Afraid of the Dark

by Chris Hechtl

  “You're sure the signal is getting out?” Watts asked.

  “Oh, I think they are listening, just not returning the call. Either that or we just don't have the range yet,” Jill said. She looked down as someone pointed to her laptop off camera. “Oh,” she looked up as someone said something. “Ah, okay, we're getting a message now apparently,” she said, voice rising in surprise.

  “Oh?” the Major asked and then sighed. “Damn it,” he said.

  “Just relax Major,” a nurse said off camera. She rested a hand on his shoulder and then reached over to shut his feed off.

  “That'll go over well,” Bob muttered.

  “Had to be done, his vitals were all over the place,” Jerry said. He held up his tablet and waved it. “Doctor's orders.”

  “Somehow I don't think he'll be grateful doc,” Shane said shaking his head. “Get a transcript or a copy of the recording off to the Major. Or put him through direct.”

  “It's a General, he's kind of pissed,” Jill said, listening to her ear wig. She winced. “Apparently someone tried to get a hold of March and realized we were telling the truth.”

  “You'd think the mayday they put out the other night would have been picked up. Durr.” Bob drilled a knuckle against the side of his temple and made a stupid face.

  “Lovely, left hand, right hand,” Walt said. “I don't have time for them to figure out the sky is blue and the base is flattened. I'm going to get my work done,” he said getting up. “Just let me know how it turns out,” he said.

  “I gotta go too, burning daylight and all,” Bob said getting up himself. He followed Walt out.

  ...*...*...*...*...

  After the meeting broke up Jill called him direct. Before he could ask what it was about a gravelly voice cleared its throat.

  “Who is this?” the voice asked.

  “I'm wondering who this is myself,” Shane drawled. “My name is Shane O’Neill; I'm in charge of the mall. Who may I ask am I speaking with?”

  “This is General Drummans, I'm putting the military in charge there.”

  “No you're not General; this is a civilian facility and a civilian show. Your people have their own base. Or should I say had,” he said. The General should have known better than to try to pass on an order that he knew wouldn't be obeyed.

  “Put Major Watts on,” the general fumed.

  “I'm afraid he's been sedated General. He was critically injured in the evacuation.”

  “Which you people just sat and watched?” the General snarled.

  “Not at all General, my people were the ones to go in and pull your chestnuts out of the fire. Civilians bailed out the military. The same military who locked their base down and watched as we dealt with the influx of refugees and aliens ourselves for the past two and a half weeks,” he emphasized, frost dripping in his voice, rocking back and forth in his chair as he suppressed his rage.

  “What the hell?” the General snarled.

  “My people General. Since we've been out in the cold we've been holding our own. No thanks to the people in the base. They shut the doors and refused to do anything. They even shot down one of my UAV's the other day.”

  “They were ordered to go into lock down,” the General said.

  “Which was stupid,” Shane said. “A lot of their own were locked out. Families of military personnel too. The President ordered a full mobilization but that was ignored. I've picked up a few soldiers who were caught out, but many were caught out and eaten by the aliens,” he said.

  “That happens in war,” the General replied gruffly after a moment. He didn't sound too happy about it though.

  “I know all about war General, I did my two tours as a marine before retiring,” Shane said tapping at the communications channel until he found Jerry. “Get me Watts,” he said, muting the link to the General.

  “He's asleep.”

  “I want him in on this doc, no pussy footing around. This General Drummans means business. We're not hitting it off. I don't need him breathing down my neck or sending troops in with shoot first and ask second orders.”

  “Um...” the doctor looked mulish. Shane sighed.

  “Doc, just put the man on. Part of his problem is he hasn't checked in with his chain of command. Let the guy report and he'll relax more.”

  “Shit,” Jerry breathed, “I'll check,” he said.

  “Sorry General,” Shane said turning the mute off.

  “I'm not used to being put on hold,” the General said with a flicker of amusement in his voice.

