The Flipside

by Jake Bible

  “That works?” Tressa asked, eyeing the setup.

  “Mostly,” Bloom replied. “Nothing is perfect when you have to work this fast. We’ll lose some, it’s to be expected.”

  “I thought we’ve been through a lot since we got here, but we’ve at least had this base,” Tressa said. “You had to build from scratch.”

  “We stayed in the ships at first, but the creatures in the water are considerably more formative than the ones on land, so we had to switch strategies for survival,” Bloom said. Bloom pointed out at the landscape beyond the wall.

  “All combots are synched and ready to fight,” Bloom continued. “They’ll be our first line of defense. As soon as the smeeks are within sight, they will engage. With the numbers coming at us, the combots will run out of ammunition before they can take down a third of the creatures. That’s when they are sacrificed.”

  “Sacrificed?” Tressa asked.

  “They work their way within the herd and detonate, taking out as many smeeks as possible,” Bloom said. He wiped at his face as the first drops of rain began to fall. “I hate to lose the machines, especially if the Russians are on their way, but we have to hold this base. It is imperative we hold this base.”

  “Commander Bloom? What are the plans you have for Flipside FOB?” Tressa asked. “Technically, this is a Topside Industries facility, so you need my authorization to hold anything once we get through this nightmare.”

  “Ms. Thompson,” Bloom said as he faced Tressa. “We won’t get through any nightmares until we are back home. You think what is coming is all that is coming? Please, you are not that ignorant.”

  “They’re here!” someone yelled as the line of twenty combots took off running out into the landscape.

  Tressa didn’t respond to Bloom. She held her tongue and looked out at the open land.

  Far off was a large shadow. A shadow that nearly stretched the entire horizon.

  “No,” Bloom whispered and swiped at his wrist tab. “Those bastards.”

  “What is it?” Tressa asked.

  “They hid their numbers!” Bloom shouted as he pressed his ear. Tressa heard his voice over her comm. “There are twice as many as we thought!”

  Tressa took a step back and Bloom’s hand shot out to grab her by her belt before she fell off the walkway.

  “See, Ms. Thompson,” Bloom said as he steadied her. “This place is always a nightmare.”

  ***

  “That is going to carry that?” Barbara asked as the Brain combot hopped out of the back of the speed roller while Cash and Mike helped shove the cube toward the edge. “Is it strong enough?”

  “I can carry four point two tons, Ms. Chin,” Brain said. “Booyah.”

  Mike snickered. “Okay, that’s a good one.”

  The combot Brain moved into position, its middle legs coming up off the ground and turning into stabilizing arms as the cube was pushed onto its back. Once the cube was out of the speed roller and onto the combot’s back, the machine turned and walked off, headed toward where the bubble shimmered in the air.

  The rain had started as a light drizzle, but was picking up fast. Cash hopped out of the speed roller and handed Barbara a stun thumper.

  “It’s gonna be shit for visibility,” Cash said as Barbara took the weapon. “You sure you’re up for this?”

  “I’ve hunted in the rain before,” Barbara said. “And I only have stationary targets. If anything comes for us, then you’ll have multiple, moving targets.”

  “Alright,” Cash said and reached into the speed roller for his rifle. He snagged a pack filled with magazines and threw that over his shoulder and across his chest. “Mike?”

  “I’m supposed to stay right here, dude,” Mike said, holding up a tablet as he remained in the back of the speed roller. “My job is to hit this button right here when they tell me to then hit this button right here when they tell me to do that. Then I sound off the countdown and that’s that.”

  “Can you handle all that button pushing?” Cash asked with a smirk.

  “I don’t know, dude,” Mike said. “I skipped Button Pushing 101 when I was busy getting my PhD!”

  Mike shouted those last words in Lakshmi’s direction. She was walking toward the bubble and didn’t look back.

  The rain started coming down harder.

  “At least you get to stay dry in there,” Cash said, wiping water from his eyes.

