by Randy Dyess
Fidel’s mood became angrier as he stepped off the pile of rubble and started down the alley. He had broken protocol and instructed his ship to leave Candus and wait behind the largest of its moons. The ship was programmed to scan the orbit around Candus for activity and when the enemies fleet left orbit, it would return to Candus and land at the spaceport to wait for him. Fidel was hoping that whatever EMP weapon the enemy used, it wouldn’t affect anything as far out as his ship.
“Next time I see Agent Smith, I’m going to shoot him. They could have just had me set up the comm unit and set it to transmit. If it kept transmitting throughout the attack, then they would have their answer. But no, they had to send some expendable idiot like me to ‘personally’ see that the equipment was positioned properly,” he muttered. He knew he would go to the next planet with the next version of the comm unit if they told him to. What other choice did he have? Going back to work in the same factory his grandparents and parents worked in? As a Senate Intelligence agent, he had perks his parents and grandparents could only dream of. Not that it will do you much good if you don’t get ahold of yourself and get off this planet, he thought as he realized he hadn’t paid attention to where he had been going for the last few minutes. Something he couldn’t afford to do with three-meter high spiders running around capturing and carrying off everyone.
“Hey! Can you help us?” a young girl called over. “Do you know what’s going on?” she asked as Fidel made his way over to the small group.
“No. All I remember is an explosion and then my building started shaking. I’m lucky the room I was in wasn’t affected.”
“Someone said something about us being attacked. Something about spiders,” another member of the group said.
“I don’t know anything about that,” Fidel lied. “All I’m trying to do is to get home. My wife and son should be there.”
“You should stay with us,” the young girl said. “It’s safer in a group. You could get hurt trying to get home alone through this.”
“Maybe, but I need to get to my family. They’ll be so worried about me. I don’t want them to have to think I’m dead. I don’t want them to have to go through that all night.”
“Where’s home?” someone else asked.
Fidel had studied Candus City during the flight over and knew the city’s districts. He picked one opposite of the direction the group was traveling. “District A5. And you?”
“F10,” the young girl replied. “We’re all from the F10 high school and were on a field trip to Candus Corp’s district manufacturing headquarters when all this happened.”
“Where’s your teacher?”
“She didn’t make it,” the young girl sighed. “The building fell down on her.”
“I’m sorry,” Fidel said. He was truly sorry the teacher had died during the attack. The senate knew the attack was coming and should have evacuated the city. “I wish I could help, but I have to get going.”
The school group looked disappointed. They were not used to having to figure things out on their own. Their entire lives had been scheduled around the needs of Candus Corporation. Not having someone telling them what to do was frightening to them. “Ok. We have to get home as well,” the young girl replied. “Our parents will get worried if we’re not home soon.”
“Do you know where you are going?” Fidel felt guilty about abandoning the teens, but he needed to get to his ship and make his report.
“I think so,” a young boy replied. “My parents used to bring me to a tutor around here. I think F10’s that way,” he said pointing to the north.
“It is,” Fidel answered. “Keep going and you should get there before night. And if this is an attack, you might want to make sure you keep quiet and watch out for anything that doesn’t look like Candus security. You don’t want to end up in the enemy’s hands.”
“You think that could happen? You think someone’s attacking Candus and would take us if they saw us?” the young girl cried out.
“I don’t know. I don’t think so, but you said someone told you it was an attack,” Fidel answered. He was even more guilty about leaving them. “Just keep going and you’ll get there.”
“Bye,” the girl said sadly as Fidel turned south and started walking away.
He stopped and turned around to face the girl. “Take care and get home. Your parents are probably worried sick. You’ll be fine if you keep quiet and stay alert.”
“Ok,” the girl replied as she and her small group started walking in the direction of their homes.
*****
“Still nothing”, he mumbled after waiting for more than two hours at the second rally point. “None of them made it.” He had hoped at least one member of his team had survived and would be at the rally point. He knew it had taken him several hours later than planned to get to the rally points, but it would have taken his men about the same amount of time if they had survived. “You’re it, now marine up; get to the spaceport; and report what you know,” he said to himself as he stood up to start making the journey to the spaceport. You can mourn your team later, he thought, but first you must survive this attack and get to safety.
Sergeant Major McCoons made better time after he left the second rally point. The med-nites had finished healing his leg and he now had a mission to accomplish. Making his way around a pile of rubble, he heard a soft cry for help. He stopped and stood still, listening. “There!” he said, turning to his right and looking at the tram stop. He could see the rubble moving and hands sticking up as the trapped people tried to dig their way out. He rushed over and fell to his knees, ignoring the pain that rushed up from his right knee. Pushing a beam and some rubble aside, he called out, “Terran Marines! I’m going to try to help.” Cheers rose as the survivors under the rubble recognized someone was trying to help. It took two hours for Sergeant Major McCoons to dig a hole large enough to let the survivors crawl through the rubble to safety.
