by Scott Shoyer
How long before the monsters inside them took over?
After the bus left Round Rock and was out of harm’s way, Teagan pulled Kimberly aside and warned her about the possible danger she was in. Teagan had avoided the details, but had told her in no uncertain terms that there was a killer aboard the bus.
*
“Okay, everyone,” Riker said as he stood and addressed the bus. “I know things don’t look too hopeful right now. We had our asses handed to us back in Round Rock and we lost some good people, our friends.”
“How the hell can we fight those new creatures?” Braden asked. “You saw it. It threw aside a five-thousand-pound vehicle like it was swatting a fly.”
“I’m not going to tell you I’m not afraid of these new creatures,” Riker said. “They scare the shit out of me. But we need to forge on. Our plans of heading west haven’t changed.”
“What if we encounter more of those things?” Hector asked.
“Oh, I’m pretty sure we will,” Murphy said from behind the steering wheel. “Look around the road.”
Everyone glanced out the windows. Littered all over the road and scattered in the shoulder and surrounding trees were countless vacated cocoons.
“This isn’t good,” Greg said. “Where the hell are all the creatures?”
“This is what I’m talking about,” Riker said. “They aren’t here, and they aren’t attacking us. Let’s just be grateful and move forward. For all we know, this is an isolated event. Maybe they’re only found in Texas.”
The bus slowed to a stop as Murphy pressed down on the brake.
“Uh, I don’t know what’s waiting for us when we leave Texas. But right now, we have a problem,” said Murphy.
The others rushed to the front of the bus and looked out the windshield.
No one said a word, and it seemed as though everyone held their breath as to not make a sound.
Gathered together about fifty yards in front of them were hundreds of the alien-things. The creatures walked in the same direction and appeared to be on some kind of mission.
“What the hell are they doing?” asked Kimberly.
“I don’t know,” answered Riker, “but it looks like they’re all headed to the same place.”
“There’s a town about two to three miles ahead of us called Marble Falls,” Murphy said as he read the map. “Maybe they’re all headed there?”
“Whatever’s in Marble Falls,” Braden said, “I don’t wanna know.”
“Is there any other road we can take that’ll avoid those bastards?” Riker asked as he walked to the front of the bus.
“It looks like there’s some backroads and stuff,” Murphy said. “Only problem is we won’t be heading West any longer. There’s a small river that snakes through this entire area, and besides the road we’re on, only one backroad crosses it.”
“Let’s do it,” Riker said.
“That backroad will take us southeast for a while,” Murphy pointed out. “We’ll be backtracking for a while.”
“That’s better than what’s immediately ahead of us,” Riker said.
“Okay,” Murphy said as he put the bus in reverse. “The next town we’re going to hit is Spicewood, Texas.”
“Spicewood?” Teagan asked from a few rows of seats behind. “I’ve been there before. I was there with an ex-boyfriend. We went camping and swimming in these natural springs. I think the place was called Schoepke Springs.”
“All right,” Riker said. “Looks like we’re on our way to Spicewood, Texas.”
5
Sub-Facility, Schoepke Springs
Spicewood, Texas
“What the hell do you mean you already met the aliens?” Wilder asked Rickard, but before the man could answer, there was a commotion over by the monitors.
“Shit, shit, shit,” Jennie said from the security monitors. “We have a huge problem.”
Everyone ran over to see what Jennie was scared about.
Every one of the monitors except for the ones that swept the outside grounds were dead. Static filled the screens as the hiss of white noise echoed throughout the room.
“Those things are taking out the cameras,” Steele said.
“Oh this can’t be good,” Howard said. “This can’t be good at all.”
“You shouldn’t have taken those vials. They want them back,” Rickard said.
“We don’t know that,” Wilder said. “They just might finally be making their move.”
“Yeah,” Rickard added, “for the goddamn vials.”
“What the hell is in them?” Cheryl asked.
All eyes turned to Rickard, but he just stood there and stared at the static on the screens. “I don’t know,” he said. He turned to see everyone’s gaze on him. “Really, I have no idea what’s in those vials.”
On another panel, lights flashed and an alarm pierced the air.
“What the hell is that?” Steele asked.
“That would be the alarm to the security hatch that leads to the upper level,” Josef said as he walked over to the panel. “It seems our new friends have breached the hatch that leads to the upper level.”
Nobody said anything at first. They all stared at the blinking light on the panel.
“They’re coming to get us,” Jennie finally said as she broke the silence. “This is it… those things are going to kill us all.”
“Calm down, everyone,” Wilder said as he tried to think of a plan. “There’s three more solid steel security doors they have to break through before they reach us.”
“So are we just gonna wait here until they get through them all?” Stefan said.
“Hell no,” Wilder answered. “It is time we bug the hell out of here.”
“What do you mean by ‘bug out of here?’” Josef asked Wilder.
“I mean exactly what it sounds like,” Wilder said bluntly. “The jig is up, Josef. The bunker has been breached and it’s no longer safe down here. I told you months ago that those things up there would eventually find a way in.”
