*****Here's another short story I wrote that, as far as I know (no response back), never got published***
She drew in a sharp breath, body tensing as her eyes flew open.
I’m about to be abducted.
The thought pierced through her skull.
Hazel eyes flickering wildly to the single window in the darkened bedroom, peering intently, she waited in bated breath for something...but seconds ticked by and only blue moonlight greeted her.
“For Pete’s sakes,” she muttered, muscles relaxing and eyes closing briefly in relief.
Shaking her head at the absurd thought that had literally jolted her awake, Katherine stretched out her sleepy limbs, straining the light sheet covering her in this summer heat. Sitting up, she curiously glanced around her room, and out the bedroom window, one more time before getting up to use the bathroom.
Where the hell had that thought come from, she wondered as she sat in the muted shadows of her tiny bathroom. She wasn’t one to be afraid of the dark, she actually enjoyed it--a night owl by nature--and she wasn’t about to turn the lights on just because her brain decided to go all bizarro on her.
“Maybe I should cut back on my tv watching,” she mused aloud, finishing up and staggering back to her bedroom a few steps down the hall.
Pausing as she entered, she debated if she should just go right back to sleep, or maybe turn the tv on after all, to give herself something to do for awhile. Catching sight of one of her favorite cartoon series sitting next to the dvd player, she smirked and made her way over to the entertainment stand.
“Well, if aliens are looking to abduct me tonight, they’re going to have to take me while I’m watching Scooby Doo,” she chuckled, loading the player and grabbing the remote.
Crawling back into bed, she waited for the play menu to pop up as the white haze of the tv partially filled the room.
It was then she saw the shadow on her far wall move.
A chill spiking across her body, her heart stuttered to a stop in her chest.
She couldn’t take her eyes off of it.
In rapidly growing terror, she watched as the grey toned shadow rolled its pointed shoulders and hunched its gangly body, pulling its long arms up in while its rounded head on a narrow neck drooped forward--eerily resembling a predator about to pounce.
No eyes stared back at her, but the raised hairs on her body told her it was looking at her nonetheless.
She was to petrified to move, her muscles locked up in pure fear.
Fuck, she thought in a split second of awareness.
Then it lunged at her.
Had she not just gone to the bathroom she would have pissed herself as the creature landed on its hands and feet like a feral human on the edge of the bed. Face splitting open towards the bottom to show rows of sharp pointy teeth, it released a high pitched hissing sound and swung out. Ears ringing painfully at the noise, she threw herself off her bed out of reach to the floor, and rolled backwards under her bed frame--crying out as she felt leathery fingers grasp at her again.
She thought briefly about getting up and running, but the visual in her mind of the hideous creature chasing after her flooded her with sickening dread.
All she could hear was her panicked short breaths and the ringing of her ears as she lay in the murkiness that consumed the tiny space. She kept twisting her body and her head, wiggling around to get a better view of the carpeted floor as the thoughts ‘where is it? What is it doing?’ raced through her mind.
Until the bed creaked.
It was a subtle sound, almost drowned out by the cartoon menu that was now playing on repeat, but it had echoed in her head and stopped her mid twist. Ears straining, eyes sweeping around, she held her breath, listening, waiting for the creature to move again. Minutes dragged on, drawing her fear out with it, until she saw the bed dip slightly from pressure above.
Her teeth were digging deep into her lips, drawing blood, but she was desperate to hold in any noises she wanted to make as the creature seemed to crawl across her mattress, arms and legs bent and planted if the sagging of her frame was any indication.
Is my cell phone still on the nightstand?
Can I reach it?
Would I even have enough time to make a call?
Would Alex pick up her phone? Do any of the neighbors know what’s going on?
Their apartments were attached at the bathroom walls, surely someone would have heard her scream.
Right?
No, she thought helplessly, shaking her head in the darkness.
No one was going to come for her.
She was going to die, or be abducted by this unearthly animal, and no one would know until it was too late.
Tears filled her eyes, blurring her vision, and she covered her nose and mouth with a shaky hand, trying to hide her sniffling. Why did it have to end this way, she thought painfully, a deep tragic ache blooming in her chest at the reality of her demise.
Suddenly the bed shook and this time she couldn’t hold back the terror laced scream that ripped out of her throat as the creature landed on the floor beside the bed.
