Pestilence Rising

by Lea Ryan

  Chapter 14

   

  Everyone in the Law Office of Lemon and Wallitz was up early the next morning, including Celeste who arrived back from her night flight just before dawn. She'd snuck in through the back door and slept on the sofa across from mine for an hour or so until Nigel came down. Teag had stayed overnight, too. He would man the computer in the loft during the raid.

  The raid. My raid. A raid on my people who really were my people in one very important way. Would I have to kill any of them? Probably. Did I want to? A few of them did deserve to have very bad things happen to them, particularly Vic.

  What would Bree think of me for participating in the raid that killed her brother? And he would die if we won because loyalty and his pride wouldn't allow retreat. He wouldn't let himself be taken captive, either.

  I pondered this as I lay on the couch.

  Nigel presented a box of organic granola cereal to me, “Eat some of this quickly. You'll need the nutrition for energy.”

  Such an odd way to roust me.

  “That was downright motherly, Nige. Thanks.” I sat up and stuck my hand in the box and wondered if he performed similar functions for Gideon. Maybe he really was the butler.

  When the supervisor himself walked in, I moved my breakfast to the back porch. I couldn't deal with him too early in the morning, especially after he'd spent the night sleeping on a lawyer's office couch. To call him grouchy would've been a gross understatement. We had three enforcers with us in the house, and he managed to snap at all three between the second floor and Doris' desk in the front room.

  The back yard was more peaceful, the only real noise coming from a guy mowing his lawn a couple of houses down on my left. I would've given anything to trade places with him. He probably had no idea how lucky he was.

  Birds were audible. I breathed in the fresh air, fully aware that this could be my last day of life. The odds were so completely against us.

  At least we wouldn't be alone. Badass Commander Owen was bringing reinforcements, his soldiers for the Center who had volunteered to take on what might end up being a suicide mission. Crazy bastards. One thing was for sure - if I were a Center employee (a normal employee), and they offered that job to me, I would've laughed my ass off on the way out of the room. No way in hell would I saunter into a cult compound full of ravagers.

  They arrived in a black Center van just before eight thirty. Gideon insisted that we all go out into the back yard to meet them. He gave me an enforcer uniform to wear - black shirt, cargo pants complete with holster and ammo belt, and combat boots. They fit pretty well, interestingly enough, almost like my conversion to soldier was part of his plan all along. Teag looked scared when he saw me.

  “Whoa, I never thought I'd see you dressed like that. It's like your evil twin from an alternate dimension. How does it feel?”

  “Like I'm a traitor to myself.”

  “Quiet down, and have some respect.” Gideon practically spat at us.

  I noticed then the contrast between what I wore and what Gideon wore, actually the contrast between what he wore and what all the enforcers wore. The man loved his white suit. Interesting that it was the polar opposite of his underlings' attire.  

  The passenger door of the van swung open. Out stepped the largest man I had ever seen in my entire life. He was a giant, a mountain of bulk, with dark skin and cop sunglasses, his rigidly clean-shaven face set with determination.

  He went around to the back of the van to let out his men. They hopped down into the morning light, each of them dressed exactly like their commander. Without any direction from him, they formed a line across from our line.

  Gideon stepped forward to introduce him to us, “Team, this is Commander Owen Greyson. You'll take orders from him like you would take orders from me. He is your superior. Comprende?”

  Owen is not really what I would call a badass name. The only other Owen I had known was a regional elementary school chess club champion. He was also freakishly good in spelling bees. This was not that Owen.

  We nodded in acquiescence, which was apparently not the reaction Commander Owen was looking for.

  “Can I get a 'yes, sir'?” He barked at us.

  The other enforcers obliged him. Celeste gave me a look that asked what is up with this guy? I shrugged.

  Owen zeroed in on Celeste. He leaned past her shoulder to get a look at the wings and then pulled back to stand with Gideon again.

  He asked, “Is this the anomaly?”

  Gideon snorted, “She's an anomaly, but we don't have a category for her yet. This is the one you're looking for.” He pointed to me, “He infiltrated the cult for us.” He said it like I had done all I did for them.

  “What's your name?”

