by Eddie Patin
Probably stick the two of them in their stomachs with those long, glass-like blades, she thought.
Kayleen’s chest clenched up, and she realized that she was holding her breath.
Once the three aliens moved on, heading south with the group, Kayleen watched in the mist around them to see if the coast was clear; if they could move on. But she sighed quietly when more of the figures, cloaked in fog, advanced from the north.
It was like a small army!
Who knows how many of those guys were out there?
Kayleen looked around the inside of the Suburban.
The carpet was clean, and the seats were in pretty good shape. Directly behind the driver’s seat was a toddler booster strapped into the normal seatbelt, with a five-point harness for the kid left open and a drink holder sticking out under one arm.
In the cup holder was a covered Styrofoam cup with a red straw sticking out of it.
Seeing the bright, red straw, Kayleen realized how thirsty she was. She hadn’t had anything to drink since ... back in the dorm room? She was drinking bottled water, maybe?
The girl could imagine a mother driving this big SUV with her kid in that car seat. Maybe they were driving home after eating some fast food last night when the power went out and the vehicle died...
Hannah groaned, huddled up in the floor boards.
“What’s the matter?” Kayleen whispered.
“I’m fucking hung over—duh...”
“We’ll get some food and water soon.”
“I know, Kay-kay. It’s just the fuckin light. It’s killin me. I’ve got such a fuckin migraine...”
“Maybe there’s something in the back.”
“Yeah, check the fuckin back!”
Taking a look outside the dark windows of the Suburban again, noting how far away the approaching alien soldiers were in the mist, Kayleen smoothly and carefully slinked over the middle seats to the back, and looked into the cargo hold of the huge vehicle behind the rear seat.
This was definitely a soccer mom car...
The rear storage area had a big cardboard box full of supplies, some fleece blankets, and a dark duffel bag held in place by a bright white net that clung to the walls and the back of the rear seat. Being careful not to rock the vehicle with her moving around, Kayleen pulled two folded blankets out—a maroon one and a pink one—and put them on the second seat where she was hiding before. Pulling the duffel bag into the back seat with her, she quietly pulled the zipper open and rifled around inside.
Good.
There were several pieces of cold weather clothing inside, like it was an emergency break-down bag. Kayleen took out a grey knit cap, pulled her big mop of wet and poofy brown hair together, then put the hat on. It would be good to keep her crazy hair out of the way—the heavy, humid air was making it get everywhere. Inside the bag was also a scarf, an adult-sized fleece jacket (she was already good there with her sweater and parka), and a size 4T pink kid’s jacket. The girl pulled out some leather work gloves and stuffed them into her jacket pocket.
So the mom and kid who were in this vehicle must have just taken whatever they were carrying last night and ... left?
Where did they go?
Were they holed up in a store nearby, or at a friend’s house? Somewhere within walking distance, of course...
Did they encounter the aliens and were taken or killed?
Kayleen gasped, thinking about the approaching soldiers, and turned to find them again through the tinted window next to her in the back. When she saw the tall, elegant forms, walking quietly like ghost soldiers through the mist nearby, she silently slithered back over the seat and settled into her spot in the middle of the SUV again.
“I found a blanket,” she whispered.
“Oh good,” Hannah said. “Give it here so I can cover up.”
“It’s right next to you, Hannah. Be quiet. There are more coming...”
“Fuck,” her roommate replied, wrapping her arms tighter around her head. “Whatever.”
Whatever?
Kayleen didn’t mask a look of contempt on her face, looking down at her roommate acting pathetic on the floor, but Hannah didn’t see it. Taking the pink blanket, she unfolded it as quietly as she could, and draped it around on top of the sick girl.
“Pink?” Hannah hissed from underneath. “Really?!”
“Be quiet!”
