by Chris Hechtl
“The you know, the garage door things in the mall? The ones that roll up and down?” she asked. “For the stores,” she said in slight exasperation. He finally caught on and nodded. They were metal mesh, at least a few of them were. Those would at least slow the aliens down. He wondered if they could electrify them. Or at least reinforce them when and where possible.
“Are you sure about...”
“I'm sure,” he said shaking his head. “This is it,” he said as Bob came over with the others. They looked at Bob who was holding a map in his hands. “Home sweet home.”
“You know this place is a sieve right? It’s... damn it part of it is good but the rest...”
“We take what we can get Bob,” Shane said. “We can't work miracles overnight.”
“Yeah well... No luck?” Walt asked. He ran a hand through his hair and then put his hat back on.
“No. I didn't expect much either. Cactus is filled up. At least the parts we can get to. Torres is handling that area. she said the survivors from the area housing East and South of the warehouses have streamed into it and are doing what they can to fort up now.”
“Shit,” Walt said.
“What about the base?” Jayne asked.
“The base is a no go zone. We sent a crew over to it but it’s a mad house. The guards are turning people away and have fired a few warning shots.”
“Shit,” Walt said again. “So what are we supposed to do?” he asked.
“We make do with what we got. That's what we do. This place is it for now. We'll set up here, dig in, and fort up. We've got some military people, some were locked out, and some are former military like me. We'll form a militia and go hunting by day. That's my plan in a nutshell. But for today it’s all about getting everything we can and getting all of it and everyone under cover. Fast,” he said.
“Right,” Jayne said. “I've got to get back to work,” she said stretching.
“Yeah,” Bob said with a shrug. “Me too.”
“We also need information. Information about the enemy,” Jen said slowly. “I need to see them. To get a good look at them. Photo's video, and bodies if possible,” she said.
Shane nodded as the others looked at each other. “Intel on the enemy is always a good idea,” he said. “We've got to figure them out, find a weak spot and exploit it. Nail them. Hard.”
“I'm for that,” Walt growled. Bob's jaw tightened and he nodded.
“I'll pass the word to get people to get photos and descriptions as soon as they can,” Jayne said slowly.
“Get them to write it down,” Jen said. “People tend to forget over time. Write it down when it’s fresh in their minds with as much detail as they can. Or record it. Or both,” she said.
“Jen, we're sort of busy,” Jayne said, waving a hand to indicate the people working around them. Jen looked around and nodded.
“We've got a short window. A closing window to gather material, fort up and to get intel while recovering and getting onto the offensive. Let's make the most of it,” Shane said. “Did you get a look at the cows out front?” he asked.
“No, people had hacked them up to much,” Jen said with a sniff. “I heard they wanted to burn them but I nixed that. The last thing we need is an uncontrolled fire so close to us.”
“Too right,” Jayne said with a shiver. There were all sorts of stuff around, and some of the vehicles were leaking oil. The last thing they needed was a fire.
“I've got scattered reports from the girl monitoring the TV and radio that the aliens are growing fast,” Jen said. Bob paused and grimaced.
“That's all we needed to hear,” he said. He took his hard hat off and banged it against a wall. “What else can go wrong?” he asked after a moment.
“Oh its worse, they regenerate,” Jen said.
“They what?” Walt asked.
“Regenerate. A non fatal wound will stop bleeding in a minute or two and they will be fine in a little while.”
“Oh lovely,” Jayne breathed.
“So, any advice on how to kill them and make sure they stay dead?” Walt asked, turning to the cows the people had hacked up.
“Cut them up or cut off their heads. Do enough damage to the internals so they can't regenerate,” Jen said. “That's the only way apparently.”
“Lovely,” Jayne muttered. “Like vampires, or zombies,” she said.
“Something like that,” Shane said with a nod. “We already knew small caliber weapons are damn near useless against the aliens. You need a .45 or better to stop one.”
“Great,” Bob muttered stalking off. “Just great,” he said moving off.
