by Platt, Sean
The gun felt right in Ed’s hand. He wrapped his fingers around the handle tighter, finger kissing the trigger, itchy to squeeze it and knowing the math was impossible. Bullets to aliens were at least ten to one.
Ed turned from the aliens, then glanced at the hatch before his eyes landed on Lisa. “There’s no way I’m letting you cuff me again. You realize that, right?”
Lisa said nothing.
Ed continued, “We’re gonna get through this, and when we do, you’ll know you couldn't have done it without me, and I’ll know I couldn’t have done it without you. That will be enough. We’ll say our thank yous, and then our goodbyes. Once this is over, so are we. Hasta la bye-bye, and no coming back.”
Lisa added empty silence to her pile of verbal nothing, while Ed said the same thing with different words. “You never saw us, and we never saw you. You got it?”
Lisa finally nodded, then said, “Let’s just wait until this shit is over. Then we’ll talk.”
“No talking,” Ed said. “I’m taking off when this shit is over, and you’re going to let me and Brent head into the sunset with a smile on your face. I want your word, Lisa, or I’m going to find it awfully hard to pay attention to what’s happening all around me when shit starts flying from the fan.” He raised his eyebrows. “And believe me, I’m exactly the man you want ahead, around and behind you, from right this minute until whenever we get the hell outta here.”
A horrible chorus of shrieks rolled through the parking lot to punctuate the thought.
After a long pause, Lisa said, “Fine,” then walked to the far side of the roof and looked over the edge, in case something had changed in the two minutes since Ed last looked.
Ed wondered if his training was what kept him from fully trusting Lisa, or whether Lisa was simply that kind of a bitch. He looked out at the sea of aliens and shook his head. The odds of them seeing the next sunrise with an enemy who wore night during the day and invisibility at night was slim to none.
The clouds grew dark overhead and night wasn’t far off.
“We need flares,” Lisa said, as if realizing his thought and opening her mouth to the first lick of sense all day. “Maybe if we light a few flares, we can get some help. Black Mountain must be looking for us by now.”
No one said anything, so she finished the thought. “I have some downstairs in my pack.”
“I’ll help,” Ed said, with no room for no in his voice.
Lisa nodded, then turned and headed toward the hatch. Ed stood a foot behind Rojas, while he, Brent, and Billy all circled the hatch, aiming their weapons at its closed mouth.
Lisa swung the lid open and half of them gasped. She looked up at Ed, the relief on her face delivered along with a half of a smile. Ed couldn’t help but smile back. Lisa climbed inside the hatch and Ed followed.
Smile or no, Lisa couldn't be trusted. As they descended the ladder, then crept through the stockroom, Ed divided his attention between the eerie silence and the woman walking one yard in front of him.
Ed wasn’t too concerned about Lisa trying anything down here to harm him. For one, she’d attract the aliens, which was probably why she didn’t mind turning her back on him, either. And second, they needed one another — for now. But once they’d dealt with the problem at hand, things were gonna get tricky, and there was a strong chance that blood would be shed.
Lisa walked along the back of the stockroom, and through a long narrow hallway which opened to the left into a deli, and beyond that was the store and the aliens. Lisa held a finger to her lips and Ed nodded to show that he’d seen them. So far, they’d been undetected.
Lisa was three feet from her field pack when something moved in the deli. Ed twisted his body to aim at a shadow which raced by, banging against something, before vanishing into the darkness.
Lisa turned, startled. “What was that?” she whispered.
Ed shook his head.
Then he heard the familiar clicking sound coming from the deli which they’d just passed. And would have to pass again to get back to the ladder.
“Follow me,” he said. He held his gun in front of him, as he inched toward the opening to the deli. Behind him, Lisa held her shotgun, ready.
He peered into the deli, and saw nothing out of the ordinary. Beyond the deli, he spotted two aliens wandering the aisles of the store, oblivious to him, and seemingly walking without purpose.
What the hell are they doing in here, browsing?
