Meta and the Marines II Chapter 17

A different take on the traditional M/M werewolf romance topic: less romantic, less traditional, more disturbing and with conniving wolves, vampires and submissive marines.


Comments or requests for more of Meta (& the Marines) can be emailed to Meta.JohnAR@gmail.com.

Depending on reception, I will post more chapters.


And if any military boy wants to start a MetaPack, let me know ...

JAR

Meta & the Marines

CHAPTER 17

Properly equipped he made his way across the parking lot again heading to the party. Avoiding the mess on his second attempt to get to the location, he heard an, this time, unpleasantly familiar voice: "Colt."

He looked around.

MaryAnn.

MaryAnn stood at the end of the parking lot in her full glory, dark gleaming eyes, long fingernails and an outfit worthy of a lady of 1873 in South Carolina. Maybe more like a vamp than a vampire.

He swallowed. He had been right. Again. Unfortunately.

"Good evening, MaryAnn." He didn't know why he tried to be polite. That wouldn't be helping him now.

"Hi, Colt. On your way to the graduation party?" she asked as if this sentence was the key for their encounter.

"Indeed. You're well informed." He was still calm.

"Comes with the assignment, you know." `What was this? Banter?'

"Not really. What do you want?" Colt's body was preparing itself to be attacked. He tried to bring all of CE's training to the surface.

"Guess."

"A dance partner?" Colt teased her, remembering the Alpha3 Halloween party.

"Nice try, dog lover."

"Wolves, but surely you know that," he said trying to stay calm. "So what else then?"

"I'm going to get you today," she answered unapologetically.

"I thought we had an agreement," Colt argued knowing well enough it wouldn't help to change her mind, but it would buy him time.

MaryAnn smiled full of fake sympathy approaching him. "We had. But with your graduation ceremony the deal has ended."

"You're really not wasting time it seems," Colt tried to sound confident. "The graduation party is still part of my college year." He knew he sounded like a sea lawyer.

"Oh stop it." She seemed to get tired of the game. "You know only in your own fantasy you're so cunning to cut deals with vampires. In reality you're just a pitiful college graduate." She came closer.

He could smell her now clearly: oil. Somehow he'd smelt that scent today already. He didn't remember when and where.

"Nothing is going to stop me dealing with you today." The way she stressed the word `deal' didn't sound encouraging.

So it was official now. `She wants to kill me -- finally,' he thought. He wanted to run, but couldn't. His voice cracked. "Prime!" He knew, though, that the green-eyed marine wolf shifter wasn't around.

MaryAnn smiled patronizingly coming another step closer to him. Walking not levitating. Was she vampire or not?

"Prime doesn't exist. And you know that," she said like to a little boy, who was talking about his invisible friend. She obviously tried to fuck with his head.

"CE!"

"Who's that? Another one of your fantasy dog friends? Whose picture do you use to do unspeakable dirty things to yourself at night?" He wondered whether she was genuinely disgusted or just played the role to unsettle him.

"Brian! Sam!"

"Oh sure, in your dreams you're such a stud, getting all this action with hunky boys. -- I mean are they sandwiching you? Or what do your invisible friends do to you in your sick mind?" she continued her attempt to undermine his sense of reality. Or was her reality the only real one? Was he dreaming again? Or was he finally getting to the end to this drug trip? Was he actually still in his dorm, two years away from his graduation? His brain got dizzy thinking through all the potential alternative worlds scenarios.

She was barely two steps away. Her stink had become overwhelming - oily, metallic, revoltingly decaying - far away from her usual light face cream oil scent he remembered from class last year. She even smiled a bit when she put her right hand on his shoulder, nearly gently, nearly caringly, nearly motherly. "You have always known that this has just been a wet dream for you. No sexy wolves anywhere near, I think. But I'm here to tell you that it's over now." And with that she squeezed, her grip was like an iron vice.

Colt winced without shame, he cried out loud. He went to his knees as he'd done before in front of vampires. His right hand was desperately rummaging in his pocket, but he couldn't find it, the pain was too strong.

"Oh you poor boy. Such a vibrant fantasy -- at least for a bookkeeper -, getting fucked by hunky wolves and killing robot vampires," she said condescendingly at his attempts.

"But ..."

"Shhh. Just accept it. It has just been a naughty teenager dream."

