by Maxey, Phil
“It’s awake, sir. Doctor Joshi wants you to come.”
Zach followed the soldier through the tunnels and back into the large chamber, one half of which was off limits to any human.
It was standing with its wings in a fixed closed position on its back and seemingly looking at those who were standing just yards away. Panels of a thick layer of clear reinforced glass had been placed over the bars, sealing the alien in its cell, while two open pipes allowed air and eventually water and food to enter. Microphones and speakers had also been installed.
Zach walked up and stood next to Raj. Both were standing just a few yards from the alien’s cell. “It looks a lot bigger standing upright. Has it tried to escape yet?”
“No. Hasn’t even tried the bars. Which is a little unsettling.”
“Either it doesn’t care or it knows it can escape if it wants too, either is not good for us. It can’t see us right?”
“Nope. That’s one way glass.”
“Have you tried talking to it?”
“I thought I’d leave that honor to you.”
“Not sure I’d call it that, but thanks…” A noise made him turn around. Abbey and Erin entered the chamber. Zach looked at the soldiers standing guard. “Please escort this man outside!”
Abbey ran forward. “Zach, no. He might be able to help.”
Zach couldn’t hide his frustration, shaking his head. He looked at Erin. “Just stand at the back.”
Erin nodded and stepped away.
Zach looked at Abbey. “Why are you here?”
She glanced at the Hulathen who was looking straight at her. “Maybe I can help communicate with it?”
Zach put his hand up. “Let’s leave the Cascader stuff out for now—”
A flash of anger crossed her face. “Why not let me help? What harm can it do?”
“We don’t know! Abbey let me take care of this.”
She shook her head and walked away joining Erin who was smiling. It was a smile Zach was beginning to hate.
He looked at Raj. “Okay let’s do this.” He then walked to a hastily constructed intercom box on the wall and pushed down the talk button. “I am Zach Felton, general in the United States army—” It was the first time he had to say those words and most of the terms felt outdated. The prisoner’s head twitched, switching between looking at one of the speakers and the glass wall in front of it. “—Are you understanding any of—”
The creature’s tail flashed across the cell smashing one speaker, then in a blink of an eye flicked across to the other side destroying the other. It then walked forward. Those on the other side of the glass and bars started taking steps backwards. The other soldiers in the room took up defensive positions and raised their guns.
“Not to worry the bars are—”
The Hulathen seized the five-inch thick bars.
“—Electrified,” said Raj.
The lights started flickering in the chamber, while whispers of smoke drifted upwards from the alien’s fingers.
Everyone watched the spectacle not knowing if the creature was being hurt or not.
Zach noticed a flicker of a smirk on the Hulathen’s face. He walked forward closer to the glass.
“Zach don’t get too close!” shouted Abbey from the back of the room.
Zach looked up at the towering alien, as it shuddered, while still gripping the bars. He then realized that its armor was changing color and bent down to examining it more closely. “Off… turn the electricity off!” He shouted while standing up and looking at Raj.
“What?… err… okay.” The doctor ran to a box of wires near the wall and yanked two of them out, but not before the Hulathen had started bending apart two of the bars.
Zach backed away. “The damn electricity recharged its suit!” He turned to the nearest soldier. “Sound the general alarm—” Abbey walked forward with her hand held out as she had done the night before. “Abbey?” Erin then joined her with the same posture.
The Hulathen’s hands dropped from the bars and moved to its temples. It staggered left and right while shaking its head.
Zach briefly looked back at the soldier. “Belay that order.”
The Hulathen fell back against the far wall then threw its arms out in front of it, and roared at those it couldn’t see. Most on the other side of the glass held their ears, but Abbey and Erin persisted. After a few moments of the alien trying to rid itself of their influence it collapsed to the floor seemingly unconscious.
Zach threw his arms around Abbey. “You did it…”
“Yes we did, general,” said Erin not far behind them.
Raj stepped forward closer to the glass. “I guess we now know why the Hulathen want the Cascaders gone.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
A small crowd gathered around the light table in the center of the CIC. A video feed of the Hulathen in its cell sat frozen on one of the monitors.
“We have all just watched what happened to the alien that we have not too far from here. Some of you were actually there,” said Mitchell.
“It was a good thing me and my… colleague were there,” said Erin his face clean-shaven and lacking its usual facial hair. Zach couldn’t help but think his pause before the word ‘colleague’ was for his benefit.
Mitchell nodded. “I agree.” She then looked at the others in the room. “Mr. Santiago has very kindly offered to keep one of his people permanently on guard in the chamber. Any time the alien even looks at the bars wrong the Cascader will do their thing and the alien goes back to sleep.”
Erin rested his hands on the table. “We all must work together to get through this.” His eyes passed from face to face but skipped Zach’s.
“What are we going to do with it?” said Fiona.
“I say we kill it and dump its body up top for those little space bastards to see,” said Bower.
“If I may be so bold, that would be a mistake—” said Erin. Zach sighed. “— Let my people keep trying to communicate with it, see what we can find out.”
