Emergence (Eden's Root Trilogy) (35 page)

They
split off and went cabin to cabin lining up the colonists. Kiara’s cabin was last. “We’re a ‘go,’ folks,” Fi called. “Are you ready?”

“More than ready
. Let’s go,” Lucy said, directing the others.

Fi grabbed Kiara’s
hand and knelt. “Stick with me, ok, Ki?”

“Yes
.” Kiara’s voice wobbled.

“And if we get separated for any reason, you find Sara, you got me?”

Kiara nodded.

The human river poured from the cabins in organized rivulets, converging on the point in the fence where
Sara had clipped the wires. Fi rushed to the front with Kiara still in tow, where she found Sara ushering the colonists through the opening. “Ok,” she said, stopping briefly. “I’ve got the front, Sar.”

“And I’ve got the rear
.” Sara gave her a quick hug before echoing Fi’s own last words to Asher. “This is going to work.”

------------ Asher -----------

Asher huddled with his platoon at the east end of the encampment to await the signal.
Dawn couldn’t be more than an hour away. His clothes were still wet from the river crossing they’d made hours earlier, but his shivers were more of anticipation than cold. His hand tightened around the hilt of his sword and he turned to his companions…his Dragons.

The platoon had chosen the nickname after Sean had suggested it.
Given Sean’s prior experience with Asher as the head of his gang, the Dragons, Asher felt it was time to finally give the name the honor it deserved. At least this time the Dragons themselves were worthy. Though only four of the twenty in his platoon were true battle-tested warriors, they were all good men. They’d been training together every night for weeks of their trek. He knew they would put their lives on the line for each other.

He thought of Fi’s reassurance and whispered it to h
is troops. “This is going to work.” The only response was a few uncomfortable grunts. They were restless…ready.
It had better work
, he thought.
If it didn’t, they were all dead.

An odd popping
sound downriver got his attention. He squinted into the blackness. He could just make out the silhouette of several buildings. According to Fi and Sara’s intelligence, they included the armory, the storage shed, and the showers where Gary and the rest of the Council and Security were being held. Those were his targets, but he worked to make out the dark figures to the west, along the cliff’s edge. There was another pop and he saw a figure crumple. His heart leapt into his throat. It had begun.

----------- Sean --------

“All right,”
Julius whispered to Sean. “One more time.”

Along with Luc, Sean
had taken responsibility for directing the Army of Eden, whose ranks had swollen to over four hundred. They might not be well trained, but they were determined, and they were many.
It would have to do.

Th
ey’d dubbed themselves the “Great Wall” as a reminder of their duties. Now they waited in a rustling flock just below the ridge. Julius, Sean, Darryl, and several Army members crouched at the top, watching the shadows in the distance. Though it was hard to make out any details, the distant flicker of candles in windows was enough to show movement. As the night deepened, Sean’s shoulders crept up around his ears. He rolled his neck. “…One more time, Commander.”

All Sean could see of his
Commander in the darkness was the glitter of eyes and white of teeth. All of them had blacked their faces with the greasepaint and mud mixture the Seals had shown them. He was swept back to fourth grade, when Fi had been obsessed with Alice in Wonderland. She’d made him listen while she’d read her favorite parts over and over again. Now, standing before a field of floating teeth, he couldn’t shake the feeling that he was at the head of an army of Cheshire Cats.
Hopefully we have as many lives.

“Your mission…”
Julius prompted, startling him.

He cleared his throat.
“…Surround the settlers and separate them from the battlefield. Try not to hurt anyone.” Sean was grateful for the distraction. He could recite the plan in his sleep, but the repetition calmed his nerves. Sort of.

“
And if they want to run away?”

“
Allow them to leave to the South, toward the Dead Zone, away from the colonists.”

“
And if they fight?”

“
Protect ourselves, but avoid violence if possible.”

“Right,”
Julius sighed. He patted Sean’s shoulder. “We’re ready.”

“Yeah
, it’s now or never, Commander,” Sean’s voice was grim, but resolute. He said a silent prayer to a God he didn’t believe in. Something to the effect of, “
If you’re up there, please show up this time
.” He knew that it wasn’t very respectful, but with the mainline of rage and fear coursing through his veins, he wasn’t feeling inclined to kiss any butt.

“Hey,
Sean” Luc whispered from below. “All set?”

“As set as we’re gonna be, Luc
.”

Luc
climbed up and settled beside him against an enormous pine trunk, silently slapping hands with a few of the Army troops on the way. Once Julius had determined that Sean should command the Army, Sean had immediately selected Luc as his second. The qualities the Army would need most in their leaders were calm and focus, and Luc had plenty of both. It also helped that Darryl was willing to do anything to help that he could. Mostly they just needed bodies with resolve.

The real fighting would be up to others.
Julius, Sadik, and Asher each had platoons of true combatants, but not as many as they would have liked.
Still, you have to take what you can get
, Sean thought. Their “big guns” in the personnel department — the General and his special ops guys — were already positioned on the opposite riverbank.

A
muffled popping sound caught Sean’s attention. Darryl gasped and Sean’s heart skipped as the nearest shadow dropped. He waited, his breath stilled in his throat, but there was no alarm. Another pop sounded as the sniper found his next target. There was another pop, and another figure crumpled. Still there was no cry or sound.

Jesus!
This guy was freaking good
. When Rasmussen said that this assignment was child’s play, Sean had assumed he was just trying to exude confidence. Pop…Pop…Pop. They waited as the shots continued, each resulting in a silent bundle of humanity puddled on the forest floor. When he saw the black shadows of the Seals crawl up from the cliff’s edge, his heart leapt.
Here we go
.

