The Overlord: A Post-Apocalyptic Novel (10 page)

I flew over to her immobile frame and held her close in my care. Whether we were going to crash or if I could manage to land us both safely, we would be together through it all. In my arms, we would either know life or death as our two bodies hugged onto each other.

"Solomon, I can't feel my arms or legs," she voiced out to me in panic. "I can't move!"

"I got you," I assured her. "I got you."

Suddenly, Zero radioed out into every earpiece, "Alright, you mob! Here we go! It's about to come-a-guster all over again!"

The remains of our legion had miraculously slipped through the Shield's descent over our heads, only to realize it had settled to stand in our way beneath us. Below, just above the far reaches of the tallest structure of the island, was the Spider's Shield. It was waiting for us.

We had already bypassed it twice. Once, when we first entered the weave. The second time, when the lasers passed us on the way down. The legion would have to face the puzzle of webs for a third time and it would prove to be the most difficult. The webs were expanding as the dome around the island was getting bigger. The furious, crisscrossing beams of the Spider's Shield were on their way back up to us.

"Now would be a great time for you to get us out of here," pleaded Zero to Deadstock.

"I think I got one more weave left in me, but I don't have a fix on everyone," worried the Overlord as the beams approached closer. "We're not all going to make it!"

Heads first, our descent then met with the manic escalation of the Spider's Shield. The two forces collided. The Overlord weaved all that he could focus on and sent them under the webs. Though I never got hit by a beam, I was one of the unlucky Thralls that Deadstock found himself unable to weave. He was weak and could only save so many. Holding Sentria tight to my chest, I yelled out in adrenaline as I squeezed through a gap in the web work and barely escaped three beams crossing into me.

Those of us that were still operational came through to the other side. Some had rematerialized. Others, like me, had flown safely through the Spider's Shield.

In air and nearing the ground, the legion had come beneath the skyline of a central tower. A mess of antennas was peeking out from its every shamble and patch. Over the island, the webs weren't come any closer than the top of the structure's height. We were safe. The Spider's Shield returned to its place on high, out of sight.

In one fluid moment, the legion then positioned out of its nosedive. We all flipped on our backs, like cradled babies as our jet packs steadied a drift toward solid ground. With Sentria clamped onto me, we were like feathers in the wind. We glided down to the island as its surface came into view. Landing, we came upright as our feet skidded across pavement. Sparks were sent flickering from the soles of our boots while my jet pack worked to bring resistance and stop our momentum. Soon, we were on solid ground. Screeching and skidding, everybody else slid down in different positions and locations around the landing zone. Scattered about, we all regrouped to the Commander.

In my arms, Sentria had begun to regain her muscle movement. "I'm ok," she guaranteed as she pushed away from my grasp. "I can walk. You need to get back to your squad and I've got my own to lead."

As we separated back to our respective squads, I couldn't help but feel overwhelmed at the sight of the less fortunate. All across the landing zone were puddles of smashed Thralls that had not escaped the terrors of the Spider's Shield. They had fallen without hope of survival. I can't begin to imagine what that kind of descent would've been like, not that I'd even want to know. For them, it must've been a slow and tortuous fall to their doom. Up there in the air, they were perfectly alive and aware in their agonizing wait to reach their deaths below.

My pity was cut short when a little outburst caught everyone's attention. Still bitter from the events of the fall, Sentria had marched up to Nix from behind. She threw off her helmet and whacked it hard onto the back of Nix's head. Catching her off guard, it sent the subordinate operative to the ground. Nix quickly sideswiped the Squad Captain in retaliation, legs knocking into legs. Sentria was sent down to the concrete, hard. The two then got up and immediately went for the other's throat. With both hands strung about Nix's neck, Sentria lifted her adversary up and coldly threw her onto the ground. After some coughing and panting, they both went at it again.

