Mortal Skies Omnibus

by Rebecca Fernfield

  Gareth plays the film again. “This part of the footage shows the side of the trackway, and the entrance to the basement where Captain Marks reported seeing the pregnant rat.”

  The film continues to play.

  “There it is.” Marks jabs a finger at the grey wall ten feet from the entrance. A dark object lies on the stones between the blocks and the grass. As the drone banks to the right, and rises back up to survey the area at the back of the tower blocks, Gareth stops the film, rewinds, then zooms in. Lying up against the blocks, as though it has stopped for a rest, is the body of a rat. Its head is a mess of red flesh, its incisors gaping through devoured cheeks.

  “What in God’s name has happened to it?”

  “Is it actually a rat?”

  Doctor Blaylock leans in. “It is rattus norvegicus; a brown rat.”

  “It looks black to me.”

  “That’s just the lighting. You can tell by the shape of its nose and ears. If it were a black rat, then the nose would be pointed and the ears larger, plus the tail would be longer.”

  “And black rats are found mainly at ports. This isn’t a port town.”

  “Exactly.”

  “There’s so little of it left.” Littleton’s turn to peer at the screen. “Are those ribs?”

  “Yes, Colonel Littleton. It would appear that something has eaten it.”

  It was pregnant, yesterday,” Marks declares. “Are you telling me something has eaten its babies?”

  “The correct term is kitten, or pup,” explains Dr. Blaylock.

  “Looks more like its babies have eaten their way out.”

  “Doesn’t seem right to call a baby rat, a kitten or a pup.”

  Captain Marks wrinkles his nose. “That is disgusting!”

  “It’s just the correct terminology.”

  “No, what’s disgusting is the fact that the kittens, pups, whatever, have eaten their way out.”

  Littleton raises a brow. “I didn’t know you were so squeamish, Captain Marks.”

  “I’m not, after what I’ve seen in the past few days, nothing much can turn my stomach, but ... you can’t be serious that it has been eaten from the inside?”

  “Looks more like something exploded from inside. Look at the debris around the body. There are entrails – zoom in please, Mister Smaller.” The image enlarges. “Yes!” Dr. Blaylock points a finger at a small curved object close to the eviscerated rat. “A kidney. I think that we can safely conclude that the rat wasn’t pregnant, at least not with a foetus of rattus novegicus.

  “What was it pregnant with then? Its belly was swollen and something was moving inside it when it keeled over near my shoe.”

  “Well, the extra-terrestrial had access to it.”

  Captain Marks’ jaw drops. “Are you trying to say it was pregnant with an alien’s baby?”

  “Well ...” Dr. Blaylock flashes Captain Taylor a frown, “what I would say is that it was probably already dead when you saw it.”

  “But I saw it move. It crawled across my foot. Are you trying to say it was a pregnant zombie rat?”

  Blaylock turns to Captain Marks with widening eyes then quickly shifts to Littleton. “He’s kidding right? Tell me he’s kidding.”

  “Of course, I’m kidding!”

  As Blaylock flashes Captain Marks a relieved smile, Littleton’s sigh of annoyance is audible.

  “Great ... well, then what I think is that the rat was another form of host.”

  “So, the alien laid its egg inside the rat?”

  “Exactly.”

  “So, the alien did make the rat pregnant, and it was a zombie.”

  “Just ignore him.”

  Marks chuckles then becomes sombre as Littleton flashes him a scowl.

  “And if it laid it inside the rat, is it doing the same to the human victims?”

  “I would say there is a high probability that is the case.”

  Littleton’s flesh creeps. “Send the drone back inside that basement,” he commands. “I want to know for sure that everything inside that hellhole is one hundred percent dead.” He turns to Connaught. “You have got that thing absolutely secure in the lab haven’t you doctor?”

  Connaught’s cheeks stain pink. “Of course.”

  CHAPTER TWO

  It took ten minutes for Nate to realise that the parasite was in the car. By then it was too late.

  Nate pulls the car onto the verge, jolting to a stop as he brakes hard, the headlights scratching the bank of burgeoning hawthorn trees that line the country road. His head fills with Mimi’s screams. The passenger door opens with a jerk. Ellie’s shouts of ‘Get out!” add to the cacophony.

