Shadow Seed 1: The Misbegotten (83 page)

I shrieked, “
NOOOOOO!!!!
”

The light under the sub-machine gun of the trooper blinded her for no more than a millisecond.

She fired.

Her bullet took him in his Kevlar helmet, but not where it could do any damage.  It hit him right where the hinge of his goggles
met the metal of his domed head-covering and ricocheted harmlessly into the wall, dividing the hallway from Flavia’s room.  His goggles were ripped to one side.  It took him a second and a half to refocus his eyes.  He was no longer peering through the concave, magnified display.  He was gazing with his own eyes and it took his brain just that little amount of time to adjust.

It wasn’t a long duration of time by any means, but it was long enough to raise the hand cannon I was carrying and sight down the length of the barrel.

Though we had both been trained shooters, for me it was a periodic thing, an exciting adventure I went on every once and a while.  For him, it was a way of life, he trained with his weapon every god damned day…!

…And because of it, he was faster.

I had merely applied pressure to the trigger of my gun, when the mussel of his Heckler and Koch MP6 blazed with yellow flashes, faster than my eyes could register.  I came flying down the stairs, almost certain I was airborne at one point, but the sight before is burned into the very center of my psyche – I can’t fucking escape it!  Though, I have been trying to do just that for more years than I care to remember.

Lucia, to me, had always been the most beatific child I had ever had the pleasure to know, and trust me I known and cared for many, many children in my lifetime, but, to this day, I say Lucia held the cake.  She was downright and disgustingly adorable with her squarish head and light brown, super-fine straight hair, her rose colored lips and full cheeks.  I have long wondered what she would’ve looked like if she matured.  Her body having grown into womanhood, but I can never seem to finish the thought.  I am plagued the
events of my past and my mind won’t let me.  I know now, I am a bad person.  I’ve done horrible things and have been a business man in the most debased sort of businesses.  I know, in my heart, the very day I changed.  I know the instant when I decided to either be fucked by the world or to fuck it myself.  It was that day.  It was because of what happened…

His second, third and fifth bullets took Lucia, right in the head.  It popped like a melon.

His first took my mother’s knee cap, exploding it so badly, it severed her leg.

His fourth, sixth and seventh bullets hit Martín in the shoulder and chest.  My wild, fun-loving little brother was shredded to pieces as my cherubic, precious baby sister was reduced to hamburger.

As my youngest siblings were thrown back by the violence of his bullets, my mother merely began to fall.  He unloaded his clip into her body as I fired; the tremendous punch of my .50 caliber round took him in the shoulder and cleaved his arm clean from his body.

That is where I don’t remember much and things get a little foggy.

I remember I was still running, but I don’t recall throwing my gun aside.

I know for a fact, I collided with something bigger and bulkier than me, but I have no details to convey.  I have an impression, though it is vague, of smashing through the double-paned
, sliding glass doors leading onto the second floor balcony, pushing.  I can almost remember there was something with a descent amount of bulk before me.

The next thing I can unearth, from this age-old mind, is hitting the cast-iron railing surrounding to outermost edges of the balcony.  I know they bent, because I can still hear the metal screeching as it stretched and snapped and twisted.  I can see all of it as plain as day
.  I have a cloudy notion, I’ve been carrying someone in my grasp the entire time.  When I hit the railing, he was between me and the metal.  My legs were pinning his in place, but his upper body had only one option where it could go.  The problem was, it could go places the lower portions couldn’t.

I heard a thunderous snap, and the man in the uniform simply bent into the shape of a backward “L” before my eyes.  His spine was ruined by the velocity I had unleashed upon him, combined with the increased mass within my body.

I felt something tickling me along my entire left side and, for the life of me, couldn’t figure out why someone would be fucking tickling me at a time like this.

I was wrong
.

I swiveled at the waist and saw another trooper coming through the shattered sliding glass door, the muzzle of his sub-machine gun dancing with light.  It hardly registered in my mind, because I was more focused on the tactical, Kevlar helmet he was wearing.  I kept wondering why it was getting bigger, as if it were growing like some fantastically exotic organism.

And why was he still tickling my stomach?

The last word had just left my awareness when I realized the helmet was gone and so was the trooper. 
Where’d he go?
I asked myself, confused and, for what seemed like a few seconds, I stood there.  Until I saw a boot at my feet and looked down to stare at it.

It was the trooper or most of him.  His head was missing and so was the helmet. 
Where had it gone?
  There was blood everywhere, huge swaths it drenching the balcony, the outer wall of the house – me!

“Estefan, we have to leave!” screamed Flavia, pulling my arm, forcing herself to gaze into my eyes and not the bloodbath around us.  She was yanking me for all she was worth.  “Come one, there are more of them coming!”  She was frenzied, her face was puffy from weeping.  Her nails were biting into my arm
, but I felt no pain.

