When Aliens Weep (20 page)

Kenya and Chloe reached for each other, Chloe cupping her abdomen to support the baby.

Echo moved to Chloe. “I can only save one. Quick, kneel down.” Echo spread her wings. “I will come back for you, Sister Kenya. I must save Brother Scotty’s baby.”

“But we’re almost at Jose’s quarters,” cried Kenya. She turned to hear Caesar hiss, his body in a full crouch.

Echo’s aura faded. “We must
run.”
The group jumped and ran down the corridor. They turned the corner and Jose’s doorway appeared. Darting inside, they looked for cover.

Kenya scrambled to the bed and threw herself on the floor. “Come on, everyone. Get under the bed.” She slapped the floor. “Caesar . . . come.” The big tiger crawled under the bed as Echo and Chloe got on the floor, Chloe’s breath coming in rough heaves.

“I can’t do it. I’ll never fit. Go Echo. Kenya, grab Echo. I’ll hide behind the bed.” Chloe raised herself off the floor, her cumbersome figure slowing her down.

Echo’s aura hit them hard. “No,
let me go,
Sister Kenya. I can save us. I need to get to the wall. Let me go.”

Chloe suddenly sniffed, a miasma of spoiled meat slapping her in the face. Her heart beating painfully, she rushed to the side of the bed that hugged the Womb’s wall. Squeezing into the tight space, she shimmied down to the floor, sliding her hands under the mattress to encounter something hard and metal. Gulping air, she tried to slow her tripping heart and ragged breath.

She heard Kenya mumbling under the bed. “Shhh . . . something’s coming, I can smell something bad.”

The rustling under the bed stopped as everyone tried to contain their terror. Chloe could feel Echo probing her mind, exerting a calming influence. “Do
not
move, Sister Chloe.”

The odor of spoiled meat filled the room. A slithering sound reached their ears, turning their blood to ice. Chloe slowly raised her head to peek. Unable to control herself, she screamed.

Standing at the doorway, an eight-foot aberration lurked. Its massive head supported a molten and bubbling mass with slits for eyes that contained a malevolent and psychotic glare. But it was the mouth that caught her attention, rows and rows of slashing teeth that dripped with a thick rusty substance. Its slab of a tongue lolled to the side to swipe at the rusty goo. Then it vanished.

As the strains of Chloe’s scream faded, she blinked. Suddenly, standing before her was Scotty; an eight-foot Scotty with slender olive plant-like arms that reached out for her. She reached across the bed as he held out the strange arms for her. She blinked again and he disappeared,

“Owww.” One of the arms of the creature had slashed across her hand, opening the skin on her palm. Blood ran down onto Jose’s bedcovers as the creature reappeared, its tongue lolling from the side of its mouth to slobber its rusty saliva down its neck. Its mouth flexed in glee. And in an instant, it vanished again.

“Please, Sister. Stand back.” Echo crawled out from under the bed, her fire butterfly closed and sparkless. She stood and faced the area where the creature had vanished. From the empty space came an angry roar, livid at Echo’s defiance. It reappeared and made ready to pounce.

“Stop, Echo. It has Scotty.”

There before them both appeared the apparition of Chloe’s dead love and Echo’s best buddy.

“No, Sister. It is the power of the creature. Trust in me. I will save us.” As Echo spoke, her crystal antlers split, dropping an implant in her hand. The red and black missile made for the creature, landing on its nose. It raised its razor-edged, plant-like arms to remove the offense, slicing its nose in the process. In a wink the implant snaked up the creature’s nostril. The monster snorted, sending rusty drops flying, then fell over with a crash.

“Kenya . . . let’s go . . . let’s go.” Chloe ripped Jose’s bed sheet and wrapped a piece around her hand to stem the blood. Caesar pulled himself out and approached the monster, sniffing and chuffing with suspicion. Echo’s aura hit them all.

“We must go. I don’t know how long it will be out or how malleable it will be upon waking.” She turned to Chloe and watched her tears. “
Please
, Sister. We must go.”

Kenya stepped around the creature. “You don’t need to tell me twice.
Come on,
Chloe.”

Chloe hesitated. “I guess that wasn’t Scotty I saw?”

