Parasite ; Sleeper Cells ; Kingdoms of the Dead

by Ian Woodhead

  Ethan wasn’t about to allow it to get back up. He raised the rock above his head and brought it down as hard as he could onto the toddler’s head.

  Chapter Seven

  She felt her jaw crack as Georgina expelled the largest yawn so far today. It had been up against some serious competition, she hadn’t stopped yawning all morning. That didn’t surprise her, considering just how little sleep she had managed to get last night.

  That fact did surprise her. Looking past the lumpy mattress, thin bed sheet and snoring husband, Georgina should have slept like a log. The bed was sheer luxury compared to what she was used to sleeping in at the digs.

  It had been the unsettling and violent dreams that had kept her eyes wide open throughout most of the night. She hadn’t had such vivid dreams since the LSD incident back when she’d been a stupid student. With the bright sunshine warming her back, the whole notion of a middle-aged woman having a nightmare all seemed a little silly. For the life of her, Georgina could not remember a single detail of the dreams, only they scared the crap out of her.

  Georgina locked the side door, walked around the back of the land rover, and opened the back to start unloading the equipment. She felt a little resentful to having to do all this donkey work alone. Her husband had conveniently asked her to drop him off outside a grocery store before she continued to their destination.

  She gazed around the empty carpark, wondering why the cavern owner hadn’t turned up yet. He was supposed to meet them here five minutes ago. “What a great start,” she muttered. Thanks to their unpleasant meeting with those three idiots at the petrol station yesterday, Georgina had already taken a dislike to this shitty little village. What she had experienced since that meeting hadn’t exactly endeared her to this place. The staff at the hotel was surly and unpleasant, the locals just would not stop staring at her and now, the person who they had begged them to come wasn’t even here, knowing her luck, he probably would even show up.

  Georgina pulled one of the arc lights out and leaned it against the car’s body. She shivered, for some strange reason; the woman could not shake the feeling that someone was watching her. She moved away from the vehicle and stared at the building behind her, wondering if somebody was inside and staring at her through a window. From where she stood, Georgina could only see the single window and that was around the side.

  Her stupid imagination was playing with her mind again; she blamed that on lack of sleep. Georgina was about to carry on unloading the gear when her ears detected a rustling sound coming from a bank of thick shrubs growing along the side of the carpark. “Who’s there?” she asked. Georgina saw some small branches at the base of the bushes shake and a pitiful whine emerged from beyond the foliage.

  It must be a dog or a cat in there, probably looking for something to eat. Her heart leaped when the whine suddenly changed to a deep growl. Georgina grabbed the arc light and held it out in front of her. That definitely sounded like a dog, a bloody big one as well.

  The bushes then exploded into a frenzy of rapid movement, she listened with shock at the sound of what she thought was a large dog ripping into a smaller animal then, as soon as it started, the noises ceased and the bushes stopped moving.

  Overcome with curiosity, Georgina put the arc light back and slowly walked over to the bushes. She crouched down and parted the branches. She reeled back as the vile smell of rotting meat assaulted her nostrils. She watched what looked like a white cat’s body deflate and melt as the sun’s rays bathed its body. Within seconds, all that was left was a bleached white skeleton. She had never seen anything like that in her life.

  Georgina peered into the bushes, staring at the cat’s skeleton. She leaned in and picked up the skull and gazed at its teeth, they weren’t cat’s teeth. They were way too long and jagged. This was all too weird. Georgina pulled one of the teeth out and slipped it into her pocket, meaning to examine it later.

  She turned her head and saw another car pull into the carpark. “Okay, so I was wrong,” she muttered, watching the large grey estate car park up next to her land rover. “It still won’t stop me from disliking this place.”

  The man climbed out of the car, he smiled at Georgina and hurried over to her, grinning. “I’m so glad you could take time out of your busy schedule to have a look at our discovery,” he said, shaking her hand. “Are you alone? I thought there were two of you coming down.”

