Odyssey Rising (13 page)

Sam’s mouth was dry, parched and craving any liquid. From his sleeping bunk, he rose while the others slept. His eyes were bloodshot. His hands were clammy. His eyes were totally bloodshot.

The medical program recorded all his symptoms for posterity. His health was not a pretty picture. In addition to the excessive rise in temperature, Sam had some dizziness. He had already had terrible fits of nausea and vomiting. All of this and more had been recorded on the mission’s computers. His kidneys were tender to the touch.

Sam lifted his shirt. He had a red rash of marks on his skin, near his love handles and he knew his body was losing the battle against the invisible invaders.

In the common area, Sam crossed in front of the computers and went to the right corner of the Pod to the supply closet.

Every few seconds, Sam scratched his head and his chest and huffed and puffed with a nervous wheeze. There was blood running down from Sam’s nose.

He opened the door. In the supply closet there were two stun guns and a stockade of first aid supplies and blue nutrient pills. Sam took both guns.

The others were still sleeping in their bunks.

Harry Wolf was the only other one awake and he barked at Sam’s heels.

It was a blessing and a curse that the Escape Pod was so well designed for comfortable and quiet sleep. Each bunk was self-contained and sound proof. This design provided sophisticated and silent slumber, which meant Sam did not startle anyone awake when he left his bunk area and headed to the supply closet. There was a faint blue glow from the computer consoles that fell across Sam’s face. The madness had begun. He took both the taser guns and then went to the consoles.

As soon as Sam hit override on the night security program and opened the Pod door, the alarm went off. It woke the whole group from their sleeping bunk closets but already it was too late to keep Sam from leaving the Pod with both taser guns and a head filled with rage.

Sam had a compulsion, uncontrollable and urgent. Get all the taser guns. Get outside. Do some damage. Do some hunting.

He ran outside and stopped at the drill near the edge of the newly created desert oasis. He stood out by the ammonia pool, just sort of swaying. He stood on the edge of the liquid oasis. The liquid covered his feet. He wasn’t thinking. He couldn’t think. It was like someone was pulling his body out there.

Inside the Pod, the warning alarm blared and woke the other Positives. Theo was first to rise.

Theo went to the doorway. It was open and outside he saw trouble. Theo quickly realized he had to deal with the troubles of a nearly two-hundred pound, oxygen deprived, sleep deprived, manic, aggressive crazy guy with two taser guns who wasn’t wearing a breathing mask, so every second meant more of his precious brain cells were being killed.

Before rushing out to stop the madness, Theo went back to the supply closet and grabbed a syringe and a vial of sedatives form the medical kit.

Ellie and Ravi joined Theo on his way to the front door of the Pod.

“It’s happening. Just like the rabbits,” Ravi said.

“Except he’s a little more dangerous,” Ellie said.

“More than a little. Sam is a bloody big guy,” Ravi agreed.

“What are we going to do?” Ellie asked.

“Hopefully the big guy is going to cooperate. That’s Plan A,” Theo said.

“And if he bloody doesn’t?” Ravi asked.

“Plan B is that I tackle him and one of you give him a sedative injection,” Theo said. “The big guy falls asleep. We say our prayers and get him back to the Pod.”

“And if that doesn’t work?” Ellie asked.

“Free jazz time,” Theo answered.

In a sense, they were prepared for something like this, which meant they had sedatives and syringes. They were all the tools they might need for insanity and mayhem.

When Theo started to walk toward the liquid oasis near the drilling area, Sam raised one of the taser guns up in the direction of the Pod and Sam moved the gun in a wide circle back and forth.

Sam swayed and staggered and then ripped off a series of rapid electrical charges that exploded from the gun toward the liquid oasis.

Each time an electrical charge skimmed into the liquid, there was a rather large fireball produced. A torrent of sand and muck flew into the air.

Sam shot again and again into the liquid oasis.

In between shots, Theo took a few steps toward his friend.

“Hey there buddy,” Theo said in a calm voice.

