“My friends, we can take about two hundred at a time back to Syrene, but it is you who must decide as to who goes first. We’ll leave you until tomorrow to talk it over, but we must leave by week’s end as our engine isn’t as powerful as the ones our ancestors arrived with. When we leave, it will be eleven months before we can return. We then can make two trips with another two hundred, and repeat the next year. There is another ship nearing completion, but that will be used for a long journey to that fifth planet for much needed materials including that what we hope will be a greater power source.”
Tom stepped forward “Commander, Captain, We’ve already had our people asking our folks that question.” a slow, proud smile crossed his lips “the answer to a person was to stay here. This is our home world, to us we know nothing else. We know you said that the power generator and field is ours to keep, and for that we thank you. My father and three others will join you to be our ambassadors to your world.”
Sky stepped next to her brother “We sincerely hope that the crystals the N’rog gave you hold some use to you.” she looked at Luke and smiled “Not to mention the fliers you left us will be used to fly back to Luke’s people…to my other people, to see if they would care to joins us here…or you, the next time that you return.”
Tom smiled and nodded toward the southern jungle “And hopefully by your return flight, we’ll have made strides with the N’rog, maybe trade, perhaps even ambassadors. Perhaps someday even with the beings on your world, they are more advanced than we. However the N’rog have expressed an interest in teaming up with us on space travel…perhaps it is time that we too turn our eyes and thoughts to the heavens.”
Asa stood on the elevator up to his ship and waved “I’ll definitely be returning. We’ve left another field generator and power plant for your people Luke, the fliers will have to take them as parts and reassemble them.”
The elevator started its slow rise as Asa leaned over the railing “Oh and when we reach orbit, we’ll launch several satellites to map and provide GPS to cover the entire planet. One will seek other wheels…if you two survived, maybe there’ll be others. Now everyone get clear of the gravity blast.”
Sky cupped her hands and shouted “I HOPE SO…SAFE JOURNEY!” Their father appeared as the elevator reached the top and he stepped out on it and waved farewell to his children and people. They turned and went back inside as those on the ground stepped behind the field line and it was turned on.
Even from behind the force field that covered the entire mile in diameter wheel, they could feel the powerful rumble from the Wells gravity engines as the giant ship slowly rose into the deep blue cloudless sky. From the distant rocky tor, a glint could be seen. Sky knew that their other new friends were watching as well and smiled warmly. She felt a strong arm wrap gently around her waist and urge her back toward home. Looking up at her husband she smiled softly as he pulled her into his embrace.
It had been a long ten year journey…and now she was home.
The End!
Grinders.
By
Robert A. J. Turnbull Jr.
Contents
Chapter 1.
Chapter 2.
Chapter 3.
Chapter 4.
Chapter 5.
Chapter 6.
Chapter 7.
Chapter 8.
Chapter 9.
Chapter 10.
Chapter 11.
Chapter 12.
Chapter 13.
Chapter 14.
Chapter 15.
Chapter 16.
Chapter 17.
Chapter 18.
Chapter 19.
Chapter 20.
Chapter 21.
Chapter 22.
Chapter 23.
Grinders.
Seventeen year old Daniel clamped his hand over sixteen year old Bea’s mouth so hard that she winced. It was just after dark and just before moonrise, but even in the shadowy coming darkness he could see the look of horror on her face. At sixteen Bea had seen her share of hardships and death but this was much too close, if only she had listened to her dad. Tears of terror welled in her eyes.
“Shhh…” he whispered in her ear “they’re at the car and almost saw me.” he pressed his back tightly against the brick wall of the old brunt out farm house.
“Christ,” he whispered barely loud enough for his friend Lou to hear “get your ass down or you’ll get us all killed…or worse, eaten alive.”
