Afraid of the Dark

by Chris Hechtl

  Before he could get out of hand Shane cleared his throat. “Mind the bosses, they know the routine and know where everyone has to go. Drivers, when you're loaded get your ass here and back, don't dawdle. We don't have the time and we can't afford production bottle necking waiting for a truck to show. Now, head em up and move em out, we're burning daylight!” he said.

  “Stack em like cord wood!” Hernandez said, pumping his fist in the air. The security group answered that with a “Who Ra!” yell. Quickly the teams broke up for their vehicles.

  “One way of getting people to carpool,” Shane said, getting off the bumper of the truck as the driver started the engine. He nodded to the driver and smacked the hood as he went around to the passenger side. “Let's get a move on people!” he said as vehicles began to move out from the parking lot.

  ...*...*...*...*...

  “Don't quit your day job takes on a whole new meaning,” a guy Cody didn't know said over and over. He looked over to him and then to the guy across from him. That meeting with the boss a few minutes ago had him a little spooked.

  That guy popped a piece of gum and then chewed. “First time?” he asked amused.

  Cody wondered if it showed. “Yeah,” he admitted. He was nervous and excited. “Is it as bad as they say?”

  “Worse man. You live through the week you're lucky.”

  “Shit.” Suddenly Cody wasn't so sure about this.

  “Bet a meal this one doesn't last the day,” the guy said, leaning forward to look at a guy laying back with his arms crossed and a hat pulled down over his face.

  “Fuck no, lost two to you yesterday,” the guy muttered. “Rookies don't last. Too stupid to pay attention and to eager to prove themselves as bad asses. Want to prove something? Hang back, watch us work and don't fuck up.”

  The others in the van all nodded.

  Cody was definitely feeling like he was in trouble. Maybe in over his head. Hell, he'd rather be anywhere than in the hot stuffy kitchen's stirring pots of pasta and watching people piss and moan about the crappy food though. There were now damn near twenty thousand people in the complex, far, far too many to be cooking for in his humble opinion. No the guys on the front had it good, best food, best gear, showers daily... no that was his thing. He did fine in shooters he just needed to keep his head down and watch his six and his partners.

  The van braked, rounded a corner and then pulled to a stop. The side banged. “Everyone out, time to rock and roll!” a harsh female voice snarled.

  ...*...*...*...*...

  Tina grimaced at the newbies in her team. She felt a bump as the truck they were riding in ran over something. Most likely branches or debris. She felt the truck slow and then the squeak of the rear brakes as they pulled up to their destination. “Everyone out!” she said putting words to action.

  Most of her team; at least the vets were falling into routine without prompting. They were scoping the area for signs of threats while checking out the road.

  “What a mess,” one of noobs said getting out of the truck slowly. He shook his head at the sight of the cars parked everywhere. There was a broken power pole about two hundred yards down. From the looks of it a truck had rammed it. Power lines were draped all over the area. Fortunately the power was out.

  “Its not all bad,” a guy said looking. “We've got to clear a path through this. Shouldn't take more than ten, fifteen minutes,” he said.

  Tina looked him up and down and shook her head, sardonic smile of remembrance pulling her lips. She'd said the same thing her first time out. It'd been damn near her last. She fingered the slowly healing cuts on her cheek.

  “Okay noobs listen up,” she said turning to them. “That's you Wilson,” she said pointing to a lanky guy. “And Nick,” she said pointing to a redhead playing on a skateboard. She wasn't sure why the hell he had brought it. Now was not the time for fun and games. “We're here to work not fuck around.” She didn't flinch when a car alarm went off. She was used to it. The others weren't.

  There were six new recruits. She'd be happy if one went the distance by the end of business today. Hell, she'd be happy if no one was killed by the end of the day. She knew no one getting hurt was too much to ask for.

  “Got a live one!” Jeremy said, scoping a gray sedan. He was careful to stay clear as the car rocked. His partner joined him. He pointed to the trunk. Deidra nodded and used hand signs.

  “What are they doing?” Nick asked, craning his neck to see.

