Fungal Tide

by Ian Woodhead

  - himself, on his knees and Glenda still rolling on the floor and another twenty-four forms directly behind her. Only three of them were human. The others were a fused amalgamation of green armour plate, black goo and white fibre –

  ***

  “Oh shit, I feel like somebody has tried to club me to death.”

  Ryan allowed Glenda to pull him onto his feet while watching the boy hiss at them before streaking along the blue corridor.”

  “Anthony!”

  He grabbed Glenda as she ran passed him. Let him go, it’s too late, he’s already infected!” The remaining children stood perfectly still, none of them showed any signs of stress. He pulled the woman back deeper into the room.

  “Do you trust what the room and the corridors showed you, Glenda?” he grabbed her tight. “I mean it. Would you take the visions as gospel?”

  She nodded. “Yes, of course I do. Just don’t ask me why I know they showed me the truth, I just do.” She slapped away his hands. Come on, we need to get the boy before he comes to any harm.”

  Ryan pulled her back. “No, let him go, he’s infected.” His own heart hammered as he studied the statue still children. “I’m so sorry about this,” he moaned, picking up the body of a boy who couldn’t be any older than three. Ryan placed the child in Glenda’s arms.

  “What are you doing?”

  “Sending my soul to hell,” he cried, grabbing the hands of the other two boys that he saw through the eyes of Anthony. “Come on!” Ryan pulled the two boys out of the room.

  “Have you lost your mind?” she screamed, “We can’t leave the others!”

  “Yes, we can, they’re all like the older boy. Those green monsters have injected them with parts of themselves.” Ryan nodded at the sleeping boy in her arms. “You’re right about them being for provisioning, at least he is, and so are these two poor bastards.” The two boys by his side kept perfectly still. “Do you think that I want to leave them here? Jesus woman!” Ryan rushed back into the room and took the hand of a blonde girl clad in a dark blue top and black trousers. As soon as they neared the entrance, the girl reacted in the same way as Anthony. This time though, Ryan took no chances and pushed the child back into the room, the girl’s transformation slowed down but it didn’t stop. To make matters worse, she fell into the arms of a young teen, who had started undergoing the same process. “Oh fuck, it’s a chain reaction.”

  Ryan ran out of the room and grabbed the two boys. “Move it, Glenda!” He raced along the corridor, painfully aware of the low animal noises getting louder and louder as the remaining children in that room began to change. Thankfully, the woman had got the message and was just a hair’s breadth behind him.

  In another couple of seconds, the bright corridors were about to come to an end. Ryan swallowed hard, when he felt movement in his hands. The two kids were beginning to wake up. “Why now?” he muttered. Ryan stopped by the light’s edge. He crouched and looked into the bright eye of his two charges. “You’re both dreaming,” he said, giving them both a warm smile. “The light is about to go out, but it’s only for a couple of minutes, I promise.”

  Judging from their reactions, the poor kids must still be under the influence of the power still active down here. That had to be a good thing. Ryan could hear the others making their way through the left tunnel, by the sounds of it, they weren’t in any rush. He hoped to god that that stayed like that. “Are you okay, Glenda?”

  The woman sighed. “Not really.” She gently rocked the young boy. “My stupid optimism keeps telling me that we’ll be able to get through that white carpet this time but…”

  “But?”

  The woman sighed again. “Well, it hasn’t helped so far, has it?”

  “You’re still alive and in human shape. Considering what I’ve seen these past few hours, believe me, that’s like winning the lottery.” He leaned forward and kissed her. “We’re going to make it out of here, you’ll see.” Ryan turned and walked from light to dark, feeling the stuff engulf him. He shook away the sudden creeping feeling that someone or something was watching him and marched with purpose towards the tiny glimmer of yellow light in the distance.

  “I’m scared, Ryan.”

  He placed one foot in front of the other. “That’s a good sign, just don’t allow it to control you. Glenda, I still don’t know how you ended up down here.”

