Aliens Versus Zombies (32 page)

“They
were
. They’re probably all dead now and getting killed ourselves won’t change that.”

“Snap out of it! We survived. There’s no reason others couldn’t have, too.”

“You’re…You’re right. Sorry. Feeling sorry for myself, I guess. But we can’t stay here. We have to go to the cave. They may be hunting us by thermal, UV, or something we’ve never heard of. Maybe they can see through solid stone. If so, we’re toast. But that’s all I can come up with for now.”

“Okay,” Chrissy said with reluctance. “I see your point. But let’s look along the way, just in case.”

“Fine. But I’m afraid we’re gonna have to walk. We can’t afford to be spotted in this thing. Too big a heat signature.”

Chrissy sighed. “Right again. Don’t worry about me. I’m tough. I’ll keep up.”

“I know you will, babe.”

They reached the SUV, where the three in the back seat slept.

“We’d better wake the others up. We have to go.”

The trio took a moment to rouse, and after explaining the situation, the five got out and headed down the street toward the river, with Joanie carrying Amanda. She was the only one capable of doing so at the moment.

As they walked past the devastation of the peaceful neighborhood they’d come to think of as home, their hearts sank. There was nothing left but ruin.

“All those poor people, just trying to scratch out a living. Those aliens are monsters!” She stopped walking and began to cry.

Daniels put his arm around her and squeezed her to his chest. “I know. We’ll have time to grieve for our friends later, but right now we have to get somewhere safe. You okay?”

She nodded and they resumed walking.

Near the end of the street, they found three other survivors huddled together. The woman was crying and the man and teen looked like they were about to.

“Oh, thank God someone else made it!” Julia cried out.

She and Chrissy hugged. Chrissy winced when her injured arm got squeezed between them.

“Good to see you, Tim, Jason,” Daniels said with a tired grin.

“You, too, man!” Tim replied.

Jason responded with his usual, awkward teenage, “Hullo.”

Daniels explained were they were going and invited the other to join them. With no better options, they agreed.

The rain began to ease up as the eight cold, wet, shell-shocked humans trudged through the woods toward the river.
 

FronCar finished watching the attack flight’s holo footage of the strike yet again, looking for any details he might have missed the first two times.

“Status.” FronCar leaned over the seated CommTech.

“Sir, the electrical activity in the atmosphere is subsiding. The rain is still heavy, as is the cloud cover. The ionization is still affecting the signal. I’m only getting sporadic satellite readings of the ground.”

“And?”

“No life signs in the target sites so far, but it’s impossible to be certain yet. We should have a better view of the region in an hour, after the storm front moves on. The platoons should be arriving at the various sites within the hour.”

“Very well. Keep me apprised.”

“Yes, sir.”

* * * *

Platoon Regulator ZefGrom shouted at his men. “Spread out. Shoot anything that moves.”

His thirty-six men, led by two subregulators, approached each house from three sides. They weren’t worried about any survivors trapped under the rubble. Without help, they’d die soon enough anyway. But any indies visible or that they could find easily had to be dealt with.

After two hours of searching, they found fourteen bodies and dispatched one seriously injured indie.

“Good work, men. Now let’s search the countryside.”

* * * *

“Commander, the cloud cover has thinned enough that I’m getting more consistent readings. Target sites 1 and 3 appear to be clear, except for the platoons. At site 2 I’m picking up the signals for Regulator ZefGrom and his men. There’s only one other reading in the area, although it’s still intermittent. I’m forwarding that coordinate to the regulator.”

“Very good. Let me know when that one is eliminated and then recall the men.”

“Yes, sir.”

* * * *

The eight survivors huddled together for warmth inside the dark, dank cave at the bend in the river. Before, there had been a gentle stream splashing over the small waterfall below the cave. Now, it was a raging torrent. The river plunged over the waterfall at breakneck speed, spraying those within the cave repeatedly. Although still slightly lower than the cave entrance, the water wouldn’t have to rise much more to flood it and wash them all away. Even though it was no longer raining, the water level continued to rise from all the rain entering the river upstream.

Chrissy sat cross-legged, hugging her fractured wrist to her chest and rocking back and forth.

