Under Darkness (A Sci-Fi Thriller) (Scott Standalones Book 1)

by Jasper T. Scott

  Bill dug in his heels, skidding to a stop just behind the truck, his heart jackhammering in his chest. “Where is he?”

  Beth’s phone came up again, and Bill saw a shadow poking out just above the top of a headrest. Something was sitting behind the wheel of the truck.

  “He’s right there,” Beth said, pointing at the pick-up.

  The driver’s side door swung shut with a noisy bang, and Bill snapped out of it. His fears were getting the best of him. He hoped his momentary hesitation hadn’t been enough to get them killed. “Go!” he pushed Beth ahead of him between the truck and an adjacent car.

  She yanked the door open, and he waited through agonizing seconds as she climbed in. Hairs rose on the back of his neck, imaginary hands raking fire through him. Casting a quick look over his shoulder, Bill stared hard into the darkness behind him, but saw nothing. Then something touched him, and he jumped and spun around.

  Beth waved urgently and said, “Get in!”

  Bill squeezed into the cab of the truck, all but crushing his daughter in the process. She slid over and Bill slammed the door shut behind them. Glancing at the Cubs fan, Bill frowned at him in the gloomy interior of the car.

  “Don!” Beth’s phone light flicked up to his face, making him wince from the glare. “Sorry,” she added and quickly angled it down.

  They both saw the slack-jawed horror lurking under Don’s beard.

  “What’s wrong?” Bill asked.

  Keys jangled in the ignition, but nothing happened. Don grimaced and shook his head. “We’re fucked, that’s what’s wrong! My truck won’t start.”

  “You’ve got to be kidding me,” Bill muttered, suddenly wishing he’d gone for his Cadillac after all. “All right. It’s okay. We’ll head for my car. It’s just around the corner.” Bill’s fingers grazed the door handle, but a firm hand seized his other arm and stopped him before he could open his door.

  “Hang on,” Don whispered. “I replaced the battery three months ago, and the alternator’s brand-new.”

  “So? Maybe your plugs are dirty.”

  “The engine doesn’t even turn over,” Don replied. “If spark plugs were the issue, you’d still hear something when I turn the key. This is something else.”

  “Like what?” Bill demanded.

  “The whole damn island is dark. Something took out the power everywhere, all at once. An EMP strike would do it. Look—” Don pointed out the darkened side windows of the truck, and then twisted around to look out the back window.

  “Look at what?” Bill asked.

  “That tourist hasn’t been able to start his vehicle yet either. If he had, we’d be able to see the lights.”

  “Maybe he’s parked out of sight,” Bill said.

  “Bull. You can make a run for your car if you want, but it’s not gonna start either.”

  “So how are cell phones working?” Bill asked.

  “Better insulated. The theory goes that they might survive an EMP if they’re under a concrete or metal roof and not connected to the grid via a charger. These cars were outside when it hit, so they’re fried.”

  “Then what are we going to do?” Bill demanded.

  “Head back inside,” Don replied.

  “Hang on—” Bill said.

  But Don was already pushing his door open. “Longer we wait, worse our chances get,” he whispered.

  And as if to punctuate that concern, a medley of terrified screams and raised voices came drifting in with the fragrant Hawaiian air.

  Chapter 17

  “You two get back to the lobby!” Don yelled as he jumped out of the truck.

  “The lobby?” Beth asked, her heart spiking sharply with that suggestion. One of those aliens was out there!

  “Wait! Where are you going?” Beth’s dad called after him.

  “To help!”

  He left the truck door open. Beth watched him recede into the shadowy parking lot, the beam of her phone’s flashlight shaking with her hand.

  “We’d better get out,” her dad said.

  “Maybe we should stay...” Beth replied.

  Her dad glanced at her and shook his head. “They’re distracted right now. This might be the only chance we have. Ready?”

  Beth breathed a shaky sigh. “Ready.”

  Her dad yanked their door open and jumped out. Beth was right behind him.

  Raised, screaming voices drew their attention for precious seconds. They saw a flashlight bobbing, then heard a loud voice—Don’s. “Let him go!” Followed by gunshots.

