“I don’t like it,” Mike said, swinging open the car door. “We need to move. Quick. With the Crusaders knowing where we live and now the aliens…”
“Mike,” Ellie said, scooting out of the passenger seat. “I’m serious. I don’t think they mean us any harm. I didn’t get bad vibes from them.”
“I’m not going to take that chance,” he said, rounding the building and climbing the stairs, two at a time. “The sooner we move onto the Marine base, the better.”
Ellie followed Mike up the stairs. He flung open the front door as he announced the arrival of the aliens. Everyone started hustling, filling boxes, bags, and Ellie’s suitcases with food, medical supplies, and clothes from both her condo and the next door unit. Mike had sent Aaron and Hiro down to the garage to start packing the supplies from the garage into the bed of the truck that Aaron had acquired from the Crusaders.
“Okay,” Mike said to Ellie once he’d finished bringing her belongings to the SUV. “Anything else?”
Max jumped around at Ellie’s feet. She looked down, gave him a quick scratch behind his ear, and then shook her head, no. She knew she could always come back later if there was something she needed. They weren’t going to go very far. The plan was that they’d find a house on base, a few miles from Ellie’s condo, that’d be big enough for all of them to share since the aliens were inhabiting the Earth, and they also needed to hide from the Crusaders. They depended on each other for survival.
Hiro’s granddaughter was sitting in the backseat of the SUV with Jorge’s little sister, Bella. They were quietly playing with a couple of Barbie dolls that’d seen better days. Ellie lifted Max into the backseat to sit with the girls. He was rewarded with giggles and lots of attention. Ellie smiled. Seeing the girls and Max so happy, gave her a glimmer of hope that everything would be okay. If they all stuck together and continued to lay low, they could live a happy life. Or at least, she liked to think they could.
“We’re just about done,” Aaron said to Mike. He grabbed another case of water from the back of the garage.
“Great job!” Mike said, grabbing one of the last boxes of canned goods. “You guys hustled.”
“Not bad, considering it’s just the two of us,” Aaron laughed, sliding the case of water into the bed of the truck. Hiro was standing in the back, arranging everything to fit snuggly in the truck bed.
Mike set the box on the tailgate and looked around. “Where’s Jorge?”
“Beats me,” Aaron said with a shrug. “Thought he was with you.”
“No,” Mike said, following Aaron back to the garage. He stopped by the SUV. Ellie was sitting in the SUV, talking with the girls who were playing with Max. “Have you seen Jorge?”
“No,” Ellie said, looking around. “I thought he was loading the truck.”
“Aaron hasn’t seen him.”
Ellie turned around in the passenger seat. “Bella, honey, do you know where your brother is?”
Bella hesitated and then shook her head.
“Bella, are you sure? We don’t want to leave without him, and we’re almost ready to go.”
“He said he’d be back soon,” Bella said, her brown eyes large with fright. “We can’t go without him!”
“No, of course not, sweetie,” Ellie consoled. “We won’t go anywhere without him.”
Mike was standing outside the open passenger side door. He leaned in over Ellie and peeked into the backseat of the SUV. “Did he say where he was going?”
Bella shook her head.
“He wouldn’t have gone back to your house, would he?”
Bella shook her head again. “I think he went to see the aliens.”
“You stay here with the girls,” Mike said to Ellie, turning to leave. “If I’m not back in fifteen minutes, head to the base.”
“Mike,” Ellie said, grabbing hold of his arm. “No! We’re not going without you!”
“It’s not safe here. If I’m not back in time, I’ll meet you at the commissary on base. Okay?”
Ellie stubbornly pursed her lips together. She didn’t plan on going anywhere without him but didn’t want to argue. “Fine.”
“Promise me?”
Ellie threw him a look. “I promise.”
“Good. Be right back. Promise.” Mike gave her a quick kiss goodbye, told Aaron and Hiro to head out in fifteen minutes with or without him, and then he cut through the center courtyard of the condominiums. He passed the half-empty hot tub that still had the protective plastic cover over it, and the fenced-in green algae-filled pool, empty tennis courts, gym, and clubhouse. Mike stood at the far end of the clubhouse and decided to backtrack. He then entered a walkway that took him past the gym and followed it to a small parking lot at the front of the complex. Ellie had said she’d seen the aliens at the apartments across the street. Since they all heard Ellie’s story, that’s where he figured he’d find Jorge.
