We the People vol 2: Liberty or Death

Gunfire rolled and crackled like thunder, shocking Thane with its rapid intensity. Her troops stood crowned by white plumes, their deadly missiles smashing into the wooden fortifications and starting a frenzy inside the fort. The Dragoons quickly returned fire, and many of her soldiers would have fallen—had they been living. Holes torn in their faces or limbs slowed them not the least, and they reloaded their muskets with fearless precision.

Stark had spoken of a ‘fog of war,’ and Thane could understand why. She felt cut off from the rest of the army, the rest of the world. White smoke filled the air, obscuring all but the screams of the wounded and dying. Her senses were sharp, focused, but only on her immediate surroundings. She could watch the individual grains of powder tumble into the barrel of a musket, but couldn’t fathom what was happening on the fields below.

Thane willed her soldiers to keep firing. She watched as a gold-shirted Dragoon took a round in his shoulder and bravely kept on firing. The patch of red that spread across his sleeve tugged at her heart, but what could she do? He was the enemy, and history said he was going to lose.

But how much meaning did that have anymore? Chui was right, they’d already changed a great deal. Who was to say that their history was even the right one to begin with? Maybe ESX was meant to come back and alter the past, and by stopping him they were, in fact, responsible for bringing the Harbingers to their world?

Her soldiers fired round after round. An acrid stench of black powder mixed with rotting flesh to create a ghastly bouquet. Some of her zombies simply stood, guns limp at their sides, and Thane reasoned that they were out of ammunition or powder or both.

It didn’t matter, because the damage had been done. Thane climbed onto a limestone boulder and peered down at the farmland. The Green Mountain Boys and Indians routed the British defensive line, just as history had said they would. Many of the Natives working with the Redcoats ended up fleeing when they saw the overwhelming forces blasting them with iron pellets.

The Dragoons, however, were not surrendering as Stark had said they would. They had long ago stopped firing back at Thane’s undead army, possibly because they had run out of shot; Montel’s history book said they ran out of ammunition. It had also said they charged Stark’s army, and their six hundred might well overwhelm the smaller, though better armed, forces in the fields below.

The wooden gates blasted open and hundreds of screaming Dragoons came swarming out. In the hand of each was a curved saber, glinting in the sun. Thane’s troops moved to flank them as Stark’s men let loose volley after deadly volley.

Dozens, then hundreds, of the Dragoons fell, but still the others charged on. Thane’s forces were able to stem the flow from the redoubt, giving Stark time to reload and reform his lines to accept the charge—she hoped. Her own troops were largely out of shot as well, and a gruesome melee ensued. Thane tried to stay out of it, but it kept sweeping toward her position like a cyclone. She watched as a Dragoon thrust his bayonet through a zombie trooper, his eyes wide and wild. The zombie grabbed hold of the musket stock and pulled itself close to the Dragoon. The zombie dug its teeth into the Dragoon’s throat amid a spray of blood. Thane couldn’t hear the Dragoon scream over the din of battle, but his terrified face seemed to emblazon itself across her mind.

That was when the musket ball split her face open. She frowned, fished around with her tongue until she found the lead pellet and spat it into her hand.

“Okay,” she said with a snarl, focusing on the man who had shot her. He appeared to be an officer, wearing shiny brass pauldrons and a wide-brimmed hat. She kicked her horse into a gallop, lined up her musket, and fired. It missed badly, but she wanted to distract him from reloading his pistol.

The man whipped a large, heavy cutlass out of his sheath with alarming alacrity. With one slice he cut through Thane’s abdomen and tore a deep gash in her horse’s neck. The animal dropped to its side and thrashed, trapping her leg beneath it.

As she struggled to get free, the officer stepped around to her field of vision and grinned at her plight. Smirking, he lowered his sword. With a start, she realized the medal on his collar designated him as the enemy commander, Baum.

“So young,” he said, tsking “and yet you command these men who do not fall, yes? That makes you dangerous.”

