The Erotic Mind-Control Story Archive

Incubated

Chapter 1 — Skyfall

Seabirds drifted in circles, riding thermals high above the idyllic beach-front resort. Every so often, one of them dipped towards the sandy beach to scavenge food from an unwary tourist. A few brave individuals joined the seabirds in the sky with their colored parasails, swirling and turning in the morning air. Pleasure craft hummed off shore and the golden sands were dotted with sunbathing vacationers.

Strand had some of the highest rated resorts of any planet in the Imperium, which was why Alys was sitting with her friends under the shade of palm trees on a beach in front of an endless ocean, sipping from a fruity drink in one hand.

The shoreline bent in a circular fashion, allowing her to see an opposing beach across the bay. The beach itself was part of a medium sized cove, fenced in by a series of rentable bungalows. There was only one access road and a small parking lot at the bottom of the crescent, as the beach was accessible from the bungalows. The main resort, the ‘Arc of Sands,’ was close by to the south, a short, walkable distance. The beach was public, but it was far enough away that most tourists didn’t bother to make the trek. On a planet that primarily consisted of beaches, there wasn’t a lot of reason for many visitors to look for a particular beach—especially not one called ‘Shark’s Cove.’ This kept the beach calm and quiet for the most part, with few of the vendors that plied their trades on the resort’s other beaches.

Alys curled her hand in a circle, framing one of the birds as it appeared to hang stationary in the mid-afternoon air. What would it be like to float like a bird over a beach, never hungry, never busy, never stressed?

“Come on, you lazy bones!” shouted Nora exuberantly, her muscled arms stretched out in her blue one piece bathing suit. “You get paid at work, not when you’re on vacation!”

She whooped, then ran with her boogie board into the surf, paddling out to meet the heavy waves beyond the shore, where other tourists were competing to see who could ride the largest back to land.

Alys raised her glass in salute, but otherwise ignored her friend’s antics and continued to nurse her drink. She relaxed into a beach towel, her bikini doing an almost adequate job of preserving her dignity. Printed leopard paws on the bikini top seemed to fondle her breasts. Alys had always been curvy, and the bikini only served to enhance what she considered her best attributes.

It had been almost a year since she had last gone on an actual vacation, so the mailer describing low-priced resort bungalows at a secluded beach on Strand had seemed quite attractive. Nora had seemed a bit surprised at Alys’ impulsive idea, but had come around quickly enough. It had taken longer and rather more arm twisting to convince Sophie, but that wasn’t too surprising, since if she was left alone she would likely spend most of her time working on her programs.

Sophie, sitting on a towel next to Alys, emitted a short shriek as a crustacean wandered onto her leg. Startled, she dropped her drink on the sand, the contents splashing out to form what looked like a blood stain in the shape of a miniature river delta. When she realized what had touched her, she rolled her eyes and shifted her lithe figure to grab a towel to shoo the animal away. “I thought we were coming here to relax—this is an adult getaway resort, is it not? No children, right?” She eyed Nora, who was now splashing around in the sea like a dolphin.

“The topless beachgoers didn’t convince you?” Alys gestured to some uninhibited travelers shamelessly flaunting their assets further down the beach. “I think you need to spend more time at the beach and less time playing with your robots,” continued Alys, trying to hide a smile behind her glass.

Sophie sniffed, and shifted to expose more of her voluptuous figure in a two-piece bikini. Long, unkempt brown hair spilled over her shoulders. “My robots don’t disrobe and go jump in a lake—unless I program them to.” She started to look pensive. “I wonder what would be needed to electrically isolate them to make them waterproof…” Her sentence trailed off, milky gray eyes unfocusing, a strange smile growing on her face.

Alys’ grin grew wider. It was perhaps easier than it should be to short circuit Sophie with a technical question. Back on Novifrost, Sophie was known as a preeminent programmer with a heart of ice. Some of that could be attributed to a variety of factors—her mousey personality, her rejection of any romantic advances, and her good looks. Jealousy is the rumor mill’s stone for grinding down self esteem, after all.

