by Robert Brumm
“Defember of de Crystal Castle.”
Maybe it was time to go back to the beach.
“This is Spirit, my ‘loved Steed.”
Emily knew it was just a pretend jungle, like the pretend lady in the window, but it was still sort of scary.“Fabilus secrets were revealed to me.”
The bend in the trail lead to another little bridge.
“The day I held ‘loft my sword and said…”
It crossed over a narrow strip of water to a large koi pond. A few fish swam lazily around beneath the murky surface.
“For de Honor of Greyskull.”
Another little hut on the left, this time with no pretend people in the window.
“She-ra, She ra…”
A large cage on the right. Two brightly colored bird carcasses lay on the bottom of the cage. Emily knew they weren’t pretend. Those were real birds that died because nobody fed them.
She didn’t feel like playing She-ra anymore. She dropped her sword and ran down the path the way she had come, over the bridge and around the bend. The jungle suddenly seemed very dark and she wanted to be out on the beach where the sun shone bright and Soo watched her from the patio.
She ran past the hut with the pretend lady and the hot tub full of green water. She could see the opening to the jungle and the bright green lawn beyond. Emily was certain something was on the trail, chasing her from behind. Her eyes started to water and she fought hard not to cry like a baby.
Just when she was about to make it out of the dark jungle onto the nice bright grass, her foot caught the edge of an uneven paver and she landed face-first on the trail. She rolled over, ignoring the pain from her skinned knees and hands, and saw nothing but empty trail behind her.
Emily looked down at her bloody knees and started to cry. She slowly got to her feet, wailing louder, hoping one of the grownups would hear and come running. She wiped her cheeks and caught movement out of the corner of her eye, out in the lawn. It wasn’t one of the adults coming to see what was wrong. It was one of the monsters from the city, coming straight for her. It spotted Emily and squealed. Two more emerged from the foliage on the far edge of the lawn, shrieking in return. Emily screamed as loudly as she could and ran down the path, away from the monsters and into the jungle.
****
Howard ran down the lawn, past the boarded up end of the hotel, and turned the corner. Soo was right on his heels. He called out Emily’s name but got no response as they weaved their way through the tables and chairs in the outdoor dining area of the old ballroom.
Howard skidded to a stop on the lawn in front of the hotel. Two of the creatures were on the far side of the lawn, trotting toward the large garden in the corner of the property. They both paused and looked directly at Howard and Soo.
“Oh, shit.” He looked down at his empty hands, realizing he was unarmed.
Soo grabbed his hand. “I left my gun back at the patio,” she whispered.
“Emily must be in there.”
“Okay.” Soo’s breath grew shallow as she clamped down harder on Howard’s hand. “Okay, okay. Here’s what we do.” The creatures crouched down and squealed, preparing to charge. “We run in different directions. Hopefully they’ll stay together and follow just one of us. Whoever doesn’t get chased, goes for Emily. The other goes for my gun.” Soo took a couple of steps away from Howard.
“What if they split up?”
The creatures charged.
“Then we wing it! Go!” Soo took off for the driveway, Howard ran back the way they came. He glanced back and saw both of the creatures go out of sight as they ran after Soo. He ran directly into one of the hard metal chairs on the ballroom patio and tumbled to the concrete, smashing his head against another iron chair on the way down.
Howard untangled himself from the chair and ran back toward the garden and, hopefully, Emily. He felt about as slow and uncoordinated as humanly possible. He glanced to his left and saw no signs of Soo or the creatures. With no time to worry about her, he concentrated on reaching the garden. He slowed to a trot as he hit the trail and called out Emily’s name, not hearing anything over the blood pounding in his ears.
Feeling as if his head were on a swivel, Howard kept heading down the trail, calling out her name. The garden was dense and dark. Panic started to rise as doubts crept in. What if Emily wasn’t in there at all and he was wasting precious time? He couldn’t imagine she would have wandered in there alone. Even he was getting creeped out.
