Apex 3: Shaylo Attacks (4 page)

Stragglers

The
First Mate turned to Shaylo and said urgently, “Sir, I just received several signal pings from armored suits on the surface of the planet.”

Shaylo
cocked his head to the side. “Did the humans hack the armor open? I didn’t think they had the intelligence to do that.”

“No. The biometrics driving them are ours. Our people from the first wave are still alive
down there.”

“What are they doing?”

“I’ll open a visual.” She dialed in on the armored suit locations and zoomed in through the cloud layer. They were all clustered close together. There were several dozen suits in flight and they were battling humans.

There were three humans there too, giving off unusual biological signatures
that messed with the sensors. It took her a moment to realize that they were three of the four super humans she’d been keeping tabs on. How was that possible? She’d just checked on their locations and they were nowhere near the skirmish moments ago.

Shaylo
interpreted the readouts before she had a chance to explain them.

He said, “Keep this screen up. I want to see what those humans are capable of.”

“Should I send a detachment to assist our people?”

“Nope.
If those men perish fighting, then justice will be served for their failure.”

“I understand.”

A light flashed on her console. It was a distress call from below. She patched in and listened to it. A Captain had survived as a prisoner of the humans. She’d recently escaped with a small detachment of men and was fighting back. She was asking for reinforcements. The Captain rambled on about prisoners and super humans and bloody victory so much so that the First Mate had to disengage if only to save her sanity. The Captain had gone slightly mad during her captivity on the Earth.

She thought about telling Shaylo about the distress call
the Captain of the first wave had sent but she knew how he would respond to that. It would infuriate him and he would tell her to cut the link and let them all die like warriors.

To avoid his ire she cut the link without mentioning it to him.

Bloody Fight

Jack used his teleportation power to separate a Grey’s body in half. He simply teleported one half away from the other half. He knew it was cruel, but it was the quickest, easiest way to take them out.

He turned his attention to the next closest
Grey and did the same thing. The upper torso fell slowly to meet the trunk Jack had already teleported to the ground.

With that, the Greys finally noticed him and regrouped. The human ground troops took the opportunity to fall back to safety.

Jack scanned the bodies that littered the ground. There were dozens of them and all but two were human. It had been a total bloodbath.

He watched
with an odd detachment as the Greys flew up to meet him. He knew he might die, but a part of him didn’t care much anymore. On rare occasions he found himself immune to fear and this was one such occasion.

He noticed the taller
spindly Grey wave its arms at the other Greys, giving them orders. Jack focused on that one and teleported it a mile to the west. Removing the leader would throw the others into disarray, he hoped. Then he vanished too, to join it. He barely knew what he was doing, but he just thought there had to be a better way to figure this out than to continue killing each other.

Because he’d teleported it from a distance, it wasn’t exactly where he thought it would be. He had much better control when he was touching the object to be teleported so it didn’t surprise him
to find his aim was way off.

The armored Grey looked around bewildered as he flashed towards it
across the ground. He held his hands up when it raised its laser rifle in his direction.

It was about to squeeze the trigger when he was a foot away but Jack grabbed the barrel and lowered it forcefully.

He spoke very slowly, hoping it would understand him. “Your people have all been executed because of what you’ve been doing. All the captives are already dead. There’s no one left to liberate.”

The Grey
stopped struggling to lift its rifle and then it took off its armored face shield. Jack couldn’t be sure, but something about the thing’s features suggested that it was a female.

It held the head shield up to its mouth and
pressed a button concealed on the inside. It spoke a guttural alien language into it. A moment later, the shield itself translated for it.

It said, “I understand. But it changes nothing.
Shaylo is coming and you’re all going to suffer.”

Jack
had heard the name before. Molly had dreamt of a monster named Shaylo who was coming to finish off the Earth.

He nodded sadly. “Spread the word to your men. People are dying needlessly while you try to rescue the dead.”

The Grey put its face shield back on and stood stock still, waiting for Jack to do something.

He awkwardly said, “Oh yeah,” before grabbing its
skinny arm and teleporting them both back to the base.

Sally was crying, screaming, and slaughtering Greys
from within her floating bubble. Even though she was protected by her force field, she’d somehow managed to get covered in copious amounts of their blood.

Hank
had already destroyed most of his own clothes from a previous blast. He let a burst of energy escape his body, knocking some of the Greys out of the sky, damaging the armor of some others.

As soon as
Jack reappeared, the other Greys turned their way and Hank and Sally took a breather. That was when the Grey leader took the opportunity to blast Jack point blank in the chest with her laser rifle. It was a total surprise and an unnecessary betrayal that shocked him.

