An Awakened Mother's Rage
Her children... She could hear them... They were crying. Their dying words were calling to her. Something was here. Something that didn't belong. Visions played through her mind. Her children were running from large, cylinder-shaped ships made of a material that was not of her bounty.
Beams of light blasted from the ships and burned buildings. If they struck one of her children, they were turned to dust, not discriminating based on age or race or species; everyone fell to their might. There was no mercy. Her children fought back, but it was futile. Their weapons fell upon her flesh as soon as they were fired.
How many had they killed? How many had cried out before they roused her from her sleep?
It didn't matter.
*******
"Run, Sam." Melody pushed her young son. A large white beam blasted a house behind them to the left, reducing it to rubble.
"Mommy, my legs hurt," Sam cried, panting as his small legs carried him as fast as they could.
"Keep running. Don't stop!" Melody yelled. Another beam struck the road behind them, piercing through the gravel as though it were glass, reducing it to molten stone. "If you keep going, I'll get you that toy car from the store."
"And we'll have pizza every night," Melody promised. Her lungs were on fire. She wasn't sure how much farther she could go, but she knew they were behind her, in that thing... that thing they called a ship.
"And you can stay up as late as you want," Melody called to her son. As Sam and she continued to sprint up the road, other people passed by them, all fleeing from their invaders.
"I can't... Mommy..." Sam whispered as his knees buckled, and his legs gave out beneath him. Melody fell to her son's side, attempting to pick him up as the ship bore down on them.
"I love you, Sam," Melody grasped her son in her arms as the glow of the ship's laser got brighter, trying to shield him even if she knew it was futile.
"NO MORE!" A flash of lightning illuminated the sky above, followed by a loud clap of thunder. Not even a second later, there was another, and then another.
Melody, still cradling her son, watched in awe as the alien ship fell from the sky, crashing to the earth below.
******
"Men, we can't let them through! Move! Move! Move!" Lieutenant Cooper ordered, listening to new orders over the radio.
The soldiers were ducked inside a hastily dug trench, sandbags forming a makeshift wall. A mile or so behind them stood a city. Several of the buildings were already aflame as though it had already weathered an attack.
In front of them and rapidly approaching were mechanized vehicles of some sort, but none like Lieutenant Cooper had seen in all his years of service. They were shaped like spiders but only had four legs, scuttling along the ground in a way that was unlike any earthly creature.
"What are our orders, sir?" one of his men asked, his rifle aimed over the sandbags as he opened fire.
"Slow them down by any means necessary while the city is evacuated." Lieutenant Cooper grabbed a rifle. Smoke filled the air as they opened fire on the spider-vehicles. The bullets just seemed to bounce off the material.
"Incoming!" another soldier screamed before the flare of a rocket whizzed overhead directly into the enemy ranks. The explosion was loud and sent some of the spiders flying, but ultimately did nothing.
"It's been an honor serving with all of you," the soldier beside Lieutenant Cooper yelled over the deafening gunfire.
"Likewise, private," Lieutenant Cooper responded as he leveled his weapon.
"NOT A SINGLE ONE!" The ground beneath them started to shake and rumble.
"Oh, what now?" Lieutenant Cooper wondered.
"Earthquake!?" one of the men yelled.
"SIR! LOOK!" The soldier pointed towards the enemy, as the ground beneath the spiders opened, swallowing them all.
******
"Have you gotten anyone on the radio at all?" Eric asked.
"No." Jesse shook his head. "Everyone is fighting back and focused on evacuation."
Eric looked out over the water. There had to be dozens of enemy vessels following behind them as their small defender-class boat raced at full speed. They had gone out to scout and see if there was anyone on the water that needed rescue.
What they had found was an alien ship dropping the closest things he'd seen to boats. They didn't move the same as Earth boats; they shredded through the water like saw blades, slicing through anything in their path: boats, people, fish. They didn't care. The water was stained red in sections from the blood of marine life.
"What should we do?" Jesse asked, his voice shaky as he thought about his friends, his family, and everyone on land.
"What can we do? This boat isn't really outfitted for combat. Not that it would matter. Not when we're this outnumbered," Eric replied. The boat could fit up to ten people, but resources were stretched thin, and they were running on a skeleton crew. It was just the two of them.
"We... could lead them away," Jesse said finally. Eric raised a puzzled eyebrow. "If those things hit the shore... hit the city... it would be bad."
"Are you suggesting what I think you are?"
"Affirmative."
"What are you waiting for? Get this thing pointed away from the dock. We'll go until the gas runs out. Actually... belay that."
"Eric?"
"You have to see this for yourself. Stop the boat."
"Are you crazy?"
"If what I'm seeing is in my head, then yeah, I must be."
Jesse's curiosity was raised. He slowed the boat down and brought it to a safe stop so he could head up to the deck. His jaw dropped as he saw the same thing Eric did.
"YOU'LL ALL PAY." Eric and Jesse watched, at just a safe enough distance, as the alien vessels were lifted from the water, trapped in several massive waterspouts that flung and tore them apart.
*********
"I... I've never seen anything like it." Ken stared in disbelief at the radar.
"You want to clarify that?" Walter asked. Ken just pointed at the radar screen.
"Ken, I've been awake for three days straight, coordinating the evacuation of 200,000 people from a news station during a full-scale alien invasion," Walter said, rubbing his temples. "You volunteered to run the equipment. Now, just tell me what I'm looking at."
"The sarcasm isn't needed, you know," Ken replied, kind of deflated. "Alright, you see this red section right here?"
"Yep. You already told me about this yesterday. It's the alien fleet," Walter sounded annoyed.
"Well, this is what I wanted to show you... You see this section right here? The purple?"
"Yeah? What is it? More bad news?"
"Under normal circumstances, maybe, but in this case, good news. That is a category five hurricane, and it's massive. Almost twice the size of the biggest on record."
"...And you couldn't tell me about this yesterday? That is going to make evacuation even HARDER!"
"I couldn't tell you yesterday because it wasn't there. It formed out of nowhere in the last few hours."
"How... how is that possible?"
"I don't know... Maybe the aliens are doing something that's making a lot of the ocean evaporate and they don't know that's a bad idea," Ken shrugged.
"I'm failing to see how this is good news," Walter replied, his face turning red. Ken only gave a smug smirk.
"Watch its trajectory." Ken tapped the radar. The purple moved up and totally enveloped the red piece. Walter smiled as the realization dawned on him.
*******
The heavy rain that overtook the main alien fleet brought with it howling winds, tornadoes, thunder, lightning, and a force that, for all their advanced technology, they had not accounted for. They had underestimated the power of the very planet they sought to conquer, and in doing so, awakened a mother's wrath.
The storm carried with it a message:
No more. Not a single one. You'll all pay for what you did to my children.
Thanks for making it this far! More stories to come. Subscribe and stay tuned.
Credit to www.craiyon.com for the images.
This story was written for Liam's "Mother Nature" challenge link below:
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