“That all you got?” Commander Blake shouted. “Halloween pranks. Pathetic.”
“Oh, no, we’re just getting started,” Aleksi moaned darkly. “Just testing mettle, little ones. You have new toys, and a new friend. Hello little doggy. Let’s play another game, hide and seek, my favorite. I have hidden what you seek. Want to take little peek?”
Daisuke’s ears suddenly pricked. The dog barked loudly, then dashed into the corn.
“Daisuke, come back!” Reece shouted.
Somewhere in the corn the dog yelped in pain, then fell silent.
Becca grabbed Reece, stopping him from chasing after the animal.
“Don’t do it. You won’t come out.”
“He’s just a dog, who hurts a dog?”
“Someone very sick,” Becca said. She turned and shouted across the corn. “You know it’s me you want. Let the others go. I’m right here, I won’t resist.”
“What, are you crazy!” Reece flared, bristling with protective anger and shielding Becca. “Not a chance. Over my dead body! No way!”
“You want dead body? This is wish I can grant, like genie from lamp in magic cave,” Aleksi said, chuckling. “Flitter, flitter little flies, time to see how each one dies.”
The door to the homestead at the end of the dirt track creaked open, slowly revealing Molotov sitting at a table, vacant expression staring across a spread of corn and loaf.
“Molotov!” Schweighofer yelled, racing down the track, vortices of smoke curling around her feet, the corn leaning towards her as she ran, bowing like the arms of an army of dark worshippers.
“It’s a trap,” Commander Blake cried. “Wait, hold on!”
“Gotta follow,” Scarlet said, moving off in a backwards trot. “We can’t let her go alone, come on, we gotta move.”
Blake and the Renegades sprinted after Schweighofer. At the end of the lane, Schweighofer raced into the shack. The Renegades followed her inside, wielding their blasters and fanning out. Schweighofer rounded the table and approached Molotov.
“Hon, it’s me,” she said, snapping her fingers in front of his glazed eyed. “He won’t respond. Steven Molont!” She shouted, shaking him harshly. “You wake up right now, mister.”
“It’s clear,” Fang said. “Nothing in here.”
“Bedroom’s empty,” Hadley added. “Smells bad, like someone messed the bed.”
Becca was about to step over the threshold of the ramshackle cabin when the door slammed in her face. She gripped the handle and twisted.
“It won’t budge,” she gurned, wrestling the door. “Nnnnnnnnggggggg, no way, what the heck...”
“Here, let me,” Reece said, taking over and barging the door with his shoulder. The rickety door bent inwards, it’s feeble hinges and latch creaking like they were going to fail. Reece barged the door with his shoulder even harder, but it wouldn’t give. “That’s crazy, it’s just that one little latch.”
“The windows,” Becca said, moving to and peering through the glass, shocked to find the tumble-down homestead deserted. The Renegades were nowhere to be seen. The sparse room contained a solitary wooden table, with a single chair in front of a single plate. A maimed fly fuzzed on the plate, winding in circles, hopping and collapsing. Next to the table was a cast iron pot-belly stove, on which a steaming pot boiled, corn bubbling in the froth.
“I’m going to destroy you and everything you ever loved,” Aleksi moaned. “All you little people, with your little lives. You will feed my corn. Your Earth is dying, wonderful suffering. I can see it spreading. They will destroy themselves and I will grow strong. But first, I need you to suffer…”
A deep rumbling emanated from above. Becca and Reece glanced up. Two of the stone gargoyles were animating, arms bursting from the rock, pushing their bodies free. The grotesque figures pounded to the ground, sending up dust, eyes igniting lava orange.
“What now?” Becca whispered. There was no response. “Reece?” she said, slowly turning. “No, please…”
Reece was gone. The corn surrounding the farmstead was still as a millpond, only broken by the wading gargoyles.
“Want to see what happens when you play with snakes?” Aleksi hissed, the gargoyles suddenly dissolving into smoke. “I own your mind, your thoughts.”
“Aleksi, you don’t need to do this.”
“Oh, but I do, little goat,” Aleksi toyed, walking out of the corn a short way from the cabin. “You are mine, all of you, everything and everyone. I will put you all in box and poke at you for eternity. I will hurt you, my miserable puppets.”
