I had enough time to see him cut a rider in two who was dumb enough to try and run over Preacher. With a singled fluid move, Preacher moved to the side, slashing up with his katana in a wide circle. Both rider and vehicle tumbled forward in the sand in two parts.
I wished I could’ve watched the master at his craft, but there was no time.
Man, even without his healing ability, he’s still a beast, I thought to myself.
The Grimm Reapers were organizing now, coming at us in strafing runs, using their superior numbers to their advantage. They fired volleys of multi-colored blaster rounds at us. Along with the various rounds were old-model steel slugs and even a few arrows for good measure.
Slugs and much less arrows were ancient weapons of the past, but here on Earth, there were no rules. Clans and factions that popped up used whatever they could get their hands on, and in many cases, it was older, less high-tech weaponry.
“Daniel,” X reminded me in my head as I connected a steel round to the temple of a driver of a dune buggy who then slammed into a sand dune. “Daniel, I know you’re doing what you think you need to right now, but Cassie and Preacher can deal with them. Monica’s still under the jeep.”
“Right,” I said, rolling to my right. I zigzagged toward the jeep, where Cassie and Preacher took up positions around the upturned vehicle.
The jeep smoked, but only a small flame came up from the wheel where the Grimm Reaper detonated the explosive.
I couldn’t see Cassie’s and Preacher’s faces when I approached, but I could guess they understood what I was doing. Both Cyber Hunter and the leader of the Pack Protocol stayed on point dealing with the enemy instead of looking at me.
I ducked inside the jeep.
Monica hung upside down, still strapped into her seatbelt. She wore a white Phoenix uniform. Her hair fell toward the floor. A thin line of blood dripped down her forehead.
“X?” I asked, even as I headed to unbuckle and pull her out.
“She’s not dead,” X answered as she scanned the unconscious doctor. “Knocked out, possible contusions, and cracked ribs, but she’s alive.”
I didn’t waste time on words. The staccato sounds of fire outside were getting louder. The Grimm Reapers must have gotten a surge of excitement when they saw me enter the jeep.
Monica’s eyes were closed. Once again, I wondered what would have driven her from the safety of her own base to come alone across the desert without radioing us first.
The buckle across her lap and chest was too strong for me to tear, even with my enhanced strength. The buckle was locked in place, maybe even twisted shut. I withdrew my knife and sliced through the seatbelt.
As gently as I could, which wasn’t very, I maneuvered Monica into a upright position then dragged her from the inside of the upturned vehicle.
Outside things had deescalated, but not in a good way. The Grimm Reapers drew back to a steep dune in the desert landscape. A heavy truck with a closed container at the rear was being backed into place with the steel container doors pointing toward us.
Whatever was inside the steel container shook the entire steel box. Even from this distance, we could hear the snarls and growls from whatever was inside the container.
A low chant from the Grimm Reapers began to fill the din as something unnatural was prepared to be set loose on us. Their chant started low and eerie.
Preacher took off his helmet While Cassie looked around us for a way out.
“Is she alive?” Cassie asked.
“Yeah, but I don’t think we’re going to be able to get her out of here on a hover bike,” I answered, looking over at Cassie’s and Preacher’s vehicles. Cassie’s was still intact. Preacher’s had taken a few rounds that left it twisted and smoking.
“We’ll have to find another way back before they let whatever’s in that box out,” Preacher confirmed. “Any idea what’s in there?”
“If all the Grimm Reapers pulled back and it has them this excited, I don’t want to know,” I answered. “X, can you get us transport out of here?”
“Already contacted Bapz, but they’re four minutes out from Dragon Hold,” X answered.
“And we’re out of time.” Cassie jerked her helmeted head toward the steel crate being opened.
The steel container trembled and vibrated as something large hit it from the inside. More than one snarling guttural sound echoed through the container.
Two Grimm Reapers must have lost a bet because neither one of them looked happy to be the ones going to the front of the container to open the doors. The rest of the Grimm Reapers retreated a safe distance to their vehicles on the dune.
