“Dr. Cain,” the tech soldier said as he stood while still carrying the laptop, “I have a way down there but there could be problems along the way.”
“What kind of problems?” Cain demanded.
“I cannot say for certain ma'am,” he replied, “Its just that this is the only path still available to us which leads to about a ninety-five percent chance of it being a trap. Still, it is the only way. Should we go?”
Dr. Cain shook her head at how Bullosky had swiftly moved to take charge of the operation. Now she would have to battle her way through her own fucking facility if she hoped to salvage some of the hard work she had put into this entire final stage of action against Bayne and Destiny. It could get them all killed but the thought of not only not being able to bring Bayne back as a monstrous but obedient soldier for her but of Bullosky doing it instead, made the risk worth it. If she died, she died. She pulled out her weapon and started walking in the direction the tech soldier had pointed, “Have your highest caliber weapons available people. We are likely going to have to fight through demons and zombie-demon hybrids to get through to where we need to be. Let's move!”
As a unit they all moved out with most of them in front of her but still leaving a couple behind her. After glancing at the way they had to take, Cain had no doubt that this was Bullosky's plan and that it was a damn good one. Still, she had the best soldiers left on the planet and if anyone could get her there in time to stop Bullosky from getting away with his power grab, they could. Either way, it was well worth the risk.
Chapter 18
Destiny was a whirlwind of movement. Her sword hand plunging one way, while kicking in another and also using telepathic powers at the same time. At first she hadn't known how masterful of a move it was by Bullosky to bring three normal looking people into the small hanger. That was until Bayne lost it when the fourth attacker joined the fray. It didn't seem that daunting of a task to take down four simple attackers by herself, though she did plan to spend time kicking Bayne's ass later for running off to battle those few while leaving her to battle an entire room of hellish creatures by herself.
When the zombie-demon hybrids joined the fight, there was suddenly no time to worry about busting Eric's chops as she was left instead worrying if she would have the chance to bust anything after a few minutes of battle. The three that entered were nobody to her at all though she knew they were each someone to Eric. She did not know what the angle was until the fourth attacker, a dog, not just any dog but the dog, entered the room.
She had witnessed the fact that Bart, Eric's trusted partner through most of this war, was dead. For a dog, he did twice as much as anyone could have imagined and probably saved Eric's ass more times than Eric saved his. It was a nice emotional story about a warrior and his warrior-dog until the damn thing entered that hanger looking like a gross mutation of his former self. Eyes red with rage and a demonic stare fixated on anything that moved, Bart had become something much more evil than he was when he was alive. One thing remained the same however, just like she had exploited as Eric's enemy a long time ago, Bart was still Eric's weakness.
Destiny scrambled to throw a headless zombie-demon in the direction of three more which just bought her time to remember that there was no time to remember anything but this battle if she wanted to survive it. It had been a solid few minutes since Bayne charged off, chasing the three human-like demons and the Bart-like demon into a trap so obvious even a brainless zombie would laugh at him. She was alone in this fight. It was likely one she would not be able to win but she was damn sure going to fight her ass off until they killed her.
It was then that she finally noticed the room was getting darker and that could only mean that one of the demons or zombie-demons was charging up for their devastating little light-absorbing trick. That meant that what was a fight she was doomed to lose was now a fight she was doomed to lose that had a short timer on it. She had to find that damn thing or there would be zero stories of how the brave Destiny took down a room-full of hellish bastards in her final battle.
She sliced heads left and then right, most of the attackers were standard demons or telepathic demons. The good news for that was that most of the telepathic things that tried ended up turning back against them like the one who just threw a large tire rack into a row of five zombies, crushing them underneath. That made it nice but she still had to find the zombie that was charging his powers or this fight was going to end quickly and very badly.
“Destiny!” a voice called from nearby.
She ignored it, figuring it to be some attempt by Bullosky or someone with him to distract her. Slicing a few more heads and shoving a row of attackers away, her gaze finally fell on the zombie who had light slowly pulling into his body. Just as she started in that direction the voice called for her again.
“Destiny! Fall back to the truck! This is – this is Curtis! Fall back to the front of the truck now!”
Destiny looked back and saw the soldier looking in her direction from the back of the truck. He had found his way to the back and was apparently planning something though she'd be damned if she knew what. Instead of doing what someone she had recently stopped from capturing her and killing her said, she called out, “I need thirty!” That would tell him how much time she needed if for some reason he was really trying to help her in some odd way and there was nothing she could do about it if he was planning to kill her.
She used those thirty seconds to reach out to the zombie-demon who was charging his power. The room was very dark and she knew that there were precious few seconds left as she telepathically pulled him towards her. Her sword sliced through his unsuspecting neck swiftly and she forced his body over in the same way she had when she and Eric had battled their way out of the helpless situation at the stadium recently. The light-absorbing weapon backfired in the same way it had before as the pure light energy shot from the neck of the zombie-demon, taking down dozens of attackers who were in the area around the front of the truck.
