Intruders: The Invasion: A Post-Apocalyptic, Alien Invasion Thriller (Book 1) (15 page)

With my nerves jangling beneath my skin, I turned. I looked
up and around me. There were no holes in the walls in this part of the tunnel.
No hive.

But the sickly sweet smell, with the tang of pennies beneath
it made my stomach roil.

Ozzie stood a couple of yards away, just inside the opening
of the cave-like space used for breeding. His face was a sickly green, and I
was sure it wasn’t entirely because of the color of the shiny walls around him
being reflected back in the light of his hard hat. He stared at me, his face
pained. He didn’t want to turn around.

But he did. Slowly.

A shuddering breath came out of him then, and a thin,
forlorn whimper.

“Ozzie, we have to do this.” I couldn’t believe I had the
courage to say this to him. I was beyond afraid; beyond terror. But somehow I
found the strength to keep functioning through it. “Think of our girls.”

He nodded, leaning over and looking around at each face
through the filmy, gossamer sacks, not unlike gluey spider webbing.

I did the same, following him.

The abject horror and pain of what had happened to them was
frozen on their faces in death. Shock stamped in their wide eyes forever.

Even as it was happening, they simply hadn’t been able to
believe it.

Mina came up behind us, then Ryder and Kyle. Sounds of
mortification came from them all.

Face after face, I looked for Kelly, following Ozzie’s
hitched breathing and shadowed figure.

Mina, Ryder, and Kyle did the same.

There had to be twenty women in the room.

“What about Logan’s sister?” I whispered.

“I saw a pic of her on his phone. She’s not here.” Mina’s
voice cracked.

Ozzie turned toward us, taking several breaths and pressing
the back of his hand over his nose. The smell of blood was sharp in this room.
Stepping in it was unavoidable. He closed his eyes for a moment before
speaking. “Let’s keep going. There have to be other rooms like this down here.”

We followed him out of the room, all of us moving slowly,
our UV lights in hand.

The tunnel broke apart into four separate trails.

“Maybe we should separate,” Mina said. “We could cover more
ground that way.”

“No,” Ozzie said. “We stay together. Those things could be
anywhere.” He stopped, looked down a corridor to our right, lowering his head a
little to shine his light through the tunnel. The light revealed a row of
openings on either side of the underground trail.

He stood in front of the other trails, shining his light in
each.

Each corridor had rows of openings, and separate, smaller
caves.

“Good, Christ,” he murmured. “Help us.”

* * *

We moved forward, slowly, and I thought I could hear
everyone’s heart beating in my ears. My legs felt leaden as I forced myself to
take another step toward the horror that awaited us. And another. All of my
senses sharpened. I heard every breath, every scrape against the strange
shellacked floor of the cave. I saw each shape within my sights more clearly.
The smell of rotting meat and blood assaulted my nostrils and made me gag.

It was so cold. Every breath seemed to freeze my lungs a
little more.

My entire body trembled, and if I allowed myself to think
about what I’d see, I’d lose it.

So I just kept moving.

Ozzie moved into the first opening in the walls, his UV
light lifted, ready.

The scene in this cave was like the last. We searched each
terror-stricken, tortured face, all of us swiping away tears. It was too
horrible.

We couldn’t harden ourselves to it. We had no defenses
against it.

We continued, cave after cave.

And then a cry rang out. And another. And another. Then
screams.

We all froze.

The hair lifted on my scalp and my heart leapt into my
throat.

Then we were moving. We ran in the direction of the screams.

They grew louder and shriller with every opening we passed,
every cave housing roomfuls of hanging women, until finally we reached them.

A cave with women whose cocoons hadn’t been torn outward.
Not yet.

We ran in, looking at faces.

“Oh, God. They’re moving. Their bellies are moving,” Ryder
cried.

I looked down at the belly of the woman hanging in front of
me. Her stomach was undulating.

And she was shrieking, her fingers clawing at the skin of
her belly.

I took a step back, banging into another hanging, screaming
woman.

We all stumbled back.

Except Ozzie, who dropped to his knees and wailed, his hands
on the belly of the woman hanging in front of him. “Noooo! Noooo! NOOOOO!
NOOOOOO!”

Kyle stared, wide-eyed for a moment, then blinked and ran
forward, grabbing Ozzie under the arms and hauling him back.

