Void Domain, Book 05 полностью

Author’s Note: For those who missed Author’s Note 004, Book 005 is a short (five chapter) ‘prequel’ of sorts focusing on the Lansing Incident and Wayne Lurcher.

The year two-thousand. A bunch of people thought it was going to be the end of the world. Idiots, mostly.

Some quit their jobs, packed their bags, and went on vacation. Entire life savings blown in a week. Some ran around screaming like chickens with their heads cut off. Others paraded around with signs hanging off their chest stating that the ‘End is Nigh’ or some other such nonsense. As if telling people about the apocalypse would stop the coming end.

Then there were the profiteers. The ones who capitalized on the idiocy of others. They sought money, sex, and favors while hyping up the idea of the end.

By and large, both groups were in the vast minority. To everyone else, the world would keep on turning. ‘Doomsdays’ cropped up once or twice every decade. They became easy to ignore after seeing a few pass by without consequence.

Of course the year two-thousand would attract more idiots than normal. The media had been making a huge deal out of it for the whole year. A lot of the focus was given to computers more than any sort of supernatural apocalypse handed down by God. A somewhat legitimate concern, but even if those new-fangled computers had a slight hiccup, life would go on. The mundanes in charge of technology would figure out solutions before the month was out.

And yet, looking down at the smoke-covered ruins of Lansing, Michigan, Wayne couldn’t help but wonder if the idiots were right.

The idiots in Lansing were right, at the very least.

Fires still engulfed a good quarter of the city even three days after the incident first started. The screams could still be heard, even from far outside the city. Of course, most of those came from the much nearer wall.

Wayne turned his binoculars away from the burning capitol building, refocusing on the hastily erected wall.

There was some sort of command center made up of prefabricated buildings around the freeway. Guards patrolled on top with heavy machine guns while a sniper and spotter sat on an elevated watchtower. For a good dozen yards in either direction, a fortified wall had been built up. Guardsmen patrolled along the top.

The barrier continued beyond the fortified wall. Most of it was still chain-link topped cement barriers. How they had managed to encircle the city in a mere three days was beyond Wayne’s imagination. The mundane government must have had plans. Contingencies for a biological hazard released in a city-center.

Some of the creatures undoubtedly escaped before the walls went up, but if the Elysium Order hadn’t dropped everything to focus on Lansing, Wayne would eat his hat.

Around the outside perimeter, guardsmen patrolled in full battle dress uniform with their weapons held for action at a moment’s notice. High-intensity floodlights illuminated a wide field of land, giving ample opportunity for reaction time. The field itself was scorched. Burned and scarred. Nothing remained within forty feet of the fence save ashes.

The military was thorough, if nothing else.

A flicker of movement at the edge of the light caught Wayne’s attention. He swung his binoculars over to focus on the movement.

Standing in the shadow of a charred tree was a person. At least, a person shaped thing. The blood-soaked claws at the ends of his arm spoke of his inhuman status. His blank white eyes narrowed as one of the long-range spotlights swept past the tree. Not that he got caught. The slow sweep of the spotlight gave ample time for him to reposition fully behind the trunk.

The moment the light cleared the tree, the man moved. It was fast enough that Wayne thought it was teleportation for a moment. He had to dial black on his magnification just to keep him in scope.

Fortunately for the guards, one of them noticed before he could sprint more than three steps.

Bullets poured downrange without any regard for any collateral damage behind the man. A split second after the guardsman’s rifle belched out its payload, two more guardsmen joined in from nearby.

Supersonic bullets couldn’t be dodged once they were fired. Not at the distances they were fighting at. Not by a human.

The man down on the killing field was anything but human. He snapped side to side with that same near-teleportation speed. It looked like he could only use it in short bursts, and now he had started using it to go side to side rather than straight towards the fence.

Three more guardsmen rushed over and joined in the firing. Wayne wasn’t sure which one broke the camel’s back, but their combined force meant there was just too much lead in the air to be dodged.