The First Ones

by Michael Weinberger

  “Do you know where you’re going?” Jet asked.

  Ursula nodded, “The planes that brought us are parked over there.” Ursula pointed to a row of three of Textron Aviation’s Cessna TTX+ propeller planes lined up by the fueling station.

  Jet knew very little about planes, but these looked like the kind that he always read about in the newspaper after they had crashed into a lake or field.

  Ursula maneuvered the SUV over to the closest of the three planes and put the vehicle in park.

  “Wait here,” she commanded in a voice that told Jet she would brook no argument.

  Jet and Aurora watched as Ursula exited the vehicle, scanned the area, lifted the Desert Eagle into a two-handed grip, then slowly walked toward the first plane. Jet couldn’t help but notice how, with every step she took, Ursula appeared as though she was positioning her body for precise firing should the need arise.

  Movement caught his eye as Ursula arrived at the door of the first Cessna and Jet called out, “Watch your back! Second plane!”

  Initially, Ursula had begun to spin and point her weapon at the source of the sound, which was Jet’s voice, but she quickly recovered and brought her weapon to bear on the adjacent plane. She immediately saw the movement Jet had alerted her to and repositioned her body for a clear shot as the door of the second plane opened.

  “Ursula?” A nervous voice called from the interior of the plane.

  “Craig?” Ursula sounded surprised and relieved, “where the hell is everyone else?”

  Jet watched as the man named Craig slowly climbed out of the plane and casually walked over to where Ursula stood. “If by everyone, you mean Jeff and his co-pilot, then they are hiding in their plane, too.”

  Ursula nodded, with even more relief showing on her face, “Are all of you okay?”

  “We’re fine, but there have been some very strange sounds coming from all around us for the last half hour or so.” Craig looked down to his feet, “Sorry, but we’re pilots, not soldiers.”

  Ursula looked at the man, as if trying to read something in his body language, before she finally put a hand on his shoulder and said, “That’s all right. You were never supposed to do anything but fly.” Ursula looked back to the first plane, “Are we ready to go?”

  Craig seemed not to hear her, when he said, “So you were successful?”

  Ursula looked back again, and nodded, “Craig…Are the planes ready to leave?”

  Craig was staring at the SUV, as if day dreaming. “She’s really in there?”

  “Craig!” Ursula shouted the man’s name as a command, and he seemed to wake up from his daydream.

  “What? Oh…yes. Your plane has about three quarters of a tank, but it should be enough to get you to Seattle for refueling.”

  “Seattle?” Ursula sounded surprised, “that wasn’t part of the plan.”

  Craig started to act a little more relaxed, as he spoke again, “It couldn’t be helped. The staff here had closed up for the night and they locked their fuel tanks. We siphoned what we could from my plane, and more from Jeff’s plane, so the last one would have enough gas to take the six of us out of here.”

  Ursula could smell it now. The scent of spilled gasoline was all around her, and when she looked down she could see that the ground was still damp where the fuel had fallen.

  “Is there any danger of the fuel igniting as we start up the…”

  Ursula had a sudden realization, and she slowly turned to Jet and Aurora, still standing by the SUV. The look on her face told Jet everything he needed to know and he climbed back into the car, locking the doors.

  Normally a Cessna could only hold four adults comfortably, including the pilot, along with their luggage. On the way over three planes were needed to accommodate all of their personnel and gear. In the event of a hasty escape only two planes would have been needed if they left their equipment behind, so Craig should have siphoned off enough gas from one plane to get two of the planes out of the area. Forget Seattle. Sure, they would have needed to stop sooner, but they all could have gotten away. Craig hadn’t known about Jet, but he shouldn’t have known about any casualties either.

  Craig looked unsure for a moment, and then he frowned at Ursula, “What?”

  Ursula raised the gun, pointing it between Craig’s eyes, “How did you know there wouldn’t be more than six of us?”

  Craig cowered under the monocular gaze of the Desert Eagle’s barrel as he sputtered, “I…I didn’t. I just thought…I thought…”

  “What!” Ursula once again had that commanding, demanding tone in her voice, “Just what did you think?!”

