by Morgan Rice
Dr. Levin held out a set of keys to Kevin.
“If this goes wrong,” she said as she ran, “if there’s something you can’t contain, there’s a secure space below the facility, on the sub-basement level. One of these keys provides access to the bunker network, if it isn’t locked down. Use this, and the elevator should take you straight there.”
“Where is the rock from the expedition being held?” Ted called out to a group of scientists as they passed.
“Research Lab 3b,” one of them said. “Why? Is there something—”
They were already sprinting past, trying to make it there in time. They paused at security doors, but those only slowed them down a little, opening for Ted’s security card with green lights and reassuring whooshes of air.
Kevin could hear Professor Brewster yelling behind them, but he didn’t slow.
They went deep into the bowels of the building, past laboratories that Kevin had seen while Phil had been showing him around. He passed the lasers and the growing labs, the things that promised to give humanity a chance to survive and thrive if they ever got to another world, and the things that carried the promise of making this one a better place. Right then, the only thing that mattered was the threat of what might happen if they didn’t make sure that the rock was contained.
They paused at a set of signs, then ran on again, down a set of stairs and into a part of the building where the only light was artificial. It felt sterile to Kevin, unwelcoming compared to the rest of the place. The scientists they passed were mostly in clean suits or lab coats, obviously trying to keep from contaminating experiments.
When they came to the lab, Kevin had to admit that it looked like a secure space. It had toughened glass walls on three sides, while the fourth backed onto the outer wall of the building. The rock sat in the middle of it, displayed on a table like an Easter egg that had been cracked in half. Three scientists stood around it in white plastic clean suits. Two were wearing masks, while one didn’t seem to have bothered, since he was away from the rock, working with a microscope.
The glass was thick, but Kevin could still hear what they were saying while Ted worked at the lock, trying to get in.
“These samples are still interesting,” the scientist said. “Even if it’s not anything that we were promised.”
“Don’t let Brewster hear you saying that,” another replied. “As far as he’s concerned, the sooner we can declare that rock worthless and get rid of it, the better.”
“Well, he might have to wait, this is…”
“What?” the third scientist asked. “And will you put a mask on? It’s protocol.”
Kevin saw the moment when vapor started to rise from the surface of the rock. It was almost clear, and he could have mistaken it for steam rising due to some temperature change in the rock, but somehow, he knew it wasn’t.
“That keeps happening,” one of the scientists said.
Kevin banged his hand against the glass, while Ted kept working on the lock.
“It’s a code as well as a card,” he said. “I guess it’s because it’s a sealed room.”
“You need to get out of there,” Kevin called. “You’re all in danger.”
They turned toward him as he continued to bang his hand on the glass, obviously not sure why he was there, or what they should do. The two with the facemasks looked puzzled. The one without…
The eyes of the one who wasn’t wearing a mask suddenly changed, the pupils turning from black to white, seeming almost to shine. He stared at Kevin, and there was a kind of recognition there that hadn’t been present before. There was a kind of hostility to that look that filled Kevin with fear.
It was intelligent, and dangerous.
And anything but human.
CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR
“Get back from him!” Kevin yelled. “There’s something wrong with him.”
The scientist spun to the other two and made a grab for them, pulling their masks away before they realized what was happening. Kevin wanted to call out a warning, but it looked as though it was already too late. He saw the scientists’ eyes shift, their pupils turning as white as the others’.
Kevin backed away from the glass, looking across to Luna. She looked just as frightened as he felt right then, which probably wasn’t a good sign. Luna didn’t get scared.
Ted looked as though he was trying to work out what to do too, and that was almost as frightening. Kevin was used to him having all the answers. He had a phone out and was making a call.
“We have a level four breach,” he said into it. “I’m working to contain it, but you need to start emergency protocols, now.”
There was a panel on the wall. Ted pulled it open, tapping a series of numbers into a keypad. He pressed a button, and lights started to flash red along all of the corridors, while a computerized voice sounded through speakers.
“Emergency, Emergency. Containment in progress.”
Metal shutters slid down the sides of all the labs on that level, effectively turning them into giant metal boxes from which nothing could escape. Kevin heard a roar of frustration from inside the lab, and he dared to breathe a sigh of relief.
“Have we done it?” he asked. “Have we stopped them?”
“I hope so,” Ted said. Despite that, he went to a storage locker, pulling out the kind of filtration masks that the scientists had been wearing. He passed one each to Luna and Kevin, then took another for himself.
“What is going on here? Why is this whole space shut off?”
Kevin turned to see Professor Brewster approaching, along with Dr. Levin and at least a dozen others. A security guard had a hold of Dr. Levin’s elbow, looking apologetic about it, but not letting go.
“You’ve gone too far,” the facility’s director said, pointing a finger in their direction. “You had no right to do this.”
“You’re lucky we did,” Luna said, before either Kevin or Ted could say anything, “because you’d be surrounded by aliens by now if we hadn’t.”
