Beneath the Veil Page 15

  “Evangeline is approaching. When the time is right, you must go to the river.” Willow turned and disappeared up the stairs.

  “Wait!” Jackson called up the stairs. “How we will know when the time is right?”

  Willow was gone. Jackson turned and looked at Doc, then both men grabbed their weapons and walked up the stairs leaving the others in the glow of the lantern light.

  C H A P T E R S E V E N T Y - E I G H T

  “Major Downs, what is your position?” Maxwell asked over the radio.

  Jimmy turned his radio off and continued looking for signs of the van. A team was sent to blow the Jacory Dam which held back a lake large enough to flood the entire area. Maxwell planned to erase Auraria and its true history before shutting down the veil. Jimmy spotted the van and descended silently into an overgrown corn field. Vines and foliage engulfed the craft as it sank unseen into the red clay soil. When he opened the door, he was gripped by an incredible force and pulled towards the cottage. He came to a stop on the ground three feet from Willow’s bare feet.

  “Why are you here, Major Downs?”

  “Willow?” Jimmy stammered, staring up at the small girl. “I came to help the others.”

  “Then, why did you bring that?” she asked, gesturing towards the unseen craft.

  “It was the only way I could get away from...,” Jimmy started.

  “Maxwell,” Willow finished his sentence.

  “Yes,” he said.

  The air swirled around her as she turned into a formless mass.

  “Eva?” Jimmy stammered. “But how?”

  “You can call me Willow now, Major. I escaped a long time ago. What you saw back at the lab was just a shell of my energy signature, nothing more than a shedded skin. Evangeline is coming, you should join the others.”

  She released her hold and allowed him to climb to his feet. Black clouds moved across the sky and wind began to whip across the ground. Jimmy ran to the back door of the cottage where Doc and Jackson stood guard.

  “Jimmy!” Doc said, hugging him.

  “Never thought we’d see you again, man,” Jackson added, slapping his back.

  “Good to see you guys,” Jimmy replied. “You know about Willow? What she is?”

  “Yes, we know what she is,” Doc answered. “One of us.”

  Lighting cracked overhead, shaking the tiny house. The three men kneeled on the floor and looked out a broken window. Evangeline appeared in front of the cottage. Willow approached and quickly engulfed her. Evangeline shrieked and struggled to get free. Willow forced her facedown onto the ground until lighting struck and ripped through her body. She was thrown down and turned back into a little girl. Evangeline dropped on top of her and grabbed her throat.

  “You wanted to live like them, now you can die like them!” Evangeline’s black eyes shined in a maniacal stare.

  Doc leaped up with his rifle in hand and ran outside with Jimmy and Jackson close behind. He aimed and put a round through Evangeline’s head, knocking her off of Willow, then fired again dropping her to the ground. She stood back up with the holes in her pallid skin already healed over.

  A sudden gust of air moved past and Evangeline was pressed into the ground unable to move. A deep circular outline formed around her and then a doorway opened with Jimmy inside. He had managed to land the craft on top her. The wind around the cottage slowed and then reversed, pulling debris into the air.

  “Go now to the river!” Willow shouted. “The veil is lifting, you must hurry!”

  “I’ll get Jen and the others,” Jackson shouted, running towards the cottage.

  Suddenly, the lights in the cockpit flickered and Jimmy’s craft disappeared. He fell onto the ground next to Evangeline and before he could escape, she grabbed his throat and crushed his windpipe. She then reached out and pulled Doc to the ground, breaking his leg. Willow intervened, jumping on top of her.

  Doc escaped by crawling down to the river where the others were waiting. Daniel’s raft was intact, sitting along the river bank.

  “Where’s Jimmy?” Jackson asked, lifting Doc onto the raft.

  “He didn’t make it,” Doc answered, sadly.

  With everyone onboard, Jackson jammed a thick branch under the raft and tried to move it forward. The raft slid a few inches then ground to a stop. Daniel jumped off to help.

  “Careful, we only have one shot at this,” Jackson said.

  They both leaned on the branch until the churning water pulled the raft free and then jumped aboard as the current took it away.

  C H A P T E R S E V E N T Y - N I N E

  Willow gripped Evangeline’s head in her hands, pulling the essence from her. Evangeline fell to the ground and withered without the restorative power of the veil to save her. In the distance, the sound of explosions meant the waters would be coming to wipe them all away. Willow ran to Jimmy’s corpse and climbed inside. The body twitched for a moment and then Willow’s eyes opened. She stood on wobbly legs, and then ran to the river to ensure the others had escaped. Relieved to see them gone, she crawled through the drainage tunnel to the basement.

  The dam blew with a tremendous explosion and water began to erupt in powerful spouts, first in the location of the detonation, and then in other places as cracks opened in its concrete face. Maxwell and his men vacated the mine base earlier and set up a temporary camp safe from the path of destruction. When the town and valley were destroyed, they would leave Auraria behind forever. The technological treasures they possessed would be transported to a Greyforce facility in Wichita, Kansas and secured in an empty missile silo. Their failure to control the population of the town was an unplanned success. The military use of the technology would allow them to reduce cites, even countries to savage jungles where their enemy’s civilian populations would massacre one another under the guise of political unrest.

  “So many options,” Maxwell said to himself, climbing behind the wheel of a Humvee.

  He smiled as he picked up the radio. Details would need to be hammered out, but that’s what he did best. “Major Downs, please report in.”

