Lost in Magadan: Extraterrestrials on Earth

“I don’t know Neal; I got a feeling we are going to need this, even in the jungle. It may come in handy if we run into alien armor.”

Snap leaned into the crate and picked up a WW2 era combat knife. He flipped it around a couple of times to ensure that the weight was right and tucked it into his belt.

“Everybody got a weapon? Check them out; make sure they all work. Any ideas on where we are?” Snap asked, in a rhetorical way, since he was pretty sure none of his men had any idea.

Senior Master Sergeant Thomas stepped forward, holding a Russian AK-12 assault rifle, “We’re not going to figure out how we got here or where here is by standing around in the woods. The way I see it, either we were transported here somehow, or we are in some hypnotic trance or something. Either way, we need to move until we see something we recognize.”

“Agreed. Since we can’t see the sun through the canopy and rain clouds, and we have no idea where we are, I say we just start walking in this direction,” Snap pointed into the jungle.

“What was that?” Miller asked.

“I didn’t hear anything,” Jackson said.

“Over there, behind that tree.” Miller dropped to one knee and raised the WW2 era M-2 Carbine to his shoulder. The rest of the men took cover behind trees.

“There, see it!” Brown hollered, while pointing at some moving brush.

Snap turned to where Brown was pointing and saw a figure darting between trees about 20 feet out. The figure was hard to make out; it was almost translucent, as if light were passing through it making it difficult to see. Then, it disappeared into the green jungle.

Shit. We are up against something with invisible armor. I have no armor, and a sniper rifle. I should have grabbed a machinegun.

Davis, Miller, and Moore clutched their chests at the same instant, and silently fell over, like dominos, faces first into the dirt. Snap could see a light trail of smoke reaching up to the sky from a grapefruit-sized hole in Davis’ back.

Shit. That fucking alien.

“Where did that come from?” Snap yelled, while crouching behind a tree.

“I don’t know,” Ryan Taylor replied.

“It happened too fast,” barked Jackson.

Snap saw the translucent figure running toward Anderson, who was facing the wrong direction, staring into the woods. Snap switched off the safety, dropped to one knee and aimed the 25-pound anti-material gun toward the blurry creature.

I can’t get him in my sights. He will be on Anderson in a second. Too Late.

The nearly invisible, creature jammed a sword through Anderson’s back and lifted him into the air like a rag doll. Anderson slid down the sword like a human shish kabob. The creature slung him off the sword, and Anderson’s lifeless body hurdled through the air, slamming into a tree.

Snap pulled the trigger as the bones in Anderson’s corpse broke against the tree trunk. The sound of the BMG round exploding caused his ear to start ringing instantly.

Miss. Shit. Four rounds left.

The eight-foot-tall beast was gone, blending perfectly with the thick, green leaves. Seconds later, it reappeared directly in front of Brown. Brown dropped, clutching his neck as blood sprayed through his fingers. Snap squeezed the trigger again. Miss.

Three rounds left.

Through the noxious haze of gun smoke, the creature looked directly at Snap and charged. The heavy sniper rifle was difficult to lock onto a target in such close quarters. Snap felt the creature’s clawed hand close on his neck. The creature arched forward in pain as thirty rounds from an M4A1 carbine slammed into his back. It was not enough to kill the beast, but enough to make him release Snap. The creature’s attention was diverted for a second; a shard of light shot from its breastplate and cut down the carbine-wielding Smith.

While the creature was still focused on Snap, who was scrambling behind a tree, Jackson fired the Magnum Research single action revolver into the beast at point-blank range. It screamed. Jackson fired the hand cannon a second time; a copper-colored fluid burst from the beast’s armor. The creature leapt toward Jackson, knocking him down. Snap came from behind the tree and fired the 50-caliber rifle at the beast on top of Jackson.

Dammit. How’d I missed again? Just too close for this rifle.

Thomas stepped up and swung the battle ax down on the beast while it was still on top of Jackson. The beast leapt up, revealing a mangled Jackson, and the incinerator weapon on his chest glowed blue. Another flash of light, and Thomas’ battle ax dropped. Snap charged, raising the GM6M, at 11 feet away, he pulled the trigger. The beast dropped. Then, there was a blinding flash of light and Snap was violently thrown to the ground.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE