ANOTHER ROAR CUTS THROUGH THE NIGHT AIR. Through the walls of the school, a roar that makes my blood turn cold. The ground begins to rumble under the footsteps of the beast that must now be on the loose. I shake my head. I saw firsthand how big they were during the flashbacks of the war on Lorien.
For your friends sake and ours, Six says, we better get the hell out of this school while theres
still time. Theyll destroy the entire building trying to get to us.
We nod to one another.
Our only hope is to get to the woods, Henri says.
Whatever that thing is, we might be able to escape it if we can stay invisible.
Six nods. Just keep ahold of my hands.
Needing no other motivation than that, Henri and I each take a hand.
As quietly as we can, Henri says.
The hallway is dark and silent. We walk with a quiet urgency, moving as swiftly as we can while making little noise. Another roar, and in the middle of it, another roar begins. We stop. Not
one beast, but two. We continue on and enter the gymnasium.
No sign of the scouts. When we reach the very center of the court, Henri stops. I look over but cant see him.
Why are we stopped? Iwhisper.
Shh, he says. Listen.
I strain to listen, but hear nothing aside from the steady hum of blood filling my ears.
The beasts have stopped moving, Henri says.
So what?
Shh, he says. Theres something else out there.
And then I hear it too, slight high-pitched yipping sounds as though coming from small animals. The sounds are muffled, though obviously growing louder.
What the hell? I ask.
Something begins banging at the stage hatch, the hatch we are hoping to escape through.
Turn your lights on, he says.
I let go of Sixs hand, snap them on, and aim them
towards the stage. Henri looks down the end of the shotgun barrel. The hatch bounces up as though something is trying to force itself through but lacks the strength to do so. The weasels, I think, the stout-bodied little creatures that the guys inAthens
were terrified of. One of them hits the hatch so hard that it breaks away from the stage and rattles across the floor. So much for thinking they lacked strength. Two of them come bursting forth, and upon catching sight of us, come racing our way so swiftly that I can hardly make them out. Henri stands watching with the gun aimed, an amused grin on his face. Their paths diverge and both leap from about twenty feet away, one jumping at Henri, the other coming at me. Henri fires once and the weasel explodes and covers him with its blood and guts; and just as Im about to rip apart the second with telekinesis, it is snatched out of midair by Sixs unseen hand and spiked to the ground like a football, killing it instantly.
Henri cocks the shotgun. Well, that wasnt so
bad, he says, and before I can respond, the entire wall along the stage is smashed in by the fist of a beast. It draws back and punches again, smashing the stage to smithereens and exposing the night sky. The impact pushes both Henri and me
backwards.
Run! Henri yells, and he immediately unloads every shell in the shotgun into the beast. They have no effect upon it.
The beast leans forward and roars so loudly that I feel my clothes flutter. A hand reaches out and grabs hold of me, turning me invisible. The beast charges ahead, moving straight for Henri, and Im gripped with terror at what it might do.
No! I scream. To Henri, get to Henri! I twist
under Sixs grip, finally grabbing hold of her and pushing her away. I become visible; she stays hidden. The beast surges towards Henri, who stands firm and watches it come. Out of bullets. Out of options. Get to him! I scream again.
Get to him, Six!
Go to the woods! she yells back.
All I can do is watch. The beast must stand thirty feet tall, maybe forty, towering over Henri. It roars, pure wrath in its eyes.
Its muscled and bulging fist rushes high in the air, so high that it breaks straight through the rafters and the roof of the school gymnasium.And then it falls, speeding down with such swiftness that it becomes a blur, like the blades of a spinning
fan. I cry out in horror, knowing that Henri is about to be crushed.
I cant look away, Henri seeming tiny standing there with the shotgun limply at his side. When the fist of the beast is a split second from him, Henri disappears. The fist crashes through the gymnasium floor, the wood splintering, the impact sending me crashing into the stands twenty feet away. The beast turns to me, blocking from view the place where Henri had just stood.
Henri! I yell. The beast roars so that any response
that might have come is drowned out. It takes one step towards me. To the woods, Six had said. Go to the woods. I stand and run as fast as I can to the back of the gym, where the beast had just broken through. I turn to see if the beast is following. It is not. Perhaps Six has done something to divert its attention. All I know is that Im on my own now, alone.
