by Joel Stewart
“Sounds like a plan.” Alex responded.
Cliff pondered for a moment and then turned back toward the room. Alex had sounded distant and Cliff could tell she wanted some more alone time. “Let’s go hit up the candy store!” Cliff yelled to Davis as he headed toward the door. Davis jumped up without a word and followed him out of the room.
When they were gone Jesse wandered out onto the balcony with Alex. The sun could no longer be seen but the clouds were still showing an impressive array of colors. “He really cares about you.” He said flatly. “Cliff, I mean. It seems obvious to me that you guys should be more than friends.” Alex didn’t say anything, and Jesse began to think he had made a mistake. I should have just kept my mouth shut, Cliff is going to be livid . . .
“I’ve been noticing.” She replied, interrupting his thoughts. “It’s just hard to think about him that way. I can’t imagine my life without him, but . . .” Alex’s face looked perplexed. “It would be like dating my brother.”
Jesse shook his head as if he understood. “Can you do me a favor?”
“Sure, what’s up?” She responded cheerfully. Her tone shocked her. It was the first time she had been cheerful in hours.
“Don’t tell Cliff I said anything.” He said meekly.
“Your secret is safe with me!” She said in a jesting tone. She gave him a playful punch in the shoulder to follow it. They continued to banter playfully for several minutes as the dark tension that had loomed over them for the better part of the day seemed to lift. In a lighter tone they began to go back over some of the things that had transpired, Jesse giving outlandish theories and Alex fully encouraging him to continue.
An hour or so passed before Alex and Jesse responded to a knock at the door. They found Cliff and Davis back from the armory. Jesse stared in disbelief. “Did you leave anything for our soldiers to fight with?” He asked. He noticed that Davis had a small ankle pistol in a holster hanging from his mouth. “You are even armed to the teeth,” he said laughing.
Cliff and Davis pushed into the room so they could put their assortment down. Alex didn’t know what to say as they continued to pull things from their pockets, pants . . . and underwear? “Did you just take that grenade out of where I think you took it out of?” She said with her eyebrows furled.
Davis looked red for a minute. “Yeah . . . well . . . you never know when a grenade will come in handy,” he said defensively. “I also needed to get some extras so I can start holding training sessions. I got pistols for Jesse and Alex but there is no way I am handing them over till I have shown you how to use them properly and you get some shots in at the range. Cliff has a hip holster pistol and a really nice, double magazine, combat rifle. It can switch between regular and armor piercing shells with the flip of a switch! I am also going to show him how to properly use the different types of grenades I brought back with me.” Davis was beaming, obviously proud of his assortment.
“For myself . . .” he tapped a long tube he had set down by his leg. “I have this shoulder-fired rocket . . .” Jesse and Alex put their hands up and backed away. “Don’t worry, it won’t blow anything up unless I want it to. Just don’t play with it. I also grabbed a few high-powered pistols and a sniper rifle.” Cliff and Davis then simultaneously pulled several bags off their shoulders that had been draped over them. “And, of course, fun weapons are not that useful without enough ammo to use them. I grabbed extra to use in training.”
Another knock on the door interrupted the display. Davis opened it slowly until he realized it was just a delivery guy. He took the bags and left a nice tip. The man took his tip hesitantly while eyeing the stockpile of weapons that had been unloaded just inside the entrance of the room. “Th-thanks,” he said before he took off running.
Davis and Cliff started laughing while Alex stared at them with a disapproving look. “Don’t laugh, that poor guy was legitimately scared!” she reprimanded.
“That doesn’t make it less funny,” Cliff said while trying to control himself. Alex smirked, and Jesse joined them in laughter. Everyone had been so down for so long that a good laugh felt so relieving, even if it was at the poor delivery guy’s expense.
Then, Alex walked back out to the balcony and returned after a brief moment outside. “It is dark out now guys, want to move this to the roof of the castle? There is supposed to be a meteor shower tonight and our last campout got cut a little short.” The men nodded in agreement and started putting their gear together that was still in the room from the previous night. Alex packed up a few things and they once again headed for the roof.
