Striker (The Alien Wars Book 2)
Read Striker (The Alien Wars Book 2) Online
Authors: Paul Moxham
STRIKER
The Alien Wars – Book 2
By Paul Moxham
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Author:
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Copyright
2016 Paul Moxham
Version
Updated:
3rd
August 2016
All rights reserved, without
limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication
may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or
transmitted, in any form, or by any means
without the prior written permission of the copyright owner of this
book. This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands and
incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used
fictitiously.
THE ALIEN WARS
This science fiction series will tug at the heartstrings of anyone
who likes a thrilling adventure about everyday people trying to survive amid
the horrors of a post-apocalyptic world.
~*~*~
AUTHOR NOTE
Hey everyone. This is the pre-order copy of
Striker. Due to a delay, the last few chapters of this novel
is
unedited. However, if you want to receive the latest version, which will be
online after the pre-order phase, please
email
me at
[email protected] and I’ll send you a copy. Sorry for the inconvenience. Oh,
and you might notice that the first 3 three chapters are chapters from
Invasion, and that is because I have decided to end on a cliff-hanger for
Invasion, so thus I have moved those chapters to this novel.
Table of
Contents
Kenneth stopped
what he was doing and shined the flashlight at the slanted eyes in the bush. It
was a scrawny mountain lion—one that clearly hadn’t enjoyed a full meal in a
while.
He dropped the
branches that he had collected and walked
away,
heading to the left of the campground, but the eyes followed him.
He
fantasied
about climbing a tree, but he had to get back to
the teens. He walked off, faster than before, in another direction. It took all
his willpower to keep from sprinting, which would only force the creature to
strike.
Kenneth knew that
he would have to take his chances and run back to the campsite, hoping that the
fire would ward the animal off. He twisted around, trying to spot the glow of
the fire, but he couldn’t. Sweat beaded down his neck despite the cool air. If
he didn’t get to the safety of the fire, he might not survive. Frantically
fishing in his pockets, he found everything but his pistol, which he had left
back at the camp.
“Son of a …” The
mountain lion’s rumbling growl and frenzied drooling cut him off. He spun
around and saw that the red gleam in its eyes was bigger. With a start, he
realized that the animal was closing in.
If he continued
standing where he was, the predator would be on him within seconds. He had to
flee now. Not knowing if he was going in the right direction or not, he dashed
off into the darkness, using the flashlight to light up the ground in front of
him.
With a final hungry
growl, the animal stalked after him. The faster Kenneth ran, the closer the paw
slaps behind him grew.
Kenneth prayed he
was heading in the right direction, but every tree looked the same. If he was
to survive, he’d have to get lucky.
Really lucky.
He pushed past
branches and leaped over logs, his heart pounding. If he could grab a good,
strong stick, he might be able to fend the thing off, but if the ravenous
mountain lion got so much as a single bite of his leg, then that would just
doom them all later. Now was sure as hell not the time to be bedridden.
Kenneth risked a
glance over his shoulder as the growling suddenly stopped. He slowed to a jog.
“Where the hell did you go …”
He spun his
flashlight around like a baseball bat just as something lunged from the bushes
to his side. The big cat didn’t make a sound as its paws slammed against his
chest and threw him to the ground. The only light went out as the lion’s
drooling jaws clamped down on the flashlight in his hands.
Kenneth rolled
with the fall and bounced off the enraged creature as it heaved chunks of
aluminum
and spat out battery acid. That might have bought
him a few precious seconds, but the growl chasing after him sure seemed to have
a note of rage between the hunger pains.
Kenneth spotted a
slim gleam of light shining through the trees. He crashed through the
undergrowth and ignored the branches slashing his face. With the last of his
breath, he popped out of the tree line and caught sight of the campsite.
Kenneth gasped
out as he ran toward the fire, “Molly! Derek!”
The teens sat up
as he approached. “Grab a branch and wave it around!” Kenneth reached for his
backpack.
As he fumbled
inside for his pistol, the teens each grabbed a stick that was alight at one
end but cool enough to hold at the other end.
“Wave it around!”
