by Adam Moon
An acrid stench wafted from its dead body and it evacuated its bowels, sending vapors into the air that weren’t poisonous but smelled like they should be. David dragged the corpse inside the diner, deposited it in the men’s bathroom, and then went back out front to clean up. He buried the blood and excrement quickly so that no other aliens in the area would smell it and come looking for the source. Then he patted Buddy on the head, glad he had the foresight to fetch his dog from the cabin rather than leave him to a horrible fate. Buddy was turning out to be an asset in a fight. He checked him over for wounds, found none, and then they went back inside, David locking the front door behind them.
He found a water bottle and used it to wash out Buddy’s mouth just in case the alien creature was toxic and then he grabbed some trash bags and went to the bathroom to wrap up the carcass.
He looked around the diner when he was done and went into the back in search of the owners but they had taken the opportunity to flee. The sight of a real, live alien had spooked them and sent them running for their lives.
It was probably for the best. Running was their only hope if more aliens arrived.
He took a seat at the booth and stared out the window, waiting for the next threat to arrive. He knew he’d just taken out one of the dumb aliens. He knew it was weak compared to the others. The next aggressor wouldn’t be so easy to take out. He could only hope that the cavalry arrived before the enemy did.
Buddy curled up at his feet beneath the booth again but this time he didn’t close his eyes. This time he stared across the diner at the bathroom where the dead alien was being stored. He’d already seen it spring to life after supposedly dying and he probably feared it would do the same thing again.
David refilled his clip while he waited, never once taking his eyes away from the window.
When the chopper finally arrived he didn’t know if he should be elated or terrified.
The Team
He rushed out with Buddy in tow to greet the chopper and to ensure its occupants were ready to take to the skies on a moments notice.
As three men and two women exited the helicopter he told the pilot to keep the rotors spinning. Then he ushered the others to follow him into the diner. He noted that they were all armed to the teeth and each of them had their weapons drawn and aimed in his general direction. He also noticed they looked at him like he was a ghost or an alien himself. He shook the worry from his mind. If they wanted him dead, they’d have probably shot him before the chopper ever touched down. They had guns out in case he posed a threat to them. He could understand that.
Once inside, he closed the door to block the sound of the helicopter and then he said, “I called for you guys. I’m not a threat to you right now. I need your help.”
A young brunette who was clearly the team leader stared at him hard like she wished him harm, but then she holstered her sidearm and asked, “So what is so important that you’d bring us back into your life? I want to hear it, Dave.”
“Do you know me?”
“I do.” She said it like she wished it wasn’t true.
“How do you remember me but I can’t remember any of you. Weren’t we all part of the same program?” He didn’t recognize any of them but he knew he should.
“You left the program too soon.” She tore her eyes from his and said seriously, “Tell me why you called Murphy. He said that we should be ready to take you if your story doesn’t check out. He thinks solitude might have unhinged you even more than the rigors of the program did.”
“You can try and take me but I don’t think you’d all survive the ordeal.” He bit his tongue. He had no beef with these strangers that he knew of so he got right to it. “A ship landed near my property. It had dozens of different alien creatures onboard. It tried to take me too but I escaped and in doing so I accidentally released the aliens.”
“Oh for God’s sake!” She said to the team, “Restrain him.”
“No, wait. I have proof. I killed two of them. One is back at my cabin but the other one is sealed up in trash bags in the bathroom of this diner. Check for yourselves.”
The brunette said, “If this is a trap I’ll beat the crap out of you.” She put her gun away and he led her into the bathroom. Upon entering, the smell caused a reflexive gag but she was too well trained to let it affect her focus. He bent down and ripped open the bags. The alien creature spilled out at his feet and the stench got even worse. He stepped back and the team took turns poking and prodding the alien just to be sure it was real. The brunette said, “I’ll call Murphy to let him know we might have a mission here. I want a hazmat team here before nightfall to collect this thing.”
David said, “That’s not wise. Other aliens are loose and they could be headed here as we speak. If you fly in an untrained team, they might get ambushed.”
She sighed. “I want more proof. Take me to your cabin. I want to see the other one you claim you killed.”
“We can’t risk it. Don’t you understand how serious this is? I called you knowing you might kill me on sight. It’s that serious.”
“I have no idea what that thing on the floor is. Maybe you mutilated a pig or maybe you’ve spent all those months in the woods sculpting it and rolling it around in blood and shit to make it look real. I don’t know, but what I do know is that you can’t be trusted. I trusted you once and look where we are today.”
“What the hell are you talking about? How did I betray your trust? Did I forget to say goodbye when I ran away? Did I break your heart?”
She took a step forward, glaring at him intensely. Then she lowered her gaze and said sternly, “Take me to the cabin. If this ridiculous story of yours checks out, we can talk. If not, my orders are to take you in.”
“The ship landed near my cabin. You’ll need to be ready to defend yourselves.” He pulled his gun and everyone flinched and turned on him, weapons trained at his chest and head. He said, “I’m coming armed. There’s nothing you can do to change that. I’m not your prisoner and you don’t control me. If you’re going to fly me into a hot zone, I’m not going in unarmed.”
