by Jesse Wilson
“Is it raining?” she said in a half-muffled voice. Then James felt the same thing too.
“Is it starting to rain?” James asked and looked up as more water droplets began to fall down over them.
“Not rain, look,” Logan said and pointed through the smoke. He could see big trucks down the street and all kinds of people spraying water on blazes. The water was just beginning to mist around them.
“Come on, let’s keep going,” James said, and the three of them slowly made their way to the convoy of trucks.
“Halt,” a voice echoed out from behind a spotlight. “Switch to UV filter and check them,” another voice said, and there was silence for a second as the spotlight washed over them.
“They are clean, sir,” the same voice said back and a man walked through the smoke.
“Hello. My name is General Lars Benton. I’ll be your rescuer today,” he said other people with stretchers rushed in their direction. James smiled; the other two couldn’t. “Did you see anyone else coming this direction?” the general asked them.
“No. We moved in one direction, but we didn’t see or hear anyone or anything else coming this way. I don’t know how many people were left in this side of town, but those things might be coming,” Logan said as a medic got Tina to lay on a stretcher and take her away.
For the first time, Logan could see the black flesh on her legs through the weak protection and had no idea how badly she was burned or even how she made it this far.
“Don’t worry, son, we’ll take care of you too, but you don’t seem to be in near as bad shape as her. Follow the medics to the tent and we’ll give you a once over,” Benton said, and they followed the medics towards the refugee camp that was set up in the distance.
The general looked into the massive field of charred buildings and fire before him and didn’t feel anything but sick this even happened at all. He tore his eyes off of the destruction before him and walked back to the battalion.
“Men, get these damned fires out so we can move in,” the general barked the orders out. They both knew that there wasn’t much they would be able to do against a disaster of this magnitude. Right now, there was little else to do but try their best to fight back against the fire their own country made in an attempt to save itself.
Chapter Forty
Bruce woke up in a hurry from a wicked nightmare. He didn’t know how long he was sleeping, but it didn’t seem like it was that long. But he immediately realized that he was alone. “Crap,” he said to himself and drew his gun, even if he knew it wouldn’t do him any good.
He looked out the window and saw that the streets were still empty but knew that couldn’t last much longer. Then the back door opened and he tensed. He waited and listened for any kind of human voice, but all he got instead was footsteps. It could have been anyone or anything, but he decided to take a chance anyway.
“Xule, is that you?” he asked in the calmest voice he could summon.
“Yeah, it’s us. Good news, we have got a place to go. All we need is a car and we’re out of here,” Xule said and smiled as he turned the corner. Bruce put his weapon away before he could see it.
“Well, then what are we waiting for? Let’s get out of here,” Bruce said, and despite his short nap, he was feeling refreshed; at least for now.
“We are going to the Culver Ranch. It’s a couple of hours away from here, but we should make it alright if we leave now. Sippy can lead us,” Xule said as Bruce stood up.
“Alright. If you need to hit the head or do anything, do it now, because we are out of here in five minutes,” Bruce said and walked passed them.
“I don’t need to hit anyone in the head; what does that even mean?” Xule said and Cory burst out laughing.
“We’re going to get along just fine,” Cory replied to him. Xule was still confused as to what Bruce meant.
“We can use my van, but it needs some gas; we won’t get very far on what it has right now,” Cory said to him and looked out the window. He didn’t see anyone out there yet and this was the way he liked it.
“Then it’s settled. We use your car. We get this gas stuff and we get out of here,” Xule said, like it was going to be easy.
“Yeah, you get it, spaceman,” Cory replied, but still couldn’t bring himself to feel hopeful about anything. Bruce came back to where they were.
“I guess I’ll drive because neither of you two knows where we’re going,” he said and seemed frustrated and tired still.
“Sounds good to me. The human here says we need something called gas for the van, but we can use his,” Xule said and felt accomplished. Bruce looked out the window and shook his head.
“It’s a van that was stuck in a time warp from ‘75. Great,” Bruce said and rolled his eyes.
“What? It was cheap,” Cory replied as he grabbed the keys off the hook on the wall by the door, turned, and tossed them to Bruce. He caught them with one hand and sighed.
“Alright, let’s get out of here,” Bruce said to them and rubbed his eyes.
“The human seems tired. I know the way to the Culver Ranch. If you tell Xule how to operate the machine, he can get us to where we need to go,” Sippy said to them, and neither Cory nor Bruce seemed too confident about that choice.
“Wrist bot has a point. I’m beat and I don’t think I can drive that far. Let the kid do it. You two can have plenty to talk about on the way. I’m going to get some shut eye,” Bruce said and tossed the keys back to him. Cory didn’t feel so confident all of the sudden.
“Alright let’s get out of here and to the gas station. Don’t sleep until we’ve left town because we still need to get this done,” Cory said and started to walk out the backdoor to his car as if it were any normal day.
“Hold up, kid, it’s dangerous out there and you don’t have a gun. Alien zombie invasion, remember?” Bruce said, and at once, Cory backed away from the door, somehow forgetting the situation they were in. Xule walked around him to the door and looked out.
