The Parabiont Invasion Book 3

by Y. J. Gendron

  “Is he…” A voice said from close by.

  She turned and saw Noah’s pale face. He was staring at Vokug, his features altered by moonlight. There was an heavy wariness in the way he stood about, his eyes wider than usual. She moved closer and put a hand to his shoulder. He recoiled with a jerk, clearly distressed. She saw his eyes shift with agitation, going from Vokug to her and back again. He was troubled by what they’d done, by what he’d done. The Amilaki was dead and although it was an accident, the realization shook him to the core.

  She pulled him closer and held on to him. “It wasn’t your fault. It was an accident.”

  He hugged her back, the heaviness pouring out from him as he buried his face in her shoulder. “I never wanted to hurt anyone,” he murmured, his voice broken with sobs.

  “I know Noah, I know,” she soothed, the tears bubbling forth.

  He hugged her again. She closed her eyes and allowed herself a moment to weep.

  This is how it feels.

  To be in a war.

  To witness life being taken.

  To sense the light inside you waver as the winds of war roar around you.

  To fear for your soul.

  To survive only to have to fight again.

  It was only the beginning but for Beatrice it was already too much. And as Sergeant Garcia came over to her, a questioning look on his face, she knew at once that war was the cruelest of bitches.

  Just ask Paige Hillcox.

  27 Attack

  Sergeant Garcia’s whole composure became a portrait of misery as Beatrice’s hushed words found his ears. He stared straight ahead, a faraway look in his eyes. Colonel Graves, who had just joined up with them, hunkered down beside him, a look of concern in the intense stare.

  “But are you really sure? She might still be alive.” Garcia asked, the words like rocks in his mouth.

  Beatrice shook her head. “I… I’m sorry.”

  “We’ve got to go out there and make sure!” Noah blurted out, glancing at Graves. “I mean what are we waiting for?” He veered to the ring of soldiers that hung in the back, their heads bent low. “Who’s with me?”

  There was a muffled thud and a brief explosion of dirt some twenty yards away from where they stood.

  “Get down!” Garcia called, gesturing with one arm.

  They all scooted deeper into the gloom, finding refuge in the rough area of shrubbery that bordered the building.

  There was a powerful burst of light. The soldiers turned away at once, putting up their hands for protection. Some of them, staring in that unfortunate direction, dropped to the ground, inert and senseless.

  Beatrice who had been looking the other way, veered her head back to where the explosion took place. “NVG’s on!” She heard Graves called. There was a shifting of bodies as the soldiers obeyed, moving into position behind the Colonel.

  Further out in the dying light, a line of people appeared, marching forward with authority.

  “They’re coming!” She called.

  Graves and Garcia took position alongside her. From the corner of her eye, she saw that they had covered the night vision goggles with duck tape, a do-it-yourself attempt to block the Amilaki weapons’ effect. It was a good idea though it forced them to lift the goggles out of the way if they needed to see.

  Another shot rang out. The leader of the advancing Amilaki jerked backwards, a geyser of dirt exploding around him. He lifted his arm.

  “Heads down,” she called out, turning away.

  Another brilliant supernova of light lit up the sky.

  She shifted her stare to Asalak and Eklan. Both Amilaki had their heads bent low, the tips of their chins touching their chests. Then, a second later and in perfect synchronization, they lifted their heads up. Asalak opened his eyes. They were dark as billiard balls, with the white of the sclera indistinguishable from the black of the pupil. An heartbeat later, he blinked and the eyes returned to normal, the ice-green color of the iris setting into place.

  He shot a glance at her. There was an unspoken matter between them now, a new question that needed to be answered. But now was not the time. She nodded, putting a finger behind her right ear, to the spot where his lump could still be seen, an eerie reminder of his parabiosis. He nodded in return.

  Garcia’s jaw flexed with tension. “I hope Kyle’s okay,” he said to himself, though his voice was loud enough for the others to hear.

  In answer, a barrage of shots rained down from the roof, forcing the line of Amilaki to find cover at the base of the building.

