THEM: ARMAGEDDON (Book Three)

Chapter Seven

"That one seems like he is ready to attack anyone that comes into the forest," Derrick whispered. "There only seems to be one like it in this area and he is literally here to stop us from what we are about to do."

"Then why can't we just take him out?" Zeke asked. "We have guns, he is alone. Just shoot him through the head and go in."

"I don't think that is a very good idea," Shane said as he knelt by some grass connected to the forest, as he waved a hand along it the grass seemed to light up as in response to his movements. "Everything here is connected, and I can almost guarantee there is more of those guards in there. You kill one of them then the disturbance travels through the forest and alerts the other."

"Then what do we do?" Zeke asked. "We are gonna make a lot of noise when we go down there and he will see us, so if we can't kill him what do we do if he sees us. He will set off the alarm as much as he would if we killed him."

"I think that is how they guard it," Derrick explained. "Such a theoretically important target yet they only have a handful of guards. They don't need coverage, just the amount needed. They are likely bred and engineered like this forest, made to do nothing but protect the forest and geared to know what is going on. They have perfect system, like a network set to keep out intruders."

"Then how do we crack it though?" Zeke asked, seeming to be growing more and more frustrated by the need for subterfuge.

"Well there is a flaw," Shane commented. "For since everything is connected nothing really has any kind of freedom to determine what to do and not to do. Everything is linked and it would be hard to tell an issue from a real incursion."

"You are speaking of some kind of distraction?" Derrick commented.

"What if we start a fire?" Shane suggested. "We set some of the trees alight and when the custodian comes to check on it, we go in from elsewhere. He will be so concerned with the larger disturbance that it and no one else will see it."

"They will move pretty fast," Derrick agreed. "We can't set it and get away in time to get further in."

"I'll do it!" Zeke commented. "I will go in and set the fire and then leave. You guys enter once the smoke rises and haul ass."

"I'll go with him," Jeff offered. "We will likely have to get as far from here as possible."

"All right," Shane nodded. "You two go set the fires and Derrick and I will lead the others for the crop deeper in."

"You all might be soldiers yet," Derrick said with a laugh.

     Within moments the party was split, Zeke and Jeff took the incendiary gear and set off in their task. Shane and the others waited, and soon enough smoke began to rise to the sky. It was not long before there was movement in the forest as close to a dozen custodians moved toward Zeke and Jeff.

"There are too many!" Shane said in shock. "Jeff and Zeke will be overrun."

"Maybe," Derrick said as he looked to Shane, a look of serious urgency plain on his face. "Maybe they can elude them. Either way we gotta go. They cracked this lace right open and we have to make sure that if they are going to make a sacrifice play, we got to make it worth it."

     The friend in Shane called out to not do it, the version of him before he was forced to become a soldier said to help his friends. However, the fact that they were in an alien terrain in a place built to keep humans out could not be ignored. They had but one chance and they knew that the price might be as it was.

     Shane stood, signalling the rest of the team to move. They would move as fast as possible and soon be so deep into the interconnected forest that the custodians would have issues figuring out what was them and what was the forest. The edge would be well protected, but the inside was so dense that it would take more to spring the trap. If they could get in, they could get what the aliens were hiding. Shane could only hope for the best for his friends, he had a job still to do.

     Harris ducked out of the back door of her office. Harris's long hair blew in the slight wind as she adjusted her white blouse and dark skirt. Her heels clicked on the ground as she got out her purse and searched it for the small pack and lighter that she hid in the bottom. It had been a long day and she just could not take it anymore. She used to smoke a lot when she was younger but had given it up long ago. That was before the company went public. She went from normal routine days to each day being a potential disaster. She was working late for her third day in a row and it seemed that everything could fall down like a house of cards at any time.

     The office was strictly nonsmoking, those inside like the idea of green-washing, the art of pretending to be green and progressive but not actually doing it. Though the company had a lot of gratuitous waste, they struck back at the smokers and others for their vices and made it look like they were doing it for the greater good. Things were so hectic lately, all the work for the new phase of the company and people talking about a strange comet or something in space and everyone just speculating.

     Just as she was about to finish her cigarette, she heard footsteps on the other side of the door. She threw the smoke to the ground, crushing it under her high heel. The door opened up and she saw Lesko. He was a middle-aged tech worker with a grey vest worn over his white shirt. He was dressed like the quintessential midtown unformed executive. He looked around, seeming to be sniffing around like he could tell someone was smoking.

"Can you believe someone was smoking out here?" Harris said in a suspicious tone. "I just came out here to make a call and all I can smell is vile cigarette smoke."

Lesko looked to her then looked around. "Such a disgusting thing. Do you know how many cigarette butts end up in the stomachs of manatees every year? They banned the plastic straw, next is going to be smoking."

"I know right," Harris replied, trying to make her agreement sound genuine. "So nasty."

"If it was up to me, I would make it mandatory to divulge if you were a smoker on job applications." Lesko snapped. "Vaping too!"

"And smoking pot!" Harris agreed.

"Hey, let's not be too hasty!" Lesko retorted.

"Well, either way, I gotta get back to work," Harris said with a false smile, reasonably convinced that she had adequately perpetrated her ruse.

"You believe that some people believe that the comet is proof of alien civilizations?" Lesko commented. "I saw it on the net earlier."

"They think a lot of things," Harris commented. "But ultimately it will probably end up something that is a fascinating footnote in some scientific text and forgotten by most people."

"I can't say I much care about aliens or things in space at all really," Lesko commented. "There is too much down here we got to worry about. Have I told you about the bees?"

"Many times," Harris commented. "You are seemingly obsessed with bees."

Lesko nodded like he had gotten the opportunity to talk about them and he was going to take advantage of it. "Every year a million bees..."

     Lesko was interrupted as thunderous booms were heard from the horizon. It was like the sky opened up hundreds of miles away and tried to eat the ground below. Harris shot up form her roll in the bunker. She was covered in sweat and breathing heavily. She had thought that she had blocked out the dream and had not had it in a while. 

     It was the day the aliens invaded, and it seemed like anything before it was not real. She remembered talking to the others about how they had issues focusing on the world before and it was not uncommon. She remembered how much work she put into acting normal, how much she tried to desperately look like she fit in. She hid her experience from military school to fit in at a private tech firm. She hid the fact she smoked. She hid the fact she had strange hobbies like art. 

     It all seemed like the most important thing in the world to be like everyone else and to be the person people expected her to be. However now when the aliens had taken the earth and life was war, she thought back to those things and they felt so trivial. She had quit smoking because it was not important to survival and her bobbies. Well, they literally did nit exist anymore. 

     Who she was and how she fit in with others was moot? Her individuality and her skills were now important as they were relevant. She had gone from just some woman working in a company that was unimportant to a leader of men and a war strategist in the fight against the aliens.