  “Run!” Beth’s dad whispered sharply in her ear. She lurched into motion, sprinting across the parking lot to the front entrance of the resort.

  * * *

  “Let him go!” Don aimed with both hands, using the back of the hand holding the flashlight to steady his gun. He pulled the trigger twice in quick succession. The bullets hit with meaty thwups, and one of the two translucent nine-foot-tall monsters squealed and turned its head. Jagged, glass-like teeth yawned open in a jack-o-lantern grin, and a roar split the air. Both aliens stood on their hind legs, holding James aloft between them, while the big man with his tree-trunk arms and hammer fists struggled and kicked, screaming himself hoarse. His wife and children looked on from the minivan, their faces plastered to the windows, screaming their lungs out, too, while Eric lay on the asphalt with his guts coiled around him like snakes.

  Don grimaced and shivered as a cold sweat prickled his skin. His head swam, and his hands began to shake. No. Not now.

  His mind did a sharp one-eighty, veering off into the past. Blackened bodies hung out of a barbecued Humvee. The staring, empty black eyes of his buddies. Bullets crunched into the gravel around Don, zipping through the air with whistling sounds. The corporal screamed at him for help, but there was nothing Don could do; he was pinned down.

  “Hang on, Peter!” Don screamed, and came back to the present with the sound of his own voice. He was back, lying flat on the asphalt, gasping for air and staring up at a starless black sky. His hands scrabbled around for his gun and flashlight. He found the light, but not the gun. Swinging the beam up, a translucent creature with jagged glass teeth appeared standing over him.

  “Shit!” Don screamed. “Fuck off!” He struggled to get up, but dexterous limbs folded swiftly out and pinned him down. Sharp claws poked through his skin as if it were paper. White-hot pain coursed through him in four different places. He struggled to keep his grip on the flashlight, twisting his wrist to keep the alien in sight. He was determined to see his fate coming.

  A hoof-like foot came at his face. The ringed, spongy white pad at the end opened wide, revealing a ribbed throat.

  Don struggled, and claws dug deeper into his thighs and biceps. His whole body shook with adrenaline. After surviving two tours in the hellhole that was Afghanistan, this couldn’t be how he died.

  Chapter 18

  Just as Bill reached the open doors of the lobby with his daughter, Don’s screaming yanked his head around. The flashlight Don had been holding was lying on the asphalt in a shallow cone of light.

  “Damn it,” he muttered. “I have to go help them.”

  “You can’t!” Beth whispered sharply.

  “He saved my life. I have to try. Here—” He handed her his keys. “—go to the storeroom and lock yourself in.”

  “But what if one of those things finds me?”

  “Go!”

  Not waiting for a reply, Bill took off at a run. Sprinting in utter darkness, he stumbled through a planter box and nearly tripped. Sharp leaves scraped his legs.

  “Hey!” Bill called out as he saw Don’s flashlight flick up and cast the alien standing over him in a harsh, glaring light. One of the creature’s hoof-mouths moved toward Don’s face, just like it had done with him. Bill didn’t hear or see Don’s gun, which probably meant he’d lost it when that creature knocked him over. Bill cursed under his breath as he realized that he didn’t have a flashlight to look for the weapon.

  Runni
ng straight up to the alien, he kicked it in its gaping hoof-mouth. It squealed and withdrew sharply, rearing back. Don screamed as the alien’s claws bit deeper into his flesh. His flashlight wavered, and a gleaming black object appeared, just to his right.

  Bill dived for it, narrowly missing a swipe from one of the alien’s arms. He landed hard, knocking the wind out of himself and bruising his elbows. But his hands grazed Bill’s gun. He seized it and rolled over just in time to see four alien arms reaching for him. Don’s light illuminated the monster’s jagged-toothed head and squinting black eyes. Bill fired directly between its teeth, blowing one of them out with a spray of foul-smelling splinters. The beast screeched deafeningly and thrashed, narrowly missing Bill’s head with one of its forelegs. Bill pulled the trigger again, and this time the bullet hit an eye. The alien abruptly stopped screeching and fell on top of Don with a thud. At that, the second alien whirled around. Bill couldn’t see it, but a loud, stuttering roar bellowed out of its mouth, giving Bill some idea about its location. The sound made Bill’s teeth ache, and his eardrums pound painfully. He had to resist the urge to clap his hands over his ears. Instead, he took aim.

