Survivors

At the beach Holly’s shouts had caused a good deal of consternation. None of the men could hear or see anything, and to say that they were sceptical would have been an understatement. Several of them grinned at each other.

“You need to listen to her” yelled Jack annoyed. “Where are they coming from Holly?”

“They’re coming that way, from behind those trees” she replied pointing.

“Do you seriously expect me..” shouted Barnes as he stomped towards them.

“Yes sir I do” said Jack emphatically “I keep telling you just how special these children are. Please sir for all our sakes you really need to believe her.. Sir”

Barnes looked as if he was about to argue again, but there was something in Jack’s face that made him change his mind.

“Oh hell, what harm can it do” Barnes sighed “It will be a good drill if nothing else. What should we do then?”

“I recommend that we break out the guns and form a perimeter facing those trees” replied Jack.

“And you need to do it pretty quickly” interrupted Holly a little anxiously glancing back overher shoulder.

“Could you get the guns for us Holly while we take up positions?” asked Jack.

“No problem” grinned Holly “Where do you want them?”

“Over there” said Jack “Quick as you can”

“And just how the hell… oh good god!!” exclaimed Barnes.

The sudden change of tack in what he was going to say and a very noticeable change in pitch pace and tone in the way he said it was due to Holly suddenly changing into a truly enormous chimpanzee.

“Don’t shoot her!” yelled Jack who had noticed several of the shocked looking men raising their guns “She’s on our side. Now stop staring and get over to those trees. Spread out and then find yourself whatever cover you can, about fifty yards from the treeline. Go, go, go!” He ordered.

The men scattered suddenly galvanised. Holly quickly loped towards the crates. When she reached them she tucked one under each arm and stared back towards the men. Barnes stood mouth hanging open staring in absolute disbelief.

“How can she…? How did she…?” He muttered.

“I told you she was special sir” said Jack with a barely concealed grin.

Holly reached the first group of soldiers. She put down the crates and with no apparent effort at all she wrenched the lid off. She changed back into human form and bent down to pick a laser out of the box. She held it out to the nearest soldier, who showed absolutely no sign of having any intention of taking it.

“Take that weapon soldier” yelled Jack.

The man stepped forward cautiously and then suddenly lurched at her snatching the gun from Holly’s hands. If she was at all upset by the man’s reaction she didn’t show it. She picked up another rifle.

“You switch it on and arm it by pressing these two buttons” she said demonstrating. “Then it’s just a case of aim and squeeze”.

She lined up the top of a tree in the lasers sights and pulled the trigger. A bolt of energy shot from the laser and smashed into the tree. The top three foot of the tree burst into flames and then disintegrated.

“If you want to stay alive. I suggest you all get one of these – quickly” said Holly.

The soldiers made a dive for the rifles and started fanning out in front of the trees.

It took nearly another twenty seconds or so before the soldiers began to sense rather than see the approaching Aliens. The sense they had was that an approaching thunderstorm gives just before it breaks, when the air feels heavy and full of energy and you’re just waiting for the first crack of thunder or burst of lightning. The feeling hit every soldier almost simultaneously making the hairs on their arms stand on end bristling with static. Virtually every man had the same reaction, he hunkered down a little more and gripped his laser rifle a little tighter. The Aliens suddenly appeared above the tree line. There were at least twenty hunter killers and two large carriers each packed with drones and scouts.

Barnes raised his arm to stop the men from firing.

“Hold” he hissed “Hold… hold…” some of the men began to look at him nervously as the Aliens got closer and closer. Just when it seemed that the Aliens couldn’t get much closer Barnes dropped his arm and bellowed “Fire! Fire! Fire!”

The blast from the laser rifles took the Aliens completely by surprise. In all the time since they had come to earth they had not faced a concerted blast of power like this. Two of the killers immediately exploded in fragments. Two others spiralled downwards trailing long plumes of smoke and one of the carriers lurched sideways before dropping slightly. It crashed through the tops of trees splintering them as they went before it levelled off and gained some height.

If the soldiers had been given the time to register the full impact of what they had done they might have been pleased, hopeful even euphoric, but an Alien is never surprised for very long. Before the Hunter Killers had hit the floor the others were returning fire and the drones and scouts were disgorging from the carriers.

An Alien energy bolt hit a power pack on one of the soldiers laser rifles causing it to explode in a terrifying fireball. The blast incinerated not only the soldier that had been holding the gun but the man stood either side of him as well. The fire fight was frantic. Soldiers and Aliens fired blast after blast ripping into each other with a terrible ferocity.

