by Alex Bratton
Annihilation
Shadowmark, Episode 2
Alex Bratton
Antimatter Books
Annihilation is a work of fiction. Names, characters, organizations, places, events, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
2018 Antimatter Books
Copyright © 2018 Alex Bratton. All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the author.
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Contents
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Author Note
Also by Alex Bratton
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Prologue
Calla stared at the massive carved doors. An hour ago, when she had reported to this section of the Condarri ship, the carvings had glowed golden as the sun, the round hieroglyphs shifting to announce her arrival. After the adarria’s swirls and patterns stopped changing, the door turned black again as if it were nothing more than stone.
And Calla waited. She looked straight ahead, standing tall and motionless as if she, too, had been carved out of the dark. Footsteps echoed softly down the gallery, growing louder. As the Sacred Condarri passed behind, Calla sensed, rather than saw, its presence. Despite the delicate footfalls, the being took up all the space behind her. Terrible silence pressed against her back, crowding out everything in the passage. The skin on her face stretched taut over her high cheekbones as she held herself in place. Remembering her orders, she kept her gaze on the doors in front of her. Finally, the passage cleared. The Sacred One had moved on.
Calla did not know how long she waited at the door as time had little meaning here, but her back and feet ached from standing at attention, a remarkable occurrence since Calla rarely tired.
The doors glowed yellow again in the deepest parts of the adarria as if a light were shining through a thousand tiny cracks. When the doors parted, Calla slid between them. Blackness surrounded her. Instead of a floor, she stood on nothing, yet she did not fall. The space she entered had no walls, only darkness and the aether, which swirled around her in deep shades of purple and black.
The voice of the Condarri echoed in her mind.
Calla’s body chilled with this new knowledge, and fear gripped her along with raging anger. The Condarri had created hybrids to obey. She had captured the only traitor, years ago. How could there be more? Her mouth went dry, but she didn’t complain. She waited, anticipating death for not catching all of the traitors.
Calla was only slightly relieved.
The aether pressed in around Calla, suffocating her.
Calla’s body twisted in pain, sending a strong message—no arguments.
Calla smiled inwardly. Finally, something was going right in this conversation.
When the voice dismissed her, she stumbled through the door on her way to the oxygenated corridor.
Calla kept her eyes down on the way to her new ship—her prize. The first traitor had built the ship, and now, Calla would captain it.
She left Condar, and by the time she landed, she had already picked her team and sent her summons.
Chapter One
Mina Surrey hadn’t eaten or slept in over twenty-four hours. She had pushed hard to get away from Charlotte, walking west along the interstate as fast as her aching body would allow.
Thousands of travelers, stranded when their cars died on the roads, crowded the interstate in varying stages of panic. Mina had no idea why the vehicles had stopped but was sure it had something to do with the aliens. No helicopters buzzed overhead. No emergency sirens sounded. Nothing stirred except the mass of people. Some ran through the maze of cars, peering inside for loot. Most trudged through the mess in small, huddled up groups, avoiding strangers, their eyes fearful and wary. The longer Mina went without food, the more tempted she was to check the vehicles herself. But the crowds were nervous, and Mina was nervous, so she kept moving.
A twinge of pain spread across her forehead, and she reached up to touch the cut near her hairline, wondering for the hundredth time if she had a concussion. Earlier in the day, she had tried to jog, but exertion, hunger, and fatigue had coalesced into a pounding headache. Running had brought on more coughing fits.
Just another marathon, she told herself. Mina’s training paid off as she mentally blocked the pain, and her body responded. One foot followed the other, carrying her forward until her thin leather boots wore large blisters on her swollen feet, and her clothing chafed her skin like sandpaper. For the hundredth time, she wished she had changed her shoes at the airport.
To distract herself, Mina tried to make sense of what she had seen. The ships had attacked Charlotte, that much was clear. Something alien had flown the ships to Earth. Mina’s brief glimpse of the creature’s claws scooping up that mechanic was enough to last her a lifetime. She shivered, frightened because of what she hadn’t seen, hoping she never got a better look.
Midday, Mina stopped walking to lean against a tree on the side of the road. Her stiff muscles had loosened up with exertion, but inside her boots, her feet felt wet and sticky with blood. She considered removing her shoes for a moment to check, but her feet were so swollen she was afraid if she took the boots off, they wouldn’t go back on.
She spotted a group of teens sauntering down the middle of the road and breaking car windows with a crowbar. Mina considered walking into the trees to avoid them, but the tangled undergrowth would slow her down. As far as she was concerned, the crowds offered protection. In the back of her mind, the thought occurred to her that they also offered a broad target.
Easy pickings for the aliens.
