Custodian_Monster of Earth Book One

by Patrick F. Johnson

  “Sorry about the mess,” he said to the man.

  “That was close. These things are tougher than we expected.”

  “This batch is special. Are there any other survivors in here?” As he was finishing his question, another lizard appeared, looking especially hungry and trying to decide which man he wanted to eat. “Excuse me for a second,” Frank said. After a few fast moments, the Mingrein was laying face down in the hallway, with both of it's arms missing.

  “You must be the Gray Man. Everyone is inside that room. The door is reinforced. We were trying to guard the door.”

  “Mission accomplished. I'm sorry about your friends.”

  “Me too. But we knew what we were signing up for.”

  “I need your help. Is there an armory or something? I need to destroy that dome generator that's sitting in the front yard.”

  “Yes, you'll need this key card.” He produced the card and gave Frank directions to the room.

  “There's something else. I'll need you to operate whatever weapon I find.”

  “I can't leave my post.”

  “Gladys, can you look around and see if there's any more Mingrein?”

  “Yes. I'll be back shortly.”

  After she left, Frank was trying to think of a way to get the man to help him. “The name's Frank,” he said, smiling.

  The man gave him a look and then said, “I'm Phil.”

  “Great name. One of my best friends is named Phil.”

  “You don't say.”

  “You're secret service, right?”

  “Yes.”

  “So are you all always so serious?”

  “In case you haven't noticed, there is an alien invasion.”

  “I'm aware. Wait until you see the mess I left out front. Speaking of out front, what's in that room?” Frank pointed to the door across the hall.

  “A bunch of old dusty furniture.”

  “So there's a window that looks out front, right?”

  “Yes, I believe so.”

  Gladosanthos returned to report her findings. “Two more Mingrein downstairs. It seems to be clear of Rotinoms though.”

  “Okay. Do me a favor and wait with Phil here. Holler if you need me.”

  “How about I just vibrate your bracelet instead?”

  “That works. Be right back.” He took off toward the stairs.

  The secret service guard stood staring at the orb. Sweat was running off of his forehead. She opted to not speak.

  Frank hit the main floor running and ran around looking for reptiles to kill. When he found them, they were eating what appeared to be a cook. They didn't see him coming and he made quick work of them. He ran back the other way to locate the armory room. He ran right by it at first and had to backtrack more slowly before he finally found it. He swiped the key card and the door opened to reveal a stash of weapons that the Wrecking Crew would have been jealous of. He grabbed an RPG and closed the door behind him. He found the stairs again and ran up them and into the hall.

  “Hey, look what I found!” he said with a smile.

  “Didn't you need that out front?” the guard asked.

  “Here's the deal. I can't fire it. I have this bullet-proof shield that doesn't let me fire weapons.”

  “I heard you were bullet-proof. I guess that explains the sword.”

  “Yup. If I stay here and watch this door for you, do you think you could go in that room, open the window, and use this to blow up that generator? I mean, it's right out front there.”

  He thought about it for a second. “Do you promise not to leave until I get back?”

  “Dude, it's just right there! I won't move. I promise!”

  “Okay then. You know, I've always wanted to shoot one of these.” He opened the door and after scanning the room quickly, disappeared inside. Frank could hear the window raising. A short time later he heard the weapon firing and then the ensuing explosion. “Yeah! That was fucking awesome!” Secret Service Phil returned to his post, with his serious expression back on his face as if nothing had happened. “Direct hit, Frank.” They could feel the temperature dropping almost immediately.

  “Thanks, buddy. We're going to go mop up outside until the cavalry arrives.”

  * * *

  Robert Jones found himself ankle deep in the most disgusting substance he'd ever encountered. Making his way to the next grate, he peered out to see his target, a Mingrein turtle with a medium sized dome generator on top of it. It was a tricky operation, as the four pods had spread out about a hundred yards in each direction from the intersection that the main vessel had settled down in to. He directed one of his underlings to take up position in the grate directly across the street, so they could catch the two backpackers in a cross fire so that Smitty, a brave young private, could launch his grenade at the generator. Three lizards were standing there, talking and laughing, as if they didn't have a care in the world. They assumed everything was under control and they had already won the day. He had given Smitty five minutes to get into position. Then he was going to open fire, which was going to be the signal for his counterpart to open fire. That is when Smitty was to launch. Unfortunately, Smitty was unable to budge the sewer cover that he had planned on firing from. So instead, he quickly found an operable one and emerged and quickly hid in an alley. Jones looked at his watch, said a quiet prayer to himself, and opened fire. The man across the street was just a second behind and they cut the backpackers to shreds before turning their attention to the startled Mingrein. He had instructed his underling to aim for the neck and soon they had all three aliens dead on the ground. Smitty jumped out from the alley, aimed and fired. The shot found it's target and the ship exploded. But the Rotinoms from the pod directly behind Smitty opened up on him and cut him down.

  That hit Robert Jones pretty hard. He had never lost a man who was under his direct command before, and it shook him to his core. He barely even knew the kid, but he found himself wondering about his family, all as he himself was still in great peril. As the air cleared above, the snipers took over and cleaned up the remaining aliens on the streets. Jones and his remaining men met back up and made their way to their next target.

