A series of footsteps through the water signalled something heading towards them. Sky slowly pivoted towards the general direction of the sound.
“When I say go, I want you to head on and find that researcher. We need that key card…” Sky whispered steadying her aim.
Nat nodded.
“M-m-mother…” it came from the other side of the curtain of leaves and roots.
“Go!!,” Sky ordered as soon as a pale figure emerged from the canopy. She wasn’t surprised to see it was the creature they’d killed earlier. It still had a neat hole in its flower-cum-face. Nat broke forward, she ducked around the creature and left Sky to stand her ground.
Nat heard gunfire as she batted her way through the roots and thick foliage. After a few moments where she felt utterly disorientated and lost amongst the tendrils, she emerged on the other side. Right in front of the small pile of corpses. She splashed towards them hastily but recoiled instantly when she saw the corpses were pulsating and twitching. What was happening to them…?! They looked like they were dissolving into one huge mass? A hand jerked up suddenly and Nat almost screamed in response. It clawed and clutched at the air blindly, before it fell back down. It fell and disappeared into the mulch.
A thick slurping sound turned Nat’s stomach further before the pile of corpses sank in on itself a little. There was a hiss of air and then a noxious smell rose up from it. It smelt like rotten ham and eggs. Vomit rose to her throat. Something was definitely happening to the corpses and she wasn’t going to wait to find out what. She closed her eyes, swallowed the vomit back down. A quick breath before she threw herself into action.
She closed in on the dead researcher they’d spied earlier and began leaning across to her lab coat. The fabric had begun fusing with the skin and had become stiff and cardboard-like. As if that wasn’t troublesome enough, a slippery clear slime was spreading across the coat and she struggled to get a good grip on it. More rotten odours hit her in the face and she almost balked. Suddenly something slimy was sliding across her hand. It slid from between two bodies and slid gently over her knuckles. She yelped and recoiled in disgust and fright. It snaked across the surface before it burrowed into the researcher’s cheek and plunged into her throat canal. It looked like a root but Nat had never known a root to move in such a way. Nat had seen some things in her time, but this was something else! The snaking appendage tugged at the body and the researcher slowly sank a little deeper into the mass. She had no time to lose, she reached back and took a firm grip of the coat. A pull of the lab coat told her there was no way it was coming off. With no other alternative she began feeling either side of the dead body, blindly groping for something that felt remotely key card shaped. She patted down one side and her hand sank into a pool of goo and slime. She gagged and her hand came up covered in yellow and green snot. She took a sharp deep breath and soldiered on. Her stomach rolled and rolled, bile burnt up her throat - but she was determined she was going to find this key card.
She couldn’t help but scream when a hand suddenly caught her wrist. She couldn’t see where the hand came from, it simply emerged from beyond the mushy decomposing corpses. Thankfully its grip slipped off when she wrenched her hand free.
“Sweet fuck!” she cried batting the hand away, tears streamed out of her eyes. It blindly swiped and reached for her again. Its blind swipes dislodged and moved the mass of flesh and decay. Then Nat saw it. A clear strip of yellow, a lanyard. It was further up the bio-mess and she was going to have to lean even further for it. No time to think, already the mass was slowly changing shape. She grimaced as she used one arm to steady herself as she reached for it. She tentatively placed a hand on a misshapen human face. Her palm sank into the cool and slimy flesh, but the skull took her weight. She took a deep breath but it was a mistake, eggy rotten smells seared into the back of her mouth. She frantically groped and reached till she finally hooked her outstretched fingers around the lanyard and tore it from under the shiny layer of flesh that had begun to coated. A dirty and snot-covered key card flashed briefly in reflected light as it volleyed in the air towards her. The lanyard almost slipped from her grip as she volleyed back off the decaying mess of humans and plants. She stumbled, slipped and fell onto her hands and knees. Quickly she took the lanyard in two hands, “H-h-help me…” a voice emerged from the mass beside her. She recoiled in disgust and horror, what the hell? She turned and looked over her shoulder.
