Afraid of the Dark

by Chris Hechtl

  “Please,” Todd said shaking his head. “I for one don't want a cherry watching my back. Not if I can help it anyway,” he said.

  “Exactly,” Mateo said. He for one wasn't too thrilled about the idea of sending people into combat or forcing them into it. He did however like the idea of rubbing the malcontents' noses in this shit though. Make them realize what it took to get the food they gripe about.

  The workers unloading the trucks looked at them with mixed expressions. One guy grunted. Mateo looked at him.

  “People bitch. Its nature man,” he said. One of his fellows gave him a shut up look but he ignored it. “I'm from one of the warehouses man, I've seen it. I'm glad I'm here, I'm glad I've got something to do, and food for my family. Not to mention you people out there fighting the good fight and bringing back stuff for us all. Never mind the griping.”

  “Exactly,” Mateo said with a nod of thanks. “It'll go as long as people have something to gripe about. Which is forever. People have to complain about something. Their ass itches, the weather, you know it all folks. Food, shelter, hell, its better here than anywhere else. We haven't had a breach in months, we're well fed...”

  “Say's you,” A hulking guy, one of Todd's crew said.

  “Shove it Brock, you know where,” MJ growled. She played with a buck knife, using it to clean her fingernails out. She was a no nonsense hard charger. She made a point of letting everyone know it too. Usually the hard way.

  “Okay, chill folks,” Mateo said getting in between the spit fire red head and the hulking ex-football player. “I said chill,” he said pushing a now intimidating Brock back to his seat. “We'll deal with things as we can, no sense fighting among ourselves over this shit. Now, let's hit the gear, then the showers and chow. In that order. Dismissed people,” he said, looking around the group and then to Brock.

  Brock nodded to MJ who blew him a mocking kiss. He turned with a disgusted growl and walked off. Mateo turned on MJ but she was already walking away. He sighed and shook his head.

  ...*...*...*...*...

  “What'cha watchin'?” Nick asked, looking over his sister's shoulder. Tori gave him an annoyed look for distracting her and then went back to watching her smart phone. Every phone had limited intranet capability, but they could pick up stuff from the hard wired net if the demand was down and you were patient. Or share it between phones. She'd been patient to get this. Now she wasn't sure she wanted it.

  “What is it?” he asked, persisting. He could just hear someone talking and thumping sounds.

  Tori sighed patiently. “A vid mom was watching. Its, here,” she said, turning so he could get a better view over her shoulder. “I can't get good resolution on this but its the best I've got. I can't get computer time,” she said grimacing. “Wish I had my laptop,” she muttered.

  “I think it’s here somewhere, I could have sworn we brought it back,” Nick said.

  “Maybe,” Tori said shrugging.

  “So what is this?” Nick asked. “Wait is that a helicopter?” He asked, suddenly interested. He watched as fire rained out from either side of the chopper.

  “Apache! Cool!” he said, grinning at the sight of the Longbow Apaches ripping into an alien nest. It was near dark and the tracer rounds really stood out in the dusk. “Storm from the heavens! Yeah now that's what I'm talking about! I wonder if its got the hellfire missiles or if they retrofitted it with cannons on the wing pylons?” he asked, grinning.

  “Yeah, but its not good,” Tori said quietly.

  “What do you mean? They are kicking ass!” he said glancing at her in concern.

  Tori bit her lip and nodded to the vid, hand tightening on the phone. “Wait for it,” she said patiently. Suddenly there was something, a cloud swarming around the aircraft. The aircraft pitched around in a 360, suddenly both looked like a ball of writhing bodies.

  “What the hell?” Nick asked, watching in stunned disbelief as the aircraft went into evasive. The camera lost them for a moment, zoomed out, then refocused. By the time it had one of the aircraft was tumbling from the sky, rotating around itself in a flat spin.

  “The hopper locusts,” Tori said.

  “What the hell?” he asked, smacking his fist against his thigh as the second chopper bobbed and weaved, and then ran out of altitude and slammed into the distant ground. He couldn't understand, surely the rotor wash would have kept the things away? Or the rotors would have chewed them up! What just happened?

