Clickers

by J. F. Gonzalez

  The best way back to town was this road, Highway 1. He’d simply have to go around the puddle caused by the dip and hike it back. Maybe he’d get lucky and someone would come along and give him a lift back to town.

  Nope. That wouldn’t work. The only people who would use this road on a day like this were those who worked back at the plant. And they were all dead.

  Lightning flashed out over the ocean. The thunderclap that quickly followed almost knocked Roy off his feet. His hand massaged the area around the bullet wound, and he started limping down the road.

  * * *

  He had traveled about half a mile when he decided to head toward the beach.

  The rushing water made this decision for him. It transformed Highway 1 into a dangerous river of water and mud. He’d almost been knocked down twice by the force of the current and had to grab onto a low-lying tree branch to avoid being swept away. When he got to his feet he clambered up the incline that served as the side of the road and scuttled down the hilly slope that led to the beach. The beach was wider at this point of the coast, and as long as he stuck to the rocks he would be okay.

  The wet sand along the beach was easier on his wounded leg and the bleeding had finally stopped. He felt a little light-headed and for the first time since his confrontation with Rusty (Jesus, I never knew the stupid fuck had it in him. Goddamn, but he shot me!), he began to worry about blood loss and shock. The thought ran through his head and he shook it out. He gritted his teeth with set, grim determination. No way was he going to let that numbskull Rusty have the last laugh by dying out here on the beach from a wound he’d inflicted.

  Fuck him!

  He quickened his pace and a moment later was able to make out the dim silhouette of the pier. Another mile or so and he would be back in the warm arms of civilization.

  The comforting softness of the sand had created an almost lulling effect on him that when he stepped on something hard in the sand, it jolted him to awareness. He stopped in mid-stride, thinking it was a rock until he felt it move beneath his foot.

  “Yaaahhh!” He jumped back, arms flayed out. He lost his balance and fell on his butt in the sand—and gasped as the rock grew claws, legs, and a dark, red shell. Roy yelled and scrambled back as the crustacean pulled its body from the sand and waved its marble-like eyes at him. Remembering what those things had done to Rusty, Roy scrambled back farther till his back brushed up against a tree. The creature hissed and clicked its claws at him. The segmented tail arched threateningly and Roy saw drops of yellowish liquid drip from the stinger that he knew wasn’t just dirty rain water.

  He plucked the revolver from his holster and aimed it at the creature. He’d reloaded before he set off down the road in the patrol car and had packed a box of shells in his jacket pocket. The crustacean became a pile of oozing yellow meat and broken red shell with a single shot.

  He sat slumped against the tree for a moment, the recoil of the gunshot echoing amid the driving rain. Slight movement in the distance made him squint and crane his neck for a better view.

  His eyes widened. There were more of them. The sound of the gunshot must have aroused the other creatures. The sand was now erupting with red shells and clicking pincers as they rose from their hiding spots in the ground. The clacking of their claws began to rise above the din of the rain as Roy rose to his feet.

  He held his gun out before him as his back hit the tree again. He fired the revolver, blowing crustaceans into paste with every shot, but he quickly realized that alone wouldn’t help him. He was hopelessly outnumbered, and would soon run out of bullets.

  He stood his ground and sized up his advantages. He could make a dash for it back to the car, but Highway 1 had become a river. The car was dead. Heading down the beach in the opposite direction these things were coming from might corner him in more. In short, he was fucked.

  The clicking rose louder as he saw them getting closer.

  He turned to the tree as his mind lit up. It was an old pine, with its nearest branch five feet from the ground. He cast a nervous glance backwards, turned back toward the tree and jumped, grabbing the lowest limb and hauling himself up. His arms and legs wrapped around the branch, causing it to bend down from the weight of his body.

  He became soaked with water and wet leaves. He ignored it, pulling himself up just as the creatures made the base of the tree. His wounded leg dangled as he sat on the limb, dripping blood onto the creatures’ backs. It throbbed. The creatures raised their upper bodies and snapped at the air below his foot with their claws. He pulled the tempting leg up and tucked it to his chest, wincing at the pain from the bullet wound. The creatures snapped at the air, straining their scorpion-like bodies upward.

  Roy’s heart pounded in his chest. His mouth was dry. Hope these things can’t climb.

  One of the creatures ventured toward the base of the tree and was quickly blown to mush by his revolver. None of the others tried that approach. They remained where they were, directly under him. Maybe their tiny brains put two and two together. Or maybe their now-deceased buddy possessed a little more intelligence than his brethren. If they all had any ounce of intelligence they would be able to swarm right up the trunk of this tree and chow down. But as it was, they merely stood on their rear legs, snapping at the air.

  One of them broke from the mass and wandered toward the trunk. Roy kept the barrel of the pistol trained on it. He watched as it reached the base of the tree and began to eat its dead comrade. Some of the others joined suit. Roy kept the pistol trained on them, waiting for one of them to make a break and head up the tree. But none did.

