promise to make a way for her.

  Proudly, she observed that Anthony’s power and anger showed in his combat with several of the guards. He grabbed the wrist of his attacker and then landed a powerful kick at his charging opponent, yelling after his victory.

  “Yeah, baby, I’ve been waiting to do this all damn day! Come on, scum! Feel the pain!” Anthony roared, as he elbowed another charging guard while he dodged an incoming bullet with the sleeve of his suit.

  Her glance landed on Mitch, who was cold, merciless, and deadly. He had a knife as well as a gun, both of which he used to slice and shoot the guards when they swarmed toward him. Shamira figured they misjudged his size and thought him to be the weakest. She knew they were indeed wrong as she watched Mitch slice the face of the guard who attempted to pull the trigger of his gun at point-blank range into Mitch’s cold, unsmiling face.

  Kurt, her graceful savior, was beautifully deadly as he attacked. His years of training as an assassin kept his kills clean as he downed the opposing guards. He seemed to work at shedding as little blood as possible and made his assaults neat. It was almost like a dance, and the power suit Valens created for them appeared to make Kurt’s deadly strikes effortless. I wonder what caused the electrical charge of power that emitted from me. Who am I kidding? It was me. I felt the electricity leave my body. God, what have I become now?

  A grunt came from in front of her, and she saw Valens as he shot the guard that stood between her and the labs. His resolute and sharp-eyed expression never wavered while he meticulously downed the guards that were a barrier to her mission to save her brother. He kicked the guard that was bold enough to replace the first, causing his opponent to fly several feet into the air.

  “It’s clear! Go now! We’ll stabilize the hall leading to the mines,” Valens shouted to Shamira.

  Manny pushed her on the back, and she took off in the direction of the dream labs. Tables upon tables of shimmering silver dust sparkled as she ran into the dream lab. The workers ran in pandemonium in all directions while they avoided attack and attempted escape. She slid to a stop and pushed her sight past the walls of the lab. Her eyes landed on a rock-enclosed room in a small hallway at the end of the lab where a boy pounded furiously at the door and scratched to fight his way out—the boy from the picture in her brother’s room. She pushed forward and saw he was starting to sweat from the intensi
ty of the heat within while he struggled to get out. It’s David, she knew. Free him! Her power burst forth, and she ran to the door to kick it in.

  “David! David! Get away from the door!” She slid to a stop in front of the tomb. The pounding had stopped, and she heard him struggle to talk.

  “Shamira! Shamira!” he called, as his raspy voice fought for volume.

  Deeply, she pulled air into her lungs and kicked repeatedly at the thick metal door. It dented, then squeaked, then finally burst open to hang jaggedly on its track.

  David stood before her, bravely and frozen. Noticing the harshness in his features, her heart broke for him. She ran toward him and knelt down before him. He watched her quietly, and then his face broke out into a smile.

  “It’s about time you came to save me,” he said with a voice much gruffer and harsher than she remembered. A tear dropped from her eye, and she pulled him close.

  “Sorry, David. When you save me next time, will you make sure I don’t have to wait for as long as you had to wait for me to save you?” she choked out. Greedily, she inhaled the sweet scent of him she so remembered.

  “You can see me now?” He slowly relaxed and gradually inched his arms around her.

  Her soul cried at how he had changed from the abuse he received at the hands of Renu. “Yes,” she answered with a choke.

  “I’ll save you next time, Shamira, because I’m going to keep training until I’m strong enough to fight anyone that tries to hurt you. I don’t ever want you to be hurt,” he stated bravely.

  She pondered his words and realized he was as brave as she always believed. Touched, she knew he would be different after this, that he would be a force to be reckoned with. He had changed, but she just hoped he would still be the one to make her laugh. At that moment, he snuggled his nose into her neck. She removed the tight protective hood from her head so she could feel him close to her, and she held him as though they were the only ones left on Mars.

  Then, just under all the noise of mayhem beyond the tomb doorway, she heard the click of a gun and the heavy breathing of someone nearby, confirming they were still in danger.

  “Touching,” a deep, angry voice behind her boomed in sheer disgust. The butt of the gun jabbed her behind the ear. David’s head shot up and looked at their attacker with a flash of fearful recognition before anger filled his eyes.

  “Leave her alone, Tiger!” he shouted.

  “Shut up, boy. Don’t even think about moving, little huntress. I have another gun pointed at your brave little brother here, and I really want to use it so he remembers his place,” he said.

  Shamira remembered the name and knew Tiger was Renu’s henchman, the one who ran this evil place. “Do you know who I am?” she said evenly.

  “Of course, Shamira, and you have been up to no good. The word is out that whoever sees you is to kill you. Since this is my operation, I figured this little bait would bring you back here. I just didn’t realize you are such a little fighter. For a blind girl, you sure are good at seeing things,” he said, then pushed the gun further into her skin.

  “Renu doesn’t like to do his own dirty work? He’s so much of a punk that he has to send you to clean up his messes? What, he can’t even handle a blind girl that kicked his butt and liked it? He’s a friggin joke,” she said smugly to tick him off all the more.

  “Oh, it’s my pleasure to do this for him. This place was my dream. He just gave me funding to run it. Don’t worry, though. He’s long gone anyway, and I’m the nice one between the two of us. Consider this mercy, because if I gave you to him, you’d be screaming for eternity. But, you look like the type that likes that kinda stuff.” He jerked his other gun at David. “Boy, if you move another inch, your little body is going to hit this floor a lot quicker than I had planned to put you there,” he warned, glaring at David.

  “Long gone?” she forced out, her anger building with her strength. She held it back in order to get more information from her captor.

