Colt chuckled. “Huh. Right, like your one to talk,” Colt said.
Jake brushed off his brother’s shot, then said, “Is this all of you? Where’s the vice president?”
Their faces fell.
“He died saving Dylan’s life,” Colt said.
“Damn good man!” Bald said.
“Sir!” Bryan Hall said from outside the door said.
Their attention shot toward him.
“There’s more infected bearing down on our position. We need to exfil, now!” Bryan said.
“You heard the man. Let’s get you guys to Mount Weather,” Jake said.
Bryan led them toward the doorway. Colt and Jake pulled up the rear when Colt looked to him and said, “By the way, it’s about damn time you got here!”
“Sorry, had to see about a girl.” Jake smiled.
“It’s always about the girl.” Colt laughed it off and followed his brother back to the helicopter.
4
Colt sat inside the chopper and stared out the open sliding door. Bodies of dead infected were strewn about all over the runway of the executive airport.
Unaware of his sullen stare, Colt found his mind wandering. What a waste. Why were the infected doing what they were doing? What’s driving them?
Jake handed Colt a headset before taking his seat directly across from his brother. Colt found his eye and needed to know.
“What are these things, Jacob?” He suggested out the window at the dead bodies lying there. “You told me you couldn’t say over the radio, but now that we’re together, spill it.”
Jake leaned forward in his seat and his face turned serious. “They’re aliens, big brother.”
“Aliens?” Colt said.
“That’s right, aliens.”
“What do you mean aliens? Aliens don’t exist. They’re some fairy tale. Some scary story, you know, like a yarn meant to spin in our imagination.”
“Apparently not a story. Not fiction anymore.”
“Bullshit.” Colt shook his head, unwilling to agree. “So, what you’re saying is, some alien invaded Anna’s body and told her to kill me? Me and the boys?”
Colt spoke out of instinct and didn’t think about both of his sons. Of course, Dylan and Wesley hung on every word as they sat side by side next to their father.
“Look, Colt, maybe we should talk more about this after we land, besides, I don’t know that I’m the best person to be describing this to you.”
“What do you mean? Who is?”
“The president needs to give you approval. This is a classified mission.”
“Don’t give me that bureaucratic nonsense, Jacob. That’s something I’d expect to hear from some stranger in the military, not from you.”
Jake fell hard against his seat. Colt could see he took offense to his words. “Look, Colt. I promise you, we’ll fill you in. Likely as soon as we land, but for now, I can’t really say much else.”
Colt rolled his eyes and looked back to the ground below as the helicopter lifted from the earth. “Fine then.”
From thirty feet above, Colt searched the scattered dead. Now that the word “alien” was etched into his brain, he thought more of Anna.
There’s an alien inside of her? Controlling her mind. Telling her what to do. How to act. Who to kill. He shivered at the thought. The more he thought about aliens though, the more what was happening made sense.
He found himself ruminating about the infected man and two boys near Woodland Park in Colorado. One of the infected children matched Dylan’s age, the other Wesley’s. It made sense the infected were put there deliberately to throw Colt off his track. To trick him into his own demise. They aren’t mindless eating zombies. They’re calculated in everything they do.
His thoughts shifted to the hangar near the Air Force Academy. The infected had stopped hunting them like animals and looked up to the sky in unison. They had to be communicating somehow. Is that how they got instructions to set the hangar on fire?
Colt’s mouth gaped and he shook his head.
“What are you thinking about?” Jake said.
Never one to stay mad long, Colt looked at his brother and said, “Anna.”
Jake clenched his jaw. “I assumed.”
“It’s all starting to make sense now,” Colt said.
“What’s that?” Jake said.
“These things being aliens. Just the way they act. What they do. How they attack or try to attack us. In unison. Like animals hunting their prey. They’re intelligent.”
“That’s what I’ve seen as well.”
“Yeah, I suppose you have. How’s Jess?”
“It was touch and go there for a while. I almost lost her.”
“What happened?”
“They took her,” Jake said,
“Who took her?” Colt said.
“We were taking shelter in an abandoned house and the infected came for us in the middle of the night. Snatched her right through the window.”
“What? Seriously? How’d you get her back?”
Before Jake could answer, the helicopter shuddered. Colt’s stomach fell, as he looked out the window, reminded of the chopper that went down in Colorado Springs. Luckily it was just a bout of turbulence. He found his sons eyes. They were fearful, but the fear lifted when Jake said, “Just some rough air, boys. We’ll be fine and on the ground in no time.”
Colt smiled at his brother, forgetting what they had been talking about until he said, “Close call. I’m glad she’s safe now.”
“Me too, Colt.”
Both shared a smile. Then Jake looked to Dylan and Wesley. “How about you guys? Dylan, what happened to you?” Jake nodded to the open skin all over his body.
“Fell out of a golf cart.”
Jake chuckled and said, “You always were a bit of a klutz. Sounds like you.”
But Dylan didn’t find his uncle’s attempt at humor funny. In fact, his face remained downcast. “Actually, that’s how the vice president died.”
Jake’s face turned serious and waited for more of the story.
