Gods and Men- The Hank Boyd Omnibus, page 14
part #1 of Gods and Men Series
Not that it was crossable beforehand.
I look back to my team with confusion. “Did I miss an earthquake or something?”
All I get is the same confused look directed back at me along with a couple of gasps. Four sets of eyes stare me down, looks of shock on their owner’s faces. I’m not sure why they’re staring at me.
“What?” I ask.
“Your…skin…” Nicole says, raising a hand to her mouth, eyes wide.
I look down and see that not only am I sweating…I’m steaming too. My skin is giving off the same vapor you’d see billowing off a boiling pot of water on a stove.
Oookay… That’s a new one.
I touch my skin and feel nothing wrong—minus the extreme moisture rising from my body of course.
“See, I'm all right,” I say, poking my skin again.
Kane steps over and touches the same part of my arm I just did and flinches away, cursing and shaking his hand.
“Fine my ass, Hank,” he growls. “You’re boiling! What the hell happened just now? You were asleep for twenty minutes before you started kicking and screaming. I had to knock the gun out of your hand, so you didn’t accidentally shoot someone, caught an elbow in the face for my trouble.” He grabs his nose and wiggles it. “Thanks for that by the way.”
I think back to my dream and try to figure out what exactly did just happen.
In between rumbles, I quickly retell the events that took place in my nightmare.
“You’re kidding, right?” Kane asks with a raised eyebrow.
“It was a dream—a seriously disturbing one for sure. But still…” Dad says, trailing off. He then looks around at the ruined surroundings, all of a sudden not so sure of himself.
“When did all this happen?” I say, motioning to the destruction.
“During your little…episode,” Kane says, waving his hand towards me and then to the broken landscape.
I close my eyes and breathe, reliving the dream—or whatever the hell it was.
The pulling sensation.
The pain of being used as a basketball.
The heat from the floating fireballs.
It felt too real. It was too vivid to be just a cerebral counterfeit.
“It was real,” I say confidently. “I could actually feel the tug on my body. When the fire licked my skin, I felt burned.” I hold up my still steaming hands, watching the last of it leave my skin. “The pain in my ribs is still there too.” I lift my shirt, surprising everyone, including myself. I’m completely beat to hell and bruised like an overly abused banana.
“Those look…fresh,” Nicole says, her hand going back to her mouth, once again reacting to the sight of my body. But this time it’s the bruising, not the steam.
“Believe me,” I say, struggling to pull my shirt back down. “They are.”
Wincing in pain, I grunt and bend over, picking up my weapon. I stand erect and groan again, tucking it back into my pack.
“And the voice?” Dad asks.
“It was him—The End,” I answer. “He wants to use my body. He wants to control me somehow, like a parasite. He means to destroy everything…through me.”
“All of us?” Omar asks, gesturing to our group.
“No,” I say.
His shoulders relax a little.
“He wants to exterminate all of mankind, or at the very least enslave his enemies.”
Omar’s shoulders stiffen in fright and then sag again, defeated.
What can we do against a being that can use the very Earth itself as his sword and strike down the entire human race that inhabits it? What weapon can defend against that?
“You may not be permitted to leave until the chosen has claimed his prize. Please pray you are he.”
We look over at Omar, shaking his head in disbelief. “The chosen one—you, Hank—must claim your prize.” He points back up to the stairs, “So far these cryptic messages have been pretty spot on… If you believe this to be more than just a coincidence and—”
“That’s just it,” I interrupt, “I’m still confused about where exactly we are. The tunnel drawings show Atlantis to be a thriving metropolis of peace and prosperity…” I look around not being able to put my thoughts together. “This…place… It isn’t even recorded in their history. Why?”
Kane answers my question. “Pearl Harbor, Auschwitz, the Civil War—Japan, Germany, and the States. Every major nation has its dirty secrets that it wishes it could hide. Maybe this civilization actually buried theirs.”
