Afraid of the Dark

by Chris Hechtl

  “What's your problem man? Give them some time alone.”

  “You don't feel it?” Nick asked. He turned on Jake.

  “Feel what?”

  “Like something's...” he turned in time to see an open door near Harkins. Something was moving on the other side and then there was a flutter as a rush of something came through the door. It started as a small stream but the door swung open and it became a raging river.

  “What the fuck!” Jake said backing up.

  “Inside! Everyone inside! Close the gate. Get Security!” Nick said as the locusts buzzed and people began to scream and react.

  ...*...*...*...*...

  People were people, and in an indoor space with alien predatory piranha insects they did the obvious thing. Panic. Panic led to running, running away from the threat. Anything that was in the way, such as people or things were trampled. Nick groaned as his mother's planters were knocked over and kicked. He snarled when a little kid went down in the sea of human insanity. A woman rebounded off the closing gate. She fell. He reached under the gate and dragged her inside. A guy saw it and dropped and rolled under with her.

  ...*...*...*...*...

  “What the hell?” Mateo asked as he heard a low buzzing and people screaming. A shot rang out, then a second. He started to get up when the radio on his hip squawked.

  “Aliens inside! Hoppers man! Locusts are swarming out of the theater! Someone do something!”

  “Shit!” Mateo said grabbing his helmet and putting it on. “We need fire... a damn big... shit, a net. Get everyone...” he turned. “Listen up people!” he yelled. The commotion around him ceased. “Everyone into the back rooms and close the doors. Keep calm, and clear the area.”

  People got up and moved to the food prep areas. The kitchen staff looked bewildered but then waved them on. Hernandez grimaced and spun in place. “We need light and a lot of it. Someone find the lights and turn them all on. And every light you can find!”

  ...*...*...*...*...

  The aliens were disoriented by the bright lights and the enclosed space. Some of the fliers buzzed angrily against the skylight glass, trying to get out. Hoppers swarmed the ground, bounding and bouncing around, not really paying attention to whom or what they landed on. Fortunately for the humans the bright lights were keeping the swarm relatively contained around the entrance to the theater. After a few minutes a few of the swarm headed back to the welcoming dark of the open theater door. Their start turned into a retreating tide as more followed.

  “What the hell is going on?” Bill yelled coming at a run. Nick saw him behind the security screen and waved and hit the fence to attract his attention.

  “Nick,” he paused and came over.

  “Swarm man, thousands of alien locusts. I think they killed a few people. A couple of kids at least. In the theater.”

  “Shit. Thanks kid,” Bill said with an absent nod as he turned to his crew. “Find some flame throwers.”

  “You want to burn the place down?” a guy asked. “Right around our ears with it being nightfall?”

  “Shit.”

  “Close the door. Kill the aliens inside with melee weapons. Net them and kill them,” a familiar voice said from behind them. They turned to see Shane coming up with Jen on his heels.

  “Dad! Mom!” Nick said.

  “Nicky you are all right?” his mother asked concerned. She passed Bill to go to the security screen. She hooked her fingers into the mesh.

  “Fine mom but I think a couple of people are badly hurt.” He nodded his chin to a pair of security guards who were warily kneeling over the crumpled body nearby. One reached down and checked for a pulse and then grimaced and shook his head. He straightened eyes on the ceiling where a few of the aliens were still buzzing.

  “Nick...”

  “I'm fine mom. We're okay. I'm safer than you right now. Right?” he asked.

  “Right,” she said. They raised the gate and to her surprise Shane pushed her inside and then closed it. She hugged Nick and patted his shoulder.

  “Honey,” she said looking at Shane. “Hey,” she rattled the screen, spooking the people on the other side.

  “Don't do that!” he snarled turning to her. “Damn it Jen,” he said looking back up and around.

  “Sorry. Look, don't use fire. Use fire extinguishers.”

  “Huh?”

  “Fire will burn the place down. The fire extinguishers will freeze them. Make them lethargic and easier to kill.”

