The Gang of Four

All hell broke loose. A group of three Sponsors suddenly surged forwards only to be instantly cut to splinters by something that had emerged from the elephant gun – it was an elephant. After scything through the Sponsors it punched a hole through the wall and was now bouncing around like a pinball in the next room cutting up more Sponsors. A stream of insects, then clouds of spores, along with numerous larger animals and plants burst out of the elephant gun and sprayed over the nearest Sponsors and hybrids. The reactions in every case were the same: violent thrashing of limbs, screams of agony and then a prompt death.

  The scene changed and became chaotic as the woman rushed through the complex cutting down anything that moved. The speed and carnage were incredible and Russell began to feel dizzy. He pulled back to the relative calm of the rooftop.

  'Bloody hell!' he exclaimed to the spider who was engrossed by the patterns and blips on his laptop.

  ‘The Sentinel is almost over us,’ stated Michael.

  ‘What, already!? That thing can shift!’ Russell studied the sky again, ‘Where is it?’

  ‘Approximately one hundred kilometres to the east; eighty up. Just grazing the atmosphere over Belgium and heading this way.’

  ‘Can we see it?’ asked Russell.

  ‘If there is a break in the clouds,’ replied Michael. He donned the octoculars and scanned the eastern skyline. ‘Yep, there.’

  Russell was handed the octoculars but he could barely handle them let alone see anything out of them; he scanned the firmament with just his eyes. Banks of towering cumulonimbus were building up in all directions but the eastern aspect remained more broken with sections of pale hazy blue sky visible beyond the clouds. No sign of any spaceship; maybe at its present distance it was still too small to see with the naked eye.

  ‘I’m not seeing anything.’

  ‘Use the field glasses.’

  Russell reluctantly picked up the heavy brass instrument. Studying it more closely he realized that the two central lenses could just about function as binoculars; lifting them to his eyes he viewed his surroundings: The London panorama appeared sharper than before with Michael’s instrument cutting through the haze, like a knife through butter. The sky in most directions turned a deep cobalt blue, except to the east, however, where it remained hazy. That was odd…

  Russell studied a point in the sky where the two sections of blue met. The transition was very abrupt and as he traced the boundary between the two he suddenly realized that it formed an arc. The hazy blue sky was in fact the underside of the Sentinel.

  ‘My god that thing’s gimungus!’ Russell shrieked, startling Mr. Waterstone who had hitherto been engaged in a stare-out with a seagull which had also taken up a position on the roof.

  ‘Yes, bigger than Greater London, on a good day!’

  Russell was astonished and overwhelmed by the scale of the spaceship. How were they going to deal with that!? And what was it going to do!? ‘Does it possess weaponry?’

  Michael was about to reply when the woman suddenly joined them on the roof. She was covered in slime and debris but looked to be extremely happy with her afternoon’s work. The elephant gun had been re-holstered over her shoulder and in her right hand, held aloft like a trophy, was the head, exposed brain and spinal column of a Sponsor. Except this one was different, larger. She came up next to Russell and, grinning from ear-to-ear, slapped him hard across the back of his head.

  ‘This is their controller, Mr. Tebb,’ she declared triumphantly, brandishing the over-sized Sponsor in Russell’s face. Various bits moved or thrashed, the beast was clearly still alive. ‘The only truly independent mind in the whole outfit. They will not tolerate its capture!’ she added.

  ‘Sentinel moving in over London, ma’am,’ declared Michael. The woman did not reply but just gazed up to the skies. ‘They are activating the Armageddon device,’ he added.

  ‘The what!!??’ shouted Russell.

  ‘They have concluded that this planet is lost,’ declared the woman.

  ‘And so,’ added Michael, ‘they will now scorch all of their assets.’

  ‘That means you lot,’ the woman whispered into Russell’s ear.

  Russell pulled back and calmly regarded the demented glee painted over the woman’s grimy face. So it was heading for this! Probably the plan all along: take out the Sponsors, then take out their unnatural experiment – us, humanity. There was nothing to say.

  ‘They’re firing!!’ yelled Michael, almost hysterically.

  Russell closed his eyes and awaited extinction.

  ***