I stepped over the feet of the dead trooper and back into the house, running past the balustrades surrounding the stairs, leading down to the first floor.  Yet, I had only taken one step the railings when my entire back was riddled with
pinpricks, three, maybe four, times as many as before, but I didn’t dare turn this time.  Rather, I pulled Flavia closer to me, effectively shielding her from the barrage of bullets pelting the center-mass of my body.  Ahead, down the main hallway of the second floor, I could the others running in the same direction my step-sister had been urging.  The passage was nothing but bobbing heads, disappearing one of the other around the left turning hall, leading toward Johan’s bedroom.

“YOU MOTHERFUKCERS ARE KILLING MY FAMILY!”

It was so loud.  It stopped me cold.  I moved my head in the direction of the monstrous bellow, and found Katie standing on the third step from the bottom of staircase… or at least, it looked like my cousin, and yet, it did not.

She was still wearing the loose-fitting tank top and matching, butt-hugging shorts she had worn to bed.  Her feet were encased in her best pair of sneakers.  Her backpack was still slung over both shoulders.  In her right hand, she still clutched the 9mm Glock 23 I had given her to protect herself, but that’s where the resemblance stopped.

It was her eyes that were different now.  Gone was the pearly-white surrounding the hazel irises I had loved to look into for most of my life.  They were bright, illuminant, so much so, it was painful to gaze upon.  There seemed to be no eyeballs in the sockets.  Instead, there was some roiling, seething quagmire of searing magma made of the purest white I had ever seen.  But that was not all, her lips had changed as well.  No longer were they thin or pink, rather, they were swollen and beat-red, glowing as if flame burned beneath the skin.  The inside of her mouth swam with fire as well.  She was awesome to look upon, but fierce and gruesome as well.  Her face was a mask of pure, unadulterated hatred – a cast upon that lovely visage I was shocked to see for the first time.  The muscles in her neck strained with tension, her jaw rigid with fury.

I saw the harsh lights the troopers had attached under
the barrels of their weapons train on my beloved Katie, knowing they had seen her and were aiming at her.

“
Nooooo!
” I screamed as I heard the first gun fire, then I heard another… and another.

No, not my Katie…!
was all I could think as I felt despair suck the life out of my heart and waited for her to be shredded right before my eyes…

…But that didn’t happen…

I watched her mouth began to move and the thundering voice I had heard moments before wailed, “
FUUUUCK YOUUUUUU…!
”  With the elongation of the last word she uttered, came the fire.

This wasn’t the sort of fire you’d see in the fireplace or at a campground.  This wasn’t a raging industrial fire,
infused with chemicals, dancing with human-like form.  This wasn’t a jet fuel fire or a rockets’ fire either.  This was greater, more intense and infinitely more powerful.  The only way I can rightfully describe it to you is to write, it was the stuff at the very center of a star.

