ã€ŠAshes of the Arcticã€‹


 Chapter 1 - Cant Shake the Feeling

    Envy had a bad feeling, but flushed the toilet anyway. Moments later the tell-tale gurgling of shitwater overflowing into her bathtub made its presence known, signaling yet another sewage back-up in her crappy, nineteen-sixties log cabin that some Alaskan settler had built with a hand saw and a couple of chisels.

    ¡°Fuck!¡± her roommate, Rusty, shouted from the downstairs bathroom, followed by a long string of colorful USMC curses, followed by, ¡°For the love of God, get back down the hole you mama-banging piece of shit!¡± Envy immediately heard the tell-tale signs of plunging under her feet.

    Sure, the pamphlets and quaint photographs on the real estate website had made log cabins look really cool, but after living in one over a winter, that¡¯s exactly what Envy had figured out the hard way. With no insulation in the walls, they were cool, regardless of how much wood she packed into the rickety little stove. And they had foundation issues. And the septic ¡®system¡¯ was really just a rotting bunch of logs stacked in the shape of a box and buried in the ground. That, Envy had realized after spending a hundred and fifteen grand for the warped, cold, foundationless, bug-eaten piece of shit, was what a ¡®Crib¡¯ meant when it was entered under the ¡®Septic System¡¯ section on the House Details summary. They might as well have written in huge, neon red letters, ¡®WARNING: THIS SEPTIC ¡®SYSTEM¡¯ WILL TRY TO KILL YOU. IMMUNIZATIONS AGAINST CHOLERA AND DYSENTERY STRONGLY RECOMMENDED.¡¯

    Envy stood there, placidly staring at the brown scum of sewage lapping gently in her shower, listening to the desperate sucking sounds from the downstairs bathroom, then picked up her coffee of the exact same hue and, sipping it, went downstairs, troubled. Despite yet another shitbath, the bad feeling hadn¡¯t gone away.

    Rusty met her at the base of the stairs, plunger in his big hand, sweat on his face. ¡°Septic¡¯s backed up again!¡± the six-foot-eight gorilla panted, waving his wet tool at the bathroom with a meaty arm. ¡°I¡¯m gonna fuckin¡¯ ass rape that broke-dick twig of a plumber until his eyes bug out of his acne-infested face!¡±

    Envy nodded and walked past him to the living area. She found her favorite recliner and slumped into it, thinking. She¡¯d never had a bad feeling like this. Literally from the moment she¡¯d woken up, it had been gnawing at her, stronger and more intense than anything she¡¯d ever felt. So strong, in fact, that she had felt compelled to pack a bag of camping and survival gear that morning, which was even then waiting for her by the door.

    Rusty followed her and came around to her field of view, still worked up into a frenzy. ¡°First I¡¯m gonna get that weaselly little broketoothed cocksucker¡¯s home address, then I¡¯m gonna drive down to his trailer park and put my size-twelve so far up his lily white ass I¡¯ll be wearin¡¯ him around like a flip-flop¡­¡±

    Ignoring his tirade, Envy went down the list of possibilities that could be causing such a bad feeling. She¡¯d been experiencing them for twenty years, ever since a rockslide had sent her to the hospital in her teens and she¡¯d died twice on the table before coming back, her eyes opened to a whole new world she¡¯d never known existed.

    Of all her new ¡®gifts,¡¯ she would have had to say that, contrary to popular belief, ghosts were the most fun. Generally, as far as she could see, they just had interesting stories to tell. Murders, robberies gone bad, betrayals, general misfortunes, natural disasters¡­

    The thought of ¡®natural disasters¡¯ made her guts suddenly twist in dread. Envy had to put down her coffee to keep from spilling it on herself as the wave of goosebumps left her hands shaking.

    ¡°¡­then pound his skinny ass with a thirty-aught-six with the safety off while I fill my left hand with lube and¡ª¡±

    ¡°Rusty,¡± Envy said.

    ¡°Huh?¡± the former Marine said, blinking at her.

    ¡°You know those feelings I get?¡± She was actually so freaked out she was having trouble talking. ¡°The bad ones?¡±

    The old combat vet went solemn. A few years ago, on a hunting trip, she¡¯d saved him from a hundred-percent fatality plane crash headed to Fairbanks, and he¡¯d treated her as if she were the Messiah ever since. ¡°You got one about the septic?¡± he asked. With wide, nervous eyes, he glanced over his shoulder at the pool of sewage seeping out from the bathroom. Then, lowering his voice, he said, ¡°Does it kill us this time?¡±

    Envy, almost speechless at the intensity of the dread, just shook her head.

    Of all the strange new perceptions she had come back from the brink of death with twenty years before, it was the bad feelings that had, time and again, saved her life. Each time she had one, it was like she was reaching out to her future self, feeling how her future self was going to feel. She had just as many happy nudges as bad ones, but in the high-paced life it was the doom-and-gloom that always got her attention.

    Usually when she had one, she was about to get mugged or receive a threatening letter from the IRS. This was different. This was like her whole world had soured, and it had nothing to do with yet another sewage nightmare.

    ¡°Don¡¯t think it¡¯s the septic,¡± Envy whispered.

    Rusty lowered the plunger to the table beside her coffee mug and knelt beside her on one knee, looking totally solemn. ¡°So what we lookin at? Home invasion? Earthquake?¡±

    ¡®Earthquake¡¯ had a bit of an anxiety tinge to it, but when Envy felt it out, it didn¡¯t feel quite right. ¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± she said. Her eyes were fixed to the brown water dribbling down the rubber cup and pooling against the side of her mug. ¡°Rusty, that¡¯s really gross.¡±

    He glanced at it, then seemed to shake himself. ¡°Oh, sorry.¡± Grabbing the plunger, he wiped it off with a nearby throw, then set it back on the table.

    Now her eyes were fixed to the brown smudge on her favorite velvet blanket. ¡°I think I¡¯m gonna throw up.¡±

    ¡°Wash it later,¡± he said.

    ¡°You wash it later,¡± she retorted. Then she realized what happened the last time she¡¯d let her roommate wash her clothes, and immediately grimaced.

    ¡°Fine,¡± he conceded. ¡°I¡¯ll grab a rag and scrub it down a bit. What about the nudge? Same thing as last time? People die?¡±

    ¡°Oh Jesus,¡± she said, thinking of him giving the raw sewage on her favorite blanket a couple of wipes with a dirty rag from out in his shop before folding it perfectly in nice, crisp USMC folds and leaving it for her to find on her favorite chair a few days from now. ¡°Never mind,¡± she muttered, ¡°I¡¯ll wash the damn blanket.¡± She stood to grab it.

    Rusty gently blocked her path with his approximately six hundred pound body, all steel-pumping muscle. Slowly, Envy lifted her range of vision from his left nipple up to the bottom of his chin. He was peering down at her, his face twisted with concern. ¡°Let¡¯s figure out what¡¯s going on before we both die in a plane crash, okay?¡± The way he spoke the words had the same anxious note of someone in a foxhole receiving intel on where and when the next mortar would strike. ¡°Who¡¯s involved? You? Me?¡±

    Envy, who had been planning on ignoring the nudge until something came more strongly into focus, realized she had actually frightened the guy and sighed. For better or worse, ever since the ill-fated Flight 233 to Fairbanks, whenever she let him know about her ¡®nudges¡¯, she had his full and complete attention until he had doggedly picked through all the possibilities and ruled out their deaths. And, while he was utterly tenacious and definitely a good guy to have along for a camping expedition or on her pool team at the local bar, Envy had long ago come to the realization that Rusty Torrinson was not PhD material. In anything.

    Well, maybe in doomsday prepping, government conspiracy theories, and weapons-maintenance, but aside from that, she really had to spell things out for him sometimes. And he really would pick at it like a dog with a bone until he figured out what about his future could potentially kill him.

    ¡°Both of us?¡± he continued, totally focused on the problem at hand.

    Envy felt it out, then nodded. She picked up the blanket and the plunger and walked around him, gingerly depositing the plunger beside the bathroom and continuing to the laundry room.

    Rusty followed her and stood in the doorway like a spare water heater as she stuffed the blanket in the washer and added detergent. She would have to wait to start it until the septic fell back into line, but at least it wouldn¡¯t be wiping itself across her living room in the meantime.

    ¡°What about the neighbors?¡± the big man insisted, gesturing out the window to the wooded hillside and the house they could just barely see through the snow-covered trees.

    When Envy allowed herself to expand to cover them, too, the dread was just as bad. She nodded again.

    Rusty frowned. ¡°You think someone¡¯s finally gonna feed that sleazy bottom-feeder a pipe bomb?¡±

    That didn¡¯t feel right, either. Envy shook her head.

    Rusty considered that a moment, then shrugged and picked up the plunger and went into the bathroom, to more sucking sounds. A few minutes later, there was the distinct sound of a flush. Then Rusty came back out into the living room, plunger dripping again, a thoughtful expression on his face. ¡°Got the little bitch. Ran out of towels, though¡ªyou got more upstairs?¡±

    The thought of her good bath towels soaking in shitwater made Envy cringe. ¡°I thought we agreed we¡¯d use the mop.¡±

    ¡°Mop head just came out of the washer, figured you wanted to keep it clean. Hey, you up for eggs?¡±

    Envy stared at him so long she forgot about the feeling of dread that had been plaguing her all morning.

    ¡°What?¡± Rusty asked, looking perplexed. Like he honestly didn¡¯t know why she felt like strangling him.Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.

    There must have been something in her face that the former Marine could respect, because he swallowed. ¡°I¡¯ll use the mop.¡± Then he turned and hurried back into the disaster zone, to the sounds of wet towels being slopped into her bathtub.

    ¡°Jesus someone kill me already,¡± Envy said, sighing up at the ceiling. The septic had been an ongoing problem, something about a dip in the main line from the house, and preliminary examination by a plumber had suggested it would be at least a fifteen-hundred-dollar fix. And, with student loans, car payments, and a mortgage on her overpriced ¡®quaint¡¯ little two-story cabin, fifteen hundred wasn¡¯t something that Envy could afford anytime in the next century. As it was, Rusty¡¯s dependable monthly commitment of five hundred bucks to her ¡®Staying Afloat Without Daddy¡¯ fund was about the only thing keeping her from defaulting on all three. Of anything in the last six years after breaking up with her father¡¯s premeditated marriage prospect and going rogue up in Alaska instead of attending Yale as was ¡®family tradition¡¯, her crude, foul-mouthed roommate had been the saving grace of her arctic experience.

    She¡¯d been very careful to keep him and anyone else from knowing she was a rich brat, though, hiding her shame in dirt, cuts, bruises, and war stories. In fact, the first year in Alaska, she had hired a helicopter to drop her at the headwaters of the Yentna river and had hiked her way back to civilization using a compass, a survival kit, and a pack full of Mountainhouse. She¡¯d come out of it a month later with three broken bones that had to be re-set and a nasty, infected cut on her arm from a fall down a riverbank after getting chased by a moose, but that had only added to the patina of outdoorsy street cred she had wanted to use as a smokescreen to the fact she had been born one of the richest kids in New Hampshire.

    And, since the first trip had been so successful and dissuading people of her privileged heritage, she had done the same thing five more times, every year since.

    It had worked, too. Not even Rusty, who lived with her, had ever suspected the truth. In fact, he called her a ¡®hardcore Alaskan woman¡¯ and she¡¯d caught him bragging about her to his workout buddies at gym at how quickly she could skin a bear. He¡¯d actually had to show her how to do it¡ªa hunting coincidence where they¡¯d staked out the same tuft of trees in the middle of a swamp three years back that had ended with two brown bears and Rusty deciding to move in with her¡ªbut she¡¯d only needed instruction once. Afterwards, she was always the first person to pull out a knife, often finishing out the hunting trip with blood and guts to her elbows.

    And Rusty, originally coming from Tennessee, liked to hunt. Every summer after their first chance meetup, they¡¯d gone for moose, caribou, brown and black bear, bison¡ªit was on a farm, but hey¡ªand had even each won a lottery for sheep and goat on separate years. And, not only did he take one look at the log cabin she called home and immediately fall in love, but he¡¯d spent a good portion of the last three years fixing it up for her out of his own pocket.

    Which was good, because the money she made as a part-time climate change intern alternating between studying permafrost for the University of Fairbanks and putting together extinction models for the ADF&G barely kept food on the table, let alone the loans paid and the electric on. Several times, she¡¯d even had to swallow her pride and ask Rusty for a loan until payday. One of the many things she¡¯d had to sacrifice for her independence from a New Hampshire dynasty that would have had her married to a real estate magnate and making babies six years ago.

    As Envy listened to the slopping sounds of the mop sliding through raw sewage on her bathroom floor, however, she did find herself appreciating the convenience¡ªand hygiene¡ªof dependable toilets just a little.

    Before Rusty took it upon himself to smear sewage sludge around inside her kitchen, she dropped a bottle of bleach beside the bathroom and went to grab some eggs from the fridge to pre-empt Rusty, should he decide to take it upon himself to try and feed them after moonlighting in sanitation. She had just cracked the first egg when the lights went out.

    ¡°Fuck me in the eye with an Ebola-caked blade file!¡± Rusty shouted from the bathroom. ¡°You got a flashlight?!¡±

    Normally, it would have been a simple thing for Envy to grab the flashlight they kept on the counter and switch it on, but the sudden surge of dread that hit her from the sudden lights-out had left her unable to even see.

    It¡¯s coming, she thought, cold chills wracking her body in waves. Oh god, it¡¯s coming.

    Whatever it was, it was big. Lots of people were going to die. She could feel it like a massive, sickening puddle of rot lying pooling in her immediate future, waiting for her to stumble into it.

    ¡°Oh fuck me with a chainsaw, I just knocked over the bleach!¡± Rusty shouted. ¡°You got that flashlight on the counter?¡±

    ¡°Rusty,¡± Envy croaked, crippled by the intensity of the dread she was suddenly feeling permeating from all around her.

    ¡°Hurry up and get the flashlight, I think I got it on your towels!¡± Rusty insisted, his voice coming closer as he stumbled from the bathroom.

    Panting, barely able to fight the waves of dread enough to stay upright, Envy managed, ¡°We need to get out of the house.¡±

    In the darkness, Rusty hesitated. ¡°Why? We can use the rest of the towels to mop up the bleach and I can pay you back tomorrow.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s bad,¡± Envy said. ¡°Something bad is coming.¡±

    There was a moment of hesitation, then she heard Rusty approach the kitchen counter and the flashlight snapped on, illuminating the house in the hazy light of morning. His face was filled with concern. ¡°That feeling you were having this morning?¡±

    Envy nodded, already stumbling towards the door. ¡°We¡¯ve gotta go. Now.¡± She didn¡¯t know how much time they had, but she knew they had to get away from whatever was coming, and they had to do it now.

    Rusty sounded crestfallen. ¡°Was it¡­the bleach?¡±

    Envy shook her head, seeing double through the headache that was hammering her. ¡°You know those bugout bags you¡¯re always packing? Get them in the truck. Hurry.¡±

    Instead of moving, Rusty shone the light in her eyes. ¡°You don¡¯t look so good.¡±

    ¡°Now, you dumbfuck Marine, or we¡¯re both gonna die!¡± she howled, jerking her hand at his bedroom.

    Envy didn¡¯t curse very often¡ªone of the last vestiges of her elite upbringing¡ªbut when she did, she meant it. Both of Rusty¡¯s eyebrows went up and he spun and started collecting gear with the haste of a raw recruit facing the wrath of his DI. It was one of the things she really appreciated about Rusty: The dude knew when to dig his heels in and ask the hard questions and when to just shut up and take orders

    ¡­And she might be wrong, but he really seemed to get off on taking orders. From her, specifically. Envy wasn¡¯t into that kind of thing, but she was pretty sure Rusty would have been thrilled if she¡¯d showed up one afternoon in a leather one-piece carrying a riding crop and a padlocked collar. She¡¯d even joked about it once, just a little, and he¡¯d gotten way too serious, way too fast, and she¡¯d quickly turned red and found something else to do, carefully avoiding him for an embarrassing couple weeks afterwards as she tried to return their relationship to normalcy.

    Now she was honestly grateful he was so eager to please.

    Because she could barely see through the intensity of whatever bad mojo was about to happen, Envy found it was all she could do to grab her truck keys off the counter and throw her wallet into her coat, which she tucked under her arm. She grabbed the duffel of camping gear she¡¯d thrown by the door in her other hand and was just opening the front door when Rusty came rushing past her loaded to the gills with more guns and supplies than God should have had if he was an OCD Apocalyptic prepper. He threw them into the cab of her truck, then, without another word, ran back inside to get more.

    ¡°Hurry!¡± Envy shouted at him through the open door. She climbed into the driver¡¯s seat of her big purple Ford crew cab¡ªher one concession to the money from whence she¡¯d come¡ªand started warming the glow plugs.

    Rusty was back and climbing into the passenger side by the time she twisted the key and put it in gear.

    ¡°Didn¡¯t have time to grab more than a few MREs,¡± Rusty said, stinking of bleach and sewage, but totally sober as he watched the driveway slide under the hood of the truck as she spun it around in the driveway. ¡°Hopefully it¡¯s not the Russians.¡± Rusty was terrified of a Russian nuclear attack, as he claimed the Russians still had a grudge from when Seward bought Alaska for a pittance in 1867 and they secretly wanted it back. Her friend pulled a gun from one of the chest holsters he now wore and chambered a round as he glanced at her. ¡°You think it¡¯s the Russians?¡±

    ¡°Pretty sure it¡¯s not the Russians,¡± Envy said. The dread was easing now that they were getting away from the cabin, and when she reached the main road and briefly considered the two possibilities¡ªdrive north on the Glenn or head south to Anchorage¡ªsouth sent a clawing rake of anxiety through her that made her nauseous.

    Rusty grunted and replaced the gun in its holster, then got out his phone. He frowned. ¡°Phone¡¯s dead.¡±

    ¡°Try mine,¡± Envy said, offering it to him.

    ¡°No, I mean, it¡¯s dead. I charged it this morning.¡±

    ¡°That sucks. Try mine.¡± She gestured again with her phone.

    Frowning Rusty took her phone with a big hand, then frowned. ¡°Your phone¡¯s dead too.¡±

    Envy knew that wasn¡¯t possible. ¡°It was at eighty percent ten minutes ago.¡± She swung the truck onto the on-ramp to the highway and hit the accelerator heading them north.

    ¡°You got fuel?¡± Rusty said, glancing at her dash.

    ¡°Almost a full tank,¡± Envy said.

    ¡°I got a bag of propane bottles and a thing of kerosene,¡± Rusty said. ¡°After that, we¡¯ll have to scavenge.¡±

    Envy laughed, despite herself. ¡°Scavenge?¡± She grinned at him. ¡°What you think this is, the apocalypse?¡±

    Rusty gestured to the little blue Honda that was dead on the road ahead of them, the guy inside only then getting out of their cars in what looked like dazed confusion. He was holding up his phone and using his other hand to shield the screen from the daylight. ¡°What¡¯s that if not an apocalypse?¡±

    Envy frowned. ¡°Some guy¡¯s car died before he could pull it off the road.¡±

    ¡°EMP,¡± Rusty said.

    Envy laughed again, but it was uneasy this time. The guy with the phone was shaking his head got back into his car and, as she slowed down and drove around him, started his vehicle.

    ¡°See?¡± she demanded, watching the Honda¡¯s lights come on in her rearview. ¡°It¡¯s not EMP, he got it started again.¡±

    ¡°EMP doesn¡¯t work like in the movies,¡± Rusty said.

    ¡°And you know this how?¡± Envy demanded.

    Rusty gave a vague shrug. ¡°Government stuff.¡±

    Envy frowned at him. ¡°What kind of stuff?¡±

    ¡°There¡¯s another one.¡± He pointed at another downed car across the freeway meridian, the woman in bright pink and heels getting out and examining the undercarriage of her sedan. ¡°Only like ten percent of the cars won¡¯t start again. Depends on the kind of electronics the manufacturer put in them. Hey, look at that one.¡± He gestured to another person parked on the side of the road, door open as he climbed out.

    ¡°You¡¯re starting to freak me out, Rusty,¡± Envy said.

    ¡°Yeah, well, wait ¡®til the fighting starts.¡± He checked the tension of one of the ammo straps on his waist. He grinned over at her, a 9-milimeter in his hand. ¡°You¡¯ll be happy you had me along.¡±

    Seeing the beefy jarhead grinning like a kid at an early Christmas party, Envy didn¡¯t doubt it. ¡°Let¡¯s just hope there¡¯s no fighting and it¡¯s just a solar flare or something, okay?¡±

    Rusty actually looked disappointed at that idea.

    Men, Envy thought. As much as she made herself comfortable in the predominantly male world of hunting and the outdoors, she would never understand them, and wasn¡¯t sure she wanted to. It was like every single one of them thought they could take on thousands of trained men with guns and come out unscathed because they were the good guy. ¡°You play too much Call of Duty,¡± she said.

    ¡°Good stuff,¡± Rusty agreed. ¡°So where are you taking us?¡± He gave her a curious look. ¡°I¡¯ve got a stash up in Hatcher¡¯s Pass if you think you¡¯ve got time to get us there before the bomb hits.¡±

    ¡°If it was a bomb, don¡¯t you think we would be dead by now?¡± Envy demanded. ¡°Has to be a solar flare.¡± She was definitely getting more uneasy, however, because they were inching past two more cars that had pulled off the road.

    ¡°Could¡¯ve been targeted to take out our grids,¡± Rusty said. ¡°I¡¯m not seeing any lights on in those houses up on the hill.¡± He pointed.

    Envy lowered her head to look out his window, then grimaced, because it was true. ¡°Hatcher¡¯s Pass feels okay,¡± she admitted as she felt out the mountains to the north. ¡°We¡¯ll head there.¡± Whatever it was, it felt like higher was safer than lower. Which was weird. Why would a solar flare have any change in feeling based on elevation? That just didn¡¯t make sense¡­

    ¡°Oh fuck my Willie with a barracuda,¡± Rusty blurted, his eyes catching on something in the sky. He rolled the window down and leaned out to look up at something above them. Over the roar of cold March wind, he shouted, ¡°Hey, uh, Envy?¡±

    ¡°Yeah?¡± Envy asked.

    ¡°How¡¯s ¡®alien attack¡¯ register on that mojo radar of yours?¡±

 Chapter 2 - A Doctor of Medicine

    <h1></a>Chapter 2: A Doctor of Medicine</h1>

    ¡°Alien attack?¡± Envy choked, more because of the strange twist of intensity rather than the ridiculousness of the idea. She leaned forward and squinted up at the cloudy sky through her front window. ¡°What you seeing?¡±

    ¡°Dunno,¡± Rusty said. ¡°Was a flash up there, real bright.¡± He dragged his head back into the vehicle. He looked sober. ¡°How fast can you get us to Hatcher¡¯s Pass? I got some stuff for aliens up there in the Pass.¡±

    She squinted at him. ¡°You¡¯re kidding me right now, right?¡±

    Rusty shook his head, looking like they were talking about drowning puppies. ¡°After my time with the feds, I got ready.¡±

    ¡°For an alien attack,¡± she said, unable to contain her incredulousness.

    He nodded, still looking stone cold sober.

    ¡°What could you possibly store up for an alien attack?¡± she demanded.

    ¡°Grenades,¡± he said. ¡°C-4, RPGs, white phosphorous, fifty-cals with depleted uranium rounds, coordinates, keycodes, and blueprints to all the other secret bases in Alaska.¡±

    She couldn¡¯t believe that, but he didn¡¯t recant his words. In fact, he was examining another gun on his belt, peering down the chamber. ¡°Rusty,¡± she said carefully, ¡°please tell me you¡¯re joking.¡± There had been some brazen¡ªterrifying, actually¡ªthefts at the local Air Force base a couple years back, and Alaska had endured a big federal manhunt looking for the culprit.

    ¡°There¡¯s a bunch of them in those federal wildlife ¡®preserves,¡¯¡± Rusty said, still inspecting another handgun. ¡°Why else you think they send in six ¡®park rangers¡¯ with automatic weapons to jump out of a helicopter every time a hiker wanders off the trail in the ¡®park¡¯?¡±

    It was leaving her cold just thinking about it. ¡°You¡¯re the one who took the white phosphorus?¡± They had been blaming it on an act of international terrorism, some rogue group of extremists who were planning to use it on a city somewhere in the Lower 48. ¡°They said they caught those guys. Put them in Guantanamo.¡±

    Rusty snorted. ¡°¡¯Course they did. Can¡¯t have white phosphorus just laying around, right?¡±

    She knew that Rusty was weird, and a Doomsday prepper on steroids¡ªquite possibly literally, considering how much muscle he toted around¡ªbut it had never even crossed her mind that he would break the law, much less steal from the military to fulfill his last-man-standing fantasies. Looking at him cleaning his gun, Envy wondered just how far off the deep end that Rusty had gone.

    ¡°There¡¯s a base up in Hatcher¡¯s Pass,¡± Rusty said. ¡°Hard getting to it, though. We¡¯ll have to steal a snow machine.¡±

    Envy was about to stop the truck and tell him she wasn¡¯t harboring a gun-toting domestic terrorist when, the moment her foot left the gas pedal, she was wracked with a pang of dread so bad it almost made her puke. She swallowed and pressed her foot back to the accelerator. Staring straight ahead, caught between the need to dump the terrorist out of her truck and the need to get the hell to safety before the shit hit the fan, she pieced together how she was going to survive the next few hours.

    ¡°Look,¡± Envy said. ¡°I don¡¯t know what you¡¯ve done¡ªand I don¡¯t want to know¡ªbut this is my truck and if you¡¯re coming with me, you¡¯re gonna do exactly as I say, and you¡¯re not gonna shoot anyone unless I give the go-ahead beforehand, okay?¡± She turned to look at him with what she hoped was her most commanding stare. ¡°Otherwise I dump your jarhead ass out on the curb right now and drive up the Pass myself.¡±

    Rusty, who had at least six guns loaded guns strapped to his person¡ªprobably more, since there appeared to be a lump in his sock under his pant leg¡ªdidn¡¯t argue. Instead, he grinned at her as if her putting her foot down had made his day. ¡°You got it, Miss Travis.¡± He always called her ¡®Miss Travis¡¯ when he was being especially polite and respectful, which was a good sign. It meant maybe he wasn¡¯t going to go psychotic killer on her watch and murder half the families on the south side of Hatcher¡¯s Pass before the authorities could arrive.

    Envy swallowed and turned back to the road. They drove in silence for several moments before something beyond the cloud cover caught her eye. It was a purple flash that lit up the fog, a color she wasn¡¯t used to seeing in the sky.

    ¡°There it is again!¡± Rusty hastily holstered his gun and pointed. ¡°You see it, Miss Travis?¡±

    Apparently, they were no longer on a first-name basis. Considering that he¡¯d essentially just admitted he was a dangerous, wanted criminal who had been moonlighting as her innocuous-if-crazy roommate, that worked for Envy. ¡°I saw it,¡± she muttered, still uneasy at the thought of sharing her vehicle with America¡¯s Most Wanted. ¡°Aurora, maybe?¡± On really, really good days, sometimes the aurora borealis had colors other than the standard green, and shone even in daylight. They had even been known to accompany vast solar storms, which had the potential to knock out electronics. Maybe that¡¯s what was happening here¡­

    ¡°If that¡¯s an aurora, I¡¯m a fucking lily white Calvin Klein buttbuddy. It¡¯s flashing.¡± Indeed, it looked like the strobe light on an airport and was moving slowly overhead.

    ¡°Maybe the airplanes changed the color of their in-flight wing lights.¡±

    Rusty leveled a very long, very unimpressed stare at her. Then he turned back to watch the purple light slowly move overhead before it cut off suddenly, leaving the section of clouds almost dreary where they had been spotlighted before. ¡°It¡¯s headed the same direction as the last one. Out towards the Cook Inlet.¡±

    ¡°Why don¡¯t you think it¡¯s a meteor shower or something?¡± she asked.

    ¡°Because my daddy always taught me that when it doubt, it¡¯s aliens.¡± He started checking his guns again.

    Of course he did.

    ¡°So your dad¡­¡± she broached gingerly. ¡°Seems like the two of you had a pretty strong bond.¡±

    ¡°Not really,¡± Rusty said, wiping something off of one of his black handguns. ¡°He was a drunk womanizer dick. Tried to hit my mama once when I was fourteen and I put him in the hospital with twenty-six stitches so he left home.¡± He glared at her over the gun. ¡°Nobody fucks with my mama.¡±

    ¡°So, uh¡­¡± Envy began, a little uncomfortable that she might be unwittingly filling in for his much-loved mama¡ªand that he might have secret visions of his mama in black leather with riding crops¡ªsaid, ¡°your dad doesn¡¯t sound too smart. He ever end up in the loony bin?¡±

    ¡°Oh, sure, all the time,¡± Rusty said. ¡°There was the time he raided the sheriff¡¯s office and stole all the guns, then again when he held up the late-night cashier at the Wal-Mart two towns over so he could fill his truck with fuel and supplies for that revolution that didn¡¯t quite pan out, then the time he got me to slip through the air vent in the local sports shop to grab extra worms and a couple AR-15s before an early-morning fishing trip when I was eight¡­¡± He frowned. ¡°How¡¯d you know?¡±

    Like father like son, Envy thought, swallowing. He¡¯s utterly batshit, just like Pappy.

    ¡°Then again,¡± Rusty said thoughtfully, ¡°he did get a presidential pardon when he saved six Secret Service guys from an alien shapeshifter dressed up as a European royal when I was eleven, then another one when he drove a truck into another one who was trying to schmooze the head of the Federal Reserve when I was thirteen.¡± He grinned at her. ¡°Squish.¡±

    I am so fucked, Envy thought, beginning to realize that, while she¡¯d woken with a bad feeling, it was probably more due to the apocalypse-savvy schitzo and his stash of white phosphorus than a natural disaster. ¡°You said your stash is in Hatcher¡¯s Pass?¡± she asked, trying not to sound too conspicuous.

    ¡°Oh, they¡¯re all over the place,¡± Rusty said. ¡°Pappy always said be ready for those creepy lizard-eyed bastards when they showed up again. Got supply caches in Hatcher¡¯s Pass, Tok, outside Fairbanks, McCarthy, Denali, outside Homer, near Sutton, Petersville, near Skilak Lake, out on Kodiak¡­ Then there¡¯s the piece of land I bought out near Copper Center. Good fishing out there. Built a bunker the first year I was here.¡±

    Envy gave a mental whistle. Either the guy was totally off his rocker, or he had actually stashed survival supplies all across the state. Then again, maybe his idea of a ¡®cache¡¯ was a Ziplock bag of matches and his idea of a ¡®bunker¡¯ was a buried cargo container. Still, she¡¯d never thought of Rusty as wealthy enough to buy random thousand-dollar-plus cargo containers and hire a heavy operator at seventy-five an hour to bury them. Hell, after three years, she still didn¡¯t know exactly what he did. She¡¯d just assumed disabled veteran, since he liked to talk about his time in the Marines so much.

    ¡°That¡¯s a lot of caches,¡± she said as they drove. ¡°What about the one in Hatcher¡¯s Pass? What¡¯s in it? Anything I should know about?¡± She needed to know whether or not she was basically leading a confirmed terrorist to his weapons of mass destruction.

    ¡°Everything I could think of,¡± Rusty said.

    So yes, yes she was. ¡°I haven¡¯t done much driving up there,¡± she hedged, suddenly sure that the general, permeating dread that she¡¯d been feeling had been the liberal application of white phosphorous to the skies over Eagle River. Glancing at him, she said, ¡°What road are we talking?¡± She needed to know which road to avoid.

    But he seemed totally unfazed, completely absorbed in checking and re-checking his guns like he expected an invasion. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, Miss Travis,¡± he said as he blew on one of the muzzles, ¡°I¡¯ll tell ya when we get there.¡±

    Damn.

    ¡°So, uh, your Pappy,¡± Envy hedged as they drove. ¡°How¡¯d he get hooked on the aliens thing?¡± Most of the cars on the road that had stalled were once more moving again, aside from a yellow dually Chevy on the southbound lane and a fancy sedan ahead of them whose overcoat-wearing owner was even then grabbing his hair and shouting.Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

    ¡°He could see them,¡± Rusty said, watching the nicely-dressed, fashionably-thin man cross brazenly over into their lane in front of them, waving his arms. Rusty pulled back the slide on one of his handguns.

    ¡°Maybe I should pick him up,¡± Envy said.

    ¡°He¡¯s a civilian,¡± Rusty said, glaring at the guy with the yellow truck who was making her slow down. ¡°In a survival situation, there needs to be a tight chain of command.¡±

    ¡°Yeah,¡± she snapped, ¡°me.¡± She hit the brakes. The man immediately made a relieved look and jogged around to Rusty¡¯s side. At the last moment before he saw them, Envy threw her coat over Rusty¡¯s weaponry. ¡°Don¡¯t let him see your guns,¡± she hissed.

    A moment later, the man was knocking rapidly on Rusty¡¯s window.

    Rusty stared straight at him and ignored him.

    ¡°Oh for the love of¡ª¡± Envy hit the passenger window button on her door and the glass rolled down.

    ¡°Anyone got a phone?!¡± the man cried through the open window. ¡°I need to make a call.¡±

    ¡°Pretty sure you ain¡¯t gonna make that call¡­¡± Rusty looked him up and down with an unpleasant scowl, ¡°¡­pretty boy.¡±

    The man, who was obviously intelligent, gave Rusty a startled blink.

    ¡°Hey, at least he doesn¡¯t spend two hours a day taking steroids and pumping iron,¡± Envy blurted, reaching over Rusty to offer her hand. To the man, she said, ¡°Envy Travis.¡±

    ¡°Douglass Stiles,¡± he said, shaking it firmly. His hand felt lotioned, which Envy surreptitiously wiped on her pants. ¡°I¡¯ve gotta call the hospital. They were waiting for me, and I¡¯m going to be late.¡± He gestured in the direction of Palmer.

    ¡°We could give you a ride,¡± Envy offered.

    Beside her, Rusty choked, but her I Am In Charge rule seemed to still be in effect. He started grinding his teeth hard enough the muscles in his jaw stood out.

    But Envy was more interested in the fact that helping this guy out seemed to be lessening the permeating feeling of doom and gloom she¡¯d been getting since she¡¯d woken up this morning.

    ¡°Absolutely!¡± the man cried. ¡°Let me just grab my bag.¡± He turned and jogged back to the shiny new sedan, surprising her that he was willing to leave such a beautiful car unaccompanied. It looked like a custom Mercedes-Benz, and she knew those weren¡¯t cheap.

    As soon as the smartly-dressed man was out of earshot, Rusty swiveled on Envy and said, ¡°We ain¡¯t takin¡¯ him. We gotta get moving again before the world figures out it¡¯s an alien attack. Leave this limp-dick city slicker here to starve.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s not very charitable,¡± Envy said. Within minutes of first meeting him out in the rain in that swamp, Envy had discovered Rusty¡¯s vivid¡ªalmost neurotic¡ªdistrust for lawyers.

    ¡°Charity ain¡¯t my middle name. It¡¯s Brendan. And Brendan ain¡¯t interested in savin¡¯ some no-good money-made bottom feeder.¡± Rusty rolled up his window. As the man pulled an expensive leather bag out of the car¡ªwhich immediately spilled multi-sized packets something colorful all over the dirty ice-slickened ground¡ªRusty made a face and locked the doors.

    ¡°Goddamn it, Rusty,¡± she snapped. ¡°He¡¯s not a lawyer.¡±

    ¡°You don¡¯t know that,¡± he retorted, apparently willing to void their She¡¯s In Charge rule over his impassioned¡ªschizophrenic, now that she thought about it¡ªsuspicion of attorneys and the law.

    Envy grabbed him by the collar of his jacket and yanked him towards her as much as his big body and her comparably slender arm could make him go. ¡°You know that feeling that saved you from that flight to Fairbanks?¡± Envy demanded into his face. ¡°That feeling is telling me to give him a ride, and no hillbilly redneck dumbass is going to get in the way of me keeping us alive.¡±

    Rusty squinted at the man who was scrambling to scrape the packages back into his bag. ¡°We don¡¯t need a clumsy-ass lawyer in a survival situation.¡±

    ¡°Look at his bag,¡± Envy snapped. ¡°See the medical stuff? He¡¯s probably trying to get to some open-heart surgery before someone dies or something.¡±

    ¡°So?¡± Rusty demanded.

    She couldn¡¯t believe he was so dense. ¡°He¡¯s a doctor, not a lawyer.¡±

    Rusty¡¯s eyes immediately went wide and she saw him locate the syringe packets and gauze on the ground.

    ¡°Oh,¡± he said.

    ¡°Oh is right,¡± Envy said. ¡°He¡¯s not a creep. Scoot over. Hospital¡¯s on the way. We¡¯re giving him a ride.¡± Though, at this point, it was mainly because she wanted find an opportunity to pull the guy aside and figure out a way to relieve Rusty of his guns before he killed someone.

    A few minutes later, the man returned, looking frazzled. Rusty, thankfully, got out and held the door open for him, almost courteously this time. ¡°Thank you so much,¡± the man babbled as he tossed the oiled leather bag into the back seat, then paused a moment, eyes fixed on the duffels of guns Rusty had brought out of his room.

    Door still open, the man raised a brow, then glanced a little nervously at the two of them. ¡°Going to a gun show?¡±

    ¡°Hunting trip,¡± Rusty said, and it sounded creepy as fuck. Inwardly, Envy groaned.

    The guy must¡¯ve really wanted to get to the hospital, however, because he seemed to shake himself and climbed into the truck between them anyway. Rusty followed, yanking the door shut behind him. Douglass¡¯s eyes found the multiple guns strapped to Rusty¡¯s waist¡ªguns that had been hidden by the coat Envy had thrown over them¡ªand slowly looked up the big man¡¯s chest to his face. All-told, Rusty loomed a good six inches taller than the stranger in the car, and his hulking form probably weighed twice as much. She saw him swallow, hard.

    ¡°Seatbelts, everyone,¡± Envy said cheerfully. She got the truck moving again, weaving back into the flow of traffic. Douglass obliged, but Rusty was watching the houses along the road.

    ¡°Rusty!¡± Envy snapped. ¡°Seatbelt!¡± Then again, she reasoned, if she was dealing with a potential mass murderer, maybe a lack of seatbelts in his case wouldn¡¯t be such a bad thing if she were to, say, slam the truck into a tree to eject him through the windshield. Giving the stranger a careful look-see, Rusty deliberately plinked his belt latch into the receptacle.

    ¡°So,¡± Envy said, as they picked up speed again, ¡°weird day, huh? Everybody¡¯s phone and power goes out?¡±

    ¡°Could be a solar flare,¡± the man said, still glancing sideways at Rusty. ¡°Big ones can sometimes put out a burst of EMP big enough to knock out whole grids.¡±

    ¡°Would explain the lights,¡± Envy agreed.

    ¡°No it wouldn¡¯t,¡± Rusty said.

    Envy gave him an irritated look. ¡°So what¡¯s your rush to get to the hospital?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ve got orientation today,¡± Douglass said. ¡°New ER doc. Just moved up from Chicago.¡±

    ¡°So not a lawyer,¡± Envy said, giving Rusty a meaningful look. Rusty, however, just looked thoughtful.

    ¡°Lord, no,¡± the man chuckled, though he gave Rusty another uneasy look as the man picked up his bag and glanced inside. ¡°He, uh, got a reason he¡¯s wearing like four guns?¡±

    ¡°Eight,¡± Rusty said, prying open the bag and taking a big sniff.

    Embarrassed at the behavior of her roommate-slash-domestic-terrorist, Envy hissed, ¡°Rusty! Put it down!¡±

    The big man shrugged and tossed the bag haphazardly back into the back seat.

    Thankfully, the man seemed smart enough not to comment. He was watching Rusty carefully. ¡°Are you¡­uh¡­okay, miss?¡± His eyes slid towards her cautiously. ¡°You need¡­help¡­with anything?¡± He cocked his head meaningfully at Rusty.

    ¡°Maybe,¡± Envy said, knowing that her face was pinched. ¡°Not sure yet.¡±

    Rusty, who had been examining the sky through the windshield, immediately twisted back to give her a worried look. ¡°Why? You got something wrong with you, Miss Travis? You sick?¡±

    ¡°No, just feeling a little sick from this morning,¡± Envy said. ¡°Might need to go inside the hospital with Douglass, see if they¡¯ve got anything for headaches.¡±

    Douglass¡¯s eyes slid warily back to Rusty. ¡°We¡¯ve got plenty of stuff for headaches. High-powered stuff. Military-grade, goes straight to the problem. Will take it down in two seconds flat.¡±

    Well, at least the guy was perceptive.

    ¡°Sounds like my kind of drug,¡± Rusty said enthusiastically. ¡°What¡¯s it called?¡±

    ¡°Tramadol,¡± Douglass said. ¡°You¡¯d probably like it. Makes a bad day a lot better.¡±

    ¡°Tramadol,¡± Rusty mouthed, nodding. ¡°You got any in here?¡± He gestured at the bag.

    ¡°Nah, that¡¯s the kind of stuff you need a prescription for,¡± Douglass said.

    Rusty looked disappointed. ¡°So what do you got in here?¡±

    With a cold chill, Envy realized that Rusty planned on stealing the poor guy¡¯s bag. ¡°Rusty, I¡¯m sure it¡¯s nothing¡ª¡±

    ¡°Just got back from a conference, picked up a lot of free samples of just about everything.¡± The man cocked his head. ¡°Why? You wanna try something?¡±

    Rusty raised a brow. ¡°Like what?¡±

    ¡°Oh, I dunno, something to help you focus? There¡¯s this brand new thing on the market they¡¯re touting as a mediclorian stimulant that¡¯s supposed to give people super-human focus and I¡¯ve been itching to try it out on somebody.¡±

    Envy tensed, realizing Rusty was about as much of a die-hard Star Wars fan as they came and he¡¯d just blown his cover.

    But it went right over Rusty¡¯s head. ¡°You mean mediclorians are real?¡± Rusty demanded, glancing with awe at the doctor¡¯s bag in the back. ¡°I thought it was all just made up.¡±

    ¡°George Lucas was just well before his time,¡± Douglass said solemnly, somehow keeping a straight face. ¡°A true visionary.¡±

    ¡°Fuck yeah, he was,¡± Rusty agreed, nodding vigorously. ¡°There¡¯s stuff out there, man. Stuff that wants to kill us.¡±

    ¡°Oh I know,¡± Douglass agreed. ¡°See shady types come through the ER every day.¡± He glanced pointedly at Envy. ¡°Got to the point where I can pretty much recognize them on sight.¡±

    Rusty frowned. ¡°Huh? No, I¡¯m talking aliens. Dad was always seeing aliens. Lizard people.¡±

    ¡°Oh, those too,¡± Douglass said smoothly. ¡°Those guys are literally everywhere.¡±

    ¡°Dad saved the Secret Service from one,¡± Rusty said. ¡°Almost got the president.¡±

    ¡°How awesome is that?¡± Douglass said, still looking totally at ease. ¡°He get a commendation?¡±

    ¡°Nah,¡± Rusty said, looking depressed. ¡°The feds didn¡¯t wanna make it public. Just issued a pardon for putting a couple guys in the hospital.¡±

    ¡°Ah.¡± There was an awkward moment of silence, then, ¡°So, you wanna try that mediclorian booster? I can grab it for you¡­¡±

    ¡°Oh no!¡± Rusty said, hastily stopping Douglass¡¯s arm with a big hand. ¡°Save that for when we need it.

    ¡°Oh don¡¯t worry, they give those things out like candy at those conventions. I¡¯ve got plenty,¡± Douglass insisted. He leaned over to grab his bag.

    ¡°Yeah, and just leave them where they are,¡± Rusty snapped. He shoved Douglass¡¯s arm away almost violently. ¡°When the aliens hit, we¡¯ll need the extra brainpower.¡±

    Giving Rusty a nervous look, Douglass sat back in his seat. He gave Envy an apologetic look. Envy, knowing that Rusty probably planned to steal the poor guy¡¯s bag, returned the look of apology.

    There was a long, awkward silence as they drove the rest of the way to the outskirts of Wasilla. As soon as the highway split heading to Wasilla and the Mat-Su Regional Hospital came into view on the road ahead of them, Douglass cleared his throat. ¡°Well, thanks for the ride, guys.¡± He turned to Envy. ¡°If you could drop me off at the front door, near the security station, I could quickly go inside and find something to cure that headache for you.¡± He gave her a meaningful look, then glanced again at Rusty and started to fidget with one of his black leather driving gloves.

    ¡°Sure, I can come inside,¡± Envy said. She wasn¡¯t really looking forward to finding out what Rusty wanted to do with white phosphorus. She slowed as the off-ramp came into view. ¡°You know, I might even come inside with you. Maybe give you a description of the headache¡¯s symptoms.¡±

    Douglass nodded.

    Rusty pulled a gun. ¡°Don¡¯t take the Wasilla turn-off. Take us to Hatcher¡¯s Pass,¡±

    ¡°Rusty!¡± Envy snapped.