There was no time to deal with the larger group of attackers at the back end of the truck where there were also several demons readying to join the battle. Instead of worrying about that at all, she charged for the now open door on the passenger's side of the truck and dove inside. “Whatever you are planning, if you are going to kill me then just go ahead.”
Curtis did not answer because he was focusing in the other direction. The rear of the truck was opened now and he was directing the large weapon in the truck towards the gaggle of demons, zombies and half-breeds. A look of shock was plastered onto her face as he charged the huge weapon to full and fired. A fireball that looked like a minor atomic bomb filled that side of the room and Destiny was forced to shield her eyes. When the glare cleared there was a stack of bodies in the direction towards the door and nothing else. After stepping out in the hanger once again she smiled at the perfection of dead hellish bodies lying all over the place.
Movement from above caught her attention and she saw Admiral Bullosky being pulled to a standing position once again by those standing with him. He glared down at her, “Destiny, you are a vile pile of human waste like the rest of them! I should have killed you the first time I saw you.”
Destiny smiled, “You probably should have but that wasn't me.”
Before he could put voice to the questioned expression, Curtis jumped out of the back of the truck, “Destiny may fall today you shit-faced demon but if she does, it will be with me fighting by her side. I am a soldier of the true Organic Ascendancy and I stand with Destiny! Who stands with me?”
As if it wasn't shocking enough to hear a soldier from her most devoted enemy take her side in battle, those standing next to Bullosky on the platform above suddenly stepped away from Bullosky and drew their weapons. They were directing them at Bullosky and the demonic Admiral stepped back with a sick look on his face. The look quickly changed from sickened to what appeared to be humorous and he suddenly flung the opposing soldiers backwards with a whim. They s
tumbled over the railing and crumpled grossly into the floor; dead.
“As impressive as it would be for me to stay here and kill the two of you,” Bullosky said to Curtis and Destiny, “I have a more important matter. Killing and taking the body of Eric Bayne clearly is more important than you. Have fun trying to get out of the hanger with all of the doors closed and sealed.” When he turned and left, the doors all closed and locked.
Destiny knew what these walls and doors were made of and now realized that Bullosky had been willing to take out only Eric the entire time. All of the impressive fighting had been for absolutely nothing at all, as she figured there was no way she would be able to get out of this room before Eric was overwhelmed and killed. She shook her head and dropped her sword with a curse.
**
Eric thought for certain that he would be able to catch the group of demonic pretenders within seconds after he ran from the room. That was his plan anyway, to catch them, kill them all for daring to impersonate the loved ones from his past and then go back to help scrape the floor with Bullosky's fat, demon ass. That wasn't what happened however as somehow each of them was able to run faster than he was, much faster in fact.
The three humans were irritating enough, not humans he reminded himself because humans did not return to life; they were much different than the humans he had known and once cared for. Seeing a demonically created version of Bart was easily the breaking point. There was little chance that he would have trouble disposing of his two parents and brother; he had killed his brother once already after all, as a zombie. He couldn't wait to catch them and put his blade through their necks just because they were pretending to be his family in fact but Bart was another matter completely.
Once they had been inseparable and during that time, Eric was quite sure that he had never had a truer friend in his life. The dog just happened upon his path years ago and without a doubt had saved his ass more times than he cared to count, not the least of which was when he gave his life fighting a demon that was about to kill Eric. Seeing any version of that dog again hurt badly, more than he would ever care to admit to any other human being or otherwise. The only way to fix that hurt inside and perhaps get a little bit of payback for the fact that Bart had died in the first place was to put a solid end to the reanimated version of him.
That would have made a lot of sense and made him feel a great deal better if his side wasn't hurting from the run after the group. He had already stopped twice to try and gather his super-powered abilities but was still unable to catch up to them. It was honestly as if someone had placed a fucking rocket-booster in each of their asses. They would even slow for periods of time, long enough for him to think he was going to be able to get within range of using some kind of telepathic ability, only to charge forward once again just before he was able to do so.
It was more than a little infuriating and even a little desperate until they suddenly stopped with a large door in front of them. In a perfect world they would be stopping just because their creators forgot to include 'door-opening' in whatever process they had used to reanimate their brains but this was about as far from a perfect world as there had ever been and Eric trusted there was some other reason for them having stopped.
He ran on until he was within fifty feet of them and finally stopped, noticing just how odd it was that they had run all this way only to stop and refuse to face him. “What kind of fucking attack is this anyway?” When none of the four turned or even chose to answer, Eric yelled, “Turn and face me you demonic bastards!”
“What kind of attack is this?” a deep voice said from behind Eric. “What an interesting question Mr. Bayne. The answer of course is that this is a trap and basically a sneak attack. Your friends are closed in the hanger you deserted them in and certainly will be of no help to you. There is only me, your family, your dog, all reanimated for my purposes of course, and about five hundred of my closest friends.”