  “Didn't mean to. I was ordering the doctor to wake Watts. If he's not functional I'll check his surviving chain of command.”

  “Army?”

  “No idea general. March was a reserve base, but it was mostly air force. Watts was a blue boy, pilot and he did mention he flew Predators at one time. They flew Predators out of March. Most of the able bodied are with my people on base trying to find any survivors now.”

  “True. Good to know.”

  “If you've got net access I can see if my IT people can send you a report and any intel we've gotten.”

  “All right,” the General said after a moment. His tone had definitely changed. There was just a hint of respect in it.

  He waited but when the General didn't respond in kind he cleared his throat. “We'd appreciate any intel on the aliens that we can get. We've managed to find a few methods for killing them, but it's slow going General.”

  “Shooting them works,” the General said.

  “With a big enough gun, in the right spot maybe. We're actually using RPGs for the big ones. Fifty cal's are a hit and miss sort of thing. It's hard to get through to the vitals with the armor on the top and head.”

  He waited but when the General didn't respond he tapped an urgent e-mail off to Gabe. Gabe's window opened with an instant message a moment later. He was requesting a URL.

  “General my IT people need a URL for the uplink,” he said.

  “Not a chance. We're not letting anyone into our net.”

  “Then how... hell,” he swore hitting the mute again. He typed furiously. After a moment he hit the mute again. “Okay fine General, play paranoid. We're not the enemy. We're setting up a secure computer with the information on it. Only that intel and report,” he said. He gave the General the URL when Gabe sent it to him and then sat back.

  “General?” a weak voice said over the link. He coughed.

  “Who is this?” the general demanded.

  “This is Major Watts sir, Air Force.” He rattled off his service number.

  “Watts why aren't our people in charge there?” the General demanded.

  “It's a civilian show sir. They saved us sir.”

  “Why didn't we hear from you?”

  “The aliens took out our communications sir. We were lucky to have a ham left to get help.”

  “Heat General, we've been getting reports that the aliens attack heat,” Shane interjected.

  “Thank you but do remain quiet,” the General said. “Watts, I want you and your people to report to Twenty Nine Palms.”

  “Sir I'm ah, not sure that's possible sir. Not any time soon.”

  “Watts is wounded General,” Shane sighed. “And the roads are a parking lot. Which means impassible. We have no air cover either,” he said.

  “It's true sir,” Watts said and then coughed.

  The General paused and then cleared his throat. “I... see... I'm getting your video now,” he said. He inhaled and then exhaled. A window appeared on Shane's tablet. It was tiny though, no bigger than his thumb. Still he recognized the image of Watts. The man was covered in bandages.

  “We're doing the best we can for them General but our supplies and services are limited. We've got a small medical staff and they are overwhelmed,” Shane explained. “We've got an open door policy so we've taken in thousands of wounded.”

  “It's true sir,” Watts said. He panned the camera so the General could see the makeshift hospital. There w
ere litters all around. One guy was standing with crutches nearby. He was missing one leg from the knee down. “We've swamped them sir. Even more than evacing County hospital did. They took them in like us too sir.”

  “Hold tight son, we'll get you out,” the General said gruffly. “I'll send two or three marine Osprey's tomorrow or the day after.”

  “We'll set up an LZ then General,” Shane said with a nod.

  “You do that. Over and out,” the General said closing the link.

  “Thanks Watts,” Shane said but then noticed the link was closed. He shrugged.

  ...*...*...*...*...

  The morning after the attack, at dawn all the crews moved in on the base, checking it for any survivors. None were found. They did pick up some gear and a few vehicles.

  Unfortunately a few of the Cactus people had beaten them into the base, staking out the MRE warehouses and stores. Hernandez hadn't been happy when he'd refused to force them out. Hernandez came back later that afternoon with the scratch crews he'd taken in with him. They were demoralized, a few kicking tires or debris. He shook his head as he filled the private in on the call from the General, and then news of the warehouses being overrun. Hernandez was grim. He nodded but didn't say anything.