  As they ate he swiveled around the branch, taking care as to not further hurt or damage his already injured leg. It hurt like a sonofabitch, and throbbed with a pulsing pain. He climbed higher into the tree, ignoring the pain, feeling more comfortable the more distance he put between himself and the creatures below. He finally found a spot close to the halfway point and found a comfortable area. He rested against the main trunk, the limb he was on splayed between his thighs, and massaged his wounded leg as he thought about his predicament.

  Everything that was happening was his second chance at redeeming himself. After that accident in ’Nam, when he’d been dishonorably discharged from the army after having spilled that experimental chemical that was intended for the Viet Cong village, he had come back to Phillipsport a bitter man. He’d joined the army willingly at the height of the Viet Nam war. Serving his country was his duty to God and country, contrary to what the niggers, hippies and faggots were bellowing during that time period. He’d enlisted and made his father and the other men that hung around Sapp’s General Store proud. Those boys were all Korean War and World War II vets. But the accident, innocent as it was, had been the straw that broke the camel’s back. He had come back disgraced, discharged. And what added insult to injury was that no sooner had he stepped foot into U.S. soil when he found himself in the middle of a Viet Nam War protest.

  He’d flown home with a slew of servicemen who had either already served their time, or who were being honorably discharged from service. Over half of them had suffered injuries during the war. A band of protesters had set up camp outside of the airstrip where a welcoming party had been formed. As the soldiers marched past amid the cheering of the crowd, a group of protesters strategically positioned themselves in the crowd along the path of the returning veterans. Just as Roy passed the junction where the parade ended, he found himself caught in the middle of a fray as protesters rushed out and began calling them baby killers. A few of his fellow soldiers had yelled back and then all hell broke loose.

  Roy gritted his teeth against the pain and the memory. He could still remember it vividly. How a pair of long-haired punks had rushed him, knocking him to the ground. He’d fought them hard, breaking one of the commie punks’ noses from the sound of it, and then a few niggers and gooks joined them and he was being assaulted by four of them, beating him with their fists and then he was knocked to the ground. His
last memory was of a long-haired, bearded man drawing back to kick him and then an explosion of pain.

  He woke up in a VA hospital with a fractured skull and various other injuries.

  He hadn’t trusted people like that since then. Especially when many of those long haired hippie commies began cutting their hair, donning suits and blending into mainstream society to poison it. Every five years or so another band of long-haired radicals would crop up to replace those, and by the dawn of the Reagan years the country was shot to hell. Everybody was doing drugs, fucking each other in the ass, pissing on the flag, and worst of all, society began becoming more tolerant of it. What was worse was that people like himself, hard working men and women, were now getting the shaft in favor of blacks, women, chinks, and Mexicans. People who possessed less intelligence, less civilized behavior. The kind of people who had beat him down upon his arrival home in the states after serving his stint in the war were now the kind of people who had taken over. And they were determined to carry on until Sheriff Conklin and his kind were eradicated from the face of the earth.

  All Roy Conklin had ever wanted was to serve his country with pride and dignity. He’d wanted to uphold the law of God and Country. Make the world a better place. And what had it gotten him? A broken head and a beaten spirit.

  So he’d come home to Phillipsport, enrolled in night school at the college down at Bridgton, and began working for the Sheriff’s department a few years later. He had married once, but that ended in an early divorce; she couldn’t take the criticisms he leveled against her brother, who was a faggot. So she’d left him and married a lawyer from Orono, one of those liberal lawyers who defended child molesters and murderers. No sooner did honest men like Roy get scum like that off the street, then men like his ex’s new husband were working to get them let go so they could do it again. Where was the justice in that?

  His thoughts were abruptly cut off by the rustling of branches over his head.

  He turned his face up, lifting his gun as he saw a dark form climbing in the branches above. He aimed and fired. The branch exploded into splinters, sending the thing tumbling down.

  It hit the branch he was sitting on and extended a claw. It gripped the branch as it came down, stopping its descent. Round, black eyes locked into his and it hissed.

  Roy’s eyes shifted as he drew the gun up, ready to fire again. The creature regained its grip and pulled itself on the branch and Roy chuckled, relaxing.

  It was a raccoon. It gripped the limb, its black eyes locked on him, watching his every move. It hissed again and bared a mouth full of needle sharp teeth.

  Roy’s chuckle turned to a snicker as he lowered the gun. He regarded the raccoon the same way he regarded everything else in the world. If it didn’t fuck with him, fine. If it was a bother or an inconvenience then it needed to be destroyed. If the creature came any closer to him, scratched him, he might fall and tumble out of this tree. And since those goddamn Animal Rights assholes would most likely save the raccoon before they would lift a finger to help a human being, he knew what had to be done.

  He needed to save what shells he had in the gun for himself, no question about that. There were other ways to deal with this critter. He kicked out with his good foot, connecting with the animal’s head. The raccoon skittered back, claws digging into the bark, hissing loudly. Roy kicked it again. The animal hissed again, grasping for a tighter hold. He kicked it again harder, this time succeeding. The raccoon fell.

  It landed in the middle of the pack of crustaceans at the base of the tree. They swarmed over it, arched tails stabbing downward amid squeals and howls. It sounded eerily like the sounds of a cat fight. Roy looked down, grinning as the creatures swirled amid garbling yowls and bubbling, frothing flesh.