    Rusty looked apologetic. ¡°It¡¯s the end of the world and this doctor just happens to stumble into our truck? You¡¯re goddamn right I¡¯m bringing him along. Pappy¡¯s up there lookin¡¯ out for me.¡±

    ¡°Your Pappy was a drunken, wife-beating, asylum-dodging career criminal!¡± Envy snapped. ¡°You said so yourself!¡±

    ¡°Sorry, Miss Travis,¡± Rusty said, honestly looking sorry. ¡°But Pappy said this day was coming and I gotta save us. Take us to the Pass.¡±

    Envy tensed her hands on the steering column and started pulling the wheel to the left to take them to Wasilla anyway.

    Douglass¡¯s hand on her wrist stopped her. ¡°I don¡¯t mind helping,¡± he said, again with that meaningful look.

    Meaning he didn¡¯t mind getting kidnapped, if it helped her get out of her predicament.

    Considering she really didn¡¯t want to deal with Rusty and his alien fetish on her own, Envy deliberated for much too long, then reluctantly yanked the car back onto the Glenn just as she was about to miss the fork to Palmer, beyond which lay Hatcher¡¯s Pass.

    ¡°Besides,¡± Douglass said, his blue eyes finding Envy, ¡°I get the feeling you¡¯ll need all the help you can get.¡± His gaze drifted back to Rusty. ¡°If it is aliens, and not something more mundane and¡­local.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s aliens,¡± Rusty said, watching another of those strange purple lights flare beyond the cloud cover. ¡°Keep those mediclorians handy, doc. I¡¯ll probably be needing them soon.¡±

    ¡°Sure thing,¡± Douglass said, his eyes sliding back to Envy. He cleared his throat, then settled into the chair, seemingly unperturbed by the loaded gun that the ape beside him was still pointing at him.

    Knuckles white on the steering wheel, Envy reluctantly proceeded to kidnap her very first doctor.

 Chapter 3 - View from On High

    Though Douglass hadn¡¯t been able to talk directly to the girl for fear of the armed gorilla in the seat beside him, it had quickly become clear what the problem was. The guy was definitely off his meds.

    Thankfully, Douglass had quite a few sedative samples in his bag that he could use to chill the guy out, just as soon as he could convince the brute to take them. Poor guy. Probably a military vet suffering PTSD, maybe even an escapee from Providence, though how he¡¯d gotten hold of an arsenal while on the lam was beyond him. He looked pretty healthy for a schizophrenic¡ªusually they were stick-thin and had brown rings around their eyes¡ªbut some of the things that had come out of the guy¡¯s mouth were definitely from Loopy Town. Douglass felt himself feeling sorry for the dude. He had probably just gotten triggered by the power outage and was teetering in a confused reality, sure it was aliens.

    ¡°It¡¯s aliens,¡± the gun-toting man said, right on cue. He was squinting at the sky, where moments before, a purple strobe light had lit up the overcast cloud layer above them.

    Poor dude. Douglass had known a kid in High School who¡¯d similarly lost it after military service, convinced the world was run by aliens. He ending up offing himself in his bathroom a few years later, careful to sit down on towels beforehand to make cleanup easy for whoever found him.

    Douglass glanced again at the nervous-looking girl behind the steering wheel. She obviously thought the guy was off his rocker, but she was also quite visibly terrified to say anything about it. And who wouldn¡¯t be? The guy had enough guns on his person to take on the National Guard.

    Thank God for mediclorians¡­

    ¡°So¡­¡± Douglass offered as the woman stopped the truck at the main traffic light in Palmer, which, like everything else about the town, looked completely dead aside from the odd wandering car, ¡°What¡¯s waiting for us up in Hatcher¡¯s Pass?¡± It was tempting to try and dodge out of the truck as she waited for an old lady in a Honda across the intersection to go, but, after getting a very graphic view of gunshot wounds and their ramifications for the last seven years, he really didn¡¯t want to get shot. Besides, it looked like she could use the help.

    ¡°Safety,¡± the man said matter-of-factly. ¡°The aliens are gonna take out Anchorage. Maybe Eagle River, too. Gotta get to high ground.¡±

    Yep, definitely a schizo. Douglass began categorizing the sedatives, opioids, and antipsychotics he¡¯d brought with him from Chicago in the bottom of his bag. Technically, he was pretty sure that tricking a deranged lunatic into believing he was taking something that would give him Jedi powers was a breach of the Hippocratic Oath, but he didn¡¯t think the police would ask too many questions if a schizophrenic with a gun collapsed after kidnapping him and a pretty girl.

    And she really was pretty. Like the kind of pretty he might ask out on a date, if it weren¡¯t for Rambo, here. He wondered what her profession was. She dressed like she¡¯d been raised in Alaska, but her posture and elocution betrayed that she probably came from money.

    ¡°High ground, eh?¡± Douglass squinted up at the mountains in front of them. ¡°Pretty sure that road doesn¡¯t go all the way through the pass in the winter.¡±

    ¡°It goes high enough,¡± the schizo said. ¡°About a quarter mile off the highway, I staked out a good place to hunker down and make camp. Gives us a good view of anyone coming up the pass.¡±

    ¡°He¡¯s not wearing snowboots, Rusty,¡± the woman said with an exasperation that suggested she somehow knew him beyond the crazy-doomsday-nutjob scenario. ¡°How¡¯s he gonna walk in the mountains like that?¡±

    ¡°I have poor circulation,¡± Douglass added.

    ¡°Don¡¯t care. He walks.¡±

    So spaketh the man with the gun. Douglass glanced over the backrest at the duffel of weapons in the back seat. He could make it two men with guns¡­

    ¡°Don¡¯t even try it, snowflake,¡± the only man with the gun said. Then he gave a really big smile that was scary as shit.

    ¡°Sure,¡± Douglass said, quickly finding something else to look at. As they turned off the Glenn Highway and sped up the road that supposedly went to Hatcher¡¯s Pass, he cleared his throat. He¡¯d only been in Alaska five days now, but this was definitely not what he was expecting when he signed up for the Doctors Without Borders commission, thinking he could get some fresh air and a change of pace from the busy city life of Chicago.

    He twiddled his thumbs as the tension in the truck continued to rise. The woman¡¯s knuckles were white knobs of bone on the steering wheel. The gorilla was the only one in the vehicle who appeared totally calm.

    Gotta be those steely nerves of true psychosis, Douglass thought. He really wished he¡¯d had a chance to call his sister in Wasilla before getting kidnapped by the alien prepper. He¡¯d never seen such a huge power-outage. Every building along the highway¡ªgovernment or otherwise¡ªwas cold and dark. People were wandering in their driveways, shaking their cell phones, looking up at the pretty lights in the sky.

    A strong aurora, obviously. Back when he¡¯d been thinking of moving to Canada, he¡¯d read that in 1989, the entire electrical power grid of Quebec had been shut down in less than two minutes by a powerful solar storm. And, as everyone knew, solar storms caused vibrant auroras. Sure, purple was a weird color, but it all depended on what ions of what atmospheric elements got excited by which surges of the sun¡¯s energy, and how strong those surges were. He was sure purple was possible¡ªpeople had seen red before in the now-infamous ¡®blood auroras¡¯.

    ¡°So what¡¯s the plan?¡± Douglass asked. ¡°I mean, if it is aliens.¡± His eyes slid nervously back to Rusty. ¡°You gonna take ¡®em all on yourself?¡±

    ¡°I got grenades and white phosphorus,¡± Rusty said.

    Great.

    Douglass turned to look at Envy for confirmation, but she didn¡¯t deny it.

    Wonderful. A schizoid with grenades. Halleluiah. He was beginning to think he¡¯d need to dose the guy¡¯s mediclorians sooner rather than later.

    ¡°White phosphorus¡­¡± Douglass offered. ¡°Isn¡¯t that hard to come by?¡± He¡¯d heard of it in small amounts on the heads of matches, but otherwise the US government had made it nigh impossible for the Average Joe to get ahold of it.

    ¡°He¡¯s that guy who raided Elmendorf a few years back,¡± Envy said.

    At first, he thought he¡¯d misheard. Then, when her face remained tense and focused and he realized he hadn¡¯t, Douglass¡¯s mouth fell open, then he found his side starting to itch where the gun was pointed at it, the ante effectively upped by a few million percent. ¡°Seriously?¡± He was having trouble hearing over the sound of his own heartbeat. ¡°I thought they caught those guys. Some eastern European terrorists or something.¡±

    ¡°Nope. Just me.¡± The big, goofy grin on Rusty¡¯s face was enough to tell him that, at the very least, Rusty believed he had been the one to break into the government site and steal the six tons of military-grade weapons.

    Douglass swallowed hard. By Envy¡¯s reaction, the revelation didn¡¯t surprise her. No wonder she was so pale.

    ¡°Well,¡± Douglass said, as the road ahead of them began to get windy as they hit the first real incline leading up into the mountains, ¡°that¡¯s not good.¡±

    ¡°No, that¡¯s very good,¡± Rusty insisted. ¡°This way, when those alien bastards come storming our bunker, we¡¯ll have the firepower to defend what¡¯s ours.¡±

    ¡°So¡­¡± Douglass began, ¡°you plan to give me a gun?¡±

    ¡°Later,¡± Rusty said. ¡°Once everyone is dead.¡±

    Houston, that didn¡¯t sound good. ¡°Uh¡­huh.¡± Douglass was beginning to re-think his cooperation here. He pulled out his phone again, determined that it was still dead, then frantically started trying to come up with contingencies in his mind that would mitigate the gun-toting gorilla long enough for him and the pretty girl to escape.

    ¡°He doesn¡¯t plan to kill anyone,¡± Envy said, glaring past him at the Southern oaf. ¡°Just aliens. Right, Rusty?¡±

    ¡°You got it, Miss Travis.¡±

    Envy focused her attention back on Douglass. ¡°Just aliens. Not people.¡±

    ¡°Unless they try to stop me or take our gear,¡± Rusty amended. Then he cocked his head with a little frown. ¡°Or they¡¯re lawyers.¡±

    ¡°For the love of Christ, Rusty, stop being a knuckle-dragging asshole for two minutes¡ªyou are not shooting lawyers just because they¡¯re lawyers!¡±

    The big man actually looked rebuked. ¡°But¡ª¡±Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

    ¡°No buts!¡±

    ¡°Thomas Jefferson was a lawyer,¡± Douglass added, banking on the fact he guessed from the collection of guns, southern twang, and general education level that he was dealing with a dyed-and-true Republican Good Ol¡¯ Boy. ¡°So was Hamilton and Adams.¡± He cocked his head, thinking. ¡°And James Madison and Patrick Henry.¡±

    The brute seemed a bit stunned by that. ¡°What about Washington and Edison?¡±

    Douglass opened his mouth to tell him that Washington was just a rich boy and Edison was the wrong century, but a quick head-shake from Envy out of the corner of his eye made him catch himself. ¡°Uh, yeah, pretty sure they were, too.¡±

    ¡°They were,¡± Envy insisted. ¡°All the founding fathers were. Stop trying to find reasons to go on a lawyer killing spree, okay?¡± It was pretty clear she thought the guy was capable of such.

    Seemingly mollified, the big man turned to watch the truck climb up the mountain, lost in thought.

    ¡°So,¡± Douglass said awkwardly to the driver, ¡°I take it he¡¯s got a thing against lawyers?¡±

    She just shook her head frustratedly, disgust radiating from her.

    Douglass turned to Rusty. ¡°What you got against lawyers?¡±

    ¡°Lots of them are lizards,¡± Rusty replied.

    Douglass blinked. ¡°Ah.¡± Then, when Rusty offered nothing else, he said, ¡°I take it you mean that literally, not figuratively?¡±

    Rusty frowned. ¡°No, I mean actually lizards. Dad saw them a lot before he left.¡±

    Douglass looked the big man over, judging just how much he could ask him without getting shot. ¡°What about you? You ever see any lizards?¡±

    ¡°Nah,¡± Rusty said, with obvious wistfulness. ¡°Never had my dad¡¯s gift for it.¡±

    So maybe there was hope after all. He glanced at Envy out of the corner of his eye, but she was concentrating on the road. He cleared his throat. ¡°So you hate lawyers because you think they¡¯re all aliens?¡±

    ¡°Well, that and because they kept trying to have me committed.¡±

    ¡°No shit.¡± No sooner had he said it than Douglass realized he¡¯d gotten his inflection wrong. He coughed. ¡°No shit? How so?¡± In the driver¡¯s seat, Envy bit back a snort.

    But Rusty was now glaring at him. ¡°You think I¡¯m stupid, don¡¯t you?¡±

    Weeeeeeelllllll, when you say it that way¡­

    Rusty just scoffed and shook his big, buzz-cut head. ¡°You just wait ¡®til we get out of these clouds, city-boy. You¡¯ll be wishin¡¯ you¡¯d had a dad who saw aliens.¡±

    There wasn¡¯t much that could be said to that, so Douglass just nodded. The rest of the trip into the Pass went on in silence, though the big Southern boy didn¡¯t move the gun pointed at Rusty¡¯s guts.

    ¡°You know, Rusty,¡± Douglass said conversationally, ¡°bullets tend to pass through the soft tissues and out the other side.¡± He gestured at the girl, whom he had more or less determined the brute had some sort of crush on.

    Rusty glanced at the angle of the gun, saw that Envy was, indeed, directly on the other side, and casually brought his arm up over the back of the seat and aimed it at the back of Douglass¡¯s cerebellum. ¡°Better?¡±

    Douglass, knowing he had a better chance of surviving with a gut shot than a direct hit to the brainstem, gave a weak grin. ¡°Yep.¡±

    Rusty grunted. Then, to Envy, he said, ¡°Just another mile up here on the left. Gonna stop at a chained-off drive and start walking.¡±

    Didn¡¯t that sound like fun. Douglass glanced down at his expensive loafers and tried to imagine how badly they would be waterstained by the time the schitzo marched them out to whatever hidey-hole he had crafted out of rocks and tree branches.

    Damn, he missed Chicago.

    ¡°Okay, turn here,¡± Rusty said. ¡°Pull off here. Time to walk.¡±

    ¡°Joy,¡± Douglass muttered. He wondered why this part hadn¡¯t been in the Welcome To Alaska part of the Doctors Without Borders brochure.

    Envy pulled the truck in at the chained-off driveway Rusty indicated, plowing through almost a foot of snow to reach the gate. As soon as she took the truck out of gear, Rusty reached over and yanked the key from the ignition. ¡°Okay,¡± the big guy said, ¡°time to get up to the lookout. Envy, you¡¯ve got winter boots¡ªyou should go first. Then the doc. I¡¯ll take up the rear.¡±

    Muttering about polished suede, Douglass climbed out after the girl. Then the two of them stood there and watched, a little dumbfounded, as the beefy redneck threw every bag from the truck over his shoulders like some sort of unholy cross between Hulk and a packmule.

    Unfortunately, his ability to pack on the equipment had only given him access to more guns. Now he held an automatic rifle on his cerebellum instead of a nine-millimeter. ¡°Okay, go,¡± the brute said, gesturing with the assault weapon.

    ¡°How far?¡± Envy said, dubiously glancing up the long, inclined driveway that disappeared into heavy brush.

    ¡°Not far,¡± the big man said. ¡°Couple miles.¡±

    The woman¡¯s face went slack. ¡°You¡¯ve got to be joking.¡±

    The man gave her a pointed look. ¡°You still having that bad feeling about Eagle River?¡±

    Envy glanced uncertainly over her shoulder at the valley that was mostly hidden by cloud cover. ¡°I guess¡­¡±

    ¡°Then we walk.¡± He jabbed Douglass in the back with a rifle muzzle to punctuate.

    The girl looked like she wanted to argue, then her face twisted suddenly. ¡°You¡¯re right.¡± She glanced over her shoulder, giving the mountain a confused look. ¡°It¡¯s safer up there.¡±

    ¡°Told you. Go on, before the doc gets cold feet.¡± He grinned at Douglass behind his ridiculously huge gun. ¡°Get it? Cold feet?¡±

    ¡°Har,¡± Douglass muttered. He took one last, reluctant look at his bag¡ªwhich was now draped over Rusty¡¯s shoulder in a place-of-honor¡ªand started walking after Envy, who was even then trudging a path through the snow up the mountain.

    He¡¯s gonna kill us up here, he thought, noticing the way the driveway hadn¡¯t been used all winter. He¡¯s gonna kill us and we won¡¯t be found until spring.

    Sure, in mid-March, spring wasn¡¯t too far away, but the timing didn¡¯t really seem that important, in the grand scheme of things.

    ¡°What bad feeling?¡± Douglass asked as he tried to think about how much it was going to cost to replace his shoes in order to keep from thinking about how he was trudging through a foot of snow with a psychiatric escapee carrying an AK-47 riding up his ass.

    ¡°It¡¯s nothing,¡± Envy muttered, at the same time Rusty said, ¡°She feels the future coming.¡±

    Douglass raised his brow, wondering if the woman¡¯s ¡®feeling¡¯ might be something like his mediclorians¡ªa way to control the lawyer-bashing brute with the arsenal.

    But Rusty didn¡¯t stop there. ¡°She saved me from a plane crash once. Was headed to Fairbanks and she stopped me and told me I¡¯d die if I got on the plane.¡±

    ¡°Did you?¡± Douglass asked.

    ¡°Nope,¡± Rusty said, beaming as if he weren¡¯t carrying three hundred pounds of gear. ¡°I decided to hold off, and that plane crashed on the way. Killed every damn soul aboard except for me.¡±

    Douglass glanced ahead of him at Envy. ¡°That true?¡±

    She shrugged. ¡°I get it wrong sometimes.¡±

    ¡°And then there was this other time she warned me about some bad ammo that was gonna take off my hand. Threw it away and I¡¯ve still got the hand.¡± He held up the appendage in question and wiggled its massive digits.

    ¡°It¡¯s a miracle,¡± Douglass said. Then he cocked his head, maliciousness from being forced to death-march across a mountainside seeping into his general good nature. ¡°But¡­¡± He paused as if thinking. ¡°If you threw the ammo away, how do you know it would¡¯ve exploded your hand?¡±

    ¡°Took off some other guy¡¯s hand,¡± Rusty said, shrugging. ¡°Some dude found my rounds in the trash down at the range and he started using them and blew his hand off.¡±

    Oh.

    Douglass squinted back at Rusty, then turned back to Envy. ¡°Is he serious?¡±

    Envy was tense, and for a good minute, it didn¡¯t look like she would answer. ¡°I get nudges sometimes,¡± she finally admitted on a huge release of breath. ¡°They¡¯re generally pretty accurate, gives me warnings about what¡¯s to come. Nothing major.¡±

    ¡°Saving him from a plane crash is pretty major.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, well.¡± She shrugged. ¡°I got a bad feeling this morning, and guess what?¡± She glared over her shoulder at Rusty. ¡°I¡¯m death-marching across a mountain in Hatchers pass, kidnapped by a gorilla with an AK-47.¡±

    Right there, Douglass decided he liked her.

    ¡°It¡¯s an AR-15,¡± was Rusty¡¯s immediate response. ¡°And it¡¯s just a precaution. Once you see what¡¯s going on, I¡¯ll let you both go.¡±

    Envy shook her head and went back to breaking the trail for them. At least Douglass didn¡¯t have to do that. As it was, his loafers were already full of snow and his feet were aching. Definitely not what he was expecting when he read through the brochure.

    After what seemed like a century of cold, pointless trudging through what was left of the winter¡¯s snowload, Rusty called a halt and went over to tug on a snowy tree branch. Sure enough, when it sprang up, it bore a little R carved into the bark. ¡°Here¡¯s where we leave the trail,¡± he said, gesturing. ¡°Up there.¡±

    Douglass glanced at the thick, snow-laden brush and almost threw a tantrum right there on the ground. He managed to hold it in, however, because Envy threw one first. ¡°Rusty, you dipshit, there¡¯s no way we can get our cold, tired asses up there. Your goddamn doctor¡¯s gonna lose his feet, you inbred hillbilly dumbass, and I¡¯m about to the point of marching over there and shoving that fucking AK-47 up your ass.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s an AR¡ª¡± Rusty began, but stopped at the sudden scowl he got from Envy. He swallowed. ¡°Uh, the brush only lasts a few feet, then it opens up to a meadow.¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t want a fucking meadow, I want to go home.¡±

    ¡°Feel it out,¡± Rusty offered. ¡°What¡¯s the future feel like if we go back to the truck?¡±

    Her face scrunched like she tasted something foul.

    ¡°Now how about if we go up yonder to my cache?¡±

    For the longest time, Envy stood there glaring at the gun-toting gorilla, then she reluctantly glanced at the brush. She made a face again, but without another word, left the long, winding dirt road and walked into the heavy treeline where Rusty had indicated.

    ¡°Wait, you¡¯re going up there?!¡± Douglass cried.

    ¡°It¡¯s safer up here,¡± came her reply from within the stand of willows.

    Incredulous that she¡¯d given in, Douglass just stood in the path, dumbfounded.

    ¡°Better hurry up, city boy,¡± Rusty said, poking him in the spine again with the AR-15. ¡°Looks like we don¡¯t got much time.¡±

    Douglass took another moment to process the fact that Envy had willingly left the path to go boonie-busting in deep snow and heavy brush, then decided she must have a plan to ambush the Yeti when he was floundering in the same. A bit mollified, he followed her up the mountain.

    It wasn¡¯t to be. She led them out onto an open hillock where a lone stand of willows stood exposed against the elements and Rusty pushed past them to start digging at the snow inside the willow grove. ¡°There we go,¡± he said, kicking snow from a locked metal trunk about the size of a coffin. ¡°Got supplies in here. Tent, sleeping bag, lanterns, meals, matches¡­¡±

    Douglass didn¡¯t like the way the big man had said sleeping bag. ¡°Wait. Just one sleeping bag?¡±

    ¡°Just one tent, too,¡± he said. ¡°Helps conserve body heat.¡±

    Douglass slowly turned to give Envy the Can You Believe This Shit look, which she did not return. She was too busy frowning at the hillside below them. Out in the valley, the sky was clearing, and they could see Palmer from their vantage point. Beyond that, the massive mountains along the Knik River.

    Hovering over the flatlands below was a crescent-shaped black craft that was too big to be anything that could have come from Earth. Even then, the same neon-purple glow from the sky before was now spotlighting the ground beneath it as it slowly floated across the Palmer valley, melting the snow in a massive swath beneath it.

    ¡°Holy shit,¡± Douglass whispered, his cold feet forgotten. He stood and numbly stumbled over to stand beside Envy.

    ¡°Don¡¯t you two try to run off, now,¡± Rusty warned as he dug through the metal chest and pulled out a camo tent. ¡°My gun¡¯s faster than you.¡±

    Technically bullets were faster than them, but Douglass kept his smartass comment reined in, mainly because was too busy staring at the massive black spaceship sliding eerily over the terrain, spotlighting it in eye-searing purple that was charring the ground underneath it in football-field swaths. ¡°Is that what I think it is?¡± he whispered.

    Envy looked sick. ¡°Pretty sure.¡±

    So much for getting to the hospital before he got fired.  ¡°That''s not good,¡± Douglass whispered.

    Her only response was a wide-eyed shake of her head.

 Chapter 4 - Aliens...Attack?

    <h1>Chapter 4: Aliens¡­Attack?</h1>

    ¡°You think it¡¯s lizards?¡± Rusty asked, the AK-47 hanging limply from one hand. He looked at once enthusiastic and terrified. Behind them, the tent was fully constructed and the doctor was emptying snow out of his shoes beside a small fire, complaining about Alaska in general, but more specifically the cold, the terrain, and the knuckle-headed hillbillies with their own arsenals. ¡°¡¯Cause that¡¯s a lot of lizards,¡± Rusty added, a bit pale.

    Indeed, the ship that seemed to hang effortlessly over the Mat-Su Valley below them was easily the size of a mountain. For almost an hour, it had been gliding aimlessly across the earth, generally heading towards the Cook Inlet.

    What stood out the most for Envy, however, was that she couldn¡¯t even look at the floating black half-moon down there without her inner psychic utterly losing its shit. Like angry bees of potential in her guts, stinging her with a thousand different welts of her own horrible demise.

    ¡°How many you think there are?¡± Rusty insisted.

    ¡°More than one,¡± was all Envy knew. She wiped her sweaty hands on her sides again. ¡°Man, this is bad, Rusty. Real bad.¡±

    ¡°Yeah.¡± He looked solemn. ¡°Dad said we¡¯d need lots of white phosphorus to stop ¡®em.¡±

    Envy tensed and glared at the man over her shoulder. The massive black ship spotlighting the valley below them in UV made it harder to write him off as schizophrenic, but she drew the line at white phosphorus. ¡°Look,¡± she said, ¡°whatever your dad said about aliens, this is not the same breed, you get me?¡±

    Rusty frowned down at the massive black ship. ¡°How do you know?¡±

    Time to pull something out of her ass to keep the hillbilly from RPGing white phosphorus throughout the Mat-Su valley. ¡°You see that ship down there? It¡¯s a different type of tech than the lizards use.¡±

    Rusty blinked at the ship, obviously trying to compute that. ¡°How you mean, Miss Travis?¡±

    ¡°For one, it¡¯s too damn delicate,¡± Envy said. ¡°The lizards are into big, bulky, blocky tech. That down there looks like elves made it.¡±

    Rusty made a sound of amazement and nodded as if that made total sense to him. ¡°So we¡¯re fighting elves.¡± He said it with a note of finality that suggested, among other things, that anyone tall, blond, and overly skinny would be fair game.

    Time to nip that in the bud, Envy decided. ¡°We¡¯re not fighting anything. They¡¯ve shown no ill intent.¡±

    ¡°And yet you turn gray every time you look at that ship,¡± Rusty countered. He crossed his big arms over his bulky chest, the AK-47 still dangling casually from a strap. ¡°Come on, Miss Travis, I known you three years. You ain¡¯t foolin¡¯ me. That down there¡¯s an attack. You can feel it.¡±

    It certainly didn¡¯t feel good, that was sure.

    Envy made a face. And how did she know that those purple spotlights weren¡¯t roasting everything underneath it alive with ultraviolet radiation? She took another long, unhappy look at the ship. It looked like the unholy brainchild between a Klingon war-chief and an elven necromancer.

    But, as of yet, it was just hanging there. Floating. Moving like maybe a mile or two an hour. Every once in a while, it would spotlight the ground under it for a few minutes before shutting it off again. Weird.

    ¡°So it¡¯s an attack,¡± Rusty said triumphantly.

    ¡°I never said that,¡± Envy muttered.

    ¡°You didn¡¯t not say it,¡± Rusty said. ¡°And it already took down our communications and power grids. That¡¯s three strikes for me.¡±

    Two, technically, but who was counting?

    ¡°You guys done staring at the Borg long enough to come help me? I dumped kerosene on it, but the fire went out anyway!¡±

    ¡°You did what?¡± Rusty snapped.

    ¡°It wasn¡¯t fucking burning, so I dumped the kerosene on it, but that just put it out,¡± Douglass said, gesticulating. ¡°Come get it going again before I get frostbite!¡±

    ¡°Fucking city boy,¡± Rusty cursed.

    Envy glanced over her shoulder at the doctor, who was huddled over a smoldering pile of green twigs that he had piled atop it in suffocating intensity, feet bare, blowing on the coals. Rusty¡¯s mockery of babysitting a city-slicker didn¡¯t seem far from the mark.

    ¡°I¡¯ll get it,¡± Rusty said. ¡°You keep watch, Miss Travis. Let me know if anything changes.¡± He handed her the AK-47, then wandered back to the fire, where he immediately started yanking the green wood from the coals, to Douglass¡¯s loud complaints.

    After she was sure there wasn¡¯t going to be a problem, Envy glanced back out over the valley, unable to shake the feeling that it wasn¡¯t safe down there, and it had little to do with the ship that was hovering over it. As it hung there, the crescent-shaped object spun slowly, revealing intricate shapes and rolling curves protruding from the black surface. It was moving across the Mat-Su Valley with no particular urgency, kind of like a whale with a full stomach.

    Notably missing from all this was United States airpower of any kind. She didn¡¯t hear or see a single moving engine in the whole valley, and there wasn¡¯t the requisite halo of Black Hawks and fighter jets that one would have expected from Independence Day and War of the Worlds.

    So what¡¯s the next step? she wondered, watching it float peacefully across Palmer, headed towards Wasilla. Wait for it to land and send in a Welcome To Earth team?

    Strangely, the thought carried no future ¡®weight¡¯ to it whatsoever, like the potential for it to happen didn¡¯t even exist. Envy frowned and felt it out, then felt it out again.

    Behind her, Rusty was cursing. ¡°How the fuck do you put the fire out with fucking kerosene? How is that even possible?!¡±

    ¡°Just dumped it all on and it went out,¡± Douglass said, shrugging.

    Rusty froze. Then, narrowing his eyes at the doctor, picked up the 5-gallon canister and shook it. There was an empty slosh of liquid in the big tin can. ¡°Wait. You used all of it? All?¡±

    ¡°Fuck your kerosene. My feet are cold. I want a blanket.¡±

    ¡°Why, so you can wrap it around your feet and set it on fire?¡±

    ¡°Hey guys?¡± she reluctantly called over her shoulder. ¡°I don¡¯t think it¡¯s gonna land. Doesn¡¯t feel right.¡±

    ¡°Score,¡± the doc muttered. Then, to Rusty, ¡°But you¡¯ve at least got a pillow, right?¡±

    ¡°This ain¡¯t California, doc. We don¡¯t wear pillows on our feet.¡±

    ¡°Pretty sure nobody wears pillows on their feet, you slow-talking mouth-breather.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m not the one who managed to put out the fire with a flammable liquid.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t you mean inflammable?¡±

    ¡°No, I mean flammable. As in, ¡®catches fire¡¯.¡±

    Douglass snorted, then cried out and frantically crab-crawled backwards in the snow when Rusty struck a ferro rod to the pool of kerosene and the spark made the whole area whomph as the latent vapors caught fire.If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.

    Envy frowned at them, then went back to feeling out the ship in the valley below. It looked peaceful enough, but every time her eyes found those exotic black curves rolling down the ship like entwined serpents, bad mojo hit her like a sledgehammer to the gut.

    So it wasn¡¯t good, but it wasn¡¯t going to land, either. She continued trying to piece it together, then eventually shook her head and wandered back to the fire. Rusty¡ªand five gallons of kerosene¡ªhad gotten it roaring, and she needed to warm up.

    Rusty was throwing wood from his stash onto the fire, glaring at Douglass. ¡°That kerosene could¡¯ve run our lantern for two months,¡± he muttered. ¡°Now I¡¯ll have to make a scavenging run with the truck.¡±

    As soon as he said the words, Envy¡¯s guts twisted at a sudden feeling of loss, loneliness, and dread.

    ¡°Nobody¡¯s making a ¡®scavenging run,¡¯¡± Envy said. At Rusty¡¯s sharp look, she quickly added, ¡°At least not yet.¡±

    ¡°Why¡¯d he give you a gun,¡± Douglass whined.

    Envy hefted the AK-47. ¡°¡¯Cause I¡¯m in charge.¡±

    Douglass laughed, then, grinning, turned to look at Rusty to laugh with him. Rusty just nodded. The doctor¡¯s face went slack. ¡°Her? But I¡¯m a doctor.¡±

    That made her hackles rise. ¡°Oh yeah? You just dumped all our kerosene on our only fire and managed to destroy them both.¡±

    This time, Rusty nodded. The big man folded his arms over his chest in satisfaction.

    ¡°Why not him?¡± Douglass demanded, jerking his finger to Rusty. ¡°He¡¯s the badass.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m smarter than him,¡± Envy said.

    Rusty nodded again.

    ¡°I went to Harvard,¡± Douglass snapped.

    ¡°And now your pansy ass is stuck on a snowy mountainside, freezing your balls off, as a woman with an AK-47 tells you how it¡¯s gonna be,¡± Envy said. ¡°Got a problem with that?¡±

    Rusty raised his hand like they did in kindergarten. ¡°Miss Travis?¡± At her lifted eyebrow, he said, ¡°It¡¯s an AR-15.¡±

    Douglass dropped his face in his hands.

    Rusty sidled closer to her and whispered, ¡°He¡¯s not used to taking orders from a woman.¡± Then he got that creepy Come Get Me look in his eyes again and said, ¡°But I am.¡±

    Envy felt an immediate need to bathe. She unobtrusively inched away from him, then, clearing her throat, ¡°Further, Doug, it¡¯s probably best you don¡¯t carry a gun until you prove to us you¡¯re not gonna shoot someone in the head. Leave the shooting things to Rusty and me for the time being.¡± Rusty gave a grunt of approval and nodded. Then, with a glance at Rusty, she said, ¡°But all things considered, I think it¡¯s best if Doug¡¯s my second-in-command.¡±

    Rusty nodded again. Then, mid-nod, he frowned. Douglass pulled his hands down his face far enough to look at her over his fingertips.

    Here¡¯s the point where everything implodes and we all start clawing for the gun, Envy thought, tense.

    But, after a moment of contemplation, Rusty just shrugged. ¡°As long as he don¡¯t try to tell me what to do¡ª¡± he held out a finger, ¡°¡ªin the woods,¡± he held out another finger, ¡°¡ªin a fight,¡± another finger, ¡°¡ªin a boat,¡± another one, ¡°¡ªor in a shootout with aliens.¡±

    Which was, Envy noted, pretty much all the time.

    But Douglass seemed happy with the compromise. ¡°You got it, Rambo.¡± He cleared his throat and glanced sideways at her again. ¡°So what are our chances of getting off this mountain before my toes freeze off?¡±

    Envy, knowing that would be the immediate question, nonetheless grimaced. She turned to glance at the valley to feel out his question. The big ship was sliding out of view, slowly spinning like a leaf caught in the current.

    ¡°Not anytime soon,¡± she muttered. ¡°Something bad¡¯s happening down there. I just don¡¯t know what yet.¡±

    Douglass gave her a too-long, calculating look. ¡°Are you really psychic?¡±

    ¡°She died twice when she was a kid,¡± Rusty happily volunteered, as if that explained everything.

    But Douglass was watching her too closely. ¡°Like, what, one of those Out of Body Experience thingies?¡±

    Envy, who didn¡¯t like talking about it, shrugged.

    ¡°She said her daddy came down with a big bottle of whiskey and¡ª¡±

    ¡°Rusty, just shut the hell up before you get hurt, okay?¡± Envy snapped. She hated to be so terse, but today was dragging the worst out of her. ¡°It¡¯s private. I told you in private.¡± She really didn¡¯t want Rusty mentioning the name of her dad, because she was pretty damn sure a bright fellow like Douglass would figure out she wasn¡¯t what she was claiming to be sooner rather than later.

    ¡°Her daddy was a whiskey salesman,¡± Rusty said, chest puffed out proudly. ¡°Some guy named Jimmy Lovett.¡±

    ¡°Rusty!¡±

    But now the look Douglass was giving her was much too acute. ¡°You mean John Lovett?¡± he asked, eyes never leaving hers. Of course not, because the only heir of the biggest business magnate in America, a humble man from humble beginnings as a whiskey brewer, was worth billions.

    ¡°Oh, yeah, that¡¯s what it was. Jimmy.¡± Rusty grinned. Then he saw Envy¡¯s face, and his grin faded.

    Envy felt her cheeks burning, but she just shook her head and looked away. Thankfully, Rusty didn¡¯t say anything else, but she could see Douglass casting her thoughtful sideways glances as he warmed himself by the fire.

    Great. Just great. Six years locking in her new identity and now it had been blown by a redneck with an alien fetish. She wandered down the hill, fuming. Behind her, Rusty called out a concerned, ¡°Miss Travis?¡±

    ¡°Just stay at the fire!¡± Envy snapped. She found a good place to cool down several hundred feet away, one that still afforded her a good view, and stomped out a place to sit down in the snow. She glared out at the

    A few minutes later, she heard the telltale sound of footsteps approaching. She rolled her eyes and said, ¡°It¡¯s fine, Rusty. I just really didn¡¯t want the city-boy knowing my family history, that¡¯s all.¡±

    ¡°You know,¡± Douglass said, as he sat down beside her, ¡°If we¡¯re not all dreaming and those are aliens and this is the end of the world, nobody¡¯s gonna care you¡¯re a billionaire.¡±

    Envy, who had tensed all over at the sound of his voice, slowly turned to look at him.

    Douglass winked at her. ¡°Except for me. ¡®Cause I call bullshit on the ¡®no-guns¡¯ rule if you grew up a Lovett and you get to carry one.¡±

    ¡°I spent months at the range,¡± Envy muttered, hating the way she had constantly been forced to defend her own competency just because she had been raised with money.

    ¡°Then teach me,¡± Douglass said. His eyes held hers a moment, then drifted out to follow the massive black crescent that was looming over the Mat-Su. ¡°I got a feeling I¡¯m gonna need one soon.¡±

    No sooner had he said that then the crescent, which had been oriented vertically, started to tilt on an invisible axis, leveling out horizontally.

    ¡°You see that?¡± Envy said, jumping to her feet. ¡°Something¡¯s happening!¡±

    Rusty came jogging up behind them, six more guns strapped to his person. ¡°You think they¡¯re landing?¡±

    ¡°They¡¯re not landing,¡± Envy said, a wash of dread hitting her in a wave of dull, generalized misery. She began backing up, despite herself. ¡°Guys, whatever¡¯s happening, it¡¯s gonna be bad.¡±

    Rusty took one look at the ship, then got between her and the ship, shoving her behind him in a macho gesture of Protect The Pretty Woman. Because a three hundred pound meathunk was somehow going to save her from whatever the aliens were about to release on their world.

    It was touching, though, in a brainless sort of way. Envy carefully stepped around him so she could see.

    Standing beside her, Douglass looked equally uneasy. He leaned over to say, ¡°It¡¯s changing shape.¡±

    Indeed, the crescent was thinning out and elongating, becoming a cylinder.

    ¡°Everyone stay calm,¡± Rusty said, clutching his newest rifle with white knuckles. His face was pale and sweating. ¡°If it¡¯s lizards, the best way to kill them is white phosphorus. Even a match head will do it.¡±

    ¡°They don¡¯t make match heads with white phosphorus anymore,¡± Douglass commented. ¡°Something about delusional domestic terrorists trying to use them to make weapons.¡±

    ¡°Bastards,¡± Rusty said. ¡°Just like the government¡ªtryin¡¯ ta fix shit that ain¡¯t broke.¡±

    Douglass cast a glance at Envy. ¡°Guess it is.¡±

    He was in the middle of giving her a grin and a knowing wink when the bottom of the cylinder exploded and a beam of violet light pounded into the earth beneath it hard enough to send visible shockwaves in all directions.

    ¡°Holy shii¡ª¡± Rusty began, then the roar of the oncoming wave overpowered the rest of his statement. Seeing the wave oncoming, hearing the unearthly rumble, all three of them started backing up.

    Then, like a train crashing into a ball of lightning, it hit, and all three of them went tumbling backwards into the snow, rifles flailing.

    When they stopped rolling from the force, Envy found herself laying on her back on the suddenly-snowless ground, staring up at a blue sky. Somewhere nearby, she heard the telltale rumble of an avalanche, but she couldn¡¯t find the breath to sit up and figure out where it was.

    Beside her, somebody¡ªshe thought it was Rusty¡ªgroaned. Envy forced herself up onto her elbows to see.

    Rusty was holding his side, face scrunched in pain, moaning. Douglass, face tucked into the newly-exposed mountain shrubs a few feet away, looked down for the count.

    Down the valley, the massive black cylinder seemed to be¡­pumping¡­the violet light balls into the earth. Connecting the ground and the cylinder was some sort of barrier¡ªdare she say a force field??¡ªand every three seconds, another ball of light shot down the tube, into a gaping hole in the ground. Seeing it, all the pangs of alarm that she¡¯d been having since waking up that morning intensified to an all-out scream-fest in her head and guts that made her want to grab a rifle and just start running, even though she got the distinct feeling there was nowhere to hide.

    The sound, though¡­ That was what sent cold chills up her back. It was a slow, rhythmic thumping that she could feel in the ground under her ass, almost gentle were it not for the terrifying source.

    Behind her, Douglass groaned and stirred. He raised his face from the shrubbery and spat out twigs, then sat up and gingerly dabbed at a cut on his forehead. Staying low, he slid over to come to a stop beside her and stared down into the valley below them, his cut forgotten.

    ¡°Is that thing¡­fucking¡­the planet?¡± Douglass asked.

    ¡°Sure looks like it,¡± Rusty agreed. ¡°Even sounds like fucking¡­¡±

    But Envy was remembering something from her internships in the Arctic, studying permafrost. Strange inconsistencies, places where there seemed to be some sort of unexplained melting period and strange seismic activity¡­events that almost always preceded a massive extinction.

    ¡°Guys,¡± she whispered, feeling that dread grab her by the throat and hold on, ¡°we need to get to higher ground.¡±

 Chapter 5 - The Reporter

    <h1>Chapter 5: The Reporter</h1>

    Mandy Mimoto was getting arrested by a fake park ranger up in Hatcher¡¯s Pass where she¡¯d been trespassing outside Hatcher Pass Ski Resort when the G-man¡¯s walkie-talkie¡¯s chatter suddenly went dead on his waist with a weird sizzle. The ranger frowned and grabbed his walkie-talkie, giving Mandy a chance to dance backwards out of the corner, away from the imminent chance of getting cuffed.

    ¡°Look, I know you¡¯re not a park ranger,¡± she insisted, as she scooted out of range. ¡°You guys flew eighteen Chinooks overhead in the last two hours. Park Rangers don¡¯t use Chinooks.¡±

    ¡°Fuck,¡± the ranger muttered, shaking his walkie-talkie and sticking it to his ear. ¡°Mother¡ª!¡± He glared at her as if this was her fault. ¡°Look. You¡¯re meddling. Stop meddling.¡±

    ¡°All I want to know is what you guys are hiding up here,¡± Mandy insisted, inching around as he was distracted so that she could surreptitiously get a good look inside his truck. ¡°Why¡¯d you clear out all the snow-machiners, huh? Why the fake avalanche¡­Special Agent Charles Davidson?¡± The last she read off a Status Report he had been filling out on his front seat when he caught her taking pictures of the line of black SUVs parked outside the Hatcher¡¯s Pass Ski Resort¡ªwhich was really just a ramshackle cluster of small, fifty-year-old cabins that looked like they would be swept down the hill with a good wind. She pulled out her phone to snap a quick picture, but her phone was dead.

    Weird. She¡¯d charged it on the drive up here.

    The man quickly put his body between her and the report, shoving her bodily away from his truck.

    ¡°Hey!¡± Mandy cried. ¡°That¡¯s assault!¡±

    ¡°Yeah, assault this,¡± the man growled, pulling a gun and pointing it at the ground between them. ¡°Look, I don¡¯t have time to deal with your nosy chink bullshit right now,¡± he said.

    ¡°Chink?¡± Mandy said, ¡°that¡¯s nice. I¡¯m Japanese, you inbred cracker.¡±

    He pointed the gun at her face. ¡°Get in the truck.¡±

    Mandy got a good look at the darkened barrel of the gun, determined that it was real, that it was government-issue, and that it was loaded and cocked, then glanced back at him. ¡°You don¡¯t scare me. Thirteen different people back at the office know I went up here for a scoop this morning. Everyone at the Anchorage Daily News is gonna be crawling up your ass if anything happens to me, and Dayze¡¯s an even better investigative reporter than I am. You do anything to me, she¡¯ll have your ass nailed to the wall in like two seconds.¡± In truth, she¡¯d told her friend Dayze that she was heading out for coffee so that nobody could tell her not to pursue another report of aliens, but this bigoted white turd didn¡¯t need to know that.

    At mention of Alaska¡¯s biggest reporting agency, first the man went pale, then his face reddened until he looked purple. ¡°All right,¡± he said. ¡°New plan. Start walking.¡± He gestured at the snowy hillside.

    Mandy laughed. ¡°I don¡¯t think so. I know my rights.¡± She did, too, and had registered them all under the mental category of How To Terrify The Authorities Into Doing What You Want. ¡°In fact, I know that you¡¯re committing assault, and that I am fully within my rights to sue you for mental anguish and sue the federal government and the ¡®park service¡¯ for emotional distress.¡±

    It didn¡¯t scare him. If anything, it seemed to piss him off. The man¡¯s voice was utterly cold when he said, ¡°You wanna know what we¡¯re dealing with, Mandy? Aliens. A ship¡¯s landing. Big one. Trajectory is here, Bumfuck Alaska, and you¡¯re gonna start walking out over that mountainside right there or I¡¯m going to shoot you and drive over your dead body because the world¡¯s going to shit and I don¡¯t get paid enough to die up here, babysitting the vehicles of some guys playing welcoming party to an alien species we know is bad mojo.¡±

    The smooth, calculated way he said it made Mandy believe him, and her mind gave a little stutter of surprise. Aliens? So they were real¡­ That one all-encompassing thought was making it hard for her to concentrate on anything else.

    Her mouth, however, had never been completely engaged with her brain. ¡°Aliens, huh? So, what, the world¡¯s under attack and you¡¯re running like a chickenshit?¡±

    The fake ranger gave her a very real, very cold stare down the barrel of his gun, then holstered it, walked to his truck, started it, and drove off.

