Read The Dragons of Men (The Sons of Liberty Book 2) for Free Online

tracking one fast moving bird coming in from the north. Comms are still dark. Can you see Chopper Six?”
    Gene jumped into the back and threw open the turret well. He stood next to the massive Pulsar weapon mounted on the roof and peered into the darkness ahead, the freezing wind washing over his grim face as the night sky filled his vision. Gene could vaguely hear the helicopter as it hovered somewhere ahead to their left. He searched for the incoming plane—hoping it was one of his Raptors that had failed to show earlier—but the two-story homes to the left obstructed his view. He checked the charge on the mounted Pulsar weapon before ducking back into the cab.
    “I can’t see—”
    A fiery light followed shortly by a loud explosion echoed back and forth between the low brick buildings. The screeching of a MIG fighter jet passed overhead, banking wide. Gene fired the mounted weapon. The electrical arch traveled at least three thousand feet into the sky before dissipating into a sizzling dance of sparks. Gene cursed as he missed completely and quickly began to charge the weapon again. The jet completed its circle, kicking on the afterburners as it did so. It let loose another missile just as the Humvee veered left onto Fourth.
    The missile struck the road far ahead and debris bounced around a low-lying overpass as the MIG drew closer. This time, Gene waited, taking aim and whispering one foul curse after another under his breath as the jet neared. He let loose a defiant roar and fired at the rapidly approaching plane. The concentrated arc of electricity—like a serrated bolt of lightning with electrical shoots branching off toward the heavens—enveloped the plane and the MIG’s afterburners behind it quickly shut off. The unmanned jet swayed briefly before tumbling lifelessly overhead, crashing into the buildings far out of sight to the right. Gene lowered back into the cab and looked forward as they rapidly approached the overpass.
    “I’ve heard of that new weapon,” Marc said as he looked back at Gene, “but I’d never thought—”
    Gene spotted a large shape just ahead in the tunnel—dark against the burning wreckage of the helicopter.
    “Look out!”
    Marc slammed on the brakes—the nose of the Humvee dipping down as Gene and Lev were thrown forward. The Humvee’s wide off-road tires shuddered underneath and Gene thought they were about to slam into whatever wreckage he had seen under the freeway. The tires finally seized the concrete below. They barely touched the dark heap in front of them as the Humvee came to a halt, throwing them all backwards this time. Gene immediately ripped the side door open, leaping out of the Humvee and onto the pavement.
    Distant rumblings continued to sound off from the city like poorly tuned drums, though they had slowed in frequency as Gene cautiously approached the tunnel. He looked back at the Humvee as Marc and Lev exited, motioning for them to watch the road behind them. Gene ran over to the wreckage—a half destroyed blue truck—and fumbled with his flashlight in one hand and his side arm in the other. His flashlight failed to immediately light up and he smacked it a few times. When the tiny LED bulbs finally ignited, Gene kneeled down and peered into the cab.
    Three men were strewn about inside the ruined truck. The man in the back stirred with a groan and the man in the passenger’s seat breathed slowly, his eyes closed. Gene ignored them momentarily as he leaned in and felt the pulse of the man who had been driving the truck—a man he hadn’t seen since leaving a cabin nestled in the Montana Mountains. A faint pulse beat against Gene’s finger, causing Gene to breathe again.
    “My God,” Gene whispered as he looked back at the others and shouted. “They’re alive!”

 
    C hapter O ne
    A Light in the Darkness
     
     
                  The man who couldn’t remember his name opened his eyes as the nightmare fled. He gazed out the narrow