Alys had only worked for Argent Learning Technologies in the IT department for a short period of time before she had heard the rumors that Sophie loved her robots more than any human. There weren’t a lot of women in the technical departments of the company, and even fewer attracted to other women, so she was shocked when Sophie had approached her and asked if she would join her after work for drinks. Sophie turned into a shy, nervous mess when she made the request, but that made it seem even more endearing. It had taken Alys a while to break through the frozen exterior Sophie liked to project, but underneath she had discovered someone with a genuine sense of humor and an eidetic memory. And huge breasts for her small frame. That of course didn’t factor into her attraction to Sophie at all. Not one little bit.

“Electrically isolated robots—mmm,” Alys said with a sly grin, her sparkling green eyes hidden behind wraparound sunglasses. “Do these robots come with special attachments? Do they have backup batteries so they can go all night long?”

Sophie’s eyes refocused as she came back down from her own personal wonderland. “We’d need a hermetic seal so that water can’t penetrate the ten inch vibrating dildo socket. It will also need the proper servos to make it prehensile, with full three axes of motion.” She stated this with an indifferent blank expression, pausing a few beats, then burst into light laughter. “I can see the headlines already—Novifrost programmer develops autonomous swimming killer robotic sex toys! You’ll never see Combots the same way ever again! Will your children will be violated by the metal menace? Hide them away from the degenerates! Strand beaches closed indefinitely!”

“Your worst ideas sound like my best dreams! Where can I get one of these sexy robots?” Nora asked, paddling back to shore on her board. Water dripped from her short, cropped hair. “I would ride that bot all night long like a bucking bronco. While spearfishing! Or maybe you could build a few for target practice?” She mimed shooting targets with her hands.

Alys openly guffawed, not at all surprised by the crassness of the statement. She had met Nora at college, and the two girls had quickly bonded over Nora’s love of all things rural and utter fearlessness to do or say anything. Alys knew she’d never be able to do some of the things Nora wouldn’t think twice about. It was great to have someone to push you outside of your comfort zone.

“There might be a little bit of chafing involved, you’d probably want to order a drum of lube to go with your mechanical masturbator,” replied Sophie with a slim smile, intentionally taking the request more seriously than intended. “We could give it some special functions, like spinning, too!”

“Hah! That’s would be something! A meatspinning robot!” exclaimed Nora, pulling herself up to balance on the board in a pretend surfing pose, her bare feet gripping the edge of the board. “Add a maid program to that, and you could have a clean fuck! Fuck! What’s that?”

Her finger pointed towards a white streak in the sky, as if an artist had slashed a paintbrush across the heavens. Alys sat up and raised her sunglasses to get a better view. “Not a contrail from a flying car,” Alys replied. “It looks like it’s too high, anyway. Sophie, you have any ideas?”

Sophie was watching the spear of light grow longer with an intense gaze. “Definitely not an orbital strike,” she said, blandly, her brain back in analytical mode. “The trajectory isn’t steep enough, and we’d already be dead anyway.” She pinched her fingers together, gauging the speed of the contrail. “With the current angular velocity and distance I would say we’re looking at some kind of drop pod, but not like anything I’ve heard of before.”

The bright light at the head of the streak pulsed for a moment, then broke up into a multitude of smaller lights, each one glowing brightly as it descended. Sophie laid back down and slid on her sunglasses. “I would get flat on the ground and look away if I were you.”

Nora turned to look at her, confused. “What?”

A violent shockwave blew down the beach front, knocking everyone but Sophie off their feet. Alys took a brisk breath as she was pinned to the ground by a large weight, the contents of her glass spilling down her chest. Nora lost her footing and fell onto the ground, banging her leg on a rock. Palm trees titled at awkward angles, pressed flat for several moments by a harsh wind.

Some of the seabirds dropped to the ground, stunned, while others wobbled in dazed confusion.The paragliders offshore were tossed around like children’s toys, a few of them dangerously fluttering before recovering. One was not so lucky—it did a one-eighty and the parachute deflated, the glider dropping towards the ocean like a wounded bird.

“Shit!” gasped Nora in a high pitched voice. “What the fuck was that?”

Panicked voices were coming from all around them now, imparting a sense of urgency. “That glider is going to need help!” said Alys, standing to rush down the beach towards the disaster.

Before she could take a step, Sophie grabbed her arm, an intense look on her face. “Those may not have been Combot drop pods, but we don’t know what they actually are. Whatever they hold, they’re likely to be dangerous, and the longer we stay out here in the open on the beach, the likelier it is that something undesirable will find us. If we don’t find cover, we’ll be caught flat footed.”

