Page 13 of Doom

“No, no!” I quickly replied, raising my palms in front of me in an appeasing gesture. “There are only the two of us. He and his brothers wiped out all the Kryptids there. They stayed at the hospital to evacuate the hundreds of victims that had been trapped. We’ve spent the past two hours removing implants from all those people and moving them to a safer place. My friend accepted the responsibility of escorting me to my makeshift hospital on Rockwell Road.”

“They wiped out the Kryptids?” Simon challenged, his voice dripping with disbelief. “Our soldiers are getting trampled by those bugs. How is it a handful of brothers can do all that? How are they evacuating people? We heard on the radio that a massive invasion was happening around Third Avenue. No human could have survived that.”

The aggression level was quickly rising among the five. I couldn’t beat around the bush anymore or things would get ugly.

“You’re right. No human could have survived that. And I wouldn’t have … if not for my friend,” I said in a conciliatory tone. “He stayed outside so as not to frighten you.”

“Oh, my God! Oh, my God!” the elderly woman said, shaking her head in disbelief.

“Please, there is no reason to be afraid. They are here to help,” I pleaded.

“You brought a fucking bug here?” Simon asked, raising his weapon towards me.

“No! He is not a bug! Please, listen to me,” I begged, taking one step back. “You heard it on the radio! There is a second group of aliens, the golden ones. They’ve been fighting the bugs. They came here to defend us!”

“How do we know he ain’t using you to get to us?” said a third man with an impressive widow’s peak.

“If that was his goal, he would have no need ofme. I didn’t even know you were here. We were headed towards Rockwell Road when he changed direction and came here. His technology told him there were close to one hundred humans in this church. If he saw it, then the bugs can, too. Except, they will come here to hurt you, not to rescue you.”

The group exchanged an uneasy look. They were far from ready to trust me, but I’d manage to plant enough of a doubt to give me a chance. I pressed my advantage.

“He didn’t want me to come in alone. He was afraid I’d get hurt. With his strength and technology, he wouldn’t need me as a diversion to get to you.”

“Bring him in, then,” Simon said, holding his weapon firmly with both hands. “I hope you wouldn’t betray your own people.”

“I wouldn’t. I promise.” I turned around to look at the door. “Doom, you can come in.”

“Doom?” the balding older man asked.

I cringed. Yeah, that name didn’t help our case. “They all have strange names like that,” I said in an apologetic voice.

Doom walked in with slow steps, his hands out in front of him in the same non-threatening manner I had displayed. He looked utterly badass and breathtakingly gorgeous. In hindsight, it had been a good call for him to put some clothes on. It made him look a little less alien. His golden scales glowed under the bright rays of sunlight flooding through the large windows of the church, adding a mythical edge to his already alien features.

“Greetings, humans,” Doom said with his deep, rumbling voice. Without waiting for a response, he turned his concerned gaze on me. “Are you well?”

“I’m fine. They haven’t threatened me. They’re just a little nervous.”

“Understandable,” Doom said before turning back to the group. “Please, do not be frightened by my alien appearance. My name is Doom. I am a Xian Warrior. You could say that my brothers and I are intergalactic peacekeepers. Your planet is but one of the many to have been attacked by the Kryptids. We are here to stop them as we have on other worlds.”

“And then what?” Simon asked, a sliver of aggression still present in his voice.

“And then we will leave for another world in need of assistance,” Doom said, impassively.

“What do you want with us?” the woman asked. “Why did you come to this church?”

“I came here because my scanning device picked up a large number of humans gathered in a single location,” Doom patiently explained. “This will draw the Kryptids like a magnet. I want to offer you the possibility of being evacuated to a safer location while we are sweeping through the city. Once we are gone, chances of receiving aid from us will be slim to none.”

“And if we refuse?” Simon challenged.

“It is your prerogative. In which case, we’ll just continue on our way,” Doom responded calmly.

The elders exchanged a few uncertain looks before the woman and two of the men decided to go down to discuss the matter with the others. Simon and the balding man who turned out to be named Phillip, gave Doom the third degree about who he and his brothers were, where they came from, and what the Kryptids wanted. While he’d already answered most of those questions for me, I still listened with fascination, having been a bit frazzled the first time around.

After what felt like an eternity, the woman—Molly—came back with the priest of the parish, Father Robert. The relief on his face upon seeing Doom threw me. He eagerly invited us downstairs. I ran back outside to fetch my medical bag before following them down to the basement. One glance clarified the priest’s reaction. There were far too many people in the space, all of them elderly, many suffering from various illnesses expected with age, and far too few resources to keep them properly fed and hydrated.

They were in bad shape and hadn’t been able to scavenge. We decided to give them most of the supplies Andy and I had gathered, including a lot of the medicine. Both locations would be evacuated within the next twenty-four hours, and my own patients had enough to see them through until then.

At first, I’d been angry, thinking all those people had been abandoned by their children and relatives wanting to make a quick getaway. But most of them had chosen to stay behind to give their children a better chance of making it out. Some of them were also clearly in no condition to travel.

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