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  STONE SOLDIER

  C.E. Martin

  Copyright 2013 by C.E. Martin

  Cover Art: C.E. Martin

  Editor: Karen Martin

  www.StoneSoldiers.info

  This book is a work of fiction. The characters, names, places and events are purely fictional and not based on any real event. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is an amazing coincidence and nothing more.

  All Rights Reserved. No portion of this work may be reproduced without the express written permission of the author, [email protected], with the exception of excerpts for the purposes of review or discussion, as explained in the Fair Use Act.

  For those who have served.

  STONE SOLDIER

  Captain Mark Kenslir would always remember the first time he died. The day of that first death had come so unexpectedly. March 20, 1962- the day before his thirty-fourth birthday.

  Seated in a chair outside the door to the bathroom of his small, shared apartment, Mark waited patiently for his wife to come out, reading the newspaper. He couldn’t understand what took Maria so long to get ready. He’d already shaved, polished his boots and put on his neatly pressed fatigue uniform.

  The door opened and Maria finally came out, brushing her long, wavy, black hair. As always, she wore slacks, black turtleneck and a labcoat. Doctor Guerrero was as fetching as the day Mark had been assigned to protect her. Nearly a year ago.

  The Army should have seen it coming- locking a gorgeous female scientist up in a secret lab, with a military intelligence officer as her twenty-four-hour-a-day, sole companion was bound to lead to complications. In this case, romantic complications.

  Maria smiled at Mark as she brushed her hair. “Ready to go back to work?”

  Maria was always excited about work. Until Mark had been assigned to her, it had been the singular passion that consumed her every waking minute.

  Mark folded his newspaper and tucked it under his arm. He stood up, almost subconsciously running a thumb over his new wedding band. It still felt strange to wear a ring. Mark looked down at his new, slightly-older wife. At six-foot, four-inches, he towered over the tiny Latina with sparkling brown eyes. And he wasn't just taller than her- he weighed more than twice as much. All of it lean muscle from years in the Army.

  “Tired of me already?” he asked, watching her with his green eyes.

  Maria laughed and handed Mark her hairbrush. She then turned and headed towards the apartment’s tiny kitchenette. Mark hurried to keep up with her.

  “That was a great honeymoon,” Maria said, sitting at their tiny table. “I still can’t believe you got them to let me out.”

  Maria hadn’t had a vacation- hadn’t walked outside the facility- in years. She’d remember her honeymoon vacation for a long time. Moving to the breakfast table, she picked up a piece of toast, watching as Mark sat down across from her. He set her hairbrush and his newspaper in one of two remaining empty chairs.

  “Until they find someone else like me, I’m pretty indispensable,” Mark said. “I tend to get what I want.”

  “Oh, is that how you got me?” Maria teased.

  Mark sputtered, embarrassed, unable to think of what to say. As he remembered it, it was the other way around.

  Maria quickly changed the subject- putting a small box on the table she had pulled from a pocket of her lab coat.

  “What's this?” Mark asked.

  “My wedding present to you,” Maria said.

  Mark picked up the small box, very surprised. He opened it- inside was a gold necklace, with a small, gold Christian fish pendant on it.

  “How’d you get this?” Mark asked. Maria hadn’t been more than fifteen feet away from him since the day they met.

  “You mean, how’d I get this when we're never apart?” Maria corrected, smiling mischievously. “I have lab assistants, remember?

  “Put it on,” Maria directed.

  Mark pulled the necklace from its box and slipped it over his head. He tucked it under his shirt to stay within uniform regulations.

  “Why the fish?” he asked.

  “I know how much you like the story of the bread and the fish,” Maria said.

  “Thanks- I like it,” Mark said, smiling at his wife.

  “I fig-” Maria started to say. She was interrupted by the ringing of a red phone, on a stand by the front door to the apartment. A red phone that was never supposed to ring.

  Maria and Mark exchanged worried glances, then Mark all but ran for the phone.

