Apex (16 page)

S
econd in command, Fillo, turned to relay his report.

He saw commander
Davok, sitting in his oversized chair, lazing easily, bored by all the goings on. Behind him, near the back of the command hub, he saw a dirty, trembling human figure creep from the shadows. The human looked like a wild beast. He looked crazed and vicious but also afraid. The second in command had never been so frightened by a life form in all his years.

He tried to yell out a warning to his commander just as the human locked him in a stare.
And then, in the next instant he saw the ship, but from the outside. He gasped but nothing filled his lungs. He spun end over end in space, the ship going in and out of his view.

Before he died, he realized what had happened. The human had teleported him away from the safety of the ship. The human was onboard.
The human had killed him.

From Within

Jack’s head was spinning. The atmosphere in the ship was breathable, but not in any way that felt comfortable. His lungs burned and his fingers tingled.

He’d managed to teleport several dozen aliens into the vacuum of space already but his strength wouldn’t hold up much longer.

He was in the control hub now and he’d just teleported one of the two aliens in it away. That left the big guy
who was probably the leader of the entire invasion.

The big alien swiveled in his chair and stared at Jack with his
oval black eyes. Then it slowly reached down to the side of the chair and pulled a latch. A small compartment fell open. The alien moved quickly now. Before Jack could react, a small, futuristic handgun was being pointed at his chest.

The alien spoke but its language was not even close to being decipherable. It sounded like a cross between an old fashioned fax machine’s dial tone and a dinosaur roar.

It didn’t wait for him to respond. He was hit in the center of the chest with a powerful beam of light. He fell backwards onto his butt. He rubbed at the smoldering spot and then got to his feet in time to get shot again. This second shot was worse than the first because it was aimed at his head.

He felt dizzy. He knew he had to act fast or he’d be killed. If he lost consciousness, as he was apt to do lately, the alien could just continue firing at the same spot until his flesh couldn’t hold up any longer. Or he could just jettison his body into space before he woke up.

He had to do something before he passed out. He tried to concentrate on the alien’s grey head, but his vision was wonky. The head swam around in a circle, fuzzy and fading fast. He couldn’t focus. And if he couldn’t focus, he couldn’t teleport. He took a deep breath to try and steady himself but the lungful of air just made him dizzier.

The alien gave him what he could only guess was a sneer of derision as it took aim once more.

He could only imagine how pitiful he looked to the alien. His silly costume was in tatters. He was exhausted, covered in sweat, dirt, and blood and he stunk of fear and overexertion. But worse was that he was quickly starting to feel how he looked.

He stared at the floor of the ship, too tired to go on, and then he saw the alien
weapon hanging from his fist. He raised it towards the alien and pressed the red button. If it was a bomb, then now was the perfect time to use it. If it was a gun: Even better.

It seemed like the entire room exploded, but he missed his original target; the alien with the handgun
.

His vision turned red. He felt intense pain and saw himself being sucked out into space through the huge hole the gun had made in the ship
’s hull. The edges were still sizzling and glowing from the impact of the energy beam.

Alien objects careened into his body. He saw the big alien flail around out in the vacuum of space and then go still as he suffocated
to death. He saw the outside of the ship swim in and out of view.

The weapon had somehow destroyed itself and in doing so, it had burnt his entire arm. But the pain was fading fast.

His vision turned black.

Victory

Melanie watched as the big mother ship broke in two. It did so very slowly.

Jack’s mom started to sob.

Dan hung his head and wept
weakly, like he was running out of tears.

A couple of the townsfolk cheered but their enthusiasm didn’t permeate through the dread in Melanie’s heart.
She kept staring and kept waiting for Jack to reappear beside her, but he didn’t.

Streaks of flaming debris cut scars into the sky as
parts of the ship disintegrated and burned up in the atmosphere. She couldn’t help but wonder which of those streaks was Jack. She could only hope he was already dead. The thought of him falling and burning to death sent shivers down her spine.

Stragglers

When a line of red light hit the sheriff in the face and he fell over backwards, dead,
Melanie knew that it wasn’t over yet.

Two dozen robots were floating above the ground to the north. Another beam of light zipped over their heads.

The robots started to fly their way. Dan had a look of pure delight, intermingled with unbridled fury on his face as he took off running towards them. His hands were already lit and black smoke was trailing from them.

Melanie didn’t want to fight anymore, but what choice did she have? She had to defend the people she loved and cared for. When she saw Scott’s lifeless body, her anger grew and so too did her powers. She would have revenge, even if it just meant taking her frustrations out on the alien’s attack robots.

If only she had an infusion of sugar, her abilities would be magnified. She had never had a sweet tooth, but she wanted a candy bar in the worst way. She couldn’t help but wonder just how powerful they’d all be if they had been properly fed lately. The thought invigorated her but it frightened her too. Jack’s powers had been colossal and that was without the nutrition he required. She could only imagine how uncontrollable they’d be with a sugar kick.

She chased after Dan, her hands engorged in blood, ready to unleash their building powers.

Tactical Surrender

The Grey captain watched as the two humans ran towards them.

Sh
e felt heat within her armor, so much so, that she was forced to remove it. She saw one of her men fall to the ground and hit the dirt with a sickening thud. Then she saw another being crushed alive by an invisible force.

A fat rope of fire scoured through the air, barely missing them.

