Kent turned to me and shrugged. “I’ve decided something, Freddie.”
“What’s that?” Freddie asked.
“I don’t like numbers that are a multiple of five as much as you do.”
The alien started to bash into the other side of the door. I jumped on each thud. “Will that door hold?” I asked pointing at it.
“I hope so.”
“Now what do we do?”
“We try another.”
“What happened to your plan? Find the armory. Find some food. Find somewhere safe to sleep?”
“It might take me awhile to find those things. So, I’ve decided I’ll search for them in the morning.”
“You’re that lost?”
“It really is a big base.”
“Apparently so.”
The metal of the door warped outward, a crack appearing. Another thud and the door burst open, two sections flying free, one going to the left and the other to the right, each skidding across the corridor’s floor and sending up sparks.
Kent fired and hit the alien in the chest with the blast. Freddie climbed from his back and ran to me. I picked him up and backed away from the fight. Kent fired again, but nothing happened, other than a clicking noise.
The alien reached its one remaining arm out and grabbed Kent’s shotgun. It picked him up off the floor with it; Kent’s arms stretched straight, his feet dangling. He dropped from the gun, landed in a crouch.
The alien tossed the gun to the side and kicked one of its long legs at Kent. Kent rolled, stopped next to my feet. He looked up at me, his eyes wide. “Run,” he screamed. The alien grabbed one of his legs and started to pull him toward it.
I didn’t move. I was frozen to the spot. Freddie started to cry. I rocked him up and down in my arms, trying to comfort him. I needed comforting myself. The alien slammed Kent into one of the walls of the corridor. The sound his body made on impact was sickening. It sent a shudder through my whole body.
I placed Freddie on the floor and held his head so he was looking into my eyes. “Listen,” I ordered him. “I need to help Kent. I can’t be fretting about you. You have to stay here. Don’t move. Unless … unless Mommy or Kent go to sleep.” A tear ran down my face. Freddie nodded.
I turned to Kent and froze again. The alien slammed him into the wall once more and then threw him to the floor, like an angry child disregarding a toy in a temper tantrum. Kent stood, holding his side, and turned to the alien. The alien roared, opening all its mouths, spittle flying.
I looked at Freddie. He stood where I’d placed him, his hands over his eyes. I looked back at Kent. He kicked the alien in the leg. The leg bent, but it didn’t look as if the kick had caused any harm to the beast. It just slashed its hand at Kent.
I took a deep breath.
The alien’s hand hit Kent in the face. He fell onto his side. He had three claw marks running over a cheek. I prayed the cuts weren’t deep. Then I charged, screaming. The alien placed one of its feet on Kent and rolled him onto his back. Next it used the same foot to pin him to the floor, the claws coming from the end of its toes digging into Kent’s chest.
I dived, my arms outreached. My arms hooked around one of its legs before I found the floor. Then I landed. The alien hadn’t budged. It looked down at me as I looked up at it. It raised the leg I had ahold of, lifting me off the floor.
It kicked the limb and my grip was broken. My back smashed into one of the walls and I slid down onto my butt. The alien had turned its attention back to Kent. It snapped its jaws at him. Kent brought his hands up and pressed them to the alien’s eyes, pushing its head back just far enough back for the jaws to clamp shut inches from his face.
I got to my feet as fast as I could. It wasn’t as fast as I wanted to, but I was in more pain than I’d ever felt. I quickly looked back at Freddie. He was still standing in the same position. I looked at Kent. He still had his hands in the alien’s eyes, was managing to keep the mouths from him, but he wouldn’t be able to do it for much longer.
I ran to the rear of the alien. Then I jumped. I landed on its back and wrapped my arms around its thick neck. It reached behind with its arm and dug its claws into my shoulder. I cried out and it threw me back into the wall.
I got up again, the pain even worse. Blood was running down my back. I had three holes in the shoulder of my hoodie, all of them lined with blood. I ran once more, this time I dropped to the floor at Kent’s feet when I’d reached the fray.