  “Hunter.” I saw his eyes through the sunglasses, looking me up and down like he was assessing whether I might be useful.

  “You're the traitor.”

  Uh oh. Well, to them I was. I abandoned my post and took off with Celeste, who they already considered a threat due to the violet EMF she emitted, which was really a weird way to choose enemies when I gave the idea some thought.

  “The cult kidnapped my brother. His life was in danger. I had to investigate.”

  There was a long pause, during which he stared me down. Everyone around us seemed to hold their breath, even Celeste.

  Then, his assessment complete, he nodded slowly, “We're not going to have a problem.”

  “No problem.”

  He turned to Gideon to ask, “Who's briefing me?”

  He replied, “I am.” The two men went into the house together, and the rest of the band, including Teag, followed. The loft was about to get crowded.

  I sat that meeting out. I had already told Gideon all I knew, so there was no more for me to add to the conversation.

  “Interesting man.” Celeste said, not without a touch of admiration.

  “I wouldn't want him after me. He makes Gids look like a pansy.”

  She laughed, “Don't let Gideon hear you say that.”

  Before we left, Owen addressed everyone from the stairs, “I am offering a $5000 tax free bonus to whoever kills this woman,” He held out a surveillance photo of Llewyn in the garden. “I don't care how you do it. I don't care who you catch in the crossfire. She is our primary target. Secondary is this guy.” Up went a picture of Vic, also in the garden, “He is the leader of their security force. These two people constitute the head of the snake. How do we kill a snake? We lop off the head.”

  He didn't care who got caught in the crossfire. He'd added that just for me, a message that said no one who got in the way would receive mercy. I was heading into battle with people who didn't share my opinion on the value of the lives in the compound.

  Gideon stopped me after everyone else had begun to load up. He put a pistol in my hand, “You're on the right side.” It was a surprisingly human thing of him to say.

  “I know.”

  “I want you to come in when all this is over, assuming we live.”

  “Come in?”

  “To the Center, for some brainwashing detox. I think it would be beneficial. We can get your meds adjusted.”

  These lines were utter bullshit. He planned to lock me in a tiny closet until I shriveled up and died and decomposed.

  “Why don't we wait and see if we survive first, then we'll decide where we're going.” I offered this diplomatic response as I verified the gun was loaded.

  My answer satisfied him well enough.

  Our caravan of three vehicles left the law office behind. Celeste and I took the truck we'd borrowed when we escaped Sarah's farmhouse. I tried to ride alone with her, but the van and the second SUV didn't have enough seats for all twelve of the non-command level enforcers.

  In all, there were seventeen of us going up against Llewyn and her guardians. If we played the game intelligently, it could be enough.

  We met up at a rendezvous point at the entrance to the access road through the nature pr
eserve. Another van was already waiting there. I figured it was for prisoners if we managed to take any.

  Owen studied a printout of our makeshift blueprint, discussing the best strategy with Gideon and Nigel while the rest of us waited. After a few minutes, they called me over. Celeste came with me.

  Owen said, “Gideon tells me you previously used a smokescreen.”

  “Celeste did.”

  She added, “We caught them by surprise. I went in first because I'm immune to the ravaging.”

  “Good work. So that's one weak point we know of. Give me another detail that will help me get to them without getting all of my men killed.”

  “They don't seem able to use their abilities while they're on the run. We were able to get out because we were shooting at them.”

  He nodded, “Distraction and vision impairment. Gideon tells me a bell signals them to assemble in the temple.”

  “Yeah, they should ring it for the sacrifices today. The head of the guardians, Vic, sticks close to Llewyn. She'll take the stage after the witnesses and the sacrifices if she proceeds the way she did while I was there. She might change up the routine if she thinks they're in danger, though. She pulled me in during the middle of the night. She planned to kill me while everyone else slept.”

  A thought occurred to me - that she might have murdered my brother after I made my grand escape. If I were her, operating at that level of insanity, I probably would have. Vic could've easily dragged Michael into their broken temple to take out their frustration with me on him. Llewyn had announced the scheduling of his ceremony already, however. I hoped keeping up appearances to her followers still mattered to her.

