“Aw, damn it.” Steve slumped back onto the ground next to the fire. “This blows.”
“What is your plan now?” Jones asked. “If this alien intends to deprive us of sunlight, then finding a farm and trying to settle down is pointless.”
The captain’s implication was clear. He still wanted to head toward Atlanta, to face the Anunnaki and kill them. Jones’ agenda stemmed from hatred nurtured since he fought with the rebels on his home planet, but worse than that, it seemed like he’d begun to hate himself for being Anunnaki. Shane expected he’d need to use caution when listening to the captain’s advice.
Shane searched the starry sky. A black disk with a faint halo around it occupied the place where the sun should be. The temperature had dropped significantly overnight, and he’d been looking forward to the warmth of a new day. When it passed between him and the light of the fire, he could see his breath turning to steam with each exhale.
“We’ll freeze to death if it gets much colder,” Laura observed, rubbing her arm above the bandages.
“No, we won’t,” Shane countered, determined to keep their spirits up.
“There is an easy answer to this,” Jules said, frustration brimming in her voice. “A way to make the green alien go away and everything return to normal.” She sat on the other side of the fire, her arms bound behind her. Excess rope wrapped her legs, guaranteeing she’d not be able to escape and go on another murdering spree.
“Yeah?” Shane glanced at her. He knew her answer and immediately wished he’d ignored her.
“Isn’t it obvious?” Insanity glimmered in her eyes. “The Anunnaki must die. We have to kill them. Then this’ll end.”
“I’m sorry, Jules,” Shane snapped. “But that’s not going to happen.”
“Now what the heck is that?” Maurice pointed south.
Cutting through the starry sky, a thin shaft of light shined down from the heavens, landing somewhere beyond the horizon.
“What do you make of it?” Steve asked, standing next to Shane.
“I’m guessing it’s shining from the slave ship,” Shane replied.
“Or shining down onto it,” Maurice added. “A beacon telling us where we should go.”
“Not you, too,” Shane replied.
Maurice shrugged as if to say they had to consider every option.
A shout came from behind them. Shane pivoted, scooping his weapon from the ground as he turned. A green light near the forest drew his eyes, the same color as the glowing entity that disabled the Anunnaki.
“What the hell?” Steve ran toward the light with his weapon aimed.
“Don’t get too close,” Shane warned, following him.
Stopping twenty yards away, Shane held his arm out to keep his friends from getting any closer. He blinked his eyes. The light blinded him after being in the dark for so many hours.
“It’s shaped like a person,” Tracy said.
His eyes adjusting, Shane could make out the form as well. It morphed from a bright light into a glowing, indistinguishable humanoid form. Then the light grew dimmer and took on more features of a person, until it appeared to be a woman. She still glowed and was transparent, putting out less light than the campfires.
A boy stepped through the crowd of kids who stood in a semicircle around the thing. “Mom?”
“That is not your mom,” Shane warned. “Stay back.”
The boy ignored him, and he was too far away for Shane to grab him. The luminescent woman smiled at the teenaged boy, holding her arms out to welcome him into her embrace.
“No,” Shane shouted.
The boy rushed to her, tears of joy streaming down his face. As soon as he made contact, he screamed in agony. The woman wrapped her arms around him, and he stiffened like electricity coursed through his body.
“We have to get her off him,” Steve said, stepping closer with his gun aimed.
“Don’t touch them,” Shane warned.
He stuck the barrel of his gun close enough to the green woman so he knew he could fire a shot without hitting the boy. He pulled the trigger, and the bullet passed through the woman without slowing, like she wasn’t even there.
She continued her maternal smile, and the boy’s screams diminished, smoke rising from under his collar. His head dropped back, and he grew silent.
“What the hell?” Tracy growled. She swung her gun at the woman’s back like an ax, but it passed through her and hit the boy in the stomach.
The heat radiating from him burned Shane’s face.
