Reavers (Book 3) (43 page)

“It’s all my fault,” Owen said in a hollow voice.  “If he had left me in my coma he’d have the strength to save her.”

“Don’t go blaming yourself,” Cain said quickly.  “The final act hasn’t ended yet.  There still a chance . . .”

“What chance?  Everything’s gone wrong, even if. . .”

“Shut up!” Doug yelled over everyone.

Owen and Cain turned to find everyone staring at Doug.  An odd expression filled his face.  Slowly he extended his arms out, parallel to the floor.  His face contorted, as he seemed to focus all of his being on something.

“Don’t you feel that?” Doug asked in a panicked voice.

“Not now,” Marie said in exasperation.  “Don’t you think we have more important things to think about than you having a dizzy spell?”

“So I’m the only one feeling that?” Doug asked.

“Feel
what
?” Erin asked condescendingly.

Abruptly, the sound of some advanced machine falling over thundered through the hall.

“Ronald!” Tyra said as she steadied her pulse.  “I thought you were restraining the doctor.”

“I am,” he said, obviously confused.

Glancing about, Cain realized that Janet was still completely immobilized by Ronald, and that the machine had been on the far end of the hallway.  Something else had tipped it over.

“There it is again!” Doug said as he dropped to the ground.  “Don’t tell me you didn’t feel
that
one.”

“Feel what?”  Erin repeated.

“An earthquake,” he said as he clung to the ground.  “We’ve got them
bad
back home.  The whole world is constantly shaking; get them once or twice a week.  Not one structure taller than a single story, too dangerous.”

“Nonsense,” Rupert said in clear annoyance.  “I don’t know about
back home
, but Jeirude is tectonically stable.  Even in the coastal areas there have only been a handful of events since the colony was first founded.  For us to get one here so far inland - never!”

As if taking Rupert’s words as a challenge, the ground violently shook.  Half the troopers were knocked off their feet by the force of it.

“Care to revise your position?” Cain taunted as he rubbed his sore posterior.

“Hold on,” Humphrey mumbled as he scrambled to stand.  “We get them on Szöllös, too, but they never happen this frequently.  That was what, the third in as many minutes?”

Before anyone could comment, the ground shook again - even more violently.

“What is going on?” Abigail asked as she clung to Rupert.

“They are rhythmic,” Octavia said slowly with a studious look on her face.  “This isn’t natural.”

Another violent lurch pulled the few still standing to the ground.  As the rumbling ceased, the lights went out.  The previously well-lit hallway was instantly stripped of all light and sound.  Only the regular shaking remained.  Cain fumbled around in the darkness for Angela.  Just as he reached her side, another violent rumbling shook the building, although it was less violent than the previous ones.  Suddenly, the lights came back.  However, these lights had a dim reddish hue.

“Looks like they’ve had to switch to a backup generator,” Ronald said.

Abruptly, Angela let out an ear-shattering scream and desperately clung to Cain.  As he rubbed his ears he turned to see what was the matter.  Standing over her was a thin man with deep-set eyes.  Somehow the man had surprised
Angela
.

Cain wasn’t sure that was even possible.  As he studied the man, it became evident that he was completely immune to the shaking of the floor.  No matter how strong or what direction the vibrations came from, the man stood perfectly still.  Cain couldn’t put his finger on it, but somehow the man didn’t seem right.  There was something
wrong
about him.

“Jeirude is currently being bombarded,” the man said in an eerily calm voice.

“Who’s attacking us, Thir . . . Henry?” Octavia said, quickly catching herself.

“Unknown.  A single object jumped into a close orbit over Jeirude.  Twelve minutes and thirty-nine seconds later it released seven objects.  I am unable to determine their composition or origin.  They have begun strafing runs against this facility and a select few other locations.  Their munitions are unfamiliar.  I am still attempting to analyze.”

With a nod, Octavia jumped to her feet and started running down the dimly lit hallway.  Henry easily kept up.