He felt the impact. It felt like his chest had been caved in. He started to feel wind on his face but it wasn’t the wind that was moving; he was falling out of the sky and there was nothing he could do to stop it. He hit the ground with a thud, his vision flickering and his senses failing him.

He heard Sally yell out and then he saw a blood spattered body part of a Grey hit the ground near where he lay. She was cutting them down for what they’d done to him.

Hank ran to him and crouched down. “
Are you alright, Jack?”

He tried to respond but his mouth just
opened and closed noiselessly, like a fish.

Hank said, “I don’t know what you
said to the leader, but it worked. They’re retreating.”

Jack
shook his head angrily. He knew his talk with the leader hadn’t had the desired effect. They would never stop killing people. Liberating their brethren was just a convenient excuse to slaughter human beings.

He got to his feet but he collapsed right away. He got back up with Hank’s help and managed to say, “Don’t let them go. They’ll never stop trying to kill us.”

Hank raised his eyebrows. “I can’t stop them from this far away.” He yelled to Sally, “Hey, stop them. Jack says we have to stop them.”

Sally yelled back, “I can’t. They’re too fast for me to keep up
and too far away for me to project a force field their way.”

Jack
said to Hank, “Hold me still. I’m going to try something.” Then he pivoted towards the rapidly diminishing Greys as Hank kept him steady on his feet.

Sally floated to the ground inside her force field and joined them. She took
Jack under the other arm and held him up on his feet.

He focused on the retreating Grey forms. The pain in his chest lessened the harder he concentrated which made it much easier to focus
since there was a physical payoff. His vision became crystal clear as it zoomed in on them.

His anger at the needless betrayal fueled his resolve. And then he tried something he’d never done before. He took in each individual figure and concentrated on all of them as though they were one. He teleported them and his vision turned black.
The last thing he saw was the Grey’s vanish from the skies.

He felt Sally and Hank hold him up as his body slumped, powerless.
He heard Hank gasp and he felt Sally shudder uncontrollably.

When his vision returned, he saw a hellish scene all around him. Grey body parts jutted out of the ground at his feet. A head poked out here and a leg wriggled around there. Some were buried right side up and others upside down. He’d somehow managed to teleport them back to him, and fused them in the dirt and rocks at his feet. Most of them had died instantly, but a few still struggled weakly before succumbing to death too.

A single Grey figure hovered in the distance. It was the leader. He’d made a conscious decision to allow her to live to see the consequences of her betrayal. She hovered for just another couple of seconds and then she turned away and flew off.

Sally and Hank were speechless. Sally had to let go of
Jack so she could vomit. She’d seen much bloodshed in recent days but she wasn’t immune to it yet the way he was.

He felt Hank’s body
start to quiver. Their reactions brought him to his senses. He had just done an awful thing to dozens of intelligent creatures. The sight of the Greys lying dead at his feet didn’t bother him the way Hank and Sally’s reactions did.

He felt his senses flutter again as his vision blurred. And then he felt nothing at all.

Gory Intel

Shaylo watched in awe as those humans achieved the impossible. One of them could release some type of explosive emission; the other had an invisible shield that she used to cleave her opponents into pieces, but the one that interested him the most was the one who could simply appear wherever he wanted. Several times he disappeared from view as they watched. His First Mate was going nuts trying to pinpoint each new location.

They’d already ascertained that the humans had odd abilities and had even documented some of them, but to see them used in battle was altogether different.

Watching them kill his people supplied him with droves of information. He wasn’t too worried about the explosive human or the one with the invisible barriers. They would be easy enough to kill. The one who could teleport intrigued him. Teleportation was only theoretically possible and only for subatomic particles. He’d never before seen an object teleport.

That human would be troublesome, but hardly impossible to defeat. And if he couldn’t chase him down, he’d have to find a way to lure him to his demise.

He said to his First Mate, “That’s encouraging.”

She wondered if he’d been watching the same footage she’d just seen. What she saw was a being so powerful he could kill dozens without lifting a finger. “What do you mean?”

“He was shot and he fell. We can hurt them.”

“I see.”

“How soon can the troops deploy?”

She
said, “They’re still recovering from stasis but I could send them now anyway.”

“No. Wait until they’re at their best before dispatching them. They’ll have their wok cut out for them.”

Enemies to Friends

Jack awoke in a familiar place, but it wasn’t his home in Ault. He was inside the Cheyenne mountain bunker in a hospital bed. He sniffed the air and was relieved to find out that he wasn’t still reeking of sweat and fear. He’d been cleaned and redressed.

