“There’s a battle going on outside. They could have stampeded the Clickers in this direction and then snuck in while my men were fighting them.”
“And these things are smart enough to take down the backup generator?”
“Yes.”
“How else do you explain it?” Rick said. It was the first thing he’d said to the Peachbottom Nuclear Plant staff since arriving. “I saw the Clickers themselves before the Colonel and his team rescued me. You guys all saw them…right?”
There were murmured acknowledgements.
“If the electricity is out and these Dark Ones are out there, will that allow them easier access to us?” Jennifer Wasco asked. She sounded deathly afraid. “I mean…aren’t the outside entrances manned by a security access card?”
“The backup generator that powers the reactors also operates the security of the building,” Jeremiah said. “The doors are securely locked. And if for some reason the generator that powers the reactors and the security system fails, there’s a secondary backup generator that’s underground. No way that can be breached unless the things get in here, and that ain’t gonna happen.”
Rick couldn’t help but think he was trapped in that Lucky Supermarket freezer again with Doc Jorgenson, Melissa Peterson, Janice Harrelson and her son Bobby and the others. Trapped with few options, few weapons, a deadly storm raging and an even deadlier presence waiting to take them down should they so much as step outside. “Colonel Livingston is right,” Rick heard himself say. “We have to stay inside. The Dark Ones are out there, and if you step outside to check out the generator you’re just going to give them a way in here.”
“Have you seen these Dark Ones?” Jeremiah Brown asked Colonel Livingston.
“Yes.”
For a moment they were locked in a silent stand off, Colonel Livingston and Lieutenant Tranning on one end, Jeremiah Brown and his two security guards on the other. Rick noticed that Tranning had flicked the safety off his Assault Rifle.
They heard the rise and fall of the wind and rain outside.
“Enough of this,” Livingston snapped. “Every moment we waste talking, those things get deeper inside the facility.”
Jeremiah dropped his gaze. “Okay. We stay here. It’s too risky to step foot outside anyway. The battle is still underway. We’d just be asking for trouble, Dark Ones or no Dark Ones.”
Tranning flicked the safety back on his assault rifle.
Rick noticed the change come over Livingston immediately. He took control like the high-ranking Colonel he was, ordering Jeremiah’s security guards to take Tranning’s command. One of the techs found a few pairs of short-wave walkie-talkies and distributed them to Tranning and the security guards. Tranning briefed them and within moments each man headed to various locations to ensure the security of the main interior of the plant. Livingston nodded. “I’ll be in the lounge with doctors Linnenberg and Wasco. Mr. Mark will get some sleep there.”
And then they’d retreated to the lounge.
Livingston had taken one of the walkie-talkies with him and it sat on a coffee table. Rick was stretched out on one of the sofas, opposite Dr. Linnenberg and Dr. Wasco, who were sitting in easy chairs. Colonel Livingston was pacing the room. Rick wasn’t sure if he could trust Wasco and Linnenberg, but Livingston had told him they were okay, that they could be trusted, so he’d told them a little about what he’d been through. He hadn’t been able to tell them much, though. He’d been curious to hear their stories and as they told him, each scientist taking turns, Rick was spellbound by what he was hearing. He was especially shocked and surprised by the sheer size of the Clicker’s they’d seen.
“They were as big as cars?” Rick asked.
“Well…yeah…” Jennifer said. “Those were the biggest ones. Most of them were smaller.”
“The ones I encountered twelve years ago were about as big as a medium-sized dog.”
“The one that came after us at the Aquarium was about the size of a small car,” Dr. Linnenberg said. “It had a stinger that was…it had to be two or three feet long.”
“Jesus!” Rick said.
“Jennifer and Richard are lucky they made it out of there,” Colonel Livingston said. He stopped pacing and joined them in their little huddle amid the sofas and chairs in the center of the lounge. “I was just as shocked as you, Rick, when I saw the size of some of these things. The ones we came across in Phillipsport were nowhere as big as these.”
