Fatal Reaction, Battle of the Hunted

by M A Hollstein

  Liam came running into the room wheeling a metal cart with a squeaky wheel. “This is all we have on hand. I emptied the freezer.”

  A large metal bowl filled with ice water, several folded towels, and a tube of burn ointment had been placed on top. Quickly, he dipped one of the white hand towels into the icy water.

  “Benjamin,” Susan tried again while taking a wet towel from Liam and applying it to the little boy’s blistering chest. “What’s causing this?”

  Benjamin screamed out again and struggled against his restraints. “Fire!” he screamed. “Fire! Fire! Fire! Help me!”

  “Fire?” Liam looked at Susan with confusion. “How can that be?”

  “What fire? There’s no fire here.”

  “Fire!” Tears streamed down his cheeks.

  “I’m here to help you, Benjamin,” Susan said calmly. She put another cold compress on the little boys’ blistered skin and then turned her attention to Liam.

  “Where’s the fire, Benjamin?” Liam asked.

  “I d-don’t know!” the boy cried. “It hurts!”

  “We don’t have fire,” Susan whispered to Liam as he handed her another towel. Since their atmosphere was quite different on their two planets, fire was not something they’d experienced until coming to Earth.

  “No,” Liam said. “We do not.”

  The cold compresses seemed to be helping. Susan also gave him a sedative to calm him. Benjamin stopped screaming and struggling against his restraints. His eyes closed, and his chest rose and fell as he breathed.

  “I believe we may be onto something,” she said softly.

  Liam made eye contact with her but didn’t say anything. He didn’t have to. His steel grey eyes said enough.

  “Soon,” she whispered. “Within the hour.”

  Liam didn’t answer. He didn’t want the humans observing them on the other side of the mirror to learn of their plans to move the boy from the bunker.

  ***

  After what felt like an eternity, when she could no longer hear the Scourge in the hardware store, Amanda reached up and patted the wall until her fingertips found the light switch.

  Flipping on the light, she sucked in a sharp breath, frightened to see who had been hiding in the dark with her. Whomever it was had kept quiet. Every once in a while she’d heard slight movement, but nothing more. To Amanda’s surprise, a woman and a small child were crouched on the floor by the sink. The woman’s hair was brown and straight. Bright green eyes stared out from a pasty white complexion. The child, Amanda thought was male due to the stronger brow and jawline, also had the same shoulder length brown hair and green eyes as the woman. He was cuddled up next to her. They stared at Amanda, unblinking. The woman unnaturally tilted her head to the side and held it in that strange, awkward position. Amanda had witnessed several other aliens of The Order observe her in the same manner. She believed they didn’t understand human behavior the way Susan and Liam did. Apparently, Susan and Liam had been observing humans for quite some time in order to fit in. The rest of the aliens of The Order were new arrivals and no longer needed to worry about fitting in since most of humanity had been wiped out.

  Amanda quietly got to her feet and placed her hand on the door handle. A small sound similar to a whimper came from the child in response. Amanda turned to look at the aliens and noticed the woman placed her hand on the child’s arm as if to quiet him.

  They’re just as frightened as I am, Amanda thought. Possibly mother and child. Amanda thought of Benjamin. She knew he wasn’t her child, but over the last few weeks, she’d quickly become attached to him and thought of him as her own. Her eyes clouded with tears. She had wanted so badly to protect him from the evil that’d taken over the world, and now he was gone. And the two scientists responsible for the virus had him. It still pained her. If she felt such pain for Benjamin, who wasn’t her own, she could only begin to imagine how frightened this mother was for her flesh and blood. Not only were they on a strange planet, but the same horrible creatures that’d terrorized them for centuries on their homeworld had followed them here.

  Placing an index finger to her lips, Amanda looked at the two aliens and hoped the symbol for silence was universal. She then pressed her ear to the door, felt the coolness of the wood on her skin, closed her eyes and listened. She could no longer hear anything. No crashes, no bangs, no growls. Nothing.

  She hoped that meant the Scourge had grown tired of searching for her and vacated the building in pursuit of other food sources.

