The Journey of St. Laurent, Chapter 27

Author’s note:

At long last, Corbin is back. Again, I’m sorry this took so long. I’m chock full of excuses. See the latest post on my wife’s blog for one of them.

Also, a while back I made a politically charged video for youtube. I’ve recently been going the rounds with a commenter about it. I’d appreciate it, if you have the time and inclination, to check it out and let me know what you think, one way or the other. Am I up in the night, or am I right? Here’s the video: Theft & Taxes

Thanks to everyone who comments and corrects my typos and cheers me on. You are all wonderful.

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 27 – Go For A Swim

The sound was warbled, but it was definitely the sizzle of the ship’s terrible weapon preparing to fire.

I pulled and kicked against the water as hard as I could. Every inch I could get further down might make a difference.

The cool water wrapped around me and swept away at least one layer of the oily sweat and grime that builds up when you drive a convertible in scorching hot weather. It would have been quite relaxing and refreshing if I wasn’t so scared for my life.

And then it hit.

Through my closed eyelids, I could tell that the world around me was suddenly brighter, like I was in a tanning booth without eye protection.

The shock wave pounded the water which in turn pushed against me from all sides. It felt like a full body punch.

I held on as best I could, but it still knocked out some of my precious air.

Along with light and pressure, the water flashed hot. Hot enough that if it were a hot tub, I would never put my head under, and I might not even get in. I didn’t want to think about how hot it was at the surface.

I kicked all the harder and prayed I could stay down far and long enough to avoid getting cooked alive. Without drowning, of course.

My body was already calling for air. I fought the urge to suck in and kept swimming down.

The further down I went, the faster the water was moving. It pushed and pulled and swept me away, and I couldn’t tell in which direction. To be honest, for the moment I didn’t really care where it went, as long as it dragged me away from the blast site.

Within of seconds, my lungs and brain switched from calling for air to screaming.

The water around me still felt warm, but was mixing with and getting swept away by the current.

Is it still too hot up there? Have I drifted far enough?

It didn’t matter. I had to surface or drown.

I got my legs under me and pushed down, only the silty floor I had expected wasn’t there. I started to panic.

My wet clothes restricted my movement and weighed me down. My lungs burned for that breath of fresh air.

I thrashed toward the surface with the same fury I had dived down.

The water got hotter and my head finally broke the surface.

I coughed and sucked in a couple breaths before my wet clothes and the current pulled me back under. I didn’t even have time to get my bearings.

The next time I came up I caught sight of the beach. It took a couple of minutes to fight my way free of the undercurrent, but I finally got to where I could touch bottom.

As soon as my feet were under me again and stable, I looked around.

I had washed quite a ways from the spot where I had ditched the Jeep. The fast undercurrent that had nearly killed me had also probably saved me from a third degree scalding or worse from the alien blast.

The UFO was about a football field and a half away, hovering low over the charred Jeep. It made a great throbbing and whooshing sound.

For the moment I stayed close to where the shelf dropped down under water in case the UFO decided to chase me again. The thought of jumping back under was not terribly appealing, but now that I had a chance to catch my breath, maybe I’d be okay.

The silvery craft floated just a bit away from me and away from the water, lowered itself, then landed on the rocky beach.

Well, not exactly landed. It just kind of hovered there a few inches above the sand and rocks.

It occurred to me that standing in waist deep water and staring with my mouth open was not great cover if whatever was inside looked around at all.

The nearest trees or even tall grass were halfway between me and the ship and a good deal inland. However, there was a four-ish foot tall boulder on the beach about thirty feet away.

That’s as good a hiding spot as I’m going to find.

I splashed out of the shallows and onto the beach, then lumbered as fast as I could over to my chosen cover.

I collapsed with my back to the boulder and listened.

With the stress, physical exertion, and deprivation of oxygen I had just been through, the rock and sand felt surprisingly comfortable. Added to that was the hypnotic rhythmic sound of the UFO.

All of it together almost made me want to take a nap.

There’ll be plenty of rest later.

The UFO made a new whirring noise for a few seconds, then returned to it’s old sound.

What is it doing over there?

I waited as long as my patience would hold out, then I rolled to my right and chanced a peek over my shoulder.

A door was open in the side of the UFO, and an alien was out of the craft, circling the Jeep. The alien looked just like the one I had seen leaving the White House on television. Heck, for all I could tell, it might have just rushed from D.C. to chase after me. It’s skin was bright green, and it was wearing a black jumpsuit with a purpley-gray belt that had two mitten-looking things hanging from it. I wasn’t close enough to see any better detail.

The sight of it threw a whole pile of thoughts and feelings back into play.

