The Fate of Nations Book II The Harvest (11 page)

The three cats that shared Leslie's home reacted to the slightest movement outside. They diligently watched the events of the world around them unfold.

Their eyes peered out into the daylight and dark of night with keen interest. One of them was always on guard, sitting on the window sill, squeezed between the drawn shade and the double-paned glass of the cottage style windows. Their eyes followed the Grays up and down, as they moved from the sky to the Earth, seeming to float on the air as they traveled to and from their ships stationed overhead.

The two cats at the window stayed in their fighting stance for only a few minutes, minutes that seemed like hours to Leslie, and then jumped down from their perches. They stretched lazily, brushing past Leslie's legs as they walked out of the bedroom and silently into the kitchen where they took up their watch again at the bay windows, hoping they might be afforded a more interesting view.

Leslie slumped in relief, the sudden rush of adrenalin leaving her drained. She petted her cat, Bootsie, a small tuxedo cat with white feet, who still lay contentedly on her lap, oblivious to the excitement his fellow felines had just caused. As all hell was breaking loose in the world outside, he lay curled up in her lap, snoring softly.

Leslie lost interest in reading and sat for awhile listening to the wind blow through the trees outside of her small house. It blew steadily tonight, through the same trees that she had planted herself, seven or eight years earlier. It seemed like a soft warm dream now.

She shook her head, clearing away the warm comfort of yesterdays and thought about what she needed to do next.

The floor was cold, even on the pile of old quilts she had laid in the corner for her bed. She didn't feel safe sleeping on the bed anymore, she felt safer on the floor, in the far corner of her bedroom, her back against the wall. She pulled her knees up under her chin, and laid her head wearily down on them. Leslie fell asleep as the candle flame flickered and burned low. Her cat Bene curled up protectively beside of her. Bootsie had taken the watch.

The store clerk at the Mellow Out! convenience store stood alongside the nine others at the window.

They were mesmerized by the horror show taking place in the skies above the city. Kevin wiped his eyes and his runny nose on his shirt tail and stood up. His mind raced alarmingly as he tried to think back to what he had read in the paper earlier. It seemed like a lifetime ago now. What had it said?

Stay inside,
he remembered that,
don't look into
their eyes,
he remembered that, but he drew a blank on the rest. His brain was quickly becoming overloaded and he tried desperately to calm himself down. He looked away from the window and took in a deep breath, exhaling slowly. His head began to clear. He breathed in another deep breath, and exhaled slowly. He began to feel a little more calm.

Kevin stood with his back to the window

breathing in deeply and exhaling slowly until his panic passed. The people at the window began filing out of the store. He heard the jingle of the door's bell as first one then another stepped out into the afternoon horror show.

“What the hell are you doing?!” Kevin shouted and ran to the door as a small, middle aged man was just opening the door to go outside. The small man looked at him stonily and said “Get out of my way kid.”

“Don't go out there!” Kevin shouted, but the man pushed past him and stepped quickly across the street to get a better view of the massive ship that dominated the sky over them. Kevin watched helplessly as each one of the people except for the clerk, stepped outside against his protests.

“They have lost their fucking minds,” the store clerk commented, shaking his head in amazement.

“There's no way I would go out there.” Kevin watched the small band of people reassemble across the street.

They stood there for maybe five minutes before a small ship that had descended from the main craft pulled them up into the air and shot straight up to unload them on the massive ship.

Kevin turned away from the window and faced the store clerk. “I think I'm gonna puke,” he said and swayed towards a shelf loaded with snack cakes. “Whoa buddy, take it easy,” the clerk said as he reached to steady Kevin. “Come on in back and sit down for a few minutes.” He led Kevin to the rear of the store to a small office that wasn't much bigger than a broom closet where a small desk and chair had been crammed in. It served as the manager's office and employee break room. Kevin sat down in the padded swivel chair behind the desk and laid his head down on the cool metal desk top. “What the fuck?” he moaned aloud. “What the fuck!”

The clerk's name was Harry. He waited until Kevin had rested and was beginning to talk coherently again before telling him. He was an ex Marine who had been discharged in 2005 for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
Oh fucking great,
Kevin thought to himself.

