It charged forward in a blind rage slamming into Riker, jaws clamping onto his shoulder as its momentum carried them both to the ground. Riker cried out in pain, trying to push the creature off as its claws raked his chest.

  "No!" I roared, raising my rifle, and firing at the creature's flank. My bio-amped muscles propelled me forward in a burst of inhuman speed as I tried to draw its attention. My shots impacted its side, burning through fur and flesh but failing to penetrate deep enough to strike vitals.

  It turned, releasing its grip on Riker as strings of saliva dangled from its jaws. Dead eyes bored into me with predatory focus. I saw muscles twitch and coil under its skin as it prepared to pounce.

  But before it could, a barrage of plasma fire erupted behind me. Priest and Koog unloaded carnage rounds on the creature, shots pounding into and through its body. It stumbled under the impacts but refused to go down, shaking off the damage with unnatural stamina.

  A high-pitched yell rang out—Lux, screaming in rage and anguish, fired his smaller Silka rifle at the thing that had injured Riker. The creature's head snapped around, locking onto this new target.

  "Oh, hell no!" I hurled myself forward, helmet sensors feeding targeting data directly to my weapon. I unloaded my remaining magpack directly into the thing's skull, shredding flesh and bone. With a final snarl, it collapsed to the ground, its mutated form wracked by violent spasms before falling still.

  Panting, I turned to check on Lux and the girl. Lux's eyes were filled with tears, his gun still aimed at the lifeless beast. The girl had her arms around him protectively. They were both unharmed, thanks to Riker's quick action. I walked over and put a hand on Lux's shoulder as Koog rushed to Riker.

  Riker had makeshift battle armor; it was better than nothing but hadn't protected him from the full fury of the HellCat.

  I could see a lot of blood, and the man’s eyes were closed. "Status?"

  "In a minute, Boss. He's breathing."

  "He was protecting me," Lux said gently. I just nodded, unable to speak.

  “That was some shit.” Priest said moving over close to me.

  I was kneeling, inspecting the HellCat, not really wanting to look at Riker in this condition. "Yeah, it was," I agreed. "Every goddamn thing out here wants us dead."

  I poked at the spike with my gloved hand. “Yeah, anything about that creature seem familiar?”

  “I dunno, maybe,” the large, black man said with a shrug.

  “Back in Maine, the assassin, the same guy from yesterday with Hinge, said the thunder vines were basically a revived life-form from Earth's ancient past. Makes you wonder if all this shit used to be common at some point in our planet's history. If they can revive the dead, they can likely turn back the clock on DNA as well,” I suggested.

  He shrugged, “Well, they went extinct once, we just need to help their ass back there again.”

  “Amen, brother.”

  Koog worked on Riker for several hours to get him stabilized. I saw him throw away one of the portable Medbot units. That wasn't a good sign, generally meant the embedded p-cell or supplies were exhausted.

  I was shocked to see Riker sitting up and eating later. "Damn, dude, you had us worried."

  "The ancient ones aren't ready for me to join them yet," he said with a smile.

  "Significant blood loss, wounds all healed up. Likely concussion and cracked ribs. Limited duty for a while, but that Anadium cream is some special shit. I want more of it…lots more," Koog said, moving away from his patient.

  "Thanks, man,"

  I sat beside the fallen man and placed a hand on his arm. "I appreciate you putting yourself in danger for our two other civilians. I mean…it was stupid and all, but I appreciate it."

  Riker nodded, "I usually have good instincts, but that one nearly cost me."

  I started to move away, and he reached out, catching my arm. "Joe…I saw something."

  Looking at Riker, I knew he meant something more than just the obvious.

  "What you…what we do here matters, but not in the way you think."

  "I'm not sure I follow," I offered.

  "It's hard to express, the mind gets all tangled up with the spirit world," he said wiping a hand across his battered face. "The enemy, our enemy is attempting something they feel is right and nothing will change their mind."

  That much I got. "Yeah, they're nuts."

