This Town Is a Nightmare

by M. K. Krys

  “Grandma?” Arthur said from behind him. He stumbled out of the hatch and stepped forward slowly, his mouth slack. Everleigh, their dad, and Daisy pushed out after him.

  “Arthur!” His grandma lowered her weapon. “I had a feeling you were back when Beacon broke into the house the other night and stole your medications.” She pulled Arthur into a tight hug, pressing her cheek into the top of his head. Meanwhile, Arthur just stood there, his arms flat against his sides, too stunned to react.

  “You knew about that?” Beacon said.

  “The whole of Driftwood Harbor knew about that. You came in like a bull in a china shop. You would have been caught if I hadn’t distracted Nurse Allen.”

  “That was you who made that noise?” Beacon said.

  “Okay, what is going on?” Arthur said. “Grams, what are you doing here?” He took in his grandma’s dark green fatigues, her shiny black boots, and the black paint smeared under her eyes. “Why do you have a gun? How come you’re out of bed?”

  “We have a lot to talk about,” his grandma said. “But right now, we need to get out of here, if those footsteps are what I think they are.” She shucked her backpack, then began digging through its contents, urgently taking out items.

  Everleigh raised her baton.

  “Oh, for heaven’s sake, put that down before you hurt yourself,” Arthur’s grandma said. “And you might want to back away from that hatch if you value your eyebrows.” She jumped up suddenly and shouted, “Fire in the hole!” She threw something at the hatch.

  There was a mad scramble, right before an explosion sounded. The hatch ignited in a fiery ball. The noise reverberated through the woods like a thunderclap. Beacon coughed, backing away from the billowing flames.

  “Everyone okay?” Arthur’s grandma asked.

  Beacon searched through the smoke. Arthur was still staring at his grandma like she’d sprouted a beak and feathers. Everleigh fanned smoke out of her face, and Daisy stared at the dwindling fire with her mouth twisted in a horrified expression. Meanwhile, his dad just stood there like a mindless lemming. It was hard to be relieved that he was safe when he was barely a shell of a human.

  “What did you do that for?” Everleigh cried.

  But the answer to that soon became clear.

  The hatch was destroyed. What was once a metal door was now a pile of rubble. Victor and the guards would need to dig their way out to get to them, or else circle back through the queen’s room.

  “That’ll hold them off for a while, but we better get out of here.” Arthur’s grandma hitched her backpack onto her shoulders. She stopped suddenly, spotting Daisy.

  “Oh, this is Daisy,” Arthur said.

  “She’s . . . a friend of a friend,” Beacon added lamely.

  But Arthur’s grandma ignored them.

  “I recognize that necklace,” she said, stepping toward Daisy.

  Daisy clasped the jewel at her throat protectively and backed up.

  “What do you know about the necklace?” Everleigh asked.

  “It’s the source of power for all of the Sovereign, of course,” Arthur’s grandma said easily, as if it were obvious.

  “What?!” Beacon, Everleigh, and Arthur shrieked together.

  “A little louder,” Daisy whispered sarcastically. “I don’t think the people at the back heard you.”

  “What does that even mean?” Beacon said.

  “Why didn’t Galen tell us about this?” Everleigh said.

  “Yeah, that’s a pretty big thing to leave out,” Arthur said.

  “We can talk about everything later,” Arthur’s grandma said. “All that matters right now is that we get out of here before Driftwood Harbor’s finest show up. Now kindly give me some space so I can hog-tie the queen.”

  “What?” Daisy cried.

  But the old lady was fast. Before they knew it, Daisy was bound and gagged.

  “Can’t have you running away on us, now can we?” Arthur’s grandma said with a cheery smile. “All right, let’s go. Up and at ’em!”

  She motioned with her hand, and the group stumbled into action.

  Beacon had no idea what was going on. He half wondered if he was asleep, and this was all a fever dream.

  Arthur’s grandma moved silently through the forest. Barely a twig snapped as she frog-marched the queen between the trees. Meanwhile, the kids tripped and blundered through the pines.

