I could take her to the outpost, Blake thought. Fire up the generator, turn on the fan, and she can rest. She doesn’t look so exhausted and dehydrated, though.
Even a cot would feel heavenly compared to these rocks, though she’d be hard-pressed to explain her diet to him.
Biting the inside of her lip, Moni remembered she couldn’t leave. The alien consciousness lived in the infected coyote. It plotted against her, aiming for the resurrection of its species. The lack of a large water supply nearby would slow it down, but not for long. She must catch it before it found one.
Having made up her mind, Moni regretted that she couldn’t spend more time with the ranger. She wished he’d volunteer as her tour guide and pontificate on the tribal symbolism of the rock formations all around. That would have to wait until after she nabbed that toothy fleabag.
Moni wrote: Appreciate the offer. Not today. You might call this a spirit quest. If I don’t find what I’m seeking, I may not get another chance.
“You’re not seeking heat stroke, are you?”
She shook her head with a grin.
“Then I’ll leave you to your spirit quest. By the way, I don’t know what you call it in Alabama, but out here, some tribes have a vision quest. I don’t reckon a hatalii, a medicine man, lives out here though.”
She jotted down: Have you done a vision quest?
“My parents didn’t raise me around the tribe. Said there were too many negative influences. As a teen, I started hanging out with some of them, but the elders would never let me into their inner circle.” He drew a deep breath and shrugged. “I’ve walked the Potrillos plenty of times, but I haven’t been on a spirit quest. If that’s what you’re fixing to do, I wish you safe passage. In case the friendly spirits don’t cooperate, send some smoke signals and I’ll head on over.”
She nodded. He slung his bag over his shoulder as he prepared to head off. Moni raised her hand halfway for a shake then buried it into her pocket. He gave her a perplexed look before smiling at her bashfulness. It felt wrong parting without any physical contact. She wondered whether his skin felt as rough as it looked, or whether it was deceptively smooth. The consequences of finding out were too severe.
Moni waved goodbye. Blake tipped the brim of his cowboy hat and started back the way he came. She turned away, battling the urge to watch how he moved in those tight slacks.
That’s the prettiest thing I’ve ever seen out here, Blake thought. Don’t let her catch you looking back. She’ll think you’re a creep.
Knowing she was in the clear, Moni turned and snuck a peak. Worth it.
Without the aliens, she would have never come here and met him. But with them inside her, she couldn’t choose any man.
She turned east, caught the scent of the coyote, and resumed her pursuit.
If I can’t taste freedom, neither can you.
19
My tongue lapped the water between my teeth as I listened to their footsteps overhead. A heavyset man plodded across the tile and parked his floor-bending rump in a chair, making its legs skid. Two lighter people clacked in on hard shoes, probably heels. Female voices. A tender place between my spines tingled. The lightest girl walked off to a corner of the house.
I sank my tendrils into the walls of limestone. The porous rock had eroded away beneath their house to create a deep chamber within the aquifer. The glowing arrows led me this way, through underground caverns of water, until I diverged from the path when I heard them plodding about. There couldn’t be more than nine inches of limestone and dirt between me and them. My hunger stirred. I fantasized about tasting their pampered flesh, carving up their bones with my sharp teeth and slurping out the marrow.
I pressed my head up beneath their floor and listened.
“Do you know what you’re saying?” the woman asked. Her heels kicked the tile as she paced around the room. “We can’t just pick up and leave. Chloe’s in the middle of a semester. What about your job?”
“We have to put all of that aside,” the man said. “There are worse things out there to worry about. This state isn’t safe.”
“The whole state? The alien attack, or whatever the hell that was, happened on the east coast. That’s over 100 miles away. They haven’t listed any warnings for our area besides staying out of the lakes as a precaution.”
No wonder meals had been scarce.
“You don’t think there’s a good reason for that ‘precaution?’” The man tapped his feet on the floor anxiously. “They’re not telling us everything. I was talking to the guys at the outback store and they said there are all kinds of misshapen animals out there in the woods, creatures that God didn’t put on this Earth.”
