Battle- Earth

by Mark Harrison

  That should do it. Rick waited. He peaked above the ledge again. Were the hostiles running away? They weren’t. Fuck. This was war. It was going to require every camp member. “Everyone!” Rick shouted.

  All the camp members atop the wall rose up above its edge. When that happened, the hostiles jumped out of their hiding spots and started to fire back. Bullets clanged off the metal siding of the camp walls.

  Tuck’s turrets continued to rain down on the hostiles but his ammo was already getting low. If these attackers didn’t relent soon, the camp would lose one major component in its defenses. The old man looked nervously at Rick.

  Rick took aim down his rifle and picked one of the hostiles off. The attacker’s body dropped like a brick. He didn’t like killing other humans. He wanted to kill aliens. But this was an ‘us or them’ kind of situation. He had no choice.

  Dirk flung another stick of dynamite at the hostiles. The explosion sent a mound of dirt up into the air.

  Sandra watched it all play out, as if in slow motion. Rick Frost had changed. Maybe she should trust him? She joined the battle. She rose up above the lip of the wall and fired two darts from her crossbow at a hostile. Hitting the attacker in the leg and chest. The poor fool would have a painful death.

  Pop. Pop. Pop. Rick’s rifle was slow to reload, so he pulled out his pistol. The hostile wearing hockey goalie equipment fell to the ground. A pool of blood leaked from his mask.

  Tuck continued to fire until he ran out of ammo. He’d managed to take down at least seven of the hostiles.

  The battle was turning in their favor. Somehow, they’d managed to take out most of the hostiles. There were only ten or twelve left. Rick scanned the area. The remaining hostiles stayed out of sight. They were hiding again. Their initial attack had been a colossal failure. Were they retreating? Did the dynamite, turrets and gun fire ward them off? A sinking feeling appeared in the pit of Rick’s stomach. That seemed too easy.

  The ground began to shake. The walls of the camp rattled, as the sounds of tumbling trees could be heard in the distance.

  It was too easy. Something big was heading their way. “Does anyone have eyes on what that is?” he shouted.

  Nobody did.

  Above the crest of the eastern ridge, a twentieth century tank emerged. It was an old generation tank, but it was still a tank.

  “Jesus!” Rick said. He ducked down.

  Tuck saw the emergence of the tank through the turrets video monitors. “Fucking hell!” he screamed. “It’s coming our way. The old man ran to his shack and grabbed his trusty old shotgun. He hid behind a barrel and waited.

  The tank continued to drive toward the camp. It stopped and aimed its cannon at the camp’s entrance.

  “Get away from the door!” Rick shouted.

  BOOM!

  The doors of the camp exploded open. It was only a matter of time before the hostiles were inside. All the attention for the battle shifted. The camp members were no longer concerned with defending the camp from the outside. The inside of the camp was now vulnerable. Every one stopped and waited, aiming their weapons in the direction of the entrance.

  Pieces of dirt and debris from the tank’s blast cleared from the air. The entrance stood empty. The sounds of the tank’s rattling treads were all that anyone could hear. What seemed like a rudimentary attack seconds ago had now turned into something dire. How the fuck were they going to stop a tank?

  Bobby, who’d been watching most of the attack take place, decided it was time to jump into action. He slid down the rails of a ladder and hid behind their shack. Claire followed suit, but dove to the opposite side of the camp. She hid behind Tuck’s shack. You could tell it was Tuck’s because it stunk like diesel and rotten squirrel. Both of Sandra’s kids poked their heads around the corner of their respective shacks. They had their eyes on the entrance. It would only be a matter of time before the hostiles and the tank came into the camp’s courtyard.

  Sandra scrambled. She wanted to follow her children and their decisive action, but she had dropped her crossbow after the explosion from the tank. As she picked it up, she saw where her children had run off to. She was about to hop down and join them, but Rick grabbed her by the shoulder and pulled her back.

  Thwap.

  A bullet flew within inches of Sandra and ricocheted off the metal plating of the camp’s walls. “Thanks,” she said.