The pain shot through his body. He started to give in into it. Not to the physical pain caused by MaryAnn, but the pain of the angst he was alone again; potentially had always been alone; the pain of having to assume that his pack had just been a long, much too long, much too good to be true dream, drug trip or hallucination over the past two years.

"You should have chosen differently," she said again mysteriously.

He still hadn't figured out what she actually meant with that. But that had to wait.

And then he found what he was looking for: His custom-made dagger, a gift by his very real wolves, went into MaryAnn's chest with a speed and precision CE would be proud of.

"What the hell?" she asked looking first at the dagger and then at the nerd with surprise and disgust.

"Take this, you bitch," he added quietly, pushing the dagger in further. "My wolves not being real, fuck that, bitch," he shouted at her with rage. "You are soon so not going to be real."

Once she'd recovered from her surprise, she tried to grab the dagger with her elegant hands and pull it out -- exactly as `his' first dead vampire had attempted. And then she broke into laughter.

Now it was Colt's turn to be stunned about the turn of events. Why wasn't she vanquished? Why didn't her meat rot?

She answered to his confusion with a hint of arrogance. "Oh, Colt, you might have been able to kill some simple vampire peasants; but you really don't know me, do you? You don't know who I really am?" She let go of the dagger sticking in her chest and approached Colt again ignoring the weapon in her.

Grabbed his shoulder again.

Unbearable pain. He swore if he got out of this alive he would have a serious talk with Brian. `Why did a dagger driven into the heart of a vampire not kill it instantaneously?' All CE's training had been in vain.

When he was kneeling again, with a determined MaryAnn smiling at him victoriously despite a dagger in her chest, he closed his eyes, whispering, "Now would be good time," sending out his waterfall scents.

---

His head ached, his back ached, his hands were burning; no, his whole body was on fire. He looked at the silver torture instruments and tried to stay sane. He saw the first half-deads approaching him. He couldn't give in to the pain or to the restriction of his hands. He had to stay awake; he had to fight the half-deads. He had to defend his pack and his brother.

So much pain, tears running down his cheeks. It burned so bad. Pain he wanted to give in to like to one of the sirens, to make it go away, to stop hurting him.

`No,' something in him said. `You need to stay strong.'

Something cold touched him. He kicked it, it was pushed away. But more kept coming. He couldn't hold out anymore. Too much pain.

---

An ocher-colored beast jumped over the kneeling Colt pushing MaryAnn to the pavement. When the wolf had landed he turned around to attack again.

Colt smiled when he saw how - for second time today - MaryAnn had to realize her plan didn't work out as planned. Not the first time when Colt had gone back to the car to get his dagger as he'd felt something was going to happen; and where he had met Isaac returning from Fate knows where; and now the second time that this very unexpectedly returning Isaac had come to his rescue as planned.

Isaac had found Colt who sat in his car on the parking lot to look for his dagger. Colt had realized he was reliving his nightmare. That he would get to face MaryAnn and that he might die today. He felt with all the training he had got in the past years and a dagger he could face a vampire successfully.

So Isaac suddenly showing up was a little bit of a miracle. And one of those coincidences, which made Colt suspicious. But Colt's heart jumped with joy seeing the blond marine getting out of his rental. He had lost weight, and he had some fresh scars on his face, but he was alive and he had come back to them.

He quickly went out of the car and hugged the wolf. "Welcome home, Isaac."

"Thanks, Meta, I already thought you guys had given up on me."

"Why?" Colt was confused.

"No phone number worked, no messages. I thought after 6 months of me not talking to you guys as I was on that special assignment, you had enough."

Colt smelled the pain Isaac had felt today. He sent him fresh waterfall and grape scents, saying: "Never. Something is just wrong with our phones today. Don't fully understand it. Can't get through to my pack. It's very disturbing."

"And what are you doing here?" Isaac's voice nearly had a reproachful element imitating Prime's.

"Getting to my graduation party."

"Nice."

"I thought so, but you coming back is much nicer," Colt said touching the marine's upper arm with his hand, enjoying the little electricity jolts he got and the fresh smell of sea and small ripe apricots.

Isaac smiled like a girl who got a pony for Christmas. "Thank you, Sir. I missed you so much."

"So did we, so did I." Colt knew it wasn't `love' yet, but the scent addiction was too strong to be denied.

"Where are the wolves? Why are you alone?" Isaac's reprimanding voice again.

"I don't know, I think already at the party."

"They wouldn't let you walk through campus alone in the dark, would they?" Isaac doubted.

