"There are tracks into the hall," she whispered in horror.
"Yes," McNeely confirmed.
She swallowed. "Alvarez, you're up," she said. "Report to the mess and stand guard."
"Aye, skipper," he said, immediately turning to run down the hall.
"Terrel and Cohen. You're to enter Medical and take positions on either side of the door. Reynolds and Hanson make sure they're clear and then mirror their location. Daly and DeSoto, you have their backs. Nod if you don't understand."
No one nodded.
"Do it."
Terrel and Cohen rushed into the room and slammed their backs against the wall just inside, dropping to a knee and leveling rifles forward. "Clear," Terrel whispered.
Reynolds and Hanson rushed into the room. "Clear."
When Daly and DeSoto were in place she turned to the rest of the men. "Ring, Butler, and Percy, watch the hall. McNeely, you're with me."
McNeely nodded and cocked his rifle. "Ready when you are."
"Let's go."
They entered the room slowly, weapons aimed at the curtain. "Chief, Hanson, take the corners," she ordered and they changed positions. "No one fires without orders."
Bracing herself and holding her pistol tightly, she slowly followed the trail of bloody footsteps to within a body length of the divider that closed off a large section of the room.
"Sergeant, I'll pull it back," she whispered. "You've got the call."
He dropped behind her to one knee. "Understood."
"Say when."
"Ready."
She surged forward and quickly pulled the divider open, folding it in upon itself as she hastily crossed the room and dropped to a knee when the journey was complete. She shot a look at McNeely who hadn't moved and was slowly tracking the interior with the barrel of his rifle. He held up a steadying hand, cautiously rising to his feet and making a hand signal that meant he was preparing to move forward.
Malory nodded and gestured Terrel and Cohen to move to cover. From her location she couldn't see but a fraction of the interior and tensely waited for word. It wasn't long in coming.
"Clear," McNeely said. "Commander, you'll need to see this."
Malory didn't like his tone of voice at all, feeling her backbone begin to fidget. "Everybody clear?"
An affirmative chorus greeted her and she rose to venture forward, closing her eyes briefly in preparation as she observed McNeely standing with his rifle in the crook of his arm, his other hand over his mouth.
Reluctantly, she peered around the broad shouldered Sergeant and instantly turned away with an involuntary gag. "Jesus Christ."
She forced herself not to look at the remains and took a deep breath before reaching for her radio. "Sergeant Alvarez?"
"Go ahead."
"Status?"
"Everyone safe and accounted for except Grey, Coy, and Ballenger."
She sighed in relief. "Stay put and drop anyone or anything that enters the mess without prior radio contact. Daly and Cohen incoming."
"Understood, out."
"Daly and Cohen, report to the mess to assist Tech Sergeant Alvarez. Don't dawdle, we have one dead here and two missing."
"Yes, ma'am," Daly said and they both ran out of the room, their footsteps pounding down the hall.
She put her radio back on her belt and holstered her weapon, taking a long moment to compose herself before turning to the sight that awaited.
"Is that Dr. Ballenger?"
"Yes," McNeely confirmed. "The pieces of broken plaster suggest that his cast was broken off before they ate him."
"God."
The corpse in front of her had been ravaged almost to the bone. Even the top of his skull had been broken open from the eye sockets to reach the brain matter inside, his chest cavity reduced to a gaping hole deep enough to expose his spine. His groin and legs nothing but a few strips of flesh that clung stubbornly to gleaming white bone.
"Percy," she barked suddenly. "Get a body bag. The rest of you gather around, we got a big fuckin' problem."
V
Corky sat fearfully next to a concerned Clovis. She had heard Malory issue the orders over Alvarez's radio to open fire on anyone who entered the mess without announcing themselves. She had no idea what could present that much of a danger and dwelling on it only succeeded in scaring her more than she already was. Since Daly and Cohen had arrived, there had been no further word nor any other developments and she was desperately worried about the Commander's welfare.