  “Oh.” He turned to Bill just as Mateo came pounding up. “You heard the lady. Get the fire fighters to find some extinguishers and get them over here.” He nodded to Jerry and the medics and made a hole as they came forward carrying litters and medical kits.

  “Triage doc, make it fast. Pull the living out and triage somewhere else.”

  “Is it safe?” Jerry asked nervously, looking up as a few of the aliens buzzed at the skylight angrily. The thick glass was covered in a spider web of breaks.

  “No, hell no doc. That's why I said to get them out and go,” he said pushing Jerry. A guard pulled the one extinguisher on the nearby wall and looked around as he pulled the safety pin. “Come on people, cover them.”

  ...*...*...*...*...

  It took hours to round up the aliens that had remained in the mall and kill them. They had been forced to use a cherry picker and a wand extinguisher to get at the locusts on the ceiling. They dropped like rain to the floor below to be crushed by grim men and women with hammers and axes.

  By the time the deed was done they had a preliminary casualty list. Two of the teens were confirmed missing and presumed dead. Sixteen people had been killed in the crush of bodies during the stampede. Another two dozen were badly injured. Another twenty seven had minor injuries. Six people had been chewed up by the aliens and were not expected to live. Two more had been killed by the alien swarm.

  ...*...*...*...*...

  Bill grimly watched as a work crew peeked with a mirror and a light into a dark nook. “Got another!” the guy said waving. The woman stepped back warily, grimly holding onto her ax.

  A work crew came forward with a fire extinguisher and a pike. The guy with the extinguisher screwed up his courage and shoved the wand into the nook and then squeezed the trigger. Bill could hear and see the spray back blast out. Three quick squirts and then the guy backed off for the pike-man.

  One, two, three, four... the guy rammed the pike in and then pulled it out. It dripped purple goo and ichor. He nodded grimly. The scout checked and then nodded.

  “I am so glad I'm not on clean up detail over this,” Bill said.

  “You should be,” one of the sentries nearby said. “Dude you so fucked up. We all fucked up.”

  “That's right, we all did. No one bothered to check the damn theater. Not since we closed it. I should have. We all should have,” Shane said without turning around. “It’s something we're going to have to live with and learn from.”

  “Anything?” the biologist asked. He had a cart loaded with samples. “Nothing doc. Nothing new anyway. Not that you can tell.”

  “Can one of you freeze one and keep it intact?” the doctor asked plaintively. Bill shivered. More than one person shook their heads at that question.

  “Not going to happen doc. I'm not going to risk someone. No. Take what you can get.”

  “All right,” the doctor sighed. “Insects really aren't my field. If these are really insects at all since they are alien.”

  “If it looks like a bug and squishes like one...” a guy said.

  “Whatever.”

  ...*...*...*...*...

  “Bill, over here,” Shane said as they spurted CO2 into the door. They started working it around the cracks then fished an endoscope around the door.

  “Bad?” Bill asked coming over.

  “Bad enough. Thousands of the freaks,” the guy with the scope said, moving his hand to look around the room. “They are all around the edge of the door.”

  “Can we
ramp up the AC in there?”

  “The problem is the controls.”

  “In the office?” Bob asked coming in behind them. He nodded to the guys as they turned to look at him. “Hey, heard about the ruckus. Sorry I couldn't help earlier. What can I do now?”

  “It's not quite dark is it?” Shane asked.

  “About thirty minutes to go,” Bob said.

  “Can we rip the roof off that place in that time?”

  “No way man.”

  “Huh.”

  “How'd they get in?” the sentry asked. Bob looked embarrassed.

  “I'm more worried about how to get them out,” Bill said dryly. “I for one am not going to bed with those things still around.”

  “You and me both. Besides, you sleep by day anyway, so your shift.”

  “So you're handing it off to me?” Bill asked Shane carefully.