“You don’t know the half of it, buddy,” she snarled, working furiously to free herself. The battlefield was slick, muddy, and she couldn’t gain purchase enough to bring her full strength to bear.

Thane concentrated, allowing a bit of the flow to divert from her troops and enervate the dead horse. The wound closed, and nostrils flared as it drew breath once more. It scrambled off of her and she rose shakily to her feet. One of her legs was twisted, but she could stagger.

“You’re dead on your feet,” said the man with a sneer. He put his blade through a series of slashes and cuts, intending to intimidate her. “Care to test your bayonet against my sword?”“Care to shut the hell up?” Thane squinted her eyes and sneered at the officer. “I don’t have to fight you; I got people for that.”

“What are you going on abou-” Baum gasped as three inches of steel erupted from his chest. The zombie soldier who had impaled him twisted the weapon out of his bleeding body with a sickening wrench, and then was off to cause more mayhem. Maybe it was all the carnage around her, but Thane didn’t pity the dead general. He was supposed to die here, anyway, and he hadn’t seemed like the nicest sort of person.

Thane cast her gaze about the battlefield. It was nearly over, with the remaining Dragoons giving up the fight at last. The humid air was stagnant, and large billows of smoke and dirt lingered in the hot afternoon sun. A flash of light drew her attention to the south, coinciding with a low bass rattle that she could feel in her belly.

“The Armonica...” she whispered. Then she was off, dashing across the battlefield. She needed all the strength she could muster if ESX was playing its hand, so she released her tether to the legion. There was no more of the constant drain as they fell to the muddy fields, but she still felt exhausted.

Leaping over bodies, ducking under fortifications, she sped across the muddy fields. As she ran she caught sounds of battle coming from up ahead, and Bast’s voice raised in anger.

“Shoot it! Shoot it, Montel!”

“I’m trying! I’m pulling the trigger but it won’t-”

A heavy thud, then Montel’s scream.

“Montel! All right, jerkface, it’s on!” Jimmy cried.

Thane ran through a cloud of smoke and beheld the scene. She spotted the glass Armonica first, tipped over in the dirt, Franklin and Chui desperately trying to right it. Faraday was nearby, her right hand dangling at the end of a limp wrist.

Bast aimed a musket, trying to get a bead on ESX. Kass’s form was showing some wear, with most of her hair gone, and her head swollen to grotesque proportions. The alien was still using its cannonball trick, as they zipped through the air around it in a tight orbit.

Jimmy knelt next to Montel, the big man’s face covered in blood. Montel was gripping Jimmy’s hand in his own, but his eyes were closed.

Thane fought the urge to scream, and circled to ambush ESX from behind.

Sorry, Dr. Kass.

Taking a discarded musket in two hands, she jabbed the rusty bayonet at Kass’s back. It was nearly torn from her grasp as one of the speeding cannonballs cracked against the blade. Her bayonet snapped like uncooked spaghetti, the bits sticking in her own arm.

“Faraday, hit it NOW!” shouted Thane.

“I can’t!” Faraday’s voice had a note of terror in it. “My arm hurts!”

“You have to!” Thane ducked as Kass sent a cannonball her way. Bast fired his musket, but the pellet veered around its target and struck Thane in the gut instead instead.

“Watch it!” she snarled.

Bast spread his hands, mouth open wide, but had nothing to say. He dashed over to Faraday’s side and tried to help her. Thane’s attention was dragged back to ESX as the alien sent another lethal projectile her way.

Thane twisted to the side and the cannonball dug a trench in the dirt. It exploded a moment later, knocking both women to the muddy earth. Thane scrambled to her feet first and charged at ESX. She launched a vicious kick at her fallen foe’s face. The impact ripped teeth from Kass’s mouth.

She fell across Kass/Esx and bludgeoned its form with all her strength. Bones snapped under her repeated blows, Kass’s chest crumpling like wet cardboard, but still the alien resisted. Her fist slowed in the air, stopping a scant inch away from Kass’s purpled and bloated face.

