by Andrew Gates
He quickly turned around. His family was out of sight now. He gulped as he turned to face west again.
Crack! Snap! Thud! More noises echoed through the forest. Whoever was here, they were close. Grey’s own pounding heartbeat mixed into the chorus of it all.
After a few more steps, Grey could now make out the sight of a small creek at the bottom of the hill. Just as he feared, five zombies calmly patrolled its bank.
“Shit,” Grey muttered to himself as he quickly hid behind a nearby tree trunk.
He could hear the creatures snarl. The sound instantly brought him back to a place he hoped he would never see again. In that moment, he was on the beach with the others; Dan, Iris, Ryan and the rest, surrounded by zombies on all sides. He and his friends were heavily armed. They fired everything they had into the sea of enemies around them to no avail.
Lives were lost that day. Innocent lives, young lives.
No, I won’t let that happen, he thought to himself. These zombies don’t know we’re here yet. They don’t see me, they don’t hear me, they don’t smell… That was when Grey suddenly realized that he knew nothing about the zombies’ sense of smell. For all he knew, they might have been able to smell him from kilometers off. Naturally, he instantly feared the worst.
“Shit,” he muttered again as his body trembled.
He slowly peered around the tree trunk again until he caught a glimpse of the zombies below. They still seemed to pay him no mind. They wandered beside the creek as if nothing were amiss.
Okay, so that’s good, he thought, letting out a deep sigh of relief. Maybe their sense of smell isn’t much different from ours.
Smash, grr, smash, grr, smash! Suddenly a heavy stomping sound echoed through the forest from the north. Grey instantly turned to face the noise. Far off in the distance, tall trees toppled down one by one.
Like Grey, all five zombies immediately directed their attention to the heavy stomps. Two of them even took off toward the sound, ready to hunt.
Grey could already guess what was coming. He gripped the tree trunk tightly and stared north. And then, just as he expected, a mech belonging to the mantises came into view. The massive vehicle was like a tank on two legs. It smashed trees and foliage down with every thunderous step it took.
As soon as the zombies came into range, the mech opened fire. Even from where he stood, Grey could feel the intense heat as rockets blasted through the air, taking out the two advancing zombies in a fiery explosion.
If zombies had any survival instinct at all, the remaining three would have turned and ran away in that moment. But zombies did not think like other creatures. They held no survival instinct. Instead, they ran toward the advancing mech, not away from it.
Like clockwork, the mech took no time to eliminate the remaining zombies. The entire battle, if you could even call it that, was over in a matter of seconds.
After a few more steps, the mech stopped only a few meters down the hill from where Grey hid. It stood still in place, unmoving. For a moment Grey wondered if it had suddenly run out of power. But then the knees bent and the entire machine slowly lowered to the ground to the sound of hydraulics.
Nothing happened at first. Grey even debated turning and running back to his family. But then, before his very eyes, a hatch atop the mech began to open. Grey paused and watched as the hatch slowly came up, then stopped in place once fully uncovered.
A massive claw rose from inside the cabin to grip the outside of the vehicle.
Grey instinctively pulled back behind the tree, hoping not to be spotted.
Another claw gripped the opposite side of the hole. Seconds later, a mantis head sprung up, followed by the rest of its body. The creature pulled itself all the way through and crawled around until it stood atop the flat roof of the vehicle. It wore a thin brown armor unlike any he had seen before.
As the mantis climbed down from atop the mech, another soon pulled its way through the hatch, following the first one out. This one was dressed similarly to the first but stood a bit shorter in stature. Grey watched as both creatures touched down on solid ground and walked through the creek, growling and roaring to each other in words he could not understand.
They’ve left the vehicle. What could they be doing? Grey wondered as he watched the mantises with great interest.
The two creatures continued to talk to one another in their foreign words. The taller one pointed into the distance down south and the other one growled back. They communicated this way for a few more seconds before eventually splitting up. The taller mantis followed the creek down to the south, just where it had pointed, while the shorter one followed it north.