  “Yeah, there’s that,” Mike agreed. He tilted his head toward the bubble. The combot Brain had caught up with Lakshmi. “Better get in position, dude.”

  “Right,” Cash said and gave Barbara a pat on the shoulder as he started jogging toward the bubble.

  “Did you just pat me?” Barbara called as she jogged after him.

  “That’s what we operators do,” Cash said.

  “I’m not an operator,” Barbara said.

  “You are today,” Cash said.

  They reached Lakshmi and the combot Brain.

  “How are the scans looking?” Lakshmi asked.

  Cash brought up a hologram from his wrist tab and studied it.

  “Two flocks of pterosaurs about three clicks off, but both headed away from us,” Cash reported. “I am seeing a mass of something just at the edge of scanning range. Not sure what it is yet.”

  “That’ll be teeth,” Lakshmi said. “They come for the cube.”

  “My cybertronic matrix gives off a sub-aural tone that attracts carnivores,” Brain said. “Yay for me.”

  “You attract teeth?” Barbara asked, spinning around as she tried to scan the landscape through the ever-increasing downpour. “You’re teeth bait?”

  “I did not intend to be,” Brain replied. “But such is life, am I right?”

  “Brain?” Lakshmi asked.

  “Yes?”

  “Please delete all of Raff’s phrases,” Lakshmi ordered. “Now is not the time.”

  “Raff knew you would say that and prepared this statement,” Brain said.

  There was the sound of a clearing throat and then Raff’s voice emitted from the machine.

  “Hey, babe, sorry I can’t be there with you. I knew you’d totally bail on me. Love you and I told Brain to be chill and not sound like me anymore. He’ll be normal Brain from now on. Good luck saving the world! See you if you figure out how to get back to us! Love you tons!”

  Lakshmi shuddered as she held back her tears.

  “Love you too,” she whispered.

  “If you figure out how to get back to us?” Cash asked.

  “Later, Tre,” Lakshmi said.

  Cash and Barbara tried to share a look, but the rain was coming down too hard and water dripped from their brows in sheets.

  “You two set?” Mike asked over the comms.

  “Set,” Lakshmi said and took five steps forward.

  “Set,” Brain said, joining her, its voice flat and without any hint of emotion.

  “Set,” Cash said as he turned and took a knee, his rifle to his shoulder and eye to his scope. Then he looked away from his scope to Barbara. “Barbara?”

  “What?” she asked then blinked a few times and took a knee so she was facing Lakshmi and the combot Brain. She put the stun thumper to her shoulder and took aim. “Right. Set.”

  “We’re good to go, Mike,” Cash said.

  “First button,” Lakshmi said.

  “Pressing first button, dudes,” Mike said over the comms. “Like a boss.”

  “Mike…” Cash growled.

  “Come on. All I’m doing is pushing buttons here, dude.”

  ***

  Between the rolls of thunder that came seconds after the massive lightning strikes that hit closer and closer to the base, everyone could hear the sounds of .50 caliber gunfire. Those with scopes watched the combots engage the smeeks that swarmed over, around, and past the machines. Many of the monstrous dinos fell, but only a small fraction.

  The herd coming at the base was enormous.

  “Wait for it!” Bloom y
elled as Tressa watched by his side, a set of binoculars to her eyes. “Wait for it!”

  The gunfire stopped and the combots were lost from sight.

  Then there was an explosion and smeek guts and limbs flew fifty feet into the air about two hundred yards into the herd. Then another explosion and more guts and limbs. A third explosion and a geyser of blood fought upward against the crashing rain.

  “Now!” Bloom shouted.

  The entire wall of operators opened fire simultaneously. Tressa let go of the binoculars. They fell to her chest, held in place by a strap around her neck. She shoved her fingers into her ears to block out the cacophony of gunfire.

  “Here!” Bloom shouted and handed her two small earplugs. “They work with the comms, so don’t worry about that!”

