Hell divers x fallout, p.25
Hell Divers X: Fallout, page 25
The men all stared at X. He looked at them in turn again, then motioned for General Forge.
“Free them,” X ordered.
Forge seemed to hesitate, then followed the order.
“We have one last chance to save our home,” X said. “I won’t screw up again. This time, I will lead us to victory, or I will die trying.”
All across the room, heads nodded.
X felt the stim pill wearing off. His head pounded, and his legs felt weak. “Get some sleep,” he said. “When we get to Panama, we’ll deploy teams to search for survivors and supplies.”
The room began to clear, and X called Gran Jefe.
The Cazador lumbered over, rubbing his wrists.
“Don’t speak,” X said.
Gran Jefe shrugged a shoulder.
“I don’t blame you for what you did to me,” X said. “You have every right to challenge me. But I need your support when we get home. Not because I am afraid of dying by your sword or of death at all. I’m ready to die, but if you turn on me again, I will send you straight to hell.”
The big Cazador snorted. “You think I want la corona?” He wagged his finger. “I no want crown.”
“Then what do you want?”
“Justicia.”
* * * * *
Two days after entering the capsule with the little black beads, Kade was starting to go stir crazy. He remained suspended in the slimy material, watching as the tiny bots skittered over his skin.
It had taken him a few hours to understand what they were doing, but now he was convinced they were cleaning him of toxins and perhaps even removing radioactive material his body had absorbed.
He had read about this technology many years ago but had never seen it in action. His nose tickled from the bots still in his nostrils. More were inside his ears, mouth, and other places he didn’t care to think about.
Besides the itching, it wasn’t all that bad. His captors had opened the lid once to give him something to eat and added what he heard was an anesthesia to help reduce his discomfort. He felt no pain at all and was glad to know he was being cleansed, even if it was taking forever.
As he lay bound by the straps inside the capsule, his mind drifted from past to present. Thoughts about his family and his time in the machines’ camp.
Kade snapped out of it when he felt new currents and eddies in the soup around him. Something had changed . . .
The gel level in the pod began to drop, the tiny bots vanishing right along with the gel. Minutes later, his naked flesh glistened.
Finally, days after he’d been sealed inside the capsule, the lid opened. He blinked, his eyes adjusting in the bright glow of an overhead light.
Standing in front of him was a bald man in a black lab coat with a trident symbol on the collar. He held a tablet. Next to him was Lucky, whom Kade almost didn’t recognize without armor. The knight wore a blue uniform over his muscular body. He had shaved all but his mustache, exposing a square jaw and the half-moon scar on his right cheek. On his duty belt was a holstered pistol with two extra magazines, and the hilt of his long sword rose over his right shoulder.
“How do you feel?” asked the man in the lab coat.
“Good as new,” Kade said. “Mind taking these straps off so I can get some clothes on?”
The scientist looked up from his tablet to scrutinize Kade. Then he checked a monitor built onto the capsule.
“He’s clean,” remarked the man.
Lucky nodded back. “Let him out.”
The straps retracted, freeing Kade. He stepped out, nearly falling. After getting his balance, he slowly walked over and leaned on a table for support.
“Take a few minutes, then put this on and follow me,” Lucky said. He handed Kade a suit.
The tingling sensation in his limbs burned for the first few minutes, bad enough he clenched his jaw. When they finally passed, he took the suit and began to dress.
Lucky led him out of the room into a long corridor wide enough for vehicles. More scientists in black lab coats walked past, some of them eyeing Kade skeptically.
“Where are we going?” Kade asked.
Lucky didn’t respond. That was unusual since their bonding journey, but perhaps something had changed since they got back.
Of course it has, Kade thought.
These people had lost a knight, a pilot, and General Jack. It was no surprise Lucky had closed off.
They walked into another corridor with glass walls. As they drew closer, Kade saw movement on the other side.
Fish swam by, some of them darting away from the viewports when Kade stepped up to look. He watched the fish retreat to the colonies of corals. Orange, red, and pink polyps grew in shelf upon shelf inside the tank.
“We call it the Fish Bowl,” Lucky said. “It’s where we get most of our protein, including new seaweed harvests.”
Kade recalled the tanks of seaweed he had seen when he first arrived here.
“It’s an important part of our ecosystem,” Lucky said.
They walked past several scientists who were working at monitors built into the walls. A woman with a tablet seemed to be monitoring some of the sea creatures outside the viewport on the left.
It was fascinating to Kade, but they didn’t stick around.
Lucky didn’t stop until they got to a section of labs with more glass windows. Soldiers with automatic rifles stood outside the double doors. A sign read Advanced Research and Testing. On the other side, two scientists worked at lab stations. Both wore bulky hazard suits. Those suits told Kade that whatever they were working on was far more dangerous than some radioactive material.
He followed Lucky down a connecting passage that ended at a steel hatch with a keypad.
Lucky stepped up to it but hesitated.
“I’m taking you to the Forerunner,” he said. “Answer what you are asked, and don’t speak out of turn.”
The knight paused to look Kade in the eye. “Do you understand?”
“Yes,” Kade said.
