Battle- Earth

by Mark Harrison

  He heard the screams of the one attacker as his body was fried from the electrical pulse. He could smell his burning flesh below deck. The electrical pulse was good for only a few seconds. Like the missiles, it was primarily a deterrent. Whomever had designed the yacht had not anticipated that anyone would make it past the machine gun turrets.

  He turned away from his computer and peaked up to the ship’s deck. He needed to see if he killed both attackers. He hadn’t. The other attacker was stood atop his comrades body. Poor bastard. The final attacker still had the two E-47s in his hand. He fired off two quick shots at Felix. Felix ducked back into the lower cabin. He only had one option left. He had to disable those guns.

  It was time to enable the EMP, even if it meant losing his ship’s computer. He wouldn’t have time to chart a direct route to Colorado via his computer’s map system. That didn’t matter. His computer was no good if he was dead.

  He could hear the footsteps of the final attacker as he stepped toward the entrance to the lower deck.

  Felix peaked up at the steps and fired a few shots. The attacker took a couple steps back. He’d bought himself enough time to activate the EMP. He ran to his computer. The final attacker walked below deck.

  “Don’t move!” the attacker said.

  Felix didn’t. He stared at his computer screen. On it was the activate EMP screen. All he had to do was press ‘enter’ and the EMP would go off.

  “You killed all my mates,” said the attacker. “I’m going to take pleasure in killing you. Hell, we might even make you a slave, like the other one in the cage.” The attacker laughed and took a couple steps toward Felix.

  Felix didn’t respond. He waited. He’d have to be quick. He’d have to wait for the attacker to lower his weapons. He turned around and faced the attacker.

  The attacker recognized who he was. “Hey,” he said. “You’re that fucking trillionaire! Oh, the boys are going to have fun with you back at the camp.”

  “Leave,” said Felix.

  “Hah, big boy trillionaire thinks he’s going to buy his way out of this mess. Your money isn’t going to go far here, mate.”

  “Leave,” said Felix. “Or I will kill you.”

  “Kill me? Look around. I’ve got the weapons. Your gun’s on your shoulder. Take it off. Take it off, slowly.”

  Felix grabbed his rifle from around his shoulder and placed it on the ground. As he got up, he hit the EMP button on his computer. He was so subtle that the attacker didn’t notice. The EMP blast went off. The attacker took a step forward. He didn’t realize what had happened. He didn’t realize that his gun was no good anymore.

  “Hey!” he said. “I said no funny stuff. Get on your knees!”

  Felix obliged. When the attacker was a few feet away from him, he said once more, “Leave.”

  The attacker smirked. “Or what, mate?”

  “Or this!” Felix picked up his rifle and aimed it at the attacker. The attacker clicked on the trigger of his gun. It didn’t go off.

  “What the fuck?” said the attacker, looking at his gun.

  “I warned you,” said Felix. He fired two shots into the attacker’s head. Blood splattered everywhere in the cabin of his yacht. The attacker dropped dead.

  Felix got up from the ground and wiped the blood off. “Fuck me,” he said. He turned to his computer and checked the thermal camera. He had to make sure that there were no attackers remaining. There weren’t. They were all dead. “You fucking prick!” he shouted at the body of the attacker.

  He left the cabin of his boat and walked back up to the deck. His Z-49 was still in his hands. Just in case his thermal camera was malfunctioning. It wasn’t. He looked around the beach. It was quiet. All he could hear was the sounds of the waves crashing against the yacht and the shoreline. He breathed slow and heavy. He was about to walk down below deck when he heard a woman scream. The woman sounded close and she sounded like she needed his help.

  Chapter 38

  “Where the fuck did you find this?”

  John questioned Bobby with the rigor of a chief-prosecutor in a murder trial.

  “Give the boy a fucking break,” Rick yelled.

  “This boy may have found the key to our struggle against these things,” said John. “We need to know where he found it.”

