Parasites

by Jason Halstead

  Jeremy opened his mouth and shut it, then shook his head. He glanced down and to his left, searching for words. When he looked back up Kira was right there, her fierce stare piercing him and leaving him feeling exposed. “She’s dead,” he said. The words came out weak, so he repeated them. “Those bugs. They trapped us. I shot one but they kept coming! The rifle didn’t recharge in time so I hit one and it… They got her. They tore her leg and then they swarmed her. She screamed but I couldn’t help. There were too many!”

  Kira’s response was to explode. She grabbed his shirt and yanked him off balance only to drive her knee into his stomach. Almost before the air could explode out of his mouth she’d release one hand from his shirt so should draw it back and slam it into the side of his head. Jeremy heard the pops in his neck as his head twisted from the power of her punch. He fell to the ground retching out his last meal and gagging as he tried to breath. The world spun around him even though everything was growing darker and more distant by the moment.

  Chapter 14

  The next thing Jeremy was aware of was the background noises sharpening themselves into words. He knew they were words, he just couldn’t make sense of them. He blinked, letting a brilliant spear of sunlight plunge through this eyes and into his brain. The cry of pain he let out silenced the warring voices and restored his own ability to understand them.

  “You’re alive!”

  Jeremy moaned in response. It sounded like Fiona had been the one to speak. Through the slits of his eyebrows he thought she was the blurry form standing next to him.

  “You’re lucky,” Kira spat out. It was definitely Kira, there was no mistaking her voice or the anger in it. “We’re the endangered species on this planet. You do what I say, when I say it or you go your own way. You risk the life of another human and your own life is forfeit.”

  “Who the hell do you think you are?” Fiona snapped back.

  “I’m the one that keeps you idiots alive! The rest of your settlement is gone. In a month the ruins will be overgrown and falling apart. In a year you’ll be lucky to find any evidence this base was ever here. The creatures here don’t fear you, and your weapons don’t do much more than piss them off. If you pull your heads out of your asses I’ll take you back to my people. We know how to survive. It’s your only chance.”

  Jeremy started to roll but somebody put a restraining hand on him. A shadow fell across his face, shielding him from the sun’s glare. He opened his eyes slowly and saw Wes looking at him. “Lay still, we thought you were dead. It sounded like she broke your neck when you fell.”

  Jeremy started to nod then stopped himself. If his neck was broken, nodding would be one of the worst things he could do. “Okay,” he said through barely parted lips. “I can feel my fingers and toes though. I feel really loose and weird, but I can feel.”

  Wes nodded and offered him a shrug, then glanced up.

  “Great, so now he’s going to slow us down? Better to leave him for the animals!” Kira growled.

  “What’s your fucking problem? I saw him in there, he was scared shitless! I don’t know what you think you saw but—“

  “No, I don’t know what you think you saw,” Kira’s sharp voice cut her off. “When I found the two of them right here he was about to shoot her. She talked him out of it, then I let them know I was here. She insisted on going back for her logs or something. We got separated and he used the opportunity to take care of what he couldn’t do the first time!”

  “He wouldn’t do that!” Fiona insisted. She raised her gun to her shoulder and pointed it at Kira. “You back the fuck down and take us to these people you’re talking about, at least until another shuttle is sent for us.”

  Jeremy felt the wetness rolling down his cheeks. He hadn’t killed Synnamon, the bugs had. He’d just been trying to get them away.

  “You really think that’s going to work, Marine? Technology’s got a way of failing around here, haven’t you noticed? The guy taking care of our weapons used to be one of yours. Well, he was more than that, he was a FIST. He made regular Marines like you look like a security guard on a budget class starliner. He lost them one after another, until after ten months he couldn’t even put enough spare parts together to keep one of them working.”

  “You want to test this one and find out?” Fiona dared her.

