by Matt Ryan
“Hank, it doesn’t matter,” Gladius said. “There’s an invasion coming. Trip, you remember that message Marcus played us, the one where the lady said she was going to destroy us, blah blah blah?”
“Yeah,” Trip said and opened the door to the cage.
“It just played over our car radio, after our car died and a plane fell from the sky.”
Trip rushed to the radio and flipped a few dials. He glanced back. “Get in here and close the door.
Hank ran his hand along the metal cage. “What have you got going on in here? What is this?”
“Faraday cage,” Trip said and turned a dial. Static crackled through the speakers. “If someone knows what’s going on, some handle out there will be broadcasting.”
A voice came across the speaker. Hank heard the fear in it as he spoke. They all leaned closer to the speaker.
“I’m watching them now. There are these black cubes flying around the city in a swarm. The sun is setting and it’s hard to see them clearly, but they look metal and definitely unidentifiable. They defy everything I know about aviation.”
Trip pressed a button and moved close to a microphone. “Location?”
“Ah, somebody is out there. Minneapolis.”
“What’s happening?”
“I don’t know. All the power went out and I see fires near the airport. The highways are clogged with cars and I see many people walking around. Call me crazy, but I think we got hit with an EMP. Wait, something’s happening near the Mall of America. A much larger cube is hovering over the building.
“Oh my God. An explosion. It’s collapsing to the ground, I can see the dust and debris in the air. The cubes are attacking. They are circling around the larger cube now. The larger cube is moving down, it’s landed on top of the rubble. We’re under attack. We’re under attack. Someone needs to tell the military.”
“Tell him to get out of there,” Gretchen said.
“Minneapolis, you got a way to get out of there?”
“No, I’m on the top floor of a building and the elevators are out. Besides, I can’t stop watching. The world needs me to report this. You recording?”
“Aye,” Trip said.
Hank looked up at his old ceiling. A humming sound passed over the house and then another.
“You hear that?” Trip asked and stood. He squinted at the wall.
They rushed out of the room and out the front door. They each scanned the skies, searching for the source of the noise. Then they saw it. A black cube, flying over the house. Then a second one.
“Just like Minneapolis described,” Trip said.
“How much you want to bet they’re coming from the stone?” Gladius said.
“Let’s get there then,” Trip said.
“Cars are busted, we’ll have to hoof it,” Hank said.
“Come on, I’ve got a few bicycles. It’s not too far.” Trip ran to the garage.
“You ride a bike?” Hank followed behind his dad.
“I can.”
Another cube flew overhead. “They must be setting up their invasion first. Julie told me these things tried to take her and the rest,” Gladius said.
“We don’t know what’s going on at the stone. We might be walking right into a trap,” Hank said.
“Fine, we just check it out and see what’s going on,” Trip said. “Every second we waste, another one of them flying things comes into this world.”
“Okay, but we’re just looking,” Hank stressed.
They arrived at the head of the trail. Setting their bikes on the ground, they listened to the sound of rustling trees and a constant humming.
Gladius looked to the sky as one flew over the treetops. “Julie said those things are drones; unmanned and performing tasks to some kind of code. They pull in people and then take them away to those towers. She went all nerd on me after that.”
“We better keep quiet. I doubt these things will like us coming up on them,” Trip said.
Hank walked behind his dad and into Watchers Woods. He glanced back as Gladius and Gretchen followed them in. He half wanted them to stay back with the bikes, but these cubes would be killing them all if they didn’t stop them. At least if something unforeseen happened, they’d reach their fate together. He reached back and offered a hand to help Gladius over a log. She took it with a smile and hopped over, keeping her hand wrapped around his.
As they approached, the humming sound grew in volume, making the idea of sneaking up on the stone ludicrous. They could be yelling and not be heard. Hank wanted to tell his dad to stop, that they’d seen enough and could go back and create an actual plan.
They reached the charred part of the forest and Trip stopped on his own and knelt down. Hank and the rest kneeled down around him, but kept their attention on the spectacle over the Alius stone. A mist swirled around in the circle, like a smoky snow globe. The black cubes flew from it at a continuous rate. Flying in all directions.
It was much worse than Hank thought. Back at his dad’s house, they were only getting a small fraction of the cubes emerging from the stone.
“Holy crap,” Gladius said.
“How are we going to stop that?” Gretchen asked.
“I don’t know,” Trip said.
“We should get closer. See if someone is controlling the stone,” Gladius suggested.
Hank got up first and took lead. He walked low as he approached the circle. The sound became so loud, he was tempted to cover his ears. Glancing back, he saw Gladius and Gretchen doing exactly that. He motioned for them to stay back while he walked closer. The cubes flew over him low enough that he could jump up and slap their underside as they flew by.
Trip moved up next to him, crouching low and squinting at the mist. He pointed and Hank followed his direction. Through the cloud, he spotted a man next to the stone, with his head low. His dad nodded in the guy’s direction, and moved closer to the edge of the circle.
Hank wanted to tell him to stop, but the noise became so loud it blurred his vision. Cubes moved just a few feet over their heads, so both he and his dad were laying down by the time they got to the circle. Trip army crawled his way toward the guy at the stone.
