Max Arena (3 page)

‘What are
they?’ Elsa whispered from behind Max.

‘They’re dead,’
Max replied. ‘Get in the car.’

The two young
men sprinted past Max, unhindered by him or the gunmen. Now Max had
a clear view of the newcomers and he immediately began sizing them
up. They were essentially humanoid in form, but very tall. Max
stood at six feet and three inches and even from where he stood, he
could tell these beings were easily two to three inches taller than
himself. They were also powerfully built, their heavily muscled
arms and legs moving fluidly as they ran after the two young
men.

However, most
striking was their skin, its texture ruddy and gnarled, like
driftwood on a storm swept beach, but it was the colour. Black. Not
jet black, but iridescent black, the metallic sheen making them
glisten in the early morning light. They also wore what looked like
some sort of silver body armour with matching helmets and utility
belts around their waists on which hung some small implements. To
say they were aliens was obvious, but that was not Max’s first
thought. His mind turned immediately to defence. He was the only
thing standing between these creatures and his family and nothing,
absolutely nothing was getting past him while he lived.

‘I’m not
leaving you,’ Elsa said from behind him.

‘Get in the
car,’ Max shot back, his voice quiet and firm with no edge of fear.
‘You’ll be safer there.’

‘No, we won’t,’
she replied.

One of the
black clad gunmen finally found the nerve to speak, shouting as
aggressively as he could at the beings.

‘Stop or I
shoot!’ he shouted, his gun wavering in the face of the two loping
creatures.

Max no longer
had time to urge Elsa to move. He fixed his sights on the first
creature. That was where he would start, but not where he would
finish. The creatures ran on.

‘I mean it!’
the gunman continued shouting. ‘I’ll shoot!’

Then suddenly
the first creature pulled up, his arms spreading out to the sides.
A gurgled grunt sounded and the second creature stumbled to an
abrupt stop behind it, issuing its own incoherent grunt. The first
creature stared straight at Max, frozen in place. Max stared back.
No one moved.

Then the
creature grunted again and gesticulated in Max’s direction. The
second one also peered closely at Max for a few seconds before
erupting into a series of grunts and gurgles as well. By now both
creatures were pointing at Max and waving their arms around, their
alien language much more energetic now.

‘What are they
doing?’ Elsa asked.

‘No clue,’ Max
replied without shifting his focus, ‘but they’re pretty jumpy.
Maybe they’re worried about the guns?’

‘I doubt it.
They’re looking at
you
. Not at these other blokes with their
guns out.’

Then the first
creature pulled one of the implements off its belt and grunted into
it. After a few more grunts and gesticulations, it reaffixed the
implement back onto its belt.

‘I’m not sure,’
Elsa started, ‘but why do I get the awful feeling that he just
called in reinforcements?’

‘Come on!’ the
team leader’s shout sounded from behind them. ‘Get in the car now!
While you’ve got a chance!’

‘I’m not
getting in that car,’ Elsa said.

‘And I’m not
making you,’ Max answered. ‘Whatever these things are, we’re all
fronting up to them together out here.’

Max felt Elsa’s
hands rest on his shoulders from behind. He could also feel his
kids arms wrapped around his thighs. It was all the encouragement
he needed. Then a new sound kicked in.

Running feet,
slapping on the footpath came from behind Max. He quickly flicked a
glance over his shoulder and saw three more of the aliens emerge
from the driveway of the apartment block up the street. Then a
similar noise came from across the street. Four more creatures were
now charging over the road towards them.

‘Get in the
car!’ the team leader raged, his desperation matching his flushed
face and the veins ridging up his neck.

Max ignored him
and looked around. ‘Get in the arch,’ he instructed his wife,
pointing to the pedestrian entry into their apartment block. It was
a bricked pathway fronted by a concrete arch about three metres
wide and eight feet high. Either side of it, the fence was well
over six feet high. If he positioned himself in the middle with his
family behind, he could oppose the creatures two at a time at most
and they would struggle to get around behind him. It would have to
do.

