Red the First (22 page)

Unfortunately, aliens were now posted
along the road and on all sides of the barn, trapping Red and Nate
between the building and the meadow. Red hoped and prayed the
others had made it to the safety of the bunker. He would die easier
knowing that much, but there was still a chance he might come out
of this alive. Nate too. The kid had done more than his share of
the work and the worry and deserved a shot at happiness.

The countdown watch said 5
a.m.

Red aimed his gun at an alien standing
near the tractor. Got her right in the ear. Nate shot off an entire
round in a random arc, ensuring the aliens that the humans were
still there, causing trouble.

Aliens began to wildly gesticulate
toward the barn, then started pointing at the meadow. A team of
them began to aim their instruments toward the grass. Red could
tell the Celeruns’ mother ship was still draining their resources
by the way they shook their weapons and various gadgets, as if
trying to settle a loose battery into place. Power was probably
still being diverted to the mother ship, creating blips in their
technology. Still, the aliens were beginning to suspect that the
humans were up to something. Red held his lighter to a pile of dry
leaves, fanning the flame toward the meadow grass.

“
It’s now or never,” he told
Nate.

The men crawled through the smoking
meadow toward the highway, squeezing unseen around behind the
Celeruns who had suddenly taken an interest in the growing
flames.

When the two men got to the road, the
alien orgy had broken up. Whatever that had entailed, Red didn’t
ask, but Celeruns were still socializing out on the highway. The
hovercrafts were so close, yet so far out of reach they might as
well be on the moon.

“
Maybe we should walk?” Nate
suggested. “After all the walking we’ve done in the past three
years, we can easily cover two miles on foot in less than an
hour.”

Red looked up the road. He knew from
driving it a dozen times before that it was lined with tall
honeysuckles. Combined with the early morning darkness, that would
be excellent cover. He let Nate take the lead.

They walked for a quarter of a mile,
edging close to the thick bushes, before coming to a
river.

“
Crap, I forgot about this,”
Red said, glancing nervously behind him, waiting for the pursuit he
knew would come sooner or later.

“
Should we swim?”

Red shook his head.

“
The current will carry us
downstream, and we’ll lose time. Let’s walk a little ways and see
if there’s a shallow place where we can walk across.”

Further downstream, they found a
section of the river which was both narrow and shallow. A tree had
fallen from bank to bank, allowing them to cross without dipping a
toe into the water. On the other side of the river they found an
elementary school. The sign outside said: Talent Show, Monday, 7
pm. All the broken hopes and dreams that died in a generation—it
was best not to think about it.

A batch of tall elms stopped at the
edge of the playground. A pink sunrise was spreading over the
horizon. Red felt a sense of urgency rising in his
chest.

It was already 5:20 am.

“
We’re not going to make it
at this rate.”

“
Nonsense,” said Nate. “I
can run a five-minute mile.”

“
I can’t,” Red said.
“Besides, if you run straight down the highway, the Celeruns will
see you in no time.”

“
Follow me, Bossman.” Nate
led him into a ditch with a couple of inches of water at the
bottom. They jogged through the water, sending up a spray. It was
difficult keeping up with a guy half his age and Red found himself
gasping for breath. They probably had covered a mile when familiar
squeaking and clicking come from above.

He followed Nate up the bank to see six
parked hovercraft on the edge of the road. Tall celery-colored
aliens were searching the trees on the opposite side of the road.
The aliens moved methodically, boldly, fearlessly. Perhaps he’d
feel the same way in their place, thinking a few hundred puny
humans didn’t stand a chance against a billion Celeruns. Red
noticed that they aliens had left their hovercrafts unattended. He
saw Nate eyeing the vehicles too.

“
We might as well go for
it,” Nate said.

Nate ran out into the open as soft as a
cat and pounced onto a hovercraft. Red wasn’t as agile, but claimed
his own vehicle without being noticed.

As an afterthought, he fired bullets
into the engine housing of the other hovercrafts. He hoped it was
enough to stop the Celeruns from pursuing them, but who could tell
with alien technology?

Startled Celeruns emerged from the
trees. Red ducked to avoid laser fire. The trajectory missed Red,
but the beam of light landed directly into his hovercraft. Red
heard a sizzle, and jumped clear, just as the thing exploded. Burns
dug into his skin like blazing razor blades. He writhed in place,
thinking he must be dead, but he was more shaken than
anything.

“
Climb on, Bossman!” Nate
had circled back. “Shake it off!”

That’s when he noticed the blast had
wiped out all the vehicles except Nate’s. Red found his footing and
leapt aboard behind the young man. It was a tight squeeze, but the
extra weight didn’t seem to bother the hovercraft at all. Nate sped
down the highway at full throttle, with Red constantly glancing
behind them. So far, no Celeruns, but it wouldn’t be
long.

A few moments after they’d taken off,
they saw the giant face of a smiling baby with a chin full of green
gunk. The words, “Feed Your Little One Rainbows!” filled the top of
the billboard. Nate swung off the highway and parked behind the
huge sign. One of the three cylindrical posts supporting the
billboard showed the faintest outline of the doorway.

“
So,” Nate said, his face
filled with uncertainly. “Behind this door waits the rest of my
life?”

“
Yep,” said Red, glancing at
his watch. The time was 5:45 am.

“
Oh-uh!” Nate squinted,
shielding his eyes from the rising sun with his hand, toward the
fuzzy line of silver shimmering over the western
horizon.

They flattened themselves against the
pole, not sure if they’d already been spotted.

“
One of us has to lead them
away,” Nate said. “Let me be the one, Bossman. You’re a father
and…”

“
Hell, no, kid.” Red swung a
leg over the hovercraft once again, strategically using his arms
and legs as barriers to prevent Nate from reboarding. “I’m the
mayor. It’s my responsibility. “Look after my family—will
you?”