“What happened? Where did you come from? Are you alone? Where are emergency services? What’s going on?” came the questions as the small group of survivors surrounded McCoons.
“We’ve been attacked. The city was bombed and raided,” Sergeant Major McCoons said.
“Attacked! What? How? Are you serious? Who would attack us?” the members of the group yelled out. Sergeant Major McCoons could tell they were having a hard time believing him and understanding what was going on.
“If you would be quiet for a minute, I’ll tell you,” Sergeant Major McCoons shouted in his command voice. “I don’t know who is actually involved in the attack, but early this morning someone bombed this planet with what we think were plasma balls. The bombs were being used to clear landing zones. Asteroid shaped ships landed all over the city and three-meter tall spiders came out of them and started taking everyone.”
The crowd gasped, and he could see several of them backing away, refusing to believe him. “What do you mean? Taking everyone?” someone asked. “And what’s all this crap about spiders?”
“Like I said. Ships landed and large spiders have been attacking us since. My whole team was wiped out trying to fight back. I managed to kill one, but had to escape the roof we were on before they captured me too.”
“What a load of crap! Are you sure this isn’t some marine drill that went wrong and you’re trying to cover it up by making up some story about an attack and large spiders. Wait until I tell Candus headquarters about you. You and your marines will wish you had never come here. Now, help us find someone to treat our wounds!”
Sergeant Major McCoons closed his eyes and counted to ten to control his temper. He knew his story was unbelievable, but he just didn’t have enough time to convince these people of the truth. Any minute, a formation of spiders could come pouring around the corner and sweep them all up. He might be able to fight off one or two and get clear, but he wouldn’t be able to save anyone else. “Listen up! I know this sounds like some story, but believe me when I tell you I wish it was. I lost twenty-four
good marines this morning and have seen dozens of people being captured by these things. I don’t know who or what is behind this and how they could create those monsters, but someone did. Look around you. Can’t you see the smoke? Do you see anyone else around here besides us? How about sirens or any other noise? If this was a lie, wouldn’t there be hundreds of people moving around?”
He heard murmurs as the crowd started to grasp what he was saying. Fear replaced anger as the crowd scanned the area around them and saw the destruction in front of them. A whole building had been flattened next to the tram stop causing them to be trapped. Smoke was everywhere, but there were no emergency sirens going off. No people were running around. Nothing. It was like the whole city was a ghost town. “What are we supposed to do?” someone cried out. “If this is true, how are they going to save us?”
“I don’t know all of the details, but we need to make our way to the spaceport. Any help Candus Corporation or the Senate sends will rally at the spaceport,” Sergeant Major McCoons replied. I hope, he thought as looked at the group of scared people. He didn’t want to give the group any false hope of a rescue, but these were civilians and they were not trained like his marines. They were scared and confused. He needed them calm and under control if they were to make it to the spaceport on time and intact.
Not giving them any chance to respond, Sergeant Major McCoons started walking. He heard the group starting to follow him. Good. Now, if only there is actually help at the spaceport, he thought as he turned the corner, hoping no spiders were around it.
They were lucky: there were no spiders around the corner or the next twenty corners. The group struggled, but they managed to keep moving. Their energy levels increased the first time they saw spiders in the distance carrying their human cocoons back to their ships. They all now believed him and listen to him when he told them to drop and stay quiet. Several times, he had the group hide in an office building or a storefront while he watched spiders go past. So far, they had been lucky and the spiders either didn’t see him or were ignoring his group for some reason. It didn’t take him long to figure out that the spiders were concentrated around the cleared landing zones. If they avoided the landing zones, they could speed up, so he increased his pace and ignored the moans from the group behind him. Time for them to toughen up, he thought. He still didn’t know who attacked them and what they wanted with everyone they were taking away. Could they be slavers and not pirates? No, it’s been four hundred years since the last slavers. Sergeant Major McCoons kept trying to come up with a reason the attack happened. He might not know why they were being attacked, but he did know that if they were on this planet, they were a target.
Chapter 15
Twenty blocks from his dojo, Michael Lee rounded the corner of an alley and saw the collapsed shell of the Downtown Café. He’d always had a crush on the girl working the counter, but he had never could get her to commit to a relationship. He’d always thought Cindy was too pretty for a backwater boy, like him, and was surprised that she would even spend time with him. Part of him had known she wanted desperately to leave Candus for a better life on another planet, but plenty of others had the same dreams and never acted on them. He owned his own business on Candus, which was rare, and he wouldn’t be able to reproduce this on another planet. Once he left, he had no future other than a mindless worker at some farm or factory.
