Striker (The Alien Wars Book 2) (19 page)

However, even
though this was the fourth time that she had studied it, she still couldn’t
make out what the key could be used for. It was bigger than a car key and
thicker than a house key. If only her father had given it to her sooner, then
time would have been on their side.

Maybe it was
supposed to have been a wedding present. That would explain why her father had
only given it to her on the helicopter. Deciding that she may as well start
wearing it, she put the necklace around her neck. If anyone asked, she could
always tell them that she had found it somewhere. Not that she wanted to lie,
but she wasn’t ready to tell them the truth. First, she had to find out if what
her father had said about
Logan
was true.

She rocked back
and forth to pass the time. For the first hour or so, she was able to keep
awake without any problems, but as the minutes dragged on, she began to feel
sleepy.

She pried herself
up and made her way into the kitchen. She searched in every cupboard for some
food, but she couldn’t find any. Disappointed, she poured herself a glass of
water. Even though this refreshed her, she couldn’t stop thinking about food.

Strolling back to
the chair that she had been sitting in, she peered out the window and caught
sight of the
neighboring
house. She wondered if that
house, or any other home in the area, had something still edible in the
kitchen.

Deciding on a plan
of action, she made her way to the front door and stepped out onto the porch.
As soon as she closed the door behind her, she shivered at the day’s sudden
coolness.

Clouds covered
the sun and the wind whipped itself into
a frenzy
.
Pulling her jacket a little closer, she rubbed her hands together and stepped
down the few steps onto the grass as she headed across the grass toward the
neighboring
house.

The house next
door was in the same condition as the first house. There were plenty of water
bottles in the refrigerator, but only a few scraps of rotting food left over.
However, in the back of the kitchen cabinet, she found a tin of biscuits and
eagerly ate a few right then and there. Then, remembering the others, she put
the lid back on and made her way to the front door.

She had just
opened it and stepped onto the porch when she noticed that things had changed.
The chirping of birds had stopped and the sky, which had been blue, was now
covered in green smoke. In fact, by the way it clung to the
air,
it was more like a mist. It was also quite thick, so much so that she could
just make out the house where the others were.

“God no!”
She started to cough but
forced the breath in. Clasping a hand over her mouth and nose, she sprinted
through the mist, only to trip over something a few feet short from the nearest
porch.

Her lungs
revolted and gasped for air as she spotted the white poodle under her feet.
Lucy jumped to her feet but collapsed after a single stride. Her body started
to spasm, and she kept gulping in the greenish air as she crawled to the
nearest door.

Lucy managed to
touch the porch’s first step before her arms stopped responding. She rolled
onto her back and screamed at the darkening sky, “Help!”

Her last vision
as the blackness swarmed in was of a lone vulture circling overhead.

~*~*~

Logan
woke with a
start. He flicked his head around, unsure where he was. As he took in his
surroundings, it all came back to him. Not seeing Lucy, he adjusted his watch.
He’d been asleep for over an hour and a half. Maybe Lucy was just stretching
her legs or in the bathroom.

He stood up and
made his way to the kitchen. As he did so, he passed by a window and froze in
his tracks. A thick layer of green smoke covered the area. He rushed to another
window on the other side of the house and stared out. The green smoke cut
visibility to mere inches.

“Damn!” Realizing
that this had to be caused by the fallout at
Mount Shasta
, he knew that a
plan of action needed to be made. He hurried into the bedrooms. “Wake up,
everyone, we’ve got trouble.”

Derek groaned,
stretched his arms, and sat up. “What’s wrong?”

“That damn green
gas is all around us.” He shot out of the room, leaving Derek to wake his
sister. In the other bedroom, he found Kenneth lightly snoring. He shook him
awake and told him about the situation. “I don’t suppose you’ve seen Lucy?”

Kenneth yawned
and shook his head. “No, I’ve been fast asleep ever since my head hit the
pillow.”

Logan
grimaced and
quickly searched the rest of the house. By the time he entered the living room,
the others were gazing out of the windows.

Suddenly, Molly
cried out in surprise.
“God no!”
She clutched at
Logan
. “Lucy’s on
the porch.”

“What?”
Logan
rushed over
and flung open the door. “Dear God …” He knelt over the unconscious blonde figure
and felt for her pulse, fearing the worse. He breathed a sigh of relief. “She’s
alive.”

“We’d better get
her inside,” Kenneth suggested.

“Yes, of course.”
Logan
took hold of Lucy’s arms. Together with Kenneth and the teens, they
moved the woman inside.

Molly coughed as
she closed the door. “We shouldn’t have had the door open for so long. This
green smoke is probably the reason Lucy is in the condition that she is in.”

Kenneth cleared
his throat.
“Definitely.
Even from that brief spell in
the open, I can tell a difference.” He looked at
Logan
. “This can
only mean one thing.”

Logan
nodded,
his face now serious. “Yes. It can’t be a
coincidence that the liquid that I saw being poured into one of the devices in
Mount Shasta
was green and this
smoke is also green. It must be one and the same.”

“We’re all going
to die then!” Molly cried out, tears forming on her face.

Derek comforted
his sister by hugging her. “
Logan
’s just guessing. Besides, Lucy was breathing in the smoke for quite
some time and she’s not dead.”

“But she’s not
conscious,” Molly said.

“Well, no, but
that’s better than being dead,” Derek replied.

