“All right, everyone,” Jessica said. “Out of the car.”
“I don’t have a weapon,” Kildere said.
“No, but as you previously mentioned, you know where Kaylan is, so I’m not letting you out of my sight.” Jessica looked back and stared at Kildere until he looked away. Then she softly, quietly, opened the car door.
“Let’s go,” she said.
3
As they were quietly moving through the brush—Jessica in the lead, followed by Gabe, then Kildere, with Delta in the rear—Jessica remembered her first mission as a Minuteman. A trial run, nothing special, just a hop back fifteen years. A stupid test that meant absolutely nothing.
Except for Kaylan’s order that she and Gabe be paired off and wait for the rest of the group in the bushes outside of TPC’s campus. Jessica had treated the exercise like a goof. She made fun of Gabe, who, at the time, had a crush on Kaylan. They had crouched among the green leaves and vegetation, much like they were doing now.
So much had changed since then.
The instant she saw a patch of green scales through thick branches and green pine needles, Jessica held up her hand, and everyone froze.
Delta was correct. Two lizards stood by the side of the road, as if they were toll-takers, waiting for cars to drive by. Unfortunately, there wasn’t much to conceal her group at this point. They were at the edge of the tree line, and both the road and its shoulders were clean and clear—nothing to provide cover.
This was the first time Jessica had seen the lizards close up for an extended length of time. One of the few memories she had with her brother was watching a vid on stream when they were both kids—before the events of the education placement test when Kaylan’s bitch of a mother separated them forever. The vid was called Jurassic Park, and there were these creatures, dinosaurs, that stood just a foot or so taller than an average-sized man. Velociraptors, they were called.
The lizards were similar in appearance, except they were emerald green instead of gray. They stood at least four feet taller than velociraptors and had a stockier frame. They were the velociraptors’ buff cousins.
Jessica was also sure the lizards had way more teeth.
She looked away from the lizards and the road and scanned further down the tree line. She could see an opening more massive than that of the road, about fifty feet on. She wasn’t sure about cover, but their odds were better if they took the fight there.
She leaned back and whispered into Gabe’s ear, “Step exactly where I step, watch your surroundings, and make no noise. Pass it down.”
She took a step and looked back at the lizards one more time.
What the hell was that?
She had missed it before, focusing on the ten-foot tall reptilians, but they surrounded a small plastic container—about three feet square—containing what looked like a giant mucus-colored slug. Four claws clicked along the floor of the container. The faint tapping sound suddenly became prevalent.
Jessica concentrated on quelling the chill she felt wash through her body and started to move. After she took ten steps, she silently looked back. As she expected, Kildere was looking toward the lizards. Then his eyes nearly popped as he looked down. The other Jessica must have told them all about those slugs, and his expression told her those slugs were nothing good.
On she went, step by step. The clearing seemed impossibly far away. They made it ten feet before someone—most likely Kildere—stepped on a dry twig.
Snap.
Jessica froze, and everyone else did the same. Jessica stared at the lizards so hard that she wished she could bore holes into their scaly bodies.
The lizard closest to them snapped his head in their direction.
“What is it?” the other one asked.
“I don’t know. I thought I heard something.”
The lizard who hadn’t heard anything reached for the latch to the container, but the other stayed his hand.
“Our orders are to release the Twallick as a last resort. Not before.”
Jessica let out a slow, silent breath, and they moved on. When they reached the halfway point, she saw that the open area was much larger than she first thought. Five minutes later, and she was through the trees into the clearing. Gabe followed, then Kildere, and finally Delta.
Jessica expected a brisk wind to wash over her, now that they were out of the protection afforded by the trees, but the air was calm and unseasonably warm.
Jessica held her purifier high and motioned in the lizards’ direction. Gabe and Delta nodded.
“Let’s just leave,” Kildere whispered as they quietly walked back to the road. “You don’t have to engage them.”
“And what?” Delta hissed. “Take a stroll through the mountains?”
