by H. J. Lawson
Monroe started pounding on the door, and I shouted into the intercom. After a minute of this, Kearyn’s head fell to the side and then she sat up straight. I breathed a sigh of relief.
“Kearyn, we’re here. Can you hear us?” I repeated a few times. She looked disoriented. Brody was still as…death.
“Kearyn,” I shouted, and she stumbled to her knees, bracing herself with the doorway to stand up. “That’s it. Slowly.”
“What happened to Brody?” Monroe asked as she made her way over to us.
“He’s farther along than me. I don’t even know if he’s alive,” she said, her voice thick.
“We’re going to need you to close that door for now,” Monroe said, and I detected worry in his voice. While I’d seen little of the actual creatures, he’d been at the forefront of some nasty situations in the past weeks.
“We have to help him,” Kearyn said. Her eyes didn’t focus on either of us, and a cold shiver ran through me.
“Kearyn, listen,” I said. “You should do as Monroe says so that we can help Brody and you. Go close that door.”
“Wait, Grace,” she said, her words slurred. “I need to tell you something before I do anything else. A confession. Treavyn picked you, and I’m happy for both of you even if it means I die alone in space.” I closed my eyes and took a deep breath.
“The door, Kearyn.” I hoped the firmness in my voice would get through the haze she was in.
“Oh, he’s awake!” she said, pushing off from the door we were all at.
Monroe put his face on the glass again. “Close that door!” he shouted into the intercom. He put his hand up to his forehead and stood back. I plastered my own face to the door, and sure enough, Brody’s upper half was lifting off the ground.
Chapter 7 – Justin Sloan
Kearyn
Brody stared at me with eyes of red—not just bloodshot, but entirely glazed over in red. Intense fear gripped me and I wished I was on the other side of the door with the others. He took a pain-filled step toward me, body twitching. The red bumps crept across his skin, at first like tiny bugs and then like waves. With each ripple, his body convulsed. His skin began to crack and ooze, and a small moan escaped his lips.
I wanted to scream and run, but my legs were frozen—wait, no, not frozen, more like…dead. No feeling at all, and then suddenly I didn’t care that Brody was a monster and was heading right for me, because the pain was too much.
What could only be described as a tingling pain before now felt like rats tearing through my body, just under the skin, eating at my nerves as they moved. I collapsed, and the screams came, and somewhere distance I heard the pounding of Monroe on the glass and someone shouting my name—Kearyn, KEARYN!—but all I could really think was Dear God, make it stop.
A shadow fell over me as I clawed at my own skin, and I felt Brody’s hands on me. His touch was like fire—I didn’t want to be like him, I didn’t want my skin to crack and ooze…but what could I do? I kicked him away from me and, in a moment of relief from the horrible pain, ran to the door, ready to fling myself out of there.
But then I saw Grace, staring at me, wide-eyed and terrified. No, if I went out there, they were all dead. I felt another spasm of pain start, so I breathed heavily, hoping to keep it at bay. A glance to my right showed me that Brody was just now recovering from my kick, and was again starting to move for me.
It didn’t matter; I supposed since I’d be just like him in a few moments.
Only, this time when the pain hit, I felt something inside me pushing back. I could almost imagine little antibodies fighting a cold, or maybe it was the cold fighting the virus, I had no idea—but somehow my body was resisting. My head swam, but since I wasn’t writhing in pain, I’d take it.
“Are you still with us?” Monroe asked.
I turned to him, put a hand on the glass to steady myself, and said, “I think so.”
Grace shook her head. “But it’s supposed to take you right away, make you one of them.”
“Explain that to this stupid virus in me,” I said.
“We have to get you out of there,” Monroe said. “We’ll take out Brody, we’ll—”
“You forget,” I said. “We need a living one of ’em, and if my body’s fighting it off, that leaves Brody.”
“So what do you suggest?” Grace asked. “We let you two fight it out? Any minute now he’s going to have reached full transformation, meaning he’ll have enough strength to rip you in half.”
