“Shit!” Beth muttered and flung the covers aside. Jumping out of bed, she stormed up to her door, unlocked it, and pulled it open.
The door thundered with another round of knocking. “Hang on, I’m coming!” Beth said irritably. Her legs shaking, she swept her fear under a carpet of anger. They were going to get an earful for leaving her alone so long.
Beth breezed through the living room, past the dining table to the front door, but instead of seeing it cracked open with the chain pulled taut as she’d expected, she saw that the door was still shut. Her dad had a key, so whoever was knocking, it wasn’t him.
Maybe it was Toby. Had they been separated? Icy dread gripped her with the thought that something might have happened to her dad.
“Please be okay, please be okay,” she whispered.
Reaching the door, she said, “Hello? Who’s there?” and then placed her ear against the door to listen for a reply.
“Come get some!” a loud voice said, followed by a loud bang, and then two more. Gunshots. A deep, trilling roar answered, like a bear with a stutter, followed by a scrabbling of claws on tiles, and heavy footsteps approaching fast.
“Hello?” Beth called through her door. “Is someone out there?”
The footsteps stopped.
Knock, knock, knock! The door shook, and Beth jumped.
“Open the door! Quick!”
“Who is it?”
“Does it matter? Hurry, before that thing comes back!”
Beth slid off the chain and pulled open the door. A big man with a flashlight and an unkempt blond beard stumbled in and slammed the door behind him. He flicked the deadbolt into place and stood with his back against the door, as if the lock might not hold.
Beth stared at the stranger. He wore a blue cap with a red C on it, and a gray Hawaiian shirt covered in blood. She felt like she’d seen him drinking beers by the pool sometime over the past few days. Beth’s gaze slipped down the man’s blood-soaked shirt to the gun in his hand.
“What’s going on? Where did you get that?”
“I brought it with me,” he said. “Damn good thing I did, too, or we’d be fish in a fucking barrel right now.”
Suddenly wary of this stranger more than whatever was outside, Beth backed up a couple of steps. “You can’t bring a gun on a plane...”
“I didn’t have to. I live here.”
“You live here? Then why come here for a vacation?”
“A man can’t take a vacation close to home?” He snorted and shook his head. “What’s your name?”
“Beth.”
“I’m Don. Now, listen up, we have to get out of here.”
“No, my dad will be back soon. I have to wait for him.”
Don fixed her with an uncertain look. “He went out?”
Beth nodded. “With my boyfriend.”
“Well, I hate to pop your bubble, kid, but they’re dead.”
“What?” Tears sprang to Beth’s eyes. “You saw them?”
Don shrugged. “Maybe, maybe not, but I found over a dozen people up here all slashed to pieces.”
“By what?” Beth shrieked.
“I didn’t get more than a glance before it took off. Slick, transparent skin. A little smaller than you—fast and smart, but naked as a baby. No armor or weapons. Not exactly what you see in the movies when aliens invade.”
“So it is aliens,” Beth said, feeling suddenly cold all over.
“I can’t imagine what else,” Don replied. “Animals don’t knock on people’s doors to get them to open up. Besides, something has to be blocking the sun, right?”
“And the stars,” Beth said.
Don grimaced. “I didn’t notice that. You couldn’t see any stars?”
Beth hesitated. “There were a few, but only out toward the horizon.”
“Then whatever is hovering over us is either low to the ground or just that damn big. Either way, we’re at ground zero here, which means the safest thing for us to do is run. Are you coming with me?”
Beth shook her head. “I have to wait for my dad.”
Don’s permanently furrowed brow tightened. “You’re not safe here, kid. Those things can get up to the balcony and force the locks. What do you think I’m doing out of my room?”
Beth whirled around to check that nothing was out on the balcony trying to break in.
“Still think you’d rather stay here?”
“Maybe. How do I know I can trust you?”
“What?”
Beth crossed her arms, doing her best to look brave. “For all I know you killed the people up here, not an alien. You brought a gun to a hotel. Who does that? A serial killer, maybe.”