"No contact, so I don't know. Couldn't get coordinated," Colt updated the blond hunk briefly. "Anyway, I need your help as enforcer, now."

Isaac straightened his back instinctively and listened carefully to his orders.

"What the hell?" MaryAnn looked at the beast. "How many fucking wolves do you have?"

Colt chuckled relieved. "Obviously too many for you, you bitch." Then he said to Isaac's wolf: "Kill her."

The beast leapt. But he fell into thin air.

MaryAnn had vanished. The dagger falling on to the pavement with a `clink' sound.

The wolf looked at him confused.

Colt shrugged, before he picked up his dagger. "I have no clue, Isaac. -- Can you shift back, please? I have the feeling we need to find our pack now."

After the usual nauseating noise of going through the shift, Isaac got dressed and came back to Colt.

"You are ok?" was Isaac's concerned question. He'd never seen a human fighting a vampire.

"Yes, I'm fine. Just confused this bitch doesn't want to die once and for all. Dagger, wolves, nothing seems to end her," he answered. He thought: `Maybe she isn't a vampire after all. But she can't be human either, as she wouldn't have survived the dagger.' He cleared his mind. "But we'll worry about that later. Now we need to find Prime and the others."

"Let's go to the party then." Isaac wouldn't have minded a beer. The humidity outside was unpleasant.

"I don't think they're there. MaryAnn had planned this - to get me alone the minute our deal had ended. And I'm sure she wants to get the wolves as well. She hates them. Actually, I'm pretty sure they aren't at the party," he continued, "as you would be able to smell them. Something is blocking the wolf scent."

"And how do we find them if I can't smell them?"

"Here," he showed his leather band. His first Christmas gift. "Put it on to my left arm."

Isaac looked a bit puzzled.

"DO IT!" Colt shouted. Now that he was out of danger he felt all the more clearly that his pack was in difficulties.

"Doing it," Isaac said quickly noticing his wolf was unhappy that he'd doubted his Meta's orders. With a bit clumsy fingers he started to wrap it around the nerd's arm shifting his shirtsleeve up as if he wanted to take blood. He pulled the strings together fastening the band over the thin arm, making a nice little bow at the end.

"And now?"

"Wait. Don't touch me."

Isaac took a step back. He'd seen a lot of strange stuff in his life. And recently even worse: hundreds of vampires attacking his marines in Afghanistan. But what was this boy onto? He observed how Colt closed his eyes and put his fingers on to the little threads he had felt when he had put the band onto the Meta. How was this band going to help them? The body of the boy shook a bit as if bracing itself against a gust, but nothing else changed.

When Colt opened his eyes, he said calmly: "They are under attack, handcuffed, and I know where they are. Let's go."

Isaac ran next to the boy to the truck, hopped into it, which Colt drove like a little maniac.

"Shift, Isaac, the minute I stop, jump into the building and try to defend them, I will join you as quickly as possible."

"Okay, you're sure about this?" Isaac's wolf wasn't happy about this question, Isaac noticed.

"Yes, MaryAnn wants to kill them exactly there where we killed her brothers and sisters."

"Wow, and I thought Afghanistan was heavy."

Colt looked to the cute blond marine and winked with his eye, covering his worries.

Pain, nothing but pain.

Colt hit the brakes in front of Gregory Hall.

When he had moved his senses through the vortex he'd seen the patterns on the floor, the open orifice, the bound wolves lying on the floor surrounded by half-deads. He'd immediately known where they were kept.

Isaac jumped out and started to shift as ordered, while Colt ran to the door and pushed it open.

The oil stink brought him nearly to his knees. Dozens of half-deads were looking at him with confusion. Many more ignored him surrounding his half-conscious wolves.

And then Isaac's ocher wolf, big and scary with a spine-shattering growl, jumped into building making vampires run away from him for their `half-life.'

But there were too many of them for Isaac to deal with on his own, Colt had realized quickly; he had to act decisively. "Help me to get to Prime," he ordered quietly. He didn't have to shout, the wolf would hear him.

Isaac pushed to the left, clearing a way, separating the vampires in front of him like Moses the sea.

Colt followed him closely, holding on to his dagger. And indeed an ugly fat vampire came too close for his comfort. He stabbed him. He didn't think about it all, didn't wait for a movement of attack, he just stabbed him instinctively. He didn't even let the dagger get stuck in the decaying vampire body, but pulled it back, ignoring the rotting flesh and moving on. "Okay, keep those stinking creatures off me while I attend to Prime," he said, sensing Isaac's presence now at his back.