“Alright, it looks clear enough. Let’s move,” he said and exited the house. Cory followed him close behind and climbed into the van. Xule opened the door; it wasn’t locked.
“You must believe in your kind. On my planet, someone might have stolen it by now,” he said and closed the door. Bruce climbed in the back and shut the door.
“No one wants this rust bucket,” Cory replied, but even while saying that, the van didn’t look in that bad of shape. The radio was on, but the only thing that was coming through was static.
“That’s not a good sign,” Bruce said as Cory backed out of the driveway but didn’t shut the radio off.
“Alright, be on the lookout for any Alibies,” Cory said and started driving. “I invented a new word. I combined aliens and zombies into one; shut up, it works.” Cody, now having two important lives in his hands quite literally, was doing his best not to break down, despite having many acceptable reasons to do so.
“No one was going to question it, just get us out of here,” Bruce said and yawned.
“You got it, Captain,” Cory replied and Bruce just rolled his eyes. The three of them rolled down an empty street. This was pretty normal to Cory. Many times, the streets of Ashwind were usually pretty empty, but this time, it was for a whole different reason.
He wondered if everyone in town was infected already or if there was some great battle going on somewhere else just out of sight. It was impossible to know, and all he wanted to do was get to the gas station. It only took about five minutes of driving before they pulled up to the station, and there wasn’t any sign of any infected people nearby.
“Great. Luck is on our side for once,” Xule said and smiled. Cory looked inside the station and saw someone standing there; the same someone who’d always been there. The attendant always was a bit off center.
“Weird, I wonder what he’s doing here?” Cory said and opened the door.
“No, you’re staying inside. We’ll get the gas. We will make it as quick
as possible. Xule, cover me and don’t shoot unless you have to. Gas fumes like to explode, and your blaster won’t do us any favors,” Bruce said as the two of them got out.
“I understand,” Xule said and Cory looked out the window. The attendant waved at him as everything was normal, but from here, all he could see was the shadow of the man. It was the only gas station in town, but this guy had always creeped him out and didn’t know why.
Bruce opened the gas lid, unscrewed the cover, and put the nozzle inside. He flipped the handle to get the gas and was thrown back in time in his mind. He could barely remember the last time he had to do this; most of them were automatic these days.
The gas pump came to life and Bruce pressed the handle down. Xule didn’t like it here.
“Sippy, scan this place. Something is wrong with it,” he whispered.
“Besides the approaching horde of infected humans down the road? Alright,” Sippy replied and Xule looked behind them, his eyes going wide.
“Uh, mister man guy, we need to move this along a little quicker,” Xule said and Bruce looked in the same direction.
“Oh,” he said as they both saw the deceptively slow-moving horde of people coming in their direction, shambling along like you’d expect from an old movie.
“Well, it only pumps so fast,” Bruce said and stared at the gallon counter that now felt as if it were moving at a snail’s pace.
Cory was singing along to one of his favorite songs in his head when he glanced in the mirror and saw the wall of the infected coming their direction.
“Oh, hell no, we got to save the guy,” Cory said and got out to run as fast as he could to the station.
“Kid, we need you to drive, why are you screwing with the plan?” Bruce screamed, but Cory didn’t hear him as he flung the door open.
The man was standing at the counter, bright blue eyes and frail-looking but also seeming at complete peace.
“Dude, hi, we have a wall of something coming this way, you need to come with us right now,” Cory said in a panic.
“I’ll be fine. You’d better get back to the van though because you won’t be,” the man said and brushed his black hair out of his eyes. Something about the way he moved was wrong and it always was.
Cory didn’t feel right nor had he ever at this place. He was sure he wasn’t alone, but it was something people didn’t talk about. The gas station attendant smiled as Cory visibly shivered.
“Whatever, man, good luck,” Cory said and bolted back out as fast as he could just as Bruce threw the nozzle to the ground.
“He doesn’t want to come with us. We are leaving,” Cory said and got into the van with the others.
“Step on it, kid,” Bruce said and Cory did just that. The tires spun in the dirt, but he regained control of the thing and they were heading down the road.
A few minutes later, Xule looked behind him and saw a massive explosion take place where they just were at. The flames seemed alive to him for a brief second.
“Strange. I scanned the station, but all I got were readings that didn’t make any sense, similar to where the Loramian Gates are located,” Sippy said to him, and Xule didn’t even begin to understand what that meant. All he knew was that anything that went through the Loramian Gates never came back. It was one of the great mysteries of the universe, and he had no idea why it would be here.
“What’s a Loramian Gate?” Cody asked as he drove.
“Just a space mystery. I’m sure Sippy is just running low on batteries,” Xule replied, but knew she didn’t run on batteries, and it didn’t make him feel any better.
“Anyway, we need to know where to go. Bring the map up and we’re good to go. I’m getting some sleep, so try not to kill us,” Bruce said and stretched out on the surprisingly large back seat, closing his eyes.
A blue line appeared while they were driving.
“All you have to do is follow the blue line. Do this and we will get to where we need to go,” Sippy replied to him. Cory smiled.
