Silence the Living

by Brian Bandell

My eyes stung and my aquatic lungs burned. The further I went, the worse it grew, and the more intense the symbols on the ceiling became, like a lightning storm overhead. The bottom of the chamber remained black, empty. That’s what drew me there.

  As I relaxed my spines and let my body sink, a faint purple glow flickered on. A giant toad rested in a depression dug into the cave floor. Bigger than a watermelon, the toad wasn’t merely fat, it was bloated and swollen. It had left tracks across the sand leading up to the pit but its flimsy limbs were now rendered useless by its outsized girth. The toad itself wasn’t growing larger, something within it was expanding. The purple glow it emanated radiated through its slimy flesh.

  “Feed me.” The murky voice gurgled in my head.

  That’s better than those gibberish symbols.

  “Iron…Fuel…Bone.” The words came slowly, with great effort. The toad eyed me like a woozy drunk.

  I came all this way to be a fucking butler and fetch your meal? It’s like a stubborn, chubby kid who wants his parents to pile potato chips and pizza on his plate all day. They turned me into this shit-ugly thing so I could serve a toad.

  I waved my sharpest tendril beneath the toad’s puffed up throat. “Why should I feed you and not skewer you?”

  Quicker than a blink, the toad shot its tongue and suctioned it right above my forehead. I raised a tendril to slice it off. Then it hit me like an electric cable beaming images into my head. I saw Moni. Only faintly resembling the girl I’d known for so many years, she looked uncomfortable in her new skin in some faraway desert. Her body had become like them, but her mind remained her own.

  Instantly, she faded away, replaced by the image of a black cat dashing through the woods. It chased a clumsy toad. The amphibian found a cave underneath a fallen tree trunk and hopped inside. Without hesitation, the cat followed. A snake sprang from the cave and sunk its venomous fangs into the feline’s neck. The serpent smiled. So did I.

  The toad rolled its purple tongue back into its mouth. Moni did this to me, not them. She sacrificed me to them. Instead of dismantling me like the others, they had crafted me into a vehicle for their vengeance – the snake guarding its cave.

  This immobile snot didn’t have much to negotiate with as soldiers above stalked us both.

  “Yes, I want Moni’s blood. I demand more for my protection and service. When you take over, let the humans belong to me.”

  The purple beams of the toad’s eyes flashed. “As…You…Wish.”

  Eagerly, I handed the toad the skull. There would be others.

  48

  Wings flapped in the dead of night as the roar of the helicopters chased the birds from their desert nests. Two lights flashed in the sky, one from the northeast and one from the northwest. They could have flown in the dark. Instead, they boldly declared their positions, daring Moni and Aaron to just try and resist.

  Closing her eyes for a second, Moni perceived seven minds in each chopper and that wasn’t all. Two groups of ten soldiers each were rolling up from the south in land vehicles, one on the east and the other on the west. Together, they formed an “X” converging on their location. She overheard them mulling over the plan. As soon as they got close enough, the soldiers would fan out and form a perimeter around her. Every direction she’d run, she’d meet the barrel of a gun.

  Opening her eyes, she focused on Aaron. The color drained from his cheeks as he stared into the high beams of the oncoming assault. There’s no way he’d set her up. He couldn’t have hidden that from her. They must have followed him. Her heart squirming as if in the jaws of a steel trap, Moni realized she could never meet him like this again.

  That wouldn’t matter if neither of them survived this.

  “Get in the truck with Ramona and drive northwest. I’ll lead them away from you. When it looks like you’re clear, turn around and head for Columbus.”

  “What about you?” Shaking his head, Aaron felt the unbearable pain of losing her forever. It nearly brought a scalding tear from Moni’s eye. He leaned in, instinctively seeking a final kiss. Moni brushed his cheek with her glove, placing a finger over his lips.

  “Just don’t spill my blood, and I’ll try not to either. Go!” She shoved him toward the truck and spun into the seat of the ATV. Moni revved the four-wheeler up and darted off due north, right between the pair of attack helicopters.