Prime was shaking. He didn't realize anymore what was going on or that Colt had come. His wrists seemed burnt black. He wore handcuffs. Horrendous punishment handcuffs.

Colt remembered: Anyone strong enough could put them on a wolf, but only his alpha could take them off. He suppressed the question of who would have been strong enough to put the cuffs on Prime or CE, hoping that he could open them now.

He touched them, as Prime had shown him months ago when he instructed him on how to handle punishment handcuffs: He put his thumbs on the hinge and fingers on the ring. And as if by magic, the cuffs opened up slowly. Impatiently he removed them from Prime's wrists and threw them against one of the attacking half-deads.

Colt moved to Prime's head, looking into the dark green eyes with flickering lids. His hand touched the face of the beautiful red-haired marine whose pine scent had gone stale like that of a cut tree after some weeks. "Prime, I know we had this before, but you need to get out of this again. Come back to us, we need your help. I need your help. Isaac is back, he needs you to fight with him, he can only deal with those bastards for so long by himself. And your brother needs your protection right now. -- I'm going to see CE, please come back," He whispered with tears in his eyes.

Isaac fought like the wolf enforcer he was, but he started to get hit more and more from the half deads. One of them even bit his hind leg until he had thrown him against the wall. He felt that he slowly was getting tired.

Colt rolled over to land next to CE, who stared into nothing, foam coming out of his mouth. The pain had pushed him over the edge. Nevertheless, Colt quickly touched the cuffs as before. Thumbs and finger on the right places, and again they opened. He threw them away, chastely kissing CE on his forehead. "Come back, big guy, your pack is under attack."

CE's eyes flickered in recognition, but it would take time until he had recovered enough to fight.

Isaac howled with pain, another of the vampires got him on his legs. This time he couldn't push him away.

"You fucking assholes," Colt shouted moving to the vampires attacking Isaac. He stabbed on of them from behind, vanquishing him easily. The others moved back a bit, giving Isaac more space to maneuver allowing him to go into attack mode again.

Colt ran to Sam, who was getting surrounded by more vampires. Isaac made sure they got pushed away.

Colt again removed the handcuffs. "Sam, I know you're there. I know you're young and strong; and I know you love this pack as much as I do. We need your enforcer strength now. Your Meta and your Alpha need you here and now."

But so far none of the released wolves had recovered. And more stinking vampires crawled out of the hole from hell making the wolves' space smaller and smaller. It was only a matter of time until it would be over.

Colt undid Brian's handcuffs kissing the impeccably tanned skin chastely, telling him to get out of the pain space and help him saving the pack. But he knew if Prime and CE were struggling with the cuffs, the physically weaker Brian would be even more.

Seb. Poor Seb. Got involved in this without knowing how and why. Just wanted to visit his brother in California before going to university. He lay there nearly sleeping, but in regular handcuffs.

`That's odd,' Colt thought. `He should be able to shift and get out of it.' When Colt pushed the eyelids up, he saw the pupils were dilated. `That's how they did it. They drugged my wolves,' Colt concluded. `And when they were off balance, the handcuffs had been put on them. And if I had been killed as MaryAnn planed, my wolves would have died a slow painful death by these handcuffs, which nobody else could have removed.' Colt dried his wet cheeks. `MaryAnn, you're going to be so dead when I'm done with you.'

Isaac came closer overwhelmed by the half-deads. Too many vampires. He looked at him as if saying: `Meta, get out of here.'

"No, Isaac. I'll stay here. I won't leave my pack behind. If the vampires kill them, they have to kill me, too." Colt thought for a second that this wasn't the most rational of all actions, but it felt right. It felt more than right.

"I guess I have some say in this," somebody said like with a hangover.

"Brian!" Colt screamed with joy.

"Still alive and kicking. I guess I better shift. Talk to you later." And in seconds the stunning silver wolf stood next to him, brushing his fur against Colt's hand in a gentle movement. Colt swallowed inhaling the powerful wheat scent like a drug addict. They might have a chance.

Brian pushed forward without hesitation, stopped next to Isaac as if saying: `Fall back, protect the Meta and pack. I'm taking over your killing spree.'

The exhausted Isaac seemed to nod gratefully and retreat back next to Colt, who stood next to his unconscious pack with his dagger in his hand.