I rolled back and plopped down. It made me sick to think of what kind of a sham deal the president had worked out with these murderers. It made me sad to think about the attack on Phoenix that I saw on TV. It made me furious to think about what the green bastards had done to Kayla, Jenna, and the new baby.

Now is my chance to strike back.

I didn’t have much of a plan. I’m going to run it down, tackle it, punch it, then beat its head against a rock until it stops moving.

I didn’t bother to check which way it was looking, or if more had appeared. I simply sucked in a deep breath, jumped up, and sprinted for the alien.

I had either underestimated the distance or overestimated my ability. It was a good deal farther away than I could sprint. It didn’t matter. When I couldn’t sprint, I jogged until I could pick up the pace again.

I was lucky, I suppose. The alien was leaning over the front passenger seat examining something.

The closer I got to the burned out Jeep and the alien, the harder the sand got. By the time I was less than twenty yards away, the ground was downright hot and solid. And suddenly a lot more slippery than I could have imagined.

So slippery that my left foot hit the ground and skidded out and away from me. My momentum carried me forward and I slapped down face first onto the sand.

If the alien hadn’t heard my approach, it definitely heard my fall.

Ouch.

I got a good, if brief, look and feel of the ground. It was hard and smooth, like a sheet of glass, but with rocks sticking out here and there.

The alien bolted for the other side of the Jeep, reached for its belt and slipped on one of the mitten-looking objects.

I scrambled to get my feet under me.

The alien raised its hand palm up and sneered at me with its thin lips and big freaky eyes. A little gate popped open on the underside of the mitten.

I instinctively threw myself down and rolled to the right.

The alien’s techno-mitten-gun-thing made a chirping noise and somewhere behind me I heard a patch of sand glass and rock shatter.

My mind raced. I had dodged the first shot, but now I was on the ground, and I doubted if the alien would miss again at this range.

The alien made a noise that sounded something like a laugh and took aim.

Now I’m going to die? Because I slipped and fell?

The thought of it really pissed me off.

---

Keep Reading! Chapter 28 is here!

Falling off the (writing) wagon.

All right, everybody. I’d just like to say i’m sorry for not posting anything for a while. At first, I had legitimate excuses. I had one sick 5 year old and one super cranky baby.
Before I knew it, I was out of the habit of writing every day, and so nothing got written.
Anyway, I have most of the next chapter written now, and I’ll repent and start writing every day again.

I’m Back – with some family history.

I hope all of you had good holidays. We tried to cram about four years worth of holiday festivities into a couple of short weeks. So, even though I’m not terribly rested, I’m definitely refreshed and ready to hit the new year running.

On a side note, yesterday there was an article about my great-grandfather Dan Borg (& great-granduncle) in the Salt Lake Tribune yesterday. Despite the fact that he had lived with my Mom’s family for many years before he died, none of them had ever heard this story.

Check it out – Living History: Crime of passion in 1916 led to violence, prison

Also, I’d just like to announce it so I can have a good reason to keep up. I’m setting the goal to have The Journey of St. Laurent finished, edited, and in paperback by the end of the year.

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.

---

Keep Reading! Chapter 27 is here.

Updates to Journey site.

Ok, I already couldn’t stand it and so I made some major layout changes to the teaser site.

See them here: An Alien Fiction

Book Trailer and Website up for “Journey…”

I just put up a website for Journey of St. Laurent. I also whipped up a video teaser.

Check it out.

An Alien Fiction

Besides the video, the site also has the cover that I have pretty much settled on.

Journey of St. Laurent Cover

Check it out and let me know what you think!

New Interview

The interview I did with Rhiannon Frater is up today over at her blog. Read the interview.

Thanks, again Rhiannon.

By the way, Rhiannon’s latest book if finally available on Amazon. check it out via the link below.

*edit* Grrr. The link didn’t want to work. *edit*

The Journey of St. Laurent, Chapter 25

Author’s Notes:

Thanks to all who took the time to stop by and comment last time: Jordon Johnson, Coronado, DarcKnyt, Glenn, Toothy, Ballsack McNasty, Chad, & Tyler. You guys are great.

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 25 – Road Rage

The report of the rifle was loud and sharp enough that it felt like I was being slapped with each shot. The spent casings flew past my face.

Five shots taken, and five shots hit.

The little craft sparked and sputtered with each impact, and then its nose dipped.

Again the avocado thing fired. My ears were ringing loud enough that I have no idea if it made a noise. All I know is that a puff of blueish smoke spat out the barrel and a chunk of pavement somewhere between us and the ship exploded.

My heart leaped. She got it. It can’t raise its front end to shoot at us.

