Fire in the Woods

by Jennifer M. Eaton

  My father ran backward several steps, and the giant searchlight beside the jeep switched on. Three soldiers turned the massive beacon toward Cranky’s advancing form, illuminating the alien completely.

  Cranky turned toward the beam and hollered at it. He raised his hands to the dark heavens. The sky mottled and moved toward him. A dark mass crept out of the night like a black-gloved hand reaching out of a shadowy closet.

  Dad shouted orders across the field, and the giant search light changed to a bluish-green stream. An ear-shattering tone reverberated through the clearing. Above us, the black glove receded into the sky.

  Cranky recoiled as the blue searchlight hit him. His body shook and reeled. His feet held firmly to the ground. His hair turned to smoking tendrils of light before fizzling away. What were they doing to him? His body lurched back, as if being pulled forward by invisible hands. His face changed, distorted.

  My jaw plummeted, exposing my tongue to the warm air and the taste of acrid smoke. Cranky’s face rippled, buckled, and slipped from his body. David wrapped his hand over my mouth, and I realized I’d screamed. I grit my teeth to keep from crying out again as pieces of Cranky’s skin drew away from his form, melting as they flew through the air, sucked in by the light. I gagged on the putrid stench.

  Cranky fell to his knees. The light changed from deep blue to clear, illuminating his alien form as clearly as if in daylight. David released me and we both inched the branches further apart. Cranky remained down, his chest shifting rhythmically in a constant stream of deep breaths.

  He stood slowly, allowing his four-fingered hands to fall to his sides. I knew it was probably an illusion, but freed from his human disguise, Cranky seemed taller. Deep violescent skin covered a lean, muscular body. Large spots of darker purple decorated his form in a mottled pattern. His head, naked, glistened with what appeared to be perspiration.

  A low hum emanated from above, lasting not longer than five seconds, but rattling those below.

  “What was that?” I asked.

  David shivered. “A warning—but that doesn’t make any sense. It sounded like a battle ship, not a transport.”

  Cranky inched toward the light.

  “Stop,” a voice called over a speaker. “Lie down with your hands on the pavement.”

  Cranky continued to walk.

  “What is he doing?” David whispered.

  “Put your hands on the pavement, now!”

  Cranky sprang into a jog, bolting toward the light.

  “No,” David cried, throttling through the bush.

  I wrenched him back. “Don’t do it, David.”

  Gunfire rattled the forest. Cranky shook with each impact and fell to his knees.

  “Why?” David whispered. “Why would he do that?”

  Cranky edged forward on his knees. Two more pops reverberating in the night slowed him. A sinking dread encompassed me as he fell to the pavement, face-first.

  “This isn’t good,” David whispered. “We have to get out of here.”

  He backed out of the bush. I followed on my hands and knees. David yelled, and I heard something hit the ground. “David?”

  A hand reached inside the bush and hauled me out by the hair. My scalp burned as a shot of panic engulfed me.

  “Let go, Jerk!” A flashlight blinded my eyes.

  The hair-yanker forced me to my feet. David lay on the ground, a noose around his neck attached to a long pole held by an MP.

  A soldier approached.

  “Look, sir.” An MP grasped David’s hand, showing the officer the exposed alien flesh left after melting his skin on my stove.

  The officer drew a small flashlight from his jacket. “Good. Let’s test him and make sure this thing works.” He rolled up the arm of David’s sweatshirt and shined the light on his wrist. David’s face twisted as the pink flesh melted away, revealing the pearly lilac hue beneath. “Bingo,” the officer said. He turned to me, light in hand.

  “Get away from me with that thing, you jerk. I’m human.”

  “Gotta make sure.” He raised the light.

  “Wait!” A voice cried. Maggie’s brother circled around a guard and stood in front of me. I’d never been so happy to see a familiar face in all my life, even if it was my ex. He leaned close to my face. “Who am I?” he asked.

  “Bobby it’s me, you freak! Tell these idiots to let me go.”

  He smiled. “This is Jessica Martinez. She’s the missing girl.”

  Officer Jerk advanced, light-thingy in hand. “We still need to test her.”

