Critical Dawn

by Darren Wearmouth

  He tensed. Didn’t want to turn. Didn’t want to give Jackson a moment’s satisfaction before the bastard pulled the trigger.

  Ten years of his shit. Ten years of survival. He’d been led into a trap. It was all so simple. It made his life seem trivial. Too much effort for such a stupid end.

  “Get it over with, Jackson,” Gregor said.

  Ben scrambled to his feet.

  “Stay right where you are,” another voice called out.

  Footsteps approached. Gregor glanced to his side.

  A red-haired, rangy-looking man strode through the rubble, peering down his sights. Denver Jackson. Last time he’d seen him, he was Charlie’s feral pet, learning tricks from his master. A dog scampered behind his legs and barked.

  Gregor snorted. “Look at you, all grown up.”

  “Shut the fuck up. I don’t remember giving you permission to speak,” Denver said. “Hold out your weapon. Nice and slow.”

  He held out the AR-15 by its grip and placed it on the ground.

  “Did you get the information I asked for?” Charlie said.

  Ben thrust up his hands and took a couple of steps away from Gregor. “I didn’t have time. Gregor knows. We’re not with the croatoans.”

  Charlie chuckled in his distinctive, sarcastic way. Gregor hated it. To Jackson, everything was black or white. He should have guessed that Ben wouldn’t have been allowed to just stroll back into the farm. Jackson’s necklace and the opportunity to get him had a blinding effect.

  Gregor looked up at Ben and scowled. The turncoat backed away another couple of steps.

  “We’ve tried to get information from them before. They won’t help—” Charlie said.

  “Drop your weapon,” Layla shouted.

  Keeping his hands spread above his shoulders, Gregor rolled onto his back. Layla must’ve heard the Jacksons. She’d rounded the building and stood behind Charlie, pointing the croatoan rifle at the back of his head.

  Charlie’s hands were raised. He didn’t look much different from ten years ago. Gregor had caught glimpses of him through the last decade but never close up like now. Bearded, piercing blue eyes, miserable.

  A woman stood next to Charlie wearing a harvester uniform. Another lie from Ben about the fate of their crew. Gregor reached across for his rifle.

  “Pick that up and I put a bullet through your forehead,” Denver said.

  Gregor withdrew his hand. “If you shoot me, your plastic father gets it in the head.”

  Denver hadn’t even glanced back to Charlie. He focused down on Gregor with an intense expression and twitched his head to his left. “Then I kill your helper.”

  A distant overhead noise like an ongoing extended roll of thunder echoed from the clear blue sky.

  “Leave us with Gregor,” Charlie said. “You go back to the farm. We won’t hurt you.”

  “We want the same thing as you. To bring down the croatoans,” Layla said.

  Charlie shook his head and groaned. “You’ve sure got a funny way of showing it.”

  The rumble grew into a roar. Everyone looked up. A large, white cloud formed in sky. Eight huge bright rings appeared through it. A blast of lukewarm air rushed down, spreading dust around the building. Pieces of plaster dropped from the decaying internal wall as the ground shook. Denver’s dog repeatedly barked.

  A massive object in the shape of a key moved in front of the sun, casting a shadow over the area. The mother ship had lowered, but something larger was attached. A rectangular vessel with four large funnels protruding from its side. The circular mother ship appeared to be connected to the bottom of it.

  “What the hell?” Ben said.

  “This is it,” Layla said. “The data, behavior, experiments, and Igor. It was leading to this. They needed more than the root to terraform.”

  “What are you saying?” Charlie said.

  “I’m saying we haven’t got time for disagreements,” Layla said. “You and Gregor sort out your differences later. We’ve all got bigger things to worry about.”

  ***

  Charlie looked at Gregor and slowly shook his head. Gregor glared back. The woman in front of Layla turned and said, “What do you know?”

  She seemed non-aggressive, unlike Charlie and Denver. Layla had only ever known Charlie as a vague acquaintance during her first year in North America. She’d found him a little abrupt. It all changed after they moved to the farm. Gregor and Charlie became equally as obsessed over one another. Sabotaging anything around each of their respective operations, employed in a dangerous game of one-upmanship.

