Instinct (2010)

by Kay, Ben

  He was watching the pattern the sunlight made on the trees when he noticed a strange bird-call. It took his attention because it was unusually sonorous, echoing gently towards the end of each cry. He turned round, trying to see which tree it came from and what the bird looked like. Then he froze.

  It was coming from the hatch.

  With visions of monster spiders and horror-movie millipedes, he sprinted away and took refuge behind a tree. As he watched, his heart inflated like a bullfrog at the back of his throat.

  The sound got louder and louder.

  ‘OK, Taj, you not a pussy like they think. You can do this. Check this thing out,’ he whispered to himself.

  His eyes were locked firmly on the hatch as he waited to see the giant legs of some kind of beast clamber into the light.

  ‘Then again,’ he whispered, ‘if this mother shoots poison out its eyes then I am getting the fuck out of Dodge.’ His fingers were gripping the tree bark as he tried to keep still.

  He stopped breathing, focussing everything on that square yard in the centre of the trees.

  Then the sound stopped. Taj continued to stare at the hatch.

  A bird clattered from the tree, giving him the closest thing he’d ever had to a heart attack.

  He was shaking now, wound up like a jack-in-the-box, ready to go off at the slightest provocation. Making a huge effort, he clung again to the tree, damping down the noises he was making as he wheezed and shook.

  He had stopped whispering to himself, but the thoughts were coming like a rockslide:

  Why the hell they leave Taj alone up here? They know I got no shoes and my foot all bleeding. They gonna come back up here and find me all eaten up by some freak bug, then they’ll regret it. Gonna miss old Taj. Gonna wish they didn’t go chasin’ after no Goddamn termite. Gonna make sure they –’

  ‘Hello?’ came a tiny, plaintive voice.

  ‘Shit,’ muttered Taj. He set off for the hatch at a run.

  ‘Andrew?’ he called as he got closer. There were only so many small boys with English accents around here.

  ‘Hello?’ came the reply.

  Taj jumped over the flat metal door and looked down. It was indeed Andrew. His cheeks were torn in a dark criss-cross of blood, a red-and-purple swelling ran from his temple to his eye and his lips opened into a long cut that had also removed two of his front teeth.

  Tears turned the blackened blood red and he shook, inhaling hard.

  ‘You, uh … there’s some bad shit down there, huh?’ Taj asked.

  Andrew just stood there sobbing, then he put his little boy’s arms around Taj’s big, fat belly.

  ‘OK there, buddy,’ said Taj gently. ‘You all right now.’

  Reaching down with his enormous arms, Taj lifted Andrew up and held him against his chest like a baby, then turned down the slope and walked back towards MEROS.

  Swiping his card through the security check, Taj took Andrew to his desk and placed him gently in his wide leather swivel seat. He looked at Andrew’s face again, and thought of TV footage he’d seen of people who had witnessed a bombing. The blood and cuts were bad enough, but the real damage was in his eyes, simultaneously shell-shocked and terrified.

  ‘Uh, you stay right there. I’m just going in here’ – Taj pointed to the storeroom – ‘to get the first-aid kit, see to those cuts, OK?’ Andrew didn’t reply. He’d stopped crying, but was still breathing in gasps.

  Taj rummaged around to find the kit as quickly as possible, throwing aside anything in the way. He grabbed it from a high shelf and hurried back out to Andrew.

  As he prepared the cotton buds with antiseptic and selected the right kind of plasters, he wondered what might make the kid feel better.

  ‘Hey, er, Andrew, you hungry? You want a Snickers or some shit?’ Taj wasn’t sure, but he thought he saw a nod, so he slid his cardboard box along the desk and tipped it out beside Andrew. The noise and bright colours seemed to distract him for a moment.

  ‘I knew it,’ said Taj. ‘Kids love candy. It’s in the DNA. Take your pick, little man.’

  Andrew chose a Baby Ruth and tore it open, cramming the contents into his mouth, while Taj fetched a Coke and a Sprite from his personal fridge.

  For the next few minutes, Andrew ate while Taj cleaned his cuts and covered the worst ones in gel fibre plasters.

  ‘The others gonna be back soon,’ said Taj. ‘They gonna head on in there and help out your mom and everybody else.’

