Battle- Earth

by Mark Harrison

  “Taking down the alien sons-a-bitches.”

  “With a rifle?”

  McCluskey chuckled.

  Rick didn’t know how much longer they could go on like this. They were close to the observatory, but he wanted to lose the AOJ before they returned to the base of operations.

  “How’s everyone doing back there?” he asked the passengers in the back.

  “We’re alright,” Patricia said. “But we need to get Wayne to a doctor quick.”

  What did she think he was doing? Rick couldn’t step any harder on the pedal. He said, “Working on it.”

  They exited a suburb, driving through the backyards of peoples homes. Up ahead were two office buildings. There was a narrow alleyway between them. If he could somehow get the van in there, he might be able to lose the AOJ. The alien spacecraft was flying about one hundred feet above the ground. Low enough that a tall office building might disrupt its course, buying them precious time. Time enough that they could turn around and get to the observatory.

  “McCluskey, get inside!” Rick shouted.

  McCluskey sat back in his seat. He almost fell out as he did so. The van bumped up and down as it drove from curb to street to curb again. The straightest path between two points is a straight line and Rick followed this philosophy. The faster they got to the alley, the sooner they could lose the AOJ.

  “Almost there, Sam!” he shouted into his walkie-talkie. “We’ve almost lost this thing!”

  “Jesus,” Sam said. “You crazy son of a bitch. Hurry it up. We’ve got to get the fuck out of here now.”

  Rick had been communicating with Sam since they got into the van. With communication still down between Mission Control and the recon team, Sam decided it was time to retreat. He assumed the worst. The battle was over. It was time to get out of LA. They needed to leave now.

  The alleyway approached. It was now or never. Rick turned the steering wheel of the van. The vehicle’s wheels drifted along the concrete as Rick turned it into the alley.

  The two buildings hiding the alley where tall, sixteen storey office buildings. As the van skidded into the alley, the AOJ fired a few more plasma blasts. Each burst hit the buildings hiding the van. Concrete and glass splashed across the road.

  Everyone in the van took a second to breathe. Rick signalled to them all to be quiet. They could hear the AOJ outside. They’d know soon enough if Rick’s plan had worked.

  They waited in silence.

  “What the hell are we doing?” Davis asked. He was in the cab of the van with Manuel, Jose, Patricia and Wayne.

  “Shhh,” said Rick. “Shut the fuck up. I’m trying to hear the AOJ.”

  Davis quieted down. Rick listened for the thwapping sound of the alien spacecraft. It would come and go. It was circling the building. He would have to time this perfectly. He had to act now. He waited until he saw the AOJ disappear again and then slammed his foot on the gas. He had fifteen seconds tops.

  Everyone in the van flew backward. Davis tumbled over and landed on Wayne, who let out a cry of pain.

  The van roared down the road. The AOJ would only be on the opposite side of the two buildings for a few more seconds. Rick needed to find another place to hide. That’s when he spotted an open garage door in a suburban home twenty yards away.

  He drove the van into the garage and then turned off its engine.

  Before anyone could speak, Rick lifted his finger over his mouth, signalling to be quiet. They waited in silence. The thwapping sound from the AOJs engine could still be heard, although this time farther away. The alien aircraft knew something was amiss. It stopped circling the building.

  After a few minutes, the AOJ stopped its search. It had given up. They had done it.

  Everyone in the back of the van cheered. Rick thought their cheer was too loud and told them to “shut the fuck up!” Everyone calmed down.

  Now all they had to do was get back to the observatory, this time without getting spotted. Rick pulled out of the garage. McCluskey looked out his window. “I don’t see anything,” he said.

  “Neither do I,” said Rick. “We’re good.”

  They sped back to the observatory. It only took them twenty minutes to get back, but it felt like hours. The winding roads back up the Hollywood hills seemed endless, but they made it. There were no AOJs nearby.

  Rick pulled the van into the observatory and McCluskey and Davis jumped out. The two SpaceForce soldiers carried Wayne to the medical tent. Patricia followed.

