Red the First (20 page)

“
She’s probably in the barn
with everybody else.” Elizabeth gave Michael a chastising glare.
“Now I have no way to tell the others that there’s an entrance to
the bunker ten feet away from them. How are you going to feel if we
all die because of you?”

“
I will feel dead, Mom,”
Michael said. “Very dead.”

“
That’s for sure,” Nate
said. “If the Celeruns decide to search this field, we can kiss our
butts good-bye.” He made a kissing sound and slapped his rear for
emphasis.

Chapter 19

“
You missed the picture
show.” Doc informed Red and Nate, keeping the conversation at a
barely perceptible whisper. “The Celeruns projected a three
dimensional image over the field.”

“
It was so realistic,”
Blanche said. “Scary, but impressive.”

“
I think it was designed as
demoralization tactic,” Doc said.

“
The images were bigger than
life, literally,” Blanche said. “The Celeruns like to throw around
the word
peaceful
a lot.”

“
We know,” said
Nate.

“
By peaceful, they mean what
causes the least turmoil to Celeruns,” Elizabeth said. “They’re
complete narcissists, incapable of empathy toward other species,
though they’re fiercely selfless when it comes to their
children.”

“
Yeah, we figured
that.”

“
Wait a minute,” Doc said,
grabbing Nate’s arm. “You spoke with the Celeruns?”

“
Yep, they used translators
to talk to us after they disintegrated our Corvette. It was really
intense.”

“
They said that we’re
out-technologied, outsmarted, and hopelessly outnumbered,” Michael
said, clutching Red’s sleeve. “So we might as well give up so they
can kill us as peacefully as possible. Are we gonna die,
Dad?”

“
Not on my watch,” Red
said.

“
An interesting aside,”
Elizabeth added. “As I was poking around inside their heads, I came
to realize that the Celeruns are absolutely terrified of their own
individual mortality. It’s what drives them to risk everything to
reproduce. They view having offspring as a form of everlasting
life. The more children they have, the greater chance they’ll find
everlasting life.”

“
Did you learn anything else
that might help us?” Red asked.

“
The Celeruns down here on
the ground aren’t the ones calling the shots. They’re used to being
told what to do, how to do it, and when to do it. There’s not a
true leader among them. All important decisions must come down to
them via the command chain, which slows down their ability to act
decisively.”

“
Interesting,” Doc
said.

“
And,” Elizabeth’s voice
cracked and lowered a notch, “The Celeruns have already ‘cleansed’
the other continents. North America is last on the list. They
started on each coast and plan to meet somewhere in the
middle—here.”

“
We’re the last remnant of
humanity?” Nate’s eyes widened.

“
The Celeruns believe
so.”

“
You mean we’re all alone?”
Blanche’s voice squeaked.

“
If it’s any consolation,”
Elizabeth smiled weakly. “For all their talk of peace, the aliens
are full of inner turmoil. Every single one of them is a neurotic
mess. They believe the human concept of life after death is a
dangerous idea and…” Elizabeth stopped in midsentence and placed
her fingers on her forehead. By the look of concentration on her
face, Red knew she was picking up someone’s thoughts. “Aliens
walking,” she mouthed, pointing to the left.

Red quietly motioned for the group to
follow him deeper into the grass, down a hill, and under the
umbrella of a weeping willow. He knew it was okay to stop when
Elizabeth broke the silence.

“
The mother ship will touch
down at the break of dawn.”

“
Why don’t they just torch
the place now?” Nate asked.

“
Their ships and vehicles
all draw power from the same source,” Elizabeth explained,
rehashing some of the information General Moore had jotted down in
his notes. “Most of that power has been diverted to the main ship
as it descends into the atmosphere, a monumental feat considering
the thing is the size of Tokyo.”

“
Where’s Godzilla when you
need him?” Nate said.

“
For now,” Elizabeth went
on, “the Celeruns’ objective is to keep us contained. The ground
forces plan to take us out after they’re at full power again once
the ship’s landed. Time is on their side.”

“
So they think,” Red
added.

“
There’s another factor
too,” Elizabeth said. “The Celeruns are fanatical about the
environment. After spending so much time and resources cleaning up
the Earth, they don’t want to release unnecessary pollution into
the air.”

“
You’re got all that from
one reading?” Red asked.

“
I’ve been reading the
Celeruns since they started trailing us.”

“
I want to know about
operations, Elizabeth. How many Celeruns are here? How many are
coming?”

“
There’s about fifty here.
They come in teams, and while the mother ship is landing, they’re
on their own.”

“
And once the mother ship
lands?” Red asked.

“
The fleet will be here
fast.”

“
How fast?”

“
I don’t know,” Elizabeth
answered.

“
Well, at least for now it’s
just them and us.” Red pointed toward a couple of aliens standing
behind a tractor. “Tomorrow, it’ll be us and the whole damn
fleet.”

“
Watch out!” Nate cried out.
Red followed his gaze. Troops of Celeruns marched over the tops of
the grasses, their feet never touching the ground, merely brushing
against the grass heads. Heart racing, he reached for his gun, but
it wasn’t there. Nate tried to bolt, but Doc and Blanche wrestled
him down.

“
Chill!” Elizabeth managed
to yell without raising her voice above a whisper. “It’s just the
3D projections we were telling you about.” She tossed a small stone
into the air. It passed through a Celerun’s stomach to fall back
down into Elizabeth’s outstretched hand. “See.”

Life-sized images of snow-capped
mountains stood sentry in the distance. An old-style European
village snuggled within a beautiful valley. The scene zoomed in on
men dressed in military uniforms. Columns of soldiers marched in
unison, their feet crunching on gravel. The images looked solid as
they materialized over Red’s hiding spot.