  The sight in the rearview, just before Todd’s first shout of warning, and Mimi’s ear-splitting scream, had melted Nate’s bones; though slumped and still comatose, Josh’s protective helmet had been removed and vapour hung about his nose and mouth, eddying in irritated whorls. Alive! He’d thought. The damned stuff is alive! Beside Josh, a tendril of mist was disappearing into Tina’s nostrils. Horrifyingly, she already wore the frigid smirk and bared teeth of the infected.

  Nate slams on the brakes as Tina’s nails dig into his cheeks. Josh jolts forwards then slams back. Harnessed by the seat belt, he shows no sign of waking. As Tina is thrown back, her nails score deep tracks through Nate’s skin. The car stalls. Stabbing at the seatbelt’s clip, Nate tumbles out onto the road as the girl jerks back and forth, her body in a spasm of rage.

  With Mimi and Ellie already on the verge, Nate tears Todd from the car. As he twists back to reach for Josh, a pair of blood-red eyes meet his, and Tina’s teeth gnash as she claws the air. Josh lies slumped and oblivious as Tina screeches.

  Ellie is at Nate’s shoulder. “Get him out!”

  “I’m trying, Ellie!” he snaps back.

  “Keep still!” Todd shouts.

  Of course! “Todd’s right. Don’t move ... Maybe she’ll calm down.”

  Ellie holds still. “How can we get him out if we don’t move?”

  Tina’s eyes stare wildly but her arms drop and she sinks back into her seat then begins to rock.

  “Back up, Ellie.” Nate takes a deliberate and very slow step backwards. Tina gnashes her teeth but doesn’t move. Tendrils of fog hover above Josh’s face then sink to his lips and disappear into his mouth. “Tell the kids to get below eye level.” Behind him, Ellie, Todd, and Mimi sink to their knees and crawl to the back of the car. Nate follows, taking a quick side-step as Tina’s attention is caught by the return of Toby’s car. The other car does a quick three-point turn and pulls up beside the vehicle.

  Tabitha is the first to jump out. Still wearing her protective suit, she holds a rifle that Nate is certain she hasn’t got a licence for.

  “What’s going on?”

  Toby is at her heels.

  “Tina’s infected!” Mimi shouts from her crouched position behind the car.

  Tabitha raises her rifle and takes a step back. “So, you are contagious.”

  “No. It’s Josh. The smoke came out of him,” Mimi explains.

  Toby raises his rifle too, and edges to the side of the door. An unholy screech erupts and Tina thrashes, banging her body against the door. Her head crashes against the window.

  “Jesus!”

  “Where’s Josh?”

  “Still in the car.”

  The next minutes are spent in mutual horror watching Tina’s thrashing, but she quiets as they move out of her line of sight. Josh remains motionless, the mist hovering above his head.

  Tabitha motions to the slowly twisting mist with the muzzle of her rifle. “Where did it come from?”

  Nate resists the urge to grab the barrel and push it down; having it pointed at his son just makes the situation more unbearable.

  “It came out of Josh,” Todd replies.

  “Out of Josh!”

  The group share wary glances and Tabitha raises her gun at Nate as he takes a step towards them. “Get back!” she growls.

&nbs
p; Nate takes a step back as the group retreat towards their cars. A flash of fear flickers in Cathy’s eyes.

  Tabitha holds Nate’s gaze and trains the gun at his chest. “You knew?”

  “No! I had no idea.”

  “You must have known.”

  “No! We all knew he’d been infected. I had no idea the fog, mist, whatever it is, was inside him. There was no sign of it before.”

  A low rumble rises to a screech inside the car. The thought of Tina, now a demented monster thrashing next to his defenceless son, is more than Nate can bear. “We have to get him out of there!”

  “Get him out?”

  “Yes!” he shouts back. “She’s dangerous. She could turn on him at any second.”

  Tabitha gestures to the raving girl. “Why hasn’t she?”

  “I think it’s because he’s not moving,” Todd explains “They can’t see you if you don’t move.”

  “He’s a carrier,” Tabitha states with her eyes trained on Nate. “He could infect us all.”