  Bobby moved between us. “But I know her.”

  “We can’t be sure that’s not a stolen skin.”

  Bobby grimaced, and nodded. The officer pointed the light at my face, but Bobby shielded me with his hand.

  “Do it somewhere where it won’t scar.”

  “Like where?”

  Bobby gently lifted my arm. I tried to pull away.

  His grip tightened. “Jess, hold still.” He held my left pinky steady, while the jerk shined his light on my fingertip.

  My skin tingled. Pressure built until a searing red burn appeared. I whimpered, flailing and lashing against the restraint, and finally howled as a blister rose and burst.

  “Let her go,” David grumbled. “I’m the one you want.”

  “She’s clean,” the jerk said, dropping the light in his pocket. He turned toward David. “Let’s get Martian Manhunter here back to General Baker.”

  I stared at the welt bubbling from my skin and bit back my tears, pulling against the guy holding me as they heaved David to his feet. The MP handling David’s leash pressed a button, and David’s body convulsed as if he’d fingered an electrical socket. A groan escaped his clenched teeth.

  “Leave him alone,” I shouted.

  The jerk pointed at me. “Take her too.”

  Mr. Pull-My-Hair cricked my hands behind my back, and cold metal touched my wrists. The click sent a shiver up my spine.

  “I’ll take her.” Bobby’s warm fingers brushed against my hands, taking the icy cuffs. “Make this easy on yourself, Jess. They think you were in cahoots with that thing.”

  “I was in cahoots with him. He’s trying to help.”

  Bobby tensed. “You’re not yourself right now.”

  “Yes I am.” I leaned back and whispered, “Bobby, you need to listen to me. The aliens are invading. David is the only one who can stop it.”

  “You’re talking crazy.”

  “No, I’m not. If David doesn’t get on that ship, we’re all going to die.”

  Bobby gently nudged me. “You’ve been compromised, Jess. These things can get into your head…make you believe anything they want. It’s not your fault.”

  “No, it’s not true.” At least I hoped it wasn’t true.

  The airstrip lighting glowed through the bushes to my left. Cranky had crawled up to his knees, and the man with binoculars around his neck stood above him.

  Dad.

  Bobby gave me a mild shove, and I stumbled forward. I pulled at the handcuffs, craning to see through the bushes where Dad pointed a gun at Cranky’s face.

  “Dad, no!”

  The resonance of the gunshot bore through my chest as painfully as if the gun had been pointed at me. Everything that made me human wailed in anguish as Cranky fell to the pavement, lifeless.

  “Dad! No. Dad!” I struggled against Bobby’s grip.

  “Jess! Thank the Lord.” My father’s voice froze me.

  I stopped struggling, my eyes filled with tears. “Dad?”

  My father stepped out of the forest. Relief swept over his face. I twisted to see over my left shoulder. The man hovering over Cranky’s body holstered his weapon and marched toward the jeep. It wasn’t him.

  “Get those stinking handcuffs off my daughter.” Dad pushed Bobby back.

  Officer Jerk intervened. “We found her with the alien. She needs to come in for questioning.�
�

  Dad snatched the keys from Officer Jerk’s side. “She’ll cooperate. You don’t need the cuffs.”

  A click and a gentle tug freed my hands. I rubbed my wrists, warding away the suffocating feel of the metal from my skin.

  An ominous hiss bounded through the forest, followed by a ringing that ricocheted inside my skull. I pressed my hands against my ears.

  David’s eyes searched the sky. “Oh, no.”

  “What is it?” I called over the noise. “Are they landing?”

  “No, it’s much worse.”

  A black mass skipped across the treetops as the hiss soared overhead. A low-toned Whomp thumped my chest.

  Officer Jerk fell to his knees, clawing at his ears. “What the fu…”

  The jeep that carried binocular-guy rose into the air, hovering for three seconds before exploding, showering the landscape with sparks and fire.

  I held my arms up to shield my eyes from the light, and ran to David. “Is this the scourge?”

  Another ship passed overhead.

  “No,” David said, panic riddling his face. “It’s my father.”

