The Gatekeepers (The Survivors Book Eight)

by Nathan Hystad

  I heard my name whispered a few times, and someone shouted to Magnus. He waved and smiled, but didn’t stop to talk. The sun was rising higher in the sky as we moved past the tall skyscrapers and into the outskirts. Here, there were many small distribution stores: hardware, fabric shops, beauty supplies. It was like being back home for a moment, and it gave me a sense of loss at what used to be, but also a sense of pride at what humans had accomplished. Many races would have crumbled after what we’d been through, but here we were: thriving, living among each other on a new planet. It was amazing, and I’d been taking a lot of this for granted.

  Businesses turned to residential walk-up apartments, some of these the originals from the start of the colony. They’d been updated, and the smell of barbecue burgers wafted through the air. Kids played in a park, screaming and running around the bases at a baseball diamond. I stopped for a moment, watching as a girl no older than ten lofted a softball toward home plate. A boy took a big swing, narrowly missing the ball.

  “Oh, to be young again.” Magnus stopped beside me and rested his hands on the chain-link fence lining the park.

  “Were we ever that young?” I asked him.

  “I was. I never played baseball, though,” he admitted.

  “Seriously? That’s all I did for a few years. We’d ride our bikes out to the field every day after school, and play until dinner time.” I wondered what had happened to those friends. Were any of them around on New Spero, or even Terran One?

  “You’ll have to show me sometime,” Magnus suggested.

  “Deal. I’m holding you to that.” I almost laughed, thinking about our gang playing baseball.

  “Wait, I have a message from Clay. Looks like they spotted Amy leaving town.” Leonard was tapping away at his tablet.

  “Where and when?” Reed asked. She was frowning, peering over Leonard’s shoulder to see the screen.

  Leonard pointed to the northwest. “There. Five blocks.” He touched the screen again. “An hour ago.”

  The woman’s stomach remained distended, and she was walking fast, a predator trying to escape the confines of the dangerous city.

  “We have to catch up to it,” I said, and Reed spoke into her earpiece, requesting drone coverage for ten square miles north of the city. The region covered our house and Magnus’.

  “If she’s out there, they’ll find her,” Reed said.

  “Let’s not call it a her. We can’t think of this as Amy,” Leonard said. He knew the woman, and it was easy to forget this was a person, not just an alien entity we were following. Was there any way to separate the two and save Amy? Only time would tell.

  Karo sniffed the air, his green eyes dancing as he stared into the sky. “Rain’s coming,” he said, but I saw nothing but clear skies.

  “You have to be kidding, Karo. There’s not a cloud in the…” Magnus stopped mid-sentence, the wind blowing in hard enough to push Leonard off balance.

  Behind the wind came black clouds from the west. They were plush and angry, ready to emit their precipitation on anyone below.

  “Great. This is going to complicate things,” I said.

  Reed tapped her earpiece and gave me an apologetic look. “Sorry, Dean. They’ve grounded the drones. The wind is too much, and the radar’s showing a serious storm out of nowhere.”

  “Come on. It has an hour’s head start.” I ran in the direction of my house. It had to be moving that way.

  ____________

  The nest was there, half a mile across the yard, and the hunter waited for signs of life. A form moved across the window inside the home, and the hunter felt trepidation creep into his mind. He’d hoped the girl was there, but this was a man, a big man. Still, he’d overpowered a lot of humans so far, most of them big as well, and armed.

  The hunter saw the door open, and three children emerged, laughing and playing. The boy sat on the steps, staring up, making the hunter do the same. The sky had turned black, and he smiled, a sick and malevolent grin that twisted his host Amy’s face into a contorted version of herself.

  He felt his pocket and found the steel knife he’d killed Amy with, and felt stronger for it at his side. He preferred the old way, tearing out a warm throat with his teeth, but humans weren’t built right for that method.

