“We’d rather die than give up our free will to your Enforcers.”
Dorange responded with a tone of condescension. “Adrian, would you really sacrifice your brother’s and his children’s lives for your last stand of defiance, not to mention the lives of the few remaining women and children locked in that bunker under your base?”
Colonel Belnap glanced at Adrian with a look of astonishment.
Defeat finally fell over Adrian Palmer. “Very well.”
“It is good to see that you have finally come to your senses, Adrian. Now, come out from behind those sandbags and surrender yourself.”
Both Adrian and Colonel Belnap looked up above the sandbags. There, standing just a few feet ahead of them was Dorange Gar, surrounded by several hundred Gnol troops. Colonel Peterson was on his knees, his face bloodied, and his eyes purple and swollen shut. The only thing keeping him from falling to the ground was Dorange holding him by the back of his collar with a plasma pistol pressed firmly against the temple of his forehead. The few remaining troops under Adrian’s command were gathered a few yards away, on their knees, with their hands behind their heads, and with Gnol troops pointing their guns directly at them.
Adrian and Colonel Belnap walked out from their protective barrier with their arms raised to the sky. Dorange had a look of gratifying victory graced along his face. “Well,” he said, “that was easy. I didn’t even have to order my fighters to attack. What’s even better, Adrian, this time you don’t have a rogue Gnol to fight your battles for you.”
Four guards walked up to Adrian, two of which grabbed the arms of him and Colonel Belnap, binding their hands behind their backs. The guards then forced the two men to their knees. Adrian looked up, meeting the dead gaze of his old nemesis. “Okay, Dorange. We surrender. No one else has to die.”
Dorange let go of Colonel. Peterson. The Lt. Colonel fell to the ground, his head hitting the blacktop with a thud. Dorange slowly made his way to Adrian, holstering his gun and pulling out his dagger. Once he got to Adrian, he placed the blade under his chin. “No, Adrian, you will die today. But before you do, tell me where the man named John is.”
Surprise flashed across Adrian’s face. “John? I do—”
“Don’t play dumb with me,” Dorange spat as he grabbed Adrian by the hair, cutting the blade into his throat.
Adrian grimaced from the pain as drops of blood began to fall upon the blade.
“I go a little deeper, and you bleed out.”
With defiance in his eyes, Adrian looked up at Dorange. “Kill me, Dorange. I don’t know who you are talking about.”
An evil smile spread across Dorange Gar’s lips. “Very well.” And with that, he let go of Adrian’s hair, spun around and away from him, and sliced his dagger’s blade all the way through the throat of Colonel Justin Belnap.
* * * * *
John could hear the explosions and sounds of gunfire outside of the corridor walls that led to the underground bunker. The walls shook and the lights flickered on and off. The chaos and turmoil brought back a flood of memories.
In his two thousand plus years on Earth, John the Beloved had been a part of many horrific battles. He saw action in the Crusades, quelling the Muslims advance into Europe, which could have destroyed Christianity and any truth that would have been revealed later. Later on, he was a part of the great American Revolution, serving under the illustrious General George Washington himself. And, he had fought in every American war since. It was his duty, his charge, to help the forces of good on the Earth defeat the forces of evil. In all of those battles and wars, he could have easily defeated the enemy armies by calling upon his heavenly powers, but the Lord specifically commanded him not to use his abilities. He was only permitted to use them when man exhibited great faith. Like he did to help a group of ragtag rebels with no military experience defeat the best-trained military in the world during the American Revolution. Like the time he helped a freezing, sick, and a poorly supplied American army in the Battle of the Bulge during World War II.
But this war was different. In all the previous wars that he had served and fought, he had undying faith that the side he was on would be the victor. Not this war, though. For the first time in two thousand years, he had doubts. The human race wasn’t fighting amongst themselves anymore. No. They were trying to defeat a more formidable enemy from another planet with powers and abilities similar to his own. And the outlook was grim, for the faith of mankind in God had dwindled. And without faith, neither God nor he could intervene.
“John!”
John snapped out of his thoughts as he rushed a young mother and her two small boys into the underground bunker of Scott Air Force Base. The bunker was a twenty-five thousand square foot facility built entirely underneath the base, and it was completely stocked with everything needed to survive for about two thousand people for a year.
