First Encounter Read online

  I opened the locker on the wall and took the two pistols out and handed one to Mike. It took him all of two seconds to ram the clip in and charge a round into the chamber. Obviously he was a lot more comfortable with weapons than I was.

  I looked at the mission clock on the console and saw we were exactly on time.

  "Let’s hope Mr. Barlow saw us come down and is here," said Deb.

  "I don’t think he’s going to leave us hanging."

  I looked around and could see the time for joking and laughing was over. The other three were probably just as scared about opening that hatch as I was, but there was no reason to delay it any longer.

  We couldn’t stay in the capsule forever.

  5

  The sound of the latches opening on the hatch sounded like rifle shots to our ears and we were quite sure any demons within a hundred miles could hear them. But, we had just descended from two hundred and fifty miles, causing quite a light show and then came down under three large parachutes. If they didn’t pick up on that, the sounds of the latches weren’t going to give us away.

  The four of us climbed out of the capsule and looked around. We had come down in a clearing of grass and wild flowers with what looked like an animal trail cutting right past us. We could see the lake off in the distance with the sun shining off its blue waters.

  If we didn’t know better, we would have thought this was an ordinary spring day. The ground was a bit wet from recent rains and there were plenty of bees and other insects working the flowers all around us.

  Mike had his pistol solidly in his hands, ready for just about anything. Ariel was standing right behind him, looking a lot less scared than I think she was feeling. The only thing she carried was a small shoulder bag that had medical supplies and a few personal items. Mike and I didn’t have any bags with us.

  Deb carried a matching shoulder bag that contained all the mission logs. I’m not sure why she felt it was necessary to bring them, but I wasn’t going to tell her no.

  Other than the occasional bee that came by to check us out, we didn’t see or hear anything else. Most worrisome was not seeing Barlow and his crew. We had a general idea of the direction we needed to go to reach the caverns, but we were told to stay near the capsule and they would come to us.

  Right now, we were very much alone.

  That didn’t last very long. A banshee scream came from across the clearing and we could see a demon moving quickly toward us.

  "Deb, Ariel," I yelled, "back in the capsule, now!"

  I didn’t have to tell Deb twice, but Ariel hesitated, not wanting to leave Mike out here. Deb grabbed her by the shoulder bag strap and dragged her to the hatch of the capsule and stuffed her in.

  I heard a shot and looked. Mike was calmly looking down the barrel of his pistol and he wasn’t about to let the demon get any closer than he needed to. I stepped up next to him and raised my pistol and squeezed off a shot and the demon kept coming.

  I could tell Mike was taking his time, calming his breathing and then, squeezed off the next round. This one took the demon down and it stayed down.

  "Headshots, boss! Body shots won’t do it apparently!"

  Before we had time to relax, two more demons came out of the tree line and started toward us. We could see their blades glinting in the sunlight. They were wearing dark brown robes with hoods over their heads and just like in the Mission Control video, we could not see their faces.

  Mike lowered his weapon and just watched them come. He reached over and pressed my hands down, getting me to lower my pistol.

  "Giving up already?"

  "No, sir. It’s just they’re too far away to be effective. We need to wait for them to get a little closer."

  "How much closer?"

  "When I shoot, you shoot, sir. Aim for the head."

  I realized he had lowered my weapon so I wouldn’t be holding it up and getting the shakes before the time to shoot. We just stood there, watching them come.

  I could feel the eyes of Deb and Ariel on the backs of our heads and knew Mike and I weren’t just shooting to keep ourselves alive. The ladies were depending on us.

  A couple of seconds later, Mike raised his gun and I followed his example, sighting down the barrel on the demon on the left. I tried to remember all of my weapons training in the Air Force, but I would have to admit that it wasn’t much.

  Breathing and relax.

  His shot startled me and it took me a second to compose myself and fire. Out the side of my vision, I saw his demon drop like a rock, but mine just kept coming.

  It was less than fifty yards away and I sighted again. I saw Mike lower his pistol and knew he was going to let me take another shot.

  I kind of wished he wouldn’t.

  I focused again and squeezed the trigger and we could tell the bullet took a chunk off the side of the demon’s head, but it wasn’t enough to drop it. After staggering a couple of steps, it righted itself and charged us even faster.

  Mike put an end to its charge with one well placed bullet.

  "Okay, that’s four shots for me, leaving eleven in the pistol and fifteen more in my other clip," he said. "You fired twice, meaning you have twenty-eight rounds left between your two clips. It’s very important we keep a good count of our remaining rounds."

  "Sorry for the miss," I said.

  "Hey, sir, you didn’t miss. You slowed him down. The next time you’ll kill them."

  We could hear the sound of a large truck, but it sounded a long way off. It was coming from behind us and with the trees back there, we couldn’t see anything.

  The sound of the truck didn’t do anything to drown out the sound of three more demons screeching at us and coming across the field.

  As Mike and I stood shoulder-to-shoulder, I said, "If you feel like taking a shot at any of these three, don’t ask for my permission."

  We could hear the truck engine behind us, but it was still a long ways off and we were hoping Mr. Barlow and his crew would get here soon.

