Rise of the Death Walkers (The Circle of Heritage Saga) (34 page)

Both Irma and Katie stared at me wide eyed and then Katie spoke up. “This is providing we can actually merge our minds., right?.”

“I believe we can do this with me acting as a focus. I have never done this before so at first we may fail but we have a couple weeks to work on this and see if it is possible. Are you both ready?” I asked looking at both of them. They nodded in affirmation and I spoke to Moevin. “Ok my friend let’s see if we can do this.”

“Ok Jason. I do not know how to help since we have never done this before so if you actually do it you will need to train me and we can see if my people can do something similar.”

“Right, that is my intention. Ok girls one at a time, I want you to probe my mind. When you feel contact, I want you to release control and let me complete the merge. All other thoughts need to be removed from your minds and you have to let me control completely.”

I knew from the experiences I had from the last few weeks, I could do many things at once with my mind. After practicing with Moevin so much, I could maintain my shield, levitate something, and probe other minds at the same time. Moevin did not understand how I could do this and every attempt to show her how had failed so far. “Moevin you need to be in contact with my mind to see how I do it.”

Alright Jason. Inform me when the merge is complete and I will strengthen my own shield.” Moevin replied.

“Ok. Let’s do this.” I felt Irma touching the fringes of my mind and guided her into the merge once she was completely in place. I felt Katie’s familiar touch and I did the same. The merged mind was amazing in strength. We then signaled Moevin to begin shielding. I continued as the focus of the merged mind and thrust at the shield Moevin had erected.

As soon as I began the thrust the merged mind collapsed suddenly and both Irma and Katie gasped in surprise.”Sorry about that Jason,” Irma began, “I think I was the reason for this failure. I got distracted.”

“No problem love. I did not expect that we would be successful immediately. We just need to keep practicing it,” I said as I caressed her chin. Let Katie come in first and you wait till last. The first attempt looked very promising.” We continued the exercise for days before we were able to maintain the merger long enough to break through the first line of defense Moevin had erected. After we did break through, Moevin placed more lines of defense and the merged mind could punch through all of them with no resistance.

She commented on how much stronger the merged mind was compared to her own. During the time we practiced, I taught Moevin the process of merge. She was able to merge with two of her own people and the process was taught to other members of her race and soon became a standard teaching topic with her own people. Once we were able to merge our own minds, I began teaching the process to my Grandfather, Mimi and Grandma Cara who was still in the States guiding all operations of resistance there. We named them Team B and decided they would act as the thrust to break the shield, thus freeing us up for the more delicate operation of suppressing and forcing the Xilis/unknown entity from Blackthorn. Irma, myself and Katie were named the Team A merger. We practiced with the two teams for the full two weeks and at the end we were able to merge from great distances. We were stronger the closer our proximity was and decided to stay with the original plan.”

On the day of the operation we had all teams in place. Anyone who was not a member of the team was subdued and placed in a drug induced sleep that would hold them for a full day. My strike team was in place and the extraction team standing by for the signal. Their orders from me was to make sure Irma and Katie were successfully extracted. I had a feeling that once we drove Xilis and the unknown from Blackthorn’s mind all hell would break loose on the complex.

We began the merge of both teams at the designated time. The Team B merge thrust through Blackthorn’s shield without any major resistance. Team A began the thrust for the inside protection and peeled them away like an onion skin. Once inside the alien’s mind, I began to press him into submission. I could feel the strength of the alien mind battering back at the merge. We had to deflect attack after attack. Most were so brutal, I could actually feel the pain in my physical body.

Time and time again, I would have to draw strength from the merge to maintain my position as the focal point. Slowly, we pressed the Xilis/unknown from dominance in the fusion it possessed. Blackthorn began to gain more of an equal footing in the merge but the going was painfully slow. I could literally feel the pounding of Xilis’s merge pounding on the focal point of our merge. I was constantly slipping from the focal only to have someone shoot me the amount of energy I required to regain it. Hours into the attack I could feel Xilis beginning to weaken and we merciless drove him deeper.