“H-h-help me…” and a face emerged from the mess, pushing out amongst the slime and decomposed matter. He was Hispanic, young and covered in a grey film. He couldn’t open his eyes, they were fusing shut. “H-h-h-h-h-p m…” he made a bubble on his lips as he protested. She felt the urge to vomit return. She had to turn away. Too late, she dry heaved. For a moment she worried she was about to violently vomit, but her stomach rolled over without shooting upwards. A few deep breaths and a lot of mental focus later, she closed her mouth and swallowed. Now somewhat composed once more she turned her attention to the lanyard. Her wet and slippery fingers struggled to prise the key card free from the holder. She didn’t want to acknowledge the young male being absorbed alive inches away. She didn’t want to think that just the one contagion, that the mercenaries had brought to the island, was responsible for everything down here in the basement. A case of happenstance that had brought a hellish nightmare into this facility. The one stray infected citizen who had accidentally infecting the bio-engineered plants and inadvertently inspired this… monstrosity. She had read the journal, she knew it was an unfortunate sequence of events, yet it didn’t make it any easier to comprehend.
She didn’t want to think about any of it, she wanted to concentrate on the fucking key card that refused to cooperate with her! She wanted to think only of her mission.
She snapped the card free angrily, dropped the slimy rope of the lanyard and quickly took off.
She was deep in the canopy of leafy tendrils when she felt something collide with her. She fell back into the water and landed on her left side. A plant-creature was suddenly upon her. She had to shield her face as a clawed and wicked hand swung for it. Thankfully the creature’s aim was poor and it lashed mostly against the water. She brought her legs up, kicked it away and rolled upwards into a stagger onto her feet. The floor was slippery underfoot and she felt her foothold teeter on the edge of failure. She managed to get a foothold and she dashed forward.
She lunged onward and emerged out of the canopy. She’d not once paid any attention to Sky’s gunfire but suddenly it was deafening. She was doing battle with the monstrous plant who was whipping tendrils and flailing fiercely in defence. In the middle of its petals large white gunk was bubbling up and oozing out the sides of its jaw. A dead plant-hybrid lay half submerged at Sky’s feet. She’d shot the root clean off the top of its head and it was apparently completely dead now.
A strange noise behind her made Nat duck instinctively and scuttle forward. The creature she’d batted away was hot on her ass already.
“Sky! I got it!” she roared loudly. Sky didn’t respond, or acknowledge. She kept firing round after round into the plant’s gaping jaws.
“Sky-!” Nat roared, she was close. A long whip struck both women and knocked them down. It winded them both and they fell with some force. It cracked back in the air and came slicing back over them. The plant was retaliating with extreme force… This wasn’t some sedentary creature in the slightest, this was capable of great violence.
Sky rolled onto her hands and knees, she shot Nat a glance that said “Let’s get out of here” and she began speedily crawling back towards the ladder.
The plant kept flailing its whip, slicing the air over the women’s heads but missing them by a safe margin. There was a loud crack and a dull thud, Nat glanced and saw one of the leaf-creatures being battered back through the canopy. Safely beyond the thick curtain and into the maze of towers, Sky stood and headed for the ladder. She ascended it hastily, hearing Nat following very close behind. She threw hersel
f back into the main lab. She almost slipped, the soles of her boots were slimy and wet. It was only a well placed hand on one of the desks that saved Sky from falling flat. She was almost at the gaping hole in the door when Nat noisily thrust herself off the ladder into the lab too.
Sky helped Nat through the hole before the pair of them began to head back up the corridor.
Groaning and scraping preceded the arrival of three new plant-corpses. They emerged from the side rooms and blocked the way forward. Each corpse was horrific and in different stages of composition and integration with the plant. The only common detail they shared was the long root from the top of the head. They didn’t rush forward, instead they walked as one forming a sort of wall between the women and their escape.
