Dominatus (37 page)

Keith’s face revealed his growing apprehension.

“Mac, if this thing don’t work…”

Mac lightly tapped the metallic box to Keith’s right – the E1 unit.

‘It’ll work.  The Old Man knows his weaponry.  This thing is government grade top of the line.  This pulse is gonna rip right on through any electronic protections inside those drones.  Now Keith, you remember that ten count you gave me earlier?  I want you to do it again when the drones get just inside a five thousand yard radius of our location. Need all of them inside that mark, and judging by the current speed, that’s gonna be in just a couple minutes.  Do you understand?”

Keith gave a brief nod, though the apprehension on his face remained.  Mac flipped the cover off of the metallic box for the E1, revealing a simple red button which his hand then hovered over.

The countdown began.

“Ten…nine…eight…seven…six…five…four…three…two…one.”

Mac paused for another second and then slammed his hand down onto the red button.  There was a noticeable vibration underneath our feet and then…nothing.

Dread overtook me as I noted all of the drone signatures remained on the screen just over three thousand yards away.  Then…several of those signatures disappeared.  Within a few seconds, yet more disappeared until finally, only two drone signatures remained.

Keith’s eyes widened in panic.

“Mac!  Two left - they’re gonna bomb those people Mac…”

Mac’s returned Keith’s panic with his own calm reply.

“Keith, I need you to let me sit down there in front of that screen.  We have twenty four rounds left in the M2, right?”

“Yeah, twenty two.  But Mac, the automated sight system is probably knocked out after the pulse, it’s outside the cave and wasn’t protected, there’s no way…”

Mac’s eyes narrowed as he began maneuvering the M2’s sight manually from inside the defense room.

“Keith, we’re just gonna do a little skeet shooting now.  I need you to relax and let me focus here.”

Mac used the monitor screen to lock into the drone’s position as he attempted to calculate the speed and distance of the drones in order to know when to begin firing.

The M2 fired seven rounds.  Both drone signatures remained on the screen.  The sound of the M2 sent the thousands who had gathered in the small valley running into the trees for cover.

Mac fired twelve more rounds.  One of the two signatures disappeared, leaving one drone remaining, now less than six hundred yards from their location.  The M2 had only five rounds left.

I noted a single bead of sweat rolling down the side of Mac’s head.  The burden of knowing he was the last thing left between those thousands of lives and that single remaining drone was finally cracking the hard-trained veneer of Mackenzie Walker.

Keith’s whisper sounded like quiet thunder in the silence of the defense room.

“Jesus, Mac, it’s gonna wipe them out…

Mac fired the M2. Once. Twice. 

The drone remained on the screen.

Mac fired again a third time.  Then a fourth.  And finally…for the last time.

XXVII.

August Hess remained seated on the chair inside the main room of the cave, surrounded by those he had repeatedly admitted a strong desire to see dead.  Upon Mac’s return, those gathered around Hess parted, allowing Mac to slowly walk across the room to once again stand in front of the New United Nations special operations officer.

Hess was now sweating profusely, his body likely going into shock due to the pain from the gunshots to his knees.  Despite that pain though, he managed to smile as Mac made his way toward him.

“Hello again Mr. Walker, did you enjoy the view of our drones outside?  I told you the sky would be full of them.”

Mac now stood alongside the Old Man, the both of them looking down at Officer Hess.

“Yes, I saw the drones.  And I brought them down.  Every single one of them.”

Hess shook his head in disbelief.

“You lie!  Liar!”

The Old Man removed his oxygen mask.

“Do you hear the sounds of bombs Officer Hess?  I hear nothing of the sort.  I hear only…”

Alexander Meyer cocked his head to the side and paused.

“I hear…cheering.  Does anyone else hear that?”

We all listened intently for the sound.  The Old Man was right – outside, coming from the valley below us, was the sound of cheering from voices ten thousand strong.  Everyone inside the cave looked at one another in wonder until eventually all eyes found their way back to Mac who had a sly grin on his face.

“Like I said, took them drones down.  I’m guessing there’s a whole shit-load of very appreciative people outside.  Those people came for us – to save us.  All of us. Least I could do is keep them safe and have a chance to tell them thanks.”

Hess attempted to lunge at Mac, but again was slammed back into the chair by Bear’s grip on his shoulders.

Alexander Meyer raised a trembling hand to signal he wished to speak, his voice giving a quiet order that struggled for breath as he did so.

“I would ask that all of you leave the cave.  Go outside and wait for the rest of us.  We will be joining you shortly.  Please, go now.  Mac, Bear and Reese, you are to stay here with me…and Officer Hess.”

Dublin was the only one to question the Old Man’s request.

“Grandfather, you will need help getting out of here.”

“Dublin, wait for me outside.  I will be walking out of here without assistance.  I wish to do so, and I will do so.”

Dublin again prepared to protest, but was cut off by her grandfather.

“Granddaughter…go now.”

This time Dublin obeyed without further objection, glancing back at me once before entering the hallway that led back outside.

Alexander Meyer now spoke directly to August Hess.

“Officer Hess, you have threatened the lives of free people.  You have taken some of those same lives.  Do you deny this?”

Hess attempted to spit at the Old Man, but his mouth had gone dry.

“I did my fucking job!  You people are in violation of the mandates!  Violation of the New United Nations!  I had my termination order and that’s what I was doing.  Terminating every last one of you fucking scum!”

The Old Man was unmoved by Hess’s outrage.

“Officer Hess, do you admit to the murder of our friend and neighbor…Loren Simms?”

“How many times do I have to tell you – I was following my fucking orders!”

Bear’s fingers dug into the shoulders of the special operations officer.

