The Gatekeepers (The Survivors Book Eight)

by Nathan Hystad

Magnus and the kids were seeing Nat off, and soon the women were all gathered. Karo reached out and grabbed Ableen’s hand. “Be careful.”

  “I will,” she told him, and with that, they were off.

  We watched them as they entered the caves, and Jules let out a whimper. I stroked her hair and knew what would spruce her up. “Let’s pick up Maggie, and then we can go home. Do you want to see your doggie?”

  She squealed that she did, and I told the guys I’d meet them at Terran One.

  My trip to Isabelle’s was uneventful, and when we arrived, my sister greeted us. Maggie was thrilled to see me and Jules, and she wiggled around like only a cocker spaniel could.

  “You were gone longer than we thought,” Isabelle said, without a hint of scolding.

  “I’m sorry, sis. Was Maggie good?” I glanced at Isabelle and couldn’t believe how far along her pregnancy was.

  “She was fine. Have you spoken to Leonard yet?” she asked, and I saw the worry in her face.

  “No. Why?”

  “The killer seems to have moved on. He’s in Terran One. There have been at least five people missing since the lander was taken. This is bad, Dean,” she told me.

  Terran One. I hated the idea of a killer on the loose near my home. I forced a smile. “We’ll figure it out. I’ll talk to Leonard and see what they’re doing to catch this guy.”

  I thought of the footage of Soloma the Gatekeeper waltzing through our portal from a few months ago. I needed to find out if he was ever located. In my head, the two distinctly different issues were possibly related, or he’d also been murdered by the killer.

  We talked for a few minutes longer over a cup of coffee, and Jules and I left with Maggie in tow. She was only too happy to be heading home, and so was I. If Mary had been with us, it would have been better. They swore they’d return after rescuing Bee and Da-Narp, leaving only one group of Gatekeepers left stranded. We’d bring them home too, then I’d have to settle my deal with Ableen. We’d find a way to release the Theos from their commitment.

  As I lowered the lander toward our home in Terran One, I thought about Not-Dean’s words about the portals. “The portals are dying, Dean. But there is a way to keep everything going.”

  Perhaps it would come clear soon enough, but I wasn’t so sure. Tonight, we planned on hanging out. The kids could watch a movie, and Karo, Slate, and Magnus could come over and eat a steak at my house. I’d invite Leonard too. As much as I didn’t want to think about work, or portals, or killers on the loose, I knew it was inevitable. It was my destiny.

  We settled to the ground, and I instantly knew something was wrong.

  ____________

  The hunter had been well-fed over the last few weeks. His nest was perfect, but he knew he’d have to clean it up. The owners would eventually show up, and then he’d be able to take the young girl. He’d consume her flesh and embody her. Yes. Those green eyes. He stared at the picture in the frame every day and didn’t know why he sought her vessel.

  She was small, weak, but he sensed the power behind her. She was different. Special. He scratched at his beard. His latest kill was tall, broad-shouldered. He’d been working at a construction site two miles away; building a barn, from the looks of it. The man hadn’t expected the hunter to kill. He now used weapons, which were a new concept to him.

  Through the minds of his victims, he’d determined a knife could puncture skin and disable a person quickly. That was what he’d done to the large man, whose eyes had sprung open as the steel entered him. Surely the slender female in front of him couldn’t really be doing this?

  The others had been more for sustenance, but the hunter wanted a big vessel for the time being. He felt strong and oddly comforted in the shape of the last kill.

  The hunter attempted to clean his nest and was satisfied he’d done a fair job. It was time to stretch his abilities and enter the city. He’d put it off for too long.

  He stood in the house’s doorway and tested his voice, which was functioning better with each day. “Hello. I am Stan,” he said, attempting to smile. He bared his teeth and thought it was a good representation of a human interaction. “The sun is hot.”

  He kept saying short phrases he’d picked up from the brains he’d consumed, and from listening to a pair of farmers a mile over. He hadn’t killed the man and woman. Instead, he’d used them to comprehend speech patterns.