  I added, “The statues in the temple are central to their belief system. I recommend we destroy them.”

  Owen chuckled, “We're working on real threats, not imaginary ones. Inanimate objects are not a priority.”

  He wasn't going to believe my reason for wanting their destruction. I might as well have suggested we descend on Llewyn's bunch on the backs of flying pigs. I decided to make my point using psychological reasons.

  “You wanted to lop the head off the snake. The statues are part of the head. They believe the souls of their deceased are stored inside the statues. If you need a distraction, blowing them up should do the trick.”

  “Alright.” He conceded.

  We then got back into the vehicles to drive closer to the compound, stopping short of the part of the access road that bumped up against the boardwalk. We would have to lug our weapons, ammo and other assorted gear the rest of the way in.

  We couldn't take the boardwalk itself because the chance of us being seen was too great. One of the enforcers, an expert tracker, enabled us to navigate the nature preserve with little difficulty, which didn't stop me from being miserable. The rain had eased up a couple of hours prior, and the mosquitoes were out in full force once the sun heated the swollen river and swampy sections of forest around us. We pushed through tall weeds with guns drawn in case we saw anyone. By the time we arrived at the compound, I was already overheated and exhausted, a perfect way to head into battle.

  Owen posted two men near the boardwalk entrance, in the foliage - a guy with binoculars glued to his face and the other guy with a rifle scope glued to his. We would keep in contact through earpieces. Owen placed two more death-dealing duos on the road leading out from the compound. He sent two more teams to the far side of the compound, where the dorms were.

  The remaining seven of us headed to a wooded rise overlooking the temple, the perfect spot if Llewyn decided to take care of her business in there. If she switched locations, we would have serious mission problems.

  I lay on my stomach, watching through binoculars for a while. The windows were narrow, but we could see the interior when we positioned ourselves right. Celeste sat on the ground nearby. Owen sat on the other side of me, either to keep an eye on me or to ask questions whenever they popped into his head, maybe both. The room remained empty for the first hour.

  “Those lions are the statues you were talking about.”

  “Yes.”

  “Your brother is inside?”

  “He was when I left. I don't know if he's still alive.”

  “He a ravager too?”

  “Healer.”

  We fell silent as Owen's men came over the radio to inform us that some of the guardians had emerged to patrol the building exterior. Everyone in our party hunkered down. A trio of guardians came around to our side of the building, toting guns from the weapons room. We ducked behind the ridge when they looked our way.

  After a minute passed, Owen ventured a peek. They had moved on without seeing us. He warned the teams at the far end of the building to lie low.

  “The guardians usually aren't armed. She knows we're coming.” I said.

  I placed my attention back on the window. Llewyn and Vic entered the stage through the door leading to the forbidden section of the compound.

  Teag said over the earpiece, “Primary targets are in the temple. Do you want me to patch the signal through?”

  “Affirmative.” Owen replied.

  Llewyn's voice, “Those who are enlightened will form a line this direction.”

  My blood pressure climbed at the sound of her voice in my ear, probably because of that whole near death incident the night before.

  She motioned toward the side of the room opposite of us, “I'll offer a group prayer. Each will receive an individual blessing as I assist their ascension. I need them removed right away.” She planned to line them up - slaughterhouse style.

  “The guardians are watching over us. I have them stationed. Do you mind if I use some of the other followers to carry out the bodies?” Vic requested.

  There was a pause as she considered, and then she replied, “I will give you a list of the enlightened. As long as your choices aren't on it, you may use whomever you need. Perhaps William can assist you with putting together some additional stretchers. We only have three at this time.”

  Jesus, how many did she plan to kill?

  Vic bowed and left her alone in the room.

  She went to Ekash to place her hand on his carved head, “Be with us this day, my Divine Ones.” She reached out to touch Maructe.

  “Lunatic.” Owen mumbled under his breath.

  Too bad that lunatic's religion had some truth to it. We were in more danger than he would ever know.

  Close to noon, after the time they would have eaten lunch, the temple bell rang. The sound of it cleaved the humid air over the nature preserve. It was a call to death, and most of the victims would go willingly.