“Well howdy stranger!” Jesse almost yelled as they got to the stop of the stairs. Arelia and Riley were both there camping out again. “Looks like we get to have a repeat of last night, but hopefully without all the theatrics.”
“That sounds boring.” Arelia joked back. Her face did not hide her excitement at all. “After we saved your butts you should hire us to join your security team!”
“We are not hiring right now,” Davis said coldly. Jesse shot him daggers with his eyes. “Just because we were desperate enough to hire this guy doesn’t mean we are reduced to hiring Sanctum cronies.” He was pointing at Jesse when he said this guy and Jesse’s jovial attitude was gone.
“I’m the computer specialist,” he said defensively. Jesse was caught off guard by Davis’s hostility. He looked over at the girls and gave them a smirk that he hoped was charming. “I am going to go set up, I’ll be back in a bit though!” They smiled back at him and waved as he walked away.
“What are you doing?” Davis asked Jesse angrily as they got to the other firepit on the roof. “They are obviously Sanctum spies!” Cliff thought it was funny listening to Davis be angry and quiet at the same time. It sounded almost like grunting.
“The Sanctum soldiers helped us today.” Jesse replied just as angrily. “Lighten up.” A fly started buzzing around his head, he tried to shoo it away, but it was persistent. By the time they reached where they were going it flew off on its own. What is a fly doing up here? Jesse wondered.
“I’ll lighten up when they come clean with us.” Davis retorted, bringing Jesse back from the distraction of the fly. “They have been deceptive with us from the start. After seeing that woman I am convinced that they have some sort of top-secret weapons lab in those caves. That technology is far beyond anything I have ever seen so I would not put espionage past what the Sanctum is capable of. They probably steal military secrets from every nation on this planet and combine the various technologies into weapons. No one suspects them because they hide under the guise of a religion.”
“Whatever,” Jesse said as he threw his gear down on the ground. “You guys can stay here and fabricate conspiracy theories . . . something that is usually my job by the way, and I will go back over there and do some counterespionage with those Sanctum girls.”
“Do what you want.” Davis replied still angry. “But I’m not sure you’re cut out for this team.”
“You can kick me off the team if you want,” Jesse said once again back on the defensive. “I’m still going to stick with you guys. Those Chengarian agents said my name along with yours and I plan to stay next to the guys with rockets and armor piercing rifles.”
“None of that will matter if the Sanctum releases that woman on us.” Davis responded.
Jesse barely caught Davis’s response as he was halfway back across the tower toward the girls. When he got to them he found they were lying on their backs to watch the meteor shower. He decided to lay down next to Arelia and join them. No one said anything at first but eventually Jesse broke the silence. “I don’t suppose you guys want to talk about a secret Sanctum program involving some sort of android woman?” He had thought about ways to approach it and in the end he decided to just jump right in. If he could get any kind of information, he would throw it in Davis’s face. Not part of the team? I’ll show him!
“She is not an android. She is an Angel.” Arelia replied. Jesse looked
incredulous though Arelia could not see his face. She plopped her arm down on Jesse’s chest, leaving a letter behind when she took it away. “That is for you from her. She says the four of you need to be present when you open it.”
Jesse felt a tingling in his chest where the letter lay. He picked it up and the tingling transferred to his hand. A bit weirded out he hastily shoved the letter in his pocket but all that did was shift the strange sensation to his hip. He half laughed under his breath. “At this point I might just believe anything.” He heard Arelia moving next to him again, but this time her hand came down on his hand instead of his chest. It sat there for a brief moment, neither of them daring to take the next step, but after the moment was gone Jesse closed his hand around hers. Together they held hands staring up at the meteor shower that was now in full effect. Lights streaked across the sky in all different colors. A natural fireworks display, Jesse thought.
“There is a rogue Chengarian unit in the city looking for you. Lena has spent the last two days trying to smoke them out.” Arelia said attempting to continue the explanation she had for the day’s strange events.
“Wait . . . all the murders reported around Dengrin . . . that was her?” Jesse asked astonished.
