Alien vs. Alien

Z’porrah had its back to me, and I jumped on he, she, or it, wrapped an arm around its neck, and started hitting.
    “Get off me, you damned naked ape!”
    “Not gonna happen, Flying Dino Dude. And only my friends get to call me a Naked Ape.” Wrapped my legs around the thing’s waist—sort of the inverse of doing this with Jeff. My mind shared that it hated where I’d taken it and wanted a chlorine rinse.
    The Z’porrah spun and thrashed, and I held on and pounded its beak. Its wings were very ineffectual—had the distinct impression they were décor at this point, not useful appendages.
    Tried to do the twist and break the neck thing, but its neck was really thick, and while it didn’t have the Alpha Centauri hyperspeed or superstrength, it certainly wasn’t a ninety-pound weakling, either.
    The Z’porrah put it’s little T-Rex arms out and made some weird, high-pitched sounds. They were almost musical, but not quite. Then it rolled its eyes back so it could look right at me. “Your world will be over now.”
    We waited a couple of seconds. Nothing seemed different. “That thing you do with your eyes is pretty freaky, but it doesn’t seem to be working.”
    The Z’porrah looked shocked and confused. I tried to twist its neck again. Sadly, no luck, and my attempt seemed to remind it that we were fighting. It went back to thrashing around, and I went back to hanging on and hitting it.
    We spun around like this for a little bit, which gave me a weird view of the action and also the chance to hit Al Dejahl on the back of his head with my purse as my bucking Z’porrah and I went by him.
    I lasted more than eight seconds before the Z’porrah managed to flip me off its back, so I had a future career as a bull rider, should we have a future.
    Flipped in the air so that I’d be able to roll as I landed. Did and rolled into Jeff.
    As I did, one of the Field agents got hit and staggered back, right into the Z’porrah I’d been fighting. It opened its jaws and bit. The agent screamed as the Z’porrah ripped his arm off. And ate it. The agent tried to get away, but the Z’porrah literally bit his head off, crunched it up, and swallowed. I wasn’t positive, but the Z’porrah looked a little bit bigger after this.
    “Get out of here, baby,” Jeff said as he pulled me to my feet.
    “No.” I found my Glock, made sure the safety was off, and walked over to the Z’porrah. It opened its beak, presumably to bite my head off. I aimed and did the rapid-fire technique Mom had taught me. Unloaded all fifteen rounds into the thing’s head.
    Its head exploded. It didn’t bring the agent back, or Hughes and Walker, but it was incredibly satisfying.
    My satisfaction didn’t last long. Jeff grabbed me just before a supersoldier stomped whereۀg I’d been. The rest of the Z’porrah was squished flat, so that was one for the win column.
    However, the superbeings and supersoldiers were boiling around us, and we had to leap out of the way of a variety of feet, or at least things that hit the ground. Decided it was time to be a good wife and obey my husband’s orders, just this once.
    However, before I could get out of the action, there was a loud sound from above. Suddenly, all of us were in shade. And it was spreading.
    Looked up to see what was causing our growing shadow. A Z’porrah ship had been hit enough that it was breaking up, but it wasn’t breaking apart. Instead, it was crashing. Right onto us.
    The crush of supersoldiers, superbeings, remaining Carnivorous Flying Dinos, and androids left us no escape openings. More supersoldiers were tearing toward us, firing whatever projectiles they had at the falling ship.
    Felt someone hit up against my back and looked over my shoulder to see Christopher back-to-back with me. Jeff was at my side. And I knew we were all going to die, right here and right now.
    I took Jeff’s hand. Time for last words. Or something. As I watched the Z’porrah ship head toward us, I felt compelled to say something. “I really wish we had a protective shield around us right now, and, barring that, I wish we’d gotten to say good-bye to Jamie.”
    And as soon as the words were out of my mouth, there she was.

    Yi

CHAPTER 101

    M Y BABY WAS RIGHT THERE, on the ground at my feet. She was standing and had her hands up in the air, as if she wanted me to pick her up.
    I let go of Jeff, dropped to the ground, grabbed Jamie, and pulled her to me, while I did the wrap and cover every