Lisa screamed behind him. Ed spun around and watched as Lisa was knocked to the ground by an alien behind her. The gun slipped from her hand and slid on the floor and Ed took aim at the creature, but it was too tangled with Lisa to get a decent shot.
Lisa kicked up at something that looked like it might have been a stomach, and the alien fell back. Lisa scrambled to get up and run toward Ed. The alien reached out and grabbed at her. It wasn’t able to catch her, but its claws lacerated her arm in one violent sweep and sent her bouncing off the wall.
A jet of blood shot from Lisa’s arm and she screamed. Then Ed could swear the creature sniffed the air before it charged back at her.
Ed ran toward the creature, pushing Lisa to the ground as he passed her and thrust himself between her and the alien. Ed opened fire. His first and second shot both landed somewhere in the middle of the alien’s face, but the creature didn’t slow and was on him before he could squeeze off a third shot.
Ed’s momentum met a brick wall as the creature hit him full forced and sent him back hard into the ground. Ed’s head smacked the concrete with a loud, sickening thwack, which felt like thunder cracking his skull. The alien was on top of him, mouth gnashing, dark, putrid saliva dripping from its jagged rows of teeth and onto Ed’s face.
Ed’s hand, trapped between himself and the alien’s slippery body, still held the pistol. He twisted the gun into the thing’s guts and fired three more times until the alien’s hot guts bled onto him and it began to go into its death spasms.
Ed pushed the alien off of him and sat up, his head throbbing and woozy.
There was movement in the store, not far away, accompanied by shrieking. They had to get back to the ladder. Now.
He looked up at Lisa, who was aiming at the deli with her shotgun. “Do you have the flares?”
She nodded, holding the bag in the air and stealing a glance at her gushing wound.
Ed said, “Come on, we’ll get that cleaned upstairs.” He grabbed Lisa by the wrist, then led her toward the ladder. Beneath the hatch, Ed stepped to the side and motioned for Lisa to climb first.
Behind them, a cluster of the aliens poured through the deli and into the stockroom, shrieking and knocking into boxes as they came.
“Go!” Ed yelled.
Lisa scrambled up the ladder, the field pack on her back and shotgun wedged like a sword. The first two aliens dropped to all four and ran toward them like some kind of demon hell hounds.
Ed fired, but only had one bullet left, which missed its mark.
“Fuck!” he screamed as the aliens raced toward them. They were 40 feet away and closing.
“Go! Go!” Ed screamed as Lisa was only about 10 feet up the ladder. They had to get out of range of the aliens’ long limbs.
It sounded like an army behind them. She scrambled faster. Ed raced up the ladder closely behind her as the shrieks and clicks multiplied beneath them. He was about six feet from the ground, and didn’t dare to look down. He raced up blindly, praying a large claw wouldn’t swipe at his feet and bring him down to his death.
Something clanged on the ladder just beneath his feet and Ed had to look down. He saw an alien reaching up, swiping at him, missing him by just inches.
Lisa sped up and crawled through the top of the hatch. Just as Ed was within reach of the hatch something sharp stung his left calf. He looked down to see a thin razor-thin wire with a curved hook on its end fall from his leg. He looked down to see the alien beneath him to which the wire was attached. It had shot the wire from its palms, as
if it had extended part of its body out to attack him. The alien raised both of its palms up, taking aim at Ed again as it let out a clicking sound that sounded a hell of a lot like laughter.
Ed screamed, looked back up at the hatch as Lisa looked down at him.
As their eyes met, an image flashed through his mind of her slamming the hatch shut just as the alien’s razor wire flesh lassoed him and yanked him down.
Don’t you fucking dare!
Lisa leaned down and Ed wondered what the hell she was doing as he was just inches from the hatch.
No!
Lisa reached down with both hands and yanked him up the rest of the way, surprising him with her strength.
Ed rolled off of her, and got to his feet, offering her a hand up.
She took it, and their eyes met. And for the first time, her eyes softened a bit. “Thank you,” she said, “for saving my ass down there.”