  “Where are we going?” Beacon asked. But Arthur’s grandma only pressed her finger to her lips and picked up her pace. An uncomfortable feeling wormed through Beacon’s body. She was Arthur’s grandma. She’d saved them from Victor and the Sov guards just now. But why had she been in the woods in the first place? Why did she have weapons and bomb supplies?

  Everleigh must have been thinking the same thing, because she grabbed Beacon’s arm and fell back from the group.

  “I don’t like this,” she whispered.

  “Me neither,” Beacon replied.

  “I say we bail,” she said. “Get back to Galen.”

  “What about Arthur? No way he’s going to leave his grandma.”

  Arthur loped alongside his grandma as she led the charge through the woods, nary a limp in her step. Beacon shivered. Either she’d been miraculously cured of all of her health issues overnight, or she’d been lying to everyone. Either way, he wasn’t sure he could trust her.

  “We can’t leave Arthur,” Beacon said. “And what about Daisy? Arthur’s grandma’s not just going to let us take the Sov queen with us. You saw how she reacted when she saw her necklace.”

  “There’s something really weird about that thing,” Everleigh said, looking ahead at Daisy tripping and stumbling through the woods. “The necklace legit wouldn’t come off, and you saw how thin the chain was. It should have snapped easily.”

  “We have to find out what she knows,” Beacon said. “Besides, this is Galen’s friend. We can’t ditch her with Arthur’s grandma after everything he’s done to help us. We don’t know if we can trust her.”

  “We don’t even know if we can trust Galen right now,” Everleigh shot back. “Why didn’t he tell us Daisy was the queen? Or that she had some freak necklace that powers his whole species?”

  “Would you advertise that?” Beacon said. “I mean, come on. It’s like painting a target on their back. If what Arthur’s grandma said is true and it’s the source of all their power, it would be the easy way to wipe them all out. Just destroy the necklace and BAM.”

  Beacon mimed an explosion with his hands.

  Everleigh’s eyes widened. “Actually, that’s a really great idea . . .”

  “No, it’s not,” Beacon said. “Remember what happened when you tried to take it off her? She said it’s a part of her. You’d have to kill her.”

  Everleigh shrugged.

  “You don’t mean that,” Beacon said. “We’re not like them. We don’t just go around killing innocent people.”

  “Who said she’s innocent?” Everleigh countered.

  “She’s Galen’s friend,” Beacon reminded her.

  Arthur’s grandma turned around then, squinting at them in the dark. Everleigh huffed and trudged forward.

  They walked in silence. After a while, Beacon realized it had started to snow. It began with a few wet snowflakes gently dancing in the breeze, melting as soon as they touched Beacon’s skin. Then the air turned crisper, the wind picked up, and snow blew in icy gusts, coating everything in white. Beacon’s body locked up tight, making his skin shrivel under his jacket. He’d never felt so helpless. He was freezing and he was wearing a jacket. He couldn’t imagine how cold his dad must be in his tattered clothes and bare feet.

  “Are we almost there?” Beacon asked Arthur’s grandma. “He can’t go much farther like this.”

  “We’re close,” she said.

 
Beacon didn’t see an end in sight.

  Just when he thought the weather couldn’t get worse, a gust of cold air swept through the forest. In moments, a gale-force wind roared through the trees. Beacon ducked, right before a branch flew through the place his head had just been.

  “Get low!” Arthur’s grandma called.

  They crouched down on the snow-coated forest floor. Beacon gulped for air, but the wind blew into his face so viciously, it knocked his breath out of rhythm, like when you put your head outside the window of a fast-moving car. What was going on?

  Through a gap in the trees, Beacon saw the glint of metal against the charcoal sky above a large clearing up ahead. At first, he thought he was seeing things. Or maybe that the wind had picked something up. Then more and more metal came into view, and a ship materialized. Not just one ship, he realized. A whole fleet. They hovered in the air over the clearing, blotting out the light of the moon.

