Infected World Trilogy (Books 1-3): They Only Come Out At Night

by Guenther, David

  “Infected have picked up the pace. God it looks like either a marathon or a banzai charge. Man, listen to that shrieking. It’s just not stopping.” Pruitt reported.

  The building shook from a new blast, the main hangar door to 818, which faced away from their view, was partially gone. They could only see smoke rising.

  “Alpha, Bravo. It’s only getting better. I view some type of small hovercraft or floating vehicle exiting 818. Two aliens in it, we’re engaging.” Hopkins radioed. Mueller was sticking halfway out the hatch to the top of the aircraft’s fuselage, firing his DEW at the alien craft without success. He dropped back down into the plane and grabbed his M320 grenade launcher, then popped back up into the hatch and fired. The soft ‘thunk’ was barely audible to those down below when he pulled the trigger. He watched the round in flight slowly end its arc and was dropping above the aliens when it exploded. The mix of black smoke and orange flame was a like a big ball. When it cleared, the alien vehicle was on the ground.

  “YES!” Mueller shouted, dropping back into the plane for a new round. He popped back into the hatch and fired again. The grenade sailed beautifully into the apogee of its flight and was about to descend when it exploded harmlessly. He was distracted and looked to the aft of the plane and tried to swallow, but his saliva was gone. Infected were heading straight towards the plane. “Get that damn ladder up and the hatch closed or we’re in a world of shit!” Noon was the first to respond, sliding down the interior ladder on the insides of his arms, at the bottom he hit hard and almost bounced out of the plane. Sticking his head out the hatch, he could see the infected running towards the plane and he felt himself go cold.

  The controls around the hatch only confused Noon as he grabbed at each one, but not knowing what to do. He heard and felt Lt White behind him and ignored the lieutenant until he pressed over him and pushed a recessed button. Out popped a small panel. Caleb then moved a toggle switch to ‘close’. The door started to raise up with a heavy whirr sound from the hydraulic motor. When it was at forty-five degrees, the ladders began sliding back to their recessed position followed by the hatch closing, the motor still making the whirr sound.

  “Oops, always have to remember to put the control back into neutral, or maintenance gets real upset. I had a ride once and the loadmaster was from my hometown, he showed me a few things.” Restless Zs slamming against the fuselage under them and loud shrieks ended their conversation.

  Noon could still hear the infected shrieking their displeasure while he followed Caleb up the interior ladder back to the crew compartment. He could feel the shakes come on as he ducked into a crew bunk area to grab a drink of water.

  Hopkins sat in the pilot’s seat watching the aliens head for the hangar housing the other half of the team, Thousands of infected charged past the C-5 to the same destination, though he could still hear them pounding on their plane as well. Behind and above, Mueller was preparing to fire at the aliens with his carbine, wishing he had something more potent. The red bead was on the alien, wearing an environmental suit. He steadied himself on the fuselage and softly squeezed the trigger. He saw the bullet hit the alien as it collapsed to the vehicle’s deck, then the craft slewed down and to the left as it slammed into the ground. Both aliens were thrown to the ground, with neither moving. On top of the hangar he could see three men taking up positions to fire at the infected under the plane. He reached for the radio on his chest.

  “Don’t waste your ammo on the Zs under the plane, they can’t get to us.” he radioed, and then noticed they couldn’t bear on the infected next to their own building without hanging over the edge, and the infected couldn’t get into the hangar, either. One of the aliens was crawling back towards his flying platform. Mueller had an idea, he dropped back down and grabbed the DEW to see if he could disable the aliens’ vehicle now. Taking aim, he slowly pulled the trigger. Nothing happened to the vehicle or the aliens, however a large swath of infected between him and the vehicle collapsed.

  “Attention everyone! The DEWs work on the infected! I just dropped fifty while shooting at their flying platform!” he let go of the radio and took another shot into a heavy concentration of Zs. A hundred dropped this time as those around them stopped in amazement to try to understand what was going on. The uninjured alien was climbing slowly back onto the platform when Mueller used his M4 again. He aimed into the center mass and was rewarded with the alien falling off the vehicle and onto the concrete, unmoving. He didn’t see the beam of light burn through the door of Hangar 811, then proceed towards him, even when his head burst in spontaneous combustion before exploding like a ripe melon.

