The Reincarnation

Grey’s Army was startled. They had been facing the cabin, but now turned and started heading through the woods in the direction they had heard someone shouting from. Grey stopped them in their tracks.

“Careful, men. It might be a trap, or a decoy. Don’t forget our little run-in with the tracker and the toilet.” After a moment, he ordered them to proceed.

Grey marched behind them, flustered by the deluge of smells in the forest. No time for that now, he told himself. He came to a clearing in the woods. Ahead was a field, and beyond that, a huge outcropping of rock. He instantly deduced that that was where they must be, and proceeded in that direction.

“They’re taking it. Oh boy, they aren’t too bright after all, are they?” Donna turned toward David and Laura, chuckling. She stopped quickly once she had fully turned around. “Where’s John?”

“Jesus, I wasn’t paying attention when we ran back here. Did you see where he went?” David was worried.

Laura shook her head.

Without warning, David felt every ounce of energy leave his body. He dropped as if he had been shot.

Grey and his Army ran toward the field. His men were quick-marching as he had trained them, in a line straight across, paced ten feet apart. He was still marveling at their good form when one of them disappeared – evaporated – from his sight. It was so quick, he couldn’t even react.

One by one, only milliseconds apart, he saw the battalion he was following swallowed up whole by the Earth. Stopping instantly, he stood dumbfounded. What is going on here? He took a step backward, scanning the outcropping for signs of life. He had seen some crazy weapons in his time, but one that vaporized people instantly? No, that couldn’t be right. He replayed his Army’s disappearance in his head. They were gone instantly, but didn’t exactly disappear. No, they seemed to fall. He stopped the tape playing in his head. On the still shot, he could see his men. One was gone up to his knees. Another to the waist. Another was just a head. They sunk.

Grey scanned the ground and instantly cursed himself. They were in such a hurry to get up there that they didn’t even see them. They weren’t even camouflaged. Grey spied the projection devices, stark white, every twenty-five feet. As he was mentally struck by the irony that not only had the Church developed the system his Army was fooled by, but that this whole place looked like a scene from a movie he had seen last week, his body was physically struck as well.

Someone had come from behind him, the inhuman force of their body hitting Grey’s without stopping, their arms wrapping around him like tentacles. Grey’s arms were pinned to his sides. The smell was overwhelming. Although he couldn’t crane his neck to see him, he knew who was holding him in this death grip. Johnny Rotten.

John’s pace barely slowed. He traversed the final ten feet that had been Grey’s saving span in seconds. Grey and John, intertwined, disappeared into the field.

“Whoa, was that John?” Donna adjusted her viewing device, disbelieving what it showed her. “Shit.” She ran to the shed and shut the system down. The field dissolved and the gaping maw of the gorge replaced it.

She looked toward Laura and saw her kneeling down next to David. He was patting his chest and stomach as if feeling for a bullet wound.

“What happened?” Donna asked when she got closer.

“I think John just proved my theory that he can take it all from me. Every bit.” David got up, glad he was whole. “Now you tell me what just happened.”

Donna explained as they ran around the bluff to the edge of the ravine and looked down into its frigid waters. The impact circles on the water’s surface rippled outward where Grey and John had hit. Grey’s men had been marching when they walked off the edge, and hit the water closer to the other side. John and Grey, at the speed they were going, nearly cleared the quarry. David studied the circles as they grew.

“Watch out guys, they could shoot!” Laura pulled David and Donna by the shoulders to the ground.

Below them, on the other side of the gorge, Grey’s Army didn’t have a thought of shooting anyone. They were in deep water, icy, green, and coppery. A few of them had seen their former prey hit the water with their boss. The others were told he was there as soon as they surfaced. Far from trying to shoot the people responsible for their current situation, they were doing everything in their power to escape from someone they thought had a disease so horrible it might spread instantly across the body of water and crawl into their hides. They were scrambling for a fingerhold on the sheer rock surrounding the gorge.

David watched the water, waiting for Grey or John to surface. He pushed, trying to sense if John could gain strength from him. Trying to sense if he could feel John taking it. He felt nothing. Jesus, David thought, John must have sunk like a stone.

David, Laura, and Donna waited an hour, remorsefully, glancing every so often at Grey’s men. The men were trying to climb out of the water, but they had nothing to hold on to. The wall was sheer, with fingerholds scarce, let alone footholds or handholds.

David was sure they would get out eventually, one helping another once free, but it would likely take hours. Every so often, one of Grey’s men would get four feet off the water’s surface, probably silently praising himself, and the next instant would be down in the water again, flopping around, screaming. It was actually amusing, but it bit humorlessly into him as he continued searching the water for any sign of John.

Finally, they had to give up. Neither John nor Grey surfaced, and Donna and Laura finally convinced David that reinforcements might come at any minute, let alone what might happen when Grey’s men escaped.

“The best we can do is make sure nobody else ends up like John,” Laura said softly, touching his shoulder.

Dejectedly, David complied with their requests and got in the Bug.