Under Darkness (A Sci-Fi Thriller) (Scott Standalones Book 1)

by Jasper T. Scott

  “They’re heading to the lab to drop off the samples.”

  “Are they going to hurt? The tests?”

  “You won’t feel anything besides the needles for the anesthesia. Relax.”

  “Needles?” Beth asked. “How many are we talking about?”

  “Two or three.”

  * * *

  Beth lay staring up at the white canvas ceiling of the clinic, waiting for Ashley to return. Her back hurt where Ashley had withdrawn some of her spinal fluid, and her wrist was ever so slightly cold and numb where the IV had delivered a contrast medium into her body for the CT scan. Now she lay anxiously counting down the minutes until Ashley came back from taking those samples to the lab.

  At least so far there was no sign of the headache she’d been warned about, but Ashley had said that symptoms could take a day or more to present, so she’d promised to go back to the Koa Kai tomorrow and the day after to check. That made Beth think the supposedly safe spinal tap procedure was riskier than she’d been led to believe. Then there was the CT scan. Beth was pretty sure that so-called contrast medium was radioactive. Cancer one-Beth zero, she thought dryly. She hoped she didn’t live to regret forging those consent forms.

  Glancing around the roomy tent, Beth saw metal shelves filled with boxes of supplies, a fridge full of vials, various types of scanners and life support monitors, along with half a dozen padded tables covered in plastic like the one where she lay. There was also a cordoned off area with a metal table that probably served as an operating room. At the far end, three big circular vents blasted cold air from air conditioners that Beth could hear droning loudly through the canvas. Flaps shuttered the transparent windows, keeping out the sun, while strings of bright LED lights blazed overhead.

  Long minutes passed—thirty or more, if Beth had to guess—before Ashley came back through the simple tent-flap doorway. She still wore her hazmat suit.

  “How are you feeling?” she asked, stopping beside Beth.

  “Great,” Beth said. She sat up and swung her legs over the side, stifling a wince as a sharp pain erupted from her lower back where the needle had gone in. “Can we go to the morgue now?”

  Ashley nodded inside her suit. “Yes, if you’re up to it.”

  Beth gingerly slid off the table to stand on her feet. “I am.”

  “Good. Come with me.”

  Ashley led her outside. The sun was sinking steadily closer to the horizon.

  “What time is it?” Beth asked.

  “Six-fifteen.”

  Beth’s skin prickled, and she quickened her pace. It was the end of August so the sun would only set at around seven, but it would take half an hour just to get back to the resort. She was cutting things close if she planned to get back before dark.

  “What if the sun sets before we’re done here? Will I have to stay at the camp?”

  “That won’t be necessary,” Ashley replied. “It’s a big island, and there are only a few Crawlers unaccounted for.”

  Beth’s lungs seized in her chest. “So it’s true. They’re still out there.”

  “Yes, but don’t worry about it. We’ll take a Marine escort with us.”

  They reached the entrance of another large tent and Ashley stopped to regard her before going in. “Are you sure you’re ready for this?”

  Beth nodded. “Yeah,” she said, letting out a long breath.

  Ashley pushed through the opening, and frigid air blasted out. Beth shivered and hugged herself as she walked in behind the doctor. Clouds of moisture billowed from her lips. Bodies were laid out abreast in long lines leading from the door, all of them zippered up inside white bags with tags on the zippers, like luggage at an airport. There had to be several hundred of them at least.

  “The ones closest to the door are from the Koa Kai,” Ashley said. “I need some details to go on. Age?”

  “Nineteen.”

  “Build?”

  “Tall and thin.”

  “Hair and eye color?”

  “Blonde and blue,” Beth replied.

  “Okay, that’s probably enough.” Ashley walked down the front of the rows of bodies, heading for the far right of the tent. Cold air billowed from vents on both sides and radiated from the floor, freezing Beth’s ankles.

  Ashley led the way down the last row, stopping to check a few of the bodies along the way. How many tall and skinny blonde-haired nineteen-year-olds had there been at the resort? Beth wondered.

