Moving Forward

We left the school and, after a short walk where Wolf seemed to be on the trail of something only he could see, a loud klaxon started up. My muscles went taught, but it wasn't the sound of police sirens bearing down on us. It was something else, something I couldn't quite put my finger on.

"Devon, is that . . . ?"

"They're sounding the alarm," he confirmed. "I guess the emergency alert system wasn't good enough to announce the curfew."

As if to prove his point, we soon heard distant shouts and the roar of engines as cars started. Wolf paused just long enough to consider his options. I did my best to explain so he didn't think that everyone was being evacuated.

An evacuation would mean potential spread, after all.

"They're being told to stay indoors. We're trying to keep everyone safe. Our people are going to lock down the city to make sure no one comes in or out until these things are dead," I said.

Wolf nodded and continued on, towing us along after him.

Suddenly, Wolf staggered but tried to play it off. I narrowed my eyes and watched him carefully—I knew that nasty wound would eventually cause him some stress.

Before I could demand he give himself first aid, we veered off into a graveyard devoid of life. He picked out a choice tree and jumped to a level branch about two stories up and sat down.

I huffed as he took out his medkit. "About time. You're bleeding all over the place."

He chittered down at me, but I didn't understand so I waved him off.

"Where can I learn how to jump like that?" Devon muttered, peering up the tree at Wolf.

"In predator boot camp, probably" I harrumphed, glad that he was at least making jokes again. Kind of.

Devon huffed and sat down with his back to the tree and his hands in his head. I gave in and sat with him. He glanced at me and then sighed.

"Are we really going to be able to get this under control?" he asked.

"We did before," I responded.

With a scoff, he pointed out, "That was a contained incident, though. Most of that stuff was on the ship, only collecting humans and animals that wandered too close. These things are in a full-blown city now with some sort of weird hybrid creature that can spawn multiples."

My eyes widened and I stood up abruptly, looking up into the tree. "Wolf! Wolf that thing—the thing from the sewers."

Wolf bit back a pained snarl as he stapled his wound shut and then turned toward me.

"Somehow it—Devon and I saw it impregnating someone," I explained, earning a surprised chuff from Wolf. "With . . . I don't know, three, maybe four, embryos. All in one shot."

Devon nodded. "That's right. Yeah, it was pretty nasty."

As if trying to digest what I'd told him, Wolf gave me a long and impassive look, holding still as a statue all the while.

When he didn't reply, I continued. "I don't know how many people it's impregnated, but we could be looking at a lot more of those fuckers than we thought."

A man shouted to someone nearby and I went rigid, listening carefully. I couldn't quite make out the words, but shortly after, I thought I heard a familiar squeal. Before I could fully identify it, the noise was drowned out by the klaxon still blaring to the whole town.

"We good to go? We gotta start doing something about these soon," Devon said, also getting to his feet.

"I think he's almost done," I said.

In the distance, just barely audible over the alarm sounding, thunder rumbled. Lightning lit up the sky occasionally, and it seemed as if the storm I'd noticed earlier on the way to the power plant was sneaking up on us. It was only a matter of time before it broke.

A few seconds later, Devon started next to me and I gasped in surprise.

He let out a noisy breath and shook his head, saying, "God damn—it's my phone."

"Jesus, Devon," I groaned.

Up in the tree, Wolf put his shoulder cannon back into resting position. My damn partner had almost gotten himself shot.

"It's Hassan," he announced. "I'm gonna answer it."

I motioned for him to go ahead.

"What's up, Joseph?"

Pulling a face, I left Devon to deal with my former boss and stepped away for the moment to see if I could figure out what Wolf's plan was. He was standing on his tree branch, looking out over the road. Horns were blaring as everyone made a mad dash to leave the town.

By the tree, Devon let out an annoyed noise and said, "You can't actually be serious—"

Devon clamped his mouth shut and listened to Hassan yell at him with a taut jaw. Every now and again, he tried to slip a word in edgewise but Hassan was on a tirade. I couldn't make out the words, but his voice carried all the way from the receiver to where I was standing.

"Sir, I don't see why that's necessary! What? No, I, well, I mean . . . but . . . ." He groaned and looked about ready to toss his phone at the ground. "We could set up a checkpoint! Get an x-ray machine or—"

Wolf jumped down from his perch and stood next to me, his head cocked.

"He's talking to our boss," I said, though I was sure he probably didn't care.

"How many?" Devon said, repeating what Hassan had said. He glanced over at me. "Nichole, how many xenos?"

