by Jesse Wilson
“Six hundred series, Garmonbozia,” Sippy replied to him, and Xule felt his own blood freeze. Bruce noticed he was stunned and shot a beam across his face, hitting someone who snuck through the fire, saving him.
“Look alive, lizard boy; we need to get out of here,” Bruce said as the chopper came to their location and lowered a containment unit over the frozen dinosaur’s form. Bruce ran to the container as it fell over the monster and pressed a single button. The black cage sealed shut.
“Take it away. We’ll meet you at Point Bravo as planned,” Bruce said into his radio and the chopper lifted up, taking the monster with it.
“Lizard boy, let’s fly out of here. Follow me,” he said to him and Bruce took off into the sky. Sippy once again took over and Xule lifted into the night sky.
“Bruce, listen, this planet has another problem. A Garmonbozia probe has been activated, and we have about a month before this planet and everything is on it is burned,” Xule said to Bruce as Sippy caught up with him.
“Garmon…isn’t…didn’t that come from a silly television show thirty years ago now or something?” Bruce said. The word felt familiar to him, but he couldn’t place it.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, but I’ll explain more when I’m on the ground away from these infected,” Xule said, his mind still not working at full capacity due to being afraid of dying horribly at the hands of alien technology.
The two of them flew, leading the Chemical Dragon Unit away from battle. Xule had no idea where they were going either and was just following the leader. Ten minutes flying over and through a dark city, Bruce finally signaled to him that the landing zone was below them.
Xule never would have known it was a landing zone if it weren’t for all those transport trucks waiting for them down there. Sippy guided them down to the trucks, and Xule never felt happier to feel solid ground beneath his feet again the second they landed. “Alright, men, ditch the jet packs and get in a truck. We are going to Site Xy to plan our next move. Lizard boy is with me; everyone else find a ride,” Bruce said to the others as they landed.
Sippy released the locks and the jet pack fell. It broke when it hit the ground. Bruce shot a death glare in his direction at the sound but said nothing. Xule didn’t care; he was just glad to be rid of it.
“Get on the truck,” Bruce said to him. He was upset but not enough to mention it right now; nobody was safe yet. Xule climbed into the back of the truck and Bruce followed him in.
“Site Xy, what’s that supposed to be?” Xule asked him.
“It’s a storage site, made for keeping bad things locked up that we find. No worries; your monster will never be thawed out again. Anyone infected will regrettably be destroyed to the best of our ability,” Bruce said to him, never breaking eye contact as the truck started up. “What is this thing you warned me about? Garmonbozia, you called it?” Bruce asked him right back.
“Giant robot. A weapon from the war designed to obliterate Xeloid-infected worlds and has the personality like you might expect,” Xule replied to him.
“That’s going to be a problem,” Bruce said and Xule sighed.
“Yes, it is, and we have a month before it gets here and kills everything,” he replied to him. The two had an awkward moment of silence.
“What can you do to stop it?” Bruce asked, breaking the silence finally.
“Nothing, not from here. All I can do is find a transmitter and make a distress call to my people so they can help us, or at least provide assistance in the coming days. It might take them too long to get here, maybe not. I don’t know,” Xule replied. Bruce sighed and looked to the floor.
“Well, isn’t this just a pickle we’re in then,” he said and figured all of this was going too smoothly to be real.
“Well, we have a transmitter at Xy you can use to contact your people; we picked it up back in the sixties when we went to the moon. We think it’s a transmitter anyway, as far as we can tell. We’ll be there in a few hours so get some rest,” Bruce said to him, but Xule wasn’t exactly tired.
“Thanks, but I’m not tired,” he replied. All he could think about now was being on the wrathful end of an old weapon, and he knew that the countdown had begun. “Sippy, who asked for help from the probe?” Xule asked then, getting a spark of an idea.
“Heather Mills. I was able to detect it as soon as she requested,” Sippy replied to him.
“Snoz, of course it would be one of them,” he said and couldn’t help but laugh a little bit about it.
“Heather, you mean one of those we sent off in a chopper before all of this happened?” Bruce asked him.
“Yes, you remember her, right? We need to find her, just in case we have need of a Plan B,” Xule said but had no reason to feel happy about it.
“I’ll let you keep that plan to yourself, but finding her in this mess is going to be mildly difficult. They could be anywhere by now, so let’s hope Plan A is still going to work,” Bruce said. He didn’t really want to think about what it would take to find one person in this mess that he was sure was far from over.
“Anyway, tell me more about this Xy place. We have a long trip ahead of us I assume,” Xule said but couldn’t bring himself to smile.
Chapter Thirty
Phoenix, James, and Tina pulled up to her sister’s house. James shut off the headlights as they pulled in the driveway. The house was a two-story, red-and-white house. It looked exactly like the house on either side of it, with the color being the only difference.
“Alright, it looks quiet out here. I’ll open the garage door,” Tina said quietly as she held the keys in her hand.
“Alright,” Logan said as he opened the door and got out the same time she did. Tina walked to the garage door and slid the key in. Opening it was easy enough for her to do. Thankfully, it was empty. Tina stepped aside and James pulled inside. After the car was inside, Phoenix pulled the garage door shut as quietly as he could. Tina locked the door.