Adrenaline pumping, Mike looked up and down the street. He had the eerie feeling of being watched but didn’t see anyone around. Everything was quiet. Mike glanced up at the spaceship casting everything in shadow. There was no sign of the blinking white light. No sign of anything. It was just hovering, as it had been for the last several weeks. Again, Mike wondered if Ellie really saw aliens. He didn’t doubt that she thought she saw aliens. She apparently saw two men with guns. However, he still wasn’t a hundred percent convinced they were aliens. With the virus still lingering, Ellie may have seen survivors of the infection, which may explain the strange appearance of their eyes and skin.
Running across the street, Mike was feeling angrier by the minute that Jorge would take off without letting anyone know. He worried that he’d ring the kid’s neck once he got his hands on him.
Mike entered the parking lot of the apartments and then rounded the first set of buildings. There was no sign of Jorge. He came to another set of buildings and stopped. He heard a strange zapping sound. Ellie had said the men were using a ray gun. The sound was coming from over a tall wooden fence that divided the complex from another country club setting next door.
As quietly as he could, Mike made his way through the overgrown grass to the fence, trying not to crunch on the dried leaves on the ground too loudly with his heavy steel-toed boots. He pressed his ear to the wood and listened. He heard it again. The sound reminded him of a stun gun. Mike placed his hand on the butt of his gun and searched for an opening big enough to look through, between the wooden slats of the fence. He was worried that if he climbed the fence to peek over the top, he’d be spotted.
Working his way along the fence, Mike finally found what he was looking for, a decent sized gap. He leaned in and peered through, but couldn’t see anything. A trunk of a tree blocked his view. Mike heard another zapping noise. He could see a few bluish-white sparks from on the other side of the tree, but that was all. The damn trunk was in the way. Curiosity had gotten the better of him, and he decided to take a peek over the top. He felt the tree would probably lend him enough coverage so that he wouldn’t be seen.
Mike pulled himself up and scooted to the left of the tree. There were two men dressed in what resembled military gear, but unlike any get up that Mike had seen. The men’s backs were to him. Bodies in all states of decomposition were strewn all over the place. The smell was acrid.
Zap! Zap! A bolt of bluish white light shot out of the gun, and a body disintegrated before Mike’s eyes. The other man aimed at another body.
Zap! Zap! That one disappeared too. A cool ocean breeze picked up, and gray ash fluttered away into the sky.
Unable to believe his eyes, Mike watched the two men take turns zapping bodies. One after another, they disappeared. He agreed with Ellie that the men were cleaning up after the infection.
Hopping down from the fence, Mike decided to head back towards the condo. He hoped that Jorge had returned. He could keep searching the premises, but it’d probably be a lost cause. Jorge could be anywhere. When Mike turned around, he froze. Two tall, handsome, dark-hair
ed men with chiseled features and strong upper bodies, were standing there with a slender, fair-haired woman with a pinched face. All three were staring at him with bright green eyes. They were wearing regular, everyday clothing. However, he noticed the woman had her shirt on backward and that her skin was abnormally fair. Otherwise, the men seemed pretty normal, even if all three of them were gawking at him.
“Hi,” Mike said. “I’m Sheriff Wilson.” He cleared his throat. “Just looking for a friend of mine, Jorge. He’s about so tall with dark hair.” Mike held up his hand to show Jorge’s height of about 5’10. “He’s wearing a white T-shirt and jeans. Have you seen him?”
Both of the men and the woman tilted their heads to the side as they studied him. Their movements were strange and stiff. He could tell they were studying him. He glanced upwards at the spaceship. They followed his gaze to the ship. “Are you from up there?” he asked.
The woman continued to look upwards, and the two men returned their attention to observing him. When none of them responded, Mike decided he should get back to the condo. He wasn’t feeling a dangerous vibe from the strangers, but they made him feel uncomfortable.
