Alice put her hand into the front pouch of her backpack and felt the cold metal of the pistol. Her dad had just dropped her off, and she wanted to remind itself that it was still there. Jessica would protect dad. Jessica was confident, and from her story had been fighting with something way more powerful before. But Alice still couldn’t help but worry.
She quickly zipped the bag up again, making sure the squarish bulge of the pistol was hidden before she picked up the bag again and walked to the door. She rang the doorbell, and Mrs. Hanover answered the door. “Alice! It feels like so long since we’ve seen you. Come in, come in.”
The two brothers Tyler and Jake were playing video games while Mr. Hanover sat at the table typing on a laptop. He glanced up and briefly greeted her before returning to what he was doing. The two brothers paused the game and ran up to Alice as Mrs. Hanover stood to the side. “Alice, Alice, Come play games with us.”
She let herself get dragged forward onto the couch as the boys began excitedly showing her how to play the game. Alice hadn’t played it before, but it was bright and colorful fighting game with combos and platforms and things as you jumped around. Alice glanced around. “Hey, where’s Julia?”
The younger brother Tyler paused mid rant. “Oh, she’s in the bathroom. Hey, why do girls always take so long in there? I heard in school you have to like smear something on your face or something. Sounds gross. Is that true? Julia won’t tell me about it.”
There was movement in the hallway and Alice saw Julia walking towards them.
“Don’t tell them! It’s funnier to listen to their crazy guesses first.”
Alice turned back to them. “Well? What do you think it is? Give me a couple guesses.”
The two boys groaned as Julia plopped down on the couch with a *whumf* of the cushions. She smirked at the boys plight.
The two huddled together and whispered to each other quickly before deciding on something. “Julia’s been spending longer time there this whole year, and she’s been eating gross stuff to lose weight. Maybe she’s pooping more to help lose weight too.”
Julia gasped. “Tyler! You can’t just say that. And that’s so gross. You can’t just decide to poop more. That’s not how it works.”
“I mean, he’s not wrong.”
All three of them turned to Alice in shock. Julia shot Alice a look of betrayal.
“You do lose weight when you poop. Maybe you should just poop more Julia,” Alice said.
Tyler’s face lit up. “See! I knew it, Alice agrees with me. It makes total sense.”
He kept speaking, but after a moment Alice couldn’t hold it back and burst out laughing. Julia joined her a second later. Tyler stopped speaking, and realizing what had happened sat back down and looked annoyed. He huffed and handed Julia a controller.
“Whatever. We’ll get it eventually. You two are going down!”
Needless to say, Alice was terrible at the game. It was a two on two fight, and Alice barely understood the controls and just chose whatever character everyone suggested. Julia was on her team and was better than either of the boys, so the fights actually ended up fairly even. Julia doing the heavy lifting while Alice just sort of hopped around and acted as a distraction. Alice never let the backpack get far from her, keeping it at her legs.
The gaming finished, and the Hanovers called for dinner. It was chicken and the dreaded ‘salad’ the boys had been trash talking earlier. Alice took some, and it actually was pretty good. It had some kind of glaze on it that really had a good flavor. The boys were disgusted while Mrs. Hanover was happy at Alice’s compliments. Alice was helping Mrs. Hanover wash the dishes despite her insistence otherwise when there was a loud knocking on the door. Alice froze and dropped the dishes and ran to her bag as Mr. Hanover grunted as he stood and made his way there. Another heavy knock. Another.
Mr. Hanover shouted as everyone turned at the noise at the door. “I’m coming! Whoever you are, stop knocking. We heard you.”
A pause as Alice reached inside her bag and grasped the pistol in her hand. She flicked off the safety as Tyler leaned over and saw what she was holding with widening eyes. She started to draw it out of the bag, but stopped as Mr. Hanover opened the door before she could warn him. There the Spawn stood, the street dark behind him.
Infiltrator of Authority was smiling. Instantly Mr. Hanover’s voice grew gruff, and Alice could feel the scowl from here. Alice quickly called a number on her phone. A hotline to the ADF. The operator didn’t pick up, but Alice began to whisper the situation and that the Spawn might be coming for her. There was no response.
“What the hell do you want, Taylor? You have a lot of nerve showing up here.”
Ted Taylor leaned to the side, and his grin widened further as he spotted Alice as she quickly hid the phone behind her back.
“Hey, don’t look at her like that! You want me to call the police?”
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Julia was glancing between Alice’s hand in the bag and her face as Alice tensed. Her finger wrapped around the trigger and she pulled out the pistol to the gasps of the others. The Spawn only smiled wider and stepped forward, pushing Mr. Hanover to the ground easily. Mr. Hanover shouted and attempted to stand, but the Spawn casually shoved him again causing him to crash to the floor again. Everyone around her began shouting, but Alice could only hear Infiltrator of Authority’s jovial words.
“My oh my little Alice. Made some preparations have we? To think you would trust the ADF so much… I’m surprised you held to the deal. But your mistake was believing I am alone. Dear old dad is being dealt with as we speak.”
Julia shouted from behind Alice. “Leave her alone, creep! Why are you doing this?”
Alice’s heart sank. It… It was working with others. They were attacking Dad right now, this isn’t what she’d discussed with Jessica. How had it all gone so wrong? The gun trembled in her hand as the Spawn remained motionless, smiling at her. It glanced at Julia before dismissing her, ignoring her words.
