Warriors

FIVE

Lightning sizzled through the bulge of clouds above the demolished airport. The armored shape of a Hell Diver with a robotic arm trotted over to the edge of the runway.

Magnolia stepped up to the ladder, keeping her night-vision optics off. She was second in line to climb down, standing right behind Sofia.

No one knew what Michael had said to Sofia behind the closed hatch, but he had let her join the team on this mission.

Magnolia hoped it was the right decision. With a heavy heart, she watched Sofia descending the rungs. The young woman had endured much in her short life, and after finally securing her freedom from el Pulpo, she had lost Rhino.

As much as Rodger annoyed Magnolia, seeing the loss Sofia was dealing with reminded her that she loved Rodger, even though she hadn’t let herself fall in love with him. She had thought she lost him back in Florida years ago, and now they had a second chance together.

Hell Divers rarely got second chances. Seeing Sofia lose Rhino made Magnolia realize she had to let her guard down with Rodger if she wanted to embrace love.

She also had to stop worrying about Sofia right now. There would be plenty of time to help her on the ride home and after they returned to the islands. But first, they had to make it back home.

Near the bottom of the ladder, Rodger held up a hand to help Magnolia. She took it and jumped onto the cracked asphalt. The militia soldiers came next. For all three men, this was their first time setting foot in the wastes.

“So this is what it’s like,” Banks said.

“Damn, what is that?” Sofia asked, pointing toward the airport.

Magnolia brought her rifle scope up and zoomed in on several hangars on the eastern edge of the main hub.

“ ‘Damn’ is right,” she murmured.

A massive old-world airplane sat inside one of the hangars, whose metal walls had protected it from the elements. There didn’t appear to be any windows left on the plane, and the paint was gone, but the shell was there and both wings were still attached.

“I think that’s a jumbo jet,” Rodger said. “They used to ferry people around really fast—much faster than the airships.”

“That one doesn’t look too fast,” Magnolia said. This was the first passenger plane she had ever seen on a dive. Most planes had crashed during the early days of the war, some of them falling from the sky after EMP blasts or after the computer virus that disabled their electronics.

Rodger looked all around. “I wonder if there are any fighter jets here.”

“Come on, guys, we’re not here for the sightseeing,” Les said, waving the three divers after him. “Let’s get a perimeter set up.”

The militia and the Cazadores were already doing that. Banks used hand signals to position his men. Neither of the Cazador warriors could speak English, but they understood his gestures.

They fanned out across the dirt field, their spears ready to skewer anything that moved. The militia soldiers brought up their rifles, the barrels roving back and forth as their virgin eyes took in the sights.

Michael tapped his wrist computer, and Cricket flew above the divers, its red hover nodes glowing in the dark.

They all had the robot to thank for getting them out of Rio de Janeiro alive. It wasn’t the first machine to save Magnolia’s life. Timothy had protected her several times.

But that didn’t mean she trusted robots. Plenty had tried to kill her, and as she looked out over the desolate terrain, she found herself wondering whether any defectors were out there hunting.

“Come on, Mags,” Rodger said.

Les led the group around the hull of the ship, toward the stern. Magnolia switched on her night-vision optics and glassed the area.

A mound of rubble was all that remained of the control tower, and most of the other structures were no better. Pockmarks in the runway painted the scene of what had happened during the war.

It wasn’t a nuke that had taken out this place, but rather smaller weapons that leveled the concourse and cratered the runways.

The machines hadn’t quite finished the job, though, leaving one airplane behind.

“Timothy, you seeing anything out here besides us?” Les asked over the public comm.

“Negative, Captain.”

“And no exhaust plumes?”

“Correct, sir.”

Magnolia glanced over her shoulder. The militia and the Cazador soldiers continued their patrol around the perimeter of Discovery. The section of flat runway was the perfect place to put down, with a panoramic view of the surrounding fields and buildings.

To get to the airship, a hostile would have to cover major ground and make it past waves of gunfire and the grenade launcher strapped to Cricket’s mechanical arm.

Unless the beasts came from underground…

Magnolia scanned for any unexplained mounds of earth like those she had seen back at the fuel outpost. She shuddered at the thought of seeing the monstrous two-headed snakes again.

Her scans still came back empty—nothing but decaying buildings, and mutant vegetation growing out of the cracked dirt fields. The wind was picking up, though, and a rainstorm was brewing in the east.

Alfred and his three technicians set down their crates and pulled out the folded-up scaffolding they would need to access the banks of thrusters.

At Michael’s command, Cricket picked up the folded platforms and flew them up to the circular thruster tubes protruding just below the two tail fins.

“Timothy, we’re in position at the stern,” Les said. “Engage ladders.”

