The Blood Will Dry

by Mary, Kate L.

  “The aliens?” I asked, dumbfounded.

  If the bugs made it halfway here that meant the bastards had come within seven miles of us. They’d never ventured this deep into the city and we hadn’t seen them more than two miles from their hive in three years.

  “Yeah,” Tyler managed to get out just as another cough ripped its way from him. Blood sprayed from between his lips and a second later his eyes rolled back. Daisy let out a scream as he dropped to the ground.

  “Medic!” I yelled, dropping down next to Tyler.

  He was still breathing but it was deep and labored. Depending on what he inhaled out there and how much, he could be in real trouble.

  The medical team showed up, Alex among them, and I was shoved aside. Daisy wasn’t pushed away so easily. She held her ground and refused to step more than a foot back while they worked on Tyler.

  I couldn’t stay where I was, though. All I could think about was Bryan and how he had been with this group only a few hours ago. Where was he now? Hurt? Dead? What could I do to find out? Nothing. I had no idea where they’d stopped for the night and I hadn’t been further than the perimeter of our settlement in years. My only knowledge of what the outside was like came from my trips to the roof and the stories the platoons told when they came in.

  I went outside anyway, barely stopping in the supply room to grab one of the guns they were passing out. Tania yelled something at me, but I ignored her. I wasn’t going to steal the gun and she knew it.

  Outside the rain was heavier than it had been in days, a steady downpour that had reduced visibility to no more than twenty feet. I’d forgotten a poncho in my hurry to get outside and found myself soaked through in seconds, but I barely noticed. I was too focused on the street in front of me. I couldn’t even say why, but I felt certain Bryan would show up at any moment, probably with a few more members of his platoon who had also gotten separated.

  I didn’t know how much time had passed, but it was long enough that by the time Anderson came out to find me I was shivering.

  “Foster,” he called over the pounding rain. “You need to get inside and get dry.” I started to shake my head, but he stopped me with a glare. “You know we don’t have a lot of antibiotics left. Do you really want to put yourself in a position where you take medicine from someone who might need it down the road?”

  I didn’t and he knew it.

  “Fine,” I called.

  I hugged myself, trying to stop the tremors that were moving through me. The cold steel of the gun in my arm was shockingly icy against my bare arms. I’d forgotten I had it.

  Anderson stared me down as he waited for me to get moving. When I didn’t he said, “We have people on watch. Get some dry clothes on and if we see him we’ll come get you.”

  I nodded even as I found myself wondering when everyone had learned so much about my business. Bryan and I had barely been together in public, but somehow Anderson knew who I was waiting for. Of course, I had no doubt in my mind that Alvarez had relayed the shower incident to anyone who would listen.

  “I’ll be right inside,” I called as I headed for the door.

  “We’re not going to forget about you,” Anderson muttered in response.

  Things inside were still chaotic, but not nearly as loud as they’d been when I went out. I stopped by the armory to return the gun I’d gotten and got an earful from Tania. Not that I really heard any of it. I was too busy thinking about getting some dry clothes on so I could get back down to the lobby. I wanted to be here when Bryan got back, because I knew he would. I had a feeling that I couldn’t put a name to. I knew it didn’t make a whole lot of sense, but it was there and I couldn’t shake it. Instinct maybe, or something close to it, but my gut told me that Bryan was alive.

  The stairwell was nearly empty and I figured everyone was either hiding in their rooms or down in the lobby waiting to find out if we were going to be attacked. I stumbled through the darkness, barely making it to my room without falling. Once there I stripped down to nothing and tossed my soaking wet clothes into a corner. I’d worry about them later. Right now I wanted to get dressed and back to the first floor.

  While I pulled on a pair of dry pants I thought about what everyone had said about the hive and how the bugs had swarmed. I shuddered just thinking about them as I made my way back through the maze of halls on the third floor and to the stairwell. The bugs gave me the creeps.