As if those fucking aliens outside weren't scary enough,
now this.
Harry must have read his mind because he said hurriedly, “It's not like that man,” I won't go ballistic on your ass or anything, I just saw some bad shit over in Iraq.”

Kevin was ashamed of himself for what he'd been thinking and held his hand out to Harry. “I'm Kevin, nice to meet you dude.” Harry grasped his hand and shook it. “Same here man.” he said, adding with a grin, “now let's get some shit organized in here. It looks like we're going to be stuck in this hole for a good minute.”

“A convenience store isn't the worst place in the world to be stuck though, we got everything we need.”

Kevin nodded his head in agreement as they went to work piling up food and water supplies to last them for their stay.

Kevin looked at the pile of canned food, chips and candy, along with an entire rack of snack cakes, beside of the counter. It was enough food to feed at least five people for a few months.

After looking in the back, the two discovered even more boxes of supplies. They wouldn't be running out of anything anytime soon. “Now we just gotta chill until those assholes leave.” Harry said, lifting a box of bottled water up to carry it to the back.

“We also have to guard against anybody trying to come in on us and steal our stash.” he added. Kevin hadn't really thought about that scenario, until now. It put Kevin's mind in a dilemma. On one hand, if someone came in, they would be just as desperate as he and Harry were to stay alive, why not help them? On the other hand, he and Harry needed everything they had, and who knew how long those alien fucks were going to actually be out there?

The paper could always be wrong about the time frame. He just hoped that he wouldn't have to face the decision to help someone else or watch them die. He didn't know if he could make that decision. Harry did though. Harry had made that decision many times before. It was why he was all fucked up in his head now.

The days passed by, as relentless as a slow death, as Kevin and Harry became adjusted to their new routines. Harry was clearly in survival mode, his eyes constantly scanned the sidewalk in front of the store for intruders. His body was taut and poised to fight. When he wasn't standing watch, he exercised ceaselessly. He dropped to churn out pushups. He jogged in place. He did sit ups, and he paced restlessly when he wasn't catching a few hours of sleep.

Kevin watched Harry warily, still not altogether sure this man's noodle wasn't baked. Kevin hated exercising, he'd never been the physical type, choosing instead to retreat from reality in a good book or science magazine. The many magazines and paperback novels, that adorned the stands of the store, were his retreat, now, as he faced each new terrifying day of hiding with Harry.

Harry set up a watch schedule of eight on and eight off, handing Kevin a revolver with five bullets in it that he had fished out from behind the counter. It wasn't for the Grays that were zipping back and forth through the skies though, even Kevin had heard that they weren't affected by the primitive weapons of Earth.

The revolver was for any crazy ass human who tried to come in on them.

Week three had passed as monotonously as the first two weeks at the store. Kevin lay on the floor in the back office reading one of the paper backs. It was noon and the place was sweltering hot. Kevin sipped a bottle of water and mopped his sweaty face with a wad of paper towels he had pulled off the large roll in the stinking bathroom. The water had stopped working after the second week and that bathroom was smelling pretty foul. They kept the door closed and a stack of papers pushed up against it to keep the smell in, but the reeking odor emanated out of it anyway.

Kevin lay in a pool of sweat reading while Harry stood the first watch of the day. The sound of a gunshot rang out in the stifling air. Kevin jumped up and threw his book aside, his heart racing. He listened as another shot exploded the glass front of the store. He heard Harry yelling “You motherfuckers! Come get some!”

Kevin heard the sounds of a scuffle and muffled screams. He didn't know what to do. He nearly pissed himself when he heard the next gunshot. It was just outside of the office door. Kevin drew in his breath and steeled himself to open the door. The door suddenly burst inward and Harry tumbled into the room. His face was gone. In it's place was a gaping bloody hole with blood spurting out. Kevin gaped at what was left of Harry's faced and staggered against the wall of the office.

Blood pooled around Harry's head and ran in rivulets under the old metal desk. Harry's arms and legs twitched spasmodically as his life spilled out of him onto the cool tiled floor of the store's office. Kevin held his hand over his mouth, stifling a horrified scream.