“Good, because your fate is no longer in my hands. If the Forerunner decides to kill you, there’s nothing I can do.”
Kade swallowed hard as Lucky tapped in the key code. The hatch buzzed and swung open to a concrete stairwell with dim lighting. The cavernous passage felt as if it dropped ten degrees in temperature while they descended four flights of stairs.
At the bottom landing, Kade caught a whiff of what smelled like burning hair.
Lucky went to the next keypad and typed in another code. He opened the thick hatch, and they entered the recessed chamber with the circular platform over the top that Kade remembered from his first visit to meet the Forerunner. Nobu and Zen were there, dressed in the same uniforms as Lucky. They stood at trident-shaped podiums overlooking the chamber. The other four were empty—no doubt previously assigned to Mal and the other knights killed recently.
Lucky stepped up to his podium and drew his sword. “I am here to serve the Trident,” he boomed.
“To serve the Trident,” repeated Nobu and Zen.
A half-synthesized voice answered them. “Have you brought the Hell Diver?”
“Yes,” Lucky replied. He motioned for Kade to step up to the extended platform.
Kade moved out and looked down at the weathered face of the cyborg searching the darkness for him.
But it wasn’t just the Forerunner down there.
A body lay on a gurney, with tubes hooked up to multiple ports in the pale flesh. Kade almost didn’t recognize the man until he saw the severed arm.
Stepping up closer to the edge, he saw that it was indeed General Jack Campbell.
The tubes snaking away from his chest were connected to a machine with a monitor. A heartbeat showed in a zigzagging green line on the screen.
“I saw him die,” Kade whispered.
“He did, and the Forerunner brought him back.”
“How?” Kade looked on in awe. “How is that possible?”
“Because we are creators, not deestroooyers!” yelled the Forerunner in a voice that seemed more synthesized than human.
Risers lifted the elderly leader and his wheelchair, along with the medical equipment supporting his frail body.
The liver-spotted bald head and wrinkled brow came into focus under the bright glow of dangling lights. The platform rose directly in front of Kade. He went down on one knee in a show of respect.
“I am told you’re not an enemy,” said the old man, this time sounding more human. “I am told you performed many heroic actions to save some of our knights, even risking your own life on more than one occasion.”
Kade kept his head down, avoiding eye contact.
“I wonder how many of my warriors would have died out there if it weren’t for you,” said the Forerunner. “However, a better question is whether your heroism makes up for the horror your people brought to our lands.”
“I’m truly sorry for what’s happened,” Kade said.
“Look at me.”
Kade raised his face to meet the gaze of this mysterious, ancient being. The Forerunner pushed a control on his chair, rotating it toward the mounted monitors. Most of them flickered to life. On the screens, views of the Sunshine Coast lit up the room.
Kade looked at the different monitors, seeing some that appeared to be underwater. There were also screens with live views of the labs he had passed earlier.
“The damage from the radioactive fallout is worse than I feared,” said the Forerunner. “It has poisoned our water and is already showing up in the tanks of seaweed and coral that sustain our food sources. We are using all our technology to prevent lasting damage, but it might be too late.”
The Forerunner came closer to Kade, his wrinkled face just inches away. Kade braced for punishment from this man of unknown powers.
“Your king escaped the fallout and the monsters, which is impressive,” the Forerunner said.
A flood of relief washed through Kade. He tried to keep his emotions from showing.
“Where will your king go now?”
Kade was afraid to tell him what he believed, in case of retaliation. But from what he had seen, these people had no way of mounting an offensive. Chances were good they didn’t even have the means to hunt down the Frog with more than a dozen knights. Still, he couldn’t risk telling them where the Vanguard Islands were located. It was simply too dangerous.
After a brief pause, Kade decided to give a half truth. “Panama, to our outpost, a place called Gateway,” he said. “He will probably try to refuel and stock up there before hunting down Captain Rolo, the man responsible for what has happened to your lands and resources.”
“He won’t return to your home? These Metal Islands?”
Kade was surprised to hear the Forerunner invoke the former name of the Vanguard Islands.
“Speak quickly, Hell Diver,” Lucky said.
“I do not know,” Kade said.
“I suppose you don’t know the location of the Metal Islands, either, do you?” the Forerunner asked. The cyborg came closer, his rancid breath hitting Kade.
“I do not know the location. It has been guarded closely, like the location of your home here,” Kade said.
The Forerunner seemed to study Kade for a long moment. Normally, Kade didn’t fear men, but the creature in front of him wasn’t entirely human. He was part machine—something that Kade did fear.
Kade saw the Forerunner shift his eyes—one cybernetic and the other human—away and over to Lucky.
“Do you believe these words are true, Lieutenant Gaz?” the Forerunner asked.
Kade couldn’t help but look over. Had Lucky been promoted?
“Yes, I believe the Hell Diver speaks the truth,” Lucky replied.
“Then you have new orders,” said the Forerunner. “Prepare a Sea King chopper for a long journey to this Outpost Gateway. Find this king’s forces, and activate the Trident.”
In his peripheral vision, Kade saw Lucky stiffen.
