by Scott Shoyer
But as he looked around, he couldn’t help but think the few cocoons he destroyed were nothing compared to the hundreds of thousands that were spread all over the place.
Can’t lose focus, he thought. I’ve got to keep heading west. I’ll destroy as many as I can on the way, but the most important thing is to get there.
Wherever “there” was.
The man continued his trek westward and enjoyed watching the cocoons in his path wither away and die.
4
Underground Facility, Schoepke Springs
Spicewood, Texas
The clawed hand punched through the membrane of the sac and effortlessly tore away the shell. The creature inside stirred and knew it had gone through some type of transformation. Its bones still ached and its skin still burned from whatever had happened to it inside the cocoon.
The biggest change it felt, though, was its memories. Images and thoughts of an alien planet torn apart by a nearby wormhole. A race of aliens that raced to build crafts to save them from imminent disaster. Aliens left behind on the doomed planet to die.
A virus being engineered to wipe out life on a planet.
The creature stood and let the viscous goo drip from its body. It felt stronger than ever before. Its muscles felt alive and ready to strike, and all its senses were elevated. It heard other creatures like it as they struggled to free themselves from their cocoons.
It smelled the unmistakable odor of the humans who, not long ago, had occupied this area.
It could see and taste the palpable change in the air.
Around it, other creatures emerged from their cocoons and adjusted to their own changes. They all knew they had become something more powerful and deadly, and they all knew what was required of them.
Eliminate the last vestiges of humanity on the planet.
Along with their newfound strength and power, the creatures also emerged from their cocoons with all the knowledge of their species. They all knew exactly why they were on this planet, and they all knew how important it was that they succeed in taking it.
The alien creature stepped away from its discarded cocoon and walked toward The Discovery. It knew this was the object that had originally drawn all the yellow-eyed creatures to this location. It also knew how important the contents of The Discovery were.
As the creature made its way to the open door of the craft, it stopped. The alien looked around and smelled the air. Something was wrong. There was a smell outside The Discovery that shouldn’t be there.
The creature detected the unmistakable scent of the vials. One of the humans had found the vials inside The Discovery and had removed them. It knew it was pointless to follow the trail. The humans were safely behind four different reinforced steel doors.
They were safe for now.
The creature that was formerly known as Butsko entered The Discovery and checked out what else had been disrupted and to share this setback with The Consciousness.
5
AC/DC Bus
Round Rock, Texas
Murphy slowed the bus to almost a crawl as they rolled through the city of Round Rock. He and Riker had mapped this course from Huntsville in order to avoid downtown Austin, but it was impossible to avoid the uneasy feeling as they drove through Round Rock.
The bus passed by a burnt down school as it weaved through abandoned cars. But in place of zombies roaming around the streets, there were cocoons scattered everywhere.
“Fuck me,” Hector said. “Those cocoons are everywhere.”
“I’m betting these cocoons aren’t limited to Texas,” Stewart said. “Anywhere there were yellow-eyed creatures, there are now cocoons.”
The decayed remains of half-eaten bodies could be seen inside some of the cars. Whatever battle happened in Round Rock had happened years ago.
“Holy shit,” Braden said as he jumped in his seat. “Over there.”
Everyone looked out the side of the bus and caught a glimpse of what had startled Braden. A pack of four creatures ran around the side of a building and disappeared.
“There goes your yellow-eyed theory,” Greg mumbled.
“I bet if we caught up with those zombies, we’d see they didn’t have the yellow eyes,” Stewart said.
“Be my guest,” said Greg as a snake-like grin slithered across his face.
The bus came to a sudden stop and everyone lurched forward in their seats.
“Take it easy up there, old man!” Noonan shouted to Murphy.
“We’re trapped!” Murphy yelled back to the others. “There’s a huge pile-up on the road in front of us. I can’t get around it. The bus doesn’t have the steering radius for it.”
Without hesitating, Riker jumped into action. “Stewart, Hector, Braden, Noonan!” Riker barked. “You come with me. We gotta move those vehicles out of the way.”
“Are you fucking kidding me!” Noonan yelled back. “Those cocoons are all over the place and we just saw four zombies run around that building over there!”
“Greg,” Riker continued as he ignored Noonan, “you get on the roof of the bus and cover us. Teagan, you stay sharp and give us more cover from the door.”
“Let’s go, Noonan,” Stewart said as he got out of his seat. “Time to earn our pay.”
“That’s it?” Noonan protested. “We get two of you covering us? What about Emily and Kim?”
“He’s right,” Kimberly said. “Give me a gun. I’ll give you more cover.”
“Me too,” Emily said as she stepped forward.
Riker handed them each one of the Sig Sauer rifles from the distribution center. He slapped a magazine into each rifle and handed them the weapons.
“Don’t aim this at any of us,” Riker explained. “You’ll be nervous and your aim will be off.” Riker then turned to the others and said, “Let’s go.”
“Why do I suddenly feel like a red-shirt on the exploration team?” Braden said.
“What the hell are you talking about?” Hector asked.
“It’s a Star Trek thing, sorry,” Braden replied.
