Chapter Six: Extraction

As soon as Claire, Celeste and Sarah were out of sight Jason began the walk back his destroyed home. There were things he hadn’t considered when he left. When he got there, he immediately went to the storage room out the back and began sifting through the mess that had been created in the bombardment. Then he saw it in the corner. A huge off-green coloured bag. Jason pulled it out from under the other contents of the room and slung the strap over his shoulder. Jason picked up his gun and made his way through the wreckage before turning left onto his street. As he turned again and took a short cut down a laneway, when he heard movement behind him. He turned around raising his weapon, but saw nothing ahead of him. He was about to stepped forward when he heard movement again from behind him. He was tempted to fire in random directions but something told him it would be a bad idea. Instead he slowly backed away and walked past the laneway and went the long way around. Listening every so often for sounds of movement. Right now, Jason had two wishes; that the Tallentiri weren’t tailing him and that the others were ok.

 They had made it to the school, but it appeared the Tallentiri weren’t nocturnal. From the moment they had reached the top of the hill they had been pursued by the Tallentiri. Together Claire and Celeste had helped Sarah into the grounds but she was in no condition to fight.  Claire told Celeste about a trapdoor in the veranda that would hide them from sight, told her exactly where it was and then bought them time by running in a different direction. The Tallentiri didn’t seem to notice Celeste and Sarah but they noticed Claire run off and followed her. She lost them by throwing herself behind some bushes. The Tallentiri ran straight past her. It was almost comical. Once they had passed Claire broke into the gardener’s shed where she a whole range of things to use as weapons. While firearms were still considered new school weaponry, Claire preferred old school melee style fighting and she saw exactly what she needed; a sledgehammer propped against a wall at the far end of the room. When she turned around she saw that one lone Tallentiri had discovered her. She picked up the sledgehammer and stood facing the Tallentiri, which slowly back away. Claire could tell that it knew that she could put it into a world of pain. Claire stepped forward and the Tallentiri ran for it although it was probably closer to scurrying away, it’s large, thin, skeletal frame moving further and further away from her.

‘Coward’ she muttered as she left and rounded the corner, and then she was confronted with two of them. The Tallentiri barred what she assumed were teeth and growled. These two weren’t afraid to fight. Claire sighed holding the sledgehammer ready.
‘Let’s dance’ they ran at her as she uttered those words. As the first one reached her, she swung the hammer as hard and as fast she could and she smiled when she heard the dull thud of the head of the hammer connecting with the exoskeletal jaw and the alien, which was easily tossed aside and collapsed on the ground, dead. She swung down when the second one arrived and the head collided with the skull. That’s when it struck Claire; the Tallentiri were physically weak.
‘Claire, you’re bleeding. Right calf’ came Celeste’s voice. When she looked at her leg, she was bleeding, very badly. Almost her entire calf had been cut open. Celeste ran over as Claire collapsed against the wall as her right leg gave way.
‘Claire...’
‘Don’t worry about me I’ll be fine. Use the Sledgehammer. They’re …’ Claire managed to say before she passed out but Celeste understood and grabbed the Sledgehammer and swung and hit any Tallentiri that came near them, but seemed that for every one she killed, six attended its funeral and she was soon overwhelmed. That’s when the shots were fired and she could tell that Jason had arrived. Half of them turned and headed off towards Jason but he effortlessly disposed of them well they reached him. The others scurried away and Jason fired a few shots at them to remind them he was here.
‘You’re welcome’ Jason said, walking over to her.
‘Thank you. Do you think you could help Claire? She’s passed out and bleeding pretty bad’ Celeste said.
‘Let me have a look’ Jason sighed. Of all the people to help… he thought. He turned over her leg as far as he could. The cut was very deep. He could almost see the bone. Jason swung the bag off his shoulder and searched through it.
‘You see how the cut is pushed outwards? I need you to push it together so that it’s closed. It’ll partially stop the bleeding’ Jason said and Celeste did as she was told. Jason pulled out a roll of bandage and a pair scissors out of the bag and began wrapping it around Claire’s leg.
‘You’re good at medical stuff’ Celeste said.
‘It was part of survival training’ Jason said dismissively, still working on Claire’s leg.
‘Survival training? That’s a military thing. Did join the army?’
‘No. When I was little mum and dad had to work two jobs each to put food on the table as well as pay the rent and bills. Sometimes we couldn’t afford a babysitter so dad had to take me along with him. That’s how I learned all of this’ Jason replied as he finished and placed the roll of bandage and scissors back in the bag before taking out a small gun and walking out into the middle of basketball court next to where they were, pointed it straight up and fired. A red object shot out and silently exploded over head and walking back over to them. He then closed the bag and slung it over his shoulder. Jason noticed Celeste watching him.
‘What?’ Jason asked.
‘Nothing, I uh just have to ask. You and Claire, is there…’
‘No. We actually hate each other. It’s just, given the situation, we had no choice but to stick together to survive,’ Jason answered. ‘I’m assuming you hid Sarah somewhere?’
‘Yes I did. On Claire’s suggestion’ Celeste told Jason.
‘Good. Go and get her. I expect the military will be here very soon. Best we are ready to leave when they do’ Jason said. Celeste nodded and left taking the Sledgehammer with her. Jason lifted Claire up and carried her out to the Basketball court and he could see the Helicopter approaching. They were safe now.

