by B. T. Wright
As his heartrate surged, his first thought was of Jess.
Before Jake could jump to his feet, Bryan nodded at the large window off to his left. Two body-shaped shadows were hovering there. Jake slipped his hand to his Beretta and pulled it free of its holster as he rolled up to a knee. Everyone else in the room was sound asleep.
Bryan leaned in. Jake could feel Bryan’s hot breath against his ear when he whispered, “How do you want to handle this?”
Jake hadn’t meant to fall asleep. He’d laid down to think about this very scenario and to come up with a plan in case it happened. Now, they were going to have to improvise. The next thought that entered his mind was one of hope. Right now there were three aliens visible. He hoped that these were just scouts, and they came ahead of the pack to check things out. If this was the case, they had a chance. If it wasn’t the case, they were all dead. The exact scenario which had made Jake so adamant about leaving early was upon them.
Jake leaned around Bryan to look down the hall. The bedroom door was open, but not enough to see the entire bed. Jess wasn’t in his line of sight. That made him nervous.
“Jake?” Bryan prompted.
Jake leaned in. “Let’s wake the others slowly, and quietly. One at a time. Maybe these are the only aliens.”
Bryan looked at the two shadows and watched as they began to move around the perimeter of the house.
“I doubt it is, but I agree. If we make a lot of noise, we are dead for sure.”
Bryan was on the same page. Jake went back over beside Tyler and grabbed his axe. Tyler was snoring—oblivious to the nightmare that surrounded them. The floorboards on the back porch groaned under the weight of the alien that had passed in front of the kitchen window. Fear had no place in a situation like this––the soldier in him wouldn’t allow it. But concern for Jess, who he couldn’t currently see, was something he couldn’t dismiss.
Then Jake saw Amy asleep on the couch. It was then that the bigger picture forced its way into his growing plan. No matter what happened to any of them there in that house, he knew he couldn’t let the aliens have Amy. She could be the only thing that would one day help them to fight back.
Jake handed Bryan his silenced pistol. Then he showed him his axe, letting him know that was how he would fight. “I will go out the back and come up behind them. You go out the front door and shoot them right between the eyes.”
Bryan nodded.
“But I have to hide Amy first. They can’t find her.”
Bryan nodded again. “I’ll get TW up while you hide her. He can get in the truck and be ready to drive.”
It was Jake’s turn to nod as he handed Bryan the keys to the truck. When Bryan went over to TW, Jake went to Tyler and Mark. The floorboards of the old house, even though they probably weren’t that loud, sounded like fireworks going off to Jake as he tried desperately to be quiet. He tapped both men on the shoulder, and they both had the same startled reaction. The fear on their faces when Jake pointed out the shadows of the aliens brought the danger of the situation home even further. They both gathered their weapons and waited as Jake had instructed them to.
Jake set his axe down on the kitchen table, then crept over to the couch, placed both arms under Amy like a forklift, and began walking her over to the kitchen cabinets. For a moment, he thought about asking her to help get them all out of there. To distract the aliens with her mind until they were on the road in the truck. But he couldn’t. If these were in fact just scouts, he and Bryan could easily handle them. However, if Amy used her ability to communicate with them, then every one of the aliens would know where she was. And no matter what, he couldn’t risk that.
Amy’s eyes shot open.
“It’s okay, I’ve got you,” Jake whispered. Her eyes remained wide as she darted her head around the house. “We’re in trouble here, and I have to hide you, okay? Just for a few minutes.”
Amy vehemently shook her head back and forth. She did not want to be left alone.
“It’s just for a few minutes,” he whispered. “No matter what, though, you can’t do that thing you did back at the river. You cannot let them in your head, okay?”
“I’m not sure I can stop them,” Amy whispered. “But maybe I can. I think they’ve tried to get in a couple of times.”
