Apex (15 page)

Then he hand picked the cadet that he thought had the least potential as a soldier and told him that this was his lucky day.

Teleportation

Jack fell to one knee from exhaustion. A laser beam hit him in the temple, knocking him on to his side. The burn brought tears to his eyes.

He gingerly got to his feet and looked into the sky. Melanie was concentrating with her eyes closed tight.
She’d brought everyone together so that they were clustered in a group up in the air. Scott was using his force field to defend them from the onslaught, but his eyes were bleeding profusely. There was no way he could hold up for much longer.

But what was most disconcerting was that Dan was losing control. He was staring down at the limp body of his wife, tears glistening his pink eyes, and his arms were white hot. Others in the cluster were trying in vain to get away from him.

An old man’s hair was smoking and several fires erupted on clothing. The force field was keeping them from one doom, but it had also sealed them into another.

Jack mustered all of his will and teleported up beside the invisible bubble of doom. Lasers hit him every few seconds but he could endure the pain for the moment.

There were silent screams within the force field.

Jack maneuvered beside Scott and mouthed the words, “Let them go.”

Scott barely saw him through the blood in his eyes, but he took the presence of his friend as a welcome reprieve. He couldn’t hold the force field any longer anyway.

The people fell instantly and Jack felt the considerable heat coming from Dan.

People were sobbing and screaming and their panic only escalated with their descent. Lasers started to hit their marks now, killing several townsfolk before Jack had a chance to act.

He teleported everyone to the
basement of the bar, and then teleported the entire group to the remains of the farmhouse, on the outskirts of town. It was all the energy he had left at his disposal, but it was enough for now.

For the first time, he wondered why he hadn’t just done that in the first place. He didn’t have to take on the dinosaur-like aliens at all. He could’ve just gotten them all to safety. But he knew the answer. He’d fought the monsters because it thrilled him in a small way.

Dan ran off into the distance. When he was far enough away to ensure he didn’t burn everyone to death, he fell to his knees and started to cry.

Jack
was surprised when his mom ran over to him and wrapped him up in a hug. He didn’t know how to respond. His heart was thrumming. He couldn’t make sense of it. He thought she was dead. But his elation was short lived.

He heard Melanie scream, “He’s dead,” and saw her cradling Scott’s
bloody head in her arms.”

Cadet

The cadet was eager to prove himself. He had the most badass weapon available and they were sending him in alone. This was epic. Legends would be told of his heroics. He’d have his pick of mates and the admiration of his superiors when this was all over.

This was an honor he hadn’t expected. He thought his officers were disappointed in him, but it turned out that they were secretly proud of how he’d performed.

The latest intel led him to a destroyed building on the outskirts of a small town. The intel was good because he could see a cluster of humans below as he descended in his
tiny, stealthy vehicle.

Those backwoods bastards wouldn’t know what hit them.

Wrap-up

Commander Davok demanded that they move closer to the action for extraction. Eighty four percent of humanity had been eradicated, so the mission was near its end. The weird human anomaly would be taken care of momentarily, and the mission was pretty much a success. They just had to load up and move on as soon as possible now that the wet work was nearly done. They parked the ship in Earth orbit and waited for the dregs of humanity to die.

He said to his second in command, “
All things considered, this was the easiest planet of them all so far. We lost a few soldiers, but overall, it’s been a resounding success.”

Fillo
said, “It’s not over yet. We still need to contend with that human with his bizarre ability. I just wish we could’ve harnessed it.”

“You’re too negative. The journey is almost over. We’ll be heading home soon. Cheer up.”

Second in command, Fillo, stared down at the slowly spinning planet and shook his head sadly. Something was wrong with this entire mission. Nothing had gone according to plan so why should it start now?

Threat From Above

Scott was dead. His eye sockets had pools of his own blood cooling in them. His face was ashen and clammy as Melanie placed his head gently on the ground.
His mom was crying and his little brother was trying in vain to comfort her.

A dozen dead bodies littered the ground. They’d been killed by alien gunfire before Jack had the chance to teleport them to safety.

If they thought they might have time to grieve, they were mistaken. Dan was completely out of control. His powers had gotten the better of him. The dirt beneath them baked and the air crackled as his heat grew in intensity. Off in the distance, he was yelling, “She’s dead, they killed her,” over and over.

When someone’s cartridge fired off from the sheer heat, h
e realized what he was doing to them, even from so far away. The heat wavered for just a moment before returning with renewed ferocity.

With a croaky voice,
Dan said, “Everyone needs to get away from me. I can’t contain this much longer.”

That was news to Jack. He thought Dan had already lost control. If this was what happened when he contained his powers, what would happen when he really did lose control over them?

Jack realized for the first time that emotions governed their powers more so than anything else. But it was too late to do anything useful with the new information. Dan was about to blow.

A shadow fell over them. Jack looked up and saw something that his brain was ill-equipped to deal with. A massive ship, as big in the sky as four full moons
, was hovering ominously in orbit above.

Even more ominous was the small speck that grew as it descended towards them. That was another ship and it was headed their way.

They might have never even noticed it if that larger ship hadn’t cast its shadow on them, causing them to look up.

These jerks just didn’t give up. They wanted them all dead in the worst way.

Jack yelled to Dan, “Do you feel like going for a trip, and getting some revenge?”

Dan looked up at the descending ship.
“Yes. Do it. Get me out of here fast.”

