Anthony DeCosmo - Disintegration

"I would recommend the black one; it goes better with the ensemble."

Her head swiveled around. "Oh, hello, Lori."

Nina returned her attention to the racks. "I can use every gun in here. Fix a jam, break down and clean…I can do it. I can tell you the muzzle velocity and rate of fire for each one, too."

Although Lori did not get the impression Nina sought an answer, she pointed out, "You have a skill. A skill that’s pretty important these days."

"Yeah. Good thing for me the world went to Hell."

Nina closely inspected one of the assault rifles. Nothing special about that one, it merely happened to be nearest.

"Nina, I want you to know I’m your friend."

"A friend? I wonder what that really means."

Lori came back, "You sure are tough."

"Don’t worry; I’m that way with everyone."

"I mean on yourself." Lori let that sink in and then asked, "What is it you’re afraid of?"

Nina stared off at nothing. "I don’t get afraid. I don’t get scared. I don’t get sad." She considered and added, "But I do get mad and even confused now and then."

Lori opened her mouth but Nina told her, "I’ve got to go. Trevor has called a meeting. He needs me now; there’s more killing to do."

– Four men huddled around a map of northeastern Pennsylvania unfurled on the large desktop: Trevor, Stonewall, Shepherd and Jon. Nina Forest stood two paces in the background with her eyes fixed on the floor, as if she dared not look anywhere else.

Behind them, beyond the glass balcony doors, thick gray clouds blocked out the morning sun, creating a dreariness reinforced by the pitter-patter of rain against the window.

Trevor spoke, "I spent last night interrogating the freed captives."

"Interrogating?" Shep did not like that word.

"Just like you heard, Jon. Three more camps. Probably stretching up into Wyoming County but all within spitting distance of the river."

Stonewall suggested, "I propose we send both of those marvelous flying machines to find the camps from the air and-oh, what would be the word? — blast them to smithereens. "

Jon disagreed. "There are human prisoners in those camps. Missiles and Gatling guns are overkill if we’re trying to rescue hostages."

Trevor said, "I’m not so worried about rescuing. The important thing here is retribution."

Shepherd did not like that word, either.

"Retribution? Seems to me we might do right by forgetting about them for now. Seems to me they’re far enough away that we just might not hear from them again any time soon."

"That’s how it may seem to you, Shep, but it seems to me that a bunch of these things came to our house and killed our people. This is an organized enemy. If they get away with this word will spread. Our location will be revealed and others will think us easy targets."

Jon asked, "So, what are you saying? Send in the choppers and blow everything up?"

"I’m not going to waste rare munitions and fuel on primitives. Besides, the camps won't be easy to find from the air. No, we need boots on the ground. I need somebody who can track these things; someone who can take a minimal team and do maximum damage."

I need a killer, Nina heard.

Trevor walked to her. His words seethed with anger. Nina fixed her eyes straight down as Trevor growled in her ear.

"I’m unleashing you, Nina. Do what you need to do. Do it the way you want to do it. I command only one thing: hunt down every Red Hand in our grasp. Wipe them from our planet. Kill them. Every last one of them. No mercy. You are my vengeance. You are my sword." Still, she did not look from the floor.

Trevor nodded to the other men and the group left the room leaving her alone. When they were gone, Nina raised her head with her eyes wide open. She looked forward and saw, with total clarity, what she was to do.

– Nina leapt off the wooded embankment completely surprising the enemy. Two quick three-shot bursts from her Colt M4 killed both Red Hand warriors. The aliens staggered and fell, never having a chance to pull taught their bows.

She glanced in both directions along the wide swath the utility company had cut through the forest so long ago; a path cut to clear passage for massive electrical wires and towers.

Nothing moved under the gray, drizzling sky.

She motioned her arm forward. The woodland came alive. Danny Washburn, Woody "Bear" Ross and Dustin McBride appeared, followed by Odin the Elkhound, six Siberian Huskies, and another five German Shepherds.

Ross and McBride hid the bodies of the Red Hand patrol

She knew the encampment could not be far…

…Nina watched through the telescopic lens on a Heckler amp; Koch MSG-90 sniper rifle. The cross hairs fell first on a Red Hand warrior slapping around a thin, sickly human prisoner…then on that prisoner…then back again; alien and prisoner shuffled, conspiring to obstruct her aim.

"One…more…second."

Washburn crouched next to her under the prickly limbs of a bush.

"Hey! They’re too close. Watch what you’re shooting at."

Three silenced shots whistled from the military sniper rifle. The rounds slammed into the shoulder of the warrior…and through his body into a prisoner.

"Shit! Damn it! Every one move, move, move!"

They rushed down the wooded slopes through a soaking rain into the Red Hand colony with assault weapons blazing. Seven enemy warriors fell in the first moments of battle. Puffs of steam rose as rain droplets splashed on hot gun barrels. Arrows and spears flew. Warriors charged futilely toward the modern weapons.

Nina descended upon the primitives like a vengeful goddess of war slaughtering with precision. At the same time, the Grenadiers closed and attacked working in pairs. They grabbed legs, dodged weapons, pulled the Red Hands to the ground and tore them to pieces. All the tribe-even non-combatants-fell to the iron of guns and the flashing ivory of canine teeth.

As the assault team overran the camp, the Red Hands spitefully slit the throats of slaves, but the speed of the attack saved most of the humans trapped inside the pen.

The entire colony died in minutes.

While the dogs swept the forest for stragglers, Dustin, Bear, and Washburn freed the remaining prisoners and Nina brought fire to the buildings of the village…

…Nina climbed the slope until she came to an open rock face. There, under a cloudy night sky, she assembled a high-powered radio and sent a message home.

Trevor received the message while examining a map on the desktop in the Command Center. A circle represented the camp where Jon had found Sheila. An ‘X’ had been drawn through that circle. As he listened to Nina’s report, Trevor drew another circle. When her report finished, he ‘X’d’ that one, too.

He could nearly smell the smoke from the fires of his revenge…

…In the morning, Nina’s team led the freed human slaves through the wilderness to the nearest major road, Route 187. A heavily armed convoy met them and transported the survivors to the estate on a luxury bus.

Nina Forest and her band continued their mission of destruction…

…The tents, buildings, and slave pen of the second Red Hand settlement rested alongside a small, peaceful stream at the base of a forested valley.

Not long after dusk, the warriors returned carrying home small game hunted in the forest. They turned those kills over to the young and the females for cleaning and cooking.

Meanwhile, the slaves finished the day's final chore by carting water from the stream to the massive container at the center of the village. They could expect entrails and bones from the cleaned animals as sustenance.

Fires started across the camp, flickering to life below cooking spits. The flames tried to chase away the chill in the air, but the day’s rain lingered like ice carried on the wind.