“No,” she yelled in defiance as it threw its long gekko like arm out towards her, grasping in agitation, trying to reach her.
Hissing again, its pitch raising in anger, it scrambled to grab ahold of her, but she reacted back, kicking out with her legs, striking it in the head with her heel repeatedly until pulling back when it tried wrapping its fingers around her ankles.
“Get the hell away from me,” she bellowed, knowing for damn sure that if no one had heard her before, they would now.
It didn’t take long for her belief to be proven right.
A loud banging from her back door at the end of the hall in the kitchen broke through the horrific situation, stopping the creature’s advancement on her and pulling its attention away. Without a second thought she pushed with all her adrenaline induced strength and toppled her bed sideways onto the creature, knocking it back into the wall between her tv stand and wardrobe.
With its lower body pinned under the cheap wooden frame, and its upper half smothered by the mattress, she didn’t look back. As soon as she was free, she scrambled on wobbly legs out the bedroom, down the hall, and to the kitchen. The gripping paranoia that the alien like thing would break free and be running after her in seconds had her skipping the option of grabbing a knife to defend herself with and instead unlocking her door, ripping it open as fast as she could.
She tossed herself thru the opening screen door, and into the unsteady arms of her older neighbor who staggered to keep them both on their feet.
“Whoa, whoa, what is going on,” he asked, holding her up by her biceps with wide eyed worry.
“Run, Larry, just run,” she yelled, breaking free of the forty year old in boxers with sandals, and grabbing him by the forearm, tugging him behind her as she quickly descended her back porch steps barefoot.
“What the hell is going on? Are you ok,” he asked, stumbling behind her, trying to keep up while fumbling with his cell phone.
“Don’t turn around, just keep running,” she pleaded, bounding around the corner of their building out towards the street.
“Sir, can you hear me? What’s going on,” asked a distorted female voice from his iphone, drawing both of their attention.
“You called 911?”
He nodded, trying to gain his balance while bringing the phone back to his ear.
“Y-yes, I can hear you. My neighbor she--oh shit!”
Her breath caught at his words and she whimpered in fear, unwilling to turn around and see what he was seeing.
“Wha-what the hell is that?! Katherine? What the hell!!”
“Sir, I need you to tell me what’s going on,” interrupted the emergency operator.
“We’re being attacked by fucking aliens,” Katherine screamed at the device gripped tightly in Larry’s hand.
Turning her head to glare at it, she spotted the creature hot on their tracks, running like a disjointed preying mantis around the corner towards them.
The sight was gut wrenching, and she resisted the rising urge to puke as shear terror rattled her nerves.
“Oh God, oh God, oh God, oh God,” Larry chanted behind her, his panting becoming more labored, his stumbling more pronounced. “I think, I-I think I-I’m having a-a heart attack!”
Larry wheezed, unexpectedly pitching forward into her as he grabbed at his chest.
“Fuck,” she cursed, scraping her hands and knees across the pavement as they tumbled in the street.
Limbs tangled, she wiggled and turned, trying to pull herself free of Larry’s convulsing body.
Tears began to heavily trail their way down her cheeks as her neighbor’s eyes rolled back in his head, his parted gasping lips turning blue with each passing second.
“No, no no,” she sobbed, tearing skin away from her arms and legs as she dragged herself across pavement to be out from under him.
A bone chilling scream erupted in the night, rapidly followed by a succession of gun shots--stilling her movements though the monster from her room drew ever closer.
She turned her head just in time to catch the last flash and echoing gunfire two houses up.
The forfeited minute cost her.
With staggering force, the alien cracked her across the face, sending blood flying out from her busted nose and lip--staining the blacktop beneath them.
Her vision blurred as she struggled to stay conscious, her limbs sagging from the brutal blow. The ugly grey creature hissed aggressively at her--white mucus like spittle splattering across her crimson chin and cheek--before turning its attention to Larry’s cell phone still gripped in his hand.
Her skin burning like it had been splashed with boiling water, she watched through the haze of her growing concussion as the being snapped Larry’s wrist like a chicken leg, twisting and tearing it free from his forearm. With disturbing delight, the creature broke each of his fingers off, tossing them to the sides until it had the phone itself.