“Aliens,” Professor Brewster said with a note of contempt. “Haven’t we heard enough of this nonsense?”
“Oh, it’s a long way from being nonsense,” Ted said. “I’ve seen it.”
“It’s true,” Kevin said. “They can take over people’s bodies. A gas came out of the rock we found, and it took over the scientists there.”
Professor Brewster shook his head. “There are many gases that can produce erratic behavior, and that’s if anything happened at all. We only have your word for it.”
“My word,” Ted said, in a tone that dared the other man to contradict it.
That was when the knocking sounded.
“Knocking” wasn’t quite the right word for it. That made it sound almost polite, even delicate, but the sound that reverberated in Kevin’s ears was of something smashing, hard, against the walls of the room.
“There are people locked in there?” Professor Brewster demanded.
“The aliens are controlling them,” Kevin said. “Their pupils turned white when it happened.”
“Probably just a trick of chemical reaction,” Professor Brewster insisted. “Either way, this foolishness has gone on long enough. I’m going to release my people, call security down here, and have all of you removed from this facility.”
He started for the security panel that Ted had used, and Kevin saw the soldier pull out a gun.
“I will shoot anyone who touches those controls,” Ted promised.
That shocked Kevin a little. He didn’t want anyone getting shot because of this. Although, if it had to be someone from there, Professor Brewster was probably top of the list. The scientist turned back toward them, his hands raised.
“You wouldn’t dare!” he said. From inside the steel box of the shutters, the banging resumed.
“Um… I think he might,” Kevin replied. “Professor Brewster, we can’t let them out of that room. We have to stop the aliens while we can.”
“There aren’t any
aliens!” Professor Brewster insisted. “You’ve imprisoned my people on a delusion, and…”
The knocking stopped, and the suddenness with which it did so made even the facility’s director pause. Something clicked and whirred, then the lights in the corridor stopped flashing their dull red, and the steel shutters started to rise.
“That doesn’t look good,” Luna said.
That was an understatement. The shutters rose, and Kevin saw the scientists standing there passively, looking calm as they waited for the chance to be free. Kevin guessed it made sense that aliens would be able to hack a computer. After all, they had technology that had sent them halfway across a galaxy. Compared to that, a computer probably wasn’t very complicated.
“You see,” Professor Brewster said. “There are no aliens, just three perfectly normal—”
The scientists opened their mouths, shrieking in unison, a noise that sounded more insect-like than human, more alien than either. Kevin saw the shock on the expressions of the scientists around him as they realized that these weren’t their colleagues anymore.
“Look at their eyes,” one of the researchers said.
Kevin looked over to Ted. “We’re safe out here, right?”
“As long as they can’t get through the glass,” Ted said. “All of you, you need facemasks. If any of that vapor gets out, you’re all in danger.”
Professor Brewster looked as though he was trying to gather himself to say that there was no problem, that it was all fine, but he seemed to be having trouble doing it. He was still trying to say it when the scientists the aliens controlled picked up a metal chair and started to hammer at the glass with it like a battering ram, all three of them working in concert as the sound of it boomed around the facility.
Cracks started to appear on the glass. Kevin saw them spread like a spider’s web over the surface, rippling out and joining with every blow. Ted leveled his gun at the scientists, but it didn’t make them stop, or even slow.
The glass broke, and they charged out. Kevin heard Ted’s gun go off, but it didn’t seem to make any difference. Kevin saw those scientists who weren’t wearing masks freeze in place, gasping as they grabbed at their throats, then straightening up. One lunged at a neighbor who was masked, ripping it away and then breathing out a clear mist that filled the space in front of them. In moments, that scientist was converted too.
One grabbed Kevin, ripping away the mask he wore. Kevin tried to hold his breath, tried to pull away, but there was no way to do it. A foul-smelling vapor stole over him…
…and nothing happened.
Luna smashed into the side of the scientist holding Kevin. She was small, but she’d had plenty of experience hitting people bigger than herself, and it was at least enough to make the scientist loosen his grip.
“Run!” Ted yelled. “Get to the bunker!”
He started firing his gun into the melee. It didn’t stop the scientists. Whatever was controlling them didn’t seem to care about human things like pain, or the damage being done to the bodies they held in their grasp. As Kevin watched, three scientists grabbed hold of Ted, dragging him down.
Kevin wanted to help Ted, wanted to dart forward and pull him out of the mess, but there was no way to do it, no way to even begin to help. The most that he could do was grab Luna’s arm and pull her clear, the two of them running from the advancing scientists.
Looking back, Kevin saw them transforming one by one. He saw Dr. Levin gasp, clutching at her throat as the gas got into her, then straighten up in a way that was far too calm, far too still.
He saw Professor Brewster shift in a matter of moments, the gas overwhelming him.
Some part of him thought that Ted would somehow fight it off, that he would break clear and come to help them. Kevin let out a heartbroken cry as he saw the soldier go still, then stand, joining in the others as they chased them.
