Furnace 5 - Execution (29 page)

Furnace was gone, leaving me alone with the creature from the orchard.

I could feel him there, like a weight inside my head, his blood in my veins like puppet strings, as though he could make me do anything he wanted. Furnace had argued against injustice, but the stranger did not care about right or wrong. He told me so without words. All he wanted was to watch the world burn.

AND
YOU
WILL
TOO,
he said.

I concentrated on the power of the stranger’s blood. It surged inside me, setting every nerve ending alight, making me feel like I could snap my fingers and stop time, cut the stars from the heavens. I was still strapped to the machine inside the chamber, I knew that much, but I was also in countless other places. I could see a thousand different sights, smell so many different scents, could hear all the world at once and make sense of everything.

I knew what was happening. I was inside the head of every single being with nectar in its veins, from the
wheezers who stood in this very room to the blacksuits who waged war on the mainland, from the berserkers on the island above me to the leviathans in the ocean, even the rats, so many of them. I could sense Simon there too, his fear, his hysteria, as the army continued their attack.

This was the true gift, I realised. I couldn’t just see these things – the blacksuits, the berserkers, the wheezers – I
was
them. The stranger’s blood,
my
blood now, flowed inside them. They were mine to do with as I pleased.

‘
It’s okay
,’ I said, directing the message to Simon. I could feel the shift in his emotions when he heard me, first disbelief, then hope breaking through the despair like a starburst. He replied, but I had already moved on. I could see the island from dozens of different viewpoints at once, the effect dizzying, like looking into a kaleidoscope. The soldiers had broken out of the trees, still mowing down the motionless berserkers with their weapons. I felt those bullets as if it was me who was being shot, the sudden flash of pain cutting through the numbness inside my mind, filling me with rage.

They would pay for that.

I ordered the berserkers to attack, feeling the nectar begin to pound in their hearts, their thoughts turning to murder as their paralysis was broken. I followed one, watching from inside its head as it bounded over the fractured rock towards two Marines in camouflage. They saw it coming, firing their weapons, but it was too late. I could feel its strength as it lashed out, its claws spearing one of the soldiers through his torso, wrapping
its jaws around the other man’s arm, the sensation making me feel like I was crunching ice cubes.

At the same time I directed six more berserkers towards the tree line, seeing through all their eyes at once, feeling as though their feet were my own as they stampeded. One fell, caught by a mortar blast, the sudden darkness of its vision, the gaping emptiness of its thoughts, throwing me for a second. But the others made up for their fallen brother, laying into their enemies with a ferocity that made the ground tremble.

The soldiers were panicking at this sudden onslaught, falling back, their faces warped by fear. I scanned the retreating crowds, looking for Panettierre, but I couldn’t see her anywhere. It didn’t matter. She could wait. There was no place for her to hide, not now.

A jet roared overhead and suddenly the island turned to flame as its missile struck, the effect like a volcano erupting. The inferno blazed over the rock between the trees and the mansion, eradicating everything which stood there. I heard the berserkers scream inside my head, their voices those of the children they had once been. I could feel the heat, its touch unbearable.

‘
Don’t be afraid
,’ I commanded, trying to wipe the fear from their minds, trying to absorb the pain as the life ebbed from them. I talked to them as they died, telling them that they were going to a good place, that they would be safe there, and free. I don’t think they understood my words, but I could feel their relief at the sound of my voice, sensing that they weren’t alone, and that there was something better than this. I experienced
their agony as if it was my own, but I accepted it, knowing that even though it felt as if I was dying over and over again I was safe inside the chamber.

I retaliated instantly, commanding the rest of the berserkers into the trees, telling them to show no mercy. Blood flew, limbs lopped off like felled branches, skulls broken, chests and stomachs pierced, throats chewed out. It was a sight from the very inner circle of hell, one that would have driven a mortal insane. But I was no longer mortal. I heard myself laugh grimly as I watched the carnage, the sound silent and yet deafening, those impossible howls a perfect soundtrack to the madness.