Unfolding the maroon fleece for herself, Kayleen settled into the seat with her head just above the bottom of the window, and she folded her legs under her to settle in for what might become a long wait. Pulling the blanket around her body and trying to conceal the top of her head with its bulk, Kayleen positioned herself to be as comfortable as possible where she could still barely watch the aliens walking past outside.
More of the creatures approached from the thick, white fog, moving slowly and smoothly south on the sidewalk. Some of them, spread out away from the center of the group, deftly slipped between the dead cars in the street.
Kayleen held perfectly still as one of them walked past the Suburban just outside her window. She could feel her heart suddenly pounding, and hoped to hell that the creature out there couldn’t hear it as well. Its long, thin body stretched up as high as the tallest men she’d ever seen, and as her heartbeat quickened even more, pulsing in her ears. She thought she saw pale, translucent skin peeking out from under the sleek and blank-faced helmet...
Skin, or some sort of body-suit—she didn’t know.
The long gun the creature carried in both hands looked like it was made of clear and frosty plastic, save for a few diffused purple spots of light glowing from the back end.
Once the alien soldier passed, Kayleen let out a long and tense breath, looking up at the DMV building reaching to the sky above the intersection.
She knew, from walking by this intersection from time to time between classes, that the building was brown with black windows. But in the bright, white light of the fog, the structure was washed out and grey. The large windows were blurry with slime, and as she focused on what she thought was dripping ooze...
Something on the side of the building moved!
It was barely perceptible, but the closer she peered at the structure, its thick walls and dark glass rising up it disappeared into the thick mist, Kayleen thought that she saw clear, sticky tendrils of slime ... crawling down the windows!
Her chest turned cold with the fear of all of the slime she must have breathed already in her walk to the Suburban.
It couldn’t be...
But it was.
Were little bits of alien ooze creeping around inside her lungs even now??
In the distant fog, almost out of sight, Kayleen could see a strange web of ooze literally crawling down another building, reaching out like feelers. It was like the antennae of slugs or snails tentatively reaching out blindly into the open air, then finding glass or the building’s pebbly surface, and stretching down until the next feeler popped out behind it...
Kayleen looked up in the nearest tree, and saw that the leaves and twigs at the ends of its branches were moving in the same way—crawling with blind tentacles of slime that looked alive! Following with her eyes toward the middle of the tree, Kayleen saw that the branches and the trunk were taking on a likeness of ... another tree. A different tree, knotted with plastic-like armor and strange, nearly-clear buds and flowers like she had never seen before!
The ooze and the alien soldiers were taking over...
With no creatures walking past her for the moment, Kayleen turned her head slowly to look at Hannah down on the floor. Her roommate was covered in the pink blanket, the lumpy form of the huddled girl breathing deeply. The curve of her back rose and fell, rose and fell.
Hannah was asleep.
Great, Kayleen thought.
How many of these aliens would be passing by the Suburban before they had a clear chance to get out and move on?
Kayleen settled in against the window again and twisted around unti
l she was more comfortable.
It was still early in the day.
They could at least wait for a while...
5 - Tommy and Jody Shelton
Flagstaff, AZ
“Oh my god, Allen! Oh my god, Allen!!”
Tommy’s mom shrieked as the gargoyle creatures dashed toward the group from Dale Street, their long claws and jutting limbs propelling the monsters along the asphalt like the wind...
Dad gasped and threw the side of his jacket away, pulling out his revolver in a quick, smooth motion...
The pistol shined in the afternoon light.
Zack’s dad fell backwards onto the road in surprise, shouting out a ‘gah’ sound.
Tommy realized that his own arms and legs were numb, like he had just woken up from a deep sleep, and Jody’s high-pitched scream had stopped. His little sister now hung onto him like an iron monkey, pulling at his clothes on his side and his belt with her tiny fingers like metal clamps.
Somehow, he dropped the folded-up blanket in his arms...
None of it seemed real.
