by Rick Kueber
“Okay...” I spoke with a heavy breath. “We have their attention. Time to get rolling.”
Elle smiled and as she climbed back into the buggy, she offered a very curious question. “What about that envelope the doctor gave you?”
“Right!” I exclaimed as I pulled the letter from inside my coat. I opened it up and pulled out a map and a handwritten page, which I read aloud.
“Tanner,
You can follow this map to my sister's house in Phoenix. She and her husband live at 2245 E. Plateau Lane. If they are there, explain your situation, show them this note and they will help you. My brother-in-law is an electrical engineer (though that may not be much help). If they are not there, they keep a key to the back door hidden in a fake stone in the backyard garden. You may need to find a set of jumper cables, but if you can, you may be able to get a charge on the R.V. that they have in the large detached garage at the back of the property. It would surely make for a better vehicle to travel in.
With hope and many thanks,
William Patel”
“I'll drive, you navigate.” I handed the map, envelope and note to Elle.
“Sounds like a plan.” Elle agreed as she turned the map in hand a few times. “Ummmm.... that way.” She pointed forward, which was already the obvious direction. I gave a devilish grin and spun the tires, racing off with a squeal. We traveled on as the day awoke and the sky grew gray and clouded. Elle stuck her arm out into the open air and pointed ahead. “There it is!” The recognizable shapes of a city skyline appeared on the most distant horizon.
“Faster. They're coming.” Daniel looked behind us, but his eyes were glazed and glowing more brightly than usual.
“Where?” Elle spun her head around to look behind, afraid she would see the Titans easily visible, but they were not, yet.
“We are okay for now, but they’re coming quickly.” Daniel explained and somehow, I knew he was right. “Three.”
“What?” Elle asked the question I was thinking, but before we could explore the odd statement, there was a sputtering of the engine. I pumped the gas pedal and the bug revved and cut out, revved and cut out, and then it died all together.
“No, no, no, no, no.... Son of a bitch!” I screamed. “We're out of fuckin' gas!”
“Oh good God no!” Elle's heart sank and hopelessness took us all.
From the high point of the hill we were crossing, we could see a large building, or structure, in the distance and beyond that, the city limits... all too soon we would also see the Titans. The odds of traversing the distance before being overtaken by the alien crafts was slim. We were so close to our temporary destination, but it dangled before us like a carrot, just out of reach.
Chapter 2
Three
“Now what are we supposed to do?” Elle asked despairingly.
“We wait here for the Titans.” Daniel said with a remarkable serenity.
“So, we just sit here and wait for them for them to come and be overrun with takers? Seems like a pretty freakin' bad idea to me.” Elle snorted her disagreement.
“You're right.” I said, staring off into the emptiness around us, my head in a daze.
“Thanks.” Daniel immediately spoke up.
“Not you, kid.” Elle was being more irritated and derogatory than was normal for her. “He was talking to me... You were talking to me, weren't you?!?”
“You're both right.” The words fell from my lips like senseless drivel.
“Wait... what?” Elle's voice had an unusual squeak when she spoke. “How can we both be right?”
“You have to take what you can and head for the city. Maybe you can, at least, make it to that building and take shelter there. Daniel and I have to wait for the Titans to come.” The words stung my soul as they left my lips. “Here... take the letter and map the doc gave me. Maybe his family is still there.” I shoved the envelope into her pack.
“But you said you'd never leave me again.” Elle was hurt by my suggestion and argued. “I'll stay and I'll fight with you.”
“We're not fighting, and I'm not leaving you...” My tone sounded hopeless. “You're leaving me. You'll be safer out there than here. At least you might find allies in the city or maybe it will be empty. Even if you find Takers there, you'll probably still have a better chance than if you stay here.”
“You know this is bullcrap, right?” She angrily spit the words at me.
“Yeah, I suppose it is.” I said as I started to untie our supplies and packs from the roof of the dune buggy. “Crap or not, you need to take what you can carry... and go. The farther away you are when they find us, the safer you’ll be.”
