Striker (The Alien Wars Book 2) (20 page)

“Um, I believe it
is to the left,” Kenneth replied after a moment’s hesitation. “But why go
there? Won’t it be wiped out?”

“Probably, but
that’s where the troops are, if they haven’t retreated by now.” He veered the
van to the left. “Is Lucy still the same as before?”

“Yeah,” Kenneth
replied. “So what are we going to do when we reach
Redding
?”

“We’ll see when
we get there.”
Logan
took another look at fuel gauge. “I dare not go too …” He hesitated
as a large shape formed in front of him. Only by his quick thinking and
movement on the wheel was he able to avoid the stationary vehicle. “As long as
this green smoke covers the area, I can only go so fast. How is everyone
holding up back there?”

“Molly and I are
okay,” Derek said. “But I can’t see how we are going to travel far when we can
only go at this speed?”

“Well, the smoke
will only last for so long.”
Logan
craned his head as he looked up into the sky. Green smoke was all
he could see. “Sooner or later, the smoke will clear, especially if there’s a
change in the weather. But until then, we must continue on as we are.”

Silence reigned
for over two hours as the car crawled toward
Redding
. As time
passed, everyone started to cough.

“The smoke must
be coming in somehow,” Molly piped up.

Kenneth glanced
around at the windows, looking for any obvious holes. “Yes, but I can’t see any
gaps, so at least it’s coming in slowly. But it’s another reason that we can’t
go farther than
Redding
.” He looked at
Logan
. “Shouldn’t we be almost there by now?”

Logan
shrugged.
“According to the last sign I saw, we reached the outskirts of the city, but
with the smoke the way it is, I don’t—hey, I think it’s lifting.” He increased
the speed of the vehicle and eagerly scanned his eyes forward. He began to see
more and more of the surrounding area.

Everyone else was
also looking out of the van windows, and they all smiled as the minutes passed
and the sky became visible. But instead of the clear blue sky they had seen
before the green smoke, there were dark, black clouds.

“Looks like a
storm is about to hit,” Molly commented.

“Yes, which is
why the smoke dissipated so fast,” Kenneth said. “Most thunderstorms are
preceded by strong winds, so that has helped blow the toxic chemicals away.” He
glared at the
rearview
mirror. “There’s still green
smoke behind us, but as the storm moves that way, I expect that will fade
away.”

“At least now we
can drive faster,” Molly said.

Logan
poured on the
speed. Before long, they arrived at the main street of
Redding
.

“I knew it would
be pretty bad, but not like this,” Molly muttered.

Logan
sighed as he
navigated the van around the wrecked cars and fallen buildings. “I thought there
would be a chance that we’d find the military here, but it looks deserted.”

“Everyone must
have fled when the attack came,” Kenneth stated. “But I am surprised that I
can’t see a single soul. You would have thought …” He snapped his arm to the
left. “Hey, I just saw a man climb into that car.”

Logan
bobbed his
head and twisted the wheel left. “I’ll follow him and see where he goes.”

“But he could be
heading anywhere,” Molly said.

“Yes, he could,”
Logan
admitted,
“but he might also be heading to his home or some gathering point for locals.
Either way, it’s clear that in the state that
Redding
is in,
there is no use staying here any longer.”

He followed the
white sedan through the town,
traveling
left after
the first intersection and then straight ahead after the second intersection.
The debris faded away as fields of green and trees began to appear.

The sedan
suddenly turned up a dirt road and
Logan
followed
suit. However, he had to quickly brake hard as the white vehicle came to a
sudden halt. The man climbed out of the vehicle and strode over, a shotgun in
his right hand. He wore a half-torn baseball cap and had a handlebar moustache,
jeans, and a striped shirt. The man growled like a dog as he approached. “Why
are you following me?”

“You’re the only person
I saw in
Redding
, so I followed you, hoping that you would have some answers about
where everyone went,”
Logan
replied.

“They were
either captured
, killed, or fled,” the man said.

“What about the
military?” Kenneth asked, peering out from one of the side windows.

“The ones who
weren’t wiped out in the first bombing fled before the smoke came,” the man
said.

Logan
frowned. “But
that doesn’t make sense. How did they know that the smoke was coming?”

“They didn’t.”
The man glanced around at the trees. “If you want to survive, I suggest you
drive away from here as fast as possible.” He hopped in the sedan in one flash.

As the car
bounced down the dirt road,
Logan
rolled his head back at the others. “What do you think we should
do?”

“Do we have
enough gas to get to
San Francisco
?” Kenneth asked.

“No, but we
should have enough to get to the coast,”
Logan
replied.
“Then, if we can find a boat, we’ll be able to make our way to the lodge.”

“I wonder why the
military fled early,” Derek said.

“They must have
gotten scared,” Molly said.

“I believe there
is something that the man wasn’t telling us,”
Logan
said,
suddenly starting the van. He punched his foot down on the pedal and the van
shot forward.

“What are you
doing?” Molly asked.

“Finding out what
the man didn’t tell us.”
Logan
continued driving down the road, slowing down as a whirlwind of
dust
spiraled
up to his left. He bounced down the
dirt track, following the sedan, and closed the distance as the man arrived at
a farmhouse.

