Girl Vs (Sinister Skies Book 1)

by Xela Culletto

  “They’re on their way. Arrival in two hours, sixteen minutes,” Tess supplied.

  “How many?” I asked.

  “Um….” She paused. “Too many. You’ll want to be done there with at least thirty minutes for evacuation.”

  “Can’t you slow them down?” Derek asked. “Send someone to fight? Or—better yet—let off another of those light bombs.”

  “Fighters have been dispatched, but the amount of time they’ll buy you is uncertain.”

  “Good,” Derek replied. “Make sure they have one of those ‘secret weapons’.”

  “That isn’t an option.”

  “What? Why not?”

  “Finish the job and evacuate as quickly as you can.”

  Derek was about to argue, but suddenly an earsplitting ring sounded through the headset. Reflexively, I yanked it from my ears, watching the others do the same. Even at my feet, the high-pitched tone rung deafeningly throughout the room.

  “What’s going on?” I shouted.

  “Something went wrong—maybe they were attacked!” Derek yelled back.

  “I can’t think with this noise!” Ian yelled. “Shut it off!”

  I inspected the headset for an off switch, but couldn’t find one. The volume control did nothing to lower the shrill sound. Kalisha dropped hers to the ground and stomped on it with her boot. The piercing noise dropped by a hair.

  Ian kicked his across the floor to Kalisha, who smashed it as well. Almost in sync, Derek, Logan, and I demolished the last three, and at the final stomp, blissful silence filled the room.

  “You think they were attacked?” I asked Derek.

  “What else?”

  Kalisha pulled at the backpack I’d forgotten I was carrying. I shrugged it off and handed it to her, pondering the position we were in. Without the headset we were blind. There was no way of knowing when the aliens would arrive, no way of knowing how to get out of the city and back to the bikes….

  It didn’t matter.

  All that mattered was that Ian stopped the message. If the reconnaissance arrived and I had to fight for another five hours, that’s what I would do.

  “Ow!” Ian yelled.

  Kalisha had crossed the room and was badgering Ian about his shoulder, first aid kit in hand.

  “You ain’t gonna save us if you pass out. Now take off your shirt.”

  A moment passed before Ian sighed and said, “Fine.”

  He pulled his tan shirt over his head and Kalisha began dabbing the bloody wound with alcohol swabs.

  “Anyone else hurt?” I asked.

  Derek and Logan both shook their heads. It was amazing, really, that we hadn’t sustained more damage. I couldn’t figure out how I hadn’t.

  After Kalisha finished taping gauze over Ian’s wound, he replaced his shirt and went back to working with the hologram. I hated feeling so useless. There was nothing to do but sit and wait around for someone else to do the work.

  “It doesn’t look good,” Kalisha whispered after flitting back through the glowing spheres. She’d made it look like an art. “That cut is deep, and he’s lost a lot of blood. Honestly I don’t know how he’s even still standin’. Adrenaline, probably.”

  “What does he need?”

  “An emergency room. This first aid kit ain’t much help for somethin’ like that. I made him take some painkillers, but they weren’t much.”

  Ian was concentrating on a cluster of complex-looking symbols. They rotated in a spiral. After a moment, he grunted and ran his hand through his sweaty hair.

  “Something wrong?” Kalisha asked.

  “Yeah. It’s just… This part was Anthony’s specialty. If he was here he’d get past it in a second, but I….”

  He walked to the other side of the table, getting another angle on the problem. I wished I had some inkling about what he was doing.

  “How much time do you think we have?” I asked.

  “Before Ian passes out or the enemy arrives?” Kalisha said.

  “Whichever’s first.”

  “If I had to guess, I’d say Ian has about twenty minutes, if that. I mean, look at him.”

  I looked. He was pale, sweaty, and shaky. His eyes didn’t seem to know it, though, as they focused intently on the holograms, unaware of his body’s breakdown. He maneuvered his hand through the shapes and lowered a curly-looking one with his fingers.

  “That should do it,” he muttered.

  “It’s done?” Derek asked.

