Arrival: A Post-Apocalyptic Thriller

46

“Maya.”

She kept running, but turned her head. The person hadn’t called out “Mary” or “Marie,” so she knew it wasn’t a lucky guess. Someone had recognized her.

“Maya, stop!”

She turned off the sidewalk and down a gravel path that led between two parking lots. There, sitting on the guardrail, was a familiar face.

“Jack. My God, is that you? How did—”

“Not now,” he said, interrupting her. “There isn’t time. I ran into Reno. I told him I had to find you. I have information.”

“Is Reno okay?”

“He’s fine, don’t worry. He pointed me in the direction you were headed. I saw the aliens, the fight—you ran into that warehouse and they locked the doors. And, damn, I heard explosions coming from inside and I was about to give up.”

The emotions rolled in her stomach and turned it like sour milk. Maya thought of Reno, the people who had died in the Shed—her children.

“Why me, Jack? Why are you looking for me? What can I possibly do? I can’t stop this. Nobody can.”

“You saved my life. After running into one of my friends in the ETC who’s a scientist, I knew I had to find you. I had to help you. I owe you one. Especially after sending you through the tunnels. Reno told me what happened. I should have known there’d be no way under the dome.”

“Spit it out,” she said, cutting off his apology. Maya saw a light in Jack’s eyes. He looked like a kid who was about to spill a huge secret. She decided it wasn’t the time to scream at him about what had happened to them in the tunnels. It wasn’t his fault—he couldn’t have known about the people lurking down there. Now, she just needed to know what he knew.

“The dome isn’t invincible.”

“Uh, Jack? Have you seen what’s been happening here?”

“No, no. I mean the dome is impenetrable, but it’s not invincible.”

Maya shook her head, sighing at him.

“The dome is a force field. Some alien technology shit that we’re decades, maybe centuries from understanding. But we’re still on Earth. Laws of our universe apply. Science. That thing has to be powered by something.”

“Go on,” she said as another explosion blew out the windows of a warehouse three hundred yards away. Maya thought she felt a shard of glass hit her arm.

“Well, my friend can’t verify this. No way to test it. But like we originally thought, if we can knock out the power source running the dome, it falls. He says it’s probably near or beneath the obelisk, a generator drawing juice from geothermal heat.”

Maya growled and stepped into Jack.

“How dare you toy with me like this? I’m supposed to believe that all the scientists and military in Nashville couldn’t figure this out, if you and your friend could, and they’re not trying to blow up the obelisk as we speak?”

Jack grabbed her by the arm. “I don’t know if what my friend told me is true, but I do know that he’s been working on several classified projects that involve alien—”

“No. Enough. I’m going to get out of here and get to my kids. I don’t know how you thought this could help or why you came after me. You’re wasting my time.”

“Listen, Maya. Since those things dropped from the ship, it’s been nothing but chaos in here. No time or resources for us to mobilize scientists and have them run ‘experiments’ on the dome. Aliens are zapping folks with lasers. Disintegrating them.”

“Yeah, I know,” Maya said with a quiver in her voice.

“But I believe my friend, and I want to help you. That’s why I’m telling you—I’m headed to the obelisk, and I’m going to blow it up. You need to be standing on the edge of the dome, and when it happens, you run like hell.”

Surprised into silence, Maya stepped forward, and put a hand to the side of his face and looked into his eyes. Jack had black circles beneath them, and it looked like he’d lost weight even though it hadn’t been that long since she’d last seen him.

“You’ll probably get yourself killed.”

“I know. But I got nothing, woman. I’d rather ride off into the sunset with guns blazing.”

Riding. Cowboys. Guns… Mustang.

“What kind?” she asked, stepping back as flames leapt from the nearby warehouse. Someone screamed and then abruptly stopped.

“Kind of what?”

“Power. Engine. You said your scientist friend thinks its geothermal. So they must be drilling down to release the heat.”

“Yeah, so?” asked Jack.

“That means that the drill or the engine, or whatever, its creating heat. Every engine must dissipate the heat or it’ll seize. Burn out.”

“You might be onto something,” he said. “How do you know?”

“I’ve replaced the radiator in my ‘65 Mustang four times. The coolant system sucks. The tubes wear out or get damaged and then the engine overheats.”

“You’re fucking brilliant!” Jack pranced around Maya, his fist in the air.

“You don’t have to take destroy the generator, Jack. Just damage the coolant system. But I have no idea where, or how, or if it’ll even work.”

“I don’t care. I’m going to get you out of here and to your kids even if I die trying. Literally.”

Maya smiled and brushed a tear away from her eye.

“You need to get to the edge of the dome. Give me exactly two hours to get to the obelisk.”

She nodded and checked her watch while Jack did the same.

“Stay alive. I’m going to bring that fucker down. You be ready to run when the dome drops. Two hours from now.”

“Thank you, Jack,” she said, hugging him.

“One more thing. Promise me a ride in that Mustang when this is all over.”

“Cross my heart,” Maya said, refraining from mentioning the rest of the old saying.