Afraid of the Dark

by Chris Hechtl

  He angrily flipped the switch off and then turned on the girl. A boy came over and patted her arm. “It's not her fault boss, I ah, hit the intercom with my elbow when the broadcast was going on.”

  “What broadcast?” he asked.

  “March, it's being overrun. Here,” the kid said, flipping a switch. There was a click and pop then static. He turned the volume knob and suddenly they could hear a desperate hoarse voice.

  “We're being overrun, this is March we've got aliens all over us, we need help here. Any station...”

  “This is live?” he asked touching the radio.

  “Yeah man, it's going down now.”

  “But its sunset in,” he looked at the clock. “In twenty minutes! What gives?”

  “The alien’s man, its super cloudy out there right now and I guess they came out early,” the kid said shrugging helplessly.

  “Damn,” Shane said. He frowned and then picked up the mike.

  “Mall six to March come in March,” he said. He wasn't sure if a straight broadcast would work. March should have been communicating on the encrypted military channels after all. A broadcast on the emergency channel showed how desperate they were.

  “Um...”

  “Think they'll answer?” the kid asked, rubbing the girl's shoulders. She wiped at her nose and eyes with her fingers. Shane shrugged.

  “Mall six to March, come in March, give us a Sitrep.” He waited, ignoring the static and popping.

  “Mall...”

  “March to this station,” he reared back at the loud squeal. The mike was too close to the speaker. He moved back. “We've got a temporary perimeter set up but we're not going to hold out much longer. We would appreciate any help you could give us,” the voice said.

  “Mall six roger, we'll see what we can do. Can you Evac along the 215?”

  “Ah, that's a negatory, negative. The aliens are coming in from that direction. That's how our perimeter got breached, they went right through the strip and are tearing the place up,” the voice answered. “Over.”

  “Roger that, I'll see if we can get eyes on the scene. Do you have a UAV?” he turned and snapped his fingers to the male then pulled his finger from the mike. “Get the ready duty shift up and second shift. Shit get Hernandez, Ross, Dave, and Walt over here. Tell the garage I want as many vehicles as possible up and running. Start with the motorcycles. And volunteers,” he said. Bill must have been on the other end of the mall or at Lowes otherwise he'd have been here by now.

  “Yeah,” the kid turned, looking and then touched a mike. “Um...”

  “Outside kid, here,” he handed him his walkie talkie. “Go.”

  “Going,” the kid said going out. The girl followed.

  “Mall six, we've got a lot of wounded and civilians. Any chance you can airlift some out?”

  He grimaced as Wayne entered the room and closed the door behind him. “Negative, we don't have fuel for the chopper.” The thing was on fumes as it was. He looked at the cop. “But its now on our to do list,” he said.

  “Definitely,” the deputy said with a nod. “What's up?”

  He filled him in quickly then had Wayne tell the others who started to come in behind him. “Get...” he covered the mike. “Get me volunteers. Two groups. One for the rescue, one for a distraction. Hell, make it three. The third is a reserve. Assemble them in the motor pool in ten. We've got to get going if we're going to do anything here,” he said.

  “Shit boss,” Walt said scowling. “Why? They ain’t helped us!”

  “Cause it's the right thing to do. And we've got to try,” Kyle said with a nod as he wheeled in with Ross behind him. “Come on; let’s get that semi you've been working on. We'll use that.”

  “Shit man! I'll take old Betsy!” the big mechanic said, suddenly grinning and rubbing his hands. Wayne rolled his eyes.

  “You dope, that thing's a dozer, you have any idea how long it'll take to get to March from here on that thing? She's slower than molasses!”

  “She'll run right over anything she comes across though!” Walt said stubbornly.

  “Yeah, if they are too stupid and slow to get out of the way. No man, gotta be fast. Boss is right.”

  “What about the others?” Wayne asked as Walt left.

  “The distraction?” Hernandez asked. “I caught that part.”

  “Hernandez you think you can ride a bike?” Shane asked, turning to the army private.

  “Me man? I was conceived on one man. No prob.”

  “TMI,” Jolie said rolling her eyes.

