“It’s them,” Andrew breathed. “This is where they’re coming from. Hound was telling the truth.”
“It looks that way,” Kendra replied. “But he left out the part about them being intelligent. I guess that explains the lights.”
Fear sparked through Andrew’s system. “I prefer your theory about phosphorescent mushrooms.”
“Let’s hope for that,” Kendra replied.
The creatures weaving up from the valley met with the one coming towards them, and they had a reunion of sorts, jumping around and rolling in the grass. “You think that’s our guy’s family?” Andrew asked.
“Maybe.”
Andrew glanced back the way they’d come. “If they’re intelligent, then blocking this pass is never going to keep them out.”
“No, it won’t.”
“Which means it’s us or them,” he concluded.
Kendra sent him a sharp look. “Or something less barbaric than that.”
Andrew frowned. A whistling sound reached his ears, coming from their valley. It rose swiftly in pitch, and the five wolf-creatures in the field froze, their heads snapping up to listen. He pulled Kendra away from the ridge and out of sight before the monsters could spot them standing there.
The foreign noise rose swiftly into a screaming roar, and then something sleek and reflective flashed by overhead.
“What the hell?” Andrew muttered as a wave of hot air washed over them.
The vehicle roared out over the neighboring valley, right past the wolves on the hill, before banking around on glowing blue engines. The alien wolves flattened themselves to the ground, disappearing in the grass, as if they knew enough about such things to be afraid.
For his part, Andrew was more curious than frightened. He stared hard at the spaceship. It looked like some futuristic version of a fighter jet from Earth. It hovered for a moment with four thruster pods turned down, blasting the field to stay aloft. Grass flattened beneath those glowing blue plumes, and then the craft came inching back toward Andrew and Kendra’s position.
“Shit! They spotted us!” Andrew muttered as he reverse army-crawled down the ridge.
Kendra wriggled after him. “Do you think it’s theirs?”
“No, they’re acting scared. Whatever tech level they’re at, they haven’t made anything that advanced yet.”
Kendra made big eyes at him as they lay with their cheeks pressing hard into the gravel path. “There’s a third species on this planet?”
“Maybe, yeah. Get ready to run back into our valley. On three—”
Kendra nodded.
“One...”
The roar of those engines grew closer and louder. Andrew flexed his hands on his rifle, hesitating. They might have to stand and fight. The engines quieted and then died completely.
Kendra sucked in a breath. “I think it just landed.”
“I’ll cover you while you run,” Andrew said.
“No.”
“One of us has to make it out to warn the others!”
“Then it should be you,” Kendra said. “You have Val.”
Andrew gritted his teeth. “I’m not asking, Ken, I’m telling. Go. Now!” Before she could give further argument, Andrew sprang up and scanned for targets. A bright beam of light answered from the side of the glossy craft, blinding him.
His rifle snapped up to his shoulder, aiming into the center of the light. His finger tightened on the trigger just as the beam wavered and dipped down.
“Dad?”
Val’s silhouette snapped into focus, standing at the top of a short landing ramp. Andrew’s jaw dropped, followed by his rifle, and then he jerked into motion, sprinting to reach her.
* * *
Kendra
Light blasted them, and Kendra observed other human outlines. She watched as Andrew’s shadowy form pulled Valeria in close, spinning her around in his exhausted arms.
Kendra smiled, almost forgetting the fact that there was an entire valley of intelligent predators watching them at that moment. She peered toward them, over the hillside, where at least a hundred sets of glowing eyes stared up the ridge.
“Kendra?” Her sister’s voice carried over the thrumming of the alien spaceship’s engines.
She clambered to her feet, the aching muscles protesting at her movements. Carrie approached her, grasping Kendra’s arms as her knees buckled. “Are you all right?” her sister asked.
“I…” Kendra stopped, staring at the spaceship. She had numerous questions, but settled for the simplest one first. “Where did you find this?”