The guns lowered but the gazes remained unsure.
The brunette, Stacey, ordered the alien creature to be rebagged and put in the chopper. Then they jumped in, sat down and David told them which way to fly. Buddy jumped into David’s lap and shivered with fright. No one had the nerve to try and make him remove the dog. The brunette leaned forward and rubbed Buddy’s belly. The dog instantly relaxed, even when the helicopter rose into the sky.
She yelled, “Since you don’t remember any of us, my name is Stacey.” She pointed around at the others and said in turn, “That’s Gordon. He’s English. The ugly guy is Olaf from Norway. Olaf was happy when you left because he was about to get cut from the program. When you vanished it opened up a spot. The chick is Betty but we all call her Gunner. She’s from South Africa. She’s good with guns.” Gunner barely glanced at him but there was sadness in her eyes. “The last guy is Felix. He’s from Belize, I think. He doesn’t say much but he’s an asset in battle.” She paused and stared at him. “And you were supposed to be David from Illinois, our greatest warrior. Instead you became David from Wisconsin, a gutless coward who runs out on his friends.”
David had too much on his mind to let her cut him down so he stared off into space and shrugged dispassionately. “I don’t remember the same things that you guys do. If I let you down, I’m sorry.”
“If you’d have waited until the program was over, you would have been given your final dose. The last dose gives you access to most of the memories they blocked. It allows everything to return except for the moments of fear. Those stayed gone. If you had any balls at all you’d have found that out.”
That was news to him. He thought his memories had been wiped but it turned out they had merely been suppressed. “I can only remember the last few days of training before I ran away. But I don’t remember any of you guys.”
“You were in an accelerated progra
m because you were the best of us. We all trained together but you had advanced training all by yourself at least half the time. It was during that time that you disappeared. I thought that they’d activated you, sending you on a solo mission without the rest of us, and made up the story about you running away but at the end of training I got enough memories back and I knew you ran. I remembered all the times you stared at the walls and fences. I remembered you whispering about escape.”
David refused to make eye contact. Now that she said it aloud, it did make him feel like a coward. But if he didn’t remember his comrades personally, then he couldn’t be blamed for leaving them behind. When he left, he had just a vague sense that he was part of a group, but he had no idea who that group was. In his mind, he ran away from total strangers.
As they flew, Olaf yelled, “What the heck is that thing?” in his Norse accent.
David scooted over to take a look and sure enough, there was a bulky alien below, crashing around in the forest.
Gordon leaned out of the open door, hanging on precariously. He aimed an automatic rifle with one hand and fired three short burst at the alien creature below. No one thought to stop him. It was just that obvious to everyone present that the thing was alien and frightening enough that it needed to be put down.
The alien stopped running and for a second they thought it had taken a kill-shot but their elation was short-lived. It ran in the direction they were headed and then it leapt into the air with the power only something unearthly could possess. Gordon ducked back in, mumbling, “No, no, what the hell is that thing?”
Olaf shoved him aside and took his spot but he flinched and tumbled backwards when he saw the alien, up close and personal. It hadn’t made it all the way up to the chopper but it only fell short by a dozen feet. As soon as David saw it, he knew they were in trouble. The thing was pure adrenaline, built to kill, and virtually unstoppable in a fair fight. It could win the Daytona 500 on foot and it would probably crash into the chopper on its very next attempt. In essence, it was the alien version of the Incredible Hulk, except that it never turned the aggression off.
It had four thick legs, one set in front of the other and each one had multiple joints, enabling it to coil and pounce. Its brain and cerebral cortex were enclosed within a sort of ribcage but it was situated at its waist. The upper body was just a thick torso with four arms that flailed around wildly almost all of the time. Its hands had three digits each and each distal phalanx could deliver a dose of poison that killed on contact. The fact that the creature rarely used its poison on an enemy told David all he needed to know about the monster. It wanted a brutal fight and it rarely lost. At the center of the torso was a mouth crowded with teeth that delivered food directly to its stomach. The most startling thing about the abomination was the set of thick pink lips that rimmed the ferocious teeth. They contrasted in such a stark fashion that the sight of them alone was enough to render a foe momentarily stunned. Betty, or as she liked to be called, Gunner, let out a hysterical nervous giggle at the sight of those lips. David took the opportunity to snatch her rifle from her. He took position at the open door and waited for the beast to attack them again.
It was running beneath the chopper, matching its speed, knocking trees over like they weren’t even there. It jumped and grew in size as it neared the chopper. Olaf shouted, “Shoot it already. What are you waiting for?”
Felix tried to shove him aside, saying, “You’re going to get us all killed, dumbass,” But David stood his ground and refused to be budged. When the alien was within twenty feet, he began firing short bursts at its hips, trying to get through that protective ribcage to destroy its brain. He didn’t know of any other way to stop the thing. It kept coming, but by the time it was about to impact the chopper, he could see that it was already dead. He’d killed it midair but it was still going to knock them out of the sky. He instinctively reached up, grabbed a strap hanging above the door and took a step back. At the exact time it was about to crash into the side of the helicopter, he swung out and kicked it away with both feet. The chopper swayed and turned a few degrees but the rotors didn’t sustain any damage and the beast fell back to Earth.