“Thank you,” Ed said, “for saving mine just now. One of them shot some kinda hook and wire out of its palm and cut my leg.”
Ed pulled up his pants and examined the injury. It was minor, just a scratch, but stung like hell. He looked up at the others and said, “I don’t know if they can all do that, but don’t think you’re safe just because you’re outta reach.”
Rojas asked, “Did you get the flares.”
“Sure did,” she said, pointing to the field pack on her back.
Ed said, “So what are we hoping for with these flares?”
“That one of the helicopters on patrol might see it, or maybe one of the vans. If they spot the flare, Base will send out units to investigate. That part’s is certain. It’s just a matter of them seeing the flares.”
Ed said, “How many people are at Black Mountain?”
Lisa looked thoughtful for a moment, then said, “Enough.”
Ed wondered if they had as many as Black Island.
“And we’ve got a lot of Guardsmen.”
“What are they guarding?” Brent asked.
The question seemed to surprise her. She broke eye contact and looked away, nervously Ed thought, then said, “The world.”
“Hey guys,” Billy called from the edge of the roof. “Take a look at this.”
They all ran over to Billy and looked down into the empty parking lot. “Where did they all go?” Ed asked.
Billy shrugged. “I dunno.” He pointed to the far side of the lot, bordering the gas station on the other side. “There’s some over there, but not nearly as many as there were before.”
“Are they all inside the store?” Ed asked.
“Some,” Billy said. “But then a few minutes ago, they started walking toward the gas station and then out into the woods.” Billy pointed out into the darkness.
Ed swallowed. Whatever this was, it wasn’t good.
Ed looked down at the headlight beams pulling into the parking lot — not a van or a jeep, or something that Black Mountain Guardsmen might be driving. It was a station wagon, maybe 30 years old.
Everyone on the roof was staring as the wagon came to a full stop and the driver’s side door swung open. An old heavyset man stepped onto the asphalt and cast his eyes across the lot, looking around as if expecting to find someone.
He raised his head and spotted them on the roof. “You okay?” he called, waving.
Lisa cupped her hands around her mouth and yelled, “Get help!”
“What?”
“Get help!” Lisa repeated. “Get to Black Mountain and tell them to come here.” She pointed toward the highway. “It’s right there, just up Highway 14!”
The man opened his mouth, probably for a question, but a scream fell out instead. The first alien charged toward him as another six came running at him from behind.
Rojas was the first to fire, but a second later, Billy, and Brent joined. Lisa didn’t fire her shotgun, and Ed was out of ammo. Ed hoped none of them missed and hit the old man, given how far he was out of ideal range. The creature closest to the old man stopped like a broken toy, then spilled to the asphalt. The old man started running toward the grocery store at the speed of fright as bullets buried themselves in the half-dozen aliens behind him.
The crew on the roof made a fresh pile of six, but then hell opened its doors and sent a thin line of aliens into the world. A sea of black spilled from the woods and toward the parking lot.
The old man then did the impossible — stopped running toward the grocery store, and turned back toward the station wagon, quickly closing the distance. He jumped inside the station wagon and slammed the door.
“What the fuck is he doing?” Lisa said.
Rojas said, “The aliens have the perimeter. No way he’s getting out of the lot. They’re gonna tear that station wagon to shit.”
The old man then surprised Ed again as he stepped out of his car and into certain death, slamming the car door behind him. He grinned towards the roof and then held an air horn triumphantly in the air.
The air horn’s blast bellowed in the air.
The monsters started shrieking, screaming, and clicking, a few of them falling to the asphalt before scrambling up and running into the woods. To Ed’s open mouthed surprise, the remainder of the aliens in the parking lot joined their brothers, fleeing into the dark woods as if their very survival was buried in the leaves.
The old man blasted his air horn again and the aliens ran faster. Swarms of aliens flooded from the store, running around and past the old man as if terrified of the mighty air horn, as he blasted it on repeat.
The scene was almost comical. Their weapons did nothing to scare the aliens, but this old man and a horn was like some kinda Pied Piper herding them away.
