Obliteration

by James S. Murray

  If it takes more than ten seconds, I’m dead.

  We’re all dead.

  The creature was twenty bounds away, and she had no idea if the magazine was about to run dry. Adrenaline and fear pumped through her veins. The only thing that passed through her mind was the safety of Karen and Joey. And the fact that if this was her final action, she had owned it and made it count.

  Whether or not the pilot was ready, there was no time left.

  Ellen raced toward the back of the plane.

  The Super Hornet’s engines wound up.

  Please be enough.

  She spun and fired three rapid shots at the creature, who was mere seconds away. That emptied the magazine.

  Ellen tossed the rifle to one side and moved directly behind the plane.

  Directly behind the massive engines.

  “Come on, you fucker!” she screamed.

  The creature leaped onto the wing, then jumped down within striking distance.

  She staggered backward. Her boots hit something hard and Ellen crashed to the floor.

  The creature paced toward her, letting out guttural breaths. It was as if it knew it had her and was going to enjoy the moment. Its tail lazily wafted from side to side, then rose in preparation to impale her.

  “Punch it!” Ellen screamed, and rolled to the side.

  Two bright orange jets blasted from the throats of the Super Hornet’s twin nozzles. The scorching 1,700-degree heat engulfed the creature, sending it flying back against the wall and pinning it with the ferocious discharged power.

  The hybrid creature’s black skin burst into flames and peeled off its body. It screamed in agony as it incinerated. Yellow blood cauterized around its shriveling tendons and muscles. Its entire body convulsed under the intense heat, and the red blinking box screwed into its head disintegrated.

  Finally, the afterburner died out, leaving only the sound of the crackling fire in the hangar deck. The charred carcass of the once mighty creature lay only a few feet away, now just a smoldering heap.

  Ellen scrambled to her feet and ran to the side of the fighter jet. Karen and Joey climbed out of the cockpit, safe. The three embraced.

  “You saved our lives,” Karen said, wiping her tears away.

  “And you saved mine,” Ellen replied. “The pilot?”

  She looked up. His head leaned against the side of the cockpit. His eyes vacantly stared at nothing.

  Ellen let out a deep sigh. The man was a hero who had fought until his dying breath to save others.

  “You okay, little man?” Ellen asked Joey.

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  Karen smiled at her always polite baby boy before turning to Ellen. “What now?” she asked.

  “First, we get away from those supersoldiers. Who knows if Van Ness will turn them on us next?”

  “And then?”

  “Then we find out if my husband is still alive.”

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  Cafferty’s back slammed hard into the base of a tree. He crashed to the ground in a heap, surrounded by torn body parts of supersoldiers. For a brief moment, he lay still on the grass in a fetal position, groaning as searing pain throbbed through every joint. He attempted to draw air into his winded, aching body. His lungs felt like they wouldn’t inflate.

  A high-pitched tone whistled in his ears. He detected only a single muffled sound, like he was underwater. It was still instantly recognizable: a bellowing, dominant screech was coming toward him.

  He blinked, attempting to focus. The world around him had transformed into a confusing kaleidoscope of colors. The frantic mix of thoughts in his head crystallized into three straight facts as he attempted to come to his senses:

  The queen has prevailed.

  Our best hope of killing her has been obliterated.

  And Diego . . . Diego is dead.

  Shock and guilt overtook his senses and tears welled in his eyes. He could not process what had just happened, could not process losing such a close friend. The brightest beacon in this three-year war.

  And then he replayed Diego’s final words in his mind, over and over again.

  Finish this . . .

  Finish this . . .

  Get up, Tom. Get up and finish this. For Diego.

  Cafferty grunted to all fours, using all the strength he had. He sagged against the tree, struggling to rise. In the distance, a dark shape moved in his direction—a twisted version of the grim reaper, preparing to carve him to pieces.

  He sucked in a deep breath.

  Come on, Tom.

  Cafferty shook his head. His vision began to clear.

