Star Runners: Revelation Protocol

Chapter 11

11

Austin pressed against the tree, listening to the battle sounds echo. Men shouted orders. The c*****e made his blood boil. He wanted to sprint screaming to help Sharkey fight off the Phantoms, but he had orders to wait by the lake for his extraction.

He glanced back at Mom and Kadyn hunched behind a huge log on the banks of the mountain lake. Mom had her arm placed around Kadyn’s neck. The two women, battered and bruised, looked ready to collapse into the soft clay of the shore.

At that moment, Sharkey fought to protect them. Austin should be there, should rush through the forest to aid his comrade. He had known Sharkey since he first arrived at the school. He knew the man would die in the line of duty if it was needed.

And right now, Sharkey’s sense of duty the only thing protecting them.

The laser fire slowed, then stopped. Three rounds of a standard shot, probably a pistol, fired. The distinct sound of a bullet blast sounded harsh when followed by the laser bolts, and it echoed through the treetops.

Silence.

Austin gripped his rifle tighter. They were coming.

He glanced back to Mom and nodded. She covered Kadyn and they pressed down behind the log in the late afternoon light.

Austin turned back and faced the forest. Should he move? Perhaps take the fight away from Mom and Kadyn?

He studied the two-path road. No, he thought, the mercenaries would have to come this way. This was the place.

He switched off the rifle’s safety. An uneasiness filled his body, and he wondered if he would be able to remain still. He wanted to run away with Mom and Kadyn, but at the same time, he wanted the Phantoms to show their faces. He wanted the fight to begin. Come on, he thought, let’s get this over with.

As the minutes dragged, he wondered if he had done the right thing in leaving Tizona during the night with Bear and Skylar. After all, staying meant he would have gone home for Christmas and he wouldn’t be here in the forest at this moment, fighting for his life against intergalactic mercenaries who wanted him dead.

Shaking away the thought, Austin maintained his watch. He knew a shroud could be spotted if you looked close enough. The leaves moved with the wind, and he wondered if the mercenaries had more of the personal shrouds.

The sun cast long shadows over the path, stretching darkness through the forest.

He froze.

A tree branch moved.

Something metallic glimmered. A silhouette of a man moved quietly near a batch of trees on the far side of the road. Austin held his breath, waiting to see if more revealed themselves.

They’d killed Sharkey. They must have. And now they had come to do the same to them.

Two more figures moved in behind the first, their shapes distorting the trees behind them as the shroud technology hid them from view. Another figure stepped down on his side of the road, followed by a second man.

Five total attackers were moving on his position, closing at twenty yards. He shifted his aim, bringing the rifle to bear on the mercenary on his side of the road.

Shoot and move. Shoot and move.

His finger rested on the trigger. The Phantom moved without making a sound, pushing a leaf out of the way.

Austin fired.

The laser blast sizzled through the quiet. Several more blasts followed. Repeaters spit death through the trees as his first three bolts struck the lead Phantom on his side of the road. Sparks rained down from the trees.

“Down!” a voice yelled.

Austin kept his finger pressed on the trigger. Bolts seared through flesh and wood, sending flashes and splinters spinning. Two Phantoms dropped before the mercenaries returned fire. He rolled away from his cover, staying low in the vegetation.

Laser bolts incinerated the log he had used for cover. Fire raged in the spot where he had spent the afternoon. He knew he had cleared his side of the road, leaving three other Phantoms on the far side.

He hoped there would be no more in the trees moving toward him.

Austin remained on his back, listening to his enemy firing into dead wood. He breathed for the first time since the engagement. He rolled onto his stomach without making a sound and scanned the trees.

Nothing.

He heard a whimper, a sniffle.

What was that?

It came from the lake. A consoling voice, softer.

Kadyn.

His friend cried and his mother tried to stop it.

He had to move in and keep them quiet.

Waiting only a moment longer, Austin brought himself to one knee and held the rifle in front of him. A bolt burned past his head and crashed into the tree behind him. Without thinking, he sprinted through the trees, knocking back clinging branches and leaves. He ran toward Mom and Kadyn. A thorn ripped the flesh on his cheek as he ran, the skin splitting and sending a flash of pain through his body. Laser bolts zipped around him like demonic fairies. One clipped his shirt, slicing the fabric. He dove into a bed of pine straw and spun around on his stomach.

He fired in the general direction of his attackers, the bolts flashing as they burned through the trees. Sparks flew from bark, and the forest caught fire in the fading light of day.