“What the fuck?” Ed said, shaking his head as Lisa whispered the exact thing behind him.
“You’ve gotta be kidding,” Brent said.
Lisa said, “A fucking air horn? They’re doing shit all wrong at Mountain.”
Rojas laughed, but no funny was inside it.
Ed was still shaking his head as the old man smiled in triumph, standing in the empty parking lot waving his air horn in the air.
“We’re coming down!” Ed called. The group went downstairs, one by one, Ed in the middle, Lisa in front and Rojas and Billy pulling rear. The stockroom and store looked as if they’d been hit by a tornado. The only thing left of the other two Guardsmen were chunks of flesh and pools of blood.
Ten feet from the doors screeched a wounded alien stuck underneath a fallen shelf. Rojas fired his rifle into the alien’s head, gritting his teeth and squeezing the trigger like he was waiting for a ding and the prize to follow.
They crossed the parking lot, approaching the old man. They stopped at their black van. The doors had been torn off and the tires punctured by the aliens.
The old man said, “You’ll never be driving that thing again,” shaking his head. “I’m awfully grateful for you saving me from the demons the first time around, before I got ‘round to using the sense the Good Lord gave me.” He laughed. “I’d be thrilled to give you a lift, anywhere you need to go.”
Lisa, Rojas, and Ed all exchanged glances.
The old man mopped his brow. “That was Black Mountain, you said, right? Just up Highway 14?”
Ed said, “Yeah,” looking at the old man, up and down, trying to decide whether he was sharp as a bayonet or wacky as a dime bag.
Lisa stepped in front of Ed and said, “Thanks for the ride, sir. That would be great. And yes, we’re headed to Black Mountain.”
The old man bowed his head. “Of course, miss. It’s my pleasure.” He smiled again, beamed actually, then turned and led the group back to his station wagon.
At the car, Lisa turned around, shotgun aimed at Ed. “Everyone in the car. Except Ed.”
Lisa pulled the handcuffs from her back pocket as Ed stood, nostrils flaring. “Sorry, but you’ve gotta come with us.”
“I thought we were gonna talk.”
“And we will. Back at Black Mountain. I swear, I’ll make
sure nothing happens to you or Brent. You’ve got my word.”
“Yeah, because your word mean so much.”
Lisa slid the cuffs on, at least giving him the courtesy of binding his hands in front of him and not behind his back.
Everyone piled inside the wagon and the old man pulled from the lot, pulling a left onto the first road they hit. He was two blocks out when Brent broke the silence.
“Thanks for the ride, sir,” he said. “We’re all really grateful.” Then, like a good reporter, “What’s your name?”
The old man said, “You can call me The Prophet.”
* * * *
CHAPTER 9 — Luca Harding Part 2
Luca stepped into what was left of the barn and stared down at Rebecca’s dead body.
Her throat was slit, and her eyes stared up at him in a death gaze that would never close unless he fixed her.
He had to try and save Rebecca. And he didn’t care what Boricio said.
And Boricio was saying a lot as he followed Luca, stuff about how Luca had to stop already. He’d done what he could. If he tried to save the girl, he would age to death. Luca didn’t know why Boricio cared so much what happened to him. It wasn’t as if Luca served much of a purpose to their group now other than slowing them down. If saving Rebecca meant death for him, it was worth it.
Luca didn’t want to go on like this.
It wasn’t just that he was old. He’d seen people older than he looked that seemed to do alright. But Luca was also in pain. Physical and mental.
So let Boricio run on and on about how he was making a huge mistake. Luca tuned him out. Boricio would get over it. Just like Mary would get over him not bringing Desmond back.
Boricio was pacing three feet behind him as Luca carefully dropped to one knee and put his hands on either side of Rebecca’s face. Luca was about to do the thing he didn’t quite know how to do, the thing that just sorta happened, when he heard Will speak inside his mind.
“You can’t save her,” he said. “It will kill you if you try.”
Luca tried not to be angry. “I thought you said I could save three people. I only saved two.”