by Jay Morris
Karen woke, her hair was a red bird’s nest and her eyes were mere slits, barely open at all. She mumbled something about “…lug vu…”, I laughed and said “I lug vu too!” she didn’t say anything or turn around, but she did flip me off which made me laugh all the more. She then went off to do her own personal morning business. I hopped down and shouldering my “perfectly sat” weapon as Tucker would say, I went to say good morning to Amy. That’s when she told me that Tucker and Young Deer were off scouting a small town that was just down the road always. I didn’t care really, but I somehow felt a little left out, Tucker relied on me and I suppose that I had started to expect it.
From the hill they could see most of what was once called Sutton, West Virginia. Highway 19 intersected 79 just south of there. A good thing they checked because highway 79 was gone there and even worse the clover leaf over the Elk River onto 19 was gone as well. The tell-tale powder was all that remained. From the top of the mountain they would have once seen all of the little town before them, but everything on their side of the Elk had been erased. Doc Young Deer was using the binoculars,
“I don’t see any alien tanks.” She said.
“Me either.” Tucker answered,
“Looks like they just stopped and left half way through”.
“Yeah, wait a sec, I think I see a way across.”
She handed Tucker the binoculars and pointed up river. Tucker used the binoculars and said
“Damn right you do, that’s a good size dam, think we can get the Humvee across?”
“No idea. But it is worth a try.”
He smiled at her and said “Bet your sweet ass it is.”
Mary Young Deer smiled
“Didn’t think you had noticed.” Tucker coughed and his cheeks turned red “I’m sorry Doc. I didn’t mean anything by it.”
She laughed as she took the binoculars and scanned the far side of the Elk River,
“Too bad, I might have ... “, she paused “wait a minute, there is a Kroger Store over there.”
“Outstanding” he said.
Young Deer got to her knees and patted him on the shoulder, “Come on lady killer, let’s get back to the others.”
He rolled to his side and watched her walk away, he thought ‘it is pretty sweet actually’, five yards away she looked over her shoulder at him, she knew that he had been watching and she had been adding just a little extra motion in her stride just for him. She smiled and he breathed in deeply and letting it out slowly he whispered
“there certainly something about a woman in uniform.”
Day 42, Common Area, Pod 1.
Nah-Ta-As was a micro-Life-Technician, he was good at it and was the highest ranking Micro-Life-Tech planet side. His was a task he found fascinating and rewarding. He appreciated the challenge of manipulation of such life forms that had taken more lives Galaxy wide than all the wars combined. But these Indigenous-Life-Aggressives posed a special challenge, this pitiful species had 23 chromosomes and had about 3,200,000,000 base pairs. Worse, while any two of them were 99.9% identical genetically, their disease resistance was far from uniform. Some were sensitive to certain disease and resistant to others, other specimens carried the exact opposite tendencies. At first he had found this terribly confusing but then finally the darkness had been lifted, it was a genetic survival tactic.
He had to report to the Supreme Director that while they had identified three terribly lethal Micro-Life variants, each and every one was at least as deadly to the Da-Nah. The Mico-Life-Technicians had decided to propose a different tactic, in lieu of a single disease suitable for use against all the Aggressives, they wanted to propose a new protocol when a “virulent soup” would be created and while their projections showed only 82.2% success, the survivors would be scattered and physically weakened. All they need was the permission from the Supreme Director to begin the modification of their samples. Taking one last look at the combined Micro-Life-Technicians from the entire planet, he nodded and entered the command vehicle.
“Permissive-Binary-Query-Supreme Director 1-Status-Consult-Availability.”
“Query-Acknowledged-Status-True” “Statement-Factual-Composite :{
Status-Completion Micro-Life-Protocols-Composite :{
Contradictory,
Contra-positive (Indigenous-Life-Aggressive-Lethal -> Da-Nah-Lethal),
Quantity-Estimation-Chronal (negation (delta) -> infinity)};
Statement-Factual-Protocols-Current-Terminate.
Statement-Factual-Protocols-Original
(Micro-Tech-Poly-Morphic -> Distribution-Global) };
The Supreme-Director 1 looked up at the Da-Nah for a moment then rose and poured the technician a glass of pale blue liquid then handed it to him. The walked slowly around the room, his hands clasped behind his back.
“Insistive-Query Implication (Da-Nah (this)-Protocol-Original -> Binary-Projection-False).”
“Quantity-Estimation-Correct (.996).”
“Insistive-Query Implication (Micro-Life-Technician-Protocol-Original -> Binary-Projection-True).
“Quantity-Estimation-Correct (.822)”
The Supreme Director flashed gold and violet, the colors of understanding. The Technician relaxed, he had feared a demotion in status, something his primary mate would have been upset about. It seems the rumors of the Supreme Directors increasing Da-Nah-negative behaviors were just that, rumors. He turned to face the Supreme Director 1 and tell him just when a bright red laser flashed in the room. The glass of liquid and the technicians head hit the ground at the same time. His body only a moment later. The Supreme Director calmly and quietly said:
“Command-Insistive-Protocol-Modification-Denied.”
