by Maxey, Phil
*****
Zach dropped the mike to the desk then looked back at the hive of activity all around him in the CIC. He had seen this level of panic before, but it was in a much larger space back at the headquarters of the camp. He stepped forward joining the others watching the various feeds of the outside world above their heads, and the lights that were flitting around the sky.
“I’ve lost contact with him,” he said.
Mitchell looked at a nearby officer. “Get some soldiers out to that part of the sewer system.”
The soldier nodded and clicked on his radio to issue the command.
Another soldier wearing a headset rushed forward. “Ma’am we can’t hold the east entrance to the sewer system.”
“Tell them to fall back to the sewers, lets see how well they move around in an eight foot high tunnel.”
The monitors all around were full of streaks of light flying towards towering figures, each one wearing an armor which emanated a strange blue-purple glow.
“Just one of them took out five E.L.F’s and withstood a hail of bullets. Why it stopped attacking and left I do not know,” said Erin between gritted teeth.
Zach looked at Abbey who was standing at his side. She was oddly quiet. He walked past Erin and held her hand. She smiled back at him.
“All we’re doing is slowing them down,” said Fiona.
Bower stepped forward. “What ordnance or explosives you got?” he said to Mitchell.
She looked at the officers next to her. “Quite a selection.”
“Because small arms fire ain’t getting the job done and I need to make them hurt.”
“Sergeant West, take the Captain and a squad and equip them with what he says they need.”
The Sergeant nodded. Zach went to leave with Bower.
Bower’s eyes were full of emotion. “Zach, you’re needed here. Just keep me informed on what’s happening around me.”
Zach nodded.
“I’m going with you,” said Fiona. Bower nodded and together with the Sergeant they left.
A slight whisper of dust fell from the ceiling.
Erin looked at Mitchell. “What do you want us to do?”
“Stay out of the way. You’re probably the reason they are attacking us. But they’re not getting you or any Cascaders.”
Erin briefly put his hand on the generals. “Thank you general.”
“Umm okay. Now please let me do my job.”
Erin stepped back with a smile.
Zach looked at Abbey who gave him the slightest of glances. He then grabbed Erin’s arm, pulling him backwards. “Civilians aren’t needed in the CIC, you should get back to your people and your quarters.”
Erin angrily brushed him off. “Okay I’m leaving!”
Abbey left with him, her hand briefly touching Zach’s as she walked past.
Zach pushed his emotions down deep and walked back to the monitors. In the feeds, soldiers ran for places to hide while intense beams swept near them, scything in half anything the light touched.
“The shells aren’t penetrating whatever armor they have,” said Zach.
Mitchell touched her earpiece. “Zach, we got him.”
“Who? Michael? Diaz?”
She shook her head. “They just found him. They are bringing him in through the north tunnels.”
Zach’s thoughts flickered to Bower and then he pushed them aside. He looked at Mitchell. “I can’t stay here, I’m of more use out there.”
“Captain Bakers platoon is under heavy fire near the west entrance, see what you can do there,” said Mitchell.
He nodded and left.
Nearby as Erin and Abbey were nearing their living quarters, she pulled up.
Erin turned around puzzled. “What?”
“I think I can help. Up top.”
“What do you mean? How can you help? There are no E.L.F’s around here anymore for us to control. You know we have already sent the ones we discovered earlier away.”
“I know that. It’s not about the E.L.F’s. I don’t know. It’s just a feeling.” It was all she could do to stop her quickly formed plan from pouring from her mouth.
Erin looked at her inquisitively. “Okay, if you must. But perhaps Dale—”
She was already walking backwards. “I’ll be fine,” she looked at one of the soldiers who was accompanying them back to the quarters. “I’m sure this guy will protect me.”
The young soldier looked unsure. She pulled on his arm dragging him along the tunnel and around a corner away from Erin’s gaze.
“Ma’am, my duty was just to take you to the—”
“Yeah yeah I know. You can go do your soldier thing, but which way to the surface?”
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
Zach ran along a deserted bunker tunnel, the lights flickering above his head as the sound of distant gunfire mixed with screams. He was told the route to the north sewers were in this direction, but apart from that there was no indication he was going the right way.
He skidded around a corner and two soldiers standing guard at a secure looking door came into view.
“That the north sewer exit?” He shouted along the tunnel to them.
Before they could answer voices could be heard beyond the door, and after a few beeps the door unlocked and swung open. Out of breath soldiers appeared through the gap along with Michael.
Zach ran up to him. He was without his backpack and his fatigues were torn and grimy but apart from that he seemed in one piece. “Are you injured?”
He shook his head.
“Diaz?”
He shook his head again.
Zach sighed. “We’re trying to take the fight to them. You okay to help out?”
Michael looked up from his position leaning against the tunnel wall with eyes that wanted to quit. He then stood more upright. “I’m low on ammo, but yeah I’m good.”
Zach briefly held his shoulder. “We’ll get you kitted out on the way to the west exit.” He then looked at the soldiers nearby. “One of you needs to take us to the armory and then show us the way to the west sewer entrance.”
