by B. T. Wright
Just as Tyler radioed again, Jake’s truck was coming around a bend. Up ahead, Jake could see headlights pulled off to the side of the road. Tyler’s SUV was facing the wrong way just like Tyler had said.
Beep.
“Hang on, Ty! We’re coming up on you now!”
Beep.
“It’s no use, Jake. The last thing Amy said before she went into convulsions was that they were right behind you guys, too. There isn’t a side road for miles. Mark looked. We’re trapped . . . It’s over.”
Jake tossed the radio to the floor of the truck and immediately picked up his AR-15, rifled through his bag for a fresh magazine, and locked it in. He didn’t have time to think about just how in the hell the aliens could be right behind their truck, too. Speculation on just how far they had evolved served no purpose right then.
“Mount up. You heard him. Sounds like we’re in for another fight. Bryan, pull around the front of their car and try as best you can to block the road. I have a feeling we’re going to need every second we can get to make something happen.”
He sounded confident and ready for a fight. However, he was actually anything but ready for another battle. Beyond that, he knew if there were very many aliens out here in the middle of nowhere, they didn’t stand a chance. No matter how much firepower they had left, it was over for them if it was even a fourth of as many aliens as there were back at the diner.
Bryan steered the truck around the right side of the car, drove ahead about a hundred feet, then parked it sideways in the middle of the road. Jake squeezed Jess’s hand, but he could tell by the look on her face that she had the same thoughts about their chances as he did.
“I love you,” he said.
Jess nodded. She knew what Jake meant by the tone in his voice. That it was the last time they would ever say it to each other. “I love you.”
She leaned over and kissed him.
“We’re already too late.” Bryan was standing behind the open door of the truck, looking straight out in front of him.
Jake didn’t have to follow his stare to know that it was the aliens.
“I’m sorry I couldn’t save us,” Jake told Jess.
She racked the slide on her twelve-gauge shotgun. “If this is really it, let’s take as many of these motherfuckers with us as we can. We owe them that much.”
Jake pulled back the charging handle on his rifle, and when he released it, the first bullet in his thirty-round magazine locked into place. He didn’t say it, but he couldn’t have agreed with Jess more. He gave her a solemn nod and stepped out into the muggy night air. TW was in front of him, his door open, and his AR resting in the V where the door and the body of the truck met.
Jake backpedaled quickly. If there was a chance for them to make it out of there, he needed to know what kind of shape Amy was really in. But the nagging voice in the back of his head told him that it just wasn’t going to matter.
37
Emily rushed inside the lab the moment she saw Karen’s smile. As soon as she opened the glass door, she noticed John Two was forcefully trying to break free from his restraints. Elaine had made it to her feet and she and Karen both were trying to calm him down.
“You have to stop fighting against it, man,” Karen tried to tell John Two. “They are here to help us.”
But he kept fighting. Much like Karen when she’d first woken up, he had no idea where he was and what the hell was going on. Emily noticed the president walk into the room with her, and the two guards followed as well.
“Should we sedate him?” Emily said.
“No, let’s just give him a minute,” Elaine said.
“Let me out of here!” John Two shouted. “Who are you people? What the hell is going on? You can’t do this!”
Emily walked over beside his bed. The entire gurney was shaking beneath him. “Sir, we are only trying to help you. Sir!”
Emily looked up and saw that Karen’s eyes were as blue as the sky. She was sure she’d probably seen eyes that pretty before, but in that moment, with the black nowhere to be found, she knew they were the most gorgeous set she would ever see again. “Karen, are you all right? How do you feel?”
“I’m okay. I think I’m okay.”
“I can’t undo the restraints just yet, okay? Not till we are sure.”
Karen nodded frantically. “No, I get it. Just tend to him. It’s scary as hell waking up strapped to this gurney in this cold room.”
John Two continued to shout.
“Sir,” Emily tried again. “Sir! My name is Emily Fraser. You are at the Emergency Operations Center in Mount Weather, Virginia. There has been a pandemic and we are trying to keep you from being sick.”
“Get me off of this table, right now! Now!” He continued to fight the restraints.
Emily looked back over her shoulder at the president. Then back to John Two. “Sir! Do you know our president? President Miller of the United States of America?”
“Get me out of here! Don’t talk to me about the president! There’s nothing wrong with me! Cut me loose!”
Emily backed away and walked over to President Miller. “Mr. President, would you mind just stepping over here? I think if he sees you and recognizes you, he will calm down.”
The stocky guard stepped forward. “Mr. President, I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
“It’s fine. The man is restrained. I want to help the doctors get answers.” Then he looked at Emily. “I’ll do it.”
Emily nodded and walked back over to John Two. “Sir, I want you to talk to the president. He’ll confirm what I’m telling you.”
John Two started to shout again, but he cut his tirade short as the president stepped into his line of sight. John Two’s eyes widened and his mouth stayed open without sound.
“Son, what Dr. Fraser is telling you is true. You’re safe here.”
“President Miller? What the—I—”
“I know it’s hard, but just try to relax. What’s your name, son?”
John Two’s body relaxed, and he stopped fighting the restraints. “Joe . . . Joe Christmas.”