The European soldiers suddenly
scattered, breaking ranks. Laser fire sizzled the air. The
Europeans turned to ash. The smell of burnt flesh seared Red’s
nose. He tried not to gag as a bass-baritone voice narrated the
scene like an imitation James Earl Jones, but devoid of inflection
and talent.

“
These last inhabitants of
Germany were subdued without effort.” The scene zoomed over a
neatly tilled ten-acre field where a Celerun ship the size of a
Roman coliseum had landed. The ship was silver, stacked tiers,
largest at the bottom and smallest at the top, just like the
wedding cake that Blanche had described. Skywalks crossed over from
stack to stack. Celeruns walked up and down ramps that descended
from the ship. The air near the ships’ hulls condensed into an
eerie white mist. “These are daughter ships, which brought the
first Celerun settlers to Earth; these are the cleanup crews and
builders who have labored to prepare the way for the primary
settlers from the mother ship.”

The projection narrowed in on the
fields, which appeared to be rows of cornstalks, until settling on
a single plant. The sprout was three feet tall. Oblong objects,
which looked like corn cobs with silky yellow tassels, grew from it
in various directions, but the color was deeper green than regular
corn and the stalk woodier. A Celerun knelt beside the corn, gently
peeling back the husks from a cob.

Nestled inside the husks, where regular
corn would have kernels on the cob, was an innocent face with pale
green skin, slit nostrils, and tightly closed eyes. Small fists
curled at its chest. The adult encouraged the sproutling to wrap
its tiny hand around her finger. Small red eyes opened and the face
inside the stalk smiled. The adult caressed her baby tenderly under
the chin, causing it to make high-pitched cooing sounds. The
sproutling rustled, smacked its lips several times, sighed and then
closed its eyes again. The adult pressed her lips against the
sproutling’s cheek in a loving gesture. She then moved down the
row, repeating the same sequence with each and every cob on every
stalk in every row.

The scene panned outward, sweeping over
the field. Then across the continent, where thousands of fields
with thousands of Celeruns were growing.

Red’s jaw clenched at the thought that
millions of aliens were growing, sucking life out of the soil that
had belonged to human children. This world belonged him, to
Elizabeth, to young people like Nate and Blanche. This world
belonged to his unborn child, not to Celeruns! He shook a clenched
fist at the images floating above him. He demanded something to
write on. Doc handed over pen and paper. Red began writing
furiously. When finished, he asked Blanche for her specialized
assistance.

Chapter 20

Red gave Blanche the paper. “Levitate
it to the barn, please.”

“
I can’t do
that.”

“
I saw you lift a ton of hay
off of Keith Brown, so whaddaya talking about?”

“
A fluke.”

“
But the paper is so light
a breeze could carry it.”

“
It’s not just the weight,
it’s the distance. I’ve never managed more than twenty
feet.”

“
The survival of humanity
depends on you being able to manage several hundred
feet.”

“
I’ll try,” she sighed.
“But I can’t make any promises.” She took the paper and tested its
weight. “Too light. Maybe if we add a little bulk, something I can
actually feel with my charastmatic muscle; that’s what I call the
thing inside me that can lift things without touching
them.”

“
How about a sock?” Nate
offered.

“
Eww!” she shrieked as he
handed her a dirty tube sock from off his foot. “Get some Odor
Eaters or something,” she complained as she scooped up a handful of
pebbles from the drainage culvert rimming the field into the sock.
She folded the paper and tucked it into the sock on top of the
pebbles.

Elizabeth took the key from her neck
and handed it to Blanche.

Red stopped her. “You can’t do that,
honey.”

“
They’re going to need it,”
Elizabeth said

Red shook his head. “It would take me
half-an-hour to write down all the details on how to use the key,
Elizabeth, and we don’t have that kind of time. Only you and I can
turn it. Besides, we can’t risk the Celeruns intercepting it on the
way to the barn.”

“
What was I thinking?”
Elizabeth said, taking the key back. “You’re right. It has to be
you or me.”

“
What does the key go to?”
Blanche asked as she looped the sock into a ball of
knots.

“
Never mind that, just do
your job.”

“
My job?” Blanche raised
her eyebrows.

“
Don’t be rude, Red,”
Elizabeth said.

“
It’s okay,” Blanche
assured. “We’re all under a lot of stress.”

Red motioned for Blanche to follow him
to the ground on her hands and knees. The two of them crawled
through the grass, over pebbly ground, until they reached the edge
of the meadow, getting within thirty feet of the gravel parking lot
before running out of cover. The barn was a good two hundred feet
beyond them still.

Blanche eyed the barn nervously.
“That’s so far away,” she said.

“
You can do it,” he
encouraged.

“
Okay, okay.” she ordered.
“But you’ll be quiet, I need total concentration.

Her face strained like she had
constipation, but much to Red’s delight, the sock lifted from her
palm to skim over the tips of weeds, skipping over the tops of the
tallest. He winced as Blanche sailed the sock between the legs of
an unobservant Celerun. Next, she brought it under the belly of a
rusting tractor and through a partially opened side door into the
barn.

Red lost sight of it as it disappeared
into the shadows within and was dying to ask Blanche where it was
now, but he didn’t want to break her focus. All he could do was
hope those bunkered down in the dim barn would notice an airborne
sock flapping around over their heads.

Blanche whispered. “I can’t feel the
sock anymore. Either it’s fallen to the ground or someone is
holding it.”

“
Which is it?” Red shook
her by the shoulders.

“
I don’t know,” she said,
peeling his fingers off her shoulders. “Ow. Upset much,
sir?”

“
Sorry.” He backed off. The
two of them crawled back to the others.