But when school time rolled around again the monsters had not returned, so down the stone carved street-stair they went to claim another small parcel of education. On the street, people were quiet and their faces somber. Voices were quiet and spoke of the missing, the total now had reached nearly one hundred. Many of those missing were of the Guard, the city’s first line of defense.
Cailin's face matched the people on the streets, though in his case he mourned another day of class rather than the loss of life. Quin thought he should have a talk with him to make sure he understood what had happened. There was no one else to do it. Their parents were gone now. And Jessie, their only living family member, lived far away in SoChar. Not that he would be of much use were he closer.
Quin decided to let Cailin continue on carefree at least for the walk to school. But, when they finally reached school, Cailin immediately ran off to look for his friends before Quin could stop him, not that he tried terribly hard. After school. He would talk to Cailin after school.
The situation resolved itself sooner than expected. Not long after Quin arrived in the lecture room of his first class, Cailin pushed his way through the door into Quin's class, followed by three other eight to ten-years. Cailin located Quin immediately and climbed the steps to Quin's row in the middle terrace. Quin had only just been told by his teacher Mr. Aimesson that classes were canceled. Then, without further comment, Mr. Aimesson turned around and left the lecture room, presumably for his own home. Very few students had even shown up for classes. Those that did were mostly cliff dwellers who had not received the warning that classes had been suspended. Quin had just finished packing his things. He could study as well at home as he could in the lecture room.
The other kids looked scared and upset as they found their siblings.
Cailin looked angry. “They said Ms. Haimmersdaughter was eaten by a monster, Quin.” As a firm rule, Cailin did not moderate the volume of his voice, and this was no exception.
There was a tiny chorus of indrawn breath from Quin's few classmates. The rumor hadn't made it to the lofty heights of the sixteen-years social studies lecture room until now.
“Why are they lying, Quin? A monster can't eat Ms. Haimmersdaughter,” Cailin said, still at full volume.
“Calm, Cailin. Calm.”
“She would just hit him with the old freeze-ray, straight from her eyes. Bam!”
“And then what Cailin?”
“Then the guilt-ray. He would feel bad about that bad stuff, about running around the town and scaring people…”
“and—”
“And then detention!”
Quin didn't allow himself to be amused. He couldn't rule out the possibility that Ms. Haimmersdaughter had been eaten by a monster. He knew her well, from his time as an eight-year. If someone as formidable as Ms. Haimmersdaughter could be taken by a squid, then no one was safe.
They left the lecture room with a gaggle of other students. Their conversation buzzed with guesses at what had happened the night before and, more importantly, what would happen now? As they walked, more and more students joined them in the corridors. In contrast to the solemn quiet of the halls when they had arrived at school, the buzz grew to full between-class volume and beyond. Quin and Cailin filed out the school's main doors with the other students. The crowd that preceded them in the courtyard began to disperse as students made their way from school, some buoyed by the excitement despite the horror of it all, while others were near tears. Mega was now lit enough to see well even when they left the circles of light left by gas lamps spread evenly throughout the school yard. Outdoors, the voices of the students were joined by a hum of activity in the city. But the hum seemed off to Quin.
“Back inside. All of you,” came the firm voice of a teacher at the head of the dispersing crowd.
Confident voices informed him that school had been canceled. Others, sure that their voices would be lost in the crowd, told that man just what they thought of his ideas, outfit, and face.
“Listen to me! Get back inside—gaahh!” a black glob appeared on the man's shoulder, as though it had leapt on him from behind.
There were screams of surprise, and then a rush as the students pushed back towards the front doors.
The man pulled at the blob on his shoulder and yelled again—for the benefit of those students too frightened to yet move—to get back inside.
Quin grabbed his little brother and put him on his back and together they pushed towards the school with the others. More screams erupted from the back—formerly the front—of the crowd. The screams seemed to emote terror rather than simple surprise. Quin looked back to see several students struggling with black blobs of their own. He wanted to turn and help, but he couldn't. He had to get Cailin away, keep him safe.
Quin pushed forward with the rest of the students until he and Cailin squeezed back into the safety of the school. All was chaos in the halls. Shouts and cries echoed loudly. Those who had been outside pushed their way deeper into the hallways, and some of those who had been inside pushed their way towards the doors to see what was happening. Quin shoved his way into the first classroom and dropped Cailin off of his back.
“Stay here. Make sure all the windows are closed, so those … things… can't get in here,” Quin said.
“Where are you going?” Cailin asked, he looked ready to rebel, as usual.
“I need to help at the door, I think—” A renewed chorus of shouts and screams backed up what he was thinking, that they would need to deal with blobs attached to students at the door. “You stay here Cailin.”
“I'm coming with you!”
“I need you to stay here. You are in charge of this room. Keep it safe. Okay?”
The expression changed on Cailin's face and he looked around. “I'll keep it safe. I won't let you down Captain Quin.”