  “Kenslir,” Mark said into the phone pressed against his ear.

  Mark listened intently to the person on the other end for several moments. His face became grim.

  “I understand. I'll inform Dr. Guerrero,” Mark finally said.

  He hung up the phone and turned to face Maria.

  “There's been an accident in the lab,” he said sternly. “Someone dropped the basilisk eye into the Fountain.”

  All the color drained from Maria’s face at the implication of that statement. Of all the accidents that could happen on this project, this was at the top of her list of the worst possible.

  “Is anyone hurt?” Maria asked, standing up from her chair.

  “It fully regenerated,” Mark said solemnly. “At least three people were petrified before they lost communication with the chamber.”

  Maria swallowed. She remembered all too well what petrification was like.

  Mark hesitated. “It’s sealed in now.”

  Maria moved away from the breakfast table and hurried for the door. Those were here people down there.

  Mark grabbed her by the arm, stopping her.

  “We've got to get down there!” Maria declared.

  “We can't.”

  Maria couldn’t understand- of all the people in the building, Mark was the one who could go down to the lab now. Why was he hesitating?

  “Mark, those are my people down there! I can't just stay here!”

  Mark shook his head from side to side slowly. “Protocol says we keep it locked in until nightfall. Then it's problem solved.”

  “You have a protocol for someone dropping my basilisk eye in the Fountain and the whole creature regenerating?” Maria demanded.

  “It's the Army,” Mark answered. “We have protocols for everything.”

  Maria struggled to get free of her husband’s grip. “I need that eye, Mark,” she pleaded. “I’m so close to figuring out how it works!

  “If we lose that eye, we can't get another one,” she added.

  Mark considered his wife’s plea. He considered just how much time and how many resources had been put into the project. Reluctantly, he released his wife’s arm. She was right.

  “So you want me to go kill it and cut out its eye?” Mark asked. He dreaded the answer, but knew what it would be.

  “It was done once before,” Maria reminded him.

  “What if I get petrified?” Mark asked. Not that he really worried about that. It was the fangs and teeth part that bothered him.

  “That werewolf bite a few years ago didn't affect you,” Maria said calmly. “A lizard staring you in the eye shouldn't either.”

  Mark sighed. This was a test of his abilities he didn’t really want to take. But his wife was right. He turned and walked to a nearby closet door and opened it. Inside was his cache of emergency gear. Pistols, rifles, submachine guns. Grenades, explosives, web gear. Everything he might need to fight his way to the surface in any circumstance. Except maybe this one.

  Mark turned to his wife once more. “Fine, but you have to stay here. I'll know you'll be safe here.”

  Maria walked up to Mark and his gun closet. She reached past her husband and selected an M870, .12 gauge shotgun.

  “The safest place is
right next to you, dear,” she said.

  ***

  Many floors below Mark and Maria’s apartment, in the bowels of the Project, there was a long basement hallway. This hallway was nearly one hundred feet-long- lined with heavy blast doors that looked as though they could withstand most conventional munitions.

  The hallway itself was plain- a drop panel ceiling with fluorescent lights and vents, hanging over a simple tiled floor. At one end of the hallway, there was a large freight elevator- also with heavy, steel doors.

  An eerie stillness was in the hallway. Only the hum of the lights could be heard.

  The freight elevator doors suddenly opened.

  Mark was now carrying a Thompson submachine gun, and wearing a belt supporting a .45 semi-auto pistol and a number of canister-shaped grenades. Maria was still in her lab coat, clutching her shotgun with anxiety.

  They both covered the area of the hallway with their guns- but it was still clear. Nothing could escape the chamber and its heavy blast door.

  Maria nodded at the ceiling. “Watch where you shoot- there are pipes running overhead with natural gas in them.”

  She knew she didn’t need to say that- she’d seen Mark firing on the range. He was a crack shot. The comment was more for herself. She wished she’d spent more time at the range.