Thane felt herself flung backwards, body twisting in the air. She landed in an ungainly heap, her shoulder popping out of its socket as Kass struggled to laugh around a broken jaw.

“I have you now!” it hissed amid a spray of bloody froth from its mouth.

Thane struggled to her knees as a cannonball paused in its orbit around Kass and hovered menacingly toward her. She put her fist against the muddy ground and jerked her torso to the right, snapping her arm back into place.

Thane tried to get to her feet, but the strain of maintaining her army for days had taken too much energy. She couldn’t do anything but watch as obliteration hovered closer.

“Any last words?” Kass asked from its twisted mouth.

Thane became aware of a low, droning sound, and suddenly the air filled with the yellow and black bodies of a legion of hornets. Ruthlessly, the swarmed all over Kass, stinging her relentlessly. The cannonballs did little to deter them, and the alien seemed unable to concentrate on so many targets at once. It thrashed around on the ground as if it were on fire, stolen body covered with dozens of swelling lumps.

“Creepy,” whispered Thane. Behind the curtain of critters, she could hear the Armonica powering up once again. ESX abruptly ceased its struggles, and the screams coming out of its mouth died out.

“Rashemi, stand down!” shouted Thane. “Damn it, stand down!”

Thane kept screaming until the hornets subsided, but one look at Kass’s body told the tale. Her face was a purple, bloated mask of ruin, limbs appearing oddly disproportionate, like an unevenly stuffed teddy bear. It was barely even recognizable as human anymore.

“It’s over,” Thane said, feeling very tired. She staggered over, reached down to close Kass’s one open eye...which abruptly focused on her.

“Die...” it hissed, just as Kass’s body finally gave out. One of the cannonballs shot towards Thane, growing larger and larger until all she saw was blackness.

Thane watched the white, glowing hole as it spilled misty tendrils into...wherever she was. It was hard to tell, as there was nothing to see in any direction except the luminescent phenomenon. Her boots walked on what felt like smooth, flat stone, though the ground appeared as inky black as everything else.

It wasn’t hard to figure out what had happened. She was dead, done in at last. The bridge had been blown to smithereens by a cannonball, and so had her body. Perhaps because she had failed, it appeared her fate was to remain in this nowhere place for all eternity. The white hole was little more than fist sized, and seemed to be the only feature of the strange place she found herself in.

“Ma’am.”

She stiffened, spun around in a tight circle with her hands clenched into fists. Standing there before her was the man she’d met in the woods, the one who had witnessed her cannibal feast.

“You again,” she sighed. “Ready to tell me what’s going on?”

“Haven’t figured that out myself,” he said with a slight smile. “I just noticed you where in the Between, figured I’d see what was up.”

“The...between?” Thane looked around the blackness. “Is that what you call this...place?”

“Yep,” he said.

“Uh, where are we? What in the hell is the ‘between?’” Thane asked.

The man shrugged.

“Kind of between realities, a blind spot left behind by the maker when he formalized creation.”

“I still don’t get it,” Thane said with a sigh. “Chui is better at this metaphysical crap. Why is it all black?”

“Because there’s nothing here, ma’am.” He tipped his hat to her and made as if to leave.

“Wait!” she cried.

He paused, eyebrows arched.

“What do you mean there’s nothing here?” Thane asked. She pointed at the glowing white hole, still spilling luminescent tendrils into the blackness. “What do you call that?”He followed her pointing finger and grinned.

“Don’t you know?” he asked. “I mean, can’t you feel it? That’s you, bleeding into this place.”

“Me? I don’t understand.” Thane felt dizzy, as if she were on the edge of a dream. “Wait a second...I know you...”

“If you tear the hole wider, you’ll be strong enough to go back to what you call home,” said the man, turning away from her again.