I made a wild gesture and said, "I don't know, more than a dozen. I have no idea."

Huffing, Devon turned back to the phone to continue trying to placate Hassan. Wolf's patience ran out and he ushered me to keep going. I could barely signal to Devon to follow before Wolf was tugging me after him.

"Hey! We had to wait for you, but you can't wait for us?" I growled, swatting his hand away from me.

He cuffed me around the ear and made it clear that no, he could not wait for us. I glowered and rubbed the side of my head, feeling once again like I was that teenager back on the ship.

"Sorry," I muttered to Devon, checking to make sure he was following.

He was still trying to negotiate with Hassan, but it sounded like it was coming to an end. And he was losing. He was stone-faced and just listening now, and I could only imagine what Hassan was threatening.

Abruptly, Wolf stopped moving and disappeared into thin air, but he managed to make a sharp gesture up the road before he was completely invisible. I searched for what he had been indicating to and spotted a girl and her mother slipping into a building half a block away.

The sheriff's car was parked out front, the lights still flashing. There was a sign above the doorway, but it was obscured by the graveyard trees.

"I gotta go, Joseph. Good talk," Devon muttered, hanging up his phone as we got nearer to the store. "Look, it's a hunting store or something. That's just what we need."

I nodded and said, "Yeah, yeah you're right. Wolf, we're going to go inside and arm ourselves a little better, alright?"

A small part of me expected him to be gone already.

However, he rattled his acknowledgment and I nodded to Devon. I thought I saw something in the shadows just before we crossed the street, but it was gone within the blink of an eye and I decided I had imagined it.

The bell above the door rang out, making both of us wince. The place was claustrophobic and dark, but there was a light source coming from somewhere in the back. We checked our corners and spread out to clear the rest of the shop, but before we made it too far, a cowboy with a rifle came out of nowhere.

Devon and I immediately started berating the guy.

"Put it down!" Devon shouted, swinging his own firearm up. "FBI, lower your weapon!"

I fished out my badge and raised it up high. "FBI, drop it now or we'll drop you," I growled.

All I had on me was my sword since I gave Devon my sidearm, but I was pretty sure it still would have looked scary if I'd drawn it. My badge would just have to do.

The guy looked between us but finally lowered his firearm and showed us his hands. "Sorry, agents. I'm no threat. Name's Dallas. There's more of us here taking refuge. We were just looking for some weapons and a place to regroup."

Relaxing, I said, "Great. I'm Agent Shain and this is Agent Hart. Take us to everyone and we'll explain what's going on."

"That'd be nice," Dallas said, not unkindly.

Before he could do anything else, though, a familiar voice called out to us.

"Agents?" Sheriff Eddie Morales appeared from around a display of vests, holding a shotgun. "Thank god! I've been so worried since I got Devon's call about the curfew. I've been beside myself trying to figure out what's going on in my town."

Devon and I finally joined the rest of the group. There was a decent number of people hanging out, including some teenagers and store clerks. I was a little disheartened that a child was around, too, but there were plenty of able-bodied people to keep her safe.

"We'll tell you guys as much as we can," Devon assured everyone.

"Do you guys know what's going on? Who's attacking us?" a teenage girl asked.

One of the two associates piped up. "Which terrorist group is it?"

Together, Devon and I gave Eddie dubious looks. He grimaced and introduced us to everyone; Kelly and her little girl Molly; we'd already met Dallas; one of the two boys was his brother Ricky; the other two teens were a girl named Jesse and a boy named Dale; and the two associates were Earl and Scotty.

Mrs. Benson was there, too, disheveled and tired-looking.

"So," Eddie prompted after introductions were finished, "What's going on, agents?"

Devon gave me a giddy expression and all I could do was roll my eyes and say, "Go on then."

"It's aliens," Devon blurted.

Fucking Devon.

Everyone fell quiet, staring in disbelief.

"You . . . ," Eddie pointed at him, his eyes wide. "You were saying that earlier! "

"Yeah, kinda," Devon said, chagrined.

"I thought it was a joke," Eddie muttered, sounding hurt.

Earl or Scotty—I couldn't remember which was which—scoffed and said, "There's no way it could be aliens. They aren't real and even if they were, the odds of them finding Earth is literally astronomical."

Kelly chimed in before I could say anything. "I believe it. One of them killed my husband and it was all I could do to get Molly and me out of our house before that thing jumped on us."

