Afraid of the Dark

by Chris Hechtl

  Towngate was shaping up as quite a fortress and its ever expanding perimeter was starting to rival the fallen base. The council was concerned about it; that was a lot of perimeter to cover and only so many lights and bodies. Bob fretted every night about a breech.

  Walt, Kyle, and Jesse built weapon mounts and steadily improved training and weapons. Kyle used fireworks to create primitive bazookas and SAMs to try to combat the locust threat. The weapons were built to air burst, showering a large area with flaming debris. He had tried an air burst of CO2 but it hadn't worked out.

  Kyle created a set of gatling guns and mounts based on something he had seen on the Sons of Guns television show. Once they had the basic idea down they set one up near each of their most vulnerable sectors.

  Shane smiled, sipping his coffee as he pondered all the changes. Last week there had been another air drop of MREs and ammunition. They were amused by the water drop the day before, and the water recycling equipment and solar panels that had been included. “At least Miss Dilsworth's people are starting to think about such things,” Shane commented dryly.

  “Yeah, maybe because you've told her often enough,” Bob snorted. “Why the hell did she send them our way?” he asked. “Like we need them.”

  “We may not but others probably do. We'll trade them.”

  Kyle had a good crew recycling spent brass. When word got back to Miss Dilsworth that he was trying to make homemade gunpowder with fine charcoal, an oxidizer and powdered sulfur and magnesium she'd about flipped her wig.

  A few days later Miss Dilsworth had sent in gunpowder in a resupply mission and it helped immensely. Other groups were now picking up and saving their brass and trading it to the mall for recycling.

  Weapons and gas were still sticky items to trade with other groups. They also traded water filters and food. Everyone needed and wanted them, and no one had enough. He had to be firm and keep the majority with them. Some of the food production had started to pay off though. Eric was now producing fresh button mushrooms by the flat to trade with the other groups. They had enough for their own needs and the surplus was helping a little. A few of the other enclaves had even set up their own mushroom farms.

  He stared out across the roof top, trying to take it all in. How it had all changed. The city was turning into a jungle. Grass and Terran trees were gone, replaced with alien flora. Most of the herds were not there for long; they would come in, strip an area then move on. When they realized this area was all concrete and steel and the nice juicy plants they could smell were behind a wall of citrus plants they usually passed them by with only an annoyed honk. They usually congregated around the lakes and watering holes.

  Most of the major predators were hanging around that area as well now. They were starting to run into fewer and fewer of the animals in the harvesting. Oh, they still had some every day, but not nearly as many as in previous months. It seemed that some of the predators were following the herds as they migrated to greener, or rather bluer, pastures.

  He could see a herd of Hell Bison moving off between the buildings down Sunnymead. One of them brushed a building and it crumbled under the massive animal. He winced. With contacts like that it was safe to assume that the animals would wear away any trace of humanity in only years.

  Then again, they were still clinging to some things. He turned and smiled to the work crews outside the theaters. All the theaters had been repaired under Jen and Jayne's insistence. They were right, people needed a place to go to blow off steam and relax. Even if it was to see the same movie they had seen a dozen times before. With no popcorn.

  Those people who were off duty watched movies inside or slept in during the day. John's Pizza had become the entertainment center and central day care center for the entire base. They had even had to put a truant officer into the field to track down wayward kids who were more interested in sneaking off and getting into trouble or whatever, than in doing their school work or chores. He snorted softly as a pair of kids walking near the theater work crew slowed to watch.

  He took a sip of coffee and stretched a bit. Jen had insisted he take the day off, and then she'd chased him off when he'd become bored and hung around her too much. Typical.

  Jen enjoyed the theater; that was one of the only reasons he'd gone along with it. She loved sappy old romance flicks and generally rolled her eyes when he insisted on patriotic and action flicks as well. “Don't you get enough of that during the day dear?” she asked. He smiled as he remembered.

