“Oh god, he’s going to see him,” Maria said, tracking Denver’s movements.
“Just wait,” Charlie said.
“We have to warn him.” She placed the monocular down on the desk and approached the window. Charlie pushed her out of the way and took the Barrett to the next window across to get a better angle. That did the trick. He could see the hunter edge out from behind a half-meter thick fallen wall.
Maria moaned as she got to her feet. “What the hell do you think you’re—”
“Shut up,” Charlie said, glaring at her. She took a step back but kept her eyes on Denver as he came further down the street.
On its knees, the alien raised the rifle, brought its scope to its eye, the glow of the screen illuminated its transparent visor, revealing the tough leathery skin of its face and a glowing amber eye. This was definitely not a run-of-the-mill croatoan. But even with its fancy tech, Charlie doubted it could withstand a .50 cal round.
“Denver, run!” Maria said from the window, shouting at the top of her voice. Den looked up, then behind him, and dashed to the side. Charlie was about to yell at her, but when he looked back the alien had come further out of the shadows and had heard Maria. It pointed the rifle up at Charlie. They locked eyes and Charlie pulled the trigger before launching himself to the side.
Both rifles exploded. The alien’s shot rocked the walled of the Quaternary building. A chunk of masonry flew away from the window frame, narrowly missing Charlie’s face.
“You’ve hit him,” Maria said, now standing further back, but still watching through the monocular sight.
Charlie took a risk and lifted his rifle to peer through the scope. He saw the hunter crawl away, clutching its right leg. He was surprised that the leg wasn’t severed, but the alien armor was damaged and its suit took on a lighter color. Yellow blood stained the floor.
“It’s wounded,” Charlie said. “But I don’t know how long we’ll have. We need to leave. Now.”
He grabbed the rifle and Maria’s arm and headed back down the stairs.
Mike and Mai pulled Denver into the basement and locked the door behind him. They all rushed into the workshop area. Breathless and sweat pouring from him, Denver shrugged off his backpack. They all looked at him expectantly.
“Well?” Charlie said, “Did you get it?”
“What do you think, old man?” Den said between panted breaths. Pip joined him by his side. He knelt down and made a fuss of the dog. “I ain’t just a pretty face, am I girl?”
“No,” Maria said, before realizing he was talking to the dog. She turned away to hide her embarrassment.
“Oh,” Mai said, lifting out a disc-shaped object from Den’s pack. “What’s this? Looks alien, of course.”
“Bomb,” Denver said. “I used it to take out the anti-grav engine of that bastard’s ship. You just press…” Denver reached out and grabbed Mai’s wrist to stop her from touching the small screen. “Jesus, Mai. That’s what activates it.”
Mike lifted the second one. “I’ll have to make some safeties for you. Wouldn’t want it going off by mistake. But as nice as these are, what about the magnet?”
Denver fished out a box with a Ford label stamped on it and handed it over. “These?”
“Holy crap, Den, there’s half a dozen here.”
“I think there might be more there,” Den said. “I saw boxes everywhere and grabbed the first one I saw. I wanted to get back before… well, before we all got killed by that thing out there.”
“What is it?” Mai asked. “A soldier?”
“Worse,” Charlie said. “I don’t know what it is. One of the croatoans’ experiments perhaps, some other alien imported from God knows where. But it took a .50 cal to the leg and was still alive, still moving. We’ve got to clear out right now, before the bastard tracks the way in.”
“On it,” Mike said heading to one of his over-filled desks. Mai joined him. Together they opened the case of the bomb and started to install the part.
Maria sat down on a plastic chair and wiped tears from her eyes. “I can’t believe what happened to Ethan. One minute he was right there by me, the next…”
Denver knelt down by her, held her hands within his. “I know it’s hard,” he said. “It’s a shock. It’s difficult and brutal and it hurts. But right now, we have to remember him and everyone else that have died at the alien hands. We have to remember them and go on, because what we intend to do will honor them. We can’t lose focus of that. We can grieve later. Take the pain, but don’t let it consume you, okay. You’re with us; you’re one of us. We’ll stick together.”
Maria looked down at Denver, her face blemished with dirt, the tears tracking the stains down her cheeks. “You were so brave,” she said, “to go off like that. How can I be that brave? I’m so scared. It feels like danger waits in every shadow. I’m not sure I can go on.”
“It’s understandable,” Denver said. “This is all new to you, but believe me, as dangerous as this seems, it’s like a vacation to how it was. We have to put all this into perspective and carry on. If not, then what else is there?”
“Waiting to die,” Maria said.
“And I’m not one for waiting,” Denver said, flashing her a smile. “So what say you come with us, and let be what will be? Let’s do this, bring down that mother ship, strike back at these bastards and show them that they’ve underestimated us.”
Maria wiped her eyes and took a deep breath. “I guess we have no real option. Count me in.”
She stood and hugged Denver.
Charlie smiled and turned away to prepare their exit. On the other side of the basement was a fire exit that led across the street. Mike and a few others who had sadly passed on had dug a tunnel further through until they came out into the subway system. Although flooded, the water level wasn’t so high that they couldn’t get an inflatable raft in there.
In emergencies, they’d used it a few times before. If they followed the right route, they could get through enough of the train system to get clear of Manhattan. They kept a smaller raft stored in the basement. The other dinghy was too large.
Now their load was lighter, they could squeeze onto the raft and get out. It’d be tight, but it was better than risking going over ground. All the shooting would have stirred up other survivors lurking in the city.
“Hey, Chuck, it’s ready,” Mike said, calling out from the other end of the tunnel.
Charlie walked back to find them standing around the device.
Mai had a satisfied look on her face. “Your boy done good,” she said, winking at Denver. “It works perfectly. But here’s the thing. You’ll have one shot at this. Once activated by using the touchscreen here there’s no going back. If it malfunctions for whatever reason, the regulating magnet will be fried, and no offense, you won’t have the expertise to wire in another in time and figure out what’s wrong.”
“Understood,” Charlie said.
Denver’s forehead wrinkled. “It doesn’t sound very… solid. I mean, it’s a huge risk going up there. If it doesn’t go off, it’ll be for nothing.”
“That’s my worry, son. We’ve talked about this already. It’s my time. I’m going up there. I trust that it’ll work. You’ll just have to trust me.”
“Wait,” Maria said. “So what you’re saying is this is a complete suicide mission? There’s absolutely no way you’re coming back if it works or not?”
“We all have to make a sacrifice,” Charlie said, “And this is mine. Okay, that’s enough of the philosophy. Let’s have less chat and more action. Mike, prep the bomb and make it safe for travel. We’ve got to go. I suggest you get Mai out of here too.”