“Just give me a second,” I said, doing my best not to look at Brody. For the moment, he’d moved away from me and was staring at the others through the glass, his body shuffling in place, looking worse by the minute.
A different sensation washed over me, not one of pain this time, but a pleasant tingling. It started where the red boils were, and as I watched, they joined back with my skin and began to glow, almost gold—my whole body was glowing gold! My head was still swimming, but in a different way, as if my brain was floating in a warm bath, and I was drifting off to some other universe. This wasn’t right, part of me knew…the same part that now understood Brody wasn’t attacking me for some other reason than him simply being distracted.
“Kearyn,” Monroe said, his voice finally breaking in panic. “This is new. Um…what the HELL is happening?”
I tried to respond, but with a jolt, I wasn’t there anymore. Of course, I was physically there, but it was like I was peering over my shoulder, watching myself.
A rumbling voice said, “At last, a host worthy of us,” and then I realized the voice was coming out of my own mouth! Then I was standing tall before Monroe, and when I reached up, the glass moved out of my way. It didn’t melt; it just moved aside.
Monroe stared back, terror in his eyes, but posture strong, defiant. I hoped that his refusal to back down didn’t get him killed, but there was nothing I could do—I’d lost control of my own body.
***
Colonel Jones
Colonel Jones sat opposite Treavyn, her hand shaking slightly as she poured him a taste of whiskey. It was a 2650 brand, one of the best tracked since the old days.
“I don’t understand,” Treavyn said, looking around at the guards uncomfortably. “What is this?”
With a wave of Colonel Jones’ hand, the guards exited, and she leaned in. “You have been honest with me, and if we hope to win, I think you ought to know what we’re truly dealing with.”
“I’ve seen the report; I know about—”
“Stop right there,” Colonel Jones said. “Because you don’t know this.” She poured herself a full glass now and drank it in one gulp. It stung going down, but she was used to it—it was the words that were about to come out of her mouth that she wasn’t used to. “There’s more to this than a virus.”
“What do you mean?” he asked, eyes wide.
“The day the virus first broke out, just that morning…we had received a signal of sorts. It appears this message was sent in conjunction with the virus, and that—and stay with me here—the virus is less of a random disease.”
“What is it then?” he asked.
“That’s what we were hoping you could help us figure out.”
Chapter 8 – Martha Carr
Treavyn
“I don’t understand. What could I possibly know?” asked Treavyn.
“Apparently, you know more than you think you do,” said the colonel as she swiveled in her chair and barked, “Messier 31 file. Authorization F-one. Password Andromeda.”
A virtual command center appeared in front of them. A map of what had been the United States until a few days ago when everything broke down and no one cared anymore. Next to that, glowing blue in the dim light of the room, was the planet Earth, slowly spinning. Behind Earth was the entire Milky Way, spread out and glowing.
“It all looks peaceful, doesn’t it? When you take the long view, at least. It looks as if nothing could possibly be going wrong,” said the colonel.
“Why hav
e you classified a bunch of maps I saw in the third grade? My little brother has this as a backdrop at his school.”
He bit off the last words, remembering there was no school left. His younger brother had died from the virus early in the fight. The smaller the body, the easier they fell.
That was better, thought Treavyn, clenching his fist by his side. He was still in a lot of trouble.
“It’s true what they say about the brainy ones,” said the colonel, looking back at Treavyn. “You only get a few gifts and street sense eludes you.” She reached out and waved her arm to the right, moving the map of the Milky Way to the side. Behind it was another map of the Andromeda Galaxy but this one didn’t look like what he had been taught in school.
Planets were missing. Treavyn stood up, straining to get a better look at what he was seeing. “This is in real time,” he said, wonder in his voice. Even in the middle of his horror, the science fascinated him. Maybe the colonel was right, he thought.
“You’re looking at what’s missing, aren’t you?” said the colonel, annoyed. “Get over that quickly. We don’t have enough time for you to have a National Geographic moment right now. Focus!” she barked.