Two aluminum ladders clanked down to the ground. Alfred grabbed a rung and looked at Michael, then Les.

“Good luck,” Michael said.

Footsteps sounded behind them, and Magnolia turned to see Sofia walking out on the cracked runway with her assault rifle.

“See something?” Magnolia asked.

Sofia peered through the scope, then lowered the rifle. “I thought I did, but I guess it was nothing.”

“Don’t go too far,” Michael called out.

Magnolia stayed at the edge of the runway, searching the rubble piles for signs of life. She finally spotted the first creature: a beetle the size of a shoe.

The purple chitinous head emerged from a hole in the dirt, antennae waving back and forth, before it ducked back into its lair.

The howling wind picked up. A vortex swept across the dry fields, whipping up a cloud of dust. Grit pelted her visor, and the first fat drops of rain spattered on her helmet.

The wind had exposed something in the dirt between the runway and the hangar. She set off to examine it.

“Hey, hold up, Mags,” Rodger said.

He trotted over, and they squatted down by what looked like bones. Most of them were covered in dirt, but the skull was exposed. She nudged it with her rifle barrel.

“Holy hog balls,” Rodger breathed.

Magnolia stared at the chipped and cracked eyeless skull. This wasn’t human. It was Siren.

She slung her laser rifle and brushed away the dirt with her gloves, exposing more of the skeletal remains. Rodger bent down to help while Sofia watched from the runway.

A few minutes later, they had unearthed most of the skeleton, including the wing bones of a male Siren.

“Wow,” Rodger said, standing.

Magnolia remained on her knees. The remains had been here for years, maybe longer, judging by the weathering of the skull.

Michael opened a private channel to Magnolia and Rodger. “What are you two doing over there?” he asked.

“We found the bones of a male Siren,” Magnolia replied. “It’s been dead a good while, but better keep an eye on the sky.”

Michael sent out a heads-up over the public channel.

“More of those things?” Banks said.

“I’ll redirect my cameras,” Timothy said. “I’ll let you know immediately if I spot anything on the feeds.”

“Gee, thanks,” Banks deadpanned. “That makes me feel so much better.”

“Timothy, do our records show any ITC facilities on this island?” Les asked.

“Negative, Captain. My guess is, that Siren flew here many years ago in search of food.”

“So what killed it, then?” Banks asked. “I doubt it was starvation.”

The screaming wind died down, and they heard Cricket chirping away as he worked on the scaffolding. The robot used one arm to attach the platform around the left bank of thrusters, and the other arm to secure it. Alfred helped from the ladder while the other techs and engineers waited on the ground.

Magnolia left the Siren’s bones and went back to the stern with Rodger.

While the other divers stood sentry, Magnolia stole a moment to check on Sofia, who was staring out over the bleak landscape.

“How you doing?” Magnolia asked.

“I can’t believe he’s gone.”

Magnolia wanted to give her a hug, but now wasn’t the time. That didn’t mean they couldn’t talk, though.

“He gave his life to protect what he believed in—a home where our two societies can live in peace,” Magnolia said.

“There’s more to the story than that, and I’m going to find out what it is.”

“Yeah, you’re right,” Magnolia replied.

Much had happened back at the Vanguard Islands since they departed, and the Hell Divers had only a piece of the puzzle. Les had kept most of what he knew, including King Xavier’s condition, to himself.

She was starting to worry that it might be worse than they all thought.

“I just hope we get home before his burial at sea,” Sofia said.

“We’ll be home before you know it.”

Sofia finally looked over at Magnolia. Though she couldn’t see through the mirrored visor, Magnolia knew that her friend was crying.

A gust slammed into them, knocking Magnolia back a step. Sofia slid a foot before digging her boots in.

“Watch out!” one of the techs yelled.

The top crate on a stack of three toppled over, scattering the contents in the dirt. Alfred descended the ladder, battling the rising gale.

Static broke over the comm channel. “That storm is picking up and heading right for our location,” Eevi reported from the bridge. “Looks like we can expect fifty-mile-per-hour winds and heavy rain.”

As they picked up the tools, one of the engineers said to Les, “Captain, maybe we should consider pulling everyone back inside for now.”

“Or maybe we should get out of here while we can,” suggested a tech. “Use the turbofans to get us away from the storm.”

Les looked at the sky in all directions. “Ensign Corey, how long until the worst of it hits us?” he asked.

“We’ve got about forty-five minutes if we’re lucky.”

Les seemed to think on it another few seconds, then said, “We’ll keep working for now, then head inside if it gets really bad, but it’s too late to flee. We’d never make it with the turbofans alone—we need those thrusters online.”

