First Life, page 28
part #1 of River Saga Series
“It’s Colton from Team Blue. This is Adley,” I panted. “They’re coming.”
“Who is?” he asked. A few others came to see what all the fuss was about.
“Stingers. Hundreds, maybe thousands. Moving for your camp as we speak.” I stared at the second mountain peak.
“What the hell is a Stinger?” someone asked.
“Listen to me! Grab your weapons. Everyone!” I told them.
“I don’t know who you are, or what game you’re—” The man stopped when Adley slapped him across the cheek.
“Get your guns and find a defensive position. You’re about to encounter prehistoric poisonous scorpions!”
That did the trick. The colonists acted quickly, running to their teams. They seemed to stick to their own unique cliques. Team Red was here, with Bronze next to them. Everyone was relaxed, or had been until we ambushed their camp.
I was ushered to the center of the entire area by a young man with a shaved head. He urged us into a tent by the water, where a group of people huddled over a table.
“We should scout it again, then bring the gear in phases. Entering the mountain will be a risk, but I think our people could use…” The woman stopped talking when I cleared my throat.
“Can we help you?” The woman was middle-aged, with a white streak in her otherwise dark hair. She’d been the person barking orders at us from the first day at the Long Island facility, and then near Angor City. Officer Penelope Bates.
“I’m Colton Beck. A friend of Indie Hart,” I said, hoping name-dropping would help expedite things.
She turned her attention to me. “Go on.”
“We’re in danger. There are hordes of monsters coming this very…” Gunfire broke my sentence up. “It’s too late.”
She rushed to the tent flap, peering outside. “Where are your teams?” She gaped at me, then at Adley.
“We have Orange and what’s left of Black with us a couple miles away,” I answered.
“What’s left?” a man asked.
“The Stingers ambushed them. We also found Green and Yellow… all dead. Their tails poison you. We can’t delay.”
“This is bad, Colton. But thank you for coming to warn us.” Penelope had an air of authority. We didn’t shake hands. There was no time for such trivial motions. “Is Assistant Director Hart on the surface with us?”
“No,” I answered.
“If you’re friends with Hart, why are we down here with these Stingers, and she’s up there with the Angor?”
“I have no idea,” I said truthfully.
“Move out! Prep your teams. Remember your training. Anyone who isn’t armed, head to the lake and race for the colony. Understood?”
“Yes, ma’am!” they shouted, and broke away into their groups. We returned outside to mayhem.
Everyone was calling for their friends, trying to see in the dark night. The clouds once again rolled across the moon, and the fires only made things worse. They seemed to suck the light from anything beyond a couple feet away from the blazing pits, killing any chance of seeing the incoming attackers.
Penelope grabbed her own GR-852 and accompanied me through the camp toward the sounds of the struggle. Blasters and high-caliber ammunition merged as our people fired at the Stingers. They all funneled into an open field outside camp. Without our warning, these things would have decimated a few hundred humans before anyone reacted.
“Stagger yourselves!” Penelope cried. “Don’t kill each other!”
The people spread out further, aiming their weapons at the Stingers. It was like a shooting range, only the targets moved quickly. The first few Stingers didn’t expect the barrage of artillery, and they were killed in seconds. The next layer climbed over their fallen allies, which made it easier for us to gun them down. After that, they smartened up. I thought about Franklin’s words of caution. These weren’t really the enemy. We were. They were animals, instinctively protecting their home.
Despite this fact, I joined the fray, with Adley at my side. We fought with everything we had, screaming at the top of our lungs as the second wave of Stingers sprinted at the camp boundaries. When the Stingers did breach the border, they stole the lives from five or six of us. Once they were inside, they stopped moving in a straight line with their brethren. They separated, making it harder to kill them when they were mixed among our people.
I aimed at one, but it dropped, revealing a frightened man holding a Marksman. He didn’t pull the trigger in time, and the tail’s end struck him in the chest. His weapon fell, and his skin began to fester. It happened that fast.
“Avoid the tails!” I called, but it fell flat in the noisy battleground.
People were everywhere, and the Stingers kept coming. I didn’t see an end to their numbers.
Adley was covered in sweat and tears as she fought with me, struggling to fend off the ones we could. I didn’t have a tally, but I was sure I’d managed to kill seven or so before I had to retreat.
“Fall back!” Penelope ordered.
We were trying everything. Someone retrieved a tank of fuel, and they ran along the front of our group, letting it splash onto the ground. It lit up in a whoosh of gas and flames, creating a temporary barrier. It was enough for us to escape the front section, fading to the lake.
There were hundreds of people desperate to withdraw, and we were tripping over one another. Some of the Stingers tested the wall of fire. They burned, hissing and popping before dying. It was a fair warning to the rest of them to wait it out. They learned fast.
I glanced around, trying to get the lay of the land. It was tricky to pay attention to their camp with everything going on. Crates were lined near the central tent, as if every team had jointly accounted their supplies. The Angor had set us on our own, but these people merged with the others anyway. Strength in numbers. The more resistant teams were dropped farther from the lake, making it more difficult to meet up with groups. And from the looks of things, the Stingers originated from the shale territory where we’d landed.