  When Mike brought his pistol up, so did I and we both fired at the same time. This time, two of the demons tumbled through the grass and stayed down. The third one kept coming.

  "These things must be dumber than dirt," said Mike. "They just keep coming."

  He fired and missed because this demon was bobbing up and down as it ran, as if it had an injured leg. Mike fired again and got the same result.

  "Shit!"

  He took his time and sighted and was just about to pull the trigger when all hell broke loose. Large caliber rounds started flying past us, just over our heads and Mike grabbed me and threw me to the ground, landing on top of me. I heard Deb squeal behind us and she yanked the hatch closed on the capsule.

  We could hear the bullets continue to fly and we both raised up a little and saw the rounds were tearing the demon to pieces. When it fell, it tumbled a couple of times and ended up stopping about two feet from our faces.

  We jumped up and looked behind us to see a man, late thirties, maybe early forties, coming down from the tree line. He had a very large machine gun hoisted over his shoulder and he looked big enough to fire the thing from his hip if he chose to do so.

  When he finally reached us, he was a mountain of a man, with full beard, a plaid shirt that looked like it was ready to burst at the seams and a Skoal hat shading his eyes from the sun.

  "Sorry about the closeness of those rounds, fellers, but I don’t think I had time to warn you."

  "Randy Barlow, I presume."

  "At your service. You must be Commander Donovan. I recognize the voice."

  He held out his hand and we shook and he looked at Mike, who was giving him the stink eye.

  "You must be Mike Stevens," he said holding out his hand.

  Mike was reluctant to shake, but he went ahead.

  "Those rounds were a little too close."

  "Sorry, sir," said Randy as he walked past him and stepped over to the dead demon. "It didn’t look like I had much time from where
I sat."

  He looked back at Mike and smiled.

  Mike said, "Next time, fire one round about ten feet over our heads. I guarantee you we will hit the dirt and then you can light the place up."

  I stepped up to Mike and said, "You’ll have to forgive Captain Stevens, Mr. Barlow. He was special forces before he became an astronaut and he was a weapons expert, among other things."

  "Special forces? Alright," said Randy. "I promise not to shoot in your general vicinity again if it can be helped."

  Mike took a couple of deep breaths and then held out his hand and shook Randy’s again.

  "Other than the close shave you gave us, that was some damn fine shooting."

  "You’re welcome and I’d like to stay and get to know you better, but we need to get the hell out of here. Where are the other three?"

  "Two," I said as Mike walked to the capsule and pounded on the hatch.

  "Who’s there?" we heard Ariel call from inside.

  "You know damn good and well who it is."

  "What’s the secret password?"

  "The secret password is if you don’t get your asses out here, we’re leaving you here for the demons to eat your brains."

  The hatch flew open and Ariel looked out.

  "Always with the eating of brains with you guys."

  He helped them both out of the capsule and when they got themselves together, they were both taken aback by the size of the man standing in front of them.

  "Ladies, this is Mr. Barlow and he will be our savior today."

  Ariel smiled and nodded and Deb looked at him like she was looking at a very nice piece of meat.

  "Ariel and Deb," I said, pointing to each one.

  "Ladies," said Randy with a nod. "Oh, by the way, the brains is usually the last thing they go for. They usually start with legs and arms."

  Ariel punched Mike in the shoulder and said, "I told you."

  Mike harrumphed and walked past Randy to the dead demon. He crouched down and pulled the hood back off the demon’s head. As he was doing that, a large military truck came crashing through the brush behind us and pulled up next to the capsule.

  I walked over and looked down at the demon. Where there used to be a head, before Randy had obliterated it, was a gooey mess and a lot of shattered bone.

  "We won’t learn much from this one," he said.

  Randy walked up and said, "If you’re looking to learn something about them, we have a few corpses back at the caverns. Which I would suggest we get on the road to right now. The sun will set in about an hour and we’re at least thirty minutes from the entrance."

  "Let’s go, Mike."

  He reached out and pulled the blade from the clawed hand of the demon and stood up. He looked the blade over and then nodded at me. We turned and headed toward the truck. After helping the ladies climb into the back of the truck, Mike and Randy climbed in and I got pointed to the cab of the truck. I walked forward and climbed in next to the driver, who turned out to be a sixteen-year-old girl.

  "Trevor Donovan," I said as I held out my hand.

  She shook it and said, "Michelle Barlow."

  "Barlow. Randy your dad?"

  "Uncle. Daddy was killed when the first demons showed up."

  "I’m sorry to hear that."

  She nodded and then threw the truck into gear and wheeled us around the capsule and then back up the hill and into the brush and trees.

  6

  The caverns turned out to be even bigger than I imagined. The truck passed through the entrance that was high enough we could have stacked two trucks on top of each other and they would have gone through with no trouble. The entrance was wide enough for four trucks to drive in and out side-by-side and do so comfortably.

  When we got about a hundred yards into the tunnels, we came to a blockade that looked like it was made out of large logs and some scrap metal. There was a gate in the middle that swung open and I could see a couple of other fifty caliber machine guns pointing out, aimed back down the tunnel.

  After moving through the gates, I looked back to see them closing behind us.

