SODIUM:1 Harbinger

by Stephen Arseneault

  Chapter 12

  _______________________

  We were all up at first light, discussing what we might do. Woods Creek was just below our encampment. Our ridge was not visible from the creek, and the creek was not visible from Woods Ridge... or by the demons. The terrain on either side of the creek moved steeply uphill and offered many places for an ambush.

  It was decided that I would lie in wait until only one demon was visible from up on the ridge. I would then try to draw its attention and lure it down along the creek. Bull, Allie, and Susi would be lying in wait with an ambush along the steepest section. There, they would have good cover and it would be difficult for the demon to reach them. The girls would each have a 9mm, Bull would have his .45, and I would be running for my life.

  I hiked up and down the section of creek where we wanted the demon to give chase. I wanted to be as familiar with it as possible... and able to move as fast as I could when I needed, as the demons were agile. I was after whatever advantage I could gain. I would be running without my pack, which would be a big relief. After a week in the woods, my legs felt much stronger than when we had started our trek.

  I had a surprising amount of energy given the fact that I had hardly eaten for several days. The adrenaline that was coursing through my veins might have had something to do with that feeling. I was all pumped up and ready to take out another alien invader, with only my bat if need be. As a precaution, I made my way to a pool in the creek, knelt down, and made my call to Minhafa. Again, I was after any advantage I could gain.

  It was midmorning by the time we decided to set the trap. I made my way to the base of the creek, just out of sight of the demon camp, still almost a thousand feet away. Allie and Susi got themselves into position to get their best angle of attack. They would be well protected if the demon began another rock-throwing barrage.

  Bull had his spot picked out and had moved around on the ridge. He was scanning the demon camp for the lone demon. Two had been moving about all morning, and one had just gone around the ridge toward the mother ship.

  Always the prepared outdoorsman, Bull had a small signal mirror. He would use it to give me the go-ahead. From his position, he could see me as well as the demons. When ready, he would flash the mirror, after which he would head for his assault position just above the creek.

  Since Allie was also the prepared outdoorswoman, she also had packed a signal mirror. I was given her mirror to use to try to draw the demon's attention from as much of a distance as I could. With all the pieces of the plan in place and with the single demon visible on the ridge, Bull decided it was time to go. A set of bright flashes from his signal mirror set the plan in motion.

  As I began moving into full view of the demon camp, I knew I was in for a wild ride. If anything were to go wrong, such as a slip and fall, or if any other mishap were to slow me down, I could easily be overtaken by the beast before reaching the others.

  I got to within eight hundred feet before I began flashing the demon with the bright sunlight from a cloudless day. The demon was facing away from me when I began. It stopped doing whatever it was doing when it noticed the glow reflecting off the terrain around it.

  The lone demon slowly turned its body around until the eyes were facing directly at me. For almost a minute it just stood and stared as if daring me to come closer. Once I had its full attention, I began to jump up and down and swing my bat around in as cocky a manner as I could.

  It then began to slowly move downhill in my direction. I turned and began to move away while still making as much of a commotion as I could. As the demon came toward me it began to pick up speed, and I then knew it was time to hustle down the creek.

  I turned and ran back toward the cover I had left just moments before. I stopped and gave one last look back to make sure I was indeed being pursued. Our plans and my fears were both confirmed. I could see the demon was in a full run and was gaining on me fast.

  I turned again and began the run for my life down along the creek, bounding from rock to rock and from open space to open space. I felt good about my lead and the fact that I knew exactly where I was going.

  But that feeling did not last as the first barrage of fist-sized rocks started to strike around me. Any of the projectiles coming from the demon could prove instantly deadly or, at best, could stop my progress cold, allowing the beast to catch up.

  I had nowhere to hide as I ran and jumped while moving down the creek. Distance and the fact that I was naturally moving from side to side were my only defenses. The demon continued its run at full speed as it picked up and launched its missiles.

  It was covering three times the ground I was, and it was gaining on me fast. With each step closer it got, the more accurate its throws became. I was beginning to believe that I had cut it too close when our ambush area finally began coming into view.

  One of the small rocks burst on a boulder as I was passing, showering me with bits of painful debris. Just one of those throws properly placed could spray me in the face with enough shrapnel to halt my run. I was within a hundred feet of the ambush when a rock brushed my side, leaving a small scrape on my ribs as it tore a hole in my shirt.

