A week later, Aziz thought about their still sole encounter as he planted potatoes. They have moved to giving each other goodnight kisses, but he’s back to sleeping on the air mattress. He wondered if this was the time when he should push to move things forward. He was comfortable with his feelings. He was in love and willing to commit to spending the rest of their lives together. He wasn’t sure if she was ready or not.
He heard something behind him that got him to turn towards the cliff. A few hundred meters away, he saw a huge creature pulling itself up over the cliff and onto the plateau. After seeing so much of the carcass, there was no doubt what this was. It was another of the same creature. He froze for a moment in fear and amazement. Then he realized a second one was coming up beside the first.
He turned towards the house, screaming at the top of his lungs. “They’re coming! More creatures are coming!”
He saw Marianne come out of the barn. She looked at him for a moment and then saw what was behind him. She pulled her rifle off her shoulder and pointed towards the house. “The kids are napping. Get them to Eleanor’s”
Aziz headed to his house and woke the children. He picked up Genevieve and held Pierre’s hand as they ran towards the barn, where Pascal is stabled. Watching the creatures intently, Marianne said, “Watch what they do, I’ll saddle the horse. I’m faster than you. Shout if they start coming this way. Message the council our emergency while you watch.”
Aziz grabbed his device and sent a short message as an emergency.
“Pascal is saddled.”
“One of them is coming this way.”
“On it. Get them out of here NOW!”
Aziz is trying to hold both children in front of him and get Pascal to go as quickly as he can without bouncing anyone off. As he is leaving, he hears two screams of the plasma rifle and the unmistakable shriek of a creature being hit.
++++++
Marianne’s shots hit the creature heading for the barn, completely severing one of its large tentacles. It stopped and shrieked loudly. Well at least the whole plateau now knew they’re here again. They won’t ignore the emergency for 36 minutes this time.
The one she hit seemed to be licking its wounds, metaphorically at least. She did not think it had a tongue.
With the near one stationary, she shifted her attention to the other three she could see. She was surprised by how fast they moved. She’d assumed something that size would lumber, but they were moving about as fast as she could run. And for all she knew, this could be a slow amble for them. She shifted to the side of the barn, watching through a crack. She wanted to make sure none of them outflanked her.
But the other three made a beeline towards her house. The house that had been damaged in the last attack but was still standing through some miracle of its construction. Not for long, though. The creatures were methodically dismantling it, ripping its support beams out and tossing them aside like burned out matches.
They were tearing down the house with a purpose, seemingly searching for something. She decided to take the time while their attention was on her former house to slip further away. She took one more glance out the back of the barn and slipped out the front of it, across the street and behind some bushes on the other side. She could now see all four of the creatures she was aware of, letting her keep full situational awareness of when she needed to retreat further.
In a position of temporary safety, she sent a second emergency message to the council.
She took the time to watch the three dismantle her house. They discovered the trap door and started ripping out the floor boards to expose the entire crawlspace. She might be anthropomorphizing the creatures motivations, but they seemed to be searching for something in the house. Do they think she’s still there? Do they think the rifle’s there? After her earlier shots, she’d expected them to march on the barn, but they didn’t seem interested in that.
++++++
Aziz pulled up to Eleanor’s house. She’d already come out to meet him. “What’s going on over there?”
“There are at least three creatures attacking. She gave me covering fire while I got the kids here. I think she’s just trying to watch them for now. I’ve not heard any more shots or shrieks.”
“Surveilling them while staying a safe distance is the right tactical call for her. Good girl, Mar. This is not hero time.” Eleanor said. She turned towards the house, “Claire, I need you out here NOW!”
Claire came out the front door, looking put upon. “The colony is under attack by the creatures. Not the Germans, you notice. Take Pierre and Genevieve into the house. If you hear creatures coming this way or plasma rifle shots close by, and no one else is here, get all five of you down in the crawlspace. I don’t care how fucking creepy it is. Get these kids down there or there will be hell to pay. DO YOU HEAR ME!”
“Yes, I hear you Eleanor. I’m not deaf.”
Aziz handed Genevieve to her and then helped Pierre slide off. Claire brought them into the house. “Let’s go see what Jean-Luc and Bertrand are doing!”
As soon as Claire was in the house, Eleanor muttered, “She may not be deaf, but she sure is dumb.”
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Aziz snorted.
“I’m going to go help Mar. You go into town and make sure they understand what’s going on. Hopefully we’ll connect up in not too long.”
“Good luck, Eleanor.”
“Luck has nothing to do with it!” she shouted as she went into the barn.
++++++
Eleanor was still far away from Marianne’s house site when she realized how wrong things were. Because it was a house site now, not a house. Not a single bit of the former house rose above the ground. The barn was there next door, looking undamaged, but the house had just vanished.
Then she saw the creature standing motionless about 100 meters from the barn. But Aziz had said three. Where were the others?
She held motionless while she scanned the horizon. Those things are the height of a house and should be plainly visible across the flat plateau.
At last, she spotted three of them moving slowly across the landscape. They were almost a half kilometer west, towards town. There was no easy cover to get nearer to them. She could not see Marianne anywhere.