“John!”
John heard his named called again as he scanned through the hundreds of men, women, and children running to the gigantic two-ton steel reinforced doors. Ahead, he saw Kevin at the back of the pack, running toward him. He was holding a baby barely over six months old in his arms. Ashley ran by his side, holding the hands of a young girl around the age of five and a boy around three or so.
He turned back around and guided the young mother and her boys through the doors. The mother and her sons then ran down the flight of steel steps to the sanctuary of the bunker. John pushed his way through the rest of the civilians, reaching Kevin. Ashley ran ahead with the two children.
Kevin was sweating profusely and out of breath. “J-John. Adam needs your help.”
“Where is he?”
“He’s helping the mother of this baby just outside of the corridor. She was injured. The Gnols have overrun the base. He needs your help.”
John nodded. “Okay. Get inside the bunker.”
Kevin ran ahead with the baby in his arms.
John then turned and sprinted toward the doorway of the corridor. Nearly all of the civilians had cleared out to the bunker. Just before he reached the doors, he skidded to a halt. A feeling of peace and hope began to pulsate throughout his body and soul, energizing him. He looked up toward the ceiling and nodded. Someone was praying; the faith of man had returned, at least for the moment. He rushed out the door and saw Adam kneeling next to a young woman. Adam’s arms were covered in blood as he pressed his hands on the woman’s right leg to stop the bleeding. She was unconscious, but John could tell that her wound was serious. “Adam!”
Adam looked up. His face was black from soot and tears streamed down his face. “J-John, she needs help.”
Just before he reached them, John saw three Gnols running toward them with their plasma rifles pointed directly at Adam’s back. “Look out!” he yelled as he raised his arm.
Adam turned and looked, throwing his body onto the young woman. The lead Gnol fired a shot, hitting just behind Adam’s feet. The small blast threw Adam and the woman forward onto the hard blacktop. With a shriek, John lunged his arm forward. The Gnol who had fired flew backwards into the hard brick of one of the base’s buildings, his rifle flying from his grip. He fell to the ground hurt and disoriented, but not unconscious. The other two Gnols stopped in total and utter surprise. They didn’t anticipate someone with their abilities helping the humans.
John made it to Adam and the woman. “Is she okay?”
“She’s alive, but not for long. She needs help,” Adam replied.
“Kill them!” said the Gnol who had been thrown into the brick wall.
The two Gnols snapped out of their shock and raised their rifles upon the three huddled together on the hot blacktop of the base’s street.
John furrowed his eyebrows in both anger and sadness. He hated killing, even when the ones he killed deserved it. He raised his arms, invisibly locking onto each Gnol. He then levitated them in midair. Clapping his hands together, he sent them crashing together headfirst in a bone-crushing collision. He let go of his tele
kinetic grip and the two Gnols fell dead to the ground.
He then saw the Gnol that he had flung into the brick wall rushing toward him. He tried to get a mental lock on him as well. But the Gnol used his own telekinetic powers to deflect his attempt. John stood and ran toward him. They collided, the larger Gnol sending him backwards onto the blacktop with the Gnol landing on top of him. Despite being nearly immortal, John could still feel pain. And the pain from his head hitting the rough blacktop almost caused him to black out.
The Gnol jumped to his feet and grabbed John by the throat, lifting him into the air. “Impressive,” the Gnol said. “I’m sure General Gar would want me to keep you alive. He may want to know how you have gained such powers.”
John grabbed at the large hands squeezing his throat. He tried to use his telekinetic abilities to break free, but he couldn’t. The Gnol then flung his head forward. The impact caught John on the bridge of the nose and sent him flying back into the doors of the same corridor he came from.
After hitting the ground, John looked up. His vision was blurred, but he saw Adam jump to his feet and jump on the back of the Gnol. The gigantic Gnol pulled Adam from his back like an annoying insect and sent him hurtling through the air. Adam landed with a bone-cracking thud onto the blacktop.