The doors to the steel box swung open, revealing four of the most grotesque animals I had ever seen. And I liked animals.
Six
These mutated creatures were boar, or at least what had at one time passed for boar here on Earth. How they had gotten here or where they came from was lost on me in the moment.
They were massive with razor-sharp tusks, each the length of a thick knife and twice as wide. Their skin was wrinkled and dry. The dark hair they did have clung to their hide in molten patches.
Free from their cage, the four animals examined the battlefield with wild yellow eyes. They snorted and squealed now.
If I had to guess, they were between two and three hundred pounds, more than large enough to cause us trouble if they decided to.
The two of the Grimm Reappears who opened the steel box scrambled back to the safety of their lines. One of them tripped in his haste and rolled down the steep hill.
The boar closest to the man zeroed in on him. The man yelled for help, trying to regain his footing.
With a squeal, the boar charged forward, impaling the man all the way through his back, into his sternum. A pair of dirty tusks punctured him, sprouting through the front end of his shirt in a shower of blood.
“OHHHHHH!” A roar came up from the lines of the Grimm Reapers as they cheered for the death of one of their own like a crowd attending an ancient gladiator battle.
The other boar were already trotting over the carnage of the battlefield, sniffing at dead bodies and destroyed vehicles. It wouldn’t be long before they zeroed in on us and started their charge.
“Stay with her,” Preacher told us, nodding at Monica’s still form. He moved out from behind the upturned jeep toward the approaching boar.
The boar in the lead shrieked and snorted when it saw Preacher exit the cover of the jeep. The hunk of muscle and tusk turned its wild eyes at Preacher and started its run.
The boar was deceptively fast on those stubby little legs of his. It lowered its head as it closed the distance.
Preacher turned sideways, calm and cool as I’d ever seen him. He crouched and lowered his blade so the steel end nearly touched the sand. The two figures contrasted each other in stance and their chosen tactics.
Hundreds of pounds of raw madness hurtled directly at Preacher like strong wind. For his part, Preacher stood still and calm as a mountain.
Half of me wanted to shout at Preacher to get out of the way.
He knows what he’s doing. He knows what he’s doing. He knows what he’s doing, I repeated to myself in my mind.
“Does he know what he’s doing?” Cassie asked beside me.
“I hope so,” I answered, lifting my MK II just in case.
Cassie did the same, bringing her right forearm to bear on the animal.
“HA!” Preacher shouted, swiping his humming red katana violently upward while rotating to his right.
The boar didn’t even make a sound as the katana cut through its skull in two equal parts. The animal came to a skidding stop in the sand. Its head separated like equal parts of a melon.
“Hey, not bad,” I said, feeling pretty confident about taking out the other three boar. “I think we’re going to be okay.”
“Daniel?” X asked in a voice that told me all was not well.
I searched the landscape, trying to find what alr
eady worried X.
I saw it at the top of the dune with the truck that was already open. Another two trucks had joined the one at the dune. Already unlucky Grimm Reapers were opening the back of the trucks. At least a dozen more boar filed out, squealing and snorting in anger at being locked up in such a small pen.
“You had to say something,” Cassie said as the boar half trotted half fell down the sand dune toward us.
“Where’s that transport, X?” I asked.
“Three minutes,” X answered.
“Well, here we go,” Cassie answered. “I’ll take the right side of the jeep.”
I nodded, removing my helmet so I could see better before checking the drum in my MK II. I had a pair of steel rounds left, then I’d have to cycle to explosive, knockout, or gas rounds.
As soon as the boar regained their feet and took in their surroundings of the battle, they sniffed the air, locating the three of us.. They were hatful little muties. Without even giving us a chance to play nice, they charged.
I fired my last two bolts before switching to knockout rounds. They were too close to use explosive or gas rounds. Plus Preacher stood a few meters in front of me and I didn’t want to risk him getting caught in either an explosion or the gas.