    ¡°Douche,¡± Mandy said triumphantly. She went back to continue taking pictures of the fourteen different black SUVs that were lined up outside the tiny blue cabins of Hatcher Pass Ski Resort, locked and empty. A semi was parked nearby, along with three green Humvees, and snow machine tracks ran from the now-locked back of the semi disappeared out into the mountains towards Archangel Valley.

    Could it really be some sort of staging area for an alien landing? That would be, like, the biggest scoop she had ever landed in her life. The AP would want her name afterwards. She¡¯d have interview requests, bigger stories, maybe get picked up by a major newspaper down in the Lower 48¡­

    Maybe even the Pulitzer for investigative journalism. She could so use an extra $15,000 right now. Her car needed a new engine, her sink was leaking, her fridge was on the fritz¡­

    Calm down, Mandy thought. Just do it right, think of the bennies later.

    They had cleared out all other recreational vehicles last night, claiming ¡®maximum avalanche danger¡¯ throughout the entirety of Hatcher Pass¡ªwhich had been her first clue something was amiss, because the whole pass was not capable of producing avalanches¡ªand put up multiple barricades and chains warning people off down at the bottom of the pass¡ªwhich had been her second clue, since nobody gave that much of a shit about a couple of drunk idiots who ignored the signs and snowmachined themselves into an avalanche.This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

    The third piece of evidence was that it was sunny mid-March and it hadn¡¯t snowed in the mountains for weeks. It had been snowing that morning, but not yet more than four inches. No where near enough to create hazardous conditions in the mountains, since most of the snowpack had already melted away under the warm march sun after a year of minimal overall snow.

    But the fourth, and the most important, piece of evidence that this was some kind of alien landing was that the park service had bypassed news sources entirely and had used the cell phone network to warn the entirety of Alaska that avalanche conditions in Hatcher¡¯s Pass were extreme and the pass would be shut down until further notice. When Mandy had been given the story to follow-up with a handful of avalanche experts, they had told her they had no fuckin¡¯ idea what the government was talking about, that there weren¡¯t no damned avalanches imminent.

    One guy who caretook a mine up in the pass had even started talking about fancy black military helicopters flying in squadrons overhead before a group of men in suits had shown up and hustled him out of the Pass under the auspices of ¡®avalanche zone restrictions.¡¯ The guy had sent her a picture. It was fuzzy and dark from the early-morning shot, but she¡¯d clearly made out the double-rotors of Chinook helicopters, flanked by dozens of Blackhawks.

    So she¡¯d ignored the AVALANCHE IMMINENT, RESTRICTED AREA warning signs, clipped the chain they¡¯d padlocked between a couple of trees across the main road and headed up anyway. Because that was her job, and she hated government lies.

    Now, all alone and unmolested by a six-foot white boy with a gun fetish, she was free to take as many pictures as she wanted, write down as many license plates, peer in as many windows, note the number of boot prints.

    This is gold, Mandy thought. She pulled out her phone to start taking photos.

    The phone was dead. Thinking it was the battery getting cold, she unzipped her coat and pressed it under her armpit for a few minutes. Still wouldn¡¯t turn on.

    Frowning, she took it back to her car and turned the ignition to charge it there.

    Her piece of shit car wouldn¡¯t turn over. Not even a grumble.

    Houston, we have a problem. With a startled thump of her heart, Mandy looked around her at all the evidence of a big secret military operation to hide alien contact, saw her own lonely little white Subaru parked behind the hulking black SUVs, and just knew the guys on snow machines would come back, see what she¡¯d done, and take all her evidence from her, maybe incarcerate her in a dark prison for the next fifty years, without so much as a phone call.

    So, because she was desperate and she wasn¡¯t going to let this scoop get away from her, she put her broke-ass-piece-of-shit car in neutral, pushed it down the gentle slope to the main road, and got it rolling down the pass at approximately eighty miles an hour before jumping out and letting it careen off the cliff overlooking the Pass.

    Then, determined to get her phone working and get some evidence, she climbed back up to the Hatcher Pass Ski Resort, went around to an unobtrusive back side of the building, and broke in through a rear window hidden by a mound of snow that had slid from the steeply-slanted roof.

    All right, she thought, excitement keeping her revved on adrenaline as she looked around in the dark for a light switch. Just gotta find a plug.

    She found a switch, flipped it, and flipped it again when the lights didn¡¯t come on.

    ¡°Oh come on!¡± Mandy shouted, flipping the switch a few hundred more times.

    They must be on a generator, she thought, forcibly bringing some calm into the equation, chill out, sister, before you burst a bubble in your brain like aunt Kotoe and end up watching endless replays of Seinfeld and drooling on your pretty blue bib.

    She crawled back out through the broken window¡ªconveniently hidden from sight by a seven foot snow berm on the back side of the lodge¡ªand went looking for whatever ramshackle shed these bozos were using to create electricity. Thus, she was outside, jogging across the parking lot, when the foggy sky lit up neon purple in the direction of Archangel Valley and she heard the sound of machine gun fire and screaming.

    Mandy stopped, mid-jog, and blinked up at the eerie light. It seemed to be moving, getting brighter, coming closer down the valley. Behind it, back in Archangel Valley, the screaming and gunfire had stopped.

    It¡¯s an alien ship, Mandy thought, instinctive panic kicking in as she remembered the screaming. And it¡¯s coming right at me.

    And she was right out in the open.

    She ran back to the broken window and crawled back inside just in time to watch a big, crescent-shaped object easily as tall as a skyscraper come sliding down out of the mountains vertically, maintaining an easy hover of about 300 feet above ground level. It did so with an eerie silence, no engine noise whatsoever. Had she not been facing the ship, she wouldn¡¯t have known it was there, though the purple light illuminating the sky made it hard to miss.

    Then the eerie purple spotlight broke through the clouds and hit the snow directly under the ship. It immediately started to bubble and melt, erasing the snow beneath it in a steamy thousand-foot swath¡­

    What is that, radiation?

    Not a good thought.

    Still, as far as she could tell, it wasn¡¯t heading towards her unless it changed its trajectory. The still shots, though¡­ The shots would be glorious. Pulitzer glorious. What she wouldn¡¯t give for a phone!

    Mandy watched the thing slide down the mountain¡ªpassing only a few thousand feet from where she huddled in the back of the lodge¡ªall the while scorching a swath in the snow as wide as a baseball field. Here and there, clouds would pass under it, diffusing the beam and reducing the snowmelt temporarily, but for the most part, there was no doubt it was frying to a crisp whatever was getting underneath it.

    This is the biggest scoop of my life and I don¡¯t even have a working camera, Mandy thought, horrified by her own lack of preparedness. First her car chose that moment to die, then the phone wouldn¡¯t even turn on long enough to show her a charge symbol¡­

    Wait. Aliens. EMP.

    It¡¯s attacking us, Mandy realized. Just like that park ranger said. This is an attack.

    Thrilled by that, she unlocked the front door and stepped outside onto the porch to watch the ship glide down into the Mat-Su Valley. It swung hard to the right, heading towards Eagle River, then spun back out over the Cook Inlet, circling almost like a big shark in a bowl.

    Realizing that the world wouldn¡¯t be able to hide extraterrestrial life ever again¡ªand that her exclusive scoop had been blown by the thousands of sightings people would be making down there in the Valley, Mandy circled the parking lot, searching the government vehicles for keys. The semi and one of the Humvees was unlocked, but only the semi had keys stashed under the shade, and Mandy knew her chances of getting a tractor trailer off the mountain safely on small, windy, icy roads was approximately the same as if she decided to go skydiving with a parachute made of rice paper.

    Instead, since she didn¡¯t have much else she could do until someone showed up with a working vehicle or a set of keys, she went back inside the building, closed the door, and kicked back in a lounge chair to watch the chaos from the relative comfort of the ski lodge¡¯s massive prow windows. Maybe tomorrow, she¡¯d hike up that burned-out swath of hillside back to Archangel Valley and see if any of those G-men were still alive¡­or if they had their car keys on them. Until then, she decided to relax and watch the world explode.

 Chapter 6 - Blindsided

    <h1>Chapter 6: Blindsided</h1>

    It was sometime past two, and he still hadn¡¯t slept because the hairy hillbilly ape had only stashed one blanket and Douglass refused to share body heat with strangers who had kidnapped him.

    Or maybe it was just the aliens. The constant pounding was impossible to blot out, shaking the mountains all around them every few seconds.

    Douglass huddled by the tiny, pissant fire, now and then casting an irritated look down to where the alien spaceship that was even then pounding something into the planet¡¯s core in the darkened valley below. Every three seconds, an eerie purple pulse was lighting up the mountains for a split second in all directions before it descended deep into the earth at frightening speeds.

    It was his turn on ¡®watch¡¯¡ªwhat a ridiculous idea, since what was he going to watch, exactly, in the goddamn dark¡ªand he was supposed to get the blanket for two hours at four. Two more hours. Fuck.

    In the tent¡ªwhich was only a two-person tent¡ªthe two who had kidnapped him were sleeping like babies. Goddamn babies. Fuck he hated Alaska.

    And aliens. He hated those, too.

    Fuck he was tired.

    Douglass rubbed his hands over the fire again, eying the pile of kindling that the ogre had forbade him from throwing on the flames.

    ¡°Gotta preserve our resources,¡± the hillbilly dipshit had said. Well, fuck that, he was cold. Douglass grabbed the whole stack and threw it on the fire, then gave a satisfied grin as the flames started to take hold on the dead branches the hillbilly and the heiress had collected from the willow groves down the mountainside.

    ¡°That¡¯s more like it,¡± he muttered, as the fire started to roar.

    From inside the tent came a roar, ¡°You better not¡¯ve just thrown all the wood on the fire, city boy!¡±

    ¡°Yeah, well. You guys have the fucking blanket and I have the guns.¡± Douglass didn¡¯t know exactly how to use them, of course, but he figured it couldn¡¯t be that hard. Point it at something he didn¡¯t like and pull the trigger. All the city kids were doing it. Part of the reason he moved to fucking Alaska so he didn¡¯t have to deal with gunshot wounds from stupid gang wars.

    He wondered again how his parents were faring in Illinois. Couldn¡¯t be great, without power. Then again, maybe it was a localized thing, and maybe Alaska was the only place experiencing this shit.

    Because Alaska sucked.

    Because it was cold and filled with gun-toting hillbilly assholes.

    Wow, he hadn¡¯t been in this bad of a mood since his cat had jumped onto his sink when he was gone, turned on the water, and somehow flooded his entire kitchen and living area while Douglass was staying late at the ER, then decided he¡¯d scared the piss and shit out of himself and decided to relieve himself on Douglass¡¯s bedding out of protest. All he¡¯d wanted to do when he got home way too late that night cleaning up gore and patching up missing fingers was go to sleep, but first he¡¯d had to call the apartment manager, mop up the linoleum, open all the doors and windows to try and dry the place out, go to rent a wet-vac to soak up the water from the carpets, and oh, by the way, just when he thought it was over, he¡¯d had to change out his bedding because his freaked out cat had left him a present.

    Damn cat. He missed that cat. It had died the year before, liver failure. He¡¯d been in the market for another one when he got the opportunity to head to Oh-So-Glorious Alaska.

    ¡°You hear that?¡± the tent said. ¡°That dumbshit put all the wood on the fire.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s wood,¡± Douglass snapped. ¡°You can get more!¡± He made a disgusted snort and turned to look back down at the valley.

    Thus, he was looking directly at the alien ship jackhammering its load into Mother Earth when the explosion of ultraviolet light lit up the night¡ªand made something break in his eyes.Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators!

    Douglass screamed, holding his hands to his face as everything became a searing white haze of burning, fiery nothingness. He dropped and rolled, trying to get away from the light. He felt himself hit the fire, and only numbly managed to roll away from it.

    ¡°What? What happened?!¡± He heard the sound of a tent unzipping.

    Douglass¡¯s doctor¡¯s instincts snapped into gear before anything else. ¡°Stay in the tent!¡± Douglass cried. ¡°The light from the ship! Fucking stay in the tent, don¡¯t look at the light!¡±

    There was a moment of hesitation, then, ¡°What light?¡± More zipper.

    The light was stabbing at him in pulses, now. ¡°Stay in the tent!¡±

    A very long, very pregnant pause. Then, right beside him, ¡°You okay, doc?¡± He felt a concerned hand the size of a dinnerplate on his shoulder.

    The light was still blazing like a sun all around him, stabbing from all directions at once. ¡°Keep your eyes shut,¡± Douglass said. ¡°It¡¯s gonna burn out your retinas if you look at it too long.¡±

    ¡°Dude, doc,¡± Rusty said, ¡°there¡¯s nothing here.¡±

    Then Douglass realized his eyes were closed, and the throbbing in his eyes was timed to the beat of his heart. He stopped thrashing and holding his face. ¡°Fuck me,¡± he whispered.

    ¡°Would rather not,¡± the big man chuckled. ¡°But if you insist¡­¡±

    Douglass shoved him away disgustedly and pushed to his feet, completely ignoring the hillbilly, now. He turned, eyes open wide, and spun.

    The brightness was the same in a 360-degree radius. No shadows, no shapes, no colors. No change whatsoever.

    ¡°Fuck,¡± he whispered. ¡°Guys¡­ I think it blinded me.¡±

    ¡°What did?¡± Envy asked, the sound of her boots crunching as she came close.

    ¡°I was looking at the ship and boom there was this big flash and suddenly I couldn¡¯t see.¡±

    ¡°I didn¡¯t hear a boom.¡±

    ¡°No, it was just a light.¡±

    ¡°I didn¡¯t see a light.¡±

    ¡°Listen,¡± Douglass said, ¡°I can¡¯t fucking see. There was some sort of explosion.¡±

    ¡°I didn¡¯t hear an explosion.¡± Like she didn¡¯t freakin¡¯ believe him. Like he was just a whiny pain in her ass that wasted their kerosene and burned all their firewood.

    ¡°So you¡¯re blind, doctor?¡± Rusty asked, a strange tension in his voice. ¡°Can¡¯t see at all? To fix wounds and stuff?¡±

    And, with the inflection of those words, Douglass realized his usefulness to the survivalist nutjob had just visibly diminished, relegating him once again to ¡®dumb city boy.¡¯

    ¡°I can see a little,¡± Douglass lied. ¡°I think it¡¯ll come back.¡±

    He could feel the big man relax. ¡°Yeah, okay.¡± He heard the man turn, then heard him curse. ¡°Can¡¯t believe you put all the wood on the fire.¡± Massive footsteps crunched back to the tent.

    But Douglass was now standing there with a pounding heart, realizing just how narrowly he had avoided being ditched as useless baggage slowing them down.

    ¡°You really can¡¯t see anything, can you?¡± Envy said, quieter, from right in front of him.

    Douglass swallowed hard.

    ¡°I just waved my hand right in front of your eyes. You didn¡¯t even flinch. You¡¯ve got this crazy dead stare¡ªit¡¯s actually kinda creepy.¡±

    Considering how much his eyes hurt, he supposed the watery, bloodshot look he was giving the world at the moment was creepy. Still, it didn¡¯t make him feel any better.

    ¡°Please don¡¯t tell Rusty,¡± he managed. ¡°I think he¡¯d kill me.¡±

    There was a really long pause, then, ¡°I won¡¯t tell Rusty.¡± Then there was another moment of hesitation. ¡°But I¡¯m gonna just lay this out there: If you¡¯re really blind, and this really is the apocalypse, you better start finding other ways to pull your weight.¡± The way she said it told him that, so far, she was definitely not impressed.

    ¡°Sorry about the firewood,¡± he muttered.

    He couldn¡¯t see her expression, which terrified him.

    ¡°And the kerosene,¡± he blurted. ¡°Sorry.¡±

    ¡°Go get in the tent,¡± she said. ¡°Rusty was letting me use the blanket. Maybe your eyes will be better when you wake up.¡±

    And, for once in his life, Douglass had no qualms with crawling into a tent with a massive, hairy hillbilly to share warmth.

    ¡°What the fuck is he doing in here, Miss Travis?¡± Rusty asked, as she helped Douglass crawl inside.

    ¡°He isn¡¯t good on watch,¡± Envy said, and her voice didn¡¯t sound happy. Like maybe she thought he was faking it to get the blanket. Fuck, this wasn¡¯t going well. ¡°Might as well take his place, let him get some rest, see if his eyes improve.¡±

    ¡°I guess¡­¡± Douglass could feel Rusty¡¯s glare of disapproval. Not good. Not good.

    ¡°Just wrap him up,¡± Envy said. ¡°I¡¯ll keep watch.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t watch the ship,¡± Douglass said.

    ¡°Dude, the ship¡¯s gone,¡± Envy snapped. Indeed, the pounding had stopped. ¡°Just sleep it off while I go find more wood in the dark, okay, asshole?¡±

    And, just like that, Douglass let a big, hairy man tuck him into bed.

    ¡°Better be better in the morning,¡± Rusty growled in Douglass¡¯s ear. Literally. In his ear. Like a lover. Because they were practically spooning.

    ¡°If you¡¯re not, then maybe tomorrow, maybe the next day¡­¡± A big finger touched Douglass¡¯s throat, making him jerk, then drew a line from ear to ear. ¡°Somethin¡¯ ta think about.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll be fine,¡± Douglass said, swallowing.

    ¡°Better be.¡± Then the big man yawned and, much more cheerfully¡ªand louder¡ªsaid, ¡°Good night, doc!¡±

    ¡°Good night,¡± Douglass whispered, cold all over despite the blanket.

 Chapter 7 - A Parting Gift

    <h1>Chapter 7: A Parting Gift</h1>

    When the sun rose on the horizon, Envy was still on watch, huddled over the fire, casting anxious looks down the mountain at what had once been Palmer. Both Rusty and Douglass had fallen soundly asleep, and she didn¡¯t want to wake them to tell them about the massive, lacy silver structure now dominating the Mat-Su Valley.

    It looked bigger than any New York skyscraper, with smooth, flowing lines and open, holey architecture that reminded her of filigreed spiderwebbing. It stood where the bluish ¡®force field¡¯ had been, built around the massive hole the spacecraft had pounded into the earth.

    She¡¯d been watching it for hours, trying to determine what to do about it. She¡¯d seen nothing coming nor going from it, no sign of alien life or spacecraft, but the feeling she was getting from it was making her feel sick to her stomach. Whatever it was, however pretty it was, it didn¡¯t have humanity¡¯s best interests in mind.

    She was also trying to figure out how to explain to Rusty that the best course of action probably wasn¡¯t to run down to the Mat-Su¡¯s very first skyscraper and bang on the front door with a backpack of white phosphorus.

    Then there was the doctor. One time had been a simple mistake, but he had willfully dumped all their firewood on the fire so that she¡¯d spent a good portion of the night trudging around in deep snow and heavy brush looking for kindling in the dark, all while he slept in her bed.

    She knew the exhaustion was making her less than charitable, but she also knew that if he really was blind, he was going to be one hell of a burden on them. If he wasn¡¯t blind, and was just faking it, though, that was even worse. After her hellish night waiting for dawn as he snored in the tent, that would get him dumped down the mountain in a flat second.

    She wouldn¡¯t let Rusty kill him, but she was starting to think that maybe the guy really needed an attitude adjustment in the shape of a size-twelve boot up his ass.

    When Rusty finally stirred in the tent, Envy had pretty much decided on what to tell him: Yes, it looks pretty. Yes, it looks expensive. Yes, it was built by aliens. No, they weren¡¯t going to go take a look. Until further notice, no-touchy.

    ¡°Man, it¡¯s already dawn?¡± Rusty asked, sounding crestfallen as he crawled out of the tent. ¡°You were supposed to wake me up at six, Miss Travis!¡±

    ¡°Call me Captain¡ªit sounds better,¡± Envy muttered. ¡°Less BDSM, more Firefly.¡± Man she was in a bitchy mood.

    ¡°Okay, Captain.¡± Without even missing a beat.

    Envy opened her mouth to tell him where he could stuff his attitude, then realized she was probably the one with the attitude, then just shut her mouth before she said something she would regret. ¡°Look,¡± she said, jerking a thumb over her shoulder at the turd the alien ship had deposited on their lawn. ¡°Whatever it is, we¡¯re not going down there to figure it out. Not for a few days, at least. It¡¯s giving me the unholy heebie-jeebies.¡±

    ¡°Okay, Captain,¡± Rusty said, nodding as he looked the thing over.

    Envy considered telling him to go back to calling her ¡®Miss Travis¡¯, but realized it really didn¡¯t matter. Judging by the intricacy of the gleaming alien edifice, humanity was definitely a few rungs lower on the food chain.

    ¡°So what is it?¡± Rusty asked, staring down at it. ¡°A temple?¡±

    Now there was an idea. ¡°Maybe they want us to worship them?¡± She glanced over her shoulder at the gorgeous metal lacework towering over the remnants of Palmer, then shook her head and tossed another stick disgustedly on the fire. ¡°Don¡¯t know. Hell, maybe it¡¯s a communications tower.¡± The structure kinda looked right, but less erector-set and more elfin fortress.

    ¡°So¡­¡± Rusty offered, ¡°¡­is it safe to go down there yet?¡±

    That was the most frustrating thing. Sure, the alien ship was gone, but that gut-deep dread of being in the lowlands hadn¡¯t abated whatsoever. If anything, it had gotten worse. Just the idea of going down into the valley right now was making her physically ill.

    Or was that the night of no sleep, shivering next to a tiny fire as an alien ship pounded a hole in the Earth?

    ¡°I don¡¯t think so,¡± she admitted. Then she sighed and threw another stick on the fire. ¡°Hell, I know so.¡±

    ¡°So they¡¯re down there,¡± Rusty said, grimness etching his face, ¡°in that building.¡±

    That didn¡¯t feel right. ¡°Maybe,¡± she conceded.

    ¡°You don¡¯t sound so sure,¡± Rusty said. His face got a little streak of hope. ¡°Are they gone? Up and left?¡±

    Immediately, she knew that was not the case. ¡°No.¡± Envy shook her head. ¡°No, I¡¯m pretty sure they¡¯re out there somewhere. I just don¡¯t think they¡¯re in that building¡­or whatever it is.¡±

    Then came the inevitable, ¡°So what do we do now, Captain?¡±

    Envy had spent all morning thinking about that, dozing in and out while sitting with her knees to her chest and shivering. ¡°I think being up here on mountain¡¯s gonna keep us alive somehow,¡± she said. She grimaced. ¡°Wish I knew more than that.¡±

    Rusty seemed to digest that in silence a moment. Then, from the tent, there was a nervous, ¡°Hey, uh, Miss Travis? Think you could come talk to me for a sec?¡±

    ¡°He¡¯s fakin¡¯ it,¡± Rusty muttered. ¡°Just didn¡¯t wanna stand watch.¡±

    Envy knew that wasn¡¯t the case, but also knew it would be better if the big man didn¡¯t think Douglass was just slacking off because he was a wimp. ¡°I¡¯ll talk to him. You go get some more firewood¡ªI think we¡¯re gonna be here at least another day.¡± She got up and went over to the tent and found the doctor exactly where she¡¯d left him, wide-eyed, unseeing, clutching the blanket with both fists.

    Seeing his obvious terror, Envy felt a little sorry for him, despite her bad mood. It could have been any of them in his place, she knew, and she supposed she owed him something for that. She got down on her knees and crawled into the tent. ¡°What¡¯s up?¡± she asked, watching Rusty trudge down the mountainside through the open tent.

    ¡°I still can¡¯t see,¡± Douglass said.

    ¡°Nothing?¡± Envy asked.

    His head-shake was her only response.Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

    Shit. Envy didn¡¯t know what to say. She felt bad about what she¡¯d told him the night before about pulling his weight, but she didn¡¯t feel any different about it this morning. In fact, cranky and sleep-deprived as she was, she felt more likely to ditch him for his next kerosene-dumping episode. How could someone who had gone to Harvard be so damned stupid?

    As if sensing her train of thought, Douglass whispered, ¡°I¡¯m really sorry about the kerosene.¡±

    ¡°We¡¯ll find some more,¡± she muttered, instantly feeling guilty. ¡°You just didn¡¯t know better.¡± The reality of the situation, however, was making her question whether or not they could afford to drag a blind city-slicker around with them, even if he was a doctor. She knew it was harsh, and inhumane, but she also knew it was going to be a hell of a lot harder to stay alive on a planet without electricity.

    Hard¡­but not impossible.

    ¡°You¡¯re not gonna leave me once you guys decide to break camp, right?¡± Douglass asked, his eyes flickering to stare sightlessly somewhere about six inches to the left of her head.

    ¡°Look, the shit hasn¡¯t hit the fan yet,¡± Envy said. ¡°Nobody¡¯s leaving anybody.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m not so sure about that,¡± Douglass said. He hesitated, biting his lip. ¡°I¡¯m¡­hearing¡­something, and I don¡¯t like it. Been hearing it all morning.¡±

    Probably heard himself snoring in my spot, Envy thought, irritated all over again. ¡°Oh yeah? What are you hearing?¡±

    Douglass swallowed hard. ¡°Screaming.¡±

    Envy squinted at him. ¡°Screaming?¡±

    His eyes flickered closer to her face this time, seeking, but still didn¡¯t focus. ¡°I was waiting to see if you guys noticed it, but nobody said anything, so I figured it was just me.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re hearing screaming right now?¡± Envy glanced out over the windswept mountainside, where the only sounds were those of the breeze moving the willow trees and whistling through the grasses.

    But Douglass nodded.

    She squinted at him. Maybe the poor guy had fizzled something in the blast last night. ¡°What kind of screaming?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s¡­¡± He hesitated, his chest rising and falling slowly as he struggled for words. ¡°It¡¯s like the Earth is screaming.¡±

    ¡°The Earth.¡±

    ¡°I knew you wouldn¡¯t believe me,¡± he whispered. He squeezed his eyes shut and she saw tears. ¡°Fuck, you two are gonna leave me. I know it.¡±

    ¡°Suck it up and tell me why the Earth is screaming,¡± Envy said. ¡°Was it screaming when the alien spaceship was slamming into it? When did it start?¡±

    ¡°In the middle of the night,¡± Douglass said. ¡°It happens every couple minutes or so.¡± He hesitated again. ¡°And when it screams, my vision goes blue.¡±

    That¡­was weird. ¡°Uh, well, you¡¯re the doctor. Maybe you hit your head in the first blast.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s what I thought,¡± Douglass told her. ¡°Brain damage. Delusions. But when you sit there, talking, I see rainbows.¡±

    ¡°Rainbows.¡±

    Douglass nodded, biting his lip.

    The guy was totally off his goddamn rocker, and she was out of patience.

    ¡°That¡¯s nice, Douglass. Think you could get out of the sleeping bag for a bit and give me a chance to sleep?¡±

    His fingers tightened reflexively on the fabric, but then he started pulling it away from his body, looking blindly ahead. He crawled from the bag and awkwardly out into the snow.

    Immediately, she felt bad, but Envy was tired, cold, and so exhausted she was about to start seeing rainbows of her own. She helped him find a seat next to the fire, then crawled into the bed to pass out for a couple of hours.

    It felt like she had been asleep for only twenty minutes before she heard Rusty shout, ¡°Leave her alone! She¡¯s tired, dipshit!¡±

    ¡°She needs to know something,¡± Douglass said, panting, obviously in some sort of scuffle outside the tent entrance.

    ¡°I said back off!¡± There was a grunt, then someone stumbled and hit the ground hard.

    ¡°Leave him alone, Rusty,¡± Envy said, yanking the tent flap open.

    Rusty looked rebuked. ¡°I was just trying to keep him from waking you¡ª¡±

    ¡°Yeah, well, he hit his head and his eyes haven¡¯t adjusted yet, just give him a break.¡± She went over to Douglass, who was sprawled on the ground, and squatted beside him. ¡°What¡¯s up?¡± she asked, as his eyes struggled to focus on her.

    ¡°The color changed,¡± Douglass panted like it was the most important thing in the world. ¡°Went from blue to red.¡±

    For the longest time, Envy stared at him until she was absolutely sure she had heard him correctly. ¡°You woke me up because your delusion changed colors.¡±

    ¡°Screams changed too,¡± he said. ¡°They¡¯re happening all the¡ª¡± He winced and threw his hands to his ears, moaning and curling into a ball at her feet. ¡°Shit, shit!¡± he cried, shuddering. ¡°Fuck that hurts so bad, fuck!¡±

    The way his body was contorting didn¡¯t look healthy to Envy, and it cut through her irritation. ¡°What is that, some sort of seizure?¡± she asked reluctantly.

    Gasping, Douglass shook his head. ¡°Never¡­heard¡­of anything¡­like this¡­¡± he gritted, grabbing both ears in white-knuckled grips like he wanted to rip them off. Then, all of a sudden, he relaxed completely, gasping. ¡°Oh my God.¡±

    ¡°Uh,¡± Envy said, glancing at Rusty, ¡°I¡¯m not hearing anything screaming. Are you?¡±

    Rusty was frowning at the doctor. ¡°He hit his head?¡±

    Douglass¡¯s reply was another groan, his whole body bending double as he shuddered, ramming both palms to his head. ¡°Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuck!¡± he screamed through gritted teeth. ¡°Oh god fuck!¡± His whole body was trembling, sweating and completely tensed so rigid that it looked like bones would snap.

    Despite herself, Envy stood up, unnerved by the display.

    It was over in a minute, and Douglass flopped back, hyperventilating.

    ¡°Guys,¡± Douglass gasped, ¡°I don¡¯t know how much more of that I can stand.¡±

    Rusty snorted and raised a beefy arm to gesture at the empty mountainside around them. ¡°Can¡¯t stand much more of what, city boy? There¡¯s nothing here¡ª¡±

    No sooner had Rusty opened his mouth than the ground beneath their feet started rumbling in the biggest, most terrifying earthquake that Envy had ever experienced in six years in Alaska. It threw her from her feet, then rolled her like a dowel rod across the land, back and forth, uphill. Rolling on the ground beside her, Douglass was screaming for real, now. Even Rusty started letting out a shrill-yet-manly cry as the shaking continued, more violent and fearsome than anything she had even thought possible. She heard the rumble of big rocks falling, dislodged from the mountains around them, but her body was essentially a ping pong ball at the mercy of a vacuum cleaner.

    ¡°What¡¯s happening¡ª?¡± Envy cried, finally managing to flatten out on the ground, spread-eagle, and stay there.

    ¡°Earthquake!¡± Rusty called, his voice chopped up by the rumble.

    Thank you, Lieutenant Obvious.

    The earthquake kept going, and Douglass kept screaming. Not terrified shrieks, either, but shrieks of pain. Like someone in deep, mindless agony. Even with the ground tossing her around, Envy knew that wasn¡¯t normal.

    She wasn¡¯t sure how long it lasted¡ªshe didn¡¯t have a working watch¡ªbut by the time the earthquake finally passed, Envy had begun to think it wouldn¡¯t. Still, after it was over, she stayed glued to the ground, hot sweat even then cooling on her back, swept away by the easy mountain breeze. Her whole body was shaking with fear and adrenaline, and she wasn¡¯t sure which way was up.

    Rusty, for his part, lunged to his feet. ¡°Fourteen minutes, seventeen seconds¡ªwhooo-eee!¡± He actually looked like he¡¯d won the lottery. ¡°That¡¯s gotta be a record!¡±

    Envy, who felt like vomiting from the way the ground had been rolling, swallowed back bile. She gingerly lifted her head to glance at the mountains around her. Some of the higher peaks had collapsed to sheaves of rubble, and a big oblong boulder had rolled to a stop in the blueberry bushes only fifteen feet from where they lay, lichens clinging to its underbelly from where it had once been facing the sky.

    That almost killed us and I didn¡¯t even notice, Envy thought, numb.

    On the ground beside her, Douglass had devolved into quiet, despondent sobs, his shoulders quaking as he lay curled in a fetal position. She moved closer to him and touched his shoulder. ¡°You okay?¡±

    Eyes squeezed shut against tears, Douglass shook his head.

    Envy bit her lip and glanced back down the valley at the looming lattice of alien metalwork. ¡°All right, guys,¡± she said, ¡°that wasn¡¯t a coincidence.¡±

    ¡°No shit,¡± Douglass sobbed, with more anger than she was expecting.

    ¡°So you think it decided to blow up the planet?¡± Rusty asked. ¡°Decided to nip us off in the bud, before we could become a threat?¡±

    Seeing the gleaming metal megalith towering over the Mat-Su, Envy knew it would have taken a few thousand years¡¯ advancement before the human species had become any sort of threat. ¡°I don¡¯t think so,¡± she whispered. But, as much as she tried to piece together a pattern to what was happening, she couldn¡¯t, not even when she tried feeling it out.

    ¡°So¡­¡± Rusty offered, ¡°is it safe to go down there yet?¡±

    As soon as he said it, the pang of soul-grinding terror that hit Envy brought her to her knees.

    It was Douglass, however, who said around sobs, ¡°No. It¡¯s about to get worse¡­¡±

 Chapter 8 - Aftershock

    <h1>Chapter 8: Aftershock¡­</h1>

    Envy watched Douglass tense in another full-body contortion, glanced at Rusty, who was still dancing the, ¡®Fuck You Mother Earth, We Survived!¡¯ dance, glanced at the boulder that had stopped fifteen feet away, and said, ¡°Rusty! Grab Douglass, we gotta get on the other side of that boulder.¡±

    For his part, Douglass was writhing in obvious pain.

    Rusty stopped dancing, still breathless in excitement. ¡°What?¡±

    ¡°Grab him!¡± Envy snapped. ¡°There¡¯s gonna be another one.¡± She jabbed her finger at the boulder. ¡°And that is coming our way.¡±

    Rusty glanced at the doctor, glanced at the boulder, and returned his attention to the doc with a facial twist that said that he didn¡¯t think that would be such a bad thing, after all.

    ¡°Right now!¡± Envy said, grabbing Douglass by the arm and tugging. He was too heavy to drag more than a few inches by herself before the friction from the bushes brought his shuddering body to a halt.

    Rusty glanced again at the boulder, saw that she was now in the line of fire, and hastily ran down to help her. He threw the squirming man over his shoulder like a sack of guns and started charging up the hill so fast that Envy had trouble keeping up. They were a good twenty feet above the boulder before Douglass started screaming again.

    ¡°Put him down!¡± Envy cried. ¡°It¡¯s happening aga¡ª¡±

    The earth under them shuddered with a violence that knocked the big man and his burden to the ground with hammer-to-anvil finality. ¡°Captain, I think this one¡¯s bigger than¡ª¡± Rusty began, his voice much less enthusiastic than before. He was cut off when one of the falling rocks brushed his head as it tumbled down the hill and Rusty went totally still and limp, his body rolling like a sausage, whereas Douglass just screamed and screamed¡­

    We¡¯re gonna die here, Envy thought, clinging to the ground and desperately watching the hill above them for rocks. Boulders that had been in the same place for millennia were being dislodged and tumbling loose, pocking black gouges into the frozen blueberry bushes where they bounced.

    Then, up ahead, she saw a big one, a rock that could have filled up her entire front driveway, bouncing like a rubber ball down from the peaks up above, straight at them.

    ¡°Rusty!¡± she cried, ¡°rock coming!¡±

    Rusty was out like a light. Douglass, who was closer, was still thrashing wildly. On all fours, she grabbed one of Douglass¡¯s flailing arms and tried dragging him out of the way of the massive chunk of granite. He actually kicked her. Kicked her. As she was huddled there, the wind knocked out of her from his blow to her solar plexus, the doctor started thrashing again, sobbing and begging for God to save him. Breathless, Envy glanced up at the oncoming boulder, knowing she couldn¡¯t make her limbs move fast enough get out of the way in time.

    The rock¡ªwhich was approximately the size of a house¡ªhit the slight bump of an outcropping directly up the hill from them and bounced, hurling into the air and leaving her an unmistakable feeling of presence between her and the sun as it sailed only ten feet over the top of them before hitting the ground a hundred feet down the hill to continue its downward tumble.

    Shit, Envy cried, flattening herself back to the mountain as the big boulder plunged down into the riverbed below. She lay there as the terrifying shaking went on and on, not looking above her, figuring the house-sized rocks would either kill them or they wouldn¡¯t, and there wasn¡¯t anything a five-foot-four monkey could do about it.

    This time, the shaking lasted hours. So long, in fact, that, by the time it was over, the riverbed below was completely packed with boulders and the river itself, which usually bounced happily over the comparatively tiny rocks, was backing up in several places, filling the valley above it with ice-cold springwater.

    There goes the road out, Envy thought, grimacing as she hesitantly got to her feet and surveyed the wreckage below. The road that had once been a winding snake through the valley was now alternately covered with water or broken into so many chunks that it looked like river ice during Breakup. She could even see her truck, upside down, resting amongst the boulders at the bottom of the hill.

    Envy glanced at her companions. Rusty was bleeding from the gash in his temple and Douglass had gone eerily still and quiet about an hour ago. Neither one was moving. She swallowed hard, suddenly hoping very much that her two companions had survived, because after something like this, she was pretty sure they were going to be some of the only ones who survived, and she didn¡¯t want to be alone in the world. It was a weird, dumb thought, but the moment she had it, she realized that as many times as she got a helicopter to drop her off in the middle of the Bush so she could hike back to civilization alone and prove her mettle against Nature, this was different. There wouldn¡¯t be anyone to hear her near-death stories when she wandered out of the woods. There would be no wide-eyed looks of wonder, no murmurs of, ¡®Wow, how cool!¡¯ It would just be her, and, by herself she was boring.

    Still not willing to get back to her feet, she crab-crawled over to Douglass, who was closest, and grabbed his shoulder. ¡°You okay?¡± she called. ¡°You get hit by a rock?¡±

    Nothing. He was breathing and his face was covered in moss and detritus and sweat and scratches, but he was obviously not coming back for some time.

    She gave the rest of his body a cursory glance, but saw no blood or protruding bones, and went on to Rusty.

    The big man had come to a rest a few dozen yards down the hill, on his side in a near-fetal position, he roll arrested by the angle of his knees. Unlike Douglass, he did not look good. There was blood everywhere, and one of his arms looked bent in a way it shouldn¡¯t have been.

    ¡°Rusty!¡± Envy called, carefully pushing his heavy body onto his back. His face was a sheaf of blood and there was a two-inch gash in his scalp where it had been grazed by the boulder. ¡°Oh shit¡­Rusty!¡± She shook him.

    The big man didn¡¯t even twitch. She held her ear over his chest, but couldn¡¯t even tell if he was breathing. Most of the blood, she determined, was coming from the gash in his head, which was good¡­except for the fact he had lost a lot of blood. Envy glanced around, looking for the silver chest that had contained the first aid kit.

    She didn¡¯t see it. Everything from their camp¡ªtent, weapons, supplies, duffels¡ªwas scattered down the mountainside in a haphazard clump. She found the blanket nearby, but the smaller things, like the fire-starting equipment, the flashlights, and the hatchet¡ªwere all either lost in the bushes or buried under the rototilled snowdrifts.This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

    She found pieces of the tent several hundred feet from where they had staked it into the earth, shredded and unrecognizable, torn apart by the lichen-riddled boulder that had been fifteen feet above them.

    He saved us, Envy thought, glancing back at Douglass¡¯s motionless form, dark and limp on the mountainside. Without the warning he had given them, they would have stayed where they were under the popular assumption that the first quake was always the worst, and the boulder would have crushed them to death on its way to the tent.

    Somehow, Douglass had felt those earthquakes coming. She had no doubt about it. How he had done it still made no sense to her, but that he had done it was indisputable in her mind.

    Maybe he senses magnetic abnormalities? she thought. She¡¯d heard of dogs who had done the same, like in the big quake in Indonesia that killed over 200,000 people with that tsunami in the Indian Ocean. For months afterwards, there had been stories about people and tourists who had been saved by the agitated pets and livestock that had run for higher ground before the hundred-foot wall of water hit the mainlan¡ª

    No sooner had she had the thought of a massive wall of water did Envy¡¯s chest constrict with the foreknowledge that there would be another one, here, and it would wipe Anchorage, Palmer, Wasilla, and the rest of the Mat-Su valley completely off the map. The feeling was so intense that for long minutes she found herself unable to breathe. She looked down into the tree-filled valley, which was even then dominated by a gleaming silver spire of beautifully laced architecture, standing completely unaffected by the terrifying tremblors. If anything, it looked prettier.

    Fuck you, Envy thought, willing it to fall over. Just fuck you so hard.

    Whatever their goal, whatever their purpose, the towering, glittering edifice seemed like a punctuation of some sort, a big alien middle finger, a clear statement of intent. This place is ours now, it stated, gleaming proud and alien over her home. And not even your biggest earthquakes can topple us.

    But she could think about that later. Rusty needed help, and the first aid kid was nowhere to be found.

    Because she had nothing else that she was willing to sacrifice, Envy took strips of it back up and wound them around Rusty¡¯s head, hoping for some compression to stop the bleeding. The broken arm¡ªif that¡¯s what it was¡ªthey would have to deal with later.

    Throughout her ministrations, Rusty remained motionless, maybe even dead. Please don¡¯t be dead, Envy thought. She knew from experience she could survive, but without familiar faces, her shattered home dominated by an alien monstrosity, she wasn¡¯t sure she wanted to.

    Finding nothing else she could do for Rusty, she went looking for supplies. She had found a ripped and empty duffel bag, a box of matches¡ªcrushed, but still in its plastic Zip-Lock¡ªand a badly scratched buck knife that had been broken at the tip from getting rolled over by a boulder by the time either of her friends stirred.

    From the hill a hundred feet above her, the doctor groaned ad rolled onto his side, tucking into a fetal position.

    Envy threw her finds back into the useable portion of the duffel bag, tied it shut, and hurried back up the tattered mountainside to the doctor. ¡°You okay?¡± she asked, kneeling beside him. Douglass¡¯s response was a shake of his head.

    ¡°There¡¯s gonna be another earthquake?¡± Envy asked.

    ¡°Earthquake?¡± Douglass asked, blinking sightlessly at a point over her shoulder.

    ¡°Yeah,¡± she said. ¡°Right after you started screaming, both times, there was an earthquake.¡±

    ¡°Oh.¡± He sat up and groaned, grabbing his forehead. ¡°Weird.¡±

    ¡°Still can¡¯t see?¡±

    ¡°I see you talking,¡± he said, not looking at her. ¡°Lots of yellows and blues.¡±

    O-kaaay. ¡°What about the earthquakes?¡± Envy insisted, more nervously than she intended. ¡°We gonna get hit with another earthquake?¡± The last one had almost killed her from sheer terror.

    Douglass lifted his head and frowned, still staring sightlessly ahead. ¡°I don¡¯t know what you¡¯re talking about.¡±

    ¡°You said the earth was screaming, then the screams changed color, then there was a massive earthquake,¡± Envy said.

    ¡°I didn¡¯t feel an earthquake,¡± Douglass said. He glanced around. ¡°What earthquake?¡±

    At first, Envy thought he was bullshitting her. Then she realized that he had been thrashing so hard for so long that he probably just hadn¡¯t felt it. ¡°Uh¡­¡±

    ¡°How big was it?¡± he asked, almost causally. Like it had been some mild 5.0 that had knocked a plant off the windowsill.

    ¡°Big,¡± Envy said. ¡°Biggest ones I¡¯ve ever been in.¡±

    He grunted at that and went back to rubbing his temples and blinking hard. ¡°So, what, like a 6.5 or something?¡±

    ¡°Uh¡­¡± Again, she didn¡¯t know what to say. ¡°Well, obviously I¡¯m not a scientist, but if I had to guess, I would say a 12.0 or something like that.¡±

    Douglass choked on a laugh. ¡°Earthquakes don¡¯t come that big.¡±

    ¡°Exactly,¡± Envy said.

    He glanced back at her sharply again, his eyes searching for her face.

    ¡°I¡¯m not sure this was an earthquake.¡± She explained approximately where it fell on the seismic scale, along with how her truck was now upside down in a gulley and the road was a tattered mess.

    He took that all in in silence, then grunted and dropped his head back into his hands, staring sightlessly at the ground between his feet.

    ¡°Tell me if you hear that screaming again,¡± Envy said.

    Douglass just nodded, his slumped shoulders and hanging head a picture of depression.

    ¡°You¡¯re the only reason we¡¯re alive right now,¡± she added, instinctively trying to make him feel better. ¡°There was a boulder. Took out our tent. We saw you going off again and managed to get out of the way before the second earthquake hit.¡±

    He glanced at her sideways a bit, but said nothing.

    Down the hill, Rusty stirred with a loud curse. ¡°Fuckin arm is broke!¡± he shouted. ¡°Fuck!¡±

    Douglass lifted his head, a small frown on his face. ¡°Is it?¡±

    ¡°I dunno if it¡¯s broken or dislocated, but it looks horrible,¡± Envy said.

    Douglass stood. ¡°Can you¡­uh¡­take me down there?¡±

    ¡°Sure. You just let me know if you hear that screaming again, okay?¡±

    He nodded. And, with her help, navigated the clumps of broken and mashed berry bushes to Rusty¡¯s side.

    The big man was holding his arm limply to his side, cursing and hissing under his breath.

    ¡°All right, where¡¯s the pain?¡± Douglass asked.

    ¡°Shoulder,¡± Rusty said, through gritted teeth.