He handed the rifle back to Gunner and said to Stacey, “Do you have enough proof yet?”
She stared off into space but she nodded.
He said, “Good because if we set down near my cabin we’re as good as dead. We need to start formulating a plan.”
Gordon was the first to find his voice. “How many aliens are we dealing with?”
“Several dozen. All of the information I have on them was downloaded directly into my brain when the ship tried to take me but I’ve been having a hard time summoning it forth. It’s all vague until I need the knowledge and then it floods through me like it’s always been there. What I can tell you is that some of those things are virtually unstoppable and they now have a five hour head start on us. We need to get to work.”
Stacey looked at Olaf and Gunner. “We might need to take drastic measures. I’ll call it in and see what they say.”
By drastic measures David knew she meant a nuclear strike or something equally as devastating. Under any other circumstance, he’d try to stop that from happening but he knew how serious the threat was and he knew they had to treat it as such.
After a lengthy conversation, Stacey got off the radio and then told the team, “They refuse to cleanse the area. When I told them about the ship, they said they need to retrieve it first, for intel. Our mission is to secure the area while they airlift it out of the woods. After we’ve recovered it, we’ll discuss options. Until then, our one and only mission is getting our hands on that technology. Does everyone understand?”
David sighed. “I called you assholes to help me take them out. If you’re not going to do that, you need to let me off of this bird so I can get to work by myself.”
“Oh, I forgot to mention that you’re now officially back on the team. Murphy said to make sure you comply by any means necessary. You’re not going anywhere.”
David thought about reaching for his gun or even taking his chances jumping out of the chopper but he thought he knew how each scenario would end: with a bullet in his head. He nodded, feigning acceptance. If he got the opportunity to flee, he’d take it but until then, he was theirs again.
He reluctantly showed them the way to the spaceship.
He asked for combat gear and was surprised to receive it. He was given a modified AR-15 assault rifle with 50 caliber Beowulf rounds powerful enough to pierce through a car engine block, a suppressed sidearm and a duffel bag full of additional ammo and clips. Because the program they belonged to was not officially recognized, they didn’t have access to the same equipment or money that the armed forces had at its disposal but what they had was more than adequate for most combat situations.
He threw aside the binoculars and the protective gear. From the looks of it, they’d expected to bring him back into the fold from the moment he’d made that phone call to Murphy. He shouldn’t have been surprised by that. But he’d be damned if he became their property again which was why he refused to don their clothing. To do so would be to recognize that he was one of them. When Stacey tossed the protective clothing back at him, he smiled and then chucked it out of the open door. “I’m not wearing your monkey suits too.”
“I don’t know why you have such a problem with us.”
“It’s not you guys; it’s the program you represent. We were basically tortured there. I don’t know why you’re all so quick to forgive them.”
“I don’t recall any torture.”
“Well then maybe they didn’t give you all of your memories back because I was water-boarded for over an hour on the night that I escaped. They did sadistic shit like that to us to see where our thresholds were. They wanted to know when we’d break and if they could adjust our thresholds through repetition. It’s not my fault you idiots don’t remember any of that.”
Stacey looked around at the team b
ut they all had the same blank stares on their faces. “Are you sure you’re not just making that up? None of us went through that.”
“Well then, maybe I’m just special. Who knows? But it will be a cold day in hell when you convince me to trust the program again.”
She shrugged. They had bigger fish to fry and she didn’t need the distraction. David realized how silly he was being at about the same time and used the remainder of the short flight to check his new guns out.
He pointed to his cabin when it came into view and then pointed to where the ship had landed. “Be ready to defend yourselves. This place could be crawling with aliens.”
He was wasting his breath, though. The team was ready for war.
The Mission
The ship seemed larger from above as they descended.
Stacey whispered, “Holy shit. You weren’t kidding. I don’t know if they’re going to be able to airlift that big bastard out. They might need to truck it.”
“No way! That’ll take even longer. Two Chinook’s will be enough. Trust me.” He wasn’t sure that was right but he had to dissuade her from delaying him even longer. He had aliens to stop.
She shrugged and said, “If you’re wrong then you’ll be the one that’s wasting time. Are you sure it’ll work?”
“I don’t know what that thing weighs. But if two Chinook’s can’t get it out then nothing can.”
“Alright. One is inbound already. I’ll request a second one.” She radioed someone, probably Murphy, and a minute later said to David, “They’ll both be here in two hours. We’ll need to find a better place to dig in until they get here. What do you suggest?”
He smiled at that. Not a single one of them had tried to go inside the ship when they landed and he knew why; the sight of it caused a sort of primal fear. But his cabin was not a good place to hole up and the chopper was even worse. “Let’s defend it from within. I doubt any aliens remained behind and if they did, they need to be taken out anyway. Let’s clear the ship and then settle in until transport arrives.”