The urge to turn around and search another part of the property was so strong he almost turned back. Then he heard another scream. With a burst of adrenaline, Howard sprinted down the trail into an open area. Emily was up to her neck in the middle of a pond. One of the creatures stomped around and squealed at the water’s edge but didn’t go in. Emily was just out of reach of its long barbed appendage. Howard allowed himself to feel relieved for half a second when he realized this thing was not a big fan of water. That little pond had saved Emily’s life, and he couldn’t believe she had the guts to jump in it.
Emily saw him and screamed his name. He scanned the ground looking for anything he could use as a weapon and had a flashback of the shed back at the research station. This time, there were no handy pipes lying around he could use to bash this thing’s brains in. He picked up a tree branch near the trail but it crumbled in his hands.
“Hey!” He clapped his hands over his head. “Over here!”
The beast considered Howard, conveniently not neck deep in water, and snarled at him.
“Emily, stay there! Don’t move an inch!” He waved his hands over his head and slowly moved back. Emily nodded at him but looked more terrified than ever. The creature stomped at the edge of the pond one more time, careful to not get wet, and backed off.
“That’s it, baby. Come on.” Howard clapped again and kept walking backward.
The creature finally chalked up Emily as a loss and charged at Howard. He spun around and once again sprinted down the trail. The beast behind him made a horrible racket as it smashed through the brush behind him, ignoring the trail.
Howard reached the edge of the garden and sprinted across the lawn toward the beach. His lungs burned for air and his muscles were quickly turning to jelly but he couldn’t slow down. He could hear the thing pounding across the grass behind him and closing the distance between them quickly.
As he reached the patio, he weaved through the tables and chairs, praying not to get tripped up and fall again. This time he would receive more than skinned knees. Gunshots rang out around the corner on the far end of the hotel – music to his ears. He hurdled over a chair, dodged a table, and turned the corner, just inches in front of the alien chasing him.
****
Soo ran across the vast lawn. The blades were long and coarse, spoiled by weeds and rodent holes after months without professional care. She ran as fast as she could, mentally preparing herself for the possibility of stepping on something unpleasant or painful with her bare feet. She reached the driveway without incident and chanced a quick glance behind her. Both of the creatures were closing in. She caught a glimpse of Howard’s bright T-shirt before he was swallowed by the dense garden.
Knowing the front doors were locked, she sped past them to the side gate by the pool. The lead alien’s sharp hooves and claws slid like chalk on a blackboard behind her as they reached the driveway. She reached the low wall by the pool, planted both hands on the top, and vaulted over to the patio on the other side. One of the creatures leapt over the wall behind her, squealing like a pig as it flew through the air. But it had jumped too far and caught the lip of the pool with just one leg before plunging into the stagnant water. It let out a horrific shriek as it thrashed about in the pool.
The other creature, after observing the demise of its hunting partner, vaulted the wall with more care, allowing Soo to gain some breathing room. She turned the corner of the building, screaming for help the entire way. She just hoped one of the others was close enough t
o hear.
Soo got to the patio and saw her gun, just where she had left it on the table next to her chair. She picked it up in what felt like slow motion. It was taking too long, she didn’t have enough time. The beast was almost on her now, making that awful clucking noise with its mouth and the clicking of hooves and nails on tile.
Dave’s training kicked in. In one fluid motion, Soo pressed the slide release lever with her right thumb, pulled the slide back with her left hand, and chambered a round. The hammer locked back into the firing position. She clicked off the safety and spun around, leveling the front sight at the creature now just fifteen feet away and closing.
Soo yanked on the trigger, fighting the recoil and keeping the gun level as she fired six rounds into the creature. All of them found their mark and the hollow point bullets Dave chose for her pulverized the creature’s torso. It tumbled as it fell forward, just missing Soo as she jumped out of the way. It tipped over the chairs she and Howard had been sitting in just minutes before and came to a stop.
