EnEmE: Fall Of Man (5 page)

Morris’s face grew red with anger and he drew his sidearm.

“Well, they won’t be learning any more!” Morris yelled, and blew a hole through Private Abrams head.

A fine red mist was still wafting in the air when the alien let out an agonized scream and began convulsing. Morris stepped forward and the creature flailed its claws, which he easily caught and held down. He looked right in its eyes and his other hand closed around its throat.

“It’s not nice to laugh at people, you alien sacks of shit,” Morris said through clenched teeth mere inches from the creature’s face.

Morris finished strangling the thing to death, and then told us to pack up everything in that room, including the bodies, into the trucks.

A couple years later, Morris swallowed a bullet under strange circumstances. Unable to live with what he saw, Albright retired and opened up this surplus store. I was his contact for military surplus and helped him get a few choice weapons under the radar. Freeman and I were given the fast track up the chain of command in exchange for our silence.

When the shit came down and people started taking action on the base, rounding up civilians and building a radio tower on the base, we thought this would be the best place to come. We could get Commander Albright’s opinion and stock up on a few choice supplies that we’ve been cut off from at the base.

“And that’s how we ended up here,” said Hauer.

The five men and one woman in the room all looked at each other.

“So what do we do now?” said Kiebler.

“Well, Albright’s got a huge stock of military weaponry here,” said Freeman.

“There’s been talk on the CB of survivors gathering near the Memorial Coliseum,” said Albright.

“We’ve got to find others who may need help,” said Alvarez.

“We need a base of operations,” said Hauer. “This building won’t last long, and the best place to house our resistance needs space to house people, security, and access to medical care and equipment that can be salvaged.”

He looked at the group as the weight of what he said sank in.

He looked sternly at the group, “I want that hospital.”

We stared around the room at each other intently. Before anyone could speak the world turned upside down. There was a deafening sound as all the windows in the front of the building shattered inward, pelting us with glass shrapnel. Two armoured host soldiers like the ones who had killed Banyan walked in through a now empty window frame. But I didn’t have time to worry about the soldiers as I watched them walk in because of the simultaneous explosion behind us. The back wall collapsed and buried Albright and I in tons of rubble.

“Jace!” Kiebler screamed, nearly inaudible over the roar of the destruction.

One of my arms was sticking haphazardly into the air between two large pieces of brick wall that were slowly crushing it.

She began to pull at a huge piece of debris that she had no hope of moving on her own.

The tremendous weight of the wall made my breath shallower every time I exhaled. A large chunk of debris put steady pressure on my torso, squeezing the air out of me like a huge boa constrictor, allowing a little less air in every time I breathed.

Through an opening in the rubble I could see the light of day.. I could see just enough to know that Alvarez and Freeman had opened fire, Freeman with his mini-gun, and mowed down the two armored soldiers who had entered the store. One of them stirred, beginning to rise and move forward again. His jerky movements made it clear that he’d been injured, but was forcing himself to rejoin the fray. Despite the struggle, the host soldier regained his footing. Standing upright, he turned and levelled his weapon just in time to take the full blast of a rocket-propelled grenade mid-torso.

“Die, fucker!” Alvarez roared.

The force of the rocket flung the host soldier backward into the air, off his feet and out the broken window. It then exploded and sent small bits of flesh, bone and armor flying in all directions.

A shard of bloody armor-turned-shrapnel whizzed past Alvarez’s head, close enough that it moved his hair before lodging in the part of the building’s sidewall that still stood. Alvarez stared at the piece of metal that could have been his death warrant for a second, then released a breath he hadn’t known he was holding before hefting his rocket launched back onto his shoulder.

Alvarez and Freeman each aimed their grenade launchers out the store’s shattered front window at their assailants, who I could not see from my vantage point. They released a volley of RPG’s, which were followed by a series of explosions and battle groans from outside the store.

At about this time I realized that my breathing was not quite shallow, the pressure barely allowing any air in, as my vision began to fade. Just as I thought I was taking my last breath, the tremendous pressure suddenly lifted. Air rushed into my lungs so quickly that it was painful. As the light poured in on me and I began to see more clearly, I could tell that Hauser had joined in Kiebler’s rescue attempt. He stood over me like a triumphant savior, using a pry bar with the surplus store tag still attached to lift the weight of the large boulder off of my body.

