by Nate Castle
4
Wayfarin’ Stranger
“Good morning babe, how did you sleep?” Logan said to Shelby. They were awoken by the bright sun shining through curtain at the Nantucket beach house.
“I slept a lot better than I have been in the tents, that’s for sure,” Shelby said. “Let’s cook breakfast and have it down on the beach.”
“I’m not gonna argue with that plan,” Logan said, and got out of the bed to head downstairs, grabbing a pair of sweatpants from the dresser drawer.
Shelby hopped in the shower and by the time she got downstairs, Logan had already prepared coffee and the best breakfast he could given the resources he had available. He made sausage and pancakes, with a country gravy for the sausage. Typically he would have liked to throw in some eggs and fruit, but he had to stick with foods that you could freeze and keep fresh for long periods of time.
“Aww, you’re spoiling me here!” Shelby said and gave Logan a kiss before grabbing the plates of food and heading out the back door to the sand.
The house basically had its own private section of the beach. Logan followed suit, and shut only the back screen door, but not the sliding glass door. They found a spot on the sand where Shelby laid a towel down and they began to eat. After breakfast they began brainstorming ideas of what they were going to do that day. This was a good problem to have, as they had no freedom in the past six months, every ounce of energy went towards putting a stop to the aliens.
“Why do you have your clothes on?” Shelby said. “C’mon let’s go!”
Shelby was in the process of undressing when she motioned towards the water in front of them. There was no one in sight, so what would be wrong with a little skinny dipping, Logan thought. Once they were both undressed, he lunged at Shelby as if to tackle her, but instead picked her up by her legs and carried her towards the water. He had her in a fireman’s lift position. Yelps of joy came from Shelby.
“No put me down, stop it Logan!! Don’t you dare!
Logan was almost knee deep into the water, with Shelby still dry. He began to count,1- 2-3. On 3 he launched Shelby forward into the water. It was an impressive throw, and Shelby screamed with delight throughout the whole process. They were now both shoulder deep and began swimming around in circles playing childish games such as one game where Logan would swim near the bottom and Shelby would stand on his back and pretend to surf as pulled forward. 45 minutes of water games, and they were beat.
“I’m heading in,” Logan said.“Me too. That was incredible Logan, I haven’t had that much fun since I was in my undergrad at Michigan State,” Shelby said.
The couple exited the ocean and walked back on the sand towards where their towel was located. Logan fetched the breakfast items, towel, and sweatpants and walked up the wooden staircase leading to back deck of the beach house. He paused for a moment when he reached back door.
“Wait here Shelby. I’m pretty positive I did not leave that screen door cracked open,” Logan said.
He cautiously entered through the screen door and began peaking around each corner like they do in Hollywood movies when they know someone is hiding in the building. The kitchen was adjacent to the back deck, so as Logan was making his way through he grabbed a large steak knife from the cutlery block. Shelby meanwhile, not knowing what to do because Logan’s request hadn’t been too specific, climbed back down the deck, put her clothes back on and went underneath the deck to hide. Not that it was a very good hiding spot, but at least she wouldn’t be out in the open. How long did Logan want her to wait before she came back inside?
Logan rounded the corner that led to the leaving room and saw a cabinet drawer open; it looked like it’s contents had been ruffled through. Going forward to inspect the situation wasn’t the best idea because as he did, someone came at him from behind and used a taser to subdue him.
Pah-pah-pah-pap!
The electricity from the taser cackled and Logan fell to the floor, the steak knife he was holding hit the ground next to him. Shelby, who reappeared on the deck after hearing the crashing sound from inside, could see five men standing over Logan. One of them looked her way and spotted her, which Shelby knew was probably going to happen. Considering the alternatives though, Shelby would rather be with Logan than run away or try to hide for an extended period of time.
The man who spotted her hustled through the house towards the deck where she was standing. Shelby stayed there and tried to remain calm and when he reached the deck, she put her hands up, signaling that she wouldn’t put up a fight. She walked inside on her own, trying to avoid a situation where the man had to grab her and even use the taser. When she got to the living room, Logan was now awake and the men had positioned him in a dining room chair, his hands tied with zip ties to the chair so that he wouldn’t be a threat to them.
“What do you want from us?” Shelby asked.
A man who seemed to be the leader of the group replied “That’s what you’re going to help us figure out, sweet cheeks.”
The men fit the M-O of your typical prison inmates. They were all tattooed from head to toe and their faces had that worn out tarnished look, not a result of the sun, but of having been to hell and back more than once.
“Take what you want from the house, it’s all yours,” Logan said.
“Wow what a nice offer, but we’re gonna need more than that,” the man said.
“We don’t have anything besides what’s in this house,” Logan said.
“Well judging by how healthy you and this pretty lady of yours look, you must have had some sufficient resources over the last six months. What did you spend your time doing during that time?”
“We have been here ever since the attack,” Logan said.
“I find that hard to believe as I don’t see any reserve food supply or anything else that points to you living here for more than a few days,” the man said. “I’ll give you one more chance, don’t you lie to me again, boy.”
