The remaining five continued walking, just as silent as before, but much less enthusiastic about their mission.
Chapter Thirteen
“Okay, so now what?” Frank asked.
He, Chrissy, and Daniels stood just inside the exit from the Lexington Plaza station, two flights of stairs below the street above. The fancy wrought iron gate was padlocked shut with a heavy-duty chain.
Daniels chewed his lip for a second before answering. “I’d say this is good news.”
“Really? How so?”
“Well, for one thing, it was obviously chained up when the Zompocalypse was going on. It isn’t sealed with some impenetrable alien force field or super-strong barrier to keep the Zoms out. Most likely they have a million other places they need to secure and decided that this was secure enough for now. We just need to figure out how to get it open, quietly.”
“That’s a big ‘if’, unless someone brought a hacksaw.”
“Wouldn’t help, anyway. It would take hours to saw through this chain. We can’t afford to take that long. The aliens or the Zoms might come by here at any time and find us.”
Chrissy squeezed between the two men. “Let me see that lock.” She studied it for a minute. “Yeah, I think I can do it.”
Frank and Daniels looked at one another, confused, as she rummaged through her backpack. Eventually she dumped everything out and pushed things around until she found what she was looking for.
“Here we go.” She held up an icepick that she’d flattened months earlier, with the tip bent slightly, and another very thin, very narrow sliver of metal. “One of you hold the lock up and the other shine a flashlight on it, okay?”
Daniels held the lock and Frank held the light.
“Let’s see…” Chrissy inserted the two pieces and twisted and wiggled them. The tip of her tongue stuck out of the side of her mouth as she concentrated.
After a couple of minutes, Daniels opened his mouth to ask if it was going to be much longer. The hasp popped out.
Chrissy grinned up at Daniels as he sputtered, “How…? Where did you learn to do that?”
“Back when I was still usi— Um, let’s just say I fell in with a bad crowd.”
“Glad to hear it. Okay, let’s get this gate open, slowly. No telling the last time it was oiled and we don’t want to alert the media.”
She snickered.
Unwinding the chain from around the iron bars took only a few seconds. Then Daniels gripped the gate and pushed slowly. It opened a few inches without a sound. Then it creaked. Daniels stopped, then started again. The gate creaked again, and the farther he pushed the more it creaked. He stopped again.
“Anyone have any kind of lubricant with them? A can of tuna packed in oil, maybe?”
“No lube since my last boyfriend,” Chrissy joked. That got a sideways look from Daniels.
“Okay, then, we’ll just have to go slow.” He had the gate opened about a foot and the creaking wasn’t too bad as long as he didn’t rush it.
There was still the chance a passing alien patrol would hear it. They had to take that chance.
Another foot and the gate was open just wide enough for Daniels to slip through.
“Okay, I’ll go poke my head up to see if there is anyone in the area. I’ll come straight back if there is. If not, I’ll signal the rest of you to come up.”
He crawled up the steps and raised his head slowly, just enough to peer over the sidewalk at the entrance. He saw a street with buildings down both sides, and some abandoned cars and trucks blocking the road to the right.
That was good news. It was less likely the aliens would be using this street if it wasn’t clear. Eventually they’d have to move the obstacles, but they hadn’t so far.
Daniels waved the others up. Once they were all behind him, he stood and ran to the nearest car and ducked behind it. Again, he waved to the others. They spread out and hid behind different vehicles.
Which way to go, left or right? He chose right. That allowed them to hide behind the blockage before proceeding. He signaled to the others and then took off at a sprint toward the pileup. When they’d all arrived, he peered over the top of the SUV he was behind. It all looked clear ahead.
Ducking from doorway to minivan to doorway, they proceeded down the street to the corner. Nothing moved on the road ahead or to either side.
They darted across the street and continued in the same fashion to the next corner. This time, when Daniels looked left, he saw a park two blocks down, and there was movement.
They didn’t move like Zoms.
He returned to the storefront behind him where the others waited.
“I think I see some aliens a couple blocks down. Let’s head that way and see what they’re up to. Be very careful. If we’re spotted, it’s a long run back to the train station, and they’ll be shooting at us the whole way.”
That was a sobering thought. Everyone stayed on high alert as they traversed the two blocks to the T-intersection that ended at the park. A bistro on the corner offered outside seating. Several tables had been overturned, providing the quintet with some cover.
Daniels studied the scene in the park. It was a rectangle, three blocks in length and two blocks wide, running from left to right, parallel to the road the subway station opened onto, but farther to the right. Trees bordered the street. The middle was wide open, with two baseball fields, a couple of basketball courts, a pond, and some volleyball pits. Just beyond the pond was an open green area. Daniels assumed couples used to stroll there, hand in hand, and kids flew kites or tossed frisbees when the weather was nice. A jogging trail meandered through the park.
Today, however, the green area contained not happy families, but a large wingless ship of some sort. Clearly it wasn’t an airplane; it had to be a spaceship. It was jet black and from Daniels’ angle appeared to be vaguely ovoid in shape. A ramp in the rear was disgorging large containers. Supplies? Munitions? It was impossible to tell. Nearby stood an open structure with dozens of aliens milling about within. Vehicles came and went farther down the street, away from Daniels and the others.
