Aquifer: A Novel (50 page)

*

The boys picked up rocks and threw them at the adolescent alien but it aggressively drove the boys back toward the lagoon and was quickly joined by a host of smaller aliens. The three boys were forced onto a small rock outcropping that formed a narrow peninsula jutting into the lagoon. They were surrounded on three sides by water with the aliens in front of them.

Johnny took off his backpack and hastily dug through it. In his fumbling he dropped the Bowie knife into the eight foot deep pool. Leaning forward in an effort to catch the knife before it hit the water he inadvertently dumped all of the cans of bug spray into the water. The gentle current of the underground stream immediately began to whisk the floating cans downstream.

Austin quickly dropped to his stomach and retrieved one of the cans before it floated beyond his grasp.

Johnny continued to fumble with trembling fingers and finally retrieved a butane lighter. Austin shoved the can of bug spray into Johnny’s hands. Quickly Johnny took aim but before he could depress the nozzle the young creature lunged at him and bit the lighter in two, miraculously missing Johnny’s fingers.

“We’re all gonn’a die!” wailed Frankie.

“No we’re not! We’re not dying in Fears Cave,” Austin stoutly maintained.

Immediately Frankie dropped into a deep hypnotic trance.

“Oh great! Just what we need!” observed Johnny.

Austin eyed Frankie, the aliens, then the sunken Bowie knife. An idea seemed to be forming in his mind and spread across his face.

The aliens paced back and forth before the boys, eyeing them hungrily.

*

In the Blue Spring nesting chamber three adult creatures circled before Clayton and the group, driving them back toward the spring’s lagoon.

*

The three boys were backed against the tip of the rock outcropping, surrounded by the water in the lagoon.

“Frankie, dive into your swimming pool and get the Bowie knife Johnny dropped!” shouted Austin.

Obediently, Frankie, who was responding to the post-hypnotic suggestion Austin had given him the day of their spelunking adventure, dove from the rock outcropping, into the deep pool, and swam to the bottom. Austin dug into his backpack and retrieved his Coleman fuel bottle, filled with white gas. He unscrewed the cap and doused the aggressive creature with it. The creature snorted and backed away. It was curious but wary. Again Austin doused the creature with more of the white gas. “Get your flint rock,” he told Johnny.

Johnny reached into his backpack and got the flint. Austin kept dousing the young creature with more white gas.

*

In the Blue Spring nesting chamber, Larry and Tina assisted Clayton as they slowly worked their way toward the spring opening. The two remaining deputies kept their street sweepers trained upon the aliens flanking them. Suddenly, one of the creatures lunged for the lead deputy who instinctively raised his shotgun and pulled the trigger, but the only sound it made was the dry-firing click of the hammer dropping on an empty barrel. He pumped the empty chamber again, but his efforts proved futile. The alien pounced and grabbed him, dragging him into the recesses of the darkness. The other deputy fired twice at the retreating creature, though the alien’s thick hide prevented serious injury.

In desperation, the remaining deputy shouted to Larry and Tina, “Run for the river! I don't have much ammo left.”

Tina and Larry supported Clayton as they ran the last ten feet to the river.

*

Frankie broke the surface of the subterranean lagoon and tossed the knife to Johnny who quickly unsheathed it, wiped the blade across the thigh of his Levis to dry it and frantically raked its back side along the rock searching for a hot sparking spot.

The young creature, now enraged and drenched in the stinging white gas, approached for the kill. Just as it lunged, Johnny raked the Bowie knife along a hot vein in the flint and arched a brilliant spark that jumped two feet toward the creature. The alien erupted into flames and screamed as the boys jumped backwards in surprise. The young alien shrieked in pain, turned and ran back through the small tunnel into the Blue Spring nesting chamber, followed by the group of smaller aliens.

