Daniel raced back to the airport. The pilot was moaning and crying by the time they arrived. Daniel shook the man again and told him to pull it together. They both leapt from the truck and dove into the cabin of the helicopter.
“Let’s get the hell out of here!” Daniel shouted.
The pilot was flipping switches with one hand and holding his head with the other. Soon they were in the air, moving quickly away from the city.
“Head west,” Daniel said.
“West?”
“That’s right, I want to go to Colorado.”
“But, Mr. President,” the pilot said, “shouldn’t we be headed back to Washington where it’s safe?”
“We will head back, but first I want to go to Colorado. Now please turn west.”
The pilot complied and soon they were flying over Kansas. Below them were vast fields, some with wheat or corn, others just lying fallow. It was an endless, flat earth that seemed to go on forever. Daniel was soon so bored with the landscape that he felt himself grow drowsy.
“Wake me up if you see anything,” he ordered the pilot.
Then he drifted off to sleep. It seemed like only a moment later when the pilot shook him and shouted, “Look at that, Mr. President! Look at that!”
Chapter 30
When Daniel opened his eyes, he looked out at the same flat plains, the same plots of wheat and corn. But in the distance was a large, black object, it looked triangular and very out of place among the fields.
“What is that?” Daniel asked. “An oil refinery or something?”
“No, Mr. President,” the pilot was so excited he was bobbing up and down in his seat. “I saw it come down out of the clouds.”
“You what?” Daniel said incredulously.
“That’s what I’m telling you, it flew down and landed, just like a helicopter. It just sort of floated down and now it’s on the ground.”
“You’re seeing things.”
“No, I swear it,” the pilot said. “You’ll see, it’s a spaceship. I knew this was all from space. Those creatures we saw, the spheres, now this.”
Daniel had had those same thoughts, but now he was forced to take the opposing view. Even after all he had seen, he couldn’t help but think this was all just too fantastic, too impossible to believe.
As they flew closer he could see what appeared to be a door opening on the end of the spacecraft.
“Let’s hover right here,” Daniel said. “Don’t go any closer yet.”
Daniel bent down and reached under his seat for the high powered binoculars he kept there. He focused them on the ship and watched as large, cow-like creatures came walking out. They were a rusty red color and had large, bulbous heads like a hippopotamus’s. Their legs were round like tree trunks, with no discernible knee or foot. Their bodies were swelled out, the bellies arching down and almost dragging the ground, their backs arching up equally as high as the stomachs were low. They had no tails, no horns or ears, but, incredibly, they moved as one gigantic herd.
“I think they’re eating the grass,” Daniel said, astounded.
The pilot just sat staring at them.
“There must be thousands of them,” Daniel said.
The animals just kept coming out, and finally a different sort of creature appeared. Daniel focused his binoculars on this new being: it was small, and seemed to be moving on some sort of sled.
“What is that?” Daniel said, more to himself that to the pilot.
“What is what?”
“There’s some sort of thing moving around the other animals. Let’s get closer.”
“Are you sure that’s a good idea?”
Daniel just looked at the pilot, his expression fierce.
“Alright,” the pilot said, “I’m going.”
They approached slowly so Daniel could focus in on the other creature. It had large eyes that reflected the light and protruded from its head, which was small. The lower part of the head was larger and the mouth and jaw seemed to balloon out, giving it a monkey-like appearance. There was no hair, no neck that Daniel could see. The body was pear shaped, with thick legs that almost looked like they couldn’t possibly hold up the body. There was an appendage that sprang from what would have been the creature’s chest, like an elephant’s trunk or a tentacle. It waved freely around the creature and seemed to be waving at the large, cow-like animals.
“I think it’s herding those animals,” Daniel said.
“What?” asked the pilot.
“I think that one on the sled is herding those animals.”
Just then a pulsing light came on, and Daniel noticed that the animals seemed to have stopped coming out of the ship. The creature on the sled moved quickly to urge the animals away from the ship as the large door raised back up into position.
