by Ian Woodhead
“The white coated bastards and the blokes in suits have been feeding us a pack of lies ever since The Wasting started. The creatures in this Institute and all the others we’ve seen will all be dead in a couple of weeks.”
Brickman shrugged. “That isn’t much of a revelation.”
“Does that mean we can go home once they are all gone?”
Jackson ignored Hayder’s question. “The white coated bastards were indirectly responsible for The Wasting.”
Brickman sighed, “I thought as much,” he muttered. “This is something that those dirty fucks cooked up in their labs, isn’t; it?”
Jackson shook his head, “Something this precise is way beyond our technical knowledge.”
He watched their faces, wondering if they would believe what he was about to say. Jackson had doubts; after all, he thought it was all bullshit when he found the files on that computer in the lab.
“A couple of years ago, an unidentified object passed close to our planet. The scientists assumed it with a small lump of rock, at least until it changed direction and began transmitting an electronic message. The scientists intercepted the signal but only informed a select group of people.”
“I don’t believe this,” said Hayder, “fucking aliens?”
Brickman punched him on the arm.
“The scientists established contact and told them everything about our planet and our species. The probe sent out one more message before disappearing telling them to prepare for first contact. This was six months ago and The Wasting started just a few days later. The scientists, what’s left of them, still have a communication network. A vast number of new objects have been detected near Jupiter.”
Jackson looked at Hayder, daring him to call his Sergeant a liar.
“We’ll need more ammo,” replied Hayder.
Brickman grinned, “We’re going to start kicking alien butt?”
“We’ll find a base of operations away from any towns and cities. Then we’ll recruit and tool up. They estimate that those objects will be here in about a month. That’s how long we have to prepare.”
He walked up to Pembroke. “Sorry, son.” Jackson pointed the pistol at his head.
“No!” shouted Hayder.
Brickman snatched Hayder’s gun and threw it to the floor, he then grabbed both the struggling man’s arms.
“You’re infected. You know that don’t you? I can’t allow you to change.”
“We can’t kill him, look let’s just leave him, we’ll be out of here soon.”
The Sergeant is right, Hayder. I know what’s happening to me inside. I don’t want to be a monster.” He closed his eyes and pressed his head hard against the muzzle of the gun. “Do it.”
“Wait, look he’s my friend, so if it’s to be done, let me do it.”
Jackson looked at Brickman and nodded. The big man let the man go. He handed the pistol to Hayder.
“I’m sorry, man.” Hayder pointed and fired a single shot into his friend.
Chapter Thirteen
The unsettling feeling of deja-vu washed over Patsy as Daniel gently lowered her down. She kept her eyes fixed on that open door; despite his assurances, Patsy still believed that the fluffy beast would change its mind and rush back in here. The soles of her feet touched the tiled floor. As the soldier released her arms, an involuntary gasp escaped from her lips. She couldn’t help it; that disquieting sensation of abandonment crept up and covered the woman like a rotten blanket.
“Hush up, lass. I’ll be with you in a second.”
Patsy gazed up towards the dislodged ceiling tile, wondering if her handsome knight had somehow just sensed her irrational thoughts.
“Move to one side, lass. Here, cop hold of this.” He dropped his assault rifle. Point the bloody thing at the door,” he snapped. “Not at me.”
Daniel dropped down and Patsy gratefully gave him back his gun.
“You know what? I reckon we ought to follow it.”
Patsy just looked at him, unsure that she had just heard those words correctly. “You’re having a laugh here, you must be.”
She remembered almost screaming in terror when they’d removed the tile and she saw that malevolent wrinkled face staring back at her just inches away. The tiny monster must have decided to take a nap on top of that metal filing cupboard. Lord knows what it must have thought when the whole polystyrene tile fell on it.
Patsy froze solid when that bastard nightmare pulled back its gums to reveal that set of serrated, black teeth. It soon moved when Daniel pointed his gun at it. Patsy guessed that it must have already learnt what guns could do.
They both watched it jump onto the floor and scurry out of the room.
“Daniel, have you lost your bloody mind?” She searched his face for evidence that this was a wind up, Patsy found none, he was quite serious. “But we’ve spent hours avoiding those things.”
He nodded, “I know we have but, let’s face it, we’re lost. This place must have been built by a lunatic with a hard on for Pacman.”
She stayed silent, unsure if he was having a dig at her. Patsy had told him a few times that she thought she knew where there were.
Patsy watched Daniel look around the grey walled room. Apart from the metal filing cabinet that stood against the far wall, the room was empty. She’d lost count of the amount of similar looking rooms they’d passed. Amber had told her on more than one occasion about just how large the Institute was and at the time, she’d dismissed her friend’s claims as mild exaggerations. Patsy had been here for months and thought she knew her way around pretty well. That bubble burst a long time ago.
“Sorry, Daniel, this place is a bit bigger than I thought.”
“It isn’t your fault. We’ve spent most of our time up in the ceilings; familiar surroundings look totally different when seen from below.”