  “What?” Tressa yelled as thunder boomed directly over them. She was soaked to the bone and shivering, but hardly noticed as she stared at Bloom’s hand. He mimed putting the plugs in her ears and she nodded. “Thanks!”

  Tressa sighed at the relative quiet compared to the roar of noise that had threatened to burst her eardrums even with one protected by a comm piece.

  The herd kept coming and Tressa reminded herself not to panic and step backward or she’d fall and probably snap her neck. The sight of the smeeks, even being still quite a ways off, was terrifying. The beasts were massive. Way more massive than she thought they would be.

  Bloom glanced back over his shoulder, checked on her, saw the look on her face, and nodded. He pressed a finger to his ear.

  “They’re big fellas,” Bloom said. “This world produces big. Big everything. Living on base has sheltered everyone. You do not know the scope until you’re out there. And let’s hope you never have to go out there.”

  Roars began to fight against the gunfire for audible supremacy. Then the thunder joined in to try for dominance. Even with the earplugs, Tressa felt a headache build and build.

  ***

  “Out!” someone yelled over the comms.

  Olivia looked left then right and saw a hand held up. She sprinted down the walkway with her ammo pack in hand.

  “What caliber?” she yelled over the intense noise.

  “.300!” the operator yelled back.

  Olivia switched the pack in her hand for one strung across her shoulder. She dug inside and handed the operator three magazines.

  “Gotta conserve!” she yelled when she received a look of gratitude mixed with disappointment.

  “OUT!” someone else yelled over the comms and Olivia was off running back in the opposite direction.

  “Hey, Liv!” Haskins yelled when she reached him. He put his stump down and ejected his magazine. “.338!”

  Olivia nodded and slapped in a fresh magazine for him then set up three more magazines of .338 rounds against the wall by his leg.

  “Don’t knock those over!” Olivia yelled. “Keep them upright and you can slam your rifle down on them when you need them!”

  “I like how you think!” Haskins shouted then returned to his position on the wall and started firing again.

  Olivia was already running back the other way before Haskins had squeezed off two shots.

  Back and forth, back and forth she ran as operators called for more ammunition. In a brief few seconds when she wasn’t running, Olivia wiped the water from her eyes and stared out over the wall. She gasped at what she saw.

  Smeeks had been described as a much bigger T-rex with feathers and big brains. What she saw coming at the base were considerably larger than what she’d expected. They were close to twice the size of a T-rex and their feathered bodies were low and sprinting so fast that Olivia could barely track the powerful back legs that propelled the creatures on.

  “Oh, God,” she muttered. “I should have stayed in that diner.”

  “OUT!” an operator shouted.

  Olivia shook off her fear and took off running once again.

  ***

  “Four,” Cash stated matter of factly. “Four teeth incoming.”

  “Species?” Lakshmi asked as she took a couple steps toward the bubble, following the combot Brain.

  “Smaller than T-rex,” Cash said. “But not tiny. These aren’t raptors. My guess is we’re looking at something like an Albertosaurus.”

  “ETA?” Lakshmi asked.

  “Five minutes,” Cash said. “They’re headed this way, but not at a full run.”

  “They’ll be here in five minutes and that isn’t a full run?” Barbara asked, her hands shaking as she gripped the stun thumper.

  “Long legs,” Cash said. “How close are we to the turn?”

  “You mean the turn needed to return us to the exact time that will allow us to finalize our plan to save the Earth,” Brain said.

  “I liked the Raff personality better,” Cash said.

  “Not if you have to live with two of them,” Lakshmi said. “Brain?”

  “Eight minutes,” Brain replied.

  “That means I’m holding these bastards off for at least three minutes,” Cash said.

  “Longer if we want to get out of here alive,” Barbara said.

  “One job at a time,” Cash said.

  “I’d like the staying alive after they leave to be part of the same job, dude,” Mike said over the comms.

  “Off the comms until needed, Michael DiCenzo,” Brain said.

  “I agree with Cash, Raff personality Brain was better,” Mike responded.

