The other students showed little interest in Julie. They were far more excited about the junk food their friend had gathered. He dumped the load of snacks on the desk of the lecture hall and handed two bags of chips to Julie. Julie accepted them gratefully, as she suddenly realized how hungry she was.
She was halfway through wolfing down the first bag when the trouble started. A loud pounding echoed through the deserted hallways of the building. Julie froze with a chip halfway between the bag and her mouth. Everyone in the lecture hall exchanged terrified looks.
The students ran around the hall and frantically tried to find weapons, but the pickings were slim. One of the students already had a cricket bat that he had brought with him from his dormitory. The rest had to settle for thick textbooks. They spread out and took up positions next to both of the hall’s entrances. They had just gotten into place when the banging noise stopped.
Julie crouched down behind the desk. The lack of noise was scarier than the pounding. She knew that the aliens had entered the building. She curled up against the desk and tried to make herself as small as possible. Within a few seconds she heard some of the students let out aggressive yells. The sound of muffled impacts indicated that they were landing blows with their textbook-clubs. The noise quickly shifted to something puzzling though: laughter.
“Apologies mate! Thought you bloaks were bugs!” said one of the students.
Julie gained enough confidence to lean over the desk and peak at the nearest entrance. A small group of Australian soldiers had entered the hall. One of the soldiers was wincing and rubbing his shoulder.
“Easy mistake to make,” the soldier responded sorely. He let the matter drop though. The students could hardly be blamed for trying to defend themselves. “Any of you know where Julie Kemmer is? We checked her apartment, but no one was there.”
One of the students pointed towards the desk.
Julie arose from behind the desk and cautiously walked over to the soldier. “I’m Julie Kemmer.”
After a moment the soldier realized he was rudely staring at her disfigurement. He lowered his eyes before continuing. “Ms. Kemmer, we’re in need of your services. We’re here to escort you to a secure location.”
Julie was flooded with potential questions to ask. Pressed for time, she chose the most simple of her options. “What?”
“We’re going to escort you to a seaplane and then out to Auckland Island. We captured one of the aliens and it’s being sent there. We’d like you to come work on translating its language.”
Julie thought about saying that she was not the best person for the job but quickly decided against it. She knew that she was probably one of the most talented linguists in the world. More importantly she had little desire to continue hiding in the building. Going with the eight burly soldiers who were armed with assault rifles seemed like a much safer option.
“Okay. But what about them?” she asked, motioning towards the students.
“The seaplane is stationed about four miles south of the city. They can tag along that far, but they can’t go on to Auckland with you. There’s not enough room. The heaviest fighting is within the city so they should be safe out there.”
The students mumbled to each other and decided unanimously against the plan. They opted to stay put and take their chances on campus.
Julie did not try to persuade them. She said a quick goodbye before leaving. She was surrounded by soldiers as she exited the building and headed for a small convoy of military jeeps.
At first Julie had decided that the pregnancy changed everything. She could not leave her husband. She had a fantasy that he would change into a new man once she told him the happy news. That fantasy was short-lived. The night after she learned that she was pregnant he came home in a terrible mood. She did not even have time to announce her pregnancy before he started beating on her. Julie knew she still had to leave, which she prepared to do the very next morning.
It took her a fair amount of time to drag the two heavy suitcases she had packed down the stairs. She was a tiny woman, and the various bruises and injuries she had sustained made lifting the suitcases painful. She was out of breath as she set the luggage down next to the front door. Suddenly feeling faint, she leaned back against the wall. She rested for a moment and allowed time for her mind to clear. She had not been eating well due to stress and nausea. Still light-headed, she moved to the kitchen to prepare a quick meal.
Julie had just turned on one of the stove’s burners when she heard the front door bang open. The noise was followed by the sound of one of her suitcases crashing to the floor.
“What the fuck is this shit?” screamed her husband from the hall.
Julie froze in terror as she heard her husband’s heavy footfalls in the hallway. He stormed into the kitchen with fire in his eyes.
“What the fuck is going on?” he repeated. Given the frightened look in her eyes he knew he had caught her red-handed.
Julie tried desperately to think up an excuse for the suitcases. She came up with nothing, but knew she had to say something. “What… what are you doing home?” she asked quietly.
“What am I doing home?” he screamed. He moved forward and raised his hand up. She cringed but made no effort to move out of the way. He smacked his hand across her face. “What the fuck are you doing leaving?”
“It’s not what it looks like,” Julie tried.
“I think it’s exactly what it looks like you fucking bitch!” he yelled. He shoved his hand against her face and pressed her cheeks together.
“Please,” Julie’s compressed mouth mumbled.
Her husband brought his right hand around to the side of her head. He shoved her back and slammed her face onto the stove.
Julie screamed in agony as her face landed on the lit burner. Her nose filled with the smell of her own burning flesh. After a few seconds of excruciating pain he finally released his grip. She fell to the floor trembling. The side of her face was still sizzling and crackling.