They were stuck. If they stayed much longer, they might be trapped inside; if they left, they might be killed by the aliens. At the moment, the river seemed like the safer bet.

It was approaching noon. The storm had passed and with it much of the gloom outside. However, the gloom inside the cave remained.

With nothing else to do but talk, speculation ran wild.

“Why would they do this to us? Why now?” Julia asked, sobbing. “Just when we were beginning to rebuild.”

“Maybe that’s exactly why,” Tim Vickers countered. He was one of the people Daniels and Jesse had recruited in the warehouse months earlier, along with his wife, daughter, and eleven others. “They’re taking over and don’t want any competition. They didn’t care when we were a few individuals scattered about, but once we came together. Boom.”

“Yes, but why not months ago? We’ve been together that long. Why now?”

No one had an answer.

“All those poor people,” Chrissy said. Talking helped distract her from the throbbing pain. “What if there are other survivors? What if they’re hurt and need our help?”

Daniels shook his head. “There’s nothing we can do for them at the moment. The aliens wouldn’t just attack by air. If they wanted us all dead—and I think that’s pretty clear—they would send in ground troops to complete the mission. They’re undoubtedly in town right now, mopping up. We can search for survivors in a day or two, after they’re gone, but I doubt the aliens will leave anyone alive. And it would be risky to return there for any length of time. They may be monitoring the site for exactly that. Face it. The eight of us are it.”

That depressing assessment deepened the gloom.

And then the mood changed.

“First, the Zoms killed almost everyone we knew, and now the goddamned aliens are trying to kill the rest of us.” Vickers’ face got redder as he spoke. “They murdered Andi, and our beautiful, precious baby, Abby. They can’t be allowed to get away with this!”

Jason Conroy, the 15-year-old boy whom Chrissy and Moose had recruited from the attic where he and his mother had been hiding, spoke next. “And they killed my mom. They need to die for that!”

Even Amanda joined in, with a pout on her lips. “They killed Uncle Jay and Uncle Steve, too! They’re bad people!”

“Whoa! Hold on, everyone. I know how you feel, and believe me, I feel the same way. But the eight of us can’t take on an entire invasion force. We’re unarmed, and even if we can scrounge up some weapons, what then? We march up to the city surrounded by a force field, or whatever it is, knock on the front door and ask pretty please to be let in so we can shoot them? Besides, with a bunch of us in a group, they’d spot us miles away and send those attack ships after us, or a few truckloads of troops. We wouldn’t get within miles of the city. And even if we could, how would we get in? And even if we did, what could we really do? Kill a handful of them before they killed the rest of us?

“Face it, all we can do now is get as far from here as we can and hope we can stay out of their way for a few months longer. Maybe we’ll get a year, if we’re lucky, before they come for us again. And we can’t stay together. We’ll have to split up into ones and twos. They might be less likely to bother with us that way than if we’re all together in a group.”

The thought of trying to survive alone in this world of Zoms and aliens was terrifying. A silence fell over the group as they each thought about how they would live out the rest of their lives.

After several minutes, they all froze in fear at the sharp crack of wood breaking. Was it a deer stepping on a fallen stick, or had the aliens found them despite the solid stone ceiling overhead? With all the leaves outside wet from rain, there was no sound of rustling in the surrounding underbrush.

They continued to wait in tense silence, hoping they wouldn’t hear anything to indicate that they’d been discovered.

A pebble skittered across the cave entrance and then down into the river. The worst had happened. The aliens had found them after all.

The sun had finally made an appearance and a shadow grew at the front of the cave. Any second the first soldier would appear, and then they were all dead.

The humans hugged one another for the last time. This was it. Here it came. The final act in this theater of death. Some feared the end, while others felt relief that it was just about over and they could rest in peace.

A shape rounded the corner and stopped.

“Sarge? Is that you? And Chrissy! Goddamn, I’m happy to see you guys!”

“Moose? Son of a bitch!” Daniels shouted. He struggled to stand now that his back had stiffened from all the strain earlier. “Where did
you
come from?”

A soggy Moose Villa entered and leaned his rifle against the cave wall. Then he sat with the others.