“Well, I’d better head back. Maybe my friend went home.” Mike gave them a weary smile and noticed the woman’s cheek twitch. One side went up, as she tried to mimic him. “Welcome to the neighborhood,” he said, with a wave of his hand. One of the men lifted his hand in a half wave.
Mike scurried across the street, every once in a while, glancing over his shoulder to make sure he wasn’t being followed. Further down the street, he noticed several men in the same military garb as the two men he’d seen with ray guns. A bolt of white, and blue electricity shot at a dark figure on the ground. Ellie was right. It seemed the aliens were cleaning up the aftermath from the virus. It appeared that they were moving in. He wondered if the aliens had purposely unleashed the virus to take over the earth.
“Hey… hey, hombre… Sheriff Mike…”
Mike turned to see Jorge running across the street towards him. “Where have you been?” Mike spat.
“I watched you talk to them,” Jorge said. “You’ve got balls, man.”
“You know, kid,” Mike seethed, trying to keep his anger in check. “I could kill you… Thought something bad happened to you.”
“No, man,” he said, following Mike through the grounds back towards the condo. “They were real cool and all. A few of them looked at me, but the rest didn’t.”
Mike stopped and stared at Jorge. “Just how many of them did you see?”
“I don’t know.” Jorge shrugged. “A bunch. The military dudes are shooting bodies, and the others are walking around and going inside apartments and stuff. But I did see something gross…”
“Tell me when we get to the car. Ellie and them should be on base by now. I told them to meet us at the commissary.”
“Dude, one of them was eating a cat. It was still alive and twitching and stuff. Really sick, dude! Nastiest thing I’d ever seen! Blood all over the place. He bit it right in the middle of it’s…”
“Sheriff or Mike. Not dude!” Mike cut him off from telling the rest of his story. He was in a really foul mood. “I had told you to tell me later! Right now we need to get the hell out of here!”
Mike was still ticked off at Jorge for disappearing the way he did. As soon as they were settled on the Marine base in housing, he was going to lay down strict ground rules. Everyone would have to abide by them if they were to survive. None of them had a clue what they were up against, and deep in his gut, he knew something terrible was about to happen. And, unfortunately, his gut never lied. They needed to prepare for the worst.
When they arrived at the condo, Mike was happy to see that Ellie had actually listened to him. Both the SUV and the pickup truck were gone. The yellow Corvette was right where he left it, near the garage, keys still in the ignition. Ellie had left a note on the driver’s seat for him. She’d scribbled it on the back of a fast food napkin, “See you at the commissary! love, Ellie”
Within minutes, Mike was pulling off Interstate 5, taking the Camp Pendleton off-ramp. He carefully maneuvered around abandoned vehicles, and then remembered the carnage at the front gate. When he was there yesterday, he’d had to walk up. There’d be no way to get onto the base without driving over all of the bodies. He was unsure if Ellie could stomach it or if the SUV would make it.
Feeling stupid for not having warned the others about the gate, Mike’s stomach flip-flopped as he approached. To his surprise, the bodies were gone. It was as if they’d never been there. The abandoned AAV was still on the other side of the gate. Lines of abandoned cars were still on the street, but all bodies had vanished.
Mike slowly drove past an abandoned sedan where he remembered seeing a dead man in the driver’s seat. The poor guy’s face had been pressed against the side window. Mike peered inside the car. It was empty. Not liking this, Mike slowly worked his way through the open gates and looked around. He headed past the hospital to his right and continued straight. The commissary would be coming up on his left.
“Woah! Dude!” Jorge said. “I mean, Sheriff…”
Mike followed Jorge’s gaze out the window. Men in the same odd military uniforms with ray guns were walking around the parking lot to the new PX on their right.
“The aliens are everywhere!” Jorge said.
Mike turned into the parking lot on the left that housed the commissary. Abandoned cars and dead bodies were strewn all over the asphalt. Mike stopped and noticed the SUV and pickup truck parked up ahead in front of a family restaurant. Ellie waved at him. They were unable to park close to the commissary with all of the vehicles and human remains. Pulling up next to them, Mike rolled down his window. Ellie rolled down hers and flashed him a weak smile. “I’m so happy to see you. I was so worried you wouldn’t make it.”
