by Scott Shoyer
The longer he worked at the console, the more the ship came to life. After working on the control panel a few minutes longer, the ship came online. Everyone heard a low hum that grew louder. Wherever the ship’s propulsion systems were, they were activated.
“Uh, Wilder,” Cheryl said as she walked next to him. “Are you sure you know what you’re doing?”
Wilder stopped for a second and looked at the others as they watched him. He moved his hand over a few more controls and stopped.
“I know what you’re thinking,” Wilder said to everyone. “The stuff from the vials has affected me. You probably think that serum has allowed me to somehow tap into the aliens’ collective conscious, but it is nothing like that.
“The alien out there that I gave the vials to was a friend.” Wilder turned to Cheryl. “It was Butsko. I know that sounds crazy, but that alien was Butsko, and it recognized me. It--he--flashed images into my mind of different battles we fought together.” Wilder looked around at the skeptical eyes. “The only reason I gave him the vials was because I knew he’d destroy them, and he did.
“Okay, don’t believe me,” Wilder said, “but one of the last things Butsko showed me was how to operate this ship. I don’t know how to fly this thing through space or anything, but Butsko showed me enough so that I can get us out of here.”
Cheryl took a step forward and said, “Then do it. Get us out of here.”
Wilder removed the detonator from his vest and pressed two more buttons. The entire bunker shook as explosions tore through various sections of the property.
Two large, ball-like holograms appeared on the console in front of Wilder and he placed his hands over them. He moved his hands forward and the scout ship began to rise.
“Being this close to the surface of the planet,” Wilder explained, “the ship is completely working off Earth’s gravitational pull. Think of the ship and the Earth as two magnets repelling each other.” Wilder turned to Cheryl and added, “You know how Butsko loved his science.”
The ship lifted away from where it hovered and approached the ceiling.
“Wait a second,” Steele said. “There’s like a half-mile of rock and earth above us.”
“Just hold onto something,” Wilder said as the he kept his hands over the holographic balls. When he felt the ship hit the ceiling of the warehouse, he pushed his hands forward. The ship struggled a little before it punched through the rock above them.
The hum of the craft became more high-pitched as the ship bore through the rock and limestone. Wilder pressed two more buttons from Josef’s detonator and then returned his hands to the controls.
“The vibrations from the ship are pulverizing the rock above us. We’re essentially pushing through dust,” Wilder explained without taking his eyes off the controls. “We’re almost there.” He felt the ship push through the earth with ease. He pulled back his hands to slow the craft down.
“What are you doing?” asked Kimberly. “Don’t slow down.”
“If we’re going too fast, once we break through to the surface, we’ll shoot up into the sky,” Wilder explained. “I don’t want to end up on the Moon.
“Everyone check their weapons,” Wilder said. “It’s just another few feet and then we’ll be on the ground.”
2
Inside The Garage
The man walked through the garage and admired the carnage. Dead aliens lay everywhere amidst the burning cars. For a second, he thought there might be another person like himself, with the same powers. But as he looked around, he knew there’d been a battle here.
Blowing up cars wasn’t his style.
More explosions shook the entire area. He looked across the garage and saw an entire wall of rock cave in. The way it fell in on itself suggested that the inside was hollow.
A passageway, perhaps.
Wherever that passage led, he’d never find out. It was buried under tons of rock and limestone. He thought about using his power to burn through the rock pile, but that would require a lot of energy, and he was afraid of being spent afterward.
He looked around the garage and saw nothing that looked like a way out. He heard more explosions above and around him.
Someone is setting off those bombs, he thought. Whoever they are is trying to bring down this entire place.
The man walked to the large garage doors. Those doors were large enough for the space shuttle Discovery to get through, he thought. Or maybe two large armored vehicles. He knew he was in the right area and walked over to the wall where he found a large red button. He slapped the button with his open palm and the large garage doors began to open.
Before the doors were even halfway up, another series of explosions rocked the garage and the doors came to halt. They’d opened about eight feet, and that was plenty for him to walk under. As he looked down, he saw the tracks from the large armored vehicles.
The man started to walk back towards the trucks when the ground shook again. This time, though, it wasn’t caused by any explosions. He looked over to the right and saw the ground begin to bulge up.
The man ran to a cluster of trees and hid himself until he knew what was emerging from the ground. After a few seconds, he saw the top of something metallic punch through the earth.
“The creatures,” the man said. “They’re aliens.” He smiled as everything began to make sense. The cocoons, the appearance of the creatures--if he thought about it, he’d known all along they were aliens.
The metallic spaceship continued to rise from the ground until it was completely free from its grave. The ship was massive, and the man looked on in awe. The hole it left behind was larger than most of the springs he’d come across elsewhere on the property.
The oval-shaped ship hovered about fifty feet in the air and slowly moved forward, away from the hole. After it was clear, the ship plunged to the earth. The man instinctively closed his eyes and covered his face, but there was no impact. Instead of the spaceship crashing into the ground, it floated five feet above the ground. It didn’t bob up and down or move around at all.
