Pasha looked back at Reece quizzically for a moment before realization dawned on him. The Cape was a known location and right on the coast. He had an idea of what Reece might have had in mind. Nodding quickly, Pasha went to work typing the coordinates into the console. A moment later and the Phoenix spit out the answer to hsi query.

“Ahhh, we could reach the Cape in about forty-five minutes at our current speed,” answered Pasha. “Any faster, and it gets dicey. This is still an experimental jet and pushing it too hard could be catastrophic. That being said, if you want, I’ll push her harder.”

“No, I don’t think that’ll be necessary,” replied Reece.

“Aika, do you think you could use the comms on this jet to make contact with a long-range comms signal?” asked Reece.

“Yeah, easily. But this jet belonged to the Order. They’d be able to hear our entire conversation and even track both sides of it, exposing the other side.”

“What about a private channel?” asked Reece.

“Yeah, that would work. You’d need the exact code of the transceiver on the other side to make the connection, though,” replied Pasha.

“Great, I have one," said Reece. "It’s for the remnants of our actual ground control. They are still on the aircraft carrier they had evacuated to during the start of the zombie plague. We were able to contact them eventually and have been coordinating our tactics with them for a while now.”

“Great, what’s your plan?” asked Aika, unbuckling herself. She swiftly got up and moved to the co-pilot’s seat to set up the communications link.

“Well, I know they have artillery, so they may have something that can help us clear out the rest of these flying bastards,” explained Reece. “And besides, I need to know if any of my community made it out alive.”

Reece kept an eye on the flying Frankenstein monsters through the viewscreen of the rear tail gun. They had maintained their distance so far, but Reece stayed vigilant in case they got impatient.

“Alright, I’ve got it set up, and removed the monitoring devices. What’s the code?” Aika called out.

Reece relayed the code to her, and she input it into the communications computer. Then she put on a small wireless headset and activated the link.

“Aika, can you patch us all into the comms channel?” asked Reece.

“Sure,” replied Aika as she flipped a few switches, “All done. She paused a moment before saying, “Ground Control, do you copy?”

A few seconds passed, and then “Zzzzzt...identify yourself.... Over....zzzt,” came the curt reply.

“Just tell them who you are and who’s with you,” Reece instructed her.

“This is Aika Takahashi, formerly of the Zhengzhou Space Station. We are in an experimental aircraft, designation - ‘Phoenix One’. I have Pasha Novak and Reece Danielson here with me. Over,” she spoke into the headset.

There was a long delay after that. Finally, a new voice came over the link.

“Zzzzt...This is Angel Hernandez, also formerly of the Zhengzhou. All the people you claim to be are dead, so why don’t you tell us who you really are. Over.”

“Hey bud,” replied Reece, “I’m glad to hear your voice. When the gargoyles carried me away at the Cape, it didn’t look good for you all. Did everyone else make it? Over.”

“By Helio’s flaming balls, it is you! By the gods, bud,” gasped Angel. “But they told me you had Aika and Pasha with you. I thought you told me they died in the crash?”

“Yeah, I did,” responded Reece. “They both did die in the crash, but it didn’t keep for either of them. It isn’t my place to say what happened.”

“I’m... some kind of vampire now,” cut in Aika. “Can’t tell you why... don’t know how it happened. But I’m still me.”

“And I’m a phoenix... you know, rises from the ashes and all that. Thing is, I go male to female or vice versa every time it happens. So, you know, there’s that. Over.” added Pasha, his voice making it sound as if was the most normal thing in the world.

“Well...uh, alright then...I guess,” came Angel’s flabbergasted response, “Oh, and we all made it out alive. We can’t explain it, Reece. We were all worn out and about to be overwhelmed, but something happened right after you were taken.”

“We all felt a surge of energy and were able to redouble our efforts in the battle. Then that giant worm thing started acting weird, quivering and such instead of attacking. You should have seen it, the whole top of the worm literally fell off its other half.”

“It was Karina,” he chuckled. “She cut the cursed thing in half from the inside. She was also juiced up with energy and covered in guts. We fought the zombie army off while several jets from GC’s carrier laid waste to their air force of flying monsters. Our little fleet arrived, and we were able to wipe out most of the army before retreating to the carrier. So, now that we have that out of the way, what’s going on? Over.”

“Well, we’ve commandeered a jet and are on our approach,” said Reece, “Unfortunately, we’re coming in hot with heaps of trouble on our six. These things are bigger and faster than gargoyles. We should be at the Cape in under thirty minutes. Do you think you can support us evading these bastards? Over.”

A minute passed before they got a response.

“Yeah, we can support that,” answered Angel, “Keep coming, and don’t slow down. We’ll have you covered. Over.”

“Copy that, and thanks,” finished Reece, “We’ll see you soon. Over and out.”

Aika deactivated speaker mode but kept the comms link active. Both she and Pasha flew on in silence. The lull in their constant struggle allowed Reece’s other struggle to invade his mind again. The unceasing fighting and fleeing had finally paused, giving Reece a brief respite from his thoughts.

