The Conqueror Worms

by Brian Keene

  The creature’s weight shook the walls, and the rake fell down, hitting me in the head. My vision went blurry for a second. The gray, pallid thing rushed forward, then stopped an arm’s length away from me. The tip swayed between Earl’s pant leg and me, as if deciding which one of us to eat first.

  It wriggled towards Earl. His combat boot vanished into its maw with a sucking sound. The worm’s muscles rippled along its length as it swallowed his leg.

  Shaking off the panic, I grabbed the pickax from the wall and swung it with all of my remaining strength. The point pierced the monster’s pulsating flesh and bit into the hardwood floor beneath it.

  The creature coiled and thrashed, twisting its length wildly around the shed. Brown blood gushed around the pickax, and the stench was horrible. The worm knocked a barrel over. Shelled corn spilled out of the barrel, scattering onto the floor. Boxes and tools crashed from the work-bench and the hooks on the wall above it. But the pickax kept the worm pinned to the floor.

  I yanked Earl free. His leg and foot slid out of the thing’s mouth with a wet, sickening pop. Slime covered his leg from the knee down. Earl groaned and his eyelids fluttered.

  “G-Garnett?” he moaned.

  “Shit.” I limped to the door, looked outside, and then turned back to him. “Why’d you have to wake up now?”

  I half wished the thing had eaten him. We wouldn’t have been in this mess if not for him.

  Earl sniffed the air and looked down at his chest. “Is—is that puke? Who fucking puked on me?”

  Kevin and Carl rounded the corner and skidded to a halt on the wet grass, staring at the worm through the open door.

  “The fuck is that thing?” Kevin shouted.

  “It’s a worm,” I said, realizing that I’d picked up Carl’s gift for stating the obvious.

  “Garnett,” Earl hollered from behind me. “Get me out of here, goddamn you!”

  “You okay, Teddy?” Carl asked.

  “I’m all right.” Wheezing, I leaned against the door frame. The rain felt cool on my face, and for once, I welcomed it. I wasn’t just tired; I was bone weary. My lungs burned, and my chest hurt. It felt like a big fist was squeezing my heart.

  I turned back to Earl and the worm. The creature continued thrashing, trying to free itself. Kevin and Carl gaped at it, shaking their heads in either disgust or disbelief, or maybe both. Earl screamed, pushing himself against the wall.

  “Shoot it,” I told Kevin. “Carl, go get us some pieces of kindling so we can make a splint for Salty.”

  Carl’s eyes never left the worm. “You sure you’re okay, Teddy?”

  “I’ll live. Just got the wind knocked out of me. Now go!”

  Carl dashed over to the woodpile, keeping a wide berth around the newly reopened hole.

  Kevin set Earl’s rifle stock firmly into his shoulder and sighted, going from Earl to the worm. I stepped outside so that he’d have a clear shot.

  “That’s the guy who shot us down?” Kevin asked.

  “Yeah, he’s the one.”

  “I ought to shoot them both.”

  “Go ahead,” I answered calmly, and in that second, I meant it, Christian thing to do or not. There wasn’t just one monster inside that shed. There were two of them.

  Earl stared out at us, shrinking back against the wall as the worm whipped towards him again.

  “Go ahead, you cocksucker! Shoot me!”

  Kevin turned the rifle on the worm and squeezed the trigger. There was an empty click, barely audible over the downpour and the creature’s crazed throes.

  Earl grinned. “It’s empty, you dumb fuck.”

  “Oh, for crying out loud.” I slapped my thigh, fear and fatigue giving way to anger and a fresh burst of adrenaline. I marched forward, deftly sidestepping the flailing worm, and grabbed the firewood ax from the wall. Making sure I had a firm grip on the handle, I positioned myself near the creature’s midsection and swung the ax down hard.

  The ax easily parted the flesh, cutting deep and clean. The worm’s gyrations grew frenzied and it began making that hissing squeal again. Wrinkling my nose, I swung the ax again. Pulpy, stinking goo splattered my wet clothes as I chopped it in half. The worm shrieked. Someone else was screaming above the din, and after a moment, I realized that it was me.