“What do you think it’s doing?” the pilot asked.
“I think that ship is going back up,” Daniel said. “You better back us away from it.”’
The pilot eased the helicopter back from the spaceship and watched as the large, black spacecraft lifted effortlessly from the ground and moved quickly up into the sky. Daniel and the pilot watched it go until it disappeared in the clouds.
“I can’t believe it,” Daniel said. “I just can’t believe it.”
“What do you want me to do?” asked the pilot.
“Turn us around,” Daniel said. There was a note of sorrow in his voice. Giving up his mission to find Lana was like a white hot blade being pushed into his chest, but he could not ignore the global implications of what he was seeing now.
“I tell you what we’ve got to do,” Daniel went on. “We’ve got to find a town and get some sort of camera to record what we’re seeing. Then we’ve got to get back to Washington. Mark your coordinates so we can find this herd again and get us into a town.”
The pilot obeyed and they sped off. Once they found a town, they quickly set the helicopter down in an electronics store’s parking lot. The store had been looted, but Daniel found the inventory in the rear storage area relatively untouched. He quickly found a handheld video camera and several digital memory disks. He went back out and searched through the littered merchandise until he found a car charger for the camera. They plugged the camera into the power outlet inside the cabin of the helicopter, and as the pilot flew back toward the landing area of the large spaceship, Daniel quickly learned the controls of the camera.
They could see the massive herd of animals from a long distance away. As they approached, Daniel began filming the animals. The creature that herded the cow-like beasts took no notice of them, even as they flew lower and lower. Finally, when Daniel was satisfied that he had gotten enough footage of the creatures, he ordered the pilot to turn east again.
They flew away in silence, Daniel pondering his own thoughts, the pilot studying his instrument display. They stopped in Kansas City for fuel and then continued on towards Washington. As the day began to wane, they began to look for a place to spend the night. They landed in a small town in Tennessee, or maybe Kentucky. Daniel was so tired and hungry for something besides potato chips and warm bottled drinks that he didn’t care. They landed in the abandoned parking lot of a hotel and, after securing rooms, they set out for the nearby shopping center to find food. After gathering their canned and dehydrated feast, they walked back toward the hotel as dusk settled into evening. The moon and stars stood out overhead in the shadowy darkness that was void of any artificial light. The shopping center had been looted, but most of the camping gear was in place and the president and his pilot had collected electric lanterns. They stopped on the street and turned on the bluish lights. They were two blocks from the hotel still and the only sound was that of their own breathing. But there were two lights, golden reflections of the lamp light that were not stars.
Daniel’s legs shook, his bowels turned to water. He dropped his shopping bag, the cans landing with a metallic thud on the ground. Fear engulfed him, like being dropped into a wintery lake with heavy boo
ts that he could not escape from. He tried to keep his head above the icy panic that swirled around him and pulled him down, but he could not. When the beast growled, he fled, the pilot right behind him. He heard heavy thumps behind him and he crashed through the door of an office building. He was screaming, he was vaguely aware of that fact, and crying, too, as he ran, but it registered in the back of his mind like an odd fact, not as something he had control over. The pilot was screaming, too, and the beast behind them was snarling as Daniel ran. He had no thought to his route, his mind was numb with fear and his body moved on instinct. The office they had run into was a six story building, made of metal and glass. The beast was momentarily stuck in the doorway, but then it shattered the large glass wall and ran through.
Daniel raced through a doorway, the pilot right behind him, and turned down a long hallway. The beast was slinking behind them now, its head low, its tail straight out behind it, forearms held in tight. The growl from its throat was accented by the snap of its teeth. There were elevators at the end of the hall, but without electricity they were worthless. They stood open, as if offering safety from danger, but something in Daniel’s mind clicked and he sped away from them knowing they were only death chambers now, dead ends that would hold the beast’s prey helpless before him. Daniel saw the stairway sign on a door ahead and ran towards it. The beast was gaining on them and they would have no time to close the door, only race through it and up the metal staircase.
