BAD RAIN: A SCI-FICTION THRILLER Page 8

  “Be careful, Hunter,” was the response.

  Moments later a group of FBI special units sprang out of the vehicles. They all had special suits, head covering, tanks on their backs and were carrying all kinds of instruments.

  “Jeff, this is Agent Woods. We’re heading inside if we can. You and Janet stay put, I’ll keep you informed on our progress. If anything strange happens, get the hell out of here and inform The General. Also, contact Clare and let her know where we’re located and how to get here.”

  Jeff and Janet watched the special teams units head toward the ship. The closer they got, the smaller they looked compared to the alien airship. “Thank god they brought it down in a desolate area. Can you imagine that thing landing in downtown Orlando or Disney World,” Janet said.

  “I actually can’t believe our missiles caught this thing off guard so easily and brought it down. It may only appear that the score is Earth—one, Aliens—zero. I don’t like it. Period,” Jeff responded.

  Back at the control room, General Stormer called the Secretary of Defense, reporting the downed spaceship and updating him on what was going on. He also asked about the request for repositioning the new experimental satellite over Florida and if it was being done. The Secretary assured him it was top priority and would call the minute it was in position and getting pictures of the area. It would be a good test to see if the satellite would be able to pick up an object that size. If the new technology worked, it should see it plain as day.

  Woods and Donemore approached the spacecraft near the gapping, smoking hole in the side. They were in luck because as the craft came down, it dug deep enough into the sandy Florida ground to make entry accessible through the damaged area in the hull. Woods entered first and noticed an aisle leading around the circumference of the ship. As the rest of the team came inside, Woods suggested they split up, half of the team going one way with Agent Donemore and the other half with him. He also pulled his weapon out and told Donemore to do the same. “I don’t want to use this but if we’re attacked, I’m shooting first and wondering what my superior might have ordered second, and expect you to do the same.”

  As he started walking along the isle, he noticed that the wall toward the outside of the ship was plain, but looking inward were giant tubes approximately six feet in diameter. The tubes went straight up about a hundred feet and directly into the dome shaped top. About five feet up each tube was a strange set of three rectangular shaped lights in different colors. The lights would periodically blink strange symbols in different colors. There were four tubes in a row, then an aisle leading toward the center of the craft. The pattern repeated itself, four tubes, then another aisle heading inward. They all had communication headphones on and were constantly talking about what they were seeing. It seemed Donemore was finding the same pattern heading the other way. Woods decided to take one of the isles heading inward and found the tube pattern was the same.

  He was beginning to think the entire ship was nothing but tubes when Donemore said, “Woods, I’ve entered an area that looks like a control room of some kind. The place looks deserted, unless there is another floor to this thing.”

  “Okay, anyone that feels they can give an opinion on what Donemore just described, go to her area. I want the rest of you to spread out and map the interior. Make sure you mark down everything you see and report any openings or doors leading out of here to me. Do not, and I repeat, do not open any door or go into any opening without first letting me know where you are and what you are seeing. Plus, you guys are the experts, so let me know if you determine this environment is safe for us to take off these suits,” Woods said.

  “Agent Woods, this is Agent Rose. We found an opening in the floor that leads down into what looks like an engine room of sorts.”

  “I’ll be right there— Don’t make a move.

  “I need the engine specialists to meet me at Agent Rose’s position ASAP. Move it!”

  Within a few minutes Woods and three others were at what seemed to be the center of the ship. He examined the opening before he went down into it. A set of stairs spiraled down to the next level, about twenty feet below. Woods drew his gun again and with his flashlight showing the way he took the first step down. Agent Rose, gun already in-hand, followed right behind. When they reached the bottom and surveyed the area, Woods told the group of scientists to come down. The stairs led directly into the middle of some sort of monitoring area surrounded by huge pieces of machinery that extended out in all directions to the outer walls. Agent Woods guessed this was the engine room, the high tech stuff enabling the craft do things he could only imagine. But there were no signs of life, not even residue of existence. He then told the scientists to bring in what they needed to light up the place and try and figure out what made it tick.