  Her leukemia... damn. It was only a matter of time before it killed her and its timing... god. Since it had come back they knew it was only a matter of time. The doctors had done what they could, but none of them specialized in cancer.

  They had to tell them that she needed a major chemo effort, something that they couldn't do there or in the hospitals that had survived nearby, even if they wanted to do so. The mall was the only hospital in the area anyway. Even with the all-out effort the chances were low that she'd live out the year. Maybe four months. The last effort had been stopped after the ten treatments to give her body a chance to heal. Of course while it was healing it was also letting the cancer spread.

  They could try again, but it was spreading too fast to get ahead of. She took the news gravely. All three kids had had a good cry. She had put on a brave face for them but her eyes were teary. She'd wiped at them. When they were alone they had hugged desperately.

  He smiled bitterly at the memory. God, he hated that she was sick. He'd rather it be him. She knew it. She'd just smiled tenderly at him and patted his cheek.

  He tried to refocus his thoughts and turned to see the hill. The M was barely there still, but he could see the antenna farm on top. Jill had done a good job. Irma, Candace, and Jill had done a good job setting up and expanding the entertainment division. They had started by making their own blog broadcasts and even repeat shows right along with Candace's network broadcasts. At first it was just that, what they had on DVD or news that Gabe or one of his IT surfers had gleaned from the web that day.

  Now things were growing. Candace had moved from a general overview of the complex to doing spots on individual people and of course major events in the area. Some of them were touching; most were amusing to watch as the interviewee fumbled around in embarrassment.

  From interviews she had moved onto 'how to' segments. At first it was locally distributed, canned on flash sticks or broadcast to the other enclaves that had power and equipment to receive it.

  Now they were expanding to film other things. The film crew recorded concerts and some public discussions for review. A few surviving actors put a petition in to do skits. The council had debated the resources and equipment involved last night before finally taking a vote. It had passed by a narrow margin and the actors were in heaven. He'd been kissed by a rather pretty girl and even a guy for allowing it. He'd pointed out to them that they still had to work a minimum shift. They hadn't cared. Good for them.

  He shook his head. He might as well track down Nicky or the twins and see what they were in to. He hated being idle. Too much of running around all day made him feel lost when he wasn't. If he didn't find anything soon he was going to track down Gabe and play his UDK shooter game. He had to find something to do.

  ...*...*...*...*...

  “We can try though, there are all those medical offices in your old building doc, the ones on Alessandro, the hospitals, Kaiser, someone has to have something,” Shane said. He knew it was a forlorn hope. All the hospitals and medical complexes in the area had either been burned or picked over. Or were in Rancho. He'd even tried to get TJ to get something from the mountaineers. The jury was still out on whether they could deliver or not.

  “It’s an aggressive form of cancer. We can try. We will. But...” Jerry spread his hands helplessly.

  “The hospital is a burnt out shell. Both of them are. We're not going to get anything there. We... I don't know,” Jen said, shaking her head. She ran her hand through what remained of her ha
ir. “I'll miss my hair,” she said softly, looking away.

  “Honey,” Shane said, enveloping her in his arms. “We'll go bald together. I'll shave my head, you shave yours.”

  “You don't have to...” she looked up at him, saw the mischief and then buried her face in his shoulder, hands gripping his. She sighed.

  “I wish there was more we can do. I mean...” Jerry shook his head.

  “We'll figure out something doc, it’s not over yet,” Shane said stubbornly.

  “He's saying it requires meds from a cancer specialist. Loma Linda, LA, San Diego,” Jen said. “We knew this would happen one day love, we just ran out of time,”

  He looked down at her hair, gently stroking it. “We're not out of time yet.”

  “If I could I'd strap one of Kyle's bombs to my chest and walk into the biggest nest we could find,” Jen said, eyes flashing as she looked up at him.