Stroking it like one admiring a new found toy, the alien muted the still rambling operator and began pressing a series of buttons, illuminating its featureless face with screen light.
She dare not move, her weakened limbs trembling with trepidation of what could happen next as she watched the being’s grey skin begin to shimmer, stiffening up like an armadillo's, and pushing out in needle points like a hedgehog. The tones started shifting from shadowy to an almost opal, radiating colors like a kaleidoscope, until it finally matched the star patterns above her, practically camouflaging itself before her eyes.
Its head was now like staring into the mouth of a devouring black hole consuming a star system, and she whimpered--stricken at the sight.
Without warning, all the cars along the street began sounding off their alarms, startling herself and the creature.
Head swimming, she turned it nonetheless to watch as the vehicles began flickering their lights, radios kicking on, blaring at their max points a high pitched chattering similar to multiple songs playing on fast forward all at once.
Amid the cacophony of sounds, lights started turning on in the surrounding houses, neighbors being drawn out of their slumber to see what was going on. Then petrified screams and shouts of terror merged into the chaos. She could hear furniture being smashed, some of her neighbors releasing blood curdling wails, and guns being discharged.
It was like a warzone had flared up in a matter of minutes, spreading from one street to the next as she heard more cars going off, each household in its own battle for survival.
Out of nowhere a guttural growl ripped her attention away from the madness surrounding them, and she watched in stunned silence as her neighbor’s dog, Tyson, leaped out from behind her own side street parked car, and latched its fierce jaws around the creature’s neck, tackling it to the ground and giving it a violent shake. The iridescent being cried out in agony, yellow and red fluid spilling out as the boxer crunched and shredded its long neck like a plastic bottle.
Seconds later it collapsed limped before her, Tyson giving it one last good shake before letting go.
Panting from exertion, her beautiful white haired friend trotted over to her and sniffed her out, nuzzling her left side with anxious whimpers until she pulled him in tight to her body. She sobbed into his neck in surreal relief as he licked at her face, avoiding the growing burns. She scanned with watery eyes the yards around them, but saw no sign of Dave or his partner Anthony.
Her heart ached at the reality that they might likely be dead--killed by another grotesque monster.
“Thank you,” she whispered gratefully, and Tyson wiggled closer, hiding his face into her neck.
Head pounding and vision still a bit blurry, she weakly pulled herself up, Tyson offering his lean build for support, until she was back on quivering feet. Heart pounding and stomach rolling, she took a good look at the dead alien in front of her, toeing it lightly while Tyson growled, his hackles still raised.
Its varied color tones had faded out, returning it back to the grey color she had first seen. The spiny edges of its body had partially flattened out, but it still looked deadly and repulsive to her.
Catching sight of Larry’s iphone, she knelt unsteadily for it and pulled it out from under the alien’s body. It was still lit up, a program she had never seen before--similar to html or css coding--played across its screen, intermittently beeping here and there and making sounds like an old dial up modem.
Dropping the phone, she raised her fist and struck down on it, smashing the screen repeatedly until it finally went dark. She didn’t know what the fuck it was, for all she knew it was a way for these things to talk to one another, but she wasn’t just going to let it be.
Pushing herself back up onto her feet again, she surveyed their surroundings, taking in the homes that were going silent and the ones that were getting louder, and began limping her way back towards her own apartment, Tyson right beside her.
Minutes later she was at her bedroom door, examining the disastrous state of the room.
The creature had flipped her bed back over to free itself, smashing her tv and toppling her nightstand in the process. Picking her way through the mess, she got on her hands and knees and dug around until she found her own cell phone underneath one of her torn pillows.
Wearily plopping her ass onto the carpet, Tyson coming to lay by her feet in a guarded position, she unlocked her screen and hiccuped through a sob as she saw the series of text messages and frantic calls from her girlfriend.
‘Where are you?’
‘Hey, answer me!’
‘Baby, I don’t know what’s going on, but I’m scared and I’m coming to get you.’
‘The guys are here, we’re loading up the fire trucks, three houses just broke out into a bad fire but I’m still coming to get you. I need you to answer me, Kat, I need to know you're ok.’
‘Oh god, there are these things...these...I don’t know what the fuck they are but they jumped right out at us from one of the houses! Please, call me!’
