The Containment Team (6 page)

I raised my
shotgun, my right-hand tense on the stock as my forefinger curled around the trigger guard. I didn’t put my finger on the trigger, but I thought of the warning Pete had given us.

“Quick,” Pete yelled, “turn a shower back on!”

“That’s not a good idea,” I said, “there has to be an—” If it could shift into him when it was level ten without a wound, I didn’t want to know what putting level ten blutom into a scalding hot shower would do.

“You fool, Buckshot. Just do it!”

Grumbling under my breath but not knowing what else to do, I ducked back into the bathroom and did what he wanted. I braced myself as we were about to learn firsthand what effect the hot water would have on the already blindingly bright blutom. 

I stepped away from the stall as Pete approached the stream of water. The blutom’s vibrations increased and it slid up Pete’s arm, covering it as if he had just dipped it in a vat of paint and pulled it out. Cursing, Pete shoved his arm into the shower but it was already moving up his shoulder and neck.

I jumped forward and used the butt of my shotgun to push him all the way in just as it was about to reach his mouth. When he didn’t immediately put his head into the shower, I grabbed his hair and pushed his face under the steaming water. In moments, the mass had washed off of him but had taken on a greater luminescence at the bottom of the shower. When I was sure it was all off of him, I yanked him from the shower.

Stepping back myself, I raised up my shotgun, hesitating with my finger on the trigger. The glow had fully enveloped the stall but the amount of blutom at the bottom was decreasing by the second as it was washed down the drain. My finger itched to squeeze the trigger, but as long as it continued to go down, I wasn’t going to do anything to interrupt that.

When he first tried to stand, Pete slipped and had to latch onto the wall for support. His face and arms were red from being burned by the scalding water and the way he stood made him look like he was drunk.

What had the blutom done to him?

“You okay?” I asked. When he didn’t respond I repeated the question.

He looked down at me, his eyes squinting. “It…” He swallowed. “It was taking control of me. I could feel myself being pushed out.”

“Did you swallow any?”

He shook his head. “If you wouldn’t have pushed me the rest of the way in, I wouldn’t have made it. I knew I needed to go in but I couldn’t bring myself to do it.”

“How quick does the level ten blutom work on the rats?” Madelyn asked as she inspected Pete for any remaining goo. Both of them were oblivious to the blutom in the shower.

“Mad, back away. You too Slammer. I don’t like the looks of what’s going on in there.”

While some of it had disappeared down the drain, I wasn’t certain that we were safe. Because the ball was also inching its way out of the shower. I lowered my shotgun.

Pete grabbed my arm. “No!” He ran forward and kicked it back into the shower. It clung to his boot, so he stuck his leg in up to his thigh.

When he didn’t come back right away, I pushed my shotgun into Madelyn’s hands and ran forward, intent on pulling him out of the shower.

The blutom was no longer on his boot and despite the water, it was still working its way up his leg. The vibrations at the top of the ball seemed to form some sort of a protective barrier to the water streaming down from above, no wonder why it had been able to survive.

“Dang it, Slammer. You should have just let me shoot the thing.”

His eyes were glazed over, and I wasn’t certain if it was just mirroring the reflection of the white blazing blutom or if he’d actually been taken over. I took out my pocket knife and opened it one-handed, glad for all the time I’d taken throughout the years to practice that particular skill. I winced as I did so because I’d forgotten to take it out of my pocket when I’d showered. 

“Curse you for making me do this.” I pushed him to the floor, slit his belt and then cut into either side of his pants. It was a mark of just how far gone he was that he didn’t notice or try to stop me.

I slit all the way down on the pant leg that was blutom free before I slit as far as I dared on the other. With one last look at his transfixed eyes, I ripped off his pants and threw him into the shower.

Dragging him back across the tile floor, I called out to Madelyn. “My gun, quick!”

Pete’s head made a thwacking sound when I dropped him but I was moving too quickly to stop and check. The blutom came out of the shower and the protective shield over the top of it was absorbed back into the vibrating ball. It reminded me of an atom or a solar system, only the rings were appearing and disappearing as quickly as I could perceive them.

The brightness of the ball itself was leaving an afterimage, so I squinted as I leveled my shotgun at the ball and pulled the trigger.

The blutom was blown back into the shower. Pieces of the tile flew out and slid on the floor. I covered my eyes with my arm as I pumped another shell into the chamber.

When I looked again the blutom was gone. After several seconds had passed, I blinked and made sure to look around the room as well as the shower to ensure it hadn’t just gone somewhere else.

As I approached the shower, steam rose into the air and partially obscured the view. When I was certain there wasn’t anything left, I turned off the water and surveyed the damage.

The tile on the back wall had been destroyed. Much of it had been blown off but there were still quite a few pieces that clung to the wall.

I was surprised to see that there wasn’t a hole until I realized that there had been cinder blocks behind the tile.

The blutom was gone. I hoped that it had been at the end of its life cycle and been destroyed by the shotgun blast, but I doubted we’d be so lucky. The thought of level ten blutom flushing into the sewer and shifting into whatever was alive down there made me shiver.

Pete was up on one hand, looking at the remains of the shower. With the other, he rubbed the back of his neck. “I felt them, inside of me. A few more moments…” He swallowed.

Hefting my shotgun over my shoulder with one hand, I used the other to pull him to his feet.

“We don’t have time to waste,” I said. “Let’s get into dry clothes and get you down to the lab.”

Pete shook his head. “I keep telling you, I can’t let you guys in.”

“Like it or not, we’re coming.” I didn’t give him a chance to respond. I headed back to our room with Madelyn close on my heels. We were at my bedroom before Pete had left the bathroom. He staggered and I felt a pang of guilt for leaving him to come back by himself. He had taken quite a knock to the head when I’d dropped him to the floor.