He turned to Chrissy, who was kneeling beside him behind the same table. “We’re going to have to get a closer look to see where they’re going and what’s so important down that way. Pass it on.”
Chrissy told Jesse to her right, and so on down the line. Daniels signaled and they went back around the corner the way they had come.
They turned right at the corner and headed back toward the subway station, except one street over. Running parallel to the street that bordered the park, they had to be careful that they weren’t spotted by anyone in the park or in the vehicles driving back and forth on the street in between.
After trotting for two blocks, they reached an intersection where they watched alien vehicles turn right. It was too dangerous for the group to try to get any closer up that street. Daniels decided to go one block farther, turn right, and again run parallel to the street the aliens were on.
They did so, and after another block they knew they were close. Several alien vehicles emitted the usual humming. Scraping noises came from the cargo containers being moved around. Aliens stood around conversing.
Creeping up to the intersection, Daniels finally saw what the aliens were doing here: moving people into three adjacent apartment buildings.
It wasn’t as exciting, or perhaps terrifying, as Daniels had expected. There was no giant death ray being built on the roof, or mysterious communications tower going up in the street. Just alien vehicles unloading supplies and people and then all of that going into the buildings.
Just as Daniels turned to tell the others it was time to head back to The Castle, there was a shout ahead, and two aliens took off on foot after a Zom. Moments later, someone screamed and the aliens returned.
At least that meant the invaders hadn’t yet eliminated all Zoms in the area.
Daniels gave the order to return and they began the long trip back.
&nb
sp; * * * *
“A, bee, see, deee, eeee, efff, geee, a jigh jay kay, elemeno peee. Koo are ess, tee ooo vee, dub yoo eks, wye an zee. Now I no my A bee sees, nex ti won yoo sing wi meee.”
“Wow, Uncle Jay, that was the best yet! You’re getting really good at it.”
Jay grinned at Amanda and the four Zoms who watched and listened. Two of them tried to sing along, without much success. But they were trying. Two weeks earlier they hadn’t even paid attention.
“I wish I had some flash cards, like we had in preschool. Oh well. Okay, Uncle Jay, now I’m gonna teach you to spell.” She pointed at her foot. “This is a shoe. Can you say shoe?”
“Sh-sh-sh-oooo.”
“That’s right! Okay, shoe is spelled s-h-o-e. Can you spell that? S-h-o-e.”
“Ess. Ess-A-cho-eee.”
“That’s real close. Try again. S-h-o-e.”
“Ess-aich-ohh-eeee.”
“You did it! Oh, you’re so smart, Uncle Jay!”
Jay beamed.
“Okay, now let’s try another word.” She took off her scuffed shoe and ragged sock. She wiggled her big toe. “Okay, this is a toe. Can you say toe?”
The lessons continued until Jay could spell five words.
“I’m so proud of you, Uncle Jay!”
Amanda was determined to teach him every word she knew. And that was a whole bunch.
* * * *
Daniels, Chrissy, and two others were out scouting a new neighborhood, looking for other humans.
Daniels, taking point, started to step out into the street from the office building they had just investigated. He stopped and jumped back.
“Down!” he hissed. “Zoms across the street!” Then he looked left at something seen out of the corner of his eyes.
“Shit! Aliens, too. This area is too hot for us. As soon as they pass, we’re out of here.”
Chrissy, looking out the window to his right, grabbed his arm. “Holy, crap! Did you see that?”
“See what, aliens?”
“No, no. The Zoms.”
“What about them?”
“They had a little girl with them.”
“What are you talking about?”
“One of them was carrying a little girl.”
“Where?”
Chrissy shook her head. “They’re gone now. They went behind that house over there.” She pointed. “We have to help her.”
“Are you sure? If they had a kid with them, she had to be dead. They’re taking her back to their lair to eat her later.”
Chrissy shook her head again, harder this time. “No way, she was alive and moving around. She didn’t seem to be fighting at all.”
“That’s weird. I haven’t heard of any Zom children around here, but that must have been what it was.”
“Maybe, but she didn’t act like a Zom. She seemed normal, like any little kid out with her family.”
“That would be bizarre. But it’s impossible. The Zoms would eat her alive. There’s no way a little girl could survive against a pack of Zoms.”
“I know you’re right, but that’s what it looked like.”
Daniels laughed. “Right, a Zom family. Ha!”
Chrissy returned his laugh with a crooked grin. “Yeah, I know. Silly, huh?”
“Extremely.”
* * * *
Three days later, a quarter mile from The Castle, Johnny and three other members of Meisner’s original team were crossing the street when an alien vehicle turned the corner. One of the aliens pointed at them. They’d been spotted.
They split into pairs and ran inside adjacent stores. Four of the aliens leapt from the back of the vehicle and chased Johnny and Terry. Four more aliens chased Fred and Mandy into the other building. The ninth alien, the driver, stayed in the vehicle.
