Ancient Origins: Books 4 - 6 (Ancient Origins Boxset Book 2)

by Robert Storey

  The fighting around him continued east and Samson sheathed his knife before picking up the dead major’s blade. He held it up beside his own, the two glowing swords shining in the dark.

  He glanced round. The strange lights that had decimated hundreds of his men had vanished back into the night, leaving bloody carnage in their wake.

  Movement to the left made him zoom in his visor. Beyond the fighting, running figures disappeared into the distant gloom. He switched off his thermal blades and his eyes narrowed. ‘Goodwin,’ he said, before switching his gaze to the figure giving chase. His voice dropped to a growl. ‘Morgan.’

  Samson sheathed his swords and broke into a run.

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  Out on the narrow causeway, Sarah picked her way through shallow water while closing in on Captain Winter, who in turn had caught up with his single-minded director. As she drew closer she could hear the two men arguing as they edged further out onto the misty lake.

  ‘What did you tell me before, Captain? You told me you believed in me, you told me to believe in myself!’

  ‘I didn’t mean this!’ Winter looked down at his feet. ‘And how did the causeway get here? Something’s not right.’

  ‘I don’t know how it got here!’ Goodwin said in frustration. ‘Perhaps it was Susan.’

  ‘I don’t like it. Why is she out here at all? Where did all this mist come from?’ Winter shone his torches back to shore. ‘We should at least wait for my unit.’

  ‘Rebecca’s waited long enough,’ Goodwin said.

  A splash of water made Sarah glance right to see a large, scaly fin break the surface. She stepped back and then slipped. Her arms flailed before an armoured hand grasped her arm.

  ‘Trust me,’ Winter said, helping her regain her footing, ‘you don’t want to fall in.’

  Sarah nodded and then turned as Riley came up behind her, closely followed by Trish, Jason, Jefferson and Locke.

  She looked back at the dark waters where more black shadows glided past. ‘Be careful,’ she said, pointing.

  Riley gave a nod before a flash of lightning lanced into the lake. Thunder cracked and the chamber’s heavens rumbled and flickered.

  ‘Have you seen anything like this in Sanctuary before?’ Sarah said.

  Riley shook his head as another rumbling boom echoed out. ‘Never!’

  The chamber’s skies continued to simmer with light and Sarah glimpsed an island through the fog bank that hung thick over the lake’s centre. Movement through the cloud-like shroud caught her eye. ‘I think I see someone,’ she said.

  Goodwin looked over his shoulder. ‘It’s Susan!’

  The director increased his pace as more lightning cascaded down.

  The causeway beneath their feet shuddered and Trish screamed.

  ‘Keep moving!’ Locke said.

  Waves lapped at Sarah’s feet as their walk turned into a teetering jog.

  Precarious moments passed and then they made it to dry land and relative safety, but before Sarah had time to catch her breath Goodwin was off again, heading towards a gaping hole in the ground.

  ‘Sir, wait,’ – the Darklight captain grasped his arm – ‘my unit’s at the causeway.’ The sound of muffled gunfire came from the shoreline and a garbled message came through his radio.

  Winter pressed a button on his helmet, listening. ‘Sergeant, hold the beach!’ he said, before pausing. ‘Do you copy?’ He waited for another response. ‘Say again … who?’

  Goodwin took the opportunity to slip from Winter’s grasp and he disappeared from view.

  ‘Wait! DIRECTOR?!’ Letting out another curse the Darklight captain followed Goodwin down into the pitch-black.

  Hot on their heels, Sarah stepped onto a narrow slope that spiralled down round the edge of a wide, circular shaft. A deep drop yawned on the left and Riley shouted a warning to those behind.

  Sarah moved with care over wet stone, but on the opposite side of the shaft the light from Goodwin’s transparent helmet moved down at speed, with Captain Winter in close attendance. She picked up the pace; they couldn’t afford to lose them now.

  A number of spirals later they reached the bottom of the giant shaft. Ahead, Goodwin’s light vanished into thin air, as did Winter’s seconds after.

  Sarah rushed forward to pass into a dark entrance surrounded by crumbling stonework. Uneven ground made her trip and stumble, but she managed to keep her feet to scramble over loose rock.

