Hell divers x fallout, p.23
Hell Divers X: Fallout, page 23
He flipped open the breech to reload. By the time he got the next two cartridges chambered, the creature had squirmed through the hatch into the next compartment.
X ran after it into a room stacked with interlocking crates too high to see over. The goliath bug moved fast for being injured. He pursued the orange blood trail to a dark part of the deck, where the lights were out.
He didn’t need them to see the monster. It was in the corner, head down.
X approached cautiously, then flicked on his helmet lights. The spear he had thrown into its back was sheared off, its haft lying in the growing orange puddle.
Still aiming his blaster at the head, X stopped about ten feet away. With his chin he turned on his comms.
“General Forge, I’ve got one big dead cucaracho for you,” he said. “We can secure the deck now. Send in your crew.”
“King Xavier, where the hell are you?” Forge replied.
X looked around for a marking on the hull and caught motion in his periphery. He had just enough time to jump back to avoid a jointed hook that swiped out at him. Almost reflexively, he fired the blaster at the giant bug, right at a red compound eye the size of his fist. The monster chittered, rising up on four jointed legs and striding toward him, brandishing its scythe-like foreclaws. His back hit a stack of crates, blocking any further retreat.
An indistinct message from General Forge crackled in his ear.
As he ducked, the scythe-like pincers scissored right above his head. He fell on his butt and scrambled away with the blaster still in hand.
He got up and dashed for another stack of crates. They tumbled as the behemoth insect slammed into them. A crate hit him in the back, knocking him to the deck. He flopped from his back onto his stomach, then rolled away from a clawed foot that stomped the deck.
X brought up his blaster and fired the other shell, blowing out the other eye. The bug rose up, screeching in anger. Rolling up to his feet, X made a run for the open hatch. The deck trembled under the pursuing monster’s footfalls.
He was almost to the hatch when he saw armored figures in the next compartment. A group of soldiers, led by General Forge and two Hell Divers, raced toward him.
X ran harder, but just as he was about to burst through, something hit him in the back of the helmet that knocked him off kilter. His visor smashed against the bulkhead with enough force he went down like a sack of potatoes. He lay on his side, too stunned to move. A warning flashed on his HUD, but he couldn’t make it out.
After sucking in a breath, he managed to roll onto his back. The angle gave him a view of the monster bug waving its pincers together not six feet away. They scissored the air, antennae searching for him now that the thing was blind.
The creature chittered and reared back, slashing with its front legs. A spear shaft protruded from the neck, another now. Orange fluids gushed onto the deck, splashing all over X.
Suddenly, a heavily armored man moved in front of X with a spear in one hand and a cutlass in the other. The warrior parried the pincers with the sword and ducked a helmeted head crested with a red feather.
“Forge,” X muttered.
The general held his ground in front of X, hunching under another swipe from a pincer. As the creature recoiled the limb, Forge thrust his spear into the soft area below the bug’s tubular mouth. Orange fluid squirted out.
Chittering echoed through the entire space, followed by a low hissing as the creature collapsed with a tremor that shook the deck. X curled on his side to watch the beast draw its last breath.
Then strong hands heaved him up and carried him to the corridor. There, he was placed on a stretcher. He tried to pay attention to the soothing voices, but his pounding head made that impossible.
The last thing he saw was a group of men standing against a hull. He couldn’t see their faces, but the hulking figure bringing up the rear was Gran Jefe.
“Muy bien, King Javier,” he said. “Usted es inmortal.”
SEVENTEEN
Loud barking pulled Magnolia from fevered dreams.
She batted her eyelids at the bright lights inside a cold gray room. Chemical smells hit her nose—the first clue to her location.
Sickbay . . .
Her blurred vision filled with people at the end of the room. Heavy footsteps as they came inside.
The barking continued as Miles darted away from her bedside to two soldiers carrying a stretcher.
She gasped when she saw a prosthetic arm hanging over the side. Another pair of soldiers rushed inside. The knot of armored bodies obstructed her view as they rolled King Xavier in.
“Someone get that dog back!” yelled Dr. Keller.
Miles barked louder as a soldier tried to hold him back.
Lifting the blanket off her chest, Magnolia tossed it aside. The rank smell of urine overpowered even the chemicals.
Another day, she might have been horrified that she’d pissed herself, but not today. Today she was horrified that the king had been wounded.
She glimpsed him through a gap in the cluster of armored bodies lifting him onto an operating table.
Summoning what little strength she could, Magnolia swung her feet over the side of the bed and scooted off. As soon as her feet hit the cold deck, her knees gave way and she collapsed.
Red encroached on her vision. The last thing she saw before her world went dark was the surgical bay door closing.
She didn’t know when she woke up again, but she was back in her bed. Her eyes shot to the door where she had last seen them taking X. It was open now. She blinked to see inside.
Her pounding heart settled when she saw Miles curled up at the king’s feet, watching the open hatch. Edgar and Sofia were also there, sitting in chairs just outside the private room.