  Andrew stared blankly ahead.

  ‘Hey, come look at this,’ said Taj. He rolled the chair over to the motion sensor and showed Andrew the screen.

  ‘This tells us what’s happening downstairs. These dots show everyone who’s still there, kinda scattered about right now, OK?’

  Andrew looked at the monitor, so Taj assumed he’d heard.

  ‘Now, what we don’t get,’ he said, indicating the bottom of the screen, ‘is that this is the MEROS we all know, and that there’s Bishop’s office, right? So what’s all the rest of it?’

  Andrew traced the line of the corridor to the Abdomen. ‘This was the way in,’ he said, his voice like a kitten’s mew.

  ‘And this?’ asked Taj, moving his finger over the space at the end of it.

  ‘The … Abdomen.’ Andrew shut his eyes and began to cry again.

  ‘Hey, hey, hey, little man. I tell you, this is all fu– sorry – messed up. I know you been through some bad stuff, else you wouldn’t look like that, but we got to do this. Got to go in there and help get your mom out. You understand?’

  Andrew’s eyes opened a little wider. ‘Yes, yes! Please! You’ve got to help my mum.’

  They could hear footsteps approaching on the grass outside.

  ‘No problem,’ said Taj, ‘’Cos these are the folks gonna do it.’

  Mills strode in first. Andrew’s chair was facing away from him, so he could only see Taj. ‘Hey, fatso, where the fuck did you go? We need to get in there and …’ Taj turned the seat round to show the small, wide-eyed boy with the cuts on his face.

  ‘Jesus Christ!’ said Jacobs as she walked through the door. ‘Andrew?’

  ‘Please help my mum.’

  Jacobs looked to Taj.

  ‘Kid was in the hatch. Came up after you went looking for the termite.’

  Jacobs moved around the desk to take a good, concerned look at Andrew. ‘Are you …?’ She realized how pointless the question was going to be.

  ‘Look,’ said Taj, ‘Andrew and me have had a talk. We know you gonna go down in there and he’s going to help you any which way he can. We got the readout on the motion sensor and my man here gonna tell us what it all means.’ He gave Andrew a wink.

  Taj turned Andrew’s seat round to face the monitor and the others gathered behind him.

  Pointing at the screen, Taj spoke quietly. ‘OK, we was just getting started. This is a corridor, huh? And this – what d’you call it? – the Abdomen?’

  Andrew looked at the screen and took on a look of panic. ‘You’ve got to get my mum out of there,’ he blurted. ‘Now. You’ve got to do it now!’

  ‘OK, OK. Let’s just take it easy,’ said Jacobs, putting her hand on his arm. ‘We’re going to do exactly that. All we need is an idea of what we’re going into so we can prepare ourselves, OK? This is the only way we can help your mom. Now take a couple of deep breaths with me, like this.’ Jacobs held Andrew’s gaze as she inhaled and exhaled. Andrew followed her, taking on the calm.

  ‘Good. Now, I’m just going to ask you a few questions and we’ll go get your mom right away.’

  ‘Look, what the hell’s down there, kid?’

  ‘Mills!’

  ‘Jacobs, we don’t have time for this! Let’s just get strapped and get in there. We know it’s a bunch of giant fucking bugs. What more is he going to tell us?’

  ‘He can tell us how many …’

 
‘Garrett blew the nest up,’ Andrew said.

  ‘What’s that?’ said Jacobs.

  ‘Here,’ said Andrew, indicating the area on the screen that corresponded to the back wall. ‘The termite nest blocked the way out so Garrett blew it up. There’s a big hole down to the floor below.’

  ‘How many floors are there?’

  ‘Three, I think, but I only went down to Level Two. Level One had nothing in it, but one of the women got eaten when she fell through the hole.’

  ‘Say what?’ said Madison.

  ‘Eaten?’ said Jacobs. ‘What the hell is down there?’

  ‘Everything. She fell through the hole and she wouldn’t stop screaming. I heard the others talking about it and they said it was definitely cockroaches. Giant cockroaches ate her.’

  ‘Paine wasn’t bullshitting,’ said Jacobs, looking deeply worried.