Elsa pulled the
kids through the arch and deep onto the path to allow Max to stand
a few metres in front of them.

‘What are you
doing?’ the team leader shrieked.

‘You look after
yourself,’ Max replied without looking at him. Instead he looked
around at the nine aliens that had essentially surrounded them. The
team leader by now had drawn his own gun and was backing up into
the space in front of Max on the footpath. His two colleagues were
doing likewise, so now Max had them as human shields in front of
him.

‘I’d put your
guns away and save your skins,’ Max said to the gunmen. ‘They’re
here for me. Not you.’

‘My orders are
to bring you in,’ the team leader said. ‘Not let these gorillas
take you first.’

‘Your guns
won’t be enough.’

‘Let’s find out
about that,’ the team leader snarled back, his upper lip
curling.

Max turned to
his family. ‘Crouch down and stay low,’ he said. ‘These blokes are
going down shooting.’

Elsa nodded and
pulled the two children in tighter, huddling them close on the
ground at the same time. Max turned back.

The nine aliens
held their ring around the gunmen, but were ever so slightly
closing in tighter and tighter. At this stage, none of the
creatures had tried to present a weapon. Meantime, the team leader
held his aim on the creature directly in front of him.

‘Aim for the
heads!’ he shouted to his men. ‘Single shot into each one!’

The creatures
continued to close.

Elsa covered
her children’s faces with her arms and bowed her own head.

Max stood as
firm and as tense as a bear.

Then a gunshot
sounded. The team leader had fired his pistol, the report
deafening. The creature he was aiming at dodged sideways with
lightning reflexes, the bullet whizzing across the street. Then the
other two men also fired, but their targets also dodged out of the
way. The team leader fired again, but it was too late. The
creatures moved with frightening speed and agility. In a split
second, all nine aliens had converged on the three men and buried
them beneath a mass of writhing, glistening bodies.

Max stepped
back a pace, completely helpless to prevent the assault. Seconds
later, the aliens straightened and three of them dragged the three
unmoving men further away down the footpath. Max could not tell if
the men were alive or dead. It didn’t matter because now it was his
turn

With the bodies
out of the way, the nine aliens regrouped in front of Max, tightly
knit and poised. Max held his ground, his feet planted at shoulder
width and his arms tensed by his side, fists clenched and knuckles
white. His gaze flicked back and forth between the alien faces
staring him down. The creatures’ bright blue orbs inside their
deeply cowled eye sockets betrayed nothing. Then he noticed a
jitter in the eyes of the one on the far left, its features
slightly more twitchy than the rest. Max bore his gaze into its
face, seeking to force an error and he got what he wanted.

The creature
suddenly lunged forward out of sync with the rest, its arms
reaching ungainly forward. Max let it come and then let fly with a
savage, straight left punch, smashing into its face and sending it
reeling backwards to the ground in a crumpled heap.

The remaining
eight creatures watched mutely as their fellow soldier was brutally
felled. They then returned their attention to Max and collectively
shuffled around the circle, filling the gap of their fallen
comrade.

Max continued
to eye them off. No additional weaknesses showed, but at least he
had marginally improved his odds. Then without warning, the two
directly in front of him charged forward. Max met them with quick
fire, straight right and left punches to their faces. Both aliens
pummelled backwards. Then two more waded in from either side. A
simultaneous side kick to the right and driving punch to the left
dispatched both of them.

Five down. Four
to go.

Then all four
remaining aliens lunged forward, their long arms scrabbling to gain
a hold of Max. Max in turn swatted the gaggle of limbs away and let
fly with a flurry of lethally directed blows from both his hands
and his feet and in mere seconds, the four aliens lay in an
unmoving ring of bodies around him.

Max quickly
surveyed his victims. They were all out for the count. He turned to
find his wife and kids peeking up at him from their huddle.

‘You okay?’ he
asked.

‘Yes,’ Elsa
said.

‘Did you beat
the bad guys?’ Jason asked meekly.

The sound of
more flapping feet rattled from both sides of the street.

‘Not yet,’ Max
said. ‘Stay with Mummy. She’ll protect you.’

