Thirty
As soon as the first few Grimm Reaper vehicles rolled onto our street, I knew our plan was never going to work. The night was too dark, the mist too dense. From my hiding spot in the rubble deep in the house, all I could make out through the window facing the street were lights and the occasional Grimm Reaper walking beside the vehicles.
The Grimm Reapers entered the street with their foot soldiers marching on either side of the vehicles protecting their flanks. Through the mist, I could hear the throaty roars of the engines. Beams of light both from the headlights on the vehicles and from high-powered torches in the soldiers’ hands cut through the mist and darkness.
Where my plan fell apart was that I would never be able to make out Aleron in a vehicle. I couldn’t even see the face of those men walking with the vehicles.
“I need to get closer,” I said in a low tone. “I can’t see anything by hiding in a house. I need to get among them.”
“Be careful,” Cassie answered.
“Let us know if you need a distraction,” Sergeant Toy said. “We’re good at distractions.”
“Not yet,” I said, rolling out from under my cover. “I need to locate Aleron first.”
Slowly, I removed myself from my hiding space, keeping low and below the sill of the window that opened out into the street.
I was so close, I could hear the enemy talking, mostly complaining about having to walk in the darkness. I peeked over the sill. The soldiers came spaced a few dozen meters apart, guarding the flanks of the vehicles that rumbled down the street.
I saw my chance, a break in the line where a Grimm Reaper passed by while the one behind him was still far enough away he shouldn’t notice me slip out from inside the building.
Heart pounding like a war drum, I leaped over the sill and onto the street. I placed the goggles on my eyes and hugged my cloak close.
“Hey, you there!” a voice cut through the mist.
I shield my eyes as I looked over to my right. A Grimm Reaper with missing teeth and hood of his own walked over to me. He shone the light full in my face. My hand went to the hilt of the knife inside my cloak.
“We told you lot not to be going into the houses for looting, didn’t we?” the man growled. “There’ll be plenty of time for looting and ransacking when we arrive. That order comes straight from the top.”
“Oh,” I said, releasing the hold on my hilt. This man’s stupidity just saved his life. “You think I was looting that place and just jumped out the window?”
“I ain’t stupid.” The man shoved another high-powered torch in my hand. “Here, you stay here and make sure the line keeps moving. I see you going through these buildings again, I’ll string you up like a white-tailed mutie boar and skin you alive. You understand me, boy?”
“Oh yes,” I said, playing the part of a scared soldier. I frantically nodded. “You can count on me.”
“All right, then,” the Grimm Reaper huffed. “Make sure the convoy keeps moving and follow along with the rear guard when they come along.”
With that, the man was off. Not only had he provided me with a light, but he’d also given me the go-ahead to stand my ground and watch as the convoy passed. In a course of events that had not worked to my favor, finally, things were looking up.
I moved my torch up and down the street searching the vehicles. When a soldier would walk by, I would give them a “hurry along” or “no looting” just to make sure I fit the part.
On their end, they said nothing. As far as they knew, I was someone with rank or status in the Grimm Reaper gang.
The vehicles passed two at a time and slow. There were dune buggies, hover bikes, open trucks carrying soldiers, and even larger vehicles with flat beds that hauled dozens of grizzly-looking fighters.
Major Valentine was right; Aleron had been recruiting on his way.
Vehicle after vehicle passed. As the seconds ticked by, I knew we were running out of time. The plan was to box them in the street by destroying the front and last vehicles. With so many vehicles, the Grimm Reaper convoy would be through our kill box before I set the rear charges. That meant a force would be in front and behind our kill box.
I did my best not to shine my light in the drivers’ faces as I searched for Aleron. Panic was close by when I came up with an idea.
I grabbed the next soldier that passed, and in my best disguised voice, asked him, “Yar there, matey, where be Alron in this convoyer? I’ve gotem an important message for ‘um.”
“Why are you talking like that?” The Grimm Reaper pulled away from me. “You weirdo.”
“Aleron?” I insisted.
“In the lifted truck with heavy wheels.” The man grimaced at me, moving into the mist. He shook his head, muttering to himself as he went. “Where do they find these guys?”
“They’re Grimm Reapers, not pirates,” Cassie said in my ear.
I ignored her for the moment, searching the street to my right, where more vehicles poured through. That was when I saw it. A rusted truck with tires as tall as I was rolled by. It was so wide, no other vehicle drove beside it. On the door, it carried the symbol of the Grimm Reapers, a skeleton-like figure with a hood holding a scythe.
I shone my flashlight by catching the left side of Aleron’s bald head.
“Here we go,” I whispered into my earpiece. With my right hand, I reached inside my pocket. My fingers wrapped around the cold cylinder piece of metal.