  He nodded. "They are under the influence of trickster spirits. They believe what they believe."

  "So, what did you see?"

  "I saw my journey end. My part completed."

  "Well, that HellCat nearly killed you, brother."

  He shook his head, "No, not this, not today. What I saw was you will have to end this yourself...by yourself. No one else will be able to help. If you fail, though,” he drifted out for a minute, eyes going glassy. “If you fail, the world is lost."

  His words rattled me on levels I wouldn't let myself show. I told him to get some rest, we would spend the night here and figure out how to transport him in the morning. The girl looked a bit more healed, but the wear and tear on our little ensemble was adding up.

  The next day, I found the WitchWalker moving with quiet determination beside us. Her injury seemed to have deepened her resolve, her presence more pronounced than ever. Lux, possibly heeding the earlier warning from the girl seemed to sense the gravity of her words, staying close and alert, his youthful face etched with a newfound seriousness. Yesterday's attack had been a very stark reminder of the risks out here.

  Riker was riding a litter on one of the Camel haulers. He literally was riding shotgun watching our rear. His injuries, which had seemed life threatening, now appeared much less so. He wasn't what I would call mission effective as a soldier, but he still had teeth.

  As we navigated the treacherous landscape, Koog's voice broke through the silence. "I'm picking up movement ahead. It's not clear who or what, but be alert."

  I slipped back nearer to the girl, Lux, and Riker. If we'd had the Decimator, I would have been out front, now I was the last line of defense. I didn't see anything but snow, scrub-brush, and rocks. Koog had his Rattler trained on a spot a hundred yards ahead. Pulling up his scope view in my HUD I saw what he saw. Not much, a twig moving, then long blades of grass bending opposite to the breeze.

  Suddenly, the ground erupted as a group of mutated creatures, different from the one that had attacked Riker, burst forth. Their forms were just as grotesque, a nightmarish blend of the familiar and the something otherworldly. We reacted instinctively, opening fire, our shots echoing through the desolate expanse.

  These were not bulletproof, but damn, there were a lot of them. I had yet to get a good view, grayish-brown bodies with a white stripe down their sleek fur. They looked like oversized wolverines more than anything else, and their demeanor was even worse than the normal kind. As one charged at me and Sumo, I had a brief view of small horns and tusks protruding from its head. Sumo caught it mid leap and crushed the neck in his powerful jaws.

  The fight was balls to the walls but thankfully, brief. We had become adept at dealing with the unpredictable threats of the Red Zone, our actions guided by survival instincts honed through way too many encounters.

  We surveyed the fallen creatures; the WitchWalker approached one of the bodies. She knelt beside it, her hand hovering over its twisted form. There was a moment of silence, and then she spoke, her voice low and filled with uncharacteristic sorrow.

  "They are lost."

  She looked up at me with a depth of compassion and understanding that I simply couldn't grasp. They were the enemy. They wanted us dead or maybe for dinner. Like so many things here, they were twisted by the madness of the planet. I knew the girl saw something different, though. She saw connections that we were unable to grasp. It wasn't a question of logic; this went far deeper into the heart of our connection to the universe.

  CHAPTER

  FORTY-TWO

  This part of the country was mostly uninhabited, the rest was ruins. The landscape had become a harsh reminder of the world’s collapse, but the ruins of a small pre-apocalyptic town we stumbled upon offered a stark contrast. The buildings, homes, and gathering spots now stood silent, their crumbling facades like ghosts whispering of a life that once was. As we navigated the streets, the eerie quiet prompted a somber introspection among us.

  “This place,” Lux murmured, looking around at the remnants of what used to be a normal town, “it’s like a time capsule of the old world. Just, you know, more beat down and defeated.”

  Priest nodded in agreement, his eyes scanning the skeletal structures. “Hard to believe there was a time before all this madness. A time when towns like this were the norm.”

