“You really think there’s anything in there that’s going to be able to kill him?” Lumar asked flabbergasted. “Have you been watching the same fight I have?”
“You know that Shakespeare line about how the brightest flame burns out fastest or however the hell that goes?”
“Sure,” Lumar replied.
“That is a damn bright flame,” Radcliff said.
“Oh,” Lumar replied, “I guess that makes sense.”
“Now come on!” Radcliff ordered. “We’re going after him!”
“That’s more like it!” Wallace yelled.
“See, we get to kill them in their little lair after all,” Jesse said looking over at Wallace.
He smiled back at her.
Radcliff took off ahead towards the waterfall. The others were immediately on his heels. It wasn’t a long dash. The Sarsaul had completely turned their attention on the army raining down from above. If they had been holding anything back before, the Sarsaul were out fighting in full force now, but so were the soldiers from Guardridge.
Radcliff plunged through the waterfall. Wallace was the first to get in after him. Ford brought up the rear. There was a small cave just behind the water. There was no denying their Adept had blown through here. There were scorch marks where something had tried to stand in his way. It was almost pitch black. There were some smoldering corpses that gave off a tiny bit of light and the fighting behind them cast a slight beam of illumination through the water, but it was hard to see anything clearly. They all clicked on their flashlights and started moving in.
Radcliff suddenly spun around. Lumar jumped from the sudden movement. He already didn’t like fighting in the dark and if Radcliff was going to jump at something it scared the shit out of him.
The form of a Sarsaul hornet appeared in the opening of the cavern. It stood almost completely upright, unlike the other hornets that bent a forward like some kind of raptor. It slowly put its face through the water. Its nostrils were flaring like it was smelling them out.
“Get back!” Radcliff cried as he threw his rifle to the ground and drew his sword.
Radcliff assumed a wide stance with his right arm almost fully extended. The point of his sword was centimeters from the ground. His left hand was in a fist by the visor of his helmet.
As more of the hornet came through, Lumar could see that it was armed with its own wicked looking sword. It had hands with four long clawed fingers instead of its arm just ending in a mantis-like scythe. Wallace, Jesse, and Ford had their guns leveled on the new Sarsaul. Lumar brought his up too. Nate was the last one to react. Lumar could tell this guy was trouble.
It charged and met Radcliff head on. Its blade looked like a huge butcher knife with saw teeth on the back edge. Radcliff parried away the first wild slice of the saw blade. The Sarsaul faltered back slightly from the force of Radcliff’s swing. Radcliff swung his sword horizontally from over his left shoulder. The Sarsaul raised its blade barely saving itself from being decapitated. While his right hand was swinging the sword Radcliff had brought his left hand back to his belt for a knife and plunged it into the Sarsaul’s right eye. He did all of this in one smooth circular motion with both arms. Then he pushed the Sarsaul back with his sword arm, grabbed the handle of the knife, pulled out a metal ring, and with his right foot kicked the hornet back out of the cave through the waterfall. Radcliff threw his body against the right side of the opening.
“FIRE!!!” he yelled.
Jesse, Wallace, and Ford opened fire on the Sarsaul through the waterfall.
“Slow it down!” Radcliff ordered.
The bullets passed through the water and struck the Sarsaul as it staggered back from the kick and reeled from the blade in its eye. Lumar started shooting. He couldn’t really tell what was happening through the water, but he could see some of the illuminated tracers bouncing off the Sarsaul’s armor.
A huge splash of water showered over them.
“What was that thing?” Lumar asked.
“Knife grenade,” Radcliff explained, “one of my favorite toys.”
“Not that, the Sarsaul. That one was different.”
“Better breeding I guess,” Radcliff answered. “At least that’s the way I heard it.”
“We just call them elites,” Wallace said, “It just takes a little more to put them down.”
The elite stood up shakily and plunged through the waterfall again. Half its face and its right arm had been blown off. Blood gushed out of the right side of its body. Its skull had been peeled off and its brain lay exposed. It left eye hung out of its socket by the cord. The crazed creature swung its left arm around madly. The drooping eye danced around on its tether.
