Chapter 41
If Grant was having a hard time keeping up with Nadia, he knew Elena was having it ten times worse than him. The route Nadia had chosen through the woods had them traversing the side of a heavily wooded hill. The ground was slick and treacherous. Every few steps, Elena would trip on something and fall to the ground. After twenty minutes, she was covered from head to toe in mud and leaves.
“Slow down a little,” said Grant to Nadia, as he helped Elena back onto her feet.
“Dawn is coming,” replied Nadia, pointing at the light on the horizon. “We should be picking up the pace, not slowing down.”
“How much farther is it?” asked Elena between gasps of air.
Nadia checked her scanner. “Not far. Another two kilometers.”
“Might as well be another twenty.” She reached out and placed a hand on Grant’s face. “Go on without me. I’ll be okay.”
“Like hell,” replied Grant. “No one is going to be left behind. I’ll carry you, if I have to.”
“Come on,” urged Nadia. “We have to keep moving.”
Grant took his friend by the arm and walked beside her, keeping her on her feet. When they got to the base of the hill, their luck changed from bad to worse. A wide, fast-flowing river blocked their way.
“For the love of God,” mumbled Elena. “I can’t seem to get a break.”
“We have to find a way across,” said Nadia. “The mine isn’t that far from here.”
“Which way is the mine?” asked Grant.
“That way,” said Nadia, pointing downriver.
“Okay, then that’s the way we’ll go until we find a bridge, or a log lying across the river that will support our weight.”
They walked along in silence for nearly ten minutes, until they stepped out onto a dirt road.
“Are you kidding me?” blurted out Elena. “Why the hell didn’t we use this road, instead of bashing our way through the woods?”
“I didn’t know it was here,” replied Nadia. “Or I would have taken it to speed things along.”
“Aren’t there any maps in your GPS of our planet?” quipped Grant.
“Pardon?”
“Forget it. I’m tired. Let’s follow this road and see where it comes out.”
They had barely gone twenty meters, when an old wooden footbridge came into view.
“At last, my luck’s changing,” said Elena, smiling and clapping her hands together.
“Let’s get across it before making any pronouncements,” said Grant. He let go of Elena’s arm and unslung his MP7. If someone was waiting for them, the bridge made the perfect spot for an ambush.
Nadia must have sensed the danger, as well. She stopped and drew her pistol before placing a foot on the old bridge. As she walked cross, the wood creaked and moaned, but didn’t give way.
“Now you,” said Grant to Elena. He waited for a couple of seconds, to see if there was anyone lying in wait for them. When nothing happened, he started for the bridge. No sooner had he stepped onto the bridge, when a loud snort came from the woods next to him. A primal fear in the back of his subconscious gripped Grant.
The bear was back.
“Run!” hollered Grant.
With lightning-fast speed, the mutated bear, its massive slobbering jaws wide open, burst from the forest and charged at the people on the bridge. Grant turned and ran as fast as his feet could move. The far end of the bridge seemed an impossible distance away. He could hear the bear’s breath growing louder, as it closed in on him from behind.
Elena heard Grant yell, and turned her head. Her eyes widened, and her feet turned to lead when she saw the bear. She tried to scream, but found her throat had turned dry with fear.
“Get out of the way, woman,” yelled Nadia, as she tried to get a shot at the creature.
What happened next seemed to happen in slow motion to Elena. First, the bear smashed into Grant, sending him tumbling through the air. She lost sight of him the second he hit the dark, bubbling water. Next, she felt Nadia pull her back and out of the way of the charging beast. The alien brought up her weapon to fire, but the weight of the bear caused the wooden bridge to rise up and down like a boat on the waves. A bright-orange flash of light shot from Nadia’s pistol, but flew right over the head of the bear and struck the top of several trees on the other side of the river, incinerating them.