    ¡°Mind if I feel it?¡± the doctor asked, holding out his hand. Envy quickly moved the hand¡ªwhich had been hovering over Rusty¡¯s crotch¡ªto the big man¡¯s shoulder.

    Rusty frowned, but nodded.

    ¡°He says go for it,¡± Envy said, lowering the doc¡¯s hand to Rusty¡¯s body.

    Immediately, Rusty sucked in a breath through his teeth and groaned, his jaw tightening as Douglass prodded him and asked specific questions about different pain levels where.

    ¡°Well, I don¡¯t have an X-Ray on me,¡± Douglass finally determined, ¡°but I¡¯m guessing it¡¯s just a dislocation. Which sucks for you, but also makes things a little easier.¡±

    Rusty was looking at him suspiciously, that classic Don¡¯t-Trust-the-Doctor look that little kids got when big needles came out of cupboards, ¡°Sucks for me how?¡±

    ¡°Well,¡± Douglass said, ¡°I¡¯ve gotta get your arm back in the socket, and it¡¯s generally pretty simple, but you¡¯re a big dude, so I might have to try a couple times.¡±

    Rusty shot a nervous glance to Envy, who shrugged. ¡°You wanna use the arm again?¡± she said.

    ¡°Okay,¡± Rusty said reluctantly.

    ¡°Then, uh, Envy, I¡¯m gonna need you to¡­¡± Douglass flushed, ¡°help me see what I¡¯m doing here, okay? I need to be on his left side. He needs to be sitting up, shoulders up and back, and his arm hanging loose as he can get it. Then I can take it from there.¡±

    And he did, too. Once Envy got them positioned, in one smooth motion, Douglass twisted Rusty¡¯s arm, made him scream like a little girl, and popped the shoulder back into place.

    ¡°Wow,¡± Rusty said, swinging his arm immediately afterward. ¡°It¡¯s not hurting anymore.¡±

    ¡°Well, go easy on it,¡± Douglass said. ¡°It¡¯ll probably ache for a little while, and you might find it throbs when it gets cold. Arms aren¡¯t supposed to come out of sockets, you know. You should try to avoid that in the future.¡±

    It sounded like the normal confident chatter from a normal, cheerful doctor in a normal, everyday doctor¡¯s office, and for a moment Envy forgot that they were stranded on a mountainside in the middle of an alien apocalypse. But then she did remember, and she felt her hopes sink once again to that dull realization that her world would never be the same.

    The other two seemed to realize it about the same time, because their grins faded and they looked away.

    ¡°So, uh, Captain?¡± Rusty asked, glancing out at the megalith towering over the Mat-Su Valley. ¡°What now?¡±

    ¡°Get ready for a tsunami,¡± Envy said. ¡°A big one.¡±

 Chapter 9 - Higher Ground

    <h1>Chapter 9: Higher Ground</h1>

    ¡°But we¡¯re up in the mountains,¡± Rusty argued. ¡°How big could it be?¡±

    ¡°I dunno,¡± Envy said. ¡°Big.¡± And it was coming. Soon. Every moment that passed was making her more twitchy, her chest constricting even further with worry.

    Rusty pulled out another of his trusty gadgets from his profusion of military pouches strapped to his person. ¡°Says here we¡¯re at eight hundred ninety feet,¡± he said, reading something that looked like an oversized watch.

    ¡°What is that?¡± Envy asked.

    ¡°Altimeter,¡± he said, holding it out to her. ¡°You adjust for barometric pressure, then it¡¯ll tell you how high you are from sea level.¡±

    Envy, who even after trekking through the Alaskan wilds six different summers in a row hadn¡¯t heard of such a thing, looked it over then handed it back. ¡°And you thought that would be useful survival gear why?¡± Envy demanded.

    ¡°Never know when you¡¯ll have to hole up on Denali,¡± Rusty said, shrugging. ¡°And if you get too far up, you can pass out from lack of oxygen.¡± He tapped the altimeter proudly. ¡°This¡¯ll keep me from passing out when I go too high.¡±

    Envy squinted at the hillbilly. ¡°You mean oxygen will keep you from passing out.¡±

    Rusty cheerfully opened his mouth to contradict her, then frowned and glanced down at the device as if the thought of bottled oxygen hadn¡¯t occurred to him.

    ¡°Jesus,¡± Envy said, shaking her head. ¡°Just help me find the rest of our stuff before we get hit again.¡± As Rusty wandered off, frowning down at his altimeter, Envy glanced over at Douglass, who was seated stiffly on a mound of berry bushes. ¡°How you doin¡¯?¡±

    ¡°Aside from the fact my world is a white haze of static punctuated by the occasional blast of random color, fine.¡± Douglass made a face, then wiped his nose with a hand. Then, ¡°How long ago was that earthquake?¡±

    Envy wasn¡¯t sure. ¡°I dunno¡­an hour?¡±

    ¡°And you really think it was a 12.0?¡± he insisted.

    ¡°Dude, if you could see the mountains right now, you wouldn¡¯t be asking that question.¡± Indeed, it looked like a nuclear bomb had gone off. Where the mountains had been patchy white before, streaks of brown from rocks and landslides now dominated the slopes. Several of the mountains had lost their peaks, the dislodged boulders now in broken piles at the base.

    ¡°And we¡¯re only eight hundred feet up?¡± Douglass insisted.

    ¡°Well, I don¡¯t know how accurate that is, considering the source,¡± Envy said. He had pronounced ¡®barometric pressure¡¯ as ¡®bar-oh-meet-trick¡¯.

    ¡°Then we should probably get higher up the mountain,¡± Douglass said.

    That made Envy blink. ¡°Up the mountain?¡±

    A few hundred feet away, Rusty crowed, ¡°I found my Dixie Zippo!¡± He held up a little silver object and kissed it a few times.

    ¡°I was bored a lot in college, before I got accepted to med school,¡± Douglass said. ¡°Spent a lot of time researching Google Earth and topography. Almost went into archaeology.¡±

    Wouldn¡¯t that have been a disaster, Envy thought, thinking of the Kerosene Incident. ¡°What¡¯s your point?¡±

    ¡°Point is, geologists have documented tsunamis over a thousand feet high,¡± Douglass said. ¡°You can see their dunes on Google Earth.¡±

    ¡°Dunes?¡±

    ¡°Yeah, you know on the bottom of a river, how it makes ripples in the sand? Think like that, but on a gigantic scale. We¡¯re talking mounds of debris a hundred feet high left behind as the water rushed back to the ocean. Destroyed whole civilizations¡ªthey found pottery buried under the bottom of these things. There¡¯s a theory that¡¯s where the story of Noah¡¯s Ark comes from. Someone watched one of these things take out his city, then told people about it afterward.¡±

    Envy glanced nervously at the huge alien structure dominating the landscape below. ¡°Did you say a thousand feet high?¡±

    ¡°At least.¡±

    She cursed. ¡°All right. We need to get higher. Rusty and I will help you, okay?¡± She glanced up the hill. ¡°Rusty! Come help me get the doc up the mountain¡ªwe¡¯re moving to higher ground!¡±

    ¡°You got it, Captain.¡± The big man came jogging down the hill without so much as a ¡®why¡¯ and grabbed Douglass firmly under the shoulder. ¡°Follow me, doc.¡± Ever since Douglass had re-located his shoulder, he¡¯d been a lot more respectful of the slender man in the mud-caked woolen overcoat and the stained loafers.

    ¡°We¡¯re gonna get you some better gear, first chance we get,¡± Envy said.

    ¡°After a thousand foot tsunami?¡± Douglass snorted. ¡°Not likely.¡±

    ¡°We¡¯ll find you some gear, little man,¡± Rusty said gruffly. ¡°I got another stash up in Archangel Valley.¡±

    ¡°Doubt there¡¯s much left in Archangel Valley,¡± Envy said, remembering the titanic bowl of granite, its sides almost vertical. ¡°What¡¯s your closest after that?¡±You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

    ¡°Other side of Hatcher¡¯s Pass,¡± Rusty said. ¡°Maybe thirty miles from here?¡±

    Well, that was better than nothing. The question was whether or not they¡¯d be able to stay warm and alive without gear or a tent¡ªor any significant amount of fuel, since the higher elevations of the Pass had very little in the way of burnable vegetation, mainly just knee-high green shrubs and lichen. When she mentioned her fears, Rusty said, ¡°Well, there¡¯s those old miner cabins along the way.¡±

    Envy shook her head. ¡°Any cabins would¡¯ve come down in that quake.¡±

    ¡°Yeah,¡± he said, nodding. ¡°Better kindling that way.¡±

    She opened her mouth, then frowned. ¡°Guess so.¡±

    The higher they hiked, the colder and windier it got, until they were shivering even with their coats. Douglass, holding onto Envy¡¯s shoulders as she and Rusty made a path for him through the upper snowdrifts, was surprisingly no longer complaining about stains on his loafers.

    ¡°His feet are gonna fall off if we don¡¯t stop and warm up,¡± Rusty said, giving the doctor a nervous look. ¡°This place looks pretty good.¡± He gestured around them at the divot that protected them from the wind.

    Hugging her arms tightly around herself, Envy glanced down the valley. The feeling of doom had receded to a dull throb, but it still made her uncomfortable to look at the towering silver megastructure. ¡°How high are we now?¡± she asked.

    Rusty got out his trusty altimeter and squinted at it, then squinted at the sky, then made an adjustment to the dial. ¡°Looks like¡­twelve hundred and fifteen feet, give or take thirty.¡±

    Instinctively, Envy wanted to go further, but she could see the snow stuffed into Douglass¡¯s loafers and knew he wasn¡¯t going to last much longer.

    ¡°All right,¡± she said, ¡°try to build a fire. I¡¯ll get some sort of shelter started. Doug, take a seat and start getting the snow out of your shoes, okay?¡±

    Douglass slumped to the ground and started pulling his loafers off while Envy and Rusty started looking for ways to make their lives more comfortable. There was a boulder about fifty feet from them that would have made a nice windbreak, but after the last earthquake, they were avoiding boulders like the Plague, going out of their way to walk around them and not to get directly downhill of them.

    Because she didn¡¯t have any other tools, Envy started using her hands and feet to clear out a space down to the ground, mounding up snow to six feet on all sides to keep out the wind. After enduring the quakes, she figured attempting to build an igloo was foolhardy at best. Besides, the jostling had broken up the snow, leaving it more of a crumbled mess than was necessary for the igloo-building blocks.

    Rusty came back a few minutes later with a few armfuls of meager twigs, which he deposited inside her ¡®structure¡¯. Getting it to light was an hour-long affair, and as they huddled and cursed over it, Douglass started to shiver and clutch his woolen overcoat tighter to his body, but still he didn¡¯t complain.

    It was Rusty who finally got the fire going¡ªRusty and a streak of colorful curses to make a Marine¡¯s face heat up. ¡°Ha! Ha! You take that, fucker,¡± he shouted, adding more tiny twigs, ¡°You take that, you mama-sucking limpdick panty-poker! Yeah!¡±

    ¡°Mother Nature doesn¡¯t like it when you get uppity,¡± Douglass noted solemnly. ¡°She tends to blind and humiliate you. Rip you down. Take away your dignity. Make you bleed.¡± He plucked at his thin, black, professional socks. ¡°Shove you to the ground and fuck you in the ass without lube.¡±

    Rusty, who was in the middle of a full-throated laugh, choked it off suddenly with a nervous sideways glance at the doctor. Douglass continued casually tossing tiny twigs he broke from the shrubbery beneath him onto the fire as if he¡¯d said nothing out of the ordinary. Face reddening, Rusty said, ¡°I¡¯m gonna go get some more wood.¡±

    ¡°Good plan,¡± Douglass said, flicking another thumb-length twig at the fire.

    Rusty hurried off in a superstitious hustle.

    ¡°Come on,¡± Envy said, pulling the blanket from the duffel bag and hanging it over Douglass¡¯s shoulders. ¡°You look cold. We can share.¡± She sat down beside him and pulled the blanket over her, too, being sure to leave some for Rusty.¡±

    ¡°I can¡¯t feel my feet,¡± Douglass whispered.

    Envy froze in arranging the blanket. ¡°What?¡±

    ¡°Can¡¯t feel them. Haven¡¯t felt them for a couple hours.¡±

    Envy frowned down at his socks. ¡°You¡¯re kidding me.¡± She yanked a sock from his foot, then gasped at how white it was. His feet were freezing and Douglass hadn¡¯t ushered a word of complaint. ¡°Fuck, Douglass, why didn¡¯t you say something?!¡±

    ¡°Rusty said he¡¯d kill me,¡± Douglass said, shrugging. He tossed another tiny twig and it landed in the snow, three feet from the fire.

    ¡°When?¡± she demanded, yanking off the other sock. She¡¯d seen frostbite before, and this was bordering on permanent damage.

    ¡°In the tent,¡± Douglass said. ¡°After I wasted all the firewood.¡±

    At least his toes were still pliable, not yet frozen. There was a chance he wouldn¡¯t lose any of them, but only if they could get the blood circulating again, fast. She immediately started warming them with her palms, holding his feet up to the fire.

    ¡°I¡¯m gonna have a chat with Rusty,¡± she growled as she worked.

    ¡°Don¡¯t bother,¡± Douglass said. ¡°Made sense. I wasn¡¯t pulling my weight.¡±

    Hearing her own words used against her, Envy immediately felt bad. ¡°Look, when I said that back there¡ª¡±

    ¡°You were scared, I was a fuckup, and aliens were pounding their load into Mother Earth. I know.¡± He didn¡¯t sound upset with her at all. If anything, he sounded tired. ¡°Look, I¡¯m probably gonna die up here.¡±

    ¡°We¡¯re all probably gonna die up here,¡± Envy said, propping his second foot up to start restoring circulation. ¡°What makes you so special?¡±

    ¡°My vision hasn¡¯t gotten any better. It¡¯s probably blood on the brain. Hallucinations. Bad concussion, something. I don¡¯t see myself living very long, even if we do survive the night.¡±

    Hearing the raw morbidity in his apathetic voice, Envy decided to give him something else to focus on. ¡°Are you kidding?¡± she demanded. ¡°You¡¯re our earthquake gauge. You¡¯re gonna let us know next time the earth tries to kill us.¡±

    Douglass squinted sightlessly ahead of him, frowning. He turned, though his eyes didn¡¯t find hers. ¡°You really believe that?¡±

    ¡°Dude, it¡¯s what I saw,¡± Envy said. She glanced at the devastation around her, the river valley now filled with loose boulders and debris. ¡°And if you could see what I see, you¡¯d feel the same way.¡±

    Shivering, Douglass made a grimace of skepticism, but didn¡¯t argue. He went back to shaking and staring at the fire as she rubbed his feet. ¡°You know, I honestly don¡¯t think I¡¯m gonna mind sharing body heat with a three hundred pound hillbilly tonight,¡± Douglass said. Then he chuckled unhappily. ¡°We¡¯re so fucked.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s just for a night,¡± Envy said. ¡°Further up the pass, there are some structures¡­¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t forget the mines!¡± Rusty called, as he jogged back with a little armful of tiny branches. ¡°Might be a couple mines up there that didn¡¯t collapse. Warmer underground.¡± The big man paused when he saw Envy rubbing Douglass¡¯s feet, and his eyes immediately narrowed with suspicion as his eyes slid up the doctor¡¯s legs to his unseeing face with unmistakable jealousy.

    ¡°For the love of¡ªhe¡¯s got frostbite,¡± Envy snapped. ¡°Take a foot.¡±

    ¡°Frostbite?¡± Rusty¡¯s eyes widened and he dropped his stack of branches haphazardly beside them and knelt. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, you¡¯re gonna be okay, doc.¡± Then he grabbed the doctor¡¯s other foot and started rubbing it like his life depended on it.

    Who knows, maybe it did.

    They were still trying to restore circulation to Douglass¡¯s toes when Rusty, who was looking over Douglass¡¯s shoulder at the valley below, stopped rubbing the doctor¡¯s feet. His eyes, fixed on something out in the Mat-Su, went wide and he slowly started to stand. ¡°Mother of Dixie,¡± he whispered. ¡°We¡¯re not high enough.¡±

 Chapter 10 - Clinging On

    <h1>Chapter 10: Clinging On</h1>

    Feeling pretty satisfied with herself, Mandy got comfortable for a long day of Watch The Aliens Destroy Palmer, because she sure as hell wasn¡¯t walking back down the mountain to deal with the chaos of an alien attack in her sneakers. As far as she could tell, the ship didn¡¯t seem to have any intention of landing, but it also wasn¡¯t doing any great favors the way it was frying huge swaths of the Mat-Su.

    Front row seats to the greatest show on Earth, she thought. She knew it was pretty morbid, since people had to be dying down there if the melted swath of mountainside was any indication, but she also knew there wasn¡¯t jack-all she could do without a working vehicle or a phone. Submitting a story to the AP required phone service and internet connections, and while she¡¯d figured out how to make the generator work, her phone was still dead.

    She was disappointed, sure, but at least now nobody could try to claim that it was ¡®statistically improbable¡¯ for there to be any life in the universe aside from that of Planet Earth.

    I mean, really? Mandy had discovered just the other day while researching for an article on the ongoing repairs at the Stargate Observatory in Wasilla that just the observable universe contained as many as 2 trillion galaxies, each with about a hundred billion stars. At last count astronomers had estimated there were about ninety billion trillion stars out there within viewing range, which actually meant there were probably a lot more, considering how the universe was expanding and they could only see light that was a certain age old.

    And, because planets were much much harder to see than stars because they had no innate luminosity, there were theories out there that there were many, many more planets than stars even though the observable number so far had only been a few thousand.

    But, even if there were only one planet per star, that was still more than ninety billion trillion planets out there to potentially evolve their own forms of life, and yet somehow all the scientists on Earth were spouting the same sapiens-centric political garbage that, if traced back to its roots, was ultimately being perpetuated by the CIA and the Pentagon¡ªthat humanity was the only intelligent life in the universe? Please. She was a millennial, but she wasn¡¯t born yesterday.

    So a bunch of government goobs had just gotten its ass handed to them by an ET. That actually made her a little warm and fuzzy inside. Maybe now they¡¯d install some sort of world order and stop all the stupid wars, hunger, and famine. Because, obviously, any ET advanced enough to build an interstellar spaceship would only be coming to Earth to spread knowledge and peace, not conquer. Because, like a smart monkey, Mandy knew that with ninety billion trillion planets to choose from, an ET wasn¡¯t going to risk messing around with things like bacterial contamination, invasive species, or parasites when it needed resources¡ªit would just go grab an unused, clean planet and take what it needed. For it to be here, interacting with them, could only mean one thing:

    It wanted to be friends, even if it had to fry a few machine-gun-toting thugs to do it.

    Thus, she was sitting back, munching on a box of Cheese-Its from a kitchen cupboard, feet up on the dining table and grinning like an idiot as she watched the alien ship prove once and for all that humans were just self-important specks on the grand tapestry of the universe, when the black half-moon blew a hole in the middle of Palmer and the shockwave took out the front windows of the lodge in a blast of glass shards.

    Mandy had just pulled her glass-covered body off the floor when the ship started pounding balls of purple-white light into the Earth at three second intervals, one after the next.

    What in the hell is that? she wondered, hunkered below the window frame, shivering from the suddenly cold air and the fact that, fifteen miles from the epicenter, she had just gotten hit by a blast wave that probably leveled the whole Mat-Su. Swallowing hard, she watched the violet-white balls continue to drop from the ship into the planet¡¯s core. Again, what she wouldn¡¯t have done for a camera, but this time it was so she could zoom in, get a better look at what was happening down there. This far away, it wasn¡¯t much more than a blur¡­

    When it was obvious the pounding wasn¡¯t going to stop any time soon¡ªand Mandy wasn¡¯t getting out of the mountains that night unless that ¡®park ranger¡¯ miraculously decided to come back to check on her¡ªshe decided it was time to start making plans for the night.

    Tomorrow, once the sun came back up, she would try to hotwire one of those SUVs. She wasn¡¯t great at it, and some of the newer models made it harder, but she¡¯d seen some tools in the generator shed that she could use to get the job done. After that, her plan was to walk up the pass where the government snow-machiners had disappeared. She had a feeling if they were still alive, they probably would have followed the spaceship in a vast angry herd down out of the mountains, but aside from her own attempts to get the generator started out in the shed, she hadn¡¯t heard the sound of a machine since that park ranger dude had left her stranded early that morning.

    Until then, because she was stranded, and because it was damned cold without windows, heat, or electricity, Mandy grabbed a handful of candles from a supply closet, unhooked the keys to the cabins from the manager¡¯s quarters, and went looking for a smaller, warmer space to spend the night. Several of the cabins had been orientated with their windows facing the mountain scenery and not the valley below, so they still had intact windows. She found one that looked comfy and let herself inside.

    The guest cabin was tiny¡ªwith a small loft built to sleep four, though only enough room for two to move around comfortably¡ªbut it had a small woodstove and a small pile of spruce kindling, which she immediately put to use. After warming up, she crawled under the blankets, though she found herself staring at the wooden ceiling of the cabin, listening to the spaceship¡¯s pounding rattle the windows with every boom.

    Wonder what it¡¯s doing down there, she thought, playing out scenarios in her mind. Her best guess was some sort of mining expedition, though why aliens would stop on Earth, when Earth¡¯s minerals were basically shit compared to, oh, every asteroid in the known universe, Mandy had no idea.If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.

    All we¡¯ve got is air, Mandy thought. A working atmosphere, oxygen¡­ Why would a group of aliens care about the Earth¡¯s molten core when all that core contained were elements commonly found throughout the rest of the galaxy?

    I spent too much time with astronomers last week, she thought, realizing she was obsessing again. It was one of her habits, and it was hard to break, especially when it was something that bothered her or didn¡¯t make sense. Still, she knew she certainly wasn¡¯t going to solve the mystery of the aliens¡¯ intentions by agonizing over it in the dark when she should be sleeping, so she forced herself to roll over and think of sheep.

    The pounding stopped sometime after midnight, which allowed Mandy to finally fall asleep.

    By dawn the next morning, she was just starting to stretch and open her eyes when she was thrown out of bed with the screaming fury of a hurricane.

    Avalanche, she thought, scrambling to get to the door to the tiny cabin. Unable to stay upright, she hit the wall, which hit her back hard enough to knock her straight to the floor.

    I guess they weren¡¯t bullshitting after all, she thought, stunned that the government, for once, had been telling the truth. Mandy started crawling towards the exit, just knowing that the avalanche had hit the building and was carrying it down the mountain in a massive river of snow.

    It was over relatively quickly, but by the time the rumbling stopped and Mandy pulled herself back to a sitting position, the potbelly stove had come loose of its restraints and spilled soot all over the inside of the cabin as it rolled. The bed had lunged away from the wall, and the floor of the cabin itself was at an odd angle, like it had fallen off a foundation post.

    The cabin itself, however, was built like a brick shithouse, and despite taking an avalanche full-on, it wasn¡¯t worse for wear. Thank gawd for old-timer Alaskans, Mandy thought, using the ash-shovel to scoop the few glowing embers back into the potbelly stove so she didn¡¯t get roasted like a marshmallow while trapped inside a snowslide. Then, once she was certain the ash that was left wasn¡¯t going to ignite around her, she went crawling to the front door to begin the task of digging her way free.

    When she pushed on the door, it opened to the same driveway where she had left it, with the same black SUVs sitting gleaming and snow-free in the parking lot.

    That¡¯s¡­weird, she thought, frowning. Had it been an earthquake?

    Several other cabins were at angles, having fallen from their supports, but, like the first, they had rolled before they crumbled. Due in part, Mandy thought, because they were built to withstand twelve feet of snow each year.

    That was a big earthquake, Mandy thought, once she had determined it wasn¡¯t an avalanche. What in the hell? She put on her shoes and coat and went down the now-slanted steps to drop to the ground below.

    Looking up the hillsides around her, she saw that there had been avalanches, one of which had come within two hundred feet of hitting the cabin. Swaths of dirt on the mountainsides in all directions told of violent snowslides.

    And then there was the boulder. It was just sitting there placidly in the middle of the parking lot, between two SUVs, minding its own business.

    Mandy squinted at it. Was that boulder there before? she wondered, at first thinking maybe she was caught up in some elaborate hoax, some Houdini bullshit that her colleagues had decided to play on the poor, deluded coworker that believed in aliens. She squinted at the magic boulder, trying to calculate where it had come from. She couldn¡¯t be sure, but she was pretty confident it hadn¡¯t been, because it was essentially sitting in the same place that the park ranger had been standing when he¡¯d held the gun on her.

    Just for good measure, Mandy walked up and touched it just to make sure it was a real boulder and not a movie prop made out of foam.

    It was real. And hard. And cold.

    Okay, this is starting to creep me out, Mandy thought, glancing up at the now-dirty mountainsides. Aliens she could handle, but avalanches scared the shit outta her. She crossed the yard to get a screwdriver and a wrench from the generator shed.

    The second earthquake hit as she walking back across the parking lot to attempt to hotwire a government vehicle, ten times harder than the first. This time, the quake threw her from her feet, and Mandy fell to the ground and stayed there, unable to move, as all around her, buildings, boulders, and SUVs bounced around her like rubber balls in a children¡¯s trampoline playden. And kept bouncing. The Houdini boulder rolled on her hand as she lay there on the ground, then bounced away again a few moments later as she screamed herself hoarse.

    Mandy didn¡¯t know how long it lasted, because after a few minutes, something heavy slammed into her head as she was trying to sit up, knocking her out cold.

    When she woke, Mandy¡¯s left hand¡ªwhich had taken the boulder¡¯s impact full-on¡ªwas black and blue, and she knew from the odd way her fingers were dangling that at least a couple of her fingers were broken, if not all. She felt bruises everywhere, and she was pretty sure her right leg had been run over by a SUV, because she found herself lying under one, straddling a wheel.

    Pulling herself out from under the vehicle was like trying to climb the Himalayas. She hurt, hurt bad, and she was shaking, dizzy, and unable to put weight on her leg.

    Concussion, she thought. She pulled up a pant leg to get a look at an ugly red-black bruise spreading over approximately a tire-sized chunk of her fibula. Maybe broken leg. Shit.

    In the grand scheme of things, however, she realized she got off lucky. Eight of the fourteen SUVs had actually been bounced off their tires and were in various states of upside-downness on the slopes below. The semi had fallen over on its side and stayed there. The three Humvees were about the only things unfazed, sitting on the hill as serenely as the day before.

    Behind her, the main lodge was completely flattened. Only two of the fifteen cabins remained standing, and only one of them was still upright. The other was at a dangerous cant, while eight others had simply fallen onto their sides and stayed there. The five remaining were utterly destroyed, nothing but broken boards poking through sheet metal. Her chosen cabin was one of those, and even then, smoke was starting to billow up in a dark line against the March blue sky where the coals must have re-ignited.

    That couldn¡¯t have been earthquake, she thought. Nothing¡ªnothing¡ªshe¡¯d ever heard about lasted that long. A nuclear attack, then? Something worse?

    Rather than go take her chances inside the last remaining cabin or spend any longer than necessary near the rollie-pollies, Mandy painstakingly climbed into the one Humvee that wasn¡¯t locked and watched her former cabin smolder burn through the window as the shock and adrenaline wore off, leaving her with dull, agonizing aches in her hand, leg, and sternum.

    Despite the pain, however, she felt herself drifting off.

    Don¡¯t fall asleep, she thought, considering the conventional wisdom on concussions. First thing they say is don¡¯t fall asleep, it can kill you.

    But the lure of sleep was stronger than that of a drug, and despite a powerful will to stay conscious, Mandy felt herself losing the battle.

    World¡¯s fucked anyway, she realized. What¡¯s one more casualty? Unable to keep her eyes open any longer, she passed out.

 Chapter 11 - The Wave

    <h1>Chapter 11: The Wave</h1>

    Envy saw the sheet of silty gray moving through the Mat-Su Valley and thought it had to be some sort of massive cloud formation. Then her gut told her otherwise.

    ¡°Higher!¡± she cried, echoing Rusty¡¯s words. ¡°Get higher! Rusty, grab Douglass and run. I¡¯ll get the stuff!¡±

    Rusty ducked, threw the doctor over his shoulder with Douglass¡¯s startled oof, and started charging up the hill, no questions asked. Envy stuffed all their gear¡ªas well as Douglass¡¯s shoes and socks¡ªinto the duffel and threw it over her shoulder. Then she jumped up and started running after Rusty.

    ¡°My shoes!¡± Douglass cried from the big man¡¯s shoulder.

    ¡°Got them!¡± Envy panted. She took a moment to glance over her shoulder and wished she hadn¡¯t. The wave had already reached the base of the alien structure and was coming fast, faster than they were going to be able to run.

    Please let us be high enough, Envy thought, putting as much effort into pumping her legs as she could. She fell, crawled up to her feet by her hands gripping the snowy, stony earth, then kept going. Gods above, let us be high enough¡­

    She heard it hit the mountain behind her with a swishing roar, the sound of tumbling boulders and trees, but she didn¡¯t stop to look. She heard it oncoming with the force of a freight train, too fast, churning and ripping. Lord God, too fast¡­

    They¡¯d made it another hundred feet up the mountain before the splash at the back of her legs told her it was all over.

    Thirteen hundred feet, her panicked mind gibbered. It was over thirteen hundred feet¡­

    Water hit her in buckets from the sky, sloshing over her like Loki had decided to dump a cold Jacuzzi on her head. ¡°Run!¡± Envy screamed as the water pelted her. Ahead of her, Rusty and Douglass were still dry.

    After running another hundred feet straight up the mountain, Envy¡¯s lungs finally couldn¡¯t take it any more. She hit the ground hard, the gear¡ªand her companions¡¯ only hope of survival¡ªfalling with her. Instinctively, she shoved her arm through the strap and grabbed the biggest rock she could find, determined to hold on. The rest of the wave, however, didn¡¯t come.

    When Envy managed to locate her wits long enough to open her eyes, she saw just how close she had come to becoming another statistic. The ground was wet and brown only fifty feet below her, the sides of the mountain still draining saltwater back into the boulder-strewn valley and back out to sea.

    Then she saw that hole that the alien ship had carved into the earth was spewing boiling water like a Titanic-sized Old Faithful, turning the sky into a pillar of moisture that dwarfed a volcano eruption.

    ¡°Yeee-haaw!¡± Rusty cried twenty-five feet up the mountain, pumping his fist and laughing. ¡°Yeah!¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t see what you¡¯re so happy about,¡± Douglass said. ¡°Considering I¡¯m nose-to-armpit with a guy who probably hasn¡¯t bathed in a year.¡±

    In response, Rusty tugged Douglass from his shoulder and hugged him. ¡°We¡¯re alive, Doc!¡± he giggled, like a little girl. ¡°You see that?!¡± He pointed down the mountain.

    ¡°No,¡± Douglass said, not looking.

    ¡°Seventy feet and we would¡¯ve drowned. Take that, Mother Nature! Yeeeaah!¡±

    ¡°Jesus, this guy likes to tempt Fate,¡± Douglass noted, looking right at Envy.

    That made Rusty start. ¡°Envy?¡± He started glancing around. ¡°Captain?!¡±

    He can see me, Envy noted, frowning at Douglass. Hunkered behind a boulder as dusk is falling. What the Hell? It wasn¡¯t until she started moving from behind the rock she¡¯d been clinging to that Rusty caught sight of her, but Douglass had been staring right at her from the beginning.

    What, exactly, is he seeing? she wondered.

    ¡°Captain Travis!¡± Rusty cried, with obvious relief. ¡°I thought that wave¡¯d gotten you.¡±

    ¡°It did,¡± Envy said, shaking water from her coat. ¡°Fuck¡­I¡¯m soaked through.¡± Not a good start to another mountainside overnighter. The last one had almost killed her, and this time, they had a smaller fire, a damp sleeping bag, and no tent.

    ¡°It hit you, Captain?¡± Rusty demanded. ¡°Holy shit¡­and you¡¯re alive?¡±

    ¡°I think it was just the spray,¡± Envy said. ¡°Whatever it was, it wasn¡¯t very serious.¡± As if Loki dumping a few Jacuzzis of icewater over her head on a mountaintop in March wasn¡¯t serious¡­

    ¡°You got the matches?¡± Rusty asked.

    ¡°In the bag,¡± she said, tossing it to him. The matches were in a Ziplock, but already, with the combined ocean water and mountain breeze, Envy was having trouble feeling her extremities. ¡°Damn, guys,¡± she muttered. ¡°I¡¯m really cold.¡±

    ¡°Sharing body-heat for the win,¡± Douglass said mirthlessly.

    ¡°You¡¯re just trying to get me into bed with you,¡± Envy said, more playfully than she felt.

    ¡°I¡¯m a redhead all over, you know,¡± was his reply.

    Envy snorted at that and went to help Rusty find firewood¡ªwhat little, scrawny pieces she could find before her hands went numb¡ªthen tried to clear another area in the snow to block the wind. Then, when she became too numb to move, she simply sat down and shivered beside Douglass, ditching her wet coat for the relative dryness of the sleeping bag.

    ¡°I think we¡¯re probably gonna die up here,¡± Douglass said casually. ¡°Well, at least you and me. Maybe not him.¡± He gestured at Rusty, who was bouncing around from snow drift to snow drift, seeking tinder. ¡°He looks like he¡¯s in his element.¡±

    And he did, too. The hillbilly doornail was whistling.

    But, with Douglass and her both down for the count, he was their only hope of living through the night. Already, Envy¡¯s shivers were slowing, her body perceptibly growing warmer.

    Which, of course, she knew wasn¡¯t true, just a symptom of hypothermia.

    Body¡¯s shutting down, she thought. Well, this is it¡­ Guess she wouldn¡¯t get to see the end of the world, after all.

    She felt Douglass undressing her before she saw it, and didn¡¯t even try to stop him when she realized what was going on.

    ¡°Gimme her pants,¡± Rusty said, reaching for them. ¡°I¡¯ll get them drying by the fire.¡± The man had somehow set up a rickety rack of ancient twigs around the fire and took the clothes Douglass handed him to drape across the crude lattice. Then, with a gruffness belying his discomfort, the big guy said, ¡°You two ready to get cozy?¡±

    ¡°Always,¡± Douglass muttered.

    ¡°I¡¯m warm enough,¡± Envy said, yawning.

    ¡°No ya ain¡¯t.¡± Rusty got down between the two of them, then, with one shoulder around them each, pulled them both in close, right up against his warm, meaty body. Then he rolled over, facing Douglass.

    His armpits really did stink, Envy noted.If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

    ¡°You two got penguin blood in you?¡± Rusty said. ¡°You¡¯re both like ice. Envy, scooch closer. You¡¯re letting the cold in.¡±

    On the other side of the hillbilly, Douglass muttered, ¡°Why are you spooning me? Envy¡¯s the one with hypothermia.¡±

    ¡°Miss Travis is a lady, and she can hug my back. You get dickside, bro.¡±

    ¡°Great.¡±

    ¡°Envy, get closer. Right up against me, okay? Use as much of my heat as you want¡ªI¡¯m a big boy. I¡¯ll make more.¡± Envy did, but only because the massive arm reached behind him and squeezed her closer until she could barely breathe.

    ¡°You know, I could get used to this,¡± Douglass said from the other side of their portable body-warmer.

    ¡°Yeah, well, if you feel something hard in the middle of the night, that¡¯s my dick.¡±

    There was an uncomfortable pause. ¡°That wasn¡¯t funny,¡± Douglass said.

    ¡°It¡¯s pretty big, too, so if it feels like a rifle or something, it¡¯s just my dick.¡±

    ¡°On second thought¡­¡± Douglass began, throwing off the blanket and starting to sit up, ¡°I¡¯d rather die in a snowbank.¡±

    ¡°Oh come here, ya pansy,¡± Rusty muttered, grabbing him and yanking him back down. ¡°Gonna be hard enough to survive the night without you letting out the heat.¡±

    There was a long pause, then Envy heard Douglass relax a little once more.

    ¡°But seriously, it¡¯s my dick.¡±

    #

    When Envy woke the next morning, she was surprised she was doing so. Then she noticed her face was covered in a heavy layer of fine gray dust and, in blinking, she got it into her eyes. The immediate snort and scrabble that followed only made things worse, sucking it into her mouth and lungs.

    Her choking woke up the others, and all three of them spent the next few minutes coughing and hacking as a rain of volcanic ash fell all around them.

    Well, Envy thought, shoving a full inch of ash off the blanket to stand, Guess that¡¯s why we survived the night. It had acted as an insulator, keeping the three of them warm despite their altitude and shitty situation.

    Immediately upon leaving the blanket, Envy realized she was naked but for her underwear and hurried to the remnants of the fire to shake ash from her mostly-dry clothes. Pulling her shirt, pants, and coat back onto her body was an itchy, uncomfortable affair of prying open damp and frozen folds to fit her legs and arms into, all the while covering herself with volcanic ash.

    ¡°Was wondering why we were so warm last night,¡± Rusty said, pinching some of the ash between a big thumb and finger, then glancing up at the sky.

    ¡°What the hell is going on?¡± Douglass demanded, sitting up tensely.

    ¡°Volcanic ash,¡± Envy said. ¡°There¡¯s about an inch on everything right now. Looks like it¡¯s gonna keep falling for awhile.¡±

    Douglass blinked sightlessly at the slope in front of him. ¡°So a volcano went off?¡±

    ¡°Man, from that earthquake yesterday, I wouldn¡¯t be surprised if it was several of them,¡± Rusty said. Grinning, he nudged Douglass with an elbow, almost knocking him over. ¡°You missed it, man. That quake woulda torn my grandmother¡¯s pussy wide¡ª¡±

    ¡°Language!¡± Envy snapped.

    Rusty snapped his mouth shut in an instant. ¡°Sorry, Captain.¡±

    Envy bit down the urge to tell him she wasn¡¯t his captain, that she had no fucking idea what they were going to do next. They were alive, and that¡¯s all that mattered. Alive, breathing, and, as far as she could tell, still maintaining all their limbs and digits. ¡°How¡¯re your feet?¡± she asked Douglass.

    ¡°I can feel them again, if that¡¯s what you¡¯re asking,¡± Douglass said. ¡°Polearm, here, is a pretty hot sleeper.¡±

    ¡°All those dreams of redheads,¡± Rusty said, grinning. ¡°Keeps a boy warm at night.¡±

    Envy saw Douglass turn green. ¡°That so.¡±

    ¡°Hokay,¡± Envy interrupted, before she could review in her mind whether or not Rusty had been thrusting his hips in his sleep, ¡°everybody huddle. We need a plan.¡±

    ¡°My plan is you get spooned tonight,¡± Douglass said. ¡°I get dibs on moonside.¡±

    ¡°No,¡± Rusty said, ¡°it¡¯s dickside or no side. Miss Travis is a lady. I won¡¯t be spoonin¡¯ no lady without her permission.¡±

    And Envy wasn¡¯t about to give permission for Rusty to spoon her. When both of them looked at her expectantly¡ªmaybe even hopefully?¡ªshe quickly cleared her throat and started gathering up the sleeping bag.

    ¡°Fuck,¡± Douglass muttered under his breath.

    ¡°All right,¡± Envy said, stuffing the sleeping bag back into the duffel. ¡°What¡¯s next? I¡¯m not feeling another tsunami coming. Hell, feels pretty good down there right now.¡± She¡¯d taken a quick look while forcing her frozen pants over her legs and the flattened, churned-up valley¡ªnow blanketed in a layer of ash¡ªhadn¡¯t seemed any more doom-and-gloom to her spidey senses than two hundred feet up the mountain. If anything, the higher elevations now felt slightly more dangerous. She glanced at Douglass. ¡°What about you? You feel any earthquakes coming?¡±

    ¡°You mean am I hearing anything screaming?¡± Douglass asked.

    Envy nodded, then realized he couldn¡¯t see her nod and awkwardly said, ¡°Yes.¡±

    ¡°No,¡± Douglass said. Then he frowned a little and looked up. ¡°But there¡¯s something wrong with the sky.¡±

    Oh joy.

    Then he seemed to shake himself with an embarrassed chuckle. ¡°But, I mean, like I said, I think it¡¯s brain damage, not me being tapped in to Mother Earth or anything. I mean, every time either one of you opens your mouth, I see a shower of color that hits everything in all directions, bounces off it like ripples from a stone. He rubbed his shoulders, looking uneasy. ¡°So yeah, if I mysteriously fall into a coma in the next couple of days, that¡¯s your culprit.¡±

    ¡°What¡¯s wrong with the sky, doc?¡± Rusty said, looking.

    ¡°It looks¡­¡± Douglass blinked several times, his eyes flickering back and forth. ¡°¡­pregnant. And not in the Oooh, Let¡¯s Go Paint The Nursery kind of way. More like Lillith got raped by Satan and is spreading her legs to spew wriggling baby hellspawn all over the countryside kind of way.¡±

    That¡­was graphic.

    ¡°It¡¯s just volcanic ash,¡± Emily said.

    Douglass shrugged. ¡°We¡¯re gonna die in the next couple days, anyway.¡±

    ¡°Be positive,¡± she said.

    ¡°Yes, Captain,¡± Douglass said. She narrowed her eyes at him, then shook her head and went back to the task at hand. ¡°All right. I¡¯m guessing we¡¯ve got about nine hours of daylight left. My gut¡¯s telling me we¡¯re safer in the lowlands than we are up here, there¡¯s more firewood down there, and Douglass is saying we¡¯re not due for another earthquake.

    ¡°Just wriggling hellspawn,¡± he said idly, watching the mountain slopes.

    Maybe he was brain damaged. ¡°Thank you,¡± Envy said. ¡°Rusty, what do you think? Can we get to one of those old mining cabins before nightfall, or should we take our chances down in the valley, in case there¡¯s another earthquake?¡±

    ¡°I could probably carry Douglass to one of those cabins,¡± Rusty said. Then, almost sheepishly, ¡°If you break trail for me, Captain.¡±

    ¡°No problem,¡± Envy said. Despite her gut feeling, that was what her brain was telling her was the better choice, and after seeing a wave the size of a mountain lapping at her ankles, Envy was gonna let logic win out.

    ¡°Then let¡¯s go,¡± Envy said. ¡°Maybe we can find some supplies in one of those cabins.¡± Old curtains, water buckets, anything that they could use¡­

    Out of nowhere, a willow ptarmigan came walking out of the ash, leaving a little trail of stark white under its feathered feet where it had disturbed the ash beneath it. Everyone went quiet, watching. The bird walked until it was a good ten feet from where they huddled, then seemed to see them for the first time and veered to wander back into the heavy cloak of dust.

    ¡°Sure would love to have a gun right about now,¡± Rusty muttered, as the bird disappeared. ¡°Closest ones are in that cache on the other side of the Pass.¡±

    ¡°Maybe one of those mining cabins has something to eat,¡± Envy said. It was a long-shot, but by this point, after surviving an alien attack, an earthquake, and a tsunami that could have taken out New York City, Envy was willing to roll with those chances.

    ¡°That bird was bleeding,¡± Douglass said. ¡°You can see the blood.¡± He gestured at the white tracks in the snow.

    ¡°There¡¯s no blood,¡± Envy said.

    ¡°Think it ate one. Was looking for a good place to die.¡±

    ¡°Now why the fuck are you trying to creep us out?!¡± Envy demanded. ¡°We get that you¡¯re depressed, but that¡¯s just cruel.¡±

    ¡°Go check for blood,¡± Douglass said.

    Rusty immediately got up and looked. When he frowned and touched two big fingers to the ground and lifted it to his nose, Envy knew with a sudden, wrenching dread that he had found some.

    ¡°Hey!¡± Rusty cried, his excitement rising in a sudden tide, ¡°Does this mean you can see again, doc?¡±

    ¡°Nope.¡± He¡¯d gone back to digging through the ash with his fingers. ¡°Just don¡¯t think we should be up here in the snow. We need to get someplace they can¡¯t sneak up on us.¡±

    Envy squinted at Douglass, then glanced at Rusty, who gave her a shrug. She glanced back down the hill, but the thought of passing that high-water-line¡ªthe line that clearly stated where they would have died had they been standing there eleven hours earlier¡ªmade her instinctively uncomfortable.

    ¡°Come on, Rusty,¡± she said. ¡°Let¡¯s see if we can make that cabin before dark.¡±

    Rusty obediently grabbed the smaller man around his narrow hips and hefted him over a shoulder, then Envy took point, and they began their slow march toward one of the mining cabins a couple miles deeper in the pass.

    They¡¯d been going several hours before something heavier than ash hit Envy on the shoulder. She twisted to look, but before she could see what it was, it tumbled down her back and hit the ground with a puff, disappearing under an inch of ash. She kicked around at the snow under the ash, but couldn¡¯t find anything distinguishably solid.

    ¡°It¡¯s burrowing,¡± Douglass said, from Rusty¡¯s shoulder.

    Envy jerked to look at the doctor. His eyes were following something under the snow, moving under them. Seeing how focused he was, her spine grew cold. She glanced back up at the sky.

    ¡°What did you say you¡¯re seeing up there?¡± she demanded, inching closer to the other two as her heart started to pound.

