The Long Way To Reno

by Mix, Michelle

  I struggled to catch my breath. Tried to keep my head from reacting as a ping-pong ball against both seat and floor – pushed out with a firm grasp on my Fubar. The alien was busy screaming at those that were hitting it, shooting at it, and the driver of the Humvee was screaming and jerking the wheel, so I had no sense of where we were going and what he was doing with the vehicle.

  The nurse reached down and snagged my hair, so I screamed as the already sensitive area protested with painful reaction. I jerked back, and her clenched fingers left me, my hair dangling from her fists. Fuck, I was going to be bald, soon! No sooner had I registered that thought when she ensnared the hood of my jacket to continue holding on. I groped the floor for something to hang onto, caught onto what felt like the can of hairspray I’d seen earlier. I fumbled with the cap, allowed myself to be lifted from the floor as the nurse’s strength became superhuman. I twisted awkwardly in mid-lift and sprayed the contents of the can in the direction of the alien’s head. The nurse let go because I’d caught her, too.

  The alien released the lady with a pained screech, and to keep the thing from reaching or looking at me, I sprayed it again – it reacted with these awkward coughs and swipes of its head as the chemicals burned the sensitive features of its face.

  I jerked away, scrambled to get away from its swiping claws, threw the can of hairspray at it - but it was hard to escape within that tight, confined space. I thought I was going to be thrown in the same direction as the old man had, hollering with panic. Benson lunged forward, curled a manly arm around my waist to keep that from happening – I tried not to swoon.

  He jammed the barrel of his gun into the creature’s open, coughing mouth, and fired repeatedly. At the same time, he was hurling me back down into the Humvee, where I crashed ungracefully back down to the floor. The thing screamed loudly as it fell away from the vehicle, long claws raking against the insides of the ceiling before disappearing altogether. The nurse landed atop of me, and I couldn’t breathe, struggling to push her heavy weight off me.

  The Humvee lurched again, and I recognized that we were on pavement. Still hearing massive explosions of gunfire and screams. Sandy and Benson were taking shots at things that kept making them spin in place, firing in vain at things we couldn’t see. Harley was atop of me, but in a way that suggested he was trying to be helpful again – the nurse had somehow crammed herself in next to the girl, and I turned onto my stomach and searched for my Fubar while he shouted in my ear that we needed to stay down!

  I found my weapon, my deodorant, and drew them towards me – only this time the Humvee lurched into the air, and the resulting slam onto the ground had my jaw bouncing off the hard floor. I knew I bit my tongue from the taste of blood spilling into my mouth. I sputtered and spit, and grew alarmed at the sight of my own fluid on the floor. Suddenly Benson was screaming a panicked sort of scream, and because of Harley’s position, I couldn’t turn around and see what was happening. The Humvee took this wild turn, and suddenly we were airborne in a different way.

  Time seemed to stop at that instant. Allowing me to see exactly what had happened. The driver’s upper half was missing, so he couldn’t negotiate a turn onto USA Parkway’s bridge. The Humvee in reaction had slammed into the concrete wall and had overturned – so we, the people still inside, were being sent towards the freeway below. The others looked like rag dolls, so I must, too.

  Chapter Six

  At work, I’d sometimes dump heavy objects into my totes. They dropped soundly into the tote with this small bounce; hard impact against plastic…some sort of mechanics. Anyway, this came to mind when I slammed against an unmovable surface. Flat on my back, arms flapping to a halt and my breath gone within instants. My head bounced hard, and it did a jolt upward. The sound of impact made my ears ring – or maybe it was the impact itself. I stared up at the sky in a daze – watching this humongous dark blue thing in the sky float overhead. I couldn’t hear any motors or anything – but I’d probably lost my hearing in all this ringing that was currently overwhelming my world.

