Clearing Force

by Nathan Hale

fired at a distance of only fifty to sixty feet from the beast, tore through its head, splattering blood, brains, and gore everywhere! The impact of the bullet hurled the beast backward slightly and it came to rest half inside the ripped open door while its legs and tail whipped around looking for victims but instead only crushing and tearing open even more of the chlorine filled boxes.

  Jose was going to shoot again when I hit his shotgun up and screamed “Run, the chlorine is more deadly that the animals!” As soon as he got moving I was hot on his heels while, behind me, I faintly heard the sounds of the heavy beast being dragged through the door clearing the way for its friends to resume their chase.

  It felt like it took us at least an hour to reach the end of the tunnel, but it was really not more than a couple of minutes. The smell of chlorine was still faint in the air, similar to using the stuff when you were washing clothes or sanitizing a floor, when JJ turned the knob on the door at the end of the tunnel and threw it open. Behind us we could hear the rapidly approaching sound of claws on concrete so I turned and leveled my rifle waiting for the creature to appear around the slight bend in the tunnel.

  Behind me I heard JJ yell “Clear” just as the first beast became visible. I centered my crosshairs and squeezed the trigger. It certainly was far from the best shot I had ever made, but it was good enough! The beast seemed to do a back flip and fell to the ground with a huge hole now in the back of its head that was pouring blood onto the concrete floor. It did not attempt to get back up but its legs and tail were still whipping around and attempting to kill something.

  I could smell both the chlorine and the disgusting smell of what must have been the creature’s blood in the close confines of the tunnel while I waited the two or three seconds it took for the third one to come into view.

  At fifty feet, the animal was an easy shot. When it appeared, I centered my crosshairs and squeezed the trigger, only to have my target disappear from the scope just as my rifle barked! The dying animal’s tail had smashed into the onrushing monster and slammed it against the tunnels brick wall, turning my easy shot into a clear miss!

  Calmly, I once again aimed at the monsters head and squeezed my trigger. This time the bullet did its job, punching through the heavy bone just below the monsters nose slits. Surprisingly the bullet didn’t exit! Instead it just bounced around inside the beasts head destroying anything and everything it touched. Not that it mattered much, the creature dropped almost straight down obviously dead, although its tail was whipping around while the claws on its legs were trying to tear through the first animals feathered armor.

  I turned and ran the few remaining steps into the new basement, passing Peters as I went through the door. He lowered his rifle and slammed the door behind me. This door had two large angle iron bars inside the basement that he then dropped into their cradles to prevent the door from being opened. I sincerely thanked God that they hadn’t been in place because, if they had, we would certainly have died if we had to attempt to go through the last building again.

  From inside the tunnel a sound similar to a failed explosion erupted. Then another and finally what sounded like an actual explosion. The final one actually warped the door and forced some chlorine gas into the basement we were in. Peters looked at me and asked “Sergeant, what the hell caused that?”

  I couldn’t resist “Maybe one of the monsters cut a fart?” and began laughing.

  Even though it was grim humor at best, everyone but Jose began laughing, and after JJ repeated my joke to him, he also began laughing. I doubted if any of us actually thought we would survive this morning so it really wasn’t grim humor but more like gallows humor.

  Then, seriously, I said “In the other basement the little monsters blood was reacting strangely to the water that poor woman had been scrubbing the floor with. Maybe it reacts more violently to pure chlorine. If we get out of this mess, it might help in the future, okay, did anyone find another tunnel?”

  We were in the basement of one of the boutique hotels that were very popular close to Central Park. Even though we searched diligently, there was no other tunnel. We had to go up to street level. This place was quiet as a morgue, no sounds of water being used, or anything else, so there were probably monsters up there.

  We weren’t too far from 1 Police Plaza so I tried my radio hoping that someone, anyone, would answer. The only answer I received was silence, only silence! Okay, so it was all on me. So, what’s new, it had always been on me ever seen we got that new lieutenant who was related to the Mayor. When we had been sent out tonight he did what he always did, found a reason not to go with us. After all, since he was in SWAT only as a stepping stone to bigger things, he couldn’t risk his precious hide!