The Supreme Director had two underling remove the corpse, place it in the center of his tri-pod base, place the head upright in the center of the technicians chest. Images were broadcast to all Da-Nah camps worldwide along with the message:
“Command-Insistive Quantity-Precise Protocol-Failure (0.0).”
Day 42, Police Turn-Around, Highway 79
The kids were getting bored waiting for Tucker and to tell the truth so were the rest of us, only the underling seemed unfazed. Karen made a game out of who could find the prettiest rock, that was fine except while the underling were very good at finding rocks apparently the concept of pretty was rather difficult to understand. At long last around 1 in the afternoon, Tucker and Young Deer returned from their scout. We all gathered around the tail gate of the truck where Tucker laid out the highway map. Doc used a marker to show us what had happened to the town of Sutton. Tucker insisted we would only move at night, we would take a small country road then across a logging path until we intersected the maintenance road that crossed the Elk River Damn. He then said that we would detour and check out the Kroger store, if we were lucky we would resupply and be back on the road in less than 30 minutes. He wanted to get as far down highway 19 as possible before dawn.
The spot light then fell on Lucy, Gina and the underling. They displayed their steadily increasing literary skills and in just two days they were able to carry on reasonable conversations on paper. Once we started to read the notes aloud and the underling quickly began to master our verbal speech. It was true, impossible but true, the little underling were like super learners, they saw, they understood and they mastered, all in one try. Of course they still had no voices but our ability to communicate had grown immensely. Tucker was thrilled that underling around the world were connected in some way to what our underling were doing and learning. Not so thrilled about the underling aversion to physical combat, however, when he found out the underling were not only spying on the Da-Nah but also actively sabotaging the Da- Nah efforts where ever and whenever possible. Best of all, was the news that there were other humans actively fighting the invasion.
All through the rest of the afternoon, Tucker would ask questions of the underling and they would write their responses. He was trying to formalize the underling resistance, to get them to c
ontact any and all humans fighting the Da-Nah, try to help them and let them know they were not alone.
As the sun began to set we started setting up the truck the same as we had the previous night. Tucker walked up to me and pulled me aside.
“John, listen, the underling are really worried about the “disease pod”, and apparently the Da-Nah have moved all their biological science geeks there from around the world.”
I said “well, that’s just peachy.”
“The underling have been messing with their test results but that can’t go on forever. I don’t think we can take them out by ourselves and the underling are unaware of any nearby human groups.”
“So what does that mean?” I asked.
I think a rather more subtle approach may be called for.”
“Tucker what the heck are you talking about?”
He scratched his beard, “Well I am not sure, but I do know this, we have to destroy that base, and kill every single Da-Nah, no matter the cost. Do you understand John?”
He laid a big hand on my shoulder. Yeah, I understood, the paragraphs between the lines were pretty clear, I just didn’t want to accept it.
“Tucker, if you and the Doc are going in I’m in too, but no one else. Got it?”
“John, I can’t say that, I’ll do my best but I can’t promise.”
I stared at him in disbelief, “Screw you Tucker” and I turned and walked away from him, if he thought he was getting Karen, Amy or the girls involved in a scheme like the one that got Elaine, Janey and the others killed he had another ‘think’ coming..
Day 42, Continued, Command Area, Vehicle 8-3
The director of pod 8 watched the visual recording for the 10th time. She could not believe her eyes but there on the Display, displayed for all Da-Nah to see, was the head of her primary mate. He had been executed by the Supreme Director 1. But why? She knew her mate, he was a fine and honorable Da-Nah, well loved by his peers and one of the most gifted Bio-Techs she had ever met. She had already fielded distraught communications from their secondary and tertiary mates. Then she received the clandestine written communique from several of her mates close friends and co-workers. They all gave the same report. The stress of the situation had broken the Supreme Director. His insistence on his one-cure protocol was going to doom them all. She shut off the screen and lay her head on her arm, trying to clear her mind.
She was startled when an underling approached her. It bowed and with palms up it offered her a secure transmission digital pad. She sighed and thought to herself ‘now what?” She took it from the underling who properly waited for its return. It was a message from the Supreme Director 1, it read;
“Command-Insistive-Statement-Factual-Broadcast-Secure (Supreme Director 1, all Directors 1)
Composite :{
Conjunctive (Set-Enumerated [Director 6, Director 8, Director 15],
Conjunctive (Negative-Da-Nah, Negative-Compliance)),
Command-Insistive-Conjunctive-(Enumerated-Set, Execution),
Chronal-delta (0.0) };”
This was unbearable, this planet had driven the Supreme Director mad. She first transmitted the message on a secure frequency to all Da-Nah under her command, something only a Pod Director could do, forward a secure message. Then on the same channel she made an announcement of her own, something that echoed in the breast of each and every Da-Nah under her command.
“Insistive-Command-Broadcast (Director 8, Enumerated-Set [Pod 8, Pod 11, Pod 13])
Locative (Pod 1), Action-Status-Hostile, Conjunctive (Protocol-Original, Re-designation-Supreme Director),
Chronal-delta (4.5).”