  When she saw the look of shock she stroked his cheek gently. “It'd be the best I could do to help you and the kids,” she said and then buried her face in his shoulder again, shoulders shaking as she cried.

  He stroked her back and neck, getting control of his feelings. His eyes stung fiercely but he held back the sob tearing at his throat and heart. “Where there is life there is hope. Remember that. You've said it often enough to me. We don't know what the future may bring love. We might get lucky. As long as you are alive and kicking there is hope,” he said, eyes misting, voice husky with emotion.

  “He's right Jen,” Jerry said, patting her shoulder. She looked up and gave him a wan smile as he rubbed her hand gently. Her fingers tightened around his briefly. “We'll do our best.”

  “I know doc,” she said through her tears, patting his hand. “I know,” she said softly.

  “That's all we can do,” Shane said softly. He knew though, that their best sometimes wasn't enough.

  ...*...*...*...*...

  Some things were coming along nicely, Walt thought, smiling. The teams had hit their stride; they had built better ROVs and UAVs. They weren't up to military spec, but they got the job done. Most of the time. They still had problems with vision. Last night's test of a UAVs night vision had been complicated with enemy fliers. It had been a bad night filled with mixed results.

  On the one hand the aircraft had worked. On the other, whatever had got a hold of it in the air had torn it apart. They were back to using their limited number of model aircraft during the day only.

  He couldn't understand it. The flights started out well, they caould fly for about five or ten minutes before trouble started. The animals seem to ignored the intruders at first, but as each aircraft flew its engine heated up so it attracted them. That was the running theory right now anyway. Kyle had wanted to rig some as armed fighter craft but Shane nixed it.

  Walt couldn't blame the boss; it didn't make sense to make a flying bomb if the aliens were just going to knock it out of the sky. There was no point in having it fall on their own heads.

  Kyle was right though, what they needed was a disposable ROV. A remote piloted bomb. The plastic 3D printers Gabe had set up might be a part of the answer. He'd have to look into that.

  On the ROV ground side things were a little better. Gabe had had a few disastrous first tries, but they said that a bad dress rehearsal meant a better performance. Hopefully that would be so. They might need it soon. They were getting the bugs out. Slowly.

  They had different classes now. Gabe had them issue remote vehicles to the teams. They went through them like candy tossed in a crowd of children. The smaller vehicles were used to either clear ducts or to go in and draw an alien predator out. A few of the teams like Torres' had rigged a few with homemade IEDs, designed to blow when an alien chomped or bit them. They didn't do a whole lot of damage, but they did piss them off.

  He really liked the vehicles rigged with strobes and flash bangs. They didn't have a lot of flash bangs, but the strobes were almost as good.

  He really wanted a larger vehicle though, something rigged with unmanned guns. He'd seen the footage, he was pretty sure under the right conditions it wouldn't be as disastrous. At least not if he was at the controls.

  His crew was getting better at rigging cow catchers on the front of all the trucks. All of the team vehicles had roll cages now. He'd insisted on a week to do all the changes. Fortunately there had been nearly four days of rain and an eclipse the first week of April, which had forced the teams to stand down near base.

  They had spent the week driving everyone nuts. The vehicles had been tested during the day of course.

  He was currently rigging a truck as an ROV. A Chevy Tahoe with a cow catcher, remote guns, and armor. Lots of armor. This thing had spikes all over it and looked like something out of Mad Max. He was planning on having it go around at night outside the walls, striking herds or prides of aliens and leading or driving them away from the bases. That was the plan anyway. So far they were still having problems with the controls.

  Kyle had pointed out that when the truck warmed up the aliens would be all over the thing. Which probably wouldn't be a bad thing if they were using it to draw off the aliens. He'd rigged it with spotlights. He made a note to rig a few lights on turrets. Maybe make them motion activated? A servo? Hmmmm. He'd have to see Gabe. Maybe they could adapt a toy or something.