  The worm was now severed in half. The portion pinned to the floor by the pickax quivered, still leaking fluids. The freed portion flopped around like a fish out of water or a chicken with its head cut off, snaking back and forth across the planks. It tumbled out into the yard. Kevin clubbed it with the rifle, pulping what was left.

  Carl returned with the kindling. “I think it’s dead now.”

  Earl sat up and groaned again, struggling with his bound hands.

  “Garnett,” he snarled through tobacco-stained teeth. “What the hell are you doing, you son of a bitch? Didn’t you see the black chopper that came up from the hollow? Why are my hands tied? And who’s that fucker with my rifle?”

  “He works for the U.N.,” I whispered, kneeling to stare into his eyes. “He’s here to take over Punkin’ Center and Carl and I are helping him.”

  Earl’s eyes grew wide as saucers. “What?”

  “It’s true. He says that if we help him, he’ll give me the deed to your property when we’re done, and make Carl the mayor of Renick.”

  “And then,” Carl added, “we’re gonna paint the town pink and invite in all the liberals. Maybe even get Clinton reelected for a third term.”

  I grinned. “Or his wife.”

  Earl screamed in furious indignation.

  “Carl,” I said, stepping back into the shed. “Go get us some more kindling. That’s not gonna be enough.”

  “Garnett,” Earl snarled, “I’m gonna fucking kill you.”

  “Not today, you won’t.”

  I tore off another piece of duct tape and placed it over Earl’s mouth. He shook with rage and the veins in his forehead and neck stood out. Snot bubbled from his nose. He kicked his heels against the floor. I grabbed his ankles and hauled him outside into the mud, where I left him. Earl shut his eyes against the rain beating at his face.

  “Watch him closely,” I told Kevin, and ducked back inside the shed for the wheelbarrow. The worm had knocked it over onto its side. I heard Earl grunt, and when I came back outside Kevin was prodding him with his foot.

  There was a noise behind us, from inside the shed. We turned to look and both of us took a step back. Even Earl got quiet.

  The two severed halves of the worm were now moving independently of each other. One piece slithered slowly across the wooden planks, leaking blood and slime from its wounded end. The other segment wriggled helplessly, the pickax still holding it in place.

  Kevin backed away. I slammed the door shut and threw the bolt.

  “Will that hold them?” Kevin asked.

  I shrugged my shoulders. “I don’t know. Doubt it.”

  As if to prove the point, the entire shed shook as the worm heaved its weight against the door.

  Kevin glanced towards the wreckage in the field. “We’d better get back to the others.”

  “Carl,” I shouted, “how are we looking for kindling? Do we have enough?”

  “He’s not here, Mr. Garnett,” Kevin answered.

  “Where did he go?”

  “I saw him run down to the woods.”

  Cursing, I dragged the wheelbarrow out into the rain and glanced about. I wasn’t sure what was going on, but I assumed that in his confused, panicky state, Carl had ignored the kindling from the woodpile. Instead, he had gone down to the forest to collect sticks and branches to use for the splint instead.

  I loved him dearly, but sometimes Carl could be as dumb as a stump. This was one of those times.

  “Get Earl up to the house where we can keep an eye on him,” I told Kevin. “Tie him to the picnic table or something. Then take the wheelbarrow over to your friends, so we can move Salty in it.”

  “Where are you going?”r />
  “To find my friend.”

  “But what about us? What about Sarah?”

  “I’m not letting Carl go down into those woods by himself. Not now.”

  Hefting the ax, I ran after Carl. My breath got shorter and my lungs began to burn again as I pressed onward. I was definitely too old for this type of thing. I wasn’t some action movie hero—I was a senior citizen suffering from all the maladies of old age. Several times I skidded, the wet grass giving way beneath me, the sod nothing more than mush after forty-two days of constant battering from the rain.

  I passed the little apple tree Rose and I had planted six years ago. It lay uprooted and on its side now, withering and dying as the soil around it turned into quicksand.

  I reached the edge of my yard. The woods loomed before me, dark and ominous. A hush fell over the world, and even the rain seemed to fall silently.

