The alien ran right into the blow. It clove his skull in two.
These fuckers killed her grandfather, killed her town, killed her boss, and they had the gall to blame her for it? To make her feel bad?
She kept hacking at the alien on the floor. Her axe came away covered in orange blood, and she couldn’t tell what she was hitting anymore. She kept swinging anyway.
Kelton touched her shoulder. “Hey, hey, hey—dead! No longer breathing.”
Lucy stopped striking it. She looked at Kelton and burst into sobs.
With a glance at Inspector Harper, Kelton gave her a hug.
It was awkward, but it was enough. We’ll have to work on that, Lucy thought. She leaned her head against his shoulder and tried to calm down. Her arms and back ached. She might not be able to swing the axe anymore. She gave him a squeeze before stepping away.
Kelton looked down at the body. “With the exception of whatever that was, they’ve all looked alike. Do you know why?”
Again, she was grateful. At this point, Kelton probably didn’t care any more about the aliens’ appearances than she did, but he was giving her an opening to be a scientist again. To shift back into her comfort zone.
She wiped away her tears and tried to sound official. “Seems they only have two forms of skin to hide behind. Male and female. They probably weren’t planning on blending in for very long.” She nodded at him. “Okay. We can go now.”
She took the lead again, feeling a little better.
Behind her, Kelton murmured, “How do you know everything?”
He sounded appreciative, and that felt good, too.
***
They hurried down two more hallways, alert for ambush. Lucy led them toward what she thought was the front of the school but soon realized they’d become turned around.
They approached a wall sign at an intersection. She struggled to read it in the dim light. CAFETERIA and GYMNASIUM. Arrows pointed to the left and right.
An alien male dropped from the ceiling. Again, he wore only his dark suit but not his human skin.
Kelton and Harper fired their guns. Kelton missed and blew a hole in the wall below the sign.
Then, to Lucy’s astonishment, the alien jerked as crossfire hit him from the intersecting hallway. Mal Levolent and Stark ran in from the hallway marked CAFETERIA as they fired again.
The alien spun around and fell dead.
The two groups of survivors studied each other in silence.
The actor finally spoke. “The alien ship’s going to blow up. We have to get out of here.”
Stark led them down the hallway marked GYMNASIUM.
***
Grandma used to say, I gots good news, and I gots bad news. Or had that been Grandpa? She couldn’t remember anymore. They merged together in her memory as one person, urging her onward. The thing she saw in the parking garage wasn’t her grandfather; it was something else. Only the memory of the living person mattered anymore.
I gots good news. The moment they entered the gym, she spotted glass exit doors at the other end. Early morning sunlight illuminated them. The doors opened into the school’s main foyer, near the front doors.
I gots bad news. Aliens and zombies swarmed in from all directions.
Worse, a low tone reverberated through the room. It sounded like an elevator chime. A low-frequency hum followed it and rapidly climbed in pitch and volume.
Stark cocked his shotgun. “Oh, shit. I remember that sound. It’s the space ship!”
Within seconds, the thrumming was so high and loud that Lucy felt it in her teeth. The alien ship’s going to blow up, Mal had said.
“Bad news, Grandpa,” she said as Stark led them out onto a basketball court. The soldier fired his shotgun, but he never stopped walking. Lucy stuck close to him as he moved smoothly over the free-throw line.
When she heard the zap of Kelton’s laser rifle, she looked back to see him firing into the bleachers behind the goal. An alien male with human skin had climbed out onto the goal’s metal rigging. With an acrobat’s balance, he squatted on the top edge of the backboard like a gargoyle.
Kelton blasted off his right leg. Screeching, the alien fell off the backboard and into the hoop. The backboard shattered as the creature fell through on his way to the floor.
Kelton shouted as he backpedaled after the survivors. “Two points!” He tripped and fell on his ass.
