Survivors

The raids carried on and on. They never got more daring in what they tried to do and they always followed the same basic pattern, in and out as quickly as they could doing as much damage as possible.

Late one night they were flying back to their base when Holly suddenly pulled up and began hovering high in the air.

“Look” she said pointing down into the valley below them. The two boys peered into the darkness. For a few seconds they couldn’t see anything, it just looked like layer upon layer of black. Then without any warning huge flashes of light tore through the darkness followed by what sounded like the crack and blast of various weapons. Explosions percussed around the valley and a thick pall of smoke began to grow far below them.

“What do you think it is?” asked Joe anxiously.

“It must be the Aliens” replied Luke.

“I’d worked that bit out myself, genius! What I meant was, what do you think they are doing!”

“Attacking something!” Sneered Luke sarcastically.

“Or someone” added Holly.

There was a moments pause.

“What do you think we should do?” asked Joe nervously.

“We go and help!” Said Luke, and without waiting for a reply he was off.

Stunned for a moment Holly and Joe didn’t immediately react. After a couple of seconds Joe said “Do you remember when he used to be really cautious and used to tell me off for not thinking about things?”

Holly nodded.

“Things have certainly changed haven’t they!”

“You mean on top of the wings, the guns, and the ability to change into anything we want” replied Holly grinning in spite of herself.

“Come on” said Joe grinning back “We’d better get after him, don’t want him getting into any trouble do we”.

Some way ahead of them Luke was scanning the trees where the explosions were coming from. He used his eagle eyesight, he used sonar and infa-red so as he flew towards the ground he was getting a really good idea of what he was getting in to. He knew the others thought he was reckless, but he always had a plan and he was confident that whatever he was getting himself into, he would be able to get out of it again whenever he wanted to.

What he appeared to be “getting in to” this time really surprised him. As far as he could make out, there seemed to be five or six humans sheltering behind some rocks or what looked like the remains of some sort of vehicle. The humans were wisely sheltering because they were under attack from six hunter killers. He could see five more human shaped figures lying prostrate on the ground. With infa-red he could see that the heat these figures were giving off was rapidly decreasing, a sure sign that they were already dead. This wasn’t particularly surprising, he’d expected dead people, whenever someone took on the Aliens there was always dead people. What did surprise Luke was the fact that the humans seemed to be returning fire and a seventh hunter killer was a smoking ruin. No humans, other than Bretnel and themselves had the technology now to even scratch an Alien, let alone put a Killer out of action.

Bretnel had explained a theory he had about why earth’s normal weapons had been so useless against the Aliens. It had something to do with velocity and the energy that velocity created. Somehow the Aliens were able to use the weapons own energy to create a shield to protect itself. This meant that for most bullets and missiles the harder you tried to hit the Alien the more protected it was. Anything moving slowly enough not to create the shield; for example an arrow almost without doubt lacked the punch to penetrate the Aliens armour. So it had been an Alien Win Win! The lasers that Bretnel had built used energy in a totally different way so the Alien didn’t create the shield. When they were in animal form that moved slowly enough to not create the Alien shield and had the power to do real damage. So this was a human Win Win.

But as far as they knew whoever was fighting didn’t have lasers and weren’t able to transform. So who the hell were these guys and where did they come from?

That was about as much thinking time as Luke had. Now it was time for action. He landed behind a large tree and unslung his energy rifle from his shoulder. Quickly picking his first target he aimed and squeezed. The Killer exploded in a shower of sparks like an ugly firework. Luke didn’t actually see this as he was already moving through the trees at a breath taking speed, putting as much space between himself and where the shot had come from. One of the other Killers targeted the energy bolts heat source and let rip. It blasted such a big hole in the tree Luke had landed behind that the trunk snapped and it toppled over splintering and cracking as it went.

Luke aimed his second shot, but just as he was about to fire the Alien exploded, Holly and Joe had obviously arrived. Luke spun his attention to two Killers that were moving in from his left. In the few seconds since he had landed the Killers had advanced towards the humans with their lasers blazing. Luke, could see that two more of the men seemed to have been killed. With a roar of rage he sprinted forward. He slung his rifle over his shoulder. As he ran his hand and arm changed into a huge sickle like claw and his whole body bulked hugely. He crashed through the last few saplings between him and the next Alien like a bull elephant. Before the Alien could turn Luke sliced down with the claw. It smashed through the Aliens laser sending it crashing to the ground. A back handed sweep with the second claw thumped into the Alien with incredible force. The Alien crashed onto its side exposing its less armoured underside. Luke thrust forward with both claws smashing through the Aliens base plate. He then used his claws to peel back the Aliens armour like a giant tin can before smashing down over and over again onto the circuitry and more vulnerable parts inside. The Aliens hover light went out and all signs of any activity stopped.

