Zephyr's Crossing

  "How close are you?" she asked Zephyr.

  "I'm about ten minutes out, if I remember the way correctly. This is great, Anna, it's awesome. I'm twice as fast as any beast stupid enough to chase me and twice as strong as any stupid enough to get in the way. I wish I had opened that door sooner. Oh, wait, I was wrong. Here it is right now. I'm walking inside. I can see it through that hole. One second, I'm too big to fit. I need to knock down that wall." A crash sounded in Anna's ear. "Okay I'm through. One Time Capsule: Multi-Use 200 XL, as it says on the side. Let's see if this thing can lift it." Anna heard nothing but the whining of the servos in the exoskeleton for several minutes. Suddenly, Zephyr spoke again.

  "Oh," he said fearfully.

  "What?" asked Anna.

  "Zarx?. A lot of them," he replied.

  "You have the suit, get away," said Anna.

  "What's going on?" asked Mark.

  "Nothing, you need to sleep," replied Anna. "It's late, I'll leave." She said goodbye to Mrs. Dunn and left. As she was exiting the house, a large black van pulled up in front of the driveway. Anna, thinking that it was Lynn and her friend, waved. A second later, the doors opened and five people jumped out, dressed in dark clothes. None of them was Lynn.

  Anna shrank back into the shadow under the eve in confusion. What were these people doing here so late? She put in her communicator.

  "Zephyr? Are you there?"

  "Yes, but the Zarx? are pursuing me. There are dozens of beasts and several overlords, and I'm not sure how long I can keep this up while carrying the capsule."

  "Keep trying," Anna said, "but I have a problem. There are five people outside Mark and Lynn's house, and they're unloading some equipment from a van. What to you think they're doing?"

  "Have they seen you?"

  "Yes, I think so."

  Just then, one of them called out.

  "Hey, you! Where are you going?" he said.

  Anna stepped out of the shadows. "Why?" she asked.

  "We would like to interview some people for our hit television show. Perhaps you and your family in that house."

  "What's the show called?" questioned Anna.

  "That's not important," said one of the men, just as another said, "Um, Tele-Tales?"

  "I've never heard of it," Anna said.

  "That's not important. Let's start the interview."

  "No!" said Anna incredulously. "Come back some other time, preferably during the day."

  "I don't think that's going to work. Now how about you run along and pretend you never saw us," the man stepped towards her, menacingly.

  "No!" said Anna forcefully. "Leave now, or I'm calling the cops." She backed up a step.

  The leader took three steps forward. "How about you run along and pretend you never saw us?"

  "Zephyr," Anna wasn't sure what he was aiming at her, but it wasn't a television camera.

  "Who's this Zephyr kid you keep talking to?" demanded the man.

  "Zephyr, I need some help, now!"

  Chapter 6

  Zephyr stopped short. He had carried the capsule up to the top of the hill, but dozens of Zarx? were behind him and a hundred in front of him, he would never make it. He needed to get out. He needed to help Anna. The largest Zarx? ship emitted a phrase in the Zarx? language, which the exoskeleton roughly translated.

  "Surrender now. Step out of the machine and come with us," came the translation. Suddenly, Zephyr knew exactly what to do. The pieces fell into place inside of his head, like a game plan would appear to a chess maestro. He stepped out of the exoskeleton.

  "Anna! I'm sending help!" he said quickly into the communicator. He raised his arms in surrender to the Zarx?, and then spoke very rapidly.

  "Time Capsule: Multi-Use 200 XL, voice activate. V-12 Vis-Decem Exoskeleton, voice activate. Capsule, open to maximum extension. Exoskeleton, enter capsule. Capsule, transport 200 years to coordinates?" He trailed off. What was Anna's location? Suddenly, he heard Anna's voice over the communicator.

  "Zephyr! I have the geo-locator. The coordinates are 45? 44' 61" - 93? 37' 03."

  "Thanks! Capsule, transport 200 years to coordinates 45? 44' 61" - 93? 37' 03." As soon as he finished his commands, the exoskeleton entered the capsule and it rose from the ground. The Zarx? fired at it, but Zephyr saw it vanish just before a Zarx? beast tackled him.