None of that mattered, now, though—the spider invasion had changed everything. There was nothing left on Candus for either of them, and it was time to get off the planet and try to build a life somewhere else, away from the possibility of another spider attack.
As Michael was about to leave the shadows in the alley to step into the street, he saw two spiders leaving the shell of the café, carrying two human-shaped cocoons. “Cindy—oh, Cindy, I’m so sorry. If I’d been a few minutes quicker, I could have helped you.” Tears formed in his eyes and anger started to grow in him. “I can’t let them take her!” His hand tightened on the grip of his sword, his toes gripped the sidewalk, and he prepared himself to save the girl he had loved these years.
“Wait!” his inner voice shouted.
Michael blinked and now saw dozens of spiders leaving the surrounding buildings. He might get lucky and kill one or two of the monsters, but dozens? These things were as large as trucks and faster than anything he had ever seen before. A lucky sword cut might kill one, but not before another could grab him and wrap him up. He slowly slid back into the shadows to where he’d left Skylar.
She could see that Michael was about to lose control again and rush headlong in a desperate and futile attack on the spiders carrying his girlfriend. “Michael!” Skylar yelled, not caring if a spider heard her. “It won’t do any good and you know it! It’s too late—they have her. Trying to attack them will only get you killed.”
“I don’t care! I have to try.”
“What about everyone else? Are you going to leave us to the spiders, once you’re gone?”
“I have nothing left,” Michael sobbed. “Cindy is gone; Jason is gone—the whole damn planet is gone.”
Skylar edged over to him and put her arm around his shoulder. “I know. Everything I had is gone, too. Everything everyone had is gone, and we’re not going to get it back. You’ve have to save us from this—you’re the only one who can.”
“Why would it matter?” Michael asked. “Do you really think anyone is going to help us now? They’re going to leave us on this planet to die.”
“Maybe,” Skylar replied, “but we have to try. I know people on Metros—maybe we can start over there.”
Michael slowly relaxed and put away his sword. He looked down for a few minutes, remembering his love for Cindy. After wiping away the tears, he looked Skylar in the eyes and said, “Okay, but I’ll never stop trying to find a way to get rid of those monsters.”
“I wouldn’t want you to.” Skylar had never been the action type, but she was angry that her whole world had imploded when these things attacked. She had no hope that anyone outside of Candus would ever help them, but didn’t want Michael to know that.
He looked back at the café. “I’ll never stop searching for you. If I can find any way to save you, I will.” He watched the group of spiders head back toward their ship, carrying the only girl he’d ever loved.
Michael and Skylar went back into the shadows. The spiders seemed to ignore them. I wonder if they only take one person at a time, Michael thought. We could use this to our advantage.
“Let’s speed up,” Michael said.
“Are you sure?”
“No, but I have a gut feeling.”
“What if you’re wrong?”
“Then we’ll end up the same as we would if we can’t make it out of the city. I don’t know how well these things hunt at night, but I’m afraid that, if we are still in the city tonight, we won’t make it out.”
Skylar wasn’t sure about what he was saying, but she knew she had no choice. There was no way she was going to leave the man who’d saved her life.
They walked a few more blocks before coming to a collapsed building where a group of people escaping the rubble walked around in a daze, calling out to each other.
“Stop moving and making noise—you’ll bring the spiders here,” Michael told them.
“Spiders? What spiders? What are you talking about?” one of the survivors asked.
“What’s this about spiders?” another asked.
“Huge spiders are attacking us—they’re taking people away,” Michael explained.
“Are you crazy? This was just an earthquake.”
“Listen, we’ve been attacked. Spiders are landing and capturing people. You have to be quiet and come with us—we’re trying to leave the city.”
“I’m not going anywhere,” someone said. “Emergency services will rescue us, you crazy idiot.”
“Wait a minute—he may know what’s going on. Let’s hear what he has to say,” someone else said.
A few of the
survivors surrounded the two and asked more questions. Michael was uneasy about their situation and wanted to get moving, though. “I’ll answer all your questions later. We have to move.”
“Move? Where?”
“I’m not going anywhere, until I find out what’s going on. What makes you think he’s not going to lead us directly to the spiders? Who put him in charge?”
Michael ignored these comments. “If you want to come, come. If not, stay here. I’m not going to die trying to convince you that I’m right.”
He turned around and looked at Skylar. “You coming?”
“You’re damn right I am.”
They started walking away, and several of the survivors moved with them. Others just stood there.
