by Nate Castle
“Shit, and if we don’t at least follow up on that tip and something happens to those people, it’s going to be haunting our conscious forever,” Hank said. “Give me a minute, I’ll put a call into Kaplan.”
He walked to the plane and got on the radio. Kaplan answered right away.
‘Hey Kap, you’re gonna want to reroute Team 2 to Oakland. We have to stop by the Coliseum before we can fly over Yosemite, because there are apparently thousands of human hostages being held at the Coliseum…. Yes, will do. I’ll keep you in the loop…Thanks…Over.’
Hank came back to the group after making the call.
“Alright good luck, I’ll see you as soon as I can,” he said. Logan and Garrett took turns giving him a handshake before going off in separate directions, Garrett leading a team towards the craft, Logan leading a team towards the prison issued buses, and Hank leading his group to the jet going back to DC.
Christina hoped it was a coincidence that by the time she was safely inside the newly constructed White House that two Zyrgian crafts landed on the premises, but knew that she was likely followed on her route back from NYC. She couldn’t tell the President or General this though because they didn’t know she had ever left. She had unloaded the newly acquired bot next to the other two on the lawn before going inside.
“Time to put this system to the test,” she said.
“Yup, I sure hope everyone is inside like they were instructed to be. I’m glad I followed my gut and had you stay here instead of join the teams on the west coast,” President Taylor said. “Now is time for your fifteen minutes of fame, let’s see what you’re made of.”
She already had the bot control program running on her computer. The high tech exterior cameras on the building, showed an HD image of what was going on outside. Eight Zyrgians came out of their crafts. Christina fired up the bots and typed in the attack commands she had used in the past. Each bot had a slightly different arsenal of available moves, but some moves they all had in their repertoires.The new bot drove up to the Zyrgians, and before they could react, released two heavy duty arms that came together to create a crushing effect. When an old car gets crushed at a wrecking yard wasn’t a fair comparison because the bot crushed four aliens in a matter of two seconds. Now the aliens likely weren’t dead, but this was step one. The other two bots, took care of the remaining four aliens with an interesting method that involved firing hundreds of small dart-like objects at them, puncturing a small hole with each dart. Again, this wouldn’t kill them, but the goal was to weaken them. Next, Christina initiated the ‘finishing move’ which was the ‘lightning strike’. For the President and General watching the events unfold on the big screen, they felt like they were in a video game and were enjoying something for the first time in a while. The comfort of knowing that they were probably safe from harm while in this building was a major factor in their enjoyment of the event. A ‘lightning strike’ was deployed form all three bots and instantly killed the eight Zyrgians.
“Wow that was too easy. I almost feel bad for the aliens, they didn’t even get a chance to retaliate!” General Kaplan said.
“Since when were there three bots? I only remembered there being two here in the past,” President Taylor said.
Christina ignored the question.
Logan couldn’t believe that they didn’t run into any problems on their way to the Oakland Coliseum. There was a convoy of fifteen buses, with Logan leading the way in the front one. They parked the buses in the stadium parking lot and got out just in time to witness Garrett getting his ass kicked by what looked like human guards. Although they appeared to be human, Logan guessed that they had aliens controlling their brains, similar to what had happened to Hank. Why was no one from Garrett’s craft out there helping him?
“Let’s go! Do whatever is necessary to stop those guys from hurting Garrett,” Logan said to the passengers on his bus.
They didn’t need any fancy for devices this time, they did this the old-fashioned way. There were maybe four hundred available to fight from the buses, versus only three, at least for the moment, on the alien’s team. Logan’s crew charged towards the front entrance to the building where Garrett was trying to stay on his feet against three human guards. The charge looked like something you would see in the Roman Empire. The humans guards, realizing they were about to be outnumbered, pulled out handguns and began shooting aimlessly at the crowd charging towards them. Garrett managed to slip to the right just in time to avoid being in the line of fire. The charge continued, none of them slowed down even with the barrage of bullets coming at them. Some got wounded and that was unfortunate, but they knew when they signed up for this that it wouldn’t be a walk in the park. Logan’s crew kept charging until they had successfully trampled the human guards. Logan’s one hope was that the alien slugs lodged in the these guards hadn’t been able to eject from the guard’s brain during the process. The group gathered around for a minute before gunfire from the roof of the basketball arena forced them to scatter in search of the culprits. Three more human guards were stationed on the roof. Logan picked up the guns that belonged to the trampled human guards and tried to pop of some shots, but the clips were empty. The human guards on the roof might not have known that, Logan wanted to keep it that way. He ran around the side of the building, careful to be just out of range of the incoming gunfire. He posted up behind a service truck. The human guards kept their focus on him which gave others time to go around the back of the building, climb up to the roof and melee attack the human guards before they realized what was going down.
