Rise of the Death Walkers (The Circle of Heritage Saga) (17 page)

“Pasche if you do not do as I say your wife and unborn child will perish at the enemies hands. This has been foretold by your Great Grandmother Cara.” A look of sadness he gave me threw me completely off guard and I could not believe what happened next. The members of my tribe gathered around the circle and an immense force slammed me to the ground.

When my vision cleared my Grandmother and the women of the tribe surrounded me and my Grandmother said to me, “Grandson what I do now I do for the future of humankind.” The pain of the mind altering ceremony was etched into my nightmares now and a new man stood at the threshold of his new life.

In my mind buried deep in the subconscious now were the memories of my life as it had been. Locked behind a solid wall that could be only broken by one being who I would not see or even think of until the time was proper. Katie in my conscious mind had died at the hands of my enemy at Niagara Falls during my honeymoon. I would not know the truth for many years to come and when I finally realized what had happened to me I would be deeply embedded in another relationship.

With a shock I came back to my current surroundings under the burning Oklahoma sun. In my conscious memories Katie was dead and the recollection of those memories haunted me every waking step I took.

It had been weeks later when I finally had begun to become aware of my surroundings. I dimly remember breaking out of the hospital where the courts had ordered me placed after I had been declared unfit for trial for killing the man in Niagara Falls. When I walked out the door of the sanitarium I turned my back on my people and my heritage. My only desire had been to escape the familiar surroundings that continually reminded me what I had lost. My so called finest mind the human race had ever known blocked any attempts of communication from my family and the race that had bred me over generations of time.

"Jeran, we are waiting for you to tell us what to do." The voice of the first squad commander in the battalion of trainees I was leading jerked me out of my reflections.

I turned to him and recalled what I was supposed to be doing. "Micky, Take first and second squad around the north end of the square and lay down flanking fire. Third and fourth squad will be advancing with me from this location we have second battalion pinned down in the building in the middle of the square. We will end this now and get the box with a minimum of losses." I stared at him with hard eyes. "No prisoners and no mercy. We fulfill the objective and move back to base camp."

"You got it corporal." Micky moved out to take position. I was rapidly becoming known at the most merciless commander in the entire training division and there was talk that I would be getting my own black ops command after completing advanced combat training.

I waited until I saw the signal that everyone was in place before I turned to my second and commanded. "Move out. If it moves and it's not ours it dies." The entire process would take no more than twenty minutes and as I had commanded nothing survived on the opposing forces. We were using electronic pulse guns that would trigger a hefty shock to anyone hit. It was a tribute to the training my men had received that I had not lost a single man in the entire operation.

We had reached the objective and were back at our base camp waiting for further orders from the training personal responsible for rating this final exercise in our advanced urban warfare course. I would be notified at the conclusion of the operation if we had received a pass or fail. If I passed I would be given my orders as to my first assignment.

"Corporal Whitemar, report to Captain Blake immediately." I flinched as my assumed name was bellowed over the announcement system. Jason White was no more and Jeran Whitemar was who I was and would remain. Jason White was wanted for escaping custody Jeran Whitemar was an unknown in the sea of millions of Americans and thousands of soldiers who volunteered to defend the American way of life.

I straightened my uniform before stepping into the tent where Blake would be waiting for me. "Corporal Whitemar, reporting to the Captain as ordered, sir!" I snapped to attention and flipped a crisp salute in his direction.

Gerald Blake was a forty year old career soldier from Florida who basically was built like a mountain. He had a no nonsense air about him and the only reason he was commanding this training battalion was because he had belted a colonel in South America when he had been ordered to withdraw from a combat zone. "Have a seat Jeran." He ordered me.

I slid the chair out from the briefing table and sat down as ordered. "Captain, I know.."

He cut me off with a curt gesture of his hand. "Jeran you have been known for your excesses during training but can you explain to me why you took out three training cadres during the exercise today?"

This was news to me.

"Sir I ordered my men that if it moved and it was not one of my men then it constituted an unknown factor and was to be neutralized. They were doing as I ordered them to do so if there is any punitive measures to be taken I will take full responsibility."

Blake stood up and walked to the back of the tent where a table stood. "It was a bit overzealous during a training exercise. Can you explain why you gave that particular order?" He turned back to me and waited for a reply.

"Sir in the situation as it had been explained during the briefing. We had been told there were no innocent victims in the target zone therefore I could only assume that anyone in that building constituted a threat to my men and we were ordered to retrieve a box not to take prisoners. We did as we were told and the box was delivered to you here at base camp. Therefore in my own opinion the orders of the operation was fulfilled to the letter." I sat at attention as I said this my eyes locked on his.

He looked at me and smiled. Reaching back he grabbed a stack of papers and walked back toward the briefing table and sat down.

He tossed the papers in front of me and said, "Jeran you completed training with honors and these are your orders. You will become a member of the team I was ordered to put together that will be the militaries first true strike force. The team will be called Blackzone."

I looked at the papers in front of me. "Blackzone has exactly what purpose?"

"We will do what the politicians cannot do and be sent where the normal forces cannot be sent. We do the dirty work. Your cover assignment will be in a small detachment in Germany. There will be one other going with you. The only person who knows what your true assignment is will be the First Sergeant running the detachment. He will give you the orders we send for you.

You will be promoted to Sergeant and will be responsible for the platoon who will be assigned throughout Germany. You will have a total of twenty five men from all walks of military specialties. During the time you are not on operations you will be the leader of a special weapons unit within the detachment who are responsible for providing the Germans access to nuclear artillery rounds in the event a war breaks out. That is your cover assignment. When you receive orders from your First Sergeant concerning special operations you will be prepared to leave at all times. Some operations will yank you out of the location and send you anywhere in the world within a twelve hour window."

