The Saga Of Tom Stinson (Book 1): Summer School Zombocalypse (14 page)

Panicking again, Anidea said, “There’s nowhere to hide in here.”

“
We have guns. We can take them out.” Winston held up his pistol.

“
I know you’re itching to shoot up the place Winston,” Tom told him. “But we don't know what floor they are going too, they might not be coming here.”

“
They're coming here, I know it,” Anidea was on the verge of tears.

“
There's the other door across the walkway. We have to go that way,” Tom said.

Winston shook his head. “Through those arcs? Definitely not! We'd be killed. We should stay here and fight.”

“
If we are caught here we'll be killed just as dead,” Anidea reminded them.

“
Watch, now. See how the pistons push the electricity back, that's when we can get across. Time it just like that grabber. We can make it,” said Emmett.

Tom saw the fear on Winston's face. “I don't like it either Winston, but that’s our route. On the count of three we go together. Okay?”

Timing the crossing wouldn’t be that difficult, but it was probably the most dangerous thing that he ever thought he would do. Huddled together, they stood at the edge of the walkway waiting for the pistons to extend and push the electric arcs into place. “Three!” Tom yelled, and they darted across the walkway, between the arcs to the other door.

Half way across, Winston tripped on his shoe laces, Anidea reached down quickly, pulling him to his feet. They moved so fast that with the effects of the lower gravity, they couldn’t stop and ran into the wall on the far side of the walkway. Tom grasped the door handle and pulled the lever down. Fortunately it wasn’t locked; the door slid open and they piled in.

“
Laces?” Anidea questioned Winston. “No one wears laces anymore. Why don’t you have Velcro, Winston?”

“
My parents like to be retro.”

Looking back across the room before he shut the door, Tom stopped. The lizardmen were pointing at him, their heads bobbing up and down and tilting from side to side. They were surprised, just as surprised as he was scared. One ran to the control room, and the other stayed watching him through the electrical arcs.

They were shielded from the lizardmen by the glowing electric arcs. It didn’t seem like the aliens would risk crossing bridge. Tom closed the door and turned to see Anidea and the twins huddled together shivering in the center of the room. He pressed the locking mechanism on the door, and the chill ran over his body, too. That’s when it hit him, the room was icy cold.

“
It’s freezing in here,” Anidea complained through chattering teeth. “Every other place on this ship is hot. Why here?”

“
I know,” Emmett said. “It has to be the computer room. Computers have to stay cool to work.”

In the room the air smelled sweet, and a light mist covered the floor. It was like the mist from an open freezer door on a hot summer’s day.

“
We’re trapped in here, and it won’t be long before they come for us,” Tom said.

A click sounded from under the mist. The mist turned from white to gold and then cleared away, disappearing into little square holes in the floor. Tom immediately looked to Emmett, “What did you do?”

He was standing by the door and shrugged. “Wasn’t me.”

“
That was me,” Anidea announced. “There’s a control panel on this wall.”

Shaking his head at her Tom said, “Don’t touch anything.”

Sockets in the ceiling clicked open. Beams of light struck down into the holes on the floor. One glanced Winston’s arm, causing him to scream in pain and pull back. He pressed his body tightly against the wall. His shirt sleeve smoldered and he slapped his arm to put it out.

“
Are you okay?” Tom asked.

“
It hurts like hell,” Winston grunted through his teeth, trying to hold back the pain.

“
No one move, and stay out of the lights,” Tom ordered.

“
You don’t have to tell me,” Anidea said.

“
You pushed the button.”

“
These lights must be some sort of security defense,” Emmett surmised.

Tom moved toward Winston to help him, avoiding the light beams.

Click.

Beams of light shot out horizontally from the walls. Anidea whinnied in pain as a light beam burned across her shoulder, cutting through her backpack strap, causing it to fall and hang loose on the other shoulder. She shrank down against the wall, moaning.

“
What did you start?” Tom demanded. “If there are more beams coming, we’re burnt meat.”

The light beams formed a grid three feet above the floor, making squares and trapping them in place.

“
Emmett, figure out how to turn off the light beams,” Tom said.

Tom squatted down to crawl under the beams when the door slid open. A lizardman stood in the doorway. He held a spear in his hands; green fire crackled from the end as he lowered it at Tom to strike.