We stand in silence contemplating where we actually are, not sure of what to do next.
Surprisingly, Omar takes the first step.
He slips into his bag and starts off towards the left staircase, ready to leave. Then, he thinks better of it and stops, turning back towards the rest of us. “So, the right path is out of the question now I assume? And we can’t go back that way,” he says, pointing back towards the blocked tunnel.
“He’s right,” Kane says, actually agreeing with Omar. “We need to keep moving. We may have enough supplies to last a week down here, but I’d rather not have to find out. The quicker we can find another way out of here the better.” He hefts his pack onto his shoulders, walks over to me and in a low tone asks, “You okay, Hank?”
It’s as sincere as I’ve seen the guy. Normally he’s either deadly serious or joking around and stepping on his own toes.
“Yeah, man, I’m fine,” I lie.
I feel like absolute crap. Might as well be honest with myself.
A bone-jarring explosion knocks me on my ass, making me almost tumble down the set of steps on the right leading to the blazing riverbank. I stop short of the top step thanks to a bear-sized fist, clutching my pack. I look up and see my savior.
“Thanks. How many times is that now?”
Kane smiles and shrugs. “Too many to count. I’m getting really sick of having to save your sorry—”
He’s interrupted by another explosion. The stairs shake, getting a fearful yelp out of everyone. As the concussive force subsides, we hear something that shouldn’t be here. Shouts…and they’re coming from the cavern’s entrance.
“Who the hell?” Kane asks.
I hear them and act.
“Go, now!” I yell, shoving Kane towards the left-hand staircase. “They’re here, hurry!”
Kane stumbles and sways as I push him harder. I draw my gun and aim it back towards the stone that was blocking our path.
“Get them out of here!” I yell. “Lead them to the pyramid. I’ll cover our rears.”
“Not a chance, Hank! This is my job, get the others out of here, now!”
His look gets sterner as the milliseconds pass. I can tell he’s getting ready to order me again, but Dad answers him for me.
“Do what he says, son.”
Begrudgingly, I grab my bag and turn to Nicole, about to tell her to do the same. She’s about to ask me what’s happening, but her eyes ask the question instead.
“The voices, they’re in Arabic. It’s Zero. They’ve found us!
Collectively, we fly down the steps two at a time straight into the stone forest and who knows what else.
Hopefully, the visions in my dream were, in fact, a figment of my subconscious and not anything that we’ll have to deal with head-on. But if it is… For our sake, let’s just hope it isn’t.
31
“Where’s Omar!” Dad yells, running for his life.
We hit the stone steps at full speed, lucky to reach the bottom without anyone tripping and breaking their necks. That would have definitely slowed us down a little. Everyone runs with their weapons drawn, which again, probably isn’t a good idea, but hey…we’re in a rush and trying not to die.
We enter the stone jungle at a sprint and follow the trail of broken and splintered debris. It’s a likely path to those who are pursuing us too, but we need to pour on the speed. If they do get too close, we can always hide and try to defend ourselves.
It’s not that there isn’t plenty of cover around us.
“No idea where he is,” Kane replies from thirty feet behind us, glancing back, watching our butts. “He must have bolted when the first explosion went off. Probably shit himself too!”
We scramble up and over a fallen stone tree, losing precious speed and seconds. I chance a look back just in time to see Kane leap over the stone obstruction blocking his path like an Olympic hurdler. I almost trip and fall seeing him execute the move so flawlessly. The rest of us aren’t as big or as surprisingly agile as he is, which proves the kind of shape he’s in.
“Hank, hold up! Don’t get too far ahead!” Kane yells.
I stop and turn, just as a bullet sizzles over my head. I fall to the ground and roll to the right, behind one of the bigger trees.
Geez, that’s the second time that’s happened since landing in Algiers, I think, silently thanking myself for not being an inch taller.