Sam looked around. Foam fell from his mouth like feral dog. His eyes did not focus on Theo’s actual position. “Who’s there?” he barked.

“It’s me,” Theo said.

Blood fell from his nose and Sam repetitively wiped at the blood with the back of his hands.

Theo offered the spare breathing mask. “You need a mask.”

“I’m King of this World and all these things are little mutant pawns,” Sam said. “You know it. I know it. They all know it. I AM KING OF THIS WORLD!”

“I know you are,” Theo said calmly.

“I am, but man, where are all the aliens? Where are they?”

“Don’t know. Maybe all dead. Maybe in hiding.”

“Don’t they want a fight?”

“I don’t know.”

“I want to go home,” Sam yelled.

“Let’s go inside.”

“Home! Take me home!”

“Just put the gun down.”

“Watch this,” Sam said.

Sam’s finger was on the trigger of the gun and the gun appeared to be aimed at Theo’s head. Theo was standing so close that Sam really couldn’t miss.

Theo had one word for Sam’s behavior: madness.

“Put the gun down,” Theo said.

“Just watch this,” Sam answered.

“Everything’s okay,” Theo said. “Just put the gun down.”

Sam lowered the gun a few inches and pointed the barrel at an angle toward the liquid oasis.

“That’s good. Now let’s go back to the Pod. That’s where it’s safe,” Theo said.

“Safe? It’s not safe. Not here. Not anywhere,” Sam barked as he kept his finger on the trigger, sniffed his nose and more blood fell.

And then Sam aimed the gun toward the liquid oasis and clicked the trigger over and over and over. Three, four, five, six shots were wasted and then the chamber was empty. There were no electrical charges left.

Sam was not a happy young man. He threw both guns down into the ground. A cloud of golden dust flew up.

“You’ve got to stop,” Theo said.

“Can’t,” Sam said.

“Just try,” Theo encouraged.

“I can’t see. Do you hear me? I can’t see you or anything,” Sam said.

Sam took the second gun into his shooting hand and again aimed at the oasis and pulled the trigger. Again, six shots were quickly used up.

Sam paced back and forth as Theo took a few more steps closer to his crazy friend.

“I just want you to come back inside the Pod,” Theo requested.

“You don’t know what it feels like,” Sam barked.

“This is the infection.”

“I can’t die. That’s what they say. I can’t,” Sam barked again.

“You remember why we’re down here?” Theo asked.

“To die,” Sam said

“The Yin-Yang Twins. Remember?” Theo said.

“No Twins around here. Nothing but dust and blindness,” Sam stammered.

“Here’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to give you a sedative,” Theo said.

“No.”

“But it’s what you need.”

“No way.”

“We can help you, Sam.”

“There’s no more Sam anymore.”

“Then who am I talking to?”

“Yin and Yang,” Sam said with two quick thrusts of the gun for each part of the microscopic invaders.

“Do you know who I am?”

“One of them,” Sam said.

“One of who?”

“The enemy,” Sam answered as he ran at full speed and jumped up in the air right for Theo.

Out of the frenzy of motion rose terror.

A cloud of dust kicked up in a swirl and Theo feared that getting Sam to calm down would never happen.

Theo had never seen anyone look so mad, so crazy, so urgent, so deadly.

When gravity brought him down Sam started to angle right down into Theo’s chest. Sam’s big head led the way and knocked Theo to the ground.

Before Theo could defend himself, Sam slugged him in the head and in the side and in the stomach. The punches hit hard and frequent.

Warm thick blood and dirt splattered into his eyes.

Theo could not see. He tried to reach for the injecting needle with the sedative.

As a counter attack, Sam pressed both guns into Theo’s chest and pounded the metal of both into it.

It was not part of this Plan B to let Sam pummel this gun into Theo’s chest, but the Madness seemed to also bring a frenzied and uncontrollable wildness and strength.

Getting Sam sedated was going to be harder than Theo hoped. Sam was a two-hundred pound young man who didn’t want to go back in the Pod.