“Do you understand?” the Forerunner asked.
“Yes,” Lucky replied. “Find the king and activate the Trident.”
NINETEEN
A week had passed since the Frog escaped the Sunshine Coast. The ship was now mere miles from the Panama Canal and Outpost Gateway.
Magnolia stood in the crow’s nest with X. They were both on the mend, but the radiation poisoning still lingered for Magnolia. She was hungry, exhausted, and sick with worry about what they would find here.
X had suffered a concussion from his fight with the water bug, and like everyone else on the ship, he was frail from lack of food.
General Forge climbed up with them. “We have not picked up any radio transmissions from the outpost,” he reported.
“Understood,” said X. “Keep radio silence.”
“Are you sure?” Magnolia asked. “What if the crew had to abandon the outpost?”
“Yes, I’m sure.” X cleared his throat. “We don’t know if Captain Rolo sent forces here, and we can’t risk alerting him to our presence if he or some of his people are here.”
“I agree,” said General Forge.
X looked at the sky. “We still don’t know what we picked up on radar.”
“Whatever it was, it’s been gone for days,” Forge said.
“I know, but I don’t want any surprises. My gut says Rolo returned to the islands, but we can’t let our guard down.”
Magnolia held up her binos, searching the horizon for the shore.
Her heart pounded at the first sight of land, which came with a lightning strike. She had waited over a week to get back here and learn the fate of Rodger and the outpost.
Please be there, Rodge. Please . . .
She held on to a sliver of hope that he was still out here, but hope had betrayed her before.
“We’re here,” she said.
King Xavier took the binoculars and held them for a long scan.
“Okay, anchor us out here and prepare the assault teams for recon,” he said.
“Aye, aye, sir,” replied General Forge. He took the ladder down, leaving X alone with Magnolia.
She took the binos back.
“Mags, no matter what we find here today, don’t forget, the fate of our people rests in our hands,” X said.
“I know that.”
She turned away, but he grabbed her by the shoulder. “Hold up,” he said. “You said some stuff when I got hurt a few days ago. Now I’m going to say a few things to you, and you’re going to listen.”
She sighed. “Okay.”
“We’ve known each other a very long time, and we’ve been through a lot of shit together on this crazy journey. Lost a lot of people. Before this is over, we’re sure to lose more.”
He pulled his hand away.
“I don’t want to lose you,” he said. “I’m not sure I can handle that. You understand what I’m saying?”
She nodded. “I’ll be careful when we get to the outpost.”
“Okay, then. Let’s go see if we can find Rodger.”
They went back down into the CIC, where Miles waited. From there, they trekked to the aft cargo hold, where they had fought the cyclopes just days earlier. Corporal Valeria was there, holding Jo-Jo on a chain. The animal, unlike everyone else, was well fed, having eaten much of the spoiled food that would make the sailors sick.
That was good. The last thing they needed was a starving, angry monkey.
Miles trotted over to say hello to his friend as X and Magnolia went to the soldiers waiting in the cargo hold. The fire team of six trusted Cazadores was ready to go. Each man, including Sergeant Blackburn and Lieutenant Slayer, was handpicked by General Forge.
Edgar, Sofia, and Tia were also here, ready to deploy with the team.
Not one of these people had eaten in three days. Magnolia had felt hunger in her life, but now, combined with the lingering effects of radiation, she felt like a walking zombie.
“Get ready,” X announced. “We’re heading to shore for a recon of Outpost Gateway. I’m bringing the animals for extra protection and to see if they can sniff out what happened.”
The vines, Magnolia thought. She recalled the SOS for the thousandth time, trying to imagine what could possibly have happened to Rodger and the rest of the outpost.
“Everything is set,” Forge said.
“Good. Don’t take your eyes off Gran Jefe and the others while I’m away,” X said. “I also want a rescue team on standby to deploy.”
“Good luck, sir.”
X went to Valeria, who insisted on coming despite her injuries.
“I help,” she said. “Please, King Xavier.”
After a brief hesitation, he allowed her aboard the assault craft with a nod.
Magnolia followed them to the elevator deck, where Jo-Jo knuckle-walked over to Miles. The dog was coming along, which surprised Magnolia some, but apparently X felt better bringing him along than leaving him behind with a crew of hungry Cazadores. Perhaps that was why Jo-Jo was coming, too, especially with Gran Jefe staying behind.
The monkey really seemed to dislike the Cazador. X had told Magnolia about Jo-Jo’s second attack against Gran Jefe, this time during the fight with the cyclopes, and Magnolia was starting to think maybe the first attack wasn’t a fluke. That maybe the animal sensed something off about Gran Jefe.
Magnolia didn’t understand how, but if that wasn’t the case, she was bewildered at what would cause the monkey to behave that way. There had to be something, and it wasn’t just because the Cazador smelled bad.
The elevator in the stern cranked and began to lower. Magnolia took a breath of filtered air and boarded the assault craft bobbing in the choppy water. Heavily armored Cazadores piled onto the afterdeck they had used to transport APCs back in Brisbane. With all aboard, the engine roared to life, and the craft motored away from the Frog.