  “Whatever chica. Its true though,” Hernandez said, grinning.

  “Whatever,” she echoed.

  “Look, I want two on each bike. Driver and a gunner. Get them outfitted with Kyle's RPGs. Its about time we gave them a thorough field test. Send one machine gun. Volunteers only mind you. Get them here,” he pointed to the 215. I want them to rip up the freeway and then tear into the enemy from behind just before our people get to the scene. Fire a couple of shots each then rip up as fast as possible up the 215 to the 60 and home.”

  “Boss, ah...”

  “You'll have to be fast. Only a bike can get in and out of that mess of cars. Think you can hack it?” he asked.

  “Mall six, uh, no offense but if you're going to do something now's a good time,” the voice said over the radio. “We don't have a lot of time left here,” he said. They could hear firing in the background.

  “We'll get it done,” Hernandez said nodding, cold sober. His knuckles tightened on his MP-5. He turned and took off at a run. Jolie followed.

  ...*...*...*...*...

  “Boss this is... why are we doing this again?” David asked as he watched the dump truck dump its load of garbage. The second one was already lining up.

  “That's it, right there. Hold it, let her rip!” Walt yelled. He waved to a gas truck. “Let it rip Harry,” he said waving.

  The guy nodded and turned his hose on. Gas streamed out, spraying the pile of trash.

  “What are we doing again?” Terrance, a black kid from Canyon springs Varsity football asked.

  “Setting up for later,” Walt said climbing into the rig.

  “Want us to lite it?” Harry yelled.

  “No, no! Hell no! We're saving that for later. Just get it good and soaked then head back to the barn. We'll take it from here!” Walt said leaning out the window.

  He turned the key and the truck rumbled to life. He patted it. “Good girl,” he said.

  “Um... We're late you know,” the kid said, holding his gun nervously.

  “Couldn't be helped kid. Let's get a move on. We've got some folks to rescue,” Walt said, popping the truck into gear and rumbling off.

  ...*...*...*...*...

  “What's going on?” Hernandez asked over his shoulder as they ripped up the 215. He could see the fires on the base. The aviation fuel dump was ablaze. He grimaced. There were a lot of aliens headed in that direction, drawn by the heat but repulsed by the bright light. There were hundreds, all over the place. Apparently the boys in blue hadn't even bothered to try to fortify the freeway side of the base. Apparently they had thought the moat trench and eight foot chain link fence was enough. Apparently they thought wrong.

  The Hellcats, they had to be Hellcats, but the size of them! They were about the size of a bull maybe bigger. Mean and nasty, they seemed to be sniffing about, avoiding the surviving lights and the light of the fires. Gremlins and Creeplings seemed to be herding them. Scary thought.

  The big boys, smart ones were milling around the hangars. They looked like someone had crossed a raptor or a baby T-Rex with a rat. The damn things were about two meters tall already after almost two and a half weeks of growth. There was no telling how big the damn things were going to grow at this rate.

  He squinted. The damn things looked like... no couldn't be. He looked again.

  “I'll be damned,” he muttered. They looked a hell of a lot like oversized Gremlins. Speaking of which, there were a f
ew of the Gremlins around and maybe twenty or thirty Creeplings behind and milling around the raptors and Hellcats. Most of the Creeplings were hanging from the dead light poles or on the roofs. Good, none had enough height to get to them from that distance. He slowed down and then he turned his bike around to face the way they were going to go and throttled back. The rest of his scratch team followed suit.

  “We set?” he asked over his shoulder as the engine thrummed and then cut out.

  “Yeah,” a familiar female voice said. He turned in surprise to see Jolie climbing off the bike and flipping her helmet visor up.

  “What the hell?” he said as she pulled her backpack off and fitted the first RPG round.

  “What, you expected you boys would have all the fun?” she asked smiling.

  “Your dad is going to kill me,” he said shaking his head. “Damn it Jolie...” he started to say.

  “Save it for later soldier boy,” she said glancing around. “Back blast clear,” she said softly, “Finding a target...”

  “Six to three, status?” Shane said over the radio.