  Hofstetter saw the beam of light and engaged the side of the building, 7.62 rounds crisscrossing the buildings metal body, making it appear to be a colander.

  “That beam of light took out Mueller.” Pruitt announced over the net, he could still see the Mueller’s shoulders and wisps of smoke where his head had been.

  “Screw it, no more Mr. Nice Guy!” Hope said before picking up his radio. “Time to get serious, use the thermobaric rounds, we’ll toast ET, then worry about the Zs.” Hope smashed the window and dug out his M320. He pointed into his ruck, “Captain, if you can keep feeding me the black shells with the gold tops, we should be able to have a weenie roast before the sun comes up.” Hope fired into the hangar and was pleased to see his shot break through the window, then the explosion that took out the remaining windows. Gloria felt like she was listening to the bass of someone’s music thumping through their car window. Yeah, rock n roll, she thought.

  Hopkins cleared the cockpit and shot up the glass windshield. It made a spider web pattern mixed with small holes but didn’t shatter. Caleb attacked the glass with a fire axe, pulling chunks out until he punched the remainder and watched it fall forward off the nose and to the ground.

  Hopkins sat in the pilot’s seat and began to fire his M320 into the hangars. Caleb tore open Johns’ ruck he’d been humping and was disappointed to find linked ammo instead of grenades. He moved out of the way, so Noon could take the co-pilot’s seat and fire his own grenade launcher. He went back to Mueller’s body and pulled it down from the open hatch and laid his remains on a bunk. Caleb retrieved Mueller’s M4 and took his place in the hatch. He panned the three hangars and only saw smoke and fire rising from the smashed windows and doors. He looked down at the narrow passageway and made a decision.

  Chapter 31

  Douglas, Wyoming. April 15, 2029

  Peters sat alone in the small auditorium, watching the battle play out at Travis. His view included five screens with the largest parked right over the battle, looking almost straight down. Side screens showed other parts of the base, particularly the infected hordes on the march from the city of Fairfield to the west and the remaining infected that had been in base housing. When the displays showed fighting had commenced, both hordes sped up towards the battle. It appeared the team was cut off from any type of retreat. He began to have thoughts of ending the fighting, but couldn’t bring himself to do it. Then he saw the aliens leave the hangar. He wished the graphics were better. Between the smoke and fire, on top of it being dark, he couldn’t see much. He thought it looked like a tape of Bigfoot as he had the display zoom in on them. He was in time for the view of an alien being shot and crashing their vehicle into the ground. Something caught his eye and he had the video backed up. A large group of infected collapsed and then an even larger group collapsed. He used the angle and direction of both groups that had dropped and they made like a partial arrow pointing to a C-5. Peters zoomed in and saw the soldier in the top hatch of the plane with a weapon he didn’t recognize. He ordered a screen capture of the frame. He looked again in time to see the soldier lose his head. Peters wanted to walk out but couldn’t bring himself to leave.

  “What was it that Tomi said? Favazza tried to replay their discussion in his head and came up with a blank. Now he would have to do his penance by searching the sky to find an alien enemy. He began to think of th
e vastness of space, not understanding the allure or attraction for some scholars. He sat at a monitor that was randomly scanning areas of space when he saw some visible formations that reminded him of laying in his backyard, trying to identify the Big Dipper and the more elusive Little Dipper, he began to zone out away from the monitor in front of him as he tried to remember others, another easy one had been Orion’s belt. Why do I keep coming back to Orion’s belt? What is it with that? Favazza wondered. He didn’t hear Arnot come up behind him, until he cleared his throat. “Find any needles in the haystack?” Arnot asked.

  “Hell, all this stargazing me has me back to my childhood, trying to identify constellations.” Favazza admitted.

