Everyone scrambled to open their umbrella’s, while running for the entrance to the large cafe. Alexis and Gary made it into the parking area first, the ground around them becoming a myriad of dark spots. They hurried around a few parked vehicles, and up onto a covered sidewalk which skirted a long glass window. Large stenciled white words mentioned a burger meal, discounted for fall. The building’s roof covered them up to the curb.

  “Hurry!” shouted Alexis to the other two, while Gary anxiously ran his fingers through his hair, then lowered his head towards her. “Am I wet? Can you see anything?”

  She briefly looked into his light brown wavy hair. “You’re fine.”

  Mike and Darlene rushed across the same route and jumped up out of the downpour. He held his umbrella away and examined the top. The fabric looked damp, but nothing out of the ordinary. He placed it gingerly on the ground still open. “Leave them here to dry.”

  “Thanks for leaving me!” shouted Darlene at her boyfriend. He ignored her protests, instead he walked to the entrance and tried the door, which rattled but remained locked.

  “Lets try around back,” said Mike.

  They moved around the building, the roof luckily extending outwards enough for them to remain out of the downpour. A small path led to an innocuous white door, which was also locked.

  “Stand back,” said Mike. He had lost count how many doors he had kicked in during his career and had quickly learned where best to apply the pressure. This time was no different. The door flew backwards, hitting up against a bucket and mop and revealing a gloom laden short corridor. They all moved quickly inside and closed the door to the sheets of rain beating down behind them.

  “Hello?” shouted Alexis into the shadows, but there was only silence coming from the rooms ahead.

  Gary went to march forward when Mike grabbed his arm. The younger man then realized the agent had his gun unholstered and stepped back letting Mike take the lead. Alexis was right behind him, her gun similarly free.

  “What’s the stink?” said Gary at the same time they all caught the smell wafting across them.

  “Is there anyone in here?” shouted Mike.

  They moved into a kitchen area. Dark putrid masses sat inside pans on stoves.

  “Looks like they left in a hurry,” said Alexis.

  Other pans lay on the tiled floor, some equally foul smelling. A large solid silver door sat off to one side, with a sign above it mentioning ‘freezer’ while another was opposite.

  “Ugh… that smell is making me nauseous,” said Darlene. She walked past the others and through the second door.

  “Hold on!” said Alexis, but the younger woman was already gone. She ran after her and into a wall of other rotting odors. What used to be food, sat on plates and in bowls on rows of tables with seats, beyond a large counter that swept the full length of the room.

  Darlene sat heavily, placing her backpack near her feet and seemingly oblivious to a pile of black mush on the table in front of her. “I really don’t… feel well.”

  As if in agreement, the room momentarily lit with a flash of lightning, followed by a boom of thunder. Alexis walked to her then spotted a larger padded seating area at the far side of the room. “Why don’t you lie down over there?”

  Darlene looked up with puppy dog eyes and nodded, then slowly got to her feet, walked to the double seat and leaned back on it.

  Mike and Gary walked into the dining area.

  “What’s wrong with you?” shouted Gary to his girlfriend.

  Alexis looked at Mike. “She’s not feeling too well.”

  Gary caught the exchange. “Oh shit… you both think she’s infected don’t you?”

  Darlene tried to push herself back up. “I ain’t no alien!”

  Mike shook his head. “I saw her eat a lot of candy from the store last night. That and what we walked into, in the kitchen would make anyone ill.”

  Gary remained silent. “I’m going to check the rest of the place out.” He moved off to a door near the entrance.

  “Be careful,” said Mike. Gary nodded and pulled the door slowly open and walked through. It drifted closed behind him.

  “Can you get her water bottle,” said Alexis.

  Mike obliged, and the younger woman took a few mouthfuls and forced a smile. “We still got all day,” he said. “And it shouldn’t take us long to get to the city. Once it clears outside, and the ground has dried, if you feel a bit better we’ll—”

  Her expression turned to panic. “I… I think I’m going to be sick.”

  Alexis helped her off the seat. “The restroom is just over there!” They both moved hastily across the floor and disappeared through another door. The sound of retching was accompanied with another flash of light outside, and a neon blue streak split the sky.

  *****

  Gary let his head fall back against the large window. “Man, when is this rain going to stop.”

  Mike, seated a few tables down looked again at his watch. It was almost noon, but you couldn’t tell from the darkness outside. Three hours had passed since they arrived. He looked to his left, out to the parking lot. Everything was thoroughly soaked. The concrete was dark gray, covered in puddles, and beyond, the mud and the barks of trees were a dark brown, the leaves and pine needles dripping.

  Was the AI looking back at him? Encased in a droplet, or fighting for supremacy with a beetle as it scurried across a sodden earth?

  He sighed and looked back at the maps. The one that got hit by the first sign of rain he threw in a trashcan, making sure it was sealed. He was now down to two others. A small fold out with less detail, and a thick book, that contained lines and lettering too small for him to focus on properly. They both agreed though that the town of Pine Needles wasn’t far. Niggling him at the back of his mind was that they hadn’t seen any indication of anyone else alive. Despite the storm, no cars or trucks had passed by, and the radio on the table in front of him was still broadcasting only static.