  “Wait!” Don said.

  Too late. Bill pulled the trigger twice in the direction of the roaring—Bang! Bang! The alien squealed, and then a human screamed.

  “Fuck!” James said. “You fucking shot me!”

  Bill went cold. His hands grew numb, and he almost dropped the gun. Galloping feet and skittering claws retreated, and the alien’s screams faded swiftly into the distance.

  “Help me get it off!” Don grunted.

  Bill dropped to his haunches, set down the gun, and planted both his hands on the slick, slippery skin of the alien he’d killed. The sensation and smell were revolting. Bill heaved, and using his legs and back for extra leverage, rolled the creature away. Small as it was when crouching on all fours, it must have weighed at least three hundred pounds.

  As the sound of galloping feet faded, the minivan door slid open and a pair of sobbing children spilled out. Don’s flashlight made them squint and revealed their mother climbing out behind them.

  James got up, clutching a bloody bicep. At least the bullet hadn’t hit somewhere more critical.

  “Thanks for the save,” Don said and squeezed Bill’s injured shoulder painfully hard. “You can give me the gun now.”

  Bill bit his tongue against the pain and gave up the weapon without complaint.

  “Where’s your daughter?”

  “I sent her to the storeroom and told her to lock herself in.” A stab of dread dragged his head around to the gaping front entrance of his resort, but he couldn’t see anything through the shadows.

  “Big enough for all of us?” Don asked.

  “No.” Bill shook his head. “Two at most.”

  “Then we’ll have to barricade ourselves in somewhere else,” Don said.

  Turning back the other way, Bill saw James was locked in the middle of a group hug. Don’s flashlight revealed four bleeding welts on his face.

  “We’re too exposed out here,” Don said. “Better move out before that thing crawls inside to wait for us.”

  Bill nodded quickly. “Lead the way.”

  Chapter 19

  “That’s it, all the doors are sealed,” Bill said as he finished sliding a broken table leg through the silver handles on the swinging doors to the restaurant. They’d forced the sliding glass doors at the front entrance shut as soon as they got in, followed by the ones leading out to the pool. Hopefully the aliens weren’t smart enough to pry the doors open again.

  “Are you sure?” Don asked.

  He began nodding, even as he ran mentally through his resort to double-check.

  “What about a back door?”

  “There’s only one. In the kitchen.”

  “And?” Don asked, sweeping his flashlight in that direction to reveal James’ waxy, blood-smeared face. He sat with his back to the wall beside the kitchen door. He had one of his kids under each arm while his wife stood beside them, her eyes wide and darting. The bullet-wound in James’ arm had been bandaged with Don’s bloody gray shirt, leaving the old veteran shirtless and showing off a carpet of blond hair on his chest and belly that matched his beard.

  Bill shook his head. “We can’t lock the back door without the keys. Same as the sliding doors.”

  “So where are the keys?” Don asked.

  “I gave them to Beth, but Eric had a spare set.”

  Don’s flashlight swept back around, blinding Bill with its glare. “You might have mentioned that while we were out there with him.”

  “We were in a hurry. It didn’t occur to me.”

  Don let out a noisy sigh. “Well, shit. Who wants to go out and get them?”

  “I can’t,” James said weakly.

  “N-not me,” his wife, Kayla added.

  “Guess it’s down to us, then, Billy-bob,” Don said. “Should we draw straws or just measure our dicks?”

  Bill scowled at the other man’s sarcasm. Don’s gratitude for saving his life had obviously run dry already. But they were one for one, so that was probably fair. “It’s my fault; I’ll do it,” Bill said. “Besides, Beth should be with us.” Bill made a gimme gesture. “I’m going to need your gun and flashlight.”

  Don chuckled darkly. “And leave me defenseless? I don’t think so, Billy-bob.”

  “I can’t go out there empty-handed!” Bill replied, exasperated by the man’s sudden attitude. “And if I don’t go and get those keys, none of you will be safe in here.”

