ALIEN INVASION (30 page)

“I’m not sure, I think it might be what the scientists wear when they go in the room with the tube.” I fixed the belt of ammo back on and sat down in the same position. Cynthia joined me. I hugged into her again. She scooted away. “Are you sure you’re okay?” I asked.

“I just don’t want you touching me at the moment, if that’s okay?” She looked away from me.

“Sure. I’m sorry. Do you want to talk yet?”

“No.” Her answer was quick and stern.

Tap. Tap. Tap.

“What’s that noise?” Cynthia asked.

“I’m not sure.”

Tap. Tap. Tap.

I stood up. Looked through the glass wall. It was the alien in the tube. One of its fingers was moving.

NINA

A light lit the alien and it spun to the direction it was coming from. It was Kent. He had his shotgun tucked into his shoulder and was rounding the trunk of a tree. Freddie was still on his back, his eyes closed tight. Kent fired and the blast hit the alien’s head, taking half off, one of the half’s that had an eye. Kent unloaded three more rounds into it before it dropped. Then so did I.

Kent ran over to me and knelt. Freddie jumped off his back and hugged me. I was shocked by how easy he’d done it. He wasn’t the hugging type. He’d told me when people hugged him it felt like he was being drowned, which I translated as meaning it felt like he was being suffocated. That’s why I felt honored when he let me hug him, never mind when he hugged me, which was almost never.

“Are you okay?” Kent asked me.

“Yeah, I’m just beat up.” I was too. My body was aching, a dull throb running through every inch. My head was spinning. I had speckles on my vision and the edges were opaque.

“Me too.” He was cut on his face, but looked better than I felt.

“I started to stroke Freddie’s hair. He had blood on his face too. I wiped some away. He had a few cuts, most likely from the glass that had smashed when the pickup toppled and flipped. “Now what? Is the base far?” I asked Kent.

“No. We’re pretty close. It’s just a case of walking some ways. Are you up to that?” He wiped some blood from his face with the bottom of his black t-shirt.

“Nope, but let’s do it anyway.” I forced a smile. Even that hurt.

“Do you want to ride the old man again, Freddie?” Kent asked him.

Freddie nodded and got back on Kent’s back. They stood and Kent held his hand out for me to take. I did and he helped me to stand. New pain surged through me as my muscles changed position. It was nice seeing Freddie interact with Kent though. I’d never seen him so eager to touch someone, to be that close to them, apart from my husband.

We started walking. I cracked my neck. I could feel blood rushing through my limbs. I wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or not. “We’ll stay off the road for now, keep in the trees,” Kent said. “It might make the journey take longer, but it gives us some camouflage.”

“Do you think this will end?” I asked, coughing up more blood. I wiped my hand on my leg before they had a chance to see what I’d brought up.

“You mean the invasion?”

“Yeah.” My head was pounding on every word. I kept my voice low, to ease the hurt.

“I’ll be honest with you, I’ve no idea.”

“You said there were pods in other countries.” I placed fingers to my temples and rubbed them. It did alleviate some of the discomfort but not enough.

“I did.”

“Is this the end of the world?” I swallowed at the thought.

“Maybe.”

“I thought my world had already ended.” I looked to my feet, not just to make sure I had good purchase, but also to find my expression from them.

“You mean when your husband went to sleep?”

“Yeah.” I coughed again, swallowed the blood. “Maybe they’re not aliens, not in the way we’re thinking. What if God sent them, to finish the sinners? Perhaps the people who had already died before they showed were the saved, you know, like the rapture.”

“Do you really believe that?” Kent looked at me with a raised eyebrow.

“No.”

“I’ve learned that people want simple answers to everything in their life, but when they get one, they don’t believe it. Simple seems unreal, too easy, so they complicate things. You might be doing the same now.”

“Who do you think you are, Yoda?” I smiled, was able to take my eyes from my feet. I must have raised my feet too fast. The trees became a kaleidoscope for a sickening moment.

Kent laughed.

Freddie said, “May the forks be with you.”

“It’s may the force be with you,” I corrected him.

“What has a date got to do with anything?” Freddie asked.

“I’m confused.” I really was. Dizzy too, and fighting the hurl that was building in my gut.

“May the fourth? Why should a day be with me?”

I couldn’t be bothered explaining, so I said, with a smile, “It's a lucky day.”

“I like dates that are multiples of five,” Freddie stated.

“And why is that?” Kent asked him.

“Fuck knows,” Freddie answered.

Kent laughed. I rolled my eyes, it made my head spin.

My legs were ready to give in on me when we reached the base. There was a car, missing some doors, parked at the barrier. Kent shined his flashlight at the vehicle. “It’s empty,” he said.

There were two guard towers at each side of the barrier, large lights on the top of them, a slit in each of the concrete structures. “How did that car get here?”

“Someone obviously drove it here,” Kent said as he lowered Freddie from his back.

Freddie took hold of my hand. “Should we be concerned?” I asked.

“At the moment, we should always be concerned. I just think someone had the same idea as us. A few of the scientists who work in the base live in the surrounding towns, so it could be one of their family’s cars.”

We heard an alien roar. It came from the guard tower to our left. Freddie wrapped his arms around my leg. Kent pointed his gun to the tower. “That’s not good.”

“I thought you said we’d be safe here?” I placed my hand on Freddie’s back.

“I did.” Kent kept his eyes down the sights and on the tower.

“Then you lied.” I was mad at him. If I were going to die, I’d rather have died in my own home. I’ve no idea why, it just made more sense for some strange reason.

“I didn’t lie. I was just wrong ... Kinda.”

“Kinda? How?”

