Children of Fire (final cut)

By Daniel Ferguson

In 2017, Rifts opened over every major city and flooded them with mysterious energy. Those lucky enough to gain super powers went on to battle those who died and mutated into flesh-eating zombies. Four years later, the world is a more savage place.
Jarred Seifner, a sarcastic mercenary with lightning powers and an assault rifle, leads Tesla Squad, a team of super-powered mercs. When he saves Rachel, a girl with a gift for sorcery – a power that killed her mother – she asks him and his group to escort her to a doctor to get rid of her gift. But some things can’t be so easily removed, and when you mix in psychotic goblins, vicious trolls and evil mages hell-bent on world annihilation, you need the help of Tesla Squad.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Daniel Ferguson
• Release date: Nov 30, 2016
• ISBN: 9781370781324

Daniel Ferguson

First disabled person in space, winner of two Pulitzer prizes as well as a Hugo and a Nebula, president of the world, first person to explore the entire earth, 14 sold out world tours, direct descendant of King Arthur, Hercules AND Jesus, inventor of the wheel and first man to create fire......I am none of these things.But I do make amazing Spaghetti Bolognese.Usually.(The secret is garlic. LOTS of garlic. For when you're serving vampires.)

Book preview

Prologue

In the still of night, Rachel Valentine sat on her bed, considering one last time which items to bring. A black Sanctum travel bag sat on the floor with the essentials, as many as could fit.

She touched her mother’s piece of obsidian, feeling its warmth.

Outside the Sanctum she knew was a world ravaged by alien energy. It came from the Rifts, which opened around the world, over all the major cities. And out poured the monsters, magic, and madness.

Four years ago she'd gone into the Sanctum with her mother and father. Two days ago... no, she wouldn't think about it. Now, she was leaving and had to pack appropriately.

She picked up a thick notebook and pen. Maybe she could use that to keep notes. Into the bag it went along with four pens. In the end she decided it was best not to take anything more.

She was going to leave. She had to go. The power inside her was too dangerous otherwise.

That was why she was going, after all – to escape her legacy, the power she didn’t want. Witch. A name she’d been given, a label. A name she neither wanted nor needed.

But what lay outside the Sanctum? Outside was dangerous. But she’d killed plenty of bugs, been in a fight or two, even shot a gun. She could handle it.

She considered not taking her mother’s keepsake, a piece of obsidian always warm. It was the only thing she had to remind her of the woman who raised her. She decided she could – should – take it. It was innocuous, it wouldn’t get in the way much, and it was something of her mother’s.

Sighing, Rachel stood and crept out into the living room. She could hear her father’s heavy breathing in the next bedroom. She froze. She’d be leaving, and no one would know why.

She had to write a note, tell her father why she was going away. Rachel tore out a sheet from the notebook, scribbled down a hasty note and left it under the block of wood with the salt and pepper shakers.

With a sad smile, she took in the sight of the unit for what would be the last time. Here was the spot on the couch where she’d spilt tomato sauce the other week and it still hadn’t come out.

There was where she’d dropped a glass of wine her father had let her drink on her seventeenth birthday. Events absorbed by everything physical around her. It occurred to her just how much she was leaving behind.

Rachel made her way through the twists and turns of the Sanctum, the only sounds that of the snoring residents and humming machines.

She made her way straight to the final barrier, the door to outside.

Beyond this final obstacle lay her answer, her freedom from her curse.

If the file on the science lab out there was still accurate, it should be a two-day journey from here. If this place was still around, she could get herself treated, and if she could be cured, she’d be safe again. If, if, if!

She took a moment to consider her actions. She could back out now. Go back to bed, continue trying to live a normal life – normal for a Sanctum, anyway.

But when she’d wake, she’d still be the same… or rather, she’d still be different.

She pressed the button. Mechanisms creaked, sirens went off, and she heard shouts and footsteps.

The door finally yawned open. At the other end of the tunnel she could just make out the grey as light seeped into the new world before her.

