Two Minutes - An Original Short Story by K H Simmons

Photo by Daniel Klein on Unsplash

‘ETA two minutes!’

Two minutes might not seem like a long time, but a lot could happen in that amount of time. In two minutes, you could fall in love, you could make an enemy, you could perfectly crisp your crumpets. You could also die. That was the one that really stuck in my head as the voice over the radio urged me to stay alive for just two more minutes.

Two minutes was a long time to stay alive when you're nearly out of ammo, your best friend is bleeding out and the xenos were nearly upon us.

The ruined building we found ourselves holed up in wasn't going to hold them back for long. I'd planted my last claymore in the doorway to the room we'd dragged our sorry asses into. I looked at Erin and knew that I couldn't share my pessimism with her. She'd taken a tail spine through the stomach in the last assault. Her face was pale from blood loss. Sweat trickled down her forehead. With one hand she clutched the gaping wound in her abdomen and with the other she clutched her 9mm with fierce determination.

‘You hear that Erin? Just two minutes. Piece of cake,’ I told her.

She snorted and immediately regretted the movement, the moment of sarcastic laughter turning into long seconds of agony.

There was a bang from downstairs as the xenos tracked our scent into the building. Not a lot we could do to disguise the scent of fear and adrenaline that must have been pouring off us. The only furniture left in the room was an old sofa which Fran set about tipping on its side to offer us some meagre cover.

I glanced to the window where there was a partially intact fire escape leading down the back of the building. There was no way Erin was going to make it down though and we couldn't leave her here. We'd been through too much together.
An explosion in the distance caused dust to tumble from the ceiling. The choppers were coming in hot. I just hoped they made it in time.

Two minutes was all we needed.

Without warning the claymore in the doorway triggered with a deafening bang. There was a xeno scream and everything descended into dust and chaos. Flashes of gunfire lit the gloomy room as Fran fired his last clip into the torn open entrance. Xenos screeched and their mustard-yellow blood splattered the sofa. I nodded to Erin and peered over the top just as two xenos clambered over the body of one of their own. Fran fired incessantly at them. Some bullets made it into gooey insides, others bounced harmlessly off their armoured hides. Fran's gun clicked. Without anything else to offer, he threw it at them. In one fluid movement the closest xeno bounded over to him and ripped his head clean from his shoulders.

I cried out, trying to urge my bullets on with pure rage. Fran's killer fell but the other xeno came on.
My heart thundered in my chest. There weren't enough bullets left for it. Although maybe there was enough left for us - one for Erin and one for me. I looked down at her. She reached up with her bloody hand, but she wasn't pointing to me, she was pointing to the window.

She was right. The thudding of the helicopter blades was close.

‘Get to the roof!’ came the voice over the radio.

My heart fell. Even if we made it past the xeno, which was slowly crawling up to us, there was no way Erin could make it up there.

The xeno tasted the air with its long, forked tongue. It was savouring its kill. It had worked hard to get us and now we had been dished up on a silver platter for it.

‘Go,’ Erin croaked.

‘I'm not leaving you here,’ I replied.

‘Then I guess we'll both die.’

I glanced down at her to see that she'd dropped her handgun, in its place she held a grenade, her thumb already on the trigger. She gave me that cocky smile that always made my heart throb.

‘You always were a cocky little shit, Erin,’ I said and fired a shot at the xeno. It skittered back a foot, unsure if I still posed a threat.

‘It's been my pleasure, sir. Do me a favour and rain fire and hell on these bastards.’

I nodded, fired my last shot at the xeno and leapt for the window.

Jumping up the broken fire escape I held back the tears for her, for Fran and for the rest of my unit who had fallen to these horrific things. I bit back my failures and forced myself upwards.

Two minutes just wasn't enough.

The boom from the grenade nearly shook part of the staircase free. I jumped up and clambered my way to the roof where the chopper was waiting along with a handful of fresh recruits. They wasted no time in getting me on board and taking off as more and more xenos began to ascend the building, trying to get to fresh meat.

‘Rain fire and hell,’ I ordered.

What was left of the city went up in flames. Plumes of dust and rubble erupted into the air. Explosions rocked the very foundation of the Earth. Xeno screams were drowned out by the booms of the rockets. I hoped that they suffered. I hoped that they screamed for each other and writhed in pain as I would do every single night as I dreamt of those I had lost. I blamed myself, I blamed my commanders for ordering us into the death trap, but most of all I blamed the xenos. They had taken everything that mattered from me. So I watched as the flames engulfed the city and I wished hell upon them all.

About Me

Photo by Gregg Simpson

I'm Katy, but go by K H Simmons officially. I write a lot of sci-fi, dark fantasy and dystopian fiction. If you're here for sparkly vampires, you're in the wrong place ;)

I frequently post short stories on my Facebook page, as well as work on full length novels. If you want more short stories like the above - check out my anthology Death, Demons & Dystopia available on Amazon/Kindle. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07YN5DY98

When I'm not writing, I can usually be found cuddling dogs, reading, at the gym or playing video games.