by Maxey, Phil
“I’m out!” shouted Nelson.
Fur covered beasts, others with wings smashed through the bags of sand, slicing and gouging the defenders as they went, while blurs zipped from one machine gun post to another, silencing them.
Two creatures, four then too many to count surged forward, leaping up and landing on the walls, while others kept on going to the forecourt behind.
Anna turned and sliced across the helmet of a hybrid, but the blow just glanced off and in return a solid punch landed in her stomach doubling her over. Marina dispatched a black suited attacker with her boot, then the butt of her rifle, turned and saw what was about to befall the doctor. Just as she moved to help, an iron post which had contained a sign, ripped from its mooring and speared the hybrid, collapsing it on top of Anna, who quickly pushed it off, then nodded in thanks at Nelson. The pole swept through the air, but stopped short of his hand as it smashed across another two hybrids near him.
A Drak landed on the wall, immediately swiping its wing across two soldiers, killing them instantly then spotted the black eyes of Marina and charged towards her.
“Marina!” shouted Anna, seeing the danger. Marina spun around then stepped back against the wall in preparation, but just as the giant horned beast was upon her, there was a thud of paws, and Shadow then Flint slipped through the fighting and leaped at the demonic Alkron, their transformed jaws latching onto its arm and leg. It roared in pain, trying to rid itself of the animals. Anna then Marina leaped forward, slashing away at the huge figure until it fell to one knee, its wings trying to get purchase to escape the melee, but with one hefty blow Anna slashed across the only exposed area she could see, the back of its neck and with a spray of blood it fell forward onto the damp stone.
“We need to get down below!” shouted Marina to Anna, then spun around to get Nelson’s attention. The old man was laid on the ground, a wolf creature feasting on his neck.
“He’s gone, Marina!” shouted Anna, tears in her eyes. “We have to get to the others!” An arm pulled Marina back, then as the human screams on the walls started to decline, with the two dogs they ran into a tunnel, pulling a gate closed and descended into the bowels of the castle.
*****
As Joel and the others ran along the path with waves crashing to their right, he could see and hear the fury of the battle on the battlements in the distance. And then the light and sound died.
No…
He held his radio to his mouth. “Anna! Are you there? Over.” There was no answer. He glanced at his watch.
Eight minutes.
As the dark blue on the eastern horizon began to change to mauve, he turned to the others while still running. “It’s almost time! We have to get there!”
Each of them bounded over fences and walls, finally reaching the large expanse of sodden dirt, scarred by battle. He tried his radio again. “Anna?” Again there was no reply.
He looked to their right then ran to the cliff edge. “Come on, we need to get around the back of the fortress.” They quickly descended a stony path to the sand and large boulders of the beach and ran around the base of the old walls, until he picked up the sound of jeering. He waved his hand and they all crouched, but kept on moving towards the smell of fear.
Two hundred and twelve humans huddled together, terror in their eyes, on a concrete viewing platform at the extreme tip of the island. Behind them the Atlantic Ocean crashed and spluttered. Between them and the few hundred members of the corporation were seven Alkrons, and two growling altered canines.
Hector stood in front of Layla, Anna in front of Barry and Marina in front of Jess and Jasper. Flint and Shadow snapped at the air, towards those standing on the battlements above, goading and laughing at those below. Suddenly they fell quiet and through them stepped another.
“I know you are down there Freon!” shouted Rynon. “Why don’t you show yourself!”
The human crowd parted, and through them walked a warrior belonging to the eons of pre-history, replete with a sword and armor that was ancient even by the days of Sparta. Alfredo looked at Marina as he passed, his eyes telling her all he needed to, and he looked up at the hybrid standing on the edge of the wall.
“Ah, there is my old friend!” said Rynon. “It has been too long!” He leaned to the side, closer to Rosetta. “Find them.” He then stepped off the top of the wall and dropped the seventeen feet to the ground, landing on the opposite side of a circular stone area, some ten feet across and slowly pulled his sword from his back. He glanced at Galloway standing next to Hector. “Ah, I see the betrayer stands with you.” She straightened her back in reply. “You will die a particularly painful death.” He looked back at Alfredo. “I know you have the tablets Freon, and I know what you mean to do with them. Return this planet to the humans!”
“The scourge was not meant for this Rynon! You know what the gods said to us! It was meant for us few! Or all will be destroyed!”
“I can feel the power of the three is almost complete. Give them to me now, and I will let you live. You can serve in my—”
Alfredo roared forward, his body becoming a blur and slashed the sword across Rynon, but the other hybrid’s reaction was as good, and the blade glanced off. Marina winced as they parted again.
“I defeated you once, Freon. I will do so again! Why sacrifice yourself for these animals!”
“We were born human! Do you not remember? I walked among them for thousands of years, I saw them change. Try to do better.”