“Bombarded?” Rupert repeated, obviously stunned.

“Does Jeirude have any defenses?” Tyra asked as she attempted to stand against the regular pounding.

“None,” Rupert said distantly.  “Our Protectorates were completely wiped out three years ago in the Shard invasion; only a skeleton crew remains.  Never had any larger defense than that.  We managed to hide and wait it all out last time, but they didn’t bombard us.”

“Trust me,” Cain said in a serious tone.  “The Shards are the least of your worries.”

With her balance gathered, Tyra chased after Octavia.  Without a word, the others struggled to their feet and pursued.  The sounds of panic and confusion filled the hospital as the squad struggled to keep up with the little girl.  Despite her size and age, she was incredibly quick and agile.  However, despite her usual speed, Henry had no trouble keeping his position next to her.  In fact, it seemed that he was holding himself back not to leave her behind.

After chasing the pair down several flights of stairs and past several dazed nurses, they all left the hospital.  Rupert and Abigail gasped loudly at the sight.  Fires were burning in the distance with large billows of smoke creating massive tombstones in the sky above.  All seven stories of the north face of the hospital were charred and black with several impact craters ringing the structure.

Abruptly, a soft high-pitched whine grabbed everyone’s attention.  In the distance, an odd V shaped object was closing on them.  The sound it made was foreign to anything they had ever heard before.  It was rhythmic, starting with a piercing screech that faded into the high-pitched whine only to repeat a few moments later.  From the increasing volume, it was clearly getting closer.

“Does anyone even have a rifle?” Tyra asked desperately.

“Even if we did, it wouldn’t put a dent in a starship,” Rhea said as she locked her gaze on the approaching craft.

“That’s a starship?” Humphrey mumbled.  “Looks like an asteroid to me.”

“One that has been shaped and drops bombs,” Marie said as she looked over the nearest impact crater.  “I don’t recognize this fallout pattern.  These things aren’t using standard ordinance.”

Abruptly, the craft let out three rapid screeches and a glowing
something
dropped from between the two forward prongs.  The glowing orb quickly descended on the hospital as it pulsed with a dirty white light.  The dull white glob missed the building and landed on the far side, exploding with a perfectly vertical emission of force that looked like an erupting geyser.

“At least they have horrible aim,” Cain said.

“Joke later!” Tyra said.  “I need options.”

“Not that I want to be negative, but I don’t think we have any,” Valerie said as she scanned the horizon.  “No orbital defense platforms and I doubt there is a Navy ship this far out on the rim that could respond in a useful timeframe.”

“Useful timeframe?” Penny asked.

“She means they’d arrive after we are all
long
dead,” Mr. Springate said as he folded his arms.

“I preferred it when you were sneaky,” Penny said, quivering slightly.

“You asked,” Doug said.

A deep guttural sound filled the air, and the ground trembled in a constant vibration.

“They are bombing us again, so soon?” Rhea asked as she scanned the skyline.

“Can’t be!”  Erin said as she spun in place.  “There isn’t anything near enough.”

“She’s right, and it’s not to their rhythm,” Cain said as he slowly approached Octavia.

“Not like it matters,” Hiroko said as she pointed at the sky.  “That last bomber is turning back for another run.”

As the others turned to watch the circling craft, Cain walked up to Octavia’s side.  Oddly enough, she wasn’t watching the offending craft, or even looking into the sky for that matter.  Her eyes were locked on the ground a fair distance off; she seemed to be staring intently at a patch of land that didn’t seem any different from the other countless parcels of brown tinted grass.

Kneeling down to her height, Cain tried to see what was interesting her so.  Giving up, he walked in front of her and aimed to ask directly.  As he opened his mouth to speak he realized her eyes hadn’t altered in the slightest.  She seemed to be looking
through
him.  Her eyes were slightly glazed and unfocused as she continued to stare at a single point somewhere behind him.