Through her one good eye Julie could see her husband as he raised his right leg above her chest. Despite the pain in her face she moaned at him, “I’m preg—”
Pain shot through her stomach as he brought his foot down on her. He repeated the action twice before moving around and kicking her in the side a few times. Satisfied with his work, he stormed out of the kitchen. As she started to lose consciousness she felt blood tricking down her thigh. The baby! her mind screamed. It was the last thought she had before she passed out from the pain.
Chapter Seven
There was a somber atmosphere inside the Anarcmy’s monitoring center. The invasion was not going well.
“New casualty estimates have been tabulated,” one of the crew said to Anarcmy. The crewman was not happy to be relaying the report.
“How bad is it now?” Anarcmy asked directly.
“Forty to fifty percent of the fighters. Sixty to seventy-five percent of the ground forces.”
Anarcmy felt as if he had been kicked in the stomach. The casualty estimates had doubled over the course of just a few hours. His antennae drooped as he turned to look at his friend Bolshak. “You were right. We should not have attacked the primates.”
Bolshak was in no mood to gloat. “We had little choice. New Mortair was our only viable option. You couldn’t have known they’d be so well organized. You couldn’t have known that they’d be less like us and more like…” he trailed off.
“Yes,” Anarcmy agreed. “The primates are very much like the others. The problem is what we can do about it at this point?” he asked rhetorically.
“I’ve noticed that different groups of the primates have different levels of technology,” one of the crewmen began. He incorrectly believed that Anarcmy was actually asking for advice. “Perhaps if we redirect our forces to the more serious threats we would be able to overwhelm—”
“No,” Anarcmy said sullenly. “The war is already over. We never stood a chance. We can’t compete against an
organized army… it’s just not in our nature,” he said. He turned back to Bolshak. “Have we made any progress with communications?”
“Some of the more advanced primate groups are sending radio communications towards our fleet. However, we have no ability to translate any of their languages. Even if we did do you really think anything would come of it?” Bolshak asked skeptically.
“Our dealings with the Yahnert have made us all skeptical of alien life. Just because the primates have a similar capacity for violence does not mean they are as ruthless as the others. I can only pray now that they are different, because their compassion is our only hope.”
“Anarcmy,” said another member of the crew. “We are detecting primitive missile launches from the surface of New Mortair.”
“You were saying something about compassion?” Bolshak said bitterly.
Anarcmy ignored him. “How many?”
“Several hundred missiles. Most seem to be coming from the central part of the largest land mass.”
“Order the fleet to destroy them when they come into range,” he said calmly. The missiles would not be difficult for his ships to destroy. He turned back to Bolshak once more. “We attacked them first. From their perspective they are launching a completely justified counterattack. It doesn’t indicate that they are as ruthless as the Yahnert.”
“Perhaps,” Bolshak replied unconvinced.
The crewman interrupted before Anarcmy could respond. “Excrement!”
“What is it?” Anarcmy asked.
“Some of the primates’ missiles are headed towards areas of the fleet composed of unarmed vessels,” he responded. He anticipated Anarcmy’s next question. “None of our warships are moving to intercept the missiles.”
“Order the closest ships to move and engage the targets!” Anarcmy shouted to the Kessiam who was in charge of interfleet communications.
The order was too late to make a difference. About a quarter of the ICBM’s made their way into the fleet. Their nuclear payloads detonated in the tightly grouped Kessiam formation.
“Intercoursing excrement!” Anarcmy shouted. “Who did they think were going to stop those missiles?”
“The warships are not used to protecting—” Bolshak tried to begin.
“You’d think they would have learned their lesson by now! The Yahnert have been illustrating our mistakes for quite some time,” Anarcmy interrupted.
No one in the monitoring center dared to question Anarcmy’s rant. They averted their eyes and tried not to incur his wrath.
“How many ships?” Anarcmy eventually asked.
“850,” one of the crewmen responded. “Plus another twenty damaged.”
Anarcmy walked a few feet and collapsed into his chair. He did not bother to ask about the specific types of ships that had been destroyed. It did not really matter. At least six hundred million people had just been killed. It had not been the primates who had killed them but rather his own species’ inability to work together. As their leader, he knew that it was ultimately his fault.
Anarcmy picked his head up and gazed at Bolshak, his most trusted advisor. “I need a way to end this,” he said desperately.
Anthony sat in the dirt outside the VIP quarters that Colonel Breckenridge had assigned him. He had gotten his own room while Nick and Victoria were assigned to the one next door. It was dark now, and Anthony was looking up at the clear night’s sky. Although it was not visible to the naked eye, somewhere up there was an alien fleet. A flash and a barely audible explosion reminded him that there was an alien presence a lot closer than that. He squinted as the fireball in the distance expanded and then went dark. It was impossible to tell whether it had been an American jet or an alien ship.
He turned around as the door to Nick and Victoria’s cabin opened. Victoria emerged and walked the short distance to where he was sitting.
“Mind if I sit?” she asked. Her tone was far more polite than it had been earlier in the day.