“Tear the hole wider? What the hell are you talking...hello?” Thane sighed as he disappeared into the blackness. “Great, just great.”

She stared at the hole, and shrugged.

“Oh, what the Hell? Can’t make things any worse...”

Thane approached the glowing disc, the light so intense she could see her finger bones through the skin. She reached out and felt as if she were taking hold of a sort of steel mesh webbing. Rather than being rigid, like a knothole on a tree, the phenomenon was pliant and yielded to her touch. She discovered the rift was not much larger around than a tennis ball. The nimbus of light and mist-like essence pouring out made it appear larger. As she stretched the rift, more light poured through, inundating her being.

A scream tore from her throat as she was overwhelmed by the light. It should have consumed her, burned her into nothing, but instead she felt the force flow into her veins. The energy crammed itself into every nook and cranny in her being, until she was brimming with power. After days of being on the verge of collapse, it was a heady rush.

Her hands ripped at the miasma, trying to widen it further. The light grew so intense it made up her entire world. It didn’t matter, all that mattered was getting back to Bast and the others. Abruptly the light became brighter than any sun, and she flung her hands up in front of her face...

Thane became aware of the sun beating down on her face. She leveraged herself up onto her elbows and saw Chui sitting a short distance away. His face was slack, eyes wide as dinner plates, as she rose to her feet.

“Hey, Chui,” she said “what’s up?”

Chui seemed to find his voice.

“GUYS!!!” he hollered. “COME QUICK! She’s back! Thane’s alive!”

“More or less,” Thane said with a chuckle. Then she nearly fell over as Chui threw his arms around her. “Hey, it’s all right, Chui. I’m okay now.”“But you were dead!” He was sobbing now, tears staining her back “you didn’t have a body from the waist up!”

“I didn’t?” Thane looked at the patch of ground she had been lying in, saw shreds of her uniform amid an obscene amount of blood and gore.

“Welcome back!” James clasped her hand in his own tightly. The vigor with which he shook it belied his simple greeting.

Thane giggled as Faraday and Creepy joined the pile.

“Settle down, now!” Thane felt her feet sliding in the mud. “Oh, shi-”

They all went down in a heap, laughing. Creepy ended up squished between Thane and Chui, who squealed until he rolled off of her. Thane looked up to see Bast standing a few feet away. His eye was red, face swollen and damp.

“Leroy,” she said, extricating herself from the pile. She went to him and wrapped her arms around his waist, leaning her head on his shoulder. Bast clapped a hand on her back, but appeared at a loss.

“You’re back,” he said at length.

“Have you been crying?” Thane touched his cheeks, and her finger came away wet with moisture.

“Some black powder went off nearby and the smoke...”

“You’re full of it, Leroy,” she said, rubbing her cheek on his chest.

Thane gently pulled away from Bast, cast her eyes around for Montel.

“Uh, where’s Montel? I saw him go down during the fight.”

“Having his wound stitched up.” Bast’s said grimly. “ESX nearly took his head off. It’s time for us to leave.”

“I couldn’t agree more,” Thane said. “Time to get away from this racist, misogynistic, backward...”

The words died in her throat. There was plenty of racism and misogyny in her own time.

“We have a problem,” Chui said in a panicked tone. They followed his wide-eyed gaze until they saw the line of British coming into view.

“Damn,” Bast hissed “I forgot with...with what happened. After Stark defeated Baum, another force attacked almost immediately.”

“Oh, great!” Thane saw her army lying still in the mud. “And Stark is badly outnumbered, when history says he had the advantage!”

“Can’t you just raise them again?” Hannah asked, her arm in a sling.

Thane turned to regard Faraday.

“I...yeah, I think I can.” She closed her eyes, felt the wellspring of power within her. It was incredible, a roiling mass of energy far greater than anything she’d ever felt.

