by Eric Johnson
Eddie held onto the gate as long as he could, but had to let go to fight. The gate dropped down on Tom’s thighs, pinning him.
Tom howled in pain. Winston and Anidea tried to lift the gate again, but it was too heavy. There were three creatures on Eddie, he strained to break free. He managed to knock two down and with one holding onto his leg he lifted the gate up just enough for the twins to pull Tom out.
Eddie screamed in pain as the one on his leg sank its teeth in and pulled out a chunk of flesh. “Go!” he yelled to Tom as he let go of the gate, sealing the exit. They watched him fight, helpless to do anything.
Switching the gun from one hand to the other, Eddie stomped on the head of the creature that had bitten him and then punched the closest, bowling it back into the third one. “That’s it. Come on, now. Come on, that’s it.” he challenged the creatures.
More appeared, coming down the aisles in the store. He raised his gun and moved. Five shots rang out as he hobbled up the stairs, disappearing into the darkness with the creatures following him.
“Go!” Tom yelled.
Half a block away Winston stopped. “We have to go back for him.”
Tom blocked Winston and shook his head. “We have to keep moving. We can’t stop now.”
“You didn’t leave me behind,” Winston said. “You helped me.”
“What choice did we have?”
“Let’s get him, Tom,” Winston stood his ground.
“We can’t. There’s too many of them in the store for us to go in after him.”
“Only a fool would try,” Emmett said. “I wouldn’t risk it.”
“I’m going to get him,” Winston said, and pushed past Tom.
Tom grabbed Winston by his backpack and pulled him off balance in an attempt to stop him.
Winston half fell, but spun around and broke Tom’s grip.
“Don’t be crazy Winston,” Emmett said. “He was bitten. We can’t help him now.”
“If Eddie made it into the office, he’ll will be safe,” Tom said. “That’s what we have to think.”
“It’s not fair that you left him in the store,” Winston said. “Would you leave us behind too, just to get to your dad?”
“His name was Eddie,” Tom bellowed at him. “He was my dad’s best friend. Do you think it was easy for me to leave?”
Emmett stepped close to Winston and put his hands on his shoulders. “You can’t go back there. We’re going to find mom, remember? She’s more important than Eddie.”
Anidea’s eyes widened and she lifted Tom’s shirtsleeve, then quickly let go. “Tom, you’re bleeding.”
“Doesn’t hurt. Must have gotten cut on the gate.”
“But it’s bleeding,” Anidea said.
“What’s blood to you?” Tom asked.
Tom peeled his shirt sleeve back, coagulated blood stuck to the cloth, revealing the gash. “It’s just a scratch.”
“Let’s get someplace safe.”
“No,” Tom said. “We’re going to the school. That’s where my dad is.”
Anidea’s face twisted. “School? Not even I’m that crazy.”
“I thought you, of all people, would be up to it. Eddie said that’s where my dad went and that’s where we are going.”
Emmett walked away. “We need to get out of town.”
“I don’t want any more of this.” Winston followed.
“We have to stick together,” Tom said. “Come on then, help me get this bandaged. Winston was the one who followed directions. He wouldn’t leave. “I took you guys to your house to get your dad. You owe me.”
They kept walking.
Winston and Emmett where half a block away when two helicopters appeared, flying low and slow just above the trees. They ran back to Tom.
Winston jumped up and down, waving his arms to get their attention. “Over here! Over here! Are they here to rescue us?”
The helicopters flew within a block of them and stopped, hovering just above the buildings. Fire and smoke erupted from missile racks at their sides. The roar was intense, they fired what Tom thought must be everything they had.
“They’re shooting in the direction of the school,” Emmett said.
“What are they shooting at?” Winston yelled. “Over here! Over here!”
Tom couldn’t help ducking as the missiles flew overhead. “They’re not going to see us. They’re too busy to notice.”
The air tinged green around the helicopters and dark beams streaked across the sky, hitting them. They both disappeared in a single flash of darkness. All that remained was the cloud of smoke from the weapons fire rolling away on the breeze, and the echo of their engines off the buildings. Tom covered his mouth. The silence was deafening.