  I struggled to breathe, I struggled to comprehend that my body was absolutely hurting. My head, my neck – I wanted to stare up at the sky and zone out because everything hurt so bad. The alien ship was a massive thing – maybe two football fields put together, and expanded in the middle. It looked like a grub of sorts – a massive flying insect. There were gills flapping underneath, and it looked pretty. Orange reflecting back into neon green…took me a moment to realize that they were actually creating a light similar to the flashing I’d seen the night before.

  Along with this fantastic sight? Another walking robot taking huge steps through the uneven formulation of the freeway. It was massive. It towered over everything, shadowing the area with its mechanical body that was desert-colored, with NFL-style armor covering its shoulders, upper torso. I gaped up at it as it negotiated the crowded freeway, crushing vehicles underfoot and following after the ships in the sky. I watched it go, cringing as one of its massive steps moved right over me. The sound of its gear-joints whispered through the chaos around me. Metal was crushed, glass shattered under its huge feet. My mouth fell open, and I watched the robot-thing continue on without hesitating through the battle it walked through. It took an athletic lunge across the river and climbed the mountain, disappearing over it – but the rumble of its footsteps continued to echo behind it. I was watching it with a geek-filled awe rather than fear, than considering any possibilities of what it was capable of.

  Comprehension began to formulate in me. I started to become aware of other things. I stared at the bridge we’d just wrecked off, and saw the impact the Humvee had made in the concrete. I lifted my head with momentous effort, and realize that I was lying atop of a truck’s trailer - a semi-truck that had caught me before pavement could. It was luck, or something. Very slowly, as hearing started to return, I grew aware of gunfire, of screaming.

  I looked over to see smaller ships, triangular in shape, whipping through the air. They weren’t exactly emitting beams of light or anything – just puffs of sound. But that invisible wave sent parked cars flying. Sedans, trucks, SUVs – nothing was safe when that puff hit. Glass exploded and metal protested – beyond that, across the river, a Humvee coasted through the dirt, aflame. It’d left behind spots of fire, and there were sagebrush and people – people! – currently alit with flaming orange.

  I lifted up on my elbows, then remembered I wasn’t the only one in the humvee. I couldn’t see anybody else, and for a second, I thought I was the only one that survived. I spotted my Fubar hanging by the wrench teeth to the edge of the trailer – I grabbed it, slung it behind me and ended up banging my head with it.

  The distance from bridge to freeway below was a big one. I heard shouting, and searched for the source – I saw hands clinging tenaciously to the edge of the trailer. Every part of me was stiff and reluctant to move – my head felt incredibly heavy and unreliable. I gurgled some noises as I was finally able to push myself into a crawl towards those hands. I managed to make it, looking over with a spinning head to see the teen, struggling to get up because it was too high for her to drop down safely. I croaked something that was supposed to be caring and concerned, and she screamed at me to pull her up.

  I did so because I couldn’t rightly function any other way, and we collapsed atop of the trailer in a heap. She was breathing hard, her makeup smeared – her Elmo sweater was torn in the shoulder. She was shaking, gasping for breath – when an explosion sounded, she screamed and started crying, clutching onto the trailer with both hands. An animal reaction that I found fascinating – I was the same way. Too terrified to think.

  I felt that we couldn’t stay atop of this thing for long. I made my way towards the front of the trailer, heading for the cab. It was a stiff jump from the trailer down, and metal bent soundly under my weight. From there was another shaky climb down to the hood, the grill and finally the pavement. My entire body was uncooperative, and it took a lot of pushing to keep me mov
ing. The girl followed, but she tumbled off the grill and hit the ground hard.

  It seemed to jolt her out of her terrified state. Once she was able to shake herself off, she started running down an open row of vehicles – I followed because I didn’t know what else to do. Her pants kept slipping down her hips and exposing her backside, which was distracting – visible crack in the middle of an alien attack. It was funny for some reason.

  Huffing and puffing, terribly out of shape and hurting at every angle, I wasn’t even half the speed she was. As such, I searched for the others, stooping and crouching every so often to look under the cars. The nurse was hiding underneath a Ford truck, and I shouted at her to hurry up – she shook her head and pulled herself even further within, and when several ships zipped overhead, I didn’t stay to convince her any further. I turned and continued running.