Val broke free from her dad’s embrace and spoke so quickly, Kendra had a hard time following her words. “We found Hound. He’s a robot or something, we’re not sure. I think he’s an alien, using a human-like android to trick us. We caught him in a trance, wires plugged into his neck. We shot him…”
“What the hell are you talking about?” Andrew asked.
Keller was there, scratching at his goatee, his eyes red and puffy. “It’s true. All of it. You were right in being so damned paranoid.”
Andrew stepped closer to the smaller man, and Kendra noticed Eric didn’t reach for his gun as she might have expected. “You spent all your energy busting my balls so you could be the big man on campus, when your boss was an alien? How did you two not figure that out? You worked with him for so many years!” Andrew’s voice was loud, and it echoed across the valley.
“I think we’d better scram. We have company,” Carrie said.
“Wait a minute. I want you to answer me,” Andrew said, pushing Keller in the chest.
“Fine. You want me to apologize, great. I’m sorry. I don’t know what the hell Hound is, but we need to leave here now and return to camp,” Keller said, his hands raised in surrender.
Andrew nodded. “Well, at least we agree on something.”
“Can we move on?” Keller asked, sticking his arm out for a handshake.
Kendra saw a muscle in Andrew’s jaw twitch—and then he decked Eric in the face. Hound’s second in command bent over, rubbing his jaw. He spat on the ground. “I guess I deserved that.”
“Now we can move on.” Andrew shouldered past him, coming over to Kendra and helping her toward the ship. Val was on her other side, rambling on about Hound.
Soon they were inside the strange ship, and as they lifted away from the ridge, Kendra pointed toward the crude village below. “It appears we aren’t alone on this planet after all.”
“We’re going to need to find a way of communicating with them,” Carrie said.
“Or we can kill them,” Eric muttered from the pilot’s seat.
Andrew was watching the viewscreen with interest, pointing toward the lake near their own colony. “What’s going on there? Shouldn’t the camp be dark by now?”
The entire place was lit. Kendra guessed nearly all of Eden’s segments were powered up and activated.
“You leave for a couple of hours and this is what happens,” Eric said quietly.
“We need to hurry. Hound might have returned already. We have to warn the others,” Carrie said, and Kendra’s stomach clenched at the words.
On this mysterious planet, it felt like danger was imminent no matter where they turned.
FORTY-TWO
Andrew
Andrew stood between the pilot’s and co-pilot’s chairs, watching as Eric flew them low over the camp. There were only four seats in the cockpit, so someone had to stand.
The various sections of Eden gleamed with spotlights. Red grass shone with pools of the same light, and there were people milling about everywhere, pointing up at them as they glided overhead.
“It’s the middle of the night,” Val said. “Why are so many people awake?”
Andrew shook his head. “I guess we’re about to find out.”
“I’m going to set us down next to Eden Five,” Keller said. “It looks like there’s a crowd gathering there.”
“A crowd, or a mob?” Andrew asked.
&nb
sp; “Maybe we should consider landing farther away,” Kendra added, but Eric was already landing the ship.
“Too late,” Carrie added as they touched down with a muted thump.
“Keep your weapons close,” Andrew muttered, taking his rifle in a two-handed grip and heading through the corridor to the exit. He heard the others unbuckling, and waited for them to come single-file down the passage.
Kendra was first in line, also carrying her M4 carbine in a two-handed grip. Eric came brushing by and hurriedly tapped a button on the control panel by the door. Machinery groaned to life, and the side of the ship began yawning open. Andrew glanced at Keller. “How do you know what to press? Those symbols are gibberish to me.”
“I got lucky the first time,” Keller explained. “It’s not code-locked, so I just had to find the right button.”
“And flying?”
Keller shrugged. “Intuitive controls, I guess.”
“Yeah.” Andrew’s eyes narrowed suspiciously at that. What if Keller was an alien too? A shiver ran down his spine with that thought, and he resolved to keep an eye on the man.
The landing ramp touched the grass, and Andrew fixed his eyes to the front. “On me,” he said as he took a few steps onto the ramp. He held his rifle across his chest in a firm grip.