“God damn it, twenty got shot, I don’t like that number, “Garrett said to Logan as they regrouped in front of the building.
“The tough part for me to handle is that they will all likely bleed out. On a normal day, some would make it to a hospital in time, but not on a day like today. We just have to cut our losses and be grateful that what they did was for the greater good,” Logan said.
“I’m not prepared for another laser attack like the one at San Quentin. We need a few brave volunteers to go in the building and release the prisoners,” Garrett said.
“I think I know who will volunteer for that job,” Logan said. He then walked around in a methodical pattern, finding people who were on the ground, that didn’t appear to be wounded too bad, lifted them up and pointed them in the direction of Garrett. Pretty soon there were ten gunshot wound victims standing next to Garrett. They could all walk, none had been shot in the lower body. Garrett instructed them what their task was and opened a set of double doors to let them inside. All they could do now was wait, with no way of knowing if the ten volunteers were hit by motion sensor lasers or if they made it into the main hall where all of the captives were being held. A sound above made them shift their focus to the sky. As the sound got louder, they could make out eight alien crafts flying in a U-formation toward the Coliseum.
“Everyone get inside, hurry!” Logan yelled as loud as humanly possible. He put his arm on Garrett’s shoulder to prevent him from also going inside.
“Get to the craft, it’s our only hope!”
Garrett was a few paces ahead of him. They entered the craft and looked over their shoulder to see the incoming Zyrgian crafts now about 30 feet overhead. Garrett started up the craft, he was becoming an expert at flying it.
“Flying back to the White House is the only scenario where we have a chance of living, but also the people at the Coliseum have a chance of survival. If we stay here and try to fight against eight crafts, I think everyone will get slaughtered. If we leave, the crafts will likely follow us, which was one of our goals in the first place right?” Logan said.
“I couldn’t agree more,” Garrett said. He lifted the craft off the ground and typed the location into the GPS. Besides a few takeoff and landing controls, the craft could basically fly itself. Garrett took the craft out of its standard mode, however, because he needed to fly at a speed faster than recommended. When doing so, the pilot of the craft wo
uld have to manually control the craft.
“Evidence so far hasn’t pointed to the alien crafts having capability of shooting other crafts down, so I think we’re safe on that front,” Logan said.
How they made it back to D.C. without crashing due to pilot error or interference from the alien crafts chasing them, could only be accredited to a force that was larger than life itself. Numerous times Logan braced for impact as Garrett spun the craft out of control, but at the last second was able to straighten it back out.
21
Exit Strategy
“Everybody out, take cover inside!” Garrett said when the craft was no longer in motion. He flicked a switch to open the hatch and got up from his seat. He felt a hand on his shoulder apply pressure, putting him back into a seated position.
“Don’t you see what’s happening?” It was Shelby who had shoved him.
“What am I missing?” Garrett said.
“Hank is opening a garage door for us to park the craft in,” she said.
“Well isn’t that convenient! Instead of risking our lives trying to make it from the craft into the building, now we have VIP parking,” Garrett said.
On the video monitor, he could see a door sliding up on the side of the building. It didn't have the appearance of a door, it had white paneling and four windows to match the design of the whole side of the building.
“Change of plans, everyone hold on tight,” he said and put the craft in ‘drive’, headed towards the garage opening. When he crossed the threshold he could see Hank press a button to shut the garage door.
When Garrett and the others got out of the craft, he said to Hank, “ I expected you to be half way back across the country by now.”
“Those long flights will take it out of ya. I needed a bit of shut-eye before heading back out to Cali. When I woke up, I had a revelation: we might not have that much longer on this earth, so why should I let people boss me around and tell me where to go? I made a promise to myself at that moment that I would help the cause, but on my own terms. I wasn’t going to keep flying around like a headless chicken just to rescue a few people,” Hank said as he chuckled.
“Our trip was cut short as you can see. So you are now in the right place at the right time. I’m sure you’ve also noticed that the aliens followed us here?”
“Yup, as long as we stay in this building we should be just fine,” Hank said, “Follow me, I’ll take you to the others.”
The President, General Kaplan, Christina and a few others were huddled around a table when Hank, Garrett, and Logan entered the room.
“Christina, now is time for you to do your thing,” President Taylor said.
Christina was rapidly typing away on a laptop and Logan assumed she was getting the bots ready to take down the aliens that had landed outside. A large projector screen came down from a ceiling mount and displayed a real-time video feed of the happenings outside. The eight alien crafts had landed, the alien occupants now slowly walking the perimeter of the building.
“Mother-trucker,” Christina said, and her rapid fire typing stopped. “The commands I used before are not working. An error message keeps popping up, but I can’t decipher what it means.”
“Let me see that,” General Kaplan said. He leaned over to look at the screen. After a moment he said, “That symbol looks like the universal symbol for charging. The bots must need to be charged before using them again, I know that sounds ridiculous.”