“Didn’t you see the video of how the mutants in the lagoon conked out?”
“What if some survived? That father and son who were found torn to pieces in a lake, you know that wasn’t a gator attack. The first man on the scene is going around saying that nothing in those waters could have delivered such a mangling.”
A satisfied smile spread across my lips. And those were just my warm ups.
After a long pause, the woman asked, “You think you can get a transfer to Texas?”
“We’ll find out after we get there.”
“Chloe’s gonna take this hard. I’ll tell her.”
I followed her footsteps to her daughter’s room. The limestone between us had grown so thin I could practically hear her heart beating in her little chest beneath her maturing breasts. My claws scraped the rock between us aside as easily as clay.
“What am I supposed to do in Texas? I don’t know anybody there besides creepy Uncle Jeff. All my friends are here.”
“If they know what’s good for them, they won’t be around here much longer.”
You’ll be staying a bit longer than you planned.
I swam off, squeezing my spines through the narrow underwater passageways until I found it, a heavy rock. Hoisting it up with two spine appendages, I paddled back beneath the house. I positioned myself under her room. My cravings nearly getting the best of me, I almost tossed the rock right then. Instead, I nestled my head against the floor and listened for a sign of my doomed angel. All remained quiet. Could they have abandoned their house so quickly? A phone rang, then twice. The girl finally answered. My stomach gurgled as I overheard her voice.
“No, my texts weren’t a joke. It’s like they’re kidnapping me. Right. I know! Of course I’m not going. I love you too much.” She paused. I could almost hear her heavy breathing, or perhaps sobbing. “We’re not leaving until morning. Come by a few hours after midnight and pick me up.”
Ungrateful slut. Her parents were trying to save her and she had spat in their faces. If she didn’t die today, she’d only wind up in a back alley somewhere with needle marks on her arms. At least I’ll put her body to good use, every morsel of it.
I dove to the bottom of the cavern with the rock clenched between my two front spines. My two rear spines coiled beneath me like springs. I exploded upwards and hurled the rock at the fragile limestone. With a loud crack, soil, wood, pipes and everything else supporting her room collapsed into the sinkhole.
Her bed splashed into the water. Ah, the aroma of the shampoo in her hair, the cherry body lotion on her skin. The judges wouldn’t let me get close to young girls anymore, not after what Moni made them accuse me of. Now sweet Chloe’s room had fallen into my lap.
“Dad! Help me!” she yelled from her bed, looking up towards the light, not at me a few feet away in the black pool. My tendrils slunk out of the water and wrapped around her neck and chin, turning her head. At last, she saw my face.
“Shhh.” I held a sharp claw before my pock-marked lips. “I’ve come to take you away from home, just like you wanted. How about we find a cozy place where we can be alone?”
She screamed, so intimately close to me, that I reveled in the flavor of fried chicken on her breath. It teased me with what was in store once I reached the contents of her belly.
/> “Chloe! Oh my God, she’s down the sink hole!” her father shouted as he ran into the room.
“Go get her!” her mother said. “Hurry before the current sweeps her away. I’ll call 911.”
Without a moment of hesitation, he leapt into the sinkhole. What a sucker. He’d risk his life to save the daughter who’d leave him in a heartbeat.
The fat man gasped for air, ineptly treading water as he discovered the great depth of the cavern. “Chloe! I’m here, baby. Say something girl!”
“Daddy! Watch out. There’s a—“
I plunged my tendrils into her mouth, exploring with the passion of a French kiss, a very bloody one.
“I’m right here,” he cried out as he swam in our direction. “Take my hand.”
“I’d love to.” I lashed out with my spine and seized his wrist with my many tendrils. He yowled as the claws sliced through his flesh and embedded into his forearm and hand. I hoisted his torso out of the water, giving him a full view of his speechless daughter embracing her new boyfriend. Oh, the look on his pudgy face, like all the oxygen had left his brain. “What? You don’t approve of our relationship? I promise it’ll grow on you.”