The bear was so close that Elena could see the drool cascading like a waterfall from its mouth. Before Nadia could get off another shot, it swatted her, sending her flying backward onto her back. The bear stopped in its tracks, easily dwarfing the two women. It sniffed the air and got up on its hind feet before letting out a thunderous roar.
Elena saw Nadia’s pistol lying next to her feet. She had never held a firearm in her life, but fear and the instinct to survive made her scoop it up and aim it at the belly of the beast, towering above her. Elena placed her finger on what she took to be the trigger and pulled back. There was no noise or recoil, only a bright flash of orange light. The bear’s body seemed to glow for a second, before the light faded away, and the bear was gone. Elena stood there for a few seconds, trying to catch her breath and to let what had just occurred sink in. In the blink of an eye, her stomach turned. Elena ran to the side of the bridge, and threw up everything she had in her stomach. She dropped to all fours and retched until there was only foul-tasting bile coming out of her mouth.
A weak moan from behind her reminded Elena that she wasn’t alone. She wiped the spittle from her face with the back of her hand, and crawled over to Nadia’s side. The alien was trying to get up. By the pained look on her face, she was in great discomfort.
“Take it easy,” said Elena, as she helped Nadia to sit up.
“Where’s the monster?” asked Nadia.
“Gone. I killed it,” said Elena, handing back the pistol.
Nadia looked around. “Where’s Dave?”
Elena looked away. “The bear knocked him into the river, and that’s the last I saw of him.”
“Get me to my feet.”
“Wait, I need to see how bad your injuries are before we try and move you.”
“There’s no time for that,” responded Nadia through clenched teeth. “We have to keep moving. The very survival of your species is on the line.”
Elena grabbed hold of an arm, and helped pull Nadia to her feet.
“I think the animal broke my left arm, and shattered some my ribs,” said Nadia. “If I hadn’t been wearing my body armor, it surely would have torn me in two.”
Nadia was putting on a brave face, and Elena knew it. She didn’t doubt for one instant that Nadia had suffered internal injuries were far worse than the young alien was letting on. “Well, you’re taller and far heavier than I am, so the best we can do is for you to use my shoulder as a rest. Together, we should be able to help keep you on your feet.”
Nadia moved around until she was resting her right hand on Elena’s shoulder. “Okay, this should work.”
“I thought all the mutated animals were heading for the town,” said Elena. “I wonder why this one was still hanging around up here.”
“Once it had a taste for human flesh, that’s all its mind wanted. It’s probably been following us ever since we ran into the general.”
With that, the Nadia and Elena began to hobble to the other side of the bridge. When they were across, Nadia pointed at a track leading through the woods. “That should take us to the mine.”
“If you say so,” said Elena, wishing that her colleague was still there to help and protect them. Nadia’s warning of not making it to the end now seemed eerily prophetic.
Chapter 42
Sheriff Black cringed when she heard the gears of the bus grinding, as it came to a halt in the parking lot behind the school. The front door swung open, and the Munroe family got off the bus.
Harold and Trudy Munroe saw Black and walked to her side. “Sheriff, I hope this isn’t some big misunderstanding,” said Harold. “We’ve
got plenty of livestock and horses back on the farm that need us to feed and look after them.”
“Sir, trust me, there is a very real threat out there,” replied Black. “You know me; I wouldn’t have asked you to come into town if I didn’t believe it was the right thing to do.”
“Sheriff, two of your people went into the woods behind our place to look for two of our grandchildren, who had gone camping,” said Trudy.
Black could see Hayes standing next to the bus. She was at a loss to understand which two people Trudy had meant. “Sorry, who did you say went to look for your grandchildren?”
“Officer Tibeluk and that Australian Sergeant you deputized went to look for them.”
“Damn,” said Black under breath. She couldn’t comprehend why Tibeluk hadn’t carried on to Valdez as ordered. Something had clearly gone wrong. She cursed again, feeling helpless at their inability to call for help.
