Survivors

They had all rushed upstairs and stared at the monitors. There on the screens was a Alien patrol investigating the entrance to the base. They hung around for about an hour taking readings and appearing to intently study the surrounding area. In the base none of the watchers could drag themselves away from the screens. They didn’t speak, they barely moved and almost hardly dared to breathe. Eventually the Aliens moved off.

“Do you think they found anything?” asked Joe.

“Of course they bloody did!” snapped Luke.

“Well why have they gone then smartarse, why didn’t they come in!”

“Because unlike you little brother they aren’t stupid! They will go back to their camp with the readings and data they’ve collected, they will form a plan and then they will come back here with a much larger force and kill usl!”

“Luke!” shrieked Holly “Don’t talk like that, don’t say that”.

“Why not” he sneered “It’s the truth. The only question is, what are we going to do about it. Are we going to sit here and get our butts kicked, or are we going to fight back?”

For a moment there was silence then with a deep sigh Bretnel said “I think you had better follow me”.

He led them down to the far end of the base, to the part that he normally kept locked. He went up to a keypad and punched in a code. The door clicked and then clunked heavily as the bolts withdrew and the locks disengaged. Bretnel grasped the handle and pushed the heavy door inwards.

“Come on” he said “No time to lose”.

They followed him inside. He beckoned them to stop.

“If you would just wait one moment” he said and then swung the door shut again. It closed with a heavy clang. Bretnel then went to another keypad and tapped away, a second later the bolts and locks could be heard clicking back into place.

“All safe and sound now” said Bretnel with a very half-hearted grin. Without saying anything else Bretnel led them down a long corridor and then down an even longer set of stairs. They eventually came to a large mostly white room, that looked like it had once been some sort of gymnasium. Around the edge of the room were a lots of large metallic looking lockers. Each locker had a large keypad at one end.

“This is the arsenal” said Bretnel “It is somewhere I hoped never to have to acquaint you with, but alas fate and circumstance has somewhat forced my hand”.

Bretnel went over to one of the lockers and punched in yet another code to the keypad and then opened the lockers door. He moved from locker to locker punching and opening. Inside each locker were lots of different guns; big assault rifles, rocket launchers, machine guns, pistols and some very weird looking things that were obviously still guns but were so odd looking that they defied any further description. It was one of these descriptionless guns that Bretnel picked up.

“Lady and gentlemen, I would like you to equip yourself with a mark 4 energy rifle”.

Joe made a manic headlong dash towards one of the lockers.

“BUT!” Shouted Bretnel “Before you do!”

Joe stopped in his tracks.

“I must insist that you press nothing, fiddle with nothing, and I absolutely command you NOT to pull the trigger until I instruct you to do so”.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah” said Joe grabbing up a gun excitedly.

Holly was slightly hesitant while Luke picked his up with a chilly determination.

Bretnel went through some safety instructions, gave each of them a pair of goggles, which Luke refused to put on.

“Why wear these stupid things” he said with unconcealed scorn “When you can do this!” As he spoke a slightly grey almost-transparent second eyelid slid into place. “I think this will do, don’t you?” He said with such a complete air of smugness that even a saint would have been tempted to slap his legs for being so cheeky.

Bretnel looked for a moment like he was struggling with this very issue, but luckily (probably for everyone) he decided not to succumb to the temptation.

“Very well” said Bretnel “The energy rifle is a new weapon that I was leading the development of before the Aliens arrived. It has a built in pulse beam generator that creates solid charged blasts of solid energy”.

“Like the Aliens lasers?” asked Joe.

“Exactly” said Bretnel. “It works on the principle of cold fusion”

“You mean it’s nuclear powered” said Holly horrified and starting to put down the gun. “Darius talked about nuclear power, he said it was unbelievably dangerous”.

“It is indeed nuclear powered, but this is cold fusion not what Darius reffered to, that would have been nuclear fission. Cold fusion, while not without its risks is nothing like as dangerous or potentially deadly as fission”.

“Unless you’re stood in front of it when someone pulls the trigger” said Joe grinning.

“Quite so” said Bretnel, not grinning “It is a source of unreserved sadness to me that the moment we master cold fusion we don’t develop an almost unlimited source of clean power for the world, we choose to develop a weapon. Mankind is a very badly named species”.

“Whatever!” snapped Luke “Just get on with it”.

Bretnel turned to Luke and fixed him with a cold steady gaze. “If it wasn’t for the absolute dire nature of our current predicament I would refuse to show you any of this equipment, but as I have said necessity forces my hand. I therefore want all of you to pay full attention to what I am about to say. We use these weapons only as a last resort. We only use these weapons if the Aliens find and attempt to enter the base. We only fire these weapons if we feel our life or liberty is in sever jeopardy. Because once we fire them, things will never be the same again, you will never be the same again because you will have killed. Do you understand!”

They all muttered that they did, and even Luke looked slightly chastened. Bretnel then went on to explain how to switch on the energy rifle, how to clean it, how to maintain it and about twenty minutes worth of extra information that went completely over their heads. Joe put up his hand.

“Yes Joe?” said Bretnel a little annoyed that he had been interrupted in mid flow.

“Errr, how do we fire it?” asked Joe puzzled.

“Ahh yes” replied Bretnel a little flustered. “This is the safety, and this is the trigger. All one has to do is aim at the target and then gently squeeze the trigger”.

“What like this?” said Joe squeezing and holding the trigger. A stream of pure energy shot out of the muzzle of the gun. As the stream shot out so Joe flew backwards. The energy beam sliced through one of the lockers and then decimated a notice board, before gouging a six inch deep and four inch wide gash in the concrete wall opposite. As Joe fell the arc of the beam raced up the wall and across the ceiling, leaving a huge glowing scar as it went. Bretnel, Holly and Luke all dived for cover.

“Let go of the trigger” bellowed Bretnel “Let go!”

By now Joe was lying flat on his back with the beam pointing straight up at the ceiling directly above him. A hole was rapidly growing as the concrete disintegrated, and drops of molten plaster began to drop to the floor. Joe, finally recovering from the shock let go of the trigger, and the beam disappeared. He sat slowly up looking at the carnage he had caused.

“It’s, its got a bit of a kick hasn’t it” he said sheepishly.

“My dear Joe” said Bretnel with exaggerated patience, “Have you not heard that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. You are holding in your hands a nuclear powered gun, I would have thought that it was pretty bleeding obvious that it would have a bit of a kick! The next time you decide to pull the trigger may I suggest you conjure up a little bit of gorilla strength and brace yourself!”

Bretnel led them through to a shooting gallery at the back of the hall where they spent the rest of the afternoon blazing away at a whole range of targets. After about an hour or so they were getting pretty accurate.

“Can we try something bigger now!?” asked Joe excitedly.

“Bigger?!” Asked Bretnel confused.

“Yeah something with more boom and less zapp”

“I think you will find” said Bretnel “That the energy rifle has all the power you will ever need”.

“Yeah, but...” Countered Joe, but at that moment all the alarms in the base went off and the debate was forgotten.