Sergeant Toy had provided me with two magnetic grenades. The vehicle coming up behind Aleron’s was a small four-wheeled car that looked like it was more rust than metal.
As casually as I could, I moved to walk beside it. I pressed the five-second delay on the magnetic grenades and slapped it on the left fender of the vehicle.
Without looking back to see if the driver understood what just happened. I made a beeline for the left side of the street, forcing myself not to run.
BOOM!
The explosion rocked the relative silence of the night. Where the occasional shout or low rumbled of the vehicles filled the night, now the sounds of weapons being fired dominated the still.
Sergeant Toy, Laine and Cassie opened fire on the Grimm Reapers. Their orders were simple. No more than two to three shots from any location before moving to the next. If the Grimm Reapers with their superior numbers and fire power were able to track where the weapon fire came from, it would be over.
Screams echoed in the night as another explosion went off. Sergeant Toy had detonated a vehicle at the front of our kill box. Those inside were trapped now.
I had minutes, maybe less to get X and get the heck out of there before our winged friend came to see what all the racket was about.
I sprinted toward Aleron’s truck, disregarding the idea that anyone would see me taking out their leader. There were so many shouts of panic and pain in the air, I doubted anyone even noticed me.
Aleron made it even easier. He opened the door of his lifted truck yelling orders.
“Get the convoy moving!” he shouted into the night. “We can’t stay here. Skirmishers on foot get into those buildings and find out who’s firing at us. Kill them all.”
I climbed up the giant rear tire using the treads as footholds. I vaulted over the side, landing in the back of the truck in the middle of six armed men.
From my vantage point on the ground, I couldn’t see Aleron’s personal unit in the bed of the vehicle.
We stood there staring at each other for a moment.
“Arrr, mateys?” I asked.
They went for their weapons and I followed suit. Slashing out with my axe and knife, I skewered two in the skull and kicked a third off before they had their weapons pointed at me.
Pain exploded in my left shoulder as I took a round before closing the distance. I stabbed one Grimm Reaper in the gut with my knife and decapitated the other with my axe.
The final soldier looked at me wide-eyed then did himself a favor and jumped out the back of the truck.
<
br /> “Why won’t you just die!” Aleron said, swinging up from the seat and landing in the rear of the truck. “I’ll kill you myself.”
Aleron rushed me with a thick blade; one side sharp, the other serrated. I deflected the first few strikes from the weapon. Aleron landed a fist to my face with his free hand.
I tasted blood as we struggled on the back of the truck. All around us, hell broke loose and then things got worse.
That deep monstrous roar I had come to know filled the night sky. Sounds of massive beating wings joined the cacophony of weapon fire permeating the night sky.
Focus, I told myself in the split second Aleron’s attention was taken. As much as you want to, you’re not trying to kill Aleron. You’re trying to save X.
I shoved my axe and blade into my belt and tackled the large man. We went down awkwardly as I searched the area behind either of his ears. No X.
I ignored the pain as Aleron stabbed up, taking a slice out of my side. His knife buried then caught in my cloak.
I searched Aleron’s own long jacket pocket, feeling something square and hard in my hands.
“Daniel, you have to get out of there!” Cassie yelled in my ear.
I ripped the item out of Aleron’s jacket. It was a small black box. Opening it, I saw the circular chip. X.
The pain I experienced in my stomach was numbing. I felt like I couldn’t move. In the time I had taken to locate X, Aleron freed his weapon and climbed to his feet. The blade he wielded as a weapon stuck through my gut and out the back end.
“I know what you are,” Aleron said, twisting the knife deeper. “I know this probably won’t kill you, so that’s why I’m going to take your head.”
Aleron ripped the knife free, sending me down on my hands and knees in a pool of my own blood. I shook but managed to hold on to X in my right hand.
X was saying something from her external speaker, but I couldn’t hear her. Aleron lifted the blade over his head, ready to bring it down on my exposed neck.
There was so much noise vying for my attention, I just barely heard someone over the comms shout, “Fire! It breathes fire!”
Before Aleron could bring the knife down, we were engulfed in a jet of flames that lit the entire vehicle on fire. An explosion rocked from somewhere below and sent us flying.
All I could think was not to let go of X. So many shades of pain laced my body, but none more than slamming into one of the stone houses on the street. Fire ate my cloak with hungry red tongues as a good portion of my body was burned.
I could only see from one eye.
The only positive thing about the scenario was that no one was looking for me. All the Grimm Reapers were either running if they were smart or standing and trying to fight the dragon if they were stupid.
My hearing was gone; only a high-pitched tone filled my head and the space around me.
I looked down at my closed right hand. The skin was burned off my knuckles, showing blood and burned flesh underneath. Shaking, I opened my palm.
X’s chip sat in my hand, safe and whole.
“Oh, Daniel,” X said through her external speakers. “What did you do? Look at you.”