Sally was
in the room with him. She was wearing a white tank-top and shorts. The first thing Jack noticed was that she wasn’t wearing a bra underneath her shirt.

Then he gathered his senses and said, “What the hell happened?”

She dipped a folded cloth in a bowl of cold water and laid it across his forehead. She was gentle about it. Maybe she didn’t resent him anymore but he wasn’t hopeful about that.

“You passed out. We had no choice but to catch a flight back here. Luckily for us, we were stranded at an Air Force base
so it was easy enough finding a plane.”

Then he remembered everything. He’d lost his mind and executed a retreating enemy. He was a cold blooded monster.

She said, “I had no idea you could do what you did.”

He waited for her to tell him how disgusted she was
by what he’d done but instead she said, “You’re amazing.”

He was speechless.

She lifted the blanket and slipped into bed beside him.

Considering everything he’d been through all day, it was surprising that this was the most stressful.
It caught him so by surprise he almost leapt out of bed. He was immediately glad he didn’t act on his gut instinct.

He didn’t even consider using his empathic ability to uncover her true motives the way he had with Melanie because nothing about her actions was ambiguous
in the least. She knew what she wanted and she was taking it. Jack was more than happy to comply.

Sally snuggled into him afterwards and said, “I heard it’s your birthday today. Happy birthday
, Jack.”

He sat up. “How long was I out?”

“Two days.”

“Holy shit!
No way.”

“I’ve been your Florence Nightingale the whole time.”

“What does that mean? Who’s she?”

“She was a nurse who fell in love with her patient.”

“You’re not in love with me. You hate my guts.”

“
Do you really still think I hate you?”

He smiled lazily. “I guess not.”

“It turns out you’re a lot more charming when you’re unconscious.” She laughed at her own insult which put a smile on his face.

She sat up and kissed him. She stood and said, “Get some rest if you can. My room is right next door if you need me. I’ll send your mom in when you feel up for it.”

“I didn’t know she was here.”

“We didn’t know if you’d pull through so she was sent for just in case.”

“Is Melanie here too?”

He detected a hint of unease in Sally’s posture. “You’re not seeing her, are you? Oh God, you are, aren’t you?”

Jack shook his head. “No. We’re just friends.”

“Oh good. I’d feel like such a bitch if you were already taken.”

She turned around and walked from the room with a spring in her step, saying over her shoulder, “I’ll just send your mom in now. I think you’re strong enough to handle it.”

Just half a minute later his mom walked in. She said, “You look good. Your complexion is back. It looks like you jus
t ran a marathon.”

Jack
hid his smile and said, “I feel like a million bucks. Sorry they got you so worried about me.”

“I saw you, son. You looked like you were on death’s door. You’re lucky to have a friend like Sally Hopkins. She’s a sweetheart. She barely left your side.”

“She’s growing on me.”

“I think she likes you.”

Jack refused to have that conversation. “Where’s Melanie?”

“She’s back home. She couldn’t make it.”

“Why? What happened?”

“Nothing. She just couldn’t make it.”

Jack shook his head. What possible reason could Melanie have for not coming? He would’ve been there for her if their roles were reversed.

His mom must’ve seen the confusion on his face. “Melanie’s going through a lot. Cut her some slack.”

He sighed. “I know. I guess I just expected more from her.”

“Sometimes the people we love let us down. It’s not their fault and you shouldn’t hold it against them. No one’s perfect. She’s a good girl and she cares about you.”

He changed the subject because he knew she was right. “I’m starving. Can I get something to eat?”

“Sally’s already on it. You really should thank her for everything she’s done. I thought you said she hated you. I just didn’t see that while she took care of you.”

“She did hate me. I think she had a change of heart.”

“Well, if you need a replacement enemy, I think that other soldier Hank will fill that role nicely. He mutters to himself every time he walks past your room. I think he’s jealous of how much attention she’s giving you.”

“It’s always nice to have enemies, I guess,” he said resignedly. “I wouldn’t know what to do without them.”

The truth was that he didn’t give a damn if Hank hated him because they’d never liked each other in the first place. It was no loss at all.

His mom patted him on the top of the head and then kissed his forehead. “Happy birthday. Get some sleep,” she said before leaving the room.

Sally entered as soon as she left
, with a plate piled high with food. She had fruit jammed in her shorts pockets and two bottles of water clutched in her fist.

She locked the door and ate with him. She had a voracious appetite, and for more than just food.

He felt like he was in a dream when she left him. He drifted off into the most pleasant sleep of his entire life.