After scrambling through dimly lit corridors, a visit to one of many rooms full of weapons and ammo they burst through some double doors into a sign of chaos. The metallic smell of blood hung in the air, backed up by the screams of soldiers dying, as they lay on the floor and camp beds. Nurses ran between them while what looked like a single doctor did their best to keep whom they could alive.
Ignoring the scene around them, Zach and Michael ran past the bodies alive and dead and entered another tunnel, this one had soldiers running along it in both directions.
Zach grabbed one of them. “Where’s Captain Baker?”
The soldier who was heading towards the makeshift infirmary, nodded back the way he came. “Follow me.”
Leaving the secure walls of the bunker network and entering the sewer system, the sound of battle intensified and the air-cooled. They scampered along the tunnel avoiding parts which had collapsed and arrived at a metal ladder to the surface. Flashes of light from above momentarily alleviated the darkness around the base of the ladder.
The soldier looked back as he put one foot on it. “Get ready to enter hell.” He then started climbing.
Zach and Michael both made sure their newly acquired helmets were tightly held to their skulls and climbed up after him.
Orange explosions lit the night sky, while streaks of neon red streamed across streets and between buildings dissecting clouds of dust and smoke.
They all crouched down behind what remained of a pickup truck.
The soldier pointed to a building about a hundred yards to their right. “Captain Bakers in that building, they are holding one of them back,” he shouted trying to be heard over the barrage of sound around them.
“You head back down below. We got it from here!” said Zach.
The soldier nodded then ran a few yards and slid back down into the hole.
Zach looked at Mi
chael who seemed to be talking to himself under his breath. “We got to make it to that building, you ready?!”
“Yeah.”
As they scrambled to their feet the sound of masonry being crunched came from ahead of them, and a Hulathen came into view from behind some ruins, walking nonchalantly and firing its particle weapon at the building they were heading towards. Part of the front wall exploded while bullets streamed back the other way.
Zach and Michael dived for cover in one of the many newly formed craters.
“We can’t get to them!” Shouted Zach. He then peered over the edge of the crater. The Hulathen was holding a small car aloft, using it as a shield to deflect the torrent of bullets that were converging on it. He turned to Michael. “We’re going to flank it. Let’s go.”
They scrambled out of the hole and ran across rubble and the street while keeping low. As they grew closer to the alien being, Zach noticed part of the Hulathen’s armor was darker than the other parts.
They hunkered down behind a low wall.
“You see that?” said Zach pointing at the Hulathen’s right thigh.
“See what?”
“I think its armor is damaged at that point.”
“Okay…”
Zach clicked on his radio. “This is general Felton for Captain Baker or any of his unit. Come in, over.”
A few moments of crackling was then interrupted by a gravely voice. “This is Baker, what can I do for you general. Over.”
“I’m about a hundred yards to your south. The alien is between us and you. I need you to turn your fire on the target up to eleven and keep it busy for the next few minutes. Over.”
“Understood. Over.”
Zach glanced at Michael. “When things heat up, we’re going to run up behind it and concentrate our fire on its leg. You got that?”
Michael nodded.
Zach peered over the wall. The Hulathen’s particle weapon was scything chunks of masonry from the building, which was collapsing in front of their eyes. “Get ready!”
A few soldiers ran from the building, shooting at the alien while even more fire converged on it from different dark holes in the three-story structure.
Zach and Michael hopped over the wall and ran hell for leather towards the alien that was doing its best to not take all of the fire that was being aimed at it. When they were within twenty yards Zach drew the pins from two grenades waited a second then threw them right at the feet of the creature. They both then dived to the ground and covered their heads. A deafening explosion soon followed, when they both looked up the Hulathen was kneeling, but still firing its weapon. More of its armor had dimmed.
Michael ran forward firing. “Die!”
“No!” Shouted Zach a few yards behind, but it was too late to stop the aliens spiked tail from whipping around and slamming into Michael throwing him through the air.
Zach raised his rifle and walked forward shooting, targeting the duller parts of the creature’s armor. Its tail swiped through the air again, but Zach ducked and it sailed over his head. He kept firing and its armor began to darken further.
The Hulathen rotated on the spot, raising its weapon directly at Zach who was only yards away. Zach froze waiting for his world to be filled with light and pain, when instead the creature’s face behind its partial visor changed to one of anguish.
The firing from the building had stopped and silence rushed back in, but then was broken by the sound of footsteps. Zach looked to his right. Abbey was walking towards the Hulathen with her hand held out in front of her.
Zach shook his head and waved his hand for her to go, but she kept on walking forward. He looked back at the Hulathen that had not moved from its awkward kneeled position with its raised hand in Zach’s direction. Its face straining, seemingly wanting to do something it could not.
“Get out of here!” shouted Zach as Abbey walked over some rubble and came to his side.
She walked up to the Hulathen, its eyes tracking her every step.
