Nothing hasty, though. I thought it out first. Made a plan, targeted legitimate sources. You know, nobody gets hurt, no harm, no foul. I lobbied for cleanup on the hospital and clinic rounds. Those included the morgues. It seemed like the perfect fit.
In fact, that worked for a while, but then I guess somebody noticed that digits went missing on my shifts. Nobody said anything official about it, but I was moved back to working among the living.
What to do now? I had a craving that I couldn’t control. I mean, at this point, I didn’t even want to control it. But the live ones would be too much trouble. Half of them were trying to get themselves fit enough to get on that fabled colony ship, and the other half were scrappy survivors like me.
I decided to go after the nearly dead. You know, the ones clogging up alleys and doorways with their disease and depression and destitution. They won’t work, they don’t care, and they won’t die right away. It seemed wasteful to let useful limbs sit around being useless.
I noticed a garden shed on the way to work one day, and that’s where I found the knife. It was some abandoned apartment complex that was probably real nice way back when, with manicured strips of grass and bushes they trimmed into animals or fancy shapes. Now it’s just a shell, like so much of the city, and the tools were in there for the taking.
I considered the shears first, but figured they’d be more work to get back into shape. When I saw the machete, I knew that was it. It took about a week before I had scrubbed off all the rust and had it sharpened up, ready to go.
Still, I was nervous. I mean, you think I was all callous and single-minded about this, but that wasn’t the way it was at all. It was another few days before I could work up enough nerve to go after my first one.
Long story short, it was clumsy and messy, but at the end of it, I had twenty delectable tidbits, and there was one less undesirable clogging the streets.
The details? Sure, I remember. Funny how with food and sex you remember that first time. Makes you think, right?
Anyway, there was an alley near one of my jobs where the derelicts liked to hang out. It was quiet, a bit off the beaten path, and there was only one active building in the area using the dumpsters nearby, so no real threat of interruption.
If you watch long enough, you’ll see the rhythms and habits of those folks, same as anyone else. That’s how I knew there was a stretch each night when a few of them went off to scavenge in those dumpsters, and left one behind to guard their home base.
There wasn’t much to the guy, either physically or mentally. Still, I didn’t want to take my chances being surprised at the last minute. I threw something—a can or a rock—to get him to look into the far end of the alley. Then I swooped in behind him and beheaded him with the machete.
Of course, it didn’t go as smoothly as it does when you just say it like that. I mean, they make it look so easy in the movies.
Well, yeah, I guess you wouldn’t know anything about that.
But even on a scrawny guy like that one, there’s a lot of tissue and bone and stringy bits to get through. I had to hack at him a bit until he went down for good. Luckily, he didn’t make much noise. After that, I chopped off his fingers and toes. That was a damn sight easier than the head, let me tell you. And I hightailed it out of there.
It got easier as I went along. I had that knife sharpened and shining, and I practiced my swing so it’d take less effort, and I was feeling good for an old dog my age. Stronger, even, like this was the right path for me and it’d just been waiting for me to find it.
Until that last one.
Looking back, I totally ignored the signs. What can I say? I got greedy. I mean, she was in the wrong place, for sure. But she was alert and relatively well-dressed and she had these little round fingers. You could almost call them plump.
So yeah, I should have known better. I let my hunger take over, till all my senses revolved around the need for that flavory crunch and crackle.
At this point, I had probably taken down thirty or so derelicts, all of them much larger than her. It must have been the effect of the matrix I was eating. I mean, these physical changes for sure. Made me doubly glad I’d gone for the machete instead of the shears, what with my hands morphing like they are.
But mentally, too. Like the matrix was feeding my desire, just like it had fed all those fingers and toenails. I felt strong and confident. So confident, with that last one, that when I struck at her and missed, I was too shocked to realize she was agile enough to keep dodging me and maybe even fight back.
It even took me a little while to realize she had been crying out the whole time. Screaming bloody murder at the top of her lungs. It unsettled me a bit, and I missed my next two swings. But I realized she wouldn’t get much help in this part of the city, which calmed me for another attack.
Of course, what I didn’t know was that it was trendy now to set up clubs in the run-down districts, and that’s where she’d been, and that’s where the cavalry came from.
So here I am. No point denying any of it. I mean, a crowd of folks came from around the corner and saw me facing off with her, machete in hand. I cut some of ‘em pretty good before I went down, but down I went.
