by Jesse Wilson
“It’s here,” he whispered. Those words froze Madison’s blood in a hurry and she set the crate down. Janine moved to the window but hid behind the wall. She looked outside and there the van was. The headlights were on and it was still running, but no one was inside. Quinn took a deep breath and knew they could be anywhere. They could even be inside the building already.
The squad car’s front doors were still open, and there was no sign that it had even been touched.
“I say we try to make it to the car and get out of here, we can find food and water somewhere else,” Madison said quietly. Quinn glanced at the crate, then back at the two of them.
“Alright,” Quinn agreed with her, reaching into his pocket with his free hand and grabbing the keys. He tossed them to Janine.
“Okay, you two be as quiet as you can and get to the car. We can give up the food, but I don’t want to give up the weapons. Once you get there, open up the passenger side door and I’ll follow you out,” Quinn said under an increasing amount of pain coming from his torn shoulder. Janine swallowed, took a deep breath, and opened the door. Madison grabbed a couple of bottles of water just in case and got close to her. Quinn put his hand on his sidearm and was nervous about what was coming next. The cold night air rushed in, but that was it.
Wherever the invaders were, they weren’t here. They took a few careful steps outside and were expecting to be ambushed. Quinn immediately realized he was stupid not to give them weapons and cursed himself for the oversight in his panic. He started to walk towards the door when a scream broke the silence in the distance.
“It’s started,” Quinn said and decided the time for being careful was long over. He quickened his steps towards the squad car. Everything was going to plan, however. Madison opened the backseat door, and Janine got the car started. Quinn moved to the car and slid the duffle bag into the car pushing it as far as he could. He felt a cold pair of hands come over his shoulders, and in an instant, something threw him away from the car. Madison’s look on her face said it all. Quinn hit the brick wall and slid down it. “Go!” he screamed at them, and to his surprise, they did. Janine sped off into the dark after Madison closed both doors.
“Humans are so unreliable,” a man hissed through his sharp black teeth, a man wearing a uniform a paramedic might.
“What are you?” Quinn asked struggling to stand back up, confused why he didn’t just get infected immediately.
“We are better. There is no I or you; there is only us, we,” it said to him and started to walk towards Quinn.
“Well, thanks for clearing that up,” Quinn said as he stood back up, pulled out his gun, and shot the thing in the head. The sound of gunfire was sure to attract all the rest of them. The bullet slammed into the head of the monster and it fell to the ground.
“I know you can hear me, Janine; I’m fine for now, but you need to pick me up; swing back around and make it fast,” Quinn said into his radio as the thing on the ground began to twitch.
“That hurt,” it said to him as sprung straight up with more strength than a human could have possessed.
“It was supposed to kill you,” Quinn said and aimed again.
“We are immortal; we will give immortality to you. Don’t you want to live forever?” the thing asked and it smiled, its grin splitting the face far wider than was ever considered natural. It gave Quinn the chills to see it.
“Who wants to live forever anyway?” Quinn asked him and started shooting into the thing. The infected human was shredded by the bullets, and its black blood poured through the uniform, but its advance didn’t slow down.
Quinn backed up into the street as it chased him down. “We will consume your entire race. It’s only a matter of time,” it said to him.
“Yeah, but not today,” Quinn replied as Janine ran into the thing. The infected creature flew down the street and rolled to a stop some feet away. Quinn smiled for a second before looking down the road and seeing that there were more shambling forms coming in their direction. Quinn got into the car and Janine sped off again.
“Where do we go now?” Madison asked as she looked out the window at the one they hit; he was already getting up again.
“No idea, but we need to fill up at the next town over. It’s not safe here anymore,” Quinn said, finally relaxing a little bit. As he did, the pain was able to take hold as the adrenaline wore off.
“And all of our friends in town? What about them?” Janine asked him as she drove. Quinn couldn’t bear to think about it and had no answer for her. Madison answered for him,
“They’ll find a cure for this mess and everyone we care about will be fine, but it’s better to not need the cure in the first place. Escape is the best thing we can do right now,” she said. She hated that answer as much as the other two did, but it was the only option they had. The three of them drove into the night and into the uncertain future.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chopper Number Five was flying in the sky, when out of nowhere, two bright lights appeared in the distance.
“This is press aircraft, call sign WTNV News out of Las Vegas. We can see you directly ahead of us. Please identify yourself,” Phil said into the radio, but he could only guess on what channel the aircraft was on. After waiting a few seconds on each channel, he’d change it and try again.
“Is it just me, or should they have met us by now?” Heather said, and realized that they weren’t moving, or at least moving slowly.
“Yeah. Hey, what if they are aliens or something? Maybe Xule’s people are here to help us once they figured out that their dinosaur was on the loose?” Alex suggested and Rose smiled; maybe tonight wasn’t a total loss after all.
“Just what we need, more aliens,” Bob said and had more than his fill of aliens for one day.
“Maybe they are hostile aliens who think we are infected and are going to shoot us down once we get close enough,” the cameraman suggested but never took his lens off of the shining orbs in the distance. That was a thought none of them needed right now.
