Day of Reckoning

by Isaiah Lee

  After a moment, he sat up and held his head. He thought it may burst at any moment. He pulled his hand away and felt fresh, warm blood oozing across his fingers.

  Screaming.

  Where did he hear screams? He lazily looked right, then left, trying to hone in on the sound.

  There it was again. Behind him… and in front of him. One of the soldiers who had been on the chopper, guarding the president, was attempting to crawl away from the wreckage. He dragged what remained of his body – both legs had been cut, or ripped, off right above the knees – away from the fire that seemed to grow in intensity by the second. Blood trailed behind him as he called out for somebody to help him.

  More screams. This time feminine. Jason whipped his head left and saw Karen pulling at President Neil’s limp body. She was screaming for help.

  Jason managed to get to his feet and stepped slowly at first, testing his balance. It was impaired, but he could manage. He stumbled toward the helicopter, watching flames as they jumped from the engine toward the remaining few occupants of the craft.

  “Jason!” It was quiet. So quiet that Jason could barely hear it. He got closer and heard her voice again, much louder this time. The fog in his head was beginning to fade. “Jason! Get over here and help. He’s going to die!”

  Jason hurried to Karen’s aid and helped free James’ arm from underneath the debris. He pulled the man from the helicopter and helped Karen drag him to safety.

  Air Force One erupted into a fireball that engulfed the entire craft. The only survivor, who had been trapped out of reach, let out a blood-curdling scream. It was an animalistic noise; Jason couldn’t remember hearing anyone make a sound like that before. He prayed he’d never have to hear anything like that again. It would undoubtedly haunt his dreams.

  Jason and Karen hurried behind cover – a burned out electrician’s van – and fell to the ground. The Black Hawk exploded, sending shrapnel slicing through the van. A wave of heat slammed the van and incinerated everything and everyone who was not protected. The man who had been pulling himself around was caught in the white-hot blast; no trace of his body had been left behind.

  Karen hunkered into the fetal position and covered her head with her arms.

  An alien spacecraft buzzed by overhead as the flames died down, followed by a Stinger missile. The craft jerked right in a futile attempt to break its flight pattern but it was too late. The missile struck its target, obliterating the ship. Pieces rained down onto the parking garage.

  “We’re not safe here,” Jason yelled over the din. “Let’s move.” He watched as debris narrowly avoided their location.

  James began to move slightly. “Wake him up. We can’t lug him around and keep ourselves safe, too,” Karen said. She reared back and smacked the powerful man right across the face.

  His eyes jerked open and he furrowed his brow. It took him a few moments to find his voice. “What… what happened.” Had Karen really just smacked him like that? Such an act wouldn’t go unpunished given other circumstances.

  “Doesn’t matter. We’ve gotta move,” Karen said as she tugged on his sleeve. “Come on!”

  She pulled James and Jason pushed as they moved him away from plain sight. Part of the second floor of the parking garage was covered. They only had to make it about three hundred feet to be under the roof. It wouldn’t provide complete cover, but anything was better than being the only three targets moving on the open concrete structure. At least near their current position.

  Gunfire and explosions continued high above as the fleet of Chinooks made their way to the parking garage. One by one, they unloaded their payload. Soldiers – or, more precisely, civilians who were armed to the teeth and motivated by the billions of lives lost – poured from the crafts and began toward the opening in the nest.

  Alien foot soldiers could be seen forming up inside the nest entrance. There had to be hundreds of them, and that was just what was in sight. Nobody knew how many more Qspolians there may be further in the nest. Nobody truly wanted to know.

  Jason spotted a pile of supplies that had blown out of Air Force One upon impact. Two of the backpacks full of explosives, UAVs armed with warheads, amongst other things, lay in the pile. “You two go ahead,” he said as he broke away and ran toward them at full speed. He couldn’t believe their luck that the bags hadn’t been destroyed.

  An alien ship above opened fire, launching two green blasts at him. They exploded feet behind him as he navigated the maze of burned cars and debris.