  *****

  After giving Zephyr the coordinates, Anna was unsure what to do. She was standing directly in front of the Dunn's door. She didn't want to call to Mrs. Dunn in fear of getting her hurt. She pulled out her phone to call for the police.

  "Enough of this s?" began one of the men. His form suddenly flickered, revealing for an instant the stretched body of a Zarx? spawn.

  He was interrupted by a loud humming noise, which Anna recognized as the time capsule. When it appeared, she was as startled as the five thugs. This one was eight feet in diameter, with the same color and sheen as the smaller. It whipped violently out of its tiny orbit and crashed to the ground, opening up to face Anna.

  "What the f?" began one of the thugs, but was interrupted by the sound of a large machine activating inside the capsule. As it stepped out, Anna's heart had a brief palpitation. She gasped as she looked at it.

  Standing six feet tall, the exoskeleton towered over Anna. It was a dull grey color and had full armor across the entire body, with a black visor for view. There was a long pause as it stood there. A raven shrieked in the sky, startling an already frightened thug. He shot the exoskeleton several times.

  A blue light turned on underneath the visor of the armored suit as the bullets ricocheted off of it without leaving a scratch.

  "Danger detected," it began in a low robotic voice. "Anna, please step inside." The front of the exoskeleton opened.

  "Get inside of it!" shouted Zephyr over the communicator, his voice strained. Anna awkwardly stepped backwards into the suit. With a whirr, it shrank several inches to fit her properly, and then closed in the front.

  "How do I control this?" she asked Zephyr.

  "Just?move?it'll?follow," came the strained reply.

  "Are you all right?" she asked. There was no response. She stepped forward, pushing the capsule out of the way.

  "Why are you still here?" Anna turned to the five thugs. She took another awkward step forward. The five men suddenly started flickering like pictures on an old projector. Before Anna's eyes, they turned into Zarx?. Not beasts, like Zephyr had described, but humanoid figures. Perhaps, Anna thought, these were the Zarx? spawn that Zephyr had told her about.

  One of them raised his gun and shot at her. The bullets bounced off of the exoskeleton harmlessly. The lead Zarx? raced forward and punched the suit with brass knuckles. He dropped them, flattened.

  "Go away!" Anna shouted, and punched at him, aiming for the stomach. The punch hit the would-be invader in the chest and threw him twenty feet. He landed with a thud, out cold. The rest scattered and ran. Anna took three steps forward and karate chopped the van. The suit's metal arm sliced it nearly in half. She kicked it onto its side, and then stomped on the engine. The van useless, she looked at the fleeing Zarx?. She raced after the first and picked him up. She caught two more within ten seconds. She threw them down near the first. As the fifth was about to get over the hill and out of sight, Anna downed him with a flying tackle that would make any football player jealous. She took no time to bask in her victory.

  "Zephyr? Are you okay?" she shouted into the communicator.

  *****

  The impact flattened Zephyr. He fell to the ground, struggling to breathe under the weight of the Zarx? beast. At the sound of a low whistle, the beast scrambled off of him, leaving Zephyr staring at a Zarx? pod overhead. Three more landed around him, encircling him. As he lay still, struggling for breath, he saw a Zarx? command dirigible break the horizon and fly slowly towards him. Three minutes later it came to a stop directly overhead.

  Zephyr, now able to stand up, watched with his hands over his head as the command ship
dropped a vertical transport pod. It hit the ground next to him. One of the Zarx? gestured for him to enter it. Zephyr complied, and it sped upward. Once he reached the docking platform, he stepped out.

  Zephyr looked around. It seemed to him that he was in the Zarx? command room. When he looked up, he got his first good look at a living Zarx? overlord. Arranged in a semicircle facing him were seven floating circular chairs. Six held normal Zarx? overlords. They sat with their long, multi-jointed legs dangling towards the floor and six short arms resting on multi-tiered armrests. To Zephyr, their most unnerving feature was their large heads, entirely covered in sensory organs. He remembered that in the early days of the invasion, some scientists had determined that Zarx? had seven physical senses, as well as a sense of precognition that came from the calculation of the probabilities of hundreds of actions per second.

  The middle Zarx? was something else all together. While the other Zarx? were pale, this one's skin was almost translucent. Its head was almost twice the size of the others' and it had, in addition to its other features, an unnervingly human mouth. The lead Zarx? began to speak.