  Ursula called out to the other pilot that was supposedly hiding in his plane, “Jeff!” and stepped forward to press the barrel of the weapon to Craig’s sweating forehead. Craig closed his eyes, and his whole body quaked in fear.

  “I thought…” Suddenly Craig straightened, and faster than Jet’s eyes could follow, he whipped his hand up, snatching the gun out of Ursula’s hand before she could pull the trigger. She tried to recover from the surprise, but Craig’s other hand lashed out and slapped her hard enough to send her entire body flying into the air and crashing into the side of their SUV, nearly eighty feet away. The impact of Ursula’s body against the SUV rocked the entire vehicle off of its driver side wheels, caving in the side doors and shattering the tempered glass windows, before the car’s weight righted itself.

  Craig looked at the weapon in his hand, and then casually tossed it aside.

  “…Actually,” he gloated, “what I meant to say was that I only need one plane, in order to take the child out of here.”

  Jet immediately slid over into the driver’s seat, trying to open the door to get to Ursula’s fallen body, but her impact against the vehicle had deformed the metal, wedging it firmly shut. He was about to go back out the passenger door to collect what he’d hoped would be a still breathing Ursula, when something rose into view in front of the shattered driver’s side window.

  Jet blinked, trying to clear the impossible sight registering before his very eyes.

  It was Ursula and she was rising up from where she had come to rest on the ground, apparently unbroken, unharmed and very, very angry.

  Chapter 11: A Woman Scorned

  Jet had to remember to close his mouth he watched in awe as Ursula slowly stood with a shower of tempered glass cubes falling from her neck and shoulders to eventually come to rest on the ground encircling her feet.

  Her hands were balled into fists, and without taking her eyes off of “Craig,” inclined her head to Jet and hissed, “Start the car and back up while I deal with this. If you see anything or anyone else besides me, just run them down.”

  “What about the other pilot and the rest of your crew?” he asked.

  “If this thing impersonating Craig is what I think it is, then they’re all dead.”

  Ursula turned her head back to “Craig” and took a slow step forward. Any surprise that “Craig” might have shown by Ursula’s resilience was quickly replaced by rage, as his mouth opened inhumanly wide, roaring with volume and depth that could only come from another apex predator.

  Jet settled into the driver’s seat and started the car, quickly shifting into reverse he pressed the accelerator, causing the SUV to lurch back as he drove it away from the three Cessna.

  Ursula then bent forward and ran at Craig while sounding a battle cry of her own that, although far more human, was no less intense or intimidating.

  Craig had also bent forward and looked as though he was preparing himself to receive the full impact of Ursula’s charge, when his body seemed to grow less solid. Flesh began to vibrate in some areas and bulge in others, as though Craig’s body had suddenly become boneless, yet filled with a viscous fluid, as it undulated and evolved into a thing that was not Craig.

  Jet watched in horror for what seemed like minutes, but in reality, was only a couple of seconds as Craig assumed his new form. Initially, he looked very much like the wolf-
creatures that had attacked the SUV earlier, but he was much larger and appeared to be severely deformed, with bones that were too large in many areas, and yet underdeveloped in others. Unfortunately, the Craig-thing had even more severe looking claws and teeth, along with a strangely dense and thick musculature, easily seen under its mangy patches of fur.

  The change didn’t seem to surprise or slow as she barreled into the newly huge creature at full speed. The thing tried to catch her as she hit, but only succeeded in encircling its arms around her back as she body-speared into its abdomen like a Steeler’s linebacker and sent them both reeling backward and into one of the planes.

  The light aircraft was made for flying and it was not up to withstanding over four hundred pounds of mass slamming into its side. The plane just seemed to cave in upon itself, tipping over until its wing stopped it from completely capsizing.

  Ursula and the Craig-thing were still snarling at each other and Jet could hear the violent explosion of sounds as they repeatedly slammed into each other inside the rubble of what remained of the Cessna. In the darkness of the early morning it was hard for Jet to determine what was happening, and he turned to check on Aurora, who he realized was now sitting in the front passenger seat, watching the battle intensely.