  “Incoming flash!” Garcia cried out.

  But there were no flashes this time.

  “We need to get inside the Cube, Colonel,” Asalak said, finding a place next to Graves.

  “Just a moment.” Graves’ brow furrowed. “You want to go back in?”

  “Yes. We need to confront her and if need be, destroy her.”

  The Colonel saw the determination in the other man’s face and realized that maybe only an Amilaki could stop another one from enslaving all of humanity.

  “Very well.” Graves put a hand on Garcia’s shoulder. “Sergeant, I want you to escort these men inside the Cube.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “I’ll stay here to hold back Tebayi’s people.”

  “Alone sir?” Garcia asked with a deep frown.

  The Colonel gave him a quick grin then said in a clear voice, “Now listen up, troops. The mission of these men,” he turned his head to Asalak and Eklan standing by, “is critical for all of us. They need to be able to get inside the Cube. Understood?”

  There was a general, ‘Yes, sir!’

  “I need four men to stand with me. We will be the rear guard. It won’t be easy since we’ll be outnumbered.”

  From the ring a soldiers, a man popped out of the ranks, stiffening to attention. “Count me in, sir,” Cornell Williams said.

  “At ease and stay down,” Graves said with a curt wave.

  Cornell obliged immediately and stepped closer to the Colonel. Three other soldiers immediately joined Cornell, gathering close by.

  “Very well. Okay, people, let’s do this. Good luck.”

  Garcia saluted Graves and said, “You too, sir.”

  At once, the Sergeant veered to Asalak. “Lead the way.”

  The Amilaki nodded and flanked by Eklan hurried away toward the building. Beatrice pushed forward and with a few quick steps, eased alongside Eklan.

  “What are you doing?” Eklan hissed, eyes narrowing. “It’s too dangerous. You could get killed.”

  Noah, who was trailing right behind them, froze into place.

  Beatrice felt a chill go down her spine.

  Oh, my God!

  She saw the doubt in the teen’s eyes.

  He heard it too.

  Noah turned to her, a puzzled expression on his face. “Asher?” He mouthed, clearly confused.

  “Maybe,” she mouthed back.

  He shook his head in wonder then glanced surreptitiously at the Amilaki. Eklan, who had resumed walking, gave an elaborate shrug and said, “Do as you wish, humans… but you’ve been warned.”

  From behind the group, an outburst of gunfire shredded the silence.

  “Move!” Garcia hissed.

  They all ran, leaving the cover of the shrubs to hug the rear wall of the building.

  “Don’t look back!” Beatrice said, as explosions of light lit up the yard.

  With Asalak in the lead, the unit made its way to the rear entrance, the sound of the battle echoing in their ears. As they approached the double set of doors, Noah sprinted away on his own, toward the distant edge of the rear wall, to where the end of the building was still hidden in darkness.

  “Noah!” Beatrice cried as she watched him race off. “What are you doing?”

  She saw him turn his head and while he still accelerated away, she heard him call back one single word, “Paige.”

  Garcia saw the teen vanish out of sight and shook his head. “Go
od luck, kid.”

  “Sergeant, this way!” Asalak called out.

  Eklan was holding one of the doors open, scanning the interior for activity.

  “All clear,” he announced.

  “You guys,” Garcia called, gesturing at six soldiers that hovered in the background. “Stay out here and cover us. If you’re overrun, I want you to join us in the Cube. No time for heroics, we need manpower. Understood?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “The rest,” Garcia eyed Moffatt and the nine remaining soldiers, “you’re with me.”

  Asalak rushed inside, followed by Beatrice. Garcia gave one quick look around then, with a quick nod to his team, slipped inside.

  Eklan let the door close, blocking it with his foot to dampen the noise. The hallway was illuminated with the emergency lighting of battery-powered units, affixed to the ceiling every fifty feet or so.

  Asalak rushed forward up the hallway, tailed by Eklan and Beatrice. A minute later, they reached the junction that led out to the vast expanse of the hall, to where the Cube waited. Catching her breath as they waited for Garcia to join up, Beatrice shook her head and said, “This is too easy.”

