Apex 3: Shaylo Attacks (7 page)

Grand Canyon 

They’d been waiting for over two hours at the bottom of the Grand Canyon and no Greys had found them yet. After the first hour, they abandoned their ambush positions and just wandered around, bored.

Jack mentioned his theory that the Greys were coming for him before they’d ever begin the second stage of their invasion and eradicate the rest of mankind.
Killing his was the very first item on their agenda.

Hank stared at him condescendingly, like he thought Jack had grown a big head, but Watson agreed saying, “There aren’t any reports of attacks except at our position, wherever that may be depending on where Jack takes us. I tend to agree that the invasion starts with taking out Jack.”

Jack nodded, thankful that someone thought he knew what he was talking about.

Then Watson said, “In fact, I’m relieving all troops from duty right here and now. There’s no reason for any of you to continue tagging along unless you have a death wish.” To Jack he said, “I hope you’re okay with that.”

“Of course I am. I don’t want anyone’s blood on my hands.”

One of the troops said, “I’d like to come with you guys if you’ll have me.”

Watson seemed to be mulling it over but Jack answered for him. “You’re safer the farther you get from me. I can’t take you with us.”

Sally said, “I’m going to assume that that doesn’t apply to me and Hank.”

Watson nodded and Jack added for confirmation, “I could use you two. You have the abilities to help me out in battle.”

Sally said, “Good, because if you said we should stay behind you were about to have a fight on your hands.”

Jack smiled. He was glad to have them along for the ride.

He whispered to his mom, “I’m going to have to drop you off somewhere to keep you safe. Where do you want me to take you? Do you want to go back home?”

She cocked her eyebrows and said with authority, “You’ll do no such thing. I am still your mother. You don’t give me orders, boy. I go where you go.”

Jack wanted to argue with her but he knew how futile that would be. And if he just left her behind, there’d be hell to pay. For the moment, he was going to have to bring her along.

He thought about Melanie. He’d like nothing more than to bring her into the fold but doing so would put her life at risk. So far the Greys were only coming for him so the farther away she was, the better off she’d be.

Once everyone disbursed,
Hank clapped a hand on Jack’s shoulder and whispered, “When the Greys get here, wait for my signal and then get everyone to safety. I don’t want to go off and kill people too.”

Jack
knew he was full of crap. Hank was probably the weakest of them all when it came to his powers, but he was puffing his chest out and Jack thought he knew why.

He nodded. “Sure. Hey, I wanted to talk to you about something. Me and Sally started seeing each other and I want to make sure you’re okay with it.”

Hank sucked air between his teeth and regarded Jack closely. “We’re about to fight for our lives, man. Don’t you think there’s a better time and place to have this conversation?”

“Nothing’s happening. Now is as good a time as ever. Let’s hear it.”

Hank stared at his feet. He looked back up and said condescendingly, “You’re too young to understand dating. Why would I care that she’s with you when there are so many more fish in the sea?”

“I thought you liked her?”

Hank’s demeanor changed in a heartbeat. “I’ve always liked Sally but I can’t force her to like me back and it would be stupid for me to try.”

“Then why are you acting so huffy lately?”

Hank stared off into the distance. “I’m going through this stuff alone now that she’s spending all of her time with you. My body is doing scary things and I’ve got no one to talk to about it. You didn’t steal the person I loved, you stole my only friend.”

Jack
looked at him like he was a lunatic. “You can talk to anyone about it. I happen to personally know a lot about what you’re going through.”

“I don’t make friends so easily. Sally was it for me. Sorry, but if you’re looking for a pal, you’ll have to look elsewhere.”

Jack chuckled. He had no intention of becoming Hank’s friend. He’d only offered an open ear. He felt for the guy, but he wasn’t about to feed into his self-loathing so he walked away, saying over his shoulder, “If you want to talk, I’m here.” As an afterthought he added, “And I don’t own Sally. I don’t tell her who she can talk to or who she can be friends with.”

Hank stared at him like he was the vilest creature on Earth and then walked away with his head hung low.

Sally sidled over and said quietly, “What was that all about?”

“It was nothing.”

“Does he know you and I are seeing each other?”

It was nice to hear her say it out
loud. “I told him but he already knew. He’s not mad, he’s just lonely. You should go and smooth things over with him.”

She giggled. “I was thinking instead, that you and I could go for a little walk alone, where no one will see us.”

