Harvest (48 page)

“
If you somehow have some
of its power, which I think it is apparent that you do, I think
Malik turned on you because it lost its control over you and you
could possibly use your power against it,” Rachel
proposed.

“
It’s in my head, this
pressure, a force that feels too big for my skull to hold, and I
have to concentrate, think really hard about things to distract it,
like when your really trying to keep something in your head so you
can remember it for later. But when I have had a strong emotion or
my concentration slips the pressure goes, and that feels worse,
like everything in my head is going to pour out and drag me after
it into some hole I won’t be able to get out of.”

“
And that’s when things
happen? Malik getting crushed by the hospital bed, the fire doors
being torn aside, Kelly being knocked across the room?” Rachel was
answered by a nod from Cat. Craig had been right to question what
had happened when Kelly had been tossed to the floor.

“
So Harry wasn’t a killer.
He was forced to kill by whatever this ‘thing’ is? It wasn’t his
fault at all?”

Craig reached across the table,
hesitated, and then committed to placing his hand over Kelly’s.
“Don’t do that to yourself, Kelly.” She nodded, but her face was
tight and she couldn’t speak.

Rachel sighed. “Oh, my dear. I
don’t think we can be certain of any of the answers that we may
think we have.”

Kelly cleared her throat several
times before she could talk through her emotions. “If it can
control people like that then it could be using anyone at The
Heights…”

‘
Even
us’ went unsaid, but Craig saw Cat shift uncomfortably nonetheless.
Craig spoke quickly, “So; it can get in people’s heads, it is
possibly controlling the undertaker-corpse. The thing that came for
Cat, was that ‘it’? Was that
the
monster?”

Cat shook her head. “No, I er,
don’t think so, no. I can’t say for certain, but I got a different
feeling when it was in my head, it was a strong feeling like a
presence, I didn’t get that feeling of a presence at all with
Malik. I did a little bit with the two creatures but not to the
same degree. When that creature had me and was pulling me into the
light I felt that presence emanating from wherever the light was
coming from. Like it was in the light, waiting for that creature to
take me to ‘it’.”

Craig grew conscious of his hand
still resting on Kelly’s, and it grew hot and clammy. He withdrew
it casually, but it still seemed to jar Kelly. “So we haven’t seen
this creature at all then really. The people under its control, the
undertaker, the snatcher thing, they are just under its
control.”

“
How can it be controlling
different people and things at the same time?” Kelly asked
incredulously.

“
Maybe its consciousness
can divide itself up; like bacteria or cells. One mind that can
divide itself; expanding its awareness. Like a hive mind.” Cat
offered.

“
A hive mind?” Kelly
asked.

“
A mind
that is a collection of minds. Like the
Borg?
” Rachel’s knowledge of science-fiction
threw Craig and he could see it had the same effect on Cat and
Jason.

“
Star Trek. The Borg.
” Rachel elaborated, her
face reddening.

“
I know what it is I’m
just a little surprised you know about all that stuff, that’s all,”
Craig laughed.

Rachel’s words tumbled
out in a fluster. “
I have cable.
I don’t spend all my time talking with those that have passed
away you know! My TV time is
my
time. They all know that.”

“
You just didn’t strike me
as a science-fiction person,” Craig admitted.

“
I
guess
X-files
is a little too
much like everyday life for you.” Cat commented
sourly.

“
Don’t
tell me – it’s because of
Captain
Kirk
isn’t it?” Kelly goaded.

“
Oh,
Lord no.
Kirk
didn’t age well
did he? Expanding
‘
frontier’
and bad wig. Oh, no I like
Star Trek: The Next Generation. Captain
Jean Luc Picard
.” Rachel clapped her
hands together. “Now that’s a man that is comfortable with his age
and has matured well.”

“
Ooh no.
I like the leader in the other series, you know? The guy
from
Quantum Leap
,” Kelly
offered.

“‘
Leader’,” Cat scoffed. “Anyway, no one likes him as a
captain it’s too weird, I keep expecting to see
Al
from
Quantum
Leap
appear on the bridge of the
Enterprise
.”

Craig was quick to jump
in and cover the way Cat had butted Kelly out of the conversation.
“
Captain Janeway’s
the one
for me:
tough bird,
” he
announced.

“
And
that had nothing to do with
Seven-of-Nine
in her skin tight one-piece
costume of course,” Cat teased with a raised
eye-brow.

Craig laughed at his own
transparency. “Okay, guilty as charged.”

“
I’m
more of a
Star Wars
fan
personally,” Cat Stated.

“
I
haven’t seen
Star Wars
. Is it
any good?” Jason asked.

“
First…”
Craig paused to address Jason. “Shut up! I’m only twenty-four but
you’re making
me
feel old!
You’ve obviously had a deprived childhood. Yes it’s brilliant.” He
turned back to Cat. “And second -
Marry
me!
”

Kelly abruptly redirected the
banter. “Okay, abstract conversation aside. What do we know? We
know we are dealing with something that isn’t human. A monster.
It’s killing and taking people.”

“
It could be using the
abandoned stairs to move about relatively unseen as we said,” Craig
reminded.

“
Maybe it’s living in the
basement – I mean it could be the only place to hide. Hardly anyone
goes down there,” Jason snappily suggested.

“
Except for the caretaker.
If it was down there then Alec would have surely seen something.”
Kelly countered.