The blood drained from Josef’s face as he stumbled and held out his hands to grab ahold of the nearest piece of furniture.
“Whoa there, big guy,” Steele said as he helped Josef regain his balance. “You okay?”
“Sorry,” Josef said as he looked around the room. “Got a little dizzy there for a second.”
“I know you’re scared, Josef,” Wilder said. “We all are. But Cheryl, Steele, and I survived up there for years. We just need to stick together.”
“Besides,” Steele added, “we have a ton of supplies already packed up in the Wisent armored vehicles. They are ready to go.”
“I love how positive all of you are,” Howard said, “but you’re forgetting one important detail.” Everyone looked at Howard. “When you were all up there, there were no aliens running around.”
“That doesn’t change anything,” Wilder said. “The bottom line is that we have two choices. We stay down here and wait for those things to break through, which they will, or we bug out of here and at least give ourselves a fighting chance.”
“But you don’t understand,” Josef said as he leaned against the desk. “It’s begun now. The Convergence has begun. There’s no way to stop it.”
Wilder looked at the control panel and figured they could spare a few more minutes before they abandoned the facility.
“Josef, I think it is time you told us exactly what this Convergence thing is,” Wilder said. “What’s going to happen?”
“Turn that goddamn alarm off!” Josef barked. Howard hit a few buttons and the alarm was silenced. Howard left the flashing lights alone.
“Thank you, Howard,” Josef said as he regained his composure. “You need to understand that I wasn’t one of the architects of what is happening. I wasn’t one of the original thirty-six.”
“Thirty-six?” Cheryl asked. “What the hell are you talking about?”
“Patience, my dear,” Josef said. He continued, “Weeks after the bio
-nano virus was found aboard that object upstairs, the aliens made contact with us. You must keep in mind that we had no idea what was in those vials yet and we were still months away from opening them. The aliens contacted us and seemed harmless enough.”
“Why does it seem like everyone involved in this wasn’t surprised by the alien contact?” Stefan asked.
“Because we weren’t,” Josef said. “After all, something had to fly the space crafts, right?”
“Why did they make contact with you?” Wilder asked. “What did they want?”
“They wanted to make a deal,” Josef said.
“Here we go,” Steele mumbled.
“It wasn’t like that,” Josef said to Steele. “They wanted to share their technology with us, and in return, all they wanted was to be treated like friendly visitors, which they assured us they were.”
“Nice tactic,” Wilder said. “They approached you as friends and let humanity bring about its own destruction of the world.”
“Yes,” Josef said in a distant voice. “That does seem to be what happened.”
“What else did they say?” Cheryl asked.
“They shared everything with us,” Josef continued. “They told us how their ships worked and about the wormholes they could create for intergalactic travel. They also told us about the destruction of their home planet.”
“Back up a minute,” Wilder said. “You said something about the original thirty-six. What the hell is that?”
Josef told the others about the history of The Council of 36 and how it was formed in 1979 after positive proof was found for the existence of extraterrestrials.
“You must remember that it was the mid-1980s when the aliens contacted us,” Josef said. “1986 to be precise. It was the height of the Cold War and no one trusted anyone else.” Josef sat down and drank some water.
“The U.S. government was like a pig rolling around in mud. They loved all the info and technology they were getting, and this made other people nervous.” Josef’s voice became deeper. “Information, though, always comes at a price. It doesn’t matter if you’re dealing with spies or with aliens.
“So The Council of 36 made itself known to a few key individuals and took over the alien agenda. These individuals secretly gathered together to make sure the aliens were on the up and up with us,” Josef continued. “Among other things, The Council made sure the aliens didn’t make the same arrangement with the Russians.
“What The Council of 36 discovered was way worse than the aliens playing the Americans and the Russians against each other. They were planning a full-scale invasion of Earth, and there was literally nothing we could do to stop it.” Josef stopped and looked around at everyone. “As powerful as members of the Council of 36 were, they were powerless to sway or stop the aliens’ plan. So they did the only thing they could do.”
“Which was?” asked Wilder.
“They cut a deal with the aliens,” Josef said. “Please keep in mind that I was not one of The Council members. I had nothing to do with their decision.”
“So instead of taking that info and preparing some kind of worldwide defense against the invaders, they kept that info secret and cut a deal to save their own asses? Is that about right?” Wilder asked.
“No,” Josef said as he looked at the bottle of water in his hands. “That’s exactly what they did.”
“The Convergence,” Howard said urgently. “You still haven’t told us what The Convergence is.”
“The Convergence is the endgame,” Josef said. “That craft upstairs is indeed a piece of a larger craft. We called it a scout ship. It was doing recon and gathering information about Earth, and I do mean it collected every piece of information it could gather.
“The motherships are beyond description,” Josef continued. “They are larger than your mind can comprehend, and they are all on their way to Earth. One is already here, and once the other four arrive, that’s when The Convergence will begin.” Josef stood back up and looked at all the dead monitors. “There’s nothing we can do to stop it. All the ships will work together to control the planet and round up whatever human beings are left.”
“What are they going to be rounded up for?” Steele asked. “Slave labor?”
