It occurred to Alex that someone must have looted the house earlier, and something inside him brightened at the idea. Maybe they were still out there. Maybe he wasn’t alone after all. He opened up his backpack and dropped the beans and soup inside to eat later and walked back through the hallway.
He passed a door, slightly cracked open. Sliding his fingers into the gap, he slowly opened it, revealing a dark utility closet. His heart raced when he saw the outline of a water heater. He instantly recalled a documentary he’d shown his students about civilians who survived the Solar Storms of 2055. One man had managed to live for three months off the water inside his water heater.
He clicked on his flashlight and swept the beam over the dark space. Crouching, he took one step inside the room. His heart sank when he felt his boot slide into a gooey substance.
Closing his eyes, he sucked in a measured breath and then angled the light at the floor. He knew what the substance was, but wanted to see it with his own eyes. When they snapped open, he saw the remains of an orb.
“My God,” he said, pulling his boot out of the sticky material. He was alone after all. There was nothing left of whoever had taken refuge in the closet, nor was there any water left in the small heater, which had a claw mark across the length of the metal.
Alex didn’t bother closing the door. The orb was relatively fresh, not the dried out type he had come across before. He knew the aliens were probably still nearby. Moving slowly across the carpeted floor, he decided to head upstairs. He wanted a view of the block, to see if he was right—to see if they were still there. Gripping the combat knife tightly, he ducked around the next corner and stopped at the bottom of a large wooden staircase that led to a second floor.
He cursed when he took the first step. The stairs creaked under the weight of his boots. He winced at every step. Without his helmet on, he could hear the strain of every fiber in the wood.
To his relief, carpet covered the hallway at the top of the stairs. His boots sank silently into the material, and for a second he felt a brief reprieve from the fear. The first door to his right led to a bedroom. In the corner, he could see a window looking over the street below. To his left was a small bathroom.
He checked the sink first. It was bone dry. Then his eyes fell on the toilet. Never in his life had he thought the sight of a toilet would fill him with such hope. His eyes lit up like a child’s on Christmas morning when he lifted the lid and saw a few ounces of cloudy water in the bowl.
Swinging his backpack onto the floor, he crouched and retrieved the straw he had had lifted from a fast food restaurant. The utensil had already come in handy on several occasions. He closed his eyes as he bent down and started sucking the water down his dry throat, trying not to think about the germs he could be slurping down. The odd sound echoed through the quiet house, but he no longer cared. All that mattered was water.
When the bowl was dry, he stood to check the back tank. It was half full, but the water was a reddish brown, more than likely a result of rust from the chain.
Was it safe? Did it even matter?
He hesitated, staring at the murky liquid. It could be his last chance to find drinkable water for days. Especially if the Organics were nearby. He couldn’t risk entering another house; he had already gotten lucky once.
As he filled his canteen with the reddish brown water inside the tank, a shrill shriek broke through the silence. He fumbled with the bottle, nearly spilling the liquid on the floor. The sound faded away as quickly as it had emerged.
He froze. Several silent seconds passed. Was his mind playing tricks on him? Had the sound just been a fluke? Some pipe creaking in the bowels of the house?
Another screech tore through the stillness.
That was the sound they made. The aliens were close.
The hair on Alex’s neck stood up. Another shriek followed. Shocked into motion, he scooped up the last of the water from the tank and rushed back into the hallway. His eyes scanned the passage. Should he risk going downstairs, or should he find a place to hide?
He remembered the creaky stairs and decided against trying to escape. Instead, he slipped into a bedroom. He scanned the space quickly, seeing it was furnished with a twin bed, nightstand and a dresser. In the corner of the room, he saw a small closest: the perfect hiding place.
Without hesitation he crossed the room and slipped inside, shutting the bi-fold doors silently behind him. Setting his helmet and pack on the floor he turned to peek through the crack. The angle gave him the perfect view of a window covered by a thin white curtain.
Beyond the dirty glass he could see movement in the street below, and when his eyes finally adjusted to the darkness he saw them.
There were hundreds of the aliens. The entire ground looked alive with the teeming creatures. He watched in shock as a pack of Spiders feasted on the remains of the cul-de-sac’s residents. The monsters fought over the scraps, shrieking and clawing at each other. His eyes followed the trail of gore to a massive worm-like creature that lay curled up next to a car.
It wasn’t the first time he had seen one of them. And, if he survived, it would not be the last. He had come across a parking lot the day before filled with the floating blue orbs. He had watched a pair of the Worms slither across the blacktop, consuming the spheres and their human prisoners, sucking them almost dry of water before spitting out the remains for the Spiders to feed on.
Through the open window, something caught his eye. One of the Spiders was staring directly at him with large, glassy eyes.
Before Alex could slip into the shadows of the closet, the creature tilted its head like a curious dog. With bated breath he waited, his heart pumping rapidly inside his chest.
Had it seen him? Could it sense him?
Scratch, scrape, scratch, scrape.
Alex knew what that sound meant. He had heard it before, when the Organics had hunted his team in the Biosphere.
The Spider had seen him. He moved to the window and pulled back the drape. Outside, the creatures skittered around on the blacktop, their mandibles parting to unleash hellish shrieks. He watched in horror as hundreds of eyes stared back up at him, twitching, narrowing in on him. Never had he seen so many. . . .
He realized that their behavior wasn’t that different from his own. The Organics were hungry, and to them, Alex was nothing more than a meal on legs.
Follow the adventure! Pre-order the rest of the Orbs series today!
The adventure continues in Orbs II: Stranded when one of Sophie's team is kidnapped and the others mutiny.
Orbs II: Stranded
* * *
The team makes some surprising discoveries about the Organics that may be the key to saving earth once and for all in Orbs III: Redemption.
Orbs III: Redemption
* * *
When the aliens invade, Jeff and his little brother David must fight for survival in the Orbs prequel, White Sands.
White Sands
* * *
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THANK YOU
Thank you for reading Orbs. If you enjoyed this book, please stop by my Facebook page or follow me on Twitter for updates on the Orbs series.
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Website: Nicholassansbury.com
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
NICHOLAS SANSBURY SMITH is the author of several post-apocalyptic books and short stories. He worked for the State of Iowa for nearly ten years before switching careers to focus on his one true passion—writing. When he isn’t daydreaming about the apocalypse he’s likely racing in triathlons around the Midwest. He lives in Des Moines, Iowa, with his family and several rescued animals.
For more info, visit him at: http://nicholassansbury.com.
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This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2013 by Nicholas Sansbury Smith
Originally published in 2013 by Nicholas Smith
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First Simon451 ebook edition July 2014
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ISBN 978-1-4767-8895-1
Orbs Page 30
