Jim Thorn - Arrival - A Post-Apocalyptic Thriller

“There’s no time. We have to defend this place.”

“Or hide,” a man said.

A woman screamed from the other side of the office. Two men held her down in an office chair as she tried to claw her way through them to the main warehouse floor.

“You have to let me go! My baby’s out there!”

“Stop it! You can’t go out there!” said one of the men holding her back.

Maya raced over to them.

“What happened?”

“My son,” the woman said. “He got scared and ran off towards the back of the warehouse instead of following us to the office.” She looked at the men. “You have to let me get him! My Daniel is out there!”

“I’m sorry, but we can’t,” a man said.

Maya saw a handgun holstered on one of the men’s hips. While he was holding the woman back, Maya took it and ran to the front of the office.

“Hey! Give that back!”

Kenny reached for Maya and said, “Wait! What are you doing?”

“Something those cowards won’t.”

Maya ran from the office, shutting the door behind her.

Four aliens had entered the warehouse. People continued to fire at them as they backed toward the office door in the hopes of making it inside. While they had the aliens distracted, Maya ducked right, sprinting for the rear of the warehouse.

The offices stretched along the far side of the warehouse, all the way to the rear of the building. She passed a pair of bathrooms and saw a door leading into the back of the office when she reached the building’s exterior wall. She still hadn’t seen Daniel anywhere.

Maya squeezed into the small space between the metal racks and the building’s exterior wall. She saw flashes of gunfire still coming from the front of the warehouse.

She climbed between two pallets and into the next aisle. Looking toward the front of the building again, she saw the aliens. Two had fallen, and two others were absorbing a barrage of gunfire as they advanced on the office. They didn’t seem to be carrying the same weapons as the creatures outside had.

“Daniel? Are you here?”

No response.

Suddenly, the gunfire coming from the front of the warehouse stopped, and a bizarre silence filled the building.

I don’t know how much farther away from that office I can get. One more aisle, and then I’m turning back.

She was about to squeeze between two more pallets when she heard a sniffle. Maya followed the noise and saw a ten-year-old boy sitting at the back of a pallet in the second rack.

“Daniel, I’m here to help you. You’ve got to come down.”

“I’m too scared,” he said.

“I know. So is your mom. That’s why we’ve got to get you back to her. Take my hand, and I’ll help you down.”

Daniel reached out with a shaking hand and Maya stretched out, trying to grab it. The boy slipped and fell off the second rack, luckily landing on his feet. But he’d come down on a pallet, snapping the wooden slats. The noise reverberated throughout the warehouse. Maya grabbed him and put her hand over his mouth. She peered out and around the pallet, spotting one of the aliens lumbering down the aisle.

The alien paused, turned, and came at them.

“We’ve got to run.” Maya pointed across the aisle. “Go that way until you get to the office. Get into the first door if you can.”

“Don’t leave me.”

“I’m not. I’ll be right behind you. But I’m going to distract that thing so you can get away.”

“Distract what?”

Maya cupped his face. “You keep your eyes straight ahead and run. Don’t look around. Promise.”

“I promise.”

“Now, go!”

Daniel ran out into the middle of the aisle and froze. She lunged forward and pushed him along, guiding him to the gap in the pallets she had squeezed through.

“Go!”

The boy finally took off.

Maya turned down the long aisle to see the alien twenty yards away. Closer up now, she could see that it wasn’t armed with one of the laser-like weapons she’d seen before. She held her gun and backed up against the brick wall. Looking to each side, she knew the creature wouldn’t be able to squeeze between these pallets.

The alien came toward her, cutting the distance between them in half. The creature walked like a human, but with long, measured strides. She could see the contours of the alien’s armor or suit, and the polished glass protecting its eyes seemed to flicker like light through a prism.

Maya held the gun behind her back, sweat collecting around the grip of the hidden weapon.

Come on, big guy. Come and get some.

Maya drew the gun and waited for it to get within ten feet before firing three shots at the alien. The creature cried out, caught off guard and waving its arms in the air as if was trying to shoo off the bullets. She sped into the racks on her left, running between the pallets and into the next aisle.

The alien’s scream echoed through the warehouse, most likely attracting the attention of the others.

Maya reached the exterior wall and squeezed into the narrow space at the back of the racks. The alien pushed through the pallets as she reached the last aisle, closest to the office.

Maya glanced up to see a person grab Daniel into the office. Several others began firing again, trying to hold off the aliens. She looked over to see the creature she’d shot pursuing her through the pallets in the next aisle over.

She sprinted, but tripped over a box that had fallen into the middle of the aisle. When she jumped to her feet, she saw someone waving at her to hurry.

Boxes exploded to her right and Maya covered her head as a wave of burning cardboard fell to the floor.

The alien reached out and grabbed hold of her neck, pushing Maya backward into a bathroom. A man screamed her name as the door shut, and Maya found herself face to face with the alien.

Maya sat on the floor, her knees knocking together and her heart racing. She felt as though she were at the zoo, standing naked before a hungry lion who had gotten out of his cage.

She used her heels to shuffle backward like a crab until her back struck a wall. Then she pushed herself to her feet, standing, but trapped. The creature snarled, the sound like that of a rabid dog—menacing and feral. Maya looked around for anything she could use as a weapon, although even a gun had barely seemed to slow it down. She’d not even bothered to fire at the alien again.

The creature’s chest heaved, and a low, ragged purr replaced the angry snarl. She looked closer, now seeing that the alien wore some type of mask that covered its eyes and mouth—the fluorescent light reflecting off smooth, obsidian lenses.

The beast took a step toward her, its head nearly scraping the ceiling.

“Please,” Maya said. “Why are you doing this?”

The alien cocked its head to the side.

“Do you understand what I am saying?”

The alien focused on her, and she detected flickering behind the protective lenses covering its eyes. She heard air hissing through the gridded plate over its mouth, the breaths even and perfectly measured.

Without warning, it came at Maya.

In a moment of pure self-preservation, Maya’s martial arts training took over. She kicked the alien in the side and then landed a kick in the creature’s midsection. The alien staggered, but didn’t fall.

Maya stood straight and prepared to go at the thing again. If this was the end for her, she wasn’t going to die a whimpering woman—she was going to fight.

The alien lunged at her again, and Maya kicked it in the knee. It bent over momentarily, and that was when Maya delivered a jab aimed for the alien’s mouth, which was almost out of her reach given the creature’s height. But the alien’s arm came up so fast that it caught her wrist and twisted it before she even felt the pain. Maya punched at it with her other arm, but the alien caught that one, as well. It squeezed until she thought the bones in her arm would snap. She cried out, dropping to her knees while the alien held her in the air by her wrists.