‘Kat, call me! Call me!’
Hands shaking, she dialed her girlfriend back, trying to get her swirling emotions under control so she could talk.
“Where the hell are you,” were the first words she heard, and she sobbed a laugh in relief.
“A-at home. One of those things was in the apartment, Alex. But I got free and T-Tyson, he saved me,” she rambled on, so desperately thankful to be able to talk to her. “I don’t know if Dave or, or, Tony are alive, and that thing killed Larry, but I’m with Tyson. Here. For now.”
“Stay there,” she heard, Alex’s voice slightly distorted by some kind of interference. “We’re coming to get you, both of you. I don’t know what these things skins or hides are made out of, but their necks are weak and they crumble like paper when you light ‘em on fire.”
Just then a rattling sound from the living room drew both her and Tyson’s attention, the fur on his body raising in alarm as he got to his feet, growling.
“Kat?”
“I, I don’t know what it is,” she replied fearfully, their connection breaking up again.
“I’m....co...do...hear...me,” she got in turn.
“Hurry, Alex,” she said as she scrambled onto her own feet. “Just hurry the hell up.”
The line went dead.
“Fucking great,” she cursed, trying to call her back, but her phone refused to work, the screen warping and stuttering like the ios was failing.
A sound of glass cracking stole her attention back towards the living room, and she quickly scanned the bedroom, looking for the baseball bat they normally kept by the bed. Unable to find it in the dark because the blasted thing was black, she caught sight of Alex’s engraved axe hanging on the wall up above where the tv stand use to be.
‘Their necks are weak’, rang through her head, and she stumbled her way over to the wall, yanking the axe off its rack--testing the weight of it in her grip before facing the doorway where Tyson was standing, growling down the hall.
With as silent steps as possible, and Tyson eyeing her warily but following her all the same, she made her way towards the living room where she could see the tv screen--litup with the roku screensaver--had been cracked. Eying the room, being damn sure they were alone, she stepped cautiously in, sticking to the walls to avoid being seen in the large window panes facing out into the street that made up the far wall of the room.
A fracturing sound broke the silence again, and she watched in growing alarm as the tv screen began to splinter and bulge as if being pushed from the other side--or from the inside, even though it was a flat screen. They watched as it jutted, until one of those god awful alien’s hands punched its way through.
They are coming in through the fucking tv?!
It was as unreal as it was disturbing.
Like something out of a science fiction film, she watched the creature--very similar to the one that had been in her bedroom--start pushing out the rest of the tv screen, the eerie light that normally illuminated it still glowing from within the framing.
Tyson, unwilling to watch any longer as this thing began to pull itself free from what seemed like nothingness, jumped forward, grabbing the alien’s arm, catching it by surprise.
She didn’t waste a second more.
With the two struggling, the creature crying out and hissing, trying to shake Tyson loose, she slid along the wall unseen until she was angled where the coffee table and wall met. Raising her shaking arms, she let out her own cry of anger, and brought the axe down, slicing it right into the being’s neck where it struck what felt like bone and wedged itself.
The monstrous being gurgled and thrashed wildly at the fatal wound, wrenching the axe from her hands.
Blade embedded, and Tyson still yanking on its arm, the creature continued to try and pull itself forward out of the tv into the living room, until it suddenly paused--convulsing similarly to Larry--and then collapsing--its lower half still submerged in the light that glowed from oblivion.
She didn’t move until Tyson dropped the arm he had and backed away, teeth stained orange. Reaching out hesitantly, she grunted and pulled the axe free, curiously eying it and the wound up until the sounds of approaching vehicles caught her attention.
Peering out between the curtains, she felt her heart flutter at the sight of the fire trucks and police cruises, all going separate ways down varying streets except for one brush truck that stopped just in front of their place.
“Alex” she whispered in relief as she spotted the older woman leaping out of the truck and racing up the steps in full gear.
Her and Tyson met her at the door, both practically leaping into her arms.
“Thank God you are both still alive,” she choked, digging ash stained fingers deep into her shoulders as she pulled her in tight.
“We had to kill another one of those things,” Kat replied wearily, turning in her partner’s arms to point towards the tv.
“Is-is that thing coming out of the tv,” she asked, a little shell shocked at the sight while rubbing Tyson’s head in greeting.