  Unfortunately, the two guardians who had passed earlier had taken up posts in front of the temple wall.

  “Smart.” Owen commented. “We’ll have to be quick about getting those two after the initial shot.”

  Vic was smart, which made him even more dangerous. He probably had guards at every entrance.

  People filed into the temple excitedly. I could feel their energy from the top of the rise. Michael went in first, fear apparent in his wide eyes and the sweat glistening on his brow. Through the binoculars, I counted those who were dressed for sacrifice - twenty in all.

  I'm coming. I thought to him. Regardless of how giant an asshole he was when we were kids, I wouldn't let these nutcases murder my brother.

  Owen waved over an enforcer with a sniper rifle.

  “Doug here will remain up on the ridge.” He told us, “When Llewyn takes the stage, his shot at her will be the signal to move in. You and Celeste are up first. We'll move back around to the front compound entrance. The guys by the road will clear the way to the door. Take this.”

  He handed me a grenade, and I almost dropped it. Grenades in warfare video games had nothing on real ones. The object in my hand practically vibrated with deadly potential. He gave me quick instructions in the art of blowing stuff up.

  “That's for your statues. You throw it between them, the explosion should obliterate both. Also
, you might want to cover your ears unless you like the idea of prolonged ringing.”

  I stuffed the grenade into a pocket of my cargo pants. Gideon tapped me on the shoulder and handed me a silencer for my pistol and a gas mask. Being one of his men wasn't exactly the best feeling in the world, but it did have its advantages.

  He gave Celeste canisters of tear gas, “One for the lobby, another for the temple, and a third for good measure.”

  Clearing the way to the front door meant bullets in the head for the two guards there. They went down in an instant without even knowing what hit them. I said a quick prayer for the protection of my brother and Bree and anyone else inside who didn't deserve to die.

  Owen signaled us to go, which meant Doug had taken his shot. Somehow, in my gut, I knew that Llewyn wasn't dead. Her end wouldn’t come so easily. I had known that up on the ridge before we began.

  I pulled on a gas mask and Celeste and I kept low as we moved from the trees, across the driveway. The other enforcers would come in right behind us. Through the front door, another few guardians were in the lobby. They shot on sight, their bullets whizzing by us. I hit two of them, but the third ran. Celeste tossed out the tear gas. Smoke hissed from the canister into the air and along the floor.

  Shouting came from the temple. They hadn't replaced the door after it was destroyed during my liberation the previous night. Armed guardians emerged, guns drawn. I sent out another round of bullets to repel them. Celeste hurled a second can of tear gas over their heads into the temple, and pulled a pair of guns from holsters strapped to her torso.

  People inside the temple screamed. They ran every direction, away from us, toward us if they had a death wish. A wave of them made for the doorway. The line of sacrifices cowered against the wall. I found Michael among them and hauled him to his feet. He didn't recognize me with the gas mask on and tried to wrench away from my grasp.

  A hand clamped on my arm from behind. I swung backward with the pistol in my hand to strike the guardian next to me. He put his arm around my neck in a headlock, sending the gun from my hand to the floor at Michael's feet. My attacker snatched the mask off my face and threw it aside, and the gas hit me.

  Pain ignited in my eyes, nose, ears and throat. Between the clouded air and the guardian closing off my trachea, I couldn't breathe. The room started to go dark.

  Michael's voice reached me, “Hunter?”

  I squirmed out of the man's grasp to land on my knees. I fumbled for the gun, but Michael found it first. Choking in the gas, he leveled it at the guardian. The bullet ripped through the silencer, hit the guy in the chest, and he collapsed backward.

  Gunshots erupted from everywhere and nowhere. I could see nothing through the fog. I wrapped my hand around the grenade in my pocket.

  Michael tried to hand me my gun. I refused to take it back, “Hide somewhere. Stay out of sight or they'll kill you.”

  “Who?” He shouted to be heard over the din. “Who are these people?”

  Could he have possibly made this far in life without finding out about the Center? We should all be so lucky.

  “Just stay down. I'll come back for you.”

  “Priorities, Hunter.” Gideon's voice reminded me over my earpiece.

  “I'm getting there, damn it.” I pushed through the fog.