Mags licked her dry lips and scratched her head. A strand of blue hair came away. The radiation poisoning had wreaked havoc on her entire body, but as soon as she sat up, she felt stronger.
She stood and took a step.
“Commander Katib,” Dr. Keller called out.
“I’m okay,” Magnolia said. She took another step and wobbled but didn’t fall.
“Not really. You’re weak and need to stay in bed. The meds I gave you will wear off soon.”
“The king,” she said. “What happened to X?”
“Mags,” said a soft female voice.
Sofia came over and helped Magnolia walk.
“King Xavier,” she said again. “What happened?”
Keller looked to Sofia.
“He went belowdecks to kill a beast,” Sofia explained. “When he was found, he was unconscious from a nasty head wound.”
Before Magnolia could ask for more details, Keller said, “He’s a fighter, that’s for sure, but he has some brain swelling, and we have to get that under control.”
Even from here Magnolia could see the bandage around X’s head. An oxygen mask covered his nose and mouth. She started in that direction, leaning on Sofia for support. Halfway across the space, she felt stronger and walked on her own.
Edgar stood in front of the king’s room with Sergeant Blackburn and Lieutenant Slayer. “Commander, how are you feeling?” he asked. “You look better.”
“Don’t lie to me, Cervantes,” Magnolia said.
He snorted. “Okay, you look like Siren shit on a hot day.”
“I’ve been through worse,” Magnolia said.
“Yes, and you will get through this,” Sofia said.
“Does she know what happened?” Edgar asked.
Sofia shook her head.
Magnolia looked up at her best friend. “I thought you told me . . .”
Edgar motioned for her to join him in X’s room. Miles was now standing on the bed at the king’s feet. But he didn’t greet Magnolia with the usual eager wag of his tail. The animal seemed to understand what bad shape his best friend was in.
As Magnolia looked down at the unconscious king, Edgar told her what had really happened to X.
“Gran Jefe and a group of Cazadores forced the king belowdecks to kill that giant bug,” Edgar said. “On his own.”
“Wait, what . . .” Magnolia said. She looked back to Slayer and Blackburn.
“They weren’t there, and Forge has posted them here to guard X,” Sofia said.
“Guard him from what?” Magnolia asked.
The radiation poisoning had clouded her mind, but she began to understand. There had been a coup—happily, an unsuccessful one so far.
“We saw him going down there with his guards, Nicolas and Sebastian,” Sofia explained. “But we had no idea they were planning anything until it was too late.”
“Those fucking bastards,” Magnolia whispered.
“Seems the Cazadores believe the king is cursed, and said they’d only follow him if he killed the monster on the orlop deck,” Edgar said.
“There is more,” Sofia said. “Food supplies are almost exhausted. We lost most of them during the attack.”
Magnolia scratched her itchy head again. Everything had fallen apart. She staggered over to the king’s bedside and put her hand on his arm. A bloodstained bandage was wrapped around his skull.
“What did the doc say?” Edgar asked.
“He said there’s some swelling of his brain,” Magnolia muttered, hardly able to say the words.
Sofia helped her sit on a chair. “Let’s leave them alone,” she said to Edgar.
They left Magnolia alone with Miles and X. The dog rested his head on his paws, watching Magnolia as she held X’s hand in her frail fingers.
“You can’t die,” she whispered.
Miles let out a low whine.
“X, there’s something I want to tell you,” Magnolia said. “Something I wish I’d said a long time ago.”
She looked at his scarred features, each mark with its own story to tell. Anger raged through her like wildfire. This man had given so much for his people. Always putting others first, going through hell to keep humanity afloat.
And people continued to betray him. Captain Rolo, the Cazador soldiers, even Gran Jefe . . .
She sniffled. “You’ve been like a father to me,” Magnolia said. “When I was younger, you filled a role that I never knew about—looking after me, teaching me, training me, protecting me.” A tear fell from her eye. “Now it’s my time to protect you.”
Which meant she couldn’t just sit here.
Magnolia got up and went to Edgar and Sofia. “Don’t leave until I get back.”
“Where you going?” Sofia asked.
“To see if we still have friends.”
Magnolia got her Hell Diver suit from the chest under her bed and took her time getting into it. She also got out her curved blades, which she had insisted on having here after the last attack. Feeling weak and loopy, she staggered out of the sickbay.
With various sections of the ship closed off, it took her a while to reach the CIC. Plastic sheets with radiation warning signs blocked entire corridors. Her headache pounded with each step on the slog up through the decks.
When she reached the CIC, she was on the verge of passing out. Two guards posted in front of the hatch looked in her direction, but neither offered to help.
They crossed their spears when she tried to pass.
“How’s that?” she said.
“No enter.”
“I’m here to talk to Captain Two Skulls and General Forge.”
“No enter,” the same man repeated.
She looked at the Cazador who had spoken. He was almost a foot taller than she. He stared at the hull as if she did not exist.
“Get out of my way, or you’ll be explaining to your friends how you got your sorry ass kicked by a girl,” Magnolia said.