Some of the soldiers had bolted, tripping down the steps back towards the dock. There were boats there, rising and falling in the tide, filling fast. But they wouldn’t provide a safe haven. I entered the head of a leviathan, feeling the cold water flow against its skin as it dived and somersaulted below the waves. It welcomed me with joy, relishing the chance to attack, and I watched through its dark eyes as it surged upwards, gaining speed, ramming the boat so hard that it cracked the hull with its skull.

I saw the bodies falling overboard like I was watching from the bottom of a swimming pool, their thrashing forms silhouetted against the sky, their screams muted by the water. It all seemed to be happening in slow motion. The leviathan unfurled its spider-like arms, wrapping them around the flailing figures, pulling them into the depths where they would spend all eternity.

More troops were moving in, two Chinook helicopters dropping towards the mansion side of the island, an Apache alongside them, its cannons tearing up anything that moved. I was running out of berserkers, the army’s firepower just too much.

I remembered that the big one, the one we had encountered in the forest, was still stationed by the front door and I told it to attack. I watched through its eyes as it ran towards where the helicopters were landing, bullets thudding into its flesh, no more painful than mosquito bites. One of the choppers saw it coming, tried to take off, but the berserker was too quick. It threw itself at the open loading ramp as it left the ground, the soldiers there still fighting to free their weapons. In seconds it had slaughtered them all, squeezing through to the cockpit, leaving it looking like a butcher’s shop. The chopper spun, dropping like a stone, the berserker leaping out moments before the Chinook vanished over the edge. The beast didn’t even pause for breath, bounding towards the second helicopter as a plume of fire rose up behind it, the explosion causing a section of the cliff to crumble loose.

It didn’t make it far, a missile from the apache reducing it to chunks of wet flesh. I called out to it, remembering the way it had nuzzled against my hand, just a child desperate for contact. But there was no response, all it was now was a gaping absence in my head.

There was another bone-jarring eruption of fire as a jet screamed overhead, but this time the air strike missed its target. If anything it seemed to confuse the army, the
troops splitting up in all directions, trying to find cover in the superheated smoke. Picking them off was easy, like shooting fish in a barrel.

Chaos gripped the island in a fist of fear and flame. Through every set of eyes I saw death and murder, claws and bullets flying. One of the berserkers took a round in its eye, dying instantly. Another saw what had happened and I could feel its pain and its fury at the loss of one of its brothers. I didn’t need to tell it what to do, it sought instant revenge, dashing the murderous soldier against the rock.

Things were no better in the water, four more leviathans joining the first. They had scuppered most of the smaller boats and I ordered them to attack the ships. They looked like vast, spindly crabs as they scaled the sides of the battle cruisers, ripping the soldiers from the decks. The ocean around the island churned red. Some of the boats were turning, heading back to the mainland, but I was determined to make sure that none of them made it, directing my soldiers after them.

And all the while I could feel the stranger whose blood flowed in my veins, the one who had made all of this possible. He didn’t speak, didn’t make a sound, and yet I could sense his rancid glee in every fibre of my body. He was delighted with me, his new host. Never had I felt such malevolent joy, such cruel, sadistic happiness.

I was distracted by Simon’s thoughts, and I observed through his eyes as he, Zee and Lucy ran through the unguarded front door of the mansion.

‘
I’m downstairs
,’ I said, showing Simon a mental image of the chamber. ‘
It’s safe here
.’

I heard him repeat the message to the others, his voice sounding strange as it echoed inside his own head. He led the way across the hall and down the corridor. Both Zee and Lucy were bombarding him with questions but I didn’t stop to listen, returning my attention to my troops as the island came under yet another assault.

The second Chinook had managed to land, masked soldiers pouring out into the smoke. Half set up suppressing fire, a wave of bullets which cut down another two berserkers. The rest used the cover to clamber into the house, some through the door and others throwing themselves at the windows. Once they had setup position they started shooting out across the island, allowing the rest of the soldiers to enter.