“Nice to meet you, Joe. I wish it was under better circumstances, but you are okay here.”
Emily smiled to herself; her idea had worked. She wanted to give Joe more time to chat with the president, but she had to talk to Karen. She had to see how she was doing. Elaine was already over at the monitors.
“How are her vitals?” Emily asked Elaine as she walked around Joe’s gurney and placed her arm on Karen’s.
“Looks good. Good BP, solid heart rate.”
“How are you feeling, Karen? You’re doing great.”
“I’m okay, I guess. My stomach is a little queasy, and I have one hell of a headache, but I’m okay.”
Joe turned his head toward Karen. “Yeah, same here. Upset stomach and a banger of a headache.”
“All right, we’ll get you something for the pain.” Emily took her pen flashlight from her lab coat lapel and shined it in Karen’s eyes. “No sign of black. Her eyes look normal.”
“That’s good, right?” Karen asked.
“So far so good.”
Emily couldn’t believe it. There were no signs of the alien whatsoever. Once the relief passed over her, her next thought was of Jake. Moreover, her thought was of the last time Karen had managed to briefly overcome the alien’s influence thanks to the Beritrix.
“Karen,” Emily took her hand and squeezed it. “Remember what you told me last time I saw you?”
Karen was already pale, but her face went even more white. Hesitant, she nodded. “About your friend being trapped at the house?”
Emily’s stomach turned. “Yes. Is he . . .”
“They made it out of there. He even managed to get the girl back . . . but . . .”
Emily felt her knees get weak. She wouldn’t be able to handle it if Karen said Jake was dead. She could feel her palms fill with sweat, and the saliva rise in her jowls. She was going to be sick.
&nb
sp; “But they are stuck out on a back road. The aliens are closing in on both sides.”
Emily felt a panic rising up her spine. The president walked over and looked down at Karen. “Did you see a helicopter?”
“No. Not—not before I came to. I’m sorry.”
Emily began to cry. She looked up at the president. “Bill was too late. He didn’t find them.”
The president stepped over and took Emily in his arms. All of the emotions she’d felt over the last week came out all at once and she began crying hysterically. She might have just found a way to wipe the aliens from their human hosts, but all she could do then was shed tears. Of course for Jake, but also for Amy.
Without Amy, all that they had been working on might not even matter.
38
Tyler had been right. There was blood everywhere on Amy. Not only was it running out of her nose and mouth, but it was even trickling out of her ears. When Jake made it back to Tyler, Mark, and Amy, Tyler was shining a flashlight on Mark as he was still performing CPR. He was covered in blood as well. Ginger was growling at the dark woods in front of her.
“Keep trying to revive her, Mark! We’ll keep these bastards off of you as long as we can!”
Jake moved back toward the truck where TW and Bryan had already begun firing at the oncoming aliens. As far as Jake could tell, they didn’t have any vehicles. It was as if they had been waiting in the woods for Jake and everyone to come along.
The gunfire was forcing the aliens to scatter from the road. It seemed they had learned their lesson: that bullets made them dead. If Amy had been right when she told Tyler they were closing in from both sides, Jake had to do something about protecting their back. Though he knew anything he did would be futile, he wasn’t built to quit. It wasn’t his personality, and it wasn’t the way he was trained. He wasn’t going to give up until one of those things had chewed out his heart.
As the screeches and screams of the aliens died off and they filed left and right off into the surrounding woods, the gunfire seemed even louder. Jake ran up behind Bryan.
“Bryan, I need the truck. I have to at least try to keep them from running free up our asses.”
“Copy!”
Bryan moved to his left away from the truck and continued to fire on the aliens escaping into the trees. Jake jumped inside and put it in reverse. He hung his head out the window and got Jess’s attention.
“You up for one last ride?”
Jess smirked, then ran around the back and hopped in when TW moved away from the truck. Jake hit the gas and turned back toward Tyler. He drove the truck straight toward them.
“Get him a gun if there’s one close,” Jake told Jess.
As she reached back for the backseat, Jake hit the brakes and pulled up right beside Tyler. He shouted across the front of the truck through the passenger window.
“Ty!”
Tyler raised his head and looked at him.
“How is she?”
No words; Tyler just shook his head. The last bit of hope for an escape seeped out with the sweat that was running from Jake’s pores. Jess leaned back up, handed a rifle out the window to Tyler, and looked forward.
Jake said. “I’ll hold them off as long as I can.”
Tyler didn’t respond. His blank stare said it all.
“I love you, Ty. You’re the best friend I ever had.”
Jake released the brake and put the gas pedal to the floor. The tires screamed against the pavement, and the truck moved forward.
“You have to know it meant nothing, Jess. You are the only woman I have ever loved.” Jake’s throat caught and he choked back his rising emotion.
Jess was quiet for a moment.
Jake drove a little farther, then slammed on the brakes when his headlights found their first alien. Jess and Jake watched in amazement. Not only were they driving cars, but they were driving without headlights. It never occurred to Jake that their black eyes could possibly help them see in the dark. But it made sense in some odd way.