  Wind rustled the trees around him, and he dodged a falling pinecone. For a second, the clouds stilled, the breezing ceased to blow, and everything went silent. Then it hit. Water drenched the ground in seconds, and the hunter basked in it. The drones he’d seen hovering around were no longer in the air, and he scanned the area, seeing a vessel at the end of the driveway. A man with a rifle perched on his shoulder moved for his transport ship and stepped in: a refuge from the rain.

  The big man inside the hunter’s nest house was on the porch, urging the children inside. The small girl stared out toward him, but he knew she couldn’t see him. He was too deep into the trees, but he shivered as she looked in his direction. The hunter saw the glint of her green eyes glowing even from here, and a thrill coursed through him. He would devour the girl, today. His hand found his stomach, and felt the round protrusion full of flesh and bones.

  He growled, knowing he couldn’t eat today. He’d take her. He’d keep the prey and feed when he was able. Yes. It was happening.

  Lightning flashed, and thunder clapped applause for the show seconds later. Fat drops of rain blew in sideways, and the hunter made his first move. He crouched, hugging the treeline until he was closer to the rear of the house than the front. The police vessel, as he now understood it to be, was sitting there with the officer inside. When he was out of sight from the house’s windows, he ran toward the ship. A woman soaked and in need. From Amy’s memories, he knew this would work.

  The man appeared to be shocked as he ran for the window, knocking on the glass of the compact ship.

  He opened the door, which hinged upward. He was older, smelled less fresh up close. “Can I help you?” he asked.

  The hunter found Amy’s voice. “My head. I hurt my head,” he said in his most feminine octave.

  “Come in,” he said, moving over. The hunter stepped inside and gripped the knife behind his back as he entered. He kneeled low, letting the officer look at his head. It was an exact copy of the woman he’d consumed last night, and the man finally spoke. “Looks okay from here. Did you bump it?” the officer asked.

  The hunter raised his head with a snap of his neck and felt the impact as it crushed the man’s nose. “Son of a …” The knife entered the man’s throat, and the hunter shoved the officer into the petite cockpit.

  He didn’t feel the need to eat this one, so he stood a moment, watching the life bleed from the man. He couldn’t believe there had been a moment where he’d considered acclimating to their ways. He was so much more advanced than these pathetic creatures. Surely they were at least ten steps below him in the evolutionary charts.

  He nudged the man’s arm with Amy’s black flats and found him lifeless. Good. One man down, one more to go.

  The hunter wiped the blade on the officer’s shirt and slid it into his belt, covering it with Amy’s tunic.

  There was no time to waste. The longer he waited, the higher the chance of being caught.

  He exited the police ship and paced toward the house. His long black hair was dripping everywhere, and he wiped the water away with his left forearm. The porch was solid under the hunter’s steps, and soon he was at the door.

  He breathed once, twice, three times, and knocked.

  As the door opened, a muscular blond man with a beard answered, and a voice behind him was shouting.

  “Slate! Lock the doors. If someone shows up, don’t let them in!” a man’s voice shouted through a speaker on the wall of the kitchen.

  The hunter could smell his own scent throughout the home and found he already missed the place. It took a second for this Slate to comprehend the voice from the speaker and the woman standing in front of him. The hunter didn’t wait. He lunged forward with
the metal knife, sinking it into the prey.

  Twenty

  “Slate! Do you hear me?” I shouted into my earpiece, but I didn’t receive an answer.

  “This is bad,” Karo said. We were all running now. Reed had called for backup, but they hadn’t arrived yet. If Slate wasn’t answering… I couldn’t let myself think about it. My legs kept pumping, and my chest was beginning to burn. I hadn’t run this fast since I’d run the slopes of Machu Picchu years before, hoping to stop the Kalentrek from being turned off. Karo was making quick work of the roads, and Reed was holding her own, but Magnus and Leonard had fallen behind.

  “We’ll stop it,” Karo said, his breath steady.