If these Phantoms try to get closer to Mom and Kadyn, he thought, they’re going to have to kill me.

He wiped blood from his face and searched for a target. His cheek burned from the scratch. Flames twisted and swirled, reaching higher into the treetops. Leaves shriveled, ignited, and dropped to the ground like crackling pieces of burnt tissue paper. The falling, flaming leaves fell like rain. Heat seared in waves, the wind tussling the embers into a hellish tornado.

Austin fired twice, thinking he had a shot. The rising temperature made the trees and flames shimmer, everything looking like one of the shrouds. More bolts crashed into a burning tree in front of him, sending more sparks into the fray. He ducked in time, a bolt soaring over his head. He had to keep the attackers away from the lake.

He moved toward the water, trying to keep a safe distance from his mother and Kadyn. A pistol fired. He froze.

Mom.

He ran toward their position, screaming until his throat burned. He fired blindly into the trees, hoping to draw attention to him and away from Mom.

It worked.

His upper chest flashed with pain, a bolt burning into his collar bone. He spun around like a top and fell into blackened pine straw. The energy weapon worked its way into his skin, hissing as it ate away at his flesh. He buried his face into the hot ground and howled. Tears mixed with sweat and dirt on his face.

He sat up. Why was this happening? Would his life end here in the mountains next to an isolated body of water? What about Mom? And Kadyn? Was this the end of their stories, too? Resolved in a way he hadn’t felt since Flin Six, he stood in the center of the fire, flames twirling around him. This would not be the end, not for them.

He tore off his ravaged shirt, felt the heat from the burning forest on his bare chest. Ignoring his better judgment, he glanced down at his wound. A charred hole had burned through his skin, exposing his blackened collar bone.

“Mom!” he yelled. “I’m coming!”

Austin ran through flames, jumping over a burning log. To his right, a Phantom materialized in the fire, his shroud running out of power. He fired the rifle from his hip, shouting as he unleashed the full repeating power into the mercenary’s chest. The man toppled into the inferno.

A bolt seared through the air, striking Austin’s calf. He spun around to the ground and fired in the direction of the shot. Two attackers shot at him from behind two trees, the bolts kicking up pebbles and pine straw. He returned fire as he crawled, hoping to make it behind a tree.

Another shot exploded on his thigh. He rolled over on his back. His skin felt like it had caught fire, the pain running through his body like battery acid. He fired again without looking.

Footsteps pounded the dirt from behind him. They had surrounded him. It was all over.

The Phantom knelt beside him. “Can you walk?”

Austin blinked, unsure if what he heard was a dream. “Mom?”

She fired the pistol twice into the woods. Her eyes flickered to his wounds. “We need to move.”

A bolt flashed by her head. Austin rolled over on his side, firing the remaining charge toward the mercenaries. Mom pulled his arm over her shoulder, firing the pistol till it clicked.

She tossed the weapon into the trees. “Come on! Head for the lake!”

They hobbled. Mom yelped, sparks flying from her back. They toppled to the ground.

“Mom! No!” Austin ignored his throbbing wounds and rolled her over. “Where are you hit?”

She smiled at him, gripping his hand. Her eyes rolled back and closed.

“Mom!” he yelled, his head shaking.

He stood between the laser fire and faced his attackers with an empty rifle. He glanced down at his mother, her sweet face turning to one side.

Not like this, he thought. Oh, Mom, I’m so sorry.

With a smooth movement, Austin slipped the hunting knife from his belt. One way or another, he would finish this day. Taking a deep breath, he charged, screaming with everything his voice had left. The mercenaries fired, laser bolts filling the air.

And then the world went straight to hell.

An explosion sent him flying into the forest, his back crashing into a tree. Concussions of heavy laser fire tore through the ground. Debris crashed onto him. Branches, pine straw, and dirt showered him.

A fog covered his mind as he stood in the flames, wobbling as if the Earth shook beneath him. He shuffled through the burning debris, grabbed a blackened branch, and held it like a baseball bat as he prepared to fight.

“Lieutenant!” a voice called from behind him.

Austin didn’t turn, assuming he hallucinated. He walked toward the last position of the Phantoms. They deserved to die. They’d killed his friends and the only family he had left. And they had done it for money.

“Austin!”

He blinked. His body shook. His vision blurred. A silhouette of a man beckoned toward him through the smoke, his hand outstretched. Darkness surrounded him, his world tipped, and he crashed to the ground.