Kat nodded, moving forward with Alex, unwilling to let go of her as they looked the ugly ass thing over.
“H-how does that even work,” she pondered aloud, turning her head every which way, even looking behind the tv to see that it was empty.
Kat shrugged, just as perplexed as she was.
“Maybe they are using them like a doorway between dimensions? I don’t know. It’s all fucking bizarre. I mean, my phone is also acting up, and the one that killed Larry, it had used his phone to do this...homing signal or something on it.”
“All of our phones have been acting up as well,” muttered Alex in thought, pulling said device from one of her yellow pockets.
Eying it warily, she unlocked her screen only to find that the phone was no longer running on the normal android operating system like it should be. Instead, a series of numbers and characters were streaming across her device like watching binary code in action.
“Smash your phone,” she blurted out suddenly, turning to Kat with wide paranoid eyes.
“What?”
“Smash your phone,” she repeated, picking up the axe where it had been unconsciously dropped. “I don’t know where these things are coming from, but they seem to really like technology and I don’t want them having any advantage on us.”
Laying her phone on the coffee table, she raised the flat end of her axe and brought it down hard enough to smash it--cracking the battery casing, which hissed and smoked from the blow. Laying her own phone down at her girlfriend’s nodding, Kat watched her smash it into pieces as well, until there was just a pile of chip boards, cards, plastic and glass smoking near the alien corpse.
“Tell the guys outside to do the same and then get into the brush truck with Tyson,” said Alex, turning towards the hallway.
“What are you doing?”
“Grabbing the bug out bag. I’ll be right behind you.”
Pulling her in for a much needed kiss, Kat let Alex go and moved quickly towards the door, out the apartment, down the stairs and into the brush truck with Tyson at her side. She watched as the guys in the back of the pickup with indian tanks on took out their cell phones and began smashing them, tossing the broken pieces out into the street.
She could still see Larry lying there, his body to the right of the alien’s, both looking like eerie actors in a haunted house just waiting their turn to give you a jump scare.
But neither of them moved, each lifeless husks laying waste in this horrific unexpected nightmare that still felt too unbelievable to be true.
The truck door popped open and she jumped, caught up in her thoughts as Alex slid into the driver’s seat, tossing their emergency bag into the back with Tyson.
“Jesus, what did it do,” she said, brows furrowed in concern as she got a good look at her face inside the cabin lights, pulling her chin towards her.
“Caught me off guard, gave me one hell of a knock to the head,” she laughed bitterly, letting her partner look her wounds over. “My head’s still rattling, probably will be for days, but I’ll live.”
“I’m going to kill everyone of those fuckers I see on our way out of town,” Alex swore as she signaled to the guys in the back and started the pickup.
“We’re leaving?”
“Going out towards the highways to make sure none of those things have spread into the neighboring counties,” she explained, tires squealing as they raced up the street. “We’ve been using our old radios to keep in contact with the other county departments, and so far none of them have received reports of shit like this going down in their areas yet, but we’re not taking any chances.”
Her girlfriend shook her head, dirty blonde locks swaying under her number 55 helmet.
“They thought we were fucking with them at first when we called it in, but one of the 911 dispatchers started relaying all the emergency calls he was receiving, and they decided to go on alert as well, putting a couple cruisers and trucks out at their town lines just in case.”
“Where the hell is the national guard,” Kat asked while they raced through red lights, not even bothering to slow down for the few cars that were out and about.
She briefly wondered if they knew what was going on. Were they being sent home from work as word spread among people? Or were they oblivious, curiously watching police and emergency crew patrol with no lights and sirens on.
“I don’t know. I guess the sheriff was reaching out to them, trying to get ahold of someone last I heard, but that was an hour ago. This fucking thing has just...exploded. Like, these creatures came out of nowhere!”
Kat nodded in agreement.
“If some abnormal thought hadn’t woke me up, I don’t think I would be alive,” she revealed, drawing a sharp terrified look from Alex.
“I was jolted awake by this fucking notion that I was about to be abducted,” she explained, resting a reassuring hand on her arm and giving it a heartfelt squeeze. “But it seemed like just bullshit, you know, some remnant of a dream or whatever. So I got up to pee, and when I got back to the bedroom I turned the tv on to watch cartoons...th-thats when I saw it. The alien, standing in the shadows.”
