Sons of Chaos

by Jerry Hart

  Something struck his back, nearly knocking him off his feet. But he didn’t stop. He didn’t even look back to see how far away Silver was. The giant couldn’t have been too far, though. Owen looked up quickly. Overhead, the sky was dangerously cloudy, and he could swear he saw something moving just behind the cloud cover. It was large, and it pushed through the sky as if it, too, were pursuing him.

  He finally reached the woods. Silver’s footsteps had died down, so Owen chanced a glance behind him. Silver was standing in the middle of the field, looking at him. As Owen ran through the trees, he felt the thing on his back. He reached around but couldn’t touch whatever it was. He then decided to pull his hoodie off. There was a small silver object attached to it. It reminded Owen of a smoke detector. There was a blue light flashing in the middle of it.

  He threw the hoodie, but it didn’t land on the ground; instead, it floated up past the trees and into the sky. He watched it, mouth agape. Then the trees around him parted with a loud, dry snap, as if pushed away by an invisible hand. Owen could see the sky clearly again. The thing he’d seen in the clouds was directly over him now. He saw a massive black vortex in the gray clouds and was faintly aware of the sound of wind, like a tornado was about to drop down on him.

  Transfixed by what he was witnessing, Owen didn’t realize his feet weren’t touching the ground anymore. He looked around and saw that he was a few feet in the air, floating past the parted trees. He started wheeling his arms, trying to spin around, but it did no good.

  “Somebody, help me!” he screamed. He tried reaching for the nearest tree, but his ascent suddenly accelerated. He was above the woods now, growing closer to the object beyond the clouds.

  * * *

  Curtis drove back to the Matthews house in a terrible mood. He didn’t even care that he’d almost been stepped on by Silver. As he approached the house, he saw Doug standing in the driveway. Curtis parked next to him.

  “What happened?” Doug asked.

  “Owen took the orb. I don’t know where he is now.”

  Doug looked past Curtis to something lying in the passenger seat. “Hand me that,” he said, and Curtis handed it over. It looked like a palm pilot.

  “What is that?” he asked Doug.

  “It’s a tracker. Does Owen have the backpack?”

  “Yeah,” Curtis said, raising an eyebrow. “Why?”

  “Because,” Doug said, smiling, “I think we can find him with this.”

  Chapter 39. The Smartest of Them All

  Owen looked all around him as he was escorted down the long hallway. There was someone on either side of him. They were wearing dark-blue suits with silver stripes down the sides. They also had helmets with copper-colored visors on their heads, so Owen couldn’t see their faces.

  The hallway itself was blue-black, with fluorescent lights leading down the path they were taking. Owen was not walking with his escorts but floating; his feet were only two inches off the ground. There was a round object over his head, and he assumed it was what was causing this.

  Up ahead, the path spiraled upward along the walls. There were several other people in suits and helmets similar to what his escorts were wearing. Some of them were holding charts or weird devices. They varied in shape: Some were petite, others bulky. They all watched Owen as he floated past them, up the spirally path.

  Owen looked behind him and got an instant sense of vertigo as he saw the ground floor far below. Now he and the other two approached a large round door. It looked like it was made of copper. It opened and they made their way to the center of a room.

  Owen gave a noticeable gasp. The room was cast in a light that was green and familiar. He had seen this very room in several of his strange dreams where he had seen himself building the orb. His escorts took him to the center and left. Owen continued floating where he was, and found it frustrating that he could move only his head. He figured he was being held by a force field or something.

  “Holy crap,” he said aloud, “I’ve been abducted by aliens.”

  He looked around the room some more. It was exactly the same as the one in his dreams. It was all making sense to him now. Those dreams had been Darlington’s memories, and the weird bubble that was currently in Owen’s head was what allowed him to see them.

  Which meant Darlington had built the orb....

  It had been his long, pale fingers that Owen had always seen caressing and assembling it. But why had he built it? And why had Owen been captured by these beings? He didn’t have the orb anymore. The more questions that got answered, the more new questions formed.

  Suddenly the door opened again and two figures, different from the ones that brought him, walked in. They were similar in shape, but were wearing what looked like lime-colored suits in the green light.

  They stood before Owen, staring out of helmets with reflective visors. Owen couldn’t see their faces. A few seconds went by in silence, and Owen couldn’t shake the feeling they wanted to intimidate him, whoever they were. They almost seemed like extra-terrestrial cops.

  Then the one on Owen’s right raised his hands to his helmet and removed it. The face Owen saw before him rendered him speechless.

  “Where’s the orb?” the alien asked. But he wasn’t really an alien. Or, at least, he didn’t look like one. What Owen saw was a tight-faced man with short salt-and-pepper hair. His skin was tanned and his eyes were green. He looked...human.

  “I...I don’t have it. Someone took it from me,” Owen said, still astounded.

  “Who took it?”

  “What do you want with it?” Owen had to ask. If they wanted it for destructive purposes, then he was better off not telling them a thing. On the other hand, it had been Jason who’d been acting as the voice in his head, so the information that he gave about the invaders surely had been false. Right?

  “What’s your name, son?” the man asked.

  “Owen.”

