Zombaria Attacks – Chapter 10
Staring at Danforth, the third circle could only imagine what may happen next.
Then, just as suddenly as he recovered from his experience with Alpha's defenses, his head snapped upwards, and he seemed to stare brilliantly into the sky above. His face quickly changed from sporting his trademark malicious grin to that of shock and awe. Stephan concentrated the picophonic receivers on Danforth's open mouth, hoping to pick up any vocals. He was not disappointed.
"I…yes…I hear you…and I un-der-stand…yes…la-ter…it will be done…!"
Moments later, Danforth raised his arms above his head and addressed his cadaverous comrades.
"Brethren! We shall return in due time to finish the rabble off – now we must attend to more pressing matters! LE-GIONS! JOIN…NOW!"
With this thunderous statement, Danforth raised mother over his head and made a sweeping arc motion. The now familiar dreary yellow light fanned out from the blade and encompassed the entire horde in its glow. Another moment passed, and the invading force promptly faded with a rush of wind.
It would seem that Alpha had been spared…for now.
Ω
SHHRRRIIIPPPP!
Gingerly, with all the caring that a newly widowed mother could gather at that point, Deanara Potemkin slowly wrapped the torn piece of shirtsleeve around the head of her 7-year-old son Duncan. The wound was not mortal, but it begged to be dressed far better than anything Deanara could manage at the time. She was no nurse by any means; the mother of two children was a professional CPA and physical fitness buff who held down a high-powered position at a (until yesterday) prestigious local firm that regarded her as the best of the best. Yet what she excelled at in her career she sorely lacked in practical matters. She and her late husband were always having prepared foods delivered to the house, and hired babysitters and friends who had housekeeping and handyman skills, while they both maximized their personal business potential. This had proved to be a rather challenging feat, especially at first, but soon the fruits of their labor paid off financially, and they were on the verge of entering the promised land of (very) early retirement.
Until yesterday.
The day their world – the world – was turned upside down.
The day her husband Gregori had been killed…half-eaten…by that pile of dead corpses that seemed to burst out of nowhere, right in their own back yard.
The day that her neighbors didn't even come outside their own homes, or even look out their windows…
The day that the yellow orbs began to litter the streets, the lawns, the streams…
Yes, on that day the earth did stand still…
And now, with Gregori lost to her, the battle to save her children was on.
Deanara's other son, 11-year-old Hines, was running along the corridor at the rear of the underground subway in which they had taken refuge not six hours ago. The doors had been barricaded and manned by whomever was left that seemed trustworthy…a difficult task to accomplish at a time like this…but two able-bodied longshoremen from T wharf out on Grosse Point had volunteered. Several dozen normals were gathered underground; huddling, crying, and desperately trying to make sense of senselessness. Hines was returning from an errand his mother had given him not long before – head down to the e-station at the end of the platform to try and find some disinfectant. He was known in his sixth grade class as "The Ferret"; if anyone could find a needle in a haystack, Hines could. And his mother's hasty gamble had paid off – he had found just what the doctor ordered.
"Hey Ma! I found some!"
Hines came running up to his mother with the bottle in his hand. She beamed at him – the first hopeful sign to Hines that his mother hadn't completely lost her wits.
"Good boy Hines…" she smiled briefly and hugged him. Turning her attention to
Duncan, she promptly began to administer the antiseptic to his forehead. Duncan had gotten a nasty road burn due to his fall while running from two ghouls; had it not been for his tenacity and his quick-footed mother whisking him to safety, he may not have been as fortunate.
"Dunk's gonna be OK, right? Looks like he just got a bad scrape…," Hines murmured.
Deanara looked worn and pale. "Of course Hines. He'll be fine." The same thing that she had been telling him for all these years, whenever his little brother got sick or hurt. Who knows what now…certainly she didn't. Just a day or two before, she wouldn't hesitate to notify a doctor and see that Duncan was treated right away for this kind of thing. Now they were all stumbling along an uncharted course through no man's land.
Duncan let out a low groan. He opened his eyes and looked at his brother.
"Hiney…'s not fine…hurts…" he managed.
"Okay hon – take it easy, this might sting a little…," said his mother. The child winced but didn't move away at the touch of the treated cloth.
Just then, an all-too-familiar rumble and rush of wind…
!What? How could the trains still be running? Wasn't the power nearly gone…?
The flickering lights in the distance down the tunnel grew brighter…
…and into the station rushed the Verdun 7-2-6…about five hours behind schedule.
The startled faces of the small crowd gathered near the platform glanced at each other and the train – utterly perplexed. Tension and anxiety rose among the group as the train squealed to a halt. The hapless subterraneans now all stood watching…waiting…
K-WOOSSSHHHH
The doors of the train presently opened, revealing
¡ ¡¡ RRRRRRRR-AAAAA-RRRRGH! ! !
Instantly, some wild beast smashed through one of the cars' windows (not even noticing or bothering to use the open door). The initial shock and screams, together with its rapidity and the flying glass, prevented most from getting a fix on what the creature actually was.
Lunging forward, the thing catapulted itself at the nearest victim – an otherwise innocuous bystander – and proceeded to feast on his head and feet simultaneously. Casually spitting out the leftover bones after finishing the deed, it rose up on its haunches and drew in a large breath, as if preparing for another assault. Just then, the terrified eyes of the frozen normals were momentarily distracted by an odd, reddish glow that seemed to emanate from one of the cars further down the track…
"BARABBAS! HEEL!"
