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XenofallThe WastelandChronicles, Volume 7Kyle WestPublished by Kyle West, 2014.

This is a work of fiction.Similarities to real people,places, or events are entirelycoincidental.XENOFALL

First edition. June 27,2014.Copyright 2014Kyle West.ISBN: 978-1501455063Written by Kyle West.

Also by Kyle WestThe Wasteland nessExtinctionXenofall

Watch for more at KyleWest’s site.

Table ofContentsTitle PageCopyright PageAlso By Kyle WestDedicationChapter 1Chapter 2Chapter 3Chapter 4Chapter 5

Chapter 6Chapter 7Chapter 8Chapter 9Chapter 10Chapter 11Chapter 12Chapter 13Chapter 14Chapter 15Chapter 16Chapter 17Chapter 18Chapter 19

Chapter 20Chapter 21Chapter 22Chapter 23Chapter 24Chapter 25EpilogueA NoteAcknowledgementsAbout the AuthorContactGlossaryAlso By Kyle West

Thanks for stickingwith me for sevenbooks, 1,800 pages,and 450,000 words.It's been an incrediblejourney, and here's tomany more.

Chapter 1“On my mark,” Makara said.“Move up the rise. And staylow.”The surrounding fungusemanated an ethereal glow,and the air was warm andsticky. Our squad sat withbacks to a large boulder.Stilted trees twisted from thexenofungal bed. In thedistance, a crawler shrieked.

“Go,” Makara said.Makara and I, along withfour other Angels, advancedup the hill at a crouch, thefungus squishing beneath ourboots. Perseus hovered highin the clouds, piloted by Annaand ready to descend at amoment’s notice. We were inthe Great Blight, after all;things could change in aninstant.Three meteorites hadfallen near 3:00this location

in Central Texas, and Makarawanted to inspect them upclose. The one we were afterhad impacted not two hoursago, but Makara wanted toinvestigate all three. So, shehad split us into three teams –Samuel and Ruth led one,while Julian and Michael ledthe other. Makara and Iheaded this one, and Grudgehad come along for additionalsupport.

At last, we made it to thetop of the hill. Below, theBlightedvalleyspread,glowing in the night. A thinstream wove between thehills, its flow and gurgleaudible even with distance.Judging by its quick flow, itwas water rather thanRadaskim ichor. In the centerof that stream was a largeboulder, out of the center ofwhich radiated a moltenglow. Steam hissed from the

rock’s sides where the watertouched it.“There it is,” Makarasaid.She raised a pair ofbinoculars enhanced withnight vision to her eyes. Iwished I could get a look, butI had to make do with myown eyes. Xenotrees grewthick on the stream’s banksand alien chirps echoed in thehills. The clouds hung low,blocking starlight, though the

bioluminescenceofthevegetation provided amplelight.Makaraloweredthebinoculars. “Can’t see a damnthing. We’ll have to getcloser.”Grudge grunted. “Soundslike a bad idea.”“Maybe,” Makara said.“But we’re not findinganything out up here, that’sfor damn sure.”

“Maybe we should give ita bit more time?” one of theother men asked.“No,” Makara said. “Thetime is now.”The wind blew, warm andhumid, like the exhalation ofa beast. Being in the GreatBlight was like being inside aliving thing. That suffocatingfeeling went beyond thephysical; it was like athousand eyes watching yourevery move. The longer we

remained, the more theRadaskim became aware ofour presence.It wouldn’t be long untilAskala noticed us as well.The meteors had fallen allover America, and maybeeven all over the world. Wewere investigating the ones inTexas because they were farfrom our usual action, andhopefully, less likely to drawAskala’s attention. All the

same, we still had to get inand get out soon.My thoughts wandered toAshton. It had been a daysince his death, and we haddone all the grieving we hadbeen allowed – which wasvery little. I felt he wouldhave known what to do aboutthesemeteorites,andprobably would have hadsome theories about whatthey were.