Don’s lips curved into a wry grin. “Or someone who’s used to sleeping with a gun beside his pillow. Look, kid, I was in the army for eight years. Afghanistan.” He slowly shook his head. “Some people have a favorite blanket or a pillow that makes them feel safe. I’ve got my gun.”
Beth frowned. “If I go with you, where are we going?”
“Nawiliwili Harbor. I have a boat there. It’s not much, but it’ll get us to Oahu, at least.”
Beth knew the harbor well. It was in the town of Lihue, within walking distance of her school. “You have a car to get us there?” she asked.
“A truck.”
Beth felt crazy for even thinking about leaving her room with a stranger, but staying here alone with monsters trying to break in seemed even less appealing. “We’ll look for my dad on the way out?”
Don looked hesitant. “So long as you don’t go around shouting his name and drawing attention to us.”
Her palms sweating and skin itching, Beth nodded quickly. “Okay, let’s go.”
Chapter 11
Captain Arthur Reed stood on the bridge of his ship, the USS Port Royal, watching his helmsman take them ever deeper into the inexplicable darkness that had fallen over the island of Kauai. NASA’s report stated that an unidentified, square-bottomed metallic object measuring nearly eight hundred kilometers on each side had dropped into low Earth orbit just over four hundred kilometers from the surface at 1421 local time, which was—Reed checked his watch—only fifty-seven minutes ago. From there it had executed maneuvers to put itself directly over Kauai, causing a complete eclipse of the sun over nearly ninety degrees of the sky.
But what Reed really wanted to know was why no one had seen it coming. You don’t just miss an alien spaceship the size of Texas. NASA claimed that it must have some kind of cloaking technology to elude detection. But that sounded like ass-covering to Reed. Someone had screwed up.
Regardless, the very presence of the object in question left no question as to its origins. As for the ‘meteors’ that had rained down all over the island after the spaceship’s arrival, best guess was that they were some kind of landing craft. God only knew what had come out of them, but whatever it was, Reed knew that it wasn’t friendly. The electromagnetic pulse that had detonated above the island soon after the aliens’ dropships began vanishing over the horizon only confirmed it as far as he was concerned.
Unfortunately, the powers that be had decided to pussyfoot around. They believed that launching a preemptive strike against an interstellar spaceship would be both futile and foolish. Reed didn’t agree. If it were up to him, and he had access to the nuclear football, he wouldn’t hesitate to order an all-out attack.
Unfortunately, he was not the President, and he was bound by a chain of command that would promptly put him out of a job and into prison if he stepped out of line. He had explicit orders not to engage the visitors under any circumstances. His mission was to approach the island, drop anchor at a respectful distance, and send out the recon teams. Those recon teams were in turn bound by the same orders to avoid engagement at all costs, and to use non-lethal force until, and only if, American lives were threatened.
But Captain Reed didn’t like the idea of how the history books would portray him if he got his men killed by sending them into an alien beachhead
unprepared. As per their orders, his Marines would go out packing stun grenades, shotguns loaded with XREP cartridges, and even grenade launchers sporting the military’s latest 40mm HEMI projectiles, but they would also go packing all the deadlier counterparts of those weapons. The team leaders knew that live rounds were a last resort, but if all else failed, Reed didn’t expect his men to roll over and die. Besides, he seriously doubted that the non-lethals would do anything.
For starters, the aliens probably wore suits of high-tech armor that would repel all but the heaviest rounds, and even if their armor wasn’t that sophisticated, they might not be vulnerable to the same types of stimuli as humans. Electrical-based taser systems like XREP and HEMI might be useless, and stun grenades would only be useful against beings with eyes and ears. What if they had completely different senses?
There were far too many unknowns, so Captain Reef had ordered the missile cruiser’s inflatable CRRCs to be loaded up with enough firepower to arm a third world coup, and frankly, he hoped the Marines in those boats would get the chance to use it.