“Let go of me! It’s Diane! It’s Diane!” Ozzie yelled.

“Something is coming out of her, Ozzie. We need to stay
back.” Kyle yanked him backward. “UV lights! UV lights!”

When the first of the creatures moved upward, a strange,
snake-like shape moving beneath the skin of Diane’s chest, up into her neck,
her screams were cut off. The thing tore through her throat as Diane’s body
convulsed. A greenish grey thing poked it’s head out through her stretched lips
and screeched at us, rows of tiny serrated teeth snapping.

Mina stepped forward, aiming the UV light straight at the
creature.

Dark, glistening, spindly arms emerged from the mouth, smoking
in the UV light. The small, dome-like head shook back and forth, and then the
thing let out a high pitched shriek as the head fell into itself and
disintegrated into a smoky, slimy substance hanging from her mouth.

Ryder did the same with the woman hanging to her right.

But there were too many of them.

We stepped further back, toward the opening and aimed our UV
lights at the things as they burst from their screaming, choking mothers and
scrambled like insects away from us, skittering up the walls and over the
ceiling of the cave, hissing and screeching.

They burned, sizzled and disintegrated, the gooey remains
plopping to the cave floor.

Then it was quiet, except for our frantic gasping and
Ozzie’s helpless sobbing.

Kyle looked up and frowned. He lifted his hand. “Shhh.”

We all held our breath, listening.

A low hissing sound came from down the corridor.

“Move! Those things are coming!”

We ran into the corridor, but when we came to the area where
the tunnels branched off, we stopped.

“Which way?” Ozzie asked.

“Left!” Kyle shouted.

We moved as fast as we could in the close confines of the
tunnel, ducking down as the hissing grew louder.

And then Mina screamed.

And then Ryder screamed.

They were everywhere, skittering along the walls and the
ceilings.

I lifted my UV light and aimed for the ceiling, still moving
forward, blinded by Ozzie and Kyle’s lights.

A crawler directly above me sizzled and screeched, and fell
behind me, and I kept aiming and moving.

Things moving along the walls crackled and shrieked, the
steam and smoke coming from them burning my nostrils and eyes, and I couldn’t
see any longer.

I swung my UV light crazily, waiting to be grabbed by the
claws of a crawler directly behind me. It was so close I could feel its
stinking breath on my neck. I rolled, light held up, and heard the thing fall
backwards, bursting like fireworks. Scrambling backwards, I kept moving upward,
heading toward the entrance, toward the daylight, sure that another was coming
up on me.

My throat burned as I burst through to the surface,
scrambling up onto the snow. I continued aiming my UV light into the hole,
hoping to get as many crawlers as I could, willing whoever was left to make it
back up to the light.

Snow fell fast on my face and I opened my eyes to stinging
slits, trying to see enough to make my aim true.

With blurred vision, my eyes burning, I saw Kyle burst
through into the falling snow, then Ozzie coming up behind him. His arms
reached the surface as he pulled and crawled toward us. Both hands reached the
snow, his eyes round with terror.

And then two ovaloid, smoking heads appeared in the murky
light and his mouth opened in a scream as they pulled him back into the depths.

Sherry lifted me under the arms and dragged me toward the
compound. “Run! I hear the dead coming!”

Through bleary, raw eyes I squinted into the storm, but
couldn’t see more than a few feet in front of us. “Where? Where are they? I
can’t see!”

We were running through a white-out blizzard. Stumbling, our
arms in front of us, trying to feel our way around.
This is
what being snow blind is
. The blizzard couldn’t have come at a worse
time.

I felt a hand grab my arm and breath on my ear, and my heart
froze.

Kyle said, low. “Move slowly and carefully. Stay close to
me.”

Sherry moved beside me, staying close to Kyle as he led the
way. We were silent, not even the sound of our labored breathing could be heard
as we walked blindly through the blizzard.

The howling of the wind confused our ears. It was hard to
tell the difference between what we’d come to know as the groans of a deadie
and the moaning of the wind.

Spitting snow whipped into my eyes, soothing them of the
stinging, but obscuring my vision further. I grasped for Kyle’s jacket, but
came up with nothing.

Bringing my hands up to my eyes I tried to rub the icy water
from the snow out of them.

