"Josh, it’s got me. JOSH!"
Josh spotted a tree ahead, the Spanish moss hanging from branches that were way too low and should have been cut down long ago.
"Hang on," he said, turned the car towards the branches, and brushed up against them. One branch hit the soldier in his face, forcing him to fly off and land in the street.
More soldiers were in front of him and now he zigzagged in and out between them, hitting some, missing others. An arm flew off of one and smashed into the windshield, cracking it, some kind of green mush smearing the glass, making it hard for him to see.
"Is that their blood?" Irene asked. "That green stuff?"
"I don't know," he said as he hit yet another one and made it fly through the air.
In the distance, he could see the swamps coming up. There was a place in there, an old cabin that he used to hang out in when fishing. They could stay there, if only they could make it that far.
"We're almost there," he said.
Irene put her hand on top of his and he smiled, just as they heard the sound of something heavy land on the roof of the truck.
Chapter Fifty-Three
Ridge Manor, Florida
Joanna watched her brother manage to get away. Then she put the gun down on the ground and lifted her hands in the air. It was never her intention to kill anyone; she wasn't sure she would even be able to, even though these people were seeming less and less human to her.
Joanna knelt in front of Major General Li Xiaoyan and, seconds later, the soldiers were all over her. Joanna felt the punches and crumpled up while they were on top of her, kicking her and slamming their fists into her body.
Goodbye, cruel world. I only pray you'll take better care of my daughter. Please, have mercy on her.
Joanna knew Josh would take care of Ellie Mae. She was certain he would. She was, after all, his niece.
But will he survive to be there for her? Will he make it out of this? Is there any way out for any of us?
Joanna knew there was no hope for her. She had settled that fight when deciding to do this. She would sacrifice her own life for them. It had to be done. She could only pray that Josh and Irene made it to safety, wherever that might be.
Bye, Mom, bye, Dad, I’m sorry I didn't get to say goodbye to you. I wanted to tell you how sorry I am for all the pain I’ve caused you. I’m sorry and I forgive you for what you did to me. I forgive you.
A boot hit her in the chest and knocked all the air out of her. Joanna couldn't even scream. She wondered for just a second why they hadn't just shot her yet, but figured they wanted to hurt her before they killed her, hurt her for humiliating their leader. It was only natural.
Another blow fell to her face and her nose cracked. She tasted blood. The blows falling on her were very hard, these people were stronger than they looked, a whole lot stronger.
It won't be long now, Joanna. The pain won't last much longer before it'll all be over. Soon.
Joanna cried her pain out as she waited for the sweetness of death, when Major General Li Xiaoyan suddenly spoke.
"STOP."
The soldiers immediately obeyed. Joanna could barely see anything out of her beat up eyes, but she could see the sunlight as the soldiers recoiled from her. And she could hear. She heard the gasp go through the crowd as they saw how beat up Joanna was, and then she could hear a voice. The voice of Major General Li Xiaoyan, "I want her," she said. "Bring to me."
Joanna was helped to her feet and was carried to Major General Li Xiaoyan. The major general then addressed the crowd once again, lisping and spitting as she spoke, like she couldn't really control that tongue of hers.
"You listen. If you want to save woman, you give me what I want. You give me gateway. Tomorrow. Noon, or I kill her. And I will kill her, you know. Slow and painful death."
"Slow and painful. Slow and painful. Slow and painful," the soldiers chanted behind her as she left the parking lot in front of City Hall. The soldiers followed behind her like ducklings following their mother, with that same oddly swaying gait.
Chapter Fifty-Four
Ridge Manor, Florida
They defied the curfew and met at the old inn. Wayne had the keys that he had taken from Joanna's purse and opened the back door for everyone to get inside. They sat in the old dining room. There was no longer any furniture in there, so they sat on the floor. It was decaying, but Mary vividly remembered what it used to look like, back in the day.
The big chandelier was still hanging from the ceiling and she remembered looking at it as a child, wondering just how many glittering diamonds were on it. Mary used to come to the inn with her parents as a child and eat whenever they had something to celebrate, like anniversaries or birthdays. She would play in the big yard with the old trees for ages while the grownups talked. Being an only child made her upbringing lonely, and often she would have to find her fun by making it up herself. She remembered how she pretended the trees were aliens coming from a distant planet to take over Earth, trying to kill them all, and she would stop them before they could reach the people inside of the inn with their crooked aboveground roots.
"What do you think they are?" Old Doug, who had been around for even longer than Mary, said.
"They sure ain't Chinese," Nick said. He was sitting with his wife Shannon, who had the same terrified look on her face as the rest of them.
"Did you see that tongue?" she asked. "The way she wrapped it around Josh's neck?" Shannon made a grimace in disgust.
"I heard they killed the president," Tim said.
The others in the dining hall gasped. Nick nodded, agreeing like he had seen it. "I heard that too."
"I heard they’ve put red and yellow colors on the Empire State building," Mrs. Young said.
"They're just taking what's theirs," Jonas from the bank said. "We've known this would come for years, but would anyone listen? Oh, no, of course not. We brought this on ourselves. We have been naive, my friends."
