Earthfall by Mark Walden Page B

so that he could get a foothold on the pipe without falling. He glanced inside, just in time to see one of the creatures floating through the smouldering remains of the door at the top of the stairs and then turning slowly towards him. The creature let out a high-pitched shriek and a dark orifice set in its shining carapace flared with green light. Sam grunted as he dragged himself free of the frame and swung away from the window, clinging desperately to the drainpipe, feet scrabbling for purchase on the wall. A second later the entire window disappeared in an explosion of green light and a wave of concussive force smashed into him, swatting him off the pipe and sending him flying. Sam felt a stomach-wrenching instant of free fall before he slammed down into a pile of abandoned cardboard boxes and rubbish sacks in the alley below. The impact knocked the air out of his lungs and he lay there for a couple of seconds completely winded before rolling over on to his knees and forcing himself to his feet with a pained gasp. He looked up at the hole in the wall above. There was another screech from inside and the creature floated out through the smoke. Sam felt a surge of energy as adrenalin flooded his body. Ignoring the pain he turned and ran, his animal instinct to flee now fully in control. He sprinted out on to the main road and turned left, with no clue where he was going other than away from those silver creatures. He ran on to the bridge over the river that he and Jess had crossed earlier, suddenly feeling horribly exposed. He felt his blood run cold as the air was filled with a deep throbbing roar and a huge black, triangular shape passed low overhead.
    Sam looked up and the last thing he saw was a blindingly bright green flash somewhere above him. Then he felt a sensation, like a giant hand picking him up and flinging him spinning through the air, then a sudden impact with freezing cold water and, finally, nothing.
     

     
    Sam dreamt of his family. They were sitting with their backs towards him on a white wooden bench in the middle of a field of green grass. He walked towards them, but with each step his feet felt heavier and heavier until finally he could not move at all. He stood and watched as Jess and his mum and dad slowly got to their feet and turned to face him. He felt a surge of terror when he realised that they had no faces, just smooth featureless sheets of skin where their familiar features should have been. He tried to turn, to run, as these faceless creatures walked towards him, but it was no good; he was frozen in place. They moved to surround him on three sides, each standing just a metre away. In perfect unison they each reached up with both hands and grabbed the skin below their jawbones, pulling the featureless skin of their faces up like someone removing a mask. Beneath was a void filled with green light that intensified as they each began to make a high-pitched shrieking sound. Sam began to scream as they stepped towards him.
    He woke with a start, the scream dying in his throat, replaced with short, ragged breaths as he felt a dizzying moment of disorientation. He was dimly aware that his legs felt cold and that everything hurt, as if his entire body was just one giant bruise. He slowly opened his eyes and lifted his face out of the dirt. He was lying on the mudflats beneath a bridge, his legs still in the river. There was a low throbbing rumble coming from somewhere nearby. A tiny but urgent voice in his head told him he had to move, had to find somewhere to hide, but all that Sam wanted to do was lie there and rest for a while. He tried to fight through the cotton wool inside his head and remember where exactly he was and how he’d got there. He had a vague feeling that there was something really important he had to do. He frowned as the pieces slowly started to reassemble themselves until his memory of the past day came flooding back in one overwhelming burst. He dragged himself out of the water