by Maxey, Phil
Brad looked around at the smoldering remains of a number of the outposts buildings. He then looked upwards. The rain clouds from the previous few days were almost all gone and a bright blue sky looked back at him. Most of the wounds on his face had started to heal, but he could still feel the dried blood around his nose, and the bruising around his eye was throbbing.
The sound of footsteps sent a shiver through most that were on the ground.
Erin appeared and walked to stand in front of them. “At least for your last day on earth the weather has improved!”
A few of the condemned started to cry.
He clicked on his radio. “Are you out there Abbey?”
“We told you, she’s gone!” said Hoxted.
Erin ignored the major and tried again. “These deaths are on you, Abbey.” He marched across to the first in the row and raised his handgun at the man there, who looked back at him with fierce defiance. Erin’s radio crackled. He immediately held it back to his mouth. “Times up Abbey, if I don’t hear from you within—”
“I’m here,” said Abbey from his radio.
Relief ran through the prisoners.
Erin whirled around. “Finally! I could sense you. I knew you were out there.” He squinted his eyes, looking into the distance. “I’m also sensing… something else.” He looked at one of the nearby soldiers, who nodded, clicking on his own radio and started relaying orders. “I wonder. Have you brought friends?”
“It’s over Erin. Hand yourself over to those you are holding captive and I will let your people go.”
He smiled. “So you have brought company. Well you should know so have I—”
“From the looks of it Mitchells people have taken a battering, and you have lost some of your hardware.”
“Oh I don’t mean them. I mean the Cascaders that I brought with me and their creatures. Which I’ve held back until the time was right. And I would say that time is now.” There was silence from his radio. “Nobody else has to die. All you have to do is surrender yourself to me. Then we will leave and your friends get to live. Or...” He walked to Brad, raising his gun a few inches from his forehead. Brad straightened his back and fixed his eyes on the man in front of him.
“Okay! Do not kill anyone else! I’ll meet you at the main junction in the town.”
Erin’s gun remained in position. “If you are thinking of playing any games—”
“No games. I’ll be there.”
*****
Bass wasn’t sure what the creature was he was riding with two others on, but it had scooped him up with one of its claws and then they were retreating along the road, which they had been fighting over for the past hour.
Other creatures soared through the air overhead, all heading in the same direction, to the last defensive point, close to the Core.
He clicked on his radio. “We’re heading back to Alpha. Over!”
A string of explosions were just audible above the roars and screeches of the E.L.F’s as a row of battle tanks fired shells over the heads of those retreating.
The creature Bass and the others were on bounded forward, over rocks and fallen pieces of fencing and onto the cement parking lot which was full of military hardware desperately firing at the oncoming hordes of Hulathen.
As the creature came to a halt, Bass slid off and ran forward between concrete blocks that had been erected as part of a defensive wall. He glanced back at the ranks of Hulathen who were relentlessly walking forward, while firing their particle beam weapons. A tank exploded sending the soldiers using it as a shield flying through the air and landing like rag dolls on the solid ground.
Most of the E.L.F’s had been killed, but a few were still tussling with some of the Hulathen. To Bass it looked like a scene from the films he loved as a kid, of two prehistoric monsters fighting to the death. He ran forward shouting at their nearby Cascaders. “Pull your creatures back! Pull them back!”
Some heard and together with their creatures started running back towards the main entrance to the Core.
A stream of projectiles flew from the human defenders, some exploding against the Hulathen on impact, while intense beams of different hues answered, scything through human and machine alike.
Looking around it was obvious the defenders were losing. He clicked on his radio. “Everyone retreat back to the Core! Over!” He ran from soldier to soldier dragging them back to the slope which ran down to the large metal entrance doors.
Some of the remaining tanks started reversing towards the entrance, while soldiers ran between them. A giant sloth like E.L.F bounded over them and landed on the slope, then ran inside with its Cascader on its back. Other flying E.L.F’s dived down from the sky and into the darkness of the underground tunnel.
As Bass ran towards the huge closing doors, he could feel the heat of the Hulathen's weapons as the beams cooked the air around him. He pushed his legs, despite the pain of past injuries and saw soldiers falling to the ground out of the corner of his eyes. Looking forward, the doors were almost entirely closed with the gap between them only a few feet wide.
He stumbled, his legs giving out underneath him and he fell through the decreasing space, his shoulders rubbing against the giant steel doors, as they slammed closed behind him. The high ceilinged tunnel was alive with exhausted and injured soldiers, creatures and damaged military vehicles. He quickly shifted his view back to the huge doors.
They shuddered, but remained shut.
Holding…
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Forgotten traffic signal boxes hanging from cables, swayed in the noonday sun. A gas station sat on one corner of the wide junction, while a drive through restaurant sat on another. In the center fifteen people including Brad and Major Hoxted were on their knees. And in front of them, was Erin with a number of his men. A long convoy of his remaining vehicles stretched hundreds of yards towards the nearby town, and on the forecourts and mud covered ground all around were creatures of all sizes. Everyone human or not was waiting.