  Jeremy risked turning his head a few degrees to see the confrontation. He realized that Fiona must have found some clothing while she was looking for other survivors. She’d slipped on an oversized armored vest, a loose fitting pair of pants with the regulation camo print on them, and a pair of combat boots. His eyes had barely taken it all in when the two women went at each other.

  Fiona’s rifle discharged its lethal beam into thin air, Kira had already slipped under it and to the side. She came up grabbing it with both hands and ripping it free of Fiona’s hands. The rifle swung around and into the ground, bending it so badly that there was no doubt the internal workings had been fried. A spark and a puff of smoke from the broken circuits added an air of finality to the weapon’s status.

  Fiona was quick, she kicked out, trying to crush in the side of Kira’s knee. Kira twisted away from the kick, making Fiona’s foot glance off, then she completed her rotation and smashed the broken rifle into Fiona’s side and hip. The high tech club broke apart, showering Jeremy with pieces of the shattered circuit boards and a few larger screws that flew loose. Fiona slammed into the ground beside him, grunting at the impact.

  She rolled and tried to come back to her feet but never made it. Kira dropped on her and locked her arm and her neck in her grasp. She spun the Marine around, putting her between Kira and the other survivors, then picked both of them up using only the strength in her legs. She moved with a smooth grace that should have been impossible, considering her load.

  “I won’t mess up this time,” Kira hissed. She had her other hand around Fiona’s head, ready to twist it at an angle that would guarantee a broken neck.

  “Stand down!” Fiona wheezed to the other Marines. “I’m the senior NCO, stand down!”

  They glanced at each other then nodded, lowering their weapons. Unlike Fiona they were dressed in their regular combat uniforms, but AJ was only a private and Alecia a Private First Class. Fiona outranked them, even out of uniform.

  “You going to behave or do I need to set an example?” Kira hissed at her.

  “I’ll behave,” Fiona growled after a moment.

  Kira let her go and stepped away quickly. The Marine pulled her vest back into position and stretched her neck before rubbing it. She glared at Kira a moment, then turned and met Jeremy’s eyes. “He’s coming with us,” she stated.

  “You’re a feisty bitch,” Kira remarked.

  “You don’t want to know what kind of bitch I think you are!”

  Kira smiled, then took a deep breath. She let it out and nodded. “Yeah, you’re right, I don’t. This place brings out the animal in us all. It’s that or die. You’ve got ten minutes to get him ready to go, otherwise I’ll kill him myself and make sure he stays dead.”

  Chapter 15

  “Thanks,” Jeremy whispered when Fiona knelt next to him.

  “Did you kill her?” Fiona asked.

  Jeremy blinked back the blurring in his vision. “No! I…we tried to get away. They got her. My gun was broken, I couldn’t save her! I had to get away or we’d both have died.”

  Fiona nodded. “I like you, Sinclair, don’t make me regret this, okay?”

  Jeremy’s smile felt pretty weak, but at least Fiona nodded before looking away from his face to the rest of his body. “Can you move?”

  “I think so, I feel funny, but at least I can feel everything.”

  “I don’t think he should be moving, they way he looked when he fell? And the sounds we heard? I was sure she’d broken a dozen bones,” Wes said.

  “If I stay here I’m dead, one way or another,” Jeremy said. He moved slowly, testing his body as he rolled onto his side. Fiona was
there a moment later, helping him up without pulling or twisting him. He paused once he was sitting, then gingerly tested his neck. It felt thick and swollen, as though it wouldn’t turn very well. Rather than test it he decided to take it easy. He climbed the rest of his way to his feet then let Fiona hold him steady through a wave of dizziness. “Okay,” he said a few moments later. “I’m as good as I’m going to get.”

  Jeremy looked over and saw Kira staring at him. Something flashed in her eyes before she turned away from him. “He’s up, let’s go!” She called out to the group. “Keep up, I don’t plan on waiting for stragglers. There’s something back there I haven’t seen before and I need to warn the others.”

  “Think you can do this?” Fiona asked him.

  “Think I’ve got a choice? I’m not waiting here!”