I leap over the pile of rubble and sprint away from the school, running as hard as I can for the woods. The shadows swarm around me, following like villainous wraiths. I know that I can outrun them. The beast roars and I hear another wall crumble. I reach the trees and the swarming shadows seem to have disappeared. I stop and listen. The trees sway under a light breeze. There is a wind here! Ive escaped whatever dome the Mogadorians have created. Something warm collects at the waistband of my pants. The cut I suffered at Mark Jamess has reopened on my back.
The schools silhouette is faint from where I stand. The entire gymnasium is gone, a pile of brick. The beasts shadow stands tall in the rubble of the cafeteria. Why hasnt it run after me? And where is the second beast we all heard?
The beasts fist falls again, another room demolished. Mark and Sarah are there somewhere. I told them to go back and I realize how foolish it was. I didnt anticipate the beast destroying the school if it knew I wasnt there. I have to do something to get the beast away. I take a deep breath to gather my strength, and as soon as I take that first step, something hard hits me in the back of the head. I fall face-first into the mud.
I touch where Ive been hit and my hand is covered in blood, drips of it falling from my fingertips. I turn around and see nothing at first, and then it steps out of the shadows and grins.
A soldier. This is what they look like. Taller than the scouts seven, maybe eight feet tall its muscles bulging beneath a black ragged cloak. Large, raised veins traverse the length of each arm. Black boots. Nothing covering its head, and its hair falling to its shoulders. The same pale, waxy skin as the scouts. A grin of self-assurance, of finality. In one of its hands is a sword. Long and shimmering, made of some kind of metal Ive never seen here on Earth or in my visions of Lorien, and it appears to be pulsing, as if it is somehow alive.
I begin to crawl away, the blood dripping down my neck. The beast at the school lets out another roar, and I reach for the low branches of a nearby tree and pull myself up. The soldier is ten feet away. I grip both hands into fists. It motions the sword nonchalantly towards me, and something comes out of its tip, something that looks like a small dagger. Iwatch the dagger twist in an arc, leaving a slight trail behind it like smoke from a plane. The light casts a spell that I cant look away from.
A flash of bright light devours everything, the world dimming away into a soundless void. No walls. No sound. No floor or ceiling. Very slowly the shapes of things return, the trees standing like ancient effigies whispering of the world that once was in some alternate realm where only shadows reside.
I reach out to feel the nearest tree, the only touch of gray in an otherwise white world. My hand goes through it and for a moment the tree shimmers as if it were liquid. I take a deep breath. When I exhale the pain returns to the gash on the back of my head and the tears down my arms and body from the James house fire. A sound of dripping water comes from somewhere. Slowly, the soldier takes form, twenty or thirty feet away. Giantlike. We take each other in. Its sword glowing more brightly in this new world. Its eyes narrow and my hands again clench into fists. Ive lifted objects far heavier than it; Ive split trees and Ive caused destruction. Surely I can match its strength with my own. I push everything that I feel into the core of my being, everything that I am and everything that I will be, until I feels as though Im about to burst.
Yahhhh! I yell, and I thrust my arms forward. The brute force leaves my body, raging towards the soldier.At the same time it sweeps the sword across its body as though swatting a fly. The power deflects into the trees, which dance for a brief moment like the grain in a wheat field waving in a light wind, and then they become still. It laughs at me, a deep, guttural laugh meant to taunt. Its red eyes begin to glow, swirling as though lava filled. It lifts its free hand and I tense myself against the unknown. And without my knowing what has happened, my throat is in its grip, the gap that had separated us closed in the blink of an eye. It lifts me, one handed, breathing with its mouth open so that I can smell the sour stench of its breath, the smell of decay. I thrash, try to pry its fingers from around my throat, but they are like iron.
And then it throws me.
I land on my back forty feet away. I stand and it charges, swinging the sword at my head, which I duck and counter by pushing it as hard as I can. It stumbles back but stays standing. I try to lift it with telekinesis but nothing happens. In this alternate world my powers are dimmed, almost ineffectual. The
Mogadorian has the advantage here.
