Enemy Invasion

by A. G. Taylor

  “That sounds like the Entity all right,” Wei said.

  “What did it want with you?” Sarah asked, remembering the scene in the hangar, the cameras and the squid-like thing.

  Hack frowned as he tried to explain. “Major Bright… I mean the Entity...used our powers on the hypersphere. The Entity manipulated May to change it into a different form and my ability to control machines to load it with data. Like programming a computer.”

  “What kind of programs?” Robert asked.

  Hack looked at him. “Programs for creating killing machines. All sorts of killing machines.”

  For a moment everyone was silent. Once more, Sarah sensed something out there in the jungle dark…

  “We should keep moving to the plane,” she said.

  They all stood, except Hack. He touched a hand to the collar around his neck and shook his head. “I don’t think—”

  Sarah threw out a hand to silence him and spun round, staring into the darkness behind her. Robert went to her side.

  “What is it?”

  “Something’s out there,” she replied, taking a step forward…

  “FREEZE!” a man’s voice yelled. Two mercs carrying machine guns appeared. The taller of the two grabbed Sarah’s arm before she could react and pressed the gun to the side of her head. “Try anything stupid, and she gets it. I don’t think any of you can stop a bullet at this close range. Get ’em up.”

  The group raised their hands. The tall merc regarded them with a sneer. “Freaks,” he hissed. “The sooner you’re all wiped out, the better. Maybe we should start right now.”

  “Hey,” the other merc warned, standing off to the side, gun trained on the rest. “We’ve got orders not to touch them.”

  His partner snorted. “I don’t remember getting that order. Our comm must have been out of range.” His cruel eyes met Sarah’s. “A friend of mine was in that chopper you brought down.”

  Sarah sensed the tall merc’s finger tighten on the trigger and she knew with absolute certainty that he planned to kill them all. Gun them down right there in the jungle and leave their bodies for someone else to find. She remembered her conversation with Commander Craig in the sparring room: there are no rules for men like these. She had to take control, but her fear for herself and the others was like a force paralysing her will to fight…

  The other merc said nervously, “Perhaps we should just—”

  “Shut it,” the tall merc snapped.

  “GAKKKK.”

  The tall merc looked round at the strange sound his partner had just made. The other man was still standing, but there was something jutting from the centre of his chest – a jointed, metal pole ending at a point. Blood glistened on the gleaming surface. It appeared to be straight through his heart. The merc’s body went limp and his weapon dropped to the ground.

  The tall merc released Sarah, pushing her away, and rounded on whatever was attacking them. His partner was flicked to one side and his body flew off the pole, far into the jungle. In the darkness, a dozen red orbs appeared, floating a metre off the ground.

  “What is this?” the tall merc roared, letting rip with the machine gun. Bullets ricocheted off something in the shadows. The muzzle-flash of the gun illuminated a body and what appeared to be legs.

  Sarah signalled everyone back as the remaining merc’s gun clicked empty. He tore out the spent clip and grabbed another from his belt…

  The thing in the darkness surged forward, swiftly and silently. One of its legs slashed the air in a smoothly efficient motion, the razor end merely a blur in the moonlight. The tall merc dropped to his knees, dark liquid spraying from his throat in a wide arc. Then he fell forward and hit the ground face first, blood still pumping from his half-severed neck.

  Sarah and the others watched in horror as the robospider advanced out of the shadows. It positioned itself over the body of the merc and angled down at the front, red orb eyes scanning as if to make sure the man was dead. Then it rose again and turned its attention to them.

  Unable to speak, Sarah used her mind to give the order…

  Run.

  The others didn’t need telling twice. They dashed into the jungle, weaving between the trees and jumping treacherously low-hanging vines, their earlier exhaustion forgotten. Sarah sensed they were headed in the right direction for the plane, but it would be only too easy to get split up in their haste to escape.