"Let's try not to get ahead of ourselves," Mary said, trying to calm them down, even though she was as shaken up as the rest of them.
"Let's stick to the facts here, right? I mean, where did you even hear about the president? We have no newspapers, no TV, no radio, no Internet, no contact with the outside world whatsoever. How on earth could you have heard anything about the president? Tim?"
Tim rubbed his beard. "Well, it was just a rumor…"
"Exactly. We can't live off of rumors; they will only scare us further and we sure don't need that right now."
"The mayor has a point," Doug said.
"Thank you, Doug. Now let's stick with the facts. What do we know?"
"They’ve dug a hole in the floor at City Hall," Tina Zetterman said. "And it's like more of them come out of it. It's in the meeting room and more and more soldiers come out, but none go in."
"It's true," Mary said. "I have seen the hole myself."
"How…how do people come out of it?" Tim asked.
"I don't know," Mary said, biting her lip. "It's quite odd."
"I heard that the Chinese recently teleported something into outer space," Nick said. "Maybe they found a way to teleport their soldiers?"
"As a matter of fact, I read about that too," Mary said. "They teleported a photon from Earth to a satellite orbiting more than three hundred miles away."
"But it's a helluva long way from teleporting a photon to teleporting a human being," Wayne said. He had been very quiet all the time they had been at the inn. Mary knew why and hoped he would address it himself; otherwise, she would have to do it for him.
"Sure is," Mary said.
"They ain't no Chinese," Doug said once again.
Mary shook her head. "No. I’m afraid they aren't even human."
"Aliens?" Shannon asked, a shriek to her voice.
Mary shrugged. "I don't know."
"But why are they here? What do they want?" Tina asked.
"They certainly want something from us," Tim said. "Something here is impo
rtant. Of that, we can be very sure."
"Why do you say that?" Shannon asked.
"There is no reason for there to be so many of them here in our small town," Nick took over. "They could have used a tenth of the soldiers and we would still have surrendered. Plus, they've sent us one of their highest ranked officers. Why would they do that to a small town like this?"
Mary nodded. He certainly had a point. They wanted something from them, and they had already stated what it was. She looked at Wayne, who still kept quiet. She wondered if she would have to be the one to expose the elephant in the room.
"Maybe they are Chinese after all," Al from the bank said.
"What do you mean?" Mary asked.
"There's an ancient rumor that Chinese evolved from lizards," he said. "It's true. I read it online."
"I don't think they're humans at all," Doug said. "They never sleep. I see them in the streets at night, outside my window when I can't fall asleep, and I swear it's the same the next morning. It ain't human. Have any of you ever seen them eat?"
They looked at one another, then at Miss Trudy, who shook her head. "Not at my diner."
Mary realized she was starving at the mention of food. She had barely eaten all day, just a couple of pieces of bread this morning that she couldn't even toast.
"No matter what they are," she said. "We need to do something. Especially about Joanna. We can't let them kill her."
Her eyes fell on Wayne again, anticipating that he would interrupt her at any moment, but he didn't. He just stood in the corner of the room, his eyes avoiding hers.
"Wayne? Care to join us?" she asked.
He shook his head. "You know I can't do that."
"Why? Why won't you help us, help Joanna?"
He sighed and rubbed his forehead. "First of all, I have to think about Arlene. Who knows what will happen to her if we tell them about it? You think they're not gonna go through it? Second of all, if we tell them, they might use it to their advantage. Could you imagine an army like this constantly knowing the future? If we ever want to defeat them, we can't give them that weapon."
Mary sighed. He had a point. All eyes were on her and Wayne. No one understood what they were talking about.
"All right," she said, humoring him. "But what about Joanna then?"
Wayne stared at her, his nostrils flaring.
"Don't you care about Joanna at all?" she continued, noticing she had struck a chord.
Wayne finally looked at her. He was speaking through gritted teeth. "Of course, I care about her. More than you think."
"Then give them what they want!"
Wayne shook his head and backed out of the dining hall, his hand on the door handle.
"I'm sorry. I can't. I can't do it."
Part Four
Make up your mind
Chapter Fifty-Five
Ridge Manor, Florida
"There's something on the roof."
Irene looked at Josh. Josh could hear it too. He was still going a hundred and ten down State Road 50 towards the swamps. He could see the big trees in the distance and knew they weren't far now.
"There it was again," Irene said.
Josh heard it too but didn't say anything. He accelerated further, hoping whatever it was on their roof wouldn't be able to hold on properly and would eventually fall off.
But it didn't happen. There was more movement on the roof and Josh's heart rate was soon the one going a hundred and ten.
"You think it's one of them?" Irene asked.
He did. He was certain it was, but he didn't want to say it. He didn't have to. Seconds later, they knew, when the soldier stuck his hand (or talon) down and reached inside Irene's window.
"Oh, my God," Irene yelled and threw herself towards Josh. "Look at those fingers. What are they? Claws?"
"I don't know," Josh said, looking for another tree that might knock this thing off, but there were none in sight. Instead, he threw the car from side to side with fast movements, trying to get the bastard to fall off. Irene whined and held onto the handle under the ceiling. The clawed hand disappeared.