  “Carl?” My voice echoed through the mist and took on a peculiar quality. Wet branches brushed my face as I took a few hesitant steps into the tree line. I’d walked through those woods a million times, but they looked different now, and I didn’t recognize anything. The trees were bent, gnarled shadows. More of that strange white fungus spiraled up the trunks. It hadn’t been there the day before, when I was looking for teaberry leaves. That meant it was spreading fast, whatever it was. I wondered how the spores were transported; then I remembered the deer.

  Still hovering at the edge of the forest, I glanced back at the crash site. Kevin had managed to get the wheelbarrow over to Sarah and Salty. Rather than dumping Earl at the house, he’d taken him along with him. Earl was now tied to a hunk of twisted metal from the helicopter. From where I stood, it didn’t look like Salty was moving. Then the mist thickened and I lost sight of them all.

  That’s when something exploded from the brush in front of me.

  “Oh Lord, Oh Lord Oh Lord Oh Lord…”

  Carl crashed through the thorns and brambles and sped by me as fast as his old legs would carry him. That now all-too-familiar hissing sound followed in his wake.

  “Run, Teddy!” Carl shouted. “Run like hell!”

  Four worms emerged from the trees. All of them were bigger than the creature from the shed—about the size of a milk cow, but much longer. Their fat, bulbous bodies undulated, whipping towards us. Rather than crawling, they moved via a series of repeated convulsions, beginning at the back end and rushing through their length like a wave. The motion propelled them forward much quicker than I would have imagined. In the time it took Carl to run past, they were upon me.

  I swung at one of the worms with the ax, cleaving its rubbery hide. The fishy reek immediately assaulted my senses and I gagged from the stench. The ground gave way beneath my feet and I struggled for balance in the mud. I let go of the ax handle, leaving the weapon buried in the head of the closest worm.

  Carl ran back to help me. As he pulled me to my feet, the ground began to shake. We both lost our footing and fell sprawling in the mud. My knee struck a rock, and agony shot through my leg. The mud sucked at me, trying to drag me down.

  The worms had stopped moving as well. They held their heads up high, weaving back and forth like snakes, as if anticipating something. I didn’t know what they were waiting for and I didn’t care. I tried to free myself, but the mud was like glue.

  Somewhere in the woods, another tree crashed to the ground. The worms howled in answer. I sank farther into the slop.

  “It’s an earthquake!” Carl cried, stumbling to his feet. He was covered in mud from head to toe.

  “Help me up,” I called. “I’m stu—”

  The tremors increased, making speech impossible. Then the yard split open as a huge form rocketed up from below. It surged out of the ground. Mud, water, and saplings tumbled into the hole left in the creature’s wake. The worm was easily the size of a school bus, and its hiss was so deep that I felt the vibrations in my chest.

  Carl pulled me to my feet and we ran. The worm reared above us, then plummeted downward. Its shadow killed what little light there was, and its pulsating bulk blocked out even the rain. The ground literally jumped as the worm crashed into the mud. It began to give chase.

  Hysterical, Carl urged me onward. “Run! Run run run!”

  The monster squalled behind us.

  I caught up with Carl and he tugged at my arm, babbling incoherently. We loped along together, throwing glances over our shoulders. The thing plowed onward, leaving a slime-filled furrow in its wake. The four smaller worms had disappeared back into the forest. Apparently, they were just as terrified as we were. Either that or they didn’t want to get in their big brother’s way.

  Kevin stood still as stone, staring, drop-jawed as we neared the helicopter wreckage. Sarah, on the other hand, kept her wits about her. She pulled a jagged, spearlike shard of metal from the wreckage. She stood ready, like a javelin thrower at the Olympics. Earl struggled against his bonds, straining the duct tape and bailing twine as he rocked backward and forward in an attempt to break free.

  “Run!” I gasped. My chest was in agony, and my knee was starting to swell up from my fall.

  Carl slammed into Kevin with his shoulder. “Don’t just stand there!”

  Dazed, the young man looked at him in confusion. “I didn’t know there were worms, too. I thought it was just the things in the ocean.”

  We didn’t have time to wonder what he was talking about.

  Carl shoved him forward. “Get a move on, boy, unless you want to end up as that thing’s supper!”

