by R. D. Brady
D.E.A.D.
The A.L.I.V.E. Series
R.D. BRADY
Scottish Seoul Publishing, LLC
CONTENTS
Books by R.D. Brady
Untitled
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Chapter 52
Chapter 53
Chapter 54
Chapter 55
Chapter 56
Chapter 57
Chapter 58
Chapter 59
Chapter 60
Chapter 61
Chapter 62
Chapter 63
Chapter 64
Chapter 65
Chapter 66
Chapter 67
Chapter 68
Chapter 69
Chapter 70
Chapter 71
Chapter 72
Chapter 73
Chapter 74
Chapter 75
Chapter 76
Chapter 77
Chapter 78
Chapter 79
Chapter 80
Chapter 81
Chapter 82
Chapter 83
Chapter 84
Chapter 85
Chapter 86
Chapter 87
Chapter 88
Chapter 89
Chapter 90
Chapter 91
Chapter 92
Chapter 93
Chapter 94
Chapter 95
Chapter 96
Chapter 97
Chapter 98
Epilogue
Untitled
FACT OR FICTION?
Books By R.D. Brady
Acknowledgments
About the Author
BOOKS BY R.D. BRADY
The Belial Series (in order)
The Belial Stone
The Belial Library
The Belial Ring
Recruit: A Belial Series Novella
The Belial Children
The Belial Origins
The Belial Search
The Belial Guard
The Belial Warrior
The Belial Plan
The Belial Witches
Stand-Alone Books
Runs Deep
Hominid
The A.L.I.V.E. Series
B.E.G.I.N.
A.L.I.V.E.
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“For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring."
- Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World:
Science as a Candle in the Dark, 1995
"Two possibilities exist, either we are alone in the universe or we are not. Both are equally terrifying."
- Arthur C. Clarke, Author of 2001: A Space Odyssey
“Perhaps we need some outside universal threat to make us recognize this common bond. I occasionally think how quickly our differences worldwide would vanish if we were facing an alien threat from outside this world.”
- Ronald Reagan, Excerpt from 1987
Speech to the United Nations
CHAPTER ONE
THREE MONTHS AGO
UNDISCLOSED LOCATION
The room had no windows, just dark-tiled walls. The only light came from the monitors and the backlit keyboard. And there were no other humans. This was Guardian’s domain.
Guardian’s eyes scanned the three rows of four monitors on the wall. Focus shifting from box to box, Guardian took all of it in. These screens were meant for only Guardian and the computers that provided answers to any question Guardian might imagine. Right now, all of them were filled with images of violence. A Kecksburg-AG2 ran down a man in a white coat, digging his talons into the man’s back. A Kingman-AG1 turned a corner and the soldiers standing there grabbed their heads collapsing to the ground. For hours, Guardian watched the violence play across the screens. Area 51, reputed to be one of the safest military bases in the United States, was being torn apart.
On the monitors, the images flashed, continually changing, yet Guardian missed nothing. The scene in one box drew Guardian’s focus more than any other. Subject One, who’d found his clones and been helped by a group of humans, stopped at a door, staring up at Orion1. The two placed their hands against the glass. Guardian frowned. What is that about?
Soon the woman with Subject One rushed him along, although she turned to look back at Orion1. Was that guilt on her face? Compassion? Guardian wasn’t sure. Emotions were not Guardian’s strong suit.
An hour later, Orion1 saved the same subject and his clones by distracting a group of guards. He’s important to him. Guardian did not know why, just that it was true.
An ache started behind Guardian’s eyes. It happened sometimes when too much time was spent in the box. But Guardian couldn’t leave, not yet. Things were moving fast and Guardian couldn’t yet see what was coming. But things were beginning to happen, to change. It was only a matter of time now.
But I need to know everything so I can prepare. Guardian’s hands flew over the screen. I need to see.
CHAPTER TWO
TODAY
TRIBUNE, KANSAS
The dishes were still in the sink from breakfast. It was the first sight that greeted Sandra Gillibrand as she walked into the kitchen after being at work for twelve hours. She had just completed a double shift at the diner. She was glad for the work because they needed the money, but her feet were killing her, her back was aching, and she wanted nothing more than to crawl into her bed and just declare that today was officially over.
“Mom?”
Sandra took a breath and turned around, her smile in place. “Hey, honey, did you get everything out of the car?”
Her son Luke nodded, his big brown eyes staring out at her from under a mop of light brown hair. “Can I go see if Sammy is here?”
Sandra hoped the disappointment wasn’t on her face at the mention of Luke’s imaginary friend. At age ten, he was too old for them. But Luke had hit all his milestones at later dates than most kids, so being that friends were one area where Luke really struggled, she supposed she should be happy that he was at least role-playing how to be a friend. And she hoped that maybe, just maybe, it would help with making real friends.
Luke had been diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome two years ago.
While having the diagnosis at least helped Sandra to have a better idea of what to expect, it hadn’t made Luke’s life any easier. The kids at school still gave him a hard time. He just couldn’t read people. He assumed everyone was a friend. As a little boy, his open embrace of the world had made her heart sing. As he’d gotten older, it terrified her.
Now he stood looking at her expectantly, framed in the doorway of the old kitchen. The notches from his growth chart were lined up next to him. When had he gotten so big?
“Please, Mom?”
She stood, indecisive. She didn’t like him going out to the old barn. Their house sat next to the O’Hare Farm, a giant, sprawling, two-hundred-acre working farm. Corn was their major crop. Sandra and Luke’s house had been on the farm that O’Hare had bought the land from decades ago. Now all that was left of that past was the barn and the house.