  To his left, Van Ness’ chair lay on its side, the left wheel still spinning. Cafferty couldn’t see Bowcut, unless she was part of the mangled torsos around him.

  “Thomas,” a weak voice called out.

  Van Ness dragged himself toward Cafferty and propped himself up against a tree. Bloodshot eyes. Panic-stricken, bruised face. Dirt covered his usually immaculate suit jacket. He appeared even more terrified than when the creatures had forced his body up against the glass in Paris, attempting to squeeze the life out of him.

  This time, Cafferty couldn’t save him. He couldn’t even save himself. As a consequence, everyone he knew, including his son, would likely die.

  “Thomas,” Van Ness rasped. “The time has come for the final solution.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “We are here, in this position, because of you, your failures. There is only one chance left to stop the queen, to save the world.”

  “Which is?”

  Van Ness reached for his swagger stick and unscrewed the top. He pulled out a syringe holding the same color solution as the one Cafferty had seen in Antarctica, the one he had seen Van Ness prep getting onto the chopper on the Nimitz.

  “Sacrifice yourself . . .” Van Ness said.

  The queen crossed the tennis courts in their direction, growing closer by the second. She swiped a section of the chain-link fence out of the way as if it were paper.

  Cafferty studied the green liquid inside the syringe. “What does this do?”

  “The serum will rapidly mutate your DNA. In a word, you’ll become more creature than human.”

  “And what happens to me afterward?”

  Van Ness leaned closer to Cafferty. “There is no afterward. You knew it would come down to this.”

  The queen closed within fifty yards and roared, blasting back the branches of the surrounding trees.

  “This is the only way. Please, Tom . . .” Van Ness gasped. “Inject yourself, now!”

  The desperation in Van Ness’ eyes was obvious as he held out the syringe in his quivering hand. This time Cafferty believed every word. He and his nemesis were both facing certain death. There was no longer an agenda.

  The queen kicked the bloodied torso of a supersoldier to one side and was nearing striking distance.

  Van Ness’ hand trembled as he pushed the syringe toward Cafferty. He looked at him with bloodshot eyes. “One must live . . . and one must die.”

  A million thoughts raced through Cafferty’s mind in an instant. If the serum worked and he could stop the queen somehow, his son would live. Ellen would live, assuming she wasn’t dead already. Humanity would live.

  He thought back to last night on board the Nimitz. Kissing his wife’s neck. The curve of her lower back. The passion and desperation. Holding each other for what could be the last time.

  He thought of Diego, giving his life for the team. For him.

  It has to be done.

  All my failures, all my hopes . . .

  . . . forgiven and realized in one final moment.

  Cafferty grabbed the syringe resolutely. He ripped up his sleeve and went to plunge the needle into his weakened arm.

  Before he could inject himself, though, a massive telekinetic shock wave hit him. The syringe dropped from his hand and his body flew backward a dozen feet, hammering to the ground yards away. Van Ness’ fra
il body had been forced against the tree, likely crushing a few ribs in the process.

  And the syringe lay at Van Ness’ feet, too far for Cafferty to reach.

  The queen was nearly upon them, intent on tearing them to pieces.

  Van Ness looked down at the syringe with resignation. After a moment, he eyed Cafferty and spoke. “Mr. Mayor, do you know the only thing I hate more than you?”

  “What?” Cafferty replied.

  “Losing.”

  Van Ness lifted the syringe and rammed it into his chest.

  His body immediately went into convulsions and writhed on the ground. Cafferty watched in shock as Van Ness’ body twisted on the grass. His arms trembled. His legs flipped. Finally, he went completely still.

  The queen took two more bounding steps toward them. Seeing Van Ness’ body on the ground, she stopped and aimed her talons in his direction, preparing to unleash a directed telekinetic force that would instantly tear him to pieces.

  Instead, Van Ness sat up, stiffly but unnaturally fast. His eyes bulged from his head; his veins had turned green and protruded from his face, neck, and hand. He lifted one leg, then the other, and for the first time in decades, he stood on his own two feet. The creature serum had undone his shattered spine, undone the frailty and age of his bones.