He glanced up. Holly and Joe had taken out another Killer on the far left, and another seemed to be smoking off to his right. He had no idea what had happened to the Killer on his right, but right now that wasn’t important, what mattered was that it was out of action. All of this meant that there was only one more Alien to go, but where exactly was it? There was too much smoke and too many fires for him to be able to see anything using either his normal or infa-red eyesight. He dropped onto his haunches and tried to control his breathing. His ears extended, pricked and alert. The noise all around him was suddenly deafening. He frowned as he tried to concentrate and pick out individual sounds from the cacophony around him. A bit like tuning in a radio, one by one his was able to scan through the different noises. As he brought each one into focus it became so clear it was as if he was actually seeing what was making the noise rather than just hearing it. He was searching for the tell tale hum of the Aliens engines. Then all at once he had it, it was moving rapidly away towards the south. Killers weren’t just dumb machines, they knew all about self preservation, and this one was definitely now in looking after number one mode, in other words it was legging it!

In a flash Luke was on his feet and heading off after the fleeing Killer. As he ran he changed into what looked like a gorilla, in truth it was a gorilla that was the size of an elephant but still a gorilla. He picked this shape because it had the speed and bulk to crash through the undergrowth, but still had the agility in its hands to use the rifle. As he ran he reached round behind him to un-sling the rifle from his back. Grasping the gun pulled it forward, but instead of swinging round easily it was suddenly yanked from his grasp. The strap had got hooked round a branch on a tree. Luke’s momentum carried him forward while the strap stayed firmly fixed round the branch and over Luke’s shoulder. The result was inevitable. The strap broke and the gun spiralled into the air. Luke made a fumbling diving grab for the gun. Then at the edge of his peripheral vision he became instantly aware of an ominous black shape, it was the Killer. The gun forgotten he tried to twist in mid-air away from the Alien and towards some cover, anything to avoid the laser he was sure was being brought to bear on him millisecond by millisecond.

He thumped into the ground. Even though he was winded he ignored the pain and instantly looked up. He found himself looking straight down the barrel of the Killers laser. He braced himself for the pain that would rip through his body, but it didn’t come. Instead the Alien lurched slightly to its left as a series of mini explosions erupted all down its right side. Stunned Luke looked across the clearing. A man in a camouflage jacket was advancing on the Alien. As he came forward he held at his shoulder what looked like a much bulkier version of Luke’s energy rifle. The man fired and fired again, each shot smacking into the Killer. Accurate as the man’s shooting was the weapon obviously wasn’t powerful enough to break through the Aliens armour. The steady stream of hits was evidently slowing the Alien down and shaking it up but it wasn’t stopping it. The Killer began to shakily turn its laser towards the man.

Luke saw his chance and grabbed it. He was still in the form of a giant gorilla, leaping up he dived at the Alien and took hold of one edge of its base. The strange blue light the Aliens hovered on was unbelievably hot and he could feel it burning through the thick skin of his hands. Ignoring the pain he heaved with all his might. The Alien crashed lengthways onto the ground. Luke grabbed at the laser as it swivelled wildly blasting in all directions, he snapped it from the Aliens body and flung it into the trees. The man rushed forward and before Luke could stop him he fired into the Aliens exposed underside. The weapon was powerful enough to rip through the light armour and up into the Aliens insides. One of the shots must have hit the Aliens main power unit because it suddenly exploded in a flash of flame and smoke. Luke and the man were blown violently backwards crashing through the undergrowth in different directions.

Luke ended up slumped against a huge oak tree. He was knocked unconscious and his head dropped heavily onto his chest. He came to a minute or so later, dazed and confused. His head was pounding and his whole body was aching. He tried to get up but his leg collapsed beneath him. He looked down and what he saw nearly made him pass out again. A big jagged chunk of Alien shrapnel was sticking out of his thigh. Blood was bubbling out of the gaping wound and running in a steady stream onto the floor. His head swam and his eyesight began to blur. Through the gathering haze he heard “Luke, Luke!”. It was Holly and Joe calling for him.

“Over here” he tried to shout, but instead of a shout all that came out was a hoarse whisper. He tried again “Here”, but it wasn’t any louder. His lips were dry, his throat was dryer and he began to lose consciousness again. This time as he began to slip into the darkness he changed back into human form. The change from the gorilla was startling. In a few moments he morphed from a nightmarish hulking killing machine into a skinny teenage boy who looked frail, small and white against the huge dark oak tree.

Suddenly through the thickening haze of his mind he was aware of a hand on his shoulder. He groggily looked up expecting to see Holly or Joe, but instead he saw a man’s face looking down at him. The man’s face was etched with concern, he had blood trickling down his face and some of his hair was gone and patches of his face were obviously singed. The man smiled at Luke, white teeth in a blackened face.

“It’s all right son you hang on in there” he said. Then he looked up and shouted “Over here, over here”. That was the last thing Luke was properly aware of, as it was at this point that the blackness engulfed him again.