Invasion (The Alien Wars #1) (16 page)

“Shoot!” Kenneth cursed. “I thought it was just one persistent Seod, but now it makes sense.”

“God knows how many there are,” Doug said as he gunned the engine. “Hold on tight everyone. I’ll have to put the pedal to the metal if we’re going to survive.”

The snowmobile roared off across the snow. Derek and Molly ducked their heads as green bolts hit the snow. A few ineffectively ripped through the body of the snowmobile, not causing any apparent damage.

Kenneth fired his pistol, but the bullet didn’t seem to hurt the Seod. He pocketed the weapon and hung on tight to Doug. The snowmobile swerved to and fro as Doug
maneuvered
the machine through the trees.

After emerging on the other side of the trees, the snowmobile headed back toward
Tahoe
Summit
Village
, when another Seod emerged from the thicket of trees.

Molly gripped her brother’s waist and held on tight as the snowmobile veered right and left, winding its way up the mountainside. Luckily, none of the bolts had hit them, but it was only a matter of time.

Just as Doug swerved to the left, a green bolt hit one of the ropes that connected the sled to the snowmobile.

“
Agh
!”
Molly cried out.

As Kenneth looked back at her, he saw the sled sliding to the left and right. He grimaced. “Hang on tight.” He leaned forward and shouted in Doug’s ear, “We have to slow down. One of the ropes split.”

“No!” Derek cried from below.

Kenneth glanced back and saw that the other rope had broken. Now all that connected them to the teenagers was the rope Derek was gripping in his hand.

“Hang on!” Kenneth turned back to Doug. “Slow down. I’m going to see if the rifle has an impact on him now that he’s wounded.”

Kenneth grabbed Doug’s rifle and fired. The bullet hit the
Seod’s
leg and bounced off. Trying again, he aimed for the helmet in an effort to distract the alien. He missed.

Before he could fire again, a green bolt hit the back of the snowmobile. The impact caused the vehicle to swerve to one side. The sled followed, and Derek lost his grip on the rope.

The teenagers cried out as the sled continued heading to the right while the snowmobile turned left.

“We’ve lost the sled!” Kenneth took an impotent punch at the air. “Turn around!”

~*~*~

At precisely the same moment the shotgun went off,
Logan
fired his pistol. Both men raced the falling brass to the ground. Peter, unhurt, hurried over to
Logan
and helped him up.

As
Logan
got to his feet, he heard punching and shouting coming from the other side of the vehicle. As blood dripped from his arm, he tore off part of his shirt and wrapped it around the spot where the blood was coming out. The two of them then hurried around to find that both soldiers were lying on the ground.

“Looks like you did better than me,”
Logan
said.

Xavier frowned as he examined
Logan
’s arm.
“Looks like it’s just a flesh wound.
We’ll patch it up when we get back to the warehouse.”

Logan
nodded and turned to Baldy. “Why didn’t you tell us about the Humvee?”

“Don’t blame me. I didn’t know. They must have added it as a security measure.” Baldy looked at his watch. “The boat will be arriving in ten minutes. We don’t have time to waste. Let’s move the sedan and get going.”

“But there’s four of us and only three of them,” Peter pointed out.

Baldy nodded. “One of us will have to head back to the warehouse.”

Logan
thought. “Well, Muscles wanted to see if Xavier and I could do this job, so we should stay.”

“And I know the layout of the pier,” Baldy stated.

“So that leaves me,” Peter said.

“You could always be our backup,” Xavier said.

“That’s fine. I’ll just head back to the warehouse,” Peter replied.

~*~*~

As soon as the sled headed away from the snowmobile, Derek knew they were in trouble. And when the Seod decided to chase after them, he knew that they were in deep trouble.

As the sled bounced over the snow and headed toward some trees, he realized that the only way they’d have a chance at outrunning the creature was if they went downhill.

Seeing that the downhill slope was toward the right, he waved his arm at his sister, “Lean to the right! We have to go down the hill.”

Molly, with her hands firmly wrapped around her brother’s waist, leaned to the right as much as possible.

“Not that much!” Derek yelled as the sled started to tip over.

“Sorry!” Molly replied.

Green bolts hit the snow all around them, getting closer every second. Then, just when Molly thought that one was going to hit them, the sled dipped down and their speed increased.

It had reached the downhill slope. Both Molly and Derek breathed a sigh of relief. They’d spent the last four winter holidays in
Aspen
,
Colorado
and were well versed in skiing and sledding.

“Do what I do,” Derek said. “If I lean left, you lean left. If I lean right, you lean right, okay?”

Molly nodded as she glanced back at the Seod. The creature had narrowed the gap ten seconds earlier, but now, on the downhill slope, the teenagers had opened up a slim advantage.

As well as this, since the Seod was running down the snowy slope, his aim was not as good as before. None of the green bolts even came close. Before long, the Seod stopped shooting and concentrated on running.