Before she could even catch her breath, Howard came sprinting around the corner with the other one close on his heels.
Unlike Soo, Howard was in lousy condition and had no business running for his life. The adrenaline was quickly fading and his legs were starting to betray him.
Soo pointed the gun directly at his face and screamed at him to get down. Simply by dumb luck, Howard tripped on a coiled garden hose lying out on the patio and went airborne. Soo fired. Howard landed right on his diaphragm, knocking the air out of himself and slamming his cheek into the tile floor. A second later, the alien fell on top of him, a small hole in its forehead and another in the back of its head the size of a grapefruit where the bullet had exited.
“Howard!” Soo ran for him, careful to keep the gun trained on the creature. Howard wasn’t moving. Behind her, Dave, Tre, and Ann came running out onto the patio, wide-eyed and startled by the sudden chaos that had exploded from the back of the quiet resort.
Soo pushed the dead thing off Howard’s back and started crying in relief when she saw him trying to catch his breath. She helped him turn over and wiped the alien blood off his face with her hands. “Are you okay?”
“Fine.” He wheezed, trying to catch his breath. “I’m fine. Emily.” Howard pointed frantically toward the garden. “Go. Help Emily. In the pond.”
Dave and Tre ran off to find her.
“Holy shit,” Howard exclaimed a minute later. “That was one hell of a shot, Annie Oakley. Is there anything you can’t do?”
Soo laughed and gave Howard a long kiss on the forehead before helping him get up.
He was covered in alien brains and blood, and possibly suffer from a concussion, but that kiss was the highlight of his day so far.
Thirteen
They all stood by the pool, observing the dead alien floating beakdown in the water.
“Well, we found another weakness of these damn things.” Dave holstered his handgun. “They don’t stand up too well against bullets or water.”
“And they know it too,” said Howard. “The one that cornered Emily wouldn’t even dip a foot in that pond.” He hunkered down and faced Emily. She was wrapped up in a towel, shaken up but unharmed. “How did you figure out you’d be safe in that pond?”
Emily shrugged. “I fell in.”
Howard hugged her again, ignoring the pungent pond-water smell coming from her hair. “That was one lucky fall, hon. You did real good.”
“Oh, shit. Guys?” Ann shielded her eyes with her hand and watched as several more of the creatures emerged from the vegetation on the far side of the front lawn. They spotted the group of appetizers standing around poolside and charged.
“Everybody inside. Now!” Dave rushed them all through the patio doors and shut them. The French doors were sturdy and locked but consisted mostly of glass. This time, there were no bars to keep them out. “Into the suite, we’ll be safer in there.”
Once everybody was inside the suite, Dave opened the closet door in the hallway and surveyed his cache of small arms acquired from the police station. He grabbed the shotgun – a Benelli M2 Tactical. It was a nice find, very similar to the M4 Super 90 his guys used in Afghanistan for breaching doors and close-quarter situations. It was already loaded with 12 gauge double-aught buck. Five shells in the tube and one in the chamber. He grabbed a pouchful of shells and slung it over his shoulder.
“What’s the plan?” Howard whispered by his side.
“The plan is, you guys are going to stay put in here.” He grabbed several magazines for the 9mm in his leg holster and shoved them into his pocket. “I’m gonna take a quick look and see how many are out there.”
“I’ll come with you.”
“No can do, hombre. You stay here. I need you and Tre to watch out for the girls.”
Howard reached for one of the AR-15 assault rifles. “But Soo is ten times a better shot than I am.”
“That’s why I need you to stay here.” He grabbed the rifle from Howard and put it back into the closet. “I’ll be back in five minutes. Don’t worry.” Before Howard could protest, Dave slipped out the door.
He did a quick check of the patio doors but saw nothing outside. He ran up the stairs two at a time to the third floor and opened the maintenance closet at the end of the hall. Next to the shelf of cleaning supplies and towels, a ladder led to a hatch in the ceiling for roof access. Dave swung the shotgun over his shoulder and climbed.
