Getting Home

Part 50

"You were the best big brother a sister could have ever asked for," Ava finished, breaking into tears—

And then diving through the hole in the muck the kid was making.

"Ava!" Sean shouted, lunging.

Sean was able to grab a hold of the stupid kid's waist as he was beginning to crawl in after Ava—

He easily shook Sean off, casually tossing him onto the grass and leaving him with the tattered rags of a T-shirt.

Holy shit, he's so strong!

Sean immediately scrambled to his hands and feet, lunging again at him—

Only seeing the kid slither behind Ava, following her through and dropping the black curtain of goo behind him.

"Goddammit!" Sean shouted, slamming his fist on the grass. He immediately got up, running back to the cruiser. Agent Leigh dashed into the passenger seat as Sean got in and reversed it, rooster-tails of dirty and mud shooting straight out from the front tires. The car clumsily slid back onto the pavement, and Sean put it back in drive, flooring it in the direction the armored minigun vehicle had gone.

"We need to find the mobile command center," Agent Leigh said, reaching for her seatbelt.

"You won't need that," Sean said, indicating her seatbelt. "The command center is right here."

"No offense—but I've seen how you drive."

A massive trailer had been set up in the main parking lot of the front entrance of Morgantown mall. The command center it was literally a cargo trailer, attached to a huge semi-truck that idled loudly out in front of it. Dozens of police cars surrounded it, their blue and white and red lights flashing and rotating brightly and police officers ran back and forth.

Sean had barely gotten out of the cruiser, stepping out into a vast soundscape of echoing police radios that created a sonic, rolling plain of perfectly synchronized police transmissions—when he caught of blur of something moving fast at him—

Something yellow.

Fury suddenly rocketed in his arms, almost knocking him off his feet, rubbing the top of his head frantically against Sean's chin and licking his face.

"Glad to see you too, mutt," Sean said, unable to stop smiling, darting his face back and forth to avoid Fury's doggy tongue as he tried not to—

Giggle.

The sudden yelling of officers snapped Sean out of it, and he bent at the waist so Fury could hop down of his arms.

Leigh was already talking to Agent Johnson, who seemed none the worse for wear—he was stood like a giant oak, completely clad in black tactical armor, ballistic helmet—the works. His shotgun was slung across his back, and laying across his front was an M4 with a SOPMOD hung—modified with even further attachments Sean had never seen before.

And knew probably weren't legal.

"Glad to see you made it," Sean said to Agent Johnson as he walked up to them. Agent Johnson nodded, grunting. Fury immediately began sniffing at Agent Leigh's ankle.

"They think they got everyone out," Leigh said, scrolling through her phone. "The mall should be empty. Communications and power came back online ten minutes ago—but we don't know how long they'll hold."

"Tell them about Ava's phone. Her singing. It worked before, maybe they can—"

"They already tried," Leigh said distractedly held her phone up to her ear, digging into her pocket with her other hand. "They've tried everything. Loudspeakers to try and talk to it, play music at it—flashing lights, sounds, vibrations. Electricity. There's been no response. Nothing."

"Well how the hell was that kid able to get in then?" Sean said angrily.

"I don't know, Officer," Leigh said. "But he's something else." Her voice suddenly changed in a way he hadn't heard from her before. "He... he healed my ankle."

"Oh, come on," Sean scoffed. "Maybe it was just twisted, and—"

"I'm telling you, Sean," Leigh said. It made him freeze—

It was the first time he had heard her use his name.

"He didn't just fix it," Leigh continued, her voice shaking. "It's better than it was, Sean. I broke this ankle in Basic—it's never been right since. But now it's like brand new. I can't explain that—and I don't need to. All I need to know is he can do things we can't."

But why only Ava's singing? Sean thought. Only be her voice? Why?

It didn't make any sense—then again, none of this did.

"Nothing?" Sean said weakly. "None our weapons have been able—"

All the police suddenly began rushing to their cars.

Uh-oh.

"What's going on?" Sean said nervously. The air was suddenly full of frantic shouting of locations and directions being shouted into the cold morning air.

Agent Johnson and Leigh were staring slack-jawed down the street leading directly into Morgantown Mall.

Sean followed their gaze, looking around the giant fountain that split the main, giant driveways that were the main entrance of the complex. La Salle St. led directly to the intersection directly in front of the mall, a narrow street with skyscrapers rising up on both sides—

There was something sitting at the far end of the street.

It took Sean a second to understand what he was seeing—it almost looked like a...

A tank?

It couldn't be—too big to be a tank. Nothing mobile could be that big.

But with growing shock, he realized it was.

The tank was literally the size of a house. There were three tank treads on each side, all six combined spanning the width of the entire street. The turret was even taller, reaching up to at least the fourth and fifth stories of the surrounding buildings. Giant anti-aircraft cannons sat on top of the turret, sharing space with four massive anti-tank cannons—

And that didn't include the enormous main cannon staring down at them, the bore a dark, emptiless pit the size of a truck tire.

The front armor plate between the treads and underneath the main cannon was the size of a garage door—painted dark olive green, so dark it was almost black.

Gigantic white letters were sprawled aggressively across the top of the huge, almost black armor plate:

T28 – X

And painted dead center underneath that was a massive, five-pointed bright white star.

"What is that?" Sean breathed in awe.

"Oh my god," Agent Leigh whispered, her eyes growing huge and terror spreading across her face, her voice hushed. "It's the army."