Afraid of the Dark

by Chris Hechtl

  “We've got to get them in by tonight,” he said with a wince. There were a lot of stores to go through.

  “I've got a couple leaders here. Once I'm sure they can handle it I'll pass it onto them and move on.”

  “Don't lose sight of the mall Jayne,” he said. Someone had to be there, keeping an eye on all this stuff coming in.

  “I won’t,” she said, bending over to look him in the eye. “But I left Jen in charge there so we're covered.” He nodded.

  “We're going to hit the rest of Sunnymead center next, starting with Big Lots, the grocery stores like Superior here, and the restaurants.” She looked over her shoulder again. “Once I'm sure I'll be back to base in an hour or two.”

  “Huh,” he said with a nod. Trust the women to be on the ball.

  “Find anything interesting?” she asked, looking inside to see the collection of weapons he'd put into the truck.

  “A few,” he said.

  “Mind if I take some for my people?” she asked.

  “Sure,” he said. He threw the truck into park and then got out. She whistled and waved to a few of the guys standing around the perimeter. He nodded at the sight of them. She'd even had the foresight to put out guards, something he hadn't thought of until he'd gotten to the depot.

  He handed out a few guns and then a couple fire axes. The men nodded as he handed them each an extra clip of ammo and warned them to use it only as a last resort.

  “How many did you pick up?” she asked as he slammed the trunk lid shut.

  “A couple of dozen, maybe fifty or so,” he said turning to her.

  “Is that all?” she asked amused. She nodded her chin to a group moving around looking a little unsure. “I've got a hundred or so at this site alone. It’s the same story. Some of them come in and pick what they want...”

  “Loot. Technically what we're doing is looting,” he said correcting her.

  “Whatever,” she growled. She took out a water bottle and took a sip. “A couple of hundred here and there. Some stay with us.”

  “Safety in numbers,” he said. He shrugged at her look. “Something someone said. It’s true though,” he said. She nodded.

  Back at base he pulled into a line to unload. It was organized chaos. The parking lots had been cleared of rubble and vehicles and set up to take on the massive amounts of material coming in. Tents had even been set up. Teams were unloading the trucks and there were even people going to each truck and sorting them and guiding them to the right staging area to unload. He nodded. He could see his wife's detailed mind and hand in this. Well, her's and Jayne's.

  Since he didn't have a lot in his truck he pulled out of the line and over to the side. Dave was standing nearby, smoking a cigar.

  “Hey man, can you show Hermes to the kitchens?” he said as the guy in his passenger seat got out. “Then take him and a crew to all the restaurants around here and clean them out,” he said.

  “Sure boss,” Dave said with a nod. He waved to Hermes. “Hermes right?” he asked. The chef nodded.

  “Why now?” Hermes asked.

  “Cause we've got to clean out their pantries and freezers before they thaw man. Sucks. Power's going to go out, you know the deal. Can't take any chances,” Dave said stubbing his cigar out and then sticking it in his breast pocket. “Power keeps fluctuating. Any minute it could go out and it may not come back. Maybe never.”

  Shane nodded, turning away from the conversation. He was concerned; one of the things that kept the aliens at bay was the lights. He called out in food court for electricians. A few raised their hands reluctantly. He had them tie generators into grid to power the mall. When he was sure they were on task he decided to check the perimeter and check to see how this system was organized.

  Jayne detailed additional people to sort the loads as they came in. No one wanted to be outside for long, the threat of the aliens and the blistering one hundred degree heat made everyone long to be indoors. Anything not critical and not heat sensitive was set out around the perimeter, preferably on pallets. She had forklifts out unloading. The little machines were darting around and occasionally bumping into things. She winced as a load was dropped.

  Near noon Jayne waved him over. He finished eating a power bar and then swigged a Gatorade. It was hot and he was hoping he wouldn't get a damn sun burn. That'd be a perfect thing to cap the day. Hopefully someone had remembered to get those outside some sun block. He noted the crews of teens moving around handing out drinks and energy bars. Good. Jayne probably. He snagged an energy drink from a tray and downed it.

