“What’s this—a party?” Blanche said when she saw so many people crouched in the field.
“How is it that you’re all out here, while everybody else is in there?” Nate pointed to the barn.
“The mayor’s stupid dog,” Blanche informed, casting Red a disgusted glare. “In the scramble to get inside the barn, we lost track of Zena. Michael panicked. Instead of making a bee-line to the barn, he darted into the field. Elizabeth tore off after him. Doc and I tried to help, and that’s when the Celeruns arrived.”
“That was really dumb of you, running off like that just now,” Nate told Michael.
Michael said defensively, “I had to find Zena.”
“Did you find her?” Red asked worriedly.
“She’s probably in the barn with everybody else.” Elizabeth gave Michael a chastising glare. “Now I have no way to tell the others that there’s an entrance to the bunker ten feet away from them. How are you going to feel if we all die because of you?”
“I will feel dead, Mom,” Michael said. “Very dead.”
“That’s for sure,” Nate said. “If the Celeruns decide to search this field, we can kiss our butts good-bye.” He made a kissing sound and slapped his rear for emphasis.
Chapter 19
“You missed the picture show.” Doc informed Red and Nate, keeping the conversation at a barely perceptible whisper. “The Celeruns projected a three dimensional image over the field.”
“It was so realistic,” Blanche said. “Scary, but impressive.”
“I think it was designed as demoralization tactic,” Doc said.
“The images were bigger than life, literally,” Blanche said. “The Celeruns like to throw around the word peaceful a lot.”
“We know,” said Nate.
“By peaceful, they mean what causes the least turmoil to Celeruns,” Elizabeth said. “They’re complete narcissists, incapable of empathy toward other species, though they’re fiercely selfless when it comes to their children.”
“Yeah, we figured that.”
“Wait a minute,” Doc said, grabbing Nate’s arm. “You spoke with the Celeruns?”
“Yep, they used translators to talk to us after they disintegrated our Corvette. It was really intense.”
“They said that we’re out-technologied, outsmarted, and hopelessly outnumbered,” Michael said, clutching Red’s sleeve. “So we might as well give up so they can kill us as peacefully as possible. Are we gonna die, Dad?”
“Not on my watch,” Red said.
“An interesting aside,” Elizabeth added. “As I was poking around inside their heads, I came to realize that the Celeruns are absolutely terrified of their own individual mortality. It’s what drives them to risk everything to reproduce. They view having offspring as a form of everlasting life. The more children they have, the greater chance they’ll find everlasting life.”
“Did you learn anything else that might help us?” Red asked.
“The Celeruns down here on the ground aren’t the ones calling the shots. They’re used to being told what to do, how to do it, and when to do it. There’s not a true leader among them. All important decisions must come down to them via the command chain, which slows down their ability to act decisively.”
“Interesting,” Doc said.
“And,” Elizabeth’s voice cracked and lowered a notch, “The Celeruns have already ‘cleansed’ the other continents. North America is last on the list. They started on each coast and plan to meet somewhere in the middle—here.”
“We’re the last remnant of humanity?” Nate’s eyes widened.
“The Celeruns believe so.”
“You mean we’re all alone?” Blanche’s voice squeaked.
“If it’s any consolation,” Elizabeth smiled weakly. “For all their talk of peace, the aliens are full of inner turmoil. Every single one of them is a neurotic mess. They believe the human concept of life after death is a dangerous idea and…” Elizabeth stopped in midsentence and placed her fingers on her forehead. By the look of concentration on her face, Red knew she was picking up someone’s thoughts. “Aliens walking,” she mouthed, pointing to the left.
Red quietly motioned for the group to follow him deeper into the grass, down a hill, and under the umbrella of a weeping willow. He knew it was okay to stop when Elizabeth broke the silence.
“The mother ship will touch down at the break of dawn.”
“Why don’t they just torch the place now?” Nate asked.
