“No, this is only the initial phase,” Dekker explained. “Once your people are pacified and disarmed, it won’t be necessary to directly control all of them, and most of them will return to their senses. Only the law enforcement officers will remain under direct control, and even then, only while they are on duty.”
Gibson slowly shook his head. “Why show me this? Why bring me here?”
“Because there is a group of immunes who have uncovered what we are doing and found a way to stop us. You are going to help us eliminate them.”
“The fuck I will,” Gibson replied.
They came alongside a control station with four familiar-looking holograms hovering above it. Gibson scanned the faces, and his eyes widened in surprise. One of them was Bill Steele, another was Private Dekker. The other two Gibson recognized as the chef and one of the housekeepers from the Koa Kai Resort.
The Hydra sitting at that station removed one of its helmets. The free head turned to look at Gibson. It hissed and bared its teeth as it passed the device to the Hydra who wasn’t already pinning Gibson’s arms and shoulders in eight different places. That alien took the helmet in two hands and walked toward Gibson with it.
He struggled anew, trying to break free. He managed to elbow the Hydra in the gut, drawing a satisfying hiss from one of its heads. Alien hands flexed, and claws dug deeper into his arms and shoulders. Gibson bit back a scream. He refused to give them the satisfaction.
“Don’t worry,” Dekker said. “This won’t hurt.”
Gibson’s eyes darted to the remaining three holograms hovering above the control station. “You’re going to make me control one of them?”
Dekker laughed lightly. “Why would we do that? No, we just need to see inside of your head for a minute.”
The Hydra holding the helmet lowered it over Gibson’s ears and eyes, blocking out everything. The helmet smelled like sardines, and it was far too big. For a minute Gibson allowed himself to hope that meant it wouldn’t work for whatever the Hydras had planned. But then he heard a sharp shriek of metal, like a thousand swords unsheathing all at once, and needles pricked through his scalp on all sides, pinning his head inside the helmet. A rush of thoughts, memories, and images swirled through Gibson’s mind. He could have sworn he felt things crawling around inside his brain, hunting through the kaleidoscopic swirl for useful tidbits.
Dekker was right; it wasn’t painful, but the sheer speed of his racing thoughts and the invasion of privacy made his skin crawl and his stomach churn, pushing him to the edge of insanity. This time Gibson didn’t hold back. He screamed long and hard, until his voice failed and his eyes streamed with tears.
Chapter 58
“Bullshit! He’s stalling!” Don said, trying to get around Beth for a clear shot. “That’s not Gibson.”
“I swear it’s me! I can prove it. Ask me something only Gibson would know!”
“We don’t have time for this!” Don roared.
“Get in the truck,” Commander Wilde added. “Let’s go.”
“Wait,” Beth replied. “Maybe he’s telling the truth, maybe...” Beth trailed off, unable to finish that thought.
“How the hell could he be telling the truth?” Don demanded.
“Dekker and I escaped the island in one of the landers!” Bill answered. “We launched ourselves, and it took us up to their ship. We were right. They never left! They’re hovering over the ocean just North of the island. Dekker turned on me, but I... he’s dead. I found them up here. The ones controlling us. They’re all sitting in some kind of life support pods with these VR helmets on... one for each of their four fucking heads. They’re like fucking Hydras. And there are holograms of us hovering above each of their control stations. Four of us for each of them. They’re controlling us somehow! I killed one of them and tried on one of the helmets to see what would happen... and now I’m here, but I can’t get the fucking thing off! I can’t wake up!”
Beth listened to her father’s rambling explanation with growing disbelief.
“You believe any of this, Commander?” Don asked.
“No, but if by some miracle it is true, he might have valuable intel. Let’s sedate him and load him up.” Commander Wilde jumped out of the truck, and both he and Don advanced on her father with their rifles raised. Beth followed them on shaking legs.
“It’s me, I swear to God, Commander. Ask me anything!” Bill said again. “Something only I would know.”
“Fine. You asked for it,” Wilde said. “What’s your sexual orientation?”
