by Jesse Wilson
“You may have all just seen the scene unfold live on WTNV moments ago. I don’t fully understand what is going on right now, and information is coming in all the time. We are taking this seriously, and just before I came up here, I was ordered by the president to issue a mandatory evacuation. In two hours, everyone will be getting a text via the emergency system with colored boxes. Each color will come with directions to follow. Until then, I urge everyone to remain calm,” she said into the camera, and it looked like she had more to say, but the power flickered, then it went out. The air outside became filled with the sounds of aircraft passing through the sky, like thunder that never seemed to end. The three of them felt the house shake as the fighter jets passed over them.
“Screw waiting for two hours. We need to get to my place and get the rest of the stuff so we can get the hell out of here,” James said to them, barely being heard over the sound of fighter jets screaming through the air outside. Phoenix just nodded in agreement.
“We should listen to the mayor. I’m sure they won’t let us down,” Tina pleaded with them.
“In two hours, none of this might be here. We need to get out of here as soon as we can. You have to trust me,” Logan replied to her. He’d seen the horror, a glimpse of it, and that was enough to let him know what was coming. Tina sighed and decided he was right. The look in his eyes was one she hadn’t seen before.
“Alright, let’s get out of here,” she finally relented, and the three of them went back outside, Logan locking the doors behind them. James looked down the street, but besides all the people packing up, he couldn’t see anything else down that dark road. All he knew is that it wasn’t the way he wanted to go anymore.
The three of them got in the squad car and pulled out of the driveway. Tina was in the back and turned to look at her house, possibly for the last time, as it melted into the dark.
“One more stop and we’re gone. The power is out so we need to be on the lookout for panicked drivers,” James said to them as they drove down the street.
“I got you, no need to worry,” Logan replied and turned on the radio.
“All available units, please report in for further instructions,” the dispatcher said and Logan turned it off again.
“There aren’t enough cops in the city to take care of this,” James said as they turned a corner.
Chapter Twenty Two
Farwell stood alone as the giant, growing thing that was going to crush him disappeared in an instant. He wanted to go help the others, but he knew for a fact they were all dead, and it would have been pointless. At least, he thought that for a few precious seconds when from the wreckage some of the bodies began to twitch.
“Not possible, is it?” he asked himself and took a step back, worried he was about to be ambushed at any second, when suddenly a booming noise came from the dark behind the fire. All the cars on their wheels still bounced up and down on the strange impact that sounded like an explosion. Farwell looked around for the potential source when someone behind him started to shriek.
He turned around in a hurry to see what it was. Some woman was pointing up over his head as she turned to run down the street. Farwell felt another earth-shattering boom. This time, it was closer, and it dropped him to his knees.
He wasn’t ready for this one. Farwell was shaky but pulled himself up and turned around. This time, he looked up and what he saw he could hardly describe. It was something right out of his nightmares. A smooth, black-skinned, for the lack of a better word, dinosaur. Its eyes were deep yellow and seemed to glow with their own fire against the night.
“Oh dear God,” was all he could say as that massive black foot rose up and crushed all the flaming cars. He was too close and decided that the only chance he had was to run to his left, out of the way of the thing. Farwell did exactly this with all the speed he could summon. Whatever this was, it didn’t seem to care about him. The beast continued to walk down the street in the same direction as he fled for his life.
He dived to the ground for protection as the lumbering beast strolled past him with its loud footsteps.
“Looks like I get to live another day,” he said to himself as he stood up and could only stare at the massive thing as it moved. He was still in shock, and at this range, it looked like it was less a beast and more like a mountain that had learned how to walk. Suddenly, another sound filled the air; a familiar sound that made him smile. The sound of fighter jets tore through the air.
“The boys at Nellis are on the job. I don’t care how big you are, this will take care of you,” Farwell screamed, pulled out his sidearm, and began shooting at the beast. He didn’t care if he hit it or not. The jets unleashed their first volley of missiles into the monster. They burned through the air. Farwell couldn’t tell how many there were, but he watched as they slammed into their target, setting the monster on fire.
“Yes!” Farwell yelled, but being hit by the missiles caused the monster to follow the jets as they passed over. Farwell heard a distant, yet rapidly approaching rumble. He had no idea what this could be until the buildings he stood next to exploded outwards and instantly covered him in rubble. The beast’s tail was something he didn’t even consider. Farwell was smashed under a wall; his neck was broken instantly along with the rest of him.
Heather and the others were watching as the jets began to engage with the monster. “I don’t know if you’re still getting this, but the monster is engaging with the military as we speak. The missiles don’t seem to be slowing it down at all,” Rose reported into her microphone.
“It isn’t safe here. Chances of one hundred percent infection in this area will take place in less than two Earth hours,” Sippy said to all of them, doing the math.
“She’s right; we need to get away from here. Every time they hit the monster, they’ll send pieces of it in all directions. Anyone who is still there will become infected and will seek to do the same to others,” Xule said to the pilot.
“I hear you, big green, we are leaving,” Phil replied to him and pulled the chopper away from the action as another barrage of missiles exploded against Narbosaurus, sending black chunks of flesh in all directions.
