BATTLEGROUND

         by Andrew Barber   

                           

                    

At the time the Septemora appeared, there were several other places they could have arrived. A massive outdoor concert in Sydney, and a demonstration in Seoul. And most frightening, the Hajj was ending in Mecca with two million people heading home around the world. In retrospect, the Desert Anarchy Festival was a stroke of good fortune for humanity unless, of course, you happened to be there.

Opening of the Eyewitness Plenary Panel – Fourth Septemora Conference

*** 

William Timison

I woke up as the sun was rising above the desert. I thought I'd accidentally taken something, but I didn't remember eating or drinking anything I didn't control. Around 3 a.m., I'd watched a flame thrower show and then an amateur strip show. That's all I remembered until my eyes opened.

Looking around, everyone around me was out cold on the ground, some just waking up. 

I sat up. Then I saw the cone. White, two-hundred feet tall and wide. It was stained or scarred. It wasn’t new. At first, I thought it was some huge balloon. But it was solid.

Then I heard something and rolled over. There was the… thing. A fleshy lump the size of my brother’s Saint Bernard. It was tan, mottled, greying, and very wrinkled. It looked old or sick. Two weird legs. From its front, there was a sort of trunk with tendrils at the end. 

On top of it was a Septemora. The size of my forearm. It had no trunk like the big one, but there were a few short, thin tendrils on one end. It was pale white—opalescent, really, with a yellow stripe along its back. 

The white thing’s tendrils shot out  and grabbed my neck. Before I knew it, the smaller creature was across my chest. I felt a line of claws or teeth all along it, digging through my shirt and puncturing my skin. It hurt like hell. 

*** 

State Deputy Arthur Harkins

After I woke up and regained my balance, I looked around. All 17,000 festivalgoers had passed out. They were waking.

Then I noticed the white cone. And then I saw the big two-legged things walking around people. At first, I thought the white bastards on top were part of them. Then they started attaching themselves to people. The bigger animals just wandered slowly off, except for a few that fell over and died. People began screaming—thousands of people.

I saw one of the white things riding its animal toward me. I drew my firearm and told it to freeze. It didn't understand or chose to ignore me. I wanted to shoot, but I didn't. Not then.

My sheriff’s trailer was only a couple of hundred feet away. I was still dizzy, but I managed to half-run, half-stumble to it, get inside, and lock the door. Then I called Deputies Franks and Lopez. They didn't respond. I know now from a video that one of the Septemora got Ben Franks. Probably one got Pablo, too. I never saw them again. 

I called our main command trailer. That’s when I realized their cone had landed right on top of it. And the festival’s main medical tent. And one of two cell towers. That was one of the worst moments of my life— I was on my own. A lot of people say that landing spot was random chance, but I don’t believe it.  

So, I called H.Q. I told them there were thousands of white leech things riding two-legged things like they were horses, and then they attached themselves to people, who started screaming. I told them about the spaceship. They told me I’d somehow ingested a hallucinogen. I let them hear some of the screaming and told them to call the Army. 

*** 

William Timison

The burning was terrible, like someone pumping fire into my veins. It was happening to a lot of us. We started sharing what we were feeling and learning between spasms of pain. Even so, it took us a long while to realize they were ordering us which way to go and what to do. They didn't talk to us. Imagine someone giving you instructions, but they could only hurt you and stop when you did the right thing. 

I burned until I stood to find a medical tent, then it stopped for a moment. I walked one way, and it burned; another way, it stopped. It wanted us to move away from the cone. Maybe far away. Understanding that it wanted me to do those simple tasks was an hour of torture.

I got to my motorcycle. It couldn’t communicate, and first I rode toward the cone. A spasm of pain told me it didn’t want that. Pretty quick I got that it wanted to leave the area. By now, I could see some sheriff vehicles circling us. A couple of other infected guys had bikes too. We all just took off together for parts unknown. A police vehicle cut off one of the bikes. We were going so fast that the second guy hit rough ground and wiped out on his own. I was past the perimeter and thought I was free until the police helicopter flew up from behind, low. I almost lost control then. A minute later, it dropped right in front of me. Maybe I hit something because I went flying. Have you ever heard your bones break? I did, even over the noise of the chopper.