  “Here. We’ll take a look at this one,” Ashley said. She was on her haunches beside one of the bags, fumbling with the zippers in her gloved hands. “Brace yourself.”

  Beth sucked in a breath as Ashley opened the bag. The smell of death wafted out. Ashley carefully peeled back only enough of the bag to expose the face. Bloodless gray skin and a pair of familiar blue eyes stared up at Beth. She clapped a hand to her mouth as tears sprang to her eyes. “No...”

  “Are you sure it’s him?” Ashley asked.

  Beth nodded quickly and looked away, flinging tears away with shaking hands. “Get me out of here.”

  Chapter 28

  Beth sat like a statue in the passenger’s seat while Ashley drove the van back to the resort. Behind them sat a Marine with a rifle and what looked like half of a pair of binoculars strapped to his helmet above his right eye.

  The headlights of the van barely revealed the shadowy depths of the vegetation along the dark, scenic road between Koloa and Lihue.

  Beth stared out her side window, watching with dull eyes as the shadows seeped in behind the van’s lights. Toby was dead, gutted by a Crawler. It didn’t feel real. None of it seemed possible.

  Koloa’s street lights appeared as the van came around a dark corner. Something big and pale on four legs darted out in front of them, disappearing in the long grass and trees on the other side of the road. Ashley stomped on the breaks, tires squealed, and the van lurched to a stop.

  “Did you see that?” Beth asked quietly. She twisted around to see the Marine’s night vision gear folded out in front of his left eye. He peered out the side window of the van with his rifle raised to his shoulder.

  “I saw it,” Ashley said quietly. “Was that...”

  “Hard to say, ma’am. Whatever it was, it’s gone now. We need to keep moving.”

  “Aren’t you going to go out and hunt it?” Beth asked.

  “No, ma’am. My orders are to provide a safe escort to and from the resort. I’m not authorized to pursue or engage enemy contacts.”

  “Well those are dumb orders. Hunt or be hunted. What do you prefer?”

  “My orders stand, ma’am.”

  Beth stared hard into the trees and long grass where the thing had disappeared, struggling to calm her racing heart.

  “We should keep moving, Doctor Carter,” the Marine said.

  “Right.” Ashley stomped on the gas, and the van’s engine roared as it revved high.

  Koloa’s streetlights scrolled by Beth’s window with far too many blank spaces in between them. “How many of those things are still out there?” she asked.

  “We found sixty dead,” Ashley answered in a shaky voice. “We counted thirty-two landers. Each of them has just enough room for two Crawlers, so that means four are missing.”

  “Four!” Beth echoed. “It only took two to kill everyone at the resort.”

  “Because they were unarmed,” the Marine sitting in the back said. “Don’t worry. We’ll get them, ma’am. We have teams all over the island. You’re safe now.”

  But Beth didn’t feel safe.

  Five minutes later they were pulling up in front of the entrance of the Koa Kai, as close as Ashley could get without driving through the plant boxes. The Marine escort pulled his sliding door open and swept his rifle around the parking lot before opening Beth’s door. “All clear, ma’am,” he said, nodding.

  “I’ll see you tomorrow,” Ashley said in a muffled voice. “I’m sorry again about your boyfriend.

  “Yeah,” Beth said, not
wasting time to say more. She jumped out beside the Marine, and he walked with her to the entrance. The doors didn’t slide open automatically for them, but a Marine standing inside the entrance moved to open one of them manually as they approached.

  Beth rushed inside the lobby, heading for the stairs and the refuge of her room. The Marines’ hushed voices followed her from the entrance as they traded updates. Beth saw her dad pacing the gleaming, faux marble floors. He turned to look just as she reached the foot of the stairs, and she hesitated there.

  “Beth! Where the hell have you been?” he asked, striding over quickly.

  Beth looked longingly to the stairs and caught sight of another Marine guarding the bloody door and hallway to her right. It was boarded up now. Beth’s mind flashed back a week. She saw her dad bracing that door with Don and James as a Crawler tried to push its way in.

  She shivered.

  Her dad grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her. “You said you’d be back before dark!”

  “It took longer than I thought,” Beth explained.

