Charles Fitzgerald let out a growl of pure hatred as he charged towards the two of us. Snapped from his reverie, Gladstone shifted his aim, ready to fire.
“Gladstone, hold!” I barked. “Charles, stop! Now!” I yelled.
The doctor took one more step and then stood stock-still.
“Drop it!” I commanded.
The doctor raised his left hand, palm up. I began to approach slowly.
“Are you insane? What the hell are you doing, Simon?” Gladstone shouted.
“Gladstone, if I’m right, the good doctor here will do exactly as I command, as will all of the other infected. If I’m wrong, shoot me first, then him. Understood?” I gambled as I edged closer to the enraged scientist. “
Understood, Gladstone?
” I yelled.
“I think you’re nuts, but yes. You get the first round and he gets the second,” he confirmed.
My eyes never left those of the mature, gentlemanly figure so accurately described to me by Cross and Stewall. I felt as if I knew this man, had known him for decades. I opened my mind. His thoughts, jumbled and confused, began to filter into my head. I switched the 102 to my left hand, cocked it with my right, and then gently laid my palm on top of the doctor’s.
He dropped the lump of wood, which clattered to the ground. The noise damn-near made me mess my own shorts. The breath which escaped my lips said it all.
“Simon. Simon Lloyd,” Fitzgerald mumbled.
“Yes, Doctor. I am Simon Lloyd. We have been looking for you. Where is Dr Shepherd, do you know? Where is Evie, Charles?” I asked slowly.
“I—wait, Evelyn. Yes, Dr Shepherd, we came here with her, didn’t we?” he asked, clearly disorientated.
“Where is she, Doctor? Try to remember what happened,” I urged.
“I got shot, here.” He pointed to a red blotch inside his white coat, “He shot us, Portman and me, Aslanov shot us.”
“But you’re alive. Try to think, where did they take her, Charles?” I pressed.
“Compound. She mentioned the compound. I think,” Charles muttered.
I felt that Charles told the truth, albeit shrouded in a near impenetrable fog which clouded his mind. By applying my thoughts to his, snippets of images filtered through to me. The compound seemed like the strongest of those images, and that was where we would go.
Russian Federation base, Port of Murmansk, present day.
Burly arms tossed Evie to the floor. Her head pounded to the beat of her heart. The rhythmic bass echoed in time to the pulses of pain from her bruised temple. Aslanov lifted her by the top of her jacket and plopped her into a chair.
“Bastards!” Evie spat.
“So unlady-like, Dr Shepherd. My men are already pushing back Federation forces. I saw them running, tails between their legs. Soon, we will obliterate them all. They will die, or become assimilated into
my
army. They will form part of the new world order. The resistance will swiftly follow,” Aslanov hailed.
“When they come for you, you’ll wish you were dead, long before you are,” Evie taunted.
“They, Dr Shepherd?” he toyed. “They have bigger things to concern them than you, my dear.” He laughed.
“Charles used to call me that, ‘My dear,’” Evie sniffed.
“Ahh yes. The good Doctor Fitzgerald. He belongs to me now, oh, and Portman.”
“Fitz is alive?”
“Very much so, at least, he was the last time I shook his hand,” Aslanov grinned. “Come now, we have work to do, but not here. I have transport waiting to take you and me to a lab far away, where we can continue our work,” he added calmly.
“Have you lost your mind?”
Aslanov grabbed the back of her chair and spun it hard. Evie gripped the seat to prevent herself from flying sideways with the momentum. When it had spun in a half circle, her face came within inches of his. She stared into his black, soulless, mottled eyes.
“Dear Lord. What have you done?” she whispered.
“I have created a new generation of humans, one higher up the food chain. They obey me and me alone. They are clever, resourceful, committed, and completely loyal. When Mother Russia is returned to me, the world will see change for the better. You will help me to accomplish this, either as a human or assimilated—it matters not which,” he threatened. “Assimilated, you might actually do as you’re told,” he sniggered.
Outside the compound, the resistance troops pulled back as ordered. Aslanov’s men continued to advance, though their numbers were now substantially depleted after heavy losses sustained in the savage fighting.
*****
Nathan took a minute to steady himself, the thin sliver of blood that trickled from his cut lip, testament to the beating.
“Cross, you look like death.” I smiled.
“Thanks! And more thanks for what you did, buddy. Whatever the hell that was.”
“I think I know where Evie is. Hang on one minute, there’s something I have to do first,” I urged.
I took my combat knife and cut away the white vest top I wore beneath my jacket. With a little effort, I fashioned four white bands from the material. Charles stood dazed before us, smiling in an off-planet kind of way.
