22 DALLAS
“I THOUGHT THIS WAS SUPPOSED to be one of the great cities of the old world,” Lionel said.
“Looks like good old Petra leveled it for some kale fields,” Paul, Lionel’s twin, said.
The only buildings standing were five or six massive leech factories that appeared to be working overtime and an odd rounded tower at the center of the factories. They glided across the calm morning plains where Dallas had once stood. They passed thousands of humans who were peacefully going about their morning business, seemingly unaware of any impending crisis. Their oblivious faces soothed Jeff’s nerves.
“Would it be cliché to say that it’s too quiet?” Lionel asked.
The twins dominated the chatter on their audio channel as they swooped close to Petra’s base, hoping to cruise past it peacefully. No one tried to silence their banter, but Jeff knew it was a sign of their nerves. He’d seen men like them before when things got rough. Most of them had abandoned their duties at the first sign of a raiding party.
“I was thinking the same thing,” Paul responded. “Not a single leech in sight. Doesn’t seem right.”
“There’s no way we haven’t been seen by now,” a female voice with a thick Latin accent said.
“Reyna’s right,” Carlee said. “Petra either doesn’t care or it’s too busy elsewhere to be bothered by some vagrants buzzing through.”
“Either answer works for me,” Lionel said.
“Course correction,” Talon said, his deep voice cutting through the others. “Veer hard to the south.”
“Closer to the factories?”
“I see it . . . incoming . . . lots of them.”
Jeff’s bike turned with the rest of the caravan, adjusting its course to take them right by the leech factories. He looked to the north, and indicators and smoke overwhelmed his vision. There were thousands of leeches coming in hot.
“Are we going to make it?” Lionel’s voice quivered.
“We can outrun them,” Carlee said.
“Stay on course.” Talon’s voice was steel, as always.
The factory buildings filled his view now. In the distance, the huge square buildings had been impressive, but up close, they were jaw-droppers. A single one of the buildings was large enough to cover the entirety of Fifth Spring’s territory.
“Looks like it’s raining,” a male vagrant said. Jeff could hear the worry in the man’s voice. He looked up to see the sky above him blossom with thousands of explosions, crashing against a bubble force field a few hundred feet above them.
Lionel’s curse over the communication line summed up exactly how Jeff felt.
“We’re just in time for the party,” a female vagrant howled across the line, sounding completely crazed.
“Circle back,” Talon said. “Circle back!” Hearing Talon shout was a confidence-shattering moment. If the stoic man was worried, they were in a lot of trouble.
“Stay with me.” Carlee’s voice was peace amid the chaos.
The caravan turned sharply, circling around the corner of one of the massive factories and cutting back through the center of the buildings, heading toward the tower in the middle of the complex. Jeff felt his vision dim to compensate for the overwhelming light emitted from the countless explosions hitting the force field above. The indicators provided by his uniform burst to life, drowning out nearly everything he could see.
“Oh, my God . . .”
Jeff blinked to turn off his enhanced vision because it was blocking his eyesight, and he immediately regretted his ability to see the world in front of him. The factory building they were flying past melted before his eyes as countless leeches fought their way through the building’s outer walls. Thousands of metallic killing machines erupted from the factory, bursting into the air and rolling over the ground. A quick glance showed that the other buildings had equally shared in the duty of hiding Petra’s army.
“Push it!”
They shot past the rounded tower in the center of the factory and raced through the rapidly closing gap between two of the leech armies emerging from the factories. It didn’t take long for the leeches to target the caravan of vagrants trying to slip through their grasp.
“Aaahhh!” Jeff screamed as the opening in front of them began to close as leeches crawled and rolled into place to block their escape path. He squeezed his triggers to fire his bike’s weapons as fast and as hard as he could. His attacks hit the growing wall of leeches at the same time as the rest of the vagrants’ reactions, blowing menacing leeches to bits.
Jeff’s bike punched through the dust and fire and into the open plains they had approached from just a few minutes earlier. Except now the plains were abandoned no more. In the distance, waves of leeches approached them, unloading their arsenal on Petra’s force fields. He searched everywhere for relief, for somewhere they could escape, but all he found was thousands of leeches. Behind him, he saw several transports explode, taking their vagrants with them, those that were a hair too slow in escaping the trap.
And Horus.
The Apostle of his nightmares was running over the plains despite its wings, headed for Petra’s forces. Amid the absolute chaos and destruction, Horus still stood out. Its body towered above everything else Jeff could see; the leeches racing around its gigantic feet seemed like toys beneath the monstrous Apostle.
Petra’s human pets tried to run, but there was nowhere for them to go as their god’s army trampled them. Jeff watched as a family realized they were doomed a moment before an arterially gun landed on them and locked itself into place, ready to attack when the shield failed.
“We’re going to have to go through them!” Talon shouted.
A young man lying on his back stared at Jeff as he shot by him. His face was Jeff’s own not long ago, when he had been the victim of an Apostle attack. He had dragged himself over the concrete, cursing the braves, the men with the ability to fight back who had done nothing while innocent people had died. He looked at the guns on his bike and over at his brother’s killer.
“How?” Lionel asked. His question caused the first pause in the audio channel since the fighting had started. And the silence, mixed with the sudden hopeless battlefield they found themselves in the middle of, told Jeff all he needed to know.
With a shift of his eyes, he changed his audio channel to a private one with Carlee and took over control of his bike. He twisted his arms, directing his bike to turn toward Horus.
“What are you doing?” Carlee demanded. “Get back here.”
“I can’t do this. I can’t just watch them die and not fight back. Besides, I have some business to take care of.”
As he diverged from the vagrants, he saw Horus pull back its wings, composed of thousands of individual arched-up leeches, and glow red, then fire a blinding red laser into Petra’s force field.
“We can’t help them,” Carlee said.
“I won’t die a coward.”
“The leeches are too busy with one another. We can make it out of here. I know it.”
Jeff spared a glance over his shoulder to where the vagrants were racing toward Horus’s forces that waited just beyond Petra’s force field. Hundreds of leeches followed behind them, heading out to meet the attackers. The leeches didn’t deviate or make any effort to avoid humans, who were being crushed and slaughtered beneath the armies. The sight made Jeff want to heave. He held steady on his course.
The force field collapsed under the weight of Horus’s attacks, allowing the barrage of attacks to rain down on Petra’s forces, which returned fire. The caravan passed out of sight as the furious exchange of firepower blotted out his view.
“I’m sorry, Carlee,” Jeff said. “I have to try.”
“Damn it, Jeff! We don’t attack Apostles! You’re throwing your—”
Jeff winced as he cut the audio channel with Carlee. He wanted to say more, to tell her more, but the time for that was over. His bike weaved through explosions and craters as it approached Horus, flying toward the Apostle as it stalked toward the center of Petra’s forces, sweeping enemies aside with its two lowest arms.