They’re splitting up, Grey realized, and they’re leaving the mech behind.
Grey was in awe. He could hardly believe what he was witnessing. The mantises had left their mech open and available only a few meters from where he now stood.
The lone onlooker lifted his gaze and stared into the west, recalling how long the journey had already been to get this far. It had been a long, slow, arduous trip. This mech could change all that.
Grey clenched his fists and sighed. He felt his heart pound quickly.
“Are you really going to do this?” he muttered to himself aloud.
He stared down at the open mech. It couldn’t have been too far. He quickly reevaluated the two mantises again. The one to the north was now squatting down over the water. The one to the south was doing the same, with a steady stream of urine flowing from its body.
They’re taking a piss, Grey realized. He slowly stood up. They’re preoccupied. Good. It was now or never. He had waited and missed too many opportunities already. He would not wait any longer.
In that moment, Grey felt his feet lift off the ground. He pushed his body forward down the hill, proceeding at full speed. He no longer cared about staying hidden or staying quiet. He only had a few seconds to make it and he would not waste an instant.
He would not lose this chance.
As he neared the creek, the mantis to the north suddenly took notice. It let out a loud roar and pointed right at him with its left claw. Grey refused to slow down as the mantises from both the north and south suddenly took off in his direction.
Go, go, go, he told himself, not letting the empty mech out of his sight. He pressed on, seamlessly sprinting through bushes and branches like nothing was there. Come on, come on! At last, he was so close that he could see the mech in full clarity.
Even lowered to the ground, the vehicle was tall. He would have to jump to make it, and with the two mantises on their way, he knew he would only have one shot.
He ran and ran and ran until he was a meter away from the vehicle. His boots splashed in the water. Grey hoped he had timed it right. He pushed off the ground with all the force he could muster. His body soared through the sky as he raised his hands up.
Slam! His chest collided against the firm metal surface of the vehicle. He ignored the pain and gripped the roof with both hands, feeling the top of the hull.
Yes! I did it! Grey realized. But he was not safe yet. The mantises were nearly on him now. Using all the strength he had, Grey pulled himself up and over until his whole body was on the roof. He quickly rolled into the hole, landing inside with a thud.
He stood up and faced the ceiling, not even taking a second to look around the cabin. The ceiling was tall, obviously built to accommodate the height of the mantis pilots. Grey jumped up and grabbed the hatch from beneath and pulled it down with the force of his bodyweight just as a mantis claw scratched against the roof.
“Oh Lord, oh Lord,” he muttered aloud. His heart raced. He desperately scanned the roof for some sort of locking mechanism. After a few seconds of searching, he found a red button and pressed it. Sure enough, he heard the hatch lock into place. In that moment, he fell down the floor with a deep sigh of relief.
“No way,” he said as he closed his eyes and caught his breath. “No way,” he said again.
Grey opened his ey
es and slowly stood up. The inside of the mech echoed with the sounds of mantis claws desperately scratching against the metal exterior. Grey put the sounds out of mind and finally had time to examine the inside of the vehicle.
There were two massive backless seats, each with two large joysticks positioned before a glowing monitor. Grey sat down in the seat to the right and had never felt so short. His feet dangled above the ground and he had to reach out extra far just to grab hold of the two joysticks. He played around with the controls, swinging the left stick around.
“Alright, let’s see what happens,” he narrated to himself.
Suddenly the vehicle twisted to the left and Grey could hear the sound of a mantis falling down to the ground, as if being thrown off. As the mech twisted, the view on the monitor before him also moved to the left. A camera. I’m seeing what the mech sees, he realized.
Grey moved the joystick on the right now, but nothing seemed to happen. A message written in foreign text appeared on the screen.
“Hmm,” he muttered.
