The Fleet (6 page)

“It's not
anything we've seen before,” Craig said with deep curiosity. “But
it's certainly a destroyer class. I'm picking up all kinds of
radiation and structuring that is consistent with guns. Large
guns.”

“Crap.” Anna
said.

“Just keep on
the horses up there. If these ships are as large as they look, it's
going to be a race to the finish.”

At least I
hope so.

*

“It's simple
Adam Michaels,” Sarah said. “You want your son back and I want you
by my side.”

“Look, I'm not
saying that wouldn't be great. The truth of the matter is,” Adam
admitted. “I never completely got over you.”

Their
conversation seemed to come to a standstill as both looked into the
eyes of the other. Searching their own feelings and believing in
what could have been. What should have been.

“But how can
that be now?” Adam finally said.

“I think you
and I both know what I'm asking, Adam.” Sarah replied.

And he did.
Sarah's grand idea was to turn Adam and his son to the ranks of the
undead. Though he understood what she asked of him, Adam's face
remained blank.

“You're other
option, of course, is to end this in a firefight. One in which you
already know you've lost. So it's a matter of how badly you want
your son back?” she asked.

“Like I said,”
Adam replied, looking to her with truth. “I'm willing to do
anything to save my son. Anything.”

“Good. We're
making progress Adam.” Sarah replied, grinning a bit as razor-sharp
teeth peeked from her lips.

“My men have
no part in it. You need to let them go free, that's all I ask.”
Adam said.

“Why should I
do that?” Sarah asked. “They would only strengthen my army.”

“Because they
have families back there waiting for them. You know the sting of
losing a loved one. They're here on orders, not on free will.”

“Fine,” Sarah
responded, though she did so with a bit of reluctantly. “They can
go, but they need to go now.”

“And I have
your word they won't be harmed?” Adam questioned.

“They won't be
harmed by my soldiers, no. The infected that roam free on this
planet, I can make no guarantees.”

“Thank you.”
Adam replied, taking a moment to turn. Facing his men and slowly
removing the Benzan amulet which hung from his neck.

“Sir, it does
not have to end this way.” one of Adam's soldiers replied.

“Sure it
does,” Adam replied. Tossing the amulet to his second in command.
“Take this back to Commander James and tell him that he'll always
be my definition of a true friend. He's been like a brother to
me.”

“Yes sir.”

“Be sure to
keep your eyes and ears open on the way back.” Adam added, winking
at the man in doing so.

“You got it
sir.” the soldier replied.

Moments later,
the group of marines headed away from camp. Moving quickly back to
the area in which they'd be able to communicate with the group
holding tight at their shuttle.

“Alright Adam,
I've held my end of the deal.” Sarah replied.

“May I have a
few moments with my son prior to?”

She searched
him out. Trying to make sense of his stalling, though Sarah could
never know a father's longing for a son he'd lost.

“Yes.”

“Thank you
Sarah.” Adam replied, kneeling down to await the embrace of his
son.

Adam's hand
pushed into soil that was only inches from his pistol, which
remained holstered. He was fast enough to draw it, but knew the
Hunters expected such a move. In fact, it was probably Sarah's
reasoning for allowing him to hold his son. To test his loyalty to
them by giving him a chance fight back.

He didn't.
Adam simply wrapped his arms around Avery and cried a bit.
Wondering if it would truly be their last moments together –
alive.

*

“Any sign of
them yet?” Cambria asked.

“Not yet.”
Dalton replied.

He continued
to sit on the ship's bridge, which was faintly lit by a few track
lights firmly planted into the room's ceiling. Two crewmen worked,
though they did so quietly at about thirty paces from Commander
James.

It had allowed
him to sit in the dark and look out across the stars. Waiting for
word from his phantom group and drink whiskey in silence, although
he did so sparingly. He'd no desire to be drunk and in command.
Just sipping from the cup here and there to knock off the nerves of
his job.

“It may be
time to join the rest of your people on Second Glimmeria,” Cambria
said. “You can leave a shuttle behind to let them know where we are
as they return.”

