Uncivil War: Evolution

by B. T. Wright

Emily looked up and saw that Karen’s eyes were as blue as the sky. She was sure she’d probably seen eyes that pretty before, but in that moment, with the black nowhere to be found, she knew they were the most gorgeous set she would ever see again. “Karen, are you all right? How do you feel?”

  “I’m okay. I think I’m okay.”

  “I can’t undo the restraints just yet, okay? Not till we are sure.”

  Karen nodded frantically. “No, I get it. Just tend to him. It’s scary as hell waking up strapped to this gurney in this cold room.”

  John Two continued to shout.

  “Sir,” Emily tried again. “Sir! My name is Emily Fraser. You are at the Emergency Operations Center in Mount Weather, Virginia. There has been a pandemic and we are trying to keep you from being sick.”

  “Get me off of this table, right now! Now!” He continued to fight the restraints.

  Emily looked back over her shoulder at the president. Then back to John Two. “Sir! Do you know our president? President Miller of the United States of America?”

  “Get me out of here! Don’t talk to me about the president! There’s nothing wrong with me! Cut me loose!”

  Emily backed away and walked over to President Miller. “Mr. President, would you mind just stepping over here? I think if he sees you and recognizes you, he will calm down.”

  The stocky guard stepped forward. “Mr. President, I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

  “It’s fine. The man is restrained. I want to help the doctors get answers.” Then he looked at Emily. “I’ll do it.”

  Emily nodded and walked back over to John Two. “Sir, I want you to talk to the president. He’ll confirm what I’m telling you.”

  John Two started to shout again, but he cut his tirade short as the president stepped into his line of sight. John Two’s eyes widened and his mouth stayed open without sound.

  “Son, what Dr. Fraser is telling you is true. You’re safe here.”

  “President Miller? What the—I—”

  “I know it’s hard, but just try to relax. What’s your name, son?”

  John Two’s body relaxed, and he stopped fighting the restraints. “Joe . . . Joe Christmas.”

  “Nice to meet you, Joe. I wish it was under better circumstances, but you are okay here.”

  Emily smiled to herself; her idea had worked. She wanted to give Joe more time to chat with the president, but she had to talk to Karen. She had to see how she was doing. Elaine was already over at the monitors.

  “How are her vitals?” Emily asked Elaine as she walked around Joe’s gurney and placed her arm on Karen’s.

  “Looks good. Good BP, solid heart rate.”

  “How are you feeling, Karen? You’re doing great.”

  “I’m okay, I guess. My stomach is a little queasy, and I have one hell of a headache, but I’m okay.”

  Joe turned his head toward Karen. “Yeah, same here. Upset stomach and a banger of a headache.”

  “All right, we’ll get you something for the pain.” Emily took her pen flashlight from her lab coat lapel and shined it in Karen’s eyes. “No sign of black. Her eyes look normal.”

  “That’s good, right?” Karen asked.

  “So far so good.”

  Emily couldn’t believe it. There were no signs of the alien whatsoever. Once the relief passed over her, her next thought was of Jake. Moreover, her thought was of the last time Karen had managed to briefly overcome the alien’s influence thanks to the Beritrix.

  “Karen,” Emily took her hand and squeezed it. “Remember what you told me last time I saw you?”

  Karen was already pale, but her face went even more white. Hesitant, she nodded. “About your friend being trapped at the house?”

  Emily’s stomach turned. “Yes. Is he . . .”

  “They made it out of there. He even managed to get the girl back . . . but . . .”

  Emily felt her knees get weak. She wouldn’t be able to handle it if Karen said Jake was dead. She could feel her palms fill with sweat, and the saliva rise in her jowls. She was going to be sick.

  “But they are stuck out on a back road. The aliens are closing in on both sides.”

  Emily felt a panic rising up her spine. The president walked over and looked down at Karen. “Did you see a helicopter?”

  “No. Not—not before I came to. I’m sorry.”

  Emily began to cry. She looked up at the president. “Bill was too late. He didn’t find them.”

