An Extract from This Month's Release: Holly and the Monsters
Holly and the Monsters
Started on March 10, 2016, and completed on April 8, 2016, for the March 28 entry of 366 Days of Flash Fiction, this piece takes another look at the dangers facing a new colony.
Holly peered out from behind the wall. The statue had been pulled off its pedestal and let topple to the ground. Well, that explained the crash. Holly pushed herself back in around the corner and squeezed her eyes tight shut—not that she was ever going to be able to unsee the monsters she had seen.
Spindly, dark, large-eyed, and multi-limbed and jointed, they had materialized in pools of light, skittering away from their landing sites with sudden alacrity. Holly had caught the flash of one arriving, and dived out her bedroom window, pulling the long, black greatcoat from the end of her bed. At least it would keep her warm.
And, now, it kept her hidden. She pulled its dark folds around her, drew its collar as high over her ears as it would go, and waited. That one, quick glance had shown her that the invaders were leaving, satisfied they had taken down the only real defense the town had.
Holly smiled, baring her teeth in the dark, keeping them hidden in shadow. She listened as the invaders left, and then crept out of hiding, keeping low and quiet until she reached the statue. The invaders were in for a very big surprise.
They did not know the grown-ups had made sure to train their children in colony defense, that each child had a role to play, that the statue only looked broken. They didn’t know that Holly’s window was made to swing easily open, silent in the dark, and then close behind her to that it looked like she’d never left. They didn’t know she was one of the auxiliary pilots, meant to fly only in emergencies.
Like this. Holly smiled as she slid beneath the fallen statue and touched the panel that would open. She was still smiling as the statue pulled her into its chest and sealed itself around her, and then she drove it stiffly to its feet. Electrodes pricked her scalp, fine wires working themselves along her skull, picking up every signal she sent, and Holly scanned the town.
There weren’t many invaders, just enough to destroy the colony and enslave its inhabitants, just enough to kill those who dared to resist. Holly let the rage take her, melded with the machine that protected her body, and hunted each and every one of her people’s enemies down.
Cover art is by Jake at JCaleb Design, and links to 366 Days of Flash Fiction can be found on Books2 Read at: https://books2read.com/u/b6MrN0
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