Blood Water (15 page)

What terrified Sean most wasn't the fact that the
creature's memories lingered in his mind, or that he
had some psychic link with it; he feared that part of
it might have been left behind – which surely made it
more likely that he'd succumb to that horrible death.
He was staring through the window, unable to move
or even remember what he was supposed to be doing,
or where the other two had gone. He was stunned,
immobile, consumed with dread; he suddenly wondered
if it would be better for everyone if he just walked out
into the night, never to be seen again.

Then he heard footsteps upstairs and was shaken
from his gloom.
No
, he thought,
I'm not going to run. If
I only have hours left, I'm going to use them to put an end
to all this. I'm not going to die alone and useless.
He felt
odd – his stomach ached and he was shaking too, but
he walked purposefully out of the office and headed up
to the first floor. Whatever task faced him now, he felt
equal to it.

* * *

If he'd had time to think about it, James might have
wondered why the creature had chosen to hide in the
body of the dead girl instead of remaining in the dog.
As it was, the alien entity quickly asserted its control
over his consciousness. Everything was mixed up in his
head – time, names, places – even smells burst from
nowhere and confused him, while the creature adjusted
everything to its taste. When things settled down again,
James was aware only of a smothering darkness; sounds
and movement came and went, reminding him that he
wasn't asleep or dead, merely locked away in his own
mind while something else used his body.

Waites was stalking the dog when James came up
behind him. The teacher heard movement under a table
and saw the dog limp out, whining and looking up at
him as if for sympathy.

'It must be feeling the pain now,' he said to James.
'Bit late to appeal to our better nature though. What do
you think we should do – jump on it? Might just squash
that thing inside it at the same time.'

He glanced at James, who seemed unusually quiet.
'You OK, James? What about the girl – was she
dead?'

There was a pause before the younger man replied,
'Oh, yes.'

'Right, well, you get ready to catch this little bugger
if it gets away from me. I'm going to—'

The hand on his throat came as a complete surprise.
The crushing power was simply terrifying. He tried
to choke out a question, but could do nothing but
splutter as he was forced round. Looking into the
strange glazed eyes, he tried desperately to escape from
the powerful hold. He tried kicking and punching, but
this had little effect on his attacker. Waites was sure
that James intended to kill him, and that could only
mean one thing: somehow the creature had got inside
him. Waves of colour swam across his vision and he felt
light-headed, but just as he thought he might black out,
a strange look came over James's face and he loosened
his grip.

Waites broke free and staggered away, nearly falling
as his damaged ankle gave way.

'Where
is
it . . . ?' James said impatiently: he was
looking at the ground as if trying to remember something.
'Let me see . . . Let me see where they are.'

'
They
?' Waites asked, confused.

But the creature was concentrating hard; it spat
in frustration. 'You will show me . . . Or I will find
out for myself.' The thing that was James looked up,
then turned and marched out of the room, apparently
forgetting Waites was even there.

Waites breathed out in relief and limped after it,
wondering how he was going to get that thing out of
the boy if there was no more salt water.

Sean was halfway along the first-floor corridor when
he saw his brother dart into Holland's room. Hearing
furniture being overturned, he came up behind James
and saw a mess of papers and books on the bed.

'What are you looking for?' he asked.

There was a pause as James straightened and turned
to him. 'We don't have much time. Waites has that
thing inside him. He's going to come and try to find
out where the others are. We have to stop him or there
could be thousands of these things on the loose.'

'Oh my God. It's in
him
?' Sean was aghast. 'Well, we
have to get it out!'

'There's no time. We have a bigger problem. We have
to find the others.'

'There are more of them?
No . . .
' Sean couldn't believe
it. This thing wasn't a single monster, like in horror films.
This was one of many, a plague; if the others were just
as dangerous, there was no hope for anyone. 'So what
do we do?'

'Look through this stuff. See if you can find anything
that mentions more of them. There must be something.
If we can find it, he can.'

'What about Holland's computer?'

'No good – the hard drive's been destroyed.'

'He destroyed his hard drive?'

'No,
I
did.'

'Why?'

'It had what we're looking for on it.'

Sean sifted through the papers, some typed, some
written in an almost illegible hand. He became aware
of approaching footsteps and tapped his brother on the
shoulder. 'He's coming.'

James looked up at him, then at the doorway. 'Get
back,' he said, picking up a table lamp and holding it up,
ready to strike the teacher when he walked in.

The footsteps slowed and Sean could tell that Waites
was waiting near the door, no doubt aware of them. He
looked across at James, whose face was suddenly twisted
with hatred.

Then Waites walked in, and everything happened
too quickly.