More bullets fly, this time at Kane. He ducks and rolls just as he gets to another felled obstacle. Mid-roll, he does a fancy action star move, leaping to his feet. He continues his forward momentum over the downed tree, lands on his feet, and keeps on running. It’s like he rolled over the hood of a car in some cheesy cop flick.
“Never mind, keep going!” He yells, waving his hand, shooing us on. He’s now twenty feet from us and about to beckon us forward again—when a bullet zips past his right ear. It then slams into my cover, right near my own head.
Shit.
“No can do, Kane!” I yell, firing my Glock back up towards the cavern entrance. “Switch spots with me and lead them on! I’ll hold them off!”
He shrugs off my suggestion and stops, taking cover beside me. We look back over our stone shield and see men pouring out of the newly formed hole.
Damn.
I glance back to Kane.
He draws his second Desert Eagle and smiles.
“I got this.”
“Like hell you do!” interjects our female companion.
We both snap over to see Nicole hiding behind another tree, weapon at the ready.
“There must be a dozen of them and only one of you. We’re staying!”
She shoots me a look saying, I know you’re staying and so am I, so drop it!
I lean around and see Dad tucked in next to Nicole shaking like a cold, wet dog.
Great.
“Dad, you can’t be here.”
“No, he can’t,” Nicole continues. “William, you need to run. We will cover you.”
He looks up at the three of us and nods.
Another barrage of lead assaults our position, forcing us to duck back down.
“Dad,” I say firmly, peeking back over our bullet-ridden cover. “Find Omar and don’t stop until you’re safe.”
He nods again and turns to flee, but stops. “Kane? Nicole?” They look at him. “Keep my son alive.”
It’s not a question, it’s a demand. He isn’t asking them to keep me alive, he’s expecting it.
He then gives me a final look that could break anyone’s heart. A look of fear and loss and…doubt—doubt that’ll we’ll ever see each other again.
“I’m right behind you, old man.”
He gives me a half-smile and gets set.
“Okay,” Kane says. “On three… One, two, three… Now!”
The three of us turn and stand as one, just as Dad takes off running. We fire a short burst of rounds up the slope, towards the stairs, aiming for the entrance. As we finish our assault, we pivot and hustle away, always trying to keep a tree in between them and us. We follow the same path my father—and presumably Omar—did.
Heading straight towards the menacing monolith wouldn’t have been my first choice, but we don’t really have another one. So we charge onward, into whatever else this place decides to throw at us.
Which could ‘literally’ be anything.
We make it fifty yards as more bullets ping off the stone around us. I’m assuming the fact they know where we are means they also have night vision equipment. The cavern’s lightning is sufficient to see by, but visibility is still pretty poor. Kane and I can see fine, but Nicole is basically firing blind, shooting where we shoot, hoping to get lucky and hit something.
“Aww, screw this!” Kane shouts, sliding to a stop behind new cover. A dozen or so rounds hit it too, but he doesn’t so much as flinch as pieces of shrapnel kick off, smacking him in the back of the head.
“Cover me!” he yells, diving into his Tac-Pac.
Nicole and I stop about ten steps further down the broken path and get into a firing stance. She meets me eye-to-eye, winks then draws her other Ruger. I give her an impressed nod and a smile. As ready as we could be, Nicole and I pop up and fire off a few shots each back the way we came. We are immediately greeted by a pain-filled shout in Arabic.
“Sounds like you hit one,” Kane says not looking up from what he’s doing.
“What are you…?” I begin to ask.
But it’s then I take a look at the curved plastic looking device he has staked into the compacted dirt.
“Is that a—” Nicole starts.
“Standard issue M18A1 Claymore mine, courtesy of some friends back home,” he says robotically, concentrating on the task at hand. He points the ever poignant, FRONT TOWARDS ENEMY side down the path, readjusting his aim. Next, Kane attaches a trip wire to one end of the mine and then scurries across the trail to the other side and attaches the other end to one of the fallen trees, wrapping it around a branch.