“Yes.” Arelia replied. “And all of those people were spies from Chengar, operatives looking to end your lives.” The fly from before returned to buzz around Arelia and Jesse. Several more quickly joined it.
“Why us?” Jesse asked, once again trying to shoo away the flies. “What is so special about us? And why are you saying that Lena is doing these things? She is too old! Don’t you mean that android . . . or angel woman?” Angel, that will be the day. Jesse thought, She must be really gullible if the Sanctum told her that and she believed it.
“Guys.” Came the voice of Riley from the other side of Arelia. “These flies are acting strange.” She reached out with lightning quick precision and grabbed one from out of the air, but it was promptly released when a shot of pain ran down her arm. “Ahh! It bit me!” Riley exclaimed. She looked at her hand in the firelight and saw that it was bleeding. “Denoria doesn’t have any natural biting flies that are big enough to draw blood.” Riley murmured. There were now at least a dozen of them swarming around them.
Arelia and Jesse slowly got to their feet. “This doesn’t feel right,” Arelia said calmly.
Jesse looked up and squinted. Stars seemed to be blinking in and out in large numbers. “A meteor shower wouldn’t cause—” His mumbling was cut short by the air raid alarm sounding down in the castle below. Small red lights began to appear in the sky above them that seemed to get larger and larger every second they stared at them.
“Get off the roof!” Riley yelled. “Davis, Alex, Cliff, off the roof now!” The red lights continued to grow larger as they got closer. The three at the other camp heard Riley’s yelling but were too entranced by what was happening to move—that is, until the first red ball slammed into the tower next to them. Flame enveloped the entire top of the tower and splattered fire all down its sides. Where the liquid flame landed it continued to burn. Within moments, similar balls were falling all over the castle.
Chapter 10
“Get below!” Davis screamed. “It’s Napalm!” He had never seen napalm used like this, but he was not about to spend time thinking about it. The balls fell like rain and no sooner did Davis, Cliff, and Alex set running for the stairs that a glancing hit from a fireball set the back corner of the tower ablaze. The liquid quickly began to swamp the flat surface with its flames.
“Go!” Arelia yelled to Jesse, “I’m right behind you!” Jesse ran down the stairs and then looked back to see that Arelia was not there. Before he could run back to the surface his three friends led by Davis bounded down the stairs toward him. Another fireball hit the roof directly on center and the fire flooded down the top of the staircase. Jesse just stood there staring, waiting for Arelia to come over the side and jump to him over the cascading flames . . . but she never came. His heart sank.
“Arelia! Arelia!” He yelled but there was no response. He started to try to work around the flames to get back up the stairs, but a wave of liquid flame poured over the top of the staircase opening. Before he could be turned into a human torch the hand, of Davis grabbed the back of his shirt and yanked him down the stairs. He tossed him through the door on the landing and jumped through it behind him. Cliff slammed the door shut as soon as he was safely through. The pool of flame began to fill up the landing outside the door and moments later it was burning its way underneath. Jesse was rubbing his shoulder and whimpering. “She was still out there . . . she was . . .” Tears began to fill his eyes. “Nooooo!!!! Arelia NOOO!!!!!” He screamed. Davis and Cliff pulled him back away from the door.
“We gotta go man!” Cliff yelled while fighting with Jesse to get him to the stairs. “We need to get to Alex’s room and try to wait this thing out!” Jesse looked at Cliff, his chin quivering. After a moment he nodded.
“If this stuff gets through it might go down the elevator shaft!” Davis yelled as he pointed down the stairs. “Take the stairs!” The group started bounding down the staircase hoping to outrun the fire if it broke through the door. Moments later they pushed their way into Alex’s room, it looked safe for now. The balcony had some of the napalm-like substance on it, but there was drainage on the balcony that was designed to slope water away from the door. The fiery substance seemed to flow off it the same way. Davis rushed across the room to the balcony to close the door, but before he could get it closed several of the large flies from before flew into the room. They stopped and hovered as if staring down the room’s inhabitants.