  Asalak, with his back to the wall, craned his neck and peeked inside the half-lit corridor. He could see the Cube at the end of the 100 foot long passage. It was bathed in a golden glow but appeared deserted, like a solitary jewel in a velvet case. Then, at once, there was movement, as if the floor had come alive. His eyes widened.

  “No, it’s not,” he called, grabbing Beatrice by the arm. “Run!”

  They ran back down the hallway.

  Garcia saw them coming and froze. “What the hell is going on?”

  “We have incoming!”

  “Explain!” The Sergeant said, nailing Asalak with his stare.

  “An army. Coming this way.”

  “An army? An army of what?”

  A layer of dread materialized in Asalak’s stare. “Drones.”

  “Drones?”

  The Amilaki nodded. “Tebayi’s work. You’ve never seen anything like this before, Sergeant. Believe me.”

  Beatrice, standing between the two men suddenly realized something was amiss. She turned around and stared back up the hallway. “Where’s Eklan?”

  Both Asalak and Garcia looked at her.

  They don’t know!

  A surge of apprehension twisted her gut into knots.

  He’s still back there!

  Instinct kicked in and she bolted up the hallway. Asalak’s call found her ears but she ignored it. The seconds ticked by with painful slowness as she sprinted up the passage, the walls morphing into an endless tunnel of gray light.

  There was a grape shot of bursting lights. She flicked her head sideways. From the corner of her eye, Eklan came into view, materializing as if from thin air. He shouted something to her but the bursts of light played havoc with her brain. She faltered and a breathless moment later crashed into him. He grabbed her by the arm to keep her from falling then shoved her head down.

  Though her eyes were tightly closed, the movement on the ground around her overwhelmed her senses.

  Things. Scurrying along the floor.

  At once, a snapshot clawed its way into her mind.

  Nightmarish things mashed together from equipment found in the Cube. Arthropod in appearance, they had legs made from spools of thermoplastic material, bodies from discarded metal parts, and power cells ripped from electronic devices. No two were identical though they all had shared a common overall look.

  A look designed to inspire fear in the heart of humans.

  A look that called to mind the Snyl.

  Tebayi.

  She had used the Army’s 3D replicators for her own purposes, usurping their manufacturing capabilities to create extensions of herself. The drones would secure her new lair, defending the Cube against any and all attacks; providing her with the necessary time so that she could accomplish her goals.

  Beatrice felt one of the things touch her leg. She quivered with horror, repulsed by the insectoid way in which they probed.

  “Keep still,” Eklan murmured in her left ear.

  She could feel his heartbeat as he held on to her. It was remarkably under control, she thought.

  Unnaturally so.

  And even though she was still terrified, she found it soothing at once, a buoy she could cling on to.

  Something jumped onto her.

  She flinched. The thing went up her arm, pricking her skin with the spiky ends of its six legs. The fear inside her ratcheted up a notch, flooding her brain with a barrage of imagery, all shockingly scary and terrifying. She could see herself, lying on the ground, covered with Tebayi’s ghastly soldiers; cut up, sliced and dissected like a museum exhibit with a label that would read, ‘Here lies the last known human being.’

  The drone crawled up to the base of her neck then went around and slid beneath the collar of her jacket.

  Eklan squeezed her even tighter and she froze, the terror engulfing her completely.

  “I can control them,” he said, “But I need your help.”

  She felt the thing sting her behind the ear. There was an overpowering and sudden explosion of searing pain.

  “I need you.” Eklan’s voice was like a hundred miles away.

  The whirlpool of oblivion opened up around her.

  “And so does Asher.”

  28 Darkness

  Noah saw the flashes before the commotion found his ears. He was making his way along the outer wall of the old electrical plant, on a path that would hopefully lead to the main entrance, on the other side of the building. Behind him, the gunfire had begun but he didn’t let it change his mind. Paige was out there, possibly badly hurt, and he would do his damnedest to find her.

