Deadrise (60 page)

"Once it arrives instruct it to destroy the intruder’s compound. Obliterate it completely!" Mordecai clenched his teeth with hatred as he spoke, envisioning the Infidels suffering terribly before they died. Instead of answering, both Krylok only laughed in return with raspy, hissing wheezes. "WHAT IS THIS?" Mordecai boomed with anger; nobody mocked Mordecai Necrotura…

Nobody.

'This is your problem Necrotura.'
Snickered the Secondary Krylok.

"So this is how it’s to be?" Mordecai asked.

'We owe each other nothing Necrotura. You said as much yourself. Had you accepted out offer of Supplication thirty-five years ago, this world would already be yours.'
The Overlord hissed. He had known the Krylok would double-cross him again, but he hadn’t expected it to be so soon. So be it.

"And my world it shall still be!" he said with a snarl, pulling a short, thin sword from the folds of his robes. He lunged at the nearest Krylok, the Secondary, running him through. The creature let out a loud snarling hiss, its breath hot and putrid. It lashed out with a scaled, serpentine hand slick with mucous and tipped with black claws and slashed him across the right cheek. With a yelp of pain Mordecai released his grip on the sword and stumbled back, his hand now clutching his cheek, which had been cut to bloody ribbons. In his mind Mordecai could hear the Overlord laughing, his psychic voice like a layer of slime coating the inside of his brain. Mordecai stumbled through the door into his office and fell to the floor. Blood flowed from his shredded cheek, down his neck and chest onto the carpet. A mouthful of blood and a thick, slimy chunk of flesh passed down his throat.

He could sense the psychic presence of the two Krylok behind him like aching teeth. He rolled onto his back to face them. The Overlord stood to one side of the doorway, its snakelike head protruding from the folds of its hooded robe just enough for him to see the green and black scaled skin and the burning red eyes. Behind the Overlord he could see the secondary Krylok had grabbed the handle of the sword and was slowly but steadily pulling it back out of its body. Once it was completely extracted the Krylok held it aloft, letting its black viscous blood drip from the blade onto the floor.

'As you can see, Dog, We do not die so easily.'
The Secondary gloated telepathically before both it and the Overlord began to laugh aloud in their hissing snarl.

"
My wound has made me hunger
."
The Secondary creature snarled in English, its voice a slimy gurgle.

"He is yours." The Overlord answered. The Secondary tossed the sword aside and hissed with delight, its snakehead emerging from under its hood, its mouth a black slash, revealing razor sharp teeth. The tip of the feeding proboscis slowly protruded from the creatures snarling maw. Mordecai started to rise but the Overlord held up a clawed hand, revealing a small, but offensive looking metallic object that could only be a weapon.

'Do not move Necrotura.'
The Overlord said telepathically.
'I am going to enjoy watching you die.'

But he was Mordecai Necrotura, The Chosen One, Leader and Savior of The New Humanity, and he would not lie here and become food for these foul, disgusting creatures. He sent out and instant telepathic call to every Templar in the compound, instructing them to defend him and kill the two Krylok.

He then locked eyes with the Overlord and gave him the
Evil Eye,
pushing with all the psychic strength he possessed. He could feel the Overlords mental barriers try and raise, but they were much to slow, and Mordecai’s mental blast drilled through the center of the Overlords mind like a charging lance. The Overlord let out a growling hiss of pain, falling onto the office floor and convulsing as if electrified. He involuntarily discharged a blast from his weapon; a small, baseball-sized ball of green energy that blew a basketball sized hole in the far wall. The Secondary Krylok stopped in its tracks and turned to the Overlord, hissing and snarling.

