A Small Gray Dot

I glanced at the surveillance monitor. It captured the crowd milling around in the street, and spilling onto the lawns of the doctors’ neighbors. Terry had done a good job of notifying everyone, and the throng stretched up the street and out of range of the camera. With the people from the neighborhood, there were probably two hundred, maybe two hundred and fifty.

Most were standing quietly in the morning chill, waiting; a few kept glancing toward the house and the front camera. They were waiting for me. All were good people, even the guards – now ex-guards – who had been unknowingly working for the bastards who were trying to make our world into one on which we couldn’t live.

They were a rag-tag bunch but they were what we had and they were ready to make a stand for our world. We were outnumbered but it was going to have to be enough. They were all armed. Some had axes or large knives along with their guns or rifles. As with the folk who’d come with Simon and Lowell, some from the neighborhood were women, and a number of them had quivers of arrows and carried bows. Whatever worked.

Duncan was handing out Molotov cocktails. He wasn’t giving them to everyone so I surmised he knew who would be able to handle them since he knew the folk in the neighborhood. Simon had also given some to a number of the people who’d come into Blue Heaven with them.

I turned as I heard footsteps on the stairs. Madison was coming down.

“How’s Morgan?” I asked as she came into the living room.

She blew out a breath. “She’s okay for now.” She turned to the doctor. “Thank you, Dr. Bennett. Whatever you gave her seems to be working. She’s fallen asleep.” She turned back to me. “Are we ready to go now?”

Startled, I stared at her. “What do you mean “we”? Stay here with the doctor. It’s going to be dangerous out there.”

She gazed up at me. “Those sons of bitches are the reason I lost my family, why everbody lost somebody, and they tried – no, they did take my sister. You got her back but that doesn’t erase what they did, and there’s the fact that they’re trying to kill the rest of us.” She tilted her head to one side, her blue eyes steely and seeming to hold a challenge. “I can’t think of any reason why I shouldn’t go, or of anything that might stop me from going.”

I caught a soft snort from beside me and shot a quick glance at the doctor. He gave me an innocent look.

Simon nodded and said, “Tenn, everybody’s got a stake in this game. There’s not an able-bodied person on Earth who wouldn’t want to help trash these fuckers if they knew about it and got the chance. You saw the women that came with us and you know they’re capable – hell, I trained most of them myself. I saw this lady fight. She can do it.”

I turned back to Madison. I hadn’t been aware she’d participated in the fight at the hotel. From her stance, she wasn’t going to listen to any arguments I might offer anyway. Simon was right and she was an adult. I hoped she’d make it through. Morgan would be upset if she didn’t. Besides, I rather liked her.

I nodded. “Okay. We’re as ready as we’re going to get. Come on, let’s go.” I pulled my jacket on and headed for the door.

Simon and Lowell went out ahead of me, and Madison grabbed her jacket, slung her designer bag over a shoulder, and followed me out. I raised an eyebrow at the bag but I didn’t say anything. Apparently, she never went anywhere without her purse. Not even to a fight.

Everyone looked up as we exited the door.

“Good luck,” said Dr. Bennett, from the doorway, “and Madison, don’t worry; I’ll take good care of Morgan while you’re gone.” He smiled and closed the door.

“You got the thing the doc gave you?” asked Buster.

I nodded and patted my jacket pocket. “Got it right here.”

“Hey!” came a voice from over on the side. “She’s going with us?”

I looked around and spotted Duncan. He was eyeing Madison’s designer leathers, especially the high-heeled boots and the purse over her shoulder.

“Yes.” I didn’t elaborate.

“Oh, don’t worry about her,” said Buster. He was carrying two rifles, and handed one to Madison. “She knows how to use this and she can handle herself. Besides, these guys are pussies. She could take on a slew of ‘em all by herself.” He smiled. “She’s ferocious.”

Being one of her bodyguards, he would know.

Duncan looked doubtful but he nodded. Nobody had described the fight at the hotel to me, except for the aliens’ blood being a bluish red and smelling funny – something I already knew – but Buster was right. The ones we’d taken on while we were getting Morgan out had fought like frightened rookies. They were terrible at hand-to-hand and unable to heal the many bullet holes we’d inflicted. They crumpled like tissue paper.

Of course, it helped that there’d only been eleven of them because frightened rookies can still kill. Had there been more, some of us, or possibly none of us, would’ve made it out of there. Also, if their strange guns had worked, we would’ve been in a pile on the floor instead of them.