  “Those bugs that came out of the megasaur, is that what she’s talking about?”

  “Yeah.”

  “You said the big one that came out was a queen? How do you know that?”

  “Wait a minute, bugs crawled out of that Megasaur after it died? Was it some kind of symbiotic relationship?” Wesley asked.

  “I don’t know, maybe.” The truth was Jeremy hadn’t put much of any thought to the four legged terrors that had killed Dr. Rice and nearly had him as an after-dinner mint. “Big as that thing was, I don’t think so. There were too many of them. Kira said the bugs, or whatever they are, were what killed the megasaur.”

  “What, you don’t think they’re bugs? They looked liked four legged ants or cockroaches or something.” Fiona opined.

  “I saw some up close, they were breathing and they expanded with each breath. I don’t think it’s a shell or an exoskeleton…”

  “Lungs?” Wesley gasped. “So then what’s the hard shell on them, armored plates?”

  “Why not, Terran dinosaurs had bony plates for defense.”

  “So why a queen? Animals don’t need a queen.”

  “It’s the Vitallian way.” The new voice surprised them all. Jeremy twisted at the waist, turning to see Kira walking up to them. Somehow she’d done a quick circuit around the group and was returning to it. “The females of any species are larger and stronger. They stay back tending the young while the males hunt for food. Some stay in a herd or hive, some gather in smaller groups or even remain almost solitary until they mate.”

  “Reminds of what they used to say about Earth having a Mother Nature,” Wesley said.

  “Except Mother Vitalis is a crotchety bitch that does not like her planet being messed with,” Kira said. “We’re leaving. I meant everything I said before. Marine, what’s your name?”

  “Lance Corporal Fiona Kate.”

  “Come with me, Kate, I want to talk with you.”

  Jeremy saw the distrust in Fiona’s eyes when she sought out his gaze. He gave her a smile, holding back the sudden flip flops his stomach wanted to do. Was Kira trying to poison Fiona against him? Wes seemed to like him and he’d talked to the other Marines a few times as well, but it was always with Fiona or because of Fiona. In a pinch he knew they’d side with her. He swallowed down his nerves as Fiona and Kira walked off to stand behind another clump of bushes and converse too quietly to be overheard.

  “What’s that all about?” Wesley asked.

  “I have no idea.”

  “Relax, if there’s a human population of almost nothing here, each one of us is too valuable to risk leaving behind.”

  Jeremy found himself hoping that Wesley was right. Kira’s behavior and steely gaze made him believe otherwise though. Before his mind could wander too far Fiona came back through the grasses and winked at him. He felt his heart slow in his chest even as a headache was building in the back of his head.

  “I thought she was hitting on me for a minute there!” Fiona said in a hushed voice. “She started out talking about how impressed she was that I stood up and how everyone was looking up to me to see what I did. It was kind of creepy!”

  Wesley chuckled. “Are you kidding? She’s got the body of a goddess! A little scary maybe, but I like a good scare.”

  “Trust me, she’s stronger than she looks. She whipped me around like I was a rag doll. Anybody else and I could have gotten out of that hold. Her body is like liquid steel!”

  Jeremy watched Kira heading back towards the far side of the clearing. Even at a distance he could see the muscles rippling with each step she took. She’d made him hit the ground faster than gravity should allow, he had no doubt Fiona knew what she was talking about. “So what did she want?”

  “She kind of apologized for roughing me up,” Fiona said with a shrug. “She said she needed to establish who was in charge though, and that meant putting me in my place. Now she wants me to take up the rear guard and make sure nobody follows us and that everybody keeps up. Everybody, even you.”

  “Told you!” Wes said, grinning at the former lab assistant.

  “Lucky me,” Jeremy said. He did feel lucky though. Anything to get him away from the doomed research settlement was lucky as far as he was concerned, even if it did require his neck to eventually be fused together.

