by Paul Moxham
STRIKER
The Alien Wars – Book 2
By Paul Moxham
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www.paulmoxham.com
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Copyright 2016 Paul Moxham
Version Updated: 3rd August 2016
All rights reserved, without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means without the prior written permission of the copyright owner of this book. This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
THE ALIEN WARS
This science fiction series will tug at the heartstrings of anyone who likes a thrilling adventure about everyday people trying to survive amid the horrors of a post-apocalyptic world.
~*~*~
Invasion
Striker
AUTHOR NOTE
Hey everyone. This is the pre-order copy of Striker. Due to a delay, the last few chapters of this novel is unedited. However, if you want to receive the latest version, which will be online after the pre-order phase, please email me at [email protected] and I’ll send you a copy. Sorry for the inconvenience. Oh, and you might notice that the first 3 three chapters are chapters from Invasion, and that is because I have decided to end on a cliff-hanger for Invasion, so thus I have moved those chapters to this novel.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 1
Kenneth stopped what he was doing and shined the flashlight at the slanted eyes in the bush. It was a scrawny mountain lion—one that clearly hadn’t enjoyed a full meal in a while.
He dropped the branches that he had collected and walked away, heading to the left of the campground, but the eyes followed him.
He fantasied about climbing a tree, but he had to get back to the teens. He walked off, faster than before, in another direction. It took all his willpower to keep from sprinting, which would only force the creature to strike.
Kenneth knew that he would have to take his chances and run back to the campsite, hoping that the fire would ward the animal off. He twisted around, trying to spot the glow of the fire, but he couldn’t. Sweat beaded down his neck despite the cool air. If he didn’t get to the safety of the fire, he might not survive. Frantically fishing in his pockets, he found everything but his pistol, which he had left back at the camp.
“Son of a …” The mountain lion’s rumbling growl and frenzied drooling cut him off. He spun around and saw that the red gleam in its eyes was bigger. With a start, he realized that the animal was closing in.
If he continued standing where he was, the predator would be on him within seconds. He had to flee now. Not knowing if he was going in the right direction or not, he dashed off into the darkness, using the flashlight to light up the ground in front of him.
With a final hungry growl, the animal stalked after him. The faster Kenneth ran, the closer the paw slaps behind him grew.
Kenneth prayed he was heading in the right direction, but every tree looked the same. If he was to survive, he’d have to get lucky. Really lucky.
He pushed past branches and leaped over logs, his heart pounding. If he could grab a good, strong stick, he might be able to fend the thing off, but if the ravenous mountain lion got so much as a single bite of his leg, then that would just doom them all later. Now was sure as hell not the time to be bedridden.
Kenneth risked a glance over his shoulder as the growling suddenly stopped. He slowed to a jog. “Where the hell did you go …”
He spun his flashlight around like a baseball bat just as something lunged from the bushes to his side. The big cat didn’t make a sound as its paws slammed against his chest and threw him to the ground. The only light went out as the lion’s drooling jaws clamped down on the flashlight in his hands.
Kenneth rolled with the fall and bounced off the enraged creature as it heaved chunks of aluminum and spat out battery acid. That might have bought him a few precious seconds, but the growl chasing after him sure seemed to have a note of rage between the hunger pains.
Kenneth spotted a slim gleam of light shining through the trees. He crashed through the undergrowth and ignored the branches slashing his face. With the last of his breath, he popped out of the tree line and caught sight of the campsite.
Kenneth gasped out as he ran toward the fire, “Molly! Derek!”
The teens sat up as he approached. “Grab a branch and wave it around!” Kenneth reached for his backpack.
As he fumbled inside for his pistol, the teens each grabbed a stick that was alight at one end but cool enough to hold at the other end.
“Wave it around!” Kenneth shouted, still trying to find the pistol.
As the mountain lion circled the campsite, a little cautious now but far from defeated, Derek took one side of the camp and waved his glowing stick around while Molly took the other side.
Kenneth finally found the pistol and, gripping it in his hand, glanced around to assess the situation. He didn’t want to waste a bullet if it wasn’t necessary. He snatched a stick from the fire, waved it about, and stomped his feet. The animal continued to circle a little closer, red eyes gleaming as it searched for a shadowy approach.
“We can’t go on like this forever,” Derek muttered.
“What are we going to do?” Molly asked.
Suddenly, the mountain lion threw caution to the wind and lunged.
“Agh!” As Molly backed up near the fire, she tripped over a log and landed flat on her back. Kenneth leveled the weapon and squeezed the trigger. With his pounding heart bouncing his arms around, the bullet spat up the dirt a good yard in front of the animal.
The mountain lion gave a confused yelp and sprinted faster, right over Molly as she cringed and covered her face. Without so much as a parting growl, the creature kept running and raced back to the tree line. Kenneth kept his weapon pointed after him until his fatigued arms finally gave out. He dropped to his knees to catch his breath as Molly slid close to him.