Alys stared at Sophie, torn. “I can’t just leave without trying to help! Nora—can you call for help?”

Nora rifled through her bag and checked her communicator. “No signal, unable to connect. It’s useless.”

Sophie tightened her grip. “A further sign that something bad is occurring here. The planet is under some kind of attack. That man dropped at least two hundred meters and hit the water like a brick. His chances for survival are nil. Don’t let your emotions overwhelm your common sense!”

Alys shook her hand off, her face clouded with anger. “Maybe they were right. Maybe you are heartless,” she said, jogging over the wet sand towards the accident.

“Shit,” said Sophie, her face unreadable. She did her best to bottle up her emotions—she had to hide them from Nora. She was pretty sure Nora told Alys everything, and it would be too embarrassing to have Alys hear how she felt secondhand.

Nora moved her fingers in an expression of an explosion, mouthing ‘boom’ as she did so. “Nice move—but I don’t think the answer you’re looking for is robotic science.” She started gathering her things back into her tropical-print bag. She paused for a moment, and shoved the dead communicator inside. “I believe you. Let’s get back to the bungalow and see if we can contact someone to get us some help or more information. If an invasion isn’t occurring, they’re going to need emergency support on the beach. If it is, we need to hold out until the Imperium comes to rescue us.”

Sighing, Sophie put her bag together too, then followed Nora’s purposeful strides back up the beach. Her gaze followed Nora’s flexing, toned ass almost unconsciously. Some tourists on the beach were still confused, not sure whether to stay or to go. Others had run down towards the accident scene and were watching from shore as a lifeguard swam out to the deflated parachute floating in the water.

Sophie struggled to keep up with Nora’s long pace as they climbed the short sand dune to the bungalows. They had been built about a hundred meters from the shore, on stilts to accommodate the slope and improve the view. The rear of each bungalow was flush with a road that allowed easy access to parking and the rest of the resort. There were six bungalows in a row, each separated from each other by enough distance and endemic plant life to provide relative privacy. Otherwise, they were cookie-cutter affairs, each one identical—a thatched roof, wood walls, and a wraparound deck for relaxation. The deck had a staircase which allowed easy access to the beach.

They reached their bungalow, creatively named ‘A5.’ As they climbed the steps Sophie’s mind was deep at work attempting to catalog what might be available in the bungalow to help them out. “We should try the hard-line first,” she decided, her flip flops slapping on the stairs. “Then we should try to figure out if we have anything we can use for weapons and determine our next steps.”

Nora turned and winked at her, then rifled through her bag again to find the key. “You try establishing comms, I’ll go get binoculars from my bag.”

Sophie was busy trying to sort out their options. “Alright, I’ll see what I can do.”

The bungalow was quite small, split into three rooms. A common area with a dining table and kitchenette, a bedroom with two beds, and a bathroom. There was a short hallway between the bedroom and bathroom that led to the front door. Despite the cramped space, the rooms were fully furnished. Nora headed straight for the bedroom, while Sophie looked around the kitchen. Flicking the light switch yielded no result, so she picked up the hard-line handset. No line signal, either. The place was truly dead—no way to figure out what was going on, and no way to contact help.

“Did you find anything?” asked Nora, coming back into the kitchen with a pair of thick, black binoculars.

“No power, nothing. We’re completely isolated out here—no communication devices appear to be working.” Sophie fell back into the comforting embrace of hard analytics. “Your communicator was working, but couldn’t connect. An EMP could have been used to temporarily knock out all electrical installations in a wide area. Or this could be a simple power cut and systems failure. But I have seen nothing so far to gainsay my original conclusion that our current situation is by design.”

“Okay,” replied Nora, “but we haven’t seen any evidence of invasion. Let’s keep a look out.” She lifted her pair of binoculars and scanned the shore.

Sophie sat on a stool in the kitchenette with her arms folded, her mind a mile away. “How are you holding up?” asked Nora, peering through the beach window.

“Let’s face it, I suck at self-defense, relationships, and life in general.” She listed out each point with one hand, her expression getting more dour by the moment. “We could be facing an invasion and all I can think about is how much of an idiot I am.”

Sophie didn’t like to talk about her inner turmoil. It felt wrong to do so now, but the fear creeping up inside seemed to have loosened her lips and now she couldn’t stop talking.