  Sarah stepped past them and flung the makeshift spear. It soared through the air, cleaving through the rain as it arced downward. It sank into the worm’s rubbery flesh,jutting from the creature’s midsection. Stinking fluids bubbled up from deep inside the creature.

  The worm turned.

  Frenzied from the wound, it careened through the helicopter wreckage, heedless of the further damage it was doing to itself. Metal shards sliced deep gashes into its pale hide, and that same brownish blood spurted from the wounds.

  Earl gnawed at the bailing twine binding him to the wreckage. The duct tape had slipped from his mouth and was dangling from his chin. His eyes were round and frightened. I watched in alarm as the duct tape around his wrists began to rip.

  On the ground, Salty finally regained consciousness, took one look at the monster, and screamed. The worm immediately whipped towards him. It emitted another blast of air, and the sound reminded me of Rose’s teakettle and the old steam engine railroad up on Cass Mountain.

  Shouting, Sarah ran for Salty, but I grabbed her arm and shoved her toward the house instead. Pain shot down my side.

  “Garnett,” Earl hollered, “you chickenshit son of a bitch! Get back here and untie me, right now!”

  Sarah struggled with me. “Salty! We can’t leave him behind!”

  “It’s too late for them. Just run!”

  Then it was upon us, and we fled.

  I only looked back once. The beast towered over Salty, its slavering mouth open wide, covering him with dripping slime. Then the head stretched forward and swallowed him whole. I made out the faint outline of his body beneath the creature’s skin as he slid down its throat.

  I turned away and the pain increased. It grew worse with each step I took.

  When I looked back again, Earl had succeeded in chewing his way free. He spat the frayed strands of duct tape from his mouth and glared at us as he sliced the bailing twine around his ankles with a sharp piece of metal.

  “Ready or not, here I come, you bastards!”

  He snatched up another shard of metal and jabbed it into the creature’s side. Grunting, he pushed the spear until it sank completely into the hide. The worm’s agonized shriek hammered our eardrums. Then Earl ran after us.

  The fog started to thicken again, as if the clouds were suddenly dropping from the sky.

  “Come on,” Sarah screamed.

  I turned back to the house, took a few more steps, and then doubled over in agony
. Pain shot through my kidneys, my stomach, my chest, and my lungs. The giant fist was back, squeezing my entire body.

  I collapsed to my knees, which brought a fresh burst of pain.

  Sarah knelt beside me. “Mr. Garnett, what’s wrong?”

  “M-my…heart…”

  “Oh God—are we having a heart attack?”

  I tried to answer and found that I couldn’t. My lips felt cold. Numb.

  “Just hang on,” Sarah said. “Stay with me.”

  “Rose…,” I whispered, and blinked the rain out of my eyes.

  Cackling, Earl closed the distance between us. The wounded worm slid along behind him, its body shuddering with each undulation.

  Sarah helped me to my feet and we pressed on towards the house. We had to wade through the little earthworms on the carport, which was like walking through a foot-deep pile of spaghetti.

  Carl and Kevin held the door open for us. Kevin still clutched the empty rifle.

  “Hurry,” Carl yelled. “They’re coming!”

  I heard Earl and the worm both bearing down on us. Sarah dragged me through the doorway. We collapsed onto the kitchen floor and Carl slammed the door shut and locked it.

  We stared at one another in silence; the only sound was our harsh, ragged breathing.

  Stifling a sneeze, Carl glanced out the window.

  “Are they coming?” I croaked, as another jolt of pain shot through my chest.

  “I can’t tell. That fog out there is like pea soup. It’s like it came out of nowhere! I don’t hear them, though.”

  “Maybe that thing ate your neighbor,” Kevin said, smoothing his wet hair with his hand.

  Carl smiled. “If it did, then it’s gonna have some really bad indigestion.”

  I grabbed my chest and closed my eyes.

  “You want your pills, Teddy?” Carl asked.

  Swallowing, I nodded. “Th-they’re on my nightstand.”

  He hurried off in search of them.

  Sarah brought me a bottle of water from the refrigerator (even though there was no power, I still stored them inside the appliance to conserve space). She twisted the cap off and brought the bottle to my lips. I sipped gratefully, choking on the coldness.