  Tori hit pause and looked at her brother. Her lips thinned as he blinked in confusion. “The Hoppers. Those locust things. They swarmed up, remember the cloud?” She rewound the video and then played it back until the cloud appeared. “They hit a nest, a big one. Not the small one we had here in the movie theater.”

  He remembered that. He hadn't been around for it, but he'd heard it had been nasty. “They brought down the chopper?” He asked in disbelief.

  Tori gulped and nodded, looking a little upset. “Mom said something into her recorder about the bugs getting into the intakes.”

  “Should have chewed them up into hamburger!” Nick protested.

  “Probably, but remember, these things are aliens Nicky, Mom said they have really hard exoskeletons and some of them spit organic napalm or acid and burst into flames. She thinks that's what happened to the choppers. The bugs got sucked into the intakes and chewed up the engines from the inside.” He flinched as her hands went wide. “Boom.”

  “Crap,” Nick muttered. “And dad goes out after them every day?” he asked under his breath. He caught sight of his sister's sudden freeze and intake of breath out of the corner of his eye and could have kicked himself.

  “Sorry, dad's a survivor Tor, he's fine,” he said hastily, rubbing her shoulder.

  “No he's not, if one of these get to him like it did in the mall, the swarm, there is nothing that can be done,” she said, eyes tearing. She wiped at her eyes with her free hand, turning to her brother for consolation.

  He put his hand on her shoulder, pulling her to him to face him. “Dad's fine. He's not point; he's in the middle, and generally stays back to keep an eye on the entire production. He's good Tor, real good. And besides, they have a procedure for dealing with nests like this. If they can't hack it they back off and burn it. The whole block if they have to.”

  “Best thing for hopper nests actually,” Jen said, coming up behind them. They turned to see her. Tori gave her mother a wan smile as she dashed tears. Nick felt a flicker of concern but put it aside. His mother looked a little pale, but she seemed functional. At least she had enough energy to get about on her own two feet.

  “Why don't you let us worry about something like that for a little while hon,” Jen said, hunkering down on the other side of Tori. She hugged both kids. “You're dad knows what he's doing,” she said.

  “Unless he gets in over his head,” Tori said, sounding uncertain. Her mother laughed, making her blink. Nick smiled.

  “Your dad? In over his head?” she snickered. “He's got a habit of always getting in over his head. But he's got a knack for getting out with his hide relatively in one piece.”

  “True,” Nick said smiling and nodding. “I'm hungry. When's lunch?” he asked.

  “When aren't you hungry?” Tori mock growled. Nick poked her in the ribs, tickling her. “Quit,” she growled but she couldn't help giggling.

  “Hey, I'm a growing boy, and I need my protein. I could take a bite out of you,” he joked, making a motion to nip her.

  “Mom!” Tori cried, shrinking against her mother. Jen gave Nick a look and he subsided with a mock glower.

  “Spoilsport,” he muttered. Jen snorted softly as she rubbed Tori's arm. “Don't worry about your dad. But do worry about your brother; he's as much a predator as your dad is. Come on,” she said with a groan, getting to her feet and trying to pull Tori to hers. Hastily the girl got up before her mom pulled herself off balance. “Let's go see if Jayne needs a hand in the kitchen. Maybe we can get Nicky fed at the same
time.”

  “I'm for that!” Nick said with a broad smile. Tori snorted and rolled her eyes to her mom as they walked on.

  ...*...*...*...*...

  Shane nodded politely to Bryan as the security commander came over. “Long day boss?” Bryan asked.

  “No longer than usual,” Shane replied tiredly, rolling his shoulders. He'd had a couple of close calls, but it had been a relatively uneventful day. They'd scored a few couponers' houses, and one pack rat's house. No one had been killed and only a few people had been wounded, so he counted it as a very good day.

  “How were things on your end?” he asked, giving Bryan a look.

  Bryan shrugged. “I just checked in as I came on shift. Spencer had a couple of fights in the food court.”

  “Spencer?” Shane asked, turning to Bryan.

  “Day shift commander at the food court,” Bryan explained.

  “What happened to um...?”

  “Nora?” Bryan asked, smiling a little.