"There was this—this awful creature at the pool earlier! It attacked us at the pool and there is no way that thing was from here on Earth," Ricky added.

My heart grew heavy and I said, "That was you guys? We were at the pool . . . I'm so sorry . . ."

Suddenly, we were bombarded from all angles with questions that neither Devon nor I wanted to answer.

"Where did they come from?"

"How did they get here?"

"What did they want?"

All the while, the storm outside had finally reached us. Rain pummeled the roof of the building, drowning out all other sounds except that of rolling thunder. Navigating the city was going to be a nightmare.

Unable to take it their pestering, I put my hands up and yelled to get everyone to just shut up for a few minutes. If they wanted an explanation, I would give them one but I was in a bit of a hurry. I needed to get back to Wolf, but I wanted to make sure these people were at least prepared for an attack when one came.

When, not if.

"Alright, everyone shut up," I growled, glaring at them all. "We can't answer all your questions, but if you want to get out of this alive, stop yammering and start stocking up. Prioritize high-gauge rifles and shotguns. Handguns aren't going to do much except piss 'em off."

Eddie turned to Dallas and the two of them started collecting ammunition.

"Forget about knives or other melee weapons. Their blood is extremely acidic and you'll put yourself in danger if you try to fight close. Beside that, if they get close enough for you to use a melee weapon you're as good as dead anyway," I said.

If anyone noticed the very large sword I was carrying around, they didn't say anything. Which was good because I sure as fuck didn't want to explain why my sword was different.

In closing, I said, "Always be aware of where everyone is, and do not wander off by yourself for ANY reason. Do not go off on your own."

Devon added his own two cents. "These things will pick off stragglers with prejudice, but they aren't afraid of attacking groups, either. Be vigilant. Every noise should be considered a potential attack—do not investigate anything you hear or you might get your face bitten off."

"Thank you for that, Devon," I said.

Eddie clapped his hands and nodded. "The agents are right. Everyone who can, pick up a weapon. Anyone who can't, stay behind those who will."

"Did that lady say they have acid blood . . . ?" I overheard one of the employees whisper to the other.

"Where's Ray at?" Devon asked Eddie.

"He's out trying to enforce the curfew," came the response.

"Good. Radio him and tell him that as soon as he and your officers can, they should find somewhere to bunker down," Devon advised. "We should plan to fortify this store too. You guys will be stuck here for a bit."

He glanced at me and we were in an understanding right then. Though we weren't planning on staying, we had to make sure these people had the means to defend themselves.

Though everyone separated to do their own things, they stayed at least within eyesight of each other. For a while. Kelly picked up Molly to put her on a table and made sure to let us know she was just going to grab a towel before she disappeared.

Groaning, I hailed Dallas and said, "Go with her."

He nodded, picked up his rifle, and quickly went after the wayward mother.

Satisfied, I picked out a first aid kit and made Devon sit down so I could bandage the cut over his eye. He didn't argue and remained still while I cleaned some of the blood from the side of his face with peroxide.

"Hope your buddy isn't going to be mad at us for this," Devon muttered, wincing under my ministrations.

"Mad about what?"

"Telling them about the aliens."

I shrugged. "I have to worry about my people, too. It's better they know what's going on. Wolf will get over it."

Mrs. Benson approached us at that point, worrying her hands together. Tears were brimming in her eyes and I could already guess what she wanted to know before she even opened her mouth, but I let her ask the question all the same.

"It was those things that got my boys, wasn't it? They got them . . . My husband . . . my son."

Unable to meet her gaze, I just nodded.

"We're very sorry for your loss," Devon said.

She sniffed and sank heavily into a nearby chair, sobbing into her hands. Eddie came over to try to comfort her, but her cries didn't cease. We left her to mourne and joined in with the others who were picking out weapons.

In the end, Devon chose a hunting rifle and was picking through some boxes of shells. I decided not to pick anything, fine with what I had. However, I did retrieve my sidearm from him and sought out more clips for it.

If nothing else, I could at least keep it just in case. It was certainly better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it.

"So, are the aliens what were on your plane?" Eddie asked. Mrs. Benson had finally calmed down enough that he could come over and speak with us.

Devon nodded. "Well, technically it wasn't our plane. It was a Weyland Corp plane. They took the aliens and were trying to transport them to their own facility and failed to take the proper precautions to make sure this didn't happen."

"And then we were sent out to clean up the mess," I added.

The thunderous sound of a shotgun firing interrupted any further conversation.