  She nodded. “He won’t be a moment; William wanted to stop off at a shop.” She looked over to the entrance to the carpark and smiled. He’s here now,” she said, watching him walk along the path. The man had a folded paper tucked under his arm. Georgina followed the man over to the main gate, trying to keep up with his excitable chatter, her mind kept going back to what she had just seen in those bushes. It didn’t add up, who had ever heard of sunlight melting an animal? It must have been something else, Georgina had no clue what though and her sleep deprived mind refused to play ball.

  “Here you go,” said William passing her an energy drink. “This should help you stay awake.”

  She nodded. “Thanks.”

  The man turned and shook William’s hand. “Thank you for coming.” He smiled at Georgina. “Thanks to both of you, I can’t tell you how exciting this is for us at the centre. Gosh, this will certainly put our little village on the map.”

  She really disliked this little man, he creeped her out. Georgina suspected that beneath that thin veneer of naïve pleasantries, the man was a just another money grabbing shitpot. She may be wrong about him though, until her brain woke up and got to know him a little better, Georgina would keep her opinions to herself. Not that she’d share any of her thoughts about him with William. Despite his actions at the petrol stations and the fact that he’d been so pleasant and thoughtful, Georgina still believed he’d been naughty with that research assistant.

  The man led her into the foyer. “Can I get you a drink or anything?”

  William shook his head, “If it’s okay, we’d like to see the discovery first.”

  “Of course!” he smiled back. “If you’d like to follow me, I’ll take you straight to it. I have closed the caverns down for the next few days, so you will not be disturbed. I’ll lose a significant amount of money, of course but I’m sure it’ll be so worth it.”

  She was right about the man; he was a money-grabbing snake. It made her wonder just how far he would go to try to make money and whether or not the man really was trying to take them for a ride. She sighed and stared down at the floor, catching sight of the dirt. Was she was the only one who had noticed the muddy footprints running across the carpet.

  Mr Calhoun ushered them towards a large metal gate, stretching across the entrance to the cavern. He inserted a key into the lock and pulled the gate open.

  “Before we enter, Mr Calhoun, I’m a little confused about something.”

  The man faced her. “Well, I’ll be happy to help, if I can.”

  “You mentioned that the girl stumbled upon the cavern, close to this gate?”

  He nodded. “That is correct, yes.” He pushed the gate open even further. “You can see it from here.”

  “Has there been any instability in the caverns recently? You know, sudden rock falls for example.”

  The man shook his head. “No, of course not, rest assured, our caverns are perfectly safe.”

  Georgina nodded. “That’s okay then, if you’d like to lead the way?” That settled it then. It had to be a bloody set up. Her suspicions were confirmed when the man led her into the cavern. William switched on his torch, started up his little humming motor and pushed past the pair of them. She stayed by the entrance and ran her fingers down the side of the hole, it hadn’t escaped her attention that there was no rubble of any kind near this hole, she doubted that the snake had cleared it away.

  Her husband was crouched in front of one of the skeletons. “Georgina, come over here, you have got to see this!”

  She was reluctant to enter this stupid cavern so obvi
ously full of fake bones. Georgina glared at her husband’s back, not believing that he had fallen for this charade. She reserved the largest portion of disappointment for herself for actually believing that she had found a way to escape her cheating husband.

  “Come on in,” he shouted. “This is just amazing.”

  She turned on her own torch and ran the beam over the roof of the chamber, wondering what it used to be before the owner decided to pull this little gag. She could see no evidence of any electrical outlets and signs of paint or wiring. Georgina watched the snake gaze across at her husband; she wondered what was going through his mind.

  Georgina shook her head and walked over to William. She might as well see what had got the man so excited. He’d probably found a price tag attached to one of the skeletons. She crouched beside him and William handed her a long finger bone. She rolled it along her fingers then brought the bone up to her nose. It smelled of old dust, mixed with something else, an acrid smell, resembling sulphur.

  “One thing is clear to me, Georgina. Despite every evidence shouting at me that this is a set up, these certainly are real bones.” He strode up to the cavern owner. “I need to bring in higher authorities.”

