Red the First (16 page)

Some bystanders dared to touch the
corpses, recoiling in fear when convinced of a new
reality.

“
First, the plague, and now
this,” a crotchety old woman complained. “What’s next?”

Red shouted over the chaos. “We cannot
fight the Celeruns with muscles and guns, but there is another
option. We must leave Hewego this very day. A place of refuge
awaits us.”

“
You want us to run away?”
Elwood Albright stubbornly stood his ground. “Hewego is all I have!
I will not go!”

A cry rose up, people shaking their
fists defiantly. “Stand and fight for Hewego!”

“
Your valor is
commendable,” Red said, trying to be the voice of reason. “But you
don’t understand what you’re up against.”

“
And you do?” someone from
the crowd challenged.

“
The U.S. military couldn’t
defeat these aliens—the Celeruns. Other worlds more advanced than
our own surrendered to them. What chance do you think Hewego has?”
That got everyone’s attention.

“
How do you know this
stuff?” People demanded to know.

“
A stranger came to town…do
you remember Hank from the Christmas party?”

“
You mean the nut on the
radio?” Blanche asked.

“
Yes. Turns out that he’s a
high-ranking general from the U.S. government, and he told us about
the Celeruns. Apparently, they’ve been studying Earth a very long
time, and they’re the ones that sent the plague.”

“
Is this true?” rippled the
murmur across the growing crowd. Most of the council was present by
now. They verified everything Red was saying, and worked to keep
everyone calm, which only seemed to anger the crowd
further.

“
How long has the council
known about this? Why are you only telling us now?”

Veronica joined Red at the center of
the gathering. “It’s not Red’s fault. He’s the only one that took
the general seriously.”

“
Not just me,” Red said.
“My wife did, and Father Bob at least gave the general’s story
serious consideration.”

“
Well, the rest of us
didn’t,” Veronica said. “We wouldn’t listen because we thought that
General Moore was mentally disturbed. On behalf of the council, we
sincerely regret our mistake.”

The crowd roared and surged
forward.

Red pulled Elizabeth and Michael
close, thinking they were going to be mobbed, but other people in
the crowd reacted by barring the way, protecting friends and
neighbors, restoring the peace.

“
If you will listen,” Red
said. “We’ll tell you what we know, but it’s precious
little.”

The council members took turns
relaying what they knew about the situation. All the while, Red
kept glancing over his shoulder, waiting for more aliens on
hovercrafts. When the council was finished, arguments broke out
amongst the people until Red gave a long sharp whistle.

“
Quiet!” he ordered. “There
will be time for finger pointing later. You can string up the
council later. But if we don’t move now, there will be no
later.”

“
What do we do, Mayor
Wakeland? Where will we go?” the crowd asked.

“
I’m glad you
asked.”

..............................

First, Red formed teams to knock on
doors and make sure everybody was notified of the imminent
evacuation. No one was allowed to bring anything other than water,
weapons, pets, one change of clothing and a day’s worth of food.
For the most part, everyone cooperated, but a few resistors had to
be forcibly evacuated. Next, they met at the Wakelands’ house,
where Elizabeth was waiting in the lead car. Red had originally
intended to take the rear, but that part of the plan changed when
more stragglers arrived from Last Haven.

If there were more survivors still to
come from Last Haven, someone would need to bring them into the
evacuation plan right away, and lead them to the bunker. On the
other hand, if Last Haven was overrun with Celeruns, as the
stragglers described it to be, for humans to enter the town would
be suicide.

Red decided someone needed to stay
behind to to wait for stragglers from Last Haven. Other than
Elizabeth, he was the only other one who knew where the bunker was
and how to enter it, so that person had to be him.

In less than an hour, Red had hugged
his wife, son, and dog good-bye, and the Wakelands’ property was
emptied of half its vehicles. He waited around, checking the road
between Last Haven and Hewego, hoping for survivors. So far about a
hundred had escaped, but not by the road. They had come by way of
the fields, and woods, avoiding the main roads. He gave them
directions to catch Elizabeth’s caravan.

He kept glancing at his watch. “I’ll
give it another twenty minutes just to be sure there aren’t any
more…”

His heart thumped, thinking about the
distance he had to make up to catch up with the rest of the town.
Also, the dead Celeruns’ friends could show up at any
second.

Father Bob had the cloaking device. By
now the physical town was no longer under its protection. He went
into the house to grab Miss Buttercup and the snapshot of his first
family. The first one to come to hand was the one taken on that
last trip to Cedar Point. Kay was holding a giant pink bear Red had
won for her at the sharpshooting range. The kids were making bunny
ears with their fingers behind one another’s heads. That day was
one of his fondest memories. Sliding the photograph into his front
pocket, he went outside for the Corvette.

Red was angry to find Nate reclining
on its hood as if he didn’t have a care in the world. The stupid
kid was supposed to be on the way to the safety of the bunker with
the rest of town.

“
It’s just you and me,
Bossman.” Nate grinned. “Mind if I drive?”

Chapter 16

Nate pressed a button on the
Corvette’s CD player.
Hell’s Bells
rang out of the speakers.
The electric guitar took over, and as the drum began to thump, Red
and Nate nodded to the beat in sync. For a moment Red felt free,
like a normal guy taking a ride with a pal.

The rowdy music pushed Nate’s foot to
the floor. Red clutched the dash as the speedometer approached 150
mph.

“
Who taught you how to
drive?” he asked as Nate took a corner too fast, tires
squealing.

“
While you were busy being
mayor, I was drag racing every weekend. In case you didn’t know it,
I’m the undefeated champion of both Hewego and Last
Haven.”