“Alright,” Makara said,lowering her binoculars.“We’ve been looking downthere for two minutes now,and nothing’s moving.” Shepaused a moment beforegiving a nod. “If anythingjumps out at us.shoot first.”Then, Makara walkeddownhill at a crouch, the restof us following suit.The glow of the fallenrock brightened as weadvanced. It was about the

size of a small house, and itwashardtoimaginesomething this large fallingfrom the sky withoutcompletely obliterating thisvalley. The boulder emanateda pink, molten glow that castthe valley in dancing light. Ididn’t think any of usexpected the meteorite to beso big. Perhaps the fungushad padded its fall somewhat,or maybe it had impacted at alow velocity.

As we advanced, I couldsee that downstream, thewater radiated a pinkish lightthat seemed to come from themeteor. The pink riddled thestream, contaminating thewater.Slowly,cautiously,Makara stepped onto thestream’sbank.Waterwrapped around the glowingrock, rushing past.Grudgejoinedher,holding out a hand to touch

the rock.“Don’ttouchthat,”Makara said.“I wasn’t going to,”Grudge said, defensively. Hepaused,feelingthesurrounding air. “It’s warm.Hotter than a stovetop.”“Doesn’t surprise me,”Makara said, frowning. “Idon’t get it. What’s Askalatrying to accomplish withthese things?”

The Angels around herwere quiet. She lookeddirectly at me, so I racked mybrain for a theory.I pointed to the river.“Well, there’s obviouslysomething in this rock.Whatever it is, it’s gettinginto the water. Maybe it hassomething to do with that?”Makara watched theglowing water downstream.She lifted her radio.

“Bravo, you have acopy?”Samuel answered. “Yeah.We’re by our rock now.”“And?”“And nothing. It’s stillglowing from its re-entry, butthere’s nothing around here.”He paused. “Crazy how sucha small thing could do somuch damage.”“Wait,” Makara said.“You said small?”

“Yeah,” Samuel said.“Probably the size of awatermelon or something.Crater’s as big as a footballfield.”Makara looked up at ourrock, the size of a house,which had no discernablecrater or sign of impact. Shewas silent for a moment.“Are we in the rightplace?” she asked me.“Should be,” I said,pointing to the giant rock.

“You can see it glowing. Itdefinitely fell, maybe at a lowvelocity. Still, you’d thinkthere’d be more of an impactthan just splashing into astream.”“Maybe it was here allalong,” Grudge said.We both looked at him.He gave a shrug, pointing tothe center of the rock.“Only that one part of it isactually glowing. Maybe thisgiant rock was here before,

and it was hit by a smallermeteorite.”Makara and I inspectedthe boulder more closely. Itwas cracked, right down themiddle, which I assumed hadhappened from its initialimpact. But Grudge wasright; if this entire thing hadcome from space, it wouldhave laid waste to this areafor miles around.“Grudge is right,” Makarasaid. “Most of this thing was

here before. It was hit by asmaller meteorite, whichcaused it to crack. I guess thecontagion spread to the rest ofthe rock, along with thestream.”“Makara,” Samuel’s voicecame. “Makara, you there?”Makara raised the radioagain. “Yeah. Just trying tofigure things out.”“Ruth’s on the line withJulian right now. They’vefound something.”

The radio sizzled tosilence, until Julian’s voicecame out.“Makara?”“Julian. What’d youfind?”“We’re by the lake now,Point Charlie. The meteoritemust have fallen into it,because the whole thing’schanging color. It’s not water,either. It’s that icky crap.”“Changing color, how?”

“Not color, really,” t do you want todo?” Grudge asked Makara.Makara held up a hand,quieting him. “We’ll meetyou over there, Julian. I’mconverging all teams at yourlocation. Point Charlie, yousaid?”“Yeah,”Juliansaid.“We’ll stay put.”

