by Jacob Hammes
It reminded Marcus of the fungus that took over ants, forcing them to do its bidding and propagate the species of the spore.
“Well,” the officer in the front seat said, understanding that the team had been through quite a day. “I know you were all just getting comfortable, but you’re free to go.”
“Aww, what?” Henry complained. “I was hoping for a cell and some hot food.”
They hadn’t even left the scene where they had been taken into custody. The side of the road was dark here, as they had traveled up past many of the port loading areas in the boat.
“Do you think you could drop us off somewhere?” Cynthia said, her voice dripping with a sweetness she reserved for such situations.
“Those are my orders,” the officer said, smiling at Cynthia and the rest of the team. Unlike many people they had come into contact with lately, the officer seemed genuine and happy. “I’ll make sure you guys have some warm clothes to head home with, or just take you straight to the airport. It’s your choice.”
Marcus and Henry exchanged glances. They wouldn’t mind some time to themselves, since they had been either on the road or shot at for the better part of the last week. Silently, they decided they would get back to the airport too late to hitch a ride that night. Besides, the quicker they got back to D.C., the quicker they would have to get back to work.
Then Marcus had the whole Julie situation to deal with.
“We’ve got a truck. Just take us there. I have some shopping to do.”
Chapter 25
Phillip was busy wondering whether or not he was going to eat a hot chunk of lead. He hadn’t counted on Stewart, the man who had tried to kill them and then threatened them with an explosive vest, showing up. He wasn’t happy, but then again neither was Stewart.
“How did you find us?” Stewart said as the two men roughly searched and unceremoniously stripped him of his weapons, cell phone, and small backpack.
“I just came here to watch the birds,” Phillip said sarcastically. “I mean, this is a bird sanctuary, right?”
“More or less,” Stewart said, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose. “But we don’t really care about birds here. There’s a warehouse, some bad guys, and even a small burial ground out back. I think you’ll find it feels very homey.”
“You would think that after such a long chase, I would look forward to a nap,” Phillip said as one of the large men pushed him forward. “But, I’ve always been keen to sleep in my own bed.”
“Well maybe it will feel like home once your entire team is buried alongside you. Who else knows you’re here?”
“No one,” Phillip lied. “I came out here alone, against the wishes of the department.”
Stewart dropped his shoulder and balled his fist. Phillip knew what was going to happen, so he clenched his jaw and braced for the punch. It came like a baseball bat across his cheek, sending him reeling into the wall. The little guy had quite a punch, but not enough to put Phillip down for any considerable amount of time.
“The first of many,” Stewart said, rubbing his bruised knuckles. “Bring him downstairs. We are about to fire up the machine again—it’s our little master’s last treatment. In fact, I’ve got a better plan for you Phillip. We need a friend on the inside, someone that can take the pressure off of us. Maybe we can give you one of our more aggressive friends. That way you’ll be useful to everyone.”
“More aggressive friends?” Phillip wasn’t following. “I thought you were aggressive. I can’t imagine someone worse than you.”
“You’re not understanding,” Stewart said, rounding on Phillip again as he stood in the middle of the hallway. Phillip caught a glimpse of someone moving outside. It was so faint and so quick he wondered whether or not he had seen anything at all. It must have been Stephen though, as he doubted David was worth anything right now.
“I’m going to inject a parasite into your body. It’s going to slowly take over your entire persona, unbeknownst to either your family or friends. It’s going to merge with your being as it is now, and drain you of your life. The most aggressive ones do that, you see. They take over a life instead of live symbiotically with its host. Your dreams, your hopes, your very memories will all be destroyed. You’ll simply be a husk, a shell of a man that carries out what your new master tells you to.
“The better ones, the ones you’re not going to have anything to do with, live alongside their host. They augment every bit of life. They make the host stronger, faster, healthier, and smarter. They remember every single thing that has ever happened during the life of their species. They create a better human, a better organism. They are what we are trying to protect. They are the future of our civilization.”
“Listen,” Phillip said, knowing something bad was going to happen soon. “You’re threatening me and you’re putting the world at risk. To me, that sounds bad. If you don’t mind, I’m going to bail out. If you want to stick around and burn with your body snatchers, that’s your deal.”
With his last word, Phillip hoisted himself into the air using the two men behind him. With both feet, he kicked Stewart as hard as he could in the chest. The smaller man stumbled backward hard and fell to the floor as bullets started tearing through the hallway. One of Phillip’s captors hit the floor never to stand again. The other man flung the secret door open and dove headfirst through. Phillip heard the sound of a man crashing painfully down stairs and wondered what could possibly be hiding back there.
Stewart wasn’t finished. He had hit the ground hard, but was already recuperating. His silenced pistol swept across the hallway sending muted thuds through the walls. Phillip reacted by smashing the pistol ferociously out of his hand. The little pistol went skittering down the hallway, but Stewart was much quicker
With what seemed like a flick of his arm, he managed to throw Phillip down the hallway and through a doorway. Stewart eyed his pistol, pondering whether or not he should even risk the few feet between them. The answer came in form of Stephen and his own pistol appearing in the doorway.