Of course, that only took care of one immediate problem. Each moment we stayed still meant the lights overhead would flicker that much faster. When they got going fast enough, we would die.

No time to celebrate. I cranked the wheel again and hit the gas.

The damaged avocado still kept after us, but it was much more wobbly in its flight pattern.

I raced for the freeway, hoping maybe to outrun the damaged smaller craft. Then I’d only have to worry about the big UFO.

London fiddled with a new clip and tried to get her brother’s attention.

Michael was in pretty bad shape. His head was bobbing up and down as the Jeep bounced along. His eyes were empty and glassed over. The vomit on his pants was drying quickly. He was completely shell shocked and unresponsive.

He’ll need help, and soon.

In a heartbeat, we were accelerating up the onramp. The little Jeep groaned as we neared top speed.

Perhaps other drivers saw the UFO coming and were able to get out of the way, but the freeway was deserted, except for the occasional wreck that had limped it’s way to the shoulder before being abandoned.

I glanced in the rear view mirror. It was a little disappointing, but not entirely surprising. The smaller ship kept pace just fine.

My mind raced. We couldn’t drive forever and as soon as we stopped we would die. Maybe if I could find a way to drop off London and Michael, then I could lead the UFOs away with the Jeep. Of course, that still left the little issue of figuring out how to save my own life.

It wasn’t a great plan, but it was the only one I could come up with.

I touched the side of London’s leg to get her attention. “Gather everything up.”

“Why?”

“We’re not going to be able to lose them. We have to do something before we run out of gas.”

“What are you thinking?”

I glanced over my shoulder. The little ship was edging closer. It was near enough behind us that I couldn’t see much of it. Close enough to possibly shoot out a tire. My brain switched gears and I had an idea.

“Seat belt.”

“What?”

“Just get your seatbelt on.”

London sat down and pulled on the belt.

“Hold on everybody!” I braced myself with both hands on the steering wheel and hit the brakes.

The Jeep skidded and pulled to the left as we dropped speed.

Maybe it was the damage that had already been done by London’s shooting. Maybe it wasn’t built for chasing cars. I don’t know. What I do know is that the floating death avocado was not able to compensate and it plowed itself right into the trailer hitch with a scraping clank.

The Jeep lurched forward with the collision and pushed the rear end skidding to the right.

I let off the brake and cranked the wheel to the right, hoping to pull out of the skid.

The Jeep straightened and the little UFO was no longer in view. I hit the gas again to see if I could get a glimpse of the damage done to the stupid ship. It was no use. It stayed in a blind spot, too close for me to see.

A moment later, I figured out why I couldn’t get any distance on it.

The back end of the Jeep started to shake, and it felt like somebody was putting on the brakes for me.

It’s stuck on the hitch.

We passed another abandoned car and London hit my arm. The look on her face was a twist of fear and excitement. “That thing, it’s stuck. Ram it into that.”

I let the little UFO do the work of slowing us down before throwing the Jeep into reverse.

The big UFO never let us get out from underneath it. The lights flashed on and off, a constant reminder of what was going to happen to us even if we did manage to ruin the smaller ship.

First things first.

The little ship continued to jerk left and right in an effort to dislodge.

I punched it when we were thirty feet away or so and backed straight into the grill of an already wrecked minivan.

This impact whipped my head back and chattered my teeth.

I was grateful that the Jeep was old enough not to have any airbags. They would have gone off twice now.

There was no time to survey damage to us or the little UFO. I just had to hope that as I drove away I’d see a little pile of space guacamole on the side of the road.

No such luck.

As I pulled away, I could hear a horrible scraping of metal.

I looked back again. “Either something is very wrong with our ride, or that thing’s dead and we’re just dragging it now.” I prayed it was the latter.

The little UFO scraped and bounced off the pavement for a good two miles before it finally dislodged and rolled to the side of the road.

If the big UFO hadn’t still been menacing over us, I would have given a shout for joy.

The big UFO.

How in the world was I going to shake it?

I wasn’t. That’s all there was to it.

Still, I wasn’t about to give up.

My original plan seemed best- leave London and Michael near the freeway and lead the UFO away. I just couldn’t come up with the part that would leave me alive.

“London, put everything you can into that little duffel with my clothes.”

“What are you thinking?”

“That thing is not going to give up. I’m going to try to lead it away. I want you to take everything you can with you.”

“I’m not leaving you-”

“We don’t have a lot of choice just now. And technically, I’ll be leaving you. When you don’t meet your dad, he’ll probably come this way looking for you. ”

I glanced over at her.

She was staring at me. Her jaw was set and there were tears in her eyes.

