Skyquakers by A.J. Conway Page A

they were stranded. Like Ned’s
situation in Wyndham, the biologists, alone in a vast city, had every resource
at their disposal, so food, water and shelter were plentiful. They too had
gathered non-perishables and formed a small fort for themselves inside a local
yacht club, close to the safety of the water. But unlike Ned, they were forced
to leave the city following a second round of attacks by a different invading
force.
    ‘Suits, ’ Ned said gingerly.
    ‘They burned down the city, the whole city, ’ said Elizabeth, known as Dr Lizzie. She was one of the leading
biologists of the team, a doctorate-level scholar who lectured at Darwin
University. She had been in charge of the field trip which had kept her
students from being beamed. ‘ My god, I have never seen
anything quite like it.’
    Dr Lizzie described these ‘flying ships’, like fighter jets,
but rounder, which broke off from the massive storm cloud and hovered over the
city. She spoke of enormous bulldozers the size of skyscrapers – an entirely
unexaggerated statement – crushing everything to rubble. From the
hurricane-like storm in sky, they launched missiles of pink light at the bay,
burning down every marina, warehouse, jetty, and beach box as though it was a
direct target. Darwin began to crumble and burn, forcing the biologists to flee
for their lives, but on the ground, they were ambushed by a strange new threat:
humans. Little human people – boys, girls, old and young – dressed in suits,
appeared from the sky armed with weapons. They began firing on their own kind.
    ‘They looked… hypnotised ,’
she said, ‘and yet… and yet I think they knew what they were doing.’
    ‘They knew exactly what they were doing,’ said another settler, James. James was a mid-thirties
tanned, rugged man, who had been the scuba diving instructor on Elizabeth ’ s
trip. Ned was interested in the bandage around his face, covering one eye. He
could see the skin of his cheek and neck was red and peeling, as if from burns.
James explained that Suits were to blame for the permanent damage to his
vision. ‘This was a planned ambush.
We weren’t the only ones who got cornered. We saw other survivors here and
there, raiding shopping centres for food, sleeping in their own bunkers. I saw
what those bastards did to them: they chased them, they burned them, they shot them in the back while they were trying to escape…
There was no remorse on their faces, but behind those shades, they knew what
they were doing. Those fuckers drove us into the desert and roasted the rest
alive. Got me good too. ’
    Ned stared in horror. ‘How many people… did they kill?’
    ‘We have no idea, ’ said Dr Lizzie.
    ‘They ’ ve probably burned down the
other capitals too by now, ’ James hissed. ‘ May
as well target the biggest cities if you want to kill off as many as possible. ’
    ‘No, you half-wit, it wasn ’ t for that, ’ said Munroe. ‘ It’s because of all the
barracks. ’
    ‘Barracks? ’
    ‘The navy and air force bases. Darwin has plenty of them.
They were probably burning them , not you lot. You all just got in the
way. ’
    ‘In the way? ’ James snarled at the old man. ‘ These little pricks come storming my country
and killing my countrymen and you say I ’ m just in
the way ? Did my face just get in the
way , huh? ’
    ‘Calm down, ’ Elizabeth said. ‘ We ’ re
safe now. ’
    James, a frustrated patriot, aggressively snapped open a
beer. It kept him quiet for now.
    Elizabeth turned back to Ned. ‘ You poor
thing. You ’ ve been out there all alone this whole time? ’
    ‘I hid in a fridge. ’
    Munroe arched his white, bushy eyebrows. ‘ Well,
that ’ s new. ’
    A student of Dr Lizzie’s, a young university boy, said, ‘ Oh
please, Indiana tried that in the fourth movie and Mythbusters already declared that a fridge could not possibly save you from a blast of
gamma radiation. ’
    ‘Then it isn ’ t gamma rays, ’ argued the