“Is it a good thing that there’s aliens here?”

“No.” I crumpled my face, finding his question to be the stupidest I’d heard for awhile.

“Correct. Is it good we have a large supply of food and weapons?”

“Yeah, if we’re not killed first.”

“I won’t let that happen.” He lowered his weapon and knelt. “Okay, Freddie boy, hop on.” I held Freddie’s hand tight, not wanting him to leave me, but he pulled free and jumped on Kent’s back. Kent stood. “We should find another way in.”

“How long will that take?”

“About as long as it takes me to finish this sentence.” I shook my head and shrugged. “We go through the other guard tower. We stay clear of the main entrance and the other tower that way, thus away from the alien. Easy.”

Kent walked around the rear of the car and to the door of the other guard tower. “You coming?” he asked me. I let out a breath and joined him at the door. “This is good.”

“How’s it good?” I asked, throwing a few looks up toward the other tower.

“Because, this door is locked, the one at the other tower is open. That might have been how the alien got in that one, so by my reckoning, this one should be free of monsters.” He smiled.

“This is one smarty guy,” Freddie said.

“Thank you, son.”

“Please don’t call him that,” I quickly said. They both looked at me. Freddie was smiling. Kent had furrowed brows. “Sorry, it’s just …”

“I understand,” Kent said. I instantly felt like a complete fuck up.

“See, smarty guy,” Freddie said.

“How do we get in if it’s locked?” I asked Kent, trying not to focus on my messed up life.

“Like this,” he said as he pushed something next to the door. A screen lit up, a fingerprint image faded into view. Kent pressed his finger to it and the door opened. “Open Sesame.”

“I like Sesame Street,” Freddie added. “Not Big Bird, though. He’s a dick.”

Kent was holding back the laughter as he stepped into the guard tower. I threw another look toward the other tower before I followed. I saw a green flash inside, coming from the slit, and heard a wub-wub. The stairs were winding, but lit. My legs were aching again when we reached the top of them.

We were in a squared room. The walls were concrete. The slit that looked from the tower was facing us. Kent walked to a door, opened it in the same way he had the door to the tower. We stepped through into a corridor. Kent locked the door behind us with the use of the computer screen next to that one.

“I’ve locked the door to the tower with this control panel. If we can chance it we’ll head to the other tower and lock that too.” He said as he started to walk down the corridor.

I followed and asked, “Won’t that trap the aliens that are already inside in the base with us?”

“Yeah, but it will stop others from getting in. I think that still makes it a worthwhile mission.” Kent turned the flashlight on his shotgun off. “You don’t appreciate lights, until you don’t have them anymore.”

“Does the base have its own generator or something?”

“Yeah, God bless Uncle Sam.”

“I have an Uncle Sam too,” Freddie said.

“Let me guess, he’s a dick?” Kent smiled.

“Yep, the biggest of biggest, more than Big Bird.”

“Freddie!” I said. “What’s gotten into you?”

“I’m not being naughty, Mom.”

“You kinda are.”

“I’m not, am I Kent?”

Kent looked to me and smiled. “No. You’re a good boy.”

“See, Mommy?”

We reached another door and Kent opened it. He stepped through with his shotgun to his shoulder then waved me to follow. Once I was by his side he turned and locked the door.

“So we’re in the base now?” I asked.

“Yeah.”

“Does it have anything other than corridors?”

“It has a lot more then just that.” Kent had his shotgun raised again and motioned with his head for me to follow. We passed by a few metal doors on each side of us. We turned a corner, Kent’s weapon leading the way, and then past by more doors.

“Where are we going?” I asked.

“First we go to the armory, get myself a better weapon, get you one too. Then we grab some food, we’ll barricade ourselves somewhere safe for the night. Then in the morning, I’ll sweep the base and eradicate any hostiles.”

“What about other soldiers, the scientists you mentioned, where are they?”

“I’m not sure. Maybe they evacuated. They might have been called to the local towns to deal with the aliens.”

“I doubt the scientists would be used for that. Shouldn’t they still be here?” It was spookily silent. It chilled me. It was as if around any corner could be a monster waiting to jump us.

“You’re right. The president might have had them flown somewhere safe.”

“But not the civilians? That’s bullshit.”

“Unless it's a civilian that has studied the aliens, that is valuable to the government, otherwise no. They have no interest in anyone that can’t help them.”

“Why didn’t they come for you, aren’t you important to them?”

“I was.”

“Why not now?”

“I can’t teach them anything they’d need to know. I was a lab rat, remember?” Kent stopped and itched his chin.

“What’s the problem? You look deep in thought.”

“I’m just trying to figure out where we are.”

“You’re lost?”

“This is a big base, sweetheart.”

“Fuck me, you sound like a detective from an old movie.”

“I am from a different time.”

“Mommy said a bad word.”

“Hush, Freddie, let Kent think.”

“You’re not going to be mad at me, are you?”

“Kent, why would I be mad?”

“Because …”

“Because, what? Spit it out, soldier.”

He gave me a funny look then said, “We’ve been going in the wrong direction.”

“Fantastic.” I threw my arms up and slapped them on my sides.

“Pick a number,” he said.

“Pardon?”

“Between one and eight.”

“Five,” Freddie said.

“Good choice,” Kent nodded at him.

“What’s going on?” I asked.

Kent walked to a door in the corridor we were in. “Let’s see what’s behind door number five. He pressed his finger to the computer screen at the side of the door. It opened inward.

An alien lurched toward us.

Kent pressed his finger back to the computer screen. The door managed to close as the alien reached its long arm out. The metal shut on its arm, severing it from its body. The limb fell to the floor. The alien cried out from inside.