“Nope,” Dalton
replied. “That's not how I do things. These two soldiers put their
asses on the line for me and I plan on waiting on them to get back.
Personally. I don't leave people behind.”

“But you
wouldn't be leaving anyone behind, dear, you would...” Cambria
began to reply.

“The answer is
no.” Dalton reaffirmed with sternness.

His harsh
words led to several moments of deafening silence. Both Dalton and
Cambria looking out across the stars.

“What about
Adam?” she asked.

“Yep, I've
heard from him and we have a plan in place.” Dalton replied.

“Look, I
wasn't trying to leave anyone behind alright? I'm sorry.” she
admitted.

“Don't have to
be sorry. I know you weren't. I just need you to understand that
things have to run differently now. We've had too many years of
leaders who cast off soldiers instead of leading by example. I plan
to be different.” Dalton admitted.

“I know you
do.” Cambria said with softness.

“It may seem
like a small thing, waiting on these two to get back. But to them,
it isn't. To the crewmen in and out of this bridge, it isn't.
They'll all speak of it to others and that carries on down the
line. It lets the grunt with a rifle in his hand know that I care
about him or her as a soldier. Which I do.” Dalton said.

“I know you
do. You're a good man, Dalton James.” Cambria said.

“Yea,” he
replied. “Too damn good.”

“Oh really?”
she asked with a grin.

“You need to
know that when we get established on Second Glimmeria, I plan to
hand the reigns over to someone else.”

“You plan to
do what?” Cambria asked in a very questioning tone.

“This good guy
deal, it ain't me. I'd rather be knee-deep in zombies with a bottle
of hootch in one hand and a shotgun in the other.”

“Dalton, you
need to think about this. You have a chance to restart a
civilization of people the right way.”

“I'm going to
start us off the right way,” Dalton said, finishing off what little
whiskey remained in his glass. “Then I'm going to hand the keys to
people I trust and help clean this system of infected. One damn
planet at a time.”

“Oh.”

“What's the
matter?” Dalton asked.

“I just,”
Cambria said with a slight pause. “I just saw us getting settled
in. Maybe starting a family.”

Her words
seemed to sting his buzz away. Something he'd thought of himself,
though no man is truly ready to have that important talk about
it.

“Truthfully,”
Dalton admitted. “I could see myself settling down with you and
starting a family,” he added. “But this is something I have to do
first. I have to make sure the world our kids grow up in is
safe.”

“I
understand.” Cambria replied.

“It's what I
do,” he said. “If I send a group of soldiers out there, I can't
guarantee they'll get it done. If I go out there myself, I'll find
a way to get it done.”

Cambria
understood.

His way of
life – his smuggling and putting together plans on the fly, they
are one of the things she fell in love with. Dalton was like a lion
who felt caged. One that smelled of liquor and lust. He was truly a
good man with sincerity in his heart. He'd go a long way in ridding
the system of infected, if it came to that. She trusted him. She
loved him. And Cambria would follow him to the end, no matter
what.

“I love you.”
she replied with a grin.

“I love you
too, babe,” Dalton said. “I'm gonna give you that life you deserve,
I promise you that. I just want you to be safe when you're standing
up, day after day, fixing this old hound dog meals and cleaning
house.”

“Oh God,
really?” Cambria asked with a bit of giggling.

“Hey, if you
are offering who am I to turn it down?”

“I meant
children, you lug!” she replied.

“Having
children means bedding you down. I'm alright with that.”

“WOW.”

“Hey, I'm
known for my skills when it comes to shagging.” Dalton boasted.

“Dear, the
term shagging died out with the first Glimmerian War.” Cambria
replied.

“I coined it
and I'll decide when it dies out.” Dalton said with a grin. Smiling
lips peeking from his overgrown beard.

“You do that
you old hound dog, I'm heading back to our room. I've got to get a
little sleep,” Cambria said. “Are these brutes that keep following
me around necessary?”

“Yep,” Dalton
replied. “Just until we get settled in. It just takes one pissed
off soldier and you in the wrong place, wrong time. I want them
with you to keep you safe.”

