Apollo (13 page)

Val turned to the old woman behind the counter.

“You should really think about getting cable,” she said.

The woman blinked several times and then looked up at the TV. When she looked back, her eyes had an odd look about them. She had no feelings to read, and that alone made Val shiver.

“Looks fine to me,” the woman said. The woman’s brown eyes stayed fixed on her, and she shivered.

Val tugged on Jenna’s arm as she gathered the change she was given. Not waiting for her to say anything, Val pulled her outside.

“What the hell?” Jenna frowned at her.

Val glanced down the street. The feeling of unease was growing. Her number one rule was trust your gut.

“Get in the car,” Val said quickly.

A few people glanced their way, and she could feel their distorted anger. Something was wrong with these people.

Jenna frowned. “What’s up?”

Val shook her head and pushed her to the car. “We need to get out of here right now,” she whispered.

Jenna rushed to her side of the car and hopped in. Val was just as quick on the other side.

Jenna put the key in, and the car started right up.

Val nearly jumped out of her seat when the waitress knocked on her window.

“Drive!” Val yelled. Her eyes fixed on the glassy-eyed woman. The woman’s face contorted in rage.

Jenna stepped on the gas, and they sped through town. People stopped to stare at them, but she didn’t care. There was something seriously wrong with the place.

“Wanna tell me what the hell just happened?” Jenna yelled as they crossed over the city line back onto the country road.

Val shook her head. “I don’t know what’s going on with those people, but it might have something to do with the TV.”

She pulled her backpack off and yanked a small tablet from the bag.

“What’s wrong with the TV?” Jenna asked.

Val scrolled along the screen and pulled up pictures from the cameras at Luna Lodge.

“Motherfuckers,” she said and looked out at the road.

Val looked over to Jenna, who was still driving like a bat out of hell. “There was a hack of the system at the lodge. Well, except it wasn’t just a hack. Whoever did this was hooked into the main system. They could see everything that was happening there.”

“What?” Jenna said. Panic rose in her voice. “Who?”

Val shook her head and started going through system documents. All she had to do was find the line they were operating on. It was so simple, and yet no one would even think to look. It should have struck her when she was pulling the odd wire from the cameras, but she just assumed it was a mistake. No one used that sort of wire on security cameras, that is, unless they wanted to share their feed.

“Fuck,” she groaned and pulled up the feed from the cameras still in the old system. She fast forwarded through the material. Maybe it was nothing, but she had to know.

“What?” Jenna asked. Her voice shook as she spoke.

Val was nearly to the last twenty minutes of the feed before she saw what she hoped she wouldn’t.

“I need your phone,” Val said in a panic. “I forgot mine.”

Jenna shook her head. “I don’t have one,” she nearly cried. “I told him I needed one!”

“You don’t have a phone?” Val nearly shouted. How could this be happening?

“It was a risk,” Jenna said quietly. “Val, what the hell is going on?”

“The lodge is under attack,” she said.

* * *

Apollo glanced back down at the note in his hand and growled. She was in so much trouble. He’d just have to work harder to convince her that he was not giving up.

Rem pulled up beside him, and he groaned.

“You?” he said and scowled. “When did they start letting you drive around?”

Rem gave him a dazzling smile. “When they needed me to go to town to run errands. It takes too long to hoof it, even for me.”

Apollo shook his head. This might be the best option.

“Val took off,” he said and glanced away. The last thing he wanted was for that guy, of all people, to know about any of his problems.

When he looked back, Rem was staring off into the distance.

“What the hell is that?” Rem said and squinted his eyes.

Apollo shook his head. There wasn’t much out that way, just the school and younger hybrid dorms.

The harsh smell of smoke cut through the air.

He turned. A column of black and gray smoke trailed into the night sky. Red and orange played in the distance.

“Fire,” Rem said quietly.

Apollo pulled out his phone to get someone on it but froze as a beastly howl cut through the silence.

He turned to Rem.

“Glycons,” they said in unison.

Apollo hopped in the car.

“To the babies,” Apollo said. “They will go for them first.”

