The Thrones of Eden 3 (Eden) (28 page)

And just as Demir was about to puncture the womb of the sphere, something emerged from the darkness.

CHAPTER FIFTY-TWO

The halberd flew across the chamber spinning in horizontal revolutions that cut through the air in a series of whooshes.

. . . Whoosh . . .

. . . Whoosh . . .

. . . Whoosh . . .

It was a perfect strike as the curve of the axe’s blade caught the Cultural Minister at mid torso, the blade slicing neatly and cleanly through flesh and bone as if they had the same consistency as a hot cake of butter. The minister’s eyes flared with shocking disbelief as the weapon passed through his body and kept going, his mind unable to register that his body had been severed at the pelvic girdle as the halberd continued its flight to the far wall. Looking downward and seeing the toes of his shoes, his body began to part and slip away, the toes disappearing as his torso slid off the pedestal of his legs and to the floor, the legs subsequently falling and landing close to the halved body.

The minister was still alive, his mouth moving in mute protest as he raised his hands for help. But there was no help to be had. Everyone was on alert.

There was something in the dark—something in the shadows.

And it was drawing down on them.

The minister allowed his hands to fall as he succumbed to his fate, his eyes finally growing detached and distant, his life gone.

Demir and his team, along with John Savage, immediately drew their weapons in response, an action that was drilled into soldiers until it became an involuntary act.

“Back up!” yelled Savage.

They did, backpedaling away from the orb as they maintained their line of sight toward the direction the halberd had been thrown from.

The recesses were dark.

The distant shadows were even darker.

But something began to emerge.

There were four of them, crosses between the old and new generations—hybrids that were sexless but seemingly male in stature. They were as pale as the underbelly of fishes as they appeared to glow against the contrast of the darkness, their skins smooth and waxy as they came into the beams of light.

“Oh my God,” somebody uttered. It sounded like Hillary, but no one other than the speaker was sure as to who spoke.

Each soldier held their blades high whereas the Sentinels led with the points of their halberds, the team converging.

“Stay close!” yelled Demir in Turkish. The group assembled into a tight mass.

Everyone backpedaled as the hybrids pressed forward.

“Now what?” asked Savage. It was obvious that the hybrids were far superior in physique and form. More importantly, they were in possession of a higher quality of weaponry when compared to their KA-BARs.

“We maintain our distance,” returned Demir.

“Until when? Sooner or later we’re going to run out of space.” In other words:
fighting is inevitable.

The Sentinels began to spread out, breaking a tight formation, with two circling around in a flank maneuver, whereas the other two remained forward and center, both approaching, one with the tip of its halberd leading the way and the other, without its weapon, following closely as every cord of its muscles bulged and flexed in concert with every movement. They were as every bit as intimidating as their sheer size and power.

“They’re coming up along our sides!” yelled Savage. “Watch for the halberds!”

The two Sentinels flanking them had disappeared in the shadows. But everyone knew that they were maneuvering closer.

And then came the sound of a blade whipping across the surface of air, a halberd gliding in a horizontal plane looking for a target to strike down.

. . . Whoosh . . .

. . . Whoosh . . .

. . . Whoosh . . .

“Everyone duck!”

Everybody immediately hit the floor as the axe blade of the halberd passed over them in blinding revolutions with the blade missing Alyssa so closely that she could feel the whisper of its passing graze against her scalp.

In the distance they could hear the halberd hit the floor and skate off into darkness.

That only left two with weapons.

The Sentinels didn’t scream or communicate. They simply knew the pattern of warfare—how to maneuver and when to strike. The lead Sentinel picked up its pace for a full-out confrontation, the ten-foot pike of its halberd against a knife that was barely a foot long.

It charged with urgency and determination while its teammate kept pace.

No doubt their teammates in the shadows were doing the same, converging.

“Spread formation!” yelled Savage, moving to his right. Demir moved to his left while his two teammates maintained the central point.

Hillary and Alyssa fell back as much as they could, which allowed the soldiers to do what they did best: fight.

