Sometime later she fell into a fitful sleep.
Even in her dreams she felt the grip on her mind. She tried to struggle, but the hold was too strong. Once again she hovered beneath a purple sky, looking down at the vast black pyramid as her mind was rifled.
There was something there she couldn’t allow to be seen.
Images of the destruction of the aircraft carrier were replayed, and then the flight to the Research Lab. She pictured a wall in her mind, building it up brick by brick. The alien presence tried to tear it down. It was like playing with a recalcitrant child – one layer of bricks going up only for it to be taken down again.
And it’s coming down faster than I can put it up.
She changed tack, focussing on hockey -- and beer -- and beer and hockey. Simple pleasures, but they seemed to confuse the presence – the slice of skate on ice, the thwack of stick on puck.
But she couldn’t hold it – the presence was too strong. It broke through her defense and she was looking at a view of the Research Lab as they brought out the shielded case. In this view of the scene the case itself seemed to glow, shining with an inner silver light.
She felt the eagerness of the presence.
The viewpoint changed.
She hovered, high above an airfield. Two choppers sat on the edge of a runway. Dark shapes moved at the far end of the strip – tall, black, humanoid shapes, hundred of them, heading at speed for the choppers.
Alice woke with a start, shouting at the top of her voice.
“We have to go. We have to go now! They’re coming.”
Alice’s shouts got everyone moving, although the marines were perplexed. It was the Professor who got the exodus to the choppers started. Hiscock was slightly behind the rest, having stayed long enough to close down the bunker.
It wasn’t locked.
But if the aliens can handle locks, we’re in more trouble than I thought.
By the time he got outside into the pre-dawn twilight the marines were already getting into the choppers and the rotors had started to turn.
Beyond the craft a darker shadow sat on the runway, stretching from horizon to horizon. The light was dim, but Hiscock could see enough to know it was more of the fighters – an army of them.
The Professor shouted at him from the doorway of the chopper.
“Come on lad – get a move on.”
He threw himself in the door just as the craft started to rise.
They were just in time. The fighters swarmed over the airfield beneath them. Several leapt in the air, as if trying to reach the choppers, but they fell well short. The chopper accompanying them fired two sidewinders into the mass of aliens and they went up in a burst of yellow flame.
The bunker!
The Professor saw the look in Hiscock’s eyes and ordered a cease-fire but in Hiscock’s eyes the damage had been done. A large portion of the building where they’d spent the night was little more than a collapsed pile of smoking rubble.
It was strongly built. It will have survived.
But it’s going to be a damned sight harder than before to get back inside.
They soon left the scene behind, but Hiscock couldn’t stop thinking about it.
That’s another bunker left behind.
The Professor was speaking quietly to Alice Noble. The woman looked ill, her eyes veiled in deep shadow, her cheeks hollow. She did not seem to be registering much of what the old man said. After a while the Professor stood and came and sat beside Hiscock.
“We’re on the last leg now son. And in case you hadn’t noticed – you’ve become a glory boy yourself.”
Hiscock laughed.
“Hardly.”
The Professor smiled back.
“If we get out of this, you’re going to be a hero lad. They’ll be building statues to us.”
“If there’s anyone left who knows how.”
The Professor’s smile disappeared.
“We have to believe,” the Professor said. “Otherwise we might as well have stayed in that bunker.”
Maybe we should have done just that.
Alice Noble sat immobile in her seat.
I did it again.
The old Professor had tried to put a positive spin on it. He said that she’d saved them all, that her warning was what had given them time to escape.
But I know better.
Fresh tears coursed down her cheeks, and she didn’t have the energy to brush them away.
***
The sun was well above the horizon when they started to descend into the Caldera of Yellowstone. Hiscock had been looking intently from the window for some time, but all he had seen was a single unbroken plain of the green sludge. It even seemed to cover a large part of the sheer cliffs that bounded the park. Here and there patches of the tall lanceolate stalks showed. All of them were ripened and burst. But there was no sign of movement on the ground below.
The Professor was up front, giving instructions to the pilot.
We’re really going to do this.
Before now it had seemed like an unobtainable goal – and he still wasn’t sure that the old man’s plan was actually workable, or a pipe dream of a desperate scientist.
But the old man seems to trust me. And he actually wants me here. It would be churlish to back away now.
As they descended one of the marines thrust an automatic rifle into Hiscock’s hands.
“We’re a few men short. We need more guns. Are you up for it”
Hiscock checked the gun was loaded and the safety was on. He smiled up at the marine.
“I was hoping you’d ask.”
The chopper landed seconds later.
Three marines took charge of the case of Uranium and lugged it outside where they were all joined by a team from the other chopper. All of them set off across a patch of exposed rock, leaving only the pilots behind.
Alice Noble looked even worse that she had an hour before, and the Professor was almost as bad.
This is taking too big a toll on them both. The Prof was right, we need to get this done quickly – for all sorts of reasons.