It knocked him out of his reverie, and he took a step back, willing himself to see what was apparently glaringly obvious. A large Magellanic Cloud, a dwarf galaxy, floated in front of the screen but he could see what was happening.
One of the remaining planets was morphing into something else. Faber1 was a planet twice the size of Earth a normally orbited so close to its star that it was able to complete a full rotation in a day, unlike Earth’s meandering year. SpaceRx was well aware of the planet and had collected data for years with unmanned probes. The beginning of life was present, but its proximity to the star made it uninhabitable to humans or most advanced life forms.
The amount of radiation would kill anything above a one-celled amoeba in mere days.
“The planet has moved,” he said, “and it’s turning green.”
“Now you see it. But green with what?” asked the colonel. “Do we get our hopes up that a Hail Mary is happening right under our noses? I’m thinking no, and here’s why I believe that you hold part of the answer. Open the Faber1 message.”
A small window in the corner of the virtual command grid grew wider. It was filled with glowing symbols Treavyn had never seen before.”
“Translate,” said the colonel, as if she were giving an order to a sergeant.
The symbols started rolling over, appearing in English bit by bit, as Treavyn watched in growing horror.
“That has to be a joke,” he whispered.
“Whatever sent this creeping virus doesn’t appear to know how to joke. Four billion people dead, along with entire species of animals, suggests they don’t have a sense of humor. Do you want to tell me why your name is in a message from an alien force bent on killing all of us? They seem to think you’d already know and could fill in the blanks.”
“There were stories when I was little, but they were just stories made up by my crazy grandmother,” he said, trying to remember all of the wild tales she had insisted on telling him.
“Adopted grandmother, correct?” asked the colonel, flipping open the file on her desk. She looked back up at the screen and took another swig of whiskey.
“This email from hell says you are the ultimate border baby. You were left on the doorstep of Earth. I have an entire list of questions to go with that thought,” she said, her hand grazing the modified laser strapped to her side, “but my biggest one is, are you here to help us or to finish us off?”
Grace
Grace stumbled backward, her back slamming into the wall as the ship rocked violently.
“Sorry,” said Walt’s voice over the intercom. “Missed one.” The sound was scratchy and going in and out.
“Apparently, they’ve figured out the communications,” said Monroe, staring at Kearyn.
Grace put her hands out to steady herself as she took in Kearyn’s transformation.
Her skin was glowing with a golden hue that surrounded her entire body in a continuous swirl of particles as small bits of green data flowed across the surface of her typically deep brown eyes.
Grace started to reach out and touch the golden stream to see if it was tactile, but Monroe slapped her hand away. “What the hell are you doing?” yelled Monroe. “That monster will pull you to pieces!”
There was a groan behind Kearyn as Brody stirred, doing his best to master his feet. Skin seemed to be sliding off of him with every effort he made to stand and his face twisted in agony. Small red bugs that resembled scorpions scrambled across his body, moving in a wave that appeared intelligent and purposeful.
A yell from deep within Brody came out of him and echoed off the walls as he stretched out with both hands, what was left of his face enraged, reaching for Kearyn’s neck.
She turned swiftly in one smooth movement and held out her hand, commanding him with just the twitch of her hand. His mouth sealed shut as she closed her fingers and brushed her thumb across her palm, twisting his head to the side.
He fell in a heap, his head at an odd angle to the rest of his body, which was oozing into the crevices nearby.
“What the hell?” said Monroe, his mouth hanging open. “How did you…”
Grace pulled Monroe back next to her. “Is Kearyn still alive?” she asked the being standing in front of them. She noticed the swelling had subsided in Kearyn’s arm and was quickly healing. In just moments there was no trace of the spots.
“Not a concern,” said the being. It seemed to be waiting for a better question. Grace wasn’t sure what to ask, and after a moment the being started to move forward, out of the medical room.