Harper was right behind him. Without moving, he scooped up Kelton in one hand and wrenched the laser rifle away with the other. He pushed Kelton forward and then turned to fire the laser at zombies following them.
Lucy threw her axe into the zombie crowd and turned to run after Stark.
Stark held open the glass doors with his body and fired the shotgun past her. He ran out of shells, so he dropped the gun and drew his pistol.
When Lucy and Kelton caught up, Lucy stopped and looked back.
Harper had provided them the cover they needed to escape. He was on the far side of the gym now, at least fifty zombies and aliens between him and the exit. An alien without human skin rushed in to grapple hand-to-hand. Harper freed the laser rifle and shot him in the face.
Zombies crowded in, and Lucy couldn’t see him anymore.
Inspector Harper screamed.
Kelton grabbed her elbow. “Come on.”
She followed him through the door.
The whine of the overloading space ship was a shriek now. Its noise felt like two forks in her ears as she ran with Kelton and Stark across the foyer. It was like being in the mosh pit at a rock concert, with towering amplifiers blasting sound waves through her body, but so much worse. This wasn’t a nice noise with a comforting bone throb that urged you to sing along until your voice was raw. This was the wail of death.
Run run run, her grandparents chanted in her head.
The group charged through the front doors into the morning sunlight. Lucy stumbled and nearly fell as they descended the stone stairs.
Out here, the space ship’s whine was a warbling whistle that filled the sky. It echoed off Pine Avenue’s cracked pavement back to the school building, where it reflected again so that she felt it beating against her back. Her eyes streamed with tears as the noise threatened to split her skull open like the aliens she had chopped with the axe.
The whine fell silent.
Lucy looked back in time to see a red light blossom in the foyer they’d just left. It flashed outward, through the doors, and consumed the world.
Chapter 28
GRANDPA
He might have stayed in the parking garage to be obliterated with the others if She hadn’t been waiting for him outside.
Their Chest Things had given them different orders. He was to enter the garage to battle the Red, and She was to wait outside in case the Red decided to escape. But then the Red with their guns had begun slaughtering all of them.
Blue! his Chest Thing commanded, urging him to charge at the man with the flashing gun.
But he knew that would mean the end of him, and he wouldn’t see Her again. It was the first concern he’d had about his future since the Blue roused him from death.
So when the other Blue man lumbered in front of him to absorb the blast, he turned and fled the garage. Back to Her.
Hand in hand, he and She walked into the night. As long as he could touch Her, his mind was his own. Their Chest Things commanded them to return and fight. Urged and cajoled and threatened them. Cursed them. The words flashed angrily in his consciousness. But the Blue words weren’t as strong as what he felt when he clung to Her hand.
More crowds of Blue passed them in the night, running the other way to the school. But he and She walked onward. He didn’t think about where they had been or where they were going. All that mattered was walking beside Her, right now, holding Her hand.
At one point, as they passed through a quiet intersection littered with bodies and shattered glass, he turned to look at Her. Her face looked so familiar, as if it were part of hi
m. The corners of Her mouth turned upward as She looked back at him. Her gaze likewise searched his face.
Still hand in hand, they continued on.
Blue, his Chest Thing said, wanting him to return to the battle. But its voice was resigned, as if it knew they were a lost cause.
At dawn, they entered the huge graveyard near the center of town. Here and there, holes in the dirt lay open before gravestones, where members of the Blue had climbed out. Nothing moved except he and She.
The sun rose fully into the morning sky. They paused again. This time, they held both hands as they fully faced each other. The corners of Her mouth curled up again, and he knew that was from happiness. He didn’t have a word for the emotion, but he recognized it because he felt it, too.
They turned to walk onward, now just holding one hand again.
When the tidal wave of electric Blue came, it hit them from behind. It surged through them, drowning the Chest Things and washing away all awareness and strength. But that was okay. The feeling of contentment stayed with him as they fell.
Peace.
Chapter 29
KELTON
Kelton covered his head and waited for the shockwave to vaporize him.