Quin turned and left the class. The suddenly open door seemed to invite other students inside. “I'm in charge!” came Cailin's voice as Quin pushed his way towards the main door, through the throngs of mostly younger students. Three students thrashed around near the front door struggling to free themselves of the blobs. Quin moved up to a girl, rolling on the floor. The blob was on her neck. She was frantically clawing at it to no avail.
Quin crouched down and tentatively reached for the blob. He could see now though, that it wasn't a blob. It was a squid. It was much smaller than the squids from the previous night, but it was clearly related to those monsters. It had many thick tentacled arms, each connected to adjacent arms with a leathery shroud. There was little body to speak of beyond where the shroud and tentacles joined at the top. It resembled a starfish almost more than a squid or an octopus, creatures Quin was well familiar with from books and movies that described the sea life on mythical Earth.
The girl reacted with more terror at his touch, thrashing away from him.
“Hold on to the door, I'm going to try and pull it off.” he said, calmly but loudly.
She stopped, nodded vigorously, and gripped the door handle of one of the now closed front doors. He dug his fingers under its frill, its skin was not slimy as he had expected it to be, but rough and wet. He could feel the muscles of the creature fighting to keep his fingers from gaining hold. But Quin persisted and slipped his fingers in up to the first knuckle. He pulled hard expecting a battle. Instead the squid simply allowed that edge to roll away, and when Quin's fingers were loose, it snapped its muscly flesh tight again.
Quin tried again, this time he jammed the fingers of both hands between the girl’s shoulder and the rough flesh of the squid, fighting hard until his fingers had a solid grip.
“Okay, I'm going to pull again,” he said.
The girl sobbed acknowledgment.
Quin pulled steadily way from the girl as she held tight to the door. The squid stayed ridged, then suddenly it went slack again. But this time Quin was ready. He slid his fingers in further as it loosened and peeled it off.
It didn't give up. It grasped her hair
with one of its miniature tentacles and slipped up to her head. Quin slid his hand up over her face just before it encased her entire head. Now instead of covering her head, it was on Quin's left arm, encasing his hand, his forearm and part of his elbow. He pulled his arm away from the girl and it let her go.
There was a disjointed cheer from some of the students that were watching. The girl ran away from the doors and through to the back of the crowd.
Quin looked at the squid on his arm and considered what to do about it. He looked around for something to attack it with, a pencil, a ruler, anything. The floor was littered with discarded bags, or the contents of bags, and at least one lost shoe. Quin grabbed a bag and turned it upside down, emptying its contents onto the floor. Amongst the books and magazines, a lunch pail clattered to the floor and popped open, spilling a pair of utensils. A fork and knife. He grabbed the knife. It was made of sturdy epoxy with a fiber core, just like the ones at home. But just like the ones at home, it was quite dull. His arm began to itch, a burning sensation was slowly building all along his encased arm. He smashed his hand against the floor, the door, and the wall, trying to hurt the squid in order to drive it off of his arm. He stabbed at it and began to jam the knife painfully up between his arm and the squid's shroud. Its little tentacles grasped at the knife and fought the action.
A voice interrupted his battle. All around him there were others crying and yelling. Some cheering him on with words of encouragement. At least two others were having battles of their own, with fellow students scrambling to pry squids away. But the voice he heard came from beyond them.
Over the din of the hallway he heard Cailin's voice, “Help. Quin!”
Quin jumped to his feet and ran to the classroom door where he had left Cailin. He pulled the door open and charged inside. There were four students inside the room and all four, Cailin included, lay on the floor with squid shrouds completely encasing their heads. Another squid entered the room, high above Quin’s head, through a window placed out of students reach. It leapt onto a desk in front of Quin.
Chapter 3
For Greta, the second invasion started much the same as the first with the exception that warning sirens sounded before the beasts entered the city rather than after. She had been sitting at the same eatery waiting for the same spicy first meal of the night. She had run off home at the first sign of trouble but had again been forced to take shelter in the same building, with the same old man. She suspected he had been watching for her. The old man, Radford was his name, continued to be rude to her despite his initial sympathy and concern. That and the smell of his filthy in-home digester made her happy to leave when the all clear sounded and she could go home, though she did appreciate his having saved her life.
When she arrived back at her own building she was greeted by another old man. Perhaps a decade younger than Radford, he was dressed in the gray blue uniform of the City Watch, complete with wedge, and wore a sergeant’s rank insignia. Only then did Greta notice uniformed members of The Watch approaching other buildings on her street.
“Do you live here? In this building?” he asked, in an almost accusatory fashion.
She was reluctant to respond. She had a terrible feeling that she knew what this was about. But he was with The Watch…
“Yes,” she said, “I live here.”
“It's your lucky day then. You've been drafted.” He held out a sheet of paper towards her.
She looked at the paper but didn't reach for it, feigning ignorance. “What is this about? I have a job to go to—”
“A state of emergency has been called. All nonessential employment has been suspended until such a time as the emergency has been resolved and the state of said emergency has been canceled.” He shook the paper at her, indicating that it was for her. When she didn't take it right away, he shook it again, indicating that she should.
She reached out her hand tentatively. A thumping came from the building’s interior stairway. She retrieved her hand, still empty, and turned to see who it was that was coming down the stairs. The sergeant cursed under his breath.