“What was that?” Winston screamed.
It is aliens,” Emmett said. “Everything Anidea said makes sense now.”
“I told you. I was right.”
Winston’s voice cracked, “They were going to rescue us.”
Tom shook his head. “No one has any idea that we’re alive.”
“There.” Emmett pointed. “The beams are pulsing in short bursts up into the sky too.”
Tom pulled a bandage from his pack and wrapped it around his arm, pulling it tight. Searing pain caused him to wince. “That’s coming from the school,” he grunted. “I need you help fastening this, Winston.”
Down the street hundreds of creatures were crowded together, blocking their path to the school. Seeing them massed together gave Tom the shivers. He looked from Emmett to Winston to Anidea. How were they going to get past? The wind shifted in their direction. They all gagged.
“What’s that smell?” Tom said.
“It’s my natural odor,” Anidea laughed. “Nah, just kidding, it’s nasty like stale locker room sweat and grape bubble gum. Sweet-n-stanky.”
Winston held his nose. “What are they doing?”
Emmett turned in a circle slowly, pointing with his finger like he was counting the creatures. “They’re going somewhere.”
“Great, telling us what we already know,” Anidea said. “Looks like it’s towards the school.”
“They’re not attacking us,” Tom said. “While we were watching the copters, they could have gotten us, but they didn’t. What changed?”
Anidea started. “Ready.”
“Where we going?” Winston asked.
Tom took hold of the tow rope and got on his skateboard. “The school.”
“Not on the mini-bike.” Emmett said. “I’m not that crazy.”
A sudden squall of cool wind caught the trees, and the smell of rain cut through the heat. Tom breathed deeply in the cooling air, taking a step back. Emmett was right, racing through the middle was crazy. Winston held up and jingled a set of keys from a nearby car to get Tom’s attention. “I bet a car will work.”
“Good thinking,” Tom nodded to Winston and pointed down the street. “Now we go.”
Bloody Kisses
Five blocks down the street Tom slammed on the brakes, skidding to a stop. There were hundreds of creatures crowded together, blocking their path to the school. The sight gave Tom the shivers. He put the car into reverse to try another way, but stopped when he saw they weren’t attacking. “What the hell?” he muttered. “It wasn’t a fluke.”
The twins pounded on the back of Tom’s seat. “Drive. Get out of here!”
“No wait, watch,” Tom said, “Left right, right left, shuffle, shuffle, turn and groan. They aren’t interested in us.”
Anidea pressed on the dash with one hand and the ceiling with the other, pushing herself deep into the seat. “Why aren’t they attacking? We can turn around and get out of town, right?” Anidea said.
“They’re between us and the school,” Tom shifted the car into drive and floored it. “We have to get through them to get there, hold on.”
Anidea grabbed Tom by the arm and shook him, “What are you doing? Don’t run them over.”
Batting her away Tom said, “T
hey’re not people anymore. They would harm us without even a thought.”
The creatures gave bloody kisses to the car as they were bounced aside and run over. The windshield cracked, almost caving in from one that jumped up just before Tom hit it.
“This is unimaginably the most horrible grossest thing ever,” Anidea tore at her face.
The twins shouted. “Get that one, and that one.”
The side view mirror smashed off. “They’re having fun,” Tom said.
Anidea thrashed about the car, then lunged at Tom. She grabbed the steering wheel and cranked it hand over hand. The car swerved to the right. “You can’t do this. Something’s going to go wrong, something bad.”
Tom struggled to keep the car from crashing. “That something is you. Let go.”
The car steered into the thick of the crowd and Tom fought her to regain control, but couldn’t manage both. It was no use, he let go of the steering wheel to pry her hands off.
The mass of creatures acted like a net, snaring the car. The engine raced and they slowed to a stop, the wheels spun. Fleshy arms and spiny bodies piled on top, and they were immersed it in a sea of decay, with blood and stomach contents mingling in vile streams as the press of half-rotten flesh slithered across the metal and glass.
