Kenny and Carly backed away while the other man ran from the bathroom.
Flames followed the smoke and engulfed the alien’s face, burning it down to a charred, black skull.
Maya put her hands on her hips and stared at Kenny. “That’s what happened to them.”
Carly put her hand on Kenny’s and the corners of her mouth raised into a wide grin.
Maya pointed the machete towards the ceiling. “It’s gotta be the light. That’s why they have to wear masks—not to protect themselves from the air, but from the light. It must be why they dropped the dome before the invasion. Sunlight would fry them.”
“Well, bless your heart,” Kenny said to Maya.
“But there are hundreds, maybe thousands, of those things out there,” Carly said. “How are we supposed to get the masks off all of them? And what light are we gonna use? Only lights we’ve had on in here are powered by a back-up generator. Most places won’t have that.”
Outside and in the distance, Maya heard explosions and screams, both human and inhuman. She had been so concerned with her own survival inside the warehouse that she had forgotten about everything happening outside.
“So, what do we do now?” Kenny asked.
“I don’t know, but I can’t stay here. I’m sorry.”
Kenny shot Maya an incredulous stare. “You’re really leaving? After all this? You’re going to get yourself killed out there.”
“I have to.”
“We need you. You’re not afraid of these things. You know how to fight them.”
“And now you do, too.” Maya shrugged. “Sorry, but I can’t stay. My kids are out there—outside of the dome. I’ve got to get to them.”
A minute passed, but then Kenny nodded. “I understand.”
He extended his hand and Maya shook it.
“Thanks for taking me in,” Maya said. She tried handing him the machete, but Kenny pushed it back at her.
“You keep it. In fact, take these, too.”
He pulled a Glock from his waist and handed it to her, along with an extra loaded magazine.
“You sure?” she asked.
“Of course. You’re going to need something to slow them down before you burn their faces off.”
She shook his hand again and thanked him, and then walked away, heading to where Daniel and his mother sat in an empty storage room. She was cradling him in her arms, and turned to smile at Maya when she walked into the room.
“Thank you so much for what you did.”
“It’s no problem.”
Daniel climbed out of his mother’s lap and hugged Maya. “Thank you,” he said.
Maya looked into his eyes. “You listen to your mom. All right?”
The boy nodded.
“Good luck finding your children,” the woman said.
“Thank you.”
Maya walked past the dead aliens, resisting the urge to look at them again. When she reached the bay doors that had been blown out, she looked back at the survivors. They waved at her, Kenny and Carly standing with their arms around each other.
Maya smiled back at them and waved before she jumped off the dock and ran into the darkness.
46
“Maya.”
She kept running, but turned her head. The person hadn’t called out “Mary” or “Marie,” so she knew it wasn’t a lucky guess. Someone had recognized her.
“Maya, stop!”
She turned off the sidewalk and down a gravel path that led between two parking lots. There, sitting on the guardrail, was a familiar face.
“Jack. My God, is that you? How did—”
“Not now,” he said, interrupting her. “There isn’t time. I ran into Reno. I told him I had to find you. I have information.”
“Is Reno okay?”
“He’s fine, don’t worry. He pointed me in the direction you were headed. I saw the aliens, the fight—you ran into that warehouse and they locked the doors. And, damn, I heard explosions coming from inside and I was about to give up.”
The emotions rolled in her stomach and turned it like sour milk. Maya thought of Reno, the people who had died in the Shed—her children.
“Why me, Jack? Why are you looking for me? What can I possibly do? I can’t stop this. Nobody can.”
“You saved my life. After running into one of my friends in the ETC who’s a scientist, I knew I had to find you. I had to help you. I owe you one. Especially after sending you through the tunnels. Reno told me what happened. I should have known there’d be no way under the dome.”
“Spit it out,” she said, cutting off his apology. Maya saw a light in Jack’s eyes. He looked like a kid who was about to spill a huge secret. She decided it wasn’t the time to scream at him about what had happened to them in the tunnels. It wasn’t his fault—he couldn’t have known about the people lurking down there. Now, she just needed to know what he knew.
“The dome isn’t invincible.”
“Uh, Jack? Have you seen what’s been happening here?”
“No, no. I mean the dome is impenetrable, but it’s not invincible.”
Maya shook her head, sighing at him.
“The dome is a force field. Some alien technology shit that we’re decades, maybe centuries from understanding. But we’re still on Earth. Laws of our universe apply. Science. That thing has to be powered by something.”
“Go on,” she said as another explosion blew out the windows of a warehouse three hundred yards away. Maya thought she felt a shard of glass hit her arm.
“Well, my friend can’t verify this. No way to test it. But like we originally thought, if we can knock out the power source running the dome, it falls. He says it’s probably near or beneath the obelisk, a generator drawing juice from geothermal heat.”
Maya growled and stepped into Jack.
“How dare you toy with me like this? I’m supposed to believe that all the scientists and military in Nashville couldn’t figure this out, if you and your friend could, and they’re not trying to blow up the obelisk as we speak?”
Jack grabbed her by the arm. “I don’t know if what my friend told me is true, but I do know that he’s been working on several classified projects that involve alien—”
“No. Enough. I’m going to get out of here and get to my kids. I don’t know how you thought this could help or why you came after me. You’re wasting my time.”
“Listen, Maya. Since those things dropped from the ship, it’s been nothing but chaos in here. No time or resources for us to mobilize scientists and have them run ‘experiments’ on the dome. Aliens are zapping folks with lasers. Disintegrating them.”
“Yeah, I know,” Maya said with a quiver in her voice.
“But I believe my friend, and I want to help you. That’s why I’m telling you—I’m headed to the obelisk, and I’m going to blow it up. You need to be standing on the edge of the dome, and when it happens, you run like hell.”
Surprised into silence, Maya stepped forward, and put a hand to the side of his face and looked into his eyes. Jack had black circles beneath them, and it looked like he’d lost weight even though it hadn’t been that long since she’d last seen him.
“You’ll probably get yourself killed.”
“I know. But I got nothing, woman. I’d rather ride off into the sunset with guns blazing.”
Riding. Cowboys. Guns… Mustang.
“What kind?” she asked, stepping back as flames leapt from the nearby warehouse. Someone screamed and then abruptly stopped.