  Woods glanced at his watch. They had been inside now for half an hour and he knew Jeff and Janet would probably be worried. “Jeff, this is Agent Woods. We’re okay. Haven’t found any little green men yet. Anything unusual happening out there?”

  “No little green men jumping out, if that’s what you mean,” Jeff said, relieved to hear that everything was okay to this point.

  “Call the General and tell him we’re inside, haven’t found any alien life forms, but we’re still analyzing the interior of the spacecraft for signs of activity. We’ll call with updates.

  “Has Clare arrived yet and sealed off the area? Woods said.

  “She’s here and doing that now.”

  Jeff and Janet had called Clare and directed her to the area. Once on-site, she dispersed her people to prevent anyone from entering and started doing tests on nearby trees, soil and the exterior of the grounded craft.

  Jeff called the General and gave him the report from Agent Woods. General Stormer told Jeff he was sending in ground troops to support Clare’s people and three helicopters to patrol the area.

  Woods reached the area where Donemore was and found four scientists going over a variety of strange controls, lights, displays and sounds. He mentally made note of the most notable strange thing. All these unique gadgets were the same height that humans would have built, if humans had built them. He noticed the same down in the assumed engine room. Everything seemed human-engineered.

  Agent Donemore was looking over one of the unique displays when Woods tapped her on the shoulder. She jumped back and turned around, yelling, “Damn you, Woods, do you want me to have a heart attack and die in your precious alien spacecraft?”

  “Sorry, Donemore, didn’t mean to scare you, but the temptation was too great! Will you at least admit I’m right, that aliens do exist?” Woods said to his skeptical partner.

  “What aliens, we haven’t found any,” Donemore replied with a smirk on her face.

  “You’re a piece of work, you know that! You won’t admit to anything until it bites you in that pretty ass of yours,” Woods replied.

  “You must be high on alien-air, Woods, and it’s not like you to comment on my anatomy. But thanks anyway,” she said.

  Woods was looking up at the enormous dome ceiling and not really paying attention to her last remark, when he said, “What do you make of these tubes and the absence of anyone or thing?”

  “The whole ship seems to be designed for these tubes. There must be an explanation of a spacecraft being this huge and only carrying one hundred-foot tubes. What do you think?”

  “I think the tubes have something to do with the protruding rods on the top outer side of the spaceship. They go directly up and through the ceiling to where the rods are exposed. I think there’s some connection between the lightning, the rods, and the tubes,” Woods replied.

  After an hour, they were convinced they had searched the entire ship and mapped everything out. No life forms were found so Agent Woods told the scientists to start bringing in their equipment from the vehicles outside. “We need to find out anything we can but, most of all, if it’s friendly. The second anyone discovers something they can explain let me know.”


  7

  MORE STORMS WERE BUILDING OVER CENTRAL Florida in the early evening. At the control room, Sharon, Jeff’s meteorologist backup at the weather station, was bringing up one storm cell after another. General Stormer finally through his hands in the air and said, “Pick out the most severe storm and I’ll have the mobile units follow it. We can’t be everywhere, besides, maybe we already brought down the only one up there.”

  The General knew he was providing only wishful thinking. He had worked long enough with Agent Hunter Woods on the Blue Book Files and the man had a sixth sense on these things. If Woods thought there was another one up there, you could bet the ranch on that being the correct option.

  Sharon followed his instructions and directed the mobile units to the largest storm she had on the radar, near Splendid China, one of central Florida’s many attractions, located well west of Disney World’s property but still just off Highway 192, the main road leading to both themes parks. To the west of Splendid China was open land, covered with orange groves and sparsely populated. At this time of year, it was not uncommon for thunderstorms to pass by and drench the area for fifteen minutes then move on. Because of this, the park goers didn’t pay much attentiosn to the dark clouds off in the near distance. Tourists were used to pulling out the parkas or running to the nearest souvenir shop to shell out $5.00 for a piece of plastic called all-weather rain gear.

