by Jay Morris
“What is that?”
She let the Humvee coast to a stop; I heard Karen wake Tucker, telling him something was up.
Whatever or whoever it was continued to approach them, the shape resolved itself into that of a person, then into a person with a rifle. I slipped up through the top hatch and keeping my head low I sighted down the rifle, Tucker opened the door and climbed out. His ridiculous antique revolver in hand. He started towards the oncoming person, he was moving steadily but after a few moments the figure broke into a run, Tucker froze but didn’t raise the gun, then he held his open palm up to me to tell me to hold my fire. The figure was only a few yards away when I finally knew it was Amy. She ran to Tucker and hugged him and he hugged her back, it shocked me that he was so gentle with her, his thick fingers running through her hair, caressing her. She was talking hurriedly as Tucker followed her into the back of the Humvee. We were all happy to see her but confused as to why she was out here so we all felt apprehensive. She hugged Karen and patted Diane’s shoulder and reached for my hand in that weird upside down finger pinch-hand shake that some ladies do.
Amy looked concernedly around and then in a quiet voice asked about Carl. Her voice was barely audible as if she feared the answer. Karen looked away but Diane said softly
“Amy, Carl didn’t make it.”
She started to softly moan and rocking forward and back for a moment, she had wrapped her arms around herself, then she shook her head as if to clear her head. Then in a voice that was strained through grief, anger and fear she began to tell us why she was out there.
Amy told us about the new arrivals, human and otherwise, and of her conversation with Doctor Young Deer, how they were planning to take our supplies for the war effort. Diane, Karen and I peppered her with questions, but Tucker remained silent. That was usually not a good sign because that meant he was thinking of how to kill someone. Amy answered our questions; how many were there? Any special weapons? Are they guarding the kids? Where are they sleeping? Is there an over watch? All the while Tucker remained silent, finally we all looked to him and Diane spoke,
“Well professor? What do you think?”
Tucker leaned forward and taking a deep breath he started his know-it-all lecture,
“We can’t leave, we need the supplies. If we disable the truck they will wait us out. We can’t give it all up the aliens are flattening whole cities, destroying every vehicle they come across, military or not.”
He adjusted himself in his seat then continued
“We can try and disarm them, but it will be risky, we have to be ready to, well, take extreme measures.”
He looked at us, a sad look of resignation on his face.
I got to give Old Man Tucker credit, he certainly had a way to make murder sound almost civilized. Amy spoke up voicing her opinion,
“First, the Doc, Mary Young Deer, she is the one that warned us, she is not to be killed, same goes for Darnell.”
Tucker looked at her, his eyes full of suspicion and mistrust. I know he wanted to say something about how Darnell had crippled him and nearly beaten him to death. Instead he just nodded and said,
“Fine, they live, what else?”
Amy pointed a finger at him
“If anything goes wrong and the kids are in danger? We give it up and let them have everything.”
Diane started to object but Tucker cut her off “Agreed.” Amy leaned back and crossed her arms across her chest and asked “So, what do we do?” Tucker didn’t flinch. “You go back.”
Day 40, West Virginia Welcome Center, 3:45 AM
Amy walked nonchalantly up to the main entry and pulled the door open, but before she could enter a bright flash light nearly blinded her. Darnell’s warm baritone greeted her,
“Where the Hell have you been?”
“Damn it Darnell, will you get that out of my face?” she said.
She covered her eyes with her right hand. The light flicked over her hand for a moment more then finally Darnell lowered it some and it illuminated more of her than her face.
“I asked you a question.”
His voice was flat, angry. Deadly.
“Well since you asked so nicely, I’ll tell you.”
She said sarcastically as she pushed her way in past Darnell.
“I went for a walk.”
“A walk? For three hours?” Darnell said accusingly.
“Yes, for three hours, and since when do I answer to you? We are equals aren’t we?”
She countered.
“Not since you sided with Tucker against me.”