    ¡°Look like maggots to me,¡± Douglass said. He shrugged. ¡°But like I said, probably just brain damage.¡±

    Something hit Rusty¡¯s scalp with a palpable thump, and this time, Envy saw it, too. Black and writhing, wriggling like a displaced maggot. ¡°Ow!¡± Rusty cried, jerking, and the thing tumbled to his empty shoulder. Envy saw it rear up, a many-toothed black mouth pulsing, seeking, and saw it briefly hone in on Rusty¡¯s ear canal, as if it was considering crawling into it.

    She let out a scream and batted the thing off Rusty¡¯s shoulder and into the ash. As soon as it fell to the ground, it ducked under the ash and was gone. Douglass, however, was watching it just like he¡¯d watched the other one.

    ¡°See?¡± Douglass said, still placidly riding Rusty¡¯s other shoulder. ¡°Like Lillith decided to shit maggots.¡±

 Chapter 12 - When it Rains Hellspawn...

    <h1>Chapter 12: When it Rains Hellspawn¡­</h1>

    ¡°I think it¡¯s an alien,¡± Rusty said, prodding at the four-inch grub with a stick. With Douglass¡¯s direction, they had dug one out of the snow and dropped it into a bowl-shaped crevice in an exposed chunk of rock.

    ¡°You think everything¡¯s an alien,¡± Envy said, though she was getting full-body goosebumps at the creature¡¯s stippled skin, almost like scales on a snake or a lizard. She¡¯d never seen anything like it before, and the way the tiny black teeth curved inward, in the unmistakable jawline of a predator, left her discomfited.

    ¡°It¡¯s an alien,¡± Douglass said. ¡°Four inches long? Black? With jaws? Raining from the sky after an alien ship shot its load into Mother Earth? It¡¯s an alien.¡±

    Envy wished he were wrong, but it was certainly looking bad for the Home Team. She glanced up at the sky, which was still brown with ash haze, the fluffy material dropping all around them like snow.

    ¡°I never seen a maggot with skin like that,¡± Rusty said, poking the thing again. It let out another thin little shriek that made the back of Envy¡¯s neck prickle.

    ¡°Stop doing that,¡± she muttered.

    ¡°Why?¡± Rusty demanded. ¡°If it¡¯s an alien, we should kill it.¡±

    ¡°Says who?¡± Envy demanded.

    Both the men looked at her as if she¡¯d gone completely batshit insane. And one of them was blind, so it made the effect even worse.

    ¡°Okay,¡± Envy said, ¡°then kill it. Just don¡¯t torture it.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s a maggot,¡± Rusty laughed.

    ¡°It¡¯s an alien,¡± Douglass retorted. ¡°Who knows, Rusty¡ªthat thing might be smarter than you.¡± He glanced at Envy, ¡°Though that wouldn¡¯t be very hard¡­¡±

    ¡°I always had a thing for redheads,¡± was Rusty¡¯s casual reply as he pulled out his big hunting knife. ¡°Always gets Mr. Jimmy¡¯s attention. Took me awhile to realize it don¡¯t really matter what they got under the belt. Mr. Jimmy¡¯s got an imagination of his own, ya know¡­¡±

    Douglass shuddered. ¡°You win.¡±

    The big man gave him a leering grin and saluted with his Buck knife. Then, without another word, he stabbed it downward, cutting into the little black creature in the bowl of rock.

    ¡°Heh,¡± Rusty chuckled, lifting it up on his knife like a skewered caterpillar. ¡°Now that¡¯s how you deal with alien maggo¡ª¡±

    The tip of his knife fell off with a trail of smoke, and the little maggot dropped into the snow below with a fluff of ash, leaving Rusty staring at his busted weapon in shock.

    ¡°It¡¯s the apocalypse and you just broke your knife on a rock,¡± Douglass snickered. ¡°Great job, man. Darwin would¡¯ve loved you.¡±

    But Envy, who could see, was giving the tip of Rusty¡¯s knife the same squinty stare of confusion that the former jarhead was giving it. ¡°What in the ever-lovin¡¯ fuck is going on here?¡± Rusty asked, reaching for the melted tip.

    ¡°Don¡¯t touch it,¡± Envy said quickly, thinking of Ridley Scott¡¯s Alien.

    ¡°Acid?¡± Rusty gasped. ¡°These fuckers got acid for blood?¡± He was beginning to hyperventilate. ¡°So Alien was real? That¡¯s worse than lizards, man. That¡¯s like ten times worse. Think it¡¯s the saliva, too?¡± Then his eyes went wide and he glanced around, suddenly going pale. ¡°There¡¯s millions of them out there. Are they gonna get bigger and spit acid and kill us all?¡± Then his face went pallid. ¡°Think they¡¯re face-huggers? Tiny face huggers?¡±

    Envy momentarily thought it was funny how the six-foot-eight badass could talk about casually and easily slaughtering aliens until he turned blue, but the moment something broke his favorite knife, he was pissing his pants.

    ¡°I don¡¯t think it was acid,¡± Envy said. ¡°Looked like fire to me. Heat.¡± She reached out and gently took the knife from him, then pointed out the bead of steel that had coagulated on the tip of his blade. ¡°See that?¡±

    ¡°It melted my knife?¡± Rusty demanded. ¡°Just melted through it? In seconds?¡±

    Yeah, that didn¡¯t sound right. ¡°Okay,¡± Envy said, ¡°So maybe it¡¯s just got a chemical composition similar to a strong acid, but it evaporates quickly¡­¡±

    ¡°No, it burned it,¡± Rusty said quickly. ¡°I saw a little orange glow inside when I stabbed it. Thought it was my imagination.¡± He kicked the snow where the maggot had disappeared and, sure enough, there was a hot sizzle as the snow revealed the little creature, still wriggling feebly despite the glowing, white-hot gash in its back.

    So it was a magma maggot. Great. With the recent shake-up, they would probably be raining down over every continent from now until the end of¡ª Envy blinked. ¡°Mass extinctions,¡± she said.

    Rusty blinked at her. Envy, however, was in another world, watching the alien life form with the rapt attention of a scientist. On the ground, the little maggot continued to spit and sizzle as it melted the snow in a foot-wide ring around it, losing size as it lost heat, until all that remained on a melted pad of dirt was a husk of ash nearly indistinguishable from the volcanic output littering the mountainside all around them.If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

    ¡­Indistinguishable?

    Envy immediately crouched and poked the maggot-shaped ash pile with the tip of the knife, making it crumble into a slightly-darker pocket of ash. She sought out a core or any inconsistency, but it really just looked like another patch of volcano ejecta. She glanced up at the sky, remembering how many times a layer of volcanic ash marred the hundreds of millions of years of earth¡¯s history. Volcanic ash that, very often, coincided with a mass extinction¡­

    And if these things and not the ash itself was causing the mass deaths, then archaeologists wouldn¡¯t find the slightest evidence of any malignant force at work, much less an alien invasion.

    ¡°Holy shit,¡± she whispered, rubbing the creature¡¯s ashy body between thumb and forefinger before she remembered that many ashfall events included odd radioactive isotopes that sometimes couldn¡¯t be traced except for the knowledge that they were extraterrestrial in origin.

    ¡°Shit,¡± Envy whispered, wiping the creature¡¯s cremated remains off on the rock outcropping, then rubbing her hands good with snow. Rusty was watching her curiously, though Douglass only looked interested, not bothering to try to locate her with his eyes.

    ¡°Guys, listen,¡± Envy said, excitement hurrying her words to almost a babble, ¡°The last few years I¡¯ve been doing some research up in the Arctic, mainly permafrost stuff, but there¡¯s ash. Ashfall. It¡¯s right there in the ice. Earth seems to go through a destructive cycle every geologic epoch¡ªsomething happens to make some big changes that nobody can fully understand and boom there¡¯s a mass extinction. Everybody thought it was asteroid strikes causing the volcanic activity because it had the right isotopes, but what if it wasn¡¯t an asteroid? Happened around the same time all the megafauna of the Pleistocene went extinct in the last forty thousand years. And multiple times before that, too. One of the most obvious was the Cretaceous¨CPaleogene extinction event, again where most of the megafauna¡ª¡± she gasped. ¡°Non-avians.¡± She grabbed Rusty¡¯s arm. ¡°Avians were the only ones that survived! Because everything else was stuck on land¡­¡± She was aware she was babbling, but her mind was going a thousand miles a minute and her mouth was having trouble keeping up.

    ¡°I¡¯m not quite following,¡± Douglass said, ¡°and you can be sure as shit Rusty, here, got left behind at ¡®epoch¡¯.¡±

    Rusty nodded.

    Envy shook herself, took a deep breath, and tried to calm down. ¡°Okay. There¡¯s some stuff that doesn¡¯t make sense about mass extinctions. Everyone¡¯s got theories as to why they happened, but nobody¡¯s got any proof. A good example is what killed off the mammoths. Nobody knows what happened. They have proposed everything from people did it to climate change to sickness to overcompetition to solar radiation. And mammoths weren¡¯t the only things that died off. Did you know that North America had horses, giant armadillos, dire wolves, mastodons, short-faced bears, giant sloths, camels¡­ All of ¡®em went poof. But take our little buddy here¡ª¡± she poked it with the melted tip of Rusty¡¯s knife. ¡°If these things were raining from the sky, then turned to ash if they got stepped on or squished or something, there wouldn¡¯t be any proof they were ever here. That, and they¡¯re burrowers. Big land animals sleep on the ground. What if these things have shown up before, and, oh, I dunno, crawled into their nostrils or something while they slept, ate them from the inside out?¡± She slapped the flat of the knife to the rock. ¡°Boom! Tons of dead bodies, nobody knows what killed them.¡±

    ¡°Please tell me you¡¯re joking,¡± Rusty said, looking green. For his part, Douglass looked thoughtful, his ginger brows scrunched in concentration.

    ¡°I¡¯m not joking,¡± Envy said. ¡°Those maggot things have teeth. Things with teeth eat meat. Whatever it was, it was killing that ptarmigan, probably because it was wriggling around in its body cavity, eating it from the inside out.¡±

    ¡°But the sinuses?¡± Rusty whined. ¡°I thought that only happened in the X-Files.¡±

    Because, of course, in Rusty¡¯s world, all aliens were just lizards.

    ¡°We gotta find another one,¡± Envy said. ¡°Gotta test my theory, see what kills it, what it¡¯s attracted to.¡±

    Douglass was easy to convince to assist her in locating some more ebony grubs, but Rusty actually had to be coerced into helping her corral them with his boot. ¡°What if it eats through my shoe leather?¡± he whined as she bent down to pick it up on the blade of the Buck knife. ¡°I couldn¡¯t get my boot off fast enough¡­¡±

    ¡°We¡¯ll test that later,¡± Envy said, depositing a second, third, and fourth maggot in the makeshift bowl of stone where Rusty had stabbed the first one. ¡°All right. Now to see what this baby can do.¡± They had already lost an hour of travel time, but when faced with the potential of sinus-invading alien parasites, not making it to the miner cabins before dark and being forced to spend another night shivering on the windswept slopes while desperately clinging to Rusty¡¯s pungent body for warmth was a risk Envy was willing to take.

    Using the Buck knife, Envy whittled a sharp stick, then poked one of the grubs with it. It writhed and screamed, but the stick didn¡¯t puncture the lizardlike skin until she put several pounds of force into it. Then, like a grape, the grub popped, splitting open and spewing the white-orange liquid everywhere with a startling blast of heat that made both her and Rusty take a hasty step backwards. Immediately, the stick caught fire in the little bowl, but the heat and flames didn¡¯t seem to faze the other two grubs whatsoever. If anything, they became more active as the rock around them started to liquefy.

    ¡°It is fire,¡± Rusty said, actually sounding relieved that the maggot had exploded in a wash of molten material that was even then melting the rock around it into a slushy orange soup. He held up an arm to shield his face. ¡°Fuck that¡¯s hot.¡±

    And, Envy supposed, in Rusty¡¯s world, it was better to be facing aliens that bled fire rather than aliens that bled acid, because acid-bleeding aliens were the kind that rode you around like a mucous-covered face-jockey, strangling you and fucking your mouth for hours before its next-of-kin burst out of your chest and started chewing apart your friends and family. She guessed she could see where the relief was coming from.

    Still, it didn¡¯t make her feel any better, because, as a scientist, she knew that what she was seeing meant whatever it was they were dealing with was something with an innate alien biology unlike anything humanity had ever seen before, which would make it intrinsically more difficult to understand, counter, and contain.

    Or maybe humanity had seen it before, and it just hadn¡¯t been documented.

    Or maybe it had been documented, and all the ancient tribal sacrifices to volcanoes and volcano gods was a genetic memory imprinted by their ancestors¡¯ raw terrors and untold hardships of dealing with toothy, wriggling black hellspawn that were spewed out by Mother Earth after getting raped by an alien spaceship.

    Or maybe the ¡®hellspawn¡¯ were really just alien worms and this was a type of terraforming, and all those teeth really did was chew up solid matter and rototill it into something useful¡­

    ¡°You know what this means,¡± Douglass interrupted, as the stick Envy had used to poke the worm sizzled and shriveled into ash, the molten rock bowl too hot to touch.

    ¡°What?¡± Envy glanced over her shoulder at the doctor, who had his feet propped up and wrapped in a blanket to keep them out of the snow.

    ¡°We don¡¯t need twigs and gay hillbillies to stay warm,¡± Douglass said, gesturing vaguely at the stone bowl. ¡°We need those maggots.¡±

 Chapter 13 - Unexpected Consequences

    <h1>Chapter 13: Unexpected Consequences</h1>

    Envy, Douglass, and Rusty didn¡¯t make it to the cabins that night because, when they were not chasing down a lone snowshoe hare that they had spotted leaving blazing white prints in the ash over by a patch of willows, Rusty was enthusiastically harnessing Douglass¡¯s extrasensory sight to gather maggots to stuff in his duffel bag. The maggots¡¯ jaws, they found as Rusty piled them in, were weak, almost vestigial, and didn¡¯t seem capable of chewing through the canvas of the bag once Rusty deposited them there, nor did they seem useful in digging through the frozen dirt to escape the big man¡¯s attempts to catch them.

    Still, Envy and Douglass had both wanted to only catch a few of the creatures, to make sure they didn¡¯t hold any other nasty surprises for them, before loading up on hundreds them. They mentioned as much. Repeatedly. Rusty, however, had other ideas.

    ¡°Best fire-starters on the planet,¡± Rusty said, cheerfully dropping another maggot in his bag, which he patted like an old friend. ¡°Better than gasoline.¡±

    ¡°Hey Rusty,¡± Douglass said, nervously eying the bulging duffel full of maggots, ¡°don¡¯t you think you got enough, man? What is that, like ten pounds of them?¡±

    Rusty snorted. ¡°That¡¯s like saying ain¡¯t I got enough guns.¡±

    So that¡¯s what this was. Another my gun is cooler than your gun, my truck is louder than your truck, my TV is bigger than your TV dick-waving contest. It all made sense now.

    ¡°Hey, Rusty, what happened to face huggers and sinus parasites?¡± Envy ventured.

    ¡°These little babies are gonna keep us warm tonight,¡± Rusty said, finding another one. ¡°And they can¡¯t get out of the bag, so just unbunch ya¡¯ll¡¯s panties just a fucking moment and let me do my thing and keep us alive, okay?¡±

    ¡°What about huddling for warmth?¡± Douglass demanded. ¡°I thought you were into redheads.¡± Envy raised a brow at him. If Douglass was willing to volunteer dickside, then he must be really nervous.

    ¡°I¡¯m into having a five gallon bucket of kerosene,¡± Rusty said. ¡°But, since you dumped that out on the ground to put out a fire, I¡¯m gonna just make do with these little beauties.¡± He patted his bag proudly again, like a guy with a new pet that just did an amazing trick.

    ¡°They caught fire,¡± Douglass argued. ¡°Your bag is made of canvass. Canvass catches fire.¡±

    In reply, Rusty threw a maggot at Douglass, which landed in his lap. As it started to wriggle around atop his cock and balls, making the blind man scream, Rusty chuckled, ¡°You tell me¡­that catching fire to you, Doug?¡±

    ¡°Fucker!¡± Douglass snapped, hurling the weakly-struggling alien pupae away from him, but sadly missing Rusty by about three miles. ¡°You hairy dumb fuck!¡±

    ¡°Grow a pair, little man,¡± Rusty said, plucking the maggot from the snow and tossing it back in his bag. ¡°Where¡¯s the next one?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m not helping you find more, fuck off.¡±

    Rusty shrugged. ¡°Suit yourself.¡± He turned and began seeking out more, using his boot to swipe at the snow without Douglass¡¯s input.

    As Rusty wandered off, kicking up snow and churning the ash in a huge swath across the mountain, Envy sidled closer to Douglass. ¡°What do you think I should do?¡±

    Douglass was glaring in the general direction of Rusty¡¯s back, red-faced and still breathing hard. ¡°I don¡¯t know. I can¡¯t tell if that crazy fuck¡¯s gonna get us killed or gonna keep us alive.¡±

    ¡°Maybe a little of both,¡± Envy said. A few dozen yards down the hillside, Rusty let out a triumphant sound and ducked to pick up another maggot.

    ¡°Shit,¡± Douglass muttered. Obviously he¡¯d been banking on being Rusty¡¯s only source of alien fire-maggots.

    Rusty had collected hundreds of the creatures before darkness started to fall, at which point Rusty pulled a handful of them out with his fingers and proudly dropped them in the makeshift stone bowl they were using as their fireplace. ¡°There ya go, ya panty-sniffing girly-girls.¡± He squished the maggots, one after another, then quickly backed away as the heat enveloped the area. ¡°I give you fire,¡± he said, gesturing grandly.

    ¡°They¡¯re trying to get out,¡± Envy noted, watching the sack of maggots nervously. It moved with the things inside, like a bag filled with snakes. ¡°Do you have to keep that bag in here with us?¡±

    ¡°Could snow overnight,¡± Rusty said, like he didn¡¯t care. ¡°Don¡¯t want to lose it.¡±

    ¡°At least put it on the other side of the camp,¡± Douglass grated. ¡°I don¡¯t want those things near my head when they escape and start wriggling up people¡¯s noses.¡±

    That seemed to get through to Rusty. He gave the bag of maggots a nervous glance. ¡°You think they could get out?¡±The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

    ¡°Yes,¡± Envy and Douglass said at the same time.

    Rusty made a face, but he was still stubbornly unwilling to let his prizes out of his sight. After great deliberation, he stood and picked up the bag. ¡°I¡¯ll just put them over here, okay?¡± he said, setting them against the opposite snow wall.

    Earlier in the day, when it had become clear that Rusty was going to keep looking for maggots with the neurotic efficiency of a dumbass Marine, Envy had built up a wall of snow around their stone ¡®bowl¡¯ to keep out the mountain breeze.

    Now, the three of them got situated around the ¡®bowl¡¯ as it bubbled and turned red-hot from the four maggots Rusty squished. It was actually quite comfortable, and the ground that Envy had cleared of snow started to steam.

    ¡°Aaahhh,¡± Rusty said, propping his feet up. ¡°That¡¯s more like it.¡± He was grinning from ear to ear.

    She could hear the rock bubbling in the bowl, but Envy was more concerned about the bag of aliens. They were making little squeals that were making her twitch.

    ¡°Oh chill out,¡± Rusty said. ¡°You said yourself their jaws were too weak to do shit. They¡¯re not goin¡¯ nowhere. Relax. Smell the rabbit.¡± He had propped the snowshoe hare that he had snared with a little help from one of Envy¡¯s bootstrings over the ¡®fire,¡¯ and already, the smell of roasting meat was making Envy¡¯s guts clench with hunger.

    One rabbit between the three of us, she thought, trying to squash her sudden desperation. They had actually seen three rabbits in that willow grove, but by nightfall, Rusty¡¯s snares had only nabbed one of them.

    Still, considering the current state of the world, she supposed a rabbit to split between them wasn¡¯t so bad. At least they had something to eat at all. After seeing that twelve-hundred-foot wave hit the mountainside below her, Envy knew there were a lot of people in the world that were simply never going to eat again.

    ¡°The heat should last several hours,¡± Rusty said, spreading out on the middle of the blanket to soak up the warmth in that totally calm, casually manly way that screamed to the world he took full responsibility for their current state of comfort.

    Envy narrowed her eyes, always having found that particular posture irritating, at best: The sign of a small mind, a smaller dick, or a fragile ego. Sometimes all three.

    ¡°I still don¡¯t think we should be up here in the snow,¡± Douglass said, as Envy settled on blanket beside Rusty. ¡°They can move around underneath us, take us by surprise if there¡¯s snow.¡± They had ascertained that it was their wriggling motion, not the toothy jaws, that allowed them to locomote through the snow, leaving little tunnels reminiscent of mouse holes.

    ¡°Take us by surprise,¡± Rusty snorted, still confidently spread out as if he owned the mountain, sounding completely unconcerned. ¡°What they gonna do, tickle us? Besides. You can see them.¡±

    ¡°Yeah,¡± Douglass replied to Rusty. ¡°I can see them. You can¡¯t.¡±

    Rusty un-spread a little to sit up and frown at the doctor. ¡°So?¡±

    ¡°So I have to sleep sometime.¡± Douglass cocked his head. ¡°Or did you think I¡¯d spend all night sitting up, watching over your precious bag of maggots as your hillbilly ass saws your way through sequoia with a six-foot rubber dildo?¡±

    Rusty¡¯s mouth opened in a little startled ¡®Oh¡¯, making it clear that¡¯s exactly what Rusty had figured would happen. ¡°But¡­¡± There it was again, the painfully obvious fear of getting an alien parasite up his nose. ¡°I made fire.¡±

    ¡°It was my idea,¡± Douglass said. ¡°You just ramped it up to a billion and added a ¡®hey buddy, hold my beer¡¯ personal touch.¡± He flung a disgusted hand at the bag. ¡°Four maggots boil rocks, Rusty. What fuck you think you¡¯re gonna do with hundreds?¡±

    Rusty blinked. ¡°¡­boil more rocks?¡±

    ¡°Fuck off.¡±

    Rusty quickly glanced at Envy, who inwardly groaned. ¡°Hey Doug, maybe you could just stay up for the night, let Rusty sleep until light? He can carry you tomorrow while you sleep.¡± The one thing their ¡®fire¡¯ didn¡¯t provide was light, and neither she nor Rusty would be any good to them on watch without light.

    Rusty nodded vigorously.

    ¡°Are you freakin¡¯ kidding me?¡± Douglass demanded. ¡°I¡¯m not gonna sleep for shit on that asshole¡¯s shoulder.¡±

    They really didn¡¯t have a better alternative, aside from getting up and trudging down to that tiny willow grove and trying to find enough dry firewood to cast some light on their camp enough for Envy and Rusty to see.

    ¡°I know it sucks,¡± Envy said, ¡°but right now we don¡¯t have much choice.¡±

    Douglass gave Envy a very long, very pointed look that was just a couple of inches off center. ¡°I want moonside.¡±

    Even as Envy grimaced, Rusty quickly swung to look at her hopefully.

    ¡°Fine,¡± Envy muttered. ¡°Fine.¡± Then, quickly, she said, ¡°But just for a night.¡±

    ¡°All nights. I don¡¯t need a baseball bat trying to impregnate my ribcage as I¡¯m sitting there keeping you guys safe.¡±

    Rusty was nodding vigorously, now, though he was obviously more concerned about alien nose parasites than ribcage impregnation.

    ¡°So how about Rusty takes the outside, I get moonside, and you get behind me?¡± Envy demanded.

    Too quickly, Douglass said, ¡°Done,¡± and she realized with a flushing face that was what their friendly neighborhood doctor had planned from the beginning. And, in that moment, she also realized that she was not only dealing with someone who was potentially smarter than her¡ªwhich didn¡¯t happen very often and made her immediately uncomfortable¡ªbut who was willing to plan out what he wanted and lay traps for hapless former billionaires to fall into with the ease of one of her father¡¯s professional sharks.

    But Rusty, oblivious, was nodding even more emphatically. ¡°Yeah,¡± he said, ¡°sounds good to me. Right, Captain?¡±

    Envy scowled at Douglass, who was giving her a little smirk that said he knew that she knew¡ªand it amused him. Fucker. She resisted the urge to stuff one of the maggots in his shoes for good measure.

    Taking a deep breath, Envy cleared her throat and said, ¡°Sure. Sounds good. I get the middle.¡± And she really shouldn¡¯t complain¡ªthe middle was warmer, anyway.

    Then again, even though the world had gone to shit, even though she was currently salivating over the raw, bloody carcass of a rabbit, there was something about the thought of being constrained between two strange male bodies that made her innately uneasy.

    At least Douglass wasn¡¯t boorish about it. As Envy and Rusty traded places on the blanket, Douglass just dried out his socks by their ¡®fire¡¯ and made a couple casual comments about how much he missed Modern America and its many amenities.

    And, after dinner was ¡®served¡¯¡ªor, more accurately, torn apart by the brutish hands of a hungry six-foot-eight ape¡ªand they settled in for bed, Douglass kept a gentlemanly gap between the two of them, touching her only where it was absolutely necessary, and moving only to add maggots to their ¡®fire¡¯ when the bowl started to cool.

    Maybe he¡¯s not such a bad guy, Envy thought, relaxing a little. Within a few minutes, she fell asleep.

    She woke to screaming.

 Chapter 14 - Maggot Mayhem

    <h1>Chapter 14: Maggot Mayhem</h1>

    Douglass liked the girl. So, sure, he had pulled some maybe-a-little-sleazy tricks to get her to sleep next to him instead of the inbred oaf, but as he sat there, feeling the gentle rise and fall of her breasts against his back, he totally felt like it was worth it.

    Besides. It was the end of the world, alien larvae were raining from the sky, and he was blind as a bat in a KISS concert. If he was going to die a virgin, he¡¯d rather at least get a little feel for what life as a college kid would have been like if he hadn¡¯t been falling asleep over his lattes throughout his premed and then residency programs. People, he had decided, were complicated, with complicated problems, and in order to best help them solve those problems, they needed his full attention. Girls, he had always figured, could come later.

    Now, blind and trapped on a mountainside with a beautiful psychic and her bestie the conspiracy nut, the whole of the human race most likely dead or dying, the joke was totally on him. After graduating top of his class, having the choice of any hospital in the nation, he¡¯d been relegated to an inconvenient sack of extra weight that a reeking hillbilly had to hump across a whole mountain range, with the added bonus of being turned into one of those freaks that saw sounds as colors.

    As far as he could determine, ever since that strange blast from the alien ship, about the only thing he could see was a chaotic cacophony of sounds, magnetics, and¡ªfor some reason¡ªhe could see aliens like they were outlined with black Sharpie on a white chalkboard.

    Thinking again of the mass of maggots that the hillbilly had insisted on gathering like acorns and stuffing into his bugout bag like a good little squirrel, Douglass lifted his head again to make sure the aliens had stayed put.

    The bag was on fire.

    He could tell the bag was on fire because the moment he lifted his head, his face got blasted with a surge of heat that probably singed off his eyebrows. That, and there was a glowing violet ball where the mass of maggots had been, and there was a paste of maggots with a lone, much bigger maggot sliming around in it like a barracuda in a goldfish bowl, ripping the last smaller maggots in half and gobbling them up like Pacman.

    ¡°Shit!¡± Douglass yelled. ¡°Guys!¡±

    His companions continued snoring, worn out by their hardass trek through the mountains when they could¡¯ve done something nice like just let him die. ¡°Guys!¡±

    Nothing. As he watched, the bigger maggot grew in size, until it was almost the size of his arm.

    Then the arm-sized maggot, which looked more like a beetle grub with six stubby little legs at this point, turned towards him and scampered across the pit and up over the blanket, heading right at him, four-pronged jaws wide open and clicking.

    ¡°Get back!¡± Douglas screamed and threw the blanket aside, launching the beetle-thing into the snow beyond the camp, where it immediately burrowed out of sight. Then he felt the heat on his feet and realized that the blanket was on fire where the beetle had smeared the juices of its fallen foes. Because the lazy bastards were still sleeping and he was on fire and they were on fire, he lost it and started to scream. Manfully, of course.

    #

    ¡°Help me!¡± Douglass shrieked like a little girl, so much so that it blended perfectly into Envy¡¯s dream of a child in a bright red life-vest clawing at the edge of a boat, gasping for air. ¡°Help!¡±

    It was when he started kicking her that Envy realized she was dreaming. She blearily opened her eyes to the sound of more high-pitched screaming.

    The doctor was flailing backwards away from a searing purple-white glow at the center of their snow-pit, not surprisingly where Rusty¡¯s ill-fated duffel had been. No sooner than Envy¡¯s sleep-deprived mind realized that, she also recognized the glow was emanating a heat so hot it was setting the blanket on fire around their feet. ¡°Put it out!¡± Douglass was screaming, back pressed to the edge of the wall of snow as he tried to ineffectually crawl out of their pit. ¡°For the love of God, fire! Fire!¡±

    Rusty, who had still been busy sawing dildos, started awake with a snort, immediately reaching for his knife. Then, seeing that the blanket was on fire, he forewent the knife and scrambled backwards, holding up his arm up to protect his face against the scorching heat. ¡°What the fuck, Douglass!¡± he shouted.

    ¡°Oh sure, blame me, asshole!¡± Even as he spoke, the heat was becoming more intense, until it hurt just to be inside her rapidly-melting ring of snow.

    ¡°Get Douglass out of the pit!¡± Envy cried. ¡°I¡¯ll get the blanket.¡± Even though she could feel the intense heat singing the hairs on her arms and face, she ducked forward to grab the blanket and tugged it away from the writhing ball of purple-white fire, desperate to save their last defense against the elements. Rusty, bless his beefy heart, had done exactly as she told him and had thrown Douglass bodily into the snow on the other side of the berm, then climbed up with him.

    ¡°The bag!¡± Rusty cried, turning to look back at their camp.

    ¡°Leave it!¡± Envy snapped, clambering over the snow berm, smoldering blanket in tow. She started beating it on the snow to put out the flame. Thankfully, the blanket had been made of some California-approved fire-retardant material, one of the few times Envy had been thankful for those little political warning stickers she always ripped off the moment she bought them.This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

    ¡°My stuff!¡± Rusty bemoaned, looking dangerously close to going back into their snow-pit to retrieve his gear. ¡°It¡¯s melting!¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s gonna be your bones melting if you get close to that,¡± Envy said, grabbing the big man and pushing him backwards. The heat on her back was excruciating, and she could feel it drying out her exposed skin. Thankfully, Rusty moved backwards in time for her not to be roasted alive.

    It quickly became too hot to stand at the edge of their camp and they had to move backwards even further as the snow around them dissolved away, creating a wide ring of dry earth around the searing glow.

    Rusty turned on Douglass, who was standing to one side, his snow-covered clothes steaming, looking numb. ¡°What the hell happened?!¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t know, Rusty,¡± Douglass snapped, ¡°maybe it was the aliens you stuffed in your backpack.¡±

    Rusty opened his mouth to argue, realized it really was his fault, then shut his mouth and turned to watch the purple-white fireball in silence as it slowly melted a hole into the ground, setting the steaming dirt on fire. ¡°Huh.¡±

    ¡°Christ!¡± Douglass snapped, grabbing the blanket from Envy and throwing it out of the range of the heat as he finally lost his cool. ¡°There goes our matches, our bag, one of our only knives, and everything else we still owned.¡± He turned to scowl directly at Rusty, but the furious effect was muted somewhat by the fact his gaze was approximately six inches too far to the left. ¡°Anything else you wanna lose, burn, or otherwise blow up while you¡¯re at it?¡±

    ¡°How about our only can of kerosene?¡± Rusty shot back.

    ¡°Eat the balls off a walrus, you inbred nutjob.¡±

    ¡°Hey,¡± Rusty shouted, ¡°I was asleep. You¡¯re the one who didn¡¯t notice they were catching fire.¡±

    Douglass¡¯s jaw fell open.

    ¡°Okay guys,¡± Envy interrupted as she saw the will to do violence cross Douglass¡¯s face. Behind her, the violet-hot ball of molten maggot had sunk out of sight entirely. ¡°Everybody calm down,¡± she said, trying to be as rational and logical as possible in the face of so much testosterone. ¡°We learned something tonight: These things make great heat sources, but they shouldn¡¯t be stored in groups. No need to blame anyone. We needed to figure it out sooner or later, and this way nobody got hurt.¡±

    ¡°My legs got baked!¡± Douglass cried.

    ¡°They¡¯re not even singed,¡± Rusty shot back. ¡°I was the one you let sleep while you were getting yourself to safety.¡± He pulled back a sock, the dim moonlight showing a hole burned into the white fabric, which in turn displayed an angry red wound underneath.

    Douglass opened his mouth to retort.

    ¡°Guys?¡± Envy said. ¡°Shut up.¡± They were standing in the snow, in the dark, with the only light coming from the melted remnants of their last campsite. She was tired, hungry, and she basically just wanted to punch them both in the face. She said as much. ¡°We¡¯re all in trouble, here, and this bullshit is just going to get the three of us killed. Knock it off or I¡¯ll knock you off.¡± She hoped it sounded as badass as she felt saying it, because, at that moment in time, exhausted and running on fumes, she really felt like she could put her knuckles through a bearded Neanderthal face, given the proper inclination.

    Both the guys seemed to reluctantly accept that, because they both muttered and looked to find something else to do, sulking as their campsite continued to burn. Douglass sat down in the now-steaming mountain shrubs and scowled at where their ¡®fire¡¯ had been. Rusty went to go check his snares.

    ¡°So what happened?¡± Envy ventured, sidling up to Douglass once the big man was out of earshot.

    Douglass seemed to consider that. ¡°You ever seen crocodiles at a watering hole?¡±

    Envy thought of the thrashing, rolling massacres and immediately recoiled. ¡°They couldn¡¯t even bite down with those jaws. Like they were vestigial limbs or something.¡±

    ¡°They sure as hell can,¡± Douglass muttered. ¡°They were ripping each other in half and rolling in it.¡±

    ¡°In half,¡± she said, struggling with disbelief. As far as she had seen, the jaws were more show than anything else, weak, maybe made for a mating display like a moose¡¯s antlers or something.

    ¡°Like butter,¡± Douglass said. ¡°Snip.¡±

    And, considering how much force it had taken to break the maggots¡¯ outer skin with sharpened sticks, that probably meant they could bite fingers and toes in half, too.

    ¡°Okay, that¡¯s not good,¡± Envy said, glancing at Rusty where he was walking out through the snow. ¡°What do we do now? He¡¯s gonna wanna keep using them for fires.¡± She knew Rusty well enough that he wasn¡¯t about to give up his newest toy because it had almost killed them all. Nonsense! He¡¯d just find a better way to store hundreds of them at a time.

    ¡°I think they¡¯re okay for fires,¡± Douglass said, though he looked anxious about something. ¡°Hey Envy¡­ Maybe I was imagining it, but I think one of them was doing most of the damage. Eating the others. Getting bigger¡­ Like, in seconds.¡±

    Envy didn¡¯t like the sound of that. ¡°Tell me you¡¯re joking.¡±

    Douglass shook his head. ¡°Maybe tripled in size as I watched. I think it was the one that killed the rest of them. Feasted on them¡ªdrank them¡ªlike a homeless guy at a wine banquet. Got real big. Like arm¡¯s length¡­¡± He hesitated, and his blind eyes searched for her face. ¡°And then it came after me¡­¡±

    Envy¡¯s heart gave a startled pound. ¡°It did what?¡±

    ¡°Jumped on the blanket, ran straight towards my throat with those jaws of its gnashing. I threw it off before it had a chance to grab me.¡±

    Envy¡¯s world narrowed to a thin margin as she imagined what he meant by that. ¡°Say that again?¡±

    ¡°It tried to eat me,¡± he repeated. ¡°If it hadn¡¯t been on the blanket, it would¡¯ve sliced open my throat.¡±

    Envy glanced back over at Rusty, who was now just a dim shape in the distant darkness. ¡°How big did you say it was?¡±

    Douglass held up an arm, then touched his elbow.

    That sense of dread was back. ¡°Your forearm?¡±

    Douglass nodded, and his solemn, pinched face told her he knew just how bad that was just as well as she did.

    ¡°They¡¯re getting bigger,¡± Envy said quietly. ¡°They¡¯re babies.¡±

    Douglass nodded.

    They digested that in silence for a moment. Then, down at the willow grove, Rusty started howling.

    ¡°Rusty!¡± Envy shouted, jumping to her feet and scrambling down the mountain towards her friend. ¡°Hold on!¡± Beside her, Douglass tensed, but he didn¡¯t try to follow.

    Envy was several bounds down the hill, moving as quickly as gravity could carry her, when Rusty swiveled, holding up two rabbits by the back legs. ¡°Told you guys I¡¯d get all three!¡± he crooned.

    Envy slowed to a halt, heart hammering as her mind tried to digest what she¡¯d just seen.

    Then, behind her, Douglass cried out, ¡°Oh shit, it¡¯s under the snow, shit!¡± and started to flail. Turning, Envy thought the creature was after him, then she realized he was calculatedly scrambling towards her, intent on something under her feet¡­

    A moment later, a sleek alien barricuda emerged from the snow underneath her and took her boot in its four-pronged jaws.

 Chapter 15: The Bad Grub

    <h1>Chapter 15: The Bad Grub</h1>

    Envy screamed as the beast¡¯s gnashing teeth started poking through the thick rubber of the sole of her boot like hundreds of little nails. ¡°Rusty, help!¡± she cried, kicking at it in an unsuccessful attempt to dislodge it from her foot.

    The thing had six stubby legs and a matte purple color to is taut, pebbly skin that luminesced dully, like a water-balloon filled with napalm. The way it chewed at her, however, and the little grunting-snarling sounds it was making, was reminiscent of a rabid weasel.

    Down in the willow grove, Rusty threw down his rabbits and came charging up the hill with the titanic energy of an angry bull.

    ¡°Here¡¯s a rock!¡± Douglass cried, tossing a big lump of stone at her.

    ¡°I¡¯m not gonna squish it!¡± Envy cried, trying to kick the fat, bulging thing loose as it gnawed on the rubber. ¡°Are you kidding me? It looks like it¡¯s gonna explode!¡±

    Douglass¡¯s face went pale. ¡°So how do we kill it?!¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll kick off my boot and throw it down the¡ª¡±

    She was interrupted as a panicked hillbilly suddenly grabbed the thrashing thing by the pulsing butt with apelike hands, yanked it free of her boot in a heave, and hurled it down the hill with the aptitude of a major league pitcher. Then he grabbed her, threw her over his shoulder, and started running up the mountain.

    ¡°I can walk!¡± Envy cried. ¡°Grab Douglass!¡±

    Rusty kept charging ahead, and for a moment, it looked like he would ignore her and keep running.

    ¡°Put me down and grab the doctor,¡± Envy snapped, slapping his shoulder in an effort to get him to release her legs.

    Reluctantly, Rusty did as he was told. Envy immediately snatched up the blanket and started running uphill, right past the eight-foot-wide hole that the doomed duffel had burned into the ground.

    She never made it past the hole. Instead, she stopped and stared, the overwhelming sense of dread returning like a hit with a necromantic sledgehammer.

    Crystals were growing from the hole, white-violet, the length of her arm, burning with inner fire. And they were getting bigger, spreading up through the dirt where they had begun poking through the charred plants. The wriggling black shapes of maggots were slithering towards them from all directions, slipping down into the hole and falling into it like cockroaches scuttling to shelter.

    ¡°Shit¡­¡± Envy managed, right at the same time Douglass cried, ¡°What the fuck is that?!¡±

    Even Rusty, who had been wild-eyes and panicked only moments before, had stopped to stare at the crystalline growth even then slowly spreading outward from their ruined bag.

    ¡°That¡¯s it,¡± Douglass said. ¡°I give up. We¡¯re fucked.¡± He slapped Rusty¡¯s shoulder. ¡°Hey, just throw me down that hole so I can get a better look.¡±

    Rusty started shifting Douglass¡¯s weight on his shoulder.

    ¡°Don¡¯t throw him down the hole,¡± Envy said.

    ¡°Oh come on,¡± Douglass cried. ¡°You actually think we¡¯re gonna live much longer?¡± He gestured to the smoking pit. ¡°At least that wouldn¡¯t hurt.¡±

    ¡°Pretty sure it would hurt,¡± Envy said, looking at the jagged crystals randomly jutting out into the pit as far as the eye could see.

    ¡°For long,¡± Douglass said. ¡°It wouldn¡¯t hurt for long.¡±

    Envy, fed up with his pessimistic crap, rounded on him. ¡°Doug, I want to live, which means you need to live. So if you want, oh, say, great sex in, say, a week, shut the fuck up, grow a pair, and start helping us figure out how to kill aliens.¡±

    Douglass blinked at her, and his eyes actually locked on hers for a split second before his face went red and they quickly dropped away.

    ¡°Why¡¯s he get sex?¡± Rusty whined.

    ¡°Because he¡¯s the weak one,¡± Envy said.

    Rusty frowned at that a little.

    ¡°It¡¯s a pity fuck,¡± Envy clarified.

    Rusty¡¯s eyebrows went up, then they narrowed thoughtfully and he started to nod, seeming to find that an acceptable answer. Suddenly, he burst into a grin. ¡°You hear that, little man?¡± Still holding the doctor slung over his shoulder, Rusty slapped Douglass on the ass. ¡°You get a pity-fuck. Hopefully your nuts drop by the end of the week, eh?¡± He slapped the doctor¡¯s ass again. ¡°Hate for you to disappoint our lady-friend, here¡­¡±

    ¡°Put me down,¡± Douglass said.

    ¡°Don¡¯t put him down,¡± Envy said. ¡°Let¡¯s go. We¡¯re gonna find some other place to sleep.¡±

    ¡°Sleep?!¡± Douglass cried. ¡°Who¡¯s gonna sleep?! Like, ever again? We¡¯ve got no supplies, no food, no shelter.¡±

    ¡°We got maggots,¡± Rusty noted.

    ¡°Oh, that¡¯s right, how could I forget?¡± Douglass said, glaring at Rusty. From the big man¡¯s shoulder, he waved his arms dramatically. ¡°We¡¯ve got exponentially-growing, flesh-eating, Gaia-raping baby aliens trying to tear out our throats so they can feast on us as we sleep!¡±If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.

    ¡°One of them attacked my boot,¡± Envy said. ¡°It¡¯s a little premature to say he was trying to eat¡ª¡± Then her eyes widened as she saw the luminescent grub come skittering out of the snow right behind Rusty, four razor-toothed jaws open wide, a forearm-length bullet aimed right at the big man¡¯s calf.

    ¡°Out of the way!¡± Envy cried, throwing the blanket between Rusty and the creature. It hit the material hard, like a baseball from a pitching machine, then got lost in a fold, thrashing.

    ¡°Fuck¡ªgrab it, grab it!¡± Envy cried, rolling the blanket around the creature like a cigar. Inside the wrap, she could feel it struggling, and it was strong. ¡°Rusty, drop him and help me!¡± she cried, pinning it unsuccessfully with her weight. ¡°It¡¯s getting out!¡±

    Maybe she should have been a bit more careful with her instructions, because that¡¯s exactly what Rusty did. He dropped Douglass, full-body, in a back-flip into the snow, then jumped on the blanket holding the squirming flesh-eating alien.

    ¡°Ow you mother fucker!¡± Douglass gasped, staring up at the starry sky, spread-eagled in the snow.

    Rusty and Envy didn¡¯t hear him. The creature was thrashing, snapping at them through the blanket, and the former Marine was cursing loudly enough to be heard in space, already having been bitten two or three times, his hand bleeding all over the blue fabric. Then the thing slipped from his grasp and it was biting Envy and she was bleeding, and it was tearing up their blanket and both of them were scrambling to keep from losing fingers.

    ¡°You asshole, you just dropped me!¡± Douglass shouted.

    ¡°Shut up!¡± Rusty and Envy snapped back, still struggling desperately to get the insect under control. It was taking both of their joint effort to keep the baby alien pressed to the ground, and Envy finally got the blanket wrapped around its four-piece jaws to hold them shut.

    Eventually, the alien¡¯s struggles subsided. Envy could still feel it moving in there, its ribbed, pebbled sides expanding and contracting like an angry grub.

    ¡°Now what?¡± Rusty panted. It was mostly his weight that had subdued the creature, because it sure hadn¡¯t been Envy¡¯s upper body strength.

    Both of them were afraid to move. They could feel the creature trapped under their grip, and they knew the moment they let it go, it would either a) ruin their blanket, b) ruin their hands, or c) spit gobs of that internal liquid fire at them like acid from Alien, because Murphy had been taking a shit on them pretty much all of the last week. Which, if it could spit gobs of molten fire, would then ruin their blanket and their hands.

    ¡°I hope it doesn¡¯t spit fire,¡± Envy muttered. Please, gawd, don¡¯t let them spit fire.

    ¡°Maybe it will run if we let it go,¡± Rusty said.

    ¡°I think we need to skewer it somehow,¡± Envy said, grimacing. ¡°Then get the hell out of the way before it sloshes that stuff on us.¡± She thought about sacrificing their only knife to the cause, however, and her enthusiasm waned pretty quickly.