“Do you think that’s their normal size?” Rick asked Dr. Wasco, who was sitting across from him.
“It’s hard to say,” Jennifer said. She sat in the chair cross-legged. She looked exhausted.
“Do you think it’s possible for crabs…or lobsters or whatever…to get that size?” Rick asked.
“Spider crabs get pretty big,” Jennifer said. “They have a leg span of about eighteen feet.”
“Eighteen feet,” Rick said to himself. He remembered reading about Spider crabs years ago in high school.
“These…Clickers…or whatever they’re called,” Jennifer continued. “They appear to have a totally different structure than a spider crab or any other crab or lobster I’ve observed.”
“No shit!” Rick snorted. God, he just wanted this nightmare to be over with!
“They’re perfectly proportioned,” Jennifer continued. “The big ones we saw had a total body mass of about seven or eight feet in length. About the size of a small car. Their legs are in proportion to their body mass, and at first glance they resemble a giant Neopetrolisthes ohshimai, or the Anemone Crab, but they have the hind structure of a common lobster with a tail like a scorpion. Their claws are about the size of their thorax, which in the case of these big ones is about four feet.”
“I could’ve sworn the one that got Duncan was bigger,” Dr. Linnenberg said.
“We aren’t going to know for sure until we can get a dead one to study,” Jennifer said. She turned to Colonel Livingston. “Did the government retrieve samples from the Phillipsport incident?”
All eyes turned to Livingston, who regarded them calmly. He checked his sidearm and returned it to its holster.
“The Clickers might be bulletproof,” he said. “But the Dark ones aren’t. If they make it this far, we’ll be okay.”
Then he lapsed into stone silence again.
“You totally ignored my question,” Jennifer pointed out. “Your art of subtle reflection needs some work, Colonel.”
Rick thought, you fucker, now’s not the time to play this classified X-Files bullshit! Fucking tell us!
Livingston sighed and for the first time he looked tired. He rubbed one weather-beaten hand over his face. “This doesn’t leave the room. If it gets out and…my name is mentioned…I’ll deny it vehemently. Do you understand?”
Slow nods around the room. All eyes were on Livingston.
Colonel Livingston straightened himself up from his position on the end of the sofa and leaned forward, elbows resting on his knees. Linnenberg and Wasco sat up straight, their attention wholly directed at Livingston. Even Rick moved himself up, eager to hear what Livingston was going to say.
“I do know that discarded Clicker specimens were gathered and the remains were studied in a government laboratory,” Livingston said. His voice was low, and they all had to strain to hear him. “I was briefed on the findings and there wasn’t much new that paleontologists hadn’t already guessed. The species was identified as Homarus Tyrannous, and all indication that the species was extinct was laid to rest right there. Testing was done on the venom it produces and as far as I know, experiments are still being done on it. That wasn’t the highlight of the lab’s findings, though. No, the highlight was the Dark One that Rick and some of the other Phillipsport survivors killed.”
Rick’s mind instantly went back to the Lucky
Supermarket freezer and that ferocious but brief fight with the Dark One that got inside. He’d thought about that creature ever since; wondered whatever happened to its rema
ins.
Now he was going to find out.
Livingston’s gaze was directed at him. “You remember?”
Rick nodded. “Yeah.”
“Well, don’t keep us in suspense, tell us what happened?” Richard Linnenberg asked.
“Mr….Mark here…as you know, was one of half a dozen people who holed up in a supermarket freezer during the last invasion of the Clickers,” Livingston said. “Something happened, though, and a Dark One got inside.”
“We left the freezer to see what was going on outside,” Rick said. He remembered the events as if they’d happened yesterday. “I saw a…I saw a family get…get mauled by those things.”
“A couple others saw these things outside and the creatures caught their scent,” Livingston continued. “They were chased back into the freezer. Only one of them got in before the steel door could be slammed shut. It killed…” Livingston turned to Rick for clarification. “…one of you, correct?”
