The Saga Of Tom Stinson (Book 1): Summer School Zombocalypse (16 page)

The adults bounded down the hall toward them, only six remained. They looked more ragged than in the cage. They were battered and bloodied, covered in green slime, and wore pieces of the alien armor. Their clothes underneath were virtually gone.

“
Where are the rest of you?” Tom asked.

“
Who’s she?” one adult asked, ignoring Tom's question.

Tom and Winston stared at the group, but before they could answer another adult said, “Never mind that, we need to get safe. There’s a hole in the ship. Come with us.”

Up the spiral they went to the top floor. The adults carried Emmett and Anidea. There was only one door, and it was no obstacle for the adults, they removed it from their path in a flash of light.

“
You shot it?” Tom choked, fell to his knees and screamed at the top of his lungs., “I can’t believe it. You just killed us. The atmosphere is escaping and you shot a hole through the barrier that was going to protect us.”

“
Kid, we are already dead, didn’t you get that?”

No he didn’t. No he wasn’t. He was going to make it. It was his plan to take the ship, get home, and find his dad, but now it was all over. He entered the bridge and sat down on the floor holding Anidea. Winston sat with his hands on Emmett’s face, trying to keep the deep wounds closed. A large view screen came to life as the adults pushed and pulled levers on the helm control board. The moon appeared, shining brightly in greater detail than he had ever seen before. He closed his eyes and listened to the adults chime amongst themselves.

“
That’s the moon,” one said.

“
It’s so big,” another gaped.

“
Just think, we are the first humans to physically see the moon this close in sixty years.”

“
These controls don’t do anything.”

“
Keep trying them, it can’t be that difficult to figure out.”

“
This says Atari. What?”

“
It’s a game joystick,” one adult said nostalgically. “My grandfather had one when I was a kid in 2000.”

“
Why would they use it? Unless they have been to earth before and taken our technology.”

“
The moon is moving,” another said excitedly.

“
No, it’s the joy stick. It’s working,” the other cheered.

“
The Earth. The Earth. It’s on the screen now. We turned the ship around,” one congratulated.

The adults were very proud of themselves, but the Earth was now getting bigger and bigger on the monitor.

“
Uh, we need to slow down, don’t we?” one asked.

“
How? How do we tell if we slow down? These panels aren’t written in English.”

“
I’ve tried every one of the controls. Nothing’s working,” one panicked.

“
Oh no,” Tom slapped himself on the forehead. He’d finally realized what Emmett destroyed in the computer control room. He stood and announced to the adults, “I don’t think we will be able to do that. We destroyed the controls. Besides, won’t the air leak out before we crash?”

Winston’s eyes welled up with tears as he thought of how he’d almost lost Emmett, how his dad died, and how he didn’t know what happened to his mother. He looked over at Tom and sobbed, “I don’t want to die yet. I- I- can’t.”

“
It’s not going to be alright. I won’t sugar coat it, Winston. We’re going to die, asphyxiate as the air seeps away, our blood is going to boil in the vacuum of space.”

“
I don’t want to hear it Tom.”

“
And what’s worse is that if we live that long we will burn up in the atmosphere and then crash, probably into a juvenile detention facility or someplace worse where our souls will suffer in eternal damnation forever.”

“
Anidea and Emmett, they are the lucky ones; they’re unconscious,” Winston said.

“
I didn’t find my dad either, Winston. He’s probably dead too. I didn’t finish building my dirt bike engine. My mom, wherever she is, won’t know I’m dead or how I died or that I wished she’d never left.”

Soon the ship started to jolt and shake as it plunged into the Earth’s atmosphere. The adults worked frantically at the controls despite what Tom had told them.

“
Well, we didn’t suffocate or die from decompression,” one mused.

“
This is no time to joke. Can’t you show a little sensitivity,” another snapped.

Tom stared at the screen and watched the image cloud red from the friction of the ship entering the atmosphere. “I guess this is it. I didn’t think we’d make it this far anyway,” he said to Winston. “I’m going to say goodbye before we burn up.”

“
Wouldn’t they have an escape ship?” Winston wished. “In case of an emergency?”

Tom jumped up and moved frantically about the bridge. “Escape ship? Help me, we don’t have much time to find it. If you were a lizardman what would it look like? Think like a lizard, Winston.”

“
Um, lizards crawl? They’re scaly and green?”

“
Crawl. That’s it,” Tom looked low along the floor. “There, under the main bridge controls. Those oval slats could be covers to something.”

Over to his left were three more and he counted nine across the room. One for each bridge crew member station. “We don’t even know how to open them.”

The adults were too busy to notice and interfere with his plan. He didn’t want to take the chance as there were ten people and only nine escape pod hatches. What if the pods were single lizard? That would give them something to debate, and they would be dead before they made a decision. “Don’t give up. Hurry, Winston, we don’t have much time. Help me drag Anidea and Emmett to the hatches.”

Winston pushed Emmett against the hatch. “It won't open.”

“
It has to,” Tom looked at the hatch, “but there’s no levers, no buttons. Please don’t be voice activated.” He waved his arm frantically and hiisss’d at it in lizardese. “Szsszsszss.”

How was he going to open it? He kicked it and nothing happened. Emmett would have known instinctively what to do, but he was unconscious.

“
Emmett!” Tom shook him. “Wake up! Wake up!” But he was too far gone from his infected wound. It was no good.

“
What are we going to do?” Winston cried. “We don’t even know that these are escape hatches.”

“
They have to be.”

“
Hey kids, come over here, and we will comfort you for the end,” one adult beckoned.

No way! It was a trick to stop him from succeeding. “We’re not giving up,” Tom said.