  “Your what?”

  My eyes darted to Cranky’s lifeless body, illuminated by the flickering flames from the explosion. The Erescopians expected to pick up Cranky and Blondie together, and David all by himself. What would David’s father do if he thought his son was dead?

  The man with the binoculars ran from the debris and falling flames. A hiss and a mottled black shadow appeared out of the night, enveloping him. He screamed, shaking and convulsing. The veil closed over him like a mouth. His feet left the ground as the shadow rose and began to fade. The man’s form dissolved within the dark mass and disappeared within the diminishing apparition. His screaming stopped.

  “What was that?” I grasped David’s arm.

  The MP yanked on his collar, dragging David from the trees.

  “Let him go,” I pulled David back. Another soldier knocked me forward and I fell, buckling my kneecaps against the ground. So much for chivalry.

  I wiped the hair from my eyes as a dark oval fell from the sky and hovered mere feet above the runway.

  A dull thud echoed through the forest. The reverberation struck my heart, tingling my chest until the ship darted straight back into the sky. The giant searchlight-alien-skin-stripper burst into flames. The heat battered my face despite the padding of brush. The tops of the trees overhead disappeared into a maddened blaze. My flight reflex fought against my need to stay with David. My legs ached with the desire to run.

  Far above, rattling automatic weapons told me our planes had joined the fight in the sky.

  I searched the confusion and found my father barking orders into the air while soldiers swarmed around him. I clutched at his shirt. “Dad, you need to let David go. He can stop this.”

  He grabbed my shoulders. “Jess, you need to understand that what you’re feeling isn’t real. It’s made you believe what it wants you to believe.”

  “Dad, you’re wrong. David’s not like them. He wants to help. He wants to tell them to stop.”

  “You can’t be sure of that.”

  “But I am. Dad, you need to believe me. You don’t know what we’ve been through. David is real. We can trust him.”

  He set his jaw and turned away.

  “Dad, if you can trust me once in your life, it’s gotta be now. Please, help me.”

  His eyes darted to my left. David knelt, noose around his neck. Officer Jerk had a gun pointed at his face.

  “Stop,” Dad said. “What are you doing?”

  An explosion lit up the sky, shaking what was left of the trees above.

  “They killed the other one, didn’t you see?” The Jerk’s finger shook on the trigger.

  “Stand down,” Dad held up his hands and walked cautiously toward him.

  The Jerk spun, pointing the weapon at us. “No. You stand down. This thing was in your house. How do we know you aren’t compromised?”

  Dad huffed and punched him in the nose. He disarmed the jerk before he’d even hit the ground. Bobby took the gun from Dad and tucked it into a pouch.

  I dropped to my knees and tried to remove David’s noose, but Dad stopped me. “We can’t let him go, Jess.”

  “Why not?”

  “Right now, he’s all the leverage we have.”

  A hum like the loudest train engine ever blasted us from above. Our eyes shot to the treetops. A plane, whose I couldn’t tell—fell from the sky. Branches melted like butter before the ship slammed into the woods. Fire shot out, consuming the trees and singing our faces…pinning us between the intensity of the crash-sight and the explosions rocking the airfield.

  “Dad, you need to listen to me.”

  His eyes hardened. He held me from David.

  Another blasting crescendo raged through the forest, ending with a rippling explosion. The ground shook beneath our feet.

  Dad thrust me into Bobby’s arms. “Get her out of here.” He turned to the soldiers. “Fall in. You there—” The commotion engulfed him as he continued to bark orders.

  My gaze found Bobby’s. “You said you cared about me, right?”

  “Not really a good time, Jess.”

  “I need you to trust me. David is the only one who can stop this.”

  Bobby shook his head. “I have to follow orders. I can’t let him go.”

  I punched his chest. “Wuss!” I shoved him away and flung my body through the bushes. Brambles snagged at my shirt. A branch whipped back and gashed my face. I reached for my cheek and pulled away blood-stained fingers.