The lead Sentinel was upon them with flash and quickness, striking out with its halberd and missing one of Demir’s elite. The soldier juked beneath the blow and came up with an arcing sweep of his blade, catching the Sentinel across its abdomen and paring back its flesh to form the lips of a horrendous wound. The Sentinel appeared surprised as it staggered back into the clutches of its teammate, who appeared just as surprised at the apparent quickness of its foe.

The lead Sentinel clutched at its wound as the flesh began to give and part to the weight of its innards as they pressed against the opening and began to spill out in coils.

It then fell to its knees with its lips parted in a sneer, showing fine rows of teeth. Then its eyes narrowed as its life slowly began to slip away.

Without taking its eyes off the commando, the lead Sentinel passed the halberd off as if it was passing on the mantle of power, which the second Sentinel accepted. And then the wounded Sentinel fell back against the floor as blood the color of tar fanned out beneath it, its life expiring with a final sigh.

The second Sentinel was far more cautious, a quick learner.

It faced off with the two commandos and jabbed the point of its halberd in their direction, the action testing their reflexes, which it deemed to be quick. These were formidable foes, it considered.

Then when the opportunity availed itself, the Sentinel struck with the point of the halberd and pierced a soldier beneath the sternum, then it lifted the man high into the air as the commando’s eyes suddenly flared in pain as he was being held aloft in celebratory victory for the Sentinel.

With a flick of the halberd the soldier was cast aside and through the air, his lifeless body crashing down against the floor and into the shadows.

The odds were now even: three soldiers against three Sentinels.

But the deep darkness remained their ally as the other two closed in.

The other commando remained steady as he squared off with the second Sentinel. The point of his knife held forward and moving in circular motions, the movements acting as a distraction as he moved forward with imperceptible steps.

And then he struck out at the second Sentinel who quickly deflected the attack with its halberd with a deft move. The steel of the axe blade struck the blade of the KA-BAR, driving sparks from the impact that danced and died in the space between them.

Then they clashed, the much smaller commando against a much larger, much taller hybrid, the battle appearing so dissimilar that it looked as if a man was fighting a child. But the commando held his ground, striking out with flashes of amazing quickness, the KA-BAR hitting the staff of the pike, at the blade, coughing out spark after spark as the soldier tried to get closer for the kill strike.

But the Sentinel was too large and too powerful. With a sweeping arc of the pike’s staff, the Sentinel drove the handle across striking the soldier’s side, the impact catching the man in the side and snapping his ribs with the sound of branches breaking. The soldier was airlifted and sent airborne across the room. When he landed the Sentinel was standing over him with the halberd held high. In a vertical line the axe came downward in a blur and snuffed out the man’s life, leaving the enemy count at two.

Savage returned to the light and confronted this Sentinel from one side, whereas Demir approached from the other in flank maneuver. As great a warrior as the Sentinel was it was too slow to counter. Demir and Savage struck accordingly with the points of their weapons punching home by striking vital areas. Founts of blood jettisoned from open wounds, the Sentinel then going to a knee as the blows became swift and furious—cutting, slashing, and driving painfully deep as the Sentinel cried out, the halberd falling to its side, which Savage quickly picked up. In a movement that seemed hardly calculated but driven more by self-preservation, Savage swung the weapon in a perfect arc and caught the Sentinel across its throat, the axe taking out enough of its esophagus to render it dead with an immediate swipe.

The Sentinel fell forward; its great weight hitting the floor so hard it caused the ground to shudder beneath their feet.

Demir and Savage now stood back to back. Savage holding the halberd, Demir his knife.

There were two more in the shadows that no doubt watched in study and learned from Demir and Savage’s methods. They were skilled adversaries. So as good warriors they waited with the patience of saints.

“Alyssa!” Savage called out. “You and Hillary?”

“We’re fine,” she called back.

“There’re two more out there, so lay low!”

Their ears remained keen for the sound of the halberd speeding through space. But no such sound came.