Erin wiped his brow with the back of his hand, then clicked on his radio. “I’m not a patient man Abbey. Do not make me wait any longer.”
Someone shouted to look up into the sky, and a small dark cross shape appeared high above them, but rapidly increased in size.
The shape became clearer until everyone could see the large wings of Abbey’s E.L.F beating the air, as they descended. The updraft dispersed the dust from the concrete and Mo lowered Abbey to the ground. He then instantly took back up into the cool blue sky.
She stood her ground twenty feet away from Erin and the hostages. “I’m here, now let them go!”
Erin grinned and walked slowly towards her until she was within arm’s reach. “It is good to see you!” He grabbed and pulled her into him for an embrace.
She pushed him off of her. “You got what you want. Now let them go!” She looked across at the drained and grime covered individuals wavering in the heat, then back at him. He was just standing there, not talking, but she could feel his mind probing hers, trying to find a way to remove her will.
She stepped back, shaking her head. “Get out of my head! You said you would let them go!”
He tilted his head briefly and she felt the pressure ease up inside her skull. “Hmm we all say lots of things in the heat of the moment. I could let them go, or I could keep them, so you do as you’re told.” He walked forward placing his hands again on both of her shoulders. His closeness made her stomach turn. “If you just stopped resisting, give yourself—”
“Get away from her!” shouted Brad from behind them. The thud of a rifle butt hitting his head quickly followed.
“No!” Abbey shouted then wrangled herself from Erin and ran over to Brad who was laying on the floor, trying to get back to his knee’s despite his hands being tied. She looked back at Erin who was smiling. “If I give myself to you, what guarantee do I have that you will let them all go?”
Erin walked forward, nodding, seemingly in conversation wit
h himself. “That is a dilemma for you, I agree.” He sighed. “Okay. I will let all of them go, apart from this one, the old man. I feel he still needs to pay for his crimes.”
Abbey shook her head, while being just a few inches from Brads.
He grimaced. “Don’t do it…”
She looked at him with tears in her eyes. “I have to save them. It’s the only chance they have.”
She looked back to Erin. “Okay, let them go.”
Erin looked at the nearby soldiers, who then stepped forward, untied the prisoners apart from Brad and pulled them to their feet. Hoxted and the others looked around bewildered then started jogging towards the south. Brad nodded to the major as she moved away.
“Right, now let’s get—”
Abbey stood up and looked at Erin angrily. “Wait until they are safely away!”
Erin frowned. “What did I say about not being a patient man?” He then grabbed her temples, his thumbs pressing into her skin. A jolt flowed through Abbey’s body.
Have to resist.
Even though she was repeating the words to herself, she could feel his mind flooding through hers, moving into her memories and dreams, replacing her desires with his own. She wanted to reach for the Glock handgun in the back of her waist belt, but instead she stood there as he zombified her.
Then the grip was gone. She hadn’t realized her eyes were closed, but on opening them she looked upon Erin’s face, frozen. He staggered back, reaching around his side as a red patch started to expand. She looked at Brad, in his hand a knife and his mouth was opening and closing, desperately telling her something, but her mind felt like a lead weight in her skull.
R… Run?
She and Erin both went for their handguns and two explosive shots rang out simultaneously. She screamed in anguish as Brad fell backwards and lunged to catch him as Erin’s lifeless body fell to the ground. Out of the corner of her eye as she cradled Brad’s head in her arms, she could see Erin’s people raising their guns at her, while others ran towards their dead leader.
“Stay with me!” she said to Brad as his eyes flickered. He gripped her hand momentarily, his expression changing from one of pain to a smile, then fell limp. Tears streamed down her face, as gunfire started up all around her. She knew the battle had begun, but she didn’t care as she looked down upon her dead friend.
*****
Bass ran into main operations at the Core, dodging people running the other way. On the screens all around him were multiple video feeds across the camp, and the outside of the Core.
“The main doors are not going to last much longer, they’re cutting their way through!” He said to Trow.
The general seemed transfixed by the destruction of buildings in the capital. Skyscrapers were collapsing in clouds of dust, while orange beams scythed through the sky.
“General?”
She shook her head. “Yes, what is it?”
Elijah handed her a piece of paper. She nodded and the older man continued with his planning.
“They’re almost through the main doors,” said Bass.
“Is our defensive parameter secure?”
“For now.” He looked at the video feeds. “The capitals taking a pounding.”
“This fight is not over yet,” said Elijah while continuing his work.
A young soldier nearby nodded into her headset then looked back at the general. “Ma’am, they have broken into the fourth and twelfth bunkers, but the others are holding.”
“Tell Baker to deploy his unit to help out those bunkers, and how are the Cascaders doing in the capital?”
“They have taken heavy casualties,” said the soldier.
Trow frowned. “Tell them to find shelter where they can.”
The soldier nodded then talked into her mike.
Bass looked at the chaos around him, he knew he would be of better use elsewhere. “I’m going to the first perimeter.”
