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  A M P

  (Amplified Mental Projection)

  Aftermath

  Dark World Series 2

  Brian K. Larson

  A M P

  AFTERMATH

  Dark World Series 2

  Brian K. Larson

  Published by Slipstream Publishing

  Copyright © 2019 Brian K. Larson

  No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any way by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the author except as provided by USA copyright law.

  This is a work of fiction, all the characters and events in this novel that appear similar to persons living or dead are unintentional and are completely coincidental.

  Dedication

  I’m dedicating this book to Jessie Combs, who lost her life on August 27th 2019, while attempting to break a land-speed record. Jessie Combs will be sorely missed. As a MythBusters’s host, I never missed an episode and loved every one of them that Jessie hosted.

  Jessie was 39 years old and held the title of “fastest woman on four wheels” after breaking 398 mph in her North American Eagle Supersonic Speed Challenger in 2013.

  R.I.P. Jessie Combs, 1983 – 2019

  CONTENTS

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Epilogue

  More Works

  Chapter 1

  Seattle, WA

  January 17, 2068 10:15

  Matt and Jim lead Tonya, Luella and Sly through the streets of Seattle towards the Saratoga crash site.

  The city was in ruins. Buildings had collapsed into other buildings, the rubble filling the streets. Burning embers, pushed aloft by the heat of countless fires, floated over the city.

  The stench of death hung over all of it.

  Distant screams briefly wafted across the ruins of the city, only to vanish into an intolerable silence. Only the crackling of fires and the rising smoke were constants.

  “Those people are crying for help! Shouldn’t we try to help them?” Tonya begged.

  “Sorry, Sister T,” Luella answered, “We have to get to the Saratoga and out of the heart of the city.”

  “Besides,” Jim interjected, “By the time we could reach any of them, I’m sure it would be too late.”

  “He’s right,” Matt raised his eyebrows, “The sphere may have left, but there are a bunch of aliens still here. They’ve infiltrated everything in Seattle. We can’t stay here until we’re properly armed.”

  As they crossed Lenora, they heard another cry for help. It was much closer than the others.

  “Come on, Lue, it’s right over there. We should see if we can help! Guys?” Tonya took off toward a smoldering building.

  “No, Tonya!” Jim cried. His commands being ignored, Jim decided to hoof it in Tonya’s direction, “Okay, fine, be that way.”

  The team followed Tonya and Jim. They rounded the corner and came to an abrupt stop.

  Their eyes filled with horror.

  “What the hell?” Matt exclaimed.

  Tonya came to the side of an old woman, pinned under fallen cement blocks that used to be a building. She stroked her cheek and then ran her hand down her grey hair, “Ma’am? Ma’am, can you hear me?”

  The old woman slowly opened her eyes and gazed up into Tonya’s, “H-help me,” the old woman struggled to say.

  “Don’t try to talk. It’s going to be alright. We’ll get you out.”

  “N-no,” the old woman begged, “You mu-mustn’t.”

  Tonya continued to comfort the old woman, “Help me try and pull her out,” Tonya pleaded as she took the woman under her arms and began tugging.

  “No!” the woman screamed before Tonya stopped.

  “C’mon, guys! Help me get her out!”

  “She’s pinned in there too tight,” Jim said, inspecting the crumbling concrete.

  “You… mu-mustn’t…”

  Luella set her hand on Tonya’s shoulder and gently pulled her back, “No, Sister T. The cement wall has crushed her. If we move it, she’ll likely bleed to death.”

  “No, Lue! I can’t just leave her here!”

  The old woman’s eyes began changing to green as a self-amp charge began to build within her. Sly spotted a pool of green ooze dripping on the woman from a crack behind the fallen wall, “Get back!” he shouted, “We’ve got green goo here!”

  Jim and Matt climbed back off the fallen wall and pulled Luella and Tonya from the woman.

  The old woman’s eyes turned to a bright green color as she took her broken hands and held onto the cement chunk pinning her to the ground. She began lifting the wall off her body when Jim pulled his sidearm, held the barrel to the old woman’s temple and pulled the trigger. The metal slug from his gun plugged the woman’s brain, the bullet exited the back of her skull, spraying the ground with her grey matter.

  Tonya looked on in horror, “How could you do that, Jim?”

  “I did it to save her soul, Tonya,” Jim answered, holding his gun at the ready, “She was already dead. That’s what she was trying to tell us, Tonya. She wanted us to kill her.”

  Matt spoke up in Jim’s defense. “He did all of us a favor. She was being taken over by some of the alien mass. That’s just one less we’ll have to fight later.”

  “Come on, everyone,” Jim said with a wave of his arm, “Let’s keep moving. We’re just a few more minutes from the Saratoga.”

  The aura of death was everywhere. Bodies lay strewn about the sidewalks, cars sat tangled where they had crashed, their occupants’ dead from the engineered infection the aliens deposited or from the burst of radiation from the collapse of Earth’s magnetic fields, before the Van Allen belt had been rebuilt by the strange alien power source that Captain Buster Clark accidently triggered upon their attempt at rescuing Colonel Petersen.