Outside the window, Red began to notice
patches of cleared ground—fields prepped for planting. “That’s
strange,” he commented. “There are so few survivors, why would
someone plant so much? Besides, it’s the wrong time of year.” A
couple of the fields were already full of knee-high cornstalks.
“Knee high by the Fourth of July,” he repeated the old farmers’
saying out loud. “It’s September.”

“
It’s probably not corn,”
Nate offered. “Wrong shade of green.”

Nate was right, it was probably some
other crop. He returned to a more interesting topic.

“
How did you kids find
enough gas to drag race every weekend?”

“
It’s not that hard if you
know where to look. And you’re the one that taught me where to
look, Bossman.”

All the warning lights on the dash
suddenly blinked on and off. The sound system went in and out. Red
peered over at the dashboard, extending his charisma into the
engine, but Nate seemed more interested in what was going on in the
rearview mirror.

“
Uh-oh, Bossman,” he
announced. “We have company.”

Red took a glance backward. A line of
silver hovercrafts followed, about a quarter of a mile behind them.
He counted twenty-two in all. A semi-automatic sat on the seat next
to him, but he was more comfortable with his .38. He slid it from
his shoulder holster and leaned out of the passenger side window.
He craned his neck to get a good look at the sky—popcorn clouds
high in the atmosphere and clear blue everywhere else.

“
They’re behind us,” Nate
said, pushing the accelerator. “Not up there.”

“
I had to be sure,” Red
pulled his head into the car. “We wouldn’t last a minute against
air power.”

“
They weren’t expecting a
town the size of Hewego to get mobile so fast,” Nate said. “They
probably didn’t expect a chase.”

“
That’s what I was banking
on.” Red repositioned himself in the window, waiting until the
aliens got closer. Technically, they were within range of his .38
already, if they were on a tranquil shooting range, but the jolting
of the Corvette’s stiff sports suspension was throwing off his
aim.

“
We’re at war with space
aliens.” Nate, always the thrill-seeker, seemed almost giddy.
“Surreal, Bossman, surreal.”

It was eerie how the hovercrafts made
no sound, like big cats hunting gazelle out in the Serengeti. Four
were speeding up, getting closer to the Corvette, while the rest of
them kept their distance.

“
I wonder why they’re not
shooting?” Red said.

“
Funny you should ask that,”
Nate replied. “Because I was wondering the same thing about you.
What ever happened to shoot now and ask questions
later?”

The kid had a point.

Red aimed and shot the closest Celerun
in the forehead. The hovercraft flipped as its driver fell sideways
onto the road, spilling yellow goo over the ground.

The other three Celeruns returned fire.
Blue and red stripes of light buzzed toward the Corvette, but arced
harmlessly to the ground, vanishing into the pavement before the
shots of light reached the car.

“
I can’t believe it.” Red
slapped the car door in joyous disbelief. “Their weapons have a
shorter range than ours do!”

“
I’m pretty sure it’s
because of me,” Nate said. “I’m sending out electricity bursts in
hopes it might interfere with their weapons.”

“
You can do
that?”

“
I’m amazing.”

“
What if you short out the
car?

“
Didn’t think of that,” Nate
said. “Should I stop?”

“
No. The plastic steering
wheel must be insulating you from the metal.”

Nate let out a whoop.

The general had explained that landing
the mother ship was a huge endeavor. Celerun resources would be
limited as the mother ship descended to earth. That had to be the
explanation as to why the aliens weren’t being as aggressive, but
he wasn’t about to dampen Nate’s fun.

Red squinted one eye, aimed, and shot
another Celerun. “May you burn in alien hell!” he hollered over the
wind, watching his latest victim splatter over the
asphalt.

The Celeruns decreased their speed to
stay out of range, but continued to pursue. Nate let up on the
accelerator.

“
Now what,
Bossman?”

“
Turn off of the
highway.”

Nate didn’t see the huge pothole until
the last second, making it impossible to avoid. Red felt a
tremendous jolt. Hubcaps flew off and the car spun out of control.
When it finally came to a stop, the Corvette faced the opposite
direction. Nate floored it and charged straight into the oncoming
Celeruns.

The hovercrafts tilted hard to avoid
the onslaught. Several cracked against each other, sending their
occupants skidding over the ground. Viscous yellow blood splattered
on the back windows of the Corvette. Red picked up the
semi-automatic and loaded a magazine.

Beams of red and blue whizzed past the
car.

“
Swerve!”

A blast of heat enveloped the car. Its
body and hubcaps were gone. Rubber peeled from the wheels. The rims
sparked down the highway until an axle broke away. Red closed his
eyes, shielded his face with his arms. Nate let out a
scream.

He expected to die right there, but the
car came to a bumpy halt. Now there was nothing between them and
the ground except the seats. Aliens were coming at them from every
side. Red raised the semi-automatic and shot off several rounds,
tearing a path through the aliens. Nate was already up and running
to the cover of the ditch.

Red followed, turning and shooting as
he ran toward the ditch. He stumbled down the steep ditch into a
rivulet of marshy water at the bottom. Tall grass and cattails at
the bottom created a thick shag carpet to hide in.

Celeruns jogged along the top of the
bank. Red receded deeper into the thick foliage. He found Nate
crouched in a couple of feet of water, cussing and panting. “Oh,
shit. Oh, shit,” Nate said sotto voce. “I can’t believe this is
happening. Oh, shit.”

Parting the weeds just a little, Red
saw an alien on the bank holding a metal rectangle; she spread it
out like a fan full-circle until it opened into the shape of a
Frisbee. A low-pitched buzz filled the air. The sound started
softly, gradually building into a high-frequency pulse with the
volume of a tornado-alert siren. Red felt the gun in his hand
vibrate and lurch toward the Celerun, as if a powerful magnet had
grabbed hold of the metal barrel. He fought to hold on.