  ‘After the nest blew up, I fell through the floor. It’s Level Two, where all the insects are. Insects, spiders, everything. All in big leaves and stuff, like a jungle. There’s lights but you can’t see much because of the leaves. I think Major Webster came to look for me but …’ The fear returned to his face as he was overcome by the memory.

  ‘Go on, honey,’ said Jacobs.

  ‘Something bumped into me. I couldn’t see it but I screamed and it screamed back. I tried to get away but it came after me and nearly got me.’ He showed them the sole of his trainer. It had four scrappy gouges at the heel. ‘Then I stabbed it with my penknife and it stopped following.’

  ‘You did good, Andrew. What happened then?’

  Andrew shut his eyes tight. Tears came from the creases and sent rivulets of bright red through the dark crusts on his face.

  ‘Other big insects?’

  He nodded again. ‘I carried on and tried to keep quiet. I don’t know what I passed, but they were big and long like a centipede.’

  Andrew was hurrying through his story. Either he knew they were in a rush or he didn’t want to dwell on what had happened.

  ‘How did you get to the stairs?’ asked Jacobs.

  ‘I had to climb something that felt like the nest. I fell down the other side through a door. One of the lights was on. I could see the stairs. I went up them but there was something ahead of me. I don’t know what, but I scared it and it did this.’ He pointed to the gash across his face and looked down, more tears dripping on to his knees.

  ‘It was too big and the wings were right in my face. I couldn’t see. It just kept coming at me. It was making this noise like a crow and trying to bite me. Then I grabbed one of its legs and ripped it off with my knife. It flew up the stairs, but I lost the knife somewhere. I waited further down. Then I heard you.’ His little body was heaving as if he was going through those moments again.

  After what felt like long enough, Jacobs said, ‘We have to go back in there and get your mom out, and anyone else who’s alive.’

  ‘I can’t go back in there,’ Andrew said, quickly terrified.

  ‘Relax, honey. Not you. We’ll go in. You can stay here. We’re not going to be long.’

  Taj pointed to the screen. ‘You see these dots? These are the people who are still alive. The blue ones are people who have bought it, and there’s still only one of them since your mom went through. If it was one of the scientists then that means your mom’s alive, 100 per cent.’

  Andrew pointed to the dots that represented the wasps. They had got through to the corridor, and now only the Abdomen door separated them from the people.

  ‘What are they?’ asked Andrew.

  ‘Other things,’ Taj replied. More and more of those dots were becoming clearer throughout the Abdomen.

  ‘Madison, you and Mills are coming with me. Taj, no offence, but you’re not ready for this. Andrew needs a friend, and an eye on the monitor would help.’

  ‘Yo, I think I’m modest enough to admit I might not be your best play.’ He winked again at Andrew. ‘Although my kung fu alone would be more than a match for whatever is down there.’

  Andrew grabbed Jacobs’ arm. ‘If you see my Swiss Army knife, could you bring it back? It’s red with ten blades and I really need it.’

  ‘Sure thing, kid. OK. Let’s get all the weapons we can carry. We’re going to bring them out alive.’

  78

  ‘What was that?’ groaned Laura.

  ‘Light bomb,’ Webster replied, his voice a croaky strain. ‘Someone above must have set it off. Can you see OK?’

  ‘Just about.’

  ‘Good. It’ll take longer for the insects. I’d say we’ve got fifteen or twenty minutes while they’re all stunned.’

  ‘Do you have any idea where we are?’

  ‘I’m pretty sure it’s still Level Two. Even on that trip, I think I’d have noticed a twenty-foot drop. But whereabouts, I have no idea. Do you think you can walk?’

  Laura tried to lean forward. Her ribs screamed through her. ‘Jesus!’

  ‘What?’

  ‘My ribs. I might have cracked a couple on my left side.’ She rolled over on to her right and rocked forward on to her knees. ‘But I think I’ll be OK. What about you?’

  ‘My arm is pretty messed up, but I think my ankle’s gone down a bit, so nothing that’s going to stop me moving. It might not feel like it, but we were lucky.’

  Webster eased on to his front, looking for a way to move that didn’t fill him with pain. After trying every angle, he realized he was just going to have to grit his teeth and get on with it.

  He stopped for a moment and turned to Laura. ‘If we find Andrew …’

  ‘I don’t want to talk about it.’