Jack concentrated on the approaching little ship and then he focused on Dan. Dan vanished from sight.

The spectators didn’t react. They’d seen enough bizarre stuff in the last few hours to deaden them to anything else.

Boom

Several of them stared up at the approaching ship. It kept coming and for just a second, Jack worried that he’d accidentally sent Dan somewhere else instead.
Or maybe he’d missed his mark by a dozen feet and Dan was freefalling to his death.

The ship then lit up like a firework and a few seconds later, the sound of the explosion reached their ears.

Everyone turned from it, but Jack had to keep watching. If Dan had managed to survive, Jack had to make sure he didn’t fall and splatter on the ground.

Shrapnel rained down on them. Melanie brushed at her shoulder when a pea sized piece hit it and burned through her costume.

A young boy stripped his t-shirt off when it started to smolder.

A huge chunk of ship hit an old man. He fell to the ground hard but he quickly picked himself up. His left shoulder sat two inches below his right now and he was holding it with a trembling hand. But he’d survived and that was all that mattered for now.

And then, just in time, Jack heard a faint yell. He saw Dan falling, to the west. He’d probably blown himself away from his own explosion. He was just a hundred feet from the ground, flailing around like a mannequin when Jack focused on him and teleported him to them.

Dan appeared
at Jack’s feet. He was lying on the ground, flailing his arms, fully nude and burnt, with red gashes all over his body. But his charred skin and cuts were healing before their eyes as he realized he was no longer falling.

He stood up and dusted off some of the char that had healed already.

Then he said, “Send me up to that big ship. I’ll kill them all.”

Jack looked up. There was no way for him to be sure how far away the ship was. It appeared faint, like
it was far above the atmosphere.

He tried to focus on it to better wrap his mind around the distance, but he couldn’t. He felt too weak. He knew he could teleport that far away, but he didn’t want to miss.

“Give me a minute to get my strength back.”

His mom put her arm around his shoulder and he let himself fall into her.

Dan’s hands started to glow orange but he got his abilities under control for the time being.

The old man with the busted shoulder was handling the debris from the ship that had hit him. He said, “This is strange. Come and take a look.”
Melanie went to him, looked at the debris, and then brought it over and handed it to Jack.

For the first time
Jack wondered if he’d become the defacto leader of this ragtag group of misfits. He wondered why, even though all of their powers were unique and wonderful, his seemed to be the only powers worth a damn in a fight. Sure, they could all hold their own, but Jack was able to bring the fight to the aliens. And so far, he was undefeated. Molly and Scott were dead. Dan’s abilities came and went and Melanie seemed to have lost the will to go on. But Jack was still going, if only he could find a way to recuperate more quickly.

He turned the heavy
object over in his hands. It looked like a futuristic rifle and weighed about as much as a regular rifle weighs, but it was different from any Earth weapon he’d ever seen and it was different than any of the guns he’d seen the other aliens use. This was unique and he had a feeling he knew why. The gunfire from the aliens had failed to stop them, so this must be an upgrade, just for them.

Or maybe it was a trap. Maybe it was dropped in their midst for a reason. Maybe it was a bomb, disguised as a gun. The fear of the unknown was what convinced him to keep his finger from the red button that was surely the trigger.

A guy in a sleeveless shirt asked to see it, but Jack refused to give it up, explaining to the crowd that it might not be what it seemed. When he told them that it might be a bomb, they all took a step back.

Dan said, “Good. Then hand it over and send me up there.”

“I can’t focus on that ship. I might miss.”

“If you miss, then just find me again before I hit the ground, and try again, or just bring me back.”

“If I miss the ship, you’ll die. It’s in orbit. You’ll die up there if I can’t see you to get a lock on you to bring you back.”

“I don’t care. It’s worth a shot. These bastards are never going to stop unless we make them.”

Jack took a deep breath and said, “I’ll do it.”

His mom squeezed him tighter and whispered, “No you will not.”

Melanie stood in front of him. Tears streaked through the dirt on her face. “If anyone can stop them, it’s you, Jack. Do it for Molly. Do it for Scott. Do it for the millions of people they’ve killed.”

His mom let him go and glared at Melanie. “His life is not yours to sacrifice, girl. Step back before I
punch you.”

Melanie did the exact opposite. She stepped towards Jack and kissed him on the mouth.

That single kiss galvanized his intent.

He said to his mom, “I love you. I’m sorry,” and then he stared up at that faraway ship until it came into sharp relief.

He held the gun tight to his chest. If it was a bomb, that would work in his favor. He’d blow the whole thing right out of the sky. If it was a gun, then that was even better.

He vanished a moment before his mom had a chance to grab him.

The Enemy

Commander Davok sighed. “The mop-up is taking too long. We should’ve deployed more mowers to begin with.”

S
econd in command, Fillo, ignored him only because he was receiving a strange report from the ground crew. The troops dispatched to kill the odd human were reporting that he’d not only managed to destroy the ship that had just been sent to kill him (with the antimatter weapon and cadet onboard) but he’d also vanished from view.

When asked why they hadn’t engaged the
enemy, no reply came back. The soldiers were afraid. There inaction said it all.

But the report begged the question: Where had the human gone to now? Was he teleporting all across the globe to fight their forces? Had he gotten rattled by battle and decided to escape?
If he decided to attack, could they kill him without the antimatter gun?