  He looked away, to the entrance where Ashley had pulled up. The van had already left. “Where are the people who brought you?” he demanded. “I want to talk to them.”

  “Gone.” Beth slipped out of his grip, starting up the stairs.

  Her dad sighed, then caught himself. “And Toby?” he asked, his tone hesitant now.

  Beth shook her head. “Also gone.”

  Chapter 29

  Beth woke up with her heart pounding and a scream frozen in her throat. She sat up and quickly scanned her bedroom for threats. The bedside lamp was on; no way she’d be able to sleep in the dark.

  But there was nothing in her room. The closet’s louvered doors might be hiding unseen horrors.

  Thump.

  Beth jumped, and adrenaline surged in her veins. The sound had come from her door.

  “Hello? Dad?”

  Silence answered, and Beth resisted the urge to scream.

  Thump.

  A powerful urge to run overcame her, but where could she go? The door was the only way in or out of her room. At least she’d locked it before retreating to her room.

  “Dad?” Beth asked again.

  Thump.

  Remembering how the Crawlers had gone around knocking on people’s doors to get them to open up, Beth shivered and drew her knees up to her chest, her mind racing. If she screamed, her dad would come running out of his room and maybe get himself killed. But if she didn’t, whatever was out there might grow tired of knocking and simply break the door down.

  Beth hesitated, frozen with terror.

  Thump.

  Her brow furrowed and reason made a welcome entrance into her racing thoughts. That sound was too soft for a knock.

  Then she remembered how her dad had spent the last week bumbling around their bunk room at night, bumping into things and waking everyone up. That had to be it. He was sleepwalking again.

  Beth climbed out of bed on shaking legs and went up to the door. Placing her ear against it, she heard a muffled whispering, a muttering voice—words, faint but audible.

  Thump! Beth jumped at the noise and reached tentatively for the door handle. She turned the lock with a shaking hand and cracked the door open with a noisy creak.

  “Dad?”

  He was standing there, swaying on his feet, rocking back and forth like a pendulum or a metronome. His eyes were open, staring. Beth took a deep breath to calm herself, remembering Don’s advice from the Port Royal when her dad had begun sleepwalking: ‘Don’t wake him. Sleepwalkers freak out when you startle them.’ The only thing to do was to guide him gently back to his room, trying not to wake him.

  Beth took her dad by the arm and gently turned him, walking slowly toward his room at the end of the hall.

  He was muttering in his sleep, his words indistinct. Beth shuffled with him down the hall. She almost had him back to his bed when he suddenly stopped and grabbed her by the shoulders, his fingers digging into her like talons.

  Beth froze, searching his wide eyes in the dark, wondering if he’d just woken up.

  “Beth! Help me!” he whispered. “They won’t let me go.”

  Beth tried to break free and back away, but he moved with her, pressing her against the wall. Her dad’s expression twisted wretchedly. “I don’t have long, Beth. They...”

  A jolt of naked terror slammed into her, and Beth began to doubt her analysis of the situation. Could sleepwalkers recognize people in their sleep? “Dad?”

  But he was gone again, his expression slack and vacant.

  “Dad!”

  He woke up with a start.

  “Beth. Is something wrong?” he asked, sounding suddenly far too reasonable.

  She darted down to the end of the hall and hit the lights. He stood blinking at her, his lips curved in a bemused smile.

  “You said you needed help,” she said, her chest heaving breathlessly.

  “I did?” he asked. “I must have been having a nightmare.”

  “You must have been? You don’t remember?”

  He shook his head. “No.” He glanced around. “I guess I was sleepwalking again. You should go back to bed.”

  Beth just gaped at her father, unable to believe how calm he looked and sounded. But annoyance quickly crowded out her confusion, and she stalked by him, heading for her room. “Lock your door next time,” she said. “You woke me up.”

  “I’ll try that,” he replied.

  Chapter 30

  Captain Reed watched from a safe distance as a pair of CDC workers in hazmat suits moved the sedated alien into a holding cell in the Lihue police station. Police officers on the night patrol stood guard at the exits while Marines with automatic rifles and XREP-loaded shotguns oversaw the operation. Thankfully taser-based tech seemed to work just fine to subdue the aliens. So did the sedatives they’d injected this one with to safely move it from the Port Royal.