  “No, just that part. Don’t bother me.”

  Logan began wiping the dagger I’d given him on the bottom of his boot, trying to rid it of blood.

  “How are we going to get out of here, when Ian’s done?” I asked. “I have no idea where we are.”

  Derek gazed at me with his blue eyes. “I grew up in Riverside. I’ll tell Ian where to go and we’ll ride a silver ball out.”

  “Back to the motorcycles?”

  “No. I don’t have a clue where we left ‘em. We’ll have to just get out of the city and figure it out.”

  I thought Logan might say something about leaving the bikes, but he didn’t. Considering everything we’d been through, it was clear he was the stoic type.

  Ian suddenly stepped back, looking more pale than ever. The gauze must have oversaturated because his shirt was showing fresh blood.

  “Ian?”

  “It’s done,” he said weakly. “I did it.”

  Then he collapsed.

  Chapter 49

  We rushed across the room to Ian. His breathing was slow and shallow, but evident. Kalisha carefully removed his shirt and dressed the wound with more gauze.

  “We’ll have to carry him,” Derek said.

  “We have to guard this spot for thirty minutes. Otherwise they could still resend the message,” Logan reminded us.

  Derek lifted his gun and let off three loud shots into the computer. Steam began rising from the table.

  “That should take at least thirty minutes to fix. Let’s go.”

  A little uncertain, Kalisha and I each gripped one of Ian’s wrists while Derek and Logan took the legs. It made for awkward going, walking in unsynchronized step, bumping into numerous floating spheres. Ian’s head dangled at an agonizing angle.

  “This isn’t working,” Logan said. “Put him down.”

  We lowered Ian’s body back to the floor. Logan squatted next to him, grabbed around his middle and hoisted him over his shoulder like it was nothing. Ian drooped like a wilted flower, but at least he wasn’t being pulled in four different directions.

  Wishing I’d thought to grab Ian’s night vision glasses, I banged into more than one wall as we hurried through the black hallways. Without the headsets to guide our route, it took more time—too much time—to find our way out of the building. But find it we did, bursting out the doors like a team of racehorses.

  Compared to the darkness inside, the night was luminous, everything glistening under the moonlight. The towering buildings, the frozen spheres, the still alien bodies….

  Still.

  But not quiet.

  A sound—the same scratching sound I’d heard in the alien prison—was rising from the field of alien carcasses. A noise that should have been soft, multiplied by thousands, becoming a raucous symphony. We stopped dead in our tracks.

  “What is that?” Derek asked.

  “It’s... them,” I answered.

  “What’re they doing?”

  “Hatching. They… resurrect.”

  “What?” Derek and Kalisha said in unison.

  I pointed to one of the nearest corpses. “Look.”

  The body began quivering and in only a moment’s time, tiny claws poked their way out.

  “It’s a baby?” Kalisha asked.

  “I don’t know. Seems like it.”

  Derek was looking over the sea of shuddering bodies, a hateful expression on his face. Raising his gun, he shot at the remains, one by one, until the bullets ran dry. Then, as the rest of us watched
in disbelief, he pulled a dagger from his sweatshirt and began stabbing at the tiny beasts, rampaging through the mess of carnage.

  “Help me!” he yelled to us. “We can destroy them now!”

  Revulsion sickened my mind as I watched him rage through the slaughter. No one hated them than I did, and I’d certainly killed my share of them, but attacking a helpless creature….

  “No,” I said. “We’ve got to get Ian back to the city.”

  He went on as if he hadn’t heard, stabbing another and hurdling over it.

  “Derek,” Logan yelled in his deep voice. “There’s no time for this!”

  Derek halted, malice written all over his face. Then he slipped the knife back into his sweatshirt and headed to the nearest sphere. We rushed to join him, hopping and tripping over the craggy terrain.

  “Anyone know how to open this thing?” Logan asked.

  No one did. We tried pressing and probing the smooth surface, but nothing happened.

  “Now what?” I asked.