*

In the Blue Spring nesting chamber Larry and Tina were standing across from the underwater hole in the wall to the spring’s entrance contemplating their next move when they heard the squalling of the young alien. They turned their heads and saw it emerge from the connecting tunnel, aflame, and running right at them.

“Johnny!” Tina shrieked in horror.

The Search and Rescue deputy working on the detonation control box saw the flaming creature running toward them, grabbed the control box and the wiring harness and dove into the lagoon, continuing to reattach the wiring harness as he sank to the bottom.

Larry sized up the situation, realizing that they were inside a bomb that was just seconds away from exploding, but was unsure of what to do.

*****

Johnny turned to his friends as they stood at the tip of the narrow mini-peninsula, “Let’s take cover guys, that critter’s about to set off a chain reaction.”

He and the other boys broke into a run and raced toward the tunnel through which the young flaming alien had just departed.

*****

At that moment Bill showed up in the Blue Spring nesting chamber driving one of the scuba planes. He had the throttle opened to maximum speed. Hugging the bank of the lagoon, he approached Larry and slowed just long enough to issue his pleading command.

“Come on, let's go! Jump on!” yelled Bill as he shoved the scuba plane into dive mode, not waiting for a response.

Larry and a deputy pushed Clayton onto the scuba plane. Then they too jumped on, along with Tina. They all frantically grabbed for a hand-hold just as it dove below the surface. At that same moment the young alien, crying in pain, approached the first napalm covered egg clutch.

Gimp Foot glared at the group as they began their descent toward the spring's opening. Its eyes narrowed, instinctively sensing that somehow the group was the cause of the youngster's pain and recognizing Larry and Tina as intended prey that had escaped many previous attempts at capture.

The young flaming creature reached the nearest napalm packed egg cluster and a massive fire ball erupted into an explosive holocaust.

At the same moment, Gimp Foot dove into the water and raced to catch the scuba plane, just missed by the tongue of flames that flashed through the cavernous room. The fire ball raced down the tunnel from the Blue Spring nesting chamber toward the impact crater, setting off more napalm explosions as it went.

*

Johnny and his friends huddled with their backs to the huge boulder that blocked the tunnel's entrance as flames exploded through the tunnel opening and shot over their heads.

*

The holocaust raging through the Blue Spring nesting chamber ignited the napalm trail on the floor of the small tunnel connecting to the main nesting chamber. Like an extremely fast-burning fuse, flames flashed along the napalm trail toward the egg clusters and the explosives which saturated them.

The devouring flame ran along the napalm trail, slithered up to the first egg cluster and exploded, creating an immense chain reaction of successive explosions which immediately engulfed the entire room in a blazing inferno. Adult aliens roared in pain, egg clusters exploded in the massive conflagration.

*

A billowing ball of fire raced down the main tunnel, catapulting destruction before it as it raced toward the impact crater's opening, igniting the trail of napalm.

*

Sheriff Akers was standing next to the arming consol at the edge of the Blue Spring command center when a blinding light flashed from the underwater cave opening in the bluff on the opposite side of the spring.

“What the . . . How did that ignite?” snapped Sheriff Akers.

“Must be a spontaneous malfunction,” replied the console operator.

*

Thirty feet underwater, at the bottom of the lagoon inside the Blue Spring nesting chamber, the Search and Rescue deputy successfully jammed the last of the wires into the detonation control box just as the scuba plane passed overhead. He kicked off the lagoon floor and grabbed onto one of its side-rails just before it passed beyond his grasp. The scuba plane exited through the forty-foot tunnel in the cave wall into the depths of Blue Spring with Gimp Foot in pursuit.

None of the scuba plane’s passengers had had time to don their scuba tanks. Their lungs burned for lack of oxygen and they each hoped that they would be able to hang on long enough to reach the surface beyond the cave. Bill was driven by the realization that they had to get out of the water. He understood that when the bomb detonated that the crushing concussion wave would kill them all, instantly. Clearing the tunnel and entering the depths of Blue Spring’s basin he jammed the scuba plane into a nearly vertical ascent and sped for the surface, hoping that everyone would be able to hang on in spite of his drastic maneuvers. The craft though, was not built for speed, it was a cargo transport which lumbered through the water much slower than Bill wished.

