Beyond

by Phil Maxey

  “Captain Bakers platoon is under heavy fire near the west entrance, see what you can do there,” said Mitchell.

  He nodded and left.

  Nearby as Erin and Abbey were nearing their living quarters, she pulled up.

  Erin turned around puzzled. “What?”

  “I think I can help. Up top.”

  “What do you mean? How can you help? There are no E.L.F’s around here anymore for us to control. You know we have already sent the ones we discovered earlier away.”

  “I know that. It’s not about the E.L.F’s. I don’t know. It’s just a feeling.” It was all she could do to stop her quickly formed plan from pouring from her mouth.

  Erin looked at her inquisitively. “Okay, if you must. But perhaps Dale—”

  She was already walking backwards. “I’ll be fine,” she looked at one of the soldiers who was accompanying them back to the quarters. “I’m sure this guy will protect me.”

  The young soldier looked unsure. She pulled on his arm dragging him along the tunnel and around a corner away from Erin’s gaze.

  “Ma’am, my duty was just to take you to the—”

  “Yeah yeah I know. You can go do your soldier thing, but which way to the surface?”

  CHAPTER 33

  Zach ran along a deserted bunker tunnel, the lights flickering above his head as the sound of distant gunfire mixed with screams. He was told the route to the north sewers were in this direction, but apart from that there was no indication he was going the right way.

  He skidded around a corner and two soldiers standing guard at a secure looking door came into view.

  “That the north sewer exit?” He shouted along the tunnel to them.

  Before they could answer voices could be heard beyond the door, and after a few beeps the door unlocked and swung open. Out of breath soldiers appeared through the gap along with Michael.

  Zach ran up to him. He was without his backpack and his fatigues were torn and grimy but apart from that he seemed in one piece. “Are you injured?”

  He shook his head.

  “Diaz?”

  He shook his head again.

  Zach sighed. “We’re trying to take the fight to them. You okay to help out?”

  Michael looked up from his position leaning against the tunnel wall with eyes that wanted to quit. He then stood more upright. “I’m low on ammo, but yeah I’m good.”

  Zach briefly held his shoulder. “We’ll get you kitted out on the way to the west exit.” He then looked at the soldiers nearby. “One of you needs to take us to the armory and then show us the way to the west sewer entrance.”

  After scrambling through dimly lit corridors, a visit to one of many rooms full of weapons and ammo they burst through some double doors into a sign of chaos. The metallic smell of blood hung in the air, backed up by the screams of soldiers dying, as they lay on the floor and camp beds. Nurses ran between them while what looked like a single doctor did their best to keep whom they could alive.

  Ignoring the scene around them, Zach and Michael ran past the bodies alive and dead and entered another tunnel, this one had soldiers running along it in both directions.

  Zach grabbed one of them. “Where’s Captain Baker?”

  The soldier who was heading towards the makeshift infirmary, nodded back the way he came. “Follow me.”

  Leaving the secure walls of the bunker network and entering the sewer system, the sound of battle intensified and the air-cooled. They scampered along the tunnel avoiding parts which had collapsed and arrived at a metal ladder to the surface. Flashes of light from above momentarily alleviated the darkness around the base of the ladder.

  The soldier looked back as he put one foot on it. “Get ready to enter hell.” He then started climbing.

  Zach and Michael both made sure their newly acquired helmets were tightly held to their skulls and climbed up after him.

  Orange explosions lit the night sky, while streaks of neon red streamed across streets and between buildings dissecting clouds of dust and smoke.

  They all crouched down behind what remained of a pickup truck.

  The soldier pointed to a building about a hundred yards to their right. “Captain Bakers in that building, they are holding one of them back,” he shouted trying to be heard over the barrage of sound around them.

  “You head back down below. We got it from here!” Said Zach.

  The soldier nodded then ran a few yards and slid back down into the hole.

