Crash. Burn. Die Read online

  Crash. Burn. Die.

  Reality Bleed Book 3

  J.Z. Foster

  Justin M. Woodward

  Contents

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Epilogue

  The Final Word

  What’s Next?

  Night Terrors

  About J.Z. Foster

  About Justin M. Woodward

  Winter Gate Publishing

  To our street team for all the work they do.

  In Alphabetical order:

  Christine Boatwright

  Sharon Collins

  John Craig

  Ashley Drevyanko

  Penny Dukelow

  Tonya Foulks

  Judith Haigh

  Amanda Humston-Barton

  Sheila Kaye

  Dixie Messing

  Dominic Lagonigro

  Lesliann Raper

  Marcie Robinson

  RJ Roles

  Joy Travis

  Alison Woodward

  Prologue

  -Before-

  Will Braun shifted in his seat in the cafeteria of the Mars Felicity Station. He wished desperately he could get the whirling in his head to stop. One of his mechanical eyes had been acting up again, spinning freely—causing him to experience a feeling akin to being a sock tumbling around in a dryer. It was enough to make him sick. He opened his eyelids wide and flicked the eye, successfully resetting it—at least temporarily.

  Looking down at his tray, he wrinkled his nose and pushed it away gently. One of the unfortunate side effects of having a mechanical stomach was the slop he had to eat.

  All of his food had to be puréed.

  Though he’d been eating it that way for some time, he still found it disgusting. He curled his upper lip as he slid his spoon through his hamburger steak. His heavily blended hamburger steak.

  “Scheisse,” he mumbled as he spooned it into his mouth.

  He half-chewed, but that was only out of a habit that had yet to die. He could swallow it whole—it was, after all, effectively a hamburger smoothie—but if he tried hard enough, he could reach back into a memory and imagine how it would feel to bite and chew it.

  However, today he wasn’t feeling very imaginative, and it simply tasted like hamburger steak sauce.

  The cafeteria was half-full, but no one took a seat next to Braun. It was as if invisible hands pressed the others away, and that was fine for him, as he never particularly liked entertaining pointless small talk.

  “Braun!” someone shouted across the cafeteria. Braun looked up and saw it was Mark Rufus, a fellow scientist in the same research division as him. Most of those in the cafeteria had turned to look at him. Grinning, Mark hustled over, careless of anyone watching.

  Braun skewed his eyes in annoyance, but it wasn’t like Mark to overreact.

  “Braun, you need to come to the lab.” He motioned in that direction.

  “Is it important?” Braun held up his spoon. “I’ve finally worked up the nerve to attempt to eat.” By now, those in the cafeteria had all turned away.

  Mark licked his lips, clearly fighting back the temptation to burst. He quickly took the seat next to Will and leaned in uncomfortably close.

  Will had never seen him act this way.

  “It happened again,” Mark whispered, his eyes deadly serious.

  Leaning inches away, Braun said, “What? What happened?” He did little to hide his annoyance. He hated when people made you ask them what it was they wanted to tell you.

  “We heard it again,” Mark said, grinning wide. He looked down to Braun’s tray and pointed at a plastic-wrapped donut. “You’re not going to eat that, are you?”

  “Of course not,” Braun said, as if eating it was even an option, much less anything not mashed into a pulp.

  Mark quickly took it and tore the packaging open, stuffing the donut into his mouth. “I haven’t eaten all day.”

  “You’re behaving like a lunatic. Have you been taking too many stimulants again?”

  “No, but I can’t imagine I’ll be sleeping at all for the next few days.” Mark let out a shaky laugh and stood up. “Just come with me; you’re going to want to hear this. It’s going to be hard to get in there though. They’re all losing their goddamn minds.”

  Braun stood up and grabbed his lab coat, pulling it on. “It knocked again?”

  “It did more than that.” Mark could barely hold back his excitement as they headed out into the hallway. “It said hello.”

  That stopped Will in his tracks. Mark had already taken several strides forward before he looked back at Will.

  “How do you know?” Braun asked.

  “Because.” Mark took a deep breath. “It said it in English.”

  1

  -Now-

  Inside the dark room, amongst the chatter of his rescuers, Will Braun was deep in contemplation. The gears of his powerful mind were turning. Memories were replaying vividly in his mind’s eye, so clearly he could taste his lunch from that fateful day.

  We heard a knock.

  That thought was a scream—a warning—but one intended for the past. An echo of time before it all went wrong.

  It spoke in English.

  How had it done that? How could something so horrible and alien possibly know English unless it was from some strange, parallel reality? Had it been learning from them, even from the other side?

  It was not the first time he had asked those questions, but they had not yet been answered.

  That had been the leading theory—parallel reality. It seemed their lives had taken a page out of some obscure, science-fiction story.

  But that still was not Braun’s concern. Chaos. Uncontrolled bloodshed. Unknown factors.

  These were his present concerns.

  “Hey, Nazi,” Cameron Elliot jeered from across the room. Braun didn’t look up. “Anyone tell you that you look like something the Tin Man from The Wizard of Oz shit out?”