  I discussed our options with the other guys and they ranged from bad to worse. We had to go to the ground floor and we needed transportation because we had absolutely no chance on foot. On foot we would stay alive until our ammunition ran out, then we would be some monsters breakfast. With transportation we might be able to get to where our families were before the monsters spread that far. Then we could convoy our vehicles and attempt to make it to the marina where my father in law kept his boat, a five year old 70 foot Hylas center cockpit cruiser that he had picked up for only slightly over two million.

  Even though we still weren’t certain exactly where we would go, right now, anyplace was better than here! The boat was fully fitted out and ready to go while my father in law was more than capable of skippering it, he and his wife had been all over the world since he purchased it. We even had a guard on it, one of my friends, with his wife and son, were already aboard. Both Jack and Carol had been police officers until yesterday now they were two of the “men” going with us.

  Just for the hell of it I once again attempted to call my wife on the cell phone. It began ringing and she answered on the second ring! Since I had no idea just how long the signal would last I said “Honey, tell your folks it’s time to go, now! We will meet all of you at the dock but when you get there get that boat away from the dock whether we are there yet or not.”

  My wife sounded confused, or perhaps she thought I was playing some kind of practical joke on her so she answered “We’ll just wait here, your shift is done so you are on your way here anyway, right?”

  “Wrong, don’t you have the television on? There’s some real bad stuff happening right now, so get moving. Stay away from shore, at least a hundred yards, and if we aren’t there in an hour, from now, leave. We won’t ever get there, understand?” I asked.

  In the background I heard the television come on, but all I heard was static. Then, finally, I could hear an announcer talking some nonsense about the glories of aliens coming to visit us here on Earth. Upon hearing that I screamed “Glories of aliens visiting, they are eating us! Literally eating us! Tell your dad to give one of his shotguns to you and Brad (my 17 year old son). He should take that big Gibbs .505 elephant gun he bought years ago, he’ll need it! And, whatever you do, grab every bit of ammo he has for those guns, okay?”

  Frieda answered “Okay, we’ll be there. What are they and why are they eating us?”

  I quickly answered “Good, get going, outside of the guns, leave everything else! They really are eating us and, remember the movie “Jurassic Park”, well they look like dinosaurs, but they aren’t. The little ones can be killed easily with the shotguns, the medium sized ones your dads Gibbs might be able to handle, the real large ones, just run like hell! Oh yeah, tell your dad that only a head shot kills those bastards, kind of. Even when they should be dead they aren’t.”

  I heard her voice, but the signal was going. I moved a bit and, when her voice was a little stronger I said “Honey, I love you guys, now get…” and the signal was gone! I cursed like the pissed off former Marine I was.

  JJ said “Chill, you got ahold of them, are they going to the marina?”

  Grimly, I nodded my head “Yes” as I checked my rifle again. I then pulled my revolver out, flipped the cylinder ope
n to make sure I had bullets in all the chambers and then snapped it shut before I re-holstered it. I must have had my war face on, because Jose stuttered when he asked “Please, could Maria and I go with you?”

  “Where do you and your wife live? We have the room because both Casey and Dave were part of the SWAT team that died trying to save the Mayors life. The only problem would be getting her and then back to the marina in time” I answered.

  He answered “She not home, like me, work all night, mi Maria trabaja en 3 World Financial Center!”

  I had no idea what he had just said but, before I could say anything, JJ quietly laughed and said “His wife works all night at 3 World Financial Center and we will go almost directly past there on our way to the marina. You’ve lived in this city most of your life and you still don’t speak anything but English!”

  “Kids, do you have any bambinos?” I asked.

  Jose looked at me strangely while, in between guffaws, JJ said “He means Niño’s, kids, do you have any kids? Sergeant, it’s not bambinos but bambini and that’s Italian, not Spanish!”

  Jose shook his head “no” and looked upset when he answered “No, not yet, we try, but no!”

  That time I understood what he was saying, we had