Jake couldn’t imagine what it would be like to be Amy. Poor thing must be terrified. He remembered Jess telling him about how Amy passed out in the RV on the way to Cincinnati. How Jess told him Amy had said that they were in her head. Jake didn’t think it was possible that the aliens could enter her head whenever they wanted. If they could, they would have already done it.
“I need you to keep them out, okay? Do your best?”
Amy nodded. “Jake, I’m scared.”
“I know you are. But I won’t let them get you.”
Amy wrapped her arms around his neck and squeezed. Jake squeezed her back. The petrified girl was trembling. He opened the cabinet under the sink. Amy reluctantly crawled inside.
“I’ll be right back. I promise.”
Then he shut the cabinet door and turned toward Bryan, who was ready at the front door. Jake stepped over and strapped his bag onto his back, grabbed his AR-15 and slung it around his neck, then picked up his axe. Jess walked into the room rubbing her eyes, and then was startled when she saw everyone standing—ready to go. But she was so shocked when she noticed the shadows moving outside the windows that she dropped her shotgun, and it made a loud clang when it hit the floor.
The shadows outside the window began to move around to the front of the house.
“Get your things, we’re leaving,” Jake told Jess. Then he took the handle of the back door in his hand. It was time to see if they could escape the aliens one more time.
27
Slow and steady, Jake opened the back door, but he didn’t step out. His subconscious was screaming at him. He couldn’t keep Amy safe if he left her in the cabinet. If more aliens came out of the trees, there would be no way to get back to her. They only place to hide her was the truck. He stepped back inside and pulled her out from under the sink. The look of relief on her face was enough to make him feel good about the decision, whether it was a good one or not.
“Keep your hand on my bag. Don’t make a sound. Even when I kill the alien outside. Understand?”
Amy nodded. She gave no sign of fear. She looked happy just to be staying with him.
Jake walked toward the open door and poked out his head. He looked first to his right––nothing––then to his left. The alien that had passed the kitchen window a moment ago was standing at the corner of the house. Jake stepped out but paused when he heard something from the front side of the house. Though the Beretta he’d given Bryan was suppressed, he could still hear the two shots Bryan had just fired into the dead quiet of the night.
So did the alien in front of Jake.
The alien moved forward around the corner. Jake rushed after it. He heard two more suppressed shots fired. They sounded almost like a pellet gun. Jake hoped that with those four shots Bryan had been able to take down the only other two aliens they had seen through the windows. Jake turned the corner, brought the axe back with two hands like a baseball bat, and swung so hard the blade went clean through the alien’s neck. Amy let out a yelp behind him, but was able to keep her emotions in check.
Jake stepped over the decapitated alien and moved forward to the next corner of the house where Bryan would be. He pushed the blade of his axe out where Bryan could see.
“Clear!” Bryan whisper-shouted.
Jake took Amy’s hand and walked around the corner. Bryan was waving TW out to the truck in the light of the moon. The lights flashed on the pickup truck when someone hit the unlock button on the key fob. TW went running by, and Jake rushed forward and handed her off. “Keep her out of sight!” He watched as the two of them jumped inside the car, and just as he looked over to see Bryan take a step back toward the front door, a window breaking shattered the quiet that
engulfed them.
Then there was a scream.
Jess.
Bryan squared up, clearly taking aim. Jake ran up beside him and watched as an alien reached right through the glass of the bedroom window. Jake jerked his arm up, knocking Bryan’s shot off its mark just in time to keep a bullet from possibly hitting Jess as the alien yanked her out of the house through the window. It hooked its right arm around her neck and held her in place. Jess was fighting against its grip, but it was squeezing her so tight that she could hardly make a sound.
Jake stepped forward, and the alien held up its left hand—wagging its human index finger back and forth—to let Jake know not to come any closer.
Jake froze. “Let her go!” He hooked his axe back on the loop of his bag, trading it for the AR-15 strapped around his neck, and took aim.
He heard Tyler and Mark gather behind him. Tyler’s gasp when he saw the alien holding Jess sent a chill all through Jake. Two more aliens walked around the corner of the house up behind Jess. Then three more. In the trees beyond the aliens and Jess, at least a couple dozen more stepped out of the shadows.