Nora set down the binoculars. “Still thinking about Alys, huh? Have you told her?” She raised her eyebrows.

“Told her? Told her what?” Sophie looked away, a slight waver in her voice.

“Well, you really are a royal drongo, aren’t you?” teased Nora, putting one hand on her hip. “It’s obvious. You really care for her, and you want to take your relationship to the next level.” She paused and watched Sophie squirm. “I’ve been friends with Alys a long time, and she’s never talked about someone like she’s talked about you. You seem to be just as interested in her, but you’re all bottled up inside. All I can say is that you need to shit or get off the pot. If you can’t bring yourself to do it, I’ll do it for you.” She gave the threat with a slight crease of her lip.

Sophie closed down, as she often did when someone tried to pull her out of her comfort zone. Nora’s threat had annoyed her, but she wouldn’t admit it. “I’m putting on something more comfortable.”

Nora followed her, not ready to let her get off that easily. “I’m tired of hearing Alys complain about her failed love life. That doesn’t sound like much of a plan. I want details.” She started rifling through her own luggage, looking for something that wouldn’t make her too hot if she needed to run.

Sophie took off her bikini, her large breasts jiggling, and drew out a bra, crop top, and denim shorts. “I’ll throw my arms around her, declare my undying love, then give her the biggest smooch of my life.” Her monotone voice was less than convincing.

“That sounds subtle. She’s impulsive, likes the direct approach, but I’m not sure hitting her in the face with the baseball bat of love would be appropriate.” Nora rolled off her swimsuit and started dressing herself in a green sports bra and practical black underwear. “Have you tried dropping some hints first?”

“Yeah,” Sophie replied, squeezing into her top and putting on her shorts. “I bought her that ridiculous swimsuit, and she’s actually wearing it.” She broke out of her self-imposed shell for a moment and giggled. “I can’t believe she would wear something that would draw that much attention to her boobs.”

Nora continued pulling on cargo shorts and a black T-shirt. On the front was printed a bright red heart with a bullet hole off-center. Text in a comical, dripping red font proudly read, ‘I pound holes.’

“That’s really the point, though. She seems receptive, but you’ve never tried to make any moves on her. Have you gotten to second base yet?” She raised one brown eyebrow.

“Kind of—not really.” Sophie admitted, avoiding Nora’s eyes as she tied her tennis shoes. “We’ve been on a few dates, and we really seem to get along. I even got up the courage to kiss her once, but afterwards I hid from her for a week.”

“Listen to me, Sophie. You leave things too long, and she’s going to think you’re not interested.” She finished tying her own shoelaces with a quick jerk. “You need to put your impersonal persona away and show her the real you, the one I can tell you’re doing your best to hide. The next time you get her alone, drop some truth bombs on her, or you’ll never get where you want to be.”

She winked at Sophie as they walked back to the dining area. “Give it a go, the worst that can happen is that the entire world blows up before you can give her a second kiss.”

A loud shriek interrupted their conversation. Nora’s body tensed and she grabbed the binoculars to sweep the beach. “Shit, there’s something weird going on out there. Some sort of creatures advancing down the beach from the parking lot. They’re almost as tall as a man, look like arachnids—no, they have four legs.” Her lips tightened and her face went white. “Whatever they are, one just filleted a man like a fish with those spindly legs. Looks like that invasion you feared is a reality.”

Sophie went white, her imagination running in overtime. What were they going to do? How were they going to help Alys?

Nora continued speaking. “There’s a long, black case in the bedroom with my belongings. Can you fetch it for me?”

Sophie felt a perverse need to look out the window too, but instead channeled her fear into action. She ran to the bedroom and looked around frantically. It took her a few moments to locate the black case Nora was referring to. She hooked her hand into the case’s handled and rushed it back to the kitchenette, lifting it onto the counter.

In the mean time, Nora had been moving some furniture around, trying to assemble a barricade that wouldn’t be entirely immovable if Alys showed back up. The front door was steel with a steel frame and had a deadbolt, so she hadn’t spent too much time there. She concentrated on the flimsy oceanside entrance instead: the dining room table had been tilted it on its side, and anything else not nailed down was moved behind the table to buttress the make-shift barricade. The windows remained clear—they were built more for viewing than for safety, and storm shutters hadn’t been provided; hurricanes and tornadoes weren’t a concern on this part of Strand. The beach-facing window was split into three sections. The sections on either side opened vertically, while the center section was a single, large pane of glass. Nothing they had at hand could be used to close it off.