It smiles at my futility and raises the sword with both hands.
The sword comes alive, turning from shimmering silver into ice blue. Blue flames lick across the blade. A sword that glows with power, just as Six had talked about. It swings the sword in my direction and another dagger comes flying off the tip, straight at me. This I can do, I think.All the hours in the backyard with Henri preparing for this very thing. Always the knives, more or less the same as a dagger. Did Henri know they would use them? Certainly, though in my flashbacks of the invasion I had never seen them. But I had never seen these creatures, either.
They were different on Lorien, not quite as sinister looking. On the day of the invasion they looked sickly and starved. Is it Earths fault for this convalescence, have the resources here caused them to grow stronger and healthier?
The dagger literally screams as it rages towards me. It grows and becomes consumed in flames. Just when I am about to deflect it, it explodes into a ball of fire, and the flames jump to me. Im trapped within it, consumed in a perfect sphere of fire. Anyone else would burn, but not me, and somehow it causes my strength to return. Im able to breathe. Without the soldier knowing it, it has made me stronger. Now its my turn to smile at its own futility.
Is this all youve got? I yell.
Its face turns into rage. It defiantly reaches one hand over its shoulder and returns with a cannon like gun that begins conforming to its body, the gun wrapping around its forearm. Its arm and the gun becoming one and the same. I pull the knife from my back pocket, the knife that I grabbed from home before returning to school. Small, ineffectual, but better than nothing. I open the blade and charge. The ball of fire charges with me.
The soldier squares its body and brings down its sword with force. I deflect it with the pocketknife but the weight of the sword snaps the blade in two. I drop the remaining pieces and swing as hard as I can. My fist slams into the soldiers gut. It doubles over but comes right back up and swings the sword again. I duck beneath the blade at the last second. It singes the hair on top of my head. Right behind the sword comes the cannon. No time to react. It hits me in my shoulder and I grunt and fall backwards. The soldier regroups and points the cannon in the air. Im confounded at first. The gray from the trees is being pulled away and sucked into the gun. Then I understand.
The gun. It needs to be charged before it can be fired, needs to steal Earths essence in order to be used. The gray in the trees isnt shadows; the gray is the life of the trees at its most elemental level. And now those lives are being stolen, consumed by the Mogadorians. A race of aliens that depleted their planets resources in the quest for advancement, now doing the same thing here. That is the reason they attacked Lorien. The same reason they will attack Earth. One by one the trees fall and crumble into heaps of ash. The gun glows brighter and brighter, so bright that it hurts the eyes to look at. No time to spare.
I charge. It keeps the gun pointed at the sky and swings the sword. I duck and plow straight into it. Its body tenses and it writhes in agony. The fire surrounding me burns it where it stands. But Ive left myself open. It swings the blade feebly, not enough to cut me, but there is nothing I can do to prevent its fall. It hits me and my body is hurled backwards fifty feet as though Ive been struck by a bolt of lightning. I lie there, my body shaking with postelectrocution tremors. I lift my head.
Thirty piles of ash from the fallen trees surround us. How many times will that allow him to fire? A slight wind kicks up and the ash begins filtering across the empty space between us. The moon returns. This world to which it has brought me is beginning to fail. It knows it. The gun is ready. I wrestle myself up from the ground. Sitting a couple feet away, still glowing, is one of the daggers it fired at me. I pick it up.
It lowers the cannon and aims. The white surrounding us is beginning to dim, color returning.And then the cannon fires, a bright flash of light containing the ghoulish forms of everyone I have ever known Henri, Sam, Bernie Kosar, Sarah all of them dead in this alternate realm and the light so bright that they are all I can see, trying to take me with them, raging forward in a ball of energy growing as it nears. I try to deflect the blast but its too strong. The white makes it as far as the fiery enclosure, and when the two touch an explosion erupts and the power sends me backwards. I land with a thud. I take inventory. I am unharmed. The ball of fire has extinguished. Somehow it has absorbed the blast, has saved me from what I am certain would have been death. Surely that is how the cannon works, the death of one thing for the death of another. The power of mind control, manipulation that plays on fear, possible through the destruction of the elements of the world. The scouts have learned to do this weakly with their minds. The soldiers rely on weapons that produce a much greater effect.