After some minutes, they were where they'd been before: too many vampires coming out of the orifice, not enough wolves. Brian started to have problems as well fighting them all off.

Colt ordered Isaac to go back into the fight. With a growl, the wolf obeyed supporting Brian, but reluctantly leaving the defenseless pack behind.

Too many vampires.

Two finally made it by the wolves to attack Colt. He wanted to stab one of them, but the two were quicker than the exhausted boy, locking his hand between their fists. His dagger fell on the stone floor with a `clink.'

The taller vampire grabbed his shoulders. Squeezing hard, fuck that hurt. What was it with those shoulder death grips? That was too Star Trek.

Isaac and Brian wanted to help, but too many of those half-deads were blocking the way.

He was on his knees. How often had been on his knees today? One more reason to hate those fucking pale faces.

The most Earth shattering of all growls filled the hall in the next moment. For a second every fight stopped. Everyone was looking: `What the hell?'

Prime. Prime's huge golden wolf had growled. `I am here, and I will put an end to this,' he seemed to say.

And as if that growl had a medicinal effect on his pack, CE shifted smoothly into his big brown wolf form and stood to Prime's side, as a good chief enforcer should.

The exhausted Isaac and Brian fell back acknowledging the two bigger wolves. Protectively, they flanked Sam and Seb, who were still unconscious, and Colt, who had been released by the vampires fearing for their half-life after the two even bigger wolves had approached them with menacing growls.

With the changed numbers it had become a cleansing exercise, more and more vampires were successfully bitten and turned into nothingness within seconds.

And when Sam woke up, Colt quickly ordered: "Don't shift. Close the orifice."

"Got it!"

And then it was over. Too fast.

Colt was alone in the hall with four naked men, a still clothed human Sam and a barely conscious Seb: "Fuck how many beers did I have?" he asked and, despite all the adrenalin in them, the pack had to chuckle.

"Okay guys. I'm not sure we're safe here. Let's get home. CE, carry Seb, back seat. Brian, you drive, Prime next to him. Sam, on the back of truck, Isaac as well, get dressed there while we ride home, I'll join you."

There were no verbal acknowledgement just short nods. They ran to their truck as ordered. Prime threw Isaac's clothes into the bed of truck, and Brian drove off.

---

They ate. It seemed that was the only way to deal with the unnerving situation.

They ate in silence. Only when CE as last one had put his plate aside, Prime cleared his throat and said: "I don't understand. What has happened? I thought Colt was with you Brian at the party?"

Brian looked up. "We thought he was there on his own. At least that's what this Chinese guy said. So we rushed to get to him."

"Chinese guy?" Colt asked confused.

"He was in your business class last year I think. You know Mcfuckmyass," Brian explained.

"Tang?"

"Yep. Sam and I met him outside after our finals and he said he saw you already at the party so we went there," Brian explained to the pack.

"And then?" Prime asked.

"He gave us some beers and then it went dark," Sam said with a small voice. Seemed he had failed again to protect the Meta.

"Tang?" Colt repeated.

"Yes, you don't believe me, Meta?" Brian asked concerned.

"I do. It's just. Why should he lie to you?"

"Maybe he's a vampire," Isaac asked, obviously not knowing the person in question.

"No, he isn't. Met him today." And then it hit Colt. "Shit, I did meet him today. Supposedly he needed a quiet minute from his parents," Colt remembered. "Even more shit, he asked me about you guys. He knew that you guys were all busy. Fuck, he is part of this."

"Can't trust anyone," Sam said looking sheepishly.

"Why would he do it? What's in for him?" Colt asked again. "I mean I smelled a bit of oil on him today, I thought it was new aftershave, the caring kind, but it wasn't as strong as with a vampire, like MaryAnn."

"Maybe he was shadowed," Brian suggested.

"Shadowed?" Sam asked.

"Supposedly, very strong vampires can influence the behavior of weak humans, a little bit like telepathy. At least that's what your book says, Brian." And then he remembered that MaryAnn had told him he didn't really know who she was.

"How can we confirm that?" CE asked policeman like.

"We need to get him and quiz him. See what he knows," Brian answered quickly trying to undo his mistake.

CE was already on the move.

"Not now, CE, please stay with the pack," Colt begged remembering that Tang had told him to `stay safe.' He assumed that had been the real Tang slipping out of MaryAnn's control.