“Stubborn little shit,” Jesse growled.
She raised her rifle and unloaded the rest of her magazine into the exposed brain on the right side of its head. Bits of brain flew out all over the cavern wall. The Sarsaul toppled over landing at Radcliff’s feet. Radcliff stomped the head flat in three boot falls and scraped the goo off his shoe on the floor of the cavern.
“Now let’s find ourselves an Adept,” Radcliff ordered.
Lumar was glad that the others knew how to handle things like that. He wouldn’t want to go into enemy territory knowing as little as he did even with Nate having his back.
Radcliff took point, making his way back to the front of the group. This time Wallace fell back and covered the rear. Lumar and Nate ended up in the middle side by side. Lumar was grateful for it. It felt like being in the middle meant the others were trying to protect them. It felt like the others didn't think they were able to protect themselves, but Lumar expected that was more true than he would have openly admitted..
Radcliff led them further in. At first it was a narrow hallway with a few gun placements and metal doors. These were all blown to pieces by their Adept friend like they'd offered him no resistance at all.
“Well at least his trail won’t be hard to follow,” Nate joked.
At the end of the hallway, there was a crossroads where they could either go left or right. The burned walls and dead aliens pointed them to the right. Radcliff nodded in that direction and kept his gun up at eye level like he was expecting there to be a target at any second. Lumar didn't know why he was being so cautions. There didn't seem to be a single thing alive in here.
“I thought you said he was going to be running out of steam soon?” Lumar asked.
“No I didn’t say that,” Radcliff answered, “but at some point he will and we need to be there when he does.”
Radcliff continued to lead them down the path for a dozen yards. There were at least seven distinguishable Sarsaul bodies, bones at least, and enough ashes for ten more along the way. Radcliff shined his light around to the right of the hall where there was another opening. He motioned to Jesse to go on ahead of them on the main route. She jumped ahead covering the hallway in front of them. Wallace kept watching the rear. Radcliff spun into the opening. His flashlight scanned everything in front of him. Lumar and Nate came in right behind him.
“He’s been through here, but he left something behind,” Radcliff said.
It was a small room, fifteen by fifteen feet. The only thing on the walls was a pair of shelves that went all the way around the room at knee level and head level. It looked like the shelves had just been carved right out of the stone. There were small staircases leading up to the higher shelves. Lumar realized they must have been bunk beds at one time when humans had lived here.
In the center of the room was a single alien. Lumar had never seen one of this kind of Sarsaul before. To him it kind of looked like a daddy long-legs spider about chest high, the same size as the ants. Its eight legs arched high above its body and ended in small feet with two toes. Its body had many eyes and two shorter arms that were branched off of its body-head. Its hands all had six fingers with segments that resembled the legs of a normal insect.
The spidery creature was clearly hurt. It jumped when Radcliff’s light show
n into its face, but it hobbled around like a few of its legs were broken. The spider-thing babbled some wet sounds and started backing into a corner. The creature kept making its wet gurgle. It almost sounded like it was blowing bubbles in milk while trying to say something.
“Is that thing talking?” Nate asked.
“Long legs don’t talk,” Wallace said, “but they scream real good.”
Wallace shoved passed Nate and started kicking the spider in the face. It let out a bloodcurdling high pitched scream. Lumar couldn’t help but think it sounded like a little girl screaming. Thinking about it like that made him sick to watch Wallace beating the small creature to death, even if it was the enemy.
“Was that really necessary?” Lumar asked.
“I’m not going to waste my bullets on something like that,” Wallace answered.
“Could you at least do it a little quieter next time?” Lumar asked.
“Man, you’re no fun either,” Wallace replied. “Well, I feel a little better let’s go!”