  “Yeah her,” Shane said.

  “Transferred to Sam's to lead day shift there. Apparently her partner is there too. She's pregnant.”

  “Um...”

  “Oh not by Leslie of course. Apparently they picked out a guy and each had a one night stand. Leslie's didn't take but Nora's did.”

  “Whatever,” Shane said, shaking his head. “Spencer's working out?”

  “Just fine boss, just fine. He's not much to look at, not a whole lot of meat on him, but he does this quiet intent rumble that gets through fast if you know what I mean. He's no Barney Fife.”

  “Good to hear,” Shane said with a nod.

  “Let's see,” Bryan drawled as they walked to the food court. “Tiff ran into a couple in um, a broom closet doing the dirty deed, that's the third one I've heard about in two days...”

  “People need to blow off steam,” Shane said with a grin.

  “Yeah well, the way they were letting off steam she thought a rape was in progress,” Bryan said, eyes twinkling, mouth twitching.

  “Cute,” Shane said with a snort.

  “Yeah well, should have seen her face when she told me it was actually a pair of guys...” Bryan smirked at his boss's sudden surprised stop.

  Shane did a double take then coughed, hiding a chuckle. He shook his head and snorted once more. “Okay...” he said weakly. Bryan's smirk had if anything grown. “Takes all kinds I guess,” Shane said shaking his head after a moment. “Anything else?”

  “Well, I suppose you don't want to know who was...” Bryan stopped when Shane growled. He shrugged. “Um, about ten reports of theft, most of them centered in the barracks areas. Boss can we do something about coverage there?”

  “Unfortunately no, the people were adamant about video surveillance in the barracks and in the baths. Its too easy to abuse it.”

  “True,” Bryan said. “I guess people need to watch their shit better,” he said.

  “Can't be on top of it all the time. Labels and lockers. I'll see if we can do something about lockers with Bob or Jayne.”

  “Yeah, um,” Bryan paused outside the food court. He could hear the people and just smell the food. Shane paused looking at Bryan. Bryan didn't look at all comfortable. He shrugged after some sort of internal struggle and looked at his boss. “Well, um, there is a group of people looking for you. And a petition floating around.”

  “Oh?” Shane asked.

  “Church leaders. I think they became organized or at least felt empowered after Christmas.”

  “Oh lovely,” Shane sighed. Jen's activities were coming back to haunt them. “What's the gist?”

  “Um...” Bryan looked decidedly uncomfortable. “Well, uh, some of them are pretty hard core bible thumpers if you know what I mean. Real um, real fire and brimstone preachers. There has been a...”

  “Growing hysteria?”

  “Not quite that but well... people aren't right boss, they look for reasons for things and well...”

  “They are indeed. I know some of what you're saying,” Shane said with a nod.

  “Yeah well, they are also pointing fingers at all the sins around them. Including people who have alternative life styles,” Bryan said, using his fingers for air quotes.

  “Oh, I bet that must have set Jayne off.”

  “Yeah,” Bryan drawled. “Which is, um, getting nasty. I'm not sure if its a tit for tat or what. I've been picking up some vibes. I've tried to stay out of it, but at least keep abreast of the high or should I say low points. Its getting ugly. Or about to.”

  “Which means its time for an intervention,” Shane sighed. “I'll see what I can do.” He nodded. “But first I'm starving. I skipped lunch today since we were so busy,” he waved to the food court.

  “Yeah, coming boss,” Bryan said with a nod. “Adrienne’s in on an interrogation so I'll join you.”

  ...*...*...*...*...

  “How was your day?” Bob asked Tamara. His wife kissed him on the cheek and caressed his side.

  “Fine. But the people back East are having it rough.”

  “Back East?” he asked surprised. She nodded solemnly. “What's up? Other than the whole alien invasion thing I mean.”

  “Hurricane. Its tearing up the coast. There are three coming in, one after another. The weather geeks think the invasion really messed up the weather something awful. There were tornadoes in the Midwest yesterday.”

  “So they aren't blaming it on global warming this time?” he asked.

  “Bob,” she growled, giving him a dirty look. He should know better. It was January after all. This sort of weather was a bit freakish.