I pulled the Hitler Youth knife from his boot and stabbed the alien in its side. It pulled its head from Kent as I pulled the knife from its flesh. I stabbed again but it hit me in the face with the back of its hand before I was able to drive it home.
I spun in the air, the lights of the corridor blurring my vision. I crashed down on my side, the knife still in my hand, the alien in my line of sight, blurred and wavy, stepping from Kent to charge at me.
It raised one of its feet to stomp down at me. Kent jumped on its back. I raised the knife. The foot stomped. The knife went through the bottom of it. Kent grabbed a bugged eye in each of his hands. The alien stumbled back, taking the knife with it. Kent screamed and pulled his hands to his sides, falling from the alien’s back, popping its big eyes from its head.
The alien stumbled around, waving its arm, blind swinging for any target it could hit. I stood and ran to the alien, ducking under a swing once I was close. I grabbed the leg that had the knife in the foot. Kent dropped to the floor and pulled the blade from the monster.
I kept hold of the leg, being flung in many differing directions, as Kent stood and stabbed the bastard until it fell down, dead. I was covered in dark sticky blood, so was Kent. I had my own blood on me too, as did Kent.
I let go of the leg and Kent helped me to my feet. He looked as bad as I felt. “You look as bad as I feel,” he said. I smiled. Freddie screamed.
Kent turned to Freddie, revealing my son to me. An alien had hold of him and was raising him to its open mouths.
JUNE
Lexion was back standing before Alec and me even had a chance to react with more than just our eyes going wide at the sight of the alien bursting through the doors. She fired her biomechanical arm and the alien exploded in a green flash, its blood splattering the concrete of the bunker like an abstract painting. She looked down at us and said, “I think you were right, it is safer if you two stay with me.”
BRAD
The alien grabbed hold of the roof of the Humvee and tossed it aside like it was of not much concern. It toppled, roof, wheels, roof wheels, flipping, bits breaking free, and rolled into the tree line at the side of the road with a clatter, its headlights still lit. Sara turned to the alien and it slashed at her with one of its clawed hands. I raised my rifle and took aim. I fired. The bullets struck the alien, but didn’t stop its attack, it was still able to dig its talons into Sara’s side and lift her from the ground, toward its mouth.
ZACK
The alien in the tube twitched its finger again and tapped on the glass. Cynthia stood next to me and held my hand. I broke my hand from hers and brought my rifle to my shoulder. She jumped as it tapped the glass again, then she took aim with her rifle too. The alien in the tube shouldn’t have been our main concern. The alien that must have moved into position at the door to the room we were in should have been though. It burst through; we spun in that direction to see the metal door flying at us.
NINA
The alien brought Freddie closer to its mouths. If Kent and me ran we’d not make it to the monster in time to save my child. We both shared a quick look to acknowledge the fact. Then Kent flipped the knife in his hand, so he had hold of the blade, and he threw the knife at the alien with a grunt. The knife spun through the air, appearing as if it was moving in slow motion to me, as Freddie neared the sharp rows of teeth drooling at the prospect of ripping his head from his shoulders.
JUNE
Lexion had the hologram map open, a red line was tracing our movement as we ran down a corridor in the base. A timer started to countdown at the side of the image. I couldn’t make out the numbers, but I didn’t need to, since Lexion threw a look over her shoulder and said to Alec and me, “we are running out of time.” I swallowed, threw a look to Alec, he did the same. I prayed we’d make it in time. I didn’t want to live the rest of my life, however short that might be, in the world of one of the horror sci-fi novels I read.
BRAD
My bullets cut into the alien, its body jolted back and forth from the impacts, its dark blood spraying onto Sara, her blood seeping into her vest from its claws. It dropped to a knee, and while I ran toward them, I fired more shots. Sara had been brought closer to its mouth, the shock of more projectiles hitting its torso, stopped her from having her head placed between its jaws, but it was soon bringing her toward them again once it recovered.