A young man pushed open the door and stormed out, coming to a sudden halt when he saw the outside steps were blocked. Greta recognized him but didn't know his name. She seemed to recall that he was a new adult, having finished his Survey within the last year.
The sergeant pushed past her and pointed at the man. “Do you live here?”
“Yes, I do,” the young man said, with enthusiasm. “Almost two months now.”
“Drafted,” the sergeant said. He thrust the paperwork at the young man, who took it without question.
“Really? that's great!” he said. “What do I—”
“Everything is on the paper. Be at muster in one hour.” The sergeant nodded at Greta as he again pushed past her. “Stay safe, ma'am.”
The young man was looking at the paperwork with interest. Then his eyes popped up and found Greta's. He smiled broadly and waggled the paper at her, as though he had just won a prize. She walked past him up the stair to the front door and went inside.
She stopped the door from closing at the last moment and turned back to the young man on the stair. “Why are you so excited about being drafted? You do know it's … temporary,” she said, and-also-The-Watch, she didn't say.
“Not if I show them all I am worth. It can be a foot in the door to a full-time career.” He winked and waggled the paper again.
She nodded, and walked up eleven more flights of stairs to her apartment. Inside was pitch dark, so she lifted the shutter in the kitchen and the one leading to the balcony, allowing Mega to shine into the apartment. She placed her bag on the side table at the door, pulled a newspaper from within the bag, lit a gas-powered table lamp, and sat down to read. She quickly realized that, though only a few hours old, the paper was completely out of date, having been released before the second assault by the smaller squid. Frustrated, she threw the paper into the reuse bin and went into the kitchen for a glass of water. She opened the bottom of the ice box and pulled out the water reservoir, filled with cold water from the melted block of ice in the top of the ice box. She filled a glass and replaced the reservoir. She took a sip of the water, but it was still too cold, so she left it on the counter to warm. The glass, placed next to her unused digester, reminded her of the obvious. She would probably have to put the digester into operation. She put the decision aside and made her way over to the street side balcony off of her small living room.
Through the window, she examined the balcony for squid, before pulling the door open and stepping outside. The top floor balcony was square and more than twice the size of others in the building. In addition, a narrow ladder led to the roof of the building and a much larger balcony space that she shared with the other upper floor residents. Few people willingly took the upper floors, seeing the extra flights of stairs as too high a cost for the balcony and view. But Greta wouldn't lightly trade away her view, even for the convenience of bottom floor living. She collected her binoculars from their place within the wooden cabinet on her balcony. Then she made her way up the ladder, cautiously at first with an eye out for danger, then when she saw the coast was clear, more rapidly to the rooftop balcony.
She sat in a chair pulled close to the railing, rested her elbows on the rail, and lifted the binoculars to her eyes. First, she turned to the street corner to the west where the boxes of newspapers would be delivered. The boxes were empty, so she scanned the rooftops across the street to the south. She waved politely and obligingly when she encountered other's like herself, taking in the view with binos. Past those rooftops, further south, she could see the city wall. The wall was formed from buildings such as hers, but without the gaps typical at street corners. All access points to the Beldorath, the inland sea that isolated New York from the North, were through those buildings, the rooftops of which were the primary domain of the City Watch.
She was used to seeing small two or three person patrols walking and watching. But today was
different. Today there were large patrols, numbering ten or more. In addition, there were other groups of Watchers, engaged in training or exercise.
With no work at the print shop for the time being, she spent her time doing some watching of her own.
By the time the papers were delivered, she was hungry again and headed to Dentensons, the eatery she usually ate at, after picking up the news. The paper confirmed what she already knew. A second attack had occurred. The attack was carried out by what the paper called 'Murder Squids' or 'Serial Murder Squids', named for their propensity to kill people by suffocation before moving on without any apparent use for the body. A state of emergency was called, and non-essential employment suspended. Each building was now required to supply fifteen to thirty personnel to The Watch.
It was the last bit that convinced her at last to operate her in-home digester. Constantly going in and out of her building would increase her chance of being drafted. She paid immediately and left the eatery, making a quick stop at the local block shop, three doors down from Dentensons. There she picked up a cellophane packet of digester starter bacteria as well as a large heavy nutrient package of mixed origin. Then she headed back to her apartment with a lopsided walk, thanks to the heavy nutrient pack. She arrived at her building not a moment too soon. Rounding the street corner ahead she made out numerous shapes, lit menacingly from above by both Mega and the streetlight. A gaggle of new recruits, dressed in gray blue, were returning from their shifts in The Watch and looking for replacement draft victims. She hobbled inside and climbed the stairs as quickly as possible until she was out of view of the front door.
In her apartment she prepared to brew up the digester. She had of course operated a digester before, but she'd never before started one new. She read the instructions on the package:
Step 1: Place contents of package into biotic receptacle.
Step 2: Add water until receptacle is filled to a depth of one half-inch.
Step 3: Add sugar to water.
Starship Invasion (Lost Colony Uprising Book 2) Page 2