  The man smiled back, “Of course, I understand.”

  “No, I don’t think you do, sir. You see, this could be the most important find this century. We are looking at the discovery of a new human species, given the preservation, this find could completely turn around our ideas on evolution.”

  The man’s grin widened. “That’s sounds absolutely incredible.”

  Georgina could almost see the snake adding up all the money this would bring him and his tourist spot.

  “Not for you it isn’t,” continued William. “You see, there is no way that an entrance to this chamber could have magically appeared overnight. It really is impossible. That means that we are dealing with a contaminated dig.”

  He walked back over to the pile of bones, leaving the owner standing with his jaw hanging open.

  “William, how sure are you that these are genuine?”

  He looked directly at her and grinned. “Oh, they are the real thing, Georgina,” he whispered. “Whether they originated from here or were put here is irrelevant.” He picked up a skull and showed her the jawbone. “We are definitely dealing with an undiscovered hominid and we are definitely going to make an absolute bloody fortune.

  Georgina smile dropped from her face when she saw the shape of the teeth in the jawbone. She picked the tooth out of her pocket and compared it. The one she took out of the cat skull was a lot smaller but the shape and the wicked looking ridges were identical. Georgina stood up, picked out another skull, and saw the teeth were the same in this one as well. A cold shiver travelled up her back, wondering what it meant.

  Chapter Eight

  The cloudless dawn sky to the east looked as though God had attacked it with a scarlet paint set. Barry Hanson stopped his bicycle and gazed in wonder at the multitude of shades colouring the horizon. It were days like these where he so just loved his job as a paperboy.

  Seeing such an awe-inspiring sight almost brushed away the unsettling notion that something terrible was happening in Colbeck. He mounted his bike and started to pedal, he ;should not have really stopped here. Jessup’s hill was just around the corner and if he didn’t get his speed up, he’d never reach the top.

  Barry’s morning started out just as it was supposed to. His dad woke him, just before he left for work, leaving Barry a nearly cold bacon sandwich on the breakfast bar. The feeling and taste of congealed bacon grease coating his lips helped to keep him going as he cycled around the village on his early morning paper round.

  The weird poo only began to hit the fan when he reached the last house, about half a mile down the road and close to the woods. He always looked forward to visiting Mrs Banks; the old dear always invited him in for a glass of orange juice and Barry could help himself to biscuits. He always thought that the extra fuel helped him climb this horrible hill.

  As he climbed off his bike, dug out her Daily Mirror and Hello magazine, he saw that she wasn’t waiting for him by her garden gate. Her front door was wide open too. After a few repeated callings, he had left her deliveries on the doorstep and peddled away. Despite being practically friends, he never dare enter her house without Mrs Banks’s permission. He could go to jail for that.

  Thinking back, Barry had seen nobody during his journey across the village, he knew it was early but he usually saw someone, whether it was the early morning dog walker or the postman. There had been no cars on the road either.

  He reached the top of the hill, leaned his bike against the dry stone wall and used his hanky to wipe the sweat off his brow. The gradient had really floored him today. Barry turned around; he could see the woman’s rooftop from here. Maybe he should have gone in, just to check. She might have fallen and hurt herself. More than likely she had taken her poodle for a walk in the woods and just forgot to shut the door. He nodded, liking that idea. Barry could always check up on her after he had finished. There were only another three more papers to deliver.

  “It’s downhill all the way home,” he said, grinning.

  His delivery covered all the outlying houses and cottages in Colbeck. It was a real humdinger of a round but Barry relished the challenge, it was also the highest paid round and that was the real reason for doing it. As well as this paper round, Barry also helped at the garage on weekends and, if he was lucky, managed to work behind the newsagent’s counter after school.

  Barry wanted a car. He was only fourteen but he always planned ahead ever since his parents started to give him pocket money. He had even helped to buy this bike. Barry tucked the hanky back into his pocket and mounted up.