“You’re laying a trap?” I ask.
“Damn right I am, I’m sick of this crap!”
“What…sick of being shot at and almost killed?” Nicole asks with a little sarcasm.
I laugh a little on the inside.
Maybe there’s hope for her yet, I think.
“No, I can handle being shot at,” he replies.
“Then what?” I ask.
“Running.”
“Running?” Nicole asks, confused.
“Yep,” he says, putting his pack back on, drawing his gun again. “I hate to run.”
Both Nicole and I audibly laugh, releasing some of the built-up stress the current situation has caused. The more I’m around Kane, the more I like the guy. In the hospital room, he was just another suit, just another stuffed shirt that the government decided needed to pay me a visit and annoy the hell out of me. But, now? Dare I say, he’s quickly becoming a very good and trustworthy friend? Maybe?
And what about Nicole? Could she be anything more than my father’s project leader? We’ve shared a few moments here-and-there, helping to break the awkward tension. We’ve confided in each other things that a lot of people would never dare tell someone they just met. How long have we known each other? Has it even been a day yet?
More automatic gunfire interrupts my thoughts, hitting some of the trees nearby.
“Perfect,” Kane says.
“Perfect?” I ask.
He nods. “They’re firing pot shots. They don’t know where we are exactly, giving us an advantage.” He motions to the Claymore. “It also gives this bad boy one too. Plus, from the sound of it, they’re firing with AK-47’s. They’re a terrible long-range weapon. We'll be okay as long as we can stay far enough ahead of them.”
“We about ready?” Nicole asks, looking down the path. “I think they’re going to try and advance again.”
“What makes you say that?” I ask.
“Because they stopped shooting,” she answers.
We fall silent and listen. The only noise in this massive space is a low rumble and hum from under the ground. There’s also the faint sound of the pouring lava as it falls into the moat with a gloopy splash.
“Okay,” Kane says, “quickly and quietly…keep heading towards the pyramid. Let’s try and not give away our exact position.”
Nicole backs away first with me close behind her. Kane follows turned around, watching for any sign of our would-be attackers.
We get about thirty feet away from where the Claymore is hidden—when a scream of pure terror echoes through the valley, coming from the direction we’re heading.
I recognize the voice too.
Dad!
I launch myself forward down the half-broken path as a burst of gunfire erupts all around me and the others. I turn and find Kane and Nicole hot on my heels, covering their heads with their hands as they run.
Nicole lifts both her guns and turns backward, firing a few volleys of her own. Then, in one fluid motion, she finishes the three-sixty, never losing her stride or footing. Wow. If I tried that, I’d be flat on my back with motion sickness and a concussion from the fall. I wonder if she’s a good ice skater with moves like that.
My attention is off the beautiful and on the frightening as we hear more gunfire and another scream. Except…this cry doesn’t belong to Dad. It almost sounds feral, animal-like, like an angry, wild beast in excruciating pain.
That must be what Dad was yelling about, I think. Whatever it is, he’s under attack up ahead, maybe another couple hundred yards away.
So, we put the pedal to the metal and rush to save my father and with our luck…it’ll probably be something a lot worse than just a bunch of bullets.
32
Well, one good thing finally happens to us. Kane’s explosive ambush works, ringing out through the space. The concussive blast echoes around the cavern following the detonation of the Claymore, killing some of the incoming soldiers. Anguished filled screams of the survivors can also be heard, making me cringe. But it’s short-lived as a quick succession of gunshots silences them, putting fatally wounded out of their misery.
We then continue moving forward, towards the last location we heard Dad. Travel quickens as the stone forest thins, but it also reduces our cover.
“Well, that worked out better than expected,” Kane says, looking back towards the spot where he laid his trap.
“Better than expected?” Nicole asks in revulsion. “We are now responsible for at least four men’s deaths—maybe more. You’re actually happy about that?”