Sky knew there was no other way than to fight their way back to the lift. She once more un-holstered her left pistol, her favoured firearm, and ejected the clip. She’d spent all but one bullet downstairs. It clattered loudly on the floor and Sky had already slammed a fresh clip into the gun. She then un-holstered her right pistol with her free left hand and brought both guns up to aim. With an expert precision she fired both guns simultaneously. Two of the three corpses snapped backwards, a hole blasted into their faces. Nat shot the remaining one in the kneecap and felled it far less dramatically. The two women began to charge forward.
Sky fired again, two loud booms of gunfire that deafened Nat but had their intended effect as the corpses halted mid-rise and crashed back down.
They broke forward, avoiding the creatures’ blind gropes and swipes. They hurtled over the landmines of glass uncaring. They slammed their way through the double doors back into the waiting area uncaring for the noise. Nat hit the elevator first and hurriedly jabbed the call button. She then turned on the spot.
Sky too had spun 180 on the spot and trained both guns at the doors. The lift wasn’t on the floor where they had left it, it hummed as it slowly came to life.
Any second now and the corpses would crash through the doors, she kept her guns levelled.
“Come on you bit-” Nat urged angrily slamming the console with an elbow, she was interrupted and cut off by gunfire. Two creatures tumbled backwards, flailing their way back into the corridor. The third, and middle, corpse closed in. Coolly Sky’s aim dropped, closed in and she fired. The closing proximity and perfect aim blasted both knee caps to shreds and the creature hit the deck violently. It slid forward on its front and she fired two more bullets, this time into the root and all but severed it.
PING. The lift door opened.
Nat thrust herself inside, hammering the button for the 1st floor desperately.
Sky slowly stepped backwards, her guns hovering between the grounded creature and the two sure to reappear. The one on the floor slowly began to clamber upwards, the root hadn’t been severed completely and it was still, if barely, functional.
Sky reached the carriage and stepped backwards into it.
The two plant creatures burst into the room just as the lift doors began to shut.
Nat covered her ears suddenly afraid that Sky would shoot in the tiny carriage and deafen them both. The doors shut before the corpses reached them. They slammed violently against the doors but it didn’t break.
The sound of their pounding was perfectly synchronised with the heartbeat thudding in Sky’s ears.
----------------------------------------------
The lift doors opened and Sky stepped out sharply. She brandished both guns outwards and swept the greenhouse in a 360 sweep. There was no infected civilian waiting to attack, which was a nice break of luck. Nat staggered out of the lift after and took a moment to compose herself. Her heart was hammering in her chest like a snare drum, she doubled over herself and tried to slow her breathing. She closed her eyes and tried to concentrate on something else, something to soothe her elevated stress levels. She inadvertently thought of the biomass. She could feel the slime from the mass on her skin and she wasn’t sure she would ever be able to wash it off. It wasn’t a pleasant thought. She cautiously glanced around the fields but still didn’t move for a minute.
“What the hell did they bring to the Island?” Nat panted rhetorically.
“I don’t know…” Sky remarked quietly. She slowly, but warily, lowered her guns. Just because she couldn’t see any of the zombie-creatures didn’t mean she felt safe. Her eyes kept sliding around the dome, waiting for the slightest of movement.
Nat almost told Sky of the strange biomass and the mercenary who’d emerged from inside it, a futile fight against being slowly absorbed into it. But she decided she didn’t have the heart to tell it, it was a harrowing sight and it was enough she had seen it.
“Just what the fuck did they bring here?”
“I don’t know…” Sky answered flatly. “I don’t know…”
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Their journey had ground to a complete halt. They were crouched behind a crashed car and were assessing the situation from as close as they dared. As before, there was a fifty strong swarm of the zombie creatures hovering outside the Main-Lab. They were all swaying at different speeds and they almost looked like a pulsating organ. It reminded Sky faintly of a bloom of jellyfishes, independent beings all massing together.
The lab was constructed from long angular slices of white metal and frosted glass. It was a beautiful work of architecture. Sky had not paid that much attention before, but now she quite admired the beauty of the design. Or perhaps she’d seen enough shit so far today that it was a welcome reprieve? It was very elegant and clean, striking and definitely memorable. She might’ve noticed earlier if she hadn’t have been so preoccupied with the zombie-creatures.