  Nate recognises the challenge and the girl’s determination to ostracise Josh from the group. It was borne of the same need as his own—to keep the ones you love safe. “You’ve got your suits on,” he counters. “The mist can’t get you.”

  “We’re immune anyway,” Mimi adds. “Josh can’t hurt you.”

  Tabitha doesn’t look convinced, but turns her attention to Mimi. “It didn’t try to get you ... the fog?”

  “It hovered over me and Todd and went through Ellie’s hair, but most of it went into Tina,” Mimi replies. “She tried to bat it away, but it was too quick.”

  “She took his helmet off,” Todd explains. “It was trapped inside until she let it out.”

  Toby sighs. Tabitha remains ready to shoot. The tension is palpable.

  “So, what shall we do?” Cathy asks.

  “We leave,” Toby says with certainty. “Now.”

  Slipping an arm around Cathy’s waist, Tim says, “We agreed to make our way up north, to higher land.”

  “So far there’s no sign of the contagion up there,” Nate agrees.

  “There will be if we let them come,” Tabitha snaps back.

  “They’re not going to come with us.”

  “What!”

  “I’m sorry, Nate,” Tim averts his eyes, looking beyond Nate’s shoulder, “but there is no way I can allow you to come with us.”

  “But if Josh ...” Nate falters. There is no use in arguing. If it were the other way around, he would offload the infected too.

  Cathy turns to her husband. “We can’t just leave them here ... like this.”

  “We should kill them,” Tabitha says as she points her rifle at the back of the car’s window.

  To Nate the muzzle seems to point directly at Josh’s head. “Put that down,” he growls.

  Ellie pulls the children to her side, a protective arm around each one. “You’re insane! You can’t kill us.”

  “Not you,” Tabitha replies without taking her eyes from Nate. “Them.” She motions her rifle at the car.

  “I said, put it down.”

  “You can’t kill Josh. He’s not dangerous.”

  “He’s the most dangerous,” Tabitha counters. “Just because he’s not thrashing around doesn’t mean he’s not a killer. He’s contagious. He’ll kill us all without moving a muscle.”

  “He’s my son!” Nate resists the urge to launch himself at the girl, realising that if he is to get Josh out of this alive, he’ll have to play this carefully.

  The car rocks. Tina knocks her head against the driver’s seat and screams, pulls back, knocks forward, then screams again; the same repetitive behaviour Nate had seen at the shopping centre. For a second, Nate remembers Katie and her nephew Justin. He pushes the thought away and turns his attention back to his son. “Perhaps she’s not a killer?” he suggests. “Look at her, she’s just hurting herself.”

  “Until something moves, then she’ll go demented.”

  “Listen. I’ve got an idea.”

  “Me too. We kill them.”

  “Tabitha!”

  “Let him speak, Tabitha,” Cathy adds.

  “I think we’ll all agree that Tina,” Nate stalls, and swallows, “that we should ... terminate Tina.”

  “Well ...” A pained look falls over Cathy’s face. “It is the humane thing to do.”

  “And what about him, then?” Tabitha motions to the car with her rifle. “Josh should be terminated too.”

  Rage flips inside Nate. “You touch my boy and I’ll terminate you!” he barks.

  “Hey!” Toby shouts back and takes a step forward. “Touch my daughter and you’ll have me to deal with.”

  Cathy steps between the men. “Everyone, just calm down!”

  Tabitha breaks her gaze from Nate’s, and Toby places a firm hand on her shoulder. “Lower your gun, Tabitha.”

  She scowls, but lowers the gun. “What’s your idea, then?” she challenges. “Tell us.”

  “I’ll open her door-”

  “She’ll go mental.”

  “Ellie can distract her first. She’ll react to her, then I’ll open her door, undo her seatbelt, and lure her out.

  “Then what? Thanks to your plan, now we’ve got a rampaging monster on the loose.”

  “Then ...” Nate returns Tabitha’s hard stare with his own. “You get the shooting practice you’re so desperate for. A real live target to kill.”

  “She’s scared,” Toby says coming to his daughter’s defence. “Same as us all. She’s not a bloodthirsty killer.”

  Nate sees the chink, and pushes. “If that’s the case, then why’s she so desperate to kill my son?”

  “I’m not desperate!” Tabitha reacts, the flush on her cheeks reddening.

