As Seb closed down on Sparks, he saw the shutter in the side of the mountain lift by no more than thirty centimetres. Enough for her to get through, but it looked tiny for him.
When Seb looked behind him, the creatures had gained on him. The ones at the front remained on all fours while a row further back now stood on their hind legs as they released another round of laser fire.
Most of the shots went woefully wide, but one came so close to the tired Seb he only managed to avoid it at the last moment. A fizz and then the acrid reek of his singed hair snaked up his nostrils from the near miss. Were everything moving at full speed, he’d be dead a hundred times over by now.
Sparks had said to wait until he heard a ship’s engines, but what did she expect Seb to do? Dance for them until she’d finished?
Before he’d reached the shutter embedded in the blood red mountain, Seb heard the whoosh of a booster. One thing about Sparks, she never let him down—apart from the time she’d robbed him.
With the partly raised shutter just metres away, Seb turned to see another wall of red and blue fire. He dropped to the ground and every shot flew over him. Metal sparks exploded from the shutter as a firework display while the lasers played a tattoo against the alloy barrier.
As Seb rolled along the ground, the beasts’ stampede ran a heavy vibration through his back. The desire to turn and look at them fought for his attention, but he shuffled forward and slipped his left leg and foot into the hangar on the other side of the shutter.
The beasts continued their charge as a landslide of chaos. Seb slipped further into the hangar, but his chest and head trapped him. He turned his face to the side and looked at the oncoming rush of animal ninjas. Despite trying to pull his body through to safety, he remained stuck.
Seb pushed up with both hands against the cold metal shutter. He strained so hard his head spun and his tired lungs burned. He managed to lift it by another few centimetres, but he still couldn’t get through.
The first of his pursuers caught up with Seb and stamped down on his right arm. Its huge, clawed paw—easily the size of Seb’s head—pinned him to the hard ground and sent sharp pains through his bicep.
The rumble of the creature’s rasping wheeze filled Seb’s ears and he smelled blood on its hot breath.
Seb’s eyes watered from the sharp sting on his shoulder blades as the rough ground tore him to shreds with his fight to get through. But with more beasts closing in, he had to keep going and tugged against the one that had him trapped.
The creature lifted its foot, tucked its opposable thumb in to make a fist, and drove it toward Seb’s face. By taking the pressure off his arm, it freed him and gave him the chance for one last attempt to get away.
The ground shook from the creature’s punch. A slowed-down vibration through the rock because of Seb’s perception, the blow would have crushed his head had he not moved it.
Seb thought he’d gotten free until the beast pinned him again, this time getting his lower arm.
Like it had with Seb’s bicep, a deep burn seared his forearm and it quickly turned numb beneath the heavy pressure. Blind to what was occurring on the other side of the shutter, he felt warm metal tap against his hand. The creature’s blaster!
Despite being pinned down, Seb reached up with his right hand. He had enough movement in his wrist to catch the blaster and snap it from the leather thong around the monster’s neck.
The weapon hit the ground and Seb saw it through the gap amongst the collection of paws on the other side. It lay just in reach. He moved quickly and rolled over to use his left hand to snatch the blaster, angled it up, and pulled the trigger in one fluid movement.
The creature who had him pinned screamed and ripped its large foot away.
Seb withdrew into the hangar just as the metal shutter shook with the collision of several large bodies.
Chapter 2
Unlike the dry and sparse planet, Seb found the hangar to be crammed with objects. Ships, tanks, buggies … The chrome on all of the vehicles glittered in the space as stars would in a night’s sky, and the entire place reeked of engine grease. Strip lighting ran along the ceiling and stood in stark contrast to the dark red glow of the planet outside the hangar. It forced Seb to squint against the glare, his eyes stinging from the violent change in his surroundings.