  “Don’t worry about it,” Rick responded. “Wait here, we will have a better chance if you’re up here picking off the hostiles.”

  “But my children?”

  “Are no good with you dead. Stay here. I’ll head down and protect them and take care of this fucking tank.”

  Sandra nodded. She had to trust him. In all her years of surviving, she’d never experienced an attack like this. She stayed low atop the wall and watched the entrance. The rattle from the tank was getting louder. It would be inside the camp any second.

  The tank fired again. BOOM.

  It’s explosion hit inside the entrance of the camp. A giant plume of dust and debris shot into the air. Then, a swarm of hostiles popped out of the dust, firing their weapons wildly as they did so.

  Tuck was closest to the camp’s entrance and most vulnerable to the attackers. He fired two quick shots at some hostiles and dropped them dead. He was about to get up and check their bodies for ammo when he saw the tank drive right through the camp’s entrance and make its way into the camp. He stopped in his tracks. He was motionless. If it wasn’t for Rick shouting at him, he wouldn’t have noticed the two attackers making their way toward him. In the nick of time, he whipped out his shotgun and fired two quick blasts. Taking out the two hostiles. He ran away from the tank, toward the far end of the camp. The tank’s cannon followed him. It was about to fire again.

  BOOM!

  Tuck dove out of the way of the tanks missile. The far wall of the camp took the brunt of the tank blast. There was now a gaping hole in the north side of the camp.

  Dirk was still atop the wall. He had four sticks of dynamite in his packet. It was enough to take down a tank. But everything had to be perfect. “Hey, Rick!” he yelled.

  Rick was on the ground, shooting at hostiles who were inside the courtyard. He was trying to think of what to do. The camp had been attacked countless times, but this was a little much. He looked up to Dirk, who pointed at his dynamite stick then to the Tank’s treads. Rick got the idea. It was brilliant. He slid down the ladder and ran beside Bobby, who was still behind the shack and had just picked off two hostiles with his bow. The kid was a good shot.

  Bobby noticed Rick run up behind him. “Did you see that?” he said.

  “Don’t get too cocky, kid,” Rick said.

  Bobby smiled.

  “Listen, kid, on my signal. I want you to run to your sister. Don’t stop running. If you do, that tank or the hostiles will blow you to bits. Do you understand? Don’t stop running.”

  Bobby nodded.

  Rick looked up to Dirk and gave him a thumbs up. Dirk then lit the dynamite stick in his hand. Rick tapped on Bobby’s shoulder. The boy ran toward his sister. Rick ran toward the tank. As the cannon from the tank followed Bobby, Dirk threw the dynamite stick to Rick. Rick caught it and in one swift motion shoved it into one of the tank’s left tread. He dove away from the tank, shooting a hostile in the face with his pistol as he did so.

  BOOM!

  The canon had fired at Bobby but it missed. Another gaping hole appeared on the north side of the camp’s wall. Bobby barrel rolled toward his sister, who was just as deadly as her brother with the bow. She picked off two hostiles by holding two arrows down the bows string.

  Rick was lying on the ground. The dynamite stick Rick stuck in the tank’s tread exploded. Fragments of metal shot from the chains connecting the tread together. The tank’s driver tried to move the vehicle forward, but it didn’t work. As only one tread was still operating, the tank was stationary. It could rotate 360º, but that was it.

  Rick crawled be
hind a barrel. There were still hostiles inside the camp. If they could somehow take care of the tank, the attackers would be forced to flee and the battle would be won. They needed to take care of the other tread and the tank’s cannon. They needed to do it quick. Rick looked around. A few camp members had lost their lives. They were good people. They didn’t deserve to die like this. Rick’s blood began to boil. He didn’t want to be wasting energy fighting off his fellow humans, he wanted to be killing the aliens. He got up and fired two more shots from his pistol at a hostile. The hostile dropped dead. He whistled to Dirk. Dirk lit another stick of dynamite and tossed it to Rick who was running toward the tank. He caught the stick of dynamite and was about to stick it into the tank’s cannon, but three hostiles jumped out in front of him. He didn’t have time for this. The dynamite fuse was burning and had almost run out. He’d have to throw it away. Before he could decide, three arrows from three different directions shot into the heads of the hostile that were blocking his path. Claire and Bobby had taken the attackers out. Rick ran up to the tank’s cannon, shoving the dynamite stick inside.