  Inhaling deeply, Amanda switched off the light, unlocked the door and turned the handle. Careful, she opened it just a crack. She held still for a moment and peeked out. She couldn’t see anything.

  Straining, she listened. All was quiet.

  Pushing the door open, she stepped out of the bathroom into the small, dark hallway. There was a door leading to the warehouse area to her left, a water fountain in between that door and the men’s bathroom, and then the entrance back into the store to her right.

  Amanda gently closed the door so it wouldn’t slam behind her and tiptoed to the opening leading her back into the store. Listening, she was afraid to move.

  What if the Scourge were waiting for her? The uncanny feeling of being watched still plagued her. Maybe she needed to stay in the bathroom a while longer. Sunrise was in a couple of hours. If she could hold out until then, she’d at least be able to see the Scourge coming. Amanda decided it’d be best to wait it out. Morning would be the best plan of action. Safer.

  When she turned around, she was surprised to see the woman and her son standing in the hall behind her, watching her.

  Again, Amanda placed her index finger to her lips. She pointed at the bathroom. The woman tilted her head to the side, staring at her unblinking.

  Amanda couldn’t help but grimace. She didn’t know if she’d ever be able to get used to being observed in that manner. It gave her the creeps.

  The child turned around, but instead of returning to the bathroom, he headed for the warehouse in the back of the store.

  Amanda shook her head, no, but the woman didn’t budge. Amanda scurried past her, running after the boy that had disappeared. She couldn’t just let him wander around in the dark.

  Stepping into the warehouse, Amanda blinked hard, trying to adjust her eyes to the darkness. She couldn’t see a blasted thing. What the hell is that kid thinking? Never in a million years would she have entered a dark warehouse as a kid. Hell, she didn’t even want to enter as an adult.

  Suddenly, Amanda felt something brush up against her shoulder. Acting on impulse, she screamed at the top of her lungs. Her heart thudded in her chest as she ran out of the warehouse and back into the hallway. Soft light was filtering into the hallway from the few fluorescent lights on in the store.

  Glancing over her shoulder, Amanda saw the alien woman follow her from the warehouse. Her head was still tilted in that awkward position.

  Placing her hand over her racing heart, Amanda laughed. What she’d felt must’ve been the woman accidentally bumping into her shoulder. “I didn’t know that was you,” Amanda laughed, embarrassed. “You scared the heck out of me! I thought it was one of them… the Scourge.” She felt much better knowing who’d touched her. Her nerves had been on end tonight. Relief flooded through her, and she suddenly felt very tired.

  The alien child emerged from the warehouse. His face void of expression. He stared at Amanda, unblinking.

  “I was worried you’d get lost in there,” she explained, even though she knew he didn’t understand her. She then pointed at the bathroom they’d been hiding in. “I think we should stay the night in there,” she said. “Just until the sun comes out.”

  Thump! Crash! A loud noise could be heard from somewhere within the store. It was accompanied by what sounded like footsteps, pounding the floor at a quick pace.

  Amanda looked wide-eyed at the entrance to the store. When she turned around, she saw the backside of the woman alien, entering the warehouse.
Not having a better plan, Amanda followed them. She was afraid that the bathroom would no longer make a good hiding place since she’d stupidly screamed, having given away their general where-a-bouts. The cheap lock on the bathroom door wouldn’t keep the Scourge from getting in. A few hard kicks to the door would bust the lock.

  Entering the dark, Amanda held her hands out in front of her to keep from bumping into things. Her mind drifted to her backpack that she’d left in the bathroom. She couldn’t remember if she had another flashlight with her or not. Not that it mattered. She wasn’t about to go back for it. Not now. Her mind was scattered, thinking about a million different things at once. She needed to figure out where the hell she was going. She couldn’t see the aliens. She also couldn’t see the boxes and shelves she kept running into. And worst of all, she had no plan. She didn’t know where she was going, how to get out of the warehouse, or how to protect herself. She just hoped the Scourge would have a hard time seeing her as well. However, something told her that would not be the case. The Scourge were predatorial, and her gut told her that hunting at night was just as natural for them as it was many Earth creatures.

