Pets in Space® 4

by S. E. Smith

  We hadn’t realized there were so many people still in the area, many of them running out of their houses, bags clutched in their hands. Those with functioning vehicles took to the roads, creating traffic we could have lived without, forcing us to find new side streets. Others ran on foot, waving at cars to pick them up.

  No one stopped. Nor did we.

  I wanted to believe it was purely because we genuinely had no room in the van, with both front seats taken, and the back filled with our scavenged loot. Even if we had wanted to ditch all our loot to save those people, by the time we’d finished unloading, the bugs would have been upon us. So why did it feel like I was rationalizing my way out of a guilty conscience?

  We finally turned onto Fourth Avenue only to be met by a vision of horror. A little over a hundred yards ahead, two dozen Kryptids were hauling screaming people out of their cars before injecting them with that thing that made them go limp. They then dragged the bodies and tossed them unceremoniously onto a hovering platform which already carried multiple paralyzed victims. Other Kryptids pulled the empty vehicles to the side with a single hand, as if they weighed nothing.

  Andy slammed on the brakes, preparing to back up, but three more vehicles pulled up behind us. We could try to ram our way through, but with their herculean strength, I doubted we’d make it. The other cars, realizing what was going on, started backing away, but it would take too long. My gorge rose as Andy charged forward.

  We’re not going to make it! We’re never going to make it!

  Unfazed, a couple of Kryptids advanced towards us, their throats undulating as if they were regurgitating something massive. I screamed when, less than fifty yards from them, Andy made a sharp turn into the parking lot of a gas station where many of the victims’ cars had been discarded. Two loud clanking sounds resonated as something impacted the back of our vehicle. I didn’t know what it was and didn’t care. Andy navigated to the other side of the station which connected with Third Avenue.

  He made a hard right only to be faced with another Kryptid standing in the middle of the street. Tires squealed as Andy pushed full steam ahead, intent on running the giant bug down. The alien didn’t move, didn’t flinch, his throat doing that weird thing, too. As we drew closer, his lips parted and a massive, black dart-like appendage appeared between his needle teeth. He spit it at us, and it flew like a bullet. Andy swerved to avoid it, but it smashed his side window. Thankfully, it struck at an angle that had the dart bounce outside instead of hitting him. But Andy lost control of the vehicle. I screamed again as a lamp post came rushing my way. It slammed against my door, sending a painful jolt through my right arm.

  Before Andy could get the van going again, the Kryptid was already on us, tearing the driver’s door right off its hinges.

  “RUN!” Andy yelled at me while the alien tore his seatbelt before yanking him right out of his seat.

  But I couldn’t run. My door, beaten in by the impact, wouldn’t open. I pulled out my gun and, with a strange focus I’d never known myself to possess, I took aim and fired. The bullet struck the Kryptid’s shoulder, shattering the chitin armor there, but not penetrating. Visibly angered, he injected Andy with something at the same time my friend was firing a shot of his own. It was a blind shot, but a lucky one that struck the top articulation of the Kryptid’s three-segment leg. The alien shouted in pain, dropping Andy. Without missing a beat, I fired on that same leg, which gave beneath him. While he writhed and screeched on the ground, I put him out of his misery with a bullet through the eye.

  Scrambling to the driver’s side, I tried to back up the van. The wheels spun, burning rubber, but the van wouldn’t move. Something was holding it underneath. I raced to Andy’s side, but his eyes were already glazing over. He appeared conscious but had visibly lost most motor control. His lips moved, soundlessly forming the word ‘run.’

  Choking on a sob, I kissed his forehead goodbye, picked up his gun, and ran.

  I didn’t get far. The bugs, like cockroaches, were coming out of the woodwork, continuously forcing me to change direction, always away from the way I needed to go. Heart pounding, blood roaring in my ears, I skirted buildings, sticking to the shadows and whatever cover I could find. I couldn’t seem to breathe through the fear choking me. I’d never felt so helpless and so alone.