  Jose and Manuel stayed in the van. They were trying to communicate with their loved ones on their cellphones. From the expressions on their faces, Rick could tell that they were upset. No news wasn’t good news in the apocalypse.

  Rick got out of the van and found Sam still atop the observatory, he was talking over the radio to a contingent of Army soldiers nearby. Sam stopped when Rick approached. “There’s a group headed our way,” he said.

  “A group?

  “Of AOJs.”

  “Fuck. How many?”

  “Hundreds.”

  “Can the Army contingent come our way? Any F-99s left in the sky?”

  “No. Every one is evacuating. It’s every man for themselves at this point. ”

  “Jesus Christ.”

  “We’ve got maybe ten minutes.”.

  “We should evacuate and headback to Mission Control.”

  “I agree.”

  Sam put down the radio. Rick looked back out toward the city. Now that he was atop the observatory again, he thought he’d take one more look at the skyline of Los Angeles. It wasn’t to ease his mind. He wanted to remind himself what these things could do. If the human race was going to have a fighting chance against these things, they’d need to learn. Traditional methods of combat were not going to work. The flames from the burning buildings lit up the sky. The towers that were still standing stood like tombstones. The smoke from the fires rose high into the black of night, blocking from view the stars that had once been so clear. Every now and then, plasma bursts would fly from the sky and explode on the ground below. Every time Rick saw one, he knew someone had died. He came to Los Angeles to help, to fight, to do something. He was hoping he’d get to kill a few aliens. But that wasn’t going to happen now. He’d need to leave. He started to think about his dog Domino, who was still at Mission Control. With any luck, Mission Control would be okay.

  He made his way from the roof of the observatory to the van when he heard a thwap-thwap-thwap.

  Chapter 8

  Once they made it to the national park, they parked and walked to the check-in booth. The man working at the booth didn’t even notice them as they made their way up to him. His face was glued to his phone’s screen. He was watching footage of the alien attack. Sandra knocked on the window. “Hello,” she said.

  He didn’t answer. She knocked again.

  “Hello!?”

  The man jumped.

  “You’re still working at the campground despite the alien invasion?” Sandra said.

  “I…” the man’s mouth hung open for awhile, he was in some state of shock. His shirt was damp with sweat and he was shaking.

  “You don’t know what to do?”

  “I…” he said again, before collecting himself. “Yes, ma’am. I don’t know what to do. I’m scared.”

  “You should go to your family. Stay out of the cities.”

  “I’ve got no family to go to,” he said. “I’ll stay here. I feel safer here. None of them ships around here, y’know what I mean?”

  “What’s your name?”

  “Cleveland,” he said. “Cleveland O’Reilly.”

  “Listen, Cleveland,” Sandra said in a controlled, calm manner. “My parents are making their way to this park. I have a campsite a little up the road. Is it alright if I wait here for them?”

  Cleveland nodded.

  “Thank you,” she said. “Stop looking at your phone. That’s all in the past now. It’s time to think about the future, about survival.�
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  He looked down at his phone and then back up at Sandra. She knew he wasn’t going to listen to her. She couldn’t blame him. He wanted to know. Even if it didn’t do him any good, he wanted to know.

  She walked back to her car and waited with her kids. The kids were listening to the radio. When Sandra got inside, she turned it off. She didn’t need to hear it. Both her kids groaned when the radio went silent.

  “The damage is devastating,” Claire said. “They’re reporting that Atlanta is destroyed. What does that mean, Mom?”

  Sandra looked at her daughter. She wanted to tell her that everything was going to be alright, but that was a lie. Things were going to be hard. She looked at her daughter in silence.

  “Are we going to die?” said Bobby.

  Hearing her nine-year-old ask if he was going to live or not, hit Sandra hard. She had to answer. She couldn’t remain silent. She had to lie. Even if it was only to give them hope. Even if it denied the truth. She’d tell them the truth later. Tonight it could wait. “No,” she said. “We’re going to survive. We’re going to do whatever it takes to survive.”