  “Well, Owen, that orb is a very bad thing, and we need to find it so we can destroy it. Now, we caught you in the vicinity of the orb’s last known whereabouts, which is why we took you. If you don’t have it, we need to know who does, and we need to know now.”

  Owen looked from the man to his partner, who still had his helmet on. “Who are you?”

  With that, the other man removed his helmet as well. Owen closed his eyes, thinking he was seeing things. Then he opened them again. Sure enough, he was seeing true. The men were identical, both with the same tight, tanned faces and short hair. Were they clones or twins?

  “We’re the good guys, Owen,” said the man on the left.

  “Then why did you send those giants?” Owen asked. “They’re destroying everything and killing people.”

  The twins—or clones—both looked saddened by this. “We didn’t send them,” said Right Twin. “The others did. Those giants are scouts. They were sent to the places where the orb was activated—it leaves an energy signature every time it’s fully powered on. The technicians controlling the scouts are being a little reckless.”

  “Controlling them?” Owen asked.

  “Yes,” said Left Twin. “Those giants are really just robots. What—did you think they were real giants?” The twins laughed together.

  “What are those scepters they planted?” Owen really wanted to know the answer to this.

  The twins immediately ceased their laughter. “Well, that’s why it’s important for you to help us,” said Left Twin. “Those scepters were planted for one purpose: to destroy the planet’s surface. Pretty soon, the others will send a lot of energy through those scepters, which will cook the surface of your world. If we can’t find the orb, they will make sure no one is around to use it.”

  “ ‘They’?” Owen felt like he was missing something. “You mean the ‘others’?”

  “Yes,” said Right Twin. “The ones who are running this whole expedition. We’re trying to hold them off as long as we can, but we need your help, Owen. We don’t want your world destroyed.”


  Owen felt it was time to tell them what they needed to know, though he still didn’t understand what was happening. How could these seemingly average guys be mixed up with planet-destroying aliens? Were they not aliens themselves?

  “A man took it from me,” Owen told them. “His name is Jason.”

  “Where is he and why did he take it?” asked Left Twin.

  “I don’t know where he is, but he took it because he wants to rule the planet with it. At least, that’s what I think he wants.”

  The twins laughed again, though nervously this time. “Why would he think he could do such a thing with it?” asked Left Twin.

  “I don’t know,” Owen lied. He was nervous about telling them about the (parasite?) thing inside him and Jason—the thing that once resided inside Darlington the alien—not knowing how they would react to the news. And then he thought of something. “Do you guys know who built the orb?”

  The twins grew serious once again. Then Right Twin said, “Yes, we know of him. He’s one of them. His name is Armenus, and we’re searching for him too.”

  Armenus? That had to be Darlington, but Owen preferred his true name.

  “Do you know where he is?” Left Twin asked.

  “No.” Owen wasn’t sure what to tell them. He knew very little about Darlington (Armenus), and didn’t want to speak about him until he learned more. So he asked, “Why are you looking for him?”

  They eyed Owen suspiciously. Right Twin said, “This Jason must know Armenus if he is planning to rule your world with the orb, for that is what Armenus himself tried to do in our world.”

  Left Twin continued: “Armenus was the smartest of us all in our world. So smart, in fact, he felt he should be ruler. But we don’t have just one ruler but three. They are rulers by birth, not election, and therefore, there was no way that Armenus could get what he wanted.

  “So he built a device that could wipe clean the minds of anyone who got in his way. Armenus’s plan was to control the minds of our leaders and rule through them. Then his plans were discovered, and Armenus had to revise them. He decided to control the minds of everyone.”

  “Why did he come here?” Owen asked, captivated.

  “We drove him off, simple as that,” said Right Twin. “He’s power-hungry. He wants to rule a world. If it’s not his own, then it’s another.”

  Owen thought about that. Darlington, who was now Armenus, never seemed like the planet-ruling type, but Owen figured the will to do so must have been sucked out of him when the weird bubble-thing left his body. Owen wanted to know what that misty thing was, but was afraid to ask. He knew he would find out before too long, though.

  “Hey, could you guys let me down?” he asked, looking up at the field generator above his head. “I mean, where am I going to go, right?”

  Left Twin reached up and touched the generator. A second later, Owen’s feet were touching the ground once more. Right Twin handed him something.

  “I believe this belongs to you,” he said to Owen. It was his gray hoodie. Owen took it and thanked the twin.

  “What are your names?” he finally asked.

  Left Twin said, “I’m Claude, and this is Calvin.”

  Calvin nodded. Owen smiled, despite himself. Calvin and Claude. Those were weird names for aliens. Then something occurred to Owen and he just had to ask.

  “Are you guys taking on human form to make me more comfortable?”

  The twins looked at each other, then back at Owen. “This is what we really look like,” said Claude. “Why would we do that?”

  Owen didn’t answer.

  * * *

  The twins Calvin and Claude escorted Owen out of the lab where they had been detaining him and took him to the top of the path. Their suits were actually reflective silver and caught Owen’s eye. Calvin—or was it Claude?—reached out and opened a round silver door. They all stepped inside a room that looked to Owen like an office, with fluorescent light fixtures on the walls. The walls themselves were blue-black. There were several orange computer monitors here and there, with strange images on them.