I dragged my playthings beneath the surface and propelled off. I wouldn’t take them very far. Mustn’t let them drown. I had so much in store for them before the life leaves their bodies.
20
Moni followed the rotten, infected scent of the coyote east across the desert mountains. She passed crevices cut into the land by ancient lava flows and then circled the bases of black cinder cone volcanoes.
The desert lay still, besides the occasional jackrabbit darting through the scrubs or horned lizard burrowing under a rock. The age-old geothermal fury that made the Earth split open and incinerate the prehistoric inhabitants still residing beneath the surface. Her arrival, carrying the plague to end all plagues, brought a bad omen to an accursed land.
The danger awaiting her, teeming within the blood of the coyote, burned hotter than any magma. If she failed, if the infected beast killed her, it would unleash the microscopic invaders upon the world and reshape much of the planet to appear even more alien than this desolate regolith.
She reached the East Potrillo Mountains as the blistering sun hung overhead and made the sweat evaporate from her skin before it hit the ground. The unmistakable mental signature of the infected coyote flashed in her brain like a cell phone faintly connecting with a network. It had no human thoughts. In its mind lived rage, vengeance, hunger.
All of them directed at her.
“Come here. We’ll settle this,” she beckoned it.
The coyote didn’t oblige. Despite its eagerness to rip her flesh to ribbons, it retreated deeper into the mountain range of jagged stones. As her heels throbbed, Moni remembered the ranger’s advice to get a better pair of shoes.
Moni raced after it, skipping around clusters of cacti and rock shards piled up like broken dishes. Suddenly the coyote stopped moving. She couldn’t see it, but she hustled to the mountainside where its signal flared. Slipping her backpack off one shoulder, Moni grabbed a sharp rock and went through the motions in her mind. Smash its mouth or brain in before it sinks its teeth into you. If given a chance, make the aliens abandon its body as they did in the Indian River Lagoon.
Before she knew it, Moni had bounded on top of the coyote’s mental signature. It was less than 20 feet away, yet it didn’t smell very close. Scanning the brown mountainside and then peering behind the parched juniper tree, she didn’t see it. Then she understood. She really did stand above it. The coyote hid inside the mountain.
Moni circled the mountain until she found the cave. She set the bag and gas can down before she entered. She drew a deep breath of the cool, dry air inside. The narrow opening had massive piles of bird bones. They weren’t gnawed on by animals, but cleaved by tools. This must have been a ritualistic den for an ancient tribe, she thought. Little did these long-gone people know that creatures from the heavens really would visit their cave, but without bringing blessings.
The further Moni crept into the cave, the darker it became. Soon even her enhanced vision couldn’t make out the walls or the ground beneath her feet. Moni placed her hand on the cave wall and froze. She pleaded with her heart to stop racing. It pumped even harder, just as it had done as a little girl when her father locked her in the closet. She couldn’t remember what she did wrong, only the fear of him yanking open the door. Would he grab her neck this time? Would he slap her face? Kick her in the stomach? In the meantime, she waited in darkness for her punishment.
Moni caught her trembling hands raising to deflect a blow. She steadied them with a few deep breaths.
Now, the darkness of the cave compressed her against the rocky wall. Any step could drop her hundreds of feet, leaving her carcass for the coyote to strip clean. She felt its mental signature out ahead of her, not far at all. Was there open air or a wall between them? She couldn’t tell. The beast, even with the sophisticated alien nanotech commanding its brain, couldn’t talk to her, but she understood its anger loud and clear. Its survival hinged on not letting her leave here alive.
“You should have set us free when you had the chance”.