  "Tell me, human," it began in a raspy, sinister voice, "how does it feel?"

  "You speak English," said Zephyr, surprised.

  "It was not hard to learn your primitive form of communication," replied the Zarx? leader smugly, "but tell me, how does it feel?"

  "How does what feel?"

  "Our scans indicate that you are the last human left."

  "You're wrong. Many of us escaped to other planets."

  "We have eliminated your colonies. You, human, are the last of your kind. How does it feel?"

  "The?last?" Zephyr stammered with disbelief.

  "Yes. Once we terminate your existence, there will be none of you left."

  "You are wrong," said Zephyr. "I have allies. I will call them here now." He reached up to activate his communicator. It did not turn on. He removed it from his ear and studied it closely. There was a crack along the body of it. It had broken when the Zarx? beast had tackled him.

  "I sense your device is broken," the Zarx? leader said smugly, "besides, your message would never go through. We have sent a team back in time to destroy your allies." Zephyr hurled the remains of the communicator at him in anger. Reacting with inhuman speed, one of the leader's legs shot out, striking the tiny device out of the air. Noticeably angry, it turned to the Zarx? to its right. After communicating briefly in the Zarx? language, the Zarx? flew down and reached out, grabbing Zephyr's right arm with his three.

  "Where are you taking me?" Zephyr asked the Zarx? leader as he was pulled away.

  "You will be put into a stasis vacuole. When we arrive at the science pod, we will collect samples of your life codes, and then we will permanently end the human species." With that, the Zarx? leader turned his chair to face a screen in another direction. "So many worlds," it said. "Which to take next?"

  *****

  Anna stood inside the exoskeleton next to the destroyed van. She heard sirens in the distance. Someone must have seen the fight and called the police. As she tried to think of something, anything, to do next, Lynn pulled into the driveway. She leapt out of the truck.

  "What happened?" she recoiled. "Who are you?" Anna realized that with the exoskeleton on, Lynn couldn't recognize her.

  "Let me out," she said to the exoskeleton. It complied, and the front opened up. Anna stepped out.

  "Zephyr sent it," she said before Lynn could ask. She quickly described the happenings of the past five minutes.

  "I think Zephyr's in trouble," she said. "His communicator isn't working, and he was fighting with some Zarx? beasts. I have to help him."

  "Correction," said Lynn, "we have to help him. Come on, we have to get the suit and capsule out of sight before the police come." Anna got back into the suit and picked up the large capsule.

  "Where do we go?" she asked.

  "Follow me," Lynn said as she got back into the truck. Anna ran after the truck, keeping pace with the help of the exoskeleton. For twenty minutes, they drove and ran through the back roads of rural Minnesota, fortunately deserted at the late hour. Lynn pulled to the side of the road and got out. Anna, following her lead, exited the exoskeleton and walked over to her.

  "Where is there to hide something this big around here?" Anna asked. Lynn pointed to the cave just off of the road.

  "Okay," said Anna, "and where are we going to hide your truck?"

  "It's a big cave, right?" replied Lynn.

  "Okay," said Anna, and she got back into the exoskeleton. Gingerly, she picked up Lynn's truck and walked into the cavernous opening. Inside, she was surprised to see that it was over five hundred square feet. She set the truck down. She also carried in the capsule.

  "How do we ensure that no one finds this?" she asked Lynn, who had entered the cave as well. "For that matter, how did you find this?"

  "I was hiking with Mark one day, and we found this cave," she replied. "With that suit, can't you block the entrance?" Anna re-entered the exoskeleton and exited the cave. Within five minutes, she had enough rocks to build a barrier. Ten minutes later, it was finished. Inside the cave, she exited the suit.

  "I told Mark our plan," Lynn said, holding up her phone, "and nice barrier. It looks like a rockslide."

  "What exactly is our plan?" asked Anna.

  "Well," replied Lynn, "we are going to get inside that big time capsule, enter stasis, and rescue Zephyr."

  "Bon voyage," Mark said wistfully through the telephone, "wish I was coming too." After saying goodbye to Mark, Anna piloted the suit into the capsule, and then Lynn climbed in.

  "Detecting human life forms," it stated, "entering stasis mode. State desired duration."

  "Two hundred years," answered Lynn.