I stand, the glowing knife still in my hand. The soldier pulls some sort of lever on the side of the cannon as though to reload it. I sprint towards it. When Im close enough, I aim for its heart and hurl the knife as hard as I can. It fires a second shot. A torpedo of orange raging its way, the certainty of a white death coming mine. They cross in midair without touching. Just when I expect that second shot to hit, to bring upon that death, something else happens instead.
My knife strikes first.
The world vanishes. The shadows fade and the cold and the dark return as though they had never left. A vertiginous transition. I take a step backwards and fall. My eyes adjust to the dearth of light. I fix them on the dark figure of the soldier hovering over me. The cannon blast didnt travel with us.
The glowing knife did, the blade sunk deeply into its heart, the handle pulsating orange beneath the moonlight overhead. The soldier staggers, and then the knife is sucked in deeper and disappears. It grunts. Spurts of black blood pump from the open wound. Its eyes go blank, then roll back into its head. It falls to the ground, lies motionless, and then explodes into a cloud of ash that covers my shoes. A soldier. Ive killed my first. May it not be the last.
Something about being in the alternate realm has weakened me. I place my hand on a nearby tree to steady myself and catch my breath, only the tree is no longer there. I look around.
All the trees surrounding us have collapsed into heaps of ash just as they did in the other realm, just as the Mogadorians do when they die.
I hear the roar of the beast and I look up to see how much of the school is left standing. But instead of the school there is something else, fifteen feet away, standing tall with a sword in one hand and a similar-looking cannon in the other. The cannon is aimed right at my heart, a cannon that has already been charged, glowing with power. Another soldier. I dont think I have the strength to fight this one as I did the last.
There is nothing I can throw, and the gap between us is too great to charge before it fires. And then its arm twitches and the sound of a gunshot rings through the air. My body instinctively jerks, expecting the cannon to rip me in half. But I am fine, unharmed. I look up confused, and there, in the soldiers forehead, is a hole the size of a quarter spurting its hideous blood. Then it drops and disintegrates.
Thats for my dad, I hear behind me. I turn. Sam, holding a silver pistol in his right hand. I smile at him. He lowers the gun. They passed right through the center of town he says. I knew it was them as soon as I saw the trailer.
I try to catch my breath, staring in awe at Sams figure.
Just moments before, in the first soldiers blast, he was a decaying corpse sprung from hell to take me away. And now he just saved me.
You okay? he asks.
I nod. Where did you just come from?
I followed them in my dads truck after they passed my house. I pulled in fifteen minutes ago and got swarmed by the ones that were already here. So I left and parked in a field a mile away and walked through the woods.
The second set of lights we had seen from the window of the school came from Sams truck. I open my mouth to respond but a clap of thunder shakes the sky. Another storm begins to brew, and relief courses through me that Six is still alive. A bolt of lightning cuts the sky and clouds begin rushing in from all directions, being pulled together into one giant mass. An even greater darkness falls, followed by a rain so heavy that I have to squint to see Sam five feet away from me. The school is blotted out. But then a great bolt of lightning strikes and everything brightens for a split second, and I see that the beast has been hit. An agonizing roar follows.
I have to get to the school! I yell. Mark and Sarah are somewhere inside.
If youre going, then Im going, he yells back over the rumble of the storm.
We take no more than five steps before the wind comes howling, pushing us back, torrential rain stinging our faces.
Were soaked, shivering and cold. But if Im shivering then I know Im alive. Sam drops to a knee, then lies on his stomach to keep from being blown backwards. I do the same.
Through squinted eyes I look into the clouds heavy, dark, ominous swirling in small concentric circles and, in the center, the center Im trying mightily to reach, a face begins to form.
Its an old, weathered face, bearded, tranquil looking as though it sleeps. A face that looks older than Earth itself. The clouds begin to lower, slowly nearing the surface and consuming everything, everything darkening, a dark so deep and impenetrable that its hard to imagine that somewhere, anywhere, a sun still exists.Another roar, a roar of anger and doom. I try to stand but am quickly knocked back down, the wind too great. The face. Its coming alive. An awakening.