  Congratulations. You found me. Now you’re about to wish you left me the hell alone.

    

  From the war room at Fort Bliss, Alberto Colon watched the pair of heat signatures on the drone’s infrared view split up. Target A, most likely Moni, sped north. She had a death wish, putting herself in firing range of both helicopter gunships, not to mention a snare of special forces once those boots hit the ground.

  Aaron Hughes and a small-in-stature individual labeled Target B headed northwest in the pickup truck. The helicopter in that area could either pursue them or Moni, not both. The gun trucks heading up from the road weren’t close enough to reach Aaron, at least not quickly.

  “Do we have any intel on Target B?” Colon asked over the encrypted mission communication line. “By the size, it must be a child. I don’t think we’ll encounter any little green men today.”

  “Mariella! What if she’s still alive?” exclaimed Nina Skillings over the line that overbearing FBI agent Cam Carter left on speaker.

  “I thought video evidence confirmed the first girl died in the lagoon, sir?” Colon asked.

  “We inferred that from the video, but we never found her body,” Carter replied. “That could be her.”

  “Even if it’s not, I know how Moni thinks.” The bitterness nearly made Skillings’ voice crack. “She would infect another child to replace the one she lost. Another little demon.”

  “You’re right, we can’t take any chances,” Colon said. He watched the head signatures of Aaron and Target B roam further away. “We still have a tracker on his truck so you keep following him, Agent Carter. My team will deal with Moni.”

  “But I want—” Skillings protested.

  “Yes, sir,” Carter cut her off.

  He ordered both helicopters after Moni. Colon slipped his hand into his pocket, where his thumb rubbed a photo of his wife and son. If they could end this tonight, his family would never be terrified in their home again.

    

  The engine growled hot between her thighs as Moni clung to the speeding ATV but it couldn’t match the explosive energy building inside her. It radiated through her body, every ounce of fuel, every pellet of iron dissolving into her bloodstream, they all poured into this moment. Her now gloveless hands clutched the handlebars as they vibrated from the friction of the wheels chewing up rocky ground. Most people would cling for life while riding this metal bull through the rough. The horsepower-shredding engine clung to Moni for dear life.

  She weaved left and right at uneven distances, making sure the helicopter gunners didn’t have a steady shot at her as they approached. The two assault helicopters descended, hovering less than 40 feet off the ground so they could make a troop drop by cables if needed.

  Moni listened for them to give the order. She heard the words in a soldier’s head as he said them out loud, “Target in sight. Too close for missiles. Permission to fire RPG on site, sir?” A spark rang out. A rocket-propelled grenade sliced through the night.

  Moni steered the ATV up a steep hill that launch it straight at the helicopter, placed her feet on the seat and jumped. She soared through the night. A fireball erupted behind her. The fiery demolition of her ATV propelled her further. The swirling wind from the chopper blades buffeted her face, dulling her momentum. She hadn’t accounted for that, but she didn’t exactly have time to diagram the physics of this launch on a chalk board.

  One thing she learned from dealing with her father’s abuse was that running from a bully never helped. Hit the asshole head on, win or lose, and make them regret picking the fight. She hadn’t done much of that her whole lif
e, not until now.

  Moni reached the height of the closest helicopter. She didn’t stop climbing. She headed straight for its blinding whirl of blades. While even with its fuselage, Moni stretched her arm out. It brushed metal. She couldn’t grab it with her hands. She clawed at it with her iron-infused nails. They latched hold. Her body swung over, slamming into the fuselage just below the propellers. Her ribs reverberated like a gong getting struck. Moni dug her nails into the metal, climbing across it as easily as a cat scaling a tree. The soldiers wielding the mounted guns on the door were frantically shifting their gazes between the wreckage of the smoldering ATV and the outside of their aircraft. If they saw her, those guns would shred her.

  “What the hell was that sound? Did a piece of the wreckage fly up and hit us?” the lead gunner thought.