  "What now?" asked Anna. Five seconds later, a warm golden glow filled the capsule. Ten seconds later, everything went dark.

  Chapter 7

  A golden glow crept into the edges of Anna's vision. Somewhere, a mechanical voice was speaking. She listened, trying to focus. She was finally able to discern what it was saying.

  "Ending stasis, please respond. Ending stasis, please respond. Ending?" The voice repeated in a continuous loop. The glow was even stronger now. Anna shut her eyes tighter. She tried to remember where she was. Finally, she made a connection.

  "Lynn?" she said quietly.

  "Response accepted. Ending stasis," said the voice. Anna worked up the courage to open her eyes. She was inside a sphere, with Lynn and an exoskeleton. An exoskeleton? She tried to remember what she could be doing there.

  "Removing neural inhibitors," said the voice, and then Anna remembered. She remembered the Zarx?, the exoskeleton and the time capsule, running away to avoid detection, getting in the time capsule, entering stasis. Mostly though, she remembered that she had to?

  "Save Zephyr," she said out loud.

  "Removing sensory inhibitors," responded the time capsule.

  "Lynn, we have to save Zephyr!" shouted Anna.

  "Restoring metabolic function."

  "Let us out!"

  "Restoring secondary system functions."

  "We need to go!"

  "Removing movement inhibitors." Anna was able to move again. She looked at Lynn, who was still lying unmoving.

  "Lynn, tell this stupid piece of junk to let us out!"

  "Administering water and nutrients. Scanning for complete recovery." The air inside the capsule grew warm and wet. After a minute, Anna felt perfect. Lynn still lay unmoving. Anna shook her gently.

  "Wake up!" she said. After a tense minute, Lynn finally stirred.

  "I have the hugest crick in my neck," began Lynn. "And I'm hungry. Let's go."

  "Open Sesame!" Anna said. To her surprise, the door actually opened.

  "Open sesame? Really, Anna," said Lynn as she climbed out. Anna piloted the Exoskeleton out of the capsule, and then got out and looked around. Lynn's truck was thoroughly rusted, but the barrier Anna had built seemed i
ntact. Anna and Lynn looked at each other.

  "What now?" they asked each other simultaneously.

  *****

  The science pod, unlike most Zarx? vehicles, was earthbound. The giant dome drifted slowly across the earth, lazily skidding on its anti-friction field. It came to a halt as the Zarx? command ship hovered over it. Zephyr was pushed into another vertical transport pod, and when the Zarx? overlord pressed a button, he plummeted to the earth.

  Zephyr arrived to an unnerving sight. The inside of the science pod was covered in screens, each showing a familiar face. His own face was displayed all around the pod, with the caption "Subject 1" in English below it. The pod's sole occupant was a Zarx? that looked similar to the leader. It too had a human mouth. It began welcoming Zephyr, saying that it was an honor to experiment upon the last of a species, and that his life code samples would be saved along with those of the other species that the Zarx? had eliminated, from earth and other planets. Zephyr was not listening, instead looking for a weakness in the pod. He saw none.

  Zephyr figured that he could overpower a single unarmed Zarx?. He was incorrect. He lunged at the Zarx?, aiming to knock it senseless. Seemingly before he moved, the Zarx? had already jumped in the air. It wrapped its long legs around Zephyr and squeezed until he could barely draw a breath.

  "It seems you have forgotten our precognition," it whispered in Zephyr's ear, "and that is the only mistake you may make. You will now be sedated." It reached out one of its short arms, grabbed a needle full of blue liquid, and plunged it into Zephyr's bicep. He fell to the floor, unconscious.

  *****

  Three minutes in the exoskeleton was enough for Anna to tear down the barrier. As dusty light streamed into the cave, Anna and Lynn stared at wonder at the transformation. Their last image was one of a dense forest. This was bare, with only the largest rocks and trees still standing. Suddenly there was a flicker of movement behind a large tree.

  Out from behind it charged a Zarx? beast. Summoned by the sound of the barrier tumbling down, it ran straight for them. Anna, now adept at piloting the suit, ran forward to meet it. As the beast charged forward, head lowered, she stuck out her hand. It rebounded off of the suit, stunned. It growled and charged again. This time it hit. Protected by the suit, Anna fell unharmed.