Mordecai rolled onto his knees and tried to stand, but a massive bolt of pain exploded in the base of his skull, causing him to fall face first onto the floor, a small pool of blood forming from his wounded cheek. He knew using such a powerful
Evil Eye
would have consequences, but it had never been that bad before. Taking a deep breath, Mordecai tried to rise up again, another blast of pain rocking his head like a sledgehammer, bringing him to the verge of unconsciousness, but he managed to weather it, and made it to his knees. He looked over his shoulder to see the Secondary still standing over the Overlord, who had stopped convulsing as was now struggling to rise just as he. Despite the fog of pain Mordecai was impressed at the Krylok’s resilience. Such a powerful
Evil Eye
blast would have killed a human being instantly, causing their heart to rupture in their chest and the brain to suffer a massive, explosive hemorrhage, bursting through the eyes, nose and ears. It appeared the Krylok was no worse off than he was.

With a surge of will power Mordecai lurched to his feet, stumbling drunkenly across the office and crashing across the front of his desk, sending his effects flying.

Two Templar’s came into the room through a secret entrance near the bookshelf, AK-47’s in hand. It took less than a second for them to assess the situation before turning their weapons toward the two Krylok. They fired in unison, both on full automatic. The Overlord had made it into a sitting position when the bullets stitched across his chest and midsection, throwing him flat onto the floor. The Secondary Krylok staggered back into the balcony doorway under the hail of fire, arms flailing out to grab the sides. From under the folds of its black robes emerged a second pair of thin reptilian arms, and in both clawed hands were weapons identical to the Overlords. It fired a single blast from each gun. One green ball went wide, blowing a hole through the bookcase but the second struck one of the Templar’s in the chest, filling his body with the charged particles, causing all of the blood in his body to flash-boil which in turn caused his body to explode!

Mordecai used the last of his fading strength to pull himself across the desk and into his large, leather backed chair. He scanned the battle. The Overlord was once again pulling its bullet riddled, black robed body to its feet, a thick black liquid leaking from the bullet holes. The Secondary Krylok had turned both of its pistols on the remaining Templar, catching him with a double blast. Mordecai was covered with a hot spray of entrails, steaming blood and stinging bone fragments. On the right arm of his chair was set a small keypad, and he quickly tapped in a three-digit code.

The Secondary leapt forward, five feet into the air and landed on Mordecai’s desk. Its snakehead thrust out from the robe, its demonic eyes burning red, and its fanged maw dripping slime.

Mordecai felt the machinery lock into place in the floor beneath him…the floor fell away underneath his high-back leather chair, and the entire chair fell smoothly down an escape chute before either Krylok could react…

'He’s escaped!'
the Secondary gasped telepathically.

In front of him the Overlord pulled himself painfully to his feet, his mind assessing the damage. He had taken a dozen bullets. Three were still lodged in his body, but his Krylok metabolism would force them out, healing behind them as they went.

'More Templar’s approach.'
The Overlord said. Just then, both of them felt the sharp tingling of danger just moments away, their psychic precognition seeing the aura of danger emanating from Mordecai’s desk itself. Both Krylok snarled with self-preservation and raced for an exit. The Overlord lunged for the still open secret door in the bookcase while the Secondary jumped from atop the desk and raced for the balcony.

The desk was heavy and the explosion was rigged to throw pieces of shrapnel to every corner of the room, and it did. The Overlord had just passed through the bookcase entrance when the explosion went off and was lucky enough to be shielded from shrapnel and felt only the blast wave, but it was enough to throw him forward several feet into a small room with a window on one end and a small staircase leading down.

The Secondary had not been so lucky. It had been halfway to the balcony entrance when the desk exploded, shredding and impaling it with dozens of shards of flaming shrapnel and smashing it with the blast wave. Its small body was pulverized and sent flying out the door and over the edge of balcony where it landed in a broken, skewered heap, leaking thick black blood and what remained of its internal organs.

The Overlords presence sense
pinged,
alerting him to a pair of Templar’s coming up the staircase. The Overlord still had his weapon, and he shot the first Templar that appeared, his upper body exploding like a water balloon. The Overlord hurried to the top of the stairs and saw the second Templar covered in the remains of the first, reeling in shock. The Overlord obliterated him with a single blast to the chest.