When the other two soldiers had arrived, they had conversed quietly in a corner of the room with Alvarez and she had forcefully clamped down on the desire to go ask them what was going on. Not that they would tell her, but the impulse to try and weasel something out of them was hard to deny.
"You okay, Corky?" Clovis asked. "You've been too quiet for a while now."
"Yeah, just scared."
"I know the feeling," he agreed. "Those guys look pretty damn serious," he added with a gesture to the soldiers.
She spared a glance at the grim looking men, holding their rifles at the ready. "Yeah, yeah they do."
"I'm sure it'll be okay."
"I hope so," she whispered.
He offered her an enormous hand. "Here," he said and she gratefully placed her hand in his.
"Thanks," she said with a little smile.
"I came by your quarters to get you when the alert sounded," he teased. "No one was home and the bed hadn't been slept in. Can I make a guess as to where you were?"
She spared an amused glance at her friend. "You'd probably get it right."
He chuckled. "She won ya over, did she?"
"Very much so."
"I'm happy for you," he said. "Never fear, I'll keep your secret."
"Thanks, Clovis."
"You worried about her?"
"Yeah, I think that's scaring me more than anything else."
"Don't be, that woman is hell on wheels when it comes down to the wire," Clovis said. "Trust me, she had me believing that she was going to kick the shit out of me the other day. No mean feat considering one of my arms is damn near the size of both of her legs."
Corky chuckled. "She's really not as tough as she lets on."
"No one is, Corky."
She turned a thoughtful look in his direction but was brought up short when Malory's voice came from the Alvarez's radio.
"We're coming in, Sergeant."
"Very well," Alvarez replied.
Every head in the room looked up anxiously as Malory entered the room followed by a squadron of heavily armed men. She strode to the front of the room and sat upon a folding table, placing her rifle between her legs.
"First of all," she started, "get comfortable because everyone is staying in this room until further notice."
Several questions rang out but she held up a hand to silence them. "As you may or may not know, the container discovered in excavation was opened by Dr. Grey, an action that appeared to leave him in a coma. That is until last night, when he apparently attacked Petty Officer Coy who was standing guard in Medical. It's our guess that Dr. Grey was infected by something from within that container, which he in turn infected Coy with."
"Why do you say that, Commander?" Lenard asked.
"Because Dr. Ballenger is dead," she said. "And both Grey and Coy are missing."
A horrified rumble.
"You think they killed Dr. Ballenger?" Clovis braved.
"We know they did," she said. "We know this because there were two sets of bloody foot prints leading away from and surrounding Dr. Ballenger's corpse."
"Why did they kill him?" Isaaks asked.
"They didn't just kill him, people," she said. "They ate him. We pretty much put a skeleton in a body bag."
"Oh, my God!"
"You can't be serious!"
"They ate him?"
"What?"
Malory again held up a hand. "In case, you missed it," she said. "There are two people walking around down here wit
h full stomachs that are still unaccounted for. Until they are found and removed, no one leaves this room unless I say so. I would order an evacuation but we're in the middle of winter and travel isn't feasible. The weather outside is violent and will remain that way for weeks according to the last reports. Also, we cannot at this time send any word because communications are down and understandably, I won't be sending anyone to the silo to clear the dome until this is resolved."
She sighed in the silence that followed, sparing a quick glance at Corky and noting the regretful tears shining in her eyes, realizing she had lost a patient.
"What are we going to do?" Lenard asked.
"After we grab something to eat, I'm going to assemble teams to search and create a safety perimeter. And until we can expand that perimeter to include the central complex we'll all be stuck in here. No one is to go anywhere alone. Not even to the bathroom. Now, I'm in no mood to answer any questions and I have a long day ahead. I'll only say that I don't want to ever see anything again like I did this morning and if I have to issue orders to shoot those disobeying my directives from this point forward, I will. There are a lot of lives at stake here and I won't have one or two fools like Grey endangering the entire group as a whole. I hope I've made myself clear."