“
They’ll be my own—Red,
there’s just one thing I need to get off my chest.”

Red raised an eyebrow. What could be so
damn important at a time like this?

“
The election…” Nate looked
to the ground. “I didn’t vote for you.”

“
I didn’t vote for me
either. Stupidest election ever.”

Nate grinned and gave the peace sign.
“Love and light, Bossman,”

Red returned with a two finger V. “Not
for peace—for victory.” Then he reached down into his pants pocket
and pulled out a sheet of paper, tossing it to Nate. “Don’t lose
this. It’s the code to get in.”

With that Red climbed back on the lone
remaining hovercraft, turned it around and headed full speed toward
the approaching aliens.

Chapter 23

The Celeruns pursued Red back to the
elementary school. He zoomed around the playground, hoping to keep
the invaders distracted until the countdown began. Finally, the
Celeruns cut off all possible routes, forcing him to stop. They
surrounded him and yanked him from the stolen hovercraft. He didn’t
resist. They took his gun and brutally slammed his face against a
merry-go-round. His vision filled with whirling fireflies, but they
couldn’t be real.

“
Leave me alone!” Red
hollered, sounding half drunk, his voice echoing over the
countryside. He lifted a finger to pop the insects he had
hallucinated. “I need to get home. Piper is calling for
me.”

He felt as helpless as one of her
ragdoll when they stood him on his feet and threw him onto the
ground. His wrists and ankles were quickly bound with the sticky
stretchy cord. He fought it, but he’d have to be a gorilla to break
it. Blood ran in his eyes. He contorted his wrists and squinted at
his watch’s display. The time was 6:01 am. Oh, God, no. The
countdown had failed.

An alien grabbed his wrist to see what
he was looking at. She shook his arms so hard in her attempt to rip
the watch off him that he thought she’d take his arm off with the
watch. Spittle flew out of her mouth as she said something harsh to
him, but it sounded like gibberish.

Suddenly, a blur of tan and black
barreled across the cracked blacktop.

“
Zena,” he whispered, heart
sinking.

Sharp teeth bared, she leapt at the
Celerun who had just mistreated Zena’s beloved master. Another
Celerun spun to see her pounce; with cold accuracy, the Celerun
aimed her laser gun.

“
No!” He tried to rise,
tried to shout, anything to distract the alien with the blaster,
but there was no need. Orange light rolled through the window of
the weapon, sizzled, then faded into vapor. More Celeruns took aim
at his attacking dog, but their lasers failed in the same
way.

Zena landed on the Celerun who had
violently shaken his arm, knocking her to the ground with such
force that the alien’s gadgets slid across the pavement. He had
never seen a Celerun’s eyes open so big, the pupils shrunk to
pinpoints. Zena buried her fangs into the Celerun’s neck. The other
aliens tried to beat Zena off with metal rods, but she buried her
fangs deeper as she pulled her victim across the ground. The mighty
Zena’s strength was fading fast under the assault though, and red
blood was splattering everywhere.

Red tried to defend her, but was
viciously beaten down with the same rods. Head woozy, kidneys
bruised, everything bloodied—he fell to the playground. They
continued to mercilessly beat both Zena and himself. When his dog
finally let go, she limped to Red’s feet covered in red blood and
yellow ick, tongue lolling out, eyes filled with suffering. His
heart broke when she looked up at him with complete
trust.

“
It won’t be long, my
faithful friend,” he said, struggling against the cords to give her
a reassuring pat on the head.

The alien whom Zena had attacked lay
there unmoving as her frustrated friends tried to give medical
assistance, but it was clear that she was dead. A Celerun pulled
Red up by the hair, shoving him for no reason that Red could see
other than revenge. Zena tried to come to his aid, but she let out
a yelp and collapsed back to the ground. A group of Celeruns were
taking a closer look at his watch when their armbands all pinged at
the same time. They pulled out their electronic tablets, read the
displays, then glanced back in the direction of the barn, looking
slightly confused.

A translator was shoved into Red’s
face. So was the watch.

“
What is this? What happened
to the humans in the barn?”

Red only smiled, which earned him a
kick in the ribs. More bones cracked. The pain felt like swords
stabbing his lungs.

“
The only reward for
sacrificing yourself through your silence is pain,” the lead
Celerun said. “But if you answer our questions, we will take that
pain away.”

Every heave of his chest caused his
sides to ripple in agony, but his burning hatred for his captors
helped to crowd it out.

“
What about my
dog?”

“
We will take away its pain,
too.”

Images of his first wife and deceased
children made a collage in his head.

“
Answer me a question,” Red
said. “And I’ll answer you a question.”

“
Proceed.”

“
Do you love your babies and
mourn if they die?” Red asked.

“
Yes,” the lead Celerun
answered. “In a way that surpasses human understanding. Time does
not pass for us in the same way as it does for you. When we lose
someone, the pain never dulls. It remains fresh until the moment we
die.”

Red leaned back with a satisfied
grin.

The translator filled with static.
Simultaneously, the oval devices on the aliens’ armbands clicked
on. “An urgent message from the mother ship.” Red caught some of it
through the translator. “Unexpected activity on the surface.” The
transmission turned into garbled buzzing, undecipherable even to
the Celeruns.

“
What do you know about
this?” A Celerun shook him by the shoulders. “What did you humans
do at 6 a.m.?”

“
Declared war on the
Celeruns.” Red raised his eyes to the sky. A lone star shimmered in
the lingering fringes of the night, just above a spreading golden
sunrise. Unsure if hell was breaking loose all over the planet, he
smiled hopefully. “You’re all gonna die.”

The Celerun’s backs arched and they
looked up.