“We have a long way to go, Kildere,” Gabe added. “We need transportation. We need that car.”
“Time to kill some lizards.” They emerged from the clearing, stepping onto the concrete. There was fifty yards distance between them and the lizards. Jessica took aim and fired.
The first shot missed wide by about a foot and punched a hole in a nearby pine. Jessica figured they had the luxury of two—possibly three—shots before the lizards realized the stupid humans had weapons that could harm them.
She watched the lizards begin to lumber toward them. Gabe’s shot missed short. Both lizards froze as a patch of dirt three feet in front of them scorched and turned black.
Please, God, let one of us hit them, Jessica thought.
Delta’s shot missed wide left, and the lizards resumed their slow walk. They were almost halfway to Jessica and her group.
Gabe was about to fire again when Jessica told him to wait a second.
“Wait? For what?” Kildere’s voice rose.
Jessica took aim. “For them to get closer,” she said and fired.
The lower leg of the lizard on the left exploded. As he fell to the ground, he let out a long, loud hiss. Jessica fought the urge to cover her ears.
“Impossssssible,” the other one cried.
Now the standing lizard quickened his pace.
“Back,” Jessica yelled. “Move back to the clearing.”
They all ran to the center of the field. There was a small body of water—too small to call a lake, but large enough to notice—at the far end of the clearing, about thirty feet away.
“Head for the water,” Jessica yelled.
When she arrived at the pond, Jessica turned and saw the lizard had made up ground. So they could move fast if they wanted. Perhaps the lizards thought humans could do nothing against them. Like a predator cornering its prey, they were sure they could take their time in eliminating humans.
Gabe took aim and shot. The lizard’s left arm exploded. Delta’s shot nicked his right side, but he was still coming.
Jessica took a cylindrical container she used as a canteen and emptied the filtered water that was in it.
“What are you doing?” Gabe asked.
“Testing Omega’s theory,” Jessica answered. She dunked the container in the pond. Tiny bubbles broke the surface.
“I think there’s a better time for that,” Delta yelled. “Omega saw that on an old vid, Alpha.”
In one motion, Jessica swung the container in an arc, out of the water and splashed the water in the lizard’s face.
The lizard advanced and swatted Jessica away as if she were a bothersome fly. She fell hard on the ground ten feet away and felt something pop in her shoulder.
“It didn’t work,” Jessica groaned.
Gabe got another shot off. A direct hit to the lizard’s right arm.
The lizard reached out, caught Gabe by the arm, and twisted.
“Owwwwww, goddamn it,” Gabe screamed, dropping his purifier.
It was chaos from there. Delta shot the lizard point-blank in the shoulder, and Gabe was freed as the lizard’s arm fell to the ground.
The lizard turned on Delta, opening his mouth wide—so many teeth—and lunged toward her arm.<
br />
Then the creature abruptly stopped. Jessica ran over to Gabe and kept one eye on the lizard as it collapsed to the ground, wracked with spasms.
Through gritted teeth, Gabe asked, “What the hell is that thing doing?”
“Dying, if we’re lucky,” Jessica said.
“How did you know our water was fatal to them?” Kildere asked as he walked over to them.
“Nice to see you contributing, Kildere,” Jessica sneered. “Go see if Delta needs help.”
She watched him walk over to her fellow Anarchist.
“I think it’s broken, Jess,” Gabe hissed in a low voice, making sure Delta didn’t hear. “I’m not a doctor, but it sure hurts like hell.”
Gabe’s arm looked like a wrung dishtowel. It was apparent that bones were broken. Wasn’t one of the body’s hardest bones to break in the arm? She wasn’t a doctor, but she thought she remembered hearing that from a friend of hers who was on the medical track during advanced education.
“What are you doing?”
“What does it look like I’m doing?” Jessica knew enough to make a sling using her black sweat shirt.
Gabe began to call her by name, but Delta had joined them, dragging Kildere by the arm behind her. He cleared his throat.