Trow looked at him, nodded while smiling then returned to the five voices around her asking for what to do next.
Bass ran from the room, down corridors packed with refugees and the injured until he reached a junction. He went to move in one direction, but then stopped and went in the other. Towards the infirmary.
The sounds of groans and screams reached him even before he pushed open the double doors. Nurses pushed past him in the opposite direction. The people he had come to find were already out of their beds, no doubt given up for those worse off.
Isaiah spotted him and hobbled over on a crutch. “Give us a gun, we can fight!”
Wyatt, in a wheelchair, rolled up alongside them. “I can get in their heads, I just need to be close enough.”
Four more walking wounded, two women and two men joined them.
“Good, everyone follow me,” said Bass.
They moved as quickly as they could to the closest armory, picked up all the kit they could carry then made their way towards the main doors.
In the capital, in bunker twelve, Ray crouched down behind a concrete wall. The large previously secure steel door just a few yards around the corner, was buckling. He looked at the grime covered face of the young woman next to him and nodded. She handed him a long tube. The booms and sheering sound filled the small tunnel space around them. Ray peered around the corner, then instantly pulled back when a laser beam streamed along the corridor. He reached up and felt the warm patch on his head.
“Good thing I don’t have much hair.”
The girl gave a faltering smile in response.
“Get ready to run.”
She nodded.
He pulled the lighter from his pocket, flicked the flame on, then lit the fuse to his bomb.
The door then buckled completely and flew open, slamming back against the concrete wall. Then came the sound of heavy boots.
Ray watched as the fizzing sparkle moved along the fuse wire towards the bottom. The Hulathen moved closer.
He uneasily got to his feet, threw the bomb around the corner, then with the girl ran. He only got five feet before the explosion filled the corridor with flame and heat. The sound of tumbling brick and cement quickly followed.
On the surface, a few miles away, Mike Lardner of the justice force ran along the sidewalk dodging masonry that was falling from above. The air was filled with a thick layer of dust, and explosions of rock and steel echoed off the pockmarked concrete walls. A young woman, carrying a child ran out from lobby doors. He threw his arms over her then pulled her towards him, shepherding her back the way he had just come. “Run to the bunker entrance in the plaza!” He shouted as she ran for her life and her sons.
He ducked inside the entrance of the apartment block. The bodies of soldiers and civilians alike covered the wide street, mixed with huge blocks that had fallen from high above. Military vehicles sat motionless, only crumpled memories of what they once were.
He clicked on his radio. “Flores, Baxter, Jenkins? You out there? Over.”
His radio crackled, just barely audible over the sound of battle in the nearby streets.
“Here… Hulathen…Over.”
“Say again? Is that Baxter? Over.”
“Yes! We’re pinned down in the park on fourteenth. Over.”
“Are Flores—” Two people emerged from the dust and ran past him. “— And Jenkins with you? Over?”
“Yes, and four others. Over.”
“Stay there I’m coming to you! Over.”
Turning, he ran into the street, hopping over the dead and rubble, when something solid slammed into his back, sending him flying through the air until he was stopped by the side of a burning APC. Dazed he scrambled to his feet, then pulled the M4 rifle from his back and turned. Two Hulathen were walking towards him. Just as one of them went to raise their weapon bearing arm, the ground shuddered, almost knocking the aliens from their feet. Mike fell back onto the APC.
A deafening roar boomed out and an E.L.F ten story’s high, stepped over the APC and crashed down on the Hulathen, killing
both of them instantly.
Mike looked up at the four-legged reptilian creature trying to see the top of it.
“Are you okay?” said a child’s voice from nearby.
Mike still in shock at what just happened, flicked his head to his right. A young girl was standing, clutching a soot covered teddy bear, looking back at him. He staggered forward then crouched down in front of her. “Is he yours?” He said looking back at the towering creature.
“His name is Mr. Teeth. Are you okay now?”
Mike nodded and smiled, putting his hand on the child’s shoulder. “You and Mr. Teeth saved me.” He stood back up. “Is there anyone with you?”
She shook her head.
“My friends need your help, that okay?”
She nodded.
He leaned down, picked her up in his arms, then ran towards his original destination. Mr. teeth slowly turned and followed.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Mary Tanner looked out of the window of her farmhouse. It was over fifteen miles away from the large buildings of the capital, but the flashes of explosions, and multiple streams of the alien’s weapons were clearly visible.
“I can smell the battle,” said Irene standing behind her. “You can’t stay up here, you need to get back down to the bunker.”
“They’re destroying everything we built!” said Mary with tears in her eyes.
Irene walked forward feeling the edge of the double bed, and put her hand on Mary’s shoulder. “We’ll rebuild, we did it once, we can do it again.”
Mary’s head jolted forward and she lifted the drape. “There are people out there!” She then turned and went to walk out of the room.
“Mary! We can’t help everyone!” shouted Irene, but Mary was already halfway down the stairs.
Mary passed Tyler and Addison in the corridor, both armed with rifles.
“What’s going on? Are they coming?” said Addison.