  I spotted Harley stumbling along, dragging Sandy. She looked all out of sorts, clutching onto him with both hands and moving awkwardly in her gear. I staggered over to help them, all of us ducking when an explosion near the bridge happened. Cars flew, glass shattered – I looked up, shrieked, and did this terrible duck and roll underneath the nearest form of cover nearby; an old Chevy with hay in the bed. It crunched downward as the Ford the nurse had been hiding under crashed atop of it, and rolled into a black Nissan next to it. Glass shattered, sprinkling the pavement and myself with a plastic-tinkle. Stunned, I stared at the undercarriage of the Ford, at the spinning tires, and then quickly rolled out from underneath the Chevy I’d hidden under. The hunk of metal was bent downwards, there was hay everywhere, but it stood proudly.

  I looked back to see Sandy pushing back up to her feet, Harley mimicking the action, both of them looking around with stunned expressions. An alien scream made us all cringe, and I saw one of those leaner things catching sight of us.

  I withdrew my weapon of choice, gulping in amounts of bravado and courage when this manly person shoved me aside and I heard this low blop! that made me cringe in reaction. I know that sound – sure enough, the grenade slammed into the alien, exploding and sending it flying back. Stunned, it whipped its head from side to side as it revealed a singed chest. It staggered from side to side, slamming into various vehicles as it struggled to right itself.

  Benson shouldered his grenade launcher and shouted at me to go that way!, pointing off to the side. I went that way! and found it hard to do so – my body was so stiff and sore. Amidst the alien screeching, the weird puffs of sound that caused more explosions, I heard him screaming at his comrades to hurry up!, to drag him with you!

  Struggling for breath, I ran down the dirt slope, catching sight of other people struggling like me. All of them looked terrified and exhausted, their legs plowing through dirt and sagebrush with desperation. The sun, as low as it was, continued to sink – I had the thought that once it did, we’d be in the clear. The aliens wouldn’t be able to see us. We were running along the river when someone toppled over, flopped into the iced waters – two people stopped running to assist, but I didn’t. I was useless in that factor, barely able to help myself.

  I cringed as they screamed at me to help them.

  Still running, I watched as a couple of men turned and headed back up to the freeway – the hill was a little too steep on this side, but I didn’t want to chance more falling cars hitting me. As more people went up, I continued along the hillside. In doing so, my legs gave out due to the positioning, and I went tumbling towards the river. My feet slapped against ice and water, and I cried aloud as I caught onto some brush hanging overhead. Cold shocked me to my bones, and I did this awkward pull and yank, forcing myself up from the river and onto the dirt. My pants clung to me, ice cold and muddy, and I crawled on all fours through the dirt, settling on that position to get me through this steep angle.

  Eventually I made it – things were being left behind me. There were still explosions, still faint screams of both people and aliens, still fantastic slams of vehicle on vehicle. But the further I moved, the closer the Tracy Clark plant looked - no matter that it was currently resembled a smoke-wall of sorts, a column of black coloring the sky. The river project was to my side – where they were doing a renovation of some sort to the banks, to alleviate some type of flooding situation, I’m not exactly sure –and the freeway had risen to tower overhead. I ran, I huffed and puffed – I kept stumbling over sagebrush and rocks, and I did run into a couple of people that had made it as far as I did. None of whom I recognized.

  All of us were mindless, running to get away.

  : :

  Driven by fear, I ran until my legs gave out. I had just reached the Tracy Clark plant – but there was only smoldering flames and smoke that let me know this place had been destroyed hours earlier. I felt sick upon inhaling the fumes, but there was nothing more I could do about it.