Sam’s big arms flailed and tried to hit Theo. He was in pain and had manic energy.

Theo quickly realized that his Plan A was not going to work.

Even with Sam bearing down on him, with his eyes ablaze with the Madness, Theo’s greatest fear was that God would truly judge him for everything he ever did.

The largest part of Sam’s body that could be reached was his shoulder blade. The syringe with the sedative knifed into it and Theo slammed the needle and released the liquid contents. It was 100ML of clear sleepy time.

But it would take time for the sedative to work its sleepy time magic.

Sam’s fists sought contact with anything. He struggled and wrestled. He was as strong as the Yin-Yang Twins were virulent and at first he overpowered Theo’s every move.

Feeling the pinch of the needle, Sam spun around. Both his hands were still attached to opposite ends of the first gun and then he dropped them into the ground. He threw his body back into the sand. The wrestling match was over. Theo was exhausted and rolled off of Sam. The taser guns were in the sand off to the side.

Sam was not fully sedated. He still had some of his instincts and some of his strength. Like a punch drunk heavy weight fighter, Sam’s punches and legs wobbled left and right. He started to miss Theo’s body.

It took only about a minute for Sam to become like a sedated zombie. Pacing. Stumbling. Searching for his balance. Frothing at the mouth.

His eyelids became heavy. The blood still dripped from his nose. Some splotches of red hit his shirt and made a patchwork quilt of stains.

Finally, Sam fell to his knees and then he just fell to the ground. He coughed blood and then convulsed and then his body stopped moving, even his chest.

While he looked asleep and calm, Theo feared the worst.

He knelt by his friend’s side and felt for a pulse. He didn’t find one.

Later that day, after the Positives shed tears, they brought Sam up to the nearest hill. His body was slung over Theo’s shoulders in a dead man’s lift.

They buried Sam Suzuki at the highest flat spot among a set of four rambling, soft hills that overlooked the liquid oasis.

Theo forced back tears and Ellie noticed his worry.

“It’s not your fault,” she said.

“Isn’t it?” Theo remarked.

“You gave him a sedative. That’s all,” she said. “The Yin-Yang Twins did the rest.”

“Yeah, but I found the bones,” Theo said.

“You did not kill him. He just died. From this infection. Okay?”

Theo nodded and calmed himself.

Theo knelt to the sandy ground and said, “God speed, Sam Suzuki. God speed.”

The Positives were silent for several moments. They used a part of the heat shield as a gravestone. It sliced into the sand like a shovel and rested in the warm wind.

Ellie also knelt in prayer.

Unexpectedly, with her knees still on the sand, Ellie jerked her body upward as if she was under attack. Theo did the same.

“Something’s crawling up my leg! Ah. Ah. Ah. Like bugs!” Ellie yelled.

“They’re on me too!” Ravi yelled.

In the sand, there were dozens of tan worm like creatures about two inches in length.

They attached to Ellie’s ankle and crawled up her leg.

Theo swiped at the worms with his hand. From his pocket, he took out a knife and a plastic vial. He scooped one of the worms into the vial as a sample.

“Oh my god,” Ellie said.

Her ankle quickly had several raspberry colored bumps.

“It’s like you’re having an allergic reaction,” Theo said.

“Yeah. Totally.”

“Do you feel okay?”

“Creeped out, but fine,” Ellie answered.

Before they could examine the worms or her ankle any further, in the sky above them, a new sound overwhelmed their ears. The sound was a collection of high-pitched shrieks, almost like locusts.

They moved fast, swirling to and from the Pod and the liquid oasis.

Just out of reach, the silver cloud soared as one unit. The cloud was like a school of fish in the big sky.

The silver swarm dipped, soared, shimmered and sparkled. The silver cloud seemed to have two extra gears of acceleration: fast and almost supersonic.

The cloud of creatures seemed to change and sway with the wind, like a flock of birds flying to and from a set of telephone wires in unison.

Only they weren’t birds.