And I’m sure you’ve already been to my place and found my leftovers from yesterday. Usually I make sure to clean up any evidence before I leave for the day. You know, just in case. But I think I was just too distracted, thinking ahead to the next opportunity. That last set wasn’t satisfying—a little grainy, even. The guy might’ve had a fungus.
Anyway, that’s it. I don’t have anything else to say.
The ones in between? Sorry, I don’t remember much about them. I know it sounds horrible, but it really felt like the whole plan was a win-win scenario. Less folks stuck between the cracks for the city to deal with, more treats for me.
But I do have a question. What happens next? I mean, this is kinda new territory for you in this weird, post-post world of ours. Trials are old-fashioned, jails are expensive, official executions are outlawed. What happens to me now?
Nah, I’m in no hurry. I got all the time in the world to wait for a decision. Where else am I going to go? Besides, that holding cell is pretty damn comfortable compared to the place I was living. Although I noticed you guys do it old-school around here, huh?
Oops, sorry. Didn’t mean to bump into you like that. I know it just looks like my body is shellacked into some kind of weird toy-soldier stiffness, but it’s getting harder to sense where it is in the world.
The changes, they’re accelerating much faster now. Maybe it’s the stress. Not about what I’ve done, no. About who I’m becoming.
What I mean is, I’m still under here. I still have my memories of the times before, and how I felt when the last people I cared about either left on one of those ships, or died at the hands of this miserable world.
But it’s like I’m wearing a me-shaped shell or something, and I’m trying to figure out how to move around in it, and keep thinking my own thoughts, and hold on to a little bit of who I used to be.
Anyway, I’m not looking for sympathy. That’d be a tough one to sell at this point, huh? I guess all that sitting and running off at the mouth just made me a bit stiff and clumsy. Here, let me help you gather up all these keys.
There you go. So, back to my cell, then? Yeah, like I was saying, it’s much cleaner and cozier than the place I used to call home. One drawback, though—the food’s not as good. Ha ha.
Speaking of, did anyone ever tell you, officer, you have the loveliest fingers?
Michelle Mellon has been published in several horror and science fiction anthologies. In August 2015, she and her husband relocated from San Francisco to Germany, where Ms. Mellon is a stay-at-home mom to their cat while she works on a horror story collection and writes a blog about living overseas.
ALIEN: COVENANT and the Search for Ridley Scott
A Gehenna Post Review
(Originally Published in the Gehenna Post)
Nearly 40 years ago, 38 to be precise, audiences were stunned with a film that would not only spawn a franchise, but also create an entire science fiction legacy, atop of the fire that it would breathe into the life of one director’s career–none other than Ridley Scott, who would go on to craft such films as Blade Runner (1982) and Gladiator (2000). The film aforementioned was his masterpiece, Alien (1979). Though the love for the film initially was not nearly the peak at which it is today, the film still effected a lot of people and brought passion into exploring the darker sides of science fiction. Without Alien, there would have never been Aliens (1986), no Event Horizon (1997), no Predator (1987) Pandorum (2009), no John Carpentr’s The Thing (1982), the list goes on.
Fast forward to 1986 and James Cameron, who would go on to direct Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) and Avatar (2009), took the helm from Scott and gave us Aliens, a film possibly neck-and-neck with Scott’s original vision. Then the journey withered a bit as sequel after sequel released with none of the same passion that Scott and Cameron put into the franchise. Not until a few decades later, when audiences were given Prometheus (2012). Critics can say what they will about Prometheus–most complaints deriving from its lack of Xenomorphs–but the film was unique. Scott wanted to create a universe that was not reliant on his iconic beasts. He wanted to delve into the mythology and show that the world could stand on its own without giant phallic monsters tearing people apart. More than anything, his idea and concept to explore alien creatures that created mankind, was exhilarating and refreshing in a genre that, as of late, seemed to rely on Michael Bay action and special effects.
When it was announced a few years back that the sequel to Prometheus would be titled Prometheus: Paradise Lost, many fans were excited. We would see the home world of the engineers! We would find all the answers surrounding the mystery of our creation. A whole new planet, ecosystem, civilization, and culture awaited us on Paradise and we were enthralled to experience it. Yet somewhere along pre-production, something happened. Ridley Scott announced the change of title to Alien: Covenant (2017) and spoke further and further on the film being more directly related to the Alien franchise. It appeared to many that Scott did not like the backlash received for his decisions for Prometheus and wanted to cater to audiences more than stay true to his craft and vision.