His fingers bounced on the phone as Rem raced through the newly paved roads.

He didn’t understand why an alarm hadn’t already been raised. That meant the enemy had taken them totally by surprise.

“What?” Titus said, clear over the line.

“Sound the alarm,” Apollo said quickly. “We’ve been breached.”

“By what?” Titus asked. He could hear him shout to several men and was surprised to hear gunfire from that side of the compound.

“Glycons,” he shouted into the line.

“Fuck,” Titus growled. “Where are you?”

They stopped outside the family units. Sol stood out front.

“With the women,” Apollo said.

Kate and Erica peered out from the window.

“Send someone over to the school,” Rem shouted. “It’s on fire.”

“On it,” Titus said, and Apollo nodded back to Rem.

They climbed out and met Sol out front. He had a gun in hand.

“Anything yet?” Rem asked.

Sol nodded to the back of the house. “Killed one of those mutant bastards out back,” he said. “What the fuck is going on?”

Apollo shook his head. He couldn’t have planned for worse timing.

More gunfire rang through the air. His heart trembled with worry over Val. He could only hope that she was away from all of this.

* * *

The gate stood slightly ajar as Jenna approached. They could hear gunfire on the other side. The only question was, who was doing the shooting?

“What should we do?” Jenna asked.

Val didn’t see much choice. They had to get in there. She could feel the tug of Cassia. Her family needed her, and she wasn’t about to abandon them now.

“Gun it,” she said.

Jenna looked at her like she was crazy.

“Do you want in there?” Val asked. The gunfire grew louder and closer.

Jenna swallowed hard and slammed her foot hard against the gas. The car punched forward and slammed into the gate.

Bullets perforated the car as they raced through the gate.

“Duck!” she shouted.

The windows burst just as she dunked her head down. Jenna bobbed up and down to see the road ahead of them.

The gunfire grew distant, and they sat back up in their seats.

Fire raged in the distance, and she worried about the children.

“Those were my uncle’s men,” Jenna said in shock. “They know my car.”

Val looked in the mirror at the men at the gate. There were some huge weird-looking men, easily the size of the hybrids, standing near men in uniform. They were not attacking each other.

“I have to find my uncle,” Jenna said in a near panic.

Val shook her head. “No.”

Jenna slowed down and glared at her.

“He’s my uncle,” she said.

“He’s a trained soldier.” Val pointed to the road to the right. “We need to get to the family housing. The children can’t protect themselves.”

Cassia had only gotten louder in her mind when she entered the gate.

Something landed hard on the roof of the car, and a chill swept through her.

Jenna slammed on the breaks. The creature rolled off the top and landed on his feet before them.

“What the fuck is that?” Val shook as she spoke.

The pale humanoid monstrosity hissed at them. His eyes were not quite right, feral, and glowed brightly, without the beauty she’d seen in Apollo’s eyes. The sight chilled her to the bone. Jenna hit the gas, but the monster only jumped onto the hood of the car.

He stared down at them and licked his lips. He raised his hands, which were tipped with elongated nails, almost claws really.

Jenna slammed on the breaks again and again, he rolled off on to his feet.

Her heart kicked up into her throat as something jumped onto the back of the car.

“We’re surrounded,” Val whispered.

She screamed when gunshots again sprayed the area near car. The women grabbed one another and ducked. It was the only thing they could do.

The gunfire halted, and the monster dropped off the car, landing on the ground with a thud. After several seconds, she was pretty sure it was dead.

“Jenna?” someone called out.

They sat up. Jenna climbed out of the car.

Major Carter stood there, a pistol in hand.

“Uncle Dave,” she said and wrapped her arms around the older man. His face was pale, and Val wondered if he had been shot.

“My own damn men,” he mumbled into her hair.

Val noticed that not all of them had jumped ship, given that several were close by and hadn’t opened fire on Major Carter, Jenna or Val.

“Sir!” they called out, hurrying toward Major Carter. “Orders, sir?”

“It will be fine,” Jenna said and hugged him.

“No,” he said and shook his head. “It won’t be.”