Three of the creatures, all of them tall and lengthy with lean, slender tails whipping behind them, sprinted at them all like animals, but there was no fire in their beady, black eyes; no flashing of teeth like Tommy expected to see from charging wolves or tigers. The monsters were cold and strange, like living statues with stone skin, speeding at them as if out of a dream!
Dad’s first shot from his pistol snapped Tommy back into reality, the deafening boom of the revolver going off slapping at the boy’s ears!
Tommy gasped, and reached down to grab his sister.
The first of the creatures was almost on them, heading straight toward Mom and Dad! Its long, stony claws tore chunks out of the road as it galloped on all fours, crouched, then leapt at Mom just as his father’s first shot pinged off of the asphalt next to it!
Looking left toward the high school, Tommy saw that Zack’s family had scattered, dropping all of their luggage and making a break for the temporary shelter a block ahead, his friend’s father way in the lead...
Tommy’s young friend ran as fast as a twelve-year-old could, struggling to keep up with his parents.
Another boom split the air as Dad fired again!
It still didn’t seem real when the leaping monster—claws splayed wide and beak-mouth open as it flew through the air—took the round square in the chest, which only resulted in a burst of sparks, then landed it on Mom, carrying her down to the ground...
“Oh my god, All—!”
Her panicked, repeating words were cut off as if someone flipped a switch, and the creature laid into Tommy’s mother with flashing, long claws and a darting mouth of glittering, small triangular teeth...
“No!!” Dad roared, firing again twice at the creature’s pumping back. “Joanne—no!!”
The boy almost fell down from shock. He gasped again as he saw his mother’s form covered up by the lean and pointed stone body, her clothing splashed with red. He wasn’t sure what happened when his dad shot at it again, but he saw a handful of sparks spit off of the monster’s back after the revolver boomed again!
Dad ran at the creature, gun still in one hand, and tried to pull it off of Mom.
Tommy was vaguely aware of one of the other creatures—the one with four arms—sprinting off after Zack’s family, up the road. The second monster was plummeting along a crash course toward his father, who was very focused on saving Mom...
“Dad!!” Tommy shrieked, finally finding his voice. “Watch out!”
But his dad was already fighting with the monster tearing at his mother, trying to pull the creature off of her. After only an instant, the gargoyle-thing, its pale greyish-tan skin decorated with bright, crimson red, lashed out with one arm at the annoying human hanging on its shoulder. It back-handed Tommy’s dad, sending the big man flying backwards to the ground. The shiny, stainless steel revolver went skittering away on the road, knocked out of his hand.
The second creature slowed its charge, pivoting to intercept Dad on the ground...
“Shit!” Tommy’s dad shouted. “You fuckers! Get off of her!”
A sudden high-pitched scream split the air from up ahead. Tommy looked through the haze toward the high school, and saw the forms of only Zack and his mother still running. Mr. Jackson was pinned under the pointy and gangly shadow of the four-armed gargoyle, and the beast was going to work on him with four sets of claws, lunging in with its terrible mouth again and again...
Tommy looked back to Mom and Dad, and saw that his father was tearing off his big backpack, struggling to pull off the hunting rifle that was strapped to its side.
Dad was staring at him.
His father’s eyes were wide and white, his lip split and bleeding down over his chin and his jacket.
The second beast circled around Tommy’s dad like a shark while the first monster buried its head in to his mother’s torn body...
“Get out, Tommy!” Dad screamed, loosening the rifle and cycling the bolt.
“Dad!”
“Get away! Run, Tommy! Save your sister, boy!!”
Tommy heard Zack scream from somewhere up ahead, his school friend’s voice high-pitched like a girl...
Looking down at Jody, he saw that his sister’s face was grey. She stared at their mother with shell-shocked eyes. Jody’s mouth was open, and her lower lip trembled...
The tremendous boom of Dad’s rifle made Tommy jump, and he almost fell down!
Up ahead, Zack was still screaming, loud and constant like an animal—like a mindless, terrified animal...
But he couldn’t move. He couldn’t...