Kenneth shouted, still trying to find the pistol.
As the mountain
lion circled the campsite, a little cautious now but far from defeated, Derek
took one side of the camp and waved his glowing stick around while Molly took
the other side.
Kenneth finally
found the pistol and, gripping it in his hand, glanced around to assess the
situation. He didn’t want to waste a bullet if it wasn’t necessary. He snatched
a stick from the fire, waved it about, and stomped his feet. The animal
continued to circle a little closer, red eyes gleaming as it searched for a
shadowy approach.
“We can’t go on
like this forever,” Derek muttered.
“What are we
going to do?” Molly asked.
Suddenly, the
mountain lion threw caution to the wind and lunged.
“
Agh
!”
As
Molly backed up near the fire, she tripped over a log and landed flat on her
back. Kenneth
leveled
the weapon and squeezed the
trigger. With his pounding heart bouncing his arms around, the bullet spat up
the dirt a good yard in front of the animal.
The mountain lion
gave a confused yelp and sprinted faster, right over Molly as she cringed and
covered her face. Without so much as a parting growl, the creature kept running
and raced back to the tree line. Kenneth kept his weapon pointed after him
until his fatigued arms finally gave out. He dropped to his knees to catch his
breath as Molly slid close to him.
“Thanks,
Kenneth.”
“Do you think it
will come back?” Derek asked.
“Probably not,”
Kenneth replied.
“I don’t think
I’ll be able to get back to sleep,” Molly said, sitting down. “And if I do,
I’ll probably dream about mountain lions attacking me.”
Kenneth smiled.
“If we build up the fire really big, I’m sure that will scare the lion if it
does choose to come back.”
“I’ll help get
some more branches,” Derek said.
Molly stood up.
“I’ll go too. I don’t want to be left by myself.”
“Okay, we’ll all
go.” Kenneth took the pistol and flashlight and headed in the opposite
direction of the hungry creature.
~*~*~
Logan
stared in
frustration as the police helicopter continued to ascend. Suddenly, the
aircraft started to descend.
“What’s
happening?” Jet asked, surprised.
Logan
shook his
head. “I don’t know, but—”
“Look! The tail
rotor stopped,” Xavier yelled.
Muscles bared his
teeth. “What a piece of luck for us.” He glanced around, and spotting some
tables and chairs, he hurried over to them. The others followed. They hid
behind the furniture.
As the helicopter
touched down, everyone checked their weapons to make sure they were working
properly.
“What’s the
plan?”
Logan
said.
“Take out the
pilot. Once he’s out of the way, Sanchez will be stranded on the roof,” Muscles
said.
“But he still has
Lucy,” Xavier argued.
“You’ll have to
rescue her then,” Muscles replied, watching as the pilot climbed out of the
machine. He glanced at
Logan
. “You and Xavier have one minute to get to Lucy. After that, we’ll
open fire on the pilot.”
Logan
nodded as he
and Xavier ducked down and skirted around the tables and chairs, past a number
of empty crates, and toward the other side of the roof. He looked at his watch.
He had thirty seconds left. He glanced at Xavier. “Cover me.”
Xavier nodded. He
watched as
Logan
waited for the pilot to climb up a small stepladder and examine the
tail rotor before he bent down and scurried toward the helicopter.
He waited for the
commotion to start. He didn’t have to wait long. Shots punctured the silence.
He watched as
Logan
threw open the door to the front seat and grabbed Lucy.
Lucy seemed to be
struggling with someone.
Logan
reached into the machine and fired a shot. As more shots erupted at
the rear of the helicopter, Xavier spotted the pilot leaning against the side
of the machine, one hand clutching his chest. The other held a pistol.
Bullets thwacked
against the metal of the machine and pierced it. Xavier watched in horror as
drops of liquid dripped out.
A shot to the
left of him made Xavier spin toward
Logan
. Sanchez
stood at the front of the helicopter with a pistol in his hand. Not wasting
time, Xavier pelted the area with bullets. Sanchez ducked before disappearing
into the blackness.
Xavier waited,
his heart racing, as
Logan
and Lucy rushed away from the helicopter. At the same time, the
pilot slumped to the ground. A second later, a bullet tore into the machine where
the liquid was dripping.