  He waved to a marine lieutenant and had him call into Drummans. He wanted them to keep in touch hourly and Watts wasn't up to it.

  ...*...*...*...*...

  Two days later a pair of V-22's came in and medivaced the critical wounded.

  “What's this?” Watts asked as Shane held out a flash stick.

  “Gabe sent it. Its video footage of the attack, a copy of our intel, and a copy of the specs and plans for cheap UAV's.”

  Watts couldn't help grinning as he took the stick. “Really?” he asked, eyes lighting up. His fingers curled protectively around the chip.

  “They aren't up to mil-spec, but right now anything will do. Cheap things, Quad copters and a couple of other designs I think. He got them from a guy's house. Apparently the guy was a DIY with his own home made 3D printer. Printed all sorts of stuff.”

  “Really?” Watts asked. “Love to meet the guy.”

  Shane looked away for a moment. Watts caught on and sighed. He rubbed his temple bandage for a second. “Like that huh?”

  “Yeah. Whole family,” Shane said quietly. “The invasion I guess.”

  “Damn,” Watts said.

  “Yeah,” Shane echoed. He nodded as the last bird loaded up. “I think that's your ride.”

  “So it is,” Watts said turning to the bird as the rotors spooled up once more. “Thanks again sir, its been an honor,” Watts said. “We won’t forget it.” Watts gave him a shaky salute before climbing on board.

  “You're staying behind?” Shane asked Hernandez after the V-22 took off and cleared the horizon.

  “Looks that way,” the private said watching the bird leave. “No room anyway,” he yelled. The bird had been crowded with wounded. They weren't sure if it was coming back, the most likely answer was not any time soon apparently. The remaining military personal were here to stay until they could catch a ride out. With the roads clogged and it being too dangerous to travel at night it seemed they'd be here for a while.

  “Excuses, excuses,” Shane said grinning and slapping the private on the shoulder. He hid his relief, he'd gotten used to the private. “Glad to have you here. Let's get back to work.”

  “Glad to be here. You're doing more here. I think I can still be of help.”

  Shane shook his head. “Anything from those people in the warehouses?”

  “The ones on the other side of the 215 or the ones on Cactus?”

  “Both, either. Start with the ones on the 215. Weren't they in the path of that attack?”

  “Apparently the aliens funneled down the hill following Alessandro, walking right around them. Or up the 215 from Perris. Or in through the food warehouse. We're still trying to figure that part out,” Hernandez said with a shrug. “For some reason the food warehouse was trashed and over run, but they weren't.”

  “Are they still there?” Jayne asked surprised.

  “Yes. Last I heard,” he said and shrugged. “Some of them anyway. Buford may have bought it, not sure. We radioed them early yesterday morning. Someone answered with a whisper, told us to shut up and shut off the radio.”

  “Ah,” Jayne said. She looked at Shane. “Smart I guess with the alien’s right there around them.” Aliens that had survived the attack were still milling about on the base and around it. Some were probably nesting in the buildings nearby.

  “Nothing about them is smart,” Walt said in disgust. “I took Jerry back to get the wounded the other day. The other ones. People were bitching and moaning about wanting a hand out, and how the people who go out and risk their necks don't share enough or hog all the good stuff.”

  “Wonderful,” Jayne said shaking her head. “I take it you put things into perspective for them?”

  “Well, for some I get it. They aren't cut out for combat. Yeah, I get it. But its like every man for himself over there. They've been picking the places closest to them clean. The people have to go further and further away now.”

  “Like us,” Shane said with a nod.

  “Yeah but they aren't sharing much. Enough to keep people a little happy, but the ones on top are hogging the best stuff,” Walt said.

  “We're not.”

  “No, but we're being accused of doing that after taking this entire area for ourselves.”

  “We've got a lot more people than they do. We're also organized and patrolling that area, keeping it clean,” Jayne growled. “What have they done?”