  With a glance at his new nest, the hunter – or Stan, as he now thought of himself – strolled down the gravel driveway, and onto the road. The city was huge, reminding him of the mountain ranges at home, but with peaks and valleys of man-made structures. It was beautiful to the hunter, but also unsettling and terrifying. He wasn’t meant to be here and wondered if there was any way for him to ever go home.

  Home was bleak. Food was hard to come by, his race all but vanished over the years. Here, he could thrive.

  His instincts made him place one foot in front of the other, and he directed himself toward the tall buildings. The sun had moved a great deal by the time Stan arrived at the edge of the city. The changes were subtle but obvious. The roads went from dirt to gravel to a hard surface. The houses grew closer together along the outskirts, no longer farmland.

  Parks were erected, and small children played, their noises unsettling to Stan’s ears. At first, he thought they’d seen him and knew that he was a predator, that he’d eat them, but then he realized they were playing. His people didn’t play, even as small hatchlings.

  He kept walking, ever toward the center of town, to the tallest of structures. He was curious to see them in person, up close.

  Something beeped at him, a soft honk of a horn, and he spun to see a four-wheeled vehicle. He scanned Stan’s mind to determine the word. A woman sitting in the jeep waved him to the side. Stan ushered himself to the sidewalk and waved at her in a friendly gesture. Existing among humans was going to be a trial.

  From the looks of the children, it would be easier to hide among them. They were tended to, fed, and cared for, and their parents didn’t expect them to speak or interact on a normal human level. The girl with the green eyes was going to be perfect.

  Stan moved toward the downtown core, and the further he went into the city, the more people were on the sidewalks, walking from place to place. They walked with beverages in cups, some talking to one another, others passing by without a thought for the people around them. Stan tried to emulate those people, but their clothing was different. More formal, he heard Stan’s brain tell him. They worked, held “jobs,” a concept he didn’t quite understand.

  “Excuse me,” a voice said as a man bumped into Stan. His first instinct was to rip the man’s throat out and consume his flesh and bones. He held it in and attempted a smile. The man stepped away as if afraid.

  “Hello. I am Stan,” the hunter said, and the man straightened black frames around his eyes. Glasses. He was shorter by half a head, and had thick, dark curly hair.

  “I’m Leonard. Are you okay? Do you need help?” Leonard asked him.

  Stan shook his head. “The sun is hot today,” he said, using a variation of his practiced phrases.

  The man glanced up to the sky. “Yeah. It’s a nice day out. Have a good one, Stan.” Leonard stepped around him, leaving Stan alone on the sidewalk.

  Maybe he could get used to this. Be a human. Live among them and stop feeding so much. Become a friend to people like Leonard.

  He sniffed the air, spotting a woman entering an alley. His instincts took over. No. The hunter knew he’d never be one of them. He was something far different. And he was hungry.

  He followed his prey, where the two of them could be alone.

  Seventeen

  The door was ajar, and Maggie ran out from the lander before I could stop her. She made for the house, barking the entire way.

  “Maggie!” Jules shouted at the dog.

  “Maggie, stop!” I yelled now, but she kept going, pushing through the doorway. “Crap.” I searched the trunk of
the lander and found a rifle. “Jules, Daddy will be right back,” I told her, leaving her in the modified car seat. Her green eyes were wide, scared, and startled. Maggie’s barking stopped, and I feared the worst.

  I ran for my house, calling for Maggie. The porch had muddy footsteps caked on it, and the door didn’t appear to be broken here, but it wasn’t closed. I scanned the windows and didn’t see anything shattered. “If anyone’s inside, come out now. I have you surrounded and I’m armed.” I waited two minutes, and when no one replied, I pushed the door open with my boot.

  Maggie barked once, running for me, and I jumped as she startled me. The dog was fine, but she let out a whine and turned to face the inside of the house, emitting a low growl.

  It was clear someone had been inside. It was filthy. There were fragments of bones on the floor in the living room, and at first I thought maybe an animal had made its way inside. The entire place smelled musty, like the stink of rotting meat and a wild beast. I stepped slowly through the small farmhouse, glad none of us had been home when something invaded our property.