Daniel glanced over his shoulder and saw the beast surging forward. He yelled to the pilot, “Faster, faster, move it!”
They bolted though the stairwell doorway; if it had been a pull instead of a push, they would have been killed, eaten alive by the beast from another world, but the door pushed in and they bounded up the stairs. The beast was too large to fit through the doorway, and at the second floor landing they stopped and looked down. The creature was in a fit of rage, its head thrashing back and forth, the metal doorjamb creaking under the onslaught.
“He’ll be through in a minute,” the pilot screeched.
“At least you didn’t faint,” Daniel said, and they sped on up the stairs. By the time they reached the fourth floor, the creature had broken through and was in the stairwell trying to climb up the steps. Its feet were too large to stand on the steps and its forearms too weak to hold up its weight when it fell.
“Why do you think this one is so much more savage?” the pilot yelled as they left the stairwell on the fourth floor.
“Hungry maybe,” Daniel said, panting hard. His chest burned, but his legs no longer shook and his mind was working, even though fear had left it cold and sluggish. “We’ve got to get back down,” he said.
“Are you crazy?” the pilot said, the exertion allowing him to talk without falling back into his childhood stutter. “I say we stay here somewhere, wait until morning.”
It was dark and their lanterns were back on the street where they had dropped them. They could still hear the beast in the stairwell bellowing in rage as it continued to pursue them. Daniel shook his head; they needed to get back to the helicopter. They needed their weapons, but what if there were more of the creatures outside? They might not see the beasts until it was too late. Daniel went to a window and strained to see out in the darkness. Beside them was a smaller building, only two stories high, and beyond that was the hotel. They were so close, he just couldn’t wait to see what would happen with the beast.
“Let’s at least see if we can find another way down,” he suggested.
The pilot was game, so they walked down the darkened corridor like children with their arms stretched out in front of them. It was scary to be in a strange place, unable to see, unsure what was going to be around the next corridor or behind the next door. They finally came to an emergency exit, a metal door with a push release bar that led out to a fire escape.
“I think we should go down, try to get into the helicopter,” Daniel said.
“No way, we’re safer here,” the pilot argued.
“There are guns in the helicopter,” Daniel said.
“Haven’t you seen how crazy this animal is? If we get in the helicopter, he’ll tear it apart trying to get to us. We can’t fly anywhere in the dark, it’s insane.”
“Then we’ll get the guns and hold up in the hotel.”
“What if there are more of those creatures out there?” the pilot said. Daniel had no answer so the man continued. “I say we hang right here, if the creature comes for us, we’ll go, but if he doesn’t, we’re safest here.”
“Alright,” Daniel conceded. “You stay here, I’m going on down.”
“Are you crazy?”
“No, I just want to improve our chances of survival, and I think this is our best shot.”
Daniel pushed the door open and stepped out into the summer night air, which was muggy and hot. The heat of the day had not escaped yet and probably wouldn’t. It reminded Daniel of summer camp. There had never been air conditioning at camp, so even if you showered three times a day, as soon as you stepped out of the cool water you started to sweat. Daniel didn’t like sweating, but as he eased down the metal stairs, he began to sweat from exertion and from fear. At the first floor landing, the fire escape was just a metal ladder that was counterbalanced and would lower with his weight. He wondered if the metal would creak as it moved. If it did, and there were more of those creatures out there, they would surely hear and come to gobble him up. But there was no other way down, the door to the office building only opened from the inside, there wasn’t even a handle on this side.
Holding his breath, Daniel stepped out onto the ladder. At first nothing happened, then, as he stepped further down, it began to move with a grinding rasp that sounded incredibly loud to Daniel. He looked anxiously to either side as the ladder slowly lowered and finally he jumped down to the alleyway. The ladder then creaked its way back up. Seeing no movement in the gloom ahead of him, Daniel hurried forward. He thought it might be wiser to go slowly and carefully, but he was just too scared. His mind was buzzing with fear and he felt he must either run ahead for safety or freeze in fearful paralysis. He ran back out into the street toward the electric lanterns, one of which was still glowing bright. He snatched it up as he ran. He saw nothing and heard nothing as he moved, finally reaching the helicopter. He wrenched open the door and jumped inside, slamming the door shut behind him.