  The base was looking more and more like a fortress every day. Bob and his teams had rigged fire traps in the flood canals and tight bottleneck areas. If they could get unmanned vehicles to lead an enemy swarm to the area and then opened up with weapons it would make for one hell of a kill box he mused. He wasn't sure what they were using in the kill zone. Either they were using unmanned guns or flame or homemade IEDs. He'd have to find out.

  The teams were slowly covering the entire city. They were finding mushroom structures, over a hundred meters tall in and around Lake Mathews, Lake Elsinore, and along Lake Perris. Other plants were near, tangle trees with vines that snatched things, and giant Venus fly traps.

  It wasn't good. The plants made it impossible to get too close. From what they could see in fly overs with the choppers the mushrooms and plants were sucking the water up, draining the lakes. They had heard there were a lot more in more fertile areas. The dry desert was hampering them apparently, something that was a mixed blessing.

  Unfortunately the water was needed by people as well. It was herding the people and animals, forcing them to go to the water source just like in the wild. Pumping stations were reporting that the plants were in the pipes, clogging them up all the time. More and more areas had to be cut off due to breaches.

  Some of the soft soil or sandy soil areas were patrolled by land sharks. They could see the fins in the soft soil, moving slowly. Nagomi had used the helicopters to rescue people trapped in the area during the daytime. They told wild stories of giant worms and other things.

  Two days previously they had a report over the radio net. A general had called in to warn them that the military had called in an air strike. A half hour before the strike the helicopters were warned off the area on the guard channel. Nagomi and the doctor had been upset about the timing; they had been shifting patients and supplies to and from Hemet. Nagomi said he had looked back just in time to see the military carpet bomb the mushrooms with B-52s.

  It wasn't really an iron bomb traditional carpet bomb run. What they actually did was hit the area with napalm and a big FAE. The fuel air explosive, a whopper, had Nagomi fighting with the helicopter's controls since it had been buffeted by the pressure wave from the blast.

  They had found out that morning that the reason the military had bombed the area was that there was an out of control wild fire North of them. It had been set off by a napalm strike and they needed to get planes and choppers in to try to contain the fires before they got to populated areas.

  Unfortunately when the planes had got to the lakes to get more water they had found aliens in the catchers in the water. The aliens could see the shadows of the aircraft from below, as t
he air crews can see the massive shadows of the aliens from above. One of the aliens had snapped at a chopper, but had fallen short and fell crashing into water with a massive splash. After that all attempts at pulling water from the lakes had been called off. The fires would just have to burn themselves out.

  The artificial lakes had smaller mushrooms. The lake near Iris was drained, as was one of the lakes in canyon springs. The plants around there were already withering and dying. The animals had moved on.

  Walt nodded to a crew moving a bin with recycling stuff in it. One of them was armed, another had a long pole. They looked a little scared as they got closer to the trash compactors. He couldn't blame them.

  Piles or containers of trash and dumpsters had become a problem. Some of the herbivores fed on the trash, while others had found that the aliens like nesting in layers of trash. Every day other enclaves had reported having to burn their own trash. They were doing it anyway, but now it was a lot scarier to do since water to put out the fire was so scarce in some areas. The damn alien plants were busting into the water mains all over.

  What he really wanted to do was to dump the paper trash that they didn't want to bother with at the base of buildings that had known alien infestations and burn it. Just let it rip. He knew it wasn't safe, but damn it would be fun to watch the suckers get torched. Especially the area that had those zombie worms. That would be great.

  He had heard that desert areas and military bases were still in operation. Refugees from all over were swamping them. New England and other areas were hammered. New York City was barely holding on. The Midwest and Deep South were nightmares.

  Countries that had berm walls were faring a little better. Some of the castles in Europe and America had been put back into use. Underground silos and bases had been put into use as shelters. Area 51 had become a popular destination for people. He had to find that part hilarious. It wasn't on a map, but it was now a major survival site. It would probably be the center of a new city if humanity survived.