  I didn’t reply, only kept running. It was at least ten minutes before we passed Magnus’ house, which sat in darkness, lights off in the downpour. I kept moving. The police lander Reed had promised to send was there, and she broke away from behind Karo and me, heading for the ship. I gripped my pistol in my hand and slowed. The front screen door flapped in the wind, and I blinked the dripping rainwater away from my eyes. I wanted to shout, to yell for Jules, but I also knew I might need the element of surprise.

  ____________

  The hunter stepped over the lumbering body and moved toward the children. Acting in the form of Amy, they might not be as scared of him. He hid the knife and lifted his hands, using her calming voice. “It is okay. Your father sent me,” he said, glancing at the small girl with green eyes. She was wearing a dress with flowers on it, and she wasn’t crying like the other two. There were three dogs inside, each of them growling and barking at him. Them, he understood. He felt more akin to the dogs than the human whose shape he wore.

  The boy put on a face of bravado and stood in front of the two girls. “Don’t come any closer! I’ll hurt you!” the boy said, and the hunter had to smile, baring his teeth.

  The hunter moved forward with startling speed and slapped the boy. He flew to the side, an angry red welt already forming on his face. “I’m not here for you.”

  He moved for the girl with the green eyes and heard footsteps on the front deck. “Carson’s dead,” a woman’s voice said over the thunder, the sound carrying into the living room. He had to be quick. They’d tracked him. The small dogs were underfoot, and he shoved one off with a light punt. Another grabbed his ankle, biting the pants. He ignored them. They couldn’t hurt him.

  The hunter grabbed for the small girl, the one from the pictures, the one that lived in the house, but something terrible happened. She didn’t attempt to evade his grasp.

  She let him take her tiny arm. She smiled, a devious look, and pressed her hand to his chest. Green energy shot from her palm in a steady flow, shooting him across the room. He screamed in pain and torment, and it was only when the girl’s father stepped into the house that she broke her concentration for a moment.

  He had to escape, but he wasn’t leaving empty-handed. The green-eyed girl was running now, heading toward the front door. That left the other girl standing there, eyes as large as boulders, tears flowing like the rain outside. The hunter snatched her in his grip, and she bellowed as he exited the house.

  Lightning flashed as he hit the ground on two feet, and he pushed through the agony in his chest and morphed his legs and one front arm so he could gallop away on three legs, holding the prize to his chest with the other. He heard shouting behind him as he entered the treeline, and didn’t stop until he returned to his secondary nest.

  ____________

  “Jules!” I shouted and saw my little girl arrive instantly. Slate was on the floor, unmoving. I heard Reed call it in, requesting assistance urgently.

  “Papa! Monster!” She pointed at the back door, and I scanned the room, seeing little Dean crumpled on the floor, but no Patrice.

  “Honey, where’s Patty?” I asked. Karo went to Dean’s side and helped the boy up. He appeared to be okay, considering. The dogs were in a frenzy, all of them barking in synchronicity.

  “Papa! Monster took Patty!” Jules’ eyes were glowing brightly, but her cheeks were dry, flushed with anger like my own. I glanced at Slate and felt rage fill my veins. This creature had been killing with no remorse all over New Spero, and now it had entered my home, stabbed my best friend, and taken Patty. It was going to die. Today.

  I didn’t wait for anyone else. I ran through the house and out the door, which was left ajar. I followed the muddy footprints, which changed from two legs to something else, something alien.

  “Dean! Where is she?” It was Magnus. They caught up to me at the treeline, where the evidence of footprints ceased to be so easy to spot.

  I turned to my friend, my chin dipping toward my chest. “She’s gone. It took her.”

  Magnus entered the trees, and I went with him. Karo and Reed joined us, and Leonard stayed behind with the kids. Already I heard sirens as two police landers arrived, followed by an emergency medical lander. If there was a chance for Slate to live, it was imperative they transport him to a hospital in minutes. I pushed the dread aside for now. I couldn’t help Slate, but I could help Patty.