  The blaring horn from crashed cars sounded in the distance, each slowly fading as the vehicle batteries failed.

  “Man!” Sly exclaimed, “I wonder how wide spread the damage is?”

  “It’s not looking really good,” Matt answered before pointing down the street. “Look, I can see part of the frigate. C’mon, we’re almost there!”

  The group took off trotting along the road, dodging the crashed cars that littered the streets.

  At the next intersection, they slid to a stop seeing a pool of alien matter absorbing the pair of mangled cars.

  “It looks like it’s blocking us from crossing,” Sly pointed.

  “How many rounds do you have left?” Luella asked as a look of worry grew across her face.

  Jim removed his clip and inspected it before clicking it back into the gun, “Five rounds plus one in the chamber.”

  “Not very many,” Matt said with a head shake. “I’ve got two rounds left in mine.”

  Luella studied the street, glancing at the cars, the alien matter, and the building to their right.

  “C’mon,” Luella said, waving her arm at the rest, “I’ve got an idea.”

  The group followed Luella to the building. She quickly ran inside.

  Jim and Matt drew their firearms while Sly and Tonya followed them inside t
he dark building.

  “Anyone have a light?” Sly asked. “I don’t think we should venture in here blind!”

  Tonya took Luella’s hands as they turned to face each other, “I know Lue and I can bring up a slight charge between us.”

  Luella smiled as she closed her eyes with Tonya, “We’ll bring the light.”

  A golden glow enveloped the two as they activated their self-amp charge. The room illuminated, revealing a horror inside. Mangled and torn bodies riddled the floor, as green alien matter flowed over them. It bubbled and oozed as it absorbed the remains of the dead and dying humans.

  A woman’s face contorted, twisted unnaturally towards the human intruders. The alien matter transformed into an unrecognizable creature. Half of what remained human morphed into tentacles. Its jaw expanded as it opened its mouth.

  Jim shouted his warming, “It’s gonna spray!”

  Matt aimed his gun at the creature and plugged it in the head, using his last remaining rounds. With that threat eliminated, Sly and the others relaxed. They watched as the creature’s tentacles twitched. Then the alien matter dissolved and began to flow to the next body.

  Jim looked up to Matt from ducking from the would-be alien mist, “That wasn’t very smart! That’s all your rounds!”

  Matt exchanged mean glances, “What did you expect me to do, anyway?”

  “You could have saved your rounds, Matt!”

  “I had to kill that thing and you know it, Jim!”

  Sly stood by Jim and Matt, resting a hand on each of their shoulders, “Hey, hey, hey, let’s all take a deep breath. Take it easy, we don’t need to be fighting each other, no?”

  Jim relaxed his stance and nodded, “Sly’s right, Matt. Save it for the real enemy…”

  “That’s what I was doing,” Matt protested, “C’mon, let’s go. Lue, what did you have in mind coming in here, anyway?”

  “Follow us,” Luella answered.

  Grabbing Tonya’s hand, she led the team into the darkness, their glow illuminating the way.

  “We need to get to the roof and jump across to the next building. Our only option is to cross the alien barricade from above.”

  Sly shot a stare at Luella, “Jump across? You gotta be kiddin’ me, no?”

  “No, I’m not kidding, Sly,” Luella smiled, “don’t worry, it’s not as far as it looks.”

  “Uh-huh, right, keep talkin’, no?”

  Jim gently pushed Sly up the flight of stairs, “C’mon, move it up a level or two away from these sprayers.”

  “Maybe these aliens are only on the first floor,” Sly nervously asked.

  “We’re about to find out,” Tonya said, grabbing the door at the top of the staircase. She turned the knob and pulled the door open. Luella poked her head through.

  The light from Luella’s palm cast a faint golden glow into the corridor, enough to soften the darkness. “It’s all clear.”

  Tonya opened the door and waved the others through, maintaining her grip on Luella’s hand.

  Sly glanced back briefly then went through the door to meet Matt on the other side. Jim quickly followed, allowing Tonya to pass through, letting the door shut behind.

  The two aimed their palms up a stairwell. The golden glow revealed a metal door, “That’s gotta be the roof,” Tonya nodded.

  As Matt set his foot on the first step Jim tugged on his coat, “Let me go first. Remember, Mister I used all my rounds…”

  “Yeah, real nice,” Matt grimaced as he relented access. “Real nice!”

  “Will you two knock it off, already,” Luella shook her head.

  Jim had his weapon at the ready when his foot hit the top stair. Sly hid behind Matt as Luella and Tonya cast their light on the exit.

  Jim slowly grabbed the handle. It wouldn’t budge.

  “It’s locked!”

  “Bugger!” Luella smiled.

  She grabbed the deadbolt with her amped free hand and gave it a turn. Jim turned the knob and was rewarded as the door opened.

  As the door swung open and the light from the outside washed down the staircase, Luella and Tonya ended their amped light.

  Jim stepped over the threshold with his gun held before him.

  A screech drew their attention up to a descending mist.