  I'd made the decision to walk south in the direction of the range of mountain bases Ada had flagged in an earlier data dump. In the absence of getting a ride out of here, it was on a line that pushed us over a low section of peaks and then out of at least the worst of the Red Zone.

  As we continued our trek toward the mountains in the distance, we were surprised to begin seeing obvious signs of life. Telltale remnants of campsites and hunting parties. It was common knowledge that the Midwest fared much better than other parts of the country on Last Day, but still, survivors had been rare. Ada’s ping in my HUD alerted me to what I already suspected. We weren’t alone.

  A young girl wandered out of a thicket looking at Lux riding atop one of the mechanical CML units. Her head cocked to one side as if it was the most curious thing ever.

  “Low-ready guys,” I whispered. I didn’t think this was the time to come up shooting. I raked my helmet back into its sleeve and spoke to the child.

  “His name is Lux. What’s yours?”

  The girl ran back into the bushes and moments later several teens and a few adults emerged. They were cautious at first, but our mutual struggle against the hardships seemed to form a bond of understanding. We took a break and shared what food and supplies we had.

  "You're RDT troops," one of the boys said.

  "We are."

  "That's so cool." Even Riker perked up on the hero worship, despite him never being in space.

  They began sharing tales of life before the catastrophe, memories of mundane days and simple joys, painting a vivid picture of a world lost to time and chaos.

  “We remember the day it all changed,” an elderly man among them said, his voice cracking with emotion. “Never thought we’d end up living like this.”

  Their stories resonated with us, a poignant reminder of what we were fighting for—not just survival, but the hope of restoring a semblance of the world that once was.

  We spent two days with the group helping them forage, sharing supplies and mainly giving the WitchWalker and Riker more time to heal. The Anadium cream worked wonders, but some wounds still needed time. I suggested to the old man, whose name I’d learned was Omar, that he might want to ally with The Tribe a few days north. I felt like they had a common goal. He was nervous but said he would send out messengers in the morning.

  I thought back to my early Ranger days when the CO would send us out on hearts and minds mission. Or, as we liked to phrase it, Bullet Sponge Practice. Some assholes we were trying to save would always be on the hills taking pot-shots at us. We’d give them candy bars during the day and bomb the shit out of them at night. It was a complicated relationship and still gave me nightmares.

  Back home, the president would call it ‘Nation-Building’ or some other bullshit. What Banshee Team was doing was actual Nation—Building. People out here were surviving, learning to adapt. Would they make it? I had no idea, but maybe…just maybe. If we could find enough good pieces to fit together, maybe there was a chance.

  After leaving the town behind, our path took us away from the haunting memories of the past and back into the uncertain journey that lay ahead. Still no sign of the Decimator's beacon nor any other friendlies. We were stretching our supplies to the point that I wasn’t sure how much farther we could make it. The base ahead of us better be stocked, or we were totally screwed.

  As we left the remnants of the town behind, the atmosphere was heavy with our thoughts. The stories shared by the survivors had painted a vivid, albeit poignant, picture of a bygone era. It was a stark reminder of what had been lost and what we were fighting to reclaim.

  I had never been one for sharing personal stories, but something about the kid brought it out in me. As we took a breather just up the road an hour later, Lux came and sat beside me on an old park bench overlooking the town square.

  "What was your mom like?" he asked, catching me off guard.

  I took a long breath, gathering my thoughts. "Her name was Elaine. She was tough—had to be, raising me mostly on her own. But she had a soft heart under that prickly exterior."

  Lux nodded, fiddling with a piece of grass. "I miss my mom," he said. "She always knew how to make me feel better."

  "She was a great mother," I replied. An image of Carol's body flashed through my mind, but I pushed it away. "It's good you have those happy memories of her."

  "Did your mom die before all this, too?"

  I hesitated. I rarely talked about my past, but something in the kid's innocent curiosity made me open up. "She passed a few years back. Had something called dementia—it messed with her mind, made her forget everything and everyone. She didn't even recognize me or my dad toward the end."