“
Maybe he can’t be trusted
– you were suspicious that the door to the roof had been left
unlocked when you chased Harry up there,” Craig suggested,
conscious of the topic of Harry’s death. Kelly nodded in agreement
and didn’t seem fazed by the mention of Harry.

“
The building had been
searched by the police a few times and nothing had been found.
Maybe ‘it’ can influence people’s perception.”

Craig was surprised and
reassured by Kelly’s imaginative suggestion. “So it could be in the
basement then.” Craig clarified. “If it has some kind of connection
with people’s minds does that explain my nightmares?
What are they about and how do they fit
it?
”

Cat answered him.
“
I
kind of have an idea
about that
.
This thing,
if it is an entity then it must be some kind of energy. You all
tell me that this whole thing started with Albert Taylor going
missing, followed by a girl going missing. A few weeks later more
children vanish and then strange deaths and now violent murders, it
seems there is an escalation, as if this things power or hold is
growing. We both said that after our nightmares we felt physically
weaker and I was thinking that it’s drawing energy from us while we
sleep so it can go off and do the things it is doing. When it draws
energy from us, we are connected to it and maybe we see where that
energy is being directed to.” Cat looked at everyone to see if they
accepted her idea.

It made sense to Craig and it
reassured him further because it was an explanation of why he found
himself experiencing the nightmares from the attacker’s
perspective.

“
Feeding off our
biochemical energy?” Rachel elaborated. “Our body runs on pulses of
energy in our nervous system.”

“
At night, with everyone
asleep the high-rise flats would be like a battery pack, with us
being the power cells,” Cat concluded darkly.

“
But I haven’t had any
nightmares.” Kelly countered. “Sorry, but I haven’t.”

Craig’s thoughts rambled out of
his head. “What if it’s only some of us then – or what if it’s the
sleeping tablets you use; they might stop it getting in your head.
Or the tablets might stop you remembering any of the dreams.”

“
Well I haven’t suffered
the lethargy you and Cat say you have experienced after sleeping,
so it could be the tablets stop it happening.”

“
I haven’t slept properly
since the twins went missing. Too scared to sleep properly.” Jason
added.

“
It also has the ability
to change things – like the door in the Chambers flat, and the fire
door when we left Cat’s; they were both fused to their frames,”
Rachel reminded.

“
So we have to be careful
of confined spaces, and doors between us and exits,” Kelly
considered strategically.

“
Why is it taking people,”
Jason stated.

“
Why?” Kelly repeated with
a shrug.

“
I think it’s harvesting,”
Cat answered swiftly.

Rachel nodded in agreement. “One
of the runes I saw represented the Harvest.”

“
Harvesting
what?”

“
People, bodies, flesh,
blood, bones.” Cat answered Kelly. “It might need people’s flesh
and minds the way we need food and water.”

“
That’s
horrible.”

“
I don’t
know.” Craig was sure there was more to it. “It’s gone to a lot of
trouble to get into our heads, to experiment on us, only to just
eat us. I was thinking if this thing is an incorporeal entity
contained in one space and its range of influence is limited, then
it wants to overcome that limitation. You said earlier that the
undertaker and the snatcher looked as though it had been pieced
together, it could be they were created from the raw materials it’s
harvesting. It could be that it is creating itself bodies so it can
move around. That might explain why Cat thinks we haven’t seen the
main creature yet – it hasn’t
got
a main form yet.”

“
That’s horrible too.”
Kelly stated. “What will it do when it has a body then?”

Craig didn’t know if he was
letting his imagination run away with him or if he had something,
either way his ideas frightened him. “Probably much of the same,
but somewhere else, it’s going to run out of people in that
building eventually. There are two more towers. Then the whole
neighbourhood, if it can divide itself up like we think, it could
spread out.”

“
Go forth and multiply.”
Rachel stated quietly and sombrely.

“
It will be stopped
though,” Kelly announced matter-of-factly. “I mean the more it
spreads the more people will believe or see it – someone will have
to act.”

Cat raised her eyes
incredulously. “You mean your precious police? The things that have
been happening have made front page news in most of the nationals
and the police haven’t even found a walking-dead undertaker in the
flats yet. If it
can
control
peoples perception how do we know its influence won’t grow with
it?”

“
We are possibly the only
few people that have survived seeing what we have seen and actually
dared to talk to each other about it. Even I was sceptical to begin
with, and it has taken losses for us to consider something
supernatural, let alone believe it. There will be many people who
will be on their own with their experiences simply because they are
too scared of ridicule or think they just won’t be believed,”
Rachel reinforced.

“
Or the
army.”

Craig winced at Kelly’s
persistence. “That is counting on some very important people
staking their reputations on mobilising the army to combat a
monster.
”

“
Yes, and by that time how
many will have died?” Rachel said concerned.

“
Then
we
have to
act now,” Kelly concluded.

“
Now
she’s going all
Buffy
,” Cat
remarked caustically.

“
If we aren’t going to
involve the authorities what other choice do we have?”

“
How can we? That thing is
dangerous?” Jason despaired.

Craig was pretty convinced Kelly
hadn’t included Jason in the idea of striking back, but the lad was
only voicing what he and the others were probably thinking.

“
I have a feeling I can be
dangerous too.” Cat grinned darkly.

Craig didn’t doubt that at
all.

“
Then we move against it,”
Rachel declared resolutely.