  “Now we—“

  A sudden flash of green light shot down from the night sky, blasting the sphere. A swift aircraft, almost invisible in the darkness, flew over so low my hair swirled in its wake. Two more followed, showering us with green lasers.

  “Run!” someone yelled.

  A ramshackle corner store was the closest and most obvious point of cover. We sprinted toward it, Ian bouncing on Logan’s shoulder like a rag doll. Two more flashes of green lit up the night just as I dashed through the broken door.

  “They found us!” I yelled.

  “You think?” Derek replied.

  “They’re pissed,” Kalisha said.

  “What should we do?”

  The window display shattered, spraying fragments of glass everywhere.

  “We can’t stay here,” Logan said as blood appeared on his cheek and flowed into his beard. “Ian’s bleeding out.”

  “Okay,” Derek said, eyes scanning the street. “Okay, follow me.”

  He raced out the door and down the sidewalk while the rest of us chased after him. We made it two blocks before another wave of beams rained down and we had to duck into a souvenir shop.

  “They’ll have to circle around now—let’s go!”

  Another mad dash down the street. My heart pounded, but not from the running. I’d never faced an unseen enemy, one I couldn’t fight back. It was terrifying.

  The next time we only covered a block before the attack came.

  “This ain’t workin’,” Kalisha said. We were standing inside an ATM vestibule, gasping for air. “We’ll never make it out like this.”

  Derek punched his fist into the wall, smashing a hole through it. I glanced at Ian. He looked dead, completely limp and ghost-white. I touched his head softly and was surprised when he inhaled. Despite his anxiety, he was a fighter after all.

  “We’ve got to try,” I said. “Even if it means only going one block at a time.”

  Another barrage of lasers shook the ground and we sprinted into the night. I kept a frantic lookout for our next refuge as we ran. An old donut shop with a deep entrance lay only a few yards away.

  “There!” I pointed, but before we made it a bright, blinding light suddenly enveloped us. The unmistakable sound of helicopter blades filled the air. An amplified voice spoke.

  “We’re lowering a ladder. Climb up as fast as you can.”

  The four of us blinked spots from our eyes for a moment before a ladder appeared as if from heaven. It was hard to believe someone had found us.

  Just then two jets—good ol’ American aircraft—swooped overhead, shots firing into the night sky. A wooshing sound filled the air as they passed, and I saw one of the enemy’s ships twist and climb upward at a sharp angle, away from where we stood.

  “Can you carry Ian up?” I asked Logan. He nodded.

  “Then you should go first.”

  Logan gripped the unsteady ladder and wrapped his arm tightly around Ian’s legs before climbing. The rest of us watched, necks strained as he ascended step by step up where the chopper was hovering noisily.

  And then I saw it—one of the black ships flipped around and outmaneuvered the fighter jet that was tailing it. Coming at us full speed, it let fly two laser beams. One landed on a car a block away, causing a fiery explosion. The other hit Logan directly on his back. The ship sped off, disappearing behind a skyscraper as Logan and Ian fell.

  Kalisha and I rushed to catch them, but the laser beam had propelled them both forward, out of range. As if in slow motion, they fell—down, down, before the blunt stop.

  Derek grabbed my arm when I tried to rush over.

  “Don’t,” he said. “That’s nothing you want to see.”

  I jerked my arm back and ran to the bodies. They were laying in the middle of a dark red puddle, Logan still clinging to Ian by his foot.

  A sob rose in my throat.

  Heroes, both of them. We couldn’t just abandon them.

  “We have to leave now!” the helicopter voice yelled.

  Looking over my shoulder, I saw Kalisha gesturing at me from the chopper. Derek was only a few rungs away from joining her.

  Hating myself—hating everything—I left Logan and Ian to rot on the side of a decimated sidewalk. I returned to the ladder and automatically placed hand over hand and foot over foot. Before I realized it, I was climbing onto the knobby metal flooring of the helicopter. The door slid shut behind me and we sped off. The others were standing, gripping handholds, looking out.

  I continued to lie on the cold floor. I couldn’t find it in me to stand.