Echo took her hand and yanked her out from behind the bed. In her other hand, behind Chloe’s back, was the Beretta Jose had hidden under his mattress. She slipped it thoughtlessly into her skirt. “Echo, please tell me. If there’s a chance . . .”

“No Sister. That was just a manifestation of the creature’s evil powers. We are not sure what else it can do. But it is a death machine and it has been unleashed. We must get to safety.
Now.”

The foursome left Jose’s room, Chloe breathing heavily and waddling with difficulty, her lost blood soaking the makeshift bandage through.

“I’m not going to make it, Kenya.”

“Come on, chickey.” Kenya grabbed Chloe’s good arm and placed it over her neck to support Chloe’s weight.

Echo held up her hand. “I have sent for help, my Sisters.”

From behind them, they heard snorting.
The creature.

Echo stepped to the Womb’s wall and inserted her arm. The wall separated and Echo stepped back to admit a colorful house Kreyven. Looking over their shoulders, they fled toward the Kreyven; it scooped them up into its maw amid female screams and wild, angry hissing. The Kreyven slipped back into the Womb’s wall and disappeared just as the creature stepped from Jose’s doorway waving its razor appendages, the smell of ripe carrion wafting before it.

***

As soon as the Kreyven expelled their sphere from its protection, Daisy, Ivey and the accompanying minions clapped and breathed a sigh of relief. One never knew for sure if the return trip would happen or not. So many dangers lurked on alien planets.

Daisy strolled from the sphere and looked around in puzzlement. She turned to watch her mother and Peter wake to vomit in the smaller sphere in which they were being floated.

Ivey cast a happy aura. “We must get them to the Healer. We cannot have them die on us now. I must present a healthy specimen to Sister Bonnie.”

Daisy felt a prickle of unease. “Ivey, where is everyone?” She spread her hands to encompass the air space that should be teeming with minions ready to help, and the hundreds that came just to satisfy their curiosity. News of two new humans should have brought thousands. She turned back to Ivey who was now doubled over, as if in pain. Glancing past the navigator, she could see the minions with her mother were in distress.
“What?”
Daisy reeled with terror as Ivey’s aura slammed into her.

“Danger . . .
death
. Oh no . . .” She signaled the sphere. “Come, Sister. We must protect ourselves. We must get to the Healer and seal it up.”

They headed for the minion city on a run, the sphere floating with Ivey directing it from the top, the other minions fluttering alongside to monitor Ginger Mae and Peter who were now out cold. A trumpet of elephants could be heard in the distance.

Daisy failed to see a sign of life anywhere. All surrounding portals were unattended and empty, even though the nighttime was always busy with comings and goings.

The Womb loomed larger. She caught her breath as she realized the walls had darkened, leeched of all color. As they approached, she could see the Womb flexing horribly. Terror ran through her veins like a thief climbing prison walls.

“
Oh my God, Ivey
. What’s going on?”

Ivey stood tall on the top of the sphere, her attention focused on the city. “We are not going to make it.” Ivey’s aura faded.

Daisy’s head whipped around. “What do you mean
,
we’re not going to make it? We’re almost there.”

“No, the Womb will protect the planet. It will close up so any danger does not escape.”

Daisy ran faster, her ears refusing to believe. “But Mom . . . Peter . . . they can’t wait. They need medical care
now,
Ivey.”

“I am sorry, Sister. We have done all we can. Just hurry.”

They didn’t have far to go now; maybe the length of a football field. Incongruously, she remembered the stories Scotty and Kane used to tell her about the great and famous New York Jets from bygone years. If she could just move faster
,
like one of their legendary football players
.
She couldn’t lose her mother. Not now . . . not ever. Daisy realized how panicked she was over the idea her mother might die. Her heart yearned for her mother’s touch, her mother’s arms. So close . . . Her despair made her stumble and down she went.

Ivey hesitated, slowing her speed. Daisy lifted her head from the hard ground, pounding her fist in frustration. “Go, Ivey . . .
go.
Leave me.” She gathered herself as Ivey shot forward across the grassy field. She sat on the ground as a rumble moved the earth, vibrating through her bones.

From out of the ground rose the sides of a sphere.

“Iveeeey!” she screamed.

The giant sphere continued to rise, enclosing the city, enclosing the walls of the Womb, sealing in whatever danger might lurk inside. She felt Ivey’s aura, heard her exhilaration.