When I opened them again, Kyle and Sherry had vanished.

I was alone again, with the dead searching for something to
eat in the storm.

Logan was alone with no one to help him.

Hank was waiting for me in the compound. If Logan died and
Sherry and Kyle didn’t make it back, and I froze to death or was caught by a
deadie, he’d starve.

And then I was sobbing silently, tears spilling from my eyes
and freezing on my face.

I couldn’t stand the thought of Hank being alone, waiting
for me and dying a sad and lonely death.

A white hot rage came up from my belly and warmed me, and
then I felt completely pissed off. I was seventeen years old, damn it. And I’d
been through more hell in the past few days than most people in horror films
had to endure.

This was bullshit.

I was making it back to that compound, back to my dog.

I blinked the tears away, and was surprised to find that my
eyes felt better, and I could even see.

Lifting my arms out in front of me, I continued walking.
Slowly, carefully walking.

It seemed I walked for a long time, the cold wrapping around
me like a heavy, frozen blanket.

And then I was on my knees. I didn’t even remember falling.
I stayed like that for a while, my eyes growing so heavy. If I rested just for
a minute. . .

A moaning sound, turning into snarling. A figure emerged
from the swirling white, walking slow and stiff.

I tried to grab my knife from my boot. I couldn’t feel my
fingers. I got it, lifted it out, and then dropped it in the snow.

Plunging my hands into the snow I felt around for it. I came
up with it grasped in both hands. I waited until the deadie fell onto his knees
in front of me to take a bite, and then summoned all the strength I had and
used both hands to thrust my knife into his eye.

Using my entire body, I yanked my knife out, then pushed
myself to my feet and kept moving.

Another figure emerged from the white.

A big, bounding body with a blocky head.

“Hank!” My voice was lost in the wind, but he heard me.

He jumped toward me, and seemed to smile at me through the
snow, and I grabbed onto his collar.

“Take me home, Hank. Back to the compound. I can’t see where
I’m going, buddy.”

And he did.

* * *

When the storm slowed, I took a short walk to the edge of
the woods to look for Sherry and Kyle. The storm had receded to a fine dusting.
Fine powder floated in the air around us as we stepped out into the winter
wonderland of nightmares.

I saw my own tracks, under a layer of fresh fallen snow. It
hadn’t taken long for Hank to lead me back to the compound. I’d been wandering
in circles only a little ways from the fence.

Peering through the white I scanned the area for any sign of
Sherry and Kyle, I had to accept what I already knew. There were none.

Hank stayed close to me as I headed toward the fence. He
whined, then barked, and sniffed at the ground.

I stopped and watched as he carefully nudged a spot on the
snow. He whimpered, tapped at the ground and then took a few steps back,
letting out another sharp bark.

My pulse throbbed in my throat as I looked at the area he’d
pawed at, trepidation clenching in my chest. I crouched, using a broken twig
lying near me to clear snow from the area.

He whimpered again, and then let out a low snarl.

The edge of the hole emerged as I continued to clear snow
from it.

I stood up and stepped back, my body humming with fear.
Scanning the ground, I noticed several slightly dented areas dotting the edge
of the woods. There were so many more than before, only a few yards apart from
each other.

This was how they trapped their food.

If it hadn’t been for Hank, I would’ve likely gone under. I
would’ve fallen into this hole, just like Wilson’s father had.

Kyle and Sherry had dropped through holes in the storm. I
was sure of it. There were no bloody remains in the snow or deadies tearing
into anyone. In fact, there were no deadies at all right now.

Maybe they had all fallen through, too. What did they do
with the deadies? Did they eat them?

How close had I come from falling into a hole earlier,
wandering, snowblind in the storm? Had I been that lucky? Or had the new holes
just not appeared yet?

Industrious bastards.

“Come on, boy. Careful of the holes.” I’d said the word so
many times since the invasion had begun, Hank knew what it meant.

We both watched the ground carefully as we made it back to
the compound.

Logan had been sleeping when Hank and I burst through the
door of the compound earlier. He had still been sleeping when I checked on him
before going back to look for Kyle and Sherry.

It was deathly quiet in the compound, as Hank followed me to
Logan’s room. A creeping sense of dread slithered up my spine and I felt my
skin rise into gooseflesh. As we came closer to the room, I noted that Logan’s
steady, quiet snoring was absent.