The older Lou glanced over the fallen brick wall of the old farm house they had sought shelter at and ducked back down “Good God, up close they’re so fuckin’ ugly.” he flinched knowing that he was speaking perhaps a bit too loud and lowered his voice and then laughed softly “What the hell are we whispering for, those things can’t hear us…hell, they can’t hear at all.”
Bea grasped Lou’s shirt and pulled him close “You willing to take that chance? Remember the teacher said what he was teaching us was mostly what others have learned and wasn’t to be taken as…”
“Shhh…one of the grinders is lookin’ this way.” Dan crunched down tightly with the others “Oh God if it saw me…” he slid tightly to the old brick wall, his old worn out sweater snagged as he moved back toward the corner and signed “they’re both on the other side of Dave’s car.
“Wait, what? They’re…both?” Lou sputtered softly.
“A violet has joined the blue.” Dan looked over to his friend that he’d known since he could remember “You know damned well that grinders mate for life and are always near their mates.”
“You sure?” the sixteen year old muttered as she looked for anywhere else to hide “Violets sometimes stay with offspring, teach told us while…”
“Dammit Bea, I saw the violet glow on the other side of Dave’s car,” he took another slow deep breath and peeked around the corner again “Yeah…I see both a blue glow and a violet one. Their radar eyeballs can’t pick us out through solid objects like a car, or even glass, remember?”
Lou slid toward the far end of the old farmhouse and had to belly-crawl just to get past one really low area of the wall. He looked past the other piles of debris that used to be some sort of shed and to the area behind and left of their position.
“Psst…clear to the bushes.”
“No!” Bea shot back “If the bush isn’t thick enough, they can see through it…or at least parts of it and if we’re moving…” she didn’t have to say more, all three remembered Mister Harper’s lecture on the grinders and the violets or vi’s as they were usually called.
The creatures had large round heads with strange whitish eyes that protruded from their heads at the eleven and two o’clock positions. Eyes that could not see, but picked up inaudible sounds that three small slits that were at the twelve o’clock position, were said to emit.
“Remember teach said with that stereoscopic radar that they have, they could ‘see’ a human form frozen against a solid wall. You both are jerks thinking about running.” again tears formed in her eyes and she began to sob “I don’t want to die! I want…”
Dan slid quickly back to her and put his arms around her “it’s ok baby, we’re gonna get outta this, you’ll see. We’re only about a mile from Freeport and…”
Bea pulled away from Dan and glared at him “You’re the one that said Dave fixed his car! You’re the one that said we’d be in Freeport long before nightfall.”
“Baby, Dave said he’d fixed his car, it’s the best one he has.” Bea buried her face into Dan’s sweater and grasped him tightly as she tried her best to recover, but he could feel her shaking uncontrollably.
Lou slammed his back to their side of the wall and pointed past Dan’s corner. Dan let go of Bea long enough to peek and quickly ducked back.
“Sweet Jesus!”
“What?” Bea sniffed.
Dan looked at his girlfriend and then his older friend.
“My God! I thought…didn’t Harper say grinders are ferociously territorial?”
Bea
nodded, she was the one that sat through every class, she took notes, and she always asked questions “They are; usually never more than five square miles a pair and as they only come out at night, they never stumble into one another’s territory. They give off such glowing colors in our atmosphere, we can’t help but see grinders, but somehow they seem to know the difference even though they don’t smell. Sometimes they move when food is low…”
“You mean when they’ve eaten all the humans and livestock?” Dan snorted indifferently.
Lou snorted quietly “Well, this looks like another thing Harper got wrong because there are more around right over there and those by Dave’s car don’t seem to mind.”
“He’s right Bea,” Dan slowly peeked back to watch the grinders “Crap! The ones by our car looked at the two that are walking about a quarter mile away…Jesus!”
“What?” both whispered at the same time.
“The far pair just crossed the road to our side and into the trees, if they decide to head this direction, we’re screwed.” Dan was usually the smarter one of the two lads, even though Lou was two years older. The nineteen year old looked at his younger friend and puckered his face so tight it looked as if he was cutting off the circulation in his lips. There was a slight pop as he opened his lips.
