Terra

by Robert Turnbull

  A blood curdling howl echoed in the night and this time it was near and Gil nearly stopped breathing. There was a crashing sound that sounded like wood breaking.

  “Jesus…” panic started to set in “I never thought about if they can track by scent.” Now thoughts of which house he had come through, and the direction of the howl raced through his mind, was it tracking him?

  “Christ! Can they even hear?” there was a loud thump from below and sounds of something hard scraping on the wooden floor. Figuring that the pistol would move faster in this room filled with some of the building supplies he reached down to the pistol beside him and slid the large butcher knife out of his makeshift scabbard.

  There was a creak and once again his heart sank, it was the same sound he made as he flew up the stairs only minutes before…perhaps it had seen him? Another creak and Gil knew it was on his floor and stepped on the same floor part that he had. Scratching could be heard as long hard nails dragged the wooden floor and he swung the gun to point at the sound on the other side of the wall.

  Another long dragging scrape told him something was moving toward the opening…and then it stopped; Gil stopped breathing!

  As darkness had set in and the bright moon rose above the trees, he could see shadows of the building’s studs creeping across the opening…and a faint blue glow. He moved slightly to get a better angle on the opening where the wall was missing.

  There was a clatter from where his knee knocked over his water bottle and it rolled against some old metal parts he couldn’t see in the corner. The glow didn’t react to the sound, he began to breathe again, if it didn’t hear that, it sure wouldn’t hear him breathing.

  Trying to make himself as tight against the walls in his dark corner, he noticed the glow started to move again and as it became brighter, he knew it was almost upon him. Gil raised the pistol as the glow moved again.

  From the hall outside of his room the blue glow was brighter and as his eyes adjusted it became clear it was more than a glow. Into his vision he could see a beast similar to the one in the shaft. A good seven feet long, walking on all fours, he could see the warthog like skin and it’s basketball sized head that transitioned down into its barrel sized chest. It would take a step and freeze, move its head and move a few steps again. As of yet it hadn’t looked into the room and that told Gil that this thing was not afraid of being attacked. Again there was something…something in his ears…a sound that was inaudible, yet made his ears hurt. A high pitched sound, like a dog whistle…the creature was hunting him! His heart was pounding through his chest and his hands trembled. Gil balled himself up into as small of a ball as possible and hoped it wouldn’t recognize him as prey…this didn’t work. The creature turned to look into the room, gave a deep scream that left no doubt that it found him. The thing was too large to fit between the wall studs, so it just shoved its head through them and pushed. One stud snapped and the other simply pulled loose from the nails and flew across the room as it clattered to the floor five feet away. Once in the room the beast stood upright, its basketball sized head opened until all Gil could see was a perfectly round mouth that was aimed directly at him, the shark-like teeth glistened in the bright moonlight.

  Using both hands Gil aimed and fired, six, seven, eight…CLICK! The thing had barely flinched and now with slow methodical steps, it walked toward Gil. Completely silhouetted against the moonlight he raised his knife.

  “Ok you ugly bastard, you want me, you’ll have to get past my blade.” Gil stood to his full six foot, two inch height and began swinging the blade back and forth in front of him.

  Now less than five feet from him Gil noticed a sheet of four by eight foot plywood leaning against the wall and made a quick move to it as the blue spun to attack. Gil had been closer to the plywood and moved faster. Gil swung the plywood into the corner and ducked behind its four foot height as he reached his knife over the top.

  One fast swing with its clawed hand and the blue buried it through the plywood. What sounded like a scream of frustration, the creature stepped back to the middle of the room and began shaking the full eight foot by four foot sheet of plywood around like a child with a book. It growled and slapped the plywood with its other paw and the panel flew across the room and slid out into the hall. Gil knew his time on Earth was now limited and decided to go down fighting. He dove on its back and began shoving the knife into its muscular head and where he figured that a neck would be if it had one and hoped that it might have a jugular vein…it didn’t. The creature spun and screamed, but the scream sounded more like it was pissed off, rather than hurt.