Winston was quick to draw and fired first. The lizardman cried out, and sparks shot out of the spear as it flew from its hands. Startled, the lizardman hopped backward to avoid Winston's shots, right into the arcs of blue electric fire on the walkway. It was held in place for a second then and then instantly vaporized. If the lizardman screamed it could not be heard over the noise from the engine.

“
My hand!” Winston yelled as Emmett closed the door.

Firing the gun hurt him, the kick from the pistol was too powerful for him to hold on, the gun flew from his hand, jamming his thumb.

“
I don’t think I can shoot with this hand again,” Winston said, “but I can use the other.”

The beams of light turned off.

“
What just happened?”

“
I didn’t do that,” Anidea said.

“
We have to get out of here right now,” Tom said. “They know what we are capable of, and it won’t be long before they open that door again. The way I see it, we have two choices. We wait here and fight, or we take the fight to them. And I have a plan.”

Winston smiled, he was ready for it.

“
Wait, what about the control panel?” Anidea asked. “We’re supposed to sabotage the ship right? That’s our plan.”

“
Emmett, work your magic,” Tom said. “Try and figure out the controls. Be quick though, we don't have much time.”

Anidea reached into Tom’s backpack. “Give me the first aid kit. I need burn cream for my shoulder before we move again, and Winston is hurt too.”

Winston was so excited about fighting the lizardmen. Working round the damaged thumb, he quickly reloaded his gun and went to the door. “It’s not bad,” he said. “I'm ready for them.”

Emmett flipped a few switches, and a control console and screen slid out from the wall. Shocked by what he saw, he exclaimed. “What’s this? It says Dell on it!”

He could do it now. This was something familiar. The lizardmen were using earth technology to help run their ship. Although the keyboard keys had been altered to fit the reptilian claws the prompt came up. C. Laughing to himself, he typed.

C:>format

WARNING ALL DATA ON NON-REMOVABLE DISK

DRIVE C: WILL BE LOST.

Proceed with Format (Y/N)?

He selected, Y.

“
That should do it,” he announced proudly.

Tom was more interested in the coming battle. “Hurry up with the bandages, Anidea. We need to get moving now.”

Disappointed, Emmett shrugged, “Nothing happened? I don’t get it.” It was anticlimactic, and he was disappointed that the only thing to happen was the computer beeped once. He didn’t know what to expect though. Maybe it did something elsewhere.

Tom opened the door. Across the walkway, the other lizardman saw him and retreated into the control room. Tom stepped out of the room onto the walkway. The lizardman’s actions told Tom that not all of the lizardmen were warriors; maybe this one was scared, maybe they were scientists like the astronauts of Earth.

Timing the arcs again, they ran back across the walkway. Winston, went to open the control room door but it was locked. Tom motioned for everyone to get in the elevator, keeping his gun trained on the control room door.

The elevator door closed, and he pressed a button to go up. Nothing happened. “It isn’t working. They must have turned it off,” Tom said.

“
Maybe I sabotaged the elevator,” Emmett said, sounding disappointed.

“
There’s an access hatch,” Winston pointed at the ceiling.

Using their new found strength from the lessened gravity, they jumped up and struck the panel, popping it open. Standing on top of the elevator, they looked up the shaft. There were no cables to climb, only three holed depressions in the wall, like ladder rungs for another species.

Leading the way, Tom climbed up. The hand holds were awkward, but he managed, and it wasn’t long before he noticed gridded panels covering the shaft walls that were in between the floors.

“
Shouldn’t we go to the top?” Anidea asked.

“
How far up are we?” Winston wanted to know.

“
Two floors, I’ve been counting,” Emmett informed Winston.

“
I think we should find out where these go,” Tom said, and pulled on an access panel. It came open easily, and he tossed it down the elevator shaft. “This way. Everyone in here.”

It was pitch black in the conduit. Emmett turned on his flashlight. Bundles of wires and glass tubes lined the walls and ceiling. “This must be a maintenance shaft,” he said. “See that’s like a fuse box.”

“
This place gets weirder and weirder,” Anidea said.

Tom had forgotten about his flashlight and clicked it on. “This way.”

They crawled until they came to a junction that split off in in six directions.

“
Let’s rest here,” Tom said quietly. “Then we will take the next exit out.”

“
OMG,” Anidea screeched. “One of those spider-crabs is coming this way. They creep me out to no end.”