A moment later, Pope Danforth slowly stepped out of the lead car and purposefully strolled down the platform towards the crowd. Barabbas heeled most obediently, jaws dripping with blood and saliva, its forked tongues flickering in and out like those of a rattlesnake. Sweeping along the border between the double doors at the platform entrance and the normals, Danforth's pet moved to a sitting position, its two heads swerving slowly from left to right, its eyes moving in opposite directions to one another…all focused on the helpless humans.
And just then, out from the train spilled the normal lunchtime crowds that anyone could have expected…only these occupants were Danforth's Legions, and they had only one desire on their artificially animated "minds" – feasting on the flesh of the living. It seemed that lunch had thoughtfully been provided for them.
But Danforth then waved mother in the approaching horde's direction…and they all halted where they stood on the platform. He then turned back to the stunned crowd.
"You have all seen what these can do to any and all of you at any moment. Rush at me, and you will get no further than where you stand now," Danforth snarled. But to kill them was not his intention, and he saw to it that his minions understood that. His masters needed slaves. They needed earth to be properly subjugated. They would be given that satisfaction. He would deliver this and more to them.
"Now…we will discuss the matter of your…conversion, my children."
Ω
Beneath the surface of Roddenberry, in a place known to a few as Alpha, and to others as Salvation, two men named Stephan and Kiefer discussed the recent spectacles that they had just witnessed.
Stephan spoke in a low voice thick with foreboding.
"I'm afraid it's worse than we thought…according to these outputs…they can…transcend time and space."
"You're joking. Please tell me it's not true." Kiefer was shifting his eyes between Stephan and the data on the auxiliary display to the left of the main console.
"I wish it weren't. But you saw how we figured Poo-bah and his band of merry men went from point 'A' at 0600 to point 'B' at 0700, only to re-emerge at point 'A' again a half-hour earlier? That accounts for the chronological delta on the Z axis here," Stephan replied, as he pointed out the anomalous curve in the chart on the touchscreen panel.
"But, how can we prove that conclusively? This is all still a theory, even in our line of thought."
"I'm saying, the data is showing exactly what we could expect in this case. It's insane, I know, but at the same time it lines up with the results of the tests. You remember the Omaha Experiments? The fourth phase, just before the transmuters gave out on the particle beam with the test subjects in them? They all vanished into thin air…but two minutes earlier we had that blip on the output console, and we thought we were chasing ghosts. Now could it be that they just may have made an appearance…"
"Incredible…so with that kind of capability…they could hit us at any moment from anywhere – or make like our resistance never even happened?"
"I'm not so sure about the entirety of it all…perhaps their abilities to time shift are limited…who knows? But we've got to nail that down ASAP."
"Christ Stephan…the world's on fire and all we've got is a pail of water…"
"Hey man, I may not believe in angels, but I don't believe in no-win scenarios, either. They've got the first two or three moves on us… but the game isn't over yet. I do have faith in one aspect of this scum's culture; did you happen to notice how surprised Poo-bah was when he failed to breach the main access way? And, if that guy's the invaders' idea of a right-hand man, we may have an angle into their way of thinking…"
Kiefer did not disagree with him, but remained skeptical of their chances.
***–––***
While the discussion between Stephan and Kiefer was ongoing, Konstantin, Jenna and Mary were many levels below the control deck, beneath the redundant data center and just above the primary reactor core.
"Section One certainly did a fine job of mothballing this…" Jenna exclaimed.
"Yes – had to be done, though…it would have turned Roddenberry into a factory for mutants if they'd left it idling," Konstantin remarked.
Mary was keeping busy dusting off the secondary safety panels and bringing the instruments to full operation, under Konstantin's and Jenna's guidance. Mary had definitely come a long ways in a short time – being a fast learner was a huge asset to them all, Jenna thought. On the other hand, that was the way of things now…learn fast today, or wake up dead tomorrow.
She was about to throw the main switch which regulated the core temperature and reaction parameters when Konstantin approached her.
"How's it going Mary? Any problems?"
"Doesn't look like any so far…but you'd know better than me, dear," Mary replied with a half-smile.
Konstantin looked over the equipment with a curious gaze.
"This facility was built to withstand a third world war…but no one ever guessed the war would come to this…" he broke off abruptly and began rubbing his forehead with signs of discomfort. He let out a short sigh.
A look of concern passed over Mary's face.
"You look exhausted…I know there's so much to do, but when was the last time you slept?"
"A while." Konstantin appeared to regain his composure quickly, but his face now suggested exactly what Mary had observed.
"It looks like we're just about finished here, anyway…right?"
"Yes, just a couple of other final checks before we can activate the system. The primary coolant pump can be engaged as soon as the control rods are in place…then we may be able to take naps in shifts, if we're lucky."
"I think you should get the first one," she said gently.
Konstantin glanced at her. "Well, all of us can use one at this point. Thanks Mary, but I've still got plenty of detail work to finish before I can lay my head down. Now, let's get this engine cranked…this will take both of us."
The two continued to bring the primary online while Jenna finished her final readings on the hydroelectric subsystems. At least they could put power issues to bed shortly, she thought, even if they themselves may not see a bed for many hours yet.
Ω
And far above the whirring fans, the flashing lights, the spinning gyros and the overtaxed circle team, a new sight in the skies above Earth appeared. It started with twinkling lights in a twilight sky over the continental USA, but the lights became more numerous and soon eclipsed all other heavenly bodies – until there wasn't a place on earth where you could not observe them.
The main Zombarian invasion fleet had arrived.