Taking notice, the Commander sighed exhaustively and proceeded to stomp over to the fight. As they exchanged tangles and jabs, Zero came up closely to one side and unsheathed a short, yet very wide blade. With his thumb, he flicked a button on the hilt and the blade extended into a full-sized machete. The blade whipped out horizontally into the midst of their scuffle. Nix and Sentria paused and stepped back with the sharp machete glimmering between them.

Zero chewed them both out. "It just so happens that until we find a way to destroy the Spider's Shield, we're all trapped here on this island, together. You're lucky no one is going anywhere, because otherwise, I'd send both of you hoons to the nick!" It never failed that when Zero was mad, his tongue spiraled from speaking English into his Australian strine, a version of English that we rarely understood.

"She tried to get me killed," Sentria pointed to her rival.

"I don't give two knocks who spit the dummy first," barked Zero. "You're a Squad Captain, Sentria. Start acting like it!"

Nix didn't get off easy, either. "And you," Zero crossly addressed the insubordinate. "We're all a team here. You're part of that team so I suggest you lob in. You wouldn't want to be mistaken for the enemy now, would you? Not with me around, you won't."

Things instantly cooled off, if a tad forcefully, but it got the job done. Salutes exchanged and the commotion was over. We all then went back to the matter at hand to try and unlock the secrets of the island around us.

Fever Island was a compound of archaic concrete structures in the midst of an abandoned shantytown. The slum was a jumbled network of barriers, forts, towers, and tunnels. The concrete was wet and moldy. There was an abundance of rust between unkempt patches of moss and ferns.

Wherever the concrete was without foliage, graffiti was found littered all over. Though dark in subject matter, there were large portions of vibrant doodles drawn over every outer wall. The art seemed alive. It was as if the colors had a life of their own next to the overgrown vegetation. One scribble in particular had us all scratching our heads and swallowing gulps in our throats. Again and again, it appeared upon the long walls.

It read, "All hail the Underlord."

Who was he? Was there any connection to the Overlord? My thought was that this Underlord was some kind of mirror image, a bizarre reflection. I wondered if he could be Dr. Deadstock's doppelganger, mostly likely done so in mockery. Maybe somebody was just trying to get Deadstock's attention, or worse, trying to take his place.

Around the landing zone, there were no other clues as to who the Underlord might be. There was no sign of anyone, or any life for that matter, save for the colorful graffiti upon the walls. The island was unpleasantly quiet. It was too quiet for comfort. Aside from the wind and waves, the only sound we could hear was a peculiar mechanical whine.

At the threshold of our landing zone, we found an atypical machine. Big and angled, lights were blinking all over it and we could hear something like an engine running from behind its panels. A bridge of flowing energy was stretching out from its top and stemming up to the Spider's Shield above.

Sentria was the first to examine it. "What is this thing?"

"Not sure." The Commander prodded the panels with the butt of his brawler gun. "It seems to be connected to the Spider's Shield, though. Any idea on what we have here, Doctor?"

Deadstock looked it over, up and down. "It's a Blood Tech generator, paired with the Spider's Shield to supply it with power, but it can't create enough energy to power all those webs by itself. The Blood Tech generators were designed to work in threes, which means there's two others just like it out here on the island somewhere. Take out the three generators and you'll take out the Spider's Shield." 

"Now that's what I like to hear," smiled Zero before turning to his older brother. "Fossil, set up demolitions. I want this heap of machine brought down to rubble."

"Right away," complied Fossil as he directed another operative of Azure squad with the flick of his hand.

Suddenly, Zero gave a hand signal of his own. "Hold on," he waved us all to a standstill with one hand and tuned in to his radio earpiece with the other. "I'm getting something from the 'Lunar Wrath.'"

A slow, deep voice boomed out through his radio, "Commander Zero. Visual on United has been lost."

Zero wasn't happy at the news. "What? Where did they go?"

"Unknown," said the voice. It was Far Stranger. Why was Deadstock's personal intelligence working exclusively with Zero instead of operating directly with its master? Deadstock didn't seem to care, so I safely assumed the intelligence now had two masters. Maybe the Overlord no longer held any authority over the functions of his own creations.