  ‘OK,’ Webster said quietly.

  They shuffled their way out of the nest, Webster suppressing a moan as he knocked his arm into the horns of the stag beetle.

  ‘That sounds bad,’ said Laura. ‘Are you sure you’re OK?’

  ‘Let’s just get moving.’

  ‘I think it’s this way,’ said Laura. ‘The larvae moved in the other direction when the mother came back. They would have gone further into the nest for protection.’

  In great pain, she eased herself past the giant beetle and shifted herself along beside Webster so that he could follow her.

  79

  Garrett had given up on Webster, Laura and the kid. If it was going to be her and Wainhouse trying to save the geeks – well, she couldn’t see how it was going to happen.

  George turned to her. ‘So, what now?’ The silence cranked up the discomfort still further.

  ‘Who you asking?’ Garrett asked eventually.

  George shrugged. ‘I wasn’t …’

  ‘’Cause I’m just about shit out of ideas,’ she added.

  ‘OK, Garrett, I’m asking anyone. Let’s get it out in the open: no way through to the stairs on this level and no way on to Level Two without more of that.’ He pointed to Carter’s hand. In the absence of laboratory calcium, Susan had found some blackboard chalk and mixed it with water to calm the inflammation. It had had little effect. ‘But we’ve got to do something.’

  ‘Unless Bishop’s keeping a secret fire escape up his ass, I don’t know what that something is.’ Bishop looked up. ‘Yeah, you. You got us the hell into this mess, any ideas how we’re going to get out?’ Garrett asked.

  ‘What about back the way we came?’ asked Takeshi.

  ‘You do know it’s full of killer wasps, don’t you?’ said Wainhouse.

  ‘Certainly, but if we have two routes and we know one is impossible, it only makes sense to try the other.’

  ‘That’s a little too Zen for me,’ said Wainhouse, hoping for a laugh from Garrett. It didn’t come.

  ‘Do we have any more weapons that can clear the space on Level Two?’ asked Susan.

  Garrett shook her head. ‘We’ve used up the good stuff. Only basics left,’ she said, tapping her semi-automatic rifle.

  �
��So we’re fucked then?’ said Mike with sarcastic brightness. He pretended to think for a moment.

  ‘You know what we could do?’ he said. ‘We could send Bishop here down to Level Two so he can check things out. It’s dangerous, but it’s a risk I don’t mind taking.’

  ‘Me neither,’ said Wainhouse, getting to his feet. Bishop looked up to see everyone except Garrett staring at him.

  ‘What’s that going to solve? What do you think I can do down there?’ he asked, now feeling very anxious.

  ‘I’m not sure I care,’ said Wainhouse, moving towards him. ‘If I’m going to die because of you, I wouldn’t mind watching you cop it first, shitcake.’

  Susan spoke up. ‘He’s right. What’s the point? We’ll be no better than him if we just send him off to die.’

  ‘Let’s take a vote on it,’ said George. ‘Anyone who wants a little thrill in our last half-hour in this hole, say “Aye”.’

  George, Wainhouse and Mike said their ‘aye’s with bitter menace.

  ‘That … that’s three against three,’ Bishop said. Takeshi, Susan and Garrett had remained silent.

  ‘You know what?’ said Wainhouse, his face inches from Bishop’s. ‘Maybe I don’t give a shit about the vote.’

  ‘Leave him!’ snapped Garrett. ‘We might find a way out of here that he can help with. We keep him alive, whether he deserves it or not.’

  Wainhouse looked darkly at Garrett.

  ‘So we’re back to being fucked,’ he said.

  ‘What was that?’ said Susan.

  ‘What?’ asked George.

  ‘Stop moving, everyone!’ Susan’s complexion was skimmed milk, her small voice unsteady. They all listened.

  ‘I can’t …’ began George.

  ‘Shhhh!’ hissed Susan. ‘There!’

  The sound burst out from the floor below and they all turned to see a blackfly, big as a baseball and loud as a chainsaw, swooping in gentle curves above them. The insects would have been affected by the light bomb to differing extents, depending on how much protection they had had from the glare. This fly reminded the seven they were on borrowed time. Soon the rest of the insects would wake up and want to explore the commotion on Level One.