  Gil was nearly thrown off but kept stabbing. Glimpsing something…a bulge just over where its mouth would be if he was facing it, he knew; it had to be one of those horrible eyes…but it seemed to have pulled it back into its head and now was covered by a thick leathery fold of skin.

  “Oh what the hell!” he shouted and swung down at it as hard as he could…

  The blue screamed, but this time it was in sheer pain and in the moonlight Gil could see the knife was stained with something dark. He had seen it a split second before the creature spun so hard and fast that it threw him completely across the room. Gil slammed against the wall so hard the sheetrock busted and he tumbled through it into another room. As his head cleared he heard the blue coming around the wall. Rolling as the thing, mouth still opened large enough to swallow most of him, just missed him. Rolling again and swinging he managed to pin his back against the wall…but his knife was gone. Finally realizing that there was nowhere left to go…and saw his knife, on the other side of the room.

  “Well you ugly fucker, I hope you choke on me.” Gil shouted as he pressed himself against the sheetrock hoping maybe it would break and he’d fall out of the house; it didn’t, so he didn’t.

  The blue seemed to take its time as it slowly approached him again, but this time on all fours. Its mouth open and now in the moonlight he could see the rows of glittering teeth undulating, anticipating a tasty meal. The thing seem to enjoy the fact that it was taunting its prey. The beast stopped, its head a mere few inches from Gil’s head, its horrible breath nearly gagging him…a funny thought crossed his mind; he had lived this long just to provide dinner for some unworldly creature…and he began to grin.

  “Man, does this suck.”

  “BOOM-BOOM!”

  Gil felt something wet on him and opened his eyes. There on the floor between his spread legs was the blue’s basketball sized head and thick dark ooze streamed from its partially closed mouth. Gil’s ears were ringing as he slowly turned his head toward something to his right that moved in the shadows.

  “What the fu…”

  “What? You need an engraved invitation?” a tiny voice shouted “Get your sorry ass up and follow me if you want to live.”

  Barely hearing what the voice was saying Gil struggle to his feet and managed to follow the small figure as his knees shook so hard that he thought he’d fall.

  “Yeah, was the same my first time too.” the shadow shot back at him and vanished down the stairs.

  “Wait, I need air.” Gil shouted to her as he looked toward the figure. The figure pointed out toward the field and he saw a faint violet glow.

  “Breathe later!” it shouted back as his ears still rang from the shotgun blasts in a mostly closed room.

  “Never mind,” Gil panted “can breathe later…thanks for…” the shadow was heading out of the house so Gil sucked in what he could and off they went. Keeping the house between them and the field they ran across the street to another half built house. Gil’s vision was blurry, he fought for every breath. Barely able to move he made it up the few stairs to the first floor. Once inside the figure dashed to another set of stairs headed down to the basement as Gil’s head reeled. Nearly falling down the last few steps he staggered in the blackness until a small hand shot out and pulled him along.

  There was a heavy clank, the sound of heavy metal sliding against heavier metal; a stirr
ing in the dark. There was a flicker of light and then a lot of light and Gil had to turn away.

  “Boy are you stupid or what?” a girl’s voice resounded in the room.

  Gil finally focused and found himself in a concrete room and saw the steel door that closed them into this safe, but yet a concrete trap, his mind raced. “Who was this person and better yet, if that beast followed them down and stayed, how would they get out?” Straining to see in the light, a second one came on and there before him was a young girl, not in too bad of shape physically, but a bit dirty and her face gaunt and stressed. She had her long blonde hair up in pigtails and torn jeans and far too large shirt, tied up in a knot at her waist.

  “Are you ok? I mean are you hurt in any way?” the girl sat on an old tool locker and smiled “I’m Isabella Little. …Izzy or Iz, is ok.” she giggled “Iz is…get it? Like my tornado shelter mister?”

  Gils’ head still spun from the lack of oxygen, but he managed to sputter a little “What the fu…uh…hell happened? Man, I thought I was a goner.”