“But I respect that choice. You’ve been a lot more fun than the others. Your friend and her family will not die if you play my games, only YOU.”
*Bang bang bang bang.*
Alice fired into Ted Taylor’s head, carving large gouges and spraying the doorway in black ink. The alien flesh beneath was exposed as the Spawn staggered to the side. Tentacles and bubbling flesh plugging the gaps in the skin. Eyes bubbled upwards and peered through the misshapen and shattered skull.
Suddenly a loud keening sound filled the air and the night turned to day as massive flood lights activated. Alice watched as men in silvery suits appeared and ran forward as the Spawn staggered, but still finally began to get its bearings. Mr. Hanover scrambled into the side room, panting heavily in fear as he escaped the flailing creature.
Alice’s pistol clicked in her hand as it ran out of bullets. The creature turned her way, ignoring the silvery suited soldiers behind it. It’s voice was distorted and almost sounded like it was coming from underwater.
“Litttttllllee Allllliiicccceee. Get youuuuuuuu.”
It stumbled forward and Alice froze as she glanced back and saw Tyler on the ground behind her frozen in fear. The creature took another step as one of the silvery men shouted and threw something. Alice’s eyes widened as she saw the stone hemisphere flat on the ground.
Infiltrator of Authority looked down and recognized it and turned and turned around and leapt towards the soldiers. The hemisphere lit up with golden lines as Alice threw herself over Tyler, shielding his body. The earth shook and Alice felt a lancing pain in her back from the shrapnel. There was screeches and more explosions outside, but Alice ignored it all as she dragged a dazed Tyler upwards and made her way forward where Mrs. Hanover, Jessica, and Jake had run. Mrs. Hanover darted out and scooped him up and turned.
“Alice, we have to go! Please, Alice. Don’t…”
Alice was already turning and rushing towards where Mr. Hanover had crawled. Mrs. Hanover looked torn, but still turned away and retreated back into the house in the end. Good. Alice rushed in and saw the man clutching his leg in pain. She rushed forward. He spoke to her with gritted teeth. “Alice, what are you doing? You have to get out of here.”
“Not without you. C’mon.”
With a hiss, Mr. Hanover slung his beefy arm over her shoulder and leveraged himself to his feet. He groaned and hissed every time weight was put on his injured leg, but the two of them quickly hobbled towards the back of the house. Mrs. Hanover was standing at the back door while Julia paced in the backyard with her brothers who were both in shock.
Everyone moved into the backyard as Alice looked around for escape routes. They would have to go through the woods, but with Mr. Hanover’s leg they wouldn’t make it far. Mrs. Hanover rushed up to help support her husband alongside Alice. From what she had seen of the Spawn’s speed, the instant it finished off the soldiers it would hunt them down easily. The chaos of battle continued behind them, but the explosions and discharges of weapons were slowly decreasing while the screeches remained just as loud.
They were in the woods and Alice gestured to Julia who was shepherding the boys.
“Julia. Help me with your dad. We have to move faster.”
Julia glanced back in fear as there was another explosion. The boys seemed to snap out of it when Julia stopped pushing and cajoling them to move. Julia swept in next to Alice and Alice dodged and shifted Mr. Hanover’s arm to Julia. She leaned over and whispered. “I’m sorry. It’s only after to me. Go as far as you can.” Julia stumbled under the weight and looked at Alice in confusion.
“What? Alice, what are you… No, Alice! Don’t…”
Alice starting running in a different direction. Perpendicular to the direction the family was going. Julia tried to pull away to chase, but her dad groaned in pain and she returned to supporting him. The adults shouted after her, but Alice ignored them with a heavy heart. Alice could never outrun the thing, but they could make it.
The explosions stopped. Alice kept running until she felt something behind her. She was knocked off her feet as something wet heavily impacted her back and sent her flying. Alice rolled to a stop on the forest floor and turned to see Infiltrator of Authority standing there. Everything above the waist was a seething mass of tentacles and eyes. Large sections were missing from the bottom section and the roiling flesh was exposed there too. It’s watery voice sounded out, sounding genuinely regretful for the first time Alice had heard it.
“I’m sorry, little Alice. The game was too short. I had planned so much for you… But here is where it ends. Goodbye.”
A single gunshot from behind Alice. She turned at the noise and saw a tall Hispanic man in a military uniform standing there, a six shot magnum pistol in his grip. When she turned back Infiltrator of Authority was flailing, it’s body consumed in a dull reddish flame as it screeched. Another gunshot and the flames grew larger and burned brighter. The Spawn leapt away and ran away at full speed even as it swatted at the flames on its body. Another shot landed on its back and the flames grew even brighter. It kept running as the Hispanic man walked forward and looked at her with cold eyes. He tapped his ear.
“Go chase that Filth. Push hard before it can escape again.”
“Are… Are you ADF?”
“No, Alice. We are the Neighborhood Watch," the man replied, "Take her.”
“What. I…”
Alice was roughly grabbed from behind and a wet cloth was shoved in her face. Seconds later she slumped limp as the two men began dragging her away. General Lopez turned back to coordinate the hunt. The Neighborhood Watch would do what its incompetent government could or would not do. Anything necessary to wipe the Earth clean of the infection.