"Understood, Meta, but we need to get this shithead."

"We will," Prime said firmly. "But that still leaves the question why CE got the message that Colt was at the party."

"They didn't send it guess. Maybe Tang sent it from their phones," Colt hypothesized.

"To leave you unprotected," Prime concluded.

"Yes. Luckily, MaryAnn missed some things in her planning," Colt scratched his goatee.

"Like another pack enforcer!" Sam burst out putting his arms around a shy Isaac. "Welcome home, marine."

"Thanks. I thought you guys had gone cold on me. I couldn't get hold of anyone," he explained his side of tonight's events.

"Good you came. Good you found the Meta. Well done, marine," Prime said warmly.

"Thank you, Sergeant." Isaac swallowed.

"I guess he earned the ritual," CE said.

"Ritual?" was the first thing Seb contributed to the conversation.

"Later, brother." Prime didn't want to explain the whole gay chaste pack thing right now.

"Sure," Seb was annoyed about being left out.

"Which brings us to the phones," Colt said, ignoring the looks of his pack surprised about his train of thoughts.

"Mine worked as you remember when CE called me through the dispatcher," Seb tried again to help the pack.

"So did mine," Isaac added quickly.

"So it wasn't the network, it was our phones in specific. Seems we have a virus, or somebody can shut down our communication," Prime concluded.

"That sounds like fucking TLA agencies," CE snorted.

"We must be really high on someone's shitlist," Colt shook his head.

Silence in the room.

"So Tang `finds' Brian and Sam to get them to the party, knocks them out with beer. Lures CE in with a wrong message, who in turn informs Prime as would have been expected. Both of you also got spiked beer I assume," Colt summarized not really waiting for a confirmatory answer.

The wolves nodded.

"They drag you into Gregory Hall, put handcuffs on you and open the orifice early. Not yet midnight, but these half-deads are eager to crawl out of their rat hole."

More nodding agreement.

"Well, that raises some other questions we can deal with later. More importantly, in parallel, MaryAnn waits for me at the parking lot. She knows all my wolves are incapacitated, so she would have any easy kill, she thinks."

Prime whined.

"But I felt something was wrong, so I stayed in the car. And then, surprisingly our war hero shows up, Isaac."

Blushing wolf.

"I take my dagger, fight MaryAnn. She's a much tougher bitch though, the dagger doesn't stop her. -- We need to answer that question as well, Brian. - Only when Isaac shifts, she gives up and disappears. Which leaves the next question: Who or what is she? Not a regular vampire it seems."

Silence.

"They hadn't expected Isaac back. Why?" CE asked.

Isaac looked around sheepishly. "I have a theory," he volunteered looking at Prime for permission.

"Shoot," Prime ordered.

"I think they thought I was dead. Killed in Afghanistan during an attack; a vampire attack."

"Vampires there?" Seb asked.

"Yep, lots of them."

"And you were specifically chosen to fight there and die," CE said.

"I guessed so much."

"Well, whenever is the right time you need to tell us about that," Colt smiled at the hunky blond marine.

"Will do, Sir."

"But the fact you got back exactly in this moment is too much of a coincidence to be a coincidence," Colt mumbled. "But let's be thankful to Fate."

"Indeed," Brian said elbowing the blond marine. "Thanks for helping us out here."

"You're welcome, Beta, I think that'll be kind of my job, won't it CE?"

"Absolutely, jarhead," CE said proudly.

"And now?" Prime asked.

"We sleep. Too much for me for one day. Need to think."

"One question, though, Colt," Prime said.

"Yes?"

"You felt something was off on the car park. You went back to the car running into Isaac. Why?"

Colt swallowed slowly, took a deep breath and said: "You guys remember my nightmares?"

"With the Reba song?" Brian asked.

"French fries mess on the floor?" Sam continued.

"And the fucking humidity?" CE concluded more than asking.

"All of that. Today when I went across the parking lot I heard the music, I stepped into that mess. And I guess everyone noticed the humidity today. It was as if I lived that nightmare in reality. It was very déjà vu."

Silence. Brian sighed. "No, Colt, that wasn't a déjà vu."

"But?"

"It was a premonition."

Only Colt, Prime and Brian knew what that meant. Actually, only Colt really understood the painful implications.

Note: "Meta and the Marines II's" Epilogue will be published over the next weeks. For all MetaBooks sequels, check my website www.amazon.com/author/johnar.