Abruptly the low grumbling grew to a grating roar, and the shaking grew twice as pronounced.  Cain instantly turned toward the approaching bomber, but it was still a ways off and there was no impact crater below; it wasn’t responsible.  The deep roar grew louder until it drowned out the high-pitched whine of the craft altogether.

The ground started to shake more violently, but it was a steady vibration.  Instead of a sudden lurch caused by an earthquake or impact, it was like the ground was shivering.  Spinning in place, Cain instantly realized that the craft overhead weren’t responsible - Octavia was.  As he studied the preoccupied girl, a hand feebly struggled to take his.

Glancing down, he found Angela’s hand wrapping tightly around his.  While her hand clung to him, her face was locked on something in the distance.  Matching her stare, Cain’s jaw dropped.  The ground that Octavia had been staring at so intently was parting.  A long black strip appeared between the two retreating shelves of ground.  As the shelves slowly pulled away, the loose topsoil slid off the edge, falling into the pitch-black abyss.  No matter how long Cain stared at the slowly widening expanse, he couldn’t see any detail.

The large black slit had no bottom or walls and seemed to consume all light that should have illuminated it.  The length of the slit was easily twice that of the hospital that stood behind them.  The high-pitched whine of the bomber barely registered against the grating growl of the parting land.  Cain hadn’t even noticed the bomber’s approach and only realized in passing it had fired off another miss.  His attention was undividedly locked on the expanding darkness.  Finally, the black expanse had grown from a long slit into a perfect square. 

As it finished its growth, the loud sound of massive gears settling into locks rang out and ended the loud grumbling.  For a moment, perfect silence filled the air.  Only the distant clattering of falling rocks and topsoil could barely be heard.  Cain suddenly realized he was holding his breath.  The only solid thought in his mind was that something
wicked
was coming.  No one dared speak, and the air itself seemed to turn stale as they all stared down into the still abyss.

Without any hint of its previous presence, a large three-sided spire rose from within the darkness.  The vertex of the spire was a slightly bent point, a sharp looking length created by the condensing of the three edges.  As the massive spire rose into the air, the three edges grew father apart, widening the spire slowly.  After a while the spire stopped its growth and stood perfectly still, its base still hidden within the dark abyss.

The spire was incredibly tall, forcing Cain to take a step back and tilt his head so far back it hurt his neck.  It looked like a cross between an impossibly large spear and an ancient Egyptian obelisk Brent had once shown him.  Its surface was the same deathly black as the abyss, but there were a multitude of small grooves carved into the otherwise perfectly smooth surface.  There seemed to be no logical pattern to the grooves as they angled within the surface.

Abruptly, several small flashes of green light traveled up through the grooves from within the black abyss in the ground.  Once the flashes had traveled all the way to the terminus of the spire, it started bending at the mid point.  The formerly straight tower was slowly angling toward the far edge of the abyss.  There had been no evidence of any kind of joint, but the spire folded down upon itself nonetheless.  Like the bending of a knee, the previously straight spire crooked over, and what had been the pinnacle slammed into the ground.

The force of the impact was greater than any of the bombs had been.  Like a hot knife, the pinnacle easily penetrated the cold earth and stood solid.  The arch of the newly created joint resembled that of an A as the opposing end disappeared down into the darkness.  As Cain struggled to regain his balance, he realized a second spire was rising from the black pit.  Before it had reached the end of its growth, a third started to rise.  As it too started to bend like the first, a fourth and fifth spire started to ascend.  One after another, each spire would ascend, a flash of light would travel down its length, and then it would arch over and impale the ground.

As more rose from below, Cain realized they were each equally distant from one another - spaced
perfectly
.  Finally a ninth spire rose from below, but it was followed by no more.  Once the ninth arch secured itself into the ground, Cain had a greater understanding of the objects.  The nine arches looked like a ring of spider legs with the body still hidden underground.