  Hastening down the road, I barely suppressed a scream when a giant ball, covered in dark, shiny scales, rolled onto the street. It stopped and uncurled into an alien beast. Bigger than a Tibetan mastiff, the creature had the body of a pangolin, but with longer legs and what resembled dagger-like spikes beneath the scales of its back and tail. Its face also had none of the sweetness of a pangolin but more resembled a dragon with a square jaw full of razor-sharp teeth and reptilian eyes that spelled murder.

  Its head turned sharply towards me. For a second, I couldn’t move, hypnotized by its dark blue eyes boring into mine. Spinning around, I ran blindly away, praying to whatever forces were out there to please get me out of this nightmare.

  As I rounded the corner, a cold, hard hand closed around my neck, choking my startled cry. My scream of terror died in my throat as the Kryptid pressed himself against me, pinning me against the brick wall of the house. The plates of his chitinous outer shell dug painfully into me while his lips parted in a horrifying grin.

  “Young. Ripe,” the Kryptid said with that terribly grating clicking voice. “The General will like you.”

  Wiggle as I might, I couldn’t break free, not even to kick him or try to head butt him—not that I’d want to, considering the vicious spikes on his forehead. I tried to reach for my gun, but he let go of my neck to pin both of my wrists above my head. Holding them with one hand, he took something from his belt, a device different from the one the Kryptid I’d killed had used on Andy.

  “What is that?” I asked with a trembling voice. “What are you going to do to me?”

  Another voice behind him said something in that same alien language. That’s when I noticed three more of them surrounding us. My heart sank, and tears pricked my eyes. Whatever awaited me would be horrible.

  But the Kryptid never got to inject me with the weird syringe’s contents. Three black darts embedded themselves on the right side of his neck, in his armpit, and at the junction of his narrow, ant-like waist. He released me with a powerful screech that temporarily deafened me. His three companions also screamed, two of them holding their forearms in front of them. From the bracer-like attachment on their wrists, a rectangular shield that seemed made of energy appeared before them. Crouching to make myself smaller, I watched in awe as the dragon-pangolin alien rolled closer to the Kryptids before stopping to fire more darts from the sharp protrusions beneath its back scales. The bugs shot at it with their lasers—although they were more like energy blasts—which bounced right off the creature’s scales.

  Relentless, it fired a few more darts at the bugs whose shields appeared to waver under the assault. I didn’t dare move from my position for fear of getting hit in the crossfire. The creature darted towards the three invaders, rolling like a bowling ball intent on knocking down some pins. Two of the Kryptids ran out of its path while one used his unusual legs to jump high over the alien pangolin.

  Big mistake.

  The creature stopped beneath him, arched its back, and fired three more darts upward. They all found their marks. The Kryptid collapsed to the ground with none of the grace his peers had previously displayed when jumping down from buildings. No sooner did he land than the pangolin threw itself at him. With vicious, razor-sharp claws, it slashed at the Kryptid’s chitin armor, which cracked under the assault, and then it spit something into the vulnerable spot.

  The creature rolled after another target while its victim writhed in agony, clawing at his chest as if being eaten alive by acid.

  Just as I began to get up, a dozen nightmarish, golden aliens appeared out of thin air a few yards away.

  They were nearly seven feet tall and covered in a layer of thick, golden
-scaled armor. The plates on their cheeks and foreheads fused into helmets that covered half of their faces. Thin, tightly packed, vicious-looking spikes protruded from their foreheads, growing thicker and more spaced out in the back. They looked even more lethal than the ones on the Kryptid’s forehead, which had kept me from headbutting him earlier. Thinner spikes jutted from the skin along the arms of the newcomers. That would certainly be effective in preventing enemies from grabbing them. They had a scythe-like projection from each of their forearms which extended over their hands. These blades looked razor-sharp, as did the long claws at their fingertips. Frilled membranes stood on their backs like nightmarish fairy wings; the clawed tips and blade-like edges seemed capable of slicing through metal or through anyone dumb enough to jump them from behind. And last, but not least, two scorpion tails jutted from their backs, arching over their shoulders with vicious spikes at the tips.