  Layla jabbed the alien rifle into the back of Charlie’s head. He shuffled forward a few inches. She said earnestly, “You need to listen to me. I’ve observed what they’re planning to do. Croatoans testing with an atmosphere box. A timeline near completion. Igor mentioning a ship to complete the process. You only need to look around you to see the place is primed for it. The ship up there is the final part. We need to figure out a way to stop this. Together.”

  Charlie shrugged. “I’ve already got a plan. Been working on it for years while you’ve been sucking up to the croatoans and butchering the population.”

  “And you can hatch it in a day?” Layla said. “Because I reckon that’s all we’ve have. Maximum.”

  “What’s your plan, Jackson?” Gregor said.

  “Wouldn’t you like to know?”

  “He wants to put a bomb on the mother ship,” the woman said. “Blow it out of the sky. Ben was supposed to get information about the shuttle runs.”

  “Shut up, Maria,” Charlie said.

  Layla moved around to Charlie’s side in order to get eye contact. “Trust me. It’s do or die for all of us.”

  “Charlie,” Gregor said. “Call off your two pet dogs, and I’ll give you the information you need. We’ll do this together. After that, you and I will sort our differences the traditional way. Do we have a deal?”

  Gregor stood up and dusted himself down. Charlie nodded toward Denver. He lowered his rifle.

  Layla lowered hers. “Good. Now we can talk like civilized people. Do we have a deal?”

  “There’s nothing civilized about you,” Charlie said. “But you have a deal. The overall requirements for the planet are bigger than Gregor’s ego. Then again, they always have been.”

  “Replace my name with yours and the statement still makes perfect sense,” Gregor said.

  “For God’s sake. Will you two knock it off?” Layla said.

  She looked skywards again at the joined vessels. They’d maintained a position high above a few puffy, light orange clouds that drifted lazily past.

  “How can you get me on a shuttle to the mother ship?” Charlie said.

  “Easiest way is to put you in a food container,” Gregor said. “If we still have people left at the farm, it’ll work.”

  “You mean processed humans?” Denver said.

  “Does it matter now?” Layla said.

  The last thing they needed was to keep raking up their individual choices for survival. Layla noticed Gregor’s eyes kept flicking toward Ben. He nervously edged further away until he flinched as his back hit the semi-collapsed interior wall.

  “We arrange oxygen to be left behind the stacked trays,” Gregor said. “You get in before the container’s loaded onto a shuttle. Alex or Vlad can divert the croatoans elsewhere. We launch a diversionary attack on the farm. The shuttle will make an emergency take off.”

  “And we get shot with the cannon on the roof of the shuttle?” Denver said.

  “The croatoans are pragmatists. They don’t fire cannons toward their own buildings.”

  “You sure that’ll work?” Charlie said.

  “I can’t think of another way. You sure the bomb will work?” Gregor said.

  Charlie walked over and stood a couple of yards in front of Gregor. “It’ll work. But don’t bet on me not coming back, my friend.”

  Gregor’s eyes narrowed. “Don’t test me, Charlie. I could—�
��

  Masonry exploded inwards.

  Layla jumped back, covering her face.

  A light blue beam shot through the room, passing between Ben and Charlie. It punctured a basketball-sized hole in the opposite wall.

  Bricks clacked to the ground. Dust filled the air.

  Gregor picked up the rifle, spun, and pointed it through the ivy. “There’s a big, ugly alien outside.”

  “Is everyone all right?” Charlie said.

  Gregor fired two shots; both went clean through with no damage. “What the fuck? It turned into a blur.”

  Charlie crouched over Gregor and pulled leaves to one side. “We met that thing in New York.”

  “Augustus sent a hunter after you.”

  Layla ran across the room and knelt next to the gap that had been blasted out of the wall. She leaned around and saw a large croatoan prowling outside. It threw its weapon to one side and drew a sword from its thigh-sheath. The blade shone as though as it were made from chrome. Circular holes ran down the middle.

