shooting and explosions finally stopped. He leaned against the rubble and listened, placing his hat back on his head. There was someone speaking through a bullhorn, but try as he might he couldn’t catch the words. The echo confused them and bounced them around the chamber.
Lee looked up toward the upper reaches of the rubble and saw that it would be impossible for him to climb. He shook his head in frustration and cursed his failing body. Alice was up on the precipice and there was nothing he could do about it. Garrison checked the thirty-round magazine in the Ingram for the fourth time and made a decision. He placed one boot on the rubble and carefully moved the other next to it. He felt the rubble, formed by an explosion seventy years before, shift under his weight, but still he persisted in moving his right foot up. The rocks and rubble gave way and he fell to his knees. He lay down and tried to catch his breath, finally rolling to one side and placing the Ingram’s strap over his shoulder. He rested once more and rolled onto his stomach, then forced his knees up and under him. He felt the sharp stones tear away his skin through his pants, but still he pushed.
He glanced upward with his lone eye and saw shadows moving underneath the high hanging lights. Then he heard the bullhorn again. This spurred him forward. Lee set his mouth in a straight line and cursed his dying body one more time, but still he climbed. For every five steps he managed, he would slip back three, but he had never been as determined in his life to overcome the obstacles ahead to get to Alice. She would not be joining him in that final adventure he knew he was going to take that day.
Garrison Lee dug his heels in the mountain of rubble and climbed.
Jack had just stepped from the bunker when the two large objects fell to the gallery floor. As they struck the excavated floor, he realized at that the vibration and these capsules were connected. They hummed loudly and the sound penetrated his inner ear. As he looked upward toward the ridge of debris, he saw several men running about, confused as to what trick he had possibly arranged.
“Jesus, Jack, look at that!” Everett said loudly, as the first of the copper-colored cylinders popped open along the center line.
“Oh, shit,” Collins said. He ran forward with his arms full of the ancient weapons and took cover just as the first snaking legs appeared outside the cylinder.
Sebastian, who was huddled with thirty-five men he had gathered for the assault on the mortar position, also saw the cylinders. He sensed the danger inside. He and his men opened fire on the two objects. As the onslaught of automatic weapons fire started striking the hardened cases, the first mechanical giant uncoiled from its shell and started to lift its powerful body. Sebastian and the men closest to the horrible but amazing sight heard the whir and whine of powerful turbines as they spooled upward toward full power. He saw the five-foot-wide and ten-foot-long solar cells pull free from under the back plate armor and face toward the lighting above. Then, just as quickly as they had appeared, they folded over and vanished into their protective armor. Still the whine of their powerful turbines continued to sound.
“What the hell is this now?” Sebastian said, as he aimed and opened fire at the first mechanical giant in line. He tried to focus his fire on the head and face region, where he thought his rounds would hurt the giant most. The bullets from him and the men alongside him bounced off in a shower of sparks.
The first giant rotated its head in a 360 degree circle. The eyes started glowing bright red, as bullets continued to find their mark against its steel-ribbed torso and head. The beast seemed to focus its attention on the area where Sebastian and his men had taken cover. That was when the giant began to move toward them, shaking the cavern. The second mechanical monstrosity turned and concentrated on the fire coming from the opposite side, where the Japanese, Australian, and Polish soldiers had congregated. The entire gallery was alight with tracers.
As the metal monster charged, Sebastian pulled two hand grenades from his vest. He pulled the pin on one and then on another. He used his thumbs to free the handles from the small, round grenades and threw one and then the other in the path of the fast-moving beast. As the giant came on, it placed a large three-toed foot on top of the first grenade as it rolled to a stop. Instead of ducking, Sebastian watched as it exploded. The leg and knee of the metal giant sprang upward and it fell to the left, landing on its side. After only a moment, the giant sprang back to its undamaged legs and continued forward. The second grenade detonated just to its right as it steadied itself. The explosion sent shrapnel into the torso area and ricocheted off the spinning gears and cogs inside, causing not one inch of damage. If anything, it made the beast charge faster.
A hundred yards away, Jack and Carl watched as the first giant reached Sebastian’s position. The beast slammed its giant arm and hand into the mass of men. The mechanical horror raised one hand in the air with one of the German commandos in its grasp as the others fired round after glowing round into the beast. The creature then slammed its free hand into the mass of men and brought up another soldier. It slammed the two men together and tossed them away like they were nothing more than garbage.
“We can’t stop them, Jack. We need heavier weapons,” Everett said. He rose and fired an entire magazine into the back of the giant. Then he slammed home a second magazine and emptied it into the second charging beast, causing it no more harm than the first.
Jack managed a glance upward at the ridge of rubble and saw the men up there in an exposed position. He saw Alice being pushed to the side as the men moved to take better cover, in case the mechanical wonders turned on them. Jack let the alien weaponry fall from his arms and reached for Everett’s M-16. He pulled another magazine from his belt and slammed it home. He had seen an opening and he was willing to risk the chance at evening the odds. He aimed and fired upward toward the ridgeline. He caught ten of the men as they moved toward new positions. They had exposed themselves too much and Collins expertly used a full automatic burst to bring them down. Then he tossed the M-16 back to Everett.
“Stay and cover me,” Jack said as he rushed forward in the confusion created by the attack of the machines.
Everett watched Jack sprint forward without seeking cover. He had brought up the M-16 when he saw two of the Mechanic’s men pop up only thirty feet from Collins. Before Carl could respond to the threat, several rounds echoed close by his right ear. He flinched and saw the two men fly backward as two expertly placed rounds slammed into their heads and faces. That was when Tram slammed into him from behind and took up a covering position next to him. They both started laying heavy gunfire on the upper reaches of the ridge as Jack started climbing rapidly toward the forty-foot summit. Everett reloaded and saw Jack reach for his shoulder holster as he approached a position where Everett could see several heads pop up and then disappear.
“Damn you, Jack. You’ve pulled this crap once too many times!” Everett said as he fired a three-round burst in a timed manner and hit one of the heads that had reappeared.
Tram looked to his left and nodded at the former Navy SEAL.
“I have my moments,” Carl said, and aimed and fired again.
The Vietnamese private reached out and slapped Everett’s arm. He was pointing upward at the position where he saw Jack running. That was when Carl saw why Jack was taking the chance that he was. He had seen earlier what he thought was men changing their cover positions, when in actuality he was seeing men relaying mortar rounds to the soldiers firing them. That was where Jack was heading at full speed. Everett realized that not only could he take out the mortar crew, but he could turn the heavy weapon on the monstrosities that were attacking them. That was their only hope and Jack was out to kill two birds with one stone.
“Can you handle things here? I think the colonel needs help,” he called to Tram, who only nodded his head and fired twice more with the M-14.
Everett stood and looked for the briefest of moments as the second mechanical robot reached the far firing line of Japanese, Polish, and Australian soldiers. It was at that moment that the men scattered to create more targets for the beast, as it struck their defensive position. All semblance of a fight between them and the terrorist element had vanished as they took on two nightmares from another time and place. Several men tossed hand grenades over their shoulders as they sprinted ahead of the mechanicians.
Everett turned and sprinted after Jack.
Collins pulled his nine-millimeter and hit two men as they rose to shoot at him. He had caught them by surprise and his bullets struck both in the chest.
As Everett watched, his vision bouncing as bad as his feet over the rough rise of stone, he saw one of the men rise once more and fire at Collins’s back. He saw Jack stagger and go down.