  Reed’s skin itched as he watched CDC workers lay the hairless monster on the stained cement floor of its cell. The police sergeant shut and locked the cell as soon as they left.

  “Subject is secure, sir,” Lieutenant Spooner said. Admiral Harris had ordered Spooner and all of his remaining men to go ashore and stay there to help capture the remaining Crawlers and guard the one they already had. But it wasn’t really about guarding the subject against a possible rescue from its own kind—Reed suspected from the sheer lack of tech the aliens had brought, and the absence of a more organized invasion, that they were far more primitive than their massive spaceship would imply. They were obviously intelligent, so a rescue couldn’t be ruled out, but as far as Reed was concerned, the most significant threat came from the local human population. Sooner or later one of the policemen at the station would tell his wife, and then she’d go blabbing the news to all of her neighbors. And then we’ll have a damned riot on our hands. But that was Mayor Smith’s problem. He had insisted they keep the police at the station.

  Reed shook his head, his gaze lingering on the sleeping Crawler. Its translucent skin slowly rose and fell with its breath, shadowy organs shifting inside of it. If it were up to Reed, he’d just shoot it in the head and toss it in the ocean for the sharks. But then, he was a man of action, and few politicians were.

  Lieutenant Spooner left the holding cell just as one of his subordinates strolled in with an update. “Sir, transport is waiting to take you to the nearest landing site.”

  “Excellent.” Spooner’s eyes flicked to Reed. “Are you still planning to accompany me, sir?”

  Reed inclined his head to the lieutenant. “Let’s go.”

  * * *

  “That’s it?” The lander looked depressingly analog. Floodlights shone down from the perimeter of the landing crater, illuminating a bare metal capsule, scorched black outside, padded white on the inside. It was barely big enough for two grown men, let alone two Crawlers. Strange, web-like restraints curtained what might have been a pair of seats at the back. Reed co
uldn’t see any windows or visible controls of any kind. It was either a highly automated vehicle, or just as primitive as it looked. “The lunar lander had more tech than this,” Reed said.

  Lieutenant Spooner shook his head while naval engineers and their local civilian counterparts bustled around the shallow crater in which the egg-shaped lander sat.

  Reed sighed. He’d exposed himself to the additional risk of contamination for this? “Keep me apprised of any developments, Lieutenant. It’s time I headed back to the Royal.”

  “Aye, Captain.”

  Captain Reed parted ways with Lieutenant Spooner in the Nawiliwili Harbor’s parking lot. Reed set a brisk pace as he and two ensigns walked under the bright lights of the parking lot, past the dry dock to the boat launch. Both ensigns kept wary eyes on their surroundings, hands on their sidearms, but Reed refused to give in to their fears. Yes, a few aliens were still unaccounted for, but Kauai was a big island, and for all they knew the missing ones were lying dead in a jungle somewhere.

  A flicker of movement caught his eye. Four local women wearing colorful leis and form-fitting shirts ran toward them, giggling. Reed stopped and frowned at their approach. One of the ensigns began to draw his weapon, but Reed stopped him with a hand on his shoulder.

  “Easy. Ladies, we are on official Navy business, and this harbor is a restricted—”

  One of them collided with Reed, and he caught her awkwardly, stumbling back a step with her momentum. Her breath reeked of alcohol, eyes glazed. She couldn’t have been more than twenty years old. In his periphery, Reed noticed both ensigns battling with their own drunken partners, while the fourth stood a few paces back, giggling.

  The one in Reed’s arms looked up at him with doe eyes and flashed a pretty smile. “Aloha, Captain.” Wrapping her arms around his neck, she pulled his lips down to hers and slipped her tongue inside his mouth.

  For a full second Reed was too shocked to react, but then he pushed her away. “Step back immediately, ma’am!”

  She flashed another grin, and then about-faced and ran giggling into the night with her accomplices. Reed saw both ensigns wiping their lips. One of them gave him a rueful look. “We’re definitely contaminated now, sir. We should report to the CDC.”