Then it suddenly dawned on Tom.
In an emergency break the glass and pull down
. He flipped switched and turned knobs across the control console, there in the center toward the top was a clear cover, and under it was a lever.

Tom hit it with his hand but nothing happened. He hit it again, harder and harder but still it didn’t break. He wasn’t as strong as the lizardmen. He took out his gun and shot it. Success! He pulled the lever.

Winston shouted, “They’re opening.”

“
Don’t shoot,” one adult said, surprised by the gunshot. Then he noticed the hatches opening. “Hey, what’s that? Look everyone, those could be escape hatches.”

“
There are only nine hatches,” another adult exclaimed, “and ten of of us. How are we going to choose who goes and who stays?”

“
Choose nothing. I’m going!” an adult shouted, and dove head first, sliding across the floor into a hatch.

The remaining adults looked from one to another, surprised by the one who had taken a snap decision. They stood still. They looked like the cat who caught the canary as they realized that they didn’t have to obey the rules and be considerate and nice to each other. They didn’t have to care. They could put themselves first. It was everyone for themselves. The adults fought each other to get through the remaining hatches. One more had already gone before Tom fired his gun and stopped them.

At the sound of the shot they froze. “Winston, push Emmett and Anidea in, then go yourself,” Tom ordered as he covered their side of the bridge. After Winston was in, Tom said to the adults. “You adults, that leaves four hatches and the five of us. We need to talk about this.”

“
No we don’t,” one of the remaining adults said and dove into a hatch.

Tom fired and missed. He cursed himself. He’d never really had a chance to become a good shot.

“
Sorry kid, but do you really want murder on your conscience?” The other three adults scrambled down the remaining hatches.

Tom stood there, shocked, “After all I’ve done for you, this is how you repay me?”

He looked down at the hatch that Winston had gone in; it was still open. He crawled in hoping that there was room for two. Soft padded mechanical arms took hold of him and pulled him forward down a dark tube. He came out into the dim light of an escape pod, landing right in Winston’s lap. Winston let out a loud. “Oof!”

Emmett and Anidea were already there strapped in, but the pod only had three seats. Before he could adjust his position to get comfortable, the machine automatically strapped Tom tight against Winston and launched. They were pressed back in their seat.

“
Frrooooff! You’re crushing me,” Winston gasped for breath.

“
There’s nothing I can do until the thrust stops.”

Through the viewport they could see Earth as the ship plummeted toward it. The ship became a bright ball of fire that disappeared over the horizon to the west. They were well above the planet and moving along rapidly. Florida passed by, and moments later the North West coast of Africa and Spain.

The pressure from the launch subsided, and Tom unbuckled himself. Winston breathed deeply and stretched his legs. “Remind the next time we use an escape pod, you get in first.”

Tom watched out the view port for a while. “Amazing isn’t it,” he said, “but there’s a problem. We are orbiting and I don’t see any controls for the pod.”

“
How will we land?” Winston asked.

“
They designed this so we crash by slowly falling into the earth’s atmosphere.”

“
That’s not funny, Tom!” Winston said angrily. “This is the dumbest escape pod ever. There have to be controls. Wouldn’t there be?”

“
Maybe it was designed to stay in space and not land.”

“
There has to be something,” Winston felt along the seats. “See here’s a lever, pull that, and see what happens.”

Tom had a bad feeling about it, “I think that’s for the door to the outside. I’m not pulling it.”

“
Oh, wait. What about this one on the side of my seat,” Winston said, lifting a cover and pushing a switch lever. There was a distinctive click and whir that came from the center of the floor. A circular purple light flashed and a floor panel slid back. A small console rose up. Tom leaned forward and studied the control. “It only has three buttons.”

“
What are we supposed to do with that?”

“
One to land, one to take off and the other to open the door I guess?”

“
Why can’t anything be easy?”

They sat staring at the three buttons, only pausing to look out of the window occasionally. They talked about which button did what, and they concluded that talking about something they mutually knew absolutely zero about was pointless.

“
There goes Florida again,” Winston said, “That makes 54 times it’s gone by, and I’m thirsty.”

“
We have to choose. This escape pod is going to land itself.”

“
How do we do that?” Winston asked. “There are still only three buttons, and we have no idea what each one does.”

“
We are in this together and we will push one of the buttons together.”

“
But we don’t know what they do.”

“
Give me your hand, Winston, otherwise will die up here,” Tom said.

“
No.”

“
Give it to me, now.”

“
No.”

“
It’s a one in three chance, if even that, they may all be bad, and they may all be good. Now buckle in and let’s do it.”

Winston buckled in. “What are you going to do? You have no seat.”

“
I’ll be fine, I’m too big for these “Alien Lizardman” theme ride seats anyway. Now let’s do it, give me your hand.”

Winston reached out slowly, and Tom grabbed his hand. “There's no time for second thoughts Winston.”

Winston struggled to pull his hand back. Tom checked Emmett’s and Anidea’s seat harnesses one last time and counted down. “One!” He slammed his hand down on the button pad.

Winston screamed, but nothing happened. “You missed the buttons? How is that possible?”

“
I think I hit all three. I don’t get it.”

A whirring sound resonated through the compartment like the sound of flaps extending from an airplane’s wing. It was followed, but several rapid bursts of mechanical clicking.

“
Uh oh. Here we go,” Winston said.

A low rumble started, and the compartment shook. Sudden pressure pulled Winston back into his seat. His cheeks pulled back from his face making him smile like a grim clown.

Tom was pinned on his back to the floor. He could see the Earth moving closer through the escape pod’s viewport. The pressure held him tight; he could feel his limbs going numb. Spots of white light flashed across his eyes, his vision dimmed, and he blacked out. His last conscious thought was of Anidea, Winston, and Emmett.