Blue Through the Grey

Dark Times Ahead

I wake up, the Heli-carrier shaking around. Ever since I got here, it’s been experiencing blackouts, not too good for something that hovers in the clouds. I’ve been here for a week and I’m ready to explode. I need to be on the ground, killing monsters and aliens. I toss my legs over the side of the bed and plant my feet on the floor. I must look like a mess, I make my way to the bathrooms and check myself in the mirror. Slightly better than I expected. I splash some water on my face to wake me up, after I’m finished here, I go out on the top deck. Although it’s freezing, there’s a beautiful sunrise. I lean against the railing and look out over the rest of the Heli-carrier. People run around, frantically? not sure. A man joins beside me, it’s Marco.
“You’d be dead right now if I didn’t find you.”
He’s right, but I don’t want him to know that. I don’t want to feel worthless. “Doubt it,” I say.
“Don’t act all high and mighty, Hannah. I know you.”
“Do you, Marco?!.” I turn to him, my fist clenched. “You left me when we were surrounded.”
“But I came back…”
“Four months later,” I say, looking away, wiping tears away. “How are you getting away with flying up here?.”
“The drones are gone,” He says. “The mothership is shut down. Everything is on land now, Plus we have a cloak. Hannah, dark times are ahead. We’re gonna need a miracle to survive this war. They’ve been upgrading their viruses. You saw it before.”
“Marco, why do you need my help? You seem to have enough allies.”
“If we’re going to infiltrate Ghost, I need a good team.”
“I never agreed,” I say, angered. Why should I help him, he left me for dead.
“Please, we need you. They’re gearing up for something.”
“Yeah, war. They’re gonna finish what they started.”
“That’s exactly why I need you on our team.”
“Fine,” I say. “Let’s get shit done.”

I stand in a pod, it’s cramped and I’d rather be anywhere else. Beside me is Marco, Melanie, Jennifer, Reilly, and the alien Noah. This pod is supposed to shoot us at the ground and hope we don’t die. There’s a countdown, on the inside I’m freaking out, but I can’t show weakness. I wanna be the badass of this group. I guess we’re supposed to get into Ghost, kill as many aliens as possible, and rescue our people. When the clock finally hits one, we shoot downward. It’s not just falling, we’re like a rocket heading right towards the ground. We’re going so fast, it’s like the gravity switch was flipped. Right before we smash into the ground and die, there’s a thrust and we hover for a few seconds. The pod smacks against the dirt, jolting our bodies. I unhook my belts and push the button that makes the door fly off. The smell of pine trees sticks in every part of the small ship. I’ve missed this smell, I’ve missed being on the ground. My Exo comes to life and a bunch of buzzes ring through my ear piece. I was dying to be the first to step foot on land, but Marco got the chance before I could take it. I was the second. Right, there’s still tons of snow. It’s like walking through feathers, the Exo makes everything so much better. I can see the dome of Ghost in the distance, I feel like we should’ve seen something by now. I, of course, jinx myself, because two seconds later, a man on our team is torn in half by one of those hybrid monsters. Endless shooting coming from Noah, Melanie tosses something and a flash of light blinds me. When I’m able to see again, the monster is sliced down the middle. Melanie doesn’t mess around, she makes it clear that she’s the badass of the group. She looks at and grins, she know’s what I was trying to do.

“Alright,” Marco says. “Once we get to the dome, I’ll put this device on it, it’ll shut it down and we’ll be able to get in.”
“What about the weapon system?.” Jennifer asks.
“A temporary EMP will take care of those.”
“But our Exo’s.”
“The Exo’s will be fine. They’re designed to take a small EMP strike.”
Guns aimed, we make our way to the dome. As soon as it goes down, their weapons are hot. It blasts a hole in Tom, our medic. We put our force fields while Reilly throws an EMP.
“Take this.” Marco hands me a small pistol looking thing. “It’s the medic’s gun. If we’re seriously injured, shoot one of these at us, it’ll heal us completely. It’s like a green ball of gas that explodes when it hits something. Thank the aliens for this.”
The weapons die and we’re safe to put our force fields away. All we need to do now is get the elevator up here, ride it down, save our friends, and try to make it back to the pod alive. Jennifer calls the elevator and we wait. The anticipation is killing me, it’s probably killing all of us.
The doors on the ground slide open and the elevator comes into light. It’s covered with blood and bodies. We all look at each other and gulp. The aliens didn’t do this, something more evolved...more evolved than the monsters that attacked my camp. We pile onto the elevator and head down. We prepare our weapons. The floor comes to a halt and there’s no sign of anyone. The backup lights are the only things keeping the place lit. It’s eerie, I don’t think any of us expected this.

Broken glass liters the floor, bodies everywhere. We’ll be lucky if we find our people alive.
“Let’s go to the control room and see if we can find anything on the cameras,” Noah suggests.
“Good idea,” Marco says.
“Did you know about any of this?.” I ask Marco.
“No. I figured we’d kill some aliens, get them, and leave.”
We walk for a bit, still no sign of anyone. Noah finds the control room and we examine the cameras. There they are, all alive. They’re in a cell a few floors down. Cautiously, we take the stairs. There’s nothing but our shoes echoing. We get to the door and Marco signals us to stop. He presses his finger against his lips, telling us to hush. There’s a loud scream, not just one, but a bunch. Not a human, a monster scream. The aliens made a new breed of infected and it turned on them, the irony. He looks at us, making sure we’re ready to face what’s behind this door. I take a deep breath and we ease our way into the hall. A human body flies up against a glass window, blood exploding in side the room. I peek through the glass and see the monster we face. It’s tall, blood-soaked, sharp teeth, it’s arms are just bones that look swords, we’re fucked. I press my back up against the wall and breath heavily.
“It’s bad,” I say. “Worse than the other mutated monsters.”
“Think we can fight it?.” Marco asks.
I take another peek and when I turn around, it’s inches away from the glass. We’re face to face, my eyes looking into his, which are pools of black. It grins at me and bursts through the window. It slams me against the wall, but before it can cut me in half, Melanie shoots a pulse at it and it flies down the hall and smashes into the floor. It jumps to its feet and charges at us. We all put up our force fields and stand together, increasing the strength. It hits us hard, the shields slowly starting to whither. Melanie shoots another pulse at it, just to get it away. We all shoot until our magazines are empty. But it’s alive.
“Laser grid!.” Marco yells.
Reilly tosses something in front of it, it explodes into a grid, yellow lasers grow into the size of the hall and chase the monster. The laser finally catches up and slices the beast into tiny pieces.
“Thanks for saving my ass,” I say to Melanie.
“Don’t thank me. We’re a team.”
“Alright, let’s get our friends. There’s more of those things in here.” Marco says.

It’s bittersweet, everyone hugs each other and there might be some tears as well. But now we have to get the hell out of here. We run through the hall, up the stairs, and onto the elevator. Marco set charges throughout the place, they’re rigged to blow any second. Just as we get off, the land begins to shoot up into the air and break apart beneath our feet. We sprint through the forest, limbs scraping against our skin. We jump off a small cliff, the Exo’s take the impact. We’re all hunched over, catching our breaths.
“Look.” Reilly points up at the sky.
Coming down towards the earth in a fireball is the Helicarrier. Marco drops to his knees and weeps. We all watch as it collides with the ground. There’s a huge explosion and the impact sends a shockwave that knocks us off our feet.
“Fuck. What are we supposed to do?.” Noah asks.
“We’ll head to an allied camp,” Marco says, getting to his feet. “Everyone would’ve seen that explosion. Hopefully, they’ll let us in.”
I gulp hard, trying to swallow my fear...Is this the end for us?