Sophie ran her hands over the textured case. “What’s in it?”

Nora came up beside her and examined the locking mechanism. “My matched set of competition rifle and pistol. I wanted to do some target practice this vacation.”

She peered at the lock. “Normally this is unlocked remotely by Central Authority only on the target range to prevent unauthorized use, but with all systems being knocked out, we should be able to get in with my key.” She produced a key from her shorts.

Nora unlocked the case and smoothly opened it with a distinct click, revealing a polished semi-automatic rifle with an attached high-power scope and muzzle brake. There was additional room in the case for a pistol, several magazines, a plastic bag full of orange ear plugs, and further boxes of ammunition.

“It’s chambered in a large caliber,” she stated, checking the chamber before sliding a magazine home and dropping the bolt. She set the rifle back down carefully, the barrel pointed away from her and Sophie. “Do you have any experience with pistols?”

“Not really,” replied Sophie, her hands sweating and eyes averted. “Shooting guns never interested me all that much at home.”

“Okay,” said Nora. She picked up the pistol, racked the slide, and showed Sophie the interior of the gun. “Always assume a gun is loaded and check to make sure the chamber is empty whenever you pick up a gun.”

She slid a magazine into the pistol and dropped the slide. “Now the gun is loaded. Keep your finger off the trigger until you’re ready to shoot. Never point the gun at anything you’re not planning on shooting.” She demonstrated, keeping her index finger straight as she held the gun and sighted down the barrel. “Normally you always make sure you know what’s behind what you’re shooting at—you don’t want to accidentally hit something you don’t expect so you can avoid ricochets or wounding others. In this case, though, I suspect it won’t matter too much.”

Nora pulled the slide back again, ejecting a lone bullet from the pistol and dropping the magazine. She handed the gun to Sophie. “Now you try.”

She watched intently as Sophie worked the action with trouble and re-loaded the magazine successfully after a few attempts. “If you’re firing and the gun jams, pull the slide back to free the bullet that’s jammed. Never reach inside manually or your fingers might get pinched. Cover your target and pull the trigger gently, with a firm grip. Control the recoil, don’t let it control you.”

Sophie smiled nervously, and set the pistol back down on the table, pointing the tip away from both of them. “I’m not sure I’m ready for this responsibility, but I won’t have much of a choice, will I?”

“You’re doing fine!” said Nora. “Take these ear plugs.” She handed two orange blobs to Sophie. “Put them in before grabbing a gun. We should be able to hear each other fine with them in, but if we have to fire guns in an enclosed area without them, we’ll completely lose our hearing for a while.”

Sophie nodded. “I think I’m ready. I’ll look for anything else we can use to defend ourselves.”

She stuffed the round, spongy ear plugs into her ears and started opening cabinets, looking for anything that might be useful. Skillets, sauce pans, mixing bowls, cutlery—nothing that would be terribly helpful at repelling an unknown invasion. A small kitchen fire extinguisher might be somewhat useful, but the contents wouldn’t last long. The plunger in the bathroom was a bad joke even if she could whittle one end down to a point. Looking at the mess she had arrayed in front of her, she grabbed a kitchen knife just to keep it close to hand. She felt like an idiot for not finding anything better, but there weren’t many obvious self-defense weapons at a resort bungalow.

Nora inserted her own ear plugs and opened the right side window a notch. She balanced the rifle on the window ledge, peering through the scope.

Nora spoke in a monotone, doing her best to control her emotions as she turned back to the beach. There were several bodies on the ground now, and the razor sharp legs of an alien tore another tourist apart as she watched. “You can help me by spotting with the binoculars, but once I open up we’re going to attract a lot of attention. We’re going to have to button up quick, so get ready to help with reloading magazines, and make sure you’re ready to use that pistol.”

Nervous, Sophie picked up the binoculars and took a moment to try to focus on what was happening on the beach, looking for Alys. The crowd that had gathered where the paraglider had fallen was making it difficult to locate anyone, especially now that they had started to panic. A half dozen nightmarish alien creatures were making their way down the beach with murderous intent, their bloodstained legs churning erratically in the sand. Their bodies were a gleaming satin black and thick, like oversized starfish in a bony exoskeleton. Each leg had a hinged joint halfway down and tapered towards a point at the end. The sharp tips of each leg left them sinking deep into the sand with each step, but that barely seemed to hinder their rapid, unnerving movement.