  I found the rear door open too, the frame and handle busted. This wasn’t the work of an animal, at least not a four-legged one. Maggie stayed close now, her growl nonstop as we explored each room. It was a mess, but there was no sign of anyone currently inside. I reached the wall and used my screen to call Magnus. I needed backup.

  ____________

  I lowered the saw and lifted the safety glasses, admiring my straight cut. “You know I always wanted to start a woodworking side hustle on Earth,” I told Slate.

  He laughed. “Dean Parker making furniture. Sounds hilarious.”

  “It’s not that funny. What about you? Any hobbies I don’t know about?” I asked my friend. I was pretty sure there were no surprises left there.

  “I didn’t have much time to think about it. I joined the military so young,” he said, picking up the door jamb. He used the air compressor gun to tack it into place, and stood to appreciate the repaired entrance. The smell in the house remained, but we’d opened all the windows to alleviate some of the stench.

  “Drones are all set up.” Magnus arrived from the front of the house. “Anyone or anything shows up within two hundred yards of here, you’ll know it.”

  “Good. Thanks, Mag.” I clapped him on the shoulder. He passed me a tablet that showed the active drones hovering in the air above our complex.

  “This is messed up. You leave for a couple weeks and your house is being lived in by… whatever the hell did this,” he said.

  The tablet chimed, and an image appeared of a white SUV approaching the driveway. That would be Leonard.

  I tapped it to silence the alert. “Leonard’s here. Maybe he has some insight.”

  Karo exited the door from inside the house. His long white hair was braided, and he was wearing lipstick and a botched job of eye liner. “What was that alarm?” he asked, glancing around. The cords on his neck were tight, and he appeared ready to fight.

  The three of us stood there gaping at him, and Slate broke first, bending over in laughter. “What happened to you?”

  Karo appeared confused before realizing Slate meant the makeup. “The kids were playing.” He wiped at his lips, leaving red streaks on his gray hand. “Never mind this. What was the alarm?”

  I peered inside the house to see Jules with a tiara on, and Patty was walking around in one of Mary’s dresses. It dragged behind her as she strutted around. Little Dean was doing his best to ignore what his sister and cousin were doing.

  “Leonard’s here, Karo. Mag has the drone system set up so we’ll know if this… invader comes again,” I told him.

  Karo nodded, and I heard the SUV door shut. Seconds later, Leonard was walking toward us, smiling wide. All three dogs ran out from the house and toward Leonard, barking. Carey was last, trudging along, but looking five years younger than he really was. Maggie and her brother Charlie ran circles around Leonard as he neared, and my friend stopped to pet each of them in turn. He smiled widely as he approached.

  “Guys, so good to see you,” he said. “And that was quite the greeting.” His face went somber. “I tried to reach you every day, Dean.”

  “My communicator was taken when we were imprisoned,” I told him.

  “What? Imprisoned?” Leonard asked.

  Slate waved a dismissive hand. “No biggie. I did lose those five pounds I’ve been meaning to shed,” he said, and Karo shook his head.

  I focused on Leonard. “I’ll tell you about it later. For now, I need to know what’s happening with your search for the missing Gatekeeper. The Shimmali named Soloma.”

  Leonard was in the newest version of a suit. The pants were made from a local tree, Proxima’s version of bamboo. The material was breathable, and he looked comfortable even in the mid-afternoon heat. No one wore a tie any longer, and that was a tradition I was glad to be rid of. “We never found him.”

  “Do you think he’s gone?” Mag asked.

  “Gone?” Leonard shifted on his feet.

  “Dead,” Magnus clarified.

  I cut in. “I have a theory.”

  Everyone went quiet, and the five of us moved from the doorway inside. Mag went to the fridge and grabbed a six-pack of locally-brewed Terran Fourteen beer, sliding one to each of us.

  “Go on,” Slate urged.

  I wiped my sweating brow and took a drink. “It’s going to sound a little insane, but hear me out.”

  When they all nodded, I continued. “Soloma comes to New Spero. We don’t know where he traveled from, but we could probably find out using the Crystal Map, right?”