  I froze, and my breath caught in my throat as the golden aliens all looked at me. Their large, black eyes, devoid of pupils, lingered on me for a second before turning to face off against the insectoid aliens.

  “I’ve got her,” one of the aliens said to the others in perfect English.

  They nodded and, lifting their forearms before them, they summoned energy shields similar to the ones the Kryptids had used against the alien pangolin.

  I jumped to my feet, heart pounding. My eyes flicked left and right, looking for a safe place to run.

  “Do not be afraid, madam. We are not your enemies. No harm will come to you,” the alien said in a soothing voice.

  Under different circumstances, I’d be raving about that incredibly deep and sexy voice with a strange accent that wasn’t British but sounded just as posh and polished. However, his appearance terrified me. Whatever planet he hailed from, he was the embodiment of a killing machine. I pressed my back to the brick wall of the house, wishing it would swallow me.

  “My name is Doom,” the alien said, stopping a few feet in front of me. “My brothers and I are intergalactic peacekeepers. We are here to free humans of the Kryptids.”

  As if to confirm his words, his companions made mincemeat of the two remaining Kryptids before continuing down the road where more of the bugs could be seen in the distance.

  “If you want to live, stay behind us,” Doom said. “Stran will protect you.”

  “Stran?” I asked, my voice still shaking.

  Doom didn’t answer but looked towards his companions who were fighting a group of Kryptids who’d just entered our street. The four-legged creature was doing its share of killing but suddenly pulled away from the fight. His head jerked towards us before he curled into a ball and rolled in our direction.

  “Stran is a Creckel. He’s my battle companion and a dear friend. He cannot speak with words as we do, but he understands everything you tell him. Despite his appearance, Stran isn’t classified as an animal. He’s extremely intelligent, can think and reason the same way you and I do.”

  The affection in Doom’s voice as he described the Creckel left no doubt as to the strength of the bond that united them. Coming from such a fearsome looking being, it threw me for a loop. And yet, it significantly alleviated my fears. Someone capable of such gentle feelings couldn’t be a monster, right?

  Stran uncurled from his ball form and carefully approached me.

  “How did he know?” I asked, struck by the fact Doom hadn’t called the creature.

  “I asked him to come through mind-speak—telepathy if you prefer,” Doom said.

  My jaw dropped. But before I could question him further, a swarm of Kryptids rushed his companions.

  “Time to squash some bugs. Stay with Stran, Little Red. He’ll keep you safe.”

  “My name isn’t Red,” I whispered.

  Turning around, Doom ran at dizzying speed towards his friends, shield in one hand, blaster in the other. He fired with deadly precision, his first blast shattering the chitin armor of a Kryptid, the second shot finding its mark in vital organs. Once within close range, he holstered his blaster and used the scythe-blade on his right forearm instead. The damn thing proved to be even sharper than it looked, slicing through Kryptid limbs like butter. Simultaneously, his scorpion tails relentlessly stabbed at his targets. Whenever they touched flesh not protected by chitin, the victim would fall to the ground screeching in agony while foaming at the mouth. Whatever kind of venom coated the scorpion tails’ darts was extremely lethal.

  Although his companions fought as savagely as he, I couldn’t take my eyes off Doom. I couldn’t say if it was because he’d been the one to talk to me, or the gentle, respectful tone of his voice when he’d addressed me. All I knew was that for the first time in two weeks, since the beginning of the dreadful invasion, I felt a sliver of hope.

  A cold, wetness on my hand startled me. I looked down to see Stran rubbing his dragon snout on my palm then lowering his head so that my hand would rest atop it. While I’d been busy gaping at his friend, the Creckel had closed the distance between us.

  “Thank you for saving me, Stran,” I said in a gentle voice, while caressing the top of his head, careful not to cut myself on the sharp horns fanning across his forehead.

  He emitted a deep sound, halfway between a growl and a purr, then lifted his chin, exposing the leathery underside of his neck. I grinned and scratched his neck. The Creckel rewarded me with an even louder purr. Although he clearly enjoyed getting petted, he pulled away from my touch, licked my hand with his forked, lizard tongue, then looked around us, keeping watch for possible aggressors.