“After I fell out of the cart, an infected man stood over me. Right when he was about to attack, the vice president grabbed him from behind and wrestled him to the ground. I tried to help, but Bald over there ripped me away and pulled me back to the cart.”
All eyes turned to Bald. “Kid’s got balls of steel.”
Colt felt proud of his son standing up to the infected, but secretly thanked Bald for pulling him away. No way Dylan could’ve overpowered a full-grown infected man.
Dylan continued his story. “Then after we made it back to the golf cart, I looked back and more infected caught up to the vice president. That’s when they . . .” Dylan stopped. All could see him push the tears back down.
Silence hung in the air for a moment, before Jake spoke again. “It seems all of us will have a story to tell when this is all over.”
After a few more minutes of flying, Colt could feel the helicopter begin to descend. He scanned the ground below. There was nothing but trees there. Dense forestation, without a semblance of life. At least not in his field of view.
“Maddox, we’ll be on the rooftop in sixty seconds,” Bill Burd, the pilot said.
“Roger that.” Jake searched the interior, catching Bryan’s eye. He nodded to him. “Alright, when we land, we’ll be on the rooftop of the facility. There will be people waiting for us to take us inside. Colt, I’ll take you and the boys below to meet with a woman named Shelley. She will handle your living situation for the time being, and maybe she can shed some more light on this situation. Colonel Jenkins, Bald, I know the president will want a briefing of your experience and the loss of the vice president.”
“What then?” Colt said.
“Honestly, I don’t know yet. I haven’t been able to get debriefed myself. I was too busy flying out to save your ass.” Jake smiled.
“And we thank you for that,” Colonel Jenkins added.
“That’s
no problem, sir. I’m just glad we weren’t too late.”
Colt turned away from the conversation and looked toward the approaching facility. He could see it now. But something else stuck out. Surrounding the facility was a sea of infected. They encircled it all, but they weren’t moving. They were still, similar to their stance at the hangar in Colorado Springs. But they weren’t stretching their chins to the sky, instead they were just standing, waiting to be guided.
As Colt continued to stare, he couldn’t help but think, Why are you there? What do you have to gain by taking over the human race?
They might never find out the reasoning for the invasion, which was perhaps the scariest thing of all.
5
After landing, Colonel Jenkins and Bald were escorted away from Colt and his family and Jake led them underground. As they walked, Colt took note of everything he saw. The inside of Mount Weather resembled the Cheyenne Mountain Complex.
With no windows in sight, no natural light could burrow through the nooks or crannies. Only artificial light poured in from the fluorescents that hung above.
Up ahead stood a woman. Colt imagined her to be Shelley, precisely the woman Jake had spoken of. She stood with her hands behind her back, rocking in place until she caught their eyes.
“Mr. Maddox?” She walked forward, coming to greet them. “So good to see you again.”
All stopped in front of her, and after introductions were made, Jake said, “This is where I leave you.”
“Wait! You’re not coming with us, Uncle Jake?” Wesley stared up at him.
“Sorry, buddy, not this time. I have an important meeting to attend. I’ll catch up with you again later, that okay?” Jake looked only to Wesley and smiled.
Wesley nodded.
The adults shared a chuckle, then Jake said,” I’m leaving you in very capable hands. Shelley will show you to your living quarters.”
Shelley nodded and smiled at the boys. “This way, boys. If we’re lucky, maybe your dad will let you us make a stop in the mess hall for some ice cream.”
Dylan stalled, then turned to whisper to his father to say, “What’s with the government and their obsession with ice cream?”
Dylan referred to the vice president offering them the very same thing in the Cheyenne Mountain Complex, as if ice cream made the insanity fade away.
Upon, Colt’s first step behind the boys and Shelley, Jake spoke up. “I’ll see you soon brother.”
Colt turned and grinned. “You can count on it.” Jake spun, but Colt cut him off. “Thanks again for the rescue.”
“Anytime. It’s not every day you get to rescue your big brother from an alien invasion.”
After slurping up every drip of ice cream from the bottom of their paper cups, Shelley guided the Maddox family to their room. When they arrived, Colt and the boys peeked inside. There were four walls of open cinderblock. Two bunk beds were pushed against the back wall, with another single bed in the opposite corner. In the middle was a perfectly ordinary square table with four chairs.
As they proceeded into the room, an outline of a board game sat on the table. Scrabble was neatly set up and ready to spell the first word.
But their eyes didn’t linger there, at least not the boys’. Wesley sprinted for the bunkbed and said, “I get top bunk.” He began to climb the ladder.
“You can have it.” Dylan walked to the bottom, lowered his head and plopped down.
“We haven’t had much sleep lately,” Colt turned to Shelley to say.
“I suppose not.”
“Look, do you think we could . . .” Colt paused, then turned to the open doorway. “Talk outside?”
“Oh, uh, sure.”
“Boys, I’m gonna step outside with Miss Shelley for a minute. If you need me, I’ll be right out here,” Colt said.
Neither answered. Dylan’s eyes were already closed, and Wesley was burrowing into the covers.