Becca seized her opportunity and blasted Aleksi. At once, the robed maniac collapsed to his knees. Becca fired again, freezing Aleksi’s arm, which was reaching out for mercy.
“No, please…” Aleksi whimpered. “It hurts. It’s so cold…”
“I didn’t want this, I tried to save you!”
“It’s not too late, I can be better…”
“I tried to save you,” Becca repeated, the words dying in her mouth and trailing to nothing. “Why are you so full of hate? What made you like this?”
“Save me, teach me to be better…”
“I just want them back. Where is he?” Becca pleaded.
Laughter filled the cavern, deep and wicked, resonating through Becca’s bones.
“Did you actually think you could win?” Aleksi cackled, his demented laughter climbing to a hysterically malevolent pitch.
“I’m not afraid of you,” Becca growled.
“You should be,” Aleksi’s low voice echoed. “You will be.”
Becca advanced on the man, down the path, firing volley after volley. Smoke swirled around the spot where Aleksi was cowering. Becca pulled up, allowing the smoke to settle. Quick as lightning, Aleksi reared up, throwing out his arms, frozen cloak blasting away as a million fragments, revealing a man made of shadow, no skin, no fingers or toes, ragged eyes and mouth glowing vivid green.
“Wha…” Becca stammered, all reason inside her mind collapsing into bedlam.
“Now you see me, little goat. I am shadow of former self. I am smoke, your mind my mirror. Mama, Mulcifer, Uuhl, has christened me her champion.”
The church organ crunched and the corn stalks either side of the path began to twist, morphing into shadowy serpents, dancing like cobras to the will of a charmer’s pipe. The demented music cut out and the entire field collapsed, a sea of millions of knotting tendrils of scaled muscle. Becca fired her blasters, but there were too many snakes to overpower.
The snakes circled inwards, rising up, folding into themselves, chaotic fractal madness. Aleksi allowed himself to be swallowed by the advancing walls. He moved his shadowy head side to side, luxuriously, allowing the horror to caress him as he was absorbed. Becca cowered under the rising serpentine walls, which curled overhead, steadily eclipsing the light. A weight smothered her, pinning her and lashing her limbs. She screamed a cry of sawing terror. The horror slithered inside her mouth and forced its way down her gullet.
Sacrifice
M onger focussed on the robot’s tumbling body. His squadron was looping and spinning around him, engaged in a dazzling display of airmanship. Hamilton and a few flanking skunks blasted through a cluster of enemy fighters, debris scattering in their wake.
“Don’t lose sight of him,” Hamilton’s voice came. “Stay on him.”
“I won’t, I’m closing,” Monger responded.
Ahead, Monger could see the dim lights on Nori’s robotic face. The Robot reached towards Monger’s closing Skunk. His severed spinal cord was crackling with electricity and his legs were tumbling beside his torso. Monger slowed, scooping the robot with his right wing. Nori grappled hold. Monger eased into a turn and angled towards what was left of the star portal’s control room, then gave a short squirt of thrust. Inside, the mainframe was demolished and sparking, monitors and control panels charred and shattered.
“Watch out,” Hamilton cried. “Incoming!”
Javelins of laser
fire sliced through Monger’s cockpit, skewing holes through his legs and shattering his canopy. He felt both the flow of sealant gels restoring his spacesuit’s atmospheric integrity and the flow of warm blood leaking into his suit. His air supply immediately became tinged with an iron rich tang. Strangely, despite the devastating wounds, he didn’t feel much pain.
“Kid, you alright?” Hamilton cried.
“They got me. Ship’s dead,” Monger said, punching what was left of the canopy away with a fist, then releasing his harness. “I got a plan.”
Monger pushed up and pulled himself along the fuselage towards Nori, globules of blood floating with him. The robot reached out and grappled Monger with its lone arm.
“Varghese and Akerele just got pasted,” Omar called. “We’re losing, wing commander!”
“All skunks, protect Monger and Nori,” Hamilton demanded. “Put yourself between them and enemy fire.”
Nori leaned his head against Monger’s helmet.
“Can you get me to the mainframe, I’m losing power,” the robot’s muffled voice came, soundwaves vibrating through Monger’s visor. “I don’t think either of us has much time left.”