When the caravan of vehicles the aliens were driving saw Jake’s headlights, they all slowed to a stop.
“How did we get here?” Jess broke the silence.
Jake didn’t know if she meant we as in Jake and Jess and their relationship, or we as in the two of them staring at a bunch of trucks driven by aliens, awaiting certain death. Either way, Jake didn’t have an answer. Jess knew he wouldn’t.
Jake looked over and she was looking right at him, seemingly staring straight into his soul. A warm breeze moved through the open windows, and in between the blasts of gunfire, Jake thought he could actually hear the crickets singing again. As crazy as it seemed, for the briefest of moments, he felt like he was back in Kentucky, driving out to the woods to be alone with Jess like he’d done a hundred times when they were young.
“Got a plan, Hotshot?”
He didn’t. And it burned all the way down to his core that he couldn’t find a way, any way, to buy them some more time.
“I’m afraid I’m fresh out of those.”
Jess looked down and nodded. Then looked back up. “I love you too, Jake. You’re the only man I’ll ever love.”
Jake’s next move would have been to reach across the cab of that truck, pull her close, and kiss her beautiful lips one last time. But he never got to make that move, because something familiar came to his ears. It wasn’t close, but for anyone who has spent any amount of time in combat, it didn’t have to be.
It was a helicopter.
Jake threw the door open and jumped out of the truck. He scoured the sky for a sign that his mind wasn’t playing tricks on him.
“What are you doing?” Jess said.
Off in the distance, dotted amongst the stars, Jake saw a light. He wasn’t going crazy––there actually was a helicopter heading his way. His mind went a thousand directions in the matter of a second. But the last ten years of his life spent going through pure hell to keep his country safe paid off. All the noise in his head disappeared, and his training kicked in.
“You hear that?”
Jess cocked her head to listen. Then Jake nearly burst with joy when he watched her face light up in the glow of the trucks dash.
“No way. . .” she said.
“Yes way. Jess, run! No matter what you hear, or what you see, just get everyone inside that helicopter, and make sure you save Amy!”
39
When Jake told her to run, Jess didn’t hesitate. She threw open the door and jumped out of the truck, and as Jake was pulling his go bag from the back seat, he saw her sprinting in Amy’s direction. He knew the only thing that mattered now was time. They needed enough time for the helicopter to actually find them, and enough for everyone to climb in safely.
There wasn’t a lot Jake could do about how long it would take his group to get in the helicopter, but there was definitely something he could do about the helicopter finding them. Jake reached down to the bottom of his bag for the one little trick he’d been saving for a situation just like this. He felt the raised metal of the hand grenade and pulled it out of his bag. He strapped the bag on his back, made sure his axe was still attached, then started walking toward the aliens and their idle cars.
As soon as he felt he was close enough, he stopped and pulled the pin on the grenade. It wasn’t a moment too soon either, because as soon as he did, he heard the aliens hit the gas in their vehicles. They were coming his way.
Jake took one step forward with his left foot as he cocked his right arm back. Like a center-fielder throwing from the outfield to make a play at home plate, he twisted his hips and whipped his arm forward, launching the grenade through the air. He didn’t stick around to watch what happened when it hit. He knew the explosion of twisted metal and fire would let him know all he needed to know. Instead, he turned and began a dead sprint back toward his friends.
Jake knew the grenade wouldn’t come close to killing all of the aliens, but he knew the chain reaction of explosive gas tanks would a
t least slow them down. Would it be long enough to get everyone out of there? That he didn’t know. But he knew it would give him enough time to set up a perimeter with Jess and Bryan and give them the best chance possible if there was a chance at all. Until the rest of the aliens made it around the grenade, he had to get back and fight off the ones that had made it into the woods. If he wasn’t already too late. He hopped in the truck, spun it around, and drove back toward his friends.
The explosion was great, and it wasn’t singular. Just as Jake had thought, the grenade exploded, then a chorus of other cars booming from the chain explosions of their gas tanks. Jake’s focus was forward. But in the rearview mirror, the ball of fire reached toward the sky. The light from the blasts behind him lit the entire road. If there was any question left whether the person flying the helicopter had seen it, it was dispelled when Jake saw the light in the distance dip a few inches. He knew the helicopter had just gone nose down to speed toward them.
As he continued to drive, closing in on his friends, he brought up his rifle and began searching out the window to his left for any aliens that might be running at them from the trees. Up ahead, Bryan and TW continued to fire. Jake could see Jess bent over Amy, while Mark and Tyler fired their weapons into the darkness beside them. Ginger was still holding her ground around them. He couldn’t let his concern for Amy’s life and the consequences of her death enter his mind. He had to stay focused on getting everyone out of there alive.
The helicopter had moved right in front of them now. It was getting ready to land in the open road. It was too dark to tell exactly what kind of chopper it was, but it definitely wasn’t military. Best case scenario, the helicopter would have been throwing down a rope ladder to help avoid being overrun by the aliens, but Jake was happy to have a scenario at all at that point. The mission now was simply to protect his friends, and the helicopter, long enough to get everyone on board.
Jake stopped the truck and shouted out the window. “Mark! Grab Amy! It’s time to go!”