Sean watched as t
he Seals moved, catching Lobos from behind and dropping them one by one.
Maybe this is all we’ll need...

“Ambush!”
The cry went up as a Lobo stumbled over a dead companion in the dark.

Goosebumps erupted all over
Sean’s body.

Julius stood
and screamed, “Attack!”

In a wave fueled by outrage and suffering, the Army of Eden flowed over the ridge
, their throats in full roar.

------------ Asher --------------

“Attack!”

The scream rose from his own throat and yet Asher felt the strangest sensation of having left reality.
He couldn’t possibly be charging forward, sword drawn, leading a screaming force into the gaping maw of war. And yet he was, and the out-of-body feeling emboldened him. He sprinted at the nearest Lobo, dodging the rat-a-tat from his semi-automatic weapon, and slashed. His aim was true. The weapon and the hand gripping it fell to the Earth, the agonized howl an appropriately fantastical accompaniment.

“C’mon,” he roared to his
Dragons, but he needn’t have. They were there, weapons drawn, surging behind him. They crested a small hill and were met by ten more Lobos. The clash sounded: an explosion of bullets and the thunk of steel meeting bone. One of his companions fell to his left, but he had to keep the charge.
They must take the armory.

Asher and four of the Dragons
fought their way through the wave of Lobos. His muscles screamed as he swung and slashed at the shadows. Blood spattered his greased face and he begged his body to keep him going, to spur his reluctant mind onward. When they were only steps from the armory, a huge man with white hair and an AK-47 stepped into his path.

“Sword Boy!”

Even without Fi and S
ara’s warnings, Asher would have known this man. His time in the City had taught him that this kind of swagger only came in two forms: cowards who were faking, and leaders who weren’t. Silas wasn’t faking. “Go! Get to the armory!” Asher barked to his troops as he sank into his stance. They sprinted away and he eyed the giant. “You must be Silas.”

For a moment Silas startled, but then
his lips curled into a snarl. “Guess you’re not the only one with a reputation, Sword Boy. Where’s your little redheaded girlfriend? You know…the one with the gun?” He stroked his AK. “Seems like she’d be mighty useful to you right now.”

“
That’s funny, Silas.” Asher cocked his head, and raising his blade to his shoulder, it’s tip pointed at Silas like a gun sight. “Most men who’ve met my wife never forget her.”

This time Silas
was truly startled and Asher pounced. A quick slash to Silas’ gun hand took off his thumb and split the strap of the AK. Silas howled as Asher spun away from the short spray of bullets before the gun hit the ground. Asher turned his palm down for the backslash to Silas’ torso, when the Lobo ducked and pulled his machete with his left hand.

“Y
ou’re fucking dead, Sword Boy.”

He swung wildly at
Asher’s sword and connected. The machete slid along his blade, pushing the tip toward the ground. Asher’s lips curled.
This was almost unfair.
He ripped his sword upward, slicing deep into Silas’s armpit. Shrieks accompanied the hot rush of blood as the machete fell from his enemy’s hand.

A
familiar calm settled over Asher, his vision narrowing into the tight pinpoint that is the kill. He whirled, his sword flashing in the dim light. Silas’ eyes closed and then flipped open when Asher’s sword stopped, just a breath above the flames on his neck.

“Wha…What
are you doing?” Silas’ face twisted, his breath coming in ragged gasps.

Asher stood very, very still.
It was the only way to contain his fury. This was the man who’d ordered the attack that had nearly cost him everything.
This was the man.
His gut churned at the memory of his pregnant wife on her knees, her neck exposed to that Lobo machete. This man was a monster, a murderer, a vile waste of humanity.
It would be a favor to the world to kill him
. But his hands didn’t move. Because of her.

Her voice came to him, in the midst of the screaming and chaos, it rang true, staying his hand
.
We have to stop the violence, Asher. Someone has to take a stand.
“Surrender, Silas,” he choked. “Surrender and you may live to see another day.”

Silas’ eyes darted, searching the
bedlam for an absolution that wouldn’t come. Around them shadows wrestled and screamed. Smoke choked their throats and stung their eyes. Sweat coated their bodies and though dawn was imminent, this particular level of hell seemed sure to be draped in darkness forever. Still, her words haunted Asher.
We can’t keep living by, “What’s yours is mine, what’s mine is mine, and only might makes right.”

“It’s over, Silas,
” he said wearily. “Please, man. Choose life.”

Silas’ eyes closed and he sank to the ground, clutching his underarm with his wounded right hand.
He was silent as Asher cable-tied his wrists and ankles.

“Just so you know, t
his is really gonna hurt,” Asher said, removing the ammunition belt Silas had across his chest. The man howled as it came over his head, but Asher ignored him. It was odd, he thought, the mental will that it had taken to let this man live. But maybe that was what was asked of them now. He knotted the broken AK strap together and threw it over his shoulder.
Maybe the future of humanity rested on their ability to summon restraint…

BOOM!

A massive explosion rocked the darkness and
the trunk of the nearest pine splintered into shrapnel. Asher hit the ground beside Silas.
Holy shit! What the hell was that?

BOOM!

T
hirty feet to his other side a man was cut in half as a crater exploded beneath him. A charred arm and partial torso landed beside Asher and his stomach wrenched. If it had been full, he would have puked.

BOOM!

Distant figures screamed as they were tossed into the air like dolls. Asher shivered as a cold, unfamiliar river of terror flowed through him.
This was it.
This was the moment that Julius meant. Asher knew he needed to look up, to pinpoint the location of whatever that giant weapon was, but he couldn’t. He couldn’t look up. He was pinned to the ground.