  She squeezed the trigger. The rifle bucked against her shoulder. The croatoan shifted to its left at an unbelievable speed. Denver joined her by the hole and fired his rifle. The alien dodged again in a blur.

  “It’s impossible to hit the thing if it’s facing you,” Denver said. “We need to split up.”

  The alien raised its sword and moved toward the building.

  “Take the bomb to the edge of camp,” Charlie said. “Get everything prepared. Gregor says this thing’s after me. I’m going to create a diversion.”

  Denver nodded and ran to the back of the building. Ben stayed against the wall, shuddering. Layla decided not to argue and followed.

  “Get moving now,” Charlie said.

  She stopped and looked back. “Take the croatoan rifle.”

  Layla threw it to Charlie. He caught it in his left hand.

  Ben scrambled past her. Charlie jumped through the ivy and stood in front of the building. The alien pointed at him with its graphite gauntlet and swung its sword in a circular motion above its head. Charlie rushed to his right, back toward the forest in the opposite direction to the farm. The alien hopped after him.

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Denver wiped the sweat and dirt from his eyes. The journey back from Manhattan had been long and tedious. He’d only caught a few hours of sleep as they drove back overnight. The weight of the bomb, the mines, and the other supplies in his backpack seemed heavier than his usual load. Luckily, his alien rifle helped balance things out.

  Pip trotted by his side, staying close. Even she didn’t like Gregor that much, and Denver had come to learn his dog’s intuition was often worth paying attention to.

  He’d noticed Gregor glancing at him and the weapon with an expression of jealousy, but then he had an automatic weapon, so he had nothing to concern himself in terms of who had the biggest penis replacement.

  They walked in a tense silence through the forest, heading for the farm. Gregor and Layla led the way. Maria hung back with Denver, and Ben floated between them. Denver pitied him really. A man needed a family or at least a close circle. Ben didn’t seem to fit particularly well anywhere, but at least he’d followed the plan and hadn’t sold Charlie and him out.

  And having Gregor and the others armed now seemed like great foresight considering the croatoans’ change of behavior. Denver wondered if Charlie had already foreseen that. It wouldn’t be too surprising.

  One didn’t survive for as long as Charlie Jackson without noticing small changes and having the smarts to plan ahead. Though the plan hadn’t gone down as expected, the result was the same: using the farm as a way into the ship.

  He thought about Charlie going up there with the bomb and not coming back. Up until now, it had felt like something that would happen in a future that wouldn’t have real consequences. A part of him perhaps thought it wouldn’t work out like this, that he’d come up with another plan. Of course, he had that bastard hunter on his tail, but Denver had full belief in his dad. Charlie knew these woods better than anyone.

  By following them here overnight, the hunter had made a big mistake. He’d given himself a massive disadvantage. This was Charlie’s playground. Advanced alien species or not, he was fighting Charlie Jackson in his backyard. And this backyard was loaded with surprises.

  “He’ll be okay, won’t he?” Maria said as Denver held back a thick branch to let her step through the trees into a clearing with a path worn into the compacted grass.

  “Yeah,” Denver said. “He’s like a ghost in this place. Don’t worry about him. Just keep your eyes open for anything waiting for us. We don’t know if the bastards up there have sent reinforcements yet or if they even know what’s going on.”

  “They won’t,” Gregor said, looking back over his shoulders. “I dealt with the guards. There’s none left to get word back. They’ll know when they don’t report in for the evening’s update, but we’ll be in position by then. Besides, Augustus thinks I’m dead.”

  “How can we be so sure?” Ben said, speaking for the first time since they left the clock tower. “Wouldn’t their bike’s movements send an alarm?”

  Gregor stopped and glared at Ben, clearly not liking someone questioning him. Ben flinched away when the gangster stepped closer. Denver put his hand on Ben’s shoulder and, towering over them, glared back at Gregor. “Drop this macho bullshit. We need to work together now. Just answer the question. Is there any way the ones that chased you or the ones at the farm compound could have raised an alarm?”