“I’ll do what I can,” Monger replied, realizing he was becoming lightheaded. He’d lost a lot of blood. There was pain now too, unnatural, distorted and aching. His body felt strangely warm and all wrong, the cold creeping in. In one final herculean effort, Monger bent his smashed legs and pushed against the wreckage of his fighter, angling himself and Nori towards the destroyed control room.
On hitting the structure, Monger grappled for a handhold, drowsiness tugging at his eyelids. A compartment near Nori’s solar plexus slid open and a data cable emerged, flailing in space.
“Get me to the interface port,” Nori said. “It’s the silver one to the right. I need to connect my neural lace to the mainframe so I can upload, so I can regain control.”
Wearily, Monger pulled Nori towards the port, blood now seeping through his neck seal and into his helmet.
“Here, plug me in,” Nori said. “We can still save them.”
Hamilton tipped his canopy towards the star portal control room. He glimpsed Nori attached to the mainframe by an umbilical, floating free, his DENTON unit displaying no signs of power. Monger was drifting from the structure, arms listless, his body lifeless.
“Monger…” Hamilton said softly. “I’m proud of you, kid. You done well.”
“Did they do it?” Catipovic asked, falling in beside Hamilton.
“I don’t know,” Hamilton responded, turning to see hundreds of enemy fighters breaking away from the Hive and screaming their way. “All squadrons, form up and defend the star portal. It’s our only hope.”
The Cradle of Doom
B ecca bolted awake, coughing and retching. She frantically felt across her face and inside her mouth. Nothing. Her senses were so frazzled by panic, it took a moment to realize she was back in the Shinrai’s cockpit. The small chamber was bathed in cold blue light, a frosting of ice crystals across the dash and windows.
Around her, Reece and the Renegades appeared frozen in time, perfectly poised, Fang locked in a pose reaching for Scarlet’s hand. In the access tunnel leading to the cargo bay, Commander Blake stood statuesque, petrified mid stride, frost twinkling across his spacesuit. Becca noticed a spot of frozen moisture on his glove. She remembered the man trying to disguise wiping a tear after issuing the call to move out, only minutes ago, or had it been hours? It could have just as well been days or years. Who knew how long she’d been stuck in her mind, trapped in a dark carnival with Aleksi as the ringmaster, riding a carousel of perpetual nightmares.
“Did I imagine the field, the shack?”
Something shifted in the gloom. Becca recoiled and squeezed into the cushioning of her seat. Daisuke whined and slunk from the footwell, ears pulled back, tail tucked between his legs. The frightened animal edged towards Becca and sniffed her glove, tail flicking with trepidation. After a few timid sniffs, Daisuke chuffed approval and nuzzled his snout into her palm, tail wagging.
“Good to see you, dog,” Becca said, coddling the animal and ruffling his fur.
Daisuke whimpered and presented his paw, placing it on Becca’s lap. It was caked in dirt.
“huh?” Becca said, checking her boot, which also bore signs of the dirt track from the nightmare. “It was real… Oh, man, we’re in so much trouble.”
Becca jumped up and shook Reece, but he remained unresponsive, stuck in an eerie state of living rigor mortis. He was definitely alive as his breaths were steaming. His eyes appeared glazed, pearlescent veiny marbles, without a trace of pupils or irises.
“Are we dead?” Becca whispered.
As though on cue, ghostly hands pressed against the Shinrai’s monitors. She could see inhuman faces forming too, but couldn’t bring herself to look. A ghostly figure slunk past the frosted windows outside, a brief flash of spectral light illuminating the frosted cockpit. Daisuke’s lips peeled back in a silent snarl.
“Reece, wake up!” Becca said, shaking him more harshly. “Come on, snap out of it, please.”
“It is time,” Aleksi’s voice moaned. “Mama is dying to eat you. I’ve told her so much about you.”
Reece’s and the Renegades’ bodies floated up, puppets to an invisible force, spectral grenades glowing amber at their waists. Icy daggers of dread plunged into Becca’s heart. She tried to block Reece’s path, to push him back, but he was at the mercy of a force possessing incredible strength. She continued to tear at him in vain, but was pulled over and dragged. She let go and helplessly watched Reece and the Renegades float down the access corridor, a procession following Commander Blake, tiptoes brushing the ground, heads cocked back unnaturally, mouths slack.