Some of the tourists were running now, tripping and sliding in the sand as they fled away from the sea shore. One of them wasn’t quick enough, and the churning legs of one of the monsters stuck him in a leg like a barbeque skewer. His scream was quickly cut off when the rest of the legs stabbed quickly through his abdomen, thorax, and throat.

Unable to stomach the sight, Sophie rushed to the sink and promptly threw up, pineapple and scrambled eggs mixed with stomach acid swirling down the drain. She hacked a few times, then wiped her mouth and nose with a paper towel. Nora made no comment.

“There!” she exclaimed, swallowing more bile. “Alys is in the ocean, near that life guard. To the far left of the crowd and out to sea.” She watched as more people were forced into the ocean. “I don’t know if those crab things can swim, but I don’t think we should take the chance.”

Nora replied by taking a shot on one of the creatures closest to the ocean. Sophie’s teeth rattled as the ejected brass pinged off the makeshift barrier next to Nora. The impact tore a great gash into the creature’s upper body. This was followed by an explosion of strange green mist as the body disintegrated. It was as if the bullet had penetrated a bloated carcass, releasing the fetid gas inside.

Grim, Nora marched down the line, aiming for the upper center of mass on each of the alien creatures. The next few exploded just like the first, but not without some missed shots and cursing. Not only was it difficult to track the erratic movement of the monsters, she was forced to wait longer than she would have liked to avoid hitting tourists.

She vaguely registered some surprise when a woman in a paisley dress tripped and the big alien ignored her, continuing in pursuit of the other tourists. Three more shots, and two more of the creatures exploded. The remaining creatures continued to march forward, as if oblivious to the deaths of their companions. There were only a few left, but they were getting close to some of the terrified survivors who hadn’t yet decided to enter the water. Nora fired again and again, destroying the remaining monsters in rapid succession. The last one’s guts burst over the surf.

A faint hazy, green cloud drifted over the sand, an offshore flow blowing the menacing gas towards the tourists struggling to get away in the crowded shallow waters. Nora paused, looking for another target.

“What’s that, over there?” shouted Sophie. “There’s more coming down the beach!”

There were more unnatural creatures arriving, smaller facsimiles of the larger xenos. They were the size of large racoons, their sharp stilt legs flying over the sand like skates on ice, lighter bodies seeming to float in the air as they galloped towards the panicked survivors. Long, stiff black tails waved behind their black bodies, serving to counterbalance their headlong rush.

Horrified, they watched as the first one made an impossibly long leap onto the back of the woman who had tripped earlier, twining its tail around her neck. She elicited a short shriek that was quickly cut off by choking when the crawler jammed the tip of its tail into her mouth. A large bulge pushed forcefully down her esophagus. As she fell back to the ground, unconscious, the black body pulled itself over her head like a helmet until it was firmly seated atop the crown of her head.

Any man who got caught was less lucky, the crawlers seeming to have no compunction against slicing them apart where they fell. Their legs were sharper than knives, delimbing or decapitating their victims like miniature guillotines. A few victims were sliced open from throat to sternum, their organs spilling out as they gasped for air in the strangling gas cloud.

By now, both the small crawlers and the green gas were reaching survivors trying to escape into the ocean. Some of them started to hack and cough before dropping lifeless into the water, only to be grabbed by a crawler. Nora tried to get off a few shots, but the smaller targets were more difficult to hit. The beach was turning into a blur. The slim lady with the yellow bikini, the large fellow with bicep tattoos and the blue ball cap—she couldn’t possibly save them all. Her heart burned every time a crawler eviscerated or wrapped up a new victim.

She took out the empty magazine and handed it to Sophie, loading another with measured movements. Her vision tunneled as she took aim again. She led the next target, waiting for a clear shot, dropped it. Were there any more?

The entire bungalow vibrated like a drum, as if hit by an earthquake. That was strange—Strand very rarely had earthquakes. It was one of the reasons why it was such a popular resort world. Then the front door rattled as if someone was rattling a can. “Nora, look out!” cried Sophie, ducking as a dark shadow fell across the window Nora had been shooting from.