“Why didn’t they order an evacuation before they started attacking? That just seems insane,” Heather asked no one.
“The government doesn’t care about the little guy as much as it cares about winning. It was a risk they were willing to take. I’ve seen it all over the world,” the cameraman finally spoke up as his view disappeared. With nothing more to film, Jeff shut the camera off.
“I am sorry for bringing this evil here,” Xule said and felt incredibly guilty about all of this.
“Hey man, don’t worry, because we’ll take care of this. We’ll think of something,” Bob said and put a hand on his armored shoulder, it felt warmer than he thought it might.
“I sure hope so,” Xule replied to him, but didn’t feel any better about it.
“Chopper Number 5, come in Chopper Number 5, this is Bruce Williams, do you copy,” a very familiar voice came over the radio. It was the only thing that was able to get Alex to stop looking out the back at the giant monster.
“How is that possible? Doesn’t this monster kill who it copies?” Alex thought out loud. He thought he was paying attention, but at this point, very little actually made sense to him. Giant monsters and aliens were a thing now; he was sure he didn’t know anything.
“Usually yes, be careful here,” Xule replied as Phil answered the radio.
“This is Number 5. The passengers seem to know you, but they don’t know if it’s really you. You’ll need to confirm this info,” Phil replied to him and for a moment there was only silence.
“Gum helps,” Bruce replied those two words. Heather understood what he meant; the others did too, but it didn’t make them feel much better.
“Let me talk to him,” Heather said and held out her hands to get the radio. It was passed back to her. “We saw you. You were the monster, or what it looked like
for a little while. What gives?” she asked him.
“Yeah, about that, it touched me. I, uh, well I played dead under a support beam and it didn’t bother infecting me. I was pulled out by a special unit. That’s not important. What is, however, is that you get the Nuridian to the Luxor Hotel. Don’t worry, the parking lot is cleared out; you’ll be able to land once you get here,” Bruce replied to them.
“We have enough fuel to make it there, but that’s it. Once we get there, we won’t be able to go anywhere else,” Phil said to them.
“We need to get to the Luxor, then,” Bob said and sighed. The farther away he got from that thing behind them, the better off he was going to feel.
“Tell your man we are on our way,” Phil replied and adjusted the course.
“Cameraman, switch your tapes with blanks,” Alex said to Jeff.
“Dude, how old are you? We use memory sticks now,” he replied as he got to work. Alex just rolled his eyes in response.
“Just do it; they’ll likely take everything,” Alex replied, still paranoid about it. “Yeah, you think they will, even now?” he replied to him. Alex looked out the window and only saw a sea of black beneath them. The power had either gone out or taken out intentionally. Either way, he could only think that there was some kind of cover up just waiting to happen.
“Yeah, I think so,” Alex said. He never doubted they would try to cover all of this up; he just wasn’t sure how.
It was then that a bright electric green flash cut through the night sky. They heard the sound of a distant explosion.
“What in the hell was that?” Bob asked as he nearly jumped.
“Narbosaurus’s offensive weapon, a bio-electric beam that has cutting power you wouldn’t believe,” Xule replied as the green flash cut through the sky behind them again.
“At this point, I think I would believe just about anything,” Heather replied and swallowed, praying that that beam would not come in their direction.
“So are you on your way or not?” Bruce repeated through the radio again, being forgotten almost.
“Yes, we are on our way, no worries. Phil says we’ll be there in about fifteen minutes, so have a place to land,” Heather replied to him.
“Good, see you then,” Bruce replied to her. Something in his voice didn’t make any of them feel any better about their situation.
Narbosaurus towered over the city of Las Vegas. From this height, the people he could see looked barely like bugs, scurrying like someone had just lifted their rock for the first time in years. The noisy machines buzzed at what they thought was a safe distance. He narrowed his eyes and opened his maw. The neon-green energy burst forth as fast as a thunderbolt. The F-22 Raptor tried to move out of the way but was nowhere near fast enough to do it.
The jet exploded on impact. There was no ejection seat from the thing as the fireball descended to earth. The others broke contact and planned to regroup to attack again.
“Come on, we have to keep running,” Tommy screamed to his older brother as he watched the sky light up.
“I know, I’m coming,” Jason replied as he hopped over a pile of debris on the ground only to trip and fall.
“Ah, son of a…hey what’s this?” Jason asked as his curse was cut short. His left hand landed in a black puddle of something.
“What’s what? We need to get out of here,” Tommy said and turned around yet again.
“I know, but I landed in something. I think it’s part of the monster,” Jason replied, then started to scream as if something was attacking him. Tommy watched as the black liquid leapt up and covered Jason completely as he tried to fight with it, but it only lasted a few seconds as the black fluid soaked into his skin. Jason was facing away from his brother, not moving at all.
“Are you alright?” Tommy asked as he carefully approached him. Jason turned around, his mouth filled with black fangs, and eyes that were a deep and solid yellow with painted black veins just under his skin. Tommy tried to turn and run but tripped over his own feet. His brother lunged and landed on top of him. Those black fangs were buried into his brother’s chest. They snapped off and slithered in the bloody wounds. Seconds past, and now the two were the same.
