Chapter 5
RUCK UP
He had no idea if his aim was true.
The giant bipedal alien seemed to be impenetrable. It took their hits, barely staggering backward. Hissing and clicking, the triangular head swiveled back and forth as it tried to pinpoint their location.
Standing at least eight and a half feet tall, its long arms reached past what Gabriel could only assume were its knees.
Knees, which twisted and rotated like human hips, with a ball and socket joint.
On its shoulder sat two mounted guns moving independently to the weird bug-like head between them. It was unnatural and disturbing.
And holy hell, what guns they were.
If he hadn’t seen them with his own eyes, he’d never believe it. Rail guns.
Gabriel only had a rudimentary understanding of what a rail gun was. He knew that their military had been working on them for close to twenty years, with little more than fancy 3D renderings for their efforts.
What he did know was that these things were firing softball sized chunks of metal that incinerated on impact. Not just an explosion, the things turned into molten lava, burning through anything they touched.
He couldn’t see any type of ammo on the matte black creature. Its body was all smooth lines and curves—sleek and aerodynamic. The sensors lining the points of its triangular head must be some sort of eyes or mouth; Gabriel had been aiming for them.
“Where’s the weak point?” Judd yelled as he changed out ammo. “Nothing’s penetrating!”
Gabriel traced the creature’s body again. He couldn’t find a seam in the armor. Not a single indication of a weak spot.
“Aim for the head,” he called out.
“Sounds like a cop out,” Judd griped back as he took aim, and a burst of ammunition peppered the alien’s head. It stumbled backward, the head spinning as if it were affronted by their bad manners.
Phin assailed the thing with his bigger rounds. Something sparked and cracked as the alien slowed its progress forward. Gabriel pulled his head away from the scope to see its head wobble a little.
“Go for its fucking neck!”
They had been chased by the drone thing to this intersection.
Diving behind a car flipped on its roof, they were using it as cover.
The drone seemed to have disappeared the moment it herded its prey towards something larger.
Behind them, the entire block was on fire.
Flames licked at their backs as the building’s highly combustible materials fed the fire.
Trapped between fire and an alien, they had to make a stand. One, they were losing.
Phin yanked a grenade from his belt, pulling the pin with a finger and tossing it. “Frag out!”
As one, his squad ducked down, hands over their heads on instinct.
Unlike the movies, grenades didn’t explode in a massive fireball. They blew with a small bang, smoke, and shrapnel flying out at 360 degrees. Gabriel could hear some of the debris embedding itself on the other side of the car.
Hefting his gun, he peered over the car again, only to see the alien moving through the smoke. Its chest and legs were scraped up. Chunks taken out by the hand grenade Phin had thrown. But it still wasn’t stopping.
The twin guns on its shoulder whirred with a horrifying clicking sound, then they leveled on the car.
“Move!” Gabriel shouted, sprinting away from the vehicle with his head down.
The car exploded behind them, flipping through the air to land with a crunch in the building beside them. Windows shattered and the front door splintered under the passenger side of the sedan.
Without that car, they were completely out in the open. Gabriel cast his eyes around while Judd and Phin unloaded onto the alien, a last desperate attempt to somehow sever its head or stop its progress.
The bipedal alien’s head whirred. Hefting his rifle, Gabriel grabbed the lid of a metal trash can and slung it toward the thing’s head. One of the shoulder guns neatly blew the lid out of the sky. A twisted, burning metal lump landed and skittered across the asphalt. The silver was glowing red-hot.
While the alien was distracted by the trash can lid, Gabriel moved to stand beside Phin and Judd.
He caught their eyes. “Let’s make it rain.”
Judd whooped.
Side by side, in perfect sync, the three soldiers let loose on the behemoth. Their bullets plinked off, falling back in a hail of spent brass shells being spat out onto the asphalt. In a storm of projectiles, the alien slowed. Two of the sensors on its head began cracking.
“Advance!”
They began moving forward, one agonizing step at a time.
Gabriel couldn’t hear anything but the blood rushing in his ears and the muted echo of his gun retorting in his hands.
Limbs numb, his entire world narrowed down to the scope on his rifle and the two men beside him.
Step by agonizing step, they pushed the thing backward.