“I don’t have one! I’m asexual!”
Don’s footsteps faltered. “Is that true?”
“It is...” Commander Wilde trailed off, sounding confused.
“And no one else knows that?” Don asked.
“Does that sound like something he’d go blabbing to his buddies?” Commander Wilde shook his head.
“So how do you know?” Don asked.
“I’m the Port Royal’s doctor. He asked me if I could prescribe something to fix it.”
Don frowned. “I don’t trust him.”
“Neither do I, but somehow that’s him. It has to be.”
“Unless he’s infected.”
“Ashley said he wasn’t,” Beth put in. “She tested his samples, remember? He’s one of the immunes, like us.”
“We’ll have to sedate him anyway,” Commander Wilde decided. “Just in case.”
“We’d better hurry,” Don added. “If my Nana led a Crawler to us, there could be infected Marines right behind them. Whoever or whatever is controlling the infected people, it’s clearly desperate to keep us from telling others what we know.”
“Agreed,” Commander Wilde said.
Beth watched them shove her father roughly back inside the cabin, knocking him over in the process. They disappeared and returned a moment later with Ashley’s bag of medical supplies. Commander Wilde crouched beside her dad to inject him with a sedative, and then the two of them picked him up and carried him out to the truck. “Open the back door,” Don panted as they drew near. “Bill’s riding with you.”
Beth nodded and put the lantern on the roof so she could pull the door open. She stepped back as they shoved her father inside, leaving him lying half on, half off the flat-topped storage compartment between the seats at the back of the Humvee.
“Get in!” Don said. Beth grabbed the lantern and jumped in next to her dad. Don slammed the door behind her and then he and the commander both climbed in the front. Commander Wilde popped his head out the window as he reversed out. The bumpy road made Beth worry about her pistol going off accidentally, so she wedged it between her seat and the compartment where her dad lay.
“Someone should man the M2,” Don said. Not waiting for permission, he climbed into the back, nearly stepping on Bill’s leg in the process.
“Watch it!” Beth snapped.
“Move him!” Don replied.
She wrestled her dad’s legs and arms out of the way, and Don stood up to grab the machine gun on the roof.
The commander turned the truck around and drove back up the rough track that led to Don’s place. As soon as they hit the dirt road, they careened down the mountain, flying over potholes and slapping through overgrown vegetation. Ashley groaned with each bump, and Beth found herself wincing in sympathy.
“Where are we going?” she asked.
“That’s a good question,” Commander Wilde said, ducking as a leaning tree branch came through the broken windshield. “We need to find the Chinese, but if they see us coming in a Humvee, they’ll shoot us before we can surrender. Nawiliwili Harbor is probably our best bet. If we can steal a private boat, we can head for Oahu, or a surviving ship, and if need be, use the boat’s radio to announce our surrender.”
“I have a boat in the harbor,” Don said, “But the Chinese are jamming the radios, remember?” Don called down from the roof.
“They might not be by then!” Wilde shouted back. “What would be the point of ja
mming after they’ve already taken out all of our ships? They’d just be hindering coordination of their own assault.”
“Unless it wasn’t them jamming the radios,” Beth said. “What if it was the aliens?”
Silence answered her question for several beats.
“She makes a good fucking point,” Don said.
“We’ll wave a white flag if we have to,” the commander replied. Either way, it’s still our best bet.”
“Copy that,” Don replied.
But Beth wasn’t so sure. They were in the middle of a war zone, and the Chinese were the enemy. What if they blew them out of the water before they ever got a chance to explain what was really going on? And even if that didn’t happen, what could they hope to do about any of it?
“What happens after we surrender?” Beth asked. “What are you hoping the Chinese will do?”
“Ideally, we convince them to fire on that spaceship with everything they’ve got. If they don’t have weapons, and the real invasion hasn’t landed yet, then this might be our only chance to stop them.”
“Fire on them with what?” Don asked. “Cannons won’t reach space, most missiles won’t either.”