  “Is it the military?” Beacon asked, even though he didn’t think that was quite right. The ships were a little too angular, a little too sleek, like what a fighter jet might look like a hundred years from now.

  Arthur’s grandma shook her head, erasing any doubts about what these were. Alien ships.

  That’s what had been causing the wind.

  Beacon felt the blood drain from his head. Hundreds of UFOs. This was worse than he’d imagined. Way worse.

  One by one, the ships began lowering to the ground in the clearing.

  Arthur’s grandma pressed a finger to her lips, then motioned with her head to keep moving. She hoisted Daisy to her feet with shocking agility and pushed through the forest.

  The group forged ahead through the raging wind. Beacon could hardly see, let alone see where they were going. Before he knew it, a barn took shape. Beacon almost let out a cry of relief.

  “Help me with this,” Arthur’s grandma said, slinging her gun across her back. Arthur ran up to help his grandma slide back the giant iron bolt on the barn doors, then they all filed inside. The wind stopped abruptly as the doors were pulled closed behind them. The barn was dark, save for the pale moonlight that struggled through the cracks in the wood. Beacon could just make out a ladder rising to a loft filled with hay. The smell of musty fur and animal droppings clung in the air.

  Someone turned on a light, and Beacon shielded his eyes from the sudden brightness. He turned around to check out the place and yelped when he was met with a pair of huge black eyes. A giant gelding hung its head over the side of a wooden pen. It pawed the door impatiently, then whinnied, ears pricked and tail swishing. Beacon backed away from the pen, bumping into his dad, who just stood there, shivering, not even bothering to rub warmth into his arms. Whatever they’d done to the prisoners went deeper this time. It was as if they’d been sapped of life. Beacon fought down the dread that rose in his body.

  “What was that?” Everleigh said.

  “Did you see all those ships?” Arthur said.

  “Of course I did—I’ve got eyes,” Everleigh shot back. “Daisy, what are all those ships doing here?”

  “I thought the underwater UFO was the only ship in town and your people had no way back,” Arthur said.

  “And what about the necklace?” Everleigh said. “Is it really true it powers all of the Sov?”

  “Quiet down, everybody!” Arthur’s grandma’s voice was low, but it cut through the din like a knife through warmed butter.

  She stepped toward Daisy. Daisy raised her chin defiantly, and Arthur’s grandma’s lips turned up a bit at the corners, as if she liked the spunk she saw inside the young queen.

  “Please, tell me,” Arthur’s grandma said, pacing in front of the queen, “how it can be possible that I’ve been working behind the scenes for years, carefully planning my next move, and you three almost ruined everything in a single night?”

  She turned abruptly, facing Beacon, Arthur, and Everleigh. Beacon stood up straight. The way she looked at him, it was hard to believe she was the same lady who’d croakily offered to make Arthur and him sandwiches when he’d come over to visit.

  “I don’t get it,” Arthur said. “What’s all this about?” He gestured at his grandma’s clothes and gun. “Are you, like, some type of rebel operation?”

  “Something like that,” she replied. “I’ve been watching the changes happening in our town for over sixty years. I wanted to do something, but anyone who spoke up ended up disappearing or becoming one of their robots. I quickly learned that I would need to take another approach if I was going to reclaim Driftwood Harbor. I’ve been working undercover since then, slowly finding out more, doing what I can to fight back. You’d be surprised how loose-lipped people can be around an infirm old lady.” She winked. “Nurse Allen was a thorn in my side when the Sov first sent her to spy on me, but I’ve learned a lot from just listening in on her phone calls when she thinks I’m asleep. Easiest spying I’ve ever done.”

  Arthur gaped at his grandma, but Everleigh refused to back down.

  “Look, I’m sorry we ruined your plans,” she said, “but I’m not sorry we freed our dad. He would have been killed.”

  “What about the rest of the prisoners in the base?” Arthur’s grandma asked. “They’ll be under tighter lock and key than ever before.”

  “We tried to get them out, but Victor refused,” Everleigh said. “He’s the leader of the Sov, and he’s really scary.”