Mitchell looked at Raj.
“Umm yes, it’s possible the Cascaders and the Hulathen share a link of some kind. Well obviously they do, otherwise they wouldn’t be able to affect it the way they do. We tried taking blood samples, but we were unable to penetrate the things armor. But the link could be genetic.”
“That’s settled then. It stays alive for the time being—” She looked at Erin. “I trust you to pass on anything you find.”
“Of course general.”
“The rest of you, find something useful to do around the bunkers. There’s plenty of walls and roofs to be mended and I want to be ready if its friends try and rescue it.”
Bower stepped forward while most of the others filtered out of the room. “Now things are quieter up top, I want to go out with a squad to where Harper and Hayes went missing yesterday.”
Mitchell paused for thought. “Okay, but I want you all back by fifteen hundred hours.”
“Yes, sir.” He then left. Zach remained.
“I’m quite busy general,” said Mitchell.
“I’ve been thinking. It might be wise for myself and some of the others to return to the outpost in Kentucky and then to the camp. There’s much we have learned here, that the camp needs to know. Not just in words on the radio, but from people who have witnessed it.”
“So you want to leave us to this mess? A mess which you and your girlfriend seem to be integrally part of?” Mitchell’s reaction took him by surprise.
“You have everything under control here. I’m sure you’ll do what needs to be done with the alien, but I’m responsible for millions, not just thousands and I need to get back.”
Mitchell looked down at the charts on the table in front of her. “You’re right we don’t need you. Now I need to get back to my work.”
Zach nodded, more to himself than anyone around and left the room. After a quick search he caught up with Bower, who was in one of the armories instructing a group of soldi
ers on what weapons they needed to take out on the patrol.
“Can I have a word?” said Zach.
Bower nodded and they both found a quieter spot.
“I’m returning to the outpost and then the camp.”
“I…”
“I know you can’t come with us…”
A wave of emotion flushed through Bower’s face. It was something Zach hadn’t seen in the older man before.
“I just have this feeling, that they’re still out there,” said Bower.
Zach nodded. “You trained them so I’m sure they still are.”
Bower smiled.
“But I’m going to need you to keep an eye on Santiago. There’s something you need to know about him.”
A short while later Zach was standing outside the Cascaders living quarters. The two soldiers that were standing guard before had been replaced with two people he didn’t recognize, and were not dressed in military uniforms. He went to move towards the doors when one of them stepped in the way. “You’re gonna want to move out of the way son,” said Zach.
“We are not to let anyone inside.”
Zach went to push the door open when the man put his hand on Zach’s shoulder and instantly regretted it, as he was on the floor with his arm in a lock within seconds. The other of Erin’s men went to strike Zach on the back of the head, but Zach swiveled around striking the taller man in his stomach and sending him to the ground as well.
The double doors opened with another face holding them open that Zach didn’t recognize.
“I’m here to see Abbey!” shouted Zach letting the first man go. In the distance Zach spotted her getting to her feet.
She quickly walked across the room and walked outside pulling Zach to the side. “You can’t just beat people up, Zach!”
He pulled her further away from the doors. “I’m going back to the outpost and then the camp. And you’re coming with me.”
She looked away shaking her head. “I can’t…”
“What do you mean you can’t?” He looked back at the two men watching them from the other end of the corridor. “Is this his words? Is he controlling you?”
“No… I… I don’t think so.”
“Then…”
“That alien. It knows things Zach, I can tell. I can’t leave now. And then there’s Elcher, the alien Raj met. I need to make contact with him somehow.”
“How?…”
“I don’t know. I don’t know how to do any of this, but I just know I can’t return just yet…”
The thought of leaving her around the man in the other room turned his stomach, and then there was Clovis who was still active even if he was subdued. His emotions threatened to overwhelm his thoughts.
She put her hand on his face. “You need to let me do this.”
“But—”
“This is me talking, not Erin. I won’t let him completely control me. I’m stronger than that…I can feel him trying to probe my mind sometimes, but I can hold him at bay.” Images of a sedate Clovis jumped into her mind, which she pushed away.
Zach sighed. “When you have what you need, you’ll go to the outpost and then the camp? And you need to leave him behind the more Cascaders he comes in contact with—”
“I know… But right now we need to stop the Hulathen.”
He drew her in, kissed her, then hugged her close. “If things go sideways here, get on that radio and let me know.”
“I will.”
A short time later Zach stood on the surface near the manhole in the center of the junction. Behind him a turreted Humvee sat with its engine idling, while in front of him a group of soldiers stood, with Bower and Abbey at the front. He held his hand out which Bower shook.
"Mitchell's lucky to have you here. I hope you find your people,” said Zach.
Bower nodded and a subtle look passed between them. Bower then turned to the other soldiers. "Okay I want the Cascaders on point. Let's move out! Hopefully one of those purple bastards will fall out of the sky and we can say hello.” Bower and the soldiers then walked away into the long shadows.