  The president stepped over and took Emily in his arms. All of the emotions she’d felt over the last week came out all at once and she began crying hysterically. She might have just found a way to wipe the aliens from their human hosts, but all she could do then was shed tears. Of course for Jake, but also for Amy.

  Without Amy, all that they had been working on might not even matter.

  38

  Tyler had been right. There was blood everywhere on Amy. Not only was it running out of her nose and mouth, but it was even trickling out of her ears. When Jake made it back to Tyler, Mark, and Amy, Tyler was shining a flashlight on Mark as he was still performing CPR. He was covered in blood as well. Ginger was growling at the dark woods in front of her.

  “Keep trying to revive her, Mark! We’ll keep these bastards off of you as long as we can!”

  Jake moved back toward the truck where TW and Bryan had already begun firing at the oncoming aliens. As far as Jake could tell, they didn’t have any vehicles. It was as if they had been waiting in the woods for Jake and everyone to come along.

  The gunfire was forcing the aliens to scatter from the road. It seemed they had learned their lesson: that bullets made them dead. If Amy had been right when she told Tyler they were closing in from both sides, Jake had to do something about protecting their back. Though he knew anything he did would be futile, he wasn’t built to quit. It wasn’t his personality, and it wasn’t the way he was trained. He wasn’t going to give up until one of those things had chewed out his heart.

  As the screeches and screams of the aliens died off and they filed left and right off into the surrounding woods, the gunfire seemed even louder. Jake ran up behind Bryan.

  “Bryan, I need the truck. I have to at least try to keep them from running free up our asses.”

  “Copy!”

  Bryan moved to his left away from the truck and continued to fire on the aliens escaping into the trees. Jake jumped inside and put it in reverse. He hung his head out the window and got Jess’s attention.

  “You up for one last ride?”

  Jess smirked, then ran around the back and hopped in when TW moved away from the truck. Jake hit the gas and turned back toward Tyler. He drove the truck straight toward them.

  “Get him a gun if there’s one close,” Jake told Jess.

  As she reached back for the backseat, Jake hit the brakes and pulled up right beside Tyler. He shouted across the front of the truck through the passenger window.

  “Ty!”

  Tyler raised his head and looked at him.

  “How is she?”

  No words; Tyler just shook his head. The last bit of hope for an escape seeped out with the sweat that was running from Jake’s pores. Jess leaned back up, handed a rifle out the window to Tyler, and looked forward.

  Jake said. “I’ll hold them off as long as I can.”

  Tyler didn’t respond. His blank stare said it all.

  “I love you, Ty. You’re the best friend I ever had.”

  Jake released the brake and put the gas pedal to the floor. The tires screamed against the pavement, and the truck moved forward.

  “You have to know it meant nothing, Jess. You are the only woman I have ever loved.” Jake’s throat caught and he choked back his rising emotion.

  Jess was quiet for a moment.

  Jake drove a little farther, then slammed on the brakes when his headlights found their first alien. Jess and Jake watched in amazement. Not only were they driving cars, but they were driving without headlights.
It never occurred to Jake that their black eyes could possibly help them see in the dark. But it made sense in some odd way.

  When the caravan of vehicles the aliens were driving saw Jake’s headlights, they all slowed to a stop.

  “How did we get here?” Jess broke the silence.

  Jake didn’t know if she meant we as in Jake and Jess and their relationship, or we as in the two of them staring at a bunch of trucks driven by aliens, awaiting certain death. Either way, Jake didn’t have an answer. Jess knew he wouldn’t.

  Jake looked over and she was looking right at him, seemingly staring straight into his soul. A warm breeze moved through the open windows, and in between the blasts of gunfire, Jake thought he could actually hear the crickets singing again. As crazy as it seemed, for the briefest of moments, he felt like he was back in Kentucky, driving out to the woods to be alone with Jess like he’d done a hundred times when they were young.

  “Got a plan, Hotshot?”