“I’m so sorry,” Alex whispered, tears brimming in her eyes as she tried to concentrate on the road and her girlfriend at the same time. “I’m so sorry I had to work tonight.”
Kat shook her head again.
“No, don’t be. No one could have predicted this and I’m alright.” With another tender squeeze, she added, “I look a bit like shit,” making them both laugh, “but I’ll be alright.”
As they sped through town, the scanner radio crackling off and on with emergency chatter, they took in the unfolding chaos.
All the houses on the main stretch were unnaturally dark, but they could hear screaming and shouting in the distance--gun shots going off, car alarms, tvs and radios blaring like a full blown riot, but not a single soul was out. Cars were left half parked in their spaces, motorcycles and bicycles lying here and there, abandoned without care. The bars and storefronts were lit up but no one could be seen in them, and the usual stray grouping of college kids were eerily absent.
“We couldn’t put out those three houses we got called out to,” Alex shared as they both eyed a set of smoldering homes on a corner ahead of them. “The fucking creatures wouldn’t even let us get near. The homeowners were already dead, so we killed the aliens and soaked the neighboring homes after getting their owners out.
“We lost a couple guys, Jeff, Luke and Lisa,” she added softly, hurt haunting her words.
“You’re doing the best you can,” comforted Kat, glancing back to the two guys--Paul and Gary--in the bed of the truck. “What are the indian tanks for?”
Giving her a wicked smirk filled with determination, Alex replied, “Payback.”
With a raised brow in response, she clarified, “We modified them. Instead of being filled with water, we put gasoline in them and rigged a switch that works like a lighter on the end of the nozzles.”
“You made flamethrowers,” Kat questioned in disbelief.
Alex nodded with a grin.
“Homemade flamethrowers.”
After a second or two of silence, Kat asked, “So do they work?”
“You bet your cute ass they do,” Alex replied, making them both smile.
But the smiles were short lived.
Like a scene straight out of an apocalypse film, one of the large LED billboards ahead of them suddenly made this horrific metal crunching sound and began to teeter.
Turning the wheel sharply, Alex braked the truck to a screeching halt, rocking Paul and Gary onto their backs. The four of them watched as the billboard buckled, then came crashing down onto the roadway, tearing wires and smashing cars in its path. The ground shook with the force, splitting the pavement wide open, and sinking one corner of the sign a foot deep.
“Sonofabitch,” they both swore, leaning out the truck windows and eyeing the area around them.
“What the fuck brought that down,” yelled Paul from behind as he struggled to get back onto his feet, pulling Gary into a sitting position.
“I don’t see anything,” Alex replied. “But I can’t imagine it just fell on its own.”
A sharp cry, like a knife scraping across glass, broke through their conversation, drawing their eyes towards the fractured screen that was flickering an array of broken images.
“You don’t think--” Kat started, as they sound grew louder and LED bulbs began rapidly pulsing.
“That one of those things is going to come out of that damn screen,” Alex finished for her.
“Yeah.”
A loud crack like thunder making them all jump in their skin, the billboard screen splintered and bulged with grim similarity.
“Paul?”
“Yeah Kat?”
“You got anymore of those Indian tanks?”
“We sure do.”
Turning to her girlfriend as the screen hollowed out, then ballooned sharply again with another loud crack, Kat asked, “Fire burns them like paper, right?”
Nodding, Alex turned and crawled out of the cab of the truck to the bed in the back. Moving over to her side, she grabbed Kat’s hand and hauled her back with her--letting the cabin window down for Tyson to jump out of--before grabbing an Indian tank and helping her girlfriend suit up.
With a final thunderous eruption, the billboard screen broke into thousands of pieces, a massive hand the size of a buick pushing out from illuminated nothingness, and digging its large fingers into the street below,
Grabbing her own Indian tank, Alex tested the switch, smiling at the sight of a flickering flame at the tip, and turned to the group around her.
“Ready to burn this bitch to the ground?”
“Light her up, Captain,” they responded in unison.
The truck shaking, sliding a couple of inches as the gigantic creature began pushing itself free of its small doorway, they each tested their tanks, and then turned towards the hissing beast, preparing to give it a warm welcome.
Comments
Post a Comment