The tearful Kiebler scrambled into the opening, moving the smaller boulders that had now been loosened and freeing the arm that was wedged in the debris.. A pins-and-needles feeling
rushed over my bruised arm as the blood began to return to it. Kiebler gave me a quick once-over, checking for injuries.

“You’re going to be all right,” she said, her voice still hoarse from screaming.

Apparently the volley of RPG fire had worked, because Alvarez and Freeman now joined in the efforts to remove Captain Albright and me from the wreckage of the building.

The group worked together in the dusty air to move smaller boulders and pry larger ones away from the pile.

Hauer hoisted my good arm over his shoulder and lifted me from my nest of stone and metal. Kiebler helped him gently set me down on the side of the mound of brick and mortar that was my tomb just minutes before. Aside from some scratches and bruises, I was none the worse for wear.

“Never thought you’d be getting saved by the biggest biceps in this man’s army when you woke up this morning, huh, Bradley?” Hauer said cheerfully, slapping me on the shoulder.

Although I still hurt, I managed a grin, but before could answer, our attention was directed elsewhere.

“Master Sergeant Hauer, this isn’t good.” called Freeman, perching on the edge of another opening in the rubble, this one stacked a bit higher than mine had been. On the other side of the mound Alvarez stood upright, staring down into the pit that they had exposed. The two soldiers had removed all of the building fragments that had toppled on top of Captain Albright, who lay motionless, covered in blood, his right leg entirely crushed. It looked awkward and unreal, pulpy and wet. Lumpy like the limbs of the straw dummies my brother and I used to make on Halloween in hopes of scaring the neighbours when we were kids. For a second I forgot the differences that I had with Max and wondered if he was okay somewhere, if he even knew what was going on, or if, wherever he was, it was a place that had so far been miraculously untouched by the insanity I found myself immersed in.

Before I could dwell any further on these thoughts, my attention was directed back to the here and now, and to the man who lay dying in the wreckage of his life’s work.

“Hah, fuck!” yelled Albright, his mind suddenly jumping back to the conscious world. “Those alien bastards thought they could take me out with my own building.”

For the first time it was really sinking in to me that if the story Hauer had told was true, that even if they were a seed inside of us, they were aliens. . . a race from another planet.

Hauer had already begun to climb down the pile of rubble toward the man he once looked up to as a leader. Upon hearing Albright’s voice, he scrambled faster, quickly crouching over his fallen hero.

With some assistance from Kiebler for my sore and shaky limbs, I scrambled toward the elderly soldier.

“Shhh, save your energy, give yourself some time to recover,” said Hauer, as he pulled a canteen from his belt.

The older man took a small drink and then looked up into Hauer’s eyes with a knowing look.

Now that Kiebler and I were closer we could see that a large section of re-bar from the exploded wall was now impaled through Albright’s lower left midsection and oozing blood at an alarming pace.

“I’m done, Hauer,” Albright said, with a sad, forlorn expression on his face. “They did me in, but I want to go on my own terms. Let me take these fuckers with me. You all need to move on and regroup so you can bring the wrath of every God-fearing American down on these fuckers.”

“Don’t say that, Captain. We can get a couple of tourniquets, tie you off, and take you with us,” argued Hauer, emotion choking his words.

“Don’t be stupid,” barked Albright. “There’s no time for that. I can hear their machines outside right now. They are preparing to regroup and enter full force this time. If you are here, then any resistance efforts that humanity can muster will be short of a valuable tactical mind.”

Through a rush of emotion, the red faced Hauer managed to say, “Thank you, sir!”

“You need to survive,” said Albright. “There’s a panel in the floor behind the cash register. It drops down into an arsenal. Load up and take all the weaponry you can carry. There are roughly 1000 pounds of C4 down there, located directly beneath me. Activate the wireless fuses and bring me the remote detonator. The armory has a tunnel that will take you to the storm drain system. There should be a manhole into the parking lot next door, but you can try to get out there. If you can’t, you can continue in the storm drain to the next manhole. It should put you into the hospital parking garage.