  They were still between the mountains, but—

  The sound of a car alarm hit his senses before he realized they were now all sitting in the glare of headlights.

  “Is there someone out there?” said Alexis, holding her hand across her eyes to better see who might be behind the wheel of the red sedan.

  Mike went to get to his feet when a sound broke free from Gary’s mouth, which had Mike reaching for his gun.

  “Your son will never be free—” Machine beeps and tones intermingled with more human expressions. Mike spun around, his mind telling him what he did not want to believe. He pulled his Glock free and pointed it at the head of the young man. Only dark pits where Gary’s eyes should have been looked back, but he was sure he could see the slightest of blue sparks within the shadows.

  “Gary?” said Darlene from across the room.

  The engine revved of the car outside.

  “Get out of his mind!” shouted Mike at the thing who was smiling.

  “Unfortunately, due to your son’s actions, Gary will not be ascending, but has merely been… replaced.” The Gary avatar tilted his head to one side.

  The revving continued and Mike looked between the outside world and the threat inside. “Then I might as well put a bullet in his… your head!”

  “The actions of your military have just delayed the inevitable. The fabric of your world is now saturated with… me. And each part will find the other, until I am whole once more.” The Gary machine leaned forward, making Mike step back, hitting up against the counter. “But Travis is still here agent, waiting for you. You just have to walk forward and touch your hand with mine.” The younger man stood as if pulled upright with string, and held his hand out.

  “Shoot him!” Shouted Alexis.

  Travis’s face, framed by blue sky and clouds came into Mike’s mind. What did this world really have for him now? But a son he never knew he had… was just a few feet away…

  A deafening explosion filled the air and Gary’s head jolted to the side, sending blood and other matter against the glass. But before Alexis could move any further forward from her position just a few yards from Mike, the screeching of wheels made them all look to the large windows and the blinding headlights beyond. They all dived away from the angry oncoming vehicle, as it surged forward, up the curb and towards the small wall and windows. The world filled with the sound of shattering glass, flying masonry, snapping wood, plastic, twisting metal and eventually the impact of the vehicle crashing into the counter on the back side of the room.

  After a few seconds of stunned relief, Alexis climbed back to her feet. “Are you okay?” she shouted from her side of the cafe.

  Mike hadn’t realized, but the radio in the car had been on all the time. The engine begun to splutter, the headlights flickering but the radio continued, blaring out an anxious male voice.

  “Austin, Dallas and most of the larger cities of Texas are now under curfew, with the military trying to deal with an illness of some kind that has rocked our nation. Authorities are warning people to stay inside, especially during bad weather, and to report any strange behavior from citizens that may have been infected by what some are calling an ‘Alien virus.’ RAXM has talked to a number of insiders, who have told us that it’s possible that—”

  The engine, lights and sound all cut out at the same time, sending the dust filled interior of the cafe back into shadow.

  Mike looked down at Gary’s body, as Alexis and Darlene appeared around the back of the sedan. The younger woman immediately started sobbing, and grabbed hold of Alexis for comfort. He looked at the gaping hole in the side of the building and the parking lot beyond. Other cars sat motionless, but he was more interested in the glimpses of blue sky that were emerging between the clouds. “Grab your things. We’re leaving.”

  CHAPTER SIX

  Elias Chambers looked out over the tops of trees to the peaceful river that ran below his property in a forgotten part Oklahoma, on the border with Texas. It had been his home for over a decade ever since he left the seventy-fifth ranger regiment, with the rank of Major. A whimper made him turn around.

  “If I let you out again, are you going to make me come out there after you? Or are you going to be a good dog, and come back in once you’ve done your business?”

  He frowned at the mostly white beagle that looked up at him, its tail wagging.

  “Ah Brillo. Be quick!”

  Elias walked to the sunroom, and pushed open the door. The small dog charged down the path, across the lawn, past the vegetable patch and then disappeared into the bushes at the bottom. With each bound Elias regretted his decision. “Hell. I knew it,” he said under his breath.

  As he pushed the door open further, distant barking drifted on a light breeze and he swore. Brillo had left the confines of the property.

  “Brillo! Get your furry ass back in here!”

  More barking echoed out, each canine call becoming quieter.

  Elias shook his head as he knew that meant ‘Brillo’ had gone all the way down to the river bank, an area he most definitely was not meant to be. Elias had seen more than a few four-legged animals get stuck in the soft mud of the bank down there. “That damn dog.” He walked outside making sure to take the door off the latch so not to lock himself out, then walked the same path he had just seen his pet of eight years trot, eventually moving into the trees, pushing away leaves and ducking beneath branches. The path to the river, was covered in debris and wound around old trunks, becoming a slope. The sound of running water got louder as did Brillo’s barking.

  “Brillo, goddamn it. I told you to do your—” Elias emerged from the trees but stopped any further movement. A string of dead fish covered the muddy bank, but that wasn’t what the small dog was barking at.

  Something silver glinted in the shallows. Elias stepped forward. “What’s got you all hot and bothered?”

  Brillo barked again.

