"Yes?" Ryan said, looking at the two people as if they had fallen from the sky.
The state troopers settled for a moment and they too looked at the couple, who seemed to have just stepped off the elevator from hell.
The man cleared his throat and looked from Ryan to the staring state troopers. Dills and his partner had a vague memory of helping these people change a tire last night.
"I would like to report an... an... an accident," the man said haltingly.
The woman rolled her eyes. "Accident my ass, Harold," Grace Tracy declared a little too calmly. She looked from her husband to Ryan, staring at him, and without blinking said, "Our camper was hit by a monster in the desert and tipped over, and I want to know what you are going to do about it, young man?" Her eyes were wide, moving from Ryan to the state troopers.
Ryan and most of the troopers blinked under the woman's maniacal glare.
"Well, are you going to do something about it, huh... huh?"
Ryan was just going to ask her to give a report to one of the state cops when he heard yelling and screaming coming from the center of town. As he watched, people broke out running from the Broken Cactus in a steady stream. Someone even threw a chair out the big plate-glass window in the front, followed quickly by people jumping through the empty frame, some knocking others down in their frenzy to get out of the Broken Cactus. Ryan stared for just a moment at the strange spectacle before him. Then he shook himself and started running toward the center of town, quickly followed by his men, and then, drawing sidearms and yanking shotguns from their patrol cars, the state troopers came.
Harold and Grace Tracy decided they had dropped back into Chato's Crawl at a bad time. Only one thing ran through Harold's mind as they turned away from the horrible scene once again unfolding around them in the very place they had had lunch the previous day. He really regretted not having gone to Colorado to visit his sister-in-law.
***
Julie didn't realize the attacks had started until the floor exploded under her. The music had been playing loudly, but not loud enough to cover the ear-shattering crack of the flooring as it exploded upward into the milling crowd of reporters. Screams sent chills down Julie's spine as the crowd parted and she saw people being pulled down into the now missing floor of the diner.
Tomlinson reached over the bar and shoved Julie to the left as the part of planking she was standing on cracked and splintered. She screamed and moved quickly around the bar.
Suddenly, a dark, nightmarish form jumped from the hole behind the bar and roared, sending the featherlike armor plates lining its neck and head outward from its body. The crowd around the bar stared in shock and added their screams to that of the creature. The beast was about eight feet in height with shimmering thick, black hair that caught the light streaming in through the window. The claws were huge, and they came down and sank into the mahogany bar and snapped the three-inch-thick hardened wood as if it were made of balsa. The green eyes fixed on them, its mouth opened, and claw-tipped mandibles parted to show three rows of sharklike teeth. The ears were sharply pointed over a snout that was huge and curved off into the jawline with bunched muscles. The thick brow was covered in sharp points of protruding plate that highlighted its terrible eyes. The tail, its barbed stinger dripping venom, shot forward and missed Tomlinson by an inch as he fell back into Julie and they both tumbled to the floor.
"Run!" he shouted at Julie, who was busy pushing herself out from under his weight and scooting backward on her ass. She didn't need to be told by any stranger to get the hell out of there.
With lightning speed he pulled a hidden pistol from somewhere on his body and started firing at the beast, which had deftly jumped to the bar and was ready to spring. The huge head swayed left and right, surveying the area for threats; the armor plates around the neck were now relaxed and swayed with the movement like a large headdress. Out of ten bullets fired, one missed and five hit the thickest chest armor of the animal and ricocheted off. But then the next four of the Frenchman's shots found a weak spot in both its eyes. The nightmare roared again and swiped at its assailant, missing him by mere inches. Its momentum carried it over and off the bar and crashing to the floor. As it hit, two huge claws of another yet unseen animal burst through the wood and tile and grasped the dying beast and pulled it under with a sickening crunch.
Tomlinson quickly turned over and gained his feet, picking Julie up on the way out of the slaughterhouse.
"What in the hell was it?" Julie screamed.
He turned and pulled Julie close and yelled, "Just get the hell out of here. I have to find my men."