  “Boss we've got another surviving cop,” Jayne said when they came in with the second load. He walked over to the makeshift triage area around JC penny. He looked over to a young Hispanic woman in a torn deputy sheriff's uniform. “She came in with a group from the hospital,” Jayne explained. The woman had black hair pulled back in a pony tail. She was sitting on a chair while a nurse worked on her wounds.

  “Okay,” he said with a nod. He went over to the woman. She looked up at him after a minute, brown eyes flashing. She had one hell of a game face he had to admit, like she had something up her ass and wasn't at all thrilled about anyone or anything around her.

  “You're in the light bato,” she growled.

  He stepped out of the way so they could see better. “I'm in charge here, you are...” he glanced at her uniform. She looked down and adjusted the tag with her good hand. “Ah, Torres?” he asked. “Deputy Sheriff?” he asked.

  “Yeah? What's it to you?” she asked jutting her chin out and then looking around. She was bruised and apparently someone had used glue to seal her smaller cuts but she was alive and definitely defiant.

  He held up one hand to show he came in peace. “Nothing, I just thought you'd like to know one of your colleagues is out looking for more of you.”

  “Really? Who?” she asked, brown eyes turning on him.

  “Officer, excuse me, Deputy Wayne. John Wayne,” he said with a straight face. She looked at him in confusion and then shrugged.

  “I've never heard of him, and then again I'm new here. Just transferred up from LA county SWAT a couple weeks ago.”

  “SWAT huh? That'll be an asset then, once we get you sorted out and back out fighting.”

  “What's that supposed to mean?” she asked glaring. He could feel the intensity of her anger.

  “Nothing ma'am,” he said holding his hands up. “Just what I meant. As soon as we get you fixed up you can kick some alien ass.”

  “I'll do my job any damn way...” she snarled. She started to cuss in Spanish. He backed up as her hand went to her empty holster. He looked around then grimaced at the looks and came closer as she wound down.

  “Finished?” he asked getting close enough for her to look up at him. She glared again. “I said finished deputy?” he said, this time letting command voice creep into his tone. She looked at him with fresh eyes.

  “I don't know what your problem is but you've got about ten-seconds to get your head on straight instead of up your ass, you read me deputy?” he growled, looking down at her.

  She glared up at him. “I said do you understand? We're not the enemy. The enemy is out there.” He jerked his thumb over his shoulder. Her glance flicked in the indicated direction and then back to him. “Get your act together and get your game face on. I don't give a shit who you are, where your reproductive organs are, what your past is, who you've screwed, or what you look like. Get that through your thick head right fucking now. We've got a...” He looked around to the people who had stopped working.

  “Ah hell. People get to work! We're burning daylight!” Jayne yelled coming out. “Boss,” she said pointing to Shane. He nodded. “We need you out back.”

  “Yeah moving,” he said adjusting his holster. “Get yourself some food, get a clearance from doc then see Jayne or Bill about getting you armed and back in the fight. Okay?” he asked looking down at her. Torres was no longer looking at him.

  She looked up at
him for a moment and then slowly nodded.

  “Good. Glad that's settled, glad to have you aboard,” he said gruffly moving off. He gushed a sigh as he passed Jayne inside.

  “Fumbled that one,” he said as he passed her.

  “Nah, I think you were doing okay, you just needed to pick a better time and place for a meltdown.”

  “Wasn't mine it was hers. I just reacted,” he said with a shrug.

  “Didn't seem like it from here but I only caught the tail end,” she said as they walked.

  “What's up? Or did you just pull me out to break that up before it got any uglier?” he asked glancing her way as they waited for a group of people to pass.

  “Bob wants your input on a few things on the other side of the building. Across from the 60.”

  “Great. Yeah, I'm worried about that area too,” he said.

  “Me too,” Jayne said.