  The cannon of the tank exploded, just as the tread had. It’s long metal pipe shot outward like the petals on a flower. Now all he had to do was blow up the final tread and the tank would be rendered useless.

  Some of the hostiles were getting the hint that the battle was not going in their favor. They’d started to flee.

  Rick and Dirk repeated the routine one more time, blowing up the tank’s final tread. With both of the treads gone and the canon blown apart, the battle was won.

  On the other side of the camp, Sandra took aim at a fleeing attacker. When she fired her bow it was followed by a distinct but quiet THWOOP sound. The hostile stumbled around after taking the arrow in the face. Like a chicken with its head cut off, the bastard’s final moments were clumsy.

  Dirk climbed down the ladder and made his way to the tank. Now that it was immobilized, its hatch would open up and the driver and any other occupants would, like the other hostiles, attempt to flee. He would make sure that they didn’t get away. He walked up to the smoking remains of the vehicle, the last stick of dynamite in his mouth. He jumped atop the tank and started to open its hatch, revolving the wheel to unscrew its seal. As he pulled it open, two shots fired out from one of the occupants inside. Fuckers wanted to go down swinging. He avoided the shots. At least he didn’t feel guilty now about what he was going to do. He lit the stick of dynamite and shoved it down the hatch. Anyone inside, was dead.

  Rick looked around. There were no more hostiles in the camp. Just two gaping holes in the camp’s wall, a destroyed entrance, and plenty of dead bodies. It was time to clean up.

  Chapter 26

  The camp was a mess.

  Rick looked around at what was left of the place he’d called home for the last few months, of the place he’d helped build. Sheets of metal, dead bodies, tires and broken electrical equipment littered the inner courtyard. The shacks the camp members had been living in were in a similar state, that’s if they were still standing. Many of them weren’t. A few were run over by the tank. It was a mess. They’d all have to leave sooner than he wanted to.

  Seven camp members died during the attack. They took twenty-nine hostiles with them. Before the clean up, Rick made sure that they were buried. Each camp member that died was given a moment of silence. It was the least they could do. Rick knew it wasn’t much. They’d died for no reason other than that people were desperate, hungry and angry. He hated it. But this was the world now. You couldn’t trust anyone.

  The clean up wasn’t easy, but it had to be done. The possibility of another attack loomed large in Rick’s mind. Holes in walls and debris littering the courtyard would make future battles difficult if they found themselves in one. They needed those things mended up, even if they didn’t plan on sticking around much longer.

  Rick was tired. After he was done organizing the initial clean up, he holed himself up in his shack. He looked at the map of the Rockies. He’d finally found the time to process what Sandra had told him. She said that StarPeak Mountain was located between two constellations. He placed a finger on the map and pulled up a star constellation book. He’d grabbed the book from a dorm room they’d looted a few years ago in a small college outside of Denver. According to the book, the constellations came together over the horizon close by. He traced his finger to the position on the map. The map didn’t have a mountain in that position. It was listed as an empty plain. That struck Rick as weird. Too weird. It had to be sign. He jumped up from the log in his shack and made his way to Sandra. He hadn’t talked to her since the attack. He wanted to give her time but he needed to go over StarPeak’s location one more time.

  Sandra was in her shack. She’d suffered a few wounds in the attack. They were blemishes. They would heal. She would be fine. She was cleaning her wounds with a warm bucket of water when she heard Rick’s voice outside.

  “You decent?” he said.

  “What do you want?”

  “I know where StarPeak Mountain is,” he said. “It’s not far from here, but it’s not on the map.”

  “I know.”

  “What do you mean you know?”

  “It shouldn’t be on the map,” she said. “It’s classified. Only government officials no about it. The area that the mountain rests in is surrounded by a small fence. It was meant to keep hikers far away.”