  “I know what you’re saying. It seemed like the only one that was easy for me to find was Orion’s belt, but it was easy because my dad told me to just look for the Three Kings, Alnitak, Alnilam and Mintaka, and the rest would be easy.”

  “That’s it! That’s where they’ll approach from! He told me, and I didn’t understand. Put all your effort on Orion’s belt. Don’t ask me how I know, they arrive here at 2200 hrs. I have to go find General Peters and let him know!”

  Peters heard the door open and was going to take a bite out of whoever was disturbing him. Seeing it was Favazza, he motioned him down to the seat next to his. “The team struck early, I guess they wanted a comfortable margin if they screwed up. The way it’s looking, they may not survive till sunup.” Peters didn’t say another word, allowing Favazza to view what was going on for himself.

  “Well, I have good news for you. Tomi finally told me when and where our friends will be coming, it is at 2200 hrs, and coming from Orion’s Belt. Arnot’s already has his team scanning for them. It’s a shame we can’t get control of some of NASA’s assets to look even further than our equipment can. The hard part now is to wait.

  Chapter 32

  Travis AFB, California. April 15, 2029

  Both men sat and just watched the fires burn. They still had ammo left but didn’t see any point in using it. Caleb stepped up behind them and asked if he could get in Noon’s seat for a moment. That was when they noticed he’d stripped back down to just his uniform and pistol belt, with a small bag over his shoulder.

  “Gentlemen, it has been interesting, but I need to see what’s in those hangars before everything is gone.” Caleb opened the co-pilot’s window and removed a velcro bag from under it with a large thick manila rope. He threw it out the window, then managed to fit through it himself before climbing down to the ground. He was quickly surrounded by infected that did not know what to make of him, and quickly lost interest. Caleb gave one last look back up and saw Noon aiming his carbine at him. Caleb gave him a nod and partial smile and then headed for the fires. The short walk felt good and, when he got closer to the first hangar, he was wondering what he was seeing in there. There was a single, large, bronze-colored tube in the center of the hangar. It was blackened and he could see the fire coming from inside the craft. The hangar to the right had a sign advertising the Knucklebuster Café. Maybe there’s still something left in there to eat when this is all over. Caleb thought as he headed on towards the third hangar. Black smoke was rising from the roof but no smoke was coming out the holes or windows on the side of the building. He forced the door open and stuck his head inside and gagged, trying to get his head back as quickly as he could. That’s still an alien atmosphere, there might be useful salvage after all. He pulled out the mask from his bag and donned it the same way he’d been taught to for chemical defense training. Then he connected the mask to the walk-around bottle and turned the knob on the top of the bottle counter clockwise. Air was blowing, and everything was now a go for him. He secured the bottle under his left arm and pulled out his 9 mil. You’re an idiot, Caleb! He pushed open the door and felt resistance in the air itself until he was all the way inside. The atmosphere felt thick to him with lots of pressure. Everywhere he looked, there appeared to be remnants of foam. He looked above him and saw the ceiling itself was still on fire. Around him, littered on the ground, he could see copper-colored suits, all torn up, blue fluid puddled around them. He picked up a couple metal sticks from the different aliens and stuck them in his bag for souvenirs. He walked deeper into the hangar and made out the ship inside. It was also copper-colored but didn’t have any scorch marks. It was circular and made him think of a wheel lying on its side.

  “Are you stupid or brave? Human.” Caleb thought fast, they aren’t shooting, that’s a good sign.

  “I think that depends on who you ask. They call me Caleb. What can I call you?” He made a point to not appear threatening as he turned to face the alien. The alien had a stick like the ones he’d thrown in his bag. He was aiming it at the ground but could easily aim and fire at Caleb. Caleb made a point of showing that he was holstering his weapon.

  “I don’t think it matters. We will both be dead soon. You can call me Turk. The irony of all this is that I’m a scientist, a social anthropologist. I just wanted to see an alien culture for myself. I was able to join the crew as a cook and here I am now.”

  “So you’re not a slaver like the rest of the crew?” Caleb asked.