  Braun only vaguely processed the insult.

  Simple man. Simple words.

  “You hear me?” Elliot went on. “You want to know what surprised me more than finding aliens, Nazi? It was coming in here and seeing you look like a half-rotted corpse.”

  “Elliot,” Commander James Tealson said. His voice was calm, but sharp. He was clearly in pain. He’d taken a seat and propped up his foot as they waited for the lights to come on inside the failing research facility.

  Braun’s rescuers all seemed uneasy. Tommy Reeves had gone over to a window and stared out at Mars. The others were huddled in a corner, swapping ammunition and words of wisdom and faith.

  Simple men. Simple words.

  The girl—Lacey Moller—may have been the only one who was interesting. Braun imagined she might have made a useful assistant, but he couldn’t help but notice the interest she was taking in Elliot.

  Poor choice in lovers, girl.

  The two had been off in a corner, holding hands and whispering. Braun would have preferred it stay that way rather than have the imbecile over here bothering him now.

  Elliot ignored his commander. “You’re aware we’ve had a few of our buddies die, right?” Braun still didn’t react. He was never very good at feigning concern, and as he aged, he saw even less reason for it. “Huh?” Elliot went on. “You know some good men died so we could get up here and get you.
What do you think about that, Nazi?”

  Braun rolled his head up. His eyes whizzed and clicked, balancing the light in the room, as they focused on Elliot. “You keep saying that—Nazi—like it’s supposed to hurt my feelings.”

  Elliot twisted his face in disgust. “Fuck you—”

  Braun looked away from Elliot and to Tealson. “Commander, I’m more than a little interested to know, what are your intentions when the power returns?”

  Tealson blinked hard. His face was pale and white, and sweat dripped down his cheeks—but through it all, his voice remained steady. “We’re heading back to the docking bay to board our ship and exit Mars Felicity, ASAP.”

  Elliot plopped down in a seat across from Braun. He pressed the latch on his helmet, and air burst before it rose up slightly. He pulled it off and set it down next to him. He was smirking, and Braun found that particularly annoying. “Don’t you worry that ugly, little head of yours, Nazi. We’re going to be out of here soon.” He dug a protein bar out of one of his side pouches and tore it open.

  Braun turned to stare at the floor. He steepled his hands in front of his face.

  “I’m afraid. . .” he kept his voice as diplomatic as he could. Diplomacy was not a typical concern of his, but one must make changes when dealing with frustrated men with guns. “That we will not be able to leave immediately.”

  Tealson grunted, prompting Braun to elaborate.

  “The creatures—cronux, as a colleague dubbed them—are a problem.” Braun went silent, carefully considering how to tell them what would need to happen next.

  Elliot raised an eyebrow. “Problem?” He tore off a bit of his protein bar and chewed it loudly as he spoke. “In case you didn’t notice, we’re wearing CAG. That’s Combat Armor Gear for the dainty types like you. The fuckers swarmed us in the cafeteria, but once we got them all nice and tight, we beat the shit out of everything we found on the way over here. So, as long as we don’t go deeper and go back the way we came we—”

  Braun looked up into Elliot’s eyes. “We’re not going back the way you came. We’re going deeper in, and we’re going to shut off the gate.” He looked to Tealson. “If the gate stays open, more of them will keep coming in.”

  Tealson didn’t answer. He only sat silently and considered.

  Elliot, however, found the need to speak. “The fuck do we care if more of them keep coming in? Bunch of dumb-ass monsters stuck here on Mars? Like we could give a shit. They’ll stay nice and cooped up here and be someone else’s problem down the road. Hopefully someone far better equipped than a bunch of cargo carriers.”

  “Braun,” Tealson finally spoke, his eyes tight and focused. “I think it’s time you tell us exactly what happened here.”

  “Agreed.” Braun nodded.

  Elliot shot to his feet. “What?” He pointed his protein bar at Braun. “We’re going to let this asshole talk us into not leaving? Are you fucking kidding me?”

  “Actually,” Tommy Reeves said while still looking out the window to Mars, “I want to hear what he has to say.”

  Tealson exhaled tiredly. “Elliot. Shut your fucking mouth and tighten up.” Tealson waved the back of his hand to a corner of the room. “Go play with your dick in the corner if you want.”

  Elliot snorted sarcastically and walked away.

  Tommy turned from the window and walked closer. “How in the hell did this all happen, Braun?” The others took notice and started paying attention.

  Braun rubbed his face, wondering where to begin. “I ran a project division here on Felicity. We were working on a new type of propulsion system. We called them grav drives. They would have been far faster than any type of system we currently have.”

  Joseph DalBon, the flight engineer, spoke up, “How much faster?”

  “Exponentially.” Braun looked across them and noted their confusion.

  Simple men. Simple words.

  Braun gestured with his hands. “Imagine a sheet, pulled tight. Our current systems only allow us to scoot across it. It’s a slow and expensive process.”

  Peter Becks grunted a laugh. “We spent seven months on a trip out here, don’t need to tell us that.”