  It was the Biers farm next. Barry wasn’t too keen on delivering anything to that place. That pug-faced spawn of Satan lived there. Karl Briers took an instant dislike to Barry at primary school. Karl took great pleasure in finding new and exciting ways of making his life a misery. Two weeks ago, that boy had almost got away with stealing Barry’s bike. If it hadn’t been for the intervention of Karl’s father, he knew that he would have never seen that bike again.

  “The only thing I’d like to deliver to that place is a letter bomb.” He muttered. The lad’s father might have forced Karl to give him back the bike but he only did it because the man knew that if he had not, then the newsagents would have cancelled his paper order.

  He tried to calm his nerves as the farm’s outbuildings came into view. He’d do anything not to deliver to this rancid poohole. The place was so disgusting. Barry so felt sorry for their animals, they were all in such a sorry state. The only animals that the farmer looked after were his two German Shepards. They used to really scare Barry until he took the time to make friends with them. He waited when the farmer wasn’t around, of course. He wouldn’t have been too happy with seeing his two vicious guard dogs lolling around on the floor, wanting the paperboy to tickle their bellies.

  The main house was just around the corner. He prayed there would be nobody about, especially that Karl. He slowed down, dismounted and dug through the sack for the man’s newspaper. Barry couldn’t hear any shouting, he took that as a good omen.

  Barry stowed his bike behind a bush and slowly walked towards the main gate, keeping his ear open for any noise. It was a quiet as the grave though, even the smells didn’t seem so bad today. He stopped by the corroded steel gate, unlatched it and pushed it open.

  This was so weird; it should not be so quiet. There really was no sign of life. Barry jumped over a muddy puddle and sprinted over to the front door, eager to get this nasty deed done and dusted. He pushed the paper through the letterbox and turned around, intending to run back to his bike.

  Barry noticed what he thought was Fang, hiding under a scrapped transit van that the farmer used as a store for the winter kindle. He had always had a bit of a soft spot for Fang. He was the first of the farmer’s dogs not to try to bite him.

/>   “Are you okay, boy?” he said, softly. The van was just past their sad excuse for a cowshed, but Barry daren’t shout, just in case somebody heard him. Besides, Fang had an amazing sense of hearing. Maybe he was mistaken; he saw no signs of movement. He tiptoed across the muddy drive, cursing as he overestimated the size of one puddle and ended up with the back of his trousers splashed with wet mud.

  As he neared, Barry saw that it was the dog under there; he could make out both his ears and nose. “Are you okay under there, Fang? Come on, boy,” he said patting his knees. “I’ve no biscuits but I do have a Twix that you can have.”

  He moaned softly when Barry noticed a sticky patch of blood, spreading out from under the dog’s stomach. “Oh no,” he sighed. “Oh no, what’s happened to you?” Barry daren’t go any closer, oh my, this was way too upsetting. He turned around and ran towards the house, not caring about the mud drenching his trousers. The farmer needed to know about this right now.

  Barry reached the door and banged as hard as he could. He jumped when the door slowly opened. He peered into the filthy kitchen, there was nobody about. “Hello?” he shouted. “Is there anybody in there? It’s about your doggy, I mean Fang. I think he’s hurt.”

  This was so not good. None of this was Barry’s business. If his father was anything like his potty son, then he probably beat the dog himself and if Barry didn’t move it then he’d receive the same.

  He violently shook his head. That was just stupid. The farmer loved those dogs, he probably loved them more then he loved his son. Barry stepped into the kitchen, wrinkling up his nose at the smell of stale grease. He felt his own greasy breakfast wanting to jump out of his throat to join it. He hurried through the narrow kitchen and tentatively pushed open the end door and gazed into their family room.

  “Is there anybody here?”

  The room was packed with boxes full of useless junk. In the far corner next to the only other door was a metal table, overloaded with cans of spray paint, most still had the Colbeck repair shop logo stamped on the can. Barry just knew that Karl had not bought them. He saw no sign of life anywhere.