“I got up early to do some squirrel hunting. I needed to blow off some steam, after Mary and I had a fight last night. You know me and her have gotten close the last few weeks. She—” His voice broke. “She’s dead now. I didn’t even get a chance to say—” It broke again. He cleared his throat and continued. “I heard the explosions in the distance and came back as fast as I could, but I was too late. I got there and didn’t see anyone. I checked all of the houses and didn’t find anyone, either, so I thought you were all dead. And then I saw lights coming from the aliens and hightailed it. I knew they’d probably be using infrared or UV to look for survivors, so I figured this cave me and you found would be the best place to hide. I guess you had the same idea.” He flashed a crooked smile for a second and then it vanished.

“We have to find a way to make those bastards pay. I’ve got an idea, but you need to help me with some of the details.”

* * * *

“Sir,” the CommTech called out, “That one indie life sign I had Regulator ZefGrom tracking just disappeared.”

“What do you mean, disappeared?” FronCar replied. He walked over to the other’s console.

“It was there one moment and then it was gone. The Regulator and his men were only minutes away from that location but now there’s nothing to track.

“How could that happen?”

“I see no evidence of equipment malfunction. It could be residual interference from the ionization. Or maybe the just the opposite. It’s possible the original life sign was spurious,
caused
by the ionization, and now the equipment has corrected the error.”

FronCar nodded in thought. “Very well. Have the Regulator keep searching the immediate area for the next hour, and then return to the city. We don’t need to have all of those men traipsing through the woods all day for one indie.”

“Yes, sir.”

* * * *

Moose explained. “I was toying with this idea a while back. A ‘wouldn’t this be a great idea?’ kind of thing. If I wanted to attack the aliens, how could I do it? They’ve got a big army, and spaceships and shit, and that big-ass force field around most of the city. How could I even get to them? And then it hit me. If they’re living in
our
homes in
our
city, then they must be using
our
electricity in those homes. Stands to reason, right? So let’s say we blow the power lines going into the city. The power grid drops, and they lose their force field and hopefully all of their fancy alien tech. We move in and hit ‘em with RPGs and shit. Blow the crap out of ‘em before they know what hit ‘em. Whaddaya think?”

“I think you’ve given this a lot of thought. But then what? After we kill some of them, they kill us and still take over the planet.”

“Dude, they’re gonna kill us anyway. Might as well take some of them with us, right? When they finally kill us, wouldn’t you rather go to your grave knowing you took some o’ them bastards with you?”

* * * *

ZefGronn stood atop a hill, staring down at the rushing river below. The area was alive with the scent of growing things, and there was a mist rising above the waterfall that created a rainbow effect. But he didn’t care about any of that. He was out here to find and kill a damn indie that had thus far eluded him and his men.

He took one more look around and then, seeing nothing moving but the river current and the trees swaying in the breeze, decided to call it.

He reported in that there was nothing here to kill and they were heading back.

He ordered his men back into their vehicles for the trip back. What a colossal waste of time. Hours spent in the field and all they had to show for it was one kill, and that was merely finishing off a dying indie trapped in the rubble of a dwelling.

* * * *

FronCar nodded with satisfaction. “Good work, CommTech. Now that we have the immediate area around this city cleared out. Let’s concentrate more on the area around Paradise. We don’t want any surprises there, either, for the grand dedication ceremony.”

* * * *

Hours later, hungry and cold, the nine tried to wait out the aliens. But not knowing how long they might stay in the area, looking for more humans to kill, it was impossible to know when it would be safe to leave. They decided to stay put until nightfall.

Shortly before sunset, when the shadows were long and little sunlight filtered through the canopy of trees outside, a shuffling, scuffing sound outside ratcheted up the tension. Aliens? Bear? Cougar? Zom? The possibilities were many, and equally scary.

They waited, barely able to breathe. Five seconds passed, then ten, then…a shape appeared at the mouth of the cave—a small shape. Everyone relaxed.

Then the shape barked.

“Hiram!” Daniels cried out.

The shape bounded forward, tail wagging, into a kneeling Daniels’ arms. He then proceeded to lick the man’s face nonstop until Daniels pushed him away, laughing.

“Damn, boy, you must be part bloodhound.”

Hiram sat and panted, tongue lolling out the side of his mouth, seemingly pleased with himself.