  Mark reached across to a handset hung up in the elevator. He pressed it to his ear as it connected to the Project’s main control room.

  “Open it,” he ordered.

  The control room didn’t like this plan. They were still trying to reach Command for authorization. But everyone knew this was the only chance the people in the lab had.

  Midway down the hall, the chamber’s heavy blast door popped open a few inches. Hidden hydraulics took over, slowly swinging the door outwards. Faint wisps of steam and the acrid smell of electrical fires wafted out of the chamber.

  The door swung to its half-open position and stopped.

  Mark and Maria took a tentative step forward, out of the elevator. They held their weapons at hip-height, side by side.

  From beyond the blast door came a strange skittering noise- claws. Claws on tile. The basilisk suddenly darted out from behind the door.

  It was a hideous creature. Nearly twelve feet long, with a vaguely reptilian head, surrounded by a bony plate with spikes- like a dinosaur. Beyond its head the creature had a bright plumage of feathers down to its shoulders. Like its shimmering scales, the feathers were blood red.

  A purple, forked tongue darted in and out of the lizard’s mouth as it tasted the air. It immediately tasted the scent of the two humans. It hissed and turned to face Mark and Maria.

  “Don't shoot its eyes!” Maria reminded Mark.

  Mark already had his Thompson up, held tight against his shoulder, lining his sights up. He fired a quick burst at the side of the basilisk facing him.

  The .45 caliber rounds slammed into the beast’s scales, directly behind its front legs. A perfect kill shot, directly over the heart. Except the rounds ricocheted off the scales.

  Mark looked over at his wife, worry on his face. “You didn't tell me it was bulletproof.”

  The basilisk felt the impact of the bullets. It roared in anger then turned toward the far end of hall and Mark and Maria.

  Maria stepped forward, lifting her shotgun to her shoulder as her husband had taught her. “You aren’t using a big enough gun!”

  Maria aimed and fired her shotgun as the basilisk began running toward them. The massive deer slug went wide, missing the charging basilisk and tearing a chunk out of the wall.

  Mark decided this was a bad plan and it was time to change it. He threw down his Thompson.

  “Sorry, dear,” he said, shoving his wife back into the elevator while he watched the approaching basilisk.

  Mark quickly pulled an incendiary grenade off his belt, glad the creature couldn’t run that fast.

  Maria nearly fell down in the elevator, but quickly recovered. Her eyes widened in horror at the sight of the grenade in Mark’s hand.

  “Mark! No!” she yelled.

  Mark pulled the pin on the grenade in his hand then gave it an underhanded toss forward.

  The basilisk skidded to a halt, perplexed by the approaching canister. Then it opened its mouth and swallowed the grenade. A second later, it spit the grenade back out.

  “Oh, crap,” Mark said as the grenade bounced and rolled across the floor, back toward him.

  Only a dozen feet away from Mark, the grenade detonated- releasing a cloud of fire and molten metal. A split-second after that, a second detonation erupted- the gas lines overhead exploding.

  ***

  When Mark Kenslir’s ears stopped ringing and his vision cleared, he found himself under a large concrete beam. Fire burned in the hallway and most of the lights were out. He tried to get up, but the debris covering his chest and legs wouldn’t budge. All he could do was turn his head enough to look into the elevator.

  Maria was standing up in the elevator- blood trickling down her face from a scalp wound while the left sleeve of her lab coat burned. She hastily began to remove the jacket.

  Mark suddenly realized that the debris covering him wasn’t just crushing him beneath its weight- the debris was on fire. He struggled against the burning debris. He began to feel the heat from the flames.

  Maria finally got her labcoat off and threw it down. She had to hold on to the open doors of the elevator to stay standing. Suddenly, she spied her husband, pinned under the flaming debris.

  “Mark!” Maria screamed. She turned and lunged for the fire extinguisher in the elevator.

  Mark began to scream. He was in agonizing pain- the fire had finally reached his flesh.