“Fine, but this isn't over.” She said, assuring us both that we would live to see each other and argue again.
She was beyond displeased with the decision, but reluctantly agreed. We hugged for an eternity that lasted only seconds and kissed deeply as if it were our last. I ignored Daniel's overly exaggerated groans and gagging sounds. Try as she might, Elle could not keep her fears from escaping the corner of her eyes. I brushed away the tears from her cheek with my thumbs and gave her one last, quick kiss.
“I will find you again.” I wasn't as sure of my words as I would have liked to have been, but I spoke them as firmly and confidently as I could.
“You'd better.” She whispered and poorly faked a smile as she turned away. I watched as she walked away towards the silent city, occasionally glancing back over her shoulder. “You'll find me in Phoenix. If I'm not there, I'll see you by the water with Maddie.” She called out her last, haunting words, though neither of us knew what they meant.
Daniel and I sat back in the dune buggy and waited. I had my pistol in its holster, but my dandelion companion had no weapon whatsoever. All we could do was sit and wait while I watched Elle shrink and then disappear completely from my sight. With nothing else to do, we concentrated on the Titans and the Ahsushas. Having just peaked a rather highly elevated hill, we could not see beyond its precipice, and mountains rose far to our left. We were visually blind to their location, but I began to see them in my mind and feel their distance.
“It's getting close.” Daniel mumbled.
“They both are.” I agreed just as the first tremor buzzed faintly. “We'd better get ready to confront them. There's no telling what they'll do when they find us.”
“There could be hundreds of Takers.” Daniel sounded worried. Climbing out of the buggy he said, “You don't have that many bullets.”
“Thousands...” I spoke what my heart believed. “No, I only have a few dozen shells. I sent almost everything we had with Elle.” The ground hummed again and we gathered ourselves on the driver’s side of the car.
“Let's go back to the top of the hill.” I invited Daniel to go for a walk as a distraction from the excruciating wait. “Maybe we'll be able to see them coming.”
“Good idea, I guess.” He seemed confused, but willing. “I've never really seen one. There was a lot of little earthquakes back home before the freaks came and killed everyone, but I never seen one... just in my head after they left, and the lights we saw from the hospital. They're big aren't they? I mean, they make the ground shake...”
“Yeah... they're big.” We talked as we hiked up the road. “But as long as they don't step on you, they aren't really dangerous.” I tried to lighten the mood.
“Maybe they won't be able to hurt us, you know... 'cause we're already a little alien.” Daniel spoke my hopes out loud.
“I hope you're right.” I admitted. “I am a little worried about what might happen if we're way outnumbered by the Takers. The Ahsusha don't really worry me as much.”
The ground buzzed again, more prominent this time. Daniel and I turned toward each other and our unique eyes met, which comforted us in an odd way. Though we were both oddities, we were also kindred in that we had been through a similar transformation. Again we felt a tremor, and again, it repeated stronger and more intense. My experiences with the Titans had
me very aware of the distance of their strides and the timing between the earth shaking steps. These steps were too frequent and at varying intensities to be the steps of one Titan. I felt a moment of slight relief that we had at least succeeded in luring them away from the Triple-C tribe. The ground began to quiver so frequently I knew the Titan's must be closing in on us and there seemed to be an urgency to their pace. We headed back to the buggy where I loaded my pockets with all of the ammo that I had kept for myself. A sense of uneasiness overcame us as we stood next to the useless car.
“I know they're getting close. Let's coast this buggy down the hill as far as we can.” I said to my young companion as I climbed in the driver’s seat. He joined me in the passenger seat and I popped the car out of gear and we rolled nearly a quarter of a mile before coming to a stop where the road flattened out. We stepped out onto the open road and waited.