Jake jumped when he heard the truck start up behind him, so much so that he nearly squeezed the trigger. They were surrounded. Jess still struggled in the alien’s arms.
The alien-infected that was holding Jess was large. He towered over her, her head only coming to about halfway up his chest. He was as thick as he was tall. His tattered t-shirt was plastered to his muscles, his arms bulging out from under the short sleeves.
“Bryan,” Jake whispered. “Get everyone out of here.”
Out of the side of his eye, Jake saw Bryan look at him, astonished. “I’m—we’re not leaving you.”
“Tyler,” Jake said. “You and Mark get in the truck, right now.”
Tyler stuttered, “Jake, w-we—we aren’t leaving—”
“Please,” Jake interrupted. “Please do what I tell you before they kill her.”
Jake heard Tyler and Mark’s feet atop the gravel driveway as they slowly moved for the truck like he’d asked. At the same time, the aliens at the trees’ edge took a few steps closer. Jake didn’t know what to do. He had no leverage in the situation. Though he knew what the aliens wanted—Amy—Jake couldn’t leverage it, because no matter how important Jess was to him, Amy was far more important to the mission. If Jake didn’t take emotion out of the situation, they were all going to die. Including Amy, the girl they called Element Zero. The one who could possibly save the world. Or at least save what was left of it. But looking into Jess’s horrified eyes, how could he walk away from her? The only woman he’d ever loved, and the rock that had held him together since he was teenager.
The short answer was that he couldn’t walk away. Wouldn’t walk away. Bryan could get Amy to Mount Weather without Jake, couldn’t he?
The swirl of emotions, feelings, and hard decisions was literally making Jake sick. He took a deep breath as he continued his stare down the barrel of his gun. He could take out the six of these aliens, get Jess, and get back to the truck before the others made it to him. He knew he could.
The door of the truck opened and shut behind him. Mark and Tyler had climbed inside. “Bryan, go.”
“I’m not leaving you, Jake. If this is where it ends, so be it. But I’m not—”
“Take me instead,” Jake’s words interrupted Bryan. And they surprised even himself.
The alien didn’t react.
“Take me instead of her,” Jake said. At the same time, he began lowering his gun until it was lying on the ground. Then he put his hands in the air. “Just let her go and take me.”
“Jake, what are you doing?” Bryan said.
Jake didn’t respond, instead he maintained his focus on the alien and took a step forward. He was willing to do whatever it took to save Jess. Anything but hand over Amy. As much as Jake hated it, it was how he’d been wired. The mission had to come first. Especially when so much was riding on the possibility that Amy could turn the tables on the invaders.
The alien man cocked his head to the left and opened its mouth. “Amy.”
Though Jake knew that was what they wanted, hearing the alien say her name caught him off guard. He couldn’t make a quick response.
The alien man spoke again. “Amy. Amy. Amy.” Each time it said her name it was louder.
Jake was shocked. He peeled away at the layers of his mind for a response. The only thing he could think to do was stall. “She’s not with us. We left her a long time ago. We had to. We knew she was going to get us killed.”
The big alien man straightened his head, then slowly shook it back and forth.
“I’m telling you, we left her. She was a liability. You’ll have to find her back in Kentucky.”
The alien didn’t respond this time, except to tighten its grip around Jess’s neck. At that point, her feet were no longer on the ground. Jake felt desperation reaching for him. He didn’t want to make a rash move that might get them all killed, but the longer he stood there and watched that alien choking the woman he’d loved his entire adult life, the more he could feel a terrible decision creeping up in his consciousness. Jake’s right arm slid back toward the axe looped at the bottom of his go bag. It wasn’t a conscious effort; it was a reflex.
“Let. Her. Go,” Jake said, but this time it didn’t sound like himself. He was losing his cool.