Sandra glanced out the window, where shadows were already beginning to form. And while she did not like him being out there, he’d had a rough day. Some kids had teased him at lunch and the teacher had called Sandra at work to let her know. She assured Sandra that Luke was fine and the kids were punished. But the idea of her son being the target of bullies just broke her heart. She had felt helpless all day, with an ache in her heart.
But Luke had looked no worse for wear when she’d picked him up at school. He’d sat in a booth at the diner and done his homework and then worked on his computer, coding something or other until the end of Sandra’s shift.
She felt like she’d been run over a few times. His eyes, though, were bright at the thought of ‘playing’ with Sammy. She sighed. Maybe I need an imaginary friend. “Sure, honey, go ahead. Just come in when it’s dark, okay?”
He gave her a quick smile and then turned for the back door. But then he ran back to her, giving her a hug. Tears sprang to her eyes and she rested her head on his for a moment.
“Thanks, Mom.” Luke sprinted back for the door.
The hugs were new, too. He had overheard her talking to a friend late one night about how she would give anything for him to hug her more. And he’d taken it on as his mission to make sure he did. And today, those hugs helped push away the anxiety that always seemed to be gnawing at her a little further away.
Sandra watched until he disappeared into the barn. Then she went and got changed into sweats, pulling her pink terry-cloth robe on over them before heading back to the kitchen. She stared at the pile of dishes again and just could not bring herself to clean them. Not today. She reached for the cabinet above the refrigerator and pulled down the bottle of Merlot she had stashed there. She had one glass a week, her small little concession to relaxation.
She poured herself a generous amount in a plastic cup with a dancing elephant on the front. Yup, I’m a class act. She tilted her cup toward the refrigerator, where the last picture taken of her and her husband, Noah, was prominently displayed. They’d both been deployed on the same day, her to Afghanistan, him to Iraq. He’d been killed a month later in an ambush. And then she’d learned she was pregnant.
I miss you, Noah. She took a sip and sighed, closing her eyes and letting the warmth flow through her.
“Mom!” Luke’s terrified scream ripped through the house. Sandra eyes jolted open and she lunged from the chair, spilling her wine across the table. Heart pounding, she sprinted across the kitchen and ripped open the back door as Luke screamed again.
Her eyes went wide and her heart pounded as she saw the large shapes lumbering after Luke, chasing him into the fields. “Luke!”
One of the shapes turned toward Sandra at her yell. Sandra’s breath hitched and her eyes went wide. The shadows made it difficult to see clearly, but it was big, muscular, blue, and most definitely not human. The creature let out a cry and ran toward her, its arms pounding the ground like an ape.
Sandra stumbled back into the house, slamming the door shut and locking it. She ran for the pantry, grabbing a stool on the way. Standing on it, she reached along the top shelf until she felt the barrel of the shotgun. She scrounged around for the box of shells and pulled it down. It crashed to the ground. The shells spilled across the floor.
The back door thumped and Sandra’s head whipped up. Shaking, she grabbed a handful of cartridges and shoved them into the pocket of her robe as she stepped out of the pantry. The door thumped again. She swiped the phone off the counter and dialed 911, putting it on speaker as she kept her eyes trained on the back door.
“This is Greeley County Dispatch. What is your—”
“Something is trying to break into my house!”
“Ma’am, did you say something is trying to—”
The rest of the words were drowned out as the back door splintered. Sandra screamed as a creature stepped in with a roar. Its body was shaped like a gorilla. But it was blue. And its face, good God, what was wrong with its face?
The creature turned to Sandra and roared. Sandra pulled the trigger, catching it at the waist. She pulled again and got it dead center. Its knees sagged as it fell to the floor but was still alive.
“Ma’am? Ma’am?” the dispatcher called out.
Her hands shaking so hard she wasn’t sure how she managed it, she dispensed the two shells and then reloaded. She didn’t wait for the thing to stand fully upright—she unloaded on it again and again.
It dropped to the ground, fully splayed, half its head gone. Sandra’s heart threatened to pound out of her chest.
“Ma’am, deputies are on the way,” the dispatcher called out. “Are you all right?”
But Sandra didn’t respond. She ran into the pantry, grabbed two more handfuls of shells, and shoved them in her robe. Making a wide circle around the thing, she ran out the back door, more terrified than she had ever been in her entire life.
“Luke!”
CHAPTER THREE
Luke ducked into the cornfields, running as fast as he could manage. Behind him, he could hear the creature crashing through the stalks of corn. He’d gone to the barn to find Sammy, but he hadn’t been there. He’d looked up in the rafters and then on top of the roof, but there’d been no sign of him.
When he’d come out, the two creatures were standing in the drive, staring at him. He’d smiled at first, thinking maybe they were friends of Sammy’s. But something about them scared him, scared him more than anything in his life. He’d backed up and they ran for him. He screamed for his mom but they blocked the way to the house, so he’d run for the farm.
He could hear their heavy breathing even above the sound of their fists pounding into the ground. They ran like apes, but they weren’t apes. They were blue, hairless, and their faces were nothing like apes.
He glanced over his shoulder. One was right behind him. It reached out a giant paw. With a scream, Luke dove to the side, rolling along the ground. It lunged after him. He tried to get up, but his knee hurt too much.
The thing stopped, tilting its head at him. Luke scrambled back and screamed.