"Far Stranger, check the scanners," demanded Zero.

A moment of radio silence was followed by the break of static, "Negative signals. United Corps vessel, 'Beast of Burden, is undetected in all sensor proximities."

The Commander frothed, "They couldn't have just dropped out of the sky!"

"Possibility unknown," stated the intelligence.

"Well, what is it that you do know, if anything?" Zero paused for a breath and dismissed the synthetic life form before it could give another useless answer. "Never mind, Far Stranger. I'll have to take care of this by myself. Return to standby."

The Commander adjusted his radio and accessed a different frequency. "United Corps, come in." Only silence returned his call. "'Beast of Burden,' do you read?" Still nothing. "President Nightwood, are you there?" No response. "Nightwood, what is your location!" Still no answer. It was no use. The United Corps had either left the area or they simply didn't want to be found.

In an irate state, Zero accused Deadstock of foul play, "This is your doing, isn't it, Doctor?"

The Overlord twitched his nose into a scrunch as his eyebrows slumped a little lower on his brow. "Why would I have anything to do with this?"

The Commander loomed over angrily. "Where did she go?"

Deadstock flailed his arms outward. "How could I possibly know that?"

Zero was convinced of double dealing. "She's your wife, isn't she?"

"That was a long time ago." The Overlord grew calmer and attempted to extend his calm to the Commander. "She's on her own now. Her choices belong to her, not me."

Commander Zero then gave in to reason and shook off the troubling matter from his mind. "Forget it. I give up trying to work with the United Corps. Better for them to stay out of our way. Now we get the whole island to ourselves."

"Quiet!" Deadstock wasn't arguing back. He had a legitimate purpose in throwing up a hand to hush the ruckus as he carefully listened to the wind. A faint rumbling was flowing through the air. It buzzed and blurted inconsistently, yet all the while coming steadily closer. "Does anybody else hear that?"

"Something's coming," perceived Sentria.

"Almost sounds like honeybees," said Fossil.

"Impossible," doubted Zero. "There haven't been any bees since we were boys. I haven't seen so much as a hornet since the days of the old world."

"It's not bees," Deadstock said in his cautious attention. "It's something much bigger."

Sentria budded in, "Whatever it is, it's getting closer. It's coming straight for us!"

The distant roar was ricocheting off the concrete configurations all around us, fizzling and cracking like dry leaves in a fire. The sound was enveloping our position and consuming our every thought. The vibration continued to grow nearer and louder until we could finally make out what it was. It was the roar of engines.

Defensively, the Commander huddled us all together. "All squads, secure the perimeter!"

Quickly, we all grouped up into a triangular formation. Standing side by side, we faced forward from three outward angles. With our hyper guns readied and our hearts beating fast, we searched for the source of the unnerving acoustic rumblings. Then, in a flock of chaos, we sighted a swarm of swerving forms across the horizon. Having no coordination through their flight, the objects swooped down closer in a mishmash pattern.

Zero exclaimed, "Looks like we're in for a bush bash! Defend this landing zone and prepare to engage the enemy!"

Closer, the sunlight revealed the incoming gush of the dark flecks in the sky. As bullets could tear clean through paper, the objects struck us hard like unstoppable missiles. They flew by us so fast and hit us so hard that we didn't know how to react. The projectiles were plowing into us, taking us out, and then flying on through. Zero tried to shoot a few of them down as he unloaded a clip into the air, but the objects were too fast and too concealed by thick smoke spewing from their tails. We weren't being shelled. It wasn't missiles coming at us. It was mounted wasteland exiles, riding wobbly clumps of rickety metal and trailing a haze of black gas from behind.

The fumes were awful. The exhaust of their engines was unbearable, even through the air purification of our helmets. I'm not sure if the vapors were intended as weapons themselves, but it sure seemed like it. The saddled wasteland dwellers didn't seem to mind, for they were protected behind their shabby gas masks and various mismatched equipment.