Subhuman

by Michael McBride

  For not the first time, Barnett questioned the accuracy of the eyewitness accounts of the survivors. Dr. Bell’s body hadn’t been in the greenhouse as they claimed. Mr. Graves’s remains hadn’t been in the server room, nor had Mr. Wolski’s been in the library. Such misreporting was common in cases involving massive casualties and group hysteria, but he found it hard to believe that all of them shared the same delusion. At least not unless they were deliberately trying to hide something from him. He could only hope they were telling the truth about the den through the maze of tunnels at the back of the cavern, where they claimed to have found the creature Barnett’s man had shot from the chopper at the point of extraction.

  The trail of blood had been easy to follow through the forest of flowstone formations. The den had been precisely where they said it would be and exactly as they’d described, only there were no human remains. The ground where they’d been was thick with coagulated blood and the fluids of bodily dissolution, but there was no immediate indication as to where the bodies themselves had gone.

  There was a riot of bloody footprints, the majority of which headed back in the direction from which he’d come. Only one set of footprints, so faded and indistinct he nearly overlooked them, led deeper into the darkness. The blood had worn completely off the tread after no more than half a dozen steps, but he extrapolated their course and followed it to a narrow crevice in the granite wall.

  Barnett swept his light across the ground as he approached it. Smears and random droplets of blood converged at the orifice. The edges of the fissure and the walls inside were smudged with crimson handprints.

  He raised his rifle and shined his light into the earth.

  Something reflected his beam. Near the ground. Twin flashes of red. And then they were gone.

  Barnett quickly lowered his weapon again and sighted down the barrel.

  A mouse stood on its hind legs, licking blood from its front paws.

  It stared at him for several moments before scampering away and vanishing into the impenetrable darkness.