Stone Soldiers 4: Shades of War (13 page)

When she hit the ground, Laura Olson let her fingernails extend out, past her fingertips, transforming them into sharp claws with which she was confident she could rip even this Clint Kerrick's flesh. She swept forward with all her vampiric speed, a blur over the grass of the field.

But as fast as she was, the parahuman was faster. He leapt into the sky, his passage cracking the sound barrier and sending out a shockwave she felt in her chest.

Then she was surrounded.

Surprisingly, the first few strikes actually found her- slicing through the air faster than she could dodge. The ghosts of the army had recognized she wasn't mortal and had adjusted accordingly.

Unlike a human target, her body did not yield to the spectral bayonets. They crashed against her like clubs, repelled by the same energy coursing through her body that the Colonel had so graciously given her.

Laura lashed out with her claws, ripping through the closest ghosts. They burst like balloons, their forms swirling away like smoke. But there were still more of them. Hundreds and hundreds more.

Purple light flickered around Laura- lasers fired from the Stone Soldiers as they moved in. Other flashes now came from around her- bright, white flashes as the shades fired their own, silent weapons and sent spectral bullets at the men of stone.

Moving with her vampiric speed, Laura continued slashing, wreaking havoc in the ranks of the formation. Specters all around her lunged, bared their teeth at her- but she was too fast for them now. A whirling, undead dervish with charged claws and inhuman strength. She was slashing the ghosts around her right into oblivion. Dozens and dozens of them.

***

On board the MC-135, Jason watched a feed of the battle on the monitor before him. An overhead view, it showed flashing markers for the stone soldiers- gray triangles - and the swiftly-moving vampire- a red triangle. The spectral army were displayed as faint circles, many disappearing completely here and there.

The ghost army had stopped its march and was fanning out in a u-shape around the soldiers and the vampire. Many seemed to keep their distance- bright lightning-like flashes indicating they were trying to fight from a distance as they discharged their ghostly rifles.

The vampire was sweeping through the ranks like a tornado now, moving this way and that in completely unpredictable patterns.

Jason noticed something and leaned in closer. "They're reforming!"

Josie nodded in agreement, watching the same feed in her tactical visor. Where Laura Olson swept through the ghost army, circles disappeared like popping bubbles. But seconds later, circles seemed to reappear. Josie wondered if this was some kind of rendering problem- the satellites high overhead maybe not being able to accurately count the ghosts.

A shudder went through the plane, as if they'd struck turbulence. Then a great rush of air sounded, like a tornado. It was almost loud enough to drown out the sound of shrieking metal.

Josie suddenly found herself in a terrific, hurricane-force wind, the air being sucked from her lungs. Lights flickered and sparked all around her. The plane had been hit by something.

***

Mark Kenslir was about to leap out of the rear of the plane when he felt it lurch and tremble. He knew immediately this wasn't turbulence.

His tactical visor began flashing a WARNING indicator across the top of his field of vision. Then a flashing blue indicator swept past from his left hand side, streaking away behind the aft end of the plane. He recognized it immediately.

"Josie!" Jimmy screamed. Watching through his own tactical targeting visor he watched in horror as the head-up marker for Josie Winters was carried away from the plane.

He started fumbling with his safety line, intent to free himself from the plane and dive after her. But Colonel Kenslir beat him to it. With two quick steps, the Colonel flung himself off the end of the lowered jump ramp.

***

Pam Keegan gasped for air as the wind ripped through the passenger compartment of the plane. Ever since the crash in Mexico a month ago, she had vowed to always, always wear her seatbelt on any plane she ever rode in again. And this time, it had saved her life.

Just a second after the C-135 had rocked from some impact, a huge section of the fuselage had peeled away and vanished. Air had immediately rushed out of the gaping hole in the side of the plane- taking with it, cups, maps, loose baggage and Josie.

Jason had nearly gone too, but Keegan had been quick to react- extending her arm across his chest and holding him down in his seat beside her. But the wind had been sucked from her lungs and she could not breathe.

"Looking for me, whelp?!" Clint Kerrick demanded. He was standing in the aisle of the passenger cabin, his hair and beard whipping in the wind that otherwise impossibly didn't faze him.

