Arrival

by Morgan Rice

  “I don’t think we have much time left,” Kevin said.

  “Come on, Luna. We have to do this,” Chloe said.

  “Arrgh… all right,” Luna said. “Let’s do this.”

  They sped forward on their bikes, engines running flat out as they headed for the gap in the alien-controlled people’s lines.

  CHAPTER TWENTY ONE

  They rode for the gap, not stopping, not even slowing down. There wasn’t any time now if they were going to make it before the big city ship retreated, and somehow, Kevin had the feeling that it was retreating, heading off to the world ship so that he, Luna, and Chloe couldn’t get to it with the virus. Could they have taken that information from the heads of the bikers as they controlled them? Maybe they’d just guessed because of the way Kevin was charging toward their spaceships, or maybe it was just coincidence.

  He saw Chloe and Luna adjusting their borrowed masks as they sped forward, Luna having to do it one-handed because she was the one steering. Even with the masks, Kevin could see the determination on their faces as they headed toward the gap in the controlled people’s line, roaring for the space even as that space started to contract, some of the controlled moving back in to block them.

  Had the three of them left it too late? Had they waited too long while they watched the sacrifice the bikers had made? Just a couple of seconds might mean the difference between getting through that closing gap and having the controlled swarm in front of them so that they couldn’t pass.

  “Keep going!” Kevin called out to the others. “Faster!”

  He lowered himself over the handlebars of his bike as the wind rushed past. Beside him, he could see Bobby with his mouth open in a doggy grin, clearly enjoying the speed. Even so, Kevin didn’t know if it was going to be enough to get them through.

  He plunged into the ranks of the controlled people like a diver entering the water, and felt them knock against his bike, hands grabbing for him, bodies flinging themselves at the metal without caring about the damage it might do to them. Kevin fought to keep the bike upright with every impact, trying to correct for the slam of flesh against metal and keep the whole thing from toppling over.

  It burst from the lines of the controlled people like a cork out of a bottle, but that didn’t help Kevin with the bike’s balance. Kevin felt the sidecar coming up off the ground as it swerved from side to side, no longer under his control. The handlebars ripped out of his hands, and the only good part about that was that the bike started to slow a little as it began to skid, seeming to topple almost in slow motion.

  “Jump, Bobby!” Kevin yelled, and the dog leapt clear as easily as if Kevin had been telling him to get off the furniture.

  It wasn’t that easy for Kevin. He tried to scramble clear of the bike as it fell, but felt his leg caught underneath it as it toppled, pain shooting through it and through the rest of him as the ground slammed into it. Kevin tried to kick free of the bike, but it was stuck on top of him, feeling like a lead weight pressing down on his leg, far too heavy to move without help.

  The controlled people closed in, and Bobby snarled at them, leaping forward to knock one back before jumping back to Kevin, snapping and growling. If they’d been just human, it might have been enough to keep them back, but they kept coming, and Kevin found himself staring up at them as they reached down for him…

  “Hold on, Kevin!” Luna called as she and Chloe grabbed the bike, lifting it between them. Kevin pulled himself clear just as hands reached down for him, struggling to his feet in spite of the pain in his leg. The three of them set off running for the nearest of the ships, while around them more and more took to the sky, leaving empty spaces that felt like lost chances.

  The controlled people grabbed at them, briefly surrounding them, so that for a moment it wasn’t possible to tell where his friends were. Hands tore at him, and Kevin had to push and elbow, trying to make enough space to get through.

  Kevin heard Luna cry out, and turned to see her kicking at one of them and managing to get free, before another grabbed her around the waist.

  “Luna!” Kevin shouted, starting back for her. “No!”

  People blocked the way, and Kevin tried to fight his way through them, but they seemed to be everywhere. Kevin heard Luna scream as hands pulled away her mask, still trying to fight them, still trying to break free. If he could just get to her…

  He saw Cub rising out of the mass of the controlled, and for a brief instant, Kevin thought that Luna might be saved, that he might somehow have come through everything that had happened and be there to help. Then he saw the unmistakable whiteness of the other boy’s eyes, and his hands closed on Luna as his mouth got close to her in a movement that might have been almost tender if it hadn’t been so awful.