There was only one explanation: The two humans were somehow doing this. But how? Did they have similar attributes as the anomalous human that had vanished just minutes before? That human was powerful enough to take down the mother ship. It was no coincidence that just minutes after he disappeared, the ship blew up. As much as she wanted to resist coming to that bizarre conclusion, she couldn’t. And if he could do that all by himself, what could their attackers do?

She knew now that it was a mistake to attack these humans. They were somehow more powerful than the
rest.

She
tried to contact the mother ship, but that was just instinct; she saw the ship blow apart just moments ago. She decided to contact the other ground troops instead.

“We are under attack by forces we don’t understand.
With the mother ship gone, and no hope of escape, we cannot win this battle.”

A tinny voice came back over
her radio. “Are you suggesting we should surrender? We’re winning the fight, sir. In fact, this is way easier than we thought it would be.”

“There is a small faction of humanity that is unstoppable and we’re facing them right now. A handful of them killed all twenty Rancunts, without using
a single weapon. One single human did that to the mother ship - just one man.”

“That’s impossible.”

“If we continue to fight we might lose our lives. If we surrender, they might spare us.”

“We’ll be their slaves. They might kill us anyway.”

“It’s worth the risk. High Command will investigate when we fail to return home on time. They’ll come and rescue us and we’ll have all the reinforcements we’ll need to vanquish this species, once and for all. But we have to be smart about this if we’re to succeed.”

“Are you ordering us to surrender? I want you to be clear about this.”

A blast of fire made the radio crackle for a second. The heat forced the captain to jam her eyes shut.

“Yes. This is a tactical surrender. Lay down your weapons and give up.”

A different voice, transmitted from the other side of the planet said, “There’s no one left alive over here to give up to. We’ve wiped them all out.”

“Then go into hiding until a rescue ship arrives. That’s an order.”

“Are you allowed to give such an order?”

“With the mother ship gone, I’m in command.”

“Yes sir. Sorry sir. We’ll be ready and waiting when reinforcements arrive.”

To her men, the captain said, “Lay down your weapons and surrender.”

She was surprised by how quickly guns fell from their hands. They didn’t want to fight superhumans with abilities that fell outside the realm of reality. The sight of their ship being destroyed had a profound effect on them too. It meant they were stranded.

She was comfortable with her order to surrender. It was only temporary anyway.

End of Aggressions

Melanie stopped running when she saw the robots descend to the ground and shed their metal skins. They weren’t robots after all but aliens inside of armored suits.

Dan halted just ten feet in front of her and turned around. “Are they really trying to surrender?”

She crinkled her brow and looked back at the aliens. Sure enough, their weapons were on the ground and their hands were raised in the universal sign of surrender. The thought of them surrendering had never crossed her mind. She thought she was rushing into her own doom, and yet it appeared as though they’d won the battle with hardly any effort at all.

Dan said, “Be prepared in case it’s a trick.”

“I’m ready.”

Dan smirked devilishly. “I might kill them anyway for what they did to Molly.”

“Don’t, Dan. Let’s just see what happens.”

A faraway voice carried from behind them. It was female and familiar. Dan gasped and turned around, looking over Melanie’s shoulder.

Running towards them was Molly. She was dirty and bloody, but she was alive. She ran past Melanie, right up to Dan.

Before he could reach out and hug her she hit him in the chest and then in the arm. He barely noticed her flailing strikes as he walked through them and held her for dear life.

“How are you alive?”

“We’re indestructible, dumbass. Why did you leave me?”

“Because you were dead.”

“Do I look dead?”

“You weren’t moving. I’m so sorry. Jack killed those monsters and then teleported us all out here.”

“Don’t try and blame Jack. You could’ve at least checked my pulse before leaving me for dead.”

He held her tighter and told her to shut up.

Melanie put a hand on her shoulder and squeezed, never once taking
her eyes from the aliens before them.

Molly started to sob until she caught sight of the aliens standing thirty feet ahead of them. She turned her head to Melanie and asked, “What the hell are they doing?”

“I think they’re giving up.”

Round Up

As they herded the weird
, gangly aliens back towards the dilapidated farmhouse, Melanie strained her eyes to see if Scott had miraculously resurrected in the same way Molly had. When she saw his body being carried off by his mom and little brother, she knew he wasn’t coming back from the dead.

W
hen they got close enough for the people to see the aliens, a few rifles were pointed their way, but once the townsfolk realized they had the aliens in their custody, they accepted it readily, albeit wearily.

She asked after Jack but no one had seen him reappear. His mom refused to accept it. She sat on the ground cross legged and stared into the sky, waiting for a miracle.
She was mumbling, “My Jack can do amazing things. He’ll return. Just watch.”

It broke Melanie’s heart.

Dan found some twine and bound the aliens’ hands and feet. They had no idea if the bindings would hold them, but it gave them peace of mind. They sat the aliens down in the dirt and took turns guarding them.

A
fter the sun started to go down, a helicopter buzzed over them, stirring up dust and making several of the children cry. A huge gun strafed them from that helicopter, but it didn’t fire. Twenty minutes later, it returned and set down fifty feet away. A young man, dressed in civilian garb jogged over to them as the rotors slowed to a stop. He was covered in blood, and a part of his ear was missing. He had a gun on each hip and a rifle in his hands. He hadn’t survived the alien invasion by chance alone. He’d fought his way through it.