Oxygen masks dropped from the overhead bins and lights flickered as the suddenly depressurized plane began to descend.

The parahuman looked around and grabbed a thin shard of metal extending from the fifteen foot-wide hole he had torn out of the plane's right side wall and roof. He pulled the metal out slowly, causing it shriek loudly over the noise of the wind. He managed to pull free a five foot-long section of metal. Holding it over his shoulder like a spear he aimed, then let it fly.

The metal struck Jason square in the chest, burying itself in his torso just above Pam's arm, and making the boy grunt loudly. The impact was so great it rocked Pam's seat as well.

Kerrick smiled, then effortlessly flew out of the plane.

Pam grabbed at the oxygen mask whipping around in the air in front of her and slipped it on. She could feel Jason's left hand clawing at her arm. Something wet and warm splattered over Pam's face like rain- Jason's blood, whipped into the air by the rushing wind.

Pam tried to slip another oxygen mask over Jason's head, but he slumped forward, his eyes rolling up in his head. The wind kept rushing through the cabin, the effect of the large plane racing through the sky at well over two hundred miles per hours.

The fighting on the ground had turned to hand-to-hand combat now. The sheer volume of specters was simply too much for the three stone soldiers. Their lasers had been pulled from their hands by the never ending army of specters crashing over them like waves.

Stone fists, wrapped in iron-knuckled gloves smashed at the seemingly solid spooks, scattering them in the air. But for every ghost scattered, there seemed three more ready to take its place.

Ghostly hands so long unable to do anything clutched at the soldiers' bodies- pulling their sleeves, their pant legs, their pouches, harnesses and belts. They lashed out with all their might, but the sensation soon became like trying to fight against mud or tar that had enveloped them.

"Miss me, boys?" Laura Olson yelled. Captain Smith felt himself lifted up from the ground at the sound of the vampire's voice and thrown through the air. He tumbled end over end, realizing she had hurled him free of the ghost army just before he struck the ground.

Smith rolled with the impact and came up on his feet quickly, fists at the ready. Olson had thrown him several hundred feet, over the ghost army, and across the road. He had landed in the front yard of a small, deserted home.

He saw another stone soldier hurled out of the horde of clawing, grasping ghosts. The tactical visor marked it as ZEUS- Colonel Phillips. The electrokinetic stone soldier was hurled further up the road, toward Boonsboro. Phillips landed hard, rolling and tumbling for several yards.

From his position, Smith thought the ghost army resembled nothing more than a mob. Hundreds and hundreds of figures pushing against one another, trying to reach the patch of ground where the stone soldiers had made their stand.

Another stone soldier flew out of the horde- JANUS, Victor Hornbeck. Like Phillips, he rolled and flopped on the ground like a ragdoll when he hit. But then, neither of the men had the years of experience in their stone bodies that Smith had.

In the flank of the army closest to Smith, several of the ghost soldiers turned to face their opponent. They swept forward, turning to smoky wisps that moved incredibly fast then reformed directly in front of him.

Smith was ready and lashed out with his iron-sheathed stone fists.

***

Josie Winters wanted to scream, but she couldn't. Her lungs were on fire and her vision was blurry. Wind roared in her ears and she felt herself tumbling end over end. She knew instantly what had happened. She'd been sucked out of the plane.

Kicking and grabbing with her hands and feet, she was in full blown panic now. Her heart beat madly and adrenalin coursed through her veins.

"JOSIE!" A voice called out from the tiny speakers in the head band of the goggles. It was Colonel Kenslir's voice. Even over the wind rushing past her ears, Josie could hear it.

"Josie! Arms and legs out! Go flat!"

Her vision was darkening now, but Josie fought against the pain and did as she was told. Her tumbling slowed and she found herself stabilized, on her back. She was cold too- something she hadn't realized before. She was almost able to breathe now, and her vision was clearing.

The tactical visor was flashing and scrolling out text all over her field of vision. She couldn't yet make it out, so she closed her eyes to avoid seeing the strobe-like display.

"Hang on, kid! I'm almost to you!" Kenslir yelled over the speaker again.