  Something loud clattered to the cement floor behind her, causing her to jump. Amanda’s breath caught in her throat. Instinctively, she wanted to run, but couldn’t see what the hell was in front of her. Her feet picked up the pace. She kept her hands straight out in front of her. Her right hand caught the edge of a metal shelf. She felt her way around to the other side. She felt what she thought was plywood stacked along the shelf. Groping around, her hand gripped a wooden plank as she heard a clattering of wood falling on the other side of the shelving unit.

  Pulling at the wood, Amanda realized it was too long and heavy for her to use as a weapon. She began to panic, desperately pulling on the stacks of wooden slats hoping to find one to use for protection. Slivers splintered her fingers and hands as she desperately grabbed at the wood.

  A barrage of strange clicking sounds accompanied by the familiar growling of the Scourge was closing in upon her.

  Wood began to slip from the pile as she pulled out a long plank and it tumbled from the shelving. Something rammed into her left side, knocking her to the ground. Amanda screamed as she stumbled and then fell. She was flat on the cold concrete when she felt hands tug at her arms, pulling her to her feet. It took a moment, for her to realize what had happened.

  There was a high-pitched screech and more growling. Then the sound of wood being tossed aside and landing on the ground.

  Amanda let the hands guide her. A door opened letting light from a security lamp filter inside. The little boy alien stood outside the door as the woman pulled Amanda through the opening and then closed the door behind them. She eyed the garbage receptacle behind the building, not too far from them. The woman tried to push the bin towards the door, but it was too heavy. She then looked around the lot.

  Grabbing the woman’s hand, grateful, she’d saved her life, Amanda tugged. “This way,” she said, leading the woman behind the hardware store. The woman and the child went with her without a fight.

  “I need to find Bill,” Amanda said, even though she knew they didn’t understand her. “He’ll know what to do.”

  They quickly ran behind the buildings and then cut in between them as soon as they found an opening. Thankfully, the fog had been lifting, and the sun would soon be rising. Amanda was worried that the Scourge would still be roaming the parking lot, but she didn’t see any hanging around.

  Gathering her courage, she ran across the lot in the direction of her apartment building. The mother and child following. When she reached the sidewalk, across the intersection, she could see flames from her apartment building, which was diagonal to the shopping center.

  “Oh my God!” she breathed, staring at them with disbelief. She prayed that Bill wasn’t in them. As she ran across the abandoned street, through the intersection, she stepped up onto the concrete sidewalk. She glanced over her shoulder to see the alien mother and child standing in the middle of the street, unmoving. They were staring at the fire.

  “I live there,” Amanda explained. “I need to see if Bill is inside.” Her mind also drifted to her family photo albums. She couldn’t handle the thought of all that she had left of her family was going up in flames. She often prayed that they were still alive; however, she knew they were gone. All she had left were her photos and little trinkets that she’d been given as gifts over the years.

  Amanda began to climb the grassy hill. The aliens didn’t follow. She could sense the fire frightened them. When she reached the top, she looked back, and they were gone. Not even a second went by before she began to sprint across the grass, past the fenced-in dog park and over to the parking lot.

  Flames licked the hillside of the canyon. The dry grass and trees blazing. Amanda scurried around her building and noticed flames on the side of the building and spreading to the roof. The fire hadn’t yet reached her unit. Or at least, she didn’t think so.

  Amanda began to climb her stairs, hoping the Scourge were no longer inside her apartment when she heard him.

  “Amanda!”

  Turning on the stairs, she almost tripped over her feet. She grabbed the railing to balance herself. She couldn’t believe her eyes.

  “Bill?”

  Bill bounded the stairs, two steps at a time and took Amanda into his arms. “I’m here, baby. I’m here.”

  Not realizing just how frightened she’d been, she began to sob into his shoulder. Feeling his big strong arms wrapped around her gave her solace.

  “I feared the worst,” she cried.

