A Creature of War, Book 3, CH06 (Patreon)

Gears whirled, metal whined and everyone hunkered down. When no Gatling fire came, El and Jennifer peeked around the building’s corner. The ground shook as the machine took a step forward.

El cursed.

“You’re surprised?” she asked.

He ignored her. If he didn’t do something to stop that thing, they were all dead.

When it took another step, he opened the ground under the foot as it landed and closed it over. It didn’t even titter. It pulled its foot up, and the ground exploded as it pulled it out.

El cursed again.

“Get out of my way.” Milton pushed Jennifer away. He peeked around the edge, made adjustments to the metal and concrete box he was holding, then threw it in front of the machine. He crouched and put a finger in each ear.

El looked at the older man, trying to understand what he was doing. The machine took a step, and the ground shook. It took another and El opened his mouth to ask what the professor was waiting for.

The explosion shook not only the ground, but the building protecting them as well as El’s very bones. He felt the concrete above them break out of the wall and pushed everyone away.

The piece of concrete hit the ground, sending dust flying, but El didn’t hear the impact. He looked at it, trying to understand how it could have fallen silently. That’s when he noticed the ringing in his ears.

It was like when he’d decided to experiment with his power without the scientist’s supervision. It had been a few months after Ellie’s death and his near execution. He’d lost his trust in the scientist, even if they’d saved his life. They hadn’t done it because they thought he hadn’t deserved to live. No, they’d only cared about the fact he had displayed a second power, and they needed to study him. If only they’d known what El had realized then.

A thunderstorm was raging that night, and El had felt not only the rainfall, and the air moving, but something else, high in the atmosphere, but also outside, around the camp. He’d gone out, mentally reaching for that new sensation, grasping at it, and once he had it he pulled with all his might.

The lightning struck a foot in front of him, burning him and blowing out his eardrums. He’d lain there, laughing like he was insane at the sheer power he’d felt. His body wouldn’t respond to his command, but he didn’t care. There had been so much power in that lightning, and he could feel hundreds of them forming in the clouds. Each one his to control. If the brass ever decided he had to die, he would show them the folly of trying.

The pain hit him then and all laugher or thoughts of blowing anyone who wanted to hurt him vanished from his mind. Everything hurt. The raindrops felt like knives, cutting him open. He needed to get back to his tent, out of the rain. But he couldn’t move.

The bull appeared over him, clearly angry, saying thing El couldn’t hear over the ringing. Then he could hear him, cursing his stupidity, as he healed, but it took hours for the ringing to stop.

He felt a hand on his shoulder and snapped his head to look at Vee. His hearing returned, and he thanks him. The ringing stayed, but it too would go away in time.

While Vee healed Milton, who had a gash on the side of her head, El looked at the other side of the road. Leech and Stevenson were okay. The human was arguing with the lion about something.

The machine wasn’t standing anymore. One of its leg was gone, as well as half its torso. The television screen was cracked, but the comedy was still playing.

Milton was sitting, back against the wall. Vee was crossing the street to see to the two on the other side.

“Can you make more of that?” El asked.

The man’s eyes were unfocused.

“Milton!”

The human’s eyes focused on him, a grin forming. “That was spectacular.”

“It was. Can you make more?”

Milton looked around. “Not with what’s here, but I can use part of the machine.”

El patted him on the shoulder and moved on. “Jennifer.”

The woman was curled up in a ball, arms over her head and away from the debris. At least she’d had the presence of mind to move out of the way and protect herself.

“Jennifer,” he called again.

She looked between her arms. “Is it safe!”

Not in the slightest, El thought. “Safe enough. I need to know if we have to worry about the other machines coming after us for destroying this one.”

She watched his face intently, and it took her a moment to reply. Yelling instead of speaking. “Can you hear them move!”

“You don’t have to yell.”

“I’m not yelling!”

Right, she’d been further away, but the explosion had been loud.

“Vee?” he called, and a moment later the bull was helping her up.

“I didn’t!” she closed her mouth. “Oh, sorry, I guess I was yelling. If I cut myself, can you heal me? I’d love to study this under controlled condition.”

The bull rolled his eyes. “No. I’ve had enough experiments done no me already.”

“But—”

“Jennifer,” El cut her off. “The machines, are they going to be a problem?”

“I can’t hear them move, can you?”

El shook his head.

“Then the answer is no.” She dusted herself off. “I can’t believe I agreed to leave the lab. Look at this. I am dirty. How am I supposed to conduct experiments in this state?” she looked at El. “Well, you’re in charge. What do we do now?”

El did his best not to smile. She’d gone from scared, to quizzitive, to indignant in record time. He grabbed his radio. “Team one to ten, report.”

They all reported the sounds of combat, the explosion, but nothing else had happened. None of the other machines had reacted to any of it.

He called them to his position. It was dangerous. This could be a trap, a choke point where the Dutch would gun them down, or turn all those machines on them as they crossed.

But the alternative was for each team to fight the machine blocking their path, and he’d lose too many soldiers, not to say too much time as he’d either have to send the crazies to each in turn, or wait for them to destroy the machines unhelped. This was the best of a series of bad propositions.

It took an hour for all the teams to arrive. During that time, he accompanied Milton to the machine for parts. He didn’t want to, but Milton was going with or without an escort, and El wouldn’t let him go anywhere on his own. Not only could the Dutch get him, he might just wander off as a new idea struck him.

Vee had offered to render the man unconscious. He’d offered to render all the crazies unconscious, but El had shaken his head. As annoying as they could be, they were useful, and it was better for them to be equipped with what they needed.