“Are those robots?” Jesse asked through his tears. “They seem to be following me . . . and Riley . . .” Images of the woman who was trapped on the roof when they fled flooded his mind. He shook his head as if it would make them go away. “Riley was bitten by one, she said there were no biting flies that big in . . .” Jessie’s words trailed off as he buried his face in his hands.
Davis grabbed one out of the air and smashed it into his other hand. Looking down at the mushed bug, he quickly wiped the remains on his pants and headed toward his weapon stockpile. “They are regular bugs, nothing mechanical about them.” Almost mechanically he started strapping his weapons on. Dual pistols on hip, check. Knife at ankle, lower back, and chest, check. Ammo bag belt above the gun holsters, check. Sniper rifle over back, check. Rocket slung over arm, check. Grenades clipped to various locations on his person, check. He looked over at Cliff to see him doing the same, though not as decked out as him. One pistol, one knife, and his dual magazine rifle with an ammo belt. He quickly shoved the rest of the stuff meant for Jesse and Alex into a bag—they were not ready for weapons yet. Davis looked over at Jesse, but he was still staring at the two bugs that were hovering near the balcony.
“Why aren’t they moving?” Jesse asked obviously still concerned.
“Stop whining about it and just kill them!” Davis yelled. He stormed over to the balcony door and smashed the two bugs in his hands like he did the previous one. “There, problem solved!” he growled with a frustrated tone. He turned and looked out the glass balcony door windows to see a red ball approaching fast. Bursting toward the back of the room with a speed the others did not realize was possible in a human, Davis shoved Cliff off the bed and to the floor. He proceeded to fling the bed on end. “Get in the bathroom!” He yelled to Jesse and Alex. They dove inside without hesitation. A red inferno slammed into the balcony and blew the balcony doors open. The flames splattered the entrance to the room and the liquid fire began to flow toward the group. Davis peaked his head above the flipped bed, but before he could see anything he ducked down again. The whole tower trembled. He heard stone debris scatter across the room with one large chunk of stone rolling right past the bed he and Cliff were hiding behind. Both Cliff and Davis poked their heads above the bed, but nothing could prepare them for what they saw.
Protruding through the stone wal
l to the left of the balcony door were four metal claws. Each had penetrated the 2 feet of stone and still had steel talons sticking through that were at least a foot long. The balcony was covered with flame and smoke, but behind the chaos a large reptilian eye could be seen that was over a foot across. It was scanning the room. Davis ducked back down and pulled Cliff with him. Jesse and Alex had started to poke their heads out, but Davis sternly motioned for them to stay put. As loud as he dared, he hoarsely whispered orders. “On three I want you two to dash for the door. Keep going down the stairs till you get to the basement and don’t look back.” He turned from Alex and Jesse to Cliff. “I am going to fire my rocket at the claw to try and dislodge whatever that thing is from the wall, you take a shot at the eye and book it down the stairs with the others.” Cliff nodded. Silently, Davis motioned with his fingers: One . . . Two . . . “Three!” he screamed.
Cliff’s eyes panned across the room as he turned his head to face the balcony, seconds seemed like minutes as adrenaline flooded his body. He saw the enormous four taloned claw in the wall, the fire . . . so much fire, the smoke . . . and . . . there it was. Glowing lightly behind the thick smoke, the huge eye. It darted back and forth trying to find them in the room, trying to make sure they were dead. It spotted Cliff and Davis and widened even larger, but to Cliff that just meant a bigger target. Cliff’s shoulder jerked back from the unexpected recoil while the armor piercing shell that came out the barrel of his rifle found its home in the creature’s eye. It lurched its head back and out of sight. The eye was no longer visible through the thick smoke.
Davis wasted no time firing his shoulder-mounted rocket down the length of the forty-foot room and finding his mark. The force of the explosion coupled with the weight of the clinging creature caused the entire back wall to fall away. Davis still could not see the beast, but he was not going to wait for it to come back. “Let’s get out of here!” He yelled to Cliff, who nodded in agreement.