  As she emerged from the opening, a stone staircase appeared through the gloom and lightning lit up the foreground of a vast hall shrouded in mist. Sarah gazed up to see ethereal forms through the haze, their gargantuan bulk revealed by the flickering storm like titanic gods of myth.

  Captain Winter stood twenty feet away. He turned and signalled for her to stop. A few yards ahead of him Goodwin crept towards a distant figure.

  Susan’s shadowy form stood stock still a hundred yards in front of them, staring back at the approaching Goodwin. Sarah felt a shiver of unease spread through her as the small woman was lit up like a ghoul in the night.

  Thunder cracked and Susan was off and running once more, disappearing into the mists.

  Goodwin and Winter leapt forward and Sarah followed, Riley by her side.

  A strong wind swirled through the hall and an avenue of enormous statues emerged through the parting fog. Goodwin vanished into the dark between the two rows of towering sculptures and a spine chilling howl cut through the air. Sarah looked up into the snarling face of an Anakim warrior. Purple lightning blazed across the chamber and the statue’s massive eyes glowed bright with the same dazzling hue.

  Sarah quailed at the sight, but carried on as the figures’ howling grew louder and the winds gusted more fiercely.

  ‘What is this place?’ Riley said, over the noise.

  Sarah glanced up with fear at the gruesome spectres that appeared like demons in the clouds. ‘It’s Tartarus!’

  ‘Tartarus?’

  Sarah looked into his eyes. ‘Hell!’

  ‘There she is!’ Goodwin pointed to the small figure of Susan running ahead of them, passing beneath a winged monstrosity that spanned the hall’s end.

  Sarah splashed through a pool of water, dodged round a spine-chilling statue of an Anakim woman being dragged to her doom, and ran on.

  ♦

  Colonel Samson fired his rifle into the Darklight soldiers, his mask lit up with the flash of gunfire. More Terra Force arrived from the south and ploughed into the retreating mercenaries.

  A flash of lightning lit up the nearby lake and Samson spied a hidden path leading out into the mists and a Darklight unit moving across it. He unclipped a device from his armour and launched it into the fighting masses. The cluster grenade exploded, severing limb and bone on both sides.

  Samson leapt forward and several carnage-filled moments later reached the shore. Scanning the water, he located the causeway and worked his way out onto the lake.

  A hundred feet out, he glanced back through the mists to see Ophion and four of his team emerge on the shoreline to cut a swathe through the Darklight ranks. S.I.L.V.E.R.’s leader was a blur as he leapt and spiralled through the air, killing and maiming with unholy precision. Samson took aim at the assassin’s visor, tracing his every move. Ophion somersaulted over two soldiers and landed on one knee beyond them, arms outstretched. The two men keeled over dead and Samson fired.

  Ophion’s arm came up and the bullet deflected off his armour. S.I.L.V.E.R.’s leader turned his chrome mask in the colonel’s direction and gave a slow shake of his head.

  Samson unleashed a barrage of shots sending Ophion into evasive action before his armour shimmered and the assassin vanished from view.

  The rest of S.I.L.V.E.R. drifted into invisibility as they headed towards the causeway and, with a snarl, Samson secured his rifle to his back and moved into a run.

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  Chased by the howling winds, Sarah entered a twisting tunnel full of h
orrific carvings and surfaces that oozed with foul-smelling, black oil. She glanced back to see Locke and Jefferson following, but Trish and Jason were nowhere in sight.

  Knowing her friends would catch up, she kept up the pace and Riley grasped her hand as the running figures of Goodwin, and then Captain Winter, disappeared round a final bend and into the thickening mist.

  Sarah splashed through another puddle of water and felt a deep chill as they entered the white wall of vapour. Behind, the howling statues continued to wail and Sarah gripped Riley’s hand tighter as flashing thunder solidified the surrounding fog. They slowed their flight to a walk and Riley squeezed her hand in reassurance.

  ‘Susan!’ someone ahead shouted. ‘It’s Richard, where are you?!’

  Sarah fiddled with her visor, which had failed to auto-adjust to the dense cloud, but try as she might the technology refused to penetrate it.