  Nodding, Braun said, “Seven months could be, potentially, one month? One day? An hour? It’s all theoretical.”

  “Horseshit.” DalBon scoffed. “No way in hell you could get from here to Earth in a day.”

  Braun smirked. “The sheet we scoot across, imagine if we were able to reach forward and dig a grip in, then pull ourselves forward. Grav drives do just that. They grip the fabric of reality and pull forward. It was a theory, and we proved it.” Braun felt a very human shiver run down his back. “But just as you can imagine your hand gripping the fabric, we felt something on the other side. It pushed back.”

  “That was them?” Tommy asked. “The Cronux?”

  Elliot grunted. He was standing next to the girl now, Moller. “That’s what you did,” he said. “You ripped a hole into Hell.”

  “Oh, we didn’t rip a hole.” Will shook his head. “We opened a door.”

  “What in God’s name does that even mean?” Tealson asked.

  Braun closed his eyes, remembering the day Mark Rufus had told him, imagining Mark saying it just as Braun said it, “We heard a knock.” He opened his eyes again. “What we did was find the barrier. We detected something rubbing against us in our test, but we didn’t have the slightest idea what to do about that. But they made it easy. They knocked.”

  The readouts had been clear—simple lines scrawled upon paper and blinking lights on computer screens that would have meant nothing to most people, but Braun and his team were not most people. They had detected the abnormality in the data and perceived it for what it was.

  A knock at the door.

  Braun steepled his hands in front of him again, rubbing them just on the edge of his lips. The memories came quickly now and poured out of his mouth. “The grav drives were put on pause. Whole teams were constructed and reassigned to this new project. We refined the equipment and bridged the gap between realities. It was soon after that they spoke to us.”

  DalBon stood up, holding his arms out to his side. “I’m calling it. You just told me you had propulsion system engineers, and then you suddenly reassigned them to work on communications with another reality? Bullshit. Doesn’t work that way. Shit doesn’t add up.”

  Braun laughed under his breath. “The people here weren’t like you. Our minds don’t work the way yours do. We’re flexible.”

  Elliot grunted. “The people that were here, Nazi. Remember to use the past tense. Unless you consider the shit we’ve been blowing holes through to still be people.”

  Ignoring the provocation, Braun continued, “I took transfers in and exchanged them with staff who would prove useless or better equipped for other areas. We continued our research there.”

  Tommy cut in. “You said they spoke to you? How could you understand them?”

  “Easily.” Braun rubbed his chin. “It was in English.”

  Becks held out his hands. “How in the hell could any of them speak English? We haven’t heard any of the damn things talking. They’re fucking mindless.”

  Braun turned away, rubbing his chin as if deep in thought. After a moment, he said, “How it communicated in English is yet to be determined. But mindless? Unlikely. Are bees mindless as they work to build up and support their hive? Is cancer mindless as it gobbles away at your tissue, destroying your body’s defenses?” He took a deep breath. “What I’m saying, Lieutenant—and I’m only speculating at this point—is that possibly there’s something on the other side controlling them. A central power of some sort, driving them forward to achieve some task or goal. So while the individual may be ‘mindless’, there is certainly a controlling force of some kind.” I see the Cronux as a highly evolved form of living-and-breathing cancer, changing to suit the needs of their master. Our knowledge of them is extremely limited at this point, which is what is so fascinating to me.”


  A smile touched Braun’s face as his mechanical eyes swirled in his head, attempting to refocus. “It’s why it’s important we shut the gate.”

  “What do you think they’re trying to do?” Tealson asked.

  Braun held up a finger shaking it. “That is. . . unclear. What’s so interesting about them is that they change and adapt to the problems at hand. Perhaps you haven’t seen ‘Scalpie’. At least that’s what I call him. A terrible, bulbous, fat thing with staunchy legs and a ravenous mouth as large as its gut.” Braun smirked, as if he were discussing a particularly interesting mystery. “It has a. . . well, a face. . . growing out of its scalp. I saw it on a vid screen.”

  Something in Tommy’s eyes flashed upon hearing that. Braun continued, “It walked up to one of our scanners, and the face contorted as Scalpie presented it to the scanner, shaping it to match. . . well, to match one of our own.”

  Tealson rubbed the sweat from his face, clenching his teeth against the pain in his foot. “It did what?”

  Braun nodded. “Somehow it evolved to get past our security, Commander. Tell me, how could it possibly know to do that?”

  “How could it use our faces?” Tommy asked. “That doesn’t even make any sense.”

  “I saw that on the vid screens as well,” Braun replied. “It’s the worst part of all. I watched the thing as it squatted over one of my associates. I watched as it licked the face off of his skull, and the thing’s scalp popped and contorted as it cracked into place. It eats the very flesh off of the bones, Lieutenant. It steals it to make it its own.”

  Braun held up his finger again, like a professor discussing an important topic. “So. I would feel particularly concerned about leaving a large group of these creatures unattended here on Mars with a functioning gate.”