They hurried together down the facility’s corridors, more and more scientists following after them with a determination that wasn’t human anymore, wasn’t even close to it. Looking back, Kevin could see Ted, Dr. Levin, and Professor Brewster, just as alien as all the rest. A part of him wanted to just collapse to his knees, broken by the shock of it. Only Luna’s presence beside him kept him running.
“This way,” Luna said, pulling him down a side corridor, then off through a series of rooms holding scientific equipment. They ducked down behind a series of large microscopes, holding still while, beyond the doors, alien-possessed scientists advanced through the facility, almost mindlessly, grabbing hold of anyone they encountered to convert them.
Luna knelt, and she stared at Kevin. “Let me look in your eyes.”
Kevin knew what he had to be looking for. “I’m not an alien.”
“No, you’re not, but you should be. I don’t know how you aren’t.” She shook her head. “What do we do?”
She seemed to take it for granted that there would be something they could do. Kevin didn’t. If his disease had taught him anything, it was that there were some things it was impossible to do anything about.
“Ted said to get to the bunker,” Kevin said.
Luna nodded. “Do you have the key?”
Kevin held it up.
“Okay,” she said. “Let’s go.”
Kevin led the way, creeping through the scientific equipment, heading in the direction of the elevators. Every so often they would stop, and both Kevin and Luna would freeze in place, waiting while scientists moved past. There weren’t many now. Kevin guessed that they were probably moving through the rest of the facility, converting people as they went. It was a little like those days when they crept into places they shouldn’t be, and had to keep out of sight of adults, only really, it was nothing like that. They weren’t just going to be given a stern warning or told to move on if they were caught.
The elevators lay ahead, just beyond a room full of plants set out for testing. In front of them, half a dozen of the scientists stood waiting, as if knowing that the two of them would be going that way.
They probably did know, Kevin realized. From what had happened in the lab, it looked as though they had access to the thoughts and memories of the people they controlled, so why wouldn’t they know about the bunker?
“What do we do?” Luna asked.
Kevin tried to think. “We need a distraction.”
He picked up one of the plants, considering its ceramic pot. He moved to the door of the room furthest from the elevator, picking a direction. Then he set the plant’s container rolling, as hard as he could, hurrying back to Luna just in time for a crash to sound in the distance.
The alien-controlled scientists turned toward the sound, then hurried forward in that awful, synchronized silence that they had.
“Now,” Kevin said, and he and Luna scurried toward the elevators. There was a lock set by them at about chest level.
“Quick,” Luna said, “use the key.”
Kevin pushed it into a lock by the elevators, and a green light shone. The elevator doors rolled open with agonizing slowness. How long would it be before the aliens spotted what had made the sound and worked out that they had been tricked? How long before they came back for the two of them?
An inhuman sound not far away suggested that it wouldn’t be long.
“Inside,” Luna said, and they both stumbled back into the elevator car.
There was another keyhole inside the elevator, along with a button at the bottom of the controls labeled simply “Bunker.” There were other buttons too, for the various levels of the facility, for its lobby and its parking garage. Kevin stood there, considering them.
“What are you waiting for?” Luna asked. “You heard Ted, we need to get to the bunker.”
Kevin nodded. He’d heard. There was only one problem.
“What happens to our parents?” he asked.
He saw Luna’s eyes widen.
Outside, he saw aliens coming around the corner, all of them moving toward the elevators with perfect s
ynchronization.
“If we go to the bunker, who’ll save our parents?” Kevin asked. He couldn’t just abandon his mother to become an alien. He couldn’t.
So as the alien-controlled scientists started to rush forward, Kevin pressed the only button he could.
CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE
Kevin could only stand there as the elevator headed up, toward the lobby. The seconds seemed to stretch out, and with every one that passed he could imagine the scientists running through the building, grabbing more people and breathing the vapor on them, or just waiting while it spread through the building, maybe beyond.
The elevator rumbled up, the lights flickering in a way that suggested something was happening elsewhere in the building; something violent.
“Do you think they’ll be able to stop this?” Luna asked. She actually sounded scared. As scared as Kevin felt, right then.
“I don’t know,” he admitted, and not knowing was one of the worst parts of it. He had no idea what was going to happen, or if this could be stopped, or how.
Slowly, the elevator ground to a halt, the doors opening to reveal the lobby beyond. Kevin and Luna crept into it silently, not daring to take their masks off as they hurried through it.
One look at the floor told Kevin that it was the right thing. He could see vapor trailing along it like mist on a cold morning, pouring out from under the doors and spreading, caught by the breeze outside. He couldn’t see it as it touched the protesters, but he could see the effects as they breathed it, could see them going still one by one, staring up as if waiting for something.
“No,” Luna said, and Kevin could hear the horror in her voice. “No, it can’t be spreading this quickly.”
Kevin swallowed back his own fear. How could the vapor be doing so much, so fast? But he knew the answer to that: it had been designed to all along, and that was the most terrifying thought of all, because it meant that the people outside were just the start.