Invasion

25

Maya’s eyes shot open, and she couldn’t breathe. Luke stood over her, his hand covering her mouth. She started to struggle to cry out, but he put his finger to his lips, signaling for her to be quiet. She knocked his arms away with two hard slaps.

“Stop it.” Luke’s words came out in a gritty whisper. “There’s someone here.”

She looked to Cameron, who had groaned and sat up.

“What’s going on?” Cameron asked.

“There’s something in the building,” Maya said.

“Not a something, a someone,” Luke said. “Well, someones probably.”

“Not aliens, I assume. A gang?” Maya asked.

“Yeah. About half-a-dozen men. I saw them approach and then walk toward the main entrance. They had guns.”

“Did they see you?”

Cameron had sat up on her knees as Maya asked the question, and Luke shook his head.

“What are we going to do?” Cameron asked. “Do you have any other guns?”

Luke held up his shotgun.

“Then we’ve got to get off this roof and leave,” Maya said.

“Not yet. I haven’t had time to stash my gear. I don’t want them to get it if I ever come back here.”

“You really think that’ll happen?” Maya shook her head. “You’ll come back to live in a tent on the rooftop of an office building?”

Cameron snickered as Luke smiled.

“Okay.” The sound of breaking glass came from a floor somewhere below them. “Grab your stuff and follow me.”

Luke grabbed his shotgun and a flashlight, and headed for the other side of the roof. Coming up behind him, Maya looked over the edge and saw the fire escape ladder, the last rung of it about fifteen feet up in the air; it would leaving them dangling ten feet from the pavement.

Cameron stood next to Maya and leaned over. “That’s a long drop.”

“Would you rather walk downstairs through the building? Maybe we can ask those guys if they wanna have a picnic.”

“He’s right,” Maya said. “This is the only way for us to get out of here.” She looked at Luke. “Do you have a car?”

“It’s out of gas.”

“Then we’ll have to get to ours.”

Luke held up a hand to stop them. “If they have six people in their group, they probably left at least one person keeping watch outside.”

“Well, then, we’ll have to hope your gun is bigger than his.”

“Jesus Christ,” Cameron said, lowering her head.

Luke tossed the strap of his shotgun over a shoulder and his leg over the roof’s edge, his right foot landing on the top rung of the ladder. He climbed down first so that he could make a stand in case someone heard them. He reached the bottom of the ladder and looked up at Maya and Cameron. Then he let go, dropping to the ground and landing in a squat. The soles of his Chuck Taylor’s had smacked off the asphalt loudly and Maya hoped the sound hadn’t been enough to draw attention.

Maya descended next. She reached the bottom of the escape, took one look down, drew a deep breath, and let go. She had a split second of panic in freefall, kicking one leg out too far. When she hit the ground, her momentum pulled her to one side and she rolled over, feeling the asphalt scraping away skin from her elbow.

“You okay?” Luke offered a hand to help her up.

“Yeah, I’m fine.”

Maya took Luke’s hand and brushed at the front of her clothes before wiping the blood from her elbow. She then looked up at Cameron, waving her down.

Cameron hesitated, and Maya saw her disappear as Cameron took a step back from the edge. But, a moment later, the young woman swung one leg onto the ladder and then the other, climbing down while keeping her chin up. Maya understood why Cameron wasn’t looking down, but she held her breath hoping she wouldn’t miss a rung. When she made it to the bottom of the ladder, Maya walked beneath it.

Come on, Cameron.

Cameron looked down several times, refusing to let go.

“Don’t look down,” Maya said. “Just let go.”

“I can’t.”

“It’ll be okay.”

“We don’t have a lot of time.” Luke looked around, the shotgun now back in his hands.

“It’ll be fine. Just give her a minute.”

Luke sighed.

“Come on, girl. You’ve got it.”

Cameron nodded at Maya before finally letting go. She hit the ground harder than Maya and Luke, but unlike Maya, Cameron stuck the landing. She grinned and pushed her shoulders back, looking at the blood dripping down Maya’s arm.

“I did it.”

Luke interrupted the minor celebration. “We have to move.”

They shuffled along the pavement and over to the corner of the building. Luke stopped there and held up his hand. He was about to peer around the corner when a man stepped out. He had a pistol and a greasy smile on his face, his glassy eyes looking in the other direction. The guy wore black leather and jeans, and had a shaved head and tattoos on his face. Maya could have smelled weed from ten feet away. She thought he was probably one of the gang members who had orchestrated the assassination back on the highway. The man’s eyes went wide when he turned his head and saw them. Luke raised his shotgun and cracked the man’s nose with the butt of it. Blood spewed from the man’s face as he hit the ground with a thud.

“Everything all right out there, Leon?” came a voice from a walkie-talkie clipped to the man’s belt.

“Shit,” Luke said.

Maya grabbed the pistol from the unconscious man on the ground and then the three of them hurried along the side of the building toward the front. Maya leading the group now, she stopped when they reached the corner. She held her hand up to the others, looking around the corner and seeing no other people outside.

“He must have been the only one guarding the front door. It’s clear.”

They ran across the parking lot. The Civic sat in the same spot where Maya and Cameron had left it the previous night. The passenger side door was open, the gang likely having searched it before entering the building. Maya and Cameron hadn’t left the key inside. Maya reached into her pocket and pulled it out.

“Hop in and buckle up. We’ve got to run for it before the others come outside to see why Leon isn’t answering his radio.”

Maya jumped into the driver’s seat, placing the gun on top of the dashboard while she turned the key. The engine started up as Cameron and Luke shut their doors, and Maya looked up.

On the roof, a man looked over the side of the building. He then turned and waved. A moment later, four more men were looking down.

“Get us out of here now!” Luke said.

Maya threw the car into reverse, the tires skidding. She glanced up at the roof again to see two of the men raising rifles.

“Get down!” Maya said.

She put the car into drive and slammed on the gas as she ducked down. The men fired, punching holes in the trunk of the Honda as she pulled away. Maya lifted her head just above the steering wheel, pulling the car onto the road.

The rear window shattered and Cameron screamed, brushing away the safety glass like they were angry hornets.

Maya sat all the way up in the seat, looking in the side mirror to see that the men had lowered their guns, their car too far away now for them to get a clean shot and already moving at a high rate of speed.

With the wind howling through the rear of the car, Maya pounded the steering wheel and hollered. She hit the highway at full speed and then looked over at Luke, whose face had gone white with his hands clutching the dashboard.

“I told you to buckle up, kid.”