“They’ll have to use ICBMs,” Commander Wilde replied.
“ICB-whats?” Beth asked.
“Nukes,” the commander clarified.
“Good luck!” Don replied. “We can’t even see them.”
“It’s a big target,” Commander Wilde replied. “And if they are hiding over the North side of the island like Gibson said—”
“We don’t know that.”
“But we have detected anomalous temperature readings there. It makes sense. The only reason no one has opened fire on them yet is that they’ve been afraid it wouldn’t do anything—and scared of reprisals. But now that we know what they’re planning, and containment is breached, what do we have to lose? Hell, if I had a line to Washington, I’d tell them, too. For all we know, it’s going to take a joint effort to bring those fuckers down.”
Nuclear weapons... Beth frowned and bit her lower lip. That sounded like a dangerous plan to her. What about fallout?
Up ahead the road forked, but the left side looked like a path for horses. “Go left!” Don called down.
“You sure?” the commander asked.
“Yes!”
Commander Wilde turned left, spitting dirt and gravel, and Beth slammed into her door.
“We took the right side on the way up,” Don explained. “It’s the only path my grandmother knows! If anyone’s on their way to cut us off, they’ll be waiting down there.”
Commander Wilde had to hit the brakes to stop them from careening out of control into the trees. Leaves and branches scraping the sides of the Humvee were a constant roar in Beth’s ears.
“Where’s this road come out?” Ashley asked from the back in a tense voice.
Beth was relieved to hear from her.
“On the outskirts of Lihue,” Don said. “It takes us around Route 50, which should help us avoid any roadblocks that might be set up on the highway.”
“That’s a vague answer,” Ashley said.
“What?” Don shouted back. “I can’t hear you!”
Beth relayed what Ashley had said.
“We’ll come out at the end of Route 50, right next to the Fire Prevention Bureau. From there it’s a straight shot down Rice Street to the harbor.”
“Good!” Ashley replied just as they flew through another pothole. “Because I’m not sure how much more of this I can take.”
It took almost forty minutes to reach the end of the winding dirt trail, but as it left the mountains, it joined a wider, less bumpy dirt road that wound through the sugar plantations outside Lihue.
As they came within sight of the town, Beth saw a mysterious orange glow on the horizon. Power still hadn’t returned to the island, as evidenced by the lack of light streaming from the windows of farmhouses and rural homes that they drove past.
“The town’s on fire,” Commander Wilde explained as they reached the end of the dirt road. A frozen, messy knot of traffic blocked the paved street in front of them, but those cars weren’t moving, and most of their lights were off. A few with their headlights on were abandoned, their doors standing open and hazard lights blinking. People walked around aimlessly, staring up at the distant, muted flashes of explosions in the sky.
“Shit,” Commander Wilde muttered. “We can’t get through this.”
“Hang on, I think I see a path,” Don said. “But we’ll have to push through.”
“Push through?” Beth asked.
“There, between the Black Corolla and the Silver Hilux!” Don said.
The commander slowly joined the road, aiming for a gap between two vehicles. It wasn’t nearly wide enough for them to get by, but he just kept going.
“Slow down!” Beth screamed.
They hit, and she slammed into her seatbelt. Glass shattered, tires squealed, and then they punched through. One lane of Rice Street looked clear as far as Beth could see, with vehicles pushed or driven up onto the sidewalk to get them out of the way.
“Looks like someone cleared a path for emergency traffic,” Wilde said. “Lucky us.” They drove around a corner, and then he added, “We’ve got another obstacle up ahead.”
He slowed down and Beth saw an overturned pickup lying in the road. They rolled to a stop in front of it.
“Looks like there’s space on the sidewalk to go around,” Don called down from the roof.
“Yeah... maybe,” Commander Wilde agreed. “We can always nudge it a bit if not.”
Beth watched as he drove up onto the sidewalk to go around the pickup. Going over the curb rocked the vehicle from side to side and Ashley moaned. Commander Wilde slowed to a crawl as they approached the gap between the overturned truck and the adjacent buildings.