“Charles, take your lab coat off and put this band on your upper left arm. Leave it there. It’s so that our troops don’t shoot you,” I explained.
The doctor did as I asked him. I retraced my footsteps back towards Petrov and
my
men, tying bands at the tops of their uniforms as well.
‘My men?’ So, they’re your men now, Simon? Since when did you get elevated from closet alcoholic to one star General?
the voice taunted.
“Listen in,” I yelled, blocking out the remark. “You two are to find as many of your brothers as you can and bring them to the boat. Do not engage resistance or Federation forces unless it is to protect yourselves. You got it?” I stated boldly.
Petrov translated my orders into Russian so there could be no mistake. Both men nodded and moved to find their comrades.
“Petrov, you’ll remain with Dr Fitzgerald. I’ll be back for you, but first, I have to help a friend, okay?” I smiled at the youngster.
“Go, Simon. Do what you must do. I will lead Dr Fitzgerald back towards the resistance lines, we’ll be safe there,” Petrov confirmed.
“Be careful, son. Stay alive. There’s a little lady back there who thinks a lot of you, and I promised I’d keep you safe.” I smiled.
“Go, sir,” he urged.
I turned on my heels back towards Cross. Although still looking like he’d seen a few rounds in the ring, he stood with his rifle at the ready.
“Shall we?” I stated.
There appeared to be a marked absence of infected troops as we weaved our way through the Chinese puzzle of containers. Makeshift signs had been erected as we approached the inner compound area, one of which directed us right, towards laboratories one through four.
As we tentatively rounded the final corner, automatic weapons fire deafened me once more in the confined space of the steel walls. We both hit the floor and, within seconds, returned fire. The 102 kicked and bucked, my shots bouncing their way forwards rather than aimed.
“Cease fire!” Cross yelled. I was unsure if it were me, or them he was talking to.
His command met with another volley.
“Let me try,” I stated confidently. “You men, cease fire, now!” I ordered.
A second volley of rounds pinged over our heads.
“That went well!” Cross quipped.
Our enemy was on the move, and the shots decreased as they pulled back. I just caught a white flash of material flee around the next corner, the guards making good their escape, accompanied by two others.
“Evie!” Cross yelled.
“You saw her, she’s there?” I questioned.
“I did, I’m sure of it, let’s go after them.”
“Nate! Nathaaaaan!” an echoing yell returned.
It was like a red rag to a bull. Nathan charged. I had to sprint to stop him rounding the bend to his almost certain doom. The two guards clearly had more initiative than those we had previously encountered, with the possible exception of Portman. These guys would have been professional in their normal lives. I yanked Nathan’s collar as he broke the threshold, his legs continued to move forwards as he tilted back behind the steel corner, the volley of shots clanked into the dead-end wall on our left.
“That’s twice you’ve saved my ass. Lesson learnt.”
“We need to split up, cut them off. I’ll go through, draw their fire, you go up. The containers run in a line towards the
Baltic Wanderer
, you should get a clear shot from the top.” I pointed.
“Now that’s military thinking. I’ll make a soldier out of you yet, Simon.” Cross stated.
He locked my stare, just for an instant, but it was enough to confirm the brotherhood to which we both now belonged. Now I understood why men like him would give their lives for their fellow soldiers.
As if someone had turned a light on in my head, so many things seemed so simple to understand. Again, I thought of Charley. How could I have been so blind, given that we couldn’t talk as such, to her needs? She wasn’t the demanding type, and she rarely complained either. As a mother, she was a natural. I let the best thing that ever happened to me slip through my fingers.
“Later.” Cross nodded.
His word snapped me back to where we were. I could feel
his
need. The need to hold the woman he loved so much in his arms, once more. I felt his fear too, at the possibility of losing her forever, a repeat of the tragic loss of his wife. The thought spurred me onwards. I poked my head around the sharp, protruding edge of the metal box. This time only empty space greeted me. Pinned to the undulating ridges of the wall, I made my way towards the lights of the dock. A shiver ran through me as I got my first look at the hull of the
Baltic Wanderer
since Barbie and I had left it behind. The inscribed name on the vessel read at an angle, the belly of the vessel full of polluted seawater.
A gathering of infected troops milled around the bow of the ship. I broke cover, the 102 rested, yet aimed in my direction of travel, and my hand caressed the pistol grip, just in case.
Casually I strolled towards a couple of hundred infected troops, each armed to the nines and considerably tougher looking than me. I’m no hero. My insides rattled like a bag of spanners as I approached the first group of men. They parted like opposing magnets, all of them.