  “Its not all fun and games,” Tina said turning. Deidra gulped and shouldered her rifle to pull out a lock puller. She fitted the thing to her lock and gave a yank then stepped back as the trunk lid popped.

  A Creepling screamed and another creeled. Jeremy pumped a shot gun blast into the trunk, followed by Deidra’s rifle fire. One of the creatures got out of the trunk but shied from the sun. It crawled under the car.

  “Shit got a tunneler,” Diedra yelled looking at Tina.

  “So handle it!” Tina yelled. She turned to the noobs. Nick was pale. His freckles were now standing out. The others were looking more than a little puckered right about now. She nodded. “I see you're catching on,” she said watching another crew clear a vehicle then pull a slim jim to pop the door open and check. They were careful to check under the seats and the back before giving a thumbs up to the tow truck drivers to come in.

  “What the hell did I get into,” Nick muttered suddenly. He was shaking a little.

  Tina looked at him. “You're what, eighteen kid?” he nodded. “Into driving?” He nodded again. “But not before?” He shrugged.

  “This isn't like you just boosting a car. Far from it. The vehicles have to be cleared first. Interior, trunk, engine compartment, underside.” She turned to watch Jeremy's crew use a hook to snag the Creepling under the car and pull it out by one leg. It flopped around on the loop, trying to get off the animal control pole. Jeremy took an ax from one of his team and did a quick swipe down. Blue blood sprayed as he lopped the head off.

  The noobs winced as he kicked the now severed head down the road and then turned to check the car again. He thrust the ax head under the seats and nodded.

  “You take this serious and you might not lose a limb. Get complacent, think its all fun and games and someone gets hurt or worse,” Tina growled.

  “Got a kitten here!” a guy waved, and then pointed to the engine compartment. “That ain't no purr!”

  “Flush it?” another guy said. Tina smiled a tight lipped smile as they went for the obvious. The first climbed in and started the car. When he did the Hellcat kitten got caught up in the fan. They heard and saw the car buck and then blue blood splattered and dripped from the engine compartment. The fan bucked and then the car did. Flushing a kitty like that was fun but the fan hitting the cat's armor usually did nasty things to the motor. The car sputtered and then died. So much for that.

  “Okay, sometimes its fun and games,” Tina said. They checked the car over once more and then waved impatiently to Nick. “That's your cue son,” Tina said.

  “What? Me? What do I do?” he asked.

  She pointed to the pressure washer still on the truck. “Your job,” she said. “Go over there and when they clear the vehicle use the pressure washer to clear it out. You and you,” she pointed to two other guys. “You two get to do the same thing. You,” she pointed to another guy. “You get to run hoses for them to the tanker.” She pointed over her shoulder to a water truck standing by. They nodded and moved off.

  “What about me?” the last guy said. The girl next to him was looking like she was about to shit herself.

  “You ever boost cars?” Tina asked. He looked thoughtful. She rolled her eyes. “You're not telling tales out of school. I don't give a shit, and no one else here does either. You either did or you didn't. Or you worked as a repo like Little John over there,” she pointed to a big six foot eight gorilla hooking a car up to his truck. “Or you did ignition systems as a mechanic like Troy there,” she said waving to an
other guy, this one pretty husky.

  “No, none of that. I just got tired of mucking out crap.”

  “Trust me, we get our share here too,” Tina said smirking as Nick tentatively stuck his wand into the engine bay and started to spray. The kid winced when he got splattered. She snorted softly.

  “Shit,” the guy said.

  “You've got your work cut out for you. You can assist Little John since he's a man down. Just double check before you stick your hands into dark places or crawl under stuff. And watch the sewers,” she pointed to a nearby sewer line and then to the drains.

  “Why?” the girl asked, suddenly looking concerned and moving to the center of the street.

  “I know a guy who lost a foot when he got too close. Gremlin tripped him up and dragged him in and chewed his foot off,” Tina said matter of factly. The girl gulped and put her hand to cover her mouth. Tina's eyes flickered. She'd been like that too, once. But seeing Harris bleeding out had changed that. Little John had dragged the guy clear and gotten her out of her shock to put a belt around his leg as a tourniquet.