  He rose.

  He stood there, in defiance of the queen. He stared down his true nemesis, eyes burning with anger. It appeared as if unparalleled strength coursed through his muscles. His pounding heart made his chest protrude a few inches.

  He made a fist and slammed it into his own body.

  “Come on!” Van Ness screamed at the queen, his voice growling and suddenly powerful. “COME ON!”

  As if answering his challenge, the queen fired a focused telekinetic blast right at Albert Van Ness. He leaned into the shock wave as it slammed into his body, but incredibly, he held his ground. The shock wave tore apart the tree behind Van Ness and shredded the clothing on his body, but his footing held.

  Cafferty shuffled around the tree on his backside. He dropped to his chest and peered around the trunk to watch the spectacle unfolding.

  Impossibly, Van Ness took a step closer to the creature, leaning into the shock wave like a battleship cresting a wave head-on.

  Furious at the defiance, the queen blasted another telekinetic wave at him.

  He took another step forward, forging a path through the tornado.

  The queen swung her mighty tail directly at the man.

  Van Ness raised his arm, deflected it, and took another step forward.

  Tons of dirt and debris pummeled his body, now coursing with creature DNA.

  But he still advanced.

  Van Ness’ body transformed rapidly. His veins looked like they would burst any second as his human DNA unsuccessfully fought the genetic abomination happening internally. It was clear to Cafferty that he’d soon be dead.

  But hopefully not before he does something to stop her.

  Van Ness took another powerful step toward the queen. He reached down to a torn-apart torso of a supersoldier and grabbed a grenade from his belt. Van Ness pulled the pin with his teeth and took another step forward.

  The queen let out a deafening screech at her enemy, trying everything to stop his approach. Van Ness deflected all her attempts.

  Finally, he was upon her.

  The queen’s eyes glowed devil red. She roared, revealing her razor-sharp teeth. It seemed her plan—as her powerful force was no longer stopping him—was to bite him in half.

  As if helping her with the task, Van Ness thrust his fist into her mouth and released his thumb off the detonation trigger. The queen snapped her jaws shut around his arm.

  They glared into each other’s eyes.

  “This is for my father, you son of a—”

  A massive explosion ripped through the queen, tearing her to pieces, along with the body of Albert Van Ness, in one horrific final moment.

  Cafferty ducked to avoid the shrapnel and viscera. Yellow blood spattered the trees all around him.

  After a moment, the entire park fell silent.

  The queen was destroyed.

  Albert Van Ness was gone.

  No visible signs of them remained. Only a charred wheelchair betrayed their final location. Smoke drifted off the blackened wheels. The brass knob of Van Ness’ swagger stick had melted.

  The man Cafferty had hated for the best part of three years had given his life to save humanity. Faced with a choice between his ego and humanity’s survival, Van Ness had made the ultimate sacrifice.

  Cafferty’s head was in too much of a spin to comprehend the events. He grabbed the trunk and forced himself to a standing position. Where he went from here, he had no idea.

  But he needed to know if he was the only one left alive.

  Chapter Forty

  The explosive boom rocked Bowcut awake. It was somewhere close, sounding like a bomb had just gone off. She had no idea how long she’d been unconscious, but at least she wasn’t dead. Yet. And at least somebody was still fighting.

  Her last memory was hurtling across the sunlit park, then coming to a violent halt against the park’s wrought-iron fence. It was all a complete blur in her mind. Intense pain from the collisions burned in her right shoulder and hip, adding to the agony of being hit by the queen’s shock wave.

  The sound of the distant battle at Hunters Point had grown quieter than before.

  Perhaps it’s coming to a close.

  But are they too late to stop the queen?

  The final thought made her force open her heavy eyelids. She dreaded what she might see. She mentally prepared herself for the sight of her team dead, or the huge creature towering over her injured body.

  Bowcut focused on the surrounding area.

  All was still.

  No sign of any ongoing battle.