Jack was surprised. “I can’t. My mom’s here.”

“She won’t see us.”

His eyes lit up. “Lead the way.”

Canyon Defense

They’d barely made it around the corner when the first Grey ship appeared.

Sally said resignedly, “They have impeccable timing, don’t they?”

Jack
grabbed her wrist and teleported back beside the others. Then he focused in on the lone ship, his vision zooming in so much that he could see the pilot through the opaque windshield. He had little luck teleporting from afar but he tried it anyway.

He was shocked by how easy it was.

The Grey pilot materialized at their feet, still in the sitting position he was in when he was on the ship. Jack hadn’t yet managed to make out their facial expressions but he’d bet a million bucks that the alien was more than a little surprised by the turn of events.

It
jumped to its feet with lightning speed and reached for the laser rifle on its hip when Sally erected a force field right through it, chopping it and its gun in half. It died within seconds.

And then its ship crash landed a hundred feet away behind a pile of boulders.

The flames started to lick over the top of the rocks just as the alien passengers escaped the wreckage and came right at them. Jack had assumed wrongly that there was just one Grey per ship.

But there were at least twenty crash survivors
. They flew and fired from the hip as they rushed forward.

Sally erected a force field large enough to encompass herself and her companions and then said, “Hank, go get them.”

Hank looked taken aback, like he had no idea what she could possibly be talking about.

Jack
shoved him outside the force field and said, “Do your thing, dude.”

Hank stumbled, regained his footing, looked back at them once and then he got in the moment.

His skin rippled, like it was crawling with hidden bugs. It seemed to glow as it roiled and quivered and then all at once a shock wave erupted from his body in all directions.

They didn’t feel the mighty blast from within the protection of the bubble but they saw the destruction it wrought. The Greys were all knocked backwards through the
air; some of their armor was damaged or destroyed completely. Only about half of them recovered, the others having died from the impact of the nearly invisible blast. The dead smoldered and the living tamped out the flames on their armor.

One of the four soldiers inside the bubble said, “Holy shit. He brags about it all the time but I didn’t know he was telling the truth.”

Only then did they all notice that Hank had obliterated all of his own clothes. All that remained was a jockstrap that looked as though it were made of steel.

Jack
considered helping Hank get rid of the survivors but he didn’t have to because Hank had already recharged and released another blast. The second one killed the remaining Greys. It was pretty grisly but that was how Hank’s power worked. It blew things to pieces.

When
Jack looked back at Sally he saw she had a big grin on her face. He understood why now. She hated the Greys more than he’d known for what they’d done to her family.

Hank walked back to them, glowered at
Jack and shoved him hard in the chest. “Don’t ever push me around again.”

Jack
didn’t move back an inch from the shove. He smiled and apologized even though he knew it would do no good. Hank hated him in every conceivable way.

Watson said, “Is everyone alright?”

Nods in the affirmative came back to him.

“Good.
Hank, find some pants for God’s sake. We need to go.”

Jack
shook his head. “Not yet. This is a good spot for us as long as they keep coming one at a time.”

He looked at his mom to see if she agreed and
he was shocked to see her in tears. “What’s wrong?”

She stammered, “I don’t know. I’m just being silly, I guess. I’m not used to seeing so much death.”

Sally put an arm around her. “You’ll get used to it.”

“I don’t think I want to.”

Jack said, “We have no choice. If we don’t kill them, they’ll kill us. It’s not like we want to do this.”

His mom just smiled weakly and nodded.

Itching for a Fight

The First Mate said, “I have their coordinates streaming to the troops in real time so that I don’t have to give them constant updates. I’d like to join in now.”

Shaylo
said, “I was thinking you’d join the mop-up crew.”

“If it’s alright with you, I’d like to battle these super humans. There’s no greater honor than taking on a worthy adversary like them.”

He nodded slowly. “I understand. Suit up and grab a shuttle. I’ll see you when you get back.”

“Do you want me to send a replacement until then?”

“Yes. Send someone you don’t like because I’ll probably take the frustrations that you’ve caused me out on them.”

A twinkle in her eye along with an impish
grin told him all he needed to know about her. She thought she had him wrapped around her little finger. She wasn’t wrong.

“Thank you, sir. You are truly a great man.”

“Shut up and get out of my sight.”