Hector gave Braden a strange look as he walked to the front of the bus.
*
“All clear from up here!” Greg yelled down to Riker and the others as they exited the bus.
“These damn things are all over the place,” Noonan said as he pointed to the cocoons. “This ain’t good.”
“Stay the course,” Riker said. “We need to move these vehicles out of the way and then we can get out of here.”
“We’re in a huge bus,” Noonan continued. “Why the hell don’t we just ram through the blockade?”
“You wanna take the risk of fucking up the engine or popping a tire?” Stewart answered. “If we get stranded in this town, that’s game over.”
Braden followed Riker to the first vehicle. It was a black Ford Ranger pickup truck that looked like it was still in decent condition beneath all the dirt and grime it’d accumulated.
Riker opened the driver’s door and checked the ignition.
“There’s no key in the ignition,” Riker said.
“Of course there isn’t,” Braden said under his breath.
Riker made sure the emergency brake was released and then called over to Braden, “Get behind the truck! Let’s push this out of the way.”
Braden pushed the vehicle from behind as Riker pushed from the driver’s doorframe. The truck easily glided off the road and out of the way.
“Damn,” Braden said. “That was pretty damn easy. Maybe this will be easier than I thought.”
Stewart walked over, nudged Braden with his elbow, and pointed to the next vehicle they needed to move. It was a Subaru Outback, and all four tires were slashed.
“Fuck me,” said Braden. “I should’ve known better.”
“The keys are in this one,” Riker said as he tried to start the car. The engine whined as he twisted the key. On the third try, the engine turned over.
“Score one for the good guys,” Riker said as he drove the
Subaru off the road.
Stewart, Hector, and Noonan just finished pushing a Toyota Camry off the road when they noticed Teagan running toward them.
“What’s going on?” Riker asked as he looked around. When Riker’s eyes fell to the ground by his feet, he knew what Teagan had ran over to tell him. Three of the cocoons had started shaking back and forth. He looked around and watched as more of the pods started to shake.
“Let’s get moving!” Riker shouted to the others. “The cocoons are shaking. We all know what that means.”
The five men worked quickly as they moved four more vehicles out of the way. The last vehicle that stood in the way of the bus was a bright yellow 2010 Hummer H3T. All the tires were slashed and there was dried blood all over hood and interior.
“Shit!” they heard Braden yell from the driver’s seat. “No keys!”
“Let’s go,” Riker said. “Braden, you steer it, and Noonan, Hector, Stewart, and I will push.”
“You realize this monster is over five-thousand pounds, right?” Hector pointed out.
“It’s not like we have a tow truck,” Riker responded.
The men pushed on the back of the H3T, but couldn’t budge it.
All four men looked over at the bus when they heard Greg whistle loudly. They watched as Greg pointed toward some buildings. Riker assumed he was warning them of the cocoons.
“Push it again,” Riker said as he dug his right foot into the dirt behind him for leverage. The H3T rocked back and forth, but still didn’t give up any ground.
The men jumped when they heard the loud crack from Greg’s rifle. They watched as Greg lined up another shot and pulled the trigger.
“Holy shit!” Stewart yelled as he looked in the direction Greg’s weapon pointed.
Greg hadn’t been pointing at the various shaking cocoons around them. He’d been trying to warn them that the four zombies they’d seen when the bus had parked were now running straight for them.
Greg had already dropped the one in the lead and Teagan had taken out the legs of another. It still crawled toward them, but was no longer much of a threat.
Kimberly fired the Sig at another of the creatures, but the shot went wide. The two remaining zombies approached the men quickly and Kimberly didn’t have time to get another shot off.
Braden jumped into the cab of the Hummer and closed the door. The interior was a mixture of stale air and the coppery smell of old, dried blood. The zombie slammed into the side of the Hummer and pounded its fists against the window.
Emily, who’d stepped away from the bus to study some of the cocoons, panicked when she saw the zombies and ran into the nearby public library building.
*
Braden searched under the seats for anything he could use as a weapon. His hand landed on cold metal and he pulled out a Smith and Wesson .44 magnum revolver with an over eight-inch-long barrel. He quickly checked and saw that it was loaded.
“Ya gotta love Texas,” he said out loud. He aimed the pistol at the zombie’s head, but hesitated. If I miss, he thought, I’m fucked. It doesn’t seem to be able to get through the window. Why should I give it a way in?
He kept the magnum aimed at the window in case the creature smashed its way in. He turned and looked at the other door to see if it was clear. He readied himself to make a dash for it when something wrapped around the shoulders of the zombie outside the car door and dragged it to the ground.
Braden stared out the window and knew he should make a run for it out the other door, but was frozen in place as he looked out the window. The zombie was replaced by a new monster.
An alien monster.
The new creature walked to the front of the Hummer and slammed its fists on the hood. The force of the creature’s blow caused the metal to cave beneath its fists and lifted the back of the vehicle off its rear tires.