  Bobby was cradled in his mom’s arms. Despite the fact that the boy was a skilled killer, he was still just a boy. He was only fourteen years old and his emotions still got the best of him sometimes. He didn’t understand what he’d done. He didn’t understand why a scientist was yelling at him.

  “I found it in the Smoky Mountains,” said Bobby. “It was in a valley. It was foggy. I don’t remember too much more.”

  “You found a piece of alien technology in a valley in the Smoky Mountains?” John said. “You expect me to believe that?”

  Bobby buried his face into his mother’s shoulder. Sandra looked at John and scolded him. “He’s telling you everything he knows,” she said. “He found it years ago. I was there with him. I told him not to grab it, but he hid it in his pocket. He said it was his lucky charm. He’s been wearing it for years. But it never glowed like that. It never looked like that.”

  “Fuck,” said John. “Give it to me.” Bobby handed it over. He looked at the small cube shaped object that Bobby wore around his neck. It was exactly like the small translucent cubes in the alien ship. Except, unlike the translucent cubes, this one was glowing green. It was translucent. It had to mean something. “Come with me,” he said. He pointed to Bobby, Rick and Sandra.

  The three camp members stood up and followed John out of their holding cell. Claire wanted to join them, but Sandra told her to wait, she didn’t know where this SpaceForce scientist was taking them. If anything happened to her or Bobby, she wanted to make sure that Claire was still capable of escaping.

  John led them to the elevators and then down to the hangar where the reconstructed AOJ was. As the door to the elevator opened, Rick, Sandra and Bobby shuddered in fear. The AOJ stood before them. Dormant, but still terrifying.

  “Don’t worry,” John said. “It’s destroyed. It won’t hurt you.” He walked up to a computer and checked the energy diagnostics.

  Rick hadn’t seen an AOJ in years, not since they’d escaped Salt Lake City. And even in that case, he’d never seen one this up close before. He studied the sharp lines of the alien spacecraft and then turned to John. “Where did you find this?” he said.

  “We found it five years ago,” John said. “Outside of SpaceForce Mission Control. We hauled it up here and I have been studying it ever since.”

  “Jesus,” said Rick.

  “Jesus?” said John. “This has nothing to do with Jesus. This is pure science, my friend. Through and through.”

  “Why are you taking us here?” asked Sandra, Bobby was still in her arms.

  John walked up to the hull of alien ship and pulled a small cube from it. “Because,” he said, “you’re boy may have found the missing piece.”

  “The what?” said Sandra.

  “That cube your son found,” said John. “We think they are batteries. We think they are tiny objects of immense energy.”

  “Well, how the hell did it end up in some valley in the Smoky Mountains?”

  “Precisely,” said John, holding the cube up into the light, looking at it carefully.

  Rick was growing impatient. He didn’t spend five years of his life searching for the bunker to hear some scientist clamour on about some missing piece. “Can you get to the point?” he said. “I’ve got a cell full of people who need help and your asshole of a commander won’t help them.”

  John knew who Rick was talking about. Ethan had grown rather short-tempered these last few years. Five years of being stuck holed up in a mountain will do that to you. He also knew who Rick Frost was. He remembered seeing him at Mission Control those many years ago. He’d been the man who’d found the alien orb out in a South Dakota cornfield. He’d heard Rick was a recluse. A
man ashamed of the past and someone who’d taken to the drink in a bad way. The man in front of him didn’t look lost. He was going to give Rick a sarcastic answer, but thought better of it. He didn’t want to mess with Rick. “Uh, yes,” said John. “I’ll get right to it. He placed the small cube into a small crevice in the ship. It fit perfectly. Its glow stopped when it was placed inside.

  John waited.

  Nothing happened.

  Rick smirked. “Very impressive,” he said. “Is this why you dragged us down here. To show us your non-working alien spacecraft? Aren’t you working on the counter-attack? Is this all you have? A broken ship?”

  “Yeah,” said Sandra. “We were told you were working on harnessing their technology?”

  John looked confused. He scratched his head. He pulled the energy cube out of the ship and looked at it. It started to glow again. He wasn’t paying attention to Sandra or Rick. He was more concerned about the cube.

