When
They Came
by
Kody Boye
Genre:
YA SciFi, Horror
I
was never afraid of monsters—at least, not until They came: the
visitors from outer space.
Now
They're in our skies, on our streets, always watching, forever
waiting.
At
seventeen, I'm just about to graduate from the Juvenile Education
System and declare my career of choice. The Midnight Guard—who
protect our community from the vicious things that lie outside our
walls—calls to me.
It’s
hard, dangerous work, with grueling hours that offer little sleep,
but it’s the one thing I know will help make a difference in our
ever-changing world.
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We reached the outskirts of Stonewall later
that afternoon. Lonely, and resembling a ghost town in all shapes and respects,
we travelled down the street with Asha and Jason’s guns drawn and my
knife-wielding self trailing shortly behind.
“This is creepy,” Jason said, examining the
buildings that appeared to be in pristine condition. “This place has been
maintained.”
“You think there are people here?” Asha
asked.
“I don’t know,” the young man replied, “but I
wouldn’t doubt it. Keep your guard up, guys. We don’t know what we might be
dealing with.”
No. We didn’t. And that was the scariest
part.
Back in Fort Hope, we’d never had to worry
about ulterior motives, backstabbing criminals or wayward vigilantes who wished
nothing but harm upon their fellow man. But there, in the wilds of Central
Texas, there could be anyone or anything waiting for us. Bandits. Murderers.
Ex-cons. Rapists.
I dreaded to think what would happen if Asha
and I were to get caught and instinctively drew up beside the girl—knowing,
without a shroud of doubt upon my conscience, I needed to stay as close to her
as possible.
“You okay?” she asked, turning to regard me.
“I’m nervous.”
“I am too. She trailed her gun along the
buildings—from the rooftops to the storefronts, then to the slim number of
houses that flanked the distant roads.
“Maybe we should go around,” I suggested.
“We’re too exposed here in the middle of town.”
“I’d agree,” Jason started, “but if there’s
anyone here, they’ve likely already seen us by now.”
“How do you—”
I froze as I detected movement in my
peripheral.
“Did you see that?” I asked, the breath lost
from my throat.
“See what?” He frowned.
“There. On the rooftops.”
A shot rang out.
Debris exploded inches from Asha’s foot.
“Get down!” Jason said, hurling himself
behind a vehicle just in time for another gunshot to pierce the silence.
“Looks like we got ourselves some survivors,”
an adult man’s voice said in the moments following our evasion.
“And they’re armed,” another man offered.
“Two girls and a boy,” a third said. The glee
in his voice was enough to make my skin crawl. “Looks like they’re ripe for the
picking too.”
“Young. Fresh. Cute.”
“You stay away!” Asha cried out, releasing
the safety on her gun. “We’re not afraid to shoot!”
“And neither are we,” one of the men said.
I peeked over the side of the overturned car
we were behind and saw that there were at least four, if not five of them ahead
of us, both groups divided along each side of the road and sequestered along
the rooftops in ample sniping positions. I gestured Jason and Asha to crane
their heads around and look at where I was looking, but grimaced as the sound
of a loading gun entered my ears.
“Drop your weapons and come out. Now.”
“Don’t listen to him,” Jason whispered,
turning his head to look at us. “You have no idea what they’ll do to you.”
“I think we have an idea,” Asha said, the
tears at the corners of her eyes glistening.
“We can’t just sit here.” I glanced from
Asha, to Jason, then back to Asha, trying to fight back my own panic. I craned
my head back around and grimaced as I saw all of their guns pointed right
toward us. “Jason—”
“Here’s what we’re going to do,” he said,
releasing the safety on his gun. “There’s only two of them on the right side of
the street. I’m going to step out and cause a diversion. Once they’ve got their
eyes set on me, you run.”
Born
and raised in Southeastern Idaho, Kody Boye began his writing career
with the publication of his story [A] Prom Queen’s Revenge at the
age of fourteen. Published nearly three-dozen times before going
independent at eighteen, Boye has authored numerous works—including
the short story collection Amorous Things, the novella The Diary of
Dakota Hammell, the zombie novel Sunrise and the epic fantasy series
The Brotherhood Saga.
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1 comments:
Love the cover and the book sounds great!
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