He felt the rough of the Micarta handle in the palm of his hand. For the last several years, one of the ways Jake and a few of his fellow soldiers had passed the time was tossing that axe. They would spend hours competing to hit the bullseye better and spend hundreds of dollars betting on themselves in the process. Jake had become so good at it that at the end of his last tour in Syria, he could no longer find any challengers. Throwing that axe accurately had become as easy as breathing to him. His hand was begging him to pull it from its holster.
Jake looked at Bryan out of the corner of his eye and watched his eyes as they followed Jake’s arm down to the grip of the axe. Bryan could feel the tension rising in Jake and knew what that hold on the axe meant. Jake could see him retake aim with the suppressed Beretta.
Off in the distance, the dozens of aliens disguised as humans held their stances at the tree line. The six black-eyed monsters surrounding Jess were ready to pounce if given the word. And the night was so quiet the only noise Jake could hear was his own heartbeat thudding in his ears.
Just as a breeze blew through the tops of the trees, Jake pulled the axe from its loop and gave it an underhanded toss straight toward the head of the infected man that was strangling Jess. He snapped his wrist at the end, giving it some velocity. It traveled in what seemed like slow motion—end over end toward the massive alien man.
One heartbeat later, the blade whipped over top of its handle and sank into the left side of the alien’s head that was holding Jess.
The next couple of minutes were a complete blur.
28
Just as Jake’s axe was sinking into the head of the alien, Bryan began to fire on the aliens to the left of Jess, and Jake, who had already dug the toe of his boot under the trigger-guard of his AR-15 on the ground, kicked that foot up, caught the rifle in his hands, and shot the three aliens on his right.
But the heroics weren’t enough.
The alien that had been standing directly behind the massive alien man holding Jess immediately pulled her into him and began backing up toward the edge of the house. As if the entire thing had been pre-coordinated, half a dozen more aliens shot around the corner and helped drag Jess toward the trees. It dawned on Jake at that moment that it didn’t have to be coordinated: they all could speak to each other collectively. They shared one consciousness, so their movements were like a well-oiled machine without the need for planning.
Jess screamed so loud that it rattled Jake’s bones even as he fired his gun until the magazine was empty. He tossed the gun to the ground, stepped on the chest of the dead alien, and pulled his axe free from its head. T
here were now over a dozen aliens surrounding Jess. As they carried her off, it looked like ants converging on the same piece of food before they took it back to their queen.
Just as Jake surged forward to give chase, he felt a tug on the back of his bag. It was strong enough to completely stop his momentum. He jerked forward, trying to break free, but he was yanked back again. He looked back in horror only to see Bryan using his bulk to keep Jake from going after her.
“Let me go!”
Bryan maintained his hold as he leaned back for extra leverage. Jake pinched the clip that secured the bag around his waist, the bag went flying off his back, and it sent Bryan crashing to the ground.
“Jake, no! She’s gone!”
Bryan’s baritone shout echoed off the trees. The other aliens that had been standing guard at the tree line tightened their formation around Jess. They were putting a barrier between her and anything that might be going after her as they disappeared into the shadows.
Though Bryan and the others at the truck were shouting at him, Jake continued forward. Their efforts to stop him fell on deaf ears. Jake sprinted into the foliage, his axe cocked back in his right hand. But his flashlight was in the side pocket of his bag, and once he ran into the trees, he could no longer see by the light of the moon. Only three or four strides inside the darkness, he ran headfirst into a tree trunk. His forehead took the brunt of it and it knocked him on his ass. He could hear the footfalls of the aliens rustling the leaves on the ground, but they were moving away quickly, and the shadows that he’d run into were growing darker and darker . . . until there was nothing but black.
Jake felt rumbling beneath him as his body vibrated. He tried to open his eyes, but they wouldn’t oblige. He heard what he thought were tires over a dirt road, but the state he was in—swimming somewhere below consciousness—he couldn’t be sure of anything. Until he watched the replay of the aliens carrying Jess away in his mind’s eye. Then his eyes shot open.