“Food,” Josef said. “They will use the remaining survivors as cattle and harvest us as their new food supply. The women will be used for breeding and the men will… I think you get the picture.”
A heavy silence filled the bunker.
“But if you knew in the mid-80s this was the aliens’ plan, why the hell did you unleash that bio-nano virus?” Howard asked.
“We thought we could use it to fight the aliens,” Josef answered. “We figured we could reverse engineer the virus and find a weakness in it that could be used to fight those bastards. It didn’t quite work out that way.”
“Why are they doing this to us?” Jennie screamed.
“Their home world was dead,” Josef said. “They’ve searched the universe for hundreds of years looking for a planet like ours. They took many planets, but none of them had the total package like Earth. Earth has resources and sustains life… everything they were looking for to make a new home planet.”
“But why the virus?” Stefan asked.
“Did you ever move into an apartment that was previously occupied by other residents?” Josef asked Stefan.
“Sure,” Stefan replied.
“I bet you didn’t just move right in, no?” Josef continued.
“Of course not,” Stefan said. “Before I moved into my last apartment, I actually hired a crew to clean it out from top to bottom.” Stefan stopped talking as he realized what Josef was pointing out.
“The original bio-nano virus was the cleaning crew,” Josef explained.
Just then the control panel lit up as lights flashed and a new siren wailed.
“They just broke through the first security door,” Jennie shouted.
Damn, Wilder thought. That didn’t take long. Then, to the others, “Let’s go, everyone. We need to get to the garage and to the armored vehicles.”
“Hey,” Cheryl said as she looked around the room. “Where the hell is Rickard?”
6
Spicewood, Texas City Limits
The bus slowly made its way along the curvy backroads. They now traveled east on I-71 and saw a sign telling them they were about five miles from the town of Spicewood.
Murphy brought the bus to a stop. There were no alien creatures around, but the empty cocoons scattered all over the landscape didn’t make them feel too safe.
“Where to?” Murphy asked as he looked at the map.
“We need to get back on a highway that’ll take us west again,” Riker said.
“From the looks of this map,” Murphy said, “we’re already on that road. This looks like the only main road out of this town that’ll take us west.”
“Then let’s do it already,” Greg said angrily. “Look around us. This town is a bad day waiting to happen.”
“There are a lot of empty cocoons around,” Hector said. “More than the other towns we’ve been through.”
“This place gives me the creeps,” Kimberly added.
Just as Murphy put the bus in reverse to head west, a dark shadow slowly crawled across the town.
“Clouds don’t move that fast,” Noonan said. “Not even in Texas.”
Murphy strained to look out of the windshield and gasped at the sight. “Mother, Mary, and Joseph,” Murphy said as he crossed himself. “What the fuck is that?”
Everyone ran to the closest window and looked up at the huge spacecraft that hovered above them.
“Are you… are you fucking kidding me?” Braden stuttered. “That thing is the size of a small planet.”
The mothership that had been hidden for all those years had finally revealed itself. The craft was a smooth, gray metallic oval-shaped object with a huge ring around the core of the ship. If the craft were more circular, they may have thought as though Jupiter
itself had come to Earth. The mothership was massive, and easily the size of the state of Iowa.
The craft stopped moving, and they all watched as a small panel opened underneath the spaceship. They heard a high-pitched hum and watched as what looked like an energy beam shot out of the panel toward Earth.
Everyone on the bus braced themselves as they waited for the impact.
The beam hit the earth and formed a blanket-like effect, creating a wall that extended in a five-mile radius from the center of the beam and rose twenty miles into the sky. The wall was semi-transparent, and as Riker looked through it, it reminded him of the heat waves that came off the top of a hot grill or sidewalk on a blazing summer day in Texas.
“What the hell is happening?” Braden asked. “It looks like a wall?”
“Yeah, it does,” Murphy said. “A wall that’s coming straight towards us.”
Everyone watched as the wall formed. The energy beam wasn’t just creating a vertical wall--it was making a wall that stretched across a five-mile radius and fenced them in.
They looked on in horror as the wall quickly approached the bus and realized it wasn’t going to stop. Noonan, Kimberly, and Hector ran from the back of the bus as the wall approached. Kimberly tripped over a case of water on the floor. Noonan jumped over her and didn’t look back.
“Come on!” Hector shouted as he helped Kimberly off the ground. “The wall is almost on top of us.” Hector pushed Kimberly out the way and went to jump, but wasn’t quick enough. The beam of energy sliced through the back half of the bus like scissors through a sheet of paper. Hector threw his arms up to cover his eyes as the beam approached him. He opened his mouth to scream, but the air in his lungs never made it to his mouth.
As the wall cut through the bus, it caught Hector in its path and cut him vertically in two. Both parts of Hector fell to the floor of the destroyed bus and were seared shut from the intense heat. No blood came from his body.
“Holy shit!” Noonan yelled out. “That thing just cut right through the bus and Hector!”
Riker grabbed the backpack that was next to him. “Everyone grab a bag and a weapon and gather up as much ammo and water you can find.”