  “Oh, you don’t know, do you? Hmm, like hell you do. All of our holdings are under attack. There is nothing left but the Mons, my domain. At least for now, or should I say at least for the next twenty minutes or less. Thing is, I can’t decide if I want the pleasure of killing you myself or letting you incinerate with the rest of the meat in here. Decisions, decisions… hell, I just have to tell you, killing you will be a lot sweeter,” he said in a deadly, determined voice. She heard the click of Tiger’s gun. But as the shot rang out, it was Tiger who fell dead beside her on the floor. She jumped and looked back to see Valens holding his gun.

  “Bastard! I enjoyed taking that scum down. Let’s go, I gotta get Mina before this place blows. Shamira, get David, and let’s go!” Valens called out.

  She didn’t falter as she got up to run out of the tomb door. Looked back, she saw David kicking a fallen Tiger. The burley man’s dead face was just as evil and menacing as he’d been while alive. She felt no guilt in Valens bringing down such a vile, cruel man, as she pondered on just how many more kids he would have tortured and killed to meet his sadistic gains. She surmised no rehabilitation Earth had tried on him had worked. His very being refused to change.

  “David, let’s go!” she yelled and watched him land one final kick before he took off behind her.

  Chapter 32

  “I knew you’d come and get me, Meera! I told them. I told all the kids not to worry ‘cause my sister would save us,” David said, as though he was totally unaffected by all the mayhem around him. She watched him as he casually walked over the strewn bodies left by her team and hoped he would indeed recover from his ordeal at the hands of Monev.

  She grabbed his arm to speed him up and said, “Soon, David you will be the one kicking butt. Let’s hurry, though. We’re running out of time.”

  “This way! Rob said we don’t have much time. He hacked in and added another ten minutes, but that’s all he could do for us. Even the guards that were left have cleared out – or tried too. They got the word about this place sanitizing, and without a cooling system, anyone left in here will be incinerated,” Valens called back. The others followed Valens and ran toward the tunnels that led to the mines. Shamira dropped David’s hand and he kept up.

  They ran through the dimmed hallways toward the mines. David ran quickly in front of Valens and pointed him in the direction where they could get up into the mines. They slid to a stop at a platform at the end of the dark hallway. It was opposite the exit to the Mons. They climbed the stairwell leading to the mine entrance, a tunnel with stairs that wound its way up toward the top of the volcano.

  Valens started to climb up in the tunnel when David pulled at his leg and said, “You won’t fit! I’ll go get them. I know the way, and I climb real fast.”

  “I’ll follow him and help send the other kids down to you. Yes, finally this is my show,” Manny said. He rubbed his hands together and climbed up behind David, who’d already started his journey upward through the tunnels.

  Within minutes, kids started jumping through the hole of the tunnels. There were about twenty or so, and Shamira’s heart broke as she watched Valens look desperately for his sister, to no avail. Watered eyes of frustration looked up, and she watched him help the kids break their falls. She gave Mitch the signal to get them out of there. The stream of kids ended, and only David, Manny, and hopefully Mina remained.

  Anthony tried to pull Valens and Shamira away from the mine entrance. “Damn it, Valens, time is ticking. Rob can’t hold it back any longer. If we don’t get past the exit, we’ll get fried. He said the mines outside would start to reactivate!”

  Shamira pushed Anthony away from them, and he slid several feet. “No!” she yelled. “We’re not leaving without them. You go!” She was determined to get to David and the others in the tunnel, and she moved in front of Valens to climb her way in.

  “Fine! Then we won’t leave either!” Anthony yelled. Anthony motioned for Mitch to take the kids out while Kurt stood back, refusing to leave. Mitch h
esitated, angry he was the first one to go, and then he shrugged his shoulders as he led the kids to freedom.

  “Shamira, don’t come up! You won’t make it!” David yelled down as he hurriedly climbed from the hole.

  “Where is Manny? Mina?” Valens forced out on the edge of losing control.

  “Right here! I’m dropping her down. Be careful. She’s got a sprained ankle!” Manny said. Tears filled Shamira’s eyes when she saw the look of relief on Valens’ face when he held out his arms for his sister. Her small, malnourished body fell into his arms.

  “Valens!” she yelled in a raspy whisper.

  “I told you, Mina, that I would always save you!” he said and kissed the top of her forehead.

  Manny jumped down, and they didn’t waste time before they took off running toward the entrance. Other than the strewn bodies of felled guards, there was no one around. They burst through the entrance with the beep of the alarm behind them as they finally cleared the door.

  “Hurry! We’ve got to get clear of the landmines!” Valens yelled.

  Anthony grabbed Manny, lifted him up, and tucked him under his arm as they ran. Kurt grabbed David and tossed him up on top his back, and they took off in the direction of their waiting team and past the ground with buried mines. Behind them, they heard the sound of the Mons burning from the inside out. A loud roar emitted from its mouth, and the landmines closest to the entrance started to spontaneously activate.

  “Move! Now. Faster. It’s gaining on us!” Shamira yelled at them when she heard the faint beeping before the mines reactivated. The ground blew up as the burning lasers burst through the ground to point toward the sky. Her arms pumped as the air in her lungs released painfully from the sheer physical exertion of it all.

  Shamira looked ahead and saw Hedi and Dion leading the surrounding kids in a chant, “Faster! Faster! Faster!” They all reached the others just as the last row of landmines activated. A large burst of fire and explosion erupted from the opening of the Mons and caused the landmines to explode into flames and die out. They flew forward with the final blast. Stumbling, they all stood as they watched it finally burn down to a calm fire as lava slowly oozed from the top of the volcano. The kids burst into cheers and tears as they watched their nightmarish prison burn down to nothingness.