He padded over to the door and peered out. “I reckon they’ll rely on more than their eyes to get around. I think that critter knows where it’s going.”
“Yeah, probably back to its few hundred mates.” She muttered.
Patsy wrapped her arms around his waist and kissed the back of his neck, “Are you sure that this is such a good idea?”
“Those creatures have had plenty of opportunity to attack us; we should have been consumed hours ago.”
“You make it sound as if they’re intelligent.”
Daniel wriggled out of her embrace and stepped out into the corridor, “They’re about as intelligent as they animals they originated from.” He sighed, “I saw a lot of unpleasant things down in London and a lot of it I couldn’t explain.”
He’d told her a lot about his life before The Wasting while they were travelling, yet hardly anything about his time in the capital. She’d asked him a few times but Daniel had always been quick to change the subject.
“Those creatures had behaved differently, organised.” He closed his eyes and shook his head, “I can’t explain it. I don’t know; it’s as if they were being controlled or something.”
Patsy stepped out into the corridor, intending to give him another hug when she noticed a chunk of plaster missing from the wall next to her. The damage must have been done years ago as the previous decorators had painted over it. She grinned to herself; Patsy must have passed that bloody hole hundreds of times.
“Oh, lord. This is so unreal.”
“What’s wrong?” asked Daniel.
“I know where we are, I work here.” She shrugged. “Well, used to work here, anyway. That’s my lab. That horrible thing has just scampered into my lab.”
“You’ve only just noticed our location?”
“Everything looks the same, Amber once told me that she wanted to paint al the walls in bright colours. You know, to make the place look a little less than a prison.”
Patsy hoped that her friend was okay, they had yet to find anyone still alive. She wouldn’t know how she’d be able to live with herself if Amber was dead.
“Bright walls are
all very well, but I’d prefer huge red arrows painted on the walls, pointing to the bloody exit.”
“Come on,” he said, taking her hand. “Let’s go inside.”
To her initial relief, the lab looked deserted; perhaps the creature was using this room as a short cut to somewhere else. Oh God, Patsy hoped so. There were way too many nooks and crevices in the lab to start thinking about dozens of those things hiding and just waiting to pounce on them.
“You never told me what you did in here.”
She slowly turned around, looking in dismay at the changes wrought by the new scientists; she had difficulty recognising the place. “I was just an assistant researcher; we were doing what we suspected everyone with access to scientific equipment was doing, trying to find a cure.”
Patsy padded down a narrow aisle, gazing at the collection of glass jars at either side. These weren’t here before. She tapped on one of them, wondering what was inside.
“Graham was in charge of the operation, to be honest, I was just a glorified fetcher and carrier, I also made lots of cuppas. These weren’t here before you lot turned up. Have you any idea what’s inside them?”
Daniel slowly nodded, his ashen face suggested that she shouldn’t have asked him that question.
“I’ve tried not to tell you what our main jobs were back in London.” He picked up one of the small jars and dipped his forefinger into the opaque liquid. “I didn’t tell you because I thought you may think of me as some sort of monster. Our main duty was to protect the remaining scientific community and assist them in any way.” He smiled, “You could say that we were their fetchers and carriers but we stopped short of making the arrogant pricks cups of tea.”
Daniel placed the jar back; he paused and looked at her. “I hope you’ll forgive me, Patsy.” He held the jar out in front of him and poured out the liquid. Stuck at the bottom of the jar was what appeared to be a lump of coral. Patsy leaned closer and her stomach slowly turned over when she worked out just what it was.
“As the disease was affecting the older people, the scientists wanted human cadavers, preferably from before the outbreak.”
Patsy stared in revulsion at the severed hand. Thick patches of bright orange fur grew from the grey, mottled flesh.
“They had us raiding hospital morgues and pathology labs; thankfully most of the places still had working generators.” Daniel sighed, “You won’t believe the fun and games we had, dragging half a dozen frozen bodies through the streets of London.”
She inspected the hand, despite the decay and the damage caused by the foreign organisms, Patsy didn’t think that this had been removed from a corpse. She looked at Daniel, wondering if he was lying.
He placed the jar back and wiped his hands on his jacket. Patsy stared at the hand, in particular the tiny gold band around the index finger. That piece of jewellery looked very familiar. Then it clicked, Patsy suddenly went cold. Mark Erikson, the beefy hunk whom she’d dated a couple of weeks ago had a band just like that one. Could it be just a coincidence?
“Did they bring these samples up from London?”
He shrugged, “I know they brought a few but not many, we didn’t have space in the choppers.”
“Not this many you mean?”
Daniel gazed at her then groaned, “Oh, crap. I’m sorry, you need to believe me, Patsy, if they have continued their experiments up here, I knew nothing about it.”
She didn’t know what to believe, Graham had been using human subjects, only his were definitely dead. Two men died a few weeks ago when part of the ceiling collapsed on them while they were exploring one of the older sections. Patsy thought Graham was going to have an orgasm when the committee allowed the science team to use the bodies for research. Thinking of Graham’s experiments jogged a forgotten set of memories. He seemed to know just what the results would be. Was he guessing or did he know the answers beforehand? Also, she did notice a flicker of recognition when he met the head of the London science team, despite pretending that they didn’t know each other.