  He released the talk button but received no answer. It had been over an hour since he heard from Downs. He was either dead or AWOL. His defection was factored into the plan and either way, the major would not survive his mission.

  C H A P T E R E I G H T Y

  Rudderless, they careened down the river with no ability to guide the raft. The rain stopped, but the water flow increased, eroding the banks of the river. A bridge came into view with its rusted framework only feet above the water.

  “Lay flat!” Doc shouted.

  The front of the raft passed cleanly under the bridge but a jagged piece of metal caught the back, jamming it under the bridge. Doc pushed against the girders, allowing the raft to spin free. Finally clear of the river’s current, the raft slowed and drifted onto a fog covered lake.

  C H A P T E R E I G H T Y - O N E

  Willow climbed from the submerged basement still wearing Jimmy’s battered corpse. She looked towards the remnants of the road and saw the land stripped bare with pools of water and piles of debris. Within minutes, she heard the sound of trucks. The soldiers were coming to eliminate any survivors. She dragged a downed tree across the road, blocking the caravan of approaching vehicles. One truck, equipped with a machine gun, raced to the front of the line and opened fire. The bullets tore into Jimmy’s dead flesh, but Willow was unaffected. She sprinted up the hood of the truck, broke the neck of the gunner and took control of his weapon. Opening fire, she riddled the convoy with rounds, killing everyone.

  Willow searched each vehicle looking for Maxwell until reaching the last truck and opening its back doors. Inside, a curved metallic device was bolted to the floor with two cameras mounted above it. The instant before the device detonated, she understood the deception.

  Maxwell watched the video screens in his Humvee turn to snow. A two mile radius had been vaporized by the tactical nuke, along with the last link to the p
roject. He pulled onto a road ten miles west of Auraria and drove towards the highway with three wooden crates secured in the back of his vehicle. All loose ends were eliminated and his payload was safe.

  C H A P T E R E I G H T Y - T W O

  Jackson lowered himself into the lake and kicked his legs behind the raft while Jen and Daniel paddled with their hands. He felt his shoes scrape the bottom and then pushed the raft the rest of the way to shore where Jen and Marie helped get the children, wet and shivering, onto dry land.

  “Do you hear that?” Marie asked. “It sounds like a car.”

  Jackson took off running, following the sound of the engine to a paved road.

  “Thank goodness,” he said aloud, waving his arms at an approaching vehicle.

  Maxwell saw the dirty and disheveled looking man in the road waving his arms, but didn’t immediately recognize him.

  “I don’t think so, hillbilly.” Maxwell swerved around him and kept driving.

  Suddenly, Maxwell turned the truck around and sped back towards him. Jackson reached for his gun but it was gone, lost in the river. He turned and ran, away from the lake were the others were waiting. When he slowed to fight through thick vines, he felt his right knee shatter before even hearing the sound of the shot. Maxwell ran over and descended on him like a wounded animal.

  “Where are the others?” he demanded.

  “There are no others. I am the only one left.”

  Maxwell stamped his boot on Jackson’s injured leg causing him to scream.

  “I guess we will find out.”

  Jackson clenched his teeth trying not to alert the others, but he was too late. Maxwell was ready for Jen when she came running through the woods.

  “On the ground with your hands above your head,” he said, with a rifle aimed at her chest.

  She complied and lay face down on the leafy soil. Suddenly, the sound of a diesel engine starting in the distance was followed by a honking horn.

  “No!” Maxwell shouted, turning towards the road.

  A shot struck him in the upper back between the shoulder blades, knocking him to the ground. Body armor under his suit absorbed the bullet, but its impact knocked the rifle from his grip. Jen opened fire when he reached for the gun. Her first shot missed, but the second pierced his template and he collapsed face down in the dirt. She stood up and approached him, looking for any movement.

  “Careful, Jen,” Jackson said, pale and weakened from blood loss.

  She aimed the gun and placed two more shots into the back of Maxwell’s head.

  C H A P T E R E I G H T Y - T H R E E

  Jen closed the door to the room where Jackson was resting after being released from the hospital. She took the elevator to the garage level of the loft and turned on the overhead lights. In a dark corner near the back of the garage sat a collection of boulders arranged in a line. Shielded behind them sat Maxwell’s Humvee wrapped in tarps. Packed in crates within the vehicle was the ancient technology too powerful for a young civilization. The devices would stay buried along with the history of Auraria. Jen ran her hand across one of the stones her brother would never finish. Carved into the stone was the anguished face of the man she now knew as Maxwell.

  E P I L O G U E

  A solitary truck with two soldiers arrived at the gates of McConnell AFB. The truck pulled to a stop at a security checkpoint where a military policeman leaned out of a doorway.

  “Ids?”

  “Sure,” the driver of the truck answered.

  The M.P. studied their identification cards and handed them back. “I’ve never heard of your unit. What’s the nature of your business here?”

  “We got a delivery for the Greyforce division. We just pulled an all-nighter humping these crates halfway across the country.”

  The End

  WILLIAM MCNALLY was born in New York in 1963. He is a former executive, husband and animal advocate based in the mountains of Dahlonega, Georgia. Mr. McNally holds a B.A. in Political Science from the University of Florida and an M.B.A. from Nova Southeastern University. Drawn to dark and thought provoking stories, he released his first book, Four Corners Dark in 2012 and recently followed it with his second, Beneath the Veil. Visit him online at williammcnallybooks.com for updates and events.