Chapter Five: Hide And Seek

Jason woke up with the bright sunlight coming in through the window, splashing across his face. Claire was already up. He could hear her making herself some breakfast in the kitchen. Slowly he got up, picked up his gun and made his way to the kitchen.

‘We need to move’ he said as he walked in. Claire was standing over the stove.
‘Not until we’ve eaten’ Claire replied.
‘The longer we stay here, the more time it gives them to find us. Is that what you want?’ Jason asked.
‘Jason there really is no point in arguing about this’ Claire said as she continued to direct her attention at the stove.
‘Fine, let’s just be fast about it ok?’ Jason said. Together they ate the breakfast in silence. The moment they’d finished Jason was heading for the door, his bag slung over his shoulder, gun in the opposite hand and Claire reluctantly followed behind him. The Tallentiri from last night had gone. Jason suspected they’d widened the search area. They both walked to the end of the street and then turned left to head down the hill to the main road at the bottom.
‘Jason, do you see that?’ Claire asked pointing in the direction of a small hill just past the main road.
‘Yeah I see it. It looks like someone’s torched it’ Jason answered as he moved down the hill. Claire ran after him. As they got closer they saw that it was a car, and it had, like Jason said, been torched. Jason aimed the barrel of the Aug at the car and moved cautiously around it.
‘It’s empty’ he announced as he reached the windows and looked inside. Jason turned around and looked at Claire.
‘So where did they go?’ Claire asked.
‘Tallentiri probably carried them off after they killed them,’ Jason said bitterly.  ‘Let’s keep moving’
‘Wait. I think I saw something. Just around that corner’ Claire said pointing in the in the direction of the hill from where they’d come. Jason held the Aug steady and slowly moved to the corner, but someone beat him there.
‘Don’t shoot,’ said a girl who stepped around the corner raising her hands above her head. Her blonde hair was now very dirty and she covered from head to toe in dust. She was wearing a now grey t-shirt and short denim shorts. Her blue eyes stared directly into Jason’s eyes, who lowered his weapon. She was probably no older than sixteen.
‘Who are you?’ Jason asked.
‘I’m Celeste. Celeste Hargrove, you have to help me. My sister she has a broken leg…’
‘Where is she?’ Claire said.
‘This way’ Celeste said as she turned and walked away. Jason and Claire followed her.
‘I’m Jason by the way. Jason Blake’ Jason said.
‘And I’m Claire Walker’ Claire also said.
‘Nice to meet other people’ Celeste said.
‘That was you’re car, back there, wasn’t it?’ Jason asked.
‘They were chasing us, about three of them. When we reached the bottom of the hill, they were a fair distance away, so we got out and torched the car. They were never going to give up on finding us. And that wasn’t my car. I stole slash borrowed it’ Celeste replied. Jason chuckled to himself.
‘Where did you go after that?’ Claire answered.
‘After that we spent the night here,’ Celeste said stopping outside a construction site. All the other houses around it were destroyed. ‘The Tallentiri appear to hate light, possibly nocturnal. They didn’t come near us after the fire started’ she added as she led them through the structure and under scaffolding. Eventually they reached her sister who was on the floor and whose leg was clearly broken in, as far as Jason could tell, at least two places.
‘Please help us’ she cried.
‘This is my sister, Sarah. Sarah, this is Jason and Claire’ Celeste said. Jason stepped forward.
‘Let me take a look at it’ he said and he crouched down.
‘I’m going to need you to hold very still’ he told Sarah who nodded. He pulled on her broken leg and as she screamed he saw the bones straighten.
‘Claire, I need you to hold her ankle so that her leg is straight’ Jason said, Claire did as she was told as Jason hurried off and returned with three pieces of broken wood. He also pulled some masking tape out of his bag and pulled off a length. He gently lifted up the leg and placed the first piece under it and then taped it around the leg. He then did the same thing on the left and right side, using the tape to apply pressure on the front of the leg.
‘Pull her up’ Jason said and Claire, with Celeste’s help, pulled Sarah up off the floor.
‘Try to stand on it’ Celeste told her sister.
‘I wouldn’t do that. The bones need time to heal. What I’ve done should keep in them in place until we can find an actual medic’ Jason told them. Then they heard a low rumbling from above.
‘What was that?’ Celeste asked.
‘It’s not Tallentiri, definitely not Tallentiri’ Claire said. Jason stuck his head out of the frame of a window.
‘It’s a military helicopter. They’re probably looking for survivors’ Jason said pulling his head back in.
‘Then we need to go’ Claire said.
‘Agreed. At the top of the hill there’s a school, you know what I’m talking about?’ Jason said. Claire nodded. ‘Good. Take Celeste and Sarah and wait for me there, find an open space and stay under cover on the way there’
‘What about you?’ Celeste asked.
‘I’ll be fine. I need some things though, I’ll meet you there’ Jason replied.
‘And the Tallentiri?’ Claire asked. Jason smiled.
‘Hopefully they’re nocturnal’ he said.