  She gave her kids a long hug, then got back out of the car. She looked up at the sky. There wasn’t an alien ship in sight. According to a report she’d heard on the radio driving to the national park, none of the alien ships had appeared over rural areas. It seemed like as long as they stayed out of the city, they’d be safe. There wasn’t a cloud in they sky. It was a perfect day. She looked at her phone. She hadn’t heard from her mother in an hour. She decided to call her.

  No answer.

  She tried again.

  No answer.

  She sat beside the car. She wanted to cry. She knew what no answer meant, but how was she going to tell her kids.

  “Is gran going to be alright?” said Bobby, peaking through the car’s window.

  The last thing she heard from her parents was that they were on the interstate leaving the city. Traffic was bad. She wiped a tear from her eye. “Let’s stay positive, Bobby” she said. “Last we heard, gran and gramps were on the road. They should be here soon. How about we set up the tent? It will keep us busy.”

  It was the only thing she could think of. Setting up the tent would at least give them something to do. It would at least keep them busy and focused on the problems in front of them. The sun was beginning to set. They weren’t going to make it to their campsite tonight. They’d have to camp in the parking lot for now. It wouldn’t be comfortable sleeping on the gravel, but she didn’t want to leave until she was sure about her parents.

  They all got out of the car and grabbed the camping gear from the trunk. Bobby opened a bag of potato chips and wolfed them down. He said he was too tired to help set up a tent. Seeing her young boy act normal during this crisis made her feel that things weren’t so bad, she almost forgot about the alien ships for a second. It was cathartic and necessary. She reminded herself that her children would still need to be children in this new world. She would need to give them space.

  Sandra hobbled as she walked back and forth with the tent gear. 24 hours ago, she’d been battling a bear. This morning, she was looking forward to a nice warm bath at her house in Atlanta. Now she was back at the park. Back to where the bear had almost killed her. She placed the poles for the tent into the stoney ground and tried not to think about that.

  Claire helped her mother finish putting the tent together. She was a good help, albeit a bit distracted. Every now and then she would stop and check her phone. Some of her friends had been posting on social media. Some hadn’t posted anything. When the tent was complete Sandra told her to put the phone away. Claire said no at first, but she understood her mother’s point. Looking back was tough. Within an hour, it didn’t matter, her phones cell phone signal was lost. She couldn’t look back any longer.

  As the moon rose above the Smokey Mountains, Sandra noticed a pair of headlights approach. She was in the tent consoling Bobby when she saw them. She jumped out of the tent and ran to the entrance of the parking lot. She walked up to the car, crossing her fingers that it was her parents. It wasn’t. It wasn’t her parent’s car, it belonged to someone else.

  The car looked like it had been through hell and back. One of the tires was flat and its body looked melted at points, like it had driven through fire.

  Its doors opened and a man and his wife walked out. What was odd about them was that they didn’t look distraught. They looked calm. Too calm for what they had driven through. Maybe they were beyond scared? The man was dressed in casual business attire, he had a small moustache and his shirt was untucked. The thick-rimmed glasses on his face were broken. His wife wearing a yellow summer dress.

  “Hello?” Sandra said.

  “Why hello,” said the man. “My name is Quinton Motley. This is my wife, Sofia.”

  The man said he was an engineer who lived with his wife in Atlanta. Like Sandra, when he saw the ships in the sky, he knew they did not mean well. He described the hell they had to go through to get to the campground. How in the rearview mirror, he could see the entire skyline of the city on fire. He described how they barely avoided being hit by a plasma burst. He said it was luck they made it out of the city. They came to the campground because it was where he and his friends would come hunting in the winter. It seemed like a logical place. Sandra was pleased to know that he had guns in the trunk of his car. They’d need those. He was a little odd, but he looked like someone who knew how to survive.

  Sandra explained how she came to campground and asked if he’d seen any other cars headed their way. He shook his head.

  “Are you waiting for someone?”

  “My parents.”

  “Where were they?”