  Chapter 50

  The afternoon air had a nip in its breath. The grass had become a stale yellowish brown and the forest leaves were dead. Everything was in decay.

  I gave the small mound of dirt one final tap with the spade, hoping it would be solid enough to handle the autumn winds. I didn’t want Tristen’s bracelet coming unearthed.

  After the helicopter had touched down, I’d demanded they take straight back to my apartment. The terminal had been chaos, with smoke billowing from the tower and a ragtag team of casually-dressed people scrambling to work a firetruck hose. People scurried this way and that.

  Though the area was obviously recovering from an attack, Tess had taken one look at me and agreed, summoning a chauffeured car. Upon entering my room, the first thing I saw was Tristen’s blue woven bracelet lying on the floor. I hadn’t even remembered dropping it.

  Days had passed, and people had come. Tess, Caleb, Claire. But none of them could convince me to leave the room. They brought food, but I didn’t eat. I barely even moved.

  They told me my safety level had been raised. I was a two now. They said I wouldn’t have to leave the city again. But the voices were hazy, as if reaching my ears through a very long tunnel.

  Kalisha had left, just as she’d promised Blake. I wished I’d had a chance to say goodbye. I wondered if we’d ever meet again.

  I spent hours staring at Tristen’s discarded bracelet lying on the brown mottled carpet. And then, one morning, I’d opened my eyes and decided the time had come. Dressing in the cleanest clothes I could find, I left the room and then the city. I went away toward the trees.

  I settled a stone etched with Tristen’s name upon the mound and laid a dandelion next to it. A whole life, a baby born, grown into a man—one who had loved his little sister, one who’d sacrificed his life for another—all that was left of it was this pitiful grave. Tristen’s bracelet would lie alone in the cold dirt, unknown to anyone but myself.

  I cursed myself again for not retrieving a token of Logan or Ian’s. They should’ve been represented as well. They too had been left behind, decaying and forgotten.

  A heavy gust scattered leaves around me like a snow globe and cold seeped through my thin shirt. Wrapping my arms over each other, I plodded back to Springfield.

  Of course I couldn’t regret going on the mission. At the very least, we’d bought some time.

 
; But I’d seen too much death. Far too much death.

  I’d always thought that nothing could ever be worse than seeing Dad and Zach’s lifeless bodies, but I’d been wrong. Their deaths had just the beginning. The first burden of a very heavy load. A weight that had at last overpowered me.

  I regarded the city walls with a stoic eye. It was as though they claimed a hold on me, like a hive to its bee. Within were those who cared for me, but it had also sheltered the Captain. And Vanessa.

  I knew she was in there somewhere. Most likely hiding from me. But I also knew she wouldn’t rest until the threat that my survival posed was eradicated.

  When I reached the blockade, a passage was opened. The guard gave a friendly smile. I averted my eyes. The moment I passed through, a woman bounded toward me.

  “Rhyan,” Allison said. “I’ve been waiting for you. Do you have time to talk?”

  With her bouncy step and clear eyes, she appeared to be in a sunny mood—the polar opposite of me. I took a step back.

  “What do you want?”

  “Just to catch up. We can walk to the stable while we talk, if you like.”

  Oh my word, Lucky. How could I have forgotten? It must’ve been weeks since I’d checked on him.

  Fully aware she was manipulating me, I nodded my agreement.

  “I’ll be honest,” Allison said as we turned down a road away from the blockade, “I’ve been waiting for you to get out of your apartment. I was told every detail of the mission. They asked me to see what I could do for you.”

  How absurd. I didn’t want anything, except to be left alone.

  “They’re calling you a hero, you know. Said the mission wouldn’t have succeeded without you. Tess in particular seems quite satisfied you took part.”

  The mission didn’t succeed. Not really. A successful mission would have brought everyone home. I wanted to say as much, but instead I just kicked a rock and watched it roll to the side of the road.

  We made the final turn and I automatically scanned the fields for Lucky. He was standing next to a gray mare, swishing his tail and looking bored. Allison kept step with me as I rushed to the paddock fence.