Radcliff shook his head, and led them on. They passed half a dozen rooms like that one along the path the Adept cut through the caverns. There were other long legs left behind in a few of the rooms. They continued to kill them, beating them to death or knifing them. Some of them screamed just like the first one. Some of them died too fast to get the noise out. Lumar was thankful each time one died without making a sound.
“This just seems cruel,” Lumar said. “These things seem so helpless. Shouldn’t we take them prisoner or something?”
“What the fuck is wrong with you dude?” Wallace growled. “These are the same fuckers that destroyed your home! They’d do it a hundred times over to a hundred other towns if we don’t kill them!”
“Calm down Wally,” Radcliff ordered.
Wallace stomped out of the room back into the hall throwing his arms up.
“Can you believe this guy?” he said to Jesse. “Shows how much he cared about Sangent.”
Lumar dropped his gaze and clenched his fists. They were all silent for a moment.
“He’s right you know,” Radcliff said. “These things aren’t people Lumar. They’re monsters. These little guys might seem harmless, but they feed and take care of the other Sarsaul. They cut human flesh to pieces and feed it to Sarsaul hatchlings. They build their weapons. They need to be put down just like the others. Besides they can’t tell us anything, what good would taking one of them prisoner do us?”
Radcliff turned to go as did the others. Nate stayed with Lumar for a moment and pulled him along after the group. They kept moving, slowly scanning for more rooms. A human scream burst through the silence echoing off of the walls of the caverns.
“That’s our guy!” Radcliff yelled, “Hurry!”
Radcliff charged ahead through the passageways until he emerged into a massive lit room. There was a pile of dead hornets just inside the doorway. The Adept was standing just past them. He was holding his hand up in front of him like he had been when the flame burst from it earlier. Nothing was happening now except that he was yelling. Then the man buckled over and fell to his knees with a violent convulsion. His empty stomach wrenched and bile poured down his face onto his chest. He yelled all the louder. It sounded like his throat was ripping from the strain and the bile. Then he collapsed and fell on his face in the middle of the room.
Radcliff lunged for the man and scooped him onto his shoulder. Lumar hadn’t been able to take his eyes off of the Adept, but as soon as he did, he saw how massive the room they were in was. The walls were lined with pillars. Each pillar was covered in transparent domed pods. The light in the room came from the pods. They glowed with a bright green luminescence. It almost looked like there was something floating in them, but Lumar couldn’t tell what it was.
There were dozens of the long legs scurrying around in the room. They toiled at little workstations around the pillars. Some of them ran up and down the columns fondling instruments along their length. The middle of the room was basically empty but on the far wall there was a huge machine with a metal ring attached to it. The ring was about thirty feet tall, nearly reaching the ceiling.
The long legs took no notice of them. Whatever they were doing was more important than the intrusion.
“Kill them! Quick!” Radcliff ordered.
Wallace and Jesse charged ahead and bashed a pair of long legs to death with their rifles.
“Just shoot them! Don’t worry about saving your ammo!”
Lumar and Nate ran further into the room and started firing on the nearest long legs. Radcliff set the Adept down by the door and rushed to the metal ring. Lumar got right up next to one of the pillars trying to get a clear shot on one of the spidery creatures. Out of the corner of his eye he could see what was inside the glass pods lining the columns. They were people, but they were huge and bloated. The people in the pods were bulging masses of flesh, unnaturally large and twisted beyond recognition.
Lumar couldn’t take his eyes off of the monstrosity in the pod next to him. The body inside looked like every muscle had been blown up like balloons. Skin was stretched and ripped over the swollen meat. The body was covered in broken bones. The legs looked like they’d curled up into a single mass. The arms had no discernible joints. The face was the worst though. There was a tube plunged into it covering the mouth and nose. The eyes were sunk far back through the flesh, but they were open, staring back at him.
“What the fuck!?” Lumar cried as he backed away from the column.
“Still feel sorry for them now?” Wallace yelled back to him.