“Thanks, Kenneth.”
“Do you think it will come back?” Derek asked.
“Probably not,” Kenneth replied.
“I don’t think I’ll be able to get back to sleep,” Molly said, sitting down. “And if I do, I’ll probably dream about mountain lions attacking me.”
Kenneth smiled. “If we build up the fire really big, I’m sure that will scare the lion if it does choose to come back.”
“I’ll help get some more branches,” Derek said.
Molly stood up. “I’ll go too. I don’t want to be left by myself.”
“Okay, we’ll all go.” Kenneth took the pistol and flashlight and headed in the opposite direction of the hungry creature.
~*~*~
Logan stared in frustration as the police helicopter continued to ascend. Suddenly,
the aircraft started to descend.
“What’s happening?” Jet asked, surprised.
Logan shook his head. “I don’t know, but—”
“Look! The tail rotor stopped,” Xavier yelled.
Muscles bared his teeth. “What a piece of luck for us.” He glanced around, and spotting some tables and chairs, he hurried over to them. The others followed. They hid behind the furniture.
As the helicopter touched down, everyone checked their weapons to make sure they were working properly.
“What’s the plan?” Logan said.
“Take out the pilot. Once he’s out of the way, Sanchez will be stranded on the roof,” Muscles said.
“But he still has Lucy,” Xavier argued.
“You’ll have to rescue her then,” Muscles replied, watching as the pilot climbed out of the machine. He glanced at Logan. “You and Xavier have one minute to get to Lucy. After that, we’ll open fire on the pilot.”
Logan nodded as he and Xavier ducked down and skirted around the tables and chairs, past a number of empty crates, and toward the other side of the roof. He looked at his watch. He had thirty seconds left. He glanced at Xavier. “Cover me.”
Xavier nodded. He watched as Logan waited for the pilot to climb up a small stepladder and examine the tail rotor before he bent down and scurried toward the helicopter.
He waited for the commotion to start. He didn’t have to wait long. Shots punctured the silence. He watched as Logan threw open the door to the front seat and grabbed Lucy.
Lucy seemed to be struggling with someone. Logan reached into the machine and fired a shot. As more shots erupted at the rear of the helicopter, Xavier spotted the pilot leaning against the side of the machine, one hand clutching his chest. The other held a pistol.
Bullets thwacked against the metal of the machine and pierced it. Xavier watched in horror as drops of liquid dripped out.
A shot to the left of him made Xavier spin toward Logan. Sanchez stood at the front of the helicopter with a pistol in his hand. Not wasting time, Xavier pelted the area with bullets. Sanchez ducked before disappearing into the blackness.
Xavier waited, his heart racing, as Logan and Lucy rushed away from the helicopter. At the same time, the pilot slumped to the ground. A second later, a bullet tore into the machine where the liquid was dripping.
A massive boom ruptured the area. The helicopter exploded in flames. Debris flew everywhere. The force of the blast threw Logan and Lucy to the ground.
“Hold on!” Xavier ran to them and helped Lucy to her feet. “Are you all right?”
Lucy slowly nodded. “I think so.”
Logan looked at his fiancée. Her dress was dirty and blood dripped from a wound on her forehead, but she was alive. He clutched her tightly, not wanting to let her go. “I missed you so much.”
Suddenly, Sanchez, bloody and battered, emerged from the smoke and flames and stalked toward them.
Chapter 2
“Watch out!” Xavier pushed Logan and Lucy to the ground and pulled the trigger.
Nothing happened. It was empty.
Sanchez opened fire. A round tore through Lucy’s arm. She cried out in pain.
“Run!” Xavier shouted out as he tried to get away from the madman.
Sanchez limped after Xavier, only to pause as Muscles, along with the rest of the team, emerged from the darkness and opened fire.
The bullets smacked into Sanchez’s legs and arms and he crumpled to the ground. Muscles strode forward and fired twice more.
Sanchez released his grip on the pistol and his head sunk to the ground. Logan, still holding Lucy, advanced to the fallen body.
Muscles kept his finger on the trigger as he approached. He picked up Sanchez’s gun and put both weapons in his pocket. Everyone stopped a few feet from the body.
“Is he dead?” Xavier asked.
“Looks like it,” Muscles replied as he knelt down. He wasn’t one to gloat, and even though he knew Sanchez had been a cruel man, he felt sorry for the way he had died. It would have been nice to get some closure on why he had done what he had.
He frowned. Sanchez was clutching something in his hands. Muscles reached forward and grabbed them to pull them apart.
Sanchez opened his eyes and grinned. “See you in hell.”
Muscles ground his teeth when he noticed a steel pineapple in Sanchez’s hand. The pin was out, but the spoon hadn’t been released. As Sanchez gave a final sigh and his eyelids closed, he opened his palm completely.
Muscles glanced up at the others, who appeared to be frozen in shock. “Run!”