The creature’s skin was a gray-metallic color and Braden didn’t think it looked like anything he’d ever seen. The first thought that crossed his mind was that the skin was bulletproof. The creature stood in front of the car with its fists still on the hood and stared at Braden. Its eyes were sunken in and were the darkest shade of black he’d ever seen.
Braden’s brain scrambled to make sense of the sight in front of him, searching for something in its memory banks that he could compare this monstrosity to, but there was nothing.
By every sense of the definition, the creature in front of Braden was alien.
Alien.
An alien.
Braden shook his head at the thought and brought the magnum up to eye level. He shot the windshield out and fired three more times, almost deafening himself. The alien creature in front of him dropped to the ground.
Braden carefully slid across the seat and opened the driver’s door. As he stepped out of the car, he felt his foot squish down into a wet pile.
“Don’t look down, Braden,” he said out loud to himself. “Just don’t look down.”
His curiosity got the better of him and he looked down to see the mangled body of the zombie that’d originally trapped him in the Hummer. The zombie was barely recognizable and was shredded apart.
“What the fuck is going on?” Braden asked out loud.
“Braden!” he heard Riker’s voice shouting. “Come on, Braden! What are you waiting for?”
Braden ran toward the bus when from the corner of his eye he saw something move. He looked over his shoulder and saw that the alien creature had stood back up and was looking in his direction.
“Don’t look back, dude!” Hector yelled to Braden. “Just run your ass off!”
Braden jumped over another zombie that Stewart had killed and dodged more of the shaking cocoons. Clawed hands with long, sharp talons punched through many of the pods as the things inside struggled to free themselves.
As he reached the others, Braden heard Stewart mention that they couldn’t leave Emily behind. The others told Braden that she’d gotten scared and ran into a building not far away.
“We can’t leave her out there,” Braden said. “Did you see that fucking thing?” Braden’s mind spun as he tried to fit what he’d seen into a previously experienced reality, but fell short. “I don’t think those things are human any longer. Seriously, did you see it?”
“We saw it,” Riker said. “Stewart’s story from earlier isn’t sounding so strange right now.”
“Are those things really fucking aliens?” Braden said as his head swung between Stewart and Riker.
“Right now isn’t the best time to discuss this,” Riker said. “Let’s get Emily and get the hell out of here.”
Around them, the arms of the alien creatures slowly freed themselves from their prisons.
*
Emily ran through the front door of the library and immediately knew she’d made a mistake.
“Stupid, stupid, stupid,” Emily said out loud. “Why the hell would you run away from the bus?”
A man walked down the flight of stairs in front of her.
“Did anyone follow you out here?” the man asked.
“What are you doing here?” Emily asked. “Did you follow me?”
“I figured someone needed to protect you,” said the man, his words dripping out of his mouth.
“I’m such an idiot,” Emily said. “I panicked and instead of running to the bus, I ran here.”
“Don’t worry,” the man said as he walked closer to her. “I’m gonna take good care of you.”
“Uh, you’re kind of creeping me out,” Emily said. Before she could say anything else, the man punched her in the face. His fist struck her so hard that three teeth flew out of her mouth. She lost consciousness before she hit the ground.
“I think it is time you and me got better acquainted, missy,” the man said as he dragged Emily’s body further into the building.
Chapter Eight
1
Underground Facility, Schoepke Springs
Spicewood, Texas
Fi emerged from her cocoon.
Even before she freed herself from the pod, she knew she was different. She’d felt all the changes and had embraced them. She’d felt her bones getting stronger. She felt her new muscles as they wrapped themselves around the bones. She felt it as her mind filled with new memories.
New memories of an alien world that’d died and many new worlds that were invaded and conquered.
Fi now understood why Earth had been chosen.
Fi stood, the cocoon still at her feet, as the thick fluid slid down her body. Her skin still produced the fluid, and that would keep her safe from the many of Earth’s airborne pathogens.
Fi looked around and saw that most of the other cocoons were empty, but she sensed something else. She sniffed the air and caught the faintest whiff of something familiar. Human beings had recently been around The Discovery.
Human beings.
Food.
She followed the scent to the door of The Discovery. They’d went inside. The humans had been inside The Discovery. She traced their journey that led to the control room where the life pods were and checked on them. Once she was satisfied they hadn’t disturbed the pods, she stood and turned her attention to the control panel behind her. All the knowledge of what The Discovery was and how it worked had been transferred into her brain during her transformation.
She ran her clawed hand over some of the lights on the panel and a small shelf glided out of the wall.
It was empty.
Fi froze at the sight of the empty shelf that once held the four vials—vials that were essential to The Convergence.
She left the control room and exited The Discovery. She knew she didn’t have to contact her brethren about the missing vials. If she knew about them missing, so did the aliens that hovered above.
And they wouldn’t be happy.
2
Sub-Facility, Schoepke Springs
Spicewood, Texas
Wilder and the others were fixed on the monitors. The creatures emerged from their cocoons everywhere. Tall, sinewy alien bodies now wandered Schoepke Springs. A place that used to be a symbol of families and fun had forever been tainted with this evil presence. Thousands had already “hatched,” as Howard called it, with more hatching every minute.
