Authors: Jess Harpley
His eyes bulged, “I’m dead, so, I’m going to go home?”
“We still get to search you.” River started digging through his vest and pockets. Henderson opened his mouth to protest, but surrendered. Sway disarmed him, taking his additional rubber bullets.
They shredded through his things, finding even a few personal effects like hand drawn portraits, which they returned to him.
Eli danced about as he unfolded the map, dangling it in front of Xander, “See, not a total loss.”
It wasn’t much of a gain either. The map only marked their own movements, and none of the enemies.
“Alright, cell, daylight in about twenty minutes, and we have an unknown number of remaining combatants out there.” He started wrapping up his bedding, “We’re down a fishing net and several rounds. Everyone count them up. What else?” He looked around, asking them.
“We’re down a day’s worth of food,” Reese offered.
Leandra coughed, “And we’re down a day’s worth of lung capacity. Anyone else feeling like crap from breathing all that smoke?”
“Suck it up, Buttercup.” Richard patted her and she shoved his arm away playfully.
Xander eyed them with annoyance. “Moving out in five. Hurry it up.”
They all worked at collecting their things in the early morning light. They were particularly careful with brass, stowing them in packs and pockets, anywhere they’d fit. Ammunition was replenished, and gun barrels quickly swabbed. The time came for them to be on the move, and so they loaded up, unfortunately without any kind of breakfast. They knew they’d end up being hungry, but skipping meals on high activity? It was just cruel in Sway’s opinion, but, realistic she supposed.
The smell of the dry leaves was fresh on the air, and much preferable to the smoke they all reeked of heavily. Sunlight pierced through the trees as they continued walking east, forcing Xander and Fabel to often look down instead of straight ahead.
Sway knew they’d be making a circle of the area surrounding town, which included crossing over the upside down “T” of rivers that ran through it, three times. They’d already crossed once, and the second must’ve been coming soon.
Perhaps it was her rumbling stomach, but something didn’t feel right to Sway. It was quiet, much too quiet, even for late fall. She looked to Eli, who seemed to be thinking the same thing, and they both took a knee. The rest of the cell emulated them.
Xander’s tone was high, on edge, “What is it, Sway?”
“Sir, I know you tell us to go on facts,” she paused, feeling a bit crazy, “but my gut is telling me something is wrong.” She scanned the surroundings, nothing to confirm her feelings in sight.
Fabel whispered, “I feel it, too. We know these forests inside and out. This isn’t right.”
Xander nodded, “There’s a road a few hundred meters north, runs right along the river. Let’s get up to it and think about heading home.”
Suddenly the fear was real among the young team as they exchanged glances. Why would Xander suggest they head home? They were Beacon, a combat patrol. Oh, Sway remembered, and they were all running rubber bullets for training.
“What is it, Lieutenant?” Reese asked what they were all begging to know, or not know. She wasn’t sure if ignorance would bring bliss, or calm for that matter, as they were all shaking. Sway’s heart thumped louder and harder, her fingers trembling as she trained her gun in Xander’s line of sight.
It was as if her vision snapped, and suddenly, she saw it. A woman, nude, with a stomach bulged as if pregnant. She took a few steps, and the tree rustled behind her.
Sway gasped, her heart lurching into her throat, “An ambassador.”
The woman’s head rolled about her shoulders like it was hardly attached, and her eyes fell on the Beacon squad. Her mouth hung agape, as if wanting to say something, but then a low, inhuman chattering emanated from the ambassador’s pallid lips. The tree snapped, an adult Priyon staring them down, with all his friends behind him.
Chapter 5: Herd of Death
“Run! Go, go!” Xander urged them and, keeping the best formation they could, they tore off towards the road. Fabel held back with Xander, kicking out his rubber mag for a live rounds replacement.
They didn’t have time to look back, or see if the Priyon were pursuing them. If they did, it would be the last thing they saw.
“Ditch your packs,
run!
” Xander shouted and they abandoned all weight except their weapons at his command.
Sway’s toe caught on a rock, her stomach dropping as she flew through the air and skid to a halt in the dirt. Eli grabbed her by the vest, yanking her to stand, and they dared not glance over their shoulders. Their legs and lungs burned with trepid heat. Their mouths were dry and their minds frantic. Why were Priyon so far north? Kamloops was their territory, the Priyon agreed to that!
Against her better judgment, Sway chanced a turn to see where the lieutenant and second lieutenant were. On her heels, as were the Priyon. Never had she so quickly seen something so frightening, and so immense. It wasn’t just a handful of Priyon, it was an army.
“Keep going! Don’t stop for anything!” Xander screamed, joining the pack.
Sway pulled on her sling, fixing the M4 to her back. The trampling of slender limbs and knocking hard shells were not far behind, inciting a new craze in all of them. They pushed faster, jumped higher, became machines.
They vaulted a short chain link fence and made a hard left onto Dallas road, which would take them to the highway back to Kamloops. They had to be more than seventeen kilometers away, and two rivers apart from safety. With a fleeting dismay quickly overtaken by fear, Sway knew they could not make it without some kind of miracle.