  “I should, your mess and all, but I'm up now.” He pursed his lips and turned to Bob. “Get someone on that crane in the parking lot outside the theater. Have a crew on the roof. Tell them to find the hole and either plug it or hook the crane up and rip it wider.”

  “You want them to widen the hole?” Bob asked carefully.

  “To get them out. We're going to have a hell of a time getting them out as it is.”

  “The main swarm...”

  “The controls for the AC are in the office,” a guy said coming over. He waved a hand. “Larry. I worked here a while back. AC controls are usually computer controlled but we had an issue a while back. Spastic manager was freakish about the temp and kept playing with it. Hot flashes, go figure.” He shrugged with a disgusted look on his face. “I can show you. If its safe.”

  “Do it. Crank the sucker to the lowest it will go. That should get the suckers to either leave or make them slower. Bob...”

  “I'm going,” Bob said turning. “I'll be on channel four.”

  “Roger.”

  “Yeah?” a guy looked up. Shane snorted. “No, not you, never mind. Um, who... ah. Okay. We're going to need some port holes in the walls for extinguishers around the door. Just make a hole with a saw then get the hell out so someone can get in and blow the bastards off.”

  “Cool. Wonder if I'll spear one,” a guy said with a saw.

  “Bet you, you won’t,” another guy said looking grim.

  “Anyone think this could be better done in the morning?” the second guy asked. He looked around the grim faces. “Hey I'm just saying. Mount a guard and well...”

  “You want to be the guard? Are you volunteering? And are you sure they can't get into the ducts?” Shane asked.

  “Shit,” the guy muttered. “Me and my big mouth. Okay, let's do this.” His saw wined to life and then snarled as it bit into the plaster.

  ...*...*...*...*...

  It took most of the night to clear the theaters one by one. Hours of using flood lights, burning through extinguishers and spearing aliens who were left twitching on the ground.

  Jesse's crew had rigged extenders on some of the wands before they were finished. That helped them get to the higher nests and into the ducts. The ducts looked clean, but they were not going to take any chances.

  ...*...*...*...*...

  When dawn finally broke Bob opened up the roof some more and the last of the alien monsters flew out into the dawn sky. He grimly directed his crews to rip open other roofs carefully. When no more were found he pulled a scratch crew together to cover each hole with a skylight.

  “Its going to make watching movies a pain in the ass,” a guy said. His partner smacked him on the arm.

  “That's all you can think about? Dude who gives a shit! Come on, let's get this done. I want to go to bed sometime this century you know.”

  Shane rolled his shoulders as reports of a few aliens in the underground parking garage had come up. Most of that area had been sealed off fortunately. The entire complex was being searched now. A full colonoscopy.

  ...*...*...*...*...

  “Hernandez,” he said turning to Mateo.

  “Yo,” Mateo said coming over.

  “Get some, hell, get about two to four hours of sack time, then I want you to head back over to the base. Run a scout on the hangars and other big buildings, I want to know if any of these locusts have set up hives there.”

  “Okay.”

  “Look for anything we can use. Take extra people and some people who were on the base. In fact take my team. I'm going to be here for a while.”

  “Roger,” Mateo said.

  “Yo!” Roger said looking up.

  “Not... never mind,” Mateo said with a wave and trotted off.

  ...*...*...*...*...

  Shane frowned as he watched a crew grimly crushing eggs. That boded ill. He waved to a guy to save one but the biologists were already there, taking samples. He shook his head. At least Jen wasn't... he turned and grimaced again.

  “How long have you been awake?” he asked coming over to her.

  “I didn't go to bed. You didn't.”

  “I don't need beauty sleep,” he said. “You do dear.”

  “Are you calling me ugly?”

  “Nooo... I'm calling you a beauty that needs her rest. I'm a lost cause.”

  She snorted softly. “True. Funny but true,” she said smiling a little, shaking her head as she used a scalpel to take a sample. Goo dribbled off it as she raised it to the light. “Hmmm...”

  “Okay, I haven't had breakfast and watching you and the crew scrambling eggs isn't helping my stomach any,” he said.