  I began to bob and weave as much as possible while still trying to keep my balance and speed. My goal was to reach a large boulder, where I would be provided a moment's protection while the others opened fire. The run seemed to take an eternity.

  As I reached sixty feet, the demon decided to use my hiding place against me. It began to relentlessly target the side of the boulder as I approached. I would have to run directly through the frag in order to make it behind cover.

  The rocks shattered one after another as I got closer to the boulder. As I raised my arms and bat to try to shield my face, I heard the first shots being fired. The last of the rocks hit and sprayed the ground before me just as I reached the boulders.

  Our timing could not have been better. The girls and Bull had the demon caught in a crossfire as I hid behind my stone shield. The demon moved closer to their positions. They had the high ground, and it would have to fully expose itself to their fire to make any attempt at an assault.

  After a few deep breaths, I peered around the boulder to see what was happening. The demon was fully in the water of the creek and keeping itself close to several large boulders, just under Bull's position.

  Neither Bull nor the girls had a good shot at the demon where it was, but only if it stayed in that position. Its only attempt at an attack was to throw the occasional stone up in their direction. It was unable to achieve an accurate throw without exposing itself.

  After a few minutes I began to wonder if we were just in a waiting game, with the other demons perhaps circling around to outflank us. I decided that I would have to make a move to try to draw it out before we lost our advantage.

  I stepped further behind the boulder and began to slowly climb up the steep sides of the creek's embankment. Susi had given me her .22, so I felt if I was able to get into a good position, I might be able to flush the demon out into the open... or to at least aggravate it.

  The demon kept up its occasional throw toward Bull or the girls. Bull would throw back down a rock of his own just to let it know he was still there. With their limited amount of ammo, they had to shoot sparingly.

  I was in full view of the demon for several minutes as I made my climb, but the demon was preoccupied with the others. It didn't notice my maneuver. I moved along the embankment's upper edge to a point directly across from the demon. I would be able to pick away at it with Susi's .22 while maintaining cover behind a large tree.

  I took careful aim with the .22, and when I pulled the trigger, I was delighted to see a quarter-inch-sized hole pop open in the flat surface of the demon's body. The demon spun around. It then let loose a rock that skimmed the same edge of the tree from where I had just fired a shot.

  The mechanical beast bolted across the creek in an attempted full assault of my position. I did not have the extreme high banks
for protection as they did on the other side, but the break in cover was all Bull, Allie, and Susi needed to cut loose with a deadly barrage from their weapons.

  The demon jerked violently with each hit as it attempted to climb the terrain up to my position. It was only four feet from my tree when a round went through what must have been a vital part. The machine stopped its ascent and began to shudder and vibrate as its systems failed.

  Bull and the girls stopped their firing, which gave me the opening to get in another home run swing. I rounded the tree, raised my bat, and came down as hard as I could on the flat section just above the demon's eyes. My swing was well placed, as the machine stopped all movement and then rolled backwards down to the creek bed. I followed behind it, sliding down the embankment and landing hard on the rocks beside the downed menace.

  I sprang to my feet and began to relentlessly bash the lifeless machine with my Hillerich & Bradsby S44. No amount of home runs could replace the feeling I got while smashing the guts out of the demonic mechanical beast. I had opened a wide hole in its side when I noticed the green canister inside. It began to leak out the same destructive green fog I had seen two nights before.

  I stepped back and tripped over a rock in my attempt to get away just as the canister began to spray a heavy stream of the green fog upwards. In my haste I had dropped my bat, and I was reaching back for it when a giant hand grabbed my other arm and began to drag me away.

  I gripped the precious wood with two fingers of my broken hand as Bull pulled me to safety. The green fog spread out, covering much of the creek bed and most of the embankment beside where the fallen demon lay. From seventy-five feet, we stood and watched as the remains seemed to evaporate into thin air, leaving no evidence that it had ever existed. Nothing was left except for the telltale barren circle from the green mist.

  We made our way back out of the Woods Creek ravine and back up onto our recon ridge as quickly as we could. We would begin the planning for our next trap. We would also have to fortify our recon position against a potential attack as we planned for our next move.