Hank followed him in, watching as cube after cube appeared and took flight.
The man glanced back and spotted Trip and Hank. His red, disheveled hair and youthful appearance wasn’t what Hank was expecting. He wasn’t sure what he’d expected, maybe another version of Arracks, or some alien, but this guy looked like a scared young man, around his own age.
The man shook his head and took both hands off the stone, as Trip reached out to grab him. The mist cleared and the deafening silence struck Hank in the gut. Even though the cubes stopped flying by his head, he stayed low.
“You can see me?” the man asked and glanced back to the stone.
Hank stood and sidestepped closer to the stone.
“Why couldn’t we? You’re right there,” Trip said.
“This isn’t right.” He looked around, confused. Then he lunged for the stone.
Hank had expected this and beat him to it, smothering the stone with his body.
“Get off it!” the man yelled and attacked Hank. Trip pulled the young man off and he kept screaming. “You don’t know what you’re doing!”
“Stop it.” Trip warned, holding him tighter. “Why don’t you start by telling me what you’re doing here?”
“Set me down first.”
Trip released him. The guy shoved both hands in his pockets, then disappeared.
“Whoa, where’d he go?”
“There, I see his footsteps,” Gladius said, pointing past them.
Hank spotted the footsteps and ran after him. His legs hurt from so much use over the past couple hours, but he couldn’t let this man get away. He may be the entire world’s salvation. The bushes rustled and collapsed under the invisible man. Hank leapt onto the spot and felt the man’s body. He moved to his arms and held them down as Trip got to him and lifted the per
son up. He reappeared as quickly as he disappeared and Hank held him tight.
“How’d you do that?” Hank asked, dragging the man back toward the circle.
“No, no, no . . . this isn’t right.” He shook his head. “Who are you people? You have to let me go. She won’t be happy with this. It won’t take long for them to notice this portal is closed.” He looked terrified.
“Dude, we aren’t letting you go.” Gladius walked up to Hank and Trip. “And if you don’t put a stop to all this crap, you’re going to be in a world of hurt.”
“Who are you people?” His face lit up. “Are you with the little one? The one she’s after?”
“Who are you talking about?” Hank said, loosening his grip on the man.
“Evelyn?” Gladius said, then covered her mouth.
“You do know her.”
“What of her?” Hank asked, keeping a hand on him. More to protect him from the blade Gladius held. He wanted this guy alive long enough to get some information from him.
“I don’t know much, but there was a rumor of a little girl who took on the queen’s entire fortress and escaped. It seemed too crazy to believe, but then every plan changed and all efforts were sent to this planet. That’s never happened before, so it is assumed this is the little girl’s planet.”
“What does she want with her?” Hank asked and gave him a shake.
“If she’s able to take on the queen, then she must have enough quintessence to send her to the next evolution.”
“What’s quintessence?” Hank asked.
The red-haired man looked to each of them. “I’ve never even seen another alien person. You look just like us.” He gazed at the ground and ran his hand over his face. “I don’t want to do this, believe me, but this is bigger than any of you. I do this to get closer to . . . .”
“To what?” Hank asked.
“Listen,” he held up his hands, “it’s all too much to explain, but know this, we want the same thing you do. We want this,” he pointed to the sky, “to end. We want the feeding off other worlds to end. We’ve been waiting for you.” He faced Hank.
Gladius moved close to him and brandished her knife near his face. “You better start making sense, or I’m going to get stabby.”
The young man raised his hands, taking a step back. “Let me take you to my leader. She’ll know what to do. She can help us. You can help us end this.”
“Why don’t you just tell us how to stop it?” Hank asked and pointed at the stone.
“You can’t.”
Hank glared at him. “We stopped you.”
“Even if you stopped this one portal, more are pouring out with the reclamators. It’s too late. There’s no stopping it, unless we can stop her. There are a few of us in the resistance, but we need people like you. People like Evelyn.”
“What’s your name?” Gladius asked, taking on a slightly friendlier tone.
“Wes.”
“I tell you what, Wes. Why don’t you bring this leader to us, here, and then we can talk with her.”
“No, she won’t use that kind of portal. We have to hurry. They’ll be here soon to see why the reclamators aren’t moving.”
“This is crazy,” Gretchen said. “This guy could send us anywhere in the worlds. We could end up inside a glacier.”
Hank glared at the stone and then back to Wes. “So your boss is aiming to stop all of this from happening?”
“Yes, she’s been trying to stop the queen for a long time now. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that out of all the portals on this world, you happened to find mine. Any other one, and you’d be long dead by their keeper. This was meant to happen.”
“I don’t believe in fate,” Gladius said.
“Fate doesn’t give a crap what you believe.” He glanced at the stone. “We need to hurry.”
“Let’s just say we agree to this—” Hank’s words cut short as the stone hummed.
“We’re too late. Run. Get out of here!” Wes yelled.
POLY SHIFTED AROUND IN THE driver’s seat. Sitting in the car next to Evelyn, and with Julie, Lucas, and Will in the back, shouldn’t feel awkward. She checked the mirror again and made eye contact with Julie, before veering around another broken down car.