It just floated.
And then a large platform descended from the ship.
3
Outside the Garage
Wilder and the others felt when the scout ship punched through the ground. There was less resistance, and Wilder was able to ease back on the propulsion system.
“We’re almost through,” Wilder said to the others. “Gear up and get ready.”
“Get ready for what?” Steele shouted.
Wilder felt the ship break free from the ground and he quickly pulled back on the holographic controls. The ship went into a free fall for a few seconds.
“Brace yourselves for impact!” Wilder yelled, but none came. He realized the ship hovered above the ground just like it had in the warehouse.
Wilder pushed more buttons and prepared his weapon.
“Shit,” Wilder said. “I’ve only got two magazines left in my machine gun and one magazine for my pistol.”
The others reported their ammo situation, and it wasn’t good.
“The armored vehicles are in front of us down the path,” Wilder said. “All we need to do is make it to them and we’ll be fine. There’s safety and more ammo there.”
Wilder looked at the others and saw they were all defeated.
“Come on, everybody,” Wilder said encouragingly. “We’re almost there.”
“You forgot one thing,” Riker said. “We still haven’t taken down that wall of energy.”
“Oh ye of little faith,” Wilder said as he winked at Riker.
Everyone jumped when they heard what sounded like footsteps in the ship.
“That’s our cue to get out of here,” Wilder smiled.
“Care to fill us in on what’s going on?” Cheryl asked.
“We’re doing one final running mission in honor of Butsko,” Wilder answered. “This is what we’re going to do.”
4
Sub-Facility, Schoepke Springs
The aliens in The Discovery looked at each other. No thoughts or words or clicks buzzed among them.
The mission to acquire the vials had failed. Not only did they not have the vials in their possession, but the contents of the vials were now buried under thousands of tons of rock and earth.
The aliens knew they were doomed to stay confined to the motherships until a new virus could be engineered. They also knew that it would take decades.
They’d already reported their failed mission to the other motherships, but the ships remained in their positions. The invasion had gone perfectly up to this point, but this setback didn’t mean their plans were a complete failure.
The motherships arranged themselves around the Earth and the large bay doors under the crafts opened on all the ships. A large, cannon-like piece of equipment lowered from the bay doors and aimed at the Earth.
The timer that was synced among all the motherships ran down. At once, all the cannons from each ship shot a beam of light that hit the ground within seconds. The entire planet shook as the beams of light began to alter the atmosphere.
The Convergence had begun.
5
The others followed Wilder through the maze-like corridors of the ship. Wilder tried to explain as best he could that it was due to Butsko that he knew his way around.
“It was like he uploaded the design of the ship as well as how to fly it,” he explained.
He also explained the running mission plan and how successful it had been during the early days of the initial outbreak. The front platform had already lowered, and as they ran toward another exit, the ship was filling with aliens.
“The exit is right up there!” Wilder shouted. Everyone raised their weapons.
Wilder waited until they were all gathered together before he waved his hand in front of what looked like a blank wall. Lights emerged beneath his hand and the frame of a door outlined itself with light. Within seconds, the door opened. There was no platform at this exit and they needed to jump off the ship.
“It is only a five-foot drop,” Wilder said. “Let’s go, Riker. You’re first. Start clearing the area as soon as you land. Back up will be right behind you.”
Without hesitating, Riker jumped off the ship and landed on his feet. He spun around with his rifle in hand and didn’t see any immediate threat. He looked under the craft and saw hundreds of aliens filing into the scout ship. He looked up at Wilder and gave him the thumbs up.
The others jumped from the ship and formed a tight circle. They all scanned the area to make sure the aliens didn’t know where they were. Wilder was the last to join the group and held two detonators in his hands. Everyone knew the one detonator would bring down the rest of the facility and bunker they had called home for over two years, while the other would blow up the spaceship they’d just jumped from.
But first, they needed to get clear of the ship.
“It looks like all the aliens are focused on the front platform,” Cheryl said.
“Agreed,” Wilder said. “Let’s just run straight ahead.” Wilder lead the way and Riker brought up the rear. They remained close together, but gave each other enough space in case they needed to shoot their weapons. Steele was the lowest on ammo. The auto shotgun he carried only had ten cartridges left.
They reached the other side of the ship and were able to stand up straight again. Running hunched over underneath the craft took a toll on all their already-sore bodies.
They took a second to stretch out their lower backs. Stefan reached into the air as he stretched and opened his eyes. He froze in place as he stared into the black eyes of an alien. Five of the creatures ran across the top of the ship and tracked them every step of the way.
Stefan didn’t have time to scream or yell out a warning. The alien leaned down, grabbed the scientist by the head, and lifted him off the ground and onto the top of the ship.
“Where the hell did Stefan go?” Kimberly asked as she looked around. No one needed to answer. They looked up and saw the alien tear Stefan apart. A waterfall of blood and gore flowed over the side of the ship and sprayed everyone. The alien threw the lifeless, broken body of Stefan at the humans and jumped after it. The other aliens jumped toward the humans.