Her eyes roamed carefully over the assembled crowd. "Let's get some breakfast going so we can get started."
--------
Malory conferred quietly with the soldiers until the food had been prepared then strode again to the front of the room.
"Lieutenant, Sergeants, Chief, Doctors Rivers, Stokes, Lenard, Watkins, and Isaaks, please join me," she called out and strode over to take a seat at a vacant table.
She played with her food until they arrived, happy when Corky sat down next to her and placed a possessive hand on her leg.
"Lieutenant," she started, "I know I should have asked earlier but what are the chances of flying out of here if the weather breaks?"
"A fraction above zero," he said. "We're too far away from any outpost, foreign or domestic, to hope for a suitable break in weather. There won't be one long enough until summer. The current temperatures would freeze the aircraft's hydraulic systems."
"I guess I knew that," she sighed. "Once we've cleared a safe perimeter and if at that time we haven't located Grey or Coy, we'll barricade ourselves in and proceed from there. That will at least allow us to return to quarters."
"We'll have to secure Operations and Mechanical, Commander," McNeely said.
"Good point," she agreed.
"Don't you think this may be a little drastic?" Watkins braved. "It's just two guys."
Malory favored him with a blank look. "Dr. Watkins," she said. "One of these men is apparently infected with something extraterrestrial and therefore outside of our experience. I might also point out that Grey was able to completely overpower a man armed with an automatic rifle without raising any alarm. And I should tell you that there isn't a man in this room strong enough to pull the top of Ballenger's head off from the eye sockets with his bare hands."
Corky gasped and Malory dropped a hand beneath the table to squeeze her apologetically.
"Jesus," Clovis whispered.
"What did you do with his body?" Corky asked.
"It's sealed in cold storage."
"Why did you ask to see us?" Lenard asked.
"Because there's a theory we want to run by you."
"Okay," Lenard said.
"As you know, we have a dead alien body and two empty containers in storage," McNeely said. "And it was your opinion that the aliens were cannibals. We're thinking that our current situation might have been previously experienced on board that spacecraft."
"Interesting," Lenard replied. "And not very farfetched. One empty container and a half eaten space alien. Now we have another open container and uh… well."
"Exactly," McNeely agreed.
"Unfortunately, it appears that our outer space buddies resolved their situation by crashing almost a mile deep into our planet," Malory pointed out. "Mass suicide isn't an option I'll consider so as soon as its feasible, I want that alien body dissected into particles in search of anything that might look like it doesn't belong there."
"Commander?" Daly said hesitantly as he approached.
"Yes?
"There are people who wish to leave the mess to use the facilities."
"Grab some of the guys and have them clear a path to the nearest head," Malory ordered. "Two guards in the hall and one at a time, another guard in the room with them."
"Yes, Commander," he said in and turned to carry out her orders.
"Uhm…" Corky said uncomfortably. "I don't think I could go with a guy standing watch over me."
A few chuckles and Corky blushed.
"I guess I could go with you," Malory said. "It depends on whether or not you gotta do number one or number two though."
Corky's blush and the beginnings of laughter vanished in a wave of automatic gunfire that echoed loudly through the room.
"Alvarez and Butler, stand fast. The rest with me now! Move!" she yelled, grabbing her rifle and running from the room.
Malory stormed out of the mess, the comforting sound of pounding footsteps echoing behind her. She spotted Daly a short distance down the hall hastily inserting a fresh magazine into his rifle. Several yards beyond him stood a bullet riddled Grey clutching a booted and fatigued leg in one hand by the ankle. He was dragging the severed member behind him as he advanced on Daly, creating a crimson smear on the floor.
She dropped to one knee and leveled her rifle. "Daly! Behind me now!" she yelled and he rose and ran back several yards to join the firing line.
Grey came forward undaunted, an insane gleam shining in otherwise lifeless eyes. Dried blood covered his face and chest, his jaw drooping malignantly at a grotesque and unnatural angle.