*** 

Lieutenant Aisha Kinchloe

I've always been in awe of how quickly the Army can respond. 

The National Guard and several sheriff departments had the area mostly cordoned off by noon. Not many people had started to flee yet. We know the police stopped everyone who did, one way or another. 

I was with the first medical team to arrive. By nightfall, there were 1,200 of us. By midnight, entire quarantine zone had three razor wire barriers surrounding the festival, and they were setting up a separate area for those who were not infected.

*** 

William Timison

I explained to the army doctor and nurse what this white slug was doing to me. It hadn’t hurt me since the crash. Actually, it might have been pumping a bit of a painkiller into me. But I still hurt. Colonel Alvarez came into the trailer and asked me some questions. 

Then the doctor said they would try to remove it. I was all for that but said I thought it was giving me a painkiller. He said he wasn't surprised, given the multiple fractures and breaks in my legs. It was a year before I could walk properly again. So, the doctor ordered the nurse to grab some injectable pain killers, and I saw her drop several into her pocket.

That’s when the slug jumped off me. Its tendrils stretched out and grabbed the doctor. It wanted someone with working legs. I know there was a struggle, but at the time, the sudden surge of pain from my crash kept me from really seeing what was happening.

*** 

State Deputy Arthur Harkins

The Army said they couldn't pick me up, not yet. Guys at the shooting range took potshots at the helicopters. Probably they could have risked it, but I was their best eyes on the ground. About 11,000 people, who were not infected, had gathered for protection from the leeches and had cellphones. However, they overwhelmed the festival's only cell tower. I had a radio and was in a safe trailer, located 300 yards from the spaceship. The Army wanted me there.

*** 

Lieutenant Aisha Kinchloe

We had a dead Septemora early on. One woman who was trying to flee had a heart attack. A dead alien was attached to her. I helped Dr. Wong do an emergency dissection of the thing. They had a large interior cavity that was a combination of stomach and internal gills. They used their seven suckermouths to pull in a host's blood for oxygen and nutrition. If their host died and they didn’t find a new one, they asphyxiated. They injected it back into their host, sometimes with a mixture of hormones from up to 49 glands. They were a whole chemical factory. They were a lot of muscle. Now we know those cottony strands running all through them are their brains, and maybe a sensory organ too, but we have no idea how it works.

Then Mr. Timison was brought in. Broken bones, contusions, and concussion. He wasn't going anywhere. We didn't understand until later why it suddenly attacked poor Doctor Wong. Colonel Alverez and Sargent Clifford pulled it off, but it took all their strength. The doctor died immediately. The Septemora had pumped him full of stuff from its venom sacks. It was salting the Earth as it was removed from him. That’s when I knew these things were evil.

Alverez told the Sargent to shoot it as soon as he tossed it away. It moved so fast with those tendrils that Clifford missed. That’s how it got me.

There was nothing we could do. I had some A27 injectables in my pocket. I gave one to the sergeant and told him to hit Timison in his leg. The Septemora hadn’t started torturing me yet. I just told the Colonel that I'd better be quarantined with the festivalgoers. I thought about asking them to shoot me, but I still had a little hope. And I had my phone and wanted to call my mother in Mississippi one last time.

*** 

State Deputy Arthur Harkins

The Army told me that if I removed the leeches from people, they pumped them full of poison. And they said they were sending in one of their own, a nurse named Kinchloe. I shouldn’t take her into the trailer, but she’d been told to stay near my command post. They asked me to watch her as best I could through my windows. 

*** 

Lieutenant Aisha Kinchloe

The festival site was surreal. It was like the end of the world. People crying, holding themselves in a fetal position and rocking back and forth, or holding each other. Everyone called home to say goodbye if they could get a signal. 

But it was also a macabre party. Drinking. Drugs. The festival had at least three sex tents, and if it was a bunch of free spirits or swingers before, I was told it was now a case of anything goes. The tents were packed full, with a line of people with monsters attached to them waiting to get in for one last fling. 

Then I blacked out. We all did—even the Army.

*** 

State Deputy Arthur Harkins

I woke up a second time. That’s when we saw the second cone, much bigger, cleaner, white with bright green pinstripes, had landed. The Septemora with green stripes on their backs were riding around on some of their own animals. These seemed a lot healthier.