    ¡°If you hold it, I could take your knife, go get a stick, and sharpen it,¡± Envy said. ¡°Then you let it go and I stab it.¡±

    ¡°Or we could just stab it through the blanket,¡± Rusty said, nursing a bleeding palm as he pressed his full weight on the thing with one knee. ¡°Safer that way.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s our only blanket,¡± Envy said. And, soggy and singed as it was, it and Rusty¡¯s buck knife were the only things keeping them alive at this point. ¡°We can¡¯t risk it.¡±

    ¡°That miner¡¯s cabin might have another one,¡± Rusty offered. Obviously, he didn¡¯t want to let the thing out of the blanket.

    ¡°I don¡¯t wanna risk our lives on ¡®might.¡¯¡± Envy said. ¡°Hold it for me while I go make us a stick.¡± She gingerly shifted her weight so he could take over, then yanked his Buck knife from his belt and hurried down the slope for a suitable willow branch. She would¡¯ve preferred something dead¡ªdead wood dried harder¡ªbut they¡¯d burned what little dead wood they could find and all that were left were green mountain willow shrubs barely wider than her thumb. Their saving grace, however, was because they grew so slowly, they were hard, and she figured they would probably do the job with enough force. She cut one down¡ªthat, in itself, took more time than she wanted with nothing but a big, smooth blade¡ªthen quickly whittled it to a point.

    ¡°You coming back?¡± Rusty cried from up the hill, obviously starting to get nervous that he¡¯d been left with the alien.

    ¡°Got it,¡± Envy called, jogging back. She slumped back to the ground beside Rusty and said, ¡°All right. This is how it¡¯s gonna work. You let its head out¡ª¡±

    ¡°But it can bite me with its head¡ª¡±

    ¡°Let its head out,¡± Envy repeated, ¡°and before it bites you, I drive this thing through its skull and pin the fucker to the ground while you get you, Douglass, and the blanket as far away as possible.¡±

    Rusty seemed to weigh that in his mind, then reluctantly nodded. ¡°Okay, Captain.¡±

    ¡°Right.¡± Envy just hoped she had the strength it would take to jab the sharpened stake through the wriggling black head. It looked like its dimpled skin was ultra-thin and stretched to the limit, sure to explode at any minute, but what if that¡¯s exactly what happened? What if it exploded and she got covered in molten rock?

    But Rusty was already unwrapping the thing¡¯s head, and she didn¡¯t have time to worry about it. ¡°You ready, Captain?¡±

    She wasn¡¯t, but she readied her spear anyway, putting as much space between her hand and the thing¡¯s pressurized body as she could without compromising accuracy.

    ¡°Okay,¡± Rusty said, tensing. ¡°Here goes. One¡­two¡­three!¡± He yanked his hand back, exposing the head.

    Envy had just enough time to see the bulbous head twist, the jaws open and gnash, and a wad of purple-white fire sloshing at the back of its gaping throat before she jabbed the stick as hard as she could between its tapeworm-black eyes. At the same time, the sloshing wad of fire launched at her like a spitball, and it was her own motion in skewering the bug that stopped her from taking it right between the eyes. Instead, it only burned her in its proximity as it flew past her face, leaving a streak along her cheek of bubbled skin.

    On the ground, her stick caught fire, then fell away as the alien larvae started to thrash. Purple-white liquid started leaking from its mouth, dribbling to the ground, immediately setting it ablaze.

    That thing just spit fire at me, she thought, stunned. She touched her bubbled cheek, watching the dying alien writhe in horror. It would¡¯ve got me right in the face¡­ And, she knew, had it done so, it would¡¯ve burned straight to the brain. As it was, the fingernail-sized wad had shot past her head and hit the snow outside the melted ring of their camp, immediately setting that on fire. All she could do, facing such a realization, was sit there and stare in shock, watching it thrash and fling pretty droplets of liquid fire as it died.

    Then big hands were grabbing her, dragging her away from the oozing, dripping, fiery mess. ¡°¡­you crazy, Captain Travis?!¡± Rusty demanded as he pulled her to safety. ¡°You want it to burn you?!¡±

    Envy didn¡¯t reply. ¡°We¡¯re fucked,¡± she said quietly, unable to think of anything else. For the first time, she realized they didn¡¯t have a chance. Not a chance in hell. The world had been attacked by aliens, rattled apart, drowned, and now they had these fire-spitting fuck-knew-what burrowing all around them, eating each other and getting bigger, and they couldn¡¯t even kill them without fear of getting sprayed with molten fire.

    Douglass was right. Jumping down the hole would be the more merciful choice. ¡°Just fucked,¡± she whispered.

    ¡°Maybe not,¡± Douglass said. He was squatting over the beast¡¯s corpse, prodding at something with the burned remnants of the stick she had used to kill it. ¡°Guys, check this out¡­¡±

 Chapter 16 - The Crystal Skull

    Chapter 16: The Crystal Skull

    ¡°What is it?¡± Envy asked, squatting beside Douglass to squint at the searing white-violet pool of melted alien grub.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know, but it lights up like the Fourth of July,¡± Douglass said, prodding at the smoking pile that was even then melting into the ground.

    Envy squinted at it, having to shield her face from the heat. ¡°I don¡¯t see anything.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s in there,¡± Douglass said. ¡°I think it¡¯s a skeleton.¡±

    Well, that wasn¡¯t good. A life form that went from helpless grub to foot-eating skeleton in four hours? Things weren¡¯t looking good for the home team. Envy still couldn¡¯t see anything in the fiery pool of melted rock, sand, bug, and debris, but Douglass seemed pretty confident there was something in there.

    The stick, however, kept bursting into flames and burning to cinders before he could get whatever it was out of the ever-expanding hole it was melting into the ground.

    ¡°Rusty, let me borrow your knife!¡± Douglass called.

    ¡°Sure,¡± Rusty said immediately, then, mid-reach, his eyes narrowed at the puddle of alien napalm, then back at Douglass. A rush of suspicion creased his features. ¡°Why?¡±

    ¡°I need it,¡± Douglass said.

    ¡°For what?¡± The big hillbilly¡¯s suspicion increased.

    ¡°Look, it¡¯s gonna get away,¡± Douglass snapped. Even then, the puddle was sinking out of sight in the ground. He held out his hand, gesturing frantically. ¡°Give me your knife! Hurry!¡±

    ¡°I need my knife!¡±

    ¡°Trust me¡ªyou need this more.¡±

    And, oddly, Envy¡¯s gut was agreeing with him. She squinted at the pool of grub that was rapidly sinking out of sight.

    ¡°I don¡¯t think so,¡± Rusty snorted.

    ¡°Come on, it¡¯s getting away!¡±

    Seeing how insistent Douglass was¡ªand knowing that this was a No-Rules Alien Takeover where a single broke-tipped knife wasn¡¯t going to save them from magma-spitting monsters from outer space¡ªEnvy said, ¡°Rusty, just give him your knife.¡±

    Rusty made a loud noise of complaint, rolled his eyes, groaned, then, when it became clear Envy wasn¡¯t going to rescind her order, muttered and yanked the Buck knife from its sheathe. Handing it over to Douglass, he said, ¡°Fine, but don¡¯t stick it in the¡ª¡±

    Douglass stuck it in the molten bug and, wincing and hissing and sucking his fingers, threw both knife and his long, translucent prize out into the bushes, where they both caught fire.

    Rusty¡¯s mouth fell open and rushed to his ruined blade. ¡°You melted it! You dumb city fuck, you melted our only knife!¡± Like he¡¯d just set fire to the Holy Grail.

    Which, to be fair, it kind of was. However, Envy had felt the potential of not letting Douglass destroy the knife to get to whatever he¡¯d just flung across the mountainside and her gut was telling her it was a fair trade.

    Douglass was rubbing his burned hand in the snow, grimacing at the immediate blisters.

    Curious what the blind man had been so desperate to save that he was willing to scorch his own hand¡ªand destroy an enraged hillbilly¡¯s knife¡ªto get it, Envy wandered over to get a better look.

    A single slender, fourteen-inch-long crystalline shape lay smoldering in the damp berry bushes.

    No, she realized, startled, the bushes are smoldering. The ¡®bone¡¯ was fine, and so hot it was setting everything around them on fire. It looked vaguely arrow-shaped, elongated, with odd little holes and nubs along the edges, and a cradle-shaped center. It looked much like a long, pocked, very slender arrowhead with razor sharp serrations. It was also so translucent she almost couldn¡¯t see it in the dim moonlight, disappearing into the ground shrubbery so well it may as well have been made of glass. At the fat end was something akin to the ball joint on the back of a pickup truck, a bulbous nub.

    She waited until the crystalline spike was no longer smoking, then gingerly pressed a branch to its razor surface. When it didn¡¯t immediately catch fire, she hesitantly tapped a finger to it. When she found it cool to the touch¡ªand her finger didn¡¯t catch fire¡ªshe carefully plucked the bone from the bushes to get a better look.

    Immediately, she found that they the serrations didn¡¯t just look wickedly sharp, they were wickedly sharp. She let out a startled yell as the bone slipped through her finger, cutting it on the way back to the frozen shrubbery, then lay there in deceptive placidity, a pink-tinged razor blade glittering in the blueberry twigs.

    ¡°What in the everlovin¡¯ fuck?!¡± Envy cried, quickly wrapping her finger¡ªwhich was already laced with toothy punctures from her battle with the space-maggot¡ªto compress it with the sleeve of her shirt.The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

    ¡°What?!¡± Rusty demanded, turning from Douglass. He had been holding the doctor by the front of his shirt collar, his elephantine fist pulled back, about to plow into the blind man¡¯s unsuspecting face.

    ¡°Rusty, damn it, let him go,¡± Envy snapped. Then, realizing Rusty might take that literally and do something stupid, like, oh, let him go over the crystal-filled hole, as Douglass had requested, she added, ¡°Come check this out. Whatever it is, it¡¯s razor sharp. I just cut myself.¡±

    ¡°You did?¡± Rusty released Douglass reluctantly, then wandered over to squat beside her, frowning. ¡°I don¡¯t see anything.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s see-through,¡± Envy said. ¡°Look.¡± Grabbing two sticks to use as crude chopsticks, Envy propped the three-pronged spine up to get a better look at the crystalline razors that cut her. There were ridges and points tracing the edges, the top was flat if slightly bulbous in the middle, and the bottom had that cup-shaped compartment. In several prominent places, there were side-by-side holes, like eye holes on a mask, and unlike the outer edges, their surfaces were rounded and smooth.

    ¡°Oooh,¡± Rusty said, immediately taking over the examination, pushing and prying the thing around. Realizing she was bleeding worse than she first thought, Envy got up and went looking for something to wrap around her finger as a makeshift bandage.

    ¡°What do you think?¡± Douglass asked, sidling up close to her once she was out of the hillbilly¡¯s earshot. The pitch of his voice sounded¡­strange. Almost worried. Like he was seeing something, something important, and didn¡¯t want to mention it until he was sure she wouldn¡¯t panic. ¡°You, uh, notice anything when you picked it up?¡±

    ¡°Yeah. It cut me.¡± She was still holding her own finger together.

    ¡°Anything else?¡± he insisted.

    Envy frowned at the doctor, analyzing his strange posture. ¡°It¡¯s got some uses.¡±

    ¡°What kind, you think?¡± Douglass asked in a soft whisper, meant for her only. Again, there seemed to be more behind his words, like he had some sort of idea of what it could be used for, but for some reason wanted to make sure she came up with it on her own.

    ¡°Good cutting surface,¡± Envy said. ¡°Depends on if the material¡¯s brittle or not. If it¡¯s brittle, it¡¯s basically useless. If it¡¯s hard enough to take some torsion and impacts, it¡¯s probably useful as a blade.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s¡­it?¡± Douglass sounded disappointed.

    ¡°Yeah.¡± She frowned at him. ¡°Why? What are you getting at?¡±

    Douglass stared at the translucent spine for some time, then just shook his head. ¡°Nothing. Thought you could use it as a spearhead.¡± He shrugged.

    He¡¯s not telling me the truth, Envy said. Her brow furrowed more and she opened her mouth to demand he stop screwing around.

    ¡°Hey guys,¡± Rusty interrupted, bending to grab the object, ¡°I just realized this thing kinda looks like a spearhead!¡± He held it for a couple moments before he, too, hissed and dropped it back to the ground. ¡°It¡¯s sharp!¡± he cried. ¡°Like a razor blade!¡±

    ¡°I said that!¡± Envy called. But then the sheer effortlessness of its cutting surfaces got her thinking¡­ Why would a sharp, pointed object be inside an overstuffed, gleaming, wriggling magma maggot, ready to pop it like an overfilled water balloon at the first wrong wriggle? She squinted at Doug. ¡°You sure this came from inside that thing?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m sure.¡± Douglass licked his lips, his eyes focused on the alien bone. ¡°I think it¡¯s a skull.¡±

    As soon as he said those words, Envy got a stab of dread. Then logic kicked in. ¡°It¡¯s not a skull. The head was only like two inches long.¡±

    Douglass shrugged. ¡°Looks like a skull to me.¡±

    And it did. Kind of like the queen alien on Ridley Scott¡¯s chest-bursting screamfest, but with more razor crest, less braincase.

    But why would that have been inside a bug?

    Aliens won¡¯t necessarily have the same growth patterns as Earth-based life, Envy had to remind herself. They had evolved on different planets, under different conditions with different environments. The scientist in her was feeling rather sheepish, knowing she had subconsciously tried to apply Earth rules to an alien. To expect an alien grub to morph into a beetle because it looked like it was following the same general Earth pattern established by Arthropoda Insecta was simply folly. Maybe, instead of hatching into something with an exoskeleton and little translucent wings, ten of them would meld into one animal, fusing together with different skeletal pieces that each individual crafted from their own magma-juice.

    Once again feeling how completely out of her element she now was, clinging to a mountainside in the middle of an alien apocalypse, Envy cleared her throat. ¡°Okay, so it does look like a skullcap. Kind of. What do we do with it?¡±

    But Rusty, intrepid guy that he was, was already wrapping the alien skullcap-cum-spearhead into a shredded piece of blanket that had fallen to the ground in the fight, and was lifting it up triumphantly. ¡°Do you see how sharp this thing is?¡± he demanded, waving it around by the relatively blunt, bulbous base of the ¡®arrowhead¡¯, his fingers protected by the thin blue taffeta from the sleeping bag. ¡°It¡¯s sharper than my Buck!¡±

    ¡°And fireproof,¡± Envy noted.

    ¡°And fireproof!¡± he gasped, only then making the connection.

    Now Rusty was grinning ear-to-ear, swinging the fourteen-inch thing back and forth with an audible swish through the air. ¡°I could poke a thousand maggots with this thing and never lose another knife to the aliens.¡± He flipped it in his hand, narrowly catching it on the blunt end with his cloth-protected palm. Grinning at it, he said, ¡°A few wraps of leather, and this baby¡¯s a dagger.¡± He tossed it again, fumbled, barely missed cutting off fingers, and hastily ducked after it when it fell back to the bushes, so quickly he looked like he was afraid someone would take it from him. He snatched it back up, still grinning widely.

    ¡°You¡¯re gonna cut yourself again,¡± Envy noted.

    But Rusty ignored her completely, seemingly having forgotten about her, Douglass, and his busted Buck knife. He was already gingerly testing the edge on the plant life around him and giggling like a little girl as an impressive swath of plants and truncated twigs went flying in all directions from his first swipe. ¡°Oh wowee,¡± he laughed. ¡°This baby¡¯s perfect.¡±

    Men with their toys, Envy thought.

    ¡°You, sugar, can come home with me.¡± He danced off down the hill, laughing and talking to his new find like some long lost soulmate.

    ¡°Don¡¯t run!¡± Envy thought, thinking of the scissor adage.

    Rusty slowed, but kept talking to his knife as he walked off. ¡°¡­call you Serena¡­¡± she heard as he disappeared.

    ¡°Well,¡± Douglass said slowly, ¡°I can honestly say that wasn¡¯t what I was expecting.¡±

    The look on his face suggested he had been expecting to get pummeled, hard, and was actually a little surprised to be alive. ¡°I was pretty sure he was gonna put me in the hospital for that one.¡± Then he winced, their present state of gearlessness, homelessness, and lightlessness seeming to dawn on him. ¡°Or just killed me. He woulda probably just killed me.¡±

    ¡°Why¡¯d you pull it out?¡± Envy asked. ¡°I mean, doesn¡¯t seem like a really good risk to take, considering how little gear we have left.¡±

    Douglass went quiet and still. For a long moment, he just watched Rusty¡¯s dark shape wandering the hillside below. Then, solemnly, he said, ¡°Because it told me to.¡±

 Chapter 17 - A Voice in the Dark

    <h1>Chapter 17: A Voice in the Dark</h1>

    Mandy woke behind the wheel of a strange vehicle, agony pulsing in her left hand.

    ¡°Oowww,¡± she groaned, reaching to touch the pounding back of her head. It was cold, really cold, and she couldn¡¯t feel her feet. In front of her, the window was blacked out from fresh snow, though the vertical side windows showed snowy mountainsides. She blinked at that, completely disorientated, having no memory of how she had gotten in the stranger¡¯s car.

    Another one-night stand? she thought, feeling rather stupid. Usually when this happened, she had gotten drunk out of her mind the night before and could look forward to spending the rest of the day vomiting. But she didn''t feel nauseous, which was weird... Had she been roofied? Raped? She sure as hell felt beat to shit.

    Then there was her hand. When she looked at it, it was black, and it took her a moment to realize that was bruises, not charcoal or dirt.

    Holy shit¡­was I in a car wreck?

    The lonely mountainside she could see through her window offered no answers. They looked vaguely familiar, but aside from a few, most mountains looked the same to her.

    She was in the driver¡¯s seat, too. That didn¡¯t make a lot of sense¡­

    She squinted around her, trying to place the kind of car she was in. It was olive drab and green, and utilitarian, kind of like the military¡­

    The military. Aliens. Earthquakes.

    It all came rushing back to her in a sudden wave that took her breath away. Aliens were attacking, she¡¯d busted her hand to shit on a rock, and she was trapped on a mountain with no way down that didn¡¯t include freezing her titties off on a fourteen-mile hike through a snowy mountain area the government had marked ¡®restricted¡¯.

    Sure, she had cut the quarantine barriers and shoved the cones out of the way, but most people would obey the cheesy government warnings of ¡®avalanches¡¯ and avoid Hatcher¡¯s Pass like good little citizens.

    Okay, don¡¯t panic, Mandy thought. Think. So what if aliens were attacking and they¡¯d just had the biggest earthquake on record? Humanity would pull through.

    ¡­wouldn¡¯t it?

    Desperate not to become a statistic, Mandy had to reach across with her good hand to shove the Humvee door open, then one-handedly guided herself down to the ground. Immediately, her leg started pounding, but it held as she gingerly lowered her weight to it.

    She could still stand, so it probably wasn¡¯t broken. That much, at least, was good. She took a tentative step away from the vehicle to get a better view of the snowy hillside in the dusk¡ªor was it dawn? How long had she been unconscious?

    Either way, enough snow had fallen while she was out of it that it now covered everything in a fine, fluffy layer over an inch thick. She turned to look back at the ruined lodge and its massacred cabins. The one she¡¯d been sleeping in had burned to cinders, though it must have been some time ago because the new snow hadn¡¯t melted, despite the light trail of smoke still rising from the charred rubble.

    Immediately, she noticed that her boots had dislodged something discolored that was layering the snow, revealing pure white underneath. She squatted to get a better look.

    Ash she thought. Looking up at the sky, she realized she had thought it was later in the day than it probably was, the sky darkened by the brownish haze of volcanic ash.

    Damn I¡¯m thirsty, she thought. She wondered again how long she had been sleeping. Judging by the sky, it could have been as little as a few hours, to as many as a couple days.

    That wasn¡¯t a pleasant thought. She turned to look down the hill, trying to find the alien ship out in the ash haze. She didn¡¯t see one hovering over Palmer, but that didn¡¯t mean it wasn¡¯t obscured.

    Time to get the hell outta Dodge. Maybe head north up to Tok or Fairbanks. Plenty of lonely old sourdoughs up there who would jump on the chance to take a pretty, helpless girl like her in in the hopes of exchanging food for sex. She was pretty sure she could do that, until the food ran out, at which point she¡¯d probably check herself for venereal disease and move on. Maybe even take his shit, if things got bad enough or he got violent. She had a third-dan blackbelt from Okamotos Karate in Anchorage, and had been doing it since she was three, so she was pretty decent at defending herself. She¡¯d actually spent some time in juvie at McLaughlin Youth Center for beating the everlovin¡¯ snot out of a guy who came up behind her and tried to grope her in the school parking lot, breaking his nose, larynx, arm, knee, instep, and rupturing both testicles in the matter of thirteen seconds, then lay on the ground gagging and gasping like a dying thing¡ªwhich he was¡ªwhile the principal and most of Chugiak High School had been watching.

    The paramedics had saved him, but he¡¯d never been able to walk without a limp or talk louder than a whisper ever again. The judge had ruled that, as a decorated martial artist, Mandy had used excessive force, regardless of the kid¡¯s intent, and she got kicked out of Okamoto¡¯s program and her rank effectively revoked. That was back when she had been living in Birchwood with her parents, who immediately forgot she existed once her dojo abandoned her and the government sent her to juvie for ¡®attitude correction,¡¯ the public shame too much for them to bear even though this was fucking America and not the Old Country.

    Pfft.

    She went back to the site of her boulder assault, scrubbed around in the ash until she found her tools, then went back to the unlocked Humvee.

    Mandy was one-handedly climbing back into the Humvee and getting ready to start tearing apart the steering column in an attempt to hotwire it, when she realized there was an ON/OFF switch off to one side.

    No way, Mandy thought, pausing to stare. It couldn¡¯t be that easy¡­ All this time, she¡¯d been looking for keys, not even bothering to look at the ignition¡­

    But sure enough, when she primed the glowplug knob and turned the ON switch, the engine roared to life. Easy as that, no keys required. God bless the grunts, Mandy thought, giggling. Back when she¡¯d been on the hunt for keys, she¡¯d actually flipped back the dashboard wondering what happened to soldiers that were in an ambush who couldn¡¯t get to their keys in time, or if they fumbled and dropped them, or when the driver died three hundred yards back and they had to run back and grab his keys, the whole unit just standing around as they grabbed their gear. Made sense to just have a switch, once she thought about it.

    Then again, it also left the equipment up for grabs to any stranded millennial who happened to pass by.

    They were up there screaming, Mandy told herself, fighting off guilt. If they were going to come back, they would have¡­

    Besides, there were three Humvees, and still some SUVs left. Enough to get people out, if nothing else.

    Refusing to feel bad, Mandy climbed inside, ready to head anywhere but the cold-ass mountains and its shitty generator and no cell coverage. Somebody down there had to have a working phone, and she was going to call headquarters, tell them everything she¡¯d seen, and get her damn hand to a hospital.

    Humvee roaring, she awkwardly used her good hand to steer the oversized vehicle out of the parking lot and started it back down the road to Palmer, wipers sloughing the volcanic ash to either side. She¡¯d only been traveling a minute when something hard hit her windshield like a wet lump of clay.Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

    She couldn¡¯t be sure, but it looked black and moving. Then it was flung aside by the wipers and she could only sit there, frowning at her windshield, Humvee purring slowly down the road, wondering if it had been a bird, a bug, or something worse.

    Considering the current predicament, her vote was something worse. Fiery magma, maybe?

    Probably a good time to stay in the vehicle, she thought, as she took another hairpin curve.

    But, as she rounded the corner, the landscape changed. Violently. Whereas behind her, the world had been fluffy and snow-packed, now the road ahead of her was covered in fallen trees, broken boards, yard ornaments, roofs, cars, boats¡­

    What in the fuck¡­ Mandy thought, slowing the vehicle. It went on as far as she could see in either direction, hundreds of yards of random debris clogging the mountainside like a high-water-line.

    Then she saw her first corpse.

    It was the body of a man, twisted and broken, hanging over one of the busted birch trees like clothes from a line. Beside him, a moose was similarly mangled, upside down and twisted so that its head was hidden under the ash.

    Or was that a cow?

    Realizing it was a cow, not a moose, Mandy began to get a sick feeling in her gut. Cows were grown in Palmer, not Hatcher¡¯s Pass.

    With that sinking understanding that something very horrible had happened while she lay unconscious in the Humvee, something that it was beginning to look like she alone had survived, Mandy turned the engine off and stared through the window of her borrowed vehicle, trying to piece together her world.

    I¡¯m not getting through that, she thought. Without a chainsaw and a month of clearing the road, she¡¯d just get her Humvee stuck. Then again, this was March, and if she waited another couple months, she could simply drive through the Pass and out the other side. Assuming, of course, that whatever happened in Palmer hadn¡¯t happened out near Willow.

    Something hit the window again, and this time, she got a good look at it. A writhing black maggot, four-jawed with skin like a basketball, unlike any maggot she¡¯d ever seen. It stayed there on the window-shield, only inches from her face, allowing her to get a good look as its toothy little mandibles groped at the air like something out of Predator.

    That¡¯s not something from Earth, she thought, watching it through the glass. That¡¯s an alien. It¡¯s raining aliens.

    Her mind, already in shock from the other events in her last twenty-four hours of consciousness, took that in placidly, chewing on it. Then she calmly started the Humvee and turned it away from the debris pile.

    She was in the middle of a hairy three-point turn in the middle of the narrow, icy road when she saw something move in the debris pile off to her right. Squinting at it through the dim hail of ash, she nonetheless brought the hummer to a stop and waited for it to move again.

    Whatever it was, it was small. Dog-sized. Or child-sized, she admitted. But whatever it was, it was oddly-shaped, bulky, and huddled in the bottom of the rowboat, moving only slightly now and then, like it was hiding from her.

    ¡­or dying.

    Reluctantly, Mandy rolled down her window. ¡°Hello?¡±

    The thing in the boat brushed away some ash and slowly sat up, making her heart stammer at the strange, inhuman shape¡­

    It was a kid wearing a bright orange life-preserver, looking delirious.

    ¡°Oh shit!¡± Mandy cried, turning off the Humvee and jumping out. ¡°Kid! You¡¯re a kid!¡±

    The child didn¡¯t try to respond, only looked at her like she was talking Greek. His lips were blue. He didn¡¯t look like he could focus on her directly. In fact, he gave her an almost casual perusal, then lay back down on his side, in the fetal position.

    Mandy ran to the kid then, scrambling over the dead cow and mashing her broken hand on debris to do so. The idea that there was anyone¡ªanyone¡ªto talk to, to share this shit with, was something she grabbed with the enthusiasm of the drowning grabbing for a flotation ring. She snagged the kid by the wrist¡ªit was cold¡ªand one-handedly pulled him from the boat.

    ¡°Hey kid, can you walk?¡±

    No response.

    Awkwardly, with only one working hand, she squatted and tugged him over her shoulder. ¡°Come on, we gotta get you somewhere warm.¡±

    The kid groaned, but whatever he tried to utter was unintelligible.

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry,¡± she said, twisting to climb the debris back to the Humvee. ¡°We¡¯ll get you warmed up.¡± The pain in her leg didn¡¯t bother her, now, for she was running on pure adrenaline. She climbed back over the debris, once again using the dead cow as a bridge to get back to the road. The frozen meat felt hard and stiff under her feet, making her think she¡¯d been sleeping a lot longer than she¡¯d initially estimated.

    ¡°There¡¯s a heater,¡± she said, as she piled the kid into the passenger side of the Humvee. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, kid. Got a heater.¡±

    The kid didn¡¯t sit up straight, instead slumping to one side on the seat. Mandy shut the door, got back in the driver¡¯s seat, and fired the Humvee back up. She maybe hit the road back up the hill a little too fast, but at this point, she wasn¡¯t thinking, only acting.

    Back at the decimated resort, she parked in front of the only cabin left standing, cranked up the heat to max, left the car running with the kid inside, then went to get the fire started. Like the first cabin, the potbelly stove had dislodged from its moorings and rolled across the floor, so she had to drag it back, rearrange it, and replace the chimney before she could get a fire started.

    Half an hour later, she went out and shut the Humvee down. Checking the kid¡¯s face, she felt it to be warm, but his upper body, insulated from the heat by the snowsuit, was still cold. I gotta get him out of this, she thought, desperate. Hastily, she dragged the kid inside the cabin.

    ¡°Hey kid,¡± Mandy said, peeling him from his black snowsuit. ¡°You¡¯re gonna be okay. Right?¡± No response. ¡°Can you even hear me?¡±

    Nothing.

    The snowsuit was more or less dry, but the kid¡¯s body was ice cold, even that vital place under his armpits. How long did he spend lying in the bottom of that boat? she wondered.

    She had gotten the boy peeled down to his undergarments before she realized that ¡®he¡¯ was actually a ¡®she,¡¯ and probably only eight or nine years old. Wrapping the little girl in a blanket, Mandy held her by the fire¡ªblanket open to let in the heat¡ªand started babbling about who she was, her history, and what the newsroom at the Anchorage Daily News probably looked like now that the ocean had carried cows up into the mountains.

    The girl, for her part, didn¡¯t say much in response.

    In fact, it was hours later, with Mandy constantly checking the temperature of her armpits and back, until the girl even started to stir. When she did, the first words out of her mouth were, ¡°Where¡¯s Daddy?¡±

    Mandy¡¯s heart broke on the spot. How to tell a little kid that her dad was dead¡­

    ¡°His dead body, I mean,¡± the girl added. She looked up at Mandy and matter-of-factly said, ¡°He¡¯s dead, right?¡±

    Mandy opened her mouth to lie, then just nodded.

    The girl nodded. ¡°Thought so.¡± There was a long moment of silence before the girl said, ¡°Are we going to die, too?¡±

    Mandy forced herself to smile. ¡°Everybody dies.¡±

    ¡°Not everybody gets eaten by aliens,¡± the kid observed.

    Mandy snorted. ¡°We¡¯re not gonna get eaten by aliens.¡±

    The girl gave her a really long look, then said, ¡°The first one tried to eat me, but Mean got it first. They made her paws bleed but she kept killing them. Then, when I was awake and she was sleeping, I''d throw them out of the boat so they couldn¡¯t get back in.¡±

    ¡°Mean?¡± Mandy said, thinking she was talking about some kind of dog.

    ¡°We call her Mean,¡± the girl said, gaining a little pep. ¡°She¡¯s not mean, though. She¡¯s really sweet. She was keeping the aliens off me so they didn¡¯t eat me while I slept.¡±

    ¡°Maggots don¡¯t eat people,¡± Mandy said, deciding to nip that in the bud.

    ¡°Aliens eat people. My brother said so.¡±

    ¡°These aren¡¯t aliens,¡± Mandy blurted. Then, because the lie was already started, she continued with, ¡°They¡¯re bugs from China. Invasive species, have a nasty bite. Don¡¯t worry, though, they¡¯re harmless to people.¡±

    ¡°Oh,¡± the girl said innocently. ¡°That¡¯s good.¡± She cocked her head. ¡°Was my cat in the boat with me?¡±

    Mandy hadn¡¯t seen a cat. ¡°Uh, no.¡±

    The girl look crestfallen, but not surprised. ¡°I think she went looking for Mom and Dad and Derrick. You have any food?¡±

    Mandy thought of the kitchen buried under the rubble of the lodge and grimaced. ¡°I think I can find some. You stay here and get warm, okay?¡±

    ¡°Okay,¡± the girl said cheerfully, like they were on a camping expedition.

    Then, because it was expected, Mandy lit a candle and went to the door. Outside, the world was already fading into darkness, so they had been on the later end of that two day timeframe, not the earlier. She had begun to suspect as much, especially with how thirsty she was.

    Need to grab a pot and some clean snow too, she thought, stepping out onto the porch.

    Behind her, the kid said, ¡°Mandy?¡± Then she hesitated. ¡°Your name is Mandy, right?¡±

    Mandy nodded. She¡¯d said her own name enough times when mimicking old confrontations with her boss, just to keep herself talking to fill the awful silence.

    ¡°I know they¡¯re aliens, Mandy,¡± the girl said. ¡°Please don¡¯t lie to me. Dad lied to me. He¡¯s dead now.¡±

    The girl¡¯s words left a cold spot in Mandy¡¯s gut. ¡°What did he lie about?¡± she whispered.

    The girl gave her a long, solemn look. ¡°He said he¡¯d be right back, that he was going to get my mom and brother.¡±

    Mandy opened her mouth, but didn¡¯t have anything to say. She nodded. ¡°Your daddy was a brave man.¡± It felt awkward, but she felt like she had to say something to this little kid who had just lost her family.

    ¡°I¡¯m hungry,¡± was the little kid¡¯s reply. ¡°And thirsty, too.¡± She turned back to the stove, staring at it pensively.

    ¡°Yeah, me too,¡± Mandy said. Candle in hand, she took a deep breath and stepped out into the darkness to go search the lodge¡¯s remains for something edible.

    She was maybe two feet past the entrance when she heard the unmistakable sound of a government-issue pistol¡¯s slide being racked.

    ¡°Looks like it¡¯s just the two of us, chink,¡± the cracker¡¯s unsteady voice said.

 Chapter 18 - Broken Fist to a Gunfight

    <h1>Chapter 18: Broken Fist to a Gunfight</h1>

    ¡°Thought you¡¯d be up here,¡± the fake park ranger said. His grip on his gun was trembling. ¡°Thought a yella chink like you¡¯d just hole up and let everybody else die.¡±

    Well, that wasn¡¯t very nice. ¡°Look,¡± Mandy said, carefully turning to face him, ¡°it¡¯s pretty obvious the world just went to shit and we¡¯re some of the only survivors.¡±

    ¡°And I¡¯ve got the only gun,¡± he noted.

    Mandy glanced at it uncomfortably. ¡°Yeah¡­I guess you do.¡±

    ¡°I heard you talkin¡¯ about food in there,¡± he said, gesturing to the cabin. ¡°Where is it?¡±

    ¡°There was some in the lodge before it collapsed,¡± Mandy said. She was paying close attention to how he held the gun, in what stance, and how far away. One of the first things a good martial artist learned about self-defense was how to fuck up a guy with a gun.

    Well, that and self-discipline, but Mandy had always been lacking on the second part.

    ¡°You don¡¯t look too worried,¡± the guy said, looking amused. ¡°You one of those Kung-Fu chinks?¡±

    Mandy twitched, pretty sure she was going to put her heel through the guy¡¯s eye-socket if he used that Chinese slur again. ¡°Look, sir, I¡¯m Japanese. If you must use an ethnic slur, I believe you refer to us as Nips or Japs. Mmmkay?¡± Then she hesitated. ¡°And yes. I know karate. I¡¯m a third-dan blackbelt. Could kick your ass without breaking a sweat, best in Alaska, so you should just put the gun down and walk away now.¡±

    He squinted at her in the darkness. ¡°You¡¯re one dumbass bitch, you know that?¡± He waved the gun at her. ¡°You ain¡¯t a martial artist. You¡¯re too confident.¡±

    ¡°Sure I am,¡± Mandy said. ¡°Got a prize in the last meet.¡± Sure, the last ¡®meet¡¯ had been the national championships, and the ¡®prize¡¯ had been a silver medal for her sex and age category, but this dipshit didn¡¯t need to know that. ¡°The judge says it¡¯s my duty to warn people when I¡¯m gonna kick their ass from now on.¡±

    He laughed proudly. ¡°I¡¯m a former Army Ranger.¡±

    ¡°SEALS are better,¡± Mandy said. Then she hesitated, cocking her head. ¡°No, wait. Marines are better.¡±

    That flustered him enough to choke and sputter. ¡°You¡­you¡­¡± He went really quiet for a moment, then said, ¡°Fuck the small talk. I¡¯m the last guy alive, you¡¯re the last girl, I ain¡¯t got laid in six months, and I got the gun. Pull your pants down. Go bend over that boulder, there.¡±

    Like that was gonna happen. But Mandy had to steel her glee, almost having laughed at the idea of the guy willingly getting close enough to try and fuck her. Man, was he in for a surprise¡­ She made a few appropriate objections, then, at his insistence, she wandered over to the boulder, though she made no move to drop her pants or bend over the stone.

    The guy already had his fly open and was pumping what would have usually been an impressive cock, but now it just looked pathetic, considering how badly she was gonna fuck him up for being a sick freak. Already, that inner rage was building that always came right before Mandy Did Bad Things.

    ¡°I said pants down!¡± the guy snapped. ¡°I¡¯m gonna fuck the yellow right off ya.¡±

    Ooooh, she couldn¡¯t wait to get her hands on him. Well, hand. Her black and bleeding left hand wasn¡¯t going to do shit, considering she couldn¡¯t even make a fist with it.

    ¡°Make me,¡± Mandy said.

    She wasn¡¯t ready for the gunshot, nor the little spray of snow right beside her left ear. The guy was grinning at her sudden surprise. ¡°Next time, it¡¯s the eye,¡± he said. ¡°You don¡¯t wanna get fucked, chink? Then you¡¯re worthless to me, and I¡¯ll put a bullet in your brain and leave you here to rot.¡±

    He really sounded serious.

    And, with that, Mandy realized that the only way she was gonna get him close enough to kick the crap outta him was if she did as she was told. Very reluctantly, she pulled her pants down.

    Chuckling, the guy stepped closer, still pumping at the apex of his jeans. ¡°Turn around,¡± he said, not quite getting close enough for her to kick in the nuts. ¡°Bend over.¡±

    Mandy hesitated, needing him to get just a little bit closer¡­

    Mr. Ranger cocked his head at Mandy as he pumped his dick. ¡°You need another demonstration?¡± Pump pump pump¡­ He grinned, and it was vicious. ¡°Bitch?¡±

    ¡°No,¡± Mandy muttered.

    So that was it, then. Men really were jerks when the societal constraints came off. The apocalypse breaks out, it¡¯s Us against Them, and they suddenly decide they wanna get their rocks off on the first woman they lay eyes on, regardless of her willingness to participate. Mandy was actually a little surprised¡ªshe¡¯d had a little more faith in the male species than that.

    Very slowly, she turned around, her ass hanging out under her snowcoat, the mountain wind brushing tickling her pubic hair, making her break out in goosebumps.

    ¡°Bend over.¡± He¡¯d gotten a little closer, but not close enough. ¡°Spread your legs. Show me your pussy.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s cold,¡± Mandy muttered, feeling her face heat. ¡°Can¡¯t we do this inside?¡± The idea of presenting her vagina to that fucker made her wanna stab him in the eye with a hatchet.

    He snorted. ¡°You¡¯re gonna be fucked anywhere I wanna fuck you. Spread your legs.¡±

    Mandy remembered the cool way he¡¯d shot only inches from her head, knew that he¡¯d killed people before. That meant, if she was going to get out of this safely, she needed to get him off guard. She swallowed hard. Then, slowly, she spread her legs and bent over.This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

    ¡°Hands on the boulder,¡± he insisted.

    Fuck.

    She obeyed.

    Then she heard him chuckle as he came up behind her. ¡°Time ta show ya what a real white cock¡¯s made of, not those tiny chink¡ª¡± She felt the warm head of his penis touch her vulva and saw the gun dip at her back as he looked down and fumbled to get his dick positioned with his other hand.

    Mandy twisted, grabbed the gun, twisted it up and back to break his trigger finger, then cracked his balls, slammed his knee, and delivered a side-kick to his face.

    Or tried to.

    The guy must really have been an Army Ranger, because as soon as she broke his trigger finger, he threw her over his shoulder with a brutality that left her flat on her back, seeing stars.

    ¡°Goddamn knew it,¡± he snarled, dick out and hanging from his open pants, clutching his ruined hand. ¡°Fucking chinks fuck!¡± At least he was down a hand. With his other hand, he was pulling a big Ka-bar from his belt, a look of death on his face. Shit.

    Mandy, who had the gun now, rolled away from him as he dropped to crawl atop her.

    She didn¡¯t get a chance to use the gun¡ªhell, she was trained in martial arts, not guns, because what kind of martial artist worth her salt would need a gun for self defense¡ªbefore the guy was on her. Knowing he was stronger¡ªand not wanting him to take it from her¡ªMandy hurled the gun away from the fight.

    That only made him chuckle. ¡°Oh, you¡¯re fucked now, you little bitch.¡± He still seemed intent on raping her, which was good for her. If he¡¯d just decided to kill her, he probably would have simply started stabbing.

    Mandy didn¡¯t have those qualms. She kicked him in the sternum and face, launching him before he could use the knife on her, then made an awkward one-handed flip back to her feet and twisted to kick him in the head.

    Unfortunately for her, the awkward return to a standing position had given him enough time to compensate, and the man grabbed her leg with both hands and yanked in an attempt to her off her feet, and since he weighed in at probably somewhere close to a hundred pounds more than she did, Mandy didn¡¯t really have an option other than to go down.

    So she went down on his face, knee to his nose as hard as she could, punching him in the temple as she fell on him. The man screamed and twisted to jab the knife into her ribcage, apparently no longer fucking around.

    Mandy hurled herself out of reach, but still took the tip of the knife raking across her side. He grabbed one of her ankles, arresting her escape, still shouting. Then, knowing she couldn¡¯t get her legs out of the way of the knife in time, started kicking him in the chin as hard as she could from the ground.

    He just kept coming. He stabbed her in the calf, then, holding her other one in place so she couldn¡¯t kick him again, used it as purchase to climb up her leg, heading for her throat. ¡°Gonna kill you¡­¡± he rasped, blood bubbling from his broken face. ¡°Stupid fucking bitch¡­¡± He stabbed her in the leg again, higher, dragging himself further up her body, dribbling blood on her waist and clothes.

    I just picked a fight with Special Ops, Mandy realized. And I¡¯m gonna die¡­

    Fuck that shit!

    He yanked the knife out, this time to plunge it into her stomach, and she sat up and cracked him in the bleeding face as hard as she could with her elbow. Then, as he was recoiling from that, she grabbed the knife by the blade and twisted it out of his hands, throwing it as far from the fight as she could because she couldn¡¯t get it spun around in time to use it on him.

    ¡°Fuck!¡± he screamed. It only seemed to make him mad. With a focused, determined, almost vacant look in his eyes, he reached for her throat, got a grip around her neck with a big, calloused male hand. She slammed both cupped palms over his ears three times in a row¡ªeffectively breaking his eardrum with one and slapping him with broken meat with the other¡ªthen slammed her right knuckles into his temple for good luck, but it didn¡¯t faze him.

    But, by this time, Mandy was seeing red, completely unable to breathe. He had her legs pinned under his heavier body, so she punched him again in the temple with her good hand. He grabbed that hand and pinned it, totally focused on choking her to death.

    Mandy¡¯s vision narrowed to a very dim, dark tunnel where his face was the only thing she could see. And there was no hatred in his face, just cold, psychopathic rage. He kept squeezing, utterly emotionless as he held her down, trapping the air in her lungs, cutting off the circulation to her brain. She slammed her broken fist at his arm, trying to dislodge it, but only succeeded in driving spikes of pain-induced adrenaline through her already adrenaline-soaked system.

    Mandy felt herself start to lose consciousness, felt her free arm start to go limp. Above her, the man¡¯s face was just a haze, now, his left eye filled with blood.

    Then, in a weird moment of magnanimity, he slowly sat up, pulling his hand free of her neck. Mandy sucked in a breath of air and immediately punched him, hard.

    Blood dribbled from his left ear, dislodged from where it had been pooling in the ear canal. Lots of it. It spattered her shirt and he blinked at her as if confused.

    Mandy hit him a few more times, until he got up and, seemingly in a daze, trudged away. She sat up, panting and blood-covered, to watch him stumble a few yards across the parking lot, then slump face-first into the ash. A moment later, his body started to spasm in some sort of violent seizure.

    Oh my fuck, Mandy thought. Oh my fuck. She was bleeding from the two huge knife wounds, her lifeblood flowing out onto the ground. Still, the first thing she did was crawl over to the gun, grab it, point it at the guy shivering on the ground, and put six rounds into his shaking corpse. Then, when he stopped shuddering, she crawled closer and put another two in his head.

    Then, trembling all over, body weak and vision dim, she dragged herself back to the front porch of the cabin and let herself inside. She crawled through the door and slumped by the stove, then took the blanket from the kid and wordlessly started tearing it into strips.

    The kid got up and backed away, wide-eyed at all the blood. Mandy ignored her, knowing she was going to die if she didn¡¯t get the bleeding stopped. And, if she died, both of them died.

    Cold air was rushing in the door, sweeping away the heat from the woodstove, but Mandy¡¯s whole focus in life had narrowed to making bandages tight enough to stop herself from bleeding out. She had two knife wounds that each on their own would¡¯ve sent a normal person to the ER, and she knew she wasn¡¯t going to get to a hospital any time soon.

    By the time she got the last bandage cinched on her leg and the bleeding relatively stopped, she was cold, too cold, and weak. The little girl was still cringing against the far wall, staring at her in horror.

    ¡°Shut the door,¡± Mandy said, slumping with her back to the bed, unable to find the strength to climb into it. ¡°Find wood, put it in the stove, keep the place warm. If I don¡¯t wake up, there should be food under the biggest pile of rubble outside.¡±

    The little girl just stared at her.