  The dark clouds began rolling in and the rumbles after each lightning strike was the signature warning of every storm that it was coming, so be prepared. But this wasn’t just an ordinary storm. This one sounded all the alarms on the radar screens at OIA, prompting Harry to dial up the General’s number. The storm had started fanning the already overheated tourists with warm gusty winds, which felt good for the most part, so not many people went for cover before the storm started dropping its rain.

  General Stormer quickly yelled to Sharon to bring up the location. “Is the area populated and are the mobile units near the storm center?” he asked quickly.

  “The units are in another section of the county and yes, this area is heavily populated,” Sharon replied.

  “Someone get Woods and Donemore on the phone for me.” General Stormer yelled. “Bad Rain One to Air Blue One, we have a radar contact at location 107.4E, 40.4W. What is your estimated time to the location?”

  “Air Blue One to Bad Rain One, we also picked up the target on our radar. We’ll be there in five minutes, sir.”

  “Proceed to target and once there inform me on what you see, and everything you see. Do not, I repeat, do not fire unless I give the order. The area is extremely populated and we don’t want to fire unless we have to.”

  “Sir, this is Agent Woods. What’s going on?”

  “Woods, you were right! We have another one and this time it was picked up by radar. I want you, Donemore, Janet and Jeff back here ASAP. I’ll have one of the helicopters pick you up.”

  “General, if this one was picked up by radar, it’s the bad one! Do whatever you must to shoot it down before it can hurt anyone,” Woods said.

  The “before it can hurt anyone” admonition came too late, as the complacent tourists walking in the park began to feel the rain in no uncertain terms as it started to fall earthward. Cool, refreshing rain touching the skin in ninety-degree heat was one thing, but over a wide area of the park the rain was just the opposite. Everyone and everything the downpour touched started to burn and visibly disintegrate. Tourists started screaming and trying to wipe the rain off as it ate into their skin, a useless exercise because the harmful effect of the rain was cumulative—what it had touched would be eaten through, to the bone, and then that too would be devoured as acid on metal.

  Others tried to protect their children by huddling over them or putting up umbrellas, but the rain just dissolved the umbrella’s covering and the pain of burning flesh made thousands run for cover under the buildings. The ones that didn’t make it, the lucky ones, died quickly. The ones that did make it to shelter would suffer tremendously and the odds of survival almost nil. Although it was raining in other areas of the park and had no effect on anyone, people everywhere started to panic, bad news traveling quickly. Some tried to run out of the park and mistakenly ended up running through the bad rain. Others yielded to the natural urge to help screaming, suffering, fellow humans, rushing out into the open to try and help. The results were the same. Wherever the bad rain line was, if you crossed it, you were doomed to die a horrible death of pain and agony.

  Emergency calls were placed to 911 from employees inside some of the attractions that couldn’t believe what they were seeing. They explained how people were screaming and somehow being dissolved by the rain. They also explained how all the trees, vegetation, umbrellas, banners and buildings were being eaten away, but only in one section of the park, an almost impossible sight to describe over the phone.

  Word spread rapidly as more and more calls came into 911 and emergency vehicles were dispatched. General Stormer received word from the director of the local FEMA office, as she had been briefed by Janet to be on alert to what was happening now out at Splendid China. If she heard word of anything, she was to contact the General before mobilizing her people. The General told her to hold up on sending anyone into the area because things could get worse. He also told her to stop the emergency vehicles if she could because the risk was too great with no known cure, as yet, to offset the acid rain.

  “Bad Rain One, this is Air Blue One. Object is in sight visually and locked on our radar screens. Do you want us to fire?” The words echoed in the conference room just as Agent Woods, Donemore, Janet and Jeff walked into the room. The General had informed the group what was going on as they flew from the downed spacecraft back by helicopter to the control room.

