by Maxey, Phil
Still mostly human.
The pain though, that she could have done without. A burning, stabbing, pulsing ache which somehow existed where her hand should have been, surged through her mind, and her arm throbbed from shoulder to elbow. Her broken shoulder blades must have knitted back together hours earlier, but the echo of what the man consisting of mist had done to her, lingered.
Alive.
She nodded in support of the thought. Alive was good. Alive meant revenge was possible but first she needed to escape. She knew why she had been kept breathing. The things that were the king’s entourage laughed and mocked her, as she was carried through the woods and into vehicles. She was a hostage. Something to be traded for a body far more valuable, Rynon’s brother.
Not if I can escape.
She looked at the framed pictures, pottery and books which sat on wooden shelves. She was in someone’s home. Former home, for there was no way they were still alive. She tried to sit up and pushed her stump into the sofa forgetting her lack of hand, and immediately regretted it. She retched as the pain almost became too much for her stomach to keep what little food resided within, and flung herself back against the sofa, trying to still her body, as if that would somehow dissipate the pain.
She panted, her breathing labored as the mind numbing sensation in her arm started to become manageable and this time used her other hand to sit upright. She was more successful. Without further pause she placed weight on her boots and stood, but the room swam around her and she promptly fell back down.
Come on, Anna.
She knew Rynon and the others might be sleeping. Or at least in some weakened state. If she was going to get away, if she was going to have any chance of that, it had to be while the sun was above the horizon.
Find a vehicle. Won’t get far on foot.
She stood, wobbled a bit on both feet, and then focused her thoughts on staying upright. Then squinted against the brightly lit windows. Walking unsteadily forward as quietly as she could, she made her way to the four glass panels, with tied back drapes and looked out to a faded grass lawn, a driveway with one car and beyond that, a junction, with a similar house opposite. Other such buildings lined the road to her left, but to her right were larger, grander structures.
I’m in a town…
The vehicle meant there could be someone else in the house. But where were they? She could not hear any heart beating or smell the odor of the scourge. Her senses were telling her she was alone. Maybe they were outside?
She leaned in closer to the window and looked as far as she could to the left. A pleasant street, with equally nice Victorian houses lined it.
Phone.
She spun around almost too fast and went to throw her handless arm out to the wall to stop her from falling but just stopped herself in time and instead used her other hand. An old style landline phone sat on a coffee table behind the sofa.
Too easy. Why didn’t they destroy it? Maybe it’s not connected.
She glanced outside once more to make sure nobody was approaching the house and walked to the phone, wincing each time she trod on an uneven floorboard. Her hand rested on the receiver.
Never going to get a signal.
She lifted the handset and instantly heard the dial tone.
Too easy.
She then realized she had no idea what the number for Jankle was and she doubted there was an operator still existing somewhere to give it to her.
“Fuck,” she said under her breath, placing the phone back down.
“I have—” she yelped, jumping back, knocking the phone to the floor and turned around at the same time. “— The number for your friends. You are free to call them if you want too darling,” said the stranger with a strong English accent, who was seated on the sofa where she had just been.
The back of his head, with graying dark hair was only a few feet away. She had not even the slightest sense that he had entered the room, let alone walk across it.
He turned around with a grin and a piece of paper in his grasp. “Well lovely? You want it or not?”
She knew the smile.
“You’re him…” She stepped backwards until she pressed up against the window frame.
“It’s me. Now you gonna call them or not?”
“Why would you want me to call them?”
He rolled his eyes and turned back around to face the rest of the room. “So they know you’re still breathing. Maybe they think we sliced you up like the others. The boss say’s you should call. If you don’t, he’s gonna be mad, and I ain’t about to face that. So I suggest you pick up this here piece of paper and get on the blower… oh, and make sure to read what he wrote. That’s like, really important.”
*****
Muffled singing drifted on the air as Joel and Marina descended into the basement area of the former medical center, two guards leading the way. “That him making that noise?” said Marina to the young female soldier as they progressed along the corridor towards the double doors at the end and more guards.
The private frowned. “Yup.”
ID cards were waved and recognized, and the double doors opened. Joel and Marina moved into a smaller corridor, with a more solid door opposite them, but it wasn’t enough to stop the ancient lyrics from being heard beyond. Another guard followed them to the final barricade, producing a set of keys which he used to unlock a set of chains across the handles. The singing had stopped.
The guards with Joel and Marina raised their rifles, and nodded to the soldier with his hand on the door. He pulled it open instantly raising his own weapon.
Tyror was on the ground, his legs crossed, leaning back against the wall smiling at his visitors.
Joel looked at the three guards. “You can leave.”
The two privates looked at the more senior of them, who looked at Joel. “You sure. He’s already put one guard down.”
Joel kept his eyes on the grinning face of the youngest ancient king. “I’m going to be needing the keys as well.”
“Well I don’t know about that—”
Joel looked at the lieutenant with an expression that expected no dissent. The soldier frowned and handed them over. He then nodded to the other two soldiers, and they all left. A locking mechanism was heard from the door behind.