Phin’s belt-fed rifle was doing the heavy work. Finally, holes and dents in the creature’s armored chest were beginning to appear.
Then they heard the clicking.
From their right.
Phin turned, grabbing Gabriel and pulling him to the ground just as something big sailed over him. They landed with a thud, rolling to their feet. Judd wasn’t so lucky.
It was another alien. This one had four legs and some weird snapping pinchers attached to its chest. Faster than the bipedal, it clambered to regain traction from its jump.
Metal feet sparked against the street as it turned to face them.
The little pinchers under its chest clacked open and closed excitedly.
Gabriel reached for the gun he’d dropped. Palm scraping against the gravel, he just barely snagged the stock, hauling it towards him. Jumping to his feet, he unleashed several controlled bursts at the quadruped’s head.
“That’s a fucking ugly bitch!” Phin grated, joining him.
Judd was holding his arm, blood pooling from his fingers as he struggled to get his knees under him.
The bipedal stepped over to the shorter alien, standing behind it like an owner about to sic its dogs on a couple of intruders.
The thing whined, then clicked twice.
There are some things Blake will never be able to forget. The smell of his mom’s perfume. His father’s laugh whenever some cornball commercial came on. The feeling of freedom the first time he drove a car by himself.
He never thought the sound of a human melting would be one of them.
The man under his hands gasped wetly, the skin congealing to his bones as his blood boiled.
Blake froze, his hands hovering above the man as he tried to think of something, anything, he could do to save him.
There was nothing in his training that could have prepared him for the wet popping noise of skin sloughing onto the pavement, dripping from his bones like a melting candle, and the final shattering gurgle of the man finally dying.
“Blake!” Tommy’s shrill cry shattered his concentration. He looked up in time to see his EMT dragging a half-conscious woman from the street. One of the metallic dog-looking things raced towards them.
Jerking to his feet, he ran towards the truck.
The fire extinguisher was hooked right inside the door.
Jerking it from its holder, he ran forward, untangling the hose from the clamp holding it to the metal cylinder.
Blake jumped over some downed power lines laid across the street, limp and dead.
No longer dangerous now the electricity was down.
The creature did some weird whistling screech as Blake approached, its stupid claws chattering.
Heart in his mouth, he pointed the hose at the thing and sprayed white foam the couple of feet between them.
At a full run, the four-legged thing braked, sliding forward until it struck Blake.
Knocked on his back, he tried to roll out of the way of the powerful hind legs.
Shaking its triangle head, the thing tried to rid itself of the foam clinging to its sensors, or eyes—whatever they were. Blake rolled out from under it, bringing the fire extinguisher down onto its head twice before one of its legs rotated and kicked him.
Flying backward, he landed hard. Seeing stars, his brain was screaming that he needed to get up. His legs wouldn’t listen, and he couldn’t breathe. His lungs felt like pancakes.
Enraged clicking and chittering pierced through his wheezing. He managed to push himself onto his elbows just as the thing got one bulbous eye clear. Boots scrambling against shattered safety glass and gravel, he backed up until he hit the curb.
Tommy stepped over him, leveling a little black remote at the thing. Two wires shot out, embedding between its neck and curved back. Electricity arced from the taser, and the monster shrieked, a shrill whistling that made Blake wince.
His partner dropped the taser and grabbed Blake under the arms, yanking him to his feet and leading him away.
“Your mom?” he wheezed.
“Yeah, she gave it to me for muggers.”
They limped to the back of the ambulance where several of the people they had found alive were huddled.
Tears streaked down their faces. Tracks of skin between the mud and blood.
They looked painfully average—a woman in athleisure wear, a man in a ragged suit, another woman in skinny jeans and a t-shirt that might have been ripped when she bought it.
“You’ve got to get out of the city,” Tommy told them, letting Blake support himself on the back of the ambulance. He was trying to convince his lungs they needed to inflate.
“Where?” the woman in jeans asked, her thick eyeliner smudged across her face. Or maybe it was just a black eye.
“Anywhere rural,” Blake answered, his breath coming back. “Secluded. Head for a military base or something.”
“What about you?” the man asked. He was missing three teeth, and his arm was mangled. Probably beyond repair.
Blake huffed, gingerly standing. Everything hurt. The thing was gone. They apparently didn’t like to be shocked.