  Zach looked at Michael who seemed to be talking to himself under his breath. “We got to make it to that building, you ready?!”

  “Yeah.”

  As they scrambled to their feet the sound of masonry being crunched came from ahead of them, and a Hulathen came into view from behind some ruins, walking nonchalantly and firing its particle weapon at the building they were heading towards. Part of the front wall exploded while bullets streamed back the other way.

  Zach and Michael dived for cover in one of the many newly formed craters.

  “We can’t get to them!” Shouted Zach. He then peered over the edge of the crater. The Hulathen was holding a small car aloft, using it as a shield to deflect the torrent of bullets that were converging on it. He turned to Michael. “We’re going to flank it. Let’s go.”

  They scrambled out of the hole and ran across rubble and the street while keeping low. As they grew closer to the alien being, Zach noticed part of the Hulathen’s armor was darker than the other parts.

  They hunkered down behind a low wall.

  “You see that?” Said Zach pointing at the Hulathen’s right thigh.

  “See what?”

  “I think its armor is damaged at that point.”

  “Okay…”

  Zach clicked on his radio. “This is general Felton for Captain Baker or any of his unit. Come in, over.”

  A few moments of crackling was then interrupted by a gravely voice. “This is Baker, what I can I do for you general. Over.”

  “I’m about a hundred yards to your south. The alien is between us and you. I need you to turn your fire on the target up to eleven and keep it busy for the next few minutes. Over.”

  “Understood. Over.”

  Zach glanced at Michael. “When things heat up, we’re going to run up behind it and concentrate our fire on its leg. You got that?”

  Michael nodded.

  Zach peered over the wall. The Hulathen’s particle weapon was scything chunks of masonry from the building, which was collapsing in front of their eyes. “Get ready!”

  A few soldiers ran from the building, shooting at the alien while even more fire converged on it from different dark holes in the three-story structure.

  Zach and Michael hopped over the wall and ran hell for leather towards the alien that was doing its best to not take all of the fire that was being aimed at it. When they were within twenty yards Zach drew the pins from two grenades waited a second then threw them right at the feet of the creature. They both then dived to the ground and covered their heads. A deafening explosion soon followed, when they both looked up the Hulathen was kneeling, but still firing it’s weapon. More of its armor had dimmed.

  Michael ran forward firing. “Die!”

  “No!” Shouted Zach a few yards behind, but it was too late to stop the aliens spiked tail from whipping around and slamming into Michael throwing him through the air.

  Zach raised his rifle and walked forward shooting, targeting the duller parts of the creatures armor. Its tail swiped through the air again, but Zach ducked and it sailed over his head. He kept firing and its armor began to darken further.

  The Hulathen rotated on the spot, raising its weapon directly at Zach who was only yards away. Zach froze waiting for his world to be filled with light and pain, when instead the creatures face behind its partial visor changed to one of anguish.

  The firing from the building had stopped and silence rushed back in, but then was broken by the sound of footsteps. Zach looked to his rig
ht. Abbey was walking towards the Hulathen with her hand held out in front of her.

  Zach shook his head and waved his hand for her to go, but she kept on walking forward. He looked back at the Hulathen that had not moved from its awkward knelt position with its raised hand in Zach’s direction. Its face straining, seemingly wanting to do something it could not.

  “Get out of here!” Shouted Zach as Abbey walked over some rubble and came to his side.

  She walked up to the Hulathen, its eyes tracking her every step.

  Zach watched speechless. Soldiers flooded out of the ruined building and ran towards them.

  “If you’re going to kill this thing, I suggest you do it quickly, I can’t hold it like this forever.”

  Zach walked forward to be within just a few feet of the creature which even knelt was a few feet higher than him, and held his rifle an inch from its head. Its eyes narrowed into an expression of contempt. Zach’s finger went to squeeze the trigger when he stopped, and he looked around until he found what he was looking for. Quickly walking to a nearby mound of what was left of a building, he picked up a five-foot long metal pipe and returned to the alien.