Glancing up, Captain Reef scowled at the empty black square in the sky. If those alien buggahs, as the locals would say, had chosen to squat their collective asses over New York or Washington, no one would be tip-toeing around, afraid to hurt their feelings with an armed response. No, they were only cautious because the aliens hadn’t sent landers down anywhere else besides Kauai. Having apparently lost their minds, his superiors assumed this meant that aliens had traveled halfway across the galaxy for the express purpose of claiming just one small island.
Well, I call bullshit, Reed thought. This was some kind of field test for them. They want to see how we respond. Test our mettle.
“Helm, mark your head,” Reed said.
“Mark my head, aye, two seven three, sir.”
“Keep her so.”
“Aye, keeping her so.”
Reed nodded to his executive officer. “Commander Morris, what’s our ETA?”
“One hour, seven minutes, sir.”
“Too long. Lee helm, set speed to flank.”
“Aye, setting speed to flank, sir,” the officer at the lee helm replied.
“XO, get me an update from Lieutenant Spooner. I want our recon teams ready to launch the minute we drop anchor.”
“Aye, captain, I’ll check their status.”
Chapter 12
Bill heard a door click open, and then the knocking returned. When no one answered, the sound moved on further down the hall. Something was out there, knocking on doors to trick people into opening them—and then creeping in and killing them.
“We have to do something,” Bill said.
“Maybe we should stay,” Melanie replied.
He rounded on her and pointed at the cracked glass of the patio door. “You said it yourself. Something could break in here any minute. I’m not going to die hiding in here like a coward. If something’s going to rip my guts out, better that happen while I’m out trying to save lives. Now, are you coming with me or not?”
Another scream sounded, and Bill’s hand tightened on the door handle. “Do it for your husband,” he said and thrust his flashlight into her chest. “I’m going to need both of my hands free,” he explained.
Before Melanie could even nod her consent, he yanked the door open and leapt into the hallway, brandishing his barbecue lighter and can of Lysol. A shaky beam of light followed him out, revealing blood-smeared floors and something crouching in the shadows of an open doorway near the edge of the flashlight’s range.
“Shit,” Bill muttered. “I think it’s eating someone! Come on!” He started down the hall at a run, not waiting to see if Melanie followed. “Hey!” he yelled. The creature in the open doorway looked up, and Bill caught a glint of large black eyes—four of them in a row where a forehead should be. The creature’s head and body glistened as if wet; it had translucent, hairless skin, and no clothing or armor of any kind.
The monster’s jaws popped open as Bill approached and jagged, glass-colored teeth appeared. The aperture of the black eyes narrowed as translucent skin squeezed into wrinkled cones around them; Bill wondered if that was how the creature focused its eyes.
It drew itself up onto hind legs, brushing the ceiling with its head. Bill stopped and gaped at the monster. It had four long legs. The front set branched at the knees into two pairs of additional limbs with broad hands and three fingers. Gleaming, glass-like claws tipped each finger. The creature held one of those branching forelimbs out, reaching for him, and Bill saw that the primary limb ended in a sturdy, hoof-like pad, while the smaller, skinnier set unfolded to a length of at least six feet each.
Bill felt like he was trapped in a childhood nightmare, the monster under his bed had come to life, and his feet froze as if they were stuck in molasses.
“What do you want?” he asked. The creature cocked its head at him, and then let out a stuttering roar that left his ears ringing and filled the air with a rotten stench. A long black tongue snaked out between glass-like teeth as if to taste his fear—
And then it lunged. Bill let out a guttural scream and used his lighter to turn a can of Lysol into a pitiful flame-thrower with barely two feet of range.
Chapter 13
James Lucas had told his wife and kids to hide in one of the bedrooms of their 2nd-floor suite—the one without the balcony—while he and the resort manager, Eric Monte, stayed in the living room to guard the entrance with makeshift weapons. James held a wooden leg in each of his meaty fists, while Eric Monte brandished a paring knife and a barbecue skewer from the kitchen.