  Fear found me as I fell to the asphalt. The hard surface of the tarmac scraped my hands. I struggled to catch my breath, alarmed by the heat and flames shooting out from the remains of the jeep and searchlight. A tank moved across the far side of the field, shooting into the sky. A second lay on its side. The bodies of five soldiers littered the ground at the machine’s base.

  Another dull thud droned through the air. The intense sound tingled my skin. The air quivered and hazed before the airport’s re-fueling tank erupted into a howling ball of flames. I held my hands over my head. My skin burned as the heat rolled over the blacktop. The hairs on my arm curled and fell away as I shielded my eyes from the billowing cloud.

  This had to stop. It just had to stop!

  I raised myself from the hot runway and ran into the center of the field, passing Cranky’s body and what remained of the alien-melting searchlight. Smoke filled my lungs, choking me as I reached the small grassy area separating the two landing strips.

  Black shimmering ovals zoomed back and forth over my head. The air rattled above as another base tone resonated through the night. The tank firing into the sky left the ground and exploded into a shower of metal and fire. I ducked. A melted piece of a door clanged to the ground not more than a yard from me. I stared at it, transfixed, allowing the heat to singe my face.

  “No more,” I whispered.

  I stood and waved my hands in the sky. “Hey! Hey you up there! David is okay! He’s fine.” I pointed toward the trees. “He’s in there. Please, you gotta stop. Please!”

  A huge ball of fire zoomed past my face. What was left of the airport’s tower teetered and fell across the field, crashing atop the one-story building at its base. Soldiers scurried away, looking for cover that no longer existed.

  One of the long, black floating ovals slowed and hovered above me. The glossy exterior spun, silent amongst the ensuing commotion. The surface rolled. Its hull shined like the patent leather shoes I used to wear for dance class.

  “Hey,” I waved my arms. “You up there. Come out. David’s over here!”

  The hull shimmered. The ship’s underside molded itself like animated play dough, teasing and kneading into a myriad of shapes. Light filled a hole centered in the flexing clay. Thousands of stars shifted and coalesced inside, forming into one solid sparkling band. My lips formed into an �
��O”, my mind allured by the light’s beauty.

  “Owe!” A blinding pulse shot from the ship. I shut my eyes, but it hardly seemed to help. When my lashes fluttered open, swirls of white effervescence imprisoned me. My gaze trailed upward, and I grabbed my throat when I realized I couldn’t breathe. A piercing screech blotted out all other sound, filling my ears with brash resonance. I opened my lips to cry for help, and whimpered as what little air inside my lungs sucked out, stolen…propelled toward the light source.

  I fell to my knees, holding my neck, struggling for a breath of non-existent air. The tarmac gravel bit into my cheek, and I realized I’d collapsed. The light became transparent and turned orange. Through its pulsing screen, hazy visions of soldiers falling and clawing at their chests seemed distant, unimportant.

  My cheeks heated. My back stung. My body shook. Dread beyond measure wrenched a hole in my heart.

  I’d failed, and as punishment, I would be the first victim of the scourge.

  22

  A heavy weight pressed me to the ground. Out of air, I had no energy to fight it. My mind whirled.

  My first time horseback riding. Mom laughing on the Snow White ride at Disney World. Dad telling Grandma I never think of anyone but myself. Driving down Route 42 before waking up in the hospital. Mom laughing at my third-grade play. The look on Dad’s face when he told me she was dead.

  My cheek scraped across the gravel. My body lifted, and strong hands flung me onto my back.

  “Breathe Jess!” David’s voice filled my mind, circling and weaving around memories of camping in Delaware when I was eleven. “Breathe!”

  I opened my lips and inhaled. My lungs filled. I blinked, and the world came into focus. Soldiers littered the runway, scrabbling, crawling—trying to escape the lights. The pressure continued to hold me down.

  “J-just k-keep br-reathing.” David’s face came into focus above me. His lips stretched in a grimace.

  I reached up to touch his cheeks. My hands singed as the orange sheen touched them.

  “No,” he said. “K-keep under m-me.”

  I drew my hands back, and placed them on his chest. David trembled, holding himself over my body, shielding me from the light. Dark fluid seeped from his ear, and dripped to my face.