Colt allowed Shelley to exit first. He followed her out and as soon as she turned around, Colt got right into it. “I hear these things are aliens?”
“You mean the infected?”
“That’s right. My brother said, these things are aliens and they not only invaded the world but are taking over people’s bodies. Is that true?”
“Yes, sir.”
“But how?”
“The how is a bit of a conundrum. But we do know that Beritrix is what has kept us all from turning into them ourselves. It acts as sort of . . . a shield against them.”
“Why does the Beritrix work against them?”
“We don’t know the full extent of that yet, but what we do know is we’ve turned two infected back . . . human.”
“Wait, you did what?”
“That’s correct. We had some test patients in our lab. We were able to successfully change them back into their human selves by mixing Carfentanil—to act as a tranquilizer—and adding Beritrix to kill the infection.”
“That actually worked?! Like they’re alive and well? Human again?!” Colt didn’t mean to shout, but he was overjoyed that it sounded like they had found a cure.
“Yes, sir. The subjects woke up from their transient state, immediately became sick, then returned to their normal selves.”
Colt put his hand to his open mouth, and his eyes bulged. He was filled with joy and overcome with emotion.
Shelley stalled a moment for Colt to collect himself, then spoke again. “I assume your brother told you this.”
Colt didn’t speak, still trying to stuff the tears back down, but was able to shake his head no.
“No?” Shelley was surprised.
Then Colt found his voice. “No. He said it was classified.”
“Ah, loyal to a fault. And we’re glad to have him fighting on our side,” Shelley said.
Colt nodded.
Then Shelley continued. “I assure you I was given the go ahead to fill you in . . . on everything.”
“By who?”
“My boss, Elaine, by way of the president.”
Colt was surprised that the president would trust him with these secrets, but at the same time relieved to finally find answers. To gain clarity.
“So, what’s next?”
“I think it’s best your brother fills you in on the specifics of what’s next, but I can tell you this. We have a supply truck that’s en route as we speak. They are bringing a large quantity of the drugs we will need to test our theories on a grander scale.”
“What type of scale?”
“A larger test base. Like a town, or large group of people.”
“And if this works? Then you’re saying we’ve found a cure? A way to turn everybody back?”
“That’s precisely what I’m saying.”
Colt didn’t wait. He threw his arms around Shelley and wrapped her into a bear hug. He didn’t feel her return the embrace, perhaps it was because he was gripping her arms tight by her side. Out of embarrassment, immediately he let go.
“I’m sorry, it’s just . . . there’s a lot of emotion.”
“Don’t be,” she said. “I get it.”
Colt didn’t hide the elation on his face. He couldn’t stifle it, not now, not with Anna and the cure so close on his mind.
“Do you have any other questions?” Shelley said.
“So many.” Colt couldn’t look her in the eye. Not out of embarrassment, but because of the feelings he had for his wife and the impact of this newfound hope.
“Any I can answer?”
“I don’t think I’ll know until I see this work for myself.”
She didn’t understand. “How do you mean?”
“You said we’ll be testing this theory, correct?”
“That’s right.”
“When?”
“Soon. The supply truck should be here by the afternoon.”
“Well, I guess that’s when I’ll have more questions then. For now, I think I better join my sons for some much-needed rest.”
“Very well, I’ll
make sure nobody bothers you until you take this off the door.”
Colt expected her to hand him a Do not Disturb sign, but instead she handed him a thick red rope. He looked down at the rope, then up at here.
“It means people are sleeping.”
“Got it.” Colt stepped toward the doorway, but before he could go inside, Shelley said, “Mr. Maddox.”
“Yes?”
“I’ve heard news about your wife, sir.”
Colt whipped around. “My wife? What? How?” His eyes were wide in panic but softened at Shelley’s smile.
“The doctor’s there are telling me she’s doing just fine and they have been briefed on what we have done here for our test subjects. As soon as this new cure is ready to move, you can go back to her and bring her back.”
Tears welled in Colt’s eyes again. Big bulging tears. He wanted to say something, but his throat was clogged. He couldn’t get the words out, and that was when she left him. There was nothing Colt could do but weep.
6
Time and space faded away as Colt lay in bed. With his sons already fast asleep, it didn’t take more than a few seconds for him to find the rest his body so desperately needed.
But it wasn’t long before he awoke to black soulless eyes staring at him. The most horrifying thing, however, was that the eyes belonged to someone close to him. They belonged to Dylan.
Colt rose on his arm and breathed heavy at the nightmare that had come, seemingly moments after he closed his eyes. Dylan, no!
He shook off the dream and quickly found his footing on the floor. He came to the realization sleep would have to wait. Besides, Jake was probably looking for him. And maybe he could find more answers about the supply truck.
Colt snuck outside, leaving his sons to sleep. Without knowing where to go, Colt followed the same path Shelley led him on after they arrived with Jake. It didn’t take more than a few paces to catch sight of his brother.
From far off in the hall, Colt called out, “Got some good news, brother?”
“Something like that.” Jake found his eye. “Where are the boys?”
“Out cold. It’s been a rough few days.”
Uncivil War (Book 6): Awakening Page 3