  Karen helped steady James as they continued toward cover, watching Jason. She watched him bound over obstacles, dive under others. He was limber and quick; she would have taken him for an athlete if she hadn’t known otherwise. Either way, she was proud to call him her man.

  The ship circled back for another strike. This time, Jason stopped dead in his tracks.

  “Jason!” Karen screamed.

  “Move it, Jason!” James yelled. “Move!”

  Jason heard their screams but did not move. He didn’t want to break concentration. He’d reached the bags and had one hand inside. He felt around until he found a warhead-tipped UAV.

  The ship fired again as Jason dove. Dust and rubble covered his body. He threw one bag around his shoulder while he gripped the other in one hand. The other hand held the UAV. He launched it right toward the ship. The warhead found its mark as it met the cold, inhuman craft.

  Jason had already turned tail and began his retreat as the craft disintegrated. The concussion nearly made him lose his footing as he bounded toward them.

  Karen jumped up and down with joy as Jason regrouped and they made it to cover. “That was awesome!”

  Jason nodded. “I’m not going to lie, that was pretty exhilarating.”

  James pointed to the open concrete structure. “Here comes reinforcements!”

  Chapter 35

  Soldiers spilled from the Chinooks and Black Hawk helicopters. Nearly eight thousand troops – almost entirely civilian by make-up from WDC2 and other regional bunkers – found cover or got into formation and readied for the inevitable attack on the nest.

  The remaining helicopters, the ones which hadn’t gotten destroyed yet, led an all-out assault. On first impression, one would believe the nest to have been caught off guard; there were few alien ships buzzing around. There were even fewer remaining.

  In all the chaos, Jason lost count of how many alien crafts had been destroyed. By his last count – before he found himself the target – had been sixteen. Or was it seventeen?

  On the horizon, the fleet of tanks and armored personnel carriers came rolling over the uneven terrain. Roads were mostly destroyed; still, this posed little opposition for the tracked-vehicles. Once in range, the lead tank opened fire. The single shot ripped through the air and slammed into the side of the nest. A chunk of the massive ship crumbled and littered the ground with debris as it fell.

  “Thank God that fucking thing is not invincible,” Jason muttered under his breath. Karen must not have heard him for she offered no reaction.

  As they grew closer, and got out of the line of sight of one another’s cannons, more tanks began to fire.

  President Neil looked overhead as dozens of helicopters seemed to maneuver as one; they evaded attacks as missiles and rockets flew through the air. Explosions dotted the skyline here and there as alien ships fell toward Earth in pieces.

  He held a hand high above his head, a signal for silence amongst his men. Even with the soldiers quiet, the din of the war was almost too much. “On my count.” He looked around the parking deck at his makeshift army. Smoke wafted around, circling in several places where currents met. The smell of burning… things filled his lungs. He fought back a lung-ejecting cough. “On three, we charge. Kill anything and everything that moves inside that fucking nest! Bunker PNF6 is located under the nest. Once we clear out the enemy threat, extraction efforts will begin.”

  Tanks and APCs began to arrive and dump their soldiers out onto th
e battlefield. Before long, another thousand soldiers joined the ranks. They were almost nine-thousand strong at present.

  Men, women, brothers, sisters, sons, and daughters. The army of the resistance was made up of people from all walks of life. Who had once been lawyers and doctors, beggars and thieves, now stood together as one.

  As James opened his mouth again from his perch on a wrecked truck, above his army, pinkish-grey figures began to pour from the opening on the nest. Hundreds of the creatures seemed to appear every second. “Fire!” he screamed as he pointed his machine gun toward them and opened fire.

  The front line of soldiers crouched and staggered, allowing others behind them an opening. The creatures’ bodies exploded in bursts of green fluid – much too thick and corrosive to be comparable to any creature on Earth – as they fell to the frozen concrete floor.

