Days of Darkness: Winter's Rage (Book 2)

Chapter 12: Over the Waters

Over the course of the next few days, all remained calm. While Damien and Nadia enjoyed their time together as husband and wife, Christian and Diamond worked tirelessly to get together the drones to send to Bermuda. Meanwhile, the temperatures outside continued to plummet everyday. The snowfall was constant and heavy which left outside visibility down to a minimum. It was dangerously cold and the furnaces on the inside barely held up.

In the furnace room, Jayce was attempting to repair the machine with Law's help.

"Jeez, does anything work around here?" Jayce questioned.

Law laughed. "I know, right? It's like we went from living it up to substandard conditions in the blink of an eye."

"I wouldn't call where or how we were living 'living it up' at all," Jayce firmly objected. "Beats being dead, though. I'll tell you that. We were fortunate to make it out of there when we did."

"Yeah, well, I'm not gonna sleep too comfortably just yet," Law said. "Morgan is still out there. And as long as she is, we're all in danger."

After some tinkering, Jayce finally got the furnace to work properly. A call, then, came in over the radio. It was Diamond.

"Law, Jayce, I need you boys to get to the conference room. We're readying the launch of the drones."

So, the two of them packed up all of their tools and walked down to the conference room. By the time they made it, the entire council was already seated and ready to begin. General Shepard was also on board via teleconference. The room sat in silence as Diamond stood up and began to speak.

"It took us a while to get to this point, ladies and gentlemen," she started. "We've all fought bravely to survive this war. We've lost our homes, our loved ones, but most importantly, we kept the fight alive. We didn't fold quietly when the odds were clearly stacked against us. We played an amazing defense. Now, it's time to get back in the game with a little offense. This drone mission is the beginning of us taking our lives back." She looked over to Christian. "Ready the launch."

"Before we begin," Christian started, "the drones that we're launching will be flown remotely by Law and myself. They'll be flying out of Homestead Air Reserve Base in southern Florida, which is about twenty-six miles southwest of here. The two drones need to cover a distance of approximately five-hundred eighty-seven miles. It'll take the drones about fifteen minutes to reach their destination at maximum speed. At the current state of flux that the planet is in right now, we can either expect little-to-no resistance or the worst conditions imaginable. We are truly flying in blind. This mission determines our next move. So, if all are ready to begin, we can get the flights underway."

As everyone agreed, Christian and Law both sat at their consoles to start the flights of the drones. Nadia looked over to Damien and clinched his hand knowing that this particular mission held their future up in the air. The rest of the room sat in silence as the mission continued.

Once the approach to Bermuda was imminent, the room was quiet as a pin drop. Law and Christian focused even harder to ensure the flight into the Triangle.

"We're approaching the threshold," Law announced. On the monitors was the view from the drones. The closer they got, the darker the skies seemed to get. "Crossing over in three, two, one..."

The storms inside the triangle were intense. Several tornadoes could be seen hovering over the waters. Lightning struck every five seconds. The electrical storms made it difficult to control the drones and navigate. As they manuvered through the storm, on the horizon, they noticed an island.

"You see that, Law. That's where we need to get to," Christian declared.

They headed full speed through the storm on their way to the island. As they got closer, massive tsunamis began to form coming in their direction. Immediately, they pulled up to avoid the wave only to fly deeper into the clouds where the worst of the electrical storms were. They did all that they could to avoid the lightning. But with the rain falling so hard, visibility was at a minimum. On their final approach, Christian's drone was struck in the rear by lightning and flying debris, forcing him to crash land on the island. As the dron was going down, Christian noticed something in the distance.

"Wait a second," he exclaimed. "Rewind the footage!"

Jayce began slowly rewinding the video from Christian's drone. As they were watching, everyone in the room noticed in the distance a large, circular object spinning at a high velocity.

"What is that?" Nadia questioned.

"Law, see if you can get in closer," Diamond commanded.

Law flew his drone through the storm, evading as much of the danger as he could. The island was full of dense, forested area. Suddenly, the drone picked up seismic activity on the island. Everyone knew that this had to be the epicenter.

As Law got closer to the object, he began circling it to get a better view. As it was spinning, electricity surrounded the object in a great deal. The weather in the area fluctuated in drastic fashion, raining and snowing at the same time. Small tremors shook the ground repeatedly giving the impression that the area was unstable at best. Just when Law began to fly away from the island, a violent tornado took the drone down and destroyed it.

Law and Christian got up from their consoles and each of the men sat in their seats. The room fell silent as they all tried to comprehend what it was that they had just saw.

"I think it's safe to say that it's time for me to pack my bags," Damien said. "I've got a bad feeling about this thing and if recent events have taught me anything, it's that I need to listen to my raw instincts. That thing is bad news."

Diamond began to suggest, "We can put together a couple of teams..."

"No teams," Damien interrupted. "Just me."

"D, we can't just let you go off on your own," Christian objected.

"This is my choice," Damien said. "You saw what just happened to those drones. I can't take the chance of someone I love getting hurt in the midst of that... or maybe even worse." Damien reached over and held Nadia's hand. "You guys are all that I have left. You're the only family that I have."

Suddenly, the building's alarm started blaring. Diamond quickly switched the monitors over to the security system. They couldn't believe their eyes. It was Morgan standing outside wreaking havoc.

Damien stood up and dropped his coat and went for the door.

"Where are you going?" Nadia asked.

"To end this...," he said as he bolted out the door to meet his sister in a final confrontation.