"Did we lose him?" Josh asked.
They both listened. A loud bump from above told them they hadn't.
"He's still there," Irene said.
Josh cursed and grumbled. They were so close now, so close to the swamps where he knew he would be able to hide even if these creatures found their way in there. If anyone could, it was Josh. It was where he used to go as a teenager when his parents fought or when Joanna fought with them. At first, he would try to calm them down, asking them to stop; he would dance if he had to or make promises of doing the dishes for months or cleaning the bathrooms, but if that didn't help, then there was only one place he could find the peace he so longed for. Waist deep in the swamp water with a fishing pole in his hand. Out there, no one would argue, no one would be angry or yell. There would be nothing but silence. Just him and Mother Nature.
"I'll get rid of him," he said as he turned the wheel forcefully and began zigzagging down the road. There wasn't a car in sight, so it didn't matter that he often drove into the opposite lane. He wasn't risking hitting anyone.
The soldier stuck his head down and peeked inside Irene's window. Irene let out an ear-piercing scream.
"Josh. He's right there. Do something!"
Josh grabbed a water bottle from the floor and threw it at the soldier. Hit him right in the face, but he didn't budge, not even a little bit. Instead, he grinned, his strange green eyes staring eerily at them both. Then he opened his mouth, shot out his enormous tongue, wrapped it around Irene's waist, and pulled her out the window.
"JOSH!"
"Irene!" Josh yelled.
He stared out the window and spotted her, hanging there, dangling, the tongue wrapped around her waist, her face torn in fear.
"Help me, Josh, help me!"
The soldier used her as a yo-yo. First, he let go of her so she fell down dangerously close to the asphalt, then tightened his grip and pulled her back up. Then, seconds later, he would repeat the procedure over and over again.
Oh, dear God, what do I do? Oh, dear God.
Josh stared out the window at Irene coming and going, screaming her heart out, then reached over and opened the glove compartment. Sheriff Wayne was a hunter and a fisherman like most men around these parts, and, of course, he had a knife in his car. Josh grabbed it, let go of the wheel, then leaned out the window while the car ran off the road and into the grass. Josh grabbed the middle of the tongue when it rolled down, cut it in half, then pulled in the part he was holding in his hand, reeling in Irene like she was a fish.
Irene's body knocked against the side of the car. She crawled back up, using the tongue as a rope, while Josh returned with the other hand to grab the wheel and steered the truck back onto the road. The soldier let out a strange shriek, then tumbled off the truck's roof and landed in front of it.
There was a loud bump as Josh ran over it. He thought about stopping and rolling back over it once again to make sure the thing was completely dead but then decided against it.
It was more important to get Irene to safety.
The truck rushed through the forest that later led deep into the swamps, while the remains of the tongue lay on the floor, wiggling like a worm.
Chapter Fifty-Six
Cape Canaveral, Florida
"Are they ever gonna give us anything to eat?"
Martha felt her stomach. It had been grumbling for quite some time and now it was beginning to hurt. She felt exhausted. At least they had access to water so they wouldn't thirst to death, even though the water wasn't filtered, which Martha wasn't very fond of. She had always sworn she would never drink that chlorine-filled water. And this water from the dirty water fountain in the cell tasted really bad. She drank from it without touching any of the parts.
"I mean, aren't they supposed to at least give us food? Or a proper trial for that matter?"
"Again, Martha. This is an invasion. I
t's war. They can do what they want with us," Carl answered.
Martha swallowed hard. Bob Howell had gone eerily silent on the other side of the wall. He had lost hope, Carl said. Martha refused to go there, to let that happen to her. If life had taught her anything it was that there was always hope. You might have to wait longer than what you felt comfortable with, you might have to suffer, but there was always hope, a light at the end of the tunnel and all that. She had to believe that. Just as she had refused to give up hope on Joanna and had forced herself to believe she would one day be back and that they would get to see their grandchild.
One day, you'll hold that child in your arms. One day, you'll get to hug your daughter again.
Martha had dreamt a lot about Joanna lately, right before they left for their trip to the Bahamas. It had been years since she had last dreamt about her, and it had confused her slightly. Was she just dreaming about her because she missed her so terribly? Because celebrating their anniversary reminded her of her?
Martha was convinced there was more to it than that. She had this feeling, this deep sensation inside of her that she would see her soon, that her daughter was close and she couldn't escape it, couldn't stop wondering about it. Of course, she hadn't mentioned anything to Carl, since he would just get all upset and tell her what a nutcase she was for feeling like that and believing in dreams. He never thought about Joanna anymore, he said, and never wanted to talk about her.
Martha rose to her feet with a snort.
"Well, I don't know about you, but I don't intend to stay in here and wait for starvation to get the better of me."
Martha walked to the door and started hammering on it.
"Hey! We're in here. We're starving. You can't keep us in here with nothing to eat. You can't keep us in here, period. We didn't do anything wrong. Please. Someone open the door, or at least talk to us? I demand to see a lawyer. This is America. We have rights, you know? You people might not know about rights, but we do."