Johnny ran for the back door, hoping to slip out and disappear into another building across the alley. The door was keylocked shut. They’d all been given orders not to attack the aliens, to hide or escape if at all possible. The last thing they wanted to do was draw attention to themselves or The Castle. Let the aliens worry about the Zoms instead.
Unfortunately, there was no escape out the back, nowhere to hide, and the aliens were hot on their trail.
Johnny and Terry hunkered down behind the desk in the back office and waited. The wait was short. The first two aliens ran through the door and stopped at the sight of two rifles pointed at them.
They raised their own weapons and aimed. Johnny shot first, and Terry a moment later. Johnny hit his target right above the left eye. Terry hit the other in the chest. Both fell. Then the other two came through the door. Johnny fired at the same instant as one of the aliens. His shot dropped the alien. Terry wasn’t so lucky. Both aliens had aimed their weapons at him. One or both of the energy blasts took off the side of Terry’s head.
Before the shock of his friend’s death had time to hit him, Johnny turned his gun on the second alien and hit him in the throat. Yellow-orange blood sprayed the wall above the doorway. He dropped like a sack of potatoes.
Johnny ran to the front of the shop. Through the window, he saw the driver of the alien vehicle open his door, probably to help those in one or the other store. Johnny fired at him, once to shatter the plate glass window, and then again, hitting the alien in the center of the chest. He, too, fell.
Damn! I took on five aliens with ray guns, and came out on top!
The big question was, what happened in the other store? Who fired first? Who lived and who died?
In the heat of the moment, Johnny thought he remembered hearing both gunfire and the buzz of energy weapons, but he was too busy to keep track of the number of shots or who fired last.
All he could do was wait to see who walked out of the other shop. He sidled to the far right of the storefront and aimed out the shattered window, just in front of the other entryway. Then he waited.
One minute passed, and then another. A bead of sweat trickled down Johnny’s forehead, and along his nose. He wanted to scratch, but he couldn’t afford to take his attention off the front door ahead of him. After another minute, he had just about convinced himself that they had all killed one another. Then, a glass bottle clattered across the floor.
He got ready to fire, tightening his finger ever so slightly on the trigger.
Come on, come on! Be Mandy or Fred. Come on!
And then a head emerged. It had golden skin and the alien was staggering, holding his side.
Damn it!
Johnny was an instant from firing when pain seared the side of his face. He never saw the driver he had shot fire at him from on the sidewalk.
* * * *
“Say that again, doctor?” FronCar listened to the voice on his communicator for a moment longer, and then hurried down to the Medical Hub.
Dr. ZemBleth had a patient lying on a treatment table. He supervised as several robotic arms performed precision surgery on the patient. Within minutes, the soldier was patched up and on his way to a recovery pod.
“How long until he’s ready for me to debrief him?”
“Give it a couple of hours until the pod is done administering the post-op treatment, then he should be well enough to talk.”
“Very well. Tell me everything he said.”
“He was babbling about indigenes attacking and killing his entire squad.”
“What’s so unusual that you felt the need to call me down here?”
“He said they spotted four indigenes carrying what, from a distance, looked like big sticks. The squad pursued them into two adjacent buildings. That’s where things got strange. They cornered two of the indigenes in one building and entered the back room, expecting to face savages with sticks. Instead, both indigenes pointed weapons at them and fired. TomJik was injured and the other three soldiers were killed before TomJik finished off the second indigene. When he exited the building, he found the driver shooting at another indigene before he died himself.
“TomJik checked the other building
and found much the same story. Four soldiers dead, along with both indigenes. Four indigenes shot and killed eight soldiers.”
“Are you sure TomJik isn’t delirious, or inventing an outlandish story to cover gross negligence on the part of his squad?”
“Quite sure. The medbots extracted this from his abdomen.” He held up a flattened lead slug.
FronCar took it from him and examined it under a magnifier.
“Very crude, and certainly nothing that our soldiers carry.”
“TomJik also brought this back with him in the vehicle before he passed out and crashed near the landing area.”
He held a hunting rifle in both hands.
“Interesting,” FronCar said.
He took the weapon from the doctor and turned it over to look at it from all directions. It seemed obvious that the trigger was the firing mechanism. He kept his fingers clear of that part, but looked for other mechanisms that might give some clue to how it worked.
“Obviously it isn’t an energy weapon, so what powers it?” he muttered to himself.
After another minute of examination he came to a decision. “Best to have the Chief Armorer look it over and see how it works. And I’d better let the surface contingent know to be on the lookout for indigenes with dangerous weapons more advanced than sticks and knives.”
He shook his head. “Nothing’s ever simple during an invasion, is it?”
Chapter Fourteen
“We found Johnny and the others, Geoff.”
Daniels dropped down into a chair in the large meeting room the group had begun using as their command center. It sported a large whiteboard, several flat-screen monitors positioned around the room, digital projectors, and the various wireless networking components needed to tie everything together. Of course, without power it was all pretty much useless—except for the low-tech whiteboard and a few dry-erase markers.
“Zoms got ‘em?” Geoff replied with a knowing nod.
Aliens Versus Zombies Page 12