The skies darkened overhead, not as it would with rolling clouds of a rogue desert storm, but the pale blue of the midday sky was, shade by shade, slowly becoming a darker blue. It seemed as if the light of the sun was being slowly filtered out and the day around us grew shadowed and dim. The blazing ball of fire that blinded the onlooker, was no brighter than the moon in the midst of a deep blue sea of sky that hung over us like an ominous cloud of doom. The darkening sky above faded into fuzzy edges of the atmosphere that remained a light, sky blue on the horizons. This was something I had never experienced before and from the dumbfounded look on Daniel's face, he hadn't either.
Much to my shock and surprise, a roaming light appeared over the mountain tops to the north. The rumbling earth beneath our feet warned us that this was not the only Titan coming. We both expected the Titans to appear from the west, but this first one was coming directly from the north. With a pounding step, that was now becoming audible, the Titan moved closer.
The tremors were so near now that there were only seconds between the ending vibrations and the next thundering impact. We watched the Titan grow more monstrous with each stuttered step, through the dismal light. Something was off, not quite right but the adrenaline and panic kept me from thinking rationally.
“Something's wrong.” I leaned in towards Daniel as I spoke, but my eyes never left the approaching Titan.
“Everything seems out of synch.” He answered back.
“Aw, hell!” That is when it hit me... he was exactly right.
The Titan was close enough now to see its movements and as its front appendage raised, the ground beneath us shook furiously. A mechanical humming filled our ears in an uncomfortable way and creaking, metallic groans made my skin crawl, unnerving me like fingernails on a chalkboard.
“Left!” I shouted to Daniel and stepped in front of him, drawing the 9mm pistol from its holster.
A glaring, white light peeked over the hilltop. The ground was a constant barrage of impacting steps as the Titan from the north drew closer and the Titan from the west passed the precipice of the hill. Its massive size shadowed the road and its 'legs' strode on the barren ground, splitting the distance on either side of the open road. Daniel and I were unsure what to do. I aimed my handgun at the light and waited for the Titan to take one more step. When the front foot of the mechanical beast hit the ground, I steadied myself, squeezed the trigger, and with a 'pop' the light flickered and dimmed but then returned as bright as it ever had been. The Titan continued its strides and I worried that it was overlooking us and was intentionally in pursuit of Elle. Had I just sentenced my one true friend and love to death or a half life of an alien Taker?
The shadow of the Titan covered us and I looked up to the belly of the monster. Its movement stopped suddenly and the mechanical hum pulsed so loudly Daniel and I had to cover our ears to keep our ear drums from bursting.
“RUN!” I shouted but my voice was silenced by the overbearing, buzzing hum. Daniel had not even noticed my scream. I lightly kicked the calf of his leg and shouted again. “RUN!” Still silent, my command was understood and we dashed off of the road as fast as our feet could carry us just as a grinding, groaning, metallic, sound echoed through us. We could feel the weight of the Titan bearing down on us and I watched as the front appendage of the Titan began to fold in front of us
Insane thoughts flew through my mind. We were about to be crushed under the crashing weight of the body of the Titan. Had I really survived all of this, only to be squashed like an insect under the foot of a giant? Could my purpose have been to save Maddie by helping her transition to her new state and to have fathered the first baby by a half alien (if Elle and the baby survived that long)? Maybe this was my time to die, but surely this was not how Daniel's life was supposed to end.
I felt the warmth of the Titan and the force of its impact, only a few feet behind us that rippled the ground and sent us cartwheeling through the air, with sand and stones, in a dusty, clouded fury. My twisted body slammed hard into the ground, knocking the very breath from my lungs. My attempt to gasp for air in the thick cloud was futile. My arm and shoulder ached, but I didn't think they were broken, but there was such an intense and stabbing pain when I tried to breathe that I was fairly certain I had broken a few ribs. My eyelids fluttered rapidly, trying to keep the dust from my eyes and I waited for the air to clear.