  “We got 'em,” he reported into his headset.

  “Great job, Jones,” Dave replied.

  “We lost a man though. He was forced to improvise and got himself shot.”

  “I'm sorry to hear that. But that's what we're here for. This war actually means something, unlike the bullshit they usually have us do.”

  “You always have that silver lining, Sarge.”

  “You gotta in this business. Hey, watch out for grays in the sewers.”

  “Noted. Out.”

  * * *

  Frank was walking around collecting shuriken from the heads of the eight Rotinom he'd just killed when the first of the soldiers finally showed up.

  “Sergeant Ted Larson,” one introduced himself.

  “I'm Frank. This is Gladys.” He was using the pathetic little uniform of a dead Rotinom to try to clean the blood off of his throwing stars.

  “The Gray Man! Excellent. Did you see much action just now?” Frank could tell he was new to the position as he looked around, gesturing towards his handiwork.

  “You did all of this? By yourself?”

  “No. Gladys helped.”

  “All you have is a sword and those Chinese stars?”

  “Actually, they're Japanese shuriken.” Frank looked at one and noticed it had 'Made in Taiwan' stamped on it. He decided not to mention it. “So, what's our status here?”

  “It looks like they shut off their dome and ran for the hills.”

  Frank gestured toward the mangled generator.

  “Oh, you shut off the dome?”

  “Actually, Secret Service Phil upstairs there did that. Now I owe him a favor. So, send a couple of guys up there to relieve him in case he needs to take a piss or something, okay?”

  “Will do.” He gestured at a couple of soldiers and pointed to the
White House.

  “So they're bugging out then?”

  “Yes, any ship that was still flyable took off. There were a couple of the larger ships in a residential area not too far from here.”

  “What? Shit! Excuse me, I need to make a phone call.” He pulled out his phone, found the number, and hit send. He put the phone on speaker, just because he felt like showing off a bit in front of this newbie sergeant.

  “Hello, Frank?” the voice answered from the phone.

  “Yes, Mr. President. I'm standing right outside your house. Nice place.”

  “I am in a safe place.”

  “Good. Hey, I made a mess in your kitchen. And front room. Foyer. Upstairs hall. A few more places I don't know how to describe.”

  “Don't worry about that, Frank.”

  “Oh, and your front yard is a total wreck too.”

  “No worries. Were there many casualties?”

  “Yes, sir, unfortunately.”

  “I understand the aliens shot everything down that we threw at them.”

  “Yes sir. That in turn delayed the arrival of the ground troops. So I had one of your guys help me blow up the dome generator. That's what ran them off.”

  “Excellent.”

  “Secret Service Phil from upstairs. He deserves a medal. Or a raise. Or something.”

  “I'll make a note of that.”

  “One more thing. Senator Spears is a cabalist.”

  “Horace? Are you sure?”

  “Yes. He tried to kill me. We have footage.”

  “I'll alert the FBI.”

  “Cool. I'm heading out. I'm pretty sure Groll is joining his troops up in New York City.”

  “Good hunting, Frank.”

  25.

  Frank raised into the boat. The automech was still parked next to the hatch. Frank patted it and said, “Nice job,” before removing his shirt, lowering his varitherm suit, and heading for the refresher room. He found a mirror that Denise had left, looked in it and exclaimed, “I look like shit!” He then allowed the mechanisms to clean him. They were extra abrasive due to all the dried blood. “Can we program these things to give me a shave?” he asked.

  “I can't guarantee how gentle they would be,” Gladys replied.

  “Yeah. Well maybe not then.” Satisfied with his quick scrub down, Frank raised his suit back up to neck level and grabbed a fresh t-shirt. “My favorite hoodie is trashed.”

  “Phildan laundered your second favorite and put it in your room.”

  “Thank you, dear.” Frank located the hoodie and quickly put it on. He double checked his knives and filled his shuriken pouches before grabbing two fresh swords. “Sweetie, have you seen my headset?”

  “It's on the floor by the couch.” She was absolutely loving the pet names.

  “I'd be lost without you.” He put the headset on. “Where are we, Gladys?”

  “We've been here for a while. I've been waiting on you to get ready.”

  “Oh. Sorry.” Then speaking into the headset he said, “Dave, do you copy?”

  Dave's voice came through. “Hey Frank. What kept you?”

  “Well, you remember those first generation Mingrein that Bett was telling us about?”

  “Yeah. He said they are pretty tough.”

  “They were tough.”

  “Damn. How many did you get?”

  “I lost count. So, what's your status?”

  “Jones and I split up down low. Chavez is covering me from above. Potts is covering Jones. We all have a handful of men under our supervision. So far we've only lost one man and we have taken out four domes.”

  “Not bad, Dave. How many does that leave?”

  “Twenty-three, I believe.”

  “Just got word another dome just went up, a big one,” Jones interjected.

  “That would be Groll. He got a head start on us. Where are you guys now?”

  “North edge. We've fanned out and are working our way south,” Dave replied.