The two boar I caught with the steel bolts fell, while the ones hit by the tranquilizers didn’t even seem fazed. Their tough hides were too thick for the knockout rounds to penetrate.
I heard Cassie firing her blaster from my right but couldn’t afford the time to look over.
Preacher sliced through two more before grunting as he went down to his knees. A third boar had clipped him, opening a wound across his right thigh with its razor-sharp tusk.
Right now, I had to deal with what was in front of me, and that was a pair of boar about to use me as a landing pad. I dropped my MK II into the sand at my feet. Time slowed as I saw the actions play through my mind before I committed to following through.
Then time sped up. I called for my axe and knife by jerking the fingers on either palms toward me. The metal recallers that looked like silver bands on my wrists sent the weapons to my hands via a magnetic wave.
As fast as I was, I couldn’t attack and dodge both creatures. Instead of trying, I decided to deal with one at a time. The first boar drove into me tusks first. I twisted to the side, driving my knife as deeply as I could through the creature’s right eye.
Its right tusk ravaged my arm, drawing a deep gash that left a trail of blood. The boar fell to all fours, roaring in pain as it tried to dislodge the knife from its eye.
There was no time left to see what would happen. The second boar tackled me so violently, the breath involuntarily escaped my lungs in a rush. For a second, I was airborne. The next, I hit the sand with the boar on me. It bit down using massive teeth to try and take my face.
I lifted my left arm, letting it chew on that instead.
The pain that came with the mutie tearing at my arm was fiery hot at first then numbing. Feeling nothing worried me more than if my arm felt as though it were being ripped from my body.
A cold sweat hit me as my heartbeat drummed so loud, I could feel it in my head.
With my right hand, I used the axe to bash in the side of the boar’s head. Over and over again, I slammed the blade of my weapon. Every time the axe came back, it pulled free molten hair, rough skin, foul-smelling flesh, and bone.
“Rawww!” I yelled to anyone who would hear as I drove the weapon into the mutie’s skull over and over again.
Soon the boar had had enough. The vise-like grip on my left forearm released. The boar fell on my already heaving chest. Its weight was crushing. Already exhausted, I looked at the battle field around me. Preacher was squaring off with one more boar while Cassie stood over Monica to my right, protecting the unconscious woman.
A handful of boar were all that were on their feet at the moment. Shuffling from somewhere above my supine position made me jerk my head up. The boar with the knife still stuck in its eye was on its feet. It stared hate directly into my soul with its one good pupil.
At this vantage point, I was able to see how large the boar really was. This one, in fact, was even bigger than the others with greyish-black hair coming off its wrinkly skin.
Saliva dripping from its open maw, it came at me again.
I used my recaller on my left free hand to rip the knife out of its eyes and call it to me once again. The weapon flew through the air as if by magic, coming to rest in my grip.
The act of tearing the knife out of the creature’s eye did little to stop the boar. It was already on me, aiming for my head. I was helpless at the moment, pinned under the second boar.
Oh, this is going to hurt, I thought to myself before the boar made my face look like a crater on the moon.
Seven
I wasn’t really sure what happened next. One second, the boar was about to unleash its bacon-wrapped wrath on me. The next second, something hit it so hard, it was derailed from its current trajectory and thrown to the side.
As my mind struggled to make sense of the moment, I heard a familiar growl. I craned my neck further up to see Butch standing protectively between me and the boar.
The enormous wolf’s head was lowered close to the ground. A line of her fur from the center of her spine at the nap of her neck all the way down to her tail stood on end. Her ears were flattened against her head. Butch showed all of her teeth, licking out with a pink tongue.
The wounded boar looked as confused as I did. It recovered quickly, circling Butch, whose guttural growls were so low and menacing, they almost frightened me.
“Two minutes,” X said in my head. “Hang on, help is almost here.”