A massive boom
ruptured the area. The helicopter exploded in flames. Debris flew everywhere.
The force of the blast threw Logan and Lucy to the ground.
“Hold on!” Xavier
ran to them and helped Lucy to her feet. “Are you all right?”
Lucy slowly
nodded. “I think so.”
Logan
looked at his
fiancée. Her dress was dirty and blood dripped from a wound on her forehead,
but she was alive. He clutched her tightly, not wanting to let her go. “I
missed you so much.”
Suddenly, Sanchez,
bloody and battered, emerged from the smoke and flames and stalked toward them.
“Watch out!”
Xavier pushed Logan and Lucy to the ground and pulled the trigger.
Nothing happened.
It was empty.
Sanchez opened
fire. A round tore through Lucy’s arm. She cried out in pain.
“Run!” Xavier
shouted out as he tried to get away from the madman.
Sanchez limped
after Xavier, only to pause as Muscles, along with the rest of the team,
emerged from the darkness and opened fire.
The bullets
smacked into Sanchez’s legs and arms and he crumpled to the ground. Muscles
strode forward and fired twice more.
Sanchez released
his grip on the pistol and his head sunk to the ground.
Logan
, still
holding Lucy, advanced to the fallen body.
Muscles kept his
finger on the trigger as he approached. He picked up Sanchez’s gun and put both
weapons in his pocket. Everyone stopped a few feet from the body.
“Is he dead?”
Xavier asked.
“Looks like it,”
Muscles replied as he knelt down. He wasn’t one to gloat, and even though he knew
Sanchez had been a cruel man, he felt sorry for the way he had died. It would
have been nice to get some closure on why he had done what he had.
He frowned.
Sanchez was clutching something in his hands. Muscles reached forward and
grabbed them to pull them apart.
Sanchez opened
his eyes and grinned. “See you in hell.”
Muscles ground
his teeth when he noticed a steel pineapple in Sanchez’s hand. The pin was out,
but the spoon hadn’t been released. As Sanchez gave a final sigh and his
eyelids closed, he opened his palm completely.
Muscles glanced
up at the others, who appeared to be frozen in shock. “Run!”
Jet hesitated for
a brief second, but Xavier grabbed him and fled.
“I love you,
son!” Muscles cried with an eerie calmness.
A second later,
the concussion bowed the rooftop. Everyone got knocked to the ground by the
force of the explosion. After a few moments, they stood back up.
Jet, his
expression one of shock, stumbled toward the gruesome scene. His body was tense
as he saw the bloody remains of his father. “No!” He ran toward Muscles, whose
lifeless body was lying next to Sanchez’s.
“Wait!” Xavier
tried to grab hold of one of Jet’s arms, but the teen pushed him away.
“Let me go!” Jet
screamed as he hurried to his father’s body. He knelt down and took hold of his
wrist. As he cried out a few moments later, the others decided to let him have
some space.
Logan
sighed. “What
a horrible way to go.”
“Are you okay?”
Xavier asked, glancing at Lucy.
Lucy bobbed her
head as she shared a glance with
Logan
. “I’m all right now.”
In the glow of
the subsiding flames, the surviving members of the group walked over to where
the tables and chairs were and sat down. All of them were shocked. They were
still trying to digest what had happened when a shot rang out.
Logan
leaped to his
feet and reached for his pistol. “You don’t think he—”
“I hope not,”
Xavier interrupted, also leaping to his feet.
The two of them
raced past the
smoldering
wreck of the helicopter and
saw Jet standing by the remnants of Sanchez, a shaking pistol in his hand.
Jet tossed it to
the ground in anger and turned around to face the others. “What?”
“I’m sorry for
your loss,” Xavier said.
“Sorry for my
loss? What good is that?” Jet screeched. “Is that going to bring him back?”
“No, but at least
you can be grateful to him,”
Logan
said.
“Grateful for what?”
Jet spluttered.
“Grateful for divorcing my mother when I was just a kid?
Grateful for having to sleep on the streets for more than a year?”