“And look, I don’t care what you have to do to convince your dad, but this cooler needs to be taken to Alan Jex, do you understand? I know he’s a little nuts, but he’ll at least know what to do with the stuff inside.”

She looked away. “Fine.”

“You promise?”

“Yes, I promise.”

She rummaged about and jammed the extra ammo, the radio, and what was left of our meager provisions into the bag.

We were soon out of the populated area. Trees grew in clumps and greenery stretched out to the sides of the freeway. Far off to the right I could see more water.

The Baytown area was apparently bordered by water on two sides. Up ahead, the shoreline drew closer to the road, only a couple of hundred yards away. Where the shoreline was closest was also a small exit with a road that veered left, bridged over the freeway and went inland.

I pointed to it. “That’s the place. I’ll let you guys off and you hide under there.”

London’s jaw was still set and the corners of her mouth were turned down, but she nodded.

We were there in no time. I slammed on the brakes and stopped under the overpass.

London tossed the little duffel bag on the ground and then the gun.

I grabbed the cooler with the virus and hopped out to set it down.

The UFO’s angry lights lit ground outside the shadow of the overpass.

No time. Gotta move.

I hopped in the back and undid Michael’s seat belt.

London held up her arms. “Just hand him down.”

I hoisted him down into his sister’s arms.

“Now get out of here!”

I jumped into the front seat and put the pedal to the floor.

Bits of road debris spat out behind me as the tires got traction.

I spared a look back and felt a pang of sadness that I probably wouldn’t ever see them again.

In fact, I was pretty certain that I wouldn’t see anybody ever again.

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Keep reading! Chapter 26 is here.

Freeware Outliner for Authors: TextTree 1.3

Merry Christmas, everybody. Several years ago I wrote a little outliner program to make following Randy Ingermanson’s “Snowflake Method” of writing a novel easier. I put it up for sale and have been selling a copy or two here and there ever since. As it ends up, somewhere in the last two computer crashes I’ve lost the code for the latest version. And it doesn’t look like I’ll be returning to the idea anytime soon.

So I’ve decided to release it as freeware. Thanks to all of you who have supported TextTree in the past.

Download

Text Tree Windows Installer (1.5 MB)

Screen Shots

(click for larger)

Program Description

Text Tree is an outline based writer’s tool.  It is designed make structured, understandable documents easily and quickly.  Text Tree has been found useful for story writing, FAQ creation, novel planning, manual writing, software support, biographies, and lesson planning.

What really sets Text Tree apart from other outliners is its export abilities. In other outliners, you make a outline of everything, then you have to cut and paste or go node by node to get your information out. Text Tree allows you to quickly export all or part of the information in your outline. For example, if you are organizing information to be displayed on the web, Text Tree can generate an html file with a table of contents to your information.  You can see an example of raw html output from Text Tree in the Text Tree Manual.

For novel writing, lesson planning, or biographical work, the text file exports are more useful.  In fact, Text Tree was originally written so that I could have a tool that would help me follow the snowflake process of writing a novel. If you are unfamiliar with the snowflake method, it is a process in which you distill your project to a single idea, then expand the parts of that idea, and then expand those parts, etc. until you get to the nitty-gritty details.  You then use the nitty-gritty details to write your work.  Text Tree help you expand those ideas in an outline, then allows you to export all that information, or just those nitty-gritty details.  For more information on how to follow the snowflake method with Text Tree, please watch the flash tutorial.

Text Tree also can import/export files from other outliners, including noterrific and Treepad lite.

Requirements

You need at least Windows XP with Java installed.

Java be obtained here for free.

The Journey of St. Laurent, Chapter 24

Author’s Note: 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.

Thanks to Sati, DarcKnyt, a flyin hobo, girl, Ballsack McNasty, Jordan Johnson, Silk trousers, Satha, Fadly, & Toothy, who stopped by to comment on thelast chapter.

Chapter 24 – In a Hurry

We raced back toward the house.

They’re going to destroy it. It’s my fault.

London turned around and groped underneath the back seat.

Just a few more blocks, then we can evacuate…

The UFO stopped.

It must be directly over the house.

Angry lights danced on the bottom of the silvery ship.

London ripped the gun from its box, and wheeled back around. “Corbin, stop the car.”

“But we need to warn-”

“No time! Stop the car!”

She’s right. I slammed on the brakes.

London’s weight shifted forward and she almost fell out of the Jeep.

The lights on the UFO danced faster and it started making a high pitched whirring noise.

No, no, no. Don’t let it… My knuckles turned white on the steering wheel. “Shoot it!”

London took quick aim and squeezed the trigger until the gun clicked empty.

My mind raced and my heart pounded. I don’t even remember hearing the shots.