Waites saw Sean first; he was just forming words when
James swung the lamp at his head, sending him to the
floor. Sean noticed deep red marks on the teacher's neck
– the man looked half dead.

James leaped on the teacher's prone body and started
punching him, his teeth clenched, spittle flying. Sean
couldn't believe it was his brother. Something was
wrong. Something was
very
wrong.

Waites struggled and tried to shake James off,
screaming all the while for Sean to help him, to stop
his brother.

'It's in him, Sean! Get him off me – it's in
him
!'

And all at once things were worse, far worse. Sean was
stuck between action and inaction. Part of him wanted
to push his brother off the struggling teacher; the other
wanted to do nothing and let his brother destroy the
creature and the unfortunate body it still possessed. But
it didn't make sense. The teacher couldn't move, and the
thing inside him would surely have tried to jump into
James's body by now. And James had struck him on
the head: that was the weak spot, but Waites was still
conscious.

'No!' Sean charged forward into his brother so that
he rolled off Waites and onto the floor. He helped
the teacher to his feet, praying he had made the right
decision.

'Sean,' Waites said. 'We need to restrain him and get
that thing out.'

But the creature had already guessed their plan: James
was on his feet in seconds. 'It's too late . . . I know where
they are.' He turned and ran towards the stairs.

'No!' Sean screamed, suddenly realizing that his
brother was indeed infected.

'Damn it!' Waites groaned, rubbing his battered
head.

'No!' Sean screamed again in disbelief. 'He . . . He
said something about you looking for the others. Lots of
them. It must have been looking for them itself though.
We've got to get it out of him,' he said, following his
brother. 'We have to get it out of him now!'

'We will, don't worry,' Waites replied. 'If it finds the
others, we're finished. We're all finished. Come on.'

Downstairs the creature made its way past the lecture
theatre and the laboratories towards the front entrance.
It only vaguely registered the figure that had once been
the headmaster of Orchard Wells High School. Its
new body was good. Young, more agile than the others.
Strong too. More importantly, the young man's memory
had the information it required. He knew where the
others were and could picture their location.

It had taken a while to get the information – the
boy had been blocking it somehow, but eventually, as
the creature had made itself at home, the barriers had
come down, and it was allowed access to everything
he knew. It could barely contain its excitement. On its
own it would only ever be able to jump from host to
host. With others of its kind, it could spread throughout
the world, using up the humans until there were
none left. But there were millions of human beings – it
had learned this much. It would take a long time to
use them all up. Such fun. And even though it would
all come to an end at some point, it would be worth it
for the experience, for the education. It would be better
than floating around in a pool of water for thousands of
years. Lost in its thoughts, it suddenly allowed its host
to stumble and fall on his knees, but it didn't mind. In
fact it was laughing.

Sean had to help Waites down the stairs: he'd not only
been bitten and half strangled, he'd also been bashed on
the head. However, they walked as fast as they could – if
they lost the creature's trail then all hope would be gone.
They were passing Morrow's office when they heard the
front door slam.

'He must have gone out the front,' Waites said,
hobbling along. 'Come on, before we lose him.'

Hurrying into the reception area, they opened the
front door and peered out into the night.

At first they saw nothing in the dark and the rain.
Then Sean noticed something moving along the track
leading to the road. James was running down the bank
towards the car.

'What's he doing?' Waites asked. 'He'll never get that
thing started again – it's finished.'

'He's after something,' Sean replied. 'Maybe a
torch.'

'There's one in the glove box. That means we'll need
one too.'

'I saw one in Morrow's office,' Sean said. 'A big metal
one. I'll go and get it.'

'OK – be quick though. I'll keep an eye on your
brother.'

'Right . . .' Sean hesitated. 'Are we going to . . . Will
we have time to get it out of him? I don't—'

'We'll think about that later. Right now we have to
stop him from reaching the other creatures. What are we
going to do about them? If they really are around here
somewhere, they pose an even greater threat. We may
have to destroy them now while we have a chance.'

'But James – I mean, that thing is the only one who
knows where they are.'

'Which means we'll have to follow it and let it find
them. For now, just go and get the torch.' Waites gave
Sean a gentle push in the direction of the offices.

The teacher couldn't see much, but he kept his eyes
fixed on the spot where James had vanished from view.
Sure enough, he soon spotted a flicker of light, then
James came back into view, running towards the car
park.

The creature would have seen Waites if it had turned
its head, but it was focused on its objective. It had
only seen part of the study centre, but James knew
the area well, so the creature was able to combine
the mental map in his memory with the information
he had read in Holland's diary. It was like having a
treasure map and a list of clues. Navigating in the
dark would be difficult, but the creature knew
roughly where to find the place Holland had
mentioned – the place where, after thousands of years
of solitude, it might at last be reunited with others of
its kind.