“Their ships and vehicles all draw power from the same source,” Elizabeth explained, rehashing some of the information General Moore had jotted down in his notes. “Most of that power has been diverted to the main ship as it descends into the atmosphere, a monumental feat considering the thing is the size of Tokyo.”
“Where’s Godzilla when you need him?” Nate said.
“For now,” Elizabeth went on, “the Celeruns’ objective is to keep us contained. The ground forces plan to take us out after they’re at full power again once the ship’s landed. Time is on their side.”
“So they think,” Red added.
“There’s another factor too,” Elizabeth said. “The Celeruns are fanatical about the environment. After spending so much time and resources cleaning up the Earth, they don’t want to release unnecessary pollution into the air.”
“You’re got all that from one reading?” Red asked.
“I’ve been reading the Celeruns since they started trailing us.”
“I want to know about operations, Elizabeth. How many Celeruns are here? How many are coming?”
“There’s about fifty here. They come in teams, and while the mother ship is landing, they’re on their own.”
“And once the mother ship lands?” Red asked.
“The fleet will be here fast.”
“How fast?”
“I don’t know,” Elizabeth answered.
“Well, at least for now it’s just them and us.” Red pointed toward a couple of aliens standing behind a tractor. “Tomorrow, it’ll be us and the whole damn fleet.”
“Watch out!” Nate cried out. Red followed his gaze. Troops of Celeruns marched over the tops of the grasses, their feet never touching the ground, merely brushing against the grass heads. Heart racing, he reached for his gun, but it wasn’t there. Nate tried to bolt, but Doc and Blanche wrestled him down.
“Chill!” Elizabeth managed to yell without raising her voice above a whisper. “It’s just the 3D projections we were telling you about.” She tossed a small stone into the air. It passed through a Celerun’s stomach to fall back down into Elizabeth’s outstretched hand. “See.”
Life-sized images of snow-capped mountains stood sentry in the distance. An old-style European village snuggled within a beautiful valley. The scene zoomed in on men dressed in military uniforms. Columns of soldiers marched in unison, their feet crunching on gravel. The images looked solid as they materialized over Red’s hiding spot.
The European soldiers suddenly scattered, breaking ranks. Laser fire sizzled the air. The Europeans turned to ash. The smell of burnt flesh seared Red’s nose. He tried not to gag as a bass-baritone voice narrated the scene like an imitation James Earl Jones, but devoid of inflection and talent.
“These last inhabitants of Germany were subdued without effort.” The scene zoomed over a neatly tilled ten-acre field where a Celerun ship the size of a Roman coliseum had landed. The ship was silver, stacked tiers, largest at the bottom and smallest at the top, just like the wedding cake that Blanche had described. Skywalks crossed over from stack to stack. Celeruns walked up and down ramps that descended from the ship. The air near the ships’ hulls condensed into an eerie white mist. “These are daughter ships, which brought the first Celerun settlers to Earth; these are the cleanup crews and builders who have labored to prepare the way for the primary settlers from the mother ship.”
The projection narrowed in on the fields, which appeared to be rows of cornstalks, until settling on a si
ngle plant. The sprout was three feet tall. Oblong objects, which looked like corn cobs with silky yellow tassels, grew from it in various directions, but the color was deeper green than regular corn and the stalk woodier. A Celerun knelt beside the corn, gently peeling back the husks from a cob.
Nestled inside the husks, where regular corn would have kernels on the cob, was an innocent face with pale green skin, slit nostrils, and tightly closed eyes. Small fists curled at its chest. The adult encouraged the sproutling to wrap its tiny hand around her finger. Small red eyes opened and the face inside the stalk smiled. The adult caressed her baby tenderly under the chin, causing it to make high-pitched cooing sounds. The sproutling rustled, smacked its lips several times, sighed and then closed its eyes again. The adult pressed her lips against the sproutling’s cheek in a loving gesture. She then moved down the row, repeating the same sequence with each and every cob on every stalk in every row.
The scene panned outward, sweeping over the field. Then across the continent, where thousands of fields with thousands of Celeruns were growing.