  “Let’s go!” Kira called out loud enough for everyone to hear. Jeremy turned his body to look at the ruined base, worried her voice might carry. He saw no sign of pursuit, but the waste high grasses would have hidden the passage of the smaller predators. He turned and took the first of many steps forward. The thought of waiting any longer sent a shiver down his spine.

  Whatever came next he was sure he could handle it, as long as he never had to go back and face those bug-like carnivores again.

  Chapter 16

  With the help of Wes and AJ, Jeremy made it down a series of three steep chimneys in the rocks. At the base it opened into a small valley. Wes helped him over to a shaded spot on the ground, then stood back so Jeremy could catch his breath.

  He was sweating from the exertion, but felt his body racked with chills. Everything was tightening up on him. It had started in his neck and shoulders but now even his fingers felt stiff and his hips and knees seemed sluggish. He lay back and stared up at the bright blue sky, marred only by the occasional passing of a birds too large to be classified as birds.

  Kira’s face appeared in his vision. She stared down at him and scowled. “You going to die after all?”

  He licked his parched lips and grunted. She frowned, then glanced around. “All right, go ahead and suck wind for 15.” She bent over him and stuck out her hand. “Come on, you’re slowing me down.”

  “You gonna kill me?”

  She scowled. “Tried once but it didn’t work. That must mean you got a purpose for being here.”

  Jeremy felt his brows knit together in confusion. A purpose? Was she a religion nut or something? He took her hand and marveled at how easily she pulled him up. He tried to stagger after her but even that wasn’t good enough for her. She turned back and swept him up in her arms like a baby, then carried him the short distance to a depression in the ground near a rock wall. Jeremy protested but she ignored him.

  “Here, drink this,” she said, setting him down abruptly.

  Jeremy fell, his hand landing in a cool puddle of water and splashing it onto his side. He looked at it and licked his lips. He was thirsty, more thirsty than he could ever remember being. The water was little more than a large mud puddle, even though it looked clear and relatively free of debris or bugs. “Bacteria? Diseases?”

  “The good kind, drink it and shut up.”

  Still he balked. She let out a frustrated sigh and knelt down next to him. She cupped her hand in the water and brought some up to her face, then drank it. “There, see, it’s not going to kill you!”

  He stared at her for a moment then rolled himself painfully over and repeated her gesture. Almost as soon as the cool water ran over his lips he felt the pain in the back of his head lessen. He drank it down then stuck his hand back in for more. He repeated the gesture time and again until he lost track of how many times he’d filled his
palm. He rolled away from it at last and rubbed his full stomach, marveling at how much better he was already feeling.

  “Come on,” Kira said, motioning to him even as she turned to walk away.

  Jeremy scowled at her and considered telling her off. A glance up her toned legs changed his mind. He stood up and followed her, not realizing until he’d reached her that he was walking almost without any pain or stiffness. “What was that?” He gasped, coming to a stop.

  Kira motioned him closer and this time he followed without hesitation. He tried twisting his neck but the strain persisted there. He let it go and saw that she’d stopped next to Fiona. “Okay, what’s going on?”

  “The longer you put it off, the worse your body will feel. You’ve breathed the air and that’s pulled some of this place into you, but it’s only enough to start the changes. Once you take in the water and the food here you’ll start feeling better.”

  “Dr. Rice said her blood samples had shown changes…”

  “Yes, and it would have happened a lot faster if you hadn’t been drinking bottled water and packaged food.”

  “We’d have had to soon, the supply shuttle from the Explorer didn’t show up yet this week. I heard something about the crew getting sick so they were waiting a few days until they felt better,” Fiona said.

  “The entire crew?” Jeremy asked. “How could the entire crew get sick?”

  Fiona held her arms up. “Beats me. Something about picking a bug from the planet and it spreading around since nobody had any immunities built up to it.”

  “So why weren’t we sick?”

  “Because you were in contact with Vitalis still,” Kira answered. “It’s not a bug or a bacteria, it’s an improvement. We’ve seen it in ourselves and we saw it in the survivors of the next ship that followed us.”