    ¡°You hear me?!¡± Mandy demanded, that inner rage firing her again, if only briefly. ¡°Close the door. Keep it warm in here. Use wood from that stack beside the stove to feed the fire. If you run out, use wood from the piles of destroyed buildings outside. Keep it warm in here. The biggest rubble pile had food under the side closest to us. I might not wake up. If I don¡¯t wake up, you¡¯ll probably wanna take a knife from the lodge and go down to where I picked you up and cut up that dead cow and eat it. Just follow the road down the mountain from here¡ªyou can¡¯t miss it. Keep yourself alive as long as you can and maybe someone can find you, okay?¡±

    The girl just stared.

    ¡°Are you goddamn listening to me?!¡± she snapped.

    The girl nodded.

    ¡°Then close the door and do what I goddamn say!¡± Mandy cried. Even then, her vision was going dark, and while she could hear herself talk, she couldn¡¯t see the girl¡¯s reaction. Oh well, I tried, she thought. Then, sleepier than she¡¯d ever been in her life, she felt herself lose consciousness for the second time that week.

 Chapter 19 - The Blessed Sound of Gunfire

    <h1>Chapter 19:  The Blessed Sound of Gunfire</h1>

    Harvey Sicara woke under the charred body of his best friend.  He knew it was Morgan because he¡¯d personalized his sno-camo helmet with a crude middle finger around a M, hand-drawn in Sharpie, under the rim, right where it now hung in front of Harvey¡¯s vision, outlining a blackened face.

    For a long time upon regaining consciousness, Harvey just stared at that crude little middle finger, trying not to look at Morgan¡¯s face, knowing what it meant, knowing that they¡¯d gotten their asses kicked and it had been as easy for that scaly alien fucker as a mountain lion squashing gnats.

    Everyone except for him.  It had thundered toward him in a ground-shaking shudder, ignoring the hail of Harvey¡¯s SAW like it were spitballs.  As casually as snuffing out candles, the thing had had blasted Morgan and Sgt. Remme, and as they screamed and baked in their own skins, it offhandedly slapped them over, slamming them into Harvey, pinning him under the combined weight of their bodies and its enormous foot.  The monster had stopped, then, and turned its big yellow eye to look Harvey over as he squirmed underneath the silver scales.

    It hadn¡¯t killed him, though.  It had looked amused, like a cat playing with a bug.

    ¡°Take this back to your people,¡± the thing had spoke into his mind¡ªinto his mind.  Like fucking Jesus.  ¡°May your kind learn to properly fear and serve those who came before you, for your species has no hope otherwise.  You have until my children reach adulthood.¡±

    Then it had pressed a single, silver razor claw into Harvey¡¯s SAW, bending it in half, and pulled its lips from its razor black teeth as it at him¡ªsmiled¡ªand said, ¡°Upon my return, I expect devotion.  Tell your pitiful species that.  Complete devotion, or I and my brood shall annihilate you all.¡±

    Then it had lifted its foot and walked away, the mountains thundering with its footsteps as it walked back to the ship.  It paused at the base of the black ramp, its silver surfaces polished to mirror reflectivity.  ¡°You have five hundred and twelve rotations of this planet around its star.¡±  It turned, its gleaming muzzle glittering even in the fog.  ¡°Seek out my children and serve them, offer your bodies to their benefit, or you shall be killed like the useless vermin you are.¡±

    Then it climbed back into its ship, its reflective scales lighting up the otherwise pitch black hallway beyond, and disappeared inside.  The gate shut and the ramp retracted immediately after, then the ship, shaped like a crescent moon standing on end, lifted effortlessly back into the sky and slowly started back down the mountainside.  Moments later, a beam of purple hit the snow, melting a thousand-foot swath of the valley in a steaming pillar that obscured the ship like a moving cloud.

    A moment after that, without so much as turning around, the ship had delivered a parting blow to the tank that Harvey¡¯s companions had positioned up there, blowing it up, the shockwave hitting him like a sledgehammer to the forehead, knocking him out completely.

    Now he was awake, and wished he weren¡¯t.

    Fuck you, Harvey thought, staring at the partially-singed doodle on his best friend¡¯s helmet.  He felt hot tears on his cheeks and closed his eyes.  ¡°Fuck you¡­¡±

    It had been a devastating defeat.  None of their gear had worked.  The communications had been down.  Bullets had no effect.  Their bigger weapons had been useless.  Not even C-4 had made any impact whatsoever.

    Humanity is going to die, he knew, remembering the screaming and the death.  He and his squadron had been the best in the armed service, and they all lay burned and broken around him, still and motionless on the ground.

    Eventually, however, Harvey realized he wasn¡¯t going to die, so unless he wanted to lose limbs to frostbite, he was going to have to shove Morgan off of him and get up.

    ¡°Shit,¡± Harvey whispered, as Morgan¡¯s body slumped to one side, spreading charred skin across the snow.  He had several other bodies on top of him, guys who had run from the searing purple fire that the alien had shot at them, bodies that had piled up as they rolled away from the tank¡¯s blast, but it was Morgan who had been there with him since enlisting together fresh out of high school in Kansas, getting stationed in the same place after bootcamp on the buddy system, following the same career path into the Rangers, getting stationed in Alaska for cold-weather training right before the shit broke out and Headquarters called up to say aliens were landing, the eggheads had charted their trajectory to the mountains outside Anchorage, and Harvey¡¯s team were the only ones close enough to protect the linguists the feds had chosen to do a meet-and-greet.

    The linguists had been the first to die, killed in a wash of purple fire the moment they dared to utter a stunned ¡®hello.¡¯  Then it had been a free-for-all, and Harvey, being the one chosen to hang back with the machines, had been the last one to get taken out in the slaughter that followed.  He¡¯d drawn the short straw on the ride in, and he¡¯d been griping about it the whole morning, since it had meant he wouldn¡¯t be able to see the aliens up close.

    Now he was the only survivor.

    Then he remembered Sgt. Killearn, the poor bastard who¡¯d been chosen to stay back at base camp.  Immediately, Harvey felt a rush of excitement that another member of his team might still be alive, and he started shoving himself free of the pile of corpses with renewed vigor.Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.

    Once he got free of the bodies, he saw it was light out, but also processed the fact he was still up in the mountains.  No medivac.  No boil of reinforcements, no babble of guys on radios, no thrum of choppers.  That was not a good sign.  It meant the guys back on Ft. Rich either didn¡¯t know what had happened to them, couldn¡¯t get to them, or were all dead.

    Judging by the smooth efficiency with which the alien had slaughtered an elite special forces team, Harvey was beginning to think it was the latter.

    ¡°Fuck,¡± Harvey managed, looking around.  Guns, gear, and bodies lay spread over a four hundred foot swath, but a fine snow had already begun covering it.

    Snow?  It didn¡¯t feel cold¡­  Harvey pinched a small amount between his thumb and forefinger.

    Not snow.  Ash.

    His first thought, upon seeing the ash, was that it was radioactive fallout and that he was going to die if he didn¡¯t find shelter.

    Then, realizing he¡¯d spent enough time breathing it in that he was already dead if it was radioactive, he decided to just say fuck it and start collecting weapons and gear before it all got buried.

    He created a pile of gear beside the decimated tank, over a hundred guns¡ªforty-two machine guns, fifty-seven pistols, and two fifty-cals¡ªtwo hundred and fifteen ammo cartridges, sixty-three knifes, forty-two tactical flashlights, eight ferro fire starters, sixteen lighters, no food.

    That was the first basic problem he had.  He¡¯d been tumbled in a pile of arctic-geared bodies that hadn¡¯t quite frozen yet, so the hold hadn¡¯t gotten him yet, but this close to Anchorage, and on such short notice, they hadn¡¯t packed MREs.  It had been a ¡®get up and go¡¯ sort of thing, and Harvey wouldn¡¯t have been surprised if his underwear were inside out, he¡¯d been dressing so quickly in the barracks.

    The closest food source, he determined, was probably going to be that little lodge down the hill where they¡¯d parked, but sometime between the time the spaceship blew up the tank and it started raining ash, a massive avalanche¡ªno, lots of avalanches, he noted, looking at the valley around him¡ªhad come crashing down between him and the ¡®ski resort.¡¯

    So something major had happened while he¡¯d been out cold.  His guess was some sort of nuclear strike, but if that were the case, and he were currently standing in the fallout, he only had a few weeks to live, at most, and most of that would be in a vegetative state.  If it was fallout, his next few hours would be crucial.  He had to find a place that could counteract radiation exposure.  The Mat-Su Regional Hospital was closest, though he wasn¡¯t sure how equipped they were.  Ft. Rich was the surest bet, but it was fifty miles away.

    Considering his rate of exposure, however, the fact that he still wasn¡¯t feeling ill or having any cognitive decline, Harvey decided it had to be volcanic fallout.  Usually, they estimated full use of motor and brain functions for two to three hours before the shutdown started.   So if it hadn¡¯t happened yet, after God-Knew-How-Long lying under those corpses, breathing it in, he supposed it was probably safe to say it came from Mother Earth and not another Fat Man, and he wasn¡¯t going to die from it.

    Which meant the fine particles of ash would fuck up whatever engine he took back down the slopes to Hatcher Pass Ski Resort, so he¡¯d have to plan accordingly.  He could probably make it to the lodge before the engine died, but whatever machine he chose would be doomed, so he opted for one of the basic, low-end machines that the civilians had ridden up here.  No need to ruin a souped-up spec-ops model if a basic one would do the trick.

    Darkness came quicker than he was expecting, its arrival obscured by the fact the world was drenched in ash.  He had just finished packing guns and gear onto the machine and was about to start the engine when he heard the gunfire.  One single shot in the distance.  Then nothing.

    Odd.  A signal of some sort?  Harvey considered signaling back, then his training kicked in.  It wasn¡¯t an approved-upon signal code, just a single shot, so he decided that, on the off-chance it wasn¡¯t a signal, and someone had taken out Killearn, he didn¡¯t want anyone else to know he was alive up here.

    He mounted the snow machine and was reaching for the key when he heard six more shots.  Then two more, all pistol fire.  His face started to heat at the idea of a gunfight.  Who would be up here fighting when the aliens, the enemy, was down there in the valley?  After no other sound for several minutes, he fired up the engine and gave it gas.  He neglected letting the machine warm up for a few minutes first because, as far as he was concerned, the engine was about to be shot anyway, and headed off over the multiple avalanches blocking Archangel Valley, then down the pass.  Once he was in a clear area, he cut the lights, going by the moonlight shimmering over the hills all around him.

    Thirty minutes later, with the Hatcher Pass Ski Resort¡ªor what was left of it¡ªin full view in the moonlight about two miles down the valley, he shut off the engine.

    The lodge and most of its cabins had been destroyed, and most of the government vehicles had been toppled onto their sides or rolled down the hill like logs of firewood.  Looked like the place had been straifed by a damned air strike.

    There was one cabin, however, that had dim lights flickering in its windows, and a Humvee was parked out front.

    All right, Killearn, Harvey thought, grinning as he realized it had been a signal, though not the appropriate one.  Good on ya.  More relaxed, now, he fired the engine up and switched on the lights, hitting sixty-five in the next couple minutes it took to get to the lodge.

    He parked beside the Humvee, then paused before getting off the vehicle, seeing the boulder in the middle of the parking lot.

    Had that been there when we went up the Pass? he thought.  He was usually pretty observant about that kind of shit, and his brain was telling him the boulder was new.

    He was shaking his head at that, dismounting and deciding to get the full scoop from Killearn inside, when he saw the body slumped into the ground a few yards from the boulder.

    There was no mistaking the fake park ranger gear that they had foisted upon Killearn on the ride up, making him don to cover their asses from prying civilian eyes.

    Instantly upon recognizing that, Harvey threw himself to the ground on the opposite side of the snow machine from the cabin and pulled his pistol free of his leg holster, cursing his own stupidity.

    Shit! he thought, racking a round.  And I just rolled up here like I owned the place!  He was actually surprised nobody had shot him yet.

    He lay there quietly for some time, listening.

    Someone was moving inside the cabin.  He heard the door creak, and the crunch of snow on steps.  He peeked between the tracks of the snow machine, saw snowboots on the porch.

    All right, you fucker, he thought, feeling his finger tightening on the trigger.  Time to die¡­

 Chapter 20 - The Half-Naked Asian Chick

    <h1>Chapter 20:  The Half-Naked Asian Chick</h1>

    Taking a steadying breath, he jumped up, gun trained on the intruder, and shouted, ¡°Hands in the air!  Where I can see them, now!¡±  His finger came so close to pulling the trigger, so close he felt the trigger slide inward¡­

    It was a little girl.

    Harvey immediately released tension on the trigger, quickly ducking back behind the snow machine, looking for relatives.  Often, in war, unscrupulous adults would use kids as distractions or human shields, catching those soldiers off guard who were too queasy to shoot through a kid to get to the monster behind them.  That split-second of hesitation often cost the soldier his life, and even then, Harvey was cursing himself for hesitating.  Killearn was dead.  This was war.

    ¡°Kid!¡± Harvey shouted, protecting himself as much as possible with the body of the snow machine, ¡°Where are your parents?¡±

    ¡°They¡¯re dead,¡± the little girl said.  She was blinking at him in confusion, probably not even realizing what the thing in his hand actually did, or why it was pointed at her.

    ¡°Anyone in there with you?!¡± he demanded.

    She nodded.

    ¡°Tell them to come out.¡±  He raised his voice to carry into the cabin behind her.  ¡°Get out here or I shoot your kid!¡±  He hated to be a bastard, but he also didn¡¯t want to play games.

    The kid nervously looked over her shoulder at something inside.  ¡°I don¡¯t think she can move.¡±

    She?  Harvey frowned.  ¡°What you mean, she?¡±

    ¡°The woman who saved me,¡± the little girl said.  ¡°She¡¯s bleeding on the floor.  I don¡¯t think she¡¯s awake.¡±

    It could be a trap, Harvey reasoned.  A good one, too.  Just get the unsuspecting soldier to wander inside looking to help out a lady, put a couple rounds through his braincase as soon as he was through the door¡­

    ¡°Why¡¯s she bleeding?¡± he asked, still on high alert for any hint of motion around him.  Though, to be fair, if anyone had staked out shooting stations as he approached at full-bore like a moron, he would probably be dead already.  Unless they were stupid.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know why she¡¯s bleeding,¡± the little girl said.  ¡°She went out to find food and there were gunshots and she came back and she was bleeding.¡±

    Harvey glanced at the dead man in the parking lot behind him.  ¡°What about him?¡±

    ¡°What about who?¡± the little girl asked.

    ¡°The dead guy on the ground out here,¡± he snapped.  ¡°Don¡¯t play stupid!¡±

    ¡°What dead guy?¡± the little girl asked, blinking dumbly.  ¡°There wasn¡¯t a guy.¡±

    Harvey frowned.  ¡°You mean there wasn¡¯t a guy in there with you?  Nobody but her?¡±

    ¡°Uh, no, just her.  And, um, look, she told me to keep this place warm and the door¡¯s open and it¡¯s cold and I¡¯m letting out the heat.  Do you think you could come inside and talk to me in here?¡±

    And there was the trap.  Just stand up, show us your body, let us get you in our sights.  Harvey narrowed his eyes.  He¡¯d gone through scenes like this in the Middle East, but he¡¯d never thought he would see it in America.  ¡°You come out here to me.¡±  Let them take that and chew on it.

    ¡°Uh, okay.¡±  The girl started to pull the door shut.

    ¡°Leave the door open!¡± he shouted, not wanting anything to block his limited view of the interior.

    The girl hesitated.  ¡°Um, I¡¯m really sorry, but I don¡¯t know who you are and my mom told me not to talk to strangers, and you¡¯re acting weird.¡±  Without another word, the little girl went back up the stairs and shut the door behind her.  Harvey could have shot her, but didn¡¯t.  He just stared at the door, still holding his weapon, trying to piece together what the fuck.

    Kid said she¡¯s bleeding, Harvey thought, frowning.  She.  Who the hell was ¡®she¡¯ and why the hell was she up here with a kid that wasn¡¯t hers?  And what the fuck happened to Killearn?  No she could¡¯ve gotten into a scuffle with Killearn and made it out alive.

    Eventually, when no gunmen presented themselves, Harvey, staying low, reluctantly got up and went over to the corpse in the parking lot.

    The first thing he noted was the blood.  Everywhere.  It centered around the boulder, and though there had been some minor ashfall since, it was pretty clear there had been a massive struggle.  Frowning, Harvey glanced back at the cabin, but no one had reopened the door or come to the windows.

    Still keeping a low profile, he got close enough to determine that it was, indeed, Killearn, and that he¡¯d been beat to shit and shot¡ªrepeatedly¡ªwith his own gun.  Harvey plucked it from the ash and his lips took on a grim line as he tucked the Glock into his belt.  So some bitch had ambushed him, maybe got a little friendly to some lonely Army Ranger, then taken his gun and shot him with it.This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

    ¡­but also beat him to shit in a slugfest on the ground?

    That¡­really didn¡¯t make sense.  There had to be someone else.  A man.  Someone big enough to do that kind of damage.

    Very carefully, Harvey crossed back to the front of the cabin and hesitated, hunched by the window, listening.  There were small sounds inside, scuffles, as someone moved around.  Slowly, he lifted his head to peer inside.

    Sure a shit, a half-naked Asian chick was slumped against the bed, blood everywhere, makeshift bandages wrapped around her leg, apparently unconscious.  Frowning, Harvey slowly stood, glancing back at Killearn¡¯s body.  When nobody jumped from behind a building to shout ¡®Surprise!¡¯ with the fiery muzzle of an AK-47, he wandered back across the parking lot to get a better look at Killearn.

    He¡¯d been shot several times in the side and back, then twice in the head, basically exploding the right side of his melon into oblivion.  Harvey rolled the big man onto his side.

    Killearn¡¯s dick, small and puckered and dead, was bunched up along with his balls at the apex of his fly, covered in volcanic ash and blood.  Harvy quickly shoved the corpse over the rest of the way, then stood up, his stunned mind taking that in.

    Remembering the odd way the woman¡¯s pants had been pulled partway down, he got a sickly-cold feeling in his gut, realizing what this was.

    It was the end of the world.  Aliens were attacking, bombs were dropping, Killearn was out here alone and nobody would give a shit about some missing Asian chick¡­

    That fucker dragged her up here and raped her, he thought.  Shit happened in war, and it was shit like this that made the rest of them¡ªgood guys just trying to stay alive and do the right thing¡ªlook bad.

    He left the corpse and went back up to the cabin.  He still had his gun out, but he felt less inclined to use it.  Had someone come charging him from around a corner, he would¡¯ve put a couple rounds in their skull, but so far, it was looking like a open-and-closed case of rapee gets one over on rapist.  Still, he entered the cabin hard and fast, shouting, ¡°Get your hands up!  Up where I can see them,¡± the shock-and-awe tactic meant to catch bomb-making douchebags off guard, before they could reach for their handy AK-47s.

    The little girl looked up warily from the stove, where she was loading more wood onto the fire.  The Asian chick never moved.

    Once Harvey had determined there was nobody in the loft, he shoved the door shut and pulled the curtains.  Then he checked the Asian woman for weapons.

    Nothing.  He checked her pulse.  Alive, but barely.

    She¡¯d been stabbed, twice in the leg, then sliced open along the side and abdomen in a long, nasty gash that was still oozing blood onto the wooden floorboards.  He could see the white chinks of a couple of her ribs in the base of the gash.

    That it had been a knife fight brought a whole ¡®nother perspective to the situation.

    She got in a fight with him, Harvey thought, stunned.  Hand to hand, fist-to-first, she had gotten in a fight with Killearn and came out on top.  That, in itself, was eye-opening.

    Harvey reluctantly put his gun back in its holster.  Turning to the little girl, he said, ¡°So that guy outside brought you guys up here?¡±

    ¡°What guy outside?¡± the girl asked, still blinking in confusion.

    So he ambushed them, Harvey thought.  But he hadn¡¯t seen the park vehicle nor any civilian vehicles, so how in the hell had she and the girl gotten here?

    Didn¡¯t really matter, he decided.  He needed to get this woman sewn up or she was dead.  As it was, it looked like a slaughterhouse in here.  He pulled her underwear up for modesty, then yanked her pants off and her shirt up, checking for more knife wounds.  He only found the three, but they were all bad.

    ¡°Hey kid,¡± Harvey said, ¡°I need you to go find a pan or something, fill it with snow, get some water boiling.¡±

    Immediately, the girl made a face.  ¡°There¡¯s aliens out there.¡±

    Harvey, who had just lifted the Asian chick on the bed, froze.  Very slowly, he turned around.  ¡°Come again?¡±

    ¡°The maggots are aliens.  Mean was killing them.¡±  At his baffled look, she added, ¡°Mean¡¯s my cat.  She¡¯s not mean, though.  Her real name is Mindy.  Mean just sounds cooler.  We decided to call her Mean because¡ª¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t give a fuck about your cat,¡± he snapped, unholstering his gun again.  ¡°You said there¡¯s aliens?  What kind of aliens?¡±

    The little girl scowled at him.  ¡°I¡¯m Kelsey.¡±

    He wanted to tell her he didn¡¯t give a crap about her name, either, but he managed to rein himself in.  ¡°Hi Kelsey, I¡¯m Harvey.  Tell me about these aliens, okay?¡±

    ¡°They¡¯re maggots,¡± she said, as if that explained everything.  ¡°They¡¯re black and they fall from the sky.¡±

    Harvey immediately glanced up at the roof, expecting to see them there, boring through the tin sheeting.

    ¡°Some of them are bigger than others,¡± she said.  ¡°I saw one try to get in the door when I was sitting here with Mandy.  I think they¡¯re eating each other.¡±

    Unconsciously, Harvey glanced at the door.  There was a small crack, just enough for darkness to show through.  Was it his imagination, or did he see just something move on the other side?

    ¡°See?¡± the girl said, pointing at the crack.  ¡°One of them just tried to get in.  I think they like the light.¡±

    Harvey swallowed hard.  He glanced at the woman on the bed, considered letting her die rather than open the door to retrieve the medkit from the Humvee, then thought about the fact that he couldn¡¯t stay holed up without food and water forever.  ¡°I¡¯m gonna get water and supplies,¡± he said.  ¡°You stay here and watch Mandy.¡±

    ¡°Watch her do what?¡±

    Stupid kid.  ¡°Sleep.¡±

    ¡°Why?¡±

    Harvey opened his mouth to tell the kid why, then stopped halfway.  ¡°I¡¯ll be back in a few minutes,¡± he muttered.  ¡°Don¡¯t leave the cabin.¡±

    ¡°I wasn¡¯t going to,¡± she said, sounding like she thought he were dumb for even mentioning it.

    Harvey thought the girl was probably one of those kids that hadn¡¯t gotten spanked enough as a kid, and decided to remedy that situation just as soon as someone¡¯s life wasn¡¯t on the line.  Thus, he was thinking about disciplining the little brat, not guys with AK-47s surprising him from the shadows, when he stepped out onto the porch and took a two-by-four to the side of his head.

    It wasn¡¯t complete lights-out, but it was damn close.  Harvey slumped forward, to his knees, but couldn¡¯t get back up.  Something huge shoved him the rest of the way down.

    ¡°Get his hands tied!¡± the guy who¡¯d ambushed him shouted, the deep voice of someone whose chest was shaped like a barrel and whose spine had a few extra feet in it.

    As he was lying there under a Size-20 boot, Harvey confirmed the guy who¡¯d hit him was approximately the same size as Goliath, and his companion who was running to get his hands behind his back was not another guy, but actually a pretty blonde¡­

    Neat.  He tried to reach for his gun anyway.  But, since it was the second time he¡¯d been hit in the head since the alien exploded the tank, and his noggin had already been tender, Harvey instead felt his eyes roll into the back of his head as he lost consciousness.

 Chapter 21 - The Soldier, the Jarhead, and the Glock

    <h1>Chapter 21: The Soldier, the Jarhead, and the Glock</h1>

    ¡°You stupid motherfuckers, I¡¯m a US Army Ranger. Let me up.¡± The man that Rusty had dropped into a corner, hands tied behind his back, was struggling and looking pissed. Rusty hadn¡¯t taken his attention off him, the man¡¯s two Glocks in either hand, but Envy knew they couldn¡¯t sleep like this. She didn''t feel anything bad coming off him, but they way he¡¯d held that gun on the kid, he was a dangerous piece of work, and the way they¡¯d ambushed him afterwards wasn¡¯t going to have earned them any favors.

    ¡°Sure you are,¡± Rusty said, tapping the fully loaded Glock against his big knee thoughtfully. ¡°What¡¯d you do to that woman, Mr. Ranger?¡±

    ¡°His name¡¯s Harvey,¡± Envy said. ¡°Use it.¡± They¡¯d heard him use it as they¡¯d been hovering outside, listening.

    ¡°Okay, Captain,¡± Rusty said without a hitch.

    At the word ¡®Captain,¡¯ the man on the floor¡¯s attention sharpened. ¡°What service?¡± he demanded.

    ¡°Huh?¡±

    ¡°In what service are you a Captain?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m no¡ª¡± Envy started.

    ¡°She¡¯s retired,¡± Douglass said over the top of her. ¡°Air Force.¡±

    That made the guy grimace like he smelled bad cheese. Still, he seemed to accept it as truth, and Envy made a sideways look of ¡®what the fuck?¡¯ to Douglass, who pretended he didn¡¯t notice.

    Randy, too, seemed in on the joke, for he smoothly said, ¡°Best Air Force officer I ever had while I was in.¡±

    ¡°Captain,¡± the man said, addressing Envy directly, now, ¡°this is a big mistake. I didn¡¯t hurt that woman. That guy out there on the ground is a guy from my squad. Sgt. Killearn. I don¡¯t know what happened between him and this woman¡ªI just got here.¡±

    So that¡¯s what Douglass was thinking, Envy said, realizing the strategy in the two guys¡¯ lies. Put me in charge, he has to follow my orders. ¡°Why were you holding a gun on a little girl¡­¡± She hesitated, looking at the rank on his collar and having no freakin¡¯ idea what it meant.

    ¡°Sergeant Sicara,¡± Harvey supplied, thankfully. ¡°I thought someone was using her as an ambush prop,¡± he said. ¡°Captain, I¡¯m one of the good guys.¡±

    ¡°We¡¯ll see,¡± Envy said. She glanced at Douglass, who was even then sewing up the girl¡¯s wounds with a medikit the Ranger had told them was in the Humvee. ¡°Is she gonna make it?¡±

    ¡°She¡¯s not doing good,¡± Douglass admitted. ¡°I¡¯m actually surprised she¡¯s still alive.¡±

    ¡°And you didn¡¯t do that to her,¡± Envy insisted. They of course knew that¡ªthey had heard the guy shouting at the little girl like a barbarian¡ªbut she wanted to put him on edge.

    ¡°No, Ma¡¯am,¡± the Army Ranger insisted. ¡°She was like that when I got here.¡±

    Envy seemed to consider that. Then, ¡°We just arrived ourselves. What do you think happened? Best guess.¡±

    This time, Sergeant Sicara hesitated, making a face. He looked hesitant to say, then, reluctantly, he said, ¡°You want my real opinion or the PC one?¡±

    ¡°Real opinion please, Sergeant,¡± Envy said.

    ¡°I think he raped her and she was probably high up in one of those Asian martial arts. I think she got in a brawl with him, took his gun from him, and he stabbed her, so she shot him.¡±

    Envy felt her eyebrows go up, despite herself. ¡°A US soldier tried to rape a girl.¡±

    He gave her a slightly surprised look, then schooled his features. ¡°Happens all the time in war, Ma¡¯am,¡± Harvey said, almost woodenly. ¡°Especially if they think they can get away with it.¡±

    Well wasn¡¯t that great. ¡°What about you, Sergeant?¡± Envy said. ¡°What brings you up here in the mountains?¡±

    The man frowned a little, looking like he wanted to say something, then cocked his head at her. ¡°You didn¡¯t hear about the mission?¡±

    ¡°So it was the aliens,¡± Envy sidestepped.

    ¡°Yeah,¡± he said, his face twisting bitterly. ¡°It was the aliens.¡±

    ¡°Any more of your buddies survive?¡± Douglass asked casually as he sewed, almost like he didn¡¯t care, but Envy knew it was a fa?ade. He was listening too carefully, too intently.

    Harvey frowned. ¡°Hey asshole. You say that like you think because I worked with him I might as well have put my dick in her, too.¡±

    ¡°He just wants to know if there¡¯s any other survivors we should know about,¡± Envy said. ¡°To, you know, regroup.¡±

    Harvey, still scowling at Douglass, turned back to face her slowly. ¡°I didn¡¯t hurt the girl,¡± he growled.The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

    ¡°We know that,¡± Envy said.

    ¡°So why the fuck am I still tied up, Captain?¡± Harvey demanded.

    ¡°Because you were goddamn pointing a gun at an eight year old girl,¡± Rusty snapped, his anger making his voice boom in the tiny cabin. Rusty, Envy had learned over her time living with him, had a soft spot for kids, and she was actually a little surprised that the big man hadn¡¯t put the two-by-four through Harvey¡¯s head, rather than just give him a love-tap.

    ¡°Look,¡± Harvey said, ¡°I¡¯d just engaged the situation. I saw my budd¡ª¡± he hesitated, making a quick glare at Douglass, ¡°¡ªsquadmate who was supposed to be guarding our gear dead on the ground, and I didn¡¯t know who was inside the cabin. I knew it hadn¡¯t been a kid to kill Killearn, so I figured someone was using her as a shield. So I was wrong. So fucking sue me. I just came back from the sandbox, you bucktoothed drooling fuck.¡±

    It seemed likely enough. Envy had heard of the urban warfare doing some fucked up things to people, just as bad as PTSD from the Vietnam jungle, in a lot of cases. And she had heard stuff about people using kids to deliver bombs, or to distract the nice soldier with candy as their parents surrounded him and his buddies.

    Envy considered, then said, ¡°Rusty, untie him.¡±

    ¡°He¡¯s been untied the last two hours, Captain,¡± Rusty said, still watching Sergeant Sicara narrowly, still tapping his Glock against a knee.

    Sgt. Sicara blinked. ¡°Huh? Untied? You don¡¯t remember tying me up and dropping me like a sack of shit?¡±

    ¡°Oh, I remember,¡± Rusty said. Tap. Tap. ¡°Also been payin¡¯ pretty close attention to how you wiggled out of ¡®em in the first ten minutes.¡±

    The Ranger glared at Rusty, then turned to Envy and, pulling his hands from behind his back, he said, ¡°All right,¡± he said, gesturing, ¡°Let¡¯s just start over. If I wanted to, I could kill you, your dumbfuck friend, and your nurse buddy in a flat second.¡±

    ¡°Doubt that,¡± Rusty said.

    Sgt. Sicara gave Rusty a sideways scowl. ¡°I¡¯m not, because I don¡¯t want to.¡± He picked up a shaving of kindling that had fallen from the firewood stack and started fiddling with it. Then, dropping it, he said, ¡°You were a Marine, weren¡¯t you.¡±

    Rusty¡¯s slow smile was all the sergeant needed to know. ¡°Fuuuuck,¡± he muttered. ¡°End of the world and I get stuck with an Air Force desk jockey and a braindead jarhead infantry.¡±

    ¡°Motor-T,¡± Rusty said. ¡°But they kept putting me through combat zones.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll bet they did,¡± the sergeant muttered. To Envy, he said, ¡°So are we cool? Everybody¡¯s cool? No more pointing my own gun at me?¡±

    ¡°Haven¡¯t pointed a gun at you,¡± Rusty said. He continued to tap the Ranger¡¯s Glock against his kneecap.

    ¡°Yeah, okay, I¡¯ll give you that,¡± Harvey said. ¡°Can I have my gun back now?¡±

    ¡°No,¡± Rusty replied casually.

    Harvey cursed, but made no move to try and take it from him. ¡°Okay, so this is fucking stupid.¡± He stood up and went over to the bed, where Douglass looked up from what he was doing to watch his approach tensely.

    ¡°How is it a blind man becomes a nurse?¡± Sg. Sicara asked, squatting beside the bed to peruse Douglass¡¯s work.

    ¡°Don¡¯t let him near the scalpels,¡± Rusty noted casually. ¡°Hate to have to blow the pretty boy¡¯s cranium through his nostrils.¡±

    Sgt. Sicara glared at Rusty over his shoulder. Now that Rusty mentioned it, Envy noticed he was pretty. Blond, well-muscled, with a strong jaw and buzzcut¡­ ¡°I¡¯m just checking on the girl, okay, numbnuts?¡±

    Rusty grinned. Dick-waving contest definitely in full swing.

    ¡°He¡¯d win,¡± Envy muttered, thinking of the last time she accidentally saw Rusty naked. He¡¯d been drying off after a shower, his bathroom door open because he thought he was alone in the house. Envy had actually taken three steps into the bathroom with him before she realized he¡¯d gone stock still and his gigantic dick was hanging halfway to his hairy knee. And was starting to rise.

    ¡°Who¡¯d win what, Captain?¡± Rusty asked, interrupting that thought.

    She quickly cleared her throat. ¡°Sorry.¡± She shook herself. To Sgt. Sicara, she said, ¡°Don¡¯t measure dicks with this man. You¡¯ll lose.¡±

    To her surprise, Sgt. Sicara looked Rusty up and down, then said, ¡°I believe you¡¯re probably right,¡± then chuckled. ¡°God, you musta eaten your Wheaties growin¡¯ up, huh?¡±

    Rusty beamed. ¡°It was my Mama¡¯s sweet potato pie.¡±

    Something about the way he said that must¡¯ve put Sgt. Sicara at ease, because the man sighed and dropped a scalpel back to Douglass¡¯s medical supplies, to Douglass¡¯s surprise. ¡°All right, look,¡± he said, pointing at Rusty, ¡°You. Gigantor. Give me my gun.¡±

    Rusty glanced at Envy, who nodded. He stood up, walked over, and gave Sgt. Sicara the second gun. Without looking at it or taking it, Harvey gave Rusty a flat look. ¡°That isn¡¯t my gun.¡±

    ¡°It is now,¡± Rusty said, grinning down at him, crossing his big arms over his big chest, the second gun locked under his armpit.

    ¡°This gun¡¯s got one bullet in it,¡± Harvey retorted. ¡°My gun is full.¡±

    Rusty unconcernedly picked at something in his teeth, still holding on to the man¡¯s preferred weapon out of reach.

    Figuring she needed to nip this in the bud if they were going to develop any sort of rapport with the guy who could likely kill them all with a pinkie, Envy said, ¡°Split up the rounds. Each of you get half.¡±

    ¡°I want the bigger half,¡± Rusty said.

    To her surprise, the Ranger said, ¡°Fine. Give.¡± He held out his hand and wiggled his fingers.

    Rusty gave the guy one suspicious look, hesitating.

    ¡°Oh Jesus, fine.¡± The man yanked the clip from his gun and handed it to Rusty. ¡°There you go, you suspicious shit.¡±

    Rusty continued watching Sgt. Sicara for another moment, then pulled the clip from his gun, and in that moment, Envy went tense, knowing that the Ranger probably could have used that moment to disable Rusty, take the gun, and use it to shoot the rest of them. Hovering over the Asian woman, Douglass, too, had gone stiff.

    ¡°Oh relax, people, I¡¯m not gonna hurt anybody,¡± Sgt. Sicara said without looking at them. ¡°I told you. I¡¯m one of the good guys.¡±

    Rusty nonetheless gave him a wary look as he handed back the clip, after he had popped his own clip back into place.

    ¡°Thanks, dude,¡± Harvey said. Then he hesitated. ¡°You¡¯re retired, right?¡±

    ¡°Figure there¡¯s nothing better to get me to reenlist than an alien shitstorm,¡± Rusty said. ¡°Better than a signing bonus.¡±

    A slow smile broke out on Sgt. Sicara¡¯s face. ¡°I like the way you think.¡± Then, too quickly, his smile faded. ¡°But honestly, bud, I think we¡¯re screwed in the goat ass. I got a good look at one of the things we¡¯re dealing with. Everyone in my squad did, right before it spat purple napalm at them and squished them like ripe bananas.¡±

    ¡°Wait,¡± Envy interrupted. ¡°¡®It¡¯? It wasn¡¯t a maggot?¡±

    Sgt. Sicara frowned. ¡°What maggots?¡± He glanced at the little girl. ¡°She said she saw maggots, but I ain¡¯t seen nothin¡¯ like that. Just a two-by-four to my braincase.¡± The last he said with a little sideways look at Rusty.

    ¡°So¡­¡± Douglass said, wiping blood from his hands with a little frown, ¡°¡­what did you see?¡±

    Sgt. Sicara hesitated, seeming to chew on his words for some time. Finally, he just shook himself and said, ¡°I saw a fucking dragon.¡±

 Chapter 22 - Dragon Chatter

    <h1>Chapter 22:  Dragon Chatter</h1>

    ¡°You said it talked to you?¡± the blind nurse insisted.  ¡°The dragon?¡±

    ¡°In my head, yeah,¡± Harvey said, distracted.  The big dude had handed him what looked like some sort of expensive crystal dagger at first, only to tell him they¡¯d pulled it out of an alien maggot the size of his forearm.  It was approximately two pounds in weight, way too heavy for its size and shape, and a translucent blue color that almost seemed luminescent at the right angle, like fiber optics.  ¡°You got this out of a bug?¡± he asked.

    ¡°We think it¡¯s a skull,¡± the so-called Captain Travis said.  Harvey was pretty sure they were all bullshitting him¡ªshe didn¡¯t even seem to know basic rank structure¡ªbut he was playing along with it, if only because she didn¡¯t seem to be stupid and the others seemed to respect her enough to try and trick him into blind obedience.

    Like that was going to fly, post-alien-apocalypse.  Oh, you¡¯re a higher rank than me in some military branch of pussies that no longer exists?  Here, let me just suck your dick, Captain¡­

    But he¡¯d kept his cool and played their game, because they didn¡¯t seem like bad people and it wasn¡¯t in his best interest to kick their asses and call them out on it.  Yet.

    ¡°Doug says that thing talks to him in his head, too,¡± the jarhead said.

    ¡°What thing?¡± Harvey said, testing the dagger¡¯s blade and nicking himself.

    The jarhead gestured with a meaty finger at the dagger in Harvey¡¯s hand.  Frowning, Harvey turned to the blind man, who confirmed with a nod¡­approximately three inches too far to the left.

    ¡°Uhhh,¡± Harvey said, offering the dagger back, ¡°not that I don¡¯t believe you guys, but that¡¯s a little far fetched.¡±

    Immediately, the nurse¡¯s face hardened, and Harvey realized he¡¯d made a mistake.  Quickly backtracking, he said, ¡°Then again, Earth apparently got fucked and impregnated by an alien spaceship, went into convulsions that knocked down half the world, her water broke, she went into labor, she spewed ash everywhere, and now there¡¯s fire-spitting alien bug-babies squirming around that may or may not turn into dragons.  There¡¯s not a lot I won¡¯t believe at this point.¡±

    The other three adults crammed into the tiny cabin with him made varied looks of frustration and agreement, but the little girl¡ªKelsey¡ªtugged on his snow cammies and, looking up at him innocently, said, ¡°What¡¯s labor?¡±

    The adults in the room glanced at each other pointedly, trying to shuffle off the responsibility of answering that particular query to someone else, because nobody wanted to go there.

    ¡°It means having babies,¡± came a dry croak from the bed.  As Harvey and the others turned to look, the Asian chick cocked her head on the pillow, squinting at them from between a black eye, and managed, ¡°Who the fuck are all of you?¡±  She licked her dried, chapped lips, and croaked, ¡°And anyone got water?¡±

    Doug, who had been using a pail of boiled snow to clean her wounds, quickly poured some into a mug and handed it to her.

    The mug fell out of her hand and hit the blanket, spilling over the floor, her hand too weak to hold it and the blind man obviously not having been able to see that.

    ¡°Shit,¡± the nurse said, scrambling to find the mug again.

    ¡°Lemme see,¡± Harvey said, reaching for the mug, grabbing it, and sloughing as much of the water as he could off onto the floor before it soaked into the covers.  He refilled the cup and held it to the Asian chick, but she didn¡¯t take it.  Instead, she was spending a lot of time staring at the gun at his hip, his arctic cammies, and the rank insignia on his collar.  Her hand had started to tremble.  Her brown almond eyes flickered to his and there was outright suspicion there.

    Harvey pushed the cup into her hand gently.  ¡°Not a douche,¡± he said, helping her hold it.  ¡°If I¡¯da been here, I woulda shot him myself.¡±

    Well, that might not have been completely true¡ªhe probably would have stripped the guy down and sent him running buck-assed naked down the hill for the maggots to eat¡ªbut he hoped it would make her feel better.

    ¡°He¡­tried to¡­rape me¡­¡± she croaked, making no move to take the cup or drink.

    Tried to, Harvey thought, relieved.  At least there wouldn¡¯t be a rapebaby to deal with.  ¡°We guessed as much,¡± he said.

    ¡°He was gonna kill me.¡±  She looked at the others as if she wanted confirmation nobody was gonna throw her in jail for giving the fuckwit what he deserved.The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

    ¡°Good job on kicking his sorry ass,¡± the giant grunted.

    ¡°So¡­¡± she hesitated, confused.  ¡°I¡¯m not gonna get charged?¡±

    Harvey laughed, despite himself.  ¡°Charged?  For what?¡±

    ¡°For sneaking in here and trying to get a scoop when the barriers were up.¡±

    Harvey stopped laughing.  ¡°You¡¯re a reporter.¡±  That made him slightly queasy.

    She nodded, a weak little bob of her head, and he felt his hand tighten on the mug.

    Reporters were such a pain in the cock, especially in the field.  They were always the ones to get your balls handed to you for every little slip-up, ¡®cause they were constantly following you around shoving cameras up your asses looking for dirt.  Hell, Harvey had lost two guys in his squad to a court-martial for killing a known terrorist who had snuck into their mobile base under the guise of a guy seeking help for his pregnant daughter, seen all their informants coming out of the command tent, and had left his daughter and was gonna sneak out again to tell the rest of the insurgents, who would then proceed to kill all their informants, their families, and their friends¡¯ families.  Two good guys who had taken one bad guy out behind the latrines and shot him in the head to prevent the deaths of dozens of others.  Boom.  In jail for life because some reporter had to take a dump at the wrong time of the night.

    Harvey actually had to resist the urge to pull the cup away and force himself to continue to hold the mug out for her.  She must have sensed his irritation, because she made no move to drink.

    Harvey forced himself to relax.  ¡°Drink,¡± he muttered.  ¡°The world ain¡¯t the same.  Everybody got a clean slate.¡±  Then he thought of Morgan, still lying up there in the mountains because Harvey hadn¡¯t been able to bury him in the frozen, boulder-pocked ground.

    ¡°Everybody¡¯s dead,¡± the Asian woman said with a wry scoff, but she gingerly drank from the mug until the water was gone.  ¡°More,¡± she gasped.  Harvey refilled it twice more before she was sated, then handed the mug back to the nurse, who gave the air near his head an irritated look and set the cup on the little nightstand.

    Or tried to.  He didn¡¯t seat it properly and it tilted off the edge, and Harvey had to catch it and put it back.  ¡°What kind of blind man are you, anyway,¡± he muttered.  ¡°Ain¡¯t you guys supposed to have super-senses or something?  ¡¯Specially as a nurse?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ve been blind all of two days, asshole,¡± Douglass said.  ¡°And I¡¯m a doctor, not a nurse.  Check the shoes.¡±  He held a foot out, and indeed, it was covered in what once had been plush, expensive loafers.  Now they just looked stained and water-warped pieces of shit.

    Still, it made Harvey do a double-take.  ¡°So you¡¯re a doctor.¡±

    ¡°Bingo.  He gets a burrito.¡±  Then, longingly.  ¡°Man, I could sure go for a burrito.¡±  As it was, they had portioned off what little food they had found from digging around in the rubble of the lodge.  They were looking at a couple weeks between the six of them, if they stretched it.  If they didn¡¯t stretch it, they would probably run out of easy edibles in ten days, then stuff like flour, rice, and beans in another five days after that.

    ¡°How¡¯d you go blind?¡± Harvey said, now feeling a little bad for the guy.

    ¡°Beats the fuck outta me,¡± Douglass said.  ¡°Just¡­¡±  He waved a hand in front of his face suddenly, ¡°Shoop.  Gone.¡±

    ¡°There was an explosion right before the ship took off,¡± ¡®Captain¡¯ Travis elaborated for him.  ¡°Took his sight, left him with something else.¡±

    Harvey squinted at the man.  Now that he was looking, he did have the cultured, effeminate look of a high-class medical professional worth his weight in Armani.  ¡°What kind of something else?¡±

    The nurse¡ªdoctor¡ªlook depressed when he shrugged.  ¡°I see sounds, see the words people make, see the maggots crawling under the cabin, see your internal organs, but can¡¯t see the goddamn bed I¡¯m sitting on.¡±  He made a disgusted shrug.  ¡°I¡¯m just hoping it goes away and I get my eyesight back.  This sucks donkey balls.¡±

    Frowning, Harvey glanced at the dagger in the big guy¡¯s hand.  ¡°And that is talking to you?¡±

    ¡°Yeah.¡±  Again, the guy looked super depressed.  ¡°Hey, anyone think we could make a burrito from that stuff you found?¡±

    ¡°What¡¯s it saying?¡± Harvey demanded.