Abbey ran forward and hugged Zach. "Tell that old man at the outpost I'm doing well and I'll see him again." He nodded. She then looked into his eyes. "And you'll see me again. I promise."
He nodded again. “Remember what I said.”
She nodded. “Hey, you’ll have time to fix the house back up before I return."
A squawk came from above them and Mo descended and landed on a ruined second floor wall of a nearby building.
Zach waved to him. "Keep an eye on her buddy!"
The E.L.F squawked again.
Zach kissed Abbey briefly then turned and got into the passenger’s side of the Humvee.
Fiona, Michael on the turret, Wyatt and Miles all watched Abbey as their vehicle pulled away. Zach however looked out the side window. As they left the destroyed town and rejoined the highway, it was all he could do not to yell to Fiona to stop so he could go back. But instead as the landscape sped by he watched the night take hold on the surrounding forests and hills.
“I thought the plan was to take her with us,” said Fiona.
“Plans change,” said Zach.
*****
Bower walked up the hill that left the town, at the head of his small column of soldiers. Alongside him were two Cascaders, a man in his forties and a woman a few years younger with her dark hair tied in a ponytail. The light from the day had almost completely been replaced with shadows and gloom and a light rain was falling.
“So how you two end up in a hole in the ground in a small town near Boston,” he said keeping up a good pace and intermittently flicking on his flashlight to light his way.
The woman spoke first. “Had a farm up in Franklin county, mostly produce but some chickens as well.”
“I always did wonder what chickens turned into?” said the man.
“Ha, yeah well we never did find out because they were all eaten by the E.L.F’s that passed through when it all kicked off. Our… daughter told us to get to the camp in Boston, that’s how we ended up here. You’re Ken? Canadian right?” she said to the man.
“That’s my name, Montreal born and bred.”
“I heard the Canadians tried to establish a few camps but they all were overrun before they could?” Said Bower.
Ken nodded. “That’s what I heard. They tried setting them up near the main cities, Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal but it was over for them even before the first—”
Bower looked in the same direction that Ken was. They had arrived at the top of the hill and were now looking down upon the faint outlines of the few homes that were standing amongst the residential area on the other side.
“What is that?” said the woman looking at a blue purple glow a few miles off.
“That’s our opportunity to get some payback—” He looked at the woman. “Natalie?”
She nodded.
“Can you sense that alien?”
She took a breath then closed her eyes. While she did Bower clicked on the radio and informed the CIC of what they had seen.
“I think I can sense something, but it’s too far away.”
Bower was looking through some binoculars. “I see you… It’s moving around some destroyed buildings about three miles out. Hard to see more than that.”
“Maybe it’s injured? Got left behind?” said Ken.
“Maybe. There’s a street that runs right up to it from the south, but we’re not using that. We’re going to split into two teams of six. Ken you’re with team alpha with me. Nat you’re with Bravo. We approach from the east and west at the same time.” He looked at the two Cascaders. “It’s going to be your job to put it down, so get your game faces on.” They nodded. He then looked at the rest of the soldiers. “No one engage unless I tell you too. Everyone got that?” A ripple of “Yes, sir” came back to him. “Let’s move out.”
As ordered, at the next junction they came to Nat and her team took the left exit and ran
down the hill, using the discarded vehicles and piles of refuse as cover, while Bower and his team kept on going straight ahead descending the hill as well.
It wasn’t long before both teams were a few hundred yards away from their target.
Bower, with the others close behind clicked on his radio. “Nat, you there? Over.”
“Yes, sir… umm Over.”
“I got it in my sights, it seems to be sheltering inside the remains of some house, but it’s completely exposed from the street side. You take point and when I give the go, do your thing. We’ll hit it with you and Ken at the same time. Over.”
She acknowledged.
He looked back at the soldiers with him. “Ken you’re with me, we’re going to get close. You others take up offensive positions and when I say, rain living hell down on it.”
They all nodded and ran into the darkness keeping close to piles of rubble and any natural barriers they could find cover behind.
Bower and Ken followed them but then moved further ahead, keeping low and running along the sidewalk. Bower crouched down behind a car then peered over the hood. “Shit!”
The Hulathen was standing and looking straight at him. He turned to his side. “Now Ken!” He then clicked on his radio. “Everyone attack, now!”
A hail of crimson streaks streamed through the air impacting the Hulathen and sending it barreling backwards, while it held its head in its hands.
“It’s working!” shouted Bower who then stood and started to walk forwards, his rifle firing.
The alien stumbled backwards falling over broken furniture. It was then Bower saw another glow coming from inside the house, but this one was orange and flickering. A fire?
He continued walking and firing as the Hulathen tried to cover its body with what remained of a kitchen worktop, when out the corner of his eye a man staggered forward from another part of the house, his arms waving.
Is he shouting? Maybe the aliens got a prisoner? Or a hostage?
He wanted to keep the assault going, but the man became more recognizable the closer Bower got to the front lawn in front of the house. Heavily bandaged and covered in black grime and blood smears private Hayes fell to the ground near the alien, as bullets pinged off the walls around him.