  “Hey man, looky what I found,” Dave said, waving to Jen. Jen handed the clipboard back to the super and turned. Dave honked and she waved. The driver had found a truck. A Mack truck. At first she thought it was filled with milk or water, but then she recognized the hazard signs on the side. A gas truck.

  “Fuel truck,” she said. What the hell were they going to do with that? She had a Sparklets truck nearby, and a couple of soda trucks. But gas?

  Walt grinned. “Good man,” he said. “We can use the gas stations around us as fuel dumps. Move the fuel to them and keep them filled. We'll have to get power to them though,” he said.

  “One thing at a time,” she said.

  “I'll get him to find some more,” Walt said moving off. “And some construction equipment”.

  “Dude,” Walt said to Dave. Dave grinned around his cigar. Jayne winced. A lit cigar and gasoline fumes. Really, really bright.

  “You like?”

  “Yeah,” Walt said climbing on the step board. “In one piece too,” he said looking in the cab. Dave hadn't even hotwired the thing, a set of keys with a skull and cross bones were dangling from the ignition.

  “We've been finding all sorts of stuff just tore up. Not sure why. Aliens man, can't figure them out,” Dave said shaking his head. “What do you want me to do with this?” he asked.

  “Um...” Walt looked around. What he'd love to do is hook the hoses up and spray any aliens that came around tonight. Instant bonfire. But he couldn't do it; it was starting to sink into him and others that they were going to have to conserve resources. Waste not want not and all that.

  “Park it over at the gas station on the other side of Day and get back here. We'll get you a ride so you can find something else to bring in. Priority is food and drink trucks though. Food, water, and weapons,” he said. “In that order.”

  “Yeah,” Dave said with a grimace. “Sorry man couldn't resist,” he said with a shrug.

  “All shiny and all that,” Walt said with a nod looking at the chrome. “Sure, no problem. Let's get things going. Like the man said, we're burning daylight,” he said, looking up to the sun. Right now everyone had a love hate thing going for the glowing orb.

  “I thought we were going somewhere else? Somewhere more defensible?” Bob asked, coming over to him. He looked over to the big guy. Somewhere the big contractor had found a red construction helmet and vest.

  “I'd rather not waste all your effort here Bob,” he said. The truth was since their efforts were centered here he didn't want to shift the anchor. Besides, he was getting reports of the warehouses being occupied.

  “Bullshit,” Bob said.

  “Well, I've also got a problem with being inside a warehouse. There is a lot of wasted space inside and not a whole lot of facilities for everyone,” he said indicating the crowd in the parking lot.

  “Okay,” Bob said grudgingly as he looked around. “I'll give you that. But what about the base man?” he asked, waving a hand to indicate the reserve base South of them.

  “So far we can't get to it.”

  “It’s… Man it’s right over there!” Bob said waving a hand and pointing.

  “Yeah, but the streets are blocked off. I've got a crew with Wayne picking their way through to find a route. We can get to the 215 but its damn near gridlock.”

  “Shit,” Bob said. He turned around in place for a moment then took his helmet off and ran a hand over his head. After a moment he took out a bandana and wiped at his brow and then wrung it out. “Shit man, I saw the freeways.”

  “Yeah,” Shane sighed. He'd heard and seen it for himself when he'd checked the Northern perimeter. People were out on the freeways, heading both directions. Some on foot, others on bikes or picking their way slowly forward with cars. One guy had a monster truck and didn’t care who he ran over, he was going to go wherever he wanted to go. No one was going to argue with him. No one dared.

  He winced as he spotted a group of aliens, really a herd.... they were moving down the street. A truck rounded the corner and sped up instead of slowing down. He grimaced as the truck slammed into one alien just as it looked up. The truck bumped wildly as it ran it over and then another and another. Finally one of the aliens was too much, or the driver had damaged the steering enough for the truck to swerve and crunch into the curb. He hissed as smoke billowed from the hood.

  “That was bright,” he said slapping his hat against his thigh. “Stupid man, just... just stupid,” he said. He started forward as he saw people coming out with weapons. They moved toward the herd with grim purpose.