Eric stared at and passed Admiral Bullosky. As disturbing as the scene was behind him, of his family and dog turned into mindless zombies or something for this fucker, it was still better than the scene before him now. That many zombies would be a problem by itself but what stood before him was a mixture of zombies, zombie-demons, demons and tons of O.A. soldiers. All he said was, “Well, shit, I guess you got me. I do wonder what you plan to accomplish with my family and Bart reanimated like this though. Bart was about the only one worth fighting when alive.”
“That is the problem with humans,” Bullosky said with a short laugh, “You are too short-sighted to understand superior beings such as myself. I plan to do with them exactly what I have done with them you clay-made fool: get you into a trap that even you cannot get out of alive. I might lose a great many of these warriors but you will not be able to hold out long enough to take them all down. So, while it has been fun Mr. Bayne. You will now die.”
“You think so, huh?” Eric asked appearing uninterested.
“Don't be too upset,” Bullosky added with a wicked smirk, “You will then be reanimated as my personal warrior, programmed to defend me against all attackers of all kinds. See, that, is how you form a plan, foolish human.”
Eric stared at him for a second or two more and finally got to his knees in a crouch and placed his sword on the ground. He said in a vicious whisper, “Come and get me.”
Bullosky smiled and said to his army of attackers, “Go.” As soon as he said that, Bayne crouched down into a ball and a glowing aura surrounded him and began to increase in intensity. “Fool! You cannot shield yourself forever! Kill him!”
**
Genesis Cain stood before the hanger door and slumped her shoulders. It had been a tireless and harrowing journey through the complex, she and her soldiers destroying countless abominations on their way towards one goal. Now that they were there, it seemed deathly quiet. With a resigned nod she said, “We are too late.”
“No!” the tech specialist said quickly and followed it with, “At least, I don't think so.”
“There clearly is not a large battle to end all battles going on inside this hanger bay soldier,” Cain said, “Whatever do you mean that we are not too late?”
“There is no battle,” he answered, “That much is clear, I agree, but there are signs of life inside.”
“You mean there are people alive inside here?”
“Yes, ma'am, I cannot guarantee who they are but I can tell you that there are two of them and from the readings I am getting here,” he looked up with hope in his eyes, “They are both human.”
Terry walked up beside Cain and glanced at the door, “Is it possible?”
“Possible that Destiny and Eric Bayne killed a room-full of demons, zombies and soldiers including Admiral Bullosky and remain alive inside, possibly too exhausted to fight any longer?” Dr. Cain asked and at the nod from Terry said, “Hell, yes it is possible. How long until we can bust through the door?”
A soldier walked forward holding a brick-sized explosive in his hand and then placed it on the door, “Thirty seconds exactly.”
Cain smirked at the man's quick thinking and obeyed as another soldier suggested that they should get clear of the fucking door before they were blown to hell. The explosion was strong enough to blow debris over her even though soldiers were surrounding her but when it all cleared and she stood, the door was blown open. She stood quickly and led the others through the door despite the protests of the soldiers that they go first. When she stepped inside and looked down from the balcony she shook her head with an angry frown, “I'll be damned.”
The fiery blond looked up at her and said, “You will be if I have anything to say about it!” and started charging up the stairs with her sword in hand, clearly planning to attack and destroy Cain once and for all.
**
By the time Destiny was halfway up the stairs she knew that she was not going to attack once she got to the top. She knew that is what Dr. Cain assumed however which is why she had a huge telepathic shove ready w
hen the good doctor gave the order to attack. Destiny shoved with her mental powers and the soldiers as well as Cain and Peyton Terry flew backwards onto the ground. The soldiers rose quickly and directed their weapons towards her before she could gather more power but Curtis suddenly pushed her to one side and stood as a shield between them.
“Go ahead and take her down if you wish,” Curtis said flatly, “But you'll do it after slaying one of your own first. If she goes, I go.”
Destiny was surprised when the soldier took care of the balance of the baddies in the room several minutes before but considering that he had been deathly silent since then, she was even more surprised by this stand and she wasn't the only one.
“What are you doing?” Dr. Cain asked as she was hauled to her feet, “You dare protect a traitor, then you are a traitor!”
“She is not a traitor,” Curtis said calmly, “She was leaving of her own free will and was planning to do so by hurting no one. You,” he glared at Dr. Cain, “Chose to order a platoon to turn their fire on her, forcing them to shoot her in the back when she was preparing to take on three companies worth of zombies and demons alone. You are twice as traitorous as she is Dr. Cain. I do not do what you say, I do what she says. If that means I'm no longer part of Organic Ascendancy,” he ripped the badge with the O.A. emblem off of his clothing and tossed it to the other soldiers, “So be it. I would rather die with Destiny than to live serving a traitor and a coward such as yourself.”
The Great War (Surviving the Zombie Nightmare Book 5) Page 17