He’d been up there once already a couple of weeks ago and discovered it offered a great bird’s-eye view of the surrounding area. From the roof, most of the grounds of the two neighboring hotels could be seen, as well as a decent stretch of the highway in front of the property. A quick peek over the edge at the back of the building revealed no signs of danger. Nothing on the patio, back lawn, or beach for as far as he could see in both direction.
Dave crept over to the front of the building, staying low and feeling a little foolish. Those things already knew they were here, but he figured the more they stayed out of sight the more it might help. Maybe they would lose interest and move on. He tried to wipe the sweat out of his eyes and wished he’d worn his sunglasses. The tar- and pea gravel-covered roof was incredibly hot.
The A-1 came into view before he reached the edge of the roof and he cursed. At least fifteen or twenty of the aliens were moving down the highway from Montego Bay. They walked in single file with their faces to the pavement, following a trail like a bunch of ants. He got closer to the edge and looked down. At least a dozen were out on the lawn, a few were milling around the garden where Emily had been, and from the sound of it plenty more were under the awning by the front door.
“There goes the neighborhood,” he muttered to himself.
Howard stood at the door, staring through the peephole, getting a fish-eye view of the hall. Tre watched through a tiny gap in the curtains at the patio door. The suite was on the first floor but the balcony was a good four or five feet off the ground. Soo had seen firsthand the jumping ability of those things, and had no doubt they could easily hop up onto the balcony if they knew people were inside.
The generators weren’t running, and with the blinds drawn the room was dark and hot.
Soo crept over to Howard. “I can’t take it just sitting here like this,” she whispered. “I feel like we should be doing something.”
“Let’s just wait for Dave to get back. He’ll know what to do.”
Howard felt ashamed as it passed his lips but he knew it was true. Soo probably did as well. Dave was the war hero, the one in charge, the one they could turn to for answers.
A flash of movement in front of the peephole and a quiet knock on the door made Howard jump. He opened the door and let Dave in.
“Okay, here’s the bad news,” Dave said. “Those critters out front were just the first ones to show up at the party. There are dozens now and more on the way. I actually saw them from the roof coming down the road like a goddamn wagon train.”
“Beats me, but it don’t matter much now. They must have sniffed us out.”
“What’s the good news?” Ann said.
“There ain’t none. We need to get the hell out of Dodge.” He turned to Soo and looked her in the eyes. “I gotta know right now. No bullshit. Can you really get us off this rock on one of those boats?”
She nodded.
“All right then. We go and we go now.”
“How are we going to get past them?” Howard asked.
“I think I have a plan for a diversion that’ll keep most of ‘em occupied while we make a beeline for the shuttle bus out front. The keys are on the counter and it’s got a full tank of gas.”
Soo nodded and looked over at the kitchen. “What about food and water for the trip? We’ll need to take some things.”
“How long do you think it’ll take to get to Florida?” Howard asked.
“If we find the right boat and can manage an average of twenty knots? About thirty to forty hours.”
Dave grinned. “Sounds like you’ve thought about this before.”
She tapped the side of her head. “I have it all planned out.”
They all froze as the sound of breaking glass came from down the hall. “Son of a bitch,” Dave whispered. “Howard, you’re with me. Tre, help the girls get together some food and as much ammo as you can carry. I want everyone carrying a weapon except the kid. Lock the door behind us. We’ll be back soon.”
Dave handed the AR-15 to Howard as they passed the closet then he looked out the peephole. He cracked open the door and looked both ways before signaling to Howard to follow. The hall was quiet and dark.
“Hold your fire unless you have to,” Dave said. “Last thing we want to do is attract more attention.”
Howard nodded even though Dave’s back was toward him and he couldn’t see it. He clutched the assault rifle in his sweaty hands, fighting the urge to run away, back to the suite.