  “I know, baby,” he said, kissing her forehead. “I did too.”

  “Thank God you’re okay.” Tears streamed down her cheeks. “My, my home…”

  “I know, sweetheart.”

  “I want to grab a few things.”

  “Okay. Quickly.”

  They climbed the stairs together. The front door was left open. Bill stepped in front of Amanda and aimed the ray gun while entering the apartment. He flipped on the light, but they didn’t turn on. The encroaching fire must’ve melted the wires.

  Bill walked through the apartment, kicking each door open before allowing Amanda to enter.

  “Alright,” he said. “Everything’s clear. Grab what you need in a hurry.”

  “You’re limping,” she said, rushing past him towards her bedroom.

  “I’m fine.”

  Amanda grabbed an overnight bag. She slid open her closet doors and grabbed her photo albums. She then ran to her jewelry box to retrieve her grandmother’s diamond ring and slid it onto her finger for safekeeping. There were so many other things she wanted to take with her. She couldn’t bear to watch her possessions go up in flames. However, she had nowhere to take them or store them. At least she’d have her memories within her photo albums.

  “You okay?” Bill said, putting an arm around her shoulder.

  Amanda shook her head, no. She’d never be okay. Everything was gone; her family, her friends, and now her possessions. The entire planet was in ruins and their species almost extinct. Nothing was okay. Nothing.

  They stood there in silence for a moment, and then Bill guided her back down the hallway and out the front door. He had the gun in one hand and a bottle of spring water he’d snagged from the kitchen in the other. He took a couple of gulps and handed the bottle to Amanda.

  She took a sip and then followed him down the staircase and away from the building. Feeling numb, like she was trapped in some god-awful dream, she followed him away from the building. Her tears continued to tumble from her eyes.

  When they reached the street, they stood at the intersection. “Where do we go now?” she asked, staring at the flashing red light.

  “I don’t know. I don’t want to go far, in case Benjamin…” Bill couldn’t finish the sentence without choking up. The words were caught in his throat.

  “There were Scourge in the shopping center,” Amanda said, suddenly feeling
vulnerable, standing in the open. “I don’t think we should go over there.”

  “Those gangsters live in the neighborhood across the street,” Bill said, nodding in the direction of a housing complex a couple of blocks from the apartments.

  “You’re kidding. Right?”

  “We’re safer in numbers. And they have weapons. Lots of weapons.”

  “They’re gangsters!”

  “They’re humans.”

  “They’re the same gangsters that tried to rape me in Walmart. The same ones that wanted to hurt Benjamin. Or don’t you remember that?”

  Bill bit his bottom lip. “We don’t have much of a choice. They don’t know who we are and they have weapons. They can fight off the Scourge better than just the two of us.”

  “I say we walk around the neighborhood in search of a house to hide in. And we stay there. Alone.”

  Just then, a low rumbling echoed throughout the night. It was a familiar sound. Amanda clutched hold of Bill’s arm. She didn’t know if she should be happy or frightened. Should they hide? The roaring engines of motorcycles grew louder the closer they got.

  Two Harleys roared into view as Bill and Amanda scurried across the road towards the neighborhood where the gangsters, la Muerte, resided, but it was too late. The two men on motorcycles cut them off. The silver-haired one with a red and black bandana tied around his head, circled in front of them, blocking Amanda from getting away. Bill grabbed her arm and protectively pulled her behind him.

  The other man, round, older with a bushy white Santa beard, drove past them, did a U-turn, and pulled up alongside the other man.

  “Well, well, well,” Ronnie said to Burt, who was wearing a matching leather cut. “Who have we got here?”

  Amanda immediately recognized the men by their cuts. She’d seen a makeshift newscast that a redheaded teen boy had aired on one of the TV channels not long ago. They were part of the motorcycle gang, The Crusaders.

  Bill also recognized the men. “We’re not looking for trouble.”

  Ronnie looked over at Burt and grinned. “You were too quick to say you weren’t lookin’ for trouble,” he chuckled. “Isn’t that right, Burt?”