ALIEN INVASION (13 page)

I was feeling that way.

“I gritted my teeth, trying to fight the anger that was boiling in me. The bubbles of the wrath-stew could be felt in my gut and tasted in my throat, very acidic in its intention. Embarrassment had turned to rage pretty quickly; my fight to suppress it had been lost just as quickly as I’d found it.

“I was going red by that point, blood vessels bursting and rouging not only my cheeks but the rest of my face too. The veins on my temples were protruding, pulsating, a constipated expression enveloping my features. The muscles in my face were an unorganized, offbeat, spasm-retort to the rage that was surging, taking me over at a rate immeasurable by the adjectives I’m using.

“In short, I guess you could say it was morhpin’ time, it really was that quick of a transformation; but unlike the Power Rangers, my spandex was the goose bumps pricking up all over my skin, razor wire trying to part my follicles to escape the heat now burning me up.”

That girl had a way with words.

“I turned to the closest girl. She was the dyed-blonde hair type. Makeup perfectly applied, no doubt from studious hours in front of a mirror, another reflective surface telling her she was the fairest in the land. I knew if I slapped her hard enough, it would not only put an end to her laughing, it would leave a red hand-shaped imprint in her perfect complexion. A branding, my own brand, on a special breed of cow, a don’t-fuck-with-me Post-it note on her skin.

“I hit that bitch as hard as I could. The spanking of membrane hitting skin reverberated around the room. It was so satisfying, even if my hand was stinging. She stopped laughing; I think the shock of the hit, more than the pain, was what discontinued her insidious delight.”

I was both shocked and enchanted. I couldn’t believe she’d do that to someone in the middle of class. But I was glad she had. I could dismantle my time machine. This girl could look after herself.

“She clutched at her cheek and started to cry, looking at me with her eyes wide, her mouth open, little quick snuffles escaping it. The other students had stopped laughing too by this point, no doubt triggered by the sight of one of their cherished darlings sobbing.”

Ha. Revenge is a dish best served cold.

“I spun around on the spot; my arms held out at my sides, Jesus pose, and told them all not to laugh at me again, ever. Next to my desk was my Hello Kitty bag. I stopped my spin. Opened the bag up by the zipper, the pink fluffy dice on it slowing me down somewhat, but not enough to prevent me from removing the Uzi and having it aimed before the teacher even had a chance to grab me and drag me from the room.”

What the fuck? That question assaulted my mind with a booming snap at that moment. Now things were making sense. She had done this kinda stuff before. My mouth hung open.

“I heard screams from the students, a bunch of Converses squeaking on the floor, as they made a run for the door. I had to be even quicker than I had been with my cute bag if I wanted to kill every one of those motherfuckers before they bolted. And I did want to kill them, more than I wanted to buy the new Fall Out Boy album. Yep, that much.

“I let the Uzi do what it was designed for. It almost kicked out of my hands as the first burst of bullets cut into the chest of the teacher. His white shirt looked like a used tampon soon enough, soon enough for me to have sufficient time to swing my little Embarrassment Eraser, that was my pet name for the gun, at the students trying to scramble through the door.

“Their backs became a crimsoned soggy mess and moments later there was a pile of mangled bodies intertwined. Blood was pooling from under them as I threw my gun to the deck and stamped my feet, a pure tantrum over not bringing enough darn bullets to finish them all off. You see, there was one classmate left. The cow with the don’t-fuck-with-me branding.”

She was fucking orbital. She was Pluto; she was so out there. I didn’t know what to make of what she was telling me. I tried to be repulsed, just like I had been with Bobby, but it was like she had cast a spell on me. I was hypnotized.

“She was trying to step over the bodies when I grabbed hold of her silken ponytail and tugged her hard enough to make her fall on her ass. I wrapped her hair around my hand and clenched my fist. I placed a foot in between her legs and used it to push them wide enough so I could step in the space and kneel facing her.

