by Bill Parker
~
Ten thousand kilometers away, Jessica was awakened by an incessant beeping and the sound of Jack’s voice, “Jess! Jess! Wake up!”
“Okay! Okay! I’m awake. I’m awake but how ...”
“The crystal necklace, but no time for that. Don’t you hear the Jag Alarms? Why aren’t you all scrambling? Didn’t anyone come to wake you?”
Come to think of it, she could hear something in the distance.
“No one pays any attention to those old alarms anymore. There haven’t been any Jags for the last fifteen years. What are you talking about?” She was confused and not really awake.
“Jess, you listen to me and you listen good. I am not crazy and I am certainly not I delusional. There are four Jag Cruisers in orbit right now and three more on approach. Listen to me. Listen and live. You have to do what I tell you or you and your family will surely die ...”
“Mom! Dad! Wake up! Everybody up!” Jessica shouted down the hall and kept it up until they all were. Finally, her father came out of his bedroom.
“What’s wrong? What’s wrong?” He had a pulse rifle in his hands.
“Jags! The Jags are back. They’re coming now! We’ve got to get out of here!”
“Oh, my Dear God! What nonsense is this? That damned that crazy old Henry Morgan has made my daughter crazy!”
“I am not crazy. Jack called …”
“Jack Morgan? Henry Morgan? It’s all the same. They have you believing all of this ridiculous Jag nonsense!” That’s when Ben heard the old Jag Alarm sounding in the distance.
Jessica’s Dad could see the action from a second story window. The Jags were like a nightmare from mankind’s distant past. Jags came in many shapes and colors and could only be adequately described as gargoyles or demons. The Union had named them the ‘Jatarian Alien Group’, which everyone quickly shortened to Jags. Had their ancestors visited our ancestors ours on Earth sometime in the distant past? No one really knows. All that anyone really knew was that they were still our worst nightmare. They were smart, and they were ruthless and the Jags only had one use for humans – to kill them. Was it an ancient vendetta? But there was no negotiating anything with the Jags. Jags don’t negotiate and they only take prisoners to kill them slowly later… just for pleasure.
Their house was high up on a hill and well hidden in the woods, but it would not take the Jags long to find it. Everyone dressed quickly in the dark. There were three pulse rifles that came out of Ben’s closet. Her Dad and two brothers would protect the women. Jessica’s mother, Alice was crying softly.
“Don’t scare the kids,” Ben told her.
“What will we do?” she sobbed.
“Well, if we stay here we will surely die,” Jessica told them. “Jack told me that we have to get to Shelter 47. He said that he would come for us as soon as he could, but we have to get there now.”
Ben considered his options. “Gather behind me. We are going to Shelter 47.”
“Do they still exist after all these years?” Alice asked Ben softly as they left the house.
“I sure hope so,” he whispered back to only her.
They did well. Benjamin Talbot moved his family quickly away from the danger by moving them from cover to cover. They moved silently out toward where Ben knew the old shelters once were, in the foothills a few kilometers outside of town. He could hear firing in the distance behind them but so far, they moved freely. He stepped up the pace.
“We need to get to the shelter before dawn. We need to keep together, but we just have to go faster,” he told his family in a loud whisper. Pulse rifle fire in the distance behind them kept them jogging along at a good pace now. Morning twilight was just setting in when Ben came to Shelter 47’s door. You wouldn’t know what it was unless you were human. It just looked like a rock face unless you knew how to find the keypad. Benjamin Talbot looked deep into old memories to recall the code that his family was given to no avail.
Jessica walked right up to the door while her father just kept on trying codes. Jack had assured her that this place was safe. What was wrong? Logic fled from her. The crystal necklace that she wore came alive. It pulsed blue. The door control responded. It pulsed blue in return and then went green. After a brief second, the door opened for them.
“We’ll be OK now,” Ben told his family when they were all safely inside. Jessica found a small blue card tacked up next to the monitor panel. It read, “This shelter is serviced by the volunteers from StarQuake Engineers. We sincerely hope that it never has to be used.” It was signed, “Calamity Jane.” She lit up the defensive force field just as Jack had instructed her to.
It was late morning before the first Jag patrol wandered by. The sight of them alone was enough to scare the weak of heart half out of their wits.
“Those things out there are flesh and blood just like us,” Ben assured his boys. “They’re not demons. We can kill them so whatever you do, don’t you ever stop shooting.”
Ben Talbot watched them on his monitor panel. The Jags were on the scent of humans but just couldn’t quite fathom why the scent went cold. For not being demons, they surely acted the part. They were arguing and scrapping amongst themselves when a second group arrived. This group had scientific instruments and began sweeping the area. They walked right up to the hidden door and pointed right at it and smiled. The group of them began howling and shrieking and dancing about. Ben turned down the audio. His family didn’t need to hear this.
A blazing hot noon sun beat down on the Jags as they rolled up one of their light field cannons. Benjamin gathered his family together in the back of the shelter.
“If any survive the door coming down, I want you to keep firing at Jags as long as you are able. Do you hear me?” He asked his two teenage boys.
“Yes sir,” he eldest son answered. “We’ll keep firing.”
Ben hadn’t counted on the force field holding as long as it did. It wasn’t until the fourth shot that the lights went out. The field generator and power source were spent. The next shot would blow the door.
“Hold your ground,” he told his sons. “Don’t stop firing no matter what happens. You must keep firing.”