  Izzy giggled again and pointed to the large shotgun that was nearly as long as she was tall.

  “Ya gotta shoot them just under the armpit or down their back on the left side, just over that big plate you were hanging on while you were trying to stab it…” she smiled “clever idea trying to stab it in the eye, they suck them back into their heads and cover them with a bony plate, except for the back of the plate. Sarge said he thinks they did that when they fought each other.”

  “Sarge…who’s Sarge, and when can I talk to him?”

  “Sarge isn’t with me any longer, we got caught and he stayed to fight a lone female…the purple glowing ones, he told me to run…and no one ever questioned Sarge, so I ran like hell and never looked back.”

  “Maybe he survived?”

  “No, he would have come to get me. You see we had a plan to always go back to where we spent the night before in case we got separated, or to where we intended to stop the next night. I waited long enough for him to find me if he had lived.” Izzy looked like she was going to cry, but waved Gil back when he tried to approach.

  “Look mister, I don’t know you from Jack. You keep over there a bit.” she tossed Gil a packet and as he opened it, saw jerky and fruit. She then tossed him a bottle of water.

  “This will hold ya until we can retrieve your backpack in the morning, assuming that no swarms are around.”

  Gil chomped down on the jerky and found it wasn’t bad, and beamed a grin.

  “Good!” he mumbled.

  “Dried blue.”

  Gil began to choke and gag as Izzy ran across the room and began slapping him on the back.

  “Sorry mister, I was just kidding, it’s really beef jerky; hard as shit to find these days, but they had cows in the last town I was at.”

  After taking a few sips of water and controlling his choking Gil frowned and looked at the girl. “There are cows left?” he sputtered between bites. Finally he looked up at the slender lass.

  “Ok girly, why the hell are you out here and where the hell are we?” he frowned “Call me Gil.” he motioned to his NASA jumpsuit “I was on a special project for…” he grinned “guess it really doesn’t matter anymore does it?”

  “Gil? You mean like a fish?”

  “I guess Izzy, short for Gilbert.”

  She looked at him and smiled sweetly “Yeah, I think I like Gil better.”

  “Just how old are you and…”

  “I’m fourteen and if you are going to insinuate that I can’t handle myself Mister Gil, whatever, remember who pulled the triggers that saved your life!”

  “Whoa missy, calm down. I was just going to ask if you thought we could go and look for this Sarge of yours, you know just to be sure.”

  “Sarge died nearly six months ago.” she looked at Gil with her pretty blue eyes and sighed “That was back in Nebraska.”

  “Holy shit! You’ve been on your own for…” again the lass looked angry “not bad young lady…” he smiled warmly “and thanks for saving my life. Where you headed?”

  “Florida. I’m hoping that maybe my sister will be there.” again came the sad eyes “She was into drugs momma told me. We were in Seattle last time I saw her…I think I was four…just before the grinders came; in our area. Momma said she was in detox or something last she heard, but then the grinders came and we were rushed into a camp by the Army. But food and stuff ran out and the Army moved us southeast where they thought grinders might be thinner, but they were wrong.” she sighed deeply “And then the swarmers came and…” tears formed in her eyes “One bus crashed and the road was too narrow to get around and for some reason the last bus couldn’t turn around and…”

  “How many were you?”

  “I don’t know Gil, but when we started out, we had over twenty busses momma said. When we got stuck on that road there were seven. We couldn’t move and the driver said we should take off most of our clothes because we couldn’t roll down the windows…but people still died before the sun went down. That night when the swarms left, the soldiers and men went out and pushed the broken bus off the road. When we left later that night we only filled up three busses…and momma was left with the other dead people.”

  “I’m so sorry Izzy.”

  “I was nine at the time. From there, just as before, I was sent from camp to camp, but it was always one thing or another that caused them to fall. The last one I was at, I’d made friends with a lady that was a teacher, and she taught me all the way up through high school over the next few years. But she died too and that’s when Sarge found me.”