Hauer looked up solemnly at the rest of the group.

“One team will have to try and take the hospital,” said Hauer. “A smaller team will have to go to Memorial Coliseum and see if the radio squawk about survivors gathering there is true.”

We quickly set to work following the retired Captain’s orders. Luckily, the armory had an assortment of weapons belts and holsters. Kiebler and I helped each other quickly strap them on and load up with all manner of handguns, knives and grenades as well as ammunition while the soldiers loaded down with AK-47s and C4 explosive charges.

Alvarez pressed the radio receivers into cubes of C4 that had been piled like a pyramid and switched them on.

I leaned out of the trap door in the floor while the others waited below as Hauer strode back into the remains of the store alone. We could all hear the loud diesel engines of the heavy artillery machines pressing toward the building, along with the footsteps of at least 50 host soldiers marching toward us. The thick dust cloud made them take a cautious approach, but now that it was settling, they were preparing to attack.

Hauer grabbed Albright by the shoulders and propped him up into a sitting position, so he could face his attackers head on. He
handed the remote detonator to Albright. The former comrades stared at each other for a moment. Words escaped them. Then Albright saluted Hauer.

              “It has been an honor, Captain Albright,” said Hauer, returning the salute and ignoring the tears threatening to roll down his face.

“It has been a privilege, Master Sergeant Hauer,” Albright returned.

After another moment the two ended their salute and Hauer quickly ran over to the trapdoor and we quickly ducked back into the floor.

              “Send ‘em to hell, sir!” Freeman managed to call out as I was shutting the floor panel.

              “You can goddamned bet I will,” replied Albright over his shoulder, the last thing we heard before the panel shut.

              As soon as our escape hatch was bolted down, every person, civilian and soldier alike, broke into a sprint down the corridor to the storm drain system.

              Hauer’s shouts of “Move! Move! Move!” were nearly drowned out by the sounds of machinery and marching footsteps above.

We reached the street level manhole in the adjacent parking lot just in time to hear the brave final act of Captain Albright.

Moments before…

While the group ran down the escape tunnel the host army pressed forward. Nearly 70 armored soldiers under the control of their alien hive mind stormed through the broken windows of what had once been a busy surplus outlet. The soldiers ran in firing, expecting a fight. Some began to look around the building and at the debris, figuring out that the people inside had escaped and a group began to search for the exit as more soldiers kept pouring in. Most barely noticed an elderly human sitting in the remnants of the building as he bled to death. One soldier took notice and fired his energy rifle, hitting Albright in the chest. Luckily for Albright, the weapon was not fully charged and only shattered his ribcage with concussive force, instead of vaporizing him.

The blast forced Albright backward into the rubble, and the host soldier stood startled, looking back and forth between the human and his energy gun as Albright slowly sat himself back up. Albright glared defiantly into the cold reflective visor of the soldier walking toward him as he spit out a mouthful of dark blood. Mere feet away now, the soldier leaned forward, looking at Albright as if he were a very perplexing lab specimen. The former captain was bleeding profusely and near death, surrounded by armored soldiers looking to exterminate some humans. He looked into his assailant’s visor with a wide grin and slowly lifted the remote detonator in his hand for his would-be killer to see.

Albright let out a mighty battle roar and pressed the giant red button with his thumb.

As we peeked out the manhole, we only had to wonder
a moment whether Albright’s plan succeeded.

A thunderous roar shook the Earth. The surplus store erupted, with the alien host soldiers still pressing themselves inside. It made me think of being up close and personal with an angry volcano. For a split second the remains of the building began to topple inward before an invisible concussive force pushed them outward, followed by several giant fireballs, each one bigger than the last, blending into each other. Flames reached 50 feet high as flaming debris of building, machines and soldiers scattered for a half mile in each direction.

We were hit with a sudden wave of heat, forcing the group back down into the tunnel to escape the heat, flames, and flying debris.

Hauer gathered us and addressed the group.

“All right,” Hauer started. “A brave man just made a great sacrifice to help buy us some time.”