  Just like everyone else I’d been hoping that after all this time they’d decided to leave us alone. I didn’t want them here, not in the city. It was bad enough that they’d killed everyone I loved and changed my world into something I didn’t recognize. Couldn’t they just live in their damn hive and leave us alone?

  Once I was back on the first floor I had to stop myself from going back outside. It wasn’t easy, but since I was still shivering from being soaked I managed to rein myself in. I got some coffee in hopes of warming myself up, which was little more than light brown water that was bitter enough to make my lips pucker. I drank it all anyway, standing in the middle of the lobby, staring at the door like I expected it to burst open at any moment so Bryan could come stumbling in.

  Only it didn’t go down exactly like I thought it would. I spent a good hour pacing the lobby before giving up and heading back to the armory. Tania glared when I walked in, but I waved her off and asked for a poncho instead of a gun. I couldn’t stay here any longer but I knew I’d be useless on patrol.

  “You want a weapon too?” she asked as I pulled the thin plastic over my head.

  “No.” I paused before shaking my head. “Yeah. I should take it in case they show up.”

  She nodded, but she didn’t meet my gaze as she handed the M9 over. I knew why, we both knew that if the bugs came this gun would be about as helpful as a slingshot.

  “Careful out there,” she said as I turned away.

  “I’ll do my best,” I replied.

  I attached the gun to my hip and headed out into the rain. It hadn’t eased, and through the streams of water falling from the sky I could barely make out Anderson’s stocky frame. He was a couple blocks down with someone much bigger and broader at his side, but I couldn’t tell who it was from this vantage point so I jogged over to join them. When I got closer I saw that it was Alvarez, and the two men turned when I walked up.

  Anderson shot me a glare, which was barely visible from underneath his hood. “Thought I told you to go inside,” he barked.

  “I did. And now I’m back.” I turned my gaze to the other man. “Who’s guarding the shower?”

  “I’ve got Applegate on it,” he said, and then turned back to face the street. “I wanted to see what was going on out here.”

  “Nothing. As usual.” Anderson had to raise his voice to be heard over the pounding rain. “I think we might be overreacting. These things have never come to the city before, so what makes anyone think they will now?”

  “Because they attacked the militia seven miles from the hive,” I said. “They’ve never done that before either. Even in the beginning they only attacked to defend themselves.”

  Anderson shook his head, but he didn’t have a response and I knew he had the same doubts that everyone else did.

  “Well, whatever happens I need to be rested up for it.” Alvarez slapped Anderson on the back. “You know where to find me if you need some muscle.”

  “Get some sleep,” the sergeant replied. “We’ll be okay.”

  Alvarez nodded as he headed back to the building, but he’d only taken one step before he paused and put his hand on my shoulder. “He’ll be okay.”

  “Just because you saw us together in the shower doesn’t mean you know what’s going on with me,” I snapped.

  “Don’t I?” Alvarez replied, giving me a knowing look.

  “Daisy has a big mouth.”

  He laughed. “And she loves to run it.”

  He patted my shoulder one more time before leaving Anderson and me alone in the rain. The drops were big a
nd fat and pounded against the hood of my poncho, making conversation difficult. Not that it mattered. I wasn’t interested in having a heart to heart and I knew Anderson wasn’t either.

  “I’m going to do a lap,” he said after a few minutes.

  “I’ll be here,” I replied, my eyes still on the street in front of me.

  It didn’t take long for the warmth from the rain to make me sweat, but just like always that didn’t stop goose bumps from popping up on my arms. I hated this new atmosphere. Before we’d had warm and cold, summer and winter, but now everything was a mixture of what it had been before and there was no relief from it. Ever. We hadn’t seen snow since the winter before the aliens came and I had a feeling it would never show up again. Whatever these assholes had done to change our climate, they’d done a thorough job of it.

  I could tell the sun was setting behind the thick clouds because it grew darker and darker until I could barely see. That’s why when a figure finally made its way through the pounding rain, I had a hard time convincing myself that it was really there. I squinted and took a step forward, but I still wasn’t sure. Not until he was only a block away.

  “Bryan!” I called, running forward.