  “I ah... I don't know what to do,” the girl said hesitantly. “I don't think I belong here,” she said, arms crossed in front of her, looking around uncertainly.

  “You've got a day here lady. Tell you what; go down the center line here. Scout for me. I want a hard count on how many cars and what type of each. Don't get too close to the ones we haven't cleared. Find me any hybrids or EV's or anything with a hemmy.”

  “Um...”

  “It's not that hard kid. Just look for the stickers and stuff,” she said waving. She pulled out a small paper pad with an equally small pencil and handed it to the girl. “Go. Go through the entire knot and then back. We want the hybrids and stuff for the base. Anything else either gets junked or just left on the side of the road.”

  “Why are we doing this anyway?” the girl asked.

  “Hell kid, damn if I know,” Fred said passing her with a set of chains over one shoulder. She turned to watch him.

  “We do as we're told,” another guy said moving past her to a nearby car.

  “We're doing it to clear the road. And kill some aliens,” Tina said. “Oh and find some useful vehicles we can use. Which you're not doing.” She gave the girl a pointed look. The girl gulped and then slowly started walking.

  “Cruel boss,” Little John said coming over. His new partner was carefully hooking up another car. Fortunately the guy knew to put the chains on the frame, not the bumper.

  “Everyone's got to learn. They thought it would be a piece of cake. Ride around in style. They need to learn fast to stay alive out here,” she said, watching another crew shooting at something a few yards away.

  “Ain't that, you sent them all out unarmed.”

  “They don't need weapons right now. Besides, I ain't checked them out yet. Remember that dumb shit Mel?” she asked. He winced. Mel had been a braggart, eager for action. He'd shot himself in the foot when a Medusa had crawled out from under a truck and startled him. The guy was now doing something else. Anything else. Some people just couldn't handle this.

  “All right, we're burning daylight folks! Step it up!” she yelled clapping her hands together and moving off. “Luke's crew brought in forty yesterday beating us by three. Damn if I'm going to be beat by him two days running. So get the damn lead out people!”

  ...*...*...*...*...

  By the end of the day Cody was a shell shocked wreck. He'd long ago lost what little he'd eaten for breakfast. Hell, lunch had been him turning down food and barely keeping water down. Most of the crew was disgusted with him. Him and the other two rookies who had survived. Three out of six people to survive unscathed.

  “Buck up man, everyone goes through it,” a guy he didn't even know said, slapping him on the arm. “You survived, that's the main thing. We did, well most of us.”

  Which was mostly true. Two of the rookies they had ridden in with had been torn apart by a Hellcat in their first and second house. There were three empty seats in the van. He stared at them, feeling totally lost.

  The third guy had been torn apart when something had dropped out of the ceiling on top of him. He had the guy's guts all over him. When he had realized he'd not only inhaled some but gotten it into his hair and swallowed a good bit he'd lost it. Oh he'd lost it good.

  “Not for me,” he muttered. His eyes were vacant, still seeing the eyes of that third guy, feeling his hand weaken as he died.

  “Its not for everyone. I know you're going to have nightmares man; we all do the first couple of days. Not everyone can hack it. If you can't, you can't.”

  “Peeling potatoes never sounded so good huh?” the ugly guy with his hat down said. Cody nodded. He was only here; still alive because the boss, the boss of bosses Shane himself had saved his worthless ass. Twice.

  “Shower first man. God we reek. You reek,” he said poking Cody.

  “Wish we had some alcohol. Fuck man, sucks.”

  “I think I picked up a fifth this morning,” the ugly guy said. “Not sure.”

  “Keep it?”

  “No, left it on the counter and someone snagged it.”

  “Shit. Shoulda stashed it here.”

  “Happens. There will be more.”

  “Yup.”

  Cody spent the rest of the ride trying to put the image of teeth and flesh out of his mind as he carefully thought of how exactly he was going to get Hermes to give him his job back. He'd beg on his knees if he had to. Damned if he'd do this again. He flinched at the sound of pitter patter.