  A voice I recognized as Vic's rose above the rest, “Ravagers!”

  The cries of men, our men, lifted a chorus of agony as the sickness descended. Bodies hit the floor amid running footsteps. They were all about to die if I didn't deliver a fresh distraction. I hurdled one of the fallen, ran up the steps, the grenade still in my hand. I expected to see Vic but didn't. I guessed he had already spirited Llewyn from the room, ever her personal bodyguard, the rest of the tribe be damned.

  A big guy in a red t-shirt slammed into me from the side. He drew back his great ham of a fist and I flinched under the memory of Vic's concussive blow the day before.

  A pale, feminine hand grabbed him by his hair to fling him down the stairs and away from me. Celeste kicked him on his way down to propel him farther. Silver blood ran down her shirt from somewhere in the vicinity of her collarbone, but she didn't move as though injured. She urged me on with a wave, then plunged back into the fray.

  I snatched up the grenade once more, dodged stray bullets and made for the statues. There they were, stoic alien beings among the chaos. They would never live again if I had my way. I pulled the pin from the grenade, tossed it underhand between them, and dove down the stairs, barreling clumsily over red shirt guy.

  I had enough time to put my hands over my ears and think to myself that I should have yelled some warning. Fire in the hole or whatever they say. And then it was too late.

  I felt the explosion more than heard it. All the chaos in the room, the running, the shooting, that singular action ended it. A gust of wind carrying jagged pieces of stone crashed through the temple. Windows shattered outward. People fell around me, some of theirs, fewer of ours as they were hit by whatever shrapnel the blast sent their way.

  A middle-aged woman with a sharp piece of something dark sticking out of her neck collapsed in front of me. Blood poured from the wound and dribbled from between her lips. She convulsed briefly before going still. Her life force, that piece of Maructe or Ekash, floated up from her body. It rose over my head into the air.

  I saw them, then, the Sidera. The tear gas had all but cleared from the room, leaving us a view of ceiling where souls gathered like a galaxy all their own. They glowed brightly against the white ceiling - golden points of light.

  Owen offered me a hand to help me rise, “What the hell is that?”

  He had removed his mask to stare up at the ceiling, as had the rest of his men. Others in the room stared in awe as the mass shifted toward the window and outside into the day.

  “Souls of the sacrifices.” I answered.

  “They're free.” Celeste put her hand on my shoulder.

  “But incomplete.”

  If we were pieces of Maructe and Ekash, did that make us less than everyone else?

  “Only in the eyes of someone who believes you hold no worth as individuals.”

  The temple looked like war zones I'd seen in movies. The cult members who weren’t too injured to run had fled the room, leaving their dead and wounded scattered on the floor. Enforcers checked each body. They reported whether it still breathed. I didn't see Bree or Max or Greg. The scribe from the library, Frank, was dead, so were some other people I'd seen around, the girl who had played guitar in the lobby the first day I arrived, a server from the cafeteria.

  If any of the remaining survivors were ravagers, they were too traumatized by the destruction of their idols to worry about us. A man with a white beard fell to his knees to wail. Others followed suit, sitting on the floor and crying or resigning themselves to staring off into space as if their loss had wrecked their will to do anything else. It was a pitiable scene, but surprisingly, it stirred little emotion in me.

  As for our team, we had lost a few men. Gideon and his crew collected their weapons to keep them out of the hands of Llewyn's remaining followers. They would get the bodies later.

  I went to Michael who was sitting near the interior wall. He suffered some bruises and cuts. They had put a ceremonial robe over his clothes, which he was all too happy to remove. He threw it to the floor and then kicked it away from him.

  He handed my gun back to me, “Did you get her?”

  “I don't think so. Not yet.”

  Owen performed a quick assessment of the situation, then began spouting orders, “Simon, take Dixon, Fritz and Gerard. Round up the low-level threats. Two of you switch over to darts. We're taking the nonviolent anomalies to the Center.”

  The men hustled out of the temple to carry out his order.

  Gideon walked in, stepping over a corpse on the way. Nigel trailed in behind him with a gun in his hand.