“You should have seen her grow her body back,” Chui said, his eyes wide and shining. “I mean, first this little vein sprouted out of her waist, like a red vine, and started growing! I actually watched her body build itself back bit by bit, from the outside in!”“More amazing to me is that she grew her clothes back as well,” James said with a snicker.

Thane looked down at herself. She was no longer wearing her colonial uniform, but was clad in a faded Ramones t shirt and black skirt. It was much the way she dressed back in her own time.

“How did you do that, Thane?” Faraday asked.

“I have no freaking idea whatsoever,” Thane said. The sound of harsh voices from across the ruined farmland drew her back to the task at hand. “But I think I can manage to bring our army back to its feet.”Thane closed her eyes and extended her hidden senses. She felt the men’s bodies in the mud, just as she had at Manchester. This time, however, she could feel more. There was a sense of loss, the miserable feeling of a thousand lives cut short before their time. If only she had come upon Manchester earlier, maybe she could have corralled spirits back into bodies and truly raised them from the dead...

A dark epiphany came to her. Chui had said that time and space were just different points on the same continuum. Maybe, time just didn’t matter as much as she thought it did. And if time didn’t mean all that much, then space didn’t either...

Thane forced herself through the black veil separating herself from what the Stranger had called the Between. It seemed as good a place for a conduit as any. Then she willed another rift to appear, but this one led to Manchester, several days ago. Gathering the confused, terrified souls of the dead Minutemen within herself was as easy as breathing, and she probably could have done it long ago if she’d had the mind to try.

Traveling back to her own world was easier this time, too. She returned to find all of her companions staring at her.

“Are you all right, Thane?” Bast licked his lips. “Your eyes rolled back into your head for a minute there.

“You mean I didn’t go anywhere? Never mind, I’m fine,” Thane said through gritted teeth. “Now shut up and let me work!”

It was tricky, releasing her power without releasing the souls within as well. She had to repair their bodies enough that they could contain essence once more. As her army rose again from the Earth, they were no longer the staggering, rotting mass of corpses that had marched to war. Instead, a living, breathing, and quite fired-up legion rose as one and shouted a battle cry at the approaching British.

Stark didn’t question his good fortune. He quickly rode back to their line and began barking orders. Soon the newly-resurrected army was forming up into ranks to repel the charge.

“There are your enemies, the Tories and the Reds!” he shouted in a voice whose power shocked Thane. “They are ours, or this night Molly Stark sleeps a widow!”Then the troops charged into battle. Gunfire ripped from both sides and men fell, but Thane noted there were many more casualties on the British side.

“What should we do?” Chui glanced at Bast. “Should we help, or what?”

“No,” Bast shook his head. “We’ve done enough. Let’s collect Montel and...Kass’s body and head for home.”

“But...but Thane just brought those guys back to life!” James shook his head, face ashen as he stared at Thane. “That’s not...I mean, that can’t be natural!”“It’s all right,” Thane said “they won’t remember being dead. The last few days will seem like a dream to them, an arduous march through rain and mud. This battle will be much more vivid in their minds.”“That’s not what I’m getting at.” James scratched the back of his head, seeming ashamed of his own words. “You just can’t do things like that. It’s not right. It just isnt.”“All I wanted was to undo what ESX had done,” Thane said harshly. “I saw a way I could help and I took it. Why are you busting my ass over it?”“Thane got an upgrade,” Chui said with utter confidence. “That’s all. She’s still the same girl we love to hear gripe and give us a hard time-”“Thanks Espinosa,” Thane said with a cocked eyebrow “I think!”

The crackle of gunfire caused everyone to grow silent.

“Time to go,” Bast said.

“Assuming Espinosa can tune the Armonica right,” James said. “He can’t even play Guitar Gods on hard mode.”

“That’s just because my fat fingers can’t keep up!” Chui wriggled his digits in the air. “It has nothing to do with my rhythm.”

“I believe in him,” Faraday said. Chui almost fainted when she pecked him on the cheek.

“I can do it!” His face was flushed, a stupid grin plastered on his mouth.