James sprinted across the muddy car park, spray
exploding around him, and through an open gate into
the long grass beside the lake. The torch beam waved
around like a searchlight, illuminating the sodden
ground and the surface of the lake, which looked alive
under the constant downpour.

* * *

Sean retrieved the torch from Morrow's office and would
have left immediately had he not noticed something
out of the corner of his eye. It was a small Dictaphone,
lying beside the slim PC monitor – innocent, lifeless,
yet somehow significant. Or was Sean just imagining
it? Time was of the essence, so he picked up the
small tape recorder and hurried back towards the main
entrance.

As he did so, he pushed the rewind button, then
depressed 'play'.

'
. . . clear that whatever it is, it is outside our generally
accepted evolutionary path. This creature may have been
around for millennia, possibly since the dawn of time. It
shares characteristics with marine life found in prehistoric
waters, but aside from that I am completely lost—
'

Sean stopped the tape and glanced into the first
laboratory. A thought had just struck him. He slid
the Dictaphone into his pocket and rushed over to the
cabinets, trying not to look at the body of his headmaster.
He found the shelf with the jars of water, but
James had smashed the only one containing sea water.
How had James got the creature out of him? It was
all so hazy now. Sean looked around and spotted the
container of sodium chloride standing on top of one of
the benches. Of course.

'Sean!' It was Waites, no doubt eager to follow James.
But Sean wasn't ready to do that until he had some
way of saving his brother first. He grabbed the sodium
chloride, which was now only a quarter full, rushed over
to one of the sinks and filled it to the top with water.
Screwing the lid back on, he shook it well, then headed
back towards the entrance hall.

Waites was growing agitated. 'Come on, we have to
go now!' he said as he led Sean out into the wet and dark
towards the open gate.

Sean pulled his hood over his head, switched on the
torch and held it up, illuminating the path ahead. He
could feel the weight of the container in his pocket
with the liquid sloshing about inside. Would it work, or
would it be too little too late?

'Can you hold this?' He passed the torch to Waites,
who took it with a slightly puzzled expression. 'I found
this tape recorder in Morrow's office. There might be
something important on it.'

'You reckon?' Waites asked doubtfully. 'Besides, you'll
be lucky to hear anything in this storm.' He shone the
beam round the edge of the lake; on the hillside ahead
he glimpsed another light.

Sean took out the Dictaphone and held it to his ear,
pressing the 'play' button once more.

'
. . . in trying to find an explanation for it being here.
I don't know how it could survive so long unless it has
been completely dormant, asleep somehow for millions
of years. If so, why wake now? I am sure this creature is
intelligent. It moves cautiously, with deliberation. When
I study it I am sure I can see it calculating, predicting. It
never acts or reacts instantly. It considers, like a human
being would. What if this thing and man are from the same
original organism that swam around in the primordial
ooze? Could it have evolved to our level mentally, if not
physically?
'

Sean shuddered. The implications of what Morrow
was suggesting were sickening. The idea that the
creature could think like a man seemed ludicrous,
but then hadn't it already shown itself to be clever,
devious?

'There!' Waites said, shouting over the din of the rain.
'On that rise over there.'

Sean followed the torch beam and saw the other
light, bobbing up and down above the lake.

'There must be a path that leads up away from the
water. Come on, this way.' Waites limped off through
the mud.

Two questions kept circling around in Sean's head.
What if they were too late to stop that thing? And what
if they were too late to save James? Tears rolled down
his cheeks, but he didn't care. Even if Waites turned
round and looked at him, the tears would have been
indistinguishable from the drops of rain.

Then, suddenly, the rain abated, then ceased altogether.
Sean and Waites stopped for a moment
and looked up at the sky, as if waiting to see if it was
too good to be true. An incredible silence surrounded
them, a strange sense of peace that was horribly
misleading.

It was laughing again, but more from the excitement
and anticipation than anything else. The exhilaration
it felt extended out into its host body, fuelling it with
adrenalin, helping it move faster and faster towards its
goal. It wasn't too far now – maybe half a mile, then a
bit of searching in the darkness. But they were so close
now, within reach after so many years . . .

It climbed over a rock and slid down a small slope
towards a ditch. It had barely registered the fact that the
rain had stopped; it could now just about make out the
entrance to the system of caves. It grinned. It inhaled
air into its host body and strode forward, never once
taking its eyes off the entrance. To think that the others
had been so close all this time. The years had clouded
its memory, wiped the reason why it had been separated
from them in the first place. But it would find out soon
enough . . .