  Keep together, she warned them. Look out for one another…

  There was a whoosh of air as something leaped overhead, jumping nimbly between the branches of the trees. Sarah looked up and caught sight of the spider hanging between two trunks, metallic legs splayed to hold it in place. Before she could react, the machine made a hissing sound and something dark flew from its lower body, hitting her full in the face. A sticky, black goo enveloped her nose and mouth and it was all she could do to stop herself swallowing the disgusting stuff. As she clawed it away, something wrapped around her ankles. She was pulled clean off her feet and high in the air. Struggling wildly, Sarah found herself dangling upside down two metres off the ground. She tried to cry out to the others, but the goo was making it impossible to breathe, let alone call for help.

  The robospider descended towards her, hanging from a slender yet incredibly strong strand of black silk. The multitude of eyes turned on Sarah and she noticed pincer teeth for the first time. Her mind raced with images from the Discovery Channel: spiders biting their prey, paralysing them, wrapping them up for later. I’m like a fly in the web, she thought, beginning to panic as she struggled to get air into her blocked nose and mouth. I can’t breathe. I’m going to die…

  The spider reached towards her head with a claw sharper than a carving knife.

  Sarah’s eyes widened…

  …and the spider sliced the smallest hole in the substance hardening on her face. Suddenly she could breathe again. She gulped air into her burning lungs as the spider continued to regard her. It wants me alive, she realized. The Entity isn’t going to let me escape. She looked up at the silk holding her by her ankles.

  The jungle lit up as a line of fire whipped through the canopy, slicing through the silk strands. Both Sarah and the robospider crashed to the ground. She landed heavily on her shoulder and rolled to one side. Beside her the spider had landed on its back, legs thrashing wildly. As it managed to right itself, an uprooted tree hurtled out of the night, hitting the spider full force and sweeping it away.

  “Sarah!” Robert exclaimed, appearing at her side. He grabbed her arm and they instantly teleported some fifty metres away. Wei approached and held up a hand to Sarah’s face.

  “Hold very still,” he said seriously.

  Sarah didn’t move a muscle as heat emanated from his palm, melting away the hardened goo on her lower face. In less than ten seconds she was able to pull the rest away and take a relieved breath.

  “Thanks,” she said.

  “What was that thing?” Louise asked.

  “One of the machine plans the Entity had us load into that rock,” Hack replied. “It’s a hunter. And a killer.”

  “Well, let’s not hang around for it to return,” Robert said urgently. But it was already too late. The robospider was scurrying back through the trees, forelegs a blur of motion, cutting through anything in its path. As it came within a few metres it jumped high into the air and arced down towards them. Louise held up her hands…

  The spider stopped in mid-air above them, suspended, legs flailing. Louise looked at Wei, who already had the idea. Fire leaped around his hands and he pressed them together. The fire grew to become a blazing orb.

  “Now, Louise!” he said.

  She thrust her hands down and the spider slammed into the ground hard enough to create a mini-crater. At least one of the legs detached and went flying. The fireball ripped from Wei’s hands and hit the spider dead centre. Its body exploded, showering the area with red-hot lumps of the alien metal.

  “Nice work!” Robert exclaimed, lowerin
g his arm from his face as the debris stopped flying.

  Louise and Wei casually bumped fists. “Just something we’ve been practising,” she said.

  “That machine wasn’t designed to be beaten easily,” Hack said sceptically, casting his eyes around the trees.

  “Then let’s get out of here,” Sarah said.

  However, as they started in the direction of the plane once more, a high-pitched beep split the air. Everyone looked in the direction it was coming from: the collar around Hack’s neck. He froze in his tracks as the beeping continued.

  “What is it?” Robert asked as Hack took several steps back. The beeping stopped.

  “The explosive in the collar,” Hack replied with a groan. In all the excitement, he’d almost forgotten all about it. “I told you, it’s triggered to go off if I get more than a kilometre apart from the one May’s wearing.”

  “There must be a way to take it off,” Sarah said, reaching for the collar.

  Hack held up a warning hand. “Believe me, it’s tamper-proof. I can’t go any further.”