  “Setting up now six. Three out,” Hernandez said keying his mike. He pulled out the night vision goggles and checked. The place was even busier than he'd thought.

  “Roger that three, four and five need two mikes to get into position. They are at the front door now.”

  “We'll kick in the back door and stir up the hornet's nest on your call,” Hernandez said. He turned to the teen. “Got that? Don't fire until we tell you,” he said. He looked around to the others. The girl, Consuela gave him a thumbs up.

  “We'll get it done hombre, no sweat,” she whispered. He nodded.

  “Hernandez we've got late comers coming from this side. If we're going to do this man, better hurry,” the lookout said, glancing nervously to the West side of the freeway.

  Hernandez turned to look in the indicated direction. He could see reddish gold eyes, sets of four. From the size... He grimaced again. A couple of bull Hellcats and a swarm of Hoppers were incoming. He turned a little and picked up the tell tale sign of a couple of Hellhound packs coming in behind them. The damn things were fast, like wolves. They were the long lean ones, not the hyena ones from the look of them. They were at the top of the hill but moving down it at a good clip. So far the only thing keeping them back was a couple of Hellcats in front. It looked like the alien dogs didn't want to get too close. Both the Hellcat pride and the hound pack were giving the hopper swarm a very wide berth. He didn't blame them. Still, it wasn't that surprising that they were avoiding each other. Most likely out of healthy respect.

  Either that or they were going to let the bull take the lead and then pick up the leftover’s. He'd heard that dogs did that in the wild; let something else make the kill then harass them until they left.

  “Pick you targets people. Zone it like we taught you,” Hernandez said over the team push as softly as he could. “Don't anyone hit the same target as someone else. Don't waste the ammo,” he said.

  “We know,” Consuela said.

  “We're set.” Wayne's voice started him. He went back to looking at the base. “On three. One... Two...”

  “Three,” Jolie said, flipping her visor down and then lighting her first round off. Hernandez ducked and turned away instinctively from the blast. Out of the corner of his eye he could still see it go down range.

  The round sped out, wobbled in the air and then tore into the pavement just short of a bull Hellcat. It flipped end over end and then blossomed into a fireball startling the cat.

  “Shit, missed!” she said sitting down and pulling out her reload.

  “How the hell could you miss??!” Consuela demanded. “The damn thing's as big as a barn!” she said.

  “I know, I know! Don't you think I didn't know that??!” Jolie said standing and aiming once more. “Rocket screwed up,” she said.

  “Whatever,” Consuela said. “Excuses, that's what it is. Watch chica, I'll show you how its done,” she growled. Her partner was already reloading. Hellcats and Gremlin raptors were down. The surviving Gremlin raptor things were still kicking and a few were turning in their direction. One hissed and pointed. Hernandez felt a chill go down his spine as the thing did that. They were intelligent. Something he hadn't planned on. Not good.

  “Ah shit. Take that puppy out someone,” Hernandez said grimacing. He felt himself breaking out into a cold sweat. What else was going to go wrong?

  “Boss!” he turned as their point started to fire, covering their flank. He heard a growl and scream as the tracer fire found its mark. “Getting hot here!”

  He turned back to the base as the second shots hit their marks. One RPG round tumbled in the air, bounced its rear off of a broken fence pole, then flipped end over end to slam into a turning Hellcat's underside. The beast seemed to explode in blue ichor.

  This time Jolie picked a knot of creatures closer to them. The biggest looked like an oversized porcupine. It waddled on two legs. She hit it with a glancing shot, unfortunately not penetrating. The animal went down and then swelled up like a balloon.

  “What the hell?” Jolie said looking at it and pulling the smoking launcher off her shoulder. “I hit the thing, what's it doing?”

  Suddenly it seemed to explode. Instinctively everyone ducked. They could hear things whirling overhead and thunking into the cars around them. They looked back to see the thing limp, its tentacle spines flaccid. It kicked one leg feebly. All around aliens with spines in them were stumbling and falling. A Creepling had been speared; it reeled around and then fell. A nearby Hellcat pounced on it and stated making crunching and wet slopping sounds. Other survivors were picking spines out of their hides or pouncing on the wounded.