The deep rumble of a ship’s engine rolled around the space and Seb felt the vibration of it run through his feet. He scowled as he looked for which ship made the sound and finally saw a fighter on the other side of the hangar. Sparks sat in the cockpit. A quick scan of the gleaming ship and Seb saw she’d picked one large enough to make the jump to hyperspace, but small enough for a dogfight. Just the thought of a battle in space tightened his stomach and sank dread through him. The walkway to the ship lolled from the vessel like a metal tongue, and he ran for it with what little strength he had left in his aching body.
Once he’d halved the distance between him and the ship, Seb saw Spark’s tense face turn to horror in the cockpit. He looked behind to see the creatures who’d chased them were forcing the shutter higher and several had nearly shoved their way through.
Still armed with one of the creatures’ large blasters, Seb held it with two hands and fired. Despite the shutter being big enough to cover a gap that would let a tank into the place, he missed it completely and hit the wall next to it. An explosion of red rock blew away from the impact and did little to slow the creatures down.
Seb fired again and this time he hit the shutter. As it had done on the outside when the creatures had shot at him, his blast exploded in a shower of sparks. Although a spittle of fire rained down on the beasts, it only made them flinch before they continued to force their way in. “Damn it,” he said as he turned around and willed his tired body toward the ship.
With about five metres to go, Seb looked behind again to see four of the large creatures had made it in. They stood on their hind legs with their blasters raised and fixed him with their yellow stares.
Then Seb saw them: a cluster of blue barrels as tall as him and twice as wide right beside the shutter. They looked like they contained fuel.
The blaster kicked as Seb shot at the barrels, but the blue laser missed them, hitting the shutter again with another splash of orange sparks. The four creatures that had made it through into the hangar jumped to the side. Everything remained in slow motion for Seb as he tried a second shot.
This time Seb went too far the other way and blew up a small mechanic droid. The sad bot fell instantly limp from the impact.
Just before he got to the access ramp for the ship with Sparks in it, Seb stopped, closed one eye as he looked down the sight of the blaster, and fired a third shot at the barrels. A whoosh sounded out when it hit and a huge fireball smothered the four beasts inside the hangar. Flames instantly drew lines around their forms as they burned, and a rush of hot air collided with him. It carried the reek of singed hair with it and hit him so hard he stumbled backwards.
The hard metal of the access ramp tapped beneath Seb’s footsteps as he ran up it and entered the ship’s hull. The tang of smoke rushed into the ship with him.
Sparks stood wide-eyed inside the small vessel and breathed on the edge of a panic attack. Seb grabbed her slim shoulders and shook her so hard her head snapped back and forth. The glaze lifted from her stare and she jumped to life. She moved to a wall of buttons by the ship’s exit. Several quick taps and the access ramp pulled back into the ship’s body with a whir. She then ran for the cockpit and Seb followed her.
Sparks didn’t seem fazed by the wall of screens and buttons in the cockpit, but when she looked again at the fire Seb had ignited, she froze momentarily and watched it burn out.
The explosion had blown the shutter clean away from the hole, and although the fire had taken out a few of the creatures, the rest of them now charged into the hangar. Seb nudged his small friend. “Come on, Sparks, get us out of here.”
A volley of blaster fire rushed at them as
the beasts all reared up with their weapons. The blasts shook the ship when they connected with its metal body. With everything back to a normal speed, Seb watched Sparks shake as her fingers danced across the ship’s control panel. Although he wanted to scream at her to hurry up, he bit his tongue.
The creatures continued to swarm into the hangar and sent another wave of shots their way.
The ship shook and Seb heard a fizz from where they connected with something electrical. “I don’t think we can take much more of this, Sparks,” he said.
Just as the third wave of fire came at them, a loud whoom sounded out and Seb now saw the creatures through a light blue filter. The blaster fire hit the ship’s shield and diluted on impact with a wet pop.
Before the creatures could change their method of attack, Sparks grabbed the controls and lifted them a metre or so from the ground. The ship swayed as she fought for control of it.
