Chapter 224: (Hesstla) (1/2)
”Civil Defense is reporting thousands of landings planetwide. All civilians are urged to get to public shelters or, barring that, basements and other underground shelters. Terran military forces urge all Hesstlin within twenty miles of a Terran military base to seek refuge at the base,” the voice was saying over the radio. The woman's voice was shot with static and the loud ka-rack of laser weaponry and the high pitched whine of autocannons could be heard in the background. ”Terran military forces have labeled these things Type IV Precursors. They have entered the city and are attacking citizens.”
Dambree wept silently as she drove the car on the road, following the vehicles fleeing the city. Unlike the other vehicles, she had the lights off. Her mother was beside her, holding her baby sister, who was nursing. The baby's eyes were red and her fur was damp with tears from being pulled from her bed and thrown unceremoniously into the back of a car.
”You left your father,” her mother said softly as the cars came to a stop again. People began honking.
”He was dead,” Dambree said, her voice flat.
In her mind rose up the image of Alkree's eyes being sucked into his skull as the tentacle vacuumed his brain from his skull. How the blood-slicked bone interior of his skull steamed in the cool night air.
How he had evacuated his bladder and bowels in death as she had scrambled over his body.
”Steer clear of any landing forces. Terran forces are under attack even as they attempt to make planetfall. Do not approach any landing forces,” the female said. ”I repeat: Civil Defense is reporting thousands...”
Dambree reached over and slapped the button on the radio, shutting it off.
The cars moved forward a few feet.
A flier roared overhead, sliding to a stop. Tentacles came down, tearing open the roof of the car beneath it. The half-dozen crysteel orbs two-thirds buried in armor and machinery had only one that glowed softly blue. The tentacles pulled three Hesstlin from the car. They were screaming as the tentacle lifted them up.
Doors burst open as Hesstlin fled their vehicles and up or down the highway, screaming, to get away from the flier.
Dambree's mother reached for the door and Dambree reached out and grabbed the fur between her mother's ear, yanking her back in the car as her mother screamed in pain.
”STAY IN THE CAR!” Dambree yelled, slamming her mother into the seat. The baby didn't lose suction on the nipple.
YOU BELONG TO ME roared out in her head as the flier dropped all three limp bodies. Three of the orbs went from dark to softly glowing white.
”EAT A DICK!” Dambree screamed, echoing the voice that had answered each bellow. It was stronger now, more voices joining in, echoing in her mind. They were defiant, angry, furious, and she felt stronger joining them in their defiance.
Dambree cranked the wheel and hit the accelerator, bouncing the car over the curbs and into the field of ullikleaf.
”What's a dick?” her mother asked, rubbing the back of her head. The baby was holding tight to her breast with both hands, still nursing.
”I don't know,” Dambree admitted, gritting her teeth and trying to keep the wheel straight. ”I don't care.”
”You shouldn't leave the road,” her mother said.
”I know,” Dambree said. The car hit a furrow and jostled heavy.
The baby glared at Dambree.
”I peed myself, mommy,” Dambree's little sister said. ”And my head hurts from Dambree pulling my hair.”
”You shouldn't pull your sister's hair,” Dambree's mother said.
”I know,” Dambree said. Her shoulder hurt from where she had crashed into the door. It felt like there was something inside grinding, like marbles or something. Her fingers tingled and her biceps hurt.
”You aren't old enough to drive,” Dambree's mother noted.
”I know,” Dambree said.
”You are only in your lower modesty clothing. People can see your mammaries,” her mother said.
”I know.”
”You're makeup looks like a prostitute,” her mother said.
”I KNOW!” Dambree half screamed, tears running from her eyes.
A flier roared by overhead, close enough it rocked the car. There were two others with it, dark machines with a faint blue glow on the top.
Another flier was chasing them. A crude looking craft of black metal that looked somehow wet as well as corroded and badly welded. It had streaks erupting from the nose, arcing in on the left hand flier. The crashing roar of repeated detonations slapped Dambree's ears right before the aircraft roared overhead.
She saw the hand crushing a planet of the Terran Space Force on the bottom of the wings.