  Nothing moved in the park. Massacred pieces of supersoldiers were spread around the lumps of dirt and grass. Roux’s body lay in the same place, unmoving. Van Ness’ wheelchair was a mangled mess. Sarah scanned the area for any life.

  “Dammit,” she hissed, grunting to her feet and limping toward the tree line, sensing the worst.

  As she neared the trees, she spotted movement to her right.

  Bowcut froze. The action of stopping made her wince as pain shot through her body. Then she sighed with relief.

  Cafferty gingerly emerged from behind a maple tree. He looked like he’d been thrown through a ceiling fan. Caked blood and a dozen cuts peppered his face. His arms and legs were covered in filth. But he was alive.

  When he met Bowcut’s gaze, he gave her a weak smile.

  “Tom, thank God,” she said, and embraced him. “Where’s Van Ness?”

  “He took out the queen. Blew her to pieces, and himself along with her.”

  “So . . . it’s over?”

  “Yes, but . . . Sarah . . .”

  Fear and nausea instantly rose up inside Bowcut. She scanned the area left and right, frantically searching, remembering what had happened right before she was knocked out . . .

  “Diego . . .”

  “No!!” she cried out, tears streaming down her face in an instant. Cafferty clutched her and pulled her close, tears streaming down his face as well.

  There were no words to be said.

  He was gone.

  After a few moments, Sarah weakly asked, “Ellen?”

  Cafferty leaned toward the mic he’d collected from the side of a butchered supersoldier. He silently prayed as he hit the transmit button. “Ellen, please tell me you’re there.” He held his breath in anticipation.

  After a few seconds, his wife replied, “Tom, thank God you’re alive.”

  The emotion on his face was obvious. He glanced at Bowcut, beaming like the morning of the Z Train’s inaugural launch. She knew everything in his life had gone to shit after that, and all of their lives had been catapulted to this point through determination, resolution, and violence.

  “
I can’t tell you how good it is to hear your voice, baby,” Cafferty said, fighting back tears.

  “And I can’t tell you how good it is to see you again,” she replied.

  See?

  Bowcut looked up and noticed a chopper approaching the park. It set down fifty yards away, and Ellen practically leaped out of it. She ran toward Cafferty, and the two embraced, kissing each other.

  “I promised you I’d be back tonight,” Cafferty said, holding her tightly.

  She smiled at her husband and kissed him again. “Good man, Mr. Cafferty.”

  Ellen hugged Bowcut, but then noticed . . .

  “Tom, where’s Diego?”

  Their silence told her the answer.

  “No, no, no, no, no . . .” Her head dropped, and tears streamed down her cheeks. Cafferty embraced his wife, sharing in their collective grief.

  He gave his life . . . for us . . .

  After a few moments of silence, Cafferty asked, “The fleet?”

  “Is safe,” Ellen replied, wiping away her tears. “The queen?”

  “Is dead. Along with Van Ness. In the end, he sacrificed himself to stop her.”

  “I guess he completed his lifelong mission.”

  “He did,” Cafferty replied solemnly.

  “We still have to deal with the supersoldiers,” Ellen said. “With Van Ness gone, how do we control them? We need their help to stop the creatures worldwide.”

  Bowcut turned toward Van Ness’ number two’s motionless body a dozen yards away. “Roux said only he and Van Ness could give them orders. I saw him using a tablet to input commands, like Van Ness was using. Maybe he still has it on him.”

  The team headed across the tennis courts and approached Roux’s body.

  When she was within several feet, Bowcut spotted his left hand twitch.

  Surely not?

  Bowcut quickened her pace, puffing her cheeks with every painful step, and reached the side of his body.

  Roux smiled up at her. “What did I miss?”

  “Franco, thank God!” Sarah said, clutching his face. “How?”

  “You told me not to trust him,” Roux said. “So I didn’t.” He pulled open his shirt, revealing two protective layers of Kevlar underneath his uniform with Van Ness’ bullet firmly embedded in it. “Didn’t see that rock coming, though. Concussion for sure, but I’ll live to see another day.”