The Time of The Cat 46
PITCHED BATTLE
Liz had thoughtfully taken a local area map from a display in the lobby, as we came through. I don’t know how she manages to think of those things, but it was a convenient thing to have. We studied it along with the Pugs’ transporter maps. Using the information from both of those, we thought we’d located the key transporter. It appeared to be partway up the summit of Rocky Mountain National Park. Specifically, it seemed to be located about halfway up Old Fall River Road.
We folded the maps and gathered up as many splinter guns as we could from the deceased Pugs. We still had the single remaining anti-matter gun and two of the hand-grenade-sized, anti-matter bombs.
We divided into two groups. Rudy, Colin, Joe, and Stormbreaker in one, and the sergeant, the ex-Secretary’s Navy Seal guard, Liz, and I were in the other. I commented that our group might be stronger because we had Jefferson, but Liz told me that I was just being silly. I know I have an odd sense of humor, but it still seemed kind of funny to me.
The whole battle had taken long enough and been loud enough for some kind of official response to show up, but I hadn’t heard any sirens coming down the road. We had made so much noise, despite the lack of actual gunfire, that I was sure that someone, somewhere, would have called the police. I was bothered by the fact that no one had shown up to investigate. The hotel must have been empty of humans and I was beginning to suspect the city was also.
We walked to the nearby parking lot and found that we had a great selection of automobiles with tags from all over the country. Pairing that with the lack of response from the hotel, gave me the impression that the Pugs had killed everyone in the area. It kind of gave a new slant to the horror movie that had been filmed there years ago.
It wasn’t long before we’d stolen two cars. Both started easily and we piled in and headed around the hotel, down the long, curving drive, and off the grounds. We had a momentary fright as we rounded a clump of trees when a small herd of elk came trotting across the drive, directly in front of us.
I wasn’t prepared for the animals and I jammed on the brakes hard. Jefferson was caught by surprise and came flying forward between the seats. He might have been injured, except that he lashed out and snagged my shirt collar with his claws as he flew by. He swung around under my arm and landed with his pointy little feet right in my groin. It took me a moment to regain control of the car. Getting hit in the crotch by twenty pounds of cat is not a happy experience!
After I regained my breath and Jefferson regained his composure, we continued on to Business 34. It shortly turned into West Elkhorn Avenue and led us to a tourist-oriented area with lots of small shops and restaurants. The place was deserted and we slowly drove through town heading west.
Liz turned to me and said, “It just seems like it should be harder.”
Still sore from the cat bouncing off my sensitive parts, I answered, “That’s easy for you to say!”
The guys in the back laughed and Liz shook her head, but at least she looked sympathetic.
About a block farther on, she was proven right. We’d reached the intersection with Rock Ridge and were moving through it when something heavy crashed onto the top of the car. The vehicle swayed violently from side to side and I nearly ran off the road. A wave of fear washed over me as I swerved back onto the asphalt.
We were left with no doubt as to what had hit us; clawed legs appeared on both sides of the car and scrabbled at the windows. The sergeant hastily rolled his window up and accidentally trapped a claw. The Pug-bear moaned loudly and yanked its leg, pulling its claw out of the crack and shattering the window.
While that was going on, I glanced in the rear-view mirror to see that three of the fully adult creatures had blocked Rudy’s car. While I was looking back, another one ran right out in front of us and we bounced into the air as the front of the car went over the top of its hard carapace.
This was bad and getting worse, because there were about twenty more of the things coming down the street in front of us as fast as they could move. There were more coming up Rock Ridge also and a few were coming out of broken storefronts on the other side of the street. We’d been ambushed very effectively. The things seemed to arouse an extreme fear response in everyone. We were all panting and shaky as they approached.
Everyone was shooting out their cracked windows with their splinter-guns, but those weapons had little effect on the Pug-bears. The toxin seemed to make them shaky, but it wouldn’t stop them rapidly enough to help our cause. I struggled out of the seat belt and grabbed for the eraser-gun that was lying muzzle-down between my right leg and the center console of the vehicle. It was difficult to move the longer weapon around in the narrow confines, but I somehow managed.
The sergeant was madly trying to dodge a couple of clawed legs that had come in the window reaching for him, while he shot two more creatures that were headed our way from the nearby sidewalk. I rolled around on the center console, ignoring the shift lever poking me in the right kidney. I shot as soon as the gun was covering what I thought was most likely the center of the alien on the car roof.
That worked; the claws quit waving around and the thing slid off the rear of our vehicle. I then set up and discovered a novel way of exiting an automobile. I swung the gun forward and shot off the entire front. That cleared my view so that I could get the Pug-bears coming our way. I took a little too long, though. The ones that were farthest down the road saw what was happening and tried to scatter.
As soon as I’d gotten all of them, I realized that the ones coming up from the south side of the intersection were almost upon us. So, I turned that way and burned through the driver’s door. I wiped out that group and then used the gun to carefully enlarge the hole a bit.
I stepped out of the car and carefully picked off the ones that were blocking Rudy’s group. While I was doing this, the Navy guy yelled for me to watch my back. Heeding his warning, I spun just as another one came out of a building on the north side of the street and jumped onto the car roof. I was so close that the weapon disintegrated a hole through its body. The Pug-bear’s massive weight collapsed the front of the now unsupported roof before the others could get out. As I spun around, I had a momentary glimpse of Jefferson, his tail bushed out, running towards the cover of a building on the south side of the street.
Despite the front of the car being collapsed, Liz wiggled her way out through the vacant space where I’d inadvertently dissolved the majority of the engine. The other two were able to slide out of the broken rear window.
Now that his roadblock had been removed, Rudy pulled up to our position.
“Try that pick-up over there!” He pointed at a late-model 4x4 sitting at the curb.
I ran over to it and smashed the window. When I got in, I found a spare key hidden over the sun visor. The truck started right up and the two men jumped in the rear while Liz got in the front. I started to pull out but stopped as Jefferson came flying through the passenger window with a yowl. Liz somehow caught him as if they’d been training for a circus. He wasn’t going to let us get out of his sight and that was good. We’d become very attached to him and we now saw him as an indispensable partner in our enterprise. His ability to react to unseen aliens was a great early-warning system.
We took off like the gates of Hell had opened behind us and, indeed, it was true. The whole street behind was filled with Pug-bears following as fast as they were able. I judged that they could move at about twenty miles per hour, so we could easily outrun them. The problem would come if they had enough endurance to follow us to our destination.
The ex-Seal reached around to Liz’s window and yelled for her to hand him the eraser-gun. She did, but not without some trepidation, as it was the only weapon we had that was even semi-effective against the things. He carefully shot brief bursts at the following crowd and they soon got the idea they weren’t welcome on our trip.
They faded out to the sides into some trees and nearby buildings. He stopped shooting as they disappeared. When he did, I mentally made a note that we needed to all have a discussion on how best to use that gun. He could have continued to shoot, destroying any intervening barriers until he reached the Pug-bears. Being used to human weapon limitations, it didn’t occur to him, so several of the things got away.
We built up speed and careened out of town on West Elkhorn Avenue, lurching around the “Y” where it became Fall River Road. We were on our way into the park.