Anthony DeCosmo - Disintegration

Around noon, they caught sight of their destination.

The snow-loaded clouds could not hide the atmospheric disturbance on the horizon: flashing lights, some similar to the flicker of lightning, others more balls of energy catapulted away from the gate into the distance.

Trevor landed on a field surrounded by a running track on the northeast side of campus.

The buildings of the State University of New York at Binghamton stood in clusters separated by parking lots, access roads, and strips of trees made bare by winter. Fire, explosions or general ransacking had damaged many of those buildings.

They entered Hunter Hall on the south side of campus and established a temporary command post. Trevor and Danny went to a dorm room on the top floor and pointed binoculars at the ten-story tall abomination sitting in a vacant parking lot six hundred yards away.

"Jesus," Danny muttered without his usual good humor. "Just the sight of that thing makes my skin crawl."

The Grenadiers in the room seemed to agree; they fidgeted nervously and did something Trevor's dogs rarely did: whimpered.

Nina, wearing a leather jacket over black BDUs, strode in. Behind her came the other three members of her recon team including Dante who wore a hodgepodge of winter gear.

She said, "I don’t get it. There’s some pretty nasty stuff up by the gateway, but between here and there not much. I’m just saying, the scariest thing we saw in any of these buildings were some rats and a raccoon."

Trevor lowered the binoculars but kept his eyes focused on the distant sphere. A ball of energy shot away and disappeared into the steady drizzle of white puffs.

Dante suggested, "Man, it’s like it’s just throwing monsters into our world."

One of Nina’s other team members-a short but strong fellow with a scavenged parka over green army BDUs-added his thoughts: "Maybe the area around here is under its range. Sort of like an artillery piece has a minimum distance based on the firing arc."

Trevor tried to remember the man’s name.

Rhodes. Yes. That’s it. Rhodes.

He looked over the second soldier who had accompanied Nina: A big guy-so big he could have been a professional wrestler instead of a professional soldier-named Casey.

Nina continued, "Whatever the case, it's sitting over there on parking lot X."

Trevor saw something on Nina's face, an expression akin to puzzlement; or maybe she was getting sick. In fact, her entire recon team shared the same look: brows crinkled, noses twitching and vacant eyes.

"What? What is it?"

Nina answered, "It makes a noise. A thumping."

"No, no," Rhodes presented a different take. "Like a whining. But really low."

Dante said, "It wasn’t like you hear it with your ears, but like it's inside your head. Gave me the creeps, Trev."

Washburn chided, "Take off the skirt, Nancy."

Dante responded with his middle finger.

Trevor raised binoculars and faced the 10-story tall gateway again.

A strange texture covered the sphere, one mimicking frosted glass. A brownish bark-like material that appeared to have sprouted from the ground framed the orb and held it in place. That globe rippled every so often, as if it had a liquid surface yet the skin appeared solid.

Inside that sphere, movement. A ball of something like worms the size of oil pipes, spinning lines and shapes at the core. Still, all the time, flashes of lightning and bolts of energy flying away toward unseen destinations: a new horror airmailed to Earth.

Nina’s voice grabbed his attention: "That’s not all. Look at this."

Rhodes handed Trevor a digital camera.

"There are things guarding it," Nina explained as Trevor cycled through images.

"Two of them," Dante said. "Probably the ugliest damn things I’ve ever seen."

They were big and round; the size and shape of wrecking balls. Fibers sprouted from their bodies and waved madly like Medusa’s hair. They were covered with oval eyes and gaping mouths seemingly placed randomly around their bodies.

Rhodes hacked to hold back nausea as he told Trevor, "They leave, sort of, a pus behind. Like snail tracks when they roll around."

Trevor crinkled his nose and asked, "Danny, what do you think?"

"I think we stick to the original idea. There’s plenty of farm country around here. We can find what we need. I’m sure there’s an abandoned 18-wheeler around here somewhere, too."

"Okay then," Trevor agreed. "We go with the whole big boom idea."

"Super-genius," Casey-the big soldier-imitated the Coyote from Roadrunner fame. "Wile E. Coyote, Suupppeerr Genius. I think I like the sound of that."

– The advanced team spent the night in Hunter and Cascade residence halls overlooking the campus’ main access road. They expected the ground convoy in the morning.

Trevor, Danny Washburn, and Nina shared an upstairs corner room with Odin and Tyr. The two men kept watch while Nina curled under a blanket and fell asleep.

The constant flashes from the gateway sparked flickers behind the steady stream of falling snow flurries; the only light on an otherwise black night. As hypnotizing as those flashes were, Trevor's eyes drifted to the sleeping Nina.

In the old world, he often wondered why Ashley Trump cared for him. She felt like a gift for which he was not worthy.

As he watched Nina sleep, he appreciated the fortune in meeting her but he did not feel unworthy. To him, she served as an anchor to his humanity. In her arms, he found parts of his old self; parts he thought buried under the weight of responsibility. With her, he gained a purpose beyond the great cause: something precious to Trevor Stone the man.

Yet despite his love for her, he knew he could not limit Nina's risk in the battles ahead. Not only because she was one of mankind's best warriors, but because he had to let her be who she was. He owed that to her no matter how much the fear of losing her scared him.

Danny Washburn, sitting on the floor against the outside wall, broke Trevor’s thoughts.

"You really love this girl, don’t you?"

It did not embarrass Trevor to admit his feelings. "Yeah. I do."

"That’s great. You deserve it. Before, the two of you were all doom and gloom and ‘oh-my-god it’s the end of the world.’ Now you’re not nearly as much an asshole."

"Danny, it kind of is the end of the world."

"It’s the end of the world when we give up. Look at how we did against everything we’ve faced so far. Could of packed it in, instead we fought and what happened? We won."

Trevor asked, "So what do you think all of this is about?"

Danny considered his words for a moment-a rarity for him-and then shared, "At first I figured this was all just, you know, a big invasion like Independence Day. After all I've seen I'm starting to figure we don’t know why it's happening. Maybe we’re stuck in the middle, like ants on the canvass of a boxing ring. Or maybe we haven’t seen all the pieces."

A tease of a memory danced across Trevor’s mind. A memory from his dark nightmare in the clutches of The Order.

Something…

Danny went on, "Maybe if we survive long enough we'll we find out. But damn, I look at this gate thing and I know there are some higher pay grades running this show."

Trevor thought about the Old Man.

What is his pay grade?

Danny said to Trevor, "Hey, curl up next to your honey and forget about this for a bit. Don’t worry, ole’ Danny’s here. I’ll keep a sharp eye out."

Trevor hesitated.

"Go on, I gotchya covered."

Stone followed his friend’s advice. He rested his carbine on a tabletop, grabbed another blanket, and rolled next to Nina. He slipped his arm over her shoulder and even though she slept, she wiggled closer.

Trevor listened to the gentle rhythm of her breathing. The sound calmed his nerves, put his heart at ease, and led him off into a quiet slumber.