  Looking up at Denver, a smile of derision stretched across Gregor’s face. “A chip off the old block, eh? Just like your own old man, though he ain’t really your old man, is he? You were just something he stole from another family like a magpie.”

  Pip growled low in her throat, but she became quiet when Denver reached down and scratched behind her ears. “It’s okay, girl.”

  The bait attempt was obvious. Denver let the jibe wash over him. He didn’t care for word games. It was the sign of the inferior man. Denver didn’t need words to back up what he was capable of. “Time’s getting on,” he said. “We can stand around all day behaving like kids, or you can just cooperate and work as a team. What is it? You want to take out your frustrations with my dad on me? Fancy your chances, do you, Gregor?”

  The older man seemed to size Denver up but hesitated. He smiled and shook his head. “Yeah, just like your old man. And for the last time, no, there is no alarm raised. And how do I know?” He pointed to the sky. “There’s no fucking craft or shuttles coming down from the mother ship. If the croatoans from the farm raised an alarm, we wouldn’t be standing here right now. For all they know, the ones that chased us had dealt with us. The orders were to kill me. Without any other update, there’s no reason to suspect anything else has happened. So let’s just shut the hell up and get to the farm while we still have the element of surprise.”

  Layla shrugged her shoulders in a silent apology to Denver and the others. How Gregor could have retained the loyalty of a woman like her, smart, capable, and beautiful, Denver would never know.

  But strange times called for strange alliances—even with someone as low as Gregor, the killer of Charlie’s true love, Pippa.

  “I wanted to thank you,” Ben said to Denver as they headed across the clearing.

  “Why’s that?”

  “For making things clear for me before I came here. I know it’s not how it was supposed to go down, but it was the right decision. With poor Ethan gone, I know I would have been useless in that kind of situation. I’m not cut out for this kind of thing.”

  “We just have to keep going,” Maria said. “Make sure Charlie gets the bomb up there, and we can have our revenge for Jimmy, Erika, and Ethan. Just focus, Ben. It’ll be over soon.”

  A hush descended as they made their way through the next section of forest. Fifteen minutes later, Gregor stopped everyone. “Just beyond here is my office and the rest of the compound. We
need to get to Vlad and Alex.”

  “And secure the breeding rooms,” Layla said.

  “So how are we playing this? We can’t go in all guns blazing,” Denver said. “We need that shuttle to complete its routine pickup and wait for Charlie to get back.”

  “What if he doesn’t?” Maria said. She instantly held up her palms. “I know, I know, I’m just thinking of contingencies. In the unlikely event he doesn’t meet up with us.”

  “I’ll go,” Denver said. “I had Mike show me how the bomb works. If my dad’s not back in time for the shuttle, I’ll take his place.”

  Maria squeezed his arm, and a pained expression distorted her lips where unspoken words formed. He knew she cared, but he knew his duty. This was always his plan. And if he had the choice, he’d go instead of his dad anyway, regardless. He even considered somehow getting onto the shuttle before his dad so he didn’t have the option, but he knew it would hurt him too much. So he accepted that this was Charlie Jackson’s call, and as his son, he’d do as he was told.

  “We wait here,” Gregor said. “Give your old man a chance to show up. The shuttle isn’t due for another two hours.”

  “And in the meantime,” Layla said, “I’ll go and prep Vlad and Alex.”

  “Are you crazy?” Gregor said.

  “Not at all. Think about it. There’s no more of the larger croatoans left, only a handful of engineers and surveyors. They won’t have orders to kill me; that was for you. As far as they’re concerned, I’m no problem.”

  Gregor paused for a moment, probably assessing options, figuring out the various issues. Finally, he nodded. “If there’s any sign of problem, shout, scream, do whatever, but get our attention, and we’ll come in to help.”

  “I’m hoping it won’t come to that,” Layla said. “We’ll only get one chance at getting that bomb on the shuttle. When it goes back, they’ll know what’s happened.”