went flying. When he realized what was going on, Hal quickly grabbed the first weapon he could, a large, lethal cleaver, and he immediately went on the attack. As he moved forward, Tony stepped in his way with an armful of hamburger patties just retrieved from the freezer. Hal pushed a wide-eyed Tony into the large walk-in refrigerator and quickly swung it closed, saving Tony and making more room to fight.
The beast circled the big ex-marine. Saliva dripped from its mandibles as it clicked its huge claws together. The green eyes looked into those of the man who had the nerve to confront it and glared in all hunger. The tail was constantly swinging in quick arcs behind it, and once every few seconds its stinger would stab into the stainless steel countertop, sounding like a gunshot and leaving a clean hole dripping with a bluish green liquid. The feet were large and they too scratched the black-and-white-checkered floor with curving claws. The weight of the beast must have been tremendous, Hal saw, because every step it took cracked and separated the tile and broke wooden beams beneath its feet.
'Come on, fuckhead, you want some of this, come and get it! Come on, Charlie, get some.'
The beast bent at the waist, roared, and charged the cook, head down.
'Oops, fucked up!' Hal screamed as he quickly sidestepped to the right, allowing the animal to barely graze him on its way past. He quickly brought the cleaver up and brought it down again with all the strength he could muster. The blade sank deeply into the shoulder of the refugee from a B movie.
The animal roared and turned, its momentum slinging the cleaver from its back. It sprang quickly onto Hal. The man punched with his fist as the animal sank its teeth into his shoulder. Hal screamed and started to gouge at the animal's right eye. The beast roared and jumped high into the air while still holding the big man and dove into the hole it had entered from. Hal was quick enough to grab a large, sword-like butcher knife from the counter as he fell into oblivion.
Kashihara couldn't believe what he was seeing from the Ice Cream Parlor. He had just arrived and was shooting a spot he might or might not use when he got back to Phoenix. The old woman, Gail Ketchum, was good color, slamming the army for driving off her business. That was when he heard the screaming coming from the place they had just left.
'You getting this?' he asked.
'You bet.'
Ken turned when he heard a noise behind him.
'Thanks, ma'am, we'll get back to you in a--'
That was as far as his words got. As he turned, there was the old woman, mouthing words that could never be voiced because she was being held in one clawed hand of something Kashihara knew had nothing to do with any brucellosis outbreak. The beast squeezed the old woman and stared right into Ken's eyes. He was watching the animal and at the same time reaching and slapping for his cameraman to turn around. As he did, the camera almost slipped from his hands, and he stared in terror at what was happening behind him.
The animal roared and raised the old woman higher, then wrapped her into its other claw, as if protecting its catch from the two terrified men.
Kashihara was holding on to his cameraman for all he was worth when out of the corner of his eye he saw men and women breaking for the helicopters outside.
'I think we have enough to go on!' he shouted as he broke for the front door, quickly followed by the cameraman, who was now dragging the Minicam by its strap.
'It better be enough because I quit!'
Ryan and the twenty troopers around him watched as soldiers and civilians alike were pulled into the ground, and their jaws went slack when the first animal made its appearance.
The beast turned as it sprang from the hole and landed ten feet in front of the shocked men. The tail was swinging as rapidly as a rattlesnake as the animal blinked in the bright sunlight. It then bent at the waist and jumped into the air. The gathered men watched in horror as it traveled at least 130 feet into the blue sky, coming down right in the middle of the troopers.
Screams filled the air as the beast started swiping at the men. Entrails spilled out of open wounds as the sharp claws grazed midsections. Pistol shots started almost as quickly, and as soon as the attack had started, it seemed to end as the animal dove back into the earth screaming and taking one of the state troopers with it.
'That's what got my brother!' Dills screamed.
Their attention was diverted as a helicopter with a big blue 4 painted on its side started to lift off from a clearing just out of town. Two men and at least one woman were hanging on to the skids of the Bell Ranger.
The helicopter slowly rose and started a slow turn to the northwest, toward Phoenix. The Bell Ranger was two hundred feet up and it looked as if they would make it when suddenly the ground erupted in front of Ryan and the troopers. Three of the strange animals roared as they cleared the soil. It was as if they had been shot from cannon.
Ryan and the others almost lost their balance from the impact the animals had on the roadway. They watched in astonishment as the three creatures, dirt and sand trailing them like rocket exhaust, shot upward. One slammed the helicopter low and grabbed the right skid, pulling a well-dressed woman free and dropping her screaming toward the earth, while another crashed into the side window, punching through to the interior. The last of the three slammed into the whirling rotors. The impact shattered them like glass, sending pieces flying out over the town. The helicopter started to autorotate with the stubs of its rotors, but instead of its automatically circling and spinning as its designers intended, because it no longer had the full length of its rotors, it came down like a rock. It hit the center of Main Street and burst into flames with a loud whump. The state troopers and soldiers watched in horror as the animal that had crashed into the interior burst from the flaming helicopter in flames, a man screaming and also on fire held in its clutches. The beast roared in pain and shock, its strange armor smoldering as it ran for a hole and jumped into it, taking the screaming man with it.
Soldiers of the 101st Airborne were firing automatic weapons in isolated pockets all over the small town. Amid the shooting were the louder screams of the people as they tried to get away from the attack.
'Come on,' Ryan yelled to the troopers. 'We have to try and get these people away from here and set up some kind of defense.'
'How in the fuck are we going to fight these things?' Dills screamed back.
Ryan looked around, then had a thought, a quick moment of clarity. 'The roofs!' he screamed. 'Get these people to the roofs of these buildings... now!'
The Blackhawk was in the air just two minutes after Ryan had made the frantic radio call. Other Blackhawks were coming in from the crash site bringing more troops onto the scene.
'What did the lieutenant say, Major?' asked Mendenhall, screaming over the roar of the helicopter.
'All hell's broken loose, they've sustained a lot of casualties, both civilian and military.' Collins looked from the sergeant to Sam Fielding. 'He said they've been overrun.'
Mahjtic and Gus exchanged glances. The small alien sat next to Billy, who was looking out the side window.
'Your mama will be alright,' Gus said, watching the boy.
Billy turned and looked at the old man, then at the Matchstick man. His eyes were all that were needed to express his feelings about what could be happening to his mother. The small alien closed its eyes, the vibes making clearly evident where responsibility lay for the nightmare around them.
As the helicopter approached town, it was joined by six more of the Blackhawks that had been sent from the 103rd Special Aviation Battalion out of Fort Hood, Texas. It made them feel a little easier knowing they were packed with airborne troops from the crash site, leaving the crash site with a skeleton security force, which Collins didn't like.
'Look at that!' Fielding said, pointing out the window.
Below was a sight that amazed them all. Ryan had managed to gather the remaining survivors and get them safely to the rooftops of the town's buildings. The townspeople, three or four surviving reporters, state troopers, and only a few soldiers were high on the large steel awning of the Texaco station, the remains of the hardware store, which sat at a crazy angle after most of it had collapsed into the ground, and even on the flat and false- fronted roof of the Broken Cactus. More soldiers were on the flat roofs of the Ice Cream Parlor and Snake Farm. These were also firing into the trenches that surrounded all of the buildings.
'Jesus Christ, it looks like Custer's last stand!' Fielding yelled.