  Karo nodded first, following along.

  “Sally wasn’t seen with him, so I’m going to assume she didn’t make it,” I said.

  “We could look for her,” Slate suggested.

  “And we will, but first, we need to figure this out. Soloma ends up here… it had to be randomly, since the portals are all haywire. He stumbled around, wearing what appeared to be an undersized uniform, which we’ve identified as Sally’s from the footage. There was blood. I imagine we won’t find Sally in one piece.

  “Soloma looked possessed.” I glanced at Jules, who was on the floor of the living room, coloring in a book beside Patty. The two of them were so cute together. I couldn’t believe she’d been carried by Mary as she was possessed by the Iskios.

  “Dean?” Karo tapped my shoulder.

  I shook my head, returning my attention to my story. “Sorry. Where was I?”

  “Possessed,” Slate offered.

  “Right. Soloma was messed up, which tells me he arrived here by accident. Then people and animals started going missing around Terran Five. We can assume he might have something to do with that. Then,” I started, my voice going an octave higher, “you have a lander go missing, with two of our people vanished. The lander tracking is cut, so there’s no way to find it.”

  “We did find it,” Leonard said.

  “Let me guess. Not far from here?” I asked, and Slate’s eyes jumped open.

  “Wait… why didn’t you tell us?” Slate asked.

  “I wasn’t sure.”

  It was Leonard’s turn to be confused. “What are you talking about? Sure about what?”

  “Someone was living in my house while we were gone. It was… like a nest. There were pieces of animals, or possibly humans, near the fireplace. It was so pungent in here. I kept the remains so we can have them tested,” I told him.

  Leonard sat on one of the island’s stools, running his hand through his thick curly hair. “This is crazy. There have been at least another five missing persons reported around here over the last few weeks. One of them…” Leonard stood straight up like his pants were on fire.

  “What?” Magnus asked him.

  “Stan. One of them was named Stan. The missing person. He lived about four miles from here,” Leonard told us.

  Magnus frowned and rubbed his forehead with a big hand. “Stan? Stan Weaver?”


  Leonard nodded.

  “Crap. I know him. He helped me dig my cistern years ago. Great guy,” Mag said.

  “His wife reported him missing eleven days ago,” Leonard told us. “Then today, I was downtown heading to the office when I stumbled into this man. He was tall, thick dark stubble, wide as an ox.” Leonard glanced at Magnus, then Slate. “Kind of like you two,” he said.

  “Sounds like him,” Mag said. “That’s good. He’s alive.”

  “No. Something was wrong with him. He spoke in a strange accent, and he walked…” Leonard’s gaze went distant.

  I finished for him. “He walked like Soloma had when he emerged from the caves at Terran Five.”

  “Yes. Exactly. He said the strangest things. He told me his name was Stan, like a kid might tell you how many fingers old he is,” Leonard said. “And his smell. It was… overwhelming. There are a few people living on the outskirts that live a little… differently, so I didn’t over think it.”

  “Musty, like the den of a bear?” I asked, recalling the powerful scent when I’d first stepped into my violated home.

  “Yeah, like the den of a bear. He also said something else… what was it?” He sipped his beer, deep in thought. “‘The sun is hot today’.”

  “The sun is hot today?” Karo asked. “Isn’t the sun always hot?”

  “Yeah, but that’s why it struck me as so strange. The whole thing was weird,” Leonard said.

  “So we have a better idea now. We’re dealing with a virus, perhaps?” Magnus suggested.

  I tilted my head side to side, cracking my stiff neck. I took another sip of my beer as I considered this. “I’m not sure. It appears to have some sort of a learning personality. Maybe it’s more of a parasite than a virus.” The three dogs were sleeping on the cool floor, all in a row, on their sides. It had taken them a while to calm in the house, where they could still smell the intruder’s presence.

  Karo chimed in, “I’ve heard of something like this before. Rubic III had a race of small, peanut-sized bugs that would crawl into the mouths of sleeping animals, fixing themselves to the creatures’ brains and effectively taking over, like a puppeteer.”