Tyror slowly stood. “Yes… yes… I can see in your eyes, you have met my brother… or… no… not you… Someone close to you, yes?”
Joel looked at Marina. “Probably best you stay out here.”
“Joel, I want this monster dead as much as you do, but we can’t do that.”
Joel walked over the threshold of the cell and turned around to face her. “In or out?”
She frowned with a sigh and walked inside. Joel pushed the door closed and locked it.
“Ah ha! My brother has paid someone you care about a—” Tyror’s teeth were leaving his mouth before he had a chance to finish his sentence. He tried to raise his hands to protect his face, but the chains around his wrists restricted his movement too much and another blow slammed into his nose, causing an explosion of blood and knocking the hybrid back against the wall. He smiled and spat out a mixture of white teeth, blood and saliva just before another rain of punches slammed into every part of his person, Joel’s movement becoming a blur. Finally, Tyror collapsed on the ground, his face a swollen bloodied pulp. He went to talk, but before he could Joel slammed a boot down on his arm, making the hybrid groan in pain.
Joel reached into his rear pocket and pulled out a hunting knife.
Marina grabbed his arm. “I know what you want to do. I want you to do it too, but if you do this, Anna might be the one to pay Joel. Think about that!”
He shook her off, his eyes returning to their human versions and kneeled, moving the knife over Tyror’s forearm. The hybrid king struggled but his efforts were pitiful.
The knife started to slide into his skin, when a heavy knock came on the door.
Joel froze, his hand wavering.
“
Yes?” said Marina, her voice strained.
“Urgent communication for Mr. Garret. HQ says an Anna Faraday just called in.”
CHAPTER SEVEN
Joel sat in Galloway’s office, facing her desk. The general paced up and down behind him.
“What the hell were you thinking?” Before he could reply she continued. “I guess you weren’t. You’re a lawman! You knew we could have gotten more information out of him! Now he can just about speak his name!”
“We got Amos.”
Galloway shook her head. “Ah yes very clever. We got the mind reading kid. No need for that otherhuman to be able to speak, right? Did it cross your mind what will happen when his older brother finds out what you did to him?”
“He’s not going to find out.”
She walked around the desk and sat heavily in her leather chair. “What?”
“What do you think will happen if we hand him over? Tyror is the only thing from stopping this town from being overrun.” She went to speak but he held his hand up. “Yeah I know. You can blast a hundred thousand vamps to the moon with the weaponry you got. And yet, all of it didn’t stop a group of the enemy from killing the hybrids.”
“It was outside the town walls Joel, you know that. Different ball game inside. Anyway… if we don’t give him back to them, your… friend is dead.”
Joel knew that was true, which is why he had another plan. “I’m going to rescue her.”
Galloway scoffed. “And how are you going to do that?”
“I’m HRT, it’s what I do general. I need a small team, and I can get her out.”
“Out? You don’t even know where she is. She gave no details on her call, and we couldn’t trace it. All we know is that it was made from within the state, and there’s the small matter of the handover being twelve hours from now!”
“I know where she is…”
The general’s eyes widened. “What… how?” He went to speak, but a realization came to her. “Ah… Jasper.”
Joel nodded, and she looked away, her eyes making plans. “Okay, how many of my people do you need?” she said.
He sat forward. “A few. Pachmayer, some of his squad. Mostly it’s going to be the people I brought with me but there’s one other thing…”
“Yes?”
“When we get Anna, they will be coming at this town with everything they got. All the guns, tanks and missiles won’t stop them. It’s time you thought seriously about that ‘plan b’ you mentioned before.”
Her eyes remained fixed on his, but her resolve only lasted a few seconds before she looked away and sighed, nodding in acceptance.
*****
Amos pushed open the heavy wooden door of the courthouse to a bright blue sky of a morning and walked outside between two of the large pillars. Kizzy was standing at the bottom of the steps, her hands on her hips.
“So this is where you were! I’ve been looking everywhere for you!” she shouted.
He smiled. The fear and guilt he found in the young soldier’s brain he had been interrogating was still absorbed in his own. He had found over the last few days that even though he was getting more confident with his own abilities, it was getting harder to leave behind the thoughts and memories of others. Harder to reclaim his own mind. Now, when he was around people, he did his best not to intrude beyond the edges of their skulls.
He walked down the steps.
She could see he was troubled despite his attempt to mask it. “What they got you doing in there?”
“Had to find out if someone was being honest. They were.” He looked around the deserted square.
“Where is everyone? We’re not being attacked are we?” she said the last part as a joke.
He looked at her shocked. “You don’t know about the hybrids?”
“What about them? Are they okay?”
He shook his head. “No Kizzy. They’re all dead…”
“What?”
He couldn’t help but feel the confusion inside her mind.
“Corporation got to the warehouse. Killed them, took Anna hostage…”
“What?” This time the word exploded from her and echoed around the concrete, statues and stores. She looked around. “Where? Where’d they take her? We have to get her back!”