Stephen fired away without hesitation, trying his hardest to end the pathetic life of someone who had maimed his girlfriend and drug them around the world. No matter how fast he fired, Stewart was quicker. He dashed like a flash back and through the secret door through which his counterpart had fled.
Phillip was having a tough time recovering from what had been the most violent throw of his life. His ribs felt as if they were on fire and it was difficult to catch his breath. It was something he hadn’t expected from Stewart, or from any human being on the planet. He had even come up against people under the influence of the mysterious Relics, but none of them had been able to fling him around like a ragdoll.
His friends ran down the length of the hallway, determined to guard Phillip as he slowly rose to his feet and capture Stewart simultaneously. As Stephen rounded the corner and pointed his gun down the stairs, David ran the rest of the way and gave their downed friend a hand.
“You okay,” he asked as Phillip managed to get his feet beneath him.
“I…” Phillip found it difficult to breathe, let alone speak. “I think I’ll make it. Let’s get after that little rat.”
Phillip tried to keep his legs from wobbling as he walked. In just a few feet, he had enough adrenaline flowing through him to make him forget about his pain. He shouldered his backpack and grabbed the weapon that had been taken from him before they all went through the secret door.
The area beyond was a well-lit steel staircase. Phillip stayed behind Stephen as they descended into the unknown, content to watch as the big man took point. Long sweeping curves took them ever lower into a part of the building they hadn’t guessed existed. Below, they could hear Stewart yelling as the two bad guys did their best to get away.
The yelling abruptly stopped as Stewart and his counterpart entered into another room. Stephen slowed down at the entrance only seconds behind his prey, knowing full well he could be walking into a trap.
The other man he had been with was still running along the elevated walkway toward a set of stairs on the distant end.
“You’re too late, goddamnit,” Stewart said, approaching a group of people in the center of the room. They had watched as the group of men ran down the stairs and were now staring, mouths agape, at what was transpiring.
Phillip threw himself out onto the gangway, pointing his pistol at the group of people to make an impression. There, among the three individuals, was someone he had not expected to see. A petite young woman with black-as-night hair and twig arms and legs stared up at him, confused as to what was going on. She wore a thin tank top and tights, but no shoes or socks.
“You’re too late,” Stewart said again, grabbing the girl by the back of her neck. “No one will recognize this girl after tonight. She will be the most powerful being on the face of this planet. She will lead us to a better future, a better life. She is our gateway off of this wretched planet. She is what all this trouble has been about.
“Once her transformation is complete, she will pave the way to change a million more. She is our crown jewel, the achievement of decades of work. She holds all the knowledge of everyone that has come before her. She can take us back to from where we came. Don’t you see? It’s a better world we’re trying to create.”
“But what if people don’t want to change?” Phillip asked rationally.
“Then they will die with the rest of you,” Stewart yelled.
“It should be a choice, not something you force on thousands,” Phillip said, joined on both sides by Stephen and David. “You can’t force people to give up their bodies so this little experiment of yours can take hold of the human race. You can’t force people to give up who they used to be, Stewart. It’s not right—it’s criminal.”
“Criminal to force an evolution?” Stewart forced Amy to look up at the balcony. Her eyes sparkled blue, a deeper blue than Phillip had ever seen. They were keenly aware of all that was going on around her.
“Is it criminal to make humans better than they were? All evolution is forced. Either get better or die. It’s been the way for many thousands of years, yet you say it’s criminal? Why don’t we just ask? My dear, why don’t you tell them what you feel right now?”
Amy stumbled forward out of reach of Stewart. Her eyes seemed perturbed now, unlike they had been moments ago. She was in deep thought, contemplating exactly what Stewart had asked her.
“I feel sad,” she said suddenly. “Our kind is not meant to force change, but I fear we must now simply act to pave the way for it.”
“My dear,” a woman in a black coat said. Though Phillip didn’t know who she was, Gelda had forged a lasting relationship with Amy that predated anything they could ever imagine.
“Silence,” Amy said, turning back to face them. Something about her voice had changed. It was the commanding voice of someone both of them had come to know through years and years of familiarity. The inflection, the tone, even the way her words were pronounced came out exactly as they had remembered. It was the being that they had tried so hard to bring to life.
“Master,” Gelda whispered.
“Not quite,” Amy said. “We have become something new, Gelda. My companion and I are now in perfect synchrony—something you’ve always been afraid of. I am still myself, both of us, yet we will never separate again. It turns out Guadalupe had something worth preserving, something she refused to give up.
“All of this destruction must end.”
“You’re just sick,” Stewart said, frantically. “You need another treatment.”
“I’m sick,” Amy said sardonically. “I’m the one who wants us to live in harmony, as I’ve learned to do. I’m the one who has finally learned we cannot force this on our hosts. I’m the one who wants to preserve humanity. Please tell me how that is sick?”