Inside Lowes the crews weren't happy about working with some of the aliens around them. When Bob found out how slow things were going he went to investigate. Art met him at the door. He pointed up to the rafters.
Bob looked up and then sidled to one side just in time to miss a pile of greenish crap that dripped out of one of the aliens. “Shit,” he said.
“Exactly,” Art said with a grimace. “I don't know how they got in here, they aren't happy about being up there though,” he said pointing to them. The alien fliers flapped their wings or tucked their heads under them. Most were avoiding the sky lights, clustered in the shadows. Many were in the corners of the room.
“We'll have to blast them out,” Bob said.
“Yeah well, we tried something like that,” Art said waving. “Didn't do squat,” he said.
“Joy,” Bob said. “Are they bothering your people?” he asked.
“No...” Art said as they stepped around a pile of crap. It was everywhere, dripping on the rows of materials, the floor, everywhere the aliens were.
“It’s slippery though. A couple of guys and a gal slipped and fell in it,” the manager said with a grimace and wrinkled nose. Bob shot him an amused look and then shrugged.
“If they aren't bothering us, don't bother them. For now, just avoid the areas they are in and get out what you can,” he said.
“Oh, we're doing that,” Art said and then waved to a pair of guys with shovels. They were trying to scrape the crap to one side to make it easier for people to get through the area.
Bob looked up and the to one side hastily as bright light washed out of the electrical area. “That'll piss them off,” Art said.
“Yeah,” Bob said, covering his ears like the other people and raising his voice over the din the aliens were making. Aliens around the lights were highly agitated, moving away to the corners. Those in the corners weren't happy about the invasion and made their irritation known.
“We can drive them to the corners,” A guy said with a grin, coming over. Bob gave them a thumbs up. “Good job. Just keep them penned away from where you're working. Get in, get the stuff we need and pull out. No heroics. We don't have the time or... we just don't have the time. Not today,” he said lamely.
“Sure,” the guy said, giving Bob a look and then Art. Art shrugged. The guy nodded and moved off. He dodged a forklift moving out the double doors with loads of bricks and kept going.
“Did anyone get to that masonry store down on Sunnymead?” Art asked.
“Which one?” Bob asked. “If you mean the one by the pizza places yeah. If you mean the other down past Indian then no. At least not that I know of,” he said.
“Hopefully they'll find something there. And we need people to hit the other home improvement stores. We're about out of concrete and brick. Just tile left I think,” Art said.
“Damn, okay, I'll look into it,” Bob said with a nod.
The scratch militia cleared buildings, learning that they could attack the alien predators as long as they did it in the sun. If someone got in too close to a shadow or nesting predator they would be dragged into the shadows and torn apart.
Reports streamed in that groups were finding eggs and young in different places. They grimly squashed the eggs with hammers, vehicles, giant rolling pins, loaded barrels and other things, anything that could get the job done.
<
br /> Chapter 9
It was a race against time to fort up the mall before the sun set. They constantly pulled in survivors or coordinated with others. Art was a little put out when he found out a couple of the generators and a load of material had been handed over to someone who had taken off under the freeway with it. The last anyone had seen of the truck it was heading up Day towards the Canyon Springs area. The Canyon Springs Plaza had its own generators, why did they need more? He fumed for a bit before the setting sun finally made him refocus.
Around two P.M. power began to fluctuate. Worried they snagged additional solar panels and water purifiers and ran back to the mall. A team pulled solar panels from a nearby Taco Bell and other places that had them. “Not that it’s going to help tonight,” a guy muttered.
“Then why we doing it?” another guy asked as they unclipped a panel and handed it carefully down to the people waiting on the ground. Removing the panels was dead easy. He wasn't sure if they wanted the rails or not. Probably. Hell, they had to have something to attach the things to the roof. He sighed and set into pulling them up as well. They were just cutting the wiring though. The inverter boxes were also being pulled and packed.