“If anything happens,”Makara said. “Call Anna andalert us all. We’ll meet atextraction.”“Copy that. Try to hurry.It’s spreading fast. Twentyfeet or so a minute, if I had toguess.”“Copy that. We’ll be theresoon. Over and converging on Point Charlie.

Head over, stat.”“Copy that.”At last, Makara switchedover to Anna’s line.“Perseus, stand by forfurther orders. All teams areconverging on Point Charlie,so let’s use the Charlieextraction point we pickedout earlier.”“Copy that,” Anna said.“Things are quiet up here.Haven’t seen any more ofthose things falling, and the

infraredshowsnothingoutside the natural heat of thefungus. You should still begood to go.”“All the same, stay alert,”Makara said. “It’s been quietdown here, too.”Too quiet, I wanted toadd, but I kept my silence.“Be careful, Makara,”Anna said.“Advise me of anychanges,” Makara said. “Overand out.”

She attached the radio toher belt, then withdrew herhandgun. She gave one lastglance at the split boulderbefore turning back to the restof us.“Let’s go.”She headed back to thewesternhill,andwefollowed.***

We left the valley, crossedthe hill, and entered a thickstand of xenotrees. PointCharlie was through thesetrees and beyond anotherridge. Samuel and Ruthwould make it there beforeus, so Makara set a quickpace. The trees and the nightwere silent, yet all the same,it continued to feel like wewere being watched.When we passed the lastline of trees, we took to the

ridge. When we crested therise, I looked down to see thebottom of the slope meetingwith the shore of a massivelake, filling an entire valleywith pink, translucent ichor.About one-third of the wayinto the lake, the liquidglowed especially bright, aneon pink with a silvery,metallic hue. Tendrils of thebrightness expanded outward,claiming more of the lake’ssurface.

“Come on,” Makara said.At the bottom of theincline, twelve or so peoplestood, masked by darkness.We descended the slope,heading for the shore. Oncewe were close, I recognizedRuth, Michael, Samuel, andJulian. All of them werestaring at the lake. Together,we watched the lake insilence. No matter how farthe bright glow spread from

the original point of contact,it kept its original luster.“Theories on what thisis?” Makara asked.“The meteorite landedright in the center of thatglowing section,” Julian said.“We got here soon after that.”“I know that,” Makarasaid. “But what is it doing?”“Maybe one of us shouldgo for a swim,” Ruth said.Julian guffawed. “Afteryou.”

One of the Angels pickedup a nearby rock. Michaelswatted it from his hand.“Bad idea.”“Is it even safe to bestanding out here, in theopen?” Ruth asked.“Yeah, we should getgoing,” one of the Angelssaid.“We need to find out whatthis is,” Makara said.“Otherwise, this was a wasteof time.”

“I’d rather waste my timethan die,” Ruth said.“We’re staying,” Makarasaid. “Nothing’s attacked usyet.”Ruth shrugged. “There’snothing around for now,but.”Grudge pointed across thelake. “Don’t speak so soon.”“Down,” Makara said.Everyone dropped to theground. Makara raised herbinoculars to her eyes.

Samuel and Michael followedsuit with their own pairs.“A crawler,” Michaelsaid. He scanned the farshoreline, seeking additionalthreats.“It’s going in the lake,”Julian said, staying focusedon the crawler.Now, even I could see it.The crawler entered theshallows on the far side of theichor lake. Its form wasshadowed, silhouetted against

the glowing pink of the ichor.The crawler paddled, slowly,across the lake toward theglowing section that was stillspreading.“That’s a long swim,”Ruth said.Makara dropped herbinoculars, allowing them torest against her chest, held bythe strap.“There’s more,” Michaelsaid. “Look.”

Michael was right. Two,and then three more crawlers,appeared from the xenotreesbordering the far side of thelake. They slid into the ichor,almost floating in thedirection of the iridescentglow. The original crawlerwas now halfway across thelake.“Yeah,” Makara said.“We need to fall back.”She rose at a crouch, therest of us following suit.