  Just the same, human casualties began to mount. The whi whi sounds of the alien guns were much quieter than conventional weaponry, yet they seemed quadruple the power. One blast could tear through two to three men. One blast could rip a man completely in half.

  What had been a semi-orderly formation seconds earlier ended abruptly as panic set in and people began to scatter. One at a time, they broke away and found themselves singled out. Whi whi, then they fell.

  Or, more accurately, were blown apart. Rogue body parts splattered the concrete parking deck, blood covering nearly every surface. Many of the civilian soldiers were in total shock; some simply stopped where they stood as if awaiting their inevitable death.

  Jason took in the sights around him. People seemed to fall everywhere around him. He snapped back to attention. Karen. Where was Karen?

  He looked to each side and did not immediately see her. To his far left he saw movement, something rolled behind a parked car. The shape moved again to reveal its identity: Karen.

  Jason opened his mouth to call for her before realizing she would not have heard him over the gunfire. The man immediately in front of Jason caught a blast in the torso. As his body shredded, blood sprayed across Jason’s face and upper body. He wiped his eyes and sprinted toward Karen’s location as more green blasts tore through the air.

  Whi whi. Whi. He could hear the shots, feel the shots, as they grazed by him. Karen stood from cover and pointed her assault rifle toward the attacking Qspolians. She squeezed the trigger and loosed a single shot. One of the creature’s head exploded as its limp body littered the parking deck. She fired two more shots in quick succession. Two more of the creatures down. Hundreds, possibly thousands, to go.

  Jason pointed his machine gun into the crowd of aliens and pulled the trigger. He fired as he ran, limiting his control on the gun. It wavered wildly in his hands as its contents were emptied. He shot as he moved, never stopping to see if any of his shots connected.

  “Jason!” Karen gasped as she spotted him. Fury overtook her upon seeing his bloodied face. She sprayed bullets wildly toward the nest entrance. Several more of the creatures fell.

  “It’s… not… mine,” Jason croaked through gasps.

  Casualties mounted for both sides as the fighting intensified. Dozens more alien ships poured from the nest as the Qspolian foot army increased. Tanks continued to fire at the nest; what had been a small entrance was now several times larger. Parts of the structure were collapsing in; soon it would be impossible to gain entry.

  Jason felt the weight of the pack on his back. “We’ve got to disable whatever communications are inside that thing.”

  Karen glanced back at the main force where President Neil was. He was covered in blood – similarly to Jason, it appeared very little to none was his own – and he was out front. They had to give it to him, he was sincere about fighting on the front line. He was surrounded by what appeared to be professionally trained soldiers, the remainder of his personal guard and the military forces around WDC2.

  Karen shifted her left shoulder, feeling her own bag. It was loaded much lighter than Jason’s, but it was still enough that it was impossible to completely forget she was carrying it. “Let’s move.” She motioned toward a group of soldiers. They began to fight their way over to her.

  Neil spotted the entrance and realized what was going on. Instead of joining the others, and possibly drawing attention to their whereabouts, he continued his assault.

  Chapter 36

  Jason and Karen fell behind the group of soldiers, who, thankfully, seemed to know how to handle themselves under pressure. The twelve men moved silently, one at a time, away from the main entrance into the nest. There appeared to be another entrance, about the size of an oversized doorway, on the opposite side of the ship. It was nearly impossible to see – it blended perfectly under the shade of the parking deck roof to the metallic grey of the ship – except that a couple of stray aliens snuck out that way.

  There were more abandoned cars left on this side of the parking deck, offering plenty of opportunities for cover. After splitting from the main army, the twelve soldiers, Karen, and Jason had gone unnoticed by the Qspolians. About seventy feet away from the ship, the group stopped.

  “What’s the plan?” a young, twenty-something man asked. Surprisingly, he did not appear nervous. This was a man who knew how to remain calm under pressure; a man who had likely been in this situation before.

  Jason appraised the man. “These packs are full of explosives. We’re going to travel inside the nest and find the communications… well, whatever we think is for communication, and destroy it. It doesn’t matter if we destroy the entire ship so long as we kill the enemy and end all communications.”

