“It’s not gonna—”
BOOM!
The missile-like grenade hit the side of the tunnel entrance just as the UFO darted to shoot out of it, cutting-off Tommy’s words. The missile missed, but the rocks that flew out and the other shrapnel didn’t, and the men all clearly saw the thing shudder and flinch and look like it would crash… but it didn’t.
“C’mon!” Turn shouted, rising up faster than the others with the help of his cybernetic legs.
He was also able to dash down the tunnel before his companions were able to take a few strides. The legs allowed him to reach the tunnel entrance to see the UFO shoot out down the landing strip the Grays had for it, then upwards… and right toward Frank and Ronnie coming back in the Puma!
Not that it mattered, he quickly saw, for the UFO was still shuddering and now shaking and about to drop at any moment. It gave a valiant effort trying to pull itself up toward the helicopter — which was over the treeline and still a hundred yards further on, Turn now saw — but it failed miserably. All at once the lift seemed to give out of the craft and it dropped to it’s right, the same side that’d been damaged in the tunnel blast, and then clipped into the tall Douglas Fir trees that were standing there. The sides dented and sparks and smoke flew out from the spaceship, but it didn’t blow and it didn’t disintegrate. Instead it fell to earth and landed with a resounding crash, something that could probably be heard for miles.
“Damn!” Fred said, and Turn looked over to see him there, panting from the run down the tunnel. He looked back and saw the others would be there in another few moments.
“Looks like that shot of yours did it!” Turn yelled, and just as Robbie reached them. He raised his arm up and pointed toward the trees where there was a small plume of smoke rising and nothing more.
“Well I’ll be damned!” Tommy shouted. “I thought for sure you were gonna keep up that near-perfect record for misses.”
Bobbie spat out a large wad of tobacco. “Like you’re trying to keep that perfect record of not getting’ laid?”
“Alright, alright!” Fred said with a laugh. “Let’s get out there and give those boys a hand.”
He pointed toward the helicopter, which was beginning to land a short distance from the crashed UFO, though still on the landing strip.
“What about the tunnel,” Paul said, stopping them all as they were about to rush forth, “what if there are more?”
“He’s right,” Charlie said, then looked to Fred, “you and your boys stay here and head back down that tunnel a ways, see if there’s anything there.”
Fred frowned, but nodded — he didn’t want to miss out on the action, but he didn’t want an unnecessary risk at their backs either. He’d seen enough of what unguarded tunnels had done to his platoon of men back in ‘Nam.
The others headed toward the helicopter, Sammy leading the way again with Turn and Tommy and Charlie close together. They put their night vision goggles back on and ahead of them saw that Captain Frank Burchak was getting out of the helicopter’s passenger seat. He waved at them, then looked over at the crash site, got the rest of the way out of the craft, and began to close the door.
“What’s he doing?” Tommy said, shock in his voice, his tone serious. “What the hell is he doin’ gettin’ out there alone!”
“C’mon!” Sammy shouted, then started to run forward more quickly.
It was too late. Frank was walking forward and had just about cleared the helicopter when he jerked to a stop, as if some invisible hand had suddenly grabbed him. Even with the night vision it was clear, the look of terror on his face. He had no control over his arms or legs, but his face took on a twisted look of terror as his body slowly began to rise off the ground.
Inside the helicopter Ronnie sensed what was happening and flipped off the helicopter’s rotors, but he knew it was a futile effort as soon as it was done. Ahead of him Frank’s body spun around so his face was looking straight into Ronnie’s, the look of terror evident, his eyes pleading for some kind of help that could never come but which his mind wouldn’t let him believe.
He screamed, but it was a short burst of sound before his head turned back against its will and his body shot upward face-first into the spinning rotor blades, still moving at more than 500 feet per second. Blood drenched the helicopter’s window and all Ronnie could see was a curtain of blood.
Turn gritted his teeth. “C’mon!” he shouted, then took off, his cybernetic legs carrying him the hundred yards to the helicopter in just seconds.
“Shit,’ Sammy said as he and the others began running, hoping to get there in twenty seconds, and before the Grays still alive in that crashed UFO could do the same to Ronnie as they’d just done to Frank.
Turn reached the spot where Frank’s body lay, the head and face gone down almost to the neck. He narrowed his eyes and focused on the spot where the UFO had crashed.
There! He saw it in his night vision, two forms moving–
He couldn’t move, his limbs were stone and ice and locked in position. He felt a tingly sensation, then his feet left the ground. Guess that 20 % finally caught up with me, he thought.
“Not so fast!” Tommy shouted, picking up his pace and running as fast as he could. It was fast enough, and when he was within ten feet and Turn was within inches of the rotors, the power of the alien’s telepathy attacks faded altogether.
“Three!” Turn shouted, his voice now back, for he’d been trying to shout all the while that there was another alien, he was sure of it, for no Gray he’d ever heard of could use that much mental energy while rushing away as fast as those two he’d spotted had been.
“Fire in the hole,” Charlie said matter-of-factly, then pulled the trigger on his grenade launcher twice in quick succession. There were two ‘thwumps’ back to back, and then a moment later twin explosions in the trees where the two Grays Turn spotted had been running.
“Where’s the other one?” Sammy yelled.
“There,” Turn said, locking onto it, and raising his gun up to nearly point at the men that’d rushed up to save him. They jumped out of the way and Turn fired three quick bursts from his machine gun, then looked where he’d fired to see a Gray’s head explode in a shower of ‘blood’ and brains near the cave entrance.
Turn lowered his still-smoking gun and looked at his companions, many on the ground from jumping out of the way.
“Fucker,” he spat, and the men began to laugh.
14 — Debriefing
“Well men — that nest of Grays is cleaned out!”
There were only nods to Ellis’ words, for the men were tired and what’s more, the realization that they’d lost one of their own was finally beginning to sink in.
All around them the teams from Blue Lake were moving about, more than two dozen men now. There was Eddie and Stan helping with the crashed UFO, and Stu doing mop-up work inside the tunnel to see what technology and information could be gleaned.
Fred and his team had come back just minutes after Turn had shot that third Gray from the UFO outside the tunnel entrance. They’d reported that there’d been no more Grays, but quite a bit of equipment, testing areas, and most surprisingly, a few vats.
“Those were just supposed to be at Dulce,” Ellis had said upon first hearing the news shortly after his arrival and initial debriefing of the men.
“There was supposed to be a lot of things,” Carl had replied to him, “but ’75 kind of changed all that.”
Ellis didn’t like to hear that, but then he often didn’t like to hear the truth. He needed to hear it, though, and in this case the astronaut was right.