by Moon, Adam
Another beast reached the wall and rammed it. But this one didn’t bounce off with a head full of stars; this one pushed and pushed and eventually fell through the barrier.
The gnawer’s mouth clamped down on thin air and they both looked around wildly, trying to figure out what happened to the wall.
Their attention spans were short though, and they soon remembered why they were charging in the first place. Three approaching beasts barreled right into the backs of the confused two in the lead and they all tumbled together. Scott might have laughed at the absurdity of it all under a different circumstance.
Just as they thought things couldn’t get any worse, more of the monsters joined the stampede. It was impossible to see anything beyond the wall of alien monsters now. All the buildings were blocked in the distance, and the sky was blotted out from all of the kicked-up dust.
They knew with certainty that they were doomed when the robots returned, hovering over the scene like harbingers of death, fifty feet above them all.
But then Scott had an epiphany. He remembered the sight of these same troops when they’d landed. They looked to be afraid. They’d brought these monsters with them, but they were terrified of them. And what had they done to ensure their own safety: They’d taken to the sky.
He only had a moment to act before the roiling stampede picked up speed once again.
He said to Melanie, “We need to get into the air. Those robots are safe up there; we will be too.”
“But then the robots will kill us,” she said breathlessly, her eyes out of focus, her voice soft and distant.
“Just do it. You take those people over there,” he pointed at a group that equaled about half of the bar crowd, “and I’ll take the rest.”
“I don’t know if I can do that, Scott. I don’t know if you can either. You’ve never tried to use your power to levitate before.”
That wasn’t true. He had tried to use his force field to carry himself into the air, and he’d failed miserably. But there weren’t any other options.
“We have to try or we’ll die here in less than a minute.”
“What about the kids in the basement?”
“Shit.” He wanted nothing more than to flee, but he was no coward. He wasn’t about to get himself to safety, only to leave a bunch of kids behind, defenseless.
“Do we have time to get them out here?”
Melanie didn’t have to answer that because the stampede was now upon them. The time to act had passed.
The last thing any of them saw before the wall of monsters blotted out the sun, was Molly rushing at the beasts like a crazy person with her fists raised and rage on her face.
Battle
Jack didn’t willingly teleport, but he did it anyway. What he saw when he reappeared made his brain do somersaults. It made no sense. Had he teleported to hell, or through time?
A vast wall of hideous dinosaurs was bearing down on him.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Melanie’s compact figure facing the same formidable wall of terror. She was trembling and crying. There was no way this was still present day Earth. But stranger things had happened lately.
Heat seared his skin and he knew Dan was trying in vain to stop the rushing beasts with his flames. He saw an entire leg simply fall away from one of the monsters; that had to have been Scott’s doing.
Then he saw Molly’s body tumble end over end beneath the huge feet of the stampede like a rag doll. She was clearly dead; crushed to death beneath the monsters.
This was it. This was the end.
Then he saw Melanie again, falling to her knees, sobbing as death rushed her.
The sight of her tears brought forth something foreign in him. His powers took on a frightening, uncontrollable quality.
He screamed, “Run! Everyone, run. Now!”
Scott turned and saw him for the first time. Blood streamed down Scott’s cheeks, but even through the grotesque mask of his own blood, Jack could see a glimmer of hope on Scott’s face at the sight of his friend.
He heard a loud sob mixed with joy, a sound he’d never heard in his entire life, come from Melanie when she saw him too. Her powerful emotions were so diametrically opposed that they almost cancelled each other out.
She got to her feet and every living person on the street started to float into the air, with her in the lead. Her hands swelled and turned red but she was doing it, and just in time. Jack’s powers couldn’t be held back a moment longer.
She yelled down at him, “There are kids in the basement of the bar. You need to protect them.”
Molly’s dead body was the last thing Jack saw before his vision went black. He heard his mom’s voice calling out for him, distant and muffled. That could mean only one thing; he was going to join her in death. His powers would rip him apart, and anyone or anything near him too. But what about the kids in the basement? He had to keep them safe. He would welcome death greedily if only he could find it within himself to be so selfish.
He felt a type of euphoria that was all hatred and violence.
His vision came crashing back before his body wilted. The stampede was just a couple of feet from him now. His powers had peaked and he’d managed to stay conscious. He didn’t know if that was a good thing or not. But the powers still demanded a swift and vicious release so he gave in to them.
The closest two beasts blew apart, into fine bursts of particles. He knew in his heart that he’d somehow teleported their atoms apart. Just like before, he didn’t know how he’d done it, and he didn’t dwell on it because he was in imminent danger from the rest of the stampede.
Luckily the dusty remains of his two victims created a cloud. He thought he’d be able to lose the stampede in their blindness, but when three of them emerged through the gray dust, he saw for the first time, that none of them had any eyes. They weren’t blinded because they were already blind. So it afforded him no reprieve. They could still sense him somehow.