“Cause it’s a good idea in the long run,” another said. “Just hurry up. I want to be in before dark.”
“Yeah me too,” another said hefting a panel.
“And don't drop it. Damn things are worth their weight in gold now, I bet.”
Shane saved a few people who drifted too close to the shadows. Someone suggested roping them off or going in and digging the aliens out. He kept them moving, kept people doing things, even little things. There would be time to get some payback once they were safely settled.
Bill went around the perimeter, checked as it got closer to dark. He had a team manning the security office to watch cameras. They'd even managed to add a few more in the blind spots. Leon had done a good job scaring up a security truck loaded with goodies.
A survivor had come forward with another truck load of night vision equipped cameras. The good news didn't stop there, they were all wireless. All they needed was power.
Bob had gotten the crew to hook up the additional generators to the mall system. They left them off though, conserving power for now. He even remembered to have someone top off their fuel tanks and have a couple of barrels of fuel put nearby in case they needed it. Then he turned the air blue as someone pointed out that they had set the generators up outside. “It would have been nice for someone to have pointed that out an hour ago!” he waved angrily toward the setting sun.
Hastily the generator area was fenced in and lit up with lights. They added a fenced corridor to the generators but he wasn't too sure about the wisdom of using it. He for one didn't want to run the gauntlet. It would be like that guy in that Jurassic Park movie. Or the guy in Deep Blue Sea. He shook the wandering thought off angrily and got back into the real world.
Jen and Jayne set up people in the stores in the ground level below the food court, away from the windows doors and entrances.
People who were not physically able to handle the workload were set out to watch in two hour shifts as the sun began to slowly set.
Shane grimaced as he spotted an alien carcass. It was one of the aliens he'd killed in the morning. He slowed down as he came up to it and then swore again even more vilely. The damn thing was twice as big as the one he'd whacked this morning.
The damn thing... growing... No, not a good sign. If this thing was this big after a day... He looked at the clock on the dash, two, no an hour and a half before dusk. He wanted everyone in long before then. They had a half hour, forty-five minutes tops then. Something was telling him to make sure of it and he was ready to follow his gut.
“We're running out of space for all the small animals Mom,” Trina said, looking for her mom. Jen looked over to her and smiled a little. All three kids had been real troopers all day. She couldn't be more proud of them. They had led the other kids by example. She was proud of them. Proud of all of them.
Jen sighed and rubbed at her face for a moment, gathering her thoughts. “Use totes,” she said after a moment.
“Totes?” Trina asked.
“Yes, preferably clear ones. I watched it on a vet show.”
“Um...”
“It’s okay honey, it's only temporary. Use what we've got. What have you got right now anyway?” she asked. She hadn't had time to check on her daughter as often as she would have liked.
“Chinchilla's, Guinea pigs, rabbits, some hamsters, a ferret, a couple of hedgehogs, a rat...” She stopped and wrinkled her nose at that. “Some parrots, parakeets, a hawk believe it or not, and a couple of gerbils and a crap load of mice. A couple of pygmy goats, they are so cute!” she grinned.
Her mother shook her head and tried not to roll her eyes. “Let's see, some dwarf rabbits, um, a couple of potbellied pigs, one mama sow has three piglets... Um, a hamster no I mentioned that.” She frowned and looked down at her list and then up suddenly. “There is even a pair of monkeys! What do I do with them?” Her tone was strident.
“Really?” Jen asked surprised. She rubbed her daughter's shoulder. She knew she was doing well despite the bizarre situation. All three kids were holding up like troopers.
“Yeah, Capuchin monkeys. I... the lady that brought them in said they belonged to a handicapped man who...” her face twisted up as she shrugged helplessly. Jen got the message right away. Whatever happened to the man, it hadn't been good.
“It’s okay honey,” Jen said patting her on the arm. “Go on. You said there were other animals?” she mentally cataloged the animals.