Josie could barely stay awake now. She wondered if she was suffocating.

A sudden jolt shook her and she could feel the flightsuit tighten around her middle and snap her around. Something had hit her- hard. She again started flailing her arms and legs and opened her eyes.

"Calm down!" Kenslir said. He pulled her in close against him, her back against his chest. His head was right next to hers and she could hear him now without the tactical visor.

He swept his right hand around in front of Josie and pressed an oxygen mask against her face- his mask, that he'd pulled off seconds before sweeping into her. He'd grabbed the girl with his left hand, praying her flight suit wouldn't rip and he'd simply race past her as he dove, at full speed, arms and legs held in tight.

Josie shuddered as the oxygen filled her lungs. Slowly, she began to feel better. Her vision cleared. And she wished it hadn't.

They were still falling. Fast. And the ground was getting a lot closer.

***

By dividing the stone soldiers, Laura had forced the ghost army to split up. They now swarmed in four directions- toward each soldier, and toward Laura, who was still slashing wildly with her claws, momentarily dispersing the specters with each blow.

She hoped the Colonel would appear soon, as even with the extra energy she'd drained from him, she didn't know how long she could keep this up.

To her south, across the road, Atlas, Captain Smith, was thinking the same thing. He now had a house to his back, and the ghosts hadn't yet circled around to attack him from behind. He stood with his back against aluminum siding, smashing out punch and kick after punch and kick, scattering ghost after ghost. Fortunately, he couldn't tire in his stone state, but he knew that eventually the ghosts would have to figure something out and change their attack.

But it wasn't the ghosts that changed their attack- it was Clint Kerrick.

The wall behind Smith exploded outwards- driven by the hurtling mass of Kerrick as he flew through the house at several hundred miles per hour. He smashed into the stone soldier and sent him flying up and over the ghost army, to land well behind where the vampire was baring her fangs and slashing at the ghosts left and right.

Kerrick landed on his feet in front of the house, then glanced to his left and right. He immediately streaked away to his right, dispersing his own spectral army and plowing straight into Phillips.

The electrical Colonel tried to fight back, but Kerrick was simply too fast. Twin fists came down on either side of the stone soldier's head, crashing into his shoulders with the impact of freight trains.

Like a nail driven into wood, Phillips felt himself pile-drivered into the ground he was standing on, his stone body splitting the earth with ease. In the blink of an eye he was buried up to his chin in dirt.

Then his attacker was gone, streaking away like a bullet toward the last standing stone soldier- Victor.

***

Jimmy managed to push the final door open between him and the forward passenger compartment. His mouth hung open in shock when he saw the huge section of fuselage missing.

Struggling against the heavy wind whipping through the room, he grabbed at seat backs and made his way over to where Pam Keegan was standing over the teenage boy, Jason. Keegan still had her oxygen mask on and was pressing a blanket over the boy's chest, trying to stop the flow of blood.

"Pam!" Jimmy called out over the wind.

The blonde turned her head, surprised. "Jimmy! It was Kerrick! He attacked the plane!"

"Did he take Josie?"

"No..." Pam said. She hadn't thought much more about the young brunette. She regretted that instantly- she'd grown quite fond of the girl. "She was sucked out when the fuselage tore open."

"How about the kid?" Jimmy asked, pointing. He could now see the five foot long piece of metal had pinned Jason to the seat, most of it sticking out of his back.

"I think it missed his heart. But he's lost a lot of blood. His heart rate is really down. I think he's going to bleed out."

Pam remembered this scenario only too well. She had been impaled by a shard of metal during her plane crash in Mexico. Then, the vampire had been able to heal her. But Dr. Olson was no longer aboard the plane. She was on the ground, fighting.

"He's still alive?" Jimmy asked incredulously.

"Flight deck!" Jimmy said, cybernetically switching his tactical visor to an internal comm channel. "This is Hades- I need you to bring us back around- over the drop site!"

"What've you got in mind?" Pam asked.

"He can heal if he had the energy too, right?"

"Yeah..."

Jimmy moved in, grabbing at the piece of metal sticking out of the back of the seat. "Well, there's a whole lot of energy below us. On the ground."