“Yeah.”
Ivey sailed the sphere over the rising walls, the escort minions flying as fast as their wings would take them.

And in less than a blink of an eye, Daisy was alone. Breathing deeply, she calmed her heaving chest, forced her tears to slow, and prayed to the Womb to save her mother and Peter. She pressed her fingers to her eyes, relieving some of their strain. The field was quiet, the Womb fully encapsulated. She glanced up to see the moonlight that cast her shadow across the grassland. She wondered what could have happened inside the Womb. Shuddering with the knowledge that it could be almost anything, she hugged her body, and felt forlorn and abandoned.

From out of nowhere, she felt a light touch snake around her neck, blowing softly. She held out her hands to receive Tobi’s trunk, holding it close and resting her head against it.

“I love you, Tobi,” she whispered. From Daisy’s neck came a vibration off her cartilage that Tobi received through the pads of her great and sensitive feet. She responded with a rumble, deep in her stomach. Slowly, the rest of the herd gathered round the distraught, childlike wunderkind. In the darkness woman and beast prayed together.

Twenty Eight Days AE (After Earth)

Chapter 18

Jose’s tongue stuck to the roof of his mouth, his throat dry and raw. He could smell an unidentifiable odor that was making his stomach rebel.
Where am I?
The surface where he was lying was cold and unyielding. He winced as pain erupted from his chest making him spasm, which exacerbated the feeling.

Shaking his head, he tried to clear his sight from the blood that leaked from his facial wound. Looking down, he discovered blood congealing down the front of his bib. Awkwardly, he reached up to remove his contamination apparatus, discovering it was smashed.

He forced himself to his knees after removing his apparatus, rubbing his eyes and moaning.
Holy shit.

Looking towards the open door to Leeja’s enclosure he realized he was in the airlock. He stumbled forward to look inside for her. Gripping the door frame for balance, he peered inside. Empty. He made to go. A flash of darkness caught his gaze. Low . . . on the floor . . . oval.
Maybe she left something on the floor for me.

Wondering how he was going to find her, he crept toward it. Gingerly he bent down and lifted a surprisingly heavy, egg-shaped object about twelve inches high and with a five-inch circumference. He tapped on the sides and held it up to the light. His scrutiny revealed nothing. But it was hers. He had to hang on to it in case it revealed a clue to her whereabouts and the identity of his assailant.

He dreaded the thought that his assailant may have gotten his hands on her. Secreting the object in the prodigious pocket of his smock, he snapped his tail and turned to leave. In the airlock he was again assaulted by the strange odor. Something like warm carrion; metallic and base. A feeling of horror sobered Jose, his flesh clammy and crawling.

He crept from the airlock to a storage area of silence; nothing new or unusual there. Relaxing but still disturbed by the odor, he wondered how long he’d been unconscious.

Rounding the corner and entering the main room, his stomach dropped like a stone. Disbelieving eyes registered the iridescent blood that spattered the floor and the wet walls. Golden bits of flesh piled at the base of the floorboards; dismembered shining limbs mounded in heaps.

Jose’s horror escalated as he slowly took in the pile at the door from the main airlock to the outside. A small form lay at the base of the door, crunched and tossed aside like a discarded doll, suddenly out of favor. He crept forward, his head shaking, eyes dull with shock as he refused to believe what lay before him.

He knelt down and slid his arms under the tiny body of Doodiet, her head hanging by a thread, bright life blood soaking his clothes.

“Noooooo, please.” Holding her body in his arms, he staggered back to face the carnage. With dull and glazed eyes, his senses skipped a beat. Try as he may to deny it, he knew the only thing responsible had to be one of the guests housed here in the restricted area. He quickly raised his lion-like tail into the air and opened its bulbous end to release the extruded flesh from inside his tail. The smell of ozone seeped into his nostrils as he directed his healing powers to the lifeless Doodiet. Nothing. Her head lolled limply. He reached down to brace it before it separated from her body completely. Nothing happened. He held her body tightly to his and wept.

The oval object rested heavily in his pocket. What was it and where was Leeja? Praying she was unharmed, he mournfully held Doodiet to his chest, closed his wings over them both, thought of his old bedroom back in the survivors’ quarters and disappeared.