Anthony smiled nostalgically and motioned at the dirt next to him. “It’s a free country. Where’s Nick?”
“We’re not attached at the hip,” she responded.
“Could have fooled me.”
“He’s inside watching CNN, playing armchair general and cursing up a storm,” she answered. “I think he’d still be out there if he didn’t think he had to protect me.”
“He’s seen Red Dawn one too many times,” Anthony agreed.
Victoria giggled and nodded her head. “Still, there’s certainly something appealing about that. He’s a lot different from you or me. That’s probably a big part of the reason why we’re both in love with him.”
Anthony picked his head up. He was startled by the comment but did not respond.
“What, you think I’m blind? I know you’re in love with him. I’ve known for quite some time.”
Anthony let out a deep sigh. Apparently he had not done such a good job of hiding his feelings. “Does he know?”
Victoria shrugged her shoulders. “We’ve never discussed it. I can’t imagine he couldn’t know though. You turn your head every time me and him kiss. You’ve been snapping at me more and more lately—”
“Could be that I just don’t like you.”
“I was nothing but nice to you from day one. I bent over backwards to get into your good graces.”
“Oh, I could tell. That’s why you threw yourself at him every time I was around. Real considerate,” Anthony replied, his voice filling with anger.
“You’re right. Everything’s about you. I made out with my boyfriend just to make you uncomfortable. It certainly wasn’t because I was in love with him or anything,” she said. She paused and shook her head. “You think I’m threatened by you? You think that I was marking my territory? Nick loves me and wants to marry me. Even if he didn’t it wouldn’t matter as far as you’re concerned. He can’t love you like that. You lack some rather important physical attributes.”
Anthony nodded his head down in the direction of her chest. “So do you,” he responded childishly.
“Size doesn’t matter. It’s perkiness that counts,” she responded defensively.
Anthony turned away and looked back towards the stars. “Yeah, you keep telling yourself that.”
“How the hell would you know? It’s not like you’re into tits…” Victoria stopped herself after she realized what a juvenile conversation it was. She shook her head, annoyed with herself for getting pulled into the argument. “My point is if I weren’t with him he’d be with some other girl. It’s never going to be you.”
Anthony ignored her and continued to stare up at the stars.
“Of course you already know that,” Victoria continued, annoyed by Anthony’s lack of reaction. “But you can’t be happy for Nick because you’re miserable. So miserable that you wish I was dead!”
Anthony did not respond, but he lowered his head towards the ground.
“Yeah, you think I couldn’t tell that’s what you wanted when I found you two this afternoon?” she said, tears forming in her eyes. “I was so overwhelmed by the look of relief on Nick’s face. He had been so terrified at the thought of losing me. Then I looked at you and saw the disappointment in your eyes. I just don’t know what’s so terrible about me that you’d wish me dead.”
“What the fuck do you want from me?” Anthony responded. He felt guilty as he knew that everything she said was true, but anger won out. “Do I think my life would be easier if you were gone? Of course I do. You can’t tell me you don’t think the same way about me.”
“Of course I don’t like you. How could anyone who you treat the way you treat me not hate you? But that doesn’t mean I want you dead,” Victoria said as she wiped the tears from her eyes. “There’s still a war on. Maybe you’ll get your wish and one of us will get killed,” she snorted. She turned sharply and returned to her room.
Victoria had no idea that her comment was prophetic. Before the end of the conflict with the Kessiams, one of them wou
ld be dead.
Fadi lowered his arms as they began to ache. He had been holding them out in front of himself for several minutes and they were beginning to get quite sore. He was holding an alien pistol in both of his hands. The three Palestinian policemen who were with him were all still using their assault rifles. He had decided to upgrade.
He poked his head around the corner of the building he was leaning against. His target was the Palestinian police station of his newly found comrades. Like its counterpart in New York, the station was under siege from the alien invaders. However, this station had attracted a lot less attention.
“There’s about twenty of them trying to enter your station,” Fadi said calmly to the other three men. “They have their backs turned and they are receiving fire from inside the building. This is not the time for subtly. We will run straight at them and catch them while they are out in the open. Ready?”
The policemen exchanged looks that indicated they were not, in fact, ready.
“Go!” Fadi yelled. He turned around the corner and raised his arms. He was running fast, but he was still able to aim fairly well. Energy blasts fired rapidly from both of the guns that he was holding. He was reassured by the sound of traditional gunfire. The policemen had reluctantly joined the assault.
The Kessiams were caught completely by surprise. They were laying in the street and pumping rounds into the police station when Fadi’s team began its assault. They had decent cover against the fire coming from inside the police station. However, their backs were exposed. Half of the aliens were dead before the others began to react.
The three Kessiams turned and fired at the closest human target, Fadi. All three missed by a considerable margin. Fadi unleashed another volley from his guns as he reached the aliens. He killed two of the bugs while bullet holes ripped through the third.
He nodded his approval to the other three men before turning towards the door of the police station. “We’re Palestinians,” he shouted. “Permission to enter?”
The Unlikely Defenders Page 18