  Moni slashed her nails at the lead gunner’s barrel, hoping it would inflict enough damage. The metal bent with an earsplitting ting. She catapulted herself through the door and slashed her nails down the barrel of the second mounted gun, tearing it to ribbons.

  The soldiers’ eyes grew wide as the plague-bearing monster they’ve been preparing for stood less than a foot from them in that flying can. Besides the two gunners, four soldiers were seated and another piloted. They were dressed head to toe in airtight suits with full helmets and masks. How could Moni dare approach anyone, Aaron, Blake or Ramona, without them wearing protection?

  Despite her presence, she detected no fear in the minds of these men. They’d trained for her. The mission objective was to kill her, or capture her if presented with the opportunity. Most of them preferred the former option. Moni could cave in their skulls as easily as she disfigured the gun barrels. That’s what they expected of her, the woman responsible for the Indian River Lagoon massacre. Corpses trailed behind her like footsteps.

  Moni grabbed the lead gunner and hurled him into the seated soldiers. They lowered their rifles so they could catch him. She sprang forward and slapped each of them on the front of their helmets at half strength, bouncing heads off the metal wall. All of them went lights out, but not for good. Moni felt the remaining gunner behind her waiting for a clear shot at the back of her skull. She didn’t give him one as she whirled around before he steadied his aim and snatched the pistol from his hand. She kneed him in the ribs. Moni cringed as she felt them crack.

  Moni dragged the injured gunner away from the door so he wouldn’t fall out. She hated putting an honest soldier in the hospital. In another life, she’d been a cop just following orders like these guys, knowing any night some criminal could unload on her because of her uniform.

  She turned around facing the pilot, who had one hand on the cyclic controlling the craft and the other brandishing a pistol aimed at her midsection. She didn’t have time to stick her gun on him before he could fire. She trained her weapon on one of the unconscious soldiers. Sweat beaded around the man’s eyes as he struggled to blindly maintain the helicopter’s pitch and yaw so low off the ground.

  “She killed those cops in Florida before they could get a shot off,” the pilot thought. “She’ll do the same to my crew if I don’t stop her now.”

  The linings of Moni’s stomach tore with guilt. She deserved all of them. Better play off his fears.

  Moni beamed a message into his head with his voice: “I can’t kill her with one bullet. None of the mutants in Florida went down with one shot. I’m better off doing what she says. She can’t kill me as long as I’m flying because we’d both be toast.”

  She motioned for him to drop the gun. He stared at her for a few seconds, just blinking and digesting those thoughts.

  “I could crash into the mountain. Take her out with everybody, including me,” the pilot thought.

  He shook his head and set his gun down. Moni pocketed his weapon and pointed northeast toward the Potrillo Mountains. She should lead them further away from Aaron and Ramona.

    

  The two gun trucks reached the scrap metal remains of the ATV with orders to secure Moni’s body. They didn’t find it. Colon soon realized why. Lieutenant Foster in the first strike helicopter didn’t respond to his hails. Instead, he ignored his orders and flew northeast.

  “Foster, where the hell are you going?” Colon barked. “Sweep the area until we get a visual of Target A.”

  None of the other soldiers on his helicopter responded either. Colon brought up the camera feed from one of their helmets. It showed the man’s boots. Did Moni place them all under some kind of mind control all the way from the ground?

  “Review the infrared drone footage just before the explosion,” Colon ordered his intelligence team. “Play it back at one-quarter speed.”

  When they showed it on the big screen, everything became clear. Moni’s heat signature had sprung from the ATV just before the missile blew it apart and flew like a kite to the helicopter. From there, she approached the men on board. He couldn’t make out what happened, but he could guess. Colon released a heavy sigh as he thought of the grieving families they’d leave behind.

  “Target A has commandeered Foster’s helicopter,” Colon told his team. “Follow them but don’t initiate an attack unless it’s a pinpoint shot at the target. We don’t know the status of the crew. They might be alive.”