  Agent Woods looked at the General and said, “If you want our opinion, we all agreed on the trip back, that you must shoot it down no matter where it’s located. If it gets away, this could happen all over again tomorrow.”

  “Okay, but I want everyone on the phones and giving orders as you hear the pilot’s comments.

  “Jeff, I want you to bring up the location and possible affected areas on the screen. Air Blue One, this is Bad Rain One, you have authorization to use whatever means necessary to take out the target. Leave your microphone open and talk us through this. We’ll need constant updates on the target’s location anyway, so we can try and evacuate the projected areas,” General Stormer said.

  “Air Blue One to Blue Two, you heard the boss— Let’s take this thing out. Current location of target is 107E, 12.3N. We’ll use radar-locked Mavericks on our first run since the target is showing up on radar. If we lose radar, switch to visual and fire by sight. The thing is so big we shouldn’t have any problem hitting it.”

  Everyone in the control room was watching as Jeff brought up the target co-ordinates. If was now located over Route 192 and heading toward Disney World’s property. Janet placed calls to Disney, informing them of the situation and told them to close and evacuate Epcot Center as soon as possible. Jeff told The General that if the UFO could somehow be diverted two miles to the north, the area was pretty desolate and wouldn’t cause much damage.

  “Bad Rain One to Air Blue One, if you can, attack from the south, the impact of the missiles just might be enough to nudge this thing a little to the north.”

  “Affirmative, sir— We are on final approach and coming in from the south.

  “Target is locked—and I’m firing three Mavericks.

  “Copy that for Air Blue Two, three Mavericks locked and—launched. Time of impact is ten seconds.

  “Target location is now at .4 degrees East of last location. Five, four, three, two, one, we have impact. Radar and visual contact indicate all six missiles hit the target, sir.

  “Will circle around immediately and hit it again from a south approach, sir.

  “Preliminary indications show target isn’t affected, but the explosions have pushed its position .6 degrees North
.

  “Air Blue One to Blue Two, you take the left side and I’ll take the right, use GP two thousand pound bombs and hit it on the top.

  Second run commencing, sir. Target is not losing altitude. I repeat, not losing altitude.”

  Agent Woods told the General about his discovery of what seemed to be the engine room of the first downed craft. It was located in the bottom center of the ship, and maybe the pilots could hit it from underneath instead of on top.

  “Bad Rain One to Air Blue pilots, use your Mavericks again on the bottom center of the ship.”

  “Affirmative, switching to Mavericks and going underneath, sir.

  “We have target-lock. Six more Mavericks are on their way. Impact will occur in ten seconds. Location of target is now 107.3E, 27.6N.

  “Impact and explosions again confirmed, sir. Target is definitely heading in a downward path, sir. Estimated time of crash impact, sixty seconds.”

  “They did it!” Jeff yelled. “The coordinates indicate it will come down north of Disney and in a relatively unpopulated area.”

  “Air Blue One to Air Blue Two, are you getting the same reading I am?”

  “Holy shit! That’s affirmative! Bad Rain One, we’ve got a problem, sir. Radar indicates two ships in the area, the big one heading down and away from us and a smaller one approaching us real fast?”

  “Bad Rain One to Air Blue pilots, take evasive action if possible, you have authorization to fire at will to defend yourself. Do you read me?” General Stormer said. No response was forthcoming.

  “Air Blue pilots, do you read me?” The General asked again anxiously. Again, there was no response. “Bad Rain One to Air Blue Base Control. Give me your status of Air Blue One and Two.”

  “We had them on radar until a few moments ago, then another fast moving object appeared heading toward them, now all three are off the screen.”

  “Scramble four F-16 fighters to the area and send four search and rescue helicopters to the last position you have on our men.” As the General issued that order, he turned to the people in the room and said, “Janet, get your emergency crews out to help the suffering and dying at Splendid China.