Chapter 35: Texas

The whirl of the helicopter’s rotors ripped across the midday sky, shifting clouds and announcing its presence to those below. They passed over ocean and land, rushing to west Texas with a vengeance. Within the helicopter, Dan and Aisha sat with a few other members of the newly minted Stars task force.

While the amusement of traveling across state lines nearly at the same speed as an airplane would have been a joyous adventure for Dan in a past life, now he could only think about the Stolen. He had told them he would be back soon, but in the wake of a boundary breach, somethings had to give. Still, he wanted Shadow to at least relay a message to him, something he brought up with Aisha over a linked headset.

The recently promoted Troop Leader watched Dan carefully, her eyes never meeting his own piercing gaze. He cared for those he brought back, something that she found quite odd. But, since he could stomach looking at them and shared in their abuse, she found Dan’s attitude courageous even if threatening.

“Sure,” she finally replied. “I’ll tell command to patch Shadow into us.”

Frankly Aisha didn’t like the name Shadow and internally rolled her eyes every time Dan used it. It conveyed something more cartoonish than what the Association actually was. But for some reason, she figured Dan wouldn’t change his mind about the nickname. He was weird like that, like his focus was never truly serious.

Until it was.

Aisha rubbed where her leg was once sliced to ribbons. It had been healed over almost instantaneously, but the fact of the matter was the healing was what scared her. She’d had cuts before, some worse than what Dan caused, but never had she healed so quickly. Sure, his attack magic was as much of an anomaly as his healing, but for some reason it played on repeat in her mind.

The warmth especially. She felt whole in that moment, like her recurring nightmare was finally gone, like Dan would be there to save her from being swallowed. She shuddered at the thought of Dan and her own shared dream, especially the sliminess of the situation.

She had not put on lotion since the dream.

“You feeling alright?” Dan asked, his left eyebrow raised.

There, Aisha noticed, was something hidden in the gesture. Something far more sinister than a simple question. It was as if Dan was looking through her, like he was inspecting a sickly animal or challenging a huffing bull. Like he was looking for something specific, something hidden to the normal eye.

“Yeah,” she answered. “They should be ready. Tell Shadow what you want to say.”

“Err, Shadow?” Dan asked through the headset. “Well how is this going to work, you don’t speak their language. Uhh just give the ear piece to Zesmic, one of The Stolen.”

There was muted shuffling on the other end of the line, along with a muffled repeating of the name. A moment later a new voice appeared, one droopy, cold, and speaking a language that toyed with Aisha’s thoughts. For a moment she thought they were speaking French, but that hardly made sense. It took a minute for her brain to catch up, but she felt sure she heard three separate voices coming from Zesmic.

Dan spewed off a few strings of explanation then a few more and ended with a smirk and a chuckle when Zesmic responded. Another round of shuffling returned the earpiece back to Shadow, but the man didn’t speak, only grunted to end the call.

A few voices from command came over, most of which sounded queasy and agitated. They returned the helicopter’s passengers back to a local channel.

“Sorry that took so long,” Dan said. “Zesmic was confused about how calling worked.”

“Everything in proper shape then?” Aisha asked, filling the void of awkward silence.

Dan only shrugged. “The Stolen are… well, I’m not sure. Anything is better than the camps, I’m just surprised there hasn't been any infighting. The camp and mine were not welcoming environments.”

There it was again, Aisha noted. Something in Dan’s eyes spoke more than what he said, if only she could face him longer then maybe she’d be able to identify just what made Dan tick.

“Should we be worried? In your report you stated that the guards of the mine were quite powerful.”

Dan’s gaze fell to the window and the passing countryside. “No, they all are dead. Along with the cultists. Unless one of The Stolen was able to smuggle one of the guard’s weapons, they are only as dangerous as their different bodies allow. Claws and teeth and stuff, you know? Frankly they all are afraid of guns, the sound especially.”

Aisha found the man’s tone bizarre. Just an hour ago he had the Commander and herself frozen in fear, or at least close to it. But now? It was like he was speaking to an old friend.

Aggressive mood shifts, she decided, making a mental note for a later report.

“Honestly, I’m more surprised most of The Stolen have recovered as much as they have,” Dan said.

Frowning, Aisha asked, “What do you mean? Didn’t you use that golden light to heal them?”

He nodded. “Yes, but I’m talking about their mental states. The madness ran rampant in the mine, in the camp as well but to a lesser extent. There were a few that I didn’t think were going to last.”

“Regardless, your actions were admirable. You did well protecting them all.”

Dan went to respond but abruptly paused, mouth open wide. His skin paled and sweat formed against his forehead. He lowered his eyes to the one empty seat within the cabin while simultaneously sucking his bottom lip. A gentle simmer appeared in his irises, something everyone else caught onto instantly.

The cabin went still, very still. Subtle movements to unlatch gun holsters went unnoticed by Dan, even when the helicopter slowed significantly. They were over a dry grassy field, one dotted with the churning movements of oil pumps.

Aisha caught fleeting glances from her three men, then looked to a tucked away box under the seat in front of her. It had been sometime since her last jump, and their proximity to the ground would make landing dicey at best. She internally cursed the Commander for allowing this execution to happen, something she would keenly alert the man to if she survived.