  Robert and Sarah exchanged a look. “Not without May, you can’t,” she said. “We’re just going to have to go back.”

  Hardly believing what they were saying, Hack shook his head. “No. You have to keep going for the plane…”

  Robert silenced him by placing a hand on his shoulder. “I told you I was going to rescue you and I meant—”

  Something small and dark leaped from a nearby tree, landing on Robert’s shoulder. A spider. He gave a cry of pain as its eight spindly legs dug into his flesh. It jabbed at his exposed neck and tiny teeth bit through his skin. Sarah moved fast, grabbing the spider and pulling it away. As she held it up, it was possible to see that the body was crudely made from a shattered chunk of the larger robospider – as if the broken pieces had sprouted legs and taken on a life of their own.

  “In the air!” Sarah shouted to Wei. She threw the spider high. He hit it with a fireball and it disintegrated.

  “What was that?” Louise said as they crowded round Robert, who was clutching at the part of his neck bitten by the spider.

  “I told you that thing wasn’t so easy to beat,” Hack said. “Smash it up and the pieces keep coming. It’s not like a normal machine. Each individual atom is part of the Entity’s programming.”

  “And here come the rest,” Wei said, pointing into the jungle.

  They were like a dark wave washing over the ground and up the trunks of the trees – hundreds, perhaps thousands of palm-sized spiders – miniature replicas of the original made from its shattered remains. Each had a single eye, glowing redly. They swept forth, seemingly unstoppable. Wei blasted a wave back with a bolt of fire, but still they came, flooding in from all directions.

  “There’s too many of them!” Louise exclaimed, looking all around. Sarah put herself between Robert and the approaching spiders.

  And then they stopped.

  It was as if someone had waved a magic wand over them. The spiders froze: tiny pincers in mid-snap, legs at all angles, blazing orb eyes locked on Sarah and the others. For a moment it was impossible to tell what had happened. Then Sarah looked at Hack, who was standing motionless, eyes closed in concentration.

  “I’ve taken control of them,” he said with great effort. “Don’t know how much longer I can hold them off…”

  Sarah turned her attention to Robert. There were two wicked-looking puncture marks in his neck and his T-shirt was wet with blood.

  “Help me,” she said, and Louise took Robert’s other arm. They pulled him to his feet. Sarah turned her attention to Wei. “Clear a path for us. We don’t have time to hang around.”

  The Chinese kid nodded and started blasting away vines and branches blocking their way back to the plane.

  “What about you?” Sarah asked Hack.

  “I’m...staying...here,” he said, voice slow as if every word was a massive strain to get out. Sweat was pouring off his forehead and down his face, and his body trembled slightly. “They won’t hurt me… The Entity needs me… Can’t…desert…May…”

  Between Sarah and Louise, the semi-conscious Robert mumbled something incoherent. Sarah’s mind raced. She hated the idea of leaving Hack and the other girl behind at the mercy of Major Bright. But how else would they get off the island? Rachel Andersen had to be warned about the attack on the Ulysses. And Robert needed medical attention fast…

  “Get…out…of…here!” Hack exclaimed as his grip on the spiders momentarily slipped. They surged forward half a metre before stopping again.

  “We’ll find you,” Sarah said, making the decision to leave. “We’ll find you both.”

  Wasting no more time, she and Louise pulled the weakly-protesting Robert in the direction Wei had cleared through the jungle.

  Alone, Hack opened his eyes a fraction and looked at the motionless spiders all around. Every one of them regarded him with a piercing eye, as if willing him to fail. Taking a deep breath, he strengthened his resolve and just hoped he could hold them off long enough for the others to get away…

  22

  Defensive systems disengage, Sarah ordered the stealth jet as they staggered across the runway. Machine guns turned off and the entrance ramp slid down. They took Robert inside and through to a compartment in the back, fitted with an examination table and first-aid equipment. Sarah and Louise eased him up onto the table and he laid back, body wracked with shivers as if he were suffering from a fever.