Then those three lead monsters vanished like a light being turned off. He wasn’t sure where he’d sent them, but he imagined it was far beneath the Earth’s crust.
The ground still rumbled from over a dozen approaching beasts.
A shaft of light hit him on the hand. It didn’t go through him but the pain from the burn stunned him. He looked to the source of it in time to see several floating robots discharging their weapons at him. He also saw several more attacking his floating friends. That solidified his resolve. He had to make quick work of the stampede if he stood any chance of killing the armored aliens before they killed his friends.
He looked back to the dust cloud but it was being pierced by many oversized reptilian heads.
Jack concentrated despite the absurd distractions. He blinked and a noise that resembled thunder, only louder, came to him just as every giant beast disappeared from sight.
Report
Second in command, Fillo, reported the impossible. “The men insist that the anomaly is being caused by a human. He’s able to move matter with his mind instantaneously.”
“That’s impossible. He’s hiding the device on his body. Just kill him and take it from him.”
“He already dispatched with all of the Rancunts. The men are fighting him but from a safe distance.”
Angrily the commander said, “You’ve been telling me that these men are bloodthirsty maniacs. You’ve been trying to get me to cut them loose and let them have some fun. And now that I’ve done just that, you’re telling me they’re not up to the challenge?”
“They’re up against something they don’t understand. The Rancunts are all gone and their weapons only seem to wound the human.”
Commander Davok scratched his chin. He’d been waiting for the right moment to show his uppity second in command just what he was made of.
He said, “So his body is impervious to other matter? But antimatter will negate his strength. It’ll vaporize every cell in his body.”
Fillo wrinkled his brow. “It’ll do m
ore than that. It’s not even equipped to fire in atmosphere. It’ll blow the operator’s hands clean off before vaporizing everything around.”
“Then send a cadet and don’t tell him what he’s firing.”
“The cadets are here to witness the action, not to participate.”
“Every one of them knows how to fire a weapon. That’s all we need.”
“Then I’ll do it.”
“No you won’t. You just said it was dangerous. I’m not putting you at risk.”
Second in command, Fillo, took a deep breath and took the moment to look at the situation objectively. His commander had a way of jumping in with both feet that upset him. But he also had an infectious energy that sometimes tricked him into agreeing with whatever harebrained plan he came up with. Antimatter was a ludicrous solution to a problem they didn’t even understand.
He said firmly, “This is a stupid idea. We need to notify command of the situation and fall back.”
“You don’t give the orders around here. Pick a cadet and weaponize the antimatter. That will be all.”
“Yes sir.”
The first thing Fillo did before following his commander’s orders was to notify command of their predicament, covertly of course. Unfortunately, the message would take years to get to its destination, so if he hoped for orders to take control of the ship, they wouldn’t come in time.
Then he hand picked the cadet that he thought had the least potential as a soldier and told him that this was his lucky day.
Teleportation
Jack fell to one knee from exhaustion. A laser beam hit him in the temple, knocking him on to his side. The burn brought tears to his eyes.
He gingerly got to his feet and looked into the sky. Melanie was concentrating with her eyes closed tight. She’d brought everyone together so that they were clustered in a group up in the air. Scott was using his force field to defend them from the onslaught, but his eyes were bleeding profusely. There was no way he could hold up for much longer.
But what was most disconcerting was that Dan was losing control. He was staring down at the limp body of his wife, tears glistening his pink eyes, and his arms were white hot. Others in the cluster were trying in vain to get away from him.
An old man’s hair was smoking and several fires erupted on clothing. The force field was keeping them from one doom, but it had also sealed them into another.
Jack mustered all of his will and teleported up beside the invisible bubble of doom. Lasers hit him every few seconds but he could endure the pain for the moment.
There were silent screams within the force field.
Jack maneuvered beside Scott and mouthed the words, “Let them go.”
Scott barely saw him through the blood in his eyes, but he took the presence of his friend as a welcome reprieve. He couldn’t hold the force field any longer anyway.
The people fell instantly and Jack felt the considerable heat coming from Dan.
People were sobbing and screaming and their panic only escalated with their descent. Lasers started to hit their marks now, killing several townsfolk before Jack had a chance to act.
He teleported everyone to the basement of the bar, and then teleported the entire group to the remains of the farmhouse, on the outskirts of town. It was all the energy he had left at his disposal, but it was enough for now.
For the first time, he wondered why he hadn’t just done that in the first place. He didn’t have to take on the dinosaur-like aliens at all. He could’ve just gotten them all to safety. But he knew the answer. He’d fought the monsters because it thrilled him in a small way.
Dan ran off into the distance. When he was far enough away to ensure he didn’t burn everyone to death, he fell to his knees and started to cry.