Her people had seen the communique, they too understood the implications of a mad leader. They began preparations to travel to Pod 1 and replace the Supreme Director, by force if necessary. Standing quite still among the hurried siblings and technicians was an underling who was very quiet, standing still it was sending a mental message to all underling in the area, who in turn sent it on to those in range.
“Permissive-Statement Protocol-Original Designation-‘Naughty Poker’
Status-Effective Quantity-Precise (1.00)”
Far away an underling received the thrice forwarded message and password archived the message it had sent from the secure communication pad. It had surreptitiously accessed it in the Supreme Directors private chamber. Then the underling returned the device precisely to where it found it and left the room to finish playing the new Loo-C game with the Da-Nah siblings: ‘Conjunctive (Conceal, Locate)’.
Day 42, Where Sutton Used to Be
The kids were as silent as the underling next to them under the tarp in the back of the truck. Riding next to them I had pulled my T-shirt up over my mouth and nose. The marbled dust, created by whatever had been beneath the alien vehicles at the time, swirled into the air behind Tucker and Amy in the Humvee in front of us. The dust went up in stripes of brick red, concrete white and asphalt black and came down a gray like ash from a Nazi crematorium. I still didn’t understand why the Da-Nah did this, not really. It seemed somehow a waste of time and energy. The people who lived there were most certainly dead although a hand full might still be hiding in the buildings that remained on the other side of the Elk River.
I thought about Amy in the Humvee with Tucker; I had finally came up with an explanation for the reason Tucker had moved her from the truck bed to the Humvee. Me. He didn’t want to give me a chance to convince her to not go along with his damned “victory or death” plan. Tucker still hadn’t revealed the whole thing, but apparently something had gone his way because when one of the underling handed him a note, Tucker hugged the little guy. I thought for a moment he was actually going to kiss it. When I asked him he took my shoulders and with a wide grin he said,
“Later John, we have to get going, right now.”
He moved off, his stride still looked off somehow, a remnant of his injured leg I suppose, but there was spring in his step once more. He was excited and that meant somebody or something was going to die.
All of a sudden we made a sharp right turn, I leaned out and looked ahead of us, and we were following a black path made of dust. We had found the service road, or what was left of it, that led to the dam. We didn’t have to follow it too far when the truck hit a sharp bump and we found ourselves finally travelling on good old American black top once more. We crested a hill and I could hear the distant sound of the Elk River going over the Dam, but in the pitch black of night I couldn’t see it yet. We started to practically creep along and just as we were about to cross the dam Tucker’s Humvee stopped, he got out of the passenger side and walked back to us. He said something to the Doc and Karen then looked up to me;
“John, its quiet but it looks like there was a battle on the dam, let’s check it out.”
In the dark I am sure he could not see my “that’s just great” eye roll but let me assure you it was one of the best in the history of eye rolls.
As I hopped down, Karen was getting out of the truck cab, her M-4 in hand;
“Going someplace?” I asked.
She kissed me “No Dear, but the General up there asked me and the Doc to set up by the Humvee for cover fire in case you needed to get your skinny butt out of there.”
I smiled and we walked up to the Humvee, Karen mimicked Doc Mary, opened the passenger door, stood behind it and thrust the barrel of her rifle through the open window.
“Come on John.”
Tucker called in a fake whisper that was nearly drowned out by the river below.
Tuck was right, there had been a battle here but not too recently, we started to pass the shells of dead ‘Before’ scattered here and there. They reminded me of giant black cicadas who had just crawled out of the ground only to molt and leave their husks behind. The odor was enough to make me wretch, like a bushel basket of chicken and crabs left in the sewer to ripen. Ahead there were rotting human corpses mixed in with the monsters. They lay behind a make shift barricade of fuel drums and hu
ge wooden crates. There were male and female dead back there, some in Army green but most wore jeans instead of camo. The people of Sutton had assisted in their own defense and had died doing so. Well, I suppose there are worse ways to die than in defense of people you love. Tucker picked up a rifle then examined it closely;
“By the amount of rust on these weapons and the state of decay of the bodies, this had to happen early on, at least a month ago.”
I nodded but said nothing. He leaned the useless weapon against one of the steel drums then he tried to shift one of the crates but it didn’t budge.
“Crap this thing is heavy” he said then asked me “John, can you read this label?” I got closer and was finally able to make it out, I read it aloud “Operator Valve X 2, P/N a bunch of numbers then Gross Wt. 940 lbs, and then Property of U. S. Navy”
I smirked when I heard him say “That’s just great, typical Navy, leaving their junk laying around to get in peoples way.”
We started to walk the rest of the Dam but except for occasional small groups of bodies, monster and human, there were no more obstacles.
On the far side of the dam was about thirty assorted cars, two big green Army trucks, and one long flatbed semi-trailer behind a practically new bright blue Kenworth semi-truck. Chrome ‘W900’ sparkled dimly in the moon light, I climbed up and peeked inside. These things were so cool, sleeper in the back, TV, fridge, the works. But what got Tucker excited was a fork lift parked inside a maintenance shed. He started fiddling with it,