Tom pushed Anidea back as the roof dented in. He had to stop her. “This is your fault.”
Metal snapped as the quarter panels were pulled free from their mountings. Anidea’s expression went blank. The windows cracked. She gasped and pulled at the door handle. “We’re going to be eaten, run!”
The weight of the creatures made it impossible for her to open the door. She tried to roll the window down.
Tom grappled to gain control of her arms. “The door opens out. It’s blocked.”
Winston reached forward, grabbed Anidea by the back of her shirt, and pulled while Emmett held her shoulders. She flailed like a cat getting a bath. Tom held her tightly, latching onto her arms, and floored the cars accelerator. “Stop it!”
The windows started to break, and rotting arms reached through, bringing the smells of vomit, death, gore, and worse. It was Emmett’s turn to scream.
Tom cranked the wheel with one hand, left and right, praying to get free. The tires spun. The car inched forward and pushed into daylight.
Two blocks away Tom stopped the car and turned to her. “Get out.”
Anidea’s curls were puffed out like a clown’s wig and her face was red and twisted. “I’m sorry.” she said.
“Get out,” Tom ordered.
“Don’t make me go,” she pleaded.
“You almost killed us.”
“I can’t keep going on like this.”
“Then get out. You want to get out of town. Now is your chance.”
“You can’t leave me here, Tom Stinson. I’m sorry.”
“Tom, we can’t leave her,” Winston interrupted.
“We can’t take her,” Tom replied. “Not if she’s going to freak out like this. She’ll get us all killed. The plan is to find my dad. He’ll get us out of town.”
“I’m right here. You can’t leave me.”
“I can and will if you don’t get it together. This is your last chance.”
“Would you really leave her, like Eddie?” Winston asked.
Emmett picked beads of broken glass out of his hair and clothes. “Leave her.”
“She’s leaving,” Tom said. “She thinks my dad is dead. That’s why she keeps trying to get us to leave town.”
“Everyone else is dead,” Anidea said.
“Tom, don’t,” Winston urged. “If you leave her it will be just like leaving Eddie and what I said is true. You would leave any of us behind just to get to you dad. You only care about yourself.”
Tom drummed his fingers on the steering wheel and stared out the car’s cracked windshield. He bit at his lip and shook his head. Could he leave her?
Anidea watched Tom and pressed her body tightly against the door. “Alright, I do want to leave town, but if you leave me here, I will die.”
“We have to work together,” Tom stuck his finger in Anidea’s face. “You can’t freak out any more. Not once.”
“I promise.”
“Get out, and get in the back.”
Thirteen
They crashed to a stop across the street from where the school once was, cracking open a fire hydrant. Purple lightning arced across the sky. A gray metallic disk, four stories high and bigger than the school, stood where the school should have been.
“That’s the coolest thing I’ve ever seen,” Emmett said. “Definitely aliens.”
Tom gaped. “Not cool.”
“B-but that can’t be real,” Anidea stammered in disbelief. “This is a nightmare. We can’t go there; I’ve changed my mind, your plan sucks, Tom.”
Then Tom saw his Dad’s truck parked on the street next to the U-Mart.
“Dad!” he shouted, forgetting about the spaceship. He tripped as he ran, scraping his knees and elbows on the pavement. He sprung back onto his feet and grabbed onto to the truck. He pressed his face against the driver’s side window hoping to see his dad. His hung his head down.
Anidea, Winston and Emmett were mesmerized by the spaceship.
Tom climbed up into the bed of the truck, looking up and down the street. “Dad! Dad!” he called. Then he saw the windshield cover was duct taped to the hood. Written on it in big black letters was a message. It read;
Tom, I have gone inside the ship for you. If you see this, go home. Get safe. I’ll be there as soon as I can.
He jumped down from the truck. “I knew he was alive. We have to find him.”
“What?” Anidea said.
“My dad came here and went in there to get me. We aren’t safe out here and I need to find him.”
“G-go in there?” Winston stammered.
