Chapter 29: Death
She saw him fall, saw the blood spray the ground in front of him, before Cortana's view was once again blocked off by the Wolves.
(Death but not for you)
No, she thought. Her hand clenched around the barrel of the assault rifle. Her grip grew tighter and a small crack ran along its side.
(No one is above ka)
"Cortana keep firing," Susannah said next to her, flinging another Riza as she did. Cortana did not hear her, did not hear the thundering of Roland and Eddie's revolvers, the twirling of the sneetches, the crackle of the light sticks, or the explosions of the plasma grenades in front of her. Dark equations began to flow under her skin before coming to the surface. A sharp crack of blue electricity flowed around her, followed by others. They impacted the ground around her, scorching the earth into a hard black, the brush bursting into blue flames.
No
(John's wheel has almost come to a close)
"NO!" A wave of blue emitted from her, cascading through the air and gaining strength. It impacted against the first ten Wolves in front of her, knocking the riders off their mounts, their bodies lighting up as the electric wave hit them, horses buckling underneath. She ran out of her foxhole, firing the assault rifle. In the distance she heard Roland telling her to stay where she was, but it was muffled. Things had slowed, as if the world itself was moving underwater, her enemies' fluid movements becoming stiff and rigid. Eleven Wolves were hit in the head before her magazine ran empty, slamming the next one in before their bodies struck the earth. A Wolf raised his light stick at her, swinging it down at her head. A blue aura engulfed her left hand, turning into hard light, and she caught it. She extended the assault rifle with her right hand, holding it like a pistol, and shot the Wolf through the top of its head.
She ran, not feeling the sensation of her feet hitting the ground, a blue blur cutting through the chaos of the firefight. Cortana went up the rise of the hill, running through another magazine. A trio of Wolves blocked her path, sneetches raised in their gauntleted hands. They flung them, the twin blades of the sneetches twirling end over end through the air. Three arcs of the blue electricity shot from Cortana's hand as she raised it, destroying the sneetches in mid air. Another blue wave emitted from her, blowing a hole in the last line of Wolves that stood between her and John. Time had nearly stopped for her, and in the back of Cortana's mind a wild thought raced through. That she was moving too slowly to be able to reach him in time.
Finally with the last line breached, the Wolves that were hit by the electric blast in smoking ruins before her, she saw him. He was lying on his back, pistol raised, firing at the enemy in front of him.
"John," she shouted as she reached him, and then time seemed to snap back into motion, as if someone had been pulling on a rubber band, stretching the moments into eternity, and then let go.
"Get out of the way," he said, firing. Cortana hear the crack of the bullet as it flew just past her right ear. There was a snapping sound, like a twig breaking in the wind, and a Wolf that had been only a few meters behind Cortana ready to cut her down with a light stick slumped forward in his saddle. He propped himself on his elbow and then got to his knee, grasping the pistol in both hands, and continued to fire. There was a click and the Master Chief ejected the clip and reloaded. Cortana whirled around, getting on one knee as well. There were less than fifty Wolves left, most of them lying in smoking ruin along the slope of the hill. In the distance she could see Roland and Eddie working their way steadily up the path. The gunslinger fired at the horses that were still alive, picking sneetches out of the air as if they were clay plates. He walked forward calmly, opening up the chamber of his revolver with the flick of his wrist, reloading it with his other hand, fingers becoming an indecipherable blur.
A hot shell casing hit Cortana in the cheek, and she saw Jake run past her abandoning the concealment of the bushes. Without looking he grabbed John's energy sword that was lying on the ground and activated it. A Wolf came at him swinging its light stick. Jake parried the blow with the energy sword, the two weapons crackling as they struck each other. Jake swung the weapon down, cutting off the back half of the horse. The rider fell and Jake stabbed him in the chest before putting a bullet through the top of the Wolfs head with his ruger pistol. A sneetch whirled towards him and he dodged, the blades grazing across his right cheek. Jake ran towards the rider that threw it, cutting the horses legs out from underneath him. Roland and Eddie were only a few meters away now and the gunslinger shot the Wolf.
"Eddie fan out. Ten foot spread, drive them into the arroyo," Roland shouted.
Eddie nodded and no sooner had he made the distance then a plasma grenade landed between them. He ignored the heat on his left side and continued to move up the hill with the same deliberate slowness as the gunslinger, the two fighters filling the air with lead. The remaining Wolves, trapped on the crest of the hill, turned their mounts around and fled down the opposite slope.
"How many?" Jake asked, reaching Roland and Eddie.
"Nineteen escaped, but their trapped," Eddie said. Jake nodded and looked around. Unspent sneetches and plasma grenades littered the hill. Methodically the boy began picking the weapons up, stuffing them into his pockets. His expression had gone blank, his movements rigid. Without a word Jake descended the opposite slope of the hill, following the retreating Wolves into the arroyo.
"Jake," Eddie called out after him.
"He can't hear you," Roland said and Eddie looked at him.
He turned his attention back to where the boy had gone and said, "I'll go keep an eye on him," and then left. Roland walked over to where John and Cortana were, holstering his revolver. John was standing now, Cortana checking the wound on his back.