  He pulled his arm back. “I got a better idea—” and with an almighty swipe brought the pipe down on the Hulathen's head, crashing through it’s visor and impacting its bony skull. Its eyes flickered then it fell to the ground unconscious.

  CHAPTER 34

  Fiona, Zach, Mitchell and others stood in one of bunker twelve’s large storage chambers. A fizzing crackling sound filled the air along with a metallic smell as soldiers rushed to weld huge metal rods in place.

  The Hulathen lay unconscious near the back wall, its arms and legs restrained with five inch thick chains, while other soldiers knelt and stood pointing a small arsenal of high-powered weaponry at it.

  Fiona looked at the bars slowly being secured into the bedrock. “You sure this is going to hold it?”

  “It better,” said Mitchell. “We can’t have one of these things running around down here.”

  “Its got enough sedative inside it to drop a herd of elephants,” said Bryce. “But I have to admit, its biology was not something we could make sense of. So it’s all guesswork at this stage. We did manage to remove its weapon that was attached to its right hand though, but not its armor, that seems to be sealed to its skeletal structure somehow.”

  “How’s Michael doing?” Said Zach.

  “A cracked rib and some lacerations, but he’s doing fine,” said Bryce.

  Zach walked forward past the burgeoning barrier intended to keep the alien prisoner.

  “Don’t get too close,” said Mitchell.

  “We’ll need it awake at some point. I got a whole lot of questions for it.”

  “I wonder what its name is,” said Fiona.

  “Its name is, ‘I got my ass kicked by a human’, ” said Bower joining the group, his face and fatigues covered in smears of black soot and blood.

  Mitchell looked at him. “How’s it looking up top Captain?”

  “No sign of the Hulathen. When we captured this one, and I’m fairly sure injured some others, they left….We took heavy casualties though. Last count was forty-five dead, seventy-six injured.”

  “And how many Hulathen were there?” Said Fiona.

  “Four…” Said Bower.

  A quiet descended upon the occupants of the cement walled room.

  Zach knelt closer to the alien. “Doesn’t matter if there’s four or four thousand if we can convince them to leave us alone.”

  Mitchell looked at Bryce. “I expect you and doctor Joshi to learn as much as you can about this thing, while we manage to keep it as our guest.”

  He nodded.

  She sighed. “Right. There are some families I need to have a conversation with.”

  In the Cascaders living quarters Abbey woke from sleeping on her single camping bed. She immediately sensed someone sitting watching her.

  “So you controlled it?” Said Erin sitting on the bed opposite hers.

  She rubbed her eyes. “What are you talking about.”

  “The alien? You stopped it from killing Zach.”

  She wondered how he already knew that. “Yeah, it would seem so.”

  “This was the idea you said you had in the tunnel earlier?”

  She nodded.

  He grinned. “I knew! You were more than a pretty face.”

  She felt her skin crawl but tried to not let that be too obvious to the man studying her. “Any coffee on the go?”

  He looked past her to the other end of the room. “Clovis! We need coffee over here.”

  She suddenly realized she had completely forgotten about the man that wanted to murder her. She turned and quickly closed her mouth after it fell open. The tall domineering man she had been so terrified of sauntered across the room between the beds and tables carrying a tray of mugs and cookies. Eventually he stood near the end of the bed holding the tray.

  “Put it on the bed then continue with your chores,” said Erin, his eyes not moving from Abbey.

  As Clovis did as ordered she looked at the shadows and lines on Clovis’s face and the red rings which surrounded his eyes. He then turned and quietly walked away.

  “He…doesn’t seem himself,” she said.

  “We had a good conversation about his anger issues and now as you can see he wants to be part of our growing family.” He leaned forward reaching and gripping Abbey’s hand. “We all must be bound together to get through this. Now we know our abilities enable us to control not just the E.L.F’s but also the aliens. This means our future is bright Abbey. Nothing and no one will stand in our way.”

