James Scotson - Planets Falling

“They live.”

“What guarantees do I have?”

“My sister does not lie.”

That’s not much of a guarantee coming from a living corpse. I look at the grey, shriveled creature before me with scratches torn across its face, searching for any sign of life in its eyes. The orbs stare through me, white marbles with no depth. I raise my rifle and finally send the poor thing to its grave. I yell back into the lodge, “I guess we’re fighting.”

The grubs appear almost instantly in the tree line. Gorian mutters, “Here we go.” She pushes a button and a blinding pink light flashes, billowing smoke next to a group of them. When the grey haze clears, we see that they’re gone. Theo whoops. Bets is less optimistic. “Theo, we only have a limited number of those. After one more charge, that part of the perimeter will be open. We need to concentrate our fire there.”

As she expected, the grubs begin to move toward the apparent gap. Gorian fires the second charge, immolating them. Bets commands, “Now that’s open space for them to advance. Keep shooting there. Hopefully, these things will look for another gap and we can blow some more charges.”

We use our rifles at the highest settings. The grubs seem to be irritated by the shots and don’t advance. A few look for other passageways through our perimeter. Additional charges explode as Gorian maintains our defense. To our dismay, Thresh’s live soldiers appear at the periphery. There are about a hundred souls and they look terrified. A pink charge ignites near them and about half are incinerated. The survivors run back into the forest.

“Regroup and advance,” a voice I recognize as Jonah’s bellows. Thresh and Jonah appear on horseback. More soldiers advance on the line. Thresh sends the grubs back toward the opening in our perimeter. They resist our fire and begin to spread out inside of the lodge grounds.

“Oh shit,” Gorian exclaims. “This is a circus.” She begins igniting a series of secondary mines, which the grubs ignore. We fire the few rockets we have at the creatures with no apparent effect. The living soldiers file in behind them, occasionally shooting flaming arrows at the lodge, with no effect. More mines ignite, blowing bits and pieces of Thresh’s human army across the bloody snow. The screams of the injured are appalling.

We pick off the live soldiers the best we can but they’re advancing quickly. The grubs head for the doors and windows. A pod of corpses overwhelm our fire and scratch at the outside walls. Theo exclaims, “There’re too damn many of them. What should we do?”

Gorian curses and says, “Sam, shutter us in.”

The doors and windows transform to metal with a satisfying thud, reverberating through the building. “How long do you think they’ll hold?” Bets asks.

Gorian shrugs. “The building’s built like a bunker with those stone and concrete walls. There’s a reason it’s lasted over a thousand years. Without explosives, they’ll have trouble getting to us. It all depends on how strong the grubs are.”

The sound of the siege outside is muffled. Sam streams images of the attackers on Gorian’s tablet computer. Thresh and Jonah tower over the soldiers on their horses. They’re clearly frustrated, shouting orders. The grubs have surrounded the lodge and scratch at the sealed openings, with no success. A few of the live soldiers climb onto the roof, discovering the surface is solid metal. They stuff a couple of corpses into the chimney, thinking that they might smoke us out. They don’t realize that we have an alternative heat and cooking source thanks to Sam. We close the flue to stop the stench from wafting inside.

Iggy sprays himself from a bottle. “We seemed to have bought ourselves some time.”

“But for how long?” Bets takes a long draught of water. “They’ll eventually figure out a way to get in here.”

I gaze at Thresh and her lover on Gorian’s screen. The horses that she and Jonah are using are Phineus and Silius. What else will this woman take from me?

After a few hours, Thresh and most of her troops recede into the forest. A few grubs and soldiers remain. The injured have long frozen to death, their bodies awaiting Thresh to revive them. The animated dead animals and humans wander aimlessly, to the disgust of their living companions.

“Where’d they all go I wonder?” Theo asks.

I pause for a moment. I can feel Thresh nearby. “They’re not far away. I gather they’re regrouping, looking for ways to break into the building.”

We hear a large tree crashing in the forest. Iggy nods. “There’s your answer. They are going to use a tree as a battering ram. An ancient, yet effective technique.”

Gorian perks up. “Sam, given the thickness of the security shutters, how will the entrance stand up to a two ton tree?”

“It is difficult for me to calculate accurately. Given the tensile strength of the shutter material and the concentrated force of the log, assuming it is a pine, the front door can withstand twenty to thirty impacts before buckling.”

Gorian slumps back into her chair, her belly hanging precariously over her knees. “I never thought I’d say this, but it’s time to pray to your gods.”

Theo appears from the kitchen. “Well, if this be our last meal, we might as well make it worth our while. I scored a cask of ale from storage. It’s wonderful. Let’s eat and drink to our health.”

“And long life,” Iggy adds.

Bets chuckles grimly.

We eat grimly, trying to ignore the eerie silence outside the lodge walls. Theo spoons some of the green goop that Iggy’s eating into his mouth. He grimaces. “How do you live on that stuff? It’s rank.”

Gorian muses looking nowhere in particular. “Grey loves Iggy’s food.” She sighs.

“Theo, this goop is similar to the algae that we eat on nauron. Nothing like it exists on earth. I very much miss the taste of the real stuff. Perhaps you will have an opportunity to try it someday if we can leave earth.” Iggy takes another bite.

“You mean if we make it out of here alive.” Bets finishes her glass of ale and pours another.

“Slow down there Bets my girl.” Theo puts his hand over his cup, gesturing for her to do the same. “We’re going to have to fight soon.”

“What’s the point?”

“Bets, you’ve never backed down. Ever. Don’t make me sad and disappointed.” He wrinkles his nose. “Have some faith.”

“In what, exactly? English had faith and it sucked him down a giant drain hole. We need to be realistic. They’re going to break down that door and tear us apart.”

Iggy sets down his spoon and looks intently at Bets with his dark, glossy eyes. “Even if they win, we’ll hurt them badly. However, it seems to me that we need to stop Thresh to prevail. Any thoughts?”

“Deep down she’s a coward,” I say. “She’ll stay back until every last one of her troops are dead, including Jonah, the man that was with her on Silius. She’ll never give us the opportunity for a fair fight. If she loses to us, she’ll walk away, regroup, and keep attacking until we give up.”

Sam speaks. “Excuse me. I regret that Iggy was correct. They are using four of the creatures — grubs as you call them — to carry a 10-meter-long log to the entrance. They will begin battering the door within moments.”

“Sam, please cut the outdoor lights. Also, dim the lights in here by ninety percent.”

“Certainly Gorian.” The lights dim.

“Well guys that should make things a bit awkward out there until they can start a fire for light. We need to be ready for them when they breach the door. I suggest we barrage them with suppressing fire as long as we can. When they finally break through our defense, we split up and disperse into the lodge. There are plenty of rooms in which to hide. Sam, open up the windows and doors at our request. Perhaps some of us might be able to wriggle out and escape into the back.”