As the spider-crab neared she squirmed and raised her foot to kick it. Tom stopped her. “We can’t risk any chance of giving ourselves away.”

It made a faint whirring sound as it passed. “We need to talk about this,” Anidea whispered. “I do not like those things.”

“
It sounded like a vacuum to me,” Emmett said.

The spider-crab was gone, and the lizardmen were no longer an immediate threat. Tom told them his theory that they were not warriors, but scientists on a shopping trip.

Anidea wasn’t convinced. "Is that supposed to make me feel any better?”.

“
Why would they be using earth technology?” Winston asked.

“
Maybe they needed to make repairs, and they didn’t have spare parts, or maybe our technology is better than theirs,” Emmett said.

Horrified Anidea said, “That means they have been to earth before. Wouldn’t we know about it if an entire town disappeared? I mean, would we? People in general. I saw one that said Tandy, that’s like from my grandfather’s time back in the 90’s when there wasn’t sophisticated technology like we have now. Maybe that’s how they got away with it.”

Their conversation trailed off into silence, and Tom closed his eyes to listen to the pulse of the ship.

After several quick kicks, the vent cover opened and fell to the floor. Tom poked his head out into the hallway. He gave the all clear sign and climbed out, leading with his pistol.

In turn, Tom looked Emmett, Winston, and Anidea in the eye. “Ready for this? Remember they aren’t human, and they won’t hesitate to kill you.”

They were the invaders now and they were about to turn the tables. They were planning to hijack the alien ship, creating a disturbance to draw the lizardmen out and then taking them by surprise. Using the lesser gravity to their advantage, they pounded on every door and yelled their way through the ship.

It worked. Lizardmen were coming out into the corridors to see what the commotion was about. Now the only thing left was to make the aliens chase them.

“
Come on and get us, lizards!” Tom taunted the aliens.

“
Can I shoot yet?” Winston asked. “It’s working.”

“
Not yet, wait for more to come.”

“
How many is enough?” Emmett asked.

“
I’ll let you know.”

“
There’s, like twenty,” Anidea said. “Can we shoot them now?”

Tom stopped, waved his arms, and yelled at them one last time. “Over here! Over here, come get us!”

The twins and Anidea turned as well and readied themselves, aiming their weapons.

“
Wait for it. Make it count,” Tom instructed as they held their guns at the ready.

Suddenly a door opened behind them. Anidea whipped around. Tom, Winston, and Emmett, turned, too, but froze with surprise. A lizardman held Anidea in its claws. She cried out as it bit her shoulder. Her head rolled back and then fell forwards, as clean red lines spider-webbed across her skin; white flakes rose and fell off. “I don’t feel so good,” she muttered.

Winston snapped out of his fear and fired his gun, missing.

Emmett stood, unable to react, but Tom dove forward to stop the lizardman. It was already too late. As quickly as the lizardmen appeared, it slipped back into the room, pulling Anidea with it. The twins charged the door, desperately trying to open it, but it was locked from the inside. Chargin, hisses and growls reverberated from behind. Their pursuers were about to overtake them. Tom turned and he yelled, “Fire!”

Huddled together in a defensive formation, they faced the advancing enemy. They moved to engage the aliens, firing in quick succession. Ten lizardmen fell in the first few seconds before they scattered and fled down the hall, diving into doorways and out of sight.

Winston and Emmett turned back to the locked door and tried to open it.

Winston cried out desperately,. “We have to get in there.”

Tom reloaded his pistol. “I know,” he said coldly. “You guys better reload. Right now we have to hunt the survivors down. Then we’ll find a way in to save Anidea.”

“
We can’t leave her,” Winston’s voice shook. “Please, Tom, we have to get her.”

“
I feel the same way, but we can’t stop, and give them time to regroup.” Realistically he thought she was probably already dead, but he wasn’t about to say so. The lizardman had no reason to keep her alive. Humans were just food to the lizardmen, and up to now, they were no more of an annoyance than trying to get chickens back in a coop before sunset. Well, they could give up on that idea. This particular human was about to make them think very differently.

Tom marched down the hallway towards the fallen lizardmen and stopped at the pile of bodies. “Emmett, search the bodies for weapons,” he kicked at a dead alien. “We’ll work room by room and clear each one. You guys watch my back.”

Emmett came up empty handed, “They don’t have any weapons, just this crystal,”

“
Let’s go,” Tom said.