Suddenly, the speakers came to life. Something was replying, but instead of speech, it was a high-pitched whine.
“God damn,” Phil exclaimed and turned the volume down in a hurry. The whine slowly disappeared and it was replaced with a mechanical voice.
“This is Probe 616 M. Xeloid activity has been detected on this planet, please confirm,” the mechanical voice said to them. Phil was at a loss as to what to say, so Heather took over from here.
“Yes, the thing you call Narbosaurus is loose on our planet. Please advise us on what to do,” Heather replied, not knowing what else to say.
“Narbosaurus blood is highly infectious. Do not come in contact with it. Probe 611 will report to Garmonbozia. Journey estimated to take one month; help will arrive then,” the mechanical voice replied to them.
“One month. Damn it, we might not have a planet by then,” Alex said in frustration, partially scared out of his mind.
“Thank you for your report, and have a nice day,” the machine said, and the lights before them shot straight up into the sky in a flash, disappearing among the stars.
“So, what should we do now?” Alex asked them all.
“I say we find a place to disappear for a month. I’ve done stories on plenty of lunatics with doomsday bunkers. Nevada is filled with these people. I’m sure I can get one of them to let us in for a while,” Rose said to them. That idea didn’t set well with any of them because prepper-type people were often out there when it came to general sanity standards.
“I flew you on one of those stories. I can get us to Culver Ranch fifteen minutes from here; good call,” Phil said to Rose and moved the chopper, heading due north. “Gordon Marx wasn’t that insane, but he had a large complex that should be able to shelter us all at least for a month, but I’m not sure how well he does with uninvited guests who aren’t me,” Rose said to them.
“I hope that he’s generous,” Bob added with a smile. It was a hopeful on
e, but all the same, it was mostly to try and show the others he wasn’t scared. It didn’t fool anyone.
The next fifteen minutes in the cramped helicopter seemed to last forever. The dark outside had a warping effect on distance, and to anyone who looked, it appeared that they weren’t moving anywhere. Normally, the distant lights of Vegas could be seen for miles, but without them, it was as if the whole world had come to an end.
“Anything about this Gordon we should know before we show up and get shot?” Heather asked then breaking the silence.
“He’s a real hippy-type. During the interview, he told me that if the world ever came to an end, I could stop over, so I am hoping that still stands. All I can say is that don’t be stupid and we should be fine,” Rose replied to her and kept scanning the black ground, looking for any sign of life.
“Don’t be stupid. Glad that clears it all up for us instead of actual advice,” Heather said as she grumbled about it.
“Oh, don’t worry about it too much; at least we have somewhere to go instead of no idea what to do next,” Bob said to her and tried to make the situation a little better.
Alex didn’t bother listening to anyone; instead, his thoughts were stuck on the strange probe they talked to earlier. He wondered if anyone else was thinking about it. He almost missed it, but in the distance out of the window, he saw a glimmer of light on the ground.
“Hey, I see something down there, is that it?” Bob asked and pointed it out to the others.
“Uh, yeah, sorry about that. It’s been awhile since I’ve been out here and it’s hard flying at night when you can’t see anything,” Phil said and turned the chopper towards the light. Suddenly, forever melted into nothing, and before they knew it, their unlikely group was landing, uninvited, on the ranch.
Rose pulled the door open and stepped out as Phil shut the machine off. One by one, they climbed out of the machine and saw the farmhouse, and the man standing in front of it who was just as surprised to see them as they were to be here.
“You have about ten seconds to get back in that machine of yours and fly on out of here,” Gordon yelled at them. He was a short man with long brown hair, glasses, and skinny as a rail.
“Gordo, it’s me, Rose, from last year’s interview? You said I could show up if the world ever ended, so I took you up on your offer,” she yelled back.
“Rosie, is that you? I heard about the giant critter attack in Vegas just before martial law was declared. I was just locking up before I went down into the shelter,” he replied and squinted into the dark.
“Who’re all your friends there?” Gordon had softened considerably.
“People we met, and if you let us stay here until the disaster passes, we’ll tell you a story you’ll never forget,” Rose replied to him. Gordon was quiet for a few seconds. “Okay, wait by the house, and I’ll lead you to my shelter in just a few minutes.”
The six of them walked carefully towards the light as Gordon walked to the house to finish whatever he was doing.
“Thanks for talking him into it,” Bob said to Rose as they moved.
“Yeah, talking is my job, but you’re welcome,” she replied to him, trying to play it off like it wasn’t a really big deal, but honestly, she had no idea how this was going to go.
Gordon came out of the house carrying a box under his left arm. He locked the door, and as he did, all of the lights in the farmhouse went out, leaving them all in darkness.
“Don’t panic, let your eyes adjust to the ground path,” Gordon said as he walked past them all. Soon, a dull-green phosphorus glow began to appear to them on each side of the path.
“Let’s go, people; the light won’t last long, and you don’t want to get lost out here,” Gordon cried out in the dark. Obviously, he had walked this path a million times and didn’t need the assistance, so it just begged the question: who was it for anyway?