  And then Owen noticed someone in the room with them. He sat at a silver desk with his long fingers crossed, as if he were praying. His skin looked yellow and was pulled tight on his bald head. He wore a dark blue suit with yellow stripes. The stranger looked like Darlington (Armenus), only a little older. One of the twins said something to the man that Owen couldn’t understand. The man nodded.

  “Owen, this is Demetrius,” said Calvin. “He’s our captain.”

  Owen nodded to Demetrius, getting one in return. Demetrius offered a steel, uncomfortable-looking chair. Owen took it and grimaced as the cold chair back penetrated his clothes. The twins remained standing.

  Demetrius said something in that weird language (it sounded like a voice recording played backward), and Claude translated.

  “He says he would like to apologize for capturing you in such a manner, and only did so because of your proximity to the orb. We like to think of ourselves as civilized, to be honest with you.”

  Owen looked from Demetrius to Claude with an eyebrow raised.

  “Those were his words,” Claude said with a grin. Demetrius spoke again and Claude’s grin vanished. “However, we are taking our mission very seriously.”

  A rectangular holographic image appeared over the desk. It was orange like the monitors, but Owen could see the images perfectly. There was a gallery of creatures varying in size: a large doglike creature that wasn’t a dog; something that looked like a squishy baseball with tentacles; a furry slug—

  The one that made him think of Bentley the dogfish.

  There was another creature listed next to the slug and Owen recognized it immediately. It was the vampire-thing he’d encountered many times already. Each of the creatures were highlighted in blue and spun around as if they were on a turntable.

  “ ‘These,’ ” Claude began translating as Demetrius spoke again, “ ‘are the specimens Armenus took with him when he abandoned ship. He used them for his experiments.’ ”

  Owen looked at the vampires again. They were aliens too? He didn’t find that too hard to believe, but what did they have to do with the orb? Owen looked to Claude and was about to ask, when Claude spoke:

  “You recognize the leech, don’t you? Yeah, they’re pretty nasty little monsters known for their ability to change shape. Armenus captured a few babies to use for their venom. It paralyzes the brain and makes one susceptible to suggestion. Armenus constructed the orb to act as a delivery system for the venom. At the orb’s core is a processor that generates waves of energy. With the venom as its fuel, the energy mixes with it and.... Well, you get the idea.”

  “How many baby leeches did he have?” Owen asked.

  “Eleven,” Calvin answered.

  Owen did the math. The Unstoppable Titans had killed six; Doug killed one in Birch Plaza; Doug and Curtis killed two in Collin’s house. Owen still didn’t know whether the Eric-leech was still alive for they had left it in the alley when Michael killed Alyssa, but if it was, that left two leeches.

  “A couple of my friends are infected with the leech venom,” Owen said, thinking of Chris and Stephanie. “Is there a cure?”

  “Yes,” said Calvin. “The cure lies with the venom itself. All you have to do is reverse its main properties and inject it into the victims. The two venom strands will cancel each other out.”

  “The subjects must have escaped when Armenus crashed, if your friends were attacked by leeches,” Claude continued. “Either that or he jettisoned them from the ship; they were all babies and easy to transport.”

  Owen looked back at the holographic display, thinking about how he had seen Armenus’s ship disappear right before his eyes after it crashed on his farm. He was too afraid to tell the twins that, though—how would he explain his knowledge of that? Thinking back to the specimens, Owen had seen the giant dog in his dream, where the slug bit its head off under Armenus’s command. And that tentacled thing....


  Alyssa.

  This had to be the thing that killed her little sisters. Where was it now? The Gulf of Mexico? Owen thought. He remembered the stories Daniel found on the Internet about a “creature” in the Gulf. It had to be the same thing. Only, it had to be a lot bigger now. Maybe it attached itself to a whale or something, if the stories of its size were to be believed.

  “What about the slug-thing?” Owen asked, pointing to its blue spinning image on the orange monitor.

  “Those are parasites. They attach to something and become a part of it.”

  “I’ve seen those, I think,” Owen said hesitantly. “They attached to some fish we found. We kept one as a pet for a day.”

  Demetrius said something just then and Owen looked away from the display. Claude translated:

  “ ‘Armenus planned this treachery right under our noses, and I will not allow him to get away with this. I was once very proud of him—he is smarter than all of us and he has abilities that none of us possess. If we can’t find him and his orb, we will scorch this world of all life. He will not escape us this time.’ ”

  Owen gulped as the display changed to the four scepters the giants had planted. A spherical ship appeared over the scepters, and bolts of energy shot down from the ship to them. Fireballs shot out of the four lenses on the scepters, incinerating everything in their way.

  * * *

  They left Demetrius’s office a minute later and Owen stood against the guardrail to look down at the floor, even though he knew it would make him dizzy again. The floor looked like a bowl, and in the middle of the bowl was an opening. What was down there?

  “You see the seriousness of the situation,” Calvin said, leaning next to Owen and looking down as well.

  “You can’t just destroy Earth like this,” Owen said urgently. “It’s not right.”