  “When you gotta go you gotta go apparently,” Hernandez said. “Ready? Fire three!” he said waving. He wished he had a launcher too. Damn.

  “Shit,” Jolie said, turning. He grabbed her launcher and popped the round in and then pulled the safety pin. “Light's green,” he said. She shouldered it and then aimed.

  A raptor thing was charging them, screaming and thrashing its arms. It was still on the other side of the moat, but it looked big enough to be able to leap that moat easily though. Which, Mateo mused, was probably how they got over it in the first place.

  “Will someone kill that damn thing!” Consuela said. An RPG round went out, slamming into the raptor's throat and tearing its head off. She bobbed a nod. “Thank you!” she said, fist bumping her partner.

  “That's three!” Jolie said patting him on the shoulder.

  “One more,” Hernandez said. He pointed to a nearby plane. It was a torn up tanker. A Kc-135 he thought. Hopefully it was loaded with jet fuel. There was a torn up C-17 next to it.

  “Why? Thought we were supposed to bug out?” she asked as people made ready to go.

  “One more. That,” he said again. Here,” he took the launcher and fitted the round. Others saw him and looked at what he was doing. A few took their launchers back out and also made ready to fire.

  “Why?” She asked.

  “Cause it's a target, and its full of fuel. Fuel burns,” he said. He aimed a little high and pulled the trigger. He ducked his head as the exhaust whooshed into his face.

  The round slammed into the burning Kc-135 and tore it open. It burned and then exploded in a blinding flare. “One round each into the damaged planes in between them and us and then we're gone people!” he yelled.

  “Right,” Consuela said. “You heard the man,” she said over her shoulder. Her partner shouldered the launcher and then fired. The round hit something in the March museum area and pinged around. A few more rounds peppered the area. After a moment there was a brief flare and then a slow rumble of flames. More surviving animals attacking the base turned and headed their way.

  “Okay, time to get out of Dodge,” Hernandez said, pumping at the starter. Once, twice, three times. “Shit, flooded!” he said after a moment.

  “No its not, just here,” Jolie said
shouldering the launcher and adjusting the strap. She reached down near his leg, flipped the switch and then flipped the starter. “Okay,” she said. “Try it now,” she said as a few of the group got their engines going and roared past.

  He was looking over his shoulder at the snarling Hellcats coming their way. “Come on!” she said, pounding his back. Consuela and the others roared past. He hit the starter, revved the throttle and then tore out of there as the Hellcat climbed over the divider and started leaping from the roof of one car to the next. It landed in the bed of a truck and stumbled as its legs got caught in a tarp.

  “Go, go, go!” Jolie screamed in his ear as they took off.

  “I'm going!” he yelled back, hunkering down and revving the engine. He dodged in and out of the cars, moving as fast as he could. The rear guard was just ahead of him. He saw a Hellhound leap from the West side into their path and tried to swerve. His gunner however hit it with an amazing shot. The animal seemed to squeal and spin in place as the rounds tore into its throat and exposed belly. It tucked into a ball and slammed into the pavement, spraying blue ichor.

  Hernandez roared past on the other side of the car from it, moving fast. The rear guard was forced to detour and fell behind. Jolie looked over her shoulder. “I don't think they're going to make it,” she yelled slapping his shoulder.

  He didn't look back. He couldn't; he had to focus on the dark road ahead. He could see the blue head lights of the other motor cycles ahead. He swerved in and out of the cars, hoping, praying nothing would jump out into their path. This part hadn't been planned for very well. All that they had was a faint hope, to lead the aliens to the split and then disappear, hopefully without leading them back to base. Jolie's grip tightened on his arm. “Pull over,” she yelled urgently as the others made the right turn up the ramp to the 60.

  “What?” he yelled.

  “Pull over!” she yelled. “There! Over there!” she pointed to a rise near the 60 exit. It was perilously close to the corner of the Towngate base. He jumped the curb and then pulled up and stopped. “What the hell Jolie?” he asked turning but she was already moving, taking her backpack off and putting the last round into the launcher. She turned and fired it fast in a hip shot.