  “Sure. Well, we’ll let you kill the girl, but you leave the boy to me. Right?”

  Their eyes lock again.

  “Right,” she agrees.

  “She’s not a killer, Penrose.”

  “Of course she’s not,” soothes Cathy.

  Tina’s voice grows to a growling shriek and the car starts to rock again. Nate is under no illusion that the only thing keeping the girl – thing – from tearing his son apart is the fact that Josh is completely still. Sure, Nate, but what if the rocking and screeching wakens him from his stupor? Nate snaps, his patience worn too thin to bear. “Ellie! Go to the door and distract her. Tabitha, Toby, Tim, on my signal, shoot to kill. Understand?” Nate tightens the grip on his knife as the three agree to the plan.

  “You could stab her—when you reach in.”

  Tabitha’s suggestion is instantly rejected. The thought of striking the knife into the teenage girl, even if she has become a rabid monster, is repugnant to Nate. “Just shoot to kill once she’s out,” he says with rising irritation.

  The call of a bird pierces the air and a soft breeze rustles through the elms overhanging the hedge as they all stare at the car.

  Sweat trickles down Nate’s back as he takes determined strides to the car, then waits for Ellie. As she stands in the doorway, and the girl twists to look, Nate opens the door with a gentle click and a slow pull. A shrill scream beats against Nate’s eardrum as Tina lunges for Ellie, knocking against Josh. The seatbelt pulls against her chest as she reaches forward. He jabs a hand behind her back, releases the clip, and becomes trapped as Tina rocks back. In one swift movement she twists, hand clawed and, free of the restraining belt, lunges at Nate. Staggering back, he lands with a hard thud onto the road.

  Snapping teeth loom inches from Nate’s face until Toby’s massive arms circles Tina’s chest and he throws her with enormous force into the road. In the next second, a gun is fired. The first bullet misses, and white flakes of paint fly up from the middle of the road. The next two hit their target and Tina is thrown back by their force as she attempts to stand.

  “I thought you said she wasn’t dangerous!” Toby shouts through his helmet.

  “It was just a theory.”

 
“It was wrong.”

  Tabitha walks out into the road, crouching next to the girl. “She’s dead.”

  “Let’s go.”

  “What about him?” Tabitha gestures to the car.

  Nate’s response is immediate. “You do not touch him.”

  “We leave him here, Tabitha; we agreed.”

  “But he’s a carrier. If we don’t exterminate him, then he’ll pass on the infection.”

  Striding to the rear of the car, Nate takes out the rifle Tim had loaned him back in the city, checks that it’s loaded, releases the safety clip, then points it directly at Tabitha. He makes a slight adjustment to focus on the tree behind her head and fires. Wood splinters and she flinches. The road erupts with shouts. He points the gun at Tabitha once more. “You try to harm my son, and I’ll use the next bullet on you. With this type of rifle, the back of your head will disintegrate, and the road will be covered with your brains.” His voice is stone cold. Sweat trickles down his back and he knows with absolute certainty that he will kill this woman if she makes any move towards Josh. “Hand your rifle to Cathy,” he instructs.

  Cathy steps forward, a hand outstretched. “We all need to calm down. Nate’s not the enemy and neither is Josh.”

  “But he’s carrying that poison.”

  “He won’t be the only one,” says Tim taking hold of Tina’s legs and dragging her to the verge. “You’ve seen how quickly it spreads.” He pushes her body with his foot, rolling it into the ditch. He turns to Toby. “Let’s get out of here. Infected or not, your daughter just killed an unarmed teenage girl with an unlicensed weapon.” As the others return to their vehicles, he speaks to Nate. “I’m sorry it’s ended like this, Nate,” he casts a nervous glance at Josh, “but you’re on your own from here.”

  “There’s room in the car for three more ...” Cathy calls leaning out of her window.

  “You can’t be serious!” Tabitha shouts back. “They could be carriers too!”

  “Tabitha’s right,” Toby adds. “We can’t risk it. We’re headed north – it’s clean up there and I’m not taking infection with us.”

  With a quick and heartfelt ‘sorry!’ Tim returns to his car and, in less than a minute, the group is alone at the roadside.