Steele raised his auto shotgun and put eight of the remaining ten rounds into the chest of one of the aliens while it was still in the air. The alien was torn apart and landed at Steele’s feet with a wet thud. He threw the shotgun aside, grabbed his sledgehammer, and swung at the alien that landed next to him.
The weapon slammed into the side of the alien’s head and knocked it to the ground. Steele raised the sledgehammer for the kill, but the alien raised its arm and grabbed the hammer in mid-strike. It knocked the weapon from Steele’s hands and grabbed the man by the throat. It threw him against the side of the ship and Steele collapsed on the ground.
Kimberly shot the alien closest to her with five cartridges from the shotgun. The cartridges slammed the alien against the side of the ship, but it wasn’t enough to put it down for good. With the final cartridge, she aimed at the creature’s head and pulled the trigger. The alien’s head snapped back and Kimberly didn’t wait to see if it would fall to the ground. She attacked the alien and smashed the butt of the shotgun repeatedly against the alien’s head.
The alien dropped and didn’t move. Kimberly hit it two more times to make sure it wouldn’t get back up and then ran over to Steele. She threw the shotgun as she yelled Steele’s name. The man caught the gun and used it to shield his chest from the alien’s clawed hand.
The alien pushed down against the shotgun. Steele pulled up his feet and pressed them against the alien’s stomach. He kicked as hard as he could, which was enough for him to get out from underneath the creature.
Steele rolled across the grass three times until he reached his sledgehammer. The creature was almost on top of him again and he pushed the metal into what the alien’s ribs. Steele smiled as the ribs cracked.
The alien howled in pain, but charged after Steele again. Steele raised the sledgehammer and brought it down on top of the alien’s skull as it approached him. The alien was knocked to the ground, and Steele immediately crushed the alien’s head before it had a chance to stand.
Steele turned around as Cheryl emitted a high-pitched scream. She had buried Stevie into the stomach of another alien and was trying to dislodge the weapon from her target.
Riker was next to Cheryl and shot the alien eight times in the face with his Sig Sauer. The creature went down and was motionless. Cheryl freed Stevie from the belly of the alien and ran toward Wilder. Wilder had a creature on the ground at his feet and finished shooting the rest of his clip into its face.
Wilder ejected the spent magazine and slapped the last full one into the weapon. “This is my last one,” Wilder said as he held up his AK-47. “My last one, and we’re no closer to the goddamn armored vehicles.”
“I think we have bigger problems,” Kimberly said as she pointed underneath the scout ship. They all watched as a horde of aliens raced toward them. Some ran under the ship, while others darted across the top. They were coming fast. They had no place to run.
“Everyone try and find something to hide behind or underneath!” Wilder yelled as he pulled out both detonators.
*
The man watched from behind the trees as the group of humans emerged from the craft and tried to run for cover. He looked on as the alien on top of the craft grabbed the young man and butchered him within seconds. The man realized that was the first time he’d seen the creatures kill.
For a second, he was powerless to move. The aliens moved with such dexterity and attacked with such ferocity that he was stunned. These were the same creatures who were scared of him, and yet they had the abilities to kill him ten different ways before his body hit the ground.
The man watched as the human in the lead pulled two black metal boxes from his pocket. He couldn’t make out what they were, so he stepped out from behind the trees a
nd ventured closer to the craft. He hesitated as he approached the aliens by the ship. Seeing what they were capable of made him think twice about getting too close to them.
One of the aliens was unaware of the man’s presence and backed up into him. The man put his hand out and rested it gently on the alien’s shoulder. The creature reacted as though a million volts had shot through it and immediately dropped to the ground.
Dead.
The aliens in his immediate vicinity scrambled away from him as he walked closer to the craft. He saw the tall man with the black boxes shout some kind of order, but couldn’t make it out. The other humans, though, dove for cover as he pressed something on the box.
The man saw a bright flash of light as the entire area where the garage entrance used to be exploded into a fireball. The previous ground tremors from the other bombs were nothing compared to this explosion. If he hadn’t known any better, he’d have thought there was an earthquake.
The concussion from the explosion knocked some of the smaller trees over. The man looked at the facility and saw the entire top of it cave in.
If there were any lower levels in that place, the man thought, they are gone now. He watched as dust and pulverized rock swirled in the air around the explosion.
6
Sub-Facility, Schoepke Springs
The aliens remained in The Discovery as it passed along the orders to their warriors. They may not be able to recover the vials, but they’d be damned if they were going to let the human beings who’d destroyed them escape.
The orders the aliens gave were simple. Kill the humans and bring their heads. The lead alien looked around inside The Discovery and couldn’t wait until it could get to the mothership. At least in the mothership there would be more comforts as they waited for a new engineered virus.
The lead alien ordered wave after wave of warriors to attack the human beings. One report had already came back that another human had been killed. The news made the alien smile. Its mouth grew wide and its teeth seemed to grow even larger, sharper.