“Let’s stop
talking and get out of here,” Kenneth said. “It’s clear that the green smoke
isn’t helpful, so let’s get out of the range of this green smoke.”

“But where can we
go?” Derek asked.

“The lodge,”
Logan replied. “It’s the only place that we know of that has food, water, and
medical supplies.”

“But how are we
going to get there since we don’t have a vehicle?” Molly questioned.

“We’ll have to
acquire one,”
Logan
replied.

“You mean steal
one,” Derek said.

“Well, yes, but I
doubt whoever lived in these houses still need the vehicles. After all, if they
did, why wouldn’t they have used them?”

“I didn’t see any
cars on our way here,” Molly piped up.

“I didn’t
either,”
Logan
admitted, “but I’m sure there must be at least one.”

“But what about the green smoke?”
Kenneth pointed out. “Who knows how far we’ll get before we become like Lucy?”

“It’s a chance
we’ll have to take,”
Logan
said. “Unfortunately, we don’t know how long Lucy was breathing in
the smoke, which is why we will take steps to limit our breathing outside.” He
checked the front door and then out the nearby window. “Once I find a suitable
vehicle, I’ll reverse as close as I can to the door.”

“Would a van be
best?” Molly suggested. “It would be easier to carry Lucy into the vehicle
then.”

Logan
faced the
others once more. “Yes, I was just coming to that part. As Lucy can’t walk,
she’ll have to be carried.” He looked at Kenneth. “Do you think you can carry
her by yourself?”

“I can help,”
Derek piped up.

“Well,” Kenneth
said, “with Derek’s help, I should be fine.”

“What about me?”
Molly asked. “What can I do?”

“You can open the
front door, as well as the door of the vehicle,”
Logan
said. “So,
that’s all settled then?” As the others nodded, he started tearing up the room.
“If we can all find something to put around our mouths, then that would also
help protect us from the smoke.”

“I think I saw
some scarves hanging up in the closet,” Molly piped up.

“You did?
Whereabouts?”
Logan
questioned.

“I’ll show you.”
Molly led the way out of the living room, down the hallway, and into one of the
two bedrooms. It was just as she’d said. Inside one of the closets was a rack
of beautiful and expensive designer scarves.

Logan
smiled.
“Perfect, just what we need.” He took them all in his hand and went back to the
others, handing them out in a flurry. “Use this to protect yourselves. Oh, and
remember to wait until I blast the horn. Then come running.”

“Will do.”
Kenneth glanced over at
Lucy. “Hopefully she won’t get any worse until we are able to get help.”

“God, I hope so
too.” With that, he put his green scarf around his face, and without further
ado, he thrust open the door. He quickly shut it and raced down the driveway.
Once he reached the road, he looked both ways. There was no vehicle in sight.
None parked in a driveway or on the road.

Knowing that he
would have more luck if he headed deeper into the estate, he turned to the left
and jogged along the road. He couldn’t manage more, not with his body and soul
worn to a nub. Besides, with the smoke as thick as it was, it was hard to see
that far in front of him.

Only when he was
directly at the front of each driveway was he able to check for parked
vehicles. As time passed, he accepted that he’d have to go with the first car
he saw. He didn’t have time to be picky, especially with Lucy’s life on the
line.

He suddenly
skidded to a stop as he passed a driveway. Were his eyes playing tricks on him,
or was that a cream-colored van? He took a few strides up the driveway and let
out the breath he didn’t know he had been holding when he caught sight of the
van.

Rushing up to it,
he wondered if he would be lucky enough to find the keys for it. He didn’t want
to waste time playing about with the wires. It would be much quicker if he
could find the keys hanging on a hook inside.

So he hurried up
the porch steps and tried to open the door. He couldn’t. It was locked.
Coughing a bit, he bashed a hole through the wood and unlocked the door. As the
green smoke followed him into the house, he scanned the three hooks that had
been nailed into the hallway wall. There was nothing hanging on two of them,
but from the third one, a bunch of keys hung.

Logan
grabbed the
key chain and hurried outside. He urgently flicked through the keys for one
that looked like the one he needed. Spotting one such key, he put it into the
keyhole. It worked.

Sitting down in
the front seat, he quickly shut the door and started the engine. As it rumbled
to life, he catalogued the instrument panel’s digital readouts. The tank was
half full. So while it might not be enough to get to
San Francisco
, at
least they could get away from the smoke.

He yanked off his
scarf, coughed, and put the vehicle in reverse. As the smoke was still as thick
as before, he switched on the headlights to full beam. Even then, it was still
hard to see. Luckily, he didn’t have to go far. As he approached the house, he
drove up the driveway and then onto the grass, coming to a stop beside the
front door.

He pressed down
on the horn and waited. Moments later, the front door flung open and the others
rushed out. Molly was the first to arrive at the van, and she yanked open the
side door. She climbed in and sat down on the farthest seat as the others
climbed in.

As Kenneth laid
Lucy on the backseat, he screamed at
Logan
, “Go!”

Logan
cranked the
wheel to the right and drove across the grass until he was back on the road.
Then, with the headlights still blazing, he continued down the road, going the
opposite way this time.

He hadn’t been
paying too much attention when they arrived at the estate, but from what he
could recall, this road would soon merge with another road. He was correct with
this thinking as this was what happened.

However, as he
looked left and right, he braked and looked back at Kenneth. “Which direction
do you think
Redding
is in?”