When it didn’t, he opened his eyes.
The school was still standing, now filled with darkness and blessed quiet. He exchanged surprised looks with Lucy, Stark, and Mal.
The soldier and the actor fanned out, guns at the ready, but Pine Avenue was as still and uninteresting as on any other day. Morning sunlight reflected off the cracked sidewalks and vacant strip malls. A breeze stirred the trees across the road. Two vultures circled overhead.
Nilbog Elementary remained impassive, as if it hadn’t just been the scene of an epic battle. Kelton thought about going back in to check on Harper, but then he remembered hearing the man’s scream as he died. The realization was a relief; he didn’t want to see what else might be left inside.
Stark pointed. “Over there.”
Down the street, in front of the parking garage, a cluster of zombies lay in a pile. They looked like they’d been running in a group toward the school, probably to join the attack against the survivors. But now they were as dead as Harper. Dead for real this time. Hopefully dead forever.
Kelton took a deep, shuddering breath. He’d never felt more weary in his life.
Lucy knelt on the ground and hung her head. She looked almost as lifeless as the zombies.
A red sedan with ski racks had plowed through a nearby fence. Its doors hung open, allowing him to see the keys still dangling in the ignition. Kelton got in and turned the key, not expecting anything to happen.
The engine coughed to life.
Satisfied, he got out and approached Lucy. “Come on. We can’t stay here.”
Lucy blinked like she’d just woken up. It turned out she did have a few tears left. “Wh-what? Where are we going?”
Kelton shrugged. Away from Nilbog. And I’m never coming back. He pulled her to her feet—and, before he could stop himself, he hugged her.
Lucy sighed as she hugged him back.
After a moment, they walked together to the car. To his surprise, she climbed in behind the wheel. Maybe she still had some more of that take-charge attitude she’d displayed in the school.
Kelton sat down in the passenger seat. Mal and Stark saw what they were doing and climbed into the back.
As he waited for them to settle, Kelton switched on the radio. A familiar, rough voice was in mid-sentence: “…is Boss Man Mike on the mic. It’s been one hell of a night. Apparently no one told these things that I was the boss. I received word that the military is moving away. The threat is past, kiddies. It seems there’s another shindig happening in Montana, and that’s their new destination. Good riddance and good luck to those poor saps. Here’s my last ditty for the night. I, Boss Man Mike, say good morning and hopefully the bed bugs didn’t bite.”
Boris Pickett began singing “Monster Mash.”
Kelton switched the radio off.
Lucy stared at him. “Alice.”
“Who?”
“In Montana. We were working together on the solaranite. We have to help her.”
Kelton sighed.
He glanced into the back seat to see Mal Levolent holding his head like he had a migraine. “Montana,” the actor said.
Kelton nodded.
Stark pulled a bullet clip out of his pocket and snapped it into the handle of his handgun. “We exterminate them all.”
Montana was only, what, a thirty-hour drive from here? The thought gave him a chuckle. Hopefully, they’d come to their senses by then. But not right now. He was too tired.
At the moment, all he could say was, “Lucy, I think we’re gonna need a new plan.”
Lucy nodded as she shifted into gear. Something on the front of the car shuddered and snapped off as they pulled away from the knocked-over fence.
Tired. But he knew he would stick with his decision to leave Nilbog behind, no matter what happened next. Kelton pulled off his uniform’s clip-on tie and stared at it. He threw it out the window.
Moments later, Mal said, “Who’s that?”
Kelton looked back to see Stark studying a wallet photo he must have pulled from his pocket. It was a picture of a young Korean girl.
“My daughter.” The soldier caressed the image with his thumb. “I went through all this for her. And I’ll do it again if I have do. Even if it means never seeing her again.”
Mal sighed. “Well, that’s cheery. Hey, does anyone have a cell phone? I need to call my agent.”