Eric’s phone sat on the kitchen counter illuminating the entry area with diffuse light reflected from the ceiling. James stood just behind the door with his ear pressed to it. He and Eric had both heard people screaming outside and on the floor below; they’d also heard what sounded like gunshots on the floor above, but maybe they’d been mistaken. How would a tourist manage to smuggle a gun in their luggage?
James’ thoughts were interrupted by faint, thumping footsteps and a dragging sound. He frowned and placed a chair leg to his lips like a giant finger.
Eric’s eyes widened, and he grew very still. The footsteps soon faded into the distance. James resisted the urge to ease the door open for a look at whatever was out there, but he knew better than that. Besides, it was too dark in the hallway to see anything. Instead, he waited through long, sweaty seconds. Seconds turned to minutes, and the footsteps didn’t return.
“What was it?” Eric whispered.
James just shook his head. How the hell should I know? So far his vacation had been nothing but one disaster after the next. First, his wife, Kayla, had gotten stung by a jellyfish and he’d had to pee on her, then Alison caught the flu, followed by her brother, Michael, after that, the water outage, and now...
Now they were at ground zero of something straight out of the movies. Aliens. To tell the naked truth he’d never believed in all of that Enquirer bullshit, but this was the real deal, and it was scary as all hell. What did they want? Why had they blotted out the sun? Why Kauai? Who were they? What did they even look like?
The questions were endless, and the only answers he had were the screams that came echoing through the walls. It seemed the invaders had come for the express purpose of killing and terrifying tourists, but that made absolutely zero sense.
This was supposed to have been his family’s last happy memory before James told Kayla the truth and everything went to hell. It wasn’t supposed to go to hell before he could spill the beans.
He hadn’t planned to cheat on his wife, but working eighty-hour weeks at his law firm to distinguish himself as a candidate for partner had meant that he spent far more time with his fellow associates, and paralegals like Amy, than with his wife. Throw in an office party six months later to congratulate him for being made partner, and suddenly all of his unfulfilled desires and fantasies boiled over. Amy’s eyes had been filled with stars, or maybe dollar signs, and his wi
th lust for a woman twenty years younger than his wife. All it had taken was a cheap bottle of champagne to stir the pot. And now... now he was in the middle of a nightmare that made all of that look about the size of an ant from space—which was probably exactly how these aliens saw humans.
Fuck this, James thought. I’m not going to die like a rat in this hole. “We have to get out of here,” he said in a bold voice.
“You want to go... out?” Eric sounded incredulous. “Those things are out there. We’re safer where we are.”
“I bet that’s what all the others thought, too,” James replied. “Those creatures are getting them out of their rooms somehow.”
“You have children, Mr. Lucas.”
“Which is why I need to get them out of here!”
“Help will be on the way. We just need to be patient,” Eric said.
“How the hell do you know? Even if help does come, there are a million other places they might go first.”
“Even if we do go out—then what?” Eric asked.
“Those things landed all over the island, right? There were maybe a few dozen landers. One of them came down in the ocean right in front of us. That’s why they’re here now. But if we could get away and go somewhere else, somewhere they didn’t land, or better yet get to the harbor, steal a boat and get the hell away from Kauai...” James began nodding along with the wisdom of his plan. “We just have to get to the parking lot, to our rental car, and from there to the nearest harbor.”
Eric looked skeptical, but James could see the wheels turning inside his head. “You’re parked out front?”
“Right out front,” James said. “We just have to get down the hall, down one flight of stairs and out those sliding glass doors at the entrance.”
“What if we run into one of those creatures along the way?”
James knocked his chair legs together lightly. “You let me worry about that.”
Eric frowned. “I don’t know...”
“You can stay if you want, but we’re leaving.” James sucked in a deep breath, his chest puffing up with macho self-assurance. Now all he had to do was convince his wife.
Under Darkness (A Sci-Fi Thriller) (Scott Standalones Book 1) Page 5