The Journey of St. Laurent, Chapter 26

Author’s note:

Merry Christmas, all! There won’t be a chapter this Friday, but Corbin will be back to kickoff the new year.

Dear DarcKnyt, Ballsack McNasty, Glenn, Jordan Johnson, girl, Tyler, Toothy, Noah L, Susan Houston, Jeremy, Rachel, & Josh. Thanks for commenting last chapter. I love hearing from you all.

Remember to tell all your friends about me.

Also, to all those other people you tried to leave comments. I don’t care if you use keywords instead of your name. If you leave a comment that has nothing to do with the post, however, I will not approve your comment. Ever.

For those of you who haven’t read any of the Journey Of St. Laurent before: You are now reading an online serial pulp novel. If you didn’t start at the beginning, you may want to do so. Chapter 1:  Down By The Bay. This serial is the sequel to my first novel, Oasis.

Chapter 26 – A Day at the Beach

I glanced over toward the water. Between me and the rocky beach was a large grassy area and some scattered clumps of trees.

The water might be my only hope. It might be able to cool the heat blast if I can get a few feet down. Maybe they won’t even notice if I survive.

I turned right and went the wrong way up the freeway on ramp. About five feet to the water side of the road was a beat up old barbed wire fence. The water was only a couple of hundred yards beyond that. I knew the barbed wire could very well mess up the Jeep if I tried to go straight through, but I didn’t exactly see an opening anywhere close. And it was old, so maybe it would snap fairly easily.

Then again, if I ram it straight on it might just catch me like a fly in a spider web. But if it were lying down…

I was in a hurry. I didn’t have time to dig up one of the big wooden fence posts or fiddle with whatever was securing the wire to the post.

So, I did the next best thing. I picked a fence post that looked like it was about to fall down anyway, and aimed straight for it.

I know it sounds crazy, but here’s the deal. I was being chased by a UFO. I was lucky to come up with any plan at all.

I closed my eyes, turned my head, and gripped the wheel. The Jeep met the post with a solid crack.

The post broke and the Jeep careened onto the downed fence.

Somehow, the windshield survived. The rest of the truck wasn’t so lucky. In the chaos, a fence wire bound up around my right rear tire. The remaining back wheel spun in the dirt. The Jeep squealed and the front end jerked around to the right.

Stuck.

I can’t stop here. Still too close to the road. I put the pedal to the floor.

The UFO overhead flashed those damn red and orange lights again.

The left rear wheel spun, slinging dirt and rocks and grass.

Something on the Jeep made a loud popping sound.

Can’t stay stuck here. Got to keep moving.

I let off the gas and pulled the lever to lock it into four wheel drive.

The drive train clunked into place and the Jeep made a horrible screeching noise. I pushed on the accelerator anyway.

Overhead, the lights danced faster.

The tires of the Jeep tore at the ground. The fence wire snapped with a twang and the Jeep lurched forward.

I let out a yelp of excitement and cranked the wheel back toward the water.

The Jeep’s screaching died down to a high pitched whine with a rythmic scraping. One of the tires sounded like it was spinning free. It also felt like the Jeep was limping every few feet.

In the back of my head, I knew that meant at least a flat tire, possibly a messed up transmission and who knows what else.

I kept on the gas, but the poor truck just didn’t want to sprint anymore. It barely wanted to stagger.

At least I’m moving.

The Jeep pulled hard to the right and I fought to keep it aimed at the beach.

The UFO overhead followed me along and didn’t bother to to turn off the lights this time.

Its going to shoot me.

The Jeep lunged here and there across the brush, like it was slipping in and out of gear. Nothing about the car felt right any more.

I leaned my head out looked at the front tire.

Sure enough, it was going flat. Probably not the only one, either.

Little by little I crossed the distance.

I was sure the Jeep was going to give up at any moment.

The beach was close now. It was rocky with big patches of mud and sand.

How long until they just shoot me and get it over with?

The Jeep slowed again as I hit more sandy terrain.

Just before the water was a good wide band that didn’t seem to have and rocks at all.

As I crossed into that band, the wheels bit into the watery sand and dug themselves in. The Jeep stopped moving forward and started slowing rotating as the sandy mud was flung from whichever tires were still functioning.

Stuck again. And there’d be no jerking the Jeep free this time.

Getting it unstuck might have been possible, but it would have taken longer than I had. I was only twenty feet from the water. There was no other option. I had to run.

I spared a glance up. The UFO was directly above me. Its color looked different now, less gray metallic, and more like I was looking through a red filter. The disk. It’s making the disk thing.

My heart raced even faster. It felt like it was going to pound through my ribcage. I jumped out of the Jeep.

The sand was wetter than I expected. I landed hard and slipped down to my knees. I sunk down a couple of inches in the sandy mud.

I scrambled up and ran flailing into the shallows.

The day was already a hot one and it seemed every moment to get even hotter. I knew it wasn’t just the sun. The aliens had already killed hundreds of others, and now they were going to kill me.

I picked up my feet and did my best to sprint through the waves that lapped the shore. Still not deep enough.

The air pushed down, like it was pregnant with a burning sandbag.

I could see the bottom drop away under the water a few feet ahead of me. This is it. I sucked in as deep a breath as I could manage and dived for it.

Even through the water I could hear the explosive sizzling sound.

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Keep Reading! Chapter 27 is here.