As he was shouting at the woman, the crowd started pouring out of the Broken Cactus, pushing the two apart and carrying Julie away outside.
In the kitchen another of the creatures burst through the flooring and black and white tile went flying. When he realized what was going on, Hal quickly grabbed the first weapon he could, a large, lethal cleaver, and he immediately went on the attack. As he moved forward, Tony stepped in his way with an armful of hamburger patties just retrieved from the freezer. Hal pushed a wide-eyed Tony into the large walk-in refrigerator and quickly swung it closed, saving Tony and making more room to fight.
The beast circled the big ex-marine. Saliva dripped from its mandibles as it clicked its huge claws together. The green eyes looked into those of the man who had the nerve to confront it and glared in all hunger. The tail was constantly swinging in quick arcs behind it, and once every few seconds its stinger would stab into the stainless steel countertop, sounding like a gunshot and leaving a clean hole dripping with a bluish green liquid. The feet were large and they too scratched the black-and-white-checkered floor with curving claws. The weight of the beast must have been tremendous, Hal saw, because every step it took cracked and separated the tile and broke wooden beams beneath its feet.
"Come on, fuckhead, you want some of this, come and get it! Come on, Charlie, get some."
The beast bent at the waist, roared, and charged the cook, head down.
"Oops, fucked up!" Hal screamed as he quickly sidestepped to the right, allowing the animal to barely graze him on its way past. He quickly brought the cleaver up and brought it down again with all the strength he could muster. The blade sank deeply into the shoulder of the refugee from a B movie.
The animal roared and turned, its momentum slinging the cleaver from its back. It sprang quickly onto Hal. The man punched with his fist as the animal sank its teeth into his shoulder. Hal screamed and started to gouge at the animal's right eye. The beast roared and jumped high into the air while still holding the big man and dove into the hole it had entered from. Hal was quick enough to grab a large, sword-like butcher knife from the counter as he fell into oblivion.
Kashihara couldn't believe what he was seeing from the Ice Cream Parlor. He had just arrived and was shooting a spot he might or might not use when he got back to Phoenix. The old woman, Gail Ketchum, was good color, slamming the army for driving off her business. That was when he heard the screaming coming from the place they had just left. What kind of luck is this? he thought as he and his cameraman ran to the front window.
"You getting this?" he asked.
"You bet."
Ken turned when he heard a noise behind him.
"Thanks, ma'am, we'll get back to you in a--"
That was as far as his words got. As he turned, there was the old woman, mouthing words that could never be voiced because she was being held in one clawed hand of something Kashihara knew had nothing to do with any brucellosis outbreak. The beast squeezed the old woman and stared right into Ken's eyes. He was watching the animal and at the same time reaching and slapping for his cameraman to turn around. As he did, the camera almost slipped from his hands, and he stared in terror at what was happening behind him.
The animal roared and raised the old woman higher, then wrapped her into its other claw, as if protecting its catch from the two terrified men.
Kashihara was ho
lding on to his cameraman for all he was worth when out of the corner of his eye he saw men and women breaking for the helicopters outside.
"I think we have enough to go on!" he shouted as he broke for the front door, quickly followed by the cameraman, who was now dragging the Minicam by its strap.
"It better be enough because I quit!"
Ryan and the twenty troopers around him watched as soldiers and civilians alike were pulled into the ground, and their jaws went slack when the first animal made its appearance.
The beast turned as it sprang from the hole and landed ten feet in front of the shocked men. The tail was swinging as rapidly as a rattlesnake as the animal blinked in the bright sunlight. It then bent at the waist and jumped into the air. The gathered men watched in horror as it traveled at least 130 feet into the blue sky, coming down right in the middle of the troopers.
Screams filled the air as the beast started swiping at the men. Entrails spilled out of open wounds as the sharp claws grazed midsections. Pistol shots started almost as quickly, and as soon as the attack had started, it seemed to end as the animal dove back into the earth screaming and taking one of the state troopers with it.