 So El watched around as the man picked parts out of the machine. Now that they were close enough, the television had sound, and he heard laughter coming from it. He shuddered.

When the time to cross came, El and Vee took the lead. Team one and two were on the left and right, with the crazies between them. Team three were at the rear and Leech would come with the second group.

Vee wasn’t happy about splitting them up. He’d wanted Leech in the front with them. They knew how they fought; they could support each other and get out of their way without having to give orders.

El agreed, but he needed someone with experience keeping the others from panicking. The bull wasn’t happy, but he relented.

They crossed the gap without trouble. The machines on either side never reacted to their presence, and that worried El.

He couldn’t know how Crazies thought, but it made no strategic sense not to have them cover each other’s position. It would be simple enough for them to swivel and unload all that ammunition.

And another thing. Where were the living people? How come there was no Dutch military to welcome them? Someone had to have heard the explosion, and an hour or more was ample time to deploy at least one unit to this position.

He led them into the first building. They were all panting from nerves. He called the second group to have time cross.

When Leech and the other units arrived, they were jittery. The lion moved to the side and motioned for El and Vee to join him.

“This is a trap,” he whispered.

“You can’t know that,” Vee replied.

“I don’t need Suff’s precog to work things out. Where’s the welcoming comity? We made enough noise to let the whole country know where we are. I think this is a trap to draw us and our Crazies deeper in.”

The bull looked at the lynx. “El?”

“We don’t know enough to be sure of anything, but I’m with Leech. This doesn’t make sense. You don’t set up a line of defense without backing it up.

“Maybe they’re limited on resources,” Vee offered. “They have been stuck under this dome for close to six months now.”

“Possibly, but they had to have prepared for a siege. And even if we surprised them. We barely encountered any military getting here, so they should have the people to protect this inner circle. Sentries, Snipers in key positions. Why didn’t anyone fire at us as we crossed the gap we made?”

“They want us here,” the lion said.

“Maybe.” The bull didn’t sound convinced.

“What are you thinking, Vee?”

He pointed toward the outside. “Those things, they’re Crazies’ creations, right?”

Leech snorted. “What else could they be?”

“Right. How many are there?”

“I got a count from each team,” El said. “Thirty.”

“But that’s just here. How many in total? Didn’t that Crazy say the line went on and on? Possibly a circle to protect the forcefield generator?”

“That’s the sense I got from what Stevenson said.”

“So how may Crazies did it take to make them? The three we have can’t work on one thing together without it devolving into a screaming match. How many of them do you think it took to build this army of giant machines?”

“A lot, clearly,” Leech said, “but I don’t get what you’re getting at.”

“This. I think you’re making the wrong assumption. You’re assuming the Dutch are thinking the same way we do. You have the officers giving the orders and the Crazies obeying them.”

“Sure.” Leech looked at El, asking if he understood. El didn’t reply, waiting for the bull to get to his point.

“I think the Crazies are the ones giving the orders.”

Leech laughed. “Come on, Vee. No one in their right mind is going to follow orders from them. Hell, would they even make sense?”

“El, feel around. Tell me how many living beings you’re sensing on this side of the line.”

El closed his eyes and extended his sense of water, feeling for the concentrations he’d learned to recognize as people over the years.

He felt the teams in this building and moved beyond them. Further and further. When he finally felt a group of people he opened his mouth, but didn’t speak. He considered the circle of machine, working out the circle in his head. They were definitely on the outside of the circle. On the opposite side of the city.

He continued to expand his sense. He felt multiple hundreds of concentrations of people in the wilderness around the city, still inside the forcefield. Why were so many of them there? And how come it had been so easy for them to sneak in with all of them out there? It made no sense.

“You’re not sensing anyone, are you? I’m not.”

“Since when can you sense people?” Leech asked.

Vee shrugged. “I’ve been practicing. I have nothing like El’s range, but I can tell you that other than us, there’s no one within a kilometer.”

“Then where are those Crazies you claim are giving the orders?”

“In another city,” El said. He cursed. “We know this isn’t Dutch command. We’ve known that from the start. The only reason this place caught the Brass’ attention is the forcefield. It’s the only reason we’re here. If not for it, we’d be at a different front, getting our tails shot at.”

Leech raised his hands. “Hey, I’m not complaining about a quiet assignment for once. I’m just saying that it doesn’t make any sense for the Dutch not to protect this thing.”

“And that’s my point. They are protecting it, but not in a way that makes sense to us.”

El rubbed his temple. “Okay, that’s enough. Vee’s right. There is no one inside the perimeter. Regardless of who is giving the orders and how little sense they might make to us, we have a mission. Maybe it’s a trap, like Leech says, maybe it’s just some sort of experimental ground for the Dutch, to test their creations, maybe to test how we react to them. Or it’s a giant distraction while they do something elsewhere. For the last one, we’re going to have to rely on the Brass to handle it.”

Leech snorted, letting them know his opinion on the Brass’ ability to handle anything. El shared it, but he still gave him a look.

“As for the other two, we’re going to stay on our guard, as we do during any mission. We’re going to find the generator and our Crazies are going to take it down.”

“Knowing them, they might want to keep it for themselves,” Vee commented sourly.

“So long as it gets turned off, I don’t care what they do with it afterward. The mission is to take down the forcefield, no matter what the Dutch throw in our way. Are you on the same page?”

The lion and bull nodded.

“Good, let’s rejoin the teams, rest and then continue on.”