“Great so our whole plan was riding on Christina being able to use the bots to kill the aliens, now what?” Garrett said.
“Do you think I would ever go into battle with all my eggs in one basket? I know some of these yo-yo’s would,” Hank said as he motioned towards General Kaplan and the President, “But I always like to have an insurance option. It might not be the best one, but it’s going to be better than anything you turkeys can propose in the next five minutes.”
“We’re listening Hank,” President Taylor said, with a bit of irritation in his voice.
“In the tunnel I got this drum of liquid. The liquid contains boron and silicon. Have you ever seen a landscaper walk around a lawn with a backpack contraption of weed killer and spray the lawn with it? Well this is the same concept. The drum of liquid can be worn on your back via the backpack straps and then there is a gun like the ones you would find on a pressure washer that you can hold in your hand and shoot the liquid out of. One of us needs to go out there and spray the aliens with the liquid,” he said.
“That’s all me,” Logan said.
“I had a feeling you would volunteer. I guess you’re the best man for the job, even though it’s a risky one,” General Kaplan said.
“For this to work, we’re gonna need a way to stop the aliens from getting back inside their crafts,” Logan said.
“I’m on it,” Christina said and hustled out of the room.
“Hank go get the backpack alien killer,” President Taylor said.
While Hank was gone, Garrett said to Logan, “Bro, you think that chip in your Ieg is still effective on the aliens?”
“I think so, but I guess we’ll find out soon. If it is still active, the aliens will have a hard time killing me because they chip will force them to stay a safe distance away,” said Logan.
Hank returned with the backpack. It was bigger than he had described, which made Logan feel better. The gun attached to the hose, looked like it could create enough pressure to spray a few hundred feet if needed.
“Hey Logan, do us all a favor and destroy these sum-bitches once and for all!” Hank said, like he was a coach giving a pregame speech.
Logan strapped on the backpack, nodded at the others and headed for the door. Shelby ran into the room and gave him a quick kiss, Christina must have passed her in the hall and given her the 411 on what was happening.
Now outside, Logan knew he had to act fast. The aliens were about 200 hundred yards away from their crafts around the back side of the building, most likely looking for a way into the building. Christina better get her act together this time, and block those crafts, he thought. He turned a nozzle on the backpack alien killer and an air compressor turned on. He pulled the trigger of the gun to test out the sprayer’s range. With the trigger pulled, he sprinted around the corner of the building. The aliens spotted him, but he didn’t care. He got close enough to where the spray nearly hit them before they began to retreat back towards their crafts. Logan picked up his pace, he was running at a speed that he had never felt before and was waving the sprayer gun back and forth from left to right to soak the air with the liquid.
The aliens turned two more corners and only had one more straightaway to go before reaching their crafts. Logan thought his luck had run out, maybe the aliens had gotten partially sprayed with the liquid at least? When he turned the corner himself he saw a beautiful sight; hundreds of people had come from inside the White House and had formed a wall in front of the alien crafts. The aliens would have to get past the rows of humans if they wanted to get to their crafts. The people at this point, were willing to sacrifice themselves if necessary, and some did just that. When the aliens moved forward to pass through, about 75 people at the front of the wall bull rushed them and attempted to form a dog pile. This unfortunately didn’t work, as most of the bullrushers were killed by the touch of the aliens, but it did buy Logan some time. Enough time to get within range of the aliens and unload the whole tank of liquid on them.
What happened next Logan wasn't prepared for. He thought the tables were turning in his favor because he had doused all of the aliens in the liquid. What he didn't take into account was that when a Zyrgian gets wounded, they disregard all other threats and try to retaliate. Even though they were in pain and getting weaker by the minute from the liquid, three were able to turn around and charge Logan. Simply touching Logan, didn’t cause him to melt, like it did to the other humans, so they had to try another method. The last thing Logan remembered seeing was each alien reach to something on their wrist
s that resembled a watch, and a beam of light was emitted from each ‘watch’. A sharp pain that Logan had never experienced before jarred throughout Logan’s body, and as his eyes closed, he saw another large group of his people attempt to tackle the three Zyrgian aliens standing over him. Logan’s left leg and right arm were zapped clear off, and he had a slice of his neck missing.
“Just tell me honestly, I can’t decipher all of this medical jargon. Is he gonna live or not, it’s a simple question?” Garrett said to Dr. Sumesh. It was two weeks after the incident, and they were at a downtown hospital.
“I’d say it’s more likely than not that Logan will live. Whether or not his physical and mental functions will be restored 100%…well let’s just say, if you don’t believe in a God, now might be a good time to do so,” Dr. Sumesh said.
The END
Logan’s journey is not over. Find on Amazon
Book 3: Surge Together
Coming this Fall
Copyright © 2017 by Nate Castle.
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