Zach watched speechless. Soldiers flooded out of the ruined building and ran towards them.
“If you’re going to kill this thing, I suggest you do it quickly, I can’t hold it like this forever.”
Zach walked forward to be within just a few feet of the creature which even kneeled was a few feet higher than him, and held his rifle an inch from its head. Its eyes narrowed into an expression of contempt. Zach’s finger went to squeeze the trigger when he stopped, and he looked around until he found what he was looking for. Quickly walking to a nearby mound of what was left of a building, he picked up a five-foot long metal pipe and returned to the alien.
He pulled his arm back. “I got a better idea—” and with an almighty swipe brought the pipe down on the Hulathen's head, crashing through its visor and impacting its bony skull. Its eyes flickered then it fell to the ground unconscious.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
Fiona, Zach, Mitchell and others stood in one of bunker twelve’s large storage chambers. A fizzing crackling sound filled the air along with a metallic smell as soldiers rushed to weld huge metal rods in place.
The Hulathen lay unconscious near the back wall, its arms and legs restrained with five inch thick chains, while other soldiers kneeled and stood pointing a small arsenal of high-powered weaponry at it.
Fiona looked at the bars slowly being secured into the bedrock. “You sure this is going to hold it?”
“It better,” said Mitchell. “We can’t have one of these things running around down here.”
“It’s got enough sedative inside it to drop a herd of elephants,” said Bryce. “But I have to admit, its biology was not something we could make sense of. So it’s all guesswork at this stage. We did manage to remove its weapon that was attached to its right hand though, but not its armor, that seems to be sealed to its skeletal structure somehow.”
“How’s Michael doing?” said Zach.
“A cracked rib and some lacerations, but he’s doing fine,” said Bryce.
Zach walked forward past the burgeoning barrier intended to keep the alien prisoner.
“Don’t get too close,” said Mitchell.
“We’ll need it awake at some point. I got a whole lot of questions for it.”
“I wonder what its name is,” said Fiona.
“Its name is, ‘I got my ass kicked by a human’,” said Bower joining the group, his face and fatigues covered in smears of black soot and blood.
Mitchell looked at him. “How’s it looking up top Captain?”
“No sign of the Hulathen. When we captured this one, and I’m fairly sure injured some others, they left….We took heavy casualties though. Last count was forty-five dead, seventy-six injured.”
“And how many Hulathen were there?” said Fiona.
“Four…” said Bower.
A quiet descended upon the occupants of the cement walled room.
Zach kneeled closer to the alien. “Doesn’t matter if there’s four or four thousand if we can convince them to leave us alone.”
Mitchell looked at Bryce. “I expect you and doctor Joshi to learn as much as you can about this thing, while we manage to keep it as our guest.”
He nodded.
She sighed. “Right. There are some families I need to have a conversation with.”
In the Cascaders living quarters Abbey woke from sleeping on her single camping bed. She immediately sensed someone watching her.
“So you controlled it?” said Erin sitting on the bed opposite hers.
She rubbed her eyes. “What are you talking about.”
“The alien? You stopped it from killing Zach.”
She wondered how he already knew that. “Yeah, it would seem so.”
“This was the idea you said you had in the tunnel earlier?”
She nodded.
He grinned. “I knew! You were more than a pretty face.”
She felt her skin crawl but tried to not let that be too obvious to the man studying her. “Any coff
ee on the go?”
He looked past her to the other end of the room. “Clovis! We need coffee over here.”
She suddenly realized she had completely forgotten about the man that wanted to murder her. She turned and quickly closed her mouth after it fell open. The tall domineering man she had been so terrified of sauntered across the room between the beds and tables carrying a tray of mugs and cookies. Eventually he stood near the end of the bed holding the tray.
“Put it on the bed then continue with your chores,” said Erin, his eyes not moving from Abbey.
As Clovis did as ordered she looked at the shadows and lines on Clovis’s face and the red rings which surrounded his eyes. He then turned and quietly walked away.
“He… doesn’t seem himself,” she said.
“We had a good conversation about his anger issues and now as you can see he wants to be part of our growing family.” He leaned forward reaching and gripping Abbey’s hand. “We all must be bound together to get through this. Now we know our abilities enable us to control not just the E.L.F’s but also the aliens. This means our future is bright Abbey. Nothing and no one will stand in our way.”
She wanted to remove her hand from his grasp but couldn’t, so instead she nodded and provided a faltering smile.
He let go moving his hands to his knees. “Good! Now get some coffee inside of you, I’m sure we’re going to have a busy day.”
“It’s morning?”
“I believe the sun is just coming up.” He looked around. “I could never get used to living in a hole like the old-worlders have.” He rose, smiled, then walked away.
*****
Zach finished his conversation with a soldier he came to know was called “Tyrone” and moved to the next injured soldier in the infirmary. He had already been there in amongst the smells of the aftermath of battle for well over an hour telling the men and women about the new city which had sprung up near Austin when a private burst through the double door and ran up to him.