"That's what got my brother!" Dills screamed.
Their attention was diverted as a helicopter with a big blue 4 painted on its side started to lift off from a clearing just out of town. Two men and at least one woman were hanging on to the skids of the Bell Ranger.
The helicopter slowly rose and started a slow turn to the northwest, toward Phoenix. The Bell Ranger was two hundred feet up and it looked as if they would make it when suddenly the ground erupted in front of Ryan and the troopers. Three of the strange animals roared as they cleared the soil. It was as if they had been shot from cannon.
Ryan and the others almost lost their balance from the impact the animals had on the roadway. They watched in astonishment as the three creatures, dirt and sand trailing them like rocket exhaust, shot upward. One slammed the helicopter low and grabbed the right skid, pulling a well-dressed woman free and dropping her screaming toward the earth, while another crashed into the side window, punching through to the interior. The last of the three slammed into the whirling rotors. The impact shattered them like glass, sending pieces flying out over the town. The helicopter started to autorotate with the stubs of its rotors, but instead of its automatically circling and spinning as its designers intended, because it no longer had the full length of its rotors, it came down like a rock. It hit the center of Main Street and burst into flames with a loud whump. The state troopers and soldiers watched in horror as the animal that had crashed into the interior burst from the flaming helicopter in flames, a man screaming and also on fire held in its clutches. The beast roared in pain and shock, its strange armor smoldering as it ran for a hole and jumped into it, taking the screaming man with it.
Soldiers of the 101st Airborne were firing automatic weapons in isolated pockets all over the small town. Amid the shooting were the louder screams of the people as they tried to get away from the attack.
"Come on," Ryan yelled to the troopers. "We have to try and get these people away from here and set up some kind of defense."
"How in the fuck are we going to fight these things?" Dills screamed back.
Ryan looked around, then had a thought, a quick moment of clarity. "The roofs!" he screamed. "Get these people to the roofs of these buildings... now!"
The Blackhawk was in the air just two minutes after Ryan had made the frantic radio call. Other Blackhawks were coming in from the crash site bringing more troops onto the scene.
"What did the lieutenant say, Major?" asked Mendenhall, screaming over the roar of the helicopter.
"All hell's broken loose, they've sustained a lot of casualties, both civilian and military." Collins looked from the sergeant to Sam Fielding. "He said they've been overrun."
Mahjtic and Gus exchanged glances. The small alien sat next to Billy, who was looking out the side window.
"Your mama will be alright," Gus said, watching the boy.
Billy turned and looked at the old man, then at the Matchstick man. His eyes were all that were needed to express his feelings about what could be happening to his mother. The small alien closed its eyes, the vibes making clearly evident where responsibility lay for the nightmare around them.
As the helicopter approached town, it was joined by six more of the Blackhawks that had been sent from the 103rd Special Aviation Battalion out of Fort Hood, Texas. It made them feel a little easier knowing they were packed with airborne troops from the crash site, leaving the crash site with a skeleton security force, which Collins didn't like.
"Look at that!" Fielding said, pointing out the window.
Below was a sight that amazed them all. Ryan had managed to gather the remaining survivors and get them safely to the rooftops of the town's buildings. The townspeople, three or four surviving reporters, state troopers, and only a few soldiers were high on the large steel awning of the Texaco station, the remains of the hardware store, which sat at a crazy angle after most of it had collapsed into the ground, and even on the flat and false-fronted roof of the Broken Cactus. More soldiers were on the flat roofs of the Ice Cream Parlor and Snake Farm. These were also firing into the trenches that surrounded all of the buildings.
"Jesus Christ, it looks like Custer's last stand!" Fielding yelled.
The firing had ceased, and the' town lay quiet. The troops were now deployed around the buildings, but the activity of the animals had ceased. There had been no attacks for the last ten minutes. Still Collins had M60 machine guns placed on each of the buildings in case the animals returned.
"Report, Mr. Ryan," Collins said as he gained the roof of the Broken Cactus.