It became fairly apparent fairly quickly that the Aliens were inflicting the heavier casualties. Soldier after soldier dropped with a horrible gaping wound that was instantly blackened and quarterised by the searing heat of the laser bolt.

“Get to the choppers” yelled Barnes use them as cover. Go Go Go!”

“Fall back in twos” bellowed Jack over the deafening roar of the guns “Give covering fire!”

Even in battle Barnes took the time to glare at Jack.

“Countermanding my orders again” he thought “If we get out of this we will have a score to settle Mr Jack!”

Thy raced back towards the choppers firing and running, running and firing, but still the Aliens came on remorselessly moving forward.

Holly was in the thick of the fighting. She had resumed her chimpanzee shape only this time a lot smaller.

“I still want the agility and strength” she’d thought “but no point in making yourself too obvious a target”.

The other modifications she’d made to the standard chimp shape was to add in a few bits of fly. A nice compound eye gave her almost 360 degree visions (as long as the kept moving) and she had kept a fly’s processing and reactions speeds. This meant that she could respond in milliseconds to any threats she saw or take advantage of any opportunities. The soldiers of course couldn’t see any of this. All they were aware of was a furry black shape that sped around so fast it was literally a blur.

Holly shot and moved, dodged and ducked. She didn’t always hit the Alien she was aiming at because they were pretty fast themselves, but she was doing more than her fair share of damage.

As the men pulled back towards the choppers Holly hung back blazing away with her rifle giving as much covering fire as she possibly could. Once the last man had reached the helicopters Holly sprang backwards into the air. It only took her two leaps to reach the cover of the choppers and even in mid-air she had fired her gun with astounding accuracy.

Unfortunately far from making things better taking shelter behind the helicopters only made things much worse. It now meant that the Aliens were able to concentrate all their firepower in one smaller area. With the lasers they had they didn’t really have to bother about trying to pick out the men sheltering behind the helicopters, they just aimed straight at them. The beams sliced through the helicopters thin metal skins like it was as soft as butter. First one and then another of the helicopters exploded in huge fireballs, sending up clouds of thick acrid smoke.

“We’ve got to move!” yelled Holly over the noise. “It’s always best to keep moving. Keep them guessing where you are. We need to split up and get to those trees.”

“I give the orders here Missy!!” snarled Barnes back at her. “We stay where we are!”

“If we stay here we’re all going to die” shouted Jack “And even if we don’t die we won’t have any choppers left to get us anywhere. We have to move!”

“Now just you listen to” stared Barnes.

“I’m sorry sir” interrupted Jack.

“Wh!” But the rest of what Barnes was going to say was cut off as Jack swung the butt of his rifle hard onto the side of his head. Barnes hit the ground with a crash, completely out cold. Jack quickly looked round, but it didn’t look like any of the remaining men had noticed.

“Grab him Holly” said Jack “Bring him with us”. Then he yelled at the top of his voice. “Make for the trees, fan out and keep on the move. Never more than two shots from the same position. Withdraw in pairs. Go Go Go!”

Holly tucked Barnes under her arm and headed for the trees swiftly followed by what remained of the soldiers. Firing and moving most of the men made it to the relative safety of the trees. Relative safety meant they only had about a three in six chance of dying at any moment compared to the five in six chance they’d had when they were huddled behind the helicopters.

It now became a more attritional battle. The men fell back deeper into the woods using the trees as cover while the Aliens followed cutting a swathe through the trees levelling everything in their path. The soldiers were still taking casualties but it wasn’t the slaughter it had been at the helicopters. The Aliens were also taking casualties but things were still pretty much in their favour as they slowly and inexorably advanced.

Jack grabbed Holly by the arm. “If it looks like we’re done for” he hissed “Make sure that you get out. There’s no point in you dying. Find Joe and Luke and get away, get far away. See if you can find the island on your own. Just make sure you get away”.

“I’m staying Jack” she replied “What’s the point in getting away. I don’t even know if Joe and Luke are still alive. If they were okay they’d have been here by now. I’ll stay and take my chances. Now get..”

A truly massive explosion from somewhere just behind the Aliens cut short what Holly was saying. It was so big that it shook the ground hard enough to thrown them both violently to the floor. In fact the blast was so big it made their teeth rattle and their ears ring.

“What the hell was that!?” yelled Jack scrabbling to his knees and looking towards where the explosion had come from.

“I think” said Holly with just the faintest hint of a smile “That was Luke!”