  “You can thank my alarm clock for that, Ryan. The damn thing fell off the table yesterday and broke. I didn’t want to be late for the next dig so I came down here alone, and attempted to go through what scant relics we’d already found in the first dig. The next thing I remember is the ground opening up beneath my feet and I fell in here, along with the objects I was examining at the time. Ryan, move a little to your right.”

  When she stopped talking, the ominous sound of the others grew louder. “We need to pick up the pace,” he hissed, trying not to let panic show in his voice.” The light grew brighter but they still had a while to go before they even reached the halfway mark. He turned around and saw a dozen pairs of bright orange eyes bearing down on them. “Oh shit, run, Glenda!”

  He picked up both children and bolted down the tunnel, terrified that he’d slam into one of the walls any second. The noises behind them changed pitch, then the howling started. Ryan felt the panic once more; it fed on his terror as well as the sound of those things gaining on them. The two boys in each arm moaned simultaneously. He couldn’t let these two go the same way, he just couldn’t

  He turned his head, and saw that their pursuers were falling back. Relief swept through him. Ryan turned back to tell the woman the good news and had to skid to a halt to stop himself from crashing into her. Through her thick hair, Ryan smiled at the sight of filtered daylight. “I don’t believe it, we’ve actually got here.”

  “I told you not to trust my optimism,” she cried.

  The woman moved to the side and Ryan saw one of the plated green hunters clinging to the side of the wall next to the covered exit. “You have got to be kidding me!” He dropped the two kids and pushed past Glenda. “Get out of here!” he shouted, walking towards it. How did it get through the curtain? He then saw the remains of a single eye, embedded in the hard, green carapace. “Oh no, it’s you isn’t it, Anthony?”

  The creature dropped to the floor and several thick appendages slid out from under its body.

  “Get away from it!”

  “Not a chance, Glenda,” he said, not allowing the creature to leave his view for one second. “There’s nowhere else for us to run.”

  He remembered how long it took the other two monsters to rip apart Mark. Ryan’s life now hung by a thread. One wrong move and he’d be dead, with the others behind him following soon after. “Anthony, when you ran from your father, the acute terror coursing through your bones kept you going.” The appendages stopped slivering towards him. “even when you looked behind and saw they weren’t following, you still couldn’t shake away the helplessness.” Ryan took one step forward and raised his hands. “I think you know what’s happened to you, Anthony. That your body has undergone an incredible transformation.” He took another step forward. “I want to help you, son. Let me pass, let us pass. I only want to put everything back to as it once was. Don’t you want your family back, Anthony? It is possible. They too are like you now.”

  A low rumble issued from below the creature, sending the hairs on the back of his neck to stand on end. He’d heard that sound before, when he’d been inside the lad’s mind. Only the sounds issued from those creatures had travelled for miles. Ryan eyed up his opponent, guessing that the creature in front of him now stood at around eight foot, with a body mass at expanded at least ten time. He imagined a similar looking creature above ground, hunting through the deserted streets of Radfield, the size of fucking Godzilla.

  “It’s what we both want, Anthony.”

  One of the children behind Ryan chose that moment to start crying. Ryan yelped as the plated hunter’s appendages strea
ked from its body, sliding over Ryan’s feet. “Run!” he yelled, looking behind his shoulder. “Get out of here!”

  The woman stood there, frozen to the spot. Ryan jumped away, his back hitting the wall. The creature released another mournful moan before rushing up to him. Two of its appendages slipped down Ryan’s face before it turned around and forced a way through the thick mass of white fibre, daylight flooded the entrance.

  “Come on!” he shouted. “Glenda, get those kids out of here.” He ran over to her and took the eldest boy’s hand. He was the only one who’d started to come around but it looked like it wouldn’t be long before the other two would be stirring.

  “I want my mummy.”

  “Ryan, its growing back!”