  “No!” Kevin yelled. “Hold your breath, Luna! I’m coming to get you!”

  He didn’t know if she could hear him or not, but it didn’t make any difference. Kevin threw himself forward against the wall of flesh in the way, ignoring the tears that streamed down his cheeks as Cub leaned in close to Luna in a grim parody of a kiss. Vapor poured over her head as Kevin kept fighting to move forward, trying to save her, trying to stop this.

  “Hold your breath, Luna!” he yelled again. “Please hold your breath!”

  The people around him were as unyielding as concrete might have been as Kevin tried anything he could to fight his way through. They didn’t feel pain, they didn’t feel mercy, he couldn’t make them move, and Luna couldn’t hold her breath any longer.

  Kevin heard her gasp in a lungful of air, loud against the silence with which the controlled fought.

  “Fight it, Luna!” Kevin cried out through his tears. “You can fight it! You can fight anything!”

  “Kevin,” she managed. “I…”

  The silence that followed was awful, more awful than anything Kevin had felt in his life. It was somehow worse than being told by the doctor that he was going to die. It was worse than his mom opening the door to their home like this, already made into one of them. It was worse than seeing the rest of the world falling piece by piece. This was Luna, and there, in an instant, it wasn’t.

  CHAPTER TWENTY TWO

  Kevin screamed out his pain, and his anger, and his hopelessness. Luna was gone. He couldn’t believe that Luna was gone. He hit out at one of the people the aliens had converted, and even though it made no difference, he did it again. He saw Bobby snapping at the converted people closest to him, and Kevin wished that it could make a difference, but it couldn’t.

  Hands closed around him then, and Kevin didn’t even try to fight. If they were going to kill him, what difference did it make now? Luna was gone, and—

  “Kevin!” Chloe yelled. “We have to go. We can’t help her!”

  She dragged him back, pulling him from the crowd of controlled people.

  “Come on, Kevin,” she shouted at him. “We still have the virus. We still have to do this!”

  Kevin was too numb right then to reply as Chloe pulled him in the direction of one of the landing craft that still had its door open. There weren’t many by now, and those that were still there seemed to be getting ready to take off. Above, the underside of the city ship was still glowing with circles of energy, pulsing with them as it prepared to leave.

  “We still have to do this,” Kevin said, not feeling like it was real as he said it. His eyes were still on the advancing crowd of the converted. Luna walked at their heart in perfect synchronization with the rest, white-pupiled and blank-faced. They were advancing slowly now, as though knowing that Kevin’s plans had fallen apart the moment they grabbed Luna.

  They hadn’t though. The best chance to get her back now lay in beating the aliens. Kevin took out the vial of the virus, weighing it in his hand.

  “Quickly,” Chloe said, leading the way to one of the landing craft and up to the beam that was down to draw in whatever found itself within it.

  “What’s the best way to do this?” Kevin asked Chloe.

/>   “Throw the vial in and get away,” Chloe suggested. “The ship will carry the virus back to the big one.”

  Kevin nodded and held up the vial, looking at the clear blue liquid within it. It seemed fitting somehow to end things this way. The aliens had hidden their vapor in a rock, so maybe it made a kind of sense to bring things to an end like this. He pulled out the stopper on the vial and held it out into the beam of light, half expecting some kind of immediate response from the alien technology. It didn’t react, though, just pulled at his hand so that the vial felt like a balloon wanting to fly away. Kevin let go of it and watched it float up into the interior of the spacecraft.

  For a moment or two, nothing happened, then the ship lifted in silence even as Kevin looked around, trying to work out what to do next.

  The people the aliens controlled were still nearby, spread out now into a kind of wide circle, surrounding Kevin and Chloe. They didn’t move, though, simply standing there, containing them, not letting them leave. Kevin could make out Luna there, among the others, standing as still and as silent as the rest of them as the ship Kevin and Chloe had poisoned rose up to meet the city ship.

  “What do we do now?” Chloe asked.

  Kevin looked around. There were no gaps in the circle of the controlled, but they didn’t seem to be getting any closer, either.