It was impossible to identify the men and woman behind the masks, but somehow I knew she was one of them, Panettierre. I felt my pulse quicken, pumping the stranger’s blood around my system, the noise so loud that it was as if the very earth had a heartbeat. I called on the remaining berserkers, telling them to return to the mansion, to find her.

There were still two berserkers here in the chamber and I ordered them to intercept her. Panettierre and her army would be pinned between two unstoppable waves. The creatures bounded past me, giving me a glimpse of myself – a demon crucified to a machine. In seconds they had reached the top of the steps and were running down
the corridor on all fours. There was a weird moment when they passed Simon, the same event seen from two different angles. My friends fell back against the wall, Lucy knocking a painting loose, but of course the berserkers weren’t interested in them and kept running.

I saw what happened next through six sets of eyes, three creatures from outside leaping through the windows onto the soldiers. A fourth tried to get in through the door but somebody had rigged up an explosive, the blast sending it flying back out, dead before it hit the rock.

Even so, what followed next was a massacre, the five surviving berserkers attacking from all angles, giving the army no chance. The soldiers didn’t know which way to turn, some of them firing in wild circles, killing their own friends. They scattered, a few vanishing through doors or throwing themselves back outside. Most were too slow, though, screaming for mercy.

They received none.

‘
Nobody survives
,’ I told the berserkers, relishing their excitement. They were an extension of my own body – when they tasted blood so did I, the warmth gushing down my throat; when they lashed out with their monstrous limbs my own arms twitched, my new fingers gouging at the air, my blade slicing. Never had I felt power like this. I truly was a god. My delight echoed that of the stranger, our strength unmatched, unsurpassable.

There were only a handful of men and women left, both inside and outside the mansion. All but a couple of
the boats had been destroyed as well, the rest already out of sight over the horizon. There were still helicopters in the air, the jet a gleaming sliver of light in the distance, but other than that the only evidence that the army had been here were the corpses which carpeted the smoking ground.

I watched as the berserkers inside the house chased down the last few survivors, killing them in ways that I never could have imagined possible. I saw one approach a woman. My heart drummed, thinking it was Panettierre, but when she pulled off her gas mask in an act of defiance I saw it wasn’t. This was a girl, barely older than Lucy, her features grey with terror.

The berserkers moved in for the kill but I held them back, my bloodlust fading. This soldier wasn’t Panettierre, she wasn’t evil. She was just following orders. Her eyes were so wide that the whites seemed like glowing rings, the pupils dilated by terror. They flicked between the berserkers as they surrounded her, but each time it seemed as though she was staring right at me.

‘Go to hell,’ she said, tears streaming down her cheeks. ‘All of you.’

Too late I realised she was holding a satchel in one hand, her other reaching inside. I drove the berserkers forward, but even these goliaths of muscle and nectar couldn’t get to the girl fast enough. She closed her eyes and flicked a switch, the C4 detonating loud enough to rain dust down on me from the ceiling of the chamber.

The senses of those creatures were ripped away from my own so fast that it felt as if part of my soul had been
torn out. The darkness that flooded into the vacuum where those living, breathing things had been was so overpowering that I thought for an instant I’d gone blind and deaf, my entire body numb. Gradually, however, the light and the noise crept back. I let my mind fly out to find the remaining berserkers. There were only three of them left on the whole island, two of them fatally wounded. I did my best to mute their pain, but their bodies were broken beyond repair and they seemed to know it.

I felt my anger grow, seeming to make the new blood inside me boil. It wasn’t right that the berserkers had to die, they were just children. Panettierre would pay for this. They would
all
pay for this.

I cast my mind out wider, over the ocean to the mainland. There were a small number of blacksuits left on the coast, the seaside town where we had caught the boat, and they were fighting with more soldiers. I sensed berserkers nearby, directing them to the battle, unleashing them on the men and women in camouflage. I could feel them all, thousands of berserkers and blacksuits across the country, each of them unique, each of them mine to control. I could even get inside the minds of the rats, although there was so little there – nothing but a tornado of violence which shook them to their core – that all I could do was point them in the right direction.