“Aw, you're
such a big teddy bear.” Cambria remarked. Kissing her man on the
cheek and turning to exit the bridge. Two very large Husk warriors
shadowing right behind her and providing a buffer of safety, if
need be.

Yep. But
keep it on the down low.
Dalton thought. Knowing damn good and
well he had a reputation to uphold.

*

“Alright Adam,
it's time.” Sarah said.

As she stood
waiting, dozens of Hunters gathered with her – the sun peaked over
the mountains of the small moon. Each of them waiting to turn Adam
and his son to their cause.

Standing to
his feet, one arm securely wrapped around his son, Adam prepared to
do the unthinkable.

“Me first,” he
said. “Please.”

“It makes no
difference.” Sarah replied.

“It does to
me,” Adam said. “Many of your people have spoken to me of things
they remember from their mortal lives. I do not want to carry the
memory of my son being turned for the remainder of mine.”

Sarah looked
him over thoroughly. Trying to understand a pleading father's
reasoning.

“Very
well.”

“Thank you
Sarah,” he replied. “I've always loved you. I want you to know
that.”

“I do.” she
admitted.

Beginning to
hold a hand to the brow of his face, lowering it a bit to display a
praying cross in front of him, Adam appeared to be doing just that.
Praying for forgiveness.

“Now.”

As his thumb
clicked a small 2-way com device, Adam knelt a bit to bow to his
soon to be queen, though it would never be. With a single motion,
the gunslinger grabbed the iron horse from its holster and jolted
up to fire a single shot.

Piercing the
neck of Sarah Blaine, Queen of Vampires. Rendering her truly
dead.

Blindly firing
several more shots into the crowd of Hunters in chaos, Adam scooped
up his son and dove behind the thick of a large tree. Its trunk
providing enough cover until it was finished once and for all.

“Now, now,”
his second in command shouted from a distance. “Give 'em all you
got!”

And they
did.

The small team
which had been left to guard the shuttle had went into shallow
orbit under orders. Adam's plan to stall the Hunters long enough to
allow them to get into position. As Adam pleaded through his com,
the orders were relayed from his team to the team in orbit. Lead
raining down from the heavens and punishing what remained of the
Hunters.

A single shot
remained in the chamber of Adam's holster as the champion smuggler
cried fiercely. Part of it fear for his son's life – hoping the
team in orbit did their job. The other part of it was the act of
killing Sarah Blaine. A woman he'd once loved so very deeply.

As the
exploding rounds which fell from blue skies above began to thin
out, Adam could hear familiar voices around him. The distinct
voices of team members that Dalton had hand selected to protect his
best friend.

“All
clear.”

The Hunters
were dead. Every last damn one of them.

For all of the
death and destruction they'd brought humanity over the years, their
reign of terror would come to an end on this battlefield of cooling
embers and sunlit grass.

“Are you
alright sir?”

“Who me?” Adam
asked, standing to his feet – his son firmly in his arms.
“Absolutely,” he added. “You don't ever count Adam Michaels
out.”

“We have the
package. Zone is all-clear,” the soldier told his com device. “We
are ready for extraction.”

“Copy that
ground team.”

*

“Commander.” A
crewman said as the bridge was now filled once more. Every
workstation going as they continued to recognize the day schedule
in deep orbit.

As Dalton
James read a single sheet of paper delivered to him, the man in
charge began to smile wide. Knowing Adam had reclaimed his son and
stuck it to the woman behind such a string of shitty luck.

“I never did
like that bitch.” he admitted.

“Sir?” one of
his crewmen asked.

“Adam's
mission was a success. They are heading back now. He has his son.”
Dalton proudly announced.

As the
enlisted members working on the bridge of the large ship began
clapping, Dalton settled back in a bit. Proud of his good friend
Adam and in need of a stiff drink.

Then another
powering need hit him. The need for sleep. Knowing Cambria was
alright and things were calm on the surface, Dalton leaned back a
bit to prepare himself for a nap. Even if it were in the
commander's seat.