Ancient Echoes

CHAPTER 65



“THE PILLARS,” QUADE said as he looked at the sight in the distance. “We've made it.”

Lionel and Rachel nearly cried with relief, emotionally and physically exhausted. They feared going closer to them, however. They feared leaving the heavily forested area that provided them some protection from the mercenaries, who most likely waited nearby for them.

“Do you see the lights?” Quade asked Lionel, as cold and sanguine as ever.

“Yes, but I don’t know what they’re telling me!” Lionel cried.

“We need to get closer,” Quade said.

“But we’ll be exposed! Please, let’s just wait here for the others. They've got to come here; this is the only logical place for them.” Lionel dropped to one knee, head bowed and chest heaving.

Rachel took Lionel’s arm and tried to pull him to his feet. “Let me help you,” she said. He resisted.

Quade nodded at her, surprised by her courage.

“Please, Professor Rempart,” she pleaded, “won’t you try?”

Lionel acquiesced and slowly stood. He and Rachel held each other as they walked toward the mound. Both blinked back tears as they listened for the sound of a rifle shot or the whistle of an arrow. They knew each step could be their last.

Michael ran from the brush towards them. “Stop! Don’t go out there.” He relieved Rachel of Lionel. “The mercs will soon be at the pillars. We’ll have to be ready to face them.”

He led them back to the sheltered area where Jake, Devlin and Brandi waited.

“Devlin! You’re alive!” Rachel cried. To her surprise he opened his arms wide. She ran into them and he lifted her off the ground, hugging her just as tight as she did him.

“Me, too!” Brandi said and joined the hug.

“Wait!” Jake limped toward them. “Where’s Charlotte?”

“We don’t know,” Rachel said. “The villagers caught us, but she managed to get away. We haven’t seen her since.”

He stopped short at the news, his face ashen.

Michael spotted a glint of light, sun bouncing off of metal, in the distance. “Down, everyone!” He shot toward the light.

Jake flung himself backwards and felt a bullet pass by, missing him by inches. He saw one of the mercenaries duck behind a boulder. “I’ll be damned,” he muttered. “The mercs are already here!”

Michael, Jake, and Devlin fired the HK-91s, thankful for the powerful weapons they'd found, weapons that provided their only chance of survival. Still, the mercs were not only well-armed, but well-trained. Michael and the others were forced to move back, away from the pillars, deeper and deeper into the forest.

“Toss one of those rifles over here, Sheriff.”

Jake spun around with a prayer of thanks at the familiar voice. Charlotte hid behind an outcrop. He saw the relieved smile on her face as she looked at him.

He crawled to her, gave her one of the rifles, and a 30-round magazine. She was bruised, with dirt and scrapes on her hands, face, and clothes, and even her hair was full of leaves and brush, but he thought she had never looked more beautiful.

“You’re wounded!” she cried.

“I’ll be fine.” He started to show her how to release the safeties when she shook her head, and said simply, “Homeland Security training.”

She joined the fight.

They were forced to run, and at one point found themselves slipping and sliding down into a low-lying dry creek bed. They hid among the trees and shrubs near the creek as the mercs approached. At one point, the mercs were momentarily exposed.

Only three were left—a surprising and heartening discovery.

Michael circled around as the others held off the mercenaries with steady bursts of gunfire. He quickly became aware of the direction of the person giving orders, the one they needed to take out. With their leader gone the others might be less inclined to fight.

He made his way behind Hammill. He positioned the gun to shoot just as gunfire from two other directions pinned him down. The mercs were protecting their leader. He spun and fired, even though he knew that would leave Hammill free to shoot him. A head shot stopped the one with a black mustache and goatee circling thick, purple lips.

The Hammer smiled as he found Michael in his cross-hairs.

Out of nowhere a bullet struck Hammill squarely in the heart, knocking him backwards. He looked down with shock and horror as his life’s blood spread over his chest. He lifted his eyes to the shooter and saw his totem, his lucky charm…the one he believed would free him from this place. In a sense she had. His last words were her name. “Charlotte Reed.”

Charlotte dropped behind a boulder. Her heart pounded and her stomach threatened to empty. The man had killed her friends, had tried to kill her. Her revenge should have been sweet, except that she’d seen too much killing, too much death. Even for revenge, it was more than she could bear.

“No!” Fish cried out in anguish seeing his leader fall. He spun and fired nonstop in Charlotte’s direction, his bullets bouncing harmlessly off the boulder protecting her, before shots from Michael, Jake, and Devlin’s rifles silenced him forever.

As suddenly as it began, the shooting stopped.

“If we're lucky, that’s the end of it,” Michael said. “If we're able to destroy what's keeping this world going, we'll be free of it.”

“That’s kind of a big if,” Devlin murmured.

“But we can concentrate now,” Charlotte said. “Finally our enemies, all of them, are gone.”