  He picked up the kid and followed Glenda towards the exit. She just managed to pull herself through, crying out as strands of fibre pushed into her hair. As soon as Ryan reached the exit, the stuff had already began to join up. “Grab the kid!” he yelled, grinding his teeth in pain as the strands tightened around his wrists. He found himself flying back into the darkening tunnel but he was alone; Ryan had been able to get the child out of here.

  “Ryan? Oh god, are you okay?”

  He got back on his feet and stretched his aching legs. “If you mean, do I feel as though I’ve been run over with a bus, then yes. Glenda, just get those kids to safety.”

  “What about you?”

  He looked back towards the suffocating darkness. “I’ll catch up with you.

  12.

  When the levels recede

  Her balance felt so wrong. She tried to compensate and cursed in a strange language as the muscles in her legs forgot how to function. Sierra fell into the long grass, gazing up at the beautiful azure sky. What had happened to the colour? Her head turned to the side and found that it wasn’t just the sky, everything around her now looked off-kilter, a multi-hued filter, slotted in front of both her eyes.

  “Even this foul ground conspires against our kind.”

  The language felt alien to her and yet Sierra understood every word. Her vision shifted and Sierra found herself staring into the face of some giant rodent. Only this creature was nothing she’d every seen before, expect perhaps in some Disney cartoon. What the hell was this?

  “Do not let any of the sect-farmers hear you announcing your proclamation.” Sierra fought down the panic when she discovered this body wouldn’t respond to her commands and resigned herself to the status of passenger.

  The big rabbit creature opened its huge mouth, threw back its head and released a sharp shrilling squeal. Sierra found her own head falling back and she imitated the same noise. Good lord, this was their version of laughter. Sierra found herself looking directly at the other creature, a feeling inside her body revealed a deep sense of togetherness for it, a belonging that ran even deeper than family. It’s thin arm brushed across hers.

  Sierra watched her own arm, just like his, pale yellow skinned, covered in a fine black down, reach out and run her six long fingers down the side of his furry face. The creatures disk eyes blinked, his eyelids closing from the side. “Casting aside our unwarranted act of humour, Del-Nisstar, I still think to come to this new land was pure folly.”

  He slid his fingers through a long clump of fur, growing above her spine. Sierra shivered in pleasure.

  “You are my clan-sister as well as my lifemate, Vel-lon. But what you know of politics beyond the fixture boundaries is sliced with the emotionally wrought guesses from your clan-care circle.”

  The woman pulled his paw away and turned her back. Sierra got the basics from that dialogue. It didn’t shock her too much to find that some behaviour never changed even in another species. That bloke had just tried to feed his wife a line, patting her on the head while explaining that some men things are much too complicated for woman to understand.

  Sierra hoped the woman was going to punch the big mouse right in the chops.

  “I know that the native creatures that live on this island eat food that screams, my lifemate. I know that they have caught and consumed our clan, Del-Nisstar.”

  The male’s body froze solid. “You cannot know that,” he said.

  “But I do. Now, is it true?”

  “Yes, it is true that they caught two of our advance explorers and ate their flesh.”

  Sierra’s body shivered.

  “The farcaster clan input all potential outcomes into the skyship’s library, they even included six hands of first contact scenarios, despite them spending their lives in our temples, reinforcing the doctrine that our creator left the three clans to procreate and nurture the land.”

  “So the native creatures are not intelligent?”

  The male threw back his head again and laughed. “Now I know the clan-care circle have dipped into the realm of fiction. They are animals, vicious beasts who know a few clever tricks.”

  The strange body shivered again. “No, they are not animals. Like our species, they have broken the bindings of their environment. No animal wears a manufactured skin, and does any known animal have the skill to use crude tools? So they have not mastered displacement technology, nor have they any idea on how a fusion reactor works. Look back in our distant past, Vel-Nisstar, and you will see comparisons to our development.”

