It appeared the Cadets were not destined to be part of the battle. The Sheriff Bob’s placed them miles away in what looked like a salvage yard for old mining vehicles and related equipment. The Cadets were as far away from the fight as ever.
They were left with a small amount of food and water, as well as the two guns with antiserum bullets. O’Brien was still the same. The Sheriff Bobs inspected him. All his bodily functions were normal. He wasn’t in immediate danger, but they had no data specific to his condition, and could not treat him. They told the Cadets to pay attention to any changes in O’Brien, and they’d return later to provide further treatment.
“I wonder if he’ll ever recover,” Perkins mused.
“Doesn’t look like it,” Jonesy replied. “But, he’s pretty good this way too. Compared to how he was, at least”.
“What are you talking about?” Perkins said. “He’s a vegetable”.
“Yes he is”.
“Well, what do you suppose we should do?” Perkins asked. “Go find a town or something. Maybe a doctor”?
“I guess we could do that,” Jonesy replied.
“Let’s see if we can get some food into O’Brien before we go,” Perkins said and he took an egg salad sandwich out of its package and pulled off a small piece.
O’Brien kind of took the food. Reflexively he closed his mouth and tried to swallow, but the food didn’t go all the way down. It stopped at the back of his throat. He didn’t outright choke, but the lodged food caused O’Brien to try to cough it back up instead of swallow.
“Give him some water,” Perkins said.
Jonesy, in no way as delicate as Perkins, grabbed O’Brien’s nose, tilted his head back, and poured water down his throat. O’Brien did not take well to this at all. It caused a terrible reaction. He started making this loud gurgling sound and his eyes were popping out. His arms started swinging, and then clutching his throat as froth spewed from the sides of his mouth. Perkins started slapping him on the back to help dislodge the food. It didn’t really look like he was choking, but he didn’t know what else to do. For whatever reason, O’Brien seemed near choking to death.
“What should we do?” Perkins cried.
Bam! Came Jonesy’s reply. He shot O’Brien dead.
“What the hell?” Perkins said, jumping up. He was kneeling right beside O’Brien when Jonesy shot him.
“He was suffering,” Jonesy replied,
“He still might have fought it off”.
“O’Brien would have wanted it this way,” Jonesy replied bravely, like he had just done something heroic. “I gave him a soldier's death”.
“Yeah, before you knew he actually needed it”.
Perkins didn’t like the way Jonesy was able to decide to shoot O’Brien so easily. Maybe in the end, he did relieve O’Brian of some suffering, but Perkins felt Jonesy was pretty fast and loose with the gun.
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“Listen Jonesy,” he said. “We part ways right here, right now”.
Fine by me,” Jonesy replied. “You never looked like much of a soldier to me anyway”.
“Fine,” Perkins said, hurriedly picking up a few things.
It was then, something cratered into a three-ton truck, not ten feet away from them. Both Cadets turned to look. It was Michael and Wrath locked in a death battle. Rocketing into the three-ton didn’t slow them down as both continued to struggle for advantage.
Out of stupid curiosity more than anything, the two Cadets moved closer to the fight. Michael, with Slash in hand, faced Wrath who wielded an enormous Sword with ease. They were circling each other, both searching for an opening.
Bam, Bam, Bam, Bam, Bam came the sound of Jonesy’s gun. He fired into the air. Michael didn’t even flinch, but his eyes did dart to the direction of the sound. Wrath made his move and swung his enormous sword. Michael jumped back, but Wrath’s blade caught his shoulder and chest, knocking him off-balance. Wrath pounced.
“What are you doing?” came a voice from behind the Cadets. It was O’Brien. Turned out he just needed a shot of antiserum. “Shoot him! Shoot him!” he cried, grabbing Perkins' gun and running up to the two warriors. He emptied the gun with the antiserum into Wrath. Wrath staggered back and dropped. Michael jumped and with one swing of Slash, decapitated Wrath. Looking at O’Brien, he nodded his thanks, and leapt back to rejoin the battle.
For the time being, the Sheriff Bob’s ignored the swarming Demons. If one landed, they took care of it, usually with an antimatter bullet. Their main focus was on the Dark Angels who had fallen on them and were starting to inflict considerable damage. The Dark Angels were smart, attentive, and powerful. To prevent the Sheriff Bobs from firing their antimatter bullets, they quickly moved in, too close for gun fire. When one of them got their hands on a Sheriff Bob, they easily tore him apart.
The Sheriff Bobs were hoping the antimatter bullets would produce a chain reaction of some sort, with the Dark Angels so close together. They didn’t. The tremendous energy release caused a shockwave preventing the required contact. The explosions also created radiation bursts which were causing interference in the Sheriff Bob’s own operation. Michael also requested the bodies of the Dark Angels remain as intact as possible. The Sheriff Bobs abandoned the antimatter bullets completely, leaving them almost useless against the Dark Angels.
Tasha looked down on the Sheriff Bobs. They weren’t doing too well. It was time for her and the Warriors to join in. Michael was already there, having killed Wrath and returned. He was fighting along with the Sheriff Bobs.
It was easy for Tasha to see where Michael was. Dark Angels and body parts were flying around him. Fallen Angels were not much of a challenge to the one who had already defeated the Dragon and banished him to earth. With Slash in his hand, Michael alone was giving the Dark Angels something to think about other than the Sheriff Bobs.
Tasha leapt down to join the fight. The Warriors followed. This was the signal and at the same time, many more Sheriff Bobs flooded in from either side of the Dark Angels. This left Tasha, Michael and the Warriors between two large units of Sheriff Bobs. The plan was to move the fight closer to the valley, which was still at least half a mile away. The Sheriff Bob’s along the sides would guide the Dark Angels while the Immortals drove them towards the mine. There were days of fighting ahead, and no telling if the Dark Angels would adapt and counter AI’s plan. The good news was AI was constantly analyzing and adapting.
Ethan held back and remained watching from his vantage point. He had transformed into the twelfth Warrior as he was called by the others. His sword in his hand, like always when in his Warrior state, he felt alert and eager to attack. Perhaps it was the raptor in him, but he looked down on the Dark Angels as prey. Now that the battle was actually on, he knew he could inflict more damage than even Michael, and was eager to do it, but his conscious mind easily overcame his animal urge. He was more interested in what the Sheriff Bobs were doing.
The plan, he formulated and enacted many months ago, was now being tested. The final moment had come. Michael, Tasha and her Warriors, were kicking the shit out of the Dark Angels, and still hardly made a dent, there were so many of them. The Sheriff Bobs had closed in on either side of the Dark Angels, but were no longer being attacked and for reasons Ethan didn’t understand, appeared to be herding the Dark Angels towards the mine. It looked to be in control of the situation. Ethan felt sure AI had come into its own and harnessed the power that would ultimately give it dominion over the entire physical universe. He was confident this World, his World, would survive. He didn’t know how, but he was sure AI, in its own way, would get the job done.
At this moment, Ethan felt like the builder of Worlds, which had been the lesson of his quest all along. This was his own world, or at least soon would be. Oddly, it filled that gap of control he had always missed, even when he was Eldon. It was odd because now that he had control, he wanted to give it to the people of his World. He felt his immortality return and his place. This was his world. Unquestionably. He felt the power in himself. Single handedly he could go down there and defeat the Dark Angels. He was thinking about doing just that, when he heard Elsie’s cry.