Stone Soldiers 4: Shades of War (17 page)

Kenslir felt the flesh on his body petrifying as his lifeforce was drawn away. He felt his body stiffen- from the tips of his toes, up his legs, into his chest. His neck and face began to feel numb.

Blue light sparked from under Laura's hand as it lay on Josie's forehead. The girl twitched slightly as her wounds were slowly healed.

"Did we win?" a new voice asked. It was Jason Trumball's. He had just run up to the clearing- almost out of breath, but otherwise unharmed.

He stood looking at the stony shape of Clint Kerrick amazed. Then down at Josie.

"What happened?"

Laura Olson stood up slowly. "Some major injuries
to Josie- but nothing I couldn't fix."

Beside her, Colonel Kenslir was slowly standing.
Phillips was limping over, unbuckling gear and dropping it from his now human frame.

"
She gonna make it?" Colonel Phillips asked, looking at Josie with concern.

"He's really dead?" Jason asked, looking back at the petrified form of Clint Kerrick.

Victor was walking over now, also curious about the petrified parahuman.

"No, he's not dead," Kenslir said.

Jason frowned and whirled back toward the petrified man who killed his father. Before anyone could say anything, he smashed out with a fist- striking the figure in the chest.

The stone form exploded in a shower of rock and dust, spraying everyone with grit and debris. Josie gasped and sat up, the shatter
ed stone pieces that fell on her having awakened her. She looked down at her body, covered in gray dust, then all around her at her companions.

"Dammit!" Kenslir barked.

Almost as if on cue, a black, inky form rose up from the ground where the petrified body of Jason's father had been standing. Kenslir reached for it, but the figure was too fast. It was already flying, up into the air. Then it streaked away, to the west, vanishing into the sky.

"Good going, genius," Laura said, spitting out some grit and dust as she shook more out of her hair.

Kenslir spun back around to face Jason, an angry look on his face. “He was contained- now you’ve let him go!”

He had only flown so far before he had encountered running water and whatever laws of nature there were in the spirit world forced him to stop. He moved into a small house and waited for several days, for the inhabitants to come back. He didn’t have to long to wait before the angry old man who lived in the home drowned his sorrows in alcohol. It left his body ripe for possession.

In his new body, he had no access to his many powers. It was a struggle to maintain control of the body, since he had to keep it intoxicated to suppress the spirit of the man he had stolen it from. 

Taking the man’s old truck, he had set out, driving away from Virginia. Somehow, after many hours, he reached his destination- a small nursing home in Tennessee, far from any town or major population center.

It was dark when he arrived, so he parked his stolen car down the road and proceeded on foot- drinking from a bottle of whiskey he carried with him.

At the small, brick facility, he was able to break a window and climb inside. He ignored the blood dripping from the cut hands of his stolen body and moved purposely along the dimly lit corridors.

He was surprised to see the two men in suits sitting outside his target’s door. They were surprised to see him- dripping blood on the floor.

“Can I help you?” the first agent asked, standing up from his seat.

Clint Kerrick abandoned the body he had stolen, letting it drop onto the floor. He rushed forward, stepping between the two agents who were fumbling for their weapons. Not stopping, he passed through the door to the room they guarded and raced to the side of the lone bed within the room.

There he regarded another of his clones- number six, whom the humans called John Quincy. Clean shaven- even the hair on his head removed, Six was a deep coma patient. He had been injured during the early days of his rehabilitation, and the government had put him in this nursing home to care for him.

Six’s body was thin and frail- the limbs atrophied from no exercise in many, many years. He was a pitiful version of Clint, but for the time being, he would do.

The door to the room finally opened as Clint dove into the body. The agents came in, guns ready, looking around at the deepest corners and shadows. One agent checked the pulse on Six’s body, and was soon satisfied everything was okay.

The agents eventually left the room, calling for assistance on their phones. Kerrick knew it would onl
y be a matter of time before they sent someone along to more properly check his clone body.

He sat up slowly, forcing his limbs to work. He still had a great deal of the power he had taken from the Washington Monument- retained after the death of his clone body in Virginia. He willed the limbs to grow strong and healthy. Muscles swelled and bones thickened.

He stepped off the bed as quietly as he could and moved to a door that separated his room from an adjoining room. The door was locked, but he had enough strength to force the metal to bend and give, tearing free quietly.

He slipped into the room, closing the door behind him and looked around.

The window here would do nicely. He could climb out and spirit away in the night, seeking out a new source of power. Then he could launch his plan anew.

He paused as he walked by the bed in the room. Something was odd about its inhabitant.

An elderly woman, with long white hair, she lay quietly still, eyes open and staring vacantly at the ceiling. Her breathing was shallow and raspy.

Clint moved closer, waving a hand over the woman’s face. She remained motionless.

He leaned in closer, for a better look at her wrinkled face.

The eyes now came alive and looked at him. The woman inhaled sharply.

Clint was startled and stood up straight. He started to take a step back, but a gnarled hand covered in age spots reached out and grabbed him.

Clint’s skin burned where the old woman’s hand touched him. He dropped to his knees, his mouth open wide, trying to scream, but unable to. He felt his new muscles shrivel and his bones weaken. He felt his skin dry out and draw tight over his body, like shrinking leather.

His eyes clouded, filling with milky white glaucoma. He felt the hair on his head fall off and the teeth in his mouth drop from his gums- many rolling down the back of his throat. Finally he felt nothing.

The woman in the bed sat up now. She kept her grip on the tin man who had been her neighbor for so long, watching the age spots on her hand fade, and the wrinkles relax as her skin took on a healthier tone.

The flesh on the dead man continued to degrade, turning ashy white, then falling off his skeleton like powder. His bones collapsed to the floor in a pile, and the formerly old woman let the hand she was holding join them.

She kicked back her blankets and swung her legs over the side of her bed. She rubbed the skin on her hands, her face, smiling widely. Her long gray hair was now a deep black, glistening in the faint light coming through her window.

She reached down to the pile of bones and picked up the skull Clint Kerrick had been possessing. She turned the eyes toward her and smiled at them.

“
I have been waiting for you for so very long, my dear.”

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READ THE NOVEL THAT STARTED THE SERIES!

MYTHICAL

A resurrected super soldier and a group of teens must stop a shape-shifting giant who eats the hearts of his victims to steal their identities.

Available now in print and digital format!

THE ADVENTURE CONTINUES…

BROTHERS IN STONE

A second prehistoric shapeshifter is loose in the modern world, joining his resurrected brother in ripping out and consuming the hearts of victims to steal their power, their memories and their form. Colonel Mark Kenslir came back from the dead to defeat one shapeshifter. Can he hope to defeat two, or will he need help from an FBI psychic?

Available now in digital and print editions!

THE ADVENTURE CONTINUES…

BLOOD AND STONE

Kukulcan has returned to Earth and demands sacrifices. But is this really the blood god of the Mayans, or something worse?

Available now in digital and print editions!

THE ADVENTURE CONTINUES!

Coming soon!

Orbiting the earth for millennia, a strange, black construct hangs silently in space, its purpose and creators unknown. Governments of the world have feared the implications of the construct and have kept its existence a secret.

When the artificial satellite, code-named Black Knight comes crashing to down to Earth, the Stone Soldiers must spring into action to keep those responsible from unleashing the horrors it contains.