“I promised you that I would.”
Aaron and Hiro were in the pickup truck, parked behind Ellie. Aaron hopped out of the truck and walked up to Mike’s window. “Hey, where do we go now?”
“Let’s head towards the neighborhoods and find a place to crash. We can then figure out where to go from there.” Mike eyed the PX parking lot across the street that was swarming with aliens in military gear. The sight made him feel uneasy. He kept seeing bolts of blue and white electricity in his peripheral vision. He could also hear the zapping noises. Maybe the military base was a wrong choice to take refuge.
Ellie frowned. “They’re everywhere.”
Just then, the front door of the restaurant opened causing Aaron to jump. Startled, Aaron crouched down in between the cars. One of the alien men dressed in uniform, stepped out, gun in hand. He looked at them for a moment, tilting his head to the side, in observation. When he deemed them as not a threat, he walked toward the commissary.
Zap! Zap! Mike spotted several more men, wandering through the parking lot near the commissary, zapping the remains.
“Follow me,” Mike said, lifting an eyebrow. “Let’s get out of here.”
As Aaron hopped into the driver’s seat of the pickup, a loud rumble filled the sky around them, shaking the ground like an earthquake. There was a sudden bright flash of light, and then what appeared to be static electricity, snapped, popped, and sparkled throughout the sky.
Frightened, Ellie’s stomach tied up in knots as a dark, eerie looking spacecraft that was jagged and odd, replaced the silver one that had previously been hovering above them. Yells and grunts came from the aliens in military gear as they scattered on foot. “Oh my God!” Ellie screamed when she realized they were running for cover.
“We go inside!” Hiro said, flinging open the passenger door of the SUV. “Now!” He then said something to his granddaughter in Japanese that Ellie didn’t understand. He hopped out of the SUV and opened the back door.
“Where are you going?” she yelled. Hiro ignored her and grabbed his duffle bag that housed his gun. He ushered his granddaughter and Bella into the restaurant. Bella wa
s holding Max in her arms. Max was panting, feeling the tension surrounding them. Aaron hopped out of the pickup truck.
“I’m sticking with him. He’s got a machine gun,” Aaron said, hurrying inside. Jorge flung open the passenger door to the Corvette and ran into the restaurant.
“Come on,” Mike said, opening Ellie’s door. She was too scared to move. Mesmerized, she just stared at the ship. Mike tugged at her hand. “Hurry! Inside!”
The sky continued to pop and snap with static electricity. Ellie, scared out of her mind, ran for cover, taking refuge in the abandoned family restaurant.
Chapter 10
When Susan entered the room, Benjamin was screaming, thrashing his body against the bed restraints. His eyes were a bright golden yellow.
“I had to restrain him!” Liam rushed to Susan’s side. “Should I give him a sedative?”
“No. Not yet.” Susan walked up to Benjamin’s bedside. “A sedative might dampen his connection with the Scourge.”
Benjamin was pulling and yanking as he tried to kick against the restraints.
“Benjamin,” Susan said calmly. “Can you hear me?”
The boy continued to thrash about the bed.
Susan tried again. “Why are you screaming? Benjamin, are you in pain?”
Still, no response.
“What’s wrong? Are you hurting? Benjamin, I can’t help you unless I know what’s wrong. Is it the Scourge?”
The boy continued to scream, while kicking his legs, and twisting his arms, trying to free himself from the restraints. She was getting nowhere.
“A small amount of sedative,” she instructed. “Just enough to calm him.”
Liam nodded, preparing a syringe.
“Benjamin,” Susan raised her voice. “Ben-ja-min! Control yourself!”
Liam rushed over and administered the sedative. Within minutes the little boy stopped thrashing about. His eyelids popped open, and his golden eyes stared at Susan, unblinking. Liam slipped out of the room for a moment as Susan tried to communicate with him.
Fatal Reaction, Survival Page 16