They were rounding up the yellow stripes. Sometimes they attached themselves to some poor soul already controlled by a yellow. They were all pumping poison into someone to fight each other. People were the battleground. I've never seen people in that much agony. Sometimes the yellow stripe fell off. Then the green stripe had the person they were riding pick it up and walk to the ship. Occasionally, the person dropped dead, and the greenie went back to its mount, attaching the yellow to it so it had blood for its air. I saw one greenie die, too. As each fight was won, the people headed toward the ships. People were begging to be saved. Some were even begging for someone to end it all for them. 

There was no way I was going to let them all go. But I had to wait until most of the people had passed me. Then I exited my trailer. Some leeches were on people’s backs. I had two extra magazines for my firearm. I ran up close to what people I could and shot the bastards point blank, angling my gun so the bullets didn't go into anybody, any human anyway. Sometimes it took more than one shot. One took four shots. The things mostly squirted some of their victims' blood and dropped off. One shirtless guy fell over, stunned, and I saw the punctures from all seven mouths. I saved nine people. Nine out of 6,000. I saw the cones take off. They were quiet but, man, they were fast. 

I know those people are never coming back. 

*** 

Lieutenant Aisha Kinchloe

When I woke up, there was already a green striped Septemora on my leg, pumping me and the yellow striped Septemora full of poison. I began to burn inside. Other infected people were walking to the new ship, so I knew what to do.

They couldn’t read minds, so they didn't know the plan I was forming. I walked slower than the others which got me punished, but it bought time. I was one of the last to approach the ship.

I pulled out one of my five A27 painkillers from my fatigues. I stabbed the green Septemora. I fell to my knees as it punished me. Still, I had a second injectable and hit the yellow one too—more pain. The painkiller wasn’t stopping them. Then I thought maybe it should be in my blood when it cycled through them. I stabbed myself. My pain subsided a little, but it still wanted me moving forward. 

You don’t give a sick person a second injection of A27 because it is so powerful. It's only used in emergencies like combat and will likely put someone in a coma. But that Septemora still had me crawling forward to the ship. I injected myself again. I wasn’t thinking straight anymore. The green was pumping me full of its venom. Maybe the yellow too. 

I knew I had nothing to lose. I had one last injection. You’re never supposed to give three shots, but theoretically we knew it could be done if you're just making a soldier more comfortable, once there’s no hope. I figured it would kill me. At least they wouldn’t have me. I said a prayer and jabbed myself.

The Lord answered my prayer. Fortunately, I'm also pretty healthy. I passed out for hours—almost a coma. The two Septemoras died. I didn’t see the cones leave.

*** 

Final thoughts for the Eyewitness Plenary Panel –Fourth Septemora Conference.

Moderator: Thank you all for your personal accounts. And for your candid answers to what I’m sure were sometimes very difficult questions. We’re out of time, but I’ll use moderators’ privilege for a closing question. What were they doing? What was their motive?

William Timison: I’ve never been sure. The yellow ones were using us like they did their mounts. For air, food, and to do what they wanted. All those original creatures they rode died pretty fast. The biologists figured they were pretty old. We were going to be their new mounts. Maybe Colonel Alvarez summed it up right in his report, and we were in some skirmish of an interstellar war.

State Deputy Arthur Harkins: We were a battleground, alright. Destroying our command post was their opening salvo. Then each person was a battlefield. I think the yellow-striped leeches were criminals on the run. The greens were law enforcement or something like it. It was our bad luck that they included us in their round-up and took 6,000 people from us.

Lieutenant Aisha Kinchloe: They were using us as their extended bodies. And it was a battlefield. But I have a different theory of why. I grew up in Mississippi, where from my grandmother’s house I could see the plantation where my great-grandparents’ great-grandparents were enslaved before the Civil War. They were slaves because they were black, and their enslavers were white. I think the yellow and green stripes were just markings and equated with how some people treat skin color. I think the yellow Septemoras were escaped slaves. Or fleeing the green ones who made slave raids, like what happened in Africa.

What scares me is that people made pretty good hosts for them. Pretty good slaves. Our biology is compatible—they think our planets may somehow have had a common one-celled ancestor when life began here. The Septemoras have 6,000 people as examples. And now they know about our world. They know all about us.