  Maria ripped the fire extinguisher from the wall and fumbled with the safety pin while her husband slowly burned to death.

  Maria turned back to Mark, swinging the fire extinguisher around. Her flesh began to turn gray in color, and her movements slowed until she remained frozen in place.

  The last image Mark saw before the flames engulfed his head was of his wife turning to stone.

  ***

  He was surprised when he awoke. He felt oddly alive. He was in near darkness. Not complete darkness- there was a faint green glow. It was coming from him- his body was glowing faintly.

  Mark Kenslir looked around and realized he was still trapped under the heavy concrete beam and debris. The air smelled like there had been a massive fire. Strangely he felt pretty good for having been burned over most of his body. In fact, he felt strong. Very strong.

  He slowly pushed at the concrete beam across his chest. He was able to move it aside with relative ease.

  He sat up slowly in the hallway. Then he suddenly leapt to his feet. Maria! he thought.

  The glow coming from his body wasn’t quite bright enough to see where he was going- just a faint light he could distinguish from the blackness around him. He took a few steps, and realized he was barefooted. He reached down to his legs. They were bare. Very quickly he realized his clothes were gone, burnt off by the fire.

  Instead of clothing, he now wore a thick sludge of melted plastic and ash. It clung to him like grease. Beneath the soot-like material, his skin felt unharmed. No sign of any burns or cuts.

  Kenslir took several steps, reaching out and feeling along the walls, finding his way until he finally entered the freight elevator where he had last seen his wife. He felt around in the darkness. There was no body. He felt relieved.

  Kenslir stood again and worked his way down the corridor- the corridor that had exploded when he set off a thermite grenade. A grenade intended to kill the basilisk that had escaped the Fountain Chamber.

  Kenslir was worried now. He began to move faster, almost breaking into a run. His eyes were adjusting to the light now. Or rather, the lack of it. He could make out dim shapes. Like that of the still-open door to the Fountain Chamber.

  He paused outside the door, listening.

  Inside the chamber there was a st
range sound. A wet, smacking sound. Followed by cracking.

  He eased around the door.

  By the edge of the Fountain pool, he saw the basilisk. The twelve-foot long creature, larger than an alligator, was eating- human flesh. Kenslir could see the splayed limbs of its victim, the great spot of blood on the floor. The red-scaled creature, with its bright, red feather mane had already eaten at least one other person- chewing up their organs and stomach like a tiger. The body was so mutilated, Kenslir wasn’t sure who it was.

  The creature finished and turned to its right.

  There, Kenslir could make out two gray forms, toppled over. Both appeared to be women. One wore a labcoat, the other had on a turtle neck and slacks. Maria- Kenslir’s wife.

  Both women were turned to stone.

  The basilisk looked at the first woman for several seconds. She abruptly turned back to flesh, gasping for air as though she’d been holding her breath. She started to scream. The basilisk pounced on her, its jaws snapping shut on her face. With a twist of its head, it broke the woman’s neck, ending her shrieks.

  Then it began to eat her, starting with her stomach.

  Kenslir looked around in the darkness. The basilisk hadn’t seen him yet, but there didn’t appear to be any weapons handy. The lab was a wreck- wiring, pipes- even metal walkways twisted and torn, dangling at odd angles. A massive explosion and fire had swept through here as well.

  “Argh!” Kenslir yelled. His body was suddenly wracked with pain and he doubled over. His back arched and his fingers and toes curled up painfully. The green glow coming from his body intensified.

  The basilisk whirled around at the noise and saw Kenslir. It opened its mouth and hissed, and its eyes glowed an unearthly yellow.

  Kenslir felt his canine teeth lengthening. He felt hair sprouting all over his body as his muscles swelled and bulged beneath his skin. At first he couldn’t understand what was happening. Then it hit him.

  It was the curse of the werewolf.

  Kenslir remembered instantly his fight with a werewolf so many years before. Remembered killing the creature after it wounded him. He also remembered that today was the day of a full moon.