His words echoed in Val’s head, and she knew he was right.

“Here,” he said and thrust his gun into her hand. The men surrounded him as he collapsed to the ground.

“Uncle!” Jenna shouted.

The older man held up a hand to stop her. “They need you. They could use another sharpshooter.”

His eyes closed, and he slumped to the ground.

Val could tell that she didn’t want to do this.

Jenna stood tall and looked at a soldier standing next to her. “Corporal, you take him to the clinic, and don’t stop until you find Doctor Miller.”

The man nodded, and it was clear he was loyal. These men would follow Major Carter to the ends of the earth.

“The rest of you need to spread out,” she shouted. “We’ve got to take out as many of these traitors as we can.”

The soldiers all exchanged glances. For a second Val wondered if they would balk at taking orders from Jenna, but given the insane situation, she was gratified when they all nodded.

“We’ll make ‘em pay for Major Carter,” a younger soldier said.

Val stared at the men. From a distance, they would never be able to tell who was on their side.

“Your shirt sleeves,” Val said loudly. “Roll up the left one. Shoot any bastard without it that way.”

They hesitated for a moment, as if she was asking them to tear off their arms, before they nodded and rolled up their left sleeves.

Val turned to road and froze.

“Val?”

Chapter Fifteen

Apollo gulped in deep breaths of air as she ran to him. She was safe. That was all that mattered. She was there in his arms and not dead on the side of the road.

“What’s the assessment?” Rem cut in.

His reunion was far less warm with Jenna.

He glanced around, a faint frown on his face. The grinning playboy was completely gone now, replaced by the alpha.

“The guards at the front have turned,” Jenna said. “There’s a fire at the school. My uncle is down.” Her voice shook.

“Glycons?” Rem stared at her.

She pointed to the ground.

“Others?” he asked.

Apollo frowned. “Others?”

“What’s a Glycon?” Val asked.

“You’ve seen some of those pale mutant hybrids? More beast than man?” Apollo asked.

She nodded.

“Those are Glycons. Horatius Group killers.”

Rem shrugged. “There might be others.”

Jenna shook her head, and Apollo let out a sigh.

“The children?” Val asked.

He looked down into her pale eyes and nodded.

“Safe,” he said. “They are hidden away with Sol. Titus was going to the school. Lucius and Marius sent in a call that they were by the hospital. We should make our way to the gate and take these things out.”

They nodded. He pulled a gun out of his pants and placed it into Val’s hands.

“Have you ever used a gun before?” he asked.

Her eyes were wild with fear as she shook her head.

“Martial arts,” she said quietly.

He nodded but pushed the gun back into her hands when she tried to give it back.

“Keep it just in case,” he said. “You won’t be able to beat the Glycons hand-to-hand.”

She swallowed and nodded once, her blue eyes clouded by fear.

Apollo watched as she clutched the gun to her chest.

* * *

The road was quiet as they made their way to the front gate. She knew what was ahead, and yet it didn’t seem to ease the fears that hammered at her chest. Even far from the fire, the acrid smell of smoke assaulted her nose.

Val glanced over to Apollo. His attention was all around them, and she was glad for it.

They neared the front and bile rose in her throat. Hate and fear filled the air. The emotions, mixed with the copper scent of blood, made her stomach roll.

“They are close,” Rem said, his gun at the ready.

Val noticed how he kept Jenna on the inside near the center.

A harsh growl cut through the air, and they froze.

“How many?” Apollo asked.

Rem shook his head. “Three, maybe more.”

“Too many,” Apollo said and looked over to the other man.

Apollo stepped in front of her and gripped her shoulders hard.

“If any of them come at you, fire. Fire until you don’t have anything left. Don’t try to fight these things,” he said quickly. “You won’t be fast enough. If you get cornered, you run as fast as you can.”

Val stared at him for a long moment before wrapping her arms around his neck and kissing him hard.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I’m so sorry,” she said again. The words burned as they came out.

He shook his head. “Don’t think about that,” he said. “We survive, and then we deal with the rest.”