Dan eventually leaned back, his head hitting the neck rest of his seat hard. He chewed his lip before asking, “Has my family been alerted.”

Aisha paused herself. Was this a ploy? Was it a trick to get her talking? Was there actually something wrong, or was this another personality shift?

“They…” she looked at her men, eying their reactions before answering. “have not been.”

“I would like to see them,” Dan took one last glance to the empty seat, “We- I need to explain where I’ve been.”

Aisha didn’t miss the slip up, and something told her that he wasn’t meaning the Association in that “we.” Hallucinations? Schizophrenia? she asked herself, making another note to share with Dr. Reyes and the Commander.

Eventually the helicopter proceeded to the breach, causing a wave of questions about the breaches themselves. Aisha explained that since the three boundaries formed, monsters had started appearing all over the world. Certain types were within a certain radius, however, leading researchers to conclude that each boundary had its own set distance in which it could create monsters.

That in and of itself started another round of questioning, most of which Aisha wasn’t able to answer. She only told Dan what she herself knew, which wasn’t much.

“Monsters just appeared. There is no warning, no portal, no spike in energy. They simply appear somewhere.  It was after they’d been around a while that our satellites and monitors were able to pick up some kind of reading, thus alerting us.”

Dan frowned. “What kind of readings?”

“Not sure.”

“Now long do they have to be around for?”

“Few hours.”

“What about the third boundary, the one in the Pacific? Has it created monsters?”

Aisha took a deep breath. “We do not know. If it has, then it is spawning them in the middle of the ocean. No monster corpses have washed up on shore yet, however. So-“

“How do you know no corpse has washed up?”

“Because the Association has more resources than you would believe.”

A couple minutes later the helicopter arrived at the scene of the breach. A few other helicopters had beat them to it, and were circling around or allowing troops to propel down from ropes. Soldiers encircled the monsters, forming a massive circle around the area.

They were bipedal beings of silvery flesh. Elongated and odd limbs casted around the open field, each individual monster entangled with each other forming a singular mass. Together the mass grazed, eating everything and anything that dared enter its domain.

From the sky, Aisha could see body parts of cows and a few humans, likely the ranches that owned this land. Their bodies were partially absorbed by the silver, creating new appendages in the process.

One of the men in the cabin puked at the scene, a suntanned head bobbing through the sea of silver. Like a meerkat looking for threats, the head turned and scanned, looking at the soldiers with increasingly worried twitches. Finally, as the helicopter landed and Aisha and Dan stepped out, the monster let loose a wind shear like cry.

Instantly Aisha’s eardrums burst, sending liquid red trickling down her neck and into her camouflage body armor. She swayed on her feet, teetering as the cry continued to violate her whole being. She tried to touch upon her core, she tried to do as Dan had instructed, but failed. She fell forward, only to be stopped by a tight grip.

Through bleary eyes she saw gold. It whipped from Dan’s palm and invaded her ears. Warmth flooded her and her hearing returned with an audible pop.

“Going to need you to clear me to fight,” Dan said, his eyes narrow shining. “Tell the others to stay back as well. I’ll heal them after I kill it.”

Aisha nodded slowly, her core and mind trying to catch up. She was the leader here, the new Stars task force was under her jurisdiction, meaning all orders to Dan went through here.

“Go,” she said, unleashing the man beside her.

Dan dashed forward, drawing the eye of every soldier around. Some screeched for him to stop, but the ushered hand of Aisha ended their calls. Light formed in his palms, catching against his fingers as he clutched his fist. The gold bulged, consuming his hand in a great ball before being tossed silently forward.

The light failed to take to gravity, the man’s control over the creation too responsive. The ball whipped forward, accelerating to untold speeds. It collided into the silvery monster with a wet thud, followed closely by another ear splitting scream.

The monster recoiled with pain, rearing up on its hind set of legs and arms. It came down like a tidal wave, crushing the golden orb like a stone falling on an egg. The light blinked out of existence only for another to quickly take its place. The second orb slammed the same way, creating another wave and scream.

Dan didn’t sit around and attack from a far, he pushed closer despite his body’s reluctance to approach. As the monster smashed into the ground he was ready, sending forth a spear of pointed light. The attack pierced into the silvery leather, removing a large chunk from the beast’s amalgamated body.

Where a human head once sat in lookout, a craterous face dripped a buffet of blood. The red liquid drained against the monster’s silver body, finding the ground and wetting the dried grass.

Dan attacked the patch of cow bodies next, dismantling their demonic connections with three beams of gold. More blood spilled.

A bullet ripped past his head, originating from the crowd of soldiers. Dan twisted, light already forming within his palms. He stopped cold, watching the man who caused such a disturbance.

Aisha saw Dan stop, her blood running cold. She yelled through her ear piece, demanding answers to the obvious question, why? Distorted chatted filled her ears along with a warm streak of red pooling below her nose. Suddenly her head started to pound, she tried to tap into her core but the world went black.

As she fell, Dan turned back to the monsters, his expression cold and blank.