Officer Kyle Harrison hobbled out of the open gymnasium doors on a pair of crutches and waved for the Munroes to join him inside the building.
“Sheriff, is there anything I can do to help?” asked Hayes.
“I don’t know,” she replied. “Can you shoot a rifle?”
“Sorry, no. But I believe I can assist those who can shoot.”
“How?”
“I have a small drone in the back of my car. We can use it to monitor the area around the school.”
Black smiled. “Great idea. Do you need help getting this drone operational?”
“As a matter of fact, I do. Is there a kid here who is particularly good with video games?”
“Sam,” hollered Black.
“Yes, Mom,” replied a youth from the roof of the school.
“Get down here, and bring Reba with you. I’ve got a job for the two of you.”
“Thanks, Sheriff. Tell the kids to meet me at my car,” said Hayes. “It’s parked out front of the hotel.”
Black watched Hayes leave. She looked over at the pinkish hue on the horizon, and prayed that she and her son would live to see the sunset twelve hours from now. Black was surprised how many people had decided to come to the school for protection. With the Munroes, there were now close to sixty people in the gymnasium. Most had come from the town’s clinic, while a fair number had come from the trailer park and were elderly, or couples with young children. There were still plenty of people in the homes around the town who had grown up with weapons in their hands since they were kids and had decided to stay where they were and defend their homes.
Sam and a tall, red-haired, teenage girl ran outside to join Sheriff Black. “I found Reba,” said Sam. “What is it you’d like us to do?”
“There’s a redheaded Englishman wearing a bowtie walking to the hotel. Head over there and give him a hand retrieving whatever he’s after. When you get back here, I want the three of you on the roof. Got it?”
“Sure do, Mom,” said Sam with an eager nod.
“Go on then. Get a move on, you two, and run, don’t walk!”
The two youths spun around and sprinted out of the school’s parking lot in the direction of the hotel.
“Sheriff, a lot of people are asking why we can’t talk with anyone inside or outside of the town,” said Harrison, as he took a seat on an old wooden crate to rest his injured leg.
“Tell them it’s some kind of atmospheric anomaly that should pass later in the day,” replied Black.
“I’ll give it a try, but some of them aren’t going to buy your explanation.”
“Then ignore them and tell them you have work to do.”
“I can do that.”
Black looked down at Harrison’s bandaged foot. “How’s your ankle treating you?”
“Not bad at all. Mrs. Norton, bless her heart, pumped me full of painkillers before we left the clinic. She said I shouldn’t feel a thing for hours. If I do, she brought along some more drugs with her to keep me on my feet until this blows over.”
“Kyle, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but you may be on your feet a lot longer than you think. It doesn’t look like Tracey made it to Valdez.”
Harrison sat straight up. “Is she okay?”
“I don’t know. For whatever reason, Tracey turned around and ended up at the Munroes’ farm, where she and Sergeant Maclean met up. I was told that they went in search of two missing kids.”
“So you’re telling me that the state authorities are still in the dark as to what’s happening here.”
“Looks that way. I guess we’re on our own for now.”
“Sheriff, I wasn’t there when you had your conversation with those UFO people. Do you honestly believe everything they said to you?”
“Kyle, we can’t afford not to. I’d rather lose my job for overreacting than lose another person to the animals these scientific experts say are coming our way.” Black hadn’t told Harrison about the meeting but not her close encounter with an alien ship. She didn’t want him to think she was becoming unhinged over the recent spate of disappearances.
“Have you heard from Bill and Sean lately?”
“Yes. They were here not fifteen minutes ago. I asked them to continue patrolling the roads to the north of the town, and to help anyone who wanted to come here but couldn’t do so without assistance.”
“I just wish we could make one phone call to Valdez.”
Black patted her officer on the shoulder. “So do I, Kyle. So do I.”
Chapter 43
The world was dark, cold, and wet.