  He raised his hands. “Just saying, just saying.”

  “You know damn well that if you warm a climate up it causes a storm. Enough storms and you get a hurricane... Or a blizzard...”

  “Okay, okay. Gotcha,” he said hands going higher. “I surrender.”

  “You'd better,” she said, lips puckering in an almost smile.

  “If I know what's good for me you mean?” He asked, bringing his hands down and wrapping them around her hips. She snorted softly.

  “Where are the kids?” he asked.

  “I've got them busy,” she said, blushing a little.

  “Hmmm... I just so happen to know of a nice neat and quiet out of the way electrical closet with our name on it then...”

  “Oh god Bob! We haven't done it in one in years!” she said shaking her head and laughing.

  “I know, let’s go see if we remember all the right moves,” he said grinning a challenge.

  She flushed but allowed him to drag her along.

  ...*...*...*...*...

  “You want to do what?” Jayne asked in stunned disbelief, staring at the portly guy in the battered wheelchair.

  “You heard me. I want you to let me kamikaze. I'm no good to you. I'm a burden and we both know it. Look at me! I can't get around; if the aliens ever get in I'm screwed!”

  “Jeremy...” she shook her head.

  “Seriously Jayne! Look. At. Me. I've got type two diabetes, I'm obese, I'm paralyzed from the waist down, I'm on a catheter for god’s sake!”

  She tried not to cry as she looked at him, hand over her mouth. God had it come to this? Allowing people to do this?

  “Shut up,” a gravely voice growled behind them. She turned, recognizing Kyle. He wheeled over, face set in stone. “You think you're the only one who's got it hard son?” he asked, voice frosty. “Look at me. I'm a trained soldier. A fighter. And here I am dicking around without a dick. Wheee, I get to pop a wheelie big F-ing deal. But I know better than to feel sorry for myself,” he growled, looking into the guy's eyes.

  “My family...”

  “Would want you to keep going. To keep fighting. Remember that.”

  “They're all gone,” Jeremy whispered, eyes tearing. He wiped at them angrily.

  “I lost the love of my life a while back. Jolie bless her heart has filled in the void. Son you've got a lot to live for. Someone has to ca
rry on their memory.”

  “Jeremy?” a voice said, coming from the lift. He turned confused. A woman looked at him; hand on her mouth, tearing up. “Jeremy? Is that you?”

  “Felicia?” he asked softly. She nodded her face was flushed and her eyes were tearing up. “You are alive?” he asked. She smiled through her tears. She rushed over to him and hugged him.

  “Thanks Kyle,” Jayne said, stepping back and patting the guy's shoulder. “You're all right,” she said.

  “For a pain in the ass,” he said gruffly.

  “For a royal A one certified pain in the ass,” she said with a chuckle. “Thank you though. Between the two of you maybe you got through. God I hope so,” she said.

  “He's right though Jayne,” Kyle said quietly as they moved away. “We are a burden. I can't blame him. Not really. Not when I'm like this too,” he said pushing the chair angrily.

  “Look don't you start,” she sighed, braking him and kneeling next to his chair. “You are an asset,” she said, shaking a finger under his nose. “An asset to us. Your body may be the worse for wear but we need that mind and those hands. Those are the important things. Hopefully one day Jeremy will understand that too,” she said, looking back to see the woman hugging the big guy.

  “Maybe,” Kyle said looking back.

  “If you want an understudy, maybe he'll do?” she asked.

  “I doubt it. I'll leave the door open for him if he ever needs an ear though,” Kyle said gruffly. He waved to Jolie who was skipping over to them. “Now if you'll excuse me, I've got a date with a lovely lass.”

  Jayne smiled and nodded as she straightened. Jolie gave her dad's craggy face a kiss and then pouted a little. “Daaaadd... You forgot to shave again,” she growled, stepping behind the chair to push.

  “Ssssooorry. I've been busy,” he mocked.

  “You're such a pain in the ass you know that?” she growled.

  “Takes one to know one,” he said, looking up at her over his shoulder and smiling.

  “Smart ass,” she laughed. Jayne shook her head as they sped out of sight into the crowd.

  Chapter 47