His presence sense fired again: more approaching from below and coming in from the office behind him. He would be overpowered. He turned his reptilian head toward the window on the one wall, hissing with cunning delight. The Overlord sprinted across the small room and leapt into the air, its small frame crashing through the window and falling three stories to the ground below…

The chair came to a stop at the bottom of the escape chute and a pair of his
Fedayeen Necrotura
helped Mordecai from the chair. Indeed all five of his
Fedayeen Necrotura,
his elite death squad, were there awaiting him.

"The transport is ready Master." Said the Commander.

"We must be expedient. Another alien craft will be here in minutes. It is heavily armed and will destroy our compound." Mordecai hissed painfully through clenched teeth, his hand gripping his ruined cheek. It was all he could do to keep from vomiting as mouthfuls of blood and bits of ripped flesh threatened to pass down his throat. Another wave of pain and nausea swept through him, causing him to sag in the arms of the two
Fedayeen
who held him.

"Master?" the commander asked, clearly fraught with concern.

"I need medical attention! Now take me away from here." The
Fedayeen
led him out of the room into a small garage where a bulletproof, reinforced SUV was parked. The garage was hidden and exited into the forest away from the main house. He would be taken to his family’s old dairy farm at the outskirts Kittewa, where another half dozen
Fedayeen Necrotura
awaited his arrival, as well as a small Learjet hidden in one of the barns. A nearby field had been converted into an adequate runway.

He would fall back to his secondary base, a small resort island in the south pacific. It had been a joint venture with his now dead partner Dr. Winters. They had converted it from a resort for the masses into a smaller, more intimate corporate retreat for powerful, jet-setting executives and their clients.

At least that was how it had been marketed.

In truth it was a recruitment and training center for his fanatical New Humanity. From past experience he knew that his small jet would make the flight non-stop, but with only fumes remaining in the tanks when they landed. There was a minimum of one hundred Templar’s on the island at all times, not to mention the dozens of acolytes and hundreds of cult members who lived and worked on the island as docile and obedient slaves. He would take
Communion
from their numbers and regain his strength. Losing the Rainbow Lake compound was a setback to be sure, made more so by the emotional attachment that Mordecai felt for the lake and the Town of Kittewa, but it represented only a fraction of Mordecai’s strength and power. He would make new plans and set into motion other machinations that would ensure the rise of his New Humanity and elevate him to ruler of the world…

Chapter 59

Tuesday, June 26 2001

Rainbow Lake, UT

7:40 PM

Zack’s emerged from the tree line into the back yard of Mordecai’s compound just as something exploded inside the house. He saw the black robed form of a Krylok thrown from the third floor balcony by the force of the explosion. He quickly gave it a scan, sensing the last of its life force seep away.

Zack broadened his mind scan, sensing several humans throughout the main house and two powerful emanations of evil. One psychic imprint was unknown to him, definitely human, exuding evil and hatred so powerful that it carried a psychic stench.

But the second presence there was no mistaking... The Overlord. Zack felt his own hatred boil over and his hunger flare to a roar.

He charged for the house, locking onto the Overlords location. As he neared he heard the shatter of glass from around front.

The Overlord was trying to flee.

He diverted around the side of the mansion and ahead his night vision could make out the Overlord picking himself up from the ground, shaking shards of broken glass from his black robe. The demonic creature turned to look at Zack, its burning red eyes going wide and a psychic wave of fear rolling from the alien like a tidal wave. Zack raised his mental defenses in anticipation of a psychic attack, but one never came.

Instead the Overlord turned and tried to run.

But Zack was almost at full speed, and he overtook the small robed creature with a diving tackle that sent them both sprawling into the gravel of the front drive. Although small, the Krylok was compact and powerful, with six arms tipped with razor sharp claws and a mouthful of needle sharp teeth, all of which it brought to bear, fighting like a badger in Zack’s arms. But Zack was not without his own natural weapons, and he gave as well as he got.

The Overlords face was suddenly before his, its hot, fetid breath hitting him like a noxious gas, filling his lungs and causing him to gasp for air. He felt a pair of the Overlords claws sink into his belly, searching out vital organs while its talon feet clawed at his thighs and groin. Another pair of its arms grasped his head, digging the nails deep.