2021 (39 page)

People
had suddenly been awakened in their beds and they now just sat there and trembled as they huddled together in the dark, as the terrifying cries of the Migrators just filled the air all around the camp.

T
he armies of the world meanwhile just worked flat out in the pitch dark to keep the huge creatures at bay!

Soldiers and even civilians now relayed
a non-stop supply of ammunition to the guns as they continued to work completely blind.

Having carefully laid out their ammunition however, they were able to find new missiles quite easily to hand, although not being able to see had slowed the reloading of the guns.

Stuar
t, Joan, Jack, Alec, Jenny, Tom and Andre just remained in their tent as they just listened to the now terrifying sounds coming from the defences just a short distance away.

Suddenly there was a loud roar from one of the larger Migrato
rs but no one even knew quite where it was!

‘Oh
, Dad, I can’t stand
this
!’ cried Jenny as Alec felt his way to hold her hand.

‘The
very moment the dawn arrives we must head for the airship!’ stated Jack urgently.

‘
Blimey, it can’t come too soon for me’ uttered Alec in panic.

‘But how can they see in the dark, the Migrators I mean?’ questioned Joan.

‘I don’t know’ admitted Stuart ‘it’s
just yet another weapon they have in their arsenal I guess’ he surmised.

‘Yeah, like they haven’t got enough already’ moaned Jack.

Soon the high pitched screams of the Migrators were
now mingling with the screams of wounded men on the front line and now Jenny just began to cry as she tried to cover her ears!

‘I was going to leave you behind
in the camp, Jenny, thinking it was somehow safer, but I think you’d better come with us’ Stuart informed her. ‘There’s no way I could leave you here on your own in
this
’ he uttered.

‘This is
like something from a bloody nightmare!’ uttered Alec in shock.

Suddenly there was a terrifying human scream that sounded really close by them and it was followed by a deafening Migrator roar!

‘Oh God,
I wish it would just get light!’ cried Andre ‘how can we fight in the dark like this?’

‘Just sit tight everyone, it can’t be much longer now’ commented Stuart positively.

Just then though, Jack began
to get excited. He was now seated right by the exit of the tent just staring out into the blackness.

‘
LOOK
! THERE’S SOME DAYLIGHT! GET READY TO RUN FOR THE AIRSHIP EVERYONE!’ he suddenly shouted as they all instantly jumped to their feet.

S
oon they were all stumbling their way out of the large tent and following Jack as best they could as they made their way towards the airship in the very dim light of the early dawn, as the noise of the fighting now became even louder and even more terrifying!

The mixture of sounds consisting of both men an
d Migrators screaming was shocking now and was truly nightmarish!

‘It’s still not very light, but at least I can now see where I’m going’
uttered Jack, followed by an immediate ‘OWWWW!’ as he instantly fell over something in the darkness.

‘You were saying?’ smiled Tom a
s he helped him up off the ground.

‘Yes, I was,
wasn’t I’ laughed Jack ‘me and my big mouth’ he smiled.

Just then a wounded Migrator leapt over the defences and fell screaming in pa
in right there in front of them.

‘LOOK OUT!’ screamed Stuart as he only just managed to stop Alec running directly into its path!

‘KEEP CLEAR EVERYON
E!’ shouted Jack as they now all gave the huge creature a wide birth as it screamed and kicked out its last dangerous death throws.

The army had stationed
a large battalion of soldiers to guard the airship, in case anyone tried to steal it and use it to escape the area and Jack now signalled to them that they were about to leave.

The soldiers
now untied the mooring ropes and after their experience of having the Migrators hanging off them, they were tied up safely out of harm’s way, so they couldn’t be shaken loose again.

‘COME ON, EVERYONE,
GET INTO THE AIRSHIP!’ shouted Jack as they all climbed inside as the armed troops stood on guard all around them.

Of course, the guard’s
guns wouldn’t actually fire anymore, but most probably no one had given that a thought.

Soon, Jack and Andre between them had the airship on its way as they began to fly at first going away from the battle.

‘You’re going the wrong way, surely?’ puzzled Tom in alarm.

‘No, I have to gain a good height before I can pass over these things
, otherwise they can jump up at us, especially these new bigger red Migrators’ explained Jack.

‘Christ! Is there anything the
se things can’t do?’ asked Alec in alarm.

‘Not much
!’ replied Jack as he made the airship quickly gain height.

Then he looked a little worried.

‘What’s wrong, Jack?’’ asked Andre ‘are the gas pressure engines
not working properly?’

‘No
, they’re fine, Andre’ he replied ‘I was just thinking, I don’t want to fly too far away from the front line, as I don’t know where the end of the dead zone actually is anymore.’

‘But we fly over it normally?’ queried Joan.

‘Yes, but that was at a good height
and where the dead zone was then’ explained Jack. ‘It’s now moved and we don’t know quite where it’s moved to do we?’

‘Oh
, of course not’ nodded Joan ‘when the lights went out that signalled we’re now
inside
the dead zone already.’

‘Exactly’ nodded Stuart
‘so if we fly too far away we might end up just being disintegrated ourselves!’

‘Just c
ircle round in as tight a circle as you can and keep doing that until we gain a good height’ suggested Andre as Jack just nodded his head.

When
Andre and Jack were both satisfied the airship was flying high enough, they then turned it around and began heading it straight over the battlefield.

The sun was now rising and
now they were higher up they could see quite well.

Looking down it was a hellish sight
though, as men were being impaled with sharp spikes fired out from the larger red Migrator’s bodies.

This added to the nightmarish high pitched screams of the wounded Migrators themselves
was as terrifying a thing as any of them had ever heard!