  “Just rain man,” one guy said, looking up. “I guess they were right, rain was in the forecast.”

  “Let's just get to base before the aliens come out to play in it, okay?” the ugly guy grumbled.

  ...*...*...*...*...

  Quinn watched a group of men and women wearing black biker leather move through the ground on the ground level of the mall. “Who's that?” he asked looking at Torres.

  “Scouts,” she said, eating a burrito. Most of the lunch rush was past but she still preferred eating at the tables away from the food court. Normally she ate breakfast and lunch in the field anyway. Today was a bit of a slower day.

  “Scouts? Nice, um... what are they?” he said. “The things sticking out behind their heads.”

  She craned her neck to see over the railing and then snorted. “Katanas. Haven't you seen Blade?”

  “Oh. Ah... okay. Really? Katanas?”

  “Some people prefer axes or broadswords,” the guy at the table behind them said. They turned to look at him. He shrugged. “I heard they've been picking them up from houses and storage units after the ones here in the mall were handed out.”

  “Okay...”

  “They suck,” Torres said shaking her head. Tom lifted an eyebrow at her. She snorted. “Seriously. Suck. Cheap knock offs. Most of them are only good for wall decoration.”

  “I heard one guy decapitated a Gremlin on a bike,” Tom said.

  “What the Gremlin did?” Quincy asked dubiously.

  Tom shook his head laughing softly. “No you turd, the guy. Girl actually. The guy was driving. She just leaned over and swung.”

  “Nice swing,” Quincy said nodding. He knew it took quite a bit of upper body strength to hack through an alien's spine with an ax. Using a sword?

  “Me I prefer a sledge hammer,” Tom said grinning.

  “No fineness,” Torres said shaking her head mournfully. She took a sip of her water. He snorted softly.

  Quincy snorted. “That's our Tom Tom in a nut shell.”

  “Sometimes brute force works best boss lady,” he said ignoring Quincy.

  “Says the guy who's always playing with flame throwers, explosives, and rockets.”

  “I do have my moments,” he said smugly. She chuckled softly. Quincy gave a hacking cough. Tom glared. “I do too!” he said defensively.

  “Whatever,” Quincy said getting up. “We done here? We've got work to do,” he said.r />
  “Not today, rain delay,” Torres said waving. They turned to look at the skylight overhead. Tom glared at the splattering drops. “Don't sweat it Tom, we'll get our licks in later.”

  “Yeah well, while we're inside the damn aliens are breeding like rabbits.”

  “Hey, did anyone come up with an alien that has stealth?” Quincy asked suddenly. The others on the team stopped what they were doing and looked at him. Torres arched an eyebrow.

  “Seriously?”

  He squirmed a little under their collective gaze and then shrugged. “Seriously. I mean anything with like camouflage or something.”

  “The eggheads think that the aliens are camouflaged,” Tom said wrinkling his nose. “Don't see how they can say that. They are all purple and red and black and stuff. I mean the purple tends to fluoresce at night!”

  “Not to mention the yellow and orange, and green,” one of the others muttered.

  “Yeah that too.”

  “The darker colors are camouflage. For nights,” Jen said pausing at their group. They blinked at her. “And we believe their camouflage is more suited for whatever planet they came from. The one they evolved on. Not ours.”

  “Okay that makes sense.”

  “Yeah but what about a stealth thing. You know, like well, like a chameleon or something,” Quincy said doggedly.

  “Let it go man,” Tom sighed shaking his head as Jen turned an inquiring eye to the man. “Don't mind him, too many beans in his burrito. Fart went in the wrong direction, to his brain rather than out.”

  Quincy turned a glare on the big guy. It slid off Tom's easy grin like he was made of Teflon.

  “Never mind,” Torres said, grabbing both men by an arm.

  “No, no, he's right,” Jen mused slowly, eyes thoughtfully looking to the ceiling. “I'm wondering about chromatophores. We've got several species that have them. I just haven't heard any reports of them in use.”