  Anderson was still doing a lap, probably a block or two over, leaving it to me to get Bryan in out of the rain. He was barely on his feet when I reached him. There was a gash in his arm and when he draped his arm around my shoulder he was shivering from the rain that had soaked through his clothes. I was shocked by how much he had to lean on me for support.

  “Are you okay?” I called over the pouring rain.

  Bryan nodded, but it didn’t look convincing because his face was scrunched up in pain and he was holding his side. Through the cracks between his fingers I could see red dotting his skin and I knew he was injured there as well as on his arm.

  “Hold on!” I called.

  I had to put all my strength into it, but even then I wasn’t sure if we would make it inside. The rain was really coming down and above us the sky was growing darker by the second. The vines that grew out of the crater at the end of the street had spread further, now blotting out more of the asphalt. The tree I’d passed just a few days ago on my patrol was now so engulfed in the foliage that not a single branch was visible anymore.

  They were coming.

  I gripped Bryan tighter and moved, grunting under the pressure of his body against mine. He groaned, but walked with me, putting more energy into it than he should have been able to expend.

  We made it through the door before collapsing. Bryan landed half on top of me but I could tell he was too worn out to move. I pushed him off as people hurried toward us, twisting so I was able to get a good look at his injuries. The cut on his arm was deep and would need stitches, but he should be okay. I pushed away the hand he had pressed to his side so I could pull his shirt up and inspect that one as well. It wasn’t very deep at all but it was long, stretching the entire length of his side.

  “Bryan.” His eyes were closed, so I grabbed his chin and shook his head to get him to wake up.

  He groaned but his eyes didn’t open.

  “Bryan,” I said again.

  This time, his eyes fluttered open. “Diana.”

  “Are you okay? What happened?”

  When he shook his head his entire face scrunched up in pain. “Yeah. Shrapnel from the explosion got my arm.” He sucked in a deep breath. “Broken glass got my side when the aliens attacked us last night.”

  Medics pushed their way past me, but just like Daisy earlier I stayed close. I watched as they checked him over and cleaned the wound on his arm. Just like I’d thought, it was going to need stitches, but the one on his side was superficial.

  “What happened out there?” I asked Bryan.

  “They—” He blew air out from between his teeth when the medic pierced his skin with the needle. “I think they were breeding. I think that’s why they were down for so long and why they reacted so badly yesterday. When we blew the wall, they came out in droves, but I was able to get a look inside. There were small ones in there, Diana. Babies.”

  A chill shot through me. That meant there were more of them. Even worse, we had threatened their young. They could be on their way here for revenge.

  The icy shudder that chilled my body was quickly replaced by anger. If these idiot soldiers had just listened to those of us in the settlement we wouldn’t be in this situation right now. We said to leave the bugs alone. We said that if we just lived our lives and ignored them they would let us be. But the soldiers couldn’t do that. They had to push and push until something like this happened, and now everything might be at stake.

  I said as much to Bryan, spitting the words out so vehemently that the medic froze in the middle of stitching him up.

  “No.” Bryan shook his head. “I think we may have triggered things early, but no matter how we look at it, these things weren’t going to leave us alone.” He pushed himself up, much to the medic’s dismay, and held my gaze. “There were bodies in there. Human bodies. They were—” He paused and swallowed. “Hollowed out. Their entire midsections were ripped open. They were attached to the walls, the smaller vines tangled around them. Their mouths were open and a vine I’d never seen before, one that was red instead of green, went down their throats. It was like the aliens had brought them there and hooked them up to these plants so they could house their young. Like they had been used as incubators for the babies.”

  This time when the medic froze, I was right there with him.

  Human incubators? I thought about the people who had died during the initial blasts, and then those who were killed off by the dangerous plants that took over our planet. I’d always thought the remaining population was small, smaller than it should have been, and now I knew why. They’d taken some of the survivors in the beginning, had used them to continue their race.

  “No,” I whispered even though I knew it had to be true. Bryan had seen it with his own eyes. He wouldn’t lie about this.