She stared in shock, as she saw clouds lit up orange and gold, and the sun. Sunrise! She let the sunrise bathe over her, the glow and the warmth and the fresh, outdoor air for the first time in four years, and just... Breathed.

Rachel turned back only once, to the Sanctum that had been her home for four years, and all that it contained safe within its walls. A tear came to her eye, and she let it roll down her face, embracing the feel of it sliding across her skin, hot like lava.

Spectre, her ghostly feline companion, materialised beside her. This place had a Faraday field, they said it kept the powers out - but her power came from within...

Like Spectre. He had proved unshakably loyal and didn’t need feeding. His senses, even while asleep, were the sharpest she’d ever heard of. He was the best companion possible for her on her journey. She felt a lot better knowing that her summoned spectral companion would be by her side.

Let’s go, Spectre, she said. She turned from the Sanctum, her home and shelter, looking back on four years of protection, of peace, shattered in an instant, and took her first step into the unknown.

Chapter 1

Neo-Brisbane, 2021

4 years after E-day

Tonight, it would rain bullets.

Leaning against the railing of the third-floor hotel room balcony, Jarred looked at the storm clouds building on the horizon. It was a Brisbane turned into a war zone. He wondered if his group of heroes-for-hire could get a job in before the storm hit in an hour or so. The day was still muggy, humid before the summer storm, so it was possible. He felt electricity swell in his veins. Hopefully Kale had something easy for them.

Over the Storey Bridge the Rift sat, mercifully closed, it’s dark jagged scar of dimmed light in the sky a constant reminder of the horrors that poured out when it, and others like it, appeared without warning over every city on Earth roughly four years ago. It had remained closed ever since, a scar in the sky.

Element Day - the last time he would ever drive home from the beach with Sarah, check his emails, and see whether he was going to be the glorified coffee boy tomorrow (shock of the decade, he was).

Now, 'just another day at the office' was equally likely to involve taking down rampaging ogres, infiltrating a cult of dark mages, and fending off attacks from blood-thirsty raiders, ruffians and all manner of ordinary folk reduced to desperation. Whatever the clients needed, Tesla Squad did.

Jarred’s dark green eyes looked up to the filthy balcony above him, then down to a broom in the corner. This was his first bit of free time in a week. He really, really didn’t feel like cleaning.

He glanced inside.

In the living room, plaster was falling off the walls and the coffee table was missing a leg, propped up with paint tins. Tiles above the kitchen bench were cracked or missing. Dishes stood in piles, waiting for a restock of dish washing liquid. The bathroom was much the same story. The bed sheets had holes. The pantry situation was non-negotiable. Tesla Squad also had to eat this month.

And, they were out of booze.

Jarred sighed. Money would help a lot of things. Like paying someone else to clean up for him. For that, though, he needed a mission.

He stepped inside the apartment, sliding the glass door closed behind him. In the lounge room, Jess had her sniper rifle spread out on the coffee table, parts laid out in order on top of a drop sheet. Strands of her black hair fell over her cobalt eyes. When she finished cleaning she paused, pushed the hair back, then began reassembling the rifle. At the dining table, David sharpened his knife, accompanied by the occasional flicking-back of his long, rock-star-like hair.

How many times I do I have to tell you, Jarred said. Tie your hair back for a job. Better yet, cut it off. It’s a liability.

There was a knock at the door. Jarred answered it, first peering through the eye-hole - bullet-proof glass, necessary in their line of work - to see Kale there with a manila folder. A job! Jarred opened the door to let his superior into the apartment.

Okay, I’ve got you something, Kale said as he moved to the dining table. He was tall and muscular but not overly beefy, with short blond hair in a Mohawk and brown eyes. A little bit of pest control. In the mall.

Kale placed the folder down, opening it to the first of several photos and pointed at a bar-and-grill underneath a large, curved corner-sign for the cinema at the top of the Myer Centre mall on Queen Street. Goblins were setting something up, though it was hard to tell exactly what.

We’re going to the mall? Jess asked. No one sane ever goes to the mall!"

I’m assuming we’re doing recon, Jarred said.