“You know this place better than I do. Is there a generator inside or anything like that?” James asked as he popped open the trunk.
“I doubt it. Most people who live in the city are unprepared for a disaster. I don’t know the place that well,” Tina replied to him.
There was a crash. “Son of a…” James cut his sentence short when he ran into something in the dark.
“A flashlight would come in handy; just don’t shine it out the windows. I see things moving out there, and they don’t look entirely human. I don’t know if they are just stragglers or infected, but either way, we are going to want to lay low, at least until the sun comes up,” Logan said to them as he looked out a small window in the side of the garage. He realized that driving up to this place he hadn’t seen anyone, not until now at least.
The more he thought about it, the more it creeped him out that this neighborhood was deserted. Maybe it was because they evacuated first, maybe it was because of something else. He heard the door click and decided he’d had enough time looking out into the dark. Logan turned around and started to make his way through the dark, keeping his left hand on the hood of the car for guidance. James had a slight limp from running into something and turned on the flashlight. Tina went inside carefully. The place, like everything else, seemed different in the dark.
She waited until James came with the flashlight.
“Alright, let’s just try to lay low until the sun comes up. We don’t have power, but maybe we should—” James was cut off with Tina flipped a light switch, and the lights unexpectedly came on. Tina was just as shocked as any of them.
“Turn it off,” Phoenix said in a hurry and she did.
“How does this house have power but the others don’t?” James asked her, figuring she’d know.
“Solar power reserves maybe. Mike was always an environmentalist and talked about installing them all the time. Maybe he did it; it’s my best guess,” she replied to him and shrugged. “I guess we can watch the news and see what’s going on,” Tina finished
with a smile.
Even as the world fell apart, maybe there was still something they could cling to that was half way normal.
“Sounds like a plan to me. Let’s just keep the light usage low. The last thing we need is a horde of those things kicking in the front door,” James agreed, lifting his bag over his shoulder to walk into the house.
The three of them moved through the house. Tina led the way to the living room, and like the rest of the place, it was nice. Tina sat down in the recliner, and there was a remote on the stand next to the chair. She picked it up and pushed the power button. The volume was exceedingly loud and made all of them jump. Tina turned it down in a hurry, and for a tense few seconds, they waited to see if anything outside might have heard it.
Nothing came to the door, and everything seemed to be alright. James and Logan let out a sigh of relief at that small miracle. Tina turned up the television just a little bit so it could be heard. The newscaster on CNN wasn’t visible, but someone was reporting live from Vegas.
“Once again, the giant beast that was roaming around the strip has disappeared. We weren’t close enough to see how or why that happened. The military is keeping a tight perimeter around the area, and this is as close as we can get. The sounds of sporadic gunfire echo down the street. I am telling you right now, it’s a warzone down here. The Stratosphere Tower is destroyed, and the heart of Vegas is being consumed by a sea of fire. No one can stop its advance. The fire isn’t the biggest threat here today. As I mentioned before, there are spouts of gunfire. Something is moving down the streets and—” the newscaster was cut off by a soldier coming into view.
“I’m sorry, but it’s no longer safe here. We need to get all of you out of here immediately,” he said to them, and the camera veered over to the left to witness something the three of them had already seen. A yellow-eyed, black-fanged human ran out of the dark, right in their direction. “Oh my God, what is that?” the cameraman asked no one.
The soldier turned, raised his rifle, and fired a short burst at the thing. The infected human dropped in the distance and black blood sprayed in all directions. Only for a few seconds did it stay there before it got back up, the wound between its eyes closing.
“Like I said, we need to get everyone out of here right now!” the soldier screamed again as others joined in and began to open fire.
More people with the twisted, razor-filled grins came into the view of the camera. “Damn, people, I said get the hell out of here!” the soldier screamed at them again as the camera turned around and started to run in the opposite direction. The three viewers didn’t feel any safer by any of this because this was a live feed. It was mere miles away from where they were, and if they looked out the window, the sky in the distance was lit up by the dull orange glow of fire instead of street lights.
“I’m scared,” Logan said as the screen filled up with rapid, shaky camera action. If he’d just turned it on this scene, he would be sure this would have been a type of found-footage movie.
“We’re all scared, but we need to do something, come up with a plan. Those things aren’t going to be stopped, and the fire is going to burn everything else. We can’t stay here,” James added as the screen switched over to a desk anchor to stop the motion sickness anyone might get from watching that.
“Where are we going to go?” Tina asked. Logan muted the television.
“Guys, check it out,” he said and stood up, looking out the large window, hoping he couldn’t be seen in the dark. The other two stood up and looked out the window. Across the street, a shambling figure was walking towards the opposite house.
Nobody was sure what attracted it to the house, but James shut the television off just to be careful. The thing seemed slow and not a threat. Then it walked up to the front door and punched through it with its left fist, tearing the whole thing off. The door flew through the air and landed on the lawn of the house they were in.
“Holy crap,” Logan said quietly as he watched. As the thing walked in the door, the sound and flashes of gunfire could be heard inside the house.
