Jim Thorn - Invasion

“Ugh, I forgot you can do that,” Maya said. “You still need to drink some water anyway to rehydrate, so take it.”

He accepted the water from Laura, twisting off the cap and pressing the bottle to his lips. He drank in huge gulps, his eyes closed.

A jolt of electric pain rocketed through his jaw as he did, and he put the water bottle down and grabbed the sun visor.

Maya said, “Wait, you might not want to look at your—”

But he ignored her and pulled it down, revealing the mirror underneath. His nose had swollen to twice its size and his lip had been split in three places. He winced, already noticing a blackened bruise blooming on the left side of his face.

Nobody in the truck said a word. Reno shook his head, slammed the visor back up, and looked at Maya.

“Where’s Gerald and John?”

But he knew. He’d glanced in the side view mirror several times and there hadn’t been another vehicle behind them, nor was their one up ahead. And the other men sure as hell weren’t riding inside the fertilizer tank mounted where the truck’s bed had once been.

Maya kept her hands at ten and two, and wouldn’t even look at him. Aiden sniffled and Laura shook her head, her teeth biting into her bottom lip.

“You left them behind.”

That couldn’t have been her only option. Could it?

“Why?”

Maya’s body stiffened. “What? I told John we’d go back for them if we could.”

“We could have found a way to get to Cincy without leaving anyone behind.”

“And what would that have been? You couldn’t help us problem-solve, could you, Reno? Do you know what he did to you?”

“The last thing I remember is fighting.”

“He beat you within an inch of your life. I seriously thought you were dead. Remember the time we answered that call to Printer’s Alley for the dude who’d been jumped? It was like that.”

Reno did remember that. A forty-year-old guy had been beaten by a group of men who’d used Maglites as fists. Maya wouldn’t have brought that up unless she really wanted to make a point, but it didn’t convince him she’d done the right thing. Gerald had beaten him. But they’d been fighting, and every fight had a winner and a loser. He’d just happened to lose. Leaving John and Gerald behind was giving them a death sentence, and Reno wouldn’t have wished that on anyone, even the man who’d beaten his ass.

“We should turn around and get them now.”

Maya sighed, and Reno felt Laura shift on the seat beside him.

His old partner started to say something twice, but each time she struggled to get the words out.

“The aliens will kill them both,” he said simply. “Gerald is the father of your children.”

“I know goddamn well who he is!”

Reno winced as the sound of her yelling threatened to rip his head apart, the pain now throbbing at the base of his skull.

“You think it was easy for me to leave him behind? John understood. I had no choice. We didn’t have the time to wait around and try to fix the other truck or find one that worked. We only have until dusk to make it to that stadium before they’re likely going to lock it up. And he’d lost it, Reno. You saw him at the rest stop. The guy we left behind isn’t the man I married.”

Reno nodded, then looked at Aiden and Laura, but both kids continued staring silently out the windshield.

“I’m sorry you had to make that decision.”

Maya turned her head and glanced past her kids to make eye contact with Reno. “So am I.”

He sat there, the pain in his chest now rivaling the pain in his head. Stress. It always made him tight. Reno saw the horizon darkening and realized they only had a few hours of sunlight left.

They’d all done things under the dome that they would never have done in their old lives. But this, this was different. If it had been the mother of Reno’s children, he would have done everything possible to get them to Cincy. Everything . She’d left Gerald and John behind. Maybe Maya wasn’t the person he’d thought she was. Maybe this was the real Maya, and if that was the case, he’d have some soul-searching to do once they reached Cincinnati safety.

They passed the sign for Florence, Kentucky, signaling they had about eleven miles until they reached Cincinnati. That city might as well have been on a different planet compared to their old lives.

Maybe the alien threat was the one driving the truck.

Maya checked the speedometer again. She was doing seventy in a maintenance truck that wasn’t made to go faster than forty. It rumbled constantly, the shakes vibrating through her hands. Her foot had been pressed all the way to the floor, and yet the damn truck wouldn’t go any faster.

No one had spoken since Maya had—not even Reno. Was he serious? Did he really think she’d endanger her children by bringing along that madman? He might have been their father, but she had been raising them. Maya would keep them safe now, as she had their entire lives. Who was Reno to question her about that? What did he know about protecting children? Nothing, that’s what.

Reno wouldn’t even look at her, though. He sat with his chin on his hand, staring out his window. It eerily reminded her of when Gerald had been riding in that same seat only hours earlier. He’d been sitting in almost the same position.

She couldn’t manage yet another child right now. Reno would have to sulk on his own. If she didn’t get the truck to Cincinnati, they’d all die.

But even that doubt had begun to creep in on her, turning her stomach and making her sweat. Once daylight was gone, they had to be inside of that stadium. But what if Donna had gotten bad information? Or worse yet, what if the aliens had already managed to destroy the stadium?

As they crested a hill, the Cincinnati skyline came into view.

Maya smiled, and out of the corner of her eye she saw Reno sit up. He hunched forward and grinned. He’d seen the same thing she had—no dome and no smoke. The city stood.

The truck rambled along Route 71 and across the bridge, carrying them above the Ohio River and across state lines. Paul Brown Stadium sat on the banks of the river, to the east.

“Is that where we’re going?” Laura asked.

“It is,” Reno said. “There should be an exit up here; then we should be home free.”

Maya nodded but didn’t say a word, not willing to allow her focus to fade for even an instant until they had made it inside the stadium. She saw the exit sign and took the off-ramp toward the parking lot.

The sky suddenly dimmed. Maya knew the sun was setting, but it felt like darkness was coming too fast. Like it was artificial. Alien .

Laura looked up into the sky. “Something doesn’t feel right.”

The ground shook then, and Maya looked into the rearview mirror. Her first thought was that a hive of mad bees had begun chasing them—a mass of insects so large that they blotted out the sun. But she knew better. They weren’t bees.

Near the southern horizon and coming through the darkening sky, a laser flashed like lightning and Maya could see the nose of a massive alien ship descending through the clouds in a swarm of flying aliens. Hundreds, possibly thousands, filled the sky, and the dark cloud began to close the distance.

Reno turned to look out the back window and then spun in his seat, waving his hands at Maya. “Go! Go!”

Maya stomped on the gas and jerked the wheel to the right. Reno kept his eyes to the sky as Maya slowed through the parking lots, following signs to the stadium entrance. Three minutes, four tops. That’s about how long she thought they had before the aliens would be on top of them.