  “Nothing apparently. No patrols, no alien hunts, no scouting, just snatch and grabs when they run low on food or water. About it.”

  “Geniuses,” she said in disgust.

  “We had a lot of people wanting out. What do we say when we go back? Are we going back?”

  “We'll go back when things cool off a bit. Probably when the weather clears. Until then we'll have to keep a low profile too.”

  “Sucks, it,s throwing our building schedule all to hell,” Bob griped.

  “Deal with it,” Jayne sighed. “We all have to adapt. Obviously the aliens are adapting to our environment. Using the storm as cover, that's a new one.”

  “New for us. I don't know about other areas. We do need to keep that in mind and point it out to others,” Shane said. “I'm more concerned about the report of the big Gremlin things directing the aliens. That's not something I'd hoped for.”

  “Nightmare. Are they intelligent? As intelligent as us?” Kyle asked, rubbing his jaw. “We need to know,” he said after a moment. “Damn it we need intel.”

  “Unfortunately the Gremlins and Creeplings we ran into in the first couple of days disappeared. Oh we run into a few here and there, but they are apparently new born which is a scary thought. Any aliens that die are scooped up as food for scavengers or decay fast to the point of being goo in less than a day or so. I don't know what happened to the bigger Gremlins. We're not sure what happened to them. We've got other things on our minds too. The ones we run into when scavenging are fast and vicious and we have to put them down fast.”

  “How about a trap?” Kyle asked. They looked at him. “Not a trap, trap, a video trap. Set up some remote cameras on well used areas for surveillance. Get some recon out and data for the eggheads to process. Know the enemy.”

  Jayne glanced at Shane. He cocked his head. “And it'll cover the perimeter a little further out,” he said after a moment.

  “Wait, wait, how do we power these?” Walt asked holding up his hand. “We can't run wiring, I mean...”

  “No, solar. We use those small solar panels. The ones for yard lights or flood lights. Even the ones for street and traffic lights. Hell a car battery might work.”

  “Oh, them?” Walt asked. “We have someone who can rig that?”

  “We've got plenty of people. A couple of electricians and a couple of ele
ctronic techs. Little Leon's crew comes to mind,” Jayne said musing. “It's a good idea, we can put his fat ass to work, make him sweat a few pounds off.”

  “What? When he does the install or just work in general?” Kyle asked, snorting in amusement. Apparently he knew the guy they were talking about.

  “Both. I think he's afraid of heights though so we're going to have to just have him in the lab. He can show someone else how to do the install. We've got a solar guy who might do it.”

  “Yeah, forgot about him. Have him do it,” Shane said nodding. “The lights, the ones for the yards. Can we rig them?”

  “Um...”

  “I'm talking spotlights and stuff. What I'm thinking of is doing a test somewhere. Nothing big or elaborate. What I'd like to do is set up the flood lights on a field if its not occupied. One of the schools or whatever. Set them up and pop the lights on when there is movement and see how they react. Maybe set up some sort of motion tracking light.”

  “A spotlight? To track the aliens?” Walt asked wrinkling his nose. “How? Someone on the other end guiding it? Isn't that dangerous?”

  “Not if it's a remote control thing,” Jayne said. “Why do you want to do this? Piss them off and mess with them?”

  “No, I want to know how they will react. I want to see if the light tracking them will piss them off or spook them to run for the hills. What about a strobe? What will that do? And I want to know if we can condition them to avoid lights and people.”

  “Um...” Bob wrinkled his nose. “Where'd you get this idea from?” he asked after a moment, glancing at the others. He was pretty sure the conditioning thing wouldn't work, the damn herds clustered near light sources at night. Even some of the weird mushrooms that glowed at night. Jayne just cocked her head at him and then smiled a little.

  “I bet I know. Jen put you up to this didn't she?” she asked. He nodded. “I thought so,” She nodded triumphantly. She turned to the others. “She's the smart one of the pair,” she said.

  “Funny,” he said as they snorted in amusement. He looked around. “Let's get it done then.”