  “I guess we just wait,” Kevin said. “The message said that the aliens wouldn’t have any protection against a virus they didn’t know about, so I guess the effects will be pretty quick. We should see something any minute now.”

  Kevin looked up, staring at the city ship. The smaller one had already disappeared into it, darting in like a bee into a hive.

  “Any minute now,” Kevin repeated, wondering what it would look like as the virus took hold above. Would the colors on the underside of the alien ship change? Would it lurch in the sky and come crashing down? Kevin really hoped not, but he felt certain that there would be some sign. The aliens, the good aliens, had been so clear in their message. They’d as good as promised that this would work.

  “Any minute now,” Chloe agreed. “Um… how many minutes, do you think?”

  Kevin didn’t have an answer to that. He just kept staring up at the sky in hope as second after second ticked by, the ship above unchanged, the small ships around them still pulling up into the sky.

  One of them descended, hovering over the square. A beam of light came down, and something floated in it. Kevin’s heart sank as he saw the gleam of the vial that had held the virus, empty now. He reached out his hand, and it floated down into it as easily as if someone had placed it there.

  “They said it would work,” Kevin said. “They said it would.”

  The empty vial felt like a taunt—a deliberate insult; a way of telling Kevin that nothing he could do could hope to stop the aliens. It made it worse, somehow. It made him feel completely powerless.

  “Maybe they were wrong,” Chloe said. “If it were that easy to get rid of these aliens, wouldn’t they have done it?”

  No, this wasn’t right. It wasn’t fair, not after everything they’d done; everything they’d sacrificed.

  “It was supposed to work,” Kevin said. “It was supposed to make everything better.”

  He looked across to where Luna stood, feeling utterly lost. Feeling ashamed too, because for the second time, he’d listened to messages coming in from aliens, only to have them make things worse, not better. The first time, it had cost the world. The second, it had cost Luna, and Kevin wasn’t sure which of those was worse.

  Then Luna started to walk forward.

  The others came with her, stepping in perfect time, so that they formed a closing ring around Kevin and Chloe that grew tighter with every step they took toward them. It forced Kevin and Chloe to back toward the spot where the light shone on the ground underneath the last of the spacecraft, the circle of controlled people closing around it like a blinking eye.

  Chloe looked around like a caged animal, and Kevin knew exactly how bad she was with being trapped in spaces she didn’t want to be in. Bobby was there, looking around, standing in front of the two of them as though he could protect them from all those controlled people.

  “I don’t see a way out,” Chloe said, panic rising in her voice.

  Bobby barked and snapped, rushing into the crowd.

  “Bobby! NO!” Kevin cried.

  But it was too late. They heard his yelp, then he disappeared amidst the crowd.

  Kevin held out his hand. Chloe took it, her hand shaking.

  Suddenly, the light around them became brighter, and Kevin felt the ground leave his feet, Chloe beside him.

  They were floating, then heading up, faster and faster being pulled up toward the alien craft.

  “NO!” Chloe shrieked.

  But it was too late. Nothing could be done as they hurled upward, impossibly, for the ship. Kevin flailed, as if that could make any difference, even though he knew it would not.

  He looked down below, the people small now, and watched them get smaller and smaller as Earth become distant.

  A latch slid open above them, then closed beneath them.

  And Kevin’s entire world was blackness.

  NOW AVAILABLE!

  ASCENT

  (The Invasion Chronicles—Book Three)

  “TRANSMISSION is riveting, unexpected, and firmly rooted in strong psychological profiles backed with thriller and sci-fi elements: what more could readers wish for? (Just the quick publication of Book Two, Arrival.)”

  --Midwest Book Review

  From #1 worldwide bestselling fantasy author Morgan Rice comes book #3 in a long-anticipated science fiction series. With planet Earth destroyed, what will become of 13 year old Kevin and Chloe in the mother ship?

  Will the aliens enslave them? What do they want? Is there any hope of escape?

  And will Kevin and Chloe ever return to Earth again?

  “Action-packed …. Rice’s writing is solid and the premise intriguing.”