“She didn’t look as pretty as she usually did. She was sporting the Alice Cooper look. Her makeup had run, caused by the tears that were streaming from her baby blues. I licked one of the droplets off a cheek; it had a taste of salt and fear.”

I wanted to have a taste too.

“I used my other hand to take hold of her neck. I dug my nails in to get a tight grip and started to squeeze, blood animated out from under my nails as I did. She grabbed the wrist of the hand that was choking her. She tried to pull it free but had no luck.

“Her eyes bulged. Her chest flatlined. The tears dried up. Her complexion now painted white. The dead-look EMO thing, but this was real … It wasn’t really; it was all in my noggin, the shooting bit anyway. But I wish it had been real. Since then, since my little daydream, I’ve had a connection to violence and sex. Sometimes, when I touch myself I think about violence in the same way people think of sex. Bobby just shocked me at first; I’ve never seen real violence before. I want to see some more though. Let’s get the hammer and saw.”

She was beaming, she had a … glow, that’s the only way I can describe it. She had never looked so beautiful. I had never been so turned on. “Okay, let’s fuck.”

The room began to shake. My piles of shit started to tumble. The papers on my desk slid off. There was a thunderous rumble sounding all around. Sara took hold of me and we walked on unsteady legs to the desk. Then we hid under it as it shook around us, knocking off us a few times. I thought it was going to bounce up and flip upside down at one point.

A god-awful whistling sound kicked in. I could hear dogs barking outside, it must have been hurting their ears, because it was killing mine, and it looked like Sara was having the same problem. We both covered our ears with our hands.

The power cut off and the room went black. Then the shaking and whistling stopped. We removed our hands and the power flashed back for a few seconds, the lights came on, we heard alarms sounding outside, and then the power went out again as the bulbs in the ceiling exploded and a crack appeared in one of the walls. We both shared a look. We each had a confused expression and I think more than a liberal dose of shit-your-pants-terrified too.

I couldn’t see any farther than Sara, it was too dark, but things seemed to have settled. I reached a shaking hand up onto the top of the desk and felt around for the drawer. Once I’d locked my fingers around the handle I pulled it open. I had to stretch in an odd manner but I was able to reach in and grab the flashlight.

“Brad, what’s going on?”

“I’m not sure,” I said as I turned on the flash and lit the office.

A growl broke the silence. It was loud enough to hurt my head. Sara covered her ears again. Then I heard a roar, mixed with a terrible shrieking, and I covered mine too. I turned the flashlight off and held Sara close.

I’m not sure how long had passed when I lit the flash again and removed my hands, time seemed a strange concept at that moment. Sara already had her hands free of her ears. “You hear that?” she asked.

“Yeah.” We were speaking in whispers. Whatever it was, it was close. It sounded like it was coming from the gym. “What is it?”

“It sounds like, munching, like someone’s eating something. Don’t you think?”

“Yeah, I guess. Whatever it’s eating is chewy, it sounds like its tearing at it … Listen … Crunches … It’s also hard, strong, got some tougher sections.”

“Do you think an animal got in the building, somehow knocked the power out, and is now eating Bobby?”

“That doesn’t explain the earthquake.”

“Perhaps that’s what scared it inside.”

“Yeah, you could be right.”

“We should go check.”

“That sounds like a bad idea. Let’s just wait here, when the noise stops, and it’s fucked off, we’ll come out of hiding.”

“What if it takes Bobby in it’s mouth and goes into the street?”

“Won’t that be a good thing, we could say the animal killed him, not us.”

“Do you think people would believe that?”

“Yeah, I do.”

“Damn it.”

“What’s wrong?”

“I was looking forward to our date … and cutting the fingers off, smashing his teeth out of his mouth, all that good stuff.”

“Sorry, Sara, change of plan.”

“Couldn’t you go and have a look, I’ll come with you. I can’t leave my hero’s side.” She fluttered her eyelids.