“I thought you knew how to fly one of these things,” Seb said, seeing the beasts back down on all fours and racing towards them.
“I do … in principle.”
“In principle?”
Instead of replying, Sparks clenched her teeth. She pushed hard on the lever in front of her and the ship shot forward, throwing Seb back.
The pain of hitting the metal rear wall clattered through Seb as it jarred his skeleton and he hit the floor in a heap. Unable to stand up against the ship’s hard acceleration, Seb remained where he was and watched the steel of the hangar shoot past them. Seconds later, it gave way to the void of a black star-studded sky.
Exhausted and sweating from the getaway, in pain from the fight, and still out of breath, Seb sank into his posture and managed a half-smile. “Well done, Sparks,” he said, tiredness tugging on his frame. “Well done.”
Chapter 3
“Uh … Seb?” Sparks said.
Seb opened his heavy eyelids, lethargic from the lure of sleep nearly dragging him under. After they’d taken off and he’d been flung back into one of the steel walls, he’d crawled over to a nearby padded bench and lay down on it. Everything ached from their escape, so he’d closed his eyes to let his body rest.
Before Seb could reply, Sparks repeated, “Seb?”
Seb groaned as he sat up, a deep throbbing headache pulsing inside his skull. When he saw Sparks open her mouth to call him again, he cut her off, “It’s okay, I heard ya.”
“Well, answer me then.”
Seb got to his feet—his legs wobbly with exhaustion—and stumbled over to Sparks. Too tired to shout across the ship, he walked up behind her. “What do you want?”
Sparks pointed one of her long fingers down in front of her.
An entire console of lights, buttons, and levers stared back at Seb. “I don’t know what any of that nonsense means. What are you pointing at?”
When Sparks tapped her long finger against a circular screen, her fingernail clicked as it connected with the glass. The screen had a blob in its centre and concentric circles surrounded it. Seb saw the pulsing dots in the bottom half of the screen and his tiredness left him. “Damn.”
Without another word to Sparks, Seb ran to the back of the ship and looked out of the large rear window. The dots he’d seen on the screen manifested as a cluster of ships behind them.
“Get in the turret now,” Sparks called back to him.
A hatch lay in the centre of the floor. Round and with recessed handles, Seb pulled it up to reveal a ladder in a tight tunnel. It led to the turret attached to the base of the ship.
Seb climbed down the cold metal rungs, the space so enclosed it amplified his panicked breaths as he descended.
At the bottom of the ladder, Seb dropped into the large padded seat and gripped the two blaster handles to aim the gun behind them. The turret clung to the bottom of the ship as a transparent dome. Only just large enough for him, the vessel couldn’t have been native to the planet they’d just escaped from. No way would one of the ninja creatures fit into the space.
When Seb leaned left, the turret spun so quickly it made him dizzy. It did the same the other way when he leaned right to try to straighten it. With subtler movements than before, he gently encouraged the turret around so it faced the ships on their tail.
As he watched their enemies get closer, his heart on overdrive, Seb drew a deep breath to encourage everything to slow down around him.
A few seconds later nothing had changed other than the enemy ships had gotten closer. Everything moved at the same fast pace. So fast Seb saw their attackers as a blur.
Panic rose to the surface and Seb struggled to hold onto his composure. After he’d closed his eyes for a few seconds and took several more deep breaths, he opened them again, expecting the world to be slower. Nothing.
Spark’s voice came through the ship’s speakers, distorted from where she shouted down at him. “What are you doing, Seb? You’ve got to shoot at them.”
Seb shook and his heart fought to burst free from his chest. He squeezed the triggers on the cannon’s handles. The entire turret kicked with every shot and he struggled to hold it straight. Green lasers arced away from him through the darkness of space. They left traces behind them that showed how gloriously inaccurate his shots were.
“Come on, Seb, they’re getting closer.”
After a glance up at the speakers, Seb clenched his jaw and didn’t answer her. He held on to the cannon’s handles as he sent another barrage of shots out into space behind them. They missed by more than the first shots had.