As the man
clambered out of his vehicle, he gazed at the approaching van. “You all just
stay here while I have a little chat.
Won’t be long.”
He climbed out and advanced on the stranger, both fists clenched tightly.

“I thought I told
you to get out of town,” the man said.

Logan
loosened his
stance. “Yeah, but I want to know why you said that.”

“Just do it.” The
man grabbed a container from his trunk and rushed over to the barn.

Logan
chased after
him. “Why aren’t you getting out?”

“I am.” The man
put the container on the ground and pushed one of two doors open.

Immediately,
Logan
spotted the
small plane over his shoulder. He jerked his thumb at the container. “I can
guess what’s in there.”

“I can’t afford
flying on just half a tank, so I had to pop into
Redding
to get some
more.” The man popped a latch on the wing and poured gasoline in.

Logan
drummed his
fingers on the wing. “Which direction are you flying in?”

“North.
My brother’s in
Canada
,
so—”

“
Logan
!” Kenneth
suddenly yelled out.

Logan
spun around
and saw that Kenneth had now stepped out of the van. He was pointing upward at
the dark sky. In amongst the clouds, several Conquerors could be seen slowly
making their way across the sky. “Damn!” He took a menacing step toward the
man. “You knew they were coming, didn’t you?”

The man hurried
forward so he could gawk up at the sky himself. “I hoped that I would have time
to fly away before they came.”

“Is that why
everyone left?”
Logan
questioned. “Because they knew that they were coming?”

The man nodded.
“The military spotted them on their radar, and knowing that there was no way
that in their depleted condition they would stand a chance against them, they
left the area and told everyone else to do the same.”

“Do you know
where they were going?” Kenneth asked.

“On the coast
somewhere,” the man replied. “The lieutenant I spoke to said something about
meeting up with the USS
Philadelphia
.”

“Isn’t that an
aircraft carrier?”
Logan
frowned. “Didn’t
San
Diego
get hit in the initial
attack?”

The man just
slumped
his shoulders as he hurried back to the aircraft. “I
have no idea. All I know is that I’m getting out of here now.”

Molly, who had
been listening from inside the van, suddenly stuck her head out. “I see a
Striker!”

Everyone jumped
to their feet as a Striker streaked out from the belly of a Conqueror. Then
another emerged from the aircraft next to it. As the fighters began to swoop
toward
Redding
,
Logan
growled, “They’re scanning the area for survivors!”

He ran toward the
van and climbed in. He gunned the engine and drove straight into the barn,
narrowly missing hitting the aircraft. He screeched to a stop and climbed out.
“We need to close the barn …” He paused as he caught sight of the man as he
left the barn. “Where are you going?”

“I have to get my
money from the house,” the man shouted over his shoulder.

Everyone gawked
as the madman ran across the dirt toward the farmhouse. They stared back and
forth between him and the Strikers, now speeding above the treetops and firing
red bolts every few seconds.

“We need to close
the barn doors before they see us,” Kenneth muttered.

“We have to wait
until the owner gets back,”
Logan
said. “Just try to stay out of the sunlight. That way, we shouldn’t
be spotted.”

A minute later,
the man emerged from the farmhouse and ran back to the barn. Hearing a noise,
Logan
glanced to
the left and saw a Striker diving toward the farm.
“Hurry!”

The man twisted
around, but by the time he saw the Striker, red bolts were hurtling toward him.
He dived to the ground and the bundle of money that he was holding flew to the
ground. As the green notes scattered in the wind, he attempted to pick up as
many as he could.

Kenneth punched
the air in desperation. “Leave the money, you fool!”

The man waited
another few seconds before he stood up, but as he ran toward them, the Striker
swirled around and spat out more red bolts from the front-mounted cannons.

As soon as one
hit the man, he fell to the ground.
Logan
shifted his
weight, preparing to rush over and drag the injured guy to cover, but another
red bolt cut the man in two well-done halves. As the Striker gained height, the
brothers used the time to shut the barn doors.

Once everything
was tidied up,
Logan
climbed into the bright red plane’s cockpit. It was in fairly new
condition. “We’ll have to wait until the Strikers are gone, but once they’re
finished, we can use this to get the hell away from here.”

“I didn’t know
you could fly,” Derek stated.

“I can’t,
officially,”
Logan
admitted. “However, I took some training lessons with Dad.” He
sighed as he rubbed his hand against the propeller. “We were planning to fly up
to
Seattle
that weekend when Dad and Mom decided to go to
Africa
.”

“So is this the
same type of plane that you were learning to fly?” Molly asked.

“It’s a slightly
different model, but the instrument panel looks exactly the same, so as long as
I can recall everything that Dad taught me, we should be all right. However,
the biggest issue will be space. As you can see, it’s only a four-
seater
.”

“Derek and I
don’t take up much space,” Molly stated.

“That might be
true, but I would feel much safer if I made two trips, as it would be
impossible for you two to have a seat each, and if a Striker were to come after
me, I’d have to make evasive
maneuvers
, and I don’t
want one of you flying through the windshield.” He fiddled around near the
instrument panel and pulled out a map. Unfolding it, he laid it on the wing.
“Looking at this, it’s going to take me roughly three hours to get to
Stinson
Beach
.”