Mina rolled the term around in her mind, unwilling to concede yet that she had seen aliens attacking Earth. The whole day had been surreal. If her feet didn’t hurt so badly, she would think she had dreamt the whole thing.
Unable to shake the feeling that the open spaces and crowds were inviting the aliens to attack, Mina turned west onto a smaller state highway. She had no destination in mind, only that she needed a safe place to rest and find food.
For the next five miles, the crowds thinned, and Mina became nervous for a different reason. Being alone brought its own set of problems. There was no way to protect herself if she encountered trouble. She had wanted to avoid the largest crowds, not abandon them altogether.
At an exit, empty cars and trucks lined the ramp and the grass around the station. Under the awning, cars and motorcycles sat at awkward angles as if they had all died in the middle of jostling for the coveted spots
next to the pumps. People hurried anxiously in and out of the darkened store, broken glass crunching underfoot. The fear in the air was palpable. No one made eye contact, and no one stopped to talk.
Mina hung back, observing the store from behind the dumpsters. The sickly sweet smell of rotting garbage wafted through the air. She breathed through her mouth as a never-ending stream of people arrived. The larger truck stop across the street had gone through a similar ransacking. Bands of people mingled around an abandoned eighteen-wheeler and were attempting to pry it open. To the side, two large oil tankers sat unattended near the underground tanks.
Mina needed food, water, matches, anything. Whatever she could find would be better than nothing. Still, she hung back, her need for safety warring with her body’s cry for nourishment.
Every time another looter emerged from the building, he carried less than the one before. No one brought out water or soda or chips. If she didn’t move now, there wouldn’t be anything left. Gathering her courage, Mina stepped out from behind the dumpster, preparing to dash into the building. She looked around one more time, and her heart skipped a beat.
A gang of five men walked among the cars, all of them armed with rifles or handguns.
Mina scurried back to her hiding place. Within a minute, the gang had quietly surrounded the small station. As looters ran out, they were met with orders to drop whatever they held and put their hands in the air. Soon, no one else emerged from the building, and two of the armed men went inside. Mina silently cursed her own hesitation. She could have already gone in and left.
Some looters fidgeted, reluctant to put down their spoils. In return, they suffered bloody lips and broken noses. Two of the gang roughed up an older teen, hitting him with the butt of a rifle because he refused to turn over what he had hidden inside his coat. The young man doubled over as one of them punched him the gut. While the newly arrived thieves focused their attention on him, an older man in a baseball cap sprinted for freedom with his arms full of items. He zigzagged around cars toward the dumpsters, and Mina moved around them to watch from the other side. His baseball cap blew off, revealing a balding head and thin, wispy hair.
An armed man ran after him. As the balding man neared Mina’s hiding place, he tripped, sprawling on his belly. His contraband flew everywhere—cigarettes, bandaids, a pair of sunglasses. A bottle of lighter fluid and lighters landed two feet from Mina.
The thief caught up to the older man and kicked him in the gut. “Pick them up!”
The balding man grunted as he groped for everything scattered on the ground. In his haste, he missed the lighter fluid and lighters but grabbed everything else. Another of the thieves walked over. They grabbed the spoils from him and shoved him against the car.
Mina hunkered down again, out of sight. She heard the sound of flesh connecting with flesh, and the man groaned.
“Get him in line with the others!”
The voices faded as they went back to the store.
She peered around the dumpster. The balding man stood in line now with the other looters, pinching his nose to stop blood from pouring. Two armed men gathered the goods from the store and piled them to the side while two others walked up and the down the line of people, looking them over. The gang took any weapons they found as well as any useful articles of clothing—jackets, belts, shirts, and boots.
Angry at the men but aware of her own vulnerability, Mina swept up the lighter fluid and lighters, stuffing them into her jacket pocket.
Since going into the store now was impossible, she worked her way among the vehicles, putting as much distance between herself and the armed thugs as she could. Frustrated about her powerlessness, Mina fumed as she crossed the road, avoiding the other ransacked truck stop across the street.
The aliens had attacked Charlotte only a day ago, and already, she had to worry about gangs of armed men.
Help will come. Mina didn’t doubt it. Even if all the ships had attacked at once, there were enough military and people in unaffected areas to send help. It might take a while, but help would arrive.
What if they don’t?
Mina pushed the thought aside as she headed back for the highway. She had just reached the exit ramp a hundred yards away from the gang when she spotted movement up the road.
A unit of soldiers was jogging toward the exit, armed and in formation.
Hope spread through Mina’s body. She was right. They weren’t alone. Help was here. She watched in relief as they turned up the ramp, loaded down with gear, sweaty, and weary-looking. Their faces were grim. One or two nodded to Mina as they passed. She wanted to ask what was happening, to thank them, but she didn’t get a chance.