  “So you always had someone…”

  “Oh no Gil, there were times I was on my own, one time I survived an attack on our vehicle and I alone escaped, another our camp fell and I never saw those people again…except the one man in a house that told me to leave or he’d kill me.” she smiled “and he died, saw it from the next house, he was mean. After that I was on my own again for nearly a year before I met Sarge, and was with him ever since. Some men was…er, were, going to take me in. Suddenly one of them grabbed me and tore my dress, Sarge said he wanted to do bad things to me and so did his friends. Sarge killed them all…” she looked at Gil and smiled “and we were together ever since. He taught me about grinders, how they were made…even cut one up for me to show what he meant…he was always a gentleman and kind to me, I really miss Sarge.”

  There was a scrapping at the door that made them both jump “I think the mate found the blue I killed, but they don’t smell. I think it is just looking in places it thinks we might hide in…or maybe a place to hide from the sun in.”

  With his ear to the steel door Gil could hear the sharp claws scraping on the concrete steps as it went back up. Izzy walked over to Gil and took his hand to lead him back to where she had been sitting.

  “I still don’t know how the hell the blue thing found me, I was so…”

  “Jesus old man, I saw you running around from three houses away, incomplete walls, remember?”

  “Old man?” Gil frowned but couldn’t help but smile at the young lass, so young, so thirtyish sounding.

  “The sun will hit the bottom of the stairs, so it won’t be here in the morning. Come on you need to eat and then we need to sleep.” She climbed up on the tarp that covered a pile of workman’s tools and equipment, and motioned to a tarp neatly laid out on the floor at her feet.

  “You can sleep there, that was my bed.” she patted a comfy looking sleeping bag “I’ll sleep here tonight, this way if a blue gets in, it’ll find you first.” she giggled and laid down as Gil said good night.

  As he stretched out he glanced at the tiny figure climbing under the covers and smiled. To himself he chuckled “They’ll get me first if…wait! What’s so damned funny about that? She was teasing…right?” Gil got up, checked the steel bolt on the storm shelter and satisfied that all was secure, walked back to the blanket on the floor and settled in for the night…to muffled giggl
es.

  “You know Iz, I think I’m going to like you…even if you have a sick sense of humor.

  Chapter 10.

  Morning came around and the blonde haired sprite fixed a breakfast of cured bacon and pheasant eggs and Gil was beginning to be really thankful that he had found companionship. He finished his breakfast and the small lass packed her things and slung the large shotgun over her shoulder.

  “I already checked outside and it’s all clear outside. Sarge and I had a route mapped out and if you want, you may tag along with me.” She noticed the Gil had picked up her back pack and gently shook it as he looked at her.

  “Iz? You mean to tell me that this all you have?” Gil dropped her backpack and looked at the lass.

  She smiled sweetly “We just ate the last of what I had last night, now we live off your stuff.”

  Gil sighed and explained about his MREs and a few other things as they walked out onto the mostly open first floor. Izzy frowned, shrugged her shoulders, and then grinned “Well then when we run out, we’ll find something. Look I know you’re an old guy, but we…”

  “Old guy? Jesus, I’m thirty-two.”

  “As I said, as you are an old guy…”

  “THEN WHAT THE FUCK AM I?” Izzy and Gil both spun to see a tall and very muscular man with several day’s growth of salt and pepper facial hair standing in the doorway. His old dingy uniform dirty and shredded, and everywhere on his body were various weapons shoved into any place he could shove them. The sleeve on his right arm was shredded to the point that it didn’t exist half way up from his elbow and the arm beneath showed signs of heavy scaring.

  “SARGE!” Izzy ran and jumped into his arms as he dropped his pack and weapons fell to the floor as he swung her around and hugged her tightly. Sarge looked over to Gil and noticing his blue flight suit nodded as he lowered Izzy to the floor.

  “Major.” he gave Gil a little salute “Thanks for takin’ care of Izzy for me.”