“Okay, I’ll go have a look. Keep hold of my hand though. Don’t stray too far from me.”

“I would never do that. You’re stuck with me now, partner, joined at the hip, inseparable … soul mates.”

I liked the sound of that, but not the sound coming from the gym. It sounded fleshy; something was chowing down on meat for sure. Human meat. “We do make a great team, don’t we?”

“Yep.” She smiled then pointed at herself. “Brains.” Then she pointed at me. “Brawn.”

“Is that a compliment?”

“All heroes have brawn.”

“Okay.” I smiled. She really did have some form of strange power over me.

I scooted from under the desk, stayed on my knees, as I helped her up, and angled my flashlight so the beam was pointing at the floor when we both stood. “It might run when it sees the light, drag Bobby off,” I said.

“Turn it off.”

“It’s too dark.”

“You’ve spent enough time in this place, use your built-in GPS.”

“Okay.” I turned off the flashlight. The darkness fell on us in an instant. Sara grabbed hold of my hand. I jumped, tried not to make it obvious though.

“You ready?” she asked.

“Yeah.”

“When we get close, turn the flash on again, if it runs with Bobby in its mouth, we’ll grab him and pull him free. Make sure we’re close enough to reach his body first.”

“It will be all guess work.”

“I know. I trust you’ll figure it out.”

I took two steps and felt Sara’s arm brush against mine as she followed. I held my other hand, the one with the flash, out in front, so when it hit into something I could stop before I hit my face into it.

The flash clunked on something. By my figuring it was the doorframe. I waited there and gripped Sara’s hand tighter when I heard more crunches and slurps. I swallowed. It sounded like whatever was chewing on Bobby did the same. I took a step to the right, angling at where I guessed the opening of the door was, and pressed on.

I felt my foot hit the start of the tatami mats in the gym. I took a deep breath and held it in. I heard Sara do the same. I stepped onto the matted floor and continued to walk slowly forward, toward the sound of the carnivorous gluttony that was growing louder.

The sound was the most disgusting when I was as close as I wanted to get. It was wet, sloppy. I could hear a dripping too. Like Bobby’s blood was plopping onto the tatamis.

I pressed the hand that was holding Sara’s into her stomach, so she knew it was time to stop. Then with a finger on that hand I tapped her own, once. I brought the flashlight down to my body. I tapped my finger on her hand again. I moved my thumb on my other hand to the switch on the flash. I tapped her finger again and turned on the light.

The beam showed teeth, heaps of them, dripping with blood, dripping slobber. They were sharp, long, thin, the light that was bouncing off them making them look diamond-like. They appeared to be in a massive mouth, one that had four jaws, all open, and aimed at Sara and me, a spine-tingling cry screeching.

Something looked the color of black glass, rubbery practically, shiny, slimy, wet. Then a hand with three, long fingers rose, fixed with extended nails made of the same diamond-like material, into the light, reaching toward us.

ZACK

The next night, after college had finished, I arrived on set to start work on my screen début, wondering who had been cast as my victim for that night’s shoot. Miss Perkins hadn’t informed us which girl she’d chosen. She’d said everyone had done a great job, so she needed to go home to think things over before making a decision. I hadn’t seen anyone from my drama class that day to be able to ask them who had won the part.

Also, when I say set, what I actually mean is, the basement that lay under the floor of our entire college, the place was massive, a maze. It was far from the glitz and glamour of what you’d imagine you’d see on the back lot of the latest studio blockbuster. It was cold. It was dark, and it was damp.

Mikey was already there. He had already got the camera fixed on the tripod and was currently fitting together his homemade lighting rig. It didn’t look homemade. It looked pretty pro. He had spent the lunch break that day showing me the drawings he’d made of its design and telling me how he and his dad had constructed it together, working on the project every night after college for a week. Of course it wasn’t a money issue that caused them to spend the man-hours building it, it was more of a father-and-son-bonding-project.