  All she did was shake her head.

  ...*...*...*...*...

  “So, what have we learned?” he asked the council at lunch. Bob looked worn. He shook his head.

  “Not to take anything for granted. And I need to get better inspectors. I found out the twits on the job hadn't covered the breach like I told them to. They rigged it with tarps and left it for later.”

  “Shit.”

  “Yeah. Live and learn. At least some of us,” Bob said grimly. Tamara held his hand in hers. He squeezed her fingers. She rested her head against his arm. She had dark circles under her eyes.

  “We've got our first shipment of wind turbines going out in an hour. Should I back stop them?” Walt asked.

  “Wind turbines?”

  “And generators. Got the idea to take an alternator and hook a blade up to it. Works great.”

  “Okay,” Shane nodded.

  “Some of the other enclaves asked for them. They know gas is limited.”

  “And getting more and more scarce,” Bob said with another grimace. “At least diesel.”

  “I'll put out a call for our teams to keep a look out. Today we're just going to focus on the base. Today and tomorrow. I'll have them suck any water and fuel they find along with everything else. In fact all teams will be on the base I think.”

  “Okay.”

  “It should help,” Jerry said. “I'm working to coordinate the medical end. Are you serious about a communication and an early warning network?” he asked.

  “Huh?” Shane asked. Damn he was tired. He looked up and nodded. “Yeah. We're serious. Cell phones obviously. Gabe,” he nodded to the big fluffy guy on the TV, “is still working it out.” Gabe had the plans for the cell tower down, and they had the parts. The problem was getting the other enclaves on board. They wanted to rebuild the cell tower on JFK and Kitching but no one was close enough to keep an eye on it.

  “Its taking time. Getting everyone into our network is a pain. I should start charging minutes,” Gabe said. “That would get people to knock it off with the bandwidth.” He'd been grumbling about that a lot lately. People were getting carried away with using cell phones apparently.

  “Don't start,” Shane sighed.

  ...*...*...*...*...

  “Something you should see,” Gabe said. He tapped at his controls and a video came up replacing his own. A group of people were on the roof raising a pole. A bigger pole than the one that had been there before.
<
br />   “What? What are they doing? I didn't...” Bob stopped when he saw the flag flapping in the light breeze at the top of the pole. “Oh,” he said softly.

  “I think its appropriate,” Gabe's voice said quietly.

  “Gabe... tell them thanks. And make sure someone puts a spot on that. Three of them day and night. I want everyone for miles around to know we're here,” Shane said gruffly.

  “Tradition has its uses,” Ross said quietly.

  “That it does,” Shane said, referring to always lighting a flag if it was out after dark. “I want everyone to know we're here and we're not giving in or giving up. Now, what's next?” he asked.

  “We've gotten another report of a school falling. I'm not sure which one; I think it was a Val Verde middle school.”

  “Why the hell would they try to use a school?” Bob asked. “Too many windows!” he said in disgust.

  “Got me. It might be that its concrete, has the flood channel on one side and big fences,” Wayne said. “Oh and the schools are the designated emergency centers.”

  “Big whoop,” Bob said in disgust. “Suicide. They should have figured that out the second night. Or the third.”

  “It's surprising then that they held out for this long then,” Shane said.

  “Yeah. I heard people got to RCC but it was swarmed last night. Unfortunately its pretty ugly on that end of town so we still can't get in there.”

  “Ouch.”

  “It's not just the streets... it's the alien plants. That area has those artificial lakes. The animals and plants are all over it.”

  “Watering hole,” Shane said with a nod.

  “Yeah, I was thinking the same thing.”

  “Any word on the farms?” Tamara asked quietly.

  “Um,” Gabe looked uncomfortable as his image came back up. “I'm um, getting scattered reports, most aren't good,” he said quietly. “The aliens have overrun the entire globe. Most of the farms were swarmed. Since the first priority of the military was to save people not wheat, they have ignored the farms. Now people are starting to realize that is a problem.”