Orion Colony Complete Series Boxed Set J.N. Chaney (books for new readers .txt) 📖

“What’s he talking about?” John asked. “He’s going to raise the dead, like make zombies?”

A panicked sweat fell over my brow as I realized what the insane virus was about to do. I felt sick and angry at once.

“Elon, make sure Arun is tied down. If she’s in one of her blackout states right now, this could be bad,” I said over our private channel. “Tell Ricky.”

“Why? What’s going on?” Elon asked.

“Just do it,” Stacy said, picking up my meaning. “Don’t let her hurt herself.”

“Legion,” I boomed over the exterior speakers of my suit. “Don’t do this. I don’t know if there is anything good inside of you, but you don’t have to do this.”

“There is nothing inside of me but the need to spread and consume,” Legion said, literally spitting black saliva as he spoke. “The need that others gave to me. Do you think I want this? Do you think I enjoy the itch that I can’t scratch that drives me to spread?”

He shouted like the maniac he was. He shoved his hands into the air, taking in the scene around him.

“I hate this! I hate all of this. I hate what I am. I hate what I was born to be, but to try and change would be an act in futility.” Legion shook his head, lowering his arms. “I am what I am. I can’t change that. I’ve accepted that and have embraced moving forward. But I digress. I was going to show you the next stage in my evolution.”

Legion lifted his right hand and snapped his fingers.

Every single infected in front of us, be it alien, animal, Rung, or human, turned to one another. Those that held blasters pointed them at one another, while those that did not placed their hands on each other’s necks and heads.

The alien creatures maneuvered their jaws around necks while the Rung and humans positioned bladed weapons around their own throats.

“Don’t do this!” Stacy yelled out. There was frustration in her voice, more so than sadness or anger. We all knew we were helpless to do anything but watch.

“I am your god now,” Legion said with a smirk. He lifted a blaster tucked behind the back of his waistband and pointed it over the center of his chest. “I can raise the dead.”

With that, he pulled the trigger.

20

I lunged forward, not really knowing what I thought I was going to do. Even if I did somehow stop the body of Captain Ezra Harold that Legion controlled, it didn’t mean I could stop any of the thousand others infected behind him.

I just knew I had to do something. My lunge took me halfway to him, but of course it was too late. Captain Harold’s body exploded in front of me, and I swore I witnessed his humanity return behind his eyes, the ebony fading into brown momentarily before his orbs shut.

Not only Legion’s shot, but weapons were fired throughout the crowd of infected, necks were snapped, and jaws were clamped shut. In front of me I watched in horrific awe as they all died at once.

“No!” Tong screamed.

Some people were crying on the wall, others yelled out in rage. I slumped to my knees in the mech suit causing the unit to do the same.

Bodies lay prostrate in front of me like so many fallen leaves during the first sign of autumn. They lay on top of one another since they were in such close proximity, they didn’t even have room to fall. Some collapsed on one another while others lay face down, buried by still more bodies.

“Why, why?” Elon said over the channel.

Rage boiled inside of me. Anger like I had never known before demanded an outlet.

“To the jungle!” I shouted, rising to my feet. “Legion’s core is at the base of the stone that looks like a lightning bolt. Lou knew it before any of us ever did. If we kill the spores there, we kill Legion. That’s where he’s hiding.”

“Dean?” Stacy’s voice broke my rant. “Dean, look.”

Something in her voice halted my own angry thoughts. I looked over to the horde of dead bodies. I thought it was my imagination at first. Slowly, they rose to their feet, almost as though they were being lifted by an invisible force, an army of marionettes controlled by an invisible puppeteer. Black eyes stared back at me from the army of the dead.

As one, they began to walk backward into the jungle interior just north of our position.

“I told you,” Legion said, still using Ezra’s somewhat destroyed body as his mouthpiece. “I told you, I am a god. I am beyond death. I control the dead.”

My eyes saw it, but I still couldn’t comprehend what was happening in front of me. Every infected that had been killed, be it by a blaster to the chest, having their neck snapped, or another means, was on their feet. Black blood spilled from their wounds.

Some had their head twisted to the side, others gaping wounds in their bodies, but still they walked into the jungle as if nothing was wrong.

“You come for my heart?” Legion asked. “Well, come, then. You think those suits of steel will protect you? I control the dead. Everything that has been dead or will die is mine. Come into the jungle and see how far you get. I will—”

I had had enough of Legion’s talking to last me a lifetime and then some. I clenched my right hand into a fist and pressed the button allowing the five-foot blade to recede from its sheath.

In a single swipe, I took the head of Ezra Harold. There was no point in holding back now. It wasn’t like we could save the dead. Ezra’s head fell from his body in a shower of black liquid. The body stayed upright, bent down, picked up the head, and trotted off into the jungle, still oozing the black substance.

“We kill him now,” Stacy said, stalking