The guards kept their spears crossed. She took a deep breath, reached over her shoulder, and drew one of her curved blades. That got their attention.
Magnolia felt her knees wobble. Sweat dripped down her brow, stinging her eyes.
“Stand down!” boomed a voice.
A wiry soldier came around the corner, repeating himself in Spanish.
Both guards lowered their spears, but not soon enough for Lieutenant Slayer. He grabbed them both by the chest armor and yanked them away from the hatch, tossing them to the deck.
The two guards, chastened, pushed back up to their knees and bowed their heads.
“Lo siento, teniente,” said the one who had denied her access.
“This is Commander Magnolia Katib,” said Lieutenant Slayer. “You disrespect her at your peril. She is a warrior who has killed more monsters and men than either of you ever will.”
The soldiers nodded ruefully.
“Sorry,” one said.
“Lo siento,” said the other.
Slayer looked to Magnolia. “Glad Edgar told me to come check on you,” he said.
The hatch to the CIC opened, and General Forge strode out into the corridor, taking in the scene.
“What’s going on here?” he asked. “¿Qué pasó?”
Neither guard answered, and Forge looked to Magnolia.
“I came to see you, but . . .” She blinked from a fresh wave of dizziness.
Forge looked at the guards, then nodded at Slayer. “Go back to the king, and don’t leave.”
“Yes, sir,” Slayer said.
Forge motioned for Magnolia. “Follow me, Commander,” he said.
The general took her into a private conference room they had been using as a war room. As soon as he shut the door, she went to her knees and emptied her stomach in the wastebasket.
After wiping her mouth, she got up and looked to the general. “You’ve lost control of your soldiers,” she said.
Forge blinked his eye. “They know the truth now.”
“And what truth is that?”
“We have fuel to get to Panama, but not the food.” Forge gestured to a chair.
She sat and pulled her thinning hair back. “The human body can survive weeks without food, as long as it has water,” she said. “We have that, right?”
“Yes, but if we don’t find food in Panama, we’ll be weak by the time we get back to the Vanguard Islands.”
“How long to Panama?”
“Another week, six days if we’re lucky,” Forge said. “I have injured men who will likely not make it that long, I have men who have lost their will, and I have men who question not only the king but my own leadership.”
“This isn’t the first time someone questioned the king, and it’s sure not the first time someone’s tried to kill him.” Magnolia took a deep breath. “But every single time, he has survived, and every single time, he has led us home.”
“For now, the men who betrayed him are in the brig. I have taken their rations, but that presents another problem.”
“We’ll need them to fight if we make it to the Vanguard Islands,” Magnolia said. She got out of her chair, fighting another wave of nausea. “I want to see Gran Jefe.”
“Commander, I respect your strength, but you should be resting,” Forge said. “Let me take care of things.”
“And all due respect, General, but if you had been with King Xavier, this might not have happened.”
He raised a brow, and for a fleeting moment, Magnolia feared she had overstepped.
“You’re right. This should never have happened, but the king is stubborn,” Forge said.
She chuckled. “Ya think?”
“Slayer and Blackburn will protect him.”
“They’re still recovering from their own injuries.”
“Yes, but no one will harm them,” Forge said. “I’m sure of that.”
“Why?”
“Because they are respected, and because even the traitors know we need them.” Forge gestured toward the door. “After you, Commander Katib.”
They left the war room and headed down to the brig. Magnolia had to rest three times on the way. A guard stood outside the hatch to the brig when she arrived. He came to attention with a sluggish salute.
“Take us to Jorge Mata,” Forge said.
The guard led them through the dark compartment, past several hatches, to the one at the very end of the space. Light from the dim corridor spilled into the small space, where Gran Jefe sat on a bunk.
He stood while the guard unlocked the gate.
“Please leave us,” she said.
Forge hesitated, then moved away with the guard as she stepped into the small cell.
“I trusted you,” she said.
Gran Jefe scratched at his chin.
“You think I wouldn’t find out? You thought you’d get away with what you did?”
The Cazador man walked up to her, inches from her face. She could smell the tuna jerky he’d eaten last.
“Your king bring us to un mundo de la muerte,” he growled. “A world of death. He have to prove himself.”
Magnolia swallowed. “He’s fighting for his life,” she said. “He might not make it.”
Gran Jefe shrugged his shoulder. “He immortal, be okay.”
“He’d better be.”
She took a step back, and Gran Jefe heaved a whistling sigh through his pierced nostrils. “You let me out of here now?”
“Ha!”
“General no keep us here siempre.”
“Oh yeah? Why is that?”
“You need us to win war.”
“We don’t need shit from you,” Magnolia said. “As far as I’m concerned, you can rot in here. No, wait—I got a better idea.”
Gran Jefe lifted a brow in anticipation.
“Your men can eat your fat ass!” Magnolia said. “There. Problem solved—now we have enough food to get home!”
She backed out of the room as he chuckled in the shadows.
“You sick. Many sick. You come back on your knees for my help when the time is here,” he said. “Army need me. Without me, you don’t win war.”