The buzz of her device announced an urgent message. She pulled out her device. From Marianne:
Eleanor circled back a short way and rode aggressively up the road that leads to the row of farms one section in from the cliff. She approached all three farms that were more or less in the path of the creatures. The first farm appeared empty. The second had seen the creatures and were actively evacuating. The third was oblivious to the threat. Eleanor pointed to the creatures several hundred meters away. Their size and movement roughly towards the house convinced the family to go into town immediately.
She sat for a moment trying to spot Marianne, Knowing roughly where she should be, Eleanor soon spotted her moving from one tree to another. Dismounting from the horse, she picked a tree a few hundred meters towards the creatures where she expected Marianne to use for cover shortly. Grabbing the pitchfork and butcher knife she had brought as weapons, she scurried towards her expected meeting place.
Marianne beat her there by a few seconds.
“What the hell do you think you are going to do with those?”
“They apparently don’t trust me with anything real.”
“Where are the kids?”
“Claire has them.”
“Claire? You let Claire have our kids in an emergency?”
“I gave her explicit instructions. She’s an idiot, but she’s terrified of me.”
“Where’s Aziz?”
“I sent him into town to make sure they weren’t sitting on their butts.”
“Time to move.”
The two women scurried back to the next bush back. Patrice was there, waiting for them, plasma rifle drawn. Marianne glanced over and saw Antoine, also weapon drawn, crouching behind a rock five meters to the south of them.
“Nice of you to come for the party,” Marianne said.
“We thought you two ladies might be lonely and need dance partners,” Patrice replied.
“Are we going to try to make a stand?” Eleanor asked.
“We should at least try to slow them down. We don’t have enough fire power to take all three down.”
“There’s still one up by my barn, too. But he’s short one tentacle and seemed to be a little shy of continuing.”
“Is that the idea then? Take off a tentacle or two off each?”
“Seems like it’s as good a way to slow them down as anything. I’ve got the one on the left, you get the middle, Antoine can take the right. Eleanor, you go make sure the horses are all ready. If we just piss ‘em off, we may need to skedaddle quickly.”
Patrice signaled to Antoine and then shouted, “NOW!”
The three with weapons fired at the creatures. Marianne took four shots and severed the two thickest tentacles. It took Patrice five shots before both tentacles on his were detached. That pair of creatures shrieked loudly but froze like the one still near Marianne’s barn did.
Antoine was less precise with his four shots. He did damage, but the creature retained all its limbs. It shrieked, but charged towards them, moving far faster than they could. Marianne turned calmly and took three more shots, finishing the damage from Antoine’s shot on one tentacle and cleaving its other large tentacle. The creature slowed, but did not freeze like the others.
She now turned to retreat at a full sprint. The others were already ahead of her. Eleanor, who had sprinted towards the horses when the attack began, mounted her horse and galloped towards Marianne. Although slowed, the wounded creature was still gaining quickly on her.
Eleanor pulled her up behind her on the horse, spun the horse around and took off away from the creature as fast as her horse could carry two riders.
++++++
Aziz pushed his horsemanship, riding as quickly into town as he could. He rode straight to the council building. A crowd was starting to form outside the building. He used the intimidation of a horse to force his way through the crowd, then dismounted and ran into the building.
Once inside, he hurried across the open area and banged loudly on the council chamber doors. The sergeant-at-arms cracked it open, and said, “The council is in private session. No one can be admitted.”
“I need to speak to the council. NOW!”
“Let him in, sergeant-at-arms,” Georges Clements’ voice carries through.
The sergeant-at-arms leads him into the chambers, closing and latching the door behind him.
“That wasn’t your call, Georges!” Renee shouts.
“He’s the only direct information we have on what’s happening. We need to hear from him. Do we want to get hung up on formalities or are we going to deal with the possibly existential crisis for this colony?”
“Very well, he may stay. And I must warn you, Monsieur Gharbi, do not learn your confidante’s bad habit of making demands of this council. So what news do you bring us?”
“At least three creatures scaled the cliff, Marianne had wounded one of them to give me time to escape with Pierre and Genevieve. When I left, they were tearing apart Marianne’s house.”
“The new one?” Michelle asked.
“No, not my house. Her old damaged one.”
“That’s a relief,” Michelle replied.
“Do you have any other information?” Renee asked.
“Eleanor joined her to track the creatures. That was the last I knew before I rode here as fast as I could.”
At that moment, multiple shrieks from the creatures echoed through the chambers. Everyone in the room froze for a moment.
“Are you going to do anything?”
“We already sent Patrice and Antoine to help her stop them. It sounds like they may have done that.”
Screams, human screams, rang out from the crowd outside the building, loud enough to be heard in the chambers.
“There is panic out there, Renee. We need to be open about the situation. I propose an emergency public meeting, immediately.”
“No Georges. We’re not giving into the mob.”
The screen buzzed in front of Renee.
“What is it Renee? That was an emergency channel message,” George stated firmly.
Renee just sits there staring at the screen.
Then he said to his computer, “Secretary, please read out loud the most recent message in the emergency channel.”
“We have to have the public meeting now,” Georges said. “I call a vote by hands. All in favor please raise your hand.”
Renee stayed frozen in her chair. The other four all raised their hands.
“Sergeant-at-arms. Give us a minute to relocate to the podium in the main hall, but then please announce to the crowd outside that we are holding a public meeting immediately,” Georges stated calmly and firmly.