“Ok we went to DC after the attack like instructed by the President and we stayed there until just yesterday,” Logan said. He didn't want to go into specifics.
“We were there too, in fact we stayed in the White House until three months ago. I’ll ask you this question to know if you are telling the truth. What kind of projects are they working on there?”
Logan knew the man was lying because no one was living in the White House three months ago. The man must not have known that the White House blew up six months ago. So, Logan wanted to give the guy an answer, but not reveal any information that he didn’t have to.
“Well the main projects they are working on are reopening schools, reopening hospitals, and installing landline telephones nationwide to ensure that there will not be another cell phone attack,” Logan said.
“Wrong answer boy!” the man said and stood up. He took the gold watch off of his wrist and held it by the band so that the face was resting over his knuckles.
Logan pre-anticipated the pain that was about to occur, as the man struck Logan in the face, the impact of the watch doing more damage than bare knuckles would have. Shelby covered her mouth to avoid screaming out loud, and tears begin streaming down her face. Logan now had a smile on his face. He looked like a boxer, taunting his opponent.
“How do you know that’s the wrong answer? If you were at the White House like you claimed you were, you would have known that no one has lived in the White House in the past six months, since it blew up,” Logan said.
The man took a moment to think before he responded. It appeared he realized that Logan had caught him lying.
“Who are you anyway?” Logan said.
The man was still silent.
“Judging by the number of tattoos you guys have, you can’t be good people,” Logan said.
“That’s right boy, we aren’t good people, we all come from a dark place called Riker’s Island,” another one of the men said. He was referring to the jail in upstate New York.
“What the fuck Paulie, wh
at’s there to gain by telling him that?” the ringleader said to the other man.
“Relax Jack, we’re in total control of this situation, we have the upper hand,” Paulie said to the ringleader.
Jack walked over to Paulie and whispered something in his ear As he was doing so he picked up the steak knife that Logan was holding earlier and gave Paulie a decent slash across the arm. Blood started gushing out like a waterfall and the rest of the men backed away from Paulie.
Jack, now looking back the group said, “No, I’m in total control of the situation.”
“Alright boy, I’ll give you a couple minutes to think about what you’re going to offer us. It had better be good or believe me, your girl dies,” Jack said to Logan.
Logan was silent for a few moments before he responded.
“We can get you a military helicopter,” he said.
“That’s a good start, but I’m gonna need more than that. And by more I mean something that not many other people in this country would be able to offer me,” Jack said.
“I can’t read your mind man, why don’t you just tell me?” Logan said, with a tone that was trying really hard not to sound irritated.
“The aliens. I want one,” Jack said, like it was an ordinary everyday request.
“You’re mental you know that? I’ll get you an alien, you freak show,” Logan said.
He knew before he even said it, that he would not be getting Jack an alien, but the desire to make it out of this situation alive caused him to go along with Jack’s demands for the time being.
“You have five minutes to get your shit together, before you, your girly, me and my boys all take a little road trip to DC,” Jack said.
“I hate to break it to you, but we have to go to Langley, Virginia. That’s where your alien is,” Logan said.
“The hell you talkin’ bout? I know that there were aliens y’all captured in DC,” Jack said.
“That may be true, but they were transported to the CIA headquarters because the facilities there are more adequate,” Logan said. “The CIA offices are deserted since the attack, there’s only a few people there who are studying the aliens.”
“Okay, I don’t think I need to tell ya what happens if you’re lying,” Jack said.
“I need to call someone, so they can deliver that helicopter to you in Langley,” Logan said.
Jack nodded and Logan picked up the receiver to the landline telephone hanging on a nearby wall.
‘Hi, can you transfer me to Carter, it’s urgent… No, don’t put me on hold, tell him it’s Logan,’ he said into his end of the receiver.
Logan waited for what seemed like forever before Carter picked up. Carter was a former pilot, and was currently in charge of coordinating White House transportation.
‘Hey man, I need a favor.…Can you bring one of the choppers to Langley?… I can’t go into detail right now… Yeah, I need it there by 5…By the way, next time I see you we should hit the golf course. My midrange game needs some work. I’ve also been hooking a lot of my drives to the right so I need to iron that out…’
It took Carter a minute, but he eventually realized what Logan meant. They had both always talked about how their golf games were trash, yet they were addicted and couldn't get enough of the sport. Carter would always joke with Logan and say things like ‘you’re in trouble you need professional help, that was the worst put i’ve ever seen’. So, Carter gathered that when Logan talked about going to the golf course, it was actually code for he’s in trouble.
Logan hung up the phone. Jack cut the zip ties from Logan and Shelby’s wrists, so they were now free from captivity. They ran upstairs quickly to each grab a bag.
“Don’t worry baby I got a plan, it’s all going to be okay,” Logan said to Shelby.
The couple ran back downstairs and followed Jack and his cronies into a black 15-passenger van which was parked outside the front security gate of the estate.