“On you?” Val asked.
“It means follow him,” Kendra replied as she walked beside him.
There were blue and white suits alike watching from a distance, pointing to them as they came out. Seeing a ship like this one appear out of nowhere had to be unnerving. Hell, it had been unnerving for Andrew, too.
He raised one hand and waved. “It’s okay!” he called out. “It’s me, Andrew Miller! And this is—”
“Not another step, Miller!” a familiar voice warned.
Andrew spun toward the sound and saw three people with rifles aimed at him. None of them wore blue jumpsuits, or the camo-colored version that Sergeant Harper’s men preferred. These were white-suited civilians, and standing to one side of them was the person who’d just spoken: Reverend Morris.
“What the hell, Reverend?” Andrew demanded.
“Lower your guns,” she intoned. “No one needs to get hurt.”
“Maybe just you,” Andrew replied as he sighted down the barrel of his rifle to a space between Morris’s eyes. “It’d be nice to finally cut the head off the snake.”
Morris’s lips quirked into a crooked smile. “Ironic to hear a son of the Devil say that. Drop your guns.”
“Andrew...” Kendra’s voice trailed off in a whisper.
“What?” he demanded. He spared a glance at her, and saw that there was a man standing right beside the ramp with a pistol pressed to the side of her head. Someone else stood a few paces further, with a rifle trained on Val, Carrie, and Keller. All three of them had their hands raised.
“You’re outgunned,” Morris said. “You could kill me, perhaps, but all of you would die, and what would that accomplish? Besides, I would just be resurrected. The Lord did it once. He’ll do it again.”
“You’re insane, Morris,” Andrew growled.
“The guns. On the ground. Now.”
This was the worst possible scenario that he could have imagined. Somehow, in their absence, the reverend had taken control of the camp. Their colony had officially become a theocratic dictatorship.
“Mr. Miller, I won’t ask again. I’ll order them to open fire. Is that what you want?”
“We never should have saved you,” Andrew growled.
“That wasn’t up to you. It was the Lord’s will that I be saved.”
Andrew shrugged out of the rifle’s strap and slowly bent to lay it at his feet.
“Your sidearms, too,” Morris said, nodding to the pistol holstered at his hip.
Andrew grimaced and removed it from the holster. Kendra laid out both of her weapons as well.
“Happy now?” Andrew growled.
“Keller, Carrie, you’re next,” Morris replied.
“We left our guns in the cockpit,” Carrie said.
Really? Andrew wanted to say. Even after he’d told them to keep their guns close? That was a hell of an oversight.
“Come off the ramp, and let’s keep your hands where we can see them,” Morris said. “John, Arthur, would you search them, please?” She nodded to two of her men: a big man with a lumpy face and beady black eyes, and a skinny red-haired man with sunken cheeks who could have been Keller’s brother. Those two strode over to Andrew, and soon Lumpy-face’s hands were all over him, checking for concealed weapons that he didn’t have.
The red-haired scarecrow went to pat down Kendra, checking her for the same, and then they repeated the process with Keller and Carrie, and finally Val. Andrew watched Lumpy-face running his hands over his daughter, and he almost lost it.
But now wasn’t the time to be stupid. Not with so many guns pointed in their faces.
“They’re clean, Reverend,” Lumpy-face announced.
“Thank you, John.” Morris smiled more genuinely now. “Bring them. It’s time they joined the congregation. Even lost souls may find redemption in His mercy. We shall see if they are wise enough to accept it.”
“Come on.” Arthur the scarecrow shoved Andrew roughly between the shoulder blades, and he stumbled forward a step before setting a reluctant pace toward the crowd that they’d landed beside. If they’d been more careful about coming out of the ship, or had chosen to land somewhere else like Kendra had suggested, this never would have happened.
Hindsight’s a bitch, he thought.