“Yes,” Trina said with a shrug. “I'm using the glass containers for the fish and reptiles,” She wrinkled her nose at that. She wasn't into fish or reptiles at all. Luckily someone who was into it more than her had come in with their own snake collection and had taken that part over for her. Thank god. She didn't want to have anything to do with the slimy icky yucky things.
“Okay...” Jen said, drawing the word out as she thought again. “A lot of animals?”
“Yeah well, I mean, I can't put too many together. There are does and bucks and well...”
“Let nature take its course dear.”
“Oh it’s not that,” Trina said blushing. She was old enough to know what her mother meant by that. “It’s, well, the males fight and all.” She shrugged helplessly. “I know the roosters were tearing at each other and someone brought in ducks and geese. Mom where did they all come from?” she asked. “What do we do if they hurt themselves?”
Jen nodded wisely. If things were really as bad as it looked they would need all the animals, not just as a food resource, but for genetic material. Animals that were injured would be a liability. “They are from all over dear; you'd be surprised what people have as a pet. Or had,” her face twisted a little at that. She'd seen a lot as a volunteer for the animal shelter. The animal shelter! She'd have to get someone to go there and take a look. Also... there were farm animals over by the county hospital. That bore investigating as well. If anyone could get there. She looked at her daughter who was expectantly waiting for a reply and nodded gathering her thoughts. “Okay, do the best you can. Try to separate them however you can, but don't get too overloaded dear. I'll see if I can get you some more help. Every one we save means more down the road.” And more mouths to feed, she thought with a pang. She'd have to look into that and quickly.
“Um mom...”
“What is it?”
Trina squirmed. She knew her mom was busy, but the rumors that they may have to eat the pets had her guts churned up. “Ah, someone said something about the animals, I, uh...”
After a moment of study Jen knew where her daughter's thoughts were starting to trend. Trina had wanted to be in the 4H program last year until she had found out that the animals were slaughtered after judging. Jen patted her head in sympathy. “Worry about it later dear. Right now, let’s get them all in before dark.” Trina shive
red. She hugged the girl to her chest and then gave her a light smack on the ass and a push. “Now go on, get moving.”
Trina smiled and scampered off with a backward wave.
“Going to have a real heart breaker there someday,” a guy said shaking his head.
“Her and her twin sister,” Jen sighed running a hand through her hair and then brushing her sweaty bangs out of her eyes. “Come on, we've got to get this pet food secured.”
“You let me and people built like me do the heavy lifting miss, just tell us where to put it all,” he said.
“Deal,” she smiled tiredly and nodded in appreciation.
“Get anything frozen to the freezers. Anything thawed but still cold tell the cooks to cook it now. Anything thawed and warm the animals get,” Jayne told one of her new assistants, Sheila. Good girl, she had a good sturdy head on her shoulders. She had even learned to anticipate.
The coffee latte complexioned girl nodded. “I'm on it boss,” Sheila was a nice girl with a chocolate malt complexion and a dimple smile. She was also a smart cookie, Jayne thought. The girl was on the ball. Apparently she's been an assistant to someone or other. Now she had attached herself to Jayne and Jayne could only be grateful. The woman was definitely a keeper.
“We've got a very narrow window before the stuff thaws and it’s unusable. Make sure anything freezer burnt or thawed that we can't use gets fed to the dogs and cats,” she said moving off. Sheila nodded, made a note and moved off in a different direction.
“Have Hermes get it worked out as soon as possible!” Jayne yelled. Sheila turned in place, waving her upraised arm and then moved off at a trot.
“She's working out, huh?” Jen asked amused.
“One of the better ones actually,” Jayne said with a nod. “How are you doing?” she asked. Jen looked more than a little frazzled but still holding on. Grimly holding on like everyone else.
“Tired but I'll manage. I think we need to get some of the boys setting up more freezers though. We're getting reports of being full up with the ones we've got.”
“Shit,” Jayne said rubbing her temples. “I so need to do an inventory,” she muttered.