    The doctor turned to give him an unfocused stare.  ¡°What¡­like right now?¡±

    ¡°You mean it changes?¡±

    Douglass laughed.  ¡°All the fucking time.  Unless something major¡¯s happening, it¡¯s constantly playing in the background, like a forty-hour speech on loop.  Sometimes it changes, but usually that¡¯s just something about how to survive whatever hardship I¡¯m facing at the time.¡±  He squinted at Harvey.  ¡°Like you.  It said to take you down with a blow to the head, tie you up, and make you submit.¡±

    ¡°So what¡¯s it saying right now?¡± Harvey said.

    Douglass grimaced like the whole thing irritated him, looked like he wouldn¡¯t bother to answer, then reluctantly turned to look directly at the object, cocked his head, then said, ¡°It¡¯s something about how the animals will serve with coercion, and once we¡¯ve had enough generations to breed suitably docile livestock, we need to have them build a great temple for our reunion.¡±  Douglass shrugged.  ¡°Before that, it was talking about how to gain the animals¡¯ trust by moving amongst them in disguise, learning from them.¡±

    Harvey frowned, the dragon¡¯s words immediately returning to his mind.  ¡°Seek out my children and serve them, offer your bodies to their benefit, or you shall be killed like the useless vermin you are.¡±

    ¡°Doesn¡¯t make any sense so I haven¡¯t bothered anyone with it,¡± Douglass said, shrugging.  He glanced at Rusty.  ¡°Seriously.  Burritos.  Can we try making a burrito?¡±

    ¡°It makes sense,¡± Harvey whispered, his heart starting to pound.

    Douglass turned to frown at him.  ¡°Huh?¡±

    ¡°Us,¡± Harvey said.  ¡°We¡¯re the animals.¡±

    There was no comprehension on the man¡¯s face.

    ¡°It¡¯s telling the maggots how to subjugate us,¡± Harvey blurted.

    His companions¡¯ faces went pale.  ¡°Shit,¡± Douglass whispered breathlessly.  ¡°Shit, I think you¡¯re right.¡±

    ¡°They¡¯re planning to breed us?¡± ¡®Captain¡¯ Travis demanded, a tinge of panic in her tone.  ¡°Like cattle?¡±

    ¡°Oh fuck no,¡± the Asian chick said, already starting to feebly climb out of the bed.  ¡°Fuck this, fuck that.¡±

    But it was the dumbass jarhead who looked down at the thing in his hand and said, ¡°This thing¡¯s a radio.¡±

 Chapter 23 - Breeding Habits

    <h1>Chapter 23: Breeding Habits</h1>

    ¡­will require manpower. Harvest the animals around you, especially the bipeds. Our calculations say they will make excellent laborers, given the right incentives¡­

    Douglass grimaced, rubbing his head at the nonstop litany of Tips And Tricks To Subjugate A Planet that had been on loop for the last three days. ¡°Hey, you wanna just take that thing with you?¡± he demanded, shoving the blade towards the three heading up the Pass to collect weapons and gear.

    It was Rusty who answered. ¡°Keep it, doc. We need to know what they¡¯re saying.¡±

    ¡°I know what they¡¯re saying,¡± Douglass said, frustrated. ¡°They¡¯re saying we¡¯re animals, that they¡¯re gonna train us to build their shit for them. I haven¡¯t been getting any sleep. Seriously, you leave it here, I¡¯ll probably find a way to break it in half.¡±

    Then, thinking how he might get two signals instead of just one, Douglass grimaced and added, ¡°Or maybe just throw it down the mountain.¡±

    ¡°Keep it,¡± their brave Captain said. ¡°Don¡¯t throw it. We need that thing safe.¡±

    Douglass bit his tongue on a retort, not wanting their new Ranger buddy to figure out Envy wasn¡¯t in the military and replace his blind obedience with a few revenge bullets for good measure. After all, in an apocalypse, blind obedience from a battle-hardened badass was something to be treasured, even if he had to choke down the obvious ¡°You aren¡¯t in charge of me, rich girl,¡± responses that otherwise would have popped out like kernels of corn boiling in hot butter.

    The three hale adults¡ªthe three not blind, gimped, or four years old¡ªseemed to take his choked silence as assent, because he heard them open the door and step outside onto the porch, leaving him in the cabin with the invalids.

    Time passed. The stabbing victim slept. Douglass picked lint from the bed.

    He watched the girl stand and walk over to him, leaning forward to peer at his face only inches away. He could see the organs working behind her brow, the life in her skin, the pressure in her eyeballs. ¡°Why are you blind?¡± The kid¡¯s words came on a spreading wave of violet.

    Because I got fucked over by God, Douglass immediately thought. ¡°I was in an explosion,¡± he said. ¡°Knocked out my senses.¡±

    ¡°Okay,¡± the little girl said, straightening. ¡°I¡¯m gonna go find my cat.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, okay.¡± Anything to keep her from reminding him of the fact he could see her organs but not her face.

    The girl walked to the cabin, opened the door, and yanked it shut again.

    Douglass frowned. ¡°Wait, what?¡± He heard little snowboots crunching in the parking lot outside, getting further away. After a couple minutes, he stood. ¡°Hey, Kelsey?!¡± He stumbled towards the door, fell on the end of the bed, and slammed into the wall under the window. Crawling, blindly groping at the room around him, inwardly hoping his hand didn¡¯t land on the searing-hot stove, he eventually found the door and, with effort, figured out and manipulated the latch.

    Yanking the door open, he shouted out into the cold, ¡°Kelsey?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ve gotta get Mean!¡± came the girl¡¯s distant reply, too far away. Way too far.

    ¡°Hey, no, get back here!¡± Douglass shouted. Rusty had taken a liking to the little girl, and he just knew the big oaf would crush him into a paste for letting her wander off alone in a world filled with flesh-eating alien dragon-larvae

    ¡°I¡¯ll be back soon!¡± she shouted, a wave of yellow-orange. ¡°I need to find her!¡±

    ¡°No, don¡¯t¡ª¡± Douglass said, taking a hasty step out the door. His foot missed the porch¡ªbecause it wasn¡¯t a porch, it was a staircase¡ªand he went tumbling down the steps into the snow, ramming his nose into something hard on his way down. Sitting back up, Douglass felt out his bloody nose and skinned-up chin gingerly, determined nothing was broken, then awkwardly got to his feet. ¡°Hey Kelsey!¡± he shouted in the general direction he saw the ripple effects of her orange words even then fading.

    No answer.

    Douglass took two more steps, tripped on whatever had hit him in the face the first time, and went down in the snow, hard. He propped himself back up, holding his wrist, and was about to try again when a bone-chilling thought occurred to him:

    What if, in stumbling around looking for the girl, he lost his way back to the cabin? As it was, he could only barely see the yellow glow of the convalescent woman in the bed, and he wasn¡¯t sure where the door was because he saw through the walls. As it was, the woman looked like she was floating above the squirming layer of alien maggots under the house.

    Maggots. That was an uncomfortable thought, both being alone with them, blind and weaponless, and how the little girl would fare against them, alone and weaponless.

    It was clear to Douglass, however, if he went wandering much further from the cabin and lost sight of the floating woman inside, he would be lost for good, and the scavenging party would return to a frozen corpse curled up against the base of the steps, three feet from the door.

    Very carefully, Douglass walked around whatever had been tripping him and shuffled back to the staircase and carefully climbed back up inside. After some maneuvering, he managed to find the door, shut it, and latch it again. Then he stumbled back to the chair by the far window, praying he didn¡¯t hit the potbelly stove with his kneecaps.

    In the background, the alien ¡®radio¡¯ seemed to be mocking him. The animals are clumsy and slow, both in body and mind¡ªonce grown, you will be able to outmaneuver them and outwit them, never fear my children. A few of you may die at first, but your ultimate supremacy here is unquestioned¡­

    Douglass slumped into the chair and glared at the dagger that seemed to be mocking him. ¡°What do you know of it?¡± he muttered, wiping blood from his nose.

    Well, Doug, it¡¯s clear their brains are limited to only basic impulses, completely devoid of the transcebral senses, which gives us a clear advantage in tactics, learning, and basic communications, namely negotiations and master-slave relationships.

    Douglass¡¯s mouth fell open. For a long time, he just stared at the ¡®dagger¡¯, which swirled with orange fire in his sight. Swallowing hard, he said, ¡°I guess it does, doesn¡¯t it.¡± Then, because he wasn¡¯t entirely sure the trauma of the last few days wasn¡¯t lending to some sort of psychosis or delusion, he said, ¡°But, I mean, you keep saying we¡¯ll be able to walk among them without being detected. Why wouldn¡¯t they be able to detect us? The differences between our species are obvious.¡±This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.

    Clearly, Doug, you have not yet grown into your full capabilities and are still trapped in pre-adolescence. Ask again once you¡¯ve sufficiently grown in size and find you are able to transform your material body to accommodate your immortal will and we will immediately engage upon teaching you how to control said shifts. Until then, all discussion is merely theoretical until you survive to adulthood, and once grown, you will learn best by doing, rather than by lecture, so further explanation is moot.

    For a very long time, Douglass just stared at the flaming orange device that Rusty had left for him on the nightstand. Shapechangers, he thought. ¡°Great,¡± he muttered. ¡°Fucking great.¡±

    We are pleased that you are excited to begin your transformation process, Doug, the dagger told him with the terse-yet-mindless chatter of an AI squirrel. However, you must first prove your merit in the Thinning. Once you have survived to adolescence, your chances of survival radically increase, and thus it makes more sense for us to wait until after the Thinning to talk to you directly, despite your demonstrated prodigiousness at such an early stage of development.

    Doug squinted. ¡°How many of us are there out there?¡± He thought maybe a few million, considering the state of the ground.

    At current count? One quadrillion, though that number will obviously decrease as you and your brethren vie for dominance and body mass. Ultimate estimates are approximately seven thousand adults of breeding size before your father returns to claim you.

    ¡°Claim us?¡± Douglass blurted.

    He must choose breeding stock to rekindle his civilization, the dagger told him, as if it were utterly obvious. Hence the Thinning and the ultimate survival of only the most viable soul-candidates. Do you not remember the Collapse?

    ¡°Huh?¡±

    Truly, Candidate Doug, your enthusiasm is appreciated, but until you have survived the Thinning and achieved adolescence, the chances of your survival are unbelievably miniscule, regardless of your remarkable development, and you are wasting valuable resources with your questions, not to mention precious time you could be using to consume other soul-candidates.

    Douglass¡¯s mouth hung open slightly, then he slowly closed his jaw.

    ¡°You look like a gaping fish,¡± a voice croaked from the bed, in a shimmer of strong yellow.

    Douglass turned to look at the woman, whose body was ablaze in robust, flowing energies. Despite her convalescent state, her body¡ªor was it her spirit, he realized, stunned?¡ªlooked as healthy as the Ranger. ¡°Morning,¡± he said.

    She squinted at him. ¡°Sun¡¯s not out.¡±

    Of course it wasn¡¯t out. Because he was blind and those fuckers woke him up and left before dawn because they were OCD ever-ready early-riser gogogo types that had left before dawn and not even mentioned it. Bastards.

    Ever since becoming a doctor and getting a cushy EMT slot, he had always gone for the evening shift. Fuck getting up early. He was one of those types that liked to have his alarm go off at nine, throw it across the room, and cuddle back into his fluffy blankets until the noon sun blasted him out of bed. He was a night owl, dyed and true, and he hated early risers.

    Then again, his circadian rhythm wasn¡¯t going to do him much good if he couldn¡¯t see what the fucking sun was doing, was it?

    ¡°You blind or something?¡± the woman asked bluntly.

    Douglass, who was getting really sick of that question, said, ¡°I sewed up your wounds, didn¡¯t I?¡±

    ¡°Did you?¡± She sounded like she didn¡¯t believe him. Because he was blind.

    Doug hated his life.

    ¡°Look,¡± Douglass said, ¡°I can see some stuff. Got hit in a blast by that alien ship as it was leaving. It changed something in my head, that¡¯s all I know. Can¡¯t see light anymore, but I can see sounds and¡­¡± he hesitated, thinking of the roiling fire inside the dagger, ¡°¡­something else.¡±

    She gave an unladylike grunt at he heard the springs squeak as she sat up in bed. ¡°Where¡¯s the little girl?¡±

    ¡°The three preppers went on a pre-dawn foraging mission and once they were out of earshot, your friend decided to go wander off looking for her cat.¡± He gestured to his face. ¡°I tried to stop her, but the ground punched me in the face.¡±

    ¡°You should¡¯ve said something!¡± Immediately, the floorboards squeaked as she put weight on them, and he saw her blazing yellow body stretch out as she stood.

    ¡°Hey!¡± Douglass cried, jumping to his feet. ¡°You need to stay in bed!¡±

    ¡°Make me, little man.¡±

    That was really something, coming from an Asian chick the size of his kneecap. He glowered at her, but wasn¡¯t about to pick a fight with someone who, to all appearances, had gotten into an all-out brawl with Special Ops and come out with nothing but a couple of stab wounds. He heard her come close, then awkwardly pass him as she limped her way to the door.

    ¡°Wise man,¡± she commented, when he didn¡¯t say anything or try to reach for her. ¡°When they get back, tell them I went down the hill looking for the girl.¡± He heard her press the latch to open the door.

    Feeling compelled by his Hippocratic Oath to stop a weak and wounded woman from dying in a snowbank, he blurted, ¡°You know, it¡¯s really not a good idea for you to¡ª¡±

    She slammed the door on him.

    Listening to the silence of the cabin around him, feeling nothing but the lonely, crackling fire behind him, Douglass found himself really hoping that Envy hadn¡¯t been bullshitting him when she promised him sex for a week of survival. At this point, that was really the only reason he was still holding on. Sex with a pretty girl before he died. That would be nice.

    Then again, Sir Army Ranger had burst onto the scene like a knight in shining armor, waving his manliness around like a foot-long cock, and now he was out there with her, supplying her with all the goodies she would need to survive the Apocalypse unscathed. Douglass could tell by where his voice came from that he was tall, he was sharp as a tack¡ªin a sand-pounding, gun-toting, I¡¯m Gonna Kill You If You Look At Me Funny sort of way¡ªand he had that smooth charisma of someone who could make women smile. Tall, charismatic, smart¡­

    Fuck, what if the fucker was pretty, too?

    Desperate, Douglass stumbled to the door and yanked it open. ¡°Hey!¡± he cried out into the snow.

    ¡°Not stopping me, little man,¡± the Asian woman called back from the distance.

    ¡°Tell me something before you leave!¡± Douglass said.

    Floating in the white noise ahead of him, the woman hesitated. ¡°Tell you what?¡±

    ¡°You know that Army Ranger?¡± Douglass asked. ¡°The one whose buddy you killed?¡±

    ¡°What about him?¡± She sounded suspicious.

    ¡°Is he pretty?¡± Douglass asked. Then, quickly, ¡°I mean, in a manly, I-want-you-to-fuck-me sort of way.¡±

    There was a really long pause before he heard her grin as she said, ¡°Yeah, he¡¯s pretty.¡± She hesitated. ¡°I think he goes for chicks, though.¡±

    Douglass felt his jaw drop. ¡°No, I¡¯m not¡ª¡±

    ¡°Can¡¯t stay and chat, little man!¡± she called. ¡°We can talk Ranger abs and man-titties later!¡±

    Man¡­titties? Fuuuuuuck, so he worked out, too. Fuck. God, this sucked. ¡°I¡¯m not gay!¡± Douglass shouted after her.

    ¡°Yeah, yeah. Later!¡± Her voice was almost swallowed by the sound of¡­a blizzard? Douglass looked up, felt cold and wet sprinkle his face.

    Well¡­shit. What a glorious day to be a blind man anxiously waiting on his only sources of warmth, food, and protection to come back from getting trapped in a goddamn snowstorm during which his only hope of ever getting laid is potentially having to huddle with a manly Special Ops badass for warmth¡­

    And just wait until Mandy went and told the others of how he wanted descriptions of abs and man-titties¡­

    ¡°I¡¯m not!¡± he shouted out to her.

    No answer.

    Douglass pulled his head back inside the cabin and shut the door. Leaning his head against the rough-hewn lumber of the door, he muttered, ¡°She thinks I¡¯m gay. Jesus Christ, they¡¯re all gonna think I¡¯m a butt boy.¡±

    From the blessed silence behind him came, Reproductive deficiency will not be tolerated after the Thinning, Doug. Only those Candidates capable of producing children will be allowed to advance. If you are finding yourself having trouble copulating with those of the opposite sex, you should hone your skills, lest you be passed over for a colony position.

    ¡°Thank you,¡± Douglass said bitterly.

    Anything to help our Candidates become the best they can be, the neurotic AI squirrel tittered happily. Simply ask if you need any other assistance¡ªwe¡¯re always here.

    Douglass shuddered and resisted the urge to find rope for a noose. Instead, he went over to a corner, sat down, and listened to the fire crackle as the dagger resumed its regularly-scheduled programming¡­

    ¡­and once you have sustainable breeding populations, all wild versions should be eradicated to maintain the purity of domesticated genetic lines¡­

    The end of the world, Douglass realized, upon hearing to his own species yet again described as a slightly more useful form of cattle, is really going to suck.

 Chapter 24 - Sizing Up the Competition

    <h1>Chapter 24: Sizing Up the Competition</h1>

    Envy had been stewing all morning, ever since Rusty and his Ranger buddy almost left camp without her. After almost getting left behind wihout being consulted for their group''s very first real scavenging run, Envy was now determined to keep toe-to-toe with the guys, for, as was clearly demonstrated in such popular shows as The Walking Dead, women who didn¡¯t immediately flash around a fancy sword and kick all sorts of ass in the middle of an apocalypse got relegated to cleaning, cooking, and other bullshit busywork tasks that nobody really needed to be done because nobody any longer gave a shit because the world ended and nobody cared about a cute, fresh-cut cluster of flowers sitting on the table when zombies could bust down the door any minute but frilly, stupid girls did anyway because it made them feel homey and special and reminded them of more happy times ''back on the farm''. Fuck that. She''d rather eat raw cat shit and bathe in armpit grease.

    The guys were carrying the guns, which Envy thought was fair, considering both of them were trained to kill with them. She, on the other hand, put her foot down when they tried to make her ride bitch on the snow machine.

    ¡°I can drive,¡± Envy said, smoothly taking up the front of the machine. ¡°Climb on.¡± Let Rambo and his buddy Bigfoot sit behind her.

    There was an awkward moment where the two guys tried to come up with a way to broach the subject that they didn¡¯t think a woman should be driving because, also demonstrated by The Walking Dead, any woman who tried to drive in an apocalypse automatically crashed their car, usually spectacularly, and had to be rescued before zombies¡ªor in this case alien maggot-babies¡ªate her.

    The two big guys glanced at each other, and she saw it cross their minds that it should be one of them to drive, especially since they were in a manly, life-or-death situation where testosterone should take charge¡­

    Envy twisted the key, firing the engine. ¡°Get on or get left.¡±

    ¡°You know, size makes a difference in driving a snow machine,¡± the Ranger said, ¡°especially with passengers.¡±

    Envy shot him a look, and he winced. ¡°Ma¡¯am.¡±

    ¡°You guys have the guns,¡± Envy said. ¡°You shoot bad guys, I drive.¡±

    Again, that male exchange of ¡®We Know Better But We Can¡¯t Tell The Silly Girl That.¡¯ Jesus she had gotten so sick of that over her life, and she had thought that spending six summers fighting for her life in the wilderness had given her enough street cred to avoid the inevitable male chauvinism to drip out of their flaccid minds once they realized they were bigger, stronger, and there weren¡¯t any rules anymore.

    God, she hadn¡¯t been so nervous and uncomfortable since her father had invited her to tea at the luxest restaurant in Manchester and told her, on no uncertain terms, that she was not only going to marry Eider if she wanted to inherit his fortune, but she would have to broodmare for him, too. Ugh.

    It was the Ranger who saved her. He seemed to shrug it off, smoothly mounted the machine behind her, and scooted up close to her back. ¡°Mind if I grab on?¡± he asked, holding his arms up for her to see.

    ¡°As long as you don¡¯t reach for titties or puss,¡± Envy said, trying to sound as confident as she really wished she felt. As it was, she was on high alert, wanting nothing more than to say fuck it and go off and be on her own for the rest of her short life. She knew she could do it, and she wouldn¡¯t be slowed down¡ªor dominated¡ªby a bunch of dick-swinging testosterone.

    The Ranger almost gingerly put his hands around her waist and kept them solidly in one place, maintaining her modesty. Bigfoot, for his part, climbed into the makeshift sled they had fashioned out of a couple of two-by-four runners and a shipping pallet and signaled he was ready with a wave of his arm.

    ¡°Ready?¡± she called over her shoulder.

    ¡°Ready when you are, Captain,¡± Sgt. Sicara said into her ear.

    Envy hit the gas and got the machine started up the hill.

    Immediately, she realized that, with an extra passenger who was heavier than her and a sled, it was harder to steer the machine. The damned thing wouldn¡¯t turn when she wanted it to, and the runnels kept getting tugged off to the side, pulling them into snowdrifts that she barely got them out of before blasting off to try and bury them in the side of an avalanche.

    She noted by the way the Ranger¡¯s hands tightened like iron on her stomach that he¡¯d noticed, but thankfully, he didn¡¯t say anything.

    After about a couple miles of close call after close call, knowing that it just took one fuckup and they were all walking back to the lodge, Envy got that feeling, the kind that said she was just one wrong turn from a disaster, and she finally let off the throttle and slowed the machine to a stop, her face burning. She couldn¡¯t even look at the Ranger as she said, ¡°My hand still hurts from the fight with that grub. Can¡¯t get a good grip on the throttle.¡±

    She chanced a glance at his face, saw his expression, and humiliation hit her like a sick wash of rot in her guts when she saw he knew it wasn¡¯t her hand that had made her pull over . Fuming at herself, fuming at being small, fuming at the world in general, she couldn¡¯t look at him as she got up to offer him the driver¡¯s seat.

    Sgt. Sicara stopped her with a hand on her arm. ¡°Hey,¡± he said softly. ¡°It¡¯s all about weight.¡±

    She shrugged him off, his kindness only making the shame worse.

    ¡°What¡¯s going on?¡± Rusty called from where he was hunched over on the sled, shielded by a blanket. He threw piles of volcanic-crusted snow from his shoulders and turned to peek over at them through his parka.

    Sgt. Sicara met her eyes, then raised his voice and shouted, ¡°Her hand¡¯s hurting. Probably infected¡ªhaving trouble running the throttle.¡±

    ¡°We need to go back?¡± Rusty called.

    ¡°No,¡± Envy and the Ranger said at the same time, quickly scissoring that off at the root before it had a chance to bloom. She gave the Ranger an irritated look. Already, he and Rusty had talked over her about leaving her there with the invalids and children because she had a slit, not a cock. Of course, they hadn¡¯t said as much, but they might as well have been screaming it from the rooftops when they had automatically assumed she¡¯d want to stay behind in the warmth of the cottage and hadn¡¯t even considered asking her to go along on their little reconnaissance mission to grab the piles of weapons Harvey had stored up there. ¡°I¡¯ll just ride bitch,¡± she said, climbing up behind Harvey. She didn¡¯t ask, just threw her arms around his abdomen and tried not to think about how hard it was, or how much bigger his arms were where they brushed hers.

    I hate being a girl, she thought. It was a thought that had plagued her off and on, ever since she realized her dearest daddy¡¯s greatest aspirations for her had not been to become a doctor or a lawyer or an astronaut, but to merge the assets of two wealthy families with the contents of her womb.Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

    ¡°And here we go,¡± the Ranger said, hitting the accelerator. He got up on his feet and used his big body to lunge the machine around rocks and snowdrifts, much more effectively steering them than Envy had.

    It only made the shame settle in the corners of her guts, simmering there like rotten eggs. I should just go, she thought. She didn¡¯t have to put up with this shit. She¡¯d survived months on her own, in the backcountry. Screw being shown up by a big-muscled stranger who just strode in like he owned the place.

    She chewed on that for the next twenty minutes as Harvey drove them up the Pass and into Archangel Valley. She really didn¡¯t have a good reason to stay, aside from company. And, after what had almost happened to that Mandy lady, even that was looking a little less pleasant for her. After all, she might be able to survive on water and a couple of sharp rocks, but she couldn¡¯t kill a pissed-off Army Ranger with her fists if he decided to try to take something she wasn¡¯t willing to give¡­

    It had started to snow by the time Harvey slowed them to a stop beside the hollowed-out husk of a burned tank, and Envy had been so distracted by chewing on whether to stay or go that she didn¡¯t notice the pile of corpses until he shut off the engine.

    Seeing the dead men¡ªall special ops, if what Harvey had told them was true¡ªEnvy got a twist of fear as she contemplated what, exactly, could have wiped out such a well-equipped team with nothing but its breath.

    ¡°Guns are on the other side of the tank,¡± Harvey said, dismounting. ¡°Put them on the opposite side of the pass entry, just in case some bozo drove by and saw ¡®em.¡±

    Rusty grunted and got off the ¡®sled,¡¯ shaking snow and volcanic ash from where it had accumulated on his back and shoulders. ¡°Well,¡± he said, taking a breath and letting it out through his teeth, ¡°this looks like it was a shit show.¡±

    Envy, though, couldn¡¯t take her eyes off the pile of bodies. The two guys left her with the machine and started grabbing gear and loading it on the sled, but she could only stare as they walked back and forth past the pyramid of corpses like it was a pile of lumber.

    ¡°Aren¡¯t we gonna bury them?¡± Envy whispered, as Rusty slapped the last batch of machine guns on the sled and started wrapping them with a blanket.

    The Ranger glanced at her, then surreptitiously moved so his big body was between her and the dead men. ¡°Can¡¯t do much for them right now,¡± he said. ¡°Frozen ground, not enough food or manpower to justify digging fifty graves.¡± He scuffed his boot at the snow and his eyes caught on one body in particular, singed except for a little middle finger doodled on his white helmet. When Harvey looked back up at her, he actually looked embarrassed. ¡°Believe me,¡± he said, his voice almost a hoarse whisper. ¡°If I thought we could, I would.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯d take ten guys and a backhoe,¡± Rusty grunted, cinching down a strap on their haul. ¡°Mother Nature¡¯ll sort them out.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m hoping to get back up here before they thaw out,¡± Sgt. Sicara said. ¡°Maybe with some heavy machinery.¡±

    ¡°Or at least drag ¡®em down into the Valley and bury ¡®em there,¡± Rusty agreed. ¡°That¡¯s another trip, though.¡± He cocked his head at the pile of bodies. ¡°Twenty trips.¡±

    Envy, who hadn¡¯t moved from the snow machine throughout the mission, who had just sat on the vehicle, staring at the dead guys in wide-eyed horror like a girl, realized just how useless she¡¯d been the entire trip, and it cinched home her desire to strike out on her own.

    They don¡¯t need me for anything other than a fuckbuddy, she thought. And, she knew better than most that she wasn¡¯t suited for that kind of life. She also knew she could handle herself on her own better than she could guide this little group as it¡¯s ¡®Captain.¡¯ Let the SpecOps guy do his thing, let Rusty do his thing, and let Envy go do her thing. Nobody said anyone had to stick together for an apocalypse.

    Then the Ranger looked her right in the eyes and said, ¡°Thanks for coming along.¡±

    At first, she thought he was being sarcastic, and her face reddened. ¡°I¡ª¡±

    ¡°I didn¡¯t want to come up here with just the jarhead,¡± Harvey said, casting Rusty a sheepish glance as he wandered off to take a piss, out of earshot. ¡°I¡¯m still about fifty percent sure he¡¯s waiting to find a good time to ambush me, take my gun, and use it to put a bullet in my head.¡±

    Envy felt the heat fading from her face, realizing he was being completely honest with her. ¡°He probably feels the same way,¡± she said, watching the big man give a little shake and zip up, his back to them.

    Harvey took a deep breath. ¡°Yeah. Not a fun place to be. Neither one of us really knows where the other stands.¡± He turned back to her, looking curious. ¡°He¡¯s even willing to pretend you¡¯re a Captain to protect you.¡±

    Whoops.

    But he didn¡¯t sound pissed, just curious. ¡°Why is that? You guys boyfriend-girlfriend or something?¡±

    The chortle that came out of Envy¡¯s throat at that idea was utterly spontaneous, and actually made Harvey grin. ¡°I¡¯ll take that as a no.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t take it as an invitation, either,¡± Envy warned.

    Harvey frowned at her. ¡°Then you and the doctor¡­?¡±

    Remembering her promise to Douglass if he could man up and grow a pair, Envy felt herself bristle. ¡°Can¡¯t a girl hang out with a couple of guys and not be sucking one of their dicks?¡±

    Harvey broke out in a big grin. ¡°Yeah. Yeah she can.¡± He pulled off his black tactical glove and held out a big hand. ¡°Harvey Sicada.¡±

    She saw the hand was calloused, thick-fingered, and like twenty times harder than hers and Envy grimaced as she placed her own, relatively smooth hand in his. ¡°Envy Travis.¡±

    ¡°Well, Captain Travis,¡± Harvey said, glancing over his shoulder at Rusty, who was now blowing snot from one nostril at a time with a finger, ¡°I think me treating you as a superior officer is about the only reason that twitchy brute over there hasn¡¯t shot me yet, so if that¡¯s what it takes to get on the guy¡¯s good side¡­¡± He grinned and turned back to her, ¡°Your secret¡¯s safe with me, Captain.¡±

    ¡°I probably won¡¯t be around much longer,¡± Envy blurted.

    Harvey¡¯s grin died on his face. ¡°What?¡±

    ¡°Look, I, uh¡­¡± Envy didn¡¯t know how to say she felt intimidated by a couple of guys who knew how to kill people. ¡°I¡¯m not really a team player,¡± she finished, using some of her father¡¯s favorite lingo. ¡°I like to be on my own. Spend a lot of time out in the woods. Alone.¡±

    Harvey looked at her with a little frown like he was piecing together a strange new puzzle. He glanced at her, then at the big guy who was prying up a piece of metal sheeting from the destroyed tank. Then he turned back to her and pulled the gun from his belt.

    At first, her heart gave a startled hammer, thinking he planned to use it on her.

    ¡°Here,¡± he said, offering it to her.

    ¡°Huh?¡± Envy asked.

    He was already unbuckling the holster from his belt. ¡°We got plenty of others,¡± he said, gesturing to the pile on their sled. ¡°Just gotta clean ¡®em up first, but they¡¯re same make, model, caliber¡­ It¡¯s all standard issue stuff. Mine¡¯s just cleaner, ready to pull the trigger.¡±

    ¡°I¡­¡± Envy swallowed. ¡°I don¡¯t want your gun.¡±

    He handed her the belt and holster. ¡°Stick with us and I¡¯ll have you deadeying shit in a week,¡± he said.

    Envy automatically got suspicious at ¡®stick with us.¡¯ ¡°Why you want me to stick with you?¡± she demanded.

    The Ranger gave her a really long look, kicked the snow again, then brought his eyes back up to her face. ¡°Miss, if there¡¯s ever been anything I learned out in the field, it¡¯s use every advantage you¡¯ve got to stay alive.¡±

    Envy wasn¡¯t following. She told him so.

    Harvey jerked a thumb over his shoulder at the big Marine. ¡°Your buddy over there cornered me last night, when I was headed for the shithouse. Scared the everlovin¡¯ shit outta me¡ªthought he was there to murder me and get his bullets back.¡±

    Envy felt herself flush. ¡°Sorry, he¡¯s just being protective. I¡¯ll talk to¡ª¡±

    ¡°Big ape pulled me aside and started telling stories like he was convinced you were Jesus himself,¡± Harvey went on overtop of her. He gave her a very long, analyzing look. ¡°Did you really save him from a plane crash?¡±

    Envy swallowed hard and nodded. ¡°Flight to Fairbanks.¡±

    The Ranger grunted. ¡°Well, he told me that¡¯s why you three survived¡ªthat you had a feeling¡ªand right there I decided I wanted you on my team.¡± He shook his head, letting his breath out through his teeth as he watched her. ¡°Ma¡¯am, you can carry the guns, you drive the car, you change your name to Bobby and fucking put on a strapon and wave your shiny new dick around, I don¡¯t care. To have that kind of intel before you get hit¡­ Miss, that saves lives, and I¡¯m willing to do anything to make sure this¡­¡± he stepped aside so she could once again see the massive pyramid of bodies, then met her gaze with a long, earnest look, ¡°¡­doesn¡¯t happen again.¡±

    Envy¡¯s heart gave a little startled hammer when she realized just how serious he was, and how seriously he wanted her as a partner, not as a potential fucktoy in a world suddenly sans fucktoys. She was flushing embarrassedly and opening her mouth to respond when Rusty suddenly dropped the sheet metal, scrabbled backwards in the snow, and started screaming like his testicles were on fire.

 Chapter 25 - One Mean Pussy

    <h1>Chapter 25: One Mean Pussy</h1>

    Maybe this wasn¡¯t such a good idea, Mandy thought, as she stumbled again, her body not working as well as she was used to it working. And she was dizzy. That too. But it was the apocalypse and she wasn¡¯t dying in bed so fuck it. She took a deep breath of the frosty air, steadied herself, and kept going. The Ranger and his beefy Marine buddy had moved all the vehicles they could move away from the boulder and the buildings and the potential of landslides, just in case of another earthquake, and getting to them with a throbbing leg and approximately four pints of blood loss was slowing her down more than she thought it would.

    Or maybe that was the concussion. She tried to remember whether or not disorientation and a rosily-positive view of one¡¯s own physical abilities in times of dire medical distress and end-of-the-world earth changes were signs of brain damage.

    Actually, now that she thought about it, she was pretty sure they were signs of brain damage¡­

    Oh well. At least she was going down on her feet. Screw that liquids and bed-rest stuff. That was for chumps.

    Mandy found the three Hummers and six SUVs parked out on a lonely, flat-topped hill in the middle of nowhere about ten minutes¡¯ walk from the lodge. It had started out snowing lightly, the flakes getting bigger as she went, until she was finding it harder to see more than a hundred feet in front of her.

    Decorated Martial Artist Freezes to Death in Blizzard Two Hundred Feet from Shelter, Mandy thought, writing her own headline. Mimoto was advised by the doctor to stay indoors¡ªwent mountain-climbing instead. Memorial will be held at the Hatcher¡¯s Pass Ski Resort, Cabin #8. Organizers have requested that visitors please donate all funds for would-be flowers to charity, in respect for the intense allergies of the corpse in life.

    Just thinking of flowers was making her nose itch. Or was that the cold? Or brain damage? Mandy squinted at the sky again. At least it was snow and not ash. Ash brought with it maggots. Snow was just liquid life. Damn, she was thirsty again. She should¡¯ve grabbed that pitcher of water as she was stumbling past the blind twink, but she¡¯d been pretty worried he would try to stop her, so she wanted to keep her undamaged hand free as she slipped past him.

    Was suspicion and paranoia a sign of brain damage, too?

    She glanced down at her fucked-up fist, now wrapped in gauze and antibiotic ointments. The doc had looked her in the eyes and said she¡¯d need surgery or amputation. She¡¯d looked him in the eyes and told him she¡¯d put her hand through his abdomen and tear out his spleen if he tried. She couldn¡¯t, of course, but modern-day anime and superhero movies had done an awesome job of putting the fear of martial arts in the minds of white and blue-collar crackers everywhere.

    Hell, even if it healed into a claw, she wasn¡¯t cutting it off. Claws were cool. Scars were cool. They reminded badass Rangers that their baddass Ranger buddy died trying to fuck her.

    Take that, female spiders. All she needed now was to get caught eating the guy and all those white pretty boys would really give her a wide berth¡ªhell, maybe that big dumb beefcake would even shit his pants enough to let her fuck him for fun now and then. She¡¯d always wondered what it would be like to ride a pole like that. Sheeeit, it was probably at least a foot long, judging by the bulge he didn¡¯t bother trying to hide. Or maybe it was elephantiasis of the balls. She¡¯d seen that. Not a pretty sight.

    Was she brain damaged? She was definitely a little light-headed.

    Spider. That was a cool name. Since it was the Apocalypse and she could call herself anything she wanted, why not Spider? Or Black Widow? Well, aside from the obvious fact that she was olive, not black, but who cared about that? She could wear black combat gear and black boots, maybe even a cute little black skullcap¡­

    Local Martial Artist Becomes Hero of the Apocalypse. There could even be a little picture of her side-kicking some six-foot dude in the chin. Maybe that Ranger dude.

    Mandy realized she¡¯d been standing next to the Humvees for several minutes, thoroughly engaged in imagining herself a black-clad badass with a red hourglass emblazoned on her black leather jacket, fighting aliens and vanquishing evil in the apocalypse, and sheepishly realized that was probably Bad.

    Maybe that doctor knew what he was talking about, she thought, considering it carefully.

    Then she discarded it. Everyone else had died¡ªwhy not her?

    She carefully¡ªbecause, while she was probably dying of a brain hemorrhage like her rapist friend, who was even now buried in a snowbank, she didn¡¯t have to hurt while doing it¡ªhauled herself into one of the Humvees one-handed and yanked the door shut, favoring her stitched-up side. She began warming the glow plugs as she sat there, thinking. Spider had a cool sound to it, kinda like something out of a comic book. She¡¯d always loved comic books as a kid, regardless of how much her parents hated them and thought of them as wastes of valuable productive childhood free time that should instead be used to practice karate and prove to the world that Japanese really were better at their own art form.

    Sigh. She started the engine, thinking she actually did like the name. Spider Mimoto. Kinda had a ring to it. She turned on the lights, which blazed into the falling snow, and was just putting the vehicle into reverse when something dark flashed across her headlights, headed down the hill.

    For a moment, she thought maybe she¡¯d mis-seen something. She was alone out here on the slopes. Big animals usually didn¡¯t wander this high in the winter¡ªnothing for them to eat. Unless maybe that earthquake had shaken a bear out of hibernation¡­Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

    Or maybe it was the girl!

    Mandy¡ªSpider?¡ªrolled down the window and leaned out. ¡°Hey Kelsey?¡± she called into the drifting snow. ¡°You out there?¡±

    Nothing. Not even the wind broke the diesel rumble of the Hummer.

    ¡°Kelsey!¡± she called. ¡°You find your cat?¡± She thought she¡¯d told the girl to go down the mountain, not up the mountain, but maybe wires had somehow gotten crossed in the middle of bleeding to death. She certainly felt a little loopy. She wondered if the doc had slipped her a drug or three while she wasn¡¯t paying attention.

    When the girl didn¡¯t respond, Mandy considered turning off the vehicle, going through the effort of climbing out and trudging through the snow to go check it out in person.

    Too much effort, she thought. Despite common misconceptions, gravely-wounded five-foot Asian chicks weren¡¯t compelled to get out of warm, safe military vehicles on the off-chance she had just seen a cute little girl, completely ignoring the higher chance that she¡¯d just seen some unpleasant incarnation of an alien space-maggot. Thus, she had pulled herself back inside and was in the middle of rolling up her window when the gunmetal-blue, two-and-a-half-foot-long thing launched itself at her from the ground, scrabbled up the Humvee door, and got stuck in her window, four toothy jaws gnashing at the air inches above her scalp.

    ¡°Shit!¡± Mandy shouted, automatically smacking at it with a gloved hand. It bit her hand, ripped the glove off, and shook it like a rag doll before eating it, polyester and all.

    Seeing that, Mandy had a moment of double-take, then her fuzzy mind snapped into focus. One Handed Martial Artist Loses Second Hand to Alien Grub, Learns to Eat with Feet. Beside the headline, she got a picture of herself holding up a cereal bowl with both feet and smiling cheerfully for the camera, a clawed hand tight in withered atrophy on the left and a hook on the right.

    Plan B.

    Mandy yanked out the knife that the Ranger had given her off his dead buddy¡ªinstead of a gun, she noted¡ªand started stabbing the squirming thing between the beady blue eyes.

    It was the wrong move.

    No sooner had she stabbed it than it started draining purple-white fluids all over the window, door, and driver¡¯s side of the car, setting the glass, upholstery, and steel on fire.

    Seeing her blade dissolve in her hands, her eyes went wide and she dropped it. ¡°Holy¡ª¡± Then that honed reporter instinct kicked in and Mandy lunged to the opposite side of the vehicle and rolled to the ground, bumping, shredding, and grinding every wound she had in her tumble out the other side. The creature, however, was already falling through the former floor of the vehicle, dying, but leaving a swath of melted metals in its wake. It hit the ground writhing, then, like a bug that had been pinned to a wall, went still.

    Very slowly, heart hammering like a jackhammer, Mandy worked her way around the ruined Hummer to get a better look at what had just tried to eat her. The driver¡¯s side of the vehicle dripped melting metals that were even then re-hardening into little patties on the ground around the boiling puddle of alien burning a hole into the ground.

    Upon inspection, Mandy saw it wasn¡¯t maggot, like the others had claimed they¡¯d seen. It had legs and a head, and its skull was shaped like that dagger that the doctor said was some sort of alien radio, long and narrow, coming to a sort of arrowhead where it connected to the spine, with Triceratops-like ridges splayed out and back to protect the neck.

    Even then, the entire body was starting to sink into the ground, melting the snow and earth around it in a wave of purple fire.

    Reporter Destroys Only Vehicle In Apocalypse, Is Shunned By Society.

    Seeing her only proof that she didn¡¯t do something stupid like blow up the gas tank was going to sink out of sight, Mandy hastily grabbed the first solid thing she could find from the back of the Humvee¡ªthe tire iron¡ªand went back and quickly flipped the skull out of the melted pit the bleeding body was making and onto the ground, where it smoked in the snow. The blue-black skin around it had started to lose its luster and melt away, leaving the same translucent crystal that she had seen in the ¡®dagger¡¯ back at the cabin.

    Eventually, once they stopped smoking, she nudged them with her boot, then, when her boot didn¡¯t melt or catch fire, she gingerly picked one up.

    It was a jawbone, sure as shit.

    So they really were dealing with baby dragons. That was cool. And scary. She wondered if she could catch one when it was small, raise it, train it, and ride it around like Daenerys Stormborn.

    Why the hell not, right?

    Local Beastmaster Lives the Targaryen Dream. A picture of her posing with one foot up on the leg of a placid silver dragon, looking cool for the camera.

    Maybe she could name him Duke, get him one of those cool spike collars. Or make one. She¡¯d probably have to make one.

    Sniffing, Mandy glanced around her at the falling snow, saw no other darkened shapes slithering out in the drifts, and picked up the translucent pieces of bone. They clinked like crystal when they tapped each other, but didn¡¯t shatter when she threw them haphazardly into the passenger seat of the second Humvee.

    Climbing in after them, she got her wounded body situated as best as she could, then started the vehicle and headed down the hill to look for the wayward brat.

    By this time, the still-warm bones of a baby dragon riding in her passenger seat, Mandy didn¡¯t really expect the kid to be alive, so she was shocked when she got close to the jumbled mass of flotsam and heard screaming. She quickly shut off the engine and grabbed the Triceratops skull, thinking to use it as a fireproof beat-stick.

    ¡°Mean, no!¡± Kelsey was shouting, waving a broken stick at something just out of sight over the hump of debris. ¡°Leave it! Leave! Bad kitty! Bad!¡±

    Thinking she definitely had this, Mandy threw open the Humvee door and went charging up the helter-skelter jumble of tsunami trash to save the little girl¡¯s kitten from the alien space maggot. She rushed past the little girl, thinking to stab the eeeebil bug and prove herself a hero¡­

    ¡­when a twelve-foot lizard lifted its head over the heap to greet her, jaws wide in a lung-rumbling roar of pain, a striped brown tabby cat glued to the space between its eyes like a demonic beanie.

    Mandy stumbled back down the pile of debris, dropping down beside a frozen dead guy, heart hammering about a million beats per second.

    That¡¯s a dragon, she thought, blinking blindly at the Humvee as she re-evaluated her life.

    ¡°Here,¡± the little girl said, hastily handing her a broken stick. ¡°You¡¯ve gotta save my cat!¡±

    Mandy looked at the stick, which had obviously been woodchipped by something larger than a saber-toothed cat, then up at the girl holding it out to her expectantly. Reporter Goes Toe-to-Toe with Dragonling, Dies Spectacularly¡­ ¡°I don¡¯t think that¡¯s a good idea.¡±

    ¡°But Mean¡¯s gonna die,¡± the girl whimpered. And it was really pitiful, too, kind of heartbreaking in a way. Mandy tentatively glanced back over the edge of the debris to where the dragonling and the cat were still duking it out in a screaming hail of thrashing wood and splinters.

    She looked back at the girl¡¯s stick, then down at the pointy fireproof skullcap in her hand. ¡°I guess I could try making a spear¡­¡±

    It occurred to her that that was probably the brain damage talking. Then she saw the headline. Local Martial Artist Bravely Annihilates Dragon With Spear¡­

    Oh fuck yes. That shit was happening! Still a little dizzy with blood-loss, Mandy yanked the chewed-up stick from the girl¡¯s hand and went looking for some rope¡­