David Grant struggled to come back to the land of the living. He felt as if he were walking up a long dark tunnel which seemed to stretch on forever. All of a sudden, a sharp, stabbing pain in his side shot him back into reality. He opened his eyes and saw he was jammed between two branches hanging just above the water. The pain he felt was from a fast-moving log which had hit his ribs, bounced off him, and carried on downriver. Grant took in a deep breath through his nostrils as he struggled to clear the fog in his mind. The last thing he could remember was a loud snort coming from the woods. After that, there was the image of a dark shape coming for him, and then darkness.
The bear! There was a bear coming after them.
Grant turned his head in desperation and tried to see the women, but they weren’t there. He reached over with his right hand, grabbed hold of one of the branches he was hung up on, and pulled himself toward shore. The moment his feet touched solid ground, he stood up and staggered out of the icy-cold water. Steam rose from Grant’s damp clothes. He took a seat on a rock, and tried to collect his thoughts. Grant had expected to feel a lot worse than he did. The only pain he had was on his left side. He undid his jacket, pulled up his shirt, and removed his liquid body armor. It had hardened at the point of impact with the log. Grant ran his hand along the armor and knew if he hadn’t been wearing it the log would have pierced his side, perhaps even killing him. He grimaced when he saw a large purple-and-yellow bruise beginning to spread up his side. The pain would be a lot worse in a matter of hours, when his body and mind finally relaxed.
He reached for his submachine gun but found it was missing, having slid off his back when he hit the water. Thankfully, his pistol and a couple of spare magazines were still firmly attached to his belt. Grant stood up, removed his jacket and shirt, and wrung them out as best he could, before replacing the body armor and getting dressed again. The last thing he needed right now was to fall victim to hypothermia. Grant looked around, trying to get his bearings. He had no idea if he had floated right past the mine, or was still a kilometer or more from it. There was only one way to find out. Grant picked a tall fir tree nearby and started to climb it. Each time he raised his left arm above his head, his side hurt, as if he had been kicked by an angry mule. Grant slowed slightly, to ease the discomfort. When he was about fifty meters in the air, he stopped and looked around. He nodded when he spotted a cluster of aged wooden shacks marking the entrance to the old mine. He judged it to be less than ten minutes’ walk from where he was. Grant m
ade his way down out of the tree, and began to jog. In an instant, the pain in his left side told him to slow down and take it easy. Grant gritted his teeth and carried on at a fast walk, instead. He could worry about his wounds when it was all said and done, and the general was dead.
Chapter 44
Maclean smiled when the two boys who had been sitting in the back of the police vehicle ran to join their parents. At least something good had come out of all the misery.
“I’m going to check in with the sheriff,” announced Tibeluk. “Want to come with me?”
“Sure. Why not.”
Inside the gym, a number of people had laid out gymnastic mats and blankets, and were getting some sleep, while others sat around talking quietly to one another. They found Black sitting on a bench with Harrison, drinking a cup of coffee.
“Sheriff, I’m sorry I couldn’t make it all the way to Valdez,” said Tibeluk. “Trust me, I have a good reason for it. But before I say anything, I’d like to report that Sergeant Maclean and I found the two missing Munroe kids and brought them back here safely.”
“That’s good news, Tracey,” responded Black. “Now, please tell me what happened and why you’re not still on your way to Valdez?”
“I know this is going to sound crazy, but I was making good time when, all of a sudden at about sixty kilometers out of town, the vehicle went dead. It wasn’t just the Suburban, either. The batteries in my flashlight stopped working, as well. Since my vehicle had been working fine only a few seconds earlier, I decided to push it back down the road to see if the power would come back on. And what do you know, it did.”
“Something very similar happened to us in the Iraqi desert,” added Maclean.
Black stood and patted Tibeluk on the shoulder. “Today, I’ll believe anything. I hate to say it but we’re more cut off from the outside than I had originally imagined.”
Fallen Star (Project Gauntlet Book 1) Page 21