  As we climbed up the back side of our ridge, we noticed a small opening in the rocks. As we investigated further, it turned out to be a small cave that went back twenty-five feet. It had a chamber area that could comfortably hold several but not all of us. The smell of the cave was acrid, but not intolerable. No doubt there had been some animal that had used it as shelter in the past. The cave was also close to our lookout point from where we observed Woods Ridge. The opening was too small for a demon to enter.

  If need be, at least two of us could use it to keep the demons at bay. But it would only work for a short period of time, as we still required food and water to survive. Since the demons were machines, we surmised they would be able to sit outside and wait us out if they so desired.

  It then came to me that maybe the reason the one demon had pulled itself up to the mother ship was because it needed to refuel or recharge. It was an interesting thought, but we had no way of knowing for sure. It was deemed as something we would investigate, but could not use against them until it was further understood.

  Susi was given the task of observing the aliens while Bull, Allie, and I planned our defense. Previously, there were two demons moving about their base camp. With only one showing itself and with five likely to have existed, we would need to keep on the lookout for at least two more.

  We stacked our heavy rock walls and cleared a few shrubs that would give us a better view back down the hill. We also stockpiled as many fist-sized rocks as we could, just in case we were left with no more ammo for our guns. Bull cut a dozen saplings and piled them up with the hope of making some crude arrows for his bow. With our immediate area somewhat secured and stockpiled, we left Susi to observe while we moved down to the creek. We needed to see if we could come up with more traps for the remaining demons.

  We had been down at the creek for half an hour when Allie decided we should check on Susi. As we made our way back up toward the ridgetop, Bull put out his hand in that now-familiar stop gesture. As we listened, we could here an occasional cracking sound of rock hitting rock.

  It was Susi, and the demons were after her! She had turned and looked back down toward us and had spotted a demon heading our way. She then moved over to the cave entrance and picked up and threw one of the small rocks down at it.

  When she had its attention, she darted into the cave opening and hid back in the chamber area. The demon had rushed up the hill and was now attempting to kill or disarm her by throwing rocks into her hiding place. The rocks would bounce around inside, but Susi's position kept her safe from being hit.

  We approached as quietly as we could, and the demon's focus remained on Susi. Bull then aimed and fired his .45, winging the demon and spinning it around in the process. The demon then ducked behind our defensive wall as it evaluated its situation.

  With the loud noise from Bull's cannon of a pistol, and the fact that no more rocks were coming into the cave, Susi decided it was time to make a move. She came back up to the cave opening directly behind the demon and opened fire with Kyle's 9mm, pumping round after round into the beast's body.

  The demon sprang upward in an attempt to move out of her line of fire and was immediately met with a barrage from Bull and Allie. As more and more holes formed in the demon's body, it twisted from side to side. Bull and Allie had each emptied a full clip into the machine before it finally slumped over the rock wall we had constructed.

  After a moment of silence, we all knew what was coming next, and Bull yelled at Susi to get out of the cave. But... it was too late. The alien quickly fogged the area with the green mist, leaving Susi with no choice but to move back into the cave.

  Bull, Allie, and I then retreated downhill as the green fog came rolling after us. We turned and headed to our left until we were sure the fog had passed us by. As with each of the times before, we would have to wait ten or fifteen minutes for it to dissipate before we could return.

  It was agonizing as the thought of my sister being slowly dissolved by the fog kept running through my head. Why had we left her alone? Why did we not try to lure it away so she could escape? As soon as I was able, I rushed back up the hill to the cave mouth and called out her name. I sighed with relief when she came out still complete, still breathing, and still my sister. She had defended herself well.

  With the third demonic machine destroyed, it was time for us to pack up our camp and move, as we were sure the aliens now knew our location. With two of them still out there, we would need to keep our position unknown if we wanted to maintain one of our only advantages. So, we talked about where we might go as we gathered up our packs.

  It was decided we would first move down to the position where I had been hiding at the beginnings of Woods Creek. It was where I had lured the second demon into our trap. We would make our way around Woods Ridge itself, looking for a new point for observation of the aliens.

  As we hiked down the hill, I repeatedly looked back to make sure we were not being followed. We had survived another encounter with the demons, and we continued to come out on top. It was encouraging, but the engagements continued to take their physical toll on us. We had at least lived to fight another battle, and that was what war was all about. The demons might be faster and have more advanced technology, but we had our guts, guns, and brains. And so far, those had seemed to been enough to keep us in the fight.