Critical Dawn (5 page)

The door raised to waist height, revealing stocky legs covered in dark gray rubber trousers with a meshed appearance. Shiny, black-gloved fingers curled around the bottom edge and pulled upward.

Ben decided to help. He gripped the bottom left of the door and heaved. It quickly rumbled upwards and banged fully open.

Blinding light filled the room, surrounding the silhouette of a person outside.

Ben squinted away, eyes in pain. “We’re from the Operations Compartment. We’ve been ordered down for stasis preservation duties.”

A single pair of footsteps entered.

Erika’s nails dug into Ben’s arm. Her grip sprang free. She screamed, dropping to the ground, head slamming against the dirty metal floor.

Ben looked down. Two arms ripped the prone Erika out of the room by her legs.

He cupped his eyes, trying to get used to the light. Images started to become clearer.

Maria screamed next. “Oh my God. Ben.”

Outside, a large platform came into focus. A vehicle stood on the right side. It looked like a futuristic motorcycle apart from the lack of wheels. In the middle was a large man in a gray suit adorned with various pieces of body armor around the chest, shoulders, upper arms, and thighs. He pulled Erika to her feet by her hair.

Ben could see blue sky, trees in the background on one side, the edge of a forest stretching as far as the eye could see.

Ethan shook his shoulder. “Have we crash landed? Ben, what’s happening?”

Ben brushed off his hand and stepped toward the exit. “What the fuck are you doing?” he shouted.

The man on the platform ignored him and grabbed a handle protruding from a long, thin pocket on his thigh with his spare hand and slid out a glinting blade with a serrated edge on one side. Circular holes ran along the middle.

“Help me. For God’s sake, help …” Erika flailed her arms, thumping against his unmoving, sturdy frame.

Ben rushed out.

The man’s head twisted around toward him. His reflective helmet visor shone with a blue sheen and glinted in the light. Ben froze a few yards short. Two tubes ran from his helmet to a square backpack. Metal spikes ran along the back of his boots.

He thrust Erika into the air by her ponytail as if lifting a trophy. She frantically kicked her legs to little effect.

“Get off her,” Ben said as he stepped forward. “Now.”

Erika’s eyes widened, and she opened her mouth. The man plunged the blade into her chest three times in rapid succession before Ben could act.

“No,” Ethan said.

“What do we do? What do we do?” Maria said from behind him.

The man threw Erika off the side of the platform without ceremony. He continued to face Ben, wiping the blade clean with his gloved hand.

“Holy shit,” Ben said. For a moment, he seemed glued to the spot. “Quick. Round the side of that vehicle. To the edge of the platform.”

“Where are we?” Ethan said.

“Save the questions,” Ben said. “We need to find something, anything.”

He darted behind the vehicle, skidding to a halt at the right ledge. The drop below appeared at least sixty feet. He frantically tried to process events.

Maria crouched next to him, quivering. Ethan panted behind. The man circled the blade above his head, stalking around them in a wide arc.

The area to the right looked like plowed farmland. Uniformed brown lines reached into the horizon. To his left, forest. Behind the ship, a deep gouge furrowed through the earth, running from the back of the ship into the far distance.

He wondered if they had crash-landed, but how could he breathe?

Black smoke belched from the ship into the clear, blue sky. He heard the noise of an engine straining and stopping, straining and stopping. The platform was around thirty feet long and twenty wide.

He scanned the platform for a makeshift weapon. The surface was clear apart from the bike, a pool of blood, and the man approaching with a raised blade. As the man closed in around one end of the bike, the three of them all scuttled to the other. They faced off, nine feet apart, separated by machinery.

“Why are you doing this? We’re part of the crew,” Maria said.

Ben detected a low, clicking sound coming from the helmet. “Who are you?”

The man sprang up onto the seat, landing into a hunch, then rising to a towering position above them. He raised the blade over his head and then pointed it at them.

Ethan gasped. “We’re gonna die.”

Ben ducked to one side as the blade swung down. It whistled past his ear and clanked against the metal chassis. He staggered back, dropping to the platform to avoid momentum taking him over the side.