Kevin looked timidly out from behind the office door. He didn't immediately see the two men that stood in the store. He heard them talking as they moved around to see what they could scavenge. They walked to the counter where the supplies had been neatly piled and Kevin saw them from the store's corner security mirror.

Two young men, probably not much older than he was, Kevin thought to himself, were eagerly inspecting the food supply. They each carried a large revolver that hung loosely from their hands as they stood in front of it, picking up some of the snack cakes with their other hands and ripping the plastic off with their teeth before cramming the cakes in their mouths.

Kevin eased past the dying Harry and edged his way as carefully and as quietly as he could to the back door. He pushed the door open as quietly as he could, but the door's locking mechanism clicked loudly. Kevin shoved it open as the two men came plowing to the back of the store to find him. He heard four more shots ring out as they fired their guns after him.

Kevin bolted towards the alley behind Starters.

He didn't know why he chose that route, he wasn't thinking very rationally and he knew it, but his feet stubbornly insisted on moving him towards that alley.

A Gray hovering horror appeared from the sky directly in front of him. Kevin only had time to register that it was holding it's tail, and the tail had some sort of wicked point on it, when the Gray swooped down at him and stung his arm with the point of it's tail. Fiery hot pain sped to his heart and he vomited as he ran into the alley.

Rats from the sewers underneath the city poured out of an open manhole beside of Kevin at the mouth of the alley. They surrounded him. Their eyes were beady and black and full of playful, mischievous intelligence.

They stared at him with their intense little eyes, their whiskers twitching.

Kevin hesitated only a moment before diving into the alley behind them. He leapt over the defensive line they had formed and lost consciousness.

The Gray hovered at the mouth of the alley, just out of striking distance from the rats. It stared in at them apprehensively. The line of rats that blocked the alley's entrance held it's ground. Charlie bared his long pointed teeth at the Gray. “Come get some,” Charlie squealed with fury at the Gray demon. “Come get some!” the other rats screamed in unison. They hissed and bore their sharp poisonous teeth for the Gray to consider.

The Gray hovered just above them, just out of their reach, and slowly climbed higher in the air to cross their defensive line from above. It swooped quickly down behind of the rat line to scoop the unconscious Kevin up.

Charlie charged towards Kevin, baring his teeth, the others followed closely on his heels. The rat brigade surrounded Kevin and then covered his limp body in a living, breathing, toxic shield that the Gray did not dare to strike at. The Gray shot straight up into the sky, and disappeared behind of The Journal building's imposing bulk.

Kevin woke up, under a blanket of rats, the swelled lump in his arm was quickly receding. He sat up carefully, gently dislodging the rats from his clothes, pulling the small slender paws gently away from where they had sunk their claws in soundly to protect him.

“Thanks guys,” Kevin said shakily as he stood up. The rats climbed down his legs and stood protectively around him in a circle. Kevin reached in his pockets, out of habit, to find a treat for them, finding only a few pieces of candy he had shoved in his pockets earlier that morning.“Sorry fellas,” he said softly, “It's all I have today,” The rats held their slim paws out as he divided the spoil between them.

Kevin knew he had to get back inside

somewhere. He peered out of the mouth of the alley, looking very much like one of the rats that had just saved his life. His nerves were taut and he felt the adrenaline pumping into his limbs.

The Gray that had pierced him hovered in the sky. It's back was turned away from Kevin as it surveyed a small group of people being pulled up into the sky. Kevin sucked in a huge gulp of air and began the sprint across the street to the mall's entrance. He took eight long strides and jumped the chain that stretched across the median and sprinted the last ten yards to the mall's entrance.

Kevin burst through the glass side entrance to Acco Mac Mall. There was no need to stand outside pounding the glass, waiting for anyone to open it, he knew no one would. The glass had been cracked sometime before, and Kevin knew it wouldn't take a lot to break it free from the frame. He stood at the entrance looking outside. The Gray hovered just beyond it, only inches from the ground facing him now. Kevin shuddered in revulsion, the pain from the barb still fresh in his mind. If it hadn't been for those rats at the alley, he would've been toast.