Kale nodded. Correct. These were taken a bit over an hour ago by Kevin. Your job is to see what’s going on now, and ascertain whether it’s a problem for us. Pay will be four grand, hard. Bonus for goblin ears. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I must be getting back to my golf game.

You’ve taken up golf? David asked. That doesn’t sound like something you’d do.

There’s lots of things about me you wouldn’t expect. But you know how it is: got missions to assign, knees to bust, golf at 3:00… business as usual.

Yeah, duty calls.

And so’s my stomach. Later.

Jarred opened the door and Kale left.

Right, Jarred said, closing the door. The three of us are going. We’ll need Sarah, as always. So, split four ways, that’s a grand apiece for a response job. It’s not much, but I hear goblin ears are up ten percent on last month. They give us trouble, we get a bonus. God I hope they give us trouble.

The three locked up the apartment before heading to the lifts.

What are you buying with your share? Jess asked.

Food, ammo, maybe a new knife...

And a partridge in a pear tree, Jess said.

This is why we love you, dear, Jarred said, and the lift doors opened.

At the bottom floor they detoured from the lobby into the staff-only portion, to the first aid room where Sarah stayed during her shift.

Jarred knocked softly. Sarah startled, looking up from her work on Kevin’s amputated leg.

By the look of it, the leg had been lost to a land mine, but despite the ragged mess it looked like, it had been sealed and was growing back – pure Rift manipulation at work – with the sounds of squelching and cracking. A tiny foot had formed on the end; nowhere near functional, but it was a start.

Can’t you just give me a potion? the man asked.

That won’t re-grow lost limbs, Sarah said. So you have to put up with me and my regeneration spells.

Finally the foot seemed the right size, matching the other one, and as if to prove that theory right it stopped re-growing altogether.

Alright, you should be fine now, she said to her patient. Just don’t go losing it again!

She stood, helping Kevin to his feet. He tested the foot, it was solid, and she let him walk out the door on it.

So, mission? Sarah asked.

We’re going to the mall, to check out Kevin’s assignment, see what’s going on since, Jess said. It’ll be dangerous. Goblins, raiders, hazards... Fifty percent discount on handbags... Goblin ears up by ten... You know. Dangerous.

I’ll get my stuff. Sarah stood, inspected her faux-denim jacket for blood and dirt, and finding nothing straightened her golden hair before opening a cabinet where she kept a bunch of red potions locked up. She grabbed four potions and locked the cabinet, handed the three other members their potions and tucked hers into a secure pocket on her belt pouch, the rest of the team doing likewise with practised ease.

Then, the four went to the armoury and signed in. Then they strapped on their black suits of combat armour and their weapons from their places on the racks - Jarred’s assault rifle, David’s shotgun, and Sarah’s bow - while Jess signed the form to bypass the storage of her hunting rifle after maintenance. They grabbed a pair of grenades each and those without knives grabbed those too, and some ammo. Then, locked and loaded, they made their way out the front door into the ruin that was Neo-Brisbane.

…

The walk would have been short, barely three blocks in a straight line to the Myer Centre, if not for the obstacles in the way. Instead, they were forced to pick their way around fallen trees, debris and rubble.

They skirted potholes, avoided impact craters with filthy stagnant water, stayed away from corpses and their rotten flesh. They went up one building’s stairs, jumped across the gap to the next and then down that building’s. They waited until a small group of very loud, very ignorant raiders went past - no one wanted to get into a fight before they’d gotten to their destination - and breathed easier once the coast was clear. Still, they kept their weapons ready.

They wove between cars and trucks frozen in peak-hour congestion, none of them ever to arrive at their destinations.

Tesla Squad continued until they came to the intersection of Queen and Albert Streets, near the entrance to Myer Centre. Dead escalators, positioned diagonally underneath a bar-and-grill, led up into the shopping centre.

A large section of floor, which once supported some of the glass panels, had fallen down so that the line of sight to the escalators was much less obscured. In the middle of the street was a five-car crash, which Tesla Squad used as cover; Jess and David