When I could begin to see the ground around me, I scrambled to find the handgun I had dropped on my impact with the hard, unforgiving earth. During my search, I found Daniel... alive, but visibly shaken. As if by fate, between us, covered in a reddish, sandy dust, was my 9mm. I snatched it up, flicked my wrist to shake the sand from it, and stood with Daniel. Only thirty feet lay between us and the folded leg of the Titan. Looking up, Daniel and I were dwarfed by the unimaginable size of the metallic beast. Daniel was awestruck and speechless. Unsure of what to say, I tugged at his jacket to lure him away. I didn't know where we were going, but I felt the need to put some distance between us and this massive craft that was, no doubt, filled with merciless Takers.
Understanding my gesture, we sprinted away, but the ground continued to rumble. Where the hell we were going, I had no idea. South, I guess, but were we supposed to hide behind some small rock or Joshua Tree? We dashed on for nearly a hundred yards before stopping to look behind. I turned before my forward momentum even ended, with the 9mm raised and ready to shoot. A cloud of sandy dirt billowed as I dug my feet in and slid to a stop. The Titan, with its leg folded, looked much like an overpriced, modern architectural building, though it was far too big. Its metallic skin was as deep blue as the depths of the ocean, but what concerned me was that closing in from the north was a second Titan and from the west, a Titan as black as my night of blindness, had just shown itself over the top of the hill. Three... there were now three Titans, as if our odds against one weren't slim enough. I had no hope of escape and could only hope to take out as many alien Takers and Ahsushas as possible.
The black Titan turned toward us, but no white light shone. In its place was a purple ray of light. Like a thick, ultra-violet laser, it scanned the surface until it fixed itself directly on us, bathing us in its saturating color. The moment the beam found us, the Titan froze in its place and then collapsed. The deep blue Titan groaned and squalled as its two massive doors opened up and the Takers poured out like ancient Greeks from a wooden horse. The biggest difference was that I did not see the Titans as a gift, though I suppose Daniel may have.
We watched as the Takers came, and came and came. In all there must have been thousands. The fact that the Commander of the Titan had sent thousands of creepy, zombie-like Takers to kill two half-breed humans gave me a small sense of pride. The Takers scurried out swiftly and moved sporadically and nonsensically. Next to the Titan, they reminded me of an army of ants fleeing their hill.
“What do we do now?” Daniel's voice sounded terrified and I knew he was on the verge of breaking down into tears. “Aren't you going to shoot them?”
I hesitated on answering. “No, I don't think I will.” A look of betrayal came over Daniel's face.
“What good would it do? At best we might take out a couple dozen of them.”
“So you're just going to let them kill us without a fight.” Daniel's voice cracked and the Takers closed in on us.
“Don't put up a fight, Big-D. They're Takers. That's what they do.” I holstered my gun and fastened the Velcro strap in place.
He raised his brows and gave me a look of confusion and fear. The stench of their unwashed and deteriorating bodies turned my stomach when they encircled us. Boney and discolored fingers reached out for us and wrapped around our arms. Their grip was tight and though they looked like withered flesh, hanging on deteriorating skeletons, the strength within them was somehow superior to mine. Over the sound of the hoard of alien cronies, I heard Daniel suck in a deep breath, anticipating that it would be his last.
“Good-bye Tanner.” The words did not come easy. “Maybe we saved some good people though, huh? That was worth it, right?'
I answered his question with only a nod and a smile. I looked up to the strange and darkened sky and said a short and silent prayer to the 'Father Sun', as Elle had so eloquently called it. 'Please let this turn out alright for the people of the Mother Earth'. The dimmed Sun flickered as the words danced in my mind and the atmosphere around it seemed to twist and swirl in a way that seemed to defy the laws of physics. Dozens of needle points of light shot from the center of the Sun and shot across the heavens like a burst of shooting stars. The fantastic phenomenon gave me a feeling of hope. Perhaps my simple prayer had been heard and maybe it would be answered, in time.
As I had hoped, the Takers did 'what they do'. They took us... They took us directly into the dark blue Titan. The laser light of the black Titan remained focused on us until we were escorted aboard the collapsed ship. I wracked my brain to get a glimpse of their plan for us, but I was drawing a blank. My only solace was that they had not even touched the 9mm tucked into the holster under my arm.