Rynon sneered. “They are only good for food! Now give me the tablets!” He charged forward swiping his sword through the air, just short of Alfredo’s head, in return Alfredo’s blade slid through the top of Rynon’s armor, making him groan and stagger back.
“I’m not the foolish young man from the village anymore Rynon!” Alfredo jumped forward bringing his sword from high, but Rynon slid to the side and drew his blade across Alfredo’s stomach, doubling him over. He staggered backwards, his sword falling limp against the concrete. Marina ran to his side, but he waved her away.
“I have to do this Marina!” He grimaced and raised his sword again.
Rynon stood tall. “You have taken a female. One of us I see. I will use her well once you are dead.”
Alfredo readied himself for a final surge, when a voice shouted out to his right.
“I have them!” shouted Rosetta, a Drak standing behind her. She lifted a suitcase high. A ripple of shock ran through human and Alkron alike. “They had them on a buoy, just off the rocks. Thought no one would—”
Without pause Anna ran at her, rage in her eyes, but just feet from her claw connecting to the mind readers face, she collapsed to the ground, holding her head and screamed in pain.
“Give me the suitcase!” Rynon shouted.
Rosetta threw the silver case, it dropping by Rynon’s feet. He looked at those above. “If any of them move towards me, shoot them all.”
Weapons were cocked and aimed.
The crowd drew closer together, the Alkron’s wanting to run forward, but also seeing the rows of barrels point at them and those behind.
Rynon lifted his blade high and with a thunderous blow brought it down on the front of the suitcase, slicing it open. Luminescence spiraled around the three tablets, leaking out to the air. He picked up the first as symbols danced and slid past the black and gold surface. “Hmm…” With a touch of a finger, the countdown stopped.
Alfredo let out a breath and looked down.
Rynon looked at him, holding the tablet up. “It would appear there were mere seconds...” A flicker of concern moved across his face, and he held his throat and coughed. “As… I was saying…” He cleared his throat then coughed again. “I…” He fell forward. Hector and Marina looked at Barry. The boy’s eyes were black.
“Barry no! You’ll kill—”
Layla’s hand fell upon the old mans. “It will be okay…” She looked at the boy in front of her. “Go on Barry…”
He stepped forward, R
ynon’s eyes falling upon him.
“Kill him! Kill them all!” the king shouted then fell to his knees, just as Joel, Dalton and the others clambered over the walls. Bullets seared the air, some instantly bouncing off an invisible force as Corine threw her hand out, others hitting people, but as the projectiles began their journeys through their human targets, light poured from Layla instantly healing the muscle, organs and skin of those struck.
Marina turned, using her body to cover Jess and Jasper, but as she tried to gather them closer a blur swept down from above, grabbing both of the children and took them instantly beyond her grip and desperate cries. They were quickly gone over the side of the seawall.
As Joel scrambled forward, bullets pinging off the stone around him, Amos, barely able to stand, saw the woman from the prison yard and with every fiber of his being focused his mind on her. She screamed, falling to the ground, then noticing the young man, returned her own psychic attack. Waves of pain vibrated through him, his legs giving out, but as he collapsed to the stone, blood pouring from his nose he clung onto her mind.
His lungs burning from the poison in the air, Joel staggered towards the fallen king and smashed a boot down on his wrist, making him drop the tablet. Rynon lunged, but Joel kicked ancient device away, sending it sliding across the floor to Alfredo who with one mere touch, started the timer again…
Rynon roared between choking. “Get the tablet!”
All fire focused on the former archeologist, a wall of bullets so thick even Corine’s and Layla’s abilities couldn’t withstand the attack. They tore through him, the tablet falling to the ground as Alkrons landed from above.
A hybrid soldier sped forward, bent over, grabbing the tablet, then with a flick of a wrist threw it towards the king, but the ancient device never made it. A blur had it clutched within clawed hands, mighty wings taking it into the brightening sky. As the hail of bullets followed Copeland upwards, piercing his armor, littering his serpentine body with holes, he beat the air harder, flying higher than he ever had, then just as he broke through the clouds, into the silence of pristine air, there was an explosion of energy and his body instantly disintegrated into dust.
A fraction of a second later, in Denver, Marina’s sister looked down her grandfather’s old scope at a vamp that suddenly collapsed, while in a deep forest near the Canadian border, Donnie and Lucas, out on an early morning hunting party for wild game, got back to their feet after being knocked to the ground by a wave none of them had seen. Donnie looked with human eyes at the older man and knew everything was different.
And in in Nevada, Shirl stood near her newly dug vegetable garden and felt a faint breeze move across her and smiled.
Joel looked up at the sun breaking through the clouds, his body feeling twice as heavy, his limbs awkward appendages which he had to concentrate to move.
The hybrid known as Rynon was getting to his feet, still coughing. He looked at the walls above. “Kill them! Kill th—”
Rynon’s head hit the old stones with a wet thud, his body landing nearby.