The eyes opening, the face upturned into a grimace. Is this Sixs creation? The face becomes the look of rage itself, a look of revenge. Coming down fast. Everything seems to hang in the balance.And then the mouth opens, hungry, its lips curling to show teeth and its eyes squinted in what can only be described as pure malice. A complete and utter wrath.
And then the face touches down and a sonic blast shakes the ground, an explosion reaching out over the school, everything illuminated in red, orange, and yellow. Im thrust backwards. Trees break in half. The ground rumbles. I land with a thud, branches and mud falling atop me. My ears ring as theyve never rung before.A boom so loud that it must have been heard fifty miles away.And then the rain stops, and everything falls silent.
I lie in the mud, listening to the beat of my heart. The clouds clear away, revealing a hanging moon. Not a single gust of wind. I look around but dont see Sam. I yell for him but get no response. I yearn to hear something, anything, another roar, Henris shotgun, but there is nothing.
I pull myself up off the forest floor, wipe away the mud and the twigs as best as I can. I exit the woods for the second time. The stars have reappeared, a million of them twinkling high in the night sky. Is it over? Have we won? Or is it just a lull in the action? The school, I think. I have to get to the school. I take one step forward, and thats when I hear it.
Another roar, coming from within the woods behind me.
Sound returns. Three successive gunshots ring through the night, echoing so that I have no idea from which direction they have come. I hope with everything inside of me that they are from Henris shotgun, that he is still alive, still fighting.
The ground begins to shake. The beast is on the run, coming for me, no mistaking it now, trees broken and uprooted behind me. They dont seem to slow it down at all. Is this one even bigger than the other? I dont care to find out. I take off running for the school, but then realize thats the absolute worst place I can go. Sarah and Mark are still there, still hiding.
Or at least I hope they are.
Everything returns to the way it was before the storm, the shadows following, looming. Scouts. Soldiers. I veer to the right and sprint along the tree-lined path that leads to the football field, the beast hot on my trail. Can Ireally expect to outrun it? If I can make it to the woods beyond the field, maybe I can. I know those woods, the woods that lead to our house. Within them Ill have the home-field advantage. I look around and see the figures of the Mogadorians in the schoolyard. There are too many of them. Were greatly outnumbered. Did we ever really believe we could win?
A dagger flies by me, a flash of red missing my face by mere inches. It sticks into the trunk of a tree beside me and the tree ignites in flame. Another roar. The beast is keeping pace.
Which of us has the greater endurance? I enter the stadium, sprint straight across the fifty-yard line and pass through the visiting teams side.Another knife whizzes by, a blue one this time. The woods are near, and when I finally sprint into them a smile forms on my face. Ive led it away from the others. If everyone else is safe then Ive done my job. Just when a sense of triumph blooms within me, the third dagger strikes.
I cry out, fall face-first into the mud. I can feel the dagger between my shoulder blades.A pain so sharp that it paralyzes me. I try to reach to pull it free but it is up too high. It feels as though its moving, digging itself deeper, the pain spreading as if Ive been poisoned. On my stomach, in agony. I cant pull it free with telekinesis, my powers somehow failing me. I begin dragging myself forward. One of the soldiers or maybe its a scout; I cant tell which places a foot on my back, reaches down, and pulls the knife free. I grunt. The knife is gone but the pain stays. It takes its foot off of me but I can still feel its presence, and I wrestle myself onto my back to face it.
Another soldier, standing tall and smiling with hatred. The same look as the one before, the same type of sword. The dagger that was in my back twists in its grip. That is what I felt, the blade turning while imbedded in my flesh. I lift a hand towards the soldier to move it but I know its in vain. I cant focus, everything blurry. The soldier raises its sword in the air. The blade tastes death, starts glowing in the night sky behind it. Im gone, I think. Nothing I can do. I look into its eyes. Ten years on the run and this is how easily it ends, how quietly. But behind it lurks something else. Something far more menacing than a million soldiers with a million swords. Teeth every bit as long as the soldier is tall, teeth glowing white in a mouth too small to hold them. The beast with its evil eyes hovering over us.