  "How effective are those gates at keeping the demons out?"

  Michelle said, "We’ve had a couple of breaches, but they do work for the most part."

  "How did the demons get in when they broke in?"

  "They came in when a truck was coming through the gate."

  "You mean, like we just did."

  "Correct, sir, and I have to warn you, there are some here that were against opening the gates to go out and get you. Some were saying we should just leave you out there and not chance another attack by the demons."

  "Well, I'm glad someone was able to convince them to let you and your uncle come and get us."

  "That someone is my uncle. When he says he's going to do something, no one is really willing to stand up to him."

  "Where do you stand on the issue?"

  "Sir, I am just a sixteen-year-old girl. No one really takes what I have to say seriously."

  "Michelle, I take you very seriously. You're a survivor in this rough days. You've seen a lot more than any sixteen-year-old girl should have to see and in my book, that makes anything you have to say worth listening to."

  She looked at me for a moment, taking in what I had just said and then spoke.

  "I stand behind my uncle, but I do have to say I was scared to death about opening the gates and going out there. But no one else would step up and go with him."

  I looked into her eyes and could see the eyes of a woman who had grown up way too fast. No teenage girl should have to go through what she was going through. She should have been going to high school and talking with her girlfriends about how dumb boys were. She should have been trying to fight off horny, teenage boys instead of demons and trying to survive one day to the next.

  "Scared or not, I'm glad you came to get us."

  She nodded as she pulled the truck into a shallow alcove and shut off the engine. I climbed down and walked to the back of the truck just in time to help Deb and Ariel down.

  As I looked around I saw a group of about ten people coming toward us.

  "So, these are our returning astronauts," said one of the men as they got closer.

  Randy jumped down from the truck and hauled the machine gun out and hefted it on his shoulders. Michelle walked around from the other side of the truck and he handed it off to her. A fifty caliber machine gun is no laughing matter when it comes to weight, but she took it easily and headed for the barricade.

  "Yes, Simon, these are the astronauts and they landed pretty much where we expected them to. Even had a little action with demons when they climbed out of their capsule."

  Simon reached out and shook my hand and went down the line, introducing himself to each of us.

  "I’m Simon Tarsbury. I have a farm just down the road from here. My boy here," he said pointing to a young man in his mid-twenties, "is Calvin. He was in the army when all this happened and was lucky enough to be stationed just over the hill at Fort Carlson. He was the only one from the base to make it here."

  Calvin was a strapping young man, dressed in fatigues and had sergeant stripes on his collar. He had a cold, no nonsense look about him.

  "Sergeant Carlson," I said, extending my hand, "good to have you here with us." He shook my hand, but he never said a word.

  Randy spoke up, "Simon here is the closest thing we have to a mayor if you want to call it that."

  I could feel a little bit of tension in his voice as he talked to Simon, like there was some hostility between them.

  Then, looking at Simon, he said, "I was thinking of taking them down to F128 and getting them settled in."

  "Sounds good, Randy. Let them know about dinner and we'll set aside some time to talk then."

  He nodded to him and then had the four of us follow him. We didn't have much in the way of bags, so we just went along with him. Before we had gotten more than a hundred yards, Michelle caught up to us and walked along with D
eb.

  "So you were really in space just an hour ago?"

  Deb looked at her and said, "Yes, we were. Commander Donovan and I were on the station for the last four months and Mike and Ariel came up about a month ago."

  "It must be nice to be up there and see the Earth and be so far away from the troubles down here."

  "It's amazing to look down and see the planet from up there. A once in a lifetime experience that I guess we may not get to do again anytime soon."

  "If ever," said Michelle softly.

  "We will, sweetie. Someday."

  After walking for a few minutes we came to a crossroads in the tunnels and there was a large "F" on a sign pointing each way down the crossing tunnels.

  "This is the F tunnel and there are sections off to each side of the tunnel, all the way to each end." said Randy. "Sections 1 through 100 are to the left and 101 through 200 are to the right. Most everyone living in the tunnels is here in the F tunnel or E tunnel."

  He pointed down the central tunnel and said there were fifteen more tunnels just like this one and five we had passed already to get here.

  He turned us to the right and took us about a hundred yards down and there was an alcove that had a metal wall built across it and a door set into that. He pulled the door open wide and let the light from the tunnel in. It was still quite dank and musty smelling.

  Walking over to one wall, he flipped a switch and lights came on in points along the ceiling. This room was easily as big as a large house and it was empty.

  "This is home," he said.

  "Nice," said Ariel. "Not very private though."

  "I was all for giving you each a room, but Simon said no to that idea. Said we needed to keep people together and conserve power, such as the lights. Those are run on a generator."

  I said, "Compared to the tin can we've been living in for the past few months, this is a palace. I'm hoping we can find things like beds and such."

  "Absolutely," he said. "If you go down to H100, that was one of the sections taken by a department store chain. There are beds, bedding, furniture and just about anything else you'll need. There are dollies there so you won't need to carry things back here. If you go across the tunnel from that section, to H99, you will find lots of things like office wall sections, crates and other things you can use to build walls and such in here."