Once we gained the upper hand we began to strengthen Blackthorn’s position in the merge. Since he was a normal human without any special abilities we had to mentally guide him into the center of the merge and support him with energy drawn from our own mental power.

I let Irma and Katie continue to strengthen Blackthorn’s mind until we could feel his mind enter the merge.

Once this happened I directed the merge of Team A and B, setting myself as the focus. Never before. had I felt the raw power of what I experienced now. I pounded the suppressed entity with a fury I had never known before. Millimeter by millimeter I drove the merge forward to force Xilis/Unknown from Blackthorn’s body. In one part of my mind I could sense the damage I was taking from the brutal attacks the focal of the merger was taking. My ears started bleeding as my brain began to hemorrhage from the onslaught. I could feel the remainder of the merge trying to heal the damage to my mind.

I was so intent on driving the alien complete from Blackthorn’s mind I paid no heed to the warning the rest of my merge was giving me. I pounded the merged mind of Xilis/unknown to the point the alien entity was driven from Blackthorn completely. Once this was done, I began probing deeper than I had before. I could not stop now because we needed the information locked inside the mind of Xilis/unknown. I was relentless in my attack as I peeled layer after layer of protection in the entity’s mind. All information I extracted was relayed to each mind in the merge.

Later I blamed my own arrogance for what happened next. Xilis dropped all attempts to shield himself from our onslaught and poured every ounce of mental energy at the focal point of the giant merge we had formed. I felt the raw power he was capable of and before I knew it he had forced me from the merge with his attack. I felt cut off from my family who were scrambling to figure out what had happened. I dropped to my knees and was immobilized.

The blast Xilis tossed at me literally scrambled every thought I was capable of. I could not bring my shield around my mind to protect myself from the surge after surge of mental energy he tossed at me. Blood gushed from my eyes, mouth, and ears as a result of the attacks. Xilis then proceeded to blast me mentally until I could no longer hold consciousness. Before I blacked out I noticed my grandfather taking over the focal point of the main merge and felt a shield snap into place that protected me from the final blast Xilis cut loose with.

When I saw my grandson pressed so brutally from the merge, I knew what I had to do. I seized control of the mega merge and ordered everyone to shift their focus on me. ‘Moevin, shield Jason or he is dead!” I gathered the merger around me and shot out a giant bolt of energy to attempt to immobilize Xilis/unknown. Without Jason as the focal point our merge was clumsy. We did however draw Xilis’s attention from the brutal attack on my grandson’s mind.

I maintained the merge and continued where Jason had left off. I felt how Moevin had moved into the position to shield Jason but at what cost? She absorbed the first lash of energy from Xilis but just before we could draw his attention off Jason, the being lashed out again and literally burnt out every neuron in Moevin’s brain. I could sense her dying as Xilis turned his attack to my merge.

We had to terminate this brutal life force. I gathered the merge and continued the process of burning out the mind of the opposing merge. We were about seventy percent complete when we felt his mind being seized from our control. Something had reached out and saved Xilis from annihilation.

With the removal of resistance from Xilis the merge stabilized and I asked Katie to have a look at Moevin.

‘Grandfather,’ I could hear the tears in her mental tone, ‘She is gone. She gave her life to protect Jason.’

The news of Moevin’s sacrifice deeply disturbed me. I kept on asking myself if I had pushed Jason’s too fast? If we had waited for a longer period of time would it have made a difference?

‘I’m sorry that we lost Moevin. Her sacrifice will never be forgotten. What about Jason? How is he?’

There was hesitation in the thoughts I received from Katie. ‘I am not sure Grandfather. He is bleeding pretty badly. This might be beyond anything our own medical ability can handle.’

‘Bring him back to the compound as fast as possible. Amanda will have to take a look at him and we can bring in someone from the Barmin’s as soon as possible’ My thoughts were racing to figure out just who we could call in for this. Then I remembered that Haevan had just been sent over to the States to undertake Jenna’s training. We would have to bring him back and see what he could do to save Jason. ‘I will see you once you arrive at the compound. Do what you have to do keep Jason alive until you can get him here.’