  She wanted to remove her hand from his grasp but couldn’t, so instead she nodded and provided a faltering smile.

  He let go moving his hands to his knees. “Good! Now get some coffee inside of you, I’m sure we’re going to have a busy day.”

  “Its morning?”

  “I believe the sun is just coming up.” He looked around. “I could never get used to living in a hole like the old-worlders have.” He rose, smiled, then walked away.

  * * * * *

  Zach finished his conversation with a soldier he came to know was called “Tyrone” and moved to the next injured soldier in the infirmary. He had already been there in amongst the smells of the aftermath of battle for well over an hour telling the men and women about the new city which had sprung up near Austin when a private burst through the double door and ran up to him.

  “It’s awake, sir. Doctor Joshi wants you to come.”

  Zach followed the soldier through the tunnels and back into the large chamber, one half of which was off limits to any human.

  It was standing with its wings in a fixed closed position on its back and seemingly looking at those who were standing just yards away. Panels of a thick layer of clear reinforced glass had been placed over the bars, sealing the alien in its cell, while two open pipes allowed air and eventually water and food to enter. Microphones and speakers had also been installed.

  Zach walked up and stood next to Raj. Both were standing just a few yards from the alien’s cell. “It looks a lot bigger standing upright. Has it tried to escape yet?”

  “No. Hasn’t even tried the bars. Which is a little unsettling.”

  “Either it doesn’t care or it knows it can escape if it wants too, either is not good for us. It can’t see us right?”

  “Nope. That’s one way glass.”

  “Have you tried talking to it?”

  “I thought I’d leave that honor to you.”

  “Not sure I’d call it that, but thanks…” A noise made him turn around. Abbey and Erin entered the chamber. Zach looked at the soldiers standing guard. “Please escort this man outside!”

  Abbey ran forward. “Zach, no. He might be able to help.”

  Zach couldn’t hide his frustration, shaking his head. He looked at Erin. “Just stand at the back.”

  Erin nodded and stepped away.
/>   Zach looked at Abbey. “Why are you here?”

  She glanced at the Hulathen who was looking straight at her. “Maybe I can help communicate with it?”

  Zach put his hand up. “Let’s leave the Cascader stuff out for now—”

  A flash of anger crossed her face. “Why not let me help? What harm can it do?”

  “We don’t know! Abbey let me take care of this.”

  She shook her head and walked away joining Erin who was smiling. It was a smile Zach was beginning to hate.

  He looked at Raj. “Okay lets do this.” He then walked to a hastily constructed intercom box on the wall and pushed down the talk button. “I am Zach Felton, general in the United States army—” It was the first time he had to say those words and most of the terms felt outdated. The prisoner’s head twitched, switching between looking at one of the speakers and the glass wall in front of it. “—Are you understanding any of—”

  The creatures tail flashed across the cell smashing one speaker, then in a blink of an eye flicked across to the other side destroying the other. It then walked forward. Those on the other side of the glass and bars started taking steps backwards. The other soldiers in the room took up defensive positions and raised their guns.

  “Not to worry the bars are—”

  The Hulathen seized the five-inch thick bars.

  “—Electrified,” said Raj

  The lights started flickering in the chamber, while whispers of smoke drifted upwards from the alien’s fingers.

  Everyone watched the spectacle not knowing if the creature was being hurt or not.

  Zach noticed a flicker of a smirk on the Hulathen’s face. He walked forward closer to the glass.

  “Zach don’t get too close!” Shouted Abbey from the back of the room.

  Zach looked up at the towering alien, as it shuddered, while still gripping the bars. He then realized that its armor was changing color and bent down to examining it more closely. “Off…turn the electricity off!” He shouted while standing up and looking at Raj.

  “What?…err…okay.” The doctor ran to a box of wires near the wall and yanked two of them out, but not before the Hulathen had started bending apart two of the bars.