Many interviews and quotes from Ridley Scott erupted throughout the past two years leading up to Covenant that had many fans worried. From his interview with the Sydney Morning Herald, where he told the interviewer that he wanted to do up to six more Alien films, to his interview with Express, where he stated that he would consider having a CGI de-aged Sigourney Weaver (Ellen Ripley) in future films, it seemed that Scott’s desire for box office numbers outweighed his passion for creating artistic interpretations of this universe. The 79-year-old may be encroaching upon the end of his life, hoping to relish in any success he can muster. Considering the untimely death of his brother Tony Scott in 2012, the same year Prometheus released, it wouldn’t be crazy to think that Scott might be experiencing a crisis of sorts as far as his own mortality is concerned.
Nevertheless, Alien: Covenant holds none of the wonder that Alien, Aliens, and Prometheus boasted. A gory action bonanza that shallows in the terms of character development and festers inside of plot holes, the film not only feels underwhelming throughout its second and third acts, but it also spells a saddening fate for a beloved franchise. In the previous three films listed above, audiences cared about the characters, felt their pain. From Ellen Ripley and her stunning transformation to badass heroine, to Elizabeth Shaw (Noomi Rapace) and her unbelievable perseverance, Scott has shown an incredible talent of portraying lead characters that science fiction fans not only love, but want to see more of. Even in recent memory, with Scott’s Oscar-nominated science fiction film The Martian (2015), based on the novel of the same name by Andy Weir, Matt Damon received many nominations and accolades for his titular role, further proving Scott’s ability to create memorable characters. No characters in Alien: Covenant had these aspects, not even David (Michael Fassbender) who was the standout performance of Prometheus, had nearly the amount of charm that the character is capable of possessing. Even the synthetic felt . . . well . . . synthetic.
The opening act of Alien: Covenant was thematically relative to 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). The stunning visual effects were breathtaking and the technology so advanced yet believable. Initially, it was with much pleasure that the film felt as though it were going in a direction that would grasp the audience’s attention and thrill with the same mysterious and terrifying deep space themes that riddled the original two Alien films and Prometheus. By the time the second act starts, the movie steps into puddles of tropes consistently, becoming formulaic and hollow. Part of what made Scott’s Alien so effective when it first came out, was the fact that the little bit of blood and gore that was in the long run time was depicted discreetly and/or effectively. Alien: Covenant has over-the-top gore that becomes so ridiculous at points that fans may find themselves laughing at the absurdity before them. Ridley Scott has always made bloody films, but this may be the first time he made a film that was bloody for the sake of being bloody. The CGI of the Xenomorphs and their relatives compare to CGI from 2004, consistently pulling viewers out of the universe as compared to Prometheus which was a visual spectacle in every way, the few instances of creature CGI always authentic and believable.
As far as plot, the story unfolds in an interesting way early on but quickly falls into pits of lazy plot devices and tropes that are identical to previous installments. As soon as the crew of the Covenant vessel land on the foreign planet, the film nosedives into a poor-written oblivion. The dialogue is boring and any efforts at character development are either emotionless, lazy, or briefly explored before being dropped off completely. There are several moments in the film’s climax that will make fans of the Alien franchise think to themselves, “Are you serious?” Despite a few interesting plot twists, the film ends with–start drum roll–a setup for a sequel.
There was a time when Ridley Scott was respected for his passion and ability to craft beautiful landscapes with remarkable characters. Now, this aspect of the legendary director seems to be faded, filling his most loyal fans with disappointment. There were two possible titles for this review that we considered before sitting down to watch Alien: Covenant, the first being Alien: Revenant (with hopes that the film would revitalize the franchise even further), the second being Alien: Covenant and the Search for Ridley Scott. Clearly the latter was chosen and the title holds true.
Where is Ridley Scott? What happened to one of science fiction’s most beloved directors? Will we find him again? Clearly Scott vanished during the directing of this film, because not a single aspect, despite the cinematography, echoes of the legendary filmmaker we have all come to love so dearly over the past four decades.
RATING: 2/5 STARS
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Look out for our new releases in 2017!
June 30th, 2017
Hinnom Magazine Issue 001
August 31st, 2017
Hinnom Magazine Issue 002
September 22nd, 2017
Year’s Best Body Horror 2017 Anthology
October 31st, 2017
Hinnom Magazine Issue 003
November 22nd, 2017
Year’s Best Transhuman SF 2017 Anthology
December 31st, 2017
Hinnom Magazine Issue 004
Hinnom Magazine Issue 001 Page 6