Elsa tried to
smile. Max turned back to the street and looked about. He counted
at least fifteen more of the black, loping creatures, all
converging on him. Clenching his fists again, he summed them
up.

They attacked
in groups of two or three, restricted by the arch around Max. Elsa
struggled to absorb the battle, but it was clearly one sided. Max
held the upper hand the whole time. Her husband’s body transformed
into a whirling blur of fists, elbows, knees and feet, all of his
blows connecting with sickening accuracy and power. Fighting
relentlessly and without pause, the conflict lasted maybe a few
minutes, but it felt like much longer to Elsa. Despite wanting to
shield the children’s view of the fight, she found herself
unconsciously watching it and allowing Jason and Millie to also
watch their father pummel the strange, hapless creatures, their
little, upturned faces filled with a mixture of fear and
wonder.

Max spun one
last time and launched a right foot into the head of the last
creature, sending the alien spinning violently away to crumple into
the gutter. It was over. Max looked at the carnage surrounding him.
Still standing firm in the mouth of the arch in only his boxers, he
had not a scratch on him. He did not bother to count the number of
felled aliens, but if had, he would have needed more fingers and
toes.

‘Is it
finished?’ Elsa asked.

Max continued
to scan the street and the surrounds. Then he saw them. Still more
of the creatures lurked around corners and behind cars up and down
the street. Slowly they emerged from hiding and began to cautiously
shuffle towards him.

‘Not even
close,’ Max said, not at all breathless after his ordeal. ‘We could
be here a while.’

‘Are there any
people around who can call triple oh?

Max looked
around again. ‘There are people looking out the windows and some
coming out onto their balconies.’

‘Help!’ Elsa
immediately called out. ‘Somebody help!’

Max held his
attention on the gathering creatures. He now estimated at least
fifty or so more of the black skinned aliens in sight and quite
probably still more of them coming out of hiding.

Then the front
passenger door of the white Land Cruiser burst open and one of the
black clad soldiers from the night before leaned out.

‘I’ve called
for backup!’ he yelled. ‘Triple oh lines are jammed, but I got
through to the local army base and they’re choppering in two
platoons!’

Max continued
to eye off the opposition. ‘That won’t be enough,’ he said
quietly.

‘Why aren’t
they attacking?’ Elsa asked.

‘They know what
they’ll get if they do,’ Max replied.

‘But there’s so
many?’

Suddenly, a
single, much larger alien barged its way onto the scene, pushing
past the others. It was at least seven feet tall and sported a
pattern of blue stripes and dots on its breast plate.

‘I think the
boss is here,’ Max said.

The black clad
man in the Land Cruiser glanced around and then hurriedly retreated
back inside the cabin, slamming the door shut.

The alien
newcomer loped straight up to Max who was ready to bring him down
too if needed. The newcomer stopped at the edge of the crush of
bodies and slowly scanned them. He then looked at Max and grunted.
Max stared him down. Then the alien retrieved an implement from his
belt and held it up in front of him. Suddenly, the air between Max
and the alien shimmered and a holographic image appeared.

The image
depicted a similar looking alien, but with piercing green instead
of blue eyes and a silver circlet around its bony crest. It was
hard to tell, but to Max it looked like the creature was smiling.
Then it spoke, in English.

‘I have found
you,’ the creature said in a guttural tone. ‘You have proven most
difficult to locate, but now my quest is complete.’

‘What do you
want?’ Max asked evenly.

‘I want you to
die,’ the alien replied, his eyes glaring out of the holographic
image.

‘Why?’

‘You are the
last remaining life in the royal Nar’gellan bloodline and with you
dead, there can be no challenge to my rule.’

‘What are you
talking about?’ Max said quietly, but firmly, continually flicking
his gaze back to the surrounding street to monitor the movements of
the slowly increasing numbers of aliens.

‘Don’t be
insolent!’ the creature shot back, its nostrils flaring. ‘You know
who you are. I know your mother told you before she abandoned
you.’

The aggression
failed to pique Max as he kept scanning the surrounds.