  The thought crossed Colon’s mind that he could order the craft blown out of the sky, detonated with a missile that would leave no doubt. Secretary Armstrong would surely approve, probably help him cover up his actions too. But the men in the room with him, soldiers in their early 20s who still believed that the military would never leave one of their own behind, he couldn’t betray their trust. Nor could he abandon the men on board that helicopter who flew into the night expecting that their brothers and sisters would have their backs.

  Moni couldn’t stay in that helicopter forever. When she landed, he’d have it surrounded. He ordered four more helicopters full of troops in pursuit.

  Foster’s helicopter landed atop one of the dead volcanoes of the Potrillo range. The moment it set down, seven unidentified heat signatures swept onto the scene. They weren’t on the ground, though. These figures circled overhead like airborne sharks.

  “I don’t know what I’m seeing but I don’t like it,” Colon said

  49

  Aaron had smashed more cacti across the grill of his truck than he could count. Driving off road through the rocky desert was hard enough at cruising speed in full daylight, but roaring at highway speeds at night with nothing besides his headlights and the dim moonlight, one wrong move could blow out a tire or trap the truck in a depression, leaving him easy prey for the soldiers on his tail. The solution, of course, was to turtle it and hide. That’d only help them catch up faster.

  As Aaron scanned his rearview mirror for a sign of the helicopters, Ramona complained in Spanish. She practically had a whole candy store shelf in her lap and had wolfed down several chocolate bars.

  “It’s okay. Muy bien,” he said.

  She rubbed her stomach and made a queasy face. After feeding her sweets, Aaron should have known this rodeo-like jaunt across the desert would make her nauseous. He could ease up on the full throttle and risk getting caught or have her yack in his lap.

  Aaron slowed the pace. Ramona released a grateful sigh. Turning back quickly, Aaron saw the lights from the helicopters fading away. Moni really had drawn them to her.

  That means the soldiers likely had pinned her down. Moni’s tough, but these were trained killers with the full force of the world’s most advanced military behind them. He wanted to smack himself for not going back and helping her. How could he let her face an army alone?

  This is what she wanted, for me to save the girl first. Anyway, not much I could do against them besides whack them with an ice cooler, and I need what’s in here. Once I cure her, nothing will separate us again.

  A tall skinny figure stood in the distance. It wasn’t a cactus this time. It was a mile marker. His headlights illuminated the blessed asphalt of State Road 9.
The truck roared up the embankment and steered onto the smooth highway like a trout swimming downstream.

  Aaron pumped the gas pedal and checked his rearview mirror. A single set of headlights materialized behind him. He remembered Moni’s warning.

  “There are no free passages.”

    

  Moni stuck her head out the helicopter door and scanned the mountainside as the craft descended. In her enhanced night vision, everything seemed clear on the barren face of the ancient volcano, its once fire-breathing cone choked by rocks and sand. Something didn’t feel right. She didn’t have time to be overly cautious, not with seven angry soldiers stirring awake soon in that metal shoebox and more coming.

  She’d tied up the six soldiers she’d knocked out earlier but that wouldn’t last long. One soldier had concealed a knife and was thinking of cutting everybody loose the moment she turned her back. She eyed their M4A1 assault rifles. One of those could waste them in seconds and fend off the other troops that would arrive soon. She listened to their thoughts.

  “Dear Lord, please spare us. Send this alien away without killing us.”

  Moni gazed at them apologetically.

  Taking the pistol she’d seized from the pilot, Moni hopped down from the helicopter the moment it landed. She’d planned to run like hell, vanish before reinforcements arrive. A premonition caught her like a spider web. The wind picked up even as the chopper’s blades slowed. The mountain creaked. Grainy pebbles stirred. Moni aimed the pistol into the darkness as she searched for shapes in the shadows. Nothing. Yet she felt them. Their intense hatred. Their raging hunger. How the aroma wafting from her flesh drove them into a frenzy. She circled all around her, but didn’t see a one of them. Something eclipsed the moonlight for a second. She heard flapping overhead, almost like a bat. No, those wings were larger than any bat’s, more like a condor’s but without feathers.