“What if they aren’t doing it at random? What if they are searching all the houses?” Tina whispered to them, and the thought that one of these things could be mere feet from their front door wasn’t a settling one by any means.
“These things are as smart as they are ugly. Daylight is only a few hours away, but I don’t think we’re going to last here that long,” James said, and his stress was only growing as they all watched the scene unfold.
Soon, the gunfire was finished, and where only one walked in, now five of those things were walking out; two parents and their kids were infected, appearing as mindless as the first one did. Instead of crossing the street in their direction, they just continued to move down the street to the next house down.
“Yeah, staying here isn’t an option,” James said and knew that suspecting or guessing they were safe was only going to get them all infected or dead. He just didn’t know what to do and figured no one else did either.
Chapter Thirty-One
Quinn, Madison, and Janine drove down the highway, away from Goldfield, away from Vegas and from the disaster.
The darkness out here was absolute. The yellow lines of the road and the adrenaline wearing off were making was them all realize just how tired they all were. Madison was staring off into the dark, lost in her own thoughts, swinging from depression to the faint glimmer of hope, and right back into the depths of depression again.
She was emotionally spent when she closed her eyes. Sleep did what sleep does. Madison turned to look at Janine, and she was looking back at her. Her eyes were empty, yellow, and bleak; her teeth were long and black.
“Your son belongs to us. Why did you abandon him?” Janine asked in a thick, alien voice that burned Madison’s ears.
“Yeah, you could be with him right now. What kind of mother are you anyway? You left him all alone, so far away; you’re not winning any mother of the year awards,” Quinn said as he turned and looked back at her with the same yellow eyes and fang-filled mouth.
Madison was so afraid of them that in a blind panic, she opened the door. Madison rolled into the ground, but it was not ground. It was covered with black slime. “No, no this isn’t right,” she screamed as the black fluid came to life and began to slide under her fingernails. It rose up and covered her mouth, face, and the rest of her body. She started to scream as her breath was stolen from her. She flailed around, trying to get the black slime off of her with all of the strength that she could find left.
“Madison, wake up!” Quinn’s voice came to her as he grabbed her swinging arms. Madison woke up back to reality. She was sweating, in a panic and confused to where she was.
“Breathe. Look at me. You’re going to be okay,” Quinn said to her again, and she slowly remembered where she was.
“Sorry about that,” Madison said but couldn’t shake the feeling of the invading slime. She hated it and felt terribly uncomfortable as Quinn let her arms go.
“No need to be sorry. You’re okay and safe for now,” Quinn replied. He expected nightmares; the poor woman had been through more in one night than most people have ever experienced in their life.
Madison didn’t feel safe; only guilty. Quinn rubbed his eyes and sighed.
“Alright, we need to stop in the next town so we can fill up and stretch our legs,” Janine said, not used to driving this long for any reason. It was not comfortable by any means.
“Agreed. I’m used to the night hours and driving so I’ll take over. You two can get some sleep until we get where we’re going,” Quinn said but realized, still, he had no idea where to go. No plans or anything. Janine looked in the rear-view mirror. She didn’t know when they appeared, but there was a pair of distant headlights behind them.
“Guys, we have company,” she said, and Quinn turned around to look.
“Damn,” he said. Turning caused everything inside of him to hurt, and seeing the headlights made him rea
lize that there were only a few things it could be.
“It could be Matt or Joe, but it might not be them,” Quinn suggested to try and ease their minds.
“Switch to channel four and see who it is. That’s the channel we chat on at night like this,” Quinn said. Janine quickly did this and picked up the radio.
“Joe, Matt, what’s your location right now?” she asked into it. For a few minutes, there was no answer.
“I’m out on Route 9 along the side of the road, trying to decide what to do next, why?” Joe said and Quinn winced.
“I’m out by Blue Sky Road. Nothing is out here, and I am on my way out of the state. Sorry,” Matt came back next.
“That figures,” Quinn said to himself.
“Thanks, guys, just stay out of Goldfield and stay safe,” Janine replied to them and put the radio back. Neither Quinn nor Madison took their eyes off of the distant lights behind them.
“It could be anyone. It doesn’t have to be them,” Madison said to him.
“Yeah, but my luck says that it is them, and I don’t think, or believe, we’d be so lucky that it was anyone else,” Quinn replied to her, worried about what was coming up the road behind them.
“Holy…” Janine said and trailed off as she slowed the car down and came to a stop. In front of them was what used to be the entrance to their destination. The road was blocked off with cars and had barrels of fire on both sides. There were three men with rifles behind the barrier waiting for them.
“Get out of the car, now,” one of them shouted and aimed his gun at them.
“I guess we better do as he asks,” Quinn said and Janine rolled down the back window for him with the controls on the side. Quinn slowly reached out and opened the door.
“Okay, just don’t shoot us,” he yelled as he got out of the car. Madison followed him too. Janine got out but didn’t shut the car off.
“Randall, is that you?” the man yelled at him and Quinn squinted.
“Yeah, it’s me Bill; you got to let us in,” Quinn said and walked forward.