Both of them rose up and began to stalk the night for more victims. All over the expanding battlefield, this same scene was taking place as pieces of the monster were blasted off with each attack. Unsuspecting people were being covered with the creature’s flesh and being possessed by it.
Chopper Number 5 flew over the black city until they reached the barely visible pyramid. The parking lot, just as Bruce had said, was filled with men, lights, and more importantly, an obvious place to land. Phil expertly maneuvered the aircraft down to the ground and landed it. Rose pushed the door open, and one by one, they began to file out as the chopper’s blades began to slow down. Bruce was waiting for them. The general had his right arm in some kind of a black covering that reminded all who saw it as a cast of some kind.
“Welcome back. I am glad to see you all didn’t die when we screwed up,” he said but didn’t smile.
“How in the hell did you live? The monster has your form.” Xule was the first one to speak up. He was extremely suspicious of all of this, and Sippy was already scanning him.
“Honestly, I don’t know. The thing almost had me, touched my arm as you can see, then the defense systems started to kick in. It left me in there,” Bruce replied and narrowed his eyes. “I had other plans than being buried under tons of rubble, though,” he finished.
“No Xeloid DNA detected. He’s safe,” Sippy said suddenly. Another distant green flash in the night sky occurred.
“Hi, I’m Rose, reporter for the WTNV News. I’d like to ask some questions about—” Bruce just shook his head and smiled.
“I get it, the public deserves to know about what that thing is, but the only one who really knows anything is that alien standing beside you. Honestly, we have no idea what it is either besides the conversation we recorded,” Bruce said to her.
“See? I told you the room was bugged,” Alex replied then and felt justified in not trusting the government in the least, but at the same time felt he had no choice.
“Anyway, Vegas has been considered a complete loss. The second that thing touched down, the president ordered a cleansing operation to commence,” Bruce said and sighed. He hated the idea of it too.
“Loss? What do you mean loss? It’s only been attacking for less than an hour. Surely we’ll fight for it,” Heather said as she took a step forward.
“No, this human is right. Every time one of those missiles strikes the body of the monster, pieces will fly off of it and find others to infect. Each infected being will seek out others to infect, and so on until everything is covered, infested with slime,” Xule said bleakly, knowing this was the unavoidable future of this world.
“Damn, so this is how it all ends,” Bob said mostly to himself. Everyone who heard this felt the creeping edges of despair closing in on them.
“Well, I told the president he can go to Hell and also told him that I have a plan, and I do. We beat the star spawn with this, and I think we can do this the same way,” Bruce said and Alex looked up.
“How? What is this plan of yours?” he asked, looking for any bright spot in this grim situation.
“Liquid nitrogen. It’s so cold, it has taken care of anything we’ve come into contact with so far. We’ve weaponized it. The airstrikes are nothing more than a distraction to buy us more prep time over here. The Chemical Dragon unit here is just about ready to strike. We’ve done this before, and since you know this beast, Xule, we’d like you to come along for the ride,” Bruce said to Xule with an almost hopeful look in his eyes. Rose had so many questions right now, but at the same time, the cameraman was recording everything. She thought it was better to observe for now and wait for her chance.
“It won’t work. This monster is too smart for that approach. We tried it, and I think it only worked for us because it wanted to be ca
ptured. This plan will fail,” Xule replied to him.
“Well, we need to try something, because we can’t lose this city without a fight,” Bruce replied and Xule turned around.
“Thank you all for showing me your kindness and restraint, but this is where we part ways. You all need to get out of this city as soon as you can. I have to stand and fight here; it may be the only chance your planet has,” Xule said to them all with a sad smile. He’d grown to like these people.
“No, wait, we can get out of here together. We can all live!” Heather pleaded with him, but she knew that he was right, at least this time. Xule smiled then.
“There isn’t anywhere to run,” he said to her, and Phil stepped up.
“I’m all for getting out of here, but you wouldn’t by any chance have any fuel for the chopper, would you?” he asked, and Bruce just motioned to a man behind them towards the helicopter.
“Don’t worry, friend, I’ve got you covered. You’ll be out of here in fifteen minutes or less if everything goes right,” Bruce said to them as in the distance another explosion lit up the sky after a green flash.
“The planes aren’t going to last much longer,” he added and narrowed his eyes. He wanted to recall them, but he also knew that this monster would be moving towards the Strip soon, and they needed more time.
“Thanks,” Phil said as he watched a pair of men drive up to the chopper in a fuel truck and begin the procedure.
“Where are we going to go?” Heather asked. If there was nowhere to run, what was the point of running at all?
“We should head north. It’s colder up there, and maybe the infection won’t make it that far,” Bob replied and sighed. He didn’t look forward to a life in the bitter cold. None of them did.
“It’s as good as plan as any. I don’t think the whole world will be consumed by whatever this is. Life is just going to change a little bit, that’s all,” Alex said, trying to make everyone feel better. He was sure the world wouldn’t end, just end as they knew it yesterday.