“Did those orders include jamming an ice pick into a woman’s skull?  And you threatened my wife, and my kids too.”

Hess cried out as Bear’s grip tightened even more.

Alexander Meyer’s face was again overtaken by a look of sorrow at the twisted and hateful figure of August Hess.

“I know your kind, Officer Hess, all too well.  To excuse inhumanity, evil, all under the false guise of merely following orders.  You are but a willing pawn in the new Holocaust that is the New United Nations.  So, I wash my hands of you now.  I leave you to the deserved justice of these other men.  Into their hands, I now deliver you, Officer Hess.  I fear God will be far less accommodating than any of us, no matter what manner of fate is to take you on this day from this world.”

With that, the Old Man began shuffling his way toward the door that led to the outside hall.  Mac called out after him.

“Sir…Mr. Meyer, what do you want us to do with him?”

Without looking back, the Old Man replied.

“Do with him, what your heart and your own sense of justice, would have you do, Mr. Walker.  Do what you know must be done.  I will wait outside for you.”

Mac gazed back down at August Hess, whose face finally revealed he sensed his existence was about to conclude.  The former arrogance and open contempt were being replaced by fear.  Not so much fear though that August Hess could not still manage a small smile as he glared back up onto Mac’s eyes.

“You can kill me today, but I’ve left a little gift for you Mr. Walker.  One you can’t return.  One that will reveal itself to you soon enough.”

Mac shook his head slowly at August Hess and then looked to Bear.  The big man was barely controlling the rage he felt toward the operations officer.

“Bear, I’m gonna step back and let you have your say with this thing here…Officer Hess.  You say what you want to say, and none of us will get in your way.”

Bear locked eyes with Mac, wanting to make certain he understood him correctly.  Mac gave a short nod and began moving backwards away from the New United Nations special operations officer.

Bear spun Hess around to face him, his left hand grasping the operations officer’s throat.  Hess immediately began choking for breath.

‘It was your kind, your government who killed my family.  You killed my father, my mother - you killed her spirit.  You took our business, our fucking life. Your taxes, your rules, your regulations, your mandates. You killed all those people in Texas, thousands of them who just wanted to be left alone.  All you do is destroy.   And then you had to come up here!  Why couldn’t you just leave us the hell alone?”  WHY?”

As Bear screamed the word why, his massive right fist slammed into the face of August Hess, snapping the officer’s head back each time.  The question was repeated over and over again.  I lost count of how many times.  I do know that eventually, August Hess became completely unrecognizable.  His nose was gone.  His mouth merely a bloodied slash across his face.  Both eyes were swollen completely shut.  Both cheeks fractured and bleeding profusely.  And still, Bear’s punches did not lessen.  If anything, they increased in both speed and intensity as he continued to scream out WHY until finally, Hess’s forehead splintered apart and blood poured from his ears.  Only then did Bear stop and look at his right fist, completely soaked in blood, before looking back to the now lifeless body of August Hess.

Bear released his grip on Hess’s throat and watched as the body fell sideways from the chair and onto the floor.  Bear, Mac, and I stood in silence before Mac stepped toward Bear and placed a hand on the large man’s shoulder.

“How’s your hand?”

Bear opened and closed his right fist.

“Fine.  I’m fine, Mac.  I wanna…I just wanna see my wife.  My kids.”

Mac looked back at me and motioned for us to start making our way outside.

“Sure thing, Bear, let’s do that.”

Halfway down the pathway that led to the blast door we caught up with Alexander Meyer, who was resting. The Old Man was coughing again, but waved away any attempts to help him.

“I told you, I am walking out of here…on my own.”

Slowly we progressed up the path and to the first blast door - or the place where it had once stood.  Nothing of it remained, having been wiped out by the drone bombs.  The further we went, the louder the cheers from the outside became until finally, the three of us were welcomed by the remaining survivors of Dominatus who had remained at the staging area outside the cave’s entrance that overlooked the valley below us.

Dublin greeted her grandfather with a long hug, tears streaming down her face.  Clancy Tedlow reached out to grasp her husband, who in turn kissed her back as their two children hugged his legs.  Keith walked quickly up to Mac, his eyes wide.

“Come over here, Mac!  It’s amazing!  There’s so many of them down there!  I can’t believe how many!”

Mac stopped and looked back at the Old Man, who was struggling for breath again.

“Mr. Meyer, these people are here because of Dominatus.  They’re here because of you.  Please, I’d be honored to walk behind you sir.”

The remaining inhabitants of Dominatus grew silent as Alexander David Meyer made his way slowly, leaning heavily on the arm of his granddaughter, toward the area that would allow him to have an unobstructed view of the valley below.

When he arrived at that spot, the Old Man looked down at a throng of people…thousands and thousands waving American flags, and cheering those of us who had emerged from the cave.  Just four hundred yards from them lay the charred remains of the final drone Mac had shot down.

The sight of all of those people stunned the Old Man.  His shaking hands flew to his mouth as his frail shoulders shook with sobs, tears streaming from eyes that had lived long enough to be witness to the tyranny of the Nazis, and the tyranny of the New United Nations nearly a hundred years later.  His head shook from side to side as he gave thanks to God.  None of us moved, sensing the generations-deep emotion that had overtaken the Old Man.

Finally his head rose, while tears still streamed down his cheeks, and he looked to Dublin and then to Mac before speaking, each word growing stronger than the next.

“I am not worthy of this.  No, Mr. Walker, they did not come here for me.  They came for America!  This day, is the beginning of the new beginning.  This day, America will be reborn.  What once was, will be again.   This day…is the Second American Revolution!”

The Old Man then turned to look at me, his eyes full of admiration and gratitude.  He motioned for me to stand next to him, whispering in my ear.