Summer Crash (Zerralon 1.1)

Part 6: Dead Nanny-Bot

In the midst of a downward scale of the siren, Nanny-Bot shouted, “Return to the hovercar!”

If it got them away from the sound, then he was happy to. Kevin turned and headed back.

A deep boom rippled through the air. So strange. Kevin could feel it travel through his chest and bones.

A split-second after a moving crackling line ran across the ground. It flowed around and over everything it touched. People, trees, even birds. The line reached up to flow over hovering cars and robots alike. His skin itched and pricked as it went over him. Christy shrieked, hugging Boo close to her stomach as if protecting it from the onslaught.

The siren stopped as suddenly as it started, leaving the park in a hushed silence.

One shattered by a loud nearby thud.

Kevin jumped, whirling around. Nanny-Bot lay against a trashcan, her articulated eyes shut. She slowly slid off the top to crash to the ground.

Their Nanny-Bot wasn’t the only one. Every robot he could see no longer moved. The taller ones tipped over. The smaller ones just sat down on the ground as if their hovering capabilities were suddenly gone.

Which didn’t make sense. The hovering mechanisms in the hovercars still worked. Not a one of them rested on the ground.

Christy pushed close to Kevin’s eyes, her doll clutched to her chest. She whispered, “What just happened?”

“I don’t know.” He gulped. It didn’t feel right to say anything into the silence.

It didn’t remain silent. The thump of a larger robot hitting the ground broke the spell.

People took to their flight once again. Most to the hovercars, but some into the trees. Towards whatever provided cover.

Wait, where did that thought come from?

“Uhoh,” Christy whispered, gazing up at the sky, her eyes big and unblinking.

Kevin had to force himself to look. Somehow, he knew he wouldn’t like what he saw.

The metallic-black hull of the circular ship moved slowly through the sky. It lowered itself down over the trees between them and the city. A big ship, from the looks of it. Only, it wasn’t the size that worried him.

It was the design. The needle-like points sticking out along the top. The portals opening along the bottom levels. Hatches lining the rounded edges. The plasma cannons pointing in all directions, parts of the hull bristling with the deadly weaponry.

The red and orange flame symbol on the side.

Vordac? Vordac here on Earth?

“I don’t believe it.” Saying it out loud didn’t make the ship disappear. It remained in the sky. Blocking out some of the sunshine and making the warm day suddenly cold. Lights blinked all over the hull, and then dark objects dropped away from it.

He knew what they were. Knew the larger thing that dropped out a hatch from the center of the underside of the big ship, too. Had seen it in news-vids from so many other worlds during other attacks.

A Morde. An armor-clad shape-shifting creature the Vordac used as one of their primary land invasion soldiers. Taller than any of the trees in the park, it inspired a level of terror inside Kevin he’d never experienced before. So big. So strong. So little could stop it.

“What is it, Kevin? What do we do?” Christy asked, hugging into his side even harder.

“Vordac, and we get out of here.” Kevin grabbed her free hand and pulled her in the opposite direction.

New shouts and screamed accompanied the whistling sound of dark robots flying overhead. White streaming bursts flew through the air. A bird fluttered and cawed from inside the bubble that wrapped around it as a white streamer hit it.

Containment bubbles. They wanted people alive. That meant only one thing. A slave raid. Something that happened out on the fringe worlds, but not on Earth! Not the same planet the Galactic Patrol Headquarters was stationed on!

The reasons why this could not be happening flew through Kevin’s mind as he and Christy ran back to the parking lot, but they could not counteract the reality.

The Vordac were here, and they were on the hunt.

Christy screamed and dropped to the ground as a shadow passed over them. Kevin nearly tripped from her dragging him down.

He felt something move past his head as he went down.

“Keep going,” he shouted to her. If they could make the hovercar, they could get out of the area. It was already working for others.

Christy scrambled to her feet, following him as fast as her short legs could manage. A moving shadow gave just enough warning to dodge to the side. A white streamer hit the pavement next to them, blossoming out into an empty bubble.

Too close.

He ducked at a squeal from Christy as they reached the front of the hovercar. A bubble formed on the top of the hovercar to float into the sky with nothing more than few bugs inside.

Christy scrambled inside the open door with Kevin close behind. Out of the corner of his eyes he saw a metal snake with a robotic hand at the end shoot out to where he’d once stood.

The dark shadow of it lowering to their level? Kevin’s heart thudded as he fumbled to get to the other side of the inside of the hovercar, their safety inside soon to become a prison if they didn’t move fast.

His backpack fell to the floor. He left it there as he grabbed the handle of the opposite door along with Christy’s small hands.

Behind them, he could hear the menacing hum of the robot’s power supply. Just behind them, reaching in with those long snake-like arms.

TO BE CONTINUED…