The aliens had surrounded something on the road where Lamar had left his bait. Considering the time since he had shot the men and their condition, it was impressive they had gotten as far from the site of the trap as they had. In fact, Lamar was not all that certain the aliens had found both men. He thought they had located the mouthy little bastard that had been trying to force Sylvia to walk to the house.

Some sort of floating transportation was coming from the alien ship. Lamar assumed the aliens were communicating in a manner he could not hear and had issued a request to the ship for the transportation.

It would be easy to gun down the aliens as they stood gathered on the road, and the aliens spurred another idea that seemed the pinnacle of justice for the men who had known what the aliens would do when they arrived.

Lamar waited as the sled arrived, and the aliens loaded their victim on the device. Two of the small creatures walked beside the sled as it made its way back to the ship, while the others surveyed the road, then followed a path only they could see in the darkness.

They walked to the opposite side of the road, where they found something in the brush near the base of the pine trees. It had to be the second man. The aliens gathered about the body, then bent and dragged the man to the road. Lamar assumed he was unconscious or dead from blood loss. The man made no noise while he dragged along the dirt.

Now was the time to make his presence known. Lamar aimed his gun at the nearest alien and pulled the trigger, then advanced to the next alien as he pulled the gun down from recoil. He fired repeatedly; the action was almost hypnotic as he melded with the weapon.

The slide locked in the eject position. Lamar thumbed the clip release and loaded a second clip automatically as he searched the road for more targets.

The aliens were down. Eight bullets, eight aliens shot. It was almost too good to be true.

Slipping from the cover of the trees, he walked to the road and looked at the bodies littering the packed dirt. The aliens were so small it had been like shooting children and the thought left a distasteful image in his mind of shattered bodies and grieving parents.

He kneeled and studied a body lying on its face. A hole in the fabric of its suit told of a hit to the creature’s chest. Setting his gun aside, he used both hands to turn the body to its back. In the dim light, he could see a face that seemed only half-formed, with a slit for a mouth and huge black eyes. It looked more like a mannequin than a once living creature.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

The man the aliens had dragged from the woods was lying only a few feet away. Lamar turned his attention to the man. It was the big one, the man who had not talked, held under the point of Parker’s gun. With a smile, Lamar checked the body for a pulse and found only cooling skin. The man had died of blood loss as he crawled off the road.

Lamar was still smiling as he pivoted and looked at the house. The aliens had taken the right man; too bad for him.

Eventually, the aliens would investigate the noise he had made during the attack or the missing aliens he had shot. It was a situation that almost begged for another ambush. If he hid the bodies of the man and the aliens in the woods, he could wait for the next set of aliens and add to his tally.

Lifting one of the small bodies, he stood and walked to the woods and worked his way deep into the brush. Then, without ceremony, he dropped the alien. At the edge of the woods, he paused and searched for more of the aliens. Seeing no intruders, he walked to the bodies and grabbed another alien. Like the first, it had virtually no weight and was cold to the touch, reminding Lamar vaguely of a lizard.

He made the trip several times, dreading the last trip when he would have to drag the body of the man into the brush; the dead man comprised a substantial weight.

Once again, he paused before exiting the woods and saw nothing unusual in his search. Three of the aliens left, as well as the man.

Lamar bent and picked up an alien and turned to face the woods when he realized the body was warm and the heat of its body was painful to the exposed skin of his arms. He looked down and saw the alien looking up with blinking eyes.

He dropped the alien and reached for his gun in the holster at his side. With a shock, he realized the holster was empty while his hand searched leather uselessly.

The gun was on the road somewhere. With a clarity that accompanied foolish actions, he saw himself setting the gun on the road and becoming entranced with his own clever ideas.

The alien rolled to its side as he searched for the weapon and saw nothing in the dim light of the UFO.

As if by magic, the alien had produced a tube that it swung in Lamar’s direction.

Desperately, he kicked at the alien. Lamar’s foot connected with its arm, but the creature was more resilient than he had first suspected; the tube remained in its hand and it tried to aim at Lamar again as soon as he pulled his foot back from the kick.

He could see himself kicking the alien for hours in a struggle for supremacy that seemed comical under the circumstances. Lamar doubted he had the time for a kick contest or humor, and he seriously doubted the alien would let him look for his gun.

A shot echoed from the trees on both sides of the road, and Lamar watched as the alien’s head disintegrated from the impact of a load of buckshot.

The body flopped to the dirt.

Lamar looked south and saw the shadow of a man walking towards him.

“I didn’t know you danced,” Parker neared the body. He looked at the alien and grunted. So, they were real; part of him wanted the UFO to be a hoax

“Let me find my gun, then let’s get the rest of them off the road before more of the bastards arrive.”

“You’re welcome,” Parker helped Lamar.