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

I saw exactly how much of the jungle was covered in the blanket of blackness. It made my stomach churn. In all directions from the rock formation, the jungle was ebony for about a kilometer or more.

We now stood at the base of the stone in the blackest part of the jungle.

Legion held a sardonic smile on his lips as I approached. He waved at the ruined foliage with his free hand.

“Amazing, isn’t it?” he asked, taking in the black spores infecting the area around us. “To think it ends here now where I chose to sleep in hibernation so many years before.”

I was close now. No more than a few meters away. I could spring on him, take him out, and regain the flamethrower.

“Ah, ah, ah,” Legion said with a wave of his finger. “I recognize that look. You’re thinking you want to kill this body right now and grab your flamethrower. I would suggest you look behind you and rethink that strategy.”

I exhaled slowly, hating myself for having to do it, but turning nonetheless.

My mouth went dry.

Boss Creed and Ricky stood at the base of the hill knee deep in the tainted foliage of the jungle. Each one of them looked up at me through black eyes. Black liquid oozed out of their mouths, noses, and ears.

As one, they reached for the base of their own skulls, ready to snap them at a moment’s notice.

“No, wait,” I said, lifting a hand. “Just wait, just wait a minute.”

“Is that all you have, Chosen One?” Legion cackled. “‘Just wait’? You’re going to have to do better than that. Frankly, I’m disappointed. You must be disappointed in yourself at this point. I expected so much more.”

“Let them go,” I said, tearing my eyes away from Ricky and Boss Creed. I knew my words were a waste, but I needed time to think. “What do you want? You want to infect me? Is that it? I’ll take off my helmet and you can have me, but please don’t kill them.”

“Interesting offer, but what’s to keep me from killing them once I have you?” Legion cocked his head to the side in thought. “You must see the failed logic in your request. No matter. On your knees, Chosen One.”

I slumped down slowly and resignedly, still trying to buy time to think. Maybe I could grab the flamethrower and take Legion out, but not before he ordered Ricky and Boss Creed to snap their own necks. I couldn’t do that to my friends, especially if there was a way this virus could possibly be reversed.

Think, Dean, think, I thought, unable to come up with a solution. There’s a way out of this. There’s always a way out.

“Now take off your helmet and breathe,” Legion said with a look that said he had already won. “Breathe deeply, Dean. When I have you, you will be my new mouthpiece. You can rest assured that even in your death, you will serve a purpose.”

I lifted my hands to the clamps on the underside of my helmet.

23

“Just Dean.” Jezra’s voice came through my helmet’s comms so quietly, I almost thought it was my imagination. “Get ready.”

I hesitated.

Legion caught my hesitation and looked around, alarmed.

“Now!” Jezra screamed, this time not through my comms but from somewhere behind me.

I twisted around in time to see her spring from the foliage behind Ricky and Boss Creed. Somehow, she had wormed her way unseen through the thick brush infected by Legion.

She slammed a heavy stick against the side of Boss Creed’s jaw, knocking him out cold, then turned to Ricky to do the same.

As much as I wanted to sit there and see if she succeeded in stopping Ricky, I knew my time was short. Jezra had given me the opportunity I’d needed to get back into the fight and I couldn’t waste it.

I sprang to my feet, launching myself at Legion, who was still trying to get over his shock. I head butted him in the face, grabbing for the flamethrower. We went down together, vying for position on the ground.

Legion released his hold on the flamethrower and went for a knife tucked into his belt. He stabbed upward before I could stop him, sending the blade into the soft spot between my helmet and chest piece.

I should have been dead or at the very least bleeding out. The knife pierced the synth suit I wore under the armor but came to a stop against something hard around my neck.

Legion pressed harder into the medallion on my necklace that I never took off. Not understanding why his attack wasn’t working, frustration took over. Legion screamed in rage. I pointed the flamethrower at his face and point blank pulled the trigger.

Left hand carrying the fuel canister and right hand on the trigger, I moved off him. I burned his body along with the foliage around the base of the lightning stone.

Those infected that still fought our forces screamed in pain. Howls the likes of which I had never heard before rose to the sky above.

I ignored it all. I burned the blackest parts of the tainted shrubbery around me first.

Stacy and Dama, in the last two working suits, joined me a moment later. It seemed they had dispatched the infected power armor suit and were ready to lend a hand with their own flamethrowers.

Together, we burned the virus infected plants at the base of the lightning stone then began to move outward.

There were reports coming in from all over the battlefield that we had won. The infected still fighting slumped to the ground, writhing in pain then falling motionless. The few that had been infected but not killed yet by Legion, like Ricky, Boss Creed, and Arun, were healed, coming back to themselves as the brain of the virus was killed.

More and more of our own entered the spore-filled section of the jungle, lighting it on fire with flamethrowers and incendiary grenades.

Not only cheers rose from the survivors