  A dark figure emerged from the gloom before them.

  Captain Winter held up his hand as they approached and put a finger to his lips. His rifle was raised and he scanned the way ahead with his scope.

  Sarah’s anxiety spiked. What has he seen? One of the lights?

  As the fog cleared a little, Sarah saw Goodwin looking this way and that into a dark expanse.

  He turned around in anguish as they approached. ‘I can’t find her.’

  Captain Winter moved past him to scan the area as Jefferson and Locke arrived behind, but as yet there was still no sign of Trish and Jason.

  Sarah let go of Riley’s hand and turned to go back.

  ‘What’s that?’ Riley pointed into the distance.

  ‘Fire,’ Locke said.

  Sarah paused and zoomed her visor in to where an orange glow spread and grew higher. Lightning continued to flicker high above and she realised they must be in some vast basin inside the lake, although the standing water and wet surfaces made her wonder if it was always thus. She looked down at pale weeds lying limp between stone cracks before noticing vast pools of slimy, black tar which lurked all around.

  ‘The fog’s clearing,’ Riley said.

  A powerful wind rippled her coveralls before dying away, and Sarah turned to see the vapour behind thinning. Soon after, Trish and a limping Jason emerged from the tunnel.

  Sarah felt a hand slip into hers and she looked round to see Riley by her side, still staring into the beyond.

  Jefferson stepped past him to look in the same direction.

  The ground trembled and Sarah took a step back as small stones tumbled past.

  The tremors built before, with a loud roar, fires exploded upwards all around them. Sarah stumbled back in shock. Napalm-like clumps rained down and everyone took evasive action. Sarah dodged and weaved as more pools of tar burst into flame to light up massive, stone monoliths that towered through the mists.

  Forced back by the heat, Sarah gazed in astonishment at the weathered standing stones, which stretched out to either side in a great arc.

  ‘Is everyone okay?!’ Winter said as the fires died back to lower levels.

  If anyone replied Sarah didn’t hear them as the storm bellowed through the heavens and lightning lanced down onto the megaliths. The winds returned, and with the way ahead revealed, Goodwin moved towards an arch in the stones.

  ‘Director, please … wait!’ Winter went to follow, but gunfire behind made him pause and look back the way they’d come.

  ‘I have to go,’ Goodwin said, ‘Susan and Rebecca need me.’

  Winter looked back at him, his expression torn. ‘It’s not safe!’

  ‘It’s not safe here!’ Goodwin gestured towards the sounds of more fighting. ‘It’s not safe anywhere, that’s the problem. It’s time for us to leave Sanctuary, Captain, and this is our way out.’

  Goodwin turned and passed beneath the ancient stones and disappeared into the glowing mists.

  More lightning blazed down and the fires multiplied.

  Gunfire echoed again and Sarah looked back through the building flames to see Winter’s Darklight unit emerge from the tunnel as its walls ignited into flame. The soldiers walked backwards in tactical formation while continuing to fire back into hell.

  Sarah suddenly realised the fires had cut her off from everyone else and she ran back towards the tunnel as Trish and Jason passed her going the other way. They slowed and she waved them on. ‘Keep going, I’ll catch you up!’

  ‘Everyone, go!’ Winter ushered Trish and Jason through the stones. Locke went next, and Riley helped Jefferson brush off flames that clung to his back as they followed behind.

  Sarah doubled back round the growing pools of burning pitch and sprinted back.

  The storm overhead sent more bolts hammering into the ground and, on either side of the stones, two trails of flame closed in on the entrance.

  Bullets whizzed past and Riley called out, ‘Sarah, hurry!’

  She neared the stones and Winter waved her past as he remained on sentry. Feet away from her friends, the ring of fire completed and Sarah slid to a stop and raised her hands against the heat.

  Beyond, Riley moved back in shock, not realising what was happening until it was too late.

  Sarah retreated and looked through the shimmering flames into Riley’s eyes.

  More gunfire made everyone duck and Captain Winter stepped forward and raised his weapon, searching for a target. ‘Darklight,’ Winter said through his radio, ‘I have your six.’