Monroe picked up the wrench he had brought just in case a door didn’t open and began to swing at Kearyn’s head. “Sorry about this, my friend,” he murmured as the being lifted its hand, stilling his motion in mid-air. The wrench started to reverse course, heading for Monroe.
“Wait!” yelled Grace, and the being curled her hand, stopping the wrench. “Can we help you?” she asked.
Her medical school training had taught her that all life forms were always looking for a way to sustain and grow their share of the host. It didn’t matter if it was a bunch of cancer cells, a herd of elephants looking for water or humans building out a subdivision. All life forms shared the same instinct to multiply and dominate the surroundings.
The being turned and looked at Grace from head to toe, scanning her; the data flowing across Kearyn’s eyes moved faster. Grace could feel a current moving through her body as memories she hadn’t thought of in years scrolled inside of her head. When it was over Grace felt energized; small blue electrical sparks escaped her fingertips and her lips as she breathed.
“What’s happening?” she asked, looking at Monroe, who was taking a few steps back from her.
The being cocked its head to one side as if curious, or triumphant.
“You took care of him,” it said.
“Took care of Brody? Sure, I took care of him.”
The being looked back at what was left of Brody.
“Organic shell for carrying low-level energy,” said the being, looking back at Grace. “Billions of these carbon representatives eating up a planet. Slow to mature.”
“We have hidden talents,” said Grace.
“Maybe now’s not the best time to argue,” said Monroe.
“You have nurtured our seedling,” said the being, lifting its hand, palm up, toward Grace.
An image came into her mind.
“Treavyn,” she whispered. “Your seedling?”
Chapter 9 – Sarah Dalton
Kearyn
The ship hallway was dark, so I had to hold up my hands to feel my way down the corridor. Above my head, a light flickered three times, then went out altogether. My heart was beating so hard that the sound of blood thrashed through my ears like waves crashing against a cliff. I missed the sea.
There were voices around me, but I couldn’t hear them through the swooshing of my blood. I turned right around a corner and continued on, feeling my way through the ship, holding out my hands to guide me. There was nothing here. I should’ve reached the engine room by now unless I got turned around. Maybe I was heading toward the cabins… or… No. I realized I was lost.
I stopped, and my breath caught in my throat. There it was again, that sound. What was it? Who was it? They sounded scared. Grace? Brody? An image flashed through my mind. Brody’s body lifeless and bloated, pulsing with tiny red insects crawling across his flesh. I saw his bloodshot eyes and his hand reaching up to me. I blinked, forcing the memory away. I had to find the door. I didn’t know why I just knew that I had to locate the door.
So I stumbled on through the dark, trying to calm my breathing, and trying to put all thoughts of Brody out of my mind. The image of a bright red bite mark kept jumping into my thoughts, and the strange, underwater voice blared on until I clamped my hands over my ears. Stop it, stop it, stop it! I couldn’t stand the sound of that voice. My feet staggered into a run, and I lumbered forward with my hands over my ears. Make it stop!
There was something horribly wrong. This wasn’t the hallway on the ship. There were no doors, no passcodes, no annoying robot voice telling me what to do. There was just nothingness all around me. And suddenly I felt very trapped like I was stuck in a maze with no way out. Maybe I was. I panicked and started to sprint, no longer bothering to feel my way through the dark. There was nothing to trip me, but I worried about it all the same. I focused on it, obsessed over what imaginary obstacles might find their way under my feet. But I could hardly think with the noise in my head, the constant voice that I couldn’t hear properly.
It sounded as panicked as I felt.
Where was I?
Sweat began to form on my forehead and back. My breath came out in ragged gasps. The air was stifling in my strange, dark maze. It was so stifling that I wanted to curl into a ball and stop moving. But all I did was slow to a walk. It wasn’t a choice; it was a necessity because a tight knot was constricting my chest. I couldn’t breathe. I gasped in air, trying desperately to calm myself. I almost fell to my knees as I staggered forward, and that was when I felt it. The door.