The Rule

I tripped, fell and rolled all the way to the bottom of the hill. The hill had never seemed so tall, standing at the bottom, but falling down it seemed to last forever. The ground finally evened out and I stopped moving. I laid there for a few seconds, until I remembered why I was running.

I got up and tried to run again. It was more of a hobble, but it was faster than walking. My leg felt broken, but I had to get away from the creature that was chasing me. I didn’t know what it was or where it came from, but it definitely wasn’t from Earth. It was the size of an elephant, with two long heads with rows of razor sharp teeth. Its brown skin was tough like a rhino, but had some kind of slimy mucus on it. It had six thick legs with talons on each and four razor-sharp claws on each one. I only know this because it had held me for about three seconds before that guy showed up, shooting at it. He didn’t make it.

I was limping through a field of tall grass trying to reach the line of trees that seemed so far away. I had blood rolling down my arm from where the creature’s claw sliced it. It felt like my arm was going to fall off.

Halfway to the trees, I heard a screech. I looked back and the creature was standing at the top of the hill, staring at me. I tried to move faster as the creature made a great leap, all the way down the hill. I felt the ground rumble and it made me move faster. The sounds of its feet clawing at the ground so close behind me, scared me.

Out of nowhere, gunfire erupted from the trees. Three soldiers dressed in SWAT gear came out of the treeline firing at the beast. It screeched loud. Louder than I had heard it yet, or maybe it was because it was so close to me. An enormous thud signified the monster falling to the ground. I stopped and looked back at the creature laying in the tall grass. It let out one final breath with a small gurgle, like it was struggling to do that.

I started walking towards it when one of the soldiers shouted, “Hey! Stop!” I did. He ran to me, his gun still pointed at the dead thing. “Are you ok?” He asked.

“Yea,” I responded. “I think so.”

“Let’s get him back to base,” one of the other soldiers said.

“Follow us,” said the third, with a thick french accent. They led me into the trees, but not too far in. We’d only been walking for a couple minutes when we reached a short hill that had a door built into it. The door was a heavy, steel reinforced door. There was a light above that had two bulbs. One was red, which was not lit up, and the other was green, which was lit. The first soldier grabbed a long handle on the door, pulled it up, and pulled the door open. Inside the door was a hallway with an eerie green glow that turned into darkness as the hallway went on.

I followed the soldiers in and the first one shut the door behind us. There was another light fixture like the one outside, above the door on the inside as well. One of the soldiers flipped a couple switches beside the door and the hallway lit up with a dim yellow light. At the same time,the door made a mechanical whirring sound.

“Extra security,” The first guard said to me. “Name’s Key. What’s yours?”

“Tony,” I told him. “Nice to meet you. Thank you for saving me. What was that?”

“They are called Grimliths. We call them Grims though. My name is Nico,” The second soldier said.

“I’m Jean-Luc,” the last soldier said. We started walking down the hall.

“Hi. Thank you guys so much for saving me.”

“Well, the boss saw you on the cameras. Thought you might need help,” Nico said.

“Who’s the boss?” I asked.

“You’ll meet her,” Key said. “Just stay on her good side.”

“What? Why?” I asked.

“She is… eccentric.” Jean-Luc said, looking for the right word.

“Crazy,” said Nico. “And now you love cats.”

“Cats?” I was so confused right now. We entered a huge control room that had a wall of monitors. Each monitor seemed to be a camera that looked at the whole compound, inside and out. There was a lady sitting in the middle of the room at a desk that had seven keyboards. There were all different kinds of buttons on it. The lady was typing fast.

Next thing I knew, something was brushing up against my feet. I jumped and almost screamed. There was a cat, purring and rubbing up against me. Now that I looked around a little more, I realized that there were cats everywhere. Climbing on the desk, sitting around the lady’s feet, and also going in and out of a pet flap attached to the door. This lady must really love cats.

“Hey boss,” Key said. “We’ve got a guest.”

The lady turned around. She had short, light, brown hair that went to her shoulders. Her eyes were blue and her face was round. “Hi, I’m Jade,” she said with a smile. “Do you like cats?”

“Ummm, yes I do.”

“Good. They were worshipped by the Egyptians long ago. I believe they are worthy of worship now as well. In my opinion, they are the best animals. And the Grims don’t like them much. Especially the big ones, like Jasper here.” As she finished, a jaguar came out from behind the desk. I froze. “It’s ok. He won’t hurt you. He is gentle. Now, we have one rule here and one rule only. Do not exit the compound if the light is red. Only exit if it is green. Do you understand?”