  “Okay. I'll start south and work my way north. I'll see you guys in the center.”

  “Now it's on!” Chavez chimed in.

  To Gladosanthos, he asked, “Are you ready, my dear?”

  “Yes, of course. But you should grab a couple of extra remotes for me, just in case this one gets shot or something. I'm putting the boat far away.”

  * * *

  Frank took note that all the domes were in areas of the city that were dense with buildings. He picked a spot just south of the first dome and dropped down right into the middle of the street. He began jogging into the dome with the orb following close behind him. Visibility was very poor but he could hear small arms fire off in the distance. He picked up the pace and found two policemen pinned down behind their cruiser. The car was riddled with tiny bullet holes.

  “Hey guys, what's up?”

  “Get down!” one officer shouted.

  “Nah, I'm good. Where are they shooting from?”

  “Down the street that way.” He pointed in the direction opposite from where they were hiding.

  “I guess that was a stupid question. Give me a minute.” He ran up the street and the officers could hear some clanging sounds, and a few grunts, and then silence. Frank came running back through the fog to ask, “Hey, you guys got anything that I can bust up that dome generator with?”

  “There's an AR-15 in the trunk,” the second officer said.

  “No good. I'll have to improvise. When the dome goes down, this fog should clear out pretty fast. Be on the lookout for stragglers.” Frank was gone before they had a chance to ask who he was.

  Frank was back to the Mingrein vessel in a flash and was looking around for something with which to break the generator. The only thing he could find was a great blade that he procured from one of the dead lizards. He grabbed it and climbed up the freighter's sloped window. Once on top, he began to wail on the box with the blade. It was having very little effect at first until Frank got mad. He then punctured the box with a powerful stabbing motion. Electric current shot into him and blew him backwards off the top of the ship. He landed on his back in the middle of the street and just laid there.

  “Frank! Are you alright?” Gladosanthos asked with a great deal of concern.

  “Yeah. Luckily, the pavement broke my fall.” He stood up, shaking off the incident. He looked around to see the dome coming down before continuing, “That sucked. Remind me not to do that again.”

  “Believe that I will!”

  “Okay, next dome. Lead the way, please.”

  He followed her closely as she zigzagged up and over for a couple of blocks before he saw a new wall of fog. He stopped so he could listen for a second before charging in. He heard no gunfire so he prepared his shuriken. Using his left hand to hold both his sword and two shuriken, he had another in his right hand, ready to let fly. It found it's way into the skull of an unsuspecting Rotinom as Frank ran by it. He moved another over to his right hand and released it in the direction of a backpacker that was waiting for a target to appear. Hearing the sound of it hitting the ground behind him, Frank found what he was looking for. Three Mingrein were standing next to another, smaller freighter, and Frank's third shuriken found the middle lizard's face. It half way embedded itself diagonally right between the monster's eyes. Landing on it's face, the lizard drove it the rest of the way in. Frank was upon the other two before they had a chance to get their guns aimed. He cut the gun hand off the first before beheading the second and then turning back and beheading the first.

  “What if I hold one of their guns like real far out and try shooting the generator?”

  “I wouldn't risk it. Your velocity shield seems to fluctuate it's size more than normal.”

  “Oh. I thought that was normal.”

  “Not at all.”

  “Okay, so I won't bother with it then.” He looked around and spotted a man hole cover. “I have an idea.” He grabbed it out of its seat and carried it over to the ship. “This isn't going to be easy.” He
managed to clamber up the front with one hand while holding the cover in the other. Once he was standing near the box, he picked up the cover and half-threw, half-dropped it onto the box. After half a dozen attempts the dome came down and they were on their way to the next. Dave's voice came through the headset.

  “Status everyone.”

  “Setting up for our third over here. Waiting on Potts and his men to get into position.”

  “Good,” Dave replied. “We're setting up for our fourth now. How are you doing Frank?”

  “Two down. Heading to number three.”

  “Two already! Told you!” Chavez was happy to have Frank's help.

  * * *

  Frank was running up one street when he saw a group of young men standing in the street, trying to get a view of the action. “You guys need to get somewhere safe!” he shouted as he ran by.

  “Yeah, fuck you!” one of the guys shouted in response.

  To Gladosanthos Frank said, “And that right there is why I never wanted to visit New York City.”

  * * *

  For the next several domes Frank decided it was easier to just trick the backpackers into shooting the generators. He reached up under his shirt and hoodie and lowered his varitherm suit to down around he waist. The Rotinoms began targeting his body heat and from that point on all he had to do was make his way to the top of whatever vessel and simply duck behind the box that housed the generator. Then after the dome dropped he would take out the backpackers. He'd begun to use his sword more for that task as he wanted to conserve his supply of shuriken.

  He eventually made his way to the center dome, which was immense. It was a newer dome, so it hadn't yet fogged up all the way. Gladosanthos was leading him toward the center and they were only slowing down long enough for Frank to slay whatever species of alien invader that happened to be in his path. He turned the corner and could see Groll's landing craft off in the distance.

  “Five bucks says he takes off before I can get to him.”

  “I can't take that bet. I don't carry cash on me.”