Yes, this is what I saw that morning - the stuff of stars.

~~~~~~~~~~~~♦~~~~~~~~~~~~

(Summer – 2018)

Rampage

It came from her mouth as a band – a band of pure
energy, the exact width of the circumference of her mouth, giving off an audible thrum as it flashed passed me and burst into the troopers now filling up the stairs.

“God help us,” mumbled Flavia, crushing her body to mine, hanging onto me for dear life.

Wherever the beam touched, whatever it touched froze, for a split second, and then seemed to swell at an ever increasing rate.  Until seams, then cracks, then rents of light began to alter it, distort it, turning it almost ghost-like, and then… it exploded.  The balustrade, some of the floor, most of the stairs, the wall and every single trooper there, detonated with such force, the blast tossed Flavia and I half way down the hall.  We landed adjacent to the bathroom door, some thirty feet from where had been moments earlier!

I never knew what became of those first few bullets they had shot at Katie.  Maybe they had melted in mid-flight…

Flavia came down hard on me, expelling the air in my body violently, and I saw stars for a three heartbeats.  She was dead weight upon me.  I knew the concussion had knocked her out cold.  I twisted and writhed on the floor, trying to get my step-sister off me as quickly as possible without hurting her.  Katie strode up to us and pulled Flavia up, holding her under both armpits.  Other than appearing pissed off, she looked no different than she had when she had put her head down on one of pillows to go to sleep a few hours earlier.

“There are still more of those fucking bastards out there.  We have to le
ave,” she said harshly.  My cousin was furious.

I million thoughts were speeding through my mind.  I wanted to ask her how she had done what she had done, but I didn’t want to make her any madder at the moment.  So, I pushed them aside.  I took Flavia from her and with my newfound density came a degree of added strength.  It was quite easy to swing her around.  I cradled her to my chest, backpack and all – she had lost her handgun.  I followed Katie down the hall until it widened, three doors facing us, right to left was the door to my parents’ living area, the door
to the Multimedia and Theater room and the door to the Rumpus room, where Martín and Lucia played.  It was a room especially for them, full with safe toys and games, and ultra- thick carpeting to help cushion falls and such.

The thought they’d never play in their Rumpus room again, staggered me so horribly, I nearly dropped Flavia.  I couldn’t help the tears.  They came of their own accord.  I was helpless against them.  They fell.  I walked on with my step-sister in my arms.

Katie didn’t stop though.  She quickly turned left with the hall and ran toward the Guest bedroom, the room that had once been mine.  I followed.  The door was open.  Johan and Ramona were peering out, both of their faces anxious, frightened.  Both visibly shuddered with relief at the sight of us.  They waved us to hurry and we picked up the pace.

“What the fuck was that explosion?” demanded Ramona, then her eyes met Katie’s and my girlfriend stepped back like she’d been prodded with a Taser.  “Holy shit!” was all she said after.

“What happened?” asked my brother, shaken, ashen even in the dim light.  His face made dirty from snot and bloated from crying.

“I’ll tell you later,” I said gruffly, pushing my way into the room.

“Is she okay, Eff?” he queried regarding Flavia.

I nodded and glanced around.  The others were bunched at the far corner of the room their heads swinging back and forth as they moved from window to window.  They were an unorganized chorus of movement.  Their eyes were glued to the scene outside.

Tirza saw me first, since she was the smallest of us, she had hung back, fully aware she wasn’t about to get a good look outside.  She rushed toward me and my unconscious step-sister.  “Is she hurt?”  The dismay in her voice was thick enough to eat.

“The explosion knocked her out,” I explained, then I pointed vaguely in the direction of the outside with my chin. 
“Are we trapped?”

“I don’t think so,” she replied quietly.

“Really?” I blurted, surprised to hear such news.

She dipped her head up and down. “Yeah, whatever that explosion was, right after it happened, all the rest of the guys standing around ran inside the house.”

“Can you watch her?” I asked her, indicating Flavia.

“Sure,” she said and waved me to the bed.

I quickly placed Flavia at the foot of it and made my way through the throng by the windows, coming next to Sandy.  “Is the way clear?” I wondered aloud.

“I think so,” she answered, uncaring if I’d been talking to her or not.

“Any helicopters?”

She shook her head “no”.

I bit my lip thinking.  We were running out of time.  We had to get out of the house, otherwise we’d be sitting ducks.  The NIA troopers weren’t going to hold back too long, regardless of what Katie had done.  They’d marshal their forces, regroup, re-strategize and come flying in after us, hell-bent on killing us all, especially after we’d bloodied them a bit.  Who knew what had kept them this long.  Maybe they were waiting for air-cover to arrive or maybe Katie had blasted the stairs to shit.  Who knew?  We didn’t have the time to stand around and figure it out.

“We’re going out, down the escape ladder like we planned, and we’re going now.”  I had made my decision.  I was all about action.  I didn’t even care how I would manage to get Flavia down the emergency fire escape.  I would manage somehow.

With Johan’s help, we quickly opened the window with the reinforce sill, unlatched the fireproof, metal box containing the ladder and pulled it forth, tossing it outside.  It unrolled all the way to the ground.  To my relief, it didn’t bang against the side of the house.

I turned to gather Flavia and found her sitting up on the bed whispering to Tirza, whimpering.

“Can you climb down the ladder?” I asked her as I approached.

“Y-yes, I think so.”  Her voice cracked.

“Okay, good, come on,” I said and motioned for her to take my hand.  “I’ll go first, then come right after.”  She mouthed “ok” and took my hand.

I didn’t say anything to anyone.  I climbed out the window and as quickly as I could methodically manage.  I made my way down a few rungs and stopped waiting for Flavia.  She got onto the metal and nylon ladder, a bit wobbly at first, but, within a few moments, she began to gain the usual confidence she had possessed during one of the many practice runs.  My  parents had made us use the ladder at least once a month.  They had wanted to make sure we all knew how to operate and use it should a fire break out in the house.