Ryan, looking dirty and bloody, stepped forward, holstering his nine millimeter as he did. He looked a lot older than he had this morning.
"We lost at least ten state troopers." He cleared his throat and looked around and lowered his voice. "Twenty-five or thirty of the airborne troops, we haven't had a chance to count yet, but I think I've only counted ten or so left." He looked at Fielding, who just clenched his teeth. "They fought like hell, Colonel, trying to get these people to safety. The state men also, they didn't die for nothing. God, Jack, maybe twenty or twenty-five civilians were taken in the first assault, mostly the remaining reporters, and... it's just a god-awful mess."
Fielding removed his sunglasses and harshly rubbed his eyes. He turned from the devastation of the town and slapped Ryan on the shoulder. "Isn't much like the navy, is it, son?"
Ryan lowered his eyes and shook his head.
Billy was standing behind Collins and shifted positions looking at the faces of the survivors, and that was when he saw his mother. She was treating one of the soldiers leaning against the building's waist-high false front.
"Mom!" he screamed, and ran into her arms.
Julie reacted immediately to her son's voice and gently laid the soldier's head against the wall and ran to her son.
"Oh, God, I was so worried about you, baby, are you alright?" she asked, crushing him into her chest.
Gus, who was carrying Mahjtic under a sheet he had removed from his cot, smiled. The small being mentally felt the relief flood through the old man.
"What about these animals?" Collins asked, unzipping the vest armor from his chest, letting in some needed air.
Ryan looked from his boss to Sam Fielding, then reached over and patted Billy on his head. He looked into Julie's eyes a moment, seeing the relief she was expressing because she had been near a panic during the operation to get everyone up top. Then he looked back at Collins.
"They're straight out of a fucking nightmare, Major. Fast, strong, and you're damn lucky the freakish bastards stopped their attack and went away, because these sons of bitches can jump. They took down one of the news choppers from almost two hundred feet." Ryan stepped closer and whispered to Collins and Fielding so Billy couldn't hear. "They're definitely eating the ones they tak
e, Major, we all saw it."
The White House, Washington, D.C.
July 9, 15.00 Hours
The hookup between Washington, Event Group Center, and Chato's Crawl had been hot for the last ten minutes. Niles was holding his own against the top military leaders of the country in defending the actions of the 101st and his ground teams.
"As I stated, Mr. President, there was nothing that could have been done to change the outcome of this first engagement. The animals hit us while the ground teams were still in the process of evaluating the situation." Niles paused for a moment. "The tunnel assault elements are being organized now."
The president turned to face the director of the CIA and air force general Max Hardesty, chairman of the Joint Chiefs.
"Okay, I'm sticking with Compton and his team as to recommendations on how to fight these things. Now, and most importantly, Operation Orion will only be ordered as a last resort. Understand, gentlemen, no nukes unless you have my specific authorization."
All the directors of the national security staff nodded their compliance.
"Now, what does Major Collins need to"--the president held a finger up--"one, rescue all the civilians in that town?" He held up another finger. "Two, what equipment can we rush in there to help fight these damn things?" Then he held up a third finger. "And number three, what course, other than nuclear weapons, can we use to contain these things if they escape the valley?"
General Hardesty stood and went to a large back-projected map of the western United States.
"Mr. President, we have brought in elements of the Seventh Aviation Battalion from Fort Carson, Colorado. They just arrived on-site." Hardesty drew a line down from Colorado to Arizona. The plasma in the screen reacted to his finger, and a red line traveled the length of the map from Colorado to the Superstitions. "We will have ten Apache gunships on station in a little over an hour. They will provide cover for the four MH-53J Pave Low Ills that have just arrived from MacDill in Florida. They will be used to airlift the civilians from the town. Collins and Sam have come up with a plan to lift them directly from the building rooftops. The Pave Low is basically a huge flying gun platform with large enough cargo facilities. We believe four will be enough to evacuate all collateral personnel out of the town."
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