He fingered the sword on his hip. It was an archaic relic that was of little use in the more advanced skirmishes but he always brought it
along on missions just in case. It was a sort of lucky charm that had the right look to it to instill fear in his enemy and in his underlings alike. He’d be using it soon on whomsoever she sent back. The death would serve as a reminder to her that he was still capable of horrible atrocities and hopefully convince her to toe the line.

The sword had the blood of dozens of retired
First Mates on it. He secretly hoped he was strong enough to add her blood if she became unbearable but he was starting to doubt his own resolve.

Melanie

Melanie stood guard outside the only tavern in Ault. They’d defended themselves in a bar during the first wave but that
one had been razed to the ground during the assault so this one was the last bar standing.

Most of the townsfolk had died and most of the survivors had moved on since the first wave, so the bar now housed everyone who remained behind
in the little town.

The people had approached her as their savior as soon as word spread that another invasion had commenced.

She wasn’t accustomed to so much responsibility but she played her role the best that she could, despite the protests from her mom and dad. The last thing they wanted to see was their little girl being put in harms way ever again.

Those who were with her during the last attack knew that
Jack was the real hero but they also knew she was capable too. With Jack’s absence she was made the de facto savior of Ault and all of its remaining residents.

Half the day had slid by as they waited inside the
little dank and musty bar. The Greys hadn’t arrived. Their absence was celebrated with copious amounts of liquor being consumed by the town drunks.

As far as the news stations were concerned, the attack
s were erratic. So far, no major city had fallen. In fact, it seemed like the Greys had a different agenda than the last time they came.

She was relieved. She wasn’t sure she could survive without help, but the people had placed their lives in her hands and she couldn’t let them down.

She wished Jack would materialize the way he always did. She missed him.

Loss

The
First Mate suited up, grabbed two rifles, and boarded her shuttle. Her heart was skipping along with anticipation.

She launched away from the mother ship and headed towards the little blue marble of a planet that spun lazily beneath her. The timing of her launch was ideal to strafe the moon of the soon to be dead world. It was large for a moon that circled such a small planet but besides its size, it was unimpressive. It was barren and bland, with no atmosphere or life to speak of. She hoped the
Earth would look like that when they were done with it.

She used her c
omm. to direct the highest ranking warrior to return to the ship. “Captain, you are to take my place until I return to the ship. You are acting First Mate.”

“Ah shit.”

“I’m sorry. It’s only temporary.”

“Death is forever.”

“You’ll be fine.”

She’d been mulling something over in her head now for awhile but she still wasn’t sure she had the guts to go through with it. She knew she had
Shaylo at a disadvantage. He’d shown he had a weakness for her and she could use it against him if she could muster the fortitude to act.

Shaylo
would never release her from her new position while she lived and she couldn’t continue to live as a bureaucratic slave so she had to change her fate.

To do that she would have to kill him. It was a gamble because High Command would put a bounty on her head once they found out. The men wouldn’t
back her up and would probably try to kill her too. So she would have to make it look like an accident.

This excursion to the enemy planet was her last hurrah in case her plan backfired. If she was put to death for killing
Shaylo, she at least wanted her bloodlust sated first.

Plus it gave her the time she needed to clear her head and think of a way to make the murder look like an accident.

She entered the Earth’s atmosphere at an acute angle and used the reverse thrusters to slow down her descent. She pinpointed the location of the super humans and made a course directly for them. She could only hope those humans had the nerve to stand and fight her.

She traversed a rocky canyon and finally found them clustered together with the bodies of her people strewn all around at their feet. The sight of so many dead troops boiled her blood. She would kill them slowly for what they’d done.

But just as she was closing in, the unthinkable happened. The powerful human; the one who could rematerialize anywhere he wanted, appeared behind her seat on the shuttle. Before she could react, she found herself in a different place altogether and her ship was nowhere to be seen.

She was standing on the surface of the planet and he was a dozen steps away, watching her intently. He backed up a few more steps as she tried to figure out what he was up to. She reached for her rifles but then she noticed something in the sky, quickly approaching. It was her own ship, crash-landing without her in the cockpit. The human took another couple of steps away from her as she frantically tried to yank her rifles free of their mounts. Her ship cast a shadow over her as she struggled.

She gave up on the weapons and tried to get out of the way of the crashing ship but it was too large and she was too late.

The human took one last look at her and then he vanished ju
st as the ship smashed into her, killing her on impact.