A sharp intake of breath catches in my throat, and my eyes open wide in terror. Itll take us both out, I think. The soldier is oblivious. It tenses and grimaces at me and starts to bring the sword down to split me in two. But it is too slow and the beast strikes first, its jaws clamping down like a bear trap. The bite doesnt stop until the beasts teeth come together, the soldiers body cut cleanly in half just below the hips, leaving nothing behind but two stumps still standing. The beast chews twice and swallows. The soldiers legs fall hollowly to the ground, one dropping to the right, the other to the left, and quickly disintegrate.
It takes every ounce of strength I have to reach out and grab the dagger that has fallen at my feet. I tuck it into the waistband of my jeans, and begin crawling away. I feel the beast hovering over me, feel its breath upon the nape of my neck. The smell of death and rotting meat. I enter a small clearing. I expect the beasts wrath to fall any second, expect its teeth and claws to rip me to shreds. I pull myself forward until I can go no more, my back against an oak tree.
The beast stands in the very center of the clearing, thirty feet away from me. I look at it fully for the first time.A looming figure, hazy in the dark and the cold of the night. Taller and bigger than the beast at the school, forty feet, standing upright on two hind legs. Thick, gray skin stretched tightly over slabs of bulging muscle. No neck, its head sloped so that its lower jaw protrudes farther out than its upper. A set of fangs points towards the sky, another set points to the ground, dripping blood and drool. Long, thick arms hang a foot or two above the ground even while the beast stands straight, giving it the appearance of slightly leaning forward. Yellow eyes. Round disks at the sides of its head that pulsate with the beating of its heart, the only sign that it has any sort of heart at all.
It leans forward and brings its left hand to the ground.A hand, complete with stubby short fingers with claws like a raptor, claws meant to rip apart anything they touch. It sniffs at me, and roars. An ear-splitting roar that would have pushed me backwards if I werent already against a tree. Its mouth opens, showing what must be fifty other teeth, each one every bit as sharp as the next. Its free hand thrusts away from its side and splits in half every tree that it strikes, ten, fifteen of them.
No more running. No more fighting. Blood from the knife wound runs down my back; my hands and legs are both shaking. The dagger is still tucked into the waistband of my jeans, but whats the point in grabbing it? What faith is there in a four-inch blade against a forty-foot beast? It would be the equivalent of a splinter. Itll only make it angrier. My only hope is to bleed to death before I am killed and eaten.
I close my eyes and accept death. My lights are off. I dont want to see what is about to happen. I hear movement behind me. I open my eyes. One of the Mogadorians must be moving in for a closer look, I think at first, but I know immediately that I am wrong. There is something familiar about the loping gait, something Irecognize in the sound of his breathing. And then he enters the clearing.
Bernie Kosar.
I smile, but the smile quickly fades. If I am doomed, there is no point in him dying too. No, Bernie Kosar. You cant be here. You need to leave and you need to run like the wind, get as far away as you can. Pretend youve just finished our early-morning jog to school and that its time to return home.
He looks at me as he walks up. I am here, he seems to say.
I am here and I will stand with you.
No, I say aloud.
He stops long enough to give my hand a reassuring lick. He looks up at me with his big, brown eyes. Get away, John, I hear in my mind. Crawl if you have to crawl, but get away now . The blood loss has made me delusional. Bernie seems to be communicating with me. Is Bernie Kosar even here, or am I imagining that as well?
He stands in front of me as though in protection. He begins to growl, low at first, but it grows to a growl every bit as ferocious as the beasts own roar. The beast fixates on Bernie Kosar.A staredown. Bernie Kosars hair is raised down the center of his back, his tan ears pinned to his head.
His loyalty, his bravery very nearly make me weep. Hes a hundred times smaller than the beast yet he stands tall, vowing to fight. One quick strike from the beast and all is done.
I reach my hand out to Bernie Kosar. Iwish I could stand and grab him and get away. His growls are so fierce that his whole body shakes, tremors coursing through him.
And then something begins to happen.
Bernie Kosar begins to grow.