  Lux looked thoughtful. "That sounds really sad. At least my mom died quickly. She didn't suffer. I know she loved me, she was fighting for me, in fact."

  I nodded slowly. "You're right. What happened to your mom was tragic, but maybe it was better that way. Not having to watch her get old and waste away, forgetting the people she loved." I put my hand on his shoulder. "It's a shit-world Lux, and I am not a good person to ever give advice. But the important thing is, we honor their memories by surviving out here. Making them proud. Not becoming like these other animals."

  Lux gave a small smile. "Yeah, I like that."

  We sat in silence for a while, two souls bound by loss, finding a tiny fragment of solace in each other. I knew I couldn't change the past; I couldn't erase the hurt in either of our lives, but that pain helps make us who we are.

  "That was touching, Joseph," Ada whispered as I watched Lux crawling over to play with Sumo.

  I shook my head and leaned back on the bench. "We can't keep this up, Ada," I subvocalized. "We can't stay on alert all the time. Can't fight for our lives every goddamn day. No military unit can stay at high-ready 24/7, it wears you down, makes you crazy. Makes you sloppy, and out here that will get us killed.”

  "Maybe you should stay here," Ada replied, "for a while. Rest the team, maybe the Decimator can catch back up with us. This little corner of Montana seems to have been spared the worst of the Red Zone's horrors.”

  I shook my head. "We can't." I'm not totally sure why I kept pushing, but I knew my old friend, Hinge, was one committed S.O.B.; if he wanted me dead, he was going to keep coming.

  Our musings were abruptly shattered by a thunderous roar. We turned just in time to see another impact in the distance, like the one we had witnessed earlier. A colossal wall of dirt and debris was thrown up into the sky, nearly a mile high. It obliterated the town we had just left. The sight was apocalyptic, a display of raw, terrifying power.

  “Damn it,” Koog cursed under his breath. “That was too close.”

  I watched in horror as the cloud of destruction enveloped the area we had just vacated. “Those survivors back there...”

  Ada’s voice, steady yet tinged with concern, came through the comm. “This was another asteroid strike. The targeting must be rudimentary, given the nature of the weapon, but it's clear they're getting better at it.”

  The realization that these strikes were deliberate and becoming much more accurate sent a chill down my spine. “Using asteroids as weapons,” I pondered aloud, “it’s like they’re playing God, deciding who lives and who dies from orbit.”

  Lux, visibly shaken by the destruction, added, “But why? What’s the purpose of doing even more bad stuff?”

  I considered my answer, but it needed to be said. “I think they want to take us out,” I said. “Hinge made it clear that we, that I was a threat. I don't know why he didn't just deal with us then, but they are damn sure trying now.”

  “They have mining tugs that can run out to the asteroid belt and give them a near endless supply of rocks to throw at us,” Koog said.

  That just pissed me off. Now, Hinge was making everyone around us pay. We quickened our pace, moving away from the rising cloud of dust and destruction. The knowledge that such strikes could happen anywhere, at any time, was a grim reality we now had to contend with.

  “Ada, how are they tracking us? The Decimator hasn’t even caught up yet.” I could now see its beacon about a half day back. It was only mobile a few hours each day, still apparently relying on solar to recharge.

  “They may be able to track the battlesuits themselves, Kovach, or me. Any of our tech is potentially the reason. Taking out the dampening field may have helped them as much as us. Now they can see through that electronic fog to locate us.”

  “So, we shed all our gear, even our pulse rifles, and we might be safe, but we would be easy prey for everything else out here that wants us dead.”

  “Basically, yes,” she responded. "Suggest we keep moving or find a very deep and very solid bunker to use for cover."

  CHAPTER

  FORTY-THREE

  The journey towards the main High Mountain complex was marked by a palpable sense of tension. The terrain became increasingly rugged, the air cooler as we ascended into higher altitudes. Here, the scars of the apocalypse were less pronounced, with nature never retreating in these lands.