  He looked at it once more. It looked like it was of the same material as the translucent cubes. It had tiny blue lines that ran along its surface. John had hoped that when he’d plugged it into the ship that some part of it would power up, but that’s not what happened.

  “Are you listening to us?” asked Rick.

  John turned to him. “I am,” he said. “Give me a moment.” Out of ideas, he blew onto the small cube. He then plugged it back in.

  “When is the counter-attack?” said Rick. “Tell me now.”

  John ignored Rick’s question again. His mind was racing. He needed to think. He didn’t need to be distracted like this. He should have left them in the holding cell. He jumped down from atop the alien ship. “What was it you were saying?” he said.

  “The alien tech you are harnessing,” said Sandra. “Is this it? Is this all you have?”

  John looked at the two of them. They both wore the same pissed off expression. Bobby was no longer cradled in his mother’s arms. He was looking at the cube that he wore around his neck for years. John was looking at the cube, too. He drifted off.

  “Hello!?” Rick said.

  “Yes,” said John. “The tech we are harnessing? No, we are not ‘harnessing’ their tech. At least, not yet. And as far as a counter-attack goes, well I haven’t heard anything. And I am on the council of commanders in this bunker. We’ve been here for five years. Our first priority was getting into contact with other government agencies around the world. We’ve been able to connect with a few, but everyday that number diminishes. Everyday it looks a little bleaker out there. In terms of this ship, well, that’s been my goal. All I’ve been able to do is put it together. We were hoping we could get it powered up again, to better understand how it works. But we haven’t been able to. We were missing these energy cubes.”

  Sandra looked disappointed. When she heard that the SpaceForce bunker was planning some sort of counter-attack to take on the aliens, she felt a faint glimmer of hope in her heart. Hearing that no such plan existed, broke her heart.

  Rick was more upset that the SpaceForce bunker was no better off than his camp had been. They seemed as lost as the camp he’d been leading for five years outside in the Rockies. He’d been hoping that at least they would be planning something, anything to take on the aliens. To hear that they had no ideas felt like a betrayal. Felt like they’d failed their duty.

  John knew he’d upset the both of them. The truth would hurt. But this was the apocalypse, why make it sound better than it was. He was about to turn around and climb back up the ladder to the top of the AOJ when he noticed Bobby’s face change.

  The cube that John was holding in his hands was starting to vibrate “Look!” Bobby said.

  John dropped the cube. “What the?!”

  Rick had seen this before. When he found the probe in South Dakota and took it back to his garage, it, too, vibrated like this. “Everybody get back,” he said.

  Everybody ran for cover.

  As the tiny cube lay on the ground it continued to vibrate. Rick knew what would happen next. “Shield yourself,” he said.

  Rick shielded Bobby. Sandra and John both ducked. As Rick had predicted, a second later the tiny little cube exploded into a million pieces.

  John stood up from the ground, wiped off his pants and turned to Rick. “How did you know?” he said.

  “The probe I found in South Dakota did the same thing. It looked like that little cube, except it was way bigger. When it exploded it took my truck with it.”

  “Are you okay, Bobby?” Sandra said.

  Bobby was fine. There wasn’t a scratch on him. But there was a stunned expression on his face, like he’d seen a ghost. John, Sandra and Rick both looked at the boy, trying to figure out what was wrong. Bobby pointed to the AOJ.

  One of the lights on the alien ship was turned on.

  Chapter 39

  She was in a cage in the back of a truck. It must have belonged to the attackers. Felix approached. He held his rifle up. There had to be more around. The last attacker said that a camp was close by.

  “Help,” she said. “Help me.”

  Felix looked into the cage. She was close to death, naked. They were monsters. He didn’t regret a thing killing them all. She had bruises all over her body and scars all along her face. Was she some kind of play thing that they brought along with them wherever they went? Is this what the human race had been reduced to since the invasion? Is this what Felix was fighting to save? He walked up to the cage in the back. “Stay back,” he said.

