“They know where you are now. No use in hiding the light.”
She stood and shined the penlight around her feet, spotting a trail leading to the west. She was just taking a step when her elbow brushed something solid. A shot of purple light ran down her arm.
“The dome!”
Maya stood there in shock, bruised and battered at the bottom of a hill with aliens at the top who had alerted others of her location. But the dome forced her to go in one direction on the trail, and she had no idea where the trail would take her. She shined the light around, checking to see if she had any other options. Maya saw only the trail and trees. No tunnels. No drains. No way out.
“C’mon,” Maya said looking at her watch, estimating she had less than two minutes until it was time. “I might not have two minutes.”
At the top of the hill, the aliens screeched as their numbers grew. What had started as two or three now looked to be closer to ten. One of them fired their destructive beam and it missed Maya by a foot. She ducked and hid behind a wide trunk.
Trapped.
The dome was right there. Her children on the other side of it. And yet, she might as well have been gazing across the Grand Canyon.
“Be early, Jack. Please!”
An orange fireball lit the sky and Maya looked back in the direction of the obelisk. It stood out as a massive black tooth, superimposed on a fiery sky. The explosion rumbled through the sky like thunder as the ground shook beneath her feet. She waited, holding her breath and looking from the obelisk to the aliens on the top of the hill.
Maya reached out and felt the pulse of the dome’s surface. The obelisk remained and the dome held. Jack had failed.
And then she felt a buzz on her skin, a touch of electricity that raised the hair on her arms. Maya turned and saw the blackened surface of the dome flickering, the sunlight and Tennessee countryside coming in and out of view as if through the lens of a broken film projector.
The aliens on the hill let loose with another volley of shrill screams, but when Maya looked up, she noticed that they had backed away from the edge of the hill’s decline—and several had run away entirely.
She reached out and extended her hand—through the dome’s wall. It pinched, and she yanked it back, but clearly her fingers had been on the other side. The dome wasn’t down, but it wasn’t full-strength, either.
A burst of energy exploded against the dome above her head, blue and purple lightning scattering across the unseen surface. She turned to see one alien remaining on the hill, the same one who must have fired his destructive beam at her.
A second explosion came from the obelisk then, and the natural sunlight on the outside of the dome took the edge off of the darkness beneath it, and Maya felt the sun’s warmth on her face. The aliens on the hill had taken cover, no doubt hiding from the light now penetrating the darkened surface of the dome. The wall wavered like a funhouse mirror. Maya made sure the Glock was tucked into her waistband and took three steps back. She inhaled, crouched down, and sprinted right at the dome’s wall. Maya closed her eyes and leaped, feeling the sting of the dome’s energy on her face as she passed through.
48
As if in a dream, she opened her eyes and stared up at a blue sky with fluffy, white clouds passing overhead. A tingle of energy radiated from her fingers and toes before dissipating completely. Maya sat up and looked at the dome, its wall now solid and black again. It looked like a massive, enclosed sports arena had been dropped on the city of Nashville. Whatever damage Jack had caused had dropped the dome, but temporarily. The aliens had somehow brought the dome back up to full strength now. Nobody else would be getting in or out until the power source was permanently cut.
She climbed to her knees, laughing and crying all at the same time. Her ears rang and she felt sick to her stomach. Blood flowed again from her wounds and her teeth began to throb.
Maya had escaped while so many others had died—were dying, as she stood here. Her thoughts drifted to Reno. And Jack. Were they alive? What had Jack done to flicker the dome long enough for her to get through? Had the aliens already repaired it? And then she thought of Laura and Aiden. Nothing would keep her from reaching them.
Maya stood on the side of a four-lane road. She saw homes, businesses, and apartment buildings—but no people. She walked over to one of the abandoned cars in the middle of the street, opening the door and hoping to find keys dangling in the ignition. No luck. She tried several more, but it seemed as though everyone had fled with their keys. Maya slammed her fists on the hood of an old Jeep Wrangler, the red paint faded to a dark pink. A spare key box fell from the wheel well and rolled to a stop at her feet.
“That’ll work,” she said, picking up the key. She shoved it into the ignition and the Jeep came alive with a throaty roar. A grin stretched across Maya’s face. She buckled the seatbelt and adjusted the seat before noticing the LED read-out on the old in-dash CD player. “Save Yourself” by Audioslave was pumping through the speakers—a fitting song. She turned the volume up to 10, threw the Jeep into first gear, and headed for her mother’s house north of the city.
49
Maya pushed down harder on the gas pedal as she saw the sign that read Hendersonville City Limits. She had nothing but open road in front of her since most of the abandoned vehicles had been parked on the shoulder. She saw several people walking next to the highway, but she didn’t even look in their direction as she drove faster to her mother’s house.
Coming through Hendersonville, Maya thought the city looked like a set from one of those popular zombie television shows—without the zombies. Nobody walked the streets, and the businesses sat shuttered and empty. She saw a loose dog in an alley, tearing at something with its teeth.
Maya continued down the main road and then turned, her mother’s neighborhood only two miles away now. Her mouth was dry and her palms sweaty. She wanted desperately to see Aiden and Laura, and yet at the same time, she feared what she might find. Hendersonville had been empty so far, deserted.
You’re almost there.
She made the turn into her mother’s subdivision. Maya downshifted, but not fast enough, turning the corner more sharply than she should have. Items in the glovebox shifted, and out of the corner of her eye, she saw several items drop to the floor.
“Damnit,” she said, glancing down to see what fell from the glovebox.
Maya looked back to the road and immediately saw a deer standing on the double-yellow line, a couple of car lengths ahead. Maya turned the wheel, the tires screeching. She missed the deer, but the Jeep was now heading straight for a tree. Maya cut the wheel again and slammed on the brakes, but she was going too fast. The passenger side tires lifted off the ground, sending the Jeep into a roll and slamming Maya’s side of the vehicle down onto the pavement. She screamed, trying to grab onto anything as her body rocked in the seat.
The Jeep stopped, laying on the driver side. Maya breathed heavily as she shook safety glass from her hair—the only other noise a hiss coming from the engine.
She moved her arms and her legs while yet another flow of blood came from her shoulder wound. But she didn’t feel any broken bones. Her arms shook, and she felt aches in her chest and stomach, but otherwise, she appeared to be in one piece.
Maya unbuckled her seat belt and then pulled herself up and out of the Jeep’s seat. Safety glass had scattered across the concrete, and Maya swung her legs around to crabwalk out of the Jeep instead of rolling out into hot motor oil and more safety glass.
She limped away from the wreckage and began walking the last two blocks to her mother’s house. As Maya turned the corner onto October Woods Drive, she sighed, butterflies in her stomach. The house she’d grown up in stood four houses down on the right. It was the place where her mom and dad had lived their entire married life, and where Maya’s children would be waiting for her.