The Gnol turned back toward John and slowly made his way toward him. John stumbled to his feet and tried to raise his arms to push the Gnol backwards telekinetically. But the Gnol grabbed him by the back of the hair, and pulled him in. A look of shock graced the Gnol’s face. A gold liquid, emitting a bright light dripped from John’s broken nose – the life source that had kept him alive and nearly invincible for over two thousand years.
“You’re not human,” the Gnol said.
John gave the Gnol a confident smile. “You’re wrong. I am more human than you know. For I am a child of the Most High God.” And with that, he raised his arms toward the sky, summoning the powers of heaven, and a bright, white-hot light rippled down from the sky and into John’s hands.
The Gnol, in shock, let go of John’s hair and stumbled backwards. But before he could escape, John thrust his arms down and forward toward the Gnol’s chest. The hot, white light flashed through the Gnol, disintegrating him on the spot.
John fell to his knees in absolute exhaustion. “I’m sorry, brother,” he whispered as the ashes of his enemy fell all around him. He then struggled to his feet and made his way to Adam. Adam was awake. His eyes were wide with both fear and surprise.
John gave him a comforting smile. After all, not many mortals had witnessed him using his powers. “It’s okay, Adam. How do you feel?”
Adam choked out the words. “I-I’m okay. Just bruised a little.”
John helped Adam to his feet, and they rushed over to the woman who Adam was trying to help earlier. Adam knelt down beside her and checked her pulse. “She’s barely alive.”
John walked around and knelt down on the other side of the woman. He looked into Adam’s eyes and said, “Adam, do you have faith that I can heal her?”
Adam nodded. John then placed both of his hands on the woman’s head, bowed his own head, and closed his eyes. A warm glowing light emitted from the palms of his hands as he blessed the injured woman.
After the blessing, he opened his eyes and looked at the woman’s injured leg. The gaping wound across her thigh began miraculously to close. After a few more minutes, she began to move her head and her eyelids fluttered.
“She’ll need to rest,” John said. “Take her to the bunker.”
Adam picked the woman up into his arms and stood. “You’re not coming?”
Shaking his head, John reached down and picked up one of the plasma rifles from one of the dead Gnols. He stepped forward and tucked the gun under Adam’s armpit. Reaching out, he gently grabbed Adam under his face with both of his hands. “No. Your uncle needs my help. Protect them, Adam. Protect the civilians in that bunker. There are many that have a purpose here on Earth after this war. Protect them with your life.”
Adam dipped his chin into the comfort of the hands of the ageless apostle. “I will.”
“You are a noble spirit, Adam. One of the noble and great ones foreordained before the worlds were created. Know that, my brother. And have reassurance that whatever happens, your place in the Kingdom of God is made sure.”
He then let go of Adam’s face. His hand slid down onto the forehead of the soundly sleeping woman in Adam’s arms. “Protect them, Adam.” And with that, he turned and sprinted away.
* * * * *
“Dad! Dad! Hold the door!”
Kevin looked up just before he pushed the controls that shut and magnetically locked the two-ton doors. “Adam!”
His son sprinted toward him with a woman in his arms. “Where’s John?” Kevin asked.
Adam skidded to a halt before he collided with his father. “He went to help Adrian.”
Kevin took the woman from Adam. “C’mon. We need to secure this door. There’s another door we need to secure down the stairs.”
Just before they were about to secure the doors, a large explosion threw them down onto the stairs. Kevin fell forward first, dropping the woman. She rolled down a couple of flights before hitting her head on the concrete wall. Adam maintained his balance and turned around to see what had happened. “Dad! Get her down those stairs and secure that door. There are Gnols coming down the corridor.
Kevin staggered to his feet and turned around. His eyes went wide with fear. He didn’t know how many there were, but several Gnol soldiers were sprinting toward them.
“Go!” Adam shrieked just as a Gnol fired a plasma blast.
The blast barely missed Adam’s head, exploding into the concrete wall of the stairwell. Concrete splattered everywhere, knocking Adam to his knees.
Kevin turned back around, and in one swift motion, swept the woman up into his arms and began sprinting down the stairwell that led two hundred feet below to the secondary door of the bunker. He looked down meeting the fearful eyes of his daughter, Ashley, who was waiting for him at the bottom. Ashley looked past him. “Adam! Look out!”