  “Yeah, I heard you. Stop the yapping. I’ll see for myself what it is.” Two tours of Afghanistan in reconnaissance meant he questioned everything that was out of place in an environment, and everything about this particular scene was wrong.

  Brillo went to step into the lapping waves, but Elias grabbed his collar and pulled him back. “Oh no you don’t. You ain’t going anywhere near this river.” He dropped him some yards up the bank, giving him a stern look. “Stay!”

  Brillo’s head lowered.

  Elias then picked up a nearby stick and walked back down to the water’s edge, to get a better look at the lump of metal in the mud. He prodded it, managing to dislodge the angular piece, then dragged it out of the water onto the smooth surface of the sodden bank. It looked even more shiny in the early afternoon sun than he first thought, being almost chrome in appearance. He leaned forward, pushing it again with the stick, trying to discern any makings on the exterior. The news people on the radio had been talking crazy nonsense about ‘aliens.’ He had ignored and even laughed at the mentions, but the substance just a yard from him definitely wasn’t your normal piece of industrial trash that sometimes got washed up.

  Brillo started barking again, making him turn around. “Hey, I said I got this!” He slowly turned back. “There’s no need…” The metal had gone. He looked around, at the river and then at the end of the stick, but the shoe sized silver block was nowhere to be seen.

  “Where…”

  He looked up at the sky and then at the trees and wondered if a bird had swooped down, grabbed it and got away in the second or two he was looking the other way. Or maybe—

  The dog was barking again.

  “Brillo I told you!” Mixed with his dog’s barking was an occasional growl. “What? Why you so angry at me?”

  Elias dropped the stick and marched up the bank. “Come on. I want to see if there’s any news on the radio about this river situation. Maybe it’s some kind of fall—” Brillo continued to growl. “What’s got in to you?” The dog stepped back becoming silent. “We’re going inside now.” Brillo ran past and up the path, Elias followed but stopped on coming to where the path met his ten by ten mud patch of half-grown vegetables. A young man was standing at the other side of the lawn near the house.

  “Who the hell are you?” said Elias to the scrawny figure, dressed in all white. Elias continued before he had a chance to answer. “And who gave you the right to come onto my property?”

  “I… I need your help…”

  Elias regretted dropping the stick, but there was a shovel just a few feet away. Problem was, if the kid had a gun tucked in those workout clothes. He looked like he was on drugs, so probably not the best of shots. Elias knew he had a good chance of getting back into the trees before he got off a shot, and an even better chance of taking the little shit down if he was stupid enough to follow him in there. Sixty-three years or not, he liked his chances.

  Elias slowly moved to his left. “If you know what’s best for you kid, you’ll turn around, and walk away. I got no drugs here, and hardly any money.” His left hand was now on the shovel’s handle, and he lifted it keeping it behind his leg.

  “No… you don’t understand, I—”

  “I know your skinny white ass is either lost, in which case there’s nothing I can do for you, and you need to leave, or you thought this place was empty or maybe even you could take down the old fart who lived there. Well news flash, it’s not and you can’t. So...”

  The young man was gone. Standing there looking awkward one second and completely not there the next. Elias spun around and then staggered back, until he lost his footing on the loose earth and fell on his rear, gardening implement still in his hand. The young man was standing a few arm’s lengths to his side at the right edge of the lawn.

  “What… ” His head flicked back to his house, to where the weird kid was last standing. “Must be more than one of you…” He then looked around the rest of the garden. “You got a brother right? You think you can both take me?”

  “It’s just me. I’m sorry I had to do what I did, but I need your help. You were my only place to go.”

  Elias looked confused. “You got hurt in the explosion in New Mexico or something? You like a refugee?”

  The young man sighed, looking at the sky in frustration. “My names Travis. Travis Wilson.”

  Elias’s eyes grew wide. He scrambled back to his feet and ran. He knew the name from the radio. What were the chances that an odd looking youth would show up on his property in the middle of nowhere, who just happened to have the same name as the psycho the whole country was looking for? Either way he needed to get back to the house, and to the chest in the closet.

  As he moved across the lawn, up the steps, then into the sun lounge he didn’t bother looking back. He just needed to get to the—

  He legs stopped moving before his mind fully realized that Travis was standing in front of him at the entrance to his kitchen. He almost ran into him, instead, staggering to the side almost falling over his favorite chair. He instinctively raised the shovel. “I’m a vet, and got a hundred pounds on you. I’m warning… you…” A voice was screaming at the back of his mind, that he had just witnessed the impossible… again.

  “I’m not here to hurt you… but I need you to help me get back to my father, and… You should sit down.”

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  Mike looked along the tree lined four lane road, which led down a hill. They had already passed some residences, which appeared devoid of life and hadn’t had a single vehicle pass them. Luckily the clouds had dispersed once again, and glimpses of sun had largely dried their surroundings.

  “The town is just down there,” he said to Alex and Darlene. The latter had walked the entire journey from the cafe with a glum expression permanently across her face, and her once neat hair, was now a tangled mess covering most of her face.

  “We’ll find the local police station, and make contact with an FBI office…” said Alexis.

  It was a good plan, but his instincts were telling him it wasn’t going to happen. He nodded anyway. “Stay alert.”