Rose wondered but decided it could wait. Heather took the lead and walked in front of the others to follow the path illuminated by the lights. The path twisted and turned in strange directions in the dark and those lights were fading. Heather was wondering if this Gordon wasn’t just leading them off a cliff of some sort, but it was then that she saw the shaft of light coming from a bunker door in the distance.
“Stay on the path, it’s dangerous off of it,” Gordon cried out, warning them.
“Dangerous? I wonder why,” Alex asked himself.
“Knowing this guy, he’s got landmines and bear traps out there just to deal with unwanted visitors,” Phil replied, remembering the assignment from last year. Alex couldn’t help but imagine taking a wrong step and being blown up with every step he took now. Bob froze in his tracks. Alex was right behind and ran into him.
“Dude, I just stepped on something and it clicked,” Bob said and stopped moving. Alex froze in place.
“What? We need to tell someone,” he said as he came to a stop.
“No, all you need to do is pull me off and to the ground and we’ll be fine,” Bob replied. Alex grabbed his shirt and pulled him back without even thinking about it, much to Bob’s surprise. Alex didn’t even worry about himself or what might happen, but nothing happened. Bob took a deep breath of relief. Due to Alex’s willingness to save him and do it quickly, he thought of a better reason than it just being a prank on his part.
“It was just a branch. Thanks, man, I owe you,” Bob said to him and Alex just smiled, but he was still scared out of his mind.
“It’s what friends do. Let’s get to the shelter before something else happens and the path fades,” Alex replied to him, and Bob decided not to try and play any more tricks like that. The two of them caught up to the rest of the group in a hurry.
The iron door looked like it belonged on a ship or submarine due to the wheel lock it had on the center of it. There was a metal stairway leading down into the ground, and it was all well-lit up from there.
“Everyone in; I’ll lock the door behind us,” Gordon said and continued. “Be careful, those stairs can be a little tricky sometimes,” he finished as one by one they navigated the way down.
Everyone made sure to hold on to the railing as they went down the stairs. The cameraman was the last to make his way down, and Gordon closed the massive doors, spinning the metal wheel to lock it up. Once he was happy with how it went, he walked down the stairs and met the others.
“I didn’t really plan for anyone else to be down here, so spaces are cramped. We’ll be safe enough from whatever is going on out there. I’ve got television and my PR connections, so information won’t be a problem. Make yourself at home; we could be here for a while,” Gordon said to them. The shelter, besides having no windows, appeared to be no different than a very large apartment. They were impressed with how big it actually was and that there was even carpet on the floor.
“So, what is PR?” Bob finally asked him.
“Prepper Radio. It’s a well-kept secret from the general public, but any Prepper who’s worth anything has a connection to it. Well, we created our own radio network so we can keep one another informed about what’s going on in our part of the world. My call sign is Mobstar. Get it? Because I’m so close to Vegas,” Gordon said. Bob laughed, but no one else did.
“Right. Anyway, let’s settle in and see what’s going on in the world,” Gordon said, walking to the couch and plopping down in the middle of it. “There are folding chairs over there; floor is open, too, if you want it.” Gordon appeared overly comfortable with his uninvited guests. Alex took the couch. Heather acted fast and got the other side of it. The others got the folding chairs and set them up as Gordon turned on the big screen television to CNN. All of them were eager to know what was going on.
Rose and Jeff wished they were out there in the action, reporting the news instead of just watching it. She couldn’t help but feel weird being in a bunker underground in the middle of nowhere.
“Moments ago, a strange lizard man in a jet pack attacked the monster just after it demolished t
he stratosphere tower,” the voice said as it footage was coming live from the scene. “The lizard man fired some kind of beam of ice at the monster and it disappeared,” the woman’s voice finished.
Gordon couldn’t believe it. “It’s the end of the world,” he said but didn’t feel too upset about it. To him, this is just what he prepared for. Not for a giant alien disaster, but it would do. He was the only one with a smile on his face out of all of them.
“Just out of curiosity, what did you build this place for?” Heather asked him. “Well, I built it for a nuclear war, but this will have to do,” Gordon responded as they watched the giant thing knock the Stratosphere Tower down on the television again.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Bruce and Xule stood in a ring of fire. Their only companion was an alien beast frozen in a jagged piece of ice between them.
“Let me out, and I’ll make your death quick, I promise,” an infected woman screamed at them as she jumped through the flames. Xule used the human’s freeze ray to shut her up in a hurry but realized that the entire nearby infected horde was beginning to surround them.
“Take them all out,” Bruce said to his new alien partner.
“No, I thought we’d have a nice chat for a while. What did you think I was going to do?” Xule responded to him and fired again at someone else. He hit this one in the head and winced as the person fell, his skull shattering on impact.
Finally, from the rooftops, short blue rays began to fire down on the horde for support. The sound of a military chopper could be heard in the distance.
“Xule, my systems have just detected the signal of a probe. It’s Nuridian in nature, and it’s old,” Sippy said to him as he scanned the dark, looking for another threat. “Probe? What designation sign? Series?” Xule asked her and fired again, causing another person he didn’t know to turn into ice and watching them break under their own weight.