"Its cut clear through the armor, missed your spinal cord by less than half a centimeter," she said. Cortana had to fight hard to keep her voice from trembling, her hand shaking as she ran it alongside his open wound. She went around to the front to check the cut across his abdomen, but John grabbed her hand as she reached out.
"I'm fine, the biofoam stopped most of the bleeding," he said.
Cortana shook her head, "No you need medical attention. The cut goes right past your kidney, you could have internal bleeding. If we don't do something soon…"
"Cortana," John said, looking down at her. Cortana turned her attention away from the wound and looked back up at him. "I'm fine," he said, and then gestured with his head over to where the Tavery twins were still hiding. "The boy has a compound fracture. He's gone into shock. Take him back into town and tell the others that we won."
"I don't want to leave you," Cortana said quietly.
"Go," John said sternly. She hesitated a moment longer before walking past him towards the twins. The girl was still cowering in the brush next to her unconscious brother, hands over her ears. Cortana touched her shoulder and she flinched.
The girl looked up at Cortana. "Is it over?"
There was an explosion somewhere deep inside the arroyo, followed by the sound of gunfire. "Mostly," Cortana said. "Come on we need to get your brother some help." She picked up the boy in her arms, surprised at how heavy he weighed, and began to walk back down the hill towards Susannah.
Roland watched them go, "It's good that you made her leave."
John nodded, "She doesn't need to see what Jake is doing right now. Her or Susannah."
…
Another plasma grenade exploded as John and Roland entered the arroyo. Eddie was standing there, revolver in hand, looking at the scene of destruction.
"Did you have a hand in this Eddie?" Roland asked.
"No," Eddie said. "It was all him. He…" Eddie pointed up ahead, "he's still going. I'm not sure when he's going to stop."
Nineteen Wolves lay in the arroyo, some of the bodies still smoldering from where they had been stuck by a plasma grenade. Many had holes in their chest from where they had been struck by a sneetch; others were cut clean in half by the blade of the energy sword. All the horses were dead, the sun beating down on their grey corpses. Jake straddled the last Wolf. He tore off the creatures mask and began pounding on its face with his fist. The Wolf's gauntleted hand clawed at the dirt, tearing up tuffs of grass as Jake punched its face in. Even after the Wolf stopped moving the boy continued to strike, a sharp snap indicating that one of his fingers broke. Jake was raising his fist again when a hand clasped his shoulder. The boy whirled around with blinding speed and leveled his pistol. It was John. Jake stared at the Spartan for a moment and then looked back down at the dead Wolf, holstering his pistol.
"I'm sorry," he said. "It's my fault. If that kid hadn't broken his leg…I should have stopped him from running, should have forced him to…"
"It's not your fault," John said. "You're a soldier; you did what you were supposed to do. You kept them both safe."
Jake shook his head, his eyes had grown red, "No you kept us safe. I was useless."
John sighed and sat down on one of the Wolves, removing his helmet with a hiss. The warning systems in his armor had been flashing ever since he was struck by the sneetches, and the shields had failed to recharge. The armor would need extensive repairs done if he was going to wear it again. Jake sat too and looked at the unmasked Wolf. Eddie and Roland joined them and they sat down as well.
"They all look like that under their masks. Every last one of them," Eddie said.
"And you're sure about this?" John asked.
Eddie nodded, "They all look like Dr. Doom, one of the super villains from the Marvel comics. I never read the things myself but one of my neighbors had a stack of them. You can't deny the resemblance."
Jake fished one of the unspent sneetches from his pocket and tossed it at Eddie, "What about these."
Eddie caught it with one hand and looked at the weapon. He shook his head, "No, never heard about this guy before." He tossed the ball to John. "What about you Chief?"
John caught the sneetch and read the labeling on its face.
"SNEETCH" HARRY POTTER MODEL
Serial # 465-11-AA HPJKR
John shook his head, "No, but I think that Harry Potter might be the weapon's inventor."
"Guess that makes sense." He looked back behind him at the rest of the dead Wolves. "What happened with Cortana back there?"
"Yes," Roland said. "Did you know she was able to do that?"
"No," John said, running a hand through his graying brown hair.
"Well, we won," Eddie said.
"It doesn't feel like winning," Jake said, looking at the ground between his feet.
"It never does," Roland said, and struck a match to light up a cigarette.
…
Cortana tried calling out to Susannah, or the person she thought was Susannah several times before she answered. The woman had pulled herself out of the foxhole and was leaning up against one of the wagon wheels. Finally the woman turned to Cortana and said, "Yes?" Her voice was distracted, distant. At the time Cortana attributed it to just being dazed right after the battle.
"I need to use your wheelchair to get this boy to Rosalita." The child was heavy and Cortana shifted him in her arms. His twin sister trailed behind her.
Mia nodded her head, "You do what you have to. Eddie will carry me back to town."
Cortana looked at her for a moment before walking away with the boy.
(She knows something's wrong) Susannah's voice said to Mia.
She doesn't suspect anything, not yet, Mia thought.
(She will follow you when you leave. All of them will follow you)
Mia smiled. Good. That's exactly what the dark man wants.
