The Watcher [Alien Nation #1]

Chapter 22

Erri knew he should be paying attention to what was happening around him—the aliens had followed him outside, thank all the stars, so he was finding it difficult to care about anything other than that Avery was safe, for now. The waves of pain shuddering through his body made it hard to focus on one thing for very long. His thoughts just felt like a gelatinous mass, slipping away from him with each agonising spasm.

He'd been hit twice. They'd fired more shots than that, but they'd fallen short. Maybe the aliens weren't used to Earth's gravity or something.

He'd been lucky with the first shot. His armour had stopped it before it actually pierced the carapace of his chest, so hopefully there would only be a small dent, though the impact had knocked all the air from him and probably bruised a rib or two as well.

Then there was the second. That one had got him in the back of his thigh, right in one of the few weaker points of the armour, sending him stumbling into the sand as he bit back a scream of pain.

For a while, the world was only noise and a blanket of cloudy blue sky. He knew Jules was near him, somewhere, and that Josh was in trouble, somehow. Everything else was just pain.

Until he saw her.

There was movement on his left side, behind and at an angle to the aliens so they had their backs to her. She staggered from the cave, a shaking arm raised to protect her eyes from the sunlight. Blood, a perfect contrast to the teal of her hair and the white of her skin, trickled from her nose and down her chin. In that moment, his exhausted, ragged cyborg girl was the most beautiful sight he had ever seen.

He saw her expression shift when she caught sight of him lying prone in the sand. Slowly, so the aliens didn't notice, he lifted a thumb in the human gesture. I'm okay. She paused when she saw that, and took a few steps back into the shadows. Good. If she stayed still and hidden, she'd be safe.

Suddenly there was a wet squelching noise, and a thud like a heavy sack hitting the ground, and a low moan that he soon realised was coming from Jules. She sat in front of him, cradling the data core to her chest. Josh lay in a heap on the floor, rivulets of blood trickling over the sand towards the water.

Erri reached for his Zenith, that he'd dropped within arm's length. It had a full magazine, and if Josh was dead there was no reason not to use it.

Ignoring the agony in his side and leg, he shifted into a crouch and rattled off a few shots. The alien who had killed Josh fell to the ground, thick black fluid spraying from the few bullet holes he made, though just as many glanced off its metallic hide.

"Get to Cass!" he yelled at Jules, giving her a hard shove when she stayed rooted to the ground. As if she'd heard, Cass flickered back into visibility. "I'll cover you!" He found a rock at the edge of the water and threw himself behind it, making sure the aliens didn't get too close to Jules as she ran. Their bullets sent plumes of sand shooting up where they landed, but Jules stayed on her feet, so that was good enough.

He waited until he heard the hydraulic hiss of Cass's airlock closing—at least they wouldn't have to worry about stowaways.

He had a moment of panic when her engines started—surely they wouldn't leave him and Avery? But no, a moment later, the Phoenix inched forward, hovering a foot off the ground, putting a barrier between the entrance to the cave and the rocks the aliens had taken cover behind.

Erri wasted no time in limping to the mouth of the cave, where Avery threw herself into his arms.

"Don't fucking leave me like that again," she said between sobs, even while she threw his arm over her shoulders and they helped each other to the airlock as the bullets pinged off the Phoenix's hull.

"I won't, promise," he said as he boosted Avery up into the safety of the ship, hopping in after her.

"Erri!" Avery screamed suddenly, and he looked down in time to see the alien leader swiping for him as he pulled himself into the Phoenix, locking its talons around his leg.

He howled as all his weight shifted to his injured leg, clinging to the handrail by the hatch and almost losing his balance as Cass prepared to take off.

"Get—your—fucking—claws--" Avery growled between sobs, as she struck the alien in the head, over and over again, with her organic hand, blood smearing its metallic temple. Suddenly she seemed to remember the pistol at her hip, and pressed it to the alien's head as it tried to crawl into the Phoenix after Erri. "Off my boyfriend!"

His ears rang at the shot, and the alien fell down to the sand, black blood spurting from what had once been an eye.

At last, the Phoenix's engines rumbled to full power, and they left the beach and all its carnage behind.