Beth peered out her window into dark, broken storefronts. She made out several huddled, hazy shapes inside of a coffee shop. People hiding from the conflict? she wondered.
“It’s gonna be close,” Don said.
“Uhh... guys!” Beth said, her voice rising precipitously as the shadows came creeping toward the moonlit sidewalk. A second later they resolved into pale, four-legged things with four arms and four glinting black eyes.
“What?” Commander Wilde snapped.
“Crawlers!” Beth cried.
Chapter 59
Three Crawlers leapt through the broken windows of the coffee shop. Beth screamed and scrambled to recover her pistol from between her seat and the storage compartment. A Crawler slammed into Beth’s window, starring it with cracks. She tried to shoot it through the glass, but the trigger wouldn’t budge. The safety was still on.
“Shit!” Beth screamed.
A few rounds thumped out from the turret on the roof, but then Don cried out in pain and fell inside the vehicle.
A third Crawler landed on the hood and took a swipe at Commander Wilde, even as he brought his rifle to bear. Bullets rattled out, striking the alien in multiple places and drawing agonized screams from its lips.
Don leaned over the passenger’s seat to get his rifle from where he’d left it on the floor, but two long, translucent arms reached in and forced him back. Another pair of arms shot through the broken window on the other side to get at Commander Wilde. He screamed and fired a steady stream of bullets at the Crawler. Then the one on the roof reached down the hatch and raked claws over Don’s side. He cried out, and Beth flicked off the safety on her gun. She pulled the trigger again and again, firing at point blank range. The monster squealed but didn’t retreat. Commander Wilde twisted around to look just in time for a flailing arm to slice his throat open.
Blood bubbled down his neck and out between his lips. Beth screamed, firing again and again, aiming for the head. At last, the Crawler subsided with a sigh, kicking her spasmodically in the thigh as it did so. Beth pressed her gun against the side of its head and shot it once more for good measure. Don struggled to r
ise under yet another alien corpse and grabbed the commander’s rifle. He opened fire just as the Crawler on the hood came through. A short burst rattled through the monster’s head and it fell off the Humvee with a loud thump.
“Fuck!” Don screamed as he crawled the rest of the way out from under the dead alien and climbed into the passenger’s seat. “How many were there?” he asked, eyes darting in the sudden silence.
“I...” Beth cast back, thinking fast. “Three.”
“We only killed two. There’s another one out there somewhere.”
Beth stared hard out the windows, blinking wide eyes into the night, but the missing Crawler didn’t return.
“Must have run off,” Don concluded. Glancing at Commander Wilde’s dead eyes, he shook his head and then reached down to retrieve his rifle. He passed it back to Beth. “Here.”
“What am I supposed to do with that?” she asked.
“What do you think? Take it! Two hands. It’s already loaded and set to single-fire, so you shouldn’t have a problem controlling it. All you have to do is turn off the safety when you’re ready to fire. Got it?”
Beth grabbed the rifle in shaking hands. It felt heavy. “I think so,” she said.
“Good. Because I need someone to cover me while I drive.”
With that, Don leaned over the commander’s lap, opened his door, and pushed him out. He fell with a sickening thud.
“You can’t just dump him like garbage!” Beth said.
“If you want to stick around for the service you’re going to have to join him in the casket. That fucker is still out there somewhere.” Don pulled the door shut and hopped into the driver’s seat. Beth leaned over to open the far door and push the dead alien out. It was surprisingly heavy, but she managed to shove it off the seat.
“Close the door!” Don snapped.
Beth did, and the Humvee jack-rabbited forward as Don hit the gas. They scraped through the gap between the coffee shop and the overturned truck, knocking off their right side mirror in the process.
“Open road,” Don crowed as they emerged on the other side with no more obstacles in sight. “I wonder where all the damn Chinese went?”
Under Darkness (A Sci-Fi Thriller) (Scott Standalones Book 1) Page 23