  She saw the pale disk of the moon opposite the sun, the trees behind the other creature were oak. This had to be the Earth and those vicious beasts so eloquently described could be her distant relatives.

  The woman sat down in the long grass, her slender fur covered arms wrapping around her body. “Your silence releases the words your voice won’t issue.” She looked up into the other creature’s face. Sierra saw tears rolling from his bright yellow eyes, soaking his fur. “Tell me the rest, Vel-Nisstar. Tell me why the spiritual leaders from all three clans have issued lockdowns for every district.”

  The male simply shook his head. He collapsed beside her and began to weep. “The prophetic words uttered to the assembled district administrators have tainted my dreams and my waking thoughts for eight cycles.” He looked directly at her. “Can I not spare you that torture, my lifemate? Believe me, the ignorance is a far more pleasurable alternative.”

  She jumped up, lifted her leg and placed her foot down on the other creature’s ankle. “That choice stops at you. Do you wish to share the news or would you prefer to scream out in agony as I snap your leg?”

  The male screamed out regardless, jerking his leg out from under her foot and wrapping his arms protectively around them. “Why did our creator wire your brains differently from our gender?” The male looked down at the grass. “I sometimes think that you share more traits with the aggressors then you do with the males of your own species.” He threw his body back into the grass. “Do not say that you weren’t warned. The animals that we kept in the capital city escaped from their stockade and allowed the wild creatures outside the walls to enter.”

  “But that is impossible!”

  “From a population of nine thousand, only seventeen were able to escape alive. The same situation has occurred throughout the colony. This island no longer belongs to our species.”

  Sierra judged these creatures to be about the size of an average thirteen year old teen girl, with a frame that even a supermodel would envy, coupled with the fact that although they were intelligent, they appeared to possess the same aggression as a rabbit. Her history was sketchy but even she knew that her distant ancestors didn’t go around hugging people.

  “So, we leave the barbarians to return to slaughtering themselves. This is not the only large island on our planet. We simply go elsewhere and wait from them to kill each other. Surely such an aggressive species is doomed to self destruction?”

  “We can’t even do that!” he cried. The homeland has suffered the same fate, the samples taken back for study has escaped as well.” Vel-Nisstar stood up and helped her up.” Imagine the terror amongst the populations, my lifemate. At least we knew about the creatures and of what they are cap
able of doing. The creatures have taken on the roles of ambush predators. The panic caused by the deaths have rippled through the very fabric of our society.

  There seems to be no logical solution.”

  She shrugged. “Yes there is, we consider them like weeds in the fields and destroy them.”

  Sierra the male’s sudden shiver through this body.

  “Only a female would consider the forbidden concept of murder as a possible solution! The creator’s children create life, they do not take it.”

  “Then we will all be the weeds.”

  ***

  Sierra’s eyes snapped open and laughed out loud at the delight of being able to move her own head. The joy soon vanished when she discovered that the sky, trees and lush grass hadn’t come back with her. She raised her arm, brushing the tips of her fingers over the rough stone behind her head. She had no idea where she was, nor could Sierra remember anything after leaving the car.

  She attempted to sit up and gave up on that idea when the muscles in her back sank their teeth into her spine. Instead, she raised her head a couple of inches off the ground, trying to see if she could see anything at all that she recognised.

  A dozen disk shaped holes cut into the carven ceiling gave her just enough muted lighting to show her that Sierra wasn’t alone in here. She counted another thirty individuals and every one of them were not moving. She moaned softly when she then saw a thick black treacle substance flowing over the legs.

  Sierra cried out in shock as the memory of the same stuff attacking her in that carpark flashbulbed in front of her eyes. She ignored the muscle complaints and sat up, biting down the sharp pain. A couple of inches from both her feet, Sierra saw the same substance retreating, flowing back to a thick river of the stuff, passing through the centre of the cavern. Without even thinking, she scrambled onto her knees and dived forward, the fingers in her left hand sinking into the receding fluid.