  “Awfully brave of you to come in once the action is finished.” I said.
<
br />   “Funny, that doesn't sound like gratitude. Where is she? I want to see her.” He was talking about Llewyn.

  As if on cue, a voice came over our radio, “Primary targets exited the building through the back door. They escaped on a boat.”

  “Shoot them, damn it. Do you need me to spell out every single step of this operation for you?” Gideon shouted.

  “We tried. She had five men with her. At least one of them was a ravager. Hastings didn't make it.”

  Owen's shoulders slumped. He wiped the sweat from his face and asked, “Are the primary targets visible?”

  After a pause, the voice on the other end of the radio replied, “No, sir.”

  Gideon kicked a chunk of statue into a mourning cult member, who fell over on her side and cried louder. He roared in frustration like a kid having a tantrum, then stormed out of the room with Nigel in tow.

  “We have to go after her.” I said, “If she gets away, she's just going to set up shop somewhere else.”

  “Regroup at the dock behind the building. Keep an eye out for strays.” Owen reloaded his shotgun as he left the room.

  Out in the lobby, several unconscious people on the floor were bound with zip ties. I knew that feeling all too well. The once happy place had twisted into a surreal scene of defeat.

  Whenever we encountered 'strays', as Owen called them, the enforcers were ruthless, pistol-whipping or kicking when their quarry resisted, darting people like they were errant zoo animals. Victory was bitter.

  I searched for Bree. She would hate me when she saw me working against everything she believed in, but I still wanted her to be alright. I didn't see her in the library or the hall near the cafeteria. The garden of elevated flowerbeds was quiet as we snaked back and forth toward the dock.

  The arbor under which I had eaten dinner with Llewyn now leaned, its support posts knocked askew by the river. I remembered the boat, the way the swollen river had beaten against the hull.

  “A fucking boat!” Gideon bellowed into the sky. The sight of the dock empty, with no boat for us, gave his blood a fresh infusion of pressure. “There was no boat on my satellite pictures. Tech mule, why was there no boat on my satellite pictures?” He asked into the earpiece.

  “It wasn't there.”

  He wheeled around to address me, “The presence of a boat is important information because a boat is a means of transportation. You did not indicate the presence of this means of transportation. Why is that?”

  “Hunter!” A female voice screeching my name from across the yard interrupted my defense.

  Bree ran at me as fast as she could, an enforcer on her tail. Her shirt was dirty and ripped, but as far as I could tell, she wasn't injured. She wore an expression of terror.

  The enforcer behind her stopped running, took aim with a rifle. I put my hand out to signal for him not to shoot. Too late. Bree tumbled on the grass, the momentum from her run carrying her an additional couple of feet. I ran over to kneel beside her. She was out cold but breathing.

  “Ten minutes on a boat for us.” Owen stood over me.

  Celeste said, “I'm going to fly over the river. Maybe I will find them.” She holstered her pistol, then launched into the sky.

  “Hell of a woman, that one.” Owen commented. “I don't know what she is, exactly, but I'm digging it. I'm getting her assigned to my team after we finish here.”

  “She's an angel.” I muttered.

  The enforcer who shot Bree approached, flipped her onto her stomach and zip tied her hands behind her back. He then proceeded to hoist her onto his shoulder and walk toward the door.

  I watched this scene in a state of shock. The reality that he carried her toward imprisonment she would never escape numbed me. Such was the situation for all the cult members who didn't resist hard enough for the Center thugs to kill them. They would take me, too, if I let them. Most of us didn't deserve that fate.

  “I'm feeling doubt from you.” Gideon told me while I sat near the edge of the river. “Never pity the enemy. That's how wars are lost.”

  “They shouldn't all be treated like criminals.” I immediately regretted offering that point of view. He wouldn't appreciate it.

  “I need you to stay focused if you're going to continue on this mission. I can dart you as easily as I did them.”

  “I know.”

  I decided then that I wasn't going to the Center. Neither would the prisoners they were taking. I would fight for Gideon and Owen until Llewyn and Vic were dead, and then...

  That moment, I started working scenarios in my head. They all began with a goal of freeing the prisoners from the transport van. I had no idea if they would side with me, but I would try.