  “The crew of the ship was primarily low grade morons and inbred imbeciles. The ship’s scientist Carl, Junior Scientist Fifth Class, was responsible for the plague on your world. He studied a couple of captured humans, then re-used a formula for another primate species that dwells underground. The fool almost killed off your species when he unintentionally made those who transitioned allergic to your sun, like the original species it was made from. Then his sloppy work didn’t get a hundred percent of your population, but instead around eighty percent. I still don’t understand how he managed to get the transitioned humans to spread to those who were unaffected. I don’t even know if that’s a side effect of the plague, or societal since your peoples are so violent. Especially true when your people viciously attacked us here.” Caleb noticed the alien had no inflection or emphasis in his words, he was mechanical sounding.

  “Turk, do you want to live? I can help, if you want. You could probably go far in our world. I even know a couple of places that stay hot year around so you can be nice and comfortable. No doubt rich and powerful too, with your knowledge.”

  “Caleb, you spin a nice story, but I have to go back to my people. I will make sure you are comfortable for the trip.” Turk had his stick pointed directly at Caleb's head now. “Please drop that weapon to the ground. I have a cylinder I can safely store you in until I reach the rescue ship. Fortunately, the shuttle is not damaged, thanks to the bravery of the crew.

  He slowly pulled out the pistol with two fingers and made a point to drop it on the ground and kick it away. “Turk, what do you look like behind that helmet? All I can see is my own reflection.”

  “Curiosity shows good character, I’ll show you my face. Turk pressed the side of his helmet and the face visor became clear. His skin was dark green, the center front of its face had two huge black compound eyes and a small eye in the center of its forehead. Two antennae protruded from the center of the skull on either side of its small eye. It had a giant pair of mandibles that made Caleb worry he might be on the cook’s menu. With Turk distracted, Caleb reached into his bag and grabbed the stick, aimed and squeezed. He was rewarded by almost losing his arm in the recoil and seeing a huge hole appear in Turk’s chest. Turk stood for a moment and then began to wobble a little before falling, face first, into the ground.

  There was the sound of movement coming from the shuttle and Caleb saw a half dozen new creatures. They had four long legs on each side, looked to be ten foot long and had no face, just a huge hole filled with vicious-looking teeth. Caleb walked backwards slowly as they approached until he lost his nerve and ran for the exit, not even closing the door all the way before the first creature slammed into it, finishing the job of closing the door. Caleb tore off the mask and dropped the oxygen bottle, thankful to feel the air in his hair and on his face again. The walls of the ha
ngar began to vibrate as the creatures kept slamming themselves against it.

  “Little help, please!” Caleb shouted as he ran to the building with the rest of the team. Infected blocked his way, forcing him to knock them down. They were too thick by the door for him to get through, when he heard the voice.

  “Up here, fool!” Gloria was dangling a rope out the window. He grabbed it and quickly pulled himself up as new shrieks came from infected that were being torn apart from the alien creatures. Hofstetter opened up with the 240 and watched the 7.62 rounds bounce off their hard skin. He redirected his fire, hoping for a head shot and was pleased to see his shots enter through the huge mouth and continue in, ricocheting around inside the body until they hit something vital.

  “Crap, I’m out!” Hofstetter shouted, dropping the machine gun and picking up his carbine. Stuart joined him, along with Moon and Sung, forcing Caleb and Gloria to drop to the floor.

  A creature used its claws to dig into the side of the building, and claw its way up to the window, while bullets bounced off its side and infected grabbed at it from below. All four directed their shots towards the open maw, slowing it down slightly, but not stopping it. Hope woke up and took everything in. He pulled a HE grenade from his pouch, pulled the pin and let the spool fly, counted out, “One Mississippi, two Mississippi.” and then lobbed the grenade into the creature’s mouth with gravity pulling it further down its throat. “Fire in the hole!” he shouted. Not having any energy to take cover himself, he just sat back down in the chair. There was only a muffled explosion with just a couple fragments of meat and metal escaping from its mouth, the tough skin still intact. The others sensing the danger, began to feed on the infected, no longer caring about the intruder they had chased out of their lair.