  Jim emptied three rounds from his gun into the tentacled alien creature. Holding his breath, he dove away from the mist and gulped for clean air.

  Matt and Sly ran out and away from the wounded alien.

  Tonya and Luella joined hands and pointed their free hands at the writhing creature. A beam of energy shot from their hands, turning the alien remains into a pile of green goo.

  The door shut behind them with a thunk.

  Tonya and Luella fell to their knees, still holding hands, and resting to recharge the diminished self-amp charge.

  “That thing’s gonna regenerate soon,” Matt protested.

  “Over this way,” Luella pointed, “Let’s have a look.”

  They followed Luella to the roof’s edge and joined her as she peered over the ledge.

  “Umm, yeah,” Sly began as he studied the distance to the adjacent rooftop. “There’s just no way, no way.”

  “If we all join together,” Luella pleaded her case, “We should get enough of a self-group charge, we can jump that easy.”

  “Self-group?” Jim smiled, “Is there such a thing?”

  “There is now. I just invented it. C’mon!”

  “I like it,” Jim gave Luella a playful wink as he took her hand, “Let’s do this.”

  Matt, Sly and Tonya joined Luella and Jim, the group forming into a circle.

  They closed their eyes and concentrated on creating a group-amp charge. The glow began with Luella and Jim and flowed in each direction until it had encircled the entire group.

  The golden glow grew in size, filling each of their chips as the alien goo began reforming into a tentacle legged creature on the opposite side of the rooftop.

  As the three-legged alien solidified, Jim opened his amp-glowing green eyes and broke away from the group.

  “We have to do this now!”

  Matt pointed to the adjacent roof top, “I’ll go first,” then pointing at Luella and Tonya, “You two focus on pushing me.” Pointing at Sly and Jim, “You two focus on stopping me over there. Once I’m there, we keep doing that, only I’ll act at the catcher on the other side.”

  Jim nodded his agreement, “Just do it,” Jim pointed at the fully regenerated alien creature that was slithering towards them.

  Tonya and Luella focused their energies on pushing Matt as Jim and Sly prepared to stop Matt.

  Matt took two quick breaths then sprinted to the ledge and leaped. Tonya and Luella sent him across with a motion of their arms. Matt ran across in the air as Jim and Sly waved their arms, tugging at the air.

  Matt hit the other rooftop running, but his momentum forced him to slide to a stop.

  He rose up and brushed his pants off, then cupped his hands to his mouth and shouted, “Sly! You’re up next!”

  Sly gulped. A glance over his shoulder at the slithering alien sent him sprinting to and over the ledge.

  Tonya and Luella lifted Sly over to the other side where Matt held his arms out and slowed him gently to a stop.

  “Pretty cool, no?”

  “Yeah, it’s cool,” Matt nodded before cupping his hands once more, “Tonya, you next!”

  Tonya leaped from the roof and safely landed.

  Jim motioned for Luella, “Your turn,” then he cupped his hands over his mouth and shouted, “Luella get a move on it.”

  Taking her queue, Luella bolted to the ledge and she too landed safely on the adjacent rooftop.

  Matt shouted at Jim, “Come on, man! Get on over!”

  Jim fired his last remaining rounds into the alien’s head.

  The creature sprayed the air before collapsing to the ground.

  Jim tried to hold his breath but sucked in some of the mist. He fell, lifeless
to the ground.

  “NOOOOO!” Luella shrieked.

  Matt tugged on Luella, “C’mon, we have to go!”

  “No! I won’t leave him there,” Luella shot back across the gulf between the two buildings.

  Matt held his hand out and with a wave of power made sure she got across safely.

  Luella landed hard on the rooftop, rolling several times before coming to a stop.

  Face down on the roof, she pulled her arms in and pushed herself up on a knee to rest.

  She looked over to the other side, “I’ll find another way… not enough charge left to make it across again!”

  Matt took a radio from Sly and held it up, “I’m going to send this over,” he shouted, “Keep in contact with us, okay? We’ll come back for you!”

  “Fine, fine!” Luella motioned, “Send it over!”

  Matt tossed the radio over, Tonya took control of it and landed it in Luella’s hands.

  “Nice catch!” Matt shouted.

  “Nice throw!” Luella answered. “Now go! Find the others and bring help!”

  Matt, Sly and Tonya headed down from the roof, making their way to the crashed Saratoga.

  Chapter 2

  Outside Governor’s Mansion

  En Route to Seattle

  January 17, 2068 11:05

  J laid on the floor of the black Lincoln Town Car, his two arms reached under the dash. Nadine stopped fiddling with the wiring and glanced at him.

  “Will you hurry it on up, J?” Nadine said in a panic.

  “I’m getting’ it, I’m getting it,” J answered, “I’ve got to bypass the interlock so we can get on the expressway without a code!”

  “You can do that?”

  “I can if you stop distracting me!”

  “I almost forgot what your profession was before you joined Calvin’s team.

  J pulled his head out and glared at Nadine, “And what profession are you referring to, Nadine?”