Then he noticed a small toggle on the side of the right joystick. It was set all the way down. He moved it up and, to his surprise, the entire vehicle rose from the ground.
“Shit,” he said as the entire cabin seemed to shake. He stabilized himself, hoping not to fall from the edge of his massive chair.
Once the mech’s legs straightened out and the cabin became still, the view on screen must have been raised two or three meters higher. Grey moved the right joystick again, expecting it to stay in place like last time. However, the vehicle began moving forward.
“Okay, okay,” he narrated aloud. “Now I get it. Left joystick is for looking left and right. Right joystick is for moving around.”
Grey played around with it a little more, figuring out exactly how to pilot the thing. The joysticks were pretty sensitive, so it moved at the slightest touch.
Bang, bang, bang! A loud sound prompted Grey to look up to the ceiling. He could hear angry roars in the mantis tongue. Oh shit, he thought. One mantis may have been thrown to the ground, but the other was still on top of the mech.
Like last time, Grey tried spinning the vehicle quickly to the left and right, hoping to knock the mantis off the roof, but this time it did no good. The banging continued.
Grey turned back to the forward monitor and saw a tall tree before him with a thick branch extending out. He didn’t have any way to measure it, but from quickly eyeballing it, the branch seemed close enough to the mech’s height.
He suddenly had an idea.
The desperate hijacker moved the vehicle forward now, directing it toward the branch. The cabin shook with each step, but the mantis on the roof continued to strike, undeterred. An indent was beginning to form in the metal ceiling from the repeated bangs. Shit, Grey thought. That’s not good.
He was almost to the tree now. Just a few more steps and… thud!
Just as Grey hoped, the mantis was too distracted to notice the tree. The mech passed barely underneath the thick branch as it knocked the mantis right off the roof. Even from inside the vehicle, Grey could hear his attacker roar in anger from behind.
The mantises were clear of the vehicle now, but they were not dead. As long as they lived, they were still dangerous. Grey would not put his family in danger. He knew what had to be done.
Grey moved the left joystick, spinning the cabin around. He could clearly see both mantises desperately running up behind him in pursuit. He gulped.
“Okay, okay,” he muttered aloud as he looked at the various controls. “Weapons… where are the weapons?” He pressed a few buttons, pulled a few levers, but no weapons seemed to fire.
The mantises were nearly on him. The closest one raised its claw, ready to strike.
“Come on, come on,” he said.
He turned to the side and examined the chair to his left. While it had the same two joysticks and monitor, some of the buttons around it seemed wholly different. He suddenly wondered if one set of controls was meant for the pilot, while the other was meant for the gunner.
Grey quickly jumped down from the seat and moved to the other station. He climbed up and grabbed hold of the joystick, feeling a trigger along the stick to the right. Meanwhile, the closest advancing mantis was a mere breath from the mech’s forward camera.
“Here goes nothing,” Grey said as he squeezed down on the trigger.
Suddenly a massive net shot out from the mech and caught the nearest mantis inside of it. The large creature stumbled back and rolled on the ground as it tried to free itself from the net. Grey watched as it positioned its claws around the netting and began snipping away.
Not what I wanted to do, but it bought me some time, Grey thought as he continued to examine the controls. The left joystick had a trigger on it too. This one was painted red.
“Red… that’s got to mean something, right?” Grey said as he squeezed this trigger.
Suddenly a rocket blasted forward, shooting past both mantises and colliding into the creek. It exploded in the water, sending waves and smoke into the sky.
“Whoa!” Grey exclaimed with wide eyes. That was exactly what he was looking for.
But Grey did not have much time to enjoy this revelation. Before he knew it, the captured mantis had freed itself from the net and the other was right on him. Both mantises stood just meters away now.
Before Grey had time to respond, both mantises lunged forward. The tallest one grabbed hold of the mech, while the shorter one climbed atop the other’s shoulders and clung to the vehicle. It began stabbing at a specific point on the mech and Grey quickly realized that it was trying to destroy the rocket launcher.