  He didn’t. And it burned all the way down to his core that he couldn’t find a way, any way, to buy them some more time.

  “I’m afraid I’m fresh out of those.”

  Jess looked down and nodded. Then looked back up. “I love you too, Jake. You’re the only man I’ll ever love.”

  Jake’s next move would have been to reach across the cab of that truck, pull her close, and kiss her beautiful lips one last time. But he never got to make that move, because something familiar came to his ears. It wasn’t close, but for anyone who has spent any amount of time in combat, it didn’t have to be.

  It was a helicopter.

  Jake threw the door open and jumped out of the truck. He scoured the sky for a sign that his mind wasn’t playing tricks on him.

  “What are you doing?” Jess said.

  Off in the distance, dotted amongst the stars, Jake saw a light. He wasn’t going crazy––there actually was a helicopter heading his way. His mind went a thousand directions in the matter of a second. But the last ten years of his life spent going through pure hell to keep his country safe paid off. All the noise in his head disappeared, and his training kicked in.

  “You hear that?”

  Jess cocked her head to listen. Then Jake nearly burst with joy when he watched her face light up in the glow of the trucks dash.

  “No way. . .” she said.

  “Yes way. Jess, run! No matter what you hear, or what you see, just get everyone inside that helicopter, and make sure you save Amy!”

  39

  When Jake told her to run, Jess didn’t hesitate. She threw open the door and jumped out of the truck, and as Jake was pulling his go bag from the back seat, he saw her sprinting in Amy’s direction. He knew the only thing that mattered now was time. They needed enough time for the helicopter to actually find them, and enough for everyone to climb in safely.

  There wasn’t a lot Jake could do about how long it would take his group to get in the helicopter, but there was definitely something he could do about the helicopter finding them. Jake reached down to the bottom of his bag for the one little trick he’d been saving for a situation just like this. He felt the raised metal of the hand grenade and pulled it out of his bag. He strapped the bag on his back, made sure his axe was still attached, then started walking toward the aliens and their idle cars.

  As soon as he felt he was close enough, he stopped and pulled the pin on the grenade. It wasn’t a moment too soon either, because as soon as he did, he heard the aliens hit the gas in their vehicles. They were coming his way.

  Jake took one step forward with his left foot as he cocked his right arm back. Like a center-fielder throwing from the outfield to make a play at home plate, he twisted his hips and whipped his arm forward, launching the grenade through the air. He didn’t stick around to watch what happened when it hit. He knew the explosion of twisted metal and fire would let him know all he needed to know. Instead, he turned and began a dead sprint back toward his friends.

  Jake knew the grenade wouldn’t come close to killing all of the aliens, but he knew the chain reaction of explosive gas tanks would at least slow them down. Would it be long enough to get everyone out of there? That he didn’t know. But he knew it would give him enough time to set up a perimeter with Jess and Bryan and give them the best chance possible if there was a chance at all. Until the rest of the aliens made it around the grenade, he had to get back and fight off the ones that had made it into the woods. If he wasn’t already too late. He hopped in the truck, spun it around, and drove back toward his friends.

  The explosion was great, and it wasn’t singular. Just as Jake had thought, the grenade exploded, then a chorus of other cars booming from the chain explosions of their gas tanks. Jake’s focus was forward. But in the rearview mirror, the ball of fire reached toward the sky. The light from the blasts behind him lit the entire road. If there was any question left whether the person flying the helicopter had seen it, it was dispelled when Jake saw the light in the distance dip a few inches. He knew the helicopter had just gone nose down to speed toward them.

  As he continued to drive, closing in on his friends, he brought up his rifle and began searching out the window to his left for any aliens that might be running at them from the trees. Up ahead, Bryan and TW continued to fire. Jake could see Jess bent over Amy, while Mark and Tyler fired their weapons into the darkness beside them. Ginger was still holding her ground around them. He couldn’t let his concern for Amy’s life and the consequences of her death enter his mind. He had to stay focused on getting everyone out of there alive.