“Better get to it, then,” Alfred said. Clipping a rope to his harness, he set up the ladder to the first scaffold that was complete. Cricket had moved over to the right bank of thrusters, to assemble the platform for the other techs and engineers to use.

Magnolia moved closer to the airship. The techs and engineers were arguing about who would join Alfred.

“Screw it, I’ll go,” said a voice.

Magnolia didn’t recognize it over the wind but figured it was Michael.

She was wrong.

Les wrapped a tool belt around his waist and slung a coil of wiring around an arm.

“Watch my back,” he said to Michael.

The tall former engineer, Hell Diver, and now captain moved quickly up the rungs. He had worn many hats, always putting everyone before his own safety.

Another twenty minutes passed before the acid rain really started dumping. Cricket swayed slightly as it worked on the other scaffold.

Alfred and Les had removed the access panel for the left bank of six thrusters and were busy pulling out the fried wiring.

Magnolia wasn’t sure what they had to do, but she hoped they could do it quickly. The storm front was moving in fast. Lighting forked from the bulging clouds rolling across the island.

“Michael, command Cricket to help us,” Les said. “Screw the right bank. We need to focus on getting the left bank up and running!”

Michael tapped his wrist computer, and the drone hovered back to the first thruster to work with Alfred and Les.

The public comm channel crackled to life again. “Commander Everhart, this is Banks. Your team might want to take a look at our view on the starboard side of the ship.”

“Rodger and Sofia, stay here,” Michael said. “Magnolia, with me.”

The two divers ran around the stern, pelted by sheeting rain. A gust slammed into them as they made their way toward the bow.

“Timothy, you seeing anything on your cameras?” Les asked over the open channel.

“Negative, sir.”

Magnolia caught up with two of the militia soldiers. Banks stood halfway between the airship and the hangar with the jumbo jet, looking up at the swollen clouds.

“I don’t see anything,” Michael said.

Magnolia brought her scope up for a scan but couldn’t see anything, either. She switched to infrared, apparently the same moment Michael did.

“What the hell…” he said.

Magnolia tried to make sense of the readings. The entire skyline seemed alive with red dots, but that was impossible…

“What do you guys see?” Les asked over the comm.

“I’m not sure, sir,” Michael replied. “It could be Sirens, but I don’t think so.”

The two Cazador warriors came running around the bow, talking in Spanish.

“Timothy, you seeing what we’re seeing?” Magnolia asked.

“Yes, it’s very odd,” he replied. “I believe Commander Everhart is correct. Those do not appear to be Sirens.”

Magnolia started toward Banks, but Michael grabbed her by the arm.

“Hold up,” he said.

The other militia soldiers moved out into the rain, but the Cazador soldiers remained near the Hell Divers, as if sensing something was off.

“We’ve almost got thrusters one through three online,” Les said over the comms. “Ensign Corey, how is that storm looking?”

“It’s about to get pretty bad,” she reported.

“We better get everyone back inside and finish the right bank of thrusters later,” Michael said. “I don’t want to risk having people out here when it hits.”

“I need only a few more minutes,” Les said, “but pull everyone else back. I’ll stay out here with Cricket.”

“Banks!” Magnolia shouted. “Get back here!”

The wind howled like an enraged Siren, masking her voice. She bumped on the channel to the militia soldiers.

“Get back to the airship!” she shouted.

That got their attention.

They all turned and began to jog across the dirt, but they were a good fifty yards out. Gusts slammed into them, knocking Banks down.

Magnolia led the Cazadores and Michael back toward the stern. They couldn’t open the launch-bay doors lest they contaminate the new passengers, so they must return to the port side, where they had taken a ladder down to the ground.

Finally back at the stern, she glanced up at the scaffolding.

“Almost got it,” Les called down.

Alfred was still up there with him, helping replace the final wiring.

“Guys, come on,” Rodger said, waving at her and Michael.

“I’m staying here with him,” Michael said.

“Me, too,” Magnolia said.

“Figured you’d say that,” Rodger said.

The techs and engineers ran back to the hatch with the Cazadores, leaving only the militia soldiers still out in the field.

Magnolia moved back to the port side of the stern, where Banks and his men were slowly making their way back in the screeching wind.

“I’ve got a visual,” Timothy reported over the comm. “I’m running a scan in my database, but I think I know what those things are.”

Magnolia zoomed in on the cloud closing in on the airship. Thousands of tiny dots moved at the outer edge of the bulging storm. Her heart caught in her throat when she saw the wings.

Now she knew what had killed the Siren.

“Fruit bats,” Timothy said. “Thousands of them, and these look a lot bigger than their ancestors.”

“Same things that attacked me in Jamaica,” Michael said. He looked up at Les and Alfred. “Move it, guys!”