He knelt on the floor of the cabin between the seats and shuddered. He had never been so afraid in all his life. It was like a scary ride at a theme park, but one where you could not tell yourself it wasn’t real. He knelt there, holding himself until the shaking stopped. Then he retrieved the rifle and both pistols. He wasn’t sure if the small projectiles would stop the beasts, but he flipped the switch on the rifle to full automatic. If the weapons didn’t kill the creatures, it would not be because he didn’t fire enough rounds.
He wanted to get back to the pilot, but it was a foolhardy idea. The beast was in that building and would surely see him long before he saw it. It was probably still in the stairwell, which was the only way up. He would have to wait for daylight and hope his pilot survived the night. For now, he needed to get into the hotel so that the creatures didn’t attack the helicopter.
He held up the lantern at every window and let the light spill out as he looked for movement or the telltale reflection of the beasts’ eyes. He saw nothing in any direction and so he opened the door again, only this time he sat back, rifle raised, ready to shoot anything that reacted to the door’s movement. There was nothing, so he moved slowly, carefully out toward the glass doors of the hotel. The doors were on an electric sensor triggered to open as a person approached but with the electricity out, they would not open. Daniel took a few steps back and fired a short burst from the rifle. The weapon hardly moved and sounded like someone drumming his hands on his belly. The glass doors shattered, and Daniel steeled himself for an attack brought on by the sound, but nothing happened.
He moved forward, holding
his rifle with one hand, the lantern held high in the other. The lobby was once again pristine, except for the bullet holes he had shot into the far wall. Daniel checked to make sure he had the master key in his back pocket, then he moved carefully into the reception area. The check-in desk was directly in front of him, and beyond that was the lobby, with neatly arranged furniture. On the far side of the lobby were the continental breakfast room and a hallway that ran perpendicular to the lobby. In the darkness, moving slowly out from the hallway on the right, were two glowing eyes. Daniel did not hesitate. He sat the lantern on the front desk and then steadied the rifle with both hands as he fired straight at the eyes.
There was a dreadful scream and one of the glowing eyes disappeared. Daniel fired again and the only sound was something heavy jerking on the tile floor. There was no more growling or screaming, no more glowing eyes. Daniel stood with his back to the manager’s office, his eyes scanning the room, rifle at the ready. But nothing else moved. After a half hour Daniel decided to check on his kill. He picked up the lantern and moved from behind the front desk. He walked slowly, the lantern held high. As he approached the far end of the lobby, he could see the dark form of the beast. He proceeded even more slowly, watching for any sign of movement, but there was none. At last the circle of light fell on the shaggy beast. Its head was a bloody mess; at least, there was a thick, greenish liquid which Daniel took for blood.
Daniel made his way back across the lobby and found the hotel vending machines. They were dark but intact. One was full of warm soda, the other chips and candy. He was now longing for the good food he had been served at the White House, where there was power for lights and keeping things cold. He missed ice, even though it had only been three days since he had last had any. He shot the machine, opening the soda machine’s door to get to the bottles, and breaking the plastic front of the candy machine to get its goodies. He loaded up and headed upstairs. On the third floor, he went to the end of the hall toward the building his companion was sheltering in. He found a room and stepped out onto the balcony. He looked across the top of the smaller office building and could make out the door to the fourth floor where he had left the pilot. He flashed the lantern on and off, but he could not see any sign that the man had seen him. He hoped the pilot was alive, but for now he needed sleep. He would search for the man in the morning, when he could see. He felt safer with the rifle in his hands and now that he’d seen what the high powered weapon could do to the shaggy creatures, he yearned for a chance to unleash its power on them again. He had two priorities for the next day, first he would rescue his pilot, and second, he would have some revenge.
The New World Page 26