“Guys…we gotta make a run for it.”
Bea motioned Lou to move back with them, but he shook his head.
“Don’t be stupid Lou. Grinders can stand and walk on two legs, but those hairless things usually run on all fours. Teach said at full speed they average five to six feet every step of a running gait. They can jump nearly ten feet per leap and their feet are rubbery enough to leap on the side of a house and take several steps without falling.” she pointed toward the trees in the direction of Freeport “Do you really think you can out run them for a mile, through that brush…and don’t forget the fields that the people in the settlements clear during the days so they can see grinders coming at night.” she frowned “Or have you about forgotten those? Right out in the open for a half mile, we’d be dead.”
Dan pulled her sleeve and as she spun she nearly fell back on her rear end.
“Baby, the grinders have moved away from the car on the other side of the road.” he could see the puzzled looks on their faces “Don’t you see?” he sighed “Look I can keep low and get to the car, remember they can’t see in if the windows are rolled up. If we can get in and shut the doors they can’t see through glass or metal, we’d be safe until morning.”
Lou nodded slowly “Dan’s right Bea. It’ll be hot in there with the glass rolled up, but at least in there we’d be surrounded by radar proof material.” He looked up and the startled look caused Bea to spin, to see Dan was gone!
Lou peeked over the wall and Bea quickly slid to the corner Dan had just left as they watched him attempt to do a running crouch toward the old four door Chevy.
Dan wondered that perhaps he might be able to get the old Chevy started, but then wondered if that wouldn’t doom them as well. The males were slightly over seven feet tall on average and from what he could see had arms nearly the size of his muscular thighs and worried that one swipe with those razor sharp claws might easily shatter a windshield. Mr. Harper had no information on that topic.
Dan kept low and ducked now and then behind some of the debris scattered about; or any rusting hulk that could serve as cover. At fifty yards he stopped to rest and with a quick glance he could see a blue and violet aura in the bushes alongside of the road. He peeked again and did a double take…
“Holy shit!” he muttered in a barely audible voice “I’m in luck…those fuckers are bumpin’ uglies!” A wicked grin and he rolled out of his cover and headed to a spot only ten yards from the car.
In the still night air he could hear the sounds of brush shaking and low primal grunts. He rolled out from his last bit of cover and crawled on all four as he kept as low as possible. Finally reaching the car he grinned to himself. Slowly he reached up to the driver’s door handle and carefully opened the catch…there was a soft click, but the grunts coming from the bushes never stopped.
He gave a relieved smile as he pulled the door open and slowly slid into the car head first…and froze! Lou had left the rear door open when he got out to check the engine. In his mind the thought that perhaps he could reach over the front seat and pull it closed, he rose slightly to check the bushes…and was greeted by a head larger than a basketball. Dan momentarily froze and as he did the huge head seemed to vertically split from its chin to just between its frightening white pupilless eyes. The mouth began to open and in what moonlight managed to peek from beyond the trees, Dan could see it becoming completely round. Even more frightening were the rows of shark-like teeth that seemed to be set within what looked to be grisly coils that expanded as the mouth grew, each row the teeth got smaller until they vanished into the maw before him; the stench was overwhelming. The head was barely visible now as its mouth stretched open, the rows of teeth began to undulate.
Dan quickly spun and slid out of the front seat in one smooth move but the blue was far quicker. It bounded out, up, and over, the old Chevy as it landed several feet in front of Dan. Slowly the creature stood to its full height and as Bea covered her mouth and buried her head into Lou’s chest. The blue’s mouth fully expanded once again as he lunged forward and completely enveloped Dan all the way down to his waist, as if a python had swallowed its prey, but far more quickly. It enclosed around him so quickly Dan didn’t have time to scream nor move and now it had him. His legs flailed wildly as the grinder raised slightly and what little movement he could muster in his lower arms dropped to his side as the beast’s head undulated. Muffled grinding sounds could be heard as Dan was slowly ground bone and all. In the moonlight dark ooze began to spill from the grinder’s mouth and covered Dan’s still form.