Molly quizzed Derek, “Do you think he’s after the briefcase?”

“Probably,” Derek said.

“But why is he chasing us then? Can’t he see that we don’t have it with us?”

“I don’t know,” Derek shouted back. “Just concentrate on getting down the mountain and hope that Kenneth comes after us soon.”

Molly looked back up the mountain but couldn’t see any sign of the snowmobile. But since they were
traveling
along a small trail and swerving back and forth amongst the trees in an effort to lose the Seod, she didn’t think that she would see them.

“Maybe we should head for one of the ski runs!” Molly jerked her thumb at the closest one. “There’s no way the snowmobile can follow us there.”

Peering behind him, Derek saw that the Seod wasn’t having the best of time running down the slope, sliding here and there, but he was still keeping up. If they were going to make a move, now was the time.

“Okay!” Derek shouted back. “Let’s head left.”

~*~*~

Kenneth looked over his shoulder as the snowmobile thundered down the slope. They still hadn’t seen any sign of the sled and, making things worse, there was a Seod right on their tail.

“Go faster!” Kenneth ducked down as far as he could.

Doug shook his head. “I can’t! I’m going—” He paused as the snowmobile was hit by two green bolts in quick succession. The sudden impact made the machine swerve to the right and over a rock.

The snowmobile leaped into the air before it came crashing down. Kenneth lost his grip on Doug’s waist and flew off the snowmobile, hitting the ground with a thud. He watched helplessly as the machine
plowed
into a tree.

“No!” Kenneth rushed up to the snowmobile as fumes poured out of the engine. He quickly checked Doug. He was dead.

Anger shot through Kenneth. He glanced back at the Seod as more green bolts hit the motionless machine. After grabbing the skis that had been tied to the side of the snowmobile, he turned and raced deeper into the woods.

He had just taken a couple of steps when a thunderous fireball erupted. The exploding snowmobile showered fragments down from the sky.

Luckily, none hit Kenneth. He stumbled to his feet and hurriedly put the skis on. Grabbing the poles, he started skiing down the hill, desperate to put distance between him and any aliens.

As the guard let the Humvee and truck go through into the
harbor
, Logan, who was driving the truck, breathed a sigh of relief. They were not on the home stretch yet, just a little bit closer.

A man indicated where
Logan
had to park. He stopped the vehicle, climbed out, and went around to the back of the truck.

Once the back of the vehicle was open, the men from the boat started carrying the goods from their vessel to the truck.
Logan
wasn’t sure what to do, so he and Xavier leaned against the vehicle. He looked on with interest at the boxes being piled into it. There was fruit, canned food, ammunition, weapons, and even gas cans.

Baldy leisurely walked over. “Sit tight. We have someone coming.”

Logan
casually glanced around and he caught sight of a smartly dressed man striding toward them.

“Hey!” called out the man. “What do you think you’re doing?”

~*~*~

Kenneth stared in shock. Two hundred feet up the hill were the two teenagers. They were sitting by their wrecked sled. A Seod was striding toward them, a silencer in his hand.

There was no way he could cover the two hundred feet in time to save the teenagers, so he did the only thing he could think of. He raised his pistol into the air and fired, not stopping until he was out of ammunition. As he did so, he cried out, trying to attract the creature’s attention.

“Hey! Over here! Hey!” Kenneth stopped as the Seod turned. He grabbed the briefcase out of the backpack and shook it about in his hands, making sure that the creature saw it.

Within seconds, the Seod had turned and was sprinting down the hill toward him. Kenneth hurriedly packed the briefcase into the backpack and started skiing away.

Green bolts slammed into the snow around him and he realized that if he were to survive, he had to concentrate. He took hold of the poles just a little bit tighter and pushed them just a little bit deeper in the snow as he zigzagged through the trees, hoping he’d be able to lose the Seod.

~*~*~

When
Logan
didn’t answer, the man pointed to the boxes that were still on the vessel. “Go and move those or I’ll report you to Sanchez!”

“Yes, sir.
Right away, sir,” Logan said. “Come on, men.”

As the man watched, the three of them went to the boat and each grabbed a box. As they walked back and placed the goods in the back of the truck, the man walked away.

Logan
threw a glance at Xavier. “Phew, that was close.”

“Let’s just hope that no one else comes and disturbs us,” Xavier said.

“They won’t, as long as we do the job. Come
on,
let’s get the rest of the goods.”
Logan
hurried to the boat, and talking between the three ceased.

As the last of the boxes were carried into the truck five minutes later, and the men who had helped them walked away,
Logan
turned to Baldy. “Are we done here?”

Baldy nodded. “Just follow me. And don’t get lost.”

“Don’t
worry,
I’ll be right behind you.”
Logan
glanced around the pier one last time. There were still plenty of men with guns around, and he realized that this place was a stopping ground for numerous boats.