A thick, black leg speared through the left side of the window, punching through the pane and scattering shards of glass over the floor. Her face ashen, Nora slid her window shut and retreated behind the kitchenette counter. “Get ready—aim for the center of mass!” she yelled.

The leg popped in and out of the window, making more softball-sized holes in the window panes. An alien hissing sound echoed from outside as it continued to open the window like a hole punch. Once enough holes had been smashed through the pane, the leg pressed up against the center, flexing slowly until both women could see the window bowing inwards.

Nora scooted to the right side so she could see what the big bug was doing. It had hidden the bulk of its body to the side of the window as it attempted to rip through. She shouldered her rifle and put a few shots through its center of mass. There was a strange moaning sound and it slumped against the broken window, blocking the hole.

“We’re in real trouble here!” exclaimed Nora, watching as the big creature started to leak green fluid, gunk dripping over the window sill and onto the tile floor.

Sophie was trembling. “It didn’t explode? It didn’t explode!” She felt like cheering.

Her mood quickly changed to atavistic horror as sharp legs crawled up the carcass of the dead alien. A few smaller crawlers were hissing and pulling themselves over the top of the dead creature, trying to squeeze themselves small enough to make it through the shattered panes of glass.

Panicking, Sophie grabbed the pistol and shot the first one trying to get through. Its body burst open like a ripe persimmon. Guts splashed everywhere, drenching Nora, who was trying to get back into firing position. “Yuck!” Nora exclaimed, her body soaked.

She fired a few more times, wiping out a few more of the shiny monsters. “What kind of goo are those fuckers made of?”

Sophie continued firing until the hammer clicked, several shots popping extra holes in the window when the recoil threw off her aim. The pistol was empty, but there weren’t any more monsters trying to get into the bungalow. “I’m out—Nora, how do I reload?”

Nora wiped off her chest, the goo sticking to her hand like snot. “Hit the magazine release on the side of the gun, then load a new mag and pull the slide again.” She paused, and yawned. “Let’s get all of our weaponry into the bathroom, we can’t defend the entire bungashow. Bungalow.” Her eyes closed.

Sophie cursed and ran to help Nora, who had dropped her rifle to the floor with an alarming clunk. She couldn’t panic, had to stay in control and keep them all safe. She retreated inside her inner fortress, tamping down her emotions.

She stopped before touching Nora, realization setting in. “It’s that goop. Get to the bathroom! Get in the tub, I’ll try to wash you off.”

Unable to help without touching the goop herself, Sophie watched as Nora made a heroic effort to make it to the bathroom. Every step was slower than the last, but she managed to get to the tub and slump over the side. “ I’m feeling really shleepy all of a shudden,” she droned. A moment later, she started to snore.

That alleviated Sophie’s fears that they were dealing with a deadly nerve agent, but the aliens could still return at any moment, and without Nora’s expertise it was unlikely that she would be able to fend them off a second time.

She used some paper towels to move the rifle into the bathroom, hoping she would get the chance to clean it up later. She tossed the roll of towels into a corner, and looked at Nora. If she tried to wash her off, some of the gunk could get on her, and then they’d both be unconscious. Better to leave her where she had collapsed for now.

Alien noises continued from outside the bungalow, increasing the urgency with which she worked. She threw all the magazines and the pistol back into the carrying case as fast as she could, then moved it and the other makeshift weapons into the bathroom. Doing a quick scan, as an afterthought she also grabbed a few granola bars they had intended to use as snacks as well as the small fire extinguisher.

The hissing was getting closer, so she decided to retreat to the bathroom and closed the door, sitting with her back against it. She didn’t weigh too much, but she hoped it would be enough to keep the small crawlers from getting through.

She smiled sickly at the thought of one of the big bugs trying to bust down the door. It was only made of wood; she’d probably be crushed by the weight of the alien, if it didn’t just impale her by accident while trying to get the door down. At least it would be quick. Fortunately, the only other access to the bathroom was a tiny window for ventilation, and it had frosted glass. She wasn’t sure if one of the small creatures could smash its way in, but it wasn’t like they had a better place to make their last stand.

She resigned herself to wait and see if Nora would wake up. All might be fair in love and war, but so far it looked like war was winning.

End Chapter 1