“We’ve almost got it!” Les shouted back.

Rodger paced. “Bats? That wall of black is really—” His sentence ended in a squawk.

Only it wasn’t from Rodger at all.

A flurry of motion surged from the sky, homing in on Banks and his men as they kept near the hull of the airship. All three men turned just as the bats swarmed them. Their armor and suits vanished in a swirling cloud of wings and hairy skin.

Magnolia watched in horror as the first wave of creatures flew up into the sky like a whirlwind, allowing the next wave to swarm in, and the next.

Within seconds, all three men had been stripped of their armor, suits, and flesh. They didn’t even get the chance to scream. Or perhaps they had, and the shroud of wings muted the sound.

Michael pulled her back around the stern. He raised his laser rifle, and she did the same, directly under the left bank of thrusters. They stood side by side, waiting for the wave of bats to move around the stern and attack.

“Les, Alfred, come on!” Michael said over the comm.

The two men descended the ladder, but Cricket hovered, working to take down the scaffolding.

Shrieks rose over the wind like a macabre chorus.

Magnolia and Michael waited at the bottom of the ladder with their weapons up. It was just the two of them now. Even Rodger had bailed.

The bats’ vanguard curved around the stern, cutting through the air just as Les and Alfred jumped to the dirt. Laser bolts shot skyward, cutting off wings and erasing ugly faces. The mutant monsters came in droves, each with a wingspan of several feet, hissing like vampires.

“Get down!” someone yelled.

Magnolia dropped to the ground with Michael, and a stream of fire jetted overhead, coating the swooping bats in flame. Behind the long barrel, she spotted a Hell Diver with a Cazador flamethrower strapped to his back.

Not just any diver. It was Rodger.

Sofia joined him with another flamethrower, torching the beasts. Burning carcasses rained from the sky, sizzling in the pouring rain.

“Hot enough for you ugly turd-faced fucks?” Rodger screamed as he raked the stream of flames back and forth. “How about you? Yeah? You guys want some, too?”

Magnolia and Michael crawled below the twin gouts of flame and got up behind Rodger and Sofia as Alfred and Les led the way back to the hatch.

“Timothy, can you get us out of here with just the left bank of thrusters working?” Les asked.

“We’re going to find out, sir,” replied the AI.

“Come on!” an engineer yelled from the open hatch.

Alfred climbed the ladder, and the rest of the team followed. Sofia and Rodger covered their retreat, then Sofia turned to climb while Rodger stood guard.

At the hatch, she fired again to give Rodger a chance to climb. But a burning bat latched on to his leg. He kicked and kicked, screaming all the while.

The creature finally fell away, and Rodger nearly jumped up the ladder.

The hatch slammed behind him.

Timothy’s hologram waited inside the room, spreading its glow over the panting divers, engineers, and technicians.

A bat slammed into a porthole, cracking the glass. More of them pounded the other windows, streaking them with blood.

“Get those thrusters online now!” Les yelled.

“Cricket!” Michael said. “We can’t leave without Cricket.”

“Better get his mechanical ass inside, then,” Les said.

Michael tapped his monitor. “I’ll have him latch on to the Sea Wolf.”

The airship jolted as the turbofans clicked on and powered the ship skyward. The retracting legs clanked amid thuds from the bats assaulting the exterior.

“I sure hope we plugged those exterior holes the Sirens found,” Magnolia said.

“Me, too,” Rodger said. He turned around, and Les helped him shuck off the tank for the flamethrower. Sofia placed her tank on the deck and wiped the sweat from her forehead.

“Glad you came with us,” Michael said. “Quick thinking by you two.”

The bulkheads whined from the onslaught of wind, rain, and bats pounding the exterior. Over all the noises came a loud whine, like that of an engine that won’t start.

“Trying thrusters again,” Timothy said.

Another long whine.

“Shit,” Rodger said.

Magnolia grabbed his hand. “Thank you,” she said.

“For what?”

“For not leaving me.”

He took off his helmet, and she took off hers while Timothy tried to bring the thrusters online.

Another whine, another failed attempt.

Bats crashed against the portholes, splintering the exterior glass and smearing it with blood.

Magnolia reached over to take Rodger’s glasses off. Then she leaned in and planted a kiss on his lips. His cheeks reddened when she pulled away.

The thrusters whined a fifth time, and she kissed him again.

On the sixth attempt, the left bank of six came back online. The airship jolted with such force that she fell forward, landing on top of Rodger.

He let out a squeak.

Applause rang out around them as the airship picked up speed.

“We did it!” Timothy said with a handsome smile.

Les smiled back at the hologram. “Take us home, Pepper,” he said. “It’s finally time to show our new friends the home we promised them.”