Evelyn had prepared in many ways, and the car had been one of them. She’d put protective cages around the sensitive parts, as she put it. Poly felt uneasy about everything Evelyn had accomplished. It was far too much for one little girl, and it had to have taken years of work. Poly suspected Evelyn slowed down time more than she ever imagined.
She glanced over to her daughter as she skimmed through her Panavice—another thing she’d protected for each of them. Poly thought she heard her humming, but it must have been the drone of the car. Although, she was sure she saw a small smile on her face.
“Take a right over here,” Evelyn said, never looking up.
Poly turned down another dirt road. The car bounced over the washed out side of the road and rattled down the washboard ripples.
“Easy to hide a body in the desert,” Lucas said.
“It’s not much further, and I hope you aren’t thinking of killing me out here, Lucas,” Evelyn said.
“Nah, just an observation. Did you check the trunk for shovels, Poly?”
“Shut up, Lucas. That’s my daughter you’re talking about, and Evelyn isn’t going to hurt us. It’s those freaking cubes flying overhead we need to worry about.” Poly glanced back and saw Lucas and Julie communicating to each other with looks.
“Why don’t you just tell us what you want from Will?” Julie said.
“You’ll see, soon enough.” Evelyn straightened up from her seat and pointed ahead. “Look, you can see the top of it.”
“Holy cow, Evelyn, what have you built?” Poly said, as the car crested over the hill and an enormous complex came into view. It looked like a giant steel ball sitting on top of a box. A few vehicles were parked around the structure and they looked like small toy cars in comparison.
“That is what Will is going to use to save the world,” Evelyn said.
“What?” Julie leaned forward between the two front seats.
“I’ve set it up to work for either Will or I, and I think he should be the one to operate it,” Evelyn said.
“It’s okay, Mom. I want to,” Will said. “This might save the world from the purge people.”
“What does it do?” Poly asked.
“Let me show you when we get there.” Evelyn bounced on the seat as she stared at the structure.
By the time they parked near the front door, it shaded them and what must have been a square mile behind them. Poly got out of the car and the rest of them followed suit.
A man walked out the front door with a rifle slung over his shoulder. He approached, and Poly grasped one of her blades, finding a nice kill spot on the man if needed. She squinted and the man looked familiar, but she couldn’t place him.
“Evelyn,” he said extending both hands. “So good to see you again.”
“Hey, Derek, I brought some friends with me this time.”
“I see that. Poly, Lucas, Julie, and this must be Will. How’s it going, little man?” He held out a hand for a high five and Will left him hanging.
“Did she hold up to the electrical attack?” Evelyn asked looking up at the dome.
Derek lowered his hand and glanced back. “That she did. Only lost one backup generator.”
“Wait,” Julie said. “I know you. You were there with Samantha. You were her bodyguard.”
“I was.” He lowered his head. “Damned shame what happened. Afterward, I was a lost man, until Evelyn found me.” He smiled. “She gave me something to work toward. Something I can do to right the wrong.”
“The wrong? Our friend was killed by your boss. You should have protected her,” Julie said.
“It weighs heavy on me every day. I liked Samantha, a lot,” Derek said.
Evelyn turned to Julie. “People deserve a second chan
ce. A past error isn’t a guaranteed future failure.”
“Thank you for that second chance,” Derek said. Something in his pocket dinged. Poly gripped her knife and slowly exhaled as he pulled out a Panavice. “We have a cube on a deviated course, heading straight for us.”
“Already?” Evelyn said. “Set in motion plan sixteen. We can’t let them get into the globe.”
“Aye,” Derek said and punched the commands into his Panavice.
“What’s going on, Evelyn?” Poly asked.
She was looking at the sky, searching in one area for something. “Looks like we drew their attention already. I doubt it’s the queen, but somebody is in that thing.” She pointed at a cube floating toward them.
“I’ll take point,” Derek said and ran toward the cube. He typed into his Panavice as he moved.
A clanking sound came from the bottom of the building. Poly turned to see the shiny, steel panels slide open and large guns come out.
Derek stopped about a hundred feet out and held his rifle up as the cube landed on the dirt road. The cube opened up and Poly remembered her ride in one of them. Each one could have carried thirty people, or much more if they stuffed inside.
Three people walked down the ramp and out of the cube. They wore long black coats and a black cloth covered most of their face and hair. Poly’s heart raced as they approached Derek.
One of the people in all black walked forward as the other two stayed back. Poly strained to hear the words, but the wind had picked up and pulled the sounds away from her. Evelyn watched intently, not blinking.
“There, see that? The one in the back.” Evelyn pointed.
Poly didn’t see anything at first, but then watched as the one in the back threw something at Derek. Derek, quick to react, fired at the person; the bullets ricocheting off him. The object the man threw struck Derek and he fell to the ground.
“They’ve got shields,” Julie said and pulled Will to the car. Lucas kept an arrow on standby and Poly gripped a knife. They were too far away, but she imagined they would be coming for them next.
“Evelyn, get your shield up,” Poly said, activating her own.
Evelyn didn’t answer as she plowed through the screens on her Panavice. “Amazing,” she whispered.