"Short burst," Malory ordered. "Go for the head on my command," she added, carefully taking aim.
She waited until he was only three body lengths away. "Fire!"
The brief roar of several rifles firing in unison filled the hall and Grey's head exploded from the neck up, coating the walls around him a bright red. Amazingly, he was still on his feet, the headless body still uncertainly moving forward.
"Fuck me," Reynolds whispered from beside her.
Several clumps of a fleshy substance fell to the floor in clusters from the stump of his neck and Malory had to fight back a dry heave to speak. "Half on right knee, half on left. I'm on right."
"Right."
"Right."
"Right."
"Left."
"Left."
"Left."
"Fire!"
Automatic gunfire thundered again in the hall and Grey fell forward, one leg completely blown off at the knee and the other attached by flimsy strands of tissue. When his torso struck the ground a glut of moist and writhing flesh resembling handfuls of ground beef spewed from the exposed orifice of his neck.
"Worms," McNeely said.
"Back up!" Malory almost screamed, her eyes transfixed in horror on the contorting piles. "Flamethrower, now!"
Terrel moved forward through the retreating crowd and doused the entire hallway with a bright orange flame, letting loose several bursts in the interest of diligence.
"Get the extinguishers," Malory ordered, watching the flames consume both the walls and what was left of Grey's body.
Hanson and DeSoto rushed forward to douse the flames and she reached out to stop them. "Let it burn a little longer."
She waited until she began to sweat through her shirt from the heat. "Go," she said finally and they rushed forward to put out the fire.
A few minutes later, the hall was filled with the stench of burning flesh and the only thing left of Grey was a blackened and smoldering lump.
"Daly," she said in the silence that followed. "What happened?"
"Cohen went to check the head in Danforth's quarters, he was turning to leave when Grey jumped out of the sho
wer stall and started tearing him to pieces," Daly said in subdued tones.
"Christ," McNeely said, shaking his head.
Malory suddenly stiffened. "I told you two in the hall. Who else was with you?"
"Percy," Daly said in dawning horror. "God, he was right beside me firing at Grey."
Reynolds snatched the radio from his belt. "Percy?"
Malory grabbed hers as well. "Alvarez?"
"Go ahead."
"Is Percy in there with you?"
"Negative."
"Percy, respond," Reynolds yelled into his radio.
"Fuck!" Malory yelled in frustration, throwing her radio into the wall where it shattered and fell to the floor.
"Commander," Reynolds said quietly, lowering his radio as his eyes focused over her shoulder.
"What!" she snapped and he gestured behind her with a nod of his head.
"Gimme a fuckin' break," McNeely whispered.
Malory turned to see Cohen pulling himself out of Danforth's quarters using only the stump of his left arm, his other appendages in tatters or missing altogether. Blood flowed freely from his wounds, complicating his efforts to travel and creating a grisly path on the floor. Even as he tried to slink away he was ravenously feeding on what she nauseatingly recognized as one of his own severed hands. She wanted to cry. Instead, her face hardened.
"Terrel," she said. "Burn it. Then burn whatever he left behind in Danforth's quarters."
"Aye, skipper," Terrel said, advancing determinedly down the hallway.
"DeSoto, Hanson, back him up," she ordered and they followed in Terrel's wake.
"I want all of the remains collected and thrown into the incinerator, including Ballenger's and that alien we found," she said, leaning her back against the wall and sliding down to sit on the floor. "I also want Hanson equipped with a flamethrower and I want a shotgun. A big goddamn shotgun."
--------
Corky spent the next three hours on the border of hysterics. She had chewed all of her fingernails down to nubs and the urgent need of her bladder only added to her agitation. After the loud and very close gun battle that had taken place earlier, there had been no word other than a hushed radio conversation that Alvarez had engaged in. Overhearing a snippet of Malory's voice had calmed her considerably but as the time dragged on with no word, her fears had reclaimed their hold on her.
Stories by Kiera Dellacroix Page 70