Red’s jaw clenched at the thought that millions of aliens were growing, sucking life out of the soil that had belonged to human children. This world belonged him, to Elizabeth, to young people like Nate and Blanche. This world belonged to his unborn child, not to Celeruns! He shook a clenched fist at the images floating above him. He demanded something to write on. Doc handed over pen and paper. Red began writing furiously. When finished, he asked Blanche for her specialized assistance.
Chapter 20
Red gave Blanche the paper. “Levitate it to the barn, please.”
“I can’t do that.”
“I saw you lift a ton of hay off of Keith Brown, so whaddaya talking about?”
“A fluke.”
“But the paper is so light a breeze could carry it.”
“It’s not just the weight, it’s the distance. I’ve never managed more than twenty feet.”
“The survival of humanity depends on you being able to manage several hundred feet.”
“I’ll try,” she sighed. “But I can’t make any promises.” She took the paper and tested its weight. “Too light. Maybe if we add a little bulk, something I can actually feel with my charastmatic muscle; that’s what I call the thing inside me that can lift things without touching them.”
“How about a sock?” Nate offered.
“Eww!” she shrieked as he handed her a dirty tube sock from off his foot. “Get some Odor Eaters or something,” she complained as she scooped up a handful of pebbles from the drainage culvert rimming the field into the sock. She folded the paper and tucked it into the sock on top of the pebbles.
Elizabeth took the key from her neck and handed it to Blanche.
Red stopped her. “You can’t do that, honey.”
“They’re going to need it,” Elizabeth said
Red shook his head. “It would take me half-an-hour to write down all the details on how to use the key, Elizabeth, and we don’t have that kind of time. Only you and I can turn it. Besides, we can’t risk the Celeruns intercepting it on the way to the barn.”
“What was I thinking?” Elizabeth said, taking the key back. “You’re right. It has to be you or me.”
“What does the key go to?” Blanche asked as she looped the sock into a ball of knots.
“Never mind that, just do your job.”
“My job?” Blanche raised her eyebrows.
“Don’t be rude, Red,” Elizabeth said.
“It’s okay,” Blanche assured. “We’re all under a lot of stress.”
Red motioned for Blanche to follow him to the ground on her hands and knees. The two of them crawled through the grass, over pebbly ground, until they reached the edge of the meadow, getting within thirty feet of the gravel parking lot before running out of cover. The barn was a good two hundred feet beyond them still.
Blanche eyed the barn nervously. “That’s so far away,” she said.
“You can do it,” he encouraged.
“Okay, okay.” she ordered. “But you’ll be quiet, I need total concentration.
Her face strained like she had constipation, but much to Red’s delight, the sock lifted from her palm to skim over the tips of weeds, skipping over the tops of the tallest. He winced as Blanche sailed the sock between the legs of an unobservant Celerun. Next, she brought it under the belly of a rusting tractor and through a partially opened side door into the barn.
Red lost sight of it as it disappeared into the shadows within and was dying to ask Blanche where it was now, but he didn’t want to break her focus. All he could do was hope those bunkered down in the dim barn would notice an airborne sock flapping around over their heads.
Blanche whispered. “I can’t feel the sock anymore. Either it’s fallen to the ground or someone is holding it.”
“Which is it?” Red shook her by the shoulders.
“I don’t know,” she said, peeling his fingers off her shoulders. “Ow. Upset much, sir?”
“Sorry.” He backed off. The two of them crawled back to the others.
“What was in the note that was so dang important?” Nate asked.
“A two mile long underground tunnel leads from inside that barn down to the Galatians Bunker, our point of destination. There’s another entrance near I-90, beneath a billboard for Rainbow Brand baby food. The billboard’s metal post is actually part of the entrance.”
“Aliens and government conspiracies,” said Nate. “Surreal, Bossman.”
“Are you sure the bunker exists?” Doc asked.
“Elizabeth and I checked it out ourselves. The general wasn’t crazy after all.”
“Let’s hope they got the sock,” Doc said.