I summoned the rest of my strength, ignoring the numbness in my tattered left arm. Instead of focusing on pain, I set my mind to pushing the boar off me. Even with my enhanced strength, wounded and with the use of one arm, getting the boar off me was difficult, to say the least.
The smell of the carcass was horrendous, making me want to throw up. Using my right arm, I leveraged the dead boar, trying to roll it to my right instead of fighting to lift the whole thing.
I heard Butch and the boar go at it in a series of animalistic clashes. I couldn’t see how the battle was faring at the moment as I concentrated on getting the dead boar off me, then turned to get on my knees.
When I did get to my feet, I saw Butch holding her own. The boar had a new wound, half of its lower lip hung from its mouth by a cord of red sinew. Butch limped on her right front paw, trying to keep weight off it.
The mutant boar, seeing that Butch was wounded, pressed its advantage. The wild animal lunged at her.
In my mind somewhere, I knew Butch would be okay. She was far from helpless. My love for the animal refused to let me just stand and watch. I forced my legs forward under me, running toward where the animals clashed. The heavier boar used its weight to land on top of Butch, forcing her to the ground.
The boar lowered its head to press its tusks into Butch’s exposed neck. I reared back with my right arm, sending the axe in my hand spiraling end over end as it crossed the distance between me and the boar. The axe sank deep in the left side of the boar’s face.
It stood there, stunned for a moment, as if it wasn’t sure if it was going to die or just shake off the impressive wound. Butch made that decision for it. She reached up with her jaws wide, taking the boar’s throat in her teeth and sinking in deep.
Using the weight of her body Butch, forced the boar off. Shaking her head back and forth, she ripped the muties throat from its body.
I sank to my knees, half in exhaustion half in gratefulness that Butch hadn’t been wounded further.
“One minute out,” X said in my head, reminding me of when our back up would arrive.
I surveyed the battlefield. All the boars lay dead or so wounded, they couldn’t manage to get to their feet. Preacher limped back to the jeep. Cassie was the only one of us that looked as if she had been spared any kind of
injury. Monica lay still, her chest rising and falling to tell us she was still alive.
“Didn’t I promise you a show!?” a familiar voice shouted from the side of the sand dune where the trucks released the boars. “Didn’t I promise you entertainment when you pledged your loyalty to the Grimm Reapers?”
Aleron Jacobs, the previous leader of the Reapers and now founder of the new Grimm Reapers, stood on the dune. His muscular arms were open to take in the battlefield below him.
The Grimm Reapers around him cheered and roared their approval.
“You!” Aleron said, pointing at me with an accusing finger. At least I thought it was me. He was so far away, it was hard to tell who he was pointing at.
“Is he talking to you?” Cassie asked me.
“I think so,” I said.
“Daniel Hunt!” Aleron continued.
“Yep, he’s talking to me,” I confirmed.
“You took everything from me. First on the moon when you sent me to my prison, and then my gang when you helped that traitor Papa steal what was mine. What I built!” Aleron roared just as loud as one of the mutie boars. “I’m going to take it all from you now. By the time this is all over, you’ll beg me to take your life.”
Adrenaline acted to numb the pain in my arm and the rest of my body. I stepped out into the open from the cover the upturned jeep brought.
“I’m here right now,” I said with a shrug. “Why don’t you walk your wounded feelings over here and we can settle this before I take something else that belongs to you.”
“No,” Aleron shouted. “Not now when there are so few to see you fall. Your time will come.”
Reinforcements from Dragon Hold arrived. I could see them pulling up now through my peripheral vision. Bapz sent Wesley and four heavy SUVs equipped with mounted weapons.
Aleron waved his force back from beyond the dune. The Grimm Reapers boarded their own vehicles and pulled out of sight.
“What was that all about?” Wesley asked from the opening in the roofs of one of the SUVs. He sat behind a long-barreled weapon mounted to the roof of the vehicle.
Nemesis: A Near Future Thriller (Forsaken Mercenary Book 6) Page 4