“I wish I had you around a few weeks back. I got so lost it wasn’t even funny; you make it too easy,” Cory said and finally allowed himself to breathe and relax a little bit, doing his best to ignore the weird explosion that took place behind him, and pushing the thoughts of the strange man out of his head the best he could.
Chapter Forty-One
“Get those plasma canisters loaded up. If you drop even one, we’re all dead,” Ulrix screamed at a couple of workers, doing his best to increase morale the only way he knew how: aggressively. The Nuridian battle fleet was preparing for war. Two battle cruisers were being loaded up by hundreds of battle-eager Nuridian fleet cadets. Ulrix shared none of their enthusiasm.
“These lightscales have never tasted their own blood; to them, war is an adventure,” a female voice said to him. Ulrix never took his eyes off of what was going on around him, but knew it was the Prime Scale.
“Yeah, I’d like to think all of this was going to turn out fine, but I don’t have a good feeling about this,” he replied to her and turned around.
“Do you remember when we launched the weapons and how great we all felt when we did it?” she said.
“Everyone knows where they were on that day if they were old enough to witness it,” Ulrix said and shook his head.
“I just never thought we’d have to fight it,” he finished, still not used being this formal with royalty, but he wasn’t going to question it.
“I wish this was just a casual visit, but I decided to tell you myself that the timetable has been moved up. The probe you detected isn’t moving as slow as we first thought. A Yolomite station tracked it moving at sublight speeds towards the weapon. They tried to shoot it down, but no one could hit it,” she said to him, and Ulrix squinted in disappointment.
“You have less than a week of time stasis duration before the weapon is activated and it makes it way to Earth. Once the weapon is activated, you know it will teleport to where the probe was activated so we need to meet it there,” she said to him. Ulrix held back his choice language, but the look in his eyes told her everything she needed to know.
“Not to worry, Prime, we’ll take care of it; it’ll just mean triple shifts for everyone until we are ready. How are the other fleets doing?” Ulrix asked her, still trying to feel confident about all of this.
“Right now, their leaders are relaying the same message. We’re all at the same level of readiness. You need to leave in two days if you have any chance of setting up a good defense against it,” she said to him and he nodded.
“I understand; we’ll be out of here in a day and a half, ready or not,” he said.
“Excellent. Good luck on your journey,” she said, turning and walking away from him.
“Snoz,” he said to himself then turned to the command console and walked to it, picking up the transmitter.
“Attention, the timetable has been moved up. We leave in thirty-six hours, and we will be operating by Earth time from now on, so get used to the language. You’ll all be briefed on everything you need to know on the journey there. Now get to work. We leave if we are ready or not, triple shifts for everyone. You can sleep on the way there. Now get to work, lightscales,” Ultrix’s voice echoed over the shipyard, and he could practically feel the collective groan from the soldiers.
It almost made him smile, but he had his own work to do so he walked off to make sure he didn’t lag behind either. Before he knew it, it would be time to go and settle some old scores he thought he would never have the chance to again.
Chapter Forty-Two
Tina was lying on a makeshift medical bed, passed out with a morphine drip going into her arm with other antibiotics. James sat in a chair beside her and Phoenix was on the other side. Neither one of them were in good shape, but compared to her, the burns were mild, and walking that long didn’t do her any favors. Even though it was day now, the smoke from the Vegas fire blocked the sun out and everything had a gray haze to it.
The air was h
ard to breathe being this close. James coughed and struggled to control it.
“You alright?” Logan asked him and James waved him off. He was fine, but talking right now was difficult. James looked out the plastic window and saw that others like them had escaped the inferno too; no one was unburned.
Some people made James sick to look at, as it appeared their flesh had melted off; he couldn’t look outside for very long. Seconds after looking away, the plastic flaps were pushed in, and someone was carried in and put on another bed, It was a man he’d never seen before with his face covered with white gauze; arms and hands too.
He was thankful for cotton all of a sudden, but it did nothing to cover up the smell of burnt flesh that was filling the tent.
“More people are coming in than we expected. It’s going to be cramped quarters. Sorry about that,” the nurse said to him and quickly walked out. James wasn’t about to complain about it, but that smell was making him feel like he was going to throw up any second.
“I need to get out of here,” James said and stood up, staggering to the door and pushing through it. Logan followed him out. James took a deep breath of smoke-filled air; his mistake was immediate as his lungs started to burn and the coughing kicked in again.
“Stop being an idiot, James. Shallow breathing will keep us alive longer,” Logan said to him and James controlled his breathing in a few seconds after that. All of the screaming in the distance was sending chills down James’ spine, and he could only imagine the situation that was going on just a short distance away.
All around them people were wandering around in shock, aimlessly. The way they would move and look through the haze was almost inhuman, as if they were infected. The two of them couldn’t help but think the same thing at the same time.
“You don’t think some of them are here, do you?” James said, and that chill was replaced by something worse than all the screaming in the distance.
“I wouldn’t think it, I’d be sure of it. We’ve seen those things up close and personal, and they don’t die easy. If the host could live, I suspect that whatever it is could live too. We shouldn’t get too comfortable here,” Phoenix replied to him. All of a sudden, everyone standing around them felt like they could be a threat.