”They shouldn't fly so low,” her mother noted.
”I KNOW!” she yelled, slamming the brakes. The car jerked to stop and her siblings in the back seat cried out. She turned to her mother, resisting the urge to grab the older Hesstlin and shake her. ”I KNOW! I GOT THE CONCEPT! DAMBREE BAD!”
She turned back to facing out the windshield. ”Now will you shut up and let me...”
YOU BELONG TO ME!
This time she screamed before the voice had finished shouting in her head.
”EAT A FUCKING DICK!” she screamed as she slammed down the pedal. The electric engine whirred and the car started slowly moving forward, gradually picking up speed.
”That sounds like profanity to me,” her mother harumphed.
”I don't care,” Dambree said quietly, reaching out and grabbing the bottle from where she'd wedged it. She took two long swallows, emptying it, and threw it out the missing door.
”Drinking. Cursing. Parading around in your underclothing. Hitting your mother and yelling at her,” her mother said, shaking her head and making clicking sounds with her tongue. ”How did I ever raise such a daughter.”
Dambree slammed on the brakes, turning to look at her mother.
”They are killing people out there, and you're going to guilt me? Now? Right now? Right after we saw people get their BRAINS SUCKED OUT?” she yelled.
Her mother slapped her. ”Don't you scream at me, Dambree Limberton,” her mother said stuffily. She disconnected the baby and set her on the seat then turned to Dambree, shaking one accusing finger. ”You need to be more respectful to your...”
The tentacle punched through the roof, the graspers closed on her head, and she was yanked out of the car, still shaking one finger at Dambree.
Dambree slammed on the accelerator again, plowing through the grain, jerking the wheel to the side in the hopes that whatever had just taken her mother couldn't follow her. The car was bouncing across the ruts, through the furrows, slamming down and then bouncing into the air.
Dambree reached out and grabbed her baby sister with one hand, catching her by the leg as she flew up into the air, pulling her onto her lap.
Her sister bit her.
The grain suddenly ended and she shot across a dirt access road.
She could see lightning ripping at the air, explosions in midair. Some kind of wavy curtain made of light in mid-air was barely visible, snapping and sparking at times.
She was across the road and back into the grain, blindly steering for the lightning ripping at the air. She could look up and see streaks whipping from whatever it was and into the sky.
The side of the roof above her ripped open and she screamed, leaning to the side, putting one foot on the steering wheel, pushing the baby onto the floor of the passenger shirt so she was laying on Dambree's abandoned and forgotten shirt.
The tentacle whipped in, the open graspers snapping shut on thin air.
Dambree saw the streaks of light sudden start whipping by the flier.
Then they hit. Explosions cracked out, hurting Dambree's ears, and the flier stopped as if it had ran into the wall, the entire front consumed by rapid explosions.
Part of Dambree noticed it only had one blue light as she sat up and grabbed the steering wheel again. She looked back in time to see it explode with a shriek that she could hear inside her mind and fall into the grain a ball of greasy looking fire.
I love you, Momma, she thought to herself, tears running down her face as she looked forward, her foot holding the accelerator down.
The car hit a rut and bounced onto another dirt road, this one leading sort of toward where the bars of light kept coming from. She cranked the wheel, overturned, then overcorrected, trying to see through her tears. Her baby sister and her siblings in the back seat all squalled as the car rocked back and forth.
She came around the corner and before she could react, she hit an invisible biped in the middle of the road. The surprised looking suddenly no longer invisible biped bounced off the hood, stared at her in shock, and then vanished over the top of the car.
Dambree slammed on the brakes. She got out and looked behind her.
She could faintly make out the biped laying in the dirt. Its clothing kept blurring into the dirt road, making it hard to see. She ran over to it and bent down.
”Oh dear oh dear, I'm sorry, I'm sorry,” she cried out, tears running out of her eyes and falling onto the biped's face.
”Fuck, my legs. They're broken,” the biped moaned. She could see it had a rifle on a strap attached to its back and a heavy belt with a pistol and round spheres with rings on the top.