  “We’re going to go there,” Rick said. “If you want to join us, you’re more than welcome.”

  Sandra rolled her eyes and took a deep breath. This wasn’t the Rick Frost she remembered hearing about. He was more mature, more in control. But he was still a Frost. And the way he risked her son’s life during the attack didn’t sit well with her. He used Bobby as bait for the tank. She didn’t respond to Rick. She waited for him to leave. When she was sure he was gone, she continued to dress her wound. She was mad. She was mad at Bobby. After all they’d been through, she thought he would’ve learned a thing or two about self-preservation. Running in front of the tank like that was one of the dumbest things he could’ve done.

  She sighed. She wanted to break down and cry, but she couldn’t. If her children came into the shack and found her like that, they might lose hope and that was all they had. She needed to be strong. She wished Keith was here. He’d know what to do. Keith should’ve been the one leading a camp like this. He was smart, a born leader and a man who knew how to survive. But he wasn’t here. She was still stuck in the past. She’d have to learn to accept things the way they were if she wanted to continue. She knew that. She just didn’t like it.

  She mended the wound on her arm. It was going to scar. It didn’t matter. She had lots of scars now. All over her body. The years travelling with Bobby and Claire from the Smoky Mountains to Colorado had been difficult. She often thought that some nights would’ve been their last. But somehow they made it through. Somehow they found the light of the new morning.

  When they left the Smoky Mountains and made it through Knoxville, they kept a low profile. They stayed off major highways and out of cities. When possible, they stayed off roads altogether. That first year was the hardest. Bobby got sick. He was thin and barely had the strength to join Sandra and Claire on hunts. They’d have to leave him in a tent. Each time Sandra returned to the tent after the hunt, she’d half expected to find her boy dead. Somehow he survived. The giant harvesters littered the landscape. The motherships remained hovering miles above cities. The AOJs were no where to be seen. Once the aliens had killed most of the population, they kept a low profile. It made surviving out in the woods easy. Although, only as easy as it was to find food, which was often difficult. By the end of the first year, they’d made it to north western Pennsylvania. They camped in the woods outside of Pittsburgh for a while. Sandra had no idea where she was going at the time. She wanted to get as far from Quinton and the Smoky Mountains as she could. By the time they were in Pennsylvania, Sandra was growing more trusting again. Quinton was
far away. They hadn’t run into a hostile group of humans in a while and they felt like they were finally learning how to evade the alien motherships and harvesters. That’s when she learned about StarPeak Mountain and the SpaceForce bunker. When she finally felt like she was getting things under control, she learned where she had to go. She learned about it all from a man they met along a highway just north of Pittsburgh. His name was Clyde. He had a son named Noah. Since the invasion, they’d been living in a farm house far from the city. She would have stayed away from Clyde, she taught her children to stay away from other people, but he was injured. He’d been hunting a pack of deer and had fallen down a hill. He was screaming for help, when Sandra, Bobby and Claire heard him. Sandra told her kids not to listen to the man’s screams, but they wouldn’t let their mother walk away. Against her better instincts, Sandra walked to Clyde. She thought it was going to be a trap. And because of that, she was cautious. She was surprised to discover that it wasn’t a trap. Clyde was injured. They helped him and he told them about the farm house he and his son were staying at. They took him there. They stayed there for months. Clyde was a BlueStar engineer. BlueStar was the most powerful company in the world. They built and maintained the satellites that connected the world. Clyde told Sandra that he and his son were waiting till the Spring thaw. They were then going to head to Colorado. There was a place there that BlueStar had helped design. It was some special installation for SpaceForce in case of a national emergency. It was a base under a mountain. He told Sandra about the constellations and how to find it. He told her everything. Clyde would have travelled with them, but shortly after the first thaw a group of harvesters attacked the farm house. Sandra and her children were out on a hunt when it happened. They were miles from the farm. When they returned form the hunt, they found the house destroyed. It was clear that the harvesters had been there. Signs of their handywork were all over the place. Flattened trees, piles of clumped up debris, and plasma burst craters. They found the bodies of Clyde and Noah and decided at that moment to leave for the Rockies.