Emmett stepped in front of Tom, stopping him from going towards the spaceship. “Your dad wouldn’t go in there. We don’t even know what that is.”
“You don’t know my dad.” Tom turned to everyone. “It’s a spaceship, it has to be. The only logical conclusion is that those creatures are people who are infected with something and are controlled by the aliens.”
“We can’t go in there,” Winston said. “Anidea is right.”
“You all said you wanted to be safe. It’s the last place they’ll think to look for us.”
“What? The aliens?” Anidea said, her voice winding up into panic. “We’ve been friends for a long time and done some crazy stuff, Tom Stinson, but this is serious.”
“I thought you were fearless,” Tom said. “You don’t understand the plan yet. Focus. Let me explain. We’re kids and our parents hardly notice us when they are busy, right? So, if the aliens have kids maybe they are the same way and won’t notice us if we try to get in the ship. We can sneak in there and slip around unnoticed. If anyone knows how to do that, it’s you, Anidea.”
Anidea crossed her arms. “I never said I wasn’t afraid.”
Tom checked to see where the creatures were. There was too much at stake. “We have two minutes before those creatures are here. All we have to do was to stay out of reach. By staying one step ahead of them we will be safe.”
“Just how do you plan on getting in there? Just walk in?” Anidea asked.
Tom studied the spaceship, silently, lost in thought.
Taking a different approach, Anidea tugged on Tom’s arm to get his attention and whispered, “We have to leave now. It’s been fun, but I want to leave.”
“Tom’s serious,” Emmett said. “I know what he’s thinking.”
“May I remind you,” Winston said urgently, “that there are a lot of creatures coming our way.”
“Okay, we’ll go hide,” Tom said as he continued to study the spaceship.
“Good. You’re coming to your senses,” Anidea said. “I mean, I know how you are cool and everything, but I draw the line at a spaceship.”
Tom walked tow
ard the spaceship. “This way.”
“We’re going closer?” Anidea screeched. “We should hide in the U-Mart again.”
Tom shook his head as the memories returned. The store was left like a refrigerator with its door wide open after the creatures had torn the building apart. “Okay, you go hide in there,” he said. “Good luck.”
Across the schoolyard, emergency vehicles were upended and twisted in a maze of destruction. Staying low and out of sight, they sneaked towards the spaceship with Tom in the lead. Among the carnage, Tom recognized parts of the crashed airplane.
“Great, this is exactly where we started from," Emmett said.
Winston opened a power drink, and chugged. “Tell me about it.”
Next to the spaceship, the air smelled sickeningly sweet like melted ice cream and locker room sweat. They had to hold their noses and breathe through their mouths. Tom reached out and touched the spaceship. His fingertips tingled as he ran them across the gray metal.
In a nasal voice Anidea said, “Okay genius, so how do we get in there? Ring the doorbell?”
Winston raised his hatchet and piped up, “Smash it, that’ll get their attention.”
Panicking, Emmett pushed Winston’s arm down “Remember the helicopters? Whatever is in there has lasers.”
Tom spoke, “We need to find the entrance.”
They spread out along the left and the right of the spaceship, keeping each other in sight. Winston found a hand hold in the side of the ship and climbed a few feet up.
“I see something.” He pointed out over the playground and climbed down. “A strange plant, purple and fringed like a turkey tail.”
Emmett ran towards it but stopped short. “Hey, it’s moving. What kind of plant moves?”
Anidea’s nose wrinkled, “It’s moving away on tentacles like it knows we are talking about it. I hope it’s not hungry. Do you think it was a person before? Is that what they are turning into?"
“Forget the plant, here’s our plan,” Tom said, “We’re going to get inside the ship, find my dad, and get out.”
Dismayed, Emmett said, “We’re kids, not commandos.”
“Did they leave the door open for us, unguarded?” Anidea asked. “What about the aliens, aren’t they on the attack? How will we get out once we are in? Especially because we don’t even know our way around in there. These aren’t hard questions, but someone has to ask them.”