As I passed between the ranks, hand after hand was extended for me to shake. Add a red carpet and I had a taste of what stardom must feel like. My guts finally began to ease, safe in the knowledge that these men were not about to tear me to pieces. I shook every hand, their eyes dark and fixed as they watched me move from soldier to soldier.
When I reached the vessel, I climbed the makeshift stairway up the side and stood on the point of the bow, overlooking my comrades.
“I am Simon Lloyd,” I announced, confidently. “I order you all to lay down your arms and surrender now. There will be no more bloodshed here today.”
Without a single man breaking his stare towards me, they began to set down their weapons at their feet.
“Leave your weapons and proceed to board the vessel. You men there”—I pointed to the nearest group below me—“you will continue to locate and bring your brothers here. Retain your weapons. Shoot only if you need to defend yourselves; otherwise, do not, I repeat, do not engage other forces,” I ordered.
One of the chosen repeated my orders in his own tongue. My connection with him came to the fore as I announced my intentions. He must have felt it, because he began to translate before I had even asked. He nodded towards me when he had finished, confirmation that the message had been delivered. The remaining men left their weapons on the ground and proceeded to join me on the open deck of the ship.
*****
Nathan lay low atop the last container in a long line of many. The rifle, mounted on the swivel bipod, pulled snugly into his shoulder as he surveyed the dockside area. A single shoe arced through the air, followed by the unmistakeable sound of a cry in pain. Nathan tracked the flightpath of the footwear back to its likely source, in time to see Aslanov dragging Evie towards a parked Jeep.
Given the proximity of the woman he loved to a man he despised, to risk taking a shot would be foolish. Instead, he called out a warning.
“Aslanov! Let her go, it’s over!”
A bullet pinged off a container to the far right of his position in response. Nathan settled behind the scope and calmed his breathing, holding the final exhale until the last, before he fired. The bullet whistled through Aslanov’s lower leg, which sent him crumbling to the rough ground. Evie took the opportunity to sprint behind a gigantic, parked, lift truck used to stack the mighty containers.
“Give it up, now. The next one won’t be a wound,” Nathan yelled.
Close to a forty-foot container, Aslanov pushed himself upwards and limped towards the metal doors. He grappled with the twin door locks just in time to swing the left-hand side open enough to deflect Nathan’s next shot.
“Shit! Slippery son-of-a-bitch!” Nathan cursed.
He laid the rifle butt flush, the barrel resting on the mount, and lowered himself over the side of the container intent on making it to the massive box mover behind which Evie now hid. The air around him carried an acrid taste, infused with the scent of burning rubber and burning flesh, as he drew in deep breaths to propel himself forwards. In a hail of dust and scattered shale, Nathan skidded up behind the monolithic forklift.
“Evie? Evie, it’s me. You’re safe now,” he called.
A shuffle, followed by a whimper, gave away her position as she crawled from beneath the machine. The sunlight highlighted the bruising to the side of her face, courtesy of malicious hands.
“Oh, baby, I thought I’d lost you.” Nathan smiled.
Evie folded into his arms, her body shaking against his chest as she sobbed. Between sniffles, she lifted her head attempting to smile, but was still too overcome with emotion. Nathan placed his hands either side of her face, gently tilting her head backwards as his lips found hers. The kiss was urgent, long overdue, and infused with such need by each of them.
“I love you, Evie. I love you so much.” Nathan smiled.
Her eyes searched his soul as tears continued to track down her cheeks. He took his right forefinger and gently wiped away the moisture, kissing her again, just to be sure she was actually there, in his arms and safe.
“Aslanov?” Evie spluttered, her head finally leaving his chest in an attempt to see.
“The container over there. I’m going after him,” Nathan assured her.
“He wanted to assimilate me.” Evie muttered in shock. “Nate, I love you. Go get him!” she winced.
*****
I came up on the pair just as Nathan kissed Evie before he stood. I passed him a 102 automatic and followed his lead. We set off and split to take the container from both sides.
Within ten feet of the open doors, the sound of an engine revving greeted our ears. Seconds later, a Jeep roared from the metal box, kicking dust and chippings back into our faces, temporarily blinding us both.
I rubbed furiously at my dust-filled eyes, desperate to clear my vison enough to get off a shot or two. Nathan beat me to it, peppering the rear of the Jeep with bullet holes as the 102 barked out rounds. The Jeep snaked as the tyres struggled for traction, which made it harder to hit with the relatively inaccurate automatic rifles. Clouds of churned-up dust wafted across the open port area as Aslanov made good his escape.