Spores (15 page)

Daniel shook his head, “No, definitely used the shaft to come here. She’d need something to climb on, a chair or table or something. They’d still be here if she was running away.”

She padded over and looked up into the dark space, trying to imagine her friend squeezing her body through that shaft, alone. Patsy felt tears springing up, she just couldn’t do it, for Christ’s sake, Amber was claustrophobic, there was no way she’d crawl through that, Amber would rather die.

“Oh God!”

Sobs wracked through her when Patsy realised what she’d just said. Daniel hurried over and threw his arms around her shoulder.

“Come on, Patsy. This is the only sign we’ve come across that there’s more than us who’s still alive in this godforsaken building. There’s more than a good chance that it’ll be your friend.”

Patsy pulled her eyes away; he was probably right. She abruptly gasped aloud when she spotted a flash of yellow at the back of the laboratory. Daniel pulled her away and raised his gun.

“Get behind me,” he whispered. “I still reckon it’ll ignore us.

They both froze when they saw that it wasn’t alone; dozens of the nightmarish constructs slithered, crawled and skittered over each other and moved closer to where they stood. She turned and clamped a hand over her mouth. There were a few dozen more coming through the open door.

“What are we going to do?”

Daniel grabbed her side and pushed her until she was under the hole. “Hold up your arms, Patsy.”

He lifted her up, Patsy managed to grab the metal sides and with a little more help, Patsy scrambled into the shaft. She looked behind her and screamed. There were more of the bastards in here too. She panicked and threw herself out.

As it approached, its long neck weaved from side to side, like a hypnotised snake. Patsy couldn’t tear her eyes off the grotesque human-like head. She heard Daniel cock the weapon.

Patsy’s eyes snapped open; she turned her head, not believing what she was seeing. Her friend, Amber, was running through the horde of monsters toward them. She paused beside the huge creature and pressed her hands against the side of its brown body.

“What the fuck?” uttered Daniel.

“He doesn’t want to hurt you,” She brushed her fingers through patches of downy pale fur sprouting along its flank. “You need to lower that gun though, soldier boy.”

Patsy brushed Amber’s hair away from her face and wiped away her friend’s tears. “I thought the same.” She looked over Amber’s shoulder, “are you sure it won’t hurt us?”

“He’s my friend.” Amber nodded to Daniel, “I’m glad to see at least one of you bastards still has a conscience. You are unbelievable, Patsy. Only you could score at a time like this.”

Amber nodded. “Please don’t call it a thing, he still has feelings. Unlike the others out there, the alien filth hasn’t robbed him of all of his humanity. I thought that it was going to eat me. Thankfully, he remembered that I tried to help him.”

Patsy held up her hand, “Wait a minute, did you say alien? Like in outer space and stuff?”

“Yes, alien. This is just the beginning, Patsy. My new friend has told me a shit load of stuff and…”

The thing behind her abruptly started to screech. Moments later, the sound of gunfire erupted from the corridor outside. Amber fell back, shut her eyes and rocked back and forth.

Chapter Fourteen

Miles pressed his back against the bricks as the huge creature slithered past; he choked back a scream when its cold flank brushed along the back of his hand.

“Look, Man. You really are gonna have to lose those bad vibes. Just open up a box at the back of your brain, throw 'em in and like close the lid, man.”

Dustin climbed off the beast’s neck, giggling when one of its protruding spines wound up the inside of his thigh.

“Later!” he hissed. “Come on, lass, this isn’t the time.”

Miles didn’t even want to contemplate what that weird guy had been doing to that great big heap of pulsating flesh. Just the thought of those two interfering with each other made him feel queasy.

Dustin approached him. “We’re nearly there, man.” He turned and stared at the bright, white light emanating from the end of this tunnel. “They must have used this line to ferry all their gear under the city. I bet this has been here for decades, man.”

Miles nodded and looked down at the railway track between his feet. A single creature, peeled away from a nearby cluster and weaved through his legs, “What the fuck is it doing? Are you sure your new er friends won’t mistake me for food or something?” he whispered.

“Well, man. If they do, there’s fuck all we’ll be able to do about it. Take a closer look at it, man. Can you not see the kitty likeness underneath those blue scales?”

Miles nodded, and then it clicked. “My mum had a cat that did this when it wanted feeding.”

“It’s a past memory, man.”

Dustin leaned over. Miles caught his breath, the man smelt just like the big creature now, of a wet woodland floor mixed with ammonia. How the fuck was Dustin able to control it? He sighed and wondered if the man had been contaminated. Maybe it was the other way around, what if the creature was controlling Dustin.

“As I said, man, just lighten up a bit. You’re making them all jittery. Look, if my gal had wanted you gone, she’d have done so by now.” Dustin grinned. “Come on over, make friends with her, she’s still not sure that she can trust you.”

Miles barked out a panicked laugh, “It wants to know if it can trust me? Oh, Christ.”