He said, venom dripping on each word.
“Dar, listen I didn’t take his side, I just didn’t think...”
“Think he deserved to die for killing my sister? For strangling her? MY little sister!”
Amy sighed deeply, “Dar, we went all over this, even your Mom and Dad...”
“Are DEAD!”
He was breathing hard, he was getting manic, “They would probably be alive right now if they, if you hadn’t betrayed me.”
Amy stepped forward and placed both hands on his chest, she looked up into his young, handsome face, his smooth black skin catching the light, making her remember why she slept with him in the first place. She ran her hands up and over his shoulders, around his muscled neck,
“Dar, please, let’s not argue. We just found one another again.”
He sighed and nodded, he calmed and leaned over to kiss the petite redhead with the crazy wild hair. She murmured into his lips,
“Anyone in the office?”
He sighed deeply and ran his hands down her back to grab her bottom with both hands.
“Yeah, they are all in there but Doc, she is in with the kids.”
She bit her lower lip but it was Darnell who spoke
“Let’s go outside, we can use the truck.”
She backed away, “Dar, think we should?”
“Hell yes woman, I got to have you right now.”
So many things were going through her mind, the plan called for Tucker and the others to be here at dawn, so after a brief hesitation she agreed.
They hurried through the doors to the truck hidden under the trees 50 yards away, he opened the door and then commanded her to crawl into the cab on her hands and knees. When she was just inside he grasped at her hips and stopped her. He reached around to undo her belt, buttons and zipper on her camos. She caught her breath as he harshly pulled her pants down and then her panties as well.
“Oh dear God.” She whispered.
His hands were everywhere, touching her skin, over her thighs, her bottom, between her legs, she moaned in response. He entered her, he reached forward and with his left hand and grasped a hank of her hair and pulled it hard. He was talking dirty to her, calling her names, swatting her backside as he took her.
She felt him pull out of her, and she heard the leather squeak as he adjusted himself in the cab, she braced herself for his re-entry. But instead she heard him mumble something unintelligible then there was an audible thump, then another.
“Dar?”
She looked over her shoulder to see Tucker standing a couple of feet from the truck.
“Tucker, what are you doing?”
She scrambled to pull her pants up and then she slid out of the cab. She was mortified but before she could say anything Tucker said,
“He isn't dead.”
She looked down at Darnell, the side of his head was split and he was bleeding badly, his mouth was bloody as well and he was missing several teeth and several others looked broken, Tucker had hit him several times and he was totally out cold.
“What did you do?” she demanded.
Her fury making her words as sharp as a razor blade and just as cold. Tucker held up his right hand, on it he wore a set of black enameled brass knuckles,
“Got them on the internet, car escape tool they called them.”
Amy knelt down to touch Darnell’s face. Tucker knelt too, using heavy d
uty cable ties he brutally zip stripped Darnell’s hands behind him so that they bit hard into his wrists, then he did the ankles the same way. He used a strip of duct tape wrapped around Darnell's head to hold a wadded up old sock in his mouth. Tucker grabbed the boy, drug him by the collar to the back of the truck. He picked him up and roughly slammed him into the bed of the truck, his already damaged head bouncing on the metal.
“Careful!” Amy demanded.
“He isn’t dead.” Tucker responded.
That was when the rest of us came out of the shadows. Amy was so angry she was trembling, but when Tucker knelt at the side of the truck and we joined him she did too. I knew this wasn’t over.
“Thanks to Mata Hari here we have Darnell out of the picture. Where is everyone else?”
Amy looked down at the ground, I could not tell what she was feeling or thinking but she answered Tucker in an almost robotic voice, her words clipped. Precise.
“The Doc is in with the kids in the supply room, everyone else is in the office.”
“Good, Amy go in with the Doc. I’ll take care of the others.”
“WE will take care of the others.” Diane said.
“Fine” he agreed.