Kevin froze and spun around. Adam was trying to regain his balance. A Gnol stood over him in the middle of the doorway, with his plasma rifle pointed directly at Adam. “Adam! No!” Kevin shouted.
Adam quickly realized what was happening and spun back around toward the two-ton doors just before the Gnol fired. The blast singed Adam’s hair, and hit the step just above the one Kevin stood on. The blast blew a hole through the step and the steel staircase shuddered.
Kevin looked back up. The Gnol reached for Adam, but Adam ducked under his reach and slammed his hand onto the button to close the two-ton door. The doors suddenly activated and slid shut. Kevin averted his eyes, but he heard the doors squish the Gnol with a violent crush.
The Gnols on the other side of the door reached their hands through the gap, being held open by their dead comrade. They tried to pull the doors open.
Adam began sprinting down the stairwell. “Go!”
With the woman secured in his arms, Kevin turned and ran down the stairs. When he got closer to the bottom, he jumped down, landing on the hard concrete and falling to his knees. Ashley and another man rushed out of the open doorway. The man took the woman from Kevin and rushed her into the bunker as Ashley helped her father to his feet. Insurmountable pain shot up from Kevin’s right ankle and into his leg. He looked down. His foot was completely turned inward. Obviously, his ankle was broken.
Just before he and Ashley stumbled into the final doorway that led into the bunker, another explosion rocked the stairwell. Both he and Ashley were thrown forward. Ashley hit the concrete floor of the room inside the doorway with a thud, and Kevin’s head slammed into the wall to the right of the doorway. The smell of hot steel and sizzling dust saturated his senses.
Staggering to his feet, he turned and found Adam struggling to his feet as well. His head was bleeding profusely and he held his arm as if it was brok
en. The blast must have flung him down the stairwell.
Kevin’s eyes shot upward two hundred feet, toward the top of the stairs. The Gnols had blasted through the door and were pouring into the stairwell corridor. He reached out and grabbed Adam by the arm. “We need to get in here!”
But Adam didn’t budge. He pulled away from his father’s grip and flung the rifle around that was still strapped to his shoulder. Leaping to his right, he hid behind a small concrete barrier at the base of the stairwell. Kevin’s eyes met his son’s. “Get in there now! I’ll hold them off!” Adam ordered.
“No! Not without you!”
“Go!” Adam yelled as he peered around the corner and fired shots up toward the oncoming Gnols. He hit the lead Gnol squarely in the chest. The other Gnols stopped and began firing down.
Kevin took cover behind the other concrete barrier on the opposite side of Adam. “No! I’m not leaving you!”
Before Adam could respond, the same man that took the woman from Kevin’s arms appeared in the doorway. “C’mon!” he yelled, waving toward Kevin.
A hot red plasma blast hit the man directly in the chest. The man flew backwards and he landed dead on the concrete floor. Adam peered around his barrier and fired three more shots, hitting another Gnol as they were all exposed on the stairwell. “Dad! You need to get in there! There’s too many of them, and they’ll just blow through that door anyway if I don’t hold them off!”
Kevin was frozen. He didn’t want to leave his only son. But he knew that if he didn’t get into the bunker, the Gnols would overrun and kill them all. With a shriek, he dove ahead and through the doorway. He turned around just as Ashley hit the controls. The steel door slid shut and he heard the locks locking into place. Tears streamed from Ashley’s eyes. Kevin, ignoring the pain in his ankle, rushed forward, sweeping his daughter into his arms. They both slid down the slick steel of the door. The sounds of screams and plasma fire echoed through the door.
Kevin didn’t know if he could hold it together. He knew that his son was on the other side of the door and was about to die or was dead already. Ashley trembled in his arms, with deep sobs of anguish. As tears poured from his own eyes, Kevin looked up. The astonished and tear-filled eyes of men, women, and children crammed within the small entrance room of the bunker all stared back at him. He looked down at Ashley and covered his ears. But the sounds of plasma blasts and small explosions continued to ripple through the thick steel door.
Worlds Without End: Aftermath (Book 2) Page 24