Nobody answered as Lucy turned out of Pine Avenue toward town. More unmoving zombies lay in gutters and front lawns, now ordinary corpses again.
Mal shook his head. “Fine. The government will probably deny all this happened anyway. Let’s stop for some beer, huh? On me.”
Kelton saw Lucy smiling at him. A sad but affectionate smile. The relieved smile of a friend.
He offered his hand to her. She held it as she drove.
Epilogue
The military were plumb gone from the Dupree Bridge, so Jethro Hawkins yee-hawed his loudest rebel yell as he gunned his pickup truck across it out of town.
But it weren’t long afore the horror of the night burned in his throat like snake pizen. Pulling over, he pushed open the door and vomited onto the dirt road.
Just bile. Ain’t had no vittles since the previous day, when Madge made him up a mess of grits. But now she was done dead and gone.
“Fear not; I am the first and the last,” she’d screamed from the back of the pickup, descending into Bible-quotin’ religious fervor as she got more askeered. “I am he that liveth, and was dead. And, behold, I am alive for evermore.”
Her Bible reading usually got him het up, but he would’ve given anything to hear her voice again. Didn’t seem possible she were dead.
The first attackers had done kilt his horse afore he kilt them back. He saw their burial clothes, and he knew right away what he was in for.
Zombies.
He’d watched enough TV in his life to know what to do. Didn’t take him but fifteen minutes to string chicken wire over the support racks of his pickup’s bed and nail it down. Then he loaded up the enclosure with most of his guns and ordered his woman inside it. “You’ll be safer in there. I gotta stay up front to drive.”
“Where we fixin’ to go?”
“Hawaii. How the sam hell should I know? Anywhere but these parts. Now hesh up and get in there with Dumb Dawg.”
Dumb Dawg was their three-year-old coonhound. Hadn’t stopped barking.
The first time they tried the bridge, the military done shot at them. So they turned away.
They stayed on the move all night, parking in secluded places when possible to conserve gas.
Madge hollered from the pickup’s bed as he drove. “And there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying. Neither shall there be any more pain.”
Jethro hollered back at he
r. “Hesh up!”
“Don’t you dast tell me to hesh up! This is the end of days.”
So he tolerated her as she raved, hour after hour. “And thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged…”
He cranked up the Boss Man show on the radio to drown her out. Turned it down whenever they needed to shoot something.
Everything might have shaken out all right if Madge hadn’t said she needed a piss break. She squatted behind the truck while Jethro kept guns trained on the woods. All was good until Dumb Dawg clum out the back and run into the trees, barking his fool head off. That’s when he yelped and fell silent.
“Get back in!” Jethro screamed at Madge.
She yanked up her britches and dove for the pickup’s bed as he jumped behind the wheel.
But they weren’t fast enough.
Now, as he stared down through the door crack at his puke on the road, he shook his head and tried not to cry. Weren’t manly to cry. What he needed most of all now was to get a fur piece away from Nilbog. Get some vittles, maybe some Wild Turkey, and go from there.
He spat onto the ground and closed his door. “What’s done is done.”
He put the truck in gear.
He ain’t passed but a single holler when he spotted a man walking along the road. Wouldn’t have stopped for him ’cept he was white and well-dressed in a suit. But he looked awful poorly. Drug his right foot like he had a crick in his ankle. Like he’d been fighting all night. Which damn shore meant he was from Nilbog.
Jethro pulled up alongside and called through the passenger window. “Hey, you okay? They’re just letting people out of town this mornin’. Military’s done gone.” As if the man wouldn’t know, but the one good thing Madge taught him over the years was to begin a conversation by saying something obvious. Folks were less likely to judge you as biggety.
The man stopped walking, but he didn’t look at Jethro. For a second, Jethro thought he was a zombie, but he was shore there weren’t none of them left. Boss Man said the last blue light took care of that. Probably just had his eggs scrambled from the long, long night.
Plan 9- Official Movie Novelization Page 26