“Alpha, my arm is broken. I need medical attention to reset the bone, or I won’t make it back to base. I’ll die of infection.” He looked at her with those beautiful hazel eyes.
Jessica sniffed hard to prevent a few tears from falling. “Well, that certainly can’t happen.” She looked around as if she could see all the doctors in the district.
“Alpha?” She heard Delta’s voice.
“I think I know a doctor who can help,” Jessica said.
“I don’t like that look on your face,” Gabe said.
Jessica frowned. She hadn’t realized it was noticeable. “We have to go back to Denver,” she said.
“What?” Kildere exclaimed. “We can’t go back to where we know there will be Guardians.”
Jessica helped Gabe to his feet—he grunted and groaned through the process—and let him lean on her shoulder. “Something to finally contribute, Kildere? Well, you and Delta are staying here.” She turned to Delta. “We should be back in a few hours—hopefully before dark. Make sure he doesn’t go anywhere while we’re gone.”
Delta smiled. “Don’t worry, I’ll sit on him tight.”
They walked across the field, back to the road. It was slow going with Gabe in tow. When they turned the corner and Jessica looked down the road, she noticed two things, which Gabe also noticed.
“Shit, the other lizard is still alive,” he muttered.
A trail of thick green liquid stretched from the point where he was dropped to the point where the lizards first stood. Where he was now. Next to the container that housed the slug.
“You are a race of heretics and blasphemers, and therefore must be—”
By this time, they were close enough to the alien for Jessica to shoot him in the chest with her purifier. The lizard staggered, and she fired again. The lizard fell, and his right front clawed hand fell on the switch to open the container.
“Jess?”
Jessica watched, focusing her eyes as if the scene were hard to see. It wasn’t: The slug slithered along the ground, but not slowly, like the slugs and snails she saw as a child along the beaches of central Florida. This thing moved quickly, with a purpose. They were twenty feet away from it, and it began to move in their direction
The lizard twitched, and the slug immediately changed course and went to the lizard.
“Jess, we need to go. Now.” Gabe’s voice quivered.
“Not yet.”
With its large, sharp claws, the slug clamped down on the lizard’s arm.
“No,” the lizard muttered. “You’re supposed to wipe the blasphemers from this planet.” The alien tried to reach for something on his belt—a button. Maybe it was a control mechanism for the slug or something to kill it altogether?
“Jess!”
“OK, let’s backtrack. Slowly.”
They began to walk back to the clearing. Every ten feet, Jessica looked back. The slug had moved to the lizard’s upper body, and its claws were clamped down on the alien’s scaly green neck. When Jessica looked back again, the slug had the lizard’s face, snout, his entire head covered. Its body pulsed once, twice, then Jessica stopped and watched as the slug’s mucus-colored body suddenly splashed green, and the lizard’s body finally went limp.
“What’s happening?” Gabe asked. He wouldn’t turn around.
“You don’t want to know,” Jessica replied, watching the slug release the headless lizard and begin to move toward them. She was hoping it would take time to digest the entire body, but this was a smart slug. Its food wasn’t going anywhere, and here they were, more food to be had. Even though the mountain air was cool, the sun was now high in the sky, and Jessica was sweating, supporting Gabe.
“Maybe you should just leave me,” Gabe offered. “I can give you time—”
“Shut up.”
Jessica gave one last look behind her as they rounded to the clearing. The damn slug was gaining ground, and she could now hear the clack of its claws moving along the ground.
“What are you doing back here?” Kildere asked as Jessica and Gabe stumbled across the open field. Jessica saw Kildere’s eyes boggle. The slug must have emerged from the road.
“Run,” she screamed.
Delta fired her purifier. Jessica turned. A solid hit, but it didn’t kill it.
“Damn it,” Gabe hissed.
The slug seized, stretched, and then ripped in half. Within ten seconds, they were staring at two slugs, each smaller than the original.
“We’re dead,” Kildere moaned.
“Shut up,” the rest of them said in unison.