Whilst even the Migrator’s final death throws once mortally wounded, seemed especially designed to strike the fear of God into anyone brave enough to challenge them. Their bodies writhed around on the ground and just screamed horrendous high pitched screams until they finally died.

Such was the stuff of nightmares!

Below them
, they could now see the soldiers working flat out as they fired off their guns non-stop, as others then passed them a constant supply of ammunition to quickly reload their guns again.

The dead bodies of Migrators were beginning to pile up in front of the human’s defence walls so quickly that they soon rendered the very bottom line of guns completely useless! So they could now see men rapidly moving the giant guns to new higher positions.

Stuart now held his head in anguish.

‘Shit! I never gave a thought to how the Migrator’s dead bodies would pile up so high and actually block t
he bottom line of guns.’

‘Neither did anyone else
’ added Jack as he stared over the side.

‘Look! Some of the soldiers are using grappl
ing irons to pull the bodies out the way!’ noticed Andre.

The sight of a million me
n and women now battling so hard along what looked like a quite thin line was truly incredible.

Aboard the airship they all shook their heads in shock at the horrific nature of the scene itself
, as the human race fought for its very survival!

Suddenly a giant Migrator se
emed to run up the bodies of its dead cousins to then leap clean over the human’s barrier!

Finding itself on the human’s
side it wasted no time by instantly shooting a sharp point from its upper chest as it skewered a man clean through!

Stuart quickly pulled Jenny’s face away as he didn’t want her to witness such terrible sights.

‘DON’T LOOK!’ he shout
ed as he held her face close to his chest.

Over a million Mexicans and
well over a million civilians who had been trapped in the dead zone had all been advised to flee the area, but surprisingly, most had chosen an uneasy safety behind the defence walls to support the troops instead.

Their sheer hatred for the Migrators was now such that they had refused to go and they had encamped just outside the front line itself, declaring they were ready to fight and sacrifice their lives to help destroy these monsters that had brutally killed many of their family and friends.

From the airship, they just stared as they watched one giant Migrator as it leapt over the line as a mass of civilians came pouring in setting about the giant creature with just about anything they lay their hands on!

Dozens of men and women
were now just being killed in the brave struggle with the huge beast!

Several though, had grabbed hold of the long pike that the creature shot from its chest
and they were now struggling as they just held onto it!

They discovered that beyond its sharp point lay a softer, fleshy area and one man cut the creature’s sharp pike clean off using a machete!

The creature wa
s left writhing in agony as the huge crowd then piled in to stab it to death through its chest using arrows they had taken from the ammunition pile!

It was
the first time a weak spot had been discovered on the Migrator’s otherwise impregnable armour and information about the successful civilian’s attack was soon passed all along the front line.

As the light began to brighten
, Andre touched Jack’s arm.

‘Look at mankind’s bravery
, Monsieur’ he uttered as they looked down at the million or so soldiers now all standing firm as they worked tirelessly to keep the weapons firing non-stop, with the civilians just standing by with just about any weapon they could lay their hands on, to kill any Migrator that managed to cross the front line.

They could just make out General Iram
now as he stood addressing a large crowd from a high tower.

‘WE NEED HELP SUPPLYING AMMUNITION TO THE GUNS! CAN YOU HELP US?’
they just heard him shout using an old fashioned un-powered loud hailer.

T
he crowd surged forwards now to grab hold of the large projectiles so they could all pass then along to the soldiers.

Stuart noticed how several soldiers had eith
er fainted, collapsed with exhaustion or been killed along the line, but they were quickly being carried out and replaced by others in order to keep the guns firing.

Suddenly another giant red Migrator
broke through the lines and the crowd all fell upon it with the reinforced tip arrows they were holding!

Now armed with knowledge that the Migrator
could be killed with a stab into its fleshy chest area, they were all trying to pull its sharp point out from its chest, whilst others tried to stab into it.

Again, more than a dozen brave people fell dead upon the ground before the rest eventually overcame the giant red Migrator.

‘God, these things are hard to kill
!’ uttered Stuart as he gazed down.

‘The people have real hatred in their eyes don’t they?’ commented Joan as she stared down at the scene.

‘Can you blame them?’ replied Stuart ‘these things have killed many of their family
and friends and now they threaten our very existence!’

‘I’m not blaming them, Stuart, it’s just quite frightening to witness’ she nodded.

Just as they flew over the upper most part of the ramparts
though, a giant red Migrator leapt up and managed to loosen one of the mooring ropes!

Then another
smaller black Migrator immediately began climbing up it!

‘
Oh, fuck! Here we go again’ uttered Jack in panic ‘QUICKLY SOMEONE, CUT THE DAMN ROPE!’ he screamed as the airship immediately listed over to one side.

Instantly, of all people
, it was Alec who was first to grab up one of the sharp knives stored on board, as he sprinted the full length of the cabin to smartly lean out and cut the rope, sending the Migrator plummeting to the ground!

‘Oh, well done, Alec
’ smiled Stuart as he patted him on the back.

‘He always was good at sports’ smiled Tom ‘well done mate!’ he told him.

Jack now put the airship into a steep climb.

‘Phew, t
hat was a bit close!’ he uttered in relief.

Tom now smiled at his old friend
as he put an arm around him.

‘Well done, Alec
, you saved our lives, mate’ he told him as Alec just stood there still panting away and looking very shocked.

Joan though
, was busy looking back at the battle.

‘Just look at it
now
!’ she uttered ‘our front line goes for as far as the eye can see!’

‘Do you think it will hold
though?’ asked Alec, now looking very concerned.