Any concern I had about Pete fled when I walked into our room. The fire was still burning and had spread to the carpet, despite our precautions. Pete’s philosophy book was all but gone  and it looked like that was the cause of the fire spreading outside of the circle Pete had cut out of the carpet. 

Madelyn coughed as I ripped a blanket from my bed and covered the flames. Smoke filled the air as I extinguished the fire. I was concerned the sprinkler might turn on until I looked overhead and remembered that it was covered in rust. 

“Love what you’ve done with the place.” Madelyn flashed an impish smile. It was one her favorites. One late night I’d got her to admit that it was her standby. That wily grin of hers combined with a flick of the head was her main way of influencing men. She’d claimed it worked seven out of ten times.

It had worked all of the time until I’d learned the truth. Now, it made bile rise in the back of my throat.

She gave me a level look as if she could tell what I was thinking so I smiled wickedly back at her. “Help me scour for any more of the stuff.”

Madelyn nodded.

I was pulling my belongings out from under my bed and setting them on top when Pete finally walked into the room. His face was pale and I instinctively reached to where I’d set my shotgun on the floor as I closely examined it for the red mucus the other blutom monsters had developed. It was clear.

For now.

Along the side of my old statistics book, I found a small ball of the blutom. It had been sticking to the spine and I’d accidently touched it when pulling it out from under the bed. When it was discovered it headed in the opposite direction, elongating itself out like a snake but moving forward without any side to side movement. Somehow it now knew that we were a threat to it.

“Found some!” Madelyn picked up one of my running shoes and turned it towards the back so we could see a quarter sized amount of goo. At first, I thought it was gum but then I saw the mass quiver as if smelling.

Rummaging around, I pulled out a plastic box from under my desk and thrust the book inside. Originally, I’d planned on using the cooler, but as there was just a little bit, the box made more sense. I grabbed my running shoe and used a pencil to scrape off the blutom which I also tossed inside. After careful inspection of the rest of my shoe, I sealed the top of the container and handed it to Madelyn.

“Here hold onto this.” She raised her eyes but didn’t hold out her hands. I shrugged and shooed her towards the door. Once she was outside, I set the container on the floor. “Just keep watch while we dress.”

She opened her mouth as if to argue but I put the door back in place before I could hear what she was going to say.

I was fully dressed before I noticed that Pete hadn’t made a move to change.

“Get moving.” I grabbed my heavy army surplus boots and laced them up. I had toyed with the idea of wearing my running shoes but decided at the last moment to go with the boots. I could still run in them, though, not as easily, and they might provide additional protection against the blutom. Even though Pete had assured us it wasn’t dangerous to the touch until it went to level ten, I thought it best to take all the precautions I could.

Pete stirred. “I’m not sure going back to the lab is the right move.”

“Did some of that stuff get into your system? You’re the one that’s been insistent this whole time we need to get back there.” Was he afraid he was going to get into trouble for letting their little project escape? Was there something more that he wasn’t telling me? Or was this just another attempt to ditch Madelyn and me?

“I know, I know. But I left in quite the hurry.” He finally stood and dressed. “What if that was just the tip of the iceberg? They could all be like that. Every last employee. We may find a hundred more like them.”

“What else would you rather do?” I grabbed by workman gloves and rummaged through the contents of the trunk in front of my bed, hoping to find another can of kerosene. After a few minutes, it became obvious I’d only had the one. I picked up the blackened can and shook it to make sure it was empty. In my haste, I hadn’t been concerned about trying to conserve more for later.

“I don’t know.” Pete pulled on a shirt. 

“We’ll start at the lab and go from there.” I pulled out my backpack and loaded it with ammo for both my pistol and shotgun. I made sure to grab shells loaded with slugs along with the buckshot, no trap shot. For my pistol, I only loaded hollow points. If the bullets weren’t going to kill the monsters, they at least needed to remove large chunks and knock them down.

“If the place is overrun, do you know of anybody you can call?” I noticed that I already had my hatchet in the bag, along with some other camping supplies. I was about to take them all out but stopped. The supplies weren’t what would weigh down the backpack–it was all the ammo–and a hatchet might be a nice thing to have along, just in case.

“There’s a list of numbers back at work, but I never bothered to copy any of them down. Jen might have known somebody.”

“Well, she finally stopped moving, so we can’t ask her.” It just slipped out of my mouth and I felt bad as soon as I said it.

Pete chuckled. After hesitating, I did as well. It felt good to have a slight release in the tension, small and morbid as it was.

I hefted my bag to make sure it wasn’t too heavy. I wanted enough ammo to feel secure but not so much that I’d have trouble maneuvering if I needed to run. As we were about to go out in public, I’d intentionally picked my overnight backpack so I could keep my shotgun in there as well. I might get some strange looks, but that was better than causing a panic, or even worse, not having my shotgun.  

Pete was pulling on his shoes when Madelyn gave the door a quick knock before opening it. Her face was pale. She kicked the plastic container back into the room. 

“It’s going crazy.”

The blutom was spinning, like a miniature tornado.

“What level is this?” I asked.

“I should have mentioned they don’t like plastic,” Pete said. “It doesn’t kill them any faster, it just torments them while they die. It will settle down, once it does, it will find a way out.

I pulled out a roll of duct tape and began taping the sides.

“That’s a waste of time. It’ll find a way past that as well.” I ripped off a length of tape and strapped it to the box anyway.

Madelyn frowned at Pete. “What was it like when they tried to enter your mind?”

He looked up from his shoe. “Like a thousand pin pricks in my head, from the inside.”