They acclimated quickly to their new surroundings. I expected they’d explored the whole region before returning to their nests.
Two men located more fuel, adding another layer of flame, allowing us more time to retreat. Penelope had everyone at her beck and call. When she shouted orders, the people listened. I’d only seen her once or twice, but that wasn’t surprising, given our independent training on Palora.
“Over there!” Adley pointed to the far edge of the flames, where five Stingers emerged. They killed a man with a fuel can, and the lead monster bit his head clean off before dropping it.
Our assessment earlier had been accurate. I expected there were three or four thousand citizens, and half of them were already following the exit trajectory along the edge of the lake, moving for the final and largest mountain. Beyond it lay the colony destination we’d been given. I wasn’t sure where the path led, but it was going to be a long and arduous journey with a horde of Stingers chasing after us.
The rest of the people stayed, trying to block the assault by killing as many of the brutes as we could. But there were too many. While they were hesitant to be shot, they seemed to grow more agitated with each Stinger corpse.
Click. Click. One was behind me, a woman stuck on its tail. I aimed my weapon, hitting it square in the forehead. It fell, landing a foot ahead. I shuddered as the woman twitched. I couldn’t help her.
Adley had two of the beasts approaching. “Colton!”
“I’ll take the left!” I fired at its legs, hitting the ground. It had the desired effect. The Stinger reared, and I shot it in the abdomen three times. Adley dealt with hers, and we continued our retreat with a few hundred others.
We fought this way until my GR-852 began to blink red, indicating my energy cell was almost empty. The crates were in the middle of the incoming army at this point, but I saw a dead man, his face bloated with poison. I crouched, trying not to look at him while I took his energy cell. It was eighty percent full. I tossed my old one aside and snapped the new one into place. “I’m sorry,” I whispered to him.
There were too many bodies. Hundreds of dead Stingers littered the region. The fires grew out of control, licking the tents and burning them, along with anything else in their path. Some of the trees a half mile out were on fire, probably lit by a wandering burning Stinger.
Most of the creatures were holding back, probably to regroup. I couldn’t be certain. I watched them, hearing the claws clacking in communication. A cluster screamed out impatiently.
Penelope was close, and I spotted a cluster of Stingers breaking past our line. They headed straight for her, as if they could sense she was leading things. Adley and I arrived to see Penelope shooting the last one in the head. She huffed, and kicked it as the alien crashed near her boots.
“We need to leave,” she told me, eyes wide.
“That’s an understatement.” The horde screeched as our camp burned.
We had a brief moment of reprieve, but it was only temporary.
I chased after the final group fleeing the lake, directing to the huge mountain a short distance away.
TWENTY
I was the living dead.
Three hours of running from Stingers would do that to anyone. We walked with desperation fueling each footstep. I stayed near the rear of the group, with most of Team Gold. They’d lost twenty of their people in the skirmish, and it was sinking in. They were trying not to show it, but it was obvious. I would have felt the same way if I’d watched my team members die.
Adley had a blank stare. “Do you think Justin is dead?”
I couldn’t bring myself to nod. “Probably.”
“What about our friends? Des? Miya?” A tiny pause. “Ambrose?”
I didn’t know. There’d been no sign of Desmond or the rest of them. I was such an idiot. I grabbed the earpiece from my pocket, finding it broken. There went our chance of communicating with Miya or Bull.
“Des won’t let anything happen to them.” I said it for her benefit as much as my own. “You seriously care about that guy?”
Adley glanced over. “Ambrose?”
I nodded.
“He’s… extreme. But he has a softer side. He doesn’t share it with many people,” she whispered. Her face was smeared in dirt.
“I never had any siblings.”
“Me neither.”
“If he does anything to hurt you, tell me.” It was strange having this discussion while trudging toward the mountain entrance.
“You’ll beat him up for me?” she asked.
I shrugged. “If I have to.”
“Let’s just hope he’s alive so you get the chance.” Adley’s lips sealed as we slowed near the slight incline leading into the darkness.
The mountain was enormous overhead, and the steady stream of colonists entered a crack in the exterior. “I can’t believe this was our access point.”
“No kidding. What if there are more Stingers inside?” Adley peered over her shoulder, checking behind us for the thousandth time. They were no longer following us.
“Penelope said they scouted it. It’s a direct path from here to the colony.” I wondered how they did that so fast when they’d only been here for… however many days it had been. We’d slept for a couple of hours since we’d landed, and with the moon never leaving the sky, it was difficult to keep track.
I’d asked Penelope about it, and she said they were dropped off by the lake, and that had been their first objective: find a straight lane to the colony. She’d sent five scouts, and four had returned. The mountain offered the easiest route. As I stared at the opening, I wondered if that was true for three thousand people at once.
Where were the rest of the citizens? We’d started with ten thousand strong. A hundred separate teams. Had the Stingers been that destructive? I hoped many were already at the colony site, beginning to prepare their new city.