  One of the men turned to acknowledge their leader. ‘Copy that, sir, reinforcements are en route.’

  Sarah crouched down as the Darklight unit spread out to wait for the unseen enemy.

  Muffled gunshots echoed from beyond and the sky continued to flicker before thunder cracked loudly.

  A figure burst from the black, guns blazing. Colonel Samson dived forward as Darklight unleashed their weapons.

  The colonel raised a black shield to deflect the bullets, while firing at five shadowy forms that were chasing him.

  Sarah’s expression turned to horror as the chrome-clad assassins spun into being and tore into the Darklight unit.

  Seconds later, more black-clad soldiers surged from the tunnel; their battle cries making the assassins re-camouflage as they turned to face the new threat.

  ‘Sarah,’ Riley called out, ‘come on!’

  She looked round to see Riley had removed his jacket to create a narrow bridge through the flames.

  Sarah stood up and moved closer, but the heat was too great. ‘It’s too hot!’

  She retreated again and looked back to see the colonel cutting a path towards her on the left. One man went down, and then another. Her friends called out to her from behind, but Sarah remained rooted to the spot in detached fascination as Samson smashed aside another Darklight soldier.

  Captain Winter leapt to meet him, but Samson deflected his onslaught and heaved him into the flames. Terror seized her as the killer loomed large. Sarah wanted to run but her legs wouldn’t move, and she stumbled backwards to the ground.

  And then Riley and Jefferson were there, rushing past her only to be knocked aside by the unstoppable colonel’s brutal blows.

  Sarah scrambled away, knowing she couldn’t escape, knowing that she wanted to live – so desperately wanted to live. She looked at Riley in despairing horror. I don’t want to die! Her mind screamed inside. NOT NOW! A whimper of fear escaped her lips as Samson bore down on her.

  ‘There’s nowhere left for you to hide, Morgan.’ The colonel raised his sword aloft and its shining blade reflected in Sarah’s terror-stricken eyes

  Riley shouted and Trish screamed. Time slowed as the glowing weapon plunged towards her head …

  … and shuddered to a stop with a resounding CLANG and a shower of sparks.

  A tear rolled down Sarah’s cheek as she stared at the pulsating blade an inch from her face.

  With a screech of metal on metal, the sword was knocked aside and Samson was catapulted backwards.

  A hulking figure emerged from the ether, glo
wing sword in hand. The formidable mask turned towards her, its eyes burning like a demon.

  ‘Go,’ it said, its voice deep with power, ‘I’ll handle this.’

  Sarah shook her head. ‘I saw you die.’

  Commander Hilt raised his visor as Riley and Jefferson helped her away. ‘Things,’ Hilt said as he turned back to face Samson, ‘are not always as they seem.’

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  Colonel Samson shook his head and climbed to his feet. The powerful figure of the Darklight leader turned towards him, visor raised and Samson flexed his arm and picked up his sword. ‘Still alive, Darklight?’

  ‘I’m a hard man to kill.’

  Samson gave a quick glance round to see S.I.L.V.E.R. holding their own against overwhelming odds. He turned back to Hilt, who slid his large rucksack to the ground. The man’s black armour was dented and scarred as though a building had fallen on him.

  ‘It’s about time you stopped running,’ Samson said, retracting his helmet’s face-plate and moving away from the stones for more room. ‘You fled Steadfast like a coward, leaving better men to fight.’

  Hilt followed, his black armour reflecting the pools of flame between them. ‘And you massacred them with no offer of surrender.’

  ‘Surrender is for the weak.’

  Hilt loosened his sword arm with three cutting sweeps of his blade. ‘And the sane.’

  Samson’s grip tightened on his sword and his armoured glove creaked under the strain. He withdrew his second blade and activated the thermal device. The weapon glowed white hot and he held it up to Hilt. ‘I got this off your Major. He fought badly. He died … badly.’

  Hilt’s eyes narrowed as he removed his shield from his back-plate and lowered his visor. ‘Tell me, mad man,’ he said, ‘what’s it like in hell?’

  Samson bared his teeth and closed his face-plate. ‘I don’t know,’ – he surged forward as Hilt leapt to meet him – ‘TELL ME!’