The unit fanned out around the stations, taking cover around cars and semi-trucks, watching the sky.
Ready for battle.
The stragglers around the station began hurrying away. A soldier took cover near a beat-up old truck. He jerked his head toward the road. “Better get out, ma’am,” he said in a lilting Southern accent. “They’re scouring the highways.”
Fear replaced Mina’s relief. The mess of vehicles didn’t offer any protection against those gigantic ships. “You’re going to fight them here?”
The man spat. “No other place to fight them.”
“Do you have reinforcements? Fighter jets?”
“You’re looking at the reinforcements,” he said grimly. “Our convoy was on its way into Charlotte when everything quit working. Now, get out of here. Scouts said they’re heading this way.”
Dread worked its way up into Mina’s throat. The sky was grayish blue with dark clouds rolling across the farmlands from the west. Perfect cover for the alien ships. Still, if the military were going to make a stand here out in the open, maybe they had a trick in play, a plan to beat the invaders before they got any farther inland.
Hopeful, she nodded to the man, silently wishing him luck, but he had already turned his attention to a buddy crouching beside a car farther ahead.
Heart racing, she sought cover. Trees lined the highway beyond the fields. She ran toward them around the back of the station, leaning against an eighteen-wheeler to look at the sky. The clouds were rolling in.
A stretch of open ground had been maintained here with no protection, but Mina didn’t have a choice. Feeling vulnerable and with terror growing, she stepped away from the trailer. The last thing she wanted to do was get caught in the crossfire.
Before she had taken two more steps, an explosive pressure forced her off her feet. Bright light flashed, blinding her. Mina flew forward, skidding along the rough grass, skinning her arms as she tried to catch herself. Her ears rang, and an intense, hot wave washed over her.
Everything went oddly silent.
Then, the ground rumbled, and an eighteen-wheeler on the other side of the parking lot flew into the air and exploded, raining metal and flame down on the other trucks, igniting them in a chain reaction. Mina scrambled away from the debris flying past her and stood shakily, staring at the growing inferno.
A barrage of pop-pop-pop intermingled with the explosions. The soldiers had opened fire. Shouts and cries followed. Shadows ran through the smoke. More gunfire and flashes of light added to the terrifying mix, assaulting all of Mina’s senses.
Smoke billowed into the sky, drawing her eyes upward. Her stomach clenched as an enormous black mass moved out of the haze. Its hull gleamed like polished, jagged stone. A flash of yellow light streamed from the underside of its hull like a comet, this time toward the other side of the street. The explosion that followed shook the ground like an earthquake, rattling Mina’s teeth.
Soldiers ran in and out of the patches of flames. One of them flailed as fire consumed his body. Another soldier, the same one Mina had spoken to a few moments before, ran out of the haze. He spotted her and motioned with his arm, pointing to the stand of trees at the edge of the parking lot. His mouth moved as he shouted something, but Mina still hadn’t completely regained her hearing.
Feeling dazed, Mina looked toward the relative safety of the trees. Then, the soldier was there, grabbing her arm and pulling her away from the battle zone. Then, he pivoted, swinging his rifle toward the flames. Mina turned with him.
A creature stood amidst the chaos with flames roaring around it like it was a demon from Hell. The soldier fired, and Mina saw the bullets bounce off the creature like they were Nerf pellets. The alien’s mouth opened, but Mina didn’t hear the screech. Instead, she heard the soldier put his lips to her ear and shout something like, “Run!”
The creature charged them, but soldiers ran toward it, firing as the flames grew higher. With one swipe of its claws, the alien sent its attackers flying through the air. Then, the fire grew until Mina lost sight of it. The soldier pulled her toward the trees, occasionally shooting at something Mina couldn’t see. They were almost to safety, but even the tops of the trees were beginning to burn. Their time was running out. Finally, Mina ran without aid, but was surprised when the soldier grabbed her and threw her to the ground. Painfully aware that he was on top of her, Mina felt the concussive wave of another explosion. The soldier’s body jolted, jerked, and then slumped.
The whole scene seemed surreal. Mina looked up, but her body was trapped by the soldier and all his gear. She twisted beneath him, pushing and yelling as if she were inside a dream.
He didn’t move. For what seemed like hours, Mina fought to move his weight. Blood soaked the ground around her, coating her jacket and hands. Desperately, she kept her eyes on the surroundings to look for aliens.
When Mina finally freed herself, she got a look at the soldier. His back had a giant hole in it, exposing a severed spine. Flesh and gore hung off the skeleton, which no longer resembled the backside of a man. It was so unlike anything Mina had ever experienced before that she felt strangely detached from the scene.