London fiddled with the magazine release mechanism. “Michael, grab me a clip!”

I turned back. Michael’s eyes were wide and he wasn’t even blinking. It’s too much for him. I twisted and grabbed one of the loaded clips that we had tossed in the box.

“Clip, Clip!” London slapped my shoulder.

In the back of my head, I knew this was all probably futile. There was no way we were going to take down a ship that size with one Ruger Mini-14 Ranch Rifle. I wasn’t even sure we could get the craft to notice us.

A red-gold disk of light formed underneath the UFO.

I thrust the clip at London.

The whirring noise got louder and louder.

Come on, get out of the house, guys.

London slapped the clip into place.

The lights flashed faster and faster. The disk got brighter.

Five more shots rang out. The little clip was empty.

The lights on the UFO stopped flashing. The glowing-light-disk-thing stayed put.

The bottom dropped out of my stomach.

The disk flashed downward.

The ground shook and a heat wave washed over the Jeep. The thunderous clap of an entire block of houses and apartments collapsing rattled my teeth.

A heavy nausea latched on to my gut. This is my fault. I looked over at London.

Tears rushed down her face. I was temporarily too deaf to hear what she screamed at the alien craft.

I glanced back at Michael.

He vomited all over his own lap.

My hands shook. My ears rang with the sound of impact. Fear and guilt clawed at my senses. I couldn’t think straight. I couldn’t move.

The UFO started to move in our direction.

The angry lights flashed on again.

Not all nurses are cut out for work in the emergency room. Some nurses wait for specific instructions from a doctor before doing anything, and then they follow those instructions exactly. That works and is essential for long term recovery and treatment. Not so much for emergency care. Being a nurse in an emergency room is a job that requires faster decisions and an even stronger stomach than most other floors of the hospital. You often don’t have time to look up side effects of a drug, read a seven page patient chart, or wait for the doc to make his next round. You have to recognize and perform appropriate action immediately or people die. Some nurses will sit and stare, frozen with indecision while a patient bleeds to death rather than think to grab a hemostatic or a tourniquet.

Years of snap decisions in the ER had embedded in me a reflex to start acting no matter what was happening.

Now, there was no gunshot victim on a gurney. Instead, there was a giant spacecraft moving directly over me. It was arming its extremely powerful weapon. In a matter of moments, it would incinerate me and my passengers and probably a dozen innocents who were cowering in their nearby homes.

My conscious mind was paralyzed with fear.

But my body knew to act.

My hands cranked the wheel. My foot stomped on the gas.

London fell back in her seat.

My hands and feet shifted gears.

The UFO gave chase.

Have to keep moving.

London fumbled around for another clip and hurled all manner of obscenities and vulgarities at the alien craft.

I checked the rear view mirror. Michael did not look well.

The UFO was easily keeping pace with us, but at least the angry lights had turned off.

London got the new clip in and started loading the empty ones. “So what do we do now? Keep shooting until we’re out of bullets?”

“I don’t know. Drive, maybe. At least until we’re out of gas.”

“Yeah, great pla- Corbin, you’ve got to see this.”

I grabbed the rear view mirror and aimed it up.

A door opened on the bottom of the UFO. Something appeared in the doorway. I checked the image in the mirror as often as I could without running into any telephone poles or fire hydrants.

“It’s behind us!”

I looked in the mirror again, but the door on the craft was closing. I readjusted the mirror and looked again.

Behind us was a thing I could only describe as a hovering-metallic-half-avocado-with-the-seed-left-in-mini-UFO-thing. It was about the size of a wheelbarrow and it kept pace with the Jeep but stayed about thirty feet behind.

The sight of the craft startled me and I jerked the wheel to the side.

London put a hand on my shoulder to keep from falling in my lap. “Would you stop that?”

“Can you hit that thing?”

“Can you stop swerving?”

I looked in the rear view mirror.

A puff of blue smoke spat out of a hole on the front of the metallic space avocado and I heard something to my left shatter.

The mirror portion of the driver’s side mirror was gone. In its place was a hole about the size of a marble.

“Its shooting at us!”

“Well, shoot it back.”

“I can’t shoot it while we’re moving. Stop the car!”

“Not until we’re clear of the rest of these houses.”

I hit the gas and made a turn. The freeway was in sight.

A pop rang out behind me, followed by a hiss.

“Corbin, we don’t have time.”

She’s right. The next time it fires it could kill any one of us.

I slammed on the brakes. The Jeep screeched to a halt.

The lights on the UFO overhead started dancing again.

London sighted in the space avocado of death thing and pulled the trigger five times.

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Keep Reading! Chapter 25 is here.