  –Publishers Weekly, re A Quest of Heroes

  “A superior fantasy… A recommended winner for any who enjoy epic fantasy writing fueled by powerful, believable young adult protagonists.”

  –Midwest Book Review, re Rise of the Dragons

  “An action packed fantasy sure to please fans of Morgan Rice’s previous novels, along with fans of works such as THE INHERITANCE CYCLE by Christopher Paolini…. Fans of Young Adult Fiction will devour this latest work by Rice and beg for more.”

  –The Wanderer, A Literary Journal (regarding Rise of the Dragons)

  Book #4 in the series is also now available!

  Also available are Morgan Rice’s many series in the fantasy genre, including A QUEST OF HEROES (BOOK #1 IN THE SORCERER’S RING), a free download with over 1,300 five star reviews!

  ASCENT

  (The Invasion Chronicles—Book Three)

  Did you know that I've written multiple series? If you haven't read all my series, click the image below to download a series starter!

  Books by Morgan Rice

  THE INVASION CHRONICLES

  TRANSMISSION (Book #1)

  ARRIVAL (Book #2)

  ASCENT (Book #3)

  RETURN (Book #4)

  THE WAY OF STEEL

  ONLY THE WORTHY (Book #1)

  A THRONE FOR SISTERS

  A THRONE FOR SISTERS (Book #1)

  A COURT FOR THIEVES (Book #2)

  A SONG FOR ORPHANS (Book #3)

  A DIRGE FOR PRINCES (Book #4)

  A JEWEL FOR ROYALS (BOOK #5)

  A KISS FOR QUEENS (BOOK #6)

  A CROWN FOR ASSASSINS (Book #7)

  A CLASP FOR HEIRS (Book #8)

  OF CROWNS AND GLORY

  SLAVE, WARRIOR, QUEEN (Book #1)

  ROGUE, PRISONER, PRINCESS (Book #2)

  KNIGHT, HEIR, PRINCE (Book #3)

  REBEL, PAWN, KING (Book #4)

  SOLDIER, BROTHER, SORCERER (Book #5)

  HERO, TRAITOR, DAUGHTER (Book
#6)

  RULER, RIVAL, EXILE (Book #7)

  VICTOR, VANQUISHED, SON (Book #8)

  KINGS AND SORCERERS

  RISE OF THE DRAGONS (Book #1)

  RISE OF THE VALIANT (Book #2)

  THE WEIGHT OF HONOR (Book #3)

  A FORGE OF VALOR (Book #4)

  A REALM OF SHADOWS (Book #5)

  NIGHT OF THE BOLD (Book #6)

  THE SORCERER’S RING

  A QUEST OF HEROES (Book #1)

  A MARCH OF KINGS (Book #2)

  A FATE OF DRAGONS (Book #3)

  A CRY OF HONOR (Book #4)

  A VOW OF GLORY (Book #5)

  A CHARGE OF VALOR (Book #6)

  A RITE OF SWORDS (Book #7)

  A GRANT OF ARMS (Book #8)

  A SKY OF SPELLS (Book #9)

  A SEA OF SHIELDS (Book #10)

  A REIGN OF STEEL (Book #11)

  A LAND OF FIRE (Book #12)

  A RULE OF QUEENS (Book #13)

  AN OATH OF BROTHERS (Book #14)

  A DREAM OF MORTALS (Book #15)

  A JOUST OF KNIGHTS (Book #16)

  THE GIFT OF BATTLE (Book #17)

  THE SURVIVAL TRILOGY

  ARENA ONE: SLAVERSUNNERS (Book #1)

  ARENA TWO (Book #2)

  ARENA THREE (Book #3)

  VAMPIRE, FALLEN

  BEFORE DAWN (Book #1)

  THE VAMPIRE JOURNALS

  TURNED (Book #1)

  LOVED (Book #2)

  BETRAYED (Book #3)

  DESTINED (Book #4)

  DESIRED (Book #5)

  BETROTHED (Book #6)

  VOWED (Book #7)

  FOUND (Book #8)

  RESURRECTED (Book #9)

  CRAVED (Book #10)