“John if you and Karen will set up behind the crescent counter opposite the office in case things go badly.”
I looked at Karen then said
“Maybe Karen and I should go in the office?”
Amy reached over and took my hand,
“No John, not this time.”
I could tell there would be no argument so I nodded and we jogged the distance from the trucks’ hiding place to the side of the building. Then around the front, Tucker quietly pushed the door open, entered and leaned against it to let us by. Amy went to the storage room door, then turned and looked to us, Diane nodded to her and she disappeared inside.
I think they say, no matter how hard you plan, some guy named Murphy will screw it up. Well, we didn’t have anyone named Murphy with us, but he must have been there in spirit because it all went to shit right about then. Of all things Airman Vanu took that exact moment to stretch his legs and hit the latrine. It all happened as if in slow motion, we were all moving at the same time, the door swung out and Vanu stepped from the room, he was horrified, frightened almost to the point of senselessness. He started shaking as he tried to pull the pistol from his holster. Vanu yelled “Major!” at the same time Diane called out “Wait!” Tucker didn’t wait, as Vanu started squeezing off wild shots, Tucker leveled the M-4 he was carrying and started to return fire One of Vanu’s rounds grazed his right arm, opening a bloody streak from his wrist to his elbow. Tucker’s rounds were well placed and the first three hit center body mass, Vanu fell backwards his arms out wide like Jesus on the cross. More gunfire came from the office as Major Pierce popped in and out around the door frame, one of his shots must have been a ricochet and it clipped Tuckers right heel. He cursed a foul song and spun to the ground. Diane West was still yelling
“Everyone! Cease fire! Cease fire!”
The Major did but a moment later there was a soft click followed by a ringing sound, the Major rolled something out of the office and Tucker screamed “Grenade!”
Karen grabbed me and pulled me to the ground on top of her behind the counter and there was an ear shattering explosion and a shock wave that hammered us all. It took me a moment to even remember where I was, I could see Karen saying something but there were no words. She shook me, then turned away to pick up her rifle. I staggered to my feet as sound roared its way into existence all around me. Even through the ringing in my ears I could hear the sound of plaster falling. I heard the sound of debris crunching underfoot and there was Major Pierce, I had never seen him before but from Amy’s description, this big, hard man had to be him. I stood there dumb struck as he raised his pistol to point at me, suddenly a three round burst rang out, all three hitting Pierce from the side, his shot went wild and missed me by at least 6 inches. I looked to my right along the curved counter and there was Karen, smoke coming from the muzzle of her rifle. She stepped to me and asked me if I was alright, I nodded and said
‘Of course m’dear’. Oh, alright, what I really said was “Mumble, mumbly, mum.”
Karen patted my arm and ran around the counter, I followed her, we both stopped short when we saw Tucker kneeling next to Diane. She was on her back and it looked like she had been stabbed a hundred times with a pen knife. Blood was literally spraying from a thousand crimson fountains. Her upper arms were at her side, but her forearms were pointing to the sky. Her hands were trembling, shaking like leaves on a tree during a storm. She was staring at the ceiling and she was mouthing words but said nothing, she coughed and blood sprayed from her mouth, the tiny red droplets painting Tuckers face. He was trying to stop the worst of the bleeding, and failing miserably.
Somewhere along the sequence of events Karen must have gotten Amy and the Doctor, because the woman in blue digital camo started working on Diane. She yelled to Amy to check the Major and Vanu. As Amy checked them she called out “He’s gone” about the Major and “he is too” about Vanu. The Doctor had a kit that rolled out on the floor, it was covered in pockets and straps, I could tell that she must have been using it quite often because so many of the compartments were empty. Diane began to tremble and the Doc gave her an injection of some kind that seemed to help a little, but only a little. Tucker was trying to hold compresses on some of the wounds that the Doc hadn’t got to when Diane coughed again, then gurgled up more blood. A red tinged bubble formed on her lips, then slowly disappeared as Diane died.