Jessica noticed the slugs weren’t advancing.
“Alpha, we’ve got to go,” Delta yelled.
“Baby, just leave me,” Gabe whispered. “I’m slowing you down.”
Why weren’t they advancing?
“Miss Waters,” Kildere yelled.
All this yelling and they aren’t rushing to us. Why?
Jessica quickly glanced back toward the pond.
“Forget it, Jess,” Gabe whispered. “You got lucky with the lizards. Our water isn’t toxic to every alien species. You can’t take that old vid as gospel.”
“I know, Gabe, but they’ve got us cornered. Why aren’t they—”
Suddenly Jessica realized the creatures were standing right on the edge of the shadow thrown by the nearby pines.
“Magnify,” she muttered. Then she turned to Delta and Kildere. “I need something to magnify the sunlight.”
She turned back to watch one of the slugs slowly advance, but it started to seize again after five feet forward in the sun. Then two slugs became three.
“Quickly!” she screamed.
“What about my U-Specs?” Gabe reached into his pocket and held out the pair of lenses.
Jessica wasn’t sure if they would magnify the sunlight enough, but they would have to do.
She held the U-Specs up high in the air, catching the sunlight. It took a second for her to find the ray of concentrated light it produced.
“There!” Kildere screamed, pointing.
About ten feet to the right of the larger slug, Jessica saw bright, pulsating light—like light dancing off water. Jessica tilted the U-Specs slightly, and the light fell on the giant slug, who immediately seized and split in two.
“Delta. Gabe. Hit the rest of the targets,” Jessica said. “Keep hitting them.”
“I get it,” Delta said, smiling. “It’s like Asteroids.”
“It’s like what?” Gabe asked.
Jessica noticed Kildere smiling. He was old enough to have a father who probably played it. Unlike Delta’s other references, Jessica recognized this one, as her father was an antique vid game enthusiast. This particular game portrayed you as a small s
hip, firing at shapes that were supposed to be asteroids in space. Each time you hit them, they would split and get smaller. Keep hitting them, and they would keep breaking and keep getting smaller until they were gone.
Hopefully like our slimy friends here, Jessica thought.
They were doing well. Jessica with her concentrated sunlight, and Delta and Gabe with their purifiers. Unfortunately as the slugs got smaller, they got faster. However, when they were small enough, they couldn’t cross out of the shade into the sunlight. They looked like falling hail bouncing off the street.
“Everyone into the sunlight,” Jessica yelled.
They all moved closer together.
“How will we know when small is small enough?” Kildere asked.
Jessica scanned the field beyond. There looked to be about fifty of them now, the largest ones no bigger than a fist.
“One way to find out,” Jessica muttered and slowly walked toward the line of shade.
“What the hell are you doing?” Gabe asked, his voice high and thin.
She was no more than three feet from the nearest group. The little monsters were trying to nip at her feet. Two seconds, and one of them made a lunge for her. She stepped on it. Hard. It made a high-pitched screeching sound, in concert with the sick sucking sound of its soft body being crushed to death—similar to the sound of stepping in mud and lifting your foot.
“Keep shooting,” Jessica called out.
It took about ten minutes, but they were able to stamp out all of them. Toward the end, everyone helped squish the slugs.
“Is that all of them?” Jessica looked around. Everyone had quit stomping except Delta, who was finishing up just to the right of her. The ground was damp from the squashed slug bodies.
Delta was wiping her foot off in the grass when her leg suddenly buckled.
“Delta?”
Her comrade looked down for a moment, stepped trepidatiously, put her weight on her leg, and shrugged. “It’s nothing,” she said.
“I don’t feel so hot.” Gabe swayed back and forth, and Jessica caught him as he collapsed.
“We need to get him to a hospital,” Jessica said. She looked around. The shadows had lengthened.
“And where, exactly, are you going to find a hospital around here, Miss Waters?” Kildere asked.
Minutemen- Parallel Lives Page 4