  Magnus moved like a man possessed. Karo pointed out prints on occasion as we jogged through the thick brush, and I was sure we were on the right track. It was booming above, the rain relentlessly dripping on us, even in the deep forest behind my home. By the time we broke from the trees once again, I was shivering, both from a chill and from my fried nerves.

  If anything happened to Patty, I wouldn’t be able to forgive myself. I’d only started to know Magnus and Nat’s kids again, since they’d left for three years, and they were an absolute dream. Magnus and Natalia were the best parents I knew, and we had no options here. We had to be fast.

  We stopped, scanning the farmer’s field. It was yellow canola, fully bloomed, and the scent was overwhelming mixed in with the rainstorm.

  “Over here,” Reed said. The same odd three-footed tracks aimed across the field.

  We ran again, this time faster than inside the dangerous forest. It only took a few minutes, and we were at the far edge. We passed another home; this one had lit-up windows, and a woman peered from behind the door. When she saw us approaching her land, she stepped out onto the porch, arms crossed over her chest.

  “It went that way!” she shouted, pointing toward the barn a half mile away. “We’ve lost a few animals this week, but Philip thought they snuck out the fence.”

  “Are you saying something is living in that barn?” I asked, coming closer. Magnus and Karo were moving for the structure.

  The woman was old, and she shook as she hugged herself. “I think so. It wasn’t natural. I think it was carrying something. Hard to get a good look from here.”

  “Thank you,” I said, and Reed nodded to her. She called in the location and requested more support. They’d be here in minutes, but I wasn’t sure Patty had that long.

  Once again, I pressed away the ache in my side and legs and ran for the barn, trying to catch up to Magnus. He was like a bear protecting his cub, and I fully understood the feeling.

  ____________

  The nest was comfortable, and the hunter thought about how lucky he’d been to escape. That girl, he knew she had power; he’d been able to tell from the scent of the house, and from the picture as well. How strong he could have become consuming her. It wasn’t to be, at least not yet.

  “I want to go home,” his consolation prize said. He eyed her, morphing his legs to their human length, his arm bending and skin stretching as he popped it in front of him. Once again, he appeared to be Amy. The effort exhausted him, combined with the trauma of whatever green energy the other girl had sent through him. He wanted to sleep, but he had to deal with this one first.

  He considered eating her, but he was full of his last meal, his stomach protruding. The hunter looked down to see a piece of bone from inside protruding through his skin. He groaned and pressed it back inside, blood spilling out through his soaked and tattered clothing.

  He’d almost forgotten about
the quiet girl, whose only noise was a muted sobbing. Her hair was muddy, plastered to her head, and he thought she might pass out. That would make things easier. He didn’t want to kill her yet – he preferred his meals fresh – but he wasn’t sure he had a choice.

  “Why?” the girl asked, and he couldn’t answer, because she would never understand.

  Because this is what I am, he thought as he moved across the room.

  ____________

  Magnus arrived at the barn first, and he flung open the door. I was right behind him, and Karo sidled up beside me, ready to attack, but all we found was an empty space. Hay bales lined one wall, and Reed ran up to the loft; shortly after, she stood at the railing, shaking her head.

  “Damn it, where is she?” Magnus asked.

  Then it hit me. “I saw a storm cellar behind the house. She couldn’t have seen it enter from the front window.”

  Reed took the lead, and I took a last glance around the barn to make sure we hadn’t missed anything. Outside, the storm raged on, and my pocket vibrated as we made for the back of the house. It was Mary, but I couldn’t talk to her right now. I couldn’t tell her what had happened until we resolved it. I let it ring, and eventually, the call ended. I hated leaving her hanging like that, and I began telling myself stories.

  Mary was dying, the last remaining of their group, and she wanted to tell me she loved me one last time before she went. Mary was happy, successfully returning from her trip, she wanted to warn me she’d be home in an hour and that she was feeling like lasagne for dinner. The stories went on, a constant stream of possibilities as I neared the storm cellar doors.

  The police landers were there, but without sirens, as Reed had requested. Half a dozen officers ran for us, and I knew it was time.