No longer needing to hide, they moved down the hall and tried every door. Almost all of them were locked, and the ones that weren’t revealed empty rooms. They made it to the center hub of the spaceship and stopped at the elevator by the spiral walkway.

“
Look, that’s the planting room door down there,” Emmett pointed out, feeling like he was beginning to know where they were in the ship. “I was right. We made it up two floors so we must be on the floor we came in on. We can go up or down from here, or try another hallway.”

“
Up,” Tom said.

The walls of the upper level weren’t the monotonous green of the lower ones. “This must be the crew’s living quarters floor,” Tom marveled. “See all the decoration?”

Multicolored patterns and display cases lined the walls around the circular hub. They were in awe of the bizarre items that were on display. Although the objects were foreign, they felt like they belonged to Earth. Others gave the distinct feeling of being from someplace vastly distant.

“
Where are the lizardmen?” Winston asked. “Why aren’t they attacking?”

“
I don’t think they were prepared for their food to bite back,” Tom replied grimly.

Slowly they walked around the circular room, examining the contents in each case. They discovered one case that held crystals and skulls from unnameable animals. "This looks like a museum,” Emmett said.

“
I’m not so sure about that, Emmett,” Tom suggested “These are displayed more like trophies to me.”

“
Any one of these pieces would make us rich,” Winston said

“
Money? You’re thinking of money?”

“
I’m planning for when we get back to Earth,” Winston replied. “We definitely need to take the ship.”

Following the hallway they came to an open door. Strange smells emanated from within.

“
Ready?” Tom nodded and burst into the room.

The room was large, empty, and brightly lit. The trio paused. Three man sized emerald green and black saucers with ornate carvings around the rims were positioned in the center at the sides of the room. Each had an arch over its centre, containing a ring slightly bigger than a human head and equipped with screw-pin clamps. Each saucer contained a large mallet, and was surrounded by gold-embroidered mats covered with reddish-brown specks.

Tom was drawn to a tapestry hanging from the far wall, like something from an old folks home; teddy bears, deer and ducks woven into it from scraps of kids pajamas, couch covers and quilts. He couldn’t understand why the lizardmen would have such a decoration.

Clanking and whispering came from behind the tapestry and they jumped back expecting aliens to jump out and fight. Tom raised his weapon and signaled Winston to guard the door. Motioning Emmett to stay close to him, they crept toward forward to see what was behind it. Nearing the wall, he could make out heavy breathing and hushed sobbing.

“
Sobbing? I don’t believe lizardmen sob,” he whispered, and reached out to pull the tapestry back. “Get ready, Emmett.”

He whipped it aside and gasped.

“
Help us. Get us out of here,” screeched the woman and thrust her arms out through the bars of a large cage .

Tom was shocked to find humans and jumped back. The smell of rotten tuna fish cat food and moldy peanut butter billowed forth as they rushed the cage bars.

“
They're not infected, but how?” Emmett asked.

“
It doesn't matter. This changes our plans.” Tom pulled on the cage door, but it was locked. There were twenty adults in all and they were just as surprised to see him as he was them. They pleaded for him to hurry, and get them out. They didn't look good. They were pale, and their eyes were black and sunken in. The cage was bare, except for a small curved basin on the wall that had a steady stream of blackish liquid flowing into it.

“
Has anyone seen my dad?” Tom called out. “His name is Carl, Carl Stinson.”

The adults were in a state of shock and panic, unable think about who his dad was.

One prisoner held her arms out through the bars, begging. “Food? Do you have any food?”

Tom opened his pack, thankful that the U-Mart attendant had insisted that he fill it with nuts and food bars, there was enough to share.

Emmett wasn’t interested in the adults, he was busy inspecting the ornate bowls. Picking up a hammer, he found it wasn’t as heavy as he thought it would be. “The aliens must crouch here to eat. They use the hammers to break open our skulls and scoop with their claws.”

“
They’re coming,” Winston alerted. “They don’t look afraid.”

“
We have to get this cage open,” Tom said desperately. “Look for a key, or anything that will open this door. We need them to help fight.”

Emmett looked around the room, but there was nothing that he could see that might open the door. Then he remembered the purple crystal. He reached into his pocket and tossed it across. “Tom, what about this?”

Tom caught it and held it to the cage door. It opened.