Nicholas Smith - Deliverance

Lightning struck the upper seats. The tremendous thunder crack that followed seemed to come from all sides at once. A second creature answered the call of the first, the sound reverberating like an emergency siren over the waning boom of thunder. Les tried harder to tuck his body behind the wall.

“Stop where you are and come no farther!” shouted a voice from the field.

He glanced over at Erin, who raised a finger—a single contact. Olah looked over the ledge and shouldered his rifle.

“On the fucking ground!” Olah shouted.

Les and Erin both stood and angled their weapons at the shimmery figure hovering over a ramp that had extended from the belly of the ship.

“What the hell?” Les muttered. It looked like a ghost, but that was crazy. No crazier than Sirens, though.

“Please do not shoot,” the man said, raising a hand. “I wish you no harm.”

“Who are you, and where is Commander Everhart?” Jenkins demanded. The soldiers hopped over the wall and trotted out onto the field.

“I am Timothy Pepper. Commander Everhart is no longer here.”

“That’s the AI Jordan was talking about,” Olah remarked. He jumped over the wall before Erin could object.

“Come on,” she said to Les.

Timothy held up both hands and retreated several steps.

“Stay where you are!” Jenkins ordered.

Timothy halted on the ramp. “I do not wish you any harm,” he repeated, “but I will be forced to use the ship’s weapons systems if you do not lower your firearms.”

“Fuck that,” Olah said, “he’s bluffing. I say we pump this guy full of lead.”

“He’s a hologram, you idiot,” Les muttered.

“Erin, Les, go stand sentry with Samson,” Jenkins said, looking in their direction.

Erin hesitated and then jerked her helmet at Les. She was no longer in charge down here. The militia soldier was calling the shots—literally, it seemed. Olah linked up with his comrades and continued toward the AI. By the time Les and Erin reached Samson, the soldiers had the AI surrounded.

“We’ve come for the ship, Commander Everhart, and any other surviving divers,” Jenkins said. “Tell us where the divers are, and I’ll make sure Chief Engineer Samson doesn’t wipe your consciousness from the hard drive when we board this ship.”

The AI suddenly vanished, and the hydraulics on the ramp hissed, raising the platform.

“Stop!” Jenkins shouted. He bolted forward as another shout rang out—a gruff voice that Les had never heard before.

“Drop your damn weapons!”

A man in a black jumpsuit, with armor similar to a Hell Diver’s, emerged on the top of Deliverance , with a rifle trained downward on the militia soldiers.

“Don’t move,” said a voice right behind Les. He lowered his pistol and slowly turned to see two more Hell Divers at the top of the concourse, their rifles aimed at him, Erin, and Samson.

Now they were the ones surrounded.

Jenkins kept his aim on the man on top of the airship but instructed the other militia soldiers to look at the stairs.

“Start walking,” the woman behind him said.

A brilliant flash of lightning illuminated the stadium, and Les saw who had the drop on them. It was Michael Everhart and Layla Brower.

Samson recognized them, too. “Holy shit, Michael! It’s me, Samson.”

“I see you,” Michael said coldly. “Now, start walking onto the field.”

“Go to hell,” Olah shouted, raising his gun.

“Drop your weapons or Samson gets one to the head!” bellowed the man from the top of the airship.

“What?” Samson said, shocked. “Please, you can’t…”

“Shut up, Samson,” Layla snapped. “You shouldn’t have come down here.”

Les strained to see the man perched on Deliverance , but he already had a feeling he knew who it was. It had to be Xavier Rodriguez. No one else would have been so brazen.

The legend was real after all, and he appeared ready to unload a magazine into the men who marooned him all those years ago. Les didn’t blame him one damn bit for wanting revenge.

The entire thing had been a trap, with the AI serving as the bait.

“We don’t want any trouble,” Samson said, raising his hands.

“Bullshit,” Layla said. “You came here to steal our ship.”

“Jordan’s orders,” Erin said, turning to look at Layla.

Jenkins and his men kept their weapons pointed in both directions. It would take only an inopportune twitch for a firefight to erupt. With Sirens hunting in the area, Les had a feeling that things were about go downhill very soon.

“Surrender, and I’ll make sure you get a fair trial once we get back into the sky,” Jenkins said.

“Hah!” Layla said. “That’s funny. Jordan’s idea of fair is pushing anyone he doesn’t like out of a launch tube.”

Jenkins didn’t reply. He couldn’t. There were plenty of rumors about the things the sergeant had done under Jordan’s orders. Intimidation, beatings, and worse.

The two groups on the field were maybe a hundred feet apart, but the man in black remained on the top of the ship, keeping his gun on Jenkins.

“It doesn’t have to be like this,” Michael said. “There’s still time to join us. To take back the ship from—”

“Fuck you, traitor,” Olah said. “Jordan is the only person keeping humanity alive.”

Layla pointed her rifle at his chest. “Say one more word and you’re Siren shit.”

Samson turned to Michael. “Please, son. You’re an intelligent, reasonable man. I promise I’ll do everything I can to fix this.”

“There is no fix when it comes to Jordan,” the man in black said. “That bastard left me down here for a decade. The only fix I can see is my dog eating his face.”

Lore and Del Toro began to lower their rifles, but Jenkins kept his gaze on the figure up top. It was definitely X. All the pieces fit. Ty had been right all along. Les scanned the area, looking for this mysterious dog. He remembered the ship’s dogs from his childhood, and he would very much like to see one again.

“You’re a traitor just like the rest of these assholes,” Olah said to X. “Captain Jordan was right to leave you behind.”

“Dad, Michael and Layla are right,” Erin said. “Please, let’s all just lower our guns.”

“Stay out of this, sweetheart,” Jenkins snapped. “We have orders to—”

A pair of Sirens flapped over the south end of the stadium, distracting everyone for a moment—everyone but Olah. He fired his machine gun at Layla, knocking her down in the blink of an eye.

The screams and gunfire agitated the monsters, and they soared away as Layla crashed to the ground. Michael screamed and fired off a blast. Les tried to move, but he was paralyzed. He could only watch as the battle raged all around him.

X and Jenkins had both opened fire. Bullets cut into the dirt to the right of the sergeant, who unleashed a salvo into the top of the ship. X held his ground and fired another burst, catching Jenkins in the center of the chest.

“Dad!” Erin screamed.

Jenkins managed to squeeze the trigger once more, but Les couldn’t see whether X was hit. The diver stumbled and fell over the side of the ship, vanishing from view.

Michael had opened fire at Olah, who dived for cover just in time. Del Toro and Lore fanned out, but Michael quickly turned his barrel on Lore and shot him three times in the side. The soldier crumpled to the ground. Del Toro took a knee and aimed at Michael, but the diver was too fast. A shot punched through the center of Del Toro’s visor.

Olah had taken cover behind a massive leg of the landing gear. He popped out and aimed at Michael, firing a shot that took him down.