I dive through the broken front window, get completely airborne, and crash down on the pavement about ten feet outside the store. I don’t slow down to look behind me. The parking lot and the cover of the cars is right across the street. My mind is working nearly as fast as my legs. The rest of the mission is in the tunnel, underground. If these Nahx are anything like I hope they are, they won’t follow us underground. If I can just make it back to the tunnel.
I hear a loud noise behind me but don’t look back. A shadow darkens the sky—a transport. It swoops over me. I dive down and roll under a car and keep rolling until I’m three cars away. The first car explodes in a cloud of flame and smoke. I lie there for a second, taking account of all my limbs and bones. Nothing appears to be broken, yet. I can still make it. The shadow of the transport skims over the pavement next to me, then moves away. I take a deep breath, roll out from under the car, and leap to my feet, running before I’m even fully standing.
A wild wind rises up, blowing snow and debris everywhere. I’m thankful for it, even though it turns my exposed skin to ice. The cloud of snow might do much to conceal me from the transports or even the Nahx on the ground. I risk a glance behind me. It doesn’t look like any of them followed me on foot. That transport was probably the one from the loading dock.
As I run, I scan the sky. The stadium looms up ahead of me. If I can reach that I’m almost safe. Staying close to the wall will protect me somewhat from the transport. Where are Topher and Xander? Did they come this way? I don’t see any sign of them. The image of Sawyer and Mandy, poisoned by darts, flares in my mind, and I can’t separate it from Topher’s and Xander’s faces, the last time I saw them, before I pushed the shelf over. It was only a few minutes ago, but it feels distant already. My mind is playing tricks with time. I feel like I’ve been running forever.
I reach the wall of the stadium and stop for a moment, my breaths coming fast, each one freezing my lungs a little more. I take in my surroundings. The parking lot is clear, apart from the smoke still rising out from the exploded car. The wind has died down a bit. I can’t see the Nahx transport.
I turn and begin to run down along the side of the stadium, keeping as close to the wall as possible. It curves around and away from the tunnel entrance slightly, but I follow it regardless. I need to get right to where I can sprint down into the tunnel in a straight line without having to dodge parked cars. That means I need to get past the parking lot.
I jump over a dark shape by one of the doors, realizing afterward that it is a corpse in a tattered snowsuit. I move into a doorway for a second, taking another look around. Clear to the tunnel, I think, all clear. I can see the tunnel entrance beckoning me. It’s dark and deep and safe-looking. I coil up my energy to make the fastest sprint of my life. I check to the left, to the right, above me.
When I look down, there are two Nahx emerging from the tunnel entrance.
No, no, no, I think. I’m seeing things. I blink a few times. When I look again, I see it’s not Nahx after all; it’s Topher and Xander. They see me and wave. I wave them away. Then they look up. A transport looms overhead.
“Go!” I scream. Xander grabs Topher’s arm and tugs him back into the tunnel. I count on the fact that Nahx can’t hear outside their transports. I have no way of knowing if this is in fact the case—I just hope. So much hope, I don’t know where it all came from.
I edge back to where I don’t think the transport hovering above can see me and try to think. It’s not far to the entrance of the tunnel. I know I could weave back and forth, and this might prevent them from hitting me with a dart, but whatever they hit that car with was no dart; and I don’t imagine one would have to get all that close to kill me.
I pull out my pistol. Of course I know that a bullet can’t penetrate the transport, but it makes me feel better nonetheless. I take a quick glance upward and see the transport still hovering.
“Damn it.” Up until that moment I had been pretty confident I would make it back to the tunnel. Well, except for the car exploding; that was a bit of a low point. Curling back into the doorway, I try to think. As I lean back on the glass door, it moves. I turn and push it. It’s unlocked.
Without a millisecond’s thought I push the door open and jump inside. There are human remains strewn throughout the large concrete entranceway and up the stairs. It’s hard to believe, but I’ve never been in this stadium before. I always felt that watching sports was pointless, especially football and hockey. They always seemed like bloodfest fights to the death, like the gladiators or something. I suppose martial arts are too, now that I think of it. I wonder if this was why the Nahx kill us. I get that they wanted our planet. They’ve made that pretty clear. But why kill all of us? What kind of threat are we? Maybe it’s a game for them.
I move quickly along the curved hallways around the stadium. If this is anything like I think it should be, it will have exits evenly spaced along the whole curve. I quickly formulate a plan to circumnavigate to the other side of the stadium. If the Nahx think I am trying to get into that tunnel, they will never stop watching it. So I will have to stop trying to get into the tunnel, at least that way.
If I exit the stadium exactly opposite from the entrance that faces the tunnel, I should come out right by the river. I can climb the fence and walk over the ice back to where the tunnel comes off the freeway. It is a pretty good plan. Well, it might get me killed, but it’s all I’ve got.
As I walk I keep a close eye on the glass doors to my left. I can’t see any evidence of the Nahx or their transports. That is a good sign. Maybe there are only those three transports around. It still doesn’t explain what they are doing here, but at least it gives me a feeling that I might have a chance, however remote, of getting out of this alive.
I pass three doorways, four, five. Suddenly, I realize I have no real way of knowing when I am exactly opposite from the tunnel exit, since the stadium is basically round. I curse loudly, then nearly apologize to the dead that surround me. I am trying not to look at them. There are many children among the remains, and babies, deader than dead in their dead parents’ arms.
Two doors later I find what I have been hoping for: a map of the stadium and the surrounding streets. The map shows that the tunnel entrance is due south of the stadium, and that the stadium entrance I came in by was called E. I am now at Entrance J. I need to go out Entrance A. That will take me directly across from where I came in.