“No you don’t!” Grey said as he squeezed the red trigger again, launching a rocket forward. But the rocket barley exited the barrel before it exploded against the mantis’s claw, creating an inferno of fire against the mech’s hull.
The entire cabin trembled and the forward camera went fuzzy for a moment. Even from inside the vehicle, Grey could feel the intense heat of the explosion outside.
When the smoke cleared, Grey could make out the sight on screen of an injured mantis flailing on the ground. One of its claws was now missing and its left arm ended at the point of a smoking stub. Meanwhile, the other mantis was unscathed.
Grey angled the cannon down and squeezed the left trigger again, but this time nothing happened. No rockets fired. A message appeared on the monitor in a language he could not read.
Whether he could read it or not, Grey knew what the message meant. The cannon must have been damaged in the blast. He could not rely on rockets anymore.
Switching to the only other thing he knew how to do, Grey squeezed the right trigger now, launching another massive net forward. He expected this shot to miss and fired simply as a means of intimidating his attackers, but to his surprise, the net managed to catch both mantises inside. They fell to the ground and squirmed as they tried to cut themselves loose.
They’re trapped, Grey realized, at least, for now. This gave him a limited window of much-needed opportunity. Grey quickly ran through his options. He had a cannon that didn’t work and limited knowledge of this vehicle’s weapons systems. As far as he was concerned, there was only one thing he could do now.
Grey dropped from the seat and quickly shifted back over to the seat on the right side. He gripped the controls firmly in hand and drove the mech forward with the right joystick. Stomp after stomp, the vehicle moved toward the two trapped mantises. He watched as they squirmed with desperation, doing everything they could to break free.
He was nearly on them now… and… smash! Even from inside the cabin, Grey heard the sound of the mantis shells and bones crack and snap beneath the weight of the mech’s feet. He grimaced at the noise. Even though he knew they would kill him in a second, he could not help but feel like a murderer in that moment.
Grey walked the mech over the two bodies a couple of times until he was good and confident that both creatures were dead. Then he
released his trembling, sweaty hands from the controls and let his arms drop to his sides. He closed his eyes and leaned back, letting out a deep exhale.
“Oh Lord Beyond Both Seas,” he said. “Oh, holy shit. I can’t believe I did it.”
* * *
Grey tiptoed through the underbrush as quietly as he could, hoping not to draw any attention to himself as he approached his family. He rounded the top of the hill and made out the shape of a thin female body in the distance, though it was too far away to see clearly.
Grey squinted and blocked some sunlight from his eyes, hoping to get a better view. He wanted to be sure it was his wife before joining them. The last thing he wanted to do was shout, “I’m here!” thinking the figure in the distance was Selena, only to be surprised by a snarling zombie.
It had been several minutes since he stomped the mantises to death with the mech and several more minutes since he found the courage to leave it. He wondered what his family must have thought all the while. He had been gone for a long time, far longer than he intended. No doubt they were starting to worry dreadful thoughts.
Grey took a few more steps forward and as the figure in the distance turned toward his direction. He could see her clearly now as the sun shone on her face. It was Selena, thank the Lord Beyond Both Seas.
“Hey!” Grey said, waving his hands now as he approached his family.
Selena immediately turned to face the noise and smiled as her eyes met his. Misha and Kaitlyn suddenly emerged from behind Selena’s back, equally glad to see him return.
“Daddy!” Misha cried out as she ran toward him with open arms.
Grey met Misha by a toppled log and embraced her.
“I’m so glad to see you,” he said as he hugged his daughter.
“I told you he was fine!” Misha shouted back to the others as she pulled away from him. A massive smile grew across her face.
Selena and Kaitlyn joined him by the log a few seconds later.
“Grey, thank the Lord Beyond Both Seas. What happened? Where did you go?” Selena asked, embracing him. Her body trembled in his grasp.