Now, he had time to think, and a mix of guilt and fear settled over his mind. He felt like Naeva and Ciera could probably roll with it without too much fuss, but he wasn’t so sure about Karina. Still, it didn’t matter what the outcome would be. He had to tell them all about his gift and how their feelings for him were most likely false. Thinking about it made his blood run cold all over again.

As he was contemplating the revelation of his gift, he started noticing movement in the ranks of the flyers.

“Aika,” Reece immediately called out, “I think they may be up to something.”

“Be right there,” answered Aika as she quickly swapped seats, unbuckling and buckling with her inhuman speed.

Within five seconds, she had the helmet on and was tracking the same movements as Reece with the other tail gun. As they watched, the flyers spread out behind them. Some began moving alongside them as well as above and below.

“I think they’re going to try to flank us and attack from all directions at once,” informed Reece, “Pasha, we’re going to need you to take evasive action. We can’t swap guns fast enough to keep them all at bay.”

“Roger that,” replied Pasha before lamenting. “How are these things able to move so fast?”

“I don’t know, but they can and that’s what matters right now,” said Reece.

“Well, I won’t be able to use the terrain to lose them as we are directly over the middle of the gulf right now,” explained Pasha.

“Here they come,” called out Reece, cutting him off.

Both Reece and Aika started with the long-ranged missiles before switching back to guns to take down the creatures as they closed the gap. They only spent a few seconds on the tail guns shooting down several creatures apiece before switching over to the wing guns and taking down a couple of incoming flyers from those angles as well. The missiles and bullets did their job of ripping the flyers apart, but they still had above and below to worry about.

“I’m going to give you a shot, be ready,” yelled out Pasha.

Then he tilted the jet on its side, bringing the top and bottom of the jet in-line with Reece and Aika’s respective kill zones. Both didn’t delay in making use of the opportunity and blew the rapidly approaching flyers out of the sky.

“All clear,” called Reece.

“All clear,” added Aika.

“Radar shows them backing off again. It looks like we convinced them to wait until we land before they attack,” said Pasha as she righted the jet. Then adding a few seconds later, “Uh, we got a small group of incoming from directly ahead.”

“Phoenix One, this is Ground Control. We have fighters inbound. They should already be on your radar. Over.”

The Phoenix crew all drew a sigh of relief.

“That’s great news,” replied Pasha, “We still have a heap of bandits on our six. Over.”

“Copy that, just hang on a minute longer. Over.”

“Copy. Standing by, well, not really. We’re coming in hot. Over,” replied Pasha before addressing Aika and Reece, “Okay, I’m gonna slow us down. That should draw more in, see how many you can take out.”

Reece and Aika both focused on their tail guns as they felt the jet lurch when it rapidly slowed down. By the time the flying bat-things started slowing to match, many were well within range. Both Reece and Aika let loose with a couple of cluster missiles before switching to guns. Over a dozen dropped from the sky before the rest decided to take this opportunity to attack as a group. Once they began their aerial charge, Pasha hit the afterburners and dove.

By the time Reece recovered from the maneuver, they were slowing and pulling back up. Pasha completed a full loop, rolling the jet over to come upright as they finished the circle. They were now facing back into the cloud of flying monsters. Reece and Aika quickly swapped to the front guns and saw a dogfight breaking out on their viewscreens.

Several fighter aircraft of various models had engaged the monstrous enemies and were downing them in droves with a combination of seeker missiles, cluster missiles, and large-caliber guns. The monsters weren’t push-overs and outnumbered the jets over ten to one. Several of the jets were already in trouble. As Pasha brought them into the fray, Aika and Reece started blasting the things out of the air as fast as they could. Between them and the cavalry, it was raining bat-creatures into the gulf, many kilometers below. Reece saw three jets get taken down before the riders of the bat-monsters must have changed their minds and retreated.

“Thanks, Ground Control,” Pasha said excitedly over the comms. “You totally saved our bacon there. You have our sympathies for your losses, but it looks like the enemy is in full retreat. Over.”

“Glad to help,” came the reply, “And don’t worry about the jets. All three that went down were controlled remotely. No one died. Besides, we owe you one. That drive you recovered from Zhengzhou turned out to be a treasure trove. Follow your escort back to us and we’ll fill you in. I have a feeling we have a lot of intel to share. Over and Out.”

Reece watched through the view screen to see the remaining fighters form a defensive escort for them as they headed towards the Cape. They encountered no more surprises, and Reece saw land after a few minutes. It took another twenty minutes or so to cross Florida before they overflew the Cape and approached an enormous aircraft carrier a few kilometers off the coast. It must have been one of the newer carriers because it didn’t have a landing strip. Only jets equipped with vertical take-off and landing capability could be utilized by the carrier. Luckily, three quarters of the U.S.’s inventory of aircraft had that capability.

Reece watched the descent while Pasha was guided down to a landing platform designated for their use. Once they were close, Reece removed and stored the helmet. He noticed Aika had already done the same. The jet’s descent abruptly stopped as it contacted the flat surface of the vessel with its landing gear, springing up and down slightly as it settled in.

Two minutes later, the trio had collected their few possessions and were walking down the Phoenix’s ramp and onto the deck of the state-of-the-art carrier, aptly designated the U.S.S. Hunter.