The Professor led them across the rocks for several minutes.
“Sorry about the walk,” the Professor said. He was flushed and breathing heavily. “But there’s nowhere closer for the choppers to land safely.”
“Where are we going anyway?”
The Professor had to concentrate on walking for several steps. He stumbled and was only saved from a fall when Hiscock put a hand on his arm.
“There’s a set of caves just ahead,” the Professor said. “They lie above the thickest part of the magma dome. I’ve calculated that if we deposit the Uranium there, and the aliens come in the large craft, then the resulting blast will be what we need to at least kick-start the Earth towards normality.”
Hiscock laughed bitterly.
“Normality seems a long way away at the moment.”
“Hockey and beer,” Alice Noble said quietly, but when he looked at her she had gone back to the flat, straight-ahead stare.
They arrived at a deep hole in the rock.
“Okay, this is it,” the Professor said.
They left four marines up top and the rest of them went down into the bowels of the earth. They passed through three distinct chambers, each progressively smaller than the last. The air got hot and heavy very quickly, and their breathing began to become labored. Just as Hiscock was about to call a halt, the Professor stopped.
“This is it. I was on this very spot, three years ago now. It’s just as I remember it.”
There was a deep hollow in the ground at their feet. The Professor had the marines lay the case in the space. He sent the soldiers back to guard the surface, leaving just the three of them alone in the cavern.
The old man sighed loudly.
“And now comes the hard bit.”
Alice saw the look in the old man’s eyes – fear, and more than a touch of sorrow.
“I’ve thought long and ha
rd about this,” the Professor said. “And I can’t see any other way. Two things need to happen now. The main thing is I need to open that case. The aliens need to be able to get a fix on the Uranium, and opening the case is the best way.”
“But won’t that be fatal for us?” Alice asked.
“Not for you,” the Professor said. “For me. You’re not staying. But I need you to do something for me first.”
She knew what was coming,
But I need to hear him say it.
“I need you to do your thing,” the Professor said. “I want you to tell them where the Uranium is. Lead them here, and their own power will do the rest.”
She was about to argue, but quickly realized the futility of it.
We’re at the last-chance saloon… and we’re out of beer.
She was afraid to open herself up to the alien contact. But having seen the devastation that was being wrought on the planet, she was also afraid not to. She looked the Professor in the eye and nodded.
“I’m ready as I’ll ever be. Just say when.”
The old man smiled back and took her hand.
“When,” he said.
Alice closed her eyes and focused. The connection was there almost immediately. It probed in her mind, and she relaxed, letting it in.
She felt a tugging as she once more soared over the alien landscape. Rivers flowed below, green rivers, thick and almost gelatinous. Forests of lance-like stalks swayed and danced although there was no discernible wind, and for the first time she heard sounds, a cacophonous chorus of whistles and grunts, as if a whole zoo was in turmoil and the sound was being fed through a giant amplifier. The tugging got more pronounced and she sped, ever faster, towards where the colossal pyramid sat waiting. Something probed in her brain, quizzical yet hungry for information.
She felt the tug, trying to draw her down into the pyramid for further examination.
Not this time.
She concentrated, projecting a picture of Yellowstone, and mentally swooped in to the cave system to show the sealed case in the hollow in the rock. She imagined it open, and glowing silver.
The tugging grew insistent, demanding to know more, and a headache gripped her hard, but Alice kept that single image foremost in her mind as she sent out a last message.
If you want it, come and get it.
Another image superimposed on her own. A vast craft sailed serenely over the horizon, heading for Yellowstone.
She opened her eyes.
“They got the message. They’re coming. Now what?”
The Professor smiled sadly.
“Now you get the hell out of here, as fast as you can. If you can get to that bunker on the airfield, I’d suggest that’s the best place to be… it’s either that, or Australia.”
“There must be some other way. We could...”
The Professor took her hand.
“I’ve been over this in my head time after time and can’t see another alternative. Besides, I’m ready to go. Who wants to live in a world where there’s no coffee?"
He let go of her hand and gently wiped a tear from her eye.
“You have a gift dear. Maybe I can buy you some time to learn how to use it. Now go. We don’t have time to dawdle.”
Hiscock showed no signs of leaving.
“I ain’t going without you old man.”
The Professor laughed again.
“But you must. Who else is going to explain to the sculptor what my statue should look like? Now take Alice and get out of here, We’ve no time for a debate.”
He pushed Hiscock towards Alice, and the man finally caved in.
Alice let Hiscock lead her away. She had only last look back as they left the chamber. The Professor had bent over and opened the shielded case. She was almost surprised that there was no silver glow from the inside.
Hiscock hated having to leave the old man, and if the woman had not been at his side, he would have gone straight back down to the Professor’s side. Instead he half-dragged Alice back up out of the cave system.
The marines all stood around at the entrance.