5
Build, Builders, Buildings
“Well guys, like I always have said, if we don’t make it out of this alive, let’s at least go out with a bang!” Garrett said to a group of about twenty people who were huddled around one of the alien crafts in the R & D tent.
Recently, some major breakthroughs and discoveries had been made and the group now felt confident that they had gained enough knowledge about the alien crafts to take one for a test flight.Garrett was the first person to volunteer to go on the test flight and Christina volunteered too. Noel, who was very fond of Garrett chimed in that she wanted to go. Garrett sensed that there was more to it. He had been spending a lot of time with Christina lately, due to the nature of the R&D work, and he sensed that Noel was jealous. So he wondered if Noel’s main reason for going was to keep an eye on Christina.
It was a magical sight for those watching. It could be compared to when NASA sent the first aircraft to the moon.
“I sure hope to see y’all again,” Noel said to the group, with a big smile on her face.
She was the last of the three to enter the alien craft and soon after the entry portal shut. Pulsating green and purple lights came from the craft and it started to back up, like a car would do, until it was out of the R&D tent. Garrett was the pilot and Christina was the copilot. The plan was to fly the craft across town the Pentagon and back. It would be a very short flight if all went as planned.
The craft had large seats scattered throughout in what seemed like no logical ordering. Each seat had a control panel next to it, that would make the seat recline with many options or even grow into the size of a bed. There were too many rooms to count inside the craft. Each one had a plexiglass door that would slide open from left to right when you got close enough to it. There didn’t appear to be a restroom on board, but maybe that was because an alien restroom wasn’t recognizable to humans. There were large panels on each wall with many blinking lights and switches. Another odd feature was a 10-yard long flat escalator that was constantly in motion but didn’t seem to lead anywhere beyond it’s 10-yard range.
“Do I treat this thing more like a plane or a helicopter?” Garrett said.
“What do you mean?” Christina said.
“When I take off, do I need to accelerate down a runway first, or can I just take off from a static position?” Garrett said.
“I’m pretty sure either one will work. But let’s just take off from here. That way you are less likely to crash before we takeoff,” Christina said playfully.
Garrett did as instructed and began to lift off the ground. The ‘joystick’ to lift off was used for multiple piloting functions depending on what combination of buttons you pressed before using the joystick. Garrett pressed a button to engage the takeoff and lifted up on the joystick. The craft began climbing in altitude way faster than he had anticipated. His reaction was to slow down the craft so he pushed forward on the joystick. He overcompensated though and the craft came hurling back towards the ground. Garrett braced himself for impact. Christina and Noel did not, as they figured Garrett would be resourceful enough to not let the craft crash into the ground, but it did. Luckily, it didn’t fall from too high, and the impact was a lot less catastrophic than one would expect when you crash a helicopter or plane.
“Motherfucker!” Garrett yelled out, “I guess the good news is, we know this thing is built like a tank.”
“Let me handle the takeoff Garrett, I have a soft touch and like to think that I know my way around a cockpit. You can take over again when we are airborne,” Christina said.
Noel who was still silent, wondered if Christina had a thrown some sexual innuendos in and was flirting with Garrett or was imagining things. Christina, with no opposition from Garrett, switched seats with him, grabbed the joystick and lifted off the ground. She hadn’t been lying, she did have soft touch and the craft was at a comfortable altitude within seconds. She pushed a button that seemed to make the craft hover in midair and then got up from her seat to switch places with Garrett again. As she passed him
she gave his shoulder a quick squeeze, and looked back at Noel, who she could see was watching her every move intently.
Garrett, now back at the control panel, pressed a few buttons to make the craft go forward. An LCD screen in front of him lit up, similar to when you first turn on a TV. Garrett had educated himself about different speed settings on the craft and had picked the slowest one for this mission. The LCD screen finished ‘warming up’ and now showed a panoramic view of what was outside the craft in all directions. This was a feature they had not noticed before.
“Wow, this is incredible, look here,” Noel said.
Christina and Garrett turned their heads back to look in the direction of Noel. A white screen had protruded down from the ceiling and it showed an enlarged video feed of what was depicted on the small LCD screen in front of Garrett. Noel touched the screen with the tip of her finger, and section of the image that she touched became highlighted with a red circle around it. She touched that point again and the image zoomed in on that particular spot. This was like no zoom feature she had ever seem on a human-built camera. It was the most clear detailed picture she had ever seen.
“This is scary guys!” she said.
She used her finger to highlight another portion of the image, this time choosing the White House R&D tent which was a few hundred feet below them. She zoomed in on the image and her jaw dropped as she did so. The white projector screen, now showed a blown up live video feed of the R&D tent, but not just the outside, it showed what was happening inside.
“This is bad, real bad,” Christina said.
“Well we can use this video feature to our advantage, almost like a weapon, but the aliens can also use this feature on their crafts, and that’s what I’m more worried about,” Garrett said.
“There must be some type of X-ray deal on the camera if it’s capable of seeing inside of the tent. If they do a flyover, we’re screwed because they will be able to see in clear detail everything we are doing with their crafts and also that we are building our own crafts,” Christina said.