Moni heard scratching on the stones to her right. She spun, rearing the jagged rock back to swing but not having any idea whether her enemy was in range. Paws landed near her, kicking up dust that choked her lungs. She slashed the edge of the rock in a wide arc around her. She hit nothing. The attacker scampered across a loose stone. Its rotten smell lingering in the heavy air, the presence of the coyote felt stronger than ever, but she couldn’t pinpoint where. In front, behind, above, it surrounded her, a spotlight of doom.
The hairs on Moni’s neck stood on end. She looked straight up. A pair of hateful purple eyes glared down at her. A shockwave stilled her heart. The beast clung to the ceiling like a spider. It was no longer a coyote. It was one of them.
They had awarded it enhancements she had refused to accept, just like how they mutated animals in Florida. She could exploit their weakness once again. They’d listen to the superior brain on their network. Just like how Moni had taken the mutants in the Lagoon from them, she would direct this coyote.
“Ambassadors from afar, leave this animal’s body,” Moni ordered the invaders. “You are to sever its spinal cord and get out. I’ll revive you another time.”
The word “liar” echoed within her head, a message from the beasts in her body. The purple light in the coyote’s eyes blazed more fiercely than ever. She didn’t understand. Her brain certainly ranked superior to that of this ragged mutt’s. It should have worked, unless—
The coyote lunged at her. She dove left, unsure of what lay there. She rolled across a rocky surface, a tough stone jabbing her in the small of her back. When Moni popped up, the purple eyes bobbed up and down as they swiftly approached.
Moni backpedaled. Her heel smacked into something hard. The coyote closed the distance. Hanging its snout low in the purple glow, the coyote brandished its teeth, now three times their previous length. Moni leapt right. One foot came down cleanly, but before she could plant the other, her side smacked into a rock wall.
Moni tumbled down on her shoulder. The infected coyote leapt atop her.
21
I extended the silver pendant into the sunlight. The chain dangled from my tendril as the rest of me hid in the murky canal water. Chloe’s silver heart, the last piece of her in this world besides the pile of bones I left, and even those were thoroughly licked clean. Ah, delicious Chloe, the way she murmured, how her heart pulsated, and then slowly halted.
Such a rush I got consuming both of them, I nearly broke another hole in the limestone. I had scurried along the walls of the caverns, following the glowing arrows until I reached this canal through the woods. Aches seized me in muscles I didn’t know I had. So I rested, reflecting on my collection. From the boy in the lake, I kept his fishing lure. And from Chloe, I kept the charm her lover gave her, but he nev
er got to touch her the way I did.
Watching the sunlight glimmering off the pendant, I noticed that something else flashed a reflection. Near the water line on the canal bed, there lay a sea turtle with something metallic strapped to its shell. It didn’t belong this far inland. As I approached, indeed, I saw that its flippers weren’t of the usual oar-like design of its species. They were jointed and the front ones had stubby fingers. Glowing yellow paint drenched its right front flipper, which had drawn a partial arrow into the muck. By the stench, I could tell it had been here for over a week. I circled it and got a good look at its head. It resembled a snake’s more than a turtle’s, and it had purple tumors around its eyelids.
This one wasn’t like me, it’d been infected. Whatever the hell took over the lagoon had made it travel all the way out here and leave this trail, especially for me. What do they want me to find?
My tendrils yanked at the straps and metal bracers on the back of its shell. The sea turtle had hauled something mighty big, and heavy too by the way its shell had been scraped up.
Anything worth all that trouble to move must have tremendous value. Before I follow it, I could add another souvenir to my collection.
22
The coyote’s paws on her chest pinned Moni’s down on the cave floor. She’d grown accustomed to overpowering everybody, but when she grabbed its front legs, now bulging with muscle instead of rail thin, she couldn’t dislodge them from atop her. Its gaping jaw lashed at her head. Moni twisted away, preserving her face for the moment.
Damn thing is strong. It’s like it ate five coyotes and combined their muscle.
Squeezing the jagged rock in her hand, she shoved it into its mouth.
Silence the Living (Mute Book 2) Page 11