Planet B

Ch.1

It doesn't matter how many you kill, it won't bring her back.

William ducked behind a rusted out pickup, panting and trying to catch his breath. His limbs ached. His fingers, what was left of them, burned with fatigue. His slashed up clothing told of one too many close calls, but the metal-lined body armor and vambraces underneath promised safety from most blades. A spear though, or even a club, would result in the William digesting in a monster's stomach. There were probably worse ways to die, but not many. Being eaten alive while watching your friends fight all around you is quite the doozy.

William looked to the sky, suddenly cognizant that there were no birds. True, there hadn't been birds in a long time, but every once in a while it became incredibly clear how much things had changed. How all the birds of prey no longer circled in the sky searching for meals. Or electricity was a thing of the past. Or how a baseball field no longer had teenagers playing ball but instead held human and monster alike dying on the grass.

Rosemount High, like every building for hundreds of miles in any direction, lay destitute and in ruins. Looters were the original culprits, back when the police abandoned the cities. The school gymnasiums and local community centers full of disaster supplies were ripe for the taking. With no one to maintain or even care what happened to them, the schools, along with nearly every other building in occupied territory, stood with broken windows and forgotten memories. William had no particular attachment to this school or any other, but it wasn't hard to imagine it full of students laughing and playing, and their greatest concerns being the results of their calculus test and if so-and-so would say yes to prom. At least now with fight or flight again dictating action, life was simpler. Chaim was always pointing this out.

"William!" A woman's voice whispered harshly in his ear. He flinched, banging his head on the side of the truck, his mop of brown hair doing little to cushion the impact. "What's the plan?"

The whisper did little to help make Joel's voice pleasant, especially as she was right next to him. A displaced Bostonian, she had a harsh accent. A matter-of-fact attitude that ran contrary to Minnesota-nice caused many people in the resistance to feel uncomfortable around her. She was also William's girlfriend. It was a recent thing; took him a while to get used to her bluntness. Her family and everyone she knew was back on the east coast. With Minnesota being ground zero for this continent's Cryton invasion, she had the misfortune of being in the wrong place at the wrong time and like many became stuck behind enemy lines. She'd only within the last few months found herself a part of William's resistance faction.

He rasped in a hushed whisper, not wanting to draw the attention of those Crytons still fighting. "We've got to finish off what's left here at the diamond. It's littered with cars as blockades, almost as if they knew we were coming. Their tactics change almost as often as they do." He glanced around behind them. "Football field and parking lot are clear, I don't know about the middle school next door."

The field stood charred and smoking, dozens of cars piled and toppled for makeshift barricades. Through the truck window he watched as three of his fellow resistance members charged some stranded defenders, the Crytons each standing a foot taller than the militia, their transparent skin showing grey muscles underneath. Cryton bodies lie strewn about the ground, clawed hands often still clutching black swords. Compared to the humans that were interspersed throughout the bodies, it was a surprise they lasted as long as they did in battle. The monsters attacked with reckless abandon. As a group there were sometimes tactics, but once separated they went into a crazed frenzy. A patient fighter should be able to dispatch one with the right approach, but their speed and strength often took people by surprise.

William avoided looking at the human corpses, the disaster of today's attack very present. They weren't all friends but they were all human and all fighting for the same cause. Survival. The Crytons were supposed to be in the open and unawares. The fact that they had fortifications should have been a clear indicator that something was amiss.