Jack was surprised when his mom ran over to him and wrapped him up in a hug. He didn’t know how to respond. His heart was thrumming. He couldn’t make sense of it. He thought she was dead. But his elation was short lived.
He heard Melanie scream, “He’s dead,” and saw her cradling Scott’s bloody head in her arms.”
Cadet
The cadet was eager to prove himself. He had the most badass weapon available and they were sending him in alone. This was epic. Legends would be told of his heroics. He’d have his pick of mates and the admiration of his superiors when this was all over.
This was an honor he hadn’t expected. He thought his officers were disappointed in him, but it turned out that they were secretly proud of how he’d performed.
The latest intel led him to a destroyed building on the outskirts of a small town. The intel was good because he could see a cluster of humans below as he descended in his tiny, stealthy vehicle.
Those backwoods bastards wouldn’t know what hit them.
Wrap-up
Commander Davok demanded that they move closer to the action for extraction. Eighty four percent of humanity had been eradicated, so the mission was near its end. The weird human anomaly would be taken care of momentarily, and the mission was pretty much a success. They just had to load up and move on as soon as possible now that the wet work was nearly done. They parked the ship in Earth orbit and waited for the dregs of humanity to die.
He said to his second in command, “All things considered, this was the easiest planet of them all so far. We lost a few soldiers, but overall, it’s been a resounding success.”
Fillo said, “It’s not over yet. We still need to contend with that human with his bizarre ability. I just wish we could’ve harnessed it.”
“You’re too negative. The journey is almost over. We’ll be heading home soon. Cheer up.”
Second in command, Fillo, stared down at the slowly spinning planet and shook his head sadly. Something was wrong with this entire mission. Nothing had gone according to plan so why should it start now?
Threat From Above
Scott was dead. His eye sockets had pools of his own blood cooling in them. His face was ashen and clammy as Melanie placed his head gently on the ground. His mom was crying and his little brother was trying in vain to comfort her.
A dozen dead bodies littered the ground. They’d been killed by alien gunfire before Jack had the chance to teleport them to safety.
If they thought they might have time to grieve, they were mistaken. Dan was completely out of control. His powers had gotten the better of him. The dirt beneath them baked and the air crackled as his heat grew in intensity. Off in the distance, he was yelling, “She’s dead, they killed her,” over and over.
When someone’s cartridge fired off from the sheer heat, he realized what he was doing to them, even from so far away. The heat wavered for just a moment before returning with renewed ferocity.
With a croaky voice, Dan said, “Everyone needs to get away from me. I can’t contain this much longer.”
That was news to Jack. He thought Dan had already lost control. If this was what happened when he contained his powers, what would happen when he really did lose control over them?
Jack realized for the first time that emotions governed their powers more so than anything else. But it was too late to do anything useful with the new information. Dan was about to blow.
A shadow fell over them. Jack looked up and saw something that his brain was ill-equipped to deal with. A massive ship, as big in the sky as four full moons, was hovering ominously in orbit above.
Even more ominous was the small speck that grew as it descended towards them. That was another ship and it was headed their way.
They might have never even noticed it if that larger ship hadn’t cast its shadow on them, causing them to look up.
These jerks just didn’t give up. They wanted them all dead in the worst way.
Jack yelled to Dan, “Do you feel like going for a trip, and getting some revenge?”
Dan looked up at the descending ship. “Yes. Do it. Get me out of here fast.”
Jack concentrated on the approaching little ship and then he focused on Dan. Dan vanished fr
om sight.
The spectators didn’t react. They’d seen enough bizarre stuff in the last few hours to deaden them to anything else.
Boom
Several of them stared up at the approaching ship. It kept coming and for just a second, Jack worried that he’d accidentally sent Dan somewhere else instead. Or maybe he’d missed his mark by a dozen feet and Dan was freefalling to his death.
The ship then lit up like a firework and a few seconds later, the sound of the explosion reached their ears.
Everyone turned from it, but Jack had to keep watching. If Dan had managed to survive, Jack had to make sure he didn’t fall and splatter on the ground.
Shrapnel rained down on them. Melanie brushed at her shoulder when a pea sized piece hit it and burned through her costume.
A young boy stripped his t-shirt off when it started to smolder.
A huge chunk of ship hit an old man. He fell to the ground hard but he quickly picked himself up. His left shoulder sat two inches below his right now and he was holding it with a trembling hand. But he’d survived and that was all that mattered for now.
And then, just in time, Jack heard a faint yell. He saw Dan falling, to the west. He’d probably blown himself away from his own explosion. He was just a hundred feet from the ground, flailing around like a mannequin when Jack focused on him and teleported him to them.
Dan appeared at Jack’s feet. He was lying on the ground, flailing his arms, fully nude and burnt, with red gashes all over his body. But his charred skin and cuts were healing before their eyes as he realized he was no longer falling.
He stood up and dusted off some of the char that had healed already.