  He felt a restraining hand on his bicep and looked down at it and then over to Bob. “Don't man. Let them have their way. It... They’ve got to get their mad out on something you know?” he asked. Shane turned back to see a few hefting chains, others axes. Hopefully no one would waste ammo. They had precious little to waste on herbivores.

  “Shit,” he said softly and winced as people moved in and started killing the wounded animals. Purple blood sprayed everywhere, making some of the less determined back off and rethink the situation.

  The driver of the cab got out of the truck and kicked it. He turned and lined up on a beast and slammed it down with a base ball bat. “You want some of this?” he screamed, slamming it again and again.

  “Yeah, that's healthy,” Shane sighed.

  “And not productive,” a guy said. “Still, I wish I was there,” he said. Shane looked at him and he shrugged. Bob did too. He nodded.

  “It’s not that. Its, look, they are wasting time. Time we need to fort up and gather materials,” Shane said, trying to explain.

  “I know. He knows. Some of them probably know. Problem is they don't care. Not now. It’s too primal man,” Bob said. He was gripping his hand into a fist and pounding it into his free hand.

  “Yeah, well the other thing...” Shane winced at the first gunshot rang out. Someone screamed. People around froze. A few looked ready to bolt. He snarled a curse and stomped off.

  “The other thing is the fuckers are wasting ammo on cows,” he snarled, voice picking up into a near primal bellow. He'd be lucky if he or anyone had a voice by the end of the day at this rate. Some of the group's outer edge had been cheering the bloody mess, happy at the sight of someone getting payback. A few quieted at his bellow and started to turn in his direction. He muscled through the mob and brushed aside a guy with a gun.

  “No guns. You folks want to waste your time fine. Be that way. But save your ammo. Don't waste it on cows,” he said raising his voice as theirs dropped away. Others stopped what they were doing or quieted as he picked his way through the carcasses.

  “Look folks, I know what you’re feeling, we all do,” he said turning in place to address the majority. He propped one foot up on a cow. One guy wasn't paying attention though; he was just hacking beasts left and right. Most of them were dead.

  “Look, listen to me, these are cows. They aren't worth the time to kill. Not now. Conserve your ammo, conserve your energy. The predators come out in a couple of hours. You'll need it then,” he said spreading his hands. He looked int
o their faces. A few suddenly looked scared, others sullen. He didn't care; he needed them to get back to work.

  “We need you to focus people. We need to get the food under cover, to get this place forted up. There will be time enough for revenge. Later.”

  A few of the people looked at each other sheepishly. One woman wiped at her eyes, smearing blue ichor all over her face. She looked at her hand and froze. After a moment she started to sob. A guy nearby took her into his arms.

  Shane nodded as people turned away. He did as well. They had things to do and not a lot of time to do them in.

  “Did anyone get back to you on a better location?” Jen asked. He shook his head.

  “That bad huh, hon?” she asked looking a little crestfallen. She knew the answer but she'd hoped... He frowned. Most of the warehouses that they had teams scout had been occupied, and the people inside weren't happy about sharing. A few had been overrun by aliens. They simply didn't have the time to find an empty one large enough for everyone and fort up before dusk.

  Meanwhile people were streaming in from all over the area. The mall was on the Western edge of the city, near the Riverside border. In fact Day Street was the legal border of city, even though most people didn't think of it that way.

  He grimaced and shook his head. She sighed, taking in his look. “So we're stuck here?” she asked. He shrugged and took a swig of water. Everyone had to keep hydrated in the heat.

  “Will the alien predators be back?” she asked. He nodded. He'd had reports that people had seen the eyes of animals glowing in the shade. Other animals could be seen half buried in dirt in empty fields. A few of the buildings had been skipped over when they found alien predators inside.

  There were even reports of aliens in houses. Hysterical people were shooting at them but not doing anything except pissing them off and giving them a free meal.

  “Bob has crews welding or screwing some doors shut. He's got a crew taking down some of the security fences and using them too,” Jen said.

  “Security...”