  It was too dark for me to continue on without using my flashlight, and I was shivering so badly that my teeth were rattling noisily in the immense quiet. There was the sound of coyotes in the distance, but nothing else. The noises had stopped a long time ago near the USA Parkway Bridge, and when I’d looked back a few times, there was only a mountain on fire. It illuminated the area back there, and it looked to be spreading this way, so I’d crossed the freeway and was walking on the flatter side. It would catch up to me soon, so I kept walking. I wanted to stay close to the freeway, in case I caught up to other people.

  My pants were so cold. The guy that had flopped into the river must have been frozen to the bones.

  My breath was visible as I breathed - my lungs ached. I was so tired that I stumbled with every third step, ready to fall asleep at any moment. Every part of me was tired, sore, stiff – I yawned and struggled to stay awake. I’d heard of people falling asleep on their feet, but I didn’t believe one could do it until now. My mind was trying to keep me alert and awake, but my body refused to keep pace. I tilted my head up and looked up at the night sky – where all the stars twinkled brightly, brilliantly. The hot pink feathering of the Milky Way was completely visible, and I was awestruck at the quality of colors. I’d never really looked up, before.

  I tumbled over sagebrush I hadn’t seen in my path, and ended up laying there for a few minutes. I wanted to curl up and sleep there, but I managed to push myself into a standing position that almost made me fall again. I felt heavy with all my supplies and layers that I staggered a few times before righting myself and continuing on. My legs felt like lead, and my shoes felt useless against the dirt I plowed through.

  I crossed my arms tightly over my chest, my Fubar heavy and unmanageable against my back. The sling I’d constructed didn’t feel tight enough, but I didn’t want to uncurl myself to fix it. My gloves weren’t thick enough – Walmart sold faulty products. I tried to construct a strongly worded email of complaint in my tired thoughts, ready to give the execs a new hole for providing cheap things at their stores. Despite my usage of big and small words that ranged from bad English to polite cursing, I couldn’t keep my mind alert enough to add on more complaints to this imaginary letter.

  Everything caught up to me at once, so when I flopped once more to the ground, I didn’t bother getting back up. I curled up as best as I could and went to sleep, hoping to be woken by the sun, rather than nasty alien creatures and Rabid.

  It felt like I’d just fallen asleep when I was roughly hauled to my feet. Instead of firmly setting my tired stubs onto the dirt, my weight pulled forward and we both hit the ground. I didn’t bother to apologize or help the other person get up – Sandy was man enough for both of us. She cursed, climbed back up and made me get up.

  “We found a truck,” she said, as I blinked heavy, thick eyelids – eyelid. The other one was still swollen shut. It ached, now, as I looked around and saw that it was darker – the moon was lower. I’d slept for some time, but not enough time. I wonder how she found me. She was practically holding me aloft with one arm as she moved toward the freeway. There were three vehicles sitting in a group, heaters blasting. />
  My selfish, black heart was glad that I didn’t see the people I’d left behind, the ones that tried to help the one from the river. But I cringed at the thought of it just the same.

  “Found another one!” she said as we approached, and before I could do anything, she was shoving me face first into this dually, where I had to climb and rely on her pushing hands on my ass to get me into the extended cab. I was grouped with a couple of shivering men and – yup. Harley.

  He patted me atop of the head to say ‘hi’, then returned to resting his head on the driver’s side passenger window. I made the man sitting next to him switch me seats. I was determined to use the one I knew as a pillow. Sandy was saying something to all of us, but I was too tired to bother listening to her. I went back to sleep with my Fubar digging into my back.

  When I awoke, feeling somewhat better with the rest I’d taken, the sun was extremely bright – the truck rattled, and we were driving slowly along a dirt road I didn’t recognize. Sandy was sitting in the front passenger seat, her un-helmeted head resting against the inside crook of her arm, which was holding tightly onto the panic handle above the window. The driver was another soldier, who was snapping his gum noisily while the person sitting between them struggled to maintain balance to rest his head on Sandy’s shoulder. Harley was still sleeping, and when I left my head, I saw that I’d drooled on him. I patted on it absently, and looked over at the other two men. They were just as dead-tired, and were sleeping as best as they could.