At this point, I doubted we were ever going to be content on Dicore. It was obvious the Angor knew what was going to happen the moment they dropped us onto the surface. Administrator Volins, the famous Angor pilot, had seemed distraught at the fact, and the Vezo soldier Leruf had acted as if he wanted to expose their plan. I considered the recent events while I waited for the stream of people to pass me, entering the darkness of the mountain tunnel.
What if this was an initiation? The Vezo had probably passed the test. Director Ulison said they’d done this eleven times before. Maybe the Angor weren’t as peaceful as they pretended. I recalled seeing the rising of armed Angor soldiers on Earth before we left.
“They used Earth to recruit soldiers,” I muttered.
“What?” Penelope was at my side, waiting patiently until I’d broken the silence.
“The Angor. They came to Earth, gave us solutions to our many issues…” I laughed. “Then, after we let them lead us for two decades, they reward us with a colony planet. And assure us there will be a Checkpoint to link the world to Earth. But what if this was all a scam?”
“That’s impossible. Why would they do that?”
“They want to see what we’re made of. Or they want the planet cleared. Or…”
“You’re grasping at straws,” she said. “If they needed Dicore, they could do it themselves.”
“True.” I considered her words. “We’re missing something.”
“I just want to focus on reaching the site. We’ve been promised supplies afterwards,” Penelope said. It was brighter here, with the moon inching farther in the horizon.
“Do you trust them?” I asked her.
“Not in the slightest,” she admitted. “Come on. We’re the last ones.”
Adley waited for me by the entrance, her shock of pink hair bright against the gray slate.
The burly tattooed soldier stood with a grenade in his hand. “We still going to blow it?”
“Yes, Ulrich.” She walked past him. “It’s a big risk, but I can’t have those Stingers following us inside.”
Ulrich entered the mountain last, and he motioned everyone back. Teams Blue, Black, and Orange were out there, on the other side, and we were about to block the only access to this ridge.
I spotted a few lanterns ahead as the colonists traversed the tunnel, hurrying from the exit.
“I’ll wait five minutes. The percussion could jostle some rocks free. Maybe collapse entire tunnels. I don’t want anyone hurt.” Ulrich stared at Penelope.
“That means you’ll…”
“I’ll guard the entrance with my life from the outside, ma’am. Head to the colony site. I’ll find a way to meet you.” He turned from us, and Adley and I started to walk away, giving the two a moment.
The corridor was uneven, with sharp edges. We jogged, our tired legs sourcing energy from a deep place within ourselves. Water dripped from the ceiling into shallow pools that we splashed through as we tried to catch up to the rest of the colonists.
Penelope joined us a couple minutes later, and finally, we heard the echo of the grenade’s detonation.
“He might be coming,” I told Penelope, but she remained tight-lipped.
“How long is the tunnel?” Adley asked some time later. I glanced to the right, finding the ledge giving way to an opening beneath. I dropped a pebble over the side and heard a splash ten seconds later.
“Two miles,” Penelope whispered.
And so our new adventure began.
____________
As a kid, I hated confined spaces. I used to freak out whenever I was enclosed in anything smaller than a closet. I remembered losing a baseball with my friends at an old mine, and since I’d missed the catch, they made me retrieve it. I climbed down the wooden trellis, landing on the granite shelf. The ball had rolled under a piece of machinery, rusted and spotted.
I reached for it, but couldn’t quite grasp the red-stitched baseball. I crawled farther, but my fingertips only pushed it deeper. I tried to retreat, but I was stuck.
“Colton, are you okay?” Adley asked. We were ducked low, crawling on our hands and knees through a section of the tunnel. I hated it with every fiber of my being.
“No, I’m not.” Rocks dug into my palms. We were near the tail end of the group, and I kept checking behind us, expecting a monster to grab at my feet. This was far out of my comfort zone.
Things shifted beyond my sight line, like ghostly apparitions drifting just past the lantern’s reach. I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was watching me.
Adley seemed to advance the passage with ease.
“How did you get started in the space program?” I asked, mostly to distract myself with conversation.
“My mom was an astrophysicist. Employed by one of the world’s largest privately funded organizations. Until the Angor came. Then she took a job in Miami, working on Angor network globalization.”
I nodded. “And you followed in her footsteps?”
“I was four when Earth became theirs…” She stared blankly, crouching lower where the three-foot ceiling dipped. “An Angor planet is all I’ve really known. I have a few memories of my grandparents’ farm in Wisconsin. The cattle. The cheese and dairy factory. I always loved it. I was raised at the Miami tower. My mom worked long hours, and I’d stay there after school, doing homework, learning what she did. I really took to it. I solved an integration issue when I was sixteen.” She smiled, the lantern light from ahead skewing her face in dark shadows. “They hired me on the spot. Mom was so proud.”
“And your mom? What’s she doing now?” I asked.
“She died.”
“I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay. The Angor offered to save her, but…”
“She didn’t accept the treatment?” I asked.
“It’s not as uncommon as people think. There are a lot of humans, even those employed directly by them, that reject their medical attention. My mom was always bitter about her career change,” Adley said.
“And your father?”