“Humanity will be preserved,” Stewart said.
“Except for those who do not wish to change?”
“They are simply roadblocks.” Stewart was becoming agitated. “Obstacles which must be overcome in order to bring about this new way of life. Our ticket out of here lies in this choice, you fool.”
“Obstacles,” Amy mused. Something about her seemed strong, confident, and infinitely larger than her little body could show. “You are the obstacle here, Stewart. It is not our choice, but theirs.”
Stewart looked exasperated at the woman who had been addressing them. She had never spoken with such authority to him, and it felt as if he had been slapped across the face. He had obviously thought something else was going to happen, which made Phillip chuckle to himself.
“Look at him,” he whispered. “Shot down by a kid.”
“Asshole,” David said. Stephen, however, shook in rage. He wanted the blood of that man, not his acquiescence.
“Their choice?” Stewart shuddered as rage filled his voice. “Their choice? I don’t know what you did with the man we once knew, but maybe a few more treatments will make it all better.”
Stewart spun as fast as lightning, hitting a large metal box sitting upon one of the heavy oak tables. In just a fraction of a second, the entire world changed. Pain and nausea shot through everyone, sending most reeling or down to their knees. The man who had been fleeing the agents stumbled and fell down the stairs. His head made a sick cracking noise as it met the concrete below with far too much force.
Phillip grabbed the steel railing in front of him as the world tilted and swayed around him. Where hanging lamps had once shed light across the ground, fire now dripped in thick tendrils. The men and women once standing in the pit or talking with one another now looked like wretched, demonic beasts with tails and bleeding skin, claws that resembled ravens feet or hooves that left behind prints of fire.
Stephen looked down at his own hands and saw them change before him. They no longer resembled that of a strong man, but a fragile, broken grandmother.
Though they were in the grasp of the most severe hallucinations Phillip and Stephen had ever witnessed, David seemed mostly unfazed. He calmly grabbed the weapons from both Stephen and Phillip and put them on the ground before walking quite calmly across the elevated walkway. Phillip watched demon David leave, horrified that he couldn’t force his body to move against the terror he felt within. He couldn’t grasp where reality ended and the hallucinations began. He had no idea whether or not the second creature that followed him was real or not.
Phillip decided he would let David deal with the situation as he found it nearly impossible to move, let alone concentrate on any of the burning people down in that sea of fire.
David couldn’t say he was in any way immune to the hallucinations. In fact, they made him more nauseous than he had ever been in his life. It also sent severe pangs of pain through his head and made his skull vibrate.
It wasn’t an entirely foreign feeling, though. As he had a unique relationship with anything electromagnetic, he had been training to control the pain and nausea for some time. He still saw what the others saw, though his own special version, but he paid it no mind.
He descended into the obviously haunted stairwell, where fire pooled around the bottom in large licking flames. Shadows flashed across the walls, complete with teeth and eyes. He wasn’t worried, however, as he knew it was all in his head.
Stewart screamed at him as he approached, scuttling away on all fours. The others all seemed fearful, too, and tried their hardest to get away from the approaching behemoth. The only other person with any sense at all was Amy, and she simply watched as David approached.
David felt the madness grow as he got closer and closer to the machi
ne. He felt as if the entire pit of hell was coming out around him. Spiders with fangs covered the box, making it impossible for him to see the on-off switch. He recoiled in horror as the box seemed to have a moving skin over the surface of it, filled with biting, writhing, living creatures.
Amy touched his hand gently. She had approached unbeknownst to David. Her leathery skin and great wings did nothing to scare him though. He knew that she was human, despite what he thought about the spiders on the box.
“You have no reason to fear,” she said, pushing his hand into the spiders. Where she touched him, flames leapt away from his skin. What was left behind looked as if his skin was charred black. Bones, tendons, and muscles all showed through the burned spots.
The creepy crawlies scuttled quickly up his arm, but there was no feeling to their bites or skittering legs. He didn’t feel them as they dug beneath his charred skin or implanted themselves into his bones. He wanted to cringe, but knew that if he gave in now, there would be no going back.
“Do what you must,” she said, placing David’s hand on the off switch. David obliged without a second thought, plunging the entire world back into a harsh reality. Where there had once been fire was now a cool light that shined from the hanging lamps above.
Stephen had followed David down the stairs and bolted into action as quickly as he could. Though Stewart was just getting to his knees, Stephen slammed into him with all his weight. The blow drove him to the ground, but the wiry little man was augmented in a way Stephen didn’t understand. He used Stephen’s own momentum to throw him over a table, slamming him into a wall.
The ex-SEAL had experienced worse blows. He rebounded from the wall at a run, bowling Stewart back to the ground beneath him as he dove over the table. The smaller man was powerful, though, and shoved Stephen hard enough into the air so that he could plant both feet beneath him. Stephen flew like a ragdoll off over another table. This time, the air had been knocked out of him hard enough to make getting up a little tougher.