The man’s focus seemed to zero in on Ben. He leaped off the seat and advanced toward him, sheathing the blade and reaching for a hip holster. He pulled a black, angular-looking weapon out and aimed with a straight arm, head tilting to one side.

Ben closed his eyes, thinking his time was up.

Two loud cracks, seconds apart, split the air.

Maria screamed.

“Ben,” Ethan shouted.

Something hit the platform, two items clattering with a thud. Ben opened his eyes.

The man was on both knees, clutching his throat, weapon on the platform beside him. Another crack rang out.

The man sprawled back, his blue visor splintered with a small hole in the middle. He slumped against the vehicle, motionless.

Ben jumped to his feet and grabbed the pistol-like weapon. It was smooth and black with just a trigger and a button on the side. No insignia.

He held his finger on the trigger and trained it on the armored man. Hopefully, the threat would be enough if the man was even still alive.

Ben had never seen a real weapon. The closest he got was a wooden toy in the orphan compartment. It felt heavy and solid in his hand. Deadly.

“Get behind me,” Ben said. Maria cautiously approached the body. “Stay away. He might get up.”

She ignored him and reached out. Fumbling with the handle on the thigh, sliding out the long blade, still smeared with blood. “If another comes along.”

“Who the hell was that?” Ethan said. “Where are we?”

“I’ve no idea. We’ll figure it out eventually; let’s just get safe first,” Ben said.

Ben glanced over the edge of the platform. Something moved in the trees below. A threat perhaps? More of these armored people?

“Down there, movement. Do you see it?” Ben said.

Three dark shapes cut through the trees alongside the ship.

Maria pointed. “Oh my God, Ben, look, someone’s coming.”

He followed Maria’s direction to the gouge behind the ship. Erika lay directly below, face down in the mud. Thirty feet along, another man lay flat on his back, dressed in the same uniform.

Jimmy.

From what Ben could see, his former colleague had suffered a similar fate. Jimmy’s twisted figure was deathly still, mouth open, face reddened with blood. His friend of over thirteen years butchered at the moment of retirement. He took a deep breath, trying to remain focused on immediate events.

Ethan sunk to his knees and started to sob. “It’s over. We’ve failed.”

“Pull yourself together. We need to find a way back into the ship. Get somewhere safe, warn the crew,” Ben said.

He searched between the trees for signs of movement.

“How do we get back?” Maria said.

Two figures covered in foliage along with a dog broke from underneath the canopy cover. Two weapons aimed upwards toward them.

“Shit! Back to the airlock,” Ben said.

He grabbed Ethan by the epaulette and dragged him back. Ethan stumbled to his feet and quickly overtook Ben. To the immediate right of the door was a circular, charred indent; the ship appeared to have taken a considerable blast from something.

They all crashed against the internal wall after staggering back in.

“Jesus, Ben. Erika, Jimmy …” Maria said.

“I know it’s hard, but try to forget about them for a moment. We’ll get some back-up soon. They won’t just leave us here.”

“Who was that?” Ethan said.

“No idea, but stay out of sight. They can’t see here.”

Ben checked around the room, now assisted by light. What he originally mistook for grime had a dark purple color, spattered and speckled across the walls. He shoved against the internal door with his shoulder to no effect. Ethan slammed the bottom of his foot against it, grunting with every blow. Maria felt around the room, patting the stained surfaces, running her fingers down the corners.

“What are you doing?” Ben said.

“I don’t know. There might be a hidden button or something.”

Ben crouched and peered over the back of the ship into the distance. Nothing looked familiar. A group of black specks circled in the air. The trees had a white tinge, and the outline of buildings jagged against the skyline, reminding him of the broken fence posts on the toy wooden farm in the orphan compartment.

“Did you hear that?” Ethan said.

“Hear what?” Ben said.

“Shouting. Listen.”

The engines continued to strain and lull below. Ben heard a voice drifting up on the breeze between the mechanical screams.

“I’m going to check it out. Give me a minute,” he said.

“Stay here. We’ll be safer,” Maria said.

“It might be the people that saved our ass. I’ll crawl to the edge and have a look.”

“
They
might not be people. How are you going to communicate?” Ethan said.

“He’s right, Ben. You’ve seen the trench behind the ship. Doesn’t take a genius to work out we’ve crashed.”