Thoughts cracked what little support was left, budding and nipping against her slight consciousness. Aisha knew she could open her eyes at that point but also held off from doing so. Something within her stirred, a feeling of dire need. It came from within, by her heart. She knew it was her core, but it felt different. It felt larger.

Yelling in the distance came to her, she recognized Dan’s voice. “No, no, no. This is not okay! Look at this! How do you think this makes me look?”

The yelling paused.

“No! The other Stolen are going to be punished for this, because of this, because of me! We are already on thin ice with the Association, and this is going to tip the scales!”

The situation came back to Aisha in that moment, she slowly opened her eyes. The light was blinding, easily redoubling her splitting headache. She silently groaned, forcing her sight to adjust. She followed the yelling, finding Dan screaming at the open air. He was gesturing wildly, pointing around the field-

Aisha's headache went away in that moment, she crushed and buried the pain like a toddler hiding their mess under a blanket. Blood, blood stained the dry grass dark crimson. The monster was shredded apart, the silvery aspect of its body destroyed by what looked like hundreds of needles.

Blood soaked the beast as well, covering monster, animal, and human skin in a sick sheen of red. The flies were already around, buzzing and feasting to their heart’s content. It was then Aisha saw the other bodies.

No soldiers stood, no soldiers moved. Bullet riddled men and women, each wearing the seal of the Association laid dead in a wide circle around the monster. Fighting the pain, Aisha forced her body to look behind her at the helicopter.

The pilot was running towards her, towards Dan. He held a pistol in his hand, but with each step lowered the weapon until he eventually dropped it. It landed in the grass without a sound, the pilot’s deathly cry overshadowing the thud. He fell to his knees, causing Dan to curse.

A humanoid blur blazed past Aisha’s lowered head, and suddenly Dan was next to the crying man. He held both palms against the man’s back, fueling a golden light so powerful Aisha had to turn away. When the crying stopped, she turned back.

Dan was yelling at the air again, the pilot just looked… lost. It was then Aisha realized Dan was not speaking English but rather camp speak.

How can I understand-

Suddenly Dan’s eyes went wide and his mouth froze. Slowly he turned and looked at her, guilt riddled through his expression. Aisha blinked, and Dan abruptly was next to her, his hands out touching her forehead.

“It's okay, it's okay. I’ve got you, I’ve got you,” he whispered tenderly and with experience. “You’re okay, just let me heal you.”

Aisha’s head finally slumped, her mind accepting the warmth and her eyes drifting close. She fell asleep for a moment, enough time for Dan to take a step back after deeming her in pristine health.

“What-“

“Don’t talk, I’ll explain…”

And he did. Dan caught her up to speed from the moment a  soldier shot his rifle. He spoke of tendrils of madness, crushing pressure, kidnapping presences, someone named ‘Sully the young,’ and mind altering magic. His words were nothing more than contradictory ramblings, but Aisha couldn’t stop him from talking – she could hardly move.

Eventually the story was over, and from the way Dan put it, all the soldiers fell to the madness and started killing each other. Which only left one question in her mind.

“Why am I alive then?” Aisha choked out, each syllable like a jackhammer on her brain. “And him.”

Dan followed her gaze to the pilot sitting on his knees staring up at the sun. He frowned, stood up, and pushed his head down until it was level with the horizon.

When he came back over, he spoke, “Him? I would guess he was too far away. The madness only snapped to him when he passed into its domain. For you? You resisted it.”

“M-my team?”

“All dead. I’m sorry.”

The wind picked up, sending the dry grass dancing under the Texas sun. A helicopter circled once around, landing far outside the deathly area. Soldiers climbed out of the cabin, taking aim at Dan.

He threw up his hands, “You have your radio? Tell them not to come near, not until I take out the madness.”

A bubble in Aisha’s chest urged her to listen, her core whispered to trust him. She did as he asked, telling the newcomers to stand down. They listened but were obviously twitchy.

Dan took the freedom to stare into the air, shaking or nodding his head subtly. Or at least, trying to be subtle about it. Aisha noticed, making another mental note about the man before her.

He took to the battlefield once again, b-lining straight to the corpse of the mangled monster. He climbed through its limbs and bloodied hunks of flesh. The smell of rot had taken hold under the heat, bringing in more flies and other decomposers. Something caught his eye and he yanked it loose.

Aisha only saw a blunted green glint before Dan crushed the item into dust. With a snarl he blasted the dust with a condensed beam of gold light.

For a moment the world stopped. The apocalypse drummed past the hills, death came marching through the field. The sky turned stark black, the eclipsed sun bled red. Eyes opened within the bloody fallout, each swiveling towards Dan.

He chewed his lip, a smirk forming. “Good morning to you as well,” he whispered.

The world returned to normal, and Dan turned back to the open air. His posture dropped in disappointment and with a shake of his head, he began towards Aisha.

“They should be safe to come over,” he said causing the task force leader to radio over commands.

Dan didn’t fight the men when they forced him into handcuffs. He didn’t say anything when they bashed their rifle stockings into his jaw and gut. He only rolled his eyes when they slipped the noose of a catchpole around his neck.

He simply let it happen, knowing that if he resisted things would only go more poorly than they already have.