The merger broke and Katie and I were left alone in the room with Jason bleeding on my lap.

“What can we do Katie? I don’t want to lose him too.” Was a repeat of Tom going to happen to me again?

“Don’t worry Irma, Mimi is sending a helicopter to us right now, to pick us up.” Katie said putting down the phone. “We won’t lose him.” Her voice sounded determined but there was a touch of doubt hidden behind it.

In the lucid moments I had during the time I was being transported from the compound in Italy to Frankfort, I learned that my family had taken over the attack on Xilis as Moevin struggled to protect me from the attacks I was bombarded with. The Xilis/Unknown entity fled Earth in a panic and his organization in Europe was completely broken. Thousands of Artillians who were merged with human minds fled the European theater in small ships the enemy had managed to construct during the time they were in power.

The fight for the European theater was bloody and my brother Ricky, who had arrived from the States had been a driving force in preventing the enemy from winning.

Ricky looked out over the battlegrounds and wondered if his brother truly was recovering the way his grandfather had told him earlier in the day.

“Take first and second battalion to the left flank. I am going to check on the other battalions we sent to the right.” I shifted into the form of a hawk and took off from the hill where we had been standing.

The freedom of flight was pure ecstasy to me. I shifted into a flying form as often as I could. I could see the men spread out below me. They were under constant barrage from light artillery that was spread out in front of them. I inspected the line of light artillery below me and figured there was something I could do about it.

I switched direction letting the wind carry me high. The I dove for the start of the artillery line below. Just before I was about five feet above the ground I shifted into the form of a tusked African elephant and began mowing the line of light artillery down. The men in front of me screamed in terror at the sight of a thirteen ton elephant baring down on them. I pushed the light artillery out of the way and in many cases demolished them beyond the ability to be repaired in the field.

Once I reached the end of the line I transformed into the form of a sparrow. I was small and hard to target. I stayed in that form until I was halfway back to friendly lines and then shifted into the form of an American Bald Eagle. The sight of their national emblem souring above them encouraged all of the American troops down below. I could see them take a fresh grip on their weapons and push ahead.

I landed and transformed back to my own form standing right next to General Nathan Blackthorn. “Nicely done Ricky.” he said to me.

“That was a nice piece of work you pulled earlier today too Nathan.” I said, “I am glad Jason decided it would be better to have you on our side. The initial plan had been to kill the entity outright.”

Nathan looked down and replied, “I know and I am aware of the sacrifice your brother made to save me. I do know that I have a reason, more than other men, to rid this planet of the aliens once and for all. I am grateful beyond words for what your brother did for me.” He drew a deep breath, looked at the advancing line ahead and continued, “Any good news concerning Jason’s condition?”

I shook my head. “Everything is touch and go right now. Mimi has all she can do to stem the bleeding and Haevan needs a couple more hours before he arrives. The best anyone can do is keep him on life support until the real help arrives.”

He placed his hand on my shoulder and said, “Jason and your entire family are in my prayers. If there is an all powerful one out there,” He waved toward the heavens, “Then he will hear my prayers and spare Jason. Heaven knows we need him if we are going to win this fight.”

I had to know. “What was it like? You know, being controlled by a Death Walker?”

Nathan shook his body as if warding off something terrible. “I felt helpless in my own mind. It felt as if I were being crowded into one small corner of my existence. I could still see what was going on around me, but beyond that I could do nothing to stop what was happening to me. My own body would not listen to what my mind was screaming for it to do. I knew If I could just manage to wrest control for just a moment I could end it all and kill the being inside me. If not kill the being at least prevent him from using my body to commit the evil things I saw being committed.”

I turned my attention back to the battle going on in front of us. Most of the beings had fled from the bodies they had been feeding on. What we saw in front of us was a last ditch effort on the part of the aliens who remained behind, to wrest control from the rightful owners of the local government. All across Europe similar fights were going on. One by one humankind was winning and coming to the table of diplomatic discussion.