Ben peered back at the fresh brown trail chewed out of the ground. “We need to do something. I’m not waiting here for another psycho to show up.”

He slid onto his stomach. Maria grasped his ankle. “Don’t do anything stupid. We need you.”

Ben held up his thumb. He leopard-crawled across the platform, shooting glances at the body by the bike. A star shone brightly in the sky directly above him, warming his neck. The small dimples in the metal gave him a decent grip, and he quickly progressed.

He reached the edge, took a deep breath, and looked over.

A single figure stood below, looking directly at him, the bearded face of a man. Ben thrust himself back with his elbows.

“Hello. Hello,” a male voice called out. “Do you understand me?”

He spoke in English. Another member of the crew? It made sense. That’s why they shot the attacker on the platform.

Ben leaned over the edge. “What the hell’s happening? Where are we?”

“I’ll explain when you come down. You’ve only got a few minutes.”

“What happened to the ship? Did we detach?”

The man appeared to start laughing. His shoulders rocked as he looked down, shaking his head.

“I’m glad you find this funny,” Ben said.

He gazed back up with a stern expression. “Far from it. If you and your buddies want to live, you’ll do as I say.”

“What do you mean?”

“I’m not going to stand here debating. You’ll get us all killed. Come down in the next minute or I’ll leave you to join your friend,” the man said, pointing toward Jimmy.

“We can’t get off this platform, can’t see a way down,” Ben said.

“Look around the edge. There’s a ladder that runs up the side.”

Ben edged around the corner and looked along the side of the ship. It was a few feet away, rigid, and running from top to bottom. Easy enough to navigate. The view enabled him to get a handle on the size of their craft. Roughly two hundred feet long and seventy high. Colored a dull black but with something painted on the side he couldn’t quite see because of the angle.

“Get moving, boy,” the man shouted, all humor gone from his voice.

Ben weighed his options. They couldn’t get back into the ship and needed some form of protection. This man and whoever he was with provided it. They could have shot him, Maria, or Ethan on the platform. It seemed like the Ops team only had one choice.

He ran back to the internal space. “Did you hear all of that?”

“Not quite, but we did hear some English,” Maria said. “What did he say?”

“We need to leave, now.”

“Where are we going?” Maria said.

“Who is it?” Ethan said.

“Possibly a member of the crew. He says we need to leave or we’ll die. Do you want to try and prove him wrong?”

“No. Where are we?” Ethan said.

“He’s going to explain when we get down. We’ve got a minute. There’s a ladder on the side. Ready?”

“Okay, let’s do it,” Maria said. “I don’t like it but …”

Ethan returned a vacant look. Ben shook his shoulder. “Are you ready?”

“Yeah … Yes. I’m with you.”

Ben jogged back to the edge of the platform. “We’re coming down. There’s three of us.”

The man nodded and took a couple of steps back. He crouched on the dirt, surveying the area through the sights of his rifle.

“It’s just around this edge. I’ll go first,” Ben said.

He reached out and gripped the cold, square ladder rail. Composing himself, he took a deep breath and swung his left leg around onto a rung, grabbing the opposite rail with his left hand.

The sixty-foot drop had a dizzying effect. He hugged against the ladder, squeezing the rails hard.

“Don’t look down,” Ben said.

He descended the ladder, concentrating on his deliberate movements while glancing up at the other two. After Ben climbed down twenty feet, Ethan swayed out onto the ladder with a youthful fearlessness. Maria followed shortly after, and all three clanked toward the ground.

Ben flinched after the man shouted, “Denver, deal with that driver!”

He felt the man’s presence as he neared the dirt. With only four feet to go, Ben jumped off the ladder, twisting as he landed.

The man stood only four feet away. He wore a camouflage jacket and trousers with pieces of greenery attached, giving his clothing a strange organic appearance. The jacket hood had three ferns attached. They twitched as the breeze caught the edges.

A pink scar running down the center of his forehead wrinkled as he smiled through a thick, dark blond beard. His striking blue eyes were rimmed with weather-beaten wrinkles, giving him a hard look. He looked at least ten years older than Ben.

He held out his hand and with a low, rough voice, said, “Charlie Jackson. Your only hope for survival.”