Becca scrabbled to her feet and cautiously followed, Daisuke at her heel. Things she was quite sure she didn’t want to bump into were scraping across the Shinrai’s hull plating, generating sounds that made her teeth itch. Reece and the Renegades floated through the cargo hold and down the loading ramp. They continued into a chamber, separated from space by a thin green film, fighters outside battling for supremacy amongst the stars, fireballs and lasers crisscrossing the inky darkness.
A short way into the chamber, Becca glanced back at the Shinrai. Apparitions were scurrying across the craft, translucent insectile things, strange spiders with bulging joints and cockroaches with spiked horns. Humanoid spirits lurked around the landing gear. On noticing Becca’s inquisitive stare, they stopped and slowly turned their many probing eyes.
“No, no, don’t look,” Becca said, tearing her gaze away. “Reece wake up, someone, anyone…”
The zombified Renegades continued to float onwards, into a passageway that resembled a pathway leading into an ancient tomb, something from the deepest jungles of Cambodia. Braziers burned with purple fire either side of the entrance. The crypt’s black stone was perfectly smooth, with recessed detailing, oblongs within oblongs, triangles within triangles. It appeared as though the structure had been here for millennia, but that couldn’t be. Until yesterday none of this existed. It had been a chunk of the planet’s crust on Gondwana.
Becca peered back at the translucent beings slinking across the Shinrai. A sickening possibility manifested in her mind. Maybe they’d crossed the threshold to somewhere else, somewhere not of our universe, somewhere not meant for the living, and the spirits curiously lingering around the Shinrai were the beginnings of a flood that would soon gush out, unfettered, raw horror.
As the Renegades continued, runes and hieroglyphs in the smooth stonework illuminated with a mystical violet hue. Becca could hear distant grating sounds, like unseen stone doors were shifting deep inside the temple. She screamed as something beside her released a deathly sigh. She staggered away from an illuminating alcove in the wall. Inside was a bird with a woman’s head, rotating like an owl, piercing eyes locked, talons flexing against a bony perch.
“What the!” Becca cried, raising a blaster.
“I’ll shoot, I swear. Don’t you dare come near me.”
“Come near me…” the disturbing creature echoed, expression terrifyingly calm, eyes slightly too wide to be sane.
“Please, don’t hurt them,” Becca managed.
“Hurt them…” the creature echoed, head tilting eerily to one side.
A stone door ahead grated open. Reece and each of the Renegades crossed over, flipping upside down, arms loose, fingers now trailing the steely obsidian stone. The passage seemed to be descending, leading into the temple’s catacombs, a place where Becca was sure the heart of darkness dwelled.
“Aleksi, please,” she yelled down the tunnel, “if there’s any part of you that’s still human, let them go, take me. They don’t need to die.”
“Need to die,” the avian dementor echoed.
“Shut up, shut your horrible face!”
“Horrible face.”
Aleksi’s wicked laugh echoed up the passage, carrying with it a foul wind that moaned past the inverted Renegades. Daisuke bayed, like a wolf to the moon, then dashed down the passage. Becca followed in a jog. On crossing the threshold where the Renegades had flipped upside down, the heavy stone door pounded shut behind her, sealing everyone inside.
“Aleksi, talk to me,” Becca said, edging down the passage. “You don’t know what you’re playing with. Look around, you don’t want this. I know you don’t. You can’t possibly want this.”
There was no response. Creatures beyond imagination hung, clung, squirmed, scuttled and oozed in alcoves along the descending passage, which was becoming ever colder. A foul stench was attacking her nostrils too, like saturated cockroach urine, musky and vinegary, causing her breaths to catch at the back of her throat. There was also a strange phosphorescent substance seeping from cracks in the stone, as though it was bleeding spectral blood.
The passage opened into a cavernous expanse, smooth stone walls vaulting hundreds of meters into the air. The myriad of monsters in the passage behind were going wild with excitement, shrieking loudly, the caged ones rattling their bars, eager to witness the Renegades being fed to the Aleksi’s hateful god. Everyone’s spectral grenades flickered to red. The entity was close. High in the stone rafters, like the eaves of a cathedral, chromatic spirits were darting like fish around a coral shelf. A fine rain was falling too, coating the stone and making it gleam wetly, reflecting the Cradle of Doom.
Jurassic Earth Trilogy Box Set Page 61