A wipe of his brow did little to stem the flow of sweat and Seb flinched in his seat as the ships fired back. Their green lasers came much closer than his had, one of them running so near to him the bright glare of it left blobs of light in his vision.
Seb called on his ability again with another deep inhale and, if anything, the world around him seemed to speed up. “Come on,” he shouted as he squeezed the triggers for longer than before. His accuracy hadn’t improved.
The turret protruded from the ship, leaving Seb ready to be picked off like a rabbit poking its head from a hole. As that thought ran through his mind, another green bar of laser fire flared past him and he flinched away from it. “Not that flinching’s going to do anything.”
“Huh?” Sparks called through the ship’s intercom.
Seb didn’t reply.
“We won’t last long like this,” Sparks shouted.
Seb finally broke. “I know!” He gripped onto the handles of the gun, screamed at the top of his voice, and squeezed both triggers. The cannon shook and the turret spun left and right, spraying green fire out behind him with little accuracy.
Two bright explosions filled the sky behind them and Seb let go of the triggers. He released a relieved sigh to see two of the ships blown up, but a quick count showed him at least eight more remained on their tail.
The enemy had now gotten so close, Seb could see the yellow-eyed ninjas through the front screens of their ships. It ached his shoulders to keep the large cannon raised against the kick of each fire, but he did it and let off another wave in their direction. At least, he intended to let off another wave in their direction. The gun kicked and bucked, the laser spray utterly inaccurate as it raced away from him through the dark sky.
One ship gained on them quicker than the others. Chrome and shaped like an arrowhead, Seb watched its cannons glow as they charged.
“They’re locking onto us,” Sparks called to him.
Seb aimed his cannon, and just before he could squeeze the triggers, his target vanished from sight. Several more sharp turns and Sparks had shaken it from their tail.
“Seb, you need to do better. I can’t outmanoeuvre all of them.”
Seb didn’t reply. Sparks wouldn’t want to hear that he couldn’t do anything without his power. She didn’t even know about his power.
Two more ships came into view behind them. They sat side by side, both of their cannons glowing green with the charge of a fierce bolt.
The vibration th
rough the cannon blurred Seb’s vision as he sent more laser fire into the sky, but he missed by what felt like a mile. He slapped his palm against his head and shouted, “Damn it. Come on, Seb, get it together.” But it did nothing to slow his world down. However his ability worked, it didn’t work here.
“Seb! What’s going on? I can’t get away from them. Seb?”
The sound of Sparks’ voice added to the chaos in Seb’s mind and his thoughts spiraled. He let go of the cannon, covered his face with both hands, and pulled his knees up onto the seat.
Even though he had his hands over his face, Seb’s world lit up green seconds before the entire ship shook. A deep whoosh ran through the vessel from the impact of the cannons and the already hot turret turned molten in a second.
Several loud pops and rips and Seb’s sinuses filled with the reek of burning plastic. He then felt a tug on his body from the ship being torn apart, and bright light blinded him as he was dragged out into space.
Chapter 4
Still dazzled from the bright explosion, Seb rubbed his eyes as the lights in the simulator room came on, blinding him further. Although Sparks didn’t say anything, when he looked at her, he felt her disappointment and said, “I’m sorry.”
The small Thrystian batted the comment away with her long-fingered hand. Although she said the words, her eyes tightened at the edges and betrayed her sentiment. “It’s fine. Don’t worry about it.”
Wound even tighter by her response, Seb clenched his jaw. “It’s not fine. You did everything asked of you, if not more, and I screwed it up because I can’t shoot in a dogfight.”
Pity hung on Sparks’ features and she said nothing in response. Not that Seb could blame her; with his current frame of mind, any conversation with him would be a waste of time and a conduit for his self-loathing rage.
The Alpha Plague - Books 1 - 8: A Post-Apocalyptic Action Thriller Page 167