We all made it to the ground without mishap.  We gathered between the fence facing the street and a large storage shed my dad had installed against the side of the house.  I punched the combination into the keypad lock latched to the wooden gate.  It opened with a low-pitched click, making us all cringe.  Nothing happened, so I disengaged the lock and opened the gate.  I stuck my head through it and saw…

…No one.  Tirza had been correct.  The street was deserted.

We swiftly made our way through the portal and were tip-toeing across the lawn, regrouping under the only tree on that side of the property when I heard the first helicopter.  It sounded like whoever was flying the fucken thing was in a mad rush to get to the house.  Its engines were screaming in protest.

I motioned for them to follow me and stepped from the cover of the tree, into the open just as an NIA soldier came around the garage, saw me, stopped dead in his tracks, his mouth open with shock.  “Hey!” he yelled and raised his machine gun
and fired.

I felt my heart sink to my shoes when the bullets took Tirza directly in the face and she was thrown to the ground.

Oh god, not Teezee, not Teezee!
I screamed inside as the other Estefan burst forth from his prison and consumed me in an instant.  My vision turned red and I made to charge to trooper.

“
I said fuuuuuck youuuu!
” bellowed Katie and the stuff made of stars burst forth from her mouth, taking the troop in the chest.

I stopped.

He stood no chance, exploding with a sickening squish against the garage doors.  The whole area where he’d been standing was scorched and steaming.

“Estefan let’s go,” said I a small voice at my side.

I was shocked to see Tirza, tugging at my shirt, unscathed.

She’s like you, you buffoon.  Bullets only tickle her.

Everyone was stunned and, for a while, we didn’t move until sounds coming from inside the house increased.  They had heard us.  They were coming.

We bolted for the sidewalk, shooting around the fence marking the boundary of my parents’ property, bullets smacking into the heavy, wooden structure, showering us with splinters.  Someone screamed, but I didn’t know who.  We angled across the street, Sandy’s car was a block and a half down the street.  She had faced
it away from my house, so it was parked on the other side of the road.

I glanced back and saw Jolene clutching at her shoulder, blood running between her fingers.

“Johan!” I hollered.  It was a beseeching bellow.

He looked at me, his girlfriend firmly in his grasp.  “She’s ok, took a splinter of wood to the arm!  Run!”  He waved for me to continue.

Ahead of me, I saw Katie reach the sidewalk on the opposite side.  Suddenly, she spun around, facing me, though she was peering beyond us.  I could at least three sets of booted feet chasing us.

Then, “
Leave us aloooonnne!
”  The stuff of the stars shot from her mouth again, in four super-fast pulses.

From behind, I heard, then felt four more explosions, but I kept running.
The others never turned either.  They ran passed her as she kept her vigil upon our “six”.

“Katie, come on!” I called after my cousin, but she was already striding after me.

Less than twenty seconds later, we were all at the car.  Sandy was savagely rummaging through her ring of keys when something straight out of hell swooped down from the sky, so close to the ground, I swore it was missing the telephone poles by mere inches.

Sandy found the correct key and disengaged the alarm and unlocked the doors at the same time.  My companions began to hurtle themselves into the car, but not me.  I was waiting for Katie.  She was still about four car lengths down the road.

From a block away the airborne beast began to shoot.  It was a modified Apache Longbow and its M230 chain gun was hurtling 30mm rounds, at the rate of six hundred twenty-five rounds per minute, directly for us.

“Hurry up!” yelled Johan, still in the car, but his upper body was sticking out of the window, because he w
as standing inside of it.

The pilot must’ve seen Katie, because the heavy gun swiveled in her direction.  That’s thing with the Apache targeting system
s, they point wherever the pilots’ head is positioned, so when I saw the gun turn, I knew he had beforehand.

H
e shot at Katie.

I watched in horror as the tracers and live rounds alike zigzagged across the street, tearing up huge portions of the pavement, cutting through cars and trees and bushes – everything.  They could’ve been made out of cheese for all I knew.

Then, weirdest thing happened next.  The gun began to shoot erratically, haphazardly, as if something had malfunctioned.  But, the helicopter itself began to slow, then list to one side.  It planed horribly to the right.  Its chain gun was still firing, only now it was tearing up the houses on the other side of the street, cutting the telephone poles in half, laying waste to everything.

Screams began to fill my ears.  It was the screams of the innocent.

I started when I felt Leda come up to my side.  I stared at her, dumbfounded, my expression locked in place.

She never glanced at me.  She was staring at the raptor in the sky.  Her eyes were twin shards of ice, ancient and deep blue.  I could tell, because they burned with just enough light, I could discern color.  Her hair was wafting in the wind, though I was certain there was no breeze, not even the slightest movement of the air.

“
Leave us aloooonnne!
” shrieked Katie as a beam of star light shot from her mouth.

The heavily armored Apache Longbow - one of the deadliest close-quarter, aerial combat platforms to have menaced the battlefields of the modern world - vanished in
to a titanic conflagration.

M
y ears popped.  I was blinded.

Both Leda and I ducked as the bits and pieces of fuselage, body parts, and shrapnel rained down about us
and the neighborhood in a half a mile radius.  The great bulk of the helicopter’s remaining fuselage smashed into the houses on our other side of the street.  It set off secondary and tertiary explosions that lit up the night sky, casting long shadows in all directions.

My entire neighborhood was on fire now.  I could hear the people I had lived beside for so many years s
creaming and wailing for help.