  ***

  “They’re almost at the mesh!” Bloom called over the comms. “Try to keep them there, people!”

  Tressa watched as there were more explosions from within the smeek herd. Then new explosions joined the chaos as RPGs were fired from the wall. The earth about one hundred yards in front of the herd erupted into geysers of dirt and grass. A good amount of the smeeks slowed down, but none stopped. More rockets were fired.

  “Careful of the mesh, dammit!” Bloom shouted.

  Tressa wanted to ask what that meant, but she wasn’t about to interrupt the commander. And the scene outside the base had her transfixed.

  Then lightning struck the ground. Or, as Tressa’s eyes adjusted, it struck several long metal poles that stuck up from the ground. She hadn’t noticed them before, but they were hard to miss now.

  Electricity pulsed and sparked across a two-meter-wide strip of ground that stretched at least as long as the base. The smeeks that were unlucky enough to be on top of that strip were cooked and dropped right there. Those behind the fallen tumbled and fell, also becoming fried creatures as the electricity flowed through them.

  Then the sparks stopped once the charge was spent and the herd trampled the fallen into pulp as they kept heading toward the base.

  For everything the operators were doing, everything the combots were doing, and everything nature was doing, Tressa saw the inevitable coming at them.

  “You need to get to the bunker,” Bloom said as he whirled on Tressa. “Understand?”

  She nodded.

  “Get in there and prepare to slam those doors closed when I give the order,” he said. “Even if all of us haven’t arrived yet. I tell you to shut those doors and you shut those doors.”

  Tressa nodded again.

  “Go!” Bloom shouted.

  Tressa went.

  Nineteen

  Cash wanted to shout at the incoming teeth, but he didn’t. It would have been a waste of effort and would also have thrown off his aim. Steady, even breaths that he took in then let out slowly each time he squeezed the trigger was how to operate.

  One, two, three albertosaurs hit the ground as Cash stood up and switched positions for a better sightline. He also needed to get the speed roller out of the way. The vehicle was blocking his view as the pack of teeth came for them all.

  Two of the dropped albertosaurs stood back up, blood dripping from their wounds. They roared and rejoined the pack that was headed straight for Cash. That was part of his reason he got up and changed positions, so they would target him and
not the others.

  “You only killed one, dude,” Mike said over the coms.

  The pack shifted directions and went straight for the speed roller.

  “They heard that!” Cash shouted and waved one arm over his head. “Hey! Hey! Over here!”

  “You were told to be quiet on the comms, Michael DiCenzo,” Brain said over the comms.

  Mike did not reply.

  The pack of albertosaurs changed directions again as Cash began to jump up and down where he stood. They lowered their bodies and sprinted straight at him. They looked like T-rexes, but were shorter, skinnier, with much longer forearms and narrower jaws. None of that made them any less deadly.

  ***

  Olivia grabbed Zach by the elbow and dragged him to a ladder.

  “Come on!” she yelled as she started down the ladder. “We’re going to the bunker!”

  “What about this?” Zach asked, holding up a pack.

  “What is it?”

  “.300!”

  “Hey! Who needs .300?” Olivia yelled against the thunderstorm. She tapped her ear. “Who needs .300?”

  Hands shot up and Olivia took the pack from Zach and threw it at the closest operator with her hand up. The operator barely glanced away from her scope, but still caught the pack one-handed and managed to squeeze off a shot.

  “Come on!” Olivia yelled at Zach.

  Zach followed her down the ladder and they quickly realized that being up on the walkway, even with the wind and occasional lightning strike, was considerably more stable than the base’s ground.

  They both sunk almost up to their knees in mud.

  Holding onto each other for balance, they trudged about twenty yards before they found an empty ATV.

  “Get in!” Olivia yelled and took the driver’s seat. She fired up the vehicle and hit the accelerator before Zach’s ass was fully sitting in his seat.

  Olivia whipped the ATV around and headed for the bunker. Behind them, explosion after explosion filled the air then a thunderclap shook everything.