Maybe he’s awake.

I stopped outside the door and looked down at Hank. His
hackles were up, and his head was lowered as he let out a growl, deep in his
throat.

My chest tightened and fear buzzed through me.

Oh Christ, he’s dead. He’s dead.

As if in response to my thought, a strange inhuman groan
sounded from the bedroom.

I grabbed the screwdriver from my belt and waited.

“Logan.” My hand shook.

Hank let out a growling bark.

Logan growled, too, the sound urgent and hungry.

My heartbeat hammered in my ears as I waited.

Logan shuffled out of the bedroom, his hair matted to his
head, his eyes milky grey. His mouth opened and his lips stretched over his
teeth.

Raising the screwdriver, I waited until he came a little
closer.

When he was a couple of feet from me I stepped forward and
shoved the screwdriver through his ear.

His mouth opened wide and he crumpled to the ground.

Sadness welled up inside of me and I backed away, a sob
escaping my throat. Tears filled my eyes, and my throat constricted.

I was alone. I was the last human left alive at the
compound.

In the entire world, for all I knew.

All I had left was Hank.

Dropping the screwdriver, I sank to the floor, covering my
face with my hands. Hank licked my hands and I wrapped my arms around him and
buried my face in his neck, my breaths hitching and I let loose and cried into
his fur.

I stayed like that for a long time, until I had run out of
tears to cry.

Then I wiped my face with my forearm and took a deep,
shuddering breath. “Gotta get a grip, huh, boy.”

Hank followed me outside as I searched the ground for new
holes. The area back to the compound looked free of dents, but I knew there had
to be holes out there. Hank and I were careful as we walked back.

“We can’t stay here, boy.” The crawlers knew I was here. It
would be only a matter of maybe another day before the area around the compound
was so full of holes that there wouldn’t be anywhere for Hank and me to go.
They’d get us.

I didn’t know where we’d go, but I did know that we had to
move while we still could.

As we reached the door of the compound, I looked up at the
darkening sky.
Dusk
. Soon the darkness would take
over the sky, and the crawlers would be back.

Shutting and locking the door behind us, I headed to Ozzie’s
laptop. I swiped at the touchpad and the computer came back to life, out of
sleep mode. Ozzie hadn’t had time to finish reading the document before we’d
gone back out to the hole. Maybe there was something in the document that could
help me. Dr. Barrows had been studying the creatures’ bones. There had to be
some information in there that could help us survive. Fight them.

I skimmed the document frantically, feeling the press of
time.

They would be coming back out of their holes soon.

My eyes locked on something and my blood froze.

It is possible that these creatures still
thrive in colder areas, like the Arctic.

Differences in bone structure from the
glacial bones indicates that the newer bones are a hybrid. They are breeding
themselves to be able to withstand a warmer climate.

If that happens, the human race will be
annihilated. Wiped out.

I need to find a way to kill them. I need
to find someone who can help me. If we don’t stop them, then God help us all.

The text ended there, but there were more photos, and the
name Griffin Murphy, a Paleontologist at the New York City Museum of
Paleontology.

If I could make it to the museum, maybe, together we could
find a way. Maybe we could find others who could help us.

I shut the laptop and headed to the couch and sat bundled up
in my ski jacket with Hank beside me.

We’d set out at first light, when the lizards skittered back
into their holes. We’d be careful of the dirt roads. It would be easier for the
crawlers to dig through those. Ozzie or Kyle’s pickup truck would make it
easier to watch the roads for holes. I’d pack just what we needed, enough food
and water to get us to New York City, and UV lights, lots of UV lights. Maybe
we’d find help along the way. We could grow our numbers again and be able to
fight them off, easier.

With just a little bit of luck, we’d make it. We’d find
Griffin Murphy and he’d know how to wipe these things from the Earth.

Maybe they were here first, and they want the Earth back.
But we were here last, and I’d find enough of us left to fight them. Expose
them to the sun. Kill every one of them.

If our luck held out, the trucks wouldn’t be stuck in sink
holes and there wouldn’t be too many holes around the compound to be able to
get out.

Maybe we’d be okay for a while.

Hank placed his head on my leg and I moved a hand over his
back, finding comfort in his thick fur.

And we listened as the scratching sounds began.

The End