Tucker sat back on his butt and leaned against the counter. He drew his knees up and put his elbows on them and dropped his head into his hands as if it were a heavy stone he could no longer carry. The Doc started to put her kit away but grew frustrated and she threw a half rolled up, bloody bandage across the room and she too sat back against the counter right next to Tucker. Amy sobbed and I looked to where she was standing, half in, half out of the store room, Silent Bob on her hip, his face buried in her neck. I slowly walked past her into the room, Lucy and Gina and all the little gray aliens were hugging each other, I could even see that the grays were trembling and shifting positions as each tried to get closer to Lucy and Gina.
I sat down across from them, my rifle across my lap and watched them, Gina’s big beautiful eyes showing the toll that our existence was exacting on her life. Lucy was only a little better, her concern for the grays distracting her some I suppose.
“Luce, are you Okay?” I asked.
She nodded and bit her lip a little then said
“The underling are afraid.”
And she gently patted a couple of grays who could not get right up next to her.
“The who?” I asked. “Our friends, the underling” she replied. Gina added “I thought they were only afraid of the Da-Nah but our guns frighten them too.” I considered that maybe I had a concussion but decided that for the moment I would assume not. “Who are the the denar?” She and Gina looked at each other like I was stupid, “The Da-Nah, silly, not denar.” Gina corrected. “The tall white ones who came here to Earth, to take it from us.” Lucy clarified.
“Lucy, how do you guys know this?”
Gina was ‘shush-ing’ the grays, that is the underling, so it was Lucy who explained,
“In the dream that all the underling share, we can talk to them and be with them on the world they come from.”
Gina added
“It’s got lots of big plants and trees and lots of things are purple and there is lots of fruit but don’t eat the yellow ones.”
Both girls stuck out their tongues and then added together for emphasis “Yuck.
I stared at them for a few seconds then called out in a sing-song voice
“Karen? Amy? You guys are going to want to hear this.”
Day 39, Continued, Command Area, Vehicle 1-3
Supreme Director 1 was nervous, he had a tele-conference in just a few mom
ents. The council of directors had bristled at his commands but they accepted them. One planetary rotation was sufficient for his new protocols to take effect, everything except the modification of the hazardous duty biotech into Defenders. That would take at least another rotation. There was a sight flicker then the faces of all the remaining Directors 1s appeared and his meeting began.
“Insistive-Query-Status-Protocols-Original- Biotech-Indigenous-Micro”
“Statement-Factual Indigenous-Life-Aggressive-Micro-Resistance-Quantity-Estimation (.88)”
“Statement-factual-Resistance-Quantity-Estimation-Comparative (Da-Nah, Indigenous-Life-Aggressive) (.92)”
“Insistive-Query-Status-Quantity-Estimation-Chronal- Defenders-Completion”
“Statement-Factual-Quantity-Estimation-Composite- :{
Set-Pattern-Conjunctive (Completion, Chronal-delta),
[(.47, 1.6),
(.24, 1.2),
(.29, .92)]”
“Statement-Factual-Estimate-Multiple-Amenable
Conditional (Conditional (Supreme Director->Protocols-Original),
Statement-Factual-Quantity-Relative-Da-Nah-Fatality (-.83))};
The Director 1s flashed surprise and then relief, the hemorrhaging of Da-Nah life had slowed and the Directors began to say and flash confidence in the Supreme Director. He didn’t bring up how far behind they were or that Da-Nah were still being slain by the monsters. Neither did the Director 1s. It was unfortunate they could not use the same Bio-elimination spore they had initially used but it was likely that every single remaining monster would be immune and if they were not they would pose a threat to the Da-Nah themselves. His strategy was falling into place, delay and protect. Protect the Da-Nah until a new biotech weapon was ready that would not be harmful to the Da-Nah but 100% lethal to the monsters. All he needed was time.