The creature stopped as it raised its head and with mouth still gapping, looked around. Dan, or what was left of him from just above the navel was gone and the rest spilled to the ground with a sickening squish.
Several horrible grunts and the vi trotted from around the car. Slowly she got down on all fours and expanded her head as she picked up where her mate had left off. Her mouth closed and she stood to all six foot five inches of her height, grunted at her mate, turned and spit out Dan’s shoes and it looked like some of Dan’s feet was still there as Lou gagged and covered his mouth. “FUCK THIS!” he shouted and broke into a run now that the pair of creatures had turned away from the house and back toward the car. Bea tried desperately to grasp onto him to keep him from running, but seeing him make it to the thick brush, she too dashed for new cover.
In the distance she could see some of the bright lights of Freeport, the rest of the town was dark. She knew the snipers were out sitting in their towers watching. If only they could make it to the killing field that surrounded the town maybe they had a chance. Lou was panting next to an old partial wall of a long collapsed barn and waved her on. As Bea reached him he pointed toward the slight downhill gradient and the open field beyond.
“Once we get to the lights the snipers can cover us.”
“Really?” Bea panted “Mr. Harper said unless they have one of those old .50 caliber rifles, it’ll take a half dozen well placed bullets to bring one down. Lou…they’re so fast…do you really think we’ll make it?”
Lou forced a half smile “Sure sweet cheeks, it’s a breeze.” he gave Bea a little wink and stepped forward to run and as soon as he cleared the side of the barn, a huge dark head that glowed blue encapsulated him down to the lower chest. Lou’s arms twitched and seconds later stopped to drop down to his sides…and then fell to the ground severed mid forearm.
Bea threw a hand to her mouth, spun and ran around the barn in the other direction. A quick sprint and she made the last set of trees. Not daring to stop, not daring to look back she ducked around one large tree hoping that it would be big enough in diameter to give her cover as she tried to cross the narrow road. In
the distance she could see the well-lit perimeter and the flood lights constantly scanning the open kill zone…just one more deep breath and a dash to freedom.
She spun and dashed toward the road…and was covered by a huge violet aura that covered her past her shoulders.
A muffled scream was quickly drowned out by the grinding and sated grunts of the blue’s mate.
Chapter 2.
‘DING!” a mellow ring sang out, pause, “DING!” another shorter pause, “Gil? Are you awake?”
“YEAH…yeah, sort of…What year is it, is the mission still a go? Wait…who are you?”
“You may refer to me as Val, Gil. Doctor Rand said I was to answer to Val. I am the…”
“Right, ok, let me wake up Val.” Gil opened his eyes as the convex cover over him slid back and the room’s lighting slowly increased as his eyes tried to adjust.
“I’m assuming that you are the computer that was in its final stages when Joe Parker and I were put into stasis?”
“Affirmative Gil, may I call you Gil? Dr. Rand told me to call everyone in project by their given names as it gave a sense of comradery.”
“Yeah, Gil’s fine Val.” Gilbert Wells rubbed his face as he tried to clear the fog from his mind. “So I’ve been asleep for five years already?” he chuckled still a bit groggy “Geezzz…this stasis crap the Brits and Aussies discovered actually worked…” he frowned as he squinted at the much too bright room lights.
“No side effects my ass, Val do you have something for a monster headache?”
“I am not a mobile unit Gil, you will have to get aspirin from the med bay down the hall. I am only programmed to monitor the stasis chambers and the actual complex functions. Unfortunately I cannot do anything but repair what I am able, and awaken you should there be any problems. I fear that you will have to get your own aspirin Major. ”
“That reminds me Val, you got me up. I am assuming we are ready to begin Project Zed?”
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