  His gaze stayed locked with mine. “No matter what we did, they eventually would have come for more warm bodies.”

  Once Bryan was stitched up, I helped him to my room on the third floor so he could get some rest. He was exhausted more than hurt. He’d barely slept and had dragged himself through hostile country to get back to our settlement. Not to mention the fact that he’d used up a lot of energy trying to get a couple of his platoon buddies back with him. In the end, he hadn’t been able to do anything to save them, something he was still questioning, but I knew he’d done what he could.

  As worried as I’d been when Bryan didn’t show up with the others, I now had other concerns on my mind. The aliens were a bigger and much different problem than we’d originally thought. If they really were using humans as incubators for their young, it made sense why they’d been so secretive when they first arrived. It also explained why they’d let us get so comfortable. We’d let our guard down. Assumed that we were safe as long as we stayed away from their hive, but now we knew that wasn’t true and we had the platoon to thank for that. Most of them had lost their lives, but they very well might have saved the rest of us. Assuming we could figure out what to do to stop the aliens. Of course, that was another concern altogether.

  Anderson had been right on the money when he’d called the aliens ghosts, because that’s how it had felt in those early days. Like we were fighting ghosts. They’d showed up and destroyed our planet without so much as a hello, and not only had we been caught off guard, but once the initial shock had worn off, we’d had nothing to even point our guns at. Taking the fight to them had failed, and so we’d set up camp and waited outside the hive, thinking they would eventually show.

  I remembered those days. How I’d felt like a soggy mess of emotions as I’d huddled under a shelter made out of tarps that barely kept the rain out. It had felt like I’d been transported to a tropical rainforest as our atmosphere swiftly morphed into one that suited the creatures that now ruled our plane
t. I’d pictured the short, thin aliens of Roswell fame, the ones that were bald and black, soulless eyes. I imagined the terrifying creatures that James Cameron had brought to life in his Alien movies, the one that had jaws that could extend out of their mouths and snap at their enemies. Then the image would shift to one of the many species represented in Star Wars. None of the images my mind conjured up lasted more than an hour, because I had too many pictures to choose from. Too many minds of the past had worked to imagine what this moment would be like, making it impossible for me to create my own image of what these things would look like. By the time I finally spotted one of the bugs, my brain was so full of ideas that I couldn’t find a way to categorize the one presented to me in reality.

  At this point it had been years since I’d seen any of the ugly bastards up close, but I could still picture them perfectly. They looked like giant bugs, although not like any of the ones I’d ever seen in my eighteen years before the aliens came. A black, shiny exoskeleton covered their entire body and six legs protruded from it, each one of them ending in a razor sharp claw. The claws were long, twelve inches at least, and they clicked against the ground when the creatures scurried across the pavement. They had wings on their backs that were so translucent they looked paper thin, and three oval eyes lined up on their faces that were as smooth and black as onyx. Their bodies were short and round, but their oval heads seemed impossibly large considering how narrow their long necks were, and they had jaws that opened wide to reveal teeth as sharp as their claws.

  Their hive had been impenetrable for so long that when we’d finally started seeing the little bastards outside we thought we were actually going to get the chance to put up a fight. Only the creatures had been as protected as their homes were. Their exoskeleton was like armor and seemingly bullet proof. We’d fired and fired, but our bullets had merely pinged off their backs. Even worse, they were like chameleons. One moment they’d be right in front of me and a second later gone, their skin changing color and blending in until it was impossible to see them unless they wanted to be seen. They climbed trees with ease, digging their claws into the very same trunks we had been unable to penetrate. They pulled themselves up into the branches so fast that they almost looked like they were flying, only they didn’t, because the wings on their backs didn’t seem to have anything to do with flying. It had taken us awhile to figure out what they were for since we’d never once seen one of the creatures fly into the air, but it was finally determined that they must have been for communication. When several of the things were in the same area they would flap their wings faster than a hummingbird, emitting buzzing sounds that rose and dropped in pitch just like a conversation would.