Xander led the group, shouting, “Hard right,” and they turned north onto Peerless, all grunting from the strain. “Just a few more meters and we’re on the highway. We can do this!”
Leandra’s pace slowed, her massive 50 cal dragging her down. Richard decelerated with her and the cell began losing faith.
“Come on, Hale, don’t give up on us!” Sway panted between words. “The highway is right here!” The high grass fought them as they trampled through it.
Xander groped at Fabel’s back pocket, pulling their last kerosene lighter into his trembling hands. Though it was cold, it had been unusually dry for weeks, and Sway realized what he was doing. He flicked it with success, dropping it into the yellow weeds with a prayer.
The median erupted in a high flame as the ripe kindling caught, and the team scrambled to depart from it. Raging fire dampened the thunderous march of limbs as the scorched Priyon screamed. Chancing a look over her shoulder, Sway struggled to accept a reality she didn’t wish for.
Her voice was high with terror, “They’re still on us, Lieutenant!” The median fire grew, reaching out in front of them. If they’d need to pass back into the forest, the path was blocked. They were cornered, with only the road ahead, and the Priyon behind.
Xander commanded them with a furious tone, “Run your fucking asses off, cell! No casualties today, goddamn it!”
“Fuck this!” Fabel turned, and his M4 launched a volley of steel projectiles into the dispersing crowd of Priyon. They all spun around, guns trained on the remaining few that pursued them. The Priyon couldn’t know they all had rubbers loaded, and Fabel’s two killing blows put the fear of death in them. It was all they had in common with the aliens, the only way they could communicate with them. Fear.
The Priyon latched onto the bodies of their dead, taking steps back from the squad.
“Get fucked, you vile monsters!” River shouted as she moved forward, and Sway mustered the confidence to advance with her.
The alien survivors clicked at them, their mandibles chattering. They scanned their flanks, staring down the five Priyon ahead. The remainder of the army was far in the distance, pulling their wounded from the fire.
The Priyon hoisted the dead up into their lean arms, never turning their backs as they retreated. When they were small in the team’s sights, they turned back to the road, holding an unbearable, yet necessary, jog.
“Thank God,” Eli gasped, “for all that training.” He stopped again. “Am I right?”
They chuckled nervously, but didn’t dare let off. They continued at a quick pace for twenty minutes, constantly checking the rear, though the Priyon disappeared. The smoke was like needles in their already aching lungs, but they knew the pain would have to wait.
They turned onto Highway Five to cross the south side of the river, then Halston to cross the north side. Their mouths never knew such thirst, and their muscles such exquisite torment. Everything burned. Everything was spinning. Fear was the only thing moving them forward. Fear for their families, to warn them.
The agony was nearly unbearable, but with the city wall on the horizon, they powered forward with all they had left. The bell on the observation tower gonged heavily, and it was as if the sound told Sway to surrender. Her knees caved, and she dug her M4 into the ground for support when there was no strength left.
Eli wrapped his arm tight around her waist, “Come on, Sway, you’ve got more than this.” She nodded rising back to her feet. They stumbled through the open gate, collapsing into temporary safety.
Sway’s vision blurred, and pain stung her throat as she vomited. The retching of her teammates filled her ears as a flurry of sound from the guard bombarded them. Questions of why and how, but they were incapacitated.
“Get the mayor, the council, someone!” River’s voice was raspy and her body convulsing in the agony they all felt with each word. Their knees shook as they tried desperately to stay upright, several of them failing.
A canteen waggled near Sway’s face and she groped at it hastily, needing anything to stop the pain, and the foul taste of fear in her mouth. “What happened?” A question finally made it through the rushing in her ears.
“Priyon.” Reese croaked. “Priyon armies in our territory.” The guards were struck silent as the team coughed down water.
“They haven’t interfered with us in so long. Why now?”
Fabel coughed, “Maybe we upset them? We don’t know what the other humans are doing. They could be causing all kinds of problems.”
Sway’s lungs pleaded with her not to speak as hot, rough air gulped into them, “They know we don’t operate like that,” she gasped, the pain nearly too intense to go on, “that we’re individually motivated. They wouldn’t punish us all for the actions of a few.”
“You don’t know that.” Eli gripped his knees, eyeing her with fear.
Xander killed the conflict, “We don’t know anything right now.” He pointed to one of the guards, “Tell Command Squad we need our borders protected, full watch, now. And you,” he pointed to the other, taking a well needed breath of air, “get to the council and have them start a meeting. I’ll be waiting in the town hall for them.”
“Sir,” Leandra huffed, “what do you want us to do?” Though it hurt, and they were tired beyond recognition, they all stood at attention.
The cell leader paced, fixing Richard’s shirt in a mock show of calm. They were afraid, all of them. What had they done? What if the Priyon weren’t there with ill intention? What if they just started a second war from irrational fear? But then why did the Priyon chase in the first place?