“Get back,” he shouted, seeing flames lick out through cracks forming in the boy’s skin.
They recoiled, and the boy burst into flames, brighter than the glowing green woman. As if infused with gasoline, he burned bright and hot for a few seconds. Turning to ash, he collapsed through the alien’s arms into a pile of gray dust on the ground at her feet.
Shane fired his gun at the woman out of frustration. She had no substance, nothing solid to attack. He and his friends stood in stunned silence, their weapons aimed at her. She continued to smile gently, pointing at the needle of light coming down from the dark sky far to the south. Though she didn’t make a sound, her lips mouthed the word go. She grew brighter again until Shane could no longer look directly at her. Then she vanished, leaving them blinded by the sudden darkness.
“Don’t move,” Shane ordered.
He counted, knowing it would take at least a minute for their eyes to start to adjust to the darkness, and ten minutes until they could see as well as they did before the green entity decided to appear and murder one of the kids he was charged with keeping safe.
Each second he counted off, his vision grew more focused. The first thing he could see was the neat little pile—all that remained of the incinerated boy. His remains still glowed from the heat Greenie had put into him, muted red penetrating through the ash. Shane’s tongue felt thick in his throat. He made an unsuccessful attempt at swallowing and turned to the kids under his charge. The entire camp had woken up, and they packed in behind the circle of kids looking down at the ashes.
Those who stood close enough to see what had happened wore panicked expressions, and he expected they’d lose control and run off into the woods if he didn’t do something. He couldn’t afford to take the time and figure out why the alien had chosen this specific kid to kill—he had to take charge of the living.
“Everyone,” Shane shouted. “Pack your stuff. We move out now!”
The kids didn’t budge. Dim light from the stars illuminated the stunned expressions slacking their faces. Shane glanced at Steve and Tracy. Looks of comprehension came over them.
“You heard the man,” Steve shouted. “Let’s move.”
Tracy and Maurice joined them, encouraging the kids to act. Shane knew it was the only way to keep them alive. If they weren’t given direction, he expected the group would fall apart. If that happened, people might start fighting each other.
“Where are we headed?” Jones had slipped next to Shane without him noticing.
“I don’t freaking know,” Shane said under his breath, so quiet he doubted Jones could even hear him.
“I think the answer is obvious enough,” Jones said, almost sounding condescending.
Shane glared at the place where the alien had appeared. Anger blazed in him, mixed with fear and confusion. He twisted his hand on the strap that held his gun over his shoulder. Bullets had passed right through the thing. How could they fight something if they had no way of killing it? He bit the inside of his lip, his mind racing.
“Maurice,” he called as his friend walked by.
“Sup?”
Maurice seemed less stressed than his other friends, like he was cool with however things turned out. Shane attributed it to his faith and envied him.
“Get Tracy and the rest, we need to huddle.”
The once-chubby kid had grown lean, hardly recognizable from the boy Shane met in Atlanta not so long ago. Maurice nodded and rushed off to get the others.
Shane eyed Jones. The captain didn’t say anything, but his face, side-lit by the nearest fire, said he would agree with whatever Shane decided to do.
Drawing near his camp, Shane saw Jules half-mummified with rope, seated and staring into the flames. Kelly sat next to her, her arms wrapped around her knees. She hadn’t grabbed a gun and joined them when Greenie showed up. It seemed like she knew the effort would be useless.
He thought it would’ve felt better to have them back. Unfortunately, they were a constant reminder of how out of control things had gotten. Neither of them acknowledged him when he drew near. It pained him. Shane still missed Kelly. It was like a stranger sat before him now.
After rolling his blankets, he shoved them in his pack. He tried not to look at the girls, his throat tightening when he did. When Tracy arrived, she stood back and surveyed Jules for a long moment. Reflecting the orange light, her eyes brimmed with the same sadness he endured. Tracy blinked back tears, turning her attention to packing up her stuff.