“Time to go lads,” Hiscock said.
They started to head for the choppers. They got halfway across the rock plain when the rear-guard called out.
“We’ve got incoming.”
Hiscock turned. A score or more of the humanoid aliens advanced at speed on the other side of the cave system from them, heading straight for the cave mouth. If they had noticed the marines they showed no sign of paying them any attention.
They know what they‘re after.
“Fall back,” Hiscock shouted. “Back to the Prof.”
The lead officer stopped him.
“We’ve got to get to the choppers. It will be suicide to stay here.”
Hiscock pulled away.
“No. Don’t you see? If these things get the Uranium, there will be no need for the craft to come…”
The officer nodded and went white.
“…and the volcano won’t blow. You’re right. We’ve got to buy the old man some time.”
The officer sent the youngest marine with Alice back to the lead chopper.
“Don’t wait for us,” the officer said. “That’s an order. Get out of here and head for that bunker. Report to whoever the hell you can find.”
As the young marine led her away Hiscock saw Alice start to struggle then stop and lift her gaze. Hiscock followed her line of sight.
Far off on the horizon, but coming fast, a large alien craft began to fill the sky.
“To me,” Hiscock shouted, and headed for the caves at a run. Eight marines ran right behind him.
The aliens hadn’t deviated from their course, still heading in wedge formation straight for the cave mouth. In the distance, but coming on fast, more aliens appeared at a run, a black swarm that seemed to fill the horizon.
Hiscock upped his speed to keep pace with the marines around him.
It’s going to be close.
They got to the cave-mouth just before the aliens arrived. The officer immediately deployed his men in a line across the cave mouth.
“Fire at will," he called.
Within seconds the air was filled with the crackle of automatic gunfire and the rattle of casings falling on exposed rock. The first wave of attackers fell in a burst of shell and slime, but more came on, running over the bodies of their dead without a pause – a black wall of them.
Above the din Hiscock heard the choppers take off.
At least the woman is safe.
Then all his attention was on the advancing aliens. Despite the carnage being wrought by the marines’ weapons, still they kept coming, the dark, faceless figures implacable in pursuit of their goal.
“Grenades!” the officer called.
Hiscock turned his head as three grenades looped through the air, blowing alien parts and gore high in the sky in a blinding flash. The gaps made by the blasts filled in less than a second with more of the swarming creatures.
There are too many.
“Fall back,” the lead officer shouted. Hiscock and the marines started to retreat into the cave system. They fired volley after volley into the mass of aliens, killing them in their scores.
They kept coming, and the defending soldiers were forced back into the cave, where the noise was even more deafening and the soldiers barely had room to shoot without injuring their comrades. They retreated, one step at a time.
The press of aliens followed them down.
The cave mouth showed a disk of sky that slowly grew darker. Hiscock realized what that meant.
The shadow of the mother craft covered Yellowstone.
***
Alice had been dragged bodily into the chopper fighting all the way.
“We can’t just leave them.”
The young marine looked pale and frightened, but refused to be swayed.
“I have my orders miss.”
He almost threw her into the chopper and climbed in behind her.
“Please miss,” the marine said. “Sit down. We need to go.”
Alice refused to sit in the hold.
I have to see.
She moved forward and stood just behind the pilot as they took off and banked away. Their turn gave them a clear view of the cave system. The marines had retreated down into the bowels and the cave mouth was almost obscured by a crawling mass of the alien fighters, all desperately trying to get down into the depths of the cave.
Alice could see for herself that the situation for the men left below was hopeless.
We’ll never be able to get to them.
The pilot started strafing the horde of creatures but even now more came into view, rank after rank of them until the whole area below swarmed in a black carpet that obscured everything else. In an attempt to buy the defenders some time they sent six sidewinders down into the attackers, far enough from the cave to avoid injury to the marines. The aliens blew apart and six columns of flame and smoke rose. But within seconds the swarm had covered the area once more.
The ground fell into shadow as the mother craft took position overhead. Alice knew what was coming.
“We have to go,” Alice said. “We have to go now or we’ll be caught in the blast.”
The pilot took one last look at the scene in front of him and nodded. The chopper banked away… just as Alice felt a new tickle in her mind.
***
The lead officer was the first of the marines to fall. He’d held back to give the rest time to retreat, but left himself too exposed. Two of the aliens loomed over him before he had a chance to take aim on them. A large arm came down and the officer’s chest caved in. Blood flew from his mouth – he was dead before he hit the ground.
The rest of them retreated and continued strafing the attackers who by now filled the cave wall to wall and floor to roof. The attackers crawled over themselves in their efforts to push through. For every step the marines took backward, the aliens were able to take two forwards. Hiscock’s whole arm hurt from the recoil of the weapon as he pumped shot after shot into the mass of creatures.
We’re trapped. And we don’t have long left.
The Invasion (Extended Version) Page 11