The long legs frantically mashed at their consoles through the hail of bullets. They were ripped to shreds one by one, but they didn’t stop. With each death the rest worked even faster. Radcliff was shooting at the base of the metal ring at the end of the room until the ring started spinning like a wheel. Radcliff’s bullets ricocheted towards him. He jumped back to keep from shooting himself.
All Lumar could see was a blinding burst of light filling the far wall. The ring made a deep humming sound as it spun. The rest of the long legs ran straight into the wall of brightness. They couldn’t see to shoot them. The brightness dimmed. The spiders were gone. A surge of energy came from the spinning ring. It was like a gust of wind that almost pushed Lumar off his feet. The humming reached a crescendo then faded away. Lumar could see through the ring. The circle of wall inside the spinning metal was like a mirror showing the image of the room they were in. However, none of them had a reflection in this looking glass. Standing in their place was a massive creature in profile. It looked like a tyrannosaurus rex with four legs and four long arms ending in scythe blades. There was a metal cube with a pair of cannons mounted to its back. The barrels of the guns stood just a few feet above the giant's shoulders. There was an ant riding the giant manning its cannons. It was covered in a jet-black armor with only its eyes and joints exposed.
“What is that thing?!” Nate asked. Nobody answered.
Through some illusion of the device the creature looked much bigger as it emerged. Its front two legs came through first. Each of its four knees were seven feet off the ground. Its head ducked through the top of the ring and roared. Spit landed on Lumar’s visor. The behemoth spun around on the portal it just emerged from. Its scythe arms cut cleanly through the metal ring. Fragments flew all around the room.
“Damnit! Open fire, fire!” shouted Radcliff “Kill that thing! Stop staring and shoot!”
Lumar slung his rifle into place and opened fire.
“Aim for its leg joints!” Radcliff yelled over the pinging bullets.
The giant ran into the hail of bullets. Its cannons were like the guns on a tank. Lumar dived behind one of the consoles getting clear of the huge wall of metal and monster charging at him. He kept his head down as an explosive round struck one of the columns in the room throwing glass and glowing green goo all around him. He couldn’t tell if the others had gotten clear, but he could imagine what would happen if they hadn�
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Jesse stood her ground against the giant alien. She looked like she knew just what the occasion called for. She had a grenade launcher trained on the monster as soon as the thing starting to come through the portal. The giant stopped about fifteen feet in front of her and rose up to its full height. The top of its head was only a few feet from the ceiling. It raised one of its massive scythe-blade ending arms and brought the blade down towards her. She fired one of her explosive shells. The giant’s arm swung all the way through the motion, but there wasn’t enough arm left to reach Jesse where she stood. All it had to show for its old weapon was a bleeding stump.
The monster almost somersaulted forward. The force was supposed to stop at the ground, but without an arm to stop it the giant lurched forward and landed on its chest. Jesse moved. She ran as fast as she could to get clear of the falling building of an alien. The cannon on its back fired wild striking just to the left of the door. Jesse had run in that direction. The blast threw her tumbling through the air into one of the columns. The glass shattered. She was left lying in the glass tube with one of the people the Sarsaul had been growing there.
“Jesse!” Wallace cried.
“Not now!” Radcliff ordered as another explosive round fired in their direction.
Wallace started to jump up out of their cover, but Radcliff pulled him down.
“Wait!”
“It’s gonna kill her!”
Another round fired and the giant stood back up to its full height. It spun around breaking stone, metal, and glass apart with its three remaining arms, ripping through anything it could reach. It started tearing through the workstations. Radcliff and Wallace had hunkered down in the same row. Lumar was still near the side where Jesse had been thrown. Nate had managed to get to the middle of the room, but he was in cover. Ford was on the opposite side of the room from Lumar hiding near his own column.
The monster turned towards Lumar. Lumar couldn’t tell if it saw him or not, but it started moving towards him. It wasn’t charging just walking. Its huge head swung back and forth looking for the rest of the team. Nobody was shooting at it now. Then it found something that interested it. Lumar poked his head up just enough to see that its eyes had landed on Jesse again.
When Darkness Reigns Page 27