“Yeah,” Rick nodded. “It did. It got a guy named Lee. Bit his head right off. I picked up a rifle and took a shot but Janice Harrelson…” Even now, thinking of Janice brought a sting to the back of his throat “We were smart and lucky enough to stockpile that freezer with weapons. Janice and I brought some with us from the Sheriff substation. One of those weapons we brought was a rocket launcher; one of those little shoulder mounted ones. Janice grabbed it and fucking blew that thing’s head clean off.”
“They left the Dark One in there when they finally made their escape,” Livingston resumed. “Mr. Mark and one of the other survivor’s, Meliss...” He paused, unsure of Melissa Peterson’s assumed name. “...told me about it a few days later when I questioned them. I sent a team of soldiers out to retrieve it. It was whisked away to the lab and…to this day…I have no idea what became of that research.”
“What do you mean?” Rick asked.
Livingston sighed again. He looked defeated. “For the first six months or so I was briefed at every opportunity. The government did a good job in keeping what happened at Phillipsport covered up. I supported the cover-up, but I did not support the clandestine effort to have all of you witnesses driven underground.” He glanced at Rick. “I…I was able to divert their attention away from you in several cases, all the while continuing to work the file and be briefed on the scientist’s findings. The Dark One was unique. It was confirmed to be a totally independent species. It was something that…well, it was something totally unknown to modern science. It looked like a reptile, but it was adaptable to both the deep sea and land. Its respiratory system was complex— the thing had lungs and a pair of gills! And its brain…it was much larger in size than that of a regular reptile or amphibian. In fact, its structure seemed to suggest that it…well, that it was of a higher intelligence.”
“It had a brain like us?” Rick asked.
“Somewhat.”
They let that sit for a moment, turned it over in their own minds.
“Naturally, we wanted to find more of them,” Livingston continued the narrative. “More Clickers, more Dark Ones. When the initial reports came back on both species, two teams were dispatched. One was a diving expedition that performed a series of maneuvers from Massachusetts all the way up into Nova Scotia. That operation wasn’t conducted until the following Spring, when the weather conditions were better. A second operation was conducted closer to Phillipsport. This one was based on another mission that was carried out right after search and rescue had come in and our own unit had done its mop-up. It consisted of a tracking team, which managed to verify that the Dark Ones had gone back out to sea. Further searches by various teams were conducted and when one of them turned up missing in March of the following year, a second search and rescue team was dispatched. This one was equipped by the U.S. Military, though. And what they found…”
“What did they find?” Rick asked.
Livingston sighed again. His eyes looked haunted, as if he’d seen the horror himself. “A…a whole bunch of these Dark Ones had made a home in a cave. Just south of Falmouth. The missing team came across it and was massacred. The first man that entered the cave was…well, he was killed outright. Report I read said that something came out of the cave and pulled his head clean off. The unit commenced firing and they basically blasted their way inside.” Livingston cast his haunted gaze across all three of them. “It was a massacre.”
“They wiped them all out?” Jennifer asked. She looked spellbound by the story.
Livingston nodded. “Yes, they did. Four soldiers were killed. The unit dispatched twenty-three Dark Ones.”
“My God!” Richard Linnenberg muttered.
Rick Sychek was appalled. “They killed all of them?”
“What did you expect?” Livingston said, turning to Rick. “You expect us to capture them alive?”
Rick didn’t know what to say.
Livingston shook his head. “During the mission, the team found a nest…a lair, if you will. About five or six females were found, and all of them had eggs that were on the verge of hatching.”
“So they are like reptiles and amphibians, then?” Jennifer asked.
“In that respect, yes.” Livingston’s features were clouded by the memory. “I was going through a rough time when this happened. What I saw in Phillipsport…well…it haunted me.” He turned to Rick. “Mr. Mark here will probably be able to relate. What I saw was something that nobody had ever seen before. It…it made me realize…with much greater…with much…shit, I don’t know how to explain this, but—”
“It made you realize there are more things to this world than we’ll ever know or understand,” Rick said.