“You got to get out of there!” Cassie’s scream cut through the din. “That dragon is on a rampage!”
I slammed X’s chip into the right side of my neck behind my ear. Attached to her data chip was a long needle that linked us as one.
The pain of the needle was nothing compared to the discomfort I felt all over my body. Although my healing ability was at work, I had done a number on my body this time.
My stomach wound was closed, the burns over the majority of the left side of my body were healing as well but slowly as my ability fought to keep me together.
“We’ll give you what cover we can, but you pull back to base,” Sergeant Toy ordered. “Titans, Cassie, Laine, pop up only when you’re sure you’re out of sight of the dragon and have a clear shot.”
I started my run down the street that was more of a stumble at best. It was only my mind telling my legs to move that propelled me forward. All around, the mist separated from the street. The dragon’s powerful wings gave Laine and the rest of the group clear shots.
The lights and fires from the vehicles further aided me on my run. All the yells and screams were just white noise to me as I fought to finish our mission. I just had to make it back to the safety of the structure where Major Valentine waited. I just had to go a little further.
A Grimm Reaper popped up next to me. It was the same one who had voluntarily thrown himself out the back of Aleron’s truck. He knew who I was.
I was too slow as he brought his blaster up to my head. His skull exploded in a shower of red mist and bone.
“Got him,” Laine said over the comms. “Hurry, Daniel, you’re almost there.”
“Daniel?” X asked in my head. “What’s going on? Is that—is that a dragon?”
It felt good to hear her in my head again. It felt great to have my old friend back.
“Tell you—all about it—soon,” I wheezed. Finally, I made it past the battle and traveled the two extra blocks to safety.
We’d done it. We saved X against all odds and kept Aleron from creating his immortal army.
Epilogue
I arrived at the corner lot to see nothing but a pile of rubble. Where once stone walls had stood firm and the roof only partially caved in, there was nothing but destruction.
My heart sank. I was just beginning to feel the pain lessen and now this.
“Hurry! Hurry, it’s Major Valentine she’s bleeding out!” Rival’s voice said from somewhere in the wreckage.
Without thinking, I acted. I ran onto the pile of rubble just in time to see Rival Mercer take a knife and cut Major Valentine’s throat.
The major’s left arm and most of her body were trapped under a pile of rock. She was unconscious. A steady line of blood gushed from her throat.
“Hurry, you can still save her if you stop the bleeding,” Rival encouraged me.
How he had gotten out of his restraints or what had happened to the house were questions I didn’t have time to answer. I ran to my injured friend and used my own hands to close the wound around her neck. Her blood was hot against my cold hands.
“Zoe, Zoe,” I said to the unconscious woman. “You hold on. You hold on, do you hear me? If you’re not strong enough to fight for yourself, then you fight for that little girl of yours. You’re strong enough to fight for her.”
“I’m not a doctor, but I know enough that if you release your hold on her wound, she’ll bleed out,” Rival said out loud as if he were talking to himself. “How lucky is that? When your dragon friend soared by, its tail or wing or body or something struck this very building.”
“You—I’m going to see you pay,” I growled at Rival. Half of me wanted to pull the MK II from my hip and let him have it, but he was right. My hands were stopping the bleeding. If I let go, Zoe might lose the blood she so desperately needed to survive.
“Promises, promises,” Rival said, clicking at a cracked data pad. “X, the Knights of the Way will herald in a new world. The gate must hold fast.”
“No!” I yelled too late.
“Entry, Immortal Chalice,” X said in a robotic tone not her own.
“X, don’t tell him,” I pleaded with her. But it wasn’t her at all. The coding imbedded in her made her speak now. I knew that.
“Coordinates, 3.4653 degrees south by 62.2159 degrees west,” X continued in her robotic voice. “Beware the Knights of the Way and even more so the gate.”
“Gracias, X,” Rival said, pressing a few buttons on the data pad. He looked over at me as if he were debating something. “I have a feeling our story is just beginning, my friend. Toodles for now.”
Rival ran out into the mist and disappeared a moment later.
“Help, I need help,” I screamed into my comm line. Frustration built up in my heart. I lifted my head to the sky, roaring my useless anger. I looked b
ack down to Zoe, whose breath came shallow and labored. “Hold on, you have to hold on.”
Daniel Hunt will be back in the next Forsaken Mercenary book, Rivals. Until then, stay informed by joining our Pack in the “Jonathan’s Reading Wolves” Facebook group and get the latest news on the project.
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Books in the Forsaken Mercenary Universe
Inception
Dropship
Absolution
Fury
Vendetta
Annihilation
Nemesis
Rivals (Coming soon!)
Nemesis: A Near Future Thriller (Forsaken Mercenary Book 6) Page 19