Jet hesitated for a brief second, but Xavier grabbed him and fled.
“I love you, son!” Muscles cried with an eerie calmness.
A second later, the concussion bowed the rooftop. Everyone got knocked to the ground by the force of the explosion. After a few moments, they stood back up.
Jet, his expression one of shock, stumbled toward the gruesome scene. His body was tense as he saw the bloody remains of his father. “No!” He ran toward Muscles, whose lifeless body was lying next to Sanchez’s.
“Wait!” Xavier tried to grab hold of one of Jet’s arms, but the teen pushed him away.
“Let me go!” Jet screamed as he hurried to his father’s body. He knelt down and took hold of his wrist. As he cried out a few moments later, the others decided to let him have some space.
Logan sighed. “What a horrible way to go.”
“Are you okay?” Xavier asked, glancing at Lucy.
Lucy bobbed her head as she shared a glance with Logan. “I’m all right now.”
In the glow of the subsiding flames, the surviving members of the group walked over to where the tables and chairs were and sat down. All of them were shocked. They were still trying to digest what had happened when a shot rang out.
Logan leaped to his feet and reached for his pistol. “You don’t think he—”
“I hope not,” Xavier interrupted, also leaping to his feet.
The two of them raced past the smoldering wreck of the helicopter and saw Jet standing by the remnants of Sanchez, a shaking pistol in his hand.
Jet tossed it to the ground in anger and turned around to face the others. “What?”
“I’m sorry for your loss,” Xavier said.
“Sorry for my loss? What good is that?” Jet screeched. “Is that going to bring him back?”
“No, but at least you can be grateful to him,” Logan said.
“Grateful for what?” Jet spluttered. “Grateful for divorcing my mother when I was just a kid? Grateful for having to sleep on the streets for more than a year?”
Logan tried putting a hand on Jet’s shoulder, but he threw it off. “I don’t need your sympathy,” the teen said.
“You’re upset. You’re young—” Xavier said.
“I’m not a kid. I’m seventeen,” Jet interrupted.
Logan, who had been studying the dead bodies, looked at Jet. “He means your father saved your life. That’s what you should be grateful about.”
“What the hell are you talking about?” Jet roared and cried at the same time, in only the way a teenager could.
“Look!” Logan pointed to how close Muscle’s shredded torso was lying to Sanchez’s. “If we had time to run away, why didn’t he?”
“I don’t know,” Jet admitted. “But what difference does it make now?”
“He saved you. He saved all of us.” Logan looked at Jet. “I saw more than my share of grenades and suicide bombs while I was in Iraq, and I realized one thing: a M67 grenade, which is the one that Sanchez had, is fatal to anyone within fifteen feet. There is no way that we were more than ten feet away when it went off.”
“What are you saying?” Jet said, his brow furrowing. “That it wasn’t a M67?”
Logan solemnly gazed at Jet. “Muscles jumped on the grenade, putting it between him and Sanchez. He took the blast for us.”
Jet was stunned. He looked at Muscles and then at Sanchez. �
�He … sacrificed himself?”
Logan carefully squeezed his shoulder. “For better or worse, he was the type of guy who didn’t hesitate when something had to be done. No matter the cost.”
Jet dropped beside his father’s body. Everyone looked away while he wept. “Why did you do it, Dad? Why did you have to be the one to die?” He rested his head upon his father’s chest and cried.
Logan and Xavier gave him some space and leaned over the edge of the roof. All was dark below. All was silent.
“What do you think is happening down there?” Xavier asked.
“Confusion. Chaos, more likely. Hell, I don’t know,” Logan admitted. “What worries me is how we’re going to get down from here.”
Xavier sighed. “The stairs are the only way.”
“Yeah, but what happens when we reach the lobby? We’re almost out of ammunition, and a few of us are wounded. I just don’t see us getting past a group of determined men.”
“So what if we don’t?” Xavier asked.
“What do you mean?” Logan replied, frowning. “As soon as we go down the stairs—”
“We don’t, at least not yet.” Xavier hesitated. “I’ll have to have a talk with Lucy. She might know how committed Sanchez’s men are.”
Using the light of the moon, the two walked back to the bodies of Sanchez and Muscles. Jet was no longer there. Assuming that he had gone back to the others, they walked toward the chairs and tables. There, in the glow of a flashlight, everyone was talking about the last twenty-four hours.
“We heard about Muscles. Did he really sacrifice himself?” Lucy asked.
Logan sighed as he rushed up to her and put an arm around her. He kissed her on the cheek. “Yes, and all because Sanchez had the grenade.”
“He waited till the last possible moment, until we were right there,” Xavier said. “He was downright evil to the very end.”
“So, what’s the plan now?” Jet asked.
“Well, thanks partly to your father, Carlos Sanchez is dead. The question that remains is how fanatical are his followers?” Logan glanced at Lucy. “Do you think his guards are the sort of people who’ll just cut their losses and run? Or will they fight to the death?”