Shatterbones

 

SHATTERBONES

Robert Brown

 

www.severedpress.com

Copyright 2016 by Robert Brown


 

This book is dedicated to my amazing wife and partner of seventeen years. You are my one blade of grass.

Chapter One

Blue Haze

Link-In Initiated

 

12:37PM

Washington D.C.

 

The distinct popping sound of gunfire can be heard echoing through the armored and reinforced interior of Air Force One. Four Secret Service agents rush up the stairs into the president’s traveling office at the top of the jet’s cabin.

The president is pushed through the communications room and into a corner of the lounge just outside the cockpit door. The agents take positions around the room hoping to save the president’s life. Two other people in the office follow protocol and crouch to the sides of the aircraft to stay out of the agents’ line of fire to the stairs. The third man, General McKinnon, draws his own weapon and takes position in line next to the agents. They all await the approaching threat to enter or for the all clear to be given.

“What’s happening out there? Is it terrorists? Did someone sneak on board with the press pool?”

A violent shudder reverberates through the 747 followed by the sudden loss of gravity as the plane begins to quickly descend toward the earth. Shouted warnings are given over the intercom as the president and his men are thrown against the ceiling of the craft.

“Massive depressurization detected. We are making an emergency descent to eight thousand feet.”

Immediately after the aircraft begins its controlled fall, the noise of gunfire ends and the clamor of screams and shouting echo up the stairwell to the men. The president watches lead agent Barlow holding his hand to his ear, getting filled in on his earpiece even as he works to steady himself on the ceiling and readies for the gravity to return.

A chill runs along the president’s spine when he sees the fear etched on the face of this man he thought was made of stone.

“It’s still heading to the president. We have to move him into the cockpit!”

“Get ready, Mr. President. The pilot is leveling the plane and will open the cockpit door. As soon as you are inside, they will lock that door, strap you in and we’ll continue our descent.”

“How many of you are coming with me?”

“Mr. President, someone is back there tearing the plane apart and killing everyone. If it makes it past us and into the cockpit…”

His words are interrupted by the odd sensation caused as the aircraft slowly levels and the men awkwardly drift to the ground. As soon as they touch, a somewhat familiar face appears at the top of the stairs and the men begin firing at the target.

The approaching man’s movements are blurred with speed. Few rounds are able to be fired from the firearms defending the president, fewer still find purchase in the flesh of this attacker and none are causing him to slow down. He grabs an agent with one hand and tosses him against the back wall with an impossible force. A horrendous cracking sound is emitted as his body hits the solid surface.

After placing his remaining bullets center mass into the assailant’s chest, a second agent is folded backward and in half by the massive arms of the pale white attacker. As the seconds tick on, the president watches as one by one, each of the men defending him die. The cockpit door behind him opens and a co-pilot attempts to pull the president to safety, but the president grabs onto the door frame to keep from being pulled in and watches the creature approach him.

His mind is locked in turmoil as he looks at the pale white body stepping forward. The towering and muscular man before him has the president’s face but the first lady’s eyes and is familiar while at the same time completely unknown.

With bodies littered around the galley and office of the upper deck, the president stands face to face with the blood-stained head and body of someone he now admits to himself that he knows.