  “Can you help her?” Jet asked the tiny girl, who looked away from the fight with eyes that appeared as helpless as the two-year-old’s they were supposed to be.

  “No.”

  “Why not?” He wondered, “Aren’t you an ‘All-powerful god’ or something?”

  “If you like, but in this form my abilities are severely limited and mostly deal in concealment. I could do more, but doing so would destroy this vessel,” the child waved her hands up and down the sides of her small body, “and I need it in order to move among you.”

  Jet was chilled as the…whatever…that inhabited the child referred to her body as it’s “vessel.”

  He was going to say more, when one of the Cessna’s seats flew out of the plane like it had been shot from a cannon, landing less than ten yards from their SUV.

  Jet looked from the empty, but still rocking, seat and then back to the plane. He saw the Craig-thing burst from the mess that the small plane had become, land hard on the tarmac, before rolling into a crouch to ready itself for the next attack. It was bloodied, and was even more deformed than before, to the point that it barely maintained any of the characteristics that the other werewolves had possessed. It still had patches of fur over mottled flesh, and its twisted limbs maintained dagger-like claws, but its face no longer resembled anything that should have existed on this planet.

  “Demon?” Jet asked himself aloud, without expecting an answer, and he was surprised when he got one.

  “No,” Aurora answered, “It’s one of Kaylanna’s first born.”

  “What?!” He had known the mythology, before Ursula’s quick history lesson had reminded him of all the details, when the Ancient had first-birthed a litter of ten offspring. Five had become mythic creatures able to assume the man-wolf form, like those creatures they had encountered earlier, but the other five were born as misshapen monstrosities having the ability to shape shift into any form they chose, while having no true form of their own. The legends said that these five offspring were every bit as powerful, if not more so, than their siblings.

  Jet watched as Ursula leapt from the pile of plane rubble, landing in a full run toward the Akhlut, but this time the thing was ready for her, and as her body hit it, its mouth seemed to morph like it was made of rubber and its jaws came down on her shoulder at an impossible angle. Two-inch long fangs bit into Ursula’s flesh and she screamed in pain while using one of her hands to desperately peel back the mouth that had violated her.

  Then the four limbs of the Akhlut shivered and undulated, as if its bones had disappeared, and its fur and flesh began to dissolve into a yellow slime that dripped copiously to the ground. Once enough of the ooze had fallen away it revealed the appendages underneath to be reforming as tentacles, complete with spiked suction-cup suckers just like a giant squid’s. The tentacles coiled around Ursula, holding her fast, as the strange mouth shook and tore at the flesh of her shoulder. Blood poured out the sides of the thing’s mouth and its spiked purple tongue lapped at the crimson liquid as fast as it fell.

  “NO!” Jet screamed while throwing the SUV’s transmission into drive and flooring the accelerator, he sent the SUV barreling toward the combatants.

  He had no idea what he was going to do, and he only had about three seconds to figure it out, before he ran both of them down. His hand pressed down on the horn as the headlights of the SUV illuminated the pair in their deadly embrace, but the Akhlut didn’t release Ursula or try to move out of the way as it continued to feed on her.

  Something flickered off to the right of the pair as the glow of the headlights flowed over it and caught Jet’s attention. He quickly pressed the brakes, turned toward the object he had seen without quite causing the vehicle to skid out of control or roll over, before coming to a stop alongside of it.

  He nearly fell from the vehicle as crawled out of the passenger side door and reached for the Desert Eagle that Ursula had dropped when she had initially been struck by the Craig-thing.

  Jet never thought to ratchet the chamber or check the safety before he squeezed the trigger. He hadn’t even bothered to aim, for that matter, when he brought the weapon up and fired a single round that struck the Akhlut in its misshapen head, blowing apart a grapefruit sized chunk of flesh.

  The Akhlut screamed and released Ursula, who flopped limply to the ground, as it spun toward Jet while the space he had shot away began to fill and repair itself.