  “Any idea what we’re looking for?” another man asked. His voice trembled just slightly around the edges. He was wiry thin with glasses as thick as a Coke bottle.

  “Your guess is as good as ours,” Karen offered in explanation. She turned her attention back to the first man. “What’s your name, soldier?”

  The man didn’t waver at being called a soldier. He definitely had some formal training, somewhere. “Cooper.”

  “Cooper,” Karen repeated. “Lead the way.”

  Cooper nodded and motioned toward the entryway. One at a time, the others followed. They lined up on either side of the opening until all others were in range, then poured into the dark opening. The soldiers panned left and right, checking for enemies.

  Although movement could be heard inside the nest, it was impossible to pinpoint a location. The acoustics of the structure were unlike anything anyone had ever experienced. The slightest step echoed through the space as if a gun had been fired. It would have to be a snail’s pace.

  The signal for all clear went up, silently now to keep noise to a minimum. Cooper led the pack down the hallway to the left, a decision that had been left up completely to chance. The hallway back the other way was identical in every way.

  The hallway was octagonal, with every surface being made of the same greyish metal as the original craft in Shepherd Park had been. Difference now, though, was that no hieroglyphics had been carved into these surfaces. They were perfectly smooth with no visible imperfections anywhere. It was truly impressive. There was no single lighting source; instead it was as if light emanated from the floors and walls, almost as if they glowed.

  The group crept down the hallway, passing several openings. Each opening led to an identical room which was hexagonal in shape and interlocked with surrounding rooms in the same way as a honeycomb. The tiny rooms were empty except for a chamber of sorts that was comprised of a material that glowed amber in hue and seemed light as air. Almost as if it were a hologram. These chambers were about five feet tall, two feet square, and seemed to be filled with the same fog that had been so debilitating to humans. Was it a way to regenerate?

  Upon glancing into the rooms, everybody in the group had questions about the operation of the devices, but they were afraid to make any noises that would echo in the confined space. This kept speculation on a verbal level to a minimum.

  After several minutes of walking, the
hallway ended abruptly. “Shit, we’ll have to turn around,” Cooper suggested quietly.

  Just then, a sound echoed from the other side of the hallway. Another sound. Some form of communication and hurried movement. It was headed in their direction.

  “Steady, soldiers,” one of the men said. “Here they come.”

  Within seconds, several pinkish-grey objects had manifested at the opposite end of the hallway. They were armed and raised their weapons.

  “Down!” Cooper called just as the whi whi sounds began.

  The two men closest to the assailants fell to the floor, both having massive holes blown out of them. The aliens shot again as the group ducked and opened fire. The reports from the assault rifles were deafening in the confined space. Three of the creatures fell to the floor.

  Tinnitus immediately set in following the gun shots. Cooper motioned to the other soldiers and several nodded. Jason and Karen followed the soldiers down the narrow hallway. They passed the doorway leading outside and didn’t stop.

  They knew the rooms behind them had been unoccupied. That provided at least a small relief to the unknown dangers of the alien ship.

  As the group passed by the narrow entryway, something exploded outside. An Apache took a direct shot from one of the alien ships and was now falling to Earth. The wreckage crashed through the parking deck roof. Parts of the fuselage blocked the exit from the ship.

  “Shit!” one of the men cursed. His voice echoed through the now-enclosed space.

  Cooper held a hand up and the man immediately fell silent. Normal hearing was beginning to return as sounds of movement and alien voices from beyond the hallway became audible. They didn’t appear to be coming closer, but they sounded frantic.

  The remaining twelve people – ten soldiers, Jason, and Karen – slowly worked their way down the hallway, toward the sounds. More openings were scattered on either side of the hallway, each identical to the last. They appeared to be living quarters of some sort. If so, there had to be thousands of these rooms on the ship assuming the rest of the ship was laid out in similar fashion.