“Why?”

“We have lost too many people. The red light means it is not safe. Do you understand?”

“Yes.”

“Good. Let’s eat!”

She led me to a dining hall where I ate the most delicious pizza. Then, I was taken to a room and told I could sleep there until they figured out whether the Grims would be on Earth a long time or not. They said the military was working on getting them off the planet now. They told me how these aliens came from space and they had been training to fight them.

“Can I help?” I asked.

“We’ll start training tomorrow,” Key said.

That was two weeks ago, and now here I was standing at the door. The light was flashing red. The Grims came in with more numbers. Thousands, if not tens of thousands more had landed in the last two weeks.The red light meant I couldn’t leave though. Key, Jean-Luc, and Nico were out on another rescue mission. Some girl was stuck at a gas station, not too far away. They were on their way back when they got ambushed by three Grims. They made their way to the bunker, but the Grims followed them. So here I was, on the other side of the door, deciding what to do. Save my friends or follow the rules. The red light flashed bright, dimmed, then flashed again, telling me to stay put. But I couldn’t

I reached for the switches, but something grabbed my arm.

“Don’t,” Jade said, standing beside me. “You won’t be allowed to stay. That’s why we made this rule. It’s not safe.”

“I can’t let them die.” I shook her off of me and flipped the switches, and turned the lever on the door. I looked behind me and Jade was gone. I pushed the door open and was staring at a Grim’s head, looking right at me. It’s second head, which had been looking the other way, turned and looked at me too. I raised my rifle and fired at the first head, then the second. A couple rounds shot and the Grim went down in the doorway.

I climbed over it and went into the woods. I heard gunfire and screaming coming from ahead of me. I followed the sounds and ended up on a small hill, looking down into a small valley where my friends were. They were in a tight group of trees firing at two Grims who seemed to be clawing at the ground by some fallen trees. I looked back at my friends and only saw Nico and Key. Where was Jean-Luc and the girl?

I moved to a closer position to the Grims and saw that they were clawing at someone laying between two fallen trees. It was Jean-Luc. I could see his uniform. I ran down the hill towards them and the two Grims seemed surprised at my courage. I opened fire at the closest Grim’s chest, unloading my entire clip before it had a chance to react. I reloaded as the second Grim started towards me. I fired and saw Nico and Key coming up firing as well. The second Grim went down, almost landing on me from the momentum of running towards me.

Key and Nico reached me, hugged me, then ran to Jean-Luc. I followed. Jean-Luc’s back was shredded from the talons of the Grims. He was bleeding profusely. Key and Nico lifted him up and he grunted through the pain. They held him for a minute as he tried to talk.

“She’s… Ok…” Then, he slumped into their arms.

Nico checked his pulse. “He’s gone.” Then, he started crying.

Out of nowhere, the girl they had come to save, ran into me and hugged me. “Thank you so much! I saw you come down and take them out. Your friend covered me so they couldn’t get me. I am so sorry. It is all my fault.” She broke into tears.

“No. No it’s not. It’s the Grims. It’s not your fault,” I tried to console her. I grabbed her shoulders and moved her away from me so I could look at her.

She was gorgeous. Even though she had been crying, she was still beautiful. Her long, dark, reddish-brown hair was curly. It had some leaves and pieces of grass in it from the ground. Her skin was pale with freckles all over. Her eyes changed colors the more you looked at them.

“It’s ok,” I said. “Let’s get to the bunker.”

We went to the bunker and Nico, Key and I moved the dead Grim. We entered and started closing the door, but Jade stopped us.

“No. Tony, you cannot stay here. You broke the rule. The light was red. I’m sorry.”

“He saved-,” Nico started.

“You can’t-,” said Key.

“It’s final,” Jade cut them off.

“I understand,” I said and started to leave.

“Will I see you again?” The girl asked.

“I’ll be right out here. I won’t let anything get through these doors. Nothing will ever harm you. Ever.”

“OK,” she said, looking happy to hear that. “My name is Amanda. Just so you know.”

“Nice to meet you Amanda.”

She smiled at me. It was the best feeling in the world. It was a smile that I would chase to the end of time. I stepped through the doorway and made it my mission to make sure that light would always stay green.