They’d encountered the odd infected civilian on their way here, but they’d opted to stealthily bypass them. Nat’s insight into their daze worked well. They seemed much less alert and responsive. If only that pearl of knowledge could help them now, now they were faced with a group they couldn’t avoid. The car they were hiding behind had been crashed into a wall of a building on the street corner. It’s mangled front end clearly illustrated it was way beyond use. The inside of the car was painted with claret and both women didn’t need any further proof that the driver had met with a grisly fate. Behind them was the towers of the residential complex, flanking either sides of the road was nondescript buildings that Sky didn’t know their use. There was no way round the group and into the lab, and certainly no way through. So while Sky now had the means of getting into the lab, she was in fact no better off regarding the civilians than before she’d followed Nat.
“What are we going to do?” Nat whispered. She was peeking over the bonnet of the crumpled car. She didn’t fancy her chances of taking on a group of fifty. She didn’t even fancy Sky’s chances. Or their’s combined. It looked like a death sentence from each perspective.
Sky was unsure what to do too. She certainly enjoyed a good challenge. and a good bit of sport, but the thing stopping her from taking on the fifty strong gang was the thought that there may be more creatures lurking nearby. Fifty might suddenly engorge to sixty, or even seventy, as the gunfire drew them in. She had used up a lot of ammo already, the fight with the plant creatures had been the biggest drain on her ammo reserves. Fifty was hardly doable on the limited ammo, let alone potentially more of them.
Not to mention that she’d had quite the fill of fighting biological monstrosities already.
She glanced up and down the street for the third time, still no inspiration. What she wouldn’t give for a van or any type of vehicle. She’d drive straight into the gang and dispatch majority that way. Drive straight up to the front door and be done with it. But alas, no vehicle to be seen. Useable one anyway…
Perhaps she ought to try her first idea about a gas tank?
“Why don’t we try and lead them away?” that thought had occurred to Sky too. She was uncertain whether it would work. What if it only brought a few of them from the group?
What if it invite
d the attention of even more? That was before they even figured out a means to create a sound loud enough to draw their attention…
Sky’s alternative idea bubbling in her mind was far riskier and potentially even less viable. What if they just walked through them while they were in their trance state? Nat had stated the creatures seemingly hunted mostly by sound, so she suspected their eyesight was incredibly poor or indeed near-blind as Nat suggested. It, however, felt like a pretty suicidal idea to just sneak literally through the crowd. Sky wasn’t sure she was prepared to chance it, it was odds she could not remotely justify in the slightest. Yet, what if it worked?
The pair of them were stumped.
After a few more drawn out moments of silent deliberation and contemplation, the front door to the lab opened. Much to their surprise out stepped four strangers. They were dressed in upgraded civilian clothing that worked for the kind of low key mercenaries they were. The way they swept out of the door, their shotguns levelled expertly, told Sky they were a lot more trained than she’d previously thought. It was almost like a perverse ballet seen through a military lens, they slid around each other so effortlessly and perfectly synchronised. These certainly weren’t ordinary goons, they were well prepared and well trained. Yet, the young boy in the sewer had been the furthest ideal from them. He was so amateur in comparison. Maybe he had been a fresh recruit?
They slid into the crowd of zoned out creatures easily and without incident. They slipped through like needles through fabric and simply weaved their way forward.
Perhaps that outlandish idea of Sky’s wasn’t so suicidal as she’d thought…
Both women felt their breaths catch in surprise.
As the group slowly approached Sky identified one woman, dressed in camouflage patterned hot-pants and a vest, and three men who worse grubby white vests, jeans and baseball caps.
They were well deep into the throng of creatures when suddenly movement caught Sky’s eye. A quick flash of something at the lab’s main door that was over as quick as it happened. Was that someone else who had appeared at the door?
The Rain In The Sky Page 9