Storms

by

Eric S. Brown

                The energy storm was moving fast and there was no way to tell how bad it was going to be when it hit.  Danny could see the lightning rippling and dancing through the clouds.  The horizon behind him was a mass of scorched earth as the bolts rained down upon it.  Yet, he knew the storm could lose its intensity before it reached them.   Sometimes the storms like this lasted only seconds and other times they could rage for hours based on the limited data he had read about Chimera.  He heaved the weight of Glenda’s unconscious and wounded body on his shoulders into a better resting place and picked up his pace.  If he didn’t make it to the caves up ahead of him in time, they’d both be fried when the storm came. 

                Danny ran to the closest cave, opening into the mountain, and hurled Glenda deeper inside just as the first close-coming bolt blew apart the ground behind him, spraying him with dirt and rock.  He cursed, tearing off the shirt of his uniform where tiny flakes of shrapnel had gotten inside to touch his skin.  The burns hurt as he ducked further into the cave himself.  Glenda’s body lay a few feet away from him.  As the sky flashed like a strobe light, he could see the blood seeping through the bandages around her waist.  The Chimerian had gutted her pretty badly.  He doubted she would make it through the night. 

                He slumped down against the rock wall and began to rummage through what was left of his gear.  He’d had to leave most of it behind in order to carry Glenda away from the battle and in the chaos he’d lost his helmet and hers, leaving them without any way to communicate with the other survivors of the unit.  “If there are any,” he muttered to himself. 

                When the Terran Space Administration had chosen to explore the planet Chimera despite its hellish weather and inhospitable climate, in hopes of terra-forming it, no one had guessed that the planet would be inhabited.  The planet’s own environment limited even the best communications gear, so the science crew sent to survey the world had been accompanied by his unit, twelve of the best T.S.A. marines in the service, as a precautionary measure.  The Chimerian ambush was a complete surprise to everyone and took even his elite unit off guard.  The battle had been lost almost as soon as it started. Despite the Chimerians’ medieval level of technology, the aliens themselves were formidable foes.  They were not carbon-based life forms.  It was as if he’d been shooting at solid rock as he’d tried to help his unit hold them off from the team’s encampment.  The battle had been more like a massacre than a true conflict. 

                Danny finished fishing through his gear.  He had a few rations, one more shot of painkiller for Glenda and an extra energy cell for the handgun he still carried and that was it.  There was nothing that would help them to get out of here alive.  He slammed his fist in frustration against the cave wall.  It came away smeared with blood from the impact on the jagged rocks.  He thanked God that at least the Chimerians had been forced to take cover from the storm too, or they’d be at the cave’s mouth already showing their diamond teeth in expressions of bestial rage at the intruders who had come to their world. 

                Danny dismissed the idea of trying for the drop shuttle.  Even leaving Glenda behind, he’d never make it even if the storm cleared and he was somehow able to avoid the Chimerians.  It was too far and the planet’s days were too hot.  He didn’t have enough water.

                Glenda moaned and stirred a bit where she lay.  Danny moved to her side and shot her up with the last of the pain meds.  It was the best he could do for her.  Then he turned his attention back to the storm outside and watched the earth blaze as the bolts crackled and spent their energy upon the soil.  Sweat rolled down his naked chest and he felt as if he were being cooked alive.  He fought to stay awake and alert but blackness overtook him. 

When Danny woke up, Glenda was dead.  Whether she’d bled out or the heat had killed her, he didn’t know.  Outside the cave, the storm had broken.  Smoke rose in wisps from areas where the ground was still hot.  The storm had been a bad one.   Danny imagined that the Chimerians were already on the move.  He was faced with only two choices, try for the shuttle or sit here and wait to die.  Opting for the former, he scooped up his gear, cramming it back into his pack and set out on foot to cross the barren wastelands of Chimera, hoping he could remember the way back to the landing zone where the drop shuttle sat waiting. 

                Danny never saw the Chimerians who oozed out of the rock of the mountain itself as if they were a part of it.  Neither did he see the crystal spear flying through the air towards him from behind until its shining point burst out of his chest.  Danny toppled to the ground onto a still-smoking blast area left from the storm.   His flesh sizzled on the hot earth it touched as the Chimerians gathered around him to inspect their strange prey. 

Eric S. Brown is the author of the zombie novel/novellas Cobble, The Queen, and The Wave.  His short fiction has been widely published and collected in numerous paperbacks and chapbooks like Zombies: The War Stories, Zombies II: Inhuman, and Waking Nightmares.    He lives in NC with his wife and son.  If interested in checking out his work, one can find most of his books at http://www.amazon.com/ or http://www.nakedsnakepress.com/