  “Interstate 52.”

  “I’m afraid Interstate 52 was targeted by the aliens,” he said. “Your parents are most likely dead.”

  Sandra fell to her knees. Her children ran up to her.

  “I’m sorry,” Quinton said. “But these alien ships are here now and we must learn to accept them. We must learn to move on.”

  Tears streamed down her face. Sandra hadn’t cried this much since the funeral for her husband Keith. She hadn’t let herself breakdown since then. She wanted to be strong for her children, but she couldn’t. She had to give in to this pain.

  Quinton told his wife to go back in their car. He could tell that Sandra and her kids needed time and space. He waited for Sandra to stop crying before he spoke again. “You’re welcome to come with us,” he said. “There are four cabins. You can stay in one of them. Over time, you will learn to respect the events of today. You will learn that it was meant to happen. That this is the way things should be.”

  Sandra wiped the tears from her eyes. “Okay,” she said. She didn’t know what Quinton was blabbering about. What did he mean this was ‘the way things should be’? The man struck her as odd, but if he knew how to hunt, then her and her kids would need his help.

  Chapter 9

  With hundreds of AOJs approaching, they didn’t have much time.

  Sam and the rest of the SpaceForce soldiers packed up the military truck, getting ready for retreat. Almost everything was loaded up when one soldier shouted out, “Incoming!” Everyone ducked. Plasma bursts fell from the sky hitting the exterior of the observatory. The AOJs flew overhead. They sounded like a swarm of bees, their thwap-thwap-thwap sound coalescing into a violent and harsh hum. As bursts hit the ground, pieces of the observatory’s white brick flew in all directions.

  Rick and Patricia were both carrying Wayne from the medical tent to the van. The old man wasn’t looking good. He didn’t look like he was going to make it but no one wanted to give up hope. At least the old man was awake now. The doctor’s in the medical tent had managed to stabilize his condition.

  “Stay with us!” Rick said. “We’re almost there.”

  As Rick finished his sentence, a plasma burst exploded beside the van. It sent a group of soldiers flying into the air. Rick and Patricia lo
wered Wayne to the ground. They needed to wait until the debris from the explosion had cleared. They needed to make sure that the van was still there.

  Wayne turned to Patricia and said, “Leave me.”

  “No,” said Patricia. “You’re going to make it. We’re going to make it.”

  “Leave me,” Wayne said. “Don’t you realize I don’t care about you. You were my work play thing. My distraction. My stress-reliever. I have a wife and two kids. They’re probably dead now. Dead like we all will be soon. Don’t try to rescue me. Just let me die. Let me join my family on the other side.”

  Rick could see Patricia’s heart break when Wayne said those words. If this was Wayne’s way of getting Patricia to forget about him, he could have chosen another method. The poor woman was devastated. Rick put his hand on her shoulder. “You should listen to the old man,” he said. “We’ve got to move.”

  Patricia looked at Wayne once more, when their eyes met the old man turned away. She then looked to Rick. “Okay,” she said. “Lets go.”

  The smoke from the plasma bursts had cleared. The van was still standing. They could make it.

  At the other side of the observatory, a group of soldiers grabbed some rocket launchers from an artillery crate and ran into the building. They made their way up to its roof. Once they got there, they hid behind the two large domes that sat on each side. Inside each dome was a telescope capable of looking into deep space, capable of seeing distant galaxies and star systems.

  On the ground level, outside the observatory, Sam and the rest of the soldiers stopped packing the military truck. Sam ran to his radio and broadcasted across every channel that they were about to be attacked. He screamed, “Mayday, mayday! Alien ships incoming! Hundreds of them! If there are any contingents in the immediate area, we need your help!”

  No one answered.

  The rest of the soldiers positioned themselves along the observatory’s flat walls. They clutched their rifles and rested their bodies against each corner of the building, peaking behind, watching the AOJs circle in their unusual patterns. One soldier jumped out from the corner and fired his rifle. He managed to get three shots off before a plasma burst fell from the sky and vaporized him.