He allowed the man to pull him towards the huge creature. It dropped its head until its face was level with his. It blinked. Miles felt a shiver shudder through his body. He felt several tendrils tear through his clothing. He moaned and attempted to jump back.

“Don’t!” warned, the man. “Let her finish this. If you don’t, you’ll not see another dawn.”

Miles shivered again as its probing scratched his skin. The eyes in that monstrous head were intelligent, it/she held his gaze. He felt the creature probe past his own eyes and delve deep into his brain, searching for any mark of duplicity. She blinked once more before lifting her head.

Dustin laughed, “Oh, man. How cool was that? She likes you.”

Miles sank to the floor, unsure of what had just happened. He felt as though she’d just peeled away his inner most thoughts, layer by layer like an onion. Miles reached out and placed the palm of his hand upon her ridged side.

Dustin helped him up, “Her name used to be Justine. She had two kids, both boys.” She told me that The Wasting had taken away everybody she knew, the only people it hadn’t harmed were her kids.”

The creature rested her head on Dustin’s shoulder; Miles saw tears drip down her grey cheeks.

“They’d been sheltering in their local off licence. At the time it seemed like the best place to be, the place was fully stocked with everything they needed and the shop’s shutters were down and locked, nobody could harm them. There were five of them in there, her family plus two other women. Their life wasn’t brilliant but it was bearable; the magazines and newspapers kept the boredom at bay, the only downside was having to use slop buckets.”

Dustin stroked her cheeks.

“It had been Justine’s turn to empty the buckets when it happened. They’d been pouring the stuff into an open drain, in the cellar. As Justine pushed open the door, a small yellow creature rushed out and sunk its teeth into her ankle. The other rushed to her aid, but of course; instead of ending it all there and then, they tried to nurse Justine back to health.”

Dustin sighed, “She turned within a couple of hours. The others didn’t stand a chance.”

Miles closed his eyes, remembering Edgar’s change; those other two monsters had arrived on the scene not long after. Somehow, Miles doubted that putting Justine out of her misery would have been the end of it.

“It wasn’t your fault. You…”

He screamed as a dozen of the creatures jumped towards him, Miles fell back, waiting for one of them to deliver the killing blow, but they just ran over his quaking body as if he wasn’t even there. “What the fuck is going on?” he gasped.

The huge creature’s serpentine head propelled into Dustin’s stomach, he cried out and fell to the floor. She then gazed at Miles, baring her teeth before shuffling at high speed towards the other creatures.

Miles shook off the other man’s grip and followed the huge creature towards the light. “Are you coming or what?” asked Miles, looking back. “Or are you going to just stand there like a hen-pecked husband, doing as you’re told.”

Miles picked up his feet and raced along the tracks, not caring whether the other one followed him. The Institute and his Amber were within his grasp and nothing was going to stop him from finding her. He watched the smaller creatures reach the gate; it reminded him of an ancient portcullis. As Miles neared, he saw that the metal was scarred and pitted, even so, there was no way that the creatures could get inside, the holes were too small.

Dustin caught up with him and put a restraining hand on his shoulder, “Wait on, man. Can’t you sense their anger and frustration?”

Miles shrugged the hand off.

“Stay here! At least for a moment. Those animals will tear you into bloodied rags.” Dustin grabbed the back of his shirt, “Watch her! She ain’t slowing down,”

The little ones scattered in all directions as she surged toward the barrier. The creature pulled back her neck before slamming her body into the gate. The metal snapped and twisted apart. The other creatures swarmed over her, in the eagerness to get into the Institute. A couple of them even bit into her when they couldn’t clamber past. She responded by tearing the impatient creatures off her body and ripping them in two with her tendrils.

“She’s lost control of them.”

“No shit,” muttered Miles.

The creature waited for the others to disappear from sight before moving its bulk through the shattered gate. Once she cleared the debris, she stopped and looked back at Dustin. It uttered a single soft cry. To Miles’s ear, the noise sounded like a baby laughing, he shivered.

“Come on, it wants us to follow her, she says the others are now feeding, we’ll be safe as long as we stay close to her body.”

Dustin ran up to her and used his hands to caress the bite marks on her body. Miles followed, a little more cautious. Watching those creatures turn on their mistress put a restraining collar on his eagerness. He was also a little reluctant to believe that a single cry from her could mean so much; could Dustin be making it up?

He ducked under the ruined metal and looked around, this was definitely part of the Institute. Miles recognised the familiar signage but he didn’t have a clue where in the building they were. Not that knowing the location made much difference. Miles didn’t have a clue where Amber was anyway.

“Do you know where they’ve gone?”

Dustin took a deep breath and coughed. “I’ve a good idea. Can you not smell it?” he pointed at the creature, she was shivering, “Sorry, no, you won’t, not yet anyway. I’m getting the odour from her.”

The creature rushed through a double set of fire doors at the other side of the room, knocking them both out of the doorframes. When she moved her bulk, Miles then saw them. He slowly walked forward and the stench of death hit him full in the face. “Oh, Jesus.” He muttered, “What have those butchers done to them?”