  “He makes a good point,” James whispered.

  “Looks like we’re going out together, then,” Don said.

  “Wait, that’s not what I—”

  “Doesn’t matter what you meant,” Don replied. “The choice is between going out with a gun and a flashlight or sitting in here, defenseless in the dark. It doesn’t take a genius to figure which is better. Let’s go, Billy.”

  “It’s Bill.”

  A firm hand landed on his shoulder, making him wince. Don turned him toward the doors they’d just finished blocking with a table leg and said, “Sure thing, Bob.”

  Chapter 20

  “Wait,” Don said before Bill could pull out the table leg blocking the doors. He ejected his magazine and checked the back. There was a golden bullet at the top, but the three holes in the back of the magazine were black and empty.

  “How many bullets?” Bill asked.

  “Less than five.” Don slid the magazine back in with a click. “Three rounds left if my count is right. I personally put at least three bullets in each of them but it seems like you’ve got to hit them in the eyes to make it a kill shot. You got damn lucky with that.”

  “Yeah,” Bill agreed.

  “Which way to the storage room?” Don asked.

  “To the right and continue straight until you reach the end of the lanai. There’s an unmarked brown metal door.”

  “Sounds simple enough.” Don nodded, and Bill pulled the table leg out, passing it to James’ shell-shocked wife.

  “Stay close,” Don said as he pushed one of the doors open.

  Bill followed him out. He heard the wooden table leg thunking against the doors as Kayla barred them again.

  Don took long strides, weaving between overturned chairs and tables in the restaurant’s outdoor dining area. Bill kept pace with him, unable to see anything beyond the narrow, sweeping cone of light that Don held in his hand. A metal railing ran around the lanai, with a gap leading to paved walkway under the eaves of the main building. At the end of that walkway lay the matte brown door of the storage room.

  “Almost there,” Bill whispered.

  Galloping feet sounded from the direction of the pool, approaching fast.

  “Damn it,” Don muttered. “Pick up the pace!” They reached the door, and Bill thumped on it with both fists. “Beth! It’s us! Let us in!”

  “Dad?”

  The galloping sound stopped, an
d a thunderous roar stuttered out.

  “Too late!” Don cried.

  Bill whirled around to see a familiar alien rearing up on hind legs just behind them. Its arms folded out, reaching for Don. He aimed and fired.

  Bang!

  The first shot hit a shoulder. The alien cried out and wrapped two arms around Don, lifting him into the air.

  Bang!

  The second shot blasted foul-smelling splinters out of its teeth.

  Bang!

  The third missed.

  “I’m out!” Don screamed and dropped his gun with a metallic clatter.

  Bill watched helplessly as Don was hoisted high into the air.

  “Run, damn it!” Don said as one of those hoof-mouths dilated open and angled toward his face.

  The alien let out another stuttering roar. It was almost enough to drown out the steady, galloping thunder of heavy boots thumping on grass.

  The creature’s head turned toward the sound, and it trilled querulously. Bill’s eyes widened, and he backed away, into the corner formed between the main building and the storeroom. Dark shapes flickered in the moonlight, streaking between shadowy clumps of vegetation. They ran past the pool, approaching fast.

  Terrified and defenseless, all Bill could do was watch.

  Then the footsteps stopped, and a human voice sounded out.

  “Weapons free!”

  Boop! Boop! The hollow sounds of grenade launchers firing filled the air, and then electric blue fire crackled and sparked, coursing over both the alien and Don. The alien squealed and dropped Don. He cried out and lay twitching on the pavement.

  Shotguns boomed, and more electricity flared, tracing the monstrous outline of the alien. It collapsed, shrieking and screaming, limbs thrashing spasmodically.

  Footsteps thundered, and lights snapped on, blinding Bill. A pair of dark, human shapes stood over the translucent monster, studying it. “Holy shit,” one of them said. “Net it!” the other replied. Two more Ms appeared, one of them holding a massive weapon. He fired, and a black net flared out over the fallen creature, pinning it in place. The alien responded by struggling to rise, but that only tangled it further. It thrashed, squealing and screaming against the net and the lingering blue crackles of whatever stun weapons the soldiers had shot it with.