  Run medical scan, Sarah told the computer and a green laser swept Robert’s body. Screens around the walls lit up with data about her brother.

  “What’s wrong with him?” Louise asked, looking at the bite mark on his neck. The puncture wounds had stopped bleeding, but they’d turned a nasty shade of black that seemed to be spreading.

  “I don’t know,” Sarah said, feeling totally helpless.

  “Sarah!” Wei called from the still-open entrance to the jet. “The spiders are coming!”

  “Stay with him,” she ordered Louise and tore towards the cockpit.

  Jets, power up!

  As she jumped into the pilot’s seat the engines were already roaring. Wei strapped himself in beside her and pointed out the side window. Hundreds of the tiny spiders swarmed from the jungle and across the runway. They’d finally broken free of Hack’s hold, Sarah realized and her heart sank. She had only met the boy briefly, but he had shown real bravery in holding off the spiders so they could escape. Her only hope was that the Entity still needed him and would not allow him to come to harm.

  Hang on, everyone, Sarah told her companions. Jets, full power. Emergency take-off!

  The engines screamed and the jet boiled down the runway. Sarah pulled back on the stick and the nose immediately began to rise. One of the spiders leaped at the windows and managed to cling on. As the jet lifted into the air, at least a dozen more found purchase on the plane.

  “Look out!” Wei exclaimed as the spider on the window began using a diamond-sharp leg to draw a circle in the glass.

  Sarah pulled hard left on the joystick, sending the jet into a violent turn over the jungle. Spiders went flying into the sky, but not the one on the window. Sarah banked right. This time the force of the turn and the wind resistance dislodged the remaining machine. With relief, she levelled the jet off. Below, the island jungle had given way to the unforgiving darkness of the ocean.

  Everyone okay back there? she asked.

  Just about, Louise replied.

  Sarah looked at Wei. “Get the Ulysses on the comm.”

  He tried for a minute to get the carrier’s signal, with no luck. “The computer says our communications are being blocked,” he told Sarah. “Something on the island must be jamming us.”

  Sarah turned the jet towards the last known position of the Ulysses. “Then we’ll just have to get out of its range.”

  Hack walked back towards the camp, shattered by the mental effort of holding the robospiders back while his friends escaped. Now the
machines surrounded him, urging him back towards his former captors. He stumbled on a tree root and went down on one knee. A spider flew at him, jaws snapping spitefully.

  “All right, all right,” Hack muttered, getting to his feet and continuing on. He heard the sound of a jet engine in the distance and hoped that it was Robert and the others. A few minutes later the party of spiders that had run off in pursuit emerged from the jungle and rejoined the ones herding him. He grinned. “Looks like they got away, huh?”

  Soon enough the gap in the perimeter fence appeared through the trees and Hack walked back into the camp. Fires were still burning here and there and the wreckage of the helicopter and other vehicles littered the area. The soldiers were making no effort to clean anything up, however. They were busy moving crates and the remaining vehicles in the direction of the hangars. It wasn’t too hard to work out the place was being evacuated.

  The spiders led Hack towards the second hangar, where one of the massive transport planes sat. The ramp at the back was open and a constant stream of soldiers went in and out, loading equipment on board. As he walked under the wing of the plane, heads turned and a few of the mercs actually stopped what they were doing to look at the remarkable sight of the machines surrounding him for metres all around.

  “Stop gawping and keep loading!” Major Bright snapped, appearing from the back of the plane, Marlon Good at his side. The men hustled back to their jobs.

  “Well, well, well,” Marlon Good sneered. “The prodigal son returns. And just as I was hoping to see a demonstration of the security collar.”

  Major Bright advanced on Hack, who held his ground. The robospiders parted to allow the big man to approach.

  “You should have known there was no escape,” he said.

  Hack looked him in the eyes. “The others got away though.”

  Major Bright’s right hand clenched into a fist. Hack tensed, but the man merely jerked his head towards a soldier who had appeared beside Good. “Put him in the plane with the girl,” he ordered. “And make sure he doesn’t try anything else stupid.”