Amos walked forward and went to put his arm around her, but she shrugged him off.
“Not the time for huggies Amos.”
“I know this is hard for you, but—”
“She’s one of us. Our team. We can’t just let them take people!”
“There’s a plan to get her back.” He hadn’t been told directly of what Joel had planned, but he had picked up the occasional stray sentence within soldier’s minds and knew he was likely to be called upon soon. Actually, he knew they both were.
Kizzy nodded. “Good! When do we leave!”
CHAPTER EIGHT
Joel stood with others inside a room at the headquarters. A window was boarded up and a single desk lamp illuminated dust which hung in the air. Unlike the other locations in the building this one had been left as storage, and contained plastic crates and cardboard boxes, most of the stuff which had belonged elsewhere.
On a table in the center of the room was a map, made up of nine A4 printed sheets covering roughly a hundred miles to the west of the town. A bright blue crayon cross was on one of the pieces of paper at the far left.
“Jasper said she’s in the town of Shortings. Near the Tombigbee river.”
“Can he get anymore specific?” said Pachmayer.
Before Joel could answer a knock came at the door and Carla put her head around the edge of it.
“We’ve already started,” said Joel.
“Can I have a word in private?”
Joel walked outside into the hallway, passing Keller moving the opposite way.
“You want this closed?” said the sergeant.
Joel nodded, then looked back at Carla. “What is it?”
“I can’t go with you…”
“What you mean you can’t go with us? We’re going to rescue Anna.”
“I know. And I wish I could help make that happen, but I’m needed here Joel. I’ve asked Keller to go with you. He’s the best I got. If you’re successful… even if you’re not, it won’t make any difference to the corporation. They will come at us hard. They got good people here but I want to help them. Even if that just means getting everyone out.”
Joel stood for a moment, then held his hand out. “Give’m hell.” Instead of shaking it, she stepped forward and briefly hugged him, then turned and disappeared down the hallway.
He let out a breath, then reentered the room to the sound of arguing.
“I’m just saying, if we brought him with us—”
“What’s going on?” said Joel to Pachmayer and Marina, the latter obviously angry.
“He wants us to bring Jasper! A child! Like I’m going to allow that to happen!” She looked at the captain. “You got your location. That should be enough!”
Joel looked back at the map. “It is. We’ll figure out where she is, when we get there.”
“Carla’s not coming is she,” said Pachmayer.
“No.” Some in the room shifted from one boot to another.
Kizzy, who had been silent, biting her lip at the back of the room, sprung forward, pushing past Amos and between two soldiers. “Yeah, yeah. When we getting this party started? I want to kill something.”
Dalton grunted in agreement, with Geri standing next to him nodding as well.
Joel threw Kizzy a look of disapproval. She looked away scorned. “Too many have already died,” he said. “If we do this smart, maybe most in this room won’t add to the tally. But only if we’re smart.”
“I know…” she said meekly.
Joel looked around the ten in the room, human and Alkron alike. “Get your gear ready, say your goodbyes, I want to be on the road within the hour.”
Most in the room walked to the door, but he noticed Marina hadn’t
moved. He waited until they were alone, but he knew what she wanted to say. “You want to stay behind?”
She briefly looked away. “No, I want to go with you, but I can’t leave Jess, Jasper and Mary knowing what’s going to hit this town. And I can’t take them with me if I go with you. So I got no choice.”
He smiled and patted her on the top of the arm. “You’re doing the right thing. You know about the train that was brought back from down south?”
“Yeah, they been working on it day and night.”
“If things go bad and they probably will, you head to that train. Got that?”
She moved forward, hugged him and was leaving the room before he had a chance to react. He stood in the empty crowded space, as a wave of emotion threatened to clog his thoughts then looked down at the planned route and started to gather up the pieces.
*****
The engine idled in the lead humvee, sat just inside the southwestern gate of the town.
“We’re ready,” said Joel out of his passenger’s window, his words taking shape in small puffs of white mist. He glanced in the rear mirror at Dalton driving the vehicle behind.
The makeshift gate, made from metal sheets that have been fused together, slid to the side with a screeching and tiny sparks jumped into the air at its base.
In the driver’s seat, next to Joel, Pachmayer looked at the road which continued outside of the camp and weaved between a forest of leafless fall trees. “You really think they’re going to buy this? Us heading south, away from where we need to go?”
The gate clanged as it completed its journey and the captain pushed down on the gas. As they drove out, Joel looked into the faces of the two soldiers who were stationed there. He couldn’t tell if they looked sad to be left behind or scared for what was coming for them. In some ways he felt the same, torn between people he cared for. Was he sacrificing Marina and the children to give Anna a chance to live? He sighed.
The general’s backup plan will work if it all goes bad.
He glanced at his driver. “No point making it too easy for them. If they saw us driving directly west they would definitely know we knew where Anna is. At least this way they will have some doubt and we got plenty of time before the supposed meeting with the psycho who calls himself a king.”