  He didn’t have to say that. The woman could hardly move. She was lying in the back corner, in what looked like a pool of her own urine. She was shivering. He held up his rifle, aimed down the scope and blew the lock off the cage. He went into the cage and helped her get out. The cage was large enough that a small person could stand straight up in it, but it wasn’t meant for humans. It looked like it was originally used to transport livestock. “Who are you?” he asked.

  “My name is Sharon,” she said. “I’ve been held captive by these parasites for four years.”

  “Four years?” Felix didn’t want to imagine what kind of hell she’d lived through.

  He carried her to the beach. She was an older woman, in her mid-fifties, but she had a very young face so he couldn’t be sure. He didn’t want to bother her with too many questions. If he could get her back to the yacht, he could bandage her up and give her some food. All he had left was a mackerel he’d caught on his way onto the shore and his last can of beer. His water desalinater still wasn’t working.

  The beach in front of the yacht looked like a war zone. The bodies were strewn across the white sand which was now red, stained with blood. His million dollar yacht didn’t look like it could’ve taken much more. Its hull was damaged. Black smoke emanated from its generator.

  She looked up from Felix’s arms and said, “We shouldn’t stay long. There are more of them. There’s a camp about two miles east of here.”

  Felix looked down at her. “We won’t stay,” he said. “We’re going to get you patched up, clothed, and then get some food in you. After that, you can come with me, if you’d like?”

  “Where are you going?” she asked.

  “Starpeak Mountain in Colorado. There’s a radio tower there. I need to use it.”

  “What?”

  “It’s a long story,” Felix said. “But that’s where I am headed. Once you collect yourself, you can decide whether you want to join me.”

  She looked at Felix and studied his face. She looked concerned. Was he crazy? But he looked familiar, she just couldn’t quite place it. She was tired, hungry and cold. She had to trust him.

  Felix took her inside the yacht and gave her some clothes. He had a bunch of woman’s clothing in the yacht. Before the invasion, he’d lived the playboy lifestyle. He’d often take the yacht out for weeklong retreats with supermodels and famous actresses. The only problem with the clothes on board is that they were not very practical. He gave her a red dress and one of his shirts. The dress w
as a little too revealing and he didn’t want to make her feel uncomfortable. She also wore a pair of his shoes, some old runners he had. As she got dressed, he made them both some food. The mackerel cooked nicely on his yacht’s stove. They split his final beer. It wasn’t much, but it’s what he’d been living off of for the past five years. Sharon didn’t seem upset by the meagre offerings.

  “It’s been a long four years,” she said as they ate.

  Felix looked up at her. He was eating while sat at his computer. He was trying to get it to work again. The EMP blast had done its damage. No matter what he did, his hard drive and CPUs were fried. “You’re telling me,” he said.

  “They captured me as I was making my way to Las Vegas,” she said.

  “Vegas?”

  “Yes,” said Sharon. “It’s where my husband was. His name is Chris. He worked for NASA. He was at SpaceForce Mission Control when the invasion started.”

  “SpaceForce, NASA?” Felix said. “That’s funny. I’ve worked with both government institutions.”

  “You’re Felix Sarsgaard aren’t you. You’re the founder of BlueStar. One of the wealthiest men in the world. I believe you met my husband once or twice.”

  “I’ve met a lot of people,” Felix said. He didn’t want to be mean, but he was telling her the truth. He didn’t remember Chris.

  “Oh,” she said. “It doesn’t matter now. He’s probably dead.”

  Felix looked out the window of the yacht. He saw the bodies of the attackers on the beach. If Sharon was right, and a camp was close by, then they would have to leave soon. Plus, the sun was starting to set. He didn’t want to be travelling at night.

  “I don’t mean to change the subject,” he said. “But, who were those men? The ones that captured you.”

  “They were a gang of murderers and thieves,” said Sharon. “They’ve been raping and assaulting me and other women for years. They’d bring one of their captured slaves on hunting expeditions. After they’d filled their desire for bloodlust, they’d come back to the truck and have their way with me.”