So they waited for the inevitable.

And the inevitable came.

In the beam of Demir’s light the pendulum-like blade of the halberd’s axe-head came across on a level plane that was meant to sever Demir’s head from his body. But as Demir fell back he knocked Savage away from the path of the swinging blade, the axe missing the back of Savage’s head by inches.

Savage came up and around with his halberd as Demir knelt beside him. But the axe was so heavy in his grasp that he was too slow in his attempt for a quick blow.

In retaliation the Sentinel deflected the slow-moving strike and kicked out its foot, striking Demir so that the commando could not come up or across with his KA-BAR while it was engaged with Savage, the kick sending Demir off into the shadows and leaving Savage as its sole competitor.

Savage looked like a child circling a much larger combatant. But it was cautious as it mirrored Savage’s motions movement for movement. Apparently the Sentinel admired Savage’s skill set enough by not taking the smaller man for granted.

They circled one another in appraisal, each one seeking an opportunity to lash out to secure the moment of victory.

But Savage had marginal doubts about his ability as the halberd started to grow heavy in his hands, whereas the Sentinel’s weapon appeared weightless in its grip. If he was going to strike, then it would have to be soon.

The Sentinel struck out and drove a jab of the halberd’s point at Savage, the former SEAL quickly repelling the attempt.

Savage pulled back, the cords of his muscles standing taut as the halberd grew increasingly heavy. When his arms began to shake the Sentinel took note, smiled, and knew that the man was too weak to maintain the weapon for much longer.

In a quick move the Sentinel punched the tip of its weapon forward and connected with the staff of Savage’s halberd, the weapon taking flight from Savage’s hand. Savage immediately hunkered down and removed his knife, which brought something of a comical grin to the Sentinel’s face.

Savage held the point of the KA-BAR in the Sentinel’s direction, waiting.

The Sentinel then brought the axe blade portion of the halberd up with a swift and steady move, readying itself to bring it down in a diagonal cross-sweep. Just as it brought the axe-head up to its apex and readied it for its downward thrust, Savage tossed his knife with surgical precision, the blade crossing the air swiftly between them and lodging deep in the Sentinel’s chest.

The Sentinel staggered back with a look of deep-rooted surprise. For a long moment its eyes appeared vacant and devoid of any understanding at what just happened. Slowly, it brought a hand to the knife’s hilt and examined it as if it was something foreign. Blood tracked from the wound and down along its abdomen. Its movement was sluggish, the Sentinel in the throes of a waxing shock that was starting to take over its system. Its motions became mechanical and choppy. And then it lost its balance and fell to a knee. As it tried to gain its footing, Demir came out of the shadows with the halberd that was lost by Savage in the skirmish, and brought the axe-head down, the curve of the blade cleaving the Sentinel at the point between the shoulder and neck, the axe slicing all the way down through the clavicle to mid-chest.

The Sentinel’s eyes rolled, fluttered, and then it keeled over and landed hard against the surface, leaving one Sentinel left.

Demir appeared winded as Savage removed his knife from the Sentinel’s chest, the blade withdrawing with a sucking sound.

Savage gave Demir a nod of appreciation. “Thanks for the saving.”

Demir waved him off with a dismissive hand since it was a soldier’s duty to watch another soldier’s back.

“Alyssa!”

“Right here!”  Her voice was very close as she and Hillary stepped from a dark recess embracing one another. “There’s another,” she told him.

He shook his head. “I know.”

There were only four lamps left, one for each survivor. So the lighting was weak and minimal, offering the last Sentinel a significant advantage.

No one moved as they tried to get a fix on the last Sentinel by listening—perhaps a shuffling of feet to give off its position.

But there was nothing but silence, which in itself was terrifying.

Demir looked downward at his teammates. Blood was everywhere. Worse, he had lost his entire unit. The commando suddenly fell to his knees, feeling overwhelmed by a sense of colossal failure. When a commander of his stature and culture was groomed to show a skinny range of emotions while serving his post, Demir failed to do so.