  “You think I’ve lived in Driftwood Harbor for over sixty years and I don’t know who Victor is?” Arthur’s grandma cocked an eyebrow.

  “Then you know how scary he is,” Everleigh said. “We had to leave the other prisoners behind, or we wouldn’t have been able to get our dad out, either.”

  “And we couldn’t let them kill our dad,” Beacon added.

  “Every one of those people is important to someone else,” Arthur’s grandma said. “Those other prisoners are someone’s brother, sister, mother, father, husband, wife. And now they don’t have a hope of escape. I’d been planning a rescue operation for a year, but they’d see me coming from a mile away now. There’s no way I’d get close to them.”

  Beacon’s chest filled with something so big, there was no room for his lungs to expand. Victor was obviously wrong about him. He wasn’t destined to save the planet. He wasn’t destined to save anyone. Even his dad hadn’t been rescued, not really. He was still a robot.

  “We’re sorry,” Everleigh said. “But I’m not sure what you think we should have done. Ask around if anyone had already started a secret rebel organization before we stepped on any toes?”

  Arthur’s grandma frowned, but didn’t argue.

  “Besides, our mission wasn’t a total failure,” Beacon said. “We wouldn’t have found out about the Rainmaker if it wasn’t for breaking in.”

  “The what?” Arthur’s grandma said.

  A small bit of pride trickled in from knowing something she didn’t. Beacon filled her in on the Rainmaker. As he spoke, a worried crease grew between her eyebrows.

  “We wanted to destroy it,” Beacon finished, “but we couldn’t find anything like that on the base, and then we ran out of time.”

  “The Sov’s army,” Arthur’s grandma murmured. “Of course.”

  “What do you mean?” Beacon asked.

  She blew out a frustrated breath.

  “You didn’t find that Rainmaker on the base because it isn’t on the base,” she said.

  Beacon almost nodded in understanding, just because he felt stupid admitting he still didn’t get it. She must have noticed, because she clarified.

  “Their ships have been coming and going for the last few weeks. I knew they were planning something big. Now I know it’s the ships.”

  “The Rainmaker,” Arthur said. “It isn’t a single large machine, like we thought. It’s hundreds of smaller ones.”

  “You mean those U
FOs?” Everleigh said, catching on. “That makes sense. They’re going to douse the cities all at once, so no one has a chance to escape or fight back. That’s the blitzkrieg Nixon was talking about.”

  “That explains why they’re using human prisoners, too,” Beacon said. At Arthur’s grandma’s confused expression, he added, “The Sov can see the future, right? Not every little thing, but certain calamitous events. If the Sov kill all the humans, other aliens in the galaxy would be angry. They must be planning on using humans to man their ships so no one else can accuse them of committing genocide. That way they can wipe us out and avoid taking the blame.”

  “But wouldn’t the other aliens realize they’re using Sov UFOs?” Arthur asked.

  “Haven’t you noticed these ships look different from the underwater one? They look like military fighter jets. That can’t be a coincidence. They probably built these ships to mimic ours so it would all check out if the other aliens found out what happened here.”

  A heavy silence fell over the barn, the only sound that of the horse stamping in the cold.

  “What are we going to do?” Everleigh finally said.

  “We have to find out when they’re going to strike,” Arthur’s grandma said. She spun on the queen once again. “Tell us what you know.”

  Daisy moaned into the gag. Arthur’s grandma pulled out the handkerchief. Daisy spat and huffed indignantly.

  “I told you, I don’t know anything,” she said.

  “We can help you remember,” Everleigh threatened.

  “Everleigh!” Beacon said. “She doesn’t mean that,” he added to Daisy.

  “I’m not lying!” Daisy cried. “I don’t know what my people have planned. I’m just a figurehead for them. I don’t have any actual real decision-making power. If Victor could remove my necklace and wear it himself, trust me, I would have been dead a long time ago.”

  Despite her ferocious tone, there was an air of sadness in her voice that cut straight through Beacon. It must have cut through Everleigh, too, because her shoulders relaxed.