“I’m really sorry. Patsy. I should have told you about this earlier.”
She still couldn’t decide whether he had told her the whole truth or just part of it; then again, at this moment in time, it didn’t really matter. Patsy believed that Daniel was a good man. After all, he was technically a deserter. His comrades would probably shoot him if they captured the poor man.
“It’s okay, Daniel, it’s not like we’ve had much chance to sit down and have a cosy chat now, is it?”
He remembered the shock of him grapping her arms and lifting her back into the cavity above the ceiling. If he hadn’t had a firm grip of her arms, the man would have received a face full of fingernails. Her fury evaporated when he urgently whispered that he was trying to save her. There was no time to tell him that her friend was down there as more soldiers were climbing into the cavity. They’d managed to escape but by the time they’d been able to get back onto the floor, Amber was nowhere to be seen.
“It looks like we’re not the first ones to visit here,” he said. “Look at that.” Daniel said, pointing behind her.
She turned around and looked at the large rectangular hole in the ventilation pipe; there used to be a grille over that. It Looked like Daniel was right, someone had been here.
“It might be your friend, Amber. It makes sense that she probably would have travelled above ground; after all, we did.”
“If it was her, how do you know she dropped in? Maybe Amber used the shaft to escape from the lab.”
Daniel shook his head, “No, definitely used the shaft to come here. She’d need something to climb on, a chair or table or something. They’d still be here if she was running away.”
She padded over and looked up into the dark space, trying to imagine her friend squeezing her body through that shaft, alone. Patsy felt tears springing up, she just couldn’t do it, for Christ’s sake, Amber was claustrophobic, there was no way she’d crawl through that, Amber would rather die.
“Oh God!”
Sobs wracked through her when Patsy realised what she’d just said. Daniel hurried over and threw his arms around her shoulder.
“Come on, Patsy. This is the only sign we’ve come across that there’s more than us who’s still alive in this godforsaken building. There’s more than a good chance that it’ll be your friend.”
Patsy pulled her eyes away; he was probably right. She abruptly gasped aloud when she spotted a flash of yellow at the back of the laboratory. Daniel pulled her away and raised his gun.
“Get behind me,” he whispered. “I still reckon it’ll ignore us.
They both froze when they saw that it wasn’t alone; dozens of the nightmarish constructs slithered, crawled and skittered over each other and moved closer to where they stood. She turned and clamped a hand over her mouth. There were a few dozen more coming through the open door.
“What are we going to do?”
Daniel grabbed her side and pushed her until she was under the hole. “Hold up your arms, Patsy.”
He lifted her up, Patsy managed to grab the metal sides and with a little more help, Patsy scrambled into the shaft. She looked behind her and screamed. There were more of the bastards in here too. She panicked and threw herself out.
“Oh, hell, we’re dead.” She hugged Daniel tight, “I wish I could have got to know you better.”
She whimpered as a low rumbling sound penetrated her bones.
“Please, not one of those things as well.” Daniel kissed her. “I wish I could have got to know you too.”
They watched the smaller creatures part as the huge creature slid along the floor.
“It must have been over there all along, motionless, just waiting for us to drop in here.”
As it approached, its long neck weaved from side to side, like a hypnotised snake. Patsy couldn’t tear her eyes off the grotesque human-like head. She heard Daniel cock the weapon.
“At least we can take out one of those fuckers
before we die.”
She closed her eyes, hoping this bad dream would soon finish.
“No!”
Patsy’s eyes snapped open; she turned her head, not believing what she was seeing. Her friend, Amber, was running through the horde of monsters toward them. She paused beside the huge creature and pressed her hands against the side of its brown body.
“What the fuck?” uttered Daniel.
“He doesn’t want to hurt you,” She brushed her fingers through patches of downy pale fur sprouting along its flank. “You need to lower that gun though, soldier boy.”
Daniel looked at Patsy who nodded back.
Patsy grinned then ran over to Amber and fell into her arms.
“Oh, Jesus, am I glad to see you.” Amber held her tight, “I thought you were dead.”
Patsy brushed Amber’s hair away from her face and wiped away her friend’s tears. “I thought the same.” She looked over Amber’s shoulder, “are you sure it won’t hurt us?”
“He’s my friend.” Amber nodded to Daniel, “I’m glad to see at least one of you bastards still has a conscience. You are unbelievable, Patsy. Only you could score at a time like this.”
“So what are we supposed to do now?” asked Daniel.
“He agreed to help me get out of here and protect me from others like him.”
“You mean you can talk to that thing?”
Amber nodded. “Please don’t call it a thing, he still has feelings. Unlike the others out there, the alien filth hasn’t robbed him of all of his humanity. I thought that it was going to eat me. Thankfully, he remembered that I tried to help him.”