  Because she would have done the same for him.

  Ahead lay a row of old transformers, the behemoths standing up like sculptures from an ancient era, their steel bodies covered in rust. They were tall and impressive, giving off a sense of power even though they’d been deactivated for half a century. He jogged around them, keeping to the trail that snaked out toward the distant corner.

  The zone was basically a dump, filled with obsolete generators, turbines, dynamos, coils of wires and other junk that had been left out to corrode until someone with an ‘eco-conscience’ would clean it up. As he worked his way between the waste, brilliant flares of light lit up the sky, turning the landscape into a surreal realm. Pushing forward over a mess of thick cables, he could see the corner of the building up ahead, some thirty feet away. The sight filled him with hope and he hastened his pace, hopping over the debris with nary a second thought.

  That’s when a flash of movement caught his eye.

  It was coming from behind a huge and quite ancient generator that was at least ten feet across by over fifteen feet high. The old machine was strapped to a steel platform with casters on the bottom, the mechanism buried in rust.

  He stared into the shadowy pocket of darkness that wrapped around the platform and waited, fighting to keep his breath steady. The light show in the sky distorted the appearance of the machinery, morphing it into a grotesque and unsettling sculpture.

  At once, he felt that something wrong.

  There was something out there, in the darkness. His instinct screamed at him that it was dangerous, and that it was coming his way. He bolted around the generator, distancing himself from whatever lurked in the dark.

  Now running at full tilt, he shot a glance behind him.

  There it was, the thing responsible for the movement.

  He was at once reminded of a trilobite, those extinct, hard-shelled creatures that roamed the seas millions of years ago, except this one was very much alive and was a hundredfold larger than the fossils he’d seen at the museum.

  And it had legs that rose it a foot off the ground.

  With disbelief, he saw it veer his way, its dozen of legs almost indistinguishable as they scurried about at great speed.


  He leaped above a short concrete wall and raced off. Legs pumping, he reached the corner of the building and without missing a beat, changed direction. The light was different here, with a golden hue that made the tall trees glitter with crystalline clarity. In the distance, he could make out the stairs that led up to the main doors.

  But he was still at least fifty yards out from them.

  Looking over his shoulder to see if the trilobite-thing was still behind, he struck a heavy steel bollard with his foot. His knee buckled out from under him and he crashed to the ground, hard. A wave of pain engulfed his leg, rushing from the tip of his toes all the way up to his groin. The world spun crazily around him and he took a moment to gather his wits. Sitting back up, he looked back to the area where he’d come from.

  Something appeared at the edge of the wall, at the spot where the brickwork gave way to darkness. The thing with the impossible legs turned his way, the light bouncing off with odd patterns from its shell.

  Shit!

  He saw an array of tiny sensors embedded in its skin ignite at once, flickering with nervous energy.

  The thing charged.

  He climbed to his feet, hopping on his good leg to maintain balance. He gingerly pressed down on his injured leg, hoping against hope that it would hold.

  It did. The pain was still there but he gritted his teeth, setting it aside. He knew the thing was behind him, so he either had to run away or stand his ground.

  But with his leg banged up, running was out of the question.

  Which left only the other option.

  Fight.

  He had no idea what the trilobite could do to him. Would it electrocute him? Shoot him up with toxic fluids? Puncture him to death with its needle-like legs?

  Think.

  He turned his head to the electrical box bolted to the wall. There was a sizable cable, about two inches in diameter, that went from the box to the wall. It was black with a metallic sheath around it. He wondered if electricity flowed within it.

  Just one way to find out.

  He lunged forward, gripping the bollard to steady himself, and took position next to the power box. He took a moment to get his breath under control then put both hands to the cable. He pulled. The cable held. He heard the skittering of the trilobite as it crossed the concrete path, not ten feet away. He gripped the cable again and with a silent plea to the heavens, wrenched the cable free. There was a flash of sparks. He jerked sidewise just as the thing rushed him. The trilobite’s hull swished open, revealing a mess of internal wiring and one object he recognized at once. An incapacitator.