*

At the command center the arming lights on the main console suddenly all blinked on. The console operator yelled, “Sheriff! We have detonation control!”

“We can't let any of the aliens escape. Is everyone that’s accounted for clear?” inquired the Sheriff.

“Affirmative, all clear.”

“Then detonate all explosives!” ordered the Sheriff.

“Yes, Sir!” replied the console operator as he turned the safety keys and depressed the detonation button. Immediately a deafening explosion could be heard from deep within the bluff.

*

At the impact crater the detonating explosives shot flames skyward, tossing ATVs and trailers as if they were toys.

*

In the main nesting chamber, the connecting tunnels and the Blue Spring chamber, the ANFO/fertilizer bombs exploded, sending nails and shrapnel hurtling through the air. Creatures of all sizes were impaled and ripped apart by the flying shrapnel. Fireballs bounced around and tongues of flames became weapons of incineration. The entire subterranean system had become a flaming holocaust, devouring everything within it.

Then the underwater drums of ANFO positioned along the mile-long tunnel exploded – hurtling water out of the river channel into the air. It appeared that the water and fireball co-mingled into one massive destructive force, filled with flying shrapnel and completing the destruction of all the aliens held captive by their lusty desires.

*

At Blue Spring the scuba plane broke the surface, nearly leaping out of the water. Its occupants gasped for air just as the explosion’s shock wave ripped through the previously still lagoon, sloshing waves several feet up onto the shore near the Sheriff’s command center. The scuba plane settled onto the water’s surface and continued to race for the shore.

Underwater, Gimp Foot had been about to overtake the scuba plane and crush it in its jaws just as the shock wave ripped through the lagoon. The explosion momentarily stunned the creature and prevented it from grabbing the scuba plane. Limply, Gimp Foot groggily floated to the surface, but within seconds came to its senses and once again began to pursue the fleeing scuba plane.

*

From his command post at the spring’s shore, the Sheriff watched as the entire skyline behind the bluff exploded into a towering ball of fire from the impact crater beyond the ridge while light emerged from the cave opening twenty feet below the spring’s surface. Massive chunks of rock and the trunk of a dead tree fell from the bluff into the spring while the shoreline shuddered from the massive explosions.

*

As the speeding scuba plane raced for shore, Search and Rescue personnel rushed to the water’s edge to be ready with assistance the moment it touched the bank.

Now, fully recovered from the blast’s concussion, Gimp Foot raced for shore. It kept a keen eye trained on Tina and Larry, regarding them as the primary targets. Aware of Gimp Foot’s pursuit, Bill kept the throttle wide open, ramming the scuba plane onto the shore. Gimp Foot was upon them immediately. It lunged for Larry and Tina, who jumped from the scuba plane just in time to escape the creature’s powerful jaws as they snapped shut.

Two Search and Rescue deputies aimed their makeshift flame throwers at the alien and immediately engulfed it in flames as it stepped out of the water, towering nine feet in height. Gimp Foot cried in agony but continued its relentless pursuit. A third deputy ran forward, blasting Gimp Foot in the stomach with round after round from the automatic shotgun. Another deputy rushed forward with an open bucket of napalm, throwing it upon the creature. Again Gimp Foot was hit by the flame throwers and it screamed in pain. This time, engulfed in flames, it staggered, then fell to the ground with its tail still in the water. There, beside the spring, it smoldered and quivered in death.

All around the spring, smaller aliens that swam out of the cave seeking safety were immediately incinerated by other deputies with flame throwers as quickly as they emerged from the water. Others were electrocuted by the electrified strainer net that spanned the exit stream as they tried to swim downstream.