  At last, a sense of safety washed over me. Humans weren’t alone. And maybe, just maybe, we had a chance after all.

  Chapter Two

  Doom

  We mowed through the bugs too quickly. My blood still boiled with the need to crush and obliterate. But my mind was stuck on a fiery wisp of a female. I had never seen such a mesmerizing aura. Despite the fear that had tarnished its beauty, the aura of my Little Red shimmered with the soothing blue shades of a loving, nurturing, and supportive soul. The strong greens woven within indicated she possessed a great scientific mind. But the absence of pink and magenta cut deep. It shouldn’t surprise me. How could she feel attraction towards me in my monstrous warrior form?

  As much as I enjoyed killing the Kryptids, I needed this battle to end so that I could show my woman my true beauty. My brothers, too, had been drawn to her hypnotic halo, but unlike me, their fangs wouldn’t be burning and throbbing. Mine ached with the need to claim my mate and bond with her. They hadn’t challenged my offer to handle her because we were in battle mode. But once we finished, I would need to stake my claim.

  In the thirty-two years since my soul had sparked, no female had ever triggered this reaction. In fact, none of my brothers had experienced it either. We had begun to believe we were defective. Then again, until now—and aside from our creator, Dr. Liang Xi—we hadn’t met or interacted with any humans. Was that the reason none of us had ever found a mate?

  “Let’s go,” I telepathically told my brothers and Stran.

  Glancing over my shoulder, I watched him nudge Red with his snout then take a few steps towards us before pausing and looking at her again. She immediately understood he wanted her to follow and complied. Rolling up into a ball, he circled twice around her before coming towards me. My Red laughed, both amused and confused by his behavior. Her laughter had a clear, musical quality that made one want to smile, too. She didn’t realize that Stran had claimed her for both of us with his circling movements. The frown on my brothers’ faces told me it hadn’t gone unnoticed. I couldn’t help the smug smile that stretched my lips when a few of them glared at me.

  Looking at the scanner on my armband, I hesitated between three hotspots of Kryptids. If my Red weren’t with us, I wouldn’t have hesitated to go to the largest one. However, while I didn’t doubt my brothers’ and my ability to wreak havoc among the bugs, and Stran’s ability to decimate any who would dare threaten my female, the thought
of my Red in harm’s way had both my hearts constricting painfully in my chest.

  “Let’s go south,” I said through mind-speak.

  “South?” Legion asked out loud, looking at me as if I’d grown a second head.

  “It’s less dangerous for the human,” I said, annoyed by my defensive tone.

  Chaos turned to look at us. “She should remain in one of the houses while we go clean up that bigger nest. The Kryptids won’t come back to this area for a single human.”

  “Negative,” I countered. “While most of the local population has fled, many were stranded here, as she was. Most likely, they’ve all been injected and carried off to a Swamp. It’s probably in this area. We need to find and eliminate it. We may still be able to save the humans.”

  “My scanner doesn’t pick up anything, either bugs or a large concentration of humans,” Chaos argued.

  “Neither does mine,” Legion said. “But Doom’s reasoning has merit. They must have some dampening field camouflaging them. By the time we discovered this newest Breeding Swamp it would already be too late.”

  “Excuse me,” Red said timidly.

  We all turned to look at her. She swallowed hard, and her pale aqua eyes widened with a sliver of fright. The freckles covering her pretty face seemed to stand out even more as her milky-white skin grew a shade lighter. It had to be intimidating to have eleven of us in our battle form staring at her.

  “What is it, Red?” I asked in a gentle voice.

  “Victoria. My name is Victoria,” she said, rubbing the side of her nose nervously. “I … hmmm …” She cleared her throat, seeming mightily uncomfortable. “Well, seeing how you’re all kinds of kicking ass and said you were here to save humans, I was wondering if you wouldn’t mind moving towards the Sacred Heart Hospital? It’s just a couple of blocks north from here.”