Tommy realized that he could feel his little sister’s small form squirming under his own hands as he gripped at her jacket and her little arm, and the boy suddenly felt his body alive and brimming with energy!
Tommy grabbed his sister’s wrist and pulled her with him.
They ran.
The two children ran to just get out of the street—out of the middle of the fight, away from the gun shots, and the blood, and the claws tearing and slicing...
At the corner of those roads, Dale and Sitgreaves, there was a fenced-in drainage canal running under the road, diagonally across the grid of the streets, with a bike path sweeping along its northern edge. If Tommy just ran for the school like Zack and his family did, they’d be—
There was a four-armed monster up there, tearing up his little friend and his father...
Tommy found himself running toward the pipe-like railings on the side of the road, pulling Jody stumbling with him, trying to keep up. He ran with his clumsy feet and long legs toward the hiding spot under the street where he’d been so many times.
His dad was grunting and shouting curses at the monster as he ran past, but Tommy didn’t look. The boy didn’t want to look; didn’t want to see his dad cut down and reduced to meat and splashes of red blood like his mother was...
He heard his father cycle the bolt of the rifle again, but in the grunts and thuds and sounds of fighting, Tommy never heard the rifle go off a second time.
When he reached the side of the street, Tommy ducked to the ground and slid off of the edge, between the railing and the concrete ledge, pulling Jody with him, until they landed in the weeds and mud several feet below the road, under the drop! The gravel and sticks and junk threatened to stab him in the skin, and the landing on his side almost knocked the wind out of him, but Tommy was wearing his backpack and two thick jackets, so it wasn’t too bad.
Jody landed on top of him, then wailed.
“Mommy!!” she screamed. “Mommy! Mommy!”
Tommy gasped, still able to see the sky. They only fell off of the edge, but weren’t into the culvert yet...
He immediately released his sister’s little hand and clamped his own hands over her mouth.
“Quiet!” he whispered. “Jody, be quiet or they’ll hear you!!”
The little girl struggled, huffing and sniffing hard against hi
s hands. Hard objects in her backpack dug into Tommy’s belly. A jolt of sharp pain suddenly struck Tommy’s right hand like a flashing snake!
“Ow!” he cried.
She bit him.
“Jody! Please!” he whispered. “Quiet! They’ll kill us—be quiet!!”
He shushed her, and rocked from side to side, holding Jody tight, working through the pain in his hand, trying his best to calm his little sister down as they listened to sharp and wet sounds from above, and the jarring noises of heavy things grinding against the street surface...
Soon, Jody settled down a little, slowing her struggle, and her heavy snuffling and huffing through Tommy’s fingers changed into sobbing.
The boy sat up, pushing Jody toward the culvert.
She let it happen, and climbed through the tall, green grass and gravel and pieces of trash into the dark tunnel that passed under the road.
Tommy followed, crawling after her and pushing his little sister along until they were sitting under the middle of the road. They settled down in the darkness, against the curved, corrugated metal walls, in between two circles of hazy sunshine poking through the smoky air, threatening to blind them from either side...
Jody cried and cried, and Tommy held her close to him, letting her sob into his chest.
“Tommy,” she whispered. “The monsters killed Mommy and Daddy. They killed Mommy and Daddy and now they’re dead.”
“Shh,” Tommy replied, running a hand along the back of her head. “Stay quiet. They’re still up there...”
“Tommy, they’re dead and we’re gonna be dead, too!”
“No we’re not,” he said, his cheeks hot and his whole body buzzing. The boy’s side where he hit the ground was numb. The pads of his right hand’s fingers where Jody bit him were starting to throb. “Shh, we’ll be okay. Just be quiet. Please be quiet.”
“They ate Mommy...”
He hugged her closer and kissed the top of her head.
They didn’t eat her, he thought. They only killed her.
Or so he hoped...
Tommy looked up at the damp and discolored ceiling of the culvert, and realized that his parents were dead right up there—just on the other side of the street.