  Jet was fully aware and afraid of the horror he faced, but he walked forward; gun raised and curses erupting from his lips as he fired again and again. More grapefruit sized chunks blew out and away from the thing’s torso this time, and again it screamed in agony before the void the bullet created had filled as the thing continued to repair itself.

  Jet fired again, this time aiming down the iron sights of the weapon, and the .50 caliber round exploded at the base of one of the thing’s tentacles, not so cleanly amputating the limb from the body.

  This time the Akhlut didn’t repair the damage as much as it seemed to absorb the remaining stump into its body, but it turned to look at the piece of itself that lay wiggling with a life of its own on the ground.

  Jet kept closing the distance, and despite the alien nature of the creature that faced him, he thought he could detect a shift in the attitude of the creature. It almost seemed as if the Craig-thing was regarding him, trying to figure him out as he approached.

  Jet fired again, this time sending three quick rounds into the creature’s center mass, hoping that the collection of shots would have a more lasting impact than did the one-shot-at-a-time scenario. The crater that the group of shots created was impressive, but it had little more effect than did the single shots fired from the weapon earlier.

  Jet closed the remaining distance, knowing that he was almost out of ammunition, and the Craig-thing just waited as he came, taking yet another shot in the head and answering it with a scream, but without suffering any other lasting traumatic effects.

  Jet shook his head with a snarl and continued to move forward. His instincts were screaming for him to turn and run, but there was something driving him forward that he couldn’t resist. His legs didn’t shake and his arm held the weapon still and true as he took the last two steps and placed the barrel of the gun on the Akhlut’s head.

  It stared back at him with yellow eyes that split and divided until they appeared multi-faceted and insectoid-like while it patiently waited for him to pull the trigger again. It was almost patronizing in its confidence that Jet couldn’t do any permanent damage. Jet suddenly felt small and pathetic in the moment as he faced the creature.

  The mouth of the Akhlut quivered as a few drops of Ursula’s blood ran down what passed for its chin. Then the maw shifted, not in
form, but in position and Jet got the sick feeling that the thing was smiling at him.

  “Ah fuck it,” Jet said with a growl as he pulled the trigger, and he felt only an empty click as the last round didn’t fire.

  The Akhlut’s eyes had closed as if bracing for the impact of the shot, then they opened and looked cross-eyed at the gun resting on its forehead.

  It started to laugh.

  Jet lowered the weapon and looked at the unfired bullet that had lodged improperly in the slide and chamber, and tossed the useless weapon aside. He looked up at the creature and smiled, “Just the kind of night I’m having, you know.”

  The thing began to laugh louder and the deep sound was more evil than anything Jet had ever heard in the real world.

  Its tentacles slowly reached for him as if savoring its impending victory and its mouth opened wide to strike, when Jet said, “You really need to pay more attention to your surroundings.”

  The creature hesitated, perhaps it was surprised by the lack of fear in its victim or maybe it simply that it didn’t understand what Jet had meant. Then, without warning, the Akhlut’s back arched and its tentacles flailed out to the sides as it shrieked in pain. Its head whipped to look at the ground where Ursula had fallen, but only found empty pavement, as it realized too late, its fatal mistake.

  Behind the creature Ursula had recovered and punched into the abomination with such force that the impact of her fist had penetrated the creature’s back. She had driven one fist into what had passed for the Craig-thing’s thorax while she encircled her free arm under the creature’s jaws. The hold allowed Ursula to leverage her arm further into the Craig-thing’s body until it had sunk elbow deep inside the shrieking beast.

  Jet stepped back and away, as he watched the Akhlut tried to coil up, turn around, or whatever else it could to free itself, but found that it was unable to do so. It was impaled and trapped as Ursula twisted her shoulder and thrust her arm further upward inside the creature while grinning as she went. Jet caught glimpses of scales, then feathers, and then slime covered skin, as the creature desperately tried to shift into something that could help it save itself, when Ursula’s arm began to pull back. A series of hard jerks rocked the creature’s body until, with one last great effort, Ursula ripped her entire arm free. Covered in blood so dark it was almost black, Ursula’s hand held something large as the Akhlut’s body dropped lifelessly to the ground at her feet.