“It’s all we can do.”
“What about us?” Blanche asked. “How are we going to get inside?”
Red checked out the countdown clock: Current time: 3:30 a.m. Two-and-a-half hours remained. Taking into account moving the injured, the elderly, and the little children into the bunker, that was cutting it close. Plus, Elizabeth had the only key capable of starting the nuclear launch and she was trapped outside. According to General Moore’s notes, there were bunkers located on almost every continent. The generalwas taking care of the ones in the United States and Canada, but he didn’t know the precise locations of those across the oceans. Nor did he know their current status. At least five of those twenty-four bunkers had to turn keys though. Maybe it wouldn’t matter if the Galatians Bunker had a key, but what if it did? What if the nukes failed to launch and the aliens didn’t die? Where would that leave the people in the bunkers?
He remembered the line of hovercrafts near the road. If they could steal a couple more they’d be set. Nate went on ahead to see if the coast was clear, but came back a few minutes later wearing a grim expression.
“Looks impossible. There’s twenty Celeruns just standing there screwing around.”
“Screwing around? What, they’re just messing around with the hovercrafts or something?”
“I can’t be sure, but I think they’re having a big org—“ He glanced at Michael and cleared his throat. “Jeee-uice.”
“Orange juice?” Doc said in his Indian accent. “Of all things to drink—why orange juice?”
“He means they’re copulating,” Red said.
“Oh!” Doc’s eyebrows pushed up. “I see.”
“What’s copulating?” Michael asked, but the adults pretended they hadn’t heard him.
“There’s no way we can steal one without being spotted,” Nate reiterated. “This means there are six of us and only the two hovercrafts that Bossman and me pilfered.”
“Two of us need to stay here as a distraction,” Red said. “Because once Hewego makes its exit through the secret door, the barn is going to get really quiet, and the Celeruns are going to get really suspicious. We can’t risk them snooping around the barn and finding the entrance before lockdown.”
“I’ll stay,” Doc immediately volunteered
.
“That’s mighty brave of you,” Red said. “But as a physician, your services will be needed in the bunker.”
Red was glad when Elizabeth didn’t volunteer. He didn’t need that argument and it was out of the question anyway.
“I’ll stay,” Blanche volunteered, but Nate stepped in.
“No you won’t,” Nate said. “It’s a man’s duty to stay.”
“That’s ridiculous, especially since I’m a better shot than you,” Blanche retorted.
“There’s more to being a man than being a good shot,” Nate pointed out. “I couldn’t live with myself if I let my future wife fight in my place.”
“Your…uh…future wife?” Her bottom lip trembled, and tears welled up in her eyes. “Are you saying what I think you’re saying?”
He got down on one knee without hesitation. He took her hands in his and met her gaze, sincerity shining in his eyes. “I don’t know what the future holds, or how long that future will be, but wherever it leads, I want my future to begin and end with you. I love you and you are so very hot. Blanche, will you do me the honor of becoming Mrs. Nathan Steelsun?”
Elizabeth clapped her hands and squealed. Red glanced over at Doc, who was blubbering and dabbing his eyes on a sleeve. Good grief.
“Yes,” Blanche jumped into his arms. “I will marry you.” They embraced each other, sharing a long and steamy kiss.
Red felt his chest tighten. Didn’t these kids understand that Nate had just volunteered for a suicide mission? Their marriage would never happen. It killed Red inside to think about accepting Nate’s sacrifice, but he was the only choice. Time to break up the happy engagement.
“We need to get moving,” Red’s voice came out more gruffly than he’d planned. He avoided looking at the young couple as they walked, hand-in-hand, a few steps behind the others. Red led the group toward the hovercrafts hidden in the weeds alongside the road.
“Under different circumstances, I’d love to own one of these.” Red said, helping Elizabeth onto the first hovercraft, trying to put her at ease. Her hands were visibly shaking. “They ride so smooth it’s like skating on ice.” He ushered Doc in behind her.
Red the First Page 14