Livingston nodded. “Yeah. But it’s more than that. I went through those feelings, plus I saw men get killed. Men who served under me. Men whose families I knew, who I trained, who ate dinner at my table and I at theirs. Good men. I saw them massacred, cut down by things we still don’t have a firm grasp on even understanding what they are and…and I was ordered…I was ordered…to not only keep a lid on it…but…I was…I was…”
All eyes were on Livingston now. Rick thought that the Colonel was having a hard time expressing himself. He felt a flutter of fear at the look on his face. He’s scared to death, Rick thought.
“None of this leaves the room,” Richard said quietly.
There were subtle nods and murmurs of acknowledgement of this from Jennifer and Rick. Livingston regarded them all, seemingly a little more relaxed at this reminder. “Yes,” he said, his voice lower still. “Thanks for reminding me of that.”
There was silence for a moment.
Rick thought he knew what Colonel Livingston was going to say. He was tense with anticipation.
“I wanted not only a full investigation into Phillipsport, I wanted a full investigation into the Clickers and the Dark Ones,” Livingston continued. “I made my case in a report I filed to the Joint Chiefs of Staff in April of 1995. I pressured them into a meeting that was classified. I shouldn’t be talking to any of you about this, but fuck it. They’ve made a mess of it, so I don’t give a shit anymore.” He sighed, rubbed his face. “They kept stalling me. A couple of independent, secret investigations were carried out by the FBI and the Department of Agriculture, and I was briefed on some of their findings for awhile. But then at some point I was brought in to a meeting with a high-ranking government official. To this day, I don’t know who this guy was. It was like something out of the X-Files. It was just this guy in a black suit. A guy about my age, probably five, ten years older. He had a folder with him. Two folders, actually. One folder contained paperwork pertaining to my upcoming retirement, which I hadn’t even planned on taking for another ten years. I looked at this file, noted that everything was filled out correctly, that…well, basically, I was being forced into retirement. I looked at this guy and I have to admit, I was confused. I didn’t understand what was going on. Then he showed me the other folder, told me to look at it, and basically said that if I don’t retire now…if I don’
t retire and if I say anything…to the wrong people…or if I let certain classified information about what went on in Phillipsport and the…the Clickers and the Dark Ones…if I let that out…”
“He threatened your family?” Rick asked.
Livingston closed his eyes briefly, rubbed his forehead as if he had a headache. Then, he resumed: “My marriage with Julie produced no children, but we were happy. We’d been married fifteen years at that point. She was the perfect example of a military wife. She knew all the high-ranking government and military officials, was friends with many of them. They all liked her, and she liked them. What they…what a lot of people didn’t know about, not even Julie, was that I’d fathered a child out of wedlock with my high school sweetheart. This was a long, long time ago. I was just a kid…my last year of high school. I…we were going to get married but never did. I knew I was going to have a career in the military, was going to be a soldier, and…she said she’d wait for me to come back…that once I returned from basic we’d get married and live on base. We’d be a family. That never happened. My son Josh was born that October while I was at basic training and when I came back eight weeks later…Patricia had hooked up with another guy. There…there was almost a bad scene. I was so enraged I wanted to beat the hell out of both of them, but I didn’t. Instead, I ran straight back to base and dove into military life and never looked back.”
“You never saw your son after that?” Jennifer asked gently.
“I saw him again,” Livingston replied. “Patricia and I kept in touch…and I paid child support. It wasn’t arranged through the courts at all. I felt it was my obligation to support Josh, and I did. But I never told anybody, not even my superiors. I just made an effort to see my son whenever I had leave. I’m sad to say that my relationship with him was never very good. I was away most of the time, and I had to watch him grow up from afar.”
Rick felt himself go livid with anger. “That spook had info on your son, Josh? That’s who he threatened?”
Clickers II: The Next Wave Page 23