  It was dead within a minute, reduced to melted flesh.

  Roy Conklin watched from his lofty vantage point. The crustaceans wasted no time in scooping the dissolved flesh into their jaws and partaking in what was theirs.

  He watched the creatures clean up the remaining traces of the raccoon. They picked that puppy clean, leaving no tidbit uneaten, no morsel undigested. Once they were done they began to crawl back toward the beach. No more snapping their claws around the base of the tree, straining upwards. Guess their memory span wasn’t that great. Roy’s heart raced as he watched them scuttle back to the beach, digging themselves into the sand. He grinned. They’d forgotten him. The momentary diversion of the raccoon had been enough to satisfy them.

  He smiled. As soon as they dug themselves in, he would quietly climb down and head back to town.

  He looked out at the pounding surf and saw more of the things crawl out of the sea like so much grunion beaching themselves to spawn. The minute they hit the beach, they burrowed in the sand. His eyes scanned the beachfront, noticing similar movement. They were digging into the sand all up and down the shore. His mind calculated the numbers; if you estimated a forty-mile stretch of beach that was affected, than it was going to take a lot of work to destroy them all.

  Roy was just about to start his trek down the tree when he noticed that the newly arrived creatures were burrowing into the ground more frantically. Some seemed so agitated that they tried to dig into the bare rocks along the beach, tearing off their own claws. Those behind them clambered over their brethren only to repeat it, or find soft soil. Weird…

  A sound broke his reverie. A moan.

  He tilted his head, trying to find out where it was coming from. It came again, closer. Roy shivered, feeling suddenly cold in the rain and driving wind. His flesh goosepimpled at the sound; it was hollow, terrifying. It chilled every ounce of his being. Combined with the weather and the creatures below, it was enough to give anybody the willies.

  A bolt of lightning burst over the water as the moan abruptly ended.

  By the time the accompanying roll of thunder died, Sheriff Roy Conklin had dropped out of the tree and began moving in a brisk, limping run toward Phillipsport.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Rick’s first stop after Glen Jorgensen left him off at the pier was the Sheriff’s station.

  He approached the darkened facade slowly, trying to formulate in his mind how he was going to broach the subject to Sheriff Roy Conklin that they needed help. The man rubbed him the wrong way, but he needed his help. Now their very lives, the very lives of the entire town, rested on everybody banding together to fight these things. Rick hoped that his fears toward the sheriff were unfounded.

  He approached the front door of the sheriff’s station and peered inside the windows. The interior lights were out but there was enough light outside for him to get a good glimpse. The front office was empty.

  He stepped back, standing under the awning of the building, avoiding the rain that was falling. Sheriff Conklin was probably still with Rusty at the power plant trying to get a handle on whatever it was they had been called up there for. Rick turned and headed down to the pier to find Jack Ripley.

  There were no signs of the creatures anywhere but that did little to ease his anxiety. He wished he had a firearm with him. Going to the scene of the confrontation without one made him feel naked, but where was he going to get one now? Besides, if he stayed in the middle of the street and kept a lookout he should be able to run away at the first sign of danger. The creatures could be outrun.

  He looked out onto the pier and saw Ripper’s car parked on it in front of his store. He started jogging toward the pier, heading out in the downpour. The puncture wound in his leg twinged a little and he slowed up. Even though the sting had been a dry sting, producing no venom, it still hurt like hell and would probably leave a nasty scar. Ditto for the cuts the creature’s claws had gouged into his leg. His only reminder of them now was the bandage that covered them beneath his tattered jeans.

  Rick was almost to the edge of the pier when he saw Jack exit his shop, locking up. Rick raised his hand and shouted. “Hey, Jack!”

  Jack looked up and smiled when he saw Rick. Rick jogged the rest of the
way to the entrance of Jack’s shop.

  Jack nodded. “How’s Bobby?”

  “He’ll be okay,” Rick said, panting slightly. “Doc’s driving him and Janice back to her place. I came back to get her car. What about you?”

  Jack grinned wide. “Everything’s fine. None of the little brats raided the place even though the door was wide open.” They chuckled over that and Jack looked at Rick’s leg. “How’s the leg?”

  “Hurt’s like hell,” Rick said. He lifted his right leg and gave it a shake. “Doc says he won’t have to amputate, so I guess I’ll live. Seen any more of the crab things?”

  Jack shook his head. “Nope. Can’t find the sheriff, either.”

  Rick briefly told him of Sheriff Conklin’s visit to Dr. Jorgensen’s office and his sudden call to the power plant to join Rusty in some investigation. Jack nodded, stroking his chin. “That would explain the power outage. It surely isn’t downed lines.”

  Rick looked down the deserted pier. All the other shops were vacant and dark. The black and orange Halloween decorations reminded Rick that the holiday was next week. If felt like they were living it now.

  A barrage of screams mingled with clicking sounds from the south parking lot snapped their attention away from finding Janice’s car. They bolted toward the sound, rounding the row of shops, stopping at the edge of the pier and looking out over the parking lot at where the sounds had come from.