He reached for a bottle of beer and tossed it to me. "So now have a drink with me and celebrate your assignment. I will see you from time to time with special instructions."

I opened the bottle he flipped at me and took a long pull from it. "Why was I chosen for this group Captain?"

"Because there are not many trainees who have the balls to take down a General who was visiting to observe the final training operations. I would have given anything to see the look on General Paxton's face when you shot him and slammed a rifle butt against his head." He grinned at me and held up the bottle in a toast. "To chair warmers laying out cold flat on the floor."

I chuckled and said. "To be honest I didn't see his rank until he was out cold and on the floor. He was in my way and I had a job to do."

Captain Blake grinned at me and said "It was General Paxton who recommended you to the team. Go to supply and withdraw what you need for the promotion then pack your duds and be on the tarmac at twenty one hundred tonight. That's when your leave starts. They will take you anywhere in the continental US you wish to go. You have thirty days to be with your family."

"If it's ok with you sir I will take my leave in Germany. I have no family here to say goodbye to. I would like to take the time to familiarize myself with the local customs and language before I start my duties there." I drained the bottle and sat it on the table.

"No family to say goodbye to?" He looked at me and scratched his head.

"No sir, Any life I had here I left behind and won't be going back." I said

"Ok, Jason then you will take your leave in Germany. That's all for now. I will see you in a couple weeks in Heidelberg. You will know where to reach me before we have to meet." He saluted giving me the indication with his eyes that would be all for now.

It wasn't until I had left the tent and was walking across the compound that I realized he had called me by my real name. I came to a standstill with this realization and wondered where I had slipped up. I glanced at the papers in my hands and noticed they were all filled out to my assumed name. How had he found out and what did he know? Shrugging I continued to walk toward the supply tent. If they knew who I was and what I had done and had not arrested me by now then I would keep going like I had been. I was content with where I was now. Happiness did not have a priority in my life. Contentment was all I could reach since the best half of my life was gone.

I stopped at the supply tent and presented my promotion orders. I realized that the speed I had been promoted was not in line with the normal run of things within the army. Rank did not matter to me I was just looking for the quickest way I could end it all while dealing with the obvious limitation that was now apparent in my mind. I could not do this myself because there was a part of my mind that prevented me to do so.

Something had been done to me during the time I was in the hospital that I could not remove myself. That's why I had chosen the job I was now in. It could provide me the means to end everything without having to do so myself. I only cursed the fast reflexes I seemed to have. Up until now I had been close several times in my training but my instinctive reflexes had prevented anything from happening to me.

Why was I so well wired to react to dangerous situations now and had been unable to save Katie when it had mattered? Was it some sadistically plan of the beings of Origan to torture me and turn me into the perfect killing machine after I had lost what meant the most to me in my life? Was losing Katie predetermined for me long before I was born? If I was not allowed to kill myself and I survived these six years in the Army I vowed vengeance on the beings responsible for creating me.

The fact that the Soul Extractors were on the planet doing their damage did not matter to me anymore. They could do their best to human kind because I no longer cared. I only wanted the beings who were responsible for making me what I was and had somehow prevented me, of this I was certain, from saving Katie from death.

I sat in my tent mindlessly sewing my new rank on my class "A" uniform. When I was done with this I packed my duffel bag. I had no personal affects to take with me so the bag was stuffed full of uniforms. I had the bonus I had received for enlisting in the specialty I had chosen and a little over a year's worth of pay in my bag. It would provide me with the starting money I needed to set myself up in Germany. At twenty-one hundred I was on the tarmac waiting for the plane that would take me to Germany and away from so much pain I had suffered here.

"I thought I would find you here." I turned to see Captain Blake standing near the gate to the airfield. He approached me and handed me an envelope.

"This is from the funds set aside for our group. There is the key to your apartment just outside the base." He saw my startled look and continued. "Your rank grants you the ability to have off base housing Jeran." He reached in his pocket and pulled out a set of keys.

"This will start the silver Dodge Charger Shelby Edition car that is yours. Its parked in the driveway of the apartment we got for you. The papers to the car are in the envelope I gave you.

The apartment we chose for you is a two bedroom and fully furnished." He put his hand on my shoulder. "Jeran you need to stop distancing yourself from everyone and realize that you do have friends. Call me Gerald. In the organization we are in rank is a mere formality and I want you to see me as your friend."

"Friends can be a nice thing to have but if you get too attached to something you will hurt when you lose it and I cannot afford the pain involved with it. I have a job to do and I do it better without having 'friends' as you call yourself." I spoke to him bluntly.

He winced like I had struck him and said softly. "Lack of emotions can be dangerous too Jason."

His use of my true name caught me off guard again and I reached out and grabbed his shoulder firmly. "What do you know about me?" My voice was hard as the grip on his shoulder.

His eyes grew darker for a moment and he reached up and grabbed my forearm. "Everything. But your secret is safe with me Jeran. We want you for what you can do not for who you are."

I relaxed my grip on his shoulder and said. "I am sorry Gerald. I just need to do what I am doing now it's the only way for me to survive."

"I know Jeran," he said softly "but you will not achieve what you are attempting. You are too good for what you want to have happen to happen."

I slung my bag onto my shoulder and spoke to him as I headed for the plane that was approaching on the field.

"Time will tell, my friend, time will tell." I stepped onto the ramp of the plane and tossed my duffle bag to the waiting Airman. Turning in the doorway I saw Gerald still at the gate and waved to him. He waved back and turned to get into the jeep that had been waiting for him.