Joel dropped the sword and looked around at the former scourge infected, who seemed bewildered at their new human status. “It’s over. The scourge has gone. Not just here, but everywhere, across the whole planet! You got guns. You could kill all of us, or you could remember who you once were…”
The black suited soldiers looked at each other, one stepping closer to Joel, then pulled his helmet off and tilted his head to the warmth of the star above.
Marina spun around trying to locate her children, then looked down desperately at Alfredo. “Anna! Please do something!”
The doctor kneeled next to the former ancient king, looking at his wounds then let out a sigh. He forced a smile, while Marina sunk to her knees, tears falling from her cheeks. “You have to live…”
Alfredo placed his hand on hers. “It’s time…” And with that his heart stopped.
“Mom!” shouted Jess from below the nearby wall.
Marina sprung to her feet, running past those around her and looked down upon the face of her two children.
CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
Three weeks later…
Marina stood on a cliff which overlooked an expanse of blue calm ocean, then kneeled next to the first of eight wooden crucifixes. Etched into it was the name. “Shannon.” She placed one white flower, then moved to the next marked ‘Freon’ doing the same, continuing until she finally reached Mary’s.
She didn’t need to be a hybrid anymore to hear the footsteps behind her. Joel walked up the weathered stone path.
“Thought I’d find you here.”
She kept looking at the graves. “Eight doesn’t feel enough.” She sighed. “Too much blood… You’ll keep placing flowers here when I’m gone, right?”
“I will…”
She nodded.
“So your minds made up?”
She looked at the ocean. “It sure is nice here… but I have to go back to the mainland.”
“Even with Dalton with you, it could be pretty wild out there.”
“Carla and Clement’s going with us as well. Says he’s got in contact with some people who are starting something back up… Anyway you make it sound like Kizzy and Amos won’t be any help!”
He briefly smiled then looked out to the smooth waves. “I’m surprised Evan isn’t going with you.”
She sighed. “He lost so much…”
“I still don’t understand how the vamps didn’t find him in that old building… but then he was due some luck.”
“He was...”
They walked forward and hugged. “If you ever want a vacation, you know where to come.”
She nodded. “You better believe I’ll be back!” They pulled apart. “You know, they could definitely do with law enforcement here. The army’s not really cut out for that kind of thing.”
“Yeah… I’m not sure about that. Maybe. What about you? Any long-term plans?”
“I think I’m just going to concentrate on being a mom…”
A mile to the east, inside the ruin of the old local government building, Galloway righted a picture frame and sat in a leather chair. She looked down, trying to open a drawer when the door in front of her creaked open. Dalton stood in the doorway, a backpack across his shoulder. Her hand slid towards her side.
“I wouldn’t go for that gun if I were you. I could fill you with holes and no one would care. Hell, they would probably thank me. So put your hands on the desk.”
She nodded, doing as asked. “I thought I was doing—”
He held his hand up. “I don’t care about the ‘why’s.’ Because of you a good woman, and hundreds of others died.” He stepped closer making her lean back in the opposite direction. “And if there were more than a few hundred people left on this island, and by ‘island’ I mean the whole of Puerto Rico, I reckon I would end you.” He sighed, briefly looking down then smiled to himself. “But I’m going to start, how I mean to keep on, and if you can help these people stay alive, then I think Geri would want you to keep on living.” He turned and walked away.
Galloway let out a breath.
“Right, children.” said Anna in a classroom a hundred yards to the south. “Open your biology books to the first page.” She looked across the room of thirty-four young faces, including Barry and Layla. “Today we learn what it means to be human.”
Outside an apartment block nearby, Corine and Sasha waited impatiently, both in bikinis with a towel over their shoulders. They watched as Evan ran up the steps to his new apartment.
“Come on! I want to get to the beach!” said Sasha.
He waved back, smiling. “Just give me a few minutes before I join you, I need to get sun lotion. I burn easily!”
“Oh, ha ha.”
He smiled then quickly walked up the stairs, using the key and moved inside, closing the world out. Without pause he walked into his bedroom, then to the closest, pulling it open and in the faint light from the window, kneeled and p
ulled back some carpet, then the same again for the floorboard below.
Reaching beneath the wooden beams, his fingers touched the cool plastic of the bag of blood.
The End.
Thank you for reading The Scourge series! I hope you enjoyed it!
Two other post-apocalyptic series are also available for me on Amazon (both in Kindle Unlimited). These are…(The links may not work on Apple mobile devices. Please copy and paste the link into a browser).
The Cascade - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B084NHLZWJ
The Glitch - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07VVM79X7
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About the Author
Phil Maxey is an author who resides in the UK. Formally a game developer he now spends his time putting his love of sci-fi and the paranormal into words.
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Acknowledgements
Book cover design by www.starbookcovers.com.