“I need you all to take up positions on the walls. Watch for danger, and protect our homes.”
They saluted, “Sir!”
“Eli, let’s take the Tranquille-Fortune intersection.” Sway pulled her M4 around, kicking out the magazine. “We’re going to need something which incites a little more fear.” She tapped the packed rubber cartridges against the side of the barrel, the vibration shaking in her still swollen knuckles from weeks ago, and she tsked with pain.
Richard nodded, “Armory first, then our positions on the wall.”
Fabel and Xander stayed watch at the entrance they’d come through while the guards went to carry out his orders. Though it killed them, the rest of the squad jogged on to the weapons store.
Taking every opportunity possible, Sway stood close to Reese as they loaded fresh, live round magazines. They would bump shoulders every so often, an interaction she needed desperately to stay sane as she prevented thoughts of the morning from penetrating her resolve.
She looked to the homemade grenades—old alcohol bottles stuffed with gunpowder, cotton, and rice, corked and fused at the top.
Priyon hate fire
, she justified as she stuffed it into her side satchel.
As they were packing up, Lanie came rushing in with eggs floating in a warm broth. The thought of eating more of what they’d just vomited up sickened Sway, but she powered through, and it was worth it. The warmth of the liquid soothed her raw throat, and the egg filled her hollow stomach. She was ready to hit the wall with her sniper.
Reese and River parted from them at 12th and Tranquille after Sway kissed him for what seemed much too short a time. She missed his embrace as soon as she’d departed from it, wondering if it was the last day she’d ever feel it.
Silently, Eli and Sway pressed on. Though walled in, they checked their surroundings with added fear. The rusted metal fence dividing the sides of Tranquille Road were still lined with shredded, burnt out Christmas lights, their plastic coverings chipped and eroded from eighty years of weather.
At the southeast corner sat their perch, a concrete courtyard stretching between where they stood and where they needed to be. The way was blocked by semi crates, tractors, crushed cars, train boxes, and everything else the community could use to block themselves into safety. Eli led the way with ease, though they both knew the path well.
Up into the two story bank, they took the stairs two at a time. They stepped carefully in the near pitch black, following the streams of light piercing the holes in the window boards. Grasping each side carefully, they huffed and pulled the barrier away. Midmorning sunshine was hazed with red from the fire that saved their lives, or perhaps, damned them.
“Check northeast for me.” Eli loaded his L96, pulling the sniper table over to the open window. She peered through the small hole in the boards on the other side of the room, taking a long look over the Safeway and ranch style houses, Thompson River not far in the distance.
Scanning once more, Sway nodded to him, “It’s quiet,” but added gravely, “for now.”
“See if you can get an eye on our cattle island.” He pointed west.
“Not from down here. Let me get up to the roof for a second.” She hopped up the ladder in the center of the room to the custom made roof access.
Custom
would imply some level of detail went into it. It was a thick metal sheet, barred with a tire iron.
Grunting, she shoved it open with difficulty. Blinding rays penetrated her squinted lids as she hid from the sun. She scanned the gravelly landing with her M4 as her eyes dilated to accommodate the light. Climbing the rest of the makeshift ladder, Sway moved in a crouch across the west side of the building.
Her spotter’s scope served well to survey the island. All the cattle were going about their business as if nothing were wrong. She checked east once more, then south. Turning her gaze north, into town, she spied the bustling of fear in every direction. They were preparing for war.
With one last look around the perimeter, she descended into the building. “Looks clear all the way around. Cattle are walking and eating, laying down, being cattle.” She pulled a seat up next to Eli, watching the opposite line of sight.
“Don’t let that make you comfortable,” he warned, eyes trained down his gun.
“When have I ever gotten lax with an element of
real
danger in the mix?”
“Well, since we’ve only been in
real
danger once since the raid,” he paused, pain in his eyes as he looked her over. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to bring that up right now.”
“It’s fine, it was a long time ago.”
He looked back into his scope. “So, I guess, never. Though, you did almost give up on me a few steps from the door.”
“I would have crawled the rest of the way if you’d left me.” She smiled at him.
“I’d never leave you.” He pulled back again, eyes grave with a wrinkled forehead. “You know that, right?”
“I know,” she nodded, “and you know I’d never leave you behind. You’re my sniper.” She nudged his shoulder and his eyes grew more somber.
He looked down the scope, “Here we are, getting all
lax
in the face of danger.”
They sat in silence for another hour, diligently scanning their area. Sway would pop up to the roof every fifteen minutes for a check around the building, then back down to continue her watch with Eli at the roads to the southwest of their position.
Watch tower bells tolled twice, then twice more, and they knew that meant the Beacon squads were being called in. They rubbed their stinging eyes from the smoke and weariness, then packed up. On their way through the wreckage making up the wall, the bell tolled five times in a row. A town meeting.
“What do you think we’re going to do?” Sway huffed as they kept a steady jog to Brocklehurst Secondary School, nearly thirty blocks from their guard post.