As they followed the reverend’s soldiers to the ‘congregation,’ Carrie spoke up. “Reverend, you need to stop this now. We have bigger problems to worry about than religious differences. We—”
Morris cut her off. “Wrong! Religious problems are the only ones worth worrying about. Everything else concerns the mortal flesh, while religion concerns the immortal soul. There is no comparison between the two. Matters of the soul are always more important.”
“You’re not listening!” Keller added. “We found Lewis Hound! He’s not what we thought he is. He’s...” Keller trailed off, shaking his head. “This has all been a setup from the start. Hound didn’t bring us here to save us. He abducted us!”
“Wrong again! The old Earth was already dead by the time we left; if we had stayed, we would have died with it. We are the only Saints He chose, His own dear children.”
Andrew was incredulous. He could almost feel his blood boiling.
“We shot him,” Val explained. “The bullets bounced off!”
They reached the end of the congregation, and Andrew noticed that a temporary stage had been set up, assembled from cargo crates and habitat siding. The reverend turned to them with a massive grin, her eyes wide and flaring with reflected light from the spotlights that were shining down around the perimeter of the gathering. The stage had been assembled in front of the landing ramp and entrance of Eden Five, the command section.
“Why do you think the bullets bounced off?” Morris asked. “Because you can’t kill God!”
Andrew let out a noisy breath. “For the love of—he’s not God, he’s a damned machine!”
Val nodded. “He’s right. I saw it.”
“We all saw it,” Carrie added.
“Actually, Andrew and I didn’t,” Kendra said. “But they have no reason to lie.”
“No reason to lie?” Morris echoed. “They’re the sons and daughters of the father of all lies!”
“This is useless,” Andrew muttered. “She’s too far gone.”
The butt of a rifle hammered him in the gut and knocked the wind out of him. Andrew doubled over with a breathless gasp. It was lumpy-faced John who’d hit him.
“You will respect Saint Mary or else!” John thundered, with spittle flying from his lips.
Morris watched on with a smile. “I’m going to take my leave of you now. I’m needed in the pulpit.” And with that, she turned and her guards followed her. Seve
ral of them walked backwards, keeping weapons trained on them the whole way.
“Sergeant Harper?” Carrie asked, staring open-mouthed at the other woman. She was standing beside them with her hands bound behind her back.
Harper turned, revealing a swollen eye, a split lip, and a glistening gash above one cheek. “Carrie.” She tried to smile, but broke off in a wince. “Mr. Keller,” she added, nodding to him.
Another two familiar faces turned with that. It was Tony and Roland. Both of them wore glassy-eyed looks of shock.
“Tony!” Val cried, and darted over to wrap him in a hug.
Roland cracked a brittle smile. “We tried to stop them.”
“What the hell happened here?” Andrew demanded, shaking his head.
“The reverend happened,” Harper explained. “She snuck into the armory with her cultists and stole enough guns to overpower us. It was a coup. She must have been planning it for some time.”
Before any of them could respond to that, a booming voice echoed from the stage, and they turned to see Reverend Morris standing there with her hands raised high. “Welcome, everyone! Tonight, the Saints of Mary have triumphed, and evil has lost the fight!”
A scattered cheer went up from the group.
“Welcome to New Earth and the thousand-year reign of our Lord!”
Another cheer.
Morris turned and gestured to the doors of Eden Five behind her. Those doors ground open, and a solitary figure in some type of shimmering robes stepped out. Andrew’s guts clenched up. It was Lewis Hound.
Another cheer, but this time it came mingled with hushed murmurs and exclamations of shock. “It’s Hound,” Kendra whispered.
Andrew was too shocked to say anything.
Hound stepped up beside Morris and raised his hands for silence. Their robes looked like they’d been cut from thermal blankets. “Welcome, everyone!” Hound said. “I returned from Heaven, and now I am here to stay.”
“Kneel before your God!” Reverend Morris shrieked.
Maybe a third of those assembled did as she commanded. The rest stayed standing, but there were dozens of white-suited cultists arrayed around the perimeter with their rifles at the ready.
Final Days: Colony Page 30