ZACK
I grabbed Cynthia and pulled her to the floor. The metal door smashed into the glass wall behind us, covering us in shards, and continued its flight into the tube the tapping alien was in. It broke the glass of the tube into a million pieces and spilled the alien and the liquid to the floor with a splash and thud. The alien in the doorway took two long strides forward and was close enough now to reach a three-fingered hand toward each of us.
NINA
Kent could throw just as well as he could shoot. The blade of the knife stuck into the center of the alien’s head and it dropped Freddie to the floor. Freddie cried out in pain and the alien did the same as it stumbled back. Kent and me ran forward. We didn’t have a weapon anymore; we had to hope the alien didn’t have enough time to recover before we made it to Freddie. It did though. I cursed God. The knife was still in the alien’s head as it raised one of its clawed feet over the top of Freddie and stomped its deadly toenails down toward him.
JUNE
Lexion blasted open a door. It flew inward and we all stepped into a large hangar. It was empty, just a mass of open space. Lexion checked her map again. She slowly turned to us as it whooshed off. “We’re in trouble,” she said. “It should be here. The ship, the ship the humans found in Roswell, it should be here.” She screamed and fired blasts from her arm into the hangar out of frustration.
BRAD
I was at the foot of the alien; Sara was an inch from its mouths. I fired but my gun was dry. Sara’s head was in the center of its mouths; the jaws ready to clamp shut on her. I turned the rifle so the butt was pointing toward the ground and jammed it into the mouths. They clamped shut, the rifle keeping them open long enough for me to pull Sara from them, but not from its grasp.
ZACK
We both angled our rifles at its legs and compressed our triggers fully. The hail of bullets cut into each of the limbs and removed them from its body. Its top half fell to the floor, its jaws spread wide, a large roar booming. We both stepped from its reach, into the room the tube had stood in, and over the alien that had fallen from it. We expelled our magazines, loaded in new ones and pressed the triggers again, to send another onslaught of lead, this time into its head.
NINA
Kent dropped to the floor on his chest. He slid over the surface and was able to knock Freddie from the foot. Kent was now in the targeted zone for the stomp. He rolled, with just enough time to send the claws striking into the floor and not him. I was at the alien, it had its mouths open, screaming spittle at me as I tried to stop my run, but all my feet did was trip me toward the monster’s open mouths.
JUNE
The green laser from Lexion’s angered shot struck something. I wasn’t sure what it had struck, but the bolts of lightning that flashed and fizzled were blinding. They crackled for a few moments, over a massive expanse of the open space in the hangar. When they’d stopped, Lexion turned to Alec and me and said, “It is cloaked, that’s why I can’t see it. I just need to find the generator, shut it down, and we can board. We must hurry, the clock is ticking, and will soon stop.”
BRAD
I grabbed Sara around the waist, dropped to the ground, pulling on her with all my weight and strength combined. The alien pulled on her too, with all its strength, which was so much more than I had. It must have thought I’d be stronger, because it yanked so hard me and Sara took off into the air. The alien became a small dot in the distance, Sara a blur at my side.
ZACK
We reloaded again. “Follow me,” I said to Cynthia, as I jumped the dead alien from the tube, the sections of the other that we’d just blasted to bits, and ran to the severed hand we used to get into the lab. I picked it up, catching a little glimpse of Cynthia’s confused expression as I did, and then we ran to the glass corridor at the side of the room that housed the tube. I pressed the finger to the computer screen, opened up the door to the corridor, ran the length, and opened up another door once there.
NINA
I tripped and fell toward the alien. Its rows of pointed teeth rushed up toward me. I felt something hit my side. As I fell from the monster I saw Kent on his back, his feet off the floor, he’d kicked me. I fell, hard, on my side, next to Freddie. He hugged into me, crying. The alien grabbed Kent by his neck, its three fingers more than long enough to wrap all the way around the width of it, to meet its palm at the front, and it pressed Kent’s back into a door in the corridor. Then it snapped its mouths at his head.