  The helicopter had moved right in front of them now. It was getting ready to land in the open road. It was too dark to tell exactly what kind of chopper it was, but it definitely wasn’t military. Best case scenario, the helicopter would have been throwing down a rope ladder to help avoid being overrun by the aliens, but Jake was happy to have a scenario at all at that point. The mission now was simply to protect his friends, and the helicopter, long enough to get everyone on board.

  Jake stopped the truck and shouted out the window. “Mark! Grab Amy! It’s time to go!”

  The helicopter landed, and Jake stopped and got out of the truck, raising his gun to help keep the aliens back. The white light on the chopper’s nose and the red one on its tail illuminated the trees that surrounded the woods. Jake saw movement on his right, raised his AR, and squeezed until the two aliens running at him hit the ground. Bryan and TW ran to the left side of the helicopter and kept firing into the woods on that side. Jake put his back to the helicopter and for the second time he took in the scene behind him. Fire was still raging, but now several vehicles had begun driving around the blaze, headed directly for them.

  Jake looked right. Jess was on her way with Tyler, and Mark was behind them scooping Amy up into his arms. Jake looked off to what was now his left side and again fired at a couple of aliens running toward him.

  “Bryan!” Jake shouted over the noise of the helicopter’s rotors. “I need you to watch this side! I have to help Mark!”

  Bryan moved over immediately. Jake jogged toward Mark as Jess and Tyler ran by him. He was now staring at several cars coming right at him. They were still a good ways off, but it wouldn’t be long before they were on them. All he could see in his mind were the cars continuing without stopping, all the way to the helicopter. If that happened, no one was getting out of there alive.

  Jake turned and shouted at the top of his lungs. “They’re not going to stop! Everyone on the helicopter, now!”

  He turned back toward the oncoming vehicles, then did the only thing he could think to do to slow them down. He ran over to the pickup truck, jumped in, and put it in drive, ready to head straight for them.

  Just before he hit the gas, he heard Jess shout. “Jake! No!”

  He couldn’t hesitate. The small window of opportunity they had to get out of there was closing—fast. He mashed the pedal to the floor and spun the tires as the truck shot forward. The plan for when he got close to them forme
d as the aliens in their vehicles were bearing down on him. They were only about a hundred yards from him now.

  Jake quickly swapped in a fresh magazine that he’d put in his pocket. He pulled and released the charging handle—ready to shoot.

  Seventy-five yards.

  Jake tightened the strap on his go bag and prepared for a jarring exit.

  Fifty yards.

  Jake pushed open the truck door and jumped out away from it. As soon as he hit the ground, he rolled once, twice, then dragged his foot on the pavement to slow himself down. Every bone in his body felt the pain from the impact, but he twisted around onto his stomach, brought the rifle to his eye, found the back left side of the his pickup truck, and fired until he punctured the gas tank. The back end of the truck lifted toward the sky in a ball of fire just as the front end slammed against the first vehicle in the alien caravan.

  Jake was already on his feet, sprinting back toward the helicopter. He heard a couple more explosions behind him as he noticed up ahead that there was still one figure silhouetted in the light of the chopper. He assumed it was Bryan, and he was still firing off to the left and the right.

  “Go! Get on the chopper!” Jake yelled. But amongst the whooshing of the rotors and the gunfire, there was no way he heard him. Jake still had a substantial amount of ground to cover before he made it there.

  Jake glanced to his left and didn’t see much. On his right, he saw movement, and he fired at the shapes coming near him. When he looked over his shoulder, there was a car that had just driven